General Movie Thread

[Benji]

I'm hesitant to even check EWB comments

[MDK]

4 minutes ago, Benji said:

I'm hesitant to even check EWB comments

Don't sass me

[GA!]

3 hours ago, MDK said:

Don't sass me

 

*logs onto Twitter*

[MDK]

2 hours ago, GA! said:

 

*logs onto Twitter*

I'm about to log on to my toilet

[GA!]

[Maxx]

Looks like an interesting concept for a thriller.  Goes up on Netflix on April 8th.

[GA!]

Apparently Letterboxd have FINALLY released their iOS app, or will be releasing it sometime today.

For anyone who doesn't use Letterboxd, I do recommend it, even if it has fallen below expectations of what I thought could seriously be an IMDB beater a few years ago.

[Monkey D. Lars]

 

 

[Hellraiser]

Can someone explain to me what the big deal is about the movie Battle Royale? I'm a fan of the Hunger Games movies and novels and ever since I got into the franchise I've read comment about how Suzanne Collins supposedly took a lot of inspiration from the book Battle Royale without giving credit. I've also read comments about how the movie adaptation of Battle Royale is supposed to be superior to the Hunger Games movies. So I bought Battle Royale  with very high expectations and I haven't been that disappointed in a movie since Spectre came out last year. The premise barley makes any sense. It's hard to tell the students apart because they all wear the same clothing and the authors couldn't be bothered to provide decent characterization for them because there are way too many of them and we spent barley any time with them before they all get killed in ridiculously violent ways which makes it hard to care for anyone. They are mostly there for the body count.

There never manage to build up suspense because of how absurd everything is. For example there is that one guy who enters the battle royale voluntarily and spends most of his time gunning down students with his Uzi shooting hundreds and hundreds of rounds without reloading. As far as I can tell he only reloaded once in a very convenient moment to give another student an opening to attack. And there is another ridicules moment during the finale in which the main antagonist of the movie get's riddled with bullets only to get up again, sit down on his couch, call his sister, eat one last cooky and then die on the couch. They kill any poignancy this scene might have had that way. This could have been good if the movie was supposed to be some nihilistic comedy but they play it all dead serious

There are a lot of subplots that either don't go anywhere or are superfluous (there is one group of students who manage to come up with a plan to escape the battle royale that might work. They get gunned down by the psycho. That's it for this particular subplot. Why even bother?). The acting is bad. The melodrama is even worse. Because they can't provide decent characterization for most of these students they try to make us care about them by shoehorning these romances into the plot to make their inevitable demise more sad. Most of these romances feel awkward and forced. The only relationship that gets a bit more time is the one between the main antagonists and I don't feel like that ever went anywhere.

By the end I was left with more questions than answers. I don't get the hype about this. Maybe I should give the novel a chance.

 

[Jimmy]

I think you kind of missed that the movie wasn't aiming for ultra realism. 

[GA!]

The novel is good, I recommend it. You'll probably get more out of it as, over 600+ pages, there's naturally the room for intricate character development.

 

The film is meant to be a clusterfuck - sadistic, cartoony fun. It's better to show the scenarios that may happen in such an absurd situation, like the alliances and attempts at escape, instead of being completely focused on one character (which is where Hunger Games falls down as Katniss' journey is boring and full of Hollywood blandness). The antagonist's behaviour at the end is odd, but - and I'm trying to remember as I've not seen it in four years - I think it represents how the teacher is so bored and detached from his life that he even treats death with indifference.

[Hellraiser]

I get where you're coming from but I take the hollywood blandness of Katniss' journey over a bunch of meaningless, kitschy "I always had a crush on!" "Really, but you never said anything" relationships that last probably about 30 seconds before they both die.

And the teacher confused me the most. I had no idea what they were going for. What you say might be true buy I can't tell if he is supposed to be acting detached or if Takeshi Kitano actually doesn't care what is going on.

Another thing that I forgot to mention was the girl with the scythe. At some point we learn about her past any why she behaves like she does and I got my hopes up that they might be going somewhere with this. Then that fucking Uzi guy shows up and guns her down moments after. I really hate that guy.

[Kaney]

I think the point is that life isn't neat, like a movie. The lovers don't always get to love happily ever after when they admit their feelings. The bad guy doesn't always get a chance at redemption just as soon as someone learns about their abusive childhood. It is brutal and random cos that's how it happens in real life.

[Jimmy]

17 minutes ago, Hellraiser said:

I get where you're coming from but I take the hollywood blandness of Katniss' journey over a bunch of meaningless, kitschy "I always had a crush on!" "Really, but you never said anything" relationships that last probably about 30 seconds before they both die.

And the teacher confused me the most. I had no idea what they were going for. What you say might be true buy I can't tell if he is supposed to be acting detached or if Takeshi Kitano actually doesn't care what is going on.

Another thing that I forgot to mention was the girl with the scythe. At some point we learn about her past any why she behaves like she does and I got my hopes up that they might be going somewhere with this. Then that fucking Uzi guy shows up and guns her down moments after. I really hate that guy.

You also have to bare in mind that The Hunger Games had 4 films and probably something like a combined $700 million to tell their story, it definitely gives you a lot more room to tell your story. If you're looking for emotional-involvement than something like Battle Royale would need to be closer to a mini-series, but as it is, I just remember watching it as a kind of jumped-up, adrenaline rush that didn't take itself too seriously. 

[GA!]

Incidentally, I'd love it if they made Battle Royale a mini-series that's presented like The Amazing Race.

 

Plus, isn't "I always had a crush on you!" "Really, but you never said anything (even when we were pretending for the cameras)" the basis of the Peeta and Katniss relationship? I'd rather it last 30 seconds than 4 films.

[Hellraiser]

Yeah, their relationship starts out that way but because they have 4 movies they have time to develope it. In Battle Royale we don't get to see that because they kill these characters as soon as they confess their feelings. It's pointless. And I don't want them to have a happy ending. I know that Battle Royale is not that kind of movie and my least favorite part about Hunger Games was the happy ending. To me the romances seems like something they added to make us care about the characters because they couldn't be bothered to give us any ccharacterization beforehand. And that doesn't work. Same with the violence. It was kinda shocking the first few times to see children kill eachother in such violent ways. But because the filmmakers are so keen on showing us every death in that movie these moments loose their poignancy very fast.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Hellraiser

[Noah]

On 07/03/2016 at 00:17, MDK said:

In ten years time we won't be able to describe anybody at all.

Hey @MDK you're a total and utter .......

 

On 07/03/2016 at 01:23, MDK said:

You hate all racing. F1, marathons, sprints, all of them.

But when he's had a few....

 

On 07/03/2016 at 01:28, Lineker said:

I've known Niner for ten years and he doesn't have a racist bone in his body.

He just hasn't met the right man yet.

 

[GA!]

This morning I watched My Beautiful Broken Brain, a Netflix-exclusive documentary centred around a recovering stroke victim, which manages to overcome pleasant but overly indulgent psychedelic special effect (showing the 'point of view' of a stroke victim) by telling a sound, structured story. This made me start thinking about how documentaries are pretty hard to fuck up. As long as you edit the footage well, any 'problems' with the piece are hard to hone in on due to its factual nature.

So, my question to the EWB Universe: have you ever seen a documentary that you thought was crap? I can think of several examples, but I will let some of you go first.

[MDK]

10 minutes ago, GA! said:

This morning I watched My Beautiful Broken Brain, a Netflix-exclusive documentary centred around a recovering stroke victim, which manages to overcome pleasant but overly indulgent psychedelic special effect (showing the 'point of view' of a stroke victim) by telling a sound, structured story. This made me start thinking about how documentaries are pretty hard to fuck up. As long as you edit the footage well, any 'problems' with the piece are hard to hone in on due to its factual nature.

So, my question to the EWB Universe: have you ever seen a documentary that you thought was crap? I can think of several examples, but I will let some of you go first.

I've seen plenty where the subject matter was boring but well made, so calling them crap is subjective. Lots of BBC ones have a great subject but then end up all looking the same just like how Philomena Cunk does them >_>

But probably those shitty ones that pop up on youtube. Zeitgeist pops into mind. Oh, Super Size Me I thought was shite.

[Benjamin]

I really didn't like This Film is Not Yet Rated, Jesus Camp and Hot Girls Wanted. Thought all 3 had so much more to offer in terms of subject matter and they barely scratched the surface.