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

Brewmiester wrote: Saw Spiderverse Wed. night and agree with everyone else. I haven't read Spiderman since the Peter Parker/John Romita days but it is an amazing film.

Last night saw "They Shall Not Grow Old". If you have any interest in WWI I highly recommend it. They used footage from the Imperial War Museum and BBC interviews with veterans to make a fascinating, touching film. Not a history lesson but a chance to start a conversation with relatives about family involvement with the war. Obviously a work of passion by Peter Jackson. If you can stay after the credits for the making of feature where you can see the four years work they put into the film and parts of Mr. Jackson's amazing collection of WWI material.  

Just be warned because the film is now of such high quality there are a few graphic bits that may upset people, it would have gone nearly unnoticed in B&W.
This is an incredible film, both in the technology and the effort put in by PJ's team for the Imperial War Museum.. I watched it on a large TV but now wished I had seen it at a cinema, just for the shock the audience would have got when it changed from B&W to perfect colour.
Nailed down Oscar, probably a couple (Documentary and technology), for him.

What’s the other one? I really liked Three Identical Strangers.

Also, I don’t know about you, but P2 is still #1 for me.  

Recently saw The Green Book with my family. It was a wonderful experience: the movie was outstanding and moving, and my young adult kids — quick to make fun of anything — both enjoyed and appreciated the film. It dealt with racism, sexuality, and loyalty in ways that I found both touching and compelling. I recommend it highly.

Took my five year old son to the Spider-Man movie today and we had a great time. In the beginning he would make a few comments using normal volume, but by the end he was whispering like a pro. My favorite was when he whispered how he could see when Miles was invisible as if he had an advantage over the bad guy. I was a bit worried he wouldn't be able to sit through to the end but his eyes were glued to the screen. As far as the movie goes, I hesitate to say too much as I just haven't watched many movies over the past 8 years but I found it very exciting and inventive.

The Peter Jackson WWI documentary played twice in Utah--I was busy the first time and it was sold out the second. My son told me he torrented it and watched it on his monitor, which seems like a waste. I guess we'll rent it and watch it at home eventually.

Barnes wrote that Into the Spider Verse makes all the other Marvel films look tired and old. I agree. My daughters just saw Infinity War for the first time tonight on Netflix, because they don't care that much about Marvel movies, and I was struck by how less interesting it was on a second viewing, and how rough the CGI was in parts. And I really enjoyed the first viewing. I wonder what Marvel movies we'll care about thirty years from now.

Shellhead wrote: A friend of mine is hosting a Michael Mannrathon on the last weekend of December, Friday through Sunday, just because.

Friday 12/28:
The Jericho Mile 9:00 AM
The Keep 10:52 AM
Manhunter 12:43 PM
Thief 3:28 PM
L.A. Takedown 5:45 PM
The Last of the Mohicans 7:32 PM

I showed up on time, but the host got a late start, so I caught half of The Jericho Mile, and stayed all the way through L.A. Takedown.

The Jericho Mile seemed familiar, and after a bit, I realized that I had seen it before. It was a tv movie that aired in the late '70s. Based on a true story about a convicted murderer who was an Olympic-class runner. The prison scenes were interesting because it was filmed at an actual prison with actual convicts in all the crowd scenes. The story was pretty limited, but the ending was well-done.

The Keep was a major disappointment. Slow, awkward, inconclusive, vague. The special effects were mainly just lighting effects, and unimpressive. The setup had some promise, but the actual story seemed pointless. I'm still glad that I watched it, because I realized that it was the inspiration for a Call of Cthulhu adventure that I ran recently.

Manhunter was just as good as I remembered, and possibly Michael Mann's best movie. (Yes, everybody else says Heat, but I was disappointed at the lack of synergy between Pacino and De Niro.) The first part is the grandfather of all the modern CSI shows and movies, and features the first screen appearance of Hannibal Lector. The second part gives us the disturbing viewpoint of the serial killer. His pathology never quite added up for me, but in a way that made it seem like my own failure to put the pieces together, rather than a lack of thought put into the charater.

Thief is a damn fine movie. James Caan is at the top of his form as an all-purpose criminal who specializes in high-end burglaries. He is on the verge of going legit and putting together a nice life with Tuesday Weld's character, until complications. There is a particular scene in a diner where the acting and dialogue is just riveting.

I wasn't planning to stay for L.A. Takedown, but the delay in schedule would have left me driving across town in afternoon rush hour. Also, the host let me know that L.A. Takedown is the rough draft of Heat. Basically the same story and even same script, only with a tv movie format, budget, and quality of actors and stuntwork. Actually, all of the supporting actors were fine, it was only the two stars that consistently failed the script with flat or cheesy delivery.

Managed to catch Into the Spider-verse before it left my local theater. Glad I did as its worth seeing on the giant screen. I've only seen it the one time and I'm not a fan of hyperbole but I'm going to go ahead and say anyways that this the best Spider-man movie in the same way that the animated Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is the best Batman movie. It will become an all-time classic.

I watched American Fable last night. I irrationally liked it, probably because it sits in the niche I like where you aren't sure if something magical is happening or not.

It does have a few glaring plot holes and some odd choices which drag it down from being truly great, but I would happily watch this every few years.

Shellhead wrote: Manhunter was just as good as I remembered, and possibly Michael Mann's best movie. (Yes, everybody else says Heat, but I was disappointed at the lack of synergy between Pacino and De Niro.) The first part is the grandfather of all the modern CSI shows and movies, and features the first screen appearance of Hannibal Lecter. The second part gives us the disturbing viewpoint of the serial killer. His pathology never quite added up for me, but in a way that made it seem like my own failure to put the pieces together, rather than a lack of thought put into the charater.

I'll back you up. I'll even say it's the best portrayal of Hannibal Lecter, though I haven't seen Mads Mikkelsen's yet. MANHUNTER is stylish, scary, and riveting to me, much more so than the RED DRAGON remake from the wake of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS' success.

I recommend reading the book, if you haven't. You get to spend some time with the Red Dragon that gives you insights on his obsessions. I saw MANHUNTER when it came out on VHS, and have seen it a bunch of times since. I read the books, including SILENCE OF THE LAMBS when it came out, so I had a vision of Hannibal in my head from those that was well-formed before Demme/Hopkins fucked the character up.

Imagine the smartest person you ever met, and then that person tells you about the smartest person SHE ever met, and that's Lecter. He's a genius and well-attuned to human psychology, both as therapist, and as an observer in extremis. He's spent some time probing where the mind goes when it goes to unpleasant places and he's developed some skills at sending people there. That's what makes him so frightening. Not a fucking stone dungeon. I mean, who would put a guy like that in a dungeon where he could hide shit everywhere? That's what makes MANHUNTER's portrayal so much better. His cell is white, his clothes and all his belongings are white, and it's all shot over-exposed by Mann to wash it all out and make him look like some floating head and hands deciding if you are worth talking to or if he should spend his valuable time in his memory palace where idiots can't bother him.



Contrast with Anthony Hopkins' Lecter, who's obviously bugshit crazy. Would you go see a bugshit crazy man as your psychiatrist? He licks his lips and all leers and is fucking crazy. That's still scary, but it's not unsettling. I feel like I wouldn't be fooled by him, and that really wrecks it for me. Bryan Cox, meanwhile… he seems utterly in control, and even concerned about the course of the investigation when Will comes to visit. Will knows to be afraid, though, given his history with Lecter, and we, the audience, see his fear and realize we aren't scared enough, and that's unsettling.

WTF is wrong with you people. If I had to pick a place that would be discussing Bandersnatch, I thought it would be here.

I've seen some people moan about it ("the different branching choices aren't meaningful enough and don't affect the actual outcome!!"), but I thought it was very fun. The plot was better than I thought it would be and I enjoyed some of the zanier things that happened - including how it lets you reset when you hit an abrupt end/loss condition.

Favorite part was some of the 4th wall stuff, particularly one branch which led to a question along the lines of "How about some action?" and the choices were "Yeah" and "Fuck yes!"

Totally cool and I can't wait for this type of concept to mature.

Isn’t that a TV show that only streams on phones? I heard there were mental health triggers in that

It's the new Netflix Black Mirror movie-length episode that was released last week. It's a choose your own adventure movie.

It streams on Roku as well as handhelds.

I finally Redboxed Mission Impossible: Motorcycles in Paris. Or maybe it should be called, Mission Impossible: the beatification of Ethan Hunt. Or Mission Impossible: Golden Goose surgery. It has these amazing reviews at Metacritic (86--which is right up there with any classic). We watched it on our flat screen tv, which, incidentally, are basically commodities now like corn or pork bellies. Ours came in a cereal box. My wife aggressively complained about the movie the whole time we watched it, but she did enjoy the scenery. I liked it pretty much, but it wasn't that great. I guess the silly attempts to make Ethan the most Important Man in the World, and the numerous wacky coincidences were off putting. I mean, I knew what this movie was going into it, but even that didn't totally prepare me for the silliness. Still, there were a few moments that were genuinely surprising or made us say, "Ho ho! I can't believe he did that!" which is worth something. I generally enjoy movie violence way more than I should, but the particular style of fight scenes (sort of like slow Wing Chung?) got tedious after a while. When Ethan and the bad guy are punching each other out on the cliff at the end I was wishing I had made snacks or hadn't given my wife my smart phone.

Everyone who wants to see this movie probably has at this point, so I'm not even sure why I"m writing this, except as therapy.

The movie made 5x its production budget, so if I had invested my entire IRA in this movie, I could retire tomorrow, if I reinvested it wisely and could live on $1,000 less per month than I am now.

On the Barney scale: Head: 6.2 Heart: 7.1 How much would I pay to see this, knowing what I now know about it? Probably $1.50. Would I watch this on a long flight? Yes, if there were nothing obviously better.

I thought Bandersnarch was great. Not sure if it is San Junipero/White Christmas/USS Callister great yet though. Can’t not love an episode that has callbacks to Tangerine Dream, Isao Tomita, Bauhaus, Laurie Anderson, Monster Maze, the Commodore 64’s excellent sound chip, Jeff Minter,
and PKD’s UBIK.

Some of it is brilliant- I especially like how it cleverly demonstrates how the very concept of the “pick a path” narrative that seems so new isn’t. It goes back to the early days of video games. I loved the review programme as almost a kind of “score” for your ending. And I really liked the setting, the kind of frontier days of video game development. The bit with Colin and the choice you make there is really interesting- it spins the story off into the quantum realm but it also questions the concept of consequence-less morality in games.

It’s a dark episode, but it gets a little too cute on some branches. The really meta fourth wall stuff was totally expected and went from creepy and chilling to purposefully silly and ridiculous, which was a bad move IMO. I also kind of think the “good” ending is way too close to Donnie Darko for comfort.

But overall, excellent. I’m sure we will see more like this on the platform. Would love to see a Stranger Things CYOA.