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

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I, Cosh

Quote from: TordelBack on 23 April, 2021, 10:21:23 AM
Funny you should say that, I used to have a similar problem with Starship Troopers (I'm over it now). At the time, smart pals assured me how bitingly satirical and Riefenstahl-literate it all was, but the vast majority of people I knew seemed to think it was an uplifting militarist romp with tits and Doogie Howser, a conclusion not readily challenged by a reading of the novel.
Interesting. At the time I quite enjoyed Starship Troopers but thought the satire was way too broad compared to the intellectual subtlety of Robocop! My pal, conversely, loved it and saw an element of social commentary lacking from the earlier film.

This led to an argument about the relative merits of the various works of Mr Verhoeven wherein it emerged that he'd only ever seen Robocop on ITV with all the little news reports and adverts and the like cut out to fit into the 9pm slot.

Mobile Infantry made me the man I am today!
We never really die.

I, Cosh

Quote from: I, Cosh on 23 April, 2021, 04:48:36 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 23 April, 2021, 10:21:23 AM
Funny you should say that, I used to have a similar problem with Starship Troopers (I'm over it now). At the time, smart pals assured me how bitingly satirical and Riefenstahl-literate it all was, but the vast majority of people I knew seemed to think it was an uplifting militarist romp with tits and Doogie Howser, a conclusion not readily challenged by a reading of the novel.
Interesting. At the time I quite enjoyed Starship Troopers but thought the comedy was way too broad compared to the intellectual subtlety of Robocop! My pal, conversely, loved it and saw an element of social commentary lacking from the earlier film.

This led to an argument about the relative merits of the various works of Mr Verhoeven wherein it emerged that he'd only ever seen Robocop on ITV with all the little news reports and adverts and the like cut out to fit into the 9pm slot.

Mobile Infantry made me the man I am today!
We never really die.

Funt Solo

#15617
Who needs a knife in a nuke fight?

If for no other reason, the scene that propels the movie into the realms of genius.

---

The Next Three Days - The Shit Three Days, more like. Russel's wife is found guilty of a murder she didn't commit, so (after an off-screen, two year court case) he decides the best thing to do for her and his young son is to spring her from jail, murder some low-life drug dealers to get some ready cash and then go on the lam to south america.

I've spoilered it for you, but it's really beyond spoiling because it makes no sense at all. He's only gone and made their lives as a group much worse.

Best scene: rather than explain why she disagrees with him, she half falls out of a speeding motor vehicle on a busy highway. This brings them closer together - and they psychically communicate their next actions by briefly grazing their pinky fingers together.
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TordelBack

#15618
Quote from: I, Cosh on 23 April, 2021, 04:49:12 PM
... he'd only ever seen Robocop on ITV with all the little news reports and adverts and the like cut out to fit into the 9pm slot.

Unequivocally the best bits! Well, I suppose Ed-209 in the boardroom is still hard to beat.

Should clarify that I fully accept that the intent behind Starship Troopers is satirical,  and it works great on that level and I very much enjoy it as a fun watch, I just think that in so enthusiastically piling on all that gorgeous smiley flesh, uglying up the Other with a high-water mark in CGI and infusing the propaganda with stirring tones, it badly overshot. Cynical me says that that part was also intentional.

(See also Apocalypse Now, a film whose legacy is less modernisation of Conrad's themes and more pickup horns blaring Wagner and overweight men being wistful about the Proustian qualities of napalm).

repoman

Mortal Kombat (2021)

After the first scene I was ready to proclaim it the film of the year and everything I want from an MK film.  However the film goes off the rails quite badly after that thanks to some poor casting, dreadful CGI, dreary storytelling and slow pacing.

I genuinely prefer the 1995 film over it but there were some good moments too.  And Kano was great.

Colin YNWA

Shazam!

I mean he is called the Big Red Cheese and boy this film really plays with being nothing more than a big melty lump of it. But just about avoids it. Its does nothing new so hard it has no right to be any good. Yet it carries itself with such charm and a deep sense of fun that it utterly gets away with a multitude of sins by some force of good will.

Enjoyed it - I shouldn't have but best superhero movie I've seen in an age.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 24 April, 2021, 10:35:53 PM
Enjoyed it - I shouldn't have but best superhero movie I've seen in an age.

I'm going to say this yet again: if the DCEU's first three movies out of the gate had been Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Shazam, they'd have avoided the fucking mess that they landed themselves in. All three have good hearts and are, to varying degrees, entertaining, great fun, and thematically important. I'd add Birds of Prey as an outlier but still worthwhile.

Gunn's Suicide Squad 2 looks like it'll land in the same ballpark as those and I keep hoping (against hope!) that this will be the direction that DC's movies will take over the angst and pseudo-psychological drama of Joker and the Snyder JL cut.
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pictsy

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 24 April, 2021, 11:18:40 PM
Gunn's Suicide Squad 2 looks like it'll land in the same ballpark as those and I keep hoping (against hope!) that this will be the direction that DC's movies will take over the angst and pseudo-psychological drama of Joker and the Snyder JL cut.

Amen to that. 

I've got superhero fatigue.  Lost total interest in the MCU.  DC are still a mixed bag.  I'll consider watching Suicide Squad 2 and maybe whatever weird trash Sony dumps out (I liked Venom... I liked Tom Hardy in Venom).  Otherwise I probably be avoiding them.

Dandontdare

Yeah, the MCU worked because they preserved the essential fun and silliness of the whole comics thing, however serious the storyline. Now Batman is a character that is well suited to a darker interpretation, but once they try to build the whole DCU around that you end up with a load of grim not very fun movies. Shazam was an ouitlier, it was a great romp.

I still think Tim Burton got the balance between Adam West and Frank Miller just about right.

milstar

Well, I got sick and tired of superheroes and I have seen about as half of them all. A movie like Joker came as welcome refreshment, but that movie isn't a comic book movie. Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese were right about superheroes. When I saw End Game, I thought they flat out wasted supposed 300 milion $ budget, if only because I have seen movies that look better with double less money spent on.
Reyt, you lot. Shut up, belt up, 'n if ye can't see t' bloody exit, ye must be bloody blind.

Hawkmumbler

Aquaman was the best Saint Seiya movie we got that wasn't actually adapting Saint Seiya.

Sharks with freaking lasers attached to their heads.

MacabreMagpie

On a whim, I watched the Super Mario Bros movie again at the weekend as I saw it was on Prime. Must be the only other time I've seen it since it first came out.

It's..... not.... terrible? Not exactly a Super Mario story, for sure and the fact it's set in a dystopian world is bizarre for that franchise but, hey, I like dystopian fiction.

It's not GOOD by any stretch but it falls firmly into "enjoyably bad" for me.

pictsy

Mortal Kombat

Not as good as last year's animation, better than the '95 outing.  I'm still very unsure about the new character that's not from the game.  The movie is hard to think about because it does come across as a feature length prologue.  If there is a sequel then I'm interest in seeing what they do.  If there isn't, this film is somewhat a waste of time.  Not the first time that's happened.  Looking at you, Warcraft.

Buttonman

Stowaway - Shit away more like. I quite fancied the premise of this extra passenger found on board a trip to Mars ala Tintin : Destination Moon , in fact Tintin has several - the Thompsons and [spoiler]that moustached foreign bloke[/spoiler] but I digress.

Strangely they find the unwilling passenger 12 hours out but decide to keep on with the two year trip to Mars and back. No one did a head count before they sealed the doors? Anyway, predictably oxygen becoes an issue - duh! - and terrible decisions have to be made - mostly affecting the plot and dialogue.

The film becomes quest as a handy hut full of oxygen is discovered but a few Galaxy Quest style obstacles away. Massive chunks of the film are spent getting there and then getting back there again. There is sacrifice and an uncertain ending and zero thrills.

I like Anna Kendrick and Toni Collette but they didn't convince as space explorers and the whole thing was a dull disjointed mess. 5/10 territory.

Funt Solo

I got some way into that last-night before lights out - I thought that interview where we don't hear the questions, whilst noble in intent (let's reflect reality a bit) was just pants in execution. It was like a giant banner across the screen saying "you're watching a movie - the makers of which did this on purpose".

So ... pants. And not in a good way.
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