My only real exposure was seeing the trailer once in the cinema so I knew what it was approximately about and was interested but only got around to it now. From the title I assumed it had something to do with Cloverfield which I hadn’t seen, but then again the trailer didn’t really make it seem like it was an explicit sequel or even whether it had anything to do with it. One of the showcase scenes from the trailer I remember was not as I feared the very end of the movie, but actually only about 30 minutes in. And it has John Goodman in it which is often a plus for me as I always liked him ever since Roseanne.
Anyhow, the movie is about people being locked in a bunker after a catastrophic event, except the viewer and the surrogate character can not ascertain whether that catastrophic event actually happened (and in that regard the title is detrimental) and the only source of that information is the untrustworthy and menacing person in charge of the bunker. The movie then puts forth new evidence to both impugn the character as well as substantiate his story. So, do you put your trust in a nutjob because he might be telling the truth, and if you do what is the long term plan and how do you not get yourself killed by said nutjob, or do you provoke a confrontation and risk the little safety you have? And what about the third guy in the bunker? Is he to be believed or is he in on it? And once you hatch a plan, can you actually keep it a secret in such a small space?
The movie was very intense to watch. It is very well and thoroughly believable acted, as is necessary for a movie with only three characters in it. Goodman in particular plays the nutjob to a tee. The movie also pulls the rug from under you a couple of times which actually quite well done.
I also watched 10 Cloverfield Lane this weekend! I’m not a horror fan, but I heard Goodman was great and I liked Winstead in Scott PIlgrim.
As expected, Goodman plays a fantastic possibly-crazy-oh-wait-definitely-crazy person, and Winstead likewise played a smart victim trying to escape an impossible situation. The movie felt a little too by-the-book for me. Several times during the movie I fell out of the movie—clearly, they’re just building up something so they can tear it away later or heap additional suspicion on Goodman. If it were just slightly smoother and better paced, I don’t think that would have happened. It also could have ended ten minutes earlier. Overall, I’d call it pretty good.
10 Cloverfield Land was double featured with Green Room, which I knew almost nothing about except it had new Chekov (RIP) and Picard. Green Room was great! I don’t want to say much more about it, except that it’s horror film, and Anton Yelchin deserved the praise he received for this film.
I re-watched one of my childhood favorites, Wild Wild West. This movie was constantly on TBS and we didn’t have cable yet. I can recognize that a lot of the jokes fall flat but I still can’t help but grin when I hear such nostalgic lines. A lot of the jokes suffer from bad transitions afterwards. With a better editor, I think Wild Wild West would be remembered as a better movie nowadays. Still, I love the hamminess of Kenneth Branagh’s performance and the steampunk meets Western style aesthetic still looks great. A solid 6/10.
Oscar Nominations Just Dropped. Most of ya’ll don’t care because of who does the voting, but there’s still surprises each time. http://oscar.go.com/nominees
General Impressions:
-Hell or High Water getting a Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor nomination is awesome. Fantastic movie, it’s #3 on my Best Of The Year List so far.
-Loving deserved more…loving. Other than Ruth Negga getting the nom, I really wanted Joel Edgerton to get recgonition and perhaps screenplay.
-Every Movie in “Best Animated Feature” is GOOD. That is a blessing. The love here for Kubo, Zootopia, and Moana is awesome, but I’ve heard great things from foreign/festival fans that My Life as a Zucchini and The Red Turtle were great. I was so worried they’d give a pity oscar to Pixar for Finding Dory or Illumination would snag on because they are popular.
-Speaking of animated, Kubo became the first animated film since Nightmare Before Christmas to be nominated for Best Visual Effects. Absolutely deserved it.
-Sing Street snubbed for Best Original Song.
-That incredible “Borrowed Time” short from former Pixar animators got with Best Animated Short. That’s pretty sweet.
-Kind of surprised Arrival got so many nominations except for Amy Adams. Arrival is really good but has a terrible ending. Adams did do a great job nonetheless.
-Fucking Suicide Squad got a Best Makeup/Hairstyle nomination? Ugh…that’s so wrong.
-La La Land has the most nominations ever tied with Titanic and All About Eve for 14. I believe it’s gonna sweep just about every category BUT Actor/Actress.
Last year I got an email from Netflix saying they’ve added a movie I might like. Warterworld. So I downloaded it to my phone and watched it yesterday evening on a flight.
I guess I forgot that I must have watched this many times as a kid, as I kept remembering lines before they were said, to the tune of about 80% of them. Also loads of the shots and sequences were super familiar. Maybe I had this on VHS back in the day, and was in my common rotation?
Anyway, as a movie that has a reputation for being terrible and a flop, it’s really not that bad. It’s not good in any way, except the physical sets and props, just continually average to mediocre. Also, much of the plot doesn’t make sense, but not Suicide Squad level nonsense.
[quote=“lukeburrage, post:48, topic:73”]
I guess I forgot that I must have watched this many times as a kid, as I kept remembering lines before they were said, to the tune of about 80% of them. Also loads of the shots and sequences were super familiar. Maybe I had this on VHS back in the day, and was in my common rotation?
[/quote]This is how I experienced reading Rebecca. I’ve definitely seen it, but as a child, and I ended up remembering all the major scenes and twists. The most jarring moment was the departure from the movie, where even my vague kid-brain memory sharply noticed.
[quote=“lukeburrage, post:48, topic:73”]
as a movie that has a reputation for being terrible and a flop, it’s really not that bad.
[/quote]Agreed. It’s Mad Max on the water with a “we can actually fix this” plot to string it along. I enjoyed that movie, but you’re right in that it’s not good by any particular metric.
The only reason it was considered such a flop was that it cost so much money to make. And you can really see it! The money is right on screen with the sets and props and ships and stuff. But the plot and acting and characters and action don’t hold up to the production level and costs.
It’s the mismatch between the money spent and the final quality that is so jarring.
That’s not really a “surprise,” as you put it. Extremely popular animated films get nominated every year. The Academy is so biased toward Disney that it doesn’t really matter who gets nominated–hell, they don’t even watch the movies (according to them, Song of the Sea is “Chinese” lol)–they just put in those extra films to fill their minimum nominee quota.
Kubo is going to inevitably lose to either Zootopia or Moana. Sorry to rain on your parade.
Movies like Sing, Secret Life of Pets, Kung Fu Panda 3, and Finding Dory are all WAY more popular than the two international films. I was expecting one of them to sneak in along with perhaps one International movie.
I definitely think Zootopia or Moana will win, but the recognition for good movies is important and nice.
Watched Hunt for the Wilderpeople last night. I think people pumped my expectations up way too high for it, so of course it didn’t quite meet those impossible heights, but it was still really cute, fun, and well-made. Feels like a movie that’ll stick around in the memory for a while. All the characters make a strong impression, even ones that are only around for a scene or two, and especially Sam Neill and Julian Dennison are great to watch as they butt heads and then build chemistry throughout the movie. I also really enjoyed the over-the-top child welfare services lady! She was just the most dogged, try-hard villain and the actress played her with just the right mix of bluster, reserve, and comic timing.
So yeah, really good movie, though I think I still prefer What We Do in the Shadows as Taika Waititi films go. Really looking forward to Thor: Ragnarok as well as the WWDitS spin-off, which has the absolute best title.
Inception
2010
So I decided to re-watch Inception due to my recent obsession with a Youtube video and the Hans Zimmer soundtrack being one of my constant go to albums.
I think the first time I saw it I may not have been paying full attention, I may have been watching it after work super tired and not mentally all there because this movie holds up and then some.
Inception is not a movie that is driven by acting prowess, that portion is passable to average but stays above the line of being distractingly poor.
The movie’s core is a very intricately plotted and well written story. The depth of the writing was something I had no expectation of from Holywood and I feel as if it got approved in the same manner as The Matrix did, where there was a popcorn flick for the lowest common denominator to watch. However if you peel back the stories, plot and characters. They are all 3 layers. The aspect of 3 layers also pops up prominently within the final heist which was originally intended to be 3 layers of dream deep.
The plot seems generic at the surface level of a heist movie with aspects of redemption. When the viewer peers further there is an exploration of how people deal with grief and guilt. On the third layer there is a masterful plot of planting the seed of doubt of reality, the thought of reality being a simulation and the inability to tell. The tool for this third plot device is the movie itself which the viewer is watching and the viewer is being manipulated into coming to this conclusion only to be cast into doubt of whether they themselves came up with the idea by simply watching the film and putting the pieces together or whether they have always known that they are in a simulation. Is it better to know or not know.
The question left for the viewer with the last scene is also layered. The protagonist spins his top jovially, thankful for never having to check whether he’s in a dream. The protagonist spins the top not caring whether he is in a dream or not, he is just happy. The protagonist is in a dream and it is only known to the reader who have undergone idea manifestation by watching the movie Inception.
Further on the topic of 3 layers, there are 3 acts to the film which is handy as it is a common format of story telling. Each character in the team gets 3 portions to their arc, some are smaller than others but there is a definite separation between the 3.
This amount of mind gymnastics was only required and enjoyed by me last in the the movie Predestination. The detail to story telling, plotting and imagery is possibly only trumped by the slightest margin by The Matrix. However I do want to see more films like this.
In retrospect I would rank this as my favourite Christopher Nolan film (not that it’s hard considering he’s been pigeon holed to do DC films rather than more films like this and The Prestige. Definitely worth watching and worth owning if you can get past the use of early 2000s gymnastic fighting on strings which occurs in a few scenes and the mediocre acting by a few characters.
The OST by Hans Zimmer is definitively worth owning.
You’re right about everything, except this:[quote=“sK0pe, post:55, topic:73”]
if you can get past the use of early 2000s gymnastic fighting on strings
[/quote]They built an actual rolling hallway for those: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PhiSSnaUKk
Surprisingly old trick, too - Fred Astaire’s famous “Dancing on the Ceiling” routine in “Royal Wedding” was filmed the same way, though obviously somewhat more low-tech in the details. 2001, Nightmare on elm street, Lionel Richie’s Dancing on the Ceiling video. Luke also had a bit with a rotating room, his “Work it out for yourself” video. Not that you can, now, I just told you, but still a pretty cool routine.
Today I did something I’ve never done before: walked out of a movie. I mean at a theatre where I’ve paid money for the ticket.
La La Land.
I’m not going to list what’s bad about it. I could, but fuck that film. I want my money back.
At least Juliane is having ranting about it. I’m glad I’m in a relationship with someone who has such strong opinions and emotions about music and movies and art. We are now both doing research on how such a pathetic attempt at a movie can have so much critical acclaim and oscar buzz.
“Imagine if Hollywood was a person and cloned themselves. Then Hollywood starts sucking Hollywoods dick. There, that’s most of the story. White man tries to save jazz.”
We compared this movie to Avatar and Titanic on the walk home, in saying that no matter how unoriginal or bland the story might be, James Cameron is a master movie maker, and knows how to put together a blockbuster. La La Land fails at even the most basic movie making skills.
I can’t believe this had the same writer/director as Whiplash!
