Author Topic: What movies have you been watching?  (Read 501228 times)

Metalcat

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1450 on: September 16, 2021, 07:40:10 AM »
We tried watching Tenet, but got bored about 30 minutes in. We both started reading on our phones and realized that neither of us was following the plot.

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1451 on: September 16, 2021, 07:33:52 PM »
'Tenet', a sci fi movie with lots of shoot em up and car chases going on.

I gave it 45 minutes, then gave up on it. No real 'drama', just lots of action and special effects.  Not my thing. I guess I thought this sci fi movie might be different, lol.
I find Christopher Nolan films to be nearly all vile trash heaps.

He's a guy I often find myself disappointed with.  I didn't think Inception was as clever as everyone else did, and was very disappointed with Tenet . . . it is possible to convey confusing information to a viewer in a way that makes sense, but this movie really missed the mark on that.  Interstellar lost me right about the time it declared love the deus ex machina that 'solved' the problems in the plot.

I really liked the Prestige and Memento though, both were great films.

Yup.  I do appreciate that Nolan takes big swings.  I appreciate that a lot. But his reach usually exceeds his grasp.
I will say that I think Memento is his best film and it also inspired the intriguing and hard-to-watch French film Irreversible.

Wolfpack Mustachian

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1452 on: September 16, 2021, 07:53:27 PM »
'Tenet', a sci fi movie with lots of shoot em up and car chases going on.

I gave it 45 minutes, then gave up on it. No real 'drama', just lots of action and special effects.  Not my thing. I guess I thought this sci fi movie might be different, lol.
I find Christopher Nolan films to be nearly all vile trash heaps.

He's a guy I often find myself disappointed with.  I didn't think Inception was as clever as everyone else did, and was very disappointed with Tenet . . . it is possible to convey confusing information to a viewer in a way that makes sense, but this movie really missed the mark on that.  Interstellar lost me right about the time it declared love the deus ex machina that 'solved' the problems in the plot.

I really liked the Prestige and Memento though, both were great films.

I, too, liked both of those a lot. Prestige, especially, seemed to me to be an under the radar solid movie.

slackmax

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1453 on: September 22, 2021, 09:40:42 AM »
Saw this at a big theater. $8.  The Card Counter.  I liked this movie. It's about a soldier who is living with guilt from his days in the military. He has become a gambler for a living. The son of another soldier he served with tracks him down to talk about his dad who committed suicide. The two pair up for a few months on the road.

I liked the plot. There are several moral issues involved, and one by one, they get cleanly resolved. I like that structure. 

sui generis

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1454 on: September 22, 2021, 10:19:24 AM »
We watched Promising Young Woman last weekend. It took me a while, but I think I decided I really liked it. It doesn't slot neatly into any typical genres, so I think it's not surprising to have a lot of different and some conflicting feelings about it, especially initially. It's not perfect by any means. But I have a solid appreciation for it, as a work of art, as entertainment, as a statement.

Metalcat

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1455 on: September 24, 2021, 06:37:33 PM »
Warrior with Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte.

Apparently Nolte was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in the movie, but it's really Tom Hardy who delivers a truly trenchant emotional performance...in the middle of a gruesome MMA fight.

It's really impressive. I never expected a movie about men beating the shit out of each other to be moving, but it is.

wenchsenior

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1456 on: September 25, 2021, 10:07:21 AM »
Warrior with Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte.

Apparently Nolte was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in the movie, but it's really Tom Hardy who delivers a truly trenchant emotional performance...in the middle of a gruesome MMA fight.

It's really impressive. I never expected a movie about men beating the shit out of each other to be moving, but it is.

I'm not generally that into sports movies, and definitely not MMA. I agree this film was excellent.  Joel Edgerton has had a very interesting career.

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I have really admired and enjoyed all the Paul Thomas Anderson films I've seen (most of them), so over the past two days I watched Magnolia, which I'd never seen.  I'd been meaning to watch it for years and was looking forward to it. And it was VERY disappointing.  Terrible overacting by most of the normally reliable cast (exceptions being the late great Phillip Seymour Hoffman and John C Reilly), but really, I''m not sure anyone could have made the overcooked silliness of the script palatable.

Ah, well.  Can't win em all PTA.  I'm still looking forward to Soggy Bottom or Licorice Pizza or whatever the hell you end up finally calling it.

mspym

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1457 on: September 25, 2021, 04:28:52 PM »
We recently rewatched The Truman Show and it holds up. Ofpym watched the Spike Lee remake of Old Boy and it's a solid film, especially if you want to watch Old Boy but don't want to read subtitles.

Psychstache

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1458 on: September 25, 2021, 05:43:56 PM »
We recently rewatched The Truman Show and it holds up. Ofpym watched the Spike Lee remake of Old Boy and it's a solid film, especially if you want to watch Old Boy but don't want to read subtitles.

Yeah, we rewatched the Truman show a few months ago and it actually may be even better now in 2021.

Metalcat

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1459 on: September 25, 2021, 05:51:17 PM »
We recently rewatched The Truman Show and it holds up. Ofpym watched the Spike Lee remake of Old Boy and it's a solid film, especially if you want to watch Old Boy but don't want to read subtitles.

Yeah, we rewatched the Truman show a few months ago and it actually may be even better now in 2021.

Now I want to rewatch it.

I originally saw it on opening weekend in the theater and I absolutely loved it at the time, I thought it was so incredibly insightful about the absurdity of society, and lo and behold, society was like "hold my beer".

Metalcat

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1460 on: September 27, 2021, 09:43:41 AM »
Kid 90

It was a fucking mess. I love some 90s nostaligia as much as the next 90s kid, but I never watched Punky Brewster as a kid, so I have no emotional connection to Soleil Moon Frye, and the doc is such a mess of clips and details with almost no context whatsoever.

One reviewer described it as more like a film-diary entry that only makes sense to Soleil, which is exactly how I felt watching it. There's so much vague musing and emoting on her part, but at no point did I have any clue what the hell she was talking about, although it was obviously meaningful to her.

She refers to "thousands" of hours of footage though, and all we get are tiny little nothing snippets, and again, no context.

Have you ever known someone who likes to allude to their highschool/university years as "such a crazy time" and they maybe shows you a photo of some drunk sketchy dude who went by some skeevy nickname like "Cockroach" and then she giggles and says something like "OMG, Roach was insane, like so insane, the stories I could tell you about him, those years were just nuts", and then you probe about what kind of stories and she just waves you off and shakes her head and mutters "so crazy" in a whistful tone???

Yeah, that's basically this movie.

iris lily

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1461 on: September 27, 2021, 04:05:59 PM »
I watched A Promising Young Woman last night. It was an Academy award nominated film, and the lead actress, Carrie Mulligan, was nominated as well.

It’s about date rape culture. It demonstrates many of the subtleties in our society  surrounding sexual assault. The messages are not in-your-face  and preachy, and I very much appreciate that.  The  lead character’s  situations are often a bit unbelievable, but those scenes propel the plot because this I?s a plot driven film. It is described in some sources as a “thriller. “

The casting is part of what makes it a smart film because all the young men involved are good boys. Yeah, they don’t act like good boys, but actors chosen for these roles play nice guys. An ironic twist is that older actors who play bad guys aren't so bad in this film.

slackmax

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1462 on: October 02, 2021, 05:20:57 PM »
Speaking of rewatching, I rewatched The Big Chill and The Ice STorm.

And watched the new movie Unhinged. Russel Crowe has has enough of an unfair life, and goes postal on a lady who honks at him at a stop sign.

Lots of unbelievable stuff, but a fun movie anyway.

evme

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1463 on: October 02, 2021, 10:49:02 PM »
A bunch of classic westerns including:

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Magnificent Seven (original)
Shane
Lonesome Dove (mini-series)
True Grit (original)
Gunfight at the OK Corral

All excellent.

jim555

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1464 on: October 03, 2021, 03:20:22 AM »
1917 was a good movie.

LaineyAZ

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1465 on: October 03, 2021, 07:26:12 AM »
The Starling.  Described as a comedy-drama starring Melissa McCarthy and the wonderful Chris O'Dowd.  I loved the parts with the more rural Southern California setting and just the pace of a movie with the 2 leads dealing with a life-changing issue. 

Some silly parts but overall it was enjoyable.

sui generis

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1466 on: October 03, 2021, 09:58:42 AM »
The Starling.  Described as a comedy-drama starring Melissa McCarthy and the wonderful Chris O'Dowd.  I loved the parts with the more rural Southern California setting and just the pace of a movie with the 2 leads dealing with a life-changing issue. 

Some silly parts but overall it was enjoyable.

Wow that sounds very interesting. I just noticed it has... Spectacularly bad reviews, but I'm tempted...

We watched Wild Mountain Thyme and I learned something new about my husband... That he had loved that old folk song and had been missing it for years. He dug out a cassette tape of a band that did a cover, and an old boom box from our attic, and has been listening to it all weekend.

The movie though...meh. It was a bit surprising how they stretched so little plot into nearly one and three quarters hours.

Metalcat

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1467 on: October 04, 2021, 06:59:52 AM »
The Starling.  Described as a comedy-drama starring Melissa McCarthy and the wonderful Chris O'Dowd.  I loved the parts with the more rural Southern California setting and just the pace of a movie with the 2 leads dealing with a life-changing issue. 

Some silly parts but overall it was enjoyable.

Wow that sounds very interesting. I just noticed it has... Spectacularly bad reviews, but I'm tempted...

We watched Wild Mountain Thyme and I learned something new about my husband... That he had loved that old folk song and had been missing it for years. He dug out a cassette tape of a band that did a cover, and an old boom box from our attic, and has been listening to it all weekend.

The movie though...meh. It was a bit surprising how they stretched so little plot into nearly one and three quarters hours.

Wild Mountain Thyme also has spectacularly bad reviews. For awhile, articles making fun of it were everywhere.

It is a great song though, I sing it with my father.

EscapeVelocity2020

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1468 on: October 04, 2021, 08:44:32 AM »
Ugh, "The Many Saints of Newark" was just terrible.  I'm guessing that they wanted to give James Gandolfini's son, Michael, a shot or something, but the movie had nothing to add.  It's all over the place and couldn't figure out if it wanted to comment on race or troubled family issues, mental health, or what...  I really enjoyed the Sopranos back in the day and was sad when James unexpectedly passed away, so having a movie I was primed to like end up totally sucking was especially disappointing...  it's like the Star Wars prequel fiasco all over again.  Aren't there people who respect the source material involved in these things?

sui generis

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1469 on: October 25, 2021, 12:18:19 PM »
Last weekend, "The River Wild" from the 90s.  It was pretty bad in a lot of ways, but amazing at how many famous people - Meryl Streep, David Strathairn, Kevin Bacon, John C. Reilly and Benjamin Bratt as a red shirt, were in it.

Last night we watched "The Barkley Marathons," a documentary about this 100+ mile race in the TN woods that's been going on since the 80s but only like 16 people have ever finished.  The run and the founder are both very kooky.  The course doesn't follow a trail most of the way and isn't marked, so to prove you did the actual course you have to find like 10-15 books stashed along the way and rip out the page corresponding to your runner number and turn them all in at the end of each lap. The entry fee is $1.60 plus you have to bring a license plate from your state or country of origin if it's your first time. You get a "letter of condolences" if your application is accepted. They play taps for each runner when they quit, which, if you end up quitting in the middle of the lap, might take you like 10 hours or so to get back to the starting point to actually declare that you had quit.  It seems funny and horrible and the documentary was a nice diversion on a rainy Sunday evening.

slackmax

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1470 on: October 28, 2021, 07:48:28 AM »
'What Happened Was'.  A movie that takes place completely inside a single woman's apartment. She works at a law firm and invites a male coworker that she is attracted to, to dinner. The entire movie takes place in that evening. I thought it was a good movie, worth watching.

It was a play before it was made into a movie. The movie does remind one of a play.
That's a good thing, for me.  I ought to spend a few bucks and go into NYC to see an off off Broadway play . Do they still exist and how much do they cost now, lol? I think I got into 'A Couple of White Chicks Sitting Around Talking' decades ago for $20.   

uniwelder

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1471 on: October 29, 2021, 07:23:56 AM »
We watched the new Dune remake on HBO and found it rather disappointing.  Its 2 1/2 hours and is only the first part, so I hoped they'd find a way to fit content, but the visual effects and fight scenes took time away from details of the story.  My wife and I both read the book and watched the 1984 movie and 2000 miniseries, and think the miniseries is the best by far.

Metalcat

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1472 on: October 29, 2021, 07:38:15 AM »
We watched the new Dune remake on HBO and found it rather disappointing.  Its 2 1/2 hours and is only the first part, so I hoped they'd find a way to fit content, but the visual effects and fight scenes took time away from details of the story.  My wife and I both read the book and watched the 1984 movie and 2000 miniseries, and think the miniseries is the best by far.

I'm honestly so sick of big budget fight scenes.

It's all been done to death and I feel like I'm just watching the same movie over and over and over again.

It increasingly feels like plot is just a vehicle for combat scenes.

GuitarStv

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1473 on: October 29, 2021, 07:56:49 AM »
It increasingly feels like plot is just a vehicle for combat scenes.

Feels that way watching the evening news sometimes too.  :P

uniwelder

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1474 on: October 29, 2021, 08:52:24 AM »
We watched the new Dune remake on HBO and found it rather disappointing.  Its 2 1/2 hours and is only the first part, so I hoped they'd find a way to fit content, but the visual effects and fight scenes took time away from details of the story.  My wife and I both read the book and watched the 1984 movie and 2000 miniseries, and think the miniseries is the best by far.

I'm honestly so sick of big budget fight scenes.

It's all been done to death and I feel like I'm just watching the same movie over and over and over again.

It increasingly feels like plot is just a vehicle for combat scenes.

I get your point and agree overall, but that wasn’t completely true in this movie. The fight scenes could have been shorter, but equally true about the long spans of silent landscapes and camera focusing on facial expressions and dramatic pauses.

jamaicaspanish

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1475 on: October 29, 2021, 09:25:04 AM »
I'm honestly so sick of big budget fight scenes.

Read this line as I was falling asleep.
My brain immediately jumped to board-room scenes with managers loudly arguing about money allocated to their departments.

Had strange dreams.

Metalcat

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1476 on: October 29, 2021, 09:54:35 AM »
It increasingly feels like plot is just a vehicle for combat scenes.

Feels that way watching the evening news sometimes too.  :P

Oh yeah, that show started sucking years ago when it started losing its sense of realism. 2/5 stars, don't recommend.

daverobev

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1477 on: October 30, 2021, 03:24:05 PM »
I'm honestly so sick of big budget fight scenes.
...
It increasingly feels like plot is just a vehicle for combat scenes.

I remember thinking something similar when watching the first 'reboot' Star Trek film. This isn't Star Trek, this is just Hollywood nonsense with some ST names tacked on.

Formulaic. Still, I'm running about ten years behind the times now I reckon, so the regurgitated crap that isn't really interesting mostly passes me by...

mspym

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1478 on: October 30, 2021, 03:44:07 PM »
I just saw The Wandering Chef which is a documentary about a Korean chef who uses foraged food in his restaurant. Mostly it's him going through the mountains, finding ingredients you would never expect and then cooking it up for various elderly people he meets but man, it's thoughtful and meditative and a bit heartbreaking. Worth checking out if this sounds interesting to you.

sui generis

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1479 on: October 31, 2021, 11:12:09 AM »
We watched The Darkest Hour last night.  I was interested in seeing it because I had just read The Splendid and the Vile. As usual, Gary Oldman was amazing.  But otherwise, the movie, though it looked beautiful and evocative....felt a little flat or uninteresting to me and some parts of it seemed (and were) ahistorical.  Meh.

techwiz

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1480 on: November 01, 2021, 03:39:21 PM »
Netflix's 'The Old Guard' staring Charlize Theron as an immortal, badass.   

Lots of action, typical super hero movie ending leaving a lot on the table to continue the story. I heard that Netflix had greenlit a sequel so there will be more to come.

Michael in ABQ

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1481 on: November 03, 2021, 06:57:32 PM »
I just watched "Mr. Right" on Netflix. Knew nothing about it except that I was intrigued by anything that featured Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick and wasn't disappointed. Any combination of a romantic comedy combined with a spy-assassin plot piques my interest so I'm easily pleased in that arena.

I remember that. It was about what you'd expect, but sometimes that's good enough. 

BZB

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1482 on: November 04, 2021, 03:12:28 PM »
I watched Friendsgiving, the 2020 movie, on Amazon Prime. I didn't care for it at all. It was on a list of "cozy fall movies", but the story was about people living in LA who were having all kinds of toxic, messed up relationships, using drugs and alcohol to hide from grief, and doing all of this around their kids. It wasn't warm and fuzzy at all.

EscapeVelocity2020

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1483 on: November 04, 2021, 09:01:53 PM »
'Army of Theives' flew under my radar, but having watched last year's Army of the Dead when it was white hot, this was fun to come back to...  Might not be all that great if you haven't followed along though.

sui generis

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1484 on: November 13, 2021, 09:16:52 AM »
I watched Nine Perfect Strangers the other day (more of a mini-series, but I decided it fell better in the movie category than TV).  It's adapted from a book that I thought was just ok, but I was interested to see what they did with it.  It was possibly worse.  Also, I knew from the moment that I saw Nicole Kidman was playing one of the characters that they were going to have to change the story a lot, since I couldn't see them letting the original storyline happen to Kidman's character.  A number of famous people in it including Melissa McCarthy and Bobby Canavale. 

Also the guy that played Jason in The Good Place plays a super zen level-headed guy here and it was hard to handle, but I sort of love him.

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1485 on: November 13, 2021, 10:59:31 AM »
Also, I knew from the moment that I saw Nicole Kidman was playing one of the characters that they were going to have to change the story a lot, since I couldn't see them letting the original storyline happen to Kidman's character
I assume it's bad stuff that you think was avoided, but have you seen Dogville?

sui generis

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1486 on: November 13, 2021, 12:02:44 PM »
Also, I knew from the moment that I saw Nicole Kidman was playing one of the characters that they were going to have to change the story a lot, since I couldn't see them letting the original storyline happen to Kidman's character
I assume it's bad stuff that you think was avoided, but have you seen Dogville?

I have not, but wow, that sounds pretty awful. 

In this one, the character in the book ends up being...pretty pathetic...from my memory/POV.  And while I do admire Kidman and think she's a good actress, I'm just skeptical about her pulling this off (not to mention, for what, considering the book wasn't that great.  But seems like they are turning all these author's books into miniseries now.  Same author as Big Little Lies.)

mspym

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1487 on: November 13, 2021, 01:18:29 PM »
If we are talking mini-series here, I recommended The North Water in the TV series thread for anyone who wants excellent grim Victorian arctic whaling thriller.

For movies, E put on the original Beverley Hills Cop the other day and it holds up. And *everyone* is in it.

sui generis

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1488 on: November 14, 2021, 09:22:03 AM »
Watched Tenet this weekend and . . . I kinda liked it?  I would not have watched it based on what I've heard, but DH still wanted to see it, so off we went.  We took a break after the first 50 minutes and I was like, ok, so I'm just gonna hate this movie, that's fine.  It definitely was gratuitous and nothing-special action scenes + long exposition where the actors must talk very fast about complicated things without making any facial expressions at all, like they are super bored by having to describe the entropy of backward time travelling materials or secret cabals that give CIA officers fake suicide pills as tests.  You know, totally boring stuff.  What makes it worse is that the sound mixing is so awful (not just my perception, I've now seen it mentioned in several reviews) that you legit cannot understand half of what the characters are talking about. 

So we turned the subtitles on (huge help and my mind stopped consciously noticing them after a while) and were gritting our teeth through that first 50 minutes.

But then the movie got a lot better during the latter 2/3 and I ended up feeling like it was pretty much worth it, if not the best movie I've seen. 

Some things I liked, not super spoil-y, but just in case:

Spoiler: show
-The fight scene between the forward and inverse fighters. Watching it frontward the first time was interesting, and then I enjoyed seeing it backward later.  That was a new and unique use of special effects and actually made me interested in a fight sequence for the first time in lo these many years.

-realizing all the reveals a couple minutes or seconds before the movie officially shows you. Doesn't mean I'm a genius, but makes me *feel* smart and I think a good movie (of this type) does that.  Engineers it so the viewer can figure some stuff out, not from the get-go (too early!), but also so the viewer realizes it before they are shown it, and they can feel like they *participated* and were smart enough to know.  It isn't true, but it doesn't matter what's true, it's about how the movie makes you feel, right?

-The battle at the end and concluding scenes was a little of everything - boring action, but also interesting forward/backward scenes that made you think to try to understand what you were seeing.  Plot points that you suspected didn't make sense all along did in fact, you now know, not make sense.  But other stuff sorta does for those able to suspend some disbelief.  Did tie up a few points satisfactorily.

-And....surely I'm not the only one that ends up thinking Evil Kenneth Branagh was actually the one on the right side of history?

wenchsenior

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1489 on: November 14, 2021, 12:49:13 PM »
Watched Tenet this weekend and . . . I kinda liked it?  I would not have watched it based on what I've heard, but DH still wanted to see it, so off we went.  We took a break after the first 50 minutes and I was like, ok, so I'm just gonna hate this movie, that's fine.  It definitely was gratuitous and nothing-special action scenes + long exposition where the actors must talk very fast about complicated things without making any facial expressions at all, like they are super bored by having to describe the entropy of backward time travelling materials or secret cabals that give CIA officers fake suicide pills as tests.  You know, totally boring stuff.  What makes it worse is that the sound mixing is so awful (not just my perception, I've now seen it mentioned in several reviews) that you legit cannot understand half of what the characters are talking about. 

So we turned the subtitles on (huge help and my mind stopped consciously noticing them after a while) and were gritting our teeth through that first 50 minutes.

But then the movie got a lot better during the latter 2/3 and I ended up feeling like it was pretty much worth it, if not the best movie I've seen. 

Some things I liked, not super spoil-y, but just in case:

Spoiler: show
-The fight scene between the forward and inverse fighters. Watching it frontward the first time was interesting, and then I enjoyed seeing it backward later.  That was a new and unique use of special effects and actually made me interested in a fight sequence for the first time in lo these many years.

-realizing all the reveals a couple minutes or seconds before the movie officially shows you. Doesn't mean I'm a genius, but makes me *feel* smart and I think a good movie (of this type) does that.  Engineers it so the viewer can figure some stuff out, not from the get-go (too early!), but also so the viewer realizes it before they are shown it, and they can feel like they *participated* and were smart enough to know.  It isn't true, but it doesn't matter what's true, it's about how the movie makes you feel, right?

-The battle at the end and concluding scenes was a little of everything - boring action, but also interesting forward/backward scenes that made you think to try to understand what you were seeing.  Plot points that you suspected didn't make sense all along did in fact, you now know, not make sense.  But other stuff sorta does for those able to suspend some disbelief.  Did tie up a few points satisfactorily.

-And....surely I'm not the only one that ends up thinking Evil Kenneth Branagh was actually the one on the right side of history?


I found the movie interesting more than good, and enjoyable b/c of that. And yes, I also agree about the Branagh character's motivation. Very relatable, at least to me.

sui generis

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1490 on: November 20, 2021, 12:59:05 PM »
Watched Rocketman yesterday, the biopic of Elton John.  The music was fun and I couldn't help but sing along sometimes, and the costumes were good as well.  The actor playing Elton John was great, but the screenplay overall wasn't great.  I think the upshot is that it was good eye and ear candy.

wenchsenior

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1491 on: November 22, 2021, 08:27:29 AM »
The Maltese Falcon. It was really great, which I guess I should have expected, but still.

What a debut flex for John Huston (adapted screenplay + direction).  Humphrey Bogart exuded an air of cynical amusement that I loved (esp in comparison with his slightly more dour p.i. in The Big Sleep). Also, that suit he was wearing was SHARP. Great supporting bits from all the players, esp Peter Lorre, Lee Patrick, and Sydney Greenstreet.

Side note: Amusingly, the 'falcon' statue was clearly not based on a falcon; the beak wasn't even remotely like the falcon family (beak is distinctive) or any other kind of raptor, but more like a corvid.  I think The Maltese Raven would still have sounded cool.

Dicey

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1492 on: November 22, 2021, 10:11:33 AM »
Caught two this week, which is very unusual for us...

"Passing", which was very thought provoking. It was also beautifully staged and costumed, which was a visual treat amidst a stark story. Based on a book written in 1929, but sadly still relevant to this day.

"tick, tick, BOOM". Love Lin-Manuel Miranda? Love Jonathan Larson? Watch this movie. Makes me glad I still have a DVD player and a bonus edition copy of "Rent", which has lots of extras. We will be re-watching "Rent" all week.

Both on Netflix.

iris lily

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1493 on: November 22, 2021, 07:14:20 PM »
Caught two this week, which is very unusual for us...

"Passing", which was very thought provoking. It was also beautifully staged and costumed, which was a visual treat amidst a stark story. Based on a book written in 1929, but sadly still relevant to this day.

"tick, tick, BOOM". Love Lin-Manuel Miranda? Love Jonathan Larson? Watch this movie. Makes me glad I still have a DVD player and a bonus edition copy of "Rent", which has lots of extras. We will be re-watching "Rent" all week.

Both on Netflix.

Passing was very pretty, granted. You could tell from the openings end that aesthetics were the focus of this director. The lead actress was also pretty, and elegant, and gracious.

The ending was rather abrupt, don’t you think?

Dicey

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1494 on: November 22, 2021, 09:42:06 PM »
Caught two this week, which is very unusual for us...

"Passing", which was very thought provoking. It was also beautifully staged and costumed, which was a visual treat amidst a stark story. Based on a book written in 1929, but sadly still relevant to this day.

"tick, tick, BOOM". Love Lin-Manuel Miranda? Love Jonathan Larson? Watch this movie. Makes me glad I still have a DVD player and a bonus edition copy of "Rent", which has lots of extras. We will be re-watching "Rent" all week.

Both on Netflix.

Passing was very pretty, granted. You could tell from the openings end that aesthetics were the focus of this director. The lead actress was also pretty, and elegant, and gracious.

The ending was rather abrupt, don’t you think?
Apparently it was pretty true to the book. Wonder of wonders, a movie adaption that respects the source material.

slackmax

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1495 on: November 23, 2021, 12:17:20 PM »
'Roadrunner', a biography of Anthony Bourdaine, the TV star who traveled the world, sampling restaurants.

I'm almost at the end. I like it so far. Interesting look into his 'existential angst' (I think that's accurate, if cliched) .

He became sort of unhinged near the end. I think he had some biochemical problems going on which caused him to be depressed.

Interesting DVD.

GuitarStv

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1496 on: November 23, 2021, 01:50:22 PM »
'Roadrunner', a biography of Anthony Bourdaine, the TV star who traveled the world, sampling restaurants.

I'm almost at the end. I like it so far. Interesting look into his 'existential angst' (I think that's accurate, if cliched) .

He became sort of unhinged near the end. I think he had some biochemical problems going on which caused him to be depressed.

Interesting DVD.

Bourdain was an interesting guy, and I've recently discovered some of his TV programs on youtube that are pretty fun to watch.  He seemed to be battling some serious drug and alcohol problems though.

Roadrunner53

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1497 on: November 24, 2021, 06:31:31 AM »
If we are talking mini-series here, I recommended The North Water in the TV series thread for anyone who wants excellent grim Victorian arctic whaling thriller.

For movies, E put on the original Beverley Hills Cop the other day and it holds up. And *everyone* is in it.

I am also watching The North Water. We are two episodes in and it is a window into the past of how life used to be. Takes place in 1865.

soccerluvof4

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1498 on: December 03, 2021, 05:43:29 AM »
Since laid up a bit I binge watched Narco's and the Narco's Mexico. Absolutely loved it. I lived through those times and its amazing what was going on and how things did or did not get handled. If you watch it make sure to watch it in that order. They both are during the same time period for the most part but the first one more from the Columbian angle and the Mexico well from the Mexico involvement. In the end they worked together so quite a bit of crossover with actors etc.. I watched it on Netflix.

Metalcat

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Re: What movies have you been watching?
« Reply #1499 on: December 03, 2021, 09:18:05 AM »
Since laid up a bit I binge watched Narco's and the Narco's Mexico. Absolutely loved it. I lived through those times and its amazing what was going on and how things did or did not get handled. If you watch it make sure to watch it in that order. They both are during the same time period for the most part but the first one more from the Columbian angle and the Mexico well from the Mexico involvement. In the end they worked together so quite a bit of crossover with actors etc.. I watched it on Netflix.

We have a separate tv show thread ;)

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/off-topic/what-tv-series-do-you-like/