[polishgenius]

Dunkirk was really good, and the use of the score to build the tension was one of the best things about it.

So there.

The Zimmer/Nolan combo are one of the few setups currently in Hollywood willing to make a soundtrack that doesn't necessarily work so well as a standalone listen in the service of the film (Winding Refn is a fan of this principle too and has done good work with Cliff Martinez and Peter Peter in that regard). This film might be the culmination of their patnership in that particular playing field.


(one thing that still bugs me about Zimmer and scores is that he insists that he invented the Inception trailer bwhams even though he didn't.)

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 31 July 2017 - 11:43 PM

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Dunkirk was good but not great. The fancy timeline skipping was unneeded and at points the movie felt like a collection of shorts instead of a cohesive unified film. Overall good though, way better than hacksaw ridge which was the last war movie I saw.

[Macros]

Still haven't seen hacksaw ridge, so this review depresses me as I wanted to watch it and like it

[Slow Ben]

Haven't seen it either, thought it looked too cheesy for me.

Watched the new Magnificent Seven. Enjoyed the characters, but overall pretty meh.

[QuickTidal]

Watched a few movies recently.

Finally saw BATMAN LEGO....and...I really didn't like it. In fact, I didn't like it SO much that I turned it off halfway through. I love Batman. He's my fave hero. But this was just bad/pandering joke humour, chaotic and nonsensical action sequences, and an overall story that is really lame. I can't fathom why people liked this. I liked the LEGO movie a lot, and thought that the Batman cameo was one of the better parts about it...but stretched into a whole movie....ugh.

THE FOUNDER. This movie made me not want to eat at McDonalds for ethical/non-crap-food-related reasons. It was interestingly assembled. You start off the film kind of feeling for Kroc, this kind of failed milkshake mixer salesman who's wife is upset he's never home, and he can't sell the things because of being undercut by the cheaper Hamilton-Beach mixers. But once he sees what the McDonald bros. have made, he just takes a deep and inexorable slide into assholery where he basically pulls the whole thing out from under the brothers AND covets this other dudes wife! Good gods. Great film. Despicable guy.

JUSTICE LEAGUE VS TEEN TITANS. I am usually pretty easy to please with the DC Animated films. Even the lesser ones are still pretty good. While THE JUDAS CONTRACT was a Starfire-related tale, this one is all about Raven (and a little about Damian Wayne) and is actually (once it gets properly going...and barring some hokey dialogue) really fun and entertaining! Though I will note this: Why they do some of the films that feature Batman and don't hire Kevin Conroy...is beyond me. Jason O'mara does a decent job...but he's no Conroy. Also, when did Jerry Connell become the defacto Superman over Tim Daly? And don't get me STARTED on Shemar Moore's pitifully blasé portrayal of Cyborg. Voice acting foibles aside, this was a fun flick!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 10 August 2017 - 01:12 PM

[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 10 August 2017 - 01:10 PM, said:

THE FOUNDER. This movie made me not want to eat at McDonalds for ethical/non-crap-food-related reasons. It was interestingly assembled. You start off the film kind of feeling for Kroc, this kind of failed milkshake mixer salesman who's wife is upset he's never home, and he can't sell the things because of being undercut by the cheaper Hamilton-Beach mixers. But once he sees what the McDonald bros. have made, he just takes a deep and inexorable slide into assholery where he basically pulls the whole thing out from under the brothers AND covets this other dudes wife! Good gods. Great film. Despicable guy.

Seems like it's a fashion since The Social Network to do biopics of arsehole founders of huge companies... I will watch this at some stage though.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 11 August 2017 - 07:37 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 10 August 2017 - 01:10 PM, said:

THE FOUNDER. This movie made me not want to eat at McDonalds for ethical/non-crap-food-related reasons. It was interestingly assembled. You start off the film kind of feeling for Kroc, this kind of failed milkshake mixer salesman who's wife is upset he's never home, and he can't sell the things because of being undercut by the cheaper Hamilton-Beach mixers. But once he sees what the McDonald bros. have made, he just takes a deep and inexorable slide into assholery where he basically pulls the whole thing out from under the brothers AND covets this other dudes wife! Good gods. Great film. Despicable guy.

Seems like it's a fashion since The Social Network to do biopics of arsehole founders of huge companies... I will watch this at some stage though.

You should. It's VERY interesting. And It's worth the watch alone for Nick Offerman as Dick McDonald and John Caroll Lynch as his brother Mac...they put in spectacular performances....as does Keaton to be honest. Laura Dern felt underused though....but since she plays Kroc's neglected wife, maybe that was intentional?

[Tiste Simeon]

QuickTidal, on 10 August 2017 - 01:10 PM, said:

Watched a few movies recently.

Finally saw BATMAN LEGO....and...I really didn't like it. In fact, I didn't like it SO much that I turned it off halfway through. I love Batman. He's my fave hero. But this was just bad/pandering joke humour, chaotic and nonsensical action sequences, and an overall story that is really lame. I can't fathom why people liked this. I liked the LEGO movie a lot, and thought that the Batman cameo was one of the better parts about it...but stretched into a whole movie....ugh.

AAARGH YOU'RE WRONG!

[worry]

Kong: Skull Island. Moderate disappointment, in that I was expecting a B- movie and got a C- movie. First half is good enough, in traditional monster/disaster movie fashion: setting up all the characters, eventually getting them together, all up through the first big action scene. After that, it's like Moby-Dick by way of Jurassic Park III. In movies like this you have to make the deaths cool and/or meaningful, and this movie largely does neither, even (or especially) for the big names/major characters who die. There's pretty much no payoff for heroes or villains. There are cool elements: John C. Reilly and Samuel L. Jackson really get their characters and it shows (everyone else is pretty thin); there's some cool creatures; Kong himself has moments of greatness. On the other hand, plenty of potentially cool moments are destroyed by slo-mo shots. There were sooo many, worse than Snyder by a mile. So anyway, I rank this as mediocre as Godzilla, but with lower expectations so not as much of a disappointment.

[Malankazooie]

Watched Krampus and War Dogs recently.

Both are serviceable movie fun and have a popcorn night type appeal, but nothing extraordinary. I can see Krampus being a holiday season staple that airs on SyFy or something. And War Dogs was fun, maybe some over acting by Jonah Hill and sorta shallow, but still enough to capture your eyes for two hours.

I give Krampus 2 and a half demented snow globes out of 5

I give War Dogs 3 Bradley Cooper weird eye infections out of 5

[worry]

Because I watched the new WHAS series, I went back and watched Meatballs for some kind of nostalgia trip. Turns out I didn't remember almost any of it. I've seen Meatballs Part II tons of times (that's the one with Meathead the alien), but the first one I guess I saw only as a young kid. It's kinda Robert Altman-lite, or M*A*S*H for kids, I guess you could say, to both its benefit and its detriment. It's very loosey goosey on plot, aiming more for just the feel of camp over a summer, and a lot of it I'm sure is improvised. Nothing funny really happens, though there are some funny lines. It's an okay movie.

[Aptorian]

WB/DC are reportedly working on a Joker origins film.

http://deadline.com/...rse-1202154053/

I feel like there should be laws against this kind of stuff. Giving the (modern) Joker a beginning is a terrible idea. It's like when Marvel decided it was a great idea to give Wolverine his memories back and make him some 17th century noble son. It just fucking sucks.

[Morgoth]

Prequel movies are always a bad idea. Always.

[Macros]

Has there ever been a good prequel?

[Aptorian]

I was thinking about that as well. I looked up a list on wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia...ist_of_prequels

There's a bunch of good films there but most of them I wouldn't consider true prequels. Like The Hobbit (just the first one, not the rest), X-Men: First Class, The Scorpion King, etc.

But there is one truly great prequel. It's called Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.

[Morgoth]

Seriously? Mat asks for good prequels and you bring up The Hobbit and The Scorpion King as examples?

[Slow Ben]

Does Batman Begins count as a prequel?

Temple of Doom was actually a prequel.

Godfather 2 was part prequel.

[Aptorian]

Morgoth, on 23 August 2017 - 10:02 AM, said:

Seriously? Mat asks for good prequels and you bring up The Hobbit and The Scorpion King as examples?

Yes, they're great films.

The first Hobbit film stretches out very little actual story over a lot of minutes but it does so really well, I loved the productions values and the characters. Martin Freenan was an inspired pick for Frodo and all the little dwarves are fun and unique. And of course watching it in that crazy 48 fps format in the cinema was overwhelming.

The Scorpion King is a really solid fantasy action film. It's not particularly ambitious or brilliantly written but what it does it does very well. It's an easy to watch Conan-lite film.

Slow Ben, on 23 August 2017 - 12:00 PM, said:

Does Batman Begins count as a prequel?

Temple of Doom was actually a prequel.

Godfather 2 was part prequel.

I'd argue Batman Begins doesn't count because it's not part of the prior Batman series but rather the beginning of its own run.

Temple of Doom is shit. It's the worst of the 4 Indiana Jones films.

I don't think Godfather 2 counts since half it takes place after the first film.

[QuickTidal]

THE SCORPION KING is excellent, campy action fun. It's VERY much better than the 3rd MUMMY film by leaps and bounds. It's SUPER entertaining.

----------------------------------------------------

So we watched (or rather tried to watch) Guy Ritchie's KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD last night. Let me ask a question. Stylistic Guy Ritchie stuff aside (shooting a period fantasy piece like it's a fucking London Mob movie) which irritated my wife and I to no end...How do you fuck up KING ARTHUR? Honestly. It's literally such an easy story to do and do right that even some lesser films like 2004's KING ARTHUR was about 80% really good, and LAST LEGION is even good...campy though it was...

But fuck me, this movie was bad, and it screwed up any story points that make the whole make sense. But you don't have to believe me, let's list what's wrong:

1. That Camelot exists during Uther's time (newsflash, it didn't...it was Arthur who had it built)
2. That there is some Mage war? Dafuq?
3. Mordred has laid siege to Camelot while Uther rules and Arthur is a toddler...because yes...the illegitimate offspring of Arthur and his sister Morgaine, Mordred, has time travelled? No, Ritchie just wanted a villain to cover the scope of his film.
4. Vortigern is Uther's brother? No he fucking wasn't. Also, that's stupid.
5. Bedivere is already an adult when Arthur is a toddler? No,no he wasn't.
6. Uther possessed Excalibur? Not only that the he died it embedded itself in the stone again? What? No.

So the notions of the myth are all mixed up here, and this kind of makes none of them make sense to even include. There is also the forced reasoning of "Arthur should take back Camelot, because it's his ancestral home and was stolen by his Uncle after he killed his father.".....so...the LION KING? I mean fucks sake.

No, Arthur rules because it's his right when he pulls the sword from the stone...and people follow him to a kingdom he creates because he is a good and altruistic man. Who falls because he is far too trusting.

This movie is bad, and should feel bad for even fucking existing. I was so excited for this flick, and I don't think I've been this disappointed in a film in a long while.

/rant

[Macros]

I havent seem Scorpion King, so can't comment.

But Apt, seriously, the Hobbit?

Aside from the brutal stretch to make it into 3 films.
Take away the pretty sets (mostly already scouted for LotR)
Take away the 48 whatever camera shite.

What is left? A disjointed mess of shite that Jackson himself admitted was half made up on the fly, with more Orlando bloom for us.
Ugh. I have listed my reasons for disliking the Hobbit before, the only thing we agree on is Freeman's casting.
Seriously Apt, get yourself checked out