What Did You Rent Last Night?

[famvir]

The Justice League. I was a DC comics kid growing up, Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, Batman, Flash my fav, but I can’t connect with the Justice League movies.

There is no pacing and no humor. The comics had funny stuff.

My favorite part of Justice League movie was a scene where Aquaman was getting real with the group, turns out he was sitting in Wonder Woman’s lasso (could only tell the truth).

One scene that was so out of character for the series that it sticks out years later. In Marvel, you’d get one of these every few minutes.

[petitesuite]

Trial of the Chicago Seven. It was, you know, Sorkin-y--you either like it or you don't and I do. I had no familiarity with the real-life events and I didn't realize that Fred Hampton would also be portrayed in this movie. I feel kind of bad for the guy who had to play Fred Hampton the same year that Daniel Kaluuya did--like, what are the odds?

[Ladybug]

Aug 2, 2006 23:33:34 GMT -4 cabbagekid said:

I'm trying to watch the Snyder Cut of Justice League and this movie just really illustrates the huge difference between the Marvel and DC movies.

I'm really trying to like the Snyder Cut but it's so hard. I'm already looking past the fact that the actors they have playing the heroes are so unlikeable, but the pacing just seems off. It's not cohesive. And the movie is 4 hours long because they slow mo'd way too many of the effects, if we cut the slow motion, we could probably save a good 30 minutes from the movie.

It took us two nights, but we got through ZSJL. I can't say I loved it, but it was a vast improvement over the original crapfest from a few years ago. We joked that the slow motion made it 4 hours. The scene where

SPOILER: Click to show

Flash saves his future gf from the car crash was way too long, but I did laugh at the hot dog bit

. The villain bureaucracy with one bad guy reporting to another bad guy, who reports to the main villain did make me laugh. I guess the MCU was like that as well, with minor bad guys reporting to Thanos.
I thought the cinematography was beautiful, and far superior to the MCU. And I might get tomatoes thrown at me for this, but I actually liked Ben Affleck in this as Bruce Wayne/Batman. It was the first time I could accept him playing the character. And I liked all of Alfred's interactions with the members of the JL. I agree though that you can never really connect with the characters in these movies, there is not a lot of depth to them. That said, I so appreciated Cyborg's story getting more time, and it was the heart of the film. Besides getting verbally abused on set, it's no wonder Ray Fisher was pissed about the 1st movie, his character got majorly short changed.

The last segment, the epilogue, went on forever! I think ZS shot so much stuff, when he got the chance to put his version together he used everything and there was a lot of set up for future films that will probably not happen.

[chiqui]

My Name is Dolemite. I loved the music and all those crazy 1970s costumes, which were true to the time period.

The Lodgers. A haunted house movie from Ireland about incestuous twins. The haunted house cinematography was wonderful but the story fell apart in the last part. I'm sorry but wet naked people as monsters are not that scary.

[chitowngirl]

Time for my annual Lenten viewing of Chocolat.

[eclair]

Recently I watched Flawless, 2007, with Michael Caine and Demi Moore. A well plotted heist movie! I was expecting Phillip Seymour Hoffman. There are at least three movies with this title.

Then I watched Going in Style, 2017, with Michael Caine, Alan Arkin and Morgan Freeman. Another, different, well plotted heist movie.

Makes me wonder how many heist movies Michael Caine has been in; he was also in the original Italian Job. Anyway, both good movies, of course the viewer is rooting for the thieves.

Not a heist movie, and bereft of Michael Caine, Delirious, 2006, with Steve Buscemi and Gina Gershon. There is a lot of tension in this movie, but it's very good. Steve Buscemi is a paparazzo who takes in a homeless kid to be his assistant. The kid, played by Michael Pitt, ends up entering the world of celebs that Steve Buscemi makes his living from. Alison Loman is K'Harma Leeds, a young pop star. There is a great cameo from Elvis Costello at the character K'Harma's birthday party, where Elvis is pitching a musical he wants to put her in. Based on Britney Spears, and it's just awful sounding. I wondered if this was scripted or if they were letting Elvis just make up crazy stuff.

I hadn't heard of any of these, but I recommend all of them now. Sometimes I get lucky and hit a string of good movies. Sometimes I hit a string of bombs.

I tried to watch the Bollywood movie Happy New Year, by the same people who made Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om, which are both great, all starring Shah Rukh Khan, and I had to abandon it. It's just terrible. And it could have been good! Another heist movie, the thieves have to enter their target through a hotel room, during and international dance contest. So they have to learn to dance and get someone to fix the contest. This could have been funny, but it was just terrible.

[Deleted]

News of the World, with Tom Hanks. Understated and quiet, but emotionally moving. I really liked it.

[Binky]

Mar 22, 2021 9:42:37 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

Aug 2, 2006 23:33:34 GMT -4 cabbagekid said:

I'm trying to watch the Snyder Cut of Justice League and this movie just really illustrates the huge difference between the Marvel and DC movies.

I'm really trying to like the Snyder Cut but it's so hard. I'm already looking past the fact that the actors they have playing the heroes are so unlikeable, but the pacing just seems off. It's not cohesive. And the movie is 4 hours long because they slow mo'd way too many of the effects, if we cut the slow motion, we could probably save a good 30 minutes from the movie.

It took us two nights, but we got through ZSJL... I think ZS shot so much stuff, when he got the chance to put his version together he used everything and there was a lot of set up for future films that will probably not happen.

I haven't watch the Snyder Cut, mostly because my household is not willing to watch 4 hours based on the 2 hour experience of the first version. But I have to say, that aside from apparently being a monster to work for, it sounds like Joss Whedon did the job DC asked of him. Shorter and lighter. (Now the fact that those "lighter" moments were bizarrely out of place and felt pasted on is a different issue - you can't paste "Marvel moments" on dark moody DC and not expect garbage.) So much about the dc movies are so badly planned in comparison to Marvel, while trying to do essentially the same thing.

[eclair]

I just watched Thunder Force, the new superheroine duo movie with Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer. I really enjoyed it. It's getting bad reviews which is too bad, because I think it was set up so they could make a sequel. Maybe low expectations help. It won't sweep Cannes, but it has a deliberate cartoony quality that I enjoyed. I liked the characters and their interactions.

I also watched a documentary about Walter Mercado, a flamboyant astrologer who disappeared from public view a while ago, Mucho Mucho Amor. I posted about it in the documentary thread, I really enjoyed this also.

I watched Nobody's Fool from 1994, with Paul Newman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bruce Willis, Jessica Tandy, Margo Martindale and Melanie Griffith. Based on a Richard Russo movie. Billed as a comedy drama, with such a great cast, I was really disappointed. Not a lot of comedy, characters struggle with poor decisions and bad parenting across generations. Those who dislike Thunder Force and Mucho Mucho Amor might really enjoy this.

[ratscabies]

I really enjoyed Thunder Force. I thought it was going for a sort of Galaxy-Quest-for-super-heroes vibe.

But then, I would watch Melissa McCarthy improv the Peoria phone book, so maybe don’t go by me....