What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

I just watched Moon (2009) with Sam Rockwell again. There was a lot I had forgotten. Such a touching, beautiful film. This time around what struck me, more than the allegory about aging and memory, was the similarities between Sam and expat workers that we saw in Doha. Isolated, making terrible compromises for their families.

I showed the first 40 minutes to my intro science fiction class. They were entranced, and nobody had seen it.

I watched it with a filter using Vidangel, because I have too many f-bombs in my life. I discovered you can filter out other things as well:



here's an earlier discussion:

fortressat.com/forum/41-movies-tv/111277...ler?start=135#127887

I saw Young Frankenstein the other day, and it made me think a lot about comedy movies.

This movie has a plot. It didn't really dawn upon me until I watched this, but lots of comedy movies don't. They have scenes, jokes, excuses for laughter. But they don't build towards a conclusion, they just happen. I realized that in many movies, it doesn't matter what scenes go first, because there's no progression or themes.

In fact, it doesn't apply to just comedy movies. The other day I watched Pan and it was exactly like that; a sequence of bombastic, special-effects fuelled scenes without an overaching plot or theme.

It also shocked me how normal the whole movie was. It does not have its characters falling and yelling and there are quiet, talkative scenes in which actors act instead of trying to appear energetic. It works as a film, not just as a comedy and that's a huge constrast with that hammy, "gotta have fun" vibe that so many comedy films have. It's like the difference between someone who is fun and the stereotype of yelling Youtuber.

It's also not as silly and disrespectful as other parodies. It never mocks the core ideas of the original film. I feel so many pardoies trample the original so much that they end up having no connection with it. They feel "all about me" in a way that Young Frankenstein is not.

Young Frankenstein is one of my favorite movies. Blazing Saddles is great also. They're both good movies first and good comedies second. And even though I've seen them both a bunch of times, I still come away impressed with how Gene Wilder can carry a scene -- even a throwaway scene -- and hold your attention.

Watched Wyrmwood - Road of the Dead on netflix. I hadn't seen a zombie film in a few years and I guess i bought the Mad Max mash-up I was sold.

Not a bad film. Some interesting ideas. The ending made no sense.

The director though...oy. Seems like at least 75% of the film footage is from the camera being up in an actor's face. Maybe give these folk a little space next time...

wadenels wrote: Young Frankenstein is one of my favorite movies. Blazing Saddles is great also. They're both good movies first and good comedies second. And even though I've seen them both a bunch of times, I still come away impressed with how Gene Wilder can carry a scene -- even a throwaway scene -- and hold your attention.

I'm notably poor at noticing acting, unless it's very bad so I'm not really one to comment but I like Wilder in this one. He again seems very "normal" and even in the "crazy scientists" scenes he is very grounded. He acts with his eyes, I feel many would flail their arms around but he has no need to.

RobertB wrote: Under Siege 2: Dark Territory was on Showtime(?) yesterday evening, and I ended up watching it, not for the first time. It and Under Siege are about as dumb as movies get, but I get a kick out of watching them. The whole cast totally chews the scenery from start to finish, except for Steven Seagal because he's terrible.

That's the one where he saves the day with an Apple Newton, right?

Picked up Eye in the Sky on DVD and really enjoyed it. I love how it takes a very particular situation (surveillance of terrorists who may be planning a suicide bombing) and shows you a very wide perspective on the implications of that, from many different viewpoints and characters. It was smart and intense and includes great performances by Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman (his last) and Aaron Paul. Great use of the technology (including a horsefly camera... yikes) in terms of the visual narrative. A bit slow to get started and also a tiny bit melodramatic at times, but otherwise excellent.

I watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy last week and was pretty blown away. I knew about the book but could never seem to get into Le Carre - his stories felt so stayed in comparison to Ludlum, which I enjoyed for a while. The movie feels stayed too. Slow. It's like a paean to old the old style. Wide shots that go on and on. It takes getting used to. Soon, however I was sucked in. The rich production value really gave the movie a texture that seemed to evoke the time period. And the story got more intense and the acting is great. Very satisfying. After watching I still wanted more so I watched Smiley's people on YouTube. Alec Guinness as Smiley with some fun cameos. It was slow too and Alec was great. And of course it had the original feel of the time period that you could see had been borrowed, polished, and gilded in Tinker Tailor. In Smiley's People the sleezy are really sleazy and the great cities of London and Paris are squalid and the cars are much more workaday. It all left me wanting more Cold War espionage.

Tinker Tailor is great. And on Netflix now, so I should watch it again.

If anyone has the feeling of wanting to go see the new Blair Witch movie, I would strongly encourage you to instead watch the original, which is much much better and more, well, original, in every respect. Too many problems with the new one to bother listing. Ugh.

I tried watching Alice Through the Looking Glass. Couldn't even get halfway through and as an Alice fan I want to like it. The first one certainly had its problems, but this one has just no redeeming qualities at all. I really hope we don't have to wait too long before they reboot this franchise. Or at least get the American McGee's version filmed.

Hadik wrote: I watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy last week and was pretty blown away. I knew about the book but could never seem to get into Le Carre - his stories felt so stayed in comparison to Ludlum, which I enjoyed for a while. The movie feels stayed too. Slow. It's like a paean to old the old style. Wide shots that go on and on. It takes getting used to. Soon, however I was sucked in. The rich production value really gave the movie a texture that seemed to evoke the time period. And the story got more intense and the acting is great. Very satisfying. After watching I still wanted more so I watched Smiley's people on YouTube. Alec Guinness as Smiley with some fun cameos. It was slow too and Alec was great. And of course it had the original feel of the time period that you could see had been borrowed, polished, and gilded in Tinker Tailor. In Smiley's People the sleezy are really sleazy and the great cities of London and Paris are squalid and the cars are much more workaday. It all left me wanting more Cold War espionage.

Nice review. I had listened to the book on tape but not read the book so when I saw the movie it was a very rich, rewarding experience. I can't quite keep track of which LeCarre books I've read and which ones I've read and forgotten because it has been a while and the later stuff blends together a little in its cynicism and despair.

The Purge: Election Year - Yes, I was bored enough to watch this. Like the previous two its just stupid juvenile garbage. With this one we've got some regular folks trying to stop a group of Wealthy/Religious/Supremacist/Politicians from killing a hot blonde Senator that wants to stop the purge.

The Legend of Tarzan - Who thought of making Samuel L Jackson to be Tarzan's sidekick? I seriously want to know which Hollywood hack signed off on that idea. That's right, SLJ in the motherfucking jungle swinging from trees and shit as Tarzan's comic relief.

I saw The Witch at the weekend. A horror film that wasn't. Witch doesn't mean, of course, that it isn't any good. It's very good and full of menace. I don't recall seeing a film before witch is at once both historically convincing and a genuine piece of unsettling drama. I learned as much about the life of Puritan settlers and the religious convictions from this as I got occult scares.

Big Trouble in Little China which I hadn't seen in a long while. Just as much fun as I remember. It's all in the reflexes.

Police Story, for the first time in original Cantonese. Total nonsense for plot but amazing fight and stunt work. My friend laughed when they ran the big final stunt three times. I said, "They paid a lot for that! They want their money's worth on the screen!"

Oh man...that first Police Story is incredible. The action and stunt work is so exciting and well done. Whenever there is a chase scene or action sequence I would always find myself verbally "awwwing" or wincing in reaction. And yeah that final scene was damn good it was worth seeing three times!

Christ, I miss the days when action movies had fight scenes you could actually follow and enjoy. Now everything is just shaky cam bullshit that sucks the life out of every scene. Whoever thought seeing shaking footage with ultra fast cuts and a dizzying amount of nonsensical camera angels actually made action scenes better needs to be tossed into the middle of the Atlantic with a pair of concrete ADIDAS.