Movie opinions thread (what have you seen, what did you think?)

SouthtownKid

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explain

you know it doesn't matter if its an allegory for whatever, the movie still has plot holes with or without them, nice handwaving though
The story is about discovering your identity around middle school age as you start to be exposed to and get thrown into the big bad world. The plot isn't the point. The point is the different groups of kids representing different approaches to dealing with becoming aware of how catastrophically fucked the world is, and how your success/survival in our late stage capitalist society is completely dependent on other people losing. Some kids try to pretend it's not happening and get eaten up. Some kids give up immediately and commit suicide rather than participate. Some try to band together for the sake of the greater good and subvert the system from within (at an age when this naive idealism still seems possible, which is why the junior high setting is important). Some kids buy into the dog-eat-dog system, with some even enjoying it. Some kids, like the two main characters, are too average and too dumb to have any idea of any solution to any of the problems they can barely comprehend the edges of, so they just try to muddle through life as best they can from moment to moment. They represent most of us. The fact they survive to the end of the movie is pure luck, the point being that all approaches are doomed to eventual, inevitable failure. There is no beating the world. Worrying about plot holes is missing the forest for the trees.
 

terry.330

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It's based on a novel. The comic came later.
Never read the novel and I always assumed it was based a bit more on the manga but it looks like the manga actually started around the same time as the movie was released. Maybe I was thinking of Oldboy.

I never got around to the sequel though. I remember reading that Fukusaku died shortly after production started and his son finished it.
 

SouthtownKid

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Never read the novel and I always assumed it was based a bit more on the manga but it looks like the manga actually started around the same time as the movie was released. Maybe I was thinking of Oldboy.

I never got around to the sequel though. I remember reading that Fukusaku died shortly after production started and his son finished it.
The sequel is kind of pointless. There wasn't really anything left to say, and the sequel only proved it.

The novel is good, probably the best of the three versions. The comic is batshit crazy, a lot because of how long they dragged it out.
 

wikipejoe

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First Blood - The 1982 film based on the novel of the same name, starring Sly Stallone in his first outing as John Rambo. This is a great action-thriller, far grittier in tone than the movies that followed, and far more grounded too.
Rambo is a Vietnam vet trying to track down members of his old unit. As he tries to walk through a small mountain town he runs into local sheriff Brian Dennehy. At first the sheriff tries to "help" Rambo by giving him a lift to town limits, but when Rambo tries to return to the town, the sheriff arrests him and then all hell breaks loose.
I've not read the novel, but I understand there are some differences, notably that Rambo survives (in the book Trautman kills him). However, the underlying theme of Vietnam vets, once treated as war heroes, are now forgotten and unwanted by society, plus the effects of PTSD are strongly highlighted throughout the film, and Rambo cuts more of a troubled lonely figure trying to find a place for himself in the world, rather than the one-man army he portrays in later outings.
If you want to see a more vulnerable Rambo character, then First Blood won't disappoint. The cast is good, the acting solid, all ably directed by Ted Kotcheff.

There's an audio commentary for the movie First Blood, where the author David Morrell describes the differences between the book and movie.
The ending of the book is quite different than the movie, and it's not just because Rambo dies in the novel. There was also a deleted scene (in the movie) where Rambo is killed by Trautman's gun.


Rambo IV is also a good movie, and closer to the first movie (& book) in tone, than Rambo II & III.
 
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Tarma

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Avenging Force - Rather naff action film from Cannon starring Michael Dudikoff as a retired Secret Service agent who goes after a right-wing militia group who tried to assassinate his best friend (Steve James) - a black man running for a Senate seat in New Orleans.

While not the same level as Cannon's mid-80s actioners with Chuck Norris, this really suffers from apathetic directing and low production values.
While the principal actors aren't bad (Dudikoff and James), and the main villain (John P. Ryan) hams things up nicely, most of the supporting cast are pretty dreadful - some scenes look like the director literally did one take and was like "yeah, that'll do" and moved on.

In some shots weapons literally look like plastic imitation toys, and in the final battle scene, some shots are clearly of a stunt double wearing a bad wig. With a little bit more care, and better editing, this film could have just raised itself a little higher.

This was originally intended to be a sequel to Invasion USA, so one wonders if those production values would have been that little bit higher had Chuck not passed on it.
 

terry.330

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Inherent Vice- Not really sure how to rate this one. I had watched it when it initially released but didn’t remember much about it and after revisiting it I can see why. It’s a stoned out noir by Paul Thomas Anderson which is right up my alley but it just feels like something is missing. The movie has a purposefully slow, sloppy and hazy feel to it which when combined with a lack of context and any sense of time keep it from ever being engaging. It’s also weird for the sake of being weird which often comes off as kind of gimmicky and an attempt to trick you into thinking it’s deeper than it is.

I’ve heard that it’s extremely accurate to the book in both plot and tone. That’s great but it doesn’t necessarily make for a compelling movie.

All that said it’s certainly not a bad movie. It’s incredibly well made and written with an amazing cast. Phoenix and Brolin are absolutely great together. All of the other performances are also fantastic, even in the smallest roles.

I would still recommend it to anyone interested but don’t go in expecting a Big Lebowski type of semi high brow quirky stoner comedy. This is a meandering noir labyrinth of 1970 southern California through the lense of a burnt out private detective.
 
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SouthtownKid

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I loved it. One of my favorites of the past few years. Maybe my favorite PTA movie, even. Betwen this or Boogie Nights.
 

jro

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Beaten to Death - Jesus, even for me this is a little much. There's kind of no point, which I suppose is the point. And here I thought the Aussies forgot about making horror movies after the Mick ones.

10/10 don't watch it unless you hate yourself.
 

Taiso

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Boogie Nights is criminally underrated and it's such a shame that it's been all but forgotten. John C. Reilly is one of Hollywood's modern greats. Mark Wahlberg perfectly channels the essence of lost innocence and an eventual yearning to be loved by a mother and return to the womb, a lost babe in the woods that wasn't raised properly. Burt Reynolds is fantastic in a role he reportedly hated. Julianne Moore became a star with this movie. Even Phillip Seymour Hoffman is great as the lighting boy. I believe this was Heather Graham's first role as Rollergirl, as well. Don Cheadle is fantastic as a man floundering in life without porn. I always think of Cheadle and Reilly as two possible endings for Wahlberg: which way, porno man? William H. Macy captures the essence of the cucked husband in that film perfectly. Tour de force performances all the way around. Every one of those actors puts on the show of a lifetime in that movie. It's simply brilliant.

The scene with the drug dealer, played by Alfred Molina, is one of the great sequences in all of modern cinema.
 

100proof

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Boogie Nights is indeed an all-timer but Heather Graham was a working actor for a decade before that (for kids of a certain age, she was the object of affection in License to Drive but for most people, she's recognizable from Twin Peaks and Swingers). Rollergirl is definitely her breakout though.
 

prof

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Yes, she was Mercedes in Licence to Drive, and we were all in love. As an 80s kid, that was a VHS favorite. But a year or two later, she had a major role in Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy, for which she received a lot of critical acclaim. That movie seems mostly forgotten nowadays, but at the time it was a pretty big deal, winning accolades at all the indie festivals of the era.
 

100proof

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She's still working... she was the lead in Suitable Flesh last year (two years ago?), a middling adaptation of a Lovecraft story. I mean she certainly could've just taken time off for motherhood or whatever but they're just aren't a lot of great parts for women in their 40s and 50s and a lot of actors struggle in the transition from "hot girl" parts to mom parts if they're not undeniable talents.
 

Taiso

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I need her to work on deez because I just watched the trailer for Place of Bones and she can still get it.

Heh heh...place of bones....hope there's a place in her for my bone...

I can't believe I just typed and that and clicked 'Post Reply'.
 

StevenK

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I need her to work on deez because I just watched the trailer for Place of Bones and she can still get it.

Heh heh...place of bones....hope there's a place in her for my bone...

I can't believe I just typed and that and clicked 'Post Reply'.
The only reply she'd have to my post would be choking

Etc etc
 

terry.330

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Hellraiser: Bloodline- The 4th in the series and probably the last one before it went to total shit. I’d say this one is a step up from 3, at least in some ways. It’s pretty ambitious with the different time periods but it’s also really hokey and often very cheap looking. There’s a lot of cool shit and ideas in it but they’re either half baked and don’t make a ton of sense or hampered by the budget. The space station being a giant puzzle box is a really cool idea but the execution it pretty jank. Pinhead gets a lot of screen time, perhaps too much, he’s definitely a less is more character. I totally forgot Adam Scott was in this, that fucking wig lol. It’s fun enough for what it is and mostly delivers the Hellraiser stuff fans want. Plus it has that late night cable/rental 90s feel.
 

wyo

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Battle Royale 3/5 - I'm not gonna lie, this was entertaining throughout the whole runtime, but it was juvenile as fuck. And I can't really excuse the handwaving of a LOT of stuff at the end, even some that don't make much logical sense. Bitch I sat through this for 110 minutes and you couldn't expand on how the transfer goober knew how to take off the collars for example? What the fuck.

It would be a 4/5 if the writer knew how to wrap things up properly. I'm up to not taking things TOO seriously but I expect at least some internal consistency.
Real talk: most Japanese movies make no sense.
 

fake

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A Ghost Story

A guy dies and haunts his house as a cliche white sheet ghost. I guess it works, but it comes off as a try hard art house attempt. You could have made this entire movie in maybe eight pages of comics.

Casey Affleck is the personification of a white wife beater tank top.
 

SouthtownKid

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A Ghost Story

A guy dies and haunts his house as a cliche white sheet ghost. I guess it works, but it comes off as a try hard art house attempt. You could have made this entire movie in maybe eight pages of comics.
I think the point was to make you share in the main character's boredom at being stuck in one place for centuries.

I liked Ghost Story okay, but doubt I'd watch it again. I liked this director's The Green Knight a lot more.
 

fake

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I think the point was to make you share in the main character's boredom at being stuck in one place for centuries.

I liked Ghost Story okay, but doubt I'd watch it again. I liked this director's The Green Knight a lot more.

Yeah Green Knight is great.
 

Burning Fight!!

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Real talk: most Japanese movies make no sense.
wrong-donald-trump.gif
 

terry.330

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David Lynch: The Art Life- A documentary in Lynch’s own words that covers his early life through going to art school, then film school and working on Eraserhead. As you can probably imagine it’s not exactly a straightforward documentary. More so reflections and musings set mostly to more modern footage of him working at his home studio on various mixed media pieces. It’s slow and somewhat unfocused but still very insightful. As the title suggests it is more about creativity in general rather than strictly filmmaking. Recommend if you’re a fan of his work or even just someone who enjoys seeing other people’s perspectives and how they process their life and work.
 

Tarma

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The Rookie (1990) - formulaic action thriller directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, with Charlie Sheen and Raul Julia. Eastwood plays a veteran LAPD detective hellbent on revenging the death of his partner at the hands of Julia's Strom - a crime boss who runs a string of luxury car chop shops. Sheen plays the titular rookie, a by the book cop partnered with Eastwood.
This has some great action sequences and some funny one-liners, but, despite the great cast, somehow fails to lift itself above other buddy-cop films of the genre. Still, I've always enjoyed watching it, and Eastwood does more than enough to differentiate his character from his prior outings as Dirty Harry.
 
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