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

hotseatgames wrote:

Not Sure wrote: my son has a school project of "compare a US History event with a film version of it"

Oof. I'll bet that comes up with some terrifying disparities. Here's hoping someone chooses Blackhawk Down.

I know, right? He said that multiple people had picked Hamilton and they're in for some shocks. At least they won't have a shortage of things to write about.

(This is high school freshman level, and from what I can tell the whole point is to show that not all representations are equal. Trashy war films like Pearl Harbor were encouraged.)

IIRC, The Patriot features the Battle of Cowpens. It's presented with the painstaking accuracy that you would expect from a Roland Emmerich film.

Roku is currently airing a director's cut of Mutant Chronicles (2008) and... it's not bad for an action movie with a science-fiction setting. The cast is decent, including Ron Perlman, Thomas Jane, John Malkovich, plus the assassin lady from Sin City and the fae princess from Hellboy II. There is plenty of action, some dark humor, and even a bit of basic philosophy in the mix. The story is a familiar tale of a military suicide mission, with Thomas Jane playing an over-the-top equivalent of Diehard's John McClane.

So why does Mutant Chronicles languish in obscurity? I see two problems. The setting doesn't quite add up, or at least it isn't presented properly. And the stylistic choice of de-saturated color seems to undermine the overall movie, blending the action right into the background.

Unlike most director's cuts, Mutant Chronicles is shorter and better for it. It's a good enough movie that you might consider watching it even if you didn't play the rpg or Siege of the Citadel.

My wife and I watched Synchronic last nigh. Anthony Mackie plays an EMT with issues that runs afoul of not-well-understood time travel. Hijinks ensue. It's not bad - the plot is okay and Anthony Mackie is good in everything he does. The movie may be a tad bit overstuffed with characterization for my taste, but it's okay.

I find Mackie to be very bland, he is the Sam Worthington of this generation.

Mortal on amazon prime. Neat little indie(? or just usual Norwegian budget?) flick about a psychiatrist asked to interview a guy accused of killing a teen just by touch. Turns out the guy is waaaaaaaay more than meets the eye and shit goes bananas.

AWESOME cinematography of the Norweigan countryside. Whoever shot this has an eye for distance and perspective of large scale effects that approaches Gareth Edwards.

But the script must have been a pilot for a series because right when the wife and I were like "ahhh hell, payback time!" the film ends where the third act ought to start. I wish this team gets invited in on the Netflix show "Ragnarok" because there are a lot of similarities in raw structure.

It also does the usual mutant/newly minted super/really an alien thing where the "hero" causes death and destruction due to poorly controlled powers and the authority that just wants to kill them for the safety of all the humans NOT the love interest is framed as sinister bad guys. But really, if some guy had a stash of grenades and occasionally dropped a live one in a store with an apologetic "oops, sorry 'bout that" as things blew up would anyone be mad if the police shot the guy to stop him rather than be understanding as he learned how to properly throw grenades? It irks me that this is such a common narrative in these types of films, down to having the people killed be viewed as instigators of their own demise in some fashion.

Still, it's a pretty good film.

jason10mm wrote: I find Mackie to be very bland, he is the Sam Worthington of this generation.

Aw man, what'd I ever do to you to make you say that to me?

Seriously, you couldn't get away from Sam Worthington for a while. And with a lot of Netflix movies you get one or two good actors, and a bunch of people you've never heard of before.

RobertB wrote: My wife and I watched Synchronic last nigh. Anthony Mackie plays an EMT with issues that runs afoul of not-well-understood time travel. Hijinks ensue. It's not bad - the plot is okay and Anthony Mackie is good in everything he does. The movie may be a tad bit overstuffed with characterization for my taste, but it's okay.

Loved the first half of Synchronic, hated the second half. It felt like it was setting up for something, but then went nowhere interesting.

RobertB wrote:

jason10mm wrote: I find Mackie to be very bland, he is the Sam Worthington of this generation.

Aw man, what'd I ever do to you to make you say that to me?

Seriously, you couldn't get away from Sam Worthington for a while. And with a lot of Netflix movies you get one or two good actors, and a bunch of people you've never heard of before.

Heh heh, its nothing personal, clearly Mackie has no need of my esteem, he's doing just fine. I just find him kinda...meh, I guess. He doesn't bring a lot of charisma or flair to otherwise pedestrian roles like say Wesley Snipes, Brandon Lee, or Nic Cage. Those guys elevated the mundane actiony leading man roles they got with a lot of charm or at least interesting choices. Worthington had a lot of bites at the apple but other than maybe Avatar he was just there, saying lines and all, but the movie had to carry him, not the other way around. I feel the same way about Mackie, though I've not seen a lot of his more recent stuff TBH.

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote:

RobertB wrote: My wife and I watched Synchronic last nigh. Anthony Mackie plays an EMT with issues that runs afoul of not-well-understood time travel. Hijinks ensue. It's not bad - the plot is okay and Anthony Mackie is good in everything he does. The movie may be a tad bit overstuffed with characterization for my taste, but it's okay.

Loved the first half of Synchronic, hated the second half. It felt like it was setting up for something, but then went nowhere interesting.

For me it was kind of the opposite. Too many people with too many problems at the start of the movie, that I really didn't care that much about. But it got better when it got a little more focused.

jason10mm wrote: ...Worthington had a lot of bites at the apple but other than maybe Avatar he was just there, saying lines and all, but the movie had to carry him, not the other way around. I feel the same way about Mackie, though I've not seen a lot of his more recent stuff TBH.

Actually, I'm not ready to have Anthony Mackie's love child just yet, but I think he's doing all of the heavy lifting in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Same for Synchronic, but I guess that's what happens when you spend all of your actor money on him.

I actually looked it up, and it looks like Sam Worthington wasn't in a bajillion movies back then. But I ended up seeing Avatar two or times in the theater or something, just because my daughter loved it I think. And Terminator: Salvation, Clash of the Titans, and Avatar were back to back to back. So, "Oh shit, it's him again." I was convinced around that time that Hollywood couldn't make a movie without Sam Worthington in it.

Another guy that felt to me like he was stinking up every movie I was seeing a while back was Jai Courtney. He was in A Good Day to Die Hard (which was terrible), Divergent (which my daughter dragged me to see), Jack Reacher (because of the Lee Child books), and Suicide Squad (also terrible). He hid under that blond wig in Spartacus pretty effectively, though.

I like Mackie a lot. There’s a really powerful moment on F&TWS...Bucky says “When Steve told me what he was planning, we never considered what it would feel like for a Black man to hold that shield. How could we?” Mackie’s performance in the scene is stunning- he subtly shifts into the inspiring, leadership role we expect from Captain America, but in a new way. He explains to Bucky what racial reconciliation is- “you apologize and you make yourself of service”. It’s a logical change in the character and it sets him up completely to put on that made in Wakanda Captain America costume that I am fucking dying to see. But Mackie really sells it. So far I’ve liked him in everything he’s done.

I’m halfway through Synchronic, it’s pretty decent Philip K. Dick lite. BUT...it is really close to a short I wrote 20 years ago about a drug that alters the way time is perceived by messing with the pineal gland, etc. Those Hollywood parasites stole my idea for The Matrix too.

Love and Monsters was cute. In a pre-streaming world that would have been one of those endearing minor hits with a long shelf life. Now it’s just another mid tier feature in a massive pile of them.

Stowaway on netflix. A very small, focused but moving film about a ship heading to mars that has an unexpected passenger and not enough O2 to go around. Very simple premise and very clean script, only 4 actors in the whole thing. It has great set design (they have really nailed "NASA chic" these days) and not half bad science/physics, I think the effects of The Expanse and maybe Gravity (though that film was kinda bad on physics) are being felt. I really appreciate that they didn't have an exposition scene explaining how a tether system works for generating gravity at the ends (though suspect they filmed one and wisely cut it). It is a languid slow film of lingering shots but it works so so well because unlike a lot of sci-fi 'dramas' these days (Hilary Swank's "Away", I'm looking at you!!) the threat is real and every one is, and acts, like a professional. No hysterics outside of quite moments of breakdown, everyone knows the outcomes and accepts the situation (or doesn't, but the conflict is mostly internal), it is quite refreshing.

Toni Collet is almost wasted here because she does DEEP emotion so well and never quite cuts loose but she anchors the crew as the captain. Anna Kendrick is her usual self as the doc. Daniel Dae Kim is the secret sauce because he turns what could easily have been a scientist villain role into a layered solid performance. Shamier Anderson is new to me but also takes what could have been a very one note performance and makes it complex and human. The script is smart outside of a few plot contrivances but it is focused on the human emotion and gives everyone a logical consistency to their character so I'll allow it the bit of scientific liberty, especially because they got the gravity so well.

Anyway, if it isn't obvious, I liked it quite a bit

jason10mm wrote: Stowaway on netflix. A very small, focused but moving film about a ship heading to mars that has an unexpected passenger and not enough O2 to go around. Very simple premise and very clean script, only 4 actors in the whole thing. It has great set design (they have really nailed "NASA chic" these days) and not half bad science/physics, I think the effects of The Expanse and maybe Gravity (though that film was kinda bad on physics) are being felt. I really appreciate that they didn't have an exposition scene explaining how a tether system works for generating gravity at the ends (though suspect they filmed one and wisely cut it). It is a languid slow film of lingering shots but it works so so well because unlike a lot of sci-fi 'dramas' these days (Hilary Swank's "Away", I'm looking at you!!) the threat is real and every one is, and acts, like a professional. No hysterics outside of quite moments of breakdown, everyone knows the outcomes and accepts the situation (or doesn't, but the conflict is mostly internal), it is quite refreshing.

Toni Collet is almost wasted here because she does DEEP emotion so well and never quite cuts loose but she anchors the crew as the captain. Anna Kendrick is her usual self as the doc. Daniel Dae Kim is the secret sauce because he turns what could easily have been a scientist villain role into a layered solid performance. Shamier Anderson is new to me but also takes what could have been a very one note performance and makes it complex and human. The script is smart outside of a few plot contrivances but it is focused on the human emotion and gives everyone a logical consistency to their character so I'll allow it the bit of scientific liberty, especially because they got the gravity so well.

Anyway, if it isn't obvious, I liked it quite a bit

A maintenance worker somehow gets sealed INSIDE a crawl space where the CO2 scrubber is? When it malfunctions ( whether its because he's wedged in there or not is unclear ) and he falls out, it’s never explained how he ended up there.

To add to the incredible premise that a worker would not be noticed missing and sealed inside a compartment that presumably had to be sealed from the outside, the scrubber is apparently the only one on the station. Of all the things that would have redundant systems, you'd think that would be high on the list. The final act featured more ridiculous stuff like not being tethered to anything while doing an EVA.

I was very disappointed, esp considering the strong cast they wasted.

I did say there were some plot contrivances

But I appreciated that the crux of the story was what to do, not why he was there and some corny ulterior motive. I can accept a ludicrous premise if the focus is tight and narrow, and in this film it was. All the crew acted in a way consistent with their character, you believe that this is a team that could do a 2 year mission, and yeah, there is some silly shit but they had a TETHER SYSTEM!!! How cool is that?!?

A film resonates with me when I can overlook the plot stuff. When I dwell on those things is when I know the emotional core of the film isn't clicking.

But anyway, I think the idea was that the ship was optimized for 2 with the CDPA thingy as the primary CO2 scrubber and plenty of those lithium things as back-up. Then the powers that be wanted a third crew so the design got stressed. Add a fourth plus damage to the primary system and they ran into trouble. I don't really know just how much air redundancy is on something like the ISS but I bet it is less than we might think (though those guys just need to fall a few hundred KM to get back home).

Interestingly enough, there is a lot of research into the idea that an all female crew would have significantly less life support requirements than men and therefore should be the logical team for deep/prolonged space trips. I'd be down for a show that used that data. The more 'realistic' space stuff we get the better IMHO. Chemical rockets, atomic drives, newtonian physics, ballistic flight paths, fuel economy and remass limitations, vertical instead of horizontal ship design, SIGN ME UP!!!

I'm a huge Mortal Kombat fan, at least when it comes to the games. I know more about the lore than the average person should. So it was with much excitement that I watched the new Mortal Kombat yesterday (in theaters and on HBO, which is where I watched it).

This movie is the definition of a 5/10. It vaguely starts to follow the story leading up to the first game, but the characters it uses often don't really fit. Of course, movies are completely different animals and don't need to be tied down with anything that happened in the games. That said, one particularly head-scratching decision is that they created 3 new characters. MK has dozens of characters from which to choose, so it seems weird, particularly in the case of 2 of the new ones.

You get to see a few fatalities, and unless I am mistaken, they are all from the games. They look good, as does pretty much everything in the film. The guy playing Liu Kang is about the same size as Bruce Lee, but even more ripped up. He is pretty impressive.

I would say if you are an MK fan, go ahead and check it out if you don't have to pay theater prices. Otherwise, you can miss this.