Film/Video Discussion Thread - The Bear and Badger

poprock

The one to watch for veracity bizarrely turns out to be Marvel/Disney. The star of Echo genuinely is a deaf amputee Native American martial artist.

g.man

Just imagine her glee when she discovered that she ticked all Disney’s boxes for that part.

g.man

Yeah, I think I just assumed the actress in Kingsmen was probably this lass...

EvilRedEye

It’s morbin’ time!

Morbius (2022) - This isn’t even interestingly bad. Jared Leto plays Dr Morbius who has a disease and so morbs together human and bat DNA to cure it, with the result that he becomes a vampire. While Morbius is conflicted about becoming a vampire, his inexplicably English childhood friend Matt Smith has less moral fibre, secretly taking a second set of the medication behind Morbius’ back and becoming an evil vampire. Bat-based antic ensue. The script is just kinda bad and cliched. I’ve seen some praise of Matt Smith but he seems to just be there for the cheque to me. The whole thing is cliched and generic, like some boomer executive’s idea of what a movie should be - I feel like all these Sony movies are like this, someone’s gotta be behind this. ★★☆☆☆

After the credits rolled on Morbius, I genuinely, actually dashed to the bus to go to a Madame Web screening.

Madame Web (2024) - Dakota Johnson is Cassie Web, a woman who, unbeknownst to herself, was born in Peru immediately after her mother took the bite of a special powers-giving spider. After a near-death incident, Cassie develops the ability to see the future. An evil guy who killed Cassie’s mother also has spider-powers and has recurring dreams of being killed by three women. Using implausible technology, he tracks them down but comes across them while they are coincidentally in the presence of Cassie, who attempts to save them.

Where to start? Dakota Johnson gives a wooden, Razzie-worthy performance as Cassie, a character who is also terribly written with awkward, bad dialogue throughout the film. The concept of the film does not work. Watching Cassie’s precognition is boring. She can’t really do anything and doesn’t even understand the context of her own film for a huge part of it. The whole middle section of the film with Cassie and the three girls is just excruciatingly written.

Chunks of the soundtrack are distractingly similar to the Spider-Man game soundtracks. I laughed repeatedly at the climax of the film as the film awkwardly attempted to pay off extremely contrived set-up. There are no themes and no character development other than an attempt to suggest Cassie and the girls have become a team which they already essentially were the entire film as soon as they met. Also, it’s been said before but where did the budget go? Only the villain really has superpowers so there isn’t that much money tangibly on the screen.

All that said, it isn’t the worst film ever - it’s at the top end of one star. ★☆☆☆☆

LivDiv

Is this a cry for help ERE?
You don't have to do this, we all care about you.

poprock

g.man wrote:

Just imagine her glee when she discovered that she ticked all Disney’s boxes for that part.

The casting director deserves an Emmy just for finding her.

tin_robot

Went to see Dune Part 2

I was slightly disappointed to be honest. It's absolutely spectacular and I'd certainly recommend a cinema visit if you plan to watch it. I spent a large chunk of the film thinking how incredible it is that we've had a whole run of unbelievably expensive movies that were just badly rendered CGI, and finally we have this - a thing of stunning beauty, that looks utterly real whilst portraying the obviously impossible. I say "a large chunk" because the finale largely loses that, with some jarringly obvious models and special effects that are totally at odds with what came before.

That's not really the cause of the disappointment though. I think much of my enjoyment in the first film was the character beats, and relationships. Somehow that energy is largely missing from this one, and I found myself caring much less. I suspect this is partly because a surprising amount of screen time is taken up with sewing seeds for things that don't pay off in this film at all. Villeneuve does an admiral job of ensuring that no one will leave this version of Dune thinking it's a movie about how "white saviours are the best", but he doesn't really close the loop either. The immediate story line broadly finishes, but you're left with the feeling that he wants to make a point that never really lands. Equally there's never any true sense of threat. You know Paul is going to "win" because the movie spends several hours telling you he will - and again it never really manages to land the cost of that win. He arguably loses more here than he does in the first film, but it didn't really manage to make me care.

All of which is a shame because, I'll say it again, it is bloody spectacular. Ultimately it was worth it for the first time he rides the sandworm alone. (The thing I enjoy most in both films is the way that the desert is frequently portrayed more as a raging ocean.)

Diluted Dante

LivDiv wrote:

Is this a cry for help ERE? You don't have to do this, we all care about you.

Until Venom, he hadn't gone below 3 stars. Then he got Sony'd.

EvilRedEye

Ultimately it was worth it for the first time he rides the sandworm alone.

This made me lol because they gave away this scene as a free sample with the catch-up IMAX screening of the first film.

DrewMerson

EvilRedEye

It was just a nice little nip to Peru, Drew!!!!

EvilRedEye

Wicked Little Letters (2023) - I was a bit disappointed by this film, which was billed as a comedy mystery but actually isn’t a mystery at all and is actually a comedy drama, but the kind of comedy drama where the comedy isn’t that funny because of the drama and the drama isn’t that dramatic because of the comedy. There are themes of patriarchy which sometimes land and sometimes have the subtlety of a shovel blow to the head. However, it is a genuinely interesting and very weird little real-life story - I just wish they’d either done a straight interpretation of it or delivered the laughs that were promised in the trailer. ★★★☆☆

EvilRedEye

I forgot to mention the blatant Pepsi product placement throughout Madame Web. Oh no, I had a near death experience and can’t drink, guess I will have to have an ice-cold Pepsi with the logo perfectly aligned to face the camera at all times!! What’s that, I was having premonitions of a giant old Pepsi Cola sign that turned out to be key to the climax of the plot throughout the whole film?! What a coincidence!!

RamSteelwood

Is this forum some kind of window into ERE's personal purgatory stuck reviewing obscure/shite games and films for eternity but compelled to still give them reasonable scores?

LivDiv

In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. And Venom gets 3 stars.

Paul the sparky

regmcfly wrote:

Your new favourite daily game

https://vulture.com/vulturecinematrix

Sucked incredibly hard on this today, 5/9. Somehow managed not to enter one I knew for Viola Davis too. Start a thread, reg

hylian_elf

You got 6/9 Correct
Your Score: 1698
Top 67% of players today

JonB

8/9 Correct
Score: 2221

Viola Davis film that begins with a vowel? No idea.

afgavinstan

Off to a flyer today but ground to a halt and super annoyed at myself that I can't think of recent Amy Adams and Viola Davis titles.

Diluted Dante

You got 9/9 Correct

Your Score: 2632

Top 1% of players today

I might retire on that.

Spoiler:

Strategy was to avoid superheroes.

regmcfly

I was chuffed with this

Vulture Cinematrix No. 7: Mar 5, 2024

I got 9/9 Correct
Score: 2538

regmcfly

I picked

Spoiler:

for the Downey Jr vowel and only 6% chose it

Kazuo

Ah the best Iron Man film, you're a person of taste I see.

Brooks

Further to Po' Thangz: Idk why they didn't just cast Matt Berry instead of Ruffalo.

regmcfly

Brooks wrote:

Further to Po' Thangz: Idk why they didn't just cast Matt Berry instead of Ruffalo.

Po Thangz up for rising British artist next Brits.

Brooks

Yeah they can have that for free, I don't mind.

Brooks

Srsly

Gremill

Po Thangz is on D+; from 7/3

EvilRedEye

I accidentally did another masochism.

Moot_Geeza

Skondo wrote:

Dark Soldier wrote:

Skondo wrote:

Dark Soldier wrote:

Skondo wrote:

Titane. Not for me, just thought it was ridiculous. Not thrilling or scary in the slightest, just seemed like an eighties b-movie. Dreadful.

Oh Skondo. Oh Skondo my dear.

Go on then DS, what did I miss? To me, it just wasn’t interesting, thrilling or horrifying, it was simply rather dull and a bit silly.

I mean you're not wrong, it's your own take. Wasn't mocking that, I just love it. For me it's a film about trauma (the primary overarching theme), the fractures it brings about both physical and mental (self degradation, anxiety etc), at times hope and redemption, and by the very end parental dynamics. Two struggling, at times awful, fucked up people realise they need each other and undertake such a dynamic. The whole car aspect is clearly representing toxic masculinity and her 'relationship' with it. It's told in a wonderfully out there way, which is much more enjoyable for me than a Meryl Streep estranged daughter kinda Oscar bait tearjerker.

Sorry DS, didn’t mean to come across defensive and then almost asking you to justify why you like it. Probably could have expressed myself better.

I might've accidentally rubbed you up the wrong way with my Titane comment (I haven't seen it btw, was just doing an idiotic Titanic quote).

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