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

SNATCH is one of my all time favorites. It’s basically one continuous quote.

Yeah Calvary was great.

jason10mm wrote: Watched Army of the Dead on netflix. Wow, if there is ever an example of why the writer, producer, AND director (possibly even editor) of a film shouldn't be the same person or couple, this is it. They threw EVERYTHING at the wall, there are so many dangling storylines that went no where, had no point, or were just....huh?? but weren't cut. There is a core of an interesting fun (but definitely not scary) zombie film in there but it is saddled with the bloated weight of spin-offs, side stories, and "hold my beer, wouldn't it be cool if....?" mystery box nonsense.

Oddly enough, the digital replacement of an entire character is the LEAST objectionable or jarring part of the film for me (the disjointed aspect of this character's inclusion is greatly assisted by the extreme overuse of some sort of dreamy background filter fuzzy thing for the entire film).

If I had to rate the recent netflix big budget action flicks, this would be a bit behind Extraction (far and away the leader) and Six Underground (a sloppy but much more fun film). Better than Amazon's Without Remorse though, because that film was an endless grim slog with really dull action other than one middle scene.

I agree with you 100%. Army of the Dead was too overstuffed. They could've just said, "There's $200M in a safe under Casino X, and the Army has gone home because Las Vegas is gonna get nuked in 24/48 hours. Wanna steal it?" Leave the scenes in Vegas alone, those were fine. If they want some interpersonal drama, have a party member try to sneak off with the cash.

Finally got around to The Sound of Metal: dichotomouspurity.blogspot.com/2021/05/internal-echoes.html

Excellent.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno was a disappointment. It was bold idea, but the jokes kept falling flat. However, the ending was surprisingly sweet.

I am also gradually re-watching all the MCU movies. I have posted at length about them here in the past, and have nothing new to say. I hope the upcoming MCU movies maintain the same level of quality, but I am really struggling to find any enthusiasm for The Eternals. There is a lot of speculation right now about how the movie will explain why a civilization of gods living on Earth felt no need to deal with Thanos. But in the comics, the Eternals sit out nearly 100% of the big Marvel events simply because most writers don't care about the Eternals or feel like writing about them.

I feel the same way about the MCU. Very little interest in Black Widow, Marvel2, BP2, Eternals, or Shang Chi and the 5 rings or whatever. Though if 5 rings has some really good fight choreography it might be good. Most of the recent MCU stuff was really just trading in on Infinity War coattails IMHO and I don't think the interest is as high as the box office suggests. Dr. Strange 2 might be interesting if they really break their formula but I don't have high hopes.

Blade is about the only future project I'm really excited for. Maybe GotG3 if it has a lot of Thor.

It is unlikely that the Shang-Chi movie will live up to my hopes based on the excellent Master of Kung-Fu series from the '70s. Here's a fine sampling from issues #38-39:

thegreatcomicbookheroes.blogspot.com/201...r-of-kung-fu-38.html

Maybe the fight choreography will at least be good.

Early in our relationship, my girlfriend and I saw the Coen Brothers remake of The Ladykillers in the theater. We both laughed during the movie, but then my girlfriend said that she didn't like it afterwards. I dunno why, she doesn't like to talk much about movies. She loved Black Panther, and still only spent about five minutes talking about it after the movie. Anyway, I hadn't watched The Ladykillers since, and was worried that it wouldn't hold up or that my girlfriend was right about it.

The Ladykillers is still an excellent dark comedy. Tom Hanks defies all expectations, and seems to be having great fun playing a pretentious conman. He rounds up an unlikely crew of vivid stereotypes to tunnel under a river to loot a casino vault. The only real obstacle turns out to be the elderly church lady who owns the boarding house with a root cellar conveniently just across the river from the casino. Marlon Wayans, JK Simmons, and Stephen Root help bring the laughs.

Shellhead wrote: I hope the upcoming MCU movies maintain the same level of quality, but I am really struggling to find any enthusiasm for The Eternals. There is a lot of speculation right now about how the movie will explain why a civilization of gods living on Earth felt no need to deal with Thanos. But in the comics, the Eternals sit out nearly 100% of the big Marvel events simply because most writers don't care about the Eternals or feel like writing about them.

I think Marvel has really boxed themselves in by making *everything* part of the same universe. The Eternals could be great if they were completely separate from all that nonsense.

I've enjoyed all of the Avengers films, but I do miss the days when each movie was just a movie, and not one chapter in this huge ongoing saga, with required cameos of various other supers and new plot threads introduced in one and carried through another.

Eternals creator Jack Kirby wanted to keep telling New Gods stories after he returned from DC to Marvel, and he wanted to maintain a separate continuity from the Marvel universe. But Marvel insisted on tying the Eternals into existing Marvel continuity, so issues #14-15 sort of included the Hulk. Years later, one of the Eternals joined the Avengers.

Harbinger Down on amazon prime. You've seen this film a million times. The Thing, The Blob, Virus, Deep Star Six, etc, Heck, I think Lance Hendricksen has been in a few of those as well. Still, for a low budget horror film it has cool rubber latex effects and those should ALWAYS be rewarded.

Parallel also on amazon prime. Fairly smart little film about some struggling tech start up kids that find a portal to alternate dimensions. Covers most of the things you might be thinking of right now and adds some novel twists. They don't explain how it all works but do establish some basic rules that don't get too broken by the end. Think Sliders with a little bit of the Butterfly Effect. Goes a bit off the rails by the end as all of these types.of films do but it's still pretty fun.

jason10mm wrote: Parallel also on amazon prime. Fairly smart little film about some struggling tech start up kids that find a portal to alternate dimensions. Covers most of the things you might be thinking of right now and adds some novel twists. They don't explain how it all works but do establish some basic rules that don't get too broken by the end. Think Sliders with a little bit of the Butterfly Effect. Goes a bit off the rails by the end as all of these types.of films do but it's still pretty fun.

I just finished watching Parallels. It was a decent movie that touched on a variety of interesting ideas. It was a low-budget deal, so all the alternate reality look alike, instead of getting into some really while or interesting variations. The main characters all felt like millennial stereotypes, but maybe I am just now reaching the grumpy old man stage of life. Nobody famous in this movie, but I did recognize one actor from the excellent Mr. Robot tv show. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't recommend expending much effort to see it either.

Parallels was a low-budget tv show pilot that didn't get picked up. I'm a fan of alternate Earth stuff but wouldn't recommend anyone waste their time with this. Better off watching some Sliders or Fringe reruns.

ChristopherMD wrote: Parallels was a low-budget tv show pilot that didn't get picked up. I'm a fan of alternate Earth stuff but wouldn't recommend anyone waste their time with this. Better off watching some Sliders or Fringe reruns.

I dunno, it was just a movie watched at home and not a five season series. I watched it as well after the kids went to bed and it worked just fine. I just needed a break from all the grimdark and non-fiction stuff I've been watching lately.

Edit: the grumpy old man in me did have a problem with the bar scene early in the movie. Bunch of millennials are worried their business is going to imminently collapse so they go out to a bar and do a super expensive drinking binge scene. You know, like they normally do.

Parallels being a pilot (and presumably the last 10 minutes or so the effort to make is a movie) makes some sense. There is clearly an elaborate backstory to the mirror and house construction. I just liked that most of the characters acted mostly like humans with flaws and lapses in judgement that didn't require the viewer to swallow too much BS. The plan to steal alternate film/music was GENIUS though (somewhere the Schwarzeneggar King Conan film and Jodorowskis DUNE is waiting to be found), as was the creepy but clever technique to use the time dilation to groundhog day girls.

Canada has a few csmart time travel shows. The one with the cop who goes back like 50 years and the post-apoc one where they inhabit bodies of people about to die ("Travellers"??) were both a lot of fun even if they all succumb to plot failre due to time travel being a dumb idea.

It finally hit me that we're talking about different movies. Parallels (2015) vs Parallel (2018).