Recent Movies You Saw

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Stalvern
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Re: Recent Movies You Saw

Postby Stalvern » September 20th, 2024, 12:21 am

"Another door?! Another door?! Another door?!"

Haven't seen that movie in too long. I need to break it out for a movie night soon.

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pacman000
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Re: Recent Movies You Saw

Postby pacman000 » September 21st, 2024, 6:09 pm

Seven Alone

Instead of staying in the Midwest, where they actually seem to have a nice life, a family joins the Oregon Trail. About halfway through, the parents die, leaving their young son in charge. He's determined to get his siblings to Oregon. Whether or not this determination is good or just pig headed is up to the viewer. I can understand wanting to finish his dad's quest, but he nearly gets his family killed a few times in the process. Technically, the kid is learning responsibility, but I'm not sure he's doing a good job using it.

Then again, there were quite a few challenges even before their parents passed. The pioneer life wasn't easy. Apparently based on a true story.

Some nice scenery, tho the print was washed out. End is abrupt. Sometimes slow, but worth a watch if you like movies about American pioneers. Might also appeal to fans of Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, & similar characters.

jon
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Re: Recent Movies You Saw

Postby jon » September 22nd, 2024, 1:47 pm

I’ve been watching Spectre which I know is kind of not held in the highest of esteem but I love it and the interactions between 007 and Blofeld. But, I can’t help but have an empty feeling bc in the next movie No Time to Die, Blofeld is killed off and he doesn’t even ever escape from prison.

It would’ve been so easy to write a killer screenplay for the movie after Spectre where Blofeld escapes and then the next few movies include him. Why in the world did they bother giving Blofeld his scar for him to just quickly die in NTTD. Just a nightmare what happened and Spectre to me is the actual finale to Craig’s portrayal of Bond. And he freaking dies in NTTD and has a daughter. And Spectre gets dismantled in a gas attack in a boardroom. Brilliant.

Zack Burner
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Re: Recent Movies You Saw

Postby Zack Burner » September 22nd, 2024, 3:16 pm

Since Autumn has arrived, there's one movie I play when it starts: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", which is not only my favorite in the Harry Potter series, but also one of my all-time favorites as well, and for plenty of good reasons. This is the only one that does not feature Voldemort in any way shape or form, rather the antagonists are hooded creatures that suck out the souls, and happiness of all around. The only way to defeat them is to find the happiest memory and then channel it into a powerful charm in the form of a luminous animal. Prisoner of Azkaban knows a thing or two about irony, pulling at your heartstrings, tickling your funnybone, or even the darkest corner of one's imagination. One of the funniest moments is with the Dursley's early in that gets funnier every time, the biggest thrill is riding the Hippogriff Buckbeak which well all get to experience. This is also the debut of Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall), The quirky Professor Trelawney (Emma Thompson), and the new Dumbledore actor (Michael Gambon) replacing the late Richard Harris (.....until his untimely death as well.....). While it has the developing darkness of the series, there are moments of light as well. Under Alfonzo Cuaron's masterful direction, there's plenty of enchantment and mischievousness that keeps me coming back to this one more than any other one over the years.

Mischief managed. Nox.

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pacman000
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Re: Recent Movies You Saw

Postby pacman000 » September 30th, 2024, 9:14 am

Aladdin (1992)

Fun songs & great animation. Disney was just hitting their mid-90's stride.

DaHeckIzDat
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Re: Recent Movies You Saw

Postby DaHeckIzDat » October 3rd, 2024, 7:08 pm

Not a movie, but I just watched the first episode of the Uzumaki anime on HBO Max.

(SPOILER WARNING)

The manga is one of my all time favorite horror stories and is the only manga I've read from start to finish (the fact that it's only three books long helped) but the anime so far is disappointing. Each chapter of the manga is it's own self-contained short story, but the first episode crams two of those stories (Shuichi's dad and Azami) and the setups for two more stories (Shuichi's mom and Katayama) into its barely-twenty minute runtime. This doesn't give the stories time to build up suspense or for the audience to take in the atmosphere, which was always Uzumaki's greatest strength. The stories are heavily chopped up, with several parts cut out of both to force them to fit into the short runtime. In the manga, seeing Shuichi's dad appear in the smoke during his cremation was such a monumentally horrifying moment that the artist, Junji Ito, dedicated two entire pages of the book to it to give it the proper weight. In the anime, it looks creepy, but I almost felt like I was watching it on fast forward.

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That said, the artwork is phenomenal. It's all done in black and white to better resemble the manga, which also adds to the gloomy, spooky ambience. And as incredible as Junji Ito's art is, sometimes it looks like they may have taken a little too much inspiration from the manga. In certain scenes, the characters hardly move at all. Sometimes that works to its benefit, giving it a creepy otherworldly feeling, like your tv is a window looking directly into the uncanny valley. Other times, it just looks stiff and cheap. But when they do go all out in the animation, its both amazing and terrifying! The way certain characters move is downright unsettling, and the episode's climax was arguably scarier in animation than it was as a still drawing. I just wish they had let the story build up naturally like it did in the book.

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I'm going to keep watching. The show isn't bad, really, it just doesn't live up to the book's nearly-legendary standards. Hopefully future episodes will slow down and give each story the respect it deserves, but I kinda doubt it.

Zack Burner
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Re: Recent Movies You Saw

Postby Zack Burner » October 3rd, 2024, 9:56 pm

With Halloween season again, decided to turn to something haunting. "Kwaidan" (Japanese for Ghost Story) by Masaki Kobayashi, adaptation of Lafcadio Hearn's Kaidan: Story and Studies of Strange Things, 4 haunting tales of ghostly activity around feudal Japan. "Black Hair" a young samurai is tired of his life of poverty, seeks a better life and then longs of his old love that he returns home to his old wife after completing his service, only to get the shock of his life the next morning. "The Woman of the Snow" an apprentice woodcutter encounters a beautiful but chilling woman who freezes his master to death but decides to spare the young one if he promises not to tell anyone, can he keep his secret? "Hoichi the Earless" a blind travelling musician is beckoned by the ghosts of a war to sing the songs of the battle they died from, not realizing they want to drain his life, only some monks can save him. "In a Cup of Tea" a writer keeps seeing a strange man in his cup, what does it all mean?

Beautiful as it is cultural and haunting, the sets feel like a stage with some eerie effects such as a eye in the blizzard, and creepy music effects. It's quite long, and hard to find, but worth it all.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Recent Movies You Saw

Postby VideoGameCritic » October 5th, 2024, 9:00 am

Metropolis (1927)

Rented this silent German film off Amazon. Well "bought it" for $2.99. There were actually several versions available, but I went with the one that seemed closest to the original intended movie. Some call it a masterpiece. I've long heard of it but wanted to see it myself.

The visuals are impressive. I'm not even sure how they achieved some of these scenes with practical effects. They must have had gargantuan sets and thousands of extras. If they tried to make this today, it would be all fake-looking computer graphics and green screens.

Anyway the futuristic story is about rich executives living in a tower of babel while the masses slave-away underground. Then the boss's son decides to investigate "the depths" and falls in love with a lady down there trying to lead a revolution.

Like all silent movies, there's a dramatic orchestrated score and the dialog is flashed as text on a black screen. There is actually surprising little dialog, as the actors convey so much through their actions and facial expressions.

There's a lot forward thinking in this film. I noticed video monitors, video phones, ticker tapes, robots, animated billboards and other stuff that wasn't around 100 years ago. Hell I almost expected someone to pull out an ipad. There's a very dramatic scene of a lady robot "coming to life" which is often seen in clips. Love her design. Very creepy.

There's also some non-intentional funny elements. The actors are plastered with makeup. I guess it's supposed to accentuate their expressions? And the main character is a close talker, reminding me of Judge Reinhold in Seinfeld.

I should mention about a third of the film was lost over the century, so there are scenes that are just text descriptions of what's missing. It occurred to me this would be a good use case for AI. I don't think it would be difficult for AI to generate the missing scenes, especially knowing what should be in them.

I thought the film was riveting for the first half but got chaotic and confusing in the second. The ending was anti-climactic. And at 2 hours it felt too long. Still, it was worth seeing this momentus piece of history.

Zack Burner
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Re: Recent Movies You Saw

Postby Zack Burner » October 5th, 2024, 9:25 am

VideoGameCritic wrote:
There's a lot forward thinking in this film. I noticed video monitors, video phones, ticker tapes, robots, animated billboards and other stuff that wasn't around 100 years ago. Hell I almost expected someone to pull out an ipad. There's a very dramatic scene of a lady robot "coming to life" which is often seen in clips. Love her design. Very creepy.


Indeed like 2001: A Space Odyssey this black and white movie predicted the future, things that were way ahead of their times. Kind of creepy that movies can sometimes prophesize events don't they?

mbd36
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Re: Recent Movies You Saw

Postby mbd36 » October 5th, 2024, 11:24 am

Most of the missing footage from Metropolis has been restored though, right?


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