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

I watched "The Way We Were" with Streisand and Redford. I swear I've posted about it on here twice now but can't find it anywhere. Streisand and Redford just ooze personality and charisma. It's not an amazing movie but my wife insisted, and those two stars carry the show, although I wouldn't recommend it, unless you just want to have a nostalgia experience.

Don Draper: “Nostalgia – its delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek nostalgia literally means ‘the pain from an old wound.’ It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards… it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel, it’s called the carousel. It let’s us travel the way a child travels - around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know are loved.”

— Season 1, Episode 13

Saw Encanto, Disney's latest CG film. Pretty good, about a central (south?) American community magically hidden away by the powers of one family. Visually it is STUNNING , the colors, detail, and use of focus is outstanding. Disney has refined their slightly abstracted human look to perfection here.

The music howere, is a bit lackluster. LMM is not at peak form as none of the songs hit even the bottom of Moana. There is one pretty good banger that I would recognize as being from this film if I heard it on the radio and one that is a brilliant study of the pressures of being Superman, the rest...eh.

Its a good family film though, hopefully it hits D+ for Xmas.

I was in one of those weird moods yesterday, and somehow had a recollection of a bad sex comedy I watched at a sleep over in the 80s and had to track it down. So I watched King Frat, and it was actually ok. I think I liked it more than Animal House, which I have never particularly liked, and it held up way better than my favourite in that era, Revenge of the Nerds.

The thing that really shocked me, was there wasn't the plethora of situations that used to be so funny in those movies, and now we recognize as being actual sexual assaults or rape. It was mainly just gross guys wanting to party.

Watched Black Widow last night and enjoyed it for the most part. Until it went fully Marvel at the end with the 'secret lair'. The humor from Natasha's sister and the rest of the family was enjoyable. I could watch a spinoff with the former Widow's tracking down the others across the globe.

Well, my wife and I just went to see the latest James Bond and paid full price, which hurt (as opposed to five dollar Tuesday). We did get to sit in comfy recliners. Here are some disjointed thoughts, filled with spoilers:

• It was filled with a lot of classic Bond movie elements, including lush scenery. My wife and I both thought it would have been nice to sit in a dark theater for three hours and watch drone footage of ancient European villages.
• There were a few car chase moments that were sort of ridiculous, but they reigned in the silliness a bit
• We just had a another tragic school shooting, and I've owned guns and enjoy shooting them, but watching people get shot, even evil minions, for extended periods, just isn't fun for me at this point. I guess I'm officially old.
• What a great time to watch a movie about a genetically engineered virus that threatens your children. Ugh. Another argument for watching soothing drone footage of the bucolic European countryside (as opposed to the garbage filled UK that David Sedaris writes about)
• I liked the show, ultimately, and kind of wish it were the very last Bond movie.
• I wanted to talk to my dad about the movie, because I have memories of watching James Bond with him as a child, but he's been dead for seven years now, and I'm still mad at him about a few things anyway.
• The first Bond movie was what, 1965? There have been so many incarnations that it has become painfully clear that Bond is basically a Time Lord.
• However, Bond, by any objective measure, is also a charming sociopath who kills a lot of people, as his enemies are fond of pointing out.
• My wife and I got in a spirited discussion of how old the villain was when he pulled the girl out of the ice, and how old that girl was when she was "dating" bond. Because Rami Malek, in my opinion, should have been at least 50 and he was looking 35, but with the bad villain skin it was hard to tell. Too bad for you, people with skin conditions!
• After the movie I was using the restroom and thinking, "gee, they can make this amazing spy plane with folding wings that turns into a submarine, or even spend millions making this movie, but nobody can come up with a urinal that doesn't leave urine puddled all over the floor.
• I have some sort of writer's block that only allows me to spew in bulleted list form, which I am doing in a markdown editor, then exporting as HTML, then converting to BBCode. I realize how stupid and idiosyncratic this is, but if I removed every stupid and idiosyncratic thing from my personality, there would be precious little left.
• Like the discussion in Clerks about the Death Star, I kept wondering about the people who worked for the New Evil Villain. Do they just need the money? Is global inequity a spawning ground for Bad Guy Minions?
• The final scenes of the movie show Bond as a self-sacrificing, almost messianic figure. But he's also an alcoholic sociopath, so that felt a little weird, like forced redemption. Sort of like Howard Stern trying to be taken seriously after decades of being a shock jock, saying terrible things for attention and money.

Note: even converting from markdown-->html-->bbedit required a lot of hand editing because of the way apostrophes and quotes were mangled by Macdown, so I guess I'll just write in native BBCode and quit my fussing, because it's easier to change my brain than it is to find the perfect editor. I suppose I could learn to write in paragraphs too, a more robust writing technology, but for some reason that feels more formal and I freeze up.

While I am not in the camp that thinks Bond should "just go away" or get such a massive overhaul it isn't the same character anymore, I do echo many of your sentiments about NTTD.

If anyone is a bit tipsy and wants a little "so bad it hurts" kind of experience, go dive down the rabbit hole of holiday sappy romcoms on amazon. They have DOZENS of these hallmark style things, many with trailers, so I sat for a bit watching a handful of them.

OMG, I will never again complain about plot holes, over use of CGI, miscasting, lack of respect for the IP, or retread sequels. Watching these trailers reminded me of JUST HOW BAD it could be and how appreciative I should be of the things we do get. It was my own little "ghost of bad christmas movies" visitation and revelation, bah humbug!

Cranberries wrote:

• After the movie I was using the restroom and thinking, "gee, they can make this amazing spy plane with folding wings that turns into a submarine, or even spend millions making this movie, but nobody can come up with a urinal that doesn't leave urine puddled all over the floor.

Any idiot could get in a submarine jet and immediately crash it into something, just like any idiot can pee all over the floor. Never underestimate the power of user error

I saw No Time to Die a couple weeks ago, too: dichotomouspurity.blogspot.com/2021/11/e...ly-or-otherwise.html

3.6 roentgen.

Ah_Pook wrote:

Cranberries wrote:

• After the movie I was using the restroom and thinking, "gee, they can make this amazing spy plane with folding wings that turns into a submarine, or even spend millions making this movie, but nobody can come up with a urinal that doesn't leave urine puddled all over the floor.

Any idiot could get in a submarine jet and immediately crash it into something, just like any idiot can pee all over the floor. Never underestimate the power of user error

Maybe it's because I've reached the dribbling stage of old age, but even when I'm super careful I leave behind traces of my presence, unless I sit down.

There's a movie subgenre I absolutely despise and that's "suffering woman films". You know the type: A very bad man kidnaps, chases or hurts a woman and she does nothing but cry, moan and tremble from beginning to end. After two hours of literal and metaforical torture, the woman survives or dies trying to escape. I hate, hate this genre from top to bottom. Split is not the worst offender but it's very much a movie of this category.

I think it was Roger Ebert who once talked about a hypothethical film about a man falling down a building. That movie would be terrible, he argues, because there's no possible progress other than falling faster and no possible conclusion other than splattering on the floor. The "suffering woman" films are like this. Nothing ever happens. The woman is tortured, she cries and tries to escape. Then the evil guy appears and locks her in again. There's no alternative, it must happen for the film to exist. Otherwise, it would end in 35 minutes.

The other issue is that these films are completely defined by sexism and misoginy. The woman is always powerless simply because she's a woman. She does what women do, which is to cry and moan, and can't beat up the guy because she's weak. Split has three women against one unarmed average guy. Do they fight? No. Do they attempt to do anything? Not really. One is taken by the kidnapper and, instead of bashing his head in, one of the girls suggests the potential victim to pee herself so she isn't raped. Brilliant plan, amazing. Fantastic script writing. Cue some scenes about a creepy uncle raping one of the women.

In its defense, Split does have a minimun defense attempt. At one point, one of the girls bashes the kidnapper's head with a chair. Ahh, but then she runs! We can't have the characters continue to beat the guy to a pulp because 1) They are women 2) The movie would end. Hence, she runs and is then taken away. Remember, this is a suffering women film. Every single factor can be explained by reading the implications of the title. The evil kidnapper is also a guy, because sexism determines only men do evil things and it ties into the sexist idea that men are going to rape random women on the street at any moment.

The movie has this angle about the kidnapper having 82325 different personalities and a plot twist about him being a comic-book character. But it doesn't matter. It's still the same premise: Women are kidnapped, women are tortured, women can't escape because that would end the movie. Throw in a bit of rape, a bit of violence and put a bit of fanservice with the women being asked to remove their clothes. For PLOT, you know. Totally important to focus the camera on their tits. They had to ask them to change clothes, as well, as their normal clothes don't actually allow for any revealing bits.

Here's the thing: The whole "suffering woman" subgenre is just Alien and The Thing dumbed down. Instead of monsters, you have a generic white dude. Instead of characters you have "women" and instead of action scenes you have rape, pseudo-rape and oh god the car doesn't start what should I do.

Fuck this crap.

Have you seen Promising Young Woman?

Last night I saw the Nicholas Cage film Pig. I was caught off guard at how good this film is. It is also one in which he actually does a great job of acting, which in itself is a feat. Highly recommended, and I believe it is currently available on Hulu.

For the uninitiated, Pig is the story of a guy who lives off the grid with his truffle pig, making a "living" by selling truffles to a restaurant supplier. Someone kidnaps his pig, and Cage begins a journey to reclaim it. While this will absolutely have you thinking you are in for some John Wick-style action, you would be sorely mistaken.

charlest wrote: Have you seen Promising Young Woman?

No, but the title doesn't fill me with confidence, why?

I'm mixed on Pig. I thought it was gonna be TAKEN but with a pig but when it became obvious that it wasn't going that way any allusions to an action film (that one scene) felt really out of place. The best parts of this film are scenes like in the fancy restaurant when he breaks down the guy who just wanted a simple pub. But I couldn't tell if this film was trying to deconstruct how up its own ass the foodie world has become or revel in that selfsame chef hero worship.

It's a good Cage vehicle though, kinda levels out his performances from things like Color out of Space or that Chucky E Cheese Funland one. I'm VERY curious which Cage we get for Dracula.

Erik Twice wrote:

charlest wrote: Have you seen Promising Young Woman?

No, but the title doesn't fill me with confidence, why?

It inverts the formula. It's more complicated than that, really, and kind of a different kind of story. Good film though.





I watched Power of the Dog a couple of nights ago and still thinking about it. Not really sure what to say about it besides it was an uncomfortable film with strong acting. I still can't figure out whether I like Jesse Plemmons, but he's in a lot of great movies/shows.