Topic: Movie thread.

Also is Lucas even a director? Filmmaker probably but he didn’t direct Empire and Returns leaving a filmography made up of those horrible CGI eyesore Star Wars, the original Star Wars and American Graffiti. His strength seems to be a producer and on the tech production side.

@Rambler Hmm...I'm now trying to think of the top filmmakers who aren't directors.

Walt Disney (who was a terrible animator) is probably at the top of the list, the scumbag Harvey Weinstein who meshed indie and Hollywood together, Kevin Feige the man behind all of the Marvel films which is an impressive feat for how consistent (although rarely top tier) and frequent they all are, Jason Blum's films I always enjoy even though they are just low rent horror flicks, maybe Aaron Sorkin and Charlie Kaufman too but they have moved into directing now. I feel like there's gonna be a ton of really obvious ones I haven't mentioned.

@Rambler I never got Joel Eszterhas, maybe it’s because I only saw Flashdance and Show Girls but I don’t understand why he was paid so much.

DP is a good point. I will add the second unit director on action movies too where they will bring in someone from serious films like Bryan Singer (another scumbag) to do the story stuff and then the second unit films all the action bits.

Yeah Tom Cruise is very hands on with his films. I know someone who worked on a few and Cruise sounds mental with how controlling he is. Kevin Costner is meant to be like that too but in a more positive influence way.

I would add Eddie Murphy to the stars list, Beverly Hills Cop script was thrown out and he improvised his lines and then it got a nod for writing at the Oscars. Lol

Clint Eastwood has moved onto being a director now and I’m actually a big fan of his directing, more so than when he was just an actor although the Dollars trilogy and Dirty Harry were brilliant. He’s very no thrills solid story telling even though most them are just grumpy conservative old man learns how those women and ethnics aren’t so bad. Which reminds me I want to see Cry Macho.

@Tasuki That is a sad reality too. Ironically, WB games have actually re-released the Mortal Kombat classics on GOG (1, 2, 3, 4, and Trilogy, that N64/PS game). Albeit the PC ports from the 90's, I do feel they should try this with the other games too.

Yeah, he moved away years ago, so we will sometimes sync a movie using voice chat, or play online games. He did visit a few months ago, and we did play GOG's MK3 over LAN, so that was nice. Cool, I actually just got MK11. Similarly, Mortal Kombat has always been one of my favorite fighting series. Hope you get your Analog NT so you can play them again, I love revisiting the classic games.

@Rambler I was gonna say something FX since more and more films become CGI where the entire sets, actors, set piece and cinematography are all CGI now so it's arguebly more important than the writers, actors and directors who work on it.

Ed Norton is another star that likes taking over. The director of American History X disowns the film as Eddie kept messing with everything plus Marve dropped him as Hulk as control is too important to them with this shared universe marlarky. Still I'd rather see a passionate thespian than a hack coasting on charm.

I do like the non-Miyazaki Studio Ghibli films but jebus they are a jokes now since Takahata's passing RIP. Earwig And The Witch was atrocious in both story and art.

@Rambler I’m sure there is a film like that already, maybe Polar Express? I think I saw that around Xmas one year but it was so bad I gave up on it and can barely remember anything about it other than how dead everyone looks in the eyes. Maybe that Final Fantasy movie too which was another film I got bored by and then turned off before the end. edit Not sure it counts but Tintin too?

I’ve not got a clue about Tony Kaye, I only know him from American History X. It’s been years since I saw it but isn’t it because his white gang deals with the black gang that makes him start questioning it in the first place whilst the black guy he does the washing up with gets his gang to protect him that makes him think maybe racism isn’t all that good after all?

There is something Ethan Suplee has done which he was really good in and more than his normal dumb guy role but I can’t remember what it is now. I specifically remember as I said to myself he was actually good in that. Having a quick look it might be The Hunt but I can’t place him in the movie despite being able to remember a lot of other things from it.

@Sunsy So the MK games are are a rare occasion due to Netherrealm owning the rights. Yeah technically WB owns Netherrealm but I think that was purchased after Ed Boon got back the MK IP.

That really cool that you stay in touch with your friend. I have a friend that I have known for 30 years now and he moved to another state a few years back. We too stay in contact via Facebook messenger and even play a D&D campaign over discord once a month at least. It's nice that those friendships stay intact even miles apart.

Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer (Blu-Ray)

A franchise film that doesn't feel like a franchise film, in a good way.

When the students & staff of Tomobiki High School slowly start realizing that they're repeating the same day over & over again they set out to figure out the cause of the phenomena, all while the stability of their world seems to unravel the closer they get.

Pretty much a more high concept Groundhog Day, about a decade before that even released, with some absolutely stunning animation & dreamlike imagery. It's much more of a slower burn than other things in this franchise that I've seen, but it managed to hold my attention better, and it's interesting to note that the core characters don't really seem to push the narrative forward a whole lot for the majority of it's runtime, with supporting cast like Sakura & Mendo doing most of the heavy lifting until the end.

I would actually say Earwig and the Witch is not the worst Ghibli film.
Why? Because The Ocean Waves exists.

@Hydra_Spectre Earwig and the Witch is lowkey ugly imo. I do kinda agree with you though.

Got the grey market Spanish release of True Lies [Blu-ray]. It's the only way to watch the movie in HD with 5.1 surround. It never got an official release physically or digitally.

What a classic.

If they had to make Earwig and the Witch CGI, it should have been the painted CGI style like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, or maybe something more akin to the Mario Movie, which does adapt a Ghibli style to 3D, since the original art designer for the Mario games was an ex-Ghibli animator.

But most of the problems with how cheap it looks stems from how it was a TV movie and not a full theatrical release.
Still, Ghibli decided to give it a theatrical run after its TV airing, only for it to bomb horribly at the box office.

@Hydra_Spectre yea, with a new coat of paint it would have looked leagues better than what it does now. I feel like the ending was a bit rushed as well but that might just be me.

The joys on not being able to sleep has meant that I’m managed to watch a few films.

Cry Macho, it feels like a bait and switch movie about how you’re promised a tough but old cowboy going to his last ride on a kidnapping mission only to avoid any sort of thrills and action for instead a very nice and gentle film. I would describe it slow but most people would see that as a flaw rather than choice which says more about the audience than the film. No idea if it’s an unpopular opinion or not but I prefer Client Eastwood as a director rather than an actor, this would be a nice swan song as his last film but you could say the same thing for the last 30 years about his other films like The Unforgiven and Gran Torino.

Gattaca, I love a proper sci-fi film (more than just pew pew action) so this has been on my list for a while. Social class in the future is based on being genetically perfect so Ethan Hawke (he played Hamlet once) is a normie that uses Jude Law’s (he played Michael Caine in Alfie) pee-pee to trick people into thinking he got good genes. I was disappointed at first it’s more of a will-they-get-caught thriller which it’s good at but I wanted a thinky film yet later on it does the thinky sci-fi things about determination and exceeding potential. I really like its sterile feeling, like how boring a perfect world is thanks to their genetic people mastering. Also I feel as this is a 90s film I suspect the script was actually heavily modified from its original intent as it is meant to be a sitcom about two gay roommates based on Hamlet and Michael Caine’s banter.

Climax, Gaspar Noe (imagine a floating thing above the e) who directed the brilliant Enter The Void and Irreversible directed another film which I watched and really liked. The plot is about dancers going crazy after drinking spiked juice which gives the director a chance to go big with a dance routine at the beginning film which looks AMAZING and then the second half where it all goes nut. The camera gets hanged upside down as everyone is crazy and a mix of loud music and screaming plays out, it’s both really cool and horrible looking.

@Rambler I suppose you could build up the dancers more in Climax so instead of banal chat about who they are gonna pull it's they are move developed for rich characters however then it would lose it's feeling of being raw and realz which might hurt the film as it's great as it is. Plus you would probably need to hire real actors and half the fun is watching those proper dancers flail their limbs around like they are made of jelly.

Have you seen I Stand Alone which is his first film? It's on my list but it never pops up on my streaming thingys so as it's his first film I'm not if it's an ultra low budget film not worth watching type thing.

Withnail & I is a good shout for the relationship in Gattaca. I need to look up if Jude Law and Ethan Hawke have done anything else together as I could happily watch the two of them bicker for hours. Their married couple like banter really added to the film of feeling human in the sanitised world.

@Rambler I Stand Alone sounds fudging brilliant! I really want to watch it now.

I've got a mate who is/was a professional dancer but hates horror films. I think I might show him the opening and tell him the rest of the film is like that too so he should watch it and then wait to get angry message from them about how I tricked him.

That was how the book ended. The book was published posthumously, and they just published the book without adding in a proper ending.
And the Miyazakis (Hayao still produced the film) stuck too close to the book, and didn't give it a proper ending, even though a deviation from the source material would have heavily improved things.

A Fistful of Dollars, A Few Dollars More, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, and Unforgiven on the way in 4k. Threw in Tombstone on Blu-ray for $6 brand new. It's supposedly getting a 4k release but for $6, I'll take this in the meantime.

@Hydra_Spectre ya it would have. My favorite Ghibli film is The Secret World of Arrietty and that ended a bit awkwardly but I still love that film for pretty much everything else (just as an example of a "weird" ending to a movie I like).

Here's a review I found on Google, it seems some people enjoyed it.

5 stars
Goro Miyazaki did a great job of bringing a beloved studio Ghibli style into 3D! FYI Hayao Miyazaki did planning on this project, so the godly father of animation certainly blessed this movie and it has all rights to exist!!
Lovely storytelling where even antagonists are lovable makes it a great movie for younger audiences! As an adult, I enjoyed Aya's journey of becoming a little witch and a new member of an unlikely family.
Character design, animation, and overall atmosphere warmed my heart and brightened my day. As a well-established Ghibli tradition, food had a special bonding power in the movie and much care was put into designing incredibly realistic and tasty-looking meals. And as a very sweet dessert, there is a little 2D illustrated story in the credit roll part that makes the movie ever more wholesome! I absolutely will re-watch it many more times and hope that with time it will get the recognition it deserves.

@Owl1 I thought it was just called Arietty?