What Movie Are You Watching?

[Edd]

View attachment 4862​

"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.

I think this film was the first time I became aware of Eva Green. Wow, is all I can say.

 

[Edd]

Muscle Shoals on Amazon Prime.

https://watch.amazon.com/detail?asin=B00FGM2OEW&territory=US&ref_=share_ios_movie&r=web

 

[ronntaylor]

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.

I joined Letterboxd a couple months ago and abandoned it with ton of COVID-19 errands to complete. Thanks for the heads up as I will check out justwatch since I also use the three streaming services you mentioned. There's too much of an overload, especially when you're busy with life and queues become impossible to watch.

 

[Huntn]

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.

When Netflix split its service between streaming and disk, we jettisoned disk mailing.

 

[Huntn]

View attachment 4862​

"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.

Any relationship to the Johnny Depp vehicle? ...which we hated.

 

[Huntn]

The Pelican Brief (1993)- watched on Netflix. John Grisham was a hot writer of legal, political thrillers in the 90s. This is an outstanding thriller that explodes quickly, full of intrigue right up to POTUS.. Excellent performances.

​

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

We don't have an upcoming movie thread (I think).

 

[Huntn]

We don't have an upcoming movie thread (I think).

Create one!

 

[Thomas Veil]

Dang! Two great Zack Snyder movies in three months?

​

In the vein of “From Dusk to Dawn”, “Army of the Dead” (Netflix) is every bit the fun zombie/caper flick I expected it to be. I’m not that much of a zombie movie fan, but this kept my interest with decent characters and some nice twists.

Not to be missed: the tongue in cheek opening credits sequence, and the intense final half hour.

Plenty of language and gore, of course. Make sure the little ones are in bed.

Netflix really needs to send a thank you card and a fruit basket to the unappreciative execs over at WB.

 

[Alli]

In the vein of “From Dusk to Dawn”, “Army of the Dead” (Netflix) is every bit the fun zombie/caper flick I expected it to be. I’m not that much of a zombie movie fan, but this kept my interest with decent characters and some nice twists.

That’s on my “up next.” Last night I did stick to Netflix, but was suckered in by Parallels, which turned out to be an excellent film that dealt with parallel worlds in a rather different manner.

 

[Thomas Veil]

I would've thought it'd be about how to run Windows on your Mac.

It's funny that you mention parallel worlds, though. A few days ago I was experimenting with streaming (because my mom would like to save money on her cable bill), and I signed up to sample a few services like Sling and Locast. What was the first show I found? The pilot of Sliders.

 

[User.45]

Dang! Two great Zack Snyder movies in three months?

View attachment 5338​

In the vein of “From Dusk to Dawn”, “Army of the Dead” (Netflix) is every bit the fun zombie/caper flick I expected it to be. I’m not that much of a zombie movie fan, but this kept my interest with decent characters and some nice twists.

Not to be missed: the tongue in cheek opening credits sequence, and the intense final half hour.

Plenty of language and gore, of course. Make sure the little ones are in bed.

Netflix really needs to send a thank you card and a fruit basket to the unappreciative execs over at WB.

It wasn't bad... Though nothing tops the original Romero versions of the Night of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead, which are both classics and great satires on consumer society. Army of the Dead lacked the depth but the plot *didn't* get in front some nice light comedy. I'd give it a 6/10 (worth watching once). That said such score is pretty good considering the past 2 decades in the genre, where the last best 2 good originals were 28 Days Later and The Night Eats the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Eats_the_World

 

[Thomas Veil]

Yeah, but name another movie where the zombie apocalypse was brought about because of a blow job.

 

[DT]

Snyder's remake of Dawn of the Dead is easily in my Top 5 horror remakes (The Thing and The Fly being two others off the top of my head ... the former actually following the source material vs. the 1951 film).

FWIW, Army of the Dead (2021), Army of Thieves - an Army prequel starring and directed by Matthias Schweighöfer (who played Ludwig in Army), and Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, an animated series that takes place before Army but not a direct prequel - are all part of a new Snyder Zombie-verse that are NOT part of the Romero zombie-verse (and it's not connected to Snyder's Dawn remake in any way ... other than being about zombies ...)

 

[DT]

6 out of 10 seems about right, even as a genre weighted score, maybe 6.5. Needed a little trimming, 2h 28m runtime is a little long for this material, <= 2 hours wouldn't been plenty.

One thing that is nuts: the scenes of the helo pilot played by Tig Notaro, actually replaced scenes originally shot with Chris D’Elia who wound up with numerous sexual assault / harassment allegations, so they brought her in and shot her, alone, with a green screen, and then composited her scenes into the original shoot.

If you didn't know, it probably didn't even register (if you did, there's a little noticeable disconnect in some scenes).

This is a pretty funny article about it:

Dave Bautista Still Hasn’t Met Co-Star Tig Notaro Since She Was Digitally Added to ‘Army of the Dead’

Bautista and Notaro may share scenes together, but that's only the product of movie magic.

www.indiewire.com

 

[Thomas Veil]

...Army of Thieves - an Army prequel starring and directed by Matthias Schweighöfer (who played Ludwig in Army)...

I had no idea that was coming up. Thanks!

At least the title is a little more creative. I'm tired of "___ of the Dead" variants. Pretty soon they'll be down to things like "Picnic of the Dead" and "Polo Match of the Dead".

...This is a pretty funny article about it:

Dave Bautista Still Hasn’t Met Co-Star Tig Notaro Since She Was Digitally Added to ‘Army of the Dead’

Bautista and Notaro may share scenes together, but that's only the product of movie magic.

www.indiewire.com

I saw a different article yesterday where Snyder said he was impressed as hell with what the special effects people and the editor were able to do with that task. I'm sure it helped that Snyder himself acted as both director and DP.

 

[Alli]

In the vein of “From Dusk to Dawn”, “Army of the Dead” (Netflix) is every bit the fun zombie/caper flick I expected it to be. I’m not that much of a zombie movie fan, but this kept my interest with decent characters and some nice twists.

Watched it this afternoon, it was interesting. Not great, but not bad at all.

"Polo Match of the Dead"

I think I’d like to see that one!

 

[Thomas Veil]

Wait’ll you see the one they got coming out next year: “Hedge Fund of the Dead”. Directed by Stephen Miller from a script by Steve Mnuchin and Linda McMahon.

 

[Thomas Veil]

And actually, “Army of the Dead” is probably better for having Tig Notaro in it. She’s terrific as the hardcase helicopter pilot.

 

[Alli]

And actually, “Army of the Dead” is probably better for having Tig Notaro in it. She’s terrific as the hardcase helicopter pilot.

She was wonderful. At the end I kept comparing her to the Alan Tudyk character in Serenity/Firefly who met a similar end after declaring he was a leaf in the wind.