Last OK Movie You Saw

[TheMightyEthan]

Sorry about your grandpa.

[Hot Heart]

Thanks, man.

[Hot Heart]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

 

I'm not sure what drove me to watch this, other than being incredibly bored and lazy and having just finished watching The Night Manager and craving more Le Carre, but I should've watched the TV series like I've been meaning to... since now I've kinda of spoiled it for myself.

 

It's not as if it's bad in anyway; it's definitely got a very strong cast with, er, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Hurt (RIP) and, of course, Gary Oldman among others. It's just that it's trying to condense too much into two hours. If it had more time to breathe, I think it would function a lot better and probably be far more moving and haunting. As it is, it feels far too blunt and rushed with only the odd moment of tension and can be a little tricky to follow if you're not paying attention (or fully awake *ahem*)

[deanb]

Bright

 

So first of all any wannabe producers n directors out there, you wanna be in the "Good Movie" thread? Don't call your company "Trigger Warning Entertainment".

 

Anywho, the film itself is fairly fine and passable, some neat effects and Will Smith is as charismatic as ever though I'd swear a bunch of his dialogue is spliced in from other Will Smith films.

 

I think the premise is kind of neat, though I'm not super clued up if it's like a world in which all the multiple races have grown up together over the millennia, or if it's like Convergence (play the Witcher games) and they all kinda got dumped in our world and people adjusted. Like I get there's a whole race/class thing going on but not super sure why the Elves are straight up seemingly rich and have their own sort of sub-city in the main city. Also there's clearly a Centaur shown as a cop, so no idea why it's weird an Orc is a cop, and there's also mention of dwarves though you never see any.

 

I reckon it could make a good comic book series. Just under someone elses stewardship, with a slightly more satisfying conclusion.

 

 

[TheMightyEthan]

Sounds a lot like the Shadowrun setting.

[Mister Jack]

Oh man I would love a Shadowrun movie.

[deanb]

I think it's something that'd work better as a TV series. But yeah Shadowrun would be pretty neat.

The concept of Bright was neat, just the execution a bit lacking in that it's basically "orcs are black people in the hood n elves are jews running the world" stuff, and play out rather dully from that heavy handed metaphor. Whereas Shadowrun is a bit more nuanced than that. It's kind of why I'm unsure on the timeline in Bright because it's weird to me that this is the first time an orc has been a police officer if the 2,000ya event happened on Earth would mean for 2,000 years orcs were kept out of being in the police.

Like if there's been 9 different species co-existing on Earth for an age (which given in reality there used to be 2 until we killed the other one) then surely entire society would be completely different, and not just like our modern day but with a couple orcs and elves peppered around and some orcish/elvish graffiti and signs. I'm kind of annoyed that no one sat down to even briefly think about how much it'd change unless they did n Netflix were like "oh gods that's like a $250million film so no".

[Hot Heart]

From what I can remember, Max Landis was the hot new thing for a little while after Chronicle and he managed to sell Bright as a package because he wanted Will Smith and Ayer attached. He had tweeted (since deleted) that if it comes out well it could be his Star Wars... which given the mixed reception to TLJ, might be accurate.

 

Of course, since then Landis hasn't done anything great (I think the only thing with somewhat positive reviews was Dirk Gently and even that's just been cancelled) and Ayer directed Suicide Squad. And look what happened with the director of Chronicle when he did that F4nt4stic 4our film.

[deanb]

So apart from Michael B Jordan pretty much no one escaped that film with much follow-up success (and even then he ended up in Fanfourstic)

[deanb]

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

 

So first of all if you're going into this expecting something the same as the first Jumanji you'll be disappointed. It is however a direct sequel, like it literally starts off where the first film ends (with the couple on the beach, someone picks up the board game...later on it turns into a games console cos "who plays board games anymore?", shit happens then it's 20 years later in 2017).

 

The four main adult actors were pretty dang great, especially Jack Black as a high school girl. Like it's a gag that simple but they get their fair mileage out of it, my favourite being Jack Black teaching Karen Gillan how to be sexy and flirty. (though there was added humour in my younger sister not getting that they were joking at Jack Black getting a hard-on over Nick Jonas).

 

The main thing going for this film for me is it being a video game movie in the same vein as Edge of Tomorrow (though that's still the best), Scott Pilgrim, Wreck it Ralph (compared to Tomb Raider, Super Mario, Resident Evil type of "video game movie", which usually suck). Rhys Darby as a Oblivion-level quest giving NPC is pretty fun, and some plot elements that they made use of the "video game" nature of Jumanji to their advantage. The plot for the most part was fairly expected fair of "kids get sucked into the game, come out as friends and learning more about themselves". It is however an enjoyable film, not at all disappointed with it, just I guess if you go in expecting like a reboot-ish type repeat of the first movie you'll be disappointed but as a film with a bunch of comedy actors in it that plays on tropes of some older games (though I guess loads of current games still have lives, levels, special skills and NPCs so fair enough I guess) then you'll find it fun. Even funner if you pay as little as I did.

 

Oh and Marc Evan Jackson (aka Shawn from Good Place/Kevin from B99/Trevor from Parks&Rec n loads of others) was in it too as their principal.

Actually while checking IMDB for his real name, found out why the teacher at the start was familiar-ish. Cos she really wants cocaine.

 

 

[danielpholt]

Goon: Last of the Enforcers lacks the charm and heart that made the original such an enjoyable ride through the world of minor league hockey. Scott is as good as ever (seriously, he's actually good in these films), but the story takes too long to get going and frankly, never really grabs you.

 

It's fine. If you like Hockey you might enjoy it. Or if you like Hockey you might find the way it portrays your sport to be way too heavy handed, almost comical (it is a comedy).

[Mal]

The Cloverfield Paradox 

 

It's ridiculous but if I tie it to say... Warhammer 40K then it becomes quite funny and enjoyable. Basic premise is some experiment went wrong. Sci-fi hijinks happens. 

 

Never go through the Immaterium without a Gellar Field generator. 

[toxicitizen]

54 minutes ago, Mal said:

It's ridiculous but if I tie it to say... Warhammer 40K then it becomes quite funny and enjoyable.

 

Have you seen Event Horizon? Because that one legitimately feels like a Warhammer 40K origin story. It's also horror, which seems more appropriate for anything related to 40K/the Warp.

 

But yeah, Cloverfield Paradox is super silly but that's why I loved it so much lol.

[Mal]

Oh yeah, the stuff that went down in Cloverfield Paradox is REALLY tame compared to Event Horizon and anything that the Warp can toss out but at the same time almost align with what you'd expect. Again, just not as extreme.

 

Also if what I think are the main Cloverfield theories are correct, the next movie Overlord will have demons. After the monsters and aliens in the previous films.  I'm honestly not entirely convinced of everything you seen in Paradox to be sci-fi.

 

And no, I have not seen Event Horizon.

[TheMightyEthan]

You need to see Event Horizon. I love that movie. That's on my list of media that I wish I could experience for the first time again.

[deanb]

I hate Event Horizon for the main thing that I'm not into horror. But I am into sci-fi. My step-dad rented out Event Horizon years ago in the days before film podcasts and youtube reviews n even rotten tomatoes (maybe). It starts off fairly sci-fi. But nope. Where we're going we don't need eyes to see.

 

Totally agree it's one of the more 40K films out there mind and totally comes across as a ship that accidentally travelled through the Warp. Of course if you mention this to or around 40K super-nerds then they vocally disagree because...well super nerds.

 

[MetalCaveman]

7 hours ago, Mal said:

Oh yeah, the stuff that went down in Cloverfield Paradox is REALLY tame compared to Event Horizon and anything that the Warp can toss out but at the same time almost align with what you'd expect. Again, just not as extreme.

 

Also if what I think are the main Cloverfield theories are correct, the next movie Overlord will have demons. After the monsters and aliens in the previous films.  I'm honestly not entirely convinced of everything you seen in Paradox to be sci-fi.

 

And no, I have not seen Event Horizon.

 

You should, it's fucking awesome! \m/ \m/

[MetalCaveman]

The Clovefield Paradox.

 

Pretty cool, reminded me a lot of Event Horizon, except, with less hell stuff and more sci-fi stuff.

 

Spoiler

I've only watched the first one, and it's been a while, but I don't remember the monster being that freaking huge.

 

[Mal]

2 hours ago, MetalCaveman said:

  Hide contents

I've only watched the first one, and it's been a while, but I don't remember the monster being that freaking huge.

 

Spoiler

That's the mom. The monster in the original Cloverfield was just a baby. Though the monster in Paradox may be within it's own universe unless the original monster got transported to the original Cloverfield universe.

 

All three movies exist in their own universe which apparently Paradox helped create. Needless to say, with how screwy everything is, any movie can be in the Cloverfield-verse.

 

[Hot Heart]

Apocalypse Now

 

I know what you're thinking: how could I rate one of the greatest war films of all time as okay?! Well, I did, so there.

 

It's one of those GOAT films that you "know" through popular culture but I'd never actually sat down to watch it before. It was shorter than I expected but it's still too long. I guess it's being too familiar with it that spoils the experience, and it was obviously far more impactful during its time. The performances are good and it's a harrowing watch (how anyone could even bother to ask whether or not it's anti-war is strange to me) but it never feels as deep as I was hoping after the brilliant narration and setup early on. I think in the same way I couldn't get into The Conversation, I'm just not a huge fan of Coppola overall.

[Mr. GOH!]

Did you watch the redux or the original?  It's weird that you expected a 2.5 hour film to be even longer.

 

 

[Hot Heart]

It was the original, clocking in around 140 minutes. Maybe the cut scenes would've helped frame things a little better. I was expecting longer considering The Godfather and thinking of other "epic" war films like David Lean used to make, or it was reminiscent (well, other way round) of something like Munich.

[deanb]

Death of Stalin

 

Basically apart from Jason Isaacs it wasn't hugely funny, and I guess I'm also not great at following subterfuge films (I had issues following Tinker Tailor too). Also maybe I need to know more about Stalinist Russia.

 

 

[TheMightyEthan]

Train to Busan

 

It's a Korean zombie movie, and it's really good. I can't really get into why without ending spoilers though. Anyone who likes zombie movies should watch it.

[TCP]

Justice League

Hey it was ok! I didn't laugh at it like I did with "SAVE MARTHA!". Some parts were actually enjoyable!! Yeah some parts were "meh", other parts rushed, and then it just sort of ends unceremoniously. But it could have been a lot worse. I even laughed at some jokes. I find Batfleck to actually be pretty good, too bad we'll never seem him again. 

Man, what a mess.

Edited March 11, 2018 by Ultra TCP