What Movie Are You Watching?

Im watching E.T (the so-called "Shotgun removal release from 2002) the one with Dee Wallace, Drew Barry More and Peter Cayote.
It is bout this 10 year old kid who finds a wierd ailien in his backyard toolshed, It sold a hell of a lot of merch back in the 80s, Directed by Steven Speelberg who made Close Encounters of the third kind, Jaws and Jurrasic park.

I don't remember more about the plot, other than the ailien almost dying at one point.

The move has its 40th aniversary on June 11th of this year

E.T has in my opinion, the BEST use of practical effects (yes this was the pre-CGI era of filmmaking) Though not even this movie looks as good as Tron (the OG from 1982) Now these two movies are absolute classics that you should watch at least 1337 times before you die.

They don't make good movies anymore!

CheerZ

/MrHazuki

June 3rd 2022
 
Spring Breakers (2012/3):

The acting is not stellar, just passable, with Franco being the best of the bunch (no surprise there) and the plot is just awful, not to mention the plot holes, pacing, poor writing and script, etc. Korine tries to flash back and forwards in an almost V for Vendetta-like way, but it doesn't work for a film such as this and the soundtrack is pretty awful as well. Definitely not worth a watch, unless you like seeing some gratuitous nudity and Vanessa Hudgens faking having sex lol.

Again, Korine set out to portray a group a certain way and he succeeded with flying colours... but not a great film in the slightest. And the constant, "spring break..." is HILARIOUS and my wife and I now say it randomly, while getting a good chuckle :LOL:

(SPRING BREAK FOREVER!)

5/10

Oh I’d disagree with some of that. Take that one scene where the girls are explaining what happened with the robbery. They make it sound like it was a huge struggle as the customers put up a fight as she retells it to Faith, yet in actual fact, as Korine underscores with the cutting back and forward, it wasn’t a struggle at all. It was anything but a struggle as the customers put up no fight.

And that is what sums it all up best. These girls are living in a dream. It’s all fantasy. They are completely unreliable as narrators and their version of events always strews from the truth. The film is so dream like in its construction and slowly but surely abandons all reality as it goes forward. It’s their pure psychopathic fantasy.

There’s no way in hell those girls would be able to do what they do come the end of the film. But by that point the film has completely abandoned reality and transcended into their pop culture addled fantasy.

and that’s kind of the point of film to me. It’s a hallucinogenic quest for spiritual transcendence as seen through the eyes of the vaccous.

I really think it’s kind of brilliant but I’ve always had a soft spot for Harmony. His films are less about narrative and more about story, imagery and mood. But yet, come the end, I always find myself finding something new within them.

The man is a true artist and I respect the hell out of him for making art that can still split the audience right down the middle.
 
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I admire Korine (although i'm too terrified to watch 'Kids'), but I really didn't like 'Spring Breakers'. 'Mister Lonely' was great and 'Trash Humpers' is the biggest whatthefuckamiwatching film since Cannibal Holocaust...!!
 
Oh I’d disagree with some of that. Take that one scene where the girls are explaining what happened with the robbery. They make it sound like it was a huge struggle as the customers put up a fight as she retells it to Faith, yet in actual fact, as Korine underscores with the cutting back and forward, it wasn’t a struggle at all. It was anything but a struggle as the customers put up no fight.

And that is what sums it all up best. These girls are living in a dream. It’s all fantasy. They are completely unreliable as narrators and their version of events always strews from the truth. The film is so dream like in its construction and slowly but surely abandons all reality as it goes forward. It’s their pure psychopathic fantasy.

There’s no way in hell those girls would be able to do what they do come the end of the film. But by that point the film has completely abandoned reality and transcended into their pop culture addled fantasy.

and that’s kind of the point of film to me. It’s a hallucinogenic quest for spiritual transcendence as seen through the eyes of the vaccous.

I really think it’s kind of brilliant but I’ve always had a soft spot for Harmony. His films are less about narrative and more about story, imagery and mood. But yet, come the end, I always find myself finding something new within them.

The man is a true artist and I respect the hell out of him for making art that can still split the audience right down the middle.
I was waiting for a Dan response! ('cause I know you're a fan ;))

I agree with the narrative part and I also agree that he shows that the chicks are not living in reality (hence my comment of, "in over their head)." Faith knows and recognises this, Cotty does as well, but only after she's shot (hence them being put on a bus).

As with almost every film, it is a competently-made film, just not one of the better ones I've ever seen. Someone (on imdb, I think) called it an, "hour and a half long music video," and I agree it definitely is shot that way.
 
I forgot to say I watched the new Batman. I’ve got to say, many of the first reviews I’d seen were positive, so my expectations were already set going in, but it still exceeded them anyway. Which makes it all the more baffling that now I’m finding there are some who didn’t like it so much, but that’s more to do with specific complaints.

Some say it’s too long…yeah, maybe a bit, but honestly to me it’s nice to get a film these days that really takes its time to develop everything. Which comes to my next point in that still others say it’s too slow, and there’s not enough action, and on top of that what action is there is not good. For me, I guess I’m just used to stuff from say David Lynch by now that anything else never feels slow or awkward lol. I liked the car chase scene personally, and I kinda get that this movie is set when he’s still pretty inexperienced so having the bullet proof armor is kind of something he relies on until he realizes it is making him too slow and still vulnerable to being knocked back and all, until he probably learns to be far more agile and acrobatic to dodge things and stuff like usual. Plus I think there being fewer action scenes makes them feel more important in general. Does everything these days really have to be a marvel movie?

There are people here I guess who will just never like Robert Pattinson and who keep judging him based on the Twilight movies. I haven’t seen much more, just the Lighthouse and this, but at least giving him a chance I feel he pulls this off pretty well, and at least his voice sounds a bit more natural. Now, the only other Batman movie I’ve seen was The Dark Knight, and the Joker really made that film what it was, but I recall many people memed the hell out of the Batman’s voice there for being way over the top. In contrast I find this one better.

Lastly there’s the Riddler. I’m not quite sure what I expected, most of my knowledge on the series coming from the cartoons, but this was certainly a very different take. A little bit generic feeling at first, almost like a bad guy out of CSI or Criminal Minds or something, but I think it fits this much more gritty take on the series, especially when his sort of real self comes out.

Overall I very much liked it and it may be my new favorite superhero movie next to Deadpool - not that I’ve seen much else. I wonder if Deadpool 2 is any good.
 
I was waiting for a Dan response! ('cause I know you're a fan ;))

I agree with the narrative part and I also agree that he shows that the chicks are not living in reality (hence my comment of, "in over their head)." Faith knows and recognises this, Cotty does as well, but only after she's shot (hence them being put on a bus).

As with almost every film, it is a competently-made film, just not one of the better ones I've ever seen. Someone (on imdb, I think) called it an, "hour and a half long music video," and I agree it definitely is shot that way.

For note, I don't think it's his best work (I still think that honor belongs to either Gummo or Mister Lonely so far) but I still really like it nonetheless. There are some great scenes in that movie.

The "look at muh shit" scene gets me every time :) And speaking of every time...that Britney Spears montage is still incredible.

But on the whole? I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10 personally. But I know I'm bias because I am a Korine fan. :LOL:

I will admit, even as a fan, to this day I still have the internal debate. Is he truly an artist or is he just a punk kid laughing in the face of everyone with prankster art? But then I think even if that is the case then that still makes him an artist of sorts. Hell, I'm still not even sure if he's making fun of these people or holding no judgment to them whatsoever and I've felt that way since Gummo, tbh. You listen to his interviews and he says he holds no real judgment towards the people he presents...but it's really hard to say sometimes. I can easily see Spring Breakers being a critique of the vacuous Instagram-minded crowd. But then other days I see a lot of biblical connotations in it.

But I think that's what make the best artists for me. The ones who are a true enigma and will leave you questioning the validity of their work for years to come.

But I can totally see both sides of the argument when it comes to Harmony and why some would label his films as not great films or such. That's what I love about him though. He still has the power to split us all down the middle.

That and I got to admit he's kind of cute. I'm totally comfortable in my sexuality to admit that if I were gay? Then Harmony would be my type. :ROFLMAO:
 
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I admire Korine (although i'm too terrified to watch 'Kids'), but I really didn't like 'Spring Breakers'. 'Mister Lonely' was great and 'Trash Humpers' is the biggest whatthefuckamiwatching film since Cannibal Holocaust...!!

Trash Humpers is still one of my favourite cinema-going experiences. No joke. I saw it at a film festival in Sydney. We started off with an 80% full crowd. By the end, there were 30% of us left in the cinema. The audible walk outs were just as hilarious as some of the film was to me. And when I say audible, I do mean audible. There were people who were not afraid to express their displeasure as they walked out.

"Vulgar trash"
"this is a complete waste of fucking time"
"they have the nerve to call this a movie?"

All I could think was you came to a movie called TRASH HUMPERS...what the fuck were you expecting? Titanic? :ROFLMAO:

Best cinema going experience I've ever had. Just because it had the intended reaction I think Harmony wanted from it. For note, I like Trash Humpers but it is his weakest film by far. I like it for the sheer "what the fuck am I watching?" nature of it. And some of the gallows vaudevillian humor did work for me. But I can totally see why people would despise that film as well and I'm hard pressed to defend it at times. All I can say in its favor is if you have a really pitch black subversive sense of humor then you might get a chuckle or two out of it. But otherwise stay away. It's called Trash Humpers for a reason.

Although I will say in its favor that it at least calls the bluff on all found footage films by being something that you could actually believe would be found festering in a landfill. It has that going for it at least. It truly does feel like something waiting to be found.

In some ways, I still think he should have just lobbed off the credits and let that thing go viral and see if it grew. Tell no one it was directed by Harmony and just let it go and see if it grew. Because I'm very sure it would have got a reaction had it went viral. :ROFLMAO:
 
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Ed Wood on disney plus.

never heard of this movie until i spotted it on disney+. it's a Tim Burton film.

it has to be one of the best johnny depp movies i've seen in a long time. it's set in the 1950s and partly based on a true story. it's about a very passionate but bad horror / B movie director.

if your into wacky film, i recommend it.
 

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Ed Wood is a lovely little film. Plan 9 From Outer Space is utter bollocks, but what charming bollocks. It's sincere, which makes it a winner in my book.
 
Ed Wood is a lovely little film. Plan 9 From Outer Space is utter bollocks, but what charming bollocks. It's sincere, which makes it a winner in my book.

Yeah, most of Ed Wood's catalogue is that way. Mostly terrible, but he at least tried. Still, I would take any Ed Wood film over Uwe Boll any day of the week. For me, Uwe Boll is still the absolute worst in the sense that he didn't give a fuck and was just exploiting a tax loop hole.

Ed Wood's a good film. One of Burton's best.

Anyways

Rewatched:

Office Space -
4 out of 5 // Still one of Mike Judge's best

Idiocracy - 3.5 out of 5 // I have a love for Idiocracy but with that said, I do think it is a very flawed movie. The concept is almost too big a concept for the movie it actually is and the lack of budget really drives that home. Still, very low brow, very crass and very funny. I won't say "it's a documentary" or anything predictable like that but it is a sharp satire that still holds a bite.

Been in a bit of a Mike Judge mood after finishing Seasons 1 through 6 of Silicon Valley.

Watched (for first time):

Phone Booth - 3.5 out of 5 //
Had never seen this before. But I caught it on TV late one night and ended up watching. Not bad for what it was. Very Hitchcockian in feel. Good use of real time gimmick. Collin Farrell played the smarmy PR prick very well. Keither Sufferland as the voice was the real stand out though. Yeah, a solid little genre flick that didn't outstay its welcome. Was well paced and kept me involved. More modern genre films could learn a thing or two about not overstaying their welcome.

The Lion King (2019) - 0.5 out of 5 // I deliberately did not see this when it hit theaters. But I was bored and it was on my HDD and I felt like doing a bit of a hate-watch. Somehow it was even worse than I thought it would be. It really reminds me of Gus Van Sant's shot for shot remake of Psycho as to how completely pointless and unnecessary it is. Sure, they may look like real life animals, but they have NONE of the character or heart that the 2D hand drawn characters displayed in the original movie. It's like this movie harbors a deep hatred for any sort of facial expression in its quest for photo realism. Fucking awful in every regard! The original Lion King is a classic...this? This was a steaming hot pile of garbage. I give it 0.5 simply for the technical achievement. But even then, that technical achievement came at the cost of pure heart and soul.

Fuck this movie!
 
Office Space really is an enjoyable watch; aside from Beavis and Butthead, I find I take to Mike Judge's works quite well and OS is no exception.
 
My wife went on an hour or so walk with a friend yesterday, so I took in...

Police Story (1985)

Jackie Chan is a cop on a task force that is established to take down a known drug lord. The operation goes awry and after some typical Chan stunts and hijinks, he is able to capture the drug lord on a bus. The drug lord's secretary also gets arrested, but is set free and is to be watched by Chan, as the police intend on using her as a witness. She finds out though, that one of the situations (which is pretty fun) where she thinks people are after her, was actually a ruse by Chan and the cops, thus she gets pissed off and blows Chan's job up, not to mention she disappears the morning of the arraignment. At the arraignment, everything goes haywire and the drug lord is set free on bail... where he attempts to kill his secretary and frame Chan for the killing on a fellow policeman.

The film isn't anything groundbreaking or is rife with plot twists and spoilers, but it is just a simply-enjoyable film to watch from beginning to end: I've only ever seen this and Rumble in the Bronx, in terms of, "old school," Chan films and I have a feeling that all of them are lighter on plot, but just simply enjoyable.

Chan does do a great job throughout and hearing his young voice speak Cantonese just paints him as an actor I've never seen before. Brigitte Lin does a decent job as the secretary that is constantly on the run, Maggie Cheung does a superb job as Chan's girlfriend and the other cops are all quite good in supporting roles, especially Bill Tung (of course).

Great stuff, again, nothing amazing, but super-enjoyable. One down, more to go!

8/10
 
What’s funny is that Chan’s real voice wouldn’t be heard by audiences until about Supercop, since most of not all Hong Kong films prior to that weren’t shot with live sound. I remember finally being able to see Drunken Master 2 with its original audio track and being thrown off because you could tell he was still dubbed by another Cantonese voice 😂

But with Police Story, you really couldn’t have picked a better old-school Jackie Chan film to start with. You
 
Kind of wild upon retrospect of Maggie Cheung's career that she portrayed a character that was just a girlfriend played for comic relief. They certainly did more with her in Police Story 2 but she was back on the sideline in Supercop. Back then it was whatever but now I'm like you had Maggie Cheung, even in the same movie with Michelle Yeoh and you don't really do anything with that beyond throw her off a helicopter? :LOL:

I remember finally being able to see Drunken Master 2

Love that movie. Still one of the best final fights I've ever seen.
 
Gadzooks, it's been another two months since I last updated this list. I've been under a lot of pressure with buying a house, moving job, dog dying etc (will talk about this in the mental health thread soon), so the joy of watching films has been lost of me recently which hurts as it's my biggest passion. Still, there's always good films out there. Ones that mean something to me or are just genuinely brilliant are in bold:

New films to me
1) Five Fingers of Death / Jeong Chang-Hwa / 1972 / 3/5
2) Onibaba / Kaneto Shindo / 1964 / 3/5
3) The Unberabale Weight of Massive Talent / Tom Gormican / 2022 / 3/5
4) The Sniper / Edward Dmytryk / 1952 / 4/5
5) Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky / Lam Ngai-Kai / 1991 / 4/5

6) Another 48 Hrs. / Walter Hill / 1990 / 3/5
7) Ninja Terminator / Godfrey Ho / 1985 / 0.5/5
8) Lu Over The Wall / Masaaki Yuasa / 2017 / 4/5
9) Missing in Action / Joseph Zito / 1984 / 3/5
10) Mildred Pierce / Michael Curtiz / 1945 / 4/5
11) City of Fear / Irving Lerner / 1959 / 3/5
12) The Brain / Ed Hunt / 1988 / 2.5/5
13) The Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company / Jean-Luc Godard / 1986 / 2/5
14) The Boxer from Shantung / Cheh Chang & Hsueh Li Pao / 1972 / 3/5
15) Everything Everywhere All At Once / Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert / 2022 / 5/5
16) Like Rabid Dogs / Mario Imperoli / 1976 / 3/5
17) Galaxy of Terror / Bruce D. Clark / 1981 / 2/5
18) Double Team / Tsui Hark / 1997 / 3.5/5
19) Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness / Sam Raimi / 2022 / 2/5
20) Jack / Francis Ford Coppola / 1996 / 4/5
21) Where The Wild Things Are / Spike Jonze / 2009 / 2/5
22) The Bob's Burgers Movie / Loren Bouchard & Bernard Derriman / 2022 / 3/5
23) The Holy Mountain / Arnold Fanck & Leni Riefenstahl / 1926 / 4/5
24) Top Gun: Maverick / Joseph Kosinski / 2022 / 4/5
25) Bubble / Tetsuro Araki / 2022 / 3/5
26) Fireworks / Akiyuki Shinbo & Nobuyuki Takeuchi / 2017 / 1/5
27) Walk A Crooked Mile / Gordon Douglas / 1948 / 3/5
28) The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl / Ray Muller / 1993 / 3/5
29) Men / Alex Garland / 2022 / 3/5
30) Lucy / Luc Besson / 2014 / 3/5
31) The Hurt Locker / Kathryn Bigelow / 2008 / 3/5
32) Three Coins in the Fountain / Jean Negulesco / 1954 / 3/5
33) Stoker / Park Chan-Wook / 2013 / 2/5
34) Diary of a Lost Girl / G. W. Pabst / 1929 / 3/5
35) Colt 38 Special Squad / Massimo Dallamano / 1976 / 3/5
36) David Lynch: The Art Life / Olivia Neergaard-Holm, Jon Nguyen & Rick Barnes / 2016 / 4/5
37) Tekken / Dwight H. Little / 2010 / 2/5
38) 5 Masters of Death / Cheh Chang / 1974 / 3/5
39) The Black Phone / Scott Derrickson / 2022 / 3.5/5
40) Braveheart / Mel Gibson / 1995 / 4/5
41) Gurren Lagann The Movie 1: Childhood's End / Hiroyuki Imaishi / 2008 / 3/5

Re-watched films
1) Lawrence of Arabia / David Lean / 1962 / 5/5
2) Death Race 2000 / Paul Bartel / 1975 / 4/5
3) Top Gun / Tony Scott / 1986 / 4/5
4) Irma Vep / Olivier Assayas / 1996 / 5/5
5) The Sparks Brothers / Edgar Wright / 2021 / 5/5

6) The Great Gatsby / Baz Luhrman / 2013 / 3/5
7) Starman / John Carpenter / 1984 / 4/5
8) Night Tide / Curtis Harrington / 1961 / 3.5/5

Short films
1) Three Lives / Edward Dmytryk / 1953 / 3/5
2) Three Pests in a Mess / Del Lord / 1945 / 4/5
3) American Boy / Martin Scorcese / 1978 / 4/5
4) The Big Shave / Martin Scorcese / 1967 / 3/5
5) It's Not Just You, Murray! / Martin Scorcese / 1964 / 3/5
6) The Autobiography of a 'Jeep' / Joseph Krumgold & Irving Lerner / 1943 / 3/5
7) Hymn of the Nations / Alexander Hammid / 1944 / 3/5
8) The Cummington Story / Helen Grayson & Larry Madison / 1945 / 3/5
9) Oil's Well That Ends Well / Jules White / 1958 / 2/5
10) What's A Nice Girl Like You Doing In A Place LIke This? / Martin Scorcese / 1963 / 3/5
11) Routine Job: A Story of Scotland Yard / Gilbert Gunn / 1946 / 2/5
12) Dunked in the Deep / Jules White / 1949 / 1/5
13) Man Yuk: A Portrait of Maggie Cheung / Olivier Assayas / 1997 / 3/5

TV shows
1) Blade Runner: Black Lotus / Shinki Aramaki & Kenji Kamiyama / 2021 / 2/5
2) Elvis Presley: The Searcher / Thom Zimny / 2018 / 3/5
3) Gurren Lagann / Hiroyuki Imaishi / 2007 / 4/5

I love film noir and The Sniper is brilliant as it's short, tight and full of tension. Considering when the film was made, there is a real nasty streak to it that feel brutal 70 years later.

Riki-oh is trash cinema of the highest order and it knows it. It's so gory and over the top you can't help but laugh *with* it. Watching this with friends over a beer enhances the experience greatly.

I'm so tired of over hype (especially being autistic where you're more likely to push me away the more you keep going on about something), but I think Everything Everywhere All At Once more or less justified it. It's not the greatest film ever made. It's not even the best film so far this year, but I couldn't help but fall in love with it's maximalist approach (even if it gave me a headache at times). The key thing this film does have is heart. Without it, the film fall apart.

Top Gun: Maverick was another film that justified the hype, but in the opposite way to EEAAO in that I had no expectations from it. The fact it felt like a proper old school action film without this post-irony snark that is poisining a lot of modern cinema (looking at you Marvel/DC) is just wonderful. Another film with heart and sincerity in spades.

Irma Vep is a brilliant little film with Maggie Cheung (who was wonderful in Police Story!) as a sort of a film-within-a-film-within-a-film. It's bonkers and brilliant. I really recommend it if you are a film buff like me.

The Sparks Brothers is such a brilliant documentary. I went in as a fan of Edgar Wright and left as a fan of Sparks. That's the best compliment I can give it!

Finally, it's been 15 years since I last watched Lawrence of Arabia, so watching it again felt like seeing it for the first time. Watching it at the cinema with intermissions was a wonderful experience. It's not my favourite David Lean film, but it's a wonderful reminder of when big truly meant big. Again, i'm so bored of gigantic CGI bullshit, so watching epics like this where everything is REAL, makes the film even better in my eyes.

PS: A speical mention for Ninja Terminator. It's a fucking travesty, but it gets bonus points for some truly bizarre scenes (serious conversations using a Garfield phone, frankly illeagal use of Pink Floyd music to awful sex scenes and nonsensical plot).
 
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky / Lam Ngai-Kai / 1991 / 4/5
5 Masters of Death / Cheh Chang / 1974 / 3/5
Top Gun: Maverick
1. In case you liked it, dude trust me: Adam Chaplin (2011). Italian cut is a bit longer iirc. "Vivo solo sulle spalle di quest'uomo..hehe".
2. To me thats a true gem. So then, "The 18 Bronzemen" (1976) again with extended (Hong Kong) cut and a sequel.
3. I watched it very skeptical. Now my new purposes are: get fit and muscular, play beach volley.
 
Excellent stuff, BCD!

What did you think of Lucy? Seeing Besson, a bit of crime and Choi made it super-enjoyable for me and even my wife really liked it! I too gave it a 7 (maybe an 8) /10, but it was entertaining, I felt.

And did you think Hurt Locker deserved all the awards? Probably the only Oscars I actually felt some animosity towards...
 
I'm a big Besson fan and quite enjoyed it! It was silly, goofy fun and was a breezy, short film. I think I liked "Anna" better, but "Lucy" was quite the sugar rush (although I watched it in bed on a sunny Saturday morning haha).

The Hurt Locker was a minor disappointment; especially as every other Bigelow film i've seen has been incredible (indeed, I rate "Zero Dark Thirty", "Stranger Days" and "Detroit" much higher). It's not a bad film, but perhaps watching it a decade after the hype has died down, it's little more than a solid film.
 
Saw Thor Love and Thunder when it came out. I felt it would've been better as a Disney Plus series, especially with how they could've better developed Thor's relationship with GOTG, and further helped Jane's individual development. The mid-credits teases a possible next villain, but I want to see a live action version of Knull. Other than that, Thor came across as too much of a bonehead like Johnny from Cobra Kai...but the movie does try to justify it to its credit...
 
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