Movies 2020 MOVIE DISCUSSION

[J.T.]

21 hours ago, RIPPA said:

I am starting to feel like I am the only person who didn't like Equilibrium 

You are, I think.  The special effects guys even had the good taste to give the Cleric's customized pistols cross shaped muzzle flashes when they fired.

There are some days when I wish the Gun Kata was an actual thing.

Edited April 23, 2020 by J.T.

[J.T.]

21 hours ago, RIPPA said:

In case anyone was curious (and it probably was posted already)

James Gunn tweeted his 54 favorite "action" movies. (Spoiler tag for length)

  Hide contents

• Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
• The Matrix (1999)
• The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
• Die Hard (1988)
• Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
• JSA: Joint Security Area (2000)
• Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010)
• Lady Vengeance (2005)
• Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
• Bullitt (1968)
• North by Northwest (1959)
• The Yellow Sea (2010)
• The Raid: Redemption (2012)
• Hero (2002)
• Night Watch (2004)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
• Taken (2008)
• The Heroic Trio (1993)
• The French Connection (1971)
• Robocop (1987)
• The Killer (1989)
• The Legend of Drunken Master (1994)
• The Legend (Fong Sai Yuk) (1993)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
• Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
• The Villainess (2017)
• Revenge (2018)
• Crank (2006)
• Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
• Escape from New York (1981)
• Battle Royale (2000)
• Full Contact (1992)
• Oldboy (2005)
• Thunderball (1965)
• La Femme Nikita (1990)
• Leon: The Professional (1994)
• Magnum Force (1973)
• Speed (1994)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• ’71 (2014)
• Payback (theatrical cut) (1999)
• Equilibrium (2002)
• John Wick (2014)
• Mesrine: Killer Instinct (2008)
• Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (2008)
• Where Eagles Dare (1968)
• Ms. 45 (1981)
• Green Snake (1993)
• Captain Phillips (2013)
• Seven Samurai (1954)
• Rolling Thunder (1977)
• The Wild Bunch (1969)
• V for Vendetta (2006)
• Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)

 

Ms. 45?  Seriously?  He counts a rape revenge movie as an actioner?  No wonder he got fired.

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

Captain Phillips is an action film?

Kung Fu Hustle being at the top of the list earns him a few points from me.  Love that film.

[Craig H]

Wait...Sunny Day Real Estate had a song on the Batman Forever soundtrack? WTF? How am I just now learning about this.

[Control]

Czech this shit out:

 

[Casey]

9 hours ago, Craig H said:

Wait...Sunny Day Real Estate had a song on the Batman Forever soundtrack? WTF? How am I just now learning about this.

Yeah, it was "8" from their self-titled second album.

[twiztor]

i can't handle all this anti-batman Forever rhetoric.

it is my favorite live action Bat flick from the '89 series. Val Kilmer wasn't perfect but did an acceptable job. Chris O'Donnell as Robin was better than that character was written. Tommy Lee Jones was great as 2Face. i think Jim Carrey sets the tone of the flick. if you're not on board with what he does here, you won't like the flick. me, i loved taking it back to a zanier attitude. 

my favorite exchange in the movie:

Robin: "Holy rusted metal, Batman!"

Batman: "What?"

Robin: "This metal. It's rusty. and full of holes".

[Brian Fowler]

I really really really fucking hate Jim Carrey's manic human cartoon schtick. Not just in that movie, but pretty much across the board. Val Kilmer gave one of the worst performances of his career. Tommy Lee Jones went so absurdly over the top it felt like he was trying to match Carrey's buffoonery, no matter what he said. It's my least favorite Batman movie by several miles.

[(BP)]

I don’t know if anyone else has read the unproduced screenplay for a fifth Batman movie directed by Schumacher again, but it would have been wild. The antagonists were going to be Scarecrow (Either Nic Cage, Jeff Goldblum, or Howard Stern fresh off of the success of Private Parts) and Harley Quinn (supposedly Madonna.) Clooney had already said he was one and done so if memory serves they were looking at Kurt Russell(!) to replace him. 

There was going to be an extended sequence where Bruce has a fear toxin hallucination and has run-ins with his entire movie rogues gallery. They were going to loosen the purse strings and bring back Nicholson, Devito, Pfeiffer, Carrey, and Jones (I think they’d already soured on B&R internally and Schwarzenegger and Thurman weren’t included.) I know Nicholson publicly talked about it with enthusiasm since I’m sure  it would have been another massive payday for him. It’s such a weird curiosity that was created in this small timeframe between post production of Batman & Robin and the movie being released and bombing, but it still feels kind of reactive like they’re trying to reconcile the different tones of the Burton and Schumacher movies. 

[Control]

2 hours ago, twiztor said:

 

my favorite exchange in the movie:

Robin: "Holy rusted metal, Batman!"

Batman: "What?"

Robin: "This metal. It's rusty. and full of holes".

There’s no disputing that if that dialogue appeals then this is the film for you.

[Curt McGirt]

Currently sitting here getting a hoot out of Invasion USA. You can get a hoot out of watching this. 

 

[turk128]

On 4/23/2020 at 8:14 AM, J.T. said:

You are, I think.  The special effects guys even had the good taste to give the Cleric's customized pistols cross shaped muzzle flashes when they fired.

There are some days when I wish the Gun Kata was an actual thing.

At least it became a regular style used in anime and gaming. Not a lot of peeps are gonna remember or even know it thou, it'll go down in history very similar to Streets of Fire.

[turk128]

The Willoughbys (2020) is freakin excellent animation. Absolutely love the art style.

Reminds me a lot of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in how zany the plot is and magical realism.

Edited April 26, 2020 by turk128

[Control]

Bought my wife the Criterion Marseilles Trilogy box set sight unseen, on account if she loves France and we were supposed to go to Marseilles for our ten year anniversary before this fucking virus fucked everything up. Going to be spending the weekend cancelling hotels and train tickets, etc. But anyway hope the films are good!

[Tabe]

After deciding to try and rip the cornea off of my eyeball*, rendering me able to watch TV/movies but not read or anything, I watched a bunch of movies the last several days:

Zero Dark Thirty - 17 hours into this one, I checked how much time was left in the movie - roughly an hour.  11 hours later, it was finally over.  That's a snarky way of saying this 2-1/2 hour movie feels WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY longer.  Tells the story of a CIA analyst, played by Jessica Chastain, who helps hunt down Osama Bin Laden and then the mission that killed him.  The movie is well-done, especially the Bin Laden mission, but the run time is padded left and right, with long stretches of stuff that isn't relevant or important or necessary.  This was a 100-minute movie that ran 150.  Decent but disappointing given the overwhelming praise it received.

The Equalizer - Denzel Washington is a former black ops agent who decides to take care of business when some eastern European bad guys abuse a teenage prostitute he has befriended.  Denzel is awesome, lots of dudes get killed in creative ways, it's well-filmed and fast-paced.  Excellent movie.

The Equalizer 2 - Denzel is now a for-hire equalizer but things get serious when his former co-worker is killed while investigating the death of another agent.  They went for the "more is more" line of thinking in this one and it only sorta works.  Lots of dead bad guys, lots of cool stuff happening, just not quite as good as the first.

Million Dollar Baby - Hilary Swank is a waitress who wants Clint Eastwood to train her to box.  He reluctantly agrees and they develop a strong relationship.  Lots of Morgan Freeman in this one.  Good movie with an ending I hated.  Swank is terrific.  Eastwood and Freeman phone in their performances and basically play themselves (oh look, it's another gruff, snarky line delivered in a gravelly voice) but themselves is still pretty darn good.  Very good movie.

The Florida Project - Moonee is a 6-year old living in a fleabag hotel near Disney World.  Her and her friends are precocious, foul-mouthed, and mischievous.  Their parents are uninvolved or immature.  Not really a whole lot of plot here, it plays out almost like a documentary with disconnected scenes playing out one after the other.  Very much a slice-of-life for the kids in this movie.  Hard to say it's a great movie but the performances are outstanding and it's really, really well-made.  Willem Dafoe shows up and is terrific as the hotel manager.

The Gambler - Mark Wahlberg is a university professor from a rich family with a gambling problem.  A big one.  He spends much of the movie borrowing from Peter to pay Paul and then gambling the money away instead.  Meanwhile, Brie Larson is the hot student of his who knows his gambling secret and is drawn to the damaged guy.  John Goodman is excellent as a loan shark though we get too many shirtless shots of John at his heaviest.  Good movie with an ending I didn't like.

Flight - Denzel is an alcoholic pilot who pulls off a miraculous landing of a commercial jetliner that essentially falls apart in mid-air.  He's venerated as a hero for his actions - rightly so - while simultaneously falling apart from his drinking and being investigated for it.  Another good one.

Dark Places - Charlize Theron is the survivor of a childhood attack on her family that left her mom and sisters dead and her brother in prison for their murder.  She's out of money and gets hired by a "murder club" to talk about her experiences and then paid to go investigate to get her (possibly innocent) brother out of prison.  This one's not bad but full of absolutely unlikable people.  The ending builds on a plot twist that makes no sense.  

We Live in Public - Documentary of the history of an experiment at the turn of the century where people agreed to live in a building in New York City in exchange for having their entire lives recorded.  They were not allowed to leave and everything was provided - food, alcohol, showers, a gun range (!), and more.  Also tells the history of the guy behind it and his streamed-online relationship with his girlfriend.  Pretty interesting story about a subject on which I had no prior knowledge, made by one of the people who lived in the building.  Kinda answers the question "What's it like if people have absolute freedom and their entire lives are recorded?"

Broken City - Mark Wahlberg is a former cop hired to investigate the mayor of New York City by the mayor's wife.  Wahlberg is a former cop because of a shooting where he got off but was possibly guilty.  Several twists and turns in this one but overall pretty good.

Passengers (2008) - Anne Hathaway is a psychologist helping a group of survivors from a plane crash.  She begins having supernatural visions and, well, can't reveal too much else.  This one was not very good and the premise ends up being stupid.

 

Alright, there ya go.  

 

 

* - I apparently have a condition where my right eyelid glues itself to my eyeball.  When my eye moved (while I was sleeping), the two separated and a ridiculous searing pain shot through my eye.  Imagine ripping a band-aid off a hair arm - only it's your eyeball.  The result was a scratched cornea that took a few days to heal but I am fine now.  This is actually the third time it's happened but the first time where I didn't rub my eye to do it and didn't think I had something physically in my eye.  Got it checked out and got it explained.  Now I just need to use eye drops every night for the rest of my life.

 

Edited May 4, 2020 by Tabe

[Brian Fowler]

Flight... Now there was a really a good movie with A REALLY FUCKING TERRIBLE ending.

[Tabe]

1 hour ago, Brian Fowler said:

Flight... Now there was a really a good movie with A REALLY FUCKING TERRIBLE ending.

Yes, a thousand times yes. 

[Tabe]

Oh yeah, forgot a couple:

Molly's Game - Jessica Chastain plays Molly Bloom, an enterprising woman who manages to put together a high stakes underground poker game after an injury wrecks her Olympic skiing career. Naturally, it eventually goes south. Based on a true story, Molly is the sister of Olympic skier Jeremy Bloom. This one holds no great surprises but it's entertaining and a fun story. 

2 Guns - Denzel is a DEA agent investigating a dude he thinks is a drug dealer - Mark Wahlberg.  Marky Mark is a Navy investigator looking into a dude he thinks is a drug dealer - Denzel.  They rob a bank as part of their investigations into each other and eventually figure each other out while being forced to go rogue.  Lots of bad guys coming after them for the money they stole.  Paula Patton is there to provide eye candy and a twist.  This movie is big and dumb but I liked it a lot.  Lots of great action, cool shooting, and funny lines.  

Edited May 4, 2020 by Tabe

[AxB]

I watched a bunch of movies too. Inadvertently similar ones back to back. So having watched San Andreas, I then watched Pompeii, which is also a disaster movie sort of. It was better than San Andreas because SA just had an Earthquake and a Tsunami, whereas Pompeii had a Volcano, and an Earthquake and Tsunami as well, so that's better. Paul W S Anderson gets a lot of stick for how his movies are not very good but this one is actually alright. I mean, it's not fantastic or anything but it's ok. Kit Harrington('s body double?) is in really good shape.

Then I watched The Bourne Accountancy...   no, wait. The Accountant starring Ben Affleck as Jason Bourne if he was an accountant for criminals. And Affleck is the last person you'd expect to be ripping of the Bourne films considering he's supposed to be Matt Damon's best mate and everything. Even though they haven't actually worked together in years, not co starred, not cameoed, nothing. If you think having autism makes you a superhero, this is the movie for you. Great cast, but it's one of those movies that tries to be all clever and plot twisty and I bet you didn't see this coming, but then has it all hinge on lucky coincidences. 

And then, randomly I also watched Equalizer 2. I agree, not as good as the first one. The thing about it is, the James Bond-before-the-credits type of scenes and the sidequests midway through are more interesting and engagjng than the main plot.

[S.K.o.S.]

18 hours ago, Tabe said:

We Live in Public - Documentary of the history of an experiment at the turn of the century where people agreed to live in a building in New York City in exchange for having their entire lives recorded.  They were not allowed to leave and everything was provided - food, alcohol, showers, a gun range (!), and more.  Also tells the history of the guy behind it and his streamed-online relationship with his girlfriend.  Pretty interesting story about a subject on which I had no prior knowledge, made by one of the people who lived in the building.  Kinda answers the question "What's it like if people have absolute freedom and their entire lives are recorded?"

I remember liking this quite a bit, but I tried to sell someone on it and they were like "So... they invented Big Brother?"

[Tabe]

26 minutes ago, S.K.o.S. said:

I remember liking this quite a bit, but I tried to sell someone on it and they were like "So... they invented Big Brother?"

Dang...that's a great way to put it.  Except it misses 98% of the story.  But a good analogy nonetheless.

[AxB]

1 hour ago, S.K.o.S. said:

I remember liking this quite a bit, but I tried to sell someone on it and they were like "So... they invented Big Brother?"

The first season of Big Brother in the world was in the Netherlands, in 1999.

[Curt McGirt]

The first thing I thought of was High Rise by J.G. Ballard.

EDIT: BTW did anyone enjoy the film version of that book? I've never seen it and don't even remember seeing a trailer. Looks pretty, visuals-wise, and a good cast.

Edited May 5, 2020 by Curt McGirt

[Technico Support]

On 5/4/2020 at 3:13 AM, Brian Fowler said:

Flight... Now there was a really a good movie with A REALLY FUCKING TERRIBLE ending.

 

On 5/4/2020 at 4:19 AM, Tabe said:

Yes, a thousand times yes. 

I'm curious to know what you guys disliked about the ending.  Whip finally owned up to his shit instead of taking an easy out and blaming the dead stewardess.  Something else you disliked?

[Brian Fowler]

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

 

I'm curious to know what you guys disliked about the ending.  Whip finally owned up to his shit instead of taking an easy out and blaming the dead stewardess.  Something else you disliked?

Pretty much that exactly. All the building tension, the maneuvering, etc... And then it just lazily ends with him confessing and this boring moralistic speech in prison. If they had proven he did it, fine. Or if he got away with it, fine. But that was just a cop-out ending that undercut everything the movie told us about the character and everything it built in the story. There was no arc that got him to that point, he went in literally one sentence from unrepentant to confession. 

There's ways to get there, but they didn't bother doing any of them.

Personally, I would've either ended it with him getting away with it, but having a moment where he acknowledges it to himself that he's a fuck up and a monster, or I would've gone really dark and had it ended with "this is your captain speaking...'