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Last movie watched...

Started by SmallBlueThing, 04 February, 2011, 12:40:44 PM

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Dudley

Raw

Finally caught up with this French film. Well, that's what I call a great toe-sucking scene, and the parties were amazing. It really makes vet school look very tempting.  Certainly one of the best campus coming-of-age films I've seen in a long time, with some excellent moments of black comedy. The gay roommate in particular was a brilliant character, and I also liked the Goth sister.

JamesC

I'd say Prince of Darkness, They Live and Big Trouble are the B rate Carpenter films that could have been great.
They all have the same problem in that they seem to meander a bit around the 3/4 mark and my attention always starts to wander before the end. To a lesser extent The Thing does the same but just about manages to keep things on the boil (and the good bits are so good it still manages to get an A rating).
IMHO Assault is Carpenter's best film by a country mile, followed by Halloween. I'd put Escape in the top category as well - it manages to keep its hokey energy sustained throughout.
Even the B grade films still have plenty to love about them though.

Theblazeuk

The future messages of Prince of Darkness are by far and above my favourite part.

Tiplodocus

A STAR IS BORN
I dunno, I want my tear jerkers to actually make me cry but this just did not engage me or Mrs Tips emotionally. And she fucking well cries at anything!

There was a distracting lack of geography and establishing shots which mean I spent the first minute of each scene trying to work out where we were. Plus Bradley and Sam Elliot mumbled a lot.

Bradley and Gaga are pretty good though. Even though she blows the last scene.

More like A SHIT IS BORN.

Be excellent to each other. And party on!

Tiplodocus

(Thinking about it, the establishing shot thing was probably deliberate as it's mostly Bradley's POV and not knowing where he was at any given moment is in character. But it still didn't work for me)
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

rogue69

#12965
Recently found a 1977 animated version of the Hobbit & a 1980 animated version of The return of the King. They are simplified versions of the stories but are worth a watch for the novelty value

Apestrife

Detroit
Quite interesting film. Starts with some animated paintings portraying the abuse of afro americans in america, then jumps over to a raid on a club which leads to afro americans rioting in Detroit in the 60s. Then the focus is shifted to a very disgusting incident (which happened) of police and military terrorizing a couple of young black men in a hotel, in hopes of finding a gun (which was a toy gun), with some horrific results. Aftermath comes in the form of pictures of the real victims, as well blured of the tormentors ([spoiler]since they were never freed in court[/spoiler]).

While I don't agree on the jump between focus and scale, I found it in one way to be interesting. While the parts didn't carry each other as I believe they're intended to, it got me thinking that perhaps they do to some. Lets say someone in america who happens to be black and had some really bad experiences due to this person's race, something not made the easier to handle thanks to the history of abuse towards other afterican americans. It's not a big relevation for me, that I perhaps can't get the full "experience" of someone elses world, but I felt it was good to reminded of such. Even if this was the intention or not.

For the film itself, I found the hotel incident to be the most powerful. Which is a really ugly situation with scary power dynamics. Almost like watching a horror movie. I even found myself thinking that they could'v made it into one.

First time watching it. Felt more like an experience than a movie. I'll probably watch it again soon, see if I don't see things differently. Regardless, interesting film. A story I hope gets told more times, in different ways.

The Enigmatic Dr X

Hereditary

What a disappointment.

Ponderously dull, this two hour film meanders through a lot of nothing for the first 110 minutes before descending into cliche.

The [spoiler]decapitation[/spoiler] half an hour in is a stand out shock but, really, this is not worth your time.

It plods along giving the characters nothing to do - Gabriel Byrne is criminally wasted - and seems to mistake bass rumbling for plot development. Is there anything as lazy as a rumbling soundtrack to signpost "this is meant to be tense and/or scary"? Although that is needed here, as the writing is neither.
Lock up your spoons!

Jim_Campbell

#12968
‪Good word of mouth overcame my resistance to some very lacklustre trailers for Alita: Battle Angel. Glad I went — it's good. Never read the manga, so have no idea how it compares, but the film is a solidly entertaining couple of hours. ‬
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Mattofthespurs

Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 16 February, 2019, 01:36:20 PM
Hereditary

What a disappointment.

Ponderously dull, this two hour film meanders through a lot of nothing for the first 110 minutes before descending into cliche.

The [spoiler]decapitation[/spoiler] half an hour in is a stand out shock but, really, this is not worth your time.

It plods along giving the characters nothing to do - Gabriel Byrne is criminally wasted - and seems to mistake bass rumbling for plot development. Is there anything as lazy as a rumbling soundtrack to signpost "this is meant to be tense and/or scary"? Although that is needed here, as the writing is neither.

Could not disagree more, but I value your opinion.

The Enigmatic Dr X

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 16 February, 2019, 02:17:02 PM
‪Good word of mouth overcame my resistance to some very lacklustre trailers for Alita: Battle Angel. Glad I went — it's good. Never read the manga, so have no idea how it compares, but the film is a solidly entertaining couple of hours. ‬

I enjoyed this too. Didn't know what to expect. I thought my kids would love it, but it didn't resonate with an 11 and 14 year old.
Lock up your spoons!

Mardroid

I'm kind of on the fence about watching Battle Angel Alita.

The large eyed CGI of the main character irritates me a bit for some reason. I was under the understanding that she had the large eyed look in the original media due to the fact all the characters are drawn that way*, and I think it's even more exaggerated with females.

If that's the case, in translation to live action, shouldn't she just look like a young woman? At least until part of her flesh gets scraped away... So why not just have a young actress in the role on screen, rather than through motion capture? (Fair dues, that's a major job in itself, probably actually harder than being on-screen. I'm not knocking motion capture characters in any way.)

I guess her unique appearance is an intentional part of the story, a way of showing that she is visually unique,
and in danger of prejudism as a result, bit suspect that could have been done another way. I don't have anything against that in itself, but I wonder if it strays from the intentions of the original for an excuse for Cameron and co to push the envelope of what is possible with CGI. I actually like CGI, but I feel it should serve the story, not the other way around.

On the other hand, reviews here seem largely positive, which is swaying me. And....*

*having never read the manga or an the anime, I could be wrong here.

Rara Avis

You might like

https://youtu.be/rcnQ7Dlk_Ks

Quote from: rogue69 on 16 February, 2019, 09:56:46 AM
Recently found a 1977 animated version of the Hobbit & a 1980 animated version of The return of the King. They are simplified versions of the stories but are worth a watch for the novelty value

Rara Avis

I'm with Matt on this one, really thought this was good. I'll never watch it again though ..

Quote from: Mattofthespurs on 16 February, 2019, 03:18:11 PM
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 16 February, 2019, 01:36:20 PM
Hereditary

What a disappointment.

Ponderously dull, this two hour film meanders through a lot of nothing for the first 110 minutes before descending into cliche.

The [spoiler]decapitation[/spoiler] half an hour in is a stand out shock but, really, this is not worth your time.

It plods along giving the characters nothing to do - Gabriel Byrne is criminally wasted - and seems to mistake bass rumbling for plot development. Is there anything as lazy as a rumbling soundtrack to signpost "this is meant to be tense and/or scary"? Although that is needed here, as the writing is neither.

Could not disagree more, but I value your opinion.

Apestrife

Quote from: Mardroid on 16 February, 2019, 05:57:44 PM
I'm kind of on the fence about watching Battle Angel Alita.

The large eyed CGI of the main character irritates me a bit for some reason. I was under the understanding that she had the large eyed look in the original media due to the fact all the characters are drawn that way*, and I think it's even more exaggerated with females.

If that's the case, in translation to live action, shouldn't she just look like a young woman? At least until part of her flesh gets scraped away... So why not just have a young actress in the role on screen, rather than through motion capture? (Fair dues, that's a major job in itself, probably actually harder than being on-screen. I'm not knocking motion capture characters in any way.)

I guess her unique appearance is an intentional part of the story, a way of showing that she is visually unique,
and in danger of prejudism as a result, bit suspect that could have been done another way. I don't have anything against that in itself, but I wonder if it strays from the intentions of the original for an excuse for Cameron and co to push the envelope of what is possible with CGI. I actually like CGI, but I feel it should serve the story, not the other way around.

On the other hand, reviews here seem largely positive, which is swaying me. And....*

*having never read the manga or an the anime, I could be wrong here.

Wasn't sure either. Went in and saw it with two friends. Quite entertaining movie. The effects didn't bother me at all, in fact I thought she was brilliantly done. Only times she became an effect for me was when giving it some thought how good I thought the actress -underneath- was. I think the big eyes thing even served the story [spoiler]thanks to the flashbacks[/spoiler].

Only thing which bothered me now and then was how brutal it was. Movie starts "soft" on details (for example cutting away before someone gets a blowtorch in their face) but later on it's show all with cyborgs getting their limbs and faces cut off. Even if it's essentially just "metal", the ones on the recieving end of loosing half their face seems pretty bothered by it.

All and all. I quite recommend it. Really good action and Rosa Salazar is brilliant in the role as Alita.