Feb 23, 2019 4:03:27 GMT mikec said:

Feb 22, 2019 13:30:34 GMT 🤯 said:

Wife and I saw Vice. Totally get what mikec was saying now.

But did you chuckle when they ran credits the first time?

Yes, yes I did.

Feb 23, 2019 4:11:01 GMT System said:

Feb 23, 2019 4:03:27 GMT mikec said:

But did you chuckle when they ran credits the first time?

People got up to leave in my cinema 🤦🏻‍♀️

That would've been better than what happened to us.

At the real credits, literally no one moved. We were trapped in the middle of the theatre. Wife and I kept looking around and then at each other like, what the fuck, does everyone else think this is a MCU movie or something?

So fucking weird.

At this point once the credits hit I look up the movie on wiki and scroll to the plot. If I see post or midcredit scene mentioned I stay put. Bless those souls who type the whole movie into those articles...

Feb 23, 2019 17:52:38 GMT @ness said:

At this point once the credits hit I look up the movie on wiki and scroll to the plot. If I see post or midcredit scene mentioned I stay put. Bless those souls who type the whole movie into those articles...

I do the exact same thing, and feel your pain with the articles..especially when I read too far and read what the scene is. Learnt my lesson when a group of friends and I walked out of The Disaster Artist, not realising it had one.

I’ve noticed a code at my local cinema that the lights don’t come on as much if there is an after credits scene, if there isn’t..full blast of light about 1 min after credits start. ...I go to the movies too much.

Feb 23, 2019 17:58:26 GMT System said:

I go to the movies too much.

I feel this. I started noticing this last year when I could recite the in-theatre commercial that airs before the previews. Dunno how many times I had to sit through that damn "no, this is an envelope" M&M's commercial. Though the Geico ones that tell you to not use your phone were funny, even if I have no idea why car insurance is showing at that point in time.

Alita: Battle Angel Just got back from seeing this not that long ago, admittedly I'm not familiar with the source material, but I did enjoy the movie. Usually when Hollywood tries to adapt manga/anime they tend to do a shit job (Dragon Ball Evolution, Netflix Death Note), but thankfully this was more towards GitS (way better actually).

Wife and I have been pumping out some at home viewing this week.

Had her watch V for Vendetta, which she seemed to really like. Curious to get her reaction to the graphic novel now.

Then we watched Destination Wedding, which we both really enjoyed. The older Keanu gets, the better he gets. This was a different movie that was thoroughly enjoyable and honestly might even top Table 19 as my favorite wedding movie.

Then we did some back to back Bruce Willis time travel with Looper and 12 Monkeys. We both agreed that Looper was super disappointing, but Wife loves Emily Blunt and how she seems to always pick these perfect roles as first bad ass moms. IMO, 12 Monkeys held up to the hype that it had from yesteryear. I think Wife liked it enough, at least enjoyed it's time travel logic more than Looper's.

I saw two movies today.

The LEGO Movie 2 is about as fun as a kids movie is going to be.

Star is Born... ehhhhhhhh. It was fine. I enjoyed the Isbell penned “Maybe It’s Time”, but the other songs were not great for me and the story felt mostly predictable (and long). It’s ahead of the half of Black Panther I watched, but comfortably behind Vice, which I didn’t love either for best picture nominees I watched this year.

Feb 24, 2019 4:28:27 GMT mikec said:

I saw two movies today.

The LEGO Movie 2 is about as fun as a kids movie is going to be.

Star is Born... ehhhhhhhh. It was fine. I enjoyed the Isbell penned “Maybe It’s Time”, but the other songs were not great for me and the story felt mostly predictable (and long). It’s ahead of the half of Black Panther I watched, but comfortably behind Vice, which I didn’t love either for best picture nominees I watched this year.

Do you just hate all movies? You may as well have name dropped another five in there to say you didn't like them as well.

Jan 27, 2019 5:55:57 GMT mikec said:

I watched Vice tonight. I think that somewhere in there was an awesome movie, but they wanted to be The Big Short and that style blunted some of the attacks on Cheney. I loved the Big Short, and I felt like that style would’ve been put to better use on a more specific look at how the Bush Administration expanded the scope of executive power.

There’s a lot of flash in the movie, some of it great. Worth the watch for the style and if you like seeing people adopt the look and mannerisms of people they don’t look like.

The big short is my favourite movie of the past couple of years I think, whoever did the screenplay tying those threads together was a genius.

I have been doing too much travel lately, so catching up on my watching of movies.

Venom - Boring
Aquaman - Even more boring
Deadpool 2 - Not nearly as good as the first one
Tombraider - Sucked

I have also been on a nostalgia gangster movie binge and this is the order from best to worst:

Snatch - Love it every time I watch it
Casino - Probably the ultimate mafia movie, better than the godfather
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - Guy Ritchie should direct more guy movies, love this
Good Fellas - If you watch this after Casino, everything about it seems like Casino-light, even Joe Pesci
Scarface - I used to like this movie, but less each time I watch it.

If anyone is interested, my binge has also been Netflix:
Titans - Very good, a little dark
Umbrella Academy - Twice as long as it needed to be and Ellen Paige hasn't been any good since Juno
Punisher Season 2 - Shame it ended this way, was a little lost like Daredevil and Jessica Jones in Season 2

I'm at the airport waiting to board a 9hr flight to HKG, so I will probably add some more movies.
Browsed the titles for the flight and nothing appeals to me... I will probably work on my laptop while watching a box set of a show that I am not really interested in.

Feb 24, 2019 19:26:59 GMT Lionheart said:

Feb 24, 2019 4:28:27 GMT mikec said:

I saw two movies today.

The LEGO Movie 2 is about as fun as a kids movie is going to be.

Star is Born... ehhhhhhhh. It was fine. I enjoyed the Isbell penned “Maybe It’s Time”, but the other songs were not great for me and the story felt mostly predictable (and long). It’s ahead of the half of Black Panther I watched, but comfortably behind Vice, which I didn’t love either for best picture nominees I watched this year.

Do you just hate all movies? You may as well have name dropped another five in there to say you didn't like them as well.

I thought I was pretty nice to LEGO Movie 2. Better than the other three I mentioned for sure.

Green Book

So this movie received the Best Picture bump, which made it a topic of conversation meaning I had to get a take on it.

Green Book is an odd-couple road trip movie that shows what life on the road was like for a brilliant black musician. I was worried there was going to be a moment where the movie would stop, Viggo would find a soap-box and preach that racism is silly in the most patronising way, but the movie doesn't do that. Instead it focus' on being a charming narrative and as the film wins the audience over with some nice Farrelly style comedy, it touches on the social issues. I will say, that's the weakest part of the movie, because a lot of the scenarios they bring forward are pretty cliche. I suppose it's because it's based on real life events, albeit Shirley's family tends to think otherwise but Ali basically has run-ins with all the usual racist riff-raff: cops, restraunt owners, rich people and redneck bar-flies and none of these interactions are memorable. No, where the movie shines is Viggo's chemistry with Ali and the way we learn about the aloof Dr. Don Shirley as the movie opens up. They have some tremendous scenes together and they hit all emotional ranges.

I've read a couple of articles that try and politicise the movie and I'm beginning to wonder if we even saw the same movie. The movie wasn't trying to offer solutions, it wasn't like Farrelly sat down and said 'Friendship will solve racism', it was way too light-hearted for that. Should it have won Best Picture? Probably not, but this idea that the movie exposes racists in the Academy is messed up. I've seen that fried chicken scene brought up and how the movie suggests if you share a bucket of fried chicken you'll conquer the racial divide which seems like a total distortion of the scene. It wasn't about these two characters finding common ground, it was about the class divide between the two characters and how Shirley resisted the simple pleasures in life. Yes, there is a sub-text in the movie and how Shirley can't relate to the black community, or any community for that matter, but the way I've seen the scene presented in some articles is so skewed that it seems like they purposefully ignored the author's intent.

Saw the Paige movie. Wasn't a dumpster fire and was kinda enjoyable. Kinda wish they changed the title win because it still doesn't make a lick of sense for her to come out like she did, but since it actually happened that way I can't get too mad. I was kinda looking forward to seeing Headey as Sweet Saraya, especially since I don't think she had any lines in the trailers. Kinda wanted more of her to be honest.

Feb 24, 2019 21:08:12 GMT iNCY said:

Jan 27, 2019 5:55:57 GMT mikec said:

Umbrella Academy - Twice as long as it needed to be and Ellen Paige hasn't been any good since Juno

Nonsense, she was at her best in Super, post-Juno. After that, okay, pretty downhill.

Stan & Ollie: Good, not great film. Wasn’t familiar with the source material, had a very made for TV vibe to it. Casting was perfect however, and it’s amusing that they can make John C Reilly’s fatsuit look believable but can’t remove a mustache correctly in JL.

Finally watched Creed II. Wasn't blown away by it but there was a lot about it that I liked. LOVED Drago Jr.'s whole backstory and loved the bar scene with old man Rocky and old man Ivan Drago facing off. I felt like this was what Creed 1 was missing, an interesting bad guy. But for some reason I just didn't feel like this sequel had the same heart as the first one though.

Only real gripe was how weird the fight scenes all looked. I don't know what it was, maybe the CGI crowd in the background but the fight scenes looked like a video game or something, bad/lazy cinematography, way too digital looking kinda kills the dramatic tension for me. Altogether though I enjoyed it. Not bad.

Captain Marvel: Was ok, probably 5/10.

My gf won tickets to see Fighting with my Family next week in Sydney, I don’t know whether it’s a premiere thing or just an advanced screening (doesn’t open until late March here) but should be good and between the movies and WWE i won’t have to see another 6 billion trailers before I can see it.

Planes Trains and Automobiles
Tries very hard to be funny, but doesn't succeed.

Mar 11, 2019 18:29:26 GMT Emperor said:

Planes Trains and Automobiles
Tries very hard to be funny, but doesn't succeed.

Booooooooooooooo

I just watched the first LEGO Movie for comparisons. Second one a big improvement, though first good.

Mar 10, 2019 21:57:41 GMT System said:

My gf won tickets to see Fighting with my Family next week in Sydney, I don’t know whether it’s a premiere thing or just an advanced screening (doesn’t open until late March here) but should be good and between the movies and WWE i won’t have to see another 6 billion trailers before I can see it.

Movie was fantastic, it’s respectful to Pro Wrestling while still being your typical feel good Hollywood film. Zelina Vega playing AJ Lee was the only jarring thing in the movie but not much could be done on that front. Casting was great, I know people who have trained with her family and they act how people have told me :lol:

Also I had to be a mark with the set up they have and get a pic

SPOILER: Click to show

Always thought it was odd they filmed that match live with a real crowd. Were they going for an authentic feeling even if it was risking them shitting on it?

Mar 13, 2019 14:27:41 GMT @ness said:

Always thought it was odd they filmed that match live with a real crowd. Were they going for an authentic feeling even if it was risking them shitting on it?

They’d probably just edit in crowd noise or people would just be happy to be “extras” in a movie so they played along

Yeah I thought Fighting With My Family was excellent. My expectations were very low. I thought all of the funny bits were in the trailer and it would treat wrestling as something stupid. Neither of these things are true. It was genuinely funny, heartwarming, and almost felt like a love-letter to wrestling at times. The actors did a great job and they condensed the story in a way that would make sense to a non-fan but was still exciting and interesting to a fan. I would highly recommend people go to see it - a great surprise and I'd like to go again.

It was quite surprising. Honestly seeing the trailers were kinda cringe with Rock doing his promos, but those were probably the worst part of the movie. I understand why they used them as selling points. The girl who played Paige really had the look down.

Course now I wish we could've seen Vince Vaughn fall off a cage for the Rock as a deleted scene.

Watched Triple Frontier tonight. Solid enough little action flick, and a decent outing for Netflix. Closer to a War Machine or Bird Box in terms of quality, I'd say. But not quite Narcos.

Still trying to figure out their movie batting average. I feel like it's below their TV show batting average.

Also watched Isn't It Romantic on the plane ride back from Tokyo. It was terrible. But in this weird way I couldn't put my finger on. Some uncanny valley shit, like as if AI wrote this script. I dunno...

A maelstrom of stupidity.

That is honestly the best way I can think of to describe this movie. It has bad ratings, but sometimes those are wrong and I gave it a chance. Big mistake. Do not watch this, even if you are a diehard Hiddleston fan. I am a major one myself, but he couldn't even come close to making this movie bearable.

The movie has no coherent plot or story of any kind. It is mostly abstract shots of horses prancing across the skyscraper rooftop, pseudo-intellectual conversations of fancy people deciding to kill people for no reason, naked people being naked, and silly dancing. I actually chuckled at some of the silly dancing. That may sound like I just slightly complimented the movie, but do not be fooled. Understand what this truly means: The best part of the entire movie was silly dancing. That is really impressive and perfectly drives home the point of just how bad this movie is.

And in the end, nothing happens. The whole movie just takes you from one random conversation and situation to the next until it is over. None of it makes any sense. People just become insane. That's it. Nothing makes them become insane, no, it just slowly happens. In fact, the voiceover even tells you this, so...that is actually the message the movie tries to send. Normal events make people insane? I don't get it.

Watch the TV series starring Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie called The Night Manager instead, which is one of the greatest television shows ever made.

Caught Molly's Game, nice little Sorkin biopic about a lady who ran a major underground poker game. It's Sorkin, so you know dialog is sharp and fast, nothing to set the world on fire, but a solid watch, maybe a little long in the tooth, but well written enough to not really drag.

Fighting With My Family
I've only seen one other WWE Studios film, but this has to be the best film they've ever produced. A really heartwarming and dramatic telling of Paige's family and her struggle to make it in WWE. I don't know all the details of the true story, but from what I know it seems to be mostly accurate. Some changes were made for dramatic effect as you'd expect, but the bare bones of the story is all good. Cast really well. Nick Frost and Lana Headey work tremendously well as the parents. Florence Hugh knocks it out of the park as Paige, as does Jack Lowden as her brother Zack. Vince Vaughn as the coach Hutch Morgan (I have no idea if he is real or based on a real person, anyone know?) is also a wonderful casting choice. Zelina Vega playing AJ Lee was a bit jarring, but she nailed her style of speech and mannerisms. Dwayne Johnson is in the movie for probably no more than ten minutes, but his scenes are great and he's crucial for the promotion of the film.

The film got everything right as far as the portrayal of professional wrestling goes, the contrast of gritty local wrestling to the spotlights and stardom of WWE, how difficult it is to get a foot in the door, and how even more difficult it is to make it once you got the foot in the door. I also loved the dramatic aspect, particularly the shaky relationship between Paige and Zack.

Amazing film, not just for wrestling fans, highly recommended.

Hotel Mumbai: Boy did this have bad timing opening in Australia/NZ, it got pulled from NZ cinemas recently due to Christchurch shooting.

Fantastic film, very full frontal for a Hollywood film. It follows some tropes of films like this but other than that I really enjoyed it. Amazing bravery & service by the staff involved.

Behind the Curve

This is the flat earth doco on Netflix. Why so many people have taken this view of the flat earth, I don't know and I can't understand. People are dumb, and getting dumber.

This is also a really good case as to why we need to take the western world's growing mental health problems seriously.

Just saw Shazam. It’s absolute magic. DCEU has a legit home run in the stable now.