There's only so many revenge movies about the guy's kids or wife you can make. So someone decided it was time for a dog one.
Hollywood has not had a good revenge movie since Unforgiven imo.
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There's only so many revenge movies about the guy's kids or wife you can make. So someone decided it was time for a dog one.
Hollywood has not had a good revenge movie since Unforgiven imo.
Guess what, the dude is like the most notorious contract killer so there is that. Also happens that the dude that killed his dog and took his car is the son of one of his former employers.
Everyone knew he was out of the game. Even the dogkiller. Everyone knew he was the baddest ass of all badasses. Even the dogkiller. What they did not know the details of was WHY he was out of the game: turns out it was for love of his wife. The dog symbolizes all that
Now dogkiller apparently wanted to curry favor with his dad, by doing some disrespect shit (steal car, kill dog) against the most notorious ck of all.
Results were unexpected for him , yet entirely logical
John Wick is refreshing in an industry awash with unoriginal, unimaginative rehashes.
I always liked that it was about his dog. Why does everything have to be so important? Can't a hero just kill bad guys because he loves his dog?
Pure actions are supposed to be silly like that. Rambo is supposed to kill near the entire country of Burma just to save some foolish missionaries. God I love that movie.
We may still disagree about whether or not John Wick had substance that these other movies lacked, but I do agree that Jack was looking in the wrong place.
This video I think does a really good job of explaining why ostensibly similar movies with similar production values, narrative arcs, and dialogue can be so substantively different.
https://youtu.be/pT75YHqlD9k
I think the reason John Wick became such a cult hit is because it marries parody or burlesque with a love for not just the genre but the craft of the spectacle of the genre. So while the entire story is sort of tongue in cheek mocking the motivations of action heroes and villains, and maybe more importantly the leaps a script needs to make to string action sequences together, when John Wick actually gets to the action sequences, it takes them very seriously and executes them flawlessly. The sequel lost some of it's charm, not because it dropped the ball with the action, but because it felt like it lost some of it's self awareness and started to take its dramatic sequences, world building, and plot too seriously.
Wuf, I fucking love 2008 Rambo too-- but I think the reason it works lines up with the above linked video's break down of the life cycle of genres. I think of both Rambo and John Wick as sorts of ingenious subtle parody-- people who just want to tune in for a shoot em up get what they want, and those who are immersed the genre pick up on the mostly (maybe exclusively in Rambo 2008's case) dry delivery of parody and can enjoy it on that level.
It reminds me of this Pirates of the Caribbean knock off's production that I read about. It's a little different, in that it relies on multiple cuts to achieve the broad audience satisfaction, but the gyst is the same-- They intentionally filmed the movie so that it could be cut as a PG after school made for TV episodic kid's show, a Cinemax softcore, and a budget theatrical opener for Asian and South American audiences. In this example, the love for the genre is absent, but the ingenuity is similar.
You can if this is making a mockery of genre tropes in which we have cold blooded killers who otherwise behave like well adjusted, psychologically healthy humans, raising families by day and killing dozens of "bad guys" by night-- many of which are undoubtedly family men themselves.
A film that I think highlights this point I'm making: The Raid. I wanted to love this movie. It takes the craft of action movie sequences very seriously, and does not fail to deliver. However, it also takes itself far too seriously. It is not self aware. And so, I found that while the action sequences were great, I found myself wishing I just had a super cut of all the action sequences.
Interesting. I'm not sure what I think of Rambo in these terms.
My personal adoration for it stems from I love the pure action hero genre, and Rambo is probably the most crisply shot one I know of. Rambo's action movements are so tight that they make me feel like I'm watching a pro-gamer who has replayed the situation ten thousand times and has perfected all possible instances. I just love it.
Like in the boat scene. The crispness of that struck me as rare in 2008 and when I first saw it I knew the rest of the movie was gonna be amazing. https://youtu.be/Pt2LMPP8wdg?t=107
Michael Mann did crisp action in 2004. So good
https://youtu.be/oEFPcljAXgs?t=54
Haven't seen The Raid. I've probably avoided it because I try to avoid hand-to-hand combat movies. I know enough about real combat that all of Hollywood's silliness with hand-to-hand pulls me out of it.
Unforgiven was pretty openly mocking westerns (guns not working properly, the anti-hero always having trouble getting on his horse, people pissing their pants in gunfights), but close enough in terms of themes that it could still be seen as an archetypal western itself.
The point is his rampage is a vengeful, ill-advised, self-indulgent emotional outburst with no material upside.
These are not the actions of the world's most notorious contract killer.
You can't be a consummate professional AND a whiny pussy crybaby at the same time. I don't care if you're making fun of movie stereotypes. Eventually you cross a line where you're insulting the intelligence of your audience.
If your intelligence is not insulted, well.....I'll let you figure out what that means.
Actually, crossing that line is precisely one of the most tried and true recipes for successful parody. I think that John Wick, intentionally or not, walks this very fine line so well that it effectively becomes two different movies depending on who's watching it. One is a straight forward, if stylized, shoot em up, and the other is stylized parody. It's not Scary Movie parody, it's just little nudges and winks to the person watching the parody screen.
The point is you're looking too much into it without actually looking deep into it. You are trying to make sense of something, but not accepting the plain sense it is making. You speak about intelligence to be insulted, but you need intelligence to look at things in a deep manner.
You miss all points, Banana. John Wick is not a movie for you. I'd say something about Transformers here, but whatever, go watch something else and stop hating on things you do not understand
Hmmm, John Wick is self aware, but not to the point of parody is the official line
I never thought about it in a parody kind of way while watching it, like say e.g. Hot Shots or Top Secret
Here are the directors on this very subject
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DNQJE8eHjw
Yeah, I think either you're forcing parody into too narrow of a lane or I'm applying a definition that's broader than its actual definition. Maybe Burlesque works better. Idk. Also, I know this is a really silly art school critique thing to say, but the artists intentions are not super relevant. You can easily imagine an artist who tweaks genres staples just to stand out in a crowded genre, and accidentally hits all the buttons for the product to be a dry parody. It won't be Mel Brooks parody, because that necessitates intention, but we can get a John Wick.
Other good old school actions are Commando, Collateral Damage and True Lies imo
Further, if they did intend to have this sort of split screen thing happen, it may not behoove them to announce it openly, thereby insulting a core part of their paying audience.
Haha..
No, I'm saying that artists don't always intend at the set out to make what they end up making. Sometimes they aren't even aware with what it is they've made. Some of that can be due to their being tied to their original vision, and some of it is due to the fact that we all interpret things through our own lens and seemingly even differently through the collective lens that mass media is consumed through. That is further compounded by the fact that movie making is a collective endeavor, and so the marketing department may see something that what we think more classically as the artists involved didn't see. Hell, depending on the director, the studio can get their hands on the footage and edit together a completely different movie than the director intended.
edit: further, I'm proposing a possible path for how we can get John Wick, a dry parody. I'm not arguing this is how it happened.
It's of note how money does not indicate shit when it comes to movies. The Usual Suspects is or should be on the top 100 lists of most people, if not top 10 of all time, but it only made like 30 mil at the box office
And then you have Transformers, made $600 mil + and it's a hot and steaming pile of shit
Resevoir Dogs
Big fan of Firefly then?
Firefly could have been one of the greatest serial sci-fi shows of the decade if the network hadn't screwed over the writers and fans alike.
The show was written as a serial - each episode affects future episodes, unlike Star Trek or almost any sitcom - but the network aired it out of chronological order, obscuring the plot to the point that it didn't seem nearly as well-written as it was.
It's probably more complicated than that.
At any rate, cowboys in space is a brilliant plot device, and we need more of it.
Completely agree. Firefly is my all time favorite show.
My reading of John Wick is that he snapped and had nothing to live for. Based on that premise, I like it.
Lost in paris (paris pieds nus) is a good little film. One can see it has been heavily influenced by wes anderson's work. Recommended
A Ghost Story
Just saw today Michael Nyqvist, who played among many roles as Mikael Blomkvist in the swedish "the girl who ..." series, passed away a while ago. RIP
Jeeezus man you love dog-crap stories huh?
He finally finds the missing girl, she's created an entirely new life, a family, and a family business......then she just walks away from it cause uncle whatz-hiz-face needs some business advice?
did you read the book? It's 400 pages of this guy sitting in a shithole cabin and staring at a fucking picture. And then three times a chapter you get about six full pages of this man going to the grocery store, buying coffee, then bringing it home. Brilliant.
I cracked open the second book one time. Basically the dragon tattoo girl went to a bank or something looking like a vagrant and doing everything she can to dress like and act like a piece of human garbage. The people there scoffed and either didn't take her business, or didn't offer her a job, or otherwise rebuffed her in some way I don't give a fuck to remember.
Then she went home and pulled out her lappy-toppy, and Penny-from-Inspector-gadget-style proceeds to hack this guy's bank account and ruin his life. All cause she was insulted.
This was considered a protagonist during the Obama years.
I gave up on the series right there. I don't know what happens in the 2nd and 3rd books, but I like to think that the girl with the dragon tattoo ends up DVDA raped at a nazi truckstop
Downsizing - Awful
Watched a couple decent movies recently.
It Comes At Night is really fucking heavy. If you liked The Road you're going to like this.
The Blackcoats Daughter is a really nice throwback horror movie. Very reminiscent of The Exorcist.
Gerald's Game - probably the best Stephen King adaptation since Misery. Very much an actors movie. A couple reasons I wouldn't really recommend it... there's some child abuse I had to fast forward through. That was really fucking uncomfortable. It has one of the most effective gore scenes I've ever seen - Not a good movie to watch with a significant other. And it feels like a 3h movie they cut down to 90min. Which could be a good or a bad thing
Finally caved in and watched The Room in full after reading The Disaster Artist. It really is a masterpiece. I've sat through an entire Ed Wood retrospective at one point, but this is on a whole new level. I also recommend the book even tho 50% of it is filler, but it's quality filler.
But above all A Ghost Story. I didn't think I'd ever see a movie that makes sense in 4:3. Outstanding cinematography.
If you don't like slow moving artsy movies, strike all of the above, except The Room.
idk what you're on about. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when Matt Damon dated that ugly woman. It was so funny because he's Matt Damon and she's so old and so ugly! And then he statutory rapes a mentally retarded girl. Comedy doesn't get much better than this.
BMX Bandits.
Just watched this with a friend who found it in some discount bin. It's hilariously campy and stars Nicole Kidman. So you know it's right.
I started to cringe in advance when they all left on the boat and I realized that our protagonist doesn't have a love interest, but you need one in those types of movies, so it has to be the asian girl doing her best Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's impression.
My theory is that this was never meant to be a comedy, but some producer got it in his head that this will only sell as a comedy. So they punched up the script as much as they could and directed the actors to act as over the top as they could. I think both Matt Damon and the girl that played asian-love-interest both understood what this was going to be during filming. MD looked like he was completely out for lunch for half his scenes and asian girl decided she's going to be the band on the deck of the titanic. At some level I enjoyed the movie, but I felt bad for the author. I think the story had great potential.
This is seriously fantastic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CofZ7xjGyI8
The Eyes of my Mother is a very solid horror movie. Instead of telling you why I think it's great, I'll give you these quotes from 1-star reviews on Imdb:
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No story development, usage of retardation is over the top-FILM NOIR? More like film disappoint me. The End. ABSOLUTE disappointment.
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Usually i don't write reviews, but this movie is such an embaracing to the "supposed" horror genre. That i had to write a few lines...
This movie has no story at all, just a bunch of stupid actions that someone decided to write and film.
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A very bad movie that has no story whatsoever. And despite what the genre claims to be, this is not a horror...
No actions, no story and funnily enough not even a sight of dialogue. Mr. Beans comedy movies have more dialogue.
Annihilation
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This is astonishing bad. nothing makes any sense and every character acts as if they had no brain.
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The plot is slow, weak, not entertaining. Of the 15 movies I have seen this month, Annihilation was by far the worst, and by a long shot. Thankfully, almost all the others were entertaining and engaging in a way this one wasn't.
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It's kind of a "chick flick horror/sci-fi".
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I wasted my life watching this. I waited and waited and waited. And then The End. Annihilation of my brain cells is what this movie is.
Greatest Sci-Fi movie since Under The Skin. Obviously bombed at the box office and went straight to Netflix outside the US.
If you're into any movie that is so bad it's good, I would suggest any movie with Nicholas Cage as the lead. Or John Travolta.
Face Off is the perfect storm when it comes to bad acting and cheesy plot lines.
I'm not sure why you guys have targeted Nick Cage as your favorite garbage actor when there is Matthew Mcconaughey
Name one role that Mcconaughey played that you couldn't.
Did anyone see 'Three Billboards....'?
Can you explain it to me?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcXOryOXC40
While I'm posting YT links... I guess this one is kinda movie related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqOnbO4ROAw
Sudden urge to watch a Dolph Lundgren film.
I want to be clear that The Eyes of my Mother and Annihilation are both great movies. Annihilation could end up being my favorite movie of the year. I can't believe they released something this close to a Tarkovsky movie in 2018. Doesn't hold your hand. Doesn't try to give a dumb explanation.
It's one of those bring-your-own-explanation movies, but not in a dumb way. It reminded me a lot of a novel of a similar name where the protagonist seeks to delete his past, his family and himself through his confessions. Actually it's nothing like that novel. Just watch Annihilation. That's my main recommendation for 2018. If it isn't on Netflix already, it should be soon.
me i cant give a recommend for a movie. the last movie i saw at a movie theater was run into the storm which was about tornadoes which is some what like the movie twister.
I watched the new blade runner. Was decent. Ended a bit early/unsatisfactorily? Is the first one worth watching? Gosling seems to be going downhil, not been great since before 2010?
If you think a 164 min movie ended prematurely I'd say that's a good sign.
Visually the original is one of the greatest movies ever made. It won't have the same impact today because of how many times its visual style has been copied, but it's still required viewing. Watch the directors cut. I hope they don't even sell the original cut anymore. It's awful.
Well, Blade Runner is supposed to leave you feeling like there was something pinnacle to the plot that was only hinted at, but never really had a light shone on it.
Was Deckard a replicant himself?
"Replicants are like any other machine. They're either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not my problem."
The original (Director's Cut) movie is a visually stunning masterpiece blending Science Fiction and Film Noire. The characters are intense and believable with only a few lines of dialogue. The world it paints of flying cars, people selling artificial body parts from dirty street market booths, to the advancement of automata to be indistinguishable from people... is great.
"They're my friends... I make them."
One of my favorite moments in movies. It's so sweet and sad and impressive at the same time. Sebastian is so lovable.
There are so many excellent scenes. It's a Kubrick classic. It stars Harrison Ford in/near his acting prime (IMO).
I'm talking about the new one not the old.
And I thought it was meh. I wasn't bored but I'd never suggest it. It was too much high tension with no payoff. It sounds like the original was a fairly niche masterpiece and the sequel is just a decent reattempt at it.
Also I'm not fucking stupid and I pay attention to films. If I'm not getting a payoff it's probably not as edgy as the film feels. If you're talking about the second one and Deckard being a robot is the payoff that's fucking shit. I'd have felt better if it was all a dream.
Also Ana De Armas, wow.
Watched BASEketball yesterday. I thought it was pretty funny, lots of cheap gags and low level humour but I found most of it to be funny. I didn't realise it was the chaps from Southpark bit of a shame they haven't done more acting as they were good.
Wow. That takes me back.
That's the kind of movie that makes me laugh a lot, but then I feel like I'm somehow less adult for laughing.
Like... there are certain kinds of joy that I don't want or something.
;p
Raw - is a great little french coming of age movie about a girl who discovers her taste for human flesh. Once you get over the on-the-nose metaphor, it's a beautifully shot movie with a great soundtrack.
Tangerine - pseudo-documentary following a trans hooker who on her journey of finding the other hooker her pimp cheated on her with while she was in jail. Awesome character actors.
Mandy - The 2nd time Nicolas Cage gets to act in a decent movie after the 2002 Charlie Kaufman movie Adaption.
All 3 of those movies are very pink and very techno. If anyone happens to know more pink tint movies with lots of synths, please recommend.
Tangerine was crap. I watched it ages ago now but it was really awful. I seem to remember something about incredibly annoying music played far too loudly too.
Raw I saw suggested the other day somewhere, Kermode maybe?, looks good will have to check it out.
About to watch Thoroughbreds, hoping it's good.
Oh you are so wrong. You are more wrong on this than Wuf is wrong about Trump. That's how wrong you are. How does it feel being this wrong about something?Quote:
Tangerine was crap. I watched it ages ago now but it was really awful. I seem to remember something about incredibly annoying music played far too loudly too.
Thoroughbreds sounds great. I thought it would be a dog movie like like Best In Show, but it looks even better than that! Anton Yelchin was great in Green Room. And it's the Girl from The VVich! - I was surprised she's 22... she was 19 in the VVich??? I thought she was like 12. Holy shit I'm old.
Feels not too bad tbh.
I was really hoping for more from Thoroughbreds, one of those things that you think is going to be up your street but nah. I may seem to be pretty down on it, it's definitely a perfectly ok movie. Olivia Cooke was also in Me and Earl and The Dying Girl which was a huge let down I was really looking forward to.
Flicking through netflix I see there is a new movie called Swimming with men, about a group of all male synchronised swimmers. Around the time I was in 6th form I remember watching an awesome documentary about the Swedish mens synchronised swimming team. It sounds ridiculous but it was seriously awesome.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1687891/
I think that was it but that will have been when I was at university. So I can only think it was this
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00srf2g
I think they are very much related and I highly recommend checking them out.
Swimming With Men - As far as light hearted comedy sports films go this is a decent one. There are so many good actors that it's hard to not think it could have been better. The ending's also complete crap.
Mandy was beautiful. It reminds me of Cabin in the Woods. Maybe that sounds stupid, but, I mean, I guess it reminds me of all good horror. Cabin did it in a more straight forward way bordering parody, but both are examples of how good horror is both steeped in genre conventions, but manages to transcend the genre.
I saw a movie recently that reminded me of Cabin In The Woods. I very rarely just watch random movies but I grabbed three the other day and one happened to be really great. It was Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon. It was released in 2006. Everyone involved has very sparse IMDB records. It's merging pseudo documentary with 80's slasher movie, and it totally works for me. It's available on YT on demand and most streaming services I guess. It's worth watching imo.
The other two were [Cargo] and What Keeps You Alive. The latter kept me engaged till the end but it's not a recommendation. [Cargo] is fun in the way that the entire movie is shot inside a cargo container, but they couldn't afford a cargo container, or to build a set that looks convincingly like a cargo container, didn't have the competence to correctly light the inside of a bad replica of a cargo container, or the budget to hire an actor who can talk on the phone convincingly. I laughed quite a lot at the start, but it gets tedious very quickly. I forwarded to the end which is gun shot / cut to black. I do not recommend [Cargo]
Go watch The Lighthouse if you can catch it in theatres. Take all the friends you have. Tell them it's a Star Wars Story about a lighthouse planet. You may never get to pick movies again, but Robert Eggers needs all the ticket sales he can get. If you liked The VVich, you're going to love it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyag7lR8CPA&feature=youtu.be