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

RobertB wrote: Wasn't the first one - I had read a lot of his novels before. After reading that, I thought, "This guy is no longer being edited." Reading the uncut version of The Stand about that time as well didn't exactly change my mind.

Had the same reaction to the original version of The Stand back in the 80s: wonderful writer who badly needs an editor. His short stories are brilliant. His novels, with the exception of Salem's Lot, not so much.

RobertB wrote:

Joebot wrote:

RobertB wrote: ETA: I never read the Stephen King novel, so don't have an opinion about the adaptation. For me, The Tommyknockers sucked so badly that I've never read another King novel.

That's a bit like watching Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull and then never watching another Spielberg movie because it sucked so bad.

All I'm saying is you picked arguably King's worst novel to read first. He has gone on record as saying he has no memory of even writing "The Tommyknockers" because he was so wired on coke at the time.

Wasn't the first one - I had read a lot of his novels before. After reading that, I thought, "This guy is no longer being edited." Reading the uncut version of The Stand about that time as well didn't exactly change my mind.

Oh, sorry, I misunderstood your original comment! I thought you meant Tommyknockers was the first (and ONLY) SK book you ever read. That would be unfortunate.

Yeah, King eventually reached the "my shit doesn't stink" level of fame and popularity, which is never good for anyone in a creative industry (see also: Lucas, George or Martin, George). Everyone benefits from a good editor.

I finally saw the legendary blaxploitation movie Dolemite, and it was bad. Not bad like bad mofo, just really not good. I was in the mood for something like this after watching the first two seasons of The Deuce, but I probably would have been happier with a better movie from the same time period. I can forgive some aspects of Dolemite as just general issues of the time and place, like frequent use of the N-word and some really atrocious outfits and decor. But the acting is bad, the stunts are terrible, and the story is riddled with implausibility. Halfway through the movie, I turned it off and did some chores. But I went back and finished watching, hoping in vain for that cool moment that made Dolemite famous.

I have seen 3 movies starring Rudy Ray Moore. Dolemite, Dolemite 2, and Avenging Disco Godfather. They all have ridiculous quotes, silly scenes, etc. Maybe you would prefer a more modern take like Black Dynamite.

So . . . you just compared The Tommyknockers and The Stand?

Quick roundup: While It: Chapter 2 isn't great, I guess I liked it better just because there was a little more "horror" to it for me, but it's possible that It in 2017 was probably just too overshadowed for me by its obvious resemblance to its successor Stranger Things. After the Wedding (2019), which I didn't realize till afterward was a remake, was a melodramatic mess, and there can definitely be good melodrama. Ready or Not has a good cast, a fun premise, and a good opening but just for me sloshes in the middle and the end. My wife and I did see the 40th(!) anniversary screening of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and while I won't dive into a second or third debate about why I enjoy this movie or why I think it's underrated, it was a pleasure and hearing it for the first time on the big screen.

Dolemite 2: The Human Tornado is vastly superior to the first one. I. The first one, I think they thought they could pull off making a legit Superfly-style picture...in the second, they were just like fuck it, let’s have fun. It isn’t “good” at all. But it’s frequently hilarious, spirited, and singular.

Star Trek TMP is amazing. Never understood the grief it gets. It may be the last Hollywood film that really has that old school epic sense, owing to Wise’s direction. People forget nuances like how the unjustly criticized inspection scene was the first time the Enterprise had even been seen in color for a lot of people...and the last time it was seen for many was a decade past on a tiny screen. So it was the right choice to make that a grand scene. It’s also a classic Trek story- Enterprise meets God and all of that. Sure, Khan is better because it’s leaner and tougher, but TMP is a great SF film, period.

Something else about Dolemite...the thing about a lot of culty, “psychotronic” exploitation films like that is that they are rarely good. At all.
But there are moments that elevate them, and if you are watching alone then it’s just not the same. Watch one of those movies in a rowdy, packed theater.

Michael Barnes wrote: Star Trek TMP is amazing. Never understood the grief it gets. It may be the last Hollywood film that really has that old school epic sense, owing to Wise’s direction. People forget nuances like how the unjustly criticized inspection scene was the first time the Enterprise had even been seen in color for a lot of people...and the last time it was seen for many was a decade past on a tiny screen. So it was the right choice to make that a grand scene. It’s also a classic Trek story- Enterprise meets God and all of that. Sure, Khan is better because it’s leaner and tougher, but TMP is a great SF film, period.

ST:TMP was just too slow - an hour show with an hour of air blown into it. It was a gorgeous movie, and I was glad to see it, but compared to Star Wars and some of the Star Trek TV shows it was kind of a dud.

And back then, if you had TV you could probably get your Minimum Daily Requirement of Star Trek. They syndicated the hell out of it in the 70's.

Yep. I had never seen Star Trek in black-and-white and we weren't rich. The series was begun well past the point of all-color TV broadcasting. The Motion Picture is Roddenberry trying to graft his version of SF on a larger framework and it simply doesn't hold up. It's a great idea, but changing the adventurous crew of the Enterprise into a group of grimmer-than-thou iconoclasts who act like they don't even want to be around each other anymore is simply bad writing; both in terms of general plotting and fan service.

Now, granted, Khan was fan service and basically nothing but. In trying to make itself distinct from TMP, it also hyper-militarized Starfleet (this was still during the height of the Cold War), which wouldn't be stopped until The Next Generation, where Roddenberry once again has his customary influence and reverted the overall story to one of exploration, rather than policing the neighborhood. That said, I doubt that he would have ever approved of the later episodes involving confrontations with the Romulans and Cardassians, but he was frozen out by then.

Michael Barnes wrote: Something else about Dolemite...the thing about a lot of culty, “psychotronic” exploitation films like that is that they are rarely good. At all.
But there are moments that elevate them, and if you are watching alone then it’s just not the same. Watch one of those movies in a rowdy, packed theater.

The Red Letter Media crew did a watch of Petey Wheatstraw, another Rudy Ray Moore piece. Gets you a pretty good sense of what the movie is and why people enjoy it without sitting through the whole thing. And you get that crowded theater feel with the Milwaukee boys. Singular does seem to be the best way to describe the man’s work.

RobertB wrote: ST:TMP was just too slow - an hour show with an hour of air blown into it. It was a gorgeous movie, and I was glad to see it, but compared to Star Wars and some of the Star Trek TV shows it was kind of a dud.

It shouldn't be compared to Star Wars, it should be contrasted. That was the whole point. Star Wars came in and made huge money with blasters and laser swords and swashbuckling adventure. It wasn't sci-fi, it was fantasy in space.

Star Trek tried to come back with a rebuttal saying that sci-fi could (should?) be cerebral. All this technology is awe-inspiring. The universe is vast and mysterious. How well it succeeded is certainly debatable. It also tried to be hopeful and optimistic, which wasn't cool at the time (SW, Alien, Bladerunner all wanted their sci-fi to be used and dirty).

Gregarius wrote:

RobertB wrote: ST:TMP was just too slow - an hour show with an hour of air blown into it. It was a gorgeous movie, and I was glad to see it, but compared to Star Wars and some of the Star Trek TV shows it was kind of a dud.

It shouldn't be compared to Star Wars, it should be contrasted. That was the whole point. Star Wars came in and made huge money with blasters and laser swords and swashbuckling adventure. It wasn't sci-fi, it was fantasy in space.

Star Trek tried to come back with a rebuttal saying that sci-fi could (should?) be cerebral. All this technology is awe-inspiring. The universe is vast and mysterious. How well it succeeded is certainly debatable. It also tried to be hopeful and optimistic, which wasn't cool at the time (SW, Alien, Bladerunner all wanted their sci-fi to be used and dirty).

I'll buy at least part of that. I remember back in the day I would argue that 2001: A Space Odyssey was a better SF movie than Star Wars. Like you said, Star Wars wasn't really a SF movie. I don't know if I'd want Star Trek to carry that much weight, though. I've seen it referred to as "Wagon Train in Space," and a lot of the episodes were as SF as Wagon Train.

ST:TMP does sell that notion of the amazing unknown cosmos well, although I possibly could have seen too many, "Holy shit! We're about to get eaten by a planet eater/giant space amoeba/angry godling," episodes of the TV show to sit back and enjoy the ride.

I finally watched Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

It took me about five tries to make it to the end, and I wound up reading the Wikipedia summary.

Folks, this movie is garbage. I’m sad to say that, I really wanted it to be the kind of fun, kid-at-heart monster rally where even if the story, writing, and characters aren’t great, the monster action would be worth it. I am the first in line to give a movie like this a wiiiiiiiidddddeeeee berth with proper expectations. And also, I was approaching it with the understanding that most Godzilla movies aren’t “great” by any stretch of the word.

However, this a junk Netflix movie with a bunch of not-very-good TV show actors, worse human drama than the 2014 Godzilla, and lots of soggy nightttime kaiju stuff. Yes, occasionally there is a beautiful monster moment where the film looks almost exactly like how the preproduction art did (Ghidorah with the cross in the foreground, Mothra unfurling her wings, etc.) and this is THE definitive depiction of King Ghidorah, period. But I found the battles to be sterile, low stakes (despite the OMG EPIC straining), and almost completely devoid of the kind of engagement or sense of fun you get from a Showa or Heisei Godzilla film.

The writing is atrocious, the plot is almost painful to bear. I honesty think Vera Farmiga’s performance is one of the worst I’ve seen in a long time- it’s almost like the direction given her was “your puppy just died and you are confused”. Whoever the lead guy was (Kyle Chandler?) was the typical angry and damaged white guy. God, fuck off with that. Charles Dance was apparently told “do that thing you do on Game of Thrones”.

The Atlantis thing was pretty cool...but this was a total bomb. What a disappointment.

I very much enjoyed the first Star Trek film when I saw it in the theater (I was 15 so take that for what it's worth) and I've enjoyed watching the longer version since. But I like broody science fiction. The second film felt like candy. Good candy, but candy nonetheless.