The Latest Movie/TV show You Watched Topic 2.0

[eabaker]

Peter McNicol is great as Renfield and recaptures the mannerisms of Dwight Frye really well.

Peter McNicol absolutely steals that movie, though I thought Steven Webber and Amy Yasbeck nailed their parts as well. I don't remember the rest of the cast landing quite as well for me as those three.

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

One of Brooks' most underrated films in my opinion. That and High Anxiety.

[Jomei]

The Old Man season 1 was pretty cool. You can nitpick some of the use of music or the coincidental nature of some encounters, but the strengths outweight that IMO.

[LSD Jellyfish]

Better Call Saul concluded the other day. Finale was amazing, and managed to surprisingly wrap everything up in a satisfying and emotional matter. It's a "slowburn" show for sure, but it's well worth the pacing and season 6 might be one of the most consistently good and exciting television shows I've ever seen. Easily one of the TV greats now, and I think I prefer it over Breaking Bad.

[Jeff-Goldblum2]

Hey guys just me here once again. I last watched the movie Event Horizon.

The movie has been popping up on my movie feeds since it's the 25th Anniversary of the movie. I rewatched it for the first time since it came out basically.

I'd have to say as far as Sci-Fi Horror goes it's pretty darn spectacular. Between this and In The Mouth of Madness I really like Sam Neill in roles for Cosmic Horror.

A better Hellraiser in Space than the actual Hellraiser in Space. The 4th one.

[eabaker]

I've tried a couple of times with Event Horizon, but I just find it a sloppy, superficial mess.

Better than Hellraiser: Bloodline? Well, many would regard that as a pretty low bar to clear. I'd say it's certainly better produced, but not necessarily as interesting.

[Jeff-Goldblum2]

I've tried a couple of times with Event Horizon, but I just find it a sloppy, superficial mess.

Better than Hellraiser: Bloodline? Well, many would regard that as a pretty low bar to clear. I'd say it's certainly better produced, but not necessarily as interesting.

The part where they explain the folding space science to the audience was too much hand holding, but I don't mind sometimes people see sci-fi movies with these themes and it sparks their interest to learn more. Some of the action movie dialogue went against the bleak tone of the movie. I actually thought the practical effects and design of the ship were really good and highly underrappreciated.

[GodzillavsRayquaza]

Watched 2011’s The Raid (or The Raid: Redemption, if you prefer), and goddamn what a kickass movie. Cannot recommend it enough to fans of action movies.

[Jetty_Jags]

Been quite a few things I've watched the past month or so here's the rundown

Army of Darkness
Heat
Life Aquatic
True Grit (original)
The Evil Dead (original)
Blade Runner (rewatch)

[eabaker]

Been quite a few things I've watched the past month or so here's the rundown

Army of Darkness
Heat
Life Aquatic
True Grit (original)
The Evil Dead (original)
Blade Runner (rewatch)

That's a pretty good line-up!

[Jetty_Jags]

Thanks, I’m trying to play catch up with a lot of classics (of all variety) I’ve missed so far.

[JAGzilla]

^ That's me, too. The number of major, iconic movies I haven't seen is completely idiotic, and I'm slowly correcting that.

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

Eh there's tons of classic movies I have no interest in ever seeing. I don't watch movies just because they're super famous or iconic. Don't get me wrong I appreciate classic movies, I mean Showa is my favorite Godzilla era and I grew up on 50s/60s creature features. I'll never watch Citizen Cane for example even if I do appreciate its place in cinema.

[JAGzilla]

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. A bit sloppier as a story than the original, with inferior atmosphere, schlockier characters and worse performances, but very fun all the same. I appreciate that they didn't just do the same thing again, but took a new route by having Freddy possess our main character and haunt the neighborhood in a more poltergeist-like fashion. That led to some wild scenes like the parrot attacking the family, and especially Coach Schneider being attacked by the sports equipment. A better job was done making use of dreamlike imagery with things like the dogs with human faces. The body horror moments with Freddy erupting out of Jesse's skin and his flesh melting away at the end were some awesome effects and just cool, memorable scenes in general.

[eabaker]

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. A bit sloppier as a story than the original, with inferior atmosphere, schlockier characters and worse performances, but very fun all the same. I appreciate that they didn't just do the same thing again, but took a new route by having Freddy possess our main character and haunt the neighborhood in a more poltergeist-like fashion. That led to some wild scenes like the parrot attacking the family, and especially Coach Schneider being attacked by the sports equipment. A better job was done making use of dreamlike imagery with things like the dogs with human faces. The body horror moments with Freddy erupting out of Jesse's skin and his flesh melting away at the end were some awesome effects and just cool, memorable scenes in general.

Yeah, while it's definitely not the most polished movie in the series, I appreciate that at the time there was no "Freddy formula" yet, and they took the concept in such a different direction.

I do wish that the cast and crew had communicated better about the gay subtext (and, okay, occasionally the flashing neon signs that scream "GAY SUBTEXT HERE"), because while the movie provides a very effective teaching tool to demonstrate the long-standing relationship between queerness and horror cinema, the way it plays out leads to some fairly glaring homophobic message (which, to be fair, is traditionally where queerness in horror cinema has ended up, so it is still providing an accurate example).

[Leviarex]

Saw 'Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero' last week. Easily one of the most well written movies in the franchise, especially with Goku and Vegeta refreshingly not taking center stage for once (in fact, they felt more like guest stars), and having a well-rounded antagonist in Dr. Hedo. But good god, could the animation have done without the floaty cgi element!

[Jetty_Jags]

Watched the Ninth Configuration the other day, and enjoyed it a great deal. I was expecting something a little more surreal, but was engaged with the work as a whole. The climax at the biker bar verges on being goofy, but isn't awful. Overall, the film is an interesting companion to The Exorcist (whom the director wrote the original novel and screenplay for).

[Angilasman]

Three Thousand Years of Longing.

George Miller takes a break from making Mad Max movies to make a gorgeous fairy tale romance film for adults that, apparently, the studio had absolutely no idea how to market so they've just dumped it onto screens with little fanfare! See it on the big screen while you still can before it becomes a cult classic in a couple of years.

[Jeff-Goldblum2]

Hey guys just me here once again.

I started rewatching the Sergio Leone Westerns. I've seen these before but it's been several years since I have. First up is A Fistful of Dollars.

They just have so much atmosphere. It's interesting that what would be considered foreign knock offs of Westerns would instead be such well made and influential movies. So many great shots and filmmaking techniques used within them. For sure they popularized the extreme close up.

But between Yojimbo and it's Western remake A Fistful of Dollars, which movie is the better? For example I think the execution of filmmaking in the final showdown is much better in Yojimbo, but I think I just like Clint Eastwood more as a lead. Not that you would complain about Toshiro Mifune. Can't go past an Ennio Morricone score though. I think Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior was my favorite Akira Kurosawa movie anyway. The use of reds in the shots of that movie, just great.

[eabaker]

They just have so much atmosphere. It's interesting that what would be considered foreign knock offs of Westerns would instead be such well made and influential movies. So many great shots and filmmaking techniques used within them.

The Italian film industry of the time was basically financed by constant knock-offs of other countries' popular films/genres, and in a country with a rich artistic/aesthetic history, the result was that a lot of people sincerely invested in creating meaningful, beautiful art were stuck making cheap, rushed genre pictures. And, as with the American exploitation film market of the same period, as long as the movie could justify the kind of title/poster/trailer that the studio wanted, there was a lot of creative freedom within those broad boundaries. That's how gifted filmmakers like Leone and Mario Bava were able to bring such a personal, idiosyncratic style to what would appear from the outside to be essentially grindhouse productions.

But between Yojimbo and it's Western remake A Fistful of Dollars, which movie is the better? For example I think the execution of filmmaking in the final showdown is much better in Yojimbo, but I think I just like Clint Eastwood more as a lead. Not that you would complain about Toshiro Mifune. Can't go past an Ennio Morricone score though. I think Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior was my favorite Akira Kurosawa movie anyway. The use of reds in the shots of that movie, just great.

Ultimately, as much as I love Fistful of Dollars, I'd say Yojimbo is solidly the better movie (now, if we bring the sequels into the discussion, then the quality gap rapidly closes). Kurosawa's film is more elegantly styled and paced, while Leone was really just trying a lot of his technique out for the first time, and I think it shows. Fistful has a more stop-and-start rhythm, where Yojimbo flows very naturally. As great as Morricone's score is, I'd put it on at most an equal footing with Sato's work on Yojimbo (though I'd say subsequent Leone/Morricone definitely surpass Sato's work). And ultimately, I find Mifune's performance more nuanced and engaging than Eastwood's, and the rest of the cast of Yojimbo is equally outstanding (while the only other real powerhouse in Fistful is probably Gian Maria Volonte).

Kagemusha is lovely, but for later (color) Kurosawa, I prefer Ran.