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Post by chalkdevil π on Jul 1, 2020 16:59:10 GMT -5
The Matrix Trilogy
It had been a long time since I'd seen any of these so I thought I'd rewatch and reevaluate, you know, just in case the sequels were secretly good. Spoiler alert, they are not. The Matrix certainly isn't perfect but it really hit on something. I think it's easy to get into what at the time was wildly innovative action, in terms of style, camera work, and wire kung fu that was still pretty foreign to American audiences. Combine that with a pretty simple stoner question, "Dude, what if like the world was really a computer simulation run by robots?", that is a super solid hook and then doesn't really get much deeper than that outside of some perfunctory bits about destiny and the existence of spoons. Perfect. Easy to understand, no degrees in philosophy required. Additionally, Laurence Fishburne sells the shit out of this premise. He is the MVP. Without him explaining things, committing to things, you've got nothing. Keanu is just staring blankly a lot. You can nearly believe that he is special because Morpheus is telling you he is. Keanu is very flat in this. So is Carrie Ann Moss. They are a strange pair that I never really believe as a couple so in love it while break the cycle of destiny or whatever the fuck the sequels are going on about. So yeah, my mild take: despite the fact that he mostly seems like a real life good dude, Keanu Reeves is not a super great actor. He somehow turns down his charisma for his movie roles. Guy commits to his fight training though. That's nice. So, The Matrix, big massive hit that allows the viewers to feel smart while watching dudes punch each other. Like a Nolan movie.
So now, the sequels. I'm just going to lump them together. They are pretty much just one bloated thing anyway. If The Matrix was stoner philosophy, the sequels where a philosophy major who dropped out and just posted their barely coherent thesis on some weird sub-Reddit. I mean, it felt like none sense the first time I watched them and thought maybe, with time and wisdom of nearly 2 decades, they would make some sort of sense but, not really. I mean, I'm not totally lost: destiny, cause and effect, simulation vs simulacrum, the hero's journey, love conquering all, etc. It's just dense streams of philosophy spewed out broken up by some fights, but really only one good fight (the freeway chase). Otherwise there is too many terrible CGI action figures crashing into each other with dicey physics. And Fishburne is so muted in these movies, too. As good as he was in the first, it feels like the Wachowskis made him, and really all the other side characters, match the flat tone or Reeves and Moss. He's just so certain and zen the whole time. Plus they don't really give Fishburne anything to do. He is a true believer and he never has any doubts and he's proven right. Cool. Nice flat character arc. The big exception to the flat acting is, of course, Hugo Weaving who is making a full meal of all the scenery and I am not here for it. It is too much. Just over the top and hammy.
Anyway, love transcends, or some bullshit and Neo gets magical powers in the real world. So that, I dunno, he can fly around and punch the Agent Smith virus for control of The Matrix and I guess continue to use humans as wildly inefficient space heaters when presumably they have giant drills that could easily harness geothermal heat which has to be much easier . I mean, the whole concept of the Matrix makes no sense, if you think about it just a little, but I'm sure that has been covered ad nauseam by the kind people who like to "analyze" every movie that way. I guess the problem is with the first movie, I'm entertained enough to not really care, but those second movies just wallow in everything so much that you start to ask "why" too much and the whole thing starts to crumble.
TL;DR: First Matrix is good. Sequels are still not good.
Side note: I was thinking about how, especially in the sequels when we get all these other crews of humans who tap into the Matrix and they all have the same shiny leather dusters, combat boots, and wrap around sunglasses. It really just feels like a uniform for these resistance fighters, even though they are supposed to be sort of subconscious depictions of themselves and just none of them show up in the Matrix in like a graphic tshirt and cargo shorts, just ready to go karate kick some NPCs. I guess somewhere along the timeline someone popularized this look and everyone just felt pressure to follow suit. Bunch of sheeple. No wonder the machines enslaved us.
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Post by nowimnothing on Jul 2, 2020 7:21:26 GMT -5
The Matrix TrilogyIt had been a long time since I'd seen any of these so I thought I'd rewatch and reevaluate, you know, just in case the sequels were secretly good. Spoiler alert, they are not. The Matrix certainly isn't perfect but it really hit on something. I think it's easy to get into what at the time was wildly innovative action, in terms of style, camera work, and wire kung fu that was still pretty foreign to American audiences. Combine that with a pretty simple stoner question, "Dude, what if like the world was really a computer simulation run by robots?", that is a super solid hook and then doesn't really get much deeper than that outside of some perfunctory bits about destiny and the existence of spoons. Perfect. Easy to understand, no degrees in philosophy required. Additionally, Laurence Fishburne sells the shit out of this premise. He is the MVP. Without him explaining things, committing to things, you've got nothing. Keanu is just staring blankly a lot. You can nearly believe that he is special because Morpheus is telling you he is. Keanu is very flat in this. So is Carrie Ann Moss. They are a strange pair that I never really believe as a couple so in love it while break the cycle of destiny or whatever the fuck the sequels are going on about. So yeah, my mild take: despite the fact that he mostly seems like a real life good dude, Keanu Reeves is not a super great actor. He somehow turns down his charisma for his movie roles. Guy commits to his fight training though. That's nice. So, The Matrix, big massive hit that allows the viewers to feel smart while watching dudes punch each other. Like a Nolan movie. So now, the sequels. I'm just going to lump them together. They are pretty much just one bloated thing anyway. If The Matrix was stoner philosophy, the sequels where a philosophy major who dropped out and just posted their barely coherent thesis on some weird sub-Reddit. I mean, it felt like none sense the first time I watched them and thought maybe, with time and wisdom of nearly 2 decades, they would make some sort of sense but, not really. I mean, I'm not totally lost: destiny, cause and effect, simulation vs simulacrum, the hero's journey, love conquering all, etc. It's just dense streams of philosophy spewed out broken up by some fights, but really only one good fight (the freeway chase). Otherwise there is too many terrible CGI action figures crashing into each other with dicey physics. And Fishburne is so muted in these movies, too. As good as he was in the first, it feels like the Wachowskis made him, and really all the other side characters, match the flat tone or Reeves and Moss. He's just so certain and zen the whole time. Plus they don't really give Fishburne anything to do. He is a true believer and he never has any doubts and he's proven right. Cool. Nice flat character arc. The big exception to the flat acting is, of course, Hugo Weaving who is making a full meal of all the scenery and I am not here for it. It is too much. Just over the top and hammy. Anyway, love transcends, or some bullshit and Neo gets magical powers in the real world. So that, I dunno, he can fly around and punch the Agent Smith virus for control of The Matrix and I guess continue to use humans as wildly inefficient space heaters when presumably they have giant drills that could easily harness geothermal heat which has to be much easier . I mean, the whole concept of the Matrix makes no sense, if you think about it just a little, but I'm sure that has been covered ad nauseam by the kind people who like to "analyze" every movie that way. I guess the problem is with the first movie, I'm entertained enough to not really care, but those second movies just wallow in everything so much that you start to ask "why" too much and the whole thing starts to crumble. TL;DR: First Matrix is good. Sequels are still not good. Side note: I was thinking about how, especially in the sequels when we get all these other crews of humans who tap into the Matrix and they all have the same shiny leather dusters, combat boots, and wrap around sunglasses. It really just feels like a uniform for these resistance fighters, even though they are supposed to be sort of subconscious depictions of themselves and just none of them show up in the Matrix in like a graphic tshirt and cargo shorts, just ready to go karate kick some NPCs. I guess somewhere along the timeline someone popularized this look and everyone just felt pressure to follow suit. Bunch of sheeple. No wonder the machines enslaved us. I will admit some love for the Mecha scenes in the third one. While cheesy, it was still pretty cool. But yeah to anyone who has actually read philosophy or studied it in college, it is all kind of amateur hour. I felt the same about Waking Life and Slacker. Decent films, but the philosophy is very dumbed down. |
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Post by chalkdevil π on Jul 2, 2020 9:59:29 GMT -5
The Matrix TrilogyIt had been a long time since I'd seen any of these so I thought I'd rewatch and reevaluate, you know, just in case the sequels were secretly good. Spoiler alert, they are not. The Matrix certainly isn't perfect but it really hit on something. I think it's easy to get into what at the time was wildly innovative action, in terms of style, camera work, and wire kung fu that was still pretty foreign to American audiences. Combine that with a pretty simple stoner question, "Dude, what if like the world was really a computer simulation run by robots?", that is a super solid hook and then doesn't really get much deeper than that outside of some perfunctory bits about destiny and the existence of spoons. Perfect. Easy to understand, no degrees in philosophy required. Additionally, Laurence Fishburne sells the shit out of this premise. He is the MVP. Without him explaining things, committing to things, you've got nothing. Keanu is just staring blankly a lot. You can nearly believe that he is special because Morpheus is telling you he is. Keanu is very flat in this. So is Carrie Ann Moss. They are a strange pair that I never really believe as a couple so in love it while break the cycle of destiny or whatever the fuck the sequels are going on about. So yeah, my mild take: despite the fact that he mostly seems like a real life good dude, Keanu Reeves is not a super great actor. He somehow turns down his charisma for his movie roles. Guy commits to his fight training though. That's nice. So, The Matrix, big massive hit that allows the viewers to feel smart while watching dudes punch each other. Like a Nolan movie. So now, the sequels. I'm just going to lump them together. They are pretty much just one bloated thing anyway. If The Matrix was stoner philosophy, the sequels where a philosophy major who dropped out and just posted their barely coherent thesis on some weird sub-Reddit. I mean, it felt like none sense the first time I watched them and thought maybe, with time and wisdom of nearly 2 decades, they would make some sort of sense but, not really. I mean, I'm not totally lost: destiny, cause and effect, simulation vs simulacrum, the hero's journey, love conquering all, etc. It's just dense streams of philosophy spewed out broken up by some fights, but really only one good fight (the freeway chase). Otherwise there is too many terrible CGI action figures crashing into each other with dicey physics. And Fishburne is so muted in these movies, too. As good as he was in the first, it feels like the Wachowskis made him, and really all the other side characters, match the flat tone or Reeves and Moss. He's just so certain and zen the whole time. Plus they don't really give Fishburne anything to do. He is a true believer and he never has any doubts and he's proven right. Cool. Nice flat character arc. The big exception to the flat acting is, of course, Hugo Weaving who is making a full meal of all the scenery and I am not here for it. It is too much. Just over the top and hammy. Anyway, love transcends, or some bullshit and Neo gets magical powers in the real world. So that, I dunno, he can fly around and punch the Agent Smith virus for control of The Matrix and I guess continue to use humans as wildly inefficient space heaters when presumably they have giant drills that could easily harness geothermal heat which has to be much easier . I mean, the whole concept of the Matrix makes no sense, if you think about it just a little, but I'm sure that has been covered ad nauseam by the kind people who like to "analyze" every movie that way. I guess the problem is with the first movie, I'm entertained enough to not really care, but those second movies just wallow in everything so much that you start to ask "why" too much and the whole thing starts to crumble. TL;DR: First Matrix is good. Sequels are still not good. Side note: I was thinking about how, especially in the sequels when we get all these other crews of humans who tap into the Matrix and they all have the same shiny leather dusters, combat boots, and wrap around sunglasses. It really just feels like a uniform for these resistance fighters, even though they are supposed to be sort of subconscious depictions of themselves and just none of them show up in the Matrix in like a graphic tshirt and cargo shorts, just ready to go karate kick some NPCs. I guess somewhere along the timeline someone popularized this look and everyone just felt pressure to follow suit. Bunch of sheeple. No wonder the machines enslaved us. I will admit some love for the Mecha scenes in the third one. While cheesy, it was still pretty cool. But yeah to anyone who has actually read philosophy or studied it in college, it is all kind of amateur hour. I felt the same about Waking Life and Slacker. Decent films, but the philosophy is very dumbed down. I agree that some of the mecha stuff is cool, but they seem to exist because the Wachowskis thought a scene with mecha suits would be cool. But really, I couldn't care about the Zion stuff at all. Just a bunch of scowling and politics and biblical references. I think if they wanted to tie Zion into the narrative better there could have been something more with the council elders or whoever working with the machines to bring about the fall of Zion and perpetuate the cycle since it is insinuated that the whole thing Matrix/Zion reboots every 100 years or so, presumably, some humans would know that. It would at least be something and feel a little bit more subversive than just having one general dude who is an asshole because he doesn't want to pin his hopes on Neo doing something nebulous to save everyone. I think part of the problem with the sequels too is power creep. By the end of the first movie, Neo is basically a god while in the Matrix. A quick line of dialog at the beginning of part 2 lets the audience know that the agents have "upgrades" so that they at least can hold their own briefly in a karate fight with Neo. Dude is just too strong and they have to down play that a lot to make it work. Unrelated to the plot or anything, but I started to find the sound design of these movies exhausting. All the wooshing and hit sounds during fights just really got to me by the end. It was just too much. I kept picturing a sound designer sitting at a tiny Casio keyboard, watching the movie, and hitting his two keys, one a swing and one for a hit. At this point, I am curious, but not optimistic, about this 4th Matrix movie that is supposed to be happening. |
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Post by chalkdevil π on Jul 2, 2020 10:14:34 GMT -5
Mac & Me (via MST3K)
Pretty nice!
The Great Hack
This is the 2019 documentary mostly about how Cambridge Analytic used stolen Facebook data to swing the 2016 election to Trump, misinform folks about Brexit, and do other terrible things to help spread the rise of right wing governments around the world. Predictable, this didn't make me feel better. In fact it made me feel much worse. Eventually I'll finally delete my Facebook. I already stopped posting years ago and barely check it, but it the main way my extended family communicates (via the Messenger app). But, you guys, turns out Facebook is really shitty.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
A nostalgic classic for me. Although now I feel like I have trouble watching the John Hughes movies where the upper-middle class white kids have some petty problems that just can't seem to matter now. It's just an itch in the back of my brain the whole time. What are teen movies like now? Are they bleak? I feel like they should be bleak, like Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade. Or maybe they're just still being written by middle-aged white dudes. Do they have to set them in the 80s so they don't have to deal with social media/school shootings/caring about systemic racism?
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Post by Dr. Rumak on Jul 2, 2020 20:25:49 GMT -5
Guns Akimbo - It's on Amazon Prime, so thought I would watch it. Harry Potter lives in a universe where Voldemort is running web site that gets people to kill each other and they stream it for fun and profit. Potter decides to criticize the death web site, and so they show up and drill a couple of guns to each of his hands making him into an Edward Gun-hands (and that is the name I gave him even before someone in the movie calls him that, whoever wrote the dialogue for the movie is well versed in 80s pop-culture), and then they set their best contestant (a woman named Nix) to go after him. Luckily for him, that Harry Potter magic sticks with him, because while Nix is pure John Wick earlier in the movie, all of a sudden she has the aim of a Storm Trooper when trying to kill Potter Gun-hands. Anyway, as long as you don't mind a movie where nothing that anyone does makes sense except in service to driving the plot to showdowns between Potter and various Voldemort henchmen (and then of course, finally Voldemort himself), then this is better than your average Zack Snyder film, if only because it seems somewhat more self-aware of that fact.
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Post by nowimnothing on Jul 2, 2020 21:55:37 GMT -5
Guns Akimbo - It's on Amazon Prime, so thought I would watch it. Harry Potter lives in a universe where Voldemort is running web site that gets people to kill each other and they stream it for fun and profit. Potter decides to criticize the death web site, and so they show up and drill a couple of guns to each of his hands making him into an Edward Gun-hands (and that is the name I gave him even before someone in the movie calls him that, whoever wrote the dialogue for the movie is well versed in 80s pop-culture), and then they set their best contestant (a woman named Nix) to go after him. Luckily for him, that Harry Potter magic sticks with him, because while Nix is pure John Wick earlier in the movie, all of a sudden she has the aim of a Storm Trooper when trying to kill Potter Gun-hands. Anyway, as long as you don't mind a movie where nothing that anyone does makes sense except in service to driving the plot to showdowns between Potter and various Voldemort henchmen (and then of course, finally Voldemort himself), then this is better than your average Zack Snyder film, if only because it seems somewhat more self-aware of that fact. I enjoyed it too. Radcliffe can make a corpse interesting, so it makes sense that he could elevate something like this. |
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Post by Hachiman on Jul 2, 2020 23:57:31 GMT -5
Guns Akimbo - It's on Amazon Prime, so thought I would watch it. Harry Potter lives in a universe where Voldemort is running web site that gets people to kill each other and they stream it for fun and profit. Potter decides to criticize the death web site, and so they show up and drill a couple of guns to each of his hands making him into an Edward Gun-hands (and that is the name I gave him even before someone in the movie calls him that, whoever wrote the dialogue for the movie is well versed in 80s pop-culture), and then they set their best contestant (a woman named Nix) to go after him. Luckily for him, that Harry Potter magic sticks with him, because while Nix is pure John Wick earlier in the movie, all of a sudden she has the aim of a Storm Trooper when trying to kill Potter Gun-hands. Anyway, as long as you don't mind a movie where nothing that anyone does makes sense except in service to driving the plot to showdowns between Potter and various Voldemort henchmen (and then of course, finally Voldemort himself), then this is better than your average Zack Snyder film, if only because it seems somewhat more self-aware of that fact. I have not seen this movie, but how does Potter Gun-hands reload? How does he buy the bullets and carry them home? Can he take his wallet out of his pockets? Does the movie address this? |
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Post by Dr. Rumak on Jul 3, 2020 6:33:08 GMT -5
Guns Akimbo - It's on Amazon Prime, so thought I would watch it. Harry Potter lives in a universe where Voldemort is running web site that gets people to kill each other and they stream it for fun and profit. Potter decides to criticize the death web site, and so they show up and drill a couple of guns to each of his hands making him into an Edward Gun-hands (and that is the name I gave him even before someone in the movie calls him that, whoever wrote the dialogue for the movie is well versed in 80s pop-culture), and then they set their best contestant (a woman named Nix) to go after him. Luckily for him, that Harry Potter magic sticks with him, because while Nix is pure John Wick earlier in the movie, all of a sudden she has the aim of a Storm Trooper when trying to kill Potter Gun-hands. Anyway, as long as you don't mind a movie where nothing that anyone does makes sense except in service to driving the plot to showdowns between Potter and various Voldemort henchmen (and then of course, finally Voldemort himself), then this is better than your average Zack Snyder film, if only because it seems somewhat more self-aware of that fact. I have not seen this movie, but how does Potter Gun-hands reload? How does he buy the bullets and carry them home? Can he take his wallet out of his pockets? Does the movie address this? He simply runs out of bullets. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2020 20:16:51 GMT -5
The Clash of The Titans (1981)
Utterly garbage movie that I loved as a kid during my Ray Harryhausen obsession. I still kind of adore it in a Southern, "bless your heart" sort of way.
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Post by Dr. Rumak on Jul 3, 2020 20:38:42 GMT -5
Lucky Logan I presume that I am last person on this site to see this movie, so no need to explain. Worth the watch, but nothing I feel like I hadn't seen before.
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Jul 5, 2020 17:41:59 GMT -5
Trolls World Tour (2020)
This ripped tears from my eyes at least every 10 minutes, meaning I teared up at least 13 times. 14, including the credits. More, please. Oh, you're already planning. I see. Well, thank you for making the same thing over and over with different colours.
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Post by ganews on Jul 5, 2020 18:51:48 GMT -5
Isolation week 16 movies. I'm not kidding about this nomenclature, either. I haven't fucking been anywhere or been inside anyone's house (or they inside mine), and I don't understand what is wrong with people who are taking visitors from across states now.
Watership Down What an artistic achievement! There are at least five art styles used to illustrate the elements of the movie, including lush watercolor backgrounds and settings, rather cartoony character design, and the creation myth sequence clearly inspired by Native art. A psychic rabbit foresees doom for his warren, so his brother (voiced by John Hurt) leads a group through the wilderness to a promised land. But that place has got no females to make life worth living, so the bucks raid a farm and a different warren of fascist rabbits to get some females to join them. I guess this movie is infamous for scarring children, but while there is violence it's not over-the-top and not much more harsh than Bambi. The animations of animal movement are really well done.
Doctor Sleep A reasonable sequel to The Shining using a cast of actors who are not quite unknown but are that-guy at best to fill the support and recreate the originals. I guess it's nice to see grown Danny Torrance battle his inner demons even if it's completely on-the-nose. Ewan Magregor is awesome. Having just watched The Outsider on HBO this year it's funny to again see Stephen King's deer rifles in the woods in the battle with the psychic vampires (who include 90s Lurch!). The head psychic vampire is implied to be quite old, so I'm sure she was very glad to get to the 60s where it's slightly less weird to see a hippy. Love her sales pitch to the pusher: "Come lovely girl, instead of using your powers to do whatever you want over a normal lifespan, you should spend eons living in a filthy caravan in the woods with mostly talentless bums".
Inside Llewyn Davis This didn't make much impression on me the first time, so I decided to give it another shake. I don't know, I guess the character being such a fuck-up but not in a comedy (even by Coen standards) movie makes it harder to watch. I wonder if my dad ever saw this; it's the kind of shaggy dog story he would have told me about watching or reading if it had been a book (it is only loosely adapted from a memoir of a real person). The "Please Mr. Kennedy" session certainly is concentrated star power, but the Chicago road trip is the best part of the movie. John Goodman is so great at playing an asshole, and yet he has range. |
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Post by chalkdevil π on Jul 6, 2020 15:56:16 GMT -5
Snowpiercer (2013)
I watched this way back when it came out and thought it was okay but found that after a compelling start, I didn't really like how it ended up. Like a lot of lead up in the back of the train, then they just zip to the end.
I liked it much better this time around. I think in the last 7 years there has been a lot more discussion (or more discussion that I see) about class so the story resonated a lot more this time. Chris Evans does a good job. Tilda Swinton is amazing as always. Yeah, and the ending worked better for me this time. You could say I am now onboard for Snowpiercer.
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Post by Lt. Broccoli on Jul 7, 2020 12:17:07 GMT -5
Knives Out
Finally got around to watching this, and it was pretty good...but am I misremembering, or was this marketed as more of a wacky comedy, like a modern version of Clue? It's definitely not as wacky as I assumed it would be.
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Ben Grimm
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Post by Ben Grimm on Jul 7, 2020 13:20:09 GMT -5
Knives Out
Finally got around to watching this, and it was pretty good...but am I misremembering, or was this marketed as more of a wacky comedy, like a modern version of Clue? It's definitely not as wacky as I assumed it would be.
It was compared (by reviewers) to Clue a lot, but it wasn't really marketed like that. I thought the marketing was pretty good, tonally, at selling what it was. |
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Post by Superb Owl π¦ on Jul 8, 2020 8:34:18 GMT -5
EuroVision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
Iβd peg this as a Blades of Glory level Ferrel effort, but thereβs enough goofy stuff to kill an enjoyable evening on something silly.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2020 10:23:57 GMT -5
Kedi (2016)
Fun, cute documentary about the street cats of Istanbul. Subtly makes the case that Turkey, a relatively secular country, has held on to some form of animism expressed through its worship of cats.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Jul 9, 2020 19:22:18 GMT -5
Andrei Rublev - A depressing movie about people living under a violently repressive society. I'm glad that cat that shows up in that church for like ten seconds appears to not have been harmed in the making of the film, because I'm pretty sure Tarkovsky destroyed at least one horse in the filming of the raid sequence. B+
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Post by nowimnothing on Jul 9, 2020 19:40:06 GMT -5
Hail Satan? (2019)Interesting documentary on the Satanic Temple and the great Baphomet statue. Pretty standard documentary. I guess it would have been more captivating if I did not know most of the story already. It is much more of an introduction. There are bits where it seems it might go into the exponential growth of the group and the strains of that on the founding members but then it veers back into general territory. 
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Post by Hachiman on Jul 9, 2020 20:05:35 GMT -5
Hail Satan? (2019)Interesting documentary on the Satanic Temple and the great Baphomet statue. Pretty standard documentary. I guess it would have been more captivating if I did not know most of the story already. It is much more of an introduction. There are bits where it seems it might go into the exponential growth of the group and the strains of that on the founding members but then it veers back into general territory. Are these guys the Satanists who are actually really decent people or the shitbag group? I always get them confused. |
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Post by nowimnothing on Jul 9, 2020 20:31:00 GMT -5
Hail Satan? (2019)Interesting documentary on the Satanic Temple and the great Baphomet statue. Pretty standard documentary. I guess it would have been more captivating if I did not know most of the story already. It is much more of an introduction. There are bits where it seems it might go into the exponential growth of the group and the strains of that on the founding members but then it veers back into general territory. Are these guys the Satanists who are actually really decent people or the shitbag group? I always get them confused. Which is the shitbag group? These are mostly lobbying for church/state separation but they also get into LGBTQ and women's rights. The documentary even shows them adopting a highway and picking up litter among other charitable works. They are much more focused on diversity and politics than the older LaVey Satanists who seemed much more individualistic and into hedonism. I guess the 90's Norwegian death metal guys were satanic shitbags, burning churches and murdering each other. |
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Post by Hachiman on Jul 9, 2020 20:49:06 GMT -5
Are these guys the Satanists who are actually really decent people or the shitbag group? I always get them confused. Which is the shitbag group? These are mostly lobbying for church/state separation but they also get into LGBTQ and women's rights. The documentary even shows them adopting a highway and picking up litter among other charitable works. They are much more focused on diversity and politics than the older LaVey Satanists who seemed much more individualistic and into hedonism. I guess the 90's Norwegian death metal guys were satanic shitbags, burning churches and murdering each other. Church of Satan maybe? I remember reading about them being racist shitbags. As an aside, it's kind of funny to me that there are multiple sects of Satanism. Like, you would think it would be a fairly uniform belief system, but it turns out that it is as fractious as every other religion! Huh. |
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Jul 9, 2020 20:53:14 GMT -5
Andrei Rublev - A depressing movie about people living under a violently repressive society. I'm glad that cat that shows up in that church for like ten minutes appears to not have been harmed in the making of the film, because I'm pretty sure Tarkovsky destroyed at least one horse in the filming of the raid sequence. B+ You're not mentioning the balloon ride at the beginning? The casting of the bell at the end? Jesus, dude. The pagan bewitching? It's an amazing film. Your rating is accurate, but there's more to praise than what you related.
I strongly recommend the Criterion DVD extras.
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Post by nowimnothing on Jul 9, 2020 21:43:32 GMT -5
Which is the shitbag group? These are mostly lobbying for church/state separation but they also get into LGBTQ and women's rights. The documentary even shows them adopting a highway and picking up litter among other charitable works. They are much more focused on diversity and politics than the older LaVey Satanists who seemed much more individualistic and into hedonism. I guess the 90's Norwegian death metal guys were satanic shitbags, burning churches and murdering each other. Church of Satan maybe? I remember reading about them being racist shitbags. As an aside, it's kind of funny to me that there are multiple sects of Satanism. Like, you would think it would be a fairly uniform belief system, but it turns out that it is as fractious as every other religion! Huh. Yeah, I think LeVay was into some social darwinism shit, but he was more of a huckster anyway. |
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Post by Floyd Diabolical Barber on Jul 10, 2020 1:19:04 GMT -5
An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn - 2018 I saw this listed on Netflix or Hulu or somewhere, and it starred Aubry Plaza and I hadn't seen it, so sure, why not. Because it just isn't very good, is why not. Despite a fine cast, including Plaza, Jermaine Clement, Matt Berry, Emile Hirsch, and Craig Robinson as Beverly Luff Linn, their talents are mostly wasted. It displays somewhere around a high school play level of amateurism. I guess this was a stylistic choice by the director, but nobody at any time speaks or acts like a real human being. The plot is convoluted and hard to follow, the dialog while interesting at times, is incomprehensible at others, and I still don't know what the point of the whole thing was supposed to be. There seemed to be a lot of calculated weirdness for it's own sake, but not in a really interesting way. It came across as being some kind of character study of relatively bland oddballs.
The main thing to really recommend it is Ms. Plaza in her underwear. It could have used a lot more of that.
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repulsionist
TI Forumite
actively disinterested
Posts: 3,674
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Post by repulsionist on Jul 12, 2020 17:33:59 GMT -5
The House (2017)
I blame myself for making this 'easy' decision later in the evening of this past Saturday. It was my time to waste as I saw fit. I don't get that time back to stare at terrible news on my phone, sleep, enjoy conversation with my partner, or better myself in some fashion. My loss. My responsibility.
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Post by Hachiman on Jul 12, 2020 23:42:30 GMT -5
Old Guard This one feels like it shares a lot of DNA with the John Wick films in that on its surface its a standard low-budget action flick, but there are also these high-concept comic book flourishes that sustain everything. Charlize Theron and her small of mercenaries are basically all clawless versions of Wolverine. They have super-healing and are basically immortal until they reach a point where they stop healing (Again, kind of similar to Wolverine in "Logan.") This takes a super long time though so they're basically unkillable. Anyway, they find a new member of their team and have to fight some pharmabro who wants to study them for medical research. It wasn't bad at all. Definitely worth a re-watch.
I Kill Giants This one had a noticeable first about it. It was the first movie I have seen here where Japanese dubbing was simply unavailable. For some reason, I found that really interesting. It took a really long time to arrive here too though, so I am guessing is was just extremely low interest from the local distributor. I thought this was was just ok. I was actually cool with the message and thought it was a bit of a shame that it didn't have much of an effect here seeing as so many popular titles here are based off of the concept of "teenager has adventures in secret fantasy world" and this movie shows you that such a teenager would actually weird as hell and require a good psychologist. On second thought, maybe that's why it didn't go over well here.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) I literally fell asleep like an 50 minutes in and woke up about 30 minutes before the end having not really missed much of anything. It was fine, I guess.
Triple ThreatγThis was an amazing movie. Basically the greatest straight-to-DVD action movie ever. It's got Iko Uwais, Tiger Chen, and Tony Jaa all teaming up to kick ass with Michael Jai White and Scott Adkins as the villains. Scott Adkins makes a terrible villain and he doesn't seem to understand how they operate, which makes me think he has never had anyone ever mess with him in his entire life, which, fair enough. Tony Jaa's character seems to be a meta-commentary on Tony Jaa's career and Tony Jaa plays the role like he figured that out. Michael Jai White is basically serving charcuterie and is wonderful as always. The plot is these three mercenaries trying to get revenge of these bad mercenaries for various reasons and also save some girlboss who the bad mercenaries have to take down. The setup is fine but the execution from there is really clunky. The action more than makes up for it so this is all forgiven. The movie understands that we just need to keep fighting for as much of the run time as possible. Plus Singha was clearly a major sponsor since everyone is drinking beer in this movie in almost every scene where they don't fight. My only complaint was that it just kind of ended. Like the bad guys lose and the heroes are beat up and we never really find out if they become the Triple Threat that the title promises since they were only brought together by the plot. It doesn't matter though. This movie was amazing.
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Jul 13, 2020 8:15:24 GMT -5
Relic
Very effective slow burn. If you're annoyed by painfully obvious metaphor you'll be annoyed by this, but I didn't mind at all. Also, if you're claustrophobic, there's a good 15 minutes of very intense claustrophobia.
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Post by Superb Owl π¦ on Jul 13, 2020 8:36:59 GMT -5
Palm Springs is really, really good, one that manages both the βcomedyβ and βromanticβ aspects and somehow nails the latter even better than the former. Someone pointed out that Sambergβs roughly the same age as Bill Murray was in Groundhog Day and found it hard to believe, but itβs not so weird to me given that Bill Murray already looked old in his late twenties on SNLβjust different kinds of faces (beyond almost everyone looking kind of older back then anyway). But that he still puts off a kind of youthful air while looking older and a bit tired worked really well for him. I would never have thought of Samberg as a romantic lead but he truly is here. I also really liked that the repetition wasnβt part of some supernatural reality play, either, just something they stumbled into. Makes the romance feel more real, I think. Second the love for Palm Springs! |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2020 9:23:15 GMT -5
There doesn't seem to be a "last play watched" thread here, probably because they know I'd mostly post my trips to Cruisin' Chubbys Club of the Wisconsin Dells and pass it off as theater. But I did something cultured last night, dammit, and this seems like the place to post about it. We watched a live recording of the play The Copper Children. It's a production that had its world premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, OR this Spring; the festival got canceled for the remainder of the year for obvious reasons and they're posting recordings of the plays that had a brief run. Great story, about a horrific scandal involving orphans in the Arizona Territory in 1904. Those interested can learn about it from a terrific episode of The Dollop podcast. A bit dodgy sound-wise because they filmed without knowing it was ever intended for wide broadcast but good set design and lighting even in compromised form. You can find on the festival's website: www.osfashland.org/shows-on-o |
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