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

ChristopherMD wrote: I was re-watching Dune (2021) and it occurred to me that the guild ships look about the size and shape of worms so the navigators are riding worms through space.

I've been re-watching it, too, and noticed almost the same thing. Rather than ships (although they may be), they're functioning as wormholes (like the jump gates in Babylon 5). There's a shot when the Reverend Mother comes to the surface. They show her ship leaving the Guild ship, and you can clearly see another planet through the other end of the "tube" that doesn't exist outside of the tube on this end. It's quick and subtle, but very effective.

Also, I've changed my mind about the Gom Jabbar test. I think it works great as is. I guess I was projecting some of my preference from the Lynch Dune onto this scene instead of viewing it for itself.

Watched Army of Thieves and then Army of the Dead. Army of Thieves is the better movie I think. There is more time devoted to the safes themselves in AoT, so what seems like a modern safe in the Vegas heist is out of place being the fourth in the series of safes. That is the price paid by making a prequel better than the first movie. I suppose.

AoT: Enjoyable heist movie. Predictable plot given the formula, but an enjoyable cast and decent writing.
AotD: No real new ground here. Zombies and a plan gone sideways. If you are stuck looking for something to watch, you could do worse.

Thanks to HBO Max, I have been watching various DC cartoon movies of fairly recent vintage, including movies featuring Batman, Superman, Teen Titans, Justice League, Suicide Squad, Justice League Dark, and even Deathstroke. They are all good, but none of them are great. Decent animation, okay writing, decent voice acting, etc. Finally I saw one that I disliked: Justice League: the Flashpoint Paradox.

DC comics have become notorious with fans for doing multiple reboots of their continuity. starting with the silver age revival of various golden age heroes beginning at the end of the 50s. Then there was the famous Crisis on Infinite Earths of the mid-'80s, when DC merged various settings so they could consolidate their acquisitions and their golden age heroes into one shared setting with their main product line. About ten years ago, DC did a third major reboot, starting with a transition crossover event called Flashpoint. I bailed on DC at that point, because my money was tied up in buying a house and acquiring house stuff like a lawnmower, more furniture, a ladder, etc.

This cartoon movie is a condensed version of Flashpoint, minus the intention to follow it with a revamped status quo, and it revisits many bad ideas from the Flashpoint comics. This is a grimdark story presenting twisted versions of various classic DC heroes. One "hero" cheats on his wife, and then she gets decapitated by another "hero." Various other gruesome deaths follow, leading me to wonder if the original Flashpoint writers got paid by the death instead of paid by the issue. The title is also misleading, because this is really a Flash story with a lot of guest appearances from Justice League members.

Anyway, there are flashes of decency and humanity, but Flashpoint Paradox is mostly a dark and ugly What If that ultimately has no consequences. A major DC fan might get some satisfaction from watching this movie, but hopefully nobody will let young children watch it.

My wife, mother-in-law, and I say the original Ghostbusters on Saturday backed by a live orchestra and conducted by Peter Bernstein, who orchestrated the original film and is the son of legend Elmer Bernstein. It was a great experience, but I found myself watching the movie more than paying attention to the music, which was beautifully integrated with the film.

I thought Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho was quite good, though my wife and older daughter thought that it was even better than I did. Sonically and visually, it's striking, and the plot is serviceable. I didn't realize how long the film had been in the can, but it's been a while given the fact that Diana Rigg, who died over a year ago, plays a prominent role.

I love those orchestra performances with the film showing. I've seen A New Hope and Empire Strikes back that way and it was a fantastic experience.

Watched Army of Thieves on Netflix. It's better than Army of the Dead, but they are really only tangentially connected. It will not blow you away but I doubt you'll regret watching it.

Watched The Harder They Fall on Netflix. This is a star-packed western, and decently enjoyable. I think I'd say it's "good for a Netflix film."

I watched that and was entertained by it. I enjoyed the Maysville zing. The soundtrack was pretty good. The ending fell apart a bit for me.

Just went back and watched Inception. I was flipping through the channels and it was on and thought I'd give it another shot when I had more time. I think I just wasn't ready for it the first time I watched it. This time it was sublime. I think it just came out at a time in my life when there was too much going on with little kids running around that I never groked it.

It's really an interesting film. It reminded me most of William Gibson's story New Rose Hotel, which is about kidnapping a scientist with the "it factor" from one corporate arcology to another so the new firm can try to duplicate what it is that makes said scientist a genius. (There was a film made of New Rose Hotel with Christopher Walken, but it's awful.) Inception is a similar premise, albeit the other way around, but Dom's crew reminded me of the attitude of the mercenaries in the story. To them, the whole project is just a very specialized job that they do, although it's one that can kill them if they fail, just like the film. It had some really good performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliott Page, and Ken Watanabe, plus some good moments with Tom Hardy, as well. I've never understood people who thought the plot was too complicated or hard to follow. It all seemed very straightforward to me, but perhaps a lot of them were in circumstances like you were.

Yeah Inception is great. I re-watched it after loving Tenet earlier this year and it still held up.

Still think Interstellar is Nolan's best though.

charlest wrote: Still think Prestige is Nolan's best though.

I fixed that up for you

I'd put Prestige at #2.

I just watched the Chinese-made blockbuster film Wandering Earth (Netflix) and it was pretty doggone good! Good science, good characters, good acting. I came in expecting something pedestrian but it could go toe to toe with any of the modern American stuff in the same genre.

Jackwraith wrote: It's really an interesting film. It reminded me most of William Gibson's story New Rose Hotel, which is about kidnapping a scientist with the "it factor" from one corporate arcology to another so the new firm can try to duplicate what it is that makes said scientist a genius. (There was a film made of New Rose Hotel with Christopher Walken, but it's awful.)

You are selling New Rose Hotel short. It had Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe, and Asia Argento, and it was awful. I did like a couple of songs from the soundtrack, including the shimmering French synthwave used in one of the trailers.