Last Good Movie You Saw

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I didn't realise that was out - I wanted to see it but had not seen it advertised.

[Mister Jack]

Batman vs. Two-Face.  This was Adam West's final time portraying Batman, and if I'm not mistaken I think it's the last acting role he ever had.  This was a great, fun Batman film, much like the last one.  It plays up the corniness of the 60s Batman (Dent gets scarred by Hugo Strange's "evil extraction machine" overloading and exploding when they use it on the rogues' gallery) but at the same time it actually has a strangely compelling interpretation of Two-Face's character that I don't think I've seen before.  Everyone does an admirable job with their roles, and William Shatner turned out surprisingly good as Two-Face.  It's not quite as silly and goofy as Return of the Caped Crusaders, but it's still quite goofy.  The trade-off is getting a more focused plot.  I recommend it if any of you ever get the chance to watch it.  Thanks for one last batventure, Adam.  Rest well, Bright Knight.

[Hot Heart]

14 hours ago, deadbmmv said:

@Hot Heart

ARRIVAL DISCUSSION

  Reveal hidden contents

I guess it's been a bit since I saw it, but I took it as a "oh that's quite different to use mahjong, I guess they might be onto something on the language structure". And iirc that is what put the americans on the path of learning to write rather than learning to speak. Also part of the lack of inter-country communication was kind of the point of the movie. Which also ties in the "language changes how you think" stuff, in this case it's quite extreme but I believe you were one of the folks RT'ing my RT the other day about how Google turns English gendered phrases, to non-gendered Turkish, and then back into quite sexist gendered English again.

A lot of that doesn't happen until right near the end when she figures out they were using Mahjong. So, yeah, it all feels a little bit late.

 

Blade Runner 2049

 

Really cool-looking piece of sci-fi (Deakins better finally get that Oscar) that needs to be seen and will be definitely be a shame if it does bomb. It feels too long/slow in places and there are some weird inclusions here and there, but the overall story is pretty good and there's a lot to delve into.

 

Good performances, cool costumes without going too overboard and a really neat score and soundtrack. I just know it's going to be a nightmare on home sound systems as you'll forever be turning it up for dialogue before being deafened by a giant BWAAAAARM.

 

p.s. I know it's actually the case for most people, but I never realised Gosling's eyes were so unsymmetrical. 

[Mr. GOH!]

Blade Runner 2049

 

I loved it, but I understand why it may not be everybody's cup of tea. I'm a sucker for movies that revolve around philosophical musings in interesting ways, I love the grand sweep of visual world-building and storytelling, and I really dig the trappings of sci-fi noir. I thought most of the performances were pretty great and even though it was long, there was not much that I would cut; every shot is a piece of the storytelling puzzle. It is slow, like the original, but it features a very interesting character arc and has an actual plot in which things happen, unlike the original (which I like, don't get me wrong). Every shot, line, and musical cue contributes to the exploration of the film's ideas beyond just being cool. The amount of care the production team put into the movie is fucking astounding. There are few plot holes, although many folks will miss crucial information to filling in seeming plot holes because this movie is content to let images and actions tell a lot of the emotional story rather than regurgitating the plot for audiences (outside of the opening text). It's a beautiful film and I am unsurprised that more folsk didn't go to see it.

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[TheMightyEthan]

The Girl With All The Gifts.  It's basically The Last of Us + 28 Days Later. 

[Hot Heart]

Goodfellas

 

Never actually watched this before. It's pretty good and has some fine performances. I think it feels somewhat familiar and rote because of everything gangster-related that has gone since (in a Seinfeld Isn't Funny trope way).

 

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

 

Watched this years and years ago and remember not liking it as much as I thought I would (I just thought the middle flashback bit was kinda long and boring with Ziyi Zhang a terrible overactor), but now I'm older and (slightly) wiser, I enjoyed it a lot more.

Edited October 22, 2017 by Hot Heart

[deanb]

2 hours ago, Hot Heart said:

Goodfellas

 

 (in a Seinfeld Isn't Funny trope way).

 

Sienfield isn't funny how? Isn't funny like a clown?

[deanb]

Thor Ragnarok

 

So this film is, failing all else, pure fun and I'd recommend going to see it purely based on that even if you're not much for the MCU. (also see What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople).

Certainly a pretty great MCU film, easily the best Thor film (though it does need the others to kind of rest on and some of the gags do require you to have seen the other films). 

Visually it's great, the music is pretty damn great (one of the better original scores in the MCU), and it still develops character too. Like this is the first film, of the 7(?) he's in, that shows him properly being in a position as a leader to be king of Asgard (despite it being part of his first introduction in the original Thor).

 

Been a pretty good year for the MCU, here's hoping next year repeats it. God could you imagine releasing a comic book film two weeks after this one?

 

Some of the press junket stuff, especially with Taikai and Goldblum, has been a joy too and you can see them for free.

 

Loki totally nabbed the Tesseract when getting Surtur helm though.

 

Also I'd wager Hela is alive, though not as powerful. She's a god after all and I think will be teaming up with Thanos in some way. Apperently the reason that the Warriors Three were taken out was to show she's the most powerful MCU villain so far and I doubt they'd kill off three characters to big up a villain they'd get rid of within the movie that introduces her.

[TheMightyEthan]

I will also add Thor Ragnarok.  It's definitely more comedic than the other Thors, but it works, and in fact throughout the whole movie I'd say the only gag that misses is one of the very first ones, right at the beginning.  I also love that with the soundtrack, even the original parts, they completely embrace how absolutely metal everything about Thor is.  And I'm not even someone who's super into metal.

[Hot Heart]

The Death of Stalin

 

It's a hard film to pitch by describing it as a "period black comedy/drama" unless you know Armando Ianucci's work (The Thick of It and Veep being the two most relevant examples). Based on real events following the aforementioned death, albeit on a far more condensed timeline and with a lot of liberties, it's absurd but also quite dark. It has a brilliant cast with the likes of Steve Buscemi, Jeffrey Tambor and Michael Palin while, thankfully, no effort has been made to do mock Russian accents or even consistent ones. So you've got Buscemi as Nikita Khrushchev with his New York accent, Tambor with his usual timbre and then Jason Isaacs... who shows up not with his real accent but a brilliant Yorkshire one. In fact, Isaacs and Rupert Friend (him off Homeland and that last Hitman film, yeah) while playing only brief roles are brilliant, with Friend playing boozy Vasily Stalin to great effect. Palin has a wonderful scene during a committee meeting that's very Monty Pythonesque as well and makes me miss seeing him in more comedies. Everyone is great, really, even Paul Whitehouse.

 

Thor: Ragnorak

 

Saw this one really late with almost no one else in the theatre, which actually meant it didn't seem as funny as it really was. I'm thinking, for some jokes, the timing felt off, perhaps, but there are lots of great gags in there. I particularly enjoyed Thor's story about Loki tricking him by posing as a snake.

 

It's a visual treat and actually has a decent and moving story even if it rushes over some bits (the Banner stuff, for me). It plays well on the character history, which is what really helped Civil War as well. As for new characters, Goldblum was great and Blanchett hammed it up nicely, while Valkyrie is a nice addition.

 

I was actually shocked by the sudden deaths of Volstagg and Fandrel (with Hogun getting more of a warrior's death). Just made me glad Sif wasn't around.

[Mr. GOH!]

Thor: Ragnarok.

 

Super fun, although the basic plot outline is also standard Marvel fare to the point of being predictably boring. Taika Waititi's comedic take on everything elevated the movie, as did the Hemsworth's very funny performance. 

 

Highlights:

Spoiler

the play-within-the-movie starring Matt Damon as Loki, Luke Hemsowrth as Thor, and Sam Neil as Odin;  Waititi as the very pleasant revolutionary rock-man Korg; Jeff Goldblum playing himself as the Grandmaster, my favorite Marvel villain (his alert to the populace when Hulk and Thor escape is just fantastic); Mark Mothersbaugh's excellent synth score; and Chris Hemsworth's very good comedic timing.

 

Lowlights:

 

Spoiler

The wonderful Cate Blanchett as Hela, who was a boring, typical Marvel villain; Skurge being shoehorned in without any real character development; a few Mark Ruffalo lines that just didn't really work.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

4 hours ago, Hot Heart said:

I particularly enjoyed Thor's story about Loki tricking him by posing as a snake.

 

I literally bent forward from laughing at that point.

[TCP]

Yeah I lol'd hard with that story. I love that they really incorporated the comedy style from the Thor roommate shorts from a few years ago.
 

What We Do In The Shadows
It's a New Zealand mocumentry about four vampires. It's really funny. It was made by the director of Thor Ragnarok and one of the dudes from Flight of the Chords.

[deanb]

13 hours ago, Ultra TCP said:

one of the dudes from Flight of the Chords.

 

Or, as I have to introduce to family, ..."the Shiny crab". But yeah a good watch.

 

Also I believe the Thor shorts were done by Taikai hence the similar comedy style.

 

 

re: Death of Stalin: Talking on the Empire podcast Jason Isaacs said he'd wanted to Yorkshire as his character was going to be one of the blunter ones, having won WWII there wasn't much Stalin could do to him, and he was like "well Yorkshire-men are some of the bluntest people I know".

[Mister Jack]

Another thumbs up for Thor: Ragnarok.  This is easily the best movie in the Thor trilogy.  I don't know anyone who would disagree with that.  I just love that they decided to go full ham with this one.  Someone said "You know what?  Thor is kinda silly as a concept so let's just have fun with it" and that's what they did.  This movie was completely over the top and it felt like I was watching an extended story from Heavy Metal or a remake of Flash Gordon, and I mean that in a good way.  Great performances, a kickass soundtrack, good action, and jokes that were actually funny for a change!  It's kind of a shame it took 3 movies for Thor to really hit his stride, but better late than never. 

[Mister Jack]

Coco

 

Coco is a wonderful film about a boy who goes on an adventure in the land of the dead during Dia de Los Muertos. It's full of beautiful imagery, lovely music, and heartfelt moments. I would recommend it to anyone.

 

However, the film is preceded by a TWENTY ONE MINUTE LONG short about the snowman from Frozen. I'll let Jhonen sum it up.

 

 

Edited November 28, 2017 by Mister Jack

[Mr. GOH!]

Two movies:

 

The Shape of Water. This is Del Toro's best since Pan's Labyrinth, which I think would be a neat double feature. The acting, writing, production design, direction, and special effects are all superlative. Everbody should see it. I could write a lot more about just how delightful the whole thing is, but I don't want to spoil anything. One of my top movies for the year.

 

The Disaster Artist. I did not realize it would be played as a kind of dramedy, though more comedic than dramatic, but I thought it worked extremely well.  My wife, who has never seen The Room, also really liked it. It's funny, but gentle on everyone involved in The Room. James Franco really does a great job of being Tommy Wiseau. I was especially impressed with how he was able to make his Wiseau feel like such a hulking and weird presence when James Franco is not nearly as large as Wiseau. Dave Franco was also pretty great as Greg Sestero. Unsurprisingly, the Francos had great on-screen chemistry. THere are lots of cameos from comics and comedic actors I like, though your mileage may vary. It was way better than I thought it would be.

[deanb]

We don't get Shape of Water until next year. Hoping it'll be showing locally, but not holding out too much hope.

 

[deanb]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

 

Went to the midnight screening

 

 

So I'm gonna straight up open with making good on a promise I made on discord that I could list a bunch of actual plot elements in this film and you'd think I was pulling your chain.

Like these totally happen, so don't click unless you want spoilers. I'm just giving examples so you know I wasn't pulling shit out my arse:

Yoda blows up the jedi tree/temple using force storm.

Leia uses the force to fly back to a spaceship.

 

Anywho onwards to the film:

It's good. There's things I could pull apart, the biggest most glaring thing for me is that it's following on from TFA in having too many characters. You've got:

Rey

Luke

Finn

Po

Leia

Holder

Rose

Thief

Kylo

Snoke

Hux

Phasma

Redacted

Redacted

 

And it leads to like three-four different little storylines going on. Compared to with the OG trilogy where you'd have like Cloud City & Dagobah, Endor & Death Star which were much more manageable.

 

There's also a definite change in directorial style. It opens with the usual motif; a pan down from space, a spaceship and a planet. But you come out being aware that it's otherwise after that first 5 minutes quite different (and I think that's where this film has tried to place itself, in comparison to TFA which clearly tread in the footprints of New Hope). Whether that's a thing that is a negative or not I guess ties into how hooked you are into the usual transition wipes and such.

There is a particular shot that I really want to get in wallpaper form

The shot of Snokes shit being ripped through by the hyperdrive explosion

So prettyyy

 

Plotwise no it's not ESB, but it is derivative of quite a few other sci-fi TV shows I've seen but what can you do. Still it has loads in it that's there to kind of cover a few issues with TFA as well as make a point that it's not your daddies Star Wars (like it's a pretty big theme with several of the characters).

 

Anywho onwards to my totally spoiler filled discussion

So I kind of felt like they killed off Snoke a bit too easily, like 90% of his scenes (that he's in one piece) are all in the trailer. Considering he was meant to be a big bad. Maybe it was figured they didn't know what to do with him so decided it was best to get rid of him. I know similar happened with Dooku in RotS but he had a larger part in AotC than Snoke did in TFA.

He did look pretty convincing though so good job to the VFX team.

 

I'm not sure on the turn taken with how Lukes academy was wiped out. There's a fair bit of "unreliable narrative" going on, that even on the third go around you're unsure of what's really the truth to the matter. And even if the third go around is truth it doesn't seem a very Luke thing to want to murder his teen nephew even if he's falling to the darkside. Especially given this is the same Luke that tried to sway over Darth Vader to the light.

 

On a Luke front I kinda loved the "force ghost" fight. It's an ability of sorts we've seen Yoda do in Rebels, not sure it's happened in the other films that I can remember. Though I picked up on what was going on early on given that Luke showed up looking younger, to how he was in the flashback to the academy. Also in the fight he's using Anakins lightsaber which 

1. Kylo should have picked up on not being Lukes lightsaber
2. Kylo should have picked up on the fact he and Rey just tore apart that lighsaber

3. It's interesting Luke in his "force ghost" self would use Anakins lightsaber and not his own. 

 

Talking of force ghosts...dat Yoda cameo. I was kind of expecting it given Frank Oz did show up on the red carpet. Was not expecting him to be able to use a variant of Force Storm even when dead let alone as a lightside user.

 

Talking of unexpected force use, we've got Leia using the force to fly across space back onto the ship. Something that I'd say for most people would be considered well beyond her expected force level, even as a Skywalker. Usually she's been depicted at a most powerful level as a force sensitive with a galaxy spanning connection to Luke.

The way she was first attacked I'd figured that's how they were going to take her out of the film, since it was quite CGI'd. But nope they brought her back from that. So it'll be interesting to see how Episode IX plays it out, best suggestion I've seen is a "succumb to her wounds" in the opening crawl and having a funeral of sorts for her in the opening.

 

The Hux-Kylo-Rey-Snoke thing going on I think should have been a bigger part of the film even if Hux for the most part was a fall guy rather than a Tarkin-esque character set up in TFA. It's a shame really as Gleeson is a decent actor. I think Kylos thing of falling to the lightside...but not quite...I'm not so sure on. I think he's kind of embracing it but not on a orange-eyes level just yet. The fight with Rey and Kylo against the Imperial Guard was pretty good. I'm assuming those guys are what's carried over from the Knights of Ren. (though I'm having a thought that given the pre-credit scene of the force using kid that maybe the Knights of Ren are for Episode IX and were a future vision).

 

I liked how there was a force-vision-quest thing but it wasn't what people assumed in the fight between Rey and Luke, which was real, but instead was the trippy infinite Rey thing. Though whether her parents truly are nobodies remains to be seen. In RotJ they had to have Yoda confirm the "I am your father" stuff given it did come from the bad guy, and the same has happened here.

 

Laura Derns character, Holdo/Holder, I think should have survived to the end as a replacement for General Leia. Not super sure if I liked her or not, she was refreshing and took no shit from Poe but the self-sacrifice stuff at the end was a bit cliche and disappointing.

 

Given we knew it was coming, from the photoshoots and such, but hadn't had any of it in the trailer I'd suspected that the casino planet would play a bigger part than it did, but it did provide a nice look at what was going on outside of this small bubble of First Order v Resistance. Though maybe a bit "I am very smart" with the "first order and resistance use the same weapons suppliers" stuff.

 

Oh n BB-AT was pretty fun (though I'll admit at first I thought it'd be Benico Del Toros dude).

 

Anyway go watch it so we can talk more on it. It's a 2.5hr long film so I know there's loads more I could discuss but it's a bit draining.

[Hot Heart]

I'm going to see it on Saturday. I'm excited because I liked Force Awakens more than I expected and I love all that jedi shit, plus I like Rian Johnson (Brick is one of my favourite films) and I hear it dares to be a little different. And to be honest, while Force Awakens was better than I expected, I didn't enjoy it as much the second time, partly because it still felt like it was stuck in the past; so some changes sounds like it might be a good thing.

 

...then again, I'm also apprehensive because I'm hearing the changes might not be so great. Guess I'll see...

 

If anything, LOTR was the "Star Wars" of my adolescence/young adult years, so something more in that direction would be good, since that still had a bunch of characters but coped with 2-3 different strands.

[Hot Heart]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

 

I applaud the filmmakers for taking some brave, bold decisions when they could easily have taken the safe option and been far less divisive. There are some key lines (and an effective early scene) that clue you into the general approach, one being in the trailer but another one coming from a different source...

"Let the past die," says Kylo Ren

 

And there's a lot to discuss (in the main Star Wars thread), but I will just say that this is actually a refreshing departure from what Abrams did with TFA. It wears its politics and themes proudly (albeit, sometimes, abrasively), zigs when you think it might zag and generally feels like Star Wars should feel without being "like poetry: it rhymes".

 

That's not to say it doesn't have its flaws, notably in its runtime, that is most apparent in a subplot that you could argue is mostly a waste of time (personally, while too long, it still suits the themes, builds character moments and becomes relevant at the end).

[Mal]

3 hours ago, Hot Heart said:

that is most apparent in a subplot that you could argue is mostly a waste of time (personally, while too long, it still suits the themes, builds character moments and becomes relevant at the end).

Yeah, that was my initial reaction to that subplot but I eventually settled to the bit in parentheses. Look the film through the lenses of what you said in your spoiler and

Spoiler

what Yoda said about failure being the best teacher (paraphrasing)

makes the movie that much better. Though it definitely had too much going on.

 

And yeah, I would put TLJ in this Good Movie thread.

Edited December 17, 2017 by Mal

[Mister Jack]

Yaaay Star Wars!  I liked it a lot.  I might even go so far as to say I loved it.  It fixed pretty much every problem I had with TFA, whether it was through retconning something I hated or just plain better writing and characterization.  I have very few complaints, honestly.  Fans seem pretty divided on how this movie did so much different that they weren't expecting, but that's exactly why I liked it so much.  Star Wars has been following the same beats for too long.  It's time to shake the franchise up.

[toxicitizen]

Just got back from seeing The Last Jedi. I kind of expected to be able to point to at least one thing that explained why some people hated it so much but I can't. Reading about it now, it seems to be mostly due to the elements that were... let's go with subverted. There were a few things I wasn't so sure about when I walked out of the theater and the more I think about them the less I like them but overall it's at least as good as The Force Awakens.

 

It felt a bit too long, though. That one subplot in the middle that was kinda boring and ultimately had no impact on the story whatsoever. How did that not get left on the cutting room floor?

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, it was kind of weird pacing.  I thought the movie was ending and then all of a sudden it's like "no wait, there's a whole other act still to go".  Ultimately it didn't really bother me though.

 

I also can't really fathom why people are so upset about it.  I've been a huge Star Wars nerd, since before I can remember, and this might be the best one so far.