Films

[charlierc]

I hadn't heard of the CODA film that's won Best Picture at the Oscars until seeing a featurette on Instagram that an illustrator I follow does on there representing each Best Picture nominee with a statue.

Of the nominees I'd seen Nightmare Alley (beautifully shot but did go on a bit too long) and Don't Look Up (which was good but not that good). Maybe I'm becoming a cynic.

Saying that I'm aware most focus of the Oscars isn't going to be so much on the winners now as it is on the fallout from Will Smith vs Chris Rock.

[Hugh Jass II]

Ended up watching Ghostbusters: Afterlife last night. The 1984 original was one of the defining films of my childhood, but fuck me that was dire. You could almost see and hear the studio execs saying “people like Stranger Things, let’s do that but, you know, Ghostbusters”.

The ironic thing is that Stranger Things drew heaviy inspiration from the original Ghostbusters and similar 80’s classics so you end up with this soulless pastiche of a pastiche of the original film.

Other weird thing is there’s absolutely no second act. The film spends an hour and a half setting up the kids, having them find the gear and catching their first ghost to immediately “oh shit Gozer’s here! Better kill her!”

Utter crap.

[Ryan1984]

Does it seem a bit odd - despite JK being a bit of a knob and Depp-gate - there’s a Harry Potter-adjacent film out tomorrow and there’s been so little fanfare?

[Ryan1984]

1 hour ago, Barry Fish said:

Was thinking this but at the same time everything since the original series has been pretty garbage.  Haven't enjoyed the Fantastic Beast stuff at all.

I quite enjoyed the first one for what it was - basically a fun family adventure in the Wizarding World - but the second struggled with various story strands that went nowhere and being so tied to the HP lore. Seemed to lose the camaraderie of the characters as well. Think they needed an editor.

Really wish they’d have brought back Alfonso Cuaron for an FB film. Can you imagine what he’d do with so much to explore?

[charlierc]

4 hours ago, Ryan1984 said:

Does it seem a bit odd - despite JK being a bit of a knob and Depp-gate - there’s a Harry Potter-adjacent film out tomorrow and there’s been so little fanfare?

It kinda feels overbearing that they're planning to do five of them. Honestly felt fine with just the first one - nothing spectacular but wasn't boring, whereas the second was just a sludge through dense Potter-lore.

[kingbadger]

5 hours ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Ended up watching Ghostbusters: Afterlife last night. The 1984 original was one of the defining films of my childhood, but fuck me that was dire. You could almost see and hear the studio execs saying “people like Stranger Things, let’s do that but, you know, Ghostbusters”.

The ironic thing is that Stranger Things drew heaviy inspiration from the original Ghostbusters and similar 80’s classics so you end up with this soulless pastiche of a pastiche of the original film.

Other weird thing is there’s absolutely no second act. The film spends an hour and a half setting up the kids, having them find the gear and catching their first ghost to immediately “oh shit Gozer’s here! Better kill her!”

Utter crap.

Having seen the trailer whilst watching something else I've given it a very wide berth. Ghostbusters was an amazing film, the sequel was a bit pants but the modern day fascination with revisiting old films and somehow pretending there's this whole lore and wider universe spanning from a single film is ridiculous. Also the trailer indicated that everyone had forgotten about the Ghostbusters or ghosts simply failed to exist etc which is just a ridiculous notion given, you know, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man exploded over New York City and they marched the Statue of Liberty everywhere.

[WS_Jack_III]

Finally saw The Batman.

 

Was good but I've seen people suggest it is as good if not better than The Dark Knight, it is absolutely not.

The final act didn't seem to match the rest of the plot to me, felt very added on (studio involvement?) which also makes the film too long.

 

Some really good stuff early on though, a very grounded Batman film with detective work and Gotham feels more fleshed out than in the Nolan ones, kinda feels like a character itself.

[jump]

10 hours ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Finally saw The Batman.

 

Was good but I've seen people suggest it is as good if not better than The Dark Knight, it is absolutely not.

The final act didn't seem to match the rest of the plot to me, felt very added on (studio involvement?) which also makes the film too long.

 

Some really good stuff early on though, a very grounded Batman film with detective work and Gotham feels more fleshed out than in the Nolan ones, kinda feels like a character itself.

I don't get people saying he's a proper detective in the film. He's just stands arounds crime scenes so he can be told a riddle, even then he only solved a few easy riddles and he then needed help solving the harder ones but he never actually does much police work.

Like Batman is bit of a fuck up in this film too, he seems to just wants to beat up henchmen and still needs to get juiced up to do it. I never actually see him succeed as he fails to stop Alfed being blown up, fails to solve most of The Riddler's riddles, doesn't bring his parents murderer to justice, doesn't stop/catch/get ahead of The Riddler at all but the end of the film is him patting himself on the back for being a hero even though the city is destroyed.

I really like the Fincher/Seven take but it's not nearly as cerebral film as it wants to be.

 

[clarkete]

On 4/7/2022 at 7:58 PM, kingbadger said:

Also the trailer indicated that everyone had forgotten about the Ghostbusters or ghosts simply failed to exist etc which is just a ridiculous notion given, you know, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man exploded over New York City and they marched the Statue of Liberty everywhere.

I don't recall it being like that in the film. 

[WS_Jack_III]

3 hours ago, jump said:

I don't get people saying he's a proper detective in the film. He's just stands arounds crime scenes so he can be told a riddle, even then he only solved a few easy riddles and he then needed help solving the harder ones but he never actually does much police work.

Like Batman is bit of a fuck up in this film too, he seems to just wants to beat up henchmen and still needs to get juiced up to do it. I never actually see him succeed as he fails to stop Alfed being blown up, fails to solve most of The Riddler's riddles, doesn't bring his parents murderer to justice, doesn't stop/catch/get ahead of The Riddler at all but the end of the film is him patting himself on the back for being a hero even though the city is destroyed.

I really like the Fincher/Seven take but it's not nearly as cerebral film as it wants to be.

 

 I think just the addition of like him filming stuff and going over notes. It isn't just a "beat em up" as other Batman films have been. Then again, I come back to the final act which felt very out of place.

[jump]

2 minutes ago, WS_Jack_III said:

 I think just the addition of like him filming stuff and going over notes. It isn't just a "beat em up" as other Batman films have been. Then again, I come back to the final act which felt very out of place.

I think the other Batmen did about the same amount of detective work. Keaton did lots of researching, Bale was doing ballistics and tracing money and Batfleck had the mystery of "The White Portuguese" which no one gave a fuck about.

I'd argue Pattison is the most beat up Batman though, he's just reactionary to everything. He doesn't seem to plan or care about the bigger picture of solving crime in Gotham and just wants to fight thugs endlessly. Which is part of the film of him learning to be a hero rather than being "Vengeance"/a threat to naughty people but that comes back to my other issue with the film of him declaring himself a hero after failing over and over again throughout the film.

The Batman is a funny one as I did like it but there's so much about it that really bugs me.

[charlierc]

On 4/14/2022 at 12:58 PM, jump said:

Like Batman is bit of a fuck up in this film too, he seems to just wants to beat up henchmen and still needs to get juiced up to do it. I never actually see him succeed as he fails to stop Alfed being blown up, fails to solve most of The Riddler's riddles, doesn't bring his parents murderer to justice, doesn't stop/catch/get ahead of The Riddler at all but the end of the film is him patting himself on the back for being a hero even though the city is destroyed.

I did think that as well tbf. It's a good take on Batman as a character but it does very much not depict him as successful at what he's doing. In a way it's kinda interesting to show a superhero failing at what they set out to do in a way that could be set up well for future films if well-handled, but as a standalone piece, it's something of a curious take where it ends with him praising himself despite not saving Gotham from disaster, as said here. Even though he stops it being worse, a more awake Batman might well have stopped the first part of the disaster in the first place.

[jump]

15 hours ago, charlierc said:

I did think that as well tbf. It's a good take on Batman as a character but it does very much not depict him as successful at what he's doing. In a way it's kinda interesting to show a superhero failing at what they set out to do in a way that could be set up well for future films if well-handled, but as a standalone piece, it's something of a curious take where it ends with him praising himself despite not saving Gotham from disaster, as said here. Even though he stops it being worse, a more awake Batman might well have stopped the first part of the disaster in the first place.

Yeah, it's made worse by it being Batman who's talking to himself calling himself the hero. If Gordon or some survivors were calling him a hero maybe the film makers could get away with it but as it's presented it comes off as very egotistical.

[Neil]

i saw this the other day, very enjoyable.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B09WRY4C69/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

Edited April 18, 2022 by Neil

[Neil]

also this

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B087XB43VK/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

[charlierc]

On 4/16/2022 at 8:33 AM, jump said:

Yeah, it's made worse by it being Batman who's talking to himself calling himself the hero. If Gordon or some survivors were calling him a hero maybe the film makers could get away with it but as it's presented it comes off as very egotistical.

I know. It does come across as the superhero cinema equivalent of the meme where Obama gives Obama a medal.

[Padjeq]

On 4/14/2022 at 12:58 PM, jump said:

I don't get people saying he's a proper detective in the film. He's just stands arounds crime scenes so he can be told a riddle, even then he only solved a few easy riddles and he then needed help solving the harder ones but he never actually does much police work.

 

 

Finding a usb stick the Riddler has directed him to and immediately putting it into Jim Gordon's police laptop was very very funny.

[Ryan1984]

I read an interview where Robert Pattinson said he found humour in the fact that Bruce Wayne is completely devoid of it and has no idea how ridiculous it is.

Not long until Doctor Strange? Is Rachel McAdams back? Seems a waste for her to be in the MCU and not be used.

The Thor trailer also looked fun.

[jump]

I saw The Northman over the bank holiday, probably the most nihilistically depressing and brutal blockbuster I've seen in years and great palette cleaner of going to the cinema to see just popcorn superhero movies. It's 2-3 hours long but as it assumes the audience aren't idiots there's not a lot of wasted time explaining everything, just story or watching Vikings horribly kill people.

[Padjeq]

Our showing of Northman was pretty packed yesterday afternoon. We only got 2 walkouts. Normally get a few more on a bank holiday.

[jump]

4 hours ago, Padjeq said:

Our showing of Northman was pretty packed yesterday afternoon. We only got 2 walkouts. Normally get a few more on a bank holiday.

It was fairly full at the place I saw it too. It’s pretty surprising as I thought it would be a bit niche, I’m guessing the Spider Man and Harry Potter spin offs flopping has left people looking for something else to see.

[steviewevie]

 

[whisty]

On 4/25/2022 at 5:19 PM, steviewevie said:

 

I miss the original Batman & Robin & the Joker and ...............................:)

[jump]

I’ve just started rewatching the Roger Moore Bond films, I’m really struggling to see how these didn’t kill off the franchise as they are such rough watches.

[The Nal]

46 minutes ago, jump said:

I’ve just started rewatching the Roger Moore Bond films, I’m really struggling to see how these didn’t kill off the franchise as they are such rough watches.

Spy Who Loved Me is good. The rest are yeah, a bit meh and one or two are genuinely awful.