Random Movie Talk XV: You Asked For It, Cobbler

[bono_212]

Has anyone seen Lamb? I have thoughts...

 

[lazarus]

Dune.

What a movie.

Makes me wish No Broken Cocks was here to discuss.

 

[cobl04]

Interesting.



I'm glad there's no Toy Story 5 in the works, 4 was a big let down.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Dune.

What a movie.

Makes me wish No Broken Cocks was here to discuss.

Fucking amaaaaaaaazing. Saw it on IMAX. It could be recency bias, but it's one of my favorite filmgoing experiences I can remember.

To me, practically every single scene/moment felt big and powerful and important. The sound was incredible (anytime a character used "The Voice" it scared the shit out of the entire theater). Just a fucking great movie.

 

[U2girl]

NO TIME TO DIE

Holy fucking shit.

Shit indeed. Marginally better than Quantum, weaker than the other CraigBond movies.

Spoiler

blofeld and spectre again ? Pass and more airtime for Rami Malek and comedic timing of Paloma, but pass on her shooting around - Michelle Yeoh kicked butt way back in Tomorrow never dies. Wanted to be as deep as Skyfall and as emotional as Casino Royal but failed. Also that chick and Craig dont have the chemistry that Bond and Vesper had. And whatever you do in a Bond movie...you dont do THAT.

Dune = awesome.

 

[lazarus]

Shit indeed. Marginally better than Quantum, weaker than the other CraigBond movies.

Spoiler

blofeld and spectre again ? Pass and more airtime for Rami Malek and comedic timing of Paloma, but pass on her shooting around - Michelle Yeoh kicked butt way back in Tomorrow never dies. Wanted to be as deep as Skyfall and as emotional as Casino Royal but failed. Also that chick and Craig dont have the chemistry that Bond and Vesper had. And whatever you do in a Bond movie...you dont do THAT.

Agree exactly. Suggesting that Bond would retire to spend his life with Lea Seydoux's character had me like

Eva Green and the writing of Vesper just set a very, very high bar. She's arguably the greatest character/performance in the history of the franchise.

And IMO, the true tragic ending for NTTD would have been

Spoiler

Bond surviving but never being able to be close to his daughter or lover again due to the virus or whatever. Having him sacrifice his life just seemed like an appeasement to Craig wanting a indisputable conclusion to his involvement with no possibility of return.

The film had a lot of great scenes, fantastic opening and pretty much the first hour was killing it. But then there was that big reveal and my eyes rolled so hard I thought they'd go tumbling across the theatre floor.

 

[LemonMelon]

It makes sense that Bond was still habitually visiting Vesper's grave even after settling down with Madeleine Swann. We all wanted her back too.

Ana de Armas' character was also way cooler. I was annoyed by how brief her appearance was.

 

[lazarus]

De Armas is so unbelievably hot and charismatic she swallows up everything around her, and leaves a void when she's gone.

If the producers were smart they'd find a way to bring her back in whatever kind of continuity they're going to attempt. Keep in mind that Judi Dench played M in both the Brosnan and Craig eras despite Casino Royale being a soft reset.

 

[monkeyskin]

Bond opens on Thursday here, hoping for a weekend matinee.

I recently caught up with 2017’s BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99. It’s S. Craig Zahler’s follow up to BONE TOMAHAWK and stars Vince Vaughn as an ex-boxer, convicted drug mule and all round bad mf. It’s not exactly lean at 135 minutes but every scene is precise and it is laser focussed on following this man on his quest into Hell. Feels like a dime store pulp novel or 70s John Carpenter. I loved it. Looking forward to DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE next.

 

[monkeyskin]

Saw Bond, not much to add that hadn’t been said. Top action scenes and Ana de Armas needs her own spinoff, or at least pop up in a movie each year and walk away with it.

But my God, the story. Bloated and self mythologising like the last two. Bond’s back story isn’t something that needs more attention than the adventure / villain of the piece, he’s a character that we learn about through his actions over each film. Rami Malek was wasted, another boring villain that really only enters at the midpoint and even the film doesn’t seem interested in.

Craig ranked:
Casino Royale
Quantum of Solace*
Skyfall
No Time to Die


Spectre

*when viewed immediately after CR. A troubled production and unfinished script, but a great revenge continuation and the best directed.

 

[cobl04]

I haven't seen any since Casino Royale, but damn I still remember that ball-whipping scene.

Still a fucking travesty that song as good as Spectre did not become the theme song.

 

[cobl04]

Very sad news: Titan of cinema and cultural icon David Dalaithngu dies

Best known as David Gulpilil, but being now referred to David Dalaithngu because many Indigenous Australian cultures forbid the use of a person's name after their death, he was born Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu and is perhaps the world's best-known Aboriginal Australian actor.

Throughout his entire life, he held onto his culture firmly, even when he became an international superstar. His final film, My Name is Gulpilil, was incredibly touching and I highly recommend any fan of cinema watch it.

 

[bono_212]

I googled the name unsure I was going to know who it was and the very first picture that popped up, "OH! Yes." That's very sad to hear, and I'll check out the movie you recommended.

Thank you for mentioning, Cobbler.

 

[No spoken words]

Dune.

What a movie.

Makes me wish No Broken Cocks was here to discuss.

Fucking amaaaaaaaazing. Saw it on IMAX. It could be recency bias, but it's one of my favorite filmgoing experiences I can remember.

To me, practically every single scene/moment felt big and powerful and important. The sound was incredible (anytime a character used "The Voice" it scared the shit out of the entire theater). Just a fucking great movie.

For the 2-3 weeks leading up to the release, I honestly could barely think of anything beyond the MLB Postseason and this movie. I won't bore you with specifics but my love of the novel (and the following five novels, warts and all) runs deep and goes way back to when I was a kid.

I've relocated so unlike Los Angeles, where IMAX theaters are everywhere, I had to drive about an hour to get to a proper IMAX theater. I stayed at a Hotel nearby the night before, and saw a 10:00am showing of Dune. I can't recall the last time I had as much spice adrenaline and excitement flowing in a movie theater - maybe when The Dark Knight opened.

Spoiler

Anyway, I loved it to death. As GAF said, almost every shot seemed momentous and freighted with import. As some of you need not be told, my dork levels are awfully high and I am a sucker for spaceships on the big screen, and seeing the heighliners and the Harkonnen fleet was like porn for me. The scale, just amazing. The Gom Jabbar scene was really well done. The combination of the gigantic Harkonnen fleet attacking Arrakis interspersed with the slow dread of how things went down inside the Keep was riveting. I liked the way they handled the poison gas tooth scene and its aftermath. And, I mean, Jason Momoa killed it and Rebecca Ferguson did too. I could go on and on.

It was inevitable but I was still very relieved when Part 2 was greenlit.

Lastly, I'd never have seen this on HBO Max first, but after seeing Dune in the theater, let's just say that I got my money's worth out of my HBO Max account by way of rewatching Dune more than once.

As for Bond, I LOVED the first 75 minutes or so, truly. The rest was between good and meh for me. Glad it ended how it ended.

Looking forward to: West Side Story, Matrix Resurrections (prepared for it to suck but hopeful it won't) and most of all, Licorice Pizza.

Disappointed by: House of Gucci.

 

[Hewson]

I've relocated so unlike Los Angeles, where IMAX theaters are everywhere, I had to drive about an hour to get to a proper IMAX theater. .

What neck of the woods did you relocate to?

Good to see you back here.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

The Power of the Dog - Gnarly as hell. This has one of the best movie endings I've seen in a long time. Highly recommended.

Don't Look Up - Seen a lot of people talking shit about this movie on social media but I liked it a lot. Laughed out loud a bunch and it's my favorite Jennifer Lawrence performance in years. The movie is heavy handed, sure, but I also think the message is extremely important.

 

[gump]

My goodness, The Power of the Dog is incredible. Jane Campion is a magician as always. You are not wrong about the ending, GAF. Shout out to Jonny Greenwood’s score too.

 

[lazarus]

It's in the running for my #1 of the year. Big Campion fan here, it's been a long wait for another film from her and she did not disappoint.

Also, this might be Cumberbatch's best performance, topping even his infamous red carpet turn:

 

[gump]

Yeah. I really liked Top of the Lake, but was really waiting for another full feature from her, given how good Bright Star was. The wait was certainly worth it.

I thought it was interesting how Top of the Lake seemed to influence her visual approach to The Power of the Dog. Those panoramic shots of the car through the hills made me think of Elisabeth Moss' character driving through New Zealand.

And lol at the photo. He was truly wonderful in this movie.

 

[monkeyskin]

More love for The Power of the Dog from here. I’ve been thinking about it a lot since watching. I often find Cumberbatch one of those actors who are Acting in their performances and it never quite feels natural. Except here, and it’s because the character he is playing is also giving a performance throughout the film.

Another flick I saw recently on Netflix (thanks to an end of year AV Club article) is Till Death, starting Megan Fox. She’s great in this nasty, tight, claustrophobic thriller that feels like a mashup of some others I’ve seen / read about recently but is very well made on its own.

 

[bono_212]

Not new movie related, but I'm taking part in "Japanuary" on Letterboxd, which is a lot of fun (details here for the curious: https://letterboxd.com/brazybenjamin/list/japanuary-challenge-2022/). Last night I finally finished Sansho the Bailiff which I started like three months ago. What a film. It's only one very broken watch, but I gotta say, I think it's easily a top 5 film from Japan for me.

 

[lazarus]

Sansho is great. Highly recommend Ugetsu from the same director if you haven’t seen it, which I prefer by a little. One of Scorsese’s favorites, too.

 

[bono_212]

I need to watch Ugetsu again. I remember the entire plot, when I read it on wiki, but can't recall the actual watching of the film. But I remember loving it as well.

 

[bono_212]

I wanted to be surprised, but to the shock of no one: Earwig and the Witch is terrible.

 

[bono_212]

More random Japanese movie talk: I have finally seen Castle of Cagliostro. I was watching it with my daughter because she was sick and will sit still if what I'm watching is animated, so we watched the dub. Netflix, for whatever reason, didn't have normal English subtitles, so for fun, I turned on the Japanese ones. I am still not fluent in Japanese, but I could tell that what was happening in the English dub and the Japanese subtitles was absolutely different, so I looked into it. I guess this is the original English Dub, where they were 1) Not allowed to call Lupin by his real name and called him "The Wolf" instead and 2) They changed significant portions of the plot.

So I guess I'll be watching it again in Japanese at some point.

And honestly, no problem! This movie is so much damn fun. I had no idea how influential it was, but thank you, Miyazaki, for giving me my favorite Disney movie ending, because The Great Mouse Detective is my everything.

 

[bono_212]

Continued: I watched Prisoners of the Ghostland last night. What. A. Trip. It's such a bad movie in so many ways, but it's so pretty and I love so much about it. I don't know how someone captured mid-tier budget sci-fi from the late 80s/early 90s so well, but Sion Sono is the kind of nut that could pull it off.

 

[bono_212]

Dare I post more? I dare:

Violent Cop: It's a movie about a violent cop. How shocking.

Cure: Jesus Christ, this movie is beautiful. Instant Favorite.

Ornamental Hairpin: I didn't get much out of this while I was watching it, but 12 hours later, it's now hitting me and I'm loving it more and more for what it was about, even if the movie itself didn't necessarily grab me overly much.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Wow, Joel Coen's THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. This is my favorite Shakespeare adaptation I've seen in a long time...maybe ever? Beautiful black and white and creeping shadows. It is badass. I took some Shakespeare courses in college, have always loved it, but I think I got burned out on it at the time. I feel like, with this and Station Eleven, I'm ready to get back into it. Might try to watch some other film adaptations that I've never seen.

 

[lazarus]

Coen's version is very much indebted to the Orson Welles adaptation from 1948, which has similar striking visuals taken from German Expressionism.

Welles also did a fantastic Othello, and his film Chimes at Midnight looks at the character of Falstaff and draws from several plays, including Henry V. It has one of the greatest battle scenes ever constructed, the editing decades ahead of its time (Scorsese payed homage to it in the opening of Gangs of New York).

Other adaptations I enjoyed:

Titus (1999, fantastic visuals + Anthony Hopkins)
Akira Kurosawa's Ran (King Lear adaptation)
Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (Macbeth adaptation)
Laurence Olivier's Henry V
Kenneth Branagh's Henry V
Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (w Denzel and Keanu!)
Richard III starring Ian McKellen (1930s fascist setting)
Polanksi's Macbeth (very violent and bloody)
Julius Caesar (1953, with John Gielgud and Marlon Brando)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935, beautiful classic Hollywood fantasy)

and if you're up for it, Kenneth Branagh's full-text version of Hamlet, which runs 4 hours but has an insane cast of stars and a lot of style.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Coen's version is very much indebted to the Orson Welles adaptation from 1948, which has similar striking visuals taken from German Expressionism.

Welles also did a fantastic Othello, and his film Chimes at Midnight looks at the character of Falstaff and draws from several plays, including Henry V. It has one of the greatest battle scenes ever constructed, the editing decades ahead of its time (Scorsese payed homage to it in the opening of Gangs of New York).

Other adaptations I enjoyed:

Titus (1999, fantastic visuals + Anthony Hopkins)
Akira Kurosawa's Ran (King Lear adaptation)
Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (Macbeth adaptation)
Laurence Olivier's Henry V
Kenneth Branagh's Henry V
Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (w Denzel and Keanu!)
Richard III starring Ian McKellen (1930s fascist setting)
Polanksi's Macbeth (very violent and bloody)
Julius Caesar (1953, with John Gielgud and Marlon Brando)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935, beautiful classic Hollywood fantasy)

and if you're up for it, Kenneth Branagh's full-text version of Hamlet, which runs 4 hours but has an insane cast of stars and a lot of style.

I have seen Throne of Blood. Excellent. And we were actually shown Branagh's Hamlet in high school. But I haven't seen any of the others. Thanks for the recs.