I watched Phantom of the Paradise for the first time yesterday and it blew me away. Just an amazing whacky 70s musical that's insane and campy and brilliant.
The story is about a musician who is writing his masterpiece based on the legend Faust and an evil music mogual steels his songs and wants to use them to open his new music venue the Paradise. There is alot more to it, but that's kinda the basic elements.
Apparently when it was released everywhere hated the film in North America and it only lasted a week in theatres, except Winnipeg where it was huge and played there for a year.
Can confirm. Was in my mid-teens and back in Winnipeg at the time - it WAS a big deal.
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"9 out of 10 concerns are completely unfounded."
"The first thing that goes when you lose your hands, are your fine motor skills."
That is an interesting fact I have never heard before.
When I was in Wpg, Phantom was a cult favourite with my friends - we watched it and talked about far too much. Then when I would make references to quotes from it, I often got blank looks, which always surprised me.
Now I know why - no one else watched it!
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Salutations from the other side
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"9 out of 10 concerns are completely unfounded."
"The first thing that goes when you lose your hands, are your fine motor skills."
Ghostbusters was great fun, who the hell would give it a bad review? Who gives a ####, it's Ghostbusters, just go see it and have fun. Alberta looks incredible and without a mountain in sight, just the badlands and prairies.
I've been to so many movies in theaters but never with the 4DX seats that move, also extra flashing lights and fans. Pretty annoying actually, it's like you're trying to enjoy a movie while someone shakes your chair. Distracting but maybe kids would think it's fun.
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Why do I still need more on the mythology of the... man.
Or to know if it was just a product of someone having too much fun in the sheep house one night, and it began a line of things that wander the icelandic countryside.
Watched it a few months ago when it was on demand and I think it's one of the best movies of the year, Cage's best performance in a long time, so well done
Agreed. Really unique and interesting movie. Cage is outstanding.
I've been to so many movies in theaters but never with the 4DX seats that move, also extra flashing lights and fans. Pretty annoying actually, it's like you're trying to enjoy a movie while someone shakes your chair. Distracting but maybe kids would think it's fun.
My friend talked me into seeing Dune in 4DX because he took his kids to Jungle Cruise with it and said it was fun.
I could see it for Jungle Cruise being a little entertaining but for Dune it nearly ruined the movie for me. Why would I want my seat to shake for a hand-to-hand fight scene?
My friend talked me into seeing Dune in 4DX because he took his kids to Jungle Cruise with it and said it was fun.
I could see it for Jungle Cruise being a little entertaining but for Dune it nearly ruined the movie for me. Why would I want my seat to shake for a hand-to-hand fight scene?
I've never been, but all I can envision now is someone trying to sip a drink or eat popcorn while their seat is shaking uncontrollably and they go the entire film hungry and thirsty and then exit the theatre hungry and wet.
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I've never been, but all I can envision now is someone trying to sip a drink or eat popcorn while their seat is shaking uncontrollably and they go the entire film hungry and thirsty and then exit the theatre hungry and wet.
You definitely need to hang on to your popcorn. Need to put a dent into it before the movie starts. If it's too full you could lose some.
The seat shaking was far more excessive that I imagined or expected, the cup holders were a bit deeper to accommodate this but if you were caught holding your large coke with a bit of butter on your hands there could easily be pop all over you. My friend and I were laughing at how ridiculous it was and the people next to us as well.
Overall I had to focus on the movie more diligently and try to not let this agitation distract. I kept on thinking of a senior citizen unknowingly buying a ticket and sitting down, they would have a heart attack and be thrown to the ground breaking a hip.
Oh, and it cost $22.69. Won't be doing that again, regular viewing with my Cineclub $10.49 ticket like usual from now on.
Watched Prisoners over the weekend with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhall over the weekend- for some reason I had not seen it- Great movie, a few twists- Directed by Sicario and Dune director Denis Villeneuve
It's crazy that even local scenery isn't quite enough to motivate me to the theater.
I liked it a lot. Certainly not a grand slam like the original '84 movie, or even a home run at all really, but... a solid triple, if the baseball analogy makes sense to you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Engine09
Ghostbusters was great fun, who the hell would give it a bad review? Who gives a ####, it's Ghostbusters, just go see it and have fun.
Having seen it for myself, I'm also completely baffled by the bad reviews. I don't get it at all. Out of curiosity I went back and looked at some of the critical responses to the 2016 reboot, and I'm flabbergasted that many (if not most!) critics seemed to have preferred that turkey.
To me Ghostbusters: Afterlife had a solid premise that tied back to the plot of the original film and kept a lot of the tone of its predecessors, which personally I thought was key to its success. The one thing about the 2016 remake movie that I absolutely could not get past was that frankly, I didn't think it was funny. At all. It eschewed the dry wit of the original film and replaced it with slapstick, none of which landed for me. The original—which I'll freely admit is one of my favourite movies of all time—was hilarious to me because of the blend of the actors playing it seriously while filling their performances with a ton of very dry remarks. There're more funny lines in the opening scenes of the '84 movie than in the entirety of the 2016 remake. I know some of them don't land for some people, but lines like "Listen! Do you smell something?" get me giggling.
So, insofar as the 2016 remake went slapstick and did not take itself seriously whatsoever, I thought the tone of Afterlife was spot on by doing the opposite. I can see why some critics were put off by it being too reverential, but I thought it had a decent blend of callbacks/fan service and new material that fit in with the style of the original movies.
Where I think Afterlife may fall flat is that if you haven't seen the original movie you're really not going to understand the plot. I think that's where many of the critics who don't like it are finding fault with it, which is... fair, I guess. If you don't remember who Ivo Shandor is and Ray remarking that Dana Barrett's apartment building was built with selenium in its structure, you're going to be somewhat lost. You're not going to understand the motivations of one of the main characters, and how the setting in small-town Alberta Oklahoma has anything to do with anything. Without a background in who Gozer is, who The Keymaster and Gatekeeper are and why they're important and what they're trying to do, you're really not going to get it because the movie spends essentially no time giving the audience any background exposition about this.
With respect to probably the most controversial thing about the movie, something which I've found many of the critics take great exception to:
Spoiler!
I understand why some people may be perturbed by the likeness of Harold Ramis being brought to digital 'life', and may think it's in poor taste to use the likeness of a dead man in the way they did, but I honestly thought it was very, very respectful. In a world where movies like the Star Wars movies used likenesses of Carrie Fisher and Peter Cushing, I thought the effect of "bringing Egon back" was well done from a technical standpoint, helped by not bringing him back as a flesh and blood character (which I think would have been in very poor taste).
I contrast this with the 2016 remake, which I honestly thought was far more ghoulish in how it used the surviving cast of the original movies. Watching Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd go through the motions in cameo roles in that movie was far, far, far more crass and undignified than making a CGI spectre out of Harold Ramis to me.
Having Aykroyd, Hudson and Murray alongside Ramis's "ghost" appear at the climax was a little schmaltzy, but the twenty seconds or so of time spent on the surviving cast saying how much they missed Spengler and how sorry they were for how everything went down was very touching to me. Of course they're all actors being paid to play roles, but it honestly felt like the actors themselves wistfully apologizing to Ramis for having foregone doing something like this movie while he was still alive.
That aside, I thought Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon were good, Finn Wolfhard was okay but needs to do projects that aren't horror or supernatural science fiction because he's on the verge of being typecast and never getting out of these roles as an adult, and McKenna Grace steals the show. She was excellent; a real star in the making.
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McKenna Grace steals the show. She was excellent; a real star in the making.
I was quite impressed with her. I also noticed that she got a shared writing credit on one of the songs, as well as the performance credit for it. Talented, indeed.
Checked out the Last Duel thanks to recommends in here.
It delivered. Really solid entry from RS. Was lengthy for a relatively uncomplicated plotline, but the way it was crafted with the three narratives followed up with the high stakes final act kept you engaged. It wasn't as dreary as it appeared in the trailers, had a bit of heart and fun at odd moments, which was welcomed. And boy, did the duel deliver.
I found it funny my friend didn't recognize Affleck whatsoever.
Matt Damon's constant grumpy cat face with the goat beard was hilarious.
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Did you guys like GB due to it doing nostalgic justice or cause it's a genuinely good movie that can stand on its own? This is what I'm wary of with audiences that are fans of the franchise.
People (fans) told me Amazing Spider Man 2 was good, and it was one of the most repulsive films I've ever seen. Then again with Venom, which was enjoyable, but not at all in a take it with a grain of seriousness way.
