Topic: Movie thread.

@Professor_Plumber that Bobby Dylan biopic is gonna take the generic route.

At least we already have a good one.

@Professor_Plumber Well, more inspired by but still, a more accurate view of his life than whatever that is gonna do.

@Professor_Plumber "I'm Not There"

Why is rated R such a big deal on here? It's only the UK equivalent of a 15 rating let alone a 18 rating.

@Rambler yes I know.

@jump cause we are sensitive gen z zoomers that only watch safe internet fed content from major companies and anything not safe is evil and should be burned and censored to kingdom come.

@Rambler It just feels like the ratings get talked about more than actual movies and it overrides any sort of curiosity. I get that the preference is for Marvel branded movies which happens to be 12A but if there's a movie you want to see and it happens to be 15 or 18 then why wouldn't you see it?

I can't remember what movie it was (I think it was a Miramax movie in the 90/00s and won some awards) but rather than releasing the movie as NC-17 you can just release it as unrated and it gets around the red tape.

@Owl1 you're sensitive which I get but don't make it a generational thing. I took my brothers who are the same age/younger than you to the very wholesome Disneyland a few months ago, we wore very wholesome Mickey Mouse ears, went on very wholesome rides and had a very wholesome time. Yet the 2-3 hours on the Eurostar getting there and back we watched rubbish 15 rated horror movies, I was actually against it as I wanted to watch Disney movies to fit the mood but hey-ho.

I'll admit I'm quite sensitive to violence so I'm a bit hesitant to watch 15s and don't think I've ever watched an 18, but it really depends on the film itself more than the rating. Airplane is a 15 because, what, there's a few comedy deaths and a split-second shot of a topless woman? But it's far too daft to be at all upsetting.

(Though having said that, I do sometimes struggle with 'adult' content even in silly comedies. I watched Rocky Horror last week and it started off entertainingly bonkers, but the rapey bits sort of killed the vibe for me even though it wasn't graphic or serious)

Avatar (the original) finally released on 4k blu-ray. Not sure they were around when the movie released, but it feels like this should have happened years ago.

Watched it last night (I've seen the movie more times than I can count, including 3D in theaters) and man... I really do love this movie. I don't care what anyone says- it's one of my all time faves.

What troubles me is just how bad the sequel is in comparison. After finishing Avatar last night I was like what... the heck... were they thinking with that sequel. It's not even remotely as interesting, or emotionally captivating, the set pieces aren't nearly as diverse- in fact, it's mostly water. At least trees and forests are more interesting, to me anyways. No going back and forth in avatars like the 1st, no toruk-makto. What were they thinking?

It just saddens me, because the 1st film is so good and the sequel is like, not anywhere close. It's enjoyable enough, but compared to what it should have been it's kinda depressing.

@Dogorilla That's the reasonable explanation I would expect of I don't like this stuff and it depends on the context of the film.

It's the treating of age ratings as a binary gatekeeper master and then followed by virtue signalling of anything that isn't PG is morally wrong and evil despite enjoying violence like boxing and watching sanitised popcorn entertainment of superheroes hitting people because might makes right is somehow morally pure which is the stuff I don't get. It goes against my personal beliefs, as it says in the Satanic bible "Satan represents undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deception".

Really? I wouldn't have thought so as a Takashi Miike, Gaspar Noe and David Cronenberg fan.

I know Godzilla 1985 had to be cut in UK cinemas to get a PG rating, but the VHS was uncut and still got a PG, as the BBFC deemed that some scenes of violence were less impactful on the small screen.

I also know Whatever Happened to Baby Jane was once given an X rating (16 and above, the highest rating since this was before 18) in its theatrical run, even with some censorship. And then the uncut rerelease in 1988 was rated 18. Before getting another uncut release in 2004 with a 12 rating. What was once an adults-only movie, is now given the same rating as the Avengers movies.

There are also weird cases of films getting higher ratings in account of bonus features. Casablanca was rated 15 on the latest UHD release, 2001: A Space Odyssey was rated 12, and The Wizard of Oz was rated PG. They were all previously rated U on DVD and Blu-ray. And they still carry the U rating on iTunes, they just raised the ratings for the bonus features. But it's still weird how Casablanca went from a U all the way to a 15.

Amadeus: Director's Cut was given an R rating in the US for nudity, but it kept its same PG rating in the UK. And South Korea gives the film an All Ages rating despite being usually heavily strict towards nudity.

@Rambler ah, I meant more the violence and gore in horror rather then you enjoy seeing women being hurt in movies.

On the put the actress through the wringer bit I read somewhere Jane Levy refuses to work with Fede Alvarez now as he made Don’t Breath and the Evil Dead remake hellish for her. Stuff like telling her the monster is going to come from the right but it comes from the left instead type things to make it more real plus the end of Evil Dead with blood everywhere must have been brutal to film.

Related to the how the age ratings get their ratings talk, I saw a doc years ago called This Film Is Not Yet Rated.

It's mostly calling MPAA folk full of poo-poo and has interviews with people like Kevin Smith, Darren Aronofsky and Matt Stone where they talk about the huge difference working on indie films and then working on studio films when getting things rated. When they sent the film to be rated by the MPAA they actually started making copies of it and taking it home which brokes loads of agreements and laws and got them into trouble.

Airplane? I don't remember that but it's certainly possible (those jokes may even have been cut in the version I watched). Though actually it's listed as a 12A on the BBFC website, so that may be an example of a film being rerated due to changes in values, or it might be something to do with bonus features on the physical version as has been mentioned for other films.

That Die Hard example is interesting!

I know bloody can get any film that would have been rated U an instant PG nowadays.
Ratatouille was rated U in cinemas but rerated PG on Blu-ray.
Bedknobs & Broomsticks was also rerated PG after being rated U for the longest time.
Shrek 2 was rated U until it was rerated PG on the 4K UHD.

Another weird thing was that The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were rerated PG on their theatrical rereleases but the Blu-ray discs and Disney+ streams still carry the U rating.

@Hydra_Spectre I remember Bedknobs & Broomsticks. Forget all that princess stuff they keep remaking, the film Disney needs to remake is the trippy satanic witch grooming kids to kill Nazis movie!

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes... YES! My boi is gonna be a Ghostbuster team member!
https://ghostbustersnews.com/2023/06/03/james-acasters-role-i...

I'm gonna see "The Little Mermaid" again on Tuesday.

Feels like Hollywood’s become a bit fetishised by the whole multiverse concept since it allows you to throw logic out the window in favour of cheap fan service and references… which is what Marvel did with Spider-Man: No Way Home. No wonder people liked the scenes of the Spideys just being themselves, it’s the easiest way to make fans happy. Bring back actual storytelling!

As for Sisu, it’s pretty violent, goes beyond the cartoony quite considerably. Light spoilers but the guy gets hung in one scene and survives by impaling his foot into a nail, reducing neck strain.

That was one of my childhood movies growing up but if I ever watch the two movies back to back I’ll end up complaining that the stories are identical, from the conflict, the villains and even the final showdown itself. Characters not explaining things to protagonists engineer conflicts so easily, but this poor writing sacrifices that suspension of disbelief.

I know I've mentioned this movie several times before, so this will be the last time I do.

But I got Avatar Way of Water 4k blu-ray in the mail yesterday, and fired it up and gave it a 2nd watch.

I enjoyed this movie so much more the 2nd time. Idk what it is- maybe it's just watching in 3D in the theater makes it harder to absorb everything that's happening. Or maybe I just need to start watching movies I see in theaters a 2nd time before assessing them critically. Because this is not the first time this has happened- where I watch a movie I saw in theaters a 2nd time at home and get way more out of it.

I still don't think it's as good as the first. But I do feel it's a worthy sequel that actually ties in well and sets up the 3rd to be an epic conclusion. Idk why, but I completely missed the connection between Kiri and Eywa. Like, I saw it but it didn't compute until now. And her connection with Grace. Saw. But did not compute.

Going forward I will be more careful in judging movies I see in theaters until I get the opportunity to watch at home.