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Cloverfield

Never seen it until now. I didn't miss much. It's kind of meh, but that may just be because I'm not big on the found footage fad.

Bonus points for telling the audience on the intro screen how the movie ends. That was it for my engagement right then and there.

I suppose what the movie has going for it is that the cast isn't filled with character you can't wait to see die. That feels like an outlier for this kind of movie.

From Hell

Another one I missed until now without really missing anything. Not big on whodunits myself and I guess the movie's payoff is in the who and why.

By and large the movie didn't do anything for me.

 Geifer wrote:
Cloverfield

Never seen it until now. I didn't miss much. It's kind of meh, but that may just be because I'm not big on the found footage fad.

Bonus points for telling the audience on the intro screen how the movie ends. That was it for my engagement right then and there.

I suppose what the movie has going for it is that the cast isn't filled with character you can't wait to see die. That feels like an outlier for this kind of movie.

From Hell

Another one I missed until now without really missing anything. Not big on whodunits myself and I guess the movie's payoff is in the who and why.

By and large the movie didn't do anything for me.

Did you notice that in Cloverfield, the found material is on an memory card?

Which makes me wonder how you tape over a memory card like it's videotape?

Cloverfield 2 is really good, and a totally different film. John Goodman 's role is amazing. Much better than 3, which is less-than-meh.

I liked Cloverfield. It’s a very different take on the kaiju film that makes the horror more visceral. Also, it made my wife throw up, so that made it memorable.

I also liked Cloverfield... but..... it is also a product of its post-9/11 time. Audiences at that times were in a different mindset.

It is like trying to watch Blair Witch and you just can't catch the feel of what was happening for that movie at that time. Without all that zeitgeist, it is hard to understand what made that movie such a phenomenon.

Blair witch affected my sleep for a week… the last scene really stuck in my head and freaked me out. Same with Paranormal whatsit. I avoid that kind of film now

I rather enjoyed Cloverfield. I quite liked the way that the actual disaster kicking off in the background was just a backdrop for this other story, but there was enough overlap and the monster glimpses were limited enough to keep it in the creepy valley zone. Pretty sure that someone with a hole that size through their collar bone is t going anywhere fast though

Counter point?

Blair Witch just bored me. Absolutely nothing happened, it was poorly and unconvincingly acted with nothing even approaching a Crap Plot. If it wasn’t for The Internet Orangutan That Somehow Despite Objectively Crap Taste Became A Dubious Authoity? It would’ve earned the utter lack of audience it truly deserved.

Cloverfield? I know I’ve seen it. But I don’t really remember it. And unlike Blair Witch, it at least has some kinda effort behind the camera.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Counter point?

Blair Witch just bored me. Absolutely nothing happened, it was poorly and unconvincingly acted with nothing even approaching a Crap Plot. If it wasn’t for The Internet Orangutan That Somehow Despite Objectively Crap Taste Became A Dubious Authoity? It would’ve earned the utter lack of audience it truly deserved.

Cloverfield? I know I’ve seen it. But I don’t really remember it. And unlike Blair Witch, it at least has some kinda effort behind the camera.

My friends and I were asked to quiet down or leave a couple times during Blair Witch. We couldn't stop laughing and playing MST3K.

See, in Florida, local actress, Heather Donahue, who plays the girl (who gave up acting and owns a pot farm) was on 24/7 with her in Steak and Shake Ads.

Which my friends and I found obscenely funny. That and mixed with a viewing of Monty Python's Holy Grail not 4 hours previous led to the perfect storm of inappropriate laughter and commentary for a horror flick.

I disagree about Blair Witch. It was fantastically effective. I was up all night after seeing it, too.

If you think nothing happened, I don’t know what to tell you. I found it to be a movie that used implication to spark my imagination. It’s like the old Stephen King quote about how hearing something scratching at your door is more terrifying than anything you could see when you open the door. Blair Witch was entirely scratching, no opening. For me, with my active imagination, it was great.

For me, Blair Witch was the point where I realized people will blatantly lie to sell something. Maybe I was just a sheltered kid, but for me it's the foundation of modern viral marketing, influencer cancer and fake news, while the product itself was a turd of a nothingburger. But I guess it has some value as a sociological phenomenon.

 Quixote wrote:

Cloverfield 2 is really good, and a totally different film. John Goodman 's role is amazing. Much better than 3, which is less-than-meh.

10 Cloverfield Lane wasn't actually written as a Cloverfield film - the script was adapted into the setting during production. But yes, it's really good, and Goodman is spectacularly creepy.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
For me, Blair Witch was the point where I realized people will blatantly lie to sell something. Maybe I was just a sheltered kid, but for me it's the foundation of modern viral marketing, influencer cancer and fake news, while the product itself was a turd of a nothingburger. But I guess it has some value as a sociological phenomenon.

This.

I remember the hype, then I watched it, and it was just….crap. And suddenly, as competence was no longer a requirement, many dreadful imitators would follow.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I disagree about Blair Witch. It was fantastically effective. I was up all night after seeing it, too.

If you think nothing happened, I don’t know what to tell you. I found it to be a movie that used implication to spark my imagination. It’s like the old Stephen King quote about how hearing something scratching at your door is more terrifying than anything you could see when you open the door. Blair Witch was entirely scratching, no opening. For me, with my active imagination, it was great.

The movie is entirely reliant on the audience's ability to accept that the characters get hopelessly lost in the woods. If you can't for one reason or another, the rest of the movie is just characters freaking out over nothing. Which results in either comedy or insult, depending on the circumstances. Which in turn entirely ruins whatever mood is supposed to be built.

It might be effective to a specific audience, but if you don't fit that profile it has precious little to offer.

21 Jump Street

You know, John Cena has really taken the steam out of Channing Tatum's career. Also, what has Jonah Hill been in lately? Amazing to see a young Brie Larson as well.

This was an action-comedy that was okay. However, the humor is somewhat of its times and may not age that well. The best joke was a running gag about crashes exploding/not exploding.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
For me, Blair Witch was the point where I realized people will blatantly lie to sell something. Maybe I was just a sheltered kid, but for me it's the foundation of modern viral marketing, influencer cancer and fake news, while the product itself was a turd of a nothingburger. But I guess it has some value as a sociological phenomenon.

Good point.


One word on From Hell (because someone has to, I suppose): One of the very few films I fell asleep while watching. Can't remember anything else about it.



@Easy E: Haven't watched it. Is having watched the tv show add or detract from the cinematic experience?
As for Jonah Hill: Not sure, but I do know he did a Netflix romantic comedy which was kinda lame and where the kiss in the end was CGI'd. It also was the first instance of a main character who's pretty insufferable to begin with is made more insufferable by claiming his dream job was being a podcaster, doing a podcast about "the culture". Which is a turn of phrase or a concept that still makes me angry. Actually earlier today I had to think of it and got a bit miffed

I've never actually seen the end of Blair Witch. I saw the whole thing and was bored but determined to make it through and then a friend stumbled in drunk and collapsed in front of the TV during the last few minutes and I just couldn't bring myself to try and sit through it again.

Cloverfield I think is overall pretty good. It's definitely not perfect, but it uses the perspective to make a novel take on a niche genre that remains pretty unique and worth watching.

You really do not (and probably should not) know anything about the 21 Jump Street source material. The original took itself semi-seriously. The movie does not.

So, when are we going to talk about Jeffery Donovan (From Burn Notice and Sicario 2) and his best movie ever?

Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows.

It had all the parts left out of the original film... Dialog, acting, lighting, plot, character development, cinematography, a soundtrack, storylines, a villain....


Too bad that all those additions weren't very good.

 Sigur wrote:
@Easy E: Haven't watched it. Is having watched the tv show add or detract from the cinematic experience?
As for Jonah Hill: Not sure, but I do know he did a Netflix romantic comedy which was kinda lame and where the kiss in the end was CGI'd. It also was the first instance of a main character who's pretty insufferable to begin with is made more insufferable by claiming his dream job was being a podcaster, doing a podcast about "the culture". Which is a turn of phrase or a concept that still makes me angry. Actually earlier today I had to think of it and got a bit miffed

The latest movie with Jonah Hill I saw was The Wolf of Wall Street, and that's over a decade old. According to IMDB he seems to get work just fine, but not in anything I pay attention to.

Now for a bit of bad news. We seem to be firmly in the age where relevant plot points are "influencer" and "bitcoins". I've noted a marked increase of those terms in synopses in the last few years. Amazingly Firefox's spellchecker only marks one of those as wrong. Luckily it's the one that deserves it the most. Anyway, if you're old and grumpy and can't stand the idea of watching The Internet: The Movie!, brace yourself. It's only going to get worse.

Ever seen a movie that you enjoyed, and then been dismayed by the director?

I just watched 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi ...

Directed by Michael Bay.

Does this make me a bad person for enjoying a Michael Bay movie?

Or is this a one off?

In this film he didn't use any of his standard rotating camera shots and there were no blissfully stupid (but stunningly attractive) female leads to be found.

Looking back there were a couple lovingly long shots of American Flags, and gun porn galore, but I've seen that in other films (ie. Olympus Has Fallen).

I'm just not sure how to accept this fact. I feel like MDG when he admitted to liking a Tom Cruise film.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
So, when are we going to talk about Jeffery Donovan (From Burn Notice and Sicario 2) and his best movie ever?

Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows.

It had all the parts left out of the original film... Dialog, acting, lighting, plot, character development, cinematography, a soundtrack, storylines, a villain....


Too bad that all those additions weren't very good.

The making of that film is far better than the finished product.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
So, when are we going to talk about Jeffery Donovan (From Burn Notice and Sicario 2) and his best movie ever?

Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows.

It had all the parts left out of the original film... Dialog, acting, lighting, plot, character development, cinematography, a soundtrack, storylines, a villain....


Too bad that all those additions weren't very good.

Never saw it.
I saw the 1st one & was thoroughly bored by the sheer amount of.... nothing (except hype).
So when I learned they were making another? I just shrugged & ignored it. Doesn't sound like I missed anything.

Blood & Chrome

A Battlestar Galactica spin-off prequel type film, with a young William Adama.

And it’s pretty good. I wouldn’t say no to some more First Cylon War media. Though I am yet to watch all of Caprica.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just thinking on Prey and Alien Romulus.

Both are well made, attention holding films in their own right. But more importantly, both proved that for their respective Big Alien Nasties? There’s plenty narrative gas in the tank, you just need a decent writer and director (can be the same person), and that Moar Budget =/= Bettar Movee.

But what other long running franchises, currently on hiatus, do you think could benefit from similar revisits?

I will at this point, because it’s bound to come up, express some apprehension about the forthcoming Predator Badlands.

I’m deliberately avoiding trailers and spoilers, so don’t know much about it beyond it’s more Predator (hmm) from the same guy behind Prey (oooh!). But can lightning strike twice there? I mean, I bloody hope so. But I also hope he’s not been given too much freedom in budget and that, as sometimes it’s necessary compromises that bring the brilliance.

Working through the Mission: Impossible franchise at the moment. I'd previously seen the first one (at the cinema when it first released), most of the one where Ethan climbs the Burj Khalifa, and Dead Reckoning... Possibly bits of the others, but I can't recall actually sitting down and watching them in full.

First one lacks a little punch (and the setup seems soooo much more obvious) when you already know the twist, but it was still a fun romp.

2nd one was ok, but with action sequences dialed up to 11, adding in stupidly over-the-top flips and uncomfortable looking flying kicks. Story was ok, but the acrobatics kept pulling me out.

On to number 3!

From what I remember number 3 is kinda carried by a great performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
From what I remember number 3 is kinda carried by a great performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Yeah, 3 is good, even though the shoddy directing of JJ Abrams does what he can to ruin it.

5 on are the best of the series.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
It is the film that has united Dakka!

That and Section 31.

Very true, just at wildly opposite ends of the spectrum.

It’s 5 June! And the weather outside is crap! And I’ve already smashed my weekly target at work! Which means….back on the Slashers, whilst I await my Switch 2.

Christmas Evil

A Christmas themed slasher. We start with a young boy sneaking downstairs on Christmas Eve (Bad Boy), only to witness Mommy doing rather a lot more with Santa Claus than kissing (Dirty Boy!), which traumatises him massively (in your bed, in your mental asylum, presumably)

Cut to the present, and he’s a right odd’un, pretending to be Santa when he’s at home and eventually goes off the deep end and has a wee rampage.

It’s fine.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Schizoid

In which our loony goes around offing female therapy patients, because flimsy reasons

It’s not very good, and stars Klaus Kinski, a terrible human being. But, Christopher Lloyd is also in it briefly, so pretty much, but not entirely, a dead loss.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
From what I remember number 3 is kinda carried by a great performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Yeah, 3 is good, even though the shoddy directing of JJ Abrams does what he can to ruin it.

5 on are the best of the series.

Finished 3 last night. It felt more like a sequel to #1 than #2 did, as Ethan was just a completely different character in #2.

But yes, Hoffman was fantastic, and Luthor remains the one bright point of consistent awesomeness in this franchise.

Ninja Batman Vs. The Yakuza League

Can a Bat Family in full plot-armour mode take on an evil Justice League? Of course they can!

Not quite the demented fever dream the first one was (No making giant robots out of monkeys this time), this one is the more stereotypical "Batman is the bestest superhero evar!" story with a heavy (and tropey) Japanese aesthetic smeared on top.

It's nice to look at, if the artistic choices are your taste, but that's pretty much all it has going for it.

Sinners

Absolutely superb. Shades of Dusk ‘til Dawn, but in a good way. Darkly humorous with fantastic performances across the board.