Topic: The Movie Thread

@Ralizah

Isobela Moner is a great young actress (she was excellent in Sicario 2 if you haven't seen it).

Thanks for posting the Dora review though, haven't seen too many out there for it yet so I was wondering if it was actually any good or not. I quite liked the trailer as it looked like a goofy Indiana Jones/Goonies type film, but as a 40-something childless dude I'm not sure I've got the cajones to walk into the cinema to see it as I'm obviously not the target audience (and have never seen the TV programme), so will probably catch it on home rental in a few months instead.

@RogerRoger September, you're right. I'm surprised it's so soon. That's cool!

@RogerRoger @Strathnaver1 The film is probably worth seeing for the first 30 minutes or so, which functions as a fun family film where the pure, untainted-by-modern-civilization Dora innocently butts her head against the morally inferior norms of modern American civilization.

Keep in mind I'm a notoriously picky person. I am, for example, the only person I know who saw the recent Lion King remake and disliked it.

Anyway, I'll see anything in theaters. I took my nephew to see the My Little Pony movie, too. Although, I have to say, there weren't nearly as many kids in my showing of Dora as I would have expected.

I actually did see Sicario 2 on opening weekend, since I was a big fan of the intelligent, subversive original, but I wasn't a fan. I actually didn't recognize the actress, though, so thanks for that. I'll be looking out for her if I ever rewatch it on TV.

Isn't Danny Trejo in the Dora film as the monkey of all things @Ralizah ?

And I've heard a few people pan Lion King... To be honest I thought the original was only ok

I look forward to seeing your thoughts @RogerRoger on the Die Hard Films... I'd personally rank them like so:

1>3>>4>>2>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>5

Clearly it’s 1,3,2...4...........5

I do not dislike 2 as much as some people do. 3 starts strong but gets worse once they drop all the Simon Says stuff. Love the bad guy though.

@RogerRoger But nearly photorealistic video game visuals from developers like Naughty Dog (not there yet, but they'll get there eventually) don't freak you out?

Anyway, the ultra-realistic animation worked well in The Jungle Book, especially since Mowgli was a constant presence in most scenes. Also, that movie actually took an interesting, darker direction than the notoriously mediocre cartoon. The style just saps the Lion King of all its beauty and personality, though.

@LN78 Honestly, that's a good thing. They need to let the franchise rest. Everything after Die Hard With a Vengeance wasn't very good anyway. Hollywood is so scared of original ideas that they'd rather try to tart up a frail, mid-70s Stallone as some sort of action hero than give us something new.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy The Lion King has a very high audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and Cinema Score, aligning my opinion with the consensus of professional film critics, which honestly makes me wonder if I should re-evaluate my assessment of the movie. The wrongness of professional film critics is so reliably consistent that I'll often feel relieved when a film I want to see is scoring poorly.

Jeremy Irons is pretty great in Die Hard with a Vengeance! Hard to deny that @kyleforrester87

Both 2 and 4 lack a good villian for me. Though Maggie Q is pretty decent in 4 as the lackey to Timothy Olyphant Til she gets thrown down an elavator shaft with an SUV up her arse 2 gets a point or so for Robert Patrick/T-1000 as one of the baddies

There's some neat stuff in 4 (Even if McClane became a bit of a bald Terminator in this) whereas 2 is just a bit generic and the villain plot isn't all that exciting either to me but I still enjoy it

And now I'm curious @RogerRoger about your curiousity!

Lol well whatever makes you happy @Ralizah ... Though you shouldn't like it just to spite the reviewers!

Also dunno if you saw but I did a post yesterday in the ChitChat topic about my time with Pokémon White xD

I'm not that hype for the latest Rambo movie but props to Stallone for starring in an action movie in his 70's.

Same goes for Schwarzenegger. My question is do Terminators age? Seems like they do in the latest Terminator trailers.

@LN78

You're not wrong about mainstream Hollywood being out of ideas..

There are also way too many "Based on a true story" movies and tv series.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Die Hard 2 is a bit mean-spirited and lacks the levity of 1 and 3. I especially loved how DH1 went to pains to emphasize the basic humanity and mortality of almost everyone involved.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I've always had a soft spot for 2 - it's just a fax - but allot of that comes from the game being my favourite of the Trilogy, too.

The Die Hard 1 and 3 parts of that game sucked though... 2 was the only good part @kyleforrester87

Heh you always say things more elegantly then I would've @Ralizah ... Excellent point that just makes the film even better!

I still can't believe that it started life as a sequel to the Frank Sinatra film The Detective though as it's based on the sequel to that book... Imagine Die Hard but with a 70 year old Sinatra in the lead role! 😅

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Hey the driving one was fun!

The Detective: Last Blood?

@WanderingBullet Well, yes they do the outside anyway. In T2 the T-800 states that it's living tissue over metal endoskeleton when John Connor asked him if he's alive but a machine but on the inside.

Also.it would make sense for a T-800 to age so it can blend in with humans.

Now something like the liquid metal (T-1000) since the can take on the appearance of anyone and anything of equal mass and volume barring complex machines and objects. They probably don't age since they can appear as old or as young as they want as evident from the T-1000 in T2. Also I don't think the liquid metal Terminators are composed of living tissues so to speak.

And now I want to watch The Terminator 😂😂

True... For like ten seconds

It took a little longer then I'd like to admit to get that... but it was pretty good!

That's because it was a bad joke and you're too nice to call it out.

Finally got round to watching the first Dirty Harry (yes, I've been living under a rock) and without the whole nostalgia thing clouding my judgement, it's still a brilliant old-fashioned cop movie. They really don't make great movies like that anymore, the Jack Reacher movies are probably the closest they've come in a while but Cruise doesn't bring the same gravitas to the role that Eastwood brings to Dirty Harry. On to Magnum Force now but I'm not sure where the films inevitably go downhill and I should abandon ship.

@nessisonett If there is a weak one I'd The Dead Pool is the weakest one but it still is good fun. The funny thing about The Dead Pool is that it has Jim Carrey (credited as James Carrey) and Liam Neeson in it at the start of their careers in bit parts.

So I was going to try and hold off, but I decided to start my James Bond marathon. Once I’m done, I’ll rank all of them. I started with the first two yesterday.

First up is Dr. No. I’ll be honest this is of my favorites. It’s amazing how many of the series conventions were established in the first. The only things that are really missing are the gadgets (I think this might be the only Bond film with no gadgets) and it seems like Bond doesn’t spout out too many too many one-liners (although I know some people will appreciate this). I also think the film is really well paced and never gets dull. As far as sets go, I like Dr. No’s lair. I wouldn’t say it’s Ken Adam’s best set but considering the films small budget, I thought it was pretty darn good. My only real complaint is in regards to Dr. No. I wish he had a bigger role in the film. I get that they were building him up as mysterious and elusive, but he doesn’t even appear until the last half hour of the film! A shame too as I thought he was an interesting character I also think they could’ve utilized the Bond girl a bit better. To be honest I am being a bit nitpicky. I think Dr. No is an excellent and a must watch.

Next is From Russia With Love. This is my favorite of the “realistic” Bond films. Does most of the things Dr. No did well but better. While there’s a chance the film could be a bit unmemorable (I find this is an issue with these type of Bond films), fortunately this isn’t the case. It doesn’t have any elaborate sets, but they wouldn’t have been appropriate anyways. It also feels more like a Bond film with more one-liners and a gadget (the suitcase). The Bond girl is a step up in my opinion and is a bit more useful. I also like Robert Shaw’s henchmen character, even if he does spend a bit too much time hanging around in the shadows. My biggest complaint is the music. It refuses too much from Dr. No. Don’t get me wrong I love the James Bond theme, but I wish it had more unique music. I also find it a bit odd that the main theme isn’t played during the opening credits. In the end it’s still amazing and of my favorite movies ever.

@nessisonett I’ve seen Magnum Force. Great movie but I felt it’s length hurt it somewhat. Dirty Harry just feels better paced.

It was pretty good! @Ralizah

So I watched the film Orphan last night. It's a pyschological horror film from 2009 that stars Vera Farmiga (She plays Norma Bates in the Bates motel Series) as Kate Coleman, Peter Sarsgaard as John Coleman and Isabelle Fuhrman as Ester.

The film starts off with Kate having a nightmare about her recentish miscarriage concering her and John's third child. Jessica.

The couple decide to adopt a child and end up taking in Ester, a nine year old Russian girl whom is very intelligent, articulate and sweet.

However once they get home things start to go awry...

I'm not sure whether I liked the twist or not of Ester actually being a 33 year old (She has hypopituitarism, a condition that stunted her physical growth and caused proportional dwarfism) it's quite slopily put in as well and all the characters barring Max (The deaf + mute daughter of John and Kate) are pretty much jerks so I never reall cared about them being bumped off or injured... In fact I was kinda rooting for more to be done to them

Isabelle Fuhrman however really sells the part of Ester... Especially as she was only 11/12 when the film was made/came out!

Overall not the best film by a mile... But with one particularly good preformance it could be worth a look on TV or the Streaming service of your choice