The Movie Thread

[The Other Dave]

Saw a couple good geeky movies on the plane.

The Martian was OK - not exactly suspenseful, since I'd read the book, but a faithful adaptation at least. Some of the supporting characters are even two dimensional, giving them a whole extra dimension over their portrayal in the book!

Mad Max. Watched it twice, enough said. Perfect in Every Way!

[me_in_japan]

A quick question. I was recently bequeathed an ichimanen Amazon gift card. I thought I could (amongst other things) buy the Force Awakens, as I heard it was coming out soon.

Apparently Japanese Amazon has not heard this, as there are no listings for it (aside from dodgy importers charging, coincidentally, ichimanen.)

Does anybody know when it's coming out on blu ray here, or are we once again getting the shaft, movie-wise? I'm inclined to give them some money in exchange for watching their movie, but if they don't want it then what's a guy to do??

[job]

Mad Max Fury Road was great, I've got to see it again on DVD at some point.

Lately I haven't had a chance to watch many movies. Since I saw Mad Max in August I've seen a grand total of 2 movies: one being the new Star Wars.

I'm not an anime fan at all, but on a whim while I was watching clips of Akira's opening bike chase seen ( a great scene sci-if In my opinion), a link to Ghost in A Shell came up. It was great. Fantastic futuristic landscape, interesting music, great composition of the scenes and good action sequences. Of course it comes with a typical dose of rather overwrought metaphysical philosophy usual in anime, but the ideas were still very interesting if not increasingly likely to happen and you can see the illusions to blade runner and he influences on movies like the Matrix. It was a very fun movie. Recommend the movie.

[The Other Dave]

I'm not an anime fan at all, but on a whim while I was watching clips of Akira's opening bike chase seen ( a great scene sci-if In my opinion), a link to Ghost in A Shell came up. It was great. Fantastic futuristic landscape, interesting music, great composition of the scenes and good action sequences. Of course it comes with a typical dose of rather overwrought metaphysical philosophy usual in anime, but the ideas were still very interesting if not increasingly likely to happen and you can see the illusions to blade runner and he influences on movies like the Matrix. It was a very fun movie. Recommend the movie.

The recent TV series (the ones titled Stand Alone Complex) are really good as well if you're into that kind of thing.

[job]

I'm not an anime fan at all, but on a whim while I was watching clips of Akira's opening bike chase seen ( a great scene sci-if In my opinion), a link to Ghost in A Shell came up. It was great. Fantastic futuristic landscape, interesting music, great composition of the scenes and good action sequences. Of course it comes with a typical dose of rather overwrought metaphysical philosophy usual in anime, but the ideas were still very interesting if not increasingly likely to happen and you can see the illusions to blade runner and he influences on movies like the Matrix. It was a very fun movie. Recommend the movie.

The recent TV series (the ones titled Stand Alone Complex) are really good as well if you're into that kind of thing.

My coworker was recommending it too. Two votes up. It must be worth the viewing.

[Konrad]

Seconded, Pauls Accidental Film Club is great fun and has lots of film recommendations. Also yours truely is in the first or second episode talking about M R James. I sound drugged up though.

You know Paul? I think everyone does. Hands up, Paul Conway, giant Irishman with rock star hair? I was on the other day to present "The Assassination Bureau" as an antidote to "Spectre" (if you found Spectre a bit disapointing) and sample a rather nice single malt, the name of which escapes me. I watched "Raise The Red Lantern" per recommendation. Excellent movie. Life as a woman in traditional Confucian China was maybe a few steps up from life under the Taliban, but only just. Even for what amounts to an almost princess. And visually stunning. Not big epic stunning. Perfectly composed and laden with symbols stunning. Even the crappy copy I watched on Youtube looked beautiful.

[me_in_japan]

I made the mistake this evening of watching Coraline with the kids before bed this evening. Spent the next hour and a bit reassuring Sean that it was just a story and that there was no Other Mother or Other Father waiting for him. Noah, aged 2 1/2 was fine (albeit scared during the film) but Sean (aged 4) was well freaked out by it. Definitely old enough to understand the concepts involved. Poor lad'll be having nightmares about button eyes for weeks

aaaanyway: Coraline. Animated "kids" movie (if by "kids" you mean "young people you want to traumatise") about a girl who climbs through a wee door into an alternate world. But based on a book by Neil Gaiman, so expect weirdness.

And buttons.

[me_in_japan]

I went to see Civil War this evening. Tbh I didn't have especially high hopes for it (I was disappointed by Age of Ultron) but I was pleasantly surprised. The ensemble cast is handled rather well, and the focus on Cap and Iron Man works much better than making it about all of the Avengers (et al.) That said, your enjoyment of the film will be boosted if you're up to speed on the MCU, so if you're thinking about seeing it and have the opportunity to watch anything Iron Man/Avengers/Cap/Ant Man related, it'd be worth doing so.

I must confess, while I realise that for a brand new viewer this movie would be pretty incomprehensible, I'm really liking the direction the MCU films are taking (i.e. assumed knowledge on the part of the viewer). It feels like it did when I read serialised stories in comics. New readers/viewers need to take a few issues/movies to get up to speed on the characters, but long term readers/viewers can appreciate all the little references from past stories. 'S nice

[Primarch]

I know I am a little late to replying to M_i_J's last post, but yep, Cap3 is worth a watch. It's fairly well paced, has a lot of geeky references (to other Marvel stuff), features the obligatory Stan Lee cameo and while it does feature a gratuitous number of heroes, it does a good job of keeping things coming back to Cap and Shellhead.
There were a few minor plot holes, but nothing that really got in the way of a good punch up.

Recently I also watched the newish movie Pan, starring a host of nobodies and Huge Ackman as the villain. As far as an origin story for Peter Pan goes, it was largely pointless and the acting was so over the top it may as well have been a pantomime. One to avoid if I am being honest.
In addition to Pan, I rented Snowpiercer, it has a large cast of decent actors (John Hurt and Ed Harris are always good) and Chris 'Captain America' Evans does a good job as the lead. The story is kind of drivel though, the set up (Earth is frozen, a train running on a global loop line is the last refuge of humanity) is rushed through very quickly and the fact that one of the main characters only speaks in Korean for the length of the film means that you miss out on key dialogue if you are, for example, watching the movie with Japanese subtitles with your better half. Sigh. Not a bad SF flick if you aren't expecting much.

[ashmie]

Some good films I've watched on Netflix and itunes recently is Tangerine, The Goonies and Romance 1999.
All great!
Golden Week saw a mini movie marathon some of my favourites; Princess Mononoke, Raiders of the Lost Ark, My Fair Lady and A New Hope. All on Blu Ray so that was very enjoyable.