What Movies Have You Watched? 17: Blowed Up Real Good

[Kyriakos]

Not both? I've found references to the Seven Samurai as well.

It's worth mentioning that Dune itself was in part inspired by Foundation (by Asimov). There are several similar themes running through both novels, although in completely different ways. Star Wars took a lot more from Dune (it seems) than Dune took from Foundation. But even so SW went in its own unique direction as well.

The seven Samurai doesn't have (iirc) any non-trivial plot similarity to the (first three) StarWars films, while Hidden Fortress essentially has the same plot and main characters (other than Luke; Darth Vader is the antagonist of Obi-Wan only and his arc is the same).

I haven't watched Hidden Fortress, though. Only seen his Seven Samurai and Ran.

 

[Fippy]

We are clearly missing something about The Lighthouse, critics love that movie and they are much smarter than we are.
I fully appreciate it as replacement for sleeping pills, or learning more about modern horror which makes everything better.

 

[Kyriakos]

It's not horror, imo. It's supposed to be a delusion, but I felt that it didn't work. Besides, they virtually don't present any of the "real" story of Patterson's character in icy 'Canady'.

Still, I've seen delusion done far worse, when mixed with the crudest symbolism. Remember "Mother" (with Jennifer Lawrence)? Now that was a travesty Granted, the Lighthouse doesn't quite go for the "everything is a metaphor" approach, since apparently Dafoe's character is real, but does some stuff only in the imagination of Patterson's.

 

[Fippy]

Maybe my Satire was weak
Mother! was maybe the most annoying film i ever forced myself thru (why nobody knows..), which really tells something as i watched many Horror B or sometimes even C movies.

 

[Kyriakos]

You might like Carvinal of Souls, if you haven't seen it already.

 

[Fippy]

I have some problems with watching movies that old.
If Shutter Island qualifies as delusion, that was decent imo.

 

[Drakle]

So Marvels Eternals. I hadn't paying a ton of attention to the marketing, only seeing the poster. But with stuff opened back up, I was looking to see what was now showing. And I saw it getting savaged by reviewers. Currently it's the worst rated MCU Movie on Rotten Tomatoes, beating out Thor 2. It also has worse scores than stuff like X-Men the last Stand, Man of Steel and Wonder Woman 2. So out of some morbid curiosity, and some, the tickets being cheap I went to see it.

And it's completely fine. In no way is it the worst MCU movie film. It's actually above average, and one of the better Introduction MCU films. It's not in the best tier, it does have some issues. But I have no idea why reviewers suddenly have a narc on for this.

There is no uneven CGI, like the end battle of Black Panther for example. The cast is really large, but they all give at minimum okay performances, and most are good. There is none of them that could be easily excised without damaging the movie. There is some great use of scale for some of the cosmic stuff, that is really good. There are a bunch of practical shooting in location or on sets that look great, not just green screens. And even those ones look really good. Great use of colour in general. The powers are well realised, with a solid visual theme connecting them. There is a great Superman expy vs Flash expy fight scene. Most of the fight scenes are good, and I really liked a number of set pieces in it, like a mind controller syncing up simultaneous firing, the flying brick fighting, a war they witness, and the speedster across the board, which they do without slow mo. Some good non fighting set pieces as well, like ancient cities, a Bollywood scene and the end Celestial scene. There are some decent jokes (also some that are a bit off), thought generally the movie isn't constantly quipping,

There are issues. The time-skip aren't greats, and some of the story beats don't carry forward great between scenes. A fair amount of arcs carry forward off screen, which does make some sense given the timescale between sone of the events. It's long (but it didn't drag at all for me except a tiny bit at the start). There is one character who doesn't have a lot of screen time, who is mostly just set up for a future movie. The movie only half has a proper protagonist in Gemma Chan's Sersi, as while she has the focus, it's still a big ensemble cast. They killed some of the characters that I liked (but they can in universe bring those actors back if they wanted).

I really wouldn't have written up this review, if the general reviews for this movie, didn't seem so out of whack with the actual movie.

Anyway, a lot of stuff at the movies now, or soon. Dude hasn't released yet, but there us also The Last Duel and Shang Chi. Not really interested in James Bond, Daniel Craig Bond lost my interest like two movies ago.

 

[Kyriakos]

I have some problems with watching movies that old.
If Shutter Island qualifies as delusion, that was decent imo.

It has some issues with dated cinematography at parts (but the absolute worst is the very beginning). However it is a classic film and worth watching imo

For a recent horror movie, maybe The Borderlands. It's not the greatest, but I can't think of anything else very recent.

 

[warpus]

I know nothing about the subject matter re: The Eternals, but is this Marvel fatigue that's leading to bad reviews? It caught up to Star Wars, when they released a bunch of mediocre movies in a row, so perhaps the same thing is happening to Marvel. There's been soooo many Marvel movies in the last decade, maybe people are ready for something new.

Complete guess though. Also, what's up with the reference to Wonder Woman 2? That's not out yet, right?

 

[Zardnaar]

I know nothing about the subject matter re: The Eternals, but is this Marvel fatigue that's leading to bad reviews? It caught up to Star Wars, when they released a bunch of mediocre movies in a row, so perhaps the same thing is happening to Marvel. There's been soooo many Marvel movies in the last decade, maybe people are ready for something new.

Complete guess though. Also, what's up with the reference to Wonder Woman 2? That's not out yet, right?

WW2 came out a while ago. Well WW84.

Critics not kind to Eternals.

 

[warpus]

That was Wonder Woman 2? It did not feel like a sequel. What was the first one?

 

[Zardnaar]

That was Wonder Woman 2? It did not feel like a sequel. What was the first one?

There's WW and WW84.

 

[JohannaK]

Yeah. What's a bit ambiguous though is whether the machine teleports you or teleports your clone somewhere. I still can't shake the feeling that the magician who uses this machine is a DFJKLHDLKFJ moron for killing himself when he performs the trick. Drowning himself at that, which is a horrible way to die

yeaaah, that's the point of Angier's dilemma or sacrifice. He tells it to Borden: "To go in the machine every night, not knowing whether I would appear elsewhere or drown..."

On my part I think the distinction is not meaningful because both of them are to all effect one and the same person, but the point still remains of paying the ultimate sacrifice for one's art, again and again, as a culminating point of an obsession.

It's kind of nonsense but I like it.

 

[Kyriakos]

(Re-watch) The Fly, by Cronenberg.
I guess you could say that Stathis' love for the girl cost him an arm and a leg.

 

[warpus]

yeaaah, that's the point of Angier's dilemma or sacrifice. He tells it to Borden: "To go in the machine every night, not knowing whether I would appear elsewhere or drown..."

On my part I think the distinction is not meaningful because both of them are to all effect one and the same person, but the point still remains of paying the ultimate sacrifice for one's art, again and again, as a culminating point of an obsession.

It's kind of nonsense but I like it.

The thing is that initially when we see the machine it appears to make a copy of the original and teleport it elsewhere each and every time. Maybe that's just a visual distraction though? If that's how it functions though, then you'd never want to do what the magician did, because from your POV you'd be jumping into a tank of water and drowning each and every time. If the machine always teleported you instead, and created a clone in place where you used to be, then you could safely jump in every time and be teleported to the new location - From your POV you would live and the clone would die. So no painful death for you.

That's the thing that I didn't understand, how the magician could be sure that the machine is random.. i.e. it sometimes does it this way, sometimes does it that way. I suppose he could have ran more tests off-screen, but that's cheating. I also suppose it could have just been his (potentially faulty) opinon, but it was sort of presented to the audience as fact.

There's WW and WW84.

Ah.. I'm not used to calling non-sequels "______ 2". But got it

 

[JohannaK]

I don't like to call them a copy because, in fact, they're both the exact same person. I think he chose to believe that he was the original and the ones who died copies because, in fact, it was he who died every time anyway. Lived through a hundred deaths.

 

[Takhisis]

Monica Vitti double feature on her 90th birthday!

Amori miei (My loves, 1978, directed by Steno), and Dramma della gelosia (The pizza triangle, 1970, directed by Ettore Scola).

 

[Synobun]

Office Space. It was alright. 7/10.

 

[Zardnaar]

Watched Hunger Games.

Never seen it before. Enjoyed it.

 

[tjs282]

The thing is that initially when we see the machine it appears to make a copy of the original and teleport it elsewhere each and every time.

It's a while since I saw this movie, but IIRC, in Star Trek terms, the Tesla-machine is actually a "replicator", but the magician is presenting it to the audience as a "transporter".

Spoiler :

But in order to do that, the 'original' has to be destroyed, hence the trapdoor in the bottom of the first chamber, which drops the original into the drowning-tank when the flash goes off. Essentially, the magician is committing suicide every time he performs the trick. I never understood why the 'new' copy never disposed of the bodies, though...