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Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

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Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

Kepler said:
It's going to suck.
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For once, I agree with you. The premise is intriguing, but the preview gives us all of the signs with regards to the execution (pun not intended).

My question is, why do most attempts at putting alternate history to film suck?
 
rufus said:
Captain Horatio Hornblower. Been captivated by this name ever since I read a couple of the Hornblower books as a young kid, Reader's Digest condensed versions. And then stumbled across this movie maybe ten years or so ago on cable.

Gregory Peck being Gregory Peck, but this was the first time I've seen the film in 1080i HD, and for such an old film, it looks absolutely gorgeous. Nice shots of ships on the ocean and in harbor, old fortresses and such. Sure the fight scenes are kinda hackneyed compared to modern-day action, but it's a good fun romp, and of course, the inevitable love story. And just found out on IMDB that Christopher Lee played a Spanish ship captain.
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I'm surprised nobody's tried Honor Harrington.
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

Well, I'm looking forward to Sean Penn's El Chapo movie, don't know about you guys.
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

French - yes now that I look it up I do see M Night did that one.

Sometimes in April - about the Rwanda genocide of 1994. This is very well done - gripping, moving and free from ruin by Hollywood. I didn't want to look but couldn't take my eyes off it. I wonder not only how these things can happen even 50 years after WWII, but if there is life on other planets are they just as effed as we are?
 
Slap Shot said:
French - yes now that I look it up I do see M Night did that one.

Sometimes in April - about the Rwanda genocide of 1994. This is very well done - gripping, moving and free from ruin by Hollywood. I didn't want to look but couldn't take my eyes off it. I wonder not only how these things can happen even 50 years after WWII, but if there is life on other planets are they just as effed as we are?
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WWII happened 20+ years after the Armenian, Assyrian & Greek genocides (all by Turkey) in WWI, which was preceeded in the 1890s by another Armenian genocide by the Turks,

Apparently, the period atound the First World War was good for genocide. Wiki has a list

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genocides_by_death_toll
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

The Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo (1966)

Historical/Political war film about Algerian guerrilla insurgency against the French. Shot in a very real, documentary-like fashion. The film is a powerful statement on the price of independence by whatever means necessary.

Several years ago I read Alistair Horne's A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962. (If any of you are interested, this book was brought up a lot in discussions when the US was in Iraq and it also serves in correlation to Vietnam. Pontecorvo's film, though politically slanted, brings the Algerian conflict to life. And it is a further reminder that the "War on Terror" didn't start yesterday.
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

FadeToBlack&Gold said:
My question is, why do most attempts at putting alternate history to film suck?
Click to expand...

Sturgeon's Law. Hopefully it will get better as audiences fragment and niches develop, but when Hollywood or the networks try to do something smart like alt history the money men ruin it by dumbing it down for the average audience member. The only way to do difficult / confusing / interesting ideas on media is to leave the bottom 90% of the mass market in the dust, and for obvious reasons ad-based broad media won't do that.
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

FadeToBlack&Gold said:
For once, I agree with you. The premise is intriguing, but the preview gives us all of the signs with regards to the execution (pun not intended).

My question is, why do most attempts at putting alternate history to film suck?
Click to expand...

And it's got James Franco.
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

joecct said:
I'm surprised nobody's tried Honor Harrington.
Click to expand...


Personally, and in a similar vein to the Hornblower books, historical fiction, I'd love to see somebody adapt Kenneth Roberts' books Arundel and Rabble in Arms to film, either movies, or something like an HBO mini-series. The former is the story of Benedict Arnold's journey early in the Revolutionary War up the Kennebec River in Maine to take Quebec, Rabble in Arms is about the upstate New York campaigns of the war.

They did make a pretty decent movie back in 1940 of Roberts' book Northwest Passage, about Rogers' Rangers during the French and Indian War, starring Spencer Tracy and Robert Young.
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

Mad Max: Fury Road

What in the actual f* is this sh*? What a mess of a movie. Expected a nice action-packed popcorn movie, and I got Michael Bay on steroids, only his movies make more sense. Horsesh* movie. Terrible.
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

Brenthoven said:
Mad Max: Fury Road

What in the actual f* is this sh*? What a mess of a movie. Expected a nice action-packed popcorn movie, and I got Michael Bay on steroids, only his movies make more sense. Horsesh* movie. Terrible.
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Dr. Mrs. describes it as "drive 50 miles, turn around, come back."
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

M (1931)

Pedophile/child murderer eludes the police, but the criminal underworld (due to their operations being raided in the manhunt) gets involved to find the guy.

Great movie. Very harsh content especially given the time. The suspense, the drama, etc...highly recommend.
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

Movies watched this past week:

Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties, Eclipse Series 21 (2010)
- Pleasures of the Flesh or Etsuraku, Nagisa Oshima (1965)
- Violence at Noon or Hakuchu no torima, Nagisa Oshima (1966)
- Sing a Song of Sex or Nihon shunka-ko, Nagisa Oshima (1967)
- Japanese Summer: Double Suicide, Nagisa Oshima (1967)
- Three Resurrected Drunkards, Nagisa Oshima (1968)

Au hazard Balthazar, Robert Bresson (1966)

Masculin feminine, Jean-Luc Godard (1966)

Larisa Shepitko, Eclipse Series 11 (2008)
- Wings, Larisa Shepitko (1966)
- The Ascent, Larisa Shepitko (1977)

Tokyo Drifter or Tokyo nagaremono, Seijun Suzuki (1966)

The Oshima films were very good. He was the antithesis to the other great Japanese directors. A quote from the Criterion site:

"Uninterested in the traditional Japanese cinema of such popular filmmakers as Kurosawa, Ozu, and Naruse, Oshima focused not on classical themes of good and evil or domesticity but on outcasts, gangsters, murderers, rapists, sexual deviants, and the politically marginalized."
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All of the above movies are worth watching. I also liked Shepitko's The Ascent. A WWII story about two soldiers who leave their troop and experience a world of trouble in many different ways, all filmed in the dead of winter.
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

My wife put on war, inc with john cusack, hillary duff etc. I am not kidding, one of the worst movies i have ever sat through. It was recommended to her via netflix. Hot garbage of a movie.
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

Yesterday was a double feature:

Gate of Flesh, Seijun Suzuki (1964)

Set in Post WWII, GoF follows the struggles of a group of prostitutes in the chaos of bombed out Tokyo. Tough, gritty, colorful, pulp-fiction.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Martin Ritt (1965)

Political, social drama about staying out in the cold, to execute one last mission, in order to come in from the cold. Richard Burton, Claire Bloom and Oskar Werner give excellent performances. It's been a while since I've read TSWCIFTC, but I'm a big le Carré fan and recommend reading the relatively short novel before watching the film.
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

Secario:

As much as I personally liked the movie, it fell short of that next level. The characters (good, bad, shady) were too clearly defined for what the subject matter was. It comes off as a grittier Wag The Dog (also a very good movie). Benicio and Brolin were great with the roles that they were given, Blunt was eh, and her partner was kind of a waste.

For those that even pay somewhat close attention to my interests in books/movies, this movie should have been 5/5 stars for me, but I can only give it a 4. Blur those character edges a little more, and I'd easily give it a 4.5/5 stars.
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

Went to see The Revenant yesterday and I'm still not sure what to make of it.


Leo was great and there were some really fine supporting performances. The achievement of shooting in those conditions and at those locations is to be commended.

The locations are beautiful, if stark and cold.


At the end though, I was left to wonder what the point of the movie was.


Overall, I liked it, but I didn't love it nor do I feel amazed or transformed by it.
 
Re: Movie Thread: Grab Some Popcorn, Enjoy The Show

So you're saying Leo will yet again walk away Oscar-less. ;)
 
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