Spoilers What Movie Are You Watching?

[Huntn]

Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom Spoiler

First half was good enough for a dumb action movie. But the second half was just dumb.

The part about saving the dinos felt short, and the movie just turned into another rehash of all the that came before it, with little homages sprinkled about , like “RUN!”, a picture of a Dino shadow moving over a wall, and Dino toys, but one turns out to be real. Now that Dino genes have been sold to the highest bidder, I assume the next chapter will be something along the lines of Jurassic Park: Uprising or Dino Wars. I thought that Malcom’s warning was a bit over the top, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

 

[AVBeatMan]

Watched "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets". Really enjoyed it and looked stunning in 4K.

 

[kazmac]

If You Meet Sartana, Pray for Your Death (a.k.a. I am Sartana, Your Angel of Death).

With all the Clint Eastwood gunslinging clones came into being after the success of the Dollars trilogy, Gianni (John) Garko's Sartana remains one of the very few I will watch at any time.

A mysterious gunslinger who plays the gambler, gunfighter, occasional bounty hunter and "first class pallbearer", Sartana is so suave yet unnervingly dangerous, he feels like a character that pre-dated Eastwoods' six shooting opportunists.

With sleight of hand, an almost spectral grace, lots of charm and a tiny, four barrel derringer, Sartana pursues the big bad Lasky (a completely unhinged William Berger, who is so on point ridiculous here, he's hilarious and makes this movie even more fun) and that gold that seemingly almost every character in most spaghetti westerns wants, but never gets.

Add a fun cameo by Klaus Kinski (whom Berger completely upstaged), duels, and a fantastic, almost spectral end fight in a coffin maker's shop and you have a very entertaining Italian take on the Old West.

I was disappointed that the angel of death vibe given to Sartana here (despite him being quite mortal) was axed in subsequent Sartana films. Losing that takes away from Sartana's unique aura and his memorability. Garko was stellar in the role (and not sure if that's him dubbing his Italian or not, but wow, molto bene man!) I noticed some interesting parallels to Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter (Sartana's spectral qualities, staging and the 'haunting' which Garko does so masterfully here. Minor Tangent: It still annoys me that Eastwood stupidly denies any supernatural leanings for his hero in High Plains Drifter: c'mon Clint the stranger is the Marshal's dead ghost not his brother. )

I've been waiting for an HD version of this movie for many years now, and to finally hear it in Italian is even better. It's been worth the wait.

-

Sigh, one of my favorite early Chang Cheh/Ti Lung/David Chiang Shaw Brothers movies is playing in NYC tomorrow and I cannot go. So freaking bummed. I hope Celestial get back to releasing more SBs on digital, I'd love to see Trilogy of Swordsmanship (the film I am missing tomorrow) make the leap to HD.

 

[Huntn]

I saw it in the theater and bought it on iTunes when it came out. I enjoy both movies.

​

Ref: Bladerunner 2049, I rewatched it tonight. Very atmospheric, true to the original, long and mostly slow, but intriguing, with both sadness and hope. The most interesting idea is that at least one replicant does not think he has a soul because he was not born. The Earth looks like it’s a mess. The time frame seems to be about right. I wonder how bees can live in a desert wasteland?

This is my favorite line from either movie:
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.

 

[pachyderm]

i really enjoyed this one.

 

[Huntn]

i really enjoyed this one.

I’ll have to look for this, never heard of it.

 

[Mac'nCheese]

i really enjoyed this one.

I’ll have to look for this, never heard of it.

Glad other's like it but I didn't. I think I'm just sick of QT thinking he is such a great dialogue writer that he can just have his characters sitting around talking for most of the movie and that will be entertaining.

 

[S.B.G]

just have his characters sitting around talking for most of the movie and that will be entertaining.

As I've aged, I'm preferring more and more a movie that can engage my mind more with dialogue - good dialogue - to entertain me versus a movie with just non-stop shoot'em up action.

There's a place for action movies in my life, but I'll take the likes of Casablanca or the Maltese Falcon over The Avengers or whatever the next superhero flavor movie of the month is out.

 

[Mac'nCheese]

As I've aged, I'm preferring more and more a movie that can engage my mind more with dialogue - good dialogue - to entertain me versus a movie with just non-stop shoot'em up action.

There's a place for action movies in my life, but I'll take the likes of Casablanca or the Maltese Falcon over The Avengers or whatever the next superhero flavor of the month is out.

I don't mind good dialogue. I just wasn't into the whole Lincoln letter and the rest of the stuff they were saying. Felt the same way about DeathProof. The entire first half of the film seemed like just banter, not interesting or funny.

 

[CPTmom2wp]

If you like movies that explore the minds of Serial killers, the book Devil in the White City, was purchased by Leonardo DiCaprio and is being adapted to film by Martin Scorsese. If you haven't read the book, it would be well worth reading prior to seeing the movie.
There is also a recent book entitled, Bloodstains, written by a man (physician) who recently discovered that he was related to this serial killer by way of inheriting a box of artifacts from his father that his father had inherited from his family, which he had kept a secret his entire life. This physician, felt a strange compulsion to embark on a journey to discover more about the serial killings and his distant relative. It, too, is a cerebral look into the mind of madness and how easily one might be drawn into the world of a dominant, charming, handsome, psychopath.

 

[pachyderm]

Glad other's like it but I didn't. I think I'm just sick of QT thinking he is such a great dialogue writer that he can just have his characters sitting around talking for most of the movie and that will be entertaining.

I agree!

But the longer the film went on the more it was like an Agatha Christie novel to me.

I really enjoyed ... "Murder on the Oregon Trail Express"... ?

 

[Mefisto]

I've yet to see The Hateful Eight, but it's on my list. Or, well, it was on my list, but it has since been taken off Netflix. Someday I'll hunt it down.

In the meantime, since films, which more or less take place in on room, are being discussed, there are a couple that are recommended viewing.

The first, The Sunset Limited (2011) stars Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson, and tells the story of a two characters, named White and Black, who are brought together by a chance encounter in the N.Y. subway. The film is based on a play written by Cormack McCarthy, and the dialogue is pretty great. A bunch of ideas are being kicked around, and at least I thought pretty long about the points made and questions raised in the film.

The second one is somewhat "lighter", but still pretty fun. Also requires a bit more suspension of disbelief. The Man From Earth (2007) tells the story of a retiring university Professor, John Oldman, and the get-together he organizes for his colleagues the night before leaving town. This one has some thought provoking things as well, but mostly serves as an entertaining "what if" -thought excercise.

 

[hawkeye_a]

Glad other's like it but I didn't. I think I'm just sick of QT thinking he is such a great dialogue writer that he can just have his characters sitting around talking for most of the movie and that will be entertaining.

I didn't like Hateful Eight either, but for different reasons. I enjoy westerns and good dialog even if it all happens in one room (12 Angry Men and The Exorcist come to mind).

*spoliers* I thought the dialog in Hateful Eight was subpar for such a "period piece" because out of nowhere the characters start talking/cussing like it is the year 2015, which yanked me out of the movie and broke the experience. The monolog in the middle was another thing i didnt like. And then out of nowhere, a Kiwi accent..... totally out of context imho.*end spolers*

I appretiate that he put the effort in to film it on 65mm but couldn't help but feel that it was wasted since most of the movie was indoors on small sets.

I think the only QT movies i like are Reservoir Dogs and Death Proof.

 

[Mac'nCheese]

I didn't like Hateful Eight either, but for different reasons. I enjoy westerns and good dialog even if it all happens in one room (12 Angry Men and The Exorcist come to mind).

*spoliers* I thought the dialog in Hateful Eight was subpar for such a "period piece" because out of nowhere the characters start talking/cussing like it is the year 2015, which yanked me out of the movie and broke the experience. The monolog in the middle was another thing i didnt like. And then out of nowhere, a Kiwi accent..... totally out of context imho.*end spolers*

I appretiate that he put the effort in to film it on 65mm but couldn't help but feel that it was wasted since most of the movie was indoors on small sets.

I think the only QT movies i like are Reservoir Dogs and Death Proof.

Also I GET it, QT likes to use the n-word. Enough already. It’s overkill.

 

[LizKat]

Trying to watch Tulip Fever (2017). Obsession, corruption, deception... what's not to like and there's even more ahead I guess since I've not finished watching it yet.

Well it has its moments, some of them fairly acrobatic and not about tulips at all, hence the R rating I suppose, and some quite comical moments as well, but it has given me more than a few episodes of something that feels a lot like attention deficit disorder. In fact I have more than a slight feeling I should have thrown caution to the winds and read some reviews first. Oh well.

The film does convey the insanity of the tulip craze in the Holland of the late 1630s, and the flowers, when we get to focus on them, are sumptuous. Judi Dench is wonderful and hilarious as the Abbess of a convent caught up in the escalating gains and risks of tulip mania. I'm not really spoiling anything at all when I note in passing the remarks exchanged by two guys scaling the walls of the convent at night to get into the courtyard gardens in order to try to lift some valuable tulip bulbs. The bit was fun and was enough to carry me to the next scenes anyway.

"What is this place anyway?"
"A convent."
"We're stealing from nuns?"
"The tulips don't belong to them."
"Whose are they then?"
"Well... they belong to the pope I suppose."
"Ah well then, I don't mind stealing from the pope."​

 

[0388631]

Glad other's like it but I didn't. I think I'm just sick of QT thinking he is such a great dialogue writer that he can just have his characters sitting around talking for most of the movie and that will be entertaining.

Desperado is the only QT film I've ever enjoyed. Hateful Eight had me dozing off. Something something artistry, but I thought Django Unchained was simply a vehicle for QT to drop the N word as much as possible.

 

[pachyderm]

I didn't like Hateful Eight either, but for different reasons. I enjoy westerns and good dialog even if it all happens in one room (12 Angry Men and The Exorcist come to mind).

*spoliers* I thought the dialog in Hateful Eight was subpar for such a "period piece" because out of nowhere the characters start talking/cussing like it is the year 2015, which yanked me out of the movie and broke the experience. The monolog in the middle was another thing i didnt like. And then out of nowhere, a Kiwi accent..... totally out of context imho.*end spolers*

I appretiate that he put the effort in to film it on 65mm but couldn't help but feel that it was wasted since most of the movie was indoors on small sets.

I think the only QT movies i like are Reservoir Dogs and Death Proof.

I think QT's dialogues aren't that good to begin with.
Mostly rambling soliloquies that barely make a point.
His story lines are ok though.

THIS: According to the late, great Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, people back then didn't cuss that much.


So I always smh at westerns when they go off an a tirade like that.

Also, the girl from Australia might not be that much of a stretch. The time period was early America. So settlers could have come from all over.

Samuel Jackson's character started trying to "sleuth" this thing out once he went into the stable with the "Mexican".

It was an Agatha Christie mystery from there on.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Gods of Egypt.

Quite badly received. It was pretty predictable, but kept me vaguely interested throughout the early evening.

 

[kazmac]

As much as I love Kurt Russell (decades on), and ultra violent spaghetti westerns, Death Proof made me never want to see another movie Kurt made with QT. I agree on the cursing and abuse of the N word, not a fan of Tarantino. I’ve seen enough to politely pass on anything QT does.

I will continue to watch all the gloriously trashy Italian, Asian, and American movies Quentin claims to inspire him instead. Besides I have been watching these types of movies since 1981, no way I will stop now.

 

[0388631]

Didn't Kurt Russell play some super hero or evil machine at one point?

 

[S.B.G]

Firefox with Clint Eastwood.

 

[pachyderm]

What about Arsenic and Old Lace? What about Kind Hearts and Coronets? (The latter is one of my favourite movies, ever, like an exquisitely bone dry sherry, bitter, hilarious, deepest, darkest black.....).

 

[kazmac]

Didn't Kurt Russell play some super hero or evil machine at one point?

Sky High and Soldier (he was machine-like in Soldier, but not a machine. Unless, you kind of count the Computer Wore Tennis Shoes in which I think he gained the ability to compute like a computer. I don't remember, I haven't watched his teenager years Disney stuff in eons).

More below...

 

[pachyderm]

Kind Hearts and Coronets

Brilliant.

Ok.

I just ordered a DVD set of Alec Guinness films that includes, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man In the White Suit, The Captains's Paradise, and The Ladykillers ...

I hope you can forgive me quoting myself but I mention this post because the DVD set I bought was flawed! bah! 1st world problems. So my copy of Kind Hearts and Coronets is damaged and won't completely play the whole film. I rented it from iTunes.

In a word, brilliant!

 

[kazmac]

Sky High and Soldier (he was machine-like in Soldier, but not a machine. Unless, you kind of count the Computer Wore Tennis Shoes in which I think he gained the ability to compute like a computer. I don't remember, I haven't watched his teenager years Disney stuff in eons).

EDIT: and he was Ego, a Celestial in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2. The best thing about that movie along with Michael Rooker. I loved Kurt in the role, (though nothing can make me like Chris Pratt's perfectly on point obnoxious Peter Quill. He's so good at making me loathe that character).