Movies Thread

[Leopold Stotch]

Any and all talk about movies! Ratings, recommendations, nostalgia, whatevs.

One of the many movies I can watch over and over again is Superbad. I'm rewatching it right now and I'm still rolling.

What are the movies that you can watch over and over again and laugh or feel good or cry because you love a good drama/tragedy?

 

[superdave]

The Princess Bride
A Christmas Story
Groundhog Day
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ghostbusters
True Grit
Conan the Barbarian

 

[Pyrotechnician]

I have no freaking clue why, but I can watch Scott Pilgrim vs. the World a million times and not get tired of it.

I'm not saying its the best movie ever or anything like that, but its quirky, weird, enjoyable, and has a surprising number of known actors/actresses.

For well known movies I'm going with the Indiana Jones Trilogy (good thing they stopped at three and never made another one!) and the 007 movies starting with Pierce Brosnan through Daniel Craig, some of the older ones hold up but many are definitely dated at this point.

 

[In The Name of Zod]

Scott Pilgrim vs. the world is really bizarre, think I've seen it twice now. I saw High Desert Kill (1989) recently and wondered why I had never heard of it before. Not that it is rated very highly by many but it really stuck with me and was very enjoyable. Weird horror's are and I expect will always be my favorite genre mix. Another recent watch was Dante's Inferno (1911) which I've been meaning to see for ages and I'm glad I did. I couldn't imagine how people would have perceived that movie when it was first released. Awesome movie.

 

[jmervyn]

Doctor Strange really isn't as bad as imagined, while Venom probably is.

 

[zemaj]

I've recently rewatched most of the Star Trek movies (just the TOS & TNG ones, not reboots), and had forgotten how amazingly good some are, and how ridiculously bad others are... made me remember a bit from Futurama "Hey, ya know what 6 movies equal out to 3 really good movies? The first 7 Star Trek movies."

Star Trek, the Motion Picture - favorite, hands down, but I like a good cerebral story. Least action of any of them, probably, but some of the best space panorama shots.

The Wrath of Khan - also a damned fine story, and amazingly well done, imo. Nice balance of story & action.

Search for Spock - holy plotholes, Batman. On the fence with this one, overall highly watchable, but disappointing after the first 2.

The Voyage Home - WHALES! And TIME PARADOXES! Pretty meh, don't care for it. I'm rather alone on this though, so take that as you will.

The Final Frontier - No. Just no. Silly and ridiculous don't begin to describe this... thing.

The Undiscovered Country - ok, this is, imo, the single best of the TOS-cast movies for an action flick. Pretty good, overall, though it has several weak points.

Generations - meh... less of an actual movie, more like a grandiose announcement they will be switched to the TNG cast going forward. Overall watchable, but very lacking, comparatively.

I'll see about doing the other TNG movies after I finish them.

 

[zemaj]

Doctor Strange really isn't as bad as imagined, while Venom probably is.

WHAT? Doctor Strange was about as good as they could have done, considering the source material, and it's abstract-ness.

Vemon, while kind of butchering the source material, was pretty on-point, tonally, though I do wonder how they will portray Carnage in any sequels, having pretty much made Riot(?) have all the abilities and viciousness of Carnage.

Loved both of those... some of the better superhero movies recently made, imo.



Edited for spelling/grammar and clarity

 

[Gorny]

I've recently rewatched most of the Star Trek movies (just the TOS & TNG ones, not reboots), and had forgotten how amazingly good some are, and how ridiculously bad others are... made me remember a bit from Futurama "Hey, ya know what 6 movies equal out to 3 really good movies? The first 7 Star Trek movies."

Star Trek, the Motion Picture - favorite, hands down, but I like a good cerebral story. Least action of any of them, probably, but some of the best space panorama shots.

The Wrath of Khan - also a damned fine story, and amazingly well done, imo. Nice balance of story & action.

Search for Spock - holy plotholes, Batman. On the fence with this one, overall highly watchable, but disappointing after the first 2.

The Voyage Home - WHALES! And TIME PARADOXES! Pretty meh, don't care for it. I'm rather alone on this though, so take that as you will.

The Final Frontier - No. Just no. Silly and ridiculous don't begin to describe this... thing.

The Undiscovered Country - ok, this is, imo, the single best of the TOS-cast movies for an action flick. Pretty good, overall, though it has several weak points.

Generations - meh... less of an actual movie, more like a grandiose announcement they will be switched to the TNG cast going forward. Overall watchable, but very lacking, comparatively.

I'll see about doing the other TNG movies after I finish them.

I've always gone back to the original Trek movies rather than the later ones. The reboots...meh.

For me, Star Trek The Motion Picture was good but carried on too long.

Wrath of Khan was a great story as well, seeing Kirk and Khan play cat and mouse around a planet and then in The Mutara Nebula was a good watch. The Constitution Class Enterprise would have Easily Outgunned the lesser Miranda Class Reliant, had Khan not taken them by surprise.

Search for Spock, liked it but more for the stealing the Enterprise bit, don't call me tiny and Scotty's up your shaft comment in retort to Capt. Excelsior's boast about breaking speed records, great piece of music during the whole "Stealing the Enterprise" scene. Then Have a nice day when the Excelsior breaks down.

The Voyage Home... holy probes and whales! Wasn't one of my favorites either. Not bad but not great.

Undiscovered Country I liked also, I don't really have anything to complain about for this one.

Final Frontier, meh.

Highlight of Generations was Data's little life forms song and then him saying OOOH Shit when they were about to crash.


First Contact I liked, good borg story, Picard was kind of like Ahab going after Moby ****.

Insurrection, was ok, best part was the Briar Patch sequence. Rest was kind of boring.

Star Trek Nemesis...I'll just pass on.

 

[jmervyn]

WHAT? Doctor Strange was about as good as they could have done, considering the source material, and it's abstract-ness. Vemon, while kind of butchering the source material, was pretty on-point, though I do wonder have they will portray Carnage in any sequels, having pretty much made Riot(?) have all the abilities and viciousness of Carnage.

Loved both of those... some of the better superhero movies recently made, imo.

I've got both, but I was pointing out cinema value - while I liked Dr. Strange conceptually as a child & actually had one comic book, I'm not at all familiar with 'canon'.

The Voyage Home - WHALES! And TIME PARADOXES! Pretty meh, don't care for it. I'm rather alone on this though, so take that as you will.

Well, that aside, TRANSPARENT ALUMINUM!

 

[Glurin]

I've always gone back to the original Trek movies rather than the later ones. The reboots...meh.

I'm with you on that one. The original movies followed the old Hollywood guidebook. Special effects are cool, but use them to back up the story. Focus on the plot and character development. Even in action movies where explosions are a major selling point.

The reboots more or less follow the Michael Bay guidebook. "Boom! Boom boom! BOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOMMMM!!!! Boom! Boom! And if there's time maybe throw something in there about aliens trying to kill everyone or some crap like that. Just make sure there's lots of pretty explosions and noises."

 

[krischan]

I'm with you on that one.

I already wrote it in the old OTF: Agree. It's one of the movies that invoked my interest in SciFi. I saw it in the late 70s (I guess) and I was totally amazed when the circle about V'ger closed at the end.

My best movie experiences I can remember right now, in no particular order:

The Good/Bad/Ugly
Blade Runner
Pulp Fiction
Alien
Das Boot
Shawshank Redemption
Braindead

 

[jmervyn]

I already wrote it in the old OTF: Agree. It's one of the movies that invoked my interest in SciFi. I saw it in the late 70s (I guess) and I was totally amazed when the circle about V'ger closed at the end

What, you're not totally stunned that the old Star Trek/Asimov principle about the show forecasting the future came shining through even with the crap-tastic "The Voyage Home"?

TRANSPARENT ALUMINUM, for Christ's sake. I mean, the closest bestest thing evah would be that pig-creature that markets its bacon in (the GOOD version of) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

(Looked for a video citation & couldn't find it. I suppose the Beeb has decided to try to profit by scraping tuppence coins through restricting views of a 40-some-year-old TV series.)

 

[Glurin]

Haven't really watched many movies perse lately. Been mostly binge watching some series that I like. Some anime like Gate and Ascendance of a Bookworm, but also things like Farscape, Sanctuary, Warehouse 13 and Babylon 5.

 

[jmervyn]

Haven't really watched many movies perse lately. Been mostly binge watching some series that I like. Some anime like Gate and Ascendance of a Bookworm, but also things like Farscape, Sanctuary, Warehouse 13 and Babylon 5.

Don't recall Sanctuary or Warehouse 13. Once I finish a second viewing of Breaking Bad I'll probably either do Sharpe's Rifles or Battlestar Galactica again.

 

[In The Name of Zod]

I already wrote it in the old OTF: Agree. It's one of the movies that invoked my interest in SciFi. I saw it in the late 70s (I guess) and I was totally amazed when the circle about V'ger closed at the end.

My best movie experiences I can remember right now, in no particular order:

The Good/Bad/Ugly
Blade Runner
Pulp Fiction
Alien
Das Boot
Shawshank Redemption
Braindead

This is really deserving of a separate thread. I've spent hours wondering hard what mine are and I ended up making an IMDB List. On that note I noticed you had Braindead in your list which was an amazing movie I thought, it's a real pity we lost Jackson the to stardom world of cashola, he was really good when he wasn't chasing the dollar.

 

[superdave]

Troll Bridge was finally released on Youtube. It is based on one of Pratchett's Discworld short stories and features Cohen the Barbarian. This movie was made with crowdfunding support. Length - 28 minutes.

Stick around at the end to listen to the song. You will want to know what happens to the 3 trolls Cohen visits after purchasing their addresses with his last 12 gold pieces.

 

[jmervyn]

So I won't overly contaminate this thread with socio-political observation; I've done so sufficiently elsewhere.

HOWEVER, I had started to despair for the 2021 movie season given that Wonder Woman 1984 was apparently an unpolishable turd and Ghostbusters: Afterlife is postponed... indefinitely?

The bright spot was a Dune remake. I'm always a sucker for a Dune remake.

The "However" is an observation that despite the 'wokeness' infecting everything Hollywood touches, to the point that Progressive fascists complain when ScarJo is cast as a transgender, it seems like movies being pre-positioned as blockbusters are more than happy to roll around in the pig sty of stereotypes.

To the point that acting talent is secondary to casting. H'Wood is still going for 'a look' which panders to the most slovenly typecasting available.

Zendaya (SP?) as Chani, Drax (Dave Bautista) as 'Beast' Rabban, and Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) as Gurney Halleck (or Duncan Idaho, per IMDB)... these aren't innovative casting in any rational interpretation. Also, I'm not saying that I dislike any of these people - I don't know that Zendaya is an actress, given that she's pretty in a froggy/puffy Hispanic fashion - but there's no way they were selected for their repertoire or resume.

It seems like the H'Wood norm is becoming the hire of skilled actors for secondary & tertiary roles, while the principals (Gaia forbid we call them 'lead actress' or 'supporting' any more) are close to one-shot wannabees hoping to make it big. At best they have thin resumes, and I suspect this is in studio hopes to avoid paying big salaries to known stars.

About the only thing that's unusual is that Lady Jessica is not portrayed as a stunning pr0n-starlet-supermodel. That despite the actress actually being a model and dancer prior to acting.

EDIT - probably undermined my own point re: Zendaya; she's obviously cast for name recognition but in no way qualifies as "elfin". Sean Young was physically ideal, Barbora Kodetová far less so but still not blocky... Zendaya is certainly no Jane March level fit.

 

[Glurin]

One of my old favorites came to mind this morning for some reason. The Burbs.

 

[superdave]

I watched Wonder Woman 1984 so you didn't have to. Hard pass or if you must watch, just skip the first 3/4's of the film.

 

[Gorny]

I watched Wonder Woman 1984 so you didn't have to. Hard pass or if you must watch, just skip the first 3/4's of the film.

I watched it already, will never again. It's complete trash.