Topic: Movie thread.

@Peek-a-boo Thanks for posting. I just realized I hadn't shared my thoughts on some of the movies I'd seen recently.

IT: A better coming-of-age drama than a horror movie. Thanks to the way it focused solely on the children's timeline, and the way the adults in the town are basically useless at best when it comes to helping children deal with their problems, and, honestly, the funny banter between characters, this struck me more as a violent and supernaturally-tinged version of one of those 80's children's adventure movies like The Goonies.

I do feel like the change in focus to just the child timeline made the movie lose the epic scope that the original film and novel had and downplayed a lot of the relevant themes about overcoming childhood fears and the way problems from childhood can creep up in adult life. I think the ideal format for the new IT would have been another miniseries.

Bill Skarsgård was unexpectedly creepy as Pennywise, but the director likes to rely more on CGI and stupid stunts than allowing the actor to win with his performance. Too many lunging sort of jump scare moments for me.

Overall, I was happy with the film, but I think, tonally, it doesn't really work as a horror film. And I think that's going to become apparent when the second movie comes out and it FEELS very different. For what it is, though, I thought it was reasonably decent.

Flatliners: The original, not the remake. This is a perfect example of a film where the writers come up with an interesting premise but don't know how to develop it in interesting directions. Old guilts coming back to haunt people (literally!) after they've died? It... just didn't work for me. It's not coherent. On the other hand, I'll admit, I giggled like an idiot every time the little kid came around and Kiefer Sutherland started locking doors and trembling in terror. The first time he encountered the kid, it was a bit startling, but the fact that he turns into a sort of movie monster that stalks the main character everywhere was unexpectedly hilarious!

American Assassin: Anti-terrorist revenge porn. That's all I was expecting, and that's all I got, so I was OK with it. There's something satisfying on a primal level about seeing the victim of a terrorist attack embrace his anger and hatred and use it to hunt down the savages who ruined his life. It also made for a pretty decent action movie. Nice fight scenes: no erratic Bourne-esque nonsense here. The story is fairly predictable, and you've probably seen it a million times.

Acting was mostly pretty good. Michael Keaton is the standout here as the hardened ex-Navy Seal instructor who turns Dylan O'Brien's Mitch Rapp into a killing machine.

@Ralizah That’s a perfect description for IT; ‘a better coming-of-age drama than a horror movie’.

I too thought that the CGI was a bit iffy in places and was quite easy to spot, unfortunately. The lady in the painting was especially noticeable, and even the balloons were computer animated for goodness sake!

What has happened to using effective practical effects?

As for Flatliners, I love it!

It doesn’t really come together in a particularly logical manner, and the way you lose track of whether hours, days or weeks has gone by is especially glaring however, I cannot help but love what the film is going for, and seeing all those famous names together in an early film of their careers is somewhat nice to see.

Kevin Bacon did a one-two whammy of Flatliners and Tremors in the very same year, and I love them both!

I am going to see a film called American Made with Tom Cruise next week, and for a moment there, I was a little bit confused with the films similar-ish title and thought it was the third and last film you wrote up about...

I have still got Borg vs McEnroe, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Mother! and Wind River to go and see before Thor Ragnarok comes out at the end of October, which I am really, really looking forward to!

@Peek-a-boo Oh yeah, the lady in the painting looked terrible. Practical effects and toned down CGI would have made this a LOT scarier. No excuse for the director when something dangerous-looking and insane like Mad Max: Fury Road employed only minimal CGI.

I used to have a stepfather who LOOOOOOVED Tremors, as well as all of the terrible sequels. I also have terrible nineties films that I rewatch often and enjoy, like Judge Dredd and Homeward Bound.

Flatliners really did have a lot of future stars in it (thankfully, I don't recall Kevin Bacon's terrible mullet making a return in later films he starred in).

Nope. I'm not ruling out the possibility of going to a theater to see a Tom Cruise movie, but if I do, it won't be my idea.

Be sure you post your impressions on mother! I haven't heard flattering things, but that might be due to the way it was marketed. It Comes at Night was also marketed as a traditional horror film, and also received backlash as a result.

Beauty & the Beast (Netflix) - The remake that released earlier this year. It was a decent movie that was pretty effective at pushing the nostalgia buttons, but I just couldn't help but feel I'd rather be watching the original.

Miss Hokusai (Netflix) - Anime film set in the Edo era that focuses on the eldest daughter of famous artist, Hokusai. It doesn't really serve as a biography, and doesn't even have a core narrative. Rather, it's just a string of anecdotal stories, though there are a couple of narrative threads that run through it. It's a nice looking film, and they do some neat things visually, but overall I felt it was a bit too slow for my tastes. Also annoying is the fact that the only English option was Closed Captioned subs, and they didn't even bother to translate the two paragraphs at the end of the film that I assume went into more detail about the real life figures.

Blade Runner 2049: God, I am IN LOVE with this film! Perhaps I need some distance from it to gain perspective, but it really did exceed my every expectation. While I think the original Blade Runner is a work of style over substance, it's one I've watched probably fifty or more times over the years and across the various versions of the film (I have a wonderful DVD set with every version of the film ever made, although the real star of that set is the wonderful 2+ hour documentary on the making of the film). Needless to say, even though I can't call it a "great film," it is a wonderful work of art, and one I feel deeply about. When I heard that they were making a sequel, it wouldn't be a stretch to say I was concerned: how could a sequel ever possibly do the visionary original justice?

Well, it did. In fact, and I might regret saying this one day, it has exceeded it. It's a film of style AND substance, mixing blasted industrial hellscapes and a wonderful, oppressive score with a complex, textured narrative positively brimming with interesting themes and wonderfully realized characters. I'm actually tempted to say that THIS is the sort of movie I envisioned when I imagined what a good Hollywood Ghost in the Shell adaptation might look like, what with its preoccupation with memory, identity, and the nature of humanity. There was even a layer of it that reminded me of Spike Jonze's wonderful sci-fi satire Her. Ryan Gosling is exceptionally good as the brooding K., a newer replicant model assigned the duties of a blade runner who becomes a surprisingly layered character as the film goes on. Yet, he also fills the role of detective perfectly in this wonderfully atmospheric neo-noir universe.

I don't feel like I've emphasized enough just how awe-inspiring this film is as an experience: this NEEDS to be seen in a theater. I'm not typically a person who is wowed by fantastical movie worlds (Avatar didn't do much for me, for example), but this film is just overwhelming with the way its sound design mixes with landscapes that are simultaneously bleak and stunning (like the original, but with a sense of scale and detail that wasn't possible to realize in the 80's). The framing of shots, the stark contrast of colors on the screen (K's black visage bordering the blasted, ozymandian, almost Mars-like environment of ruined New Vegas, for example), EVERYTHING in this film is just superb. The narrative uncoils deliberately and organically, rewarding the viewer for paying close attention to the way. The film is perhaps a bit on the long side (close to three hours), but none of that time feels wasted: instead, the film immerses the viewer in the lonely, futuristic nightmare of this world, and its very patient in the way it accomplishes this.

A total masterpiece, possibly the best sequel ever made, and easily my favorite film made since the turn of the century.

See. This.

@Ralizah Just saw Blade Runner too, and I was pleasantly surprised to that see someone already went through the effort to put my thoughts down! Thank you!

Jokes aside, easily my favourite film I've seen this year, maybe even the best in recent years.

I, too, was a bit concerned about a sequel. I was afraid it was too ''Force Awakens-y'', with the entire Harrison Ford reveal, trying to cash in on nostalgia, but this film stands on its own and definitely lives up to the original. It perfectly managed to capture the essence of the first film, the question of what makes a human a human, what is consciousness, what is AI, and does it all really matter? I think I may even prefer this one over the original.

Can we also put an emphasis on the music and sound design? Those eerie otherworldly hums and buzzes are one of the most memorable things of the first film, and it's even more prominent in the sequel. I love it!

@Peek-a-boo You need to see this one if you haven't already!

@Octane It really is the antithesis of TFA, isn't it? That film was a creatively bankrupt venture that got by largely on the goodwill established by its nostalgia pandering. The new Blade Runner is magnificent, though: it doesn't ignore the events of the first movie, but they're purely used as a foundation to build an original film on.

The sound design is indeed wonderful: as you said, the film manages to perfectly recapture the otherworldly soundscape of the original film. The dark industrial synthwave tracks and sweeping, visionary cinematography were absolutely the best aspects of the original film, and this film definitely rivals it in this regard, with better pacing and a more interesting narrative, characters, and themes to boot.

Only seen ‘Borg vs McEnroe’ and ‘Battle of the Sexes’ this month, and seeing as they are both (wildly different) tennis films, and seeing as I have not seen a single person type out the word ‘tennis’ on this forum other than myself, I didn’t feel overly compelled to write up a little review about either of them!

One was better than the other, if only for it being a more interesting story.

Shia LaBeouf didn’t look like McEnroe however, he certainly got his characteristics down to a tee, whereas Borg was played by a very good Borg lookalike, but he didn’t capture his aura and personality quite as well. The story flowed nicely, and the main - and famous - match at Wimbledon played out really well. Only downside were the in between parts where you didn’t learn anything new about either men nor did you get sense of the rather intense ongoing rivalry between them at the time, which was sorely missing.

‘Battle of the Sexes’ sees Steve Carell (Bobby Riggs) against Emma Stone (Billie Jean King), and as a previous under-12s champion in my region, the tennis felt quite awkward to watch. Too many cuts, too many exaggerated shots and too overly dramatic for what was actually a rather tame - and one sided - affair after the build up to said event. Unlike the latter film, the in between parts were actually interesting and gave the audience a new insight of what had actually happened during the lead up to the match.

Borg vs McEnroe - 6
Battle of the Sexes - 7

It is so rare to see one tennis film, let alone two in a space of a month!

p.s. I'll be seeing Blade Runner 2049 at the end of this month. School has been incredibly busy as of late...

Big movie update!

Boogie Nights (Netflix) - Drama following the rise and fall of a group of people involved in the adult film industry throughout the 70's & 80's. It wasn't one of the best films I've ever seen, but it managed to hold my attention for the entirety of it's 2 & a half hour run, so it managed to stay interesting.

Wonder Woman (DVD) - This was a good time, and the best DCEU film since Man of Steel. The action was really good, and they spent the time they needed fleshing out the character.

Gantz: 0 (Netflix) - Anime film that I believe is a remake of one particular story arc of a long running series. Despite that, it presents it's story in an easy to grasp manner for newbies (like myself), while also crafting an ending that works. Naturally, a lot of it's worldbuilding is left unexplained, but if you just roll with it, it's a good time. Not to mention it looks fantastic, and is really tense (looots of gore, though).

Kingsman: The Golden Circle - Like the original, this feels sort of like a mash-up of James Bond and a big budget exploitation film. I definitely feel like it's trying to push further and further in that "shocking" direction, which can get a bit tiresome. I wasn't a huge fan of the original, but it fully kept my attention, and The Golden Circle is the same way: whatever flaws I perceive in its directorial flourishes or inane plot points, I can't deny that it's engaging and often fun. I liked the idea of there being an American version of Kingsman, but the Statesman crew just end up looking sort of... pitiful. They don't really do much. Julianne Moore is clearly having fun as the sociopathic drug kingpin who target the Kingsman. There's not really much to her character, but the same was true of Samuel L. Jackson in the original. Her role is to look and sound chirpy and old-fashioned while causing horrifying acts of violence to occur, and she really commits to the role in that respect. Overall... it was overly violent, stupid, and yet weirdly engaging. Not a great film, but I can say that I was entertained almost the entire time, which is more than I can say for a lot of films. Oh, and that lightsaber lasso was pretty cool!

My Little Pony: The Movie - As a fan of the show, I was a bit disappointed: I don't think the ponies translate well to the big screen. Granted, there are some decent songs here, and the animation is really gorgeous, with more of a traditional, hand-drawn look, but it turns into a very typical animated fantasy film, missing out on most of the genuine emotion, fun villains, and smart, geeky humor that made the show such a hit. They played it safe. I did like Emily Blunt's character, Tempest Shadow, the top enforcer for the (unfortunately quite undeveloped and boring) big bad who does a good job conveying a sense of menace and power. Her character also gets the best song in the movie. This is still better than 90% of drek that passes for American animation these days, but I was hoping for more.

A Ghost Story - Boy, I don't know how to feel about this one! On one hand, I love its originality, the deep themes it's exploring, and the epic scope of the story. On the other hand... this is boring. It's like someone took a really good 10 or 20 minute short film and stretched the material so far that it's on the verge of ripping. The ghost, being unable to interact with the world in any meaningful way, spends most of the movie standing still looking at stuff. The film is filled with some unbearably long sequences where next to nothing happens: the most infamous being the now well-known scene where we watch Rooney Mara eat a pie for five full minutes. That's it. The camera stays still for five minutes as we watch her eat a pie. Granted, she does a good job of looking really grief-stricken while eating the pie, and, I get it, the film is confronting us with the enormity of her loss by trapping us with her as she eats her grief, we're reduced to the role of helpless spectator like the ghost, and we're forced to acknowledge how deeply our emotional lives can leak even into mundane activities. I get why the scene is there, but nothing is going to make five minutes of watching a woman eat a pie interesting. There's another scene, lasting at least a couple of minutes, where the camera rests on the covered body of the dead main character before he finally comes back as a ghost. There's some interesting material in this movie, but there are also numerous moments when I had to wonder if the film was just making fun of me for considering it so carefully. Too often, it verged into "gay cowboys eating pudding" territory. This is the sort of movie that's not really meant to be enjoyed, but to be mulled over afterward, and to be picked apart frame by frame. I don't know how I feel about that.

Thor: Ragnarok - 9/10

My partner and I saw this yesterday evening, and we both loved it.

There was so much to like and love about this movie. The art design, the eye-popping colours, the soundtrack, the humour, the cast. Too much to praise. It wasn’t a perfect movie, but it’s certainly in the upper echelons of Marvel’s best films to date. They are really in their grove in terms of creating movies that get the essence of the characters so well, and finally establishing an identity for each of them. I can say that the best of the Marvel films feel distinct from one another, either visually, tonally, or aurally. I can dig this direction going forward.

I also cannot believe I didn’t realise Taika was Korg. He was hilarious, and very different from the comics version. I thought it was perfect.

So many great moments of comedy as well. Please don’t read this fantastic spoiler until after you have seen the film, but I just could not stop laughing and smiling when I saw the trio of Matt Damon, Liam Hemsworth (Chris’s brother) and Sam Neill re-enacting a stage play of Loki’s death at Asgard.

I absolutely loved the Hulk/Thor dynamic, and I feel like the Thor film series may be one of the few exceptions to the “three movies and we’re done,” format from the other Marvel movies. It’s clear that this one is a hit, and Taika was the perfect choice to helm this movie, and he wants to do more.

I don’t think audiences would complain about another Thor directed by Waititi, and starring Hemsworth. I know contracts are expiring, but I can’t see Hemsworth passing up another chance to work with Taika on another Thor. It feels like it’d be a shame to not do one more, now that they seemed to have really gotten a handle on what “Thor” should be as a film series.

Cate Blanchett as Hela is inspired casting, Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster is simply fantastic, and seeing Stan Lee’s cameo - and the scene he is involved in - is just brilliant! The 80’s synthwave soundtrack had everybody’s heads bobbing, and is used very effectively too.

It was fun, funny and lighthearted in every sense; it feels like the best antibiotic you can find to the overblown seriousness of some of the recent DC comic films.

Go see!

1922 (Netflix Original) - One of the two films I watched for Halloween (can't believe I'd forgotten to post, lol). Based upon a Steven King novel of the same name, it follows the collapse of a farmer's life after he makes a particularly gruesome decision, resulting in some dark supernatural phenomena, all over the course of one year. It was a bit slow, but overall I preferred the way it built up to the spooky stuff.

the Babysitter (Netflix Original) - My other Halloween watch. A dark comedy, that sees a nerdy kid forced into discovering his courage after discovering that his babysitter is really the ringleader of a satanic cult, and they'll stop at nothing to make sure he doesn't talk. It was alright.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (DVD) - This was a really fun time. Not much else to say about it, but it's definitely worth a watch.

@Peek-a-boo Have you seen Blade Runner yet?

Got to see Thor the other day. It was alright, I don't like Marvel, and I've never seen the Avengers, but the rest was enjoyable.

@Octane I’m afraid that a big pile of school work kept me from seeing Blade Runner a month ago, and it was taken off the film showings rather quickly too. I have pre-ordered the film on my Apple TV though!

Oh man... I loved Thor: Ragnarok! Sounds like you fairly nonplussed about it for some reason?

I went to see Justice League yesterday evening and asides from a few action scenes and seeing Superman make his SHOCKING (not) reappearance, I thought it was a joyless, dull and uninspiring affair. There was no threat whatsoever, and the CGI effects were astoundingly poor in places.

I think a 4/10 is generous enough.

My favourite comic book films of the year, in order from best to worse:

Thor: Ragnarok
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Logan
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 = Wonder Woman (a tie; enjoyed them equally)
Justice League

@Peek-a-boo I'm just not a big fan of super hero films. There are exceptions, like the Batman trilogy and Watchmen for example. But I'm not a big fan of Marvel in general. I never saw the second Thor either, but I fortunately didn't miss out on any major plot details. Anyway, it was a good film, but it was a bit all over the place. And how the heck did Loki get on that ship after the last fight? I thought he died when Surtr destroyed Asgard. That scene had me a bit puzzled.

That's unfortunate. I heard sales weren't amazing, so I can understand why they pulled it. I hope you have a pretty good surround sound setup at home though, because the sound direction is Blade Runner is absolutely fantastic! I had to pre-order the limited edition OST on vinyl!

I just came back from Justice League, and yes, it's a major disappointment. WB can't seem to get the DCEU right. Only Wonder Woman was any good so far.

As for the other superhero movies I saw this year: my favorite is Guardians of the Galaxy 2. I don't get why so many thought that was one of the lesser Marvel movies. It had heart, lots of humor, a great villain with Ego and the most emotional scene the MCU has seen so far. Also, Baby Groot!!!

I would rank 2017's superhero movies as follows:
1. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (8/10)
2. Spider-Man: Homecoming (8/10)
3. Thor: Ragnarok (8/10)
4. Logan (8/10)
5. Wonder Woman (7/10)
6. Justice League (5/10)

Anyone else excited to see Coco soon?
I've been listening to its soundtrack for 2 weeks now and I can't get enough of it. It's crazy good!

I still can't see why people are praising Thor Ragnarock. It was an okay movie with cringy jokes that they kept throwing at you every second which personally got annoying. Also didn't like that they made Hulk into some dumb brute that can't talk properly can't think can't do a damn thing but just smash. Sad to see my favorite comic character turn into such a joke for kids to laugh at. RIP World War Hulk

You clearly haven't seen Thor: Ragnarok.

@Shantephan Fire i like fire. Raging fire.No friend! Don't leave! No! Oh yes Bruce banner should be proud.