The Movie Thread Reloaded

[Shrieking Banshee]

The mere existence of a few movies, which you don't have to watch, is intolerable?

You must have a lot of difficulty with everyday life.

You can't manage to detect simple hyperbole and exaggeration?

You must have a lot of difficulty with everyday life.

[Pat]

The mere existence of a few movies, which you don't have to watch, is intolerable?

You must have a lot of difficulty with everyday life.

You can't manage to detect simple hyperbole and exaggeration?

You must have a lot of difficulty with everyday life.

Exactly.

We live in a world where fun killers think it's okay to police what other people like. I think it's better to avoid their rhetoric and say something like hey, I'm not a fan of that myself, but if other people are having fun that's awesome!

[Shrieking Banshee]

We live in a world where fun killers think it's okay to police what other people like.

Thats called having different taste and said world has existed since the beggining of time. Id say the opposite has been very much true recently: more people have been needing hype more then the actual product itself and so need everybody to validate their opinion.

If you like what you like, what does it matter to you if somebody else finds your decisions poor? If your fun is founded in intentional ignorance, then thats a very fragile kind of fun.

As for me, more people liking sequels and remakes validates Hollywood to make more of said trash which effects me because I have less stuff to talk to people about. And I think it gets people to think in a very dependant fashion. Instead of taking the values from the products they take this consumeristic mindset instead.

Thats why I shake my head at idiots that want Star Wars to be 'returned to form'. Star Wars itself was inspired by previous stuff, but your dependant on it and not its ideas.

[hedgehobbit]

The mere existence of a few movies, which you don't have to watch, is intolerable?

I'm using the term "tolerable" in the sense of how many super-hero movies can the market tolerate. IOW, how many super-hero movies can be released each year before they begin to cannibalize their own audience. The average person only goes to the movie theater 2.3 times a year. So we are at a point where there are so many super-hero moves that most people will pick and choose one over another. Back before MCU went full steam it was easy to see every major super-hero movie in the theater every year.

[Pat]

The mere existence of a few movies, which you don't have to watch, is intolerable?

I'm using the term "tolerable" in the sense of how many super-hero movies can the market tolerate. IOW, how many super-hero movies can be released each year before they begin to cannibalize their own audience. The average person only goes to the movie theater 2.3 times a year. So we are at a point where there are so many super-hero moves that most people will pick and choose one over another. Back before MCU went full steam it was easy to see every major super-hero movie in the theater every year.

Okay, that's very different.

But I think assessments of the movie-going public will have to wait a bit, because the 15 very long days of lockdown could have killed theatres entirely or there could be a huge rebound, and might have made everyone stick of streaming or increased their threshold. I think it'll lead to a net upswing in viewing time, and tolerance of long stretches of binge watching, but we'll have to see.

[Godfather Punk]

Coming back a little bit on superhero movies, as much as I hated Suicide Squad and Justice League (theatre cut), The Suicide Squad is FUN. More bloody juvenile fun than the average summer 'comedy'.
Not perfect, there's some slow moments and the story still follows the basic blockbuster beats, but it has more gore than the 2 Deadpools combined in the opening act alone, has some brief frontal full male nudity. And appears to care about the characters. And unlike many DC movies they don't shy away from using colour; that final Boss  .

After Druk and Black Widow, SS was my third theatre experience since the lockdowns ended. Druk (Another Round) is a good character movie, Black Widow was a missed opportunity for an interesting character, but The Suicide Squad was a bonkers anti-hero extravaganza. I'm glad I skipped FF9 and watched this one instead.

(disclaimer: I never read a single Suicide Squad comic, and did not watch Birds of Prey. So I even didn't pick up on when Harley mentions her former abusive lover, she was talking about Joker).

edit: for what it's worth, it's currently at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and the one negative critic says "It's about as anti-woke as you could possibly fathom, and there's a complete disregard for what might be offensive to some viewers." as if that were a bad thing in a Suicide Squad film.

[Bedrockbrendan]

   Fair enough, and I agree about film being a poor long term story telling medium.   I am curious as to how the next phase of marvel movies profit.  They will do it without me, but no idea how fatigued the general public is of the super hero movies.  I expected big budget deconstructions to start, but those tend to be a touch cynical and depressing.

Other film genres like gangster movies and westerns had heydays that lasted multiple decades, continuing well after their basic tropes had gotten very tired.

I don't feel that quality is a simple function of time. Some of my favorite westerns were from after the peak, like Silverado and Unforgiven. There are many great classics - but it's also true that a lot of the early and middle period westerns were pretty dull.

Genres definitely get stuffy and can die without enough new life in them. A lot of genres get reinvigorated when people start breathing new life into them. I think gangster movies and wuxia are two good examples of that. They both have waves where the quality shoots up a bit. Some of my favorite wuxia films are ones in the 70s where you can tell the directors are intentionally drawing on other genres or movies and trying to mix them in for a new result (a movie like Killer Constable which is at the tail end of the Shaw Brothers reign---when they start throwing anything at the wall to see what sticks---it always struck me as a blend of wuxia with Dirty Harry and films in that style). Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan blends in a lot of horror movie visuals for interesting effect (it isn't a horror movie, nothing supernatural outside the standard stuff you find in wuxia, but many of the shots, especially of the antagonist, have an 'enter the vampire' feel to them and there are lots vampiric mannerisms with the character: much more to the film than this, but it is one of the things that stands out). And tons of those 70s wuxia films started blending in spaghetti western elements, including things like Ennio Morricone tracks (which I think works really well, and gives them an interesting remixed vibe).

I am not as into westerns but agree. I remember watching Silverado and Pale Rider when they came out and both made a really strong impression on me (even though it was a genre I thought of as my grandfather's by that time). 

[Omega]

Are scenes shot in "the Volume" considered CGI?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bErPsq5kPzE

No if the backgrounds are real or mattes. Yes if the backgrounds are CGI.

Its just a new version of backscreening I believe it was called. A process that goes way the heck back.

The problem with it is the same. It can produce some odd perspecta quirks. Though I think the new systems may deal better with that.

[Bedrockbrendan]

Are scenes shot in "the Volume" considered CGI?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bErPsq5kPzE

No if the backgrounds are real or mattes. Yes if the backgrounds are CGI.

Its just a new version of backscreening I believe it was called. A process that goes way the heck back.

The problem with it is the same. It can produce some odd perspecta quirks. Though I think the new systems may deal better with that.

There is a movie called Legend of the Demon Cat, which does make heavy use of CGI but considering how much it used, did a great job blending it with real elements. One of the big things that made it work was they pretty much designed a song dynasty city set, so while I am sure CGI was used to touch things up, the locations felt very solid and real. Which worked well when the more fantastical CGI stuff happened (not all the CGI was perfect, but even when it wasn't the colors and stuff were artfully done so it didn't bother as much as a bunch of ugly muddy things moving all over the screen)

[Bedrockbrendan]

Watched a pretty cool Kung Fu revenge film called White Butterfly Killer the other night. It stars Hsu Feng, the actress from a Touch of Zen and The Fate of Lee Khan. Enjoyed the fight sequences a lot. Quite liked the unique weapon of Hsu Feng's character (a cut braid that she could make heart to bludgeon or stab with, or soft to whip with). Basically the movie is all set at an inn/brothel/gambling hall, where she has set up a revenge scheme after being raped and watching her grandfather killed by bandits six years ago (we don't see it, but presumably she has spent the last six years training and dedicating herself to revenge, and picking up some female disciples to help her in her endeavor-----it is a little unclear how planned or happenstance the revenge is). The opening fight scene really won me over. It spends a good amount of time building backstory and tension between fight scenes. It does make for a slower pace at times, but I felt all that effort made the revenge sequences more emotionally rewarding. It is an older movie, and it shows. Still it is good quality in terms of the fight choreography and the story works well. Hsu Feng really elevates the material as well. I ended up just watching the Wu Tang Collection version for free on youtube (not issues with cropping and not being able to see all the movements as sometimes happens on youtube with these films). It is available on prime to rent or buy but I didn't want to spend the extra money at the time (had just bought another film the previous night). The wu tang version is subtitles. You can see it here: https://youtu.be/unGJGBT_LT8

Did a podcast review of it in more depth here: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-j9d23-10a2490

[Godfather Punk]

I live in a non-english speaking country so I didn't have to read 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' in highschool. And I never played Pendragon nor Lion & Dragon.
But I like Dev Patel, so I watched Green Knight in the theatre yesterday. Let's just say I was not the target audience for this movie; maybe you all will get more out of it. Or not.

Beautiful imagery of the Irish/Scottish landscape, which you'll have ample time to admire as there isn't anything else happening in most of the movie. I did some search on Wikipedia after watchin the movie and I think they did a bit of a Hobbit on this one as well, adding characters and storylines to pad the original poem into a +2hrs art-house experiment.

So if you like Arthurian legends and people travelling and talking a bit between long minutes of silence, then this may be something for you.
But if you expect an action packed fantasy movie or a fun night at the cinema, another Excalibur or First Knight or A Knight's Tale or even Holly Grail, then this is not it.
Beautiful but boring.

[Ratman_tf]

Coming back a little bit on superhero movies, as much as I hated Suicide Squad and Justice League (theatre cut), The Suicide Squad is FUN. More bloody juvenile fun than the average summer 'comedy'.
Not perfect, there's some slow moments and the story still follows the basic blockbuster beats, but it has more gore than the 2 Deadpools combined in the opening act alone, has some brief frontal full male nudity. And appears to care about the characters. And unlike many DC movies they don't shy away from using colour; that final Boss  .

After Druk and Black Widow, SS was my third theatre experience since the lockdowns ended. Druk (Another Round) is a good character movie, Black Widow was a missed opportunity for an interesting character, but The Suicide Squad was a bonkers anti-hero extravaganza. I'm glad I skipped FF9 and watched this one instead.

(disclaimer: I never read a single Suicide Squad comic, and did not watch Birds of Prey. So I even didn't pick up on when Harley mentions her former abusive lover, she was talking about Joker).

edit: for what it's worth, it's currently at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and the one negative critic says "It's about as anti-woke as you could possibly fathom, and there's a complete disregard for what might be offensive to some viewers." as if that were a bad thing in a Suicide Squad film.

I'm tempted to watch SS only because... are we not spoiling it? The Big End Villian!

[Godfather Punk]

I'm tempted to watch SS only because... are we not spoiling it? The Big End Villian!

Better than Scrappy Doo, that's for sure.

[hedgehobbit]

edit: for what it's worth, it's currently at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and the one negative critic says "It's about as anti-woke as you could possibly fathom, and there's a complete disregard for what might be offensive to some viewers." as if that were a bad thing in a Suicide Squad film.

Having now watched this movie, I really disagree with the assessment that it's somehow "anti-woke". While it might have been offensive, it was only offensive to the same groups of people that Hollywood says it's ok to offend: men, "homophobes", people who like America, etc. It was really a safe comedy.

But the main reason I didn't like it was that it wasn't a superhero movie or even a parody of a superhero movie (like Deadpool). Instead it was a parody of 80s action movies. The plot was basically Commando combined with the team from Predator (with a little bit of XXX thrown in). Overall the story didn't make any amount of sense but not in a way that pokes fun at old action movies. Mostly just in a way that doesn't make sense.


BTW- Did anyone else have trouble streaming this from HBO Max? I've streamed movies without issues on pretty much every streaming platform (even 4k movies) and this one buffered every three to five minutes.

[HappyDaze]

Enjoyed Free Guy earlier this weekend. I set without any expectations and found it to be a fun film.