What Movie Are You Watching?

Saw even more anime recently. :p Compared to these two, Ghost in the Shell was definitely better. Of course, my mother brought them home from the library she works at and really doesn’t know much about it so I can’t really blame her.

The worse of the two was some new Pokémon movie. The power of us? Something like that, but I could have sworn they already used that for an older movie. Anyway, I try to keep an open mind, but this just felt really lackluster even for the few other Pokemon films I have seen.

The other was Wolf Children...surprisingly mostly predictable despite the odd premise, which somehow makes the implied bestiality even worse. I suppose that at least it had a bit more of a maturity to it in that the characters actually grow, but that’s expecting a lot from a kids’ series where everything has to stay the same.
 
- Jojo Rabit: Amazing. Taika Waititi is fucking awesome

- Fighting With My Family: Probably the only good movie ever produced by WWE. Love Florence Pugh as Paige, also great role for Vince Vaughn.
 
Fighting With My Family was SO GOOD.

If it'd been based on an, "actual," sport or did not chronicle the life of an incredibly promiscuous woman who has had a shit-ton of her dirty laundry in regards to said promiscuity, it would've been better received and/or rated higher.

But, "being a movie about a whore in the wrestling business," did not do the film any favours, outside of wrestling fans.
 
Fighting with my Family was cool -- but there were some things about it that did make me laugh unintentionally.

-- Female wrestler named Jeri Lynn (All I could think everytime they uttered her name was Jerry Lynn of ECW fame.)

-- "We don't dish out receipts here in the WWE" -- <scoff> yeah right! Go look up some shoot interviews on Youtube. Plenty of "receipts" have been dished out through WWE history...and they proudly admit to it in shoot interviews at times.

-- The WWE being the be-all. end-all of wrestling and how the brother might as well quit wrestling because he didn't get signed by WWE. I get it, it's a movie, they're going for dramatic effect. But being a wrestling fan, you can't help but roll your eyes a little and say "WWE propaganda machine at work here!"...there's plenty of ways to make a living in Wrestling outside of WWE. I know, I know..drama and it's a movie and it needs to be dramatic...but at the same time, cynical old me just can't help but laugh at that shit after being fed so much of the WWE propaganda machine.

Fun movie and all, but there were unintentional moments of comedy for me throughout that I just couldn't help but laugh at.
 
danielmann861 said:
-- Female wrestler named Jeri Lynn (All I could think everytime they uttered her name was Jerry Lynn of ECW fame.)

-- "We don't dish out receipts here in the WWE" -- <scoff> yeah right! Go look up some shoot interviews on Youtube. Plenty of "receipts" have been dished out through WWE history...and they proudly admit to it in shoot interviews at times.
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1. I think that was the point ;) lol

2. They don't anymore; that was the whole point of the scene, to show that Paige is old-school; she grew up as a hardcore from the glory/golden days of the Attitude era, etc. This was a time when they had wrestler's court, receipts, the whole she-bang that they mention in shoot interviews and the like.

AFAIR, Paige even contends that, "you DO give receipts!" and then Vince Vaughan says, "not anymore." It's to show that while Paige is a true, blue wrestling fan, the others need more help/training to get to her level, as they aren't born and bred from the old-school teachings of older fans.

It has been known that receipts indeed have stopped, for (I'd say) almost a decade now.

The film is hardly 100% accurate (just read on TV Tropes all the inaccuracies with how she broke into NXT and her first match; reality wasn't even close to how it was portrayed in the film lol), but that's just the WW way; they will always puff up their stuff even if it's shit; Vince's speeches, reactions, commentating and conferences in reference to the WBF and the first XFL, are cringey and hilarious.
 
Parasite: excellent film, but a little overrated. I’m incredibly happy it’s gotten the international praise and recognition it has, but to me it seemed like another very well-made, high quality Korean film.

Big Brother: I was happy to see Donnie Yen actually tackle a film that seemed to have some sort of weight to it (or at least, outside of his standard roles), but I was disappointed in the end. This film is incredibly cheesy, even by modern Hong Kong cinema standards. The action is great, but doesn’t make sense within the film. I did watch this back to back with Parasite though, so that could be affecting my judgement.
 
Saw Sonic the other day, already went over it in the other thread but it was ok.

Watched Doctor Sleep earlier today. Other than Harry Potter, Stephen King’s work had been a large portion of my reading in my teens and early 20s. I don’t read much in general now, just not enough time that I’d rather spend doing anything else, but part of it is seeing his politics and world views and it just not sitting well with me when I try to read anything by him now, unfortunately. I often try to separate artist from the art but with something as personal as writing, it’s difficult.

That all said, two books I haven’t read have been both this and the Shining, so I suppose I had little expectations for either. I also only knew about the Kubrick version of the latter, so it was a surprise to read that King had not been happy with it after watching both.

Because of this, it’s hard to judge either, but I guess I enjoyed both for different reasons. Shining was definitely more disturbing and I felt delved more into feelings I’m familiar with, what with loneliness and seeming to work hard for nothing. Doctor Sleep, well, it emulates that style well enough when it’s making a callback to it, but otherwise it feels way more conventional. Some good bits here and there but very predictable. It almost makes me want to read the book now to find out whether any of it delved deeper.
 
toy story 4.

slowly watching john wick 3 on netflix ( ok but imo just over the top, silly action)

planning to watch Ad Astra in the next few days.
 
Tried The Big Lebowski again. I simply can't grasp the high praise the movie receives.

I get it (I think)-- the absurdism, the overly complicated plot, the dry humor, the relaxed response to existential lack of meaning-- but is it as funny or meaningful as people make it out to be? It's a fun little thing, but maybe an exaggerated dry sense of humor and academic training in philosophy make its 'worldview' seem a little too pithy for me.
 
Your Boy Leroy said:
Parasite: excellent film, but a little overrated. I’m incredibly happy it’s gotten the international praise and recognition it has, but to me it seemed like another very well-made, high quality Korean film.

Big Brother: I was happy to see Donnie Yen actually tackle a film that seemed to have some sort of weight to it (or at least, outside of his standard roles), but I was disappointed in the end. This film is incredibly cheesy, even by modern Hong Kong cinema standards. The action is great, but doesn’t make sense within the film. I did watch this back to back with Parasite though, so that could be affecting my judgement.
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Parasite is indeed an excellent film. I actually think for me it's perfectly rated versus overrated. It's funny though because about halfway through the movie before the basement scene I thought while really good that it was overrated. Then after the basement scene I thought ok I can see how one would think its best picture quality. However once it ended I said, damn that's the best picture this year.
 
Just finished the remake of Ghost in the Shell. It’s only been some months since I’ve watched the original film, but it’s already hard to recall what all differences and similarities there are, never mind trying to guess what might have kept true to the source material.

In any case, for the most part I enjoyed it. Didn’t realize Beat Takeshi was in it til half way through with his crazy hair. I felt both the Major and her partner had good enough actors, never really cared about supposed “whitewashing” complaints coming from those who are constantly changing other established characters, especially with this adaptation having a good reason for it.

The only part that kind of irked me was the portrayal of Kuze, if only because I didn’t realize he’s technically not the same character as the Puppet Master. Perhaps this Kuze character in the manga or anime was different, but it’s kind of clear here that he’s apparently a stand in or supposed to be an amalgamation. I guess I just prefer the “original” villain in that he was not so expressive or vengeful, necessarily...which brings me to Mokoto, who I recall before thinking she was almost kind of too flat, but I feel works better here with the longer run time making way for more introspective scenes.

I remember before making some obvious comparisons to things like Nier Automata or Deus Ex, but I’m not sure I mentioned either Silver Case or 25th Ward which I feel have some more subdued similarities, now I’ve had time to think things through. At the forefront you have Kamui and his relationship to the player character, but also just the general way in which society eventually becomes with the overbearing government and all the backstabbing when politics really come into play.

Speaking of, I also picked up Scarface today, just because I know the mansion in it is similar to the one in No More Heroes. Also 3 From Hell - don’t much care for horror but still found myself intrigued by the previous two films. So I guess I’ll have my thoughts on those in here later on.
 
Just watched (most of) Bloodshot last night. Decent film. Vin Diesel can't speak words very well.
 
I'm incredibly passionate about cinema (sometimes more than games) and meticulously log every film I watch - https://mubi.com/users/3343351

I saw Takashi Miike's "First Love" in a tiny underground cinema yesterday and it was glorious. Quite reminicent of "True Romance", but that's not bad thing. The fact it's his 103rd (or 104th) film is insane!

At home, I have over 200 films in my backlog ranging from 1930's musicals to German TV shows from the early 70's, but tonight i'll be watching Scorcese's "The Departed" I think.
 
Say hello to my little friends

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In all seriousness, I think I’ll save the other 9 for my day off tomorrow. Thought it’d be appropriate for St Patrick’s day. In any case, just know my thoughts are effected by this after a long shift at work - seems I’ve got one unlucky job where a grocery store with empty shelves refuses to close.

So I went in and watched Scarface without the knowledge that there was actually another one way back in the 30s? 20s? Now I’m interested in that, too. But I’m assuming that for many these days, it’s the film starring Al Pacino that most know about or remember. I’d actually only seen him in a movie titled ‘Insomnia’ before this one, though I at least knew his name and reputation. That was an interesting film, for having Robin Williams in a serious role as an antagonist...especially only catching it on tv half way through and confusing it with a Stephen King story by the same name.

I also knew of the movie during early childhood, maybe around 11, as it was referenced in ‘Little Nicky’, my second Adam Sandler movie(think my first was ‘Big Daddy’). An ok movie but certainly not in the same league.

Thing is, after watching this, I was surprised to find some say it’s hard to take seriously, or that the acting was wooden. I suppose some parts are pretty bombastic,and maybe I’m giving it too much slack as an “old” movie, but I genuinely thought it was very interesting and a good character study, if a bit too long and without much variety.

I can definitely see some influence it likely had on other crime stuff, especially Rockstar with Vice City but also oddly with characters in GTA4 or the Red Dead Redemption games. Dutch is a bit obvious as someone who is too big to fall and who becomes everything he dislikes, but there are others like Faustin or Pellegrino who are emblematic of the lack of trust that ruins their lives.

However, the aforementioned reference in No More Heroes makes a lot more sense now and is surprisingly more fitting than what I’d thought it would end up being. Death Metal mostly seems to have his head on his shoulders(as much as any of the assassins can I guess), but what he says to Travis about sacrifice, and likewise what Travis says during their battle, or even his contradiction about wanting to be #1 despite supposedly not caring about titles or power, well...it’s all very relevant to someone who seeks to gain power no matter the cost and ultimately still ends up unhappy and unfulfilled in his life. The monicker “crownless king” or even the symbol of the cracked star symbolize this idea very well.

Anyway, I haven’t had a chance to watch 3 from Hell yet, hopefully tomorrow. I did watch this other film, ‘Away we go’ I think it was called, starring this guy from the Office, with my family...it was just ok, kind of interesting but not anything great and nowhere near as funny as it should have been instead.
 
Could have sworn I’d already written my thoughts on ‘3 from hell’, but either that was in another thread or some other forum I guess.

Surprisingly not much to say about it, in so far as I thought it was be harder to watch. Maybe it’s because I was younger but the previous two films felt more gruesome. But then again, having just seen Scarface I even found parts of that a bit more brutal.

The most disappointing part was the death of Sid, the actor that played Spaulding, but that would be like blaming the Harry Potter films for the death of the first Dumbledore. Just bad timing. I did enjoy the new character for what little time they had for writing him. The beginning of the movie was a lot more interesting than how it ended. Really I just don’t think the payoff was big enough to really warrant a sequel unfortunately.

What I actually came to talk about was a seemingly recent film, ‘The Lighthouse’, despite it aesthetically simulating older films. That’s basically all I knew about it from a short trailer I’d seen on Facebook for some time. Thought it looked interesting, kind of Cthulhu-ey, and honestly I think a lot of these seafaring stories can’t help but share similar themes, but middling reviews kept me from actually seeing it for quite a while.

Even so, it’s hard to take many reviews seriously when a lot of them entertain the absurd notions of “toxic masculinity”, especially when actual real things like cabin fever are far closer to what is actually being shown. So I decided to just see it for myself. To the films’ credit, it was much harder to fit into a singular box, at least to start. Still I’m not so sure what to make of it, which at least in that I often enjoy far more than easily digestible content.

At the very least, I feel it’s pretty relatable at the moment, for some being cooped up inside, but for me it’s more the feeling of working for a disingenuous dipshit. Really not sure how much was in Tommy’s head, and that’s played well with how much Thomas may or may not be lying to him. Either way, the guy’s stuck in a bad situation that just seems to get worse, no escape in sight except for getting shitfaced. Suppose I should be glad at least that I have modern conveniences and get to go home every day, but then is my health worth risking for just a dollar more per hour? Lastly there’s the lighthouse horn that just seems to keep going for a very long time until you just tune it out. Not quite the same but having what seems to be tinnitus in my right ear for over a week now, I’m surprised I’m not going mad or hallucinating myself.

I think black and white was the right choice to go with, really made some parts feel unique. Some of the jargon was hard to get used to at first but I feel like years of Downton Abbey kind of helped, and it wasn’t quite so bad as Moby Dick. Overall I think I’d recommend it just for how strange it was.
 
Bloodsport (1988) is currently free on Youtube (at least in the US), albeit with ads. I forgot how stupidly excellent it is.
It's rightly streamlined: pure schlock, and also includes some Kowloon references (as well as a boat chase that reminds me of S3.)

 
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Just finished watching tenki no Ko, and boy visually is again breathtaking. But it was weird the way climate change was tackled.
Shinkai even said he wanted to tackle it
The only "message" I could get out of the movie was "yeah we play a role on climate change but life keeps going and there are more important things".
Even if I have a similar thinking (we should really start to prioritize certain things instead of just crying global warming and just raise taxes), the last part was so heavy handed trying to tie it so much with the real global warming problem it ended up making a disservice to the actual movie

I really enjoyed though, I still prefer 5cm per second, it was just straight to the point, and shinkai always seems to be trying to hammer the same point again and again (lack of connection between people), and even if 5cm was too melodramatic I ate that shit straight up, felt just more real.
 
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