[Macros]

Fast and furious.
More gears and longer runways.

[Aptorian]

Finished the 6th Fast film. It ended on a paradox of story telling that I have been confused by for years.

The films premise is that a friend/family member is lost/taken/in danger. Of course our heroes will do anything to help their friends and family. They will move heaven and earth to save the person. However, to keep the film/book/games story interesting, our heroes will face terrible dangers. At the end of the story usually one or more of the heroes will actually die to create this bitter sweet sensation of victory through sacrifice. At the end our heroes are gathered once more, they mourn their lost ones, but take comfort in once again being home and safe, having taken revenge on the bad guys and ensured their good fortunes.

But they lost someone to save someone. Was it worth it? Was any of it worth it at all?

I can sort of swallow it if its a 1 to 1 ratio of dead hero to rescued person. But in some films a whole platoon of people die to save 1 or 2 people. Furthermore often times, namely in Fast 6, the loss of the person or persons that died seems to be ignored or swept aside so that the reader, viewer, player gets to enjoy that feel good wrap up to the adventure they took part in.

It always leaves me sitting back, feeling like it was all fake. Like this paradox makes the rest of the story feel false. Like the suspense of disbelief comes screeching to a halt.

The moral of the story probably is that friends and family would rather die trying to save you, than live with having abandoned a loved one, but I think it's a story telling process that some times backfires.

[Siergiej]

Furious 7 is essentially plotless. At some point I was just waiting for someone to say avada kedavra and then a car starts shooting green, Dumbledore-killing lasers, and then they go back in time to kill Hitler and create a time paradox. Because why not? It's not like any of these would interfere with the plot, since there was no plot to begin with. And we would have wizard-cars racing through Nazi Germany and whatnot. Actually, I didn't expect to see a dumber movie anytime soon, but recently Hardcore Henry changed my mind.

I admit to only watching the first and last installments of Fast and Furious, and don't plan on filling the void with the rest of the 'story'. That said, I did enjoy the action. It was... visually pleasing.

[Tiste Simeon]

Yeah, don't think people watch Fast and Furious for the in depth plot, deep message or character development. I love them because they are loud, silly, fun and have tons of cool car chase scenes and blowing stuff up and the Rock and stuff. Huge entertainment value!

There's definitely a time and place for such things.

[amphibian]

QuickTidal, on 16 April 2016 - 11:01 AM, said:

Saw THE JUNGLE BOOK last night. Excellent film. They do a wonderful job of making a live action version of the story that has beats from both the animated Disney verison (including two songs) and the original Kipling book. The voice acting is ALL top notch, with Idris Elba, Lupita N'yongo, Ben Kingsley, and Bill Murray especially standing out as excellent. Walken is a bit lost as King Louis...but he was funny so that makes up for it. Yeah, if you like this story at all, you'll like Favreau's flick.

This movie is indeed good, much better than the 1967 cartoon.

I do wish Baloo, Bagheera, and Raksha were Bollywood actor voices though. Walken was perfect as King Louie and Elba rippled his way into making Shere Khan more believable and menacing.

What makes Walken good is his vocal delivery of the fixation on power and his animators actually put a few of his real life expressions in the Giganthopecus (spelling?). It was very Brooklyn mobster/Godfather like and that's a much better delivery of Louie than before.

The scenery is gorgeous. They cheated a little in bringing that diverse wildlife to central India, but the animals are mostly right (some are sized up dramatically). Elephants really do appear out of the jungle mist like that. Dropped my jaw when I saw it in real life two years ago.

[QuickTidal]

What's funny is that Only a bout a week or two ago I read a book which spoke about Gigantopithecus (Gigantopithecus blacki), and King Louie would indeed be accurate size. The species (which is thought to be now extinct, with only rumors of some POSSIBLY still existing in the Northern reaches of China) was described as something like 3 times the size of the largest gorilla still on the planet today...which would be about King Louie's size. I noted this to my wife because she said "Does something that big really exist? Come on."....but it turns out that it did (and possibly still does). #TheMoreyouKnow

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 18 April 2016 - 12:56 PM

[amphibian]

The wolves are the saddest part of the movie because there used to be many all across Southern Asia. Then the British pushed villagers into the wildlands and the wolves started going hungry and snatching kids at night. British then put a bounty on wolves and nearly drove them into extinction between the 1870s and 1920s.

The monkeys and apes are kinda from all over South Asia, not all found in central India.

[Andorion]

amphibian, on 18 April 2016 - 02:55 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 16 April 2016 - 11:01 AM, said:

Saw THE JUNGLE BOOK last night. Excellent film. They do a wonderful job of making a live action version of the story that has beats from both the animated Disney verison (including two songs) and the original Kipling book. The voice acting is ALL top notch, with Idris Elba, Lupita N'yongo, Ben Kingsley, and Bill Murray especially standing out as excellent. Walken is a bit lost as King Louis...but he was funny so that makes up for it. Yeah, if you like this story at all, you'll like Favreau's flick.

This movie is indeed good, much better than the 1967 cartoon.

I do wish Baloo, Bagheera, and Raksha were Bollywood actor voices though. Walken was perfect as King Louie and Elba rippled his way into making Shere Khan more believable and menacing.

What makes Walken good is his vocal delivery of the fixation on power and his animators actually put a few of his real life expressions in the Giganthopecus (spelling?). It was very Brooklyn mobster/Godfather like and that's a much better delivery of Louie than before.

The scenery is gorgeous. They cheated a little in bringing that diverse wildlife to central India, but the animals are mostly right (some are sized up dramatically). Elephants really do appear out of the jungle mist like that. Dropped my jaw when I saw it in real life two years ago.

Haven't seen this.

Which bollywood actors would you want for the voice roles though?

My perspective on Jungle Books is forever influenced by KIplings books. Those were some good stories.

[Aptorian]

Just finished the 7th Fast film. I can't tell if I am just Fast and Furiosed out or if the film was just legitimately bad. The plot in this film is dumb as fuck.

It's sort of fascinating that this is a reverse-Jason Stratham film. You could flip the roles and Stratham is the good brother out to revenge his family and the Fast crew are the bad guys. Which is interesting but of course that is immediately dropped as Stratham is depicted as having killed his way through an entire Hospital to pay his brother a visit.

But the manuscript for this film really is bad. I love Kurt Russel but that whole government spook angle was just idiotic. You could argue that they are using the same formula as 6 in the 7th film but it just feels so thin.

Still the ending is all kinds of awesome. Had me tearing up by the end.

I am not sure where the film is supposed to go from here. My favorite idea is a Fast and Furious: Back to the Future film. Doc Brown and Michael J Fox hire the crew and give them all Time Machines to race through time in. The possibilities are endless.

[QuickTidal]

Apt, on 18 April 2016 - 07:23 PM, said:

I am not sure where the film is supposed to go from here. My favorite idea is a Fast and Furious: Back to the Future film. Doc Brown and Michael J Fox hire the crew and give them all Time Machines to race through time in. The possibilities are endless.

8 begins a whole new trilogy (the last trilogy) arc with Charlize Theron as the villain. I think the end of 7 pretty much takes the team from ragtag criminalish people the govt is forced to work with via their skill into spec ops team inserted legally into situations to pull of crazy shit.

[polishgenius]

I'm good with Charlize Theron in 8, but if they don't get Liam Neeson in as Papa Shaw before the series end I'm gonna be pissed off.

[amphibian]

Andorion, on 18 April 2016 - 06:53 PM, said:

Haven't seen this.

Which bollywood actors would you want for the voice roles though?

Baloo by Anupam Kher, Bagheera by Irrfan Khan, and Raksha by Kajol.

[Aptorian]

I've been on a Jason Statham binge for the past week. I've watched every single film on Netflix and every film I could find in one of my friends ridiculous film collection.

I find Statham fascinating. He's basically a modern day Jean Claude Van Dam or Steven Segal, only his acting is better. Maybe it's just better writing. I've watched over a dozen films with him now that all are on the border to b-film status, yet he makes them enjoyable. You can sort of guarantee his films will involve some kind of charming mass murderer.

I am not sure if films are actively made for him at this point or his agent is just really good at selecting films that suit his style. I can't recall when I was last this hooked on an actors body of work.

[Macros]

Watch Spy. He's fantastic in it

[polishgenius]

Jason Statham is the bestest. He basically stole the action-sillyness genre from the Rock and Vin Diesel for a few years a while back. They've got back into the game along with Liam Neeson but the king stay the king.

[amphibian]

Crank 2 is a top 10 action movie of the last decade. It's on a level with Dredd, John Wick, Fury Road, and the rest are a bit below in my opinion.

[polishgenius]

amphibian, on 23 April 2016 - 08:32 PM, said:

Crank 2 is a top 10 action movie of the last decade. It's on a level with Dredd, John Wick, Fury Road, and the rest are a bit below in my opinion.

I'm going to go ahead and assume you just haven't seen The Raid yet.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 23 April 2016 - 08:45 PM, said:

amphibian, on 23 April 2016 - 08:32 PM, said:

Crank 2 is a top 10 action movie of the last decade. It's on a level with Dredd, John Wick, Fury Road, and the rest are a bit below in my opinion.

I'm going to go ahead and assume you just haven't seen The Raid yet.

DREDD > THE RAID

[worry]

All that aside, this commercial is a nightmare and I curse whatever mind birthed it:

[worry]

QuickTidal, on 23 April 2016 - 09:00 PM, said:

DREDD > THE RAID

This is Satan's opinion.