Watched, Watch, Watching: Pink Bombs

[Raja]

16 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

 

 

It's well good. Not as good as Fallout, but well g

Agreed re: your points about the antagonist, though for me I had some other issues too

Spoiler

I think there are some really cool things in the movie, even though overall I was a bit meh on it

Good stuff - I think the score is actually quite nice & there are a few really memorable scenes, like the stuff with the piano in the train & I quite like the sword fight that Rebecca Ferguson has on the bridge even though it's quite brief. The submarine stuff was also quite cool.

Bad stuff - I would excuse almost anything if movies show me something I don't expect or have a new take on something. I don't *really* think the action is memorable. I remember very little from the car chase, the airport scene or the train sequence besides the piano bit I mentioned above. Scientology boy's stunt of jumping off that cliff is cool I guess but the shot cuts away before he gets anywhere close to the train and what *is* shown is like a cool jump but I was pretty meh on it.

There are also just so many bad pieces of dialogue in the movie - Gabriel's whole 'one of them will die' and then that first scene with indira verma that almost read like a parody.

To be honest, I think the film would be more memorable if it had a better director than Chris Mcquarrie, who, like the Russo brothers doesn't really seem to have a voice or perspective with his direction - the piano scene on the train is still excellent though so I cannot be too harsh.

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Raja

[SpaceChampion]

I was looking forward in a few days to watch They Cloned Tyrone on Netflix.  This guy is saying its the best sci-fi movie of the year so far...

 

[Corvinus85]

13 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

 

 

It's well good. Not as good as Fallout, but well good.

Suffers from a villain problem. And also a 'too little mystery' problem. 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

To expand on both:

The villain has two issues: one, quite simply, I didn't think Esai Morales is charismatic enough to stand up to the tonnage of screen presence he's competing against. He's alright, but... well, I saw Fast X a few weeks ago. He can't compete. He's a good looking fella, but he just kind of smugs about and gets drowned out by basically everyone he shares the screen with. 

 

Second is that Hunt's secondary, personal motivation of hating Gabriel for his past is completely unrelated to anything that happens in the movie. It leaves a weird split- you've got Gabriel the agent of the machine (which was a very effective threat btw) and Gabriel the supposedly sadistic dude who's been fucking with Ethan, and those two people are different people. 

 

 

On the mystery- well, a film like this doesn't necessarily need mystery, but it needs a sense of building to something, be it doling out information until we have what we need, or revealing personal stakes as it goes on, or whatever. This gives the audience literally all the information in the first two scenes, and the rest of it is Ethan chasing to find out things we already know. We get basically nothing new for the whole film and it means it's riding entirely on the action  - which is great, but it does leave it weaker than Fallout, which does the escalation thing textbook.

Basically it means the movie is a series of scenes rather than a rising crescendo or whatever imagery you want to use here. 

 

But that's a lot of kvetching for a movie I overall really liked. 

 

3 minutes ago, Raja said:

Agreed re: your points about the antagonist, though for me I had some other issues too

  Reveal hidden contents

I think there are some really cool things in the movie, even though overall I was a bit meh on it

Good stuff - I think the score is actually quite nice & there are a few really memorable scenes, like the stuff with the piano in the train & I quite like the sword fight that Rebecca Ferguson has on the bridge even though it's quite brief. The submarine stuff was also quite cool.

Bad stuff - I would excuse almost anything if movies show me something I don't expect or have a new take on something. I don't *really* think the action is memorable. I remember very little from the car chase, the airport scene or the train sequence besides the piano bit I mentioned above. Scientology boy's stunt of jumping off that cliff is cool I guess but the shot cuts away before he gets anywhere close to the train and what *is* shown is like a cool jump but I was pretty meh on it.

To be honest, I think the film would be more memorable if it had a better director than Chris Mcquarrie, who, like the Russo brothers doesn't really seem to have a voice or perspective with his direction - the piano scene on the train is still excellent though so I cannot be too harsh.

 

Fully agree with polishgenius's review. I actually found the car chase scene to be the one action sequence that was better than its counterpart in Fallout. Car chases have become overly long and bloat. (F&F likely to blame) But this one had some quirkiness and inventiveness to it.

Spoiler

Speaking of Fast X I believe both movies had a sequence of cars going down historic stairs in Rome. MI7's scene was way better than Fast X's.

 

[TheLastWolf]

Nostalgic value of Transformers for me...you had to be there then to know what Bay dished out was epic. I know it's crap now but then I'd have rather not let the kid in me fall for MCU

[Mexal]

2 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Definitely check out True Romance if you haven’t already seen it. It’s great, and full of memorable performances outside of just the two leads (particularly Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, and Christopher Walken). One of my all time favorites. 

We named our dog Alabama Whitman. We're fans.

[Nictarion]

14 minutes ago, Mexal said:

We named our dog Alabama Whitman. We're fans.

I hope you’ve put an animal print bandana on her at least once. 

I actually have a tattoo of Clarence’s Cadillac on my leg. 

[Kalbear]

True Romance is the best Tarantino film, probably because it wasn't directed by Tarantino. 

[Mexal]

3 minutes ago, Nictarion said:

I hope you’ve put an animal print bandana on her at least once. 

I actually have a tattoo of Clarence’s Cadillac on my leg. 

At least once. It's funny, our first dog's name is Charlie Bronson (named after UK criminal) and when we watched True Romance again to check to see if Bama fit for our fierce female, Gary Oldman said to Christian Slater "who do you think you are, Charlie fucking Bronson?" and my wife and I were high fiving because it was perfect.

Edited July 17, 2023 by Mexal

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

I get you. It’s a problem with blockbuster movies in general, their storytelling is non existent in general and their is no wow factor to any of the action sequences any more because they all look like the same flat CGI slow mo silliness. I remember years ago watching trailers for even crap movies like battle Los Angeles and thinking ‘oooh’, but repeated bouts of action disappointment mean non of it raises even a flicker of interest from me now. 
 

A well done action scene like in John Wick or Extraction 2 is still good but they are just rare

Pretty much. I can admit a lot of action films from the 70's, 80's and 90's are dumb, but they're a lot more fun and don't look completely ridiculous.  Enter the Dragon is silly, but looks great and is a joy. Same with Lethal Weapon or Point Break. Shit even Spawn still holds up. Across that era there were both a lot of serious and campy movies that look good today even if the effects aren't the best. So much of today's action is just bad while also eating up the budget. I'd rather the late 80's Batman movie than a lot of what DC puts out today (I did like The Batman though, in part because it's not a a CGI mess).

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

14 minutes ago, Kalnak the Magnificent said:

True Romance is the best Tarantino film, probably because it wasn't directed by Tarantino. 

I'm starting to wonder if I've ever seen this. I thought he wrote True Lies.

[polishgenius]

You'd definitely know if you'd seen True Romance, because the scene with Christopher Walker and Dennis Hopper is the most Tarantino scene Tarantino ever wrote. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

1 hour ago, TheLastWolf said:

Nostalgic value of Transformers for me...you had to be there then to know what Bay dished out was epic. I know it's crap now but then I'd have rather not let the kid in me fall for MCU

Yeah, seeing that film in a theatre back in 2007 was pretty cool actually. 

I think Bay was being much more clever and a hell of a lot more cynical in the later films than he was being given credit for. Not Verhoven levels of satire but still.

[JGP]

The script for True Romance is what made Tarantino’s career. So many big names in Hollywood were clamouring to get inserted into the cast it’s quite remarkable even now, so many years later. 
 

I remember making a concerted effort to get all my friends to see it, even going so far as buying a copy when it came out on VHS and organizing watch parties to include the hold outs lol

 

[GallowKnight]

14 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Yeah, seeing that film in a theatre back in 2007 was pretty cool actually. 

I think Bay was being much more clever and a hell of a lot more cynical in the later films than he was being given credit for. Not Verhoven levels of satire but still.

As someone who loved the transformers as a kid, seeing that opening scene where the helicopter-decepticon wrecks the air base in cinema, was pretty fucking awesome.

Too bad the rest of the movie doesn't hold up to that scene though.

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

 

Yeah and also True Romance like others have said. Plus: Unstoppable. That film rocks. 

Also I dunno about hit/shit ratio but I'm not sure Tony ever made anything quite as misjudged as Exodus? 

 

 

 

I can't say I like the Transformers movies but I also think it's pretty unquestionable that Bay understands CGI-heavy action in a way most directors making similar things don't (or at least, he commits to it in a way they don't). Like if you don't like CG porn you don't like it, whether it's Bay or not, but he knows how to give weight to it. And it's a lot of work to do that sort of thing properly. 

Like the film itself is rank but the collapsing skyscraper scene in Transformers 3 is... not bad at all. 


It's just a shame he marries his skill as that with absolutely no storytelling skill whatsoever. 

I think Pacific Rim is the best ‘transformers’ film not directed by Michael Bay…that’s a good example of CG heavy action that has weight and works despite the cheesy plot. 

On the other hand, I just got nausea and headaches watching Transformers. It’s one of the only films I’ve ever walked out of cause I couldn’t take it anymore. It’s up there along with those terrible Roland Emmerich films as being the worst films of all time for me. 

[Argonath Diver]

Dennis Hopper has a couple all‐time great lines in True Romance. He's amazing.

I absolutely agree it's my favorite Tarantino film even if it says A Tony Scott Film.

Edited July 17, 2023 by Argonath Diver

[Heartofice]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

Pretty much. I can admit a lot of action films from the 70's, 80's and 90's are dumb, but they're a lot more fun and don't look completely ridiculous.  Enter the Dragon is silly, but looks great and is a joy. Same with Lethal Weapon or Point Break. Shit even Spawn still holds up. Across that era there were both a lot of serious and campy movies that look good today even if the effects aren't the best. So much of today's action is just bad while also eating up the budget. I'd rather the late 80's Batman movie than a lot of what DC puts out today (I did like The Batman though, in part because it's not a a CGI mess).

Yeah I reckon a lot of movies have replaced quality with scale. But the scale of a scene is irrelvant if it just looks like CGI because you know it’s being filmed in a tiny greenscreen studio. 
 

It’s a lazy critique to say they should go back to real stunts and physical effects, but I think it’s true. 
 

[dbunting]

Haven't been on in a while so will be a little lengthy post

The new Mission Impossible was pretty good, I held a little against it knowing it was a Part 1, but at least they were honest about it. Some movies you watch and all it did was set up a sequel. Hayley Atlwell was very good in this and of course Cruise is Cruise. The car chase scene was enjoyable, I normally tune chase scenes out.  All in all pretty good IMO.

Also watched the new Transformers Rise of the Beasts, it's been out over a month, it rained all day and most of the night for 2 days straight and my wife was away for the weekend so I caved and saw this. It was Sunday afternoon at 355pm and the place was almost sold out?>??  I do not get it, granted is was in a smaller room but still. I expected to have the place to myself and was shocked. The movie was what you expect, absolutely nothing more.

Spoiler

It is set before the original Transformers movie so it does present some issues like why didn't all those other Autobots and beasts help fight against the decepticons in the "original movie"????  Also it sets up a new GI Joe movie at the very end.

I also re watched S1 and S2 of 24.  Man this was way worse than I remember. S1 especially. I think if you cut out half of the crap, absolute stupid crap, with his wife and daughter this could have been 12 instead of 24 and been much better.  S2 is mildly better but they still pulled the same silly stupid shit with his daughter.  

Watched the new season of Jack Ryan, only 6 episodes.  Much better than last season. This one was trimmed down and held my attention pretty well. I think the series is over and if so it rebounded very well after that shit that was S3.

Lastly, watch the first few episodes of Justified since the new limited series starts this week of FX.  S1 episode 1 is just about perfect to me. Yeah of course there are too many guns pulled and people shot but from the first scene to the last it's spot on.

Spoiler

I love how they mention that Raylan and Boyd dug coal together several times in the pilot and it is one of the last lines of the series as well.  

 

[IlyaP]

8 hours ago, polishgenius said:

You'd definitely know if you'd seen True Romance, because the scene with Christopher Walker and Dennis Hopper is the most Tarantino scene Tarantino ever wrote. 

I've read there are two cuts of the film - theatrical and a director's cut. Is the director's cut just the theatrical + more scenes, or...? 

[Nictarion]

11 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

I've read there are two cuts of the film - theatrical and a director's cut. Is the director's cut just the theatrical + more scenes, or...? 

I’ve never heard of a director’s cut, but the original ending to Tarantino’s script had 

Spoiler

Clarence dying.

I’m glad Scott changed it. 

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by Nictarion