The All-Things Cinema thread

[Amentep]

There are some productions I've seen where you can tell that the sets they're using wasn't designed for color from the 60s when the change to color was rolling out (there's a couple of noticeable ones in the ITV series MAN IN A SUITCASE).

[Raithe]

 

[Bartimaeus]

The Vast of Night (2019). I super don't know how I feel about his one. The style of it, with its insane long takes where you just have a girl working an old phoneline switchboard for literally like ten minutes straight without interruption trying to figure out what's going on in her town stressed me the hell out (in a good way - also, holy crap, what a scene that was!)...and the dialogue and characters and scenes were all nice and well-done. Really, the big problem with it is that the film is exactly what it portrays itself as being, there aren't really any twists, and it leans a bit too heavily on its style without doing something new. Even saying that, I really rather enjoyed it. Difficult one for me to really nail down my feelings on.

(e): RLM originally recommended this in the summer of 2020 (aka CY 0 aka Coronavirus Year 0) as basically being a very well-done "non-movie movie" that's totally built on atmosphere. So take that as you will. I seem to have seen a few of these now, between Jeanne Dielman and The Assistant...and I seem to like or at least appreciate them.

Edited September 30, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Chilloutman]

If anyone is interested this is how it looked when I was in high school, its quite close to reality actually   (subtitles are quite bad tho) - warning, might be a bit shocker for US audience

 

Well, except those girls, I was really bad with those on high school xD

Edited October 1, 2021 by Chilloutman

[Raithe]

Scarlett Johansson, Disney Settle 'Black Widow' Lawsuit - Variety

Scarlett Johansson and Disney have reached a settlement over her blockbuster lawsuit that accused the studio of sabotaging the theatrical release of “Black Widow” to prop up Disney Plus.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Johansson had sought a $50 million payout from the studio.

“I am happy to have resolved our differences with Disney,” Johansson said in a statement on Thursday. “I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve done together over the years and have greatly enjoyed my creative relationship with the team. I look forward to continuing our collaboration in years to come.”

Alan Bergman, the chairman of Disney Studios Content, said he, too, was pleased to have resolved the dispute.
“I’m very pleased that we have been able to come to a mutual agreement with Scarlett Johansson regarding ‘Black Widow,'” he said in a statement. “We appreciate her contributions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and look forward to working together on a number of upcoming projects, including Disney’s ‘Tower of Terror.'”

[LadyCrimson]

^ While I'm all for making sure contracts are legally honored/full-filled/one isn't being purposely ripped off etc, I still yet always have a little bit of a hard time being very sympathetic to someone who made 20 million wanting another 50 million so desperately they'll hire mega expensive lawyers and sue. Nothing against her in a big sense, I don't live in that world after all, thus I will never understand it - and perhaps it's also because if I made 20+ million (even with the tax bite) on top of any other excess funds/savings from previous works, I would have said "nice knowing ya all, I'm retired from this fame-game now, bye." 

...but that's probably why I'm not famous.

[Raithe]

13 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

^ While I'm all for making sure contracts are legally honored/full-filled/one isn't being purposely ripped off etc, I still yet always have a little bit of a hard time being very sympathetic to someone who made 20 million wanting another 50 million so desperately they'll hire mega expensive lawyers and sue. Nothing against her in a big sense, I don't live in that world after all, thus I will never understand it - and perhaps it's also because if I made 20+ million (even with the tax bite) on top of any other excess funds/savings from previous works, I would have said "nice knowing ya all, I'm retired from this fame-game now, bye." 

...but that's probably why I'm not famous.

I guess it depends on the approach to it.

Is it a "I have x money, I need more" or is it over the principles of it?  I've seen a few articles talking about the potential shift of how contracts work in Hollywood because of Disney's actions here. Apparently a lot of Hollywood contract law between actors and studios have had a history of a certain vagueness and done in the spirit of the contract rather than worrying over every single dotted i and crossed t. 

If your contract says you'll get a bonus figure depending on x factor, but then the studio deliberately did something that made x factor smaller even though they said they wouldn't...  Would you not say anything because you've already got a good amount and accept it or would you call them out on it and make a fuss?

Eh, who knows the specific reasons behind it. With the amount of crap Disney regularly pull to keep all the money and not let it trickle down to the other people involved in processes, I'm inclined to give Johansson the benefit of the doubt on motives here.

[Hurlshort]

I went and saw Venom 2 in theaters. I haven't really done much theater going over the years, and usually it is our rather small local theater. But we were up in the city for a couple hours on a Saturday night, and I figured a movie was a good time killer. The tickets were twice what I remember, $16 each. But the seats reclined and were heated, so that was nice.

Venom 2 was great when it was Tom Hardy and the symbiote. Their dynamic is a ton of fun. Woody Harrelson was the villain, but honestly his role in the whole thing was pretty boring. It was worth a watch. 

[Sarex]

The Gulty. A gut wrenching movie about a guy on a phone.

[Raithe]

Free Guy.

Charmingly feel good in its own way.  From the trailers I was almost expecting more riotous action-comedy, but it doesn't rely on slapstick humor as such, and just has this warm-hearted feel running for the whole thing.

Not so much a deep thought provoking one, just that fuzzy warm vibe to it all.

Edited October 5, 2021 by Raithe

[Amentep]

 

[Bartimaeus]

The Wailing (2016).

Don't know what it was with this one, but pretty much nothing about it grabbed me. The cinematography was nice enough, I suppose, but the acting, the script, the plot, everything felt kind of off-kilter and phony in a way that was taking me out of it constantly. Even some of the stock sound effects I kept hearing I was questioning why they'd been used when they so very clearly didn't sound quite right. For a Korean horror-thriller that's basically a rural The Exorcist and has a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.5 on IMDB, I was a little surprised by how impossible it was to get into it. Maybe there's a cultural barrier here, or maybe I'm just me.

Edited October 7, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Amentep]

 

[Raithe]

 

[Keyrock]

40 minutes ago, Amentep said:

 

This somehow looks even worse than the Paul W S Anderson movies starring his wife Milla, those at least had some campy charm to them. It could just be the trailer and the weird choice of music.

[LadyCrimson]

@Bartimaeus I tried to watch Wailing because of reviews. I didnt finish it/could not get into it all. 

[Hurlshort]

1 hour ago, Keyrock said:

This somehow looks even worse than the Paul W S Anderson movies starring his wife Milla, those at least had some campy charm to them. It could just be the trailer and the weird choice of music.

To be fair, if I was married to Milla Jovovich, I would also be happy just making movies that show off her butt.

[Amentep]

 

[Bartimaeus]

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009). I want to love Wes Anderson films, but there's always just a little something off or missing with them for me, and this was no exception. Pretty good even so, though.

17 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

@Bartimaeus I tried to watch Wailing because of reviews. I didnt finish it/could not get into it all. 

Between the ridiculous over-acting, the slow and painfully drawn out dramatic dialogue, and the inexplicably poorly constructed action/tension scenes, I kind of figured the film wasn't going to work within literally about the first fifteen minutes. Definitely shouldn't have watched the remaining two hours - need to trust my instincts more on these things, .

Edited October 8, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Bartimaeus]

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976). Simple but effective John Carpenter "zombie" movie - a fun enough action flick that did its job well.

Edited October 9, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

18 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976). Simple but effective John Carpenter "zombie" movie - a fun enough action flick that did its job well.

A middle of the road Carpenter movie. My favorite thing about it was the sheer volume of gang members trying to kill that 1 dad. They just kept coming in waves like a horde mode video game.

It loses points for having neither Kurt Russell nor Sam Neil in it. I love those actors so much and they both were in numerous Carpenter movies, not this one, though.

Edited October 9, 2021 by Keyrock

[majestic]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976). Simple but effective John Carpenter "zombie" movie - a fun enough action flick that did its job well.

Got curious from the Re:View or just random crazy happenstance?

[Bartimaeus]

13 minutes ago, majestic said:

Got curious from the Re:View or just random crazy happenstance?

Both, actually. October is usually sort of an "identify classic movies to watch, especially if they're horror or thriller" month each year, and had already been looking at John Carpenter movies before RLM started doing that video series - so when they did start their reviews of Carpenter movies, that was great news because it'd give a way better look at them and make it easy to select ones to watch, and yes, Assault on Precinct 13 immediately looked like one that I'd probably like well enough but definitely not love, so let's go watch it...and yep, that was exactly the case. In a month where I'm roped into watching a lot of classic movies, both ones I've wanted to see as well ones I have never even been vaguely interested in seeing, Assault on Precinct 13 seemed like an easy and agreeable choice. Might watch a few more Carpenter movies throughout the month.

3 hours ago, Keyrock said:

A middle of the road Carpenter movie. My favorite thing about it was the sheer volume of gang members trying to kill that 1 dad. They just kept coming in waves like a horde mode video game.

It loses points for having neither Kurt Russell nor Sam Neil in it. I love those actors so much and they both were in numerous Carpenter movies, not this one, though.

Yeah, it really was basically a zombie movie but just without literal zombies. This was Carpenter's second film after Dark Star, and I think it was lacking some of the more clever and snappier characters, dialogue, and action like you'd see in something like his The Thing, but it was still solid overall, especially given the budget.

Edited October 9, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

When it comes to Carpenter, my top 3 are:

1) Big Trouble in Little China

2) They Live

3) In the Mouth of Madness

The first 2 feel like obvious choices while ItMoM is a bit of a guilty pleasure. What can I say, I love me some Sam Neil. 

[majestic]

26 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

In a month where I'm roped into watching a lot of classic movies, both ones I've wanted to see as well ones I have never even been vaguely interested in seeing, Assault on Precinct 13 seemed like an easy and agreeable choice. Might watch a few more Carpenter movies throughout the month.

In that case, yeah, very well picked, although I'm probably a bit biased. I like most John Carpenter films, even failures like Escape from LA. Except Ghosts of Mars. That's not even so bad it's good.

I hinted at it when linking the first part, I also really liked Dark Star. The absurdity of it all elevates it so much. Rich and Jay didn't like the scenes with the beach ball alien, but that's just absolute gold. From the fact that maintenance of the elevator in the ship requires the floor to be removed by explosives to the utter inanity of Pinback struggling with the alien creature, the conversation with the bombs, the insane idea to give bombs personalities in the first place, how it opens by Earth telling them hey have to make do without toilet paper because resupply is out of the question.

Combined with the droning Proto-Carpenter score, I find very little flaws in this. I mean... everything is flawed, and that's what makes it so perfect.

Well, there's something else, the German dub of the film also far surpasses the original by introducing new elements into the dialogue, and the ship's computer narrating the English text on screen is just brilliant, although of course that's not someting I can see as primary greatness of the film. The dub isn't unproblematic, but it enhances certain parts.