What Movie Did You Just Watch

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Right before you watch it, I recommend playing the full Overture on YouTube or from iTunes to set the mood. The 70 mm version starts with the Overture, and in all honesty I feel that it is an essential part of the movie experience that Tarantino intended for setting the tone. It was wrong to remove it from the digital version, IMO.

It'd be the equivalent of removing the opening themes from movies like Lawrence of Arabia, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Star Wars, which are all essential parts of those films.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I recently saw Deadpool now that I finally got a chance. I don't really have anything unique to say that hasn't already been said. This is one of the best comic book movies ever made, one of my new favorite comedy films in general, and it single-handedly redeems FOX from the debacle that was X-Men Origins.

If I had to list any criticisms, the only one (which is really minor and nit-picky) would be that I wasn't a fan of all of the social media jokes/references. I feel like that material will become really dated very quickly.

Other than that, though, this is easily already a contender for best comic book movie of the year. The only one that I might possibly prefer is Civil War (which is surprising to say considering how shitty the source material is).

[Foggle]

Right before you watch it, I recommend playing the full Overture on YouTube or from iTunes to set the mood. The 70 mm version starts with the Overture, and in all honesty I feel that it is an essential part of the movie experience that Tarantino intended for setting the tone. It was wrong to remove it from the digital version, IMO.

It'd be the equivalent of removing the opening themes from movies like Lawrence of Arabia, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Star Wars, which are all essential parts of those films.

Wow, okay; thanks for the heads-up! I thought the only thing they removed from the digital version was the intermission.

If I had to list any criticisms, the only one (which is really minor and nit-picky) would be that I wasn't a fan of all of the social media jokes/references. I feel like that material will become really dated very quickly.

Yeah, some of the pop culture references probably won't make any sense 10 years from now. That's been part of Deadpool's character since his first ongoing series, though; there are some jokes in Joe Kelly's run that I couldn't even hope to understand without Google.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

According to Tarantino, the digital version is missing the Overture, Intermission, and up to 4-minutes of additional footage which is exclusive to the 70 mm version.

[Avaitor]

I finally had the Mad Max marathon with my friend that we've wanted to do. We did end up skipping Fury Road, since we had limited time and it wasn't new to us, but it's so worth seeing if you haven't yet.

The first one's damn fine for what it is, but if you're weird like me and have seen other Mad Max's first, this will definitely feel different to you. It's slower and looks much less desolate than the other films. There's so much green! But it's still a good action film, one that starts off as an awesome car chase flick that builds its way into a fitting revenge piece, and keeps good character moments in it throughout. Even though the dead family trope has been done to death, it still works okay here, especially as Max and his wife's relationship feels believable. And that old lady is sweet! I wish that she had more time in the film.

The Road Warrior isn't new to me, but it's good no matter how many times that I've seen it. My friend agrees with me that it's better than the first and about on par with Fury Road, as it's so smart with its use of camera and facial expressions to tell character. The original also wisely cuts back on dialogue to get its point across, but the use of body language and camera tricks are bolder here, and especially come through into the chasing sequences, which keep such a good pace throughout. Everything about this film is on a different class than just about any other action film, and will probably still be as entertaining in another 35 years.

And Beyond Thunderdome is... eh. The first half hour was okay, but nothing too special. You can tell that they finally got a budget here, as the set design is out of this world, and the story was building up to become something interesting... then Tina Turner's character's true colors are revealed out of nowhere, and every unique element is thrown to a halt. When Max moves into the children's world is when the seams really start to slip, as its faults become more obvious- there's way too much exposition, and the characters here aren't interesting or developed enough to make the story worth a damn. Max isn't meant to run a story- he's basically Link, and you don't play Zelda because you like Link's character. He doesn't have too much that's interesting to say or do here, and it's very apparent.

It's also lame that we have to wait until the last 20 minutes for a car chase, and even that isn't as tightly shot or edited as the previous two or Fury Road's. And seeing the children tanned so badly is kind of awkward, as well.

I don't really recommend BT, but the rest of the movies are very much worth a watch.

[Avaitor]

Have you guys heard about how MovieStop is going out of business? They're holding going away sales until they're all closed for good in July. Right now, new movies are 20% off, used are 30%, and merch is supposed to be varied, but most of what I've seen is at 20%.

I haven't really found anything that I NEED to get at these prices now, but if they're still around when the sales are getting better, I might finally get the Lupin vs Detective Conan movie, and a couple of Hateful Eight Pops.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just saw X-Men: Apocalypse. I'm probably going to be in the minority on this one, but I really don't get the critics here. The movie IS flawed, and not as strong as X2 or DOFP, but I really did find a lot to like here and I personally had an enjoyable experience with the film. I'm by no means a die hard X-Men fan, and will call out when I think a movie is shit in the franchise (X3 and both Wolverine movies, for instance), but I'm definitely not in agreement with the Tamato-meter on this one.

Of course, I can't speak for everyone else, but that's just my honest opinion. For what it's worth, though, I've noticed that quite a few people besides myself don't seem to agree with critics on this movie either.

[Foggle]

I thought Apocalypse was okay - certainly not a horrible film like the reviews are suggesting. To be honest, it kind of felt like a movie from the early 2000's to me, back when superhero films were still finding their footing, with all the good and bad that entails. I actually really liked the first half; it was cheesy, yes, but very fun. The Quicksilver scene especially was great. The second half and final battle I found a little dull, but it was still entertaining enough. Overall, I didn't regret watching it, but I didn't love it either. A decent time-waster, if nothing else.

As an aside, the new Suicide Squad trailer they showed before the film looked surprisingly great.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Speaking of X-Men, Bryan Singer apparently has James McAvoy's hair locked away in a safe for some reason.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just saw The Conjuring 2 this past weekend. Now, as a horror movie, I tend to go a bit easier on it than other movies in terms of certain things not making logical sense, and despite it going with that "based on a true story" angle, I of course rightfully treat these movies as complete fiction as they really are aside from using the names of real people, and just take stuff like that with a grain of salt going in. I was actually honestly really excited for this movie because I've personally been a fan of James Wan's horror movies since Insidious, and I really liked The Conjuring back in 2013, which is personally one of my favorite modern horror movies, right behind The Babadook. That said, I was also weary of this movie since horror sequels are rarely ever any good (Evil Dead 2, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, and Dream Warriors and New Nightmare are among the few exceptions that I can think of), but I was pleasantly surprised to see the movie get fairly positive reviews. After seeing it, I can say that I did indeed enjoy this movie as a worthy follow-up to the first, but it's also nowhere near as good or effectively creepy as that movie was. If the first movie was an A+ for me, then this one would be a solid B. It's full of great homages to classic horror movies, works as a well-done period piece, the acting is top-notch all around just like in the first movie, and James Wan's direction, cinematography, and use of music is excellent for building up tension and delivering effective scares through the atmosphere he creates with his techniques as opposed to just relying too much on jump scares (of which there are only a few in either of these movies).

What held the movie back for me is how it gets a bit messy in its second half. The first film thrived on its simplicity, but this one introduces another demon into the mix and creates a sub-plot that it tries to tie into the main plot, and it just doesn't come together in a way that I can buy. The concept of the plot twist that this movie goes for could work, but the way it was handled here feels rather forced and actually raises a lot of questions that don't make much sense the more that you think about them. Having said that, looking past that problem, I found a lot to like about the movie, and there were a number of memorable scenes that I just found to be so expertly crafted. Overall, as a fan of horror movies, I'm glad to see that there is at least one modern director who (IMO) knows what he's doing. Well, aside from James Wan, I've also liked Scott Derrickson's Sinister and Jennifer Kent's The Babadook, but that's really only one film from each that I have to go on (though, Derrickson did also do a film that Desensitized/Spark of Spirit said was good and brought up for last year's 31 Nights of Halloween, so maybe I should check that one out sometime soon).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Cinefix did another 5 brilliant movie moments list, but this time with the twist that they are all action scenes: https://youtu.be/t3_d5Y0Gr3c

They also did a spin-off video for 3 brilliant action scenes from the Game of Thrones episode "Battle of the Bastards": https://youtu.be/F8hExR0NXGI (Major spoilers here)

The funny thing here is that Mad Max is the only movie mentioned that I actually still haven't seen yet.

And despite my issues with the writing in this season of GOT, I absolutely agree that the direction in these episodes was superb, and I wouldn't mind seeing this episode win an Emmy in that category.

[Avaitor]

Um...

[Peanutbutter]

Its only according to M. Night himself. I don't see anything that link that mentions the studio actually backing him. Can't see why they would, it terrible in the box office.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I finally got around to watching Dredd. I really liked it. It felt like an 80s action movie with modern production values.

[Daikun]

Um...

The sources that article links to all date back to last September, and they all state that he's (currently) shelving Airbender 2 in favor of original work.