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A few reviews

skyled

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Deadly Class - Season 1 (2019)
Rick Remender adapts his ongoing comic of the same name for this Syfy channel series. Teenage homeless orphan is enrolled in an exclusive high school where elite criminals send their kids to learn the skills necessary to succeed in the underworld. Classes include martial arts, poisons, psychopathy, and dark arts. It's mainly focused on the typical high school clique conflicts but with an added dose of extremely dangerous classmates. The show is pretty good but it has a lot of pacing issues. It seemed like nearly every episode reached it's natural conclusion, but then there was still 10-15 minutes of extra plot to cover. For my tastes, it spent too much time focusing on interpersonal conflicts between the students, and not enough time on exploring how crazy the classes would be in this type of school. Also, the show kept things very dark and serious: there wasn't nearly enough humor. The soundtrack rights must have been very expensive to acquire and off the top of my head had songs by The Cure, The Smiths, The Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division, and a ton of punk songs. The show was cancelled after this single season (in typical Syfy fashion).
 

skyled

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What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) and Taika Waititi write, direct, and star in this mockumentary about 4 vampire roommates in Wellington, NZ. It's brilliantly silly and moves along at a good pace, clocking in at a brisk 85 minutes. One part towards the end had me crying with laughter. Highly recommended.

What We Do in the Shadows - Season 1 (2019)
Jermaine Clement adapts the movie into a TV series for FX. The setting has been shifted to Staten Island, NY and more focus has been put on the vampire's human slaves, called familiars. The cast is great and includes Matt Berry from Garth Marenghi's Dark Place which is always a plus. Season 1 is pretty good and has a few great gags, notably the episode with the werewolves.

What We Do in the Shadows - Season 2 (2020)
Season 2 is a strong improvement over Season 1. The pace is quicker and the jokes are funnier. It almost feels like the show would be the kind that you would see on Adult Swim (in a good way) but with a higher budget. I loved it.
 

asterixsmeagol

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Check out Wellington Paranormal while you're at it! (Assuming you can actually get it in your region.)
 

skyled

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Check out Wellington Paranormal while you're at it! (Assuming you can actually get it in your region.)
Wikipedia says it's coming to the States this summer :)

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)
Greg is familiar with everyone without being friends with anyone, except for Earl, but denies that too. His mom finds out a girl he knew has cancer and forces him to spend time with her. I really liked it. It's emotional without feeling sappy or manipulative and sometimes pretty funny. It came out a year after The Fault in Our Stars which seems like the exact opposite, being crafted specifically to be a tear-jerker. This one probably lost money while Fault made a killing ;). There's also a really good deleted scene where Greg and Earl show their movie to the whole school. It doesn't really belong in the movie but it's still worth watching.

1917 (2019)
WWI movie. Two soldiers need to go from Point A to Point B to stop some soldiers from charging into a trap. I did not like this movie. Sure, it was well made and was probably a pain in the ass to make with the "single shot" (actually 2 shots) but who cares. You don't know who the two soldiers are and you don't learn much of anything about them. It's more like watching somebody else play a video game. Not to mention that it's trying to make a big deal out of saving 1600 soldiers when that many and more were routinely thrown away.

They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)
Peter Jackson's documentary about WWI. The restoration work was great and you tend to not even realize all the work that was done which is quite amazing. It was good yet somehow it felt lacking. The use of drawings and propaganda art when talking about actual combat felt distracting. I would like to see the extended cut though.

From the Earth to the Moon - HBO miniseries (1998)
Tom Hanks and Ron Howard produce this docudrama miniseries which mainly focuses on the Apollo program. It's interesting and well made if not exactly edge of your seat entertaining. It's made to be kind of a companion piece to The Right Stuff and Apollo 13, so if you liked those ones you might check this out.

Birdboy: The Forgotten Children (2015)
Spanish animated movie. I don't really have much to say about this. I thought it was slow and somewhat tedious. It seemed like the kind of movie you're supposed to watch while on drugs. The Bluray includes the original short film of the movie which I liked better because it was much shorter and the soundtrack was good.

1984 (1984)
Adaptation of the book starring John Hurt. It's probably about as good of an adaptation as you could ask for. John Hurt is great and the girl is gorgeous. My problem with it is the same as I have with the book. I just don't think the central story is very interesting. The world building and the appendix of the book are fantastic and endlessly relevant to just about any time period, but I don't find Winston Smith's story particularly interesting. I did ask myself who else they could have had to star instead of John Hurt though. If it had been made in America, Harry Dean Stanton would have been great. Or if the casting was bad, imagine Sean Connery or Michael Caine. I watched the version without the Eurythmics soundtrack, by the way.
 

mnkykungfu

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Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)
Walter Hill's
Western bombed at the time but thanks to it's recent HD blu-ray remaster and addition to Netflix, it's ripe for rediscovery. The poor reception might be down to several things...
I watched this last Thanksgiving and was shocked afterwards when I remembered it was a Walter Hill film... it showed no signs of it. You named a lot of reasons it might've faired poorly, but I'd add that it's just not a very good film. Very muddled. Mis-titling aside, there's no one to really root for, and no great dialogue to get wrapped up in. The action is muddled and confusing many times, and the story arc is weird. There's a good film waiting to be made from these events, but this ain't it.
 

skyled

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La Grande Illusion (1937)
French WWI film about a few French POW's and their various escape attempts. It's regarded as kind of a proto-The Great Escape but it's certainly not as fun. More of a meditation on how pointless WWI was. My favorite part is when the German POW camp chief is explaining that many of his injuries were mended with silver plates and he sarcastically thanks the war for this new wealth.

Mirai (2018)
Anime film from the director of the fantastic The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and the pretty good Summer Wars. Kun is ~4 years old and jealous of his new baby sister Mirai. During his tantrums he magically goes forward and back in time to see his relatives at various points in their lives which helps him mature. Unfortunately, I didn't find this any where near the same level as those 2 previous movies the director made.
 

mnkykungfu

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No Country for Old Men (2007)
Perhaps on a second viewing, when I know what to expect, I'll find the conclusion less of a let-down.
I had the same reaction, and it totally gets better on every rewatch.

Miller's Crossing (1990)
If the humorous tone and more eccentric characterisations and performances had been reduced, I wondered whether this could've been a truly great and weighty crime saga on the level of 'The Godfather', instead of just a darn good yarn
Different tastes I suppose. The touch of absurdity and humor in both this and No Country easily puts them above The Godfather, or even Goodfellas. Perhaps I also think glamorizing gangsters is so tiresome and passe'.
 

Moe_Syzlak

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Is The Godfather or Goodfellas glamorizing gangsters? I’d say the exact opposite. I like the Coen movies as well. But even with the Pacino Scarface (which I mostly don’t like), those that perceive glamorization of crime really miss the boat.
 

mnkykungfu

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It's not my argument, it's one that's been out there for quite awhile. This article dives into some of the issues a bit, but essentially there are a few problems that you could write whole film school essays examining:
1. When your protagonists are villains, you're inviting the audience to sympathize with them
2. When you film with style, you end up portraying the villains with style too, encouraging the audience to admire them
3. When your villains are all well-dressed, smooth, financially-successful (and mostly handsome actors), you're providing ample opportunity to admire them

I'm not suggesting that every crime film needs to follow the Hayes Code. But when you look at these films, particularly Scorsese's work, he really relishes the cool moments, the quirky, stylish moments with "the boys". The times when they're just human trash and/or reap the consequences of that take up comparatively little screen time. While smart adults with strong moral compasses who come from a position of privilege know better than to admire these gangsters, whole legions of teenage boys or less fortunate individuals just see guys doing what they have to do to succeed. It's the "sure, they're bad guys, but who isn't?" mentality.

Scorsese might not intend this, and I'm sure Coppola didn't, but you'd have to be blind not to see the pattern over time. There's a reason the characters from these films are on T-shirts and wall posters and dudes act out scenes from the film. They think it's cool. The gangsters are cool.
 

Moe_Syzlak

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Never mind. Suffice to say that while I don’t necessarily disagree with the premise, I find the example of The Godfather, at least, to be a poor one.
 
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Gaith

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Fortunately, the original ending to No Country for Old Men, originally thought lost in a botched film processing job, has been rediscovered:


:p
 

mnkykungfu

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Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
It's edited together with the energy and pace of the films they are talking about, moving from film to film with only enough time to discuss the juiciest of anecdotes, reveal the wackiest ideas and show the biggest of explosions.

Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010)
The rapid editing of clips and anecdotes is just as fun
The brilliant interviews are with the crème de la crème of genre cinema

Glad to hear these are so good! I actually just watched Not Quite Hollywood, which is a doc very much in the same vein as both of these, by the same director. That one specializes in "Ozploitation" films, is also gleefully puerile and NSFW, and makes liberal use of Quentin Tarantino in interviews. I wrote it up on Letterboxd, but it sounds like if you've seen these, you know the deal.

Electric Boogaloo is next on my list!
 

Gaith

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Not only is Electric Boogaloo a wonderfully entertaining doc in its tamer moments alone, it's got enough excerpted film clips of stunningly beautiful non-dressed ladies to fill a rather spectacular (albeit, sadly, hypothetical) coffee table book... 😀
 

mnkykungfu

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Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
I didn't much 'Blade Runner 2049'.
Wow, you didn't like it? I assumed because of your edit, you must have had some affection for it or you wouldn't have wanted to spend that much time with it....
Personally, I didn't absolutely love the film (so slooow) but I also have grown out of my worship for the original. I find it a very flawed film as well, as the plethora of edits attest to. I'm not saying 2049 is a better movie, but allow me to sing a couple praises:
-Gosling gives a better performance than Ford in the original.
-Deckard/Rachel: creepy. But I stan for K/Joi.
-No replicant debate.
-No ending debate.
-No Vangelis. Yup, I'm a hater. #sorrynotsorry

I like speaking like the kids do. Is 'on fleek' still in? 2049 is on fleek!

Imagine (1972)
the kind of thing you can only get away with when the music is this good and the two people are as fascinating as "Joko" (the combined name the film is credited to).
Wait, so were they the first celebrity portmanteau?!
 

addiesin

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2049
-No ending debate.

Unless you feel like asking, who was really the child?

The memories and the film's emphasis on the woman who writes them for replicants heavily implied that woman was the child, of course. Maybe it's a pretentious desire for there to be more than what's spelled out on film, or maybe it's the resemblance of the actress's hair and makeup. But I think it would be deliciously ironic if Luv, the psycho violent right-hand to Wallace, was the replicant child she was searching for so desperately. I don't believe that was the intent, but I really wanted to know more about her and why she resembles Rachel so much, and I appreciate that the film doesn't necessarily contradict the idea. Then again, it is super slow, maybe I missed something!
 

mnkykungfu

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^wuuuuuh? I thought the film spelled it out pretty clearly. Both in terms of literally what they say and show, and in terms of that only working as a dramatic reveal if it is who they say, and in terms of it having thematic resonance for both this film and the original. It would complete deflate all that to follow your alternate suggestion, and I can't imagine how that would make sense in the film.
But hey, if you want to make a fan-edit to push that narrative...! Maybe I'm wrong and other people will find that an improvement on the film? I mean, sounds like for TM2YC, it had nowhere to go but up. lol
 

skyled

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John Wick Chapters 2 & 3 (2017 & 2019)
The action and stupid plot continues in the sequels. Sure they're well made and Keanu worked his butt off to be able to handle guns like this, but the movies are way too long and grow tedious. It could be interesting to see them each compressed into ~90 minutes rather than the excessive 130 minutes. It was nice to see Yayan Ruhian aka Mad Dog from the Raid get more American work. A funny scene happened in Chapter 3 where a horse kicks a bad guy in the face, but then they ruined it by having it happen again about 1 minute later.

Rick and Morty - Seasons 2-4 (2015 - 2020)
The show continues to be wildly creative and manic but it didn't get as many laughs out of me as Season 1 did, maybe because I binged them. I previously compared it to a mix of Futurama, Phineas and Ferb, and Superjail!, and I stand by that comparison. The comparison to Futurama is especially good because both shows are able to elicit a surprising amount of emotional response given how wacky they are. While Futurama would have very memorable bittersweet episodes such as Jurassic Bark about Fry's loyal dog and the one about Fry's brother, Yancy; Rick and Morty makes you feel for Rick and his depression in the rare moments where it takes itself seriously.
 

skyled

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Ad Astra - 2019
Lots of people [claim to] love Kubrick's 2001. I think it's a marvelous technical achievement and HAL is a great character, but I find the movie tedious. This movie clearly wants people to regard it as 2001-esque, but I think it's more like 2010. I didn't find it overly slow and it was not boring, with some exciting scenes to liven the pace up, but the plot is rather half-baked and the voice over is mostly dumb. It probably could have been really good if they had a better story driving it.

True Detective - Season 1 (2014)
HBO miniseries about two detectives investigating ritual murder(s). Critics and audiences raved about this show. I thought it was lousy. It's slow and repetitive. It could have easily been a 2 hour movie instead of an 8 hour miniseries. Even though the writer was born in Louisiana, it plays more like a liberal Hollywood fantasy of it. Endless shots of driving past oil refineries, white trash inbred hillbillies, and evil white Evangelical child molesters who secretly practice Santeria (a black Voodoo-ish religion). The writer was also accused of plagiarism. If this is supposedly the "good season", I can't imagine what the others are like. The performances were excellent though. They really made Matthew Maconaughey look haggard for his 2012 scenes.

Jason Bourne - 2016
Bourne returns for his 4th outing. This one is entirely pointless and probably shouldn't have been made since the ending of Number 3 was a nice exit for the character. That being said, if you just like the movies for the action and stunts, this one is almost as good as the others.
 
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skyled

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The Shining - 1980
Kubrick's classic horror film. I think the critics were right about this one the first time around, rather than the more recent reevaluation as part of the Kubrick hagiography. It's too long, it's not scary, it's not suspenseful. Kubrick directs with the intensity of a dispassionate scientist observing an ongoing experiment.

Summer Wars - 2009
Anime film from the director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Teenage math prodigy spends the Summer with girl from school and her extended family. When the computer metaverse that everybody uses for games/business/banking/etc is hacked by a rogue AI, boy needs to help stop it before it drops a satellite on a nuclear power plant or worse. It's good fun and presents some real stakes but the metaverse aspect is underdeveloped.

Ready Player One - 2018
Spielberg directs this one and uses his skills to overcome the weaknesses of the story. Most of the movie takes place in the metaverse where a crew of gamers are trying to prevent an evil company from taking over the metaverse. If the company takes it over they're going to put ads everywhere. This movie is similar to Summer Wars but it seems they suffer opposite problems. The stakes here are vague and not very drastic, and the world outside of the metaverse is underdeveloped. A fun movie but both this and Summer Wars leave me feeling like they're not living up to what they could be. I think what I really want is a good adaptation of Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash.
 

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Wholly agree about The Shining. I've given the film multiple attempts at different points in my life and never found what's so great about it. There's a few good pieces here and there, but overall I just don't connect with this movie (this is true with all Kubrick films for me after Dr. Strangelove). I found Dr. Sleep a much better film and found it far more enjoyable as a whole.
 
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