General movie thread!!!!

[majestic]

Look at you guys listing all the reasons why The Expendables was awesome.

[ShadySands]

JCVD, Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas... I think I'm forgetting one.

 

 

 

[Malcador]

Was a crime they left out Steven Seagal

[Hurlshort]

20 hours ago, Keyrock said:

Maybe I'm just cynical, but The Expendables just felt like such a blatant soulless cash grab. I could have looked past that if the action had been fun, but it wasn't. It was generic uninspired fighting and shooting. Plus, the one liners were lame and felt phoned-in

I thought it was just a bunch of former action stars that wanted to get together and hang out. It looked like it would have been a lot of fun to be on the set. That didn't necessarily translate into movie magic. 

Antonio Banderas had the best part, I think. He is always fun to watch. 

[InsaneCommander]

15 hours ago, Malcador said:

Was a crime they left out Steven Seagal

Wasn't he invited but he declined because he had had problems with one of the producers?

At least that is what I heard.

[Malcador]

23 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Wasn't he invited but he declined because he had had problems with one of the producers?

At least that is what I heard.

If true, my opinion of the people behind the movies has fallen even lower

[Amentep]

Steven Seagal about not working on an Expendables film - "I just don’t like some of the people involved. Life is too short to work with funny people."

That said, Seagal is allegedly difficult to work with.  He also allegedly would only do Machete if his character, rather than losing to the title character, fought him and killed himself rather than be shown defeated. 

[Gromnir]

6 hours ago, Amentep said:

Steven Seagal about not working on an Expendables film - "I just don’t like some of the people involved. Life is too short to work with funny people."

That said, Seagal is allegedly difficult to work with.  He also allegedly would only do Machete if his character, rather than losing to the title character, fought him and killed himself rather than be shown defeated. 

you have a gift for understatement.

as to the godzilla v. kong movie, am admitted intrigued although we should be a bit embarrassed by the admission. am not a kaiju movie fan, but perhaps that is 'cause am a kong fan even if not at the peter jackson level o' fandom.  unlike most kaiju, kong is an actual character and he weren't just a fat stagehand in a rubber suit neither. the stop-action animation for kong set the bar for decades. is actual little in common 'tween kong and godzilla from a storytelling pov and is no good reason to wanna force 'em into the same film, other than the crazy-arsed impulse which has folks arguing 'bout which would win in a fight, a polar bear or a tiger. nevertheless, as already stated, am intrigued.

...

don't like the bond-with-a-child aspect... at all. that were gamera's shtick. 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

[Keyrock]

On 1/29/2021 at 10:12 AM, Hurlshot said:

I thought it was just a bunch of former action stars that wanted to get together and hang out. It looked like it would have been a lot of fun to be on the set. That didn't necessarily translate into movie magic. 

Antonio Banderas had the best part, I think. He is always fun to watch. 

It's similar to what Adam Sandler has been doing with his buddies, that is essentially going on vacation and getting paid for it. To be fair to Stallone & Co., their efforts were nowhere near as low effort as Sandler's trash and they churned out mediocrity rather than the aggressively terrible piles of putrid excrement Sandler & Co. have been churning out.

[Raithe]

To be fair, The Expendables is pretty much that strange mix of friends/associates getting a working holiday, and a homage to the tropes of the classic 80's action films that made them "great" in the beginning.

That knowing nod and wink to what were elements of utter cheese now, but at the time were considered serious. With huge dosing of basic fan service for the people that saw those films in the cinema at the time.

[Keyrock]

I get that The Expendables is supposed to be a love letter to 80s and early 90s action movies. I grew up on those movies. Many of my all-time favorite movies are of that variety. I am the exact target audience for The Expendables. It technically has all the elements you would find in those movies, but it's missing all the charm, personality, and heart of the fun goofy ones and all the fine craftsmanship of the great ones. It goes through all the motions without understanding what tied the motions together and made them work well.

[LadyCrimson]

Netflix - The Dig.  Interesting topic, sedately paced (zzzz) movie. But I'll watch Ralph Fiennes in almost anything so...still, it was more attention-keeping to search/read up on the whole, factual story then it was to watch the movie itself. 

[Guest]

Saw The Little Things tonight. Awful movie and a waste of Jared Leto.

[Gfted1]

We watched it last night too and neither of us liked it. Plus that weird swerve in the end

when the cop snaps and kills him. So we never truly find out if he is the killer, right? Its insinuated what with his collection of newspaper clippings but never conclusively proved?

And cant stop looking at Rami Malek's mouth. I makes me stare at it like its a mole / lazy eye. Moley moley moley. 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

<spoilers>

That felt like a cheap and dumb attempt to throw yet another "twist" into the growing collection of **** they launched at the audience toward the end.

Spoiler

The whole "cat and mouse" episode at mile marker 476 makes no sense at all unless Leto was the killer.

Unless the director wants us to just accept that it's a coincidence after expending all that effort to make us think that it's not. Which isn't to say that it isn't possible, just that it would make even less sense in an already-senseless movie.

[Gfted1]

The King of Staten Island

Surprising myself, I enjoyed it.

[Sarex]

Saw Dr. Strangelove. Now I know where the man riding a nuclear bomb comes from.

[Malcador]

On 1/30/2021 at 10:14 PM, LadyCrimson said:

Netflix - The Dig.  Interesting topic, sedately paced (zzzz) movie. But I'll watch Ralph Fiennes in almost anything so...still, it was more attention-keeping to search/read up on the whole, factual story then it was to watch the movie itself. 

They really should make a movie based on the game.

[Hurlshort]

37 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Saw Dr. Strangelove. Now I know where the man riding a nuclear bomb comes from.

Hah, I just watched that for the first time as well. I am watching Spartacus now. I was reading a Kirk Douglas biography and it set me off on a bit of a classic movie binge.

[Raithe]

13 hours ago, Hurlshot said:

Hah, I just watched that for the first time as well. I am watching Spartacus now. I was reading a Kirk Douglas biography and it set me off on a bit of a classic movie binge.

I accidentally did that to a former g/f a couple of years back. She'd never watched a Cary Grant film, so I started movie nights with Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, The Philidelphia Story, etc.   Next thing I knew she was addicted and buying ALL the dvd collections of those classic movies.

[Gromnir]

17 hours ago, Hurlshot said:

Hah, I just watched that for the first time as well. I am watching Spartacus now. I was reading a Kirk Douglas biography and it set me off on a bit of a classic movie binge.

if you haven't seen paths of glory, we recommend... is another kubrick and kirk douglas classic. warning: is not as cheerful and sunny as spartacus.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[LadyCrimson]

I've grown to like watching videos like these when I have nothing better to do ... which is most of the time. 

 

[Bartimaeus]

that guy: dig ditches, dig more ditches, ditches in ditches, ditches on ditches, ditches before the ditches, ditches beyond the ditches, ditches ditches ditches

it seems like ditches were important.

[Zoraptor]

Not sure I agree with him on the trenches for the specific Game of Thrones situation shown, since by that point the ground would have been frozen absolutely solid. While Winterfell should have had extensive defences of that type already, if it didn't digging a ditch in the middle of winter is non trivial and require a lot of pickaxes and the like, would potentially be easy to walk over or around if incomplete, and would tire your army out when you want them fresh. In the scale of tactical dumb in GoT where forgetting your enemy has a fleet is a 11/10 on the dumb scale and ignoring the plan and charging the entire enemy army solo because Rickon can only run in straight lines is a 8/10 not digging ditches in frozen ground is probably about a 4/10, in the worst case scenario. Indeed, you could justify it wholesale if there's very shallow soil there.

But then the rest of the Battle of Winterfell is entirely style over substance, so the overall rating is fine.

As touched on briefly in the video, one of my 'favourite' things about Braveheart is how Mel Gibson managed to be so spectacularly racist... towards the Scots. They definitely had different tactics from the English historically and- to an extent- different arms (eg Schiltrons), but they were otherwise as developed as England was at the time, not some rag tag barely civilised mess that looks more like a Roman description of a Pictish raiding party. And William Wallace was minor nobility, he'd have looked like any other knight. Bit different for the Highlanders, but the big majority were lowlanders.

[LadyCrimson]

3 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

As touched on briefly in the video, one of my 'favourite' things about Braveheart is how Mel Gibson managed to be so spectacularly racist... towards the Scots.

Mel has not shown himself to be particularly "educated/enlightened" or "progressive" when it comes to certain things. I remember the hoopla (and theater audience reaction) re: when the King tossed that one guy out the window...

That said, from an artistic standpoint I can kinda understand wanting to have more of a David and Goliath visual representation vs. any type of accuracy. I really like Braveheart as a rousing entertainment but to me it was obviously nothing but pure fantasy even if inspired by a historical person.

Edited February 7, 2021 by LadyCrimson