Film/Video Discussion Thread - The Bear and Badger

Dark Soldier

Timecrimes is fucking amazIng, such a good film.

SpaceGazelle

I quite like Barry on HBO. It's all sorts of stupid but it has me laughing a lot.

Edit: Oops wrong thread.

jdanielp

Anyone seen The Infinite Man? That would make an excellent double-bill with Timecrimes.

Minkymu

Oh no i need to look that up

djchump

Dark Soldier wrote:

Kind of. The scenes where she goes into the 'dream' or whatever the fuck are just photoshop layers.

Oh and GLITCHES = horror.

Man's a hack.

As a graphics programmer, the volumetric capture process and point clouds etc are a lot more involved than “photoshop layers” - but yeah, Blomkamp and Oat Studios have always been technology led, rather than story driven, in that they’re a VFX outfit who tend to find a new tech and try to shoehorn it to a short story, rather than guys like Cameron on T2 who are story-driven and find the whatever technology they need to enable the vision. In that respect I’ve always liked their output but solely from a “oh, that’s a neat vfx gag or tech use-case” rather than a “wow that story/short/film was great”. Rated his earlier stuff like D9 and Elysium more, but suffered from similar kind of misguided focus/effort. I still like his production design though.

More info for the tech nerds about the volumetric capture etc: https://beforesandafters.com/2021/08/17/neill-blomkamp-on-what-volumetric-capture-brought-to-his-new-horror-film-demonic
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=umyglbDr4IE

Dark Soldier

That's cool to know. It doesn't actually look impressive though, sadly.

nick_md

About to see the PJDN film, don't have high expectations despite it being the toppest tier TV, will report back.

djchump

Dark Soldier wrote:

That's cool to know. It doesn't actually look impressive though, sadly.

Yeah, I think that’s where the tech nerd blinkers have blinded him to what the end results actually look like. He and his team are deep in the weeds wrangling “wow, look how many terabytes of data we have to process every day!”, but the general public don’t know or care. The ends justify the means, and to Blomkamp’s eyes it’s amazing for him to be able to 3D navigate the captured scene, set up virtual cameras, relight, apply particle effects etc etc but at the end of the day it’s baked to a 2D image on a screen, so all that effort is for naught if it looks crappy. Compared to film makers who do what it takes to get the shot (eg I still love all the mixed practical, miniatures and rear projection used in T2 - full on masterclass), getting carried away with the process runs that risk of blinding you to the quality of the end results.

Silke

Annette

What the fuck, Carax? As if a musical that only consists of Sparks at their most operetic wasn't bad enough to begin with, this is at best bloated kitsch with some flashes of talent that I guess remains passable just because Adam Driver really is the perfect physical english-speaking compliment to Carax-mainstay Denis Lavant (who isn't here, good for him).

I expect to see Driver in everything Carax does from this point. If I want to see it, is another question entirely.

Moot_Geeza

nick_md wrote:

About to see the PJDN film, don't have high expectations despite it being the toppest tier TV, will report back.

I watched Karupting the Industry doc last night. Wonderful stuff.

nick_md

Moot_Geeza wrote:

nick_md wrote:

About to see the PJDN film, don't have high expectations despite it being the toppest tier TV, will report back.

I watched Karupting the Industry doc last night. Wonderful stuff.

Was a good film, exactly as I expected. Not much more to say other than 'it's a feature length episode of PJDN' so yarr it if you can tbh, I just fancied a cinema trip.

djchump

Tom Cruise the GOAT: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/aug/23/mission-masala-tom-two-curries-cruise-ashas-birmingham

poprock

That is a very funny article based on what I’m sure was a very mundane press release.

poprock

Good work, this.

Blocks100

Saint Maud - I liked it. Not as bleak as I'd feared either, despite the whole palliative care thing. The one jump scare near the end was...er, well timed too. That ending will also live long in the memory. I am going for the fact that she was definitely

Spoiler:

davyK

Raiziel wrote:

I’ve not yet seen the original film, but I really enjoyed Soderbergh’s film. I liked that it was often spare with dialogue. I should get around to watching the Tarkovsky one really.

Just noticed this comment.....you will love the Tarkovsky version.

Raiziel

davyK wrote:

Raiziel wrote:

I’ve not yet seen the original film, but I really enjoyed Soderbergh’s film. I liked that it was often spare with dialogue. I should get around to watching the Tarkovsky one really.

Just noticed this comment.....you will love the Tarkovsky version.

I have since seen it. I liked it well enough but (sacrilege incoming) I prefer Soderbergh’s version.

*runs and hides*

davyK

How very dare you.

Joking aside though, the Soderbergh version gets on with it and is a splendid film. The original has more too it - the father/son dynamic provides a bigger gut punch for me.

Raiziel

There were just little things in it that niggled. The overlong cab ride in the first act, the sequence where he puts Hari in the escape pod and sends it blasting off while still inside the launch bay. I also think the little flashbacks were more effective in Soderbergh’s film at evoking the dysfunction of the couples relationship over the exposition we get in Tarkovsky’s version. But I’m not saying it’s a bad film, just that I prefer the other, which I haven’t seen in a good long while. I should probably pick it up.

davyK

Yeah - that taxi ride is kind of a famous sequence. They got permission to go to Tokyo to shoot it and I think Tarkovsky felt duty bound to use it as it cost so much.

And the escape pod sequence is a bit silly but I forgave those things. The original has the wife and the father thing going on and it posits a possible reason for Kris' behaviour toward his wife on Earth?

Anyhoo - it comes over as a more natural/human film with the Earth sequence etc (which does go on a bit I admit) and I feel it has more charm. But aye - it all comes down to personal preferences and I can see why one would prefer the remake.

Raiziel

I bought Tarkovsky’s Solaris in order to watch it, so will go back to it in time. It might just come down to having watched Soderbergh’s version first. I saw that one at the cinema. Also, Soderbergh’s film has a phenomenal score by Cliff Martinez. Bloody good cast, too: Clooney (in understated mode), McElhone and Davies.

superflyninja

Not seen the Tarkovsky version, its on youtube I think?
I barely remember Soderbergh's version. Must get on it. Ive been looking for sci fi in that vein to watch.

Cos

Reminiscence. A bit of a mess really. There's an interesting core concept (albeit not entirely original) and a really cool setting but they pretty much did the bare minimum with both. It certainly felt like one of those films that had a better script at some point that became diluted over time.

The relationship between the two leads is not as engaging as they want you to think and should definitely not have been the focus. It's also just really poor in other respects - consistently terrible dialogue delivered way too earnestly, sloppy editing and a lack of consistent internal logic.

A noir thriller in future flooded Miami has so much potential, I really hope someone picks up on that idea and makes more of it.

davyK

superflyninja wrote:

Not seen the Tarkovsky version, its on youtube I think? I barely remember Soderbergh's version. Must get on it. I've been looking for sci fi in that vein to watch.

It was. Was published officially by MosFilm I think. Not sure if it's still around. There's a Criterion Bluray that is available in the likes of HMV and isn't expensive. It's on DVD from Artificial Eye and is easy to get too.

superflyninja

The only disc drive i have these days is the bluray on my ps5. even my pc doesn't have a DVD drive!

davyK

More and more people like that. I got myself a region free player. I still like having some films on physical media.

mannaboy

My son reminded me that the PS5 has a bluray drive, all streaming devices apart from that around the tv, Twin Peaks S3 rewatch and extras now planned.

regmcfly

mannaboy wrote:

My son reminded me that the PS5 has a bluray drive, all streaming devices apart from that around the tv, Twin Peaks S3 rewatch and extras now planned.

I'm gonna TPS3 too

superflyninja

I've not fully seen the first two series of TP... I need to psyche myself up to watch.

mannaboy

Nice one reg!

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