LTT Movie Club!

[Crunchy Dragon]

John Wick 4 was amazing.

 

I feel like I need to see it again at least twice.

[Radium_Angel]

13 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

John Wick 4 was amazing.

 

I feel like I need to see it again at least twice.

Surprising, since it's #4 in a series, and the story about a hitman returning from retirement isn't exactly original.

[Crunchy Dragon]

3 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

Surprising, since it's #4 in a series, and the story about a hitman returning from retirement isn't exactly original.

I wasn't initially super interested in the series, but I eventually watched the first 3 last year and got hooked.

 

There's quite a bit of substance in all of them, but they're definitely an acquired taste.

[Spotty]

On 3/20/2023 at 4:34 AM, Radium_Angel said:

There hasn't been a good Bond film since Goldeneye.

Goldeneye was the first Bond film I saw. Loved it. Still one of my favourites.

 

I've been watching through the Roger Moore Bond films. They really loved skiing and diving in those movies. I still think the Moore films are the more fun Bond films but some of the plots are pretty silly and every beautiful woman in her 20s throwing themselves at a 50+ year old Moore seconds after they meet is rather cringe to watch these days.

[wseaton]

On 3/19/2023 at 7:49 AM, Spotty said:

Finally watched the latest James Bond film No Time To Die. I have some pretty mixed opinions about it.

 

! Spoilers !

  Reveal hidden contents

The villain's motive wasn't established well. It's established that Safin's family was killed by Spectre and he's out for revenge, and half way through the movie he completes that goal. Then for the rest of the movie his motive isn't really clear. He kidnaps Madeleine and her daughter, but why? What does he achieve by doing that? The whole interaction he has with the little girl is just weird and then he just doesn't care and cast her away at the end anyway. He's selling the poison, but why? It wasn't really established why he would be mass producing the poison and trying to sell it. His motives were personal and driven by revenge at the start at the movie, he wasn't motivated by money. Then his motives just flip and it's not personal and he's detached from it and he's just doing it for profit. It betrays the character's motives. I think the only reason they added the final act where he's trying to sell the poison or kidnap the woman is because the screenwriters needed to give Bond a reason to go after him and ultimately sacrifice himself to destroy the lab. It just seemed sloppy. It could have been solved by having Safin explain that the reason he killed Spectre was not because of personal revenge but because their organisation was standing in the way of him selling the weapon, making it a business decision to cut out the competition or those standing in his way.

The whole idea behind the nanobot virus seemed silly to me. It's shown that with just skin on skin contact nanobots can be transferred from one person to another and within seconds they are dead. The nanobots work by attacking cells, but a small amount of nanobots isn't going to be able to destroy cells fast enough to kill somebody so quickly. With skin to skin contact the nanobots wouldn't be able to enter the blood stream as skin provides a natural barrier to pathogens and would similarly stop the viral nanobots.
It's explained in the movie that once you get the bots they will be in your body for ever. It's also discussed how they can be programmed to attack entire races of people. It's never established that the nanobots can self-replicate so if one person is infected with a small amount of bots then each time they transfer to a new person only a fraction of the nanobots will be transferred, until they are no longer effective. Also from a viral standpoint because they act so quickly upon meeting their target it's unlikely they would spread throughout an entire population as once the first target person is infected they would be dead which would reduce the ability for it to spread further.
If it was just a "normal" virus (not a nanobot) virus then it would at least allow the host bodies to produce more of the virus and explain how it can be spread on to other people.
Also if it is nanobots then shouldn't there be a way to deactivate them? Like remotely reprogramming them to make them benign, or just disabling them through something like an EMP pulse, like the EMP bond was given to use as a gadget.

Just seemed there were too many conveniences and holes in the way the weapon worked, and coupled with the muddied motivations of the villain it made for an overall underwhelming threat. The threat might have been there but I just didn't really care.

Something that annoyed me was near the end of the film Q in the C130 plane was 'buzzed' by a couple of Russian MIG fighter jets and the jets are contacting them over the radio demanding to know why they're in the disputed air space. Q asks M what to do and M's response is to just ignore them... And... Then nothing more comes of it. It's like the screenwriters forgot about the jets. It's failing the Chekov's gun principal. If you put fighter jets in the air and make a point of establishing that they're going to intercept you then something needs to come of it.

If you're going to have the jets intercept the plane then they should have at least turned the plane around and told Bond that they having to leave the airspace and that they'll be out of radio range and he's on his own and they won't be able to assist him further. Then you could have had female 007 (who had already left the area by boat) be the one to make the tough decision to call in the missile strike on the island. Then the death of her predecessor on her conscience maybe would have at least added some depth to her character and given her something that she would have to come to terms with in any subsequent films she appears in. (Like how Daniel Craig's version of Bond was dealing with Vesper Lynd's death and how that gave more depth to his character).

 

I didn't really like the female 007 agent in the movie. I don't think she really added a lot and most of the movie that she was in she was just used as almost like a sidekick character to Bond. At least they avoided the modern trope of making her better than the man at everything like most female characters these days, and in some scenes Bond even shows her up thanks to having more experience and a less by the book approach.

And that brings us to the death of Bond. Pretty disappointing that they decided to end Craig's run like this. I guess they had already established that Craig's Bond was *the real* James Bond and that James Bond wasn't just an alias that MI6 used for their 007 agent, so they couldn't just replace the actor and carry on like they had in the previous films. I preferred the ambiguity and letting the audience decide if it was supposed to be the same character portrayed by different people or if it was a different character adopting a codename.
With James Bond dead I'm not really sure what the future Bond films would look like. As somebody who has been a Bond fan since I saw my first Bond film as a kid it's kinda disappointing that I'm not really looking forward to what comes next.

I think it took too long for Bond to be shown at the start of the movie. It was about 15-20 minutes before Bond was shown and the opening title scene wasn't shown until almost 30 minutes in to the movie. I paused the movie 5 minutes in just to double check that I had clicked on the right movie to watch and that I wasn't watching something else.

I had completely forgot that Madeleine's character was in Spectre and only realised when I looked it up on IMDB and saw her credited in Spectre while writing this. 

Ana De Amas was absolutely stunning.

 

The action scenes were fairly decent but nothing really stood out as a big memorable or impactful action scene that some of the other Bond films have.

 

Despite those mixed feelings it was still a Bond film and it's not a terrible one at that. There's definitely some things that I didn't like about it but the movie is still enjoyable.

 

With Craig not reprising his role for any more Bond films it makes it difficult to see where James Bond will go from here. I really hope that it won't just be Lashana Lynch taking the role and being the new 007. I wouldn't mind if she appears in smaller roles in films as another 00 agent with little cameos here and there to mix up the dynamic a bit with other 00 agents but I don't think she could carry an entire movie as the lead. My pick would be for Henry Cavill as 007. He's British, he's definitely got the action star background, and he's proved himself in other spy films like Mission Impossible and Man from UNCLE. I think he could pull of the suave gentlemen spy of 007. He's only in his late 30s so they could easily get a few films out of him over a decade or more to keep the franchise going.

I was a bit over stuffed, but not the wokefest we were warned about. Not up there with Skyfall, which I felt was brilliant by its sheer simplicity, but it was good.

[Radium_Angel]

The DnD film that just came out was a wretched mess.

It wasn't "so bad it's good" it's "so bad its just bad"

Casting was pretty spot on, but tonally the film was all over the place and the SFX were pretty bad, and the 4th act was ripped straight from the avengers.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Watched The Meg

 

It was more okay than I expected.

[Crunchy Dragon]

One of my local theaters is showing Return of The King(extended edition, no less) this week/weekend, and I'm very interested in going.

 

I was not old enough to see any Lord of The Rings movies in theaters, but I've said for years that if I could see any movie again for the first time, it would probably be Return of the King.

 

That said, what are some movies y'all wish you could see for the first time again, either in or out of theaters?

In addition to my previous mention, I would love to have seen Tron Legacy in theaters.

[Radium_Angel]

12 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

That said, what are some movies y'all wish you could see for the first time again, either in or out of theaters?

Dr Strangelove.

 

[Radium_Angel]

Ok, I've asked about finding obscure films in the past, with mixed results (I'm apparently the obscure B-movie king here) but I'm gonna throw you a soft ball here:

 

Looking for heist-type films.

I've seen all the obvious ones (Oceans 11, Ronin, Armored, Ambulance, Dog Day Afternoon, etc) what are some that perhaps slipped under the radar that you consider worth watching?

[Crunchy Dragon]

38 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Ok, I've asked about finding obscure films in the past, with mixed results (I'm apparently the obscure B-movie king here) but I'm gonna throw you a soft ball here:

 

Looking for heist-type films.

I've seen all the obvious ones (Oceans 11, Ronin, Armored, Ambulance, Dog Day Afternoon, etc) what are some that perhaps slipped under the radar that you consider worth watching?

You didn't list The Italian Job, but I'm going to assume you've already seen it(original and the remake). Going to guess Heat is also on your list.

 

Tower Heist showed up on Hulu for a little bit, but I never got around to watching it before they took it away.

[Radium_Angel]

50 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

You didn't list The Italian Job, but I'm going to assume you've already seen it(original and the remake). Going to guess Heat is also on your list.

 

Tower Heist showed up on Hulu for a little bit, but I never got around to watching it before they took it away.

Correct to all. I'll look into Tower Heist, thx!

[Guest]

I finally saw all quiet on the western front 2022...

 

The part with the tank... 

 

Anyway it was a morbid movie as it should be. Possibly the best thing to come out of Netflix since lilihammer. If that was even a good show lol. 

 

Only down side was people kept asking me questions about WW1 & WW2 when watching it. Like even the intro sequence, there was no patience to see what happened and they immediately asked me what was happening and I explained it and then it happened. 

 

From all my historic knowledge and talking to soldiers and.... Despite 70~80% of my knowledge being from 4th~5th grade reading about the wars I kinda was like "yeah, that's how it is." Just imagination in movie form. 

Idk if anyone here saw real warfare and can comment on how it truly feels like compared to that movie, but based on my intellectual understanding, it's exactly how it is. 

 

Now I need to watch it again without interruption. I think I also found the 1930s version of the movie. 

Back in 2012~ we had a dvr and recorded the 1970s~ all quiet on the western front and it was just kinda a war movie. 

[Guest]

On 4/12/2023 at 12:01 AM, Crunchy Dragon said:

One of my local theaters is showing Return of The King(extended edition, no less) this week/weekend, and I'm very interested in going.

 

I was not old enough to see any Lord of The Rings movies in theaters, but I've said for years that if I could see any movie again for the first time, it would probably be Return of the King.

 

That said, what are some movies y'all wish you could see for the first time again, either in or out of theaters?

In addition to my previous mention, I would love to have seen Tron Legacy in theaters.

Dude.. friggin Warcraft, I saw that in IMAX.... That is imo the only way to see that movie. 

 

It's a mediocre alright movie and I think I got a lot out of it with all the wow I played, but yeah... IMAX, warcraft was awesome. 

[Guest]

On 3/26/2023 at 11:18 AM, Radium_Angel said:

Surprising, since it's #4 in a series, and the story about a hitman returning from retirement isn't exactly original.

It's not about the story. It's about over the top unrealistic shooting people to a hybrid of dubstep, edm, and scream-o. 

 

The movies are incredibly stupid and basic. The girl in the third movie with the dogs has noticable mess ups with her shooting techniques and maneuvers. 

But Keanu shooting a million dudes the way he does looks cool. 

[Spotty]

5 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

Looking for heist-type films.

I've seen all the obvious ones (Oceans 11, Ronin, Armored, Ambulance, Dog Day Afternoon, etc) what are some that perhaps slipped under the radar that you consider worth watching?

Inside Man. Heist. The Score. King of Thieves. The Bank Job.

Some others if you just want to binge watch the category: Art of the Steal. Entrapment. Takers. Taking of Pelham 123. Logan Lucky. Gone in 60 seconds. Money Train. Going in Style (more of a comedy).

Some others that aren't necessarily heists: The Usual Suspects. Focus. Matchstick Men. 21.

[Crunchy Dragon]

52 minutes ago, fpo said:

It's not about the story. It's about over the top unrealistic shooting people to a hybrid of dubstep, edm, and scream-o. 

 

The movies are incredibly stupid and basic. The girl in the third movie with the dogs has noticable mess ups with her shooting techniques and maneuvers. 

But Keanu shooting a million dudes the way he does looks cool. 

The basic story line of "retired hitman comes out of retirement to get revenge" isn't even a particularly original plot either.

 

I think what really sells John Wick is that it's a B-list action movie with A-list execution. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy the worldbuilding that happens over the course of the first 3 movies. Also, people love dogs. Who wouldn't love a good revenge story because of a cute puppy?

 

More than anything, I hope the franchise doesn't end up suffering from the Mission Impossible problem where they have to keep making sequels and each sequel has to be bigger and better than the previous one.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

The basic story line of "retired hitman comes out of retirement to get revenge" isn't even a particularly original plot either.

 

I think what really sells John Wick is that it's a B-list action movie with A-list execution. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy the worldbuilding that happens over the course of the first 3 movies. Also, people love dogs. Who wouldn't love a good revenge story because of a cute puppy?

 

More than anything, I hope the franchise doesn't end up suffering from the Mission Impossible problem where they have to keep making sequels and each sequel has to be bigger and better than the previous one.

They seem pretty consistent about "okay here is one new thing about our world." 

 

Spoilers for John with movies with the simplest plots... As simple as Bob the builder. 

Spoiler

It is kinda lame that all first 3 movies the entire world was out to get him. Kinda out of stakes

Simple != Bad

[Radium_Angel]

18 hours ago, Spotty said:

Inside Man. Heist. The Score. King of Thieves. The Bank Job.

Seen all of those except the bank job...which one is it, IMDB lists many with that name

[Spotty]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

Seen all of those except the bank job...which one is it, IMDB lists many with that name

I was thinking of the Jason Statham one. 

[Radium_Angel]

Looking for a supernatural revenge flick?

I strongly suggest "Avenged"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2378453/

(yeah it's low budget in some areas, but the makeup fx are top notch)

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Radium_Angel said:

Looking for a supernatural revenge flick?

I strongly suggest "Avenged"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2378453/

(yeah it's low budget in some areas, but the makeup fx are top notch)

That plot description lol. 

 

I'll check it out. 

[Radium_Angel]

1 hour ago, fpo said:

That plot description lol. 

 

I'll check it out. 

Yeah not the best, but a solid solid film. Easily one of my favs of this year

[Guest]

I saw the 1930 edition of All Quiet on the Western Front.

 

Long movie.
Feels a bit "Americanized" based on how they talk.

Still has some intense combat sequences with the close combat.

 

Something this movie had that 2022 didn't was SPOILER

Spoiler

The rats coming into the base and the troops fighting the rats.
I'm confident in reading that the rats attacked the soldiers to eat them... I could have swore I read about that...

 

I think they get the passage of time pretty well. It's not as "neat" as a modern "refined" story arc, but it goes along.

There's also a lot of "tell" then sometimes they show. so to speak.

 

Solid 6 or 7 out of 10.

[Crunchy Dragon]

On 4/10/2023 at 11:14 PM, Crunchy Dragon said:

Watched The Meg

 

It was more okay than I expected.

There's a second one coming out this year