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

I like Dalton better than Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan (in that order). For Moore and Brosnan, Live and Let Die is good, the rest of them not so much.

I guess that I am really not a Bond fan, because I find each Bond objectionable to some degree. Connery Bond sexually assaulted women. Lazenby Bond was okay on screen but apparently only got one movie because he was horrible to the film crew. Moore Bond seems like a pleasant fellow, but his perpetual smugface became intolerable. Dalton Bond looked constantly droll, but seemed to lack an actual sense of humor. Brosnan Bond was so grim that it made the entire proceedings less enjoyable. Craig Bond was also very serious, but his movies are the only ones that I look forward to re-watching at this point. Maybe it's because his athleticism matches up well with the more realistic gear and feats of his movies, making the overall presentation more about a skilled operative than some impossible dude with cartoonish levels of luck and mastery.

I'm generally soft on spy movies, but The Gray Man is dull and derivative--and that at a supposed budget of $200m. Couldn't make it through the whole thing. Chris Evans is occasionally funny playing against type, but that's about it. There's a wildly stupid scene about 2/3 of the way through that I swear was lifted from my playing of GTA V.

I watched Collateral again last night. Few people shoot a gunfight as well as Mann. Cruise and Foxx are great. Script is alright, the actors do a lot with what is there.

Gary Sax wrote: I watched Collateral again last night. Few people shoot a gunfight as well as Mann. Cruise and Foxx are great. Script is alright, the actors do a lot with what is there.

That movie is great, right up until the ending which I felt was extremely formulaic.

Kate - it was okay. John Wick-esque shootemup. You could see the twists coming from a mile away, which I guess is a thing for streaming video these days.

Caught up on a few fairly recent movies over the past couple of weeks:

Gray man - thought this was okay up until they reach Prague when a couple of things happen that were a complete let-down. First of all it suffers a critical attack of the stupids, going way past any semblance of credulity. The biggest problem though is that it just starts repeating itself with plot, scenes and even dialogue going round the mill again from the first act. I get that it is part of a book series and the sequel was greenlit before it even started airing but it would also have been nice to have some kind of an ending all the same. I also think they got the wrong Ryan as Gosling seems to be doing an inadequate impression of Reynolds and not quite hitting the "hitman with a humour" vibe. First hour or so is a perfectly fine 80s style no-brain action movie, should have been a series rather than a movie though I think.

House of Gucci everyone is talking about Jared Leto's 'Joe Dolce inspired' performance but frankly everyone was pretty terrible in this, it would have been infinitely better if they had taken the same approach as Death of Stalin. The difficulty we had with the film in general was that none of the characters are remotely relatable or appealing - a bunch of grim and petty narcissists with no-one to root for. Maybe someone like Scorcese could have glamorised the story in the right way and made the self-destructive greed exciting and shocking, but Scott just can't seem to breathe any life into the subject matter and it's so interminably dull as a result.

Everything Everywhere all at once is completely bonkers. I think it's trying to be heavy on the metaphor but plays so earnestly to it's concept that it is difficult to tell. At the end it feels like all the 'verse jumping' might be pure escapist fantasy representing Michelle Yeoh's process of rediscovery and the emotional and personal struggles rebuilding a fractured family and dissatisfied life - or maybe some deep bullshit existentialist philosophy in the same vein as the pisspoor I heart Huckabees - or it could truly be a weird absurdist tale about multi-verse jumping that has an unusually tepid ending. Some bits of it are pretty far-out gonzo and I feel that they should have either gone a bit further to really push the boundaries, or scaled back a little to make it more relatable and accessible. It's kind of in an uncomfortable spot where the oddities too often lean more toward the gross than the absurd (this is no Charlie Kaufman style affair) rather than being intriguing and enticing, and this intensifies as the movie goes on. My spouse upped and walked out partway through, whereas I sort of enjoyed it. At least I think I did, man is it odd.

I need to find a good movie to watch. Something with a plot, character arcs, subtext, meaning, and a resolution that isn't either a wide open invitation to the next movie or someone solving things with a big explosion/blue light in the sky/punching the antagonist.

Prey - Early 18th century Native Americans versus a Predator. It was fun and to be honest I would watch it over the original. Unlike that movie I actually cared about some of the characters here.

mezike wrote: I need to find a good movie to watch. Something with a plot, character arcs, subtext, meaning, and a resolution that isn't either a wide open invitation to the next movie or someone solving things with a big explosion/blue light in the sky/punching the antagonist.

Have you seen Sorry to bother you yet?

Yep, caught that one a while back thank you. I’m looking forward to checking out Prey but not with any high-falutin’ expectations. Other than that only Phantom of the Open is on my watch list at the moment.

ChristopherMD wrote: Prey - Early 18th century Native Americans versus a Predator. It was fun and to be honest I would watch it over the original. Unlike that movie I actually cared about some of the characters here.

I want to see this. True fact: I have never seen a Predator movie. I started watching the original on HBO back when I was a teen and it takes fucking forever for anything to happen other than a bunch of military dudes walking through a jungle. After what felt like hours of jungle walking I turned it off.

Legomancer wrote:

ChristopherMD wrote: Prey - Early 18th century Native Americans versus a Predator. It was fun and to be honest I would watch it over the original. Unlike that movie I actually cared about some of the characters here.

I want to see this. True fact: I have never seen a Predator movie. I started watching the original on HBO back when I was a teen and it takes fucking forever for anything to happen other than a bunch of military dudes walking through a jungle. After what felt like hours of jungle walking I turned it off.

You sure that wasn't some bootleg knock-off? IIRC they get to killing PDQ in the film though I suppose there are a few minutes of the helicopter insertion, Billy drinking from the vine (and killing a snake IIRC).

I think the Dutch/Dillon meet up and bicep flex is supposed to leave everyone a bit breathless long enough to get to the hanging bodies

mezike wrote: Everything Everywhere all at once is completely bonkers. I think it's trying to be heavy on the metaphor but plays so earnestly to it's concept that it is difficult to tell. At the end it feels like all the 'verse jumping' might be pure escapist fantasy representing Michelle Yeoh's process of rediscovery and the emotional and personal struggles rebuilding a fractured family and dissatisfied life - or maybe some deep bullshit existentialist philosophy in the same vein as the pisspoor I heart Huckabees - or it could truly be a weird absurdist tale about multi-verse jumping that has an unusually tepid ending. Some bits of it are pretty far-out gonzo and I feel that they should have either gone a bit further to really push the boundaries, or scaled back a little to make it more relatable and accessible. It's kind of in an uncomfortable spot where the oddities too often lean more toward the gross than the absurd (this is no Charlie Kaufman style affair) rather than being intriguing and enticing, and this intensifies as the movie goes on. My spouse upped and walked out partway through, whereas I sort of enjoyed it. At least I think I did, man is it odd.

This was kind of my thought, too: dichotomouspurity.blogspot.com/2022/04/f...-right-elephant.html
Glad to know I'm not the only one who thought it was missing something, as every other opinion I've either read or heard is ass-over-teakettle enamored with it. I enjoyed it and I'd honestly like to see it again to look at it with a different perspective, but I'm just not agog with joy about it the way most seem to be. Figured I was just being the cranky critic again.

Well, if you're looking for things to watch, in general, the list is virtually endless. Do you want something recent? Is there a style of film that you like? I will never stop recommending things Kurosawa and early Coen Brothers like Miller's Crossing. But one of the most interesting recent things I've seen was The Survivor about Harry Haft and his experience in the camps and life afterwards. And, of course, if you haven't seen Drive My Car, it was easily the best film of last year.

Yeah, recent stuff is what I’m looking for, thanks for the recommendations. I can always return to the classics when I’m sat on my own of an evening but I’m looking for entertaining modern movies that I can watch with the (teenage) family that aren’t vapid blockbusters or over-arch vanity projects.

Going back to everything everywhere I think it’s just trying too hard to be clever and meaningful. That’s why I mentioned Huckerbees, I got a really similar vibe watching EE although it’s definitely better in every way than that can of garbage.

The humour was hit and (mostly) miss for me too but I find that increasingly so as there has been more than one generational shift in that respect since I was part of the prime target audience for any media project.

Prey - if you're a Predator fan, or just an action movie in general, you will not be disappointed. The finale alone is worth watching the movie for. That, and the dog.