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

I suggest *not* watching such movies currently.
If you really have to, go for Variola Vera which is based on real events during 70s when the whole world united and decided to erradicate one of the most vicious diseases ever - smallpox.

Yes, you've never see that disease yourself, but it existed.

The NeverEnding Story AKA Die unendliche Geschichte (1984)

Is a fever dream of a film that is like a cross between Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Conan the Barbarian.

It stars a young boy and it also stars another young boy who for most of the film I thought were in fact the same boy. It was only at about the hour mark that I was positive that one of the boys was clearly slightly older than the other, what with one of the boys clearly having the early signs of a moustache starting to creep into reality and the first boy clearly wasn't old enough for that.



The plot is about a boy who reads a story and supposedly imagines himself as taking part in the story, only this isn't the case, it's actually more nuanced than that, though the film didn't really communicate this very well for the most part.

Describing the plot is essentially pointless as there's no great coherence to anything that happens on-screen, it's just one of those films where each scene is far more interesting for it's own merits. The parts are better than their sum. A sort of fantasy sketch show.



When the credits rolled I noticed it had been made in Germany and was pretty much a German film rather than a Disney feature, which then made everything make a whole lot more sense…

The animatronics are truly out of this world.



A very difficult film to rate as it has so many moments that are so bad they're good that one can't help to think that it is actually a very good film, even with the so bad they're bad scenes being almost equally as present. So I'll give it a ɹnoɟ/ǝʌᴉɟ .

I also saw Looper (2012) which millions of people seem to love, nay worship, nay go to bed with, nay drool over extensively. Alas, I was fairly non-plused by all of it. A nonsense time travel mafia film that gradually turned into a kill-the-young-hitler movie via a supernatural powers random diversion.

Some fun scenes I suppose and it had an attractive and engaging car-crash appeal so just 5/10 for me. Sorry. Not even being edgy either. Thank heavens the 'most helpful' review on IMDB agrees with me at least… if you can find it from the non-stop stream of people beaming 11/10s at it because… it's different? ish? sorta?

Michael Ende, Limahl, Atreyu - everyone was talking about it back in the day.
For a family movie, it was great. The sequel however was IMO unbearable garbage and not just because Noah Hathaway didn't return to reprise the role. I've deliberately skipped the third movie.

I'm with you about Looper. Watchable but mediocre. Forgettable after any few movies with time paradoxes.
Yes it's different, but not different enough - cut away the time travel setting and you get a standard clone of clones execution wise.
For some seriously different crazyness in similar setting go for Predestination instead.

The book is so much better than the movie, imho.
I have the first editions with all of these book paintings in it … almost looking like an medieval book …
And Michael Ende's "Momo" is great as well. In contrast to the movie of the Neverending Story, he actually liked the movie of Momo. It was John Houston's last role.
"Momo" is a great book, because it tacles some questions which are of our modern age : How much time do we have ? Whom shall we give our time ?
Is it good to "spare time" ? Is it good to be more efficient so that we may have more time, as some people tell us ?

joxer said:

Michael Ende, Limahl, Atreyu - everyone was talking about it back in the day.
For a family movie, it was great. The sequel however was IMO unbearable garbage [..]

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I haven't seen the sequel, but it was the same with the book IHMO. The first movie only covered the first half of the book, which was fine. The second half made me wish I'd never read it. I still have a hand-made leather case for my Kindle with a metal AURYN symbol on it though.

I thought The NeverEnding Story was fantastic, but I was also very young the first time I saw it. My opinion might be different if I had watched it as an adult.

Great theme song too. For the longest time though, I thought it was a woman singing. It wasn't until years later when I saw the music video that I realized it was a dude.

I see the Ip Man is on Netflix now. The first three. I have never watched them but people seem enjoy them for the fight scenes. Anyone here recommend them? I'm a big Bruce Lee fan so I will have to check out his teacher.

This evening I was watching the Bayala movie, the setting is made after a toy line with the same name..
I bet you have never seen so colourful dragons in your whole life !
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7063304/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
It is aimed at kids, though. No complicated plot, no complicated graphics, just an overdose of colourfulness which I haven't seen since … since … I don't remember.

Hastar said:

I see the Ip Man is on Netflix now. The first three. I have never watched them but people seem enjoy them for the fight scenes. Anyone here recommend them? I'm a big Bruce Lee fan so I will have to check out his teacher.

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Yep, go watch 'em.

I'm actually not sure which ones I watched so far, because they are numbered so weirdly. Going to have to check.

Just to say, Criterion will release a new remestered collection of Bruce Lee movies, and although I can't care less about 4K, I'm buying this:
https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/n...n-unveils-bruce-lee-his-greatest-hits-tribute

Will return about Ip Man movies later (need to watch one more, the spin off, tonight).
Won't be much words, but still. I'll include all (IMO relevant ones).

Alrik Fassbauer said:

This evening I was watching the Bayala movie, the setting is made after a toy line with the same name..
I bet you have never seen so colourful dragons in your whole life !
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7063304/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
It is aimed at kids, though. No complicated plot, no complicated graphics, just an overdose of colourfulness which I haven't seen since … since … I don't remember.

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Sorry but that poster looks more disgusting than any horror movie I've ever seen in my life. So creepy. I'd probably have nightmares after watching the movie.

joxer said:

Sorry but that poster looks more disgusting than any horror movie I've ever seen in my life. So creepy. I'd probably have nightmares after watching the movie.

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I bet so. I know your tastes a little bit now.

Me, on the other hand, I'm totally tired of all this grim looking stuff.

The first Ip Man from 2008 was very enjoyable. If you have Netflix and like Kung Fu movies I highly recommend it. My wife even enjoyed it and that's not her thing usually. Will watch the second one soon. I hear a young Bruce Lee is introduced at the end.

Okay… Wing Chun style movies.

Ip Man
A story about Ip Man, the Wing Chun style teacher/trainer, during period of japanese occupation of china just prior to ww2 and during it. Historically not completely correct, biographically either, but that doesn't make the movie less exciting, brawls are coreographed masterfully and the story never stops being interesting.

Ip Man 2
Ip Man and his family escaped to Hong Kong in the previous title and there instead of japanese occupation, brits are in charge. As someone will say in the movie, more money means more crime, thus corruption blossoms everywhere. Ip Man will try to adapt to such world. Unlike the first movie that had realistic coreographies, for whatever reason authors added perhaps too much of wire fu in the sequel. The legend Samo Hung appears in this one as another kung fu teacher which is great, but the final fight against a boxer is IMO pathetically bad. I went reading is it just me, people say that fight is Rocky4 ripoff. Luckily I never watched Rocky4 then as I hated that duel, and if people say it's ripoff, I'd hate Rocky4.

Ip Man 3
A "businessman" wants to force a school closed, because it's in a way of his plans. Ip Man with his students will try to prevent that. On the other side there is another Wing Chun style master who wants to open his own training school and for sakes of popularity will challenge Ip Man. A duel between two Wing Chun masters is awsome, the movie IMO is better than the second.

Ip Man 4
Ip Man wants to send his son to USA, but he travels there first to check things out because his former pupil, Bruce Lee, sent him an invitation with a plane ticket for a certain fight. Of course we'll see a fight coreographed as if it's real Bruce Lee there, and it's a brilliant hommage.
USA back then is the same as USA today. Racism and racists everywhere. So Ip Man will start kicking some racist arse, and honestly, I've enjoyed it perhaps too much because of just that.

Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy
The other Wing Chun style master from Ip Man 3 is mc in this one. He gets in trouble with local drug dealers and also is attacked by a mysterious figure (Tony Jaa). Drug dealers are a part of mafialike organization so he'll also have problems with it's leader (Michelle Yeoh). That's not all, the local cook is also suspicious (Dave Bautista). No, these big names in brckets are not there to appear for a second and con someone into buying the movie. They all have their story and at least one fight. And it's all so awsome I dare to say this spinoff is better than any Ip Man sequel. Not better than Ip Man 1 though.

The Legend Is Born: Ip Man
A story about young Ip Man, before he became a master of a style. Completely different from Ip Man movies above and is not a part of those series. Although Samo Hung and Yuen Biao appear in it, every scene they aren't in are plain mediocre and the story overall is boring (put me to sleep so I had to continue watching tomorrow) thus I have to suggest skipping it unless you're a fan of the two I mentioned.

Wing Chun
The legend says Wing Chun style was created by a women of the same name and this is a movie about her. Of course it's Michelle Yeoh who plays her, who else. Her fiancee in the movie? Donnie Yen. Yes. The same one who portrays Ip Man in series of movies above.
Humoristic, silly and fun. Find it, it'd be a shame if you decide not to watch it only because of it's age.

Warriors Two
Not about any famous Wing Chun style name, this one uses the style for fights coreography. Add Samo Hung and tons of humor to the mix and you get yourself an awsome movie to enjoy. Don't skip it.

The Prodigal Son
Samo Hung again in episodic role. But Yuen Biao, perhaps the greatest acrobat ever as the lead, nails the role of a spoiled cretin who thinks he's unbeatable - only because his father pays everyone to lose from him. Once the truth is out, the mc will have to train properly, of course, wing chun style.
A classic you should watch even if you won't check any other title in this post.


Of course there are a few more movies with wing chun style I've watched, but except these I mentioned, can't recommend any.

I have watched the first three Ip Man movies and agree with Joxer's assessment. Did not watch the ones that came after, probably series fatigue!

I miss Jet Li's movies of the same type of choreography and era (e.g. once a upon a time in china) - very high production values and story.

Cmon, there can't be fatigue from watching great movies!
Unless of course you've played TW3 when everything after it feels horrible for a month, even good stuff.

The first three Once Upon a Time in China movies are a mustwatch because of being interesting period dramas and exciting combat scenes.
Fourth and fifth movie, tv series and a spinoff movie are plain rubbish. Not even mediocre, but bad.
Watch only the initial trilogy.

Trainspotting (1996) was on tele last night and I happen to be around and looking for something to watch when I saw it listed in the schedule.

I hadn't seen it pretty much since it came out, wow, almost 25 years ago, though my memory could be wrong. It was such a massive and perfect film at that time I was hesitant to watch it again. You know how it goes, that thing you loved once just doesn't cut it many years later and you wonder what on earth you saw in it, I wasn't sure if I wanted to risk the ruined memories.

However, I did watch it and am amazed at how well Trainspotting holds up even after all this time. It's as if it was made yesterday. It's still so completely fresh and unmatched in so many areas; the bordering-on-fantasy cinematography, the perfection of the musical integration, the incredible editing, the precision writing, the superb acting and casting, just every single little damn thing.

One of those rare movies that achieves perfection from a position of nowhere. I think this could well be the best Scottish film of all time, definitely one of the top 100 of all time globally (currently no.160 on IMDB).

Warning: do not eat while watching

5/5

What does "lp man" mean ?

It's a name and is originally written this way: 葉問

Thanks for talking about IP Man, that's the kind of thing that I can easily miss in the maelstrom of the movie mountain that almost doubles in size every decade. I'll check out the first one at some point and take it from there.

The Roaring Twenties (1939) is one of James Cagney's golden age masterpieces. It's part dramatized documentary and part fictitious crime drama with some parables about love and relationships thrown in for good measure. There's even some great song and dance numbers.

The supporting cast are all show stealers as well, from Humphrey Bogart to Gladys George. I dunno what it was about that era of film making, but there's not one 'good' character in this film and yet all of them are still both relatable and likeable, something that a lot of modern film and TV makers tend to struggle with [and one of the reasons Tarrantino stands out so well].

This line from Bogart in the opening act sets the tone well:

Harvard: lowers rifle after aiming at a German soldier during WW1
Bogart: What's the matter Harvard? You lose the heinie?
Harvard: No, but he looks like a kid about 15 years old.
Bogart: Aims and shoots. He won't be 16.

And yet it still has scenes like this:



And it all fits together seamlessly.

At one hour forty six minutes this was of epic length for an epic movie in that era. By today's standards is quite a quick ride, relatively speaking. Just a few slower and more meandering scenes in the post-war build-up phase of the film prevent a perfect score, so a very respectable, true classic 4/5.