Author Topic: What movies have you been watching?  (Read 501250 times)

iris lily

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #50 on: January 27, 2018, 10:21:04 AM »
Have been watching the mini series Hell on Wheels on Netflix! OMG, this is a post Civil War drama on building a railroad and all the cut throat evil deals and corruption that goes along with all of that from top to the bottom. It is a melting pot of ex slaves, prostitutes, native Indians, Irish, English and others. Continuous upheaval, guns, arrows, murder, train wrecks, robberies, hangings, betrayal. Love, hate and mistrust. Have watched season 1 and about 4 episodes of season 2. Five seasons in all.

Also, watched Godless and that was very good too!

Both are westerns and normally you couldn't get me to watch a western if you paid me a million dollars but these movies are awesome and really makes you realize how hard life was back in the 1800's.

You know about Deadwood, right? One of the best tv shows ever made.

Normally I dont watch Westerns either, but this is more of a history lesson wrapped up in great sotry telling, about the Gold Rush town of
Deadwood, South Dakota.. One of the best tv performances of all times is by Ian Mc
Shane.

Roadrunner53

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #51 on: January 27, 2018, 11:39:25 AM »
Is Deadwood on Netflix? Did not know about this show.

Sounds really GOOD! I'm a bit hooked on westerns after Godless and Hell on Wheels!

iris lily

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #52 on: January 27, 2018, 12:04:36 PM »
Is Deadwood on Netflix? Did not know about this show.

Sounds really GOOD! I'm a bit hooked on westerns after Godless and Hell on Wheels!
I dont onow if it is on
Netflix streaming. It is 15 or so years old.


Roadrunner53

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #53 on: January 27, 2018, 12:33:43 PM »
Damn, Deadwood is NOT on Netflix...just checked. GRRRRR!!!

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #54 on: January 27, 2018, 03:46:29 PM »
Deadwood is an HBO property, so it is on Amazon Prime (they have all the HBO shows that have concluded).

Roadrunner53

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #55 on: January 27, 2018, 04:13:41 PM »
What would you do? Get a free subscription for a month and binge watch deadwood then cancel subscription or go to ebay and buy the complete 3 seasons then resell it back on ebay?

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #56 on: January 28, 2018, 08:42:16 AM »
Two more this weekend: Despicable Me 3 (I have no excuse, I just like Minions) and John Wick. There really would be no reason to watch DM3 unless you already like the franchise--it was a perfectly fine animated movie but nothing special.

I wanted to see John Wick because I keep hearing people talk about it and I was curious. I thought it was a very competent and stylish action movie (and it really is an action movie, there's not a lot of character development or plot) and like many people, my favorite part was when the lead goes to stay at the assassins' hotel and you meet all the other assassins who stay there. The maddening thing about it for me was that the lead character is pursuing someone in the Russian mob and everyone speaks Russian part of the time. For some reason, the director decided to do these fancy subtitles for the Russian dialogue that were very difficult to read against the (mostly dark) scenes on my TV. On the other hand, I appreciated that it was only an hour and 40 minutes long. Apparently the first cut was well over two hours. God bless the editor or studio exec who convinced them to go with a much tighter version.

big_owl

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #57 on: January 28, 2018, 11:53:14 AM »
I'm watching Blade Runner 2049.  Love that movie.  One of my top favs.  Pumping Iron is still my #1 tho.

GuitarStv

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #58 on: January 29, 2018, 08:18:37 AM »
I'm watching Blade Runner 2049.  Love that movie.  One of my top favs.  Pumping Iron is still my #1 tho.


Why?

<spoiler alert>

I was kinda disappointed by the Blade Runner movie.  Don't get me wrong . . . the scenes looked great, and it's kinda encouraging to see a movie willing to give the middle finger to action and keep the pacing as slow as the original - regardless of watch-ability / commercial potential.  The digital girlfriend was a cool idea, and the sex scene was shot in an awesome just disturbing enough way.

Kudos for courage, but the pacing in the movie is fucking weird though.  You're given tons of information in the first ten minutes or so, and then there's like an hour of waiting while the main character confirms everything that you've just figured out.  Many points/scenes  just ended up loose ends (If the AIs can sync with replicants, can they take over their bodies permanently?, Why was Wallace so interested in Deckard when he didn't know shit about his daughter?, Is Deckard a replicant?, Why is Stelline the child . . . were there clues we were supposed to see that led up to this revelation, or was it just the one scene where she identified a false memory?, Why is Stelline's meeting with Deckard important for any reason?,  What is Stelline - a replicant that can age?,  etc.)  There are also a bunch of things that flat out make no sense (what flowers are the bees in the radiation zone getting nectar from to survive?, Deckard for some inexplicable reason decides that the best way to deal with someone who wants to talk to him is to lose a gun fight?, Why execute Claire Underwood?, The replicants don't want to bother fighting for freedom unless they can have babies?, etc.)

The original Blade Runner asked and explored some cool questions, but this reiteration seems to have missed the boat on that  . . .  bringing up a few interesting ideas, but not really exploring them well at all.

Davnasty

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #59 on: January 29, 2018, 08:19:28 AM »
Ok, so I got Only Lovers Left Alive from the library. it was delicious! What great settings, Tangiers and decaying Detroit! Wonderful,
 backdrop for these stylish but dusty and dishelveled  vampires. I lived the clothes and the sets, loved!!!I have seen Tom Hiddleston in many things but he is instantly forgettable to me until this film. His makeup and dress were perfect.

I read that they all wore wigs and along with the human hair was interwoven Yak hair to give them a wild look.

I very much miss the Internet Movie Data Base where I could ask questions about tiny aspects of the film such as:

Why did they wear gloves out in public, was that just a fashion statement?

Why did Eve read the same books she packed for her trip to
Detroit?

Edited to add: ths film got no Oscar nominatins for art direction, costumes, or soundtrack, all of which MADE the film. That was a lack...

And finally, as an MMM issue, how do vampires get their money, and why do they always seem to have so much of it?

I assume they make a little money, invest, sleep for 100 years and boom. They're rich.

Also all they're groceries are stolen and a lot of them seem to be squatters.

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #60 on: January 29, 2018, 03:29:24 PM »
Also, the vampires who kill people (the OLLA vampires generally do not) could steal their money and valuables, and the ones who use mind-control could force people to hand over their cash.

Plus, just buying one piece of property and occupying it indefinitely has got to be a lot cheaper than every generation buying a house, or you could probably make quite a bit in real estate speculation (especially if you can sit on a piece of land long enough to be unconcerned if the neighborhood goes downhill and then regentrifies.)

Per Tom Hiddleston, he is surprisingly talented as a musician (see the movie he did where he played Hank Williams). Most of his movie roles seem to be either superhero movies or period pieces so I did not know that for a long time.

GuitarStv

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #61 on: January 30, 2018, 10:34:04 AM »
Okja is a kinda cool movie.

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #62 on: January 31, 2018, 09:34:25 AM »
Having just gone to see "The Post" I decided to watch "All the President's Men" again. I wished I had done that before seeing "The Post"--apparently it makes a lot of cinematic references to ATPM. The only one I caught was that the Post ends with a clip/recreation of the opening scene of ATPM where you see the security guard find an open door and a long shot of flashlights in the Watergate. I really enjoyed it--apparently it is a fairly accurate recreation of 1970s journalism and the process the Washington Post went through uncovering the story behind Watergate. I did wish they had included Katharine Graham in the story (apparently Redford thought she was "extraneous") and I thought the ending was a bit odd...they get to a certain point in the investigation, and then you just see some headlines of stories about various people being convicted and then finally Nixon's resignation.

lost_in_the_endless_aisle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #63 on: February 01, 2018, 08:40:20 PM »
Having just gone to see "The Post" I decided to watch "All the President's Men" again. I wished I had done that before seeing "The Post"--apparently it makes a lot of cinematic references to ATPM. The only one I caught was that the Post ends with a clip/recreation of the opening scene of ATPM where you see the security guard find an open door and a long shot of flashlights in the Watergate. I really enjoyed it--apparently it is a fairly accurate recreation of 1970s journalism and the process the Washington Post went through uncovering the story behind Watergate. I did wish they had included Katharine Graham in the story (apparently Redford thought she was "extraneous") and I thought the ending was a bit odd...they get to a certain point in the investigation, and then you just see some headlines of stories about various people being convicted and then finally Nixon's resignation.
Graham wasn't much discussed in the book ATPM either and I don't recall ever hearing she was critical in the investigative work other than allowing Ben Bradlee to maintain the paper's focus on the scandal. I think she is more notable during the Pentagon Papers expose since she okayed the legally risky decision of WaPo carrying on leaking the Pentagon Papers after the NYTimes was ordered to stop. The reason only the first half-ish of Watergate is covered is because at that point the investigation had achieved critical mass and the bulk of new findings were uncovered through the Senate's Watergate hearings rather than via reporting (and increasing numbers of papers/reporters picked up the story later on, meaning it was much harder for Woodstein to get a scoop).

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #64 on: February 02, 2018, 08:34:19 AM »
Graham wasn't much discussed in the book ATPM either and I don't recall ever hearing she was critical in the investigative work other than allowing Ben Bradlee to maintain the paper's focus on the scandal. I think she is more notable during the Pentagon Papers expose since she okayed the legally risky decision of WaPo carrying on leaking the Pentagon Papers after the NYTimes was ordered to stop. The reason only the first half-ish of Watergate is covered is because at that point the investigation had achieved critical mass and the bulk of new findings were uncovered through the Senate's Watergate hearings rather than via reporting (and increasing numbers of papers/reporters picked up the story later on, meaning it was much harder for Woodstein to get a scoop).

That makes a lot of sense about the ending--I thought overall the movie did a good job of telling the story in a way that still made sense decades later (since it was made at a time when the events were still fresh in everyone's mind) but I wondered what I might be missing seeing it out of its original context. If the ending is the only part that doesn't quite hold up, that's not bad!

I read an interview with a historian who has researched Katharine Graham (I think it came out in connection with The Post but she talked about Watergate and ATPM too) and she said that Graham was pretty involved in the decision-making around Watergate coverage and was a bit hurt to be left out of the movie...but I guess it would make sense that Woodward and Bernstein were probably not privy to whatever conversations she and Bradlee were having, and the movie is based on their book. I think it's a little confusing because the movie is not entirely from their point of view--there are several scenes where they aren't present.

I think I need to read the Graham autobiography now and get her story from her own point of view!

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #65 on: February 02, 2018, 08:07:36 PM »
Watched King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. I actually liked Charlie Hunnam in the lead role but boy was that movie Over.The.Top. I mean, there were magical mega-sized war elephants in the first five minutes. Where do you go after that?

lost_in_the_endless_aisle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #66 on: February 02, 2018, 08:16:04 PM »
Graham wasn't much discussed in the book ATPM either and I don't recall ever hearing she was critical in the investigative work other than allowing Ben Bradlee to maintain the paper's focus on the scandal. I think she is more notable during the Pentagon Papers expose since she okayed the legally risky decision of WaPo carrying on leaking the Pentagon Papers after the NYTimes was ordered to stop. The reason only the first half-ish of Watergate is covered is because at that point the investigation had achieved critical mass and the bulk of new findings were uncovered through the Senate's Watergate hearings rather than via reporting (and increasing numbers of papers/reporters picked up the story later on, meaning it was much harder for Woodstein to get a scoop).

That makes a lot of sense about the ending--I thought overall the movie did a good job of telling the story in a way that still made sense decades later (since it was made at a time when the events were still fresh in everyone's mind) but I wondered what I might be missing seeing it out of its original context. If the ending is the only part that doesn't quite hold up, that's not bad!

I read an interview with a historian who has researched Katharine Graham (I think it came out in connection with The Post but she talked about Watergate and ATPM too) and she said that Graham was pretty involved in the decision-making around Watergate coverage and was a bit hurt to be left out of the movie...but I guess it would make sense that Woodward and Bernstein were probably not privy to whatever conversations she and Bradlee were having, and the movie is based on their book. I think it's a little confusing because the movie is not entirely from their point of view--there are several scenes where they aren't present.

I think I need to read the Graham autobiography now and get her story from her own point of view!
I think Graham, as accidental newspaper baroness, is an interesting topic in her own right. ATPM (film) was designed to be a detailed, focused look at Woodstein and I think it was largely successful despite (because?) it excluded Graham's involvement. Many of the interviews in the film (especially the most bizarre, memorable ones) are essentially verbatim out of the reporters' notebooks. They cheated with Segretti's candidness and Deep Throat's grand declaration in the film version, but otherwise, it's an accurate depiction of events with little in the way of destructive editing, a luxury afforded by the intense focus on the early part of the investigation. The narrative drive of the film with no tangents or blind alleys has always been its most attractive feature for me. (gets off soapbox)

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #67 on: February 04, 2018, 01:15:59 PM »
The library delivered on a whole bunch of holds at once so I have been working my way through the stack. Kingsman: The Secret Service was the latest. The first two-thirds were fine--I enjoy Colin Firth in almost everything, and the middle sequence about a young man working his way through the training/selection process to join up was fun. The ending was ridiculously violent--too much for me, and more than I would have expected based on the earlier part of the movie.

wenchsenior

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #68 on: February 04, 2018, 03:40:19 PM »
The library delivered on a whole bunch of holds at once so I have been working my way through the stack. Kingsman: The Secret Service was the latest. The first two-thirds were fine--I enjoy Colin Firth in almost everything, and the middle sequence about a young man working his way through the training/selection process to join up was fun. The ending was ridiculously violent--too much for me, and more than I would have expected based on the earlier part of the movie.

Yeah, that movie could have been really fun, and then the last third just flamed out into a seriously vicious and sexist mess.  Am I misremembering, or is this the movie where it was implied the girl who got rescued was going to reward the young hero at the end with anal sex?

chaskavitch

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #69 on: February 04, 2018, 03:47:37 PM »
The library delivered on a whole bunch of holds at once so I have been working my way through the stack. Kingsman: The Secret Service was the latest. The first two-thirds were fine--I enjoy Colin Firth in almost everything, and the middle sequence about a young man working his way through the training/selection process to join up was fun. The ending was ridiculously violent--too much for me, and more than I would have expected based on the earlier part of the movie.

Yeah, that movie could have been really fun, and then the last third just flamed out into a seriously vicious and sexist mess.  Am I misremembering, or is this the movie where it was implied the girl who got rescued was going to reward the young hero at the end with anal sex?

Yep, that's the one.

Warlord1986

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #70 on: February 05, 2018, 07:09:32 AM »
Jack Taylor. It's a series about an alcoholic Irish ex-guard who becomes a private investigator.

I mostly watch it for Iain Glen's face on my screen.

wenchsenior

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #71 on: February 05, 2018, 08:13:40 AM »
Jack Taylor. It's a series about an alcoholic Irish ex-guard who becomes a private investigator.

I mostly watch it for Iain Glen's face on my screen.

I really need to bump that up my Netflix queue.

Warlord1986

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #72 on: February 05, 2018, 09:21:02 AM »
Jack Taylor. It's a series about an alcoholic Irish ex-guard who becomes a private investigator.

I mostly watch it for Iain Glen's face on my screen.

I really need to bump that up my Netflix queue.

The first episode was kinda meh, but it's improved. It's a tad derivative, but not glaringly so. And Iain Glen does a good job.

WootWoot

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #73 on: February 08, 2018, 04:15:58 PM »
Just saw "God's Pocket" with the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman. Man, that movie was like a sixteen-car pileup on the highway. It just got crazier and crazier, and I wanted to look away (I did at one point) but I couldn't.

I still can't believe he's dead. :(

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #74 on: February 10, 2018, 07:56:26 PM »
Watched Dunkirk this weekend. I really was not sure what to expect, but I liked it. It is not a traditional war movie at all. You see a few soldiers for a brief period and never really know much about them. Despite the fact that the evacuation of Dunkirk was an epic operation, the movie does not have that feel. You see what is going on with a few boats and planes and on a short section of the beach, and that is all. It was interesting to see a director experimenting with a very traditional movie genre, and the cinematography and music were really stellar. It definitely deserves its Oscar nominations.

My biggest problem was the same as with every war movie...when you have a lot of young, male, and in this case all-white actors, all with similar haircuts and uniforms, it is really difficult to tell them apart. The director did not do the audience any favors by casting three slender brunettes as a group that spends quite a bit of time together.

I also watched Iron Man this weekend as part of my project to rewatch the Marvel superhero movies before the Avengers: Infinity War movie comes out in the spring. Everyone looks REALLY young, and Robert Downey Jr. spends surprisingly little time actually being Iron Man.

wenchsenior

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #75 on: February 11, 2018, 11:01:15 AM »
Watched Dunkirk this weekend. I really was not sure what to expect, but I liked it. It is not a traditional war movie at all. You see a few soldiers for a brief period and never really know much about them. Despite the fact that the evacuation of Dunkirk was an epic operation, the movie does not have that feel. You see what is going on with a few boats and planes and on a short section of the beach, and that is all. It was interesting to see a director experimenting with a very traditional movie genre, and the cinematography and music were really stellar. It definitely deserves its Oscar nominations.

My biggest problem was the same as with every war movie...when you have a lot of young, male, and in this case all-white actors, all with similar haircuts and uniforms, it is really difficult to tell them apart. The director did not do the audience any favors by casting three slender brunettes as a group that spends quite a bit of time together.




I had this same problem with Band of Brothers.  Everyone kept telling me how fantastic it was, but then when I watched it I realized it took me more than half the series to start differentiating among anyone but Lewis (upon whom I have an epic crush) and Livingston.  It was SO frustrating.  I should watch it again at some point, maybe it will be easier to follow.

wenchsenior

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #76 on: February 11, 2018, 11:08:37 AM »
Watched mother! last night.  I enjoyed it quite a bit as a brutal black comedy, probably not to most peoples' taste for sure. Michelle Pfeiffer's performance alone was worth the watch. 

The allegory (technically it could function equally well as at least 3 different allegories) was too bluntly obvious...a little subtlety wouldn't have hurt, and about 10-15 minutes of the last hour could have been cut without losing any of the vicious flavor.   But still, I laughed out loud quite a few times, especially toward the end.  I was also entertained by the notion that there is a filmmaker out there with an even bleaker view of humanity than mine.  Barely.

iris lily

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #77 on: February 13, 2018, 08:46:51 AM »
I have seen most of the 
Oscar nominated films. I will skip Dunkirk for exactly the reason given above, too many characters look alike. I always have that problem with films where there are lots of male characters, and then making them dressed all alike makes it worse.

The only remaining Oscar nomination I want to see is Call Me by Your
Name. I am skipping Dunkirk and The Post.

I wont root especially for any of them because none were a standout for me although I liked Ladybird very much.

I have seen exactly 0 of the Foreign films nominated for Oscar, so I usually see a few of those each year. Will watch for those to cme out on dvd.
« Last Edit: February 13, 2018, 08:49:08 AM by iris lily »

iris lily

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #78 on: February 13, 2018, 08:51:04 AM »
I saw A Ghost Story last weekend. It was very moving. Very very slow,  and sad. It was about memories and livng in our memories, and it was about a dead person who was rooted to one spot on earth.

iris lily

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #79 on: February 13, 2018, 08:52:42 AM »
Have 3 more episodes of Hell on Wheels (Netflix). All I can say is WOW, this show is awesome! 58 episodes in all!

Anyone watch Peeky Blinders? Considering watching it next.
i have considered trying
Hell on Wheels. It is on my radar, thats for sure.

Roadrunner53

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #80 on: February 13, 2018, 10:09:24 AM »
Watched the entire series of Hell on Wheels and it was awesome! Now I feel like I have lost a best friend because I have nothing to look forward to with this series.

lizzzi

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #81 on: February 13, 2018, 01:00:48 PM »
Spent too much and watched Darkest Hour on my Amazon Prime. (I am on the couch sick with a bug.) It is an entertaining movie, but very bad history. Churchill died in 1965, but his life and the story of WWII are still so recent that it annoys me beyond belief when they blatantly fictionalize the truth to make an entertaining movie for the sheep people who don't care whether they're seeing made up nonsense or not.

I pulled out my Winston Churchill tea towel that my English grandmother gave me--am using it in the kitchen-- and I've ordered Gilbert's biography of Winston and Purnell's biography of Clementine.  I have high hopes for them being well-researched and true.

My dad, husband, and uncles were all in WWII. The English side of the family went through the Blitz in London, plus all the rest of the misery that the war entailed. I can't stand all this fictionalized claptrap that diminishes the sacrifices they all made into trite entertainment for morons. OK, end of rant.

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #82 on: February 17, 2018, 08:04:18 PM »
Tonight's movie was Mamma Mia!, the movie version of the Abba-based musical. I'm not sure this thing even exists on the spectrum of good and bad, but it was the perfect goofy, joyful, low-stakes movie to watch after this week. Also, if you have been living out your life in hopes of seeing James Bond, Mr. Darcy and Meryl Freaking Streep perform a musical number in full glittery disco costume complete with platform shoes, This.Is.The.Movie.For.You. If they awarded an Oscar for "Being a Good Sport" this cast would have won it en masse.

I also saw the Incredible Hulk as part of my Marvel superhero marathon, and remembered why everyone has conveniently "forgotten" about that particular movie. Also saw My Dear Secretary which is a 1940s movie with Kirk Douglas as a romantic comedy lead, which he did not do very often. The casual sexism was a bit much, especially when the big divorce-worthy plot conflict turns out to be *gasp* the heroine going for a professional visit to her former (single, male) employer who she has known for years, but I did like that the female lead was written as a successful woman who ends up being better at her job than her husband.


WootWoot

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #83 on: February 18, 2018, 02:31:13 PM »
Saw "Ghost in the Shell" (the one with Scarlett Johannsson) the other night. I've seen the anime version twice, but I don't remember a lot about it. This distresses me because I have a fantastic memory and I'm starting to forget things about books and movies. that's middle age for ya.

Anyway, thought it was pretty good. The CGI was outstanding. Acting also really good.

rosaz

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #84 on: February 18, 2018, 04:01:46 PM »
It's been out a while but I recently watched 'Beasts of the Souther Wild. Best movie I've seen in years

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #85 on: February 19, 2018, 07:45:26 AM »
Watched "Suffragette" last night. It was great to see a movie with such a strong female cast, and it was interesting to learn about the British suffragette movement, which had some differences from the American version. That said, I was not in love with it...the screenwriter did the thing that you often see in historical movies where one fictional character has all the terrible things that happened to a bunch of different people happen to her. I thought the characters were a little thinly written also--they don't seem to have much in the way of inner lives other than the suffrage movement. Despite the fact that Meryl Streep is on the DVD box, she is in the movie all of three minutes as Emmaline Pankhurst.

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #86 on: February 25, 2018, 12:49:40 PM »
This weekend, watched Broadcast News again. Some of the gender-related material and discussion of the media reads differently 30 years later, but the acting and writing really held up. Holly Hunter got her first Oscar nomination for the part and you can see why.

Also watched Geostorm, which I expected to be delightfully terrible and was. Normally I love a good (terrible) disaster movie but this one was way too heavy on the political thriller side and light on the "ordinary people struggling through catastrophe" which is what I am really in the the market for. On the other hand, at one point a Secret Service agent engages in a gunfight while driving a taxi backward at high speed with the President of the United States in the back seat. Glad I didn't miss out on that...

MasterStache

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #87 on: February 26, 2018, 05:37:59 AM »
Just watched Wonder this weekend with the family. Fantastic movie!! I think they have even started showing it at my kids school.

big_owl

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #88 on: February 26, 2018, 10:01:20 AM »
I'm watching Blade Runner 2049.  Love that movie.  One of my top favs.  Pumping Iron is still my #1 tho.


Why?

<spoiler alert>

I was kinda disappointed by the Blade Runner movie.  Don't get me wrong . . . the scenes looked great, and it's kinda encouraging to see a movie willing to give the middle finger to action and keep the pacing as slow as the original - regardless of watch-ability / commercial potential.  The digital girlfriend was a cool idea, and the sex scene was shot in an awesome just disturbing enough way.

Kudos for courage, but the pacing in the movie is fucking weird though.  You're given tons of information in the first ten minutes or so, and then there's like an hour of waiting while the main character confirms everything that you've just figured out.  Many points/scenes  just ended up loose ends (If the AIs can sync with replicants, can they take over their bodies permanently?, Why was Wallace so interested in Deckard when he didn't know shit about his daughter?, Is Deckard a replicant?, Why is Stelline the child . . . were there clues we were supposed to see that led up to this revelation, or was it just the one scene where she identified a false memory?, Why is Stelline's meeting with Deckard important for any reason?,  What is Stelline - a replicant that can age?,  etc.)  There are also a bunch of things that flat out make no sense (what flowers are the bees in the radiation zone getting nectar from to survive?, Deckard for some inexplicable reason decides that the best way to deal with someone who wants to talk to him is to lose a gun fight?, Why execute Claire Underwood?, The replicants don't want to bother fighting for freedom unless they can have babies?, etc.)

The original Blade Runner asked and explored some cool questions, but this reiteration seems to have missed the boat on that  . . .  bringing up a few interesting ideas, but not really exploring them well at all.

A few things I recall from watching:

1. Assuming you're referring to the sex scene, no it didn't appear the AI actually syncd to the prostitute beyond mere physical movement.  There was no mental syncing so I don't get your question.

2. Wallace was obviously interested in Deckard because that was his only hope of finding the child.  He only had Rachel's bones but knew there was some relationship between Deckard and Rachel so the obvious next step (not knowing who the offspring was) was to find Deckard (or let K do the work and find him - which is what he did)

3. Is Deckard a replicant....really?  You actually expected they were going to answer one of the great sci-fi movie mysteries of all time?  No way that was going to be answered.

4. Why is Stelline the child?  I don't know, because she just was?  How many clues would you have considered sufficient - 3 vs 1?  It was pretty clear when she started crying with K that there was more to the story with that horse carving memory.  It had me suspicious of something at least.

5. What is Stelline?  Obviously she's a replicant born of at least one replicant parent (maybe two) who grows and ages like a normal human being...which is what makes her such a miracle and why Wallace is obsessed with finding her.

6. Why is Stelline/Deckard's meeting important?  They weren't supposed to meet.  Recall that K was supposed to kill Deckard to keep him from going offworld to be tortured (and presumably risk revealing Stelline to Wallace).  K went rogue with the meeting thing, it wasn't part of the revolution's agenda. 

7. Replicant's don't want to bother fighting for freedom unless they can have babies...the revelation that replicants were basically the same as humans and able to reproduce on their own would have earthshaking implication and serve to galvanize replicants for freedom.  Stelline is basically the equivalent of Jesus Christ...of course the broader knowledge of her existence would change the entire dynamic between humans and replicants.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2018, 10:04:23 AM by big_owl »

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #89 on: March 03, 2018, 06:54:22 PM »
I also finally got around to the new Blade Runner movie this weekend. I thought it was stylish and ambitious and interesting (I especially liked the soundtrack) but it did NOT need to be close to 3 hours long. If you reduced the contemplative staring by 50% that would have brought it close to the length of a normal movie...

GuitarStv

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #90 on: March 04, 2018, 09:50:44 AM »
I'm watching Blade Runner 2049.  Love that movie.  One of my top favs.  Pumping Iron is still my #1 tho.


Why?

<spoiler alert>

I was kinda disappointed by the Blade Runner movie.  Don't get me wrong . . . the scenes looked great, and it's kinda encouraging to see a movie willing to give the middle finger to action and keep the pacing as slow as the original - regardless of watch-ability / commercial potential.  The digital girlfriend was a cool idea, and the sex scene was shot in an awesome just disturbing enough way.

Kudos for courage, but the pacing in the movie is fucking weird though.  You're given tons of information in the first ten minutes or so, and then there's like an hour of waiting while the main character confirms everything that you've just figured out.  Many points/scenes  just ended up loose ends (If the AIs can sync with replicants, can they take over their bodies permanently?, Why was Wallace so interested in Deckard when he didn't know shit about his daughter?, Is Deckard a replicant?, Why is Stelline the child . . . were there clues we were supposed to see that led up to this revelation, or was it just the one scene where she identified a false memory?, Why is Stelline's meeting with Deckard important for any reason?,  What is Stelline - a replicant that can age?,  etc.)  There are also a bunch of things that flat out make no sense (what flowers are the bees in the radiation zone getting nectar from to survive?, Deckard for some inexplicable reason decides that the best way to deal with someone who wants to talk to him is to lose a gun fight?, Why execute Claire Underwood?, The replicants don't want to bother fighting for freedom unless they can have babies?, etc.)

The original Blade Runner asked and explored some cool questions, but this reiteration seems to have missed the boat on that  . . .  bringing up a few interesting ideas, but not really exploring them well at all.

A few things I recall from watching:

1. Assuming you're referring to the sex scene, no it didn't appear the AI actually syncd to the prostitute beyond mere physical movement.  There was no mental syncing so I don't get your question.

If an AI can hijack a body via syncing for a short period of time, what are the limits to this?  Can the AI keep the body?  Frankly, this would have been much more interesting to explore than what BRII ended up focusing on.

Quote
4. Why is Stelline the child?  I don't know, because she just was?  How many clues would you have considered sufficient - 3 vs 1?  It was pretty clear when she started crying with K that there was more to the story with that horse carving memory.  It had me suspicious of something at least.

Yeah, that's lazy plotting.  3/4 of the way through the movie we pick someone to be the saviour of replicants for no clear reason.  'Because she just was' is a shitty explanation for anything.

Quote
5. What is Stelline?  Obviously she's a replicant born of at least one replicant parent (maybe two) who grows and ages like a normal human being...which is what makes her such a miracle and why Wallace is obsessed with finding her.

Obviously.  Except that none of that makes any sense in the Blade Runner universe.  Again, you're just expected to accept this with no explanation or reasoning.  Bad writing.

Quote
6. Why is Stelline/Deckard's meeting important?  They weren't supposed to meet.  Recall that K was supposed to kill Deckard to keep him from going offworld to be tortured (and presumably risk revealing Stelline to Wallace).  K went rogue with the meeting thing, it wasn't part of the revolution's agenda.

I know they weren't supposed to meet.  But usually things happen in a movie for a reason.  This didn't really seem to advance the plot, or happen for a reason.

Quote
7. Replicant's don't want to bother fighting for freedom unless they can have babies...the revelation that replicants were basically the same as humans and able to reproduce on their own would have earthshaking implication and serve to galvanize replicants for freedom.  Stelline is basically the equivalent of Jesus Christ...of course the broader knowledge of her existence would change the entire dynamic between humans and replicants.

Sure, assuming that she actually is a replicant.  Which we've been told multiple times is impossible because she ages, and because replicants can't procreate.  Hence the reason that an explanation for 5 is critically important missing info in the movie.

Still doesn't explain why the replicants are waiting to revolt though.  "We're being treated like shit all the time, but there's no point doing anything about it 'cause I can't have a kid."  - Makes no sense at all.


It's not like they were short on time to answer these questions (or even hint at answers).  Plenty of useless scenes could have been made relevant for this purpose.

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #91 on: March 04, 2018, 10:42:00 AM »
I think a certain number of unanswered questions are part of the style of the Blade Runner films (I mean, Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford are apparently still arguing 30 years later about whether Rick Deckard is a replicant, and if anyone should know, it would be them) but I did agree that the looseness of the plotting got a little excessive in this installment. Apparently there was some thought of doing more installments (ie, telling the story of the replicant rebellion) so perhaps some of that was meant to set up stories that would play out later.

big_owl

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #92 on: March 04, 2018, 04:35:33 PM »
It's amazing two people can watch the same movie and have such a different experience from it.  But that's how it goes:


Quote
4. Why is Stelline the child?  I don't know, because she just was?  How many clues would you have considered sufficient - 3 vs 1?  It was pretty clear when she started crying with K that there was more to the story with that horse carving memory.  It had me suspicious of something at least.

Yeah, that's lazy plotting.  3/4 of the way through the movie we pick someone to be the saviour of replicants for no clear reason.  'Because she just was' is a shitty explanation for anything.

I don't even know if she's the savior of the replicants, she certainly can't be some great leader since she can't even leave her bubble.  She's a miracle or a symbol.  I don't think it's lazy plotting.  She is what she is because she was the offspring, that's the only reason that's needed.  It's no different than Anakin Skywalker being the chosen one.  There was no fancy backstory about how he became the chosen one, he just was.

ETA you basically saw the same thing in the latest Star Wars where the little kids were pretending to be Jedi cause they heard about what Luke Skywalker did before he died.  Luke is a symbol at this point to inspire future Jedi.

Quote
5. What is Stelline?  Obviously she's a replicant born of at least one replicant parent (maybe two) who grows and ages like a normal human being...which is what makes her such a miracle and why Wallace is obsessed with finding her.

Obviously.  Except that none of that makes any sense in the Blade Runner universe.  Again, you're just expected to accept this with no explanation or reasoning.  Bad writing.

It makes perfect sense because Tyrell somehow figured out how to give replicants the gift of procreation (as was explained in the movie).  She's the product of that.  That's huge, man basically created a whole new intelligent species that can reproduce on its own. 

Quote
6. Why is Stelline/Deckard's meeting important?  They weren't supposed to meet.  Recall that K was supposed to kill Deckard to keep him from going offworld to be tortured (and presumably risk revealing Stelline to Wallace).  K went rogue with the meeting thing, it wasn't part of the revolution's agenda.

I know they weren't supposed to meet.  But usually things happen in a movie for a reason.  This didn't really seem to advance the plot, or happen for a reason.

It would have been rather shitty if K had just killed Decker and that was the end of the movie.  K offered Decker the chance to meet his daughter, and Stelline was going to actually meet her biological father, who she probably didn't even know existed.  Or maybe it was something set up to explore in a future movie, I don't know.

Quote
7. Replicant's don't want to bother fighting for freedom unless they can have babies...the revelation that replicants were basically the same as humans and able to reproduce on their own would have earthshaking implication and serve to galvanize replicants for freedom.  Stelline is basically the equivalent of Jesus Christ...of course the broader knowledge of her existence would change the entire dynamic between humans and replicants.


Sure, assuming that she actually is a replicant.  Which we've been told multiple times is impossible because she ages, and because replicants can't procreate.  Hence the reason that an explanation for 5 is critically important missing info in the movie.

Still doesn't explain why the replicants are waiting to revolt though.  "We're being treated like shit all the time, but there's no point doing anything about it 'cause I can't have a kid."  - Makes no sense at all.


I don't understand what you don't get about this one.  She's the offspring of a female replicant.  And as I said in 5, Tyrell figured out how to get them to be able to procreate.  That knowlege was lost in the blackout and Wallace is trying to figure it out.  It doesn't violate anything in the blade runner universe.  It was very clear in the original that Tyrell was trying to create more and more lifelike replicants.  Reproduction is a natural next step.  Tyrell basically created life - he became God.  And Wallace wants that power since he clearly has a God complex. 

All revolutions start somewhere, I assume the idea is that enough replicants are fed up with being slaves and treated like shit, they probably have a lot of sympathizers amongst humans as well.  I assume the political system would be a lot more sympathetic to the cause of replicants if it found out they could create life (or could be born) just like humans (claire underwood hinted at this before she was killed).  Now they're viewed more or less as biological robots with preprogrammed memories.  If they can be born and have their own lives and memories then they're basically another species of human and deserve rights, really not any different than the civil rights movement.  Something similar to refusing to sit on the back of the bus.  THe whole movie boils down to man playing God, and at what point of sentiency do his creations deserve the same rights that he affords himself.

ETA - A lot of what I like about the movie is the music and the imagery as well.  I think it's an introvert's movie.  Pumping Iron is my favorite movie but that's because it more or less changed the course of my life, and is more documentary than movie.  My favorite fiction movie is the original Conan the Barbarian.  Arnold only has like ten lines in the entire movie, it's an introvert of a movie.  But the music and imagery just do it for me.  It's sort of like BR2049.  BR2049 is like me, I can go a week without talking to a single person and be fine.  BR2049 feels the same way.
« Last Edit: March 04, 2018, 04:45:52 PM by big_owl »

sixup

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #93 on: March 04, 2018, 05:57:57 PM »
Just watched Pirates of Somalia on Netflix. It was really good. True story about a kid who wants to be a journalist so he goes to Somalia when nobody else is crazy enough to go.

iris lily

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #94 on: March 05, 2018, 06:22:39 AM »
I recently watched Paradise:Love at a local culture center movie screening night. It's about Austrian women traveling to Kenya as sex tourists. It's an interesting movie if you're into European-Indie movie types.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise:_Love
yes, what a gritty film. Ugh. Good to watch to remind us that women are not always the victims in male-female relations.
There is another film on the same theme that is a little more gentle called Heading South, with CHarlotte Rampling.In it three middle aged friends vacation on a Caribbean island and find boyfriends who are native.

chicwhitesox1

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #95 on: March 05, 2018, 06:52:22 AM »
I love horror movies, lately I have watched "Let the right one in", "It comes at night", and "Conjuring". I'm planning to watch "It 2017", "Get OUt", and “Veronica” next. My friends are raving about “Veronica”

Warlord1986

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #96 on: March 05, 2018, 01:23:07 PM »
'The Emperor's New Groove.'

One of my favorites. I borrow it every time I need a laugh. Kuzco is the best Disney princess.

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #97 on: March 09, 2018, 08:39:43 PM »
Watched Thor: Ragnarok this evening. It was very funny and fun to see some characters from the Marvel Universe who have been off-screen for awhile. A couple of the plot points are not all that suspenseful if you have seen promos for the next Avengers movie, but overall I thought it was well done. I did wish I had reminded myself of what had gone on in the last Avengers/Thor movies. I spent quite awhile looking for a character that I completely forgot had already been killed off.

Noodle

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #98 on: March 15, 2018, 08:43:22 PM »
Saw "A United Kingdom" tonight which I really liked. It is a biopic of the last king/first president of Botswana and his white English wife, who he met while he was studying in England in the 1940s. They met a great deal of opposition to their marriage, both culturally (from both whites and blacks) and from the government of Great Britain, which had concerns about maintaining its ties with South Africa (where apartheid was developing.) It was a lovely story and I learned a lot about Botswana, which has done a really creditable job of upholding the first president's ideals for his country.

Kris

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #99 on: March 16, 2018, 06:00:59 AM »
Just watched Icarus, a documentary about Russian doping. It was.... amazing.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!