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

hotseatgames wrote: Gunpowder Milkshake - oof. The dud of the weekend. While some of the action is decent, it's just another wannabe John Wick. Bonus points for including Michele Yeoh, but that isn't enough to make this movie anything more than a C. It's on Netflix if you are really that bored.

The fight at the doctor’s office was inspired. The tableau vivant at the diner was alright. But, yeah, everything else in Milkshake absolutely felt like the algorithm realized people liked John Wick but wanted to do it on the cheap. Which is a pity for all the acting talent in front of the camera.

GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE: I started watching this the week it came out, 80% through it and something came up. Never have finished it.

The Accountant: I saw it when it went to video. Perfectly fine. A little too plot heavy. "Forensic mob accountant on the spectrum runs afoul of bad guys unknowingly led by his brother, with added FBI flavor."

WadeMonnig wrote: GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE: I started watching this the week it came out, 80% through it and something came up. Never have finished it.

If you want a "Gurlz Rule" action film weekend, you can string together Gunpowder Milkshake, Jolt (Kate Beckensdale), and the Mary Elizabeth Winstead one....Kate (i think) for all different shades of the same kinda John Wick style film. Taken as a trio, there are some interesting ways they all skin the same cat.

While not as "John Wickian", you can thrown in the Jennifer Garner film Peppermint, Maggie Q in The Protege (which, given it was directed by Martin Campbell, was a bit of a disappointment), Jessica Chastain in AVA, and cap it all off with that 355 film. The quality of all these flicks tend to be in the strictly mid-tier range for action films at best but there are fun aspects to all of them except maybe Peppermint, but thats true for almost all action films these days barring maybe Cruise films and John Wick with the extensive choreography and stunt work.

If the actor isn't up to the challenge like in the Raid films and early Jason Statham, or older stuff like the Holy Trinity of Schwarzeneggar, Stallone, and van Damm then you gotta really bring it in every other aspect like the Bourne films or Bond or I suppose Atomic Blonde.

Watched "X" which I guess you gotta add the "made by Ti West" part so it is actually searchable. This is a modern throwback to 70's era slasher film. Not really horror, more creepy and weird. The conceit is a group of amateur porn stars rent out a remote cabin to film their movie and the old reclusive couple in the house next door start to object.....strenuously. It's an interesting film, full of neat tricks to give it the 70's grindhouse feel, but ultimately it isn't really scary, or horrifying, or particularly funny, titillating, or shocking, mainly because there were some choices made in casting that just threw me for a loop the entire film.

Has its moments though, and a few scenes that are quite good and chilling. One guys breakdown when his meek girlfriend chooses to jump in front of the camera with the well endowed lead porn star was particularly well done as its a nice touch of actual human emotion, something usually lacking in slasher films (well, if screaming while you run smack into a chainsaw or whatever can be dismissed as emotion

Doing a dumb thing over on Twitter. For each decade from the 1930s to the 2010s, I selected 4 movies I haven't seen from the most popular films for that decade on Letterboxd. 32 movies. Then I made a single-elimination bracket. I'm running them head-to-head and having people vote on what I should watch. I'll definitely watch all of the final four, with the #1 being last.

I didn't pick anything I don't actually want to see, of course, so I win any way. Just thought it might be fun this way.

The first matchup was Seven Samurai vs The Sugarland Express and it was a massacre. But hey, something had to go up against Seven Samurai. Sorry, Spielberg. Second matchup is a little more even: If Beale Street Could Talk vs Targets. Targets is a movie from 1968 that was chosen because it was the #1 movie at the box office on the day I was born. Beale Street is winning so far.

If you check my math it doesn't work out, because I skipped the 80s. If this goes well I plan to do another one with just 80s movies. May also do a losers bracket of everything that got kicked out in the first round.

For my money, Seven Samurai can take on about 70 years worth of films and emerge unscathed. It is one of my most favorite films and an absolute juggernaut. It's so damned good that even the most hackneyed imitations are still worth watching

jason10mm wrote: For my money, Seven Samurai can take on about 70 years worth of films and emerge unscathed. It is one of my most favorite films and an absolute juggernaut. It's so damned good that even the most hackneyed imitations are still worth watching

My biggest takeaway from watching Seven Samurai is that it's like a ton of films but better.

Erik Twice wrote:

jason10mm wrote: For my money, Seven Samurai can take on about 70 years worth of films and emerge unscathed. It is one of my most favorite films and an absolute juggernaut. It's so damned good that even the most hackneyed imitations are still worth watching

My biggest takeaway from watching Seven Samurai is that it's like a ton of films but better.

I think 7S was the originator of so many filming techniques and compositions that watching it now it feels "samey" but it was the first. The criterion release IIRC has a nice narration track that points out all the innovations Kurosawa put into it.

Continuing taking the Spawn through the classics:

PETER PAN (1953). Holy fuck I had no idea how racist this is. I think SONG OF THE SOUTH is less offensive. Compared to the other Disney classics I've watched recently that came with a content warning (ALADDIN and THE JUNGLE BOOK) this makes those look like woke diversity workshops. It was physically uncomfortable watching the Indians, and JFC that song. Ugh. Anyway, nice animation from the golden age, but pretty much every character except for the three kids are unlikable jerks.

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1996). Shockingly dark and lurid for an alleged kids' movie. But absolutely lovely and lush animation. Themes of sin, redemption, lust, greed; perfect family fare! One of Disney's best IMO.

THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE (1986). Wasn't expecting much out of this, as it came out after the death of Walt but before the 90s renaissance. Was pleasantly surprised. It's pretty much exactly what you'd expect from "Sherlock Holmes, but mice," yet it's very well executed and the villain is top-notch. Melodramatically chewing scenery for high comedic effect.

CHIP & DALE: RESCUE RANGERS (2022). Was planning to pass on this; I thought the original series was forgettable kids' schlock. But the reviews here convinced me and I'm glad I did. It was very funny the whole way through and I had to tell the Spawn "I'm sorry, I can't keep explaining the jokes to you; they're coming too fast." On paper the Shrek-esque "tell a light story for the kids, but pack in sly asides and visual gags for the grownups" is a little tired, but it's all in the execution. The themes of friendship and falling-out and forgiveness were really good too; not really expected in a kids' movie.

After having watched Maverick finally, I'm struck by Cruise's ability, at nearly 60, to make audiences believe *he's* the rebellious kid still and John Hamm is his grandpa.

jpat wrote: After having watched Maverick finally, I'm struck by Cruise's ability, at nearly 60, to make audiences believe *he's* the rebellious kid still and John Hamm is his grandpa.

The powers of an Operating Thetan are truly beyond mortal comprehension.

POCAHONTAS (1995). Merely okay. It did a good job of showing the European colonizers as nefarious and greedy. It did a good job of showing the natives as actual people and not stereotypes (although, coming off Peter Pan last week, they could all have been wooden cigar Indians and it would have felt like an improvement). But mostly it was meh. Okay animation, rising to vibrant on the landscape vistas. Leaned a little hard into the trope of natives as Wise Earth Stewards. (My brother-in-law, who is Hupa/Choctaw and grew up on the rez: "Shit, Indians are the least environmental people there are. They'll throw a TV into a river just because they feel like it.") The Smith/Pocohantus relationship was completely ahistorical and whitewashed, but whatever. Laughable to watch Mel Gibson as the racially enlightened Smith after all his drunken antisemitic/misogynistic run-ins with the cops.

But as a movie, fine but forgettable. "Colors of the Wind" is a fine and stirring song. Idly browsing Wikipedia while the kid was watching the movie, I found out that Pocohantus died when she was 21.The movie didn't mention this.

Watched last year's Bond movie, No Time to Die, courtesy of Amazon Prime. Although I have a fondness for certain older Bond movies (especially Live and Let Die), the Daniel Craig Bond movies always seemed superior. Better production values, better acting, better stuntwork, etc. This final Craig-Bond movie maintains that high level of quality. It's long, but only drags a bit in the middle.

The opening sequence with the young girl is surprisingly scary and intense for a Bond movie, and there is a general absence of levity or fun in the proceedings. I like Rami Malek, but couldn't quite accept him as a Bond villain. I wish this 25th Bond movie had used the song 25, by The Pretty Reckless instead of Billie Eilish's slow dirge-like No Time to Die. I liked the new 007 and wouldn't mind seeing her star in the next Bond movie, but I don't know if the fan base is ready for a black, female 00 agent. I also wouldn't mind if No Time to Die was the last Bond movie. Society has changed a lot since the early '60s, so some of the Bond concept has become irrelevant. Certain elements of this movie neatly wrapped up long-time Bond elements. That leaves the next creative team free to make some changes, if they don't cling too hard to the original Bond formula.

I also watched No Time to Die. A good film, but yeah.... long as fuck. I felt like the first half hour was the best part.

Last night I watched The Card Counter on HBO. I thought I was going to get Oscar Isaac in an exciting tale of high stakes gambling. What I got was a Driver-esque plodding tale about war crimes with some poker lessons thrown in, but without the banging soundtrack. If I were you, I'd give this one a pass.

I thought NO TIME TO DIE was kind of long slow and plodding. I can't get the feeling that they went in determined to reboot the franchise since they knew it was Craig's last film, then had second thoughts or something. The "new" 007 seemed to be trying way too hard to be cool behind hip sunglasses; the CIA agent seemed far more capable and Bond like in her attitude. Rami Malek was perhaps the least sinister Bond villain since whoever the fuck was the villain in QUANTUM OF BOREDOM.

I do wonder if this was the franchise's swan song.

My views on the last Bond seem to be similar to everyone else's: dichotomouspurity.blogspot.com/2021/11/e...r-otherwise.html?m=1

Saw it last fall but, yeah, too long and Malek lacked presence. I still think Craig has done the books more justice than anyone else, including Connery.