Topic: Movie thread.

@Tasuki I was also pleasantly surprised with Superman, and think James Gunn did a pretty good job here. Initially I thought that dumping Cavill was a big mistake, but David C gives an outstanding performance. In fact, all 3 of the 'main' leads do very well with the assignment.

I sometimes wish that James Gunn could just tone himself down a little bit though, maybe cut back on some of the humour and focus more on the serious/relational elements of the story. I actually thought the best scene was the back-and-forth between Louis and Clark during the 'interview' - really well acted.

@Tasuki @CJD87 I really loved the tone of the movie. Yes, it would have been nice to have some more chill, serious buts, but I really liked that it wasn't afraid to be bright and colorful and funny. So many movies lately (especially in the Superhero genre!) feel the need to have dark gritty realism, but this one had a bright, saturated color palette, and I loved that. The colors and the script together made this one of the most "fun" supermovies I have seen, and I am down for more! 🦸🏻

@OldManHermit Although I’ve only seen the second film so far, a lot of elements and themes that made the original so perfect are gone. While I did enjoy the action in Part II, I feel like it was done at the expense of the themes of First Blood about the poor treatment of war veterans, as well as changing Rambo’s character.

In fact, it feels like the writers in charge of Part II forgot about how Rambo was in the first film, being a PTSD-ridden veteran who’s been through a lot, mistreated and unappreciated, just wants the police to leave him alone and instead of killing his pursuers, he instead simply harms them to deter them. Seeing them doing away with his compelling nature and his attempts to not kill anyone and instead having him be a typical action hero and act in ways he probably wouldn’t was one of my main issues with Part II, aside from the film kind of sort of being a mindless action film with no real statement or theme compared to First Blood. I feel like if the writers had remembered how his character was and him having PTSD (which it feels like the writers completely forgot), then Rambo would have probably been a bit hesitant to take on the task of returning to Vietnam to document the POWs, and his character I think would have still been interesting if they didn’t change him up significantly. Part II does a good job at being action-packed and fun to see, but does a mediocre job at being on the same levels of good as First Blood.

watching some weirder old horror sci fi stuff on Tubi thanks to just watching a Gen X horror youtube channel

found on Tubi, Blue Monkey and Mountaintop Motel Massacre

@CaleBoi25 From my experience Superman has always had a lighter tone overall especially compared to say Batman. Granted they were some darker arcs like the Death of Superman but over the series was lighter.

Just saw that on the weekend, it was good. Also enjoyed Together.

This must be the best period for horror movies ever.

That was my introduction to Florence Pugh. I was blown away by her performance, especially during the beginning of the film. I enjoyed it, found it more original than Aster's Hereditary.

I say you're not a true film geek unless you can recite "that" monologue from memory.

The sequels are enjoyable the same way the Rocky sequels are. Cheesy, mindless '80s fun.

The most hilarious bit about the Rambo sequels are when they dedicated the movie to the Taliban. I mean, it doesn't get much retrospectively hilarious than that.

Which reminds me of Orwell's Ninteen-Eighty-Four. I guess spoilers for a 76 year-old book:

I think "the snap" is the best downer film-ending cliffhanger since The Empire Strikes Back.

@MontyCircus Oh yeah, I also finished watching Rambo III, and I definitely agree they can be very fun to watch from how cheesy, a bit corny, over the top, and action-filled they are. I think the sequels I’ve seen so far do a good job at accomplishing that, but aren’t as well written as the first one, which was so fantastic and subverted my expectations. Even though I feel the sequels aren’t too well-written and do a mediocre job at being good sequels, I won’t deny I had some fun watching them.

@MontyCircus yeah she was quite good. I liked the scene where they all take mushrooms and she has a bad trip. Felt very genuine.

Okay, finished Rambo III earlier in the morning and I was trying to type up my response earlier but didn’t.

Sometime after Part II, Rambo resides in Thailand and has settled down from fighting. After hearing news that Colonel Trautman has been captured and held captive by the Soviets in Afghanistan after a failed mission, he goes on a mission to save him with the assistance of a group of Afghan rebels who are also embroiled in a battle against the Soviets occupying Afghanistan.

This one, out of all the Rambo films I’ve seen so far, is maybe the one with the most action, brutality, violence, and especially explosions. Like Part II, the action here is far more nonstop and a lot more over the top here, and it does make for some decent excitement and entertainment, and some of that corniness from the previous installment is here, but there’s way more of it. It’s something I forgot to mention for the previous films, but I think here, and in the previous two, parts of them are genuinely shot well, and have very nice and detailed-looking locations and sets, especially Thailand and the monastery Rambo resides at.

But this one carries similar issues from Part II, except they’re even worse here. The film is very slow and kind of boring for the first, if I’m remembering, 30-40 minutes, and it takes a while for some action to happen and the characters to start attacking their enemies and attempting to rescue Trautman, and before that part it feels like nothing is really happening. There is a stick-fighting scene in the start, but no more action proceeds to happen until many minutes later. The previous two were better paced and a bit faster when getting onto the action and plot, but III takes its sweet time instead and it bores you for the first couple of minutes.

Then this one focuses too much on the plot and is way more plot-heavy, resulting in almost all the characters in this movie either feeling one-dimensional, generic, or undeveloped. Rambo is almost exact same typical action hero as he was in Part II, and yet again, has no development or character flaws to make him feel developed or realistic like he was in the absolutely fantastic first installment, and I’d say that out of the original 1980s Rambo trilogy, this is the one where he’s the most flat and blandly written. While I still did have issues with how they portrayed him in Part II and how I felt he was almost invincible, at least there were a bit more moments in there where he was vulnerable, like being outnumbered by the enemy when trying to save a POW and being taken to their camp, here he’s almost invincible for nearly the whole thing, and it makes him so flat and removed any stakes or suspense, also because you know what’s exactly going to happen almost each time. I’m pretty sure the only injuries he suffers here is a splinter that stabs him in a part of his torso and getting shot in the leg, but his wounds are downplayed a whole lot and he’s fine immediately afterward, which just feels really unrealistic. And then Stallone’s acting here is far more wooden and bland compared to the previous films, which doesn’t help at all.

Once more, the new cast of characters here are not memorable and forgettable instead, and I wasn’t interested in any of the characters because of how flat and minor most of them were. Same goes for the villain here as well, and I can’t believe that the villain colonels and captains in these sequels, who you’d expect to be WAY more scary and threatening from the position their in, aren’t even that threatening and memorable like the sheriff and police officers from the first. The plot isn’t even really interesting, and as people pointed out, it’s almost the exact same plot from Part II, except instead of saving American POWs, it’s saving Trautman.

Just a very disappointing sequel that worsens the problems Part II had and probably the most boring out of the original three. There’s two more sequels after, but I’m going to have to stop here since those aren’t available for free on YouTube. And I didn’t realize it until someone here pointed it out, but wow the ending kind of aged poorly…

Giving a movie you were in 3.5 stars is honestly really funny.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/mole-man-actor-g...

It is! Thanks for sharing.

@Bigmanfan at first I thought it was 3.5 out of 10 and I was flabbergasted lol!

slowly trying to catch up on some of my watchlist on Tubi.

breezing through Mystery Science Theater's showing of Space Mutiny

then trying to get to watch Evolution before it expires in the next 12ish days

Here's everything I watched the past couple weeks.

A Clockwork Orange (UHD Blu-Ray) - Brutally dark, but it's a beautifully shot film and while it's largely about free will (is anything, even torture, permissable in quashing bad behavior, or do we try to rehabilitate criminals into choosing to be good of their own choice), it does also have some warnings about authoritarian governments that are relevant in the current landscape. I'll admit it can be kind of hard for me to get into older films a lot of times (by my standard, anything made before the 80's), but this had me completely transfixed.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (UHD Blu-Ray) - On the other hand, here's another 70's film that didn't quite land for me. Don't get me wrong it's still a good movie, but I'd imagine a huge part of the appeal is the mystery behind it all and the film is just so ubiquitous (at least for those of my generation) that it just can't possibly surprise (even though I haven't fully seen it until now). Likewise, while I'm sure the visuals were breathtaking at release & still have a noticeable sense of vision to them, it just doesn't really awe in that respect either (I do like the scene with the child being "called" by the lights while all the electronics in the house go haywire. That was evocative). There's some good character work too, such as Roy driving his family away over his obsession. Definitely worth a watch though, especially if you somehow are in the dark over it's influence.

Deadpool & Wolverine (UHD Blu-Ray) - First watch since the theatre. It is still loads of fun with a lot of bloody action & the crass humor still elicits some laughs (though everything that's just "ha ha, this is an R rated Disney movie!" doesn't hit as well after you've seen it once), though I think it's the weakest of the franchise. Again, most of it is just poking fun at the fact that it's Disney/MCU now, and doesn't have the emotional core that held the first two together in spite of their raunchiness (that being his relationship with Vanessa, which has been unceremoniously done away with off screen here). They pay some lip service to him wanting to join the Avengers/MCU to "matter" for her sake, and it's hinted that they still have a future together, but this is very much a side concern at best. That said Ryan & Hugh had some fun chemistry & I'll probably be there for the next one.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly (Blu-Ray) - Both stylistically & in terms of animation this is the best Dragon Ball has ever looked, and even if any future movies follow in Super Hero's footsteps in being CG (which TBF still looked fine) I'll be forever glad we got this. Probably won't be of any interest if you're not into whatever Dragon Ball is all about, but if you are this is a rip roaring fun time. Though I didn't notice until now that it's completely sanitized of any blood whatsoever (not that it's a huge deal or that I need it to have 80's ultraviolent OVA gore levels, but with how much our heroes get rag dolled around & the few people that get shot, just a little bit would have made the already visceral action hit just a tad bit harder).

Dragonheart (UHD Blu-Ray) - This was always a favorite of mine as a kid & I watched it every time I stumbled across it on TV. It may not be a "great" movie, but it's a lot of fun having Sean Connery chew the scenery as a dragon with a sense of chivalry, and although it took a bit to get used to the aged CGI I had a blast revisiting this.

Dune: Part 2 (UHD Blu-Ray - My first watch since theatres, and I'd honestly say I even enjoyed it a bit more this time around (probably because it was easier understanding everything that was going on the second go around). Narrative is pretty gripping seeing Paul as he tries to avoid becoming what he's going to have to become if he wants to win, and otherwise it's just a slick looking modern sci-fi blockbuster (really love the black & white arena scene on the Harkonnen home world).

Field of Dreams (UHD Blu-Ray) - Farmer hears voices telling him to build a baseball diamond in his corn field, and dead baseball players come back to play ball. Seriously though, I don't care much about sports, but this was actually a solid movie & pretty emotional (you just kinda have to watch it for yourself). He thinks he's healing old wounds for the dead, but ends up healing a hole in his own heart sort of deal. There's also a scene involving a debate over banning books in schools that unfortunately still feels relevant.

First Man (UHD Blu-Ray) - Biopic of Neil Armstrong starring Ryan Gosling. Every time I watch a movie about early space travel I just can't imagine the kind of willpower these guys would have to have in order to climb into these claustrophobic tin can death traps & be shot into space (and this film specifically makes it known how common death was for these men, and the impact it had on the survivors), and even more miraculously how anyone managed to survive when something goes wrong. It features some stunning visual shots as well.

Forbidden World (UHD Blu-Ray) - A mercenary(?) is contracted to go to an isolated research facility on a remote planet in order to help the scientists contain a strange creature, but of course they don't tell him everything & soon chaos ensues. Just a schlocky sci-fi B-movie from the 80's that rips off a number of more prominent films from the era (like Alien), and although it's not "good" per-se, it has all the ultra gore, sex/nudity, and hilariously dumb decision making from the cast of supposed geniuses you could ever want from a film of this type. A fun watch if that sounds up your alley.

Hot Pursuit (Blu-Ray) - 80's comedy about a preppy college student who just misses out on getting to go with his girlfriend's family on a Caribbean vacation & spends most of the film's runtime going on all sorts of misadventures across the isles trying to catch up to them, before having to use a bunch of skills he learned along the way to go full commando & rescue the family from pirates. It's not a must watch, but I enjoy the vibe of 80's comedies so I liked it (also has Ben Stiller in an early roll)

Interstellar (UHD Blu-Ray) - When ecological collapse has brought human civilization to the brink of collapse, a former engineer/pilot turned farmer is given the chance to potentially find a new home for humanity thanks to a wormhole discovered near Saturn (there's a lot more to the set up than this, such as the government officially embracing conspiracies that the space race was a hoax, and a mysterious "ghost" leaving his family messages, but I don't want to be here all day explaining). Absolutely beautiful both thematically & visually. It may get a bit sappy at the end, but that's just the magic of movies as far as I'm concerned & it may be my favorite film of the bunch I have listed here.

King Kong 2005 (UHD Blu-Ray) - I remembered this was a pretty big deal back in the day, although for whatever reason I never saw it then (I was 14 when it came out, so you'd think the prime target for the "giant monkey movie", lol), so I decided to rectify that. I don't think I'd call it a masterpiece, but it's definitely worth the watch if you have the time. Perhaps a bit too long, I wouldn't say I need instant gratification, but an entire hour before reaching Skull Island is maybe a bit much (although it has amazing set piece after amazing set piece once they land, especially the Kong vs T-Rex scene). Some of the visuals are starting to stretch thin/show their age (like a laughably green screen looking underwater shot during the swamp attack), but it mostly holds up & is often still breathtaking (really loved how well realized the 30's New York looks). Didn't really connect to any of the characters, but Jack Black's role became easy to hate by the end.

Watched Coraline on Tubi this morning. Been wanting to see this one for some time, I kept getting reminded of it when I browse the Internet, or when I was shopping and saw the merch. I'm not a horror person, and I really liked this movie. Enjoyed Coraline as a character and her discovering the other world. Other Mother was something, taking Coraline's real parents away, trying to give Coraline button eyes, and just trying to get her to join the other world. Really enjoyed how helpful the cat was.

Watched Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle tonight. Definitely a really funny one; I always liked the OG (never read the book...), so I'm glad to say it lived up to that — at least in my opinion! The story was perfectly... Acceptable? Honestly, this is one you watch for the giggles, not the lore. As a gamer and (just barely in this age bracket) teenager myself, I think it portrayed the characters realistically. There were only one or two lines where the writers pulled a full "I literally like just can't even like for realsies" with the dialogue — mostly, it was either nicely grounded in teenager-style slang or just regular sentences that anyone would say. The video game aspect on the other hand...? I'd say it was passable — nothing too egregious. I think if it were an actual video game it would suck, but if you're inside it, it works well enough. Cutting to show the antagonist was odd since they established that cutscenes existed, but then just.... Didn't use them? And of course, the character strengths/weaknesses were dumb, but great for humoius gags and whatnot. Overall an 8/10 for me — a blast if you want a fun time, but don't try to figure out the lore.