What Movie Are You Watching?

[Huntn]

I caught "Arrival" (2016) on Hulu the other day and liked it. It's an intelligent sci-fi film, though there are a few gaps in logic re how fast Amy Adams picked up the aliens' language.

The next day I was watching Morning Joe and noticed how the stylized O in their logo looks a little like the aliens' writing.


I love the story about how Tommy Lee Jones hated working with Jim Carrey because he thought Carrey was way overplaying the role. It was still a better movie than "Batman and Robin", which reached heights of ridiculousness that made Adam West's version look like Robert Pattinson by comparison.

That scene where the Dynamic Duo, shot into the stratosphere in a rocket, blow off the doors and surf back down to the Earth's surface? I wish I could wipe the memory of that from my mind.

Because she already knew it, silly.

Arrival is a masterful bit of science fiction, Denis Villeneuve can mostly do no wrong, and the source is pretty terrific (Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang), but the movie, holy hell, it gets me every time, it really strikes a chord with me, and when Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight" starts playing, that's it, I'm done.



Hahaha, holy hell, bold = really?

I don't even remember that, I guess I was able to actually purge it I'm pretty sure I saw Batman and Robin only one time, I think I saw Batman Forever twice, originally way back when, and I fired it up after I watched the Val Kilmer doc (in the background, at my desk, while I was working ...)

It’s been a while since I saw Arrival, but as I recall, it was exposure to the aliens that rewired our brains regarding how we experience both time and reality. It’s an idea for the sake of the story, you just have to accept or you’re probably not going to like it.. When a movie is as slow as this was, you have to be vested in the cerebral concept. Station Eleven a slow story that I ended up loving, but it did not involve any difficult concept to accept..

As far as Villeneuve, he is a good director, I liked Arrival but it’s not a favorite, Bladerunner 2049, and was dissapointed in Dune which had great imagery, but included a combination of feeling flat with a heavy dose of oppressive, projection of what the future portends music. This could be because I knew the story and I made the projection, but it was still oppressive.

He used a lot of background “mood” music in Bladerunner 2049, but there it did not bother me.

 

[Arkitect]

Saturday night we streamed…

House of Gucci

I'll give it a 6/10.

Ridley Scott is a most frustrating Director, IMHO. Hit and miss.

Anyway. House of Gucci is a miss.

Yeah, yeah, everyone's gaga over Lady Gaga. But even she was pretty meh.

The rest are godawful. The thickest fake Italian accents you can imagine. *Cringe*

A lot of rich (but not rich enough) monsters. And shit loads of bad taste.

 

[Huntn]

Saturday night we streamed…

House of Gucci

I'll give it a 6/10.

Ridley Scott is a most frustrating Director, IMHO. Hit and miss.

Anyway. House of Gucci is a miss.

Yeah, yeah, everyone's gaga over Lady Gaga. But even she was pretty meh.

The rest are godawful. The thickest fake Italian accents you can imagine. *Cringe*

A lot of rich (but not rich enough) monsters. And shit loads of bad taste.

I‘ve been irritated with how he’s overseen the Aliens franchise, if he is the guy who oversees it, 2 hits out of 5.

 

[DT]

It’s an idea for the sake of the story [...]

Yeah, that's how films work Particularly when it's science fiction, emphasis on fiction.

 

[Huntn]

Shawshank Redemption (1994)- Magnificent story telling, bombed at the box office, went on to be acclaimed.

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[Thomas Veil]

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“Murder by Decree” (Xumo), a criminally underseen thriller in which Sherlock Holmes’ pursuit of Jack the Ripper leads to a conspiracy at high levels of British society.

The solution is both amazing and bittersweet. And what a cast! Christopher Plummer, James Mason, David Hemmings, Susan Clark, Anthony Quayle, Sir John Gielgud, Frank Finlay, Donald Sutherland and Genevieve Bujold.

And directed by Bob Clark. Yes, “A Christmas Story” and “Black Christmas” Bob Clark.

Sadly, the only version I found available looks like a second generation VHS tape. Other than that, a definite A.

 

[Alli]

Just finished watching Vivarium. Very very strange, yet compelling movie. On Prime. I cannot really tell you what it’s about. Yes, it’s one of those. Giving anything of the plot is giving away the entire movie.

 

[shadow puppet]

Shawshank Redemption (1994)- Magnificent story telling, bombed at the box office, went on to be acclaimed.

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I've seen Shawshank 12 times. It's one of my favorite films. Stellar cast. Tim Robbins studied theater at the same time as me at UCLA. Even then we knew he was gifted. He won UCLA's highest acting honor at the time. Super funny, nice guy.

 

[DT]

I've seen Shawshank 12 times. It's one of my favorite films. Stellar cast. Tim Robbins studied theater at the same time as me at UCLA. Even then we knew he was gifted. He won UCLA's highest acting honor at the time. Super funny, nice guy.

Yeah, it's most likely in my Top 10 of all time. It used to be one of those movies where if I came across it, didn't matter how much was left, I was all in. Of course, now it's always available, any time.

 

[Huntn]

I've seen Shawshank 12 times. It's one of my favorite films. Stellar cast. Tim Robbins studied theater at the same time as me at UCLA. Even then we knew he was gifted. He won UCLA's highest acting honor at the time. Super funny, nice guy.

I read an article about the actors who were wanted or turned down the role: Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, maybe Paul Newman, but he strikes me at the time as being too old and iconic. I can’t imagine anyone other than Robbins playing this character.

 

[DT]

I read an article about the actors who were wanted or turned down the role: Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, maybe Paul Newman, but he strikes me at the time as being too old and iconic. I can’t imagine anyone other than Robbins playing this character.

Yeah, Tim Robbins has a perfect blend of boyish charm and restrained, underlying intensity, he's wide eyed while his gears area clearly turning, and then he added just a tiny amount of crazy to the performance.

At least Hanks would get to be in another pretty terrific Stephen King / Frank Darabont collaboration, that was even another prison movie, The Green Mile.

 

[Huntn]

Yeah, Tim Robbins has a perfect blend of boyish charm and restrained, underlying intensity, he's wide eyed while his gears area clearly turning, and then he added just a tiny amount of crazy to the performance.

At least Hanks would get to be in another pretty terrific Stephen King / Frank Darabont collaboration, that was even another prison movie, The Green Mile.

After Salem’s Lot, The Shining, The Stand, The Mist, The Dead Zone, these two movies cemented in my perspective that this author is a highly creative, genius story teller.

 

[DT]

This looks so fun, premiers Friday on Disney+

 

[Huntn]

This looks so fun, premiers Friday on Disney+

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And my first impulse was hopefully this is not about a happy Russian fox…

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

And as always, some fun horror movies, watched The Deep House the other night, a pretty straight forward haunted house tale, but it takes place almost entirely underwater, gives it a completely different and spooky vibe. Also notable that it's written and directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, french filmmakers who've done some excellent horror like Inside, and probably the best of the non-original series / possible best sequel in general, Texas Chainsaw entries the 2017 Leatherface.

I’ll give it credit for originality, but I thought there was way too much unneeded dialogue and phoning it in, and I don’t think it has to do with almost the entire movie being under water. A lot of the dialogue felt like they were just trying to fill space, and the ending exposition just felt rushed and poorly acted.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Saturday night we streamed…

House of Gucci

I'll give it a 6/10.

Ridley Scott is a most frustrating Director, IMHO. Hit and miss.

Anyway. House of Gucci is a miss.

Yeah, yeah, everyone's gaga over Lady Gaga. But even she was pretty meh.

The rest are godawful. The thickest fake Italian accents you can imagine. *Cringe*

A lot of rich (but not rich enough) monsters. And shit loads of bad taste.

The only reason I want to see this is because I've heard the accents are over the top hilarious and offensive.

 

[DT]

And my first impulse was hopefully this is not about a happy Russian fox…

Nope, Panda, and the lead character (and much of the cast) is Asian

Plus it has James Hong so it's automatically awesome.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Shawshank Redemption (1994)- Magnificent story telling, bombed at the box office, went on to be acclaimed.

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Great film. I watched Alcatraz last night for the first time in years. Another good prison film.

 

[Arkitect]

The only reason I want to see this is because I've heard the accents are over the top hilarious and offensive.

And they are.
It's truly a horror show of Eyetalian speaking-a like-a dis-a… capisce?

 

[Thomas Veil]

"The King's Man" (HBO), for my money the best of the three movies. For the most part it manages to entertain with action while restraining itself from the ridiculously cartoonish violence of the previous movies. It manages to insert our heroes at virtually every inflection point in the First World War and somehow make it all seem (barely) plausible--and it makes you care about the characters more than the previous movies as well.

Nice work. I give this one an A-.