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

I tried watching the Tale last night, with Laura Dern starring in it, but it just got way too creepy for my liking. I came for Dern and the horses, but....yeah, just a big too much for me.
 
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Watched something called Free Fire. One of those trapped in a standoff movies. The setup is actually pretty good, but once things get going, it's like they didn't really have any ideas for how to make the situation entertaining. Lots of shooting as things go back and forth, but it's just not very interesting.
 
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Just got back from seeing Avengers: Infinity War. I thought it was pretty good, and I can safely add it to the very short list of Marvel films that I really enjoyed.

It wasn't without some hiccups though. As usual, they tried too hard with the humor at times. I'm not too fond of this latest iteration of Spider Man either. He seems to be there mainly for comic relief, and that's disappointing to me because he's always been a favorite of mine as far as comic book heroes go.

Also, there were a couple of parts where certain characters did something that just made me go "Huh??" Choices that made absoutely no sense and went against what we were led to believe they would do in such a situation.

I enjoyed it despite the flaws though, and I'm glad I managed to avoid any spoilers before seeing it.
 
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Saw A Quiet Place. High marks in many ways - the monsters are satisfyingly nasty with an effective sense of menace, the direction is good, and the characters are easy to engage with. Certainly wouldn't want to find one of those critters in the basement, and monsters that actually seem monstrous are quite rare.

I'm not a stickler for "realism" in fantastic stories, but it did have a plot point that bugged me:

So, the world has been ravaged by sound-sensitive monsters for months, and they only just now stumble upon the fact that high-frequency sound defeats them? I found that a bit disappointing.
 
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Ripper said:
So, the world has been ravaged by sound-sensitive monsters for months, and they only just now stumble upon the fact that high-frequency sound defeats them? I found that a bit disappointing.
Click to expand...
It's called movie logic Ripper.:biggrin:

Just like Alien invasion movies where Earth always wins.
 
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Yeah, I just thought it was a bit on the nose. Given the quality of the film, I thought they might have come up with something better.
 
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Ripper said:
I'm not a stickler for "realism" in fantastic stories, but it did have a plot point that bugged me:

So, the world has been ravaged by sound-sensitive monsters for months, and they only just now stumble upon the fact that high-frequency sound defeats them? I found that a bit disappointing.
Click to expand...

AFAIK it's not the
high frequency
what hurts those suckers, but
the excessively amplified human thoughts. Early in the movie it was told that dad was experimenting with a device that could amplify and transmit thoughts, so the family could live without a single spoken word. My interpretation: Little Girl was so pissed off during the course of the events, that her amplified angst became the ultimate weapon.
.
 
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That didn't come across to me. Seemed to be about the sound - she holds it up to a microphone to amplify it. Not sure how that would work with "angst".
 
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Ripper said:
That didn't come across to me. Seemed to be about the sound - she holds it up to a microphone to amplify it. Not sure how that would work with "angst".
Click to expand...

Yeah, the execution was not that stellar, however, with this interpretation, all the dramatic story arcs would come along nicely at the end of the film.
Father's obsession and sacrifice, mother's frustration and ignorance, brother's sudden death -- all fuels Little Girl's anger. And in the showdown everything clicks together. Little Girl becomes an Grown-up to be Reckoned With, and Mother Tiger can finally protect her family.
 
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I think there's a problem with that interpretation, though. In the scene in the cornfield, a monster comes up behind her, and the ear-piece starts feeding back and bothering it, while she doesn't even know it's there.

It seems to me that the dad had been trying, and failing, to build a hearing aid for his daughter, but the faulty device feeds back whenever a monster approaches - I guess it responds to the sonar they must use to navigate. When they realise the monsters can't tolerate the feedback, they amplify it and kill them. The dad's sacrifice and seemingly failed efforts have saved them.
 
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Ripper said:
I think there's a problem with that interpretation, though. In the scene in the cornfield, a monster comes up behind her, and the ear-piece starts feeding back and bothering it, while she doesn't even know it's there.

It seems to me that the dad had been trying, and failing, to build a hearing aid for his daughter, but the faulty device feeds back whenever a monster approaches - I guess it responds to the sonar they must use to navigate. When they realise the monsters can't tolerate the feedback, they amplify it and kill them. The dad's sacrifice and seemingly failed efforts have saved them.
Click to expand...

Maybe yes, maybe no. Now let's end this discussion, before the whole thread be flooded with SPOILER! tags :)

Think the other way of it: we are discussing a film, interpreting in different ways, so yeah, I guess A Quiet Place is actually a worthy effort.
 
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And Emily Blunt was golden.

Saw Law of Arabia last night since I've made comments about the movie but it has been a long time since I seen it. Still prefer the The Martian by a wide margin. It wasn't a bad movie and the grand scope makes it a harder movie set-wise than the Martian. It was also insight of views of the Arabs back then compared to today (back them being when the movie was made and since it is a historical movie some reflection of the actual period itself). Anyway each to their own.
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Ripper said:
Saw A Quiet Place. High marks in many ways - the monsters are satisfyingly nasty with an effective sense of menace, the direction is good, and the characters are easy to engage with. Certainly wouldn't want to find one of those critters in the basement, and monsters that actually seem monstrous are quite rare.

I'm not a stickler for "realism" in fantastic stories, but it did have a plot point that bugged me:

So, the world has been ravaged by sound-sensitive monsters for months, and they only just now stumble upon the fact that high-frequency sound defeats them? I found that a bit disappointing.
Click to expand...
 
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I saw A Quiet Place myself last night. It was...ok.

Maybe I was overly hyped because of all the praise, but there wasn't anything about it that blew me away. In the end, it was just another monster movie.

Agree with Ripper about the ending (Sorry, but that other theory doesn't stack up), and I was also a little disappointed that there wasn't at least some explanation of where they came from.
 
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I still want to learn how having the most silent baby ever was possible. GMO from Monsanto?
 
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I watched Cargo last night, decent take on a semi-zombified affair from down under. It was mellow and enjoyable, and had a surprising amount of aboriginal content as well, which added to the story immensely. The bloke that played Watson in the Sherlock show starred in it.
 
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Enjoyable? You're easy to please then - I thought the movie was timewasting junk and suggested skipping it couple of pages back.
 
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I liked Cargo. I didn't think it was as good as it could have been, but I enjoyed it, and thought Freeman did well. I found the ending quite affecting.
 
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You think it could have been better? How? What would you do to make it better than it is?
IMO nothing in it can be improved, it's as good as it ever can be - and that's still junk not worth your time.

An example of a (recent) movie that's better than could have been is The Commuter.
Liam Neeson again in semiaction role (been there, done that), train with whodunnit (numerous examples), struggle in moveing train with exit/enter stunts (again numerous examples), etc.

Sounds mediocre? It's not.
It has a brilliant opening showing Neeson's daily routine in quite interesting way.
The train is not full of people doing absolutely nothing posing as static dolls (in junk hollywood productions casted staff was not told how to behave so they just appear frozen). But also the train is not full of people staring in their phones playing phonegames or whatever - no Apple adveritising.
There is a guitar smashing scene Hendrix fans will adore.
etc.

Well now since I've mentioned it as an example of mediocrity being improved, make sure you watch it sometime. While it's not something you'll remember for a long time after watching, you'll have more fun than with Cargo.
 
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