The Official Movie Discussion Thread

[BHK1978]

It depends what you mean by 'fans'. Hardcore fans or anyone-willing-to-buy-a-ticket fans. One group is bigger than the other. When you're trying to make billions, that's important.

 

But at what point do you end up shooing away your loyal fans while trying to chase a phantom audience that may never buy tickets in the first place?

 

I get what they're saying. A lot of franchise movies these days focus on fan-pandering nostalgia over telling a good story. Fans know what they want, but not always what they need. You shouldn't ignore the fans, but sometimes you gotta do things that they don't like in order to create a great story. Break a few eggs to make an omelette. Sacrifice a character to make another better. Bending your story to the will of the fans is like taking studio notes from millions of people. It can hurt more than help.

 

I disagree with the sentence in bold and honestly I am not sure the people at Disney know what the fans need. I do not think anyone needed Rian Johnson to take a torch to everything and burn down the house. Then stand there like Nero playing the fiddle (Though from what I read Nero was never there when the fire happened but hey it makes for a more interesting story.)

 

The head of Lucas Films said that there was no source material with which the writers of the new movies could draw on. Which is simply not the case, there is a ton of source material which they could draw upon.

 

This to me is not someone who knows what the fans need, or want for that matter.

 

I have not watched the new movie, it seems both critics and fans hate. But neither of the previous two movies stand up to the original three or the prequels. Well Phantom Menace might be on par with Force Awakens, FA might actually be slightly better.

 

For me I really do not care about the new characters because the writers have not made me care. There is no emotional connection there for me. When Finn almost died in the last movie I felt meh towards it. I mean I have nothing against his character and I think they should have written him better, but if he died he died.

 

I really do not find Kylo to be a compelling villain. He comes across as an EMO kid from 2005 who has listened to one too many My Chemical Romance songs.

 

Rey is a Mary Sue who, from what I have read about the new movie, has off the chart powers. She is never in true peril because she can just overpower anything that gets in her way.

 

Poe, I actually like Poe mainly because I am a fan of Oscar Isaac (He was awesome in Show Me a Hero for HBO), but his character is just there. Poe lacks the coolness of Han.

 

With the original characters and the prequel characters the writers actually made me care about them and what happens to them. I wanted to see what lead Anakin to becoming Vader. I wanted to see how the Emperor came to power. I cared about Luke's journey from a humble farm boy who struggled at stuff to Jedi Knight. You get the drift.

 

These new movies do not make me care about the characters.

[Blackman]

I saw the Wonder Woman 1984 trailer and it looks like it is going to be awesome. Also, the fact that they played Blue Monday as the backing track gave the trailer just another layer of awesomeness.

 

Black Window's trailer looked good as well and it will be cool what they can do with that movie. I looks like it might be a good spy thriller/action movie.

 

I loved that trailer. The song is actually from around 1984 too.

 

I always loved the BW comics and it seemed it takes some pages from those so this should at least be a watchable affair.

[Self]

But at what point do you end up shooing away your loyal fans while trying to chase a phantom audience that may never buy tickets in the first place?

 

That's the trick, isn't it. I'm defending the idea but not the execution. I'm not going to defend Disney/Rian Johnson's decisions at all. I just understand the theory behind those decisions. For example, the idea of a Luke Skywalker for girls makes sense to open up that demographic to become new hardcore fans. But the execution was flawed.

 

These new movies do not make me care about the characters.

 

I saw Force Awakens, and I didn't feel the need to see the second one for precisely the same reason. The characters didn't do anything for me. Rey felt a little too generically chosen one (fairly wooden performance in the first half too) Finn felt like two mismatched characters fused together (child soldier + bumbling comic relief?) and Poe was only in it for like 10 minutes so didn't register as an actual character. I like Harrison Ford, and he was done after that, so I had no reason to keep paying attention.

[Jaysin]

Watched Solo and The Grinch today and was pleasantly surprised by both

[Jaysin]

On a whim I decided to watch the National Treasure movies and thoroughly enjoyed both. They were just fun movies.

 

They’re also the first Nic Cage movies I’ve watched since Ghost Rider came out in 2007.

[Derek DiBenedetto]

On a whim I decided to watch the National Treasure movies and thoroughly enjoyed both. They were just fun movies.

 

They’re also the first Nic Cage movies I’ve watched since Ghost Rider came out in 2007.

 

Nic Cage made a movie called 'Joe' in 2013 that was actually decent, his last good movie IMO. His career has basically tumbled into a bunch of quickie-paycheck direct to video stuff. Sorta sad.

[Jaysin]

Stumbled onto this movie called The Sisters Brothers. It’s a western starring John C Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix. Very enjoyable.

[milamber]

<p>Joker - This could have easily been a huge flop but the perfect synergy of casting, acting, directing and writing raised it masterpiece status. Joaquin Phoenix was incredible. 10/10</p><p> </p><p>

Midsommar (Director's Cut) - They could have condensed it into a run-of-the-mill 90-120 minute popcorn horror but instead they delivered an unforgettable experience. I get easily distracted watching long movies but this one held my attention. I'm turning into a big Florence Pugh fan. Not really sure how to rate it but I'll go with my first instinct. 9/10</p>

[BHK1978]

Joker - This could have easily been a huge flop but the perfect synergy of casting, acting, directing and writing raised it masterpiece status. Joaquin Phoenix was incredible. 10/10

 

Midsommar (Director's Cut) - They could have condensed it into a run-of-the-mill 90-120 minute popcorn horror but instead they delivered an unforgettable experience. I get easily distracted watching long movies but this one held my attention. I'm turning into a big Florence Pugh fan. Not really sure how to rate it but I'll go with my first instinct. 9/10

 

I liked Joker but I am not sure if I would give it 10/10 but it was a very good movie.

 

As far as Midsommar goes. Well I will agree to disagree with you on that one. Here is what I wrote about it after seeing it...

 

For instance Midsommar was praised as being this great horror movie and I will admit I fell prey to the critics and decided to see it. I mean it is rear that a horror movie gets praise and that was the driving force for me to go see it. My thought process was, "If critics are praising a horror movie, which is something they hardly ever do, it might be worth checking out."

 

Oh boy do I wish I never paid to see that steaming pile of horse dung. The movie just went on and on and to me just came across as a cheap art house ripoff of the Wicker Man. No not that crap that Nicholas Cage made, I am talking about the Edward Woodward/Christopher Lee classic.

 

Though I will say Florence Pugh was the only highlight of that movie. I did not see the movie where she played Paige but she was very good in Midsommar and that was the only saving grace for the movie.

[milamber]

I read some reviews of Midsommar after watching it. I knew a lot of people would be disappointed in it, especially if they caught the hype over it. That I can understand. But then you have a huge amount of people on IMDB giving it 1/10 for being an overlong, pretentious arthouse movie. Those type of people are not true movie fans, IMO, because they only like a specific styles and genres, and anything that doesn't fit that narrow view is trash to them.

 

I mostly just watch tons of TV shows and Marvel/DC movies and stopped going to the cinema a couple of years ago because I have a sleep disorder which makes it uncomfortable and tiring to sit still for 2-3 hours. I'm pretty selective when I do bother to watch movies at home but I'm happy to sometimes try something different like retro horror, low budget arthouse and foreign films. At the end of the day Midsommar was an unforgettable experience and for that alone I would rate it above most horror movies I've ever seen that are generally better received my the masses.

[BHK1978]

I read some reviews of Midsommar after watching it. I knew a lot of people would be disappointed in it, especially if they caught the hype over it. That I can understand. But then you have a huge amount of people on IMDB giving it 1/10 for being an overlong, pretentious arthouse movie. Those type of people are not true movie fans, IMO, because they only like a specific styles and genres, and anything that doesn't fit that narrow view is trash to them.

 

I will say this, I try to never rely on sites like IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes. Especially Rotten Tomatoes because what seems to happen is the critics will fawn over a movie and the fans will crap all over it because of the fawning. Truth is most of those movies would probably fall somewhere in the middle.

 

I guess that makes me not a true movie fan because I felt that it was far too long and was very pretentious. Which is fine because we all have different opinions on everything and unless empirical evidence proves one opinion to be correct over another I will gladly say we can both be correct and wrong.

 

I will say that while I might prefer some genres over others, I will not shy away from something or like something if I am interested in it. My favorite movies range from Sunset Boulevard to A Nightmare on Elm Street. You could probably not get more polar opposites in terms of movies than those two.

 

I am not blindly loyal to mainstream cinema and automatically discount art house movies. When I find a film bad, I find it bad and Midsommar was just bad. There were pacing problems, it was not that original of a story (I truly feel that it was influenced by the original Wicker Man, which is fine because everything was influenced by something. I just feel like it was not as groundbreaking of a film as people said it was), there were some actors who were just not up to par, and some scenes were just ridiculous.

 

Then again I know there are a lot of movies that I find great that either nobody has ever heard of or others think are terrible.

 

I mostly just watch tons of TV shows and Marvel/DC movies and stopped going to the cinema a couple of years ago because I have a sleep disorder which makes it uncomfortable and tiring to sit still for 2-3 hours. I'm pretty selective when I do bother to watch movies at home but I'm happy to sometimes try something different like retro horror, low budget arthouse and foreign films. At the end of the day Midsommar was an unforgettable experience and for that alone I would rate it above most horror movies I've ever seen that are generally better received my the masses.

 

I have also cut back on going to the movies as well. To me the allure of seeing a movie on the big screen is no longer there. Mainly because the tickets and concessions cost too much, people no longer know how to behave in public. Too many people feel like it is their right to talk throughout the movie. If you sit in the back of the cinema (which I do, that way nobody can kick my seat) you are forced to see a sea of blue lights from the cell phones. It is just not a great experience.

[Jaysin]

Finally got around to watching Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. So damn entertaining and a total love letter to longtime Kevin Smith fans. So many great cameos.

[BHK1978]

Finally got around to watching Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. So damn entertaining and a total love letter to longtime Kevin Smith fans. So many great cameos.

 

Did that ever come out in movie theaters? Or was it straight to video/dvd/blu ray/streaming (Or whatever the term is called nowadays.)?

 

The reason why I ask is because I love the Jay and Silent Bob movies and I never saw anything about it coming out in theaters, at least locally. I just assumed it was going to be coming out later this year. I guess not.

[Jaysin]

It had a limited theatrical run back in October. Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes did a road show for it too

[Blackman]

That was also the last movie i saw. Had to resort to other means as there was apparently no way I could legally purchase it. You could buy a dvd but it's 2020 so not an option. No room either. Digital was only on amazon or I was not allowed to the service. Seached for half an hour for a legal source until i almost grew insane. A shame as i dont want a debit card. It was awesome even though it started off slow and if theres a way i could donate i will. Anyone any ideas?

 

1 totally unexpected cameo which all forum members here will know. I didnt get that segment at all though.

 

edit: had to type this on a phone.

 

It just baffled me because normally I tend to know my way around the internet and can find things reliably quickly, but I was send from here to there and just got fed up. I found several announcements it was available digitally, but for the two platforms it was on, it was a hassle to become a member or you had to have payment info. I guess I can pay for a DVD and just give it away or something? Pretty weak. Do people even buy DVD's anymore? I highly doubt it. I personally missed out on the BluRay hype and it passed already so not missing much there either.

 

Lots of cameos completely passed me as I didn't have a clue who they were and as a consequence didn't get the joke. But even then, there is enough there that you could enjoy if you watched the original. The jokes are also less "dick 'n fart", so there's that. Obviously you shouldn't see it without seeing the original as it'd be a complete waste of your time.

[Jaysin]

I also ended up watching the new Addams Family movie last night and it was super fun. Glad they’re doing a sequel

[Blackman]

Went to see the Sonic movie and had a great time. Thank god they didn't went with the awful first design. It was a good ride, from the ionic "SEEEGAAAA" to the Robotnik "boss battle". Had a Detective Pikachu vibe upon seeing this, though Sonic is probably just a step lower in quality.

[BHK1978]

Just read that they are currently filming the fourth Jackass movie, this is going to be awesome.

[guyver3]

Just finished Knives Out and loved the movie been way too long since I’ve seen a good mystery. I was kinda disappointed they “gave away the mystery” pretty quick but the layers they went into were great and had me guessing. Great acting from a fun cast and just such a fun movie I wish I could’ve seen it in the theater.

[Jaysin]

My brother and I watched Brave on a whim and both really enjoyed it. Has anyone seen the movie Pilgrimage? It seemed to get mediocre reviews, but thinking about giving it a shot since I love Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal.

[djthefunkchris]

SJW/representation movies did financially great in the last cycle, with Captain Marvel and Black Panther, so it's unsurprising to see them do more in that direction. They worked in the way that mattered.

I might be using the wrong term though, but SJW sounds like it would mean something I would especially be 100% behind, but every movie I see it being used for "Charlie's Angels", "Ghostbusters", on TV "Batwoman" and even "Supergirl" to an extent, which were horrible... and for some silly reason Obi Wan said "Birds of Prey" was a similar movie, and I almost didn't go watch it because of that. Not really that bad, apart from the tokenizing of Black Canary, the total lack of Oracle, the best fighter needing protection, and nerfed down to common thief... aside from ignoring the source material altogether, it wasn't a bad movie... Honestly, if they wouldn't have named it Birds of Prey, and used different names for the costars, it was a fun Harley Quinn Movie. But I'm totally out of any Birds of Prey now, because of the total ignoring of the source material. Everytime I think DC is going to get on track they do something to prove me wrong.

 

I would argue that Captain Marvel worked because I thought "I must watch it" in order to understand "Endgame"... if I could go back, I wouldn't have gone to watch it. It was a movie I didn't really enjoy, and I probably won't fall for any movie falling in between must see movies again.

 

Black Panther was just a great movie. One of my favorite Superhero movies of all time, and I don't see how anyone counts it as SJW.

 

IF those two movies are true SJW wins, than at least Black Panther is one I could stand behind, can't wait to revisit Wakanda. To me, I felt like Wonder Woman was very similar... can't wait to revisit Themyscira.

 

I did like Joker, but I think the lead was the main reason. I really like how I don't know which parts happened and which didn't, that alone makes it feel like "Joker" more than anything. I would love to see this movie from someone else's perspective.. perhaps some detective that was putting pieces together, watching it pan out. Seeing Joker quite a bit differently then Joker see's himself... for example.

 

I'm excited about Matt Reeves take on Batman, mainly because I'm being led to believe I'm going to see the "Sherlock Holmes" part of Batman, in a way we never seen it before. At least that was the pitch.

[BHK1978]

I might be using the wrong term though, but SJW sounds like it would mean something I would especially be 100% behind, but every movie I see it being used for "Charlie's Angels", "Ghostbusters", on TV "Batwoman" and even "Supergirl" to an extent, which were horrible... and for some silly reason Obi Wan said "Birds of Prey" was a similar movie, and I almost didn't go watch it because of that. Not really that bad, apart from the tokenizing of Black Canary, the total lack of Oracle, the best fighter needing protection, and nerfed down to common thief... aside from ignoring the source material altogether, it wasn't a bad movie... Honestly, if they wouldn't have named it Birds of Prey, and used different names for the costars, it was a fun Harley Quinn Movie. But I'm totally out of any Birds of Prey now, because of the total ignoring of the source material. Everytime I think DC is going to get on track they do something to prove me wrong.

 

I would argue that Captain Marvel worked because I thought "I must watch it" in order to understand "Endgame"... if I could go back, I wouldn't have gone to watch it. It was a movie I didn't really enjoy, and I probably won't fall for any movie falling in between must see movies again.

 

Black Panther was just a great movie. One of my favorite Superhero movies of all time, and I don't see how anyone counts it as SJW.

 

IF those two movies are true SJW wins, than at least Black Panther is one I could stand behind, can't wait to revisit Wakanda. To me, I felt like Wonder Woman was very similar... can't wait to revisit Themyscira.

 

I did like Joker, but I think the lead was the main reason. I really like how I don't know which parts happened and which didn't, that alone makes it feel like "Joker" more than anything. I would love to see this movie from someone else's perspective.. perhaps some detective that was putting pieces together, watching it pan out. Seeing Joker quite a bit differently then Joker see's himself... for example.

 

I'm excited about Matt Reeves take on Batman, mainly because I'm being led to believe I'm going to see the "Sherlock Holmes" part of Batman, in a way we never seen it before. At least that was the pitch.

 

I am probably in the minority here, but I do not really consider Supergirl an SJW show. Sure there are elements of it but I do not find it to be preachy.

 

I did not think Black Panther was an SJW movie either. Oh the SJW's wanted to take full credit when it did well, but once again I did not think it was SJW.

 

I never saw Ghostbusters, Charlie's Angels, Batwoman, or Captain Marvel mainly because of the way they were marketed and the way cast members dealt with anyone who lobbed even minor criticism towards said movies. The latter applying towards the movies and not towards Batwoman. I have not heard anyone from Batwoman saying you are an Incel for not watching or liking their show.

 

What I love was Elizabeth Banks flat out saying her movie was not meant for men and then when men did not go see it she complained about how men were not going to see her movie. Having dealt with actors in the past, I know people in Hollywood tend to not be the most sane people on the planet ; but come on where the hell is her logic there?

 

Whenever you are even remotely critical of any SJW movie, you always get the line of, "Well you do not like movies with strong female leads."

 

Okay let's see...

 

I love the Alien movies, Wonder Woman, Orphan Black, Dark Angel, Buffy, the first two Terminator movies, the Hunger Game movies, hell I even enjoyed Elizabeth Banks' Pitch Perfect movies (I am not who that movie was marketed to at all).

 

So what is this jazz about me not liking movies/TV with strong female leads. The argument is just not there. All I ask for is a movie/TV show that is not overly preachy and wants to force an agenda on me. I do not think it is too much to ask.

[Blackman]

SJW sounds like it would mean something I would especially be 100% behind, but every movie I see it being used for "Charlie's Angels", "Ghostbusters", on TV "Batwoman" and even "Supergirl" to an extent, which were horrible...

 

Exactly. Imo, this whole idiocy should stop. The term is being coined for cinema or series that have the prime intention of shoving political agenda in people's face, rather than focus on telling a good story and taking care of a franchise. When you are neglecting the other, you often just get a steaming pile of crap, which infuriates fans even more. So it's really not about having women or people in color in key roles: it's been like that afaik, and very few people had problems with that. But token roles or explicit anti-propaganda are just not done imo.

 

I personally like female leads because they often offer a more interesting perspective, especially on a psychological level. The examples mentioned by BHK1978 are pretty much good IP's that focus on their strenghts (Buffy's humor and theme).

[Jaysin]

Just watched this movie on Hulu called The Kid. It has Ethan Hawke as Pat Garrett and Dane DeHaan as Billy the Kid. I really enjoyed it. It didn't get the best reviews, but modern westerns really don't get the best reception. It's a genre I really enjoy though. Chris Pratt plays against type in a villainous role which was interesting.

 

Highly recommend it to any fans of westerns.

[BHK1978]

Just watched this movie on Hulu called The Kid. It has Ethan Hawke as Pat Garrett and Dane DeHaan as Billy the Kid. I really enjoyed it. It didn't get the best reviews, but modern westerns really don't get the best reception. It's a genre I really enjoy though. Chris Pratt plays against type in a villainous role which was interesting.

 

Highly recommend it to any fans of westerns.

 

Your post had me thinking, there has not really been many good westerns in the last twenty-five years or so. Off the top of my head I can only think of Unforgiven (Which is actually closer to 30 years old now, man do I feel old) and The Hateful Eight. I honestly cannot think of any others besides those two.

 

Yes I guess No Country for Old Men have a western feel but if it is set in the modern day, I have a hard time thinking of it as a western. Also, the True Grit remake was not that bad but I am not sure if I would put it on the level of Unforgiven or The Hateful Eight.