What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

Last night I watched the 2018 Halloween, which seems to act like the only other movie that existed in the franchise is the original. I guess that's one way to get a coherent narrative; just forget a slew of films.

I would say the film is better than I expected it to be. However, it is pretty formulaic, and if you are familiar with how this stuff goes, little will surprise you. There are a couple of interesting twists, and a subtle nod to the original that I appreciated.

Also, if you somehow have not seen the original, don't watch this one before you do. It really expects you to know what's up.

I finally saw Avengers: Endgame, and it was good. But Endgame isn't a standalone movie, it only offers a satisfying experience to a viewer who has watched the more crucial MCU movies. For a variety of reasons that I may address in a new thread, I rarely see movies in the theater anymore, and until three months ago, I didn't own a tv that could do justice to big action movies. So starting six weeks ago, I worked at getting caught up on MCU movies so that I could be sure of appreciating Endgame. I did see Avengers: Infinity War in the theater about a year ago, and it was a bit unsatisfactory. Because of my in-depth comic book knowledge, I knew who all the characters were, but I didn't quite grasp the relationships of the MCU versions.

I still haven't seen Iron Man III, Captain Marvel, or the MCU Hulk movie, or any of the Netflix shows. I also haven't seen season two of Agent Carter (though season one was good) or any seasons of SHIELD after the first three. But here is my recommended minimum viewing list in preparation of seeing Endgame, with an (*) for the essential ones:

Iron Man
Thor
*Marvel's The Avengers
*Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
*Avengers: Age of Ultron (this is possibly my least favorite MCU movie, but it is necessary viewing)
Ant-Man
*Captain America: Civil War
Doctor Strange
*Thor: Ragnorak
Black Panther
*Avengers: Infinity War
and probably Captain Marvel

During my recent catch-up viewing, my favorites were probably the amusing Ant-Man and Civil War, which featured a great battle between superheroes. Every scene featuring both Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) and Tom Holland (Spider-man) was great, and Paul Rudd is great as the warm and awkward Ant-Man. Age of Ultron collapsed under the weight of too many characters, as did Infinity War. Spider-man: Homecoming was good, but it was harder for me to relate to a character less than a third of my age.

Endgame had just as many characters as Infinity War, but it worked for me. There were some nice character beats, especially in the first hour. The middle hour was a superheroic heist movie within a movie. The final hour featured another overwhelming and huge fight scene like in Age of Ultron and Infinity War, but included some powerful moments and leads to a series of satisfying conclusions, kind of like Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. I really liked that they used the Professor Hulk version of the character in this movie, though it was hard not to chuckle at his glasses and cardigan sweater. There were a surprising number of laughs in Endgame, along with some tragic moments, a mix that I have not often seen in movies made outside of Hong Kong. I strongly recommend Endgame if you have seen enough of the previous MCU movies. If you aren't willing to put in that effort, it's probably better if you pass on Endgame for now.

I've watched Excalibur about 50 times, maybe more. It's a great big mess of a movie, that I know all of by heart, and I'm still not tired of it. Nicol Williamson as Merlin still steals the movie, and I still have a crush on Helen Mirren.

The Q Scores of the lower names on IMDB are a lot higher than the top names (with the exception of Helen Mirren). We have:

Gabriel Byrne (Totally chewing the scenery as Uther Pendragon)
Patrick Stewart (Looks about the same age as his daughter, Guinevere)
Liam Neeson (My daughter: "Is that the guy who plays in Taken?")
Ciaran Hinds (Age hasn't been kind to Mr. Hinds)

Saw Godzilla King of Monsters with my 9 yo this afternoon. He said it was the corniest thing he's ever seen. I'm not sure he's wrong. Some (and I do mean some) of the monster fight scenes were cool, but movies just cost too damn much for me to give this a pass. Nobody but the most hardcore fans (and apologists) of the genre will dig this one.

Watched the Deadwood movie on HBO tonight. It's good, picking up rather seamlessly after all this time.

I had hoped for more action, but you do of course see some folks get got.

Need to watch that one, thanks for reminding me.

The Deadwood movie was great. Seeing all the characters/actors so much older is a rare treat for any TV show. Every character had a chance to shine again. Lots of great scenes with some favorites being;

jay718 wrote: Nobody but the most hardcore fans (and apologists) of the genre will dig this one.

I’m sure I fit into one of those. I really enjoyed it. I liked it for the same reasons I love Pacific Rim, so make of that what you will.

Josh Look wrote:

jay718 wrote: Nobody but the most hardcore fans (and apologists) of the genre will dig this one.

I’m sure I fit into one of those. I really enjoyed it. I liked it for the same reasons I love Pacific Rim, so make of that what you will.

Long live the king.

My ardent love of Skull Island (saw it on a plane) makes me want to see the new Godzilla one, even though it got bad reviews.

Gary Sax wrote: My ardent love of Skull Island (saw it on a plane) makes me want to see the new Godzilla one, even though it got bad reviews.

I think Skull Island is still my favorite of the two so far (not even going to acknowledge the travesty that came out 5 years ago). It took itself way less serious, let you know that was the case and made the most out of it. King of the Monsters still tries to take the human stories seriously and tries to make you care (like Pacific Rim), though makes excellent use of any time the monsters are screen (which is a lot). I thought all the monster battles were awesome.

I also took a whole lot of pride in that I went thinking I’d come out with new ideas on the Kaiju game Al and I are working on but instead came out thinking, “Yeah, we did it.”

I saw Godzilla: King of the Monsters last night. It was a big dumb Kaiju movie. I enjoyed it. Kyle Chandler and Vera Farmiga aren't very good in it, but it's a Godzilla move, so my acting expectations were low.

Not a spoiler: there's a trailer at the end, so you might want to stick around. I really wish 'trailer at the end' would just go away, but I guess that isn't going to happen.

hotseatgames wrote: Watched the Deadwood movie on HBO tonight. It's good, picking up rather seamlessly after all this time.

I had hoped for more action, but you do of course see some folks get got.

I liked it a lot. I found it very satisfying. I never thought this thing would get made! They've been talking about it for 13 years! Of course they lost a few actors along the way, which was too bad. I missed Cy Tolliver and Richardson. But they got just about everybody else back (no Titus Welliver, sadly), which was amazing.

My favorite line was E.B. skulking into the wedding, trying to find Bullock so he can tell him Hearst's plan. He mutters to himself, "I am not made for these complexities." Very true, E.B.

And fucking Hearst! Man, I can't think of a TV show villain I've hated more than that guy. Really a great character and a great performance.

Thanks to Amazon Prime, I watched The Night of the Comet for the first time since the mid-'80s. It's not bad, though the 4.5 star rating at Amazon seems questionable. It's a relatively early zombie movie that attempts to re-invent the wheel. These zombies aren't slow, and they have normal human intelligence. Some of them even use guns. And there is no horde of zombies, as most people were simply killed by the comet effect. So maybe a dozen zombies in the whole movie, and about as many survivors.

The characters are unusually well-developed for the genre and era. The music is generic bad early '80s music with lots of chintzy keyboards but thankfully no saxophone. Oh, except that there is a spirited but on-the-nose cover of Cyndi Lauper's classic Girls Just Want to Have Fun, and it is played at the best possible time in the movie. The story moves along at a decent pace and there is some okay action and a bit of humor. The Night of the Comet isn't a great movie, but it is a reasonable way to spend 90 minutes.

Joebot wrote:
And fucking Hearst! Man, I can't think of a TV show villain I've hated more than that guy. Really a great character and a great performance.

Having just read histories of the real-life Lucy and Albert Parsons, I couldn't help but turn up an eyebrow at the story of a plucky group of cops, politicians and businessmen colluding to burn the property of a capitalist in 19th century America, and then beat him down in the streets. People really did hate capitalists then, and not a few capitalists were burned in effigy, but it wasn't cops and businessmen doing the burning.

Especially disappointing after the original run of the show took some pains to demonstrate that what we think of as the stalwarts of civilizational authority are really just people informally elected by such people (agreed on over a can of peaches) to protect private property.

It was a fun show, but the quick, movie-like presentation brought some of its weaknesses into stark relief. Who knew Al Swearingen had such a Santa-Claus like attitude towards children and prostitutes, for instance?