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Movies You’ve Seen Recently |OT| October 2017

K

kevin1025

Banned
Blade Runner 2049

Absolutely fantastic. They pulled it off! Swimming in atmosphere, oozing in beautiful lighting and cinematography, peppered with awesome performances (except, you know, whatever it was Jared Leto was doing). The music was bananas. But it was the journey that kept me fascinated. There’s not many movies lately that feel like a journey, and I loved every step of it. Gosling feels like he is in Refn mode, which worked just right. Ford plays his role with more quiet than I expected, but that quiet is important.

But it is awesome, it is great, it is top ten of the year for me (which I’ve said a lot in these threads, haha, I have a tough top 10 coming).

(Don’t read the spoiler until you see the movie!)

Tears in the snow. I see you, Denis. I see you!!
 
I

Icolin

Banned
kevin1025 said:
Blade Runner 2049

Absolutely fantastic. They pulled it off! Swimming in atmosphere, oozing in beautiful lighting and cinematography, peppered with awesome performances (except, you know, whatever it was Jared Leto was doing). The music was bananas. But it was the journey that kept me fascinated. There's not many movies lately that feel like a journey, and I loved every step of it. Gosling feels like he is in Refn mode, which worked just right. Ford plays his role with more quiet than I expected, but that quiet is important.

But it is awesome, it is great, it is top ten of the year for me (which I've said a lot in these threads, haha, I have a tough top 10 coming).

(Don't read the spoiler until you see the movie!)

Tears in the snow. I see you, Denis. I see you!!
Click to expand...

Fantastic to hear that the music is good.

My hype is rising to unimaginable levels now.
 
B

Borgnine

MBA in pussy licensing and rights management
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover: 7/10. absolutely_disgusting.png
Lord Of War: 6/10. Entertaining enough. Nick Cage miscast in this but then he's pretty much miscast in everything he's in. Mediocre direction like how long do I have to wait for the car to obviously blow up and Jared Leto clearly exists only to die. Also I'm not entirely sure if it makes any sense that he gets away with this stuff because the government wants to sell arms to someone under the table but then also funds the guy who spends his life trying to stop him. Actually that makes perfect sense for government but it's still dumb.
Hellraiser: 4/10. Gross.
The Beguiled: 5/10. It's 90 minutes of chicks creaming over Colin Farrell, then it ends.

Save me Blade Runner, I believe in you.
 
Rhomega Beta

Rhomega Beta

Member
The Passion of Joan of Arc: A movie that doesn't cover Joan's beginnings or battles, but starts at the trial after she's captured. Even in the Silent Era, the actors, especially Reneee Jeanne Falconetti as Joan, but the judges and the priest are great. The cinematography is pretty good as well. It moves at a brisk pace, but doesn't feel too short (it's about 1 hr. 22 min.). The problem I have is the music. There are two versions I found online. One didn't have music, the other did, but it was rock music that I felt didn't fit, so I just turned it off, and I'm curious as to what the original score.

Either way, it's a great silent film worth checking out.
 
EverydayBeast

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Blade Runner 2049 9/10 Actors all came out strong, nothing held back. The detective's search got kinda cumbersome at times but the films atmosphere, tone, and music all made up for that.
 
G

Glass Shark

Banned
Stronger: I thought it was awful. Pretty much a by-the-numbers "overcoming adversity" biopic. I've seen a lot of critics saying it really makes you feel for the subjects, but I didn't like anyone in this movie except Tatiana Maslany's character. And it was an absolute tonal mess. Hard swings from ridiculous over-the-top humor that feels totally out of place to attempted gravitas. On top of all that, it was about half an hour longer than it needed to be. Also some really awkward product placement stuff. I know that it's referencing things that happened in real life, but it totally felt out of place.

War for the Planet of the Apes: The story really fell flat for me, but I was in awe about how this made me feel for 100% CGI characters. And they looked so incredibly lifelike. Not a whole lot to say about this one other than I genuinely think Andy Serkis is one of the best actors of our time.

The Hitman's Bodyguard: Meandering and overlong plot, chock full of cliches, but there were things to enjoy here. In particular, one or two of the action scenes had a very Edgar Wright vibe that I was digging. Ultimately it's a totally missable movie, but not an awful time.

American Assassin: One of the most rote and boring films I've seen in recent memory. I'll be honest, I walked out about halfway through. But up to that point every scene and every moment played out exactly how you would guess. It just felt pretty lazy.

Flatliners: Holy shit what a turd. I knew this movie would suck within the first 10 seconds, seriously. It completely failed at drama, minor attempts at comedy, and horror. It just did absolutely nothing right. The characters are all unlikable, the performances are all piss-poor, and the contrived ending was laughable. Just a ridiculous farce that felt twice as long as it actually was.

American Made: Really enjoyed this one. Great performances all around, really nice approach to dark comedy, and a fantastic style that they really stuck with all the way. Loved the VHS aesthetic of it. Honestly Tom Cruise might have been the weakest part of this. His charisma really worked for the character, but I think someone else might have added a bit more depth to the role.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
watched a ton of stuff last month. most of them rewatches. went through a bunch of clint eastwood (that he starred in) and david fincher movies.

came to the conclusion that:

- clint eastwood isn't a particularly amazing actor or director really, but he has such an immensely iconic presence about him, its hard not to be so engrossed in dat machismo whenever he's on screen. would really like to see this guy appear in another film already. last time we saw him give any kind of performance he was shitting on obama while talking to a chair brehs :/

- Social Network is the best thing that Fincher, Sorkin, Garfield, Eisenberg and Hammer have worked on. god damn does the editor do wonders seamlessly cutting between past and present and different testimonies. its just such a sharp movie. also watching Se7en and Zodiac again kind of made me wonder what if Fincher made Blade Runner 2049. I haven't seen that yet, and I hear its great thankfully. but I haven't been as interested in Villeneuve's foray into noir as I was with the times Fincher took the genre on.

why is Brad Pitt roping this guy into making World War Z 2? what a waste of time, interested to see what he brings to the zombie genre though.

Last Days of Disco (Whit Stilman)

- fun comedy centered on the a bunch of 20-somethings in New York trying to cope with growing up and making moves into careers and building a life. it feels like something Greta Gerwig would have written lately tbh. a lot of bite in here, now I know why the director cast Kate Beckinsale in Love and Friendship, she's such an asshole in this one lmao.

mother! (Darren Aronofsky)

- aside from the Wrestler I've been meh on this director. I definitely admire the effort he puts in though and think he always makes something worth watching.

this one goes so blunt with its symbolism that I can see why many would hate it for lack of any subtlety. I had a lot of fun though seeing this in theaters. First off, the sound mixing was dope. I loved seeing a movie in the big theaters that emphasized such ambience and creepy sound effects. not on David Lynch's level but still a really admirable job, I hope some horror directors take note of this.

I enjoyed the first half more when it was like an absurd and extremely awkward comedy, the shit Michelle Pfeiffer was doing in particular was pretty hilarious, same goes for the dinner guests. after that when it went off the rails it was fun to see the insanity carry out on screen but I preferred the movie when it was more of a focused psychological horror/awkward comedy.

when you see the movie apart from all the Biblical analogies and the commentary on relationships and sacrificing for art etc., I think its a pretty cool take on "humanizing" global warming. much in the same way talking animal movies like Babe do for the meat industry, it was pretty interesting seeing them sort of apply all the shit that happens to the planet on a person and their house. has that been done before in film?

oh and Jennifer Lawrence and that nightgown...god damn.

I'm aiming for about 12-15 horror/thriller movies this month. gonna have to throw in some Zulawski, Carpenter, Universal, maaaybe Italian shit and...Underworld franchise haha.
 
U

UrbanRats

Member
Got lazy yesterday, and instead of the Russian epic, i just rewatched The Descent.
This movie is just ace, bad green screen and all.

However, monsters are the least scary part, and honestly, reality is way worse than fiction.

No, this movie has it all backwards, because i'd rather get eaten by blind vampires, than get stuck under 20 meters of rocks.
But then again, i'd have problems crawling under a bed to pull out the Christmas junk, let alone go spelunking.
Natalie Mendoza is cute tho, maybe she could've talked me into it.
 
sephiroth7x

sephiroth7x

Member
Captain Phillips 2013 8/10

Finally seen this... been on my watch list for a long time.

Tom Hanks is great in it as he has a habit in recent films to phone it in. Particularly impressed by Barkhad Abdi who I felt delivered a very layered performance. A lot hinged on him to make a character not just totally evil and I think he did well.

I don't know how accurate the story is relative to the real life events but much like Captain Phillips himself, I felt emotionally exhausted by the end. This is not a negative comment by any means, I felt
much relief for the character and genuinely felt happy that he managed to get away.

If I had any criticism, it was that I didn't understand Phillips escape plan when he
dived out of the lifeboat when he seemed completely trusting in the navy and what they were planning. I felt like if he had just stayed put, he knew that the navy would have saved him. He had told them his seat number, they were aware of the intentions and he knew that there was no way out. why risk being shot?
but this could have been the actions perhaps of a desperate man and accurate to the real world events.

Other than this, I am really pleased I watched it. Great movie.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
If a movie has vampires or demons or some kind of monster, do you automatically consider it to be “horror”? My dad and I got into a debate because he thinks Blade is a horror movie because it has vampires so it has to be horror. So the Van Helsing movie is also horror

I guess you can qualify it as horror action, but even then I think a movie should have an air of terror to be considered horror action and not just action
 
B

Blader

Member
Rhomega Beta said:
The Passion of Joan of Arc: A movie that doesn't cover Joan's beginnings or battles, but starts at the trial after she's captured. Even in the Silent Era, the actors, especially Reneee Jeanne Falconetti as Joan, but the judges and the priest are great. The cinematography is pretty good as well. It moves at a brisk pace, but doesn't feel too short (it's about 1 hr. 22 min.). The problem I have is the music. There are two versions I found online. One didn't have music, the other did, but it was rock music that I felt didn't fit, so I just turned it off, and I'm curious as to what the original score.

Either way, it's a great silent film worth checking out.
Click to expand...
There is no original score. There were a few different scores when the film first came out, but Dreyer never marked any of them or later scores as *the* soundtrack for the movie.

The score on the Criterion release though (I think it's called Voices of Light? Choir of Light? Something like that) is great and I think is what most people usually recommend for it.
 
L

lordxar

Member
More_Badass said:
If a movie has vampires or demons or some kind of monster, do you automatically consider it to be “horror”? My dad and I got into a debate because he thinks Blade is a horror movie because it has vampires so it has to be horror. So the Van Helsing movie is also horror

I guess you can qualify it as horror action, but even then I think a movie should have an air of terror to be considered horror action and not just action
Click to expand...

Letterboxd lists Blade with two genres, action and horror lol.
 
A

AngmarsKing701

Member
UrbanRats said:
Got lazy yesterday, and instead of the Russian epic, i just rewatched The Descent.
This movie is just ace, bad green screen and all.

However, monsters are the least scary part, and honestly, reality is way worse than fiction.

No, this movie has it all backwards, because i'd rather get eaten by blind vampires, than get stuck under 20 meters of rocks.
But then again, i'd have problems crawling under a bed to pull out the Christmas junk, let alone go spelunking.
Natalie Mendoza is cute tho, maybe she could've talked me into it.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you. If they had skipped the monsters and just gotten lost in the subterranean caverns it would have been a more harrowing experience.

But I find that with a lot of horror, that once the monster is revealed it kinda goes downhill. The imagination paints a much more horrid possibility than reality.
 
V

Ventilaator

Banned
More_Badass said:
If a movie has vampires or demons or some kind of monster, do you automatically consider it to be ”horror"? My dad and I got into a debate because he thinks Blade is a horror movie because it has vampires so it has to be horror. So the Van Helsing movie is also horror

I guess you can qualify it as horror action, but even then I think a movie should have an air of terror to be considered horror action and not just action
Click to expand...

I mean, Twilight.

That's "Horror" only if you're being very funny, but other than that, it's got vampires and werewolves, and it is not a horror movie. I'm sure there are plenty of examples of monsters used in comedies as well. What We Do in the Shadows being the first example that comes to mind.
 
P

Pachimari

Member
Blade Runner 2049 (2017) - ★★★★☆
This was such a fucking great movie. I admit it felt long in parts, and I was lying all the way down on my seat kind of asking myself when it would end, and twisting my body feeling uncomfortable, but it was one heck of an experience and I liked the slower pacing compared to many other movies this year. It was probably the most beautifully shot one, even more so than Kong: Skull Island, and the acting was superb from all parts, hell even Ford Harrison who I felt was more into this role than Han Solo. I loved the chemistry between K and Joi, and there were numerous magnificent scenes like the love scene. There's so many things to take away from 2049, and so many details I hadn't picked up on in my showing, so I am in for multiple rewatches. But just discussing Blade Runner 2049 with others makes it even better. I have to say I didn't feel it as much as the original (Final Cut), but it was a very fine wine of a sequel!
 
S

shaneo632

Member
The Mountain Between Us (2017) - 5.4/10. Hmmmm. Kate Winslet and Idris Elba give good performances and the film always looks nice, but it just felt like a conventional and rather listless survival film for the most part.

Then the film reaches its logical conclusion and goes on for another 15 minutes with a clumsy, cornball epilogue that transforms it into a gooey romantic drama. As I understand it this deviates from the book in quite a few places, but it just felt like the cast deserved a lot more.

Not BAD, just underwhelming and with an ill-advised finale.
 
W

Window

Member
Cross Posting from the OT, Blade Runner 2049:

Villeneuve definitely renders the world of Blade Runner through his own eyes. Brilliant set pieces with gorgeous visuals which evoke and maintain a great sense of unease, all things which Villeneuve excels at. Sparse, minimalist and sterile, this film establishes a very different atmosphere than its predecessor and while it certainly manages to stir feelings of alienation, it lacks the beautiful melancholy found in the original. A lot of this has to do with a soundtrack which comes nowhere close to supporting the film like Vangelis' did and the absence of claustrophobia, the mishmash of multicultural iconography, the sprawl and characters which do not posses or express well enough their barely contained desire for something more with the exception of possibly Joi make up the other missing pieces. They say it aloud in words (like the Lt.) or show it through tears but it's not felt. Speaking of Joi, while I did really enjoy this narrative thread and the visual storytelling in her scenes, I think 'Her' probably explored the same concept with much more care and plausibility. It was more human.

None the less, a worthy sequel to the original which attempts to explore the same themes in greater depth and succeeds in doing so sometimes.
 
J

JoJoShabadoo

Member
Mother!

Cross posting from the Mother discussion thread. Spoilers in this post!

So even though the biblical allegories are indisputable, I couldn't help but to feel like the movie was a fever dream/hallucinatory representation of the emotional turmoil a mentally sick woman that was pregnant and either miscarried, aborted, or lost her child finds herself in. I feel like the scope could be smaller and from the perspective of a woman questioning her faith, and not necessarily a biblical scope. That she's questioning religion and only seeing the ugly side of it. Think how not one aspect of religion depicted in the movie brings her happiness or peace. Just the prospect of being in a loving relationship with a healthy child. The death of her child could be seen as God taking away what she cared the most for.

I felt like the house was a representation of how sheltered she was, and how she isolated herself from the outside world (hence it being located in the middle of nowhere). Which is why it began to break apart (her foundation was beginning to show cracks) and then it just continued escalating as people began invading her private space.

The "creature" she flushed to me represented a fetus. The stain under the rug was complications during her pregnancy. The "elixir" she drank was a representation of her alcoholism, as she felt relieved when drinking it in private, yet anytime alcohol was mentioned or offered to her in public she would grow nervous.

When the son in the beginning died and everyone is in mourning, as Jennifer Lawrence goes to answer the door the mother in the other room is heard saying something like "Today we lost our baby, we held him in our arms (...)" something like that, it almost felt like it was a distorted memory of her being reunited with her family after the death of her child. She couldn't say anything when she was asked to, she was at a loss for words.

By the way I absolutely loved the riot/war scenes in the third act (the house party/rave scene should have lasted longer!) It was claustrophobic and a few of the shots such as the girls crammed into a cage pleading for help were really effective in making me anxious as I watched.
Click to expand...

I wish there was more of an active discussion on this forum for the movie, I feel like there's a lot to analyze. Even though after seeing the movie the other day I didn't imagine myself wanting to rewatch the movie anytime soon, I now have an urge to watch it again in theaters.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
The first LFF film and it's a doozy.

You have to see this through. Don't give up your rights.
beautynews_700_3.jpg

Beauty and the Dogs is a powerful indictment of the Arab world's misogynist injustice system, post-Arab Spring. Nine long takes which are presented like chapter titles detail the dehumanising and circuitous nightmare a woman has to embark on after she's been raped. The long takes themselves really help you put yourself in the shoes of Mariam (Mariam Al Ferjani) as she navigates the bureaucratic rings she has to hop through to get even just medical certification because she lost her national ID in the police car where they raped her. Having been raped by policemen, she has to then confront them to file a complaint and even comes across the rapists themselves at various points. Khaled, her male companion throughout, references his life being like a zombie film and in a way, the film presents this midnight odyssey like one where she has to absurdly run away from the police inside the police station (at points locking herself in rooms) while seeking shelter with either the solitary female police officer or the only good cop Chedly. The women aren't much help here from the hospital staff to the police, victim-blaming her on all levels. The police are more concerned how this will ruin their reputation and that of Tunisia if there is a public interest story made of this, so they try their best to silence her and make her give up by citing that it'd be a three year court case with a bigshot lawyer that she doesn't have money for and no man will accept her as her family's reputation is tattered. While it's easy to localise your disgust at how rampant rape culture is in the Arab world, it's eerily relevant to the Western world where coming out about your allegations means recounting the experience in excruciating detail, the lack of belief, the justice system not knowing how to tackle rape allegations, confronting your attackers, police dehumanisation, and victim-blaming. It's an important, empathic, and powerful film that everyone should watch.
 
G

Gnome Scat

Member
My friend just rented the theatrical cut of Blade Runner by accident and I'm cringing so hard during these narrations...

The brilliant atmosphere and music draws you in, and then it's like nails on a chalkboard when the narration comes in; totally takes you out of it.
 
S

Sean C

Member
The Mummy (1932): A terrific performance from Boris Karloff, allowed here to do some real acting in comparison to his other famous monster role. A shame that everything and everyone around him is so dull.
 
Z

Zousi

Member
You've logged 44 entries for films during September 2017.

Top 5 New Watches (3.5/5 for all of these):

1. Devil's Doorway (1950)
2. Autumn Sonata (1978)
3. The Adventures of Sherlock Homes (1939)
4. Logan Lucky (2017)
5. Patriots Day (2016)

Letterboxd profile

Not the best month for movies, but managed to crack my goal for 365 movies a year while at it.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Should I be kicking myself for missing out my only chance to see Columbus this year? Anyone else here seen it? Got universal acclaim. The director Kogonada is a video essayist, very influenced by Ozu and Hal Hartley.

John-Cho-Columbus.jpg

hero_Columbus-2017.jpg
 
B

big ander

Member
Sean C said:
The Mummy (1932): A terrific performance from Boris Karloff, allowed here to do some real acting in comparison to his other famous monster role. A shame that everything and everyone around him is so dull.
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It's a snooze. at least the 1999 Mummy is dumb fun. From what I've seen the only seriously great classic universal horror films are all directed by James Whale: the unbeatable one-two punch of Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein, plus Invisible Man and The Old Dark House. Old Dark House especially is nuts, very funny and creepy.
Messofanego said:
Should I be kicking myself for missing out my only chance to see Columbus this year? Anyone else here seen it? Got universal acclaim. The director Kogonada is a video essayist, very influenced by Ozu and Hal Hartley.
Click to expand...
You should tbh, one of my favorites of the year. Tonally it doesn't have much in common with Ozu or Hartley—more Linklater or Reichardt I'd say—but it is very formally particular the way those directors are. e.g. the camera is mostly stationary and the first move is this great tracking shot along a fence with Richardson and Cho's characters on either side, walking along it as they meet for the first time. I loved it.
 
T

TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared

Member
I was anticipating watching I Used To Live Here quite a bit, mainly because homegrown Irish films like this can be a real gem, and it has stellar reviews, and I'm always up for a film bringing up mental health awareness.
Unfortunately, it ended up being a real disappoint, its low budget ending up in a cheap shoddy piece of work. The lack of cash for making it didn't necessarily have to be a deal breaker, but the local and largely non professional actors aren't up to the task, and the script does them no favours at all. I don't live in exactly the area this film is set in, but I know it reasonably well, and this feels like a poorly written version of how you'd expect people in this area to sound, stereotyped.
The audio is wretched throughout the thing, and makes it difficult to even heard the poorly written dialogue. The story is present, there's sort of one main story and then a couple of subplots, but the themes are confused, the stories are badly told, and it never feels like it amounts to anything, nor does it amount up to a meaningful story about mental health awareness or suicide, its extremely confused. Disappointingly meh.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
big ander said:
You should tbh, one of my favorites of the year. Tonally it doesn't have much in common with Ozu or Hartley—more Linklater or Reichardt I'd say—but it is very formally particular the way those directors are. e.g. the camera is mostly stationary and the first move is this great tracking shot along a fence with Richardson and Cho's characters on either side, walking along it as they meet for the first time. I loved it.
Click to expand...
Damn, well glad to hear. Don't see this being released this year in UK, so gonna have to wait a while

Guess I'll watch some Ozu films on amazon video, instead.
 
G

Gastone

Member
Ok, seen a few lately:

Rough Night 1.5/5
Well, this sorta started out being somewhat ok and entertaining. Then it all went "Weekend at Bernie's" and just completely turned into a massive shitshow. I can't fathom how ScarJo could star in this travesty. Not funny, horribly paced, not a single likable character and just a total mess overall.

Girls Trip 4/5
Now THIS was something else. Had a blast watching this. The story was interesting, the majority of the characters were really good and funny (Tiffany Hadish was a riot). It was very "vulgar" but i felt the context was appropriate and fit the movie nicely, so it was hilarious. Wife was losing her shit over the
pissing scenes
.

The Big Sick 4/5
Really enjoyed this one. A great mix of humor and drama. Hit all the right notes for me as a romantic comedy. I hadn't seen the trailer or read anything about this, so it came as a huge surprise to me how appropriate the title was for the film. Loved how the story revolved mostly around
the relationship with her parents and Kumail and how it played out.
Solid film.

Baby Driver 3/5
Had quite high expectations of this. Action scenes / car chases were amazing. Didn't really feel the relationship with Baby and Debora that much. Liked Spacey and Foxx's characters. Felt a bit drawn out in certain parts, and didn't really care too much for the musical choices in the film.

The Hitman's Bodyguard 3.5/5
Thought this was funny as hell, and the chemistry between Jackson and Reynolds were on-point. Some great action scenes and although it was mostly funny, there were a few times it fell falt. Also, it was longer than it needed to be. Could easily have cut 20mins of this.

Blade Runner 2049 5/5
Blade Runner from 82 is one of my all time favorites. My expectations for this were through the roof. I was not disappointed, and the film was everything i would have hoped for. It took me no more than 4 minutes into the film to realize that this was going to be what i had wanted. Visuals and design were stunning, the soundtrack was fitting and respectul to the world of Blade Runner. Characters were really good. Gosling showed a lot of emotion and so did Ford, which i think delivered his best performance in years. This movie deserves to win any award thrown at it.
 
P

Puck Beaverton

Banned
Blade Runner 2049 is better than the original, at least right now, 10 minutes after watching it. Wow that was dope.

Noir as fuck. Practically gushing at how noir it is.
 
S

swoon

Member
big ander said:
You should tbh, one of my favorites of the year. Tonally it doesn't have much in common with Ozu or Hartley—more Linklater or Reichardt I'd say—but it is very formally particular the way those directors are. e.g. the camera is mostly stationary and the first move is this great tracking shot along a fence with Richardson and Cho's characters on either side, walking along it as they meet for the first time. I loved it.
Click to expand...

You don't think, thematically it relates to Ozu? About being trapped inside of family traditions and unable to communicate feels very much like well worn Ozu plot points , though it is interwoven coming-of-age American masters.

It is easily the best film I've seen this year, regardless of influences
 
B

BeeDog

Member
Blade Runner 2049 (strong 8/10, might rise): Excellent movie, hit most of the notes I hoped for. Definitely a worthy sequel to and better than the first one which I don't hold in as high regard as others.

The Big Sick (7/10): Definitely much more dramatic than I assumed, but it's still a very catchy movie all in all, and very heartfelt. Ray Romano was super-charismatic in it.

Baby Driver (6+/10): Intense, joyful, amazingly edited and really good pacing. Something fell flat for me though; maybe it's the thin characterization and romance, or maybe it was the huge tonal shifts, especially towards the end with the Terminator-esque sequences and interjected happy-go-lucky scenes.
 
M

mariachi507

Member
Blade Runner 2049

Taking a break from the 31 days of horror to get my sci-fi on. I remember a decade ago when I was getting burnt out on sequels to franchises that have been dormant (Rambo, Die Hard). They would usually be fun at best, but in no way ever compared to the originals (I guess Rocky is the outlier from that time). That being said, the 2010's are showing the 2000's how it's fucking done. A sequel to Blade Runner had every reason to be disappointing, especially in today's "explosions every ten minutes" movie climate. Thankfully, the reigns were given to a director who understands what Blade Runner is but isn't just satisfied in replicating it.

I was grateful for the pace that 2049 moved at. It's much more narrative based than the original and that's fine. As expected it's a audio/visual delight but it isn't quite the landmark its predecessor is, and honestly nothing in this genre will ever top it. One aspect that 2049 does better is its love story, which honestly surprised me in how attached I was to it. The film definitely has flaws, but there is plenty to unpack here and rewarding aspects will be more prevalent on rewatches. Which is perfect considering that's what Blade Runner does.

Verdict: 8.5/10
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
swoon said:
You don't think, thematically it relates to Ozu? About being trapped inside of family traditions and unable to communicate feels very much like well worn Ozu plot points , though it is interwoven coming-of-age American masters.

It is easily the best film I've seen this year, regardless of influences
Click to expand...

big ander and swoon approval, damn I fucked up.
 
C

cosmicspooks

Member
I saw Alien Covenant and really liked it! I mean to be fair I'm one of those people who thinks Prometheus is fantastic so this isn't very surprising.

The biggest problem I had was the big climactic ending which fell a bit flat for me. Too much energy for an otherwise not adrenaline filled movie. It would have been better if the whole movie was just bonkers scenes of Fassbender seductively teaching another Fassbender how to play a flute. Still, this thing was dark and quirky and so unique and I'm very happy Scott isn't backing off from his weird vision for this series.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
LFF #2

I hated him for most of my adult life. I tried to outrun him.
iepumEN.gif

The Meyerowitz Stories is really funny. I have a feeling Alex Ross Perry might have played a part in emboldening Noah to shoot this on film. This is very much him returning to the dysfunctional family unit from The Squid and the Whale along with some of the artist's resentment towards not being recognised in Listen Up Philip and a bit of Royal Tenenbaums as the dad of the family is played by Dustin Hoffman (Harold Meyerowitz) to be a grumpy witty delight ("He must have a real tolerance for discomfort"). The mom, Maurine, is always "plastered", maybe there was just one scene where she was sober? There are about a dozen great jokes, one of the best running gags being Dustin Hoffman saying "it's my protest" to any little thing he doesn't want to do. They made an end-of-life group session funny! The comedy in Noah Baumbach's films is usually down to dialogue but here the visual humour is ramped up thanks to dialogue cutoff transitions, zooms, a bit of slapstick, violence, awkward pauses, and running. A hug gets quick cuts, for goodness' sake. Once Harold gets sick, the siblings improve their relationship with each other and him. It takes a bit getting used to how fast the dialogue goes with how mumbly the actors are but that sells the naturalism. Adam Sandler (Danny Meyerowitz) and Ben Stiller (Matthew Meyerowitz) are perfectly cast to be brothers with sibling rivalry since Matthew is the favoured son and the one his dad has named a sculpture after. Elizabeth Marvel (Jean Meyerowitz) plays the nerdy daughter who works at Xerox and is my favourite character primarily because of the contrast. It's a heartfelt dramedy that I can easily recommend. Will be showing up on Netflix on Oct 13th.
 
C

cablenathan

Member
Knuckle Sandwich said:
Knock Knock... It was pretty bad. I just kept thinking "why is Keanu Reeves in this movie?"
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I made the same mistake and watched this...Keanu was bad acting on purpose in this right? It must’ve been an active choice.

4/10 for me on this one. Keanu simply being in it gets it a 3, how creepy the female charcters were gets it an extra point.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
I missed out on call me by your name and Florida project last week so now I'm gonna have to wait a month or two to catch them :(

Pretty hyped for those and Columbus. I revisit kogonada's video on linklater a lot so it's pretty awesome that he's branched out to making his own movie

And yeah seconded on James Whale being the Universal Monster movie MVP. Just rewatched Frankenstein today and I'll go on to the others he directed during the month for sure. Man I love these old black and white horror films that were so inspired by German expressionism. Their look is timeless imo
 
K

kevin1025

Banned
Messofanego said:
LFF #2

I hated him for most of my adult life. I tried to outrun him.
iepumEN.gif

The Meyerowitz Stories is really funny. I have a feeling Alex Ross Perry might have played a part in emboldening Noah to shoot this on film. This is very much him returning to the dysfunctional family unit from The Squid and the Whale along with some of the artist's resentment towards not being recognised in Listen Up Philip and a bit of Royal Tenenbaums as the dad of the family is played by Dustin Hoffman (Harold Meyerowitz) to be a grumpy witty delight ("He must have a real tolerance for discomfort"). The mom, Maurine, is always "plastered", maybe there was just one scene where she was sober? There are about a dozen great jokes, one of the best running gags being Dustin Hoffman saying "it's my protest" to any little thing he doesn't want to do. They made an end-of-life group session funny! The comedy in Noah Baumbach's films is usually down to dialogue but here the visual humour is ramped up thanks to dialogue cutoff transitions, zooms, a bit of slapstick, violence, awkward pauses, and running. A hug gets quick cuts, for goodness' sake. Once Harold gets sick, the siblings improve their relationship with each other and him. It takes a bit getting used to how fast the dialogue goes with how mumbly the actors are but that sells the naturalism. Adam Sandler (Danny Meyerowitz) and Ben Stiller (Matthew Meyerowitz) are perfectly cast to be brothers with sibling rivalry since Matthew is the favoured son and the one his dad has named a sculpture after. Elizabeth Marvel (Jean Meyerowitz) plays the nerdy daughter who works at Xerox and is my favourite character primarily because of the contrast. It's a heartfelt dramedy that I can easily recommend. Will be showing up on Netflix on Oct 13th.
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Awesome stuff. Really looking forward to when it hits Netflix!
 
H

HoJu

Member
I feel like if Scott directed 2049 it would have been not nearly as good, even thought the story is pretty solid. Villeneuve is just good at detail.Also even the exposition bits makes sense, seeing as who was saying it.
 
F

Fancyarcher

Member
Excellent movie, the more I thought about it leaving the theater, the more I liked it too, which makes its poor box office almost criminal. For a 2 hour and 43 minute including credits, it didn't feel long at all. In fact the story flowed perfectly, and if Deakins doesn't win an Oscar for it (which I know at this point he very likely won't), I think I'm going to scream. My only real regret is I wish I could have seen it on the biggest screen possible, otherwise I loved it! I'm definitely gonna check it out again. It deserves repeat viewing. - 9 / 10

HoJu said:
I feel like if Scott directed 2049 it would have been not nearly as good, even thought the story is pretty solid. Villeneuve just has the eye for detail.
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Villenueve is better at storytelling filmmaking, at least compared to Scott now. I have no doubt Scott's Blade Runner 2049, would have been inferior overall.
 
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