The Movie Thread Reloaded

[Razor 007]

The 13th Warrior was an excellent inspiration for RPG gaming.

My 2 cents.

[The Exploited.]

The 13th Warrior was an excellent inspiration for RPG gaming.

My 2 cents.

While not the best movie ever made I think the concept is very cool. The enemies are class (and pretty freaky initially) as well as the whole set up of being trapped in a village that is very hard to defend.

[Omega]

Got around to finally finishing watching all of Fire and Ice. This was a 1983 animated movie by Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta no less. And pretty well done with none of Bakshi's cost cutting tricks used in some other movies. This is how you do rotoscoping right. It very much feels like a D&D adventure where "stuff happens!" between the villains initial bid for power and the final battle which unfortunately gets a little choppily edited near the end. Lots of interesting characters and I actually liked that the movie took its time getting from point to point.

[Ratman_tf]

Got around to finally finishing watching all of Fire and Ice. This was a 1983 animated movie by Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta no less. And pretty well done with none of Bakshi's cost cutting tricks used in some other movies. This is how you do rotoscoping right. It very much feels like a D&D adventure where "stuff happens!" between the villains initial bid for power and the final battle which unfortunately gets a little choppily edited near the end. Lots of interesting characters and I actually liked that the movie took its time getting from point to point.

*Puts on grumpy pants*
A lot of modern movies seem to be afraid of boring the audience with pacing. Maybe they're right, but I find even movies I like don't give much time to absorb the story before rushing on to the next scene.

[Ratman_tf]

Solo

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. I knew they were going to explain the Kessel Run, which really, really didn't need explaining, but whatever.
A bit too on the nose at times, "Oh, that's where Han got his blaster, Oh, that's how he got the Falcon, Oh, that's how the Falcon got to look like it did in the OT" etc. That got tiresome.
But the story was coherent, always a nice difference from the sequels, I liked the characters and how they were acted, and the story took quite a few turns that I didn't expect.
It had some teeth as well.
I give it a solid C+.

[Omega]

Watched my old copy of the 1953 movie Houdini starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Excellent movie even with all the liberties it takes with certain elements. For a George Pal movie it is rather subdued on the fantastical elements.

[Spike]

I finally got around to watching muh DVD of The Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

Wow. So many Bad Ideas that were flawlessly executed and so many Good Ideas that were slapped together like a half-forgotten afterthought.

And MAN does it have the worst case of sequelitis you ever did see! Can't quite make up its mind if it wants to be a Serial or an Episode...



I almost feel like I should do one of my mega analysis posts on it... almost.

[Bedrockbrendan]

Saw Bohemian Rhapsody last night. Enjoyed it. They take a lot of liberties, especially with chronology, but I expect that with biopics. The music, the performances and the story all worked.

[Spike]

Saw Bohemian Rhapsody last night. Enjoyed it. They take a lot of liberties, especially with chronology, but I expect that with biopics. The music, the performances and the story all worked.

I've heard that the surviving members of Queen sort of slanted the depiction of the band to come across as.. how to phrase it... The Good Guys, with the now dead Freddy taking the fall for shennanigans..

How obvious is it, if at all?

[jeff37923]

Saw Prospect, I liked it but think it is better seen as a matinee or at the dollar theater because it isn't worth full price. The movie is more of a character study than anything else.

Picked up the DVD of Angel-A from the local McKay's. I recommend this film for anyone who has an ounce of romance in their soul. The acting, story, and camera work was absolutely riveting. Just about anytime you pressed pause, you were rewarded with an incredible visual.

[Bedrockbrendan]

I've heard that the surviving members of Queen sort of slanted the depiction of the band to come across as.. how to phrase it... The Good Guys, with the now dead Freddy taking the fall for shennanigans..

How obvious is it, if at all?

That didn't seem the case to me at all. I know why some people are saying that. But I really disagree. It depicted some of the conflicts in the band but it was a pretty respectful and humanizing depiction of Mercury. It did play very, very loose with things like chronology though. If you look at interviews of the band over the years, especially Brian May and Roger Taylor, they always been very protective of Mercury. There is one scene where they are having a stylistic clash over disco elements that I think people who have an axe to grind are reading into too much. And if you watch the actual scene, the end result is Another one Bites the Dust. There is a rift in the band in the film that over emphasizes Mercury's role. But I think that was done by the writer for dramatic purposes because Mercury is the person that the film is really about (and it isn't like the rest of the band comes out looking like they handled it all that well either). Again though, even though that portion of the movie plays lose with details and chronology, overall, it gets at some essential things that matted in Queen, particularly how close the band became once it was clear he was dying and they only had a limited time to make music (and just a spoiler they do place his AIDS diagnosis way earlier than it happened in real life for dramatic purposes).

My opinion is attacks on the band members somehow trying to make themselves look better, are unfair. First off, they've spent the last several decades protecting Mercury's legacy. Second, Queen isn't the kind of band where people were starved for adoration. Brian May is comfortably regarded as one of the top guitarists in the world, and both he and Roger Taylor had prominent singing and writing roles on their albums.

Some people have attacked the movie and the band for how it handles his sexuality. Again, I don't see it. The movie is basically about Mercury finding love and friendship. They didn't do that to say he was bad for being gay. They did that because in the wake of his death the press hounded Mercury's memory and attacked him for being overly promiscuous. The band has long tried to fight the image of Mercury as a promiscuous person who treated people like sex objects. And in the weeks after his death, you can find interviews of them doing just that. The film provides an explanation for how that image stuck, and it offers a more rounded view of his relationships with people. These are people who went to bat for the man pretty ferociously. So I just think folks are forgetting both the context of his death and the context of what it meant to be gay in Mercury's lifetime. People can debate the accuracy of the way they chose to represent his life. But I don't think the intention was what many of the harsher critics say it was. It just doesn't line up with the band's behavior and statements over the years (nor does it line up with the content of the movie).

[Omega]

Finally got to watch Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Overall a pretty fun movie. Went in some odd directions along the way but played out fairly well. And nice to see the original Guardians make a cameo. Well except for Vance Astro.

[Spike]

Thanks, Bedrock...  I think I'll check it out when it comes out on DVD... hmm... odds of it playing locally??? Not good...

I wasn't sure earlier, I'm a fan of Queen after a fashion, but I've seen too many shit movies lately so I've started to look on anything made in the last twenty years (That long??!?!!) as automatically bad, so my evaluation is less about quality and more about if I can relax and enjoy the stupidity on display.

[Bedrockbrendan]

Thanks, Bedrock...  I think I'll check it out when it comes out on DVD... hmm... odds of it playing locally??? Not good...

I wasn't sure earlier, I'm a fan of Queen after a fashion, but I've seen too many shit movies lately so I've started to look on anything made in the last twenty years (That long??!?!!) as automatically bad, so my evaluation is less about quality and more about if I can relax and enjoy the stupidity on display.

I quite liked it. I will probably see it once more in the theater but I am a very big fan of the band. Once is probably plenty for most viewers. It is a movie for fans and audiences. Despite some really good editing and a few impactful choices, it is more meant to entertain than please critics. The critic score on rotten Tomatoes is about 60% while the audience score is 94% (last I checked). If you like queen, it is worth seeing. It is a biopic, so does all the usual biopic stuff if that is an issue for you. If you are like warm on Queen, then it probably isn't going to be as interesting to watch.

[Pat]

Watched the 8 Harry Potter movies. I saw Sorcerer's Stone more than a decade ago, but beyond that it's my first real exposure to the franchise in either print or film. Two things really struck me, as I watched. The first is the major tone-switch. The first two movies were light kid's stuff, then they got really dark, both visually and thematically. This helped the series, though there was way too much focus on Harry Potter's innate specialness, and the villain Voldemort remained a one-dimensional caricature instead of turning into a fully developed character. The other aspect that really stood out is how the films celebrate the classism of the elite. It's not classism in the sense of money, but classism in the sense of talent and education. While it's true one of the major themes of the movie is a fight against discrimination, it's only against the prejudice facing the new elite (mudbloods). Those who have magic have it all, while muggles are treated as the butt of jokes and doing terrible things to them is fine because it's funny (pig's tail, being turned into a blimp, wiping their minds, etc.); at best, they're just shadowy figures you feel sad about (Hermione's parents), or people needing a rescue. Even blatantly slavery (house elves) is only considered bad when it's abusive.

Wasn't at all what I was expecting.