Watch, Watched, Watching: We Need This!

[Heartofice]

17 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I just read the plot and, I mean, it does sound pretty awful.

It was written by Joss Whedon. It knows what it is.

[Annara Snow]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

I just read the plot and, I mean, it does sound pretty awful.

Why the heck would you read the plot of Cabin in the Woods? Spoiling yourself for that o all movies really defeats the purpose of watching it.

[Isis]

10 hours ago, dbunting said:

The first LOTR movie was 13 hours of filler, IMO. I don't know if there is a perfect trilogy, the closest for me is original Star Wars. Get rid of the Ewoks anyway...

The Nolan Batman, honestly only love TDK. The other two, meh...

We have been watching this series about movies by decades (I'm sorry, I honestly cannot think what the actual title is right now) and when we got to the episodes about the 1990's we (as people born in the late 1970's) had to keep pausing the show every couple of minutes to reminisce about the films of our youth. And Ed Norton made a great point that 1999 was a killer year for films.

Anyway, I digress...when we got to the 2000's and they were talking about Batman Begins and TDK, I recalled that BB was the first time I had ever watched a film and then IMMEDIATELY watched it again afterwards. I liked it that much. Then I have vivid memories of seeing TDK an packed cinema at Leicester Square with a colleague on a blazingly hot August day, chatting to some Aussies who had only gone to the cinema to cool down and they were horrified that there was no AC. Anyway, TDKR was terrible by comparison to the first two. So that ain't ever gonna be the best film trilogy.

Re. Cabin in the Woods, I think a lot of my issue with it is - it wants to be funny and cool, but it isn't. Does it aim to be scary in the sense of a genuine thriller or slasher horror film? Not really. Is it going for powerful acting performances then? Not from where I am sitting. Does it have a significant message for the audience? Nope. So what is it - just a film with a twist? And where does it rank in the 'films with a twist' listings? It's a mildly interesting idea for a film, but it doesn't hit any of the marks you want it to. Is it 'the worst horror film ever made'? No, it's not. But it's pretty lame and disappointing none the less. 

[Annara Snow]

20 hours ago, Isis said:

No. It wishes it was amazing. But it wasn't. It's also not funny. Even though it thinks it's funny.

If it thinks so, I agree with it. 

[Corvinus85]

10 hours ago, dbunting said:

The first LOTR movie was 13 hours of filler, IMO.

There can be only one response to this.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

20 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

Why the heck would you read the plot of Cabin in the Woods? Spoiling yourself for that o all movies really defeats the purpose of watching it.

I have no intent on watching it unless I'm super high.

[Cas Stark]

18 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

I watched Rebecca by Netflix. It was quite  poor. Lily James and Kristin Scott Thomas did the best they could with what they were given, Armie Hammer was mediocre. The story was falling apart, the characters were cardboard cutouts for whichever genre the film wanted to be at a given time. In fact it felt as though I watched three loosely connected and rushed movies in the same universe, rather than one film.Decision and action as well as cause and effect were slaves to the writer/director/producer’s whims. The atmosphere was all over the place and the pacing was haphazard, though both had the general sense of tension and discomfort, reminiscent of Hitchcock films. There were other not so subtle nods to Hitchcock which all came off as juvenile and cringe-worthy. I haven’t seen the original Rebecca so I cannot weigh this one as a remake. As a stand-alone film, it was poorly constructed, annoyingly executed and often boring. (That said, I have seen only very few Hitchcock films and liked none of them, so it could as well be a faithful adaptation and hitchcockian filmmaking is just not my cup of tea) 

I really disliked almost everything about it, Lily James was miscast and poorly costumed for the role, Armie was 'okay' but not brooding/dangerous enough, even KST while nothing wrong w/her acting per se, was not sinister enough, I also disliked most of the supporting performances as well.  

As a lover of Hitchcock, hmmm, I also loved his Rebecca.  He didn't think it very Hitchcockian so maybe you'll like it.

[RhaenysBee]

17 minutes ago, Cas Stark said:

I really disliked almost everything about it, Lily James was miscast and poorly costumed for the role, Armie was 'okay' but not brooding/dangerous enough, even KST while nothing wrong w/her acting per se, was not sinister enough, I also disliked most of the supporting performances as well.  

As a lover of Hitchcock, hmmm, I also loved his Rebecca.  He didn't think it very Hitchcockian so maybe you'll like it.

I can absolutely see that. I had no point of reference or expectation in terms of casting or costume design, but none of the characters felt enough for their purpose. I thought this was mostly down to surface level writing rather than casting or acting, but it’s absolutely plausible that others would have done better in the roles. Might check the original out at some point. 

[Argonath Diver]

3 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I have no intent on watching it unless I'm super high.

Now that you have read the plot, there's really zero reason to even bother when stoned. I love a good high-as-a-kite movie watching, to a fault considering the tripe I tend to choose in that state, but this one's only fun is watching it blind for the first time. Itd be like me telling you the twist to Usual Suspects before we hit play, only for a movie three tiers lower on the Clever scale. Perhaps if a friend managed to get you to watch by tricking your stoned ass into thinking it was a different not-really-scary scary evil cabin film.

I just remembered season 2 of The Mandalorian debuts tomorrow. Myself and two billion other Baby Yoda merch owners would prefer binging, but it is what it is, and I'd rather gossip with other fans of a corny Western only with aliens instead of waiting til December to go ham. I know little of the animated shows, so i hope this season stands on its own merits and doesn't just ruin what people love about those two shows. 

[Isis]

I am so sad to hear about Rebecca not being very good. I'm a big fan of Ben Wheatly and Clint Mansell. I'll still watch it though. On Netfilx, rather than going to the cinema. Then I'll listen to the soundtrack. Then I'll see about watching the Hitchcock version. I started trying to watch Vertigo recently and James Stewart (the character he played) just irritated the heck out of me in the first ten minutes and I turned it off. :/

[Zorral]

What we NEED, is a new Watch thread, as this one's now at 430.  

[Heartofice]

43 minutes ago, Isis said:

I am so sad to hear about Rebecca not being very good. I'm a big fan of Ben Wheatly and Clint Mansell. I'll still watch it though. On Netfilx, rather than going to the cinema. Then I'll listen to the soundtrack. Then I'll see about watching the Hitchcock version. I started trying to watch Vertigo recently and James Stewart (the character he played) just irritated the heck out of me in the first ten minutes and I turned it off. :/

It's directed by Ben Wheatly?! Oh.. now I want to watch it. 

[Cas Stark]

17 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

It's directed by Ben Wheatly?! Oh.. now I want to watch it. 

I think you'll be disappointed, for someone known for thrillers and horror, Rebecca was woefully lacking in atmosphere, thrills or suspense.  It was very, very pretty though.  

[Red Tiger]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

What we NEED, is a new Watch thread, as this one's now at 430.  

Done.

[briantw]

5 hours ago, Annara Snow said:

Why the heck would you read the plot of Cabin in the Woods? Spoiling yourself for that o all movies really defeats the purpose of watching it.

Yeah I went in completely blind and enjoyed it.  It's not an all-time favorite or anything I'm terribly compelled to watch a dozen times, but I thought it was a fun movie that had some good laughs and a generally clever take on the horror genre. 

Now if you want to talk horror movies that I've watched a million times, The Thing is my all-time favorite.  

And if you want to talk horror movies that are actually shit, the prequel to The Thing, which for some reason is also called The Thing, is horrendous and offensive. 

[RumHam]

2 minutes ago, briantw said:

Now if you want to talk horror movies that I've watched a million times, The Thing is my all-time favorite.  

And if you want to talk horror movies that are actually shit, the prequel to The Thing, which for some reason is also called The Thing, is horrendous and offensive. 

It's like they couldn't decide if they wanted a prequel or a remake, so they did a prequel that was just a worse retread of the carpenter movie. 

They're actually re-making it again at Blumhouse

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

Now that you have read the plot, there's really zero reason to even bother when stoned. I love a good high-as-a-kite movie watching, to a fault considering the tripe I tend to choose in that state, but this one's only fun is watching it blind for the first time. Itd be like me telling you the twist to Usual Suspects before we hit play, only for a movie three tiers lower on the Clever scale. Perhaps if a friend managed to get you to watch by tricking your stoned ass into thinking it was a different not-really-scary scary evil cabin film.

I knew the twist to Usual Suspects before I saw it. I still enjoyed it.

[Argonath Diver]

Well, yeah, it's still a terrific movie. But you know the feeling of a good twist. Cabin in the Woods is a stupid movie, unless you're a horror movie nut who wants the subversion theme desperately, I guess. Other than being surprised by the twist, I don't see much reason for it outside of that. I don't like that genre, but I did manage to see in theatres without knowing about the second act turn, and those 15 minutes or so of "What, what the fuck?" were at least somewhat memorable. I have minimal interest in seeing it again except for Richard Jenkins' great deadpanning. Then again, I can't remember anyone else in it, so perhaps if some random friend had no idea what it was and wanted to try it out, I could enjoy a second attempt at it down the road.