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

OK, more constructive.

We have long had a ‘no spoiler’ general ‘rule’. Not even sure if it is official, but people in general have been pretty decent about not coming in from preview showings shouting ‘Darth Vaderis Luke’s Father’ type stuff.

And while I think by now anyone who has seen a Marvel movie knows ‘stay to the end of the credits’ ... saying anything beyond that ‘stay *because* of X’ starts to cross that line.

Just common courtesy - many people here want to see the movie as fresh and clear of expectations as possible. Please try to respect that.

I know it can be difficult to take seriously someone that has Star Wars Lego avatars when they take a break from their lectures to posters on gender studies to offer advice about trying to avoid spoilers but c'mon guys! JDR13 & txa1265 are right. No spoilers please

We watched Atomic Blonde last night, that was a decent flick. Good story and quite the excellent soundtrack, having Bowie and Marilyn Mason w/ Spooky Kids in the same movie was awesome ear candy!

JackOfOwls said:

I know it can be difficult to take seriously someone that has Star Wars Lego avatars when they take a break from their lectures to posters on gender studies to offer advice about trying to avoid spoilers but c'mon guys! JDR13 & txa1265 are right. No spoilers please

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Hey - that is Darth Tater, a Mr. Potato Head figure, not Legos!

Watched Arrival with my older son while wife was out for the evening with a friend who is moving away. Really enjoyed every part of it - cinematography, music, and even the acting which was great since I never considered Adams or Renner all that great. It is free on Amazon and Hulu right now, recommended if you haven't already seen it.

txa1265 said:

Hey - that is Darth Tater, a Mr. Potato Head figure, not Legos!

Watched Arrival with my older son while wife was out for the evening with a friend who is moving away. Really enjoyed every part of it - cinematography, music, and even the acting which was great since I never considered Adams or Renner all that great. It is free on Amazon and Hulu right now, recommended if you haven't already seen it.

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Yeah I agree about Arrival. Fantastically ominous soundtrack, interesting film.

txa1265 said:

Hey - that is Darth Tater, a Mr. Potato Head figure, not Legos!

Watched Arrival with my older son while wife was out for the evening with a friend who is moving away. Really enjoyed every part of it - cinematography, music, and even the acting which was great since I never considered Adams or Renner all that great. It is free on Amazon and Hulu right now, recommended if you haven't already seen it.

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Yes, I was also a fan of that one. It's another film that divided opinion somewhat, and I found that the more literal-minded were annoyed by the logic of the narrative. I can see that, but I think when you're exploring questions of linear time and causality, it's hard to keep things perfectly straight. I thought what it was getting at was extremely interesting.

I have to see Infinity War this weekend. I have huge Marvell fatigue

txa1265 said:

Hey - that is Darth Tater, a Mr. Potato Head figure, not Legos!

Watched Arrival with my older son while wife was out for the evening with a friend who is moving away. Really enjoyed every part of it - cinematography, music, and even the acting which was great since I never considered Adams or Renner all that great. It is free on Amazon and Hulu right now, recommended if you haven't already seen it.

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+1. The scenery near the landing site alone was breathtaking to watch. I can understand how it can divide opinions, but I seem to have a fondness for these kind of slow paced science fiction films.

Few other slow paced scifi films I've liked a lot:

-Gattaca
-Contact
-A.I
-Interstellar
-Solaris. I haven't seen the orginal 1972 version, but the 2002 remake I watched was quite memorable.

And ofcourse classics such as:

-Blade runner
-2001 space odyssey
-Alien 8:th passanger

Watched John Wick 2. Really liked it, actually. Closest thing we'll ever get to a Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines movie, with hitmen instead of vampires. Similar soundtrack, secret society and social structures, cinematography. Looking forward to part 3.

So, I just got back from Infinity War... I have to say I'm pretty unimpressed. Even by the low standards of a Marvel movie, I simply did not care for the plot in any way. Way too many characters all off in their separate corners just filling time while the villain and his 3? 4? henchmen jumped around the universe.

How the hell does this thing have a 9.0 on imdb? Ugh, never trust imdb for teen-magnet movies.

RDR2 trailer news and discussion over FPS where I used comics as an example reminded me…

Blade of the Immortal

Based on stellar manga series (no, not on horrid anime attempt) this is a story of a man blessed with eternal life. Okay, no, cursed.
No more story spoilers sorry.

The movie is trying to incorporate everything from manga and stay faithful to it which is impossible in the movie's given time. You'll spot a few "cuts" where obviously something is missing in the story and at certain moments there is absolutely no explanation why a certain part of the story takes place at certain area. Usually I like when stuff are left to the viewer's interpretation, in this case certain character traits on several people are left out making that same viewer emotionally detached from them unlike in manga.

Actors and visuals look as expensive professional cosplay based on manga (except sauvastika on protagonist's back is replaced with another idiom, probably to avoid silly and ignorant censors), combat coreography is IMO the best possible given what the story demands including the spectacular ending mass fight. Honestly, if you read manga and then watch the movie, you'd say hell, the manga was both visual and action script!

While it's one of the best wuxia I've ever seen (I dare to call it wuxia although it's not chinese), it's a missed opportunity. Can't understand why it wasn't made as two or three parts where it'd cover everything which could have made it a masterpiece.

Still, Takeshi Miike is not Peter Jackson and didn't dare to cut out critical characters from the movie, even if they couldn't receive too much of on screen time. Till some future trilogy or series appear, do yourself a favor and watch this martial arts with tidbits of fantasy gem.
Highly Recommended.

P.S. Even more recommended if you're playing some Dad of Boy crap on consoles currently.

P.P.S. No, there is not videogame based on this for all I know. If it ever gets made as RPG, I'm buying.

I re-watched Incendies yesterday, and found it still to be just as powerful a film as the first time I saw it. They never really say what country most of the action/events took place in, but if you know your Middle East recent history, it is pretty obvious. A war story you'll not soon forget.

Incendies is one of mustwatch before you die movies. A masterpiece you need to own in your home DVD collection.

Sounds like an intresting movie... I will add a note to myself to find this film.

I missed that one. Sounds like my sort of thing, and Villeneuve too. Proceed directly to bluray, I think.

Been watching a few 1960s/70s euro-trash horror films in blu-ray lately. Nice to see stuff like the highly enjoyable The House That Screamed (1969) - one of the best "do you think I'm psycho, mama?" movies of all-time, imo ("Talk to her, mother. Talk to her.") - on my big screen where I can pretend I'm back in the cinema with a screaming, appreciative audience again. Ahhh nostalgia.

Saw Tully.

Watched Argoman the Fantastic Superman on TV.
Wow.
Might totally dethrone Metalstorm - The Destruction of Jared Syn as my favorite trash movie. Just need to think about it a little bit.

you said:

Saw Tully.

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OK, c’mon, this isn’t Twitter ... give us some details!

txa1265 said:

OK, c’mon, this isn’t Twitter … give us some details!

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I think the idea is to avoid spoilers…