Topic: Movie thread.

Hana-Bi (Amazon Prime Video) - 90's Japanese film about a police detective, Nishi (played by Takeshi Kitano), who, after a series of events throw his life into disarray, decides to throw everything away and make the most of things while he can. I really got into it, and say it now outranks Sonatine as my favorite Kitano film.

Weird Science (Amazon Prime Video) - 80's Teen Comedy that sees a couple of high school nerds that, while trying to create a female AI to practice interacting with women, somehow manage to create a real life bombshell beauty, who both listens to their every whim, while also having the power to alter reality itself. It's goofy 80's schlock (and of course the boys learn some self confidence & that people will like them for who they are by film's end), but I definitely enjoy these kinds of films from time to time, and like seeing what they were able to get away with, with a PG-13 rating at the time (it almost reminds me of a Shonen anime/manga, in the sense that it's definitely not a film aimed at adults, yet there is some sexual innuendo, and even a few very brief moments of female nudity, that you wouldn't get in a Hollywood film made today for the same demographic).

Aladdin Live Action movie

Rim of the World (Netflix Original Film) - A callback to the 80's youth adventure genre (with a few other references, such as a nearly blatant copy of the Jurassic Park kitchen scene), that sees a group of young teens at summer camp end up on an adventure to save the planet from an alien invasion. It mixes comedy (these kids can have some potty mouths, particularly Dariush) with more tense moments. Overall it's mostly dumb fun not to be taken too seriously, and while the CGI isn't the best, due to the tone of the film I didn't mind. If you know what you're getting yourself into it can be a fun watch.

I only found out about it after I ran across a Yahoo article talking about how it was causing an "uproar" over racist jokes (and they even managed to scrounge up 4 or 5 negative tweets as proof!). Admittedly It does rely on a lot of established tropes & cliches (in all aspects), but it's all in an effort to capture the vibe of said 80's films, and while that may mean it has some humour that doesn't gel with with a certain very socially minded segment of today's population, the second coming of Birth of a Nation this is not.

Going through the films of 2018, I came across The Favourite. Since I wasn’t the biggest fan of either Dogtooth or The Lobster I wasn’t expecting much, but it was actually a great movie. It is a very different take on the British period piece, much in the same way Barry Lyndon was. The actresses all do a great job and film is pretty difficult to predict. You are not sure if it is going to be a revenge film, a story of mental and physical illness, or just a story about how power can cause one to fall from grace. It’s rare to see a film that gives a great ending that you didn’t see coming, and The Favourite delivers it with equal parts beauty and bitter irony.

The only real negative for me was some the unnecessary fisheye lens shots in the first half. They didn’t add much to the film and felt like something an amateur would do in an attempt to disorientate the viewer. The rest of the filmmaking is top notch though.

Might see Toy Story 4 this weekend, depending on what happens and if I have time.

@TheAwesomeBowser I'll watch it for sure this weekend. But is it just me or was the movie not advertised as much, at least compared to the previous "Toy Story" movies?

Also interested in seeing "Child's Play." The original haunted me when I was 7.

Looking forward to watching Shaft this weekend. I even watched the original and the 2000s one with Samuel L Jackson in preparation. Critics seem to detest this new one, which means it's going to be a very good time. <3

@Franz
I think you're right about Toy Story 4's advertising.
I don't watch cable TV though, so maybe all the advertising was done there, but I didn't see much elsewhere. Looking forward to it myself, I'll be going next Thursday.

Edit: By the way, I just saw '2010: The Year We Make Contact' for the very first time and was pleasantly surprised.
I always put it off because I heard mixed things about it and figured it could never live up to 2001 anyways.
Gotta say, though it wasn't as good as the first movie, it was still much better than I expected and I enjoyed it more than a lot of recent sci-fi movies.

Gonna watch Justice League: Dark tonight.

I saw Toy Story 4 yesterday and thought it was great! I keep getting worried that these kinds of movies are gonna get stale in the sequels, but Pixar knows what they’re doing.

If tomorrow i saw Aladdin 2019 still being played at my local cinema, probably i want to watch again.... For 5th time. 😆

Watched Toy Story 4 with the kids today and it reduced me to tears. Top to bottom one of the best movie franchises ever!

@redd214
That's what's so special about Pixar movies. Lots of them make me tear up, and some of them make me outright cry. Inside Out was the most effective for me. I've been dealing with clinical depression for over 12 years now and that movie really knew how to rattle my emotions. I even gained some new insights after seeing it.

@Tethutendo that's awesome, glad you got a lot out of that movie! And yeah Pixar movies are pretty much a lock to be good l, such a talented group of people there

@Tethutendo 2010 is an interesting movie! It's more conventional than the original, and the plot ultimately doesn't go anywhere, but some really solid performances anchor it. And Keir Dullea's cameo is cool. They had to reconstruct a lot of sets from production stills because Kubrick ordered the originals destroyed after 2001 wrapped. Also another interesting thing that breaks continuity: in 2010, Floyd denies knowing about HAL's contradictory instructions that made him go insane, while in 2001 the secret video shows Floyd issuing those same instructions to HAL. So either Floyd was lying in 2010, or it's an alternate universe (which was Arthur C. Clarke's personal canon).

@BougieBeetle
I totally forgot about that part, but now that you've mentioned it... yeah, that's quite a plothole.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Netflix) - Watched this last night and it was a really fun time. It was definitely a visual spectacle (I really liked how it avoided the homogenized look Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, and other western CG productions have), and it had some fun characters.

I watched a bunch of stuff recently, so in no particular order:

Redbelt. Written and directed by David Mamet, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and a bunch of other people. Very good movie. It's a tense and psychological drama about a jui-jitsu master who prefers not to compete who is slowly drawn into the corrupt world of tournament fighting.

Quiz Show. Robert Redford's classic about the game show scandal surrounding 21 in the 50s. Lots of amazing performances from the likes of Ralph Fiennes and Paul Scofield.

Straight Outta Compton. Had never seen this until the other day, and didn't know much at all about NWA or their music, but it's a compelling movie. It's pretty charitable to the main characters (who all produced the movie) but shows some of their flaws as well.

Fast 5. I'm working my way through this franchise cause it's part of the cultural zeitgeist and I'm finding them actually very enjoyable. I feel like 5 is when the series really kicks into high gear, after floundering a lot in 2-4.

I am going to see Toy Story 4 on Thursday. My favourite one is the second one. I've not been reading reviews but I just think that it is going to be the worst one out of them. Better to have low expectations

Papillon (DVD) - True story from the 1930's that sees a Parisan thief framed for a murder he didn't commit and sent to a penal colony in French Guiana that was famed for being inescapable. I won't spoil the ending, but the film chronicles all the escape attemps he made over the years. Given the subject material the film can be quite a bit raw & gritty, but I thought it was an interesting watch and was really into it. I know there was an older version, but this was a more recent adaptation (Raimi Malek, the guy who played Freddie Mercury in last year's Bohemian Rhapsody, had a prominent role).

the LEGO Batman Movie (TNT) - It's not often I catch a full movie on cable (commercials & all that), but I had the time this afternoon and caught it just as it was starting so I figured what the heck. I actually had a lot of fun watching this. It got a little chaotic during the climax, but it was a good time overall and is one of the few movies I've seen in recent times that has legitimately made me laugh. Much like Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse, it's a bit of a breath of fresh air compared to both contemporary superhero flicks & typical western CGI cartoons (though I know there've been a couple of other movies with the LEGO aesthetic).