Which movies have you watched? xi --- straight to dvd

[Borachio]

https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...ota-of-bad-movies-but-maybe-bad-taste.549653/

Er...yeah. That's about it.

 

[Samez]

I've just seen Wonder Woman: Normally I can't stand to see another super hero flic but as the critics were rather euphoric ("as good as the dark knight") I gave it a chance.
In the end the movie was okay - one of the better super hero movies but still no top notch material and massively over-hyped. The main character was okay - the WWI sidekicks stereotypes and the Germans as bad guys was tolerable - A bit disappointing was the depiction of the WWI trench warfare horrors - like civilian casualties on the front-line were the biggest issue in 1918...

 

[Smellincoffee]

The Breakfast Club. My niece made me.

It was funny seeing Coach Bombay as a juvenile delinquent.

 

[Groff]

Fire Walk With Me + deleted scenes, it's a fan edit where somebody put both together and edited the whole thing into a continuous movie. It was hard as hell to actually find it, since the author removed it to avoid potential legal issues. 3,5 hours long but well worth it.

 

[Borachio]

End of Watch. (2012 85% rotten tomatoes)

I enjoyed it. It was a bit of a police apologist movie, but interestingly shot.

According to Lisa Schwarzbaum :"one of the best American cop movies I've seen in a long time [and] also one of the few I've seen that pay serious attention to what cop life feels like, both on and off duty"

Seems an accurate assessment to me.

 

[Synobun]

End of Watch. (2012 85% rotten tomatoes)

I enjoyed it. It was a bit of a police apologist movie, but interestingly shot.

According to Lisa Schwarzbaum :"one of the best American cop movies I've seen in a long time [and] also one of the few I've seen that pay serious attention to what cop life feels like, both on and off duty"

Seems an accurate assessment to me.

I remember watching that. One of the rare moments when the mockumentary camera style actually fit and wasn't a hindrance to my enjoyment.

 

[Hygro]

What's a DVD?

 

[Takhisis]

Little circular thing. If you were alive during the '90s, you might remember that DVDs were claimed to be the successors to CDs.

 

[Kyriakos]

Fire Walk With Me + deleted scenes, it's a fan edit where somebody put both together and edited the whole thing into a continuous movie. It was hard as hell to actually find it, since the author removed it to avoid potential legal issues. 3,5 hours long but well worth it.

There is an issue of continuity between FWWM and the new TP series, where someone who

Spoiler :

killed a person, during a drug-deal

is now a police officer

Not that this is much of an issue, given the new TP has been very low quality imo.

 

[ReindeerThistle]

I've just seen Wonder Woman: Normally I can't stand to see another super hero flic but as the critics were rather euphoric ("as good as the dark knight") I gave it a chance.
In the end the movie was okay - one of the better super hero movies but still no top notch material and massively over-hyped. The main character was okay - the WWI sidekicks stereotypes and the Germans as bad guys was tolerable - A bit disappointing was the depiction of the WWI trench warfare horrors - like civilian casualties on the front-line were the biggest issue in 1918...

I wouldn't watch Wonder Woman on principle. Gal Gadot is a raving Zionist and it would be an insult to my Palestinian friends.

However, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 is flipping awesome, hits all the right notes as both an homage to its comic origins and as a funny, exciting and moving film. 9/10.

 

[Borachio]

French Connection. (1971 98% on rotten tomatoes, which is extremely high)

An old classic this, I guess. With Gene Hackman,

More or less based on the real thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Connection

Bit of a dated feel to it, I suppose. Nice car chase scene, though.

Seen it before. Well worth seeing again.

 

[Groff]

There is an issue of continuity between FWWM and the new TP series, where someone who

Spoiler :

killed a person, during a drug-deal

is now a police officer

Not that this is much of an issue, given the new TP has been very low quality imo.

Indeed, I'm presuming it won't get touched upon in the new season.

 

[EgonSpengler]

French Connection. (1971 98% on rotten tomatoes, which is extremely high)

An old classic this, I guess. With Gene Hackman,

More or less based on the real thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Connection

Bit of a dated feel to it, I suppose. Nice car chase scene, though.

Seen it before. Well worth seeing again.

It's fun to look back at New York City of the 1960s-70s in movies made at the time. It was so different from today, anyone too young to have seen it might assume the stories are exaggerations, but as you say, Hackman and Schieder's characters are based on the real guys. Hackman's language in the movie shocked a lot of audiences, but people from New York were like, "Yeah, I've met cops like them."

The French Connection is one of a whole subgenre of film I like to call "New York is Hell." Actually, there were two subgenres, the (semi-)realistic and the purely fantastical. The semi-realistic movies would be things like The French Connection; Fort Apache, The Bronx; Death Wish; Taxi Driver; Superfly; Shaft. The purely fantastical movies are parables of the real city: Wolfen - there are literal animals roaming the alleys and abandoned buildings; C.H.U.D. - there are monsters right under your feet; Escape from New York - the city has been taken over by criminals; The Warriors - get caught in the wrong neighborhood, good luck getting home. There are also a few that are in between, kind of surreal movies, like After Hours and Brother From Another Planet. Just a handful of examples that I liked, I'm sure there are more.

I remember one of the Brooklyn rappers (Talib Kweli, I think it was) say, "When I was a kid, we called Myrtle Avenue 'Murder Avenue', and now it's all organic groceries and white dudes with beards." The French Connection was filmed on location, and the empty lots and piles of brick and abandoned buildings weren't faked for the movie. Here's some film footage from ABC News of the South Bronx in 1982. It'd be interesting to see if someone could identify the streets and film the same areas today.

And my own stupid little fan theory that I came up with when I was 10 or 11, after seeing The French Connection: Buddy Russo, circa 1971, and Martin Brody, 4 years later in Jaws, are the same guy. He changed his name and moved to Amity to evade organized crime (I don't think I knew what "witness protection" was when I was a kid).

 

[Borachio]

French Connection certainly featured shots of derelict areas. The friend I watched it with commented on the fact.

 

[Borachio]

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984 and an unbelievably high 84% rotten tomatoes)

Gah! This was just appalling. If ever a movie deserved to go straight to DVD this is it.

Basically there were three things I disliked: the beginning, the end, and all the bits in the middle. Oh yes, and all the feeble and inaccurate stereotyping of Indians.

I'm trying very hard to find anything good about this. The very best bit was probably the relief I felt when it was over.
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In contrast, Room (2015 94% rotten tomatoes) was very good indeed.

For me, it just stopped short of being unbearably moving (I can't abide movies which are, as I don't enjoy the feeling).

Spoiler :

It's about a girl who's been abducted, made pregnant by her abductor after 2 years, and held prisoner for 7, together with her little boy in one room (hence the title).

An unpromising and rather dark beginning to the tale. It seems to be largely an allegory about how we see the world.

 

[Borachio]

The Assassination of Jesse James (2007 76% rotten tomatoes)

According to someone (I can't figure out who):

"On the strength of its two lead performances Assassination is an expertly crafted period piece, and an insightful look at one of the enduring figures of American lore."

Which is a fair assessment but doesn't quite chime with 76% (bearing in mind that Temple of Doom, an absolute turkey, got 84%)

Still, I quite enjoyed it. Brad Pitt was Brad Pitt and the other guy was someone I'd never heard of - Casey Afflick (what? is that Ben Afflick's brother, or sister, or mother?).

It was a dreadfully slow film, though. And at something like 2 hours, too long.

I mean, I can take a long film, but it doesn't help if 2 hrs seems like 3.

 

[Takhisis]

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984 and an unbelievably high 84% rotten tomatoes)

Gah! This was just appalling. If ever a movie deserved to go straight to DVD this is it.

Basically there were three things I disliked: the beginning, the end, and all the bits in the middle. Oh yes, and all the feeble and inaccurate stereotyping of Indians.

I'm trying very hard to find anything good about this. The very best bit was probably the relief I felt when it was over.

It is certainly the weakest of the original three Indiana Jones films.

 

[Kyriakos]

The evil within (2017)

Overall it was ok. Could have been better. Some nice images

 

[Arakhor]

The Temple of Doom had its moments, but it's definitely the poor cousin of the trilogy.

 

[Synobun]

I saw "The Girl With All The Gifts" tonight. A good movie. It's not very fast-paced which usually bores me but the material was presented in a rather enticing way. The ending is also fairly unexpected when it comes to endings in this genre (zombie apocalypse).

I'd recommend it.