Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[thebobmaster]

A ★★½ review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.” Quick preface: me reviewing this movie is in no way a show of support for JK Rowling or her frankly abominable views. I am judging this JUST as a movie. Suffice to say, this film...

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[Old_Hunter_77]

Inspired by the new Apes movie out and hearing talk of how this reboot/remake whatever series was actually good, though I ignored it and dimissed them at the time:

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
War for the Planet of the Apes

These are from the 2010s and star the same dude what did Gollum as the lead chimp so I guess that actor is like the king of playing people are some other being with aid of computers or something. And of course he is the heart and soul of the movies and what pulls this absurd premise together.

I did of course watch the original with Charlton Heston decades ago and enjoyed it for the time period schlock it was and then one sequel out of morbid curiosity but that's about it before now.

I enjoyed them but I was in the mood for them so I'm glad I didn't watch them when they came out- I mean you gotta really be invested in the dramatic impact of watching two apes sign at each other sometimes.
The other strength is that the stories are simple- human arrogance does science and capitalism wrong, ruin society, now apes are the heroes.

Probably the second one was the best because it introduces more apes including one that is in conflict with the main one offering opposite goals. There is this one scene where this ape infiltrates a human guard checkpoint by acting like a goofy circus monkey to disarm them both figuratively and literally and you just know the turnaround is coming and it's so effectively done I was actually really impressed.

 

[BrawlMan]

I watched Rise of the Beasts again. Great Transformers movie, and the best of the new films, and much better than the Bayformers.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★★ review of The Lighthouse (2019)

“Doldrums. Doldrums. Eviler than the Devil. Boredom makes men to villains, and the water goes quick, lad, vanished. The only medicine is drink. Keeps them sailors happy, keeps 'em agreeable, keeps 'em calm.” This film follows a lighthouse keeper named Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) and his assistant...

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[Johnny Novgorod]

Furiosa: A Mad Max Story

Not the single relentless chase of Fury Road, which I think is going to disappoint some people, but a sorta sweeping wasteland epic that lasts about 15 years and has lofty chapter headings with titles such as "The Pole of Inaccessibility". Not that it doesn't have some great action set-pieces, but the most awesome one happens halfway through the movie, and ending on a montage of the most exciting moments of Fury Road is a bold, bold choice.

A good comparison is to Beyond Thunderdome, which had the tall order of following Road Warrior's epic chase climax and opted for more of the same but also made room to build up the world while taking a more dramatic approach to storytelling. Note how Thunderdome too has its best sequence halfway through the film and nobody likes the back half of the movie as much.

A couple of dunces behind me were complaining about "too much CG" when the movie ended. Yes, there is more CG. A) It looks great. B) The movie doesn't rely on it, let alone abuse it. Learn to enjoy the CG. There's a shot in T2 where Arnie cuts across the flesh of his forearm and removes the skin as if it were a rubber glove. Would you walk out of the movie complaining that the arm was clearly fake because it was being held off-screen? Is Christmas cancelled?

Anya is great in it but she's also around for like half of the movie (kid Anya was good too). Hemsworth is also great playing a character with zero likability. You might think he's going to do one of those "love to hate" villains. No, he's just hateful. The casting is generally great and I missed the original Immortan's voice but they came up with a decent recast.

So again, not being Fury Road, and then contriving to connect to Fury Road, are the movie's biggest hurdles (unnecessarily so - the movie works fine on its own). But to summarize: it's a whole lot of damn fun and exciting, looks brilliant, the story and characters are compelling, would watch again in the theater. Miller knows what's up.

 

[Casual Shinji]

A couple of dunces behind me were complaining about "too much CG" when the movie ended. Yes, there is more CG. A) It looks great. B) The movie doesn't rely on it, let alone abuse it. Learn to enjoy the CG. There's a shot in T2 where Arnie cuts across the flesh of his forearm and removes the skin as if it were a rubber glove. Would you walk out of the movie complaining that the arm was clearly fake because it was being held off-screen? Is Christmas cancelled?

Yeah, but that's an in-camera effect as opposed to a digital one, with the result that it can look like it's not actually there. Blood squibs are obviously fake too in the countless 80's and 90's action movies, but there's a reason why digital blood squibs just don't have that same impact. The effect can look extra fake on top of the fact that we know it's not actually real.

I've only seen the trailer of Furiosa, but I could already tell there's far less happening in-camera, and with one of Fury Road's biggest selling points being those real in-camera stunts this is a bitter pill to swallow. I understand why there's more digital effects, seeing as Fury Road was such a nightmare to film, and I don't begrudge Miller from not wanting to die of stress and old age before finishing this movie, but I can't ignore this sense of disappointment neither.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yeah, but that's an in-camera effect as opposed to a digital one, with the result that it can look like it's not actually there. Blood squibs are obviously fake too in the countless 80's and 90's action movies, but there's a reason why digital blood squibs just don't have that same impact. The effect can look extra fake on top of the fact that we know it's not actually real.

I've only seen the trailer of Furiosa, but I could already tell there's far less happening in-camera, and with one of Fury Road's biggest selling points being those real in-camera stunts this is a bitter pill to swallow. I understand why there's more digital effects, seeing as Fury Road was such a nightmare to film, and I don't begrudge Miller from not wanting to die of stress and old age before finishing this movie, but I can't ignore this sense of disappointment neither.

I just rewatched both trailers and I don't think Furiosa looks much phonier than Fury Road's. In the movie the CG that stood out to me was a couple of green screen shots near the beginning, not even action scenes (kid Furiosa in the woods, Furiosa's mom driving a bike up to the camera). After that nothing ever really took me out of the movie. I'm sure the big action set-piece in the middle is made up of composite shots, because logistically how the hell would you coordinate all that (no spoilers), but even if it was shot separately everything looked in-camera to me.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

So again, not being Fury Road, and then contriving to connect to Fury Road, are the movie's biggest hurdles (unnecessarily so - the movie works fine on its own). But to summarize: it's a whole lot of damn fun and exciting, looks brilliant, the story and characters are compelling, would watch again in the theater. Miller knows what's up.

You know... if you think about it, George Miller has an amazingly consistent track record. Like, his worst is basically a regular directors average. Sure, he's not the most prolific for how long he's been around but that's probably because he only makes something when he's confident in the idea of it. I kinda get why Hideo Kojima calls him god.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I just rewatched both trailers and I don't think Furiosa looks much phonier than Fury Road's. In the movie the CG that stood out to me was a couple of green screen shots near the beginning, not even action scenes (kid Furiosa in the woods, Furiosa's mom driving a bike up to the camera). After that nothing ever really took me out of the movie. I'm sure the big action set-piece in the middle is made up of composite shots, because logistically how the hell would you coordinate all that (no spoilers), but even if it was shot separately everything looked in-camera to me.

I may eat my words if I ever see the movie.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★ review of Ocean Waves (1993)

“Sometimes what you're looking for comes when you aren't looking at all." This film is a bit of an oddity in terms of US releases. Unlike other Studio Ghibli films, this one never got a dub, and only received a limited release in 2016 and a DVD release in 2017. This film follows Taku Morisaki...

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[Thaluikhain]

Does Anya-Taylor Joy have the same presence as Charlize Theron? She looks like 1/3 the size when out of character.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

You know... if you think about it, George Miller has an amazingly consistent track record. Like, his worst is basically a regular directors average. Sure, he's not the most prolific for how long he's been around but that's probably because he only makes something when he's confident in the idea of it. I kinda get why Hideo Kojima calls him god.

I get it too. Hideo spent most of his career honing his own fictional universe without ever really undoing anything. There have "only" been 5 Mad Max movies in 45 years and they're all somehow 1) Great, 2) Within the same continuity and 3) Directed by the same person.

Does Anya-Taylor Joy have the same presence as Charlize Theron? She looks like 1/3 the size when out of character.

She's good in this, but it's a very different approach to the character. For half the movie the character is played by a kid and when Anya takes over, the character has been passing for years as a scrawny boy, for the sake of survival. And that's more or less where the movie leaves her. She gets a cool robot arm but doesn't really get to bulk up.

(Which is a bit jarring when we get what appears to be scenes leading to Fury Road ASAP, and then footage of Charlize in the role.)

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I may eat my words if I ever see the movie.

The effects aren't all as practical or in-camera as the ones in Fury Road, but I promise I'm a very picky eater when it comes to CG and no amount of it ruined Furiosa for me (nor did I think there was *that* much to the point it became a distraction).

 

[BrawlMan]

A couple of dunces behind me were complaining about "too much CG" when the movie ended.

Those are fools who hate on anything to sound "smart and cool". Note how they never said the CG is terrible or bad. They're just talking shit, because they got nothing else otherwise. I'll check this out later next week.

 

[Thaluikhain]

She's good in this, but it's a very different approach to the character. For half the movie the character is played by a kid and when Anya takes over, the character has been passing for years as a scrawny boy, for the sake of survival. And that's more or less where the movie leaves her. She gets a cool robot arm but doesn't really get to bulk up.

(Which is a bit jarring when we get what appears to be scenes leading to Fury Road ASAP, and then footage of Charlize in the role.)

Ah, ok, thanks.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Rewatched Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. The Australian Outback is the de facto post-apocalyptic wasteland. Not that the apocalypse, whatever it was, had anything specifically to do with the environment (the big commodity is gasoline, not water like Fury Road). And just like Night of the Living Dead, 99% of all the genre tropes are more or less suddenly sprung and codified from one timely, low budget work of genius that also resulted more or less from the limitations of the production. It also ends on the definitive convoy chase, which was redone in Beyond Thunderdome but never quite topped until Fury Road.

Max supposedly only has 16 lines of dialogue (half of which are spoken in like the first 15 minutes) but they're closer to 36 by my count.

Best lines were from a single speech -


The Humungus: There has been too much violence. Too much pain. None here are without sin. But I have an honorable compromise. Just walk away. Give me your pump, the oil, the gasoline, and the whole compound, and I'll spare your lives. Just walk away. I will give you safe passage in the wasteland. Just walk away and there will be an end to the horror.
[Soldiers start up their vehicles]
The Humungus: I await your answer. You have a full day to decide.
[Everyone drives away]

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

About the CG stuff, Fury Road is brilliant but let’s not kid ourselves.

A graphic tale: the visual effects of Mad Max: Fury Road

Find out how the more than 2000 VFX shots in George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road were created.

www.fxguide.com

As an addendum for good measure, since everyone was jizzing over how CGI-less TG: Maverick was -



One more for Tom Cruise -



Basically, while it's best to let practical effects do the heavy lifting, CGI can provide a good assist wherever appropriate.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ½ review of Mulan (2020)

“Your chi is strong, Mulan, but chi is for warriors, not daughters.” For the record, I am judging this purely as a movie, not based on any of the behind the scenes activities. This film follows Hua Mulan (Yifei Liu). The daughter of a war hero named Hua Zhou (Tsi Ma), she has an extraordinary...

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[thebobmaster]

A ★★★ review of ¡Three Amigos! (1986)

“You were supposed to fire UP! We both fired UP! It’s like living with a six year old.” This film follows the titular trio: Ned (Martin Short), Lucky (Steve Martin), and Dusty (Chevy Chase), three actors who portray heroes on screen. After getting fired by their manager Flugelman (an early in...

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[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★½ review of The Witch (2015)

"Wouldst thou like the taste of butter? A pretty dress? Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?" This film follows a Puritan family in the 1600's. You have the father William (Ralph Ineson), mother Katherine (Kate Dickie), elder daughter Thomasina (Anya Taylor-Joy in her film debut), eldest son...

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