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

Well, I do care, but maybe we don't understand the word the same way. After all I'm not a native English speaker, so I may very well misunderstand the term. (I of course also like to see why).

An incarnation of pibbur who admits his understanding of the finer aspects of the English language leaves much/something to be desired. OTOH, FYI, he's quite good at Norwegian.

Allow me to be contrary; I care what the @a pibbur; likes and doesn’t. I may not agree but I always find he has thought about his opinion and is careful in his expression of same.
 
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Uhm, North by Northwest is an absurdly good movie. Even now it's still well worth watching, as are most of Hitchcock's films and tv shows. That guy did a lot of things right, at least behind the camera.
I agree that is true most of the time, just not in this case (or The Birds for another one). Would you mind explaining what exactly you found to be "absurdly good". I could break down how the crop-duster scene fails (the screenwriter gives it away in a commentary).
 
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Oh my, so my gambit was called, time to step up!! First and foremost: Hitchcock got to film a great couple of scenes at the bloody ACTUAL UN!! The way some of the action is shot from above is simply uncanny, and to this day remains one of my most favourite scenes ever shot.

The comedy interlaced with the spy/thriller genre. At spots, it's downright hilarious, in a way a film like this maybe shouldn't be, yet Hitchcock makes it work. And then some!!!

Unlike you and a certain screenwriter, I think the crop dusting scenes pays off huge dividends. I've not timed it, but I believe there's over five minutes with no dialogue, not even any annoying music, and it WORKS!!! Silence and tension can convey a lot, and not many scenes in cinematic history convey this better than done here.

In the end, if you don't believe me how good it is, simply check out what some other authors and cinema folk think of it. I'm talking actual successful folk, like Carpenter, Del Toro, Friedkin, and many others. It may be a product of it's time, that much I'll grant, and perhaps I first enjoyed it in a time where things like this....no. Nope, it still stands tall, I'd stack this masterpiece up against ninety-nine percent of the current drek that Hollywood churns out.
 
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Ok, fair enough. I disagree obviously ["downright hilarious" O_O ], but thanks for that.
 
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Not yet, but 'Us' was recently mentioned to me, and I want to see it. I've seen 'Get Out' by the same director and thought it was ok.

Us is considerably more problematic plot and believability wise, but it's also quite a bit creepier and I enjoyed it well enough.
 
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Us is considerably more problematic plot and believability wise, but it's also quite a bit creepier and I enjoyed it well enough.

Well, it's not as if Get Out was very plausible. Most people seem to agree that 'Us' is the better film though.

Peele also wrote the new Candyman movie that's releasing next month. I was a big fan of the original when I was a kid, so I'm interested in seeing what he does there.
 
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Midsommar

Very disappointing. I was expecting a lot more, but that was two and a half hours I wish I could have back. Completely pretentious and predictable.

On the positive side, Hereditary seems so much better now.
 
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Care to explain why you love it so much?? Is it a so bad its good thing?
No, sorry, no time to write an essay and that movie deserves one.
And no. It isn't one of those.

I enjoyed Hereditary, and I think it's a very good movie. But I can see your point of view and can to some degree agree.
I disagree 100%.
It's style over substance bullshit.
Lemme skip to another post as it's connected then will return to you. ;)
Midsommar
This movie improved some country's GDP by investing into their flower business.
The same author as Hereditary, and again style over substance bullshit.

Not sure if I already wrote this here, if I did, sorry, if I did not, my suggestion is to skip everything that charlatan of a director makes next. And made.

You want an opposite example where style is there, but decent and not irritating plus the movie has substance?
Find The Maid from last year on Netflix.
A note for USA audience - it might remind you on confederacy history, but it is not it's intention. It's about rich immigrants and modern slavery on Thailand packed into an unusual concept.

The movie has three chapters, each upgrades the previous one with another horror style:
ch 1 - haunted house with jumpscares
ch 2 - whodunnit thriller with a victimized ghost in del toro style
ch 3 - revenge slasher

The bad? Sound effects. Not only copied too loud jingles from hollywood in jumpscare scenes, but also clanking tools and stuff.

If you can ignore sfx crimes, it's great, if you can't you will still find it very good.
This pretty original movie scheme got criminally underrated on imdb by either blind or stupid "reviewers".

BTW: have you seen "Us" and "The autopsy of Jane Doe", and if so, what do you think of them?
I did, both.

Us is more of a scifi than horror, and in it's own way warns that so called Tuskegee Syphilis Study and similar inhumane experiments must never happen again under any circumstances. It's quite disturbing if you think about it, but not really scary.

Jane Doe is de facto a revenge horror, but you won't be aware of the revenge part until a certain twist. Now this one has quite a few eerie moments. But, it's not as disturbing as Us.

Both are great and in my opinion are mustwatch titles.

I can honestly inform you that, though it may surprise you, no-one cares in the slightest what you like and what you don't like. That's not what people are reading the posts for.
Speak for yourself.
I do care about people's taste.
By knowing what someone likes or dislikes, I can easier accept or refuse their future suggestions depending on our taste compatibility or some other factors.

A sort of example would be if you state that you can't stand romance movies and then after a few days recommend a romance movie.
Well, if a declared romance hater likes one such movie, it's must be something special and I want to watch that too! ;)
 
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About Hereditary
...

I disagree 100%.
It's style over substance bullshit.
...
I of course disagree with you, but perhaps not 100%. To me it's not "style over substance" and definitely not bullshit.

But I do value your opinion, so I will definitely watch "The Maid", when it becomes available. It's not yet on the Netflix Norway (Scandinavia?) list of movies. It's probably (hopefully?) only a question of time before it's there.

an incarnation of pibbur who admits his taste in movies is somewhat limited.
 
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I watched this movei while cycling this weekend: Fear Street part 1 (of 3). I liked it (due to circumstances), but:

  1. I've seen it before. Repeatedly. It's a teenage horror slasher movie about something bad happening now, due to something bad happening in the past. And a bunch of teenagers have to solve it (those who survive)
  2. As such it's quite predictable.
  3. As a teenage horror movie, horror is limited, mostly jump scares, and the vibe isn't particularly dread filled. Slasher effects are mostly limited to partially seeing weapons in action and blood (one exception involving a ... sorry, no spoilers)
  4. I's the first film in a trilogy filmed back to back, all of them released within a 2 week period. Many who watch the first film will feel obliged to watch the remaining 2.

So why did I like it? Well, when exercising movies not requiring much attention is the ideal choice (unless choosing to watch the same movie, say, 3 times). And this movie was indeed ideal for said circumstance.

I probably wouldn't sit down in front of the TV to watch it. And I wouldn't watch it with friends, unless being with friends was the main purpose of the event.

an incarnation of pibbur who once again has to admit his limited taste in movies.
 
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Well, I do care, but maybe we don't understand the word the same way. After all I'm not a native English speaker, so I may very well misunderstand the term. (I of course also like to see why).

I believe you understand quite well ... and if we are to not care about what others think about various art forms and popular entertainment - then why have these forums to begin with? I disagree with some people on some things and agree with them on other things, and all of it forms context to better appreciate someone's point of view. I have always learned on these forums, and feel that is incredibly valuable.
 
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Connected to tv shows thread.
These are mustwatch norwegian movies from this century.
Per my choice ofc. Which means no drama/war/history/biography bs combinations. ;)
I did watch quite a few of norwegian movies, but these would be titles that I'd recommend to everyone, others were either mediocre or less and there wasn't anything special.
Please do add if you feel some others are also a material to watch before you die.

Cold Prey (2006)
Cold Prey 2 (2008)
A sort of hommage to the first Halloween yet out in cold where the enemy is also otherwise beautiful nature. Skip the third movie, it's a silly prequel that sux so much it's an insult to these two.

Dead Snow (2009)
Dead Snow 2 (2014)
A comedy with nazi zombies. They fail to get rid of them all in the first movie, so in the second one they get some help. WW2 russian army zombies.

Headhunters (2011)
The movie starts as some sort of swindling comedy, but soon turns into edge of the seat thriller with more suspense than 10 mainstream rubbish have combined.

Babycall (2011)
A psychological thriller where an overprotective mother with memory problems sees something she shouldn't and is not sure what of it is true. Okay, hears something. ;)

Ragnarok (2013)
A family fantasy which means you can watch it with kids. A bombon for Bron/Broen fans because the lead actress from there plays a completely different role in this one.

Kraftidioten (2014)
One of the best revenge movies ever made in films history and of course hollywood had to make a lousy remake. Watch the original!
 
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Of those I saw Kraftidioten. That was a great movie.
Thanks for the suggestions.
 
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About Hereditary

I of course disagree with you, but perhaps not 100%. To me it's not "style over substance" and definitely not bullshit.

Yeah, I'm not quite sure what joxer means there. Despite my complaint about the vagueness of the plot, I think Hereditary is worthwhile as a horror flick. I think I was just in the wrong mood when I watched it.

"Bullshit" would be much better used to describe Midsommar. :)
 
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Us

I thought it was ok. It started out a lot more promising than it ended though. Like 'Get Out', it was entertaining enough to watch once.

The plot takes a sharp turn about halfway through, and I didn't really care for the direction it went.

I think my streak of horror films is about over. It's time to switch to something else…
 
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They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)

Peter Jackson colourises and brings to real-time definition old footage of World War One.

But that's not the only marvel here.

On top of this the entire film is voiced solely by the original oral history of WW1 survivors many, many years later, each recollecting a small aspect of the war, to which Jackson then uses footage to visually represent what they are saying.

But that's not all.

The film is also a coherent story, as in it has a plot, and the footage and voices tell a chronological story of the real life experiences and attitudes of the survivors during their torrid time in the war to end all wars.

The film starts you off on the wrong foot though, the footage isn't upgraded to begin with. For the first 20 minutes it's just old footage with the voices. And you think "Hey, am I being ripped off here?" as you wonder if you've just been conned into watching yet another WW1 documentary.

Then the colourisation kicks in. And the War kicks in. And it's unrelentingly brilliant. Utterly captivating. Time zooms by and the 1 hour 40mins runtime vanishes in a haze of OMG and Well Blimey.

It's all over waaaay to quickly. More, give us more!

It currently sits at 8.3/10 on IMDB and I have to say it's worth every decimal place, maybe even more. Looking through the reviews, there's less than 1 in 10 that didn't like it, and you know who that's going to be, you know, the kind of people who see a Youtube video with zero dislikes and feel the uncontrollable need to hit the dislike button, just because.

If you haven't seen it already, it should definitely be on anyone's shortlist, truly unlike anything else that currently exists.

Though @joxer; probably wont like it as he could well have written one of those >1 in 10 dislikes that is essentially "War movie? No thanks."

they-shall-not-grow-old-2018-004-soldiers-riding-tank.jpg
 
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They Shall Not Grow Old has been on my list to watch for years, I truly need to remember to view it, so kudos for the reminder, friend! And it certainly helps that someone here enjoyed it. =)
 
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I tried watching the U.S. version of Dark Water last night but quit about halfway through.

There was just no point in watching it after seeing the original so recently. It's almost a shot for shot copy. Also, while I usually like John C Reilly and Tim Roth, they both seemed pretty uninspired in this.
 
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