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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.
I've been listening through Mike Birbiglia's podcast, Working It Out. Great little podcast. Anyway, I only know his work from This American Life. Long story short, I decided to watch some of his specials and his last movie, Don't Think Twice (2016).
Nice little movie. A little rough in some spots, but good enough overall for what its trying to do. Of all the things he makes, I think his podcast is the strongest.
I've watched the new Nosferatu.
Enjoyed the movie, the first part was very over the top with nods to classics like the Exorcist which was amusing. The second part felt like a classic fairytale storytelling of the young virgin who was sacrificed.
Also watched Baby Girl and thought it gave a good balanced view of SM.
I just started to watch Dune 2 on Netflix -- I don't have any commentary on the movie yet because I'm only 20 minutes in, but I did want to complain that there are no fewer than 11 ad breaks in this movie.
Streaming services are the ultimate rip off now.
For the cost of streaming on one service for one month, you can get a dozen DVDs at a thrift shop, or 1½ new Blu-rays of movies that are 2-3 years old. I know which choice I'm making.
The only streaming service that I feel is actually worth the subscription price is Spotify. Regurtigating the quote from gaming - make your platform good enough that it's better to use than pirating, and then people will do that.. I haven't used tv/movie streamers for years at this point. So.... 🏴☠️. It's even better quality than streaming on account of the bitrates (I think).
We only had 2 tv channels when I grew up, one of which was public service so no ads ever, and the other only ever had ads in between programmes. Even when they do their yearly Lord of the Rings marathon, they have zero ads for 3 hours. So having never gotten used to ad breaks in the middle of anything, and every time I come across it at someone else's place on other tv channels it's practically excruciating. Can't imagine trying to watch a movie with 11 ad breaks. That is just fucking absurd and would 100% ruin the movie for me.
Finally watched Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (after watching the original 3 short films leading up to it). I rated it 3/4 on my blog and said:
I went to see Companion in the theater based on good reviews, but I thought it was just okay. Worth watching, but not as good as its reviews would indicate. I'd describe it as several other movies thrown into a blender, but it doesn't do each point as well as the pre-blender movies. I hesitate to say which specific movies because it would spoil too much.
I also liked it enough. It’s a good piece of entertainment. I would say the pre-blender movies are The Stepford Wives and Ex-Machina with the self-referentiality and ironic humor of Scream. I wouldn’t say saying any of those are spoilers considering everything is in the trailer lol.
I think there has also been some inflation in the use of movies with a "twist". Now almost everything has a twist, though it is really not much more than a plot development that gets clear late in the movie. Or maybe I have just been desensitized to it, but I don't think there has been any real big twists since something like Fight Club.
+1, I never watch a trailer for a movie I ever want to see. I've basically sworn them off ever since I learned that the original trailer for Jordan Peele's Get Out was going to include:
Get Out spoilers!
The girlfriend threateningly jangling her keys
by studio request. Luckily it was pulled at the last minute, but I still don't trust any trailers.
Reddit is terrible about this. Lots of subreddits allow "If you know, you know" type comments that reveal way too much in supposedly spoiler-free areas.
Been slightly sick the last couple of weeks, so have mostly dealt with not so challenging movies.
I saw two Mel Brooks movies. Blazing Saddles and The Producers. I liked Blazing Saddles the best as the gags just kept coming, even though some of the jokes fell flat. The Producers is more "normal" but also lacks the outright insanity, except for "Springtime for Hitler" play at the end.
I also saw the The Fall Guy and didn't really have high expectations, but it still failed to impress me. It sells itself as being about stuntwork, but most of the time is spent on a rather dumb crime plot. The script goes through more or less random scenes that seem mostly pointless, like going from sword fights to neon bar bottle fights? Yes, there are some cool looking action scenes, but even for a popcorn action flick, I think it is possible to have a script that has a little more substance to it.
I was pleasantly surprised by Richard Linklater's Hit Man. A charming well written and good paced story. The concept is great and while you know sort of how things inevitably will go wrong, it is still an enjoyable ride. The philosophical meta-layer is not a coincidence as I think how it ends makes for a moral challenge, as we a generally meant to want the main characters to succeed, so can we accept what they do in the end?