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

JDR13 said:

Was this your first Bond movie?

To me, almost every Bond flick has had an element of goofiness. It's part of what makes the series what it is.

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Yeah, but when it comes to the significant act that happens at the end of this one, I'd expect something a little more thought out? Maybe? I don't know. Maybe it is fitting…

I also saw Color out of Space, and I think I have found another decent lovecraftian movie with it. It's actually pretty good overall. It has it's obligatory B-movie traits at certain points, the CGI/effects are decent, but sometimes they should their limitations. But it's part of the fun.

I'd recommend it if you want something lovecraftian that's only slighly campy.

I liked Color Out of Space more than I was expecting to. I'm not a fan of Nicolas Cage, but I thought he was ok there. It's also one of the better Lovecraft adaptions imo. It flew under the radar though and was a huge flop at the box office.

Yes, I really liked Color Out of Space. It's quite eccentric, and some bits feel a bit awkward, but overall I thought it worked well, and was genuinely disturbing in parts.

The Bond film you could say is pretty much business as usual, but I just found that most of the scenes felt flat, and I could kind of see people just reading their lines. One of those films where half an hour in lots of stuff had happened, and I didn't care about any of it. It is slightly redeemed by the presence of Ana de Armas, who is too cute for words.

I started but only saw about half (since I was too tired to continue) of what seems to be a pretty great movie, from 2009. A Serious Man by Joel and Ethan Cohen. It's been on my list for a long time.

Man, these Cohen dudes really know how to write characters. It's a shame, I hear they're splitting or have split?

danutz_plusplus said:

I started but only saw about half (since I was too tired to continue) of what seems to be a pretty great movie, from 2009. A Serious Man by Joel and Ethan Cohen. It's been on my list for a long time.

Man, these Cohen dudes really know how to write characters. It's a shame, I hear they're splitting or have split?

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The Coen brothers are my favorite filmmakers. Where did you hear that they may have severed their partnership? It's not something I've come across.

JFarrell71 said:

The Coen brothers are my favorite filmmakers. Where did you hear that they may have severed their partnership? It's not something I've come across.

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Probably during some movie review/podcast/something. Not sure if it actually proved true.

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/08/coen-bros-split-ethan-done-making-movies-1234655537/

The Coen brothers have been hit or miss for me, but when they're good they're *really* good.

I've probably watched The Big Lebowski at least a dozen times by now, and Fargo is great as well. No Country for Old Men is probably my favorite though.

JDR13 said:

The Coen brothers have been hit or miss for me, but when they're good they're *really* good.

I've probably watched The Big Lebowski at least a dozen times by now, and Fargo is great as well. No Country for Old Men is probably my favorite though.

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I generally love most of their movies. They're show real confidence and skill in film making.

Their most recent one that I saw was Ballad of Buster Scruggs. T'was
so frikkin fun to watch that. Pretty much all shorts range from good to great, with some in particular being especially fantastic. The one featuring Buster Scruggs himself was so much fun, with some really great tunes to boot. Also loved the old miner one with Tom Waits (I think I didn't even recognize him). Plus some other ones I won't mention.

Actually, now that I think about it, I think the most recent one of theirs that I saw was actually Hail Caesar, which also was kind of fun. Wasn't as great or inspired as their other ones, but still very solid work.

Just looked at my movie list of stuff I'd like to watch some day, and I have Miller's Crossing and Blood Simple, of theirs, on the list. I got recommended them a while ago. But haven't gotten around to it yet. Also, O Brother, Where Art Thou? That's also been on my list for a long time.

I'd get on Miller's Crossing right away.

Miller's Crossing is one of my most cherished films of all time. Nothing but praise for that fine movie!

This evening I watched The Last of the Mohicans, a film I tend to rewatch every five years or so. Yeah, it's not as quite as good as the original tale, yet it gets a lot right, and the scenery, musical score, as well as the casting is pretty solid. Poor Magua loses every time, though. -xxx

I finished A Serious Man. It was pretty hilarious and very enjoyable. Loved Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik. He played his character beautifully. I kept anticipating the moment he would go nuclear.

danutz_plusplus said:

Yeah, but when it comes to the significant act that happens at the end of this one, I'd expect something a little more thought out? Maybe? I don't know. Maybe it is fitting…

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They're kinda running on fumes at this point.

To continue to make traditional Bond films then they will run foul of their own self-created cliches, but to deviate from those cliches will render the series no longer Bond.

The ending was stupid because it was just another attempt to 'change things up a bit', but without the talent needed to be able to change things up, so it's jarring.

Yeah, as long as it's making money they'll keep pumping them out. The recipe has been old for decades now. And they'll do the same for the next iteration. I'm lucky I never really cared about Bond, or spy movies in general. I think I liked the Borne movies (the first 2 or 3 actually) a lot more than any Bond movie. But that series also went or will go the same route, most probably.

On the subject of other movies I've seen, I rewatched Interstellar. I remembered I didn't really like it all that much. It looked and was acted decently, but I think I had various plot issues with it. Well, that was back in 2014 when it came out, and I hadn't seen it again since then. Shockingly, I very much loved it overall, this time. Something must've changed with me in the meantime or I'm on a different mental state right now, because I very much loved it. I still had 1-2 quibbles with some very improbable things that happen in the plot, which were done to reach certain things Nolan wanted. But ignoring those, I liked it a lot.

One thing which I remember also loving during my first viewing, was how well they handled portraying the effects of time relativity. Of how fragile the "here and now" seems to be, when viewed through relativity. Of how it can all easily just disappear, and we can lose all we are so attached to.

It also was kind of dark seeing the world in the state it was in the movie, and seeing the parallels to how it is now in the real world. Feeling how we're pretty much gonna continue screwing this one, but unfortunately we won't have the option of moving to another, to continue screwing that one next.

Bond movies come from a long tradition and from another era. I liked them when I was a small kid because there was action, spies and Q's gadgets. I found them ridiculous when I was a teenager because they were improbable, full of hero stereotypes and it always ended with the villain's lair exploding (but I was watching them nonetheless). And I like to watch them now probably because they grew on me and I like the strange mix.

The style has changed a lot since Casino Royale.

We have a nice parody in French, OSS117, but I'm not sure it's been translated or if it would even translate well in English.

I also enjoyed Interstellar. I've not watched it in a few years, yet I remember enjoying it at the time. The way they handled time relations was pretty solid and worked well for me, made the entire film coherent.

I also saw Miller's Crossing. It was solid overall. I think you can see the beginning of Coen style, with the exagerated violence. But in other ways if feels like a very traditional noir/mobster movie. Especially the dialogue style. But with that said, I didn't really see anything too memorable. It was a fun and lighthearted mobster movie.

If I had to rank it with the other Coen movies I did see, I think it would be around the level of Hail, Caesar. I also found that one to be a solid film, with fun characters. But also nothing too memorable.

Also, it was very distracting to see the mobster from the Millennium episode, where he gets resurrected by the 3 wood nymphs, playing as the head of the local italian mob.

Seems I'm really starting to get into the habbit of watching movies in chunks. I saw about 1/3rd of The King, with Timothee Chalamet. Seems pretty solid so far. Looks decent enough for a historical drama.

Haven’t finished The King yet, but was in the mood for rewatching a movie I tend to rewatch every couple of years. American Psycho. There’s something really fascinating about the way Bale plays Bateman. He has such facial expressions. And also, I can’t tell if he’s overacting or if such a nutjob could really exist.

And, saw another decent lovecraftian movie. The Endless. It was pretty good, but it also suffered from obtuse rules that govern its universe. Either obtuse or there are actual plotholes. Regardless, it was pretty enjoyable.

danutz_plusplus said:

Haven’t finished The King yet, but was in the mood for rewatching a movie I tend to rewatch every couple of years. American Psycho. There’s something really fascinating about the way Bale plays Bateman. He has such facial expressions. And also, I can’t tell if he’s overacting or if such a nutjob could really exist.

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It's a silly movie if you look at the story (the book it's based on isn't really a work of literature). But I love it, as you say there's something fascinating about it, and Bale is really into it.

I'd rather not know if there are people like that, but I wouldn't be surprised. :lol: