Topic: The Movie Thread

@Th3solution Han Solo is a cool name but for some reason it also feels weird that Han decided to keep the name after that. Plus don't imperial soldiers get "serial numbers" instead of names? Another weird name was Lady Proxima which I felt didn't fit how that creature looked at all. Wonder if the writers got it from Proxima Midnight.haha

whilst hardly cinematic brilliance, i personally enjoyed solo: a star wars story. it's a bit grittier/grayer than most star wars movies, and not relying on jedi/force stuff benefitted it my opinion. certainly better than deadpool 2 was which on another level of awful...

Somewhere, deep in the recesses of my mind, I was hoping we'd get the "Snoke is Jar Jar" reveal in TLJ. I consciously knew it would NEVER happen, but I can't imagine a funnier plot development, and it'd be a great way to tie the trilogies together.

The Ghost appearing in Ant-man and Wasp looks like the Hunter class from Destiny.

http://www.j1studios.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/antman_...

I watched Solo recently and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be and quite enjoyed it in some parts. Overall I thought it was a pretty average movie but still better that The Last Jedi.

Watched Upgrade this weekend and absolutely loved it. It's a violent, funny, and twisty cyberpunk revenge story that reminds me very favorably of some of Paul Verhoeven's best films (particular Robocop). The film both grounds us, quite painfully, in the rubble of the main character's life even as it finds humor in unexpected places. While I won't call the film's story fantastic, I do think it manages to cultivate an interesting little mystery over the course of its running time.

Just out of curiosity, I saw Despicable Me 3... that sure is a movie all right. Stuff just kinda happens, the writing wasn’t funny, and the new characters just didn’t do it for me. I thought the first one was fine enough, but 2 and 3 aren’t good in my opinion.

@TheTetrisGuy Judging from the number of posts you've made about it, it seems like it has left quite an impression.

@Ralizah Lol, sorry about that 😂. My internet sucks, so I just kept on hitting Post reply... oops.

@TheTetrisGuy Oh, believe me, I understand. I live in a rural area that's not the go-to place for stable internet.

I thought Despicable Me 3 was WAY better than the second one. Primarily because it shifted the focus back onto the human characters instead of those annoying minion things.

A little break from E3 ...
I watched a couple movies last week. Both mediocre but worth mentioning.
Maze Runner The Death Cure - I felt obligated to watch this, mostly because a friend has tried to convince me how good the books are, and also because I managed to suffer through the second movie, The Scorch Trials, and I needed closure. Surely the third installment would be better, I tried to convince myself. Well it wasn’t. The movie was one ‘deus ex machina’ event after another. Constant running around, hand-wringing catastrophization of events, and never really feeling connected to characters. I actually like Dylan O’Brien and Ki Hong Lee but something feels shallow with the whole thing here. Perhaps the post-apocalyptic setting with the kids saving the world has been done too much. I don’t know. All I know is that when characters die in the movie I don’t really even feel remorse, so that’s not a good sign.
Jumanji - another mediocre movie, but actually a little better than I expected. Perhaps because it is a video game movie, I give it some leeway on the predictable plot and stereotypical characters. I’m not even a fan of The Rock, but I liked his character here, despite the lack of originality. Jack Black does his normal solid comedy, playing a self-obsessed teenage girl. Overall, the film is hardly a classic, but it is mildly entertaining if you enjoy video games. Just don’t get your hopes up and expect Citizen Kane or Casablanca.

I might go watch The incredibles 2 sometime this or next week. Thought the first one was really good.

Watched Hereditary last night. What a fantastic horror movie! Love the way the visual language feeds into and reinforces the absolutely insane narrative. It's also, amazingly, the director's first film. He's only 31, and already has one of the best horror movies of the 2010's to his credit.

Also a great acting showpiece. Toni Collette gave the performance of her life, and Alex Wolff does a great job as her son.

Best film of 2018 I've seen so far.

@Ralizah need to get on that. I will wait til haloween and watch it along with A Quiet Place and The Taking of Deborah Logan.

@kyleforrester87 A Quiet Place is an absolute cracker of a film. Sounds like you have quite an evening ahead of you on Halloween!

I'm of the opinion that a lot of 80's movies aren't nearly as good as people make them out to be. The Back to the Future films in particular. And The Last Starfighter. Any John Hughes movie. Heck, even E.T. is... just OK.

But I do think Ghostbusters is one of the greatest comedy films ever made. Almost every scene and line of dialogue is iconic or memorable. The sequel isn't bad, but it's definitely not a classic. Although even the second film is a masterpiece compared to the dumpster fire that was the 2016 reboot.

@KratosMD The 2016 one is just aggressively unfunny. It's more like a series of bad SNL skits than anything resembling a proper Ghostbusters film. I think a lot of that comes down to the choice of director, though: who in their right mind thought the guy who directed Bridesmaids could make a good sci-fi/comedy family film?

Never seen Jaws? I enjoy it. The film is a classic precisely because they keep the shark off-camera for most of the film, maintaining a feeling of suspense. This was due to the limitations of the mechanical shark they were using in the first place. A PERFECT example of creativity arising to address design limitations. If you're interested, this is a great article on the subject.:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/31105/how-steven-spielbergs-ma...

Although it's a mid 70's movie, so it's even older than you're expecting.

Love the original Ghostbusters. I remember watching it and it's sequel when they first aired on British television. Jaws is awesome too. I was legitimately terrified when I watched it as a child! These days I feel a little sorry for the shark. They're very fascinating creatures.

'80's films are kinda awesome, though I can enjoy a good film no matter the era it was made, including black and white pictures. I have to admit that with '80's and early '90's films I'm transported right back to my childhood and simpler times. Not that that's the primary appeal of watching them, but nostalgia is a powerful thing. ET still makes me cry every single time I watch it. As an adult it's also interesting to notice subtexts and appreciate jokes that went right over my head as a child. It's just as interesting to watch a film I previously loved and realise it's actually a load of crap. Kids are so easily pleased.

@Ralizah Ghostbusters 2016 is legitimately one of the worst things I've seen. The cast is definitely talented, but are so wasted. The script and direction are woeful. Every single joke falls flat. I actually don't think a new film with the original cast - without Harold Ramis - would have worked any better.

@mookysam Well, there is certainly the issue of Ghostbusters being a hugely nostalgic property. I think there would have been some resistance to ANY sort of new take on it, and remaking it was probably a bad idea to begin with. But it could have turned out a thousand times better in the hands of a more suitable director. Paul Feig directs baudy gross-out comedies. The original Ghostbusters carefully balanced surprisingly creepy ghosts with a very dry sense of humor. It was just never going to turn out well.

At least the culture war has moved on from it and everyone can just admit it sucks now. The Last Jedi is the new "you're a bigot if you don't like it" movie in the Western world.

@KratosMD I feel like it's one of those movies everyone should see at least once. It's one of the most important films ever made. One of the first true blockbusters. Definitely the first summer blockbuster. One of the first wide-release films. It's also the movie that first established the legendary nature of Spielberg's career.

On the subject of 80’s movies:
After reading Ready Player One I went back to watch a couple of the referenced movies and so I watched “War Games” and “Blade Runner” a year or two ago. Both were extremely disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, they each had their merits and served to usher in new ideas into cinema and I can appreciate their greatness in context, but the tech in War Games is just so archaic... the modem things with the landline phone, those computers, it’s just so ancient that I had trouble taking the plot seriously. Plus all the security we have nowadays just to log into simple work stations, much less the federal government nuclear launch codes. Technology has just come so far that its hard to enjoy a movie like that. As for Blade Runner, it has stood the test of time better, given how awesome Harrison Ford is, of course, but it has that late 70’s early 80’s weird Stanley Kubrick vibe where the plot is so slow and everything seems so cryptic. The portrayed technology holds up better and the acting is good, but I have to admit that I didn’t like it as much as I’d hoped. I need to get around to BR2049 one day. Hurry and put it on Netflix, people!