Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Alien vs Predator:

Really, the title is the review. Do you like these two franchises? Yes. Do you *really* care about the plot that puts them together? No. Will you have fun watching iconic members of both Xenos kill each other? Yes.

Summary: A contrivance brings otherwise intelligent people to take stupid risks. Unsurprisingly, a bunch of people get traumatic chest rearrangements. Aliens kill a bunch of characters, until we have two survivors. Final battle with the big-bad, one survivor makes it out alive... to freeze / starve to death right quick.

Analysis: Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. We have satellites that detect heat signatures in the Antarctic, but don’t notice an alien space ship landing there? This movie is all about style over substance. A brief and briefly amusing what-if scenario spanning two movie series with a nostalgic nod here and there.

For my wife and I, the advertising materials focused on “AVP”, which happen to be my wife’s initials. One of the scientists’ character names, that gets all chest-burst, is Thomas Parks, and that’s my name. An amusing coincidence that leads us to rewatch this movie every couple of years. I can’t imagine why anyone else would rewatch it, though.

Highlander: The Source

Oh dear me.

Poor Adrian Paul..... he really must have been desperate for money to be in this thing. The direction was one level above music video. The ideas in the script..... were just bad and they should feel bad.

This. is. bad.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

This is QT's latest flick and as of this writing still in the movie theater. There maybe some spoilers ahead.

This is another one of QT's alt-history movies only this time the climax is the murders by the Manson Clan. It follows the fading star of a Hollywood cowboy actor as he slowly spirals down into episodic TV and Italian films, as he is accompanied by his buddy, handy man, chauffeur, and stunt double.

I am sure critics will eat this one up as they love movies abut Hollywood, but what does a non-critic think? I enjoyed it, but it is a slow burn that is a bit more of a character study than some of his other works. My favorite scenes involved Ray (Former star of Bounty Law) and a young girl child, method actor on set before a big scene. Great interaction and dialogue in thee scenes.

The movie also features great cars and is drenched in period flavor Media. For example, a bus with a billboard for Combat! on the side. Radio ads and music on the car stereos all the time. Billboards and signs everywhere. Good stuff and it helps set this film apart.

I am not a fan of the climax of the film. It is violent, but it is comically violent. It fits into the hallmarks of a QT movie, like women's dirty bare feet, bromance, pop culture references, and killing Nazis. Yes, this movie somehow manages to fit in a scene of killing Nazis..... another crowd pleaser.

Overall, I do not regret seeing this film but it could wait until DVD or Streaming. It is no Reservoir Dogs, Django, or Pulp Fiction. In some ways, it is a more restrained film.

That doesn't sound bad to me. My favourite QT film is Jackie Brown these days, because it handles its characters so lovingly. The other day I watched an interesting review about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Looking forward to seeing this one at some point. Streamed, on a tiny screen.


Speaking of tiny screens - two nights ago I couldn't sleep, so I idly browsed Netflix. New season of GLOW is up, which I'll watch asap, but not when I'm trying to sleep. Then I ran across something that made me loudly exclaim "They did what now?". Seems like Netflix did a Rocko's Modern Life special of roughly 45mins. Wow. I really like that show. And I felt like a tool for getting ...not quite excited, but interested in watching that special. Because there's a weird feeling about 'being got' by Netflix and being the target audience and all of that. I'm generally critical of Netflix productions, especially if they live off nostalgia.

Rocko's Modern Life - Static Cling (2019)

Rocko and his friend drift through space (which is how the series ended appearantly). First I checked if they got the original German voice cast back - they didn't. Whatever. Wouldn't know about the English one, because I only ever watched the show when it happened to be on TV back in the day (AS WE DID! ).
They find a way back to earth and find it to have changed a lot since they left 20 years ago. Now Rocko has to find his place in post-modern life.

It was mostly alright. I even laughed at one point. The show basically is all about being very self-aware. The last third or so gets rather predictable and even very deus ex machina -powered. They build in a big hurdle which I found wouldn't have been missed if it wasn't there, but they score a lot of 2019-points with it, so it's possibly another very self-aware move. Anyway, it's the typical contemporary verdict: "If you're a fan of the series this has enough to make you feel safe and cozy, but it also feels a bit shallow". You know, just like everything is nowadays.

Watch It if you like the original show.



Afterwards I was left awake and wanting for more, so I re-watched Sixteen Candles (1984).

One of the John Hughes classics. It covers pretty much one day in the life of Samantha (Molly Ringwald). Her 16th birthday. It's a pretty wacky comedy, also beset with a lot of sadness and frustration as well as dizzying highs.


It's been a while since I've been a teenager, but I think John Hughes just got what it's like being a teenager. The way the characters are portrayed between completely selfish and idiotic and having surprising moments in which they say clever and empathetic things (usually only when in one-on-one situations), especially so Anthony Michael Hall's character, who never even gets a name. He's the real star of the film, because he's the active element in the whole works.

Of course there are things to critisize about it. Of course the most prominent point being Long Duk Dong. When I told friends I'd watched the film again one of them asked "is that the one with the totally racist portrayal of the asian guy?". Yeah, well... yeah. He's never presented in a bad light though, which is nice, right? He's one of the stand-out positive characters, who has a whale of a time. Then there's the way Jake treats his GF towards the end, which is ...problematic to say the least. No chance in defending these points by today's standards.

Apart from that, I think it's an utterly enjoyable film. And SO many films after it quote this film in so many ways that I'd say it's one of the american films one should have seen at least once. And to be honest I find it utterly enjoyable.

Must-Watch. Along with Breakfast Club. The latter is even more important, but Sixteen Candles is also essential.



The Honeymooners (2005)

Wahey, now THIS feels like it's very high up there at the top of the heap of unnecessary remakes. I'm willing to bet that nobody who watches this one will know or have seen The Honeymooners. I certainly haven't. Most I know about that show is from that one episode of King of Queens.

That being said, the actors do a nice job. Of course it's not funny or clever. But if you're sitting in front of the TV and don't really have anything better to do or just read something and have the tv on on the side... or let me put it this way: Compared to what you expect when you read the concept of the film on paper it's pretty endearing. It's kinda like Burlesque (the Christina Aguilera one) in that way. About this one I expected to HATE it based on the concept and ingredients, but in the end I found it ...sufferable.

Don't Watch


Warhammer (1999)

It's a really cheap sci-fi film. The plot's not really worth mentioning. It's basically about a small group of soldiers who have to walk cross-country and get to the enemy to end the endless war. This way it's got a bit of Screamers (an enternally better film, with amazing ideas and better actors. Watch it.) vibe to it. But think Screamers without the Screamers, Peter Weller, the plot twists and the production value.

Now here's what the film has got going for it: The main parts are played by Superman and Jimmy Olsen. So if you're a die-hard fan of those two... it's probably still not worth it. If you sit through these extreme christian films which get only ever released in the US that Dean Cain pops up in nowadays just because you like Dean Cain so much and if you sit through what ever Jimmy does now you can also sit through Warhammer.

Don't Watch. Watch Screamers. That film rocks.

I love the old Black and White Honeymooners.....

That being said I have never seen the 2005 film. I am guessing it has John Goodman in it.

Indiana Jones and the....

My family is watching through these as my daughter has never seen them. We are through the first three. It is fun to get her reactions to them as they are new to her.

I had forgotten that Temple of Doom is actually a prequel to Lost Ark. It takes place 1935 where Lost Ark is 1936.

The Honeymooners is one of those remakes that uses an all-black cast (well, not ALL black, but mostly). Main characters are played by Cedric the Entertainer (who I knew from the Barbershop films, of which I'm weirdly fond of) and Gabrielle Union (who is a very pretty lady and does a reasonably nice job in the film, despite the old "very pretty lady married to a not-conventionally-handsome man who acts silly" trapping).

I enjoy the temple of doom, possibly my favourite indiana jones film.



Alien Warfare (2019)

Oh, this one I just remembered. It's been a few weeks. Watched it on Netflix. What a trainwreck. It's not even a trainwreck, because that poor film never had a chance. Who made this? And why? It's basically four navy seals with big arms who are trapped in a superduper secret research facility besieged by aliens.

Funny thing is that the main character's actor used to be in the navy seals and it seems like this would be his break into acting. Poor guy. Each time he's on screen you can see this look of "what have I gotten into?" on his face. The aliens are amazing. I'd love to know the budget they had for this film. I've sat through it, so I got a sort of morbid fascination with it. But really, it's not worth it. Do you know the less entertaining Asylum films? The ones in which Parker Lewis leads a squad of mercenaries through a wood somewhere in the US or canada and every 20 minutes 3 CG Pterodactyls of weirdly varying size (i mean size varying between scenes or cuts) attack them? Alien Warfare is less exciting than those.

Anyway, don't watch.


Showdown in Manila (2016)

Now this is somewhat of a special film. Someone in Russia decided that bodybuilder and possibly robot Alexander Nevsky should be an actor. According to Wikipedia he actually is (along with being a writer and producer) and has done films since 2000. So he plays the lead in this film, which is kinda like Russian Expendables. Or rather the Expendables' second cousins, built around a Russian guy. It also stars Casper van Dien (who is always fun to watch), Cynthia Rothrock (who Rothrocks films), Tia Carrere (who Rothrocks my universe) and bloody Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Shao Khan and several other bad guys). Out of all of those nobody's in the film for more than ~7 minutes at best, except for Casper van Dien, who's basically Nevsky's wacky sidekick. Interesting casting there. If you ever doubted that Casper van Dien was a good actor who emotes a lot you just have to see him acting next to Alexander Nevsky. The man looks like a robot and acts like a robot. You have to see it to believe it.

Oh, the plot? It's about a group of mercenaries killing bad guys in the jungle of Manila.

Watch It, if you recognize and of the above names. If you know these names you'll enjoy the film or at least will find it interesting. If you want to see a more entertaining Casper van Dien film, there's one in which he's bascially Indiana Jones / Brandon Fraser and helps a lady dig up a tomb in Egypt in the early 20th century and they unleash something supernatural. I kinda liked that one.


Ernest & Celestine (2014)

An anmiated film about a mouse and a bear who become friends. In a world that has mice and bears live strictly separated. It's an entirely nice film which looks gorgeous and oozes heart and humour and stuff. And it's pretty clever. Got nominated for an Academy Award, but it was given to something less cool.

Watch It, no matter where or who you are.




Ha, thanks for telling me about this thread, Easy E. It's nice writing about films I saw again.

Watching Temple of Doom the day before Crystal Skull made me far less angry at the latter than most people seem to be...

 Easy E wrote:

 greatbigtree wrote:
I had not realized it's a 50 year old film now! I was born 13 years after it was made, and just saw it this past week.

It's in desperate need of a recut. There is so much filler in there. For anyone interested, the IMDB has a few trailers, both old and new, and it really is one of those movies where all the best parts are in the trailer. Perhaps in it's time, but today it just feels like a director that couldn't cut what needed to be cut.

@ the OP: This was fun, I'm going to have to try and remember what the last movie I saw before 2001 was.

Pacing 50 years ago was very different than pacing today......

This was violently driven home to me when I was watching the commentary on From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. They were talking about how the editor at the time was so revolutionary because he used more quick cuts and other editorial techniques to ramp up the pacing. I love both those movies, but compared to modern movies..... the pacing is slow, slow, slow.

Audiences had very different expectations back then.

Pacing has changed a lot. I've been rewatching Six Million Dollar Man episodes lately, and it's interesting to me how -- in the context of what was considered an action show -- so many scenes involve characters standing around discussing the latest plot complications and what their next steps will be. Shows and movies move far faster now, with many more cuts to satisfy audiences with a tiny fraction of the attention span of audiences 40 years ago. But that modern flash too often hides weak or empty writing, IMO.

HOWEVER, 2001 doesn't represent the pacing of the era. It was glacial even by 1968 standards. Compare it with, say, Bullitt, which also premiered in '68. It was Kubrick's decision to shoot it that way. And I think it works well if you understand the film as kind of a meditation.

FYI, 2001 is a different experience in a theater, IMO. There are just a lot of little things that work better. For example, those closeups of HAL's eye become enormous on the big screen, underlining HAL's powerful, all-seeing, all-knowing presence on board the Discovery.

 Easy E wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
He-Man goes mental in Vietnam, and is killed by Timecop.

They both come back as sort of techno zombies. He-Man goes mental again.

Universal Soldier?

Sorry for the late reply!

Well done! Have a whole Internet

Traffic (2000).
Cannot recommend this enough.
Focuses on the drug war on the Mexican/US sides of the border telling the intertwined stories of users, police, army, government and dealers.
Brilliant acted, brilliantly shot, simply brilliant.

As part of my ongoing effort to show my boys the iconic sci-fi from my youth...

The Terminator:

Summary: A scary computer from the future sends a cyborg back in time to kill the mother of the leader of the human resistance before said leader is born. The leader of the human resistance sends his father back in time to protect / impregnate his mother, so that he will be born. The mother lives, and the circle is complete.

Analysis: Lots of car chases. It was a thing at the time the movie was made. Lots of bystanders killed. Overall, the movie seems to present a case for the ends justifying the means. The protector doesn’t blink an eye over possibly hundreds of casualties in order to protect the future. A core element of the future franchise is the question of whether or not fate can be changed. Would John Connor have been born if the Protector wasn’t sent back? Did previous timelines mutate due to other attempts at time travel, until the Protector, sent on a different mission, hooked up with Sarah (the mother) and created a stable loop, creating a fate that no longer changes?

Recommendation: If you haven’t seen it, you should see it. The effects aren’t terrible, but fall below modern standards of VFX. Watching this movie informs the background of T2: Judgement Day and T2 is an excellent movie that should also be watched.

@Mad Doc Grotsnik: Have you watched the Director's commentary by Emmerich about Universal Soldier? To this day one of the most interesting director's commentary I've seen.

@Ratius: Oh yes, Traffic is a strong film.

@greatbigtree: This is a very nice username. And I agree with your views on the film.



Mid-90s (2018)

Keeping in the theme with recent films, here's that Jonah Hill one. I recently watched this one. It's basically about a boy who lives with his older brother and single mom who got her kids when she was really young. The boy really, really wants to skate and wants to get to hang out with a group of other (older) boys who spend all day at a skateboard shop and/or skating and pretty much are layabouts and of precarious social backgrounds.

This film could easily have fallen apart instantly if the boy who plays the main character wasn't that bloody good an actor and just easy to root for.

It's not really a coming-of-age film, but in a way it is. It's not really a feel-good film (because usually that term is used to describe horrible, horrible films), but it makes you feel kinda good.

Watch It. It's really good. Even if you haven't been a young boy in the mid-1990s in the US.



Fire and Ice (1982)

Now for something completely different. Fire and Ice is an animated film by Ralph Bakshi. To get the characters to look more naturalistic in the many, many action scenes Bakshi made extensive use of rotoscopy (the technique in which scenes are shot with actors and then get drawn over to create animated films with very natural-looking movements), just as in his earlier films like Lord of the Rings or Wizards.

The plot is bascially about the kingdom of fire and the kingdom of ice being at war, during a round of negotiations the baddies (ice dudes) kidnap princess Teegra. A barbarian dude... well, no, everybody looks like a barbarian dude in this film. Let's say the main barbarian dude by chance meets her and lateron tries to rescue her from the clutches of the bad guy NECRON (souvereign of the realm of ice) and his evil mum.

This one was made during the Barbarian and fantasy craze of the early 1980s. The film very much feels like a comicbook (and y'all love those, right?). Lots and lots of action scenes. If you like butts and chestical areas of all sorts this is the film for you. The plot itself is very, very thin, but the film is entertaining and fun to watch. Not sure if it's that entertaining if you are too far detached from the time it was made. If you're 8 to 11, this film will blow your mind. Otherwise your mileage may vary. I'm kinda fond of it, because I like "old school" Fantasy things and "old school" films. At least it's different.

As for a short verdict - impossible to say. Watch It. Or don't Watch. Or Pass. Up to you.

I recently watched Fire and Ice as well. I think my thoughts are on page 3.

Definitely an odd watch for modern viewers.

I could not help but think modern versions of Batman were inspired by wolf mask guys portrayal in the film. It made me giggle everytime I saw him on screen.

The funny thing is that when we watched it the very first connection that popped up when we saw Wolfmaskguy was Batman as well. Mostly because he pops up out of nowhere any just kills all the bad guys. There was a lot of giggling throughout the film in general. But yeah, I'm just a sucker for proper old-school fantasy. Even though Fire and Ice is a bit much even for me when it comes to the plot. After the third time Teegra escapes the Subhumans (as they're called in the end credits. Wow. ) and gets captured again a bit of tiredness sets in.

Sounds like I need to watch Showdown in Manilla.

I also thought Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was worth seeing, especially if you're a fan of that era of cinema or television.

The Dark Valley (2014)

End of the 19th century, a stranger enters a village in Tyrol to spend the winter. Nasty things happen.

Finally got to see that one.The idea is really, really interesting: It's basically a Western (dark/gritty/etc) set in a valley (which noone can get ouf of because it's winter). The village is controlled by a farmer and his sons. It helps that they got a bunch of good actors (and an Englishman to play the stranger. Sam Riley.). They really make the most of the landscape and the scenery. It looks overwhelming, it looks depressing, it looks amazing. There also are some really good shots in general. The film loves a good bit of violence and some of it seems gratuitous and self-serving. The whole story is very grim, but visually it's really well made. The opening scene sets the mood for the whole thing, but somehow I think it's unnecessary. Oh well.

If you want to watch an atmospheric, dark Western in an unusual setting, Watch It. In most parts is looks amazing, it establishes an interesting world. However, it's violent, so not for the squeamish. Oh, and also watch if you want to see one of the most unique wedding scenes on film. Without Tarantino and Italo-Westerns this film wouldn't exist. I find it baffling, that so far no other films like it, set in the alps, have been made.

Terminator 2:

Summary: John Connor was born, and becomes a full-on delinquent. His mom winds up in a psych ward. Skynet decides to try and kill John this time, instead of mom. Sends back a liquid metal Terminator, that can mimic anyone. The human resistance sends back a copy of the first Terminator, because otherwise Arnold wouldn't be in it. After lots. And lots. And lots of car chases, the good guys blow up Cyberdyne and the recovered Terminator bits from the first movie. Then more car chases happen, the good guys wind up melting the terminators in molten steel, and we all feel good because we stopped judgement day.

Analysis: Although the film makes a point of being able to change fate, per my earlier assessment of T1, this is just the continuation of a stable time loop. Skynet still needed to be developed in the "first" timeline, sending the first Terminator back in time. Although the Connors have delayed Judgement Day, have they really averted it?

Recommendation: I would say that by popular opinion, this is the best of the series. Gets a little schmaltzy towards the end, but maybe that's what tips it over for most people. I'd say it's a cultural touchstone of Sci Fi, so definitely worth seeing.


Terminator 3:

Summary: John Connor has grown up and is living the life of a typical adventurer. While the *murder* part of the murder-hobo lifestyle of the typical adventurer is left to the imagination... he's got some miles on him. John wipes out on his motorcycle, breaks into a veterinarian's office for drugs and meets up with an old flame... but she's engaged! Not for long though, because a Terminatrix shows up and dusts the fiancee's ass. Our old friend Arnold shows up again, to protect John and the Flame. But this time, the badguy is even better! With arm cannons and plasma guns and such! John continues to fight fate, making decisions based on information provided to him by *unreliable* sources. He gets to the secret lair of Skynet...


Analysis:

I like T3, although many other people don't. It's fun, there's probably 2 fewer car chases, though the crane chase? I cringe every time. Just completely immersion breaking for me. I like how every "choice" John and company make to try to stop Skynet brings them to their eventual destiny. I think it would have been easy to have the "happy" ending and stop Skynet, and the world lives on in peace and harmony. But truthfully, by the time the movie starts, Skynet is already making it's move on humanity. It's already too late. Done poorly, it's a sucker punch to the audience but to me, it felt perfect for the series. Rain falls on the mountain, and runs back to the sea. You can put up a dam, reroute the water, but it makes its way back to the sea.

Recommendation: Terminator 3 is *my* favourite movie from the series. To me, it fits thematically and hits the proper notes of a tragedy. The protagonists have perfect agency throughout their adventure. They choose every step of their path. They are trying to "win" in a stable time loop where their willing decisions have already been made. They tried and failed... but still put themselves exactly where they needed to be to enact their fate, and eventually win their battle. I don't know what the movie would be like as a stand-alone. There are one or two brilliant moments of dark humour. The Flame, unaware of their situation asks John who he is. John bangs on the window and orders the Terminator to inform her of who John Connor is... The leader of the human resistance and effective saviour of the human race. All deadpan, matter of fact, no regard for it sounding ludicrous. I would recommend that all three of the Terminator movies should be viewed, in order. T3 has a hook in it that sticks with me more strongly than the others.

Yeah, I also think that T3 is perfectly OK. Not as groundbreaking as 1 or 2, but perfectly OK, especially considering what followed.


Passengers (2016)

I watched this one not knowing anything about the film, but right from the start it looked really, really good. I love the spaceship in that film and the way it's shot. It's about a dude (Chris Pratt, very pretty blue-collar american, with all the trappings that comes with that) who, along with many other people, travels to Mars to colonize it for a ton of years years in stasis (travelling, not colonizing. ). Due to some malfunction, is pod opens, as the system thinks that they arrived. The company who built and runs the ship (and is to blame for this) is mentioned several times. The spaceship basically is a mall run by ONE company. Colonists bought various levels of tickets, allowing for them to have different foods, facilities and so on. So our hero is all alone in that huge spaceship, can't fix the pod, is stuck with ~90 years to go until they arrive at Mars. So he'll pretty much die alone on this huge spaceship, with nobody but a robot barkeeper (played by Martin Sheen of course) keeping him company. He's an engineer who saw no future for himself on Earth (robots, digitalization, this endless longing for the simple days etc. playing into this) and wants to be somewhere where his engineering/mechanic skills will be useful.

He ends up looking through the bios of the other passengers (each of which had to enter a little application video thing, because it's 2016-future), sees that Jennifer bloody Lawrence is in one of the pods as well. She's an author (of course) from a rich family and as per the decree of 2014 everybody has to be in love with Jennifer Lawrence. Which is OK. He reads her stories, he watches her video over and over and falls obsessively in love with her, sitting by her pod, looking at her. Some day, considering he'll go insane all on his own, he gets the idea of making her pod "malfunction" and wake her up, so he can be with her. He's aghast at himself harboring this idea at all, but can't get it out of his head. And then he does it, essentially condemning her to death on this ship, alone with him, but he just loves her so much, or the image of her he got from reading her prose, watching the video, and so on.

What an eternally interesting setup. And the way this whole thing unfolds gets really, really interesting as well. And that spaceship is so cool.

Recently I heard that modern films all have four endings, and usually three too many. Which I think is true. And it goes for this film. As soon as the explosions start the thing goes downhill. This film could have done without the last half hour and certainly without



Such a very, very interesting film, and well acted too. It's easy to blame "studio interference" and "marketing people interfering", but it so often feels like that's the case.


Watch It, it's interesting. Feel free to skip the last third or so.



The Marine 4 - Moving Target (2015)

In this fourth installment of the beloved-by-somebody Marine franchise we see the hero of the three(?) prior films having become a bodyguard dude and him and his bodyguard coworkers have to get a really, really important girl who's a hacker appearantly to destination B. The girl is of the hollywood rebellious daughter type, so really pretty and all made up, but wearing a hollywood-grungy shirt and acts smug for 10 minutes until it's time to switch to damsel-in-distress mode.

The convoi of vehicles is attacked by military baddies, everybody gets shot, the Marine and the girl have to run through the woods and the baddies run after them. Marine and girl bond a little in a non-creepy way. The Marine wins in the end.

Don't Watch. I can't think of a reason why, unless you're a HUGE fan of the movie work of the main guy, but then I wouldn't think why one would be. If you're dying to see a Marine film (HOMEFRONT. I have no idea why I remember the full titles of these films. Probably because they're so ridiculous), watch the third one. That one doesn't feel quite as cheap either and has more of an amusing 'murca! feel to it. If you're dying to see the guy act, watch Santa's Little Helper.



Nightcrawler (2014)

Jake Gyllenhaal plays an unsuccessful man who makes a bit of money stealing things and selling them on. He lives in a bizarre parallel world and only seems to be up at night. During the day he's in his dimly lit apartment, watching (economic) success advisers' videos on youtube, reading books by these people, and so on. He completely internalizes the language and logic of these people. One night he happens across a big traffic accident and meets a cameraman and reporter who listen in on emergency calls and go there go get juicy video footage of maimed and mangled people which they then sell on to tv news channels.

Gyllenhaal's character is fascinated by this. It's right up his alley. So he grabs a camera and learns the craft hands-on. And he's successful with it. With this success comes further success, all driven by his ruthless logic as worked out by success advisors within the neoliberal context. He lives it.

This is a great film. The dialogues between Gyllenhaal and the intern he hires are funny and revealing. There are several chilling scenes between Gyllenhaal and Renee Russo (who plays the boss of the news channel he sells the footage to). There's a bit of media criticism in there of course, but mostly it's about this weird, weird character who technically should be declared sociopath and dysfunctional, but within this world he acts in he's a perfect fit not only to survive, but to thrive. Gyllenhaal I think often tries way too hard and especially in dramatic roles has a tendency to grimace, but for this very role he was the perfect fit and did an amazing job to make this unsettling character walk the fine line between funny, almost relateable in how he acts in the face of this world he's confronted with, only to repel us again with the next line of dialogue.

Must-Watch. It happens rarely, but after watching this one I was really enthusiastic about it. What a film.


Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

...along came Netflix. In a really weird move, they bought pretty much the cast of Nightcrawler and made a horror film with them, set in the US art dealers scene. An upcoming art dealer lady discovers a vault of art by a crazy dude who nobody knows about, but everybody's really into it. But then scary things start happening to people who buy and hang his pictures...

I'm pretty sure that this is one of those films about which people claim that they're made by an algorithm. There are some fun jabs at the whole art scene, but ultimately it's got nothing new to say about it apart from the "jokes" we've been hearing about it since the 1980s. In the end it's a very formulaic supernatural horror film in an interesting setting (with which they don't do all that much) with an expensive cast.

Don't Watch. Watch Nightcrawler instead.

Avengers End Game

Came out on Digital this morning (in the UK, USA has had it for a couple of weeks now).

Watched the first hour or so on my commute to work, and enjoying it every bit as much as when I first saw it.

Shall continue on my commute home. Then maybe watch it again tonight.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull

After watching all the films back-to-back I actually liked this movie more than when I saw it in the theater.

In tone and style it fits very nicely with the others. In addition, the way Indy acts is in nice parallel to the way his dad was acting in Last Crusade.

However, once they get into the jungle, things get a bit ropey. Some of the acting starts to fall apart, and then the scene with the monkeys, and the ending..... the ending goes way over board.... like way too far beyond what the other Indie films did. Ultimately, the movie tried to take too much of the mystery out of things and did not leave enough for the audience to fill in with imagination. They showed too much.

My daughter even called out the CGI being a distraction compared to the practical effects of the other films! Wow!

 Sigur wrote:
Yeah, I also think that T3 is perfectly OK. Not as groundbreaking as 1 or 2, but perfectly OK, especially considering what followed.


Nightcrawler (2014)

Jake Gyllenhaal plays an unsuccessful man who makes a bit of money stealing things and selling them on. He lives in a bizarre parallel world and only seems to be up at night. During the day he's in his dimly lit apartment, watching (economic) success advisers' videos on youtube, reading books by these people, and so on. He completely internalizes the language and logic of these people. One night he happens across a big traffic accident and meets a cameraman and reporter who listen in on emergency calls and go there go get juicy video footage of maimed and mangled people which they then sell on to tv news channels.

Gyllenhaal's character is fascinated by this. It's right up his alley. So he grabs a camera and learns the craft hands-on. And he's successful with it. With this success comes further success, all driven by his ruthless logic as worked out by success advisors within the neoliberal context. He lives it.

This is a great film. The dialogues between Gyllenhaal and the intern he hires are funny and revealing. There are several chilling scenes between Gyllenhaal and Renee Russo (who plays the boss of the news channel he sells the footage to). There's a bit of media criticism in there of course, but mostly it's about this weird, weird character who technically should be declared sociopath and dysfunctional, but within this world he acts in he's a perfect fit not only to survive, but to thrive. Gyllenhaal I think often tries way too hard and especially in dramatic roles has a tendency to grimace, but for this very role he was the perfect fit and did an amazing job to make this unsettling character walk the fine line between funny, almost relateable in how he acts in the face of this world he's confronted with, only to repel us again with the next line of dialogue.

Must-Watch. It happens rarely, but after watching this one I was really enthusiastic about it. What a film.



Don't Watch. Watch Nightcrawler instead.

Yes, Nightcrawler is epic.

@Easy E: I never even watched Crystal Skull. I'm not that huge a fan of Indiana Jones to begin with, so I thought I better skip the one that everybody hates.

@Frazzled: Right on!




The Trouble with Harry (1955)

I think that was Hitchcock's debut film. ALSO happens to be Shirley McLaine's first larger role.

A lovely autumn day, a small town in the US. Several townfolks, one after another, find a dead man lying on the ground nearby the town. Nobody knows how he got there, least of all how he died. A letter is found on his person, so at least they can identify him as Harry. Each of the townsfolk (a retired captain, an ageing lady, a struggling artist, and Harry's estranged ex-wife) each have their own reasons to keep the police and everybody else out of the equation. Some of them team up to keep the situation in check, others try to keep it under wraps all by themselves, but, naturally, things spiral out of control.

It's a dark comedy, played and written really well. The main humour stems from the understatement and the unconcern all the characters display, despite each of them being very concerned indeed. There are some really fun, snappy dialogues in there with a lot of wit and some quirky turns of events. Of Harry all we ever see is his feet, the rest always being hidden behind shrubbery and the like.

Watch It. It's a very enjoyable film. And Shirley McLaine makes everything from the 50s and 60s enjoyable to watch. By the way, watch The Apartment because it's brilliant. Watch Irma La Douce because it's fun.




Possibly not the best thing for a double feature with the above, but thematically in a similar direction, but decidedly more 80s:

Weekend at Bernie's (1989)

Yuppie dude is invited to his extravagant boss's beach house. Boss dies, yuppie dude and his wacky friend have to keep appearances that the dude's still alive. Hijinx ensue. This phrase is probably the best fit for this film altogether.

What can be said that hasn't been said about this one before? It's silly, wacky fun, and it's getting referenced quite often. I remember laughing my bum off as an ~11 year old kid when I saw it the first time.

Like it or not, it's a modern classic. Watch It.. There's a sequel (of course). Which you don't have to watch.



Do watch The Apartment (Shirley McLaine, Jack Lemon) though. It's such a great film.

Ralph Wrecks the Internet

A cute enough sequel to the original, that was also cute enough.

The bit with the Disney Princesses is inspired though. Also, it has one of the best post-credit sequences I can recall.

Where'd You Go Bernadatte?

This is the film version of the strange comedic novel. Its told primarily from the Bernadette perspective who plays the primary role in the film. Its about a former brilliant architect who becomes basically housebound due to social anxiety. Her daughter wants to go to Antarctica and Brnadatte gets the idea to actually go. Later there is an intervention of sorts as Bernadatte is sort of cracking up, and she disappears out the window. Shenanigans ensue.

Watch it? If you read the book, yes. If you didn't, its meh.

EDIT: Bonus round.

The Terror (Season One available on Hulu):
The Franklin Expedition (a famous real expedition) in 1845 is trying to find the Northwest Passage. It becomes icebound north of Fair Canadia. While trying to find open water or land one of the crew shoots an Inuit Shaman, drawing an ancient demon bear to them. Fun Filled antics ensue for several years as the crew tries to survive on their ships being snowbound, and still being pursued by the demon bear.
Note: the series has a bunch of excellent actors from the Rome and GOT series.'

Watch it Its some of the best work I've seen in decades. Great acting, great writing, and plot. REALLY CREEPY. It layers in the supernatural with actual events from the real mission. Its fun for the whole family!

RE: Passenger's.... I had heard some criticism that it is a bit "Rapey" or at least anti-consent in nature. For those who watched it, is that an overblown meta-textual analysis?

Not at all. That's the main thing that makes the first half interesting.

 Easy E wrote:
RE: Passenger's.... I had heard some criticism that it is a bit "Rapey" or at least anti-consent in nature. For those who watched it, is that an overblown meta-textual analysis?

Yeah that's pretty much the point, it mainly gets away with it because the main character is self aware enough to know he was a terrible person and that he was under extreme stress when he does wake her up having resisted for years before more or less having a breakdown.

I also have no problem with the explodey bits or the ending which I see as not so much happy but inevitable given what came before and human nature.

The explodey bits were OK, except for the last ~20 minutes of explodey bits. Just too much explodey bits and too many endings.

Watching The Hunger Games.

It’s actually pretty alright. Still wish a Predator would show up though.

Battle Royale (2000)

It's the thing on which all the things are based on. Japanese film about the educational system, Japanese culture and media via means of "a class of Japanese schoolgirls and -boys are placed on an island, forced to kill each other unil just one remains. He or she is the winner.". Great, important film, Takeshi Kitano plays the teacher.

Watch It. It's a modern classic.



Battle Royale 2 (2003)

Similar scenario really, but with a twist (more militaristic in nature and look, the kids do an uprising thing) and a surprising amount of America-critique, bordering blatant anti-Americanism. The teacher's played by a different dude who's hamming it up to amazing levels. Originally the director of the first film started working on this one, but sadly died after shooting one scene with Takeshi Kitano. His son took over and I think took the film in a quite different direction.

Pass.


Kull (1997)

Yup, the Kevin Sorbo barbarian film. The plot/background is surprisingly deep. Well, not deep, it's more like 'there's a lot of stuff'. We get a text crawl in the beginning, introducing us to the world (made up by the gentleman who also invented Conan, Solomon Kane and other things. The poor guy shot himself in his car, aged 30, after learning about his mother's terminal illness), throws lots of names at us. Then we are introduced to our hero, Kull of Atlantis (played by Kevin Sorbo. Of course. Becuase it's 1997), killing lots of soldier dudes with a huge axe while credits roll and we hear heavy metal/hard rock music playing. The music in this film is great. It's like in the Doom (2016) game - when the action starts we get metal music. It's so simple, but it's really fun and gets you pumped. Kevin Sorbo is at the peak of his Sorboness in this film. Nobody wants to see him as a handsome professor in Dharma and Greg or as a devil-ridden atheist professor in "Films made for the evangelical fundamentalist". Long hair, bracers, oiled-up arms and at least 60% chest showing. This is how we want our Sorbo. And this film delivers that. Other things this film delivers: Amazing hairdos and wigs. Not sure why, but every male extra seems to be wearing a big wig in this film. The somewhat bad-ish-but-I-don't-really-know-why guy, played by Thomas Ian Griffith, has a good time in this film, and sports an amazing hairdo. It's like he decided to have a mullet, but then just didn't stop growing it out in the back. In some scenes he's got a bit of it braided, in others he doesn't.

If I don't have your attention now, how about this: The evil sorceress is played by Tia Carrere, and the way we like her best - Long hair, bracers, oiled-up arms and at least 60% chest showing. No, that was a cheap joke. She's really good. Everybody's gotta love Tia Carrere, because she. IS. GOOD. In every respect. She gets a lot of screen time and is very entertaining as the baddie.

This film is such an odd duck. For what it is and for when it was made, it looks pretty good. CG is used in a surprisingly restrained way for 1997, and it has a nice amount of practical effects and mat paintings. What makes it interesting is that despite its anachronisms, it very much feels like a 90s barbarian film, the same way Conan or Deathstalker feel like 80s barbarian films. They would make for a very interesting double (or triple) feature (if you feel like you HAVE to include Deathstalker).

The pacing of the film is a bit weird, possibly also a sign of the time at which it was made: It never lets off. There's always something happening, and a LOT happening too. Conan takes his time, builds set pieces and resolves them. Kull has a cut, we're somewhere else, things happen instantly, solution, bam, cut, next scene happens. It sure isn't a well-made film, but it does seem like the writers and director made themselves very familiar with the source material, wanted to stay true to it (as far as I can tell), and also were full of ideas to pack into this film.

All in all, it was a very, very entertaining film. I had a whale of a time watching it. This is how I spent my birthday's evening - sitting with my brother and my sister, watching Kull. Couldn't have been better.

Watch It, if this sounds fun to you. If you only ever saw the film once, many, many years ago, give it another go. It's WAY more fun than you remember.