What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread

Ok so I went and saw bladerunner 2049 the other night and i didn't think it was that great. One technical issue is the music drowned out the voices. The story was ok i guess but i was a little disappointed in harrison ford; ryan did a good job as always.
 
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Has anyone else seen 'IT'? I'm curious what other people thought about it and how you think it compared to the 1990 TV movie and the book.

I saw it last night and thought it was ok. I liked the cast, but I was disappointed that they changed the time frame from the 1960s to 1988. I'm assuming they did that because the producers thought it would better connect with a wider audience.

I read the book a long time ago, but I don't remember it well enough to know if the movie was more faithful to it than the TV movie was.
 
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JDR13 said:
Has anyone else seen 'IT'? I'm curious what other people thought about it and how you think it compared to the 1990 TV movie and the book.

I saw it last night and thought it was ok. I liked the cast, but I was disappointed that they changed the time frame from the 1960s to 1988. I'm assuming they did that because the producers thought it would better connect with a wider audience.

I read the book a long time ago, but I don't remember it well enough to know if the movie was more faithful to it than the TV movie was.
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For some reason Stephen King's movies just don't cut it for me. Are they supposed to be scary? or just simple suspense? whatever it is, I haven't watched a SK movie where I've left the theater saying "great movie!", more like 'hmm... meh'.
 
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Well the original had Tim Curry ;)

As to the new version, I went and saw it because I saw some buzz about how the actor to play the role of the clown had done such a stellar job. Personally, he didn't seem all that special to me. Overall, the movie is fairly mediocre IMO; still, it's worth a watch if you're in the mood for some 80's nostalgia before the second season of Stranger Things premiers.
 
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wolfing said:
For some reason Stephen King's movies just don't cut it for me. Are they supposed to be scary? or just simple suspense? whatever it is, I haven't watched a SK movie where I've left the theater saying "great movie!", more like 'hmm… meh'.
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Really? I can name a lot of King movies that I think were at least above average.

The Shawshank Redemption, Stand by Me, The Green Mile, Pet Sematary, The Mist,
Needful Things, Misery, Firestarter, Children of the Corn…

I think a lot of his stories are better than their screen adaptions though.
 
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JDR13 said:
Really? I can name a lot of King movies that I think were at least above average.

The Shawshank Redemption, Stand by Me, The Green Mile, Pet Sematary, The Mist,
Needful Things, Misery, Firestarter, Children of the Corn…

I think a lot of his stories are better than their screen adaptions though.
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Yeah, I saw that the other day, without too much enthusiasm - it was a slow night with some friends, and we decided to see what was on.

I haven't read King since I was a kid, but from what I remember, the movie reflected what I thought of his work back then. Actually, I think "It" might be the best example for my criticism. I thought both the book and the movie did a good job of portraying troubled kids, misfits but likeable people, at a critical time in their lives. The idea to then explore this through horror fantasy seems an interesting one… but King's actual embodiment of the horror is simply cheesy and tired. I mean, killer clowns!?

I've often thought that about his writing. Things like Stand By Me and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption were good examples of straightforward storytelling, but once the supposed horror element comes in, I find it very weak.
 
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Yeah, I've never found his stuff particularly scary. I remember being a little creeped out by the original Children of the Corn, but I was pretty young.

I find his fiction interesting though for the most part, and he writes with a style that's not really similar to anyone else. I think he's earned his popularity, but he's also somewhat inconsistent quality-wise.

I gotta say I loved 'The Stand' though. The book was great, and the TV mini-series wasn't bad either. I'd really like to see a big-budget attempt at that one.
 
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What I find a bit unfortunate, is that I think he's actually a good writer, somewhat trapped in the success of his genre. He wrote a book called "On Writing", a few years back, and I think it's well worth a read in terms of how to improve one's writing and avoid many of the amateur mistakes. I kind of wish he'd move on from his genre work, and embrace more of his own good advice.
 
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JDR13 said:
Has anyone else seen 'IT'? I'm curious what other people thought about it and how you think it compared to the 1990 TV movie and the book.

I saw it last night and thought it was ok. I liked the cast, but I was disappointed that they changed the time frame from the 1960s to 1988. I'm assuming they did that because the producers thought it would better connect with a wider audience.

I read the book a long time ago, but I don't remember it well enough to know if the movie was more faithful to it than the TV movie was.
Click to expand...

I liked it a lot. But I have a thing for the teen adventure movies of the eighties, which this felt a lot like (I was probably the target audience). The Dark Tower however, was pretty "meh".

Also, The Babysitter on Netflix was great. I thought it was going to be another lame comedy horror spoof, but was pleasantly surprised.
 
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Yep, Zardoz is perhaps the greatest so bad it's good cult classic. "The gun is good! The penis is evil! The penis shoots seeds which bring forth the brutals, who multiply, and are legion."
 
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Wheelman on Netflix was an excellent watch. Very impressive for the director's first crack at a film. There's elements from Locke, Phonebooth, and Driver in it, all mixed into one. Also, Frank Grillo needs more good roles.
 
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I was just watching the animated movie called "Sing". Very good movie, I feel kind of blasted away.
Of course that's my personal taste ...
 
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Alrik since you're into animated things it seems, I have to recommend Blame!, should be available on Netflix except in some countries.

It's not as impressive as manga visually, but IMO they hit the softspot with CGI and story where technology went rogue.
 
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Last night I went to Loving Vincent.
Loving Vincent is a 2017 biographical animated drama film about the life of painter Vincent van Gogh. It is the first fully painted animated feature film.[9] It is written and directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman. The development was funded by the Polish Film Institute, and partially through a Kickstarter campaign.[10]

Each of the film's 65,000 frames is an oil painting on canvas, using the same technique as Van Gogh, created by a team of 115 painters.
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Quote is from Wikipedia

I recognized some famous actors, did not know they were painted.

I enjoyed this film. Loved the painted animation, but I love Van Gogh.
Story is entertaining, though I did not leave the cinema in a happy mood; at the end it is mentioned that Vincent sold one painting when he walked on this earth, thinking of the enormous amount of money that is being made nowadays of anything that involves his name made me sad.



Link to Imdb
 
If Vincent were alive today instead of then, I don't think he would be appreciated either.
 
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Dez said:
Just saw the bladerunner 2049. What a film. Whoa. I wanted to sit 10 extra minutes in the cinema when credits started rolling just to rethink everything I saw. I won't be saying anything about the plot of this film. Just that it did justice to the bladerunner name.
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I really enjoyed it, great movie! I dare say I liked it much more than the original.
 
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The Snowman

Hmm. Not sure about this. It is based on a Jo Nesbo book which I read about 5 years ago. At times I felt that Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) was being a bit slow coming to the right conclusions though he got there eventually.

What was wrong with the film is that there seemed too much happening so it appeared disjointed. It needs at least a couple more viewings or control of the remote control. As a mini-series this may of worked with extra scenes/ acts.

I did enjoy it (perhaps I like being confused) but it's not a repeat experience.
 
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