Topic: Movie thread.

I finally got around to seeing the new Joker movie and it's so good! Like seriously good! I wasn't expecting to be this impressed but yikes that guy is scary! The acting job that Joaquin Phoenix did was really convincing! I love it when an actor gets so into their role that they aren't playing the character they become him or her! I know a little bit about being bullied and i could totally relate to the abuse and cruelty that would drive a person to go joker on someone. This is more like a psycho killer movie than a comic book movie and i can't praise it enough!

Oh if anyone cares Terminator dark fate is out on DVD at the end of this month so I'll probably pick up that too! Yeah i know it got alot of hate but it's a series about time traveling robots from the future. If you can get past that and not overthink the plot too much you can still enjoy it.

I recently watched The Thing(1982) still holds beautifully, except for the CGI monster at the end. It was goofy, but everything else? Wow, a classic through and through.

@MsJubilee That is a really great film. The premise is nothing new for film or TV, but the execution is good because the film has a very measured pace and doesn’t feel like it has to give the audience a shock every 10 minutes unlike the lesser 2000s remake.

The practical effects look good for the most part and have aged quite well.

I’d put that as the 2nd best Carpenter film after Halloween.

@NotTelevision The effects have aged quite well(the thing is still terrifying even after all these years), I will say this movie was ahead of its time, and it shows except the CGI monster at the end. I have not seen the 2011 prequel, but I have seen the trailer, and it's something. It looks like a generic CGI horror movie, and that's a shame.

Tokyo Melody (1984):

A french documentary about japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, back in his Yellow Magic Orchestra days, where he talks about his influences, thought process and shows a bit of the computers that were used back then to compose the classic YMO tracks.
It's a very visual documentary, quite a lot of segments show footage from 80s Japan without any commentary.
It's pretty interesting, but I found CODA to be more substantial overall.

Ryuichi Sakamoto: CODA (2017)

A much more recent documentary. Ryuichi is now in his 60s
This one shows some of his composing process, the many movies he's worked on and his battle against cancer back in 2014 and how it influenced his 2017 album Async.
Really enjoyed this one.

Found kinda funny how there's actually a scene of Tokyo Melody on this one where his younger self appears. In a interview Ryuichi was asked if he had watched the documentary and what he felt seeing his younger self, and then he said he would like to punch him, haha.

I've been to the cinemas a lot recently.

1917: Loved this film, the most visually striking movie I've seen this year. It actually reminded me of the game Journey. Two scenes in particular stood out, the bit after the main character wakes up, and the bit in the river with the petals. Great visual story telling.

Jojo Rabbit: Funny, Sad and dramatic all in one. Probably the best film i've seen in a while. Really enjoyed it. You can tell a movie is good, when you get to the climax and you'd be sad to see any of the characters die.

Star Wars IX: I thought Ray and Kylo's story was wrapped up pretty well. The rest of the cast seemed like after thoughts. It was entertaining though.

Bad Boys 4 Life: It was really good, it was about half an hour too long though. Some of the special effects also needed some work. Martin Lawrence stole the show

Stripes (Blu-Ray) - 80's comedey that see's a 20 something slacker played by Bill Murray convince his best friend to join him in signing up for the US Army ('cause hey, it's not like his current life is taking him anywhere), bumbling through boot camp, and saving the day after nearly starting a war with the Soviets.

It's a fun enough time. Some scenes seem misplaced (like when they find themselves air dropped into Central America, which doesn't really fit where they put it, or anywhere, but they wanted to use it anyway), but it otherwise works. Seems to have less frentic energy than comedies that come out nowadays, and quite a bit more nudity (which seems rare these days, even in adult comedies oddly).

I've watched a couple of films since my last post.

Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone (Blu-Ray) - Remake of the early parts of the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV anime in film form. It's not the first time I've watched it (though the first time not on cable), and I'm glad to say it still had me gripped from beginning to end.

The Living Daylights (Blu-Ray) - The next Bond film on my list, and I've found it to be one of my favorites so far. After a Soviet general is seemingly kidnapped by the KGB after defecting to the west, Bond is tasked with getting him back & finds out that not all is as it seems. Some of the later Moore entries could get a little too campy for my liking, but this (the first Dalton outing) hit the balance of fun & action just right.

I watched Mulholland Drive recently, and I just wanted to gather my thoughts and try to piece the movie together before I talked about it. And I have to say this movie is fascinating! Throws you for so many loops that it will make you try to piece it all together. It's fantastic. I had this film in my mind for days now!

Like every movie out there, it has flaws. And that flaw was the sound effects in a couple of scenes(especially when someone gets punched) it's slapstick and cartooney, ruins the immersion. But other than that, this movie is fantastic. Would recommend.

Watching Batman: TAS.
One of the best aspects of this cartoon is the variety. Joker is amazing, but he isn't featured in every single episode (when he appears, though, it's just great), there are tons of villains represented, some episodes have Robin in it, some don't, etc.
It's a really well made animated series.

@Link-Hero The last episode I watched was S1/46 - The Laughing Fish. Great episode by the way!

The Invisible Man was dumb as hell.

Star Wars Episode I: the Phantom Menace (Blu-Ray) - Just for clarification I want to preface this by saying I've never been a huge SW person. I know I've seen all the films through at least once, have caught bits & pieces over the years when I've stopped on a channel that happen to have one on (and have actually seen Episode I in theaters as a kid, though it's been so long I didn't remember much), and have played a few of the games, but it would be a fair guess to state that most of my experience with the series comes from watching the Family Guy parody trilogy 10-20 times over the years when the show is at that point in it's endless Adult Swim rotation.

With that said, I actually had quite a bit of fun watching this. Sure, the CGI was obviously out of date at first glance (and there's a lot of it), but oddly I think it works really well for the tone of the film. It really does invoke feeling of the kind of classic sword & sorcery fantasy (just trade dragons for spaceships) that a parent might read to a child at bedtime, and the CGI reminded me of a sort of theme park ride (it kind of felt like I was riding the Back to the Future ride), like it was in on the fact that this is supposed to be the kind of epic adventure you're not to take too seriously (even if that wasn't the original intent). It's also impressive that the creative world building shone through (Naboo, the underwater Gungan city, & the endless cityscape of Corsucant were awe inspiring), further tying together the feeling that the otherwise "cheesy" vibe is an intentional choice.

Sure, it had some of the political talk that people mention a lot as a negative, but it honestly wasn't as overbearing in terms of the runtime as I'd feared, and actually found it decently interesting. The action was good fun too. I especially liked the Pod Race, the Space battle Anakin got dragged into, and the flashy Light Saber combat.

Speaking of movies does anyone else feel like there's very few anymore that get you excited enough to go to the theater? It's like so much of it now is Reboot this and rehash that. The originality with cinema these days is just gone. Plus have you guys heard about this new assigned seat nonsense alot of theaters have been doing lately? Basically you can't even sit where you want anymore. You gotta choose a certain seat before even going in. It's probably so they know where you are in case you start shooting up the place. Like you're being monitored or something. They say it's for your convenience so you can pick your seat ahead of time but you're basically stuck in whatever seat you chose and if some fat loud mouth picked the seat right by yours you are screwed. I suppose you could go request a different seat but what a hassle!

I would always go to the theater for the movies that kinda made sense on the big screen. The ones that really had me pumped! Star wars for example but lately it's like i just don't care anymore. Whatever i wanna see i can usually wait for the home release. Theaters are just not cool these days what with all the millenial dip wads on their phones or psychos who wanna spray random peoples brains all over the wall because they got cyber bullied. Remember real bullies that used to tease you right to your face? That was 10 times worse. Yeah so anyway i might be done with theaters for good.

If anyone liked The Fifth Element, I recommend Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. It's by the same director, the art design & effects have a strong Fifth Element feel, which is good. I don't think it's as good as The Fifth Element, but I still thought it was a good watch. I watched it twice. I'd watch it again if it's on TV.

Weird Science (Blu-Ray) - 80's teen comedy that sees a couple of high school buddies (Wyatt & Gary) go from dweebs to cool after they inadvertently create a reality bending beauty named Lisa (when simply trying to create a female AI on Wyatt's computer in order to practice speaking to girls), who uses her powers to help them climb the latter of popularity.

It's 80's culture distilled into it's purest form (cheesy, neon infused, with a wide eyed wonder at the unlimited possibilities of computers), and while it may not be a movie that'll stand the test of time, I've always found it to be a fun watch.

Interesting to note that they really went all out with the special features. In addition to all the standard stuff (production photos, theatrical, televesion, & even radio ads, all sorts of commentary), it even has high definition scans of it's various film posters, VHS boxes, DVD boxes, & Blu-Ray boxes from throughout the years, and even regions. It even has a digital copy of the film's script!

This morning I watched Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance (Blu-Ray).

The second film in the Evangelion remake line, it's animated just as beautifully as the first (in addition to the stunning action sequences, I really enjoy the scenery shots, especially those that center on Tokyo III "waking up" or readying for combat). While it still mostly retells the events of the TV series at this point, major deviations are starting to show themselves such as a completely new Eva pilot, the changing of a pilot during a major accident, and that out of this world finale! After this point it'll be all new to me as I haven't yet seen 3.33, and am interested in seeing how this plays out.

@RR529 Regarding Weird Science, "You're abslutely right, Chet! You're abslutely right!" : P

(misspelled absolutely because gary drunk slurs in that part)

@Woomy_NNYes, I'm quite suprised how much attention my Weird Science writeup has gotten! It started a little discussion between another poster & myself over on Push Square, and with you replying here it's one of the few times one of my writeups gets any sort of comment here at NL, so thanks for that. It's just not the kind of movie I'd think would be particularly likely to start a discussion.

Anyhow, I think my favorite line revolves around when Chet is threatening Wyatt because it was snowing in his room, lol.

@RR529 I had to go look up that scene. Yeah, that's a great scene too.