I haven't watched Stuckman's videos in years... until yesterday
This has got nothing to do with movies. Watch this not for Chris but for the topic. But this is a really good watch. It went places I did not expect
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
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This has got nothing to do with movies. Watch this not for Chris but for the topic. But this is a really good watch. It went places I did not expect
yeah I linked that over in the "not films" equivalent thread, since I didn't think this was a movie
Really good video, the last bit at the end was an interesting surprise, but I love how that was like "oh yeah and X" and was like 3 minutes, but the JW stuff took up a full runtime. Those clips of the JW propaganda material, and the Australian trial footage were quite compelling.
I saw the one with Stuckmann's interview with Double Toasted. I probably won't watch this one, but I am glad he got away from that life. Trust me, I've seen what that shit does to people. Hell, there are pair of JHVWT, that live across the street, and they are a bunch of morons. I an glad Stuckmman has improved as a person. I have no need to subscribe to him, but if I am that on the fence about a movie or out of curiosity, I'll keep in check.
To be honest, the points he covers in the Double Toasted are pretty much all the same points he hits in his own video. He just is more focused, and includes a lot of clips from some of the legal proceedings about the JW, and some of their fucking insane in-house propaganda, to illustrate how batshit they are.
Also when I read your sentence "Hell, there are pair of JHVWT, that live across the street, and they are a bunch of morons." I honestly read it as "they are a bunch of mormons" for a split second before thinking "....wait that doesn't....oh! nvm!"
Ok, watching Suicide Squad again, and just noticed how much better Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn is is this film than in Birds of Prey. In that she's doing a lot more actual acting in the first one. Or maybe the directing was getting more out of her or whatever, but she really seems different in her movements and facial expressions.
A Star is Born (2018)
Story is as old as the movies - big celebrity mentors upstart artist, watches her grow as his own fame dwindles. This is the fourth movie by that name and about the only hook is the chemistry between the leads, although I don't especially like Lady Gaga or her songs and I think the character suffers from some poor scripting choices. Also how disingenuous that the character should criticise the very tacky and frivolous lifestyle the singer is known for.
Story is as old as the movies - big celebrity mentors upstart artist, watches her grow as his own fame dwindles. This is the fourth movie by that name and about the only hook is the chemistry between the leads, although I don't especially like Lady Gaga or her songs and I think the character suffers from some poor scripting choices. Also how disingenuous that the character should criticise the very tacky and frivolous lifestyle the singer is known for.
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From what I remember (been awhile), that had a few scenes from John Cleese, and even by the standards of John Cleese having a few scenes in a film of that time (the Bond films come to mind) he was painfully unfunny. That's mostly all I remember about that film.
Rewatched Prometheus. Still disappointed. Doesn't have the suspense of the original Alien nor any substitute that could take it's place. I mean, the premise is really interesting but it just goes nowhere besides it Alien set-up. What kind of fascinating dialogue couldn't there be between maker and creation? Instead they do nothing with it. The maker is just a reticent blue doofus who wants to fly away in his spaceship to finish the job he started. Sure, it's some cool 5 minute backstory to Alien but it's smeared out over 2 hours that build up to absolutely nothing. Why is it so impossible for Hollywood to write interesting dialogue? It's not Lynch's fault. The movie looks spectacular and atmospheric with those wide shots and detailed sets. It's not as boring as Alien Covenant but still a massive disappointment. I don't understand why these movies are cosidered better than Alien Resurrection. Atleast Resurrection didn't pretend to be anything more than it really is.
Does Alien need any backstory, though? I'd say no, myself. But everything else the film has is pretty woeful.
In my opinion it doesn't but I still liked it for what it was. There is a set-up for a fantastic movie in Prometheus and you can see it's potential that is why I find it so disappointing. But yeah, the ambiguity in the original Alien is one of my most favorite things about the film. Just the suspense and some of the horror that could lurk in outer space. Four decades on I think Alien still capitalizes best on this premise. I mean, they could never replicate this so I don't mind a different angle to bring back some of this existential dread of the original's story per se. Alien Covenant tries to do the exact same thing as Alien but just completely falls flat.
I think that's part of the problem with Aliens at this point, as a horror franchise. The "unknown". At this point, they are so far from "unknown" that they carry no real fear for the audience anymore. The diehard fans know EVERY detail about the xenomorphs (you know, like the fact that they're CALLED xenomorphs
) how they breed, what the host's DNA does to the new alien's abilities, all that stuff. There isn't anything unknown to truly scare the people who are most likely going to be the ones showing up to the theaters. I mean I don't consider myself a diehard Alien fan, not by a long shot, but since I'm a nerd, and have read comics, and play video games, that stuff just bleeds in via osmosis. So I think the movie, and the franchise as well, is kind of doomed at this point, to just be sort of schlocky, B-movie fodder till the end of time.
Honest Thief
Extremely formulaic film about a bank robber (Liam Neeson) who finds love, and before moving forward with his woman, decides he wants to clean the slate of his past by turning himself in and returning his stolen money for a reduced sentence. The FBI sends in a couple of agents to follow up on what they believe to be a false report only to discover a mound of cash and an opportunity for the payday of a lifetime. You know how the rest plays out if you’ve seen any Neeson film from the past 15 years. I don’t think Neeson has ever played a “bad guy;” even when he IS a bad guy, he’s the good guy. Has he ever played a role wherein he’s not some vindictive, righteous victim?
New of the World
Tom Hanks plays a traveling news herald who chances upon a white, orphan girl who was raised by Native Americans after her family was killed when she was a toddler. She’d been “rescued” by Americans and was being transported to her next of kin, and Hanks is tasked with finishing the task. Not a bad movie, but very much exists for its own existence. A couple of tense moments make me glad (for a number of reasons) that I didn’t live during those times. Anyway, despite its 2 hour runtime, it feels rushed in that the chemistry between Hanks and the girl evolves (apparently off-screen) abnormally quickly. She doesn’t speak English and he doesn’t speak her language, yet in very few scenes, they’re communicating effectively and have formed a tacit bond. The end is quite touching, though I task you to name one Hanks film that isn’t.
Extremely formulaic film about a bank robber (Liam Neeson) who finds love, and before moving forward with his woman, decides he wants to clean the slate of his past by turning himself in and returning his stolen money for a reduced sentence. The FBI sends in a couple of agents to follow up on what they believe to be a false report only to discover a mound of cash and an opportunity for the payday of a lifetime. You know how the rest plays out if you’ve seen any Neeson film from the past 15 years. I don’t think Neeson has ever played a “bad guy;” even when he IS a bad guy, he’s the good guy. Has he ever played a role wherein he’s not some vindictive, righteous victim?
New of the World
Tom Hanks plays a traveling news herald who chances upon a white, orphan girl who was raised by Native Americans after her family was killed when she was a toddler. She’d been “rescued” by Americans and was being transported to her next of kin, and Hanks is tasked with finishing the task. Not a bad movie, but very much exists for its own existence. A couple of tense moments make me glad (for a number of reasons) that I didn’t live during those times. Anyway, despite its 2 hour runtime, it feels rushed in that the chemistry between Hanks and the girl evolves (apparently off-screen) abnormally quickly. She doesn’t speak English and he doesn’t speak her language, yet in very few scenes, they’re communicating effectively and have formed a tacit bond. The end is quite touching, though I task you to name one Hanks film that isn’t.
*thinks* Honestly, no I don't think so. I mean I've hardly seen his entire library of films but, I can't think of a time where he didn't play a good aligned character.
That's actually an interesting point, about the translation thing. I'm trying to think of various films where they actually include the language barrier into the plot, and how well/poorly they do that. Whether they just do a screen wipe like in News, and say "yeah they learned to speak off screen", or 13th Warrior, who did it in a montage, clearly showing the main character studying and listening to them speak (though I remember seeing that in the theaters when I was younger, and being confused thinking "ok he learned all that on a single boat ride?" Didn't really register the montage was months of travel for them, which would make more sense.) To one of my favorites, which is the Stargate movie. How the language barrier was a plot point, but it was also handled fairly quickly, by what I thought was a pretty clever trick. Language drift. He knew the words, and the symbols....for the most part. But he knew the old, dead variant, not the current, dynamic, living language. So you still had the teaching scene, but it didn't feel forced to me.
I'm curious about other films that others might have seen, where the language barrier is a major plot point, and when it was done well, the resolution of the barrier.
Ooh, I know one! But even saying it probably counts as a spoiler. It's relatively recent and he isn't the main character, if that's enough of a non spoilery clue. I will now put it in double spoilers for anyone who doesn't care or thinks they seen it already...
Widows
Ok, just realised if anyone does care about spoilers, there's literally no way for them to know what film it is, so they essentially have to hope upon sheer coincidence and/or determination. *Sigh* sorry.
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Yeah, but I still would have probably liked the film if Weyland and the creator had any kind of meaningful interaction. Atleast to have a sense where both were coming from. Prometheus indeed tried to be more intellectual and the guessing for motives just doesn't work here. The 'god doesn't care' only works when the existence of god is indeed only a matter of faith. But in Prometheus they humanized the creator and have given him a concrete motive so the 'uncaring god' schtick feels more like a cheap fallback on traditional religion. The creator wasn't so much an invisible god with a list of commandments but rather an alien entity that wanted to pull the plug. There is no validation of the believer's spiritual search here since the belief in the creator itself isn't irrational. The confrontation as such should have also been on rational grounds which is why the cop-out is such a disappointment. I feel like the most important part of the movie was cut.
The Terminator and Predator franchise all suffer from this. No ones trying anymore and just nostalgia pandering with twists and plots that get more convoluted. All the writings of someone's bad fan fic in the early to mid 2000s. As far as I'm concerned, there are only 2 Terminator films (with Salvation being a fun what if scenario), 2 Alien films, and 3 Predator film. The first AVP is alright, but I consider the AVP Capcom game the true canon. Which is mostly accurate as the original script was supposed to place in the future with Arnie reprising his role as Dutch. The fucking execs got greedy and could not decide how to split profits and kept changing scripts. Capcom based their game off the original script.
I've always been a bigger fan of John Caprenter's The Thing over the Alien franchise. You know what? If The Thing, Aliens, and Predator all existed in the same universe, humanity would be so screwed. The unimaginable horrors. A great crossover though.