Recommend (or don't) a movie thread v2

[Cheese]

Really enjoyed Dont Look Up. Thought it was great satire with timely commentary on today's society. Some great laughs.

[flames_fan_down_under]

I also really enjoyed Don't Look Up.

Spoiler!

Felt like I knew it was inevitable the world was going to be destroyed but still hoped something or someone would intervene, even though that wouldn't fit the whole commentary on climate change, just a sucker for happy endings. The eccentric billionaire dictating things to serve his interests was all too believable, as were the cohorts of "Look up" vs "Don't Look Up" coupled with the bankrupt mindless media giggling at everything

.

[Engine09]

Originally Posted by KTrain

Triple this. It's terrible.

Caught the new Matrix the other night, it wasn't as terrible as the 2nd and 3rd movies. I rewatched them all last week and realized I never really liked this franchise, the first was good and different/groundbreaking of course but the other 2 are terrible. Convoluted and confusing story plus we all like Keanu but he's not a great actor.

[peter12]

I liked Barry Lyndon but I also see your point.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by zamler

Don't do it.

Originally Posted by bdubbs

Double this.

Don't listen to the grumps.

Go and decide for yourself. I liked it.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by Coach

There's definitely a pace to older movies that overall is much slower. Doesn't make them bad, I find myself much more engaged in long shots done right than a bunch of quick edits.

Evidence of our shortening attention spans is not only showing up in the media and apps but in movies as well.

If it's the right kind of story, the slow burn of a scene that evokes a certain feeling can be a enjoyable to have drawn out a bit. It's like the third act of most classic blockbusters. If you're left to feel terror that your hero is in danger to the point of growing uncertainty then the help arriving at the last moment to save the day is more cheer-worthy and exciting. If you have things resolve too quickly before you let the audience fall into a state of desperation for the answer of how its going to work out then it doesn't have nearly the same impact. You could argue a lot of films lose their impact because the resolution is rushed and they don't "milk" those tense moments long enough to draw you in. Thats why not only plot, but the way its excuted and the time spent in certain scenes is important. Thats how you take the audience on the ride you intended with the story.

Not a lot of filmmakers do this quite as well today.

[Nadal Fan]

My 2021 movies watched came in at 250, finishing with Battle for the Planet of the Apes yesterday. Here are a few first watches (non 2021 releases) that I recommend.

Metropolis (this movie might be the most influential in all of sci fi. You can see the influence in Blade Runner and Batman 89)
Black Narcissus (great thriller from the 40s)
La Dolce Vita (my first Fellini film)
Moonstruck (Nicholas Cage and Cher are excellent)
Fantastic Planet (The whole movie is what I imagine what an acid trip feels like)
Night of the Hunter (Guillermo Del Toro says this film is one of his favorites and you can certainly see how much it influenced his work)
Body Double (De Palma at his best here)
The Player ( Great critique of the Hollywood system)
The China Syndrome and Blow Out (wonderful political thrillers)
Jagged Edge and Body Heat (erotic thrillers that don't get made anymore)
La Piscine (great French film, that's been remade a couple of times)
The Town that dreaded Sundown (influenced the slasher genre and while some parts are rather silly, the killing scenes are really freaky)
American Pop (first Ralph Bakshi film for me)
Phantom of the Paradise (amazing sci fi/horror musical)
Rollerball (part sci fi, part sports film all killer no filler in this dystopian thriller)

[Ped]

Originally Posted by Nadal Fan

Rollerball (part sci fi, part sports film all killer no filler in this dystopian thriller)

I hope you're not recommending the one with LL Cool J and Rebecca Romijn.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by Nadal Fan

My 2021 movies watched came in at 250, finishing with Battle for the Planet of the Apes yesterday.

holy crap you watch an insane amount of movies.

[Engine09]

I watch at least 1 movie a day, usually half when I get home from work during supper then finish it off right before falling asleep.

Great idea keeping track Nadal, I'm going to start doing that this year.

[CofR]

178 for me in 2021, significantly less than a normal year.

For those wanting to keep track the Letterboxd app is an excellent way to keep a diary of the movies you watch.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Letterboxd doesn’t actually tell me how many movies I watched in 2021. For new releases, one of my lowest totals ever but I also watched a number of older movies for the first time. I just didn’t watch a ton of movies this year. It was mostly catching up on tv shows.

My lifetime count is 2291 though.

[Nadal Fan]

Originally Posted by Ped

I hope you're not recommending the one with LL Cool J and Rebecca Romijn.

Oh no that one is awful, like aggressively bad, the original is where it's at.

And yea Letterbox is great for tracking what movies you watched or for making lists to rank films or franchises, big recommend from me.

Damn Cecil that's an impressive amount, don't know my lifetime amount.

[djsFlames]

You can really tell how old CP is by the lack of discussion around the Harry Potter reunion.

[AC]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

You can really tell how old CP is by the lack of discussion around the Harry Potter reunion.

My wife and I watched it.

I grew up with the books and movies. The reunion was fine, several nice exchanges but they only had a couple people interacting together likely due to covid, which made it a little less interesting I guess.

JK Rowling only had segments from a 2019 interview due to her recent Twitter PR suicide march.

[djsFlames]

The bit I've seen was more interesting than I thought it would be.

Wasn't swept away with nostalgia like some would be. While I loved the universe from reading the books, I thought the films were mostly okay, not great. But they were perfectly cast (the three leads literally were their characters, as they themselves put it). Hearing the themes again, particularly with Radcliffe wandering some of the old sets was sort of special.

Also the reunions on camera were pretty staged. I wish they didn't do the "omg, wow, how've you been" every time two cast members were together on screen and just kept things as genuine as possible. They've obviously been re-acquainted already behind the scenes before the cameras were rolling.

What I found fascinating were the recollections on the early days and how challenging filming with children that age would've been. A lot of things I didn't consider as a mere spectator.

[Bs&Cs]

Getting my annual end of the year dump off the ground a bit late this year. Catching up on 2021.

Being the Ricardo's:
There is a rather superb moment early on in this film where we first see Nicole Kidman in the Lucy Ricardo get up. The screen flickers between the script reading, where the main action in the scene is taking place and how Kidman as Lucy imagines the scene unfolding on TV. It's one of those rare cinematic moments where everything seems to stop. The casting of Kidman made sense and man, you feel things. Kudos to Aaron Sorkin for managing a moment like that considering he's loaded the rest of it with every Hollywood cliche he could possibly think of. The parts of the movie about the filming of the show are the most watchable, but they're too far and in between. Rather unfortunately, they aren't really the focus of the movie at all. That would be her tempestuous relationship with Dezi Arnaz, the spreading of rumors by Walter Winchell about her being a communist and the HUAC investigation that had taken place before the film's proceedings and a half dozen other things. Long stretches pass where very little happens of note, characters have unrealistic conversations where they wax poetic about Lucy's role in defining women on television. Sorkin mines just about every cliche in the biopic book- from using an unnecessary framing device where supporting characters in their old age talk to us about stuff we don't care about because we have eyes and can see the action unfolding ourselves, to an a-historical three cheers climactic scene that basically anyone with a working brain could see is complete and total nonsense. That scene basically turns a so-so movie into a bad one. The film's script reading scene spend so much time telling us what the audience will and won't buy in terms of the situational behavior of Lucy and Ricky on the show, but then turns around and pulls a fast one on us to try and wrap up the narrative. I was reminded a bit of another movie that took place at CBS around the same time- Good Night and Good Luck. Now, Edward R Murrow's takedown of Joe McCarthy is a much more somber film than this one is trying to be, I think they're both trying to reach the same conclusions. George Clooney and his screenwriter Grant Heslov, however, let the historical record do the talking for them. The eventual square off between McCarthy and Murrow can almost be seen as anticlimactic given everything that came before it, but it was the truth. It made for a much more satisfying ending. I'm all for fudging the truth for dramatic effect, if it isn't done in such a lazy fashion. Its almost as if Sorkin wanted to write a movie about a time period that interested him, but realized he didn't have much of a story half way through. As far as Hollywood dress up goes, this isn't Anthony Hopkins in a fat suit waving baguettes around bad, but its close.

[Harry Lime]

I thought that Kidman is one of the most egregious misses in terms of casting. She was horrible, and the botox made her wooden, which is death to a comedic actress. Lucy couldn't help but be funny, her mannerisms and subtle body movements were unconscious to a certain degree. Kidman is just not a comedic actor, and I couldn't buy her in the role. Isla Fisher or someone with comedic chops, maybe.

Doesn't help Sorkin's writing style, which has never included an understanding of comedy .

The other three leads were great.

[Bs&Cs]

I thought Kidman was fine personally. I didn't think she needed to be overly funny considering the movie isn't a comedy at all, and it takes a more cerebral approach to how the show was put together, gag by gag. I thought Bardem was the weak link. The "checked the wrong box" blow up was pretty hammy and overdone I thought.

I blame Sorkin for most of the movies flaws. I had similar problems with his Chicago 7 movie last year, though that one was much better than this was.

[badradio]

If you like indie films “Red Rocket” is a good little a24 indie/comedy on hbo I believe. Simon Rex (yes the old mtv vj) is really good in his role. It had elements of a Harmony Korine film, but without the over-the-top absurdity. I recommended it if you are an indie film lover.