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

Watched Hellraiser: Bloodlines (1996), the 4th movie of the Hellraiser franchise. I nearly bailed when the opening credits revealed that the movie was directed by the notorious "Alan Smithee." As usual, the dialogue is okay and there are some interesting ideas presented, this time spread across three distant times. Some very attractive people deliver their lines without skill or enthusiasm. And then Clive Barker's imagination comes up short in the usual ways, leading to hooks, chains, blood, and people being flayed alive. At this point, I am indifferent about continuing to watch this franchise.

hotseatgames wrote: I remember when the trailer for Bullet Train came out. The movie looked fun and exciting.

Yesterday I watched it since it's on Netflix. It's too long, and while a couple of characters are mildly interesting, including Brad Pitt's, the writing is mostly hacky and the movie physics surrounding the bullet train itself are REALLY too much. Like imagine the most ridiculous things they might have happen with a bullet train, and then make them more ridiculous.

If it was 30+ minutes shorter, I'd give it a half-hearted recommendation, but.... nah

I watched it last night and can agree with that. Maybe a longer, dumber Deadpool, or The Gray Man's spiritual brother.

The book was a super fun thriller that I had a hard time putting down. I know that sounds like a jacket blurb.

Just watched Spiderhead on Netflix. It started well and I enjoyed the premise. I thought Chris Hemsworth was great in his neo-American Psycho role, complete with 80s music. Miles Teller was OK, although it was yet another "Watch how much angst I can convey whenever I'm not smiling" bit for him. IF they'd carried on in the vein that they'd established in the first half of the film and brought it to more of an Ex Machina-style conclusion, it would've been quite solid. Instead



Eh.

everyone shut up and watch this

Under the Silver Lake from 2018. I wouldn't know who I'd recommend it to other than the most unpleasant movie snobs, but am interested to find out where I will have ended once I finish this post.
This flick is eminently watchable for its somber mood alone. It lives gracefully in a land of both Lynch and Hitchcock, featuring some seriously beautiful people. Even if you don't get half the references (I sure didn't), just by looking at it you know there are literally hundreds of nods to actual Hollywood history, places and people, many of them dead and/or imaginary.
So, it's basically a dream of Hollywood. Surprisingly, it has a plot, which is bland and kind of unoriginal, then it isn't, but it still is. That might be its biggest problem, that it tries to be several layers on top of each other, several different movies working against each other. So not convinced it actually works. But it looks intriguing and wonderful. It maybe was intended as some sort of commentary on an industry, the exact method is surely being written down this very moment by some film studies major, but I just can't make myself give a shit about any of that self-referential wanking.
While I had a good time, mostly it made me want to see Inherent Vice again.

Emily the Criminal on Netflix surprised me. Low budget crime film with some strong performances from the guy who played Juice on Sons of Anarchy and of course Aubrey Plaza. I expected as much from Plaza as I'm a big fan of hers.

Wrote about Emily when we saw it back in August: dichotomouspurity.blogspot.com/2022/08/g...ng-crime-to-pay.html

Solid film.

Emily the Criminal is quite good.

I enjoyed Under the Silver Lake far more than Inherent Vice. I'm not sure which one targets film snobs more.

Gregarius wrote: I enjoyed Under the Silver Lake far more than Inherent Vice. I'm not sure which one targets film snobs more.

Sorry, didn't mean to insult anyone there. If I came across as a snob myself, that's probably because I am.
I like this one better, you the other one, that's fine.
That said I consider myself way more a book snob than a film buff. Turning Inherent Vice (the novel) into a watchable film is quite the achievement, I think.

Oh, not insulted at all. I'm well aware that I'm a film snob (but also a film slob, as I like trashy stuff, too).

I found both films to be deliberately quirky and opaque, and both did a great job of capturing different "California" vibes. I just felt like Under the Silver Lake drew me in, while Inherent Vice pushed me away. I feel that way about a lot of PTA films; they have a cold distance to them, even the ones I really like.

I have no familiarity with the IV novel, but I believe you when you say it's a difficult adaptation.

So, Avatar 2. I liked it but it is basically a plot beat by plot beat rehash of A1, almost the point where you could use the score of one over the other and I doubt anyone would notice.

Still, I liked A1 quite a bit so A2 was right up my alley. Not gonna play well near any whaling ports though

I feel like Cameron ought to just make a Moby Dick movie. Or 20,000 leagues. Kinda shocked he's slept on that one, TBH, it seems like it would flip all his switches, especially if he made Prof Arronax or Council a woman.

Went to the theater for the first time in over a year, to watch Spoiler Alert. Basically a love story about two gay guys, one of whom comes down with a bad case of the cancer. Not a cheery movie, as you might guess. It's good, although there are these weird sitcom-style childhood flashbacks that are a bit on the nose and I don't think they land.

Also, if you haven't seen Prisoners, it's on Netflix right now and is truly fantastic. A rough watch, but you need to see what I consider Hugh Jackman's best performance.

Prisoners is great. All of Villeneuve's films are though.

Black Adam was just okay. It looked great, but the writing fell short. The occasional jokes didn't land properly and Hawkman was almost ridiculously bloodthirsty. The fundamental problem was that Black Adam is not a hero but the story needed to him be a hero and so the audience is stuck watching this barely tolerable jerk hold the spotlight while the actual heroes in the movie are getting knocked around in secondary roles. The music selections were decent but as well integrated into the movie as what we normally see in MCU movies.