Finally watched Bird Box.
Reasonably good. I purposely avoided reading anything about it and had no idea what the premise of the film was before I watched it, as I wanted no presuppositions.
Main niggle was ...
Spoiler:
Worth the watch.
Caught it last night. Found it rather humdrum.
The flashbacks to ancient times, where the characters were of an ancient non-specific civilisation or other battling in some ancient non-specific war, yet they spoke English, and with American accents, even though they most certainly would not have been speaking English and long before America had been discovered. Yeh - didn't work.
Oh and the old foreigners are evil trope became tiresome a long time ago too. Chiwetel Ejiofor's character became good, but he left foreign-land when he was a baby and was raised in America so he was allowed to stop being a baddie.
I did like the undying love between the two male characters in the group though, that was rather refreshing.
To be fair, half of the good guys were foreigners, too. And Ejiofor spoke with an American accent.
Fair point about the flashbacks.i guess they didn't want to confuse the audience.
Hope is the denial of reality
Speaking English in the past is usually fine for me (suspension of disbelief I guess), since most films or movies would not really work as well otherwise. Haven't seen this one, but recently watched Good Omens, where they spoke English in the garden of eden, but it didn't ruin the scene for me. Granted, it was a British accent, not American
I get more annoyed if contemporary languages are shifted to English, particularly when they do give the accent (English with German accents in war movies is a classic).
Keep on keepin' the beat alive!
I did not know this was going to be a thing.
It's probably going to suck and disappoint me, but I'm looking forward to finding out just how they'll disappoint me.
"When I meet God, I am going to ask him two questions: Why relativity? And why turbulence? I really believe he will have an answer for the first." - Werner Heisenberg (maybe)
Yeah, I am afraid I will have to see it. It's most likely going to suck and disappoint me, but there's no chance I will avoid being disappointed even if this is slaughtered and burned to a crisp in the reviews.
As for the english/foreign languages. I am ok with whatever they choose as long as there is some consistency. What annoys me to the point of getting angry if they do it like in Septembers of Shiraz, where everybody speaks English with a rather strong Iranian-ish accent but where the unnamed prison guards all of a sudden speak Farsi.
Congratulations America
My son is also looking forward to Dune, The Movie, because he loved the book. uh oh?
I saw "The Social Dilemma" on Netflix and really liked it. Can anyone give me a tip for my sister (who lives in rural Indiana and can't get it on Netflix DVD, and has limited data on her crappy internet plan) a way to watch it? Thanks!
I would like to see this movie.
https://screenrant.com/star-wars-tre...k-stewart/amp/
3022
Low-budget space sci-fi, heard nothing about it, caught it completely randomly late at night, and couldn't switch it off.
No one of much note in the small ensemble cast excepting Kate Walsh of Umbrella Academy fame.
Rather watchable if nothing exceptional. The low-budgetness of it does jar a little at times, but the story has enough substance and the characters enough depth to keep the moving rolling right to the end.
Worth a view if it comes your way.
You're one of those people who don't like Lynch's movie, aren't ya? At least this one is being directed by a Hollywood big dude, so it will try to market itself with big explosions and Timothee to attract the teenage girls, so it's bound to be good, right?
I hate you all.
In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.
You know, I first saw Lynch's take when I was quite young (at a memorable sleepover with a good friend in maybe 3rd grade?). At the time I was more bewildered by anything else, partially because I had not yet read the book. I've since rewatched it, and while I think it fails to truly capture the book in many essential ways (in addition to being rather disjointed and taking substantial liberties with the most interesting aspects of the book), I did appreciate elements of the 'style' they were trying to capture. But I wouldn't call it 'good', no.
I'm sure that whatever they come up with this time around will also suck, but probably very differently - they'll likely strip the film of anything resembling a meditation on the paradox of power, the potential for future human development, and the unique challenges facing a prophet. Instead they'll hew to a simplified version of the storyline and be all about the bad Harkonnen and the good Atreides. The effects will probably not suck and I'm hopeful they'll be able to do the Fremen justice without being reductive... but I'm sure it will still be a disappointment
"When I meet God, I am going to ask him two questions: Why relativity? And why turbulence? I really believe he will have an answer for the first." - Werner Heisenberg (maybe)
While God Emperor is essentially Frank talking at you, the "potential for human development" was in his, and Leto II's, eyes, a cruel joke at best. They're marketing this new film with Timothee becoming the prince to out-do all princes, and because we live in a capitalist hellscape that's the best we can aspire to, I guess. At least Lynch's worm looked better than the one we've seen in the trailer for this one, ugh.
In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.
Coding AI-powered augmented reality glasses that will erase Chalamet
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
I just watched a documentary called My Octopus Teacher. It was fascinating. I think octopuses are fascinating all by themselves, so this was perfect. Recommend.
The Rules
Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)
Saw Moneyball for the first time. Hmm. As a movie? Not bad, Hill and Pitt did a good job, the dialogue and pacing were decent, and for a lover of baseball I'm a sucker for some of the themes they touched on.
As an accurate portrayal of the rise of sabermetrics in MLB? Less impressive. First off, they ignored the substantial contributions of more traditional star players brought up through scouting, drafting, and player development - including the friggin CY Young and MVP winners for that year. It wasn't exactly Major League in terms of a band of misfits. Furthermore, where sabermetrics did get involved - for much of the supporting cast of players - it was a hell of a lot more sophisticated than just going for high OBP. The A's and Beane have continually innovated this field and are responsible for some of the biggest changes in how baseball has been played - and distilling it down to a mildly amusing back-and-forth about OBP conceals the real sophistication underlying their methodology. It also makes it seem like Paul DePodesta and Billy Beane came up with this out of thin air - oh, they mention Bill James, but this strategy was a long time in development and hardly a 'seat of the pants' idea that just occurred to Beane one day.
Even so, I liked it. I mean, seriously, that scene with Van Brown's homer... damn straight, how can you not be romantic about baseball?
"When I meet God, I am going to ask him two questions: Why relativity? And why turbulence? I really believe he will have an answer for the first." - Werner Heisenberg (maybe)
Just watched Greenland on Amazon Prime. These people certainly didn't leave any cliché in the book unused. What's particularly bad about it is that there is no mitigation for poor script writing in seriously good destruction scenes. Isn't that the last we can expect from a ELA level meteor apocalypse?
Congratulations America
I just watched A Ghost Story. I would say first you have to be in the right mood. Second, I liked it. I guessed what made the piano noise in the beginning, as soon as it happened. Just not how...
The Rules
Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)
Ip Man 4
Though I hate contributing to the toxic Chinese nationalism project, sometimes you just wanna see Donnie Yen beat up a bunch of cartoonishly evil assholes. This one's different from the others in style and tone, more heavy-handed, very '70s, good kung-fu movie in that specific tradition.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
God's own country. Some time ago this title would pop up in my suggestions, but I always discarded watching it. Untill I saw the 4th season of the Crown and checked out the actor who's playing the role of Prince Charles and noticed he was in God's own country. So I decided to watch it, and even though at times it was very much like Brokeback Mountain, it wasn't like Brokeback Mountain at all at all the right times. It was a lovely experience to watch this. I regret having pushed the rent button in stead of the buy button. I can see myself watch it again.
Congratulations America
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Superb. Great performances from the starring Brits; Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Rylance and from Gordon-Levitt. Sorkin's script-writing and direction typically slick.
A story we knew nothing about, and watched from the edge of our seats as it unfolded.
Though we'd had a lot wine before watching so brain was slightly too fuzzled to follow Sorkin's quickfire dialogue too closely - will need to watch again to capture all the nuances.
Superintellience = bad movie, don't watch.
On The Rocks = I love Bill Murray, but this movie was terrible.
The Rules
Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)
Jiu-jitsu
The worst movie I have ever paid to see, and I saw the first part of Cable Guy at the cinema. Horrific waste of money, martial arts talent and Nicolas Cage. Everything about this movie was bad. It has zero redeeming qualities. Please heed this warning; it's not even so bad it's good.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
You saw a movie with Nicolas Cage? You have no right to be disappointed. That man has no other facial expression than of someone severely constipated. And he starred in Ghost Rider, which is a movie almost as horrible as Battlefield Earth, which as we all know is the worst movie ever made in this Universe. So, shame on you.
Congratulations America
Hillbilly elegy, on Netflix. I thought it was an OK movie, but kept this feeling that Close and Adams were severey underused. Maybe they should have tries less hard to show how the son's story is different than that of the mother and grandmother.
Also saw the Trial of the Chicago 7; someone had an axe to grind. But, shocking. Seems like American understanding of freedom of expression is way too subservient to the idea that the expression may only be free as long as it's well hidden away from public view or in print.
Congratulations America
The Devil all the time. On Netflix. So bleak, but worth a watch. Solid storytelling but for the sometimes borderline confusing cutting through the years. Everything is connected.
Congratulations America