What Movie Are You Watching?

[Joe]

Season 5 of "Insecure"

 

[Huntn]

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Dune (2021)- This is 10 times the original on many levels, some great visuals. I like character portrayals, and I got a few thrill chills comparing this in my mind to the original.

But ultimately, I have issues with the tempo for which I blame the director. I found it to be an oppressive atmosphere throughout with constant droning music, portending doom, and maybe because it is being made into 2 movies, as it hit all the plot points, it felt like it dragged.

At the end of this viewing, I’m asking myself, do I want to do a repeat watch, and the answer is eh, was there any truly memorable sequences? No, which means I am disappointed. What I want is to be carried along so I am unaware of the time. I’ll understand if there is disagreement. Maybe it’s an extraordinarily difficult story to turn into film?

 

[Alli]

I got tickets to see Eternals on Saturday afternoon. In the fancy theater with reclining seats and outrageously priced food.

 

[ronntaylor]

I got tickets to see Eternals on Saturday afternoon. In the fancy theater with reclining seats and outrageously priced food.

Enjoy! Still not comfortable enough to venture to an actual theater. Not that I liked going pre-Pandemic.

 

[Pumbaa]

I got tickets to see Eternals on Saturday afternoon. In the fancy theater with reclining seats and outrageously priced food.

Me too! But tomorrow.

Fancy (and comfy) reclining seat in the middle of the first row. I know, first row, sounds scary and uncomfortable, right? Not in that VIP movie theater. Plenty of empty space between the screen and the first row, perfect viewing angle from the reclined seat. Feels like having a very luxurious home cinema. Big unobstructed screen, plenty of good speakers in the right places, and I almost never notice other people in the audience during the screening. Can’t pause the movie to visit the restroom, though.

As for the movie Eternals, I’ve managed to keep myself uninformed. I love seeing a movie for the first time without knowing much about it. Here I have some broad ideas about the bigger picture, and I know about one thing that happens that caused a torrential downpour of bad reviews before the premiere from people not having seen the movie. It’ll be fine.

 

[Alli]

Enjoy! Still not comfortable enough to venture to an actual theater. Not that I liked going pre-Pandemic.

We’ve been to the regular theater twice. Both times there were fewer than 10 other people in there with us. I was comfortable with that. But I feel better at the “fancy” place where I know I’m not sharing an arm rest with a stranger.

Fancy (and comfy) reclining seat in the middle of the first row.

Oh not me. I still like the back row. I don’t recline, I just like having my feet up.

 

[ronntaylor]

We’ve been to the regular theater twice. Both times there were fewer than 10 other people in there with us. I was comfortable with that. But I feel better at the “fancy” place where I know I’m not sharing an arm rest with a stranger.

Oh not me. I still like the back row. I don’t recline, I just like having my feet up.

I think the penultimate time I was in a theater was for Black Panther with my baby sis. It was the fancy type with reclining seats. First time ever for me and the hubby. And there was maybe a dozen counting us and her husband. No one near us and all well-behaved.

In the past we would always go to matinees and hope the elders would not bring in outside food and spend half the time unwrapping and eating and asking "What'd he say!?" a million times.

 

[Pumbaa]

We’ve been to the regular theater twice. Both times there were fewer than 10 other people in there with us. I was comfortable with that. But I feel better at the “fancy” place where I know I’m not sharing an arm rest with a stranger.

Oh yeah. Can‘t go back to normal after having experienced fancy. Private arm rests are , even without a pandemic. My last regular non-fancy screening was back in 2016.

Oh not me. I still like the back row. I don’t recline, I just like having my feet up.

Well, just imagine having four legs!

 

[Pumbaa]

Eternals. Complete disaster, worst movie theatre experience in decades. Not the movie’s fault though. Fall break, school‘s out for a week and somehow a horde of pygmies got seats in the VIP movie theatre. Not that they stayed in their seats… Or watched the movie. Kicking the back of seats. Texting on their phones. Playing fucking games on their phones. Talking to each other. Stomping their feet. Loudly chewing crunchy snacks. Making noises unwrapping candy. Reaching into paper bags containing more crunchy things. A bunch of them ended up leaving their seats further back to sit on the floor in front of some of their friends.

The movie was simply not for them. Too much drama. They would surely have loved Venom: Let There Be Carnage but were either too young to see it (rated 15 and up, this one was rated 11 and up) or their parents wanted to get rid of them goblins for two and a half hours rather than just one and a half. I can’t blame the kids for not being mesmerized by the movie, but they shouldn’t have been there in the first place!

I have to watch the movie again, in peace and quiet, in order to feel comfortable rating it. The movie isn‘t perfect, but it had some parts I managed to enjoy despite the goblins. I might even end up deciding that I liked the movie overall despite some flaws.

One thing I recommend, though, (aside from avoiding goblins) is to not start a rewatch of Game of Thrones prior to a screening of Eternals. Trust me. It would be too weird.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Frankly I didn't expect much from a movie that was announced as a prequel to "Army of the Dead". It wasn't about zombies and focused primarily on Ludwig Dieter, who functioned as comedy relief as much as safecracker in the original. But "Army of Thieves" (Netflix) is a hoot.

In place of zombies, the prequel action involves a heist in which Dieter is enlisted to break into three of the world's most complex safes. Matthias Schweighöfer (who also plays Dieter) directed this one from a story co-written by Zack Snyder, but you'd almost swear Snyder directed as well, that's how beautifully shot and edited this film is. The European locations are cool, the suspense mixes well with the comedy relief, and as long as you're not expecting zombie hordes or a caper on the complexity level of "Ocean's Eleven", you'll probably enjoy this. A-

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Has anyone seen The French Dispatch yet, and, if so, what did you think of it?

 

[lizkat]

Has anyone seen The French Dispatch yet, and, if so, what did you think of it?

I so do want to see that. But it's only available in theatrical distribution right now. No one seems to know who will first stream it, but I've heard that won't happen anyway until sometime around February 2022. Rental option will probably show up on platforms like Prime Video, iTunes, Google Play etc. in mid to late December.

 

[Thomas Veil]

“Event Horizon” (HBOMax). I’d only seen the ending before and it seemed muddled. Seeing it from the beginning didn’t help much.

Not that it’s a bad movie, but the things that happen appear kind of random, as if it borrowed bits and pieces of “The Shining”, “Solaris”, “Hellraiser” and “The Cloverfield Paradox”.

Good cast; some iffy special effects. C+

 

[Alli]

Just got back from seeing Eternals. Normally I despise movies that flip back and forth in time with endless flashbacks, but they were necessary to move the plot in this, and they did it really well.

The beginning was a little slow though. And as with every Marvel movie, don’t leave your seat until after the first credits roll.

 

[ericwn]

“Event Horizon” (HBOMax). I’d only seen the ending before and it seemed muddled. Seeing it from the beginning didn’t help much.

Not that it’s a bad movie, but the things that happen appear kind of random, as if it borrowed bits and pieces of “The Shining”, “Solaris”, “Hellraiser” and “The Cloverfield Paradox”.

Good cast; some iffy special effects. C+

Good to watch once I thought. I think some of the claimed inspiration actually came out much later and are in a similar c+ category for me.
Speaking of Shining, can anyone remember the later tv adoption, that four hour snooze fest because King was not a fan of Kubrick’s work?

 

[Pumbaa]

Just got back from seeing Eternals. Normally I despise movies that flip back and forth in time with endless flashbacks, but they were necessary to move the plot in this, and they did it really well.

The beginning was a little slow though. And as with every Marvel movie, don’t leave your seat until after the first credits roll.

Most people and goblins stayed for the first credits roll and then left after the post-credits scene. Only three visitors stayed longer and saw the second post-credits scene. Muhaha.

 

[ericwn]

Most people and goblins stayed for the first credits roll and then left after the post-credits scene. Only three visitors stayed longer and saw the second post-credits scene. Muhaha.

That’s usually a great experiment with group / peer pressure to stick around to the very end…

 

[Thomas Veil]

Good to watch once I thought. I think some of the claimed inspiration actually came out much later and are in a similar c+ category for me.
Speaking of Shining, can anyone remember the later tv adoption, that four hour snooze fest because King was not a fan of Kubrick’s work?

I saw that once. It may have been more faithful to the book, but yeah, the writing and direction were surprisingly flat.

 

[Thomas Veil]

"Goodfellas" (HBOMax). One of those movies "I've always been meaning to".

Good story. It took an hour to really get going, but it kept my interest.

Being a biography, the "plot" as such doesn't build up to a crescendo so much as zig-zag from one wild incident to another. But that tells me the script is probably faithful to the actual events, as opposed to being "enhanced" with made-up or exaggerated versions of same.

The swearing was a bit much even for me. Okay, a lot much. But the acting was great and the locations, set design, etc. were incredibly authentic. B+

 

[lizkat]

"Goodfellas" (HBOMax). One of those movies "I've always been meaning to".

Good story. It took an hour to really get going, but it kept my interest.

Being a biography, the "plot" as such doesn't build up to a crescendo so much as zig-zag from one wild incident to another. But that tells me the script is probably faithful to the actual events, as opposed to being "enhanced" with made-up or exaggerated versions of same.

The swearing was a bit much even for me. Okay, a lot much. But the acting was great and the locations, set design, etc. were incredibly authentic. B+

Same reaction to the language, gee. Took me a few false starts to stick with it, actually. But worth the effort.