Saw Mystic River last night. Overall, I thought it was pretty good but the ending was weird. They could’ve skipped the last two scenes and the ending would’ve been perfect. It felt like they were trying to leave it open to a sequel, and this wasn’t the kind of movie that needed one.
Tonight was The Darjeeling Limited. I’ve only seen one Wes Anderson movie and loved it, so I thought I’d check this out. It was really good. The… “vibe” was cool, very visually appealing.
Watched this a little while ago.
I liked the film. Corny, but that’s to be expected for this type of movie. Winona Ryder looked a little bored and one-dimensional but that’s okay. I liked the reliance on a lot of practical effects and minimal CGI. And Willem Dafoe’s character was great and as expected of a performance from his caliber.
Also saw “The Watchers”. Weird film and it stars Dakota Fanning who I am not a huge fan of. Concept of the movie was pretty good but the twist was kind of easy to see coming. 6/10. Not a stinker like some of the ones i have seen, but not bad.
She’s always bothered me. I can’t tell you why, but she does.
They don’t make grim, depressing crime thrillers like they used to around the turn of the century. I’m trying to remember the last few scenes of “Mystic River”, but I keep superimposing stuff from “Gone Baby Gone” and “Sleepers.”
It’s her name.
First, they steal your land; then, they even steal your name…
While @jshaving processes this trauma breakthrough you’ve made for him, I’ll go ahead and review a white savior film.
Lawrence of Arabia is a movie I’ve known is a good movie for a really long time, but just got around to watching yesterday evening. It was one of maybe three movies my father owned on VHS, and I had it mentally filed away as “boring crap” for decades.
I picked up a used blu-ray remaster at my local store and watched it this weekend. It was a really great movie, especially considering it was made in 1962 and still holds up fantastic as a visual spectacle.
My biggest takeaway is that Frank Herbert must’ve went to see it in theaters on LSD. Having read most of what he wrote, I had a general awareness that there were similarities between Dune and Lawrence of Arabia, but not THAT much. I really enjoyed the last two Dune movies, but Lawrence of Arabia is a far superior film to all of those in my opinion.
Fortunately for me, Lawrence of Arabia didn’t ruin Dune for me and I have at least one more reading of the first three books in me. Space Bedouins on psychedelics is as good of a sci-fi starting point as anything.
I thought the first 3 Dune books were great. Then God Emperor of Dune happened, and for the first time in my (then) young life, I met a book I could simply.not.finish., it was so densely boring.
I recall that you powered through and completed the series?
I’ve had the Dune movies in the back of my mind to watch for a while now. But I think, decades later, I’m still suffering from God Emperor PTSD, and have still not watched. Please compare and contrast the movies to the books w/o spoilers. Thank you sir.
Yes, I completed the series and I have even read God Emperor twice. I’ve also read a lot of his son Brian Herbert’s work. I am struggling to put an exact date on that last reading of the first four books, but it is somewhere around 15 years ago.
There’s a LOT going on in God Emperor. It could be summed up as Herbert’s attempt to continue on with his “plans within plans within plans” tales of statecraft and deception, all to realize this Grand Vision for Humanity made possible by really strong psychedelics.
It could be called a control freak’s wild-eyed manifesto, repackaged communist claptrap or just vaguely-defined social engineering, but on an interstellar scale and with the best drugs around, man.
Whatever you want to call it, I did enjoy God Emperor. The ones after I did not. They were a chore to finish.
Contrasting the books with the movies I put it nearing the air of, but not quite approaching, Lord of the Rings. I would need to re-read the first three to really get into detail, but I think they were really fantastic adaptations of the book as I recalled it. They were also fun and well-made for a general audience who could enjoy them without having read any of the books.
There are things I would have liked to see as a fan, but nothing I think is worth splitting hairs about. Same with Lord of the Rings. Awesome, awesome adaptations where the deviations seem quite forgivable and even understandable.
That explains it. I’m a “two out of three ain’t bad” kind of guy, at best.
Plus trying marijuana in college is the extent of my drug use.
Thanks for taking the time to expound.
I can’t even imagine LOL!
After Sean Penn kills his childhood friend for a crime he didn’t commit, his wife gropes him, praises how big his…heart…is, and says it’ll all be okay. Then Kevin Bacon’s wife, who I saw no reason for including, finally shows up and joins the rest of the cast for a Boston parade.
Last Weekend a had a 80’s Weekend with
Rambo First Blood and Rambo First Blood part 2
I love these old Films
The last 2 Rambo films were pretty bad ass
i love them part 4 is nice to turn your brain off and enjoy
and the last part has a good story and great action , perfect
Went to see Blitz with my advisor. It was terrible
Plot: the premise is okay. It’s not my interest, but I understand why some might like it. However, they tried to cram too many concepts in (racial tensions, social breakdown, general wartime heroism, “class warfare”). The events are also highly unrealistic, which took away from the story. The ending was particularly “American”, with miraculous survivals with a touch of tragedy to drum up feelings. Not my style. They all should have died given the circumstances presented or present a different set of circumstances conducive to survival.
Filming: the director tried to make some artistic points with recurrent motifs and strange transitions, but they came off as cheesy and poorly done in light of the poorly constructed plot. For some reason, the entire film looked more CGI/video game graphics than an actual film. The visuals reminded me of the graphics in Stalingrad (2013).
The only good part of the movie was debriefing it with my advisor afterwards
Watched “the 6th sense” yesterday
It was okay. The plot felt rushed and the story was strange.
The ending wasn’t as much of a surprise as it was intended bc of the obvious plot holes and foreshadowing
Are you telling me that you have lived however many years in this life and no one had just spoiled the 6th sense twist to you before?
I watched the substance recently, and enjoyed it. I do think it should have been at least 30 minutes shorter. This one I think is relevant to this crowd who likes to look good, and takes more steps than average folks to do so. It is kinda like the movie limitless, but with youthful appearance instead of intelligence, but it is also a horror movie and has those aspects. I liked this one better than limitless. I just couldn’t get over the fact that the main character in limitless didn’t understand compound interest on a drug that is supposed to give him a 4 digit IQ. Has to go get a loan from a mobster because 10Xing his money each day is too slow??? and that stupid loan is what causes him all his problems, which he is supposed to be great at predicting?
I also saw oblivion recently. Pretty good, but the end was kinda dumb. I like sci-fi, but this one had a villain that didn’t make sense to me. There was no explanation about the motives of the alien villain.
I also rewatched The Godfather and The Godfather II. Better than I remembered, and I remembered them being good. I think these are maybe watch a few times movies, because understanding the characters makes the movies make more sense when seeing them again. One thing that I noticed watching them again is how nice a few of the most gangster of characters are. Tom Hagen is always polite, never angry, but don’t mistake that as him being weak. Same goes for Vito (The Godfather). Neither are shown as being angry or aggressive. Neither try to convince others to respect them. The scene where Vito is helping out the old neighborhood lady by convincing her landlord to let her stay shows this pretty well. He politely convinces the landlord who doesn’t know who he is to let her stay. He (the landlord) kinda tells him to F-off, because he already rented out her apartment. He pays the landlord the difference for 6 months and the landlord agrees to let her stay. The landlord finds out who Vito is and returns the money and asks for forgiveness. I don’t think he would have as much respect if he was a more typical gangster, throwing his name around. Tom Hagen acts similarly with the movie producer. Very polite, doesn’t say who he is working for. He is firm with what he wants but never shows anger, or uses threats, and instead uses reason and politeness. Tom is more like Vito than Fredo or Sonny (with Michael being close to acting like Vito, but not as much as Tom). I find that Tom and Vito come off as more masculine than Fredo or Sonny. They get real respect from others.
I’ve never heard of the movie until my cohortmate told me to watch it.
She didn’t tell me it was about ghosts. If I had known, I would not have watched. I don’t like supernatural films
There are several plot holes
Recently watched my first ever James Bond film, Die Another Day. My friend chose it because it was the most ridiculous and over-the-top Bond movie. At some points it reminded me of the 1997 Batman and Robin movie. Great fun. Apparently it’s considered one of the worst by Bond fans, but I wanted something silly to have a laugh at and got that.