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

Originally Posted by tuukka
Mr Robot is one of the best series ever.

Just a note - this is the FILM thread. There is a ‘TV Series’ discussion thread as well, you might want to discuss it there.

Mr. Robot was discussed on the previous page a lot, which is why I continued.

An awful lot of mediocre fair, mostly bearable but nothing much to write home about:

Mr Sloane (1970) 3/5, a real curiosity though, would suit someone wanting to see a plot-line they'd never seen before, even if produced somewhat underwhelmingly.

BlacKkKlansman (2018), Spike Lee making a film about black people again, but with a bit more universal appeal than has been his routine of late. Much fun was had but a bit too heavy-handed in places to motivate me to rave about it. 3.75/5

The Life of David Gale (2002), a very boring crime thriller that I realised half-way through I'd seen before, probably in the cinema in 2002. Has some additional relevance today due to it starring Kevin Spacy as a man wrongfully (?) charged with a sex crime. 3/5

The Killing Fields (1984) was a lot more boring and messy than I remembered it being. The biggest crime of this movie is that the lead isn't the lead, the lead is a lesser known Asian actor who gets lesser billing just because he's foreign. A classic example of 'well meaning racism brought about by a desire to maximise attendances'. 3/5

Malcom X (1992) I agree with the general consensus that it's quite an overly and unduly long and fairly boring movie elevated solely by the superb acting, most notably the future legend Denzel Washington, and the obviously sincere nature of the content. 3/5

The Town (2010) a thoroughly forgotten, and rightly so, extremely average Ben Affleck crime drama that doesn't know if it want's to be a romance film or a deep crime drama. 3/5

9th Company (2005) is an ok I suppose war movie about Russians in Afghanistan. Too much 'hard bro man bro' bollocks drags it down from the many decent scenes and it felt very much like a huge wasted potential upon conclusion. Ok ride though. 3/5

The Bridge at Remagen (1969) is an ok American WWII movie. As a fan of Robert Vaughn I was suitably rewarded with lots of Vaughn. The leads are ok as well. Fairly routine stuff, the best bits are the action scenes though, which is always telling. 3/5

The Smallest Show on Earth (1957) is a super-twee English comedy about a couple who inherit a flea-pit cinema and have to pretend to run it in order to coax the multiplex rival into buying them out so they can at least get some cash. Some great moments but, again, squanders a lot of it's potential in a sea of 'where's the punchline' type misses. Notable mostly for it's early Peter Sellers film appearance, he's not even top billing yet. 3/5

Inside Llewyn Davis (2014) is a forgotten Coen Brothers movie, and rightly so mostly. It has it good moments and it's an ok ride with great performances but, again, just fails to really pack any punches of any kind (pun here is relevant to anyone who's seen it). 3/5

High Society (1956) Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra… and yet still mostly boring, even with a sterling appearance of Louis Armstrong. In modern parlance, this was a remake of a movie no-one asked for even at the time. I like Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong though, so I had at least something to enjoy. 3/5

Maybe my next pile of random movies will elicit a stronger cache of hidden gems.

Recently saw The Lodge, a quasi-suspense drama. Not since Testament (the 80's film documenting the slow death of a family following nuclear holocaust) have I felt such a sense of oppression while watching a movie.

Objectively, as a film, I would rate it a 6/10. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone - it is just not enjoyable to watch.

Not enjoyable?
I'm still waiting for everyone's Artemis Fowl impressions. That's a prime example of not enjoyable in my case. And I thought Disney can't go any lower.

Originally Posted by Drithius
Recently saw The Lodge, a quasi-suspense drama. Not since Testament (the 80's film documenting the slow death of a family following nuclear holocaust) have I felt such a sense of oppression while watching a movie.

Objectively, as a film, I would rate it a 6/10. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone - it is just not enjoyable to watch.

(Un)fortunately, that sounds right up my alley. Thanks for the rec.

Watched Fargo again (the movie). Had to search online to find out the purpose of Mike Yanagita sidestory, attention to details…

Having fed up with this whole SJW-stuff regarding the recent well-known incidents, this was my cure to get back some lost sanity:

The Complete Monty Python: still refreshing, and still great fun. Mad men often tell more truth about our world than those supposedly sane ones.

Tropic Thunder: ironically, Netflix banned this great satire just now for being "anti-black" (c'mon, have you guys ever heard of the term SATIRE?! Or is it too hard to digest in your tiny one-bit brain?! )

Super Fly: yup, if you want some serious black power, this is it -- straight from the Black Panther-fuelled '70s. Stylish, powerful and interesting. (avoid the remake at all costs!)

Originally Posted by duerer
Tropic Thunder: ironically, Netflix banned this great satire just now for being "anti-black" (c'mon, have you guys ever heard of the term SATIRE?! Or is it too hard to digest in your tiny one-bit brain?! )

I thought HBO's ban on Gone With the Wind was the biggest bs of the year of 2020, but if that's true, Netflix made a bigger one.

Originally Posted by duerer
fed up with this whole SJW-stuff

SJW is a term used by bigots to silence those who oppose racism, misogyny, and other forms of intolerance and oppression. The P&R forum is the place for such things.

Originally Posted by duerer
Tropic Thunder: ironically, Netflix banned this great satire just now for being "anti-black" (c'mon, have you guys ever heard of the term SATIRE?! Or is it too hard to digest in your tiny one-bit brain?! )

Originally Posted by joxer
I thought HBO's ban on Gone With the Wind was the biggest bs of the year of 2020, but if that's true, Netflix made a bigger one.

I have been able to find ZERO evidence of any type that this is true. Please provide some direct confirmatory evidence if it exists. (BTW I found Tropic Thunder to be excellent satire that so many people miss … also Blazing Saddles)

Having a racist movie full of southern American revisionism pulled during THIS time and re-listed later with a disclaimer is NOT BS … it is a reasonable contextual update to a film that is simultaneously a masterpiece and a cringe-worthy piece reflecting white supremacy BS. Opposing the move is incredibly tone-deaf in a country that had a traitorous failed racist insurrection last < 5 years but manage to rewrite history books, erect monuments to loser traitors, and keep full scale legal oppression in place for an additional 100 years with legal remnants remaining today.

To the moderator:
I think some clarification is in order:

1. On SJW
For me, SJW is not about racism and whatnot, but a dubious trend for protesting a cause while the protester has no friggin' clue what is all this about ("it's trending").
As such, for me, SJW is not about being racist or not, it is about being dumb as a rock.
Anyway, that's my two cents on the subject -- won't comment on this anymore, unless it is somewhat RPG-related.

2. On Tropic Thunder
Right now I'm in Australia on a business trip and a local newspaper welcomed me with the news:
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-an…11-p551rr.html
I'm not sure if it is fake or not, but surely caused a stir around me.
If this is fake, then Mea Maxima Culpa -- if some actually know what this phrase means.

Should you wish to, kindly delete my posts you may find offensive.

Originally Posted by duerer
1. On SJW

Sadly the term has been co-opted by right-wing extremists in the US. I am re-reading how I phrased things and I apologize - that is how I meant it, not as an implication that you were a bigot - which I do not believe is true.

Originally Posted by duerer
2. On Tropic Thunder

I saw the Australian article that seemed ambiguous on the topic - when I looked into it further, Tropic Thunder (like so many movies) has been on and off Netflix in blocks of 6 months to a year several times over reason years. It *seems* that the timing makes it suspect for potential questions about motivation.

The reason I jumped on that is because Tropic Thunder has a history of ‘people missing true point’. I have no problem (as noted) with Gone With The Wind being sidelined for a bit and a disclaimer added. If they need a disclaimer for Tropic Thunder maybe it would be “IT’S a F-ING SATIRE PEOPLE”

On the topic of films getting 'excluded from modern fashion', maybe not necessarily banned outright, but just generally disowned from the general conversation, there's a whole raft of stuff that's unjustly belittled throughout the history of cinema.

The most recent one I noticed prior to the current drama was The Basketball Diaries, one of may favourite films of the 90s and even starring Leonardo De Caprio in one of his earliest standout masterpiece performances. Why? Because he plays a school kid who at one point in the film fantasises about shooting up his classroom. Cue any random US school shooting and hey presto, it's the films fault, because all humans have to be shielded from content that bares any kind of relation to 'news stories'.

Black folk themselves often rebuke films which they themselves had a huge part in. The most notable historical film in this regard is/was Song Of The South, pretty much the first Disney film to outright star a black guy. Instead of it being held up as a beacon of black progression towards acceptance all the activists care about is the fact that the black guy in it represents 'old black' and not 'new black'. For some reason completely incapable of viewing the product via the lens of 'I'm watching a product of its time, not an example of how to exist in a modern world'.

The Gone With The Wind example is just another iteration of the Song Of The South example, raging against the old containing old attitudes instead of celebrating the fact that it provided… the first black female Oscar.

As a film fan it's almost impossible to pass any given year without having to facepalm at the absurd 'fashion police'… regardless of political affiliation or specific political discussions [spoiler: all politicians and activist minded people seem to be addicted to blaming movies]. And so, as a film fan it's very important to register these events when they happen, and just sit tight until the morons have moved along so that we might quietly bring the old classics back to light.

As a palette cleanser to my recent string of mediocre movies [see previous page], I decided to watch a few films which were much more known quantities to me and that are technically mediocre but emotionally enthralling:

Conan The Destroyer (1984), sitting at just 5.9/10 on IMDB this is one of those movies where the rating doesn't fully illustrate the joy that is to be had from watching it. Particularly for fans of RPGs and fantasy generally.

While not as interesting as the first movie and while it's a much more formulaic movie than the first one, there's a timeless joy to be had in watching a party of six characters explore dungeons, solve puzzles and fight evil mages! All wearing loincloths!!!!

This one reminds me more of Sinbad than the first Conan film, a series of films I loved from the previous decades. And yes, Conan is actually a middle easterner in this as well, he is often referred to as "The Sumerian". Basically Sinbad but with Conan biceps and horses instead of boats.

The film is also a beacon of modern sensibilities as well as Arnie frees the black slave, another performance for the ages from the unique and queen of her time Grace Jones:



Oh, woah, I wrote a lot more on that than I thought I would, now I'm being called away. I'll write more about the other two later today: Highlander and Wonder Woman.

Watched a western from a few years back - Bone Tomahawk, starring Kurt Russell.

It starts out with quite a slow art-house tone, but then, in the final act… Holy motherforking shirtballs! Some of the most extreme brutality I've ever seen. Fairly decent movie, but I could have done without those scenes in my head.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Watched a western from a few years back - Bone Tomahawk, starring Kurt Russell.

It starts out with quite a slow art-house tone, but then, in the final act… Holy motherforking shirtballs! Some of the most extreme brutality I've ever seen. Fairly decent movie, but I could have done without those scenes in my head.

I love that movie.
Yeah, the sudden brutality is a real shock (and that's from someone who watches a lot of horror). My wife was none too pleased when it went that way.

Yesterday I watched The Boy II: Brahms.
It was shit. Katie Holmes and the child actor were capable, but the husband's acting was strangely sub-par. The retconning of the first movie was stupid. The scares were very rare and the whole thing was very predictable.

I was amazed to find out that it was directed and written by the same team. I can think of many cases where a new team screwed up someone else's creation, but these guys decided to fuck over their own.

Bone Tomahawk is a very weird one. An example of complete schlock that somehow manages to elevate itself beyond the herd for reasons that cause more debate than was likely ever intended or envisioned by the creators.

After years of sometimes thinking about the movie whenever it gets mentioned I came to the realisation that the reason it works so well is that it essentially mimics the plot and scene-to-scene progression of True Grit, one of the many rare near perfect movies [either version, the latter also starring Kurt Russel].

And the reason it fails is because it surrenders to the exploitation genre too much and, as ripper experienced, and many others, it tends to leave you not wanting to remember it, even though you kinda know there was a lot of quality there. Well, the quality aspect comes from copying a masterpiece of 'normal' cinema while the detraction comes from it trying to cater to the 'extreme' cinema niche in the vein of Cannibal Holocaust, a seriously niche product.

Highlander (1986) currently sits at 7.1/10 on IMDB, but its rating has fluctuated wildly over the years. It bombed on release but was one of those movies that found its glory in the halcyon days of Blockbuster video, like many products of its time. Weirdly enough they kept putting the sequels in the cinema and they kept bombing but always making enough money on video to make more sequels.

I saw the original back in this time as well but it never sat as a personal classic for me and I haven't seen it since. Apparently people are now complaining that it hasn't aged well. Well… I dunno. For me it still sits in that strange void between liking and not liking it, but not indifferent. I'd defend it as a classic of the era but I wouldn't stand in the way of someone ripping the piss out of it, within reason and assuming they're not just ragging on accents or other banal crap.

It's a quasi-time travel sword and sorcery film but lacks the sorcery element and, at some point about half-way, devolves into the comic book movie downfall of just waiting for the good guy to have the end-fight with the bad guy, which seems to take much too long to get too.

The first half was fab though as we cycle between the medieval era and a modern city-scape all the time being gradually introduced to the lore of the film's universe. The directing is bold and interesting, the atmosphere rich and detailed. Then Sean Connery shows up for a bit and everything suddenly feels much grander than it actually is. It is no coincidence it starts to fade as soon as Connery exits almost as quickly as he arrived.

Interestingly, this film was also well ahead of the curve as regards modern sensibilities as it presents us with immortal heroes from 'all of the races' in a kind of 'one-of-each' method:



Wonder Woman (2017), commonly regarded as one of the better post-Nolan DC comic book movies, currently sitting at 7.4/10 on IMDB, I found to be very similar to my experience of Highlander, for almost all of the exact same reasons.

It even seems to have almost the exact same quantity of flashing between the medieval and the modern city-scape and, again, starts to wander into clock-watching territory just after the half-way point as the plot essentially ends and we just sit and wait for the big end-battle.

It even has the dodgy accent of the leading character. Robin Wright plays the short-lived Connery Trainer part. A big emphasis is put on a sword. This one goes that extra mile though by also channelling Conan The Destroyer and giving us a party of six characters who explore mysterious castles and fight evil wizards! One of whom is sometimes in loincloths!!!! [all too rarely, sadly].

While I absolutely loved all the high points for Wonder Woman and duly succumbed to all the intended big emotional moments for her, I finished the movie a bit disappointed that her character seemed to be mostly oppressively subdued by the oppressive browns of the World War One aesthetic. As if The Wonder was constantly trying to break free from the… Pine.

Originally Posted by Drithius
Recently saw The Lodge, a quasi-suspense drama. Not since Testament (the 80's film documenting the slow death of a family following nuclear holocaust) have I felt such a sense of oppression while watching a movie.

Objectively, as a film, I would rate it a 6/10. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone - it is just not enjoyable to watch.

Just saw this, and enjoyed it. Well, not sure "enjoy" is the right word, but it certainly was impressively bleak.
I checked the out the film writers/directors on IMDB, and it makes sense that they were also behind "Goodnight Mommy", another fucked-up movie I kinda like. Also rather bleak, well made, featuring kids and replacement mommy figures.