28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Morris Schæffer]

I had a bit of a major geekout moment yesterday when I found out that the song 'We fight for love', which was written for the movie Commando was written and sung by Michael des Barres. He was Murdoc, MacGyver's nemesis in the 80's show.

[Dukefrukem]

I saw this popup on Google Movies, and then I looked up the reviews.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dark_crimes

When was the last time a movie got a 0%?

[MadMan]

I saw this popup on Google Movies, and then I looked up the reviews.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dark_crimes

When was the last time a movie got a 0%?

Emoji Movie.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Ashura - 2005

An absurdly operatic martial arts fantasy from Japan where the outsized emotions and opulent set design match fairly well to its original status as a Kabuki stage play. The movie doesn't work entirely, as it drags toward the end, re-litigating emotional beats with no real additional revelation or fascination, but I found its imagination and straight-faced silliness endearing. Highlights include an opening action scene that plays like a Japanese fairy tale version of the opening from Blade (instead of red, the demon blood is glowstick green), a climactic fight in an M.C. Escher labyrinth, and the sincere acting from Rie Miyazawa as doomed lover (and demon queen to be) Tsubaki. The CGI effects are objectively bad (they look like holdovers from Anderson's Mortal Kombat) but support creative sights, and imaginative low-budget effects > boilerplate high-budget effects.

Really does go on too long, though.

[Skitch]

That looks lovely.

[Dukefrukem]

Whoa....

[dreamdead]

Did a trip to London and Edinburgh, then a trip to Asheville, NC for three days, and now in Indian Shores, FL, until tomorrow, when we'll revisit our bed and veg out. In that time, we've done airplane viewings of Pitch Perfect 3, Jumanji 2, and Date Night. The only one that rises above serviceable is Date Night, which has a magnetic Rachel McAdams role that testifies to her need to do more comedic performances.

In other news, BBC America's Killing Eve, despite an only okay final 10 minutes, is so much better than everything mentioned above. Holding out hope for First Reformed by the end of the month...

[transmogrifier]

I just realized this about myself: If someone dislikes a film that I like, I really don't care all that much and shrug it off. However, I'm prepared to argue to the death if someone loves a film that I hate. It's weird when you think about it.

Fun, though.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I just realized this about myself: If someone dislikes a film that I like, I really don't care all that much and shrug it off. However, I'm prepared to argue to the death if someone loves a film that I hate. It's weird when you think about it.

Fun, though.

Makes sense. Why spread joy when you could spread resentment?

[dreamdead]

Did a 7-day subscription of Shudder so that we could finally get to the 1970's Black Christmas. Beyond being loaded with a good cast, the film is able to orchestrate tension and intrigue even though several of the kills had already been seen in clips previously. Love that ending, even though it stretches credulity that Kidder isn't taken to the hospital. It's a surprising endpoint that resists serialization.

Also did Wake in Fright, which Russ had taken up a few years ago. Fascinating study in masculinity and the excess of alcohol to remove safeguards, and depressing footage of the kangaroos. Probably done after this, but enjoyable to see so many near-genre films on display as well.

[Yxklyx]

Yeah, Black Christmas is really good, and still available on Netflix DVD which is what I use. They have a great selection still. I don't understand all the love for Streaming. It's a great technology but greed means that you need to spend lots and lots of money (to subscribe to all the different services) in order to get anything approaching the selection of Netflix DVD.

[Grouchy]

I just realized this about myself: If someone dislikes a film that I like, I really don't care all that much and shrug it off. However, I'm prepared to argue to the death if someone loves a film that I hate. It's weird when you think about it.

Fun, though.

Fortunately, I think I'm the exact opposite of this.

[Wryan]

Watched the Ghostbusters remake to see what all the brouhaha was about. It's just sort of middling mostly. A lot of the material doesn't work. I thought Leslie Jones and Hemsworth were the only ones bringing the right verve to it. Also, the effects work had some real zing to it, a certain creativity in design and execution, so much so that it made clearer how much the rest doesn't work. It's deserving of a better vehicle, odd as it is to say. Overall, a harmless bit of flopsweat really.

[MadMan]

Black Christmas is great, creepy and well made.

I really enjoyed and liked the Ghostbusters remake. It suffers from some similar problems that the original had. Mainly too much FX in the last act. I prefer the animated late 80s series the best.

[Dukefrukem]

I remember Jennifer of the Jungle got me into Black Christmas. Excellent film.

And as for Ghostbusters. It was the worst film of 2016 for me. And I saw that TMNT sequel.

[Wryan]

Watched Baywatch, which was, naturally, just incredibly, ridiculously stupid, but also pretty funny in stretches.

[MadMan]

Watched Baywatch, which was, naturally, just incredibly, ridiculously stupid, but also pretty funny in stretches.

I never saw that one.

[Grouchy]

A friend of mine is asking me about a movie she remembers seeing that is about the creation of Hollywood, the patent conflict with Edison, United Artists... She doesn't remember much about it, only that at some point some hired goons destroy the movie sets they were building.

I'm haunted by this now. I think she might remember some scenes from Chaplin as a separate movie.

[baby doll]

A friend of mine is asking me about a movie she remembers seeing that is about the creation of Hollywood, the patent conflict with Edison, United Artists... She doesn't remember much about it, only that at some point some hired goons destroy the movie sets they were building.

I'm haunted by this now. I think she might remember some scenes from Chaplin as a separate movie.

Might she be thinking of Peter Bogdanovich's Nickelodeon?

[Grouchy]

Might she be thinking of Peter Bogdanovich's Nickelodeon?

That was it! You're the best!

[Wryan]

Watched The Lobster. I'm interesting in seeing Lanthimos's other films to see if they have a little more oopmf than this, although there are some great sequences and some fine acting. With one of the big themes, as I see it, being about how we lie to ourselves and others to get into relationships we don't want to avoid being lonely/alone or feelings of persecution, I thought the casting of gay-in-real-life Ben Whishaw was a nice little extratextual touch re: closeting generally. Fuck, that dog though. Jesus. Really lovely photography as well.

EDIT: I really wanna see Dogtooth, but it's been difficult to track down. Not sure I really wanna buy it outright just for a viewing.

[Dukefrukem]

Would anyone be interested in a fun movie draft game? We draft one character from each of the categories below to form your Villain Team, then I'll make brackets where all of MC votes on which Evil Team wins in versus battle? Seeds would be automatically assigned as will draft order. We would need at least 6 participants.

Round 1: Marvel Villain
Round 2: DC Villain
Round 3: Space Villain
Round 4: Action Villain
Round 5: Fantasy Villain
Round 6: Horror Villain
Round 7: OTHER (pick a villain or antagonist from a movie that doesn't fall into the previous categories)
Round 8: Wild Card Pick - can be anything

[Lazlo]

Would anyone be interested in a fun movie draft game? We draft one character from each of the categories below to form your Villain Team, then I'll make brackets where all of MC votes on which Evil Team wins in versus battle? Seeds would be automatically assigned as will draft order. We would need at least 6 participants.

Round 1: Marvel Villain
Round 2: DC Villain
Round 3: Space Villain
Round 4: Action Villain
Round 5: Fantasy Villain
Round 6: Horror Villain
Round 7: OTHER (pick a villain or antagonist from a movie that doesn't fall into the previous categories)
Round 8: Wild Card Pick - can be anything

Yes. Sounds cool.

[Spinal]

I'll play.

[Dukefrukem]

Ok, I'll start a separate thread with rules and such.

Should the draft order reflect the seeding? Or should they be completely separate?