The Movie Thread Returns

[Maedhros]

I thought Ready Player One was quite bad. I liked some of the action sequences, but I didn't really get it when it tried to be deep or meaningful. The last 20 minutes were terrible.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle. Had low expectations and found it surprisingly good.

[Orogun01]

I thought Ready Player One was quite bad. I liked some of the action sequences, but I didn't really get it when it tried to be deep or meaningful. The last 20 minutes were terrible.

When did it try to be deep and meaningful?

[Bartimaeus]

 

tl;dw: confusing, sort of bad (but mostly just mediocre and forgettable), and didn't seem like it was made for any age group due to conflicts in content and storytelling

Edited April 3, 2018 by Bartimaeus

[injurai]

I'm starting to think that simply some mediums rise to being anomalies of success, where people have to partake in it to see what all the fuss is about. Maybe it was a strong early fan following that snowballed, maybe it was kids being marketed to and parents were encouraged to engage their kids with the medium. Maybe RPO was a failed book and a strong marketing campaign accidentally launched it further than intended. Of course anything that gets too much momentum will have to be fully capitalized on.

 

Parents purchasing on behalf of kids is probably the most lucrative market, and if any leverage can be obtained over the parents to participate in that transaction the better for the backing entities.

[Orogun01]

 

tl;dw: confusing, sort of bad (but mostly just mediocre and forgettable), and didn't seem like it was made for any age group due to conflicts in content and storytelling

Was made for 30 year old who will get the references and 15 year old for whom 80's nostalgia is still a thing. It is a competently made movie which by today's standards makes it a ****ing great film. It is forgettable, but you will have fun if you just enjoy for what it is: a nostalgia trip. A lot of my enjoyment of this film was trying to find the Easter eggs in it, like how Spielberg likes Kubrick and that's the likely reason the Shining is in this film or the very meta fact that this film was released during Easter.

[Lexx]

Watched this X-Man Future past or something. Was better than I expected, but I had a hard time with liking the new cast. Felt like this movie only existed to introduce the new characters with the help of the old ones.

 

Got that confirmed in the next movie, Apocalypse, where there had been only the new ones, with a couple seconds of Wolverine appearing. But.. wasn't this laboratory stuff already shown in a different movie? I have this uncanny feeling of having seen it already years ago, but in a sandy and not snowy landscape.

 

Movie was ok too. Again, better than expected... but it took me a long time to remember who is who

Edited April 3, 2018 by Lexx

[Sarex]

Saw ready player one and oh boy... At least Spielberg was self aware, also pretentious, with the Shining reference.

[Bartimaeus]

The Secret World of Arrietty. YIKES! Interesting premise, nice art, but the writing...was just so bad. Might be okay for children, but it was not for me. Whoever wrote this deserves a big ol' slap in the face for butchering it so badly.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Bartimaeus

[injurai]

The Secret World of Arrietty. YIKES! Interesting premise, nice art, but the writing...was just so bad. Might be okay for children, but it was not for me. Whoever wrote this deserves a big ol' slap in the face for butchering it so badly.

 

Yeah, that's a weak entry. From a new director within the studio, so that explains part of it.

[Bartimaeus]

I see that he also directed When Marnie Was There, which is my second least favorite Ghibli film...but Arrietty is on quite another level compared to that - at least When Marnie Was There seemed mostly competent. So far, according to my list of movie ratings (where 6/10 means overall "decent", 7/10 means "good", 8/10 means "great", 9/10 means "fantastic", and 10/10 means "virtually perfect" - I've never rated any movie ever higher than a 9), I'd put them:

 

8.5: Howl's Moving Castle

8: My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Whisper of the Heart

7.5: Princess Mononoke, Pom Poko, Porco Rosso, From Up on Poppy Hill

7: Spirited Away, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Only Yesterday

6.5: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There

5: The Secret World of Arrietty

 

Overall, as someone who generally likes a little more child-oriented movies (especially adventure, coming-of-age, slice of life, etc. films that, when done well, are also perfectly suited and fun for adults), the Ghibli experiment has been a great success on the whole. I have not, as of yet, re-watched any - it seems strange that Howl's Moving Castle somehow is apparently my favorite Ghibli film. The exact numbers may change slightly upon re-watching and discovering what really stuck with me, I think.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Bartimaeus

[Raithe]

io9 - Gary Whitta tells his plans for a Last Starfighter reboot

 

 

 

On Twitter, Rogue One and Book of Eli screenwriter Gary Whitta just dropped a huge bombshell: He’s working with Jonathan Betuel, the writer of The Last Starfighter, to finally try and reboot it for the big screen. We reached out to learn more, and Whitta told us why now is the perfect time to bring it back.

Whitta just nonchalantly revealed the project as “a little something” he’s been working on with Betuel, alongside four gorgeous pieces of concept art depicting the iconic ships from Nick Castle’s beloved 1984 classic, as rendered by Rogue One lead concept artist Matt Allsopp.

 

There’s literally nothing else to go on right now, other than the fact that Whitta and Betuel are in the early stages of getting a reboot off the ground—something Hollywood has been trying to do for quite some time. So we reached out to the writer, and here’s what he had to tell us about his plan.

 

io9: What’s your personal history with The Last Starfighter?

Gary Whitta: It’s always been one of my all-time favorites. It is a deeply special movie for me. In terms of movies that stirred my imagination as a kid, it’s right up there with Star Wars. Maybe because I was a video game junkie back then, but the idea that playing a game could be a magic ticket to a real space adventure, I just always thought that concept was utterly brilliant. The film is sorely underrated in my view, although it’s endured as a cult classic and every time I bring it up in conversation people seem to just light up. There’s a tremendous undercurrent of fondness out there for it.

 

io9: Why was now the right time to bring it back?

Whitta: The simple answer to that is Jonathan Betuel. Jon created and wrote the original movie, it was all his idea, a spec script he wrote while he was working as a waiter in Hollywood in the early ’80s. There was a whole bidding war over that script. In all the years hence, whenever I’ve brought up the idea of a Starfighter reboot in meetings, people would always convey excitement and then say that it’s impossible because the rights are a mess. It’s true that it’s not simple, but part of the key to it is, as I understand it (and I’m not a lawyer), Jon still retains some piece of ownership of the original IP, so no one can make a new movie without his participation. I happened to track Jon down, and after I was done pestering him with all my fanboy questions about the original film we started to talk about what a new version might look like. Since then we’ve spent so many hours working on it I’ve long since lost count, but right now we have a fully developed story that is a combination of reboot and sequel that we both think honors the legacy of the original film while passing the torch to a new generation. We’re both very excited about it creatively.

 

io9: What does it mean to you to be trying to bring this world back to the big screen right now in the midst of some other similar projects being developed?

Whitta: All I know is, we’re trying really hard to make this a reality. It’s a passion project for Jon and me both. And I know we have a great movie here. But we still need to deal with some remaining biz stuff before we can really move forward. We’ve had a lot of talks with Universal. We’re determined, one way or another, to make this happen. Trying to create in Hollywood is always like pushing a boulder uphill, particularly when there are archaic rights issues involved, but we’re going to keep trying. That’s the lesson of Starfighter... when you get your chance you’ve got to grab it with both hands, and hold on tight.

 

io9: You tagged Seth Rogen on your reveal of the concept art on Twitter. Is he involved?

Whitta: I know Seth is a fan of the original and he’s tried to get this done before too. We’ve chatted on Twitter about it. Personally I think he’d make a fantastic Centauri.

 

 

 

 

[Fiach]

Deliver us from Evil

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2377322/

 

Good take on the exorcism genre.

 

Some US Special Forces enter a tomb in Iraq, get possessed and on return to America get on the radar of 2 cops, one of whom is kind of clairvoyant...ish.

 

Decent take on the genre, excellent director commentary (Blu-ray).

Edited April 6, 2018 by Fiach

[Malcador]

[Blarghagh]

What is it with these new Star Wars flicks and tentacle monsters?

[aluminiumtrioxid]

What is it with these new Star Wars flicks and tentacle monsters?

 

Opening up to the Japanese market?

[Drowsy Emperor]

 

Dat obligatory brown filter on scenes of poverty.

[Gfted1]

Chewbacca is already 190 yo!

[injurai]

Alright, I can see why they casted this guy. It's a pretty good take on a C O C K Y young Solo.

 

The trailer has some tone issues though.

 

Will still see in theaters.

 

edit: stupid profanity sanitization.

Edited April 9, 2018 by injurai

[algroth]

Alfred Hitch**** is deemed too indecent for this forum.

[Gfted1]

So are; ****tails, ****pits, ****-a-doodle-doo...I think you can see the trend now...

[injurai]

The sanitizer needs a white list.

[Amentep]

So are; ****tails, ****pits, ****-a-doodle-doo...I think you can see the trend now...

 

Han Solo can't have a ****tail in the ****pit of the millennium falcon while taking about ****trices, ****atoos, or ****roaches in a ****y manner.

[Agiel]

Wonder if the "You look great" gag was a dig at people who maligned Chewbacca's CGI in the new trilogy.

[kellyon]

lady bird: 8/10. not usually a big fan of coming of age stories, but this one was pretty damn funny, and had a pretty good emotional kick to it as well.