Movie record 2020 edition - The Bear and Badger

poprock

The Invisible Man
Elisabeth Moss plays a victim who develops a spine of steel (again). It’s a clever update of the story but it’s fundamentally unpleasant.

Wookienopants

Mamma Mia Here We Go Again

It's just pure happiness on film. Love every second of it

poprock

Coyote Ugly
It’s dumb, it’s loud, it’s sentimental claptrap. And I love every moment of it. One of John Goodman’s finest performances too.

hylian_elf

49. Ghidora, the Three-Headed Monster - 2 July
Fun, but lacks depth. Just silly monsters fighting in a silly laughable way.
[6]

50. Star Wars Ep III: Revenge of the Sith - 4 July
Easily the best of the prequels, and on par with ep VI even. I liked it. CGI hasn’t aged well, looks terrible in places. And still has some stupidness, but so do all of the episodes.
[7]

LivDiv

I wonder if Lucas still had control would he at some point have gone back in to update some of the CG.

poprock

American Animals
I was pondering the complete lack of female characters until I realised it’s absolutely consistent with telling the story from the POV of four obsessive teenage boys.

ShabbyMcCrabby

104. Ocean's 8
Not sure why this didn't really land. I need to go back and watch 11 to see if it's just a style thing or what. I think it's because it's all a bit too light on story depth.
[5]

Webbins

113. Resolution
Odd, interesting but unconvincing, indie horror but not horror curio. Man imprisons addict friend in squat in a bid to clean him up, weird stuff happens. 6

ShabbyMcCrabby

Make sure to watch the other 2 they've done. I like the level of quality they get out of very tiny budgets

ShabbyMcCrabby

Spring and The Endless btw. Just seen they have a newer one as well.

I also recommend watching The Battery if you're in the mood for more low budget horror stuff. It's a zombie film but a rather good one I thought.

regmcfly

Watched frozen 2 today - to do it like Webbs, "tepid sequel to a hard stone progenitor, felt like it melted half the way through" 6/10.

Webbins

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

Spring and The Endless btw. Just seen they have a newer one as well.

I also recommend watching The Battery if you're in the mood for more low budget horror stuff. It's a zombie film but a rather good one I thought.

Noted. Have Endless in Netflix watchlist, saw it described as a spiritual sequel.

poprock

The Old Guard
Theron plays her immortal warrior queen as a hard-boiled hardass, and it works. A thoughtful action flick only let down by paper-thin clichéd bad guys.

b0r1s

I like Theron in most things so was willing to give it a go. This sounds more promising.

hylian_elf

51. Star Wars Ep VII: The Force Awakens - 11 July
Yes, it’s by the numbers and plays it extremely safe and is just a mish mash of the first couple of films. But it’s also fun and watchable and sets things up well. I still like it.
[8]

Moot_Geeza

Yup I watched that again recently. Enjoyable.

cockbeard

Just because I'm still waiting on my dvd to be delivered despite having nothing to play it on, however I watch out at least twice a year because it's brilliant, fuck Hitchcock, this is the best movie ever

https://archive.org/details/FishStory

Gremill

22. A Personal History of David Copperfield
Outstanding. Incredible cast, bravura performances, witty script, beautifully put together, every frame luminous and fizzing with life and energy. One of the best films I've seen in years. (10)

LivDiv

g.man

The amount of wires that are involved in that illusion is probably more interesting than the effect itself. I've got the design documents for it somewhere. You can find them online.

Gremill

What is that?

g.man

David Copperfield... flying.

Gremill

'Flying'

g.man

Heh. It's an interesting tale tbh. The man that designed the illusion made the mistake of patenting it, so he could sell the exclusive rights to Copperfield. This was back in the early nineties, and the inventor failed to predict the rise of the internet. This of course enabled the great unwashed to easily search through inventions filed at the patents office, and the cat was out the bag. Consequently, illusions are now kept "secret" rather than patented. I dare say the guy made a bundle of money selling it to Copperfield, but once the exact details were revealed, the trick was dead in the water.
It's an incredibly elaborate set-up of wires and gimbals controlled by computer, and it looks like this...

Spoiler:

g.man

He is the king of cheese, but actually knowing how many wires are involved makes the presentation all the more impressive. It's easy to scoff quarter of a century later, and it's also easy now to see how the "tests" were just simple optical illusions, but this blew peoples minds back in the day. Must have taken an insane amount of rehearsal.

LivDiv

Like most magic once you know it is glaringly obvious but it is all about the performance really.
It also helps that back then nobody questioned wearing a jumper 4 sizes too big.

Copperfield still must have been absolutely ripped to pull it off.

regmcfly

Jery get magic trick from ipad

jdanielp

I can see how none of the hoops ever actually go over the top of him, but how does the cabinet part work?

Spoiler:

g.man

Spoiler:

jdanielp

Now I see it... The gaps at the sides are actually visible when the camera roams around the back, but the presentation is so good due to who knows how much rehearsal that these things are easy to miss. The riskiest element seems to be the inclusion of the bird of prey which could have got itself tangled in the wires (I'm assuming that the woman is a stooge?).

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