Media itt: movie/film discussion - Beware Spoilers

[TheValkyries]

http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2015/05...-the-character-arcs-of-avengers-age-of-ultron


Someone wrote basically of the thoughts I had about Age of Ultron sans my earlier Ultron rant/speech/lovefest

 

[Eagle4]

Mad Max Fury Road is hands down the best action in years, and revolutionary for the genre. It's a bizarre, adrenalin-fueled joyride with a great array of characters, stunning production design, fantastic moments of anguish and comedy, and some of the best action sequences ever put on screen. Stunning. I advise everyone to see it immediately!

 

[vonFiedler]

#62 American Beauty
I got what this movie was trying to do pretty much immediately, because I've seen Fight Club. Unfortunately, this movie was Fight Club if Fight Club was boring and pretentious. I really want to like a movie that is preaching the message this movie is preaching, but this movie just takes elements from better movies and dumbs them down for an Oscar crowd. The biggest problem is that the movie is devoid of characters. Everyone is a caricature. Especially the wife, who maybe we're supposed to sympathize with because she couldn't sell a house over the course of one day? But mostly acts entirely despicable and irrational. And it's not her fault because she's a woman doing things that I don't like, it's the writer's fault for writing middle age male fantasy schlock. Which it DEFINITELY is, no matter how many times it drops whatever it is doing to have long pretentious nothing monologues about beauty.

Or, just maybe, like the main character says in the ending, "I probably wouldn't understand". Whoever is responsible for that line can choke on my dick.

#63 Wall-E
Man, I remember when this movie was divisive. How fucking spoiled we were back then. I'd take this over so many of the god awful animated films made these days. Well, it's certainly no Princess Mononoke or Brave New World, and god damn it tries to be. Beats you over the head a bit too hard with it's cynical messages about humanity for my taste. Still, Pixar knows how to emotionally manipulate as always, and the animation is really good. At the end of the day, I'd say it's pretty decent.

Bonus movies!

7.0 Mad Max
Saw this because I wanted to see Fury Road. Did not exactly prepare me for it. If you're familiar with the Mad Max mythos only through popular culture and homages, then the original is a massive surprise. It's honestly very normal. And I mean that in a good world building sort of way. It feels genuine. Like people live and exist in this place. Society has not totally collapsed, gangs aren't mutated. But mostly it just turns the usual revenge film completely on its head. You go into Mad Max with a plot description of "man avenges family" you expect there to be a lot of avenging. Rather the slow buildup to the point where his family dies lasts almost the entire movie. Rather than being about shock value and cheap emotional, Mad Max plays on dread and hopelessness. Very smart film. However, the actual revenge is a bit too quick and impersonal. Definitely a classic, but not one of the greatest movies ever made.

#23 Mad Max: Fury Road
Amazing movie. Absolutely deserves being high on this list, though it may drop some (they tend to when out of theaters). But man, what the fuck happened between these films? I know the director said that this shouldn't be seen as a sequel, prequel, reboot, but just as one of Max's stories. So, how does that really explain massive details changing? He went from having a toddler son to tennish-year-old daughter. Or how about how even though Max was alive when society collapse, old women talk about television as if it was a legend? Haven't seen Mad Max 2 or 3, but the flanderization is real.

Max is EASILY the worst character, communicating entirely through grunts and the same flashback with his daughter. He also just doesn't feel like the same character at all. Also, lots of the dialogue is just really odd. Maybe intentional, but if it wasn't it'd be really bad.

Speed Racer was the movie I waited my whole life to see in theaters. Fury Road is the movie I've been waiting to see since then. Both are EXTREMELY similar. Fury Road's practical effects and violence lend it a degree of believability, but eh the narrative and pacing of Speed Racer is still way out of it's league. But if critics like it and convince directors to make more movies like these two, then by all means, please do so. Absolutely fantastic from start to finish.

It seems like any year where the Wachowskis make a movie is a great year. Even if their movie this year was only OK. There is still so much more yet to look forward to.

 

[vonFiedler]

In other news

There is a Transporter reboot coming

A reboot of a vehicle movie

It won't star Jason Statham

Does anyone even remember that there was ever a different Daario Naharis? If you do, it's that guy. So literally nobody.


Aaand we have a new high score for absurd movie concept.

 

[TheValkyries]

Aaand we have a new high score for absurd movie concept.

IDK I was really hyphy on the Jem movie concept since it was being directed by the guy who made the step up movies, 2 Justin Bieber documentaries, and the GI Joe Sequel... Literally could not picked a more fitting director for that.

But then the trailer came out so I have mega doubts now...

 

[vonFiedler]

IDK I was really hyphy on the Jem movie concept since it was being directed by the guy who made the step up movies, 2 Justin Bieber documentaries, and the GI Joe Sequel... Literally could not picked a more fitting director for that.

But then the trailer came out so I have mega doubts now...

I almost brought that up. But let's be real here, the most unrealistic thing about making a Jem movie is the fact that this isn't the 80s anymore. Or at least deciding not to set it in the 80s. Basically I'm saying that good music was all that show had going for it, and good music this movie sure as shit won't have.

 

[Jebus McAzn]

anyone seen ex machina so far? I'm going to the movies tomorrow with friends and we're trying to decide between that and Mad Max (leaning towards Mad Max personally)

 

[TheValkyries]

Seen neither but I would 100% say see mad max. From all accounts it is just a transcendent film. Which isn't to say ex machina is bad just that mad max is that fuckingn good.

 

[Eagle4]

Yup, go see Mad Max. It's definitely more of a cinematic experience than Ex-Machina, which is still a fine film which you could catch on DVD/rental. But Mad Max is something else entirely.

 

[Soul Fly]

Damn I just got around to watching Kingsman. I predicted the entire plot about two minutes into the movie, which isn't a good thing but who gives a shit. That was some mad satisfying action going on in there, minus a plot that pretends to be deep when it is really about the good guy kicking bad guy's ass.

Will check out Mad Max pretty soon. Haven't gone on an action movie binge in a long damn time.

 

[some hero]

#23 Mad Max: Fury Road
Amazing movie. Absolutely deserves being high on this list, though it may drop some (they tend to when out of theaters). But man, what the fuck happened between these films? I know the director said that this shouldn't be seen as a sequel, prequel, reboot, but just as one of Max's stories. So, how does that really explain massive details changing? He went from having a toddler son to tennish-year-old daughter. Or how about how even though Max was alive when society collapse, old women talk about television as if it was a legend? Haven't seen Mad Max 2 or 3, but the flanderization is real.

Max is EASILY the worst character, communicating entirely through grunts and the same flashback with his daughter. He also just doesn't feel like the same character at all. Also, lots of the dialogue is just really odd. Maybe intentional, but if it wasn't it'd be really bad.

Speed Racer was the movie I waited my whole life to see in theaters. Fury Road is the movie I've been waiting to see since then. Both are EXTREMELY similar. Fury Road's practical effects and violence lend it a degree of believability, but eh the narrative and pacing of Speed Racer is still way out of it's league. But if critics like it and convince directors to make more movies like these two, then by all means, please do so. Absolutely fantastic from start to finish.

It seems like any year where the Wachowskis make a movie is a great year. Even if their movie this year was only OK. There is still so much more yet to look forward to.

That wasn't Maxs' daughter. It was a little girl he failed to protect during his journey. So basically your problems with the movie are those that the director already warned you about as being a non issue?

Max was the best character in the movie, in my opinion. I'm no psych major but i'm pretty sure being insane would prevent Max from being able to act as a typical action movie hero. People liked Furiosa and Nux better because they had proper dialogue, motive, history, emotions and meaningful interactions with others. Max in comparison might as well be a grunt. That's only because he's supposed to be crippled by the world he lives in, so in terms of the story I loved how he was portrayed by Hardy. He was non conventional sure, but it worked for me.

I'm a BIG fan of the max series and it's probably my favorite max so far. As in the way the character is supposed to be. Deep in madness, maybe even completely forgetting about his past life(he couldn't even remember his name so i'm pretty sure he can't remember his wife and kid, just the pain).

 

[vonFiedler]

That wasn't Maxs' daughter. It was a little girl he failed to protect during his journey. So basically your problems with the movie are those that the director already warned you about as being a non issue?

"Another story" and "changing facts" is a big difference. And just because the director tells me to think something don't mean shit.

At work the other day we played charades. Sadly, my team were the kind of people who if they aren't just standing there with no idea how to act something out, will repeat the same thing over and over again. That's what Max's character felt like. Grunt, flashback, repeat. We got it the first time. To call this "the best character" when its barely A character is baffling.

The only way you can stretch things to have Max make sense in the narrative is to make him representative of men who are indifferent to social injustice against women. His flashbacks show that he's seen a lot of terrible things happen to women, just as being on the internet for five minutes will expose you harmful attitudes toward women you'd have to be fucking blind or stupid to ignore. Yet as haunted as he is, he always puts himself first. Like the privileged male, he's the center of the narrative even when that makes no sense at all. And he doesn't just take a while to come around to helping, he completely fails when he tries to drive off with the rig the first time. Ultimately the women don't need Max to be good at killing things though, they need him to come around and help them be freed from tyranny.

And if that's totally what Miller was going for then it was still done in the most hamfisted way possible.

Mostly an amazing movie, but nothing is without flaws.

 

[vonFiedler]

#66 Grave of the Fireflies
This movie has the reputation of being one that everyone likes, but only ever sees once. However, it was not the saddest movie I've ever seen. Hell, I'd say The Wind Rises was a lot more depressing. But it is a Studio Ghibli movie, so of course it's of the highest quality, especially if you like their more serious movies. And while all of Miyazaki's movies are ultimately about life, including The Wind Rises, Grave of the Fireflies (directed by Isao Takahata) is about death, so there is a big difference in tone. I recommend it, and I'd urge people who are put off by sad movies not to be too afraid to see it. Though some parts will really hit you.

#67 Citizen Kane
Can't be a fucking movie fan if I don't think Citizen Kane is one of the best movies ever made. And I've never considered myself a movie fan, so I don't. Hell, I didn't expect it to be the best movie, but I sure thought it would be better. Whoever said that modern movie making owes everything to Citizen Kane was full of shit. It seems much the same as any other movie from its time period, save that the acting is very good (it tells you in the end that it was entirely theater actors). Some parts were intriguing. But I was literally falling asleep by the end. As a character piece, I kind of just had everything figured out before the first act ended. I dunno, I've seen better old movies.

 

[Eagle4]

Monthly film update

The films I saw in cinemas in May were:

1. Mad Max: Fury Road -

Wow. I mean wow. George Miller revolutionises the action genre with Mad Max: Fury Road, a bizarre, adrenalin-fueled joyride with a great array of characters, stunning production design, fantastic moments of anguish and comedy, and some of the best action sequences ever put on screen. I will most definitely watch this again before it disappears from UK cinemas. Stunning.

2. Tomorrowland -

Yup, you read that right. I'm surprised as much as you are over how much I loved Brad Bird's latest. Tomorrowland is free of cynicism; an overwhelmingly ambitious, creative sci-fi fantasy that has a great message, integrates humour and tragedy seamlessly, is deftly acted, boasts impressive visual effects and tailors to its target audience perfectly. It brought me right back to my childhood - which is what Bird is trying to achieve - and he does so without cheap cliches or incongruent plot devices - the fact that the 'villain' is so well developed and fleshed out in such a short space of screentime is testament to Bird and to - shock/horror - Lindelof as a writer. The best Disney film since Up. Seriously.

3. The Falling -

Ah, where to begin... The Falling creates a magnificent, brewing atmosphere very much akin to The Duke of Burgundy, its sound design is excellent and the flick has no predictability whatsoever. Yet I still remain unconvinced by Maisie Williams as an actor, and the film's emotional beats flounder more often than soar. A film of fantastic style and little substance.

4. Clouds of Sils Maria -

Unbearably dull, light on both plot and drama, and featuring characters I could not care less for spouting clunky exposition, Clouds of Sils Maria is a dud of a film; Kristen Stewart's performance not as redeeming as critics would like you to believe.

Mad Max: Fury Road was my most anticipated film of the year and it didn't disappoint. I half-expected Tomorrowland to disappoint but it exceeded every expectation I had for it - critics are failing to understand that Tomorrowland captures its' target audience's imaginations perfectly and gives them a feeling of wonder like no other film has since Up (seriously, the kids in the cinema were wide-eyed and euphoric for the majority of the screentime). Had no idea what to expect of The Falling, and it was a fine film that had a great atmosphere (so I'll prob watch it again) but I didn't really see the point of the film in general. Clouds of Sils Maria was a huge disappointment for me - it hasn't been a good year for foreign films atm (foreignish).

June looks to be preeeeety decent: Will definitely check out Jurassic World (which looks like cheesy fun) and Terminator: Genisys (which looks absolutely terrible). Also on the watchlist is Spy, The Look of Silence, Minions and Slow West.

The other, non-2015 films I saw in May were:

1. The Guest -

- REWATCH
One of the most entertaining films of 2014, The Guest is 90 minutes of retro-thriller flashback, dazzling with a chilling Dan Stevens performance, incredibly well-thought-out cinematography, and an incredible campy, Drive-meets-Rambo atmospheric tone that's aided by a wonderful 80s' synth score. Great stuff.

2. Blue Valentine -

While not quite as good as Cianfrance's 'The Place Beyond the Pines', one of the greatest films of this half-decade, Blue Valentine is still a remarkable, harrowing depiction of love and its harsh reality. Cianfrance maintains an uncanny ability to evoke realism - I would go as far as to say that he outmuscles Linklater in ability to create naturalness.

3. Rush -

A conventional, relatively predictable sport-genre flick expertly handled and presented by Ron Howard.The casting is spot-on, the dialogue is excellent and the editing works seamlessly, but its faintly generic plot and melodramatic undertones are unable to be masked.

4. Mad Max: Fury Road -

- REWATCH

 

[TheValkyries]

I know it's not strictly on topic but:

Everyone should go watch Sense 8 as soon as possible.

vonFiedler you probably already are but if you aren't, fucking do it.

I'm fucking blown away here.

 

[az]

ill save everyone some time; vonfiedler didn't like american beauty so you can basically skip all of his posts

 

[vonFiedler]

ill save everyone some time; vonfiedler didn't like american beauty so you can basically skip all of his posts

Who would want to watch American Beauty when Fight Club came out half a month later?

 

[Byrne]

Huge horror movie fanatic here and after the complete joke that was Poltergeist I was really hoping Insidious Chapter 3 would be at least decent enough to give me some fun early summer scares

I was not disappointed. In fact my expectations were decently high because I loved the first and thought the second was solid, however I honestly think the third is the best of the series so far. The new demon villain was extremely creepy and effective and the entire thing was extremely unsettling once the scares started to kick off around minute 15 or so. Probably the best horror movie since It Follows, so I have to highly recommend it to any fans of the genre...although if you're a big horror movie fan you're probably seeing it at some point anyway since this is probably the best horror franchise out right now.

 

[vonFiedler]

#69 Oldboy
Maybe I'm a fucked up person, or maybe like everyone else this was spoiled for me, but like Grave of the Fireflies, this just wasn't as disturbing as I had been led to believe. I also probably should have been more angry with the villain, but I was pretty fucking steamed at someone IRL at the time. It certainly wasn't hard to watch. Very entertaining, and I could probably talk at length about the amount of style and intrigue that went into it. But mostly it just nails down feelings of pain, anguish, and perfectly presents man as a force of nature (akin to Jane Eyre). And for the main character being a really normal dude, it only makes the fight scenes all the better.

Mind you, the movie is more than a bit rapey. There's some weird shit that kind of makes sense given the twist ending, but makes a lot more sense given the kind of rape culture they have over there.

#70 M
Forget Citizen Kane; this is the black and white movie that should be considered the godfather of modern film making. Made in 1931, the first time I noticed a proper scene transition I almost shit myself. That's like 20 years before us Americans even sort of knew what we were doing. Conversely the sound quality is fairly poor, with some long sections lacking sound entirely. That's much more in line with an early 1930s film though, but at least City Lights had a soundtrack.

Still, why should you watch this movie? Well, when the cops can't catch a child killer, the criminals of the city join forces to hunt him down. That's it. That's what got me interested, and the result is fantastic. But the interesting thing is, there are really no characters in this film. Very few actors get more than one scene, with the most persistent being the killer, but he doesn't even really speak until the end of the movie. So you're pretty much just watching events unfold through the eyes of the city. This is where that good scene transition work really shows off. It's just very fascinating and absolutely worth watching.

 

[vonFiedler]

Bit different this week. My ability to get a hold of movies was diminished, so I watched whatever I could get my hands on.

#85 Lawrence of Arabia
Not as tricky a movie to watch in a post 9/11 world as I thought it might be. The film is perfectly aware that the English are trying to fuck over the Arabs for their own interests, though it fabricates the notion that Lawrence was unaware of this. It is still one of the more egregious examples of the white savior film.

So I'll fall back on the old complaint against this movie; it is far too damn long. After an hour it feels like nothing has happened. After two hours it feels like the point where most films are just getting started. I can see why this film would be impressive at the time, what with filming on location and all that, but if I walk away from a movie feeling so little about it, all the same I'd really rather it was a two hour film and hadn't wasted my time.

#218 Dog Day Afternoon
Speaking of films that do American Beauty better than American Beauty, this anti-establishment film is awesome. For as much as I quote this film, it was past damn time that I actually saw it. The odd combination of lower-class heroism and bank robbery with some of the most fleshed out and entertaining characters you will ever see in a true story make Dog Day Afternoon as sensational as the event that inspired it. Somehow everything in this movie is damn timely too... police brutality, gay rights, and the minimum wage are all such hot topics at the moment that someone ought to be smart enough to put it back in theaters. Best bank robbery movie I've seen by a long shot, and probably Al Pacino's best performance. Watch it.

 

[TheValkyries]

Yo vonFiedler hold off on the movies breddah and watch Sense 8 like I said. That show is so goddamn astoundingly amazing.

 

[vonFiedler]

My computer is still in the shop and I don't want to watch it on a small screen... hopefully I'll see it within two days.

 

[DHR-107]

3. Rush -

A conventional, relatively predictable sport-genre flick expertly handled and presented by Ron Howard.The casting is spot-on, the dialogue is excellent and the editing works seamlessly, but its faintly generic plot and melodramatic undertones are unable to be masked.

I'm sorry but what? Generic Plot? You do know it was based on real events that actually happened right? It is one of the greatest comeback stories sport has ever witnessed. Not really sure what you mean with melodramatic undertones either... Most of the film is based on events which actually happened (there are few exceptions to "jazz it up" for Hollywood).

Has anyone seen Jurassic World yet? I'd like to get some ideas before I shell out to go see it.

 

[phantom]

I saw Jurassic World the other day. You see these kinda movies to see Dinosaurs fight and be scary and shit, and it delivered very well in that aspect. The plot was pretty generic though and most of the acting was really shitty and corny at times. They really should have picked someone over Chris Pratt... I did like how it paid homage to Jurassic Park though (you'll see what I mean near the end). The animation is very good, and I think it's a good one-time see, just don't expect anything too big from most of the actors/plot. It's all about the giant lizards, after all.

 

[vonFiedler]

I'm sorry but what? Generic Plot? You do know it was based on real events that actually happened right? It is one of the greatest comeback stories sport has ever witnessed. Not really sure what you mean with melodramatic undertones either... Most of the film is based on events which actually happened (there are few exceptions to "jazz it up" for Hollywood).

I haven't seen it yet and it's on my list, but even if it's a true story, someone still had to decide whether or not to make it a movie. And if it plays out like every other underdog sports movie, then being true doesn't make it any better. As for melodramatic undertones, well, look at The Pianist. All events absolutely true... and yet somehow the director found a way to milk them for extra drama.

I mean maybe Eagle4 is just totally off base, but both things are possible whether the story is true or not.