The Movie Thread

I settled on Blade Runner: 2049

Feels long, drawn-out; the plot is barely plausible, even for science fiction; new characters keep getting introduced which just makes it tedious and confusing,

3/10, WNWA (Would not watch again)

I never made it past the first 15 minutes. Like you said, it was long and drawn out and I assumed the rest of the movie was going to be the same way so I turned it off.
Thank you both for good descriptions of a bad film. I found it barely watchable and had to force myself to stay in the theater when it was released.

For some unknown reason, a lot of right-wingers think this is a good movie.🤷‍♂️
 
I enjoyed Blade Runner: 2049, but was also on a plane with nothing else to do for 14 hours. Eventually got around to watching the original, didn't like it as much as the sequel.
Long plane flights can be the best possible viewing for some films.

The original from 1982 is very dark, moody and depressing. It has some interesting elements and futuristic technology, but something like Alphaville (1965), which is also about a futuristic detective, has more suspense and yet doesn't feel like you bought a ticket in order be bitch slapped by a post-modernist, sci-fi, buzz kill.
 
Long plane flights can be the best possible viewing for some films.

The original from 1982 is very dark, moody and depressing.
For sure! These days it takes a lot for me to sit there and dedicate a couple of hours to a film, unless traveling and nothing better to do.

Blade Runner: 2049 was a lot more interesting, as well as being more thought provoking, but maybe that's just me... It seemed more hopeful as well, not nearly as sad or tragic.
 
Had to take the plane recently, and faced with myriad choices of which film to watch, I settled on Blade Runner: 2049 because I had a feeling I wouldn't ever take the time to watch it otherwise.

I like to 'get into' watching a movie, so: comfortable, no noise, interruptions, distractions, what have you. Obviously a long-haul plane ride has none of that, but still.

I'm glad I watched it, just to "check that box", so to speak. However, if I'd been at home, I wouldn't even have finished it. Feels long, drawn-out; the plot is barely plausible, even for science fiction; new characters keep getting introduced which just makes it tedious and confusing, and the whole Harrison Ford bit, which I thought was just going to be a cameo, was too much. The references to the original film felt too contrived, and the attempts of the film to wow us with mind-blowing plot twists ended up boring me. Sure, a lot of the scenes looked really cool, but that doesn't make a movie.

3/10, WNWA (Would not watch again)

Blade Runner 2049 made me realize that AI women are more loving and kind than real women. I loved the part when she whispered to him: "I always knew you were special".

Every man needs to hear words of encouragement like that.
 
Blade Runner 2049 made me realize that AI women are more loving and kind than real women. I loved the part when she whispered to him: "I always knew you were special".

Every man needs to hear words of encouragement like that.
There was a little French-Italian film from 1986 called I Love You starring Christopher Lambert, who was burnt out on chasing romance when he found a trinket in the shape of a woman's face that merely said, "I love you," and it was enough to satisfy him.

I don't recommend the film overall, but it illustrates the point of how much a few encouraging words can do.

Maybe AI dolls will pull this off.

 
Got around to watching Beasts of No Nation and I thought it was pretty good. I got the sense they tried to avoid making the boys look too much like monsters so you would still have a little empathy for them by the end, but otherwise it was well made. I also couldn't help but think how stupid it would have been if they had shoehorned in a white or asian kid for the sake of woke diversity and that reminded me of how stupid it is when I see something that's supposed to be clearly all-white have people-of-the-color randomly inserted like a Bethesda game.

Also watched a Mexican sci-fi, called Our Times, which was a complete reverse of Barbie, where the woman gets transported from her man-controlled world into a woman-dominated one and the man is the one who is "barbie" and suddenly out of place and grows to dislike it. When the shoe is on the other foot, as in this movie, the woman gets to live her full fantasy, of being a super-smart-you-go-girl-sexy-scientist-woman-of-the-year who has a good husband, she has a good job, and then it gets even better for her, she chooses her career over her husband, then she goes back in time to spend her retirement years with him again. Isn't that every woman's fantasy? To have the romance, the career, then romance again, and the whole time she's childless. Meanwhile, there's nothing redeeming about the man, he's systemically oppressive no matter what and clearly has no place in society (a complete revolt against all tradition). And yet, the portrayal of Mexico in the 60s made it seem like a pretty good place. I note the film didn't address the modern cartel culture at all, and for some reason whenever I watch Latin and South American stuff no one ever looks like they're authentically from the area, they always look like they're from the Spanish colonial stock.
 
Not a big fan of action movies, but once in a while I'll be in the mood for one on a Friday/Saturday night to turn my brain off.

I don't think I've watched a single Mission Impossible movie yet, but MI: Dead Reckoning: Part 1 popped up on my feed so I put that on. Gotta say, it was pretty damn good. The action and fighting scenes were incredible, albeit you do have to suspend your disbelief for a couple of them. 7.7/10
 
Last weekend, I watched "Wind River". It was not too bad. Good solid writing. None of the woke crap in the movie.



This week, I plan to watch "Mr. Jones", a story about Holodomor.


Wind River was a good story, even if quite brutal and violent.

Note for the gun guys: Jeremy Renner's character is shown making handloads for his 45-70 Marlin lever gun, and his digital scale shows 500gr - a massive bullet!
 
Been on a Hitchcock kick because they're a few on Netflix (I've already seen Psycho and The Birds long ago, these are recent):
1. Rear Window - a lot better than I thought, a wholly unique film, and I didn't know James Stewart was in several of Hitchcock's films (I had only seen Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life).
2. Vertigo - Also a good film but slow at times. The real payoff to me was in the scenery and people. I could distinctly feel the America of old is truly gone and has been for some time. I can't get over how feminine women were. There is class and ladylikeness that doesn't seem to exist anymore, except in some wealthy women like Melania Trump.
3. Frenzy - Beyond the golden age of 50s America, this movie was in 70s London, which, while highly English, was sullied by how absolutely annoying one of the characters was, not just because I think he was supposed to be, but he reminded me of how annoying the boomers were in The Deer Hunter.
4. Family Plot - Terrible. Had to turn it off halfway through I was so bored. Movies from the 70s, even a Hitchcock film, feel like the nadir of American culture.
5. Hitchcock - A biopic with Anthony Hopkins playing Hitchcock. I was disappointed with this film. It was about the making of Psycho, but I found Hitchcock, the man, as portrayed by Hopkins to be annoying. I didn't care for the story of the making of Psycho, and they didn't make Hitchcock seem interesting as a person. He seemed autistic to me. I had to remind myself, just because someone makes good art or interesting film doesn't make them interesting as a person in everyday life.
6. They Cloned Tyrone - The first 2/3rds of the movie were good, the last act was boring melodrama. I couldn't help but think the whole thing was a metaphor about whites and blacks in America, and I bet to the left-liberal, they see the movie as a commentary on trying to whitewash and assimilate blacks, and cultural appropriation, but to me, I found the film to be a subconscious realization that blacks have been weaponized against whites in America (by the Jew, but Jews in the film are offscreen as if they don't exist).
7. Out to Sea - A Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau comedy. I like every movie they've made together (Grumpy Old Men, et al) and this was no exception. I wish more witty older men made films like this. In fact... are there any witty boomers capable of making clever stuff? Seinfeld's movie Frosted was pure garbage.
 
Been on a Hitchcock kick because they're a few on Netflix (I've already seen Psycho and The Birds long ago, these are recent):
1. Rear Window - a lot better than I thought, a wholly unique film, and I didn't know James Stewart was in several of Hitchcock's films (I had only seen Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life).
2. Vertigo - Also a good film but slow at times. The real payoff to me was in the scenery and people. I could distinctly feel the America of old is truly gone and has been for some time. I can't get over how feminine women were. There is class and ladylikeness that doesn't seem to exist anymore, except in some wealthy women like Melania Trump.

Rear Window is awesome. Grace Kelly has never looked more radiant than she did in that film. Just pure feminine perfection. I love the opening scene where she is kissing Jefferies, but Hitchcock was clever to show it from Jefferies POV so that it looks like she's kissing you the viewer.

Vertigo was indeed slower, but you do get to see more of what that 50s culture was like back then. I like the scene where Jimmy Stewart's character marches his love interest into the women's apparel section of a department store and tells the saleswoman what he'd like to see on his girl. Nowadays, you see men wait patiently in a store with no input at all, just tagging along like a puppy. It made me realize how much feminism has hurt men, because the men of yesteryear had a much greater say in their woman's appearance and behavior in public.
 
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