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"Moon zero two".

The only 'straight up" scifi movie hammer studios made it had some terrible moments mixed into a generally well made and fairly intelligent scifi movie with great effects for the time.

May have been the first movie to deal with commercialization of space and the idea that spacejunk would become valuable salvage. Ahead of it's time in a lot of ways.

Hubie Halloween. I saw it only because my friends wanted to see it, and to my surprise it was good. Not great or hilarious, but charming and chuckle worthy at enough points to keep me engaged. Lots of familiar faces in this movie.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Contagion

This is a film made before COVID about a hypothetical outbreak of a bat-carried disease from China, and it’s just so ...bittersweet? The pandemic team are treated with respect, the government is mostly competent, medical care is fully funded. It feels almost like wishful thinking.

Yeah, insane, isn't it? The only slightly incompetent or odd character was the blogger IIRC.

By the way, I watched Virtuosity now. Thanks for the suggestion, BobtheInquisitor! I had a ton of fun, especially with Russel Crowe's performance

Yeah, that blogger who sold a phony cure to enrich himself was so farfetched...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Glad you liked Virtuosity.

Eye of the needle.

Damn good ww2 spy movie, starring donald sutherland.

It's a movie that's easy to believe, in fact it could almost be a true story.

Dunkirk

Someone said it's not a war movie, it's survival horror, and there's certainly something to that.

Great film.

Kung Fury*

An action-comedy that parodies tropes from 80’s TV and video games, Kung Fury is free to watch on YouTube. Be warned that there is some gore and swearing. It’s short and fun, and has a great music video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bS5P_LAqiVg

*Highlord Tamburlaine’s latest video just reminded me of this.

Dolemite is My Name

Eddie Murphy stars as Rudy Ray Moore, the famous comedian and low-budget movie auteur who created the character of Dolemite.

Clearly, this was a movie made with tons of love, and full of great, black character actors. Wesley Snipes plays his role really good.

I love a good Blxploitation movie, but this is not one. Instead, it is a Bio-pic about Blaxpo characters and creators.

They lovingly re-create some of Dolemite's scenes with "behind the scenes" additions. The big pay off is when they show some of the actual movie in a screening AND book end the movie with the actual scenes from Dolemite!

Good stuff. I enjoyed it, but probably not for everyone.

I just watched Vampire's Kiss, featuring a young actor named Nicholas Cage. Holy moly. Watch It. It's got to be seen to be believed. It's like a David Lynch film. In a way. If it was made today it would look like a really, really lame go at "omg isn't Nicholas Cage over the top you guys". But it was made in 1988, so it's good. Well, it's not good. But it has to be seen. It's unique. It's not great. But I can't believe anybody would regret seeing it.

The plot: It's about a man who's convinced he's turning into a vampire.

Half of all Nicholas Cage memes were generated by that movie.

RIPD

Men In Black with ghosts. Okay but forgettable. No memorable performances, FX or plot ideas. Basically only good for wallpaper and background noise.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Half of all Nicholas Cage memes were generated by that movie.

Yup. I'm generally not a huge fan of that whole "omg look how weird nicholas cage is". Because he can be really boring too. Also, it may lead to stuff trying to capitalize on this, and we've seen the deep, deep abyss of bancrupcy on all levels that is Sharknado and other films trying to capitalize on internet memes and attempts at artificially creating 'cult films'.

But as I said - that one was made 1988, and it's a unique film. Later last night I read some reviews from when it was released, and one critic called Nicholas Cage's performance self-indulgent. Maybe that's very true. It looks like he went about this thinking "oh, I'll just have fun with this one". OR maybe he went about playing a person who's losing their mind very, very, very seriously. Which would make it a bit scary again. Nicholas Cage - good or bad? The good kind of bad? The bad kind of good? Who knows.

Is the job of the actor to give a performance that is believable or a performance that is memorable?

Being John Malkovich

This is like a modern day Grimm's Fairy Tale, before they sanitized and Disney-fied all the Fairy Tales.

There is a lot to unpack in this film.... if you are so inclined. Ultimately, it is not a pleasant tale about the human condition......

Real Steel

A heart-warming family tale about Wolverine learning to love again when re-united with a young Anakin Skywalker. They bond over a family road trip with robot Rocky Balboa as they claw their way up the ladder to face the robot Apollo Creed built by an super-cool Taejo Togokan and financed by Russian Paris Hilton.

If you have never seen a movie before, it could be considered original!

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Is the job of the actor to give a performance that is believable or a performance that is memorable?

Good question. Depends on the film, I suppose? But then, a REALLY memorable and/or REALLY believable performance can make a whole film. It's complicated, I guess.


@Easy E: What a double feature. Never seen Real Steel, because I don't like Wolverine much. Or the premise/look of that film. I did see Being John Malkovich, and I think so should everybody else. Great stuff.

Ron Burgundy II

I remember smiling and chuckling a few times during the first film. I also did with this one.

Not a movie, but I watched Generation Kill for the first time.

I know nothing about the War on Terror aside from second-hand accounts, so I can't comment on that aspect outside of a lot of combat veterans say it's an accurate depiction. I've heard about the supply line issues from some Marines that were over there, so that part didn't surprise me.
The behavior, particularly the language and gallows humor, of the Marines is dead on. Especially the dipping.

I was primarily dismayed by the embedded reporter. He seemed to have zero knowledge of the military or even military history and was depicted in the final episode as being unable to even ask Godfather a coherent question about anything. Struck me as a very poor choice for a war reporter, but I'll grant that he did an outstanding job recording the events from the grunt's perspective.

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

Memorial watch, still the best of the three, with Mr C having a whale of a time

bonus lockdown telly watchs

Monkey, Xenatastic Aussie hijinx and "Brother" Sand is strikingly distracting

Locke and Key, thought I'd got to the end but was a few episode short apparently, passable enough but the twist ending was, possibly purposefully, obvious

Age of Resistance

Got on with it better second time round and Hup is clearly the hero Thra needs and deserves, now to see D+ agree with me

Stretching in TV for a sec; Harley Quinn

I totally dismissed this show when I first heard about it thinking it was some quirky kids show trying to capitalize on the only good thing in Suicide Squad but holy gak it's funny, irreverent as hell, and shockingly clever in really subtle ways that just work. Basically, everything the Birds of Prey movie wasn't.

Jojo Rabbit

Equal parts hilarious and horrifying. Go find it and watch it.

Ugh.

I was just wioth someone watching a movie i think was called "jurrasic world fallen kindgdom" or something like that, and i swear to ghawd it was so stupid it literally hurt my brain.

An ork would have called this movier stupid.

I only saw a few minutes of it and i was cerebral agony.

The part i saw involved an international auction of a genetically engineered SUV sized velicoraptor being sold to international arms dealers as a weapon.

Ouch!

They showed it was conditioned, programmed, whatever, to go after someone who had a laser spot on them when a certain sound was triggered.

Oh the pain!

(Uh, if you have a rifle with a laser pointer on it aimed at someone's chest and you want them dead, why not just pull the trigger and kill them with, oh, say, a roughly 50 cent bullet?)

International arms dealers, some of whom had russian accents boris badenov would have laughed at, were biding up to 28 million dollars for one.

My brain in screaming at this point.

Yeah, what would it take to stop a 28 million dollar giant velicopator?

*a 300$ assault rifle with about 20$ worth of ammunition.

*a roughly 25$ in bulk grenade.

*a high powered .50 caliber sniper rifle bullet with an explosive core that maybe costs 5-7$ in bulk.

3$ worth of flamethrower fuel.

Honestly, this was so stupid it was unbearable.

I rewatched Black Panther for the first time. It was better the second time. I still deeply hate that end scene. Yes, let's portray young kids seeing a freaking hovercraft as fools debating whether or not they can jack the rims. Are you serious right now?

Chadwick was a great actor. He had tremendous potential beyond the MCU. Watching him actually kind of hurt a bit.

 trexmeyer wrote:
I rewatched Black Panther for the first time. It was better the second time. I still deeply hate that end scene. Yes, let's portray young kids seeing a freaking hovercraft as fools debating whether or not they can jack the rims. Are you serious right now?

Chadwick was a great actor. He had tremendous potential beyond the MCU. Watching him actually kind of hurt a bit.

He also appeared in a movie called A Message to the King where he travels from South Africa to America to find out what happened to his sister. She has gone radio silent. Things escalate quickly.

I also saw him in The 5 Bloods from Spike Lee which I recommend. 5 Vietnam Vets return to locate the remains of a fallen comrade, and a lot of gold bullion they stashed in the jungle. It is a typical action movie plot, but it does so much more with the material. Chadwick and Del Rey Lindo are very good in it!





Watched: Jingle Jangle
This is a musical Christmas movie set in a quasi-fantasy steam punk world. An inventor has his book or inventions stolen and other heartbreaks, and losses the ability to create. His ability is rekindled when his inventive grand-daughter re-enters his life. Christmas tinged adventure ensues.

I was not in the mood for this movie, and I had a hard time with the world and setting. I kept thinking too much about the consequences of what they were showing us on screen instead of just sitting back and enjoying the "Christmas Magic". This has a fine all-star cast who do their parts justice..... I just couldn't get into it.

Watched: Christmas in Palm Springs
Pretty much what it says on the tin! This is full of stalwart B-Movie actors and made-for-TV/DTV performers. Cheesy and probably financed by the city of Palm Springs. However, it had a certain low-budget appeal that amused me but really it is NOT good.

Since my wife has seen most of the Christmas Movies on Netflix last year, we are starting to scrape pretty low in the barrel, UNLESS something new has come out!

Christmas Chronicles 2 lands any day. Er, hang in there?

Once upon a time, a man was born who had a genetic abnormality that make it possible for him to safely consume vast quantities of LSD, far more than any normal human could possibly survive ingesting.

We're talking about someone who could take enough acid to kill ozzy, iggy, Bowie, janet and jimi and survive.

How do I know this mutation existed? Because it's the only possibly explanation for the existence of a movie called "Frankenstein island".

Whoever wrote this movie had clearly taken many, many times the lethal dose of LSD and lived long enough to write a screenplay about an island populated by beautiful bikini clad cavegirls who are actually aliens from another planet, Dr. Frankenstein's granddaughter who is married to a 200 year old Dr. Van Helsing who needs blood to survive, mindcontrolled zombies who must wear sunglasses to hide their weird eyes, the frankenstein monster who is hiding underwater waiting for his chance to do something and above it all the disembodied head of dr. frankenstein, played by john "anything for a buck" carradine (Ghawd I can't believe he used to be a really huge classic movies) repeating "THE POWER! THE POWER!"

If you haven't been overwhelmed by the brief description of this movie and are now semi catatonic and drooling you've probably either vowed to avoid this movie like the plague or are even now hunting it down on the net.


As proof this movie actually exists and this post isn't a result of me taking LSD (I'm into 40k, i can't afford drugs) here:

Spoiler massive images bro.

Man they need to hardcode spoilers into images or force a resize over a certain width. It's not difficult.

Bad Teacher

The name says it all. I am pretty tired of movies with protagonists who are completely unlikable, and then trying to prop them up and give them rooting interest by surrounding them with people who are even worse.

I see this a lot in TV right now too. I find it tiring, almost as tiring as the "Heroes use Torture" to get information they need trope we see so much of lately.


As far as I recall, it was Cameron Diaz's last Hollywood film. Did Jason Seagal do anything after this in Hollywood films? I think he did, but I am not sure what.....

that Frankenstein Island sounds incredible

Parasite

The Korean one that won all of the awards.
Found it super unsettling to watch, but really compelling.
Loved the shades of grey with the character and the premise
Does you good to watch a non-Hollywood film once in a while, as you just don't know what you will get.
Fantastically acted too.

I used to live in Korea so it probably had a bit more of an impact on me - the 'inequality' question, along with social stratification and snobbish-ness is a really powerul topic there, but not really talked about openly so I can see why this film hit like a bomb-shell in their domestic cinema.

 Pacific wrote:
that Frankenstein Island sounds incredible

Parasite

The Korean one that won all of the awards.
Found it super unsettling to watch, but really compelling.
Loved the shades of grey with the character and the premise
Does you good to watch a non-Hollywood film once in a while, as you just don't know what you will get.
Fantastically acted too.

I used to live in Korea so it probably had a bit more of an impact on me - the 'inequality' question, along with social stratification and snobbish-ness is a really powerul topic there, but not really talked about openly so I can see why this film hit like a bomb-shell in their domestic cinema.

It's not the first time that a movie had a bigger impact in an asian market than the west due to unspoken cultural truths being raised.

In Japan "Godzilla, mothra and king ghidorah" made a cultural splash for daring to bring up japanese war crimes in ww2, and having that godzilla being animated by the spirits of the victims of japanese war crimes which are simply not taught or discussed in japanese culture.

Yes Man

Testing the theory that Jim Carey puts out a decent film once per decade (and maybe Zooey, a bit), if so it's not this one, the flimsy if understandable premise being if Terence Stamp tells you to do something you best had dissolves into predictable twaddle as Jim's gonna Jim and Ms D had the MPDG cranked to 11