What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

Cranberries wrote: I just got back from watching Megalopolis in Imax. It was like an art movie had a $100 million dollar budget and two hours of old guy legacy wisdom to share about art and collapsing society. I am not sure that, in this movie, Adam Driver has a face made for the IMAX screen. There are Weimar Republic levels of debauchery, an Atlas Shrugged battle for the soul of the city, and a lot of Gotham Magical Realism that reminded me of Mark Helprin's A Winter's Tale. It also reminded me of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, with all the perching on tall buildings and pontificating.

I think it was ambitious, totally bloated, intriguing at times, mess of a film. Clearly he ran out of money by the end as we get progressively cheaper and cheaper sets with fewer and fewer extras. It ranged from needlessly opulent (WTF with that massive hanging platform city diorama?) to impressively opulent (the big party in the middle) to cleverly artistic (all the weird dreamy megalobrick stuff) to needlessly artsy (WTF Driver was doing at times, particularly when he was being injured).

The film had SO MANY ideas in it, almost all that were just thrown up and then forgotten. No one gets a proper introduction, the trump derangement syndrome effect was in full swing (as if he would be against a massive real estate remodelling of NYC??), and the film has no idea of what it really wants to say so lets wrap it up real quick and hope no one notices.

I think this film would have worked 1000% better with 1/10th the budget so there was none of the time/macguffin material, dead wife, dreamy stuff and was instead just a battle between rich bankers and real estate developers over who "knows best" and how none of them really give a shit about the "common rabble" even when a populist is stirring them up in rebellion. I think this film pairs well with ROBOCOP as they cover some of the same themes

There is probably a bunch of references and things in there that passed me by, so maybe this will gain cult status. But for my money, Costners HORIZON was a much better "old man pays for his dream project" experience.

For the sake of completeness, I watched The Godfather Part III (1990). The Coda version, which is apparently a shorter, tighter version of the original Part III that was in theaters. It was moderately good. Solid cast, aside from Sophia Coppola, who was still not terrible. Pacino was already into his Foghorn Leghorn phase, but Francis Ford Coppola manages to rein him into a more restrained performance for most of this movie. The climatic sequence alternating between the opera and various murders was striking and memorable.

Shellhead wrote: Pacino was already into his Foghorn Leghorn phase, but Francis Ford Coppola manages to rein him into a more restrained performance for most of this movie.

That is such a perfect description, but one that only a narrow demographic sliver will understand, the Venn diagram of GenX-ers who watch a lot of Al Pacino movies.

Kneecap is recommended. If you're into drugs and very modern music and laughter as a way to endure horrible times. It's kind of the Northern Irish 8 Mile with the musicians of the group Kneecap playing 'themselves' rather well, including (naturally) more than a little legend building to a background of fighting to speak your own language in an occupied territory. Also the 'band' is going to be huge any day now.
It's been critiqued harshly for making light of dire circumstances, not taking itself or the subject seriously and the group being an industry product and not, you know, actual musicians. Those people miss the point.
I have been to the Republic of Ireland a couple of times in the last thirty years and their pub culture with the live music is still thriving and you can experience several generations of awesome musicians playing together on any given night. That's the foundation on which this movie is built and I think it works.

Since I never felt any need to watch If you're horrible it's everybody else's fault or the sequel Make toxic relationships cool again I treated myself to Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight. I used to like the Batman a lot more when I was younger, the militarization of the character is even more annoying than Cristian Bale's Batman Voice, but it's still my favourite of all of them.

I watched the newly released Netflix film It's What's Inside. A group of Gen Z kids get together to celebrate one of them about to get married. After the first half hour I was not sure I was going to continue, as it was not very good and none of the characters are likable.

Eventually the last person to show up arrives, a character cloaked in a bit of mystery. They have apparently been some sort of tech bro, and they have a device that allows people to swap bodies temporarily. Okay.....

The movie picks up a bit from that point, and as you can imagine, hijinx ensue. But overall... this film is not great. It's not terrible, but you can probably find a better way to use 90 minutes.

It's October, so I inevitably seek out horror movies to suit the mood of the season. First, I extended my Coppola kick to re-watch Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Though this was my third viewing, I still failed to make it all the way through the movie before falling asleep. This time I broke up my viewing into three different evenings, and still fell asleep less than 10 minutes from the end. Rewound it a little, and again fell asleep with five minutes left. Despite my personal issue, this is not a bad movie, it is a bold, lurid, emotional retelling of the original book that just overstays its welcome a little bit. Light on action, heavy on passion and scenery-chewing.

I suppose that I have a strong personal preference verging on derangement regarding movie lenth. My general experience has been that movies that are a little less than 90 minutes are often bad movies. But if a movie lasts more than two hours, I often resent each additional minute, and can often think of scenes that could and should have been omitted.

Today, I watched Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). Even though it is only 88 minutes long, I loved it. Jim Jarmusch is a wonderful director who works sheer alchemy to transform a small budget into a work of art. Only Lovers Left Alive is a vampire movie, but it is not a horror movie. Our lead vampires are played by Tom Hiddleston and a radiant Tilda Swinton, walking the night with languid majesty and rock star cool. They effortlessly make it seem entirely possible that there are vampires amongst us. Though the pace not quick, the story manages a few surprises. Another director would have easily stretched out the story for another 30 minutes, extending some ideas introduced and abandoned by Jarmusch. And that would have been a mistake. There is a pervasive sadness, but it is borne of ennui instead of tragedy.

The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil is a pretty standard police thriller out of Korea. A devilish serial killer makes an attempt on a gangster who proceeds to team up with a cop (hey! that’s like the title!) to track him down. Really nothing of note except Ma Dong-seok’s considerable screen presence and the most Wahlbergian Korean I’ve ever seen. The cop is a dead ringer for Mark Wahlberg in eyes, face, even the loose-cannon cop character. Uncanny.

I don’t know why David Fincher made The Killer (the one with Michael Fassbender, not the John Woo one or new release with Nathalie Emmanuel). Technically great and some memorable scenes, especially with Tilda Swinton, but just a void of plot. Fassbender was hilarious as an assassin unaware of how deeply lame he was, but that only takes you so far in a movie where there are no twists or character development.

It’s not not enjoyable, but Fincher isn’t the most prolific. I don’t understand why he’d spend so much time on something so slight.

Battleship - Apparently based on some old board game. Like so many action movies nowadays, it spends far too long building up characters that are ultimately just not interesting enough to be worth that screentime. The movie overall is pretty fun and I liked the touch of getting the old guys into action again. If aliens and warships destroying each other sounds good, then you'll likely enjoy it. Note; Liam Neeson is barely in this movie even though he was all over the ads, iirc. But it does have Jesse Plemons.

Sleepy Hollow was better than I remembered, but still just okay. The problem is that the story focuses on Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) rather than the murder mystery that's the framework of the story. The town elders/suspects/victims is a loaded cast (Michael Gambon, Ian McDiarmid, Richard Griffiths, Michael Gough, Martin Landau) and I would have loved to see them interact with each other rather than simply react to Crane, who is not a particularly interesting character.

I watched Late Night with the Devil on Hulu. I had high hopes for this one, but it turned out to be a squarely average film. Through most of it there is a decent sense of building dread, but it doesn't really pay off.

Double feature at IU Cinema last night. First up The Nice Guys with Ryan Gosling and Russell Crow from 2016. Enjoyable neo-noir set in 1977 LA by Shane Black. Second was Train to Busan a Korean zombie flick also from 2016. This year I've seen a Godzilla movie (Godzilla Minus One) with people in the audience crying at the end now a zombie flick!

Both of those films are great! The dad in Train to Busan is the guy who challenges people to games to get contestants on Squid Game.

I watched Bone Tomahawk on Netflix. This is a Kurt Russell western about a rescue mission to save some people from cannibals. It's pretty standard stuff, not bad, not great. I will warn you that one scene is pretty gross. It's short and you will absolutely know when it's about to happen.

I think Bone Tomahawk is great, especially the dialogue. The violence, however, is intense and "that" scene -- jesus fucking christ! Seriously, it's enough that when I (sort of) recommend the movie, I usually say that you might not want to see it for that scene alone.

I think Bone Tomahawk is great as well.

The combination of western elements and the brutality arriving with little warning or notice, really strikes hard. It's an unflinching film, that is nihilistic and intense.

Weeks ago, I watched the pilot episode of The Penguin and was blown away by the quality of the show. Because it is the same Penguin and same Gotham City as shown in The Batman (2022), I forced myself to give The Batman another try before continuing with The Penguin. My previous attempt to watch The Batman defeated me around the two-hour mark.

The Batman is the first attempt at a Batman movie that focuses on Batman's detective skills, so it features some interesting ideas and offers occasional rewards to a patient and attentive viewer. It also offers a compelling new take on a classic but generally disrespected Batman villain, The Riddler. Unfortunately, this movie is long, slow, sad, very long, quiet, dark, extremely long, serious, somewhat redundant, and fairly realistic, except when it was outrageously not realistic. Robert Pattinson is not awful as Bruce Wayne, but he plays both Wayne and Batman as sad, inexperienced introverts that are just barely getting through each day. At one point, someone mentions that Batman has only been fighting crime for a year.

This time, I strategically watched the 3 hour movie in 30 to 60 minutes sections spread out over the course of one day, which made it possible to finish the movie without falling asleep. It actually wasn't a boring movie so much as it was an interesting movie dragged down by slow pacing and lengthy silences. It somehow had the impossible quality of muting even vivid action (like a car crash or explosion) into a detached spectacle that lacked urgency. The one song that I recognized from the soundtrack was Nirvana's Something in the Way, and it matched the movie so perfectly that it was used in two different scenes: slow, sad, dark, morbid, and yet cool. Ultimately, I don't think that The Batman is a bad movie. It would have greatly benefited from a more focused story and some selective editing to bring it closer to two hours in duration. But I think there is a limited ideal audience for this movie. Serious Batman fans, and maybe some drama or mystery fans would all enjoy this. It isn't a date movie, and it isn't a casual movie that you just throw on for visiting friends or family. In my opinion, The Batman movie is best viewed alone, at night or on a dreary day, when you are free to take breaks during viewing.

Although outside the scope of this thread topic, I then resumed watching The Penguin, starting with a second viewing of the pilot episode. It's great, and better than The Batman. Colin Ferrell utterly disappears into the Penguin role, constantly holding center stage except when Cristin Milioti steals scenes with her big eyes and unnerving intensity. Although the show seems to serve up the exact same version of Gotham City as The Batman movie, the tone of the show is better, with good pacing, a bit of humor, and an even more realistic style. There is some action, but the best scenes feature tense conversations with high stakes. The Penguin does not feel like a supervillain show, it feels like a classic HBO crime drama that happens to have the Batman in the distant background. I don't feel that it is crucial to watch The Batman before watching The Penguin, and if you feel that your time is limited, skip The Batman and just watch The Penguin.