Indiana Jones Dial-a-Destiny. Might as well have been a video game for all the CGI. Even the scene in his apartment looked fake. $300 million doesn’t buy a real apartment set?
If they had made an Indy movie between Raiders and Last Crusade, this would be worse than that one.
If they had made an Indy movie after Crusade, this would be better than that one, I think?
Admit it! Good Indiana Jones movies are the exception! Most Indians Jones movies aren’t good! On average, Indiana Jones movies are bad movies!
(I have not seen two out of the five Indiana Jones movies)
I’ve seen all two Indiana Jones movies.
You’re not wrong.
Raiders and Crusade are so powerful though. The median is bad, but the mean… might still be really good.
I mean, hypothetically speaking. If an Indiana Jones movie had been made between 1981 and 1989, or after 1989. Or mayyybe within the last few months.
The Paris theater is the only remaining movie theater in NYC which only has one screen. There are several other indie art house theaters, but they all have multiple screens, even if they are small ones.
This theater has quite the history. It opened in the late '40s and has been been open the majority of the time since then. It also has a really prime location right on 57th street near the 5th Ave Apple store, the Plaza hotel, and Central Park. Being right next to all the high end fashion stores really gives the theater a different kind of atmosphere, especially with its glitzy Paris logo.
Netfliix took over the theater a few years ago and used it to screen their own movies. I don’t know if they own it now, but they’re the ones operating it. Recently they closed for some renovations. They made a big deal about the new projection and sound system they put in place. They’ve got at least three projectors in there since they are screening movies in digital, 35mm, and 70mm. The sound is the currently best available Dolby Atmos setup, the biggest in NYC.
To celebrate the reopening they put on a film series called Big & Loud to flex their theater tech. I checked the schedule and saw RRR on there, and knew that was the one. I have been trying to go see it at least twice, but things got in the way. I knew it was action packed and ridiculous, but also had musical numbers. That’s the kind of movie that would really benefit from a super powerful sound system.
Today was that screening.
The theater is small, but also big. It’s not very deep, but it has a mezzanine. I think there are actually a very large number of seats in there, but nobody is that far away from the screen because there are two stories.
The screen actually isn’t that big. The screens at the normal multiplex theaters are bigger. But it’s big enough since you’re not far away from it. And the projection was immaculate as promised.
It’s an old theater, so the seating isn’t stadium seating. Not a problem for people sitting in the front of the mezzanine. We were towards the back of the “orchestra”. It was almost a problem, but I only noticed the head of the person in front of me one time when it blocked a subtitle. If had just sat closer it would have been fine.
The seats themselves were quite comfy despite being normal theater seats and not the big comfy ones you see more often these days.
The sound system lived up to the hype. I haven’t been that blown away by the sound system at a movie theater since the first time I saw a THX logo. That said, I definitely suffered some permanent hearing damage. I still feel some pressure inside my head even now. Bring earplugs to cut the decibels a little bit? It was just so impressive that the sound was loud without losing any clarity. No problems not hearing dialogue! The mix was perfect. And of course, all the fancy stuff with positioning the sounds in space.
As for the movie, it’s really straightforward in its plot and message. That’s not why you go see RRR. The action scenes, the scenarios, the dancing. It’s sort of like going to an EDM show. Each song has a buildup, an absolutely huge beat drop, then a little time to breathe before repeating the cycle. And that’s how the movie goes repeating that cycle for three hours. But absolutely none of the huge drops disappoint. They are absolutely BANGERS. Every expectation that I had for this movie was met, or exceeded. Nobody lied.
TL;DR: See RRR, in a theater if possible. If you are going to see a movie that really benefits from having a huge sound system, see it at the Paris Theater in NYC.
I just remembered one more thing.
RRR supposedly takes place in the 1920s, so they all have old cars, old guns, etc.
There is a scene in which one character is carrying a twin lens reflex camera. I noticed the camera was Yashica Mat-124 G. I noticed because I own that camera.
I was slightly put off by this because that camera was made in Japan in 1970. Quite impossible for it to exist in 1920s India!
On the one hand it doesn’t matter because it’s completely inconsequential to the film, and TLR cameras did (barely) exist at that time. On the other hand, I guess I’m spoiled and have a lot appreciation for the productions that put in such maniacal attention to detail that they don’t make this kind of mistake.
Just for reference, the first Rolleiflex TLR camera was released in 1929, and it looks like this. It wasn’t the first TLR ever, but it was the first that looked like this. Older ones were like, janky wooden biz.
Henry Sugar by Wes Anderson. Yo dog we heard you like stories. It’s a fun 40 minutes, and the cast may just be reading the original nearly verbatim?
I’m also reminded of the recent discussion about cheaters.
I used to say that Henry Sugar was my favorite book. The only reason I can’t say that now is because I haven’t read it in so long. I have a copy. I plan to read it again and then watch the movie.
Perhaps the longest running joke on GeekNights is “Woman! Space is one cold motherfucker.” It comes from a short mockumentary The Old Negro Space Program which is just slightly older than GeekNights itself.
This film is a send-up of Ken Burns documentary style. It also serves as a sharp reminder that despite their lofty talk of giant leaps for mankind, NASA was no exception when it came to white supremacy. It was not until well after the moon landing that they made a giant leap for anyone that wasn’t a white man.
And so I was quite surprised when I heard there was a new National Geographic documentary “The Space Race” about the actual history of black astronauts. I can not think of even one other instance where not only does the parody precede the reality, but does so by nearly twenty years.
When I got the email about a showing of this film at the Museum of the Moving Image, with the directors in attendance, I RSVP’d instantly. The very reasonable annual membership fee continues to pay off big time.
Going in I had one expectation. I know all too well that going to public school in the US that we were only taught white history. Of course this movie will be teaching me about all sorts of things I never knew, and should have known.
That expectation was met in spades. Unsurprisingly, I knew even less than I thought I did. Did you know about Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez? How about Robert Henry Lawrence Jr.? There was just so much I can’t even being trying to type it all.
But what was truly powerful about this film was not the things that I learned, which I previously did not know. It was the reminder of what I knew, but had long forgotten.
Did I know of Ralph Abernathy and the protest at the Apollo 11 launch? Yes, I had a distant vague memory of it. Now I’ve seen it. The actual video footage of NASA administrator Thomas Paine coming to speak to him. What a powerful moment.
Did I know of Ron McNair, who died in the Challenger disaster. Yes, but only enough to probably get an answer right on Jeopardy! Now, at least through the narrow lens of the footage that made it into this film, I know something of the kind of person Ron McNair actually was. It may be because I only saw the film just this evening, but it will be hard to convince me he wasn’t the coolest person who has ever lived. RIP.
Most of all, something I knew as a child, but shamefully forgot so long ago, is that the people selected as astronauts are the best humanity has to offer. They have excellent physical and mental health and conditioning. They are all some kind of expert in an advanced field of science and/or a highly trained expert pilot. They have the courage to risk life and limb going into space on a flying bomb. Most impressively, they have the communication skills to be ambassadors to the rest of humanity bringing our spirits into space with them, when our bodies can not go.
And that is the core point of this movie. Superheros are fictional. Athletes are impressive, but are ultimately engaging in a contrivance. Astronaut is as close as you get to a superhero that is genuine. In a true meritocracy, the people qualified to be astronauts might just run the world.
That is why a segregated America could absolutely not allow a black person to be an astronaut. To admit that a black person was capable of being an astronaut is to admit they are capable of anything. As such, I think we have perhaps greatly underestimated how much damage was done to the white supremacist narrative when black people did finally become astronauts.
The directors said the movie will be on Disney+ early next year. I’m going to guess February, because Hollywood and Black History Month. You know how they like to do things. See it as soon as you are able.
Even heroes are just as extremely flawed as the rest of us.
That sounds really interesting, and the title is wordplay gold. I’ll check it out when it gets a wider release.
I’ll probably have to get it using the traditional methods because I don’t know if it’ll get a Japanese release; There’s not a lot of demand for English-language documentaries. Heck Oppenheimer doesn’t even have a release date yet, for…understandable reasons, and it’s a much bigger film.
I haven’t seen an anime in the theater in ages (not since the Cowboy Bebop movie in 2002 maybe?), but last night I saw Blue Giant with some friends.
Blue Giant is kind of your typical anime plot about three young/underdog musicians wanting to be the best jazz musicians in the world and play at a famous jazz club in Tokyo.
I loved the movie.
I love jazz, and the music in this movie was incredible and probably the highlight for me. The characters, while pretty stereotypical, were still interesting and likable. The animation was top-notch, although it was pretty obvious when the movie was going from traditional animation to a more fluid 3D animation style, but it wasn’t bad or distracting. The movie’s use of nontraditional camera angles and visual effects was really great for trying to convey the various emotions that the music was bringing out in both the musicians playing, and the audience members in the movie.
Overall, I highly recommend this movie. If you like jazz, go see it. If you want a good “slice of life” anime movie, go see it. If you enjoyed Kids on the Slope, definitely go see this!
★★
Technically this movie is really good. As in, nominated for all the Oscars good, and in this case I agree with all the nominations.
But I didn’t enjoy it. I don’t find “drama for the sake of drama” entertaining, and this movie is the very definition of “drama for the sake of drama”!!!
I’m not interested in spending time with intellectually challenged characters, and I don’t find their portrayed stupidity entertaining.
I certainly don’t enjoy spending time with mentally ill people. Like, seriously damage people… and then it’s meant to be funny? Or enlightening? Uplifting? Maybe!
I’m just on the couch, feeling sadder and sadder as self-destructive people destroy the lives of other people along with their own. But these aren’t even real people who I can feel sorry for or empathise with, it’s just bullshit that someone wrote and then filmed.
Sure, I get they hung a lampshade on it (“how is your despair?”) and that it’s a metaphor for Irish history (big CLUNK as that was made explicit at the end of the movie). I’m just disappointed that everything about this movie was SO GOOD, except what it was actually ABOUT is the opposite of what I’m looking for in entertainment.
★★★½
You know how to make this movie about 50% more enjoyable than the last time you watched it?
Just press stop as soon as they save the day and the bus explodes with nobody on it. Keanu and Sandra roll into the grass, and it seems like they might kiss, and the police chief turns up and… just don’t watch the last 20 minutes!
Up until then, it’s been the epitome of a dumb movie, but at least there’s tension as everyone on the bus needs to be saved, and you care about them, and the wildcat is being a hero. After that, it’s a dumb movie, but you don’t care about anyone, and the final action sequence is as pointless as it is uninteresting.
By missing the last 20 minutes of the movie, I’m upgrading my rating from 3 to 3.5 stars.
★★★★
What if Batman… but actually what if Se7en?
Young white detective and older black detective track down a serial killer who is leaving clues along with his victims, baiting them into discovering the pattern, and eventually letting himself be caught.
Which worked great!
Up until the “what’s in the box” moment in The Batman, where it devolved into “doesn’t make sense but that’s fine because he’s insane” and unsatisfying destruction/action sequences.
But overall, I’m into the proper darkness and grittiness in this batman movie which brings all the best influences of David Fincher’s 90’s output.
I’m knocking it down an extra half star rating because the content warning at the start said “contains violence, etc… and sexually explicit material” and so I was really looking forward to a hot sex scene with the two unfeasibly attractive young people in black rubber and masks.
But modern hollywood contains NO SEX EVER! Instead they rode their motorbikes next to each other for a bit. Sigh.
Edited to add: Wait, the score is amazing and it’s also by Michael Giacchino?!?!?!? Maybe his first good score to a movie ever?
I mean, normally when I hear bad music in a movie, I think “Is this another Michael Giacchino attempt?” and I’m right more often than not.
But this music is actually really good! Nirvana helps out a lot, but damn, Michael Giacchino wrote a good score. I have to rethink my entire life.
His Funeral March inspired batman theme was really, really great for this I felt.
Regarding rating, in America the MPAA:
"Rated PG-13 for strong violent and disturbing content, drug content, strong language, and some suggestive material. "
Not sure what the FSK saw in the film that they deemed “sexually explicit” .
This was the Amazon Prime content warning, and I don’t remember the exact wording. I’m just disappointed by the lack of sex in a movie where they should OBVIOUSLY BE HAVING SEX.
Funeral March but also
Watched Polite Society last night:
Really great and entertaining martial arts/comedy movie. I love movies that show me a culture that I don’t have much exposure to, so I particularly enjoyed this movie about a Pakistani/British Muslim family. Additionally, it’s really nice to see a martial arts movie that’s not American or Asian based, but instead seeing other ethnicities showing off their kick-ass skills.
The plot of the movie is fun, the characters are great, the writing is smart and funny, and one thing I totally hadn’t anticipated, but when the characters perform their martial arts moves in their traditional clothes, with the swirls of color and the almost circular geometric shapes caused by the dresses, it’s just awesome.
I really enjoyed this movie and it was a breath of fresh air in the martial arts genre.
