What Movies Have You Seen Lately?

August 12th, 2021 at 7:33:44 AM permalink
rxwine
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 188
Posts: 18631
"It Happened One Night" is oldest movie I've seen that I think most modern audiences could watch without too much mental adjustment to the age of it.


They didn't have to borrow antique cars from collectors to make it.

You believe in an invisible god, and dismiss people who say they are trans? Really?
August 12th, 2021 at 7:38:43 AM permalink
kenarman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 14
Posts: 4470
One of the reasons that there would not be a lot or WWI movies is the depression. Many people were suffering financially during the dirty thirties. If they did manage to scrape up a nickel to go to the movies they wanted escapism not downer movies on war still fresh in their minds.
"but if you make yourselves sheep, the wolves will eat you." Benjamin Franklin
August 12th, 2021 at 7:44:35 AM permalink
Gandler
Member since: Aug 15, 2019
Threads: 27
Posts: 4236
Quote: kenarman
One of the reasons that there would not be a lot or WWI movies is the depression. Many people were suffering financially during the dirty thirties. If they did manage to scrape up a nickel to go to the movies they wanted escapism not downer movies on war still fresh in their minds.


That is a good point, I am sure that is another major factor that would line up with history.
August 15th, 2021 at 9:50:51 PM permalink
terapined
Member since: Aug 6, 2014
Threads: 73
Posts: 11786
Quote: ams288
Apparently it was $468 million Netflix paid.

Rumor has it Daniel Craig, writer/director Rian Johnson, and producer Ram Bergman are all getting $100 million paydays. So that accounts for $300 million.

Anyway, casting for the first sequel is happening right now.

The new cast so far:

Edward Norton
Dave Bautista
Janelle Monae
Kathryn Hahn

Just watched Knives out
I liked it, pretty entertaining
Loved seeing M Emmet Walsh
If you ask me, its the cast that makes this movie
The family is great, especially all the squabbling
I'd rather see Jamie Lee Curtis character back rather then Daniel Craig
I think its a big Netflix gamble that may not payoff
Knives out had perfect chemistry
Hard to replicate that type of success with a mostly different cast.
Sometimes we live no particular way but our own - Grateful Dead "Eyes of the World"
August 15th, 2021 at 11:20:35 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: kenarman
One of the reasons that there would not be a lot or WWI movies is the depression. Many people were suffering financially during the dirty thirties. If they did manage to scrape up a nickel to go to the movies they wanted escapism not downer movies on war still fresh in their minds.


November 11, 1918 (Armistice Day) was the end of WWI. The depression was over a decade later. There were actually dozens of American movies made about WWI, but probably the most famous class film was Sergeant York, a 1941 American biographical film about the life of Alvin C. York, one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War I. Directed by Howard Hawks and starring Gary Cooper in the title role, the film was a critical and commercial success, and became the highest-grossing film of 1941.

After WWII American movies about WWII were few, as it became more of a British subject. WWI was of much more historical importance to the British than to the Americans. WWI was almost completely forgotten as an American movie subject after the Vietnam War.
  1. 1951 The African Queen; John Huston
  2. 1952 What Price Glory; John Ford
  3. 1953 The Royal African Rifles; Lesley Selander
  4. 1955 East of Eden; Elia Kazan
  5. 1957 A Farewell to Arms; Charles Vidor, John Huston (uncredited)
  6. 1957 Paths of Glory; Stanley Kubrick
  7. 1962 Lawrence of Arabia; David Lean
  8. 1970 Darling Lili; Blake Edwards
  9. 1971 Von Richthofen and Brown; Roger Corman
  10. 1971 Johnny Got His Gun; Dalton Trumbo
    ----
  11. 1985 Mata Hari; Curtis Harrington
  12. 1994 Legends of the Fall; Edward Zwick
  13. 1996 In Love and War; Richard Attenborough
  14. 2000 The Legend of Bagger Vance; Robert Redford
  15. 2004 Company K; Robert Clem
  16. 2006 Flyboys; Tony Bill
  17. 2008 Haber; Daniel Ragussis
  18. 2019 Tolkien; Dome Karukoski


1917 (2019) was a British film
August 16th, 2021 at 6:45:40 AM permalink
ddloml
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1
Posts: 27
Peter Jackson made the documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old” in 2018 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day. It is marvelous, and should not be missed.
August 16th, 2021 at 8:18:40 AM permalink
kenarman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 14
Posts: 4470
Usually war movies aren't made until at least several years after the war ends. So there was probably a relatively short period between when WWI movies would have been made before the crash of 1929 and the depression.
"but if you make yourselves sheep, the wolves will eat you." Benjamin Franklin
August 16th, 2021 at 9:17:38 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
I have a long-standing distaste for "Sergeant York" [1941] ... goes back to when I was a kid and saw it on TV. Ironically, I was quite ready for hero worship in those days, and definitely liked war movies. Perhaps the movie would have squeaked by for me except for the premise that York became a crack shot from learning to hunt turkeys. So when it came time to shoot Germans, he used the same supposed technique according to the movie. He would make a gobbling sound, and this would make a Kraut stick his head up and York would shoot him. This over and over. I'm not making this up.

So it really bothers me to see that the movie still gets good ratings. It's for people who go for silliness in movies.

Of course it's a case of a soldier who genuinely deserved a medal but who then represented a propaganda opportunity, meaning a fable had to be made out of his life. My disappointment made me doubt about all of it. I think even the bit about him being a conscientious objector in the beginning may have been made up, as his religious affiliation had no such position and would have been an obvious non-starter.
I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me]
August 16th, 2021 at 9:32:26 AM permalink
rxwine
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 188
Posts: 18631
He's not a WW1 vet but this guy was certainly worth making a movie about. Even if he actually gobbled like a turkey. (no record of that)
You believe in an invisible god, and dismiss people who say they are trans? Really?
August 18th, 2021 at 7:43:18 AM permalink
Mission146
Administrator
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 23
Posts: 4147
The Suicide Squad Review

SPOILER ALERT: MEDIUM

Background:

Let's start with a little background on this movie. Suicide Squad (2016) and The Suicide Squad (2021) are two different movies; an article makes all of the difference. Another way of looking at it might be that this is The Suicide Squad, but more emphatically so...it's like THE Ohio State University of movies, pretentious; the difference being that there's nothing that's just, "Ohio State University."

Dotting the i for this movie is director, James Gunn, who found himself temporarily fired from Disney for something political that I don't care to look up, hired by Warner Bros. Pictures to direct this movie and then rehired at Disney. At Disney, Gunn is perhaps best known for being the director, as well as one of the writers, of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Those are much better and you should watch those instead.

Plot:

To whatever extent this movie can be said to have a plot, it's the same plot as the Suicide Squad...not The Suicide Squad, but the Suicide Squad (2016) with a lower-case t.

You have a group of ragtag villains who are imprisoned for one reason or another and have been put together to go to the fictional South American island nation of Corto Maltese and destroy a building where a secret weapon is being developed. The previous Government of Corto Maltese had been overthrown and there is instead a Government in place that is unfriendly to the United States, so the U.S. just wants to destroy the project and be done with it.***

***There's a plot twist that will lead to two (or perhaps more) members of the team fighting one another. I won't say what the plot twist is, but it's hardly a surprise. They pretty well telegraphed that this one particular character would be getting into it with someone sooner or later.

I'll leave it at that and pretend the plot is worth preserving.

Characters:

Harley Quinn---Harley Quinn is back and is the same character she always is. She even basically recycles a joke or two from Suicide Squad without the the.

Bloodsport---Do you remember Will Smith's Deadshot character from Suicide Squad? Bloodsport is basically that, except it's not Will Smith and his character isn't as funny as Deadshot. I imagine that Idris Elba was cheaper than Will Smith, though. Anyway, Bloodsport has one humorous interaction with another character in this movie, which is one more humorous interaction than the other characters got (It's not Peacemaker). Bloodsport put Superman in the ICU with a kryptonite arrow---I want to see that movie, instead.

Peacemaker---Peacemaker basically does the same thing that Bloodsport does and the two do everything but get into a cock-a-doodle-doo showing competition with one another. John Cena plays himself in the role of Peacemaker. Yes, this movie, 'Stars,' John Cena. As you probably could have guessed, nothing positive can possibly come from that.

Colonel Rick Flag: He's back from Suicide Squad and, for some reason, something happened between then and now that caused him to develop a kinship to Harley Quinn? I don't know. I'm not even certain that Suicide Squad (without the the) actually happened in this timeline. I don't think they referenced it at all, but maybe they did. Anyway, he's a bit moire personable now...you can tell because of his haircut. He was much cooler in the other movie.

King Shark---He's a nine-foot tall walking shark. Do you really need to know anything else about this character? He sucks.

Amanda Waller---Waller is the last of the returning characters to play a serious role in this movie. You'll see perhaps one or two other such characters, but don't worry, they'll be dead quickly. She's the same character that she was last time, so no surprises if you've seen the first one.

Polka-Dot Man---He shoots polka dots out of his hands. Yup. Freud would have the best day of his life with him. You'd have to watch this movie to find out, but you really shouldn't watch this movie...just go look up an article with full spoilers.

Ratcatcher 2---See, this character is called, "Ratcatcher 2," because she is the daughter of Ratcatcher 1, who was probably just called Ratcatcher before his daughter was born. So...what they should have done is given her a cool, but different, name and then named this movie, "Suicide Squad 2," but this movie is really bad at naming things. Ratcatcher can control rats.

Savant---This is Michael Rooker's character who is something of a call to Yondu Udonta in the beginning of this movie. Michael Rooker could play a tuna sandwich and convince you that sandwich is a total bad @$$, so they made this character die early in the movie while running away in panic...good use of Michael Rooker, idiot.

The Thinker---This is the head of Project Starfish---the project that the Suicide Squad in The Suicide Squad has to destroy.

Sol Soria---This is the leader of a guerrilla group that wants to overthrow the new Government and create a Democracy. She teams up with The Suicide Squad under...unusual...circumstances.

Critical Bullet Points:

1.) This movie is almost never funny. It certainly tried to be, or maybe pretends that it tries to be, but it isn't. I legitimately laughed at one exchange in the entire movie---and it involved Bloodsport and Ratcatcher pretty early on.

2.) Michael Bay is to Explosions as James Gunn is to ripping bodies apart, who knew? It's pretty gratuitously done and has shockingly little value for something that is supposed to shock and awe. In fact, you'll be so bored ten minutes into the movie that it'll have about as much impact as a person slicing through a tomato.

3.) Yeah, yeah, yeah...they play up the whole thing with these guys being villains who are forced to do something heroic, but I don't really buy it for this movie. On the surface, it's true, but they mostly just like killing stuff. They didn't actually have to come through and save the day at the end of the movie, but they did it anyway because...reasons. Of their own volition, they faced a high probability of death to save a city, which is something that a hero does.

4.) Some of the characters have certain moral qualities, but only when it's convenient for the plot. Like, you'll kill unarmed women (rather than just incapacitate them so they don't become armed), but children is where you draw the line? Okay, whatever.

5.) The movie channels either Godzilla or Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the last action sequence. Or, maybe it's more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II with Super Shredder...I don't know. The big baddie in this movie is profoundly stupid, in any case.

6.) I'm just going to tell you what the big baddie is: It's a giant starfish from outer space, what else do you need to know to understand that this movie sucks?

Intent?:

I guess one could argue that this movie was meant to be satirical when it comes to the superhero genre and try to find value in it there, but it falls flat in that regard by not really winking to the audience. It also seems to want some characters to be taken seriously, so that also fails. If it is meant to be satirical, then it's not as subtle as the Escape From movies and isn't as overtly satirical as something like Spaceballs. I guess this just doesn't work for me as satire, except I could buy the argument that the last action sequence in the movie is meant as satire...but nothing before that strikes me as parodic.

So Bad That It's Good?:

No, that only works for low-budget movies. James Gunn basically just shot a 185M dollar ejaculation all over the screen is what happened. All sound and fury (CGI, explosions and graphics) signifying nothing. The other thing is that so bad they are good movies seem to try really, really, hard to be good movies, which is what makes the concept work. I don't think anyone involved with this project was actually trying to make a good movie.

Reception and Release:

Suicide Squad (2016) made a lot of money. This movie will not only fail to make a lot of money, but there's also a very good chance that it will lose money. It's actually kind of tough to gauge because this movie was released in theaters as well as HBO Max simultaneously. Just looking at box office numbers, this movie will almost certainly lose money overall.

The critics seem to give it ever so slightly above average scores. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 91% fresh (this does not denote an average 9.1/10 rating, but is more along the lines of 91% of critics considering it above average to some degree, large or small) and Metacritic scores it a 72...which, I believe, is closer to suggesting a 7.2/10, which, to me, is ridiculous.

I don't know if there is some political reason that nobody wants to give this a poor review, if they were bribed or if it is perhaps out of some strange loyalty to James Gunn because the Guardians movies are good, but there is no way this should be considered even a passable movie.

My Score:

On a scale of 0-10, I give this movie a 1.5 out of 10. This is, undoubtedly, the single worst film that I have seen in theaters in my entire life. I actually have trouble coming up with ANY movies that I would consider definitely worse than this one. I still look forward to Guardians of the Galaxy Volume III; more than one thing can be true at once.

This movie did not have Will Smith, and honestly, the characters simply aren't very good, in general. This movie might not do as well in the Box Office as Birds of Prey which at least had Huntress. I'm going to say it: You can't really base a movie around Harley Quinn, at least, not this version of her. I think that Margot Robbie is doing her best with garbage writing and a fundamentally second-rate version of an iconic comic book property, but it's just not working and the returns keep getting worse.

This version of Harley Quinn would do fine as a co-star and comedy relief in a fundamentally more serious movie, but I'm just going to call nonsense, 'Nonsense,' on this piece of garbage. Most who have seen it seem to believe that it is better than Suicide Squad (2016) and I'm afraid that, even though Suicide Squad was a terrible movie, it was better than this one.
"War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen..let us give them all they want." William T. Sherman