Film/Video Discussion Thread - The Bear and Badger

Paul the sparky

Aquaman isn't anywhere near as bad as it's made out to be. It's too long for what it is, it could have made for a much tighter blast if you took a few things out.

Spoiler:

The CGI and effects were ropey in places, but they had some great imagery, a likable cast, a bit of humour and colour making it a far better watch than Batman v Supes, Suicide Squad and the rest of the DC muck.

RedDave2

Paul the sparky wrote:

Aquaman isn't anywhere near as bad as it's made out to be. It's too long for what it is, it could have made for a much tighter blast if you took a few things out.

Spoiler:

Like the entirety of that awful Black Munter thing. Or they could have made a TV series out of it instead, with an adventure in a new place every week or something, but trying to squeeze all the globe trotting in made it drag a bit.
The CGI and effects were ropey in places, but they had some great imagery, a likable cast, a bit of humour and colour making it a far better watch than Batman v Supes, Suicide Squad and the rest of the DC muck.

I agree they had some stuff right - cast was fine, colour was nice, humour had its moments. But they made the standard DC mistake - Cram everything in. All of it. Every idea. All in. As such the impact of events is lost. Pace is all over the place. I'm an easy mark for comic book movies and this left me bored. It's like having too many sweets as a kids. Sounded good on paper, not so much fun in execution. I'd still rate Wonder Woman as the best of the DC stuff. But even that would be mid-tier Marvel.

nick_md

mistercrayon wrote:

Midsommar is like the wicker man

Spoiler:

which is to say everything re: the community feels
stolen
but with a weird side line about a woman finding someone who agrees with her feelings.

Some of the parts feel unintentionally hilarious (but maybe they’re meant to be)?

Also: the director really digs this idea that if you do something stupid but have In film text showing it in advance you can do anything and it feels pretty fucking ham fisted the second time round.

Finally the whole thing is kind of bizarre and you wonder if it’s all fake anyway.

Spoiler:

Consider the facts presented: this stuff happens every year but the notes for the ritual are somehow precise and also basically made up of feelings and paintings.

What's the in film text stuff you're referring to?

Re. your second spoiler:

Spoiler:

I liked it, it felt rather long at 2.5hrs but I think the slow pace was part of the point. I don't really have any problem with it taking inspiration from the Wicker Man either but get others may not be so forgiving. I thought Pugh was great.

bad_hair_day

RedDave2 wrote:

I'd still rate Gal Gadot as the best of the DC stuff.

Fixed that for me.

Scout

Anyone enjoyed the horrifying joy of Midsommar?

nick_md

Two posts up buddy, I liked it.

mistercrayon

@nick.

Spoiler:

mistercrayon

My view on the film as a whole was that it felt like it hung together reasonably well and that the throughline about isolation and anxiety (perhaps as a modern phenomena only). I think also as horror film goes it was a pretty decent inversion in that

Spoiler:

It doesn’t reach the super high of hereditary (or low) though.

Dinostar77

bad_hair_day wrote:

RedDave2 wrote:

I'd still rate Gal Gadot as the best of the DC stuff.

Fixed that for me.

Wonder Woman is the only good thing to come out of the how DC debacle. We watched half of aquaman got bored and turned it off. That's a first for me and the missus as we watch all the Marvel and DC stuff. Probably need to give it another chance.

Paul the sparky

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I was thinking about favourite 90s cinema experiences the other day. Excluding the obvious front runners (Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and Prince of Thieves), I settled on Blair Witch as my top pick.

The arse end of Stargate is on channel 5 now, that was a forgotten belter of the 90's. Ancient Egypt mixed with sci-fi shit? Little me lapped that up.

Moot_Geeza

That's the stuff. Thieves was king though.

Paul the sparky

I didn't go to the cinema for that. And that fucking song was everywhere forever, so it's tainted.

JP, Independence Day and Stargate are stand outs for me. I need to take Nate to more stuff, he's obsessed with Miles Morales since we saw Spiderverse.

b0r1s

Stargate at the cinema was amazing at the time.

Paul the sparky

Aye. I've just flicked through Rolling Stone's 100 greatest films of the 90s and none of the blockbusters make the cut, but to a kid they were incredible.

Moot_Geeza

Harry and the Hendersons was another mini moot heavy hitter. Probably 80s though.

Gremill

regmcfly wrote:

So because flora was feeling a bit down tonight we watched Inception on Netflix. Probably the first time since we saw it in the cinema while dating, and himan that movie stands up. I'm a well known hater of Interstellar and Dunkirk (direct hate mail to my po box) but man, I couldn't get over how well constructed Inception was. Even to the point it used film editing to make a plot point (the bit where leo is speaking to Ellen in a french cafe) it's a playful little beast. Good work.

That's one that I'm going to watch with my son. He watches a lot of shit films and it'll be nice to make him watch a goodv one

Scout

nick_md wrote:

Two posts up buddy, I liked it.

Oops. Missed that. I thought it was excellent but preferred Hereditary. Pretty exceptional one-two from a new director. Interested to see what he does next. I read an interview with him where he said he'd love to do something completely different.

nick_md

Yeah I heard he's said no more horror. Am yet to watch Hereditary so look forward to digging into that.

regmcfly

Watched Shin Godzilla the night with flora to get us hyped up for Japan and all it made me do was remember how much fucking bureaucracy there is in Japan. Good movie though.

b0r1s

Have watched Inception tonight after Reg’s post and enjoyed it just as much as every time I have watched it. I also thing it has emotional weight that is far better portrayed than in Interstellar.

They are both stories of a man trying to get back to his family. I personally feel Inception does a better, more subtle, job of this with Dicaprio’s contained pain vs. McConaughey’s OTT tearfest. I find the emotional beats in Interstellar forced.

Dark Soldier

yeah but Interstellar has that scene and i cri everytim

b0r1s

I get ya (I cry at the end of Its a Wonderful Life) but just don’t get the feels with Matty.

MattyJ

I'll have you know I'll give you all the feels. So many feels you won't know what to do with em

b0r1s

regmcfly

Interstellar leaves me cold , inception, the coldest movie, gives me warmth.

ShabbyMcCrabby

Inception's incessant expositional dialogue kills the spectacle for me.

Interstellar is a beast at IMAX.

hylian_elf

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

Inception's incessant expositional dialogue kills the spectacle for me.

Yep. This is exactly why I didn’t like it.

Moot_Geeza

Interstellar left me cold on first viewing but filled me with warmth on reappraisal.

ShabbyMcCrabby

I watched Toy Story 4 and the bit where

Spoiler:

Such a great little physical comedy moment.

Yossarian

I don’t think we’ve spent more time discussing any movie on this forum than Interstellar, at least, not over such a sustained period.

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