What Movie Did You Just Watch

[Kiddington]

It's not a bad movie. You know, fuck it, I do kinda like it. Skyfall is a tough act to follow (to which this was kind of a poor follow-up), but I never really got the hate for this one. It's entertaining enough, the action is solid, and it's a far better use of your time than Quantum (or -hot take incoming- at least 80% of Moore's output).

Gah, I feel like ranking the series now.  I'd have to spend at least a week or two to marathon the whole thing though, there's just so much of it I haven't seen in any recent viewing period. I haven't watched anything from the Brosnan era in probably 10 years at least.

[Foggle]

I like Moore's output, but that's because it's bad. I still haven't seen Spectre for some reason (just never got around to it), but I enjoy almost every Bond film either legitimately or ironically.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I always kind of saw Spectre as a throwback to the camp and cheesiness of some of the older Bond films, not too unlike the Moore films, ironically enough (though, minus a man inflating like a literal balloon and exploding). I can't actually tell whether that was intentional or not, but that's what I got out of it.

In general, though, I'm personally ok with a lot of poorly received installments in various franchises that apparently everyone else in the world hates. I think I may be the only person on the planet who kind of likes Prometheus, for example. There's dumb shit in the movie to be sure, but also a lot of genuinely great moments and aspects of it to appreciate which it never gets recognized for. Meanwhile, Alien Covenant can go penetrate itself, Xenomorph-style.

[Foggle]

My appreciation for B-movie camp and cheese has increased exponentially over the years. I rewatched the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films recently and I thought they were amazing. Liked them even more than when I was a kid. They're so quotable and hilarious! Fuck, I even liked The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It's a terrible film, yet I can't help but adore the way Jamie Foxx hams it up with that terrible blue makeup/CG/whatever. X-Men: Apocalypse is great too. The last third is a bit dull, but everything up to and including the Quicksilver scene is a laugh riot. Helps that I am extremely gay for Oscar Isaac and will watch anything with him in it.

I watched all the live action Resident Evil movies and xXx: Return of Xander Cage with my fiancee and uhhh they're actually the shit. They're so bad but SO GOOD. I adore Milla Jovovich (I unironically wish it was her in Atomic Blonde instead of Charlize Theron) and Vin Diesel. I've also been converted into a follower of Nicolas Cage. That man can do no wrong. Have you seen Con Air or Vampire's Kiss? Masterpieces. David Lynch's filmography is also a lot more hilarious than I remembered. Twin Peaks (both the original series and the new one) is funnier than most actual comedies.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

On the subject of Raimi's Spider-Man movies, while they are silly and I don't love them as much as some people, I do legitimately have to give Raimi props for being a fan and clearly putting a lot of heart into these films. In fact, much as I enjoyed Homecoming, it was missing one very essential element of the character that Raimi's movies absolutely nailed: the hardship that comes with being Spider-Man. Say what you want about Tobey Maguire's performance as Spider-Man, but I think that he made a pretty great Peter Parker. He really nailed the struggles and tragic life that came with being that character.

By no means did Tom Holland give a weak performance, but not once in the movie did I ever actually feel genuinely bad for Peter like how I did in Raimi's films or TSSM. In fact he seemed to have a pretty neat life all things considered, which is fine for this interpretation of the character, but it also doesn't give him as much weight and depth as the best iterations of Spider-Man have, IMO.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Speaking of camp, I finally watched Schindler's List after ages of putting it off. And it was definitely as chilling as I expected. A wonderful film though. I was fascinated by Goeth and Schindler's relationship, and Ben Kingsley's performance.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It sits as either my second or third favorite Spielberg film, pretty much tying with The Adventures of Tintin. Yes, I know how that sounds, but I deeply love both films for very different reasons, so suck it. The fact that he came put with both Schindler's List and Jurassic Park in the same year is beyond insane. And yes, I teared up at the "I could've saved more" scene.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So Dunkirk was cool. But I did laugh when it turned out the heroic pilot was

Spoiler

Tom Hardy in a mask, who made the fire rise on his plane while making sure Dunkirk would have survivors.

[close]

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just bought Logan, Creed, and Shin Godzilla on Blu-ray. I plan to give Logan a re-watch via the Noir version exclusive to the Blu-ray set, and getting Creed now completes my Rocky collection. As for Shin Godzilla, I have yet to watch it, but I definitely wanted to nab it as soon as I saw it on store shelves. Before I watch it, though, I still have a few Godzilla movies left watch on my DVD box set collection, so I want to go through those first before watching this new one (yes, I know it's standalone and isn't in continuity with the old movies, but I still feel like going through the old stuff first).

[Dr. Insomniac]

This morning, I've been wondering something: What happened to all the great directors who were also complete assholes? We used to have Michael Curtiz drowning actors to get a Noah's Ark scene, Stanley Kubrick mentally abusing Shelley Duvall so hard that she wears tinfoil on her head now, and Jodorowsky raping an actress on-camera purely so they could the take right. Nowadays, most of the great directors usually aren't abusive, while the directors who do traumatize their actors nowadays are usually z-list indie filmmakers that only a dozen people like.

[Avaitor]

I mean, there's David O. Russell, but apparently he's been fine with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, unlike his past with George Clooney and Lily Tomlin.

[Avaitor]

Swiss Army Man is one of those rare films where I can't say that I liked a single element about it, but I wouldn't say that I hated it. Well, I particularly didn't like the final act, yet I just can't fault the thing for being so damn different. I can't really think of anything else like it.

I also got to see The Red Turtle, which I thought was beautiful, but didn't leave much of an impact with me. It was a treat to watch from start to finish, though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just got back from seeing "IT" tonight. Just to preface, I have read the original novel and grew up with the mini-series. The novel isn't exactly great source material as it has many legitimate criticisms that have been levied against it (some of which King himself even agrees to in retrospect) but a lot of it did still work for me on a personal level. I would describe it as an intriguing mess, in that it's interesting to read but is all over the place when it comes to the actual quality of its narrative. The mini-series on the other hand is trash while also simultaneously being a nostalgic guilty pleasure for me. Tim Curry is ridiculously entertaining in it, regardless, though not for the intended reasons, but it's never boring to watch him on screen.

At any rate, my point is that I went into this with at least a bit of personal bias for the material. In that regard, I really enjoyed the film. While some have criticized it for being tonally inconsistent, I personally am not bothered by that since I never saw "IT" as a straight-up horror story but rather as a coming of age story with a horror-theme in the background (basically Stand By Me but with a supernatural entity thrown in to shake up the formula). So the balance between the drama of growing up, scares, and humor thrown in for good measure is something that I personally find makes the movie more appealing. I'd say that this was basically about as good of an adaptation as you could possibly make out of source material this lopsided, so I was really satisfied with the finished product, myself.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Sounds good. Most complaints I've heard so far are from people who focus too much on the horror aspect and felt Pennywise wasn't scary enough and miss the bigger picture of what the story is really about. Like you said, it's a coming of age story first and horror second. I'm pretty excited to see the film, and am really glad to hear the positive buzz it's been getting.

I really wish I'd seen It tonight instead of Wind River. I saw it because a friend of mine recommended it to me and we're going to podcast about it, but regardless I was expecting a good film coming from the writer of Sicario and Hell or High Water, which I loved. Instead I left the theater more insulted than I felt after seeing Ghost in the Shell. If you're making a story about Native Americans, especially a problem as severe as missing and abused young Native American women, actually tell their stories. Don't use them as a backdrop for a boilerplate thriller about a hyper-perfect self-insert white male "badass" who fights on behalf of the Native Americans and knows better than them because they apparently can't protect themselves or bring justice for one of their own being murdered, and has to hand-hold the female FBI agent who should have actual training but is frequently made to look like an incompetent idiot because she's "from the city" and doesn't understand the country or some bullshit. That the movie has the gall to claim it's based on the very real tragedies befalling Native American women but fetishize the abuse and victimization of them as motivation for it's white male lead really infuriated me, and disappointed me because the writer's previous films were so genuinely enjoyable. Like, the cinematography is beautiful and there are genuinely tense moments of suspense, but the messages of the story and representation of women and the Native American community is incredibly problematic, and it's baffling that so many people seem to be ignoring these faults which are too persistent in media and need to be addressed in favor of praising the surface elements.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I still kind of want to check out Wind River to form my own opinion on it since I was such a big fan of Sicario and Hell or High Water. Sucks to hear that the message is so skewed, though.

As for "IT" I can understand criticisms against it perfectly fine; just don't watch the Sibling Rivalry video; as ususal Doug and Rob are riding their smug high-horses so in your face that it's hard to tolerate regardless of whether you agree with their actual opinions or not. That said, the overwhelming praise that the film has gotten far outweighs the gripes, as you can probably tell, and I'm glad because I think that the success is well deserved. Outside of my personal attachment to the source material, I am one of the few people who actually really liked Andrés Muschietti's previous film Mama, so I was actually quite pleased to see him announced as the director of this movie after Fukunaga left the project. Stylistically he may have actually been the best fit for this film after all, and his keen attention to detail honestly has me wanting to go back to see the movie again to catch all of the little nuances and Easter Eggs that I missed the first time around.