Watch Watched Watching: Danny Ocean's Star Wars with Groundhog Zombies and Aliens at the Edge of 28 Days later than Tomorrow

[Veltigar]

7 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Lobster’s first half is wonderful, I happily forgive it’s sloppy boring second half just because of how much I enjoyed that first hour. 
 

I do love the pacing of dialogue in his movies.

Normally I dislike it when the dialogue in a film doesn't sound like actual human conversation. That's usually a hallmark of bad writing, but with a director like Lanthimos the unreal nature of the dialogue actually ends up complementing the absurdity of his style.

Whole other genre, but since I saw it yesterday, it is not dissimilar to the dialogue in Bill & Ted being completely bonkers but that also fits with how silly the film itself is.

[Cas Stark]

1 hour ago, Veltigar said:

snipped......

  Reveal hidden contents

1. If you encounter any problems, any tensions, any arguing, that you cannot resolve yourselves, you will be assigned children. That usually helps, a lot.
2.  We dance alone. That's why we only play electronic music.

Hmmm, I think Solo gets unfairly maligned a lot. It's a terribly unnecessary film, about on par with a live-action Disney remake, but if you are able to ignore that it's a competently made film which you can't really say about the prequels or the sequels.

It's just unfortunate that they had to make a SW film. If they had struck out all the forced references to Han Solo it could have been a perfectly alright throwaway sci-fi romp.

Barely competent.  Even putting aside that you would have to have found someone with Harrison Ford level charisma---which the nice looking guy in the film does not have---to have a hope of making it a success, the movie itself was flat and stupid.  I can't even remember what my objections to the movie were, so it didn't even make sufficient impression to generate a good rant.  

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

1 hour ago, Veltigar said:

It's okay, which is high praise for a Star Wars property nowadays. The technology behind it is the most interesting about it and occasionally they have a good guest star, but overall it's like a less fun version of Firefly. I happen to like Firefly a lot, so I can stomach Mando's adventures but it's overall quite safe though.

Still, better to play it safe and not end up giving us another sequel trilogy.

Hmmm, I think Solo gets unfairly maligned a lot. It's a terribly unnecessary film, about on par with a live-action Disney remake, but if you are able to ignore that it's a competently made film which you can't really say about the prequels or the sequels.

It's just unfortunate that they had to make a SW film. If they had struck out all the forced references to Han Solo it could have been a perfectly alright throwaway sci-fi romp.

More and more I'm thinking I'm done with Star Wars. I have to catch up a bit with the Bad Batch but so far it's barely holding my interest. Some of those Mandalorian episodes are not great.

I saw Solo opening weekend and liked it a lot. I think its poor box office comes down to the fact that they completely borked the marketing of that movie. For a spring release (May 10, 2018), there should be an online teaser by Thanksgiving and a full trailer in theaters by Christmas. Solo's first teaser was a 40 second spot for the Super Bowl, which hit in early February.

I can recall talking to a co-worker who was literally wearing a Millennium Falcon T-shirt and asking him if he was looking forward to Solo. He had no clue what I was talking about. This was maybe a month before the premiere. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Holy crap! The Directors Cut of Highlander 2 is free-with-ads on YouTube!

Sometimes, the universe gives me gifts.

[WarGalley]

14 hours ago, Veltigar said:

Hmmm, Billy Zane is an actor I usually don't enjoy though. Does The Phantom inspire a similar cult following?

I feel like retracting my post. For some reason, The Rocketeer and The Phantom hold similar places in my mind but I think that's just the timing and nostalgia of when I watched those 2 in my childhood. I don't think The Phantom would hold up over time and I don't think it has a cult following..

[Kalbear]

Solo is a great movie about everyone but Solo. Every other character is more compelling and more interesting. Lando and L337 are amazing, and Qi'ra is pretty awesome, and even Enfys Nest is good. 

It makes me really want a seedy underworld Star Wars story or a caper series like Six of Crows. 

[Corvinus85]

3 hours ago, briantw said:

I love The Mandalorian. 

The prequel trilogy, the sequel trilogy, and the Han Solo movie are hot fucking garbage.

I rest my case. 

[briantw]

I found Solo to be as boring and soulless as Star Wars has mostly been since Episode 1 came out.  It looks like Star Wars and sounds like Star Wars, but it doesn't feel like Star Wars in the way The Mandalorian does where it seems they actually understand that the original movies were based on spaghetti westerns and samurai films and not CGI shitfests. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I've always been a fan of Clive Owen, and Netflix suggested something for me I've never seen: Croupier. I really enjoyed this film, though it's not perfect. The acting and cinematography are solid, but the plot has a few moments that make you pause and wonder what they were thinking. Overall though I think it delivered on what it was aiming for and I kind of want to watch it again, maybe in a month or so, to see if I may have missed somethings that would add to the overall viewing experience. 

[Ran]

26 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I've always been a fan of Clive Owen, and Netflix suggested something for me I've never seen: Croupier. I really enjoyed this film,

Mike Hodges's (of Get Carter fame) next-to-last film. Fantastic neo-noir mood and atmosphere. It's also the film that got Clive Owens really noticed, leading directly to his being hired to do the BMW The Hire series where he was directed by a bevy of A-listers and rubbed shoulders with far more established Hollywood actors, and that in turn led to everything from Gosford Park to Sin City and Children of Men.

 

[Heartofice]

I remember Croupier being the reason there was such a clamour to get Owen the Bond job.. cos he’s wearing a tux. 
 

I thought it was a pretty mediocre forgettable movie.

[Veltigar]

8 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

Barely competent.  Even putting aside that you would have to have found someone with Harrison Ford level charisma---which the nice looking guy in the film does not have---to have a hope of making it a success, the movie itself was flat and stupid.  I can't even remember what my objections to the movie were, so it didn't even make sufficient impression to generate a good rant.  

I can get behind barely competent and the lead was indeed a tad lifeless, but I also agree with @Kal Corp that the supporting cast had sparks of life in them. 

It's tricky to defend a film that is just alright. It doesn't have great hidden artistic merit I can somehow dig up, but I do stand by my opinion that it's a perfectly average film (like most MCU films) that would probably have been better if they had made it into a standalone film instead of part of the SW universe. It created undue expectations with fans and didn't do the movie any favors as we had to waste random bits of the movie on showing how Han acquired trait X or item Y.

Poor Emilia Clarke though, she appeared to be in poll position for most successful GoT alumnus but all the big franchise films she was in completely suck ass.

8 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

More and more I'm thinking I'm done with Star Wars. I have to catch up a bit with the Bad Batch but so far it's barely holding my interest. Some of those Mandalorian episodes are not great.

I saw Solo opening weekend and liked it a lot. I think its poor box office comes down to the fact that they completely borked the marketing of that movie. For a spring release (May 10, 2018), there should be an online teaser by Thanksgiving and a full trailer in theaters by Christmas. Solo's first teaser was a 40 second spot for the Super Bowl, which hit in early February.

I can recall talking to a co-worker who was literally wearing a Millennium Falcon T-shirt and asking him if he was looking forward to Solo. He had no clue what I was talking about. This was maybe a month before the premiere. 

This might have contributed to Solo dismal performance, but I think it has to run deeper than that. I guess the SW fan base is pretty cynical about new IP at this point, having had to wade through the disappointment of both prequel and sequel trilogy. Perhaps that's why they decided to steer clear from a film that should obviously never have been attempted in the first place?

I do think @briantw has a point that The Mandalorian so far is the only new property so far that manages to capture the look and feel of the OT on its good days. 

7 hours ago, WarGalley said:

I feel like retracting my post. For some reason, The Rocketeer and The Phantom hold similar places in my mind but I think that's just the timing and nostalgia of when I watched those 2 in my childhood. I don't think The Phantom would hold up over time and I don't think it has a cult following..

Hey, you never know it's an undisclosed gem  The cult has to start with someone!

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

29 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

I do think @briantw has a point that The Mandalorian so far is the only new property so far that manages to capture the look and feel of the OT on its good days. 

I think thats part of the problem for me. At some point Star Wars transitioned from "What new shit can we introduce into this universe" to nostalgia, callbacks, easter eggs, and cameos. 

If they ever do a Knights of the Old Republic trilogy; something set at the dawn of the republic or the Jedi civil war, I'd be in. Something set in the SW universe but is completely removed from the Skywalker saga. The KOTR cinematics continue to blow me away. 

Speaking of Jeff Bridges, all the Big Lebowski talk made me think of another film of his that needs more attention: Arlington Road.  Excellent film.  Terrifying. 

[felice]

47 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

It created undue expectations with fans and didn't do the movie any favors as we had to waste random bits of the movie on showing how Han acquired trait X or item Y.

They didn't have to include all those random references just because it was about Han, it was an "artistic" choice that they went overboard on. A bit more restraint there and it could have been a better film without ditching the Star Wars setting. But it's still fine, no worse than any of the post-OT films.

[briantw]

4 hours ago, felice said:

But it's still fine, no worse than any of the post-OT films.

Those films (aside from Rogue One, which was actually a decent movie) were all straight trash, though.  I agree that Solo wasn't any worse than them, but that's not saying much of anything.

It's like picking which dog turd smells the worst.  At the end of the day, it's all shit. 

[Ran]

Just finished watching Quo Vadis, Aida?, a searing, harrowing historical drama about the infamous Srebrenica Massacre during the Bosnian War. Very taut piece of writing and direction from Jasmila Žbanić, which was in contention at the Venice Film Festival, was an Oscar nominee, and won the International Film prize at the Spirit Awards.

The film is anchored by Jasna Đuričić’s steely, desperate performance as the eponymous Aida, who is working as a tranlator for the Dutch UN peacekeeping force who has to deal with the fact that her sons and husband are among the refugees and aren’t being allowed into the “safety” of the UN base.. The real horror of what happened was the failure of the UN, NATO, the a Dutch government, and the peacekeepers on the ground to act. Repeatedly ignored ultimatums without reprisal led to increasingly outrageuos actions from the Serbian forces commanded by Ratko Mladić (played by Boris Isaković as a man full of a self-aggrandizing bluster that fails to obscure his ruthlessness), and failures at all levels left Dutchbat standing idly by as atrocities happened under their very noses.

It’s a powerful film about genocide and about the failure of international institutions. Very recommended.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

6 hours ago, Ranivaka said:

Mike Hodges's (of Get Carter fame) next-to-last film. Fantastic neo-noir mood and atmosphere. It's also the film that got Clive Owens really noticed, leading directly to his being hired to do the BMW The Hire series where he was directed by a bevy of A-listers and rubbed shoulders with far more established Hollywood actors, and that in turn led to everything from Gosford Park to Sin City and Children of Men.

 

Back when people flipped through channels, Sin City was something I'd stop on every time. I understand why it's not for everyone, but personally I think it's great.

I first saw Children of Men in a college film class. What a haunting film.

[dbunting]

I have to say not all Star Wars films have been garbage since the OT. Rogue One was a very good movie IMO.

As far as I know they are done with the Skywalkers so hopefully the next movies are completely fresh. I do not want to see any characters we already know from the movies anymore. 

[TheLastWolf]

1 hour ago, dbunting said:

I have to say not all Star Wars films have been garbage since the OT. Rogue One was a very good movie IMO.

As far as I know they are done with the Skywalkers so hopefully the next movies are completely fresh. I do not want to see any characters we already know from the movies anymore. 

[briantw]

1 hour ago, dbunting said:

I have to say not all Star Wars films have been garbage since the OT. Rogue One was a very good movie IMO.

As far as I know they are done with the Skywalkers so hopefully the next movies are completely fresh. I do not want to see any characters we already know from the movies anymore. 

Rogue One is the only Star Wars movie since Jedi that I think is a legitimately good film.  Totally unnecessary, but it feels like an actual movie, not a soulless cash grab designed to sell toys like the prequels or a creatively bankrupt retelling of the original trilogy but shittier like the sequel trilogy.