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Midweek Movie Free Talk
Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
Recently saw Next (2007) starring Nicolas Cage. I thought it was decent. No spoilers, but the ending caught me off guard. Not because of any major plot twist or anything, but just at how quickly it ended. Instead of dragging on, it just ends and leaves you to almost extrapolate based on what you've learned in the movie.
I feel like if that movie had been made today it would either have lasted another 30mins-1 hour, where they'd try to neatly wrap everything up, or they would keep the abrupt ending and just tease a sequel (which I despise wholeheartedly).
It felt almost refreshing to have the movie just basically say "that's it, you can probably figure out the rest, the end" and just end it after like an hour and a half. I was a bit confused at first, but looking back I probably wouldn't change it at all.
Some news that happened over the CinemaCon week that probably wouldn't have gotten much traction anyway.
Lionsgate announced a Monopoly movie from Margot Robbie
Edgar Wright is re-adapting The Running Man with Glenn Powell in the lead role
Josh Gad will be directing a Chris Farley biopic with Paul Walter Hauser in the lead role
Damien Chazelle set a new movie despite Babylon being one of the biggest money losers of 2022
Cannes announced their line-up for this year Bonus: Here's the Kinds of Kindness announcement video that I've watched on a loop for the past week
Disney revealed the trailer for Young Woman and the Sea which was originally set to be a Disney+ exclusive but got upgraded to a limited theatrical release after positive test screenings and the success of The Boys in the Boat. It stars Daisy Ridley and is directed by Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil). I believe this makes it the first non franchise film Disney has released theatrically since the 2016 film The Finest Hours.
I think that about covers everything.
https://youtu.be/iPXHFbcgzAk?si=Fl0v1B8H2Dvjii17
Anyways, I completed two Oscar year's recently.
1987 Not necessarily as a result from our Moonstruck discussion, but it certainly helped. I first watched Empire of the Sun which was not a Best Picture nominee this year, but I fell in love with it and would probably consider it my favorite of that year. By the way, I had no idea 1987 was like one of the best film years ever? Look at what released that year it's insane.
So here's how I'd rank the nominees that year:
I don't think The Last Emperor is a bad movie, it's gorgeous to look at and very well done overall. It's just kind of forgettable and not captivating throughout it's runtime.
Hope and Glory is similar to Empire of the Sun, in that it's about WW2 through the eyes of the child. Hope and Glory's awards success is probably why Empire of the Sun did not get more nominations than it did. Even though Empire of the Sun grossed more, it was still a box office disappointment with Spielberg saying something along the lines of "I've earned the right to not make a box office hit." Empire of the Sun is wildly underrated from Spielberg's filmography. From what I understand, Hope and Glory was considered high brow at the time as it won awards at the big critic groups. To put it into a modern context, this would be like if high brow critics really loved Belfast.
Fatal Attraction was good, it was entertaining, surprisingly trashy for a movie that got so many Oscar noms especially from the time. But that's why it was such a big hit I suppose.
And Broadcast News was really good too. It's so weird that two romantic comedies were nominated in the same year like this.
2005
I had seen Brokeback Mountain, Capote, and Crash a few years ago. Munich was a surprising movie from Spielberg, violent in a way that he doesn't usually make a film. It's bombastic though and it's a shame it didn't win Film Editing over Crash.
Good Night and Good Luck is a pretty looking movie, with good performances and a fun jazz soundtrack. But the screenplay plays like a PBS special moreso than a prestige drama.
Crash sucks, I don't have to explain that. I thought Capote was pretty boring when I first watched it. And Brokeback Mountain is just brilliant.
Offtopic, but for youtube links, the
?si=...part is a tracking tag that lets youtube see a relationship between whatever client you used to copy the link and anyone who visits the link. If that part is removed, the link still takes you to the right place. I habitually delete them on principle.Munich may be the best film Spielberg has ever made, while Crash is just laughably terrible.
And recently, Participant, the studio behind Good Night and Good Luck and whole lot of other movies, has shut down: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/16/business/media/participant-jeff-skoll.html
It is rare I come across a movie that is right up my alley, that I some haven't heard about before. I like science fiction stories that aren't about evil aliens, so John Carpenter's Starman from 1984 has all the right elements with a simple setup of an alien visiting Earth after it discovered our Voyager probe. However, mankind is savage and violent, so the being is quickly being chased by the military that wants to capture it. All while embodying the form of a widowers dead husband, and they have a lovely road trip together learning about each other. It is a bit cheesy in parts, and the storytelling is very straight forward with clear cut lines between good and bad guys, the moral message is front and center and so on, but it just well put together and an engaging story. Not quite up to the level of something like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but worth a watch none the less. Not the usual horror style of Carpenter, though it does have his fingerprints in one of the opening scenes especially.
Last night's movie was The 39 Steps (1935). Its a fun little film with a lot of haddock for some reason.
late edit: I just finished Breaking Away (1979) --- and it was awesome! I love how much the movie leaned in on Indiana, too.
Been home sick after wisdom tooth removal and that gave me some time to watch whatever I felt like for a change.
As Above, So Below was OK. Was a bit distracted throughout so maybe it was scarier than my first impression. Kinda let down about what it was down there it felt unoriginal.
Ad Astra was way better that expected. I don't know why this movie didn't peak my interest before be it the description or trailer. I liked the lonely dark feeling but still the movie wasn't great in the end just fine.
I watched Circle (2015) again because there's just something about simple concept movies that attracts me even though they're often pretty bad. It's OK but again not great. I can't help myself when it comes to these kind of movies and I don't know why because this movie really didn't deserve a rewatch.
I think the innovative history of computers has great potential for good movies. From Ada Lovelace to Sam Altman. So far there has only been a handful of bigger movies dealing with this, with The Social Network being the biggest one yet. Last year we did get both Tetris and BlackBerry. I watched Tetris about a year ago which I didn't like that much and BlackBerry yesterday which was way better.
It spans about 10 years with the rise and fall of the business oriented successful smartphone. It needs to pack a lot into its 2 hour running time, which means you have to accept many things aren't exactly a history lesson. I still think it manages to tell all the important aspects of that story. The main characters played by Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton and Matt Johnson all have worthy arcs with success and defeat, even though they sometimes become exaggerated caricatures. The core of the story still feels believable and real. It captures the vibe of the late 90s tech innovation and business development well with the technical innovative details, the cutthroat business decisions and the conflict between engineering and business culture. I immediately wanted to read the book it is based on.
I really hope to see more movies covering computer history. There are tons of great stories to tell. Masters of Doom comes to mind. Still, nothing has surpassed the series Halt and Catch Fire in my opinion when it comes to telling a believable story about a tech company - even though it is an entirely fictional story.