The All-Things Cinema thread

[Bartimaeus]

31 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

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. 

The only one of those I've seen is They Live, and I low key...um, hated it, . I was expecting a more deft attempt at a sci-fi action movie a la The Thing (which I had watched shortly before it and had loved), and instead I got a really clumsy pseudo-buddy cop film with equally awkward social commentary it repeatedly tried to drive through my skull with a jackhammer. Admittedly, it was some bad prognostication on my part, I had a very wrong idea of the film going into it, and that's at least somewhat my fault. I'll see what RLM says about the other two before I make a decision on watching them, .

8 minutes ago, majestic said:

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.

Dark Star is probably one I'll watch at some point here as well, actually. RLM's feedback/discussion of films is useful even when it's not necessarily all positive, since it gives me a good handle on what they are and what to expect. I'll let you know how that goes when it does, .

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

@BartimaeusHow in the world have you not seen Big Trouble in Little China? That movie is awesome and it has my favorite Kurt Russell performance ever. Kurt Russell has given a lot of great performances so that's a big statement. Jack Burton is the greatest, largely because he's so ineffective.

Edited October 9, 2021 by Keyrock

[Bartimaeus]

19 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

@BartimaeusHow in the world have you not seen Big Trouble in Little China? That movie is awesome and it has my favorite Kurt Russell performance ever. Kurt Russell has given a lot of great performances so that's a big statement. Jack Burton is the greatest, largely because he's so ineffective.

The things I watch are generally very specific to my tastes and interests. If you were a regular visitor of the anime thread, you would have already been witness to a number of occasions where someone kindly took time and effort to really think about something to recommend me a show they love that is considered a classic among anime fans, and I would literally get ten minutes into it and be like "I hate this for the following two dozen reasons, this is clearly not going to work for me on any level, I am sorry thank you and good bye", . In other words, I'm very picky and I have to go through a whole process of determining whether I should watch something, because if I make a bad choice (or someone else forces a bad choice upon me), I'm going to be extremely unhappy about it. It doesn't help that in addition to being very picky, I experience things I don't like much more strongly than the things I do like.

Edited October 9, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

19 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Dark Star is probably one I'll watch at some point here as well, actually. RLM's feedback/discussion of films is useful even when it's not necessarily all positive, since it gives me a good handle on what they are and what to expect. I'll let you know how that goes when it does, .

They're not wrong when they say it's a movie that should only be 30 minutes long but was stretched out for a feature length release. The absurdity and nonsense of the padding is great, however, I'm fully aware that I'm one of one people on the planet that likes the film more for the absurd padding than the actual philosphical point it makes at the end.

3 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

The things I watch are generally very specific to my tastes and interests. If you were a regular visitor of the anime thread, you would have already been witness to a number of occurrences where someone kindly took time and effort to really think about something to recommend me a show they love that is considered a classic among anime fans, and I would literally get ten minutes into it and be like "I hate this for the following two dozen reasons, this is clearly not going to work for me on any level, I am sorry thank you and good bye", .

@Keyrock He clearly wants to make a contract with you. Be careful.

[Keyrock]

@BartimaeusI guess I shouldn't assume everyone has seen Big Trouble in Little China, but I kinda assume everyone has seen it since it's been on free TV 8 billion times over the last 30 years or so. It's just a fun adventure movie. Imagine a goofier Indiana Jones where the main protagonist is a c0cky yet lovable bumbling blabbermouth.

Edited October 9, 2021 by Keyrock

[Bartimaeus]

48 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

@BartimaeusI guess I shouldn't assume everyone has seen Big Trouble in Little China, but I kinda assume everyone has seen it since it's been on free TV 8 billion times over the last 30 years or so. It's just a fun adventure movie. Imagine a goofier Indiana Jones where the main protagonist is a c0cky yet lovable bumbling blabbermouth.

It's not until recently (within the past handful of years) that I've become much of a movie/TV-watcher at all, so that may also play a part into it. There was a good ten years or so where I almost completely ignored it as a medium, . So what I've watched and my sensibilities, as such, are probably different from most people even more because of that.

Edited October 9, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Maedhros]

@Bartimaeus My wife (at the time of watching it) disliked The Wailing too, and couldn't for the life of her understand why I loved it so much. For me it's one of the most atmospheric films I've seen these last years. Loved the rather slow pace, and that it still managed to deliver tension, unease and mystery throughout.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, Keyrock said:

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. 

I think ItMoM is the probably the only movie I can think of that does cosmic horror really well. I watched the apocalypse trilogy together a couple of years ago and while the Thing is good and Prince of Darkness was pretty good, something about In The Mouth of Madness made it feel more unique.

Do you read Sutter Cane?

[Bartimaeus]

18 minutes ago, Maedhros said:

@Bartimaeus My wife (at the time of watching it) disliked The Wailing too, and couldn't for the life of her understand why I loved it so much. For me it's one of the most atmospheric films I've seen these last years. Loved the rather slow pace, and that it still managed to deliver tension, unease and mystery throughout.

Well, at least somebody liked it! I tried really hard to get it, but there was literally no atmosphere or tension at all for me, and I just couldn't get behind the way characters were acting or why certain scenes were filmed in the way they were (there was one scene pretty early on when the "stranger" was out eating raw deer in the woods that I think was supposed to be tense/scary, but between his ridiculous glowing eyes, the over-acting, holding on to shots that were at weird angles for way too long, and having it all happen out in the open in daylight...I genuinely was unsure if the scene was supposed to be comedic or not, and I really should've stopped watching there because it obviously was not). I don't know, film didn't work for me at all, guess it did for a lot of other people, though.

Edited October 9, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[LadyCrimson]

My top 3 Carpenter films:

The Thing
The Thing
The Thing

My actual favorite after The Thing would probably be Starman which is completely different genre vs. most of his films.

...Escape From New York, classic, certainly not perfect, Kurt Russell is fun
...Assault on 13 was ok, very dated at this point, but works for what it is. Nothing special tho.
...Halloween, well, another classic, and I like it, but I wouldn't call it a favorite of any sort. In a way, I probably liked Nightmare on Elm Street better, I like (more) fantastical horror a bit more I guess.
...They Live, I enjoyed it as an almost parody, I found parts of it hilarious. Didn't like the last 20 minutes/ending all that much tho, and it does run a little too long.
...Big Trouble, I think I'm one of the few who doesn't particularly like it. Kurt is always great, there's some cheese-tastic fun moments, but overall, didn't excite me or anything.
...In the Mouth....pfft. I love Sam Neil but it felt overly pretentious, purposely confusing, wasn't "scary" or thrilling, and I was rather bored.
...The Fog, for the time period I guess it's ok but again, didn't really do much for me/kinda bored.

Edited October 9, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[InsaneCommander]

8 hours ago, majestic said:

*Wonders how long until Kyubey takes over the Obsidian Forums.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

18 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

*Wonders how long until Kyubey takes over the Obsidian Forums.

Five months ago.

[majestic]

23 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

*Wonders how long until Kyubey takes over the Obsidian Forums.

Well, have you seen any teenage girls here? No?

 

Guess why...

[Zoraptor]

Please people, it's Sam Neill. Not Sam Neil.

All famous New Zealanders have two ls in their name if they have any at all- see also Edmund Hillary (and not Edmund Hilary), the world renowned apiarist Hillary Clinton was named after.

Thank you all for reading this very important message.

[majestic]

Plus that guy with one l has no humor.

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by majestic

[LadyCrimson]

47 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

Please people, it's Sam Neill. Not Sam Neil.

I usually google star names to make sure I spell them right/my memory isn't wrong, but I was too lazy this time, sorry. 

Edited October 9, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[Amentep]

I liked Ghosts of Mars, but it wore its production problems on its sleeve. But I liked the pulpy nonsense of it.

I haven't seen ItMoM since I rented it on vhs so my mom could watch it (she loved horror films). I had already seen it in theaters.

They Live and Prince of Darkness are fun but have their own issues.

[Bartimaeus]

17 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

...They Live, I enjoyed it as an almost parody, I found parts of it hilarious. Didn't like the last 20 minutes/ending all that much tho, and it does run a little too long.

I was actually told it was supposed to be like a semi-comedy after I watched it, which I still am not sure if is true at all, but I wish I had thought that going in because it may have made it far more enjoyable. Good choice of favorites re: The Thing, .

 

[majestic]

I thought The Thing was kind of lame, and what has that got to do with John Carpenter, that was directed by Matthijs van Heijningen...

Spoiler

Yes, bad joke about the useless prequel of the fantastic The Thing.

 

[Amentep]

The prequel Thing had potential but it got botched. Wasn't it originally supposed to be practical effect but the producers forced digital?

[majestic]

11 minutes ago, Amentep said:

The prequel Thing had potential but it got botched. Wasn't it originally supposed to be practical effect but the producers forced digital?

Maybe, I don't know, but just like many prequels it answered questions nobody asked.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I thought The Thing was kind of lame, and what has that got to do with John Carpenter, that was directed by Matthijs van Heijningen...

  Reveal hidden contents

Yes, bad joke about the useless prequel of the fantastic The Thing.

 

I guess I won't have to report you for bad taste after all.

[Bartimaeus]

Orson Welles' A Touch of Evil (1958).

It's your old-timey crime thriller that's still pretty formulaic and boring even if it's slightly wacker than the usual fare for the time. The other choices were Citizen Kane (1941) or Curse of the Demon (1957), and I probably should've chosen one of those, especially as I'm not in any way partial to crime thrillers.

[kirottu]

The Death of Stalin

Movie so funny it was banned in Russia.

[Maedhros]

Check out In the Loop (same director) if you liked The Death of Stalin.