Watched, Watch, Watching : Save the Wiseguys fundraiser

[Tywin et al.]

53 minutes ago, briantw said:

Also watched Prey and very much enjoyed it.  Definitely the best Predator movie since the original.  

Everyone discounts the terrible, but great Predator 2! The lazy writing and obvious racism. Are Haitians Jamaicans or are Jamaicans Haitians? Idk, do you, the film asks. Glover and Busey kick ass while Bill Paxton participates in the triathlon of dying from a Predator, Alien and Terminator.  And the cocaine!!!! So 80's.

Jokes aside, I'd love to see more versions of a Predator with less tech fighting ancient societies. Sign me up for Predator vs. 300.

Edited August 7, 2022 by Tywin et al.

[briantw]

27 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Jokes aside, I'd love to see more versions of a Predator with less tech fighting ancient societies. Sign me up for Predator vs. 300.

I'm on board for that.

Kind of a dick move for the Predator to use a cloaking device in Prey, though.  I get it to some extent in the original movie where all the guys he was hunting were ripped badasses with giant guns, but it seems like it makes it a little too easy when he's fighting Native Americans with bows and spears and French dudes with a death wish.

Edited August 7, 2022 by briantw

[mormont]

Well that's the point. Predators are assholes. They hunt for sport and they don't really want a fair fight. Prey, being set among Comanche and having the French colonisers turn up, highlights this to extremes: the Predator is just another coloniser to the Comanche.

[Rippounet]

18 hours ago, dog-days said:

I liked but did not love Encanto. Thought it could have done with more sense of hazard/peril. 

Encanto has a lot of minor problems: little tension, little world-building, a plot that turns out to be disappointing..., but what really bothered me was the classist/elitist theme running throughout, which I found annoying. Wondered if that came from an original source/story.

[RumHam]

11 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Count on Prey 2: Prey Harder.

That, or maybe something like Predators but they've cryogenically frozen Naru and some other warriors from throughout history? 

I dunno how the human characters would communicate, but I doubt they'd let that stop them.

[Heartofice]

Having kids means I spend a lot more time watching all the Disney movies I never saw before. Allows me to have a bit of a fresh eye on the whole lot, as well as being able to see how young children experience them on first showing.

What I will say is that there are some movies that seem to be incredibly popular which I never understood but now it makes sense. Frozen is very well made as a musical and it’s songs are quite frankly incredible. I get why it’s popular and the central story between the sisters seems very universal even if the story is fantastical.

I didn’t think much of Encanto, and I know it’s very popular. I thought the Bruno song was largely forgettable and was surprised it seemed to be such a hit. One of my friends said the themes were so inspiring she cried but I didn’t see it, felt like a very middling movie with very few memorable moments or characters. 
 

Little Mermaid.. also not that good even if the song list is brilliant. 
 

Lion King is exactly as good as I remembered. 
 

The Princess and the Frog was a lot better than I expected as it’s a movie rarely mentioned, my kids didn’t like it though. 

[RumHam]

My three year nephew won't even watch traditional animation. I tried to show him the Duck Tales movie from the 90's but if it's not computer generated he's basically like "wtf is this shit."

I have watched more Paw Patrol than a grown man should ever be subjected to.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

5 hours ago, RumHam said:

That, or maybe something like Predators but they've cryogenically frozen Naru and some other warriors from throughout history? 

I dunno how the human characters would communicate, but I doubt they'd let that stop them.

 

Spoiler

The pistol she gets from the French fur trader* is the same pistol grandpa-predator gives to Danny Glover at the end of Predator 2. Meaning, at some point, a predator encounters that tribe or one of their descendants at collects the pistol in some viscral, action-packed way. 

I'm critical of films that rely too heavily or clumsily on meaningless easter eggs as story telling devices, but that was a good one. 

*I don't know if the Commanche ever made it that far north, but based on the "Northern Great Plains" setting and the presence of the French, it's strongly implied the setting is modern day southern Manitoba. Maybe the Pembina valley or Whiteshell provincial park. I don't know where filming took place. 

 

[RumHam]

4 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

 

  Hide contents

The pistol she gets from the French fur trader* is the same pistol grandpa-predator gives to Danny Glover at the end of Predator 2. Meaning, at some point, a predator encounters that tribe or one of their descendants at collects the pistol in some viscral, action-packed way. 

I'm critical of films that rely too heavily or clumsily on meaningless easter eggs as story telling devices, but that was a good one. 

*I don't know if the Commanche ever made it that far north, but based on the "Northern Great Plains" setting and the presence of the French, it's strongly implied the setting is modern day southern Manitoba. Maybe the Pembina valley or Whiteshell provincial park. I don't know where filming took place. 

 

Spoiler

Yeah I know, I actually mentioned how that and the post credits scene don't bode well for the tribe a few pages back. I actually thought the reveal at the end was a little unnecessary, they'd already stated the guy's name and we knew what year it was. If you remembered the gun from Predator 2 you probably already figured, no?

I just suspect that rather than do another movie of Comanche fighting say, three predators, they may want to bring the franchise back into the present and mix things up a bit. They could do twenty minutes of the tribe getting wiped out (they have what, one or two warriors left?) and then they hit her with some kinda cryo-grenade thing and then the movie pivots.

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Just now, RumHam said:

  Hide contents

Yeah I know, I actually mentioned how that and the post credits scene don't bode well for the tribe a few pages back. I actually thought the reveal at the end was a little unnecessary, they'd already stated the guy's name and we knew what year it was. If you remembered the gun from Predator 2 you probably already figured, no?

I just suspect that rather than do another movie of Comanche fighting say, three predators, they may want to bring the franchise back into the present and mix things up a bit. They could do twenty minutes of the tribe getting wiped out (they have what, one or two warriors left?) and then they hit her with some kinda cryo-grenade thing and then the movie pivots.

 

Spoiler

Theres a post credit scene?

I'm giving this movie no stars. I withdraw my stars.

 

[RumHam]

3 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

  Hide contents

Theres a post credit scene?

I'm giving this movie no stars. I withdraw my stars.

 

Spoiler

Oh, apparently not. When the movie ended Hulu started playing The Blair Witch project. I always read the wikipedia article after I finish a movie though and it said

Quote

An end credits image shows three Predator ships arriving on Earth and heading towards the tribe.

so an image, not a scene! Obviously I didn't bother to go back and re-watch the credits.

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Thirteen Lives. 

Great movie. Incredibly intense at times. One of Ron Howards best films. 

There was a single blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to Elon and his bullshit submarine. Aside from that the film doesn't waste any time on that fiasco, which is great because that would take away from a truly remarkable story.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

2 hours ago, RumHam said:

  Hide contents

so an image, not a scene! Obviously I didn't bother to go back and re-watch the credits.

 

I remember that. I am tentatively restoring my stars.

[dog-days]

3 hours ago, RumHam said:

My three year nephew won't even watch traditional animation. I tried to show him the Duck Tales movie from the 90's but if it's not computer generated he's basically like "wtf is this shit."

I have watched more Paw Patrol than a grown man should ever be subjected to.

Could maybe start brainwashing him in preparation for future compulsory Studio Ghibli immersion by dressing up as Totoro. So much better than Santa, while also being 3D. 

Edited August 7, 2022 by dog-days

[Zorral]

4 hours ago, RumHam said:

I don't know if the Commanche ever made it that far north,

Can't be easier to find out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comanche_history

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

8 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Can't be easier to find out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comanche_history

 

No Wiki-something-something on a Sunday. Not in this house. Nope. I won't even type it. 

I reflexively clicked on it by accident. "Words?" Goan. "I have to scroll now?" Jeez. 

[Corvinus85]

I watched Lightyear on Disney+. I'm ok with movies I only have a mild interest in failing at the box office so I can watch them faster.

This is a meta movie that no one asked for. That being said, I found the story more endearing than I expected and the robot cat was the best part of the movie.

[WarGalley]

I watched The Sisters Brothers with John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Riz Ahmed and Jake Gyllenhaal. Some beautiful scenery as you would expect from a western but overall, I was bored. Kind of disappointed since the director also made Un Prophete (A Prophet).

 

Gonna watch Old Henry next and see if that satisfies.

Edited August 8, 2022 by WarGalley

[Veltigar]

I watched the latest episode of Harley Quinn over the weekend. So many Bane jokes, I couldn't help but love the episode. More Bane is really all that I ask for.

Good week of content ahead. Prey, Bullet Train, new episodes of Harley Quinn & Better Call Saul. It's enough without being too much  

 

On 8/6/2022 at 8:56 PM, polishgenius said:

It's common enough that there's a wikipedia entry and a Key and Peele sketch mocking it:
 

I usually do not find K&P that funny, but this skit had me in stitches  

I still love me some The Green Mile though. It's a good example of the power you can get by knowing your trope and playing around with it in a rather excellently executed film. I can certainly get the visceral reactions against it @TheLastWolf, but unlike Forest Gump (which really is problematic) I don't think I will sour on The Green Mile that easily because I feel there is a case to be made for some of the - at first glance - problematic choices in the film

Spoiler

I find the trope in question far more problematic in the random Morgan Freeman performances we have all come to spoof than in The Green Mile, because there are at least two obvious reasons why it makes sense for John Coffee to be black in this film.

To begin with, if Jesus Christ was to come back in that day and age, than being reborn as a black person in rural America makes a lot of sense. After all, the Jesus of popular conception was born to a persecuted minority on the very edge of a great empire. Just like how rural Louisiana is a backwater that is part of the great US "empire" and African-Americans are/were a prosecuted minority.

Secondly, while perhaps not as overt as we would like in the modern day and age, it is clear that JC was condemned to death quickly (and was genuinely treated with suspicion) partly because of the way he looks. Hate blinded people so much that they were blind to the real killer (which is quite a feat, seeing that Wild Bill is not exactly a cunning serial killer à la Mads Mikkelsen's Hannibal Lecter. He's very much an odious thug and an obvious suspect).

It's an important subtext in the film which we should not gloss over and plays a part in John Coffee's final decision to die. Make a note of that, John Coffee, our Jesus Christ-equivalent, was so disgusted with American society and its pernicious violence and racial oppression that he chose to go ahead with his own execution rather than continue living.

Not only that, but when he died, he took his Gift with him. When Jesus Christ died, he did so to relief people of Original Sin. He chose to sacrifice himself more or less to save everyone. Contrast that with John Coffee's death in the film, no one really benefitted. Evil was not vanquished, people kept on perishing like before. John just chose not to use his Gift, exercising more agency than most people have in their life, because the people he came across on the whole were not worth saving. Now if that is not a repudiation of what that society stood for, I don't see what is.

Especially since our hypocritical white main character is condemned to a living purgatory for who knows how many years to contemplate how he - a supposedly good man -  contributed to the destruction of so many of God's miracles (talking about life in general here, not just John Coffee).

I find that the film actually subverts the Magical N-word trope more than it confirms to it. A bit like how The Last Samurai is not really an example of the White Savior trope, but borrows many of its trappings to lead audiences in an unexpected direction. 

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by Veltigar

[TheLastWolf]

9 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

I watched the latest episode of Harley Quinn over the weekend. So many Bane jokes, I couldn't help but love the episode. More Bane is really all that I ask for.

Good week of content ahead. Prey, Bullet Train, new episodes of Harley Quinn & Better Call Saul. It's enough without being too much  

 

I usually do not find K&P that funny, but this skit had me in stitches  

I still love me some The Green Mile though. It's a good example of the power you can get by knowing your trope and playing around with it in a rather excellently executed film. I can certainly get the visceral reactions against it @TheLastWolf, but unlike Forest Gump (which really is problematic) I don't think I will sour on The Green Mile that easily because I feel there is a case to be made for some of the - at first glance - problematic choices in the film

  Reveal hidden contents

I find the trope in question far more problematic in the random Morgan Freeman performances we have all come to spoof than in The Green Mile, because there are at least two obvious reasons why it makes sense for John Coffee to be black in this film.

To begin with, if Jesus Christ was to come back in that day and age, than being reborn as a black person in rural America makes a lot of sense. After all, the Jesus of popular conception was born to a persecuted minority on the very edge of a great empire. Just like how rural Louisiana is a backwater that is part of the great US "empire" and African-Americans are/were a prosecuted minority.

Secondly, while perhaps not as overt as we would like in the modern day and age, it is clear that JC was condemned to death quickly (and was genuinely treated with suspicion) partly because of the way he looks. Hate blinded people so much that they were blind to the real killer (which is quite a feat, seeing that Wild Bill is not exactly a cunning serial killer à la Mads Mikkelsen's Hannibal Lecter. He's very much an odious thug and an obvious suspect).

It's an important subtext in the film which we should not gloss over and plays a part in John Coffee's final decision to die. Make a note of that, John Coffee, our Jesus Christ-equivalent, was so disgusted with American society and its pernicious violence and racial oppression that he chose to go ahead with his own execution rather than continue living.

Not only that, but when he died, he took his Gift with him. When Jesus Christ died, he did so to relief people of Original Sin. He chose to sacrifice himself more or less to save everyone. Contrast that with John Coffee's death in the film, no one really benefitted. Evil was not vanquished, people kept on perishing like before. John just chose not to use his Gift, exercising more agency than most people have in their life, because the people he came across on the whole were not worth saving. Now if that is not a repudiation of what that society stood for, I don't see what is.

Especially since our hypocritical white main character is condemned to a living purgatory for who knows how many years to contemplate how he - a supposedly good man -  contributed to the destruction of so many of God's miracles (talking about life in general here, not just John Coffee).

I find that the film actually subverts the Magical N-word trope more than it confirms to it. A bit like how The Last Samurai is not really an example of the White Savior trope, but borrows many of its trappings to lead audiences in an unexpected direction. 

 

I'm somewhat convinced