[Morgoth]

CGI is very expensive

[Aptorian]

Good CGI, yes. This movie looked like something from the Scyfy channel.

[Malankazooie]

Watched Pacific Rim Uprising.

It is bad. Has some of the cheesiest and discernibly vacuous dialog I think I've experienced in a movie of that pedigree. Only redeeming aspect is some of the action and special effects. Am I the only one who thinks it's ridiculous the pilots mimic the Jaegers movements in their little enclosed ecosystem command capsule? It's super corny.

Seems like it is set up for a third (where the battle is taken to the Precursors/Kaiju)? Which would entail going to a parallel universe, right?

[QuickTidal]

So a little story.

Back in 2003 I went to see MASTER & COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD with my best friend (and roommate at the time). I hated it. My best friend loved it. So for years I made jokes about it sucking, and how he was looney tunes to like it. It was an inside joke between us and one of the many things we ribbed each other about (he makes fun of me for liking the end of LOST, for example).

Well it showed up on D+. And I started to think to myself about it. Why DIDN'T I like it? It was a naval series (up any alley), historical (up my alley), starred GREAT actors (Crowe and Bettany), and was directed by one of the better directors to make films in Hollywood (Peter Weir) whose other films I pretty much universally love.

So what was it I "hated"? The only thing I could come up with was that I was weighing it unfairly against GLADIATOR from three years earlier because of Crowe...a film I loved and still love.

So I re-watched it.

And I LOVED it. I guess it was just one of those films I was not "in the mood for" at the time I first saw it.

It's stunning from start to finish.

I have contritely made all apologies to my friend. I have no idea what crack I was smoking to NOT like such a fantastic movie.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 07 June 2021 - 02:07 PM

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 07 June 2021 - 02:57 PM, said:

M&C is a stellar movie that should have had its sequels made.

I now 100% agree with this.

Spoiler

I felt such exultation when they were trapping the French ship pretending to be a Whaler and Aubrey shoves off his cloak disguise and shouts "Let Fly!" and the English flag goes up and the French are like WTF?!

SO GOOD.

[worry]

Yah M&C is pretty great...and they just announced a prequel is in development. I don't really know the book series so unsure if it's an adaptation or not.

I watched The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (third in the main series). I liked the first movie quite a bit, thought the second one was decent, and haven't seen any of the side movies. This one: woof. It's like a 'horror' entry in the God's Not Dead series. An insulting plot, terrible dialogue, felt waaaaay more like Catholic proselytizing than the first two (rather than just letting it be a facet of the in-world events and characters), and 'scares' for those who still think Marilyn Manson is frightening. Even if you didn't love one or the other of the first two, this one is a big drop off in every way imo.

[Morgoth]

the GF and I watched the new (new?) Disney movie Raya and the Last Dragon. We both actually quite enjoyed it, though that may be because we bother were in the exact right mood. Still, pretty, well acted. You obviously can't avoid the thing with "the only way to ensure peace and prosperity is to re-unite the whole of China Kumandra", but that's the times we live in I suppose.

[Morgoth]

Bo Burnhams's Inside is fantastic. I haven't fully digested why it hit me like it did, but I loved it so very much.

[QuickTidal]

Morgoth, on 08 June 2021 - 05:39 AM, said:

the GF and I watched the new (new?) Disney movie Raya and the Last Dragon. We both actually quite enjoyed it, though that may be because we bother were in the exact right mood. Still, pretty, well acted. You obviously can't avoid the thing with "the only way to ensure peace and prosperity is to re-unite the whole of China Kumandra", but that's the times we live in I suppose.

South East Asia, not China.

Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

It's a really solidly done movie and we really enjoyed it as well (kids loved it). Awkwafina is wonderful as usual.

Morgoth, on 08 June 2021 - 11:34 AM, said:

Bo Burnhams's Inside is fantastic. I haven't fully digested why it hit me like it did, but I loved it so very much.

YES, I just watched this too. Some of that stuff is a hard gut punch of reality. It's exceptionally well made too for something he did all himself.

[QuickTidal]

QuickTidal, on 22 May 2021 - 03:55 AM, said:

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.

Now that I've seen it I want to chime in properly.

Let's get one thing out of the way. Tig Notaro is the MVP of this film....and she wasn't even present while filming! That's how fucking GREAT Tig Notaro is. The fact that they digitally replaced skeezy Chris D'Ellia with her is genius, and you barely ever even notice.

I liked the movie. I didn't love it. Lots of predictable stuff. I WISH this had been better. The gore was also over the top at points where I was like "Ah, why?".

There are a few beats in this that make for future films retroactively making this one MUCH more interesting.

Spoiler

The robot zombie. No, you weren't imaging that. A zombie gets shot and the skin comes off his head revealing what is CLEARLY a robot head.

The time loop in the vault hallway. Those corpses didn't just LOOK like the team that went in for some tongue in cheek moment where Vanderohe waxes poetic about them not being the first team...They WERE the same team....it's intentional according to Zack Snyder and will be further explored if they make the sequels. Which means time travel AT least, alternate realities at best.

Also the notion that whatever the original Alpha zombie (or Zeus) IS....and why he was being transported. The fact that he was able to impregnate the Queen, and the baby was glowing blue as it died (Wut?!)...I don't think zombie's is right...I don't think they are dead at all.

There's WAY more going on in this than zombies. And the tantalizing glimpses of that in this were SOLIDLY done.

I also LOVE a movie that is brave enough to kill literally everyone off including the protagonist. You don't see it a lot.

So yeah, good, not great. Could be better...but the possibilities of the future films are FAR more interesting.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 08 June 2021 - 01:15 PM

[QuickTidal]

worry, on 08 June 2021 - 03:48 AM, said:

Yah M&C is pretty great...and they just announced a prequel is in development. I don't really know the book series so unsure if it's an adaptation or not.

WHAT?!

*googles*

Holy shit...YES PLEASE!

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 08 June 2021 - 02:54 PM, said:

worry, on 08 June 2021 - 03:48 AM, said:

Yah M&C is pretty great...and they just announced a prequel is in development. I don't really know the book series so unsure if it's an adaptation or not.

WHAT?!

*googles*

Holy shit...YES PLEASE!

I'd love to see more M&C films or just movies in that genre.

That said, rumors of another Master and Commander film have been around since before the Master and Commander film. Which was supposed to be a franchise, but wasn't, to go head to skull with PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN, but couldn't/shouldn't.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 08 June 2021 - 03:09 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 08 June 2021 - 02:54 PM, said:

worry, on 08 June 2021 - 03:48 AM, said:

Yah M&C is pretty great...and they just announced a prequel is in development. I don't really know the book series so unsure if it's an adaptation or not.

WHAT?!

*googles*

Holy shit...YES PLEASE!

I'd love to see more M&C films or just movies in that genre.

That said, rumors of another Master and Commander film have been around since before the Master and Commander film. Which was supposed to be a franchise, but wasn't, to go head to skull with PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN, but couldn't/shouldn't.

This seems a little more solid now that Disney owns Fox (and have renamed it simply 20th Century) and thus M&C, and the news is fresh in the last few days. So I'm going to hope.

And yes more movies in this genre please! I didn't know how much I was missing Nelsonic-Era Naval films in my life until I re-watched this and realized.

Like how has say Ridley Scott not made The Battle of Trafalgar into a movie yet? Seems like his fodder.

And yes, I feel like the two things that worked against M&C in 2003 when it came out were being so close to GLADIATOR (and thus a completely different outing for Crowe, but still a historical one and so comparisons were made) and becuase it came out the year POTC came out...and that movie was a fun romp, while this was the serious Naval adventure one, and the centre could not hold when the popcorn POTC movie was a success. There should absolutely have been room for both, but Fox decided they lost some imaginary war with Disney at that point I guess?

But let's be clear M&C is ten times the ships-at-sea movie that POTC is and it absolutely should have gotten its sequels...

Crowe is proud of M&C too, much more proud than he was of GLADIATOR in fact, and still talks it up and defends it from twitter trolls....so if they do Aubrey/Maturin meeting as a prequel idea, then I imagine they will recast, but perhaps they could find a role for Crowe to play...or perhaps put him in a framing narrative mode "telling" the story of when he was younger. That would be dope.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 08 June 2021 - 03:35 PM

[Malankazooie]

To say this is over the top is an understatement. Looks like a lot of fun though.




Full disclosure. I never played any of the games from the series, but I vaguely remember the reviews and watching game play from some of them. So looks like this live action effort is staying true to series absurdity?

[Macros]

I loved the early games, the last one was crap they tried to turn it into an RPG

[Macros]

That looks as awesomely ridiculous as DW was

[QuickTidal]

Got around to watching NOMADLAND.

It's funny, this is one of those movies that's very slice of life with little conflict that I always find good but with caveats. The film is well directed, really well acted (McDormand and Strathhairn are especially good), well scored...but the subject matter is so constantly depressing that it's hard to come out of it and think "That was great, I'm glad I watched that"

With films like this that are sort of commenting on social upheaval and whatnot (in this case the recession and the people in the US who were essentially forgotten) I feel like I want there to be something uplifting about it....and there isn't, and I also fully understand that that is the point. There is not a lot of uplifting for these people.

Good film, that I will probably never watch again.

Deserving of Best Picture? I honestly think MINARI or MANK are much more deserving, but I concede that NOMANDLAND is the one that tapped into a vein that people have begun really feeling in the last year, so that makes sense.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 09 June 2021 - 12:55 PM

[amphibian]

Here's the weird thing about Nomadland - they gave it a happier ending than what would probably happen with those characters.

Poverty is extremely grim...

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 09 June 2021 - 08:03 PM, said:

Here's the weird thing about Nomadland - they gave it a happier ending than what would probably happen with those characters.

Poverty is extremely grim...

Yeah, that’s probably accurate.

[Tsundoku]

Sort of looks like a Highlander ripoff: