What Movie Are You Watching?

[Dg1995]

For me Rise Of Skywalker is a disaster movie. A movie that tries to be serious but fails horribly at that.

It screwed a lot of star wars rules and made me more entertained by the amount of stupid stuff than the movie itself.

 

[Revan]

I was aware of the negative critic reception going into TROS. But upon leaving the cinema, TROS is now my preferred title out of the three Disney Sequel Trilogy films.

Confused, I discussed this with other die-hard Star Wars fans I know and they all think the new film is "brilliant".

I don't know, maybe there's something in the water in my local area? But after the backlash to Shenmue 3 and now TROS, I don't think I'll ever agree with general fan consensus.

 

[danielmann861]

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker -- It was...the best of a bad situation. It tried to cram too many ideas into one movie. Too many ideas that should have been in the second movie but thanks to Rian Johnson's subversion of expectation methodology, those ideas were never introduced and thus felt uber rushed and crammed into an overloaded film.

So now we have the Disney Trilogy under our belt...overall thoughts? The original trilogy was a trilogy made in a time where no one had any expectations what-so-ever. It was a blank slate so it was all new and exciting. The prequel trilogy was made in a time where the fandom existed and had expectations. So...naturally, there was destined to be backlash. Even though I do think the prequel trilogy isn't as good as it could have been...I still think it was always destined for backlash no matter what.

The original trilogy was made by a dude who had a clear cut story under their belt.

The prequel trilogy was made by that same dude who had a bunch of yes men surrounding him telling him everything he was writing was golden. (the sad thing about the prequel trilogy is it could have been good...it just needed a better writer penning his ideas and someone to tell him when his ideas needed work)

The Disney trilogy was made by committee. It had a rough pencilled outline that was trashed with TLJ and desperately salvaged with ROTS.

Is it terrible? No, not entirely...again, I feel about it the same way I feel about the prequels. Some really good ideas on paper, but not terribly well executed. Could have been better than it was. Still, I don't think ROTS is a disaster either...just a movie that is desperately trying to salvage the remains of the turd that was TLJ by cramming in too much all at once and never giving it time to settle.

A solid swimming in 7's and nothing more.



The Hidden Fortress -- One of Kurosawa's classics...and the inspiration for Star Wars. Felt right to re-watch after watching ROTS.

 

[Revan]

I'm not ranting against anyone here, just mentioning this as we're on a Star Wars topic.

This was JJ Abram's vision for how the trilogy both he and Rian created should end. Yet, people are angry at him because it wasn't what they imagined. A perfect example of this can now be seen in the Reylo following. Rise of Skywalker didn't end beat-for-beat in the way that following anticipated. Now, suddenly, the entire trilogy which they once passionately defended has been "ruined". Now they're joining The Fandom Menace and hurling abuse at JJ because of the way he chose to end the story according to his vision. Suddenly, just like Rian Johnson, YouTubers are saying that JJ has 'contempt for the fandom' and 'hates the franchise'. Does this not all sound profoundly childish to anyone at this point?

It doesn't shock me at this point. This is a fandom that hates almost every mainline instalment in a 9 film saga since Return of the Jedi (maybe even The Empire Strikes Back), with them only liking The Force Awakens because it placated their nostalgia for A New Hope. This is a fandom that bullied a child actor out of Hollywood and spiralled him into depression because he wasn't their dream depiction of a 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker. This is a fandom that nearly drove Ahmed Best to suicide over his portrayal of Jar Jar Binks. This is a fandom that ridiculed George Lucas to the point he sold the franchise, and now they're sharpening their pitchforks for the new filmmakers and actors with Rian Johnson having to read hateful comments on a daily basis.

If people think they can honestly make better received Star Wars films which everyone will universally like, then good fucking luck.

 

[BloodyHeartland]

I don’t feel any sympathy for JJ or Disney...you kinda reap what you sow when you decide politics trump storytelling.

And no, you don’t need to prove you can make anything better in order to criticize anything; otherwise there would be no such thing as reviews.

 

[spud1897]

I enjoyed ROTS as a whole. Yes theres some plot holes etc and a little too much fanservice but overall it's not a bad film.

There's always going to be a bunch of fans in any fanbase who shit on things because it's not they way they wanted it.

Ignore them. If you've enjoyed something then that purpose has been served successfully.

 

[Dg1995]

imo the only time Star Wars fans were wrong was the time that they considered prequels as crappy movies.(Even when they criticized prequels majority of the times it was just nit picking. Like saying "Only a whiny kid cries when his mother dies in his arms. This ruined the movie for me.")

But now that they have realized what a mistake they have done(Since Sequel trilogy completely proved them how wrong they were) they criticize sequel trilogy but Lucasfilm and Disney just call them toxic fanbase.

Edit: Also about the Reylo backlash, that was their fault. They should have never tried to please those fanbase that Rey's actress considered to be "Toxic".

 

[Araviel]

The Irishman. Quite enjoyed it but it is far too long, worked well watching it in two sessions though.

Excited to see SW come Thursday, I enjoyed the last jedi so yeah.

 

[sbkodama]

You should stop about the narrative of "they didn't have what they wanted", or do you think that wanting a trilogy that stay cohesive with itself and past trilogies is too much to ask ?
As said in another thread a good movie don't need a good story but a good cinematography, so these movies may be good but their trilogy isn't.

 

[danielmann861]

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance -- As mentioned before, bought that lovely new Vengeance trilogy box set from Arrow Video. Re watched this last night. Absolutely grim to the core. The low key film of the trilogy. While Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance are heavily stylized, this opts for gritty simplicity which is something that I've kind of always admired about it and thought helped it stand out from the other two in the trilogy. Song Kang-Ho as the broken father is absolutely riveting. As too is Shin Ha-kyun as the deaf mute whose intentions are always well meaning but destined to end in tragedy. It's not for the faint of heart. It's grim and nihilistic to the core. But it is exactly what a good revenge film should be - a classic examination of how violence begets violence.



Parasite -- My favorite film of 2019! Without question! I've been a huge fan of Bong-Joon Ho ever since I saw Memories of Murder and so far (with exception of Okja) he hasn't let me down. A darkly comedic yarn about an incredibly poor family who scam their way into the employee of a well to do upper class family. If you choose to see this then you should go into it completely blind. Let it suck you in and let it enchant you with its mastery of storytelling. I've seen it three times now and it only gets better with every re-watch. Darkly comedic and brilliantly acted by its cast and brilliantly directed by a master who is at the top of his game. My favorite film of 2019, by far!




Crawl -- I wasn't expecting much...and still I feel let down. I generally have liked Aexandre Aja's work in the past and I was hoping for good things from this considering it was produced by Sam Raimi. But oddly enough it's a movie that is almost too dumb and yet, not dumb enough for its own good. As a B movie, I felt like I was always waiting for it to take off and instead I got something that felt like a failure to launch. It's tauntly directed and well acted, but it felt at odds with itself. There are moments where it wants me to take it seriously. Then there are other moments that are just so incredibly dumb that it made me think "why didn't it it just embrace this?"

For instance, the main character gets bitten at least three times by various gators, to the point where she ends up in a death roll towards the end and yet, somehow, she's still able to outswim these Gators? She's still able to shrug off her wounds like they were nothing? That death roll should have shattered her arm if not torn it off entirely! A gators death roll is no joke!

It has moments of pure shlock, but it never embraces its B-movie roots. Also, some of the CG looked fucking atrocious in this movie. From the obvious green screened back drops to the sometimes weightless gators. Again, it just all feels at odds with itself. Is it a shlocky B-movie or trying to be something half way serious? It never figures it out come the end and feels like it suffers from a bit of an identity crisis.



Zombieland: Double Tap -- I'm a bit over zombies at the moment. After the zombie overkill that has plauged us in recent years, I will admit I was a bit sick of zombie films so I purposely avoided this when it came out even though I did enjoy the first movie to some degree. I was also a bit weary seeing that comedy sequels made years after the first movie don't tend to have the best track record at times. Hell, comedy sequels in general don't tend to have the best track record. And Yet...I was genuinely surprised that I kinda enjoyed this.

I think it's just these characters and it's a real testament to how endearing they really are. Especially Woody Harrelson. Harrelson is the MVP of these movies by far. Still, I enjoyed this more than I expected. I liked the welcome addition of Rosario Dawson (always nice to see her). Emma Stone is as likable as she ever has been. Eisenberg is still his autisitc self but for this character it works.

Although I take one grievance with the obvious Shaun of the Dead joke that they ripped. That one joke about meeting their doppelgangers. Shaun of the Dead did that one joke in less time and for the better. Still, much like the first movie, it's mostly just a hang out movie...only the back drop just so happens to be the zombie apocalypse. And it worked better than I expected second time around. I'd be up for another catch up/look in movie with this cast down the road.

 

[Truck_1_0_1_]

SW: The Rise of Skywalker (2019):

I mean, everyone's seen it, so to title it like that is redundant lol. Anyways!

Saw it last night with my best man, his cousin (also was in my bridal party) and his brother (also a good friend). We've taken in every SW film since the new trilogy began (save for Solo), so this was a no brainer.

The acting is quite good, IMO, the best of the trilogy, with a ton less ham (

Spoiler

Palpatine excluded, obviously

) than the previous installments. Lightsabre-play is not bad and the action scenes during fights are ok; not bad, not great. Getting to the ship battles though, absolutely fantastic; the first (with the Falcon) is superb and VERY well-done.

I didn't see too many problems with the story, personally, but shoehorning love interests (those who read my Yakuza posts know how I feel about that) bothers me, especially when it isn't necessary. Redemption for certain characters was done well and in accordance with the series' trademarks. The only thing that was glaring to myself (and my buddies), was that Finn, "has something very important to tell Rey," and never does. If it was one and done, no biggie, but they literally bring it up 3 more times in the film (and not back to back dialogue trees/lines either; the last mention comes AN HOUR after the initial statement), without a resolution. Also, I thought TLJ established Rose as a love interest for Finn? Or does he just get around a lot?

Thought the final scene (while predictable) was super well-done as well and acted as a good sendoff for the trilogy, complete with a touch of fanservice and leaving things open to new opportunities as well. Cameos were done tastefully and weren't gushing with fanservice either, I felt.

As a non-hardcore fan of the series, that has seen all of the films more than once, but isn't incredibly-invested into the lore and minute details of the backstory (have never played a game or watched any supplementary shows or anything, for example), this was a great film, super enjoyable and a worthy addition to the series... especially since it didn't slam the door shut on a ton of great plot introductions like TLJ did to TFA.

Final note, Daisy Ridley is still absolutely beyond sexy and she is one of the (VERY) few celebs that I find attractive with a tiny chest lol.

9/10

 

[red]

/

SW: The Rise of Skywalker (2019):



The acting is quite good, IMO, the best of the trilogy, with a ton less ham (

Spoiler

Palpatine excluded, obviously

) than the previous installments. Lightsabre-play is not bad and the action scenes during fights are ok; not bad, not great. Getting to the ship battles though, absolutely fantastic; the first (with the Falcon) is superb and VERY well-done.


Final note, Daisy Ridley is still absolutely beyond sexy and she is one of the (VERY) few celebs that I find attractive with a tiny chest lol.

9/10

i disagree in regards to the acting but one thing which really annoys me is how mark hamill and Carrie Fisher were treated versus daisy ridley and john boyega.

daisy and john have been treated like AAA movie stars where mark and carrie were simply disregarded (carrie and mark could really act and had charisma, unlike this new cast)

 

[danielmann861]

Midsommar -- Some really nice striking imagery, but to be honest? I thought the whole thing kind of just dragged its feet for the sake of dragging its feet. There are things I liked about it. Like I said, some of its imagery is striking and leaves a mark. But I just felt the whole thing was a little too self indulgent at times. And to think there is a supposed 178 minute cut out there. When I heard that, I kinda scoffed and said "of course there is!" Thanks but no thanks! Still, I think there are moments within that are really well done. I just wish it had been tighter in its edit. I just didn’t care much for the sometimes self indulgent pacing of it. I’ll still take Ken Russel’s The Devils or The Wicker Man (the original Wicker Man) over it though. Still, some strikingly haunting imagery at times.

 

[Truck_1_0_1_]

/


i disagree in regards to the acting but one thing which really annoys me is how mark hamill and Carrie Fisher were treated versus daisy ridley and john boyega.

daisy and john have been treated like AAA movie stars where mark and carrie were simply disregarded (carrie and mark could really act and had charisma, unlike this new cast)

That's cool; not everyone's cup of tea.

But from an, "emotion conveyed," standpoint and the way lines were delivered, etc., Daisy did a VERY good job. John Boyega is just a great actor period (Detroit being the main one) and he didn't overact or ham it up.

Don't forget, Daisy has made her bones, so to say, with tis series, just like Mark Hamill did in the first trilogy (and, essentially, Hayden Christiansen in the second trilogy); I don't know if it is the intention of the producers or not, but it appears that they always try to get one unknown/rookie actor and launch their career, with each trilogy (obviously, Jake Lloyd was an attempt at that but it didn't work).

Nobody's going to win an acting Oscar (or even get nominated), but they acted very well for an action flick; Adam Driver also basically nails every role he's ever done.

 

[Araviel]

Just saw Rise of Skywalker with my dad. It was alright, was entertained, wasn't too annoyed at anything, satisfying ending to a 40 year endeavor (gorgeous ending scene), wish there was more Leia but for obvious reasons not. A 3.5/5. Missed more humour, The Last Jedi did that better and other stuff (yeah, come at me who cares). As for Rey, main protagonist, lots of good some meh. I never warmed to that Keira Knightley look/tone/attitude but won't hold it against the acting (matter of taste).

 

[ShinChuck]

I used to adore martial arts flicks but I've hardly seen any movies, let alone those, in several years, so I'm making it a point to get back into them.

Right now, I'm working my way through the Kickboxer franchise. I loved 1-4 (5, eh), so I've rewatched 1 and saw Vengeance for the first time. I like the original just as much as I always have, and Vengeance was surprisingly good, reminding me quite a bit of the darker late 90s American style martial arts flicks. I'll be giving Retaliation a watch in an hour or so. Rather to my surprise, Rotten Tomatoes LOVES it, giving it a 92%, so while I'm tempering my expectations I'm hopeful!

 

[BloodyHeartland]

Saw Rain Man the other day. Wasn’t sure quite what to expect after hearing a bit about it, but then what I heard was years ago and kinda vague.

Supposedly there’s been some contentions about how it portrays people with disabilities, specifically one with autism. I hate to judge art on this kind of basis, especially when it’s really just supposed to be comedy and entertainment and nothing serious, but I do feel that it may be a bit misleading in that I very much doubt Raymond should be considered high functioning, or at least being sheltered in an institution is what did more harm.

Even so, I guess it was a different time back then and not much was as well known about the spectrum.

 

[ShinChuck]

I used to adore martial arts flicks but I've hardly seen any movies, let alone those, in several years, so I'm making it a point to get back into them.

Right now, I'm working my way through the Kickboxer franchise. I loved 1-4 (5, eh), so I've rewatched 1 and saw Vengeance for the first time. I like the original just as much as I always have, and Vengeance was surprisingly good, reminding me quite a bit of the darker late 90s American style martial arts flicks. I'll be giving Retaliation a watch in an hour or so. Rather to my surprise, Rotten Tomatoes LOVES it, giving it a 92%, so while I'm tempering my expectations I'm hopeful!

As a follow up, Kickboxer Retaliation was absurd--in all of the right ways. It's more concerned with being fun, and it succeeds pretty well. The cast is great (JCVD, Lambert, Tyson, and Alain Moussi gets to be a lot more than just "angry karate guy" this time around), the set pieces are inventive, and it's just the right amount of over the top, never becoming a parody of itself but never taking itself too seriously either.

 

[BloodyHeartland]

Decided to watch the original Ghost in the Shell movie since I found it for free. Recall seeing bits and pieces of the anime way back but never realized there was a film until now, and after hearing about things like Nier Automata taking inspiration, it got me interested.

Overall I enjoyed it but I feel like the short length kind of rushed things and didn’t leave a lot of room for characterization between much of the action. Probably didn’t help that, while I found most of the English VA fine, the main character herself just didn’t sound quite right to me. I get that she’s supposed to be a robot, however I feel like even just comparing to those like 2B or A2 there is a bit of a difference when it comes to nuance in tone and connotation.

I suppose it should be credited for being one of the early stories to ask these kinds of questions, and I am just spoiled by others that have gone further with the ideas brought up here.

Wonder whether I should take a look at the new film. Seems from the trailer that there’s a bit of a different take on the story, but a lot of the imagery is the same. Have heard more mixed things on it and it’s a bit hard to parse out from people simply complaining about supposed racism.

 

[Truck_1_0_1_]

The original GITS was absolutely awesome, a wonderful film.