The MOVIE Thread

[Speed Racer]

I was baked as hell, but I really enjoyed the new Mortal Kombat movie. The plot is a tad crap and convoluted, but they had a nice selection of characters, the fights were awesome, and the guy who played Kano stole the movie. I'm looking forward to a sequel.

At this point, the Mortal Kombat has retconned and reinserted everything to hell with more timelines than Doctor Who, so I'm fairly whatever about the plot - I just view it as yet another timeline that got redone with MK11's bull#####.

[Johncarllos]

As far as movie adaptation of videogames go, I'd say Mortal Kombat was fine. I enjoyed it for being a dumb action movie with some OK fanservice. It was also refreshing that there was no sexualization of characters or romantic subplots. Established Husband/Father wants to protect his family, how refreshingly simple.

[Speed Racer]

I watched the Steven Seagal classic "Out For Justice," which was a dumb film with bad acting, but some decent action scenes. I don't get how Hollywood was like "Yeah, we're totally going to buy Steven's terrible fake NYC accent" FOR MULTIPLE FILMS.

[Speed Racer]

Got baked and watched Cobra. The fact that the movie made $160 million in 1986 dollars worldwide just shows that cocaine was king. Also, the soundtrack sucks.

Tonight I'll be watching a JCVD movie, either Hard Target or The Order.

[Johncarllos]

Dune was swell.

[Speed Racer]

Dune was swell.

Yeah, my wife and I really enjoyed Dune. It was the first date night we'd had since the pandemic. I would've liked to have seen it in IMAX, but we couldn't remember if it was the large screen or 3D (or both) that made my wife sick last time, so we didn't want to risk ruining one of her favorite novels on a large format and just saw it on a normal screen - which was fine. To be honest, it looks like it would be great to see in IMAX, but if you can only do normal for the first part, you'll be okay. Now Dune Part 2 - that NEEDS to be seen in IMAX. Also, I want to say that my only experience with Dune was the 1984 movie, and I was very impressed with the pacing in the 2021 version and how they were able to explain so much political and economic stuff without making it boring or losing the audience.

[TheRedPriest]

I'm quite looking forward to Ghostbusters Afterlife.

[Speed Racer]

I'm quite looking forward to Ghostbusters Afterlife.

Early reviews were mixed; pretty much everyone said when it was trying to be its own thing it's great, when it tries to go for the nostalgia factor it loses it.

[TheRedPriest]

The nostalgia can only be good.  Mix that with it's own thing and I think it will be great.

[TheRedPriest]

I saw Ghostbusters Afterlife and it was amazing.  Go see it.  This is everything I wanted in a movie.  It has a deliberate pace and is a bit of a slow burn, but I never felt like it was dragging.  The build up to the end was fantastic, and the climax legit had me tear up a bit.

It has a nice mix of horror and comedy, much like the first Ghostbusters.  The characters were all pretty well done, and even though it moves along comfortably, no scene overstays it's welcome.  I didn't find any hints of "woke" anywhere.  Phoebe is a great and likable kid, who is far from the Mary Sue I've seen her described as.

It treats the continuity of the series with great respect while also being it's own thing.  The callbacks and easter eggs are just a cherry on top of the films specific plot and they work great.  Honestly, from a plot stand point it's really more of a direct sequel to 1 than to 2, so while I liked 2 ok, that was more of another adventure, whereas Afterlife directly tackles plot points from the first film.  I really enjoyed that.  It wraps up the original Ghostbusters story really well.  Afterlife can serve as a finale, or maybe a jumping off point for more.  This really does feel like an 80s movie, in all the best and right ways.

I left the theater with a big smile.  THIS is the kind of movie fans want.  Not pandering, not "message" above entertainment, not quotas or check lists.  Fun.  A good adventure.  This is proof good movies can still be made, Hollywood just chooses NOT to.

Go see this movie.  We need to support good films like this.  And when you do see it, stay ALL the way to the end past the black screen credit rolls.  There is another scene before the curtains come down.

[Johncarllos]

I'm pretty sold on it, then. Alas, The French Dispatch is our theater trip for tomorrow. Ghostbusters will have to be later in the week.

[TheRedPriest]

Pull some kind of "I'll buy the tickets" jujutsu and "accidently" buy Ghostbuster tickets instead.

[Mikero]

I like the Dune novel so I liked the movie. I'm curious what people who didn't read the book thought of the film, since I'm sure there's a lot of seemingly random terms being thrown at you with little explanation.

I'm not interested in Ghostbusters, I don't actually have any affinity for the franchise, but I find it odd that (based solely on the trailer) this adaptation is trying to add some sort of seriousness to the concept that was never there to begin with. I'm glad to hear this one's good though, I'll probably check it out on streaming.

[Speed Racer]

I've never read any of the Dune novels, and my only experience with it before the current movie is the one from 1984. I thought the old movie was okay, but I barely remember anything about it and the constant inner monologue was annoying. The new Dune movie I thought was really cool and made all of the political/economic stuff way more accessible to general audiences; my wife thought that alone was a huge feat in of itself.

[Mikero]

Interesting. I've never seen the 80's movie to compare but that's good to know, 'cause I feel like the truly unique plot stuff doesn't come up until the second half so I was wondering if people would stick around for it.

[TheRedPriest]

I like the Dune novel so I liked the movie. I'm curious what people who didn't read the book thought of the film, since I'm sure there's a lot of seemingly random terms being thrown at you with little explanation.

I'm not interested in Ghostbusters, I don't actually have any affinity for the franchise, but I find it odd that (based solely on the trailer) this adaptation is trying to add some sort of seriousness to the concept that was never there to begin with. I'm glad to hear this one's good though, I'll probably check it out on streaming.

It's not any more serious than the original Ghostbusters.  Both are a mix of horror and comedy.

[Johncarllos]

I like the Dune novel so I liked the movie. I'm curious what people who didn't read the book thought of the film, since I'm sure there's a lot of seemingly random terms being thrown at you with little explanation.

I'm not interested in Ghostbusters, I don't actually have any affinity for the franchise, but I find it odd that (based solely on the trailer) this adaptation is trying to add some sort of seriousness to the concept that was never there to begin with. I'm glad to hear this one's good though, I'll probably check it out on streaming.

Dune was swell.

I knew it would be dense going into it, but the pacing and presentation of the important information was so well balanced! It felt like a book being adapted to a film: the side characters weren't as fleshed out as they could have been, BUT their importance to the protagonists and the overall plot felt adequate. Specifically, Jason Momoa, and Josh Brolin's characters, as well as the magical doctor guy.

It did what a great adaption should do: inspire you to read the books and delve deeper into the lore.

I loved it, and the whole time I was thinking (and even said to my wife) "This is like Star Wars for adults."

I watched at home, steaming, on my aging 65" TV with dolby atmos surround, and it was a GREAT experience. I could tell that some scenes would have been even more breathtaking in IMAX.

Dune is next on my Audiobook list now.

[Speed Racer]

Watched the 4K edition of RoboCop. Holy hell what a film.

[Speed Racer]

I got baked and watched Dungeons & Dragons for the first time. Holy hell that movie is bad. It's a fan film with theatrical distribution, although some parts were cool, there's a part about halfway through that you can tell they just cut out a ton of #####.

[TheRedPriest]

If a movie isn't good when baked, you know it's cooked.

[Speed Racer]

If a movie isn't good when baked, you know it's cooked.

Ehhhhhh there's some movies that are hilarious when I'm sober but dumb when I'm baked - usually comedies. Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle are two movies I've sat through baked as hell and didn't laugh once.

[Speed Racer]

Wife and I took the kids to go see Sonic the Hedgehog 2. We sprung the oldest kid out of school early that day so we could go to a 4:15 showing where there wouldn't be anyone. Whole family enjoyed it and it was great seeing the surprise on their faces once they realized that we were going to a movie theater AND seeing Sonic 2.

[TheRedPriest]

Kind of the opposite of when you take your dog to the vet and it realizes it's not going to the park!

[Speed Racer]

We were on vacation in Maine a couple of weeks ago, we watched a few films as a family, and a couple by myself:

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (of course, multiple viewings)
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (oldest son is really into the Silver Surfer and likes the idea of the Fantastic Four - haven't watched this since the theaters, and honestly it was pretty fun. Except for not knowing what to do with Galactus, they did a pretty good job)
Hop (youngest son loves this movie, it is absolute bland kid crap)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
At the Earth's Core
Marked for Death
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (low budget, fairly middling crap movie. Worth a rental)
Constantine: The House of Mystery (good anthology movie, some genuinely weird/#####ed up #####. I'd love there to be an Adult Swim-esque Blue Beetle/The Question cartoon show. Honestly all four cartoons I'd be willing to see sequels to)

[Johncarllos]

We were on vacation in Maine a couple of weeks ago

And you didn't stop in to say hi?! Preposterous.

[TheRedPriest]

Considering you shot at the last person who came onto your property, can you blame him?

[Speed Racer]

We were on vacation in Maine a couple of weeks ago

And you didn't stop in to say hi?! Preposterous.

#####, I didn't realize you lived there! And now that I go through FB and look at your last job posted...we may have been 10 minutes away.

[Johncarllos]

We were on vacation in Maine a couple of weeks ago

And you didn't stop in to say hi?! Preposterous.

#####, I didn't realize you lived there! And now that I go through FB and look at your last job posted...we may have been 10 minutes away.

Now you know, for next time!

Considering you shot at the last person who came onto your property, can you blame him?

It was a throwing axe.
Now you know, for next time!

[Speed Racer]

For real, it is absolutely wild that some of us have been discussing film in this thread since 2007. Like, holy #####, I was still in college and writing for a now-defunct UK film site.

[TheRedPriest]

The specters of our youth haunt these blue halls.

[Speed Racer]

The Menu was really well done.

[Speed Racer]

We sprung the kids from school early last week so they could go see an early afternoon showing of Return of the Jedi before it left theaters. Both kids loved it; it was also the second movie my youngest has seen on the big screen (first being Sonic the Hedgehog 2). For me it was great because I haven't seen ROTJ on the big screen since 1997, and as an adult who has easily seen the movie 200+ times, this time I could ignore the plot and just take in all of the stuff going on in the background like the different aliens, set design, details on the matte paintings, etc. Fantastic time!

[TheRedPriest]

I saw it in theatres in 1983 when my brother took me.  I fell asleep because it was something like a 9 pm show or some such thing.  I was only 5 or 6 though.  I don't think I've actually ever seen it in the theatre again since then though.

[Speed Racer]

Wife and I took the kids to see Across the Spider-Verse which was holy ##### an amazing time. Loved it so damn much, between seeing all of the different suits, the fun jokes for fans, and just a really #####ing good movie. Looking forward to the next installment.