Movie/film thread: resurrected

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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2295 on: May 15, 2019, 01:27:29 AM »
The Wandering Earth (2019)

Chinese scifi blockbuster produces truly horrifying vision of materialist dystopia. Pretty to look at, though. probably should see it on a big screen. And afterwards try washing the soullessness from the soul you don't have anymore.


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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2296 on: May 16, 2019, 05:08:33 PM »
Did you get The Wandering Earth with English subtitles?


Iron Sky 2 - I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but if it's half as funny as the original, it will be well worth watching.  Will update soon.
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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2297 on: May 16, 2019, 08:00:09 PM »
Yep. Couple of weeks ago, The Wandering Earth became available to stream on Netflix and the official subtitles came along for the ride.

As blockbusters go, there are a few issues, like for instance, WHERE'S THE DAMN NARRATIVE FOCUS, WHY DO WE KEEP JUMPING FROM BLOCKBUSTER LOCATION TO BLOCKBUSTER LOCATION?! Is it a driving movie, a buddy movie, a freaking Spring Festival movie, a war movie, a skyscraper disaster, or is it a goddamned space story?! JUST TELL ME ONE OKAY>!

Which actually is relatively minor as a complaint in a blockbuster. I mean, all of the different aspects are genuinely well accomplished. It looks great!

But...

the movie has exactly one god, exactly one spiritual core, and it is nothing personified at all. It is nothing other than technical capability. Everyone and everything is not only subject to massed technical capability, THEY NEVER QUESTION IT, EVER! They might be pissed at how it has affected their lives. The kid is. But no one in the movie is horrified, and the movie itself is not horrified, at what they have done. THEY LAUNCHED THE EARTH OUT OF ORBIT.

My name is Charlton Heston. They are maniacs.

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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2298 on: June 10, 2019, 07:14:55 PM »
I Am Mother (2019)

A robot in a bunker raises a child. What could go wrong? Apparently entirely unrelated to anything written by Fred Saberhagen. But when one other human shows up.........

Not bad. Avoid spoilers.


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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2299 on: June 20, 2019, 12:20:00 PM »
TOLKIEN: This movie explores the formative years of the orphaned author as he finds friendship, love and artistic inspiration among a group of fellow outcasts at school. Lots of people were there because it was Seniors Morning Tea. Most of the people I spoke to said that they enjoyed the movie as did I. bfbfbfbfbf agagagagag

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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2300 on: June 21, 2019, 03:49:19 PM »
Godzilla, King of Monsters:  It's a Godzilla movie, so shelve any desires you may have for great writing or acting (or even plot).  But, if you find giant monsters getting into fights and causing massive amounts of collateral damage to be appealing, this movie is for you. agagagagag

I had my very own flashback moment when Rodan ate a pilot.  A much less graphic version of that scene was in one of the old Japanese movies.  At the tender age of 7 or 8 when I saw the original version, I was terrified.
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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2301 on: August 09, 2019, 03:50:03 PM »
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014)

Best probably to know this movie isn't Iranian. All the actors are, and the only language spoken in the movie is Persian, but the "Iranian ghost town, Bad City" in which the movie is set is played by the town of Taft in Kern County in southern California and there's a US independent movie sensibility underneath the seemingly Iranian story being told. Knowing all that resolved a certain cognitive dissonance I had watching the movie, too much of a sense of unexpected familiarity and "modern".

All that said, this is a Down by Law for Persian vampires. Not "horror", though, as it is sometimes called. It also gets called an Iranian vampire western, which is close enough, except that it also has a fair few modern noir elements too.

One runs out of comparisons and descriptors. Let's just call it new, a particular evolution in story telling, that successfully switches several kinds of focus. It's good.

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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2302 on: September 08, 2019, 06:39:03 PM »
John Wick; Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)

John Wick 1 was okay, as I recall. Very violent, sometimes intense, not always engaging. John Wick 2 amped up the background meanness of 1, and really was kind of distressing to watch because it ground through so many people, just murder after death after killing after murder. Supposedly stylish too but, I thought, mostly just lurid.

So then comes John Wick 3. The first hour was very promising. Lots of killing, but of the action variety, with a very nearly mythological quality. Which is to say there might actually have been a core of story in there rather than just brutality. They deliberately pooched the second hour, I think, with a view, ironically, to franchise extension. Rather than bring the story to what should have been it's conclusion, they swapped out properly climactic action for an intermediate conclusion than allows for a John Wick 4. Reasonable, I guess, but it made the second hour actually boring compared to the first, even with all sorts of fights and colorful locations. I suppose when 4 and possibly 5 comes out, the collection will make for a relatively compelling if sometimes draggy marathon.

In short, neo-noir but with a New Brutalist hero instead of a genuine antihero., is my feeling.

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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2303 on: September 10, 2019, 07:01:00 PM »
Air Raid aka Unbreakable Spirit, aka Bombers (2018)

One movie, three titles.  The second two are over 20 minutes longer, but I doubt it would be enough to save this from the oblivion it deserves.

It's supposed to be a movie about Bruce Willis training Chinese fighter pilots to help defend ChongQing against Japanese air raids in 1937.  Other stars - about 50% of all current Chinese movie stars, with most of them getting cameos.

But there's a problem.  The entire "training program" consists of less than 5 minutes of Bruce Willis telling the other pilots how wrong they are about everything, and not one second of it involves flying planes.  Then there are multiple side issues (2 badly done romances, an attempt to regain control of a tea house via a mahjong tournament, and a full scale attempt to hijack the film by a long drive in a truck containing a secret decoding device and a pair of very important hybrid pigs that get more screen time than most of the human actors) which never allow any real plot development.  It looks like someone really wanted to make a TV series which would allow for these barely connected events each have plenty of time to develop and then the whole idea got turned into a very very badly done movie.

In short, no plot development, bad screenplay, bad directing, some very good actors with too little screen time to act.  Total waste of time.
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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2304 on: October 08, 2019, 03:33:18 PM »
Alpha (2018)

Well worth watching.  I'd rate it somewhere around 8+ out of 10.

SPOILER ALERT!!!


SPOILER ALERT!!!


SPOILER ALERT!!!

Wolf meets boy.  Wolf tries to eat boy.  Boy survives and decides not to eat wolf.

Boy and Wolf have puppies which are humanity's first doggies! akakakakak akakakakak akakakakak

OK, it's a little more complicated that that.  Well worth the time to watch.
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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2305 on: November 05, 2019, 07:23:03 PM »
Terminator, Dark Fate (2019)

He's baaaaack, and so is she!  I'm struggling to resist saying it should have been titled Geriatricnator, Grey Fate. ahahahahah

Without giving anything away, just pretend you've only seen T1 and T2 when you sit down to watch this one.  It's well worth the price of the ticket and popcorn.  I was just sad that it wasn't 3D.

And, there's a possibility of Dark Fate sequels.  agagagagag agagagagag agagagagag
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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2306 on: November 18, 2019, 02:32:56 AM »
孩子王 - "Háizǐ Wáng" aka "King of the Children" - (1987)

A young man is sent to teach at a rural school in a poverty stricken area of Yunnan province. A Chen Kaige film. A fraction too theatrical at times but holy crap if it isn't resonant.

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« Last Edit: November 18, 2019, 08:22:38 AM by Calach Pfeffer »
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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2307 on: December 09, 2019, 06:25:37 PM »
Jumanji, The Next Level (2019)

If you want an intellectual movie, move along, there's nothing to see here.

If you want a bit of mindless fun, buy a ticket and catch it in 3D.  If at all possible, make sure you've already watched Jumanji, Welcome to the Jungle first.  Otherwise, you'll miss a few hundred references to that movie.  Even better, make sure to also see the original Jumanji too.


I'm still holding out hope for a Saw-Jumanji crossover movie.  That would add a whole new dimension to playing a game. ahahahahah
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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2308 on: December 13, 2019, 06:16:33 PM »
Ready or Not (2019)

Horror-comedy is a difficult mix.  Ready or Not is a textbook case of doing it right! agagagagag

It starts a little slow, has far too much foreshadowing, but then takes off on a spree of hilarious mayhem. ahahahahah
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Re: Movie/film thread: resurrected
« Reply #2309 on: January 15, 2020, 07:17:38 PM »
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Shallow, melodramatic, tiring by the end. Better than Genisys though. And it starts with my favoritest double-recorded Sarah Connor speech, that one from Judgment Day. Which I think is telling: they were trying to recapture that second movie. Trucks, deserts, shapeshifting terminators, Mexicans, they're all there, even flying planes for no reason. The new legion terminator, btw, is both cool and gross, nanomachines over an autonomous skeleton, super icky when they separate but cool as a horror vehicle. Etc and so on. it's a jumbled movie that could have been three smaller, cooler films, probably should have, but they jammed them altogether under an 80s action veneer and it's probably not so boring that i won't watch it again but goddamn, Grace turning her back on a terminator just about says it all

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