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

DarthJoJo wrote: Disappointed that no one is talking about Fall Guy. It was really good. Lampshades itself hard when Director Emily Blunt discusses the use of split screen in her movie just in time to use it in the real movie, but Fall Guy feels like something someone actually wanted to make and not just because it was on a timeline at ComicCon five years ago. Things are set up and paid off. There are constant thrills from the technical achievement of the opening one shot to the constant stunts revealed in the ending credits. A fun time. Need more movies like this. Not mid-budget but not tied to an IP or looking to set up a franchise.

If the rumors that the Academy only loves movies about Hollywood are true, this is sweeping the Oscars. The Artist and The Fabelmans don’t love film as much as Fall Guy.

I liked it quite a bit, though I think the core 'mystery', such as it is, was a bit half baked and should have been stronger. But the crazy over use of stunts was just a joy to watch. I've heard the film is a coded slap to the face of a certain high profile actor who says they do their own stunt work but really doesn't, but not sure if I believe it. It was a fun date night film, hopefully that moon race one with ScarJo and Channing tatum is as well. Proper action romcoms need a comeback.

I saw Furiosa yesterday at noon in a nearly vacant theater near downtown Minneapolis. I'm glad that I saw it, but I can't easily identify how I felt about the movie, so I'm just going to ramble on here in hopes of figuring it out.

In general, I have turned against the idea of prequels, because we always know in advance that certain characters are going to survive, and possibly that certain other significant events will take place. That loss of potential drama, in my mind, slightly outweighs the possible benefits of learning a character's back story. In this case, it means that we know that Furiosa will survive, but she lose her arm. We also know that Immortan Joe and his sons and advisors will all survive. And since there is no trace of the aggressive and ambitious Dementus in Fury Road, we have reason to suspect that he will die. However, it is possible that some future viewers will have the chance to watch Furiosa before Fury Road, in which case all of the prequel problems go away, and Furiosa does a great job of setting up the events of Fury Road.

Road Warrior remains one of my all-time favorite movies, but Furiosa emphasizes the many negative aspects of life in a barren post-apocalyptic Australia, forcing me to acknowledge that I would never want to live in that world. And yet there is a certain stubborn optimism in that people keep trying to rebuild some sort of civilization in these movies.

So, Furiosa the character... this movie hits all the right beats to create the character that we meet in Fury Road. In some ways, she is more impressive than Mad Max. First we meet the plucky child Furiosa, so brave, stubborn, and resourceful. Alyla Browne, the actress who plays her is quite the chameleon, able to look both quite young and surprisingly mature from moment to moment, with perfectly symmetrical features and a piercing gaze. She may just have a big movie career ahead of her. Though Anya Taylor-Joy has a more exotic facial structure, her eyes are even more compelling, and not just when she dons her driver makeup for the later scenes in the movie. Her action scenes are credible because her features convey such intensity.

Chris Hemsworth was surprising as Dementus in both good ways and bad. As a Mad Max villain, he falls a bit short. Yes, he is tall and strong and intimidating enough, but too chatty at times. On the other hand, he sells some moments with subtle non-verbal gestures... a look, a gesture, a certain physical grace. Or minor comments that reveal greater depths to his character, like when he mentions his lost children in passing while offering the teddy bear to young Furiosa.

Compared to the other Mad Max movies, I instinctively want to call Furiosa middle of the road. Better than the original Mad Max and especially the garish Thunderdome installment, but not as good as the nearly perfect Road Warrior. However, I am not certain if Fury Road is better than Furiosa. I am definitely in the mood to rewatch Fury Road right now, and also to replay the Saltlands board game sometime soon.

ChristopherMD wrote: Godzilla Minus One - I can't remember the last monster movie where I was rooting for the humans. Not that the big guy is any more of a menace than usual here. Its just far more of a character piece with a separate story to tell, set mostly in Tokyo just after WWII ends. Surely the best Godzilla movie ever made.

After seeing this on Saturday on Netflix, I wholeheartedly agree. The fact that the movie was made on shoestring budget was no less astounding.

That didn't strike me as their motivation at all. I saw the simplicity of the sets and production as their way of doing an homage to the original film. Those kinds of sets and costuming and production were basically standard fare for Toho Pictures of that era. They were basically doing a modern version of the 1954 film; down to the slightly mistimed dubbing and vocal tag lines ("Da monstah!" clearly audible in the first time Godzilla approaches Tokyo.) I thought it was great mostly for those efforts. The fact that they spruced up the screenplay (characters with more emotional depth, a better rendition of post-war Tokyo life, etc.) was just a bonus.

Having just re-watched Fury Road, I can say without a doubt that it's the second-best movie of the Mad Max franchise, after The Road Warrior. Furiosa is a good movie, but not as good as Fury Road for a couple of reasons. First, Furiosa is a longer movie that feels even longer due to slow pacing in certain sections, though useful to flesh out the overall setting. Second, Furiosa is a bleak movie about a tough woman clinging to life in an absolutely miserable world. However, Furiosa does a great job of setting up Fury Road, which jumped right into action in medias res. Fury Road offers hope in small doses throughout the movie, despite overwhelming odds, and ends on a positive note. Furiosa offers only vengeance and a glimpse of hope in a brief preview of Fury Road.

I've recently re-watched Road Warrior. It is great... but not as good as Fury Road. I have yet to see Furiosa, so without it, the ranking is:

1. Fury Road
2. Road Warrior
3. Mad Max
800. Beyond Thunderdome

Shellhead wrote: I saw Furiosa
So, Furiosa the character... this movie hits all the right beats to create the character that we meet in Fury Road. In some ways, she is more impressive than Mad Max. First we meet the plucky child Furiosa, so brave, stubborn, and resourceful. Alyla Browne, the actress who plays her is quite the chameleon, able to look both quite young and surprisingly mature from moment to moment, with perfectly symmetrical features and a piercing gaze. She may just have a big movie career ahead of her. Though Anya Taylor-Joy has a more exotic facial structure, her eyes are even more compelling, and not just when she dons her driver makeup for the later scenes in the movie. Her action scenes are credible because her features convey such intensity.

Interesting that you keyed in on this, as it seems that they CGed her face to some extent to make her look more like Ana-Taylor "she of the wide set eyes" Joy.

variety.com/2024/artisans/news/furiosa-a...-browne-1236016222/# !

So how much of her performance was "her" vs some extra CG spice will probably never be known.

I'm on the fence with this deaging stuff. On the one hand it usually looks pretty good (well, getting much better), especially with actors that have extensive footage of their younger self for reference. But it also deprives us of another actor taking their shot at the character (imagine if Rhaenyra and Alicent from House of Dragons were played by CG versions of the adults instead of the younger actresses?) plus if the actor is really old, we get a stumbly, clumsy "younger" version. Harrison Ford and Deniro....looking at you guys! I don't know that I like these extensive generational stories we are getting now that this tech is commonplace, Costner will probably use it a lot in his upcoming Western series and the bigwig directors that insist on keeping the same couple of actors in film after film will probably go nuts with it rather than have to cast younger actors, so they can indulge themselves in flashback scenes we wouldn't otherwise have to endure.

That use of CG is troubling. It isn't illegal or even unethical if the actors involved consent to it, but your point about loss of jobs for other actors is important. Maybe studios will eventually use CG the way recording studios currently use autotuning... to tweak every aspect of an actor's performance to perfection.

The kind of perfection that will bore me to death.

The first widespread de-aging use was IIRC in THE IRISHMAN ( I don't count the fast cuts of fakeTarkin or fakeLEIA in ROGUE ONE ) . Besides the movie being huge letdown, the de-aging could make them LOOK younger, but they still MOVED like old people.

Shellhead wrote: That use of CG is troubling. It isn't illegal or even unethical if the actors involved consent to it, but your point about loss of jobs for other actors is important. Maybe studios will eventually use CG the way recording studios currently use autotuning... to tweak every aspect of an actor's performance to perfection.

The Congress - Robin Wright plays a version of herself. As in her character starred in the Princess Bride and Forrest Gump. She signs a contract giving rights to her digital image to a studio. They make whatever movies they want with virtual Robin and she gets a big payoff but can never act again as they own the rights to her image. Most people live in a virtual cartoon world that she drives into then becomes a toon while there. Its an odd duck but worth watching.

ChristopherMD wrote: The Congress - Robin Wright plays a version of herself. As in her character starred in the Princess Bride and Forrest Gump. She signs a contract giving rights to her digital image to a studio. They make whatever movies they want with virtual Robin and she gets a big payoff but can never act again as they own the rights to her image. Most people live in a virtual cartoon world that she drives into then becomes a toon while there. Its an odd duck but worth watching.

I feel like an actress like Sydney Sweeny could MAKE BANK on a deal like that as their fleeing youth is about all they have to offer. Gonna have to check this flick out,

ChristopherMD wrote: The Congress - Robin Wright plays a version of herself. As in her character starred in the Princess Bride and Forrest Gump. She signs a contract giving rights to her digital image to a studio. They make whatever movies they want with virtual Robin and she gets a big payoff but can never act again as they own the rights to her image. Most people live in a virtual cartoon world that she drives into then becomes a toon while there. Its an odd duck but worth watching.

It seems like a number of artists make late-career deals that result in a payoff but, in a way, keep them from doing the same sort of work that got them the payoff. I am too old to complain about anyone selling out, although I did hear the song Peaches being used in a beer commercial and was momentarily indignant.

I have never achieved anything that I could sell for a vast amount of money, so who knows. My philosopohy has been to do the boring thing that ensures stability an then quietly regret it for decades, while ignoring all of the possible terrible outcomes I avoided by choosing the safe passage. But really I'm just writing this to generate a clean copy of the ChristopherMD quote so Jason10mm can use it to prevent me from having Monk-grade paroxysms.

Bad idea, dude, you just told us all how to really get at you.

ChristopherMD wrote: The Congress - Robin Wright plays a version of herself. As in her character starred in the Princess Bride and Forrest Gump. She signs a contract giving rights to her digital image to a studio. They make whatever movies they want with virtual Robin and she gets a big payoff but can never act again as they own the rights to her image. Most people live in a virtual cartoon world that she drives into then becomes a toon while there. Its an odd duck but worth watching.

It seems like a number of artists make late-career deals that result in a payoff but, in a way, keep them from doing the same sort of work that got them the payoff. I am too old to complain about anyone selling out, although I did hear the song Peaches being used in a beer commercial and was momentarily indignant.

I have never achieved anything that I could sell for a vast amount of money, so who knows. My philosopohy has been to do the boring thing that ensures stability an then quietly regret it for decades, while ignoring all of the possible terrible outcomes I avoided by choosing the safe passage. But really I'm just writing this to generate a clean copy of the ChristopherMD quote so Jason10mm can use it to prevent me from having Monk-grade paroxysms.

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There you go, I fixed it for you, OCD palliated