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

I couldn't stand the previous Spiderman. I found the juvenile humour to be so terrible that I gave up before I got halfway. The humour isn't that good in any of the Marvel movies, but this was the first time I gave up because of that.

If the new Spiderman movie is on par with the first one in that area, I am not even going to bother watching it.
 
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What's better han Noomi Rapace? Seven Noomi Rapaces!

In a couple of years old What Happened to Monday, Noomi is playing 7 sisters in a world where having more than one child is illegal due to overpopulation and all "surplus" kids have to be frozen in a cryo state to be awaken when the world can sustain a huge number of people.
The grandfather here however decides to hide all 7 sisters in an apartment, names them by a weekday and sets them a single name and personality they'll all "roleplay" during a weekday that corresponds their name.

One monday, it happens that Monday, one of sisters, dissapears. And we get a great scifi thriller to enjoy.
A bit underrated if you ask me.

Breezed through critics and imdb drones and those that panned the movie point at two huge "sins":
- predictable
- Noomi's accent

Both are bullshit of course.
There will be dead people in the movie, noone can nor could predict wo'll survive in the end nor could anyone predict the reasons behind Monday's disappearance.
About Noomi's accent, the same bullshittery was listed as the biggest sin of Tatiana Maslany playing clones in Orphan Black - are these people normal? This is scifi thriller, it's not a biographical rise and shine of grammar police. Besides, not just any actor or actress can pull through different personalities in one sitting and make each of them believable, so accent thing is IMO a plain trolling from jealous schmucks - if it wasn't for that, they'd probably find Noomi's eyecolor problematic. Or nose. Or boobs. Anything just because.

Of course, none of long live shallowness users/critics noticed a few plot holes (an example for those who'll watch, do remember the phrase "the first one said the same thing" when it occurs - when the movie ends you'll agree it had to be cut or rephrased as it's not true at all nor is a part of any bluff). These are of course stuff for nitpicks and don't degrade the movie overall.

I wish I watched this one sooner, it's that good. Don't repeat my mistake, watch as soon as possible.
 
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Captain Marvel; saw it a while ago - it was ok - liked it better than a lot of folks here but certainly not deep or that great.

Spiderman - far from home - didn't really care for it as much as the first spiderman. I liked that the story is more interesting (or attempts to be more interesting) then the last two spiderman reboot (tobey maguire was great (esp #2) but the stories were old) - not sure why far from home didn't work for myself - just found it kind of boring - too much cgi not enough acting.
I really struggled to stay awake during this one. Brie Larson has the charisma of a dog turd.
Haven't seen new Spider-man. I got pissed at publicity of Mysterio without his helmet. Typical hollywood bs where the star HAS to show his face all the time.
 
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I'm another person that just doesn't get the new version of Spiderman, Rami's version came the closest to the comic book in my opinion, and by far the most enjoyable.

And don't even get me started on Captain Marvel. You just cannot simply change things that were established YEARS ago, without alienating those that cherish the memories. I'm not even sure I'll watch this when it makes its' trip to cable at some point, perhaps maybe if a friend feels so inclined.
 
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Spiderman FFH & Yesterday

I am not a comic book reader so I see the films as "stand alone" - there's no history for me to compare them to other than earlier version of the films. On the latest Spiderman the Peter Parker character is sufficiently different from the other two that I still find it fresh. I do agree that the special effects sometimes seem to take prominence over story content but "blockbusters" seem to go down this route more so now than in the past. I liked the film, character development continues and Peter is growing up. Worth a look especially in 3D.

"Yesterday" is a romantic comedy with great songs. Yes I am a Beatles fan and hearing the songs on a top quality cinema system was mind blowing. The story line does not stand up to much scrutiny but just ignore it and let the feel good factor carry you on. I will be buying the Blu-ray version at some stage. Worth a listen and a look.
 
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I am not a comic book reader
That's why movies and series are for. Not everyone lived when comics started and some are, culturally, artistically and with style - outdated or oldfashioned.

With universe resets and different timelines it's pretty unfair to compare Spiderman comics with any live version as it doesn't have to follow the written/drawn source. What needs to be compared are:
- humor
- excitment
- villains
If the movie (or series) fails on any of these three points, then it sux compared to comics.

"Yesterday" is a romantic comedy with great songs. Yes I am a Beatles fan and hearing the songs on a top quality cinema system was mind blowing. The story line does not stand up to much scrutiny but just ignore it and let the feel good factor carry you on. I will be buying the Blu-ray version at some stage. Worth a listen and a look.
Do please find and watch A Hard Day's Night. It's pure gold.
 
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Holy moly, I tried watching some Potter movie last night, the latest Grindelwald flick, and....words just fail me. What an absolute bore-fest, if you can stomach this film without resorting to a book, well, you're of sterner stuff than I! I have to admit to not being the biggest fan of the Potter-verse movies, the books for the most part I could tolerate, but none of the films really ever did it for me. The one I tried viewing last night was plain insulting.
 
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I strill need to watch all those numerous Potter movies… Watched only the first two back in the day, both were silly but fun. Not fun enough to lure me into more, but as it kinda became a general knowledge I shouldn't stay ignorant much more, right?
 
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I watched spiderman last movie a few days ago, and I'm not disappointed.
On the other hand, the x-men phoenix one.... (4/10)

Right now I'm more into series due to lack of films.
 
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The books are a *lot* better than the movies. I sort of view the movies as scenes from the book with a lot of hollowness between the scenes.

I strill need to watch all those numerous Potter movies… Watched only the first two back in the day, both were silly but fun. Not fun enough to lure me into more, but as it kinda became a general knowledge I shouldn't stay ignorant much more, right?
 
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Nothing wrong with the original Potter series IMO. This new adult incarnation though? For the absolute diehards and no-one else from what I've heard. Just looked up Grinwald & yup, it's the lowest rated potter themed movie by quite a huge margin.
 
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Right now I'm more into series due to lack of films.
Lack of films? LOL
So there is no movie worth watching from past 100 years and you've experienced everything available out there?
 
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Lack of films? LOL
So there is no movie worth watching from past 100 years and you've experienced everything available out there?

Most of the time what I do is watch movies that include black and white if that satisfies you lol. No offense.
 
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Oh, Lord have mercy… I daresay I'll be going to see this as a Christmas treat.

 
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Oh, Lord have mercy… I daresay I'll be going to see this as a Christmas treat.


Oh crap. I have never been so scared in my life before.... Its so disturbing, I don't even know how to describe it.

Funny thing is, I have seen stage show and really loved it but this is creepy as hell.
 
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My delve into the works of Akira Kurosawa continues. Once again, all wonderfully shot movies, but did any of them manage to entertain? These are all individual dvds and weren't part of any boxsets that were available:

Silent Duel (1949) (b/w) was a film I really enjoyed. So rarely do you see people discuss sexually transmitted diseases in the social discourse, let alone in movies. I mean, how many can you think of? Philadelphia? Right… and. And yet I consider this to be the actual problem with sex, possibly the only problem beyond rape.

A soldier catches an STD while in service and, when he's operated on by the staff surgeon, the surgeon gets infected by the disease, forcing him to push away his bride to be upon his return to civilian life. Highly emotional, extremely intelligent and, for me, had really nice pacing and believable scenarios. Maybe not a must-watch for all but if the topic interests you then it's a hidden gem if ever there was one. 4.5/5

Scandal (1950) (b/w) Is an incredibly poorly paced and dragging predictable film that suffocates its few good story beats. A newspaper makes up a story about an artist having an affair with a beautiful female celebrity for the money, to which our hero decides to sue against all hope of winning. See, on the face of it this story is as relevant today as it was then, this should be great, right?

Alas, that aspect of the movie only covers the beginning and end, the main bulk of the film is centred around the shady lawyer the hero hires, who's as bent as the newspaper guys. So we just watch a solid hour of this old guy ham up his damaged conscience with ever more frustrating slowness. If I wasn't trying my best to give Akira a fully fair shot because its Akira I'd have started skipping at about the 40 minute mark. 2/5

Rashomon (1950) (b/w) is one of Akira's all time, all time classics. I recently saw Terry Gilliam in a YouTube video where he was basically creaming in his pants over this film. And after watching it I can see why. However, the film itself is actually quite difficult to watch. None of the characters are particularly likeable, it plays for laughs more than it plays for solemnness, and the ham levels are off the charts, with many scenes no being so much chewed as scoffed like a hungry pig.

However, what it does is make you think about it long after you've seen it. As each hour passes, as each day passes, one's mind kind of blanks out all the excess and leaves you with the core essence of the film, and that essence is pure genius. Apparently this film inspired The Usual Suspects among others. It tells the tale of a murder, only it tells the same tale several times, each time from the perspective of a different witness, for quite mind-bending results. A genuine all time classic that will forever be as relevant as the day it was written, though a less hammy remake would be great at some point. 4/5

Kagemusha The Shadow Warrior (1980) (colour) Was a bit of a let down for me. This is Akira back doing what he does best with a visual treat of Samurai and warring states era of Japan, now in full glorious colour! He was even given huge backing from both George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola to make this, both names used as promotion on the front cover. It's about a scummy rogue who happens to look like the emperor & so gets roped in to play the emperor after the emperor's death. Sounds fun, but its not.

It's mostly just very long and very boring humdrum things that happen with very little play made of the obvious potential. Sort of like the Star Wars prequels really, it always looks like something's happening, but nothing really happens. Even the big emotional ending kinda falls flat in a big *shrug* kinda way. After thinking about it afterwards I think this might be more of a big deal to the Japanese specifically as a big theme of the film is the morality of defensive rather than offensive warfare, which would obviously be a thing in Japan more than in the west, so there's a lot lost in translation as well, but even still, man do some of the scenes draaaag in the two and a half!!!!! hour film. 2.5/5

Ran (1985) (colour) is much more back on track. As the above but actually interesting and well paced. It probably helps as well that this is another of his Shakespeare reworks, this time transposing King Lear onto Samurai era warring states Japan. The primary difference here being that the kingdom is divided between his sons rather than his daughters. You could watch this without any knowledge of King Lear and it would still be equally as good. Take all my negatives about Kagemusha and reverse them and you have all the positives on show here, from great characters to great pacing and great character arcs. Quite possibly one of life's must watches. 4.5/5

Rhapsody in August (2001) (colour) Has Richard Gere in it for about 19 minutes. He even speaks some Japanese when he does show up, not much, but some. So what's it actually about beyond "having Richard Gere in a Kurosawa movie"? It's about this old grandma and the loss she and her generation suffered as a result of the bomb on Nagasaki, in her case her husband. Her grandchildren take up most of the screen time as they stay with her while their parents visit America. She refuses to go to America even though the kids desperately want to go. The kids visit lots of bomb memorials and stuff while they wait for her to decide if she'll go or not.

And this is the kind of film where reviewing it just consists of telling you the plot, because there's not really much else to say. It's a nice film. You know, a nice film. A film you could watch with the whole family and everyone can be equally unexcited and equally duty bound to say how nice it is. You just go along with its niceness until it stops, nothing really negative to say but nothing positive either, but with such a well meaning theme that it's impossible to really go against any of its lame aspects. A nice piece of Oscar bait that isn't over the top Oscar bait kind of thing. 3/5
 
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Just a quick remark about your initial "STD movies are rare"… Nah.

About STD, I can think instantly of belgian Conscript on top of my head. Yea, it's old too, but there was time I still accepted to watch drama/war/history rubbish. Recently I've refused to watch indian movie Sometimes because, again, bloody drama.
Of course there were quite a few with the same thematic, but in the end I never cared. The only STD movie I ever liked is It Follows - the disease in it is nonexisting in reality yet deadly. Or… We sure it doesn't exist? :)

For those interested in USA history and STDs (I'm not so I didn't want to watch Mengele 2) I have to suggest, unless you've already read about it elsewhere:
Miss Evers' Boys



Quoting my old post about news that someone is trying to retell Rashomon as series:
After years I couldn't believe noone tried it, it finally happened:
https://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/1020103-amblin-tv-orders-series-adaptation-of-rashomon
Amblin TV has announced they’re developing a small-screen adaptation of the 1950 classic from legendary Japanese film writer/director Akira Kurosawa, Rashomon.

The original film, co-written by Kurosawa and Shinobu Hasimoto and directed by the former, revolves around the rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband and sees the story told from four different perspectives, that of a bandit, the bride, a woodcutter and the ghost of the samurai.
The series, … , will adapt the story into a 10-part mystery drama surrounding a single event, which has yet to be announced, and will tell the story from each of the different characters’ perspectives.

It's not a remake obviously, just a storytelling style about human nature.
Note that the closest thing to Kurosawa's masterpiece was basically HBO's Wire and Channel 4's Red Riding. Noone else was brave enough to get even closer till now. Even if Amblin yells "caution", I'm happy.

EDIT:
Just to add. Rashomon is one of those movies you need to watch before you die. Okay? If you didn't already, stop whatever you're doing and go for it!

EDIT2:
Pardon my ignorance, seems someone already tried it, but I've never heard about these two before (thanks google!):

Vantage Point
The attempted assassination of the American President is told and re-told from several different perspectives.
And of course I'll remain an ignorant fool - I don't care about american presidents. :)
But you… Well, maybe it's worth checking.

Virumandi
The take on death penalty told through the story of a temperamental villager caught in between two village clans. Told through an offbeat screenplay inspired by Korosawa's Rashomon, the film narrates two versions of the same incidents.
I'd go for this immediately, but where to find it damnit.
If it matters, IMO you're not supposed to like anyone in Rashomon. You're supposed to be disgusted.
The movie's job is to show us how "perfect" humanity is by a style unseen previously and rarely, if ever, seen after.
If anyone asked me not what my favorite movie of all times is, but what movie I believe is the most important ever made, it's Rashomon.
 
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