They took Avellone's contributions out of Dying Light 2 after it turned out Avellone is a bit of a creep.
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
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The director, Armando Ianucci, was also the lead writer on the British political comedy series The Thick of It, which was adapted into a film not about the start of the Iraq War called In The Loop. They're both very funny. Peter Capaldi steals both as the sociopathic spin doctor Malcolm Tucker but the rest of the cast in each are really good as well.
Stowaway
Kind of a snore. A three person mission to Mars becomes compromised when the crew discovers an accidental stowaway aboard the ship. Because resources for a 2 year mission in space would be double what you need, obviously, just in case, this isn't immediately a problem. But everything goes wrong anyway as it must, and all of the movie's 2 hours are dedicated almost entirely to brainstorming the life and death problem of "one too many".
For, uh, reasons, it was obvious to me the stowaway himself wasn't going to bite the bullet, so not much tension in that regard. So I dunno. First act was alright but the rest of the movie was paced unevenly and just not worth the running time.
Kind of a snore. A three person mission to Mars becomes compromised when the crew discovers an accidental stowaway aboard the ship. Because resources for a 2 year mission in space would be double what you need, obviously, just in case, this isn't immediately a problem. But everything goes wrong anyway as it must, and all of the movie's 2 hours are dedicated almost entirely to brainstorming the life and death problem of "one too many".
For, uh, reasons, it was obvious to me the stowaway himself wasn't going to bite the bullet, so not much tension in that regard. So I dunno. First act was alright but the rest of the movie was paced unevenly and just not worth the running time.
Only Yesterday/Omohide Poro Poro
Cute, simple, charming. A young woman goes to work in a farm for the Summer holidays and memories of her childhood/family/school days loosely keep coming back to her. Like most Ghibli movies, especially the Takahata ones, the plot isn't really driven by conflict. There's a sense of inner turmoil within the protagonist but no one defining trauma or something to mend in the adult present. At most the movie hints at a sense of aimlessness or restlessness, but nothing devolves into melodrama. It's like a combination of Totoro & Kiki but without the fantasy elements or the third act emergency: just chill, melancholy slice of life jumping between a crucial point in life and several childhood memories themed around joy and disillusion.
Cute, simple, charming. A young woman goes to work in a farm for the Summer holidays and memories of her childhood/family/school days loosely keep coming back to her. Like most Ghibli movies, especially the Takahata ones, the plot isn't really driven by conflict. There's a sense of inner turmoil within the protagonist but no one defining trauma or something to mend in the adult present. At most the movie hints at a sense of aimlessness or restlessness, but nothing devolves into melodrama. It's like a combination of Totoro & Kiki but without the fantasy elements or the third act emergency: just chill, melancholy slice of life jumping between a crucial point in life and several childhood memories themed around joy and disillusion.
Army of the Dead (2021).
It's fun enough. In fact, it's sufficiently fun that it didn't feel anything like as bad as the two-and-a-half hours length it was. Some zombie hunters go into infected Las Vegas to get some money from a vault before it gets nuked. The rest is totally predictable, but carried off with enough pizazz that it's enjoyable.
Detective Pikachu (2019)
Why did I watch this? It's not terrible. But even still...
It's fun enough. In fact, it's sufficiently fun that it didn't feel anything like as bad as the two-and-a-half hours length it was. Some zombie hunters go into infected Las Vegas to get some money from a vault before it gets nuked. The rest is totally predictable, but carried off with enough pizazz that it's enjoyable.
Detective Pikachu (2019)
Why did I watch this? It's not terrible. But even still...
I thought Pacific Rim 2 was fairly entertaining really. It wasn't great but I enjoyed the time in the theater watching it.
I have not forgotten our conversation from last time. I did not exactly hate it, and I admit the movie has an advantage in action sequences, it just felt forgettable and banked on a sequel
Good news for you and @Hawki. I was wrong, @Hawki. That Netflix series has already happened this year.
Watch Pacific Rim: The Black | Netflix Official Site
After Kaiju ravage Australia, two siblings pilot a Jaeger to search for their parents, encountering new creatures, seedy characters and chance allies.
www.netflix.com
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Army of the Dead
20 minutes in and I'm already bored.
40 minutes. Nothing's happened yet.
50 minutes. Still haven't gone into Vegas. Man these people are annoying. Hope they start dying sometime soon.
60 minutes. They're finally in. Apparently you can barter and negotiate with the things you're supposed to be scared of now, Jurassic Park 3 style.
70 minutes. I remember caring when Vasquez died in Aliens.
80 minutes. Teen is giving her dad the "You were never there" spiel. Bleh.
100 minutes. These zombies don't really behave like zombies. They're taking hostages, riding horses, holding rituals, one of them's crying over another zombie... I feel ripped off.
110 minutes. They're lugging 50 tons in cash and the atom bomb's dropping in 40 minutes but hey, let's stop dead in our tracks to talk about the feelings between Bautista and the character I forgot was there because she hasn't done anything so far.
380 minutes. This movie sucked.
20 minutes in and I'm already bored.
40 minutes. Nothing's happened yet.
50 minutes. Still haven't gone into Vegas. Man these people are annoying. Hope they start dying sometime soon.
60 minutes. They're finally in. Apparently you can barter and negotiate with the things you're supposed to be scared of now, Jurassic Park 3 style.
70 minutes. I remember caring when Vasquez died in Aliens.
80 minutes. Teen is giving her dad the "You were never there" spiel. Bleh.
100 minutes. These zombies don't really behave like zombies. They're taking hostages, riding horses, holding rituals, one of them's crying over another zombie... I feel ripped off.
110 minutes. They're lugging 50 tons in cash and the atom bomb's dropping in 40 minutes but hey, let's stop dead in our tracks to talk about the feelings between Bautista and the character I forgot was there because she hasn't done anything so far.
380 minutes. This movie sucked.
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Watched The Red Spectacles, Mamoru Oshii's first live action film and the first film in the Kerberos saga, which has spanned several titles, the most iconic of which is Jin-Roh.
This one is about a Kerberos officer, one who refuses to step down after the unit is disbanded, and flees the country, promising to return for his two wounded comrades. He returns three years later to an unrecognizable society that has outlawed most public attractions and seems to be run by a different autocratic force altogether.
It's an abstract piece. The majority of it is in sepia tone, and it straddles the line between film noir, dystopic sci-fi, and comic odyssey. The latter is the most surprising part to me---I was under the impression from its beginning that this film was going to take itself very seriously, but it's pretty silly, and many of its action setpieces are slapstick and/or unnaturalistic in manner.
It appears to be influenced by Seijun Suzuki's early 80's work (The first two films in the Taisho Trilogy: Ziguenerweisen and Zagero-za), in that its slow, dreamlike, and often humorous in its bizarre qualities, except Oshii just doesn't have the same command that a veteran like Suzuki did. That isn't to say that this film is ugly, Oshii's visual talents transfer pretty well to live action, but it lacks flow; a proper oneiric mode to really make it rumble and stick in the mind. Parts of it work really well, and sections of it really drag, especially the dialogue scenes.
Overall not bad. More of a curiosity than something worth looking out for, but it has its moments and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Oshii's films.
This one is about a Kerberos officer, one who refuses to step down after the unit is disbanded, and flees the country, promising to return for his two wounded comrades. He returns three years later to an unrecognizable society that has outlawed most public attractions and seems to be run by a different autocratic force altogether.
It's an abstract piece. The majority of it is in sepia tone, and it straddles the line between film noir, dystopic sci-fi, and comic odyssey. The latter is the most surprising part to me---I was under the impression from its beginning that this film was going to take itself very seriously, but it's pretty silly, and many of its action setpieces are slapstick and/or unnaturalistic in manner.
It appears to be influenced by Seijun Suzuki's early 80's work (The first two films in the Taisho Trilogy: Ziguenerweisen and Zagero-za), in that its slow, dreamlike, and often humorous in its bizarre qualities, except Oshii just doesn't have the same command that a veteran like Suzuki did. That isn't to say that this film is ugly, Oshii's visual talents transfer pretty well to live action, but it lacks flow; a proper oneiric mode to really make it rumble and stick in the mind. Parts of it work really well, and sections of it really drag, especially the dialogue scenes.
Overall not bad. More of a curiosity than something worth looking out for, but it has its moments and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Oshii's films.
A Quite Place: Part II: Good / Great
Clearly a "wow, the first one was a hit... let's do it again!" type of sequel. Not a bad film, but chock full of contrivances to merit its own existence. The movie starts with a pre-first film flashback to try and loosely explain how everything started so John Krasinski can be in the film for 5 minutes. Good for tension and a couple scares, just half the engagement of the first film.
The Big Year: WTF / Great
Film (based on TRUE events) about 3 particularly obsessed bird watchers, sorry, "BIRDERS" trying to outdo one another by setting a new record for most distinct species of bird seen in a calendar year. Did I mention this is an actual thing? Jack Black is a divorced 30-something who risks everything, Steve Martin is a wealthy CEO walking away from a company he started, and Owen Wilson is the egotistical record-holder who basically walks out on his wife and their plans to start a family to maintain his record... all of them just to look at birds. This was a well-acted film with some genuinely touching and funny moments (look at that cast,) but I just couldn't wrap my head around the lengths actual people go to for this obscenely ridiculous hobby or that someone decided a movie needed to be made about it all. Maybe it's obscene ridiculousness was the reason?
Clearly a "wow, the first one was a hit... let's do it again!" type of sequel. Not a bad film, but chock full of contrivances to merit its own existence. The movie starts with a pre-first film flashback to try and loosely explain how everything started so John Krasinski can be in the film for 5 minutes. Good for tension and a couple scares, just half the engagement of the first film.
The Big Year: WTF / Great
Film (based on TRUE events) about 3 particularly obsessed bird watchers, sorry, "BIRDERS" trying to outdo one another by setting a new record for most distinct species of bird seen in a calendar year. Did I mention this is an actual thing? Jack Black is a divorced 30-something who risks everything, Steve Martin is a wealthy CEO walking away from a company he started, and Owen Wilson is the egotistical record-holder who basically walks out on his wife and their plans to start a family to maintain his record... all of them just to look at birds. This was a well-acted film with some genuinely touching and funny moments (look at that cast,) but I just couldn't wrap my head around the lengths actual people go to for this obscenely ridiculous hobby or that someone decided a movie needed to be made about it all. Maybe it's obscene ridiculousness was the reason?
Doesn't surprise me at all. I worked in a comic shop in the 90s, right when the X-men were having their resurgence into popularity, and they had trading cards, multiple covers of the same issue that combined into a huge mosaic. Dude would walk into the shop, and buy the long boxes full of the X-men cards, and just stand there, IN the store, and open every single individual packet, and if they didn't get the one they wanted, they would buy another full box, and do it again. And so many other examples of that insane level of obsession for a thing. Bird watching at least, in theory, is fairly low cost, compared to other hobbies (like flying and astronomy), though I guess you might spend a lot on travel and accommodations to get to various areas to watch birds. But if you just stay local, then you could just buy a set of binoculars and be done.
My greatest exposure to Pokemon was, on my 23rd birthday, my flatmate giving me:
a) a large corkboard, onto which was affixed
b) ...a poster of 100 Pokemon and...
c) ...a set of darts.
That was probably one of the best suprise presents I ever got.
To clarify, I've no issue with the hobby of bird watching; it's these particular individuals in the film are not far from the truth. They DO spend a lot of money traveling and at an insane pace to literally just look at birds. Black's character maxes out 7 credit cards. Wilson is on his way to the hospital for a presumed insemination session with his wife, already running late, is at the door to the hospital when he gets a phone call from a friend that he's seen a rare bird in another state, and he leaves, lying to his wife over the phone about traffic and such so he can go see a fucking bird!
All hobbies have the potential for a level of obsession that borders on unhealthy, but in this film, 3 characters basically take a year off of their lives, leaving friends, loved one and jobs to just see birds, not catch, not photograph, just see. It's actually mentioned that they don't even need to actually see the birds as recognizing their unique songs "counts" as seeing them. It's mind-blowing.
Oh I wasn't suggesting you had an issue with bird watching, and yes, all hobbies can have the risk of being expensive. I just meant that it doesn't surprise me personally. I've seen firsthand, the way people obsess over those types of things. Now *I* don't get it....but I get it. It doesn't baffle me, but I don't share the compulsion they do.
Part of it in the case of this film though, is the competition aspect. To be a record holder, that's a huge factor for a lot of people. To be #1, to gain validation at being the king of the hill. So that's another layer to it, aside from just a hobby that can suck up your money.