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

I re-watched Clueless the other night, I don't recall when I last viewed it, might have been in a theatre when it first came out. Still funny as all heck, one of those movies that keeps me chuckling the whole time!

Can't wait.

"Hush" the Mike Flanagan film. Terrible. Weak killer only has any kind of upper hand because his victims are more stupid than he is. Watch "Dr. Sleep" instead.

Watched some of Borat 2 and I think it's somewhat inferior to the first. Lots of sighing moments though...

Drithius said:

Watched some of Borat 2 and I think it's somewhat inferior to the first. Lots of sighing moments though…

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Yeah, I also saw it. It's definately worse than part 1. I'm not sure if the element of surprise is just dimished, but I got bored a lot. And it's also got loads of cringe. It also pushes some false political information, but whatever. It makes fun of Trump and him caging imigrants, with no mention that the same cages were put in place by Obama. Anyways, I've got no skin in that game, but would be better not push false information. There's enough stuff to be critical of Trump without making stuff up.

What surprised me was they again filmed the Kazakhstan scenes in a gypsy town in Romania. The leader that sends Borat on his mission even speaks in Romanian, while Sasha just mumbles some madeup language. Felt a bit bad about that, being a Romanian myself, but them's the breaks.

danutz_plusplus said:

It also pushes some false political information, but whatever. It makes fun of Trump and him caging imigrants, with no mention that the same cages were put in place by Obama. Anyways, I've got no skin in that game, but would be better not push false information. There's enough stuff to be critical of Trump without making stuff up.

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It's not pushing anything. It's satire. What exactly did it show that was false?

JDR13 said:

It's not pushing anything. It's satire. What exactly did it show that was false?

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Exactly what I said above. It made a parallel between him locking his daughter up in a cage, to what Trump did with locking up kids in cages. Which is fine. Trump did do that. But it also just pushed the mainstream narrative by omiting to mention who built those cages initially. The Obama administration.

https://apnews.com/article/election...ion-politics-2663c84832a13cdd7a8233becfc7a5f3

She’s right that Trump’s now-suspended policy at the U.S.-Mexico border separated thousands of children from their families in ways that had not been done before. But what she did not say is that the very same “cages� were built and used in her husband’s administration, for the same purpose of holding migrant kids temporarily.

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It's no surprise that the movie heavily mocks Trump and right wing people, which is fine. He's awful. What doesn't sit right with me is the lack of analysis into what the previous administration/s (Obama and Clinton especially) did to contribute to the system that ended up spewing a demagog like Trump. And if that kind of analysis and critique is not done and serious changes are not made to policy, you'll get an even worse Trump after Biden's administration (if he wins).

But hey, this is all seen by me from the outside. As I said, I don't live in the USA, so I'll only be affected at a later date. The USA does set the trend for the western world unfortunately.

danutz_plusplus said:

Exactly what I said above. It made a parallel between him locking his daughter up in a cage, to what Trump did with locking up kids in cages. Which is fine. Trump did do that. But it also just pushed the mainstream narrative by omiting to mention who built those cages initially. The Obama administration.

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I think, though, that's slightly misleading in itself. The "cages" were constructed in an emergency situation, during a huge influx of migrants. They held the migrants in warehouses while their cases were processed, and the chainlink fences were to keep the demographics separated for safety - unaccompanied children had to be separated from groups of men, with another area for families. Unaccompanied children were required to be released to social services within 72 hours. So, I think a reasonable person can understand those measures in response to a sudden crisis. But the new administration decided to deliberately separate the children from their families, and detain them alone. So, I would say there is a fundamental difference there, and the idea of putting kids in cages arose because of the intentional nature of the policy, as opposed to keeping unaccompanied children safe for 72 hours. I think the intent makes the difference between a fence and a cage.

On the movie, I enjoyed it. There's certainly plenty of cringe, but I think that's the point - you almost have to watch it behind a cushion, like a kid watching a horror film. It doesn't have the impact of the first, but that's mainly because back in the naive days of 2006, we were shocked by the attitudes he exposed in America. These days, one thinks, "Yep, that's about right."

The best part of the movie for me is his daughter. I think she was brilliant - every bit as shameless, ruthless and sharp as Cohen, and a much better actor.

Currently watching nothing new as most new movies have been pushed back till next year. For now it's TV re-runs and old movies I've seen multiple times already.

danutz_plusplus said:

Exactly what I said above. It made a parallel between him locking his daughter up in a cage, to what Trump did with locking up kids in cages. Which is fine. Trump did do that. But it also just pushed the mainstream narrative by omiting to mention who built those cages initially. The Obama administration.

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I think Ripper summed up the facts pretty well. Plus, you're attempting to apply some really strange logic here. Did he specifically say the cages didn't exist previously? Then how is he spreading misinformation?

danutz_plusplus said:

What doesn't sit right with me is the lack of analysis into what the previous administration/s (Obama and Clinton especially) did to contribute to the system that ended up spewing a demagog like Trump.

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How about you provide that analysis for the rest of us?
(In the P&R thread, not here)

Ripper said:

It doesn't have the impact of the first, but that's mainly because back in the naive days of 2006, we were shocked by the attitudes he exposed in America. These days, one thinks, "Yep, that's about right."

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No, I don't think that's it at all. I think it's more the fact that the novelty of Borat has simply worn off. There wasn't anything he could do to really shock us after the first movie.

As far as the attitudes he exposed, let's not pretend those don't exists everywhere. He didn't randomly choose the people he spoofed, and the people he chose certainly don't represent the majority of Americans. He specifically targeted the dumb ones. He could just as easily do that in the UK or anywhere else.

Ripper said:

I think, though, that's slightly misleading in itself. The "cages" were constructed in an emergency situation, during a huge influx of migrants. They held the migrants in warehouses while their cases were processed, and the chainlink fences were to keep the demographics separated for safety - unaccompanied children had to be separated from groups of men, with another area for families. Unaccompanied children were required to be released to social services within 72 hours. So, I think a reasonable person can understand those measures in response to a sudden crisis. But the new administration decided to deliberately separate the children from their families, and detain them alone. So, I would say there is a fundamental difference there, and the idea of putting kids in cages arose because of the intentional nature of the policy, as opposed to keeping unaccompanied children safe for 72 hours. I think the intent makes the difference between a fence and a cage.

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JDR13 said:

I think Ripper summed up the facts pretty well.

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Ok, there's more nuance to that story, I admit. But I'd be curious how many of those refugees are from countries in which wars were started during the Obama administration. To my knowledge he inherited 2 wars from Bush, and raised that to 7. Again, where was the outrage when Obama/Clinton did unspeakable things? The left seems to usually be asleep when the democrats are in power. Then Trump came in, and he's not a good steward of american exceptionalism. And everybody acts like serious corruption started right after Trump was elected.

I maintain my opinion that the policies enacted by previous administrations are what caused for Trump to be elected. There's probably some good percentage of racists that voted for him, but the biggest block of voters does not vote, to my understanding. Because both parties are awful, and slowly moving to center-right, and far right as far as policies.

JDR13 said:

Plus, you're attempting to apply some really strange logic here. Did he specifically say the cages didn't exist previously? Then how is he spreading misinformation?

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So there is no spreading of misinformation when you only give part of the context?

JDR13 said:

How about you provide that analysis for the rest of us?
(In the P&R thread, not here)

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I think this short burst of discussion around the topic is enough for me. I also realize how I come off, talking from the outside about something you guys live every day. So I'll end it here. This was just my opinion formed from what I've gathered by mostly watching journalists like Chris Hedges, and others like him.

I'm no fan of the bullshit going on in the United States of Ignorance, but can we keep political discussions to the political forum, if not at least a separate thread?

Drithius said:

I'm no fan of the bullshit going on in the United States of Ignorance, but can we keep political discussions to the political forum, if not at least a separate thread?

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Sure, we can try. But as can be seen most everything is political. No matter how much game publishers like Ubisoft and Activision try to say they are not, to be able to sell to all

But yeah, I'll stop here.

danutz_plusplus said:

So there is no spreading of misinformation when you only give part of the context?

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Lol...we're talking about comedy here. Since when do comedians have to give a history lesson every time they make a joke? If his material really triggers you that much, I suggest you skip it in the future.

JDR13 said:

Lol…we're talking about comedy here. Since when do comedians have to give a history lesson every time they make a joke? If his material really triggers you that much, I suggest you skip it in the future.

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Doesn't trigger me really, I generally like Sasha Baron Cohen. But if I want smart comedy mixed with strong political messaging/commentary I look to people like George Carlin.

JDR13 said:

No, I don't think that's it at all. I think it's more the fact that the novelty of Borat has simply worn off. There wasn't anything he could do to really shock us after the first movie.

As far as the attitudes he exposed, let's not pretend those don't exists everywhere. He didn't randomly choose the people he spoofed, and the people he chose certainly don't represent the majority of Americans. He specifically targeted the dumb ones. He could just as easily do that in the UK or anywhere else.

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Sure, no doubt about that. Borat started as a character on the Ali G show, and had plenty of fun with our domestic dickheads. But what I'm getting at is that when the first US movie came out, the brazen displays of antisemitism and racism he got people to engage in had some shock value, perhaps more to people in other countries. But after the last few years, which have just been a barrage of insanity almost beyond satire, it feels a bit redundant. Particularly when nearly half the electorate are prepared to vote for more of it.

With regard to the politics, I do think sometimes you have movies, or issues around games, that are inherently political, and perhaps don't need to go in P&R, so long as they don't devolve into a complete bun fight.

I enjoyed the original British Borat more, this one is just too over the top.

Watched Hereditary, and afterwards a YT guy explain all the details I certainly won't make the same mistake and watch Midsommer late night.

I re-watched "In Cold Blood" the other day with someone that had never seen the movie before. Still excellent, still worth watching, mesmerizing and disturbing to this very day. As usual the novel is, and always will be, far superior, but this film is still well worth checking out.