cloud_loud's recent activity

  1. Comment on ‘Has this guy ever made a movie before?’ Francis Ford Coppola’s forty-year battle to film Megalopolis in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    Some highlights:

    Some highlights:

    The crew member sometimes found Coppola’s approach exasperating: “We had these beautiful designs that kept evolving but he would never settle on one. And every time we would have a new meeting, it was a different idea.” When the crew member insisted they needed to do more work to determine how the film was going to look, they say, Coppola replied: “How can you figure out what Megalopolis looks like when I don’t even know what Megalopolis looks like?”

    But pretty much every day, we’d just walk away shaking our heads wondering what we’d just spent the last 12 hours doing.” As a third crew member puts it: “This sounds crazy to say, but there were times when we were all standing around going: ‘Has this guy ever made a movie before?’”

    Several sources also felt that Coppola could be “old school” in his behaviour around women. He allegedly pulled women to sit on his lap, for example. And during one bacchanalian nightclub scene being shot for the film, witnesses say, Coppola came on to the set and tried to kiss some of the topless and scantily clad female extras. He apparently claimed he was “trying to get them in the mood”.

    10 votes

  3. Comment on Movie of the Week #29 - The Zone of Interest in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    Probably the only movie from this series that has been well documented by me on here. Here are my thoughts on the film after I first watched it. An online friend I have who I discuss awards stuff...

    Probably the only movie from this series that has been well documented by me on here.

    Here are my thoughts on the film after I first watched it.

    An online friend I have who I discuss awards stuff on predicted this film really early on for Oscar consideration (before it's Cannes premiere). And it got close to outright winning the Palme, if it wasn't for how crowd-pleasing Anatomy of a Fall is.

    2 votes

  6. Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes I was looking back at the post I made when the title got announced. It kind of gave me a weird feeling and made me start pontificating about the passage of time....

    Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

    I was looking back at the post I made when the title got announced. It kind of gave me a weird feeling and made me start pontificating about the passage of time. That has nothing to do with this movie, but it made me feel weird watching it in a theater like "didn't they just announce this?" I don't get that feeling often but there was something about this one, maybe cause I saw Dawn and War in theaters as a teenager. I had a similar feeling after watching Guardians Vol. 3 and having this vivid memory of watching the first in 2014 (I actually saw it the same day I saw Dawn so that might explain it).

    Anyways, I thought this movie was wildly mediocre lol. All that build up just for that. I think it starts off weak, Dawn and War had more exciting openings. Especially War with the "Monkey Killer" writing on the helmet being one of the first things we see. The opening here is kind of dull and that sets the mood for the rest of the movie.

    I said this when the trailers dropped, but if feels off. Like it's obviously set in the same universe as the reboot trilogy, and the Apes are supposed to be similar, but there's something off-brand about it. The weight and the gravitas of the Apes are gone, they sometimes look super real, but they often come across more cartoony. I guess that's intentional considering the Apes are evolving into whatever they turn into in the original. The voice acting also feels off. It's super hard to describe. Freya Allen, the human character, does well when it's just a physical performance but when she starts speaking she comes across stilted and unemotional more often than not.

    Visually I thought it looked good sometimes, but mostly plain. Which is a HUGE downgrade from how pretty Dawn and War look. It really shows how much better of a journeyman filmmaker Reeves is compared to someone like Ball who doesn't have the forte to stand out from his other "just for a paycheck" colleagues.

    There was only one action sequence that I really liked, and they show the most exciting part in the trailer, when Allen jumps on the horse. That entire sequence is great, and I think shows that Ball could have potential. But considering how he has an entire film trilogy under his belt, this is probably the best he can do.

    Edit: Also I wanted to add, I'm not a logic guy or a plot hole guy or whatever. I don't care about that in movies. But the aspect that bothered me the most about the movie is that

    Allen knows everything about the history of humans. Like the actual history. The movie takes place generations after Ceaser dies. Most humans can't even talk anymore. How does she know what actually happened (what we saw in Rise, Dawn, and War)? There's not an attempt to even make it seem like stuff got diluted or distorted generations later, it's just exactly what happened was passed down human to human. She also speaks perfect English. And the ending is just eh. It feels like this movie is supposed to take place a few years after War (other than the whole Ceaser is Jesus stuff) rather than generations.

    Spoilers
    2 votes

  7. Comment on Megalopolis | First look clip in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    It’s not that it uses VFX, it’s that it looks bad. It’s very ugly on top of not looking real.

    It’s not that it uses VFX, it’s that it looks bad. It’s very ugly on top of not looking real.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    Best Years of Our Lives is fantastic man. One of the best Best Picture winners.

    Best Years of Our Lives is fantastic man. One of the best Best Picture winners.

    2 votes

  9. Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    The Fall Guy In terms of David Leitch, I didn't care Atomic Blonde. I thought it was a little boring, I wasn't super impressed with the 10 minute single take. I don't really remember the movie all...

    The Fall Guy

    In terms of David Leitch, I didn't care Atomic Blonde. I thought it was a little boring, I wasn't super impressed with the 10 minute single take. I don't really remember the movie all that well, I mostly remember being disappointed in the movie as a whole.

    And then he comes out with Deadpool 2, which I loved, and I thought was an improvement on the first. I thought it looked better, and I think Leitch had learned how to edit action scenes better at that point. Hobbs & Shaw is fine, I like it better than the last three mainline Fast and Furious movies, but it doesn't actually feel like Leitch's film. It feels like anyone could have directed that.

    But then he comes out with Bullet Train, which I really liked, that was a return to his more stylistic approach that he had with Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2. Bullet Train is funny, it has a lot of memorable action scenes, it has a lot of cool editing moments.

    The Fall Guy is a more mature film than Bullet Train, and I think it's a very personal film for Leitch. He's a former stunt man and this is an ode to stunt people. So it all feels very intimate for a spectacle film like this. Leitch is also super confident behind the camera here. The opening scene is a oner, and I think it's a real oner, and it's so co-ordinated and it really feels like there's a tension there.

    Bullet Train felt really reddity in it's humor and approach, and this feels classier. I hate to say timeless, as I feel like that would be overpraise, but it's not going to be dated. It doesn't feel like a movie from the internet age. It feels like it could have released in a more analog time period. Ryan Gosling is really funny in the role, he has great chemistry with Emily Blunt. The action sequences are awesome.

    The one weak part about Fall Guy is the third act. There's a meta aspect to this where characters are saying "I don't know how the third act is going to be fixed." And I don't think it concludes the way it should. It starts getting a little messy, and I wish it was simpler.

    But it's still good, and I think it's the type of movie that I will like more on subsequent rewatches the same way I liked Bullet Train more on rewatches.

    4 votes

  10. Comment on In streaming milestone, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery team on bundle featuring Disney+, Hulu and Max in ~tv

    cloud_loud
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    I would say most people I’ve encountered now-a-days don’t watch much of anything, they seem pretty content scrolling through their phones. It’s kind of a sad state of affairs right now honestly.

    I would say most people I’ve encountered now-a-days don’t watch much of anything, they seem pretty content scrolling through their phones. It’s kind of a sad state of affairs right now honestly.

    9 votes

  11. Comment on Warner Bros. to release new ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie ‘The Hunt for Gollum’ in 2026, Peter Jackson to produce and Andy Serkis to direct in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    He also has Breathe with Andrew Garfield which released in 2017. I never saw it but it also got lukewarm reception.

    He also has Breathe with Andrew Garfield which released in 2017. I never saw it but it also got lukewarm reception.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on TV Tuesdays Free Talk in ~tv

    cloud_loud
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    I saw Fallout. I liked it a lot. I finished the first season. I liked it more than what I saw of The Last of Us. It's not self-important, and it doesn't have that "prestige" TV feel to it. It's...

    I saw Fallout.

    I liked it a lot. I finished the first season. I liked it more than what I saw of The Last of Us. It's not self-important, and it doesn't have that "prestige" TV feel to it. It's just good, well-made, entertainment. I've liked Walter Goggins ever since seeing The Hateful Eight (underrated all around) and the show has created a star in Ella Purnell. I've previously seen Purnell in both Army of the Dead and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I don't remember her in Army and I don't remember Peculiar Children whatsoever. But she very much stands out here, and she has a unique look to her that is also harmonious and I'm looking forward to seeing her in more stuff.

    This from Christopher Nolan's brother Jonathan Nolan, who has always been vocal about liking video games. I only played Fallout 3 for a little bit as a kid, I've always been terrible at video games but I never even managed to get out of the vault. So any story I learned from the show, and if I didn't know it was already a video game I wouldn't know it. It is so captivating.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on Movie of the Week #28 - Pan's Labyrinth in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    I’ve recently fallen out of love with Del Toro. Rewatching The Shape of Water made me go “eh.” Despite at one point being my favorite of 2017. I can’t fully explain why, I don’t think there’s much...

    I’ve recently fallen out of love with Del Toro. Rewatching The Shape of Water made me go “eh.” Despite at one point being my favorite of 2017. I can’t fully explain why, I don’t think there’s much substance to it and I don’t really love the look of the movie enough to overcome that. I had a similar problem when I rewatched Nightmare Alley. I think style over substance is fine but it wares down on me when I don’t find the style all that cool.

    I remember reading a Reddit thread where someone said Del Toro gets called a genius by people who only watch horror movies and/or are very nerd oriented. Edit: Sorry I wanted to expand on this but forgot. I think I used to be more nerd-oriented than I am now, which could explain some of my decreased feelings. I also feel like I forced myself to like his movies more than I did simply because I'm Mexican. I had a similar thing doing that for Roma a year after The Shape of Water released. And now I'm over that sort of identity play.

    I will say though, Pan’s Labyrinth is legitimately great and might be the only great film Del Toro’s ever made. It’s a beautiful looking film, but it’s also the intersection of style and substance that I think a lot of his films lack. The metaphors to fascism are simple but effective. The melodrama blends well with the fantasy. And the music is great, especially the lullaby.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on ‘The Fall Guy’ box office disappointment hurts more than opening weekend in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    I don't put tags on my posts, I usually wait for the mods to handle that cause I'm not ever sure what I'm supposed to be writing on there. But I guess I can start doing that if it's a big problem.

    I don't put tags on my posts, I usually wait for the mods to handle that cause I'm not ever sure what I'm supposed to be writing on there. But I guess I can start doing that if it's a big problem.

    9 votes

  18. Comment on ‘The Fall Guy’ box office disappointment hurts more than opening weekend in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    The perspective of an increase might just be because of me posting this stuff on here. Discussing the box office has been a thing on the internet for about two decades now (from what I've been...

    Over the last few years it feels like there's been a massive increase in internet interest in box office gross

    The perspective of an increase might just be because of me posting this stuff on here. Discussing the box office has been a thing on the internet for about two decades now (from what I've been aware) there was a lot of discussion about it on imdb forms and whatnot.

    I mean I find the movie business very interesting and I think, because movies are a mix of business and art it's good to know about both. Hits and flops kind of decide what direction the industry will go, what types of movies get made and what types of movies don't. You don't have to know about that stuff, but it's not like it doesn't matter either.

    24 votes

  19. Comment on ‘The Fall Guy’ box office disappointment hurts more than opening weekend in ~movies

    cloud_loud
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    inb4 "it costs me 500 dollars to watch a movie." To put it into perspective, Fall Guy's 28 million opening weekend is lower than what Leitch's last film, Bullet Train, opened to in 2022; with half...

    inb4 "it costs me 500 dollars to watch a movie."

    To put it into perspective, Fall Guy's 28 million opening weekend is lower than what Leitch's last film, Bullet Train, opened to in 2022; with half the production budget, a lower marketing budget, and worse reviews.

    This is a shame since I initially thought this would be able to break out at the beginning of the year. Gosling and Blunt are both coming off of Barbenheimer, the film was well received, and it's a spectacle film. With superhero films really crashing, it felt like this had something to offer to audiences. It's from an auteur (I'll expand on that at a different date), it has a distinct style to it, and it's fun. I thought that would make it gross at least 200M DOM and maybe get close to 500M WW. It'd be great if it got to 200M WW now. Universal bet big on this being a tentpole, and they usually make good bets, but they lost on this one. It was the perfect storm for a movie to be a hit, and it just wasn't.

    This is also the lowest start to the summer we've had in a long time. It's also the first time (excluding pandemic years 2020 and 2021) that the start of the Summer wasn't by a Marvel movie since 2006 when Mission Impossible 3 opened to over 40M, and the first time that the start of the summer wasn't a sequel since Kingdom of Heaven opened to less than 20M in 2005.

    The Summer is looking bleak now, especially since the rest of May might see the rest of the big films open to less than 50M (Apes, Furiosa, Garfield, and IF). At this point I'm hopeful at least one of them could break out. Fall Guy's biggest problem was that it wasn't connected to a strong IP (no one remembers the TV show) and IP is the biggest determiner for what people deem "worth going to the theater for." So called event films.

    9 votes