Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

MARCH 2018 MOVIE DISCUSSION THREAD


RIPPA

Recommended Posts

Great weekend of movie-going. Friday, I saw a midnight showing of a a remastered Phantom of the Paradise. Saturday, I saw a matinee of The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is now my 2nd favorite Anderson film. And on Sunday I caught a Wrinkle in Time. It was decent enough, but was extremely well-cast in my opinion. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So far this week, I've caught the following:

The Death of Stalin

 

I was disappointed. If you watch the trailer above, you've seen most of the best bits. The acting is superb, but the writing just doesn't measure up. I do appreciate that that since the story takes place in Russian language that we didn't get a legion of shit Russian accents. Instead every actor used their own natural accent.

 

Pacific Rim: Uprising

 

I loved the first film. I thought this one wasn't as good, but it was still okay. It looks like they'll attempt to create a franchise based mostly on this film, rather than the original.

Spoiler

Not much makes it from Pacific Rim to Uprising. Raleigh is mentioned once, but never seen. Basically, Boyega is his replacement in the narrative as the "Bad Boy Former Ranger"
Mako Mori dies in the first half hour.  The dialogue in the trailer is about 1/3 of all her dialogue. 

Remember the quirky scientists played by Charlie Day and Burn Gorman? Day is the primary villain. 

Once Newt is revealed as the villain (as the entire time before hand you're supposed to believe Jing Tian's Liwen Shou is), Shou makes a fine tertiary protagonist, and Tian has much better english than Kikuchi did. However, Shou is completely forgotten at the end of the film despite having 2 great moments at the climax. 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh man, could not disagree more about DEATH OF STALIN. Thought the ads looked bad but went because I like the people involved, and it’s easily one of the best comedies I’ve seen in years. Steve Buscemi reminds everyone that he’s a great actor, and Michael Palin hasn’t lost a step.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I realized I hadn't seen much of Todd Solondz's work, so I checked Amazon Prime to see what they had of his and ended up watching Dark Horse. I'm rarely gripped by movies out of the blue, but it's one that will stay with me. I identified way too much with certain aspects of the two main characters, which isn't a great feeling considering how they behave. It's weird to feel that way and see so much sorrow in a movie that also has some uproariously funny moments; I guess that's Solondz for you. He also deserves credit for casting Christopher Walken and directing him in such a way that he disappears into the fabric of the film instead of being Walken. It has a dark ending, but it's true to life in as much as people often learn and grow at points when it's too late to really make a difference for them. 

It also has one of my favorite pieces of movie trivia ever:

Estelle Harris, Jason Alexander and Jerry Stiller were hired to do voice overs for the scenes where Mia Farrow and Christopher Walken sit stone-faced watching an unseen TV sitcom. Todd Solondz felt the "Costanzas" on the TV series "Seinfeld" were a sitcom version of the family he was depicting, but he couldn't afford to use audio clips from "Seinfeld."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, (BP) said:

I realized I hadn't seen much of Todd Solondz's work, so I checked Amazon Prime to see what they had of his and ended up watching Dark Horse. I'm rarely gripped by movies out of the blue, but it's one that will stay with me. I identified way too much with certain aspects of the two main characters, which isn't a great feeling considering how they behave. It's weird to feel that way and see so much sorrow in a movie that also has some uproariously funny moments; I guess that's Solondz for you. He also deserves credit for casting Christopher Walken and directing him in such a way that he disappears into the fabric of the film instead of being Walken. It has a dark ending, but it's true to life in as much as people often learn and grow at points when it's too late to really make a difference for them. 

It also has one of my favorite pieces of movie trivia ever:

Estelle Harris, Jason Alexander and Jerry Stiller were hired to do voice overs for the scenes where Mia Farrow and Christopher Walken sit stone-faced watching an unseen TV sitcom. Todd Solondz felt the "Costanzas" on the TV series "Seinfeld" were a sitcom version of the family he was depicting, but he couldn't afford to use audio clips from "Seinfeld."

If you ever want to feel like putting a gun to your head then watch Welcome to the Dollhouse. If you want to feel like putting a gun to somebody else's head watch Happiness. 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Curt McGirt said:

If you ever want to feel like putting a gun to your head then watch Welcome to the Dollhouse. If you want to feel like putting a gun to somebody else's head watch Happiness. 

I've seen parts of Welcome to the Dollhouse, and I'll get around to Happiness at some point. I'd only seen Storytelling before Dark Horse, which worked because Selma Blair plays the same character in both. Everything I need to know about his body of work in general is that Dark Horse is considered lighter fare than the others and it's kind of devastating in its own right. Weiner Dog is on Amazom Prime too, so I'll probably watch that next. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From Wiki, re: Dark Horse

Quote

In July 2010 Solondz completed the script of his next film, Dark Horse, which was filmed in Fall 2010. To Solondz's surprise, the Creative Artists Agency has appreciated the script, the first time for a movie of his.[13][14] Solondz commented that he realized this is because "there's no rape, there's no child molestation, there's no masturbation, and then I thought, 'omg, why didn't I think of this years ago?'"[13][14]

Happiness is actually really funny. And really, really disturbing.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.indiewire.com/2018/03/march-madness-a24-auteur-directors-disney-brackets-1201944466/

A bunch of March Madness style brackets for movies.  I'd seen the Disney/Pixar bracket on Twitter but I'm not enough of an animation person to care; the A24 bracket is much more my speed as I've seen 30 of the 32 movies on that one. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The article is more about the author's issues, and some of the things he complained about are literally explained in the first minute of the film (The only things that get translated to English are the dogs' barks.)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, J.T. said:

Have I ever disappointed you?  Well... there was that one time....

It was great! Also, it’s the first time I really noticed the films portray Ichi’s blindness as a disability. I mean, he still kills everyone and saves the day, but there are several times when he’s actually hindered or disadvantaged by his vision. Usually, he’s super-abled.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Control said:

I am watching BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL right now and it is pretty amazing.

It is in the On Demand queue for FiOS.  I loved the manga and I really need to sit down and watch the movie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ready Player One was outstanding. Really, really fucking good. Exceeded my expectations. I had my doubts with all of the trailers, but Spielberg delivered. Got weepy more than once whenever I'd hear the Back to the Future chimes. Is it different from the book? Yes. Does it deliver on what the spirit of the book is? Absolutely.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Ready Player One was outstanding. Really, really fucking good. Exceeded my expectations. I had my doubts with all of the trailers, but Spielberg delivered. Got weepy more than once whenever I'd hear the Back to the Future chimes. Is it different from the book? Yes. Does it deliver on what the spirit of the book is? Absolutely.

I saw it this afternoon and as someone who really enjoyed the source material and is way too pedantic about book-movie translations I had a similar assessment.  The character development and a few key scenes could have been better, but overall it was a really fun movie.  The stuff they changed, especially the three quests, all sat well with me and were similarly entertaining.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...