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[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

21 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Ridley Scott's 2014 Exodus: Gods and Kings, is up on HBO.  Somehow I never even heard of this movie.  Evidently people didn't admire it much?

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/exodus-gods-and-kings-2014

 

The movie is awful. Save yourself an hour and watch The Prince of Egypt.

Or just watch The Ten Commandments. 

[Ran]

@RhaenysBee

I think calling it pure fan fiction is a bit much. What it is is a very reconfigured, modified version of Little Women which gives a very different feel to parts of it by making it nonlinear, but a lot of it is really very much from the book. The biggest change is making Jo more explicitly analogous to Alcott and, of course, the ending. 

[williamjm]

I watched Guy Ritchie's latest, the awkwardly titled Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre on Amazon Prime. It does feel that streaming services are addicted to this kind of globe-trotting action movie with a bunch of recognisable actors and an unchallenging script. There's not much substance to it and nothing too memorable but it's fun enough while it is on. Hugh Grant seems to be having fun chewing the scenery as the arm dealer villain, and Aubrey Plaza brought a bit of quirkiness which made it a bit less bland.

[BigFatCoward]

New series of Mrs Maisel starts this week. Re enthused after S4, and knowing this is the final season makes it even more watchable. 

[RhaenysBee]

8 hours ago, Ran said:

@RhaenysBee

I think calling it pure fan fiction is a bit much. What it is is a very reconfigured, modified version of Little Women which gives a very different feel to parts of it by making it nonlinear, but a lot of it is really very much from the book. The biggest change is making Jo more explicitly analogous to Alcott and, of course, the ending. 

My instinctive thought is that I don’t necessarily agree, however I do need to rewatch that movie to be fair. Which I remember enjoying. I just went into the book expecting this and that, this and that, and this and that - well none of those this and thats were like that in the book.

So let’s hope nobody tries to fake a book report based on the movie. (Which… is something we did in the early 2000s and I suppose it’s ancient practice because kids these days can just ask chatgpt to write their book report). That said, I can’t say I was a huge fan of the book, it took me a really long time to get through it and it has no place on my reread bucket list. 

[TheLastWolf]

BrBa S4 going on

Manh the writing is just...you know

Has me invested in sth like never before

[ljkeane]

11 hours ago, williamjm said:

I watched Guy Ritchie's latest, the awkwardly titled Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre on Amazon Prime. It does feel that streaming services are addicted to this kind of globe-trotting action movie with a bunch of recognisable actors and an unchallenging script. There's not much substance to it and nothing too memorable but it's fun enough while it is on. Hugh Grant seems to be having fun chewing the scenery as the arm dealer villain, and Aubrey Plaza brought a bit of quirkiness which made it a bit less bland.

I watched it too. It's pretty much standard Guy Ritchie fare but, yeah, Hugh Grant's entertaining.

[Isis]

17 hours ago, Zorral said:

Ridley Scott's 2014 Exodus: Gods and Kings, is up on HBO.  Somehow I never even heard of this movie.  Evidently people didn't admire it much?

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/exodus-gods-and-kings-2014

 

It's almost a Friday night special, but it's not quite in the 'so bad it's good' bracket. It would need to be a little more self-aware for that. 

[Darryk]

I watched John Wick 4. I thought it was a bit tedious most of the time to be honest, but the ending saved it.

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, Isis said:

It's almost a Friday night special,

As I've never owned a television this probably explains why I never heard of it -- along with the year's long vast project which we were racing to complete.

Ya, after leaving home I hardly ever watched television at all, and then in hotel rooms, until dvds could be played on a computer, and then streaming.  

[Raja]

1. Watched Mad Max again and the movie is just about perfect - did some reading about the on set tensions and it's a pity Theron and Hardy had such issues with the latter just being an arsehole

2. The Force Awakens - watched this again and whilst I'm not the biggest JJ fan, I think TFA was a very good return to the SW universe. It has the blueprint of ANH, but the characters really make that movie. Kylo, Finn & Rey are all good additions.

3. Started watching Lenox Hill - a documentary about the hospital in NYC - I'm only halfway through, but it's lovely.

[Zorral]

Just beginning to get a grasp of these regions in those times, just watched the opening of Medieval: For Love For Honor (2022), the film wrt to 14th-15th C hero, Jan Zizka.  I was greatly impressed with the scene in which one of his men, himself, shoves a horse and rider off the road to tumble down the cliff to the river.  That's strong!  

Also Michael Caine is in it as an elderly, cynical, effective politico survivor of rhe era, not particularly to be admired.

Lots of action, strong action. And religion.  Part of the opening background is the two popes, and Michael Caine is trying to get to France? Rome?: for something something something crucial to proper popeing. Or is it proper kinging?  Of somebody. Whichever, church or kingdom, crowning, and who is crowned, and by whom, is the order of the day.  But he's been ambushed by ????? who greatly outnumber his paid Zizka knights, but they win this one, not that Caine is in the least grateful, nor has he paid them. Yet.  Or Before.  Or Now.

There's also the Hussite 'heresy' going on -- so yes more religion, religion. On the kingy emperory side, the fight is over who will succeed Charles IV.  There is the horrible Sigismund of Hungary, there's Henry something or other, and Charles IV's son Wenceslas IV gets to be Holy Roman Emperor. I think.  In any case Wenceslaus was fairly a joke as a ruler, or so I understand it. But my understanding of the times and figures is sketchy, so I can be wrong about all this.  The film so far is not making much clear, since there's a girl/daughter who must kidnapped.  It's a movie, folks.

This is all in the first 5 minutes.  Doubtless as the film proceeds, all shall be made clear in that endless murk blue-gray screen that tells us We Are In The Middle Ages.

No, no the murk never cleared.  Ultimately this movie made no sense because somehow it left out all the essential information of who what where when and why.  Particularly it left out why the Hussites were a rebellion as well as a heresy, and why Zizka was with them.

This all takes place after the first tsunamis of the Black Death. Medieval historians have by now documented 1000 + European peasant rebellions between the mid 14th century and through to the beginning of the 15th century. (These were not the end of peasant rebellion by any means -- they continued.)  These rebellions were all about oppression and taxes.  There's a reason the Genoese, Venetians, etc. were making unspeakable profits from slave trading in these eras prior to the initiation of factory scale West African slave trade.  These slaves were 'Slavs', captured by Turks and sold to Europe (as well as to other Turks and other others too).  There was even a slave market in Rome at this time.

Added this morning: the wikipedia article on the film makes all of this clear. t turns out the Henry is the bad Rosenberg, who is the king of Bohemia, Henry III.  And Wenceslaus is already king or emperor, etc.  But trust me, whatever the filmmakers thought, the film does not make any of this clear.  In fact, we are left clueless entirely -- and did that niece of the King of France even exist?   It seems not, at least in this context, from what can be determined with a cursory search.  But there has to be a girl, insisted Merian Cooper, the director of King Kong.  And she must scream -- though this one doesn't scream, much.

Spoiler

She dies as a sacrifice to save Jan by the way.  Of course she does.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_(film)

 

[RumHam]

I finally got around to watching Piranha 3DD, after being intruiged by the wikipedia plot summary months ago. Holy shit, wikipedia doesn't do it justice. It's one thing to read about how one of the main characters spends half the movie unaware a carnivourus fish is living inside her vagina until it bites her boyfriend's dick off, it's quite another to see it play out on screen. 

There's also a scene where one of the water park workers is fucking one of the pool filter vents. Another character asks "Dave, what the hell are you doing?" at which point he confirms that he is indeed fucking one of the pool filter vents. Then the movie just...continues on. 

The best thing I can say about it is that they had fun with David Hasselhoff. 

[Argonath Diver]

The conversation in the Star Wars thread regarding theatre experiences made me recall my 2nd all time favorite theatre-going experience: Going to Starship Troopers with my high school buddies opening night, and the entire theater was cheering throughout. I was too naive back then to realize 2/3rds of them had to have been drunk or stoned. I recall leading a chant of "PLASMA SHIT! PLASMA SHIT!" when the giant beetles started firing off explosive turds into space.

Anyway I'm rewatching it for the first time in ages and I feel 16 again. I forgot how hilariously horny this movie is; I still remember all of us kids completely awestruck at the first unnecessary topless scene, and how unhappy we were that Denise Richards didn't ever follow suit. Then again, Wild Things came out like a year later and of course that was the one I took my girlfriend to. I had to act offended by the gratuitous nudity in that one to avoid an early end to that date.

Half the veteran actors in Starship Troopers seem to be having a hard time laughing out loud as they chew up the scenery, but Casper Van Dien is definitely trying to act his ass off. I wonder if the film would have actually suffered if they'd chosen a vaguely capable lead. In his defense, he is as pretty as Richards is and neither were hired for any gravitas.

[Ran]

Best theater experience I can remember was in Ft. Ord, California (RIP), watching Terminator 2 in a theatre full of soldiers. Talk about a lively crowd that was 100% down for shit blowing up. Lots of hooting and hollering. And then the single most memorable event, right about this part...

When some joker in the back of the theater yelled "BANG!", broke the tension, and literally everyone laughed. 

Good times.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

On 4/7/2023 at 3:36 PM, Tywin et al. said:

The movie is awful. Save yourself an hour and watch The Prince of Egypt.

Or just watch The Ten Commandments. 

It's so fucking grey. Were they burning coal in ancient Egypt?

On 4/7/2023 at 5:05 PM, williamjm said:

I watched Guy Ritchie's latest, the awkwardly titled Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre on Amazon Prime. It does feel that streaming services are addicted to this kind of globe-trotting action movie with a bunch of recognisable actors and an unchallenging script. There's not much substance to it and nothing too memorable but it's fun enough while it is on. Hugh Grant seems to be having fun chewing the scenery as the arm dealer villain, and Aubrey Plaza brought a bit of quirkiness which made it a bit less bland.

I caught a little of it. The thing that stood out to me is that it didn't feel like a Guy Richie movie.

2 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

The conversation in the Star Wars thread regarding theatre experiences made me recall my 2nd all time favorite theatre-going experience: Going to Starship Troopers with my high school buddies opening night, and the entire theater was cheering throughout. I was too naive back then to realize 2/3rds of them had to have been drunk or stoned. I recall leading a chant of "PLASMA SHIT! PLASMA SHIT!" when the giant beetles started firing off explosive turds into space.

Anyway I'm rewatching it for the first time in ages and I feel 16 again. I forgot how hilariously horny this movie is; I still remember all of us kids completely awestruck at the first unnecessary topless scene, and how unhappy we were that Denise Richards didn't ever follow suit. Then again, Wild Things came out like a year later and of course that was the one I took my girlfriend to. I had to act offended by the gratuitous nudity in that one to avoid an early end to that date.

Half the veteran actors in Starship Troopers seem to be having a hard time laughing out loud as they chew up the scenery, but Casper Van Dien is definitely trying to act his ass off. I wonder if the film would have actually suffered if they'd chosen a vaguely capable lead. In his defense, he is as pretty as Richards is and neither were hired for any gravitas.

Did I prompt this? Anyway, SW: ANH in '97 was an amazing theater experience.

Also noteworthy:

Revenge of the Sith: the first and last time my boss came to me on a Friday afternoon and said, "Hey, some of us are taking off this afternoon to see this. You wanna come?" Um, yes. Yes I do. 

Seeing The Exorcist ('91-'92) at a theater that showed classic films every weekend. I also saw Blade Runner and Alien there back in the late '90's. The difference is that the reels for The Exorcist had probably been sitting in that theaters broom closet since 1973. They'd dust them off once in a while and show the film. Scratches, cracks, emulsion flakes, Bits of hair and scotch tape whizzing by. The soundtrack on reel two was all fucked up. I'd never seen a movie that was that rough. At one point, I kid you not, the film got stuck and melted. Classic.

Gremlins 2. A bonkers film in the best way with the best 4th wall gag ever. If you'd seen it in a theater you'd know the one I'm talking about.

The Back to the Future films. Because they're so damn good. 

I could go on.

Verhoven is a genius. 

 

[BigFatCoward]

Beef is getting excellent reviews, and petty revenge is right up my street, both on screen and in real life. 

[dbunting]

5 hours ago, Ran said:

Best theater experience I can remember was in Ft. Ord, California (RIP), watching Terminator 2 in a theatre full of soldiers. Talk about a lively crowd that was 100% down for shit blowing up. Lots of hooting and hollering. And then the single most memorable event, right about this part...

When some joker in the back of the theater yelled "BANG!", broke the tension, and literally everyone laughed. 

Good times.

I have a couple, Star Wars ANH, I saw it when I was 5 at a drive in laying on top of a van. The scene where the death star explodes is stuck in my head because the "sparks" from it exploding seemed to mix in with the night sky and for a second the entire sky seemed like part of the movie, I was hooked.

The two others were comedies, Beverly Hills Cop and American Pie. Both had full theatres and everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves.

[Isis]

Watched the first two episodes of The Last of Us and they left me feeling largely underwhelmed. From a microbiologist's perspective, yes, a fungal apocalypse is very cool. But this looks, from two episodes, like it might be another one of those shows where we are expected to FEEL some feeling when things happen to the cast but I don't feel it because they haven't earned those feelings yet. Maybe they will, in time, as we are only two episodes in, but it's an anticlimactic start.

[Corvinus85]

I've watched the first season of For All Mankind and I regret not watching it sooner. I normally don't care for alternate history stories, but this was largely well done. Episodes 3 & 4 got me hooked, and the season had a strong ending. On to season 2.