28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Skitch]

You're alive!!

DAMN RIGHT I AM!!

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Love Deep Rising.

]

[megladon8]

Yeah, genuinely dint understand the dislike of Deep Rising.

It's the only good thing Stephen Sommers has ever done.

[Skitch]

Treat Williams is a treasure.

[DFA1979]

Yeah, genuinely dint understand the dislike of Deep Rising.

It's the only good thing Stephen Sommers has ever done.

Wrong The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. Both superior.

[Grouchy]

Come on man, The Mummy is a classic.

Saw Almodóvar's The Human Voice. Loved it. It's a half hour short that functions as an elaborate acting reel for Tilda Swinton that manages to touch on a lot of topics that became crucial for a lot of people during quarantine (loneliness, longing, communication, mental health) yet it was conceived before COVID, based on a Jean Cocteau play. Almodóvar is on my top 5 living directors.

[megladon8]

The Mummy would be his second best, but it's not very good.

His obsession with having objectively terrible CGI in his movies is so weird.

It's like they did the CGI for the first Mummy movie then he said "perfect. I'm using this for the rest of my career."

[Skitch]

I feel like the first Mummy was pretty damn CGI for its day. Dated now, sure, but back then...

[Philip J. Fry]

I feel like the first Mummy was pretty damn CGI for its day. Dated now, sure, but back then...

Yeah. In general, it holds up well.

[megladon8]

I feel like the first Mummy was pretty damn CGI for its day. Dated now, sure, but back then...

Yes for 1999 sure.

But when Van Helsing in 2004 had the same level, then G.I. Joe after that...

[Philip J. Fry]

Nah, Van Helsing's were way worse.

[megladon8]

Every 5 years or so I get a morbid curiosity to try Van Helsing again.

It has so many ingredients that make it seem like I should love it.

But man...that movie sucks.

[DFA1979]

Nah, Van Helsing's were way worse.

I never saw that one. It looked so bad.

[megladon8]

Universal monsters? Check.
Gothic period horror? Check.
Full endorsement by Universal to have the film be considered canon? Check.
Hugh Jackman? Check.

Yet it's still an embarrassing affair.

[Philip J. Fry]

I never saw that one. It looked so bad.

It was.

[Skitch]

I still have fun/comedic time with it.

[Grouchy]

Yeah, Van Helsing is just way too dumb. But The Mummy has a damn good screenplay and tone. Returns I would say is bad, but it does have the Anubis army.

[Peng]

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

[first time Extended Edition]

Even though my ten-point rating remains the same (9.5), I bumped up half a star to full five (on letterboxd scale) with this rewatch, because it's either the one most benefited from having read the book, or the extended edition does wonder here (or most likely, both). The sprawl just totally works for me, grounded by the emotional depth of Tolkien's text and Jackson's directorial control.

Jackson's horror sensibility has always informed many small moments throughout the trilogy (especially the creature effect and gore), but none more sustained than this one's disquieting opening, a sunny idyll that gets intruded on by murder in a way that recalls his own Heavenly Creatures. This small yet horrific incident shrewdly sets up the stage and casts a shadow over the whole proceeding to come; no matter how gigantic things get, the ring and its effect will always be on the characters' and audience's mind.

This entry has so many indelible moments/sequences throughout, one after another. The imagery around Mount Doom, in close view with Sauron's tower, is just staggering, full of paintery sights that conveys the mythic grandeur of this sinister force so grandly. I happened to start the film around the coming of a rain storm, and the big lightning striking when Sam enters Mount Doom couldn't be more properly timed and and evocatively atmospheric. Speaking of, I adore Sean Astin's performance in this; for this role he may have one of the most wrenchingly, earnestly emotional faces I've seen.

About those "endless" endings that have been mentioned since release, people may have to be more specific about which ones, because I might have been on the verge of or in tears through every one of them. They all color the film's sweet celebration with a hefty dose of bitter realism, thus feeling crucial in tracing the corrosive, far-reaching effect of near-death trauma and war. ("There are some things that time cannot mend") For all the spectacle on display, one of the most lingering images I'll remember from this film will be Frodo stepping on the Grey Havens boat and, when turned to his friends, his face lightening up in full, now able to shrug off any dark shadow that had persisted even after Sauron's defeat at last. 9.5/10

[DFA1979]

I remember staying for the credits and being sad that the trilogy was over. So glad I saw all of the LOTRs movies on the big screen.

[StuSmallz]

Interesting that you cited ROTK as your favorite (if I read that correctly), since I feel like it's either FOTR or TTT from what I've seen. Like among critics I follow, such as Scott Tobias, I've seen the latter being their choices a lot. It's ROTK that is left out, mostly because that one seems (at least from my viewpoint) like a lot of people's second favorite, including mine, lol.

Nah, I like Towers & Return both about the same as each other; yes, the latter is obviously the big, epic, emotional climax of the whole she-bangabang, but the former is the easiest watch, and the most rewatchable as a result, since it feels the shortest. Although, if we're being objective here about which LOTR is the best-regarded in general, Return is at least a couple of points higher than the other films amongst RT critics, so that kind of settles that question if you look at it from that metric.

I love all three LOTR films dearly, but in my books Fellowship is in a completely different league than TTT or ROTK.

The ending battle in the forest is more exciting and emotionally charged than any of the more epic battles of the next two films.

And the deaths of Gandalf and Boromir are the strongest emotional beats of the entire trilogy. Both in the first film.

It also stands on its own, while the other two feel incomplete by themselves.

Fellowship is the perfect and definitive fantasy film of its ilk.

I love Fellowship, but I don't know about it feeling more complete than the others, since Aragon's line "Let's hunt some orc!" pretty clearly feels like sequel-bait for the next installments, if you ask me. Still a great movie anyway, though.

[megladon8]

I was pretty disappointed with You Were Never Really Here.

Phoenix is wonderful in it, but the whole film felt...half baked? Under realized?

I was expecting something horrifically ultra violent, which it definitely wasn't. What was with all the press for this film making it sound so shocking and brutal? It wasn't that at all. Not a knock against it, obviously, but what a weird advertising campaign there was for this, now that I've seen it.

It all just felt very empty, and by the end credits I wasn't really sure what the point of it all was.

[Ezee E]

I was pretty disappointed with You Were Never Really Here.

Phoenix is wonderful in it, but the whole film felt...half baked? Under realized?

I was expecting something horrifically ultra violent, which it definitely wasn't. What was with all the press for this film making it sound so shocking and brutal? It wasn't that at all. Not a knock against it, obviously, but what a weird advertising campaign there was for this, now that I've seen it.

It all just felt very empty, and by the end credits I wasn't really sure what the point of it all was.

Same really. I know some people loved it and I couldn't really imagine why except that it definitely had an arthouse feel to it.

[megladon8]

I love a good arthouse.

I just wish it had been more Oldboy and less Taxi Driver Lite.

[baby doll]

I was impressed by Ramsay's style, especially her unsettling juxtapositions of sound and image.

[megladon8]

Her style was nice at times, for sure. The odd score by Jonny Greenwood accentuates the juxtaposition you mention.

But the whole thing just left me feeling...nothing? Whereas I very much got the impression I was supposed to feel quite deeply.

[Skitch]

I didn't get much out of it either. Some of the scenes were well shot, but I agree, plot was undercooked.