Which movie did you watch today and how would you rate it?

[ZiprHead]

Under the Skin
Scarlett Johansson naked?

Whaaaa...

 

[Underseer]

The whole, just gonna arm my people thing. For instance, a lot of the trouble in Africa is not going to be helped by arming people, because who do you arm? The colonization splintered the populations, so that they would war with each other, instead of with the oppressing regime. So who exactly do you side with? If he wants to arm Africa, it is going to take a lot more coordination to pull it off, than just sending ships with weapons. And seeing that Africa isn't currently being oppressed by Europe, rather they are suffering from the long term affects of said earlier oppression, Africans will be killing each other.

His problem with Wakanda not helping is fine, but the trouble is, his plan firstly, does not address aiding African nation, but rather just arming them which ignores the real problem. In other words, I understand why he is upset, but his plan makes absolutely no sense.

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Wow, so angry.

Why does this topic trigger you so much?

I think the trouble is that you've pretty much taken any modicum of dissent as based on bigotry.

He wasn't talking about arming people in African countries. He was talking about arming African diaspora in the nations of the former colonial powers. I'm pretty sure he planned on helping the other African countries after gaining control of most of the world's resources, and I'm pretty sure his "help" would have involved some kind of externally imposed rule (thus making him nothing more than the next colonial invader).

That works better.

I was responding to the first part, not the second part. I apologize if discussing bigotry upsets so many people.

It seems that an awful lot of people aren't offended by the existence of racism, but get very offended by discussing it.

Tell you what. If someone says something that sounds racist, what is the correct way to complain about it without triggering half the white people on this forum? Or should I just not say anything at all? Would that be better?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The whole, just gonna arm my people thing. For instance, a lot of the trouble in Africa is not going to be helped by arming people, because who do you arm? The colonization splintered the populations, so that they would war with each other, instead of with the oppressing regime. So who exactly do you side with? If he wants to arm Africa, it is going to take a lot more coordination to pull it off, than just sending ships with weapons. And seeing that Africa isn't currently being oppressed by Europe, rather they are suffering from the long term affects of said earlier oppression, Africans will be killing each other.

His problem with Wakanda not helping is fine, but the trouble is, his plan firstly, does not address aiding African nation, but rather just arming them which ignores the real problem. In other words, I understand why he is upset, but his plan makes absolutely no sense.

- - - Updated - - -


I think the trouble is that you've pretty much taken any modicum of dissent as based on bigotry.

He wasn't talking about arming people in African countries. He was talking about arming African diaspora in the nations of the former colonial powers. I'm pretty sure he planned on helping the other African countries after gaining control of most of the world's resources, and I'm pretty sure his "help" would have involved some kind of externally imposed rule (thus making him nothing more than the next colonial invader).

That works better.

I was responding to the first part, not the second part. I apologize if discussing bigotry upsets so many people.

It seems that an awful lot of people aren't offended by the existence of racism, but get very offended by discussing it.

Tell you what. If someone says something that sounds racist, what is the correct way to complain about it without triggering half the white people on this forum? Or should I just not say anything at all? Would that be better?

Discuss bigotry all you like. I just think you’ve gone a bit hair trigger on it based on what you’ve seen as being sourced in bigotry by a couple of posters.

As far as the previous post, I think it still would have been better to keep that guy around for another movie. Granted, it would complicate things in Europe and America.

 

[Underseer]

He wasn't talking about arming people in African countries. He was talking about arming African diaspora in the nations of the former colonial powers. I'm pretty sure he planned on helping the other African countries after gaining control of most of the world's resources, and I'm pretty sure his "help" would have involved some kind of externally imposed rule (thus making him nothing more than the next colonial invader).

That works better.

I was responding to the first part, not the second part. I apologize if discussing bigotry upsets so many people.

It seems that an awful lot of people aren't offended by the existence of racism, but get very offended by discussing it.

Tell you what. If someone says something that sounds racist, what is the correct way to complain about it without triggering half the white people on this forum? Or should I just not say anything at all? Would that be better?

Discuss bigotry all you like. I just think you’ve gone a bit hair trigger on it based on what you’ve seen as being sourced in bigotry by a couple of posters.

As far as the previous post, I think it still would have been better to keep that guy around for another movie. Granted, it would complicate things in Europe and America.

Huh.

So there is no right way to talk about it, and you just want me to stop talking about it.

I was right to throw a link to that paper on white fragility, then.

 

[Ford]

Little Dieter Needs To Fly

The 1997 Werner Herzog documentary on Dieter Dengler, the Navy pilot who was shot down, captured, and then escaped the Vietcong. Herzog turned it into the feature film "Rescue Dawn" in 2006, starring Christian Bale. That was a really powerful film that unfortunately flopped at the box office.

This one is better. Somehow, Dengler simply telling his story has a much greater impact than a 10 million dollar production featuring a really outstanding actor playing the role. That's not to say Rescue Dawn was bad or that Bale (or Herzog for that matter) didn't do a good job, but the documentary was just so much more compelling. Hearing him talk about the deprivations he suffered (while at times walking through the jungle with his hands tied, surrounded by soldiers reenacting the scene) was chilling. And while he survived things that killed literally everyone else who joined him in his escape, he seemed so nonchalant.

8/10

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Why does the little guy need to fly for his diet? I question the scientific methodology his nutritionist is using.

 

[spikepipsqueak]

I just saw 3 Billboards and couldn't give it enough points to do it justice.

Also, The Girl with All the Gifts, which I got from the library because the book was so good. Not disappointed.

 

[Jayjay]

Annihilation
7/10

I don't get why all the critics are clamoring over Annihilation. It's a boring horror / scifi movie with a fairly simple premise about a weird alien meteor hitting earth and creating a zone where weird stuff happens and monsters dwell. It's by the director of Ex Machina, who also happened to write the screenplay for Sunshine, so if you're familiar with those works you get the general atmosphere of this one as well. But it also shares the rather annoying feature that the plot, when you consider it, doesn't really make much sense. In Sunshine it was about re-igniting the sun by dropping all of Earth's nuclear weapons in there, which was pretty dumb. Ex Machina on the other hand had to have an unrealistic eccentric millionaire who was more interested in his sexbot than security. But Annihilation has to take the cake for idiocy in the way that the army handles the anomaly. Basically, they just send team after team into the zone without even attempting to set up communications or bases near the perimeter, or do any scientific studies like fetch samples before they figure out what to do about it. In that regard, it's more psychedelic horror than science fiction.

 

[ZiprHead]

Patriots Day

The story of the Boston Marathon Bombing and the manhunt for the perpetrators. Fast paced, seemed to follow pretty closely the series of events that went on in the days following the bombing, at least what I remember of them. Very gripping and well done. Actual participants and victims took part in the film. Well worth a couple hours watch.

 

[prideandfall]

I don't get why all the critics are clamoring over Annihilation.

honestly i don't get why more people aren't clamoring over it, since in a vacuum it's like a bullet loaded into the gun of what is supposed to be the cultural zeitgeist right now, which kind of dovetails into what i think is a rather interesting observation about what people think people think about things, and what people actually think about things.

a "smart" (at least within the sphere of how movies are considered) sci-fi film with an almost exclusively female cast where every character is strong and capable within her scientific and/or military field undertaking a mission with the expressly stated purposes of offering a non-violent solution to a problem... and nobody is talking about this in terms of representation, even though it half the cast is non-white and it features a lesbian.
it's just weird to me that people are jizzing in their pants over black panther (which was fine as a middle-tier marvel film but unexceptional) and flipped out over wonder woman (which i found to be an utterly terrible movie on every level) and yet this is being totally unrecognized.

anyways, back to film critique: IMO sunshine, dredd, ex-machina, and annihilation all have the same issue in that they have a great setup in the first act, a solid tension and buildup of the second act, and then the third act goes totally off the rails into mind-numbingly stupid bullshit.
so maybe that's just an alex garland thing, he doesn't know how to end a screenplay.

 

[Opoponax]

Patriots Day

The story of the Boston Marathon Bombing and the manhunt for the perpetrators. Fast paced, seemed to follow pretty closely the series of events that went on in the days following the bombing, at least what I remember of them. Very gripping and well done. Actual participants and victims took part in the film. Well worth a couple hours watch.

I was pleasantly surprised by it too. It had some hokey "Murica" stuff in it, but it isn't totally ruined by it. Frankly, if my Trump-voting sister hadn't been weeping throughout, it probably wouldn't have grated on me the way it did. Anyway...

Ouija: Origin of Evil

I just can't get enough of shitty horror movies. This one wasn't totally awful though. I mean, if you're in the mood for evil spirits, you can do worse. The evil spirits though, are these bad CGI things that look like reject versions of a villain in a superhero movie. Other than that, a few tweaks and a little more money could've actually made this a hidden gem. As it stands though, it's a solid B flick.

4.5/10

 

[Opoponax]

When people give you reasons for why they hate something and the reasons don't make sense, it usually means they're not being honest about why they hate it.

And it's amusing that you are so offended by my use of "triggered" comments, given that the whole reason I do that is to show how shitty those "triggered" comments are. Bigots are the ones who normally use that term, and they're usually the biggest snowflakes.

No. I was going to suggest you see a proctologist in order get whatever it is removed from your ass too. I've ignored your unwarranted comments regarding exactly this stuff, but I'm glad someone else said something.

Wow, so angry.

Why does this topic trigger you so much?

I was gonna let this lie, but you seem undeterred in your over-the-top accusations of racism and bigotry towards people who don't like certain movies you think they should.

Hell, I posted that I actually liked Wonder Woman and you got on your insufferable high horse about that. And frankly, that movie wasn't that good; it just didn't suck as badly as I thought it would, which translated into a pleasant surprise.

But, it must mean I'm a misogynist because I didn't think Wonder Woman was a great film. And that must be because it had a female lead (???).

And guess what: Get Out was a solid movie; better than most movies as a matter of fact, but it wasn't great. I don't think it deserved the acclaim it received. You know what other movie I feel that way about? The Shape of Water. Same with (gasp) Citizen Kane. Never saw what the big deal was. And The Deer Hunter? Doesn't hold up.

So now, you tell me from your on-high position of morality: why is it not bigoted for not thinking Citizen Kane or The Deer Hunter are great, but it is bigoted if I don't think Get Out was Oscar worthy?

Wait. I'll tell you: because one can judge a film on its merits and according to their own personal tastes without being a bigot. It's not a shocking concept and one that reasonable people understand.

As for being "triggered," you're right. Being accused of something you're not, particularly bigotry, is offensive. It's personally insulting, which, according to the rules of this board isn't allowed. The next time you level such accusations at me I'm going to complain. I don't know if that's worth anything, but I hope it is.

 

[Jayjay]

I don't get why all the critics are clamoring over Annihilation.

honestly i don't get why more people aren't clamoring over it, since in a vacuum it's like a bullet loaded into the gun of what is supposed to be the cultural zeitgeist right now, which kind of dovetails into what i think is a rather interesting observation about what people think people think about things, and what people actually think about things.

a "smart" (at least within the sphere of how movies are considered) sci-fi film with an almost exclusively female cast where every character is strong and capable within her scientific and/or military field undertaking a mission with the expressly stated purposes of offering a non-violent solution to a problem... and nobody is talking about this in terms of representation, even though it half the cast is non-white and it features a lesbian.

"Capable" only in terms of usual hollywood horror movie sensibilities. But if they were really capable they would have turned back the moment they realized they were missing three days worth of rations and didn't know how they got there. Instead these experts just kind of shrug it off and move on. And the team does have its one crazy character who notices she's been "infected" but doesn't tell the rest, and then goes nuts.

Also, the plot holes. What happened to all the other duplicates? Four months is a long time.

 

[James Brown]

At the risk of re-igniting a flame war over who's the most racially insensitive here, I offer this insightful (to me) analysis of the symbolism of Black Panther.

[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/FjqOCOAGTHw[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Opoponax]

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

I was hoping that it was just the fans of the source material who had shit-talked this movie into the ground. Within roughly 15 minutes into the film, those hopes were dashed. Bad acting, bad dialogue, and frequent holes in consistency all occurred within that 15 minute time frame.

And the CGI. Jesus. I thought that good CGI was supposed to seamlessly blend with live action, unless the entire thing was CGI (e.g. Avatar). This film clumsily blends the look of Avatar with live action and it just doesn't work.

I almost went to the theater to see this movie. Then I almost paid to watch it on pay per view. Thankfully, I waited until it was on Amazon Prime, so that I didn't have to waste an extra penny on it.

3/10

 

[Sarpedon]

I finally saw The Death of Stalin 7/10

All in all a good film. I give it a few point deductions because it wasn't quite as funny as it could have been. While I think that maybe someone with different humor receptors might like it more (and there were obviously plenty of people in the theater who found it funnier than I did) it nevertheless brought enough laughs as well as being a completely functional historical film to be an enjoyable success. From the historical point of view, the events were actually portrayed relaisitically, although the timeline was compressed. From the humor perspective, I really thought that Buscemi could have been funnier as Kruschev. Stealing the show was Jason Isaacs as Marshal Zhukov, who I never imagined to have such comedic potential. But the greatest source of humor as well as darkness were all the ordinary background Russians who were just trying to survive all this. I recommend it if it is showing near you.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Ready Player One - 9 / 10

Really good movie about a bunch of people fighting for control of a massive VR online world. A good story, really excellent graphics and a whole shit ton of references to old video games and comics. Highly recommend.

 

[Rhea]

Just re-watched “Footloose” with my teenagers. I like that movie and love their reaction to the outfits and the hair.

 

[ZiprHead]

Just watched Atomic Blonde yesterday.

The story of a female spy/double/triple agent being debriefed after an operation in Berlin during the time of the wall coming down. Charlize Theron is a badass in the tone of Jason Bourne. She's in pursuit of a list of double agents a prior agent had been murdered trying to obtain. Twists and turns abound.

A solid spy thriller with lots of action and first rate performances by all involved. 7/10.

 

[Underseer]

At the risk of re-igniting a flame war over who's the most racially insensitive here, I offer this insightful (to me) analysis of the symbolism of Black Panther.

[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/FjqOCOAGTHw[/YOUTUBE]

This video claims that colonialism and racism exist! By posting this video, you are committing White Genocide!!!!!!! You're just like the Nazis, and I'm just like the Jews in the concentration camps!!!!!!!!! [/conservolibertarian]



I enjoyed watching that video.