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What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?
- ChristopherMD
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Black Barney wrote: And that "many Bothan spies lost their lives...". So that worked for me.
Bothan's stole the second Death Star plans.
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- Michael Barnes
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- Three Billboards was really quite good, very well-written and superbly acted. I didn't really think I wanted to watch it, but I found it pretty compelling once it got started. I think Woody Harrelson is not appreciated enough, every time he is in something he winds up being a highlight. Frances McDormand was the right choice for Best Actress- a very powerful, complex portrayal.
- Phantom Thread was exquisite. It's a fussy, difficult, and sometimes bone-dry movie that plays very much like a Kubrick film. DDL's performance is masterful and restrained, and in a way it all comes across like a super stuffy, stiff English take on the manic pixie dream girl romance. Except that it involves dressmaking, interrupted breakfasts, and poison. It's definitely not a movie for everyone, and it is not as good as There Will Be Blood but I did like it better than The Master and/or Inherent Vice.
- Murder on the Orient Express was fun- a very old fashioned whodunit that feels completely out of step with trend. It's just classic Agatha Christie stuff with an all-star cast. It's not a great movie, and Branagh mugs it up a bit too much as Poirot, but it was entertaining. It made me feel old though, as if I might suddenly start watching Father Dowling Mysteries or something next.
- Dunkirk was the big surprise. I didn't really want to see it all that much, but it was there so I figured I'd check it out. It was riveting. It's such a tightly constructed, tightly wound movie with virtually zero exposition or narrative fat. The editing was just incredible, and Zimmer's score just tick-tick-ticks away through the whole thing. It sounds almost like Vangelis meets Krautrock. It's only 1:45 long, but it works almost like the three-level conflict at the end of a Star Wars movie...except for the full length of the film. A beautifully made, expertly crafted clockwork piece. And you BARELY see "the enemy" in it at all, which I thought was really interesting.
- Once I got onto the Wi-Fi at the AirBNB, I realized that I could get on Netflix and watch Annihilation. I wound up watching it twice. I absolutely loved it- it's smart, weird science fiction that does the right thing by combining the human story with a vast, expansive window into the unknown. It's ambiguous and the right things are left unexplained. It's scary and unsettling. The influence of Tarkovsky's Stalker is pretty clear. I think it's a far better film than Ex Machina. It's no wonder that the studio didn't really know what to do with it. I think this one will have a long tail once it gets to Netflix and people start seeing it. Doubt they will make the other books into films though.
- I started watching The Shape of Water, but I fell asleep because I am still 6 hours behind EST. I'm going to pick it up again tonight...not sure what to make of it yet, but it is more whimsical than I expected. Definitely a Del Toro film through and through.
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- Black Barney
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3 Billboards - can you imagine McDormand trying to figure out that character? What a tough role to play. "ok... so she lost her daughter in this terrible way. So she's basically dead inside... and full of anger... and no fear anymore for anything...."
I honestly think it's a violation of many things to watch Dunkirk on an airplane screen, and I hope you get to see it on a very large screen at some point because those initial scenes on the beach with no enemy in sight... you just FEEL the lack of hope and sense of dread.
glad you got to watch all that stuff.
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- Cranberries
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Michael Barnes wrote:
- Dunkirk was the big surprise. I didn't really want to see it all that much, but it was there so I figured I'd check it out. It was riveting. It's such a tightly constructed, tightly wound movie with virtually zero exposition or narrative fat. The editing was just incredible, and Zimmer's score just tick-tick-ticks away through the whole thing. It sounds almost like Vangelis meets Krautrock. It's only 1:45 long, but it works almost like the three-level conflict at the end of a Star Wars movie...except for the full length of the film. A beautifully made, expertly crafted clockwork piece. And you BARELY see "the enemy" in it at all, which I thought was really interesting.
I made the family watch this with me in IMAX. It made up for all of my past attempts at making the wrong people watch the wrong movies.
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I loved Dunkirk, and everything you say is right on the money.Michael Barnes wrote: - Dunkirk was the big surprise. I didn't really want to see it all that much, but it was there so I figured I'd check it out. It was riveting. It's such a tightly constructed, tightly wound movie with virtually zero exposition or narrative fat. The editing was just incredible, and Zimmer's score just tick-tick-ticks away through the whole thing. It sounds almost like Vangelis meets Krautrock. It's only 1:45 long, but it works almost like the three-level conflict at the end of a Star Wars movie...except for the full length of the film. A beautifully made, expertly crafted clockwork piece. And you BARELY see "the enemy" in it at all, which I thought was really interesting.
- Once I got onto the Wi-Fi at the AirBNB, I realized that I could get on Netflix and watch Annihilation. I wound up watching it twice. I absolutely loved it- it's smart, weird science fiction that does the right thing by combining the human story with a vast, expansive window into the unknown. It's ambiguous and the right things are left unexplained. It's scary and unsettling. The influence of Tarkovsky's Stalker is pretty clear. I think it's a far better film than Ex Machina. It's no wonder that the studio didn't really know what to do with it. I think this one will have a long tail once it gets to Netflix and people start seeing it. Doubt they will make the other books into films though.
I also loved Annihilation, and I've been dying to have someone to talk about it with. However, one of my oldest and closest friends saw it and hated it. He actually said there were "zero interesting ideas worth talking about" in it, which astounded me. Had it been anyone else, I would have thought he was just baiting me. Anyway, I'm going to try to see it again in the theater while I can.
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- Michael Barnes
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There's so much to think about- so many intimations, hints, and suggestions. But zero firm answers. It's speculative and vague. And that is not something that most filmgoers like.
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and that didn't bother me too much during the movie until my wife brought up every example in our post-mortem afterwards. It's on Netflix? I'll probably watch it again.
Have been catching up on award nominees/winners for this year that I didn't see in the theater. Three Billboards was fantastic. The Post was boring, so I got some dishes done while it was on. Meryl Streep's character was so unlikeable to me that it made the climax of printing the pentagon papers just so unexciting. Rewatched Dunkirk and it held up pretty well.
Haven't seen Shape of Water yet but maybe will this weekend. I kind of want to see Darkest Hour again because I think that may be the best of the bunch. Gary Oldman, holy shit!
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- Cranberries
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Joebot wrote:
Black Barney wrote: At the risk of upsetting Barnes, I guess it's that time that we start discussing SOLO which is coming out next month? I'm amazed there hasn't been any talk about it yet really, just an ocassional sidechat here and there.
Some new trailer is out and it looks all good and stuff, but I think they've made a horrible mistake casting Emilia Clarke in it. You have brunette Daenerys in Star Wars, in royal robes and everything. I even think Woody Harrelson might be a mistake. Anyway, still super interested to see it but those were pretty distracting things in the trailer for me.
I could give less of a s*** about this movie, but that is a very good trailer. I love the music.
It all just feels so ... unnecessary. You know this movie is going to be nothing more than a giant checklist of origin stories. How did Han meet Chewie? Meet Lando? Get his gun? Get the Falcon? Get his vest? Say, "I have a bad feeling about this?" Learn to play space chess? And on and on and on.
Prequels, by their very nature, are pretty stupid, because there's so little tension. They're just flowcharts, to get you from Point A to a pre-determined Point B. The only prequel I've seen recently that was a worth a crap is Better Call Saul.
NEW YORK—Expressing their excitement at the latest preview of the upcoming film, self-proclaimed Star Wars fans told reporters Monday that they were blown away by a newly released Solo trailer that sheds light on specifically how the upcoming film will suck. “In the past, they’ve teased at the way the new movie is going to completely blow, but the full-length trailer really shows so much more about how s***ty and wooden Alden Ehrenreich will be as a young Han Solo working his way through a boilerplate origin story,” said fan Lynn Hayes, noting that while the producers have provided hints at the way Solo would be a giant crock of s***—such as substantial script rewrites and the original directors being fired mid-shoot—it was a “real treat” to see the new trailer reveal so much about how the cast’s total lack of chemistry and the cringe-inducing dialogue would make the film a complete train wreck. “The teaser definitely stoked a lot of speculation about whether the movie would be mediocre because of generic characters like Therm Scissorpunch, Ron Howard’s uneven direction, or meaningless fan service like showing Chewbacca hugging his wife. It’s cool to know that it’s all of those things, and a lot more, that are really going to make this movie f****** garbage.” Hayes was, however, worried the trailer might contain spoilers that rob fans of experiencing a surge of hollow disappointment while watching Solo for the first time.
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- ChristopherMD
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(my daughter saw it the other day and liked it, but I don't have the courage)
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- Black Barney
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Mad Dog wrote: I want to see A Quiet Place but I know I'd be aggravated by movie theaters being A Noisy Place.
lol i saw it today and it was fine. But yeah try to see it on a quiet day compared to cheap Tuesdays or whatever.
My favourite take on the movie is actually from a Houston-based movie reviewer. You'll love this:
"A Quiet Place" is the one film where, if you are surrounded by popcorn-crunching, cellophane rattling and cell-phone-chatting neighbors, you will wish these monsters were real.
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- Disgustipater
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- Black Barney
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Man, I’m still coming down from it... all pins and needles still
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- Michael Barnes
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It's such an unusual film- it's exquisitely made, and really pretty old fashioned and it's more or less a by-the-books Hollywood love story with stock villains and expected story beats. But it's also quirky and awkward, and pretty upfront about its definitely not mainstream eroticism. Yet it's handled like it's the most natural thing in the world for this woman to fall in love with said fish man. This is a movie who's principle message is "love is love", even though some might find the central concept of fish-fucking repulsive or distasteful.
The subplots were handled really well, and I was surprised at how psychotic and well-developed Michael Shannon's all-American ambitions were as they played out. A few characters I found myself wondering what they really had to do with anything, but then it all made sense in the end. I liked the "caper", I liked the spy stuff. All of that was handled with a light touch and didn't interfere with the core romance. Of course the musical scene was my favorite part of the film.
So yeah, a really good one and a really surprising choice for Best Picture. I think it's better than Pan's Labyrinth, more restrained than Crimson Peak, and more sophisticated than some of his previous genre deep-dives. I think he hits the target of producing a mature, artful, adult fantasy drama, which he's been aiming for since Cronos, more squarely here than he ever has.
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