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The Muppets

This is the 2011 Jason Segal (sp) movie.

I enjoyed it and Amy Adams(?) song "Party of One" is a great little number. The central character motivations and story arcs are good too. The main "Plot line" is so prefunctory to the premise of the movie that it only gets resolved in the credit sequence.

Overall, it made me want another Muppets big screen film and to go find DVDs of the old shows. Mission accomplished I guess.

Watched Tenet.

"Remember the word Tenet. It is very powerful. Use it only in emergency."



I guess the film was entertaining enough, but the time jumping gets a bit tedious.

I did it to myself.

I saw the movie 'Domain" made in 2018 at a dollar tree store for guess.

The premise of people locked in pods to survive a plague seemed eerily intriguing, and in the early moments of the film there were news soundbites of the plague reaching our shores, riots over emergency medical equipment people needed to keep loved ones alive. rising death tolls, yeah, for the days when that was all fiction...


You began to know something was up early on because the bunkers functioned too well.

It was a dark movie that got darker and darker until the ending made the center of a black hole look bright and cheery.

Not really recommendable. Not bad for it' obvious sofa cushion change budget and some decent acting, but just too dark and depressing in these dark depressing days to recommend.

It really downed me, andI did it to myself....

@Matt Swain: Almost sounds interesting due to low budget, but the topic and your warnings make me refrain from seeking it out.

I watched two films.

Suburbicon (2017)

Set in the 1960s in US suburbs, which basically is a gated community. Possibly not by design, but by core. Then a black family moves in. And then things start to happen to their neighboring family. I think it's best not to reveal any more about the plot.

Originally written by the Coen brothers in the 1980s, George Clooney picked it up over 10 years ago, then it went through a whole lot of development stuff, Clooney wanted to direct and star in it, but eventually decided to just direct, leaving the starring male role to Matt Damon (the female lead's played by Julianne Moore), Woody Harrelson was cast in the film (and I bet I know which role he would have gotten), Josh Brolin actually was in the film, but didn't make the final cut, and so on. Interesting stuff.

Speaking of which - interesting film. After the first sentence on here, Clooney directing and the rest of the cast I think it's kinda clear which direction this is going. AMERICA! SOCIETY! And the problems thereof. It's interesting how the film runs two separate storylines which barely cross, and rather actively refuse to to have anyhting to do with each other. Which makes sense and it is something to be noted. There are one or two central phrases to the film which resonate strongly, and there's a really impactful moment towards the end of the film.

For some reason this was advertised as a comedy. I have NO idea how you would get to that conclusion. Maybe on second or third viewing it can be viewed as a dark comedy, but the first watch certainly holds few laughs. Things are a bit unsettling from the start and then start spiralling out of control.

It's a nice film. I mean it's okay. Some things could have been more subdued, and more and more I feel like Hollywood films could do with 80% less music. Anyway, it's an interesting one and can be watched. Watch It, if you wanna see an interesting film. And we all should every now and then. It's not 'tough to watch'. It's a broad Hollywood film, it's got got actors in it, things happen all the time.



Glory (1989)

Right after that film I watched another film (just so I exhaust all the watchable films on bloody Netflix right now). It's a war film about the first coloured regiment set up by the Union army during the American civil war. I'd seen it a long time ago on TV, recently friends of mine brought it up and agreed that it was pretty good. I didn't remember it as being so good. A few weeks ago those friends and I started meeting for boardgaming again (outside, keeping a distance). That week the play date was cancelled, because there was a possibly corona case at one friend's wife's workplace. So instead I watched Glory.

Maybe it helps that I watched the original english language version for the first time. It's a good film, avoiding some hollywood trappings (well, SOME). But I'll cut war films some slack in terms of flag-waving and pathos. At least this one, because I think it does it right. There's some cheesy stuff in there (Denzel Washington's single manly tear, but he pulls it off), but it's all easy to sit through. The battle scenes are alright, the dynamics between characters are interesting, the officer's job Matthew Broderick's character is thrust into, ... all well done.

As far as films about the american civil war go, this certainly is one of the better ones. I enjoyed it. Watch It.

Did you watch the end credits scrolling over the the actual bronze at the end? Those were made from pictures of him and the soldiers themselves. I found that little scene to be utterly moving.

Give em Hell 54th!

Glory is often considered one of the "best" war films pretty consistently.

We watched The Last Starfighter. Afterwards my wife described it as a surprisingly fun movie. It’s fast paced with just enough hints of background to give you the bigger picture without slowing the film down by showing much. The characters are memorable and just shy of wacky. The effects seem to “work” better now than they did when the movie was new because no one today expects a modestly budgeted 80’s sci fi flick to have realistic CGI.

The Last Starfighter?

"What do we do now?"

Eyepiece flips down....
"We Die!"

 Easy E wrote:
The Last Starfighter?

"What do we do now?"

Eyepiece flips down....
"We Die!"

That and “Ramming Speed!” are the two lines we quote every time we play a spaceship game, from BFG to DFC.

A classic, classic line in a villain death so iconic that Devlin and Emmerich essentially ripped it off twice.

 Sigur wrote:
@Matt Swain: Almost sounds interesting due to low budget, but the topic and your warnings make me refrain from seeking it out.

Sigur, if you're interested in domain i'd suggest you try "400 days".

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/400-days-film-review-856760

If you want a low budget intelligent film, try "Coherence"

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/coherence-2014

I recently viewed "Annihilation" with natelie portman and found it fairly good.

Hope these help, they're all less despair inducing that domain.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
The Last Starfighter?

"What do we do now?"

Eyepiece flips down....
"We Die!"

That and “Ramming Speed!” are the two lines we quote every time we play a spaceship game, from BFG to DFC.

A classic, classic line in a villain death so iconic that Devlin and Emmerich essentially ripped it off twice.

Don't forget to say "Forget the guns!" first.

Hmm, in the age of sail a command to ready for battle was "Run out the guns!" This was when you can old cannons behind wood doors that had to be opened and the guns physically pushed into firing position.

It might be cool to see a sf movie where the weapons were behind armored panels nd had to be 'ran out' before battle.

Ramming speed was immortalized to me in Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers when a captain Nemo-esque fish says....

"Ramming Speed Mr. Starfish!"

I wish I could find a clip on youtube or somewhere, but it is sealed into my mind and my go to quote when playing Naval games.

Ramming speed mr starfish....sounds kind of kinky, or considered kinky in 2005.

My big Rescue Rangers memory is the Cuckoo Cola song.

If you like ramming, remember this?

https://youtu.be/bXq3dytL6ZA

Or how about this?

https://youtu.be/LPbEvezZrWs

Personally think these two are beter than TLS's ramming bit. How much courage does it take a battleship to ram a crippled fighter? At l;east enterprise and galactica rammed comparable sized targets.

None of those beat Babylon 5’s ramming attack in Severed Dreams.

Europa report.

if you haven't seenh this yet, see it ASAP.

'nuff said.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Ramming speed mr starfish....sounds kind of kinky, or considered kinky in 2005.

My big Rescue Rangers memory is the Cuckoo Cola song.

Brother!

I also recall the episode with Sewernose the Opera singing gator. The song in that still sticks with me!

All of the surviving cast of The Princess Bride (Must Watch) did a table read of the entire script: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ocvLC2Hs54

Colossal

Well that was odd, all sorts of clever going on but Princess Mia kept detailing my thought train with her general cuddlesomeness, worth a watch

Knight's Tale

Still very silly but a lot of fun

To keep on the Heath Ledger train.....

10 Things I Hate About You

A classic. Makes a great double feature with Clueless.

"Spaced invaders". A low budget sfifi comedy about particulalry inept martians trying to invade eart on halloween after picking up a rebroadcast of orson wells' "WotW" radio broadcast.

Pretty funny and fun for the whole family, the kids can watch it safely.

I love Spaced Invaders! Great family movie.


In a similar vein, Mom and Dad Save the World is just the dumbest fun. “Pick me up.” Diabolical.


....Although it does star Jeffrey Jones, so that might be an issue.

Threads
Depressing as feth, but a brilliant film nonetheless.

The War Game
Um... see above. I watched them as a double bill.

 DalekCheese wrote:
Threads
Depressing as feth, but a brilliant film nonetheless.

The War Game
Um... see above. I watched them as a double bill.

speaking of british nuclear war movies, wasn't there one where at the end the survivors in a village kill some british government officials who were at least partially responsible for the war? ISTR something about that fut full recollection eludes just now.

Rewatched Ant-Man and the sequel a few days ago. The first one holds up well and the second is better than I remember but still rather disposable. I think it mostly suffers from not having the strong heist movie pitch of the first. Humorously, during the bit where Pym dives into the Quantum realm, I kept thinking his suit looks like a recolored costume for Kang. I'll be interesting if that's where the sequel really ends up going.

I feel the Ant-Man sequel suffered because of its timing.

It followed Infinity War, which was pretty colossal in terms of impact.

So I choose to consider it a palette cleanser. A stripped back “our films are fun” affair, which plot wise couldn’t tread on its bigger brother’s narrative toes.

Like Age of Ultron, my opinion increased when I saw what followed. And how that film slotted in to the overall universe.

It was definitely more interesting to watch out of sequence with the rest of the films. It stands as a sequel to the first better, but it still feels a little disjointed. Ghost's arc is weird and resolves even weirder. I actually quite like that the tension is more about the science of rescuing Jan but the mix of a tragic villain and two overly campy antagonists doesn't quite gel for me. It's still good, just a little weaker than its predecessor.

 Matt Swain wrote:

 DalekCheese wrote:
Threads
Depressing as feth, but a brilliant film nonetheless.

The War Game
Um... see above. I watched them as a double bill.

speaking of british nuclear war movies, wasn't there one where at the end the survivors in a village kill some british government officials who were at least partially responsible for the war? ISTR something about that fut full recollection eludes just now.

I’m not sure. It sounds vaguely familiar.
Off-topic but related (British, nuclear war): Brother in the Land is a brilliant book.

The man who shot Liberty ValanceJohn Wayne is one of the most over rated actors to have existed, and he doesn't blemish that record here.
It's fortunate that the rest of the cast, the story and the directing are top notch.
A truly great film.

Two adult comedies that are worth a watch:

Orgazmo. A movie by the South Park guys about a Mormon missionary who becomes a famous porno superhero. Surprisingly quotable.

The Auteur. It’s like Best in Show or A Mighty Wind, but about a film festival celebrating the Kubrick of pornography. I wasn’t expecting to like it, but I was absorbed start to finish.

 Sigur wrote:

Glory (1989)

Thank you for that recommendation - I didn't know about it, found it on sky and very much enjoyed it.