Watch, Watched, Watching: From Scott Civil Wars to Christmas Movie Wars

[Ran]

Wim Wenders is a great director, and Stanton was amazing in Paris, Texas. 

Always wondered how much inspiration Wenders took from Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show, re: the speech. There's shade of Sam the Lion's wistful monologue:

 

[polishgenius]

On 1/2/2024 at 10:11 AM, Isis said:

I don't know why, but I'm disappointed that he hasn't moved on a bit more. 

 

To be fair to Guy Richie, while he does like to go back to the well of his good ol laaaads gangster movies, he does make other stuff in between, and some of it's a mess but sometimes it's solid. His follow-up to The Gentlemen was Wrath of Man, which is takes a basic story and builds it into a surprisingly cleverly structured story with very tight shooting and editing. Genuinely good movie. And I haven't seen it yet, but The Covenant was by most accounts genuinely a heartfelt wartime action-drama about a sergeant and his interpreter in Afghanistan. 

[Myrddin]

I finally got around to watching Rebel Moon. My expectations were low, so I probably enjoyed it more than it warranted. True to Snyder fashion, there were a lot of cool looking set pieces with little substance to string them together. Each new addition to the Seven Samurai team needed an epic fight to justify their inclusion apparently, which sadly ended up being the only time they added to the fight in end for some reason. Lots of exposition that went nowhere this installment (like the droid guardian race). 

I'll still watch part two. Part one looked great, anyway, and was a low commitment and enjoyable evening. I saw a comment on Reddit somewhere saying Snyder should be only allowed in the director's chair (or in the cinematographer role) and away from writing/story development. I agree. He makes gorgeous empty movies. 

 

ETA: We started watching Fool Me Once on Netflix. It was bad. We suffered through the middle of the second episode before pulling the plug. Let me save you from this one. 

Edited January 5 by Myrddin

[Heartofice]

7 minutes ago, Myrddin said:

ETA: We started watching Fool Me Once on Netflix. It was bad. We suffered through the middle of the second episode before pulling the plug. Let me save you from this one. 

Thanks, my other half heard it was ‘the new smash hit on Netflix’ on the radio, and said we should watch it. Luckily I googled reviews and they are appalling. It looks like garbage.

[kissdbyfire]

2 hours ago, Myrddin said:

ETA: We started watching Fool Me Once on Netflix. It was bad. We suffered through the middle of the second episode before pulling the plug. Let me save you from this one. 

Damn, couldn’t you have said this 3 days ago? We tried too… I fell asleep halfway through the 1st ep, my better half finished that and the 2nd. And when I was finally caught up we went on to watch ep 3 and we both fell asleep. We won’t be making any further attempts, it’s utter shite.

[Rhom]

3 hours ago, Myrddin said:

I finally got around to watching Rebel Moon. My expectations were low, so I probably enjoyed it more than it warranted. True to Snyder fashion, there were a lot of cool looking set pieces with little substance to string them together. Each new addition to the Seven Samurai team needed an epic fight to justify their inclusion apparently, which sadly ended up being the only time they added to the fight in end for some reason. Lots of exposition that went nowhere this installment (like the droid guardian race). 

I'll still watch part two. Part one looked great, anyway, and was a low commitment and enjoyable evening. I saw a comment on Reddit somewhere saying Snyder should be only allowed in the director's chair (or in the cinematographer role) and away from writing/story development. I agree. He makes gorgeous empty movies. 

 

ETA: We started watching Fool Me Once on Netflix. It was bad. We suffered through the middle of the second episode before pulling the plug. Let me save you from this one. 

I watched it yesterday while taking the day off after eye surgery… I had low expectations and I don’t think they were met.

What was even the point of any of the teammates?  Why was I supposed to care about the rebel brother?

And then I got on IMDB and saw that Anthony Hopkins was in it?!!?  Who the hell was Jimmy?!!?

[kissdbyfire]

11 minutes ago, Rhom said:

I watched it yesterday while taking the day off after eye surgery… I had low expectations and I don’t think they were met.

What was even the point of any of the teammates?  Why was I supposed to care about the rebel brother?

And then I got on IMDB and saw that Anthony Hopkins was in it?!!?  Who the hell was Jimmy?!!?

The robot.

[DireWolfSpirit]

Saw that wrestling movie "The Claw".

Great cast, great acting, but the story was way too depressing for me.

This story entails a series of tragedies that happened in real life to a famous wrestling family.

Really icky story, wished we had seen Godzilla or something instead.

I suppose if one is in a mood for a tragedy though, this is your vehicle.

[TheLastWolf]

Le Samourai

Slick flick oozing finesse

Spoiler

My take, please correct me if I'm wrong...

Jef kills because that's what a samurai does. Kill at a master's behest. 

Jef killed Olivier because Olivier didn't honour his end and attempted to silence Jef. The blonde lackey was spared because he was just that, a tool.

Jef committed suicide by cop because A] he was not going to honour his end by killing Lagrange (and instead pointed out the pianist to the Commissioner with his empty revolver. Thus he draws them off the scent of his beloved too.) B] He had killed his then master, so seppuku/hara-kiri.

Bushido, a samurai without a code is just an animal. Perhaps a tiger...

 

[IFR]

15 hours ago, Rhom said:

I watched it yesterday while taking the day off after eye surgery… I had low expectations and I don’t think they were met.

What was even the point of any of the teammates?  Why was I supposed to care about the rebel brother?

And then I got on IMDB and saw that Anthony Hopkins was in it?!!?  Who the hell was Jimmy?!!?

I enjoyed the cliffnote version of it, at least.

 

 

[Ran]

Finally got around to watching Scott Pilgrim Take's Off, and up through episode 5. Still amazing they got the whole cast back to do all the voices, which I guess speaks positively of Edgar Wright and the experience of shooting the film. It's been pretty fun, with great animation from Japanese anime studio Science Saru. Spoilers for those who know the comic/film but haven't seen this yet:

Spoiler

Everything in marketing and promotion for film pointed to it being mostly a straight retread of the movie and the Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphical novels, and the first episode really follows the beats... but that's soon abandoned by the end of the first episode as we get a sort of alternate histor, with a greater focus on each of the Evil Exes, as well as a lot more time spent with Ramona Flowers. 

I think it's pretty successful, so far. Of the five episodes I've seen so far, the fourth is probably my favorite for now, because it's so gonzo. Fifth has some really fun Hollywood satire, too, though.

[3CityApache]

23 hours ago, polishgenius said:

And I haven't seen it yet, but The Covenant was by most accounts genuinely a heartfelt wartime action-drama about a sergeant and his interpreter in Afghanistan. 

Very solid movie and good acting from both main characters. As for newest Ritchie, the one with Aubrey Plaza in it (can’t remember the title) was also at least entertaining (though admittedly I’m not sure how much of it derives from, well, having Aubrey Plaza in it). 

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Le Samourai

One of my favorites.

[williamjm]

1 hour ago, 3CityApache said:

As for newest Ritchie, the one with Aubrey Plaza in it (can’t remember the title) was also at least entertaining (though admittedly I’m not sure how much of it derives from, well, having Aubrey Plaza in it). 

That was Operation Fortune : Ruse de Guerre, it was nothing special but I enjoyed it. I think Hugh Grant seems to have decided to use unusual accents whenever he appears in a Guy Ritchie film.

[Rhom]

20 hours ago, IFR said:

I enjoyed the cliffnote version of it, at least.

 

 

That is ridiculously spot on.  

[Ran]

Watched The Running Man, which I haven't seen in ... yeesh, decades. I completely forgot how long the film goes before Arnie and co. end up in the Running Man gameshow. It's pure classic 80s cheese, and is (I gather) wildly different from "Richard Bachman's" (aka Stephen King's) original novel on which it is based. I wanted to learn more and flipped through the trivia, and discovered that the actor who played Dynamo, Erland van Lidth, died before the film was released. Sadly, it was the day after his first wedding anniversary, as well. Heart failure, apparently. 

Feels like Jesse Ventura's "Captain Freedom" was a bit of a loose end. Yeah, he refused to fight in the getup they insisted on and they doctored the footage, but seeing him tipping a cigar to Arnie or cheering when Killian goes boom would have been a good touch.

Almost done with Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, it's been great fun.

[Zorral]

I have been trying to watch Heat (1995), which I've not before viewed, despite its stellar cast.  We made fun here recently of Reacher shoot-out scenes -- those are nothing compared to the preposterousity of what we are given in Heat. Just for starters. 

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are the co-leads, one the supposed goodie and the other the definite baddie, with an idea to show how alike they are. Since stars of their caliber at that time still cared about playing characters that audiences like -- they cancel each other out, since they must receive equal screen time.  They even look so alike that for most of the movie I couldn't tell which one was Pacino and which one was De Niro, except by Pacino's tick of chewing gum, and by their different henchmen-team members.  Moreover, the leads do not realize their characters are Los Angeles characters, not NYC characters, in same way Pacino kept playing the Scarface Cuban like an Italian.

It's a weenie waver, thus very stupid.

Alas, there was no Michelle Pfeiffer. 

Edited January 7 by Zorral

[Cas Stark]

Saltburn.  Mixed feelings.  I like it more if I don't take it too seriously since it has a lot of plot holes and is somewhat confused thematically.  Nice cinematography, excellent acting, obviously a gorgeous setting.  R Pike stole every single scene she was in. 

I'm not a huge fan of the 'eat the rich' type movies, though I know some don't see that this film really fits that genre......but then, Fennel did say that the expectation was the audience would be invested in Oliver and side with him [I didn't and wasn't]....you could see what a freak he was early on in the film when he's stalking Felix...even before any of the other reveals.  Also mixed on the 'gross out' scenes, not really offended per se, but they went on for a looong time and not sure we really needed that many minutes devoted to the grave scene or some of the others.  

 

Spoiler

In my imagination, Farleigh and his mother, and maybe Duncan is their ally, come back strong and uncover Oliver in all of his murderous deceit and the house goes back to the blood family.  But that's me, they were in no way bad enough people to deserve the fates he gave them.

 

Edited January 7 by Cas Stark

[polishgenius]

52 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Since stars of their caliber at that time still cared about playing characters that audiences like

 

 

I cannot see how you can possibly accuse either De Niro or Pacino of that.

 

But then I also don't see how you can possibly confuse the two for each other looks-wise tbqh. 

[Heartofice]

2 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

But then I also don't see how you can possibly confuse the two for each other looks-wise tbqh. 

To some people, all men look the same.