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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 1, 2021 7:19:37 GMT -5
Tron (1982)
So I took out a Disney Plus subscription (yeah, yeah) in the end and lo, the classic from the early 80's was staring straight at me so what was I meant to do? Not watch it? Anyway, it's a profoundly weird movie although not in an especially compelling way. It's from that era when Disney were making live-action movies but apparently had no idea who the audience for them was (see also: Hole, The Black). Tron seems to be a bit too serious for kids but a bit childish for adults so who, exactly, were they making this for? It begins by just dumping the audience in the middle of "Tron-world" with absolutely zero explanation of what it is we're watching and just expecting everyone to keep up. Then we cut back to the real world with, again, zero explanation or any sense at all of how these two locations interact with each other. Eventually David Warner (David Fucking Warner!) turns up to be awesome and explain a few bits and pieces intercut with Kevin (Kevin!) also doing a bit of hacking but it's not really much of a hook. By the time Kevin is eventually transported into the game, via a computer-game equivalent of the 2001: A Space Odyssey portal thingy (which, to be clear, does look great) it's hard to keep track or even care that much about what's going on. The computer graphics are stunning for 1982 but that makes the movie more of an impressive show-reel than it does an actual film. The bike race and subsequent chase is well done technically but it's not really... involving. Very little of the film is, actually. It's pretty but flat. None of the characters really pop, Kevin is only really notable because of who plays him (Jeff Bridges, as if you need to be told) and the rest are all basically there, except for David Warner's Ed Dillinger, hamming it up for all he's worth. It's an entertaining performance but I'm not really sure it belongs in this particular film. Anyway, that's Tron. Deeply odd, strangely unaffecting and curiously irrelevant. I absolutely wanted to enjoy this film and am really rather disappointed that wasn't possible.
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Dellarigg
AV Clubber
This is a public service announcement - with guitars
Posts: 7,621
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Post by Dellarigg on Mar 1, 2021 8:56:15 GMT -5
Tron (1982) So I took out a Disney Plus subscription (yeah, yeah) in the end and lo, the classic from the early 80's was staring straight at me so what was I meant to do? Not watch it? Anyway, it's a profoundly weird movie although not in an especially compelling way. It's from that era when Disney were making live-action movies but apparently had no idea who the audience for them was (see also: Hole, The Black). Tron seems to be a bit too serious for kids but a bit childish for adults so who, exactly, were they making this for? It begins by just dumping the audience in the middle of "Tron-world" with absolutely zero explanation of what it is we're watching and just expecting everyone to keep up. Then we cut back to the real world with, again, zero explanation or any sense at all of how these two locations interact with each other. Eventually David Warner (David Fucking Warner!) turns up to be awesome and explain a few bits and pieces intercut with Kevin (Kevin!) also doing a bit of hacking but it's not really much of a hook. By the time Kevin is eventually transported into the game, via a computer-game equivalent of the 2001: A Space Odyssey portal thingy (which, to be clear, does look great) it's hard to keep track or even care that much about what's going on. The computer graphics are stunning for 1982 but that makes the movie more of an impressive show-reel than it does an actual film. The bike race and subsequent chase is well done technically but it's not really... involving. Very little of the film is, actually. It's pretty but flat. None of the characters really pop, Kevin is only really notable because of who plays him (Jeff Bridges, as if you need to be told) and the rest are all basically there, except for David Warner's Ed Dillinger, hamming it up for all he's worth. It's an entertaining performance but I'm not really sure it belongs in this particular film. Anyway, that's Tron. Deeply odd, strangely unaffecting and curiously irrelevant. I absolutely wanted to enjoy this film and am really rather disappointed that wasn't possible. I went to school with someone whose surname was Tron, and as soon as this came out everyone started calling him 'Frisbee' - a name which stuck till we left school (and he joined the police). Never did get round to seeing it, myself.
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 1, 2021 9:27:26 GMT -5
Tron (1982) So I took out a Disney Plus subscription (yeah, yeah) in the end and lo, the classic from the early 80's was staring straight at me so what was I meant to do? Not watch it? Anyway, it's a profoundly weird movie although not in an especially compelling way. It's from that era when Disney were making live-action movies but apparently had no idea who the audience for them was (see also: Hole, The Black). Tron seems to be a bit too serious for kids but a bit childish for adults so who, exactly, were they making this for? It begins by just dumping the audience in the middle of "Tron-world" with absolutely zero explanation of what it is we're watching and just expecting everyone to keep up. Then we cut back to the real world with, again, zero explanation or any sense at all of how these two locations interact with each other. Eventually David Warner (David Fucking Warner!) turns up to be awesome and explain a few bits and pieces intercut with Kevin (Kevin!) also doing a bit of hacking but it's not really much of a hook. By the time Kevin is eventually transported into the game, via a computer-game equivalent of the 2001: A Space Odyssey portal thingy (which, to be clear, does look great) it's hard to keep track or even care that much about what's going on. The computer graphics are stunning for 1982 but that makes the movie more of an impressive show-reel than it does an actual film. The bike race and subsequent chase is well done technically but it's not really... involving. Very little of the film is, actually. It's pretty but flat. None of the characters really pop, Kevin is only really notable because of who plays him (Jeff Bridges, as if you need to be told) and the rest are all basically there, except for David Warner's Ed Dillinger, hamming it up for all he's worth. It's an entertaining performance but I'm not really sure it belongs in this particular film. Anyway, that's Tron. Deeply odd, strangely unaffecting and curiously irrelevant. I absolutely wanted to enjoy this film and am really rather disappointed that wasn't possible. I went to school with someone whose surname was Tron, and as soon as this came out everyone started calling him 'Frisbee' - a name which stuck till we left school (and he joined the police). Never did get round to seeing it, myself. No rush, I can assure you.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Mar 1, 2021 9:58:30 GMT -5
Tron (1982) So I took out a Disney Plus subscription (yeah, yeah) in the end and lo, the classic from the early 80's was staring straight at me so what was I meant to do? Not watch it? Anyway, it's a profoundly weird movie although not in an especially compelling way. It's from that era when Disney were making live-action movies but apparently had no idea who the audience for them was (see also: Hole, The Black). Tron seems to be a bit too serious for kids but a bit childish for adults so who, exactly, were they making this for? It begins by just dumping the audience in the middle of "Tron-world" with absolutely zero explanation of what it is we're watching and just expecting everyone to keep up. Then we cut back to the real world with, again, zero explanation or any sense at all of how these two locations interact with each other. Eventually David Warner (David Fucking Warner!) turns up to be awesome and explain a few bits and pieces intercut with Kevin (Kevin!) also doing a bit of hacking but it's not really much of a hook. By the time Kevin is eventually transported into the game, via a computer-game equivalent of the 2001: A Space Odyssey portal thingy (which, to be clear, does look great) it's hard to keep track or even care that much about what's going on. The computer graphics are stunning for 1982 but that makes the movie more of an impressive show-reel than it does an actual film. The bike race and subsequent chase is well done technically but it's not really... involving. Very little of the film is, actually. It's pretty but flat. None of the characters really pop, Kevin is only really notable because of who plays him (Jeff Bridges, as if you need to be told) and the rest are all basically there, except for David Warner's Ed Dillinger, hamming it up for all he's worth. It's an entertaining performance but I'm not really sure it belongs in this particular film. Anyway, that's Tron. Deeply odd, strangely unaffecting and curiously irrelevant. I absolutely wanted to enjoy this film and am really rather disappointed that wasn't possible. I really liked it as a kid, but maybe it's one of those things you have to see as a kid for it to entirely work. Watching it as an adult, I thought there were some good sequences in it, but the pacing of the movie is absolute death, and aspects of it have that 70s hangover of weirdly adult for a kid's film.
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 1, 2021 10:06:42 GMT -5
Tron (1982) So I took out a Disney Plus subscription (yeah, yeah) in the end and lo, the classic from the early 80's was staring straight at me so what was I meant to do? Not watch it? Anyway, it's a profoundly weird movie although not in an especially compelling way. It's from that era when Disney were making live-action movies but apparently had no idea who the audience for them was (see also: Hole, The Black). Tron seems to be a bit too serious for kids but a bit childish for adults so who, exactly, were they making this for? It begins by just dumping the audience in the middle of "Tron-world" with absolutely zero explanation of what it is we're watching and just expecting everyone to keep up. Then we cut back to the real world with, again, zero explanation or any sense at all of how these two locations interact with each other. Eventually David Warner (David Fucking Warner!) turns up to be awesome and explain a few bits and pieces intercut with Kevin (Kevin!) also doing a bit of hacking but it's not really much of a hook. By the time Kevin is eventually transported into the game, via a computer-game equivalent of the 2001: A Space Odyssey portal thingy (which, to be clear, does look great) it's hard to keep track or even care that much about what's going on. The computer graphics are stunning for 1982 but that makes the movie more of an impressive show-reel than it does an actual film. The bike race and subsequent chase is well done technically but it's not really... involving. Very little of the film is, actually. It's pretty but flat. None of the characters really pop, Kevin is only really notable because of who plays him (Jeff Bridges, as if you need to be told) and the rest are all basically there, except for David Warner's Ed Dillinger, hamming it up for all he's worth. It's an entertaining performance but I'm not really sure it belongs in this particular film. Anyway, that's Tron. Deeply odd, strangely unaffecting and curiously irrelevant. I absolutely wanted to enjoy this film and am really rather disappointed that wasn't possible. I really liked it as a kid, but maybe it's one of those things you have to see as a kid for it to entirely work. Watching it as an adult, I thought there were some good sequences in it, but the pacing of the movie is absolute death, and aspects of it have that 70s hangover of weirdly adult for a kid's film. The pacing is absolutely lethal, I completely agree. It's so badly structured.
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Post by haysoos on Mar 1, 2021 12:03:22 GMT -5
I finally got around to watching Terminator: Dark Fate this weekend, and once again it was a lot better than I had been led to expect by the internet. It actually wasn't half bad. It wasn't really great either, and it's hard to justify why it needs to exist, as far too much of it is a retread of T2, but it wasn't the travesty I'd been led to expect.
It was certainly superior to Terminator 3 (which only had a clever scene with the psychiatrist from T2, and the brutal, clever but T2 nullifying final twist going for it). I've managed to miss Salvation and Gynysys or whatever it's called, so can't really compare those - but suspect that Dark Fate is better than either of them. It's also chronologically incompatible with anything other than T1 and T2, which I'm fine with.
They did manage to find a C5 Galaxy that crashes almost as slowly as the one in the Fast & Furious franchise. Maybe that's just a feature of those planes.
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Post by pantsgoblin on Mar 1, 2021 12:13:43 GMT -5
I finally got around to watching Terminator: Dark Fate this weekend, and once again it was a lot better than I had been led to expect by the internet. It actually wasn't half bad. It wasn't really great either, and it's hard to justify why it needs to exist, as far too much of it is a retread of T2, but it wasn't the travesty I'd been led to expect. It was certainly superior to Terminator 3 (which only had a clever scene with the psychiatrist from T2, and the brutal, clever but T2 nullifying final twist going for it). I've managed to miss Salvation and Gynysys or whatever it's called, so can't really compare those - but suspect that Dark Fate is better than either of them. It's also chronologically incompatible with anything other than T1 and T2, which I'm fine with. They did manage to find a C5 Galaxy that crashes almost as slowly as the one in the Fast & Furious franchise. Maybe that's just a feature of those planes. I only watched 3 once on TV with the sound off but it was clear that Jonathan Mostow only cared about the action scenes. The rest was some of the most pedestrian cinematography I've ever witnessed.
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 1, 2021 12:38:58 GMT -5
I finally got around to watching Terminator: Dark Fate this weekend, and once again it was a lot better than I had been led to expect by the internet. It actually wasn't half bad. It wasn't really great either, and it's hard to justify why it needs to exist, as far too much of it is a retread of T2, but it wasn't the travesty I'd been led to expect. It was certainly superior to Terminator 3 (which only had a clever scene with the psychiatrist from T2, and the brutal, clever but T2 nullifying final twist going for it). I've managed to miss Salvation and Gynysys or whatever it's called, so can't really compare those - but suspect that Dark Fate is better than either of them. It's also chronologically incompatible with anything other than T1 and T2, which I'm fine with. They did manage to find a C5 Galaxy that crashes almost as slowly as the one in the Fast & Furious franchise. Maybe that's just a feature of those planes. I only watched 3 once on TV with the sound off but it was clear that Jonathan Mostow only cared about the action scenes. The rest was some of the most pedestrian cinematography I've ever witnessed. T2 > T > T:TSSC > T:DF > T3 > Genesys > Salvation (last two are very swappable. Genesys is beyond ludicrous in places but it's at least fast-pased, Stuff Happens, and has Lee Byung-hun from The Good, The Bad, The Weird and Isis in it, whereas Salvation is just really grey and dull and boring, despite having the odd idea that's not completely awful).
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Post by Nudeviking on Mar 1, 2021 19:20:35 GMT -5
Shalako (1968) - My dad loved westerns and this was one of those movies Iād seen probably a half dozen times in my youth. For reasons not entirely clear to me I happened upon it on basic cable here in Korea tonight and gave it a watch. Itās a pretty okay European western. Sean Connery as an American is utterly ridiculous but if you can get past the Scottish accented American calvaryman and the slightly less than woke mores present due to when it was made itās a perfectly serviceable western.
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Post by Floyd Diabolical Barber on Mar 2, 2021 23:09:17 GMT -5
Shalako (1968) - My dad loved westerns and this was one of those movies Iād seen probably a half dozen times in my youth. For reasons not entirely clear to me I happened upon it on basic cable here in Korea tonight and gave it a watch. Itās a pretty okay European western. Sean Connery as an American is utterly ridiculous but if you can get past the Scottish accented American calvaryman and the slightly less than woke mores present due to when it was made itās a perfectly serviceable western. For an absolutely top notch Sean Connery western, see Outland. The fact that it is set in outer space is just pure gravy.
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Post by haysoos on Mar 5, 2021 10:43:36 GMT -5
Shalako (1968) - My dad loved westerns and this was one of those movies Iād seen probably a half dozen times in my youth. For reasons not entirely clear to me I happened upon it on basic cable here in Korea tonight and gave it a watch. Itās a pretty okay European western. Sean Connery as an American is utterly ridiculous but if you can get past the Scottish accented American calvaryman and the slightly less than woke mores present due to when it was made itās a perfectly serviceable western. For an absolutely top notch Sean Connery western, see Outland. The fact that it is set in outer space is just pure gravy. I really should watch that one again. I don't think I gave it a proper reception as a snot-nosed teenager, as I was too pedantically indignant at the functionally idiotic lights inside the spacesuit helmets that would have served the sole purpose of making the suit wearer blind. Now it's so common in science fiction as a trope I don't even notice it (although every now and again I do, and it still irks me, yes I'm looking at you Battlestar Galactica). The comic book version by Jim Steranko that ran in Heavy Metal magazine is fantastic. A master class in visual story telling through the proper use of comic panels and minimal use of colour.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Mar 5, 2021 19:42:42 GMT -5
Coming 2 America
I think we both probably enjoyed this more than it, in some ways, truly deserved, but it was fun, even if it was kind of lazy at times. The plot has some serious problems - while it's much less derivative of the first film than I had anticipated (75%+of the film takes place in Zamunda), the plot beats are kind of obvious, the origin of Lavelle is extremely rapey, and it's a little confused in terms of perspective (Akeem is ostensibly the lead of the film, but he's also the chief antagonist every so often). It's fun though. We see most of the characters from the first film again (the old guys in the barber shop might be in this one more than they were in the original, even though they all easily be 90+ at this point, which neither the movie not the audience cares about at all), there are few fun and unexpected callbacks, and the cast, especially Wesley Snipes as an Idi Amin like figure, are all clearly having a blast. Whereas a lot of the pandemic movies are probably hurt by downscaling to TV, it may actually help this one; it's not an especially ambitious film, and it's probably destined to following the first film every Thursday at 1:30 PM on Comedy Central until the death of cable.
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Post by Powerthirteen on Mar 6, 2021 21:04:26 GMT -5
Cape Fear (1991) Man, that is a nasty movie for the Simpsons to have picked for a parody. Scorseseās going nuts on this one as a stylist, just one offbeat choice after another. One of the great performances of De Niroās scenery-chewing oeuvre.
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Post by songstarliner on Mar 7, 2021 1:47:13 GMT -5
Cape Fear (1991)Man, that is a nasty movie for the Simpsons to have picked for a parody. Scorseseās going nuts on this one as a stylist, just one offbeat choice after another. One of the great performances of De Niroās scenery-chewing oeuvre. I shudder every time I think of that bite.
And forgive me, but I laugh and laugh every time I think of Joe Don Baker's teddy bear. Mitchell!
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Post by pantsgoblin on Mar 7, 2021 11:02:46 GMT -5
The Twelve Chairs (1970)
Mel Brooks' follow-up to The Producers--fitfully funny/interesting but overall kind of a shouty, exasperating slog. You can tell it's grounded in Brooks' genuine love of Russian history and literature, but it seems like he needed to acquire more confidence in his writing and direction by the time of Blazing Saddles so that he didn't have to crank up every single scene to 11.
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Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Mar 7, 2021 12:31:06 GMT -5
Back to the Future Part 2 (1989)
Simultaneously really obvious and really incoherent, and kind of bizarrely unpleasant. And without the good aspects of the original, it sort of underscores how weirdly icky that film was. It is beyond me that people actually like this movie.
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Post by Powerthirteen on Mar 7, 2021 12:50:56 GMT -5
Back to the Future Part 2 (1989) Simultaneously really obvious and really incoherent, and kind of bizarrely unpleasant. And without the good aspects of the original, it sort of underscores how weirdly icky that film was. It is beyond me that people actually like this movie. Iāve seen Back To The Future literally dozens of times. It is an unfailing font of pleasure. I have never felt any desire to rewatch Part 2.
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Post by Hachiman on Mar 7, 2021 20:16:49 GMT -5
I will always stand up for Part III as well. It really is more of a childrenās movie in a lot of respects, but itās a really good childrenās movie. Wow, I found someone else who holds my opinion on Part III. It's just a fun time-travel movie that totally could have been it own stand-alone movie aimed at kids. Part II is pretty meh to me once you get over the spectacle. The original is a classic but it is still weird to think that we're just as far from the 90's as they were from the 50's when the movie was made. Like, I can't imagine a time travel movie where they go back to 1991 and would have a ton to really work with.
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ABz Bš¹anaz
Grandfathered In
This country is (now less of) a shitshow.
Posts: 1,972
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Post by ABz Bš¹anaz on Mar 7, 2021 21:14:24 GMT -5
I will always stand up for Part III as well. It really is more of a childrenās movie in a lot of respects, but itās a really good childrenās movie. Wow, I found someone else who holds my opinion on Part III. It's just a fun time-travel movie that totally could have been it own stand-alone movie aimed at kids. Part II is pretty meh to me once you get over the spectacle. The original is a classic but it is still weird to think that we're just as far from the 90's as they were from the 50's when the movie was made. Like, I can't imagine a time travel movie where they go back to 1991 and would have a ton to really work with. I agree with this as well. BTTF was a masterpiece, II was weird and off-putting (even more so now knowing how "accurate" Biff as Trump was), and III was fantastic too.
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Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Mar 8, 2021 22:05:59 GMT -5
Baby Driver (2017)
It was nice watching a good movie for once. Incredible integration of a stellar soundtrack into a really fun heist film. A liiiiittle contrived towards the end, but still a hell of a lot of fun.
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Post by Jimmy James on Mar 9, 2021 9:03:05 GMT -5
I will always stand up for Part III as well. It really is more of a childrenās movie in a lot of respects, but itās a really good childrenās movie. Back to the Future Part III is my second-favorite time travel movie where Mary Steenburgen falls in love with a Star Trek villain.
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Post by pantsgoblin on Mar 9, 2021 10:51:36 GMT -5
I will always stand up for Part III as well. It really is more of a childrenās movie in a lot of respects, but itās a really good childrenās movie. Back to the Future Part III is my second-favorite time travel movie where Mary Steenburgen falls in love with a Star Trek villain. There's still time to make Ted Danson the villain in the next movie for the hat trick.
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Post by pantsgoblin on Mar 10, 2021 8:32:27 GMT -5
They Live is one of those few movies where āI know writers who use subtext and they're all cowardsā works, and works really well. For whatever reason I thought Kurt Russell was in this and Iām glad he wasnāt. He would have brought the wrong energy, Hollywood energy. Thereās something more real, more lumpen about Roddy Piper. I also didnāt realize this was the origin of āIām here to do X and Y and Iām all out of X.ā Also, as someone who mostly knows him from his 2010s work, it was strange seeing young, strong-enough-to-wrestle-with-an-actual-wrestler Keith David. Russell reportedly passed because the story didn't jibe with his conservative politics (which makes you wonder how he interprets the Escape movies).
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Post by Ben Grimm on Mar 10, 2021 9:04:28 GMT -5
They Live is one of those few movies where āI know writers who use subtext and they're all cowardsā works, and works really well. For whatever reason I thought Kurt Russell was in this and Iām glad he wasnāt. He would have brought the wrong energy, Hollywood energy. Thereās something more real, more lumpen about Roddy Piper. I also didnāt realize this was the origin of āIām here to do X and Y and Iām all out of X.ā Also, as someone who mostly knows him from his 2010s work, it was strange seeing young, strong-enough-to-wrestle-with-an-actual-wrestler Keith David. It helps that, while Piper is not a great actor, by any means, he's perfect in this. While I know, intellectually, that Roddy Piper is a big-name professional wrestler, not a blue-collar, homeless laborer, it feels like they just found the guy this happened to happen to and followed him around for a while. This is one of the least slick pictures Carpenter did after the 70s, but it completely works. The sledgehammer approach to storytelling usually doesn't work, but it definitely does here.
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 10, 2021 11:44:06 GMT -5
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)
Somehow I had never seen it but it's on D+ so now I have. It's...fine? I watched it on a Sunday afternoon with some tea and nothing better to do and that's probably ideal. It's very slight but colours move and things blow up and that's all I really required of it. SLJ's decision to play his character with a lisp is an... interesting choice. The film seems WAY more impressed by the idea of biometric security than it needs to be but otherwise it's a perfectly cromulent, self-aware runaround that killed a couple of hours.
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Post by Superb Owl š¦ on Mar 10, 2021 12:31:56 GMT -5
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) Somehow I had never seen it but it's on D+ so now I have. It's...fine? I watched it on a Sunday afternoon with some tea and nothing better to do and that's probably ideal. It's very slight but colours move and things blow up and that's all I really required of it. SLJ's decision to play his character with a lisp is an... interesting choice. The film seems WAY more impressed by the idea of biometric security than it needs to be but otherwise it's a perfectly cromulent, self-aware runaround that killed a couple of hours. At first I was all "they put KINGSMAN on D+?!!!", but then I realized Europe.
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repulsionist
TI Forumite
actively disinterested
Posts: 3,674
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Post by repulsionist on Mar 11, 2021 2:33:03 GMT -5
Jean-Luc Lemur, don't stop there, bro. Take an invite to Abigail's Party. Watch in horror at the Grown-Ups. The actor playing Keith in Nuts shows up as a facsimile of Keith called "Right Bleeding Bastard" in an episode of The Young Ones (S1:E4). Nuts is a riff-template for Ben Wheatley's Sightseers.
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repulsionist
TI Forumite
actively disinterested
Posts: 3,674
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Post by repulsionist on Mar 11, 2021 2:37:45 GMT -5
Prole Hole, ya gotta square The Golden Circle to see a wicked cameo that sets up Rocket Man.
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Post by chalkdevil š on Mar 11, 2021 12:07:56 GMT -5
I will always stand up for Part III as well. It really is more of a childrenās movie in a lot of respects, but itās a really good childrenās movie. Wow, I found someone else who holds my opinion on Part III. It's just a fun time-travel movie that totally could have been it own stand-alone movie aimed at kids. Part II is pretty meh to me once you get over the spectacle. The original is a classic but it is still weird to think that we're just as far from the 90's as they were from the 50's when the movie was made. Like, I can't imagine a time travel movie where they go back to 1991 and would have a ton to really work with. "Hey Kurt, it's your cousin Marvin, Marvin Cobain, you know that new sound you looking for? Well listen to this!" Cut to one of the kids from Stranger Things standing still playing Smells Like Teen Spirit to a crowd of kids standing and swaying slightly.
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Post by chalkdevil š on Mar 11, 2021 14:40:25 GMT -5
Underwater (2020) This was pretty lean and mostly descent action/horror/monster movie. Basically Kristen Stewart and a group of survivors are escaping a collapsing drilling facility at the bottom of the Mariana Trench but there's something else out there... It's a quick 95 minute movie that mostly works in it's favor since you don't have much time to think about the implausibility of the whole endeavor. And when I say this thing is pretty lean, I mean, the title is doing a lot of work to help you get oriented, because the actual movie doesn't. Hell, you have to pay attention to the newspaper clippings that flash on screen during the opening credits because this thing just starts with Kristen Stewart in her brushing her teeth in her underwear and a minute later all hell breaks loose. It feels a little like this thing was cut down a lot, too. There is a cryptic opening and closing voice over that adds nothing. Stewart has a back story but you don't really find out what that is until the last 10 minutes. So, most irrelevant except to explain the 3rd act choices. The movie does have a small cast that does include TJ Miller playing a TJ Miller character, so content warning on that, but no one is a particular stand out otherwise. Including Vincent Cassel whose role appears to be 50 year old among 20 year olds.
I like this thing best when it's people trying to escape a collapsing underwater facility and less when it's people trying to escape CGI monsters. It made me think a little of The Descent in that way, accept without the fun creature effects. But it's still entertaining enough.
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