What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread

*Moonrise Kingdom*

Our older son (the one going to NYU film school) has been crowing about this for a while, and we finally watched it on Netflix this weekend. Wow. Wonderful narrative, whimsical, great casting, visually stunning throughout, and just a thoroughly enjoyable experience from start to finish. Wes Anderson at his best

txa1265 said:

*Moonrise Kingdom*

Our older son (the one going to NYU film school) has been crowing about this for a while, and we finally watched it on Netflix this weekend. Wow. Wonderful narrative, whimsical, great casting, visually stunning throughout, and just a thoroughly enjoyable experience from start to finish. Wes Anderson at his best

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Great film.

Decided not to go for Martian in cinema yesterday, will wait for rental.
Maybe it's good maybe not, dunno.
But is it me or this year was the worst year ever when it comes to movies, so much unatractive titles I honestly don't remember. Or it's just that bad stuff didn't change, what changed was a number of good stuff which became rare?

Whatever it was, seems that rotten ideas just can't stop.
20th century fox is planning to remake one of cult classics:
http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/621745-luther-creator-neil-cross-plans-escape-from-new-york
Unbloodybelievable.

Why those idiots can't remake movies that were crap and make them better instead of insults to masterpieces?
And who on earth can even dare to replace Russel, Van Cleef and Borgnine?
We're getting yet another Hollywood untalented plastic dolls idiocy probably.

Dunno what's worse, this news I just wrote about or this remake that's supposed to be in cinemas next year with lead that is lightyears away from Heston when it comes to charisma on screen:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2638144/

joxer said:

But is it me or this year was the worst year ever when it comes to movies

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This:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=1998&p=.htm

Is widely recognised as the worst year in recent memory. I mean, just look at the top 10 and take out Saving Private Ryan and what have you got? Go all the way to 20 and also remove The Truman Show and what have you got? It was a year where the smaller movies were 10 x better than the big popcorn movies and while this year might be considered similar it is by no means close to just how bad 1998 was...

1998: You have Ronin on 48.

Thrasher said:

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I am feeling mild hype, to be honest.

I'm cursed with a memory - and I remember all the other movies from that Hollywood company man called Abrams.

But the trailer was very well done.

Maybe this will be the miracle where Abrams lives up to the kind of money he's playing around with?

Obviously, I'll be checking it out regardless.

I am definitely excited ... but I am also very forgiving of the prequels, and would rate EpIII higher than 'Jedi'. I love that universe, and will be happy so long as Abrams is respectful of the basic mythology.

My wife already let me know she won't be joining me for the midnight showing this time around (like we did for the last couple of Harry Potter movies)

txa1265 said:

I am definitely excited … but I am also very forgiving of the prequels, and would rate EpIII higher than 'Jedi'. I love that universe, and will be happy so long as Abrams is respectful of the basic mythology.

My wife already let me know she won't be joining me for the midnight showing this time around (like we did for the last couple of Harry Potter movies)

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To each his own. I thought Ep3 was abysmal

That said, I have a very hard time being objective about the old trilogy. I've tried watching it with "new eyes" - but I simply can't figure out if it's actually good or not.

I watched 4-6 about a million times as a kid, and I just can't reset my position like that.

But I love the core romantic fantasy and the whole mythology.

What I can't stand is the exceedingly low script standards that have taken over Hollywood in the past decade or so.

I swear, it never used to be THIS bad.

DArtagnan said:

To each his own. I thought Ep3 was abysmal

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I would rate Ep1 as abysmal, horrid, cringeworthy and what not. Ep3 was bearable. No thanks to Hayden Christensen's acting though.

wiretripped said:

I would rate Ep1 as abysmal, horrid, cringeworthy and what not. Ep3 was bearable. No thanks to Hayden Christensen's acting though.

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People are obviously a lot more tolerant than myself

Ep1 was abysmal too, but it has just about the only worthwhile scene in the entire trilogy.

To me, Anakin's transformation in Ep3 is the hallmark of bad writing.

Never had much of a problem with Hayden's acting, though. I think he's a talented actor who got a raw deal. Not unlike Natalie Portman or Liam Neeson. They both suck royally in the prequels, imo, but that's not about acting.

DArtagnan said:

To each his own. I thought Ep3 was abysmal

That said, I have a very hard time being objective about the old trilogy. I've tried watching it with "new eyes" - but I simply can't figure out if it's actually good or not.

I watched 4-6 about a million times as a kid, and I just can't reset my position like that.

But I love the core romantic fantasy and the whole mythology.

What I can't stand is the exceedingly low script standards that have taken over Hollywood in the past decade or so.

I swear, it never used to be THIS bad.

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I agree entirely. The idea that the turd one was in some way better than the others is absurd. The only positive I found in the turd entry was that it had more Christopher Lee.

On the point of modern scripts, I just happened to watch an interview with "I thought they were dead already" Gene Wilder the other day (having ended up there after looking up info on Zero Mostel). Apparently the reason Gene hasn't done much screen work in the last 20 years (really, as if he'd died or something) was, according to him, because he never got a script he liked:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezfVc5MGmIU

This is one of the first questions at 1:53. He sites such things as swearing, bombing (read: explosions), 3D etc.

I watched all episodes, like, zillions of times, but Ep. II introduced something that changed Star Wars forever. For me, that is.
Before I saw Ep IV in a movie theater back in '77, the droids were what I was looking forward to (I've had a thing for robots since I was 3). After seeing Ep. IV, Darth Vader and the Stomtroopers were what I loved most, and they remained my favorite aspect of the whole franchise - canon and EU - until Ep. II … but the clone troopers dethroned them. The Tartakovsky cartoon series and the Republic Commando game cemented my new love, then came TCW, and nothing was as it had been . I was devastated when the show was canceled, and I started to NOT hate SW Rebels the moment I was told some of my old friends would show up.

But back on topic.
So … what happened was that I cared less and less about Episodes IV, V, IV and I*. They didn't have clone troopers. When the first rumors about TFA/Ep. VII came up, I shrugged. When I saw the first pictures, I shrugged. When I saw the first teaser trailers, I shrugged.
Mind you, I do follow all the news, getting spoiled in the process. Of course I do, it's Star Wars after all! But I'm a little bit apprehensive, because … I'm not sure I will find movie characters to like. Well, we'll see. Last night's trailer was kinda cool, but … *shrugs*

I do look forward to the first SW Anthology movie, however - really look forward to it! After the great ensemble shot I can't wait to find out more about the Rogue One characters. I love commando flicks .


_________________________
*While I think Episode I was a better film than Episode II, it managed to cater to absolutely none of my tastes :/ . Did it have Stormies? Nope. Vader? Gawd, no. Even the droids were … well … yeah. They were mildly interesting which is more than I could say for the Naboo soldiers.

Watched SW 4, 5 and 6. Loved every single silly minute in them.
Decades after watched SW:jar jar binks aka SW 1. Never bothered with SW 2 and 3.
Maybe one day when there is nothing else to watch I go for those two. But to be honest there is a bigger chance I'll watch Titanic instead (yea, another "everyone saw it" I dared to skip).

SW7 is not something I'm excited about. No way I'll go for it in cinemas and the only way I'll ever rent it is if people confirm it's not Michael Bay Star Wars:Explosions.

Ep1 and Ep3 were both terrible imo.

I actually liked Ep2 though. Other than the laughable subtitle and the presence of Hayden Christensen, I found it mostly enjoyable. In terms of atmosphere, it mirrored The Empire Strikes Back in some ways.

Check this out!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=979599602074781

Thrasher said:

Check this out!

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Is that you?


By the way, today is the day!



Time to re-watch the trilogy.

Arhu said:

Time to re-watch the trilogy.

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Well, we didn't re-watch the entire trilogy, but did watch part 2, and it was a very fun (and weird!) experience. Especially that scene from the still picture above cracked us up.

Watched a film called 71, about a British soldier trapped in an IRA stronghold. I really liked it. The main character is not so much a hero as a ragdoll tossed around in the madness of the conflict. A thriller with the ring of truth about it, which is rare.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/71_2015/