Topic: Movie thread.

It's kinda tough for me to buy physical copies of movies I like because 1) I don't usually watch movies until years after their release, when their reception/reviews have informed me that they're worth what little time I have on my hands to sit for two hours, and 2) it's Singapore, which means older movies almost don't get a physical release here once they're more than two or three years old. Retailers wouldn't bother to restock old films. 3) I always prefer to watch my films on 4K blu-ray. Finding UHD blu-ray for old classic films in Singapore is impossible. I almost always have to make my purchase on Amazon, which is expensive due to the shipping fee.

That being said, I do make my purchases every now and then for films that have a special place in my heart. I bought the Dark Knight trilogy, the Jurassic Park trilogy (yes, trilogy, not including the JW instalments), Spider-Man trilogy, Toy Story trilogy, all on UHD blu-ray from Amazon. Cost me tons, but they're films I've cherished a lot and could rewatch over and over again, so it's worth it.

Only films missing from my collection are Alien 1-3 (the Assembly Cut of Alien 3 is underrated IMO) and Terminator 1 and 2. Might buy them in the future.

FWIW, I have Disney+, and I have my own copy of both Turning Red and Luca (albeit I owned Luca well before I got Disney+). Even though I do watch streaming, I still like getting DVDs. Mostly Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital combo packs, they cover everything. Why buy the DVD for $20 (usually the price of a new movie), when the Blu-Ray has the DVD and Digital for like $2-$5 more.

Also, internet outages can happen, rendering a streaming service useless. My Internet was down today for a bit. Not to mention streaming services remove shows and movies regularly. There's stuff mom and I want to watch some nights, and we can't find it anymore when we check Netflix or Hulu.

For me at least, I still like having that offline copy of a movie I love watching.

@Sunsy I could never live without my Internet. If Internet outage happens at my home, I'll just switch to mobile data and watch shows on my phone instead.

@Sunsy I like finding DVDs at random mom & pop shops. Especially G1 DVDs with the flimsy cardboard and awkward clip.

Watched Hotel for Dogs tonight, I remember seeing this one in the theater with a neighbor who loved dogs. Forgot how nice of a story it is, felt good watching it again.

@Maxenmus You and me both. Thankfully the outage was short today, around five minutes. They usually don't happen often. Eh, my data plan has a limit, so streaming over mobile service is a no go for me. I usually have my phone connected to wi-fi anyway, and I keep a few favorite movies downloaded for offline viewing.

@Kermit1 Hunting for DVDs in smaller mom and pop shops, and even discount bins can be fun. Sometimes finding a rare DVD or an older movie makes it all the more worth it. The old Warner Bros-style case. We have a copy of Christmas Vacation from 1997 with that box. So old, the picture looks grainy when played on a Blu-Ray player.

I actually saw marcel the shell today because I needed to do something to distract me after my house flooded, and OH MY GOSH its such a good movie! This was the first movie I cried in since jojo rabbit (another good one btw). Sorry about those who cant see it, I hope it comes your way soon.

I looked up the "TELL ME!" clip from Thor for no reason and ended up on this video:

The Japanese version (0:57) made me tear up immediately. lol I think it's because of the way the actor imitated the angry panting before shouting the "TELL ME" line. I love that subtle detail.

It's unsurprising though that Japanese dubs are often done really well because, from what I know, not only do most Japanese voice actors have a long career of professional acting on anime, they tend to put in a lot of effort in their roles than American VAs sometimes. For example, some Japanese VAs have even sung the anime's opening themes (like Rica Matsumoto in Pokémon) and original character songs (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, for example, have multiple character theme songs sung by the original VAs), not to mention those CD Dramas that accompany the anime. I don't even know if those CD Dramas pay well enough since not everybody listen to those things, let alone know about them, but the Japanese VAs performed them nonetheless.

Mandarin dubs (2:29) always bother me as a Chinese in an uncanny valley kind of way. They always sound so artificial to me compared to Japanese or even English dubs, like someone just sloppily slapped an audio track over a video without doing any audio synching or adding the aforementioned "subtle details" that make it sound like how a real person talk.

That's certainly high praise! I'll try and pick up the Blu-ray while I can then.

Saw Nope tonight.
At the halfway mark, after a very dull start, I thought I would recommend people just skip the first half entirely.
After seeing the rest, I recommend just skipping the entire film.

@MontyCircus Shame. I stopped liking Jordan's works after Get Out.

Which means I only liked Get Out.

@Maxenmus Same here. Liked "Get Out". Didn't like "Us", or his "The Twilight Zone" reboot, or now this.

@MontyCircus
I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Nope, hope I like it.
I wasn't a big fan of Us either. The twist at the end didn't work for me. Loved Get Out though so I'm still hopeful for Nope. But if Peele's latest also disappoints me, I might give up on watching his movies in theaters.

I watched Godzilla VS Kong last night to wrap up my viewing of the 2014 Godzilla series and I was kinda disappointed in it. I found Kong Skull Island and the two Godzilla movies to be much more enjoyable. The plot was ok it whole Hallow Earth theory and all. However the seemed to be no reason why Kong and Godzilla were fighting each other. I mean the whole thing that they were fighting for supremacy of Hallow Earth just seemed to make all that stuff about Godzilla being around to restore nature balance to the earth just seem to not matter anymore. That and then the whole thing with MechaGodzilla.

Another gripe I had with the series is that every movie had a different set of characters without any explanation of the previous movies characters. I guess we are to assume that they died in some Titan attacks. It would be like if the Marvel serious didn't do the Avengers movies and just tried to link all Marvel Movies to say Thanos. Then when the big battle with Thanos happens there's a different group of heroes fighting him with no explanation of what happened to say Captain America and Iron Man. I understand that for example Kong Skull Island takes place about 60 years before Godzilla but again it would have been nice to know what happened to those characters. Mayne if they did another Kong movie before Godzilla VS Kong like they had a second Godzilla movie it would have explained more, but in all honesty these just felt more like Godzilla movies then Kong movies.

In the end they weren't bad movies or a bad series. They are worth a watch at least once and have some good action scenes but overall pretty forgettable and didn't live up to the hype.

I'm to much of a p--sy cat to watch horror movies in theaters, so I think I'll just wait and watch Nope and Get Out on streaming services.

Based on procrastination, it'll probably be five years from now. Hopefully Peacock is dead by then.

Watched Conan the Barbarian (the original) yesterday.

A bit slow in spots, but I have to say I liked it more than I did the last time I tried watching it.

Nope is definitely the least violent of his 3 films. I wouldn't call it horror at all, I would call it Sci-Fi

@MontyCircus Eh, I like sci-fi, so maybe, maybe I'll see it in theaters.

Probably won't be as good as Puss In Boots 2 though.

Monsters University tonight, with Monsters Inc. last night. The prequel caught me by surprise. I was just expecting a how Mike met Sully story, I didn't expect all the competition, how Sully was throughout the movie, Mike being treated poorly for not being "scary" enough, the twist of Sully cheating, and Mike becoming the brains behind Sully's scaring (and all that scare energy).

Oddly, I enjoyed it more than the original, this is coming from someone who enjoys the original too.

I feel like there's a case to be made for "elevated action films" too. It's no longer the days of Rambo and Terminator. Movies are more complex than their '80s cheesy counterparts nowadays, and so are their audience. Much like how there's "elevated horror" like Hereditary, The Babadook, and Get Out, I feel like action films have the potential to mix human and emotional stories into the mix as well. Just look at the aforementioned 1987 Predator. It had some horror elements, but it's essentially an action film with a simple story of macho guys being slaughtered by an unknown alien force. Or the 1988 Die Hard, another simple story about a cop trapped in a building of terrorists (Hans Gruber laugh, "Who said we were terrorists?").

Call me a sentimental schmuck with his head stuck in nostalgia, but they just don't make them like those anymore.

After many..... technical difficulties let's say (I personally blame them on Ercole), I finally got around to watching Luca for the first time and oh my god this genuinely might be the most feel-good Pixar movie ever made.

They set up the premise wonderfully, taking the time to show the world that Luca (and every other sea monster by extension) is coming from and why the 'surface' seems like such a terrifying place to go to. Every single character, from the shy yet hopeful Luca, the cocky yet careful Alberto, the joyous and determined Julietta and so many more were shown off beautifully over the hour and a half of runtime.

Another thing I absolutely adored was the animation. 'Gee golly, a Pixar movie with good animation? Perish the thought!' I know it's a given with everything they put out but especially here, there are some simply beautiful scenes that I'll always remember the movie by: the swim to Porto Rosso, the bike race, even the really small things like learning how to eat pasta was so wonderfully done that I had a smile brimming wide the whole time.

And if there's one last thing that I think they nailed (in addition to literally everything I've mentioned thus far), it's the extreme attention to detail to Italian culture. I'm an absolute sucker for games that take the culture of a region and use it to the fullest potential (it's why I'm such a massive fan of Pokemon) so to see all the little bits of Italian-ness they threw in were a joy to behold. The little flourishes of the Italian language mixed in with the regular dialogue especially were a wonderful treat that firmly grounded the universe into something believable (even with literal sea monsters walking around the place) and the whole goal being to simply grab a Vespa was just..... amazing. Simply ******* amazing.

To summarise: thank you @seaboyluca for pushing me to watch this because wow it was incredible. I'm also extremely peckish for pasta now...... hmm.....