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

Just watched the D&D movie on Paramount+, and wow! I loved it. I don't even like Chris Pine and he didn't annoy me here. It really felt like a wacky D&D adventure might feel on the tabletop, with alternative solutions, plans going wrong, etc.

I hope they make more.

Started Ant-Man & The Wasp:Quantumnmnmnmnmania and woooooow, what a slog. Throwing these characters into what must be an all digital The Volume environment with NOTHING around them really saps the juice from Michael Douglas, Bill Murray, and Michelle Pfifer. And it's yet ANOTHER marvel film where the entire conflict is created by the protagonists themselves dicking around with technology....sigh. I think it is going to go into the pile of unfinished movies like almost all the rest of the phase 4 MCU movies. I made the TERRIBLE mistake of watching Avengers IW and Endgame with my kid last weekend, so coming down off that high probably made AWQ even worse.

Also tried The Mother on Netflix with J-Lo. Ugh x2. Just stop with the 50+ year olds trying to do John Wick. The "I'm a bad parent to my kid but still gotta protect 'em" plotline also just doesn't work, the hoops the script tried to jump through to create the scenario are ludicrous. The action consists mostly of rando guys getting head shotted by folks running full tilt 50 feet away using a pistol...boring. There is also something wrong with the dialog sync with mouths. Either they are using a lot of facial CGI on J-lo and....not sure which Feinnes brother is in this to be honest, but both of them look like they are being badly dubbed (in english) and it is hella distracting. The child actress looks more plastic surgerized than Jlo as well, which is not only MORE distracting but also really sad, is it legal to give lip fillers to a 13 year old? Maybe she is Angela Jolie's kid?

Anyway, the past couple of days has me questioning some of my streaming subscription choices. I need an "ALL 80's, ALL THE TIME" channel Though I did get Tron:Legacy in there and that was fun.

I'll join at least some of the chorus and say that I saw the D&D film and... Save me, jeebus. The story was simplistic, the dialogue was obvious, and the performances were one-note because the characters were one-dimensional, at best. And it was way, way, way too long because of all of that. The key thing to me in every RPG I ever played, ran, or created is that each session had to tell at least part of a story. This film wasn't a story. It was a script written by committee that made me think the WGA's strike had started a year-and-a-half ago or whenever they started creating this thing. The lone upside was seeing some of the Forgotten Realms stuff of the 80s (Neverwinter, Red Wizards, Icewind Dale) on film and explaining the uses that I'd once put that stuff to my girlfriend in order to, y'know, tell a story. 40 years ago. When I was 12. And could already tell a story better than that one. (With characters that had genuine motivation and human emotional responses to complicated situations!) The one respite is that I saw it for free because I'm already paying for Paramount+ for the Champions League.

Bitter much?

What, because I didn't like something that you liked? That's what makes me bitter about... what? That I haven't become a Hollywood screenwriter? OK. Like whatever the hell you want, man. I'm not here to tell you that your opinion of entertainment is wrong. You and hotseat and a couple others in this thread thought it was worthwhile. Great. You got your money/time's worth and will likely look forward to a sequel. Have at it. I'm only telling you what my opinion was (resoundingly negative, obvsly.) It wasn't quite to the point where I wanted the 2+ hours of my life back, but I definitely wouldn't have been happy to have paid for a ticket to the theater. And I didn't even mention the solid 5 minutes of exposition at the start of it, which was about as ham-handed as getting hit over the head with a pig. There have been regular examples of how to do high fantasy (even magic-suffused high fantasy) in recent years, so it's not like the map hasn't been drawn for them. They just weren't interested in that, I guess.

Just FYI: If all you'd done was respond by saying: "Well, I liked it because of X, Y, and Z" that's where this exchange would have ended. You liked it. Fine. I didn't. Should also be fine.

I thought it was fun seeing famous D&D monsters and traps, and was mainly impressed that the movie wasn't terrible!

The fat dragon also amused me.

Jackwraith wrote: What, because I didn't like something that you liked? That's what makes me bitter about... what? That I haven't become a Hollywood screenwriter? OK. Like whatever the hell you want, man. I'm not here to tell you that your opinion of entertainment is wrong. You and hotseat and a couple others in this thread thought it was worthwhile. Great. You got your money/time's worth and will likely look forward to a sequel. Have at it. I'm only telling you what my opinion was (resoundingly negative, obvsly.) It wasn't quite to the point where I wanted the 2+ hours of my life back, but I definitely wouldn't have been happy to have paid for a ticket to the theater. And I didn't even mention the solid 5 minutes of exposition at the start of it, which was about as ham-handed as getting hit over the head with a pig. There have been regular examples of how to do high fantasy (even magic-suffused high fantasy) in recent years, so it's not like the map hasn't been drawn for them. They just weren't interested in that, I guess.

Just FYI: If all you'd done was respond by saying: "Well, I liked it because of X, Y, and Z" that's where this exchange would have ended. You liked it. Fine. I didn't. Should also be fine.

I haven't seen it, because I was pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy it. But dude, get a a grip. The movie didn't kick your puppy, and nobody questioned your bona fides. You just came out guns blazing and then doubled down.

Bitter much?

People are passionate about their feelings on Chris Pine movies.

Not Sure wrote: JI haven't seen it, because I was pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy it. But dude, get a a grip. The movie didn't kick your puppy, and nobody questioned your bona fides. You just came out guns blazing and then doubled down.

I gave an opinion. If someone didn't like that opinion, they were free to counter in the same way hotseat did or, in fact, not even bother to respond (which really should have been your first choice) because they simply didn't agree with it. Instead, I get the passive-aggressive implication that there's some kind of ulterior motive behind my disliking what I thought was a bad film. It wasn't a judgment on anyone who likes it. It certainly wasn't personally pointed to Gregarius but instead of talking about the film, suddenly he was talking about me, just like you are. So, really, feel perfectly free to go fuck yourself, NS, unless you actually want to talk about the film.

Tucker and Dale vs Evil has aged like a fine wine. After a decade I think I get to call it a classic.

WE GOT UR FRIEND

ChristopherMD wrote: Tucker and Dale vs Evil has aged like a fine wine. After a decade I think I get to call it a classic.

WE GOT UR FRIEND

It's up there for modern(ish) horror/comedy films worth rewatching. I put Slither and Feast on that short list.

I liked the film; you didn't. I have no problem with that. My feelings weren't hurt because of your negative opinion.

My comment was about the vitriol in your post, which seemed over the top and unwarranted. Your follow-up posts confirmed that feeling. I'm sorry that I offended you. I hope you were able to relax over the weekend.

FWIW, I've had Jackwraith's blog in my RSS reader for a while. He reviews a lot of films. He is passionate about film and has high standards, so his comment about the D&D film seemed par for the course for me. But I can see how, without the context of knowing how he interacts with film as a medium, his comment would seem weird -- like someone going completely apeshit over Disney's Holiday on Ice or something.

That said, if you'd led with this:

Gregarius wrote: the vitriol in your post, which seemed over the top and unwarranted.

... instead of an easily-misinterpreted one-liner, I think there would have been a better outcome.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I carved out some time to watch the film tomorrow night. I am not passionate about film and have low standards, so as long as it's better than the Jeremy Irons/Thora Birch D&D film, I'll be happy with it.

Anyway, good job on the Friday Freakout, FATties. Been too long. Cheers!

dysjunct wrote: FWIW, I've had Jackwraith's blog in my RSS reader for a while. He reviews a lot of films. He is passionate about film and has high standards, so his comment about the D&D film seemed par for the course for me. But I can see how, without the context of knowing how he interacts with film as a medium, his comment would seem weird

I always appreciate a regular reader and you are, of course, exactly right. I have (perhaps too) high standards. I just want people to aim higher if I'm going to spend two hours in front of something that took months, if not years, to write and months (and very occasionally years) to film. All of that time and effort (and money) to me means that there should be a higher goal in it than simply churning out something that people will flock to for a weekend before forgetting in the wake of the next big thing. We often criticize board games and the endless churn of them in the past several years from that same perspective. Aim higher!

But that's me. I don't think hotseat or anyone else is an idiot for liking it. It's not up to me to tell people how to have fun. In the same way, I don't begrudge dysjunct just wanting to sit in front of a movie and be entertained. That's what they're there for. But I'm not going to hold back when I write about what I think because there's no point in doing so.

@Gregarius: I'm certainly not going to target you personally in a response about enjoying it ("Stupid much?") Why would I? Because you like something I don't? I thought it was bad enough to engender that kind of response and it has precisely zero to do with my state of mind. But now you're suggesting that I needed to "relax" over the weekend, as if my response couldn't possibly be made by a reasonable, albeit acerbic, person. Again, why is your response about me and not the film? Why isn't the response (again) something like hotseat wrote: "I liked this and thought this other stuff was cool-!" Great! You were entertained (HT: Russell Crowe in another subpar film that somehow won multiple awards...) That's all that needs to be said. If you want to argue that there were positives, feel free. I'm all about hearing a contrary opinion because it's certainly possible that I missed something or some aspect just didn't work for me and it soured the rest of what might've been a good film. If you just want to do a judgmental drive-by like NS, expect some blowback.