Indeed. Back in 2000/2001 I used concepts from 12 Monkeys, amongst a vast array of other influences, in my first major novel, a fantasy with like ten names I couldn't decide on (The Gap, Dark Fantasies, Chocolate, Riding in the Mud, along with others). After a year, 9/11 happened. Seven years later I wrote the ending and finally decided on a title. Fantasisum Dolorous. Times change.
Just sat through Red Notice. Worst movie for Dwayne Johnson since Skyscraper. Not surprised they have the same director.
Haven't seen Red Notice, but Skyscraper was pretty bad. Not magnificently, watch it many times bad. Just blandly bad.
Shit, fucked up my avatar, I was going for the unreadable child thing, but Dakota Fanning's not really my type of little girl. This is Kagura Mutsuki, massive sword, nice style.
Just finished watching Joker. I have no words. Maybe in a few days when I’ve digested it, I’ll make some comment, but suffice to say it’s been a long time since a film has made me feel like that. What ‘that’ is I have no fucking idea at this moment in time!
After watching No Time to Die in theaters (not a bad movie) I went and watched Casino Royale and Skyfall. Damn they’re great. I’d seen Spectre and didn’t love it so I guess I just subconsciously wrote all the Craig Bond films off. That black and white opening scene in Casino Royale has got to be one of the greatest character intros in the movies.
I loved the Bond films as a kid, not so much now. They were like a Matinee treat at the time, because ‘big’ films didn’t turn up on the TV that often. Back then Moore was my favourite, but as I got a little older I began to appreciate Connery so much more. I’ve not seen a single one of the Craig Bond films.
I think Casino Royale was very good. The other Craig films were definitely inferior- not Craig’s fault of course. I was especially disappointed by Spectre. If you’re going to bring back 60’s villains then bring back the candy colored action set pieces- massive underwater knife fights, or shootouts in a volcano base with ninjas. As a wise man once said, I want sharks with freakin lasers on their heads. Instead we got a 2 hour Rolex watch commercial or something.
I think watching Joker is a worthwhile experience. I'm sick of the superhero/comics stuff generally, most especially when it comes to prequels and yet more origin stories. Blech. But this one was good. Brilliant, even. In my discussions of this movie, comparisons to Scorsese's The King of Comedy were brought up, and so I watched that as well. Excellent psychological black comedy kind of piece, and we've got De Niro in both films. I guess that's a bit of a surface spiel; lots there to dig into if one wishes to. But yeah, it's something.
I knew nothing about the Joker cast, so when De Niro first appeared I exclaimed “Hey, it’s Bob!” but then something weird started to happen. As I watched him I began to doubt it was him and said, “Oh! It’s not De Niro. Bloody looks like him, though!” It must have honestly been a good couple of minutes into his first scene that I finally accepted it was him. Yeah, he’s older, maybe put a few pounds on since his last film, but there was something ‘off’ with his face. Was he wearing prosthetic ‘showbiz’ teeth or something?
It's possible they added some of that CGI magic like they did in The Irishman. That was a good film too, but the face effects too often brought me out of the experience. Uncanny Valley kinda thing.
This is weird. This film appears to have some kind of exclusivity attached to it. Not even listed on Prime and a voice search on Sky brings up no results, so not even available on there. I can buy it from Amazon, but that appears to be my only option. Very odd for such a high profile film to be so elusive
Betty Blue - a French movie about the escapades of two lovers. I don’t watch many French movies so I didn’t know what to expect from this one but it struck me how different it was from conventional Hollywood movies. This particular movie had a lot of pornography and I’m not sure if this is not unusual in French movies. I’m talking about totally uncensored pornography, where everything is exposed from head to toe, and couples go around the house doing casual things in this way. Including in front of neighbours and guests. Is that a normal thing in French cinema? The opening of the movie itself was highly erotically charged and it started off with a love scene from the onset and carried on that way for a whole 3-4 minutes. However, as the movie advanced, I found that there was a decent story-line in all of this, that wasn’t in any way a cliche and an ending that I wasn’t expecting. The story-line itself wasn’t solely based on pornography and it was clear that the couple in concern were really very much in love. I don’t recommend this movie if you’re not into pornographic scenes, but if you’re charmed by French culture and French girls, then there’s a lot in this movie you’ll enjoy.
And here I thought it was me. https://www.slashfilm.com/673162/heres-why-movie-dialogue-has-gotten-more-difficult-to-understand-and-three-ways-to-fix-it/
And I thought it was me. I began reading that article with interest and an eagerness to understand the problem, but man that writer can waffle! I very quickly began to get frustrated by how long it was taking him to get to the point. In the end I gave up so it’s back to the subtitles for me.
‘Bout to give Inferno a go. By all accounts it’s a dreadful film, but I like Tom Hanks so I’ll suck it and see.
It It is! But many of Tom’s movies are, and yet he is still enjoyable in them. Just watched The ‘Burbs and was struck by how much we continue to act like those characters.
He is, but not even he could save this one. I lasted 30 minutes. Surprised how bad it was considering Ron Howard was at the helm. Dialogue was a mess and Hank’s co-star was dreadful. Very pretty, but dreadful.
Wasn’t sure whether to put this here or the TV thread, but I’ve just finished watching The Irishman. I didn’t really know what to expect given the mixed reviews but I thoroughly enjoyed it. One, very unfavourable review I read on Rotten Tomatoes said the reverse ageing effects were laughable, but I can’t say I agree with even that. My only real criticism is that it seemed rather aimless, more like a serial in format. Whichever way you look at it, though, any 3+ hr film that holds my attention has to be doing something right.
Yeah it's definitely worth watching. I did find the de-aging effects a bit jarring at times, but it was easy enough to get back into it. What a cast! It's difficult for me to get into "the mood" for a 3-hour film. I've had Once Upon a Time in Hollywood on my list for quite a while now, but when I feel like a movie, I keep going for the shorter ones instead. Maybe I just have to tell myself that I'll watch it in two parts. I planned on re-watching Blade Runner 2049 for a couple years, but by the time I finally decided to sit down and put it on, I could not find it on any of my streaming services!
Hey I’ve seen that one. I can’t believe that this movie earned Brad Pitt only his second Oscar as best supporting actor. He’s been in so many other movies and so many good ones too. I think you’re allowed to do that with permission from them and multiple accounts accounts can be opened under the same subscription. I guess I also wanted to say that recently I’ve been tuning to a lot of foreign movies. The most recent one was called La vita è bella and it was really quite wonderful and brought in a new angle on the way I’m used to watching movies about WWII being retracted. This one’s reputed to be a cinematic masterpiece. The picture was really amazing. The other one was called The Postman and was about a man who becomes the personal postman of a Nobel prize winning poet who is temporarily on exile upon the island he lives on. He learns a lot about poetry. This movie has won a BAFTA in international movies also.
