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Ramsay B.

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4 hours ago, Ramsay B. said:
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Yeah, the part with Cillian killing the boy was just odd and did seem totally unnecessary. :dunno:

Dunkirk was decent but I was kind of bored by the end. Glad it was only like 96 minutes tbh.

It really is fucking crazy that these days 96 minutes counts as an "only".

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Finally watched Hacksaw Ridge. Good film based on a great story. My expectations were probably too high after hearing so many positives reviews. Liked it, but didn't love it.

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I watched Ben Wheatley's film High Rise. It's an interesting film but my attention did wander a bit at times, the satire was very unsubtle and it was sometimes a bit hard to really get involved with the story when the set-up was so unlikely. Although I was a bit unsure about how well it all worked I did think there were some good scenes in it, the acting was good and so was the soundtrack (particularly Portishead's S.O.S. cover.

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8 hours ago, williamjm said:

I watched Ben Wheatley's film High Rise. It's an interesting film but my attention did wander a bit at times, the satire was very unsubtle and it was sometimes a bit hard to really get involved with the story when the set-up was so unlikely. Although I was a bit unsure about how well it all worked I did think there were some good scenes in it, the acting was good and so was the soundtrack (particularly Portishead's S.O.S. cover.

I wanted to really like this movie. The visuals are fantastic and there is something so nightmarishly 70's about the whole thing. But it was just such a jumbled mess at times that you do lose your way when watching it. I struggled to finish it. 

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On 7/22/2017 at 0:14 PM, Week said:

Agree 100% - my wife and I walked out. I haven't walked out of a movie since Piranha 3D. The dialogue felt directly ripped from comic book panels -- wicked corny.

We also saw Jupiter Ascending which had the decency to be amusingly bad. Valerian was just bad, bad, bad.

I thought about walking out, but I kept hoping that maybe it would eventually get better. Maybe the plot would pick up the pacing, or it would all tie together near the end, and so forth. It didn't. Such a waste.

RE: Dunkirk discussion

Dunkirk was fine. It's one of those movies like The Perfect Storm, where it's hard to make any real analysis beyond the technical - it just is. The twist was kind of neat in one of the storylines, it was technically great, and for most of the film it held together. It wasn't until the end that it started dragging and losing the thread a bit, which makes me grateful it was only 106 minutes long (it felt a lot longer). 

It did feel a little bit fresh as a World War 2 movie, which is impressive - just about every possible take you could do on World War 2 has been done in film, sometimes multiple times. 

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I finished out Ozark on Netflix. The story is about an accountant father that engages in criminal activity and is always trying to dig his family out of various dangerous consequences and encounters. I see the show compared to Breaking Bad the most but I don't find that very apt aside from the premise and the finance-instead-of-chemistry solution of the day episodes.

Also, this show is much darker -- thematically and visually. There's no real light or funny moments or quirky characters (which I think it could have used). Practically everyone is a monster and at times, I felt like the writers tried to one up themselves on how to make their characters more depraved than the last one.   
 
Jason Bateman plays the same role he almost always plays except he's a complete sociopath. In fact, where Breaking Bad made you sympathize with and maybe root for Walt and his family in the initial seasons, Bateman's character and family get zero sympathy right from the start.
 
If you watch, check out the opening title card which changes based on each episode. It's a fun little detail.
 
Overall: good not great.
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I watched the Korean film Roaring Currents (naval war film based on an actual battle back in the day). Takes a little while to get going, as the first fifty minutes is mostly buildup- because of which I don't put this quite as high as Kim Han-min's previous film, Arrow, which was better paced- but once the battle starts it's well worth the effort, because it's epic.

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Saw Valerian tonight. Hot fucking garbage. I mean, the visuals are great, and there's the bones of a good story in there somewhere, but everything else is just awful. The acting and the writing are some of the worst I've ever encountered in a movie. Someone earlier compared it to Jupiter Ascending. That is completely unfair. Jupiter Ascending is a terrible movie, but it's a fucking masterpiece when compared to Valerian. 

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Disappointed to read the negative reviews of Valerian on the previous page. I'm still gonna see it in the theater because Luc Beson + Sci-fi=ticket bought. However, I'll go into it with much lower expectations.

Worse than Jupiter Ascending though? Damn.

On 7/25/2017 at 0:41 PM, WarGalley said:

I finished out Ozark on Netflix. The story is about an accountant father that engages in criminal activity and is always trying to dig his family out of various dangerous consequences and encounters. I see the show compared to Breaking Bad the most but I don't find that very apt aside from the premise and the finance-instead-of-chemistry solution of the day episodes...

 
Overall: good not great.

I finished binging this yesterday, and think I liked this more than you did. I agree with you that the cinematography was much too dark (I get the symbolism but it'd also be nice to see the actors' faces!) Bateman's acting style is pretty much the same in drama as in comedy, except his deadpan, stoic persona isn't coming off as sarcasm here. And there were some filler scenes, but no filler episodes. (All the filler scenes that come to mind deal with Charlotte.)

The writing is on point and Bateman did good work directing. The pilot episode is practically a film by itself. Actually, combine E1 & E8 (flashback episode) and your only a few scenes away from making an Oscar buzz indie.  I totally disagree with the family being absent of qualities that would make a viewer sympathize with them. Admittedly, Wendy really had no sympathy from me until after the flashbacks in E8, but even though I didn't really like her character I was still interested in seeing Linney on screen and see why Wendy was doing what she was doing. For some reason in Breaking Bad the women came off more shrewish and cutting. Oh, and I too enjoyed catching the little clues about what's coming up in the episode in the title card.

Anyway, I highly recommend OZARK. The tl;dr version is it's Justified meets Breaking Bad and if you liked either of those shows you should check this one out.

 

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6 hours ago, PetyrPunkinhead said:

Anyway, I highly recommend OZARK. The tl;dr version is it's Justified meets Breaking Bad and if you liked either of those shows you should check this one out.

Interesting...these are two of my favorite shows of all time. Might have to check Ozark out. 

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I finished watching Ozark yesterday too. I liked it, but wouldn't rank it terribly high on my all time list. I absolutely hated the flashback episode, but the rest were pretty good. I thought Julia Garner did an amazing job as Ruth.

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In the past few days, I saw two very different movies. Especially interesting to see how they handled the whole women presence in the action/sci-fi movies.

Wonder Woman was great. Diana was a compelling character that you could root for.

Spoiler

The reveal of the villain surprised me, which is good too. The love plot was an aside and something that channelled Diana realise what the right thing to do was in the end, but it was not inserted into the movie in clunky in-between scenes and did not feel weird. The characters showed some character.

Valerian ... well, not so much. I was not near to leaving the cinema as somebody else mentioned, and I went in with no expectations and no knowledge of the story whatsoever, so I was not going to be disappointed. (Except that I expected to dislike the 3D, because I cannot stand 3D. Turns out that was not the only problem I had with the film.)

Spoiler

I liked the first sequence with the people shaking hands with all the creatures, but after that it cut to what I immediately guessed was a starting of a very cheesy love plot, and unfortunately I was not wrong. The worst thing about the movie though, was the male-gaziness (is that a word?) of it all. Of course the alien species that you are supposed to feel compassion for are feminine-looking, elegant, tall, thin, barely clothed humanoids. Of course Valerian needed to sit through a poledance show with multiple incarnations of stereotypical "sexy" female roles just to introduce a character (actually I thought that was the coolest character of the movie, pity she only got a few scenes). The main actress ran around part of the time in skimpy clothing and even her military uniform had an oddly too-short skirt for no good reason. I swear the camera lingered on her in bikini more than it did on the guy in swimming pants. :rolleyes:

So two consecutive days, two movies that you think would target the same audience, two completely different handlings of female characters. Wonder Woman (and other female characters in there) mostly wears less clothing and shows skin and all, but she owns it. It is part of her, when the camera shows her legs, it is to show that the is strong and can run fast ... the female character in Valerian (Laura Lee? Laureline? Aurelie? I did not manage to catch her name properly.) has a role in a plot, so I cannot say she is only there to be sexy, but it is like her body is not a part of her in the way Diana's is, if that makes any sense. Sure, she is strong, decisive, feisty (generic, in a way, but then none of the characters in Valerian are particularly well-developed) - and also, she is sexy and we know that because Valerian likes her and because she wears a bikini in one scene. Such a weird comparison of characters.

Sorry for the weird ramble.

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15 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I finished watching Ozark yesterday too. I liked it, but wouldn't rank it terribly high on my all time list. I absolutely hated the flashback episode, but the rest were pretty good. I thought Julia Garner did an amazing job as Ruth.

I loved the non-linear aspect of the flashback episode and how it allowed for twists to be revealed. I do agree Ruth is one of the best characters on the show and Garner gave a great performance.

17 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Interesting...these are two of my favorite shows of all time. Might have to check Ozark out. 

Let us know what you think if you do.

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On 24/07/2017 at 0:51 AM, williamjm said:

I watched Ben Wheatley's film High Rise. It's an interesting film but my attention did wander a bit at times, the satire was very unsubtle and it was sometimes a bit hard to really get involved with the story when the set-up was so unlikely. Although I was a bit unsure about how well it all worked I did think there were some good scenes in it, the acting was good and so was the soundtrack (particularly Portishead's S.O.S. cover.

I saw it at the cinema. It's a horrifying/hilarious spectacle. I thought it was great. As with many horror stories, the book is even worse (more horrifying). Also fantastic performance by Luke Evans I thought.

Last night I watched The Circle. Urhhhhghhhhhhhhhh. What a waste of two hours. I feel like...it didn't make a strong enough point or it was trying to make the wrong point, or I don't even know. It was kind of vapid and I didn't really care what happened to anyone. The bit where Mae gets told off for not setting up her social media accounts quickly enough is amusing. But the rest of it just feels lightweight and indistinct. There isn't enough conflict to get my full attention. Even when something bad happens I didn't really feel engaged with it. Great role for the other boss dude who wasn't Tom Hanks though, did he even get any dialogue? - I didn't notice/can't recall. Maybe it worked better as a book?

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The second season of True Detective seems to have been universally panned.  I just concluded watching it -- and was enthralled by it.  The story line is as grim as anything could be, with a very fine ending, in spite of that.

One of the major themes was fatherhood, most focused via three of the primary characters, all three of which long to be fathers.

Spoiler

They don't survive.  The women do, with the babies, in one way or another. But the twist at the very end of how this happens with two of the want-to-be fathers is unexpected, but in the right way.

However, I do have a fairly serious criticism -- Venezuela for the get-away good life?  Venezuela?!?!?!?!??????   The place is a total wreck, a failed nation-state.  Do the writers not know anything except in their own very personal sphere?

 

I highly appreciated everything about this True Detective series, from the casting, the acting, the writing, the filming, the location, the variety of people that inhabit Southern California.  Nothing was excessive, nothing was wasted.  A real achievement.

 

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Atomic Blonde wasn't quite as good as I was hoping it would be, but it was still pretty good. Not as good as John Wick 2, though holy hell the 80s flashbacks and the costuming and the world look awesome, and Charlize Theron is absurdly captivating to watch. 

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On 27.7.2017. at 9:45 AM, Myshkin said:

Saw Valerian tonight. Hot fucking garbage. I mean, the visuals are great, and there's the bones of a good story in there somewhere, but everything else is just awful. The acting and the writing are some of the worst I've ever encountered in a movie. Someone earlier compared it to Jupiter Ascending. That is completely unfair. Jupiter Ascending is a terrible movie, but it's a fucking masterpiece when compared to Valerian. 

 

On 27.7.2017. at 9:58 PM, Buckwheat said:

In the past few days, I saw two very different movies. Especially interesting to see how they handled the whole women presence in the action/sci-fi movies.

Wonder Woman was great. Diana was a compelling character that you could root for.

  Hide contents

The reveal of the villain surprised me, which is good too. The love plot was an aside and something that channelled Diana realise what the right thing to do was in the end, but it was not inserted into the movie in clunky in-between scenes and did not feel weird. The characters showed some character.

Valerian ... well, not so much. I was not near to leaving the cinema as somebody else mentioned, and I went in with no expectations and no knowledge of the story whatsoever, so I was not going to be disappointed. (Except that I expected to dislike the 3D, because I cannot stand 3D. Turns out that was not the only problem I had with the film.)

  Hide contents

I liked the first sequence with the people shaking hands with all the creatures, but after that it cut to what I immediately guessed was a starting of a very cheesy love plot, and unfortunately I was not wrong. The worst thing about the movie though, was the male-gaziness (is that a word?) of it all. Of course the alien species that you are supposed to feel compassion for are feminine-looking, elegant, tall, thin, barely clothed humanoids. Of course Valerian needed to sit through a poledance show with multiple incarnations of stereotypical "sexy" female roles just to introduce a character (actually I thought that was the coolest character of the movie, pity she only got a few scenes). The main actress ran around part of the time in skimpy clothing and even her military uniform had an oddly too-short skirt for no good reason. I swear the camera lingered on her in bikini more than it did on the guy in swimming pants. :rolleyes:

So two consecutive days, two movies that you think would target the same audience, two completely different handlings of female characters. Wonder Woman (and other female characters in there) mostly wears less clothing and shows skin and all, but she owns it. It is part of her, when the camera shows her legs, it is to show that the is strong and can run fast ... the female character in Valerian (Laura Lee? Laureline? Aurelie? I did not manage to catch her name properly.) has a role in a plot, so I cannot say she is only there to be sexy, but it is like her body is not a part of her in the way Diana's is, if that makes any sense. Sure, she is strong, decisive, feisty (generic, in a way, but then none of the characters in Valerian are particularly well-developed) - and also, she is sexy and we know that because Valerian likes her and because she wears a bikini in one scene. Such a weird comparison of characters.

Sorry for the weird ramble.

Last night I went to finally watch Spiderman (which I didn't get to do before because of work and other obligations - I'm now on my vacation, officially starting on Monday) but I was late so I ended up watching Valerian instead. Worst movie I've seen in a long time. Everything you two said above is true. The visuals were the only good thing. The writing was abysmal - whoever wrote it seems to have no atorytelling skills. They couldn't even tell the simple, Avatar-like plot properly. They drop you in and expect you to care about these underdeveloped characters they haven't even properly introduced. It's full of cliches, predictable extremely male gazey. I almost fell asleep a couple of times. Rhianna's character is the only interesting one and should have had more screentime (but not to deliver male gazey fanservice as in her first scene). The casting is also awful. The two leads have no charisma or chemistry with each other, and their interactions are based on every cliche possible. I don't know why casting Cara Delevigne to play one dimensional characters in SciFi blockbusters is a thing now, and here it's worse than in Suicide Squad, simce she had so much more screentime. The characters are, or are supposed to be, the cliche feisty hot female character and a handsome roguish ladykiller male character with romantic tension, and maybe you could get away with it with the right actors  But Dane DeHaan is laughably miscast (is Luc Besson really that clueless as to what a sexy, roguishly charming man is supposed to be like? Couldn't he have consulted some women?) and Delevigne hasn't shown any talent or screen presence. Her casting seems to be stunt casting, it's not like there aren't enough actual actresses in her age range who are at least as attractive and a lot more engaging and charismatic.

On another hand, Dunkirk was amazing and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout (literally! It's one of the movies that make me understand why the expression "on the edge of my seat" exists). I don't get why people are thrashing it in this thread.

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I watched Manchester by the Sea. I almost didn't because I didn't want to watch something depressing but I'm glad I did. It's a really beautiful movie about the effects of overwhelming grief on a person. Michelle Williams is an amazing actress. I I think I would have picked this movie over Moonlight for best picture.

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