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The [Movies] Thread: Pre-Summer Blockbuster Blockbuster Season

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  • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    I hink both of the new Star Wars movies kind of eschewed the OT's classical storytelling and movie serial adventurism in favor of complex, interwoven political and cultural themes. TFA is about the renewal of the franchise after the prequels, and also about the dangers of nostalgia and fandom when they're taken to far (ie, into fascism and racism and #MAGA). R1 is about the relay of both culture and political struggles from one generation to the next. They're super great and I love that they're complex art on a level that SW just hasn't been before.

    ACsTqqK.jpg
  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    War Dogs (HBO), alright film, one to pass time by after a long day and you aren't quite ready to go to sleep. It has the guy who made The Hangover try and slap Wolf of Wall Street and Lord of War together, and the sum is nowhere near the parts but it's not bad, even with Miles Teller.

    The movie is narrated from Teller's POV with the whole thing being told in flashback which is always annoying as we see him being a stoner deadbeat trying to chase a get rich quick scheme until his old junior high buddy Hill arrives in town, who is starting up his own weapons selling company after working with his uncle across the country. Some wacky hijinks, some serious stuff, a Wolfmother song as is always the case with Todd Phillips and some deliberate Marty Score song choice callbacks including a chick who looks shockingly similar to Kelly Kapowski is here and Bradley Cooper and Kevin Pollak show up for a bit too.

    Teller is nowhere near DiCaprio or Cage from Lord of War here in both acting or voice narrating, and the selling point is just how much of a prick Jonah Hill is because while it seems like he's playing himself half the time he's a good actor. So much to the point that you wish it was told from his POV because he's much more interesting but you have to go through. So much of Teller's character also feels propped up to make his real life person look better than he probably was but that's the way these stories usually occur, although in WOWS and LOW's cases they show the characters having real faults, an example being relationships.

    A nearly two hour film, it feels longer than the three hour Wolf did with a real bog about an hour in, and nothing here stands out compared to any scene from the mentioned films. That scene in the trailers of running guns in Iraq is the only real "action" piece here, everything else being in a warehouse with a blue filter or a miami/warm filter and slow-mo movement to songs. I almost want to say it's more Phillips trying to one up Bay's Pain & Gain and go for a more subtler miami crime story take, but it's so obvious he's trying to copy Marty Score that he starts pulling out some bits from Goodfellas and Casino too.

    But overall, it wasn't as crap as David O Russel's attempts to copy Marty Score and was fine for a streaming watch.

  • JazzJazz Registered User regular
    That's reminded me how damn good Lord of War was.

  • DracilDracil Registered User regular
    edited April 2017
    I'm just so glad I finally got to watch Your Name with my friends this weekend. I saw it last year actually at the worldwide premiere and I've just been wanting to show people the film since then. It's a shame it's been treated so shoddily in the US after breaking box office records in a number of countries earlier.

    Dracil on
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  • cj iwakuracj iwakura The Rhythm Regent Bears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
    It made some pretty serious bank for being in limited release.

    LFVpN5T.png

    I think we'll be seeing more of it.

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  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    The ROI on Get Out is just makes me want to go "leave the room," m i rite gang?

  • AbsoluteZeroAbsoluteZero The new film by Quentin Koopantino Registered User regular
    I felt rather attached to the whole Rogue One crew. I think I even know all their full names, which I can't say is the case for most ensemble team movies!
    Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, Chirrut Imwe,
    Baze Malbus, K2SO and Bodhi... Rook?

    Complete opposite for me. For names I can remember K2SO, Director Krennic, and... that's it. The main cast felt like generic archetypes with little to no chemistry between them or screen presence to speak of.

    There is a Star Wars thread though so this talk could probably mosey on over that way.

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  • PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    It made some pretty serious bank for being in limited release.

    LFVpN5T.png

    I think we'll be seeing more of it.

    Eh its hard to see, limited release might mean everyone who wanted to see it did, anime specifically has quite dedicated but not super large fans in merica.

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
  • So It GoesSo It Goes We keep moving...Registered User regular
    TexiKen wrote: »
    The ROI on Get Out is just makes me want to go "leave the room," m i rite gang?

    I have tried to parse this, but cannot

  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    So It Goes wrote: »
    TexiKen wrote: »
    The ROI on Get Out is just makes me want to go "leave the room," m i rite gang?

    I have tried to parse this, but cannot

    more like Get Out pursed this #nailedit
    it made a lot of money

  • So It GoesSo It Goes We keep moving...Registered User regular
    TexiKen wrote: »
    So It Goes wrote: »
    TexiKen wrote: »
    The ROI on Get Out is just makes me want to go "leave the room," m i rite gang?

    I have tried to parse this, but cannot

    more like Get Out pursed this #nailedit
    it made a lot of money

    No shit, I don't understand your sentence still, or what joke you're trying to make, I guess.

  • ElJeffeElJeffe Moderator, ClubPA mod
    So It Goes wrote: »
    TexiKen wrote: »
    So It Goes wrote: »
    TexiKen wrote: »
    The ROI on Get Out is just makes me want to go "leave the room," m i rite gang?

    I have tried to parse this, but cannot

    more like Get Out pursed this #nailedit
    it made a lot of money

    No shit, I don't understand your sentence still, or what joke you're trying to make, I guess.

    "'Get Out' and 'Leave the Room' are vaguely similar phrases, omigod I am hilarious, beer me five."

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  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    you almost used beer me five.....sarcastically, but you couldn't have.

  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    edited April 2017
    attempted interpretation, minus pun:
    Get Out's "Return on Investment" ($162 million gross with a budget of, what, $4.5 million?) is an amazing and/or humbling number.
    Also, well-deserved.

    Commander Zoom on
  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    edited April 2017
    TexiKen wrote: »
    War Dogs (HBO), alright film, one to pass time by after a long day and you aren't quite ready to go to sleep. It has the guy who made The Hangover try and slap Wolf of Wall Street and Lord of War together

    I auto completed '...Lord of The Rings' and was excited for a moment.

    "One does not simply short sell mortgages!"

    MichaelLC on
  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    I think that all of the criticisms about Rogue One are valid. There were major changes, 1 character is obviously supposed to have been something, and isn't, there isn't a lot of character development. But Rogue One worked for me. It is basically the definitional greater than the sum of its parts.

    TFA, on the other hand, did what it had to do (reinstate Star Wars as something besides laughable as a movie franchise, etc), but in the end is somewhat empty. I like the main 3 characters, and it's a fun movie, but it's not as good or as fun as a lot of other fun movies.

  • WearingglassesWearingglasses Of the friendly neighborhood variety Registered User regular
    MichaelLC wrote: »
    TexiKen wrote: »
    War Dogs (HBO), alright film, one to pass time by after a long day and you aren't quite ready to go to sleep. It has the guy who made The Hangover try and slap Wolf of Wall Street and Lord of War together

    I auto completed '...Lord of The Rings' and was excited for a moment.

    "One does not simply short sell mortgages!"

    POH-TAY-TOES

  • shoeboxjeddyshoeboxjeddy Registered User regular
    Fencingsax wrote: »
    I think that all of the criticisms about Rogue One are valid. There were major changes, 1 character is obviously supposed to have been something, and isn't, there isn't a lot of character development. But Rogue One worked for me. It is basically the definitional greater than the sum of its parts.

    TFA, on the other hand, did what it had to do (reinstate Star Wars as something besides laughable as a movie franchise, etc), but in the end is somewhat empty. I like the main 3 characters, and it's a fun movie, but it's not as good or as fun as a lot of other fun movies.

    Good future: TFA is seen as a fine opening chapter to an excellent, exciting new trilogy of Star Wars movies.

    Bad future: TFA is the good one... like Revenge of the Sith.

  • TaramoorTaramoor Storyteller Registered User regular
    http://www.themalaymailonline.com/showbiz/article/bogdanovich-my-promise-to-finish-orsons-last-movie?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

    Peter Bogdonavich says that Post-production is underway on Orson Welles' last film, being funded by Netflix, and he's working to make it happen.

    I don't care if it's a godawful train wreck, if that thing actually comes out it will be fascinating in a million different ways.

  • Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Registered User regular
    edited April 2017
    cj iwakura wrote: »
    TFA could have been a good movie had it bothered to explain the political spectrum at all. Instead we got a bunch of well acted style and no substance.

    Yeah, I was also hoping for 2 hours of trade agreements and legislative sessions.

    By Aaron Sorkin, fuck yeah!

    That said, they should tried harder on that front, politics itself aren't bad to make coherent in films - it's just George Lucas is bad at it. You know what other films have politics in movies that make sense? Mission: Impossible.

    edit: Rebels, Clone Wars, and Rogue One also do this right in the Star Wars setting.

    Harry Dresden on
  • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    The problem wasn't that it was politics, the problem was that it was trade, which is enormously difficult to make into compelling cinema even if you're not also telling a rhyming space epic action movie at the same time. Imagine if in A New Hope the drama around the moisture farm wasn't "Luke wants to join the rebellion but he's needed on the farm" but "Moisture as an industry is declining because of poorly negotiated deals between the government and a union of food and water conglomerates." Try to make a compelling movie in present day America about fucking NAFTA, I dare you, it basically can't be done.

    But there are lots of political issues that are issues because people care about them dramatically, and they could have been used to power the prequel story--issues like civil rights, blaster control, religious freedom, criminal justice, etc., are all applicable to that universe and cinematically vibrant. The films could have explored parallels between the Jedi Council, essentially a theocratic police force with significant power over ordinary citizens, and the nascent, authoritarian Empire. Or the thorny question of droid rights as a proxy battle between those who believe in order and those who prefer freedom, with young Anakin switching sides from the latter to the former. Rogue One itself gets a lot of mileage out of the politics of social upheaval--do I break laws and other social guidelines for the greater good, or do I stay aloof and safe and self-interested? That's a political question, and it's vital to the film they made about a war, but it's also expressed visually and through character and through big, exciting action sequences, not a bunch of jargon and disputes.

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  • KingofMadCowsKingofMadCows Registered User regular
    edited April 2017
    The politics in Episode 1 didn't even make sense.

    The Senate sent Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to negotiate with the Trade Federation about the blockade on Naboo, so they were clearly given some authority to represent the Republic. But then when the Trade Federation tries to assassinate the Jedis and the Jedis gather proof that the Trade Federation invaded Naboo and took over its government, they suddenly can't give that evidence to the Senate so the Republic can take actions against the Trade Federation. This leads to a bunch of dumb nonsensical political maneuvering that the audience can't understand because the movie never bothers to explain the rules of the Senate.

    KingofMadCows on
  • ThirithThirith Registered User regular
    Astaereth wrote: »
    The problem wasn't that it was politics, the problem was that it was trade, which is enormously difficult to make into compelling cinema even if you're not also telling a rhyming space epic action movie at the same time... Try to make a compelling movie in present day America about fucking NAFTA, I dare you, it basically can't be done.
    Might be an idea to have an explanatory bit in the middle of the film delivered by a sexy bot taking an oil bath, voiced and motion captured by Margot Robbie.

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    "Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    Star Wars episode 1 stuff
    "the senate" didn't send them, chancellor volorum did. The trade federation tried to kill them because palpatine(in his role as darth sidious) ordered it. The politics don't especially matter, except insofar as Palpatine is playing both sides against the middle in order to seize power. By the time they reach the Senate, they are supposed to be dead already, and the inability of Volorum to actually do anything against the trade federation is used against him by palpatine because he convinces the senate it needs a strong leader who won't be bogged down in procedural shenanigans

    The audience doesn't need to understand the arcane workings, just that bureaucracy=bad and strongman=good.

    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
  • SorceSorce Not ThereRegistered User regular
    Thirith wrote: »
    Astaereth wrote: »
    The problem wasn't that it was politics, the problem was that it was trade, which is enormously difficult to make into compelling cinema even if you're not also telling a rhyming space epic action movie at the same time... Try to make a compelling movie in present day America about fucking NAFTA, I dare you, it basically can't be done.
    Might be an idea to have an explanatory bit in the middle of the film delivered by a sexy bot taking an oil bath, voiced and motion captured by Margot Robbie.
    Or just have Margot Robbie as one of those tentacle head aliens.

    sig.gif
  • ThirithThirith Registered User regular
    That should work too. Problem of making trade politics interesting in Star Wars: resolved.

    webp-net-resizeimage.jpg
    "Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
  • BlackDragon480BlackDragon480 Bluster Kerfuffle Master of Windy ImportRegistered User regular
    Sorce wrote: »
    Thirith wrote: »
    Astaereth wrote: »
    The problem wasn't that it was politics, the problem was that it was trade, which is enormously difficult to make into compelling cinema even if you're not also telling a rhyming space epic action movie at the same time... Try to make a compelling movie in present day America about fucking NAFTA, I dare you, it basically can't be done.
    Might be an idea to have an explanatory bit in the middle of the film delivered by a sexy bot taking an oil bath, voiced and motion captured by Margot Robbie.
    Or just have Margot Robbie as one of those tentacle head aliens.

    Twi'lek or Togruta?

    ...this is an important question.

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  • KingofMadCowsKingofMadCows Registered User regular
    knitdan wrote: »
    Star Wars episode 1 stuff
    "the senate" didn't send them, chancellor volorum did. The trade federation tried to kill them because palpatine(in his role as darth sidious) ordered it. The politics don't especially matter, except insofar as Palpatine is playing both sides against the middle in order to seize power. By the time they reach the Senate, they are supposed to be dead already, and the inability of Volorum to actually do anything against the trade federation is used against him by palpatine because he convinces the senate it needs a strong leader who won't be bogged down in procedural shenanigans

    The audience doesn't need to understand the arcane workings, just that bureaucracy=bad and strongman=good.

    The point is that it made no sense that the Jedis couldn't present their evidence of the Trade Federation's wrongdoings to the Senate.

    And Palpatine didn't get elected by convincing the Senate they needed a strong leader. He convinced Amidala to call for the vote of no confidence by telling her they needed a stronger Chancellor. He won because the invasion of Naboo made the Senate sympathetic towards his cause.

    Also, Episode 1 didn't do anything to suggest Palpatine was going to be a strong leader. He didn't do anything to resolve the situation. All he did was tell Amidala that he was going to reduce corruption and remove the influence of the Trade Federation on the bureaucrats.

  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    That bureaucratic influence you mention is the very reason the Jedi couldn't present the evidence.

    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
  • FroThulhuFroThulhu Registered User regular
    I find the background workings of the Star Wars setting incredibly interesting, insofar as they have to do with laser-swords and spaceships going pew-pew.

    Like... in my couple dozen hours playing the Old Republic, I found the implications of massive slaver operations, interstellar gang politics, semi-theological discussions, and the existent of mostly-sapient AI to be incredibly compelling ideas to explore. Insofar as they directly affect laser-swords and spaceships going pew-pew.

    I find the implications of the political slide, the ebb and flow, of the Galactic Empire and the New Republic over the course of decades to be rich in setting potential.

    Because I'm a fucking nerd

    The other few million people who saw the movie(s) don't give a shit, because they're not titanic giganerds. Including the writers and directors.

    I'd love a dynamic political thriller set ten years after the battle of Jakku, featuring Mon Mothma and some stubborn Moff.

    Because I'm a fucking nerd.

    But I also feel like TFA was a widely enjoyable movie because it was shot well, acted well, and the immediate elements of the story (there are bad guys who do bad things, there are good guys who want to make bad things stop happening so much, somebody has magical powers and becomes a good guy; there's a bad guy with magical powers oh noooes!) are presented in broad, brilliantly-colored strokes punctuated by fun character moments.

    And I feel like my nerdy-ass-nerdy desire for more in-depth lore exploration is... nerdy as shit, and entirely unnecessary to the telling of the story.

    Ewoks are my favorite thing. Neither the vast majority of humans anywhere, nor this movie itself, give a single anemic fuck about Ewoks.

    I am deeply confounded by how badly the new Jedi order failed, and that's fairly pertinent to the goings-on in this movie. But the lack of explanation does literally nothing to harm the narrative, except for failing to make it into completely different movie that I would also liked to have seen.

    Which is exactly what the absence of political 'depth' does to TFA.

    Absolutely. Nothing.

  • Redcoat-13Redcoat-13 Registered User regular
    I don't even understand what the blockade was blocking in Phantom Menace; why should Naboo actually care? Every scene of that planet makes it seem like its some kind of paradise and yet when Queen Amidala (why does the planet elect young Queens?), shes says people are dying I guess to make things urgent, but there's no evidence of this.

    The whole thing makes no sense.

    Plus the action is boring; the Droids pose absolutely no threat whatsoever.

    PSN Fleety2009
  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
  • KingofMadCowsKingofMadCows Registered User regular
    knitdan wrote: »
    That bureaucratic influence you mention is the very reason the Jedi couldn't present the evidence.

    Which makes no sense because was the point of killing the Jedis if they were going to be completely ineffective anyway?

  • Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Registered User regular
    Don't analyze the politics in the PT, it makes absolutely no sense. It's Calvinball.

  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    edited April 2017
    knitdan wrote: »
    That bureaucratic influence you mention is the very reason the Jedi couldn't present the evidence.

    Which makes no sense because was the point of killing the Jedis if they were going to be completely ineffective anyway?

    Probably to maximize outrage, possibly to keep the infvasion plans from getting out but they survived so he had to improvise

    Edit: ok, now I'm remembering more stuff

    The Jedi were sent there to handle the negotiations between Naboo and the Trade Federation in the never-quite-explained trade dispute. But the TF was never planning to negotiate, invasion was always the plan.

    Palpatine knew the Jedi would figure this out pretty quick, and possibly interfere before the "facts on the ground" turned ugly enough for him to get the situation in the Senate to the point where he could force a vote of no confidence.

    knitdan on
    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
  • Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Registered User regular
    edited April 2017
    knitdan wrote: »
    knitdan wrote: »
    That bureaucratic influence you mention is the very reason the Jedi couldn't present the evidence.

    Which makes no sense because was the point of killing the Jedis if they were going to be completely ineffective anyway?

    Probably to maximize outrage, possibly to keep the infvasion plans from getting out but they survived so he had to improvise

    Wouldn't this give the Jedi more credibility in the senate? The Trade Federation trying to murder the Jedi, who were there for ambassadors, just by showing up sounds like a Bad Thing once the galaxy heard about it for the Trade Federation.

    Harry Dresden on
  • Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Registered User regular
    edited April 2017
    https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/04/anthony-hopkins-calls-michael-bay-a-genius-and-savant/
    Anthony Hopkins has worked with some of the best in the business, like Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone. The latest visionary director to earn Sir Hopkins’ favor? None other than the king of explosions, Michael Bay.

    In an interview with Yahoo! Movies, Hopkins gushed about working with Bay on the latest Transformers movie, Transformers: The Last Knight, where he plays an astronomer and historian who knows the “true history” behind the Transformers. In the interview, Hopkins praised Bay and the entire Transformers series, comparing him to some of the greatest directors of all time, including Martin Scorsese. That’s right, Hopkins thinks the guy who reportedly made Megan Fox audition by washing his car for a now-missing video is in the same category as the man behind Goodfellas (then again, Scorsese has defended director Roman Polanski, so maybe not the best comparison).

    “He was telling me about the work he did on [the Transformers bots] – how he would refine them and go into the special effects guys and design them and get all the details of light on metal and all that. He told me all that at breakfast before I started on the film. I thought ‘This guy’s a genius. He really is.’ He’s the same ilk as Oliver Stone and Spielberg and Scorsese. Brilliance. Savants, really, they are. He’s a savant,” Hopkins said.

    Hopkins knows how to promote, I guess. lol

    Harry Dresden on
  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    Like; the best shot at it making sense is that palpatine doesn't care if the Jedi live or die. He just wants to escalate the situation to provoke a crisis that Valoren cannot deal with (because he is preventing him from doing so).

    But... The trade federation is taking aggressive military action against Naboo at the start of the movie. A blockade is an act of war. To enforce the blockade they must shoot down Naboo transport ships or it's not a blockade. So we're already at game over in this construction of the Republic, which doesn't have an army and whose constituent parts apparently do.

    Then, the Jedi that Valorem sent to fix the republic ending threat aren't allowed to testify and Palpatines plan comes to fruition.

    Then, 10 years pass and Palpatine, through his weakness, allows the entire galaxy to rebel and somehow isn't removed.

    wbBv3fj.png
  • GvzbgulGvzbgul Registered User regular
    edited April 2017
    I believe that Michael Bay is very good at doing what he does.

    Gvzbgul on
  • Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Registered User regular
    Gvzbgul wrote: »
    I believe that Michael Bay is very good at doing what he wants to do.

    Plenty of others do that better then he does, and he is no Martin Scorsese.

This discussion has been closed.