Cinema and Movie Thread: flickering images

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Videodrome (1983) - Long Live The New Flesh!

It's an incredible ride, horrifying and weirdly horny 80s practical effects combined with conspiracy and incomprehensible techo-occult babble. Absolutely glorious.

[Bartimaeus]

Inside Out (2015).

As a generally committed Pixar hater, I'll have you know that the only Pixar film that I really like is WALL-E. Okay, and A Bug's Life is enjoyable, and I suppose Monsters Inc. and all the Toy Storys are all roughly equally just okay...but I didn't like Cars, I didn't like Ratatoullie, I didn't like Brave, or Finding Nemo, or either of the Incredibles, or Up, or Turning Red, or Monsters University...and yes, I've actually seen all of these and I think a couple of others, and heck, I even watched some of these during my own childhood, so if I didn't like them as a kid or as an adult, you should know that I'm pretty serious about it.

But I'll have you know that I am a big, emotionally underdeveloped baby...which I am sure everyone already knows, and also that I loved Inside Out, and I made a mistake waiting so long to watch it. I am sorry, past myself. It may or may not be in my top 50 films of all time pursuant to watching it again sometime and confirming my feelings towards it (not that that really means much, it's not exactly a super prestigious list seeing as it's like half animated films of various kinds in the first place). Also, I am sure that I knew it was a Pixar film in the past which is why I didn't go out of my way to watch it back then, but right before watching this, I had thought it was a Disney and not Pixar film, and I only learned after finishing it that it was in fact Pixar, and so I had eggs on my face doubly when I realized the horrible truth of the matter.

Also, here are some short write-ups of some other films I watched over the past week-ish that don't matter nearly as much to me and in fact I almost cut them out of the post entirely because this post should really be about Inside Out, but since I already wrote them before watching Inside Out, I'm just going to dump them in this here spoiler where nobody will read them:

Spoiler

Contact (1997). Jodie Foster sci-fi flick about making contact with life in the universe that I was hoping I'd like, but it's awkwardly caught somewhere between actually thoughtful and just typical Hollywood schmaltz that somehow also manages to be way too up its own butt. Kind of meh. Matthew McConaughey sucks and I hate him, but Jodie Foster continues to be a lady whose movies I either haven't watched or don't much enjoy even though I like her in them - with the one major exception of Little Man Tate (1991).

Look how bad that poster is, that should've been a warning. Yeesh. I tells ya, you should always judge a book by its over.

Girl of the Night (1960). Prostitutes will never be able to lead normal, happy, or healthy lives. Though one must wonder if they ever did, even well before getting (or being forced) into their profession, which isn't something even vaguely explored or mentioned by this rather moralistic and reductionist trash. Worse than meh.

Klaus (2019). It's Netflix's Emperor's New Groove, but with a heavy coating of Christmas and...just not being all that effective, despite what the glowing ratings and reviews might tell you. I love him, but J.K. Simmons is horribly miscast as the titular character. Some great art. Pretty meh, though it seems like the majority disagrees with me.

The Battle of Algiers (1966). Frequently featured on lists of the greatest films of all time, I did not get much anything out of it. Colonialism bad, but so is most everything I'd consider to be important about this Italiam movie. Very meh, I'd much rather have learned about French Algiers and the relevant conflict on Wikipedia, so that's not good.

Shock Treatment (1981). I had watched Tim Curry's The Rocky Horror Picture Show a second time and enjoyed it even more than the first time, so I decided to watch the infamous spin-off film. It did have some fun songs and good moments, but there was a very big disconnect between myself, the plot, and the characters, and basically anything that was happening - so much so that I kind of felt like I needed shock treatment by the end of it. A little meh, though I didn't hate it like so many Rocky Horror Picture Show fans seemed to have.

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Gfted1]

Blue Beetle Poor mans Iron Man.

Leave the World Behind It was meh, I guess. For me it fails by leaving too much ambiguity.

[Hurlshort]

Since Jodi Foster was mentioned, I thought I'd throw out a film called Nyad I watched recently with her and Annette Benning. It was a fantastic biopic. If you enjoy swimming, it was probably a more interesting film, but I expect it holds up well regardless. 

 

Diana Nyad is also just a complete badass. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/magazine/marathon-swimmer-diana-nyad.html

Edited December 11, 2023 by Hurlshort

[Sarex]

Demolition (2015) About a man losing his wife and his process of demolishing his life after it. Jake Gyllenhaal as usual knocks it out of the park.

[InsaneCommander]

 

[Sarex]

Showed too much in the trailer...

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I'm disappointed they didn't show the man-worm hybrid god emperor.

[Sarex]

52 minutes ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

I'm disappointed they didn't show the man-worm hybrid god emperor.

That is book 3, which I doubt they will do a movie for. Book 1 an 2 are good material, 3 goes off the deep end.

[Lexx]

Actually Denis Villeneuve already said that the script for the 3rd movie is almost finished.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

49 minutes ago, Sarex said:

That is book 3, which I doubt they will do a movie for. Book 1 an 2 are good material, 3 goes off the deep end.

I have never read Dune and most of my knowledge is from the 1984 movie. I just think the man-worm is funny.

[Sarex]

38 minutes ago, Lexx said:

Actually Denis Villeneuve already said that the script for the 3rd movie is almost finished.

That is going to be interesting to see if nothing else.

[Zoraptor]

58 minutes ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

I have never read Dune and most of my knowledge is from the 1984 movie.

I should reread Dune at some point, I didn't like it much last time. I was like 13 at the time, and thought David Eddings was Tolstoy. Also now considering whether Dune'84 would have been improved by John Hurt as Duke Atreides and Richard Burton as Baron Harkonnen for some reason.

Fun fact: my dad unironically loved Lynch's Dune and took me to see it in a cinema. I still have (I think) the making of book he bought somewhere around.

 

[majestic]

Well, the actual man-worm is in God Emperor of Dune, and that is book 4. I mean, yeah, technically Leto II fuses with larval stage sandworms in book 3, but the inhuman sand-worm is in the fourth one, set like ten thousand years after the first three books.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Zoraptor said:

my dad unironically loved Lynch's Dune and took me to see it in a cinema. I still have (I think) the making of book he bought somewhere around.

I watched it again after the new Dune (Part 1) and right now I think it's better. But I also thought that Dune Part 1 was pretty much a 2+ hour advertisement for the sequel and also have......strange taste in general.

45 minutes ago, majestic said:

Well, the actual man-worm is in God Emperor of Dune, and that is book 4. I mean, yeah, technically Leto II fuses with larval stage sandworms in book 3, but the inhuman sand-worm is in the fourth one, set like ten thousand years after the first three books.

Make the inhuman man-worm show up early. Paul can see the future or some ****, let him see the future of the man-worm.

[LadyCrimson]

That Dune trailer looks like it'll be about as interesting to me as the first one, which is to say not very - at least the '80's one, one could have fun giggling. Not saying it was bad, I just found it dull. But I will say that I did/do like the costume design.

3 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Also now considering whether Dune'84 would have been improved by John Hurt as Duke Atreides

No. Jurgen Prochnow is great, thought he was (for the times) almost perfect casting. Re: the novel, the Duke is the chr. that stood out to me most, not the son.  I recall with the novel I generally liked the supporting or early characters (Halleck, Hawat, Idaho, even Dr Yueh), a ton more than the main or later characters (son, lover, mother, daughter). Although by novel's end I did like/appreciate the son more and wanted more of his chr. But the 2nd novel disappointed me.

3 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Richard Burton as Baron Harkonnen

No actor could've turned that older films interpretation/vision of the Baron into something palatable.

[Zoraptor]

Yes, the casting for Dune'84 was actually really good for the most part, and not just because of Sting and his novelty posing pouch. Better than for the modern version imo, and the modern versions is at least good. The Burton/ Hurt comment was more because I read..

Quote

I have never read Dune and most of my knowledge is from the 1984 movie.

..initially as being about the movie 1984 (which released a couple of months after Dune'84 and starred Burton/ Hurt as O'Brien/ Smith). Good movie too, that one, though not near as good as the book.

I'd have to admit I enjoyed Dune'84 more than both the book and Dune'21. Though Dune'21 was great as a 'spectacle' movie.

[bugarup]

I don't remember any other book where I adored the world and setting but hated the protagonist with a burning passion of a thousand blue suns. Actually cheered when 

Spoiler

Shani kicked the bucket.

Was team Irulan & Bene Gesserit all the way, and now when they cast Christopher Walken, team Shaddam IV too I guess. 

I liked the 84 better too, but very possibly because I was young and more easily impressed. The 21 looks awesome on the big screen. Great planetary scenes, spaceships lifting off is , killer soundtrack. People stuff? Meh, except Stellan Skarsgard. 

[Sarex]

12 hours ago, majestic said:

Well, the actual man-worm is in God Emperor of Dune, and that is book 4. I mean, yeah, technically Leto II fuses with larval stage sandworms in book 3, but the inhuman sand-worm is in the fourth one, set like ten thousand years after the first three books.

For some reason books 2 and 3 are merged in my mind.

[Keyrock]

If nothing else, David Lynch's Dune has the vastly superior Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.

[LadyCrimson]

Jason Statham as "The Beekeeper."
Another trailer for action "The Painter." (no one super famous)
Now Aaron Eckhart as action "The Bricklayer."
Hm. The possibilities are endless. "The IT Guy".  "The Delivery Man."  "The Wheat Farmer."  "The Poledancer."
...The "Beekeeper, Bricklayer and Nobody go to Town"

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[Amentep]

The Programmer.  The Executive. The Psychometrist.  The Phlebotomist. The Courier. The Technologist. The Detailer. The Clerk. The Attendant. The Waiter. The Coordinator. The Inker. The Priest. The Guy Who Lives In A Van Down By The River.

Truly, the possibilities are endless.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I'm intently waiting on The Forum Moderator or The Terminally Online Poster.

[Amentep]

The Discord Mod surely?  Forums are so 2004.

Also The Twitch Streamer, The YouTuber, The InstaGrammer, The FaceBooker, The X (formerly known as Twitter)er...

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

12 minutes ago, Amentep said:

The Discord Mod surely?  Forums are so 2004.

Also The Twitch Streamer, The YouTuber, The InstaGrammer, The FaceBooker, The X (formerly known as Twitter)er...

I consider Reddit and Discord to be forms of forums (hon hon hon), broadly speaking.