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[MOVIE] FEBRUARY 2016 DISCUSSION


RIPPA

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There is a great essay to be written by someone other than me about how The Force Awakens and Creed are both stealth remakes while also being decades later sequels to two of the biggest, most populist films of the seventies, and what that means.

But Christ was Creed great. Can't wait for the blu-ray so I can see it again.

 

The thing is, both movies have the same idea: The younger generation are totally in awe of what their iconic, legendary elders did and are scared they can't compete. Creed worries he can't be as good as his dad and Rocky. Kylo Ren worries he can't compete with Darth. Finn and Rey are in complete and utter awe of Han Solo when they meet him.

 

Those two films are all about escaping from other people's shadows and making your own way in life. It's a life-affirming message. 

 

Except with Ren who is an evil, intergalactic overlord who wants to take over the galaxy and enslave everyone.

 

Then it's not so great. 

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So my friends and I watched These Final Hours last night on Netflix. I wasn't aware "ridiculously nihilistic" was a film subgenre, but god damn.  

 

Basically, a meteor has hit in the North Atlantic.  Extinction Level Event. The global firestorm is headed around the world, and a guy in Perth has about 12 hours to decide what to do with the rest of his life.  Mass suicide, chaos, murder, sex, and drugs are all on the agenda.  

 

Man...  There aren't enough puppy videos in the world to make the thoughts in my head go away.  

 

I made the same mistake of watching that a couple months ago. Yeah, that movie is...super depressing. Requiem for a Dream looks at it and goes, "Damn."

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So my friends and I watched These Final Hours last night on Netflix. I wasn't aware "ridiculously nihilistic" was a film subgenre, but god damn.  

 

Basically, a meteor has hit in the North Atlantic.  Extinction Level Event. The global firestorm is headed around the world, and a guy in Perth has about 12 hours to decide what to do with the rest of his life.  Mass suicide, chaos, murder, sex, and drugs are all on the agenda.  

 

Man...  There aren't enough puppy videos in the world to make the thoughts in my head go away.  

 

Sicario will also make you want to cut your wrists.  All humans should be destroyed.

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So my friends and I watched These Final Hours last night on Netflix. I wasn't aware "ridiculously nihilistic" was a film subgenre, but god damn.  

 

Basically, a meteor has hit in the North Atlantic.  Extinction Level Event. The global firestorm is headed around the world, and a guy in Perth has about 12 hours to decide what to do with the rest of his life.  Mass suicide, chaos, murder, sex, and drugs are all on the agenda.  

 

Man...  There aren't enough puppy videos in the world to make the thoughts in my head go away.  

 

I made the same mistake of watching that a couple months ago. Yeah, that movie is...super depressing. Requiem for a Dream looks at it and goes, "Damn."

 

 

I felt that way after watching The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Beast of No Nation. Felt like I should take some valium and listen to No Rain on a 24 hour loop or something just to get my equilibrium back.

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So my friends and I watched These Final Hours last night on Netflix. I wasn't aware "ridiculously nihilistic" was a film subgenre, but god damn.  

 

Basically, a meteor has hit in the North Atlantic.  Extinction Level Event. The global firestorm is headed around the world, and a guy in Perth has about 12 hours to decide what to do with the rest of his life.  Mass suicide, chaos, murder, sex, and drugs are all on the agenda.  

 

Man...  There aren't enough puppy videos in the world to make the thoughts in my head go away.  

 

I made the same mistake of watching that a couple months ago. Yeah, that movie is...super depressing. Requiem for a Dream looks at it and goes, "Damn."

 

 

I felt that way after watching The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Beast of No Nation. Felt like I should take some valium and listen to No Rain on a 24 hour loop or something just to get my equilibrium back.

 

It took a Turtle Sundae with extra hot fudge and extra crushed pecans from Bruster's to cheer me up after watching Beasts of No Nation.

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So my friends and I watched These Final Hours last night on Netflix. I wasn't aware "ridiculously nihilistic" was a film subgenre, but god damn.  

 

Basically, a meteor has hit in the North Atlantic.  Extinction Level Event. The global firestorm is headed around the world, and a guy in Perth has about 12 hours to decide what to do with the rest of his life.  Mass suicide, chaos, murder, sex, and drugs are all on the agenda.  

 

Man...  There aren't enough puppy videos in the world to make the thoughts in my head go away.  

 

I made the same mistake of watching that a couple months ago. Yeah, that movie is...super depressing. Requiem for a Dream looks at it and goes, "Damn."

 

 

I felt that way after watching The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Beast of No Nation. Felt like I should take some valium and listen to No Rain on a 24 hour loop or something just to get my equilibrium back.

 

It took a Turtle Sundae with extra hot fudge and extra crushed pecans from Bruster's to cheer me up after watching Beasts of No Nation.

 

 

Man, Beasts of No Nations was goddamn brutal.

 

I chose to watch The Big Short yesterday afternoon and Concussion last night. So right now, I am feeling great about the future of humanity between people getting fucked by bankers and gruesome, debilitating head injuries. 

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I know I have told this story before but one night in college - half my floor went to see Schindler's List and the other half went to see Philadelphia

 

I am shocked they didn't have campus police do wellness checks on all of us after.

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The doom and gloom of The Big Short was counteracted by the movie having a rapid pace, explaining absolutely nothing, and taking for granted that I watch the news and keep up with world events.  

 

It felt good for a movie to assume that I was a relatively intelligent and well informed person for once.

 

This year, Dark Places and Everest made me want to walk into the ocean and inhale as much sea water as I could.  And, Jesus, Beasts of No Nation made me want to just ride a shopping cart into a busy intersection. 

 

Thank God for butter pecan ice cream and Shaw Brothers kung fu classics.

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The doom and gloom of The Big Short was counteracted by the movie having a rapid pace, explaining absolutely nothing, and taking for granted that I watch the news and keep up with world events.  

 

It felt good for a movie to assume that I was a relatively intelligent and well informed person for once.

 

I don't think it had as many moving parts as Too Big to Fail. You have to break out notebook paper for that shit.

 

I had to take a shower after watching Inside Job.

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The doom and gloom of The Big Short was counteracted by the movie having a rapid pace, explaining absolutely nothing, and taking for granted that I watch the news and keep up with world events.  

 

It felt good for a movie to assume that I was a relatively intelligent and well informed person for once.

 

I don't think it had as many moving parts as Too Big to Fail. You have to break out notebook paper for that shit.

 

I had to take a shower after watching Inside Job.

 

Being a US DoD tech with a TS clearance, I felt kinda dirty after watching Citizenfour, but there is a right way and a wrong way to blow the whistle.

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The doom and gloom of The Big Short was counteracted by the movie having a rapid pace, explaining absolutely nothing, and taking for granted that I watch the news and keep up with world events.  

 

It felt good for a movie to assume that I was a relatively intelligent and well informed person for once.

 

I don't think it had as many moving parts as Too Big to Fail. You have to break out notebook paper for that shit.

 

I had to take a shower after watching Inside Job.

 

Being a US DoD tech with a TS clearance, I felt kinda dirty after watching Citizenfour, but there is a right way and a wrong way to blow the whistle.

 

 

Good to see you're being open minded about this....

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I didn't think Sicario was that depressing. I thought it was pretty fucking awesome and the ending reminded me a little of No Country for Old Men, but I walked away from it ok.

And I know this involves a TV series, but Threads > When the Wind Blows > Grave of the Fireflies.

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I wish I could hear from some of the poor bastards who saw Grave of the Fireflies during its initial release... when it was paired as a double feature with My Neighbor Totoro. Apparently Grave went first, and most of the audience walked out after it was finished and didn't stay for the second movie. It's hard to blame them, that's like if Schindler's List was originally released as a double feature with E.T.

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From what I've read, Ghibli provided no guidance on which order to screen them in.

So, assuming you didn't walk out, you either got Totoro to cheer you up... Or Grave to rip your heart out while you were on an incredible high from Totoro. Yikes to that second one

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Snitch from 2013 stars Rock 'The Dwayne' Johnson, Susan Sarandon, Jon Bernthal, Michael K Johnson... so it's got a great cast, anyway. The plot itself is pretty standard, and the characters are fairly thin and one-note, but it doesn't really matter because the cast is so good it carries the whole movie. Plot... not holes exactly, but pickable nits definitely do abound.

 

A kid is recruited by his friend to do a drug deal, but the friend has been got at by the DEA, and he does a deal to grass the kid up (even though he technically never agreed to go in on it in the first place). So now he's going to jail for 10 years minimum because that's how the law works in American apparently, and he can't do his own deal by informing on anyone because the only drug dealer he knows is the one who grassed him. So his Dad (the Rock) decides to go undercover in the criminal underworld because you can do that. He does one driving job for some small-time dealers, and somehow is so impressive in doing that, that he's immediately recruited by the head of the entire cartel, to run their entire bank from Texas to Mexico. And it's ridiculous, but it still kind of works enough that you don't mind the ludicrosity too much... which usually only happens with cartoonish action movies. Whereas this is supposed to be a hard-hitting, based on a true story, real serious 'this could be you' type dealie.

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Late to the discussion, but for me personally, Faults was the most depressing movie I saw in 2015.  Heaven Knows What was the one where I had to take multiple showers afterwards, but that was less "humanity is awful" and more "these people are literally filthy".

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Reading through the last page I'm curious what leads some of you to actively watch soul crushingly, depressing movies? Are you just interested in good films? Interested in what philosophies they go over? Generally I watch to be entertained so I tend to avoid just about anything that will lead to depression (i.e. most of films mentioned on the last page).

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Creed: Yeah, I was blown away by this.  It was wonderful.

 

Micheal B. Jordan not being nominated for an Oscar is shocking. The running scene alone, man. He took a cheesy, cliched '80s action movie trope that everyone rolls their eyes at and turned it into something stunningly raw and real.

 

Stallone is amazing too. The guy will never do Hamlet or King Lear, but that doesn't mean the emotions he shows aren't still every bit as valid.

 

Man, this movie should have swept the board at the academy awards. That it didn't is either due to the voters being dimwits or everyone being snobby about sports films.

 

Newsflash, guys: No one cares about that 3rd or 4th Steve Jobs biopic or Leo getting raped by a bear. You're sinking into irrelevance. 

 

I finally saw Creed and really enjoyed it. It did have some pacing issues, any romantic stuff grinded the mostvie to a halt. 

But everything else was so strong it did not matter. Drago carried so much weight without being mentioned by name. I think Tommy Gunn also cast a shadow on Adonis and Rocky's relationship. The idea Rocky has not had a lot of success in the mentor department, even with his own son. 

For all the praise it got, Stallone's performance felt off to me. It seems like Stallone only can get a great performance directing himself. Cop Land and the first Rocky being notable exceptions. 

Still a very good movie.

 

I personally liked Stallone's performance because it really got across the whole "Well, most of the people I love are gone, and I just have to wait and stick it out until the inevitable happens" thing that, I imagine, a lot of older people surely go through.  

 

And, in the end, he realized maybe there was something to stay alive for, after all. 

 

There is a great essay to be written by someone other than me about how The Force Awakens and Creed are both stealth remakes while also being decades later sequels to two of the biggest, most populist films of the seventies, and what that means.

But Christ was Creed great. Can't wait for the blu-ray so I can see it again.

 

Watched Creed opening night in the UK, it’s a January 2016 film over here. Creed’s critical reception surprised but it’s deserved for the story, performances with Sylvester Stallone the standout, he deserves to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. There’s the music, the graphics listing a fighter’s bio/record, the way the fights were filmed and the nods to the previous Rocky films. The only two Rocky films I’d take over this are the original and Rocky Balboa.

 

Shame the film missed out on Academy Award nominations it deserved. I’m thinking Best Picture, Best Actor (Michael B. Jordan), Best Director (Ryan Coogler), Best Screenplay (Ryan Coogler/Aaron Covington), Best Original Score (Ludwig Goaransson) and Best Cinematography (Maryse Alberti).

 

Rocky rankings:

 

1. Rocky (1977)

2. Rocky Balboa (2006)

3. Creed (2015)

4. Rocky II (1979)

5. Rocky IV (1985)

6. Rocky III (1982)

7. Rocky V (1990)

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Reading through the last page I'm curious what leads some of you to actively watch soul crushingly, depressing movies? Are you just interested in good films? Interested in what philosophies they go over? Generally I watch to be entertained so I tend to avoid just about anything that will lead to depression (i.e. most of films mentioned on the last page).

 

I don't actively seek out depressing movies but hearing that a movie is super depressing won't make me not watch it. As long as the story is good and it's not a movie that's depressing for the sake of being depressing, I'll enjoy the movie.

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