Which films have you seen lately Vol.22 Now with Smell-O-Vision.

[Sommerswerd]

I rewatched Joker and saw Joker: Folie à Deux. My opinion on Joker remains roughly the same. It's a chilling tale of a descent into darkness undercut by some contrived situations and some minor characters who are unrealistically, relentless jerks. Folie à Deux I quite liked mostly because I think this iteration of the Joker is an interesting character and the Joker/Quinn relationship is the right kind of crazy.

Spoiler :

The internet seems to be dumping on Folie à Deux because he never goes 'full Joker'. I think I would have preferred that too. At least get some revenge on those ******* prison guards. But at the same time I'm not mad that they leaned more into the Arthur Fleck persona than Joker because the first movie never convinced me he was fully the Joker. At the end of the first movie when Joker/Fleck shoots the talk show host, he seems kind of unsure of himself, like he doesn't know what to do next. He's not confident about himself or what he is. He's not the criminal mastermind joker or the agent of chaos Joker. He's the downtrodden, neglected guy who just wants to be seen. And before he is able to full embrace the Joker side of him, when we see him in Folie à Deux, prison seems to have pushed that side deep inside him. It made sense to me

On "going full Joker"... I had the same feeling about Jerome Valeska, the main villain in the show Gotham, and leader of "The Maniax", criminal gang/movement in the show. He is clearly designed to be a Joker precursor, and his girlfriend is clearly intended to be a Harley Quinn precursor, but they never actually become Joker and Harley... at least not as far as I watched. I kind of lost interest in the show once it was clear that Valeska wasn't going to become the Joker. I don't know if that was the writers' original intention or if they abandoned making Valeska the Joker mid-series, but it was a big let down, and what caused me to lose interest in the show, as it felt like they were just spinning wheels and not going anywhere. At the time I was thinking that maybe they would circle back to it, maybe making Valeska the "inspiration" for the Joker later, but I couldn't be bothered to wait through more episodes to find out.

 

[Kyriakos]

Imo the first movie was average, with one memorable scene. This one appears to be pitiful.

 

[Kyriakos]

Rewatched The Drop (2014 movie with Gandolfini and others).
He did have a lot more emotional range than his co-stars, or rather more depth in a set emotional range (mostly sadness).

 

[Sommerswerd]

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice wasn't great. I watched it on streaming last night with family. All style and very little substance. At the same time it was too much rehash and not enough rehash. Kind of like a giant heaping plate of hashed potatoes... not the best style of breakfast potatoes, but whatever, its still fried potatoes, I'll eat it... but then they're mostly burnt/overly crispy, so barely edible. That's how the movie felt. Lot's and lots of fanservice and very Beetlejuice'ey stuff, but too much of it and it wasn't that good. It's like they almost couldn't decide whether they wanted to do a normal sequel, a soft reboot, or a rehash-sequel. There were too many unexplained, poorly explained, or just pain glossed over things. I spent the first third of the movie with a general "This sucks, what the eff am I even watching??", sort of reaction. Needless to say, I fell asleep for the middle third... then for the last third of the movie I was thinking "OK this is a little better... but I slept through the middle, so I don't know how we got from there to here ...".

So then I had to go back and watch the middle of the movie to see what I'd missed. I think I get why maybe I thought a little better of the movie once I saw the middle. There was a little bit more plot development in the middle and not just gimmicks and fanservice. Another thing that felt off was that in the first movie, the "rules" seemed a little better defined, and the different "worlds" living world/dead world/sandworm world, seemed much better defined and separated. In this they just felt meaningless, without any real distinction or meaning and there were all these new "powers" that didn't seem to have any limitations. It made it unclear what the characters could do and couldn't do and thus removed a lot of the tension from the plot... just deus ex machina after deus ex machina.

One more thing about the movie was that it felt like they overdid it with the musical numbers. The original had a couple iconic musical numbers, but this one seemed to have a few extra thrown in and they didn't all have the significance of the ones in the first movie. Overall the film just felt like the writers were all over the place.

 

[Fippy]

Smile (2022) was on telly here ad-free so i watched it again..
there will be a part 2 soon.

Somewhat underrated horror film that received some neg. feedback for it's ending.
Got me thinking..Smile mesmerized me (again) and i just couldn't stop watching. Really good cinematography & atmo.
But when the villain finally appears a bubble bursts. And i too didn't react 100% satisfied (again).

However and it's really interesting..after a while i have no real problem with that ending.
Usually if i don't like one i think bla and forget about it.
They did something very right here..let me know if you can describe what exactly, i might be getting horror sentimental

 

[Voidwalkin]

Here's the Voidwalkin list of Halloween horror movies

The Blair Witch Project
The Witch
Sinister
Hereditary
Midsommar

Kinda light. High standards.

Edit: has anybody heard the theory that those two dudes meant to eliminate Heather as part of some kind of black magic ritual?

They lead her around in the woods that they coulda known beforehand. Sabotage the ability to exit via losing the map despite the dude supposedly being concerned with ability to leave.

All the supposed paranormal happenings occur while she's asleep. They could simply stage it. She never actually hears anything.

The dude Josh could've lured them to that house deliberately. The dude Mike sorta runs to him necessitating she follow despite that being a rather questionable idea. Then he's a non-actor while she's presumably assaulted, with the other dude present somewheres in the area but never actually seen.

It's a 20 year old movie but that theory made a bunch of sense.

 

[Kyriakos]

For me it'd likely be

The Tenant
The Thing
Angel Heart
Kairo (English title: Pulse; japanese film) (note: Cure, by the same director, is also nice)

There are some runners up, eg Deep Red (Argento film), It Follows (had a nice vibe, but overall it's not a classic), Blackcoat's Daughter (some style), Inland Empire (Lynch film, with all the positives AND negatives that it implies).

Anyway, even of the top 4, I only would regard Angel Heart and Kairo as actually good films. But it's been a while since I watched The Tenant. The Thing... is just too popular a film, perhaps /hipster

 

[Voidwalkin]

Midsommar is the only one of mine I'd actually say is good. I liked what I thought was mockery of various trends in American culture.

Alien, Aliens and The Thing are decidedly above my whole list, conceptually and probably more intelligent movies, but not necessarily Halloweenish, to my mind. They're looks toward the future. Halloween is a look towards the past. More natural, spiritual, the thinning of the veil, that sorta thing.

Angel Heart is a good movie. It's decidedly a Christmas movie to me. My dad watches it every Christmas because it consistently played on trashy cable stations on Xmas when he was a kid. He maintains this tradition out of some odd nostalgia.

 

[Takhisis]

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice wasn't great. I watched it on streaming last night with family. All style and very little substance. At the same time it was too much rehash and not enough rehash. Kind of like a giant heaping plate of hashed potatoes... not the best style of breakfast potatoes, but whatever, its still fried potatoes, I'll eat it... but then they're mostly burnt/overly crispy, so barely edible. That's how the movie felt. Lot's and lots of fanservice and very Beetlejuice'ey stuff, but too much of it and it wasn't that good. It's like they almost couldn't decide whether they wanted to do a normal sequel, a soft reboot, or a rehash-sequel. There were too many unexplained, poorly explained, or just pain glossed over things. I spent the first third of the movie with a general "This sucks, what the eff am I even watching??", sort of reaction. Needless to say, I fell asleep for the middle third... then for the last third of the movie I was thinking "OK this is a little better... but I slept through the middle, so I don't know how we got from there to here ...".

So then I had to go back and watch the middle of the movie to see what I'd missed. I think I get why maybe I thought a little better of the movie once I saw the middle. There was a little bit more plot development in the middle and not just gimmicks and fanservice. Another thing that felt off was that in the first movie, the "rules" seemed a little better defined, and the different "worlds" living world/dead world/sandworm world, seemed much better defined and separated. In this they just felt meaningless, without any real distinction or meaning and there were all these new "powers" that didn't seem to have any limitations. It made it unclear what the characters could do and couldn't do and thus removed a lot of the tension from the plot... just deus ex machina after deus ex machina.

One more thing about the movie was that it felt like they overdid it with the musical numbers. The original had a couple iconic musical numbers, but this one seemed to have a few extra thrown in and they didn't all have the significance of the ones in the first movie. Overall the film just felt like the writers were all over the place.

It's amazing how you can see all of this when it isn't branded as Star Wars.

 

[Sommerswerd]

It's amazing how you can see all of this when it isn't branded as Star Wars.

Are you OK? Let it go Tak, that was almost ten years ago... move on with your life

Speaking of Disney... Deadpool & Wolverine

Awesome... saw streaming with family. Just... Delightful. Best part was wife completely forgot that Deadpool was not appropriate for kids and spent the whole week promising boys that we would watch Deadpool if they watched Beetlejuice with her and daughter. So we strapped in with, me and boys snickering, waiting for the hilarity to ensue. So much pearl clutching... Hugh Jackman in THE iconic yellow suit, struggling to be the straight-man to Ryan Reynolds antics was a goldmine of laugh lines. It was a great family movie night

I can't say enough about how FUN this movie was. I can see why there are articles on it bringing grown men to tears. It had all the charm, edginess and irreverence of a Guardians movie, but with no limits on gore, violence, vulgarity and overall awesomeness. What a treat.

 

[warpus]

I started watching Bullet Train and got like a half an hour in and turned it off. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for it, I don't know, but it just felt like the writers were trying to be edgy instead of focusing on the story. So there were some cool scenes and the Japanese backdrop was right up my alley, but overall it just seemed like this was made for 13 year olds or something. The story setup was a bit meh and I got the feeling they were trying to do a Tarantino style thing, with snappy oneliners and a multi-layered set of storylines that all come together at some point. They failed at that big time - instead of feeling any intrigue the only positive I got out of the first 30 minutes were some of the visuals.

This movie idea seemed to have a lot of potential, but it's as if they asked an AI to run with edgy ideas on overdrive.

 

[lymond]

I started watching Bullet Train

I liked it. Maybe it was a mood thing. It does have a bit of a Ritchie/Tarantino vibe to it. Not spectacular but I found it enjoyable.

 

[warpus]

I liked it. Maybe it was a mood thing. It does have a bit of a Ritchie/Tarantino vibe to it. Not spectacular but I found it enjoyable.

Yeah it basically felt like they were trying to do Tarantino, but from what I saw in the first 30 minutes at least were only succeeding slightly on the surface, the essence of everything falling very flat. I'll probably watch the rest of this on one of those nights when you just want to be entertained before going to sleep

 

[BenitoChavez]

Bullet Train is kind of an empty calorie movie. It looks and tastes sounds nice but it's plot is so simple and uninteresting that it leaves you unfulfilled.

 

[Takhisis]

Are you OK? Let it go Tak, that was almost ten years ago... move on with your life

I cannot move on with my life until Disney stops interfering with my life. They've kidnapped and paywalled not just Star Wars but also our own freaking sports scene.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Aguirre, the Wrath of God. 1972. Pizarro hears of a city of Gold and sends a few troops to investigate. They are led by Aguirre, who proves to be insane. We spend 1.5 hours watching a crew of Spaniards and their enslaved native servants being picked off by the hostile tribes of the Amazonian interior. I had some doubts, historically (there is no way Spain would send two women in a military expedition like this!), but it made for interesting drama and cinephotography. My first Werner Herzog film. I spent most of the first hour trying to get over "Spanish" people speaking German, which got especially weird after Aguirre appointed some noblemen as the new Kaiser after announcing that the Hapsburgs were dethroned. Klaus Kinski is...an interesting actor. Evidently he has a reputation.

 

[Takhisis]

I spent most of the first hour trying to get over "Spanish" people speaking German

Did you want them to speak 1500s Castilian?

 

[lymond]

And Spain had Hapsburgs on the throne

 

[Smellincoffee]

Did you want them to speak 1500s Castilian?

At the very least, English with strong Spanish accents.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

And Spain had Hapsburgs on the throne

Every single European monarchy is Germanic a way or other. From the Windsors to the Borbons.

Last caturday would be Marcello Mastroianni's 100th birthday. What's your favourite film of his?

(If you're going to say ‘the one with Sofia Loren’ then you'd better specify which one and why it's Una giornata particolare i.e. A special day)

Divorce Italian Style (Divorzio all'italiana). One of my favorite films, best black humor ever. Mastroianni is great and extremely funny as the sarcastic Sicilian nobleman who wants to kill his wife.