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

Been watching a lot of Buster Keaton during my morning bike ride on the trainer. Turns out silent films are uniquely suited for accompanying indoor cycling. I’d still first recommend his shorts, especially Neighbors and One Week for someone interested in dipping their toe in to a bygone era of film neither reaches the heights or sustained excellence of The General, but Go West and College have their charms, mostly in the finales. I say this as a huge fan of Endgame, but throwing about 20 A-list actors and actresses into battle against a horde of CGI monsters for a half hour somehow feels smaller in scale than Keaton leading a sixty-head cattle drive through downtown. The first hour of College is a pretty flat series of uninspired gags, but you need them for the last ten minutes to soar as Keaton, driven by love, nails everything he failed at before.

I caught a the factory clip from Chaplin’s Modern Times on YouTube, and Keaton comes out so much better. Riding through the gears is rightfully a classic and I think Chaplin was the better, more adventurous filmmaker, but his character in those five minutes so much more of a dick than anything I’ve yet seen Keaton portray.

Re-watched Blade Runner 2049. My original viewing was in a nearly empty theater with some kind of Dolby sound gimmick. At times, the enhanced sound was amazing, like in every scene with rain. At other times, there was too much bass going on and the sound was overwhelming and distracting. This time, I watched it on my own big screen tv. My cat also watched about half the movie, which is pretty amazing. He usually watches a movie for a few minutes before turning his back on it or even leaving the room.

Blade Runner 2049 is mostly a quiet, intelligent meditation of a science-fiction movie. Instead of excessive exposition, this movie trusts viewers to follow the story just by paying attention. There is some action and violence, but not enough to call this an action movie. Everything about the movie is good, except that the lighting is amazing and the overall look of the movie is beautiful. Even the scene in the massive junkyard has a certain dreadful allure. However, the pace is often a little slow, and that is not an ideal quality in a movie that is 164 minutes long. Overall, Blade Runner 2049 is a very worthy sequel to the original Blade Runner.

I started watching Bliss on Netflix despite the terrible reviews because hey, it's got Salma Hayek and Own Wilson. After about 45 minutes I went and read some other reviews, then kind of clicked around and watched the ending. The trailer works hard to hide how confusing and sort of depressing this show is. It has one of the lowest scores I've seen on Metacritic . It's kind of a shame because there's sort of a smart SF movie in here somewhere.

CranBerries wrote: I started watching Bliss on Netflix despite the terrible reviews because hey, it's got Salma Hayek and Own Wilson. After about 45 minutes I went and read some other reviews, then kind of clicked around and watched the ending. The trailer works hard to hide how confusing and sort of depressing this show is. It has one of the lowest scores I've seen on Metacritic . It's kind of a shame because there's sort of a smart SF movie in here somewhere.

I saw this in one of those reviews: "The emotional impact of those shots comes mainly from Wilson, who’s captured in several dialogue-free long takes." I'm the opposite of an Owen Wilson fan, so this sounds like liver-flavored ice cream to me.

RobertB wrote: liver-flavored ice cream

I actually was talked into trying that a couple of years ago.

Nodens wrote:

RobertB wrote: liver-flavored ice cream

I actually was talked into trying that a couple of years ago.

Can't be worse than poi-flavored ice cream....shudder

If you like cold sausage, it's not too bad, so you're probably right.
Not what I'd go for if there's any left of the regular kind.

Space Sweepers on netflix. Korean film (with a very heavy international flavor) about a ragtag team of junk collectors essential fighting off the kessler syndrome. It is a lush, wacky film that reminds me a lot of Luc Besson space epics.

And this film is EPIC. They throw a bazillion things at the camera with absolutely ridiculously complex set design and frenetic action. The effects are amazing, asian studios (or maybe just the budgets) have finally caught up to what i would consider an acceptable hollywood level.

It is very dramatically silly and a lot of the main plots make no sense but it is such a fun ride i didnt care.

They NAIL some very impressive robotic and power armor effects. I want this team to do Appleseed now, because Braireos was definitely the inspiration for the suits.

I was excited for Space Sweepers, but man did that movie bore me. I didn't even finish it. I think it just didn't do what I was looking for, which was this team going out and collecting space junk, going on missions, etc. It's not that at all.

One of the (adult) kids wanted to see Infinity War again, and then my wife and I watched Endgame to finish it out. There's nothing really else to say about it except that while at some level I enjoyed them less because I'd already seen them, I was able to appreciate the accomplishment more. These films could've ended up like Age of Ultron cubed, but here pretty much everything works and has a point (in part because of no real need to set up another movie) and, especially for Infinity War, has a certain thematic heft within the boundaries of the genre.

hotseatgames wrote: I was excited for Space Sweepers, but man did that movie bore me. I didn't even finish it. I think it just didn't do what I was looking for, which was this team going out and collecting space junk, going on missions, etc. It's not that at all.

Very valid opinion. The film is looooong. I almost wonder if it is a series edited down into a film. It has SOOOOO much that isn't explained or feels unnecessary. Maybe it is based off a book or comic.

Still, it has a decent ending if you stick with it (the robots final form if nothing else

DarthJoJo wrote: Been watching a lot of Buster Keaton during my morning bike ride on the trainer. Turns out silent films are uniquely suited for accompanying indoor cycling. I’d still first recommend his shorts, especially Neighbors and One Week for someone interested in dipping their toe in to a bygone era of film neither reaches the heights or sustained excellence of The General, but Go West and College have their charms, mostly in the finales. I say this as a huge fan of Endgame, but throwing about 20 A-list actors and actresses into battle against a horde of CGI monsters for a half hour somehow feels smaller in scale than Keaton leading a sixty-head cattle drive through downtown. The first hour of College is a pretty flat series of uninspired gags, but you need them for the last ten minutes to soar as Keaton, driven by love, nails everything he failed at before.

I caught a the factory clip from Chaplin’s Modern Times on YouTube, and Keaton comes out so much better. Riding through the gears is rightfully a classic and I think Chaplin was the better, more adventurous filmmaker, but his character in those five minutes so much more of a dick than anything I’ve yet seen Keaton portray.

I introduced the kids to Keaton and (Harold) Lloyd over the last couple weeks as well! I always recommend Sherlock Jr. as a first Keaton film, for two reasons: 1) it's only 45 minutes long and 2) it is absolutely top-tier I think, up there with The General. BIG hit. Always thought Keaton was by far the funniest of the big three silent comedians. Safety Last was the Harold Lloyd one we watched, and the first half is fine, but damn, those last 30-40 minutes, we could NOT have been laughing harder, getting out of our seats and hootin' and hollerin'! LOVE those silent comedies. I've never seen College or Go West, I'll have to check them out; I've seen Sherlock Jr., The General, Steamboat Bill Jr., Seven Chances, Our Hospitality, and The Navigator, love them all in varying degrees.

Watched Onward a couple times. It’s a fun take on a RPG inspired movie for the masses.

Debt Collectors is one of Scott Adkins’ many collaborations with Jesse V. Johnson. Avengement and Accident Man might be their best known work, but Collectors is perfectly fine. It’s kind of strange to talk about. It’s absolute an absolute B-movie, not so different in ambition from something you might have seen from Norris or Van Damme or Seagal in the ‘80’s, but everyone involved is taking it seriously. There’s no winking to the audience, and most of the performances are surprisingly understated. Unfortunately the script is absolutely riddled with cliches, and only two actresses don’t have at least one scene in a bikini or less. It’s not a bad movie, but if it had a better script and was less willing to indulge in puerility, it could it have been exceptional in the action genre. Instead it’s just kind of floating on top without calling particular attention to itself. Speaking of action, there is plenty of typically great Adkins work, but then they decide to bring guns to the finale. I guess it ups the stakes because people are definitely going to die now, but it just wasn’t as engaging as anything that came before.

Also watched some more Buster Keaton. Battling Butler is second-tier Keaton, which is still perfectly acceptable, but it was the first time it felt like he was really sharing the spotlight with someone beside Joe Roberts. The valet got some good work in there. Speaking of Joe Roberts, I also watched Our Hospitality, Roberts’ last film and absolute top-tier stuff. There were extended train gags which always bring out Keaton’s best, and it has the famous waterfall sequences. It never felt like it lagged either.

Finally got around to seeing Chinatown, along with the sequel The Two Jakes. Chinatown was great, as a throwback film noir detective story set in Los Angeles. Jack Nicholson is at the top of his game here, sizzling with charisma even with a big, ludicrous bandage over his nose for half the movie. (However, I laughed when he got cut, because I recognized director Roman Polanski as the knifeman.) The story is great, and the film offers just enough information to let the viewer follow along while feeling smart about it. In the final reel, it seemed like Nicholson's P.I. was orchestrating a grand confrontation and reveal in Chinatown, but it all falls apart in a bloody fiasco.

The Two Jakes starts out with promise, but an unexpected explosion early on felt like a shark-jumping moment. Great cast this time around, but maybe not deployed as well as in the first movie. Nicholson is the director, and falls short in comparison to Polanski. Extreme plot contrivances instead of grit and cleverness keep various interested parties from taking a key piece of evidence from Nicholson. The overall story is not as good as Chinatown, but the tie-in with the original movie lands well and gives a sense of closure to the first movie. Another explosion wraps up this movie, which I will likely remember as The Two Explosions.