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Picking up a thread from a few weeks back, somewhat unexpectedly my daughter wanted to see Avatar after we watched a making-of documentary. So we saw 1 on Friday night and then went to see 2 at IMAX on Saturday. Now it's her favourite film. 

I mean, it's a spectacle on a scale you don't see that much these days. I'd read that it drags a bit, which is inevitable in a 3 hour film, but reckoned it did a decent job of keeping the pace up.

Purely from a technical perspective it is astounding. There's plot holes you can drive a space cruiser through but, visually, you gotta hand it to Cameron.

Not for grumpy goats, though. It is the cinematic equivalent of the most noodly space prog concept album with minimum 12 minute songs imaginable.

 

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19 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

Picking up a thread from a few weeks back, somewhat unexpectedly my daughter wanted to see Avatar after we watched a making-of documentary. So we saw 1 on Friday night and then went to see 2 at IMAX on Saturday. Now it's her favourite film. 

I mean, it's a spectacle on a scale you don't see that much these days. I'd read that it drags a bit, which is inevitable in a 3 hour film, but reckoned it did a decent job of keeping the pace up.

Purely from a technical perspective it is astounding. There's plot holes you can drive a space cruiser through but, visually, you gotta hand it to Cameron.

Not for grumpy goats, though. It is the cinematic equivalent of the most noodly space prog concept album with minimum 12 minute songs imaginable.

 

Disclaimer not neccessary Jon-boy! As the king of the contrarian counterculture malcontents (according to Marky Mark) I don't pay any attention at all to what might be playing at the movies and particularly not to any of these big budget Hollywood blockbuster debacles which seem to be basically interchangeable with one another. Especially nowadays when they've gone full OTT fantasy superhero nonsense, I have less than zero interest in any of it. I would honestly be willing to pay for the privilege of not having to sit through them.

I'm also the proud father of a 9 yo who couldn't possibly be expected to sit still or stay quiet for even a relatively short movie, so I've never once taken him out to the movies and he's never once asked me to. He generally can't even be persuaded to watch movies with me on the tellie (yes, I feel stupid as saying "tellie") he only barely has enough attention span for 10 minute Youtube videos. I did manage to get him to sit and watch that Christmas Chronicles (Kurt Russell playing Santa) movie with me on Netflix one December (2021?) and he said he liked it, but that was the last time.

But I'm not grumpy my crunchy vegan friend, it's really not my fault that your modern mainstream Gen-X/Millennial pop culture sucks so hard and I have no use for it.

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Recently watched the movie Stalker on blu ray by Criterion Collection, and loved it. This was my second time viewing the film, and my wife's first, and we were both blown away. It was made in the soviet union, so the idea is not to make a great sci-fi movie with flashy visuals and special effects, but rather to make a great sci-fi movie with a lot of philosophical content and engrossing atmosphere. A top notch movie that was actually recommended by Varg Vikernes. Unfortunately, many involved with making the movie died of cancer because it was filmed in a toxic waste dump.

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  • 4 months later...

One of my favorite sub-categories of film is the cold patient spy film. I can't get enough of it. That craving hit me pretty hard yesterday, so I rewatched The Third Man. Movie guys love to gush about the camera work in this one, but honestly the film would be tremendous even if it had the dullest shots in the world. Not that I'm unappreciative of the excellent use of shots here, but that's not where the movie gets its power.

 

It struck me the other day that one of the lesser used tropes in movies that I don't think I've ever seen pulled off successfully is the "mind palace": a visual metaphor which represents a character's conscious mind in which physical actions represent some sort of metal activity usually unnarrated or not directly told to the viewer. It's weird because you wouldn't think of that as being all that difficult to pull off. Dreamcatcher tried it and, like just about everything in the movie, it doesn't work. That super modern Sherlock show on the BBC from a few years back had it, and it worked even less. The worst example is probably The Cell. God what a mess that piece of shit was. I usually chocked the frequent failures of the trope to the difficulty of representing mental action in a visual medium being very difficult to pull off with any consistent rule set within the length of a full film, but then the most successful  example I can think, Inside Out 100% commits to the idea as its central function. Can anybody think of any examples of this being used perfectly?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I watched Barbie movie with the family.

 

It was really, really good for the most part.   Great performances,  very self aware, lots of laughs. Plot's a bit naff (Hollywood has long forgotten the art of the plot) but tolerable.

 

HOWEVER and here's a spoiler alert:

It really does portray all men as stupid, moronic or evil.   Not referring to the Kens featured in the movie (one kind of expects Ken to be a buffoon).  When Barbie goes to the real world, all the human men are stupid, moronic and/or evil.  Even the human girl's dad who gets two speaking lines is portrayed as an insensitive buffoon.  And as always the evil ones are white.

I get it's mainly directed at women but if you did a movie where every single woman was some sort of moronic housewife stereotype these days you'd be crucified (I remember the Dunkirk movie being sledged for not having any diversity despite it being about 340,000 white dudes stuck on a beach in 1940).

And it's proof culture wars exist.  Having a wife and a 10 year old daughter, I am exposed to a lot of teen viewing (all these teen witch shows and coming of age stuff) as well as romantic shows my wife's interested in (eg Bridgerton) which I might watch for 5-10 mins in between household jobs.

Some universal themes:

 

- Only good white males are usually gay (if skinny) or comedic fat guys (sadly lots of cliched goofy fat black guys too).

- Heterosexual male love interests are now invariably non-white (usually black or Indian, you still don't see any Asian males either).

- Villains are almost universally white males (sexuality non-disclosed unlike for good white males who are overtly gay).

 

 

Black Adam

Yeah this was typical DC garbage.  Even the CG was shit.

 

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Oppenheimer is definitely a movie I want to see.  I really liked Nolan's Dunkirk - one of the best war movies of all time IMO.  

1 hour ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I feel like we cultural war is increasingly creeping into mainstream entertainment as a way of quoting controversy, any publicity is good publicity. Isn’t that the same? Anyway, about the only movie coming out at the moment I’m even remotely interested in that is Oppenheimer

 

Probably but then the culture was always a mainstream media phenomenon.  I mean most of us don't give two fucks about anything much unless the media tells us to care.  

 

(But then that's always been the human way - we're mainly sheeple with a handful of leaders guiding us on our merry way.  Eg your average peasant in the medieval period didn't give a shit about Jerusalem or even knew what or where it was, but when someone with influence tells him he has to fight for the Holy Land in a Crusade, and it's pick up a spear and off to the middle east).

 

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  • 1 month later...

I rewatched Dunkirk recently, I still think it is a good movie, but I didn’t enjoy it as much on the recent viewing. Still as far as I’m concerned Christopher Nolan only has two films that aren’t worth watching, and even one of those I would still say is better than average.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The Conjuring and Jaws the last couple days. I still enjoy both but there is a reason Jaws is an auto Emma classic. Wow. The conjuring is just a decent film which spawned a terrible cinematic universe. Todays movie is Annihilation which I’ve heard good things about 40 years, but never actually watched.

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just bought some dvd boxsets for the thing and child's play series so my october is set.

37 minutes ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

The Conjuring and Jaws the last couple days. I still enjoy both but there is a reason Jaws is an auto Emma classic. Wow. The conjuring is just a decent film which spawned a terrible cinematic universe. Todays movie is Annihilation which I’ve heard good things about 40 years, but never actually watched.

Jaws was the first horror movie I ever saw. I was in 4th or 5th grade and my mom played it on our old VHS player, and I got to see it on the big screen at a theater that showed old movies with her and my older brother. It's simply a perfect movie and fun for the whole family to see before going to the beach.

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22 minutes ago, agamerwholovesmetal said:

just bought some dvd boxsets for the thing and child's play series so my october is set.

Jaws was the first horror movie I ever saw. I was in 4th or 5th grade and my mom played it on our old VHS player, and I got to see it on the big screen at a theater that showed old movies with her and my older brother. It's simply a perfect movie and fun for the whole family to see before going to the beach.

My first was Poltergeist I think. Eight year old me found it more entertaining than scary, 2 1/2 decades later the same still rings true. Jaws is perfect from the pacing, two soundtrack, but the less said about the sequels, the better.

 

Re Annihilation it’s a slow burn, interesting but not scary in the conventional sense.

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  • 2 months later...
On 2/13/2023 at 3:11 AM, JonoBlade said:

Picking up a thread from a few weeks back, somewhat unexpectedly my daughter wanted to see Avatar after we watched a making-of documentary. So we saw 1 on Friday night and then went to see 2 at IMAX on Saturday. Now it's her favourite film. 

I mean, it's a spectacle on a scale you don't see that much these days. I'd read that it drags a bit, which is inevitable in a 3 hour film, but reckoned it did a decent job of keeping the pace up.

Purely from a technical perspective it is astounding. There's plot holes you can drive a space cruiser through but, visually, you gotta hand it to Cameron.

Not for grumpy goats, though. It is the cinematic equivalent of the most noodly space prog concept album with minimum 12 minute songs imaginable.

 

I know what you mean. Cameron is so much better when he has some constraints on him. How the director who pulled an unfuckwithable classic from the no-budget smoldering wreckage of what became Aliens ended up making ebullient technicolor schlock like Avatar is beyond me. I think I'm in agreement with most people in thinking that The Abyss was a huge step down from the quality of films he had been putting out, and that was his first project where his creative freedom and ambition were allowed to run unchecked. After that it was all downhill.

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9 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

I know what you mean. Cameron is so much better when he has some constraints on him. How the director who pulled an unfuckwithable classic from the no-budget smoldering wreckage of what became Aliens ended up making ebullient technicolor schlock like Avatar is beyond me. I think I'm in agreement with most people in thinking that The Abyss was a huge step down from the quality of films he had been putting out, and that was his first project where his creative freedom and ambition were allowed to run unchecked. After that it was all downhill.

My buddy from high school produced two quotes I will always remember him for:

1. I wish I could die so I can hear the tracks I selected for my funeral playlist.

2. I wish I hadn't seen Aliens so I could watch it again and it would be like the first time.

Aliens is the one film above all others I look forward to watching with my kid. We'd probably be ok to see it now, but you can't watch it without seeing Alien first (look it up, it is an actual crime to see Aliens without first seeing Alien). I fear Alien is still just a bit too much. She hasn't recovered from The Woman in Black yet. Alien will guarantee nightmares for months.

Don't think I've ever seen The Abyss. I just knew it wasn't gonna cut it.

So many unrestrained artists peddle diminishing returns. In musical terms it is like going it alone when you've always had a good producer. 

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12 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

My buddy from high school produced two quotes I will always remember him for:

1. I wish I could die so I can hear the tracks I selected for my funeral playlist.

2. I wish I hadn't seen Aliens so I could watch it again and it would be like the first time.

Aliens is the one film above all others I look forward to watching with my kid. We'd probably be ok to see it now, but you can't watch it without seeing Alien first (look it up, it is an actual crime to see Aliens without first seeing Alien). I fear Alien is still just a bit too much. She hasn't recovered from The Woman in Black yet. Alien will guarantee nightmares for months.

Don't think I've ever seen The Abyss. I just knew it wasn't gonna cut it.

So many unrestrained artists peddle diminishing returns. In musical terms it is like going it alone when you've always had a good producer. 

I think the main issue with Cameron is that when given complete control and no budgetary considerations the excess goes into special effects. As much as we'd all like the opposite to be the case, you will never make an effects laden movie that doesn't date itself eventually. I think the original Jurassic Park is about as close as you can get, and that one utilized both computer and practical effects and is an absolute master class in why placing your actors against a green screen will never yield performances as nuanced as having practical effects they can interact with. It's the reason you can get absolutely lost in a movie like The Dark Crystal or anything from Jim Henson's studios in the 80's and 90's.

At my father's behest this week I saw The Holdovers. I always like seeing Paul Giamatti in his element and he fills the role of a grouchy college professor nicely here. I'm not surprised my dad really liked it. The tone is in the same ball park as Dead Poets Society and a really underrated movie with Michael Douglas called Wonder Boys. I liked the movie in any case.

Trying to figure out a way to avoid the annual family Christmas viewing of It's a Wonderful Life. I've successfully managed to evade it for years.  I tried explaining to my parents that I actually really like the movie and a few others from the Christmas classic cannon, but's it's almost too effective in it's delivery and I really hate indulging in that kind of molasses-thick sticky sap in audio-visual form in front of anybody. I made the mistake of telling my parents over the phone that "You guys don't get to see me like that. No one does." I've endured so much emotional battery from Pixar and other studios whenever I've had to watch my nieces and nephews over the years that I've built up my mental defenses. That movie though... like the whole back third of that movie is the cinematic equivalent of a swift kick in the balls.

They proceeded to mock me and now I'm going to have to be very careful not to get ambushed when I'm there this year. 🙄

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8 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

I have always made it clear to all my family that I find it unacceptable to have my feelings manipulated by a movie. My son agrees. We are jerks and proud of it.

Here's the thing though, I have to have at least a little begrudging admiration for a movie that can so effortlessly get past my defenses. It's absolutely maddening. I'm the type of person who will go to great lengths to safe guard against being made to look like a complete mope. What I watch by myself... sure. I'll probably watch something intentionally manipulative because there's any number of good movies out there that I wouldn't have any exposure to if I held to that standard, just not when there's others around.

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8 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

I think the main issue with Cameron is that when given complete control and no budgetary considerations the excess goes into special effects. As much as we'd all like the opposite to be the case, you will never make an effects laden movie that doesn't date itself eventually. I think the original Jurassic Park is about as close as you can get, and that one utilized both computer and practical effects and is an absolute master class in why placing your actors against a green screen will never yield performances as nuanced as having practical effects they can interact with. It's the reason you can get absolutely lost in a movie like The Dark Crystal or anything from Jim Henson's studios in the 80's and 90's.

At my father's behest this week I saw The Holdovers. I always like seeing Paul Giamatti in his element and he fills the role of a grouchy college professor nicely here. I'm not surprised my dad really liked it. The tone is in the same ball park as Dead Poets Society and a really underrated movie with Michael Douglas called Wonder Boys. I liked the movie in any case.

Trying to figure out a way to avoid the annual family Christmas viewing of It's a Wonderful Life. I've successfully managed to evade it for years.  I tried explaining to my parents that I actually really like the movie and a few others from the Christmas classic cannon, but's it's almost too effective in it's delivery and I really hate indulging in that kind of molasses-thick sticky sap in audio-visual form in front of anybody. I made the mistake of telling my parents over the phone that "You guys don't get to see me like that. No one does." I've endured so much emotional battery from Pixar and other studios whenever I've had to watch my nieces and nephews over the years that I've built up my mental defenses. That movie though... like the whole back third of that movie is the cinematic equivalent of a swift kick in the balls.

They proceeded to mock me and now I'm going to have to be very careful not to get ambushed when I'm there this year. 🙄

Jurassic Park is indeed a masterclass. I think Spielberg understands CGI is a useful tool but not a means to an end. You've gotta have a compelling story and allow your actors to feel at home in it with proper set design.

The recent Dark Crystal show on Netflix was well done I thought. It had all the puppets and sets with just a little augmentation from time to time.  Good old Jim.

Will look out for The Holdovers. Billions with Paul G finished recently. It ebbed and flowed but was pretty enjoyable overall. Damian Lewis wore a Slayer t-shirt in one of the last episodes and Angel of Death played over the credits.

I don't think I've ever had a family tradition at Christmas. Other than the usual. We certainly never watched a particular movie. Don't think I've ever seen It's a Wonderful Life.

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