What Movie Are You Watching?

[Edd]

Another Round on Hulu. It’s a subtitled Danish comedic-drama about a middle-aged group of male teachers conducting an experiment. What if you spent your waking hours with a blood-alcohol level of 0.05% at all times? Would it result in a more enjoyable life? Sounds dumb, but I’d recommend the film.

Another Round | Rotten Tomatoes

Four high school teachers consume alcohol on a daily basis to see how it affects their social and professional lives.

www.rottentomatoes.com

 

[Huntn]

“Independence Day”. Must be at least 15 years since I last saw this.

It was more engaging, in its formulaic way, than I remembered it.

But my god, the cheese! There were so many scenes that simply cried out to be made into a Zucker-Abrams-Zucker parody movie along the lines of “Airplane!”

I thought the build up was great, loved the opening attacks, people with signs on rooftops being zapped, the city visuals, the secret Roswell facility, with aliens and a spaceship, Will Smith, Judd Hersh, and Jeff Goldblum. The Patriotic themes and Randy Quade the normally drunk pilot did not Impress me. The solution for beating a technological superior alien war machine was iffy at best, but I went along with it.

 

[SuperMatt]

I thought the build up was great, loved the opening attacks, people with signs on rooftops being zapped, the city visuals, the secret Roswell facility, with aliens and a spaceship, Will Smith, Judd Hersh, and Jeff Goldblum. The Patriotic themes and Randy Quade the normally drunk pilot did not Impress me. The solution for beating a technological superior alien war machine was iffy at best, but I went along with it.

I saw that movie when it originally was released in theaters. It felt awesome to me at the time that we figured out a way to sneak a nuke onto the alien ship and that Clark Griswold’s crazy cousin Eddie was able to save the planet with an F-16 Kamizake run.

 

[DT]

We watched a 265 minute ... that's not a typo - documentary about 80's horror on Shudder, so fun, we just kind of checked in and out while it was running. Great movies, great interviews/commentary from directors, F/X people, actors, highly recommended if you're into horror

 

[Thomas Veil]

So they could just float out in space self sufficient, or will auxiliary power fail too? I could see this morphing into some chance that pops up that gives them a second chance to get off the ship alive, but if it’s just a downer story I might not want to take the time to watch it.

Well, you're close to hitting on one of two things that do happen in the movie. I don't want to reveal any spoilers. But it is realistic in its depiction of a ship off course with no chance of turning itself around, and what would happen to the people aboard over a period of years. And except for one brief plot point it is almost relentlessly downbeat.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Read some reviews of Stowaway because I’m on the fence about watching it. The premise is simple. On a manned mission to mars a stowaway is discovered and there isn’t enough oxygen for everybody to last the journey. One reviewer mentioned the crew is 2 women and an Asian man. The stowaway is a black man. So clearly the decision was made to not make it yet another white men in space movie, but even with this effort the reviewer felt the need to mention the value of a black man’s life is what is being decided here. Really? You think that’s the point and what the focus should be?

I have to agree with another movie reviewer’s general opinion, with all this hyper wokeness and all inclusiveness in Hollywood soon it will go full circle back to mostly white people because that’s the only way you don’t have to worry about having enough representation of different minorities or not showing them in a negative light. Take race out of the equation and you are just left with a good or bad movie, neither decided entirely on diversity of cast.

 

[Huntn]

Read some reviews of Stowaway because I’m on the fence about watching it. The premise is simple. On a manned mission to mars a stowaway is discovered and there isn’t enough oxygen for everybody to last the journey. One reviewer mentioned the crew is 2 women and an Asian man. The stowaway is a black man. So clearly the decision was made to not make it yet another white men in space movie, but even with this effort the reviewer felt the need to mention the value of a black man’s life is what is being decided here. Really? You think that’s the point and what the focus should be?

I have to agree with another movie reviewer’s general opinion, with all this hyper wokeness and all inclusiveness in Hollywood soon it will go full circle back to mostly white people because that’s the only way you don’t have to worry about having enough representation of different minorities or not showing them in a negative light. Take race out of the equation and you are just left with a good or bad movie, neither decided entirely on diversity of cast.

Simple, space the stowaway, if it was an intentional act. I think I remember Dr Smith in the original Lost In Space TV show as a inadvertent stowaway. Now he was a good spaced candidate.

 

[Huntn]

V For Vendetta (2005)- Again... One of the best graphic novel to movie stories about a future fictional UK, a warning about fascism and a vendetta. Great acting and script.

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[Huntn]

Love and Monsters (2020)- Drama/Comedy, thumbs up.

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[Thomas Veil]

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“Jumanji”, which I’d managed never to see before, mainly because Robin Williams at his most manic can wear on you.

That wasn’t the case here, though. I found the story itself pretty over the top, but enjoyable enough with a satisfying ending.

 

[Huntn]

View attachment 4779​

“Jumanji”, which I’d managed never to see before, mainly because Robin Williams at his most manic can wear on you.

That wasn’t the case here, though. I found the story itself pretty over the top, but enjoyable enough with a satisfying ending.

I love this movie, the remakes don’t hold a shadow to it. What’s over the top? This is magic and alternate realities, until you finish the game.

 

[lizkat]

Two outstanding films by the same directors, Steven Bognar and Julia Reichart, about the same factory near Dayton, Ohio. It was formerly the huge GM Moraine Assembly plant and is now the huge Fuyao Glass America plant. About 2000 workers and a couple hundred managers worked or work there with automation continuing to reduce the number of human workers required to create the products. In the Fugayo plant, many of the worker-supervisors, trainers etc. and all upper management are now from China, although at first the top execs were Americans.


The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (2009)

American Factory (2019)

Saw these this week on HBO-Max and on Netflix, respectively. Both worth the watch. The newer one in particular is eye-opening. It was the first film produced by the Obamas' production company, Higher Ground. Actually I watched the earlier Bognar-Reichart film thanks to noticing a credit for footage used in the 2019 production.

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[DT]

Love and Monsters (2020)- Drama/Comedy, thumbs up.

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Stoked to see this one, just waiting for it to hit one our services.

Two outstanding films by the same directors, Steven Bognar and Julia Reichart, about the same factory near Dayton, Ohio. It was formerly the huge GM Moraine Assembly plant and is now the huge Fuyao Glass America plant. About 2000 workers and a couple hundred managers worked or work there with automation continuing to reduce the number of human workers required to create the products. In the Fugayo plant, many of the worker-supervisors, trainers etc. and all upper management are now from China, although at first the top execs were Americans.


The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (2009)

American Factory (2019)

Saw these this week on HBO-Max and on Netflix, respectively. Both worth the watch. The newer one in particular is eye-opening. It was the first film produced by the Obamas' production company, Higher Ground. Actually I watched the earlier Bognar-Reichart film thanks to noticing a credit for footage used in the 2019 production.

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American Factory is fantastic, haven't seen The Last Truck, sounds like I need to watch it.

 

[lizkat]

Stoked to see this one, just waiting for it to hit one our services.



American Factory is fantastic, haven't seen The Last Truck, sounds like I need to watch it.

Grown men crying... not just the women. It was pretty scary, considering every automotive job had generated 5 to 7 other jobs in the Dayton community. A rough patch when those jobs were lost too... it scarred them and the opening of Fuyao could not wholly repair the local economy.

Sorry for typo the second time I referenced the Chinese plant in my earlier post. Fuyao, not Fugayo. Duh!

And yeah, American Factory is a really good film; it definitely deserved the best docu Oscar it received.

 

[Huntn]

Stoked to see this one, just waiting for it to hit one our services.



American Factory is fantastic, haven't seen The Last Truck, sounds like I need to watch it.

Rented on AppleTV for $5.99

 

[Edd]

Just watched American Factory because of this thread. That worker who said she went from $29/hour to $12.50/hour or so broke my heart.

The 2nd act of the film when the Americans traveled to China blew me away. The scene with the Chinese workers on stage doing a sort of company pep rally was like an acid trip.

 

[DT]

Rented on AppleTV for $5.99

Ahh, cool, yeah, we don't really went much anymore, our queue is like 20-something movies deep, and that doesn't even include series, so figured we could wait.

Back when there was a ton of cheap gray market codes, I'd score a movie that way, same as a rental, but you own it

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

More of a PRO TIP here. I kept my Netflix DVD account up to fairly recently because I mostly used it for a depository for new movies coming out. Even if it's only in trailer for upcoming movie trailer status a lot of movies would be available in Netflix DVD to save for later. I took comfort that I could just do that and forget about it. However many months later it would just appear in my shipping queue, but a year of covid delaying releases and straight to VOD releases pretty much just made it a money suck. So I finally killed it.

So in searching for an alternative I came across letterboxd. It's kind of like social media focused on movies (and TV shows I think). You can write reviews, follow other users, and for my purposes store future releases you want to see.

Letterboxd • Your life in film

Letterboxd is a social platform for sharing your taste in film. Use it as a diary to record your opinion about films as you watch them, or just to keep track of films you’ve seen in the past. Rate, review and tag films as you add them. Find and follow your friends to see what they’re enjoying...

letterboxd.com

I didn't upgrade to pro but reading about the pro benefits I discovered Justwatch which it will link to with a pro account. Justwatch allows you to access pretty much every streaming service on the planet and you can get notifications of when the movies you are interested in are available for streaming on which service. You can either have it show all streaming services or just the ones you subscribe to. It will also give you recommendations based on your taste.

JustWatch - The Streaming Guide

All your streaming services in one app.

www.justwatch.com

I just got started on these so I don't have much feedback yet but it sounds like it will be a rewarding combo. I actually just killed all my streaming services except Netflix, Amazon Prime (more of a bonus to the free 2nd day shipping), and HBO Max which I get free through Comcast. I'll still have it show subscription services I killed though (and some I never subscribed to) in case I might have a reason to start or renew my subscription. My plan is to subscribe and then instantly (or day later) kill the auto renewal. In theory that should save me a lot of money based on my history of just letting auto renewals hit regardless of my viewing history.

 

[Alli]

We watched the new Tom Clancy movie Without Remorse. It was as expected. Could have been much worse.

 

[Thomas Veil]

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"Dark Shadows" (HBO).

I remember being confused the first time I saw this. It surprised (and angered) a lot of people, being more of a comedy than a horror movie. "House of Dark Shadows" it wasn't, and I didn't know whether I should like it or not.

Still, I found it passably entertaining, even if it wasn't what I was expecting. On repeated viewings I've come to like it a lot more. I just think the studio should have been a lot more up front with fans that this was not going to be a straight re-telling of the Barnabas Collins story. Judged on its own merits, however, it's enjoyably weird.