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Right, but this was a 1980’s movie (brown face was still common) made at least partially to raise funds and awareness for the Ronald McDonald charities, and presumably for real kids with disabilities. It failed at both, but “to its credit” it made room for one of those kids to participate, rather than lean into pure hypocrisy. A low bar, but this is an awful, awful movie.

While I agree that actors can and should play people they are not, I would find it awkward if a movie made to raise awareness for the Trevor Project cast only hetero actors, for example.

To me there are 2 important things. Casting someone with the same disability as the character enables the actor’s lived experience to the role enhancing authenticity. Secondly, people with disabilities, by definition, are limited in their opportunities and casting actors in such a role when they are not similarly limited reduces the opportunity further. The same arguments apply to any subset of humanity.

It’s not about whether the non-disabled actor can play the part, it’s an ethical question as to whether the opportunity should be offered to them.

And here it was, in a movie with bugger all else going for it, from a decade not exactly noted for casting sensitivities.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Right, but this was a 1980’s movie (brown face was still common) made at least partially to raise funds and awareness for the Ronald McDonald charities, and presumably for real kids with disabilities. It failed at both, but “to its credit” it made room for one of those kids to participate, rather than lean into pure hypocrisy. A low bar, but this is an awful, awful movie.

While I agree that actors can and should play people they are not, I would find it awkward if a movie made to raise awareness for the Trevor Project cast only hetero actors, for example.

okay, granted, I've never seen Mac and Me.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
...so let’s just agree to disagree that every film should be cast like it’s the 1950’s.

Stop putting words in my mouth.

Speaking of sensibilities and changes thereof - the other night I watched some Siskel and Ebert on youtube (as you do). Andrew Dice Clay came up, and I realized that this was yet another white spot on my mind map of US pop culture. So I watched one and 2/3rds of his stand-up programmes (from 1989 and another one that must have been later). I can see how this man would have been a 'hot property' for a while 35 years back. I'm not huge on stand-up comedy in general, but I'm sure that was a phase with several people with similar schticks. I have to admit that there's something hypnotic to the performance and the guy can talk. As always: never read youtube comments, they are all idiotic.


That's it really.

On the same subject of US comedians, I recently watched

Man on the Moon

Biopic of Andy Kaufman portrayed by Jim Carrey. Saturday Night Live and Taxi seem to have been his big things. As someone who knows nothing about this person I have to say that this movie does a terrible job of wanting you to care about him. I don't have any idea what he was like in real life, but this film makes him out to be utterly obnoxious and arrogantly rude in an "it's all for the LOLs" manner, long before internet jerk culture became a thing. By the time we get to the big sentimental climax it is difficult to give a crap about how bad things are for him because, according to the movie, he's spent his entire life winding people up and exploiting their emotions for his personal kicks and giggles. His ethos is "lighten up, don't be so serious", and then wants sympathy when his own life turns serious. Nah, screw that; I'm not suddenly going to be on his side when the film takes every opportunity to make this person deeply unpleasant.

I'm sure plenty who know his work, or are aware of what he was like in real life, would rush to his defence with a long list of good attributes. But I don't care as I'm not reviewing the person, I'm reviewing the film that portrays him as a contemptible git.

I think only a small subset of comedy fans every really liked him. A lot of comedians, however, idolized him. In the early 200’s I knew 5 or 6 comedians who all took his approach to heart, fetching with the audience and laughing at their expense rather than trying to be funny. It’s as obnoxious in real life as it is in the film.

Burial- Hulu described it as a group of Russian soldiers try to escort Hitler's remains back to Stalin while being attacked by Nazi Werewolves. I went in expecting something similarly over the top as Overlord, but with werewolves. Sadly.... the werewolves were just the Nazis calling themselves that. No supernatural elements at all. Just a squad vs squad running engagement, near Draco Malfoy's family home. It was ok, but very disappointing if you are expecting a werewolf movie.

Happy Deathday

It’s a modern day slasher, but with a twist, for our Final Girl is caught in a loop, where every time she’s killed, she goes back to the start.

The cause of the loop isn’t really touched on. But seeing her learn bits and pieces and get to the point of saving her life is really quite satisfying. Not as cynical or satirical as Scream or similar, this film still doesn’t take itself entirely seriously. It clearly knows it’s a somewhat silly premise and embraces that without descending into a self ridiculing farce.

Very enjoyable.


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Happy Death Day 2 U

And on to the sequel!

Remarkably, this isn’t a simple retread of the first. What could’ve been repetitive (heh) is an interesting expansion of the premise.

Here we find out what causes the loop, but with a few curve balls thrown in for good measure. Not rugpulls as such, just interesting new considerations.

This has a few more intentional laughs thrown in and it’s clear the cast and crew were having some fun. Importantly, the fun again stops comfortably short of self parody or being silly for the sake of being silly.

It packs quite a lot into a fairly short 99 minute run time, and here and there I did think “get on with it”. But, it’s kind of part of the plot, as it lets us share our hero’s overall frustration at her situation.

If you enjoyed the first, this should be on your watchlist too.

 Gitzbitah wrote:
Sadly.... the werewolves were just the Nazis calling themselves that. No supernatural elements at all.

Werewolf was the codename given to the German guerilla resistance units set up when it became obvious to the Nazi high command that they were losing and that Germany would be invaded. I can see that it could be frustrating if you were expecting actual werewolves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werwolf

Barbie

An entertaining film with a stellar cast!

I look forward to the hatred from the usual suspects as this movie is very "woke". A Barbie movie with a women empowerment and feminist message! Why I never would have expected that! However, contrary to what you may think, it really is not a "man-hating" movie at all.

That said, it is pretty well done and reminded me a bit of the Lego Movie in that a relatively light hearted movie that brought a lot of subtext and a lot to say about modern society.

In our showing there was a mix of film goers, but almost everyone came dressed for the occasion. That made it even more fun.

My theatre seemed to (correctly) assume that there would be a large cross-over appeal of Barbie fans and Jason Statham fans. They gave us a preview for The Meg 2, which looks good-awful terrible.

Tank Girl

My rewatching of this was inspired by memes about the Barbie movie. But not in a negative way.

Well. What to says about this movie. It’s cheesy. It had some odd musical cues. But? It’s so much fun.

I’ve read a significant portion of the comics, if not all of them (I’ll err on the side of the former though), and those are “early 40K” level genius.

The movie doesn’t quite rise to meet its source material. Yet for its era it is amazingly good fun.

Tongue firmly in cheek. Charismatic and suitable lead and supporting cast.

I’d even go so far as to consider it a prototype for the MCU. A big screen interpretation of comics which whilst by no means faithful, managed to capture the energy, anarchy and everything good about the source without being limited by it.

It’s so incredibly 90’s it’s…awesome

That's a blast from the past. I used to have the soundtrack on CD.

Ford vs. Ferrari
I have seen more exciting race car movies. For some reason, despite Bale trying super hard; this movie did not land with me as much as other race car flicks.

Perhaps because much of the story revolved around corporate egos instead of racer egos?

The Women in Black
Starring Harry Potter in an old Gothic Horror style story. I won't go into the details, but it gets a bit over-the-top with showing the titular Women in Black which actually kills some of the horror. Also, this movie features the worst drive-way I have ever seen!

That being said, as throwback period piece it was effective enough to watch it.

Burial Ground (aka Nights of Terror)

A 70's Italian horror movie featuring surprisingly clever zombies.
It's... not good. From the non-existent plot to the hilariously bad acting, all aspects are pretty poorly done, but it's also quite funny to watch people flail about and be fairly useless at dealing with a zombie outbreak.

Maximum Overdrive

An 80's movie from a Stephen King book about machine's rising up to "kill all humans"!

Not good at all.

I am also really unclear why some machines attack, some don't, and what qualifies as a machine? Sometimes it seems like devices with electronics, sometimes mechanical parts, and sometimes things connected to electricity but sometimes not.

Also, the ending scrawl..... makes it seem like UFOs/aliens were involved. The rest of the movies focuses on issues from a comet's tail. Just a strange and tacked on epilogue scrawl.

I am probably thinking about it more than the film makers did.

It’s a bad movie few people ever saw, yet somehow everyone knows the truck with the Green Goblin face on it. I struggle to think of any other vehicular villains so iconic, besides Christine. Maybe someone should make another Duel or The Wraith film.


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Went to check out the trailer. I had forgotten how coked out of his skull King was. Explains a lot.

I can remember watching it as a kid during the summer on like USA when it wasn't close enough to a holiday for them to be spamming star wars or reruns of Wings and all i can remember is the goblin truck and the alien thing, nothing else

 Easy E wrote:
Ford vs. Ferrari
I have seen more exciting race car movies. For some reason, despite Bale trying super hard; this movie did not land with me as much as other race car flicks.

Perhaps because much of the story revolved around corporate egos instead of racer egos?

Because it's not a film about race cars. It's a film about Ford attempting to win, and the people who were involved in that win. Designing the car is more important to the film than zoom zoom zooming around the track.

It's like how Moneyball isn't really a "baseball movie" in the traditional sense, in that it doesn't show lots of baseball games. Instead, it's about the guy in charge, and his statistical approach to building a team.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
Ford vs. Ferrari
I have seen more exciting race car movies. For some reason, despite Bale trying super hard; this movie did not land with me as much as other race car flicks.

Perhaps because much of the story revolved around corporate egos instead of racer egos?

Because it's not a film about race cars. It's a film about Ford attempting to win, and the people who were involved in that win. Designing the car is more important to the film than zoom zoom zooming around the track.

It's like how Moneyball isn't really a "baseball movie" in the traditional sense, in that it doesn't show lots of baseball games. Instead, it's about the guy in charge, and his statistical approach to building a team.

I love the scene where Henry Ford II gets driven by Shelby and breaks out crying, with Shelby concerned for his welfare...

 Easy E wrote:
Maximum Overdrive

An 80's movie from a Stephen King book about machine's rising up to "kill all humans"!

Not good at all.

I am also really unclear why some machines attack, some don't, and what qualifies as a machine? Sometimes it seems like devices with electronics, sometimes mechanical parts, and sometimes things connected to electricity but sometimes not.

Also, the ending scrawl..... makes it seem like UFOs/aliens were involved. The rest of the movies focuses on issues from a comet's tail. Just a strange and tacked on epilogue scrawl.

I am probably thinking about it more than the film makers did.

It's righfully panned as one of the worst films of all time, actually

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
Ford vs. Ferrari
I have seen more exciting race car movies. For some reason, despite Bale trying super hard; this movie did not land with me as much as other race car flicks.

Perhaps because much of the story revolved around corporate egos instead of racer egos?

Because it's not a film about race cars. It's a film about Ford attempting to win, and the people who were involved in that win. Designing the car is more important to the film than zoom zoom zooming around the track.

It's like how Moneyball isn't really a "baseball movie" in the traditional sense, in that it doesn't show lots of baseball games. Instead, it's about the guy in charge, and his statistical approach to building a team.

Nah, it was about corporate egos. That is not interesting to me.



Max Payne

The first half of this movie has solid Neo-noir vibes and great cinematography laced with supernatural overtones. However, as what is going on is slowly revealed the "truth" is a lot less interesting than the set-up. That said, it is one of the better video game-to-movie films I have seen.

Pretty lit cast too. Beau Bridges, Mark Walhberg, Mila Kunis, Ludicris, and Olga Kurlylenko (sp) round it out. Pretty impressive for a video game movie. However, the movie probably has a few too many characters.

Avatar 2 Merfolk Boogaloo

2+ hours of very pretty tedium and by the numbers script about Jim's idea's of "issues", 2/10

Cruella

proof I will watch any tat with Emma Stone, although trying to make the 70s cool was always going to be a big ask 4/10

A Scanner Darkly

A whole lot of tedious, but with interesting rotoscoping and actors involved. I waited most of the movie for something to happen, but it never real does. There is a bit of a pay-off in the last 15 minutes or so. However, it is too little, too late. Take-away the novelty of roto-scoping and this movie does not have that much to offer.

However, there is a ton of ideas about the nature of addiction, law-enforcement and its relationship to Capitalism. Interesting ideas, wrapped up in a boring delivery.

 Easy E wrote:
A Scanner Darkly

A whole lot of tedious, but with interesting rotoscoping and actors involved. I waited most of the movie for something to happen, but it never real does. There is a bit of a pay-off in the last 15 minutes or so. However, it is too little, too late. Take-away the novelty of roto-scoping and this movie does not have that much to offer.

However, there is a ton of ideas about the nature of addiction, law-enforcement and its relationship to Capitalism. Interesting ideas, wrapped up in a boring delivery.

Yeah, it's an interesting oddity, this one. I think it actually works better on the second watch, when you know that not all that much is happening and when the novelty of the rotoscope has worn off, and you can focus on the dialogue and delivery. But still, it won't entirely stop being a bit boring. But at least it's different,



@MDG: I really like Tank Girl. I like it better up to the point where Kangaroo Ice T appears, but it's good fun nonetheless. The casting is pretty ingenious actually. Not of Ice T. I or John Candy could have done that part just as well. But Lori Patty makes Tank Girl surprisingly un-annoying, despite the fact that the character pretty much is all about being annoying. Interesting film.

Restart the Earth

A 'Day of the Triffids' style movie done in China.
The CGI is a bit obvious in places, but the main letdown was just how silly and cliche-heavy the whole thing was, with heroic sacrifices and inspiring speeches everywhere (Plus killer plants that had been genetically engineered to be weak against sunlight ).
Had they lent harder into the whole post-apocalypse angle, I think it would've been a better movie.

Alien - 1979

Can't beat a classic.
I hadn't realized how much the bonus situation topic came up in the movie. It's enough to be really funny.

I feel like the bonus situation should have come up in Aliens at every turn especially if Ripely had Burke off to the side.



Even Jones get's a bigger share.

Brooklyn 45

Popped up on Shudder and figured I’d stick it on.

A group of friends, all World War 2 Vets meet for a seance. And things take off.

All filmed in a single room, and playing out in real time, it feels like it could work as a stage show, albeit with a change in how the scenes are arranged to remove that fourth wall.

I’m a little over an hour in, and it’s so engrossing it feels like maybe 20 minutes have passed. And it’s one of those where other than “it’s a supernatural thriller” I don’t want to say more about it, for fear of spoilers.

Thus far Border is my favourite. It’s just a superbly concise bit of film making. Incredibly short, and just gets it story told in a way I think only film can. It’s creepy, atmospheric and just good.

Definitely worth popping on your watch list.


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Etheria Film Night 2023

No it’s nowt to do with She-Ra. Rather this is a collection of short movies in a compilation. Not a portmanteau as there’s no linking narrative. All selected as they’re all directed by women.

I’m four of such short films in, and I’ve enjoyed them all so far. However such is the nature of such compilations I wouldn’t be surprised if a stinker or two is included.

Importantly whilst none have much in the way of budget, none thus far in have felt cheap.




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The Stuff

A superb bit of 80’s satire on consumerism and advertising of unhealthy foodstuff and indeed food fads.

The effects are pretty great, even if the acting is a bit ropey in places.

It’s a classic of its era for a reason, and should definitely be on your watch list.

Oppenheimer - Red Alert/10

A visually stunning, exceptionally well-acted and at times far too loud film that manages to take the story of an aloof scientist and spin it into a 3-hour epic that remains riveting from start to finish.

I've seen complaints that the hour after the Trinity test is where the movie loses itself, but I found that part to be fascinating, with the machinations of RDJ's character and the kangaroo court they through Oppenheimer in, the bogus accusations, the petty rivalries, the naivete of the main character in the face of men who desire power regardless of the danger. It was all great stuff.

And the movie has a cast that most people would kill for. There are so many "Oh it's him from the thing!" moments throughout this film, with minor roles going to actors you recognise as they play people who were titans in their field, but not the focus of the film.

The flips between black and white and colour are very effective, and the visuals - especially of the Trinity test - are just amazing. Not sure how Nolan managed to put such a big explosion on screen without CGI, but I'm sure the behind-the-scenes tuff will bey very interesting.

Only real criticisms are that Florence Pugh's character is a bit pointless, and it is really unpleasantly and overly loud in some places. Not seen a film that loud since the second 300 film.

Definitely worth the time invested.

 Easy E wrote:
Nah, it was about corporate egos. That is not interesting to me.

I mean, it wasn't, but you do you...

 Easy E wrote:
Max Payne

Is a case study of how to get everything wrong with a game-to-movie adaptation.