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What are you watching? a.k.a. Film Thread v 2.0


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5 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

Super fly.

I still say the soundtrack, an absolute masterpiece, is far superior than the actual film. I wonder if those street scenes influenced Scorsese's Taxi Driver?

Jason and the Argonauts, one of my favourite films from my youth.

Thirty minutes of The Exorcist 2, a film I had hitherto completely avoided. It is actually unwatchable (and I'll watch all sorts of shite), a bored sozzled Richard Burton investigating a bunch of pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo experiments on Regan. In the words of Mark Kermode,

I watched a bunch of those Marvel Universe superhero films. There is a lot that is good about them, and quite a bit that is bad. Firstly, I do not like CGI so I am automatically at a disadvantage with these things. Some of these however are enjoyable enough - Captain America, which had a nice 1940s pulp feel, and Thor being the best of the bunch. My main problem is that the Marvel franchise is basically treated like absolute comedy bordering on self parody. Even the bad guys, apparent dark big individuals wreaking havoc for global domination, deliver slick quips. It is the same humour in the Pixar and Shrek films: post-ironic, self-referencing, too aware of popular culture and contemporary society - and it is ubiquitous. Is nobody serious in these films? It is like a comedy world of superheroes delivering up one-liners. I used to read comics growing up (you might be surprised by that but I like pulp Americana of a certain vintage). Tony Stark had a very weighty story where he descended to alcoholism, and here it is,

250px-Iron_Man_128.jpg

Terrific comic. How is this treated in the Disney films? With Iron Man dancing drunk on a stage in front of a bunch of floozies!! This could have been a weighty big story line, the descent of Iron Man into an abyss! They need a bit of darkness and gravitas. They are also very derivative, and do not linger long in one's memory. You rather forget them instantly. They are actually the perfect reflection of our age which demands instantaneous and highly familiar gratification. In their defense, they do it well: if all you want to watch is a bunch of CGI battles and one-liners, they probably do it better than anybody.

I do not want to completely lambast them as they do get a lot correct, such as actor selection. They are well executed in a CGI manner. For superhero films however, give me Christopher Reeves in his tights any day.

I heard Ironman the original comic only sold like in the tens of thousands.  The Wu Tang did wonders for the braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand with Ghostface Killah and his nickname Tony Starks and their using all kinds of elements for it in his music.

And how exactly do you compare a soundtrack to a 90 minute film? :lol:. The films a masterpiece man.

Edited by Len Cnut
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Just now, Len Cnut said:

I heard Ironman the original comic only sold like in the tens of thousands.  The Wu Tang did wonders for the braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand with Ghostface Killah and his nickname Tony Starks and their using all kinds of elements for it in his music.

And how exactly do you compare a soundtrack to a 90 minute film? :lol:. The films a masterpiece man.

You do realise that hippies spearheaded the second comic book boom? The comic book superhero was dead, a Second World War thing, before Stan Lee at Marvel started creating flawed superheroes with analogies to contemporary liberal concerns like racism (The X Men) and war. Hippies in their college dormitories were reading Spiderman while listening to The Beatles and smoking weed. It struck a chord.

Mayfield's soundtrack is a masterpiece. The film is a decent film elevated to something superior by its score. Ron O' Neal is a cool dude though. I like Super Fly, don't get me wrong, but I prefer the Pam Grier stuff and The Mack and one or two others in my list.

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15 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

You do realise that hippies spearheaded the second comic book boom? The comic book superhero was dead, a Second World War thing, before Stan Lee at Marvel started creating flawed superheroes with analogies to contemporary liberal concerns like racism (The X Men) and war. Hippies in their college dormitories were reading Spiderman while listening to The Beatles and smoking weed. It struck a chord.

Mayfield's soundtrack is a masterpiece. The film is a decent film elevated to something superior by its score. Ron O' Neal is a cool dude though. I like Super Fly, don't get me wrong, but I prefer the Pam Grier stuff and The Mack and one or two others in my list.

Perhaps that explains why i aint big on comics :lol:  Used to like The Beano and that, i could never afford comics as a kid.

Superfly is absolute class, yeah its elevated by the soundtrack but its class nonetheless.  The Macks soundtrack is pretty good too, Willie whatshisface.  

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47 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

James Brown did three scores in a row, Black Caesar, Slaughter's Big Rip Off and Hell Up In Harlem, the latter rejected by the filmmakers and released as The Payback. Arguably his best album.

Theres some brilliant songs in amongst all of those, Mommas Dead which is one off of one of the Black Ceaser films is absolute class.

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10 hours ago, PappyTron said:

I'm watching Independence Day 2 and it is laughably bad. I got about five minutes in before pausing it to decide whether to even press ahead and watch the rest, that's how bad it is. I regret my decision to carry on watching, fully. :lol:

The first film was dreadful, except for the special effects of the ships landing (probably the last time in cinema they used actual model work). It was the beginning of the current era of excrement we put up with really - that and Armageddon. Who can forget that xenophobic montage of all of the disparate nations of the earth receiving news that ''the Americans have a plan''? The British: ''I say olde boy, how about a cup of tea and a cream bun?'' Sinister Russian officers in castle with lightening flashing over!! Then Bill Pullman - because we couldn't afford Michael Douglas - doing his patriotic speech. It makes me sick just thinking about it.

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7 hours ago, DieselDaisy said:

The first film was dreadful, except for the special effects of the ships landing (probably the last time in cinema they used actual model work). It was the beginning of the current era of excrement we put up with really - that and Armageddon. Who can forget that xenophobic montage of all of the disparate nations of the earth receiving news that ''the Americans have a plan''? The British: ''I say olde boy, how about a cup of tea and a cream bun?'' Sinister Russian officers in castle with lightening flashing over!! Then Bill Pullman - because we couldn't afford Michael Douglas - doing his patriotic speech. It makes me sick just thinking about it.

Pretty much how it was in the second film, just with worse acting and special effects. The film was just awful from start to finish, and every character was a stereotype. Laughably bad.

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21 hours ago, DieselDaisy said:

The first film was dreadful, except for the special effects of the ships landing (probably the last time in cinema they used actual model work). It was the beginning of the current era of excrement we put up with really - that and Armageddon. Who can forget that xenophobic montage of all of the disparate nations of the earth receiving news that ''the Americans have a plan''? The British: ''I say olde boy, how about a cup of tea and a cream bun?'' Sinister Russian officers in castle with lightening flashing over!! Then Bill Pullman - because we couldn't afford Michael Douglas - doing his patriotic speech. It makes me sick just thinking about it.

A more accurate one would've had the American president coppin' a blowie on the oval office desk as the news came :lol:

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Warm Bodies. this is a '13 film but for anyone who has not seen it i recommend it highly. it's got zombies, it has a good level of gore, funny moments, touching moments. and it's loosely based on...well, not gonna spoil it cos part of the fun is figuring that out yourself :)

2nd time i've seen it and i will be buying this to add to my "must sees" for Halloween!

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The Age of Adaline. this is the 2nd time i have watched this movie part way through and both times i came in at the same place. and it was on a free premium channel that was just for the weekend. i don't think it was good enough for me to try and track it down on Netflix and the ending kind of explained what i wanted to know in the first place. 

 

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8 hours ago, AxlsFavoriteRose said:

Warm Bodies. this is a '13 film but for anyone who has not seen it i recommend it highly. it's got zombies, it has a good level of gore, funny moments, touching moments. and it's loosely based on...well, not gonna spoil it cos part of the fun is figuring that out yourself :)

2nd time i've seen it and i will be buying this to add to my "must sees" for Halloween!

This sounds interesting!

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21 hours ago, AxlsFavoriteRose said:

Warm Bodies. this is a '13 film but for anyone who has not seen it i recommend it highly. it's got zombies, it has a good level of gore, funny moments, touching moments. and it's loosely based on...well, not gonna spoil it cos part of the fun is figuring that out yourself :)

2nd time i've seen it and i will be buying this to add to my "must sees" for Halloween!

I haven't seen it but I've heard good things. I never got into the zombie craze but then I absolutely loved Zombieland so what do I know.

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I Confess

First time seeing what is considered one of Hitchcock's darkest films. It's okay. He seemed to perfect the general storyline a couple years later with The Wrong Man. That's what it felt like to me, anyways. I know some critics are quite partial to this one but it was one of the very rare occurrences where I found a Hitchcock film to be predictable and therefore the tension was lessened. Brings up some interesting moral and ethical questions, but otherwise it fell kind of flat.

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7 hours ago, James Bond said:

I Confess

First time seeing what is considered one of Hitchcock's darkest films. It's okay. He seemed to perfect the general storyline a couple years later with The Wrong Man. That's what it felt like to me, anyways. I know some critics are quite partial to this one but it was one of the very rare occurrences where I found a Hitchcock film to be predictable and therefore the tension was lessened. Brings up some interesting moral and ethical questions, but otherwise it fell kind of flat.

I've never actually watched a Hitchcock film..even Psycho I've only seen bits and pieces of..do you have a recommendation for say, a top 2 that I should check out?

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2 hours ago, Whiskey Rose said:

I've never actually watched a Hitchcock film..even Psycho I've only seen bits and pieces of..do you have a recommendation for say, a top 2 that I should check out?

Psycho is up there, but I'd personally recommend North By Northwest. You also can't go wrong with Rear Window or Dial M For Murder. Strangers On A Train too. Wait, that's more than two. :lol:

But yeah, North By Northwest is probably the best starting point with the most appeal to a casual fan. It's my personal favorite and possibly my favourite film of all time.

There's so much awesome though in his films. @DieselDaisy would probably give you a completely different list of equally great recommendations.

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