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I didnt think Annihilation was good at all. Really is a generi horror scifi until the last act that has some weird scenes to be deep. It had potential but doesnt explore any of the interesting threads, particularly the shimmer event itself

Yea, I'm with Sigh here. Some genuine creepiness and a massive Stalker vibe but without any of the philosophical payoff. I had a hard time buying into the science-y stuff (contrast: Arrival) and felt little for the characters that weren't Portman.

Interestingly despite the story involving 5 chicks going into The Zone I didn't feel like gender made any difference to anything, except maybe for a single kind of rapey scene. Not sure I've been able to say that before. Note the book was written by a dude though.

Also, I find overly basic dialogue to be completely distracting. Speech written to inform an audience without ever taking into account how people actually talk hurts my head and sucks me right out of plots.
 
I'll be waiting for the DVD release as its Netflix only in the UK but the impression I'v getting is that its more "Nolan like" than Ex Machina in terms of plot and more obvious exposition?

The visuals to me looked rather Avatar like(albeit somewhat more tasteful) to me in the trailers rather than Stalker that actually shows almost nothing supernatural in The Zone, just that patch of glowing rocks and the appearing/disappearing crow, its mostly a mix of industrial decay(generally I think its an underrated influence on Scott original Blade Runner) and nature.
 
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Might as well get back to yapping about movies.


Get Out
I thought it interesting in that it wasnt really about racism (as the word is typically understood) but about racial fetishiazation. When that brother character starts talking about what an "beast he could be with some training" I thought I had stumbled into one of those UFC Discussion threads were people are salaciously drooling over A-level athleats. Yeah, pretty sure that guy posts on sherdog. Which of course is mirrored in how the other patricians covet and fetishize his body parts.

It was also one of those horror films where I'm not sure the humor and suspence-building gelled. The film was quite funny -- and alongside that flippant approach between the two moods and its predictability plotwise -- I thought the movie lacked somewhat of an momentum and overall flow. Not greviously so but enough but enough to keep my nerves from thrumming.


One movie that totally mastered the escalation of tension though was The Ritual. This is one of those horror films that is totally charming in how faithfully and straightforwardly it plays into cliches and expectations. Bunch of English mates lost in the Swedish woods and almost entierly up until the ending its just creepy (quite creative) visuals and lingering camera-shoots compelling you to feel that something is off. Basically a very well-filmed film. I particuarly like how that liqure-store robbery comes out of nowhere, when they spot that bloodied clerk its like the bus-of-life has just blindsides you. Or that ghastly scene in the attic when you realize that the imortality they're describing isn't as cracked up as it was made out to be. Really cool and unsettling design on the monster too. The film shifts gears a bit when they unveil their beast and takes it away from the suspensful approach but here I think it works.

Plus being Swedish and all it was hilarious riffing this with my mates.


From here to Eternity was a good one. It ribbed a bit to hard against my stomach for sappiness a bit, playing up the teary tragedy and all, but not to an deabilitating extent. One of those movies where you get the impression the director really wanted to see blue eyes glisten in the black-and-white. I did like the whole "standing up for your principles" arc, with the boxing and all. Burt Lancasters principles as an enlisted man means that he cannot hook up with the blonde (currently waiting for Bullitt to tell me how Sinatra curbstomps Lanchaster). Cliff Montgomery principles as just wanting to be a soldier-boy (keeping him off boxing) sends him running back to the army after the Japanese attack against the wishes of his girlfriend, getting him killed.

Speaking of Burt, I watched Valdez is Comming, where he plays a blue-eyed elderly mexican. Good enough film on its own but its one of those revitionist westerns where they play it a bit to close to the normal western stuff so when the revitionist payload comes the reaction is more "what?" than "that's deep, bro". Wild Rovers this ain't.
 
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I'll be waiting for the DVD release as its Netflix only in the UK but the impression I'v getting is that its more "Nolan like" than Ex Machina in terms of plot and more obvious exposition?

The visuals to me looked rather Avatar like(albeit somewhat more tasteful) to me in the trailers rather than Stalker that actually shows almost nothing supernatural in The Zone, just that patch of glowing rocks and the appearing/disappearing crow, its mostly a mix of industrial decay(generally I think its an underrated influence on Scott original Blade Runner) and nature.
Hmm no I'm not sure I'd agree with much of that. My complaint about the script isn't so much that it was overly expositional but rather that it was just too simple and calculated, lacking a believable flow. I would have liked to see a scene where the characters actually sat down and analysed the issue rather than just conceding that it's a mystery and jumping on in. The one silly conclusion that they do decide on is actually repeated later like an ancient proverb, which was amusing. Anyway, there's no analogy to Leo bombarding Juno with Inception facts, but I'm not sure there were 10 spoken words longer than 6 letters through the whole film either :p

As for Avatar - I fell asleep both times I tried to watch that so it's hard for me to relate the environments. Maybe the rainbow colours are drawing the comparison? The swampiness, pacing, and psychological decline of the characters is all Stalker though, no doubt.
 
Might as well get back to yapping about movies.


Get Out
I thought it interesting in that it wasnt really about racism (as the word is typically understood) but about fetishiazation. When that brother character starts talking about what an "beast he could be with some training" I thought I had stumbled into one of those UFC Discussion threads were people are salaciously drooling over A-level athleats. Yeah, pretty sure that guy posts on sherdog.

It was also one of those horror films where I'm not sure the humor and suspence-building gelled. The film was quite funny -- and alongside that flippant approach between thr moods and its predictability -- I thought the movie lacked somewhat of an momentum. Not greviously so but enough but enough to keep my nerves from thrumming.

I really enjoyed it. Definitely one of my favorites of 2017. Haha funny you should say that about the brother. I remember right after Get Out came out last March there was a thread about the movie here and a bunch of us were joking about the fact that the brother was clearly a Sherdogger. Might as well have described how explosive and athletic Kaluuya would be in the cage.

Speaking of Kaluuya, I thought that he was absolutely awesome. He really sold the likability of the character. That scene with Kenner was one of the more memorable horror movie scenes I can think of in the past few years, and the acting from Kaluuya there was a big part of that.
 
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Speaking of Kaluuya, I thought that he was absolutely awesome. He really solid the likability of the character. That scene with Kenner was one of the more memorable horror movie scenes I can think of in the past few years, and the acting from Kaluuya there was a big part of that.

Yeah he was really good. He did a great job at keeing a pleasant expression while still showing that "what the hell is going on?" wonderment in his countenance.
 
Yeah he was really good. He did a great job at keeing a pleasant expression while still showing that "what the hell is going on?" wonderment in his countenance.

He's stellar. One of my biggest beefs with Black Panther (which I generally enjoyed) was how they used him. And how they wrote that character. He's one of the king's closest friends, they set up a truly interesting conflict between them, he's played by Daniel fucking Kaluuya, yet one can barely remember what the hell his arc is when the credits roll.
 
Black Pather did actually feel like a Marvel film that needed to go a bit further beyond the standard 2 hour format to me, another 15-20 mins or so adding a bit more depth to his character and Killmonger could potentially have benefited it alot.

Beyond that my main issue with it was that I felt Wakanda was designed in a rather too cartoonish fashion. It felt like more the style of Guardians of Thor but those films are naturally more over the top and disconnected from the everyday world, Black Panther to me would have benefited a bit more from a Russo like style to it. Have tribal references in their society but make it less overt and the overall look more modern(not nesserally westernised, maybe more sci fi like).
 
im totally not watching pacific rim uprising right now because that would be illegal.
 
I try to watch the Academy Award winners and nominees that interest me every year. I still need to see Darkest Hour and Dunkirk.

For the rest,

Ladybird - 7/10
Probably the most realistic coming of age movie I've seen in a long time. It reminded me a bit of a female Catcher in the Rye. Even as a guy, I could relate a lot to the movie. Great acting and you cared about the characters.

The Shape of Water - 7/10
I can see why it won best picture but it was just "good" to me. Excellent cinematography and score but the story didn't have much depth and it was completely predictable, right up to the ending. Still, it had that movie magic quality but I just expected it to be more emotional and it wasn't. Still worth seeing if you like Univeral monster movies which is what it reminded me of.

Three Billboards - 8/10
Definitely the best of the 3 but the most polarizing. It deals a lot with race and bigotry but it doesn't hit you over the head with it so some people misread its intentions.

It's a superbly acted film with a lot of twists and turns. If you like movies like Fargo, Unforgiven and No Country for Old Men, this is right in tone with those. Darkly funny and satirical at times. My movie of the year outside of Blade Runner.
 
The Academy loves its own history being celebrated so yeah I can see why that along with Del Toro's previous career got the awards although as I said in the Oscar thread I think Sally Hawkins probably deserved it more.

I think part of the problem was that you had a bit of a disparety between how successful her character was and the rest of the film. The creature himself seemed a bit characterless to me and Shannon/Jerkins characters hinted at greater depth than they amounted to for me compared to Pan's Labyrinth were pretty much everything hit the same standard.

I think theres a tendency to make such character a bit of a cliché, basically very innocent victims yet I think she followed say Naomi Watt's in Jackson's Kong in having something more to her than that. The film really ends up being about her character breaking out of the naïve childiike role everyones views her in which is why stuff like the sex and the sign swearing were needed for me to show that shift towards a more adult independent life.
 
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"Funniest"? Is it comedic? Or is it like Boogie Nights/Magnolia funny? I'm just very struck by that description, as it looked by all appearances to be a weird historical melodrama. No surprise to hear that DDL is good, though I'd be curious to know where you think the performance ranks among his other classic performances.
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It's not outright comedy, but it is comedic, particularly DDL. It's his mannerisms, and how serious he is about his quirks and passive aggression. Parts of it were hysterical.


In terms of ranking:
Bill/Lincoln
Woodcock
Plainview
 
Game Over, Man! (2018)
i loved it, lol'd a ton
its immature ridiculous humor
i think if u liked step brothers, youd like this
 
As a newcomer wanna share experience and check out how it's gonna be . So i see a lot of people missing some great moviest of past year will name couple of them .

A Ghost Story - noone noticed that was filmed but it's absolute beautiful in storytelling part masterpiece .
In opposite i rarely notice comedy and rate them but What We Do in the Shadows was just great (Waititi is just pure genius )
Talking about A-division movies i am upset about Blade Runner 2049 . Upset how it was ignored by crowd and it failed in money part so it makes cyberpunk way more dangerous to make profit for big companies . But considering everything else but not money this masterpiece is pure gold .
 
How should I feel about the fact that I thought Contact was fantastic after I watched it last night?
 
How should I feel about the fact that I thought Contact was fantastic after I watched it last night?

It's a Top 5 sci-fi movie for me so I think you should feel pretty good.

Do you think you should feel differently?
 
It's a Top 5 sci-fi movie for me so I think you should feel pretty good.

Do you think you should feel differently?

You know I had seen it before, ages ago, and seen it on top 10 lists and such things, but never thought to regard it as an elite film.

On this last watch I found it extremely efficient, emotionally gripping, and well-communicated. The only ham-fisted scene I can complain about was the final court scene, James Woods notwithstanding.

Granted Arrival and Annihilation were different stories but they could have taken a few more dramatic cues from Contact.
 
You know I had seen it before, ages ago, and seen it on top 10 lists and such things, but never thought to regard it as an elite film.

On this last watch I found it extremely efficient, emotionally gripping, and well-communicated. The only ham-fisted scene I can complain about was the final court scene, James Woods notwithstanding.

Granted Arrival and Annihilation were different stories but they could have taken a few more dramatic cues from Contact.

I have loved Contact ever since I first saw it. I still remember sitting in the living room watching it with my parents on VHS all those years ago when it first came out.

I think that Jodie Foster is superb and MM also does very well in his role. I also find the story to be very original and interesting and think it's told in a very satisfying way.

I think that Robert Zemeckis is an underrated filmmaker. He's had plenty of success in his career, but you never see his name come up in GOAT discussions and I think that he at least deserves a mention when talking about the greatest living directors.
 
Has anyone seen Call Me by Your Name? I keep hearing it's fantastic, but I'm having a hard time finding motivation to watch a pretty graphic gay love story? I'm not homophobic at all, but the premise doesn't um grab me so to speak.
 

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