[Aptorian]

I love Highlander. I'm not sure if it can translate that we'll to modern times. It was a perfect, slightly eccentric lead actor, with a creepy weird but menacing antagonist, in a dirty 80s America with QUEEN as your score.

It would be really hard to top that. Though I imagine that the sword fighting and special effects will be much improved.

[QuickTidal]

 worry, on 22 May 2021 - 01:13 AM, said:

Army of the Dead:

Spoiler

Sorry to say, this was pretty bad overall. While the first half builds a lot of potential, the second half squanders payoffs at (nearly) every turn. Most ideas in this movie -- and there are some good ones to be sure -- start at Point A and end at Point A (while a few just fizzle out all together, like the social media thing). There are some laughably good comic moments (Tig Notaro is great, as are Raul Castillo and Omari Hardwick), and numerous laughably bad moments (any time the 'serious' score plays) -- and those aren't a matter of the acting, but the writing and other film-making decisions. I wouldn't fault anyone in the cast for how bad this movie gets in the second half.

That's because the worst aspect of this movie is the zombies -- absolutely awful in conception and execution. Not scary, not exciting, not interesting. They move around crouched or hopping on things like the background dancers in CATS, and they make pterodactyl noises. If they had been better antagonists, a lot of the other flaws could have been forgiven -- like who minds sketches of good ideas in an otherwise great action movie -- but they weren't.
One thing I genuinely appreciated (though sadly its among those A-->A ideas) was the internment camp. ZS didn't have to go there but he did. Maybe it's a low bar, but ZS going "I love guns and explosions in movies as much as next fella, but I'm not one of you T**mp sickos" is commendable. And there's kind of an unremarked upon inclusivity to the whole affair.
Anyway, maybe nobody's surprised to read my reaction if you got this far, but I was surprised, because I went in hoping to finally enjoy a ZS movie again.

Hands up who expected worry to enjoy a Zack Snyder flick?



Not I.

[worry]

I liked Dawn of the Dead and half-liked 300! (or liked 150?)

[amphibian]

We're working our way through Taskmaster.

Paul Choudhry is able to get more laughs than Roisin Conaty, but he's worse than she was at participating in the longer set-up joke tasks. Both of them actively dent the seasons they're in to a huge degree.

This post has been edited by D'rek: 25 May 2021 - 01:19 PM
Reason for edit: political pruning

[Malankazooie]

There should be a really cheesy, b-horror movie titled "Woke". I'm not sure what the plot would entail, but I bet something really absurd could be made. Someone should get on that.

[Malankazooie]

huh, there's a comedy on the Hulu streaming service called "Woke"... I just Bing'd it. Looks pretty funny. Gonna have to check it out.



From the wiki:

Quote

Keef Knight, creator of Toast & Butter, is a black cartoonist on the verge of mainstream success. He prides himself on 'keeping it light' and shies away from taking controversial stances. After being racially profiled by overly aggressive policemen, the traumatized Keef finds that he's able to see and hear inanimate objects talking to him. Now more sensitive to racism, and the everyday microaggressions he'd tried so hard to avoid acknowledging in every situation, Keef must figure out how to maintain his relationships and a career as a 'woke' black man.

The show is live action with animated elements.

Anybody watch and can vouch for whether it's good or not?

[worry]

Couple more movies:
The Kid Detective -- Stars Adam (not Adrien) Brody as a kid detective like Encyclopedia Brown who's grown up to be kind of a stunted loser past his glory days, and then gets hired to solve a murder. It's something of a neo-noir mixed with goofy absurdist humor, so basically it's like the exact middle point between Brick and Mystery Team. It's not mind-blowing but it coasts along at 'pretty good' all the way through, including the mystery element.

Those Who Wish Me Dead -- The new action thriller w/ Angelina Jolie and Jon Bernthal (and Aidan Gillan & Nicholas Hoult), that's about a couple hired guns chasing a witness through a forest, with the backdrop of a raging forest fire. It's pretty by the books, as far as things go, but not in a bad way. The killers are interesting and dangerous, the heroes are (mostly) less interesting but still competent, the witness (an adolescent) is actually quite a good actor, and the fire is significantly imposing by the final act. Some might find it kinda skimpy on plot, but I thought it was just efficient. You get in, get as much info as you need about everyone, get some reasonably tense action, and then get out in about 95 minutes.

[Malankazooie]

Watched the movie Black Christmas (2019), I think it is an update of an old 1970s or 80s horror movie? I know, a weird choice, but I'm not into watching it during the holidays (I like to keep it cheery during the festive months of Nov/Dec/Jan). Anyway, it was not bad. I suggest checking it out. It has the standard slasher movie formula, but I really dug the fourth-wave feminism that predominated the plot as the movie moved towards resolution. In the spirit of fourth-wave feminism, I'm looking for other movies where that is an identifying theme. You film buffs have any suggestions?

[Tiste Simeon]

Rewatched The Matrix, oh man I still seriously love that film.

Debating if I want to watch the sequels as well. I know they were a bit messy but they had some great moments in them. I particularly loved the ghost assassin twins in the second one...

Thoughts?

[Malankazooie]

I don't remember much about the sequels. I do remember the twins and thought they were fun. Isn't there a hated rave scene or something? That everyone and their uncle during that time voiced their hatred for?

I personally would watch The Animatrix before watching the sequels.

This post has been edited by Malankazooie: 24 May 2021 - 09:58 PM

[Aptorian]

Not sure what's available in the US compared to Danish Netflix but you can't go wrong with John Mulayney, Anthony Jeselnik or Jimmy Carr... Well, actually you might get pretty offended but they're hilarious.

[worry]

I dunno what older stuff is streaming but:

On Netflix: Nate Bargatze is reliably hilarious imo and has a couple recent specials on there. Very casual, conversational, and down to earth as far as stand-ups go. Low key slice-of-life stuff.

On Prime: Todd Barry "The Crowd Work Tour". It's a special that follows his tour where he just did crowd work, so it's pretty much all insult comedy aimed at the audience, but if you like Todd Barry it's appropriately sharp, dry, deadpan stuff.

[Tsundoku]

The Matrix sequels were a bunch of cheesy CGI fight scenes so overdone they became boring and I just couldn't give a fuck about what passed for a plot by that point.
The Wachowskis bought waaaaay to much into the smoke that was blown up their arses after the original and overindulged the wank.
Completely pissed on the great work of the original. But then again the same can be said for so many series-from-unexpected-solo-hit films.

[Aptorian]

I liked the Matrix sequels as high budget Sci-fi action films. Forget about all the weird spiritual techno mumbo jumbo and just enjoy the action.

There's so many awesome scenes in the later films. Neo fighting a thousand Agent Smiths, the creepy ghost albino sword fights, Zion getting invaded by robot octopuses and giant mechs blowing them out of the sky, etc.

Same thing with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies actually. The first films are definitely the best but in both cases the sequels are great entertainment.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 25 May 2021 - 09:26 AM

[QuickTidal]

 Tsundoku, on 25 May 2021 - 09:14 AM, said:

The Matrix sequels were a bunch of cheesy CGI fight scenes so overdone they became boring and I just couldn't give a fuck about what passed for a plot by that point.
The Wachowskis bought waaaaay to much into the smoke that was blown up their arses after the original and overindulged the wank.
Completely pissed on the great work of the original. But then again the same can be said for so many series-from-unexpected-solo-hit films.

 Aptorian, on 25 May 2021 - 09:20 AM, said:

I liked the Matrix sequels as high budget Sci-fi action films. Forget about all the weird spiritual techno mumbo jumbo and just enjoy the action.

There's so many awesome scenes in the later films. Neo fighting a thousand Agent Smiths, the creepy ghost albino sword fights, Zion getting invaded by robot octopuses and giant mechs blowing them out of the sky, etc.

Same thing with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies actually. The first films are definitely the best but in both cases the sequels are great entertainment.

The Matrix films were meant to be a multi-media experience that included the games, comics, short fiction, anime and anything else. Alone, the sequels seem kind of lost and rudderless action films...but if you include the rest of the gamut of material, they become something more. I know the films SHOULD arguably stand on their own, and you're right...but the attempt by the Wachowski's was there to make a different experience, they just underestimated the amount of people willing to get and consume ALL the extra material. Like if you watch THE SECOND RENAISSANCE P1 and 2 and THEN consume the final Matrix film, it's something else entirely. If that makes sense?

[D'rek]

Mod notice of siiiiigh save it for the discussion board - and even there don't make it personal - you floppy waffles

[Slow Ben]

 D, on 25 May 2021 - 01:17 PM, said:

Mod notice of siiiiigh save it for the discussion board - and even there don't make it personal - you floppy waffles

Oooorr are the woppy flaffles?




Started Zach Snyder Justice League. Havent watched the original, BvS, or Auquaman. But im interested..

[Slow Ben]

 Briar King, on 25 May 2021 - 02:54 PM, said:

I will look up some of those names I'm to unfamiliar with comedians. Some things I wound up watching last night: Sam Kinison in 87'...reminds me of a screeching Chris Farley but where Chris is gold this guy sucked. I couldn't understand anything he was screeching so I turned it off before the 10 min mark. I then made a rather surprising find. Joe Rogan: Triggered 2016. I had no clue the Fear Factor/UFC guy did stand up! Turned out to be pretty hilarious to so I will check out more from him.

I see both Chris Rock and Chris Tucker have N Original stuff. I'm fixing to load one or the other of them to see if they still got it like late 90's early 00's last I saw an act.

I think I'm going to save Richard Prior for my last of the day/ or end of my stand up curiosity.

Eddie Murphy. Both Delirious and Raw are awesome.


"You aint got no ice cream....cause you is on the welfare....and your father is an alcoholic..."

[D'rek]

 Briar King, on 26 May 2021 - 01:12 AM, said:

Noted. I definitely planned to check the Eddie one out I saw though I don’t recall it’s title.

I was also going to do a Bill Burr I think his name is..guy I recognized from SW Mando.

Bill Burr is divisive, and I totally get why. He intentionally does a sort of "outdated conservative" and borderline-sexist affect (lots of jokes about "why do men have to pay for everything in the relationship? Why do women nag so much?" and so on), but his delivery isn't consistent. So when he does the "Obama's wife/first ladies" joke in one of his special he delivers it well, teasing the audience with a hook that sounds offensively sexist at first, then immediately spinning it into a more interesting and funnier take that uses the audience reaction to be funnier... but I saw him do the same joke at a Montreal show the way he delivered it came off as just a straight up "How dare women have opinions! We ought to slap them when they talk!" and then he gets mad at the audience for not laughing.

Anyways, some other reccos not yet mentioned:

Sara Millican - Has the style of a polite, pure, English lady but her jokes are super dirty.
Taylor Tomlinson - Mostly modern dating/romance-based jokes.
Ali Wong - Classic. Lots of asian-life jokes and dirty jokes.
Sam Morril - Dark humour in a very calm delivery style
Josh Johnson - I dunno how to describe him, tbh.

And since we're talking about Bill Burr, I'll throw in Daniel Tosh, too. I think his 2016 special has that perfect balance of him doing a deliberately douchey persona that supports his provocative jokes. That's the only one I recommend though, I haven't liked him in anything else.

[amphibian]

 Briar King, on 26 May 2021 - 04:07 AM, said:

Whoa did y’all know that we are getting a Matrix 4? From the W bros little sister Lana. Dec this year on big screen and MAX.

The Wachowskis both transitioned to be women in the late 00s and early 10s.

They have so much ambition, which means Sense8 and Jupiter Rising and Cloud Atlas were kinda messes at times, yet had some real gold there. I want Lana to dial it down a bit and give us something we can connect to rather than move onto the next visual spectacle.