The New Cinema and Movie Thread

[kirottu]

Nightmare Alley

Too long and slightly boring movie that was saved by the strong performances from the actors.

[Amentep]

^I'm assuming the modern adaption of the novel?  As the '47 version is a pretty brisk 111 minutes (compared to the new ones 150(!) minutes)

 

[Amentep]

 

[ShadySands]

I'm way too excited about a new Fletch movie

[Gromnir]

9 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

I'm way too excited about a new Fletch movie

am recalling john hamm doing comedy on 30 rock so am kinda optimistic 'bout this.

HA! Good Fun!

[Hurlshort]

I dig it, John Hamm is great and is less cocaine-adled than Chevy Chase.

[ShadySands]

Other than the two Fletch movies and Three Amigos!, I think Modern Problems is the Chevy Chase movie that I have the fondest memories of. Telekinetic powers, how cool!

Though for some reason I keep thinking he was in Real Men but that was Ritter and Belushi. I should probably give that a rewatch.

Edited August 26, 2022 by ShadySands

[Amentep]

I seem to recall FOUL PLAY (1978) was pretty good, but its been awhile since I've watched it.

[Hurlshort]

Spies Like Us is a masterpiece.

[the_dog_days]

Watched Samaritan on Amazon. It's a superhero movie. It was pretty alright. A touch of that crummy MCU humor but clearly a revisionist superhero. Didn't care for the child actor but I almost never like child acting.

Edited August 27, 2022 by the_dog_days

[Gfted1]

That sent me on a little bit of a search, and I dont even remember Fletch Lives. The reboot looks good though!

[InsaneCommander]

22 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

Spies Like Us is a masterpiece.

Now that you reminded me of it, I'll have to rewatch it.

[Lexx]

Watching The Raid 2 right now and .... to be honest, it's rather boring. Way too long for its own good.

[Raithe]

The Transformers: The Movie: Why It's One of the Best Animated Movies of the 80s (movieweb.com)

[Keyrock]

Ninja Prophecy of Death (2011) from Pennsylvanian schlock auteur Len Kabasinski. A secret sect of ninjas, a mob family, and a kidnapped girl.

Dear Lord, where do I start? This movie has some of the most egregious shaky cam I have ever seen. Somehow worse than the shaky cam is the absolutely abysmal sound mixing. For the most part, the music and sound effects levels remain relatively steady throughout, with a few exceptions. The voice levels, on the other hand, are all over the place. The voice level will sometimes change WILDLY multiple times in the span of 15 or 20 seconds. There are times that the voices are so quiet that you'd have to turn up the volume to such a degree to have any chance of hearing the dialogue that the sound effects would blow your eardrums out.

On the bright side, if you ever wanted to see butt naked ninjas doing katas, have I got the movie for you. "The Genius" Lanny Poffo fights a gang of ninjas. Also, I got a kick out of seeing Len wearing a variety of gaudy shirts. Lastly, there are some laughable digital effects, especially one explosion near the end that had me doing a spit take.

Do not watch this movie if you are brand new to the world of terrible movies or at a beginner level. I recommend only intermediate or higher level terrible movie connoisseurs should watch this. I really hope the sound mixing is better in Hellcats Revenge.

Edited August 28, 2022 by Keyrock

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

Somehow, George Miller has followed up the excellent Mad Max: Fury Road with a romance film that feels....reserved for a spexial effects heavy film about a Genie Djinn. It's very good, Tilda Swinton is great in almost anything she does and Idris Elba nails the djinn. The special effects are have a surreal effect to them that really makes the fairy tale aspect of the film work beautifully.

I'm not sure how to say more without spoilers, but I highly recommend it.

[Raithe]

 

[Raithe]

It's here...

 

 

[Malcador]

On 8/27/2022 at 5:33 PM, Raithe said:

The Transformers: The Movie: Why It's One of the Best Animated Movies of the 80s (movieweb.com)

Needed more graphic deaths.  At least we should have seen the planned quartering of Ultra Magnus.

[Keyrock]

Hellcats Revenge (2017) - A Len Kabasinski joint. When Trish, the leader of an all-female biker gang, gets murdered, Kat, the new leader, looks for answers and revenge.

From a technical standpoint, this movie is light years better than Ninja Prophecy of Death. The sound mixing is fine and there is nearly no shaky cam, tons of camera cuts, but at least no shaky cam. I'd go so far as to say that the cinematography was solid, including some downright nice shots. No pointless Dutch angles, good framing, and Len clearly had access to a dolly because there were some good and steady moving shots. It's amazing how much easier it is to follow a movie when you can see what is happening and hear the dialogue.

This movie is fairly light on the action for what I expected from a Len Kabasinski movie. There is plenty of killing but not much in the way of action scenes. I was especially surprised by how little hand to hand fighting there was, given Len's love of martial arts. That's probably for the best given how laughable the fist fights were, except when Len himself was involved (the man can throw hands and feet).

Speaking of Len, my favorite thing about the movie was him looking like he plays in a White Zombie cover band:

My second favorite thing was a scene of a guy getting his head blown off through a wall that was so awesome that I jumped up and pumped my fist in the air repeatedly.

Overall, this was a vastly superior movie to Ninja Prophecy of Death despite how much less martial arts action it had because it was so much easier to follow and more competent technically. It was still cheesy and had some hilariously bad acting, though there were a couple surprisingly decent performances. Len himself was shockingly competent, although his character was extremely one note.

This movie is a much easier recommendation than Ninja Prophecy of Death. 

Edited August 29, 2022 by Keyrock

[Bartimaeus]

Sigh, I was roped into watching Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Well, where to begin with this one? It was a complete...ly kind of okay-ish film.

Spoiler

Atrocious pro-U.S. propaganda nonsense aside (that aspect, as @KP From Another World previously mentioned, was quite appalling in its transparency and how far they took it), it was very mildly enjoyable in a "this is an incredibly stupid movie but I guess there's some humor and spectacle" kind of way. It's not going into my top 1,000 films or anything, but it was alright, I wasn't dying while watching it.

Sigh, I was roped into watching Top Gun (1986). Well, where to begin with this one? It was a complete...ly kind of okay-ish film.

Spoiler

Actually, it was a little less than okay-ish, and I only said the above to meme. The complete cornball 80s feel of the film permeating its entirety (plus some other things I really don't care for) really hurts me somewhere deep in my soul, and it's pretty difficult to bear at times. But it wasn't as bad as the complete pile of garbage known as Aliens, so there is that. Yes, I am going to besmirch Aliens practically every opportunity I have from now on, no matter how weak or tangential.

It could've been worse.

1 hour ago, Keyrock said:

It's amazing how much easier it is to follow a movie when you can see what is happening and hear the dialogue.

I feel like you don't want to know what's going on in a bad movie though, so that should really work against the film if anything, .

Edited August 29, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

33 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Sigh, I was roped into watching Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Well, where to begin with this one? It was a complete...ly kind of okay-ish film.

  Hide contents

Atrocious pro-U.S. propaganda nonsense aside (that aspect, as @KP From Another World previously mentioned, was quite appalling in its transparency and how far they took it), it was very mildly enjoyable in a "this is an incredibly stupid movie but I guess there's some humor and spectacle" kind of way. It's not going into my top 1,000 films or anything, but it was alright, I wasn't dying while watching it.

Sigh, I was roped into watching Top Gun (1986). Well, where to begin with this one? It was a complete...ly kind of okay-ish film.

  Hide contents

Actually, it was a little less than okay-ish, and I only said the above to meme. The complete cornball 80s feel of the film permeating its entirety (plus some other things I really don't care for) really hurts me somewhere deep in my soul, and it's pretty difficult to bear at times. But it wasn't as bad as the complete pile of garbage known as Aliens, so there is that. Yes, I am going to besmirch Aliens practically every opportunity I have from now on, no matter how weak or tangential.

It could've been worse.

I feel like you don't want to know what's going on in a bad movie though, so that should really work against the film if anything, .

I'm not a fan of Aliens but Top Gun: Maverick was worse.

They couldn't name the "bad guys" in Maverick because if they did the movie would be depicting the US committing a war crime.

[Bartimaeus]

48 minutes ago, KP From Another World said:

They couldn't name the "bad guys" in Maverick

Yeah, I did have a laugh at that. I totally agree with you on that aspect being...terrible: it's very transparently pro-U.S./military propaganda. But no, Maverick more or less follows directly in its predecessor's footsteps just about down to a T, while Aliens stands on the shoulders of a giant...and proceeds to have a diarrhea disaster all over the poor thing's head. Non-analogous situations, different impressions as a result.

Edited August 29, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

58 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, I did have a laugh at that. I totally agree with you on that aspect being...terrible: it's very transparently pro-U.S./military propaganda. But no, Maverick more or less follows directly in its predecessor's footsteps just about down to a T, while Aliens stands on the shoulders of a giant...and proceeds to have a diarrhea disaster all over the poor thing's head. Non-analogous situations, different impressions as a result.

I can understand where you're coming from and agree that Aliens is a big fall from Alien (I have not seen Top Gun and do not intend to), but still I think on the merits of the films themselves Aliens is better than Maverick. Perhaps this is just my weird self, but I usually try to judge films in a vacuum.

The more I think about Maverick the more its popularity puzzles me. I can see the appeal of less overt CGI effects (despite some claims of being all practical, there are over a thousand CGI assisted shots in Maverick), but so many films have done that and have been more solid in all other areas. Maverick is like a hollow candy, when you crack open the spectacle of REEEEEL PLAAAAANES it's just hot air about a 60 year old man's long midlife crisis. Just this year we've seen Everything Everywhere All At Once and Three Thousand Years of Longing drop kick the absolute **** out of Maverick, and hell ELVIS was a better time than Maverick, so why the hell is the scientologists war crime adventure so damn enduring? Really grinds my gears. Seriously 

 

Anyways.............Three Thousand Years of Longing is in the same tier for me as Everything Everywhere All At Once and I recommend it to anyone. I want to see it again because it really does give you a lot to think about and works better after a night's sleep. Between that and Bram Stoker's Dracula I guess it means I like bittersweet supernatural romances.

[Amentep]

Really looking forward to catching up with 3000 years of longing