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

Alien: Best of the franchise. Was one of Ridley Scott's signature efforts when he bothered to direct stories, rather than circuses.
Aliens: Great film, taken in a completely different direction by Cameron, which is to his credit. Easily his best film (which is not setting the bar particularly high, mind you.)
Alien 3: Would've been better if Fincher had been left to do his own thing, but was still interesting because of his willingness to, again, take things in another direction.
Alien: Resurrection: The equivalent of a SyFy Channel film. Or that episode of Lost in Space with the pirates .

Prometheus was abysmal. It was on the order of George Lucas' ability to make good actors look like shit when Scott managed to make Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Michael Fassbender, and Guy Pearce look like summer stock in Central Park. I haven't even bothered to see Covenant.

I watched The Shape of Water twice yesterday. I haven’t done something like that since I first saw Wall-E.

Years ago I was driving home with a friend after a day of pinball and the two of us talked about how much we’d love it if someone were to modernize the classic Universal monster movie. Not just put out some new, unrecognizable take on a classic monster, but do it and stay true to the spirit and revisit their themes of lonliness and “normal” people being the true monsters. Not just that hollow, gimicky stuff Tim Burton does (which he really hasn’t done well since Edward Scissorhands). I remember saying Guillermo del Toro was the man to do it.

And he did. And he did it by far better than I could have dreamed.

But is it better or worse than Aliens?

I'm gonna see I, Tonya tonight but now thanks to Josh I feel super guilty for not seeing Shape of Water instead

I, Tonya is great.

It’s

Black Barney wrote: I'm gonna see I, Tonya tonight but now thanks to Josh I feel super guilty for not seeing Shape of Water instead

I’m all for sympathizing with monsters, but I’m still fuzzy on why we’re sympathizing with Tonya Harding.

Seriously though, as someone who exclusively watches genre movies at this point, del Toro is a favorite of mine but he really did nail it in every category on this movie. The sets and makeup are givens, but the color palette, the performances, the story structure...everything is really excellent and so much of it ties into the themes of the movie. Michael Shannon is an antagonist that, by the time it ends, lives up to Captain Vidal from Pan’s Labyrinth. Everyone is really incredible, but scenes with Shannon made me genuinely uncomfortable, which I can step back from and appreciate.

Up to this point I would have said Pan’s Labyrinth was del Toro’s best, but not only do I think he’s finally outdone himself on both technical and storytelling levels, but I can actually watch this one more than once. Pan’s Labyrinth is great, but I’d be hard pressed to put myself through that again.

I saw Annihilation last night. Pretty great. Deserves its own thread, once more of you have seen it. Two comments, one minimally spoilery, so I'll tag it:
First--The film has some gore and gruesome images. Not a lot, but very disturbing. I was mostly distracted though, because I kept remembering the mother who brought her 10-year-old boy into the theater right before it started. Great parenting, lady! Way to research a film before turning your kid into a serial killer.

Second--

I’m mostly seeing I Tonya for Alison Janney who adore

Yeah Pans Labyrinth is no picnic on rewatching. The horrors of the film really hit hard. Hard to believe he’s been able to make another another villain come close to Vidal. Can’t wait to see Shape.

Black Barney wrote: I’m mostly seeing I Tonya for Alison Janney who adore.

She reminded me of a female J.K. Simmons in this movie.

Disgustipater wrote:

Black Barney wrote: I’m mostly seeing I Tonya for Alison Janney who adore.

She reminded me of a female J.K. Simmons in this movie.

Yes! It's the perfect counterpart to his character in Whiplash.

And she’s probably right. I don’t think Harding achieves Olympic level success without that need to push herself. But who knows

I’ll hopefully write a review tomorrow. Robbie was much better than I expected her to be

I thought it was really classy of the filmmaker to shOw the actual Harding skating videos at the end. She might be a lot of things but one of those is certainly a gifted skater

Colorcrayons wrote: Watched it with the spawnlings who loves star wars today.

The inevitable comments of "Whoah, that looks just like the millennium falcon" were made. So I paused and gave him a brief history lesson. Resumed film.

After film "So if all of this was borrowed from Valerian, why am I watching star wars? When is Valerian 2 coming out?"

Good lad. In a couple years, I shall accidentally leave my Heavy Metal collection from 1979-1992 open so he can read them.

Valerian...anything too inappropriate for kids?

Mr. White wrote:

Colorcrayons wrote: Watched it with the spawnlings who loves star wars today.

The inevitable comments of "Whoah, that looks just like the millennium falcon" were made. So I paused and gave him a brief history lesson. Resumed film.

After film "So if all of this was borrowed from Valerian, why am I watching star wars? When is Valerian 2 coming out?"

Good lad. In a couple years, I shall accidentally leave my Heavy Metal collection from 1979-1992 open so he can read them.

Valerian...anything too inappropriate for kids?

My daughter who I think had just turned 11 when she saw it loved it. The only thing that some people might have a problem with is that Rhianna does a quasi-strip tease (without removing and clothes) in a variety of skimpy outfits. Apart from that it is similar to the Star Wars films in terms of language/violence/etc..

Agreed. I'm kind of despotic about what I allow the kids to watch.

The entire time viewing it, I didn't see anything that I would consider inappropriate (the spawnlings are 10 and 12).
The Rhianna scene went over with the kids being bored by it, even though she was shifting magically through outfits. Just enough for adults to understand what the deal is, yet not enough for kids to really grasp.
I actually think there was less violence in Valerian than in Star Wars. At least until the end fight scene.

Colorcrayons wrote: . At least until the end fight scene.

lol, an important caveat.

"I really think that All the Money in the World isn't violent at all. At least until his ear gets slowly cut off with him screaming the whole time..."


also, i need to look up 'despotic"