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2021 MOVIES DISCUSSION


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11 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

while I'm on the HBO tip, check out Chernobyl.  Depressing and infuriating, but really, really good.

That one i did hear about as some friends were watching.  But he showed me a couple scenes and as horrifying as it is I don't know if it's something I can watch.  Thanks though.

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5 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

That one i did hear about as some friends were watching.  But he showed me a couple scenes and as horrifying as it is I don't know if it's something I can watch.  Thanks though.

Leaving Neverland is very good, and also infuriating, as well.  Just seeing the gradual reveal over the course of the first episode (of two) that Michael Jackson was slowly grooming these kids and replacing them as they "aged out" was mind blowing.  Today I'll hear one of his songs on the radio and have to stop and remind myself, "hey, this guy is a child molester." 

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Oh, yeah, that I saw.  If others play his stuff I won't raise a stink but I sure as hell won't.  It's basically something where you knew MJ should have been cancelled long ago but he was able to deflect all that when it first happened.  It was really good but it sure pissed me off.

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8 hours ago, Technico Support said:

The show's creator was a big fan of They Live, especially the fight scene.  Which is really all you need to know.  My wife and I watched Banshee and, in the 2nd or 3rd episode, where Hood just mercilessly beats up the rapist MMA fighter, we were like, "man, this is just gratuitous."  Then, an episode of two later, it hit us that it's supposed to be gratuitous and it was all good from there.  The episode where the crime boss who lives in a tractor trailer kidnaps Hood is like something out of  video game, gimmick-wise.  Also, if you do watch it, remember that the opening credits change every episode to reflect what you're about to see, and that most episodes have a post-credits scene.

Oh, and look out for LANA in a pre-wrestling role in one episode.

@NikoBaltimore, while I'm on the HBO tip, check out Chernobyl.  Depressing and infuriating, but really, really good.

The fights are easily my favorite part of Banshee outside of Lili Simmons (not just the obvious - I like the way her character grows and morphs, too).  What I like is that the women in the show are tough as nails and can fight.  But their fighting is plausible.  It's not Charlize Theron beating up 6 guys twice her size.  They get beat up, they don't always win, etc.  And the one fight scene in and around a car?  Incredible stuff.

But, yeah, awesome show.

Edited by Tabe
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Watched The King of Staten Island yesterday.  While I enjoyed it, I liked it A LOT less than I thought I would.  Pete Davidson plays Scott, a 24-year old whose firefighter dad was killed in the line of duty when Scott was 7.  He has failed to develop since then and spends all of his time smoking weed with his friends and banging his FWB.  His mom meets firefighter Ray, played by Bill Burr, who helps mom (Marisa Tomei) get Scott moving toward finally growing up.  This is a 137-minute movie that somehow has a rushed ending.  There's a couple minutes of Scott getting accepted by Ray's firehouse and then it's basically "oh, look I'm grown up now" and a 5-minute wrap-up with the girlfriend.  Overall, the movie just fails to reach the heights that the trailer previewed for us.  The cast is good - especially Burr - and they all do a fine job.  So probably a 6 or 7/10 for me.

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So for some reason I can't quite put my finger on, I've been thinking about some old movie I watched a part of a long time ago and wanted to finally place it.  I decided to ask THE ENTIRE INTERNET by putting it on r/tipofmytongue to see if someone knows what I'm talking about.  But, on the off chance one of you recognizes it, I thought I'd include the link:

https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/op5u42/tomtmovie1970s1980sa_hostage_situation_and_an/

Happy sleuthing!

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Took my daughter to see Space Jam 2 for her 10th birthday.

She liked it. As for me, well, she liked it.

Probably one laugh the entire film, though Cheadle did what he could with the dismal script.

Most of the audience at our screening was the 7-12 crowd and their parents. Highlight was during the trailer of the PAW Patrol film, one mother yelled out "that's a hard pass" when Kim Kardashian's name popped up in the credits. Pretty much all the adults laughed at that.

The kids and parents did get a kick out of the Clifford the Big Red Dog trailer ... probably the only trailer of the five shown that got any reaction. (Also got trailers for Sing 2, Hotel Transylvania 4 and Jungle Cruise)

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On 7/16/2021 at 1:43 PM, Tabe said:

Banshee is a TV show.  An amazing TV show whose off-color nickname from Technico Support is 100% accurate.  Tons of great fight scenes and hot people doing...hot people things.  The premise is ridiculous but they make it work and it's great.  Highly, highly recommended.

Banshee was an amazing show full of amazing comic book characters, but who cares?  It was fucking awesome.

I will probably never see another evil henchman in any sort of media with the gravitas that Clay Burton had.  Matthew Rauch was an incredible dude.

Edited by J.T.
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1 hour ago, J.T. said:

Banshee was an amazing show full of amazing comic book characters, but who cares?  It was fucking awesome.

I will probably never see another evil henchman in any sort of media with the gravitas that Clay Burton had.  Matthew Rauch was an incredible dude.

So many great characters in that show.  The former Nazi turned cop.  The deputy who slowly goes from "let's do this by the book" to "I'm suspicious of Hood" to being all-in with Hood and taking a rocket launcher to the baddies' truck.  The horrifying Native American heel.  Sugar Bates.  Job.  Carrie and her episode long fight scene.  Just amazing. 

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36 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

 The horrifying Native American heel.

Who went on to make commercials with a tiny dog in his lap, LOL.

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On 7/21/2021 at 2:45 PM, Tabe said:

Watched The King of Staten Island yesterday.  While I enjoyed it, I liked it A LOT less than I thought I would.  Pete Davidson plays Scott, a 24-year old whose firefighter dad was killed in the line of duty when Scott was 7.  He has failed to develop since then and spends all of his time smoking weed with his friends and banging his FWB.  His mom meets firefighter Ray, played by Bill Burr, who helps mom (Marisa Tomei) get Scott moving toward finally growing up.  This is a 137-minute movie that somehow has a rushed ending.  There's a couple minutes of Scott getting accepted by Ray's firehouse and then it's basically "oh, look I'm grown up now" and a 5-minute wrap-up with the girlfriend.  Overall, the movie just fails to reach the heights that the trailer previewed for us.  The cast is good - especially Burr - and they all do a fine job.  So probably a 6 or 7/10 for me.

I liked it a lot, but felt the rushed ending too. That's a common problem with Judd's movies where they're incredibly heartfelt and so much of the movie is spent exploring these characters and then all of a sudden it's like, shit, we're at 2 hours, we need an ending. 

Watched This is 40 again recently and that's the same thing. I liked the movie a lot because as someone who turned 40 with a kid on the way, I was able to identify with a lot of it, but then the ending just gets tossed together and happens.

It makes me want to see Judd go back and do a series for HBO and not just something he Exec. Produces, I mean being the Producer/Showrunner, writing, and directing episodes. Freaks and Geeks never has any of these issues because with a TV series, you have so much more time to explore the characters without discovering you need to wrap things up.

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So I've been on a strange bent lately of watching a new movie every day.  I think I'm up to day 11 now, so it's going well so far.  The post on the last page about Lucy and others as well as I, Robot include some of those things I watched.  And I already talked about The New Mutants elsewhere.  Here's a catch-up post:

Hot Garbage

The Snuff Film - this was pretty much what I expected.  Oh, what, you're confused?  I'm sorry, that's what I call Zack Snyder's Justice League.  It's better than the theatrical version, in the way that pissing on your hands to avoid frostbite is better than wiping with your bare hand after you take a shit because there was nothing else to wipe with.  They're both terrible but at least one serves a genuine purpose.  I could say a lot more about how stupid this movie was, but I'd rather not get bogged down with it, because frankly this fucking movie isn't worth talking about to sufficiently explain how stupid it is.

Haywire - why does this have a bunch of 70s music accompanying everything?  Really?  It's like Soderbergh had a bunch of recorded music left over from the Ocean's films and just recycled it.  I mostly liked how Michael Fassbender got to have a fight scene with Gina Carano, because he's the one guy in the cast who's definitely had practice beating up women!  Hey-o!  It's actually not *bad* in a lot of respects, but it's too short, it's a dull plot, the "2 weeks earlier" blah-blah crap can fuck right off, and that AWFUL fight scene at the end with Ewan McGregor made me want to gouge my eyes out.  Kinda too bad Carano turned out to be a lunatic, as well.

Alien vs Predator Requiem - I was going to blame this one on Paul W.S. Anderson, but it turns out he was probably too busy making another piece-of-shit RE movie to direct this!  But God it's so badly done.  It's still introducing core characters 15+ minutes into a 90-minute movie, the action scenes are high-schoolish and often so dark you can't even tell what's happening, and the nuking of an American town is just what you do in these situations!  Plus, the Preds who let all this happen (thanks to the ending of the prior movie, which I also watched but then realized I'd already seen) were the dumbest assholes in the galaxy.  Scan your bodies next time!

Acceptable

Badlands - This is leaving HBO Max, but I saw Terrence Malick and figured, "Fuck it".  It feels a lot like he tried to make his own Bonnie and Clyde and didn't really succeed.  But, the visuals that you'd come to expect from him are on display even in this.  He clearly had that eye from the start.  And I usually can't stand Martin Sheen or his annoying kids, but this was one of the few times where I liked him.  I could do without the narration, but this movie's almost 50 years old, so...whatever.

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story - I put off watching this for years because I was certain it was going to be completely stupid.  Turns out it is, it's just the right sort of completely stupid.  Thumbs-up.

Girl with a Pearl Earring - this was close to being really good, as Scarlett is really great, and the interplay between her and Colin Firth works really well.  But it feels like it's missing some character development with the mother-in-law and Tom Wilkinson's rapist/patron guy.  They're just sort of there to push the plot forward, and despite some perfunctory discussions at dinners and things, their interactions are entirely filtered through Greit and Vermeer, which seems like a waste.  But it's solid as period pieces go.

Awesome

Safety Last! - one of the first things that comes to mind as I'm trying to find something to watch is, "How short is this?"  This is super-short and pretty remarkable.  Harold Lloyd was apparently doing these stunts missing a couple of fingers due to an accident some years before, so it really makes what he's doing in this all the more amazing to watch.  I haven't watched too many silent movies, but this might be the best one I have seen.  Just sight gag after sight gag and a pretty crazy last 20 minutes.

Lady Snowblood - Jesus.  I'm just never going to be able to rewatch Kill Bill after this.  Ever.  In case you've noticed, I don't like narration, but here it works, as it feels like it elevates the events to something closer to a myth or a tall tale instead of just being some woman chopping up people.  And some of the shots here, especially the little breathers Fujita throws in to space out the goriness, are pretty beautiful.  And yet it's still unabashedly 70s in so many laugh-out-loud ways.  Can't believe they didn't sue the fuck out of Tarantino.

But, not the best movie I watched...

Winner winner, chicken dinner

Secrets & Lies - This is just a masterpiece.  Usually something so forceful comes from someone writing it that way, but apparently Mike Leigh just gave everyone a character sketch and mostly had them improvise their characters (aside from things like the last couple of scenes, I would wager).  Brenda Blethyn is beyond phenomenal - I could see someone criticizing her delivery, since her voice is definitely grating, but it's very much of a part of the character, someone who has no ability to process her own trauma and instead hangs herself up on other people's problems to avoid looking at her own.  Marianne Jean-Baptiste is such a great foil for that: composed, collected, but just...simmering all the time.  Plus there's Timothy Spall and Phyllis Logan, who you'd recognize from other, more commercially successful roles, who just blow you away by the end.  The diner scene is fucking perfect.  The barbecue scene is fucking perfect.  The ending is fucking perfect.  The only movie from the 90s I can honestly say is better than this is Pulp Fiction.  That's it, that's the list.

Edited by Contentious C
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Wet Hot American Summer, one of the funniest movies of all time, came out 20 years ago today.  It is impossible to pick a best bit from the movie but these are some of my favorites:

 

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21 hours ago, Contentious C said:

 

Winner winner, chicken dinner

Secrets & Lies - This is just a masterpiece.  Usually something so forceful comes from someone writing it that way, but apparently Mike Leigh just gave everyone a character sketch and mostly had them improvise their characters (aside from things like the last couple of scenes, I would wager).  Brenda Blethyn is beyond phenomenal - I could see someone criticizing her delivery, since her voice is definitely grating, but it's very much of a part of the character, someone who has no ability to process her own trauma and instead hangs herself up on other people's problems to avoid looking at her own.  Marianne Jean-Baptiste is such a great foil for that: composed, collected, but just...simmering all the time.  Plus there's Timothy Spall and Phyllis Logan, who you'd recognize from other, more commercially successful roles, who just blow you away by the end.  The diner scene is fucking perfect.  The barbecue scene is fucking perfect.  The ending is fucking perfect.  The only movie from the 90s I can honestly say is better than this is Pulp Fiction.  That's it, that's the list.

SECRETS & LIES is phenomenal. I don’t enjoy it as much as TOPSY TURVY, but it’s equally impressive. 
 

My understanding of Leigh’s method is that he has the structure worked out, and then after they cast the fi they do months of rehearsals. The actors create their characters and create the scenes through improv, but by the end they’ve worked out the scenes, so there usually isn’t any improvisation by the time they’re filming.

Anyway, I really like how Leigh is humanist without being cloying, or cynical without being *edgy*.

 

Also, the Tatum and Fassbinder fight scenes in HAYWIRE are enough for me to put that one in the “good” column.

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There's scenes in Ken Loach movies that feature surprises, where he didn't tell the actors ahead of time. Famously in Looking for Eric

Spoiler

Steve Evets had no idea Eric Cantona was cast in the movie. And the first scene where he appears, they used the second take. In the first take, Eric didn't come out (as a planned spot, so Evets would think it was going one way). So they said let's do another take, and he's doing the scene again, and then FUCKING HELL THAT'S ERIC CANTONA!!!

Mike Leigh did something similar in Vera Drake. There's a scene where the Police burst in and arrest Vera, and neither Imelda Staunton or Jim Broadbent knew it was going to happen.

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TCM just had on Mona Lisa from 1986 which was just brilliant. It's part of their Neo-Noir series this month and had the late, great Bob Hoskins playing a dumpy UK gangster fresh out of jail who gets a job as a driver for a high-class prostitute played by Cathy Tyson. The role is similar to his classic portrayal as Harold Shand in The Long Good Friday, only inside-out: he doesn't have the class and the manipulative qualities, seems to not know the story (much like Shand, actually), and like Shand gets in way over his head. Hoskins and Tyson end up starting on a search for a young prostitute that used to work with her and everything goes down a dangerous rabbit hole. There's a fresh sense of humor to the odd couple of the two and how it seems to blossom in one direction and goes another. And then of course there's the dark side, represented by a stone cold Michael Caine as Bob's boss and -- incredibly -- an appearance by a young Clarke Peters, Lester Freamon himself, as a pimp. Hoskins was nominated for the Oscar and won all the other awards for it though losing out to Paul Newman for The Color of Money. Well worth searching out. 

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Watched The Infiltrator tonight.  Bryan Cranston plays Robert Mazur, an undercover DEA agent who infiltrates the Medellin cartel and ends up taking down the BCCI bank.  Based on the true story of an agent who lived undercover for 2 years as a high roller in an operation that cost some $500 million - all paid for by funds recovered from the cartel.  Cranston is basically playing a good guy version of Walter White and does a good job, of course.  The rest of the cast is solid but Cranston carries the movie.  It ends up being good not great.  Worth the 2 hours though.

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There are three classic English gangster movies. One has Michael Caine, one has Bob Hoskins, and the other one has both of them.

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A trio of movies I've watched the last few days:

 

The Bounty Hunter - Gerard Butler is a former cop now bounty hunter who is sent to bring in... his ex-wife (Jennifer Aniston).  Implausible hijinks ensue.  This movie is not good but it's perfectly fine for what it aims to be - a brainless comedy carried by its two leads.  5/10.

No Way Out - Kevin Costner is Commander Tom Farrell, a Naval hero assigned to be a liaison for the Secretary of Defense (Gene Hackman).  Farrell is involved with a woman (Sean Young) who is also involved with Hackman's character.  Hackman kills her in a jealous rage and Costner is tasked with running the investigation/coverup.  What follows is a decent thriller marred by a stupid ending that really makes not much sense.  This is very much an 80s movie in construction - the look, the sound, everything is very much of the decade.  Good movie, higher rating if not for the (IMHO) bad ending.  6/10.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl  - Greg is a high school senior just trying to get through his final year.  Earl is his best friend and movie making partner.  When a friend of Greg's mom tells her that her (the friend's) daughter has been diagnosed with leukemia, Greg's mom tells him to go over and make nice with the girl under the assumption she can use the company.  Greg does so reluctantly but he continues going over and a bond is eventually formed.  What follows is a sweet story of friendship.  There's a lot of cliche here but it still works.  The movie is carried by its three young leads.  Greg (Thomas Mann) and Rachel (Olivia Cooke) are particularly great.  Reviews on IMDB praise the movie for being realistic and having great adult characters.  Ehhhh...not so much.  The teens are pretty realistic and the dialogue is realistic (mostly) but the adults are terrible.  The history teacher is yet another ridiculous "cool teacher".  Greg's parents are over-the-top weird and quirky.  Rachel's mom (Molly Shannon) is alright but a little creepy as she seems to be hitting on Greg.  This is a serious drama with a lot of laughs.  Particularly funny are the movies that Greg & Earl make - they take classic movies and alter the titles (i.e. "A Box of Lips, Wow" for "Apocalypse Now" or "9:28 AM Cowboy" for "Midnight Cowboy") and then make a movie from that title.  The titles are funny for sure.  This is another one hurt by the ending, IMHO - the very, very last bit with Greg applying for college doesn't work for me and we never really see the final movie he & Earl were working on.  Overall, this is a good movie though.  7/10.

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