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

Lol for a second I thought Barnes said Sing was the best movie of 2016 and I was gonna tear.him a new one.

Grud and I both talked about Sing Street a ton here. My review when it came out was really positive and Grud has consistently said it was his best movie of the year. You don't read what we post

Or he was being sarcastic and I was being obtuse. Known to happen in both cases.

I'm willing to be that was sarcastic.

Temple of Doom has a very brief but distinct nod towards British-colonialism, which is really weird for a Jewish-American filmmaker. I kind of think it was all a big joke, and it works for me. It is a very politically incorrect movie (and wouldn't pass through the first filter today), but it's not mean in any way.

As far as "a few people stuck in a small place" thrillers go, I ended up liking Split less than 10 Cloverfield Lane, Green Room and Don’t Breathe, but there’s still a lot to recommend. In particular, James McAvoy in his role (er, roles) as an abductor who has Dissociative Identity Disorder. I thought that he and Daniel Radcliffe were both pretty weak in Victor Frankenstein from 2015, but McAvoy absolutely kills it in this film. And it’s not just the virtuosity and challenge of doing the multiple personalities, but I thought he really showed great range and connection with all that he did.

The writing isn’t Shyamalan’s best, though, especially in terms of dialogue by side characters, which really comes across as forced at times. The dialogue of McAvoy’s therapist, played by Betty Buckley, is often meant to seem inquisitive, but it’s really very obvious exposition, and feels like it. The direction is solid, though, and the pacing and intensity of things builds nicely throughout.

There’s a detail revealed in the outro that is super clunky in terms of how it’s delivered, but also really cool to see. Its implications being a possibility occurred to me during the film, but I didn’t expect it to actually be part of the movie, so that was fun.

I’d say M. Knight is definitely back in the game, and I’m glad for that. This may not be top notch (I thought The Visit was more original and interesting), but he is a solid filmmaker and I hated to hear him be talked about as a failure for some years there. The theater was packed, so it won’t surprise me if this does well, and that should help him continue to do more big releases again.

I find Temple VERY mean-spirited, which is something I like about it. It's surprising.

Raiders is objectively the best Indy movie, but Temple of Doom is my favorite.

In all sincerity, I'd rather watch Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold than sit through Crystal Skull again. Forget all the usual nerd complaints about the newest Indy film (the CGI, the fridge, Shia LaBouef) -- its biggest problem is that piss-poor script. It really highlights how much stronger the writing was in the preceding three movies.

On a related note, how weird is it that Indiana Jones is still basically an un-utilized license in the realm of board games? I've been half-expecting FFG to announce something ever since they started churning out Star Wars games. Even a Pathfinder CG or Arkham Horror CG style card game would make a shit-ton of sense with the Indy license.

Grudunza wrote: I’d say M. Knight is definitely back in the game, and I’m glad for that. This may not be top notch (I thought The Visit was more original and interesting), but he is a solid filmmaker and I hated to hear him be talked about as a failure for some years there. The theater was packed, so it won’t surprise me if this does well, and that should help him continue to do more big releases again.

I´m going to see it today, and very excited about it. In particular because if not for this I would have had to - sigh - finally watch Moonlight. Which I almost feel like an obligation at this point and no fun. Anyway, will let you know my thoughts later...

There's never really been much Indy merchandise out there. Not even t-shirts. At Disney, they very little Indy stuff even at the ride. There must be some kind of license thing or something that has foreclosed on there being more stuff. I mean, George Lucas is involved. There has to be toy and game rights in there somewhere. But it could be something in the paperwork, I dunno.

It could also be that the movies don't lend themselves to merchandise as much. But games...man, there is a WEALTH of material. Imagine a recast Eldritch Horror with Indiana Jones...and other characters like Marion Ravenwood, Sallah, Marcus Brody, Bellocq...

Motorik wrote: Forget all the usual nerd complaints about the newest Indy film (the CGI, the fridge, Shia LaBouef) -- its biggest problem is that piss-poor script. It really highlights how much stronger the writing was in the preceding three movies.

Agreed. There's 0 tension and 0 purpose in the movie. This was the only film that my son was constantly asking me: "What are they looking for, again?" and "Why is that lost city so important, again?"
Also, watching this crap and comparing it to Raiders, while in turn comparing Raiders to another brilliant action movie that is Fury Road, I came to the realization of how much of conceptualization work is behind an action scene. Like usually in an action movie a script writer doesn't even go into the description of the action scene - they leave it for the director. In Kingdom of Skull, that's pretty obvious. In Raiders and Fury Road there was so much work BEFORE shooting the action sequence. And you have really tense, escalating, grand sequences as a result. You can call it writing or prepping or story-boarding, but it is so important.

I enjoyed reading this. The writing vividly brings back that scene from Raiders even though I haven't seen it in over 20 years.

www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/final-though...ders-of-the-lost-ark

"Wait. He is pointing at the ground. I must look. A coin, perhaps?"

This is hilarious, thanks for sharing!

So, I've seen Split and I'm split on it, muahaha.
Agreed with Grudunza. It is not the best dudettes locked in a basement movie I've seen in the last 12 month. The writing is at times atrocious (the psychiatrist, like Grud says is basically a vehicle for exposition... very frequent and imho unnecessary exposition). But it all comes down to the fact that this is not the movie I expected to see.
I was ready for something like The Visit in terms of general tone, sense of humor and creepiness. I found Split to be the bleakest N.S. movie so far. There's very little humor to be found there, more like involuntary chuckles. It feels sometimes like torture porn, and maybe is even worse, because he leaves a lot to imagination, and I attest that I didn't manage to shake off the uncomfortable feeling so far. McAvoy is terrific, but the truth is I found Anya Taylor-Joy to be even more unsettling, in a more subtle way.
So, right now I am torn on whether this is a failed schlock, or just'not-quite a masterpiece, or a mix of both. My guess we'll need a separate thread.

I hadn't thought of that but you're right... most M. Knight movies have some genuine levity, but other than a few mild chuckles at stuff McAvoy does, it is dry and serious. And the theme and backstories are very dark... I didn't expect it to be like The Visit... but it just didn't have that similar kind of charm that the better Shyamalan films have.

Actually, if I think about it, I suppose that Unbreakable had a similar tone to it, and I loved that.

I don't remember Unbreakable that well, saw it only once when it came out and thought it was meh. Considering that was over 15 years ago and tastes change, maybe I should revisit it.
In terms of (snail-speed) pacing and general detachment towards characters, I found Split to be similar to The Village. But, man, where The Village was just silly and implausible, Split is fucking dark.

This might be a sign of watching too much TV, but we watched Hancock. Will Smith and Charlize Theron are good, and Jason Bateman plays Jason Bateman. But the movie is merely okay, because it can't make up its mind about what kind of movie it is. It doesn't know if it's an action movie, a look at the loneliness of superheroes, or a comedy.