Re: Last movie you watched

Tom, all I can say about Transformers is...I'm sorry.

Maybe an extended edition where you watch it and then Owen and Martin review it without watching and guess how the plot goes?

Kind of like Battleship was for FIYH?

God loves you!

Thumbs up Thumbs down

1,827

Re: Last movie you watched

http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/We-Need-to-Talk-About-Kevin-Movie-Review-2.jpg

They need to make some sort of trilogy boxset of this, Eraserhead, and Rosemary's Baby for people who never, ever want to have kids. *raises hand* Good Lord.

If there's one flaw here it's that the titular character is a bit too cartoonishly evil. But as a portrait of grief and a devastating tearing-down of the mandatory love we're supposed to feel for our children, it's absolutely brilliant. We don't deserve Tilda Swinton. I watched this to gear up for Ramsay's upcoming You Were Never Really Here, for which my man Joaquin got Best Actor at Cannes, and now I'm even more stoked for that film.

Last edited by Abbie (2017-07-20 05:13:36)

Thumbs up Thumbs down

1,828

Re: Last movie you watched

http://cdn1-www.superherohype.com/assets/uploads/gallery/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets/valerianposter.jpg

This movie is an utter delight. It's like GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY on LSD and possesses none of that film's lazy cynicism. It's frequently a complete mess, but there's so much invention and craft and pure joy on display here.

Also, it's an indie movie that Luc Besson, through sheer persistence, managed to build up an $180 million dollar budget for. Help the guy out. Go see this thing.

Thumbs up +1 Thumbs down

1,829

Re: Last movie you watched

https://i0.wp.com/media2.slashfilm.com/slashfilm/wp/wp-content/images/dunkirk-poster.jpg

My "Love-Frustration" relationship with Nolan continues...

Saw it in 70MM Imax - all the praise heaped upon its immersive realism is warranted. Some striking images. And effective sound design - it must be the loudest flick I've seen in ages. Bullet jump-scares. The diving Stuka sequences were probably the highlight.

But once again, the editing lets it down. Too fragmented. One plotline resolves, and then Nolan rewinds time to bring you another perspective. Imagine Frodo drops the Ring into the lava, the Black Tower collapses and everyone rejoices, and then it cuts to another's perspective hours earlier where we have to go through all that again.

The refusal to use much CG gives it a small-scale perspective than what we're used to. No U-boats, no tanks, only three Spitfires, one bomber, very few warships, a dozen pleasure craft, and a few queues of extras on the beach. Contrast the Greek invasion armada in Troy - admittedly that's too much in the opposite direction. Dunkirk is also completely santized of any blood 'n guts, unusual in today's war movies. Contrast with Hacksaw Ridge.

The second downside of trying to capture everything in-camera is that action scenes are disjointed and confusing as there's not enough coverage. Poor continuity too. Then add in Nolan's fucking around with chronology, and there's no emotional through-line in the narrative. It's clear by now that Nolan is a poor director of action. Also, he doesn't care much about dialogue and is happy to have none or have it drowned out by Zimmer's bombast.

Only afterwards did I realise that the beach-wharf sequences played out over a week, while the boat narrative played out over a day, and Tom Hardy's Spitfire pilot sequences played out over an hour. The title card didn't make that clear. The way it's cut (and conventional movie logic) dictates that this all should be concurrent. Afterall, it's a very simple story - men need to evacuate the beach.

There was escalating tension, but it went on too long... the boys plugging holes in the trawler, the repetitive aerial dogfights (impressive the first and second times, but got boring after a while). And man, those Spitfires can glide and glide.

Also, no context with no overall historical geographical layout, also unusual in "highbrow" historical pics. Why didn't the Germans just send 100+ planes to finish off the BEF?

In short, Nolan, in all his mature movies, leans heavily on Zimmer, IMAX, an A-list cast, and sheer chutzpah. It seems enough. He gets away with it every time, despite the short-comings in editing. His movies promise more than they deliver e.g. remember the trailer for Inception that promised you an architecture-bending mind-fuck (that Dr Strange actually delivered) and instead you got a conventional James Bond shoot-out in the snow.

But overall, Dunkirk felt more like an "DUNKIRK EXPERIENCE" that you see in a War Museum, than conventional movie.

not long to go now...

Thumbs up +1 Thumbs down

1,830

Re: Last movie you watched

avatar wrote:

...and sheer chutzpah.

Dear diary,

Today I learned a new word.

Sébastien Fraud
Instagram |Facebook

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Last movie you watched

Saniss wrote:
avatar wrote:

...and sheer chutzpah.

Dear diary,

Today I learned a new word.

It's not pronounced the way you think it is wink

God loves you!

Thumbs up +1 Thumbs down

1,832

Re: Last movie you watched

http://i.imgur.com/qq2GwU2.gif

Sébastien Fraud
Instagram |Facebook

Thumbs up Thumbs down

1,833

Re: Last movie you watched

I wanna try phoneticizing it, hold on.

So, generally, it's "huht" — rhymes with "foot' — "spah." "Huht-spah." But then it also has some of that Smeagol-clearing-his-throat hhhcccckkkkchchhhckk-ness before the first syllable, so it's ultimately pronounced "hchsHUHT-spah."

This has been fun for you and for me.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

Thumbs up +1 Thumbs down

Re: Last movie you watched

Yiddish for the win.

(UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)

Thumbs up Thumbs down

1,835

Re: Last movie you watched

I think the best phonetic spelling is phleghmuht-spah

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Last movie you watched

drewjmore wrote:

Yiddish for the win.

The subtitle to every Mel Brooks film.

God loves you!

Thumbs up +1 Thumbs down

1,837

Re: Last movie you watched

https://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/the-dark-tower-600x889.jpg

"You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!"

I wanted to love this so hard. I rooted for it when the entire internet seemed determined to rise up in hatred years before it came out. I was genuinely thrilled by the first trailer. Even when the reviews broke yesterday, I was hoping against hope it would somehow be good.

I was in actual physical discomfort throughout this movie's ninety minutes from how bad it was. Absolutely nothing good from the books is here. To borrow Dorkman's analogy, someone started calling this movie The Dark Tower and stuck in characters we know were in a series called The Dark Tower, but it's no more The Dark Tower than a shitty fan trailer is.

What makes it so much worse is how this thing completely fucking wasted its cast. We were never gonna get a better Roland than Idris Elba or Flagg than Matthew McConaughey, and the filmmakers fucking blew it. And it doesn't just apply to the two leads. Remember the awesome crazy weirdo charismatic blonde wife from Mad Max: Fury Road? She's in here, but it might as well be a random extra playing her character for all the impact she's allowed to have. The characters are all nothings, the script seems like it was assembled by a computer, and Mid-World has all the vibrancy and life of a screensaver.

I can't decide whether this or Beauty and the Beast is my least favorite entry in what has otherwise been a damn fine year for film. What a joke.

Last edited by Abbie (2017-08-04 03:28:46)

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Last movie you watched

"Pirates of the Carribean: Deadmen Tell No Tales AKA Salazar's Revenge."

I haven't seen the 4th one. When my brother asked me after we saw this movie if I understood all the references made, I explained them pretty simply, so apparently the fourth one wasn't required watching.

I need to do a full review of this, because there was so much about this movie to enjoy. I'll start off with the fact that this movie is pure fun with some great drama thrown in. It does something that I think very few films are willing to do now in their storytelling and this explore the consequences of what happens to the characters. In fact, I would say that Jack Sparrow is the poster child for contemporary film characters, as someone who actively tries to avoid consequences. And, in this instance, an act that he did when he was younger comes back to haunt him.

The story is a bit contrived, in that it tries to draw several characters and interconnect them in a way, but it flows very well once the characters are set up, and the plot points of getting the characters together are quickly moved past as the characters establish their relationships, and each person discovers some depth to the other that isn't expected, like Henry's reaction to Jack, Corina's reaction to Henry, and so on.

The film is very grand in scope and end goal, and it doesn't disappoint. It ties up plot points from the 3rd and 4th film in a way that was incredibly satisfying, and in ways I didn't expect. The main characters are all fairly well defined, and the film only drags because it has such a large supporting cast, and a subplot that doesn't go anywhere. But, other than that, this movie is an adventure, feels big and grand, and ends in the most satisfying way.

Highly recommend.

God loves you!

Thumbs up Thumbs down

1,839

Re: Last movie you watched

I'm very surpried by this information.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Last movie you watched

Teague wrote:

I'm very surpried by this information.

I honestly went in to it expecting it to be more of the same, very predictable story.

But, it actually creates a very large,epic feeling tale. It's editing could be a little tighter, but the story is so enjoyable that I only noticed a couple of parts that really took me out but then I was right back in.

It has the same fun and fantastical feel as the first, but a more epic feel, like it has a larger impact on the world its building.

Also, as established, I am a sucker for father-son scenes, and this has two...what, I didn't cry. I went to an old theater.

God loves you!

Thumbs up Thumbs down

1,841

Re: Last movie you watched

We did an Extended Edition episode on it and rather enjoyed it.

It's not in any way ground breaking but if you enjoy adventure films and want to watch a Pirates sequel you could do far worse.

Extended Edition - 146 - The Rise Of Skywalker
VFX Reel | Twitter | IMDB | Blog

1,842

Re: Last movie you watched

I actually wasn't aware it had come out yet, but according to RottenTomatoes, it's been out for months.

So, yeah, I'm keepin' up with everything.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

Thumbs up +1 Thumbs down

1,843

Re: Last movie you watched

http://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/mother.jpg

It's impossible to review this film without spoiling it. Suffice to say I've never seen another piece of art so full of seething, all-encompassing hatred. I am, as they say, shook.

Like The Witch, this is an extremely poweful, extremely disturbing film that a lot of people are gonna hate until twenty years from now when it becomes a classic.

Last edited by Abbie (2017-09-15 03:46:35)

Thumbs up Thumbs down

1,844

Re: Last movie you watched

Mother! reminded me of Cabin in the Woods.
From his own oeuvre, there were elements of Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan (i.e. relentless, painful, descent into chaos and madness).
Yeah, it was alright. Once you work out the 'decoder wheel' to match the allegorical elements with the characters and narrative, I wonder how much re-watchability it has. The second half is like being beaten over the head for an hour.

not long to go now...

Thumbs up Thumbs down

1,845

Re: Last movie you watched

The new Kingsmen probably not high art, but it's top fun.

Extended Edition - 146 - The Rise Of Skywalker
VFX Reel | Twitter | IMDB | Blog

1,846

Re: Last movie you watched

http://nofilmschool.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_wide/public/sonar_poster.jpg

So I picked up a Samsung Gear VR headset a few weeks ago for fifteen bucks, and have been dropping a dollar here and there for, mostly, movies. This one stuck with me the most, reminding me of Writhyn's Hyacinth project. This being a VR movie, as these are still in their infancy, I'll try to split up the review into first the technical side, then the movie itself.

Technical

The movie does a great job of using the VR environment. The meat of it plays out in real-time, as you're seated behind the screens of your exploratory vessel deep within the asteroid. The ship moves but you have a stationary reference point of all of your stuff. However, there's a sequence that montages from outside the asteroid to more than 800m into it (if I recall correctly, there was a distance-to-beacon on a screen that I noticed). This is done with a slowly moving camera as the vessel passes beneath you, floats past pillars in the distance, or comes up right alongside you. Each shot, by necessity I think, fades to black in between - not just keeping you from getting disorieted with a hard cut but also effectively using the language of film to denote the passage of time.

The Film

You're inspecting an asteroid, it's not super well-lit, shadows abound, and there's creepy music. If you think that something spooky is going to happen, you'd be right. It's just a seven minute film and while it's gorgeous and the sound design is great, it doesn't get inventive with what to do with its premise. If I were watching it on a screen, I'd probably enjoy it but wouldn't really think about it too much afterward.

It's immersive by way of being a VR movie, and what it does it does quite well. It just could have done more.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Last movie you watched

DarthPraxus wrote:

http://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/mother.jpg

It's impossible to review this film without spoiling it. Suffice to say I've never seen another piece of art so full of seething, all-encompassing hatred. I am, as they say, shook.

Like The Witch, this is an extremely poweful, extremely disturbing film that a lot of people are gonna hate until twenty years from now when it becomes a classic.

went to your blog and hoped for a review because I was curious. Got an interesting discussion of Veggietales.

Surprisingly, as a Christian, I agree with you that the Bible needs to be handed down as it is. There are things that are completely terrible in that book, and the text doesn't water it down.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

God loves you!

Thumbs up +1 Thumbs down

1,848

Re: Last movie you watched

There's a similar discussion on the Noah DiF about watering (heh) down bible stories for children, which I agree with.

Witness me!

Thumbs up Thumbs down

1,849

Re: Last movie you watched

Thanks, Fire! So glad you enjoyed the piece.

Think I'll be saving my review of mother! for my end-of-the-year post about movies, wanna mull it over some more. It's the kind of movie where if I write about it I want to do it justice.

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Last movie you watched

Writhyn wrote:

There's a similar discussion on the Noah DiF about watering (heh) down bible stories for children, which I agree with.

I've heard Christian comedians make similar points. Always interesting to me.

God loves you!

Thumbs up Thumbs down