The movie Shyamalan did is called The Last Airbender.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is the animated tv series on Nickelodeon.
What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread
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The movie Shyamalan did is called The Last Airbender.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is the animated tv series on Nickelodeon.
Pretty impressive for a partial release. Is it out where you're at? We have to wait another full month over here which seems kind of ridiculous.
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No, it’s not out. 22 of Oct like the rest of the world.
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lackblogger
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No Time To Die (2021) (2020) (2019) (take your pick)
Is the new James Bond movie. And my dad had a fit of nostalgia as he approaches yet another birthday in his twilight years long past three score years and ten and said he'd pay for us to go see it on opening day in IMAX.
One matinee later and here I am. Wanna know about it? Do ya? Huh? Huh?
Well. Erm. Hmm. The cinema was half-full. Or was it half empty? Hmm. Anyway, it was half a theatre of mostly old men with grey hair and bald heads coming to fulfil their traditional ritual. There were others, but most of us others were what you'd call a very mixed bag.
And the new Bond movie is indeed quite a mixed bag of characters who all play their minor roles around the aging and nearly dead tail-end of the current Bond Craig run.
There's the controversial new 007, a lovely and actually very appropriately diverse tall and beautiful but rugged-enough looking black lady, who does a wonderful job playing 007. Don't worry, she's not the new Bond in this. It's ok, it all makes sense. No shit is required to be lost over her role.
There's the Black Widow'esque beautiful French Bond love-interest, who shoots baddies with consummate precision whilst also being able to cry and shout "Ohhhh James!!!" in perfectly equal measure. Yes, this one is one of those entries in the series where Bond has to cope with a genuine love interest. References to On Her Majesty's Secret Service abound.
And there's also all the gang, M, Q, Moneypenny, Felix Lighter, Blofeld, and a couple of new potentially iconic baddies. All of whom, except for the two new baddies, do indeed look like they've put on a few years since the last outing. Because they have!
And the film is 2hrs and 48mins long. Long. Yes, very long.
Sort of like how the older people get the longer their stories get. You know what I mean. How they like films that are a bit quieter. Films that are bit more 'sensible' in their plot execution and less cartoony in their delivery.
And so it is here. This is one of those low key down to earth Bond films. The gadgets and stunts get their moments, but small moments, little instances here and there. Use this watch it does something, ok used it, now back to plot kind of thing. "What's this?", "It's a Plane that converts into a submarine", "Awesome", and by the end of the convo they're back on land and back to the plot.
It's actually a genuinely normal spy movie. Well, as much as a Bond film can be, of course. It references movie-Bond as oppose to acts out movie-Bond while it slowly and inexorably weaves you into a twisty tale of what's going on and finding out who's the new bad guy.
It works as a final send-off for Craig while at the same time it could work as the last ever James Bond movie, while at the exact same time offering the viewer the option to have more, if that's what they really want.
As is congruent with the title of the film, no time to die. In that there's no good time to die, but the alternative is just to keep getting older. The title is the question, is this the time for Bond to get old and die? Well, here's a nice old-man film that's going to let you decide.
There's not much to criticise here other than the obvious that can be inferred from the above, to which there will undoubtedly be a lot of short-winded reviews that just say "boring!" in the iconic Homer Simpson voice. But then there's not a great deal to praise either, at least not without lots of long-winded exposition as to why.
To say more would, obviously, be spoilers at this point. So here's the short version:
7.5/10 (though that score may improve as one gets older
)
Is the new James Bond movie. And my dad had a fit of nostalgia as he approaches yet another birthday in his twilight years long past three score years and ten and said he'd pay for us to go see it on opening day in IMAX.
One matinee later and here I am. Wanna know about it? Do ya? Huh? Huh?
Well. Erm. Hmm. The cinema was half-full. Or was it half empty? Hmm. Anyway, it was half a theatre of mostly old men with grey hair and bald heads coming to fulfil their traditional ritual. There were others, but most of us others were what you'd call a very mixed bag.
And the new Bond movie is indeed quite a mixed bag of characters who all play their minor roles around the aging and nearly dead tail-end of the current Bond Craig run.
There's the controversial new 007, a lovely and actually very appropriately diverse tall and beautiful but rugged-enough looking black lady, who does a wonderful job playing 007. Don't worry, she's not the new Bond in this. It's ok, it all makes sense. No shit is required to be lost over her role.
There's the Black Widow'esque beautiful French Bond love-interest, who shoots baddies with consummate precision whilst also being able to cry and shout "Ohhhh James!!!" in perfectly equal measure. Yes, this one is one of those entries in the series where Bond has to cope with a genuine love interest. References to On Her Majesty's Secret Service abound.
And there's also all the gang, M, Q, Moneypenny, Felix Lighter, Blofeld, and a couple of new potentially iconic baddies. All of whom, except for the two new baddies, do indeed look like they've put on a few years since the last outing. Because they have!
And the film is 2hrs and 48mins long. Long. Yes, very long.
Sort of like how the older people get the longer their stories get. You know what I mean. How they like films that are a bit quieter. Films that are bit more 'sensible' in their plot execution and less cartoony in their delivery.
And so it is here. This is one of those low key down to earth Bond films. The gadgets and stunts get their moments, but small moments, little instances here and there. Use this watch it does something, ok used it, now back to plot kind of thing. "What's this?", "It's a Plane that converts into a submarine", "Awesome", and by the end of the convo they're back on land and back to the plot.
It's actually a genuinely normal spy movie. Well, as much as a Bond film can be, of course. It references movie-Bond as oppose to acts out movie-Bond while it slowly and inexorably weaves you into a twisty tale of what's going on and finding out who's the new bad guy.
It works as a final send-off for Craig while at the same time it could work as the last ever James Bond movie, while at the exact same time offering the viewer the option to have more, if that's what they really want.
As is congruent with the title of the film, no time to die. In that there's no good time to die, but the alternative is just to keep getting older. The title is the question, is this the time for Bond to get old and die? Well, here's a nice old-man film that's going to let you decide.
There's not much to criticise here other than the obvious that can be inferred from the above, to which there will undoubtedly be a lot of short-winded reviews that just say "boring!" in the iconic Homer Simpson voice. But then there's not a great deal to praise either, at least not without lots of long-winded exposition as to why.
To say more would, obviously, be spoilers at this point. So here's the short version:
7.5/10 (though that score may improve as one gets older
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It's that time of year again.
Drithius
Magic & Loss
Far from Home. A beautifully poignant story with Viggo Mortensen as the lead. There's many lessons to take from it, but for me it is centered around the concept that goodness is a far more difficult path to tread than conflict.
I watched Darkest Hour (2017) yesterday. I liked it, the struggle the main character is going through is well rendered.
Of course it's a movie and they couldn't help changing historical facts. I'm not sure if there was any hesitation to sign a peace treaty in Churchill's mind and I doubt that there ever was a threat of vote of non-confidence from Halifax and Chamberlain, but I'm pretty sure the famous speech ("we'll fight on the beaches") was not given on May 28th but on June 4th. He did give other interesting speeches from a persuasion / political point of view too.
But the few inaccuracies were not removing any pleasure of watching this movie.
Of course it's a movie and they couldn't help changing historical facts. I'm not sure if there was any hesitation to sign a peace treaty in Churchill's mind and I doubt that there ever was a threat of vote of non-confidence from Halifax and Chamberlain, but I'm pretty sure the famous speech ("we'll fight on the beaches") was not given on May 28th but on June 4th. He did give other interesting speeches from a persuasion / political point of view too.
But the few inaccuracies were not removing any pleasure of watching this movie.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
I saw the Many Saints of Newark, it was a pretty decent flick. I thought the bloke playing the younger Anthony did a swell job, and there were many nods to some old (or future plots, depending on your point of view) that longtime watchers will likely appreciate. For me, finally seeing for certain who was truly behind the killing of Dickie was rewarding, I had figured it was him some time ago, yet there is certainly more to the story, as this film will relate. I even saw people that I truly didn't expect to see in the film, the attention to detail was pretty solid.
I hope we see more in this vein, this could be a franchise to mine, simply putting out a new film every two to three years. The effects budget is likely realistic, and I bet plenty will tune it, might even see a resurgence with both new and old to the Soprano franchise as a whole.
I hope we see more in this vein, this could be a franchise to mine, simply putting out a new film every two to three years. The effects budget is likely realistic, and I bet plenty will tune it, might even see a resurgence with both new and old to the Soprano franchise as a whole.
Dave Chappelle - The Closer
What happened, Dave? You used to be funny.
The Closer is Chappelle's latest, and apparently last, for the time being, Netflix stand up special. There's not much to say except that it sucks, and I say that as someone who's been a Chappelle fan for a very long time.
If you like Chappelle, do yourself a favor and skip it. Your time would be better spent reminiscing about his older stuff.
What happened, Dave? You used to be funny.
The Closer is Chappelle's latest, and apparently last, for the time being, Netflix stand up special. There's not much to say except that it sucks, and I say that as someone who's been a Chappelle fan for a very long time.
If you like Chappelle, do yourself a favor and skip it. Your time would be better spent reminiscing about his older stuff.
I watched Tenet (Christopher Nolan).
The plot is basic but based on a sci-fi feature that allows to manipulate time, which makes actions unfold in a very convoluted way. Nolan has had this idea for years, and it took a lot of time to write the script, apparently.
It has this same feeling as Inception, where the reality has been twisted and Nolan is exploiting that to create a clever screenplay following alternate but coherent rules. Which may not be for everyone.
I found it interesting, despite the obvious violations of physic laws and some action scenes that are heavily based on time manipulation.
The movie also brings a series of known time-related concepts and paradoxes, so as usual Nolan took some time to talk with people and gather several concepts to play with them.
The plot is basic but based on a sci-fi feature that allows to manipulate time, which makes actions unfold in a very convoluted way. Nolan has had this idea for years, and it took a lot of time to write the script, apparently.
It has this same feeling as Inception, where the reality has been twisted and Nolan is exploiting that to create a clever screenplay following alternate but coherent rules. Which may not be for everyone.
I found it interesting, despite the obvious violations of physic laws and some action scenes that are heavily based on time manipulation.
Without giving away too much, the main feature is time inversion. Special revolving devices allow a person who enters them and exits on the other side to be "inverted", their time flows the other way. So for ex. when they get out of the device they can see themselves entering it the other way, walking backwards. They must go through a device again to stop being inverted.
There's a story built on top of this feature, and teams of good and bad guys working in forward and reverse time to reach a goal for one team, and to stop them for the other team.
It's fun because they built a little bit on this, for example fire freezes someone inverted since the entropy flow is reversed. Objects used by the inverted person are still working forward, so vehicles have a confusing behaviour as if you'd ride them in reverse, and so on.
There's a story built on top of this feature, and teams of good and bad guys working in forward and reverse time to reach a goal for one team, and to stop them for the other team.
It's fun because they built a little bit on this, for example fire freezes someone inverted since the entropy flow is reversed. Objects used by the inverted person are still working forward, so vehicles have a confusing behaviour as if you'd ride them in reverse, and so on.
The movie also brings a series of known time-related concepts and paradoxes, so as usual Nolan took some time to talk with people and gather several concepts to play with them.
Ripper
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Agreed. It was dire. And I enjoy politically incorrect comedy that makes a bonfire of good taste. But this was just him grinding his various axes in a tiresome and mean-spirited way. TBH, I think he's a very talented guy, but I'm not sure hes playing with a full deck.
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Carnifex
SasqWatch
I tried watching a film last night entitled "The Breach". I think the concept is humans are fleeing earth, roughly three hundred years from now, likely to infect and destroy some other distant, innocent world. Even though this flick has Willis in it, I had to bail after maybe twenty minutes, as I already found I was reaching for my book. Save your sanity and avoid this mess if it ever rears its ugly head on your Amazon que.
Ripper
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Lol, yeah - I attempted this some time back. I think 20 minutes was about what it got. It's like a movie that was shot by some students in an abandoned warehouse. I don't know what's going on with Willis. Maybe severe alimony, or something.
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Carnifex
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Hahaha yeah Ripper, I figured in the end maybe Willis was doing it to help a friend or something. Nothing else quite computes, even a ten year old agent would likely steer their clients far and away from a mess like this!
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I'd been hearing about Dagon for some time, that it's grown into a cult movie. And was curious to try it out. And I heard that the production quality isn't all that high, since you normally don't see these types of movies made by big studios.
I only got around 1/3 of it down, since I was too tired to continue. And it's pretty cool, I guess, but man the production quality and the acting, and the re-recoring of audio and lack of synching between video and audio really takes a toll. It's pretty bad. But I guess you have to accept that from these sorts of low-budget movies. It does show that the people that made it had passion. And most of the practical effects and costumes are pretty good. The people of the fishing village really are creepy af. They also got most of the lighting down, really good.
I only got around 1/3 of it down, since I was too tired to continue. And it's pretty cool, I guess, but man the production quality and the acting, and the re-recoring of audio and lack of synching between video and audio really takes a toll. It's pretty bad. But I guess you have to accept that from these sorts of low-budget movies. It does show that the people that made it had passion. And most of the practical effects and costumes are pretty good. The people of the fishing village really are creepy af. They also got most of the lighting down, really good.
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Finished seeing Dagon. Surprisingly fun and only a little bit campy. I’d love to see a proper high-budget HP Lovecraft adaptation with a serious director and cast. Too bad the one Guillermo del Torro was working on fell through.
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Anyone seen Lamb yet? I've been anticipating it for months, and it was released on Friday.
Of course no theatre near me is showing it, and it's not on any streaming service.
Of course no theatre near me is showing it, and it's not on any streaming service.
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I also don't have a chance to see it in cinemas, but thanks to covid the window when it becomes available on BR or streaming is generally shortened to a month so patience is kinda necessary.
At the same time I have so many titles I want to check from past two decades that I couldn't see before streaming services became a thing unless importing on optical media. Even worse these sometimes did not have english subtitles included.
So Lamb, in fact any new movie, can wait for a while.
At the same time I have so many titles I want to check from past two decades that I couldn't see before streaming services became a thing unless importing on optical media. Even worse these sometimes did not have english subtitles included.
So Lamb, in fact any new movie, can wait for a while.
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lackblogger
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The Amsterdam Kill (1977)
Is a dumb action movie that got released just before home video might have made it more popular/famous.
A fascinating cast of Robert Mitchum in the lead, supported by many including Leslie Nielsen and George Cheung.
Directed by the guy that did Enter The Dragon.
The setting is a combination of Amsterdam and Hong Kong, but much of the cast is either American or Hong Kongers.
The inclusion of Nielsen in particular adds something to this movie that modern eyes can really enjoy as it's so easy to imagine him playing his role as if he were Frank Drebin.
And let's be frank here, it's not a serious film, even though it does have many aspects that have that wonderful 70s grit aesthetic. Imagine Dirty Harry or The French Connection but with Leslie Nielsen and a Robert Mitchum mostly phoning it in for cash while a Bondesque menagerie of oriental henchmen punch, kick and shoot in the background.
It's also a complete sausage fest. Not a single female role throughout other than background and extras. Which is very interesting and can be viewed two ways, in that on the one hand it might not be an ideal watch with the girlfriend, as Mitchum doesn't even get to mildly flirt with anyone, but on the other hand it does suggest a very appealing sincerity in the production, in that you know the producers weren't just putting things in the film for purely cynical reasons.
And it's been so long since it came out that all of the location shoots in Holland and Hong Kong have a very attractive sense of nostalgia about them.
It only has a 5.4/10 on IMDB, but looking at the reviews, even those dumping on it and giving it a 4/10 seem to be saying it's worth watching at least once, and I was personally quite shocked it sits at such a low score, it's definitely better than 5.4.
Don't get me wrong, it's trash, but it's not complete trash and for it's genre, that of home video cheap action films, it a pretty damn fine example and one that I would definitely recommend as a surprising hidden gem, if you're into this kind of stuff.
It could have done with slightly more action, particularly in the martial arts department and slightly more plot-intrigue, but the ending is an absolute hoot and well worth whatever else has gone before.
6.25/10 hidden gem if you're a fan of the home video action film genre.
Is a dumb action movie that got released just before home video might have made it more popular/famous.
A fascinating cast of Robert Mitchum in the lead, supported by many including Leslie Nielsen and George Cheung.
Directed by the guy that did Enter The Dragon.
The setting is a combination of Amsterdam and Hong Kong, but much of the cast is either American or Hong Kongers.
The inclusion of Nielsen in particular adds something to this movie that modern eyes can really enjoy as it's so easy to imagine him playing his role as if he were Frank Drebin.
And let's be frank here, it's not a serious film, even though it does have many aspects that have that wonderful 70s grit aesthetic. Imagine Dirty Harry or The French Connection but with Leslie Nielsen and a Robert Mitchum mostly phoning it in for cash while a Bondesque menagerie of oriental henchmen punch, kick and shoot in the background.
It's also a complete sausage fest. Not a single female role throughout other than background and extras. Which is very interesting and can be viewed two ways, in that on the one hand it might not be an ideal watch with the girlfriend, as Mitchum doesn't even get to mildly flirt with anyone, but on the other hand it does suggest a very appealing sincerity in the production, in that you know the producers weren't just putting things in the film for purely cynical reasons.
And it's been so long since it came out that all of the location shoots in Holland and Hong Kong have a very attractive sense of nostalgia about them.
It only has a 5.4/10 on IMDB, but looking at the reviews, even those dumping on it and giving it a 4/10 seem to be saying it's worth watching at least once, and I was personally quite shocked it sits at such a low score, it's definitely better than 5.4.
Don't get me wrong, it's trash, but it's not complete trash and for it's genre, that of home video cheap action films, it a pretty damn fine example and one that I would definitely recommend as a surprising hidden gem, if you're into this kind of stuff.
It could have done with slightly more action, particularly in the martial arts department and slightly more plot-intrigue, but the ending is an absolute hoot and well worth whatever else has gone before.
6.25/10 hidden gem if you're a fan of the home video action film genre.
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