I went to see the New Indiana Jones film. Social media has been trashing this movie right and left, calling it the nail in the coffin for Disney. More than Star Trek or Star Wars I love Indiana Jones and I thought the movie was…
Pretty good! I was entertained, I liked Helena and Teddy and the cameos from the original actors. It was better than Crystal Skull, which I did not hate as much as most people. Very well-directed and visually beautiful, it really looked and felt like the old movies. Worth watching in the theatres.
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Comic Talk and General Discussion *
What are you watching right now?
sleeping_gorilla wrote:Interesting! Our Quackcast today was influenced by that. None of us have seen it but I'm suspicious of people's attitude towards it- i.e. the dislike.
I went to see the New Indiana Jones film. Social media has been trashing this movie right and left, calling it the nail in the coffin for Disney. More than Star Trek or Star Wars I love Indiana Jones and I thought the movie was…
Pretty good! I was entertained, I liked Helena and Teddy and the cameos from the original actors. It was better than Crystal Skull, which I did not hate as much as most people. Very well-directed and visually beautiful, it really looked and felt like the old movies. Worth watching in the theatres.
Ah the Crystal Skull…
It was not a total garbage fire, but it has so many uneven bits that it didn't fit together very well. It had some good parts and some very lame parts. All the CG sequences near the end were too much so it felt like a video-game cut sequence. Coming from a brilliant, gritty, fun, traditional action film series famously filmed on location, that had a hint of supernatural, to something that was mainly filmed in a studio with green-screens, wire suspension, CG animation, actual aliens a temple being swallowed up in a magical vortex just didn't have the same feel anymore.
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I'll go further and say that everyone tends to be shit with computer effects. Sure if they're good you don't notice them but the trouble is that we DO notice so much of the time and computer aided editing effects allow creators too much control- I'm talking movies, comics, illustration, music, photo editing, even designs from 3d prints or C&C machines for fabrication.
We ALL can suffer from this pernicious plague of perfectionism and control until everything in planned to the inth degree and is exactly how we want it to be without compromise- which creates a products that looks and sounds blargh and extremely limited.
Computer effects are almost like overcompensation for bad cinematography. One example I know is putting in complimentary colors filters where everything is orange and blue and nothing in between.
Lots of CGI effects are also "just because we can do it". I've watched some Bollywood historical epics and they're actually absurd (even allowing for the musical numbers) Let's not go into the impossible video game flying most CGI aircraft pull off effortlessly.
bravo1102 wrote:Bollywood films are crazy now with the CGI XD
Lots of CGI effects are also "just because we can do it". I've watched some Bollywood historical epics and they're actually absurd (even allowing for the musical numbers) Let's not go into the impossible video game flying most CGI aircraft pull off effortlessly.
Speaking of problems with CGI, I saw Mortal Engines last night.
Outline:
It's a post apocalyptic world. Most people live in giant vehicles that are cities on wheels or tracks. They travel over the land and hint each other down, consuming smaller cities or towns to keep them going.
The story concerns an evil scientist, and his plan to use an ancient weapon to destroy things…
Overall it's hard to get into, to feel the real drama of the situation and properly identify with the characters and their world They DO NOT work hard enough or spend enough time introducing you to things and giving us the "all is normal" version of the world before they mess it up with the conflict
Conflict has little meaning if we don't know or care about the stakes.
They removed changed and compressed some important parts from the source material which weakened the story. Crucially they switched the young man to be the main character when from the original version it was more the young woman. I didn't like that and it didn't work for me.
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Ah, the CGI…
This is a good example of bad use of CGI because there is so much of it. It is actually well visually done for the most part, but the was the actors interact with it and the way the camera moves through the CGI world is all far too smooth which makes it dream-like and unreal. Lastly there was an andoird character that was mostly CGI, especially when he was walking. There's NO reason for that. It should have ONLY been a person in a costume with NO CG at all. It would have worked far better. As it was this character who was supposed to be awesome and powerful just always looked lame and terrible.
Apocalypto (2006) I guess I'm the target audience because I sat entranced the entire running time of the movie. It's really immersion into another culture that is quite alien to Europeans. I've loved studying pre Columbian Central American cultures since I was a little kid. Some of the shots of faces in profile are identical to much of the Mayan art I've seen. Even visited Mayan ruins on my last cruise.
Amazing movie. I found it on Amazon Prime after I'd finally seen Hacksaw Ridge. That's a fantastic true story of a Medal of Honor winner. Very graphic, again great immersion into the horror of a island battle in the Pacific War. I'm enough of a nut about that to know they used the wrong variant of Sherman tank. There were bits cut from the script because Gibson figured they were too unbelievable. He's made up for the ridiculous ahistorical crap of Braveheart and The Patriot.
But not the blatant antisemitism of The Passion of the Christ. That was out and out ridiculous.
It'd be useful if you described the plot of the thing you saw :P
I looked up the Wiki of Apocolypto it sounds good.
Only Murders In the Building was a good series with Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. 3 strangers become friends start a podcast together and discover who is committing the murders in their building, uncovering secrets and stories as they did it.
The only annoying part was that the murderer only came into the show about half way though.
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I've tried to make it through the second season but it bores me rigid each time. :(
The mean lady who was president of the resident's association was killed at the end of the first season and the trio was blamed (in a tacky turnaound). In this season they try and find out who it was but I can barely get through the episodes. So dull it's painful.
(April-July) of Summer 2023
All seen in crowded cinemas:
Mario Bros Movie
Renfield
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
Joy Ride
No Hard Feelings
Oppenheimmer
*Surprisingly this is also the same order of the total amount of full-frontal nudity that appeared in each film.
**So much to unpack from that last film listed.
Watching the witcher season 3.
wow.,,,its just so painful…
henry cavil looks depressed…the plot sucks…everything feels forced and convenient for the plot……ciri has mega plot armor…
the fights are meh.
just end this series plz….its not good…it lost its touch.
its not the same…also henry leaving is outrageous..
Watched the show "Powerless", I remember it being billed as She-Hulk many years before the actual She-Hulk show and the idea of using a full CGI character was not plausible.
So rather than it being a law office that settles lawsuits against superheroes this is a vague R&D facility for Batman run by Bruce's dumber less attractive cousin Hoban Washburne. The cast overall is very good with Alan Tudyck, Dani Pudi, and Vanessa Hudgens (who is some serious eye candy in every episode *ahem*)
The show had some funny standout moments the funniest episode was when Lois Lane was reported dead and everyone declared it "no consequences day", it was the purge as they waited for Superman to turn back time and save her. Wash's eleventh-hour discovery that his cousin was Batman was hilarious.
It's too bad Powerless did not get more episodes. It never quite caught its stride or made use of its cast. One of the few shows that had a stand-out opening credit sequence. A shame.
InkyMoondrop wrote:
Watched Nimona. It was pretty awesome. Not Spider-verse awesome and it lacked some serious details / explanations for key events, but it was way better in regards of animation than the average stuff made for streaming platforms or by nonames studios. The message was good and universal, the LGBT characters and themes fit right in with a story about fearmongering, issues with self-worth, prejudices and stuff. Unless you're one of those who gets instantly triggered by such diversities, you'll have a good time. And I found out it's based on a webcomic / graphic novel. One that doesn't even look any more "professional" than the average ongoing comic here, so it kinda makes you feel motivated and glad that a fellow creator can make it this big!
Watched it yesterday, it was okay. It made me chuckle how out of the gate it's as though the makers heard people moan about woke disney and were like "hold my beer"
What I find funny about old Hollywood (and some movies and tv shows kept this trend up until the late 80s even, I think) is that the beautiful heroines in their 30s just can't resist the heroes who are either in their 40s or 50s. And I'm so convinced that even if you looked like 30 at the time, if you were male, they just had to make you look older to get a role like that and nail it. And I'm convinced that a good portion of the reason why James Dean became such an icon was that he was in his 20s, as opposed to almost everyone they paraded around as part of the beauty standard. Perhaps they wanted to please their own EGOs or they wanted everyone to think only experience can count for something, but damn, I'm glad we aren't expected to identify with our grandfathers if we wanna see an action or adventure flick.
I think the age differences were because you could easily make a young woman look older and beautiful and that way they could match her with an established male star who was a major box office draw who people didn't generally consider "older" because they were so familiar with him. i.e. Bogart wasn't an "older guy" he was just Humphrey who people knew and loved.
There was a bit of the same thing with women but not nearly as much because the expected trajectory for them was that they would marry and have kids and quit the business, which most did.
I don't think there was a deliberate sexist patriarchal conspiracy or plan, it was just part of the culture then- which WAS sexist, yes, but not in any clever or planned way.
–=
I still have little idea about the whole James Dean thing but I don't think he was actually a big star in his day because he died before he became famous. It's more like a cult that developed around his few movies after he was already dead and the fact that he was dead probably fuelled his specialness? Though he WAS a pretty good actor and a handsome guy.
Ironically Humphrey Bogart actually was in a relationship with a considerably younger woman at the time. Lauren Bacall wasn't too much older than Audrey Hepburn. But then Hepburn and Bergman were also paired with Cary Grant. Cary Grant was looked upon as "timeless" so his age was not an issue. But William Powell or Fredric March couldn't do it by the late 1940s and they knew it. Gable was thought to be over the hill as well, but Cary Grant was timeless.
And contemporary critics found Bogart and Audrey Hepburn hard to swallow too (though Katherine Hepburn and Bogart were magic) Sabrina languished until they remade it with Harrison Ford, who also has a considerably younger wife. Calista Flockhart graduated college a year ahead of me. Even had her in one of my classes.
And then there was Paulette Goddard who was playing young women into her forties and getting away with it. Marlene Dietrich and Mae West were also older women who were paired with younger men. But then Paulette Goddard started her career in a relationship with a much older man; Charlie Chaplin. Movies imitated life which imitated movies.
lothar wrote:It's earned a billion dollars at the box office so far apparently XD
I watched the Barbie movie…. It was alright. Ken had the most interesting story. Whereas stuff just kinda happened to Barbie. I really can't tell what the creators were trying to say about feminism. But it was really colourful and cool looking.
People are saying it was due to brilliant marketing.
Obviously it deserves a lot of credit for the success, but it also had simply massive name recognition so that marketing team honestly didn't work harder than any other successful marketing team.
———–
I finished Boston Legal.
It was amazingly meta, especially towards the end. It has SO many people from all the Star Trek series in it and it often acknowledged that with all sorts of subtle things and non-stubtle like Shatner's flip phone making communicator noises when he opened it.
They had so many leading people from 80s shows guest staring in major roles or coming on to be temporary leads, that was really cool to see.
It could get very preachy about politics but that was just part of he show and the characters…
They often acknowledged that they were a TV show with characters singing the theme song, talking about episode structure, complaining about having their show time changes, saying they would get letters for certain lines… Well before Rick and Morty started doing that meta stuff.
I liked it as a series, especially the relationship between James Spader and William Shatner's characters and how they got married in the end.
Watching the show Suits from 2011, it just ended a few years ago. This was around the time Monk, Psych, and a very similar show White Collar offering loads of quirky characters.
Suits is about a New York law firm that hires a genius, Mike, who makes money taking the LSATS and the Bar for underachievers. Zany antics ensue as Mike causes constant trouble for the law firm, putting hundreds of jobs at risk on a daily basis. Mike makes bad decisions that would cause real harm to people. I, for one, was happy to see Mike get his ass kicked by an angry husband whose wife Mike was sleeping with.
Not even a season goes by before you start routing for the weasely villain Louis Litt. A loyal workhorse in the firm who clearly deserves better than he is getting.
Another legal show is called FISK starring Kitty Flanagan. This is the funniest show I have seen in a long time. It reminds me of Doc Martin, House, or many of the Steve Martin movies when he is in sarcastic mode.
sleeping_gorilla wrote:Interesting! I remember Kitty from her sketch comedy days back in the 90s. I love that she's still around working ^_^
Another legal show is called FISK starring Kitty Flanagan. This is the funniest show I have seen in a long time. It reminds me of Doc Martin, House, or many of the Steve Martin movies when he is in sarcastic mode.
Ozoneocean wrote:
Boston Legal
I liked that show very much back in the day! The constant, rapid cast changes threw it off quite a bit for me, and making so many characters "wacky" with less and less "normal" people to contrast the oddballs took me out of it after the first two seasons or so. It'd be interesting to check it out now - the politics of the time were sort of post-911 George W. Bush and then Obama. Definitely got heavy handed at times. Good show, though. Alan and Denny were great characters.
I'm finally continuing with "Louie", the Louis CK show from a few years back. I'd seen bits of it before, so doing a complete watch this time. Just started season 3. Very good stuff. It's got the feel of a Woody Allen film in most episodes, with the look and the jazz music. It's Woody Allen's New York. I enjoy the more earthy style of Louie, I guess I'd say? It celebrates the weirdness and rough edges of humans. It veers into the surreal in a nice way. I will say that with season 3, it's a lot funnier than the first 2 seasons. I'm laughing out loud much more.
Also joined Crunchyroll to see some anime. I'm liking "ZOM 100". A miserable, overworked and deteriorating office drone gets a new lease on life from, of all things, the zombie apocalypse. Finally free from his brutal job, he's an exuberant, enthusiastic survivor. So far it's great. Love the animation and character design, and the main character himself.
Watching the new Indiana Jones and especially the part with the de-aged Ford in the beginning of it, I realized how little CGI benefits this whole thing. Yeah, I mean the not-so-old Indy looks great while the old one just makes you uncomfortable at places, but the Adventure genre is dying. It's dying because it relies on action. And 40 years ago there was something to strive for when it came to action, you could always get something better, louder, grittier and be at awe. There's a reason people rewatch Die Hard over and over again despite getting flooded with gunfights and explosions every month. There's a reason 8 times out of 10 we find more reason to complain about "bad CGI" than to say "holy shit, that was epic". There's not much left to strive for. We're addicted to stimuli and there's little or no supply left that lives up to our standards. Yet, we have to force it. It has to go loud it has to go big because God forbid we try something different. And the only thing besides action this movie relies on is a long checklist of nostalgia. Apart from the action and the trendy "one last ride into the sunset" trope, it's just 2 and a half hours of 'member berries. And what's the worst thing about it is that you know… YOU KNOW that if it would've settle for what IJ was 40 years ago, perhaps with some original ideas, but not trying to adjust it to modern standards, it would've been a blast. But with such expensive projects with the studios having such high hopes, you can't do less. You have to do more in order to try and satisfy the zoomers that grew up on F&F. And it's a shame, because every once in a while a fantasy or sci-fi adventure flick can still make its mark in good hands, but the adventures we feel nostalgic about are gone. Because we got so used to the magic, that we can't find it anymore.
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