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

Pure atmosphere is the only way to do it, that much is for sure. There's nothing about mummies that makes the fear relatable, nothing that elevates the horror aspect of it beyond a sense of, "Well, that was unpleasant," i.e. the scarab scene in the first Fraiser movie.

That idea about the movie Alien might work. I'd love to see something where the just about entire duration of the movie is someone being trapped in a tomb. Make it very claustrophobic, drench the thing in an ever increasing amount of shadows as the light sources die out, and most importantly, make the Mummy as practical as possible. I'd watch something like that in a heartbeat.

We already know shared universes are dumb because they can never resist the urge to waste running time on setting up more movies, but it was especially dumb with the Universal Monsters. They did that shit in the 40s, no one ever felt the urge to make a big deal out of it, they just did it.

It's important to note too that the "monster rally" phase of the Universal horror era was THE END of it. The cycle was dying out. By the time you get to that stuff historically, adult audiences were considered to have moved on from horror movies and they were regarded as Saturday matinee kid flicks. So it was more about inexpensively piling properties together to entertain what was regarded as an unsophisticated audience than trying to construct some kind of lore-driven "universe".

Alien is actually pretty much The Mummy, at a fundamental level. A mortuary is explored/disturbed, disturbers return, punishment is dealt out for the disturbing. It's just biological rather than supernatural.

Colorcrayons wrote: Take the movie alien, add a mummy, then you have a good mummy movie. Simple as that.

Unless it is written by Damon Lindelof, in which case you have Prometheus and not a good movie.

Wasn't there a decent Tales from the Crypt thing with a mummy at one point? I seem to recall that.

Josh Look wrote:
I'd love to see something where the just about entire duration of the movie is someone being trapped in a tomb. Make it very claustrophobic, drench the thing in an ever increasing amount of shadows as the light sources die out, and most importantly, make the Mummy as practical as possible. I'd watch something like that in a heartbeat.

I saw something like this recently which really freaked me out. Let me see if I can remember the name but it was a bunch of people exploring a pyramid and they get trapped in there. In the end I think there were only 2-3 survivors and there was some sort of jackal-god thing that was pretty spooky.

,...ah yes, it's called THE PYRAMID. Look, it's pretty terrible but it's exactly what you're describing

Marvel Comics was really pushing horror comics in the '70s and even had some success with Tomb of Dracula, which ran something like 75 issues. So of course they tried a mummy comic. Supernatural Thrillers, featuring the Living Mummy. It was told from the point of view of the mummy, and initially was fairly standard mummy fare, with a bit of commentary on Mideast politics. Other characters tended to drive the action and the mummy responded. Then it went off in a strange but more interesting direction involving a magical artifact, alternate dimensions, and a team of specialized magic wielders known as the Elementals. The writing was surprisingly mature in tone, but the run lasted less than a year.

Opted to stay in last night and watched The Girl with All the Gifts on Amazon Prime. Have any of you seen this? I want to talk about it, but I don't want to spoil anything.

It's a very well done zombie movie that feels a lot like a video game. I've heard comparisons to The Last of Us, but I've never played that so I can't comment on similarities in the narrative. It's kind of impressive what can be done with a modest budget these days.

I had a great weekend of movies. Nothing new, but hey, that's usually more enjoyable for me.

Egg Shen and I went to the Connecticut Cult Classics "Night of the Werewolf" on Saturday night. First up was Silver Bullet, which I actually had never seen. Objectively, it may not be great, but it is competently made and plays really well to a crowd. When you have Corey Haim and Gary Busey in tow, you know you're in for some antics, but it goes full ridiculous by the time it's over. I was really entertained by it.

Silver Bullet was followed up by none other than An American Werewolf In London. Of course I'd seen it before, but man is that a great movie. I don't think it will will ever not make an impact on me. If Jenny Augutter is included in the curse of the werewolf deal, sign me the hell up. Best werewolf movie, no doubt about it.

Last night, wanting something 80s, I ended up watching Heathers for the first time in years. I still love it and my lifelong crush on young Winona Ryder is completely renewed.

Greetings and Salutations...

I love Silver Bullet...somewhere up thread I posted a bunch about it a few months ago.

We went to go see Wonder Woman for Father's Day yesterday, my wife who usually doesn't want to see any of the comics movies wanted to go so I took that as a sign from god...

I thought it was great, and I can't believe that Zack fucking Snyder had anything to do with it. Of course, having a female director may have squashed his 15 year old boy mentality, and it may also be that his writing contribution was minimal.

It's a really great, old fashioned action adventure movie in a lot of ways. It takes its time to tell its story, admirably bothers with supporting characters, and is remarkably LORE free apart from a very minor Batman tie-in. It could totally stand alone- there's not even a reference to Justice League, and there is no point at which characters discuss or talk about anything to do with any other DC movie. Part of that is because it is set well before the other movies, but also because I think that the makers had the good sense to understand that this movie needed to be its own thing.

Gal Godot- almost impossibly pretty. But she was also a total bad ass without becoming the ultimate teenage boy fantasy of a man with boobs. There were quite a few elements where you could really tell that a woman was directing it, certain inflections and elements that were more pronounced. It was such a feminine film, and in a very natural way. So refreshing after so much macho. It was also genuinely warm, romantic, and funny.

I also loved that it is almost like a meta-commentary about the recent (and recurring) trend toward dark, negative heroes. She's practically an innocent- naïve, but full of spirit and belief. And after her beliefs are shaken and questioned, she's shown the darkness and hatred in the world and instead of succumbing to it she faces it with courage and doubles down on love, passion, and positivity. That's such a great message, especially after not one but two DC superhero movies where the heroes are dark, brooding murderers. She's a real hero, in much the same way that Captain America was in his film a few years ago.

As far as criticism goes, the battle with Ares was a total bust. After seeing her in a number of amazing, exciting action scenes...the big Final Fantasy fire/energy blowout extravaganza of stuff exploding was a huge letdown. I did really like how it was intercut with the team's adventure- so you had two sets of stakes going on there, the human side and the demi-god side. That very nicely reconciled the "Olympian" style of DC hero with something more grounded.

Dr. Poison was wasted- she was the most interesting villain in the picture, and her moment with WW about to squash her with the tank was kind of a shrug when it could have been a much more powerful moment.. Ludendorff was sort of pointless, but I did like the evil cackle after he threw the German command the gas mask. That was a bit of fun comic book villainy.

So I loved it, it's not quite the "next level" kind of superhero film that Logan was, but it is definitely more progressive and compelling than some of the more recent Marvel fare. And it is MILES ahead of the rest of the DC shitpile. But it did not make more interested in Justice League- it made me want to see another adventure with Diana and the team of misfits in WW.

Without knowing we were going to see that on Sunday, Saturday night I watched Suicide Squad. Talk about a Tale of Two Movies. What a disaster that was. It's all too clear that a bunch of "funny" stuff was added post-production. Like all of the on-screen text for the character introductions...jeesh, come on. Joker was about as terrible as expected. Harley Quinn still does not work for me outside of BTAS. A couple of the characters weren't even really introduced, it felt like. The whole thing felt sloppy, misguided, and way too fiddled-with.

Wonder Woman was very good. I've been a comic book fan since forever, but I have had a mixed reaction to the various modern comic book movies. This was one of the better ones.

As a kid, I was uncomfortable reading comics that seemed intended for girls, like Archie, Millie the Model, and even superhero fare like Wonder Woman and Ms. Marvel. It was a similar feeling to the idea that picking up a Barbie doll was forbidden and the potential source of heckling and ostracism by other kids. After DC rebooted their continuity with Crisis on Infinite Earths, they also made some major changes in creative teams, and one of my favorite artists (George Perez) ended up writing and drawing Wonder Woman. By then, I was in college and somewhat more open-minded, so I gave it a try. Perez was doing a solid job, so I stayed with the title for the first 20 issue or so. But even then, I would only buy it at the comic book shop, and only after tucking it in the middle of a stack of other comics that I was buying.

The reason that I mention my own reluctance to buy Wonder Woman comics is because I was surprised by the audience when I went to see this movie. More than 80% of the audience was female, and the theater was 2/3 full on a Saturday afternoon. So maybe there are a lot of guys who feel that their masculinity would be endangered by seeing this movie. Or maybe they were watching it in 3D or IMAX format at the same theater complex. Still, it was nice to see so many women willing to see an action movie starring a woman.

This was definitely an action movie, with plenty of HTH and weapon usage, though the depiction of bloodshed was relatively discrete. But the movie was also more than action. There was some social commentary, some fish out of water comedy, and some reflection on the role of warfare in history. According to the history buff friend who saw the movie with me, the main German villain was a historical figure and a good choice for this fictional story. But the greatest difference from the typical superhero/action movie was the degree of compassion displayed by the lead character. Gal Godot was an amazing casting choice for Wonder Woman, with the height, physicality, and real-life combat experience to sell the role. But she was also able to portray a very full range of emotion, especially the wisdom, compassion, and courage that I would expect of Wonder Woman. Chris Pine did a fine job playing Steve Trevor, though he threatened to steal a few scenes.

There were a couple of things that I thought could have been better. The movie was about 2.5 hours long, and probably could have been improved by trimming it down at least 10 minutes. The final fight scene with Ares bored me the same way final fight scenes in superhero movies often bore me. No matter how good the effects, it still strains my ability to suspend disbelief to see these characters take massive hits and shrug them off when there is supposed to be some drama. This fight very nearly stalemated due to lack of injury, like that inconclusive fight between Neo and Mister Smith in the second Matrix movie. I realize that this kind of fight scene is expected and probably necessary to a superhero movie, but I just wish it was either shorter or more interesting.

Prior to this movie, the only consistently good portrayal of Wonder Woman that I've seen was the Justice League cartoon. If you liked Wonder Woman in the Justice League cartoon, you will almost definitely enjoy this movie. If you like action or superhero movies, you should like Wonder Woman. Try not to get hung up about her gender like I did as a lad.

There was a preview for the Justice League movie, and it looks pretty bad. I heard that Joss Whedon is now on board, so maybe they can re-shoot some scenes and make it more entertaining.

The DC film franchise has neglected to populate their cinematic universe with actual characters. Wonder Woman is a solid step in the right direction. I loved the casting and second what has been said here about the obvious (refreshing) touches that come with a woman directing (a fish-out-of-water story w/o chronic mansplaining, DOP devoid of male gaze, etc.).

It’s interesting that roughly 100% of people I’ve spoken to or read have been bored by the anti-climactic boss fight. I was hoping that Ares as unseen agent and driving force toward war vs. Wonder Woman’s force for hope and warrior for peace would have been sufficient to demonstrate the struggle. We could have a strike on the weapons plant with our lovable supporting cast, and virtually everything else could end unchanged. I think this film had already been tasked with being THE superheroine film, woman directing, blah blah blah- point being, it was likely not given the elbow room to dispose of the bombastic end fight that bores everyone ages 8-80 alike. The climax might actually be Wonder Woman going over the top into no man’s land. It’s hard to top that for metaphor, right?

That's a great point about the compassion she shows...in fact, I actually can't think of another superhero movie where you have the character saying, essentially, "we have to help these people BECAUSE IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO". There is nothing else attached to that. Just a simple sense of morality. It's even more basic than "with great power comes great responsibility"...it's just having the moral awareness to just do the right thing.

I guess, really, the closest thing to that is in Logan when they help the folks with the horses.

Chris Pine was good! I really like him as Kirk, it's good to see him break out from that and do something else. They had a good chemistry and he made for a fun spy character.

We took both kids to see it even though I was sort of unsure, given that plenty of other PG-13 superhero movies were not very kid friendly. I think it was fine for them (5 and 7), the mild innuendo scene went over their heads and the violence was kept at a reasonable level- no blood, no cruelty, no celebration of murder.

My daughter LOVED it. She was just raving the whole way home. I thought she wouldn't make it through 2:20 of it, but she did. My son liked it too, but he got a little antsy in the last act. There was one point during a battlefield scene where leaned over to me and said "Daddy, that's like our Warhammer terrain!"

My wife loved it too, which is really rare. She makes movies, so she tends to pick things apart to pieces.

It was sold out where we saw it, and it was a very mixed audience. Which is great.

the obvious (refreshing) touches that come with a woman directing (a fish-out-of-water story w/o chronic mansplaining, DOP devoid of male gaze, etc.).

Wasn't it AMAZING that there was no male gaze in it? I was SHOCKED. Not a single shot in that movie is male gaze. Here is a movie that features an absolutely stunning woman and there is not a single shot where she is objectified or presented in such a way to appeal to male sexual interest. It's just remarkable. There again, contrast Suicide Squad, where Harley Quinn is paraded around almost constantly to appeal to male sexual interest.

One of my favorite scenes in the film is one of the most "girly"- the bit where she tries on the different dresses, finding them all completely un-functional for her way of life. And like you pointed out, there is no mansplaining about it, and in the end Trevor accepts what she wanted to wear. What's funny is that after the movie I was watching a Doctor Who episode (The Talons of Weng-Chiang, which is not exactly the most politically correct serial anyway) and there's a scene in it where another fish-out-of-water, Leela, is bought clothes by a man...who comments on how awkward and weird it is to buy "togs" for a girl. But of course, she has no say in it...even though she is a warrior-woman not unlike WW.

I'm a little disappointed Ludendorff's wikipedia entry doesn't give him appropriate credit for the pivotal role he played in Wonder Woman's development. I may see to that this evening.

The film had some hokey moments, as described by my wife to me afterwards, but you have to shake it off, because for goodness sake it's a comic book movie. If you appreciate the art of the genre you assuredly understand the bad-ass poses and goofy action choices.

What I found interesting is that it obeyed more laws of physics than most films. WW on a regular basis avoided strong hits rather than block them, as a physically weaker opponent must do. It also put hearing loss into people in the middle of a huge explosion (though they still didn't burn . . . should have been burn damage . . . fair enough compromise I suppose) so from those kinds of aspects I was pleased. The film in spite of being hokey had parts that were much more close to reality.

It did portray World War I as World War II. They needed someone to adjust that a bit. It started out so promising, and if you want dark, World War I is the place to see it. I know, nobody else noticed.

And for the record I identified every damn airplane shown on the screen on my first try!

As for Male Gaze, I did my share. Even her non-perfect teeth were attractive as hell. I like ladies of action that can hold their own so she was doing just fine by me. My wife can gaze at Bucky Barnes all she likes, I'll have me a slice of Wonder Bread on occasion to even out the mix.

Sagrilarus wrote:
As for Male Gaze, I did my share. Even her non-perfect teeth were attractive as hell. I like ladies of action that can hold their own so she was doing just fine by me. My wife can gaze at Bucky Barnes all she likes, I'll have me a slice of Wonder Bread on occasion to even out the mix.

Gal Gadot is gorgeous in a very natural way. She put on about 15 lbs of muscle for the role .


As wretched as the feedback was on Batman vs Superman, I may have to watch it just for the WW scenes. They took a relatively big risk in casting an unknown in the role but Gadot nailed it. Equally impressive IMO was Robin Wright, who would have given T2 Sarah Connor a run for the money, she really buffed up for the part, pretty impressive given she's 51.

I do agree the Ares showdown was a bit overwrought.

I also like how the fish out of water scenes like WW getting new clothes was played straight and not slapstick. I also liked the homage to the original SUPERMAN movie where WW blocks the bullets in the back alley fight.

Much has been made of the superiority of the Marvel films over the DC ones. The difference being WW got her own movie, whereas the much more critically acclaimed Marvel universe, Black Widow has been in god knows how many movies, but they don't seem to be able to find her a standalone picture. It almost seems like it's too late now, they'd have a hard time topping this I'd think.

I think the Marvel schtick is wearing thin. I've tried to watch Age of Ultron but can't be bothered after about 10 minutes. I think the ensemble method just waters every character down.

I did read a recent review of the newest Spiderman reboot ( it's insane they've done THREE in the this century ) and they comment that it has too much Tony Stark, which confirms my fears of the trailers showing him repeatedly.



Another recent viewing was THE ACCOUNTANT. Ben Affleck plays the title role, as the movie alternates between flashbacks when he was young to the present. He's got a Aspergers , coupled with ....a particular set of skills. A very understated performance on his part; I'd also give it two thumbs up. It was a very pleasant surprise - not at all what I was expecting. When you see Affleck starring, you think its gonna be a certain type of movie, but this is definitely not. And its not like I have a problem with him, I like some of his other stuff, but this is role is against type for him and he pulls it off nicely.