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

I really enjoyed the manga series when I read it, Ghost in the Shell. That must have been maybe 1990 I think, then I saw the film that came out four or five years after that. Never saw the more recent one yet.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I didn't really care for Ghost in the Shell, but I never get tired of looking at Scarlett Johansson.

That movie, live remake of the animated masterpiece, is an utter bs.
IMO it's one of the biggest remake bs, if not the biggest (refused to watch Mulan so can't know), of this century.

In the transition from animation to live version the story lost it's soul - the story that is about soul.
Avoid the remake abomination like a plague.

Originally Posted by joxer
That movie, live remake of the animated masterpiece, is an utter bs.
IMO it's one of the biggest remake bs, if not the biggest (refused to watch Mulan so can't know), of this century.

In the transition from animation to live version the story lost it's soul - the story that is about soul.
Avoid the remake abomination like a plague.

Well, I'm not into Anime much, so I guess I wasn't as distressed by the movie as you apparently were.

Tbh, I don't remember much about it other than Johansson.

Anime is only an expression style and you not being into some styles much does not matter here.

The point is that the original GitS is ment for mature audience. Unlike the remake.
It's content cannot be understood by low IQ people or minors.
Which leaves us the question, are you into mature movies much or not.
The second question is are you prepared to risk your sanity by checking something some people call a masterpiece or you'd rather stick with overhyped and overadvertised mainstream.

So as a tyke, I was a huge fan of detective books series, specifically ones like Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, Hardy boys, and by far my favourite, the Three Investigators. A friend had told me she was sure a film had been made of this series about ten years ago and, sure enough, with a little research I found it. It's called the Three Investigators and the Secret of Skeleton Island, and so I checked it out. The casting wasn't very good, I think over the past fifty something years I already had an idea of what they should all look like on the screen, and none of them fit well. The story was decent at least, yet I doubt I'll seek out the other film, as there is a second available. Sometimes you just need to stick to the books…..wait, actually, that should be almost all the time.

Originally Posted by joxer
The point is that the original GitS is ment for mature audience. Unlike the remake.
It's content cannot be understood by low IQ people or minors.
Which leaves us the question, are you into mature movies much or not.

Originally Posted by danutz_plusplus
I've finally seen a movie that's been on my list for 15+ years at least. Stalker, the russian film by Tarkovsky.

Watched. That was different. Reminded me of The Man from Earth, which consisted of only talking. Stalker had less talking and more reflecting. Didn't realize Tarkovsky was the one who also made Solyaris, which I only watched the remake of.

Originally Posted by Arhu
Watched. That was different. Reminded me of The Man from Earth, which consisted of only talking. Stalker had less talking and more reflecting. Didn't realize Tarkovsky was the one who also made Solyaris, which I only watched the remake of.

Yeah, in both Stalker and Solaris, Tarkovsky does a whole lot with very little, and leaves a lot to the imagination. And because of that it makes you think. But even so, Stalker looks amazing. And it's shocking how much atmosphere Stalker has, with so little. So many memorable shots. The tunnel and the sand dune room in particular, are especially memorable.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Tbh, I don't remember much about it other than Johansson.

Which is perfectly understandable, we all get it!!

Watched the documentary Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-Truth World. Really interesting stuff about a group of amateur journalists that do a deep dives into the major international news stories, and follow up in a way most news organizations don't. Some really interesting characters, and they've become a thorn in the side of tyrants.

I finally got around to watching the Boondock Saints. I've been meaning to watch this film for years, just never got around to it. Some of the action sequences were a bit odd, yet I think that's what they were designed to be, and I found the story pretty good. That was a really good role for Bill Connolly, that's an actor I cannot ever get too much of.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer

Originally Posted by HiddenX
Best rpg-comedy ever …

AstrópÃ*a

This is a classic. I still need to buy it.

Two years ago EVERYONE who was pen & paper role-playing had to buy it.

Watched it finally.
Astrópía.

As I'm this late to the party, more than a decade passed, perhaps I cannot share the thrills.

The idea is good, actors were really trying, but I just couldn't enjoy it.
It's obviously ment to be a comedy, but humor was not funny, not to me at least.
A scene as example:


Sure, there are redeeming qualities with comics styled stills and a sort of from useless but fancylooking zero to a quality person thanks to, what would be the proper word, pnp-ing?, but the whole thing was kinda boring to watch.

Not saying you should not try, maybe you find it awsome, but it just didn't work for me.

Finally saw a movie that’s been on my list for a long time. 21 Jump Street. Haven’t laughed so hard at a comedy in a long time. It was a great lighthearted buddy-cop style comedy.

I remember the television series from a few decades back, yet haven't seen the film version of 21 Jump Street. I'm a huge fan of Peter DeLuise, both in front of and behind the camera.

Watched the director's cut of Watchmen again last night. It's so much better than the rest of Zack Snyder's films that it's almost hard to believe it came from him.

Also rewatched A Quiet Place since I plan on seeing the sequel very soon. I think I enjoyed it a little more this time around. It's actually pretty solid for a modern horror film.

Yeah that director's cut of Watchmen is the only way to go, imo. By far Snyder's best flick, nothing else comes close to hit from him for me. And one of the few films that follows the original material fairly well, even elevating it in some areas.

I watched another one that I’ve been meaning for some time. Midsommar. Pretty cool horror movie. I love it when horror movies avoid jump scares, and instead go for dread and uneasyness. Didn’t much understand or love the ending. I mean the motivations of the character.

Originally Posted by danutz_plusplus
I watched another one that I’ve been meaning for some time. Midsommar. Pretty cool horror movie. I love it when horror movies avoid jump scares, and instead go for dread and uneasyness. Didn’t much understand or love the ending. I mean the motivations of the character.

His other movie was full of subtle references, I expect Midsommar is no different.

Originally Posted by danutz_plusplus
I watched another one that I’ve been meaning for some time. Midsommar. Pretty cool horror movie. I love it when horror movies avoid jump scares, and instead go for dread and uneasyness. Didn’t much understand or love the ending. I mean the motivations of the character.

I loved Midsommar. It's been a couple of years since I've seen it but I think her motivations are more or less it's better to have a fucked up family than no family at all.

Midsommar would have worked better if, like in Hereditary by the same director, the cast had been flawed but sympathetic. Toni Colette was fucking crazy as the mom in Hereditary, but it still broke my heart to see her family torn apart.

The victims in Midsommar were like the cast of a conventional slasher flick -- annoying kids designed to be disposable. I didn't give a damn when the three guys were killed off (I actually cared more about the British couple's deaths than about the main cast), so the heroine's big heel turn at the end didn't really have any impact for me.

The visual design was great, and the trick of a relentlessly sunlit horror flick worked well -- but for slow-burn horror like this, there needs to be emotion behind the scares, and for me there just wasn't.