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Last movie watched...

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

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Barrington Boots

I've also just finished Army of the Dead, which I had to watch over a couple of sittings as it's so long.

I thought it was alright... for an action movie it was fairly enjoyable but Grud was it self-indulgent. Aside from the vast running time it was full of homages to other films and dangling plot threads thrown in and then not touched upon again, supposedly either to generate loads of fan speculation or to seed for a sequel. [spoiler]Time loops? Robots? UFOs? And what happened to the woman they rescued?[/spoiler]
A lot of that felt like very flabby filmaking - as though freed from the contraints of a traditional cinema release, Snyder basically did what he wanted with nobody to answer to. It feels... annoying, like I've been mildly trolled.
I did like him trying something different with the zombie 'society' even though it seemed nonsensical and the CGI veered from impressive (Tig) to bad (tiger). Opening credits were great. Not a waste of my time, but not something I'd watch again.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

Funt Solo

She was a macguffin, to answer your question.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Professor Bear

WOMEN AREN'T JUST THINGS, YOU DINOSAUR.

Quote from: Barrington Boots on 28 May, 2021, 10:58:18 AM[spoiler]Time loops? Robots? UFOs? And what happened to the woman they rescued?[/spoiler]

Now, I'm not saying the movie isn't stupid and often illogical, but a lot of the problems I see people having with it are often easily solved by giving it the benefit of the doubt and a couple of moment's thought.

[spoiler]"Time loops" was foreshadowing, and an allusion to the end of the film.  The guy who mentions "everything beginning again" is the one responsible for the virus escaping quarantine, hence his saying "fuck" at the end when he realises that he's responsible for the next zombie outbreak.  This is also meta-commentary, as I don't think there's a single person watching who doesn't know how this movie ends, and Zack Snyder knows it.
The UFO stuff was a reference to one of America's worst-kept secrets: the existence/location of Area 51/Groom Lake, and the conversation about UFOs establishes where the military convoy we see at the start has come from, but also that UFOs are something only crackpots believe in.  It's scene-setting, though as hilariously unsubtle as this sequence is, apparantly it was reshot to include explicit references to Las Vegas because audiences thought the UFO stuff was meant to be literal (the groom was originally played by James Franco, who wasn't available for the reshoots).
The woman they rescued died in the king zombie attack/helicopter crash along with Tig.  Narratively speaking, this makes the surviving character the "parent" of the children seen earlier, so she is adopting the difficult role her father once had and which led to their estrangement.  This resolution is also a loop of sorts, though the obvious implication is that she has come to understand her father's experiences and can forgive him.
[/spoiler]

milstar

#15753
Kuffs

Well, this one is one of those "so bad it's good" movies. Uneven in tone (is it an action film or parody of action film?), violent, yet lighthearted, with cheesy, crappy jokes (that you still laugh at), and the plot absolutely ridiculous. Christian Slater from his younger years plays irresponsible dropout who gets to commando a special police unit after his cop brother was gunned down. And like in every such movie, that operates on Beverly Hills Cop level (btw, the score heavily reminescences BHC), the main character manages to solve the case his way. But, one thing doesn't exist in Beverly Hills Cop; the main character constantly breaking the fourth wall, I can't but not to blame Ferris Bueller for that. The rest of the  main cast is so-so. Milla Jovovich looks hm...(and she was only 15 then; may I say that she looked gorgeous?) and she comes quite sympathetic here. Tony Goldwyn is awful or miscast. And so is that. Action scenes look decent, but not particularly remarkable.

All in all: stupid, trashy fun. And did I mentioned that Christian Slater spends significant part of the movie awkwardly bare-chested?
Reyt, you lot. Shut up, belt up, 'n if ye can't see t' bloody exit, ye must be bloody blind.

Barrington Boots

Good post there Prof. Bear, but I suspect the point of these things being in the film is purely to stimulate discussion / get nerds applying some critical analysis to this film when in reality they were just randomly inserted for a laugh - the time stuff being the most annoying because it blatantly IS [spoiler]the bodies of the cast[/spoiler] in the vault, and the film brings the viewers attention to it, but then doesn't follow it up. Of course I may be hugely underestimating Zack Snyder here. Maybe the whole thing is a dream and there'll be a Nolan-esque sequel.

With regards the vanishing of [spoiler]Geeta, I also think the assumption is that she died in the chopper crash which of course renders the entire second half of the mission pointless, as everybody died for nothing. Yeah, Kate now a lot of cash but I'm pretty sure those kids would rather have their Mum.
If we're looking for themes of parenthood, not only is there the the resolution of the conflict between Scott and Kate and but the thwarted birth of mega-king-zombie and in a wider take, said super zombie's status as 'father' to the advanced zombies meaning the whole film is totally about being a dad. [/spoiler]

Anyway, pretty sure I've now thought about this film more than anyone needs to.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

Colin YNWA

Late to the Into the Spider-verse party but saw it was on All 4 so in an attempt to get the boychild to watch something other than gaming videos I 'made' him watch it with me while I ironed. I had to stop ironing after an 1hr 15 minutes as I was enjoying it so much and struggling to concentrate.

Man that film is a blast. I know there's a lot of this stuff in the comics but the fact almost all of it was new to me made it feel like it was doing it own thing - not trying to cram a comic story into a medium it wasn't made for. And it really worked. Really well. Funny, charming, exciting and even the over the top nonsense MEGA ENDING thing actually made perfect nonsense in the context of the movie.

Just brilliant.

Oh and the best thing is they based the Kingpin on Bill Sienkiewicz's Kingpin in Daredevil - Love and War that really pleased me for some reason - though his voice sulked.

So yeah excited to see they are making a sequel BUT alas the biy hasn't asked to read any of my Spidey comics... still work to do...

Funt Solo

Quote from: Barrington Boots on 01 June, 2021, 03:07:34 PM
...the time stuff being the most annoying because it blatantly IS [spoiler]the bodies of the cast[/spoiler] in the vault, and the film brings the viewers attention to it...

SPOILERS AHOY FROM ME HERE...

We could allow for some ambiguity - and the idea that other teams have been sent in before and that they're just (like the similar team in Shaun of the Dead) very similar to the team we're witnessing, but not the same.

It could be a commentary on the idea that the workers are being exploited, in a way they've always been, by "the man", with a promise of potential riches at the end of the rainbow.

It could be that we can't trust the camera's view of the world, because the team are going mad with stress, so ... so is the camera.

Or it could be some weird, unexplained Easter egg time loop shit that upsets the narrative, like you say.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

The Enigmatic Dr X

Read that there's another team at a table in the casino in the same attire.

This whole thing has a host of blink and you'll miss it things, including the [spoiler]UFOs[/spoiler] at the start and the [spoiler]robot zombie[/spoiler].

Also, Geeta apparently [spoiler]die die on camera but then her death was cut as a consequence of the pilot being recast[/spoiler]. It was impractical to impose CGI on the shot as needed.
Lock up your spoons!

Funt Solo

++ A-Z ++  coma ++

CalHab

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 01 June, 2021, 05:20:35 PM
Late to the Into the Spider-verse party but saw it was on All 4 so in an attempt to get the boychild to watch something other than gaming videos I 'made' him watch it with me while I ironed. I had to stop ironing after an 1hr 15 minutes as I was enjoying it so much and struggling to concentrate.

Man that film is a blast. I know there's a lot of this stuff in the comics but the fact almost all of it was new to me made it feel like it was doing it own thing - not trying to cram a comic story into a medium it wasn't made for. And it really worked. Really well. Funny, charming, exciting and even the over the top nonsense MEGA ENDING thing actually made perfect nonsense in the context of the movie.

Just brilliant.

Oh and the best thing is they based the Kingpin on Bill Sienkiewicz's Kingpin in Daredevil - Love and War that really pleased me for some reason - though his voice sulked.

So yeah excited to see they are making a sequel BUT alas the biy hasn't asked to read any of my Spidey comics... still work to do...

Spider-Verse, and I realise this may get me booted off the board, is without doubt the greatest film adaptation of a comic. It revels in playing with comic book tropes while adding some of the greatest animation seen in a film. It's outstanding.

Fortunately my daughter agrees. She's more interested in Gwen and Spider-Ham than Miles Morales or Peter Parker, though.

pictsy

Aeon Flux

I really like the cartoon.  Was thinking about it recently.  So I decided to watch the film.  Again.

I have a soft spot for the film.  I have a soft spot for a lot of average sci-fi action films.  I don't know why anyone thought that trying to transfer Aeon Flux to the big screen using traditional story telling would work.  As an adaptation, it is awful.  The cartoon relies heavily on reference and metaphor.  At least the film tries to explore one of the themes, identity.

Anyway, as a film on its own merits it is fine.  What it lifts from the cartoon works in its favour.  The organic style of the art direction works in its favour.  The action is okay.  The plot is coherent.  There are worse ways to spend an evening.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: CalHab on 02 June, 2021, 09:48:43 AM
Spider-Verse, and I realise this may get me booted off the board, is without doubt the greatest film adaptation of a comic. It revels in playing with comic book tropes while adding some of the greatest animation seen in a film. It's outstanding.


Its hard to argue and while I completely accept the local interest surrounding at least one film Spider-verse is just really, rerally well done.

Barrington Boots

You're a dark horse, Boots.

milstar

Blade Runner (International theatrical cut)

Well, I asked for the voice-over version; I inadvertently got it, on the telly. The moment Deckard explains his job, I thought "oh, great, finally some clarification". The only version of BR that I familiar with was Final Cut.
Anyway, I never thought of BR as one of the greatest movies of all time. Maybe because I thought of it as a blockbuster action film, which only superficially is true about the movie. I like to think that the movie poster where Deckard was looming with his badass pistol over the city was responsible for that. That and some deep shit philosophy. Oh well...
Still, I gotta acknowledge its craft of filmmaking. Ofcourse, the visual look and scenery are nothing short of breathtaking and even 40 years after, it doesn't lose its dazzling flair. And I find the movie pretty unique for the 1980s; in fact, placing BR in any decade wouldn't do it fairly. On the technical level, attention to detail is just brilliant. And despite the epic look of it, I never got that feeling. Tight, murky, cluttered corridors, copious use of close-ups give rather a claustrophobic feel. The music score is beautiful and haunting and fits the scenery and atmosphere on the spot. I also liked how the film adopts noir antics into a futuristic setting. The morally ambiguous protagonist, dark, rainy backgrounds, the Venetian blinds, pessimistic worldview; and despised by some, the voice-over, uttered in typically grumpy, disinterested Harrison Ford's fashion, that somehow adds well to the noirish feel. There ends what I liked about the film. Downsides... well, it's obviously the pacing. The movie just drags and loses momentum in the second hour, which he could be summed to Batty goading JF Sebastian into gaining access to Tyrell, Batty kills Tyrell, Deckard hunts Pris, and Batty...and that's it. The characters in the film are rather empty and impenetrable; Batty is a somewhat more interesting character than Ford's bland and unremarkable as protagonist Deckard; the relationship between Deckard and Rachel (Rachel is awful as femme fatale) is rather awkward (although I get it that the movie tries to make Deckard as alone, miserable man (?!) in search for love, but that doesn't excuse the infamous forcing Rachel to kiss him) and while I do appreciate some philosophical points that the movie tries to raise, it ultimately falls under its own weight by biting into too much deep bullshit of it, helped by its unanimous ambiguity which makes all those points come rather flat. As if someone took all thought-provoking ramblings of humanity and compiled them into a single movie.

This cut? Well, I appreciate the voice-over use, it makes the film slightly less confusing.
And while this cut is excised of the scenes with the Unicorn, a few subtle hints still remain which indicate that Deckard is possibly the Replicant himself (like when Rachel asks him did he ever take the test on himself).

The best SF by milstar? That'd be 2001 or to a lesser extent - The Matrix.
Reyt, you lot. Shut up, belt up, 'n if ye can't see t' bloody exit, ye must be bloody blind.

CalHab

Quote from: milstar on 02 June, 2021, 07:00:41 PM
Blade Runner (International theatrical cut)
.... and while I do appreciate some philosophical points that the movie tries to raise, it ultimately falls under its own weight by biting into too much deep bullshit of it, helped by its unanimous ambiguity which makes all those points come rather flat. As if someone took all thought-provoking ramblings of humanity and compiled them into a single movie.
......
The best SF by milstar? That'd be 2001 or to a lesser extent - The Matrix.

Hmmm.