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We needed something good to sandwich between Jupiter Ascending and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Suns.


We also fit a few smaller “movie” experiences in with friends: We revisited Turtle Dreams, David Lynch’s Rabbits and the highly affecting documentary What The Internet Did to Garfield. We had a blast laughing through a night of existential horror.

Saw Avatar 3 over the weekend - my youngest is a big fan of them.

It was fine. Enjoyed it. SFX still amazing as you'd expect. But felt like about 70% the same as Avatar 2, and probably could have been at least half an hour shorter.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
The Fifth Element

No fancy review. It’s a classic. I love it. You love it. Go watch it.

I have a complete lack of understanding how, when I show a person born this century this film (niece, nephew, random person on the street), they don't like it. That for me damns this younger generation.


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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Future Shock, the Story of 2000ad

Documentary on, well, the story of 2000ad.

Quite old now, and thankfully made before some of the old guard passed away.

Any good?

Loved it. Very informative.

No 2000ad? No Vertigo. Direct consequence.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I was disappointed in the score.

After Daft Punk's Tron Legacy score, Trent Reznor's was kinda meh.

I was hoping for so much more.

At least I know that MDG will watch another Jared Leto movie soon. He-Man is coming soon!

The soundtrack on its own is strong, but I do not think they use it well in the movie at all. They hype up that it is from NIN, and then squander it in the actual movie.

Zone Troopers

From the studio that brought you Ghoulies comes this sci-fi comedy, which was originally a Direct To Video.

GI’s in WW2 Italy run into Nazis (who get punched and shot. Yay!), Hitler (who gets punched. Yay!) and some Aliens and their crash rocket ship.

For a low budget 80’s nonsense flick? This is honestly way better than it should’ve been.

The sets betray the budget somewhat, but are still a bloody good attempt. In polar opposite to AvP Requiem, it would’ve benefited from darker, moodier lighting - but they’re still decent enough. Particularly noteworthy is they took the time to dig a furrow for the crash site, which really helps with the suspension of disbelief.

The uniforms and costumes are pretty solid, I’d say equivalent to Good Dr Who in terms of contemporary comparison. However, mild points deducted for the Photo Journalist that gets caught up with the GI’s referring to the Geneva Convention some years before it came into being.

Overall, I was expecting this to be a disposable laugh fest. But instead, I’m genuinely enjoying it. As with quite a few films I’ve seen, I think with a bigger more mainstream budget, and the resulting nip tuck? This could’ve been something genuinely special. Which for my money, really elevates it.

I really need to add that to my list.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
The Fifth Element

No fancy review. It’s a classic. I love it. You love it. Go watch it.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
We needed something good to sandwich between Jupiter Ascending and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Suns..

I never made it all the way through Jupiter Ascending.

Valerian is a predictable, by the numbers story, but is pretty and the characters are entertaining enough to make it an occasional re-watch for me.

 Easy E wrote:

The soundtrack on its own is strong, but I do not think they use it well in the movie at all. They hype up that it is from NIN, and then squander it in the actual movie.

Yeah, the music on its own is great... but it's used very badly, particularly the choice to use less intense tracks for the action scenes. It takes away any sense of urgency from those scenes. The chase scene on the jetski is a fantastic music video, but a terrible mid-movie chase scene.

Who?

1974 British Sci-Fi thriller. Plot is that a scientist involved in a top secret project is horribly maimed in a car crash, in Germany. He subsequently turns back up as a cyborg. The question the authorities face is Who Is This Person? Are they who they claim to be or not?

I’d be surprised if this didn’t have some influence on Robocop what with the rebuilt cyborg angle.

What I’m really enjoying with this is how soberly it’s treating the subject matter.

Its internal logic is pretty solid. The head is encase in metal to protect the brain. The rest of the body is a technological analogue of flesh so is more malleable. We get some details about how the replacement sensory organs work. The only fleshy bits left are the original right arm being grafted on, the eyes, brain and larynx are all human. But, due to the cyborg process they’re unavoidably altered. I really like that attention to detail. The cyborg costume really isn’t that good, but with those bits added? It feels intentional as part of the possible ruse, rather than the result of limited budget. And it speaks to the clear care put into the making of this movie.

We get some flashbacks to the chap the cyborg is presented as being’s earlier life. But also interspersed with the people that saved his life asking him about his life.

This is really quite impressive. It raises interesting questions in thought provoking ways, and tells its tale pretty well. And so far? It’s kept me guessing as to what the truth of the matter is. And there’s more than “are they who they claim to be” being a binary option.

After all, if it is indeed him under the prosthetics? Has he been turned? Was he a turncoat all along? Can he be trusted to resume work on the project? Can that risk be taken at all.

I’m genuinely impressed.

The only downside is the action scenes aren’t terribly good. I mean, they’re not bad, nor do they feel tacked on or entirely unnecessary. They’re there to service the plot, they’re just…tame and fairly uninteresting, even for 1974.

Overall? This is absolutely worth a watch. It feels original and thoughtful. A film made to explore a concept rather than for spectacle, without being bogged down by it.

@MDG- If you like Zone Troopers, you may want to check out Trancers..... unless you have all ready see it.

I don’t think I’ve seen it yet, but it’s on my watchlist.


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And now one from Classics Corner.

Cocoon

Once again, the sort of movie that always seemed to be part of the entertainment permitted for kids in the 80’s.

And it’s been decades since I last saw this. Viewed with adult eyes? It’s still a sweet story about ageing and the loss of youth. But I never realised Mr Mediocrity Steve Guttenbeeg’s character was a pervy little peeping tom! Nor the chats about how the old ‘uns were feeling Refreshed In The Unmentionables.

Mind you, it was the 80’s. Guttenberg’s character is still a Dirty Boy though.

And I don’t mean to be nasty by calling the actor Mr Mediocrity. He had a pretty successful career in that era. But he never really wowed. He was a safe pair of hands, and that’s a good thing. It’s just he never really was the most interesting bloke in any of his films. He’s simply….fine.

 Easy E wrote:
@MDG- If you like Zone Troopers, you may want to check out Trancers..... unless you have all ready see it.

Dammit, Easy E! Next time someone hands you an exploding ham, I’m gonna pass the mustard!


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Steve Gutenberg got a lot of hate, but the truth is we still remember him. He might not have been the best parts of his films, but he contributed. Contrast this with what’s-his-face from Avatar or that-guy from Pacific Rim or Glen Powell. None of them could have turned Police Academy into a franchise or made a talking robot movie into a hit, or thrived with two more men and a baby.

Also, the Cocoon soundtrack has a song by Michael Sembello, who wrote Maniac for Flashdance. If you like 80’s cheese, check out his MTV debut, The Automatic Man.

 Easy E wrote:
@MDG- If you like Zone Troopers, you may want to check out Trancers..... unless you have all ready see it.

Tracers has the original "Bullet Time."

@ MDG, BobtheInquisitor

I have recently been caught by a YouTube series called Fade To Black that does 15 minute pen portraits of previously ubiquitous actors. Its rather more thoughtful than the normal "where are they now" sensationalism. The Steve Guttenberg one was interesting and seems to gel pretty closely with your assessments. He was/is a nice guy, who played nice guys quite successfully, but then fashions changed in Hollywood and he didn't feel he needed to keep up.

Thanks for that.

I assumed the No Homers just didn't have the same clout in Hollywood as the Stonecutters.

He’s not the sort of casting that would get me to seek out a film. But, I can be reasonably confident any film he is in will be pretty enjoyable.

In a way, he was the Steve Buscemi of his day. Rarely the lead, but usually a positive quality indicator for any given movie they’re in.

 LunarSol wrote:
I assumed the No Homers just didn't have the same clout in Hollywood as the Stonecutters.

We now have electric cars…your theory checks out.

The Turtle’s Head By Ari Aster

“I need a clamping thing!!”

The Turtle’s head is a short film on YouTube. Shorter than you think.

It starts off as a parody of noir detective films and then about 5 minutes in takes a turn. I guess you could call it dark comedy surreal horror. Don’t watch it while eating.

 Sigur wrote:

Thank you. What follows is merely a personal opinion. I don't like 'steampunk'. I don't see the 'punk' part. Cyberpunk is grand and important and good and also cool and the 'punk' part makes sense. Steampunk (or any -punk genres thereafter) only seem to chase some legitimacy by using that suffix. But that's just a minor detail.

My problem with Steampunk (and similar settings) is that to me it seems so superficial and slightly lazy. I like history; history is full of amazing stories. It does not need to be enriched by twisting it simply based on some visual bullet points. What's more though is that it takes human history and always turns it into a Disneyland based on our current sensitivities. Slightly less of a problem with Steampunk, but I think it gets really appearant when we get into the first half of the 20th century with Dieselpunk and the likes, because the usual fare is "we take the 'visually cool' parts and just ignore historical context or the icky bits'. Which is not how history should be handled.

Meant to comment on this topic and forgot so I'm just going to necro it for no good reason to get in my two cents.

Steampunk is mostly just a catchy title. The steam element isn't really core to the genre though it often gets used aesthetically for this like hissing pistons and the like. What Steampunk really seeks to capture is the vibes of the Age of Discovery prior to the Industrial Revolution. It's an exaggerated take on that time when people were excited about exploring and learning and creating before mass production. An era when it felt like anyone could invent something wonderous but each machine was a bespoke creation. That's really the punk element: the idea of changing the world through the power of imagination. A good steampunk setting is really about custom tech similar to the way cyberpunk plays heavily in unique body augmentation.

A lot of bad settings mostly just grab the aesthetic elements. Even then a lot of the appeal is just having a setting where guns exist, but they're not quite reliable enough that there still isn't value in melee weapons and armor and stuff. The good ones though recognize that its about exploration. That's why you'll often seen occult or Lovecraftian themes mixed in to create a sense of unknown. Give characters some new substance and see what they create with it. New creatures to discover. The idea that for all they know, they know nothing. That's what its really all about.

Watched Warmachine: The Iron Contender.

Had this on as noise while I played some Total War : Warhammer 3 throughout the past few weeks.

Its a fan made Youtube documentary that details the rise and fall of Privateer Press/Warmachine, though doesn't cover the very early years of its creation. As someone who only occasionally perused their miniature selection and as an outsider looking in, for a while they seemed like a juggernaut coming for GW's throne. They may not have been a true financial rival and probably owe a good part of their success to GW's blunders of that era, but they were undeniable for a good stretch of years.

Then it seemed like one day, they just weren't. I never really knew why.

Pretty interesting takes and info in the doc for someone who never got into that corner of the wargaming hobby. Judging by the comments, there are a few details missing or not accurate, but I give it some grace as it seems to be a fan made labor of love by someone who had limited access to the particulars.

Sounds like it could be fun. Warmachine was one of those games that seemed to go after each and every type of customer one at a time and alienate them.

Outside looking in? At the time they were held up as the anti-GW.

Then they began the inevitable edition churn. One was particularly poorly received. 3rd, maybe?

So, inside looking in, they basically ran into the problem so many successful games do of not having a way to cross the divide between small scale manufacturing (metals) and high volume plastics. They bought in on the PVC hype and when it turned out to be no where near the promised quality they didn't have the capital to invest elsewhere. Wanting to remain private put a cap on what they could do.

They also leaned heavily into discount online retailers which helped get product to consumers efficiently but long term impacted their product catalog. SKU creep got completely out of control and the product got heavily devalued to the point where retail and eventually distribution didn't want to stock their products. In particular, when they leaned heavily into huge base colossals and battle engines with each faction having a couple of each, it became a really hard product to get on shelves.

From the player front, the main issue was that the game just didn't have a way of attracting new players. Anything short of 2 list max game size with the most competitive lists on tournament scenarios was frowned upon in no small part because the game wasn't honestly very fun until you hit that point. Scenarios required too much stuff to work at lower levels and casters didn't scale very well. Players played with zero room for simple mistakes on terrible looking boards with flat terrain because it was more precise. There were just no new players interested in the game after a while and as much as other factors lead to drop off, the lack of new blood really caused things to get stagnant.

As for the Mk3 change, having been a part of it there's really a few factors. One, it was the era of every game trying to prove itself the most balanced when in truth, even at its peak Warmachine was a game with considerable haves and have nots. When Mk3 leaked early, a lot of players hoping this would be the perfect game saw it as an opportunity to get off the treadmill, particularly a lot of the high profile tournament players who were very invested in a lot of the degenerate factions that got brought down in the change.

A lot of it was always just natural player attrition. Myself and quite a few other players at the time were starting families and suddenly Warmachine dropped off and I don't think that's at all a coincidence. GW was turning the ship around and a lot of players were ex-40k happy to go back to their old favorite that seemingly changed its ways. Honestly, a lot of the outrage from a lot of people felt more like a desire to have an excuse to bow out of a game that was honestly extremely stressful and demanding.

Ultimately though, for me it just comes down to a lack of new blood. I couldn't find anyone to run events in my stead once I had a family to take care of and demo days were often just barren with players not showing up for anything unless it was a competitive tournament. In truth, Mk3 to me was a vastly better edition than Mk2, but what it didn't have was that fresh batch of players discovering the game and looking to make it the best it could be.