Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched  (Read 684736 times)

Corndog

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #1150 on: July 25, 2017, 01:30:43 PM »
Typos are my worst enemy.
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PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #1151 on: July 25, 2017, 01:46:55 PM »
I'm surprised it has split that much in recent years. When you mentioned HDTV my first thought was that it would have made more films move towards 1.85 but I guess the opposite has happened.

DarkeningHumour

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #1152 on: July 26, 2017, 05:44:38 AM »
I watched two war movies yesterday. Try to spot the differences.

Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan (2017)


Give it to Christopher Nolan to complicate what could very well have been a straightforward movie about three contemporaneous arcs. It took me more time than I would care to say to realise what he was doing and I am still a bit fuzzy about the entire timeline of it all. Some people don't change.

I don't watch many war movies and I don't think I have ever watched anything that featured air battles this prominently, but I would be ready to bet no one has ever filmed XXth century aerial skirmishes this well. The air sequences of the movie are by far its most gorgeous ones, replete with spectacular shots of Spitfires veering this way or that against the towering backdrops of the infinite sea and the all-encompassing sky. Then the planes start shooting and you feel it. The claustrophobic limitations of the cockpit, the shuddering roar of the bullets, the terrifying uncertainty about the whereabouts of the opponent every time you lose sight of him, the utter isolation of the man trapped inside the machine in a desert of blue.

Dunkirk, like Saving Private Ryan, shows war as we (or I in any case) have never seen it. It is not a movie about the roaring carnage of all pitched battles but about the mortifying silence of desperate wait. The beach lays silent despite the hundreds of thousands of men yearning for salvation until an enemy aircraft ripples through it with thundering devastation. The screening room shakes ; war has ever been so loud.

Not all arcs are equal. The one in the boat has a subplot around a wound that feels forced and superfluous, distracting the movie from its centre. The story about the soldiers captures the main idea of what Dunkirk was but is confusing at times. The characters all look very much alike, especially when they are in the water or when movement gets blurry, and it is not always clear who is doing what. I am still unsure about who made it to the end.

Despite a sometimes confusing structure though, Nolan ties it all expertly and build a powerful narrative that leads to an ultimate moment of satisfaction that is not entirely earned. The movie could have used more Brannagh.

Most of the actors are unknowns who do a serviceable job. Among the old guard, Tom Hardy shows he can do better than Locke. He doesn't need an entire car to act. He can do it in a tiny cockpit behind a mask, with just a pair of eyes and eyebrows. Next time he'll wear a burka.

8/10
« Last Edit: July 28, 2017, 05:04:47 AM by DarkeningHumour »
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Sandy

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #1153 on: July 27, 2017, 09:37:32 PM »
You remind me to catch Dunkirk in the theatre. Excellent capturing of the air fight with your words; almost like I was there!

Sandy

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #1154 on: July 27, 2017, 09:52:46 PM »
Maudie



Written on a scrap piece of paper in the lobby, after the show... Windswept, homespun life at a rudimentary visceral level. That's my mini, off the cuff review! More words won't mean more here, at least for me. Sometimes stories just need to be experienced and internalized.

Thanks Mom! :)

pixote

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #1155 on: July 27, 2017, 10:08:49 PM »
I'll let her know!

pixote
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Sandy

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #1156 on: July 27, 2017, 10:41:14 PM »
 :))

DarkeningHumour

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #1157 on: July 28, 2017, 07:04:46 AM »
Second war movie. I meant to watch Cars 3 but got inside the wrong room...

War for the Planet of the Apes
Matt Reeves (2017)[/b]

I think I've got it. I know what these movies are always about, their common theme. They are stories about compromises and hard choices, about how nothing can ever go as planned or as you wished, about making tough choices in difficult situations and living with them. To be with his people Cesar must leave his family. A carefully managed peace is shattered by the chaotic fervour of rogue elements. War for the Planet of the Apes is replete with bitter choices and unsatisfying resolutions.

That's what the apes are there to show us and the rest is just window dressing. Really fun window dressing though, like the window is connected to your Xbox and you can playing videogames on it. It nails what most action movies are utterly unable to even approach. Cesar's arc is one of the most rich in recent memory and I would have trouble thinking about a blockbuster trilogy with similar wealth. Every gives a handful of secondary characters a chance to shine. They have stories, personalities, they actually matter. Insanity. Everyone's motivations are clear and they are never simplistic. The villains in the Apes movies are never out to destroy the world because reasons, they are compelled by understandable beliefs that you can empathise with.

It's difficult to compare this movie with Dawn. The decisions the screenwriters take about which story to tell are unfathomable in both cases, but I just roll with it. The second episode had perhaps a narrative that I am more naturally drawn to, about the inevitability of conflict despite the unwillingness of the leaders. This one is more all over the place - it has more themes, but it is also less cohesive as a result. The story is less compelling.

It does have a good villain though, and there is one action scene that is like nothing I have ever watched. In the twentieth century the US has no military equal, so no movies have ever shown the American armed forces facing a similarly formidable adversary. This movie gives you that, and it't pretty baller. There are also a few fantastic scenes of pathos and lyricism that elevate the movie, and for once, I actually laughed at the comic relief character. This is the movie that concludes Cesar's story, turning the leader into a messiah. I was a bit underwhelmed by his achievements. In the Apes lore, Cesar is supposed to have ushered a new civilisation. And yet, there is somehting poetic about that last scene.

8/10
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Junior

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #1158 on: July 28, 2017, 11:10:13 AM »
I'm surprised it has split that much in recent years. When you mentioned HDTV my first thought was that it would have made more films move towards 1.85 but I guess the opposite has happened.

It follows a trend in movies trying to differentiate from TV, I think. That's where widescreen stuff came from in the first place, and then 3D, and then 3D again, and IMAX. Now this trend.
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Junior

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #1159 on: July 28, 2017, 11:32:17 AM »
War for the Planet of the Apes

I'm conflicted. I saw this movie twice in a week. The first time I liked it a lot, really digging into the interesting mix of genres (starts as a Vietnam war movie, goes into a slavery/holocaust thing, then others) and the amazing acting and special effects that really allow you to get behind the idea of following a group of apes as the main characters in the film. The second time I was less enthused, the bag of tricks becomes much more obvious and less magical when you're not caught up in the newness of following a story. This is a problem unique to this film in the series, as I've rewatched both Rise and Dawn and both continue to grab me emotionally with the story and storytelling. It just doesn't quite work here. I think the isolation of the Caesar character is a large part of the problem. Even when he's in a group of other apes, he's deliberately trying to keep himself separate from them. "Apes together strong" my ass. And maybe that's the point, but it just didn't continue to engage me (contrast this to something like Mad Max: Fury Road, which I watched twice back to back and never got bored).

There's also a tone problem. I didn't hate Steve Zahn's Bad Ape (in fact, he was one of the best parts the second time I watched the film, adding a much needed injection of humor into this dour film), but there's almost no effort to meld his fun into the serious goings on that dominate the film. In one egregious example, there's a funny binocular joke that cuts immediately to a monkey on a cross. For real? That's the transition you're going to go to? It feels off, to say the least. It's still a good movie, it has interesting things to say about caring for people who are and are not like you, and it sets up a theoretically intriguing sequel, but it's a little dramatically neutered, especially compared to the previous two entries in the series.

B+
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