Recent Movies

Discussion in 'Cactus Cafe' started by Chop, Jul 1, 2019.

  1. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    I was pleasantly surprise by "Anna", a new late-Cold War era KGB-CIA spy/action movie. It's a sort-of cross between James Bond, Bruce Lee, and Tom Clancy. It has some interesting and unexpected plot turns, good action scenes (not entirely realistic--think James Bond or Bruce Lee), and surprisingly good acting. Some quality T&A is an added bonus. Give it a look if you have the chance.
     
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  2. Clean

    Clean 5,000+ Posts

    Took myself to see "Godzilla King of the Monsters". I knew the wife didn't want to see it. My mother used to take my sister and I to see all the Sci-fi B movies back in the day. I still like a good monster movie.

    "Godzilla King of the Monsters" got savaged by the critics, but I liked it. Certainly it had the best looking Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Rodan, and Mothra ever on the screen. The monsters are a far cry from men in goofy looking monster suits. The problem was they spent too much time trying to work in the human element. Also, every monster clash seemed to happen at night in the middle of a rain storm. It wasn't as dark as "Game of Thrones, Battle of Winterfell", but it was annoying. During the climatic battle between King Ghidorah and Godzilla, they kept cutting away to show us the plight of human family that was at the center of the plot.

    All said and done, I give it a thumbs up. I'm looking forward to "Godzilla vs Kong" next year.
     
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  3. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    I saw this with my oldest child (pre-teen) as my wife said no dice to this movie. We both loved it. This was the best Godzilla movie I remember. It was interesting (to me) how Godzilla actually was not the toughest monster, and needed help to defeat the mighty King Ghidora.

    I found it amusing, and even slightly refreshing, to see Hollywood/Tokyo make radical environmentalists into the bad guys who wanted to raise up the monsters to destroy mankind (and supposedly save the planet and ecosystem).
     
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  4. LonghornCatholic

    LonghornCatholic Deo Gratias

    I'm a sucker for Godzilla, Planet of the Apes, Predator, etc type movies, so went with the fam. Wife included. She's cool. :hookem:

    I liked it, too.
     
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  5. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    It was also cool how they made Rodan be from a volcano in Mexico. I think they played on the QuetzalCoatl myth there. Rodan was also a lot tougher than in the old Godzilla movies.

    Also, like the last Godzilla movie, it wasn't all about attacking Tokyo. The old movies cracked me up--it was as if they assume there's a giant magnet for monsters somewhere around the Tokyo tower. The Japanese must have done something really awful to piss off all these giant monsters. I'll spare you all the psycho-socio analysis of these movies being all about historical Japanese fears, or the atom bomb, tsunamis, etc., etc....
     
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  6. Clean

    Clean 5,000+ Posts

    No doubt about it. The first Godzilla movie came out in 1954. He was a child of radiation from the atom bomb. There were also two versions of the film. I've never seen the Japanese version, but I understand it delves into the dangers of radiation and nuclear war a lot deeper than the version released over here.
     
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  7. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

    Just saw it last night. It was full of Hollywood humor (subtle and not subtle) from start to finish. Had a Quentin Tarrantino graphic violence scene, as expected, this time with much humor intertwined. Hard core Bruce Lee fans may not appreciate this film. Lots of Manson Family stuff interwoven throughout the movie, with some surprises in store.

    It's a definite see for all but those who can't stomach violence in movies (the sort of folks who should never see a Quentin Tarrantino film in the first place).
     
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  8. Dionysus

    Dionysus Idoit Admin

    We saw Rocketman recently. I like a lot of the old Elton John music.

    Didn’t know it was a musical. Some may like that, I was very disappointed.
     
  9. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    I was never a big Elton John fan or anything like that, but I liked some of his songs. Then, while at UT, working as an usher at the Frank Erwin Center, I worked his concert. After tearing tickets and showing people to their seats, you basically got to watch the last half of the shows. Elton John was probably the best showman I saw my whole time there. Best stage presence, best audience connection, most energy, etc.

    2nd best show ”man” I saw—one of the three little known opening acts for headliner La Sombra at Tejano Music Night, by the name of Selena y Los Dinos. Yep, that Selena.
     
  10. huisache

    huisache 2,500+ Posts

    Saw the qt film and am willing to forgive the previous dreck

    Question: saw Fort Apache last night. Were the cavalry post scenes filmed at Spahn Ranch. I always assumed the whole thing was shot in Monument Valley but the fort locale looked like the terrain at Spahn
     
    Last edited: Aug 5, 2019
  11. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    It's not a movie, but a 5 episode HBO miniseries: Chernobyl. If you haven't seen it, watch it. It was excellent.

    Comrade Dyatlov. Remember the name. This Chernobyl miniseries has introduced to the world the all-time worst boss in the history of film or tv. He makes Bill Lundberg and the pointy haired boss on the Dilbert cartoons look like all-around fantastic guys. Comrade Dyatlov is going viral on the internet.

    Here's some of Comrade Dyatlov's "best hits" (could you imagine working for this guy--and in the Soviet Union where you can't just quit and get a new gig):

     
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  12. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    Want to see communism in action?

    The Chernobyl miniseries also put down on film the greatest example of what communism is really all about. The old man with the cane in the segment below is a high ranking communist party member who went to the Chernobyl plant with other party members right after the accident. The filmmaker is a genius. Every high schooler in the country should be required to watch this 4 minute segment when learning about communism.

    Also, Comrade Dyatalov can't help himself and chimes in with some misinformation of his own...

     
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  13. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    Good Boys.

    A funny, silly, somewhat ridiculous, and a bit dirty look at the awkwardness of early adolescence. It’s about 6th grade boys. Think of a mix of Something About Mary and Goonies. It was funny. The whole audience was laughing throughout the movie. I liked it but it’s probably not for everyone, and not for younger kids.
     
  14. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

    Save your money. More importantly, save your time. This one sucks harder than a brand new high powered vacuum at the coin operated car wash. It really stinks.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
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  15. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    Upcoming - looks like a good story

     
  16. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    I saw Ad Astra - it was a little disappointing but I did agree with the writers' concept of space. Almost immediately I starting thinking it was a Terrence Malick film and I didnt just know it, but I stayed for the credits and it wasn't his. Maybe it was some type of homage to him?
     
  17. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    Clint Eastwood is making a new film called "Richard Jewell," which takes aim at the FBI and the news media. Hope its good bc what happened to that guy was not right
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2019
  18. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    I saw the Downton Abbey movie with my wife last weekend. If you followed the show, it’s worth watching. If you did not, then don’t even consider going to this movie. It’s definitely geared to the existing Downton Abbey fans, and not to winning new fans.

    Anglophiles were out in force. There’s a whole segment of our population that absolutely loves and adores everything English. I like England, especially London, but these ladies might as well move there on a permanent basis.
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2019
  19. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    JOKER

    Wow!

    This one is a powerfully dark examination of an already mentally ill man (Arthur Fleck) on the margins of Gotham City society who descends into utter madness and ultimately adds in violence, to become a folk villain/folk hero lord of chaos in a hellacious 1970s looking city. IMHO this makes for a more compelling Joker origin story than a chemical executive who falls into a vat of acid and emerges as the Joker.

    This is not a normal comic book superhero type of movie. Do NOT bring your kids. Batman isn’t in it (other than as child Bruce Wayne).

    The filmmakers took a detour off the current Hollywood movie highway here. Hollywood hasn’t made movies like this for 40 years or more. Basically, the studio let director Todd Phillips make an ‘art film’ on a big budget. The best comparison is probably Taxi Driver, but this is much darker and also more violent. IMHO, the acting is equal or better too. The director and Phoenix toy with the audience a bit so you’re not completely sure what’s really happening and what is just inside this madman’s mind at times. (Think Fight Club). Taxi Driver’s De Niro (a late night tv show host) adds in some good acting as a supporting character. I would say the violence is similar to, but more intense than that in De Niro’s Taxi Driver and Deer Hunter.

    The cinematography is phenomenal and conveys a foreboding, dark, grimy, and crime ridden Gotham City. Trash is piled up in the streets. Bums, robbers, hookers, vagrants, thugs, and shady characters abound throughout the city. I imagine this is what NYC was like before Giuliani. The JOKER’s Gotham City looks sort of like the NYC in Taxi Driver or Midnight Cowboy but done even better. I don’t know if anywhere in today’s NYC could even pass as this hell hole anymore. Maybe a few places in South Bronx? The credits indicate that they used Newark, NJ for some of the shoots. I guess that makes sense.

    The acting is superb. Joaquin Phoenix does a better (and much different) Joker than anything we’ve seen before. Frankly, this show is more about Arthur Fleck than the “Joker”. The Wayne family are corporate bad guys here. There is an element of Robin Hood too.

    JOKER won first place at some big film festival in Italy. Look for best actor and possibly best picture, and some minor awards too at the Oscars. This one is real, real good. They’ll be studying it in the film schools for years and decades to come.

    Oh yeah, this Joker has some nifty and quirky dance moves.
     
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    Last edited: Oct 11, 2019
  20. Dionysus

    Dionysus Idoit Admin

    :arrow-up: Good post. We saw it this past weekend and it is indeed dark and disturbing. Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is excellent.
     
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  21. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    Like 'Woke Ghostbusters' before it, little interest in 'Woke Terminator'
    Projected to lose $100 Million
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2019
  22. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    Motherless Brooklyn

    This was a good movie. It's a PI/crime/mystery movie set in post WW2 NYC. There are lots of twists and turns, and only a small % of people would be able to figure out the mystery early on. In addition to a good plot and story, Edward Norton does a good job as the lead actor--a low level Brooklyn PI with a bad case of Tourette's syndrome.

    Other cool things about this movie: (i) it's got lots of those 1940's - 1950's Brooklyn-type characters who act and talk like people in old TCM movies, (ii) there's lots of jazz, (iii) it's got some organized crime thugs that have nothing to do with the traditional Mafia, and (iv) it takes a look into the rarely examined world of city planning politics and the massive civilization-changing effects of unelected power brokers like NYC's Robert Moses. Cons: it's long and slow moving. The twists and turns are pretty good though, it has over a handful of interesting supporting characters/supporting actors, and the cinemetography is above average.
     
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    Last edited: Nov 7, 2019
  23. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    Midway

    Thumbs up. Excellent battle scenes incorporating both the in-plane action with the on ship and back at CINCPAC. If you have any interest at all in military history, this is a must see. It takes us through Pearl Harbor, the Doolittle Raid, the aftermath of Coral Sea, and of course the focus on the Battle of Midway. What this film showed that other WW2 movies, including the 1970s Midway film did not, was the extreme murderous antiaircraft fire the dive bombers had to dive through to get to the carriers. Many of them didn't complete their dives because they were shot down by intense antiaircraft fire. Hitting a carrier doing evasive maneuvers through intense antiaircraft fire was a very difficult task. The action shown in this film captures that aspect very, very well.

    Military history background: the Battle of Midway was the turning point, and most important battle, of WW2. As an interesting counter-perspective, the Japanese military regarded Guadalcanal as the most important battle and turning point of the war. After Midway, we held the advantage in carrier strength in the Pacific. The Japanese were, without a doubt, the toughest, smartest, most capable, and most determined enemy we as a nation have ever faced, and this is where we beat them. The dive bomber crews at Midway did more to win us that war than probably anyone else. The focus was rightly on the dive bomber crews. Woody Harrelson played native Texan Admiral Nimitz convincingly. One of the Jonas brothers was a tail gunner on a dive bomber. The Japanese officers were played well and not overly corny or overly concerned with an overwhelming sense of defending their honor, etc. These were also modern professional leaders fighting a modern professional navy.

    Don't expect great acting or dialogue. This is an action and military history film. The only downright stupid scene was where the tailgunner got all emotional and hesitant to go back on another flight, showing a lot of drama, then getting talked into it by the pilot with an inspiring mini-speech and some moody background music playing. That's not how it works in the Navy. You get orders and you follow them without a bunch of drama or corny speeches.
     
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  24. Horn6721

    Horn6721 10,000+ Posts

    It is as close to an historical account as a movie can be .
    You see what our pilots went through and you know why they are called the greatest generation.
    What Doolittle and his men did knowing the likelihood they would not survive is still amazing.
    I think all millennials should see this movie.
     
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  25. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    Midway also showed the sorry performance of our torpedoes at that time. Whatever good for nothing company designed and manufactured our torpedoes at that time did more harm to our war effort than 100 enemy spies.
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2019
  26. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    Hope this one is good
    Carroll Shelby was an interesting guy
    [​IMG]
     
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  27. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    The trailer looked good. Basically a David vs Goliath story on the racetrack. For me, NASCAR and Indy racing can be good, but nothing beats the road courses/Grand Prix/Formula 1 racing.
     
  28. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

  29. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    The Irishman.

    Well, if Joker doesn’t take Best Picture, the Irishman will. Interestingly, both have Robert DeNiro. Scorsese directs DeNiro, Pesci, Pacino, Ray Romano, and some other very good actors. It’s long, real long, we’re talking three hours plus. But worth it. This is the certainly the best mafia film since Goodfellas, and arguably the best since The Godfather films. It's now on Netflix.

    It’s real heavy on the rise and fall of the Teamsters Union’s Jimmy Hoffa, and the involvement of Russ Buffalino and his ‘family’ operating primarily out of the Scranton area and other non-Philly parts of Pennsylvania (usually this sort of film seems to focus on NYC or Chicago). Hoffa’s Teamsters pension fund operated like a giant private bank for organized crime and built much of early Las Vegas. DeNiro stars as Frank Sheeran, an Irish-American guy who becomes Buffalino’s right hand hit man. Prior to becoming a mobster, Sheeran was a truck driver. Prior to that, he was in the Army and saw a lot of combat in Italy. Pesci is Buffalino. Pacino is Hoffa. Conspiracy theorists will like this one as well. Let’s just say these guys really liked Nixon and really hated JFK, RFK, and Castro, and this is one crew you didn't want to f%$& with.

    A definite movie to see. The carnage that this sort of lifestyle reeks on his relationship with his actual family, as well as ‘The Family’, their friends, and enemies is examined and developed.

    Spoiler (sort of) below:














    According to this movie, where Hoffa actually ended up is a lot more mundane than being buried in the concrete at Giants Stadium.
     
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    Last edited: Dec 1, 2019
  30. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    An article about Daniel Craig's last ride as Bond, James Bond. And the car this time looks like a dang cool throwback, sort of a nice tip of the hat

    They are threatening to make Bond "woke" after this one-- which will kill the franchise. I think the proposed new James Bond can be seen in this clip. RIP James Bond - its been a fun ride

    First 'No Time to Die' Trailer Is Beginning of the End for James Bond

     
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