Movie opinions thread (what have you seen, what did you think?)

LoneSage

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I mean, I get it - it was the movie Andy watched and they released the the toy "after" this movie premiered in his universe. The preview looked great and I was down to watch but it was definitely underwhelming.
No, I mean literally, I don't understand why they chose the plot to the fake movie from 1995 to be that story. It should have been closer to a blockbuster like Independence Day or whatever instead of the story Pixar decided to tell.
 

Burning Fight!!

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Punishment Park - it's unsubtle and the premise doesn't hold up if read literally but I love the way the movie is shot and directed and the message against authoritarianism that aged well. As good as it gets for an independent movie of the time, with a political message.

Why did the sympathetic reporting crew who seemed fine the whole trip not give them a drop of water or two, though?
 

jro

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Ghosts of Mars is awful.
It is indeed, I just finished watching it. The Chick from Species (ht South Park) acts very badly and tells Jason Statham, Ice Cube, Pam Grier, and Clea Duvall what to do.

Even though it's awful, it's still oddly watchable and entertaining in comparison to a lot of shit from around the same time.

Fucking hell tho, the soundtrack, right on. Carpenter was brilliant at this even when other things went bad and THIS is what he came up with?

edit: srsly, that supporting cast. Watching Natasha Henstridge muddle along as lead alongside two other actors that would become basically mega stars and one who was a past star (and I guess one lesbian that's still much better) was a bit much.
 

famicommander

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Judo Gene LeBell has died at 89.

He worked on countless movies, including the time he choked out Steven Seagal on set causing him to shit his pants. Seagal stupidly asked LeBell to put him in a choke because he had an Aikido move that could get him out of any choke. So LeBell put the choke on him and he passed out and shit himself.

In total LeBell worked on over 1000 films, TV shows, and commercials as a fight coordinator, stuntman, and/or actor.

He was also a mixed martial arts pioneer, pro wrestler, wrestling promoter, MMA judge, MMA and boxing referee, and trainer (Ronda Rousey is his most famous student but far from the only successful one).
 

terry.330

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Gremlins 2- Well WB gave Joe Dante a shitload of money and seemingly total control to make a sequel and this is what he came up with. An absolutely insane live action cartoon lampooning everything from Daffy Duck to old hollywood musicals. It's fucking bananas. One of the last great practical effects extravaganza's with Rick Baker and his team doing some absolutely incredible work. With a fantastic cast, a great setting and some incredibly creative gags. While it can be a bit much at times, especially all the noise and frantic mayhem it's kind of amazing it actually exists and is a lot of fun.

It also gave us one of the best Keye and Peele sketches ever.
 

terry.330

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Togo- Not even Willem Defoe's usual excellence could save this schmaltzy Disney tear jerker about Alaskan sled dogs in the 1920s. Based on a true story or not it's still trite by the numbers junk. On top of that it's ugly and littered with awful CG. I'm also not sure who it's for, it's too harrowing for children and too predictable for adults. I guess "general audiences" but who wants to go see a movie about a dog that runs itself to death? On the plus side the chick from Law and Order that looks like Howdy Doody was pretty good as Defoe's wife and the puppies were cute.
 

100proof

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Had an hour to kill so I popped on Mad God, Phil Tippett's 85 minute stop motion movie/fx demo reel that he's been trying to finish for the last 30+ years. Phil Tippett did practical fx work for many of the greatest movies of the 80s and 90s (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Robocop) and the man has an incredible eye: there are some wild shots and hellish landscapes but there's a reason they don't let fx artists make movies. There's no dialogue, it has pretty much no narrative and is largely a sequence of scenes of characters walking through ghoulish set pieces in which all manner of Cronenberg-ian abominations crush, destroy and eat one another. It's like a really impressive student film but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that isn't overly enamored with stop motion as an art form.
 

jro

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They Live - still fun, but its flaws are harder to ignore than they used to be for me. The fight is still awesome.

Prey - fine for what it is, but the lack of any motivation (for lack of a better word) for the Predator makes it feel out of step with the originals. Better than Shane Black's utter dumpster fiew from a few years ago though pretty easily. Might have to re-watch the Adrien Brody one to see how that one holds up.
 

HornheaDD

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Had an hour to kill so I popped on Mad God, Phil Tippett's 85 minute stop motion movie/fx demo reel that he's been trying to finish for the last 30+ years. Phil Tippett did practical fx work for many of the greatest movies of the 80s and 90s (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Robocop) and the man has an incredible eye: there are some wild shots and hellish landscapes but there's a reason they don't let fx artists make movies. There's no dialogue, it has pretty much no narrative and is largely a sequence of scenes of characters walking through ghoulish set pieces in which all manner of Cronenberg-ian abominations crush, destroy and eat one another. It's like a really impressive student film but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that isn't overly enamored with stop motion as an art form.
As a stop motion film its really cool and reminded me a lot of Junkhead. Still wish that dude would finish his full length. But I was pretty disappointed in Mad God, and agree with everything you said was wrong with it.
 

famicommander

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Apparently the only unfilmed DC movie that is still greenlit is Joker 2.

They are also again considering whether or not to cancel Flash after Ezra Miller just got arrested for burglary.

Shazam 2, Black Adam, Aquaman 2, and Blue Beetle seem to be safe as they're all either done or nearly done but anything beyond that is a huge question mark.

On the TV side they're cancelling The Flash, Doom Patrol, and Titans after their upcoming seasons air. Some of the future announced shows are still coming but as far as what's currently airing the only live action stuff remaining is:
Stargirl
Superman and Lois
Peacemaker
Pennyworth (yes, the show about Batman's butler is still somehow going)
Sandman (Vertigo)
Sweet Tooth (Vertigo)
The Boys (Wildstorm)
 

HornheaDD

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I keep getting stupid pop ups on my phone from google that Henry Cavil has turned out an offer to come back as Superman. No idea how true that is or if he was even asked to return. One of the 'sources' was WeGotThisCovered.com which is staffed by fucking retards.

Doom Patrol was ok but I never finished the 2nd season.

Titans was laughably bad

PeaceMaker was surprisingly great.

I thought Sandman was completed on Netflix? I havent watched it, is it just the first season, or whatever?

Never heard of Sweet Tooth.

The Boys, I'm probably done with after this last season.
 

famicommander

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Doom Patrol season 3 got pretty wonky due to COVID. Hopefully season 4 is a return to form.

Stargirl is shockingly good. Peacemaker is also great.

Titans indeed sucked.

Sandman season 1 literally just came out so we don't know if or when there will be more.
 

100proof

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I'm sure a lot of people are rending their clothes and gnashing their teeth but completely flushing the current DC slate and starting over is the best news you could ask for if you're interested in well-made entertainment. The connected DC movies have been largely shit since frame one and the CW shows are all embarrassing campy garbage. No, I don't give a shit that Flash was good for 15 minutes ten years ago.

Flush it all, hire talented people to oversee it (Bruce Timm and Paul Dini busy?) and don't just hand over your billion dollar properties to every drunk mongoloid with an iPhone.
 

famicommander

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I'm sure a lot of people are rending their clothes and gnashing their teeth but completely flushing the current DC slate and starting over is the best news you could ask for if you're interested in well-made entertainment. The connected DC movies have been largely shit since frame one and the CW shows are all embarrassing campy garbage. No, I don't give a shit that Flash was good for 15 minutes ten years ago.

Flush it all, hire talented people to oversee it (Bruce Timm and Paul Dini busy?) and don't just hand over your billion dollar properties to every drunk mongoloid with an iPhone.
Honestly of the four mainline DC shows that are left standing Stargirl, Superman and Lois, and Peacemaker are actually pretty damn good. Likely because despite airing on CW, Stargirl and Superman and Lois are HBO co-productions.

Pennyworth I have no idea how or why it exists.

Flash should've been axed ages ago if we go by quality but, for whatever reason, it's by a wide margin the most commercially successful CW scripted show ever.
 

HornheaDD

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Flush it all, hire talented people to oversee it (Bruce Timm and Paul Dini busy?)

Getting Timm and Dini for DC projects (animated or live action, tv or film) would be the equivalent of getting Dave Filoni and to a lesser extent John Favreau for Star Wars stuff. I think it would be great.

I'd love to see a Timm led DC universe in live action.
 

SouthtownKid

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The Boys (Wildstorm)
The Boys started at Wildstorm but quickly lost its home after only 6 issues due to thin-skinnedness on the part of DC higher ups (who are, by this point, gone anyway). The entire rest of the series was published at Dynamite, so I don't think anyone including DC considers The Boys to be a DC or WB show. I don't even think the first 6 were collected until the book came to Dynamite.
 

famicommander

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It was listed as a DC imprint show on Wikipedia, that's as far into it as I looked
 

heihachi

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Prey --

Overall really good. Great pace, never really bogs down and well-acted by everyone especially the woman in the lead. Simple plot and motivations for the characters, and predictable ending, but I think that works for a movie like this--much better than the last Predator movie I saw which was about capturing autistic kids for their genes or something like that. I got Apocalypto/The Revenant vibes from the movie which is a good thing. If you have Hulu, it's worth watching and is only 1.5 hours or so.

Cons -- not a fan of having the characters speak English. Felt weird and took me out of the period the movie is set in even more than the alien hunter from space. Just sub the damn movie.

I also understand the predator can't be truly invincible or there wouldn't be a movie, but the alien technology is kind of retarded and it's been that way since the first predator. So this thing can travel through interstellar space but heat and "weapon" detection is the only sig int the helmet can do? I'd understand if the predator intentionally gimped itself for more of a challenge, but it keeps invisibility and all the other weapons which are about as much of a cheat code as there can be. Also, the helmet can distinguish threats from non-threats but can't detect a friendly?

The movie did a good job of letting the action speak for itself for the most part, but there was one scene where the main character essentially soliloquized a bit to explain what she was doing that I thought was unnecessary and out of place. I'm guessing some idiots at a test screening complained they didn't understand why she did something at that part. Lastly, some of the CGI animals were not so great
 
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terry.330

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Escape From New York- It's been awhile since I've seen this and I always appreciate it a little more every time. This might be Carpenter at his most Carpenter. It's got the iconic anti-hero, fantastic supporting cast, an almost coldly efficient look to it even down to the camera movements without sacrificing atmosphere, the classic minimal synth score and most importantly the anti authoritarian message. It's just a great movie all around and has gone on to influence so many things.

Earlier we were arguing if it's an action movie or not and I'd definitely have to say that it's most definitely more of an adventure movie. There aren't any shoot outs, no actual car chases and what action there is is fairly realistic all things considered. It has far more in common with Indiana Jones than Rambo II.

I got the new 4k 3 disc set from Scream! and it's definitely worth picking up if you're still into owning nice physical releases.
 
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SouthtownKid

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The part where Harry Dean Stanton exclaims, "GD redskins!" is for me the biggest laugh in the picture. Last thing you expect to hear in a science fiction movie set in the future.
 

Burning Fight!!

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John Carpenter made so many bangers it's hard to understand why stuff like Escape from LA and Ghosts from Mars exist. I'll definitely check out the blu-ray set.
edit: there's a brazilian release that comes with repros of the 4k restoration/original/german posters. Fucking awesome.
 
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