the whole point of this movie is to accumulate global box office and definitely plays to a low common denominator but somehow i'm not mad at its lack of respect for me there's a weird art to its clinical approach and i appreciated it more than the mcu's openly smarmy way of ripping people off
and it definitely created a world i would have loved to explore more or at least taken even a few seconds every once in a while to let me digest
on the official sgp scorecard 'the wandering earth' gets 5.5 Sweet Gregory Pectins out of 10
Sweet Gregory Pectin wrote:and it definitely created a world i would have loved to explore more or at least taken even a few seconds every once in a while to let me digest
there's a 5-10 minute stretch that is set in your deranged dreams after you eat too much red meat watch demolition man, the super marios bros movie, and blade runner at the same time and immediately pass out
i actually liked it more than the first one. it still spent way too much time with chris pratts insufferably boring character, but the music was much better and tiffany haddish's queen was better than anything in the first movie.
Watched Burning, and was liking it a lot until that ending. I was feeling like “finally, someone got the feel of Murakami right. The three main actors are great, and it got the main characters right. The protagonist was kind of bland as he should be, and the girl was super charming. Loved her miming eating the orange and her African dance. Then suddenly it’s turned into a bleak murder revenge flick, which I was not expecting only because it seemed like the filmmakers would be too smart for it. I guess they got me!Toggle Spoiler
Alien 3 (Assembly Cut) - This movie is so underrated. I don't get why people hate it. I mean, I do get it but there's a ton of great stuff in this, especially in the Assembly version which I hadn't seen before. Honestly think I like this better than Aliens, which I find cheesy in a lot of ways. The setup and the last 20 minutes of Aliens is amazing but I feel like it drags in the middle and the Marines kind of annoy me. The story in 3 is more intriguing and there's a lot of great character work. I especially love Charles Dance's performance. 8.5/10.
Felt really uninspired. I kept looking at the time on my phone and was feeling antsy to leave for the last hour of the movie. Probably didn’t help being relatively drunk in a kid’s movie.
Also saw the Joni Mitchell 75th Birthday tribute concert last week. Was a little too long but there were some inspired covers. Seal brought the house down.
antoine wrote:Alien 3 (Assembly Cut) - This movie is so underrated. I don't get why people hate it. I mean, I do get it but there's a ton of great stuff in this, especially in the Assembly version which I hadn't seen before. Honestly think I like this better than Aliens, which I find cheesy in a lot of ways. The setup and the last 20 minutes of Aliens is amazing but I feel like it drags in the middle and the Marines kind of annoy me. The story in 3 is more intriguing and there's a lot of great character work. I especially love Charles Dance's performance. 8.5/10.
CIARA IS DEFIANTLY A MAN AND ITS DISGUSTING MY CUZIN WAS THROWING UP FOR 2 WEEKSM YUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK PLEASE SIGN THIS B/C THATS JSUT HERENDOUZ
Alien Resurrection (1997) - I had only seen parts of this before, never watched the whole thing. This film is...odd. I didn't dislike it as much as I thought I would. It's definitely not a great Alien movie, but it's reasonably entertaining and there's some nice shots and set pieces. The choice of director is really weird and I don't think he was a good fit for the franchise but it's kind of a mildly enjoyable oddity. 6.5/10.
All seen over the past week Water & Power - Pat O'neill
This didn't exactly stick with me too hard but I was pretty enraptured by the imagery the whole time. My experience watching this was fairly similar to my experience with The Grand Bizarre in that I was continually enthralled with the imagery and mostly annoyed with the soundtrack - and since the sound design is so tightly embedded into the visual structure of both films I was unable to get fully on board with either one.
The Man Who Stole the Sun - Kazuhiko Hasegawa
The real knockout film I watched this week. Deeply charming, alternatively a dead serious thriller about a lone madman with a nuclear bomb, a very silly character driven action film with a rock star in the lead role and some marvelous musical montages, and a broadish political satire of social mores. The production history and talent involved (kiyoshi kurosawa and shinji somai were both asst directors for this) make it a precursor/harbinger for Japanese cinema of the 90s and beyond. The way it handles tone and genre is striking and inspiring. Just a fantastic unabashed blockbuster of a movie.
Gilsoddeum - Im Kwon-Taek
Really great. A powerful and straightforward recitation of deeply tragic events punctuated by a killer soundtrack and some very tasteful cinematography.
A Summer at Grandpa's - Hou Hsiao-Hsien
I'm making a project to watch all of Hou Hsiao-Hsien (and more Taiwanese film in general) this year. I feel like HHH's magical eye for framing and sense of rhythm was fully developed by this stage, but the story is frankly boring and the tone is all over the damn place in an unpleasant way (the fucking hemorrhoids joke??). The best is yet to come (I hope).
antoine wrote:Alien Resurrection (1997) - I had only seen parts of this before, never watched the whole thing. This film is...odd. I didn't dislike it as much as I thought I would. It's definitely not a great Alien movie, but it's reasonably entertaining and there's some nice shots and set pieces. The choice of director is really weird and I don't think he was a good fit for the franchise but it's kind of a mildly enjoyable oddity. 6.5/10.
I somehow had a poster for Alien Resurrection in my room in high school, I assume because it was one of two posters I had acquired (I got a big Wowee Zowee poster later).
There’s a sequence in AR that’s similar to a sequence in Deep Blue Sea and I feel like calling AR the Deep Blue Sea of the Alien movies is accurate. It’s reasonably enjoyable and I like the Jeunot regulars.
I watched Overlord last night. The first half was slower than I expected, starts out like Band of Brothers then comes closer to parts of Inglourious Basterds before the horror stuff kicks in. Not necessarily complaining about the pace, but it’s a long 1:50. Wyatt Russell has some percentage of his dad’s charisma and that helps.
antoine wrote:Alien Resurrection (1997) - I had only seen parts of this before, never watched the whole thing. This film is...odd. I didn't dislike it as much as I thought I would. It's definitely not a great Alien movie, but it's reasonably entertaining and there's some nice shots and set pieces. The choice of director is really weird and I don't think he was a good fit for the franchise but it's kind of a mildly enjoyable oddity. 6.5/10.
There’s a sequence in AR that’s similar to a sequence in Deep Blue Sea and I feel like calling AR the Deep Blue Sea of the Alien movies is accurate.
Yeah I thought of Deep Blue Sea during that part too. It's ironic because I think Renny Harlin was signed on to direct Alien 3 at one point. Then they got an even more eccentric Euro weirdo to direct AR.
lego movie 2 was fine but definitely had a severe slump in the middle
i've watched a lot of movies recently without loving any (three colours: blue was really good though) but i need to give special mention to what an absolute piece of shit movie the mule is. fuck that film.
Thanks, admin.
Raise. Hell. All. Summer. Long.
monkey d stiltzkin wrote:pure poppycock from Seamus yet again
The sequel to The Heroic Trio that was put together and released about 7 months after the first one. In the intervening time, there's been a nuclear holocaust and one of the women grew a kid. Now they have to... reunite because of a scheme to control the clean water supply and take over the government, basically everything sucks, but not really too bad overall as far as things can go after a nuclear detonation. It's b-movie satisfying aesthetic in every way, from the cheap soundtrack, to the skewed angles, noticeably artificial lighting, random onset of slow motion, and if it's a night scene yes fam you're gonna set the blue filter and the fog machine to max. I really appreciate that it never, ever, tries to seem like it's not a movie. But it's not as good as the first one, it's not quite as nutty (while it does occasionally dip into weird shit), and the dynamics between the trio can't live up to the set-up in the first movie, and really no one just seems that into being there on screen, except whoever is playing the villain. Oh, that's Anthony Wong, of course. They really should have given him more scenes. The worst fault it has, though, is there just isn't enough kung fu. Instead, everyone is shooting dumb looking automatic rifles all the time. Still, if you don't hold it up to the standard of the first one, I can't really complain.
I don't honestly see why they wouldn't do it. Once the new trilogy is wrapped up it seems like it would be a money maker, but maybe the actors wouldn't be down for it given Issac and Driver will be winning oscars soon, I'd hazard to guess, and Ridley obv is a huge star too.
Franco wrote:Why did more than one person say LEGO 2 bummed them out? What’s that about
Bc it’s bad? Or worse
less funny than the og. kind of boring.
but huge disclaimer - I only watched the first 45 minutes because my kid was terrified by it and wanted to leave. it's not scary at all. I said "you can just cover your eyes if you think a bit is scary" and he said "NO, i NEVER want to see this movie again" so we left. lol