Now Watching, Films/ movies discussion Options

[Decrepit]

Really cool you actually have laserdiscs, Decrepit! Aren´t those things like vinyls?

Yes and no. LPs and LDs share the same disc size, and despite being read by a laser laserdisc video is . . . here's a short introductory video that explains its history and some basics better than I can. Several things not addressed in the video. Due to its superior image quality (compared to VHS/betamax) laserdisc began the trend of showing movies in their original theatrical aspect ratios rather than pan-and-scan. Audio commentary tracks began with laserdisc. (As I might have mentioned, I own the Criterion Collection movie with the first ever audio commentary.) My player predates the 5.1 channel digital sound feature mentioned in the video. Nor does it negate the need to manually flip discs.

Speaking of laserdiscs, today I watched my MCA Encore Edition of Frankenstein.

ADDENDUM: Almost forgot to mention that I watched my laserdisc of the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup sometime yesterday.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Mar 26 2016, 12:07 AM

[Callidus Thorn]

Watched two films today, because it's been that kind of day.

Ronin, which is a damn good film, even though it's something of a freak for not killing Sean Bean

And...

Drive Angry, which is absurd, over the top, gratuitous and crazy, but it's so well done that I really don't care

[Destri Melarg]

Uh Oh! Disaster for Warner Bros. & DC?

*Warning: even though he specifically says no spoilers... there are spoilers. Be warned.*

[SubRosa]

Uh Oh! Disaster for Warner Bros. & DC?

*Warning: even though he specifically says no spoilers... there are spoilers. Be warned.*

I am only about 20 seconds into it, and I am already laughing! I love Angry Joe.

[Decrepit]

Uh Oh! Disaster for Warner Bros. & DC?

*Warning: even though he specifically says no spoilers... there are spoilers. Be warned.*

This one doesn't need Joe's help (though he has a video on it). To be fair, I never cared for the original so am prolly not the most sympathetic of judges.

[Destri Melarg]

I am only about 20 seconds into it, and I am already laughing! I love Angry Joe.

Same here.

Uh Oh! Disaster for Warner Bros. & DC?

*Warning: even though he specifically says no spoilers... there are spoilers. Be warned.*

This one doesn't need Joe's help (though he has a video on it). To be fair, I never cared for the original so am prolly not the most sympathetic of judges.

So ley me see if I've got this straight: Halzman is a brilliant engineer, no one is better at quantum physics than Erin, and the obligatory black chick (who doesn't even warrant a name) knows NY and can borrow her uncle's car Cadillac...

Nope. Nothing to see here. Moving on.

[mALX]

Uh Oh! Disaster for Warner Bros. & DC?

*Warning: even though he specifically says no spoilers... there are spoilers. Be warned.*

I don't know, this review made me want to watch it more than I did before, lol. Not just for the stuff he raved about being great, but to see the stuff that really ticked him off too;

He cracks me up, but he is a great reviewer with some really good points.

[SubRosa]

I started my Hungry Games Marathon yesterday. I plan to watch the second movie today. I find the more times I see these movies, the more I like them. The first time I was pretty underwhelmed, mainly at the world-building. That often seems to suffers most in the latest craze of sci-fi-lite teen movies that the Hungry Games appear to have inspired, especially the Insurgable movies, which I just cannot muster any liking for.

As is the case with all movies, it is the characters that draw me here. I like them - good guys and bad guys. Jennifer Lawrence's portrayal of Kantmiss gives her such life and and enough vulnerability that I can still relate to her. In spite of the fact that as her name implies, she cannot miss with a bow (well, she can, but hey...) She looks scared to death when she volunteers as a tribute, she is literally shaking like a leaf when she goes into the arena, and so on. You can see a normal - real - person there, rather than a super-hero. She makes a great Everyman character - like Kitty Pride from the old X-Men comics - who is thrust into incredible circumstances and rises to the occasion.

As a lesbian, I can also relate to the whole idea of a woman being forced to pretend to love a man, and even using that as a strategy for survival. That has been the reality for millions of women for thousands of years - gay and straight alike.

Donald Sutherland is cool as the Evil Overlord. There is not much to the part really. But that does not matter. He's Donald Sutherland. He can just be himself and you are convinced he is a ruthless, crazy, bastard. I really like Alexander Ludwig as Cato. Granted that is mainly because of his portrayal of Beorn in Vikings. But I find I like seeing him more and more. He's no great actor, but I think he is really cool. I have put him on my list of white male actors under 40 that are actually interesting to watch (pretty much just him and Tom Hiddleston). And of course who doesn't like Lenny Kravitz. Again, a small part, but he just has to be himself to be cool.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Mar 26 2016, 05:59 PM

[Callidus Thorn]

Uh Oh! Disaster for Warner Bros. & DC?

*Warning: even though he specifically says no spoilers... there are spoilers. Be warned.*

Related

Made me laugh

[Decrepit]

Beginning yesterday evening and finishing up after waking this morning I watched, for the first time, the silent era German film Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horrors. The version I saw at YouTube (there are others) looks to represent the film in the best possible light -- excellent image quality, fine tinting, original music score well recorded, English title cards, a few English subtitles when pages of letters and lists are being shown in close-up.

I enjoyed the film, but was not as enamored with it as I had hoped. I 'am' quite taken with the music. Were my hearing better I'd be very tempted to add it to my disc collection for that reason alone. I still might, but don't see it as a 'must have' to be ordered right away.

Being filmed the year it was (1922), outdoor night scenes are achieved by tinting. Though I full appreciate that this was done from necessity, it might be the silent era limitation I am least accepting of unless done convincingly. I don't find it adequately convicting here much of the time. The very nature of the film exacerbates this, as we on several occasions see the vampire, who can not bear sunlight, outdoors 'at night' when it is quite obviously broad daylight.

I feel the the sped up carriage/coach and wagon scenes are out of character and weaken the film. And while I realize the acting is deliberately 'stylized', I find it at times a bit over-the-top.

The above are nit-picks more so than serious complaints. None are lease-breakers.

It is interesting that a good number of title cards (in English translation) are voiced pretty much word for word in the 1930s Lugosi Dracula.

-----------------------------------------------------

Still at YouTube, I came across a short news story of an art restoration from 2012.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Mar 26 2016, 09:25 PM

[SubRosa]

I liked Nosferatu. The very first time I saw it, it was terrible though. The music was the problem. In this version it has been replaced with some sort of electonic/techno soundtrack. It ruined the film. Later I saw it in what I think was the original score in a mainly piano score, and it was much better. Have you ever seen Shadow of the Vampire? It is a fictional horror movie about the filming of Nosferatu. It's a delightfully twisted movie, with a dark sense of humor.

I forgot to add a couple of other movies I have watched lately between Hunger Gaming. He Never Died was a really neat little movie starring Henry Rollins. He plays an immortal who is utterly detached from humanity, until he meets his daughter for the first time, and finds his semi-recent past catching up with him. He's not a very nice fellow, and has a habit of eating people when he gets his dander up.

When I watch movies I often find myself wondering what my gaming/fiction characters such as Persephone, Teresa, or Aela would do in the same circumstances. When it comes to Persephone it is usually simple. She would kill everyone without batting an eye. Good thing she is not in any movies, otherwise most action movies would end in about 15 minutes with the rest of the cast dead. Well in this one, the protagonist does exactly what she would.

For example, he walks into his favorite diner, which is now filled with gangsters sent there to kill him, who are holding everyone else hostage. He just calmly walks past them and goes into the bathroom. One of the gangsters follows him in. There is a bang, and he walks out alone a moment later... He sits down at a table. Another gangster then walks up to him, puts a gun against his head, and shoots. He then turns to look at the gangster and stands up, totally unfazed. Gratuitous killing ensues.

Switching genres dramatically, I also watched Wild, with Reese Witherspoon. It is a wonderful movie about a very lost soul finding herself while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. This is a movie where I found myself thinking that if Teresa were in the protagonist's shoes, she would never leave the trail. With the Mojave Desert, Crater Lake, the Sierra Mountains, and Olympic National Park it is a Bosmer's paradise. Plus an uplifting story of loss, bad choices, and finding the best part of yourself.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Mar 30 2016, 06:14 PM

[Decrepit]

I liked Nosferatu. The very first time I saw it, it was terrible though. The music was the problem. In this version it has been replaced with some sort of electonic/techno soundtrack. It ruined the film. Later I saw it in what I think was the original score, and it was much better. Have you ever seen Shadow of the Vampire? It is a fictional horror movie about the filming of Nosferatu. It's a delightfully twisted movie, with a dark sense of humor.

<snip>

Here's the Nosferatu version I watched the other day. Is this what you saw, the 'better' version I mean? If so, do you know its source. I'm thinking to buy it on disc, but don't want to end up with the wrong thing. My best guess is that it is the more recent of the several KINO Nosferatu releases, but the brief clip shown at KINO's site looks somewhat more 'flickery' than my YouTube link. Then again, I saw the Kino clip in a tiny window which might exacerbate the effect.

Thanks for mentioning Shadow of the Vampire. I had not heard of it. Your recommendation and a bit of research have led me to tentatively include it in the movie order I'm slowly amassing at Amazon. Such a shame that many of the films I most want aren't currently available (in the US) in high quality disc releases.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Mar 27 2016, 03:04 PM

[SubRosa]

I liked Nosferatu. The very first time I saw it, it was terrible though. The music was the problem. In this version it has been replaced with some sort of electonic/techno soundtrack. It ruined the film. Later I saw it in what I think was the original score, and it was much better. Have you ever seen Shadow of the Vampire? It is a fictional horror movie about the filming of Nosferatu. It's a delightfully twisted movie, with a dark sense of humor.

<snip>

Here's the Nosferatu version I watched the other day. Is this what you saw, the 'better' version I mean? If so, do you know its source. I'm thinking to buy it on disc, but don't want to end up with the wrong thing. My best guess is that it is the more recent of the several KINO Nosferatu releases, but the brief clip shown at KINO's site looks somewhat more 'flickery' than my YouTube link. Then again, I saw the Kino clip in a tiny window which might exacerbate the effect.

Thanks for mentioning Shadow of the Vampire. I had not heard of it. Your recommendation and a bit of research have led me to tentatively include it in the movie order I'm slowly amassing at Amazon. Such a shame that many of the films I most want aren't currently available (in the US) in high quality disc releases.

That was not the version of Nosferatu I saw. The music was different. The score of mine was primarily a piano, with a few other instruments supporting it. Not the grand orchestra this one has.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Mar 27 2016, 08:47 PM

[Callidus Thorn]

Currently watching Guy Martin's Wall of Death: Live.

It's madness.

Edit: Holy crap, the lunatic did it! 70.3 mph on a Wall of Death!

This post has been edited by Callidus Thorn: Mar 28 2016, 08:09 PM

[SubRosa]

I finished out my Hunger Gaming. All in all it was good. I think the second film was my favorite. Where the first one basically sets up the world and shows us how things are (as Act I should), the second is where we see the world irrevocably change. I liked seeing that the protagonists were changing the world - wittingly or unwittingly. The third and fourth movies are best viewed together, and thought of as a single entity - as it was a single book. That would have made it over 4 hours long though, so it is obvious why Hollywood decided to split it into two.

At first I was a little disappointed by the ending. I don't want to give out spoilers, just to say the events at the Presidential Palace. But that was before I realized it was not over yet.

Before that point I had been thinking that almost every revolution in history has eventually turned against itself, and ultimately created a new oppressive regime in the place of the old one. The French Revolution, The Russian Revolution, Cuba, Iran, etc...

I was wondering if that was going to happen here. And when we passed that palace scene, I realized that was exactly what was going on. I have to give kudos to Suzanne Collins for that. In fact, rather than give us a very morally simplistic storybook good vs. evil story like the original Star Wars films, the Hungry Games are rather cynical and gritty. Right from the very start with our protagonists pretending to be in love in order to win support of sponsors in the games. While there is a battle of good vs evil, people also do whatever they have to in order to survive, and they all have their own agendas.

Speaking of surviving, Anyone Can Die. So try not to get too attached to people. One death was particularly difficult to swallow. But I understand why it was written that way. Something like that was necessary to act as the emotional catalyst for the real ending of the last film.

All in all I enjoyed the Hungrys very much. I might even buy the books now, to see where they differ.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Apr 18 2016, 11:27 PM

[Lady-Mara-II]

I've been watching a few TV series' lately. There's The Walking Dead which I think has only one episode left of this series, and Vikings. Vikings is great, but I get annoyed when it starts focusing too much of the story on what's happening in England instead of what the Viking characters are up to!

[Renee]

LM2, what is up with you?! Been so long.

I loved the first 2 or 3 seasons of Walking Dead, when it was mostly people vs. zombies. After that it becomes too much people vs. people for my tastes. Haven't seen Vikings before, maybe I check that out.

[SubRosa]

Hi Mara! Nice to see you here!

I felt the same way about Season 4 of Vikings. I kept asking myself why they are spending any time at all with what is going on in Wessex? In the 3rd Season it mattered because our vikings were there. But now it seems... irrelevant. Perhaps they plan to take the vikings back to Wessex one day? If that is the case, then I can see why they would want to keep us up on events there.

Uh Oh! Disaster for Warner Bros. & DC?

*Warning: even though he specifically says no spoilers... there are spoilers. Be warned.*

I don't know, this review made me want to watch it more than I did before, lol. Not just for the stuff he raved about being great, but to see the stuff that really ticked him off too;

He cracks me up, but he is a great reviewer with some really good points.

I have never liked Superman. The character is just too Marty Stu. So I had no desire to see this at all before watching Angry Joe's review. But after hearing what he had to say, I must admit now I am curious. I read somewhere that when it comes out on disc this summer there will be a rated R version. Hopefully Netfix will have it, because I think it is definitely worth a rental.

Now that the box office returns are back it is fun to look at the money it made vs. the incredibly bad reviews it gets from critics. I don't recall the exact numbers off hand, just that it did an astounding amount of money. I believe it was the biggest weekend of any Warner Bros movie ever, and so on. I guess it goes to show that what critics think and what most people think are very different things. Which find rather hilarious.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Mar 30 2016, 10:26 PM

[SubRosa]

I just finished Star Trek: Nemesis. This time out I instantly recognized the big bad Shinzon as Tom Hardy. This must have been one of his first movies.

[Destri Melarg]

I just finished Star Trek: Nemesis. This time out I instantly recognized the big bad Shinzon as Tom Hardy. This must have been one of his first movies.

Which one is Nemesis? Is that the one where the Enterprise fights the Bjorn Borg?

Just binge watched season two of Daredevil on Netflix. Overall it is a worthy follow up to the amazing first season, but it misses the gravitas that Vincent D'Onofrio brought to Wilson Fisk imho (though he does make an incredibly satisfying appearance later in the season). Jon Bernthal makes an effective Frank Castle and Elodie Yung kicks Jennifer Garner's you-know-what as Elektra, but both characters seem a little too one note for my taste. Scott Glenn returns as Stick and steals every scene he's in just like he did last year.

Definitely worth watching!