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

I thought the Lord of the rings movies were great and hobbit movies weak. Me I recently watched the hateful 8. I think it was an overrated Gore fest
 
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Me I recently watched the hateful 8. I think it was an overrated Gore fest

Well there wasn't much gore in it, though some people got killed. Not sure why anyone would go to a Tarantino and not expect killing in it, unless they just wanted to be able to complain about the type of movies he makes.
 
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I stumbled across The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies while channel surfing last night and ended up watching it.

I had watched about 2/3 of An Unexpected Journey and about 1/2 of The Desolation of Smaug before either falling asleep or just turning them off out of boredom.

I somehow managed to watch all of TBoFA. I think mainly because that section of the book is my favorite, and I wanted to see how the battle unfolded in the movie.

In short, I thought it was terrible. Peter Jackson went beyond just taking some liberties with the story. It was almost a completely different story. That, and the parts where he tried to inject humor were just absurd.

I was pretty disappointed with what he did to Lord of The Rings, but what he did with The Hobbit was far worse imo.

It was probably entertaining to the average mainstream moviegoer, but as a long-time fan of Tolkien's work, I was embarrassed by it.

I went to see all of them with my brother, I slept through all of them once my popcorn was done. He seem to like them, I agree with JDR on how bad they were...
 
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Well there wasn't much gore in it, though some people got killed. Not sure why anyone would go to a Tarantino and not expect killing in it, unless they just wanted to be able to complain about the type of movies he makes.
Well I do like Tarantino films . But for me I found hateful 8 too over the top. Or perhaps the tarantino formula is getting old.
 
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Well I do like Tarantino films . But for me I found hateful 8 too over the top. Or perhaps the tarantino formula is getting old.

I didn't watch that movie yet, but noone's fomula is getting younger.
 
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I didn't watch that movie yet, but noone's fomula is getting younger.

I don't really see a formula in his movies, unless you mean making great movies. He does use chapters when telling his story but books have been doing that for years.
 
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To add,

When telling a story of taking in a criminal during or just after the civil war in the USA do you think there was a lot of honor.

Lets face it, the US was built on killing and taking. Those who were willing to die or kill for what they wanted ended up either dead or farther up the food chain.
 
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Lets face it, the US was built on killing and taking. Those who were willing to die or kill for what they wanted ended up either dead or farther up the food chain.

And to bring in his last movie - also racist oppression, which is more American than baseball and apple pie ...
 
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The Hobbit is in the category of it sucking for anyone interested in things like objective quality, book relation, as a follow-on from LoTR movies etc, but for those more casual audiences is just another ok cool special effects action movies. Before looking at IMDB I'm guessing they're all around 6.5...

I shall now look at IMDB:

Unexpected Journey: 7.9
Desolation of Smaug: 7.9
Battle of the Five Armies: 7.5

Ack, this blows me out of the water on so many levels. I stand corrected on multiple points, not just in this post!
 
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El Cid is a movie I like a lot. It's a positive example what a difference a big budget and a lot of commitment can make.
At first it looks like the typical Charlton-Heston-historic-movie schlock, but then you realize that something is different. It's naive, it's sentimental, it has many predictable characters, Heston does his usual thing, this Spain of old has some strange moral codex. But what Anthony Mann made out of this is truly remarkable. This film is monumental on several different layers. The emotions are flying high, characters don't back down even if it means severe punishment, the action scenes are full of energy - and not heroic because Heston is quite lucky early on -, and nowadays trivial character development scenes are celebrated full scale. Mann's film only works because it is so BIG. Take the budget away and you have two of these crazy Italian industry production. ;)


Moby Dick is a great story. The old film version with Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab is more spectacular, but not necessarily better than the very solid TV mini-series.
Patrick Stewart played Captain Ahab in Star Trek 8. ;)

Moby Dick (1998)

A TV-movie in two parts of one and a half hours each - starring, amongst others, Patrick Stewart, with a rare late cameo/bit part from Gregory Peck.

I'd never seen or read the story of Moby Dick before and the idea of ye olde naval adventure had me filled with trepidation, but I needn't have worried so much, this was enthralling from beginning to end with yet another captivating performance by Stewart. He doesn't even appear until about an hour into it, but the build up to his reveal is as good as him being there.

Another wonderful hidden treasure that would be well worth your time if you are in any way unfamiliar with the Moby Dick story. Not quite blockbuster movie epic, you still know you're watching a TV-movie but it's as close to perfect as a TV-movie will ever be. Has a 6.5 on IMDB. (If you have read the book, no it's not as good as the book etc).

I also saw El Cid (1961), the Heston, Loren classic which, it goes without saying, was a great use of 3 hours. 7.3 on IMDB
 
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It's naive, it's sentimental
That's exactly what's wrong with modern scripts.
I'm sick of IQ7826478346 kids and jack-of-all-trades master of everything characters that excell in social skills and never make any mistake.
Per imdb grade, I'm the minority that doesn't want everyone to be perfect superhuman.
 
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The Hobbit was just horrible. Boring as hell. Oddly though I really enjoyed the DOS sequel. Will check out the Five Armies when I get time, but I think the only real stand out film out the lot from what I've seen is Two Towers.
 
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Saw The Revenant. Good movie, albeit somewhat overrated. Gotta hand it to Leo, though; despite not liking the guy in general, he persevered through and did a great job in what must have been some seriously grueling shooting conditions.
 
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Gotta hand it to Leo, though; despite not liking the guy in general, he persevered through and did a great job in what must have been some seriously grueling shooting conditions.

Not to take anything away from him, but I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of us would have persevered the same way for that 7 figure paycheck. :)
 
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Not to take anything away from him, but I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of us would have persevered the same way for that 7 figure paycheck. :)

Well if its my first 7 figure pay check then I might have but not if its my say 10th 7 figure paycheck... :)
 
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Not to take anything away from him, but I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of us would have persevered the same way for that 7 figure paycheck. :)

Well, maybe if he earned a 7 figure paycheck he would have......

It is acctually a 8 figure one.....
 
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Wild Tales. A Spanish film that's a series of short stories on the theme of revenge. Sometimes justice is served, and sometimes not. Darkly funny and really enjoyable. I think it's up for an Oscar.

Here's the main theme music, from the brilliant Gustavo Santaolalla, who did the music for the Last of Us.

https://youtu.be/_ueDO0HpCQw
 
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