This Old Neon Forum

It's been over a year since I last posted, but I've seen some movies!

First, I'll list a few that my uncle recommended to me. He's got substantially more film clout than I do, so I asked him for some recommendations. Here's a list of some of his picks that I've seen so far. If I'd kept up with these posts as I watched these individually, I'd have written more, but as it stands, I'll just give some brief takes.

The Man Who Would Be King (1975) - This was a fun one. It has aged poorly in many regards, but it was nevertheless an interesting pairing and an entertaining buddy adventure movie. It had been awhile since I'd seen a Connery flick, so that was a welcome return as well.
Chinatown (1974) - Nicholson was super sharp in this movie. Excellent plot and a brutal ending. One of the most fiendish, awful villains I've seen in any movie. One I'll be watching again one day for sure.
The Philadelphia Story (1940) - Really fun romantic comedy. Nearly every actor is quick and smart in this one, and the humor holds up surprisingly well 77 years later. I was also impressed that (aside from the obvious total lack of non-white characters) the film didn't seem all that socially dated either. Enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Now, for some I saw on my own accord (from what I can remember):

Blade Runner (1982) - Saw The Final Cut by myself at Seattle's Cinerama (a local, single-screen, high-quality theater), and I really enjoyed it. It's a tough one to fully appreciate in one viewing, so I know I'll see it again, but I'm glad to have seen it at least once on the big screen.

Dunkirk (2017) - Also saw this at Cinerama, and I was most glad I did because of Cinerama's superb sound system. This film was a sensory overload, and I struggle to think of a film with better sound direction than this one (although Baby Driver comes to mind). This movie was a visceral experience that I'm glad I saw.

Baby Driver (2017) - Although now besmirched by Kevin Spacey's fast-eroding legacy, I really liked Baby Driver. It gets an obvious bump in my mind for taking place in my beloved Atlanta, but much like Dunkirk, it made me appreciate the sonic aspect of filmmaking in a way I had not before. My only gripe is that Baby has a pretty fake-sounding Southern accent. His actor is a Yankee, so it follows, but I found it noticeable and slightly annoying. Takes little away from such a fun movie, though.

La La Land (2016) - Saw this early this year during Cinerama's AA Nominee week instead of many other arguably more deserving films because I'm garbage. Having said that, I did enjoy the movie despite its flaws. Good music, solid acting. Pleasant.

Spider-man: Homecoming (2017) - Here's one I didn't see at Cinerama! I saw it at a theater in Bellevue, WA, for reasons I no longer remember. Thought this was a good return to form for Spidey, and I look forward to a sequel that won't have to worry about origin story, etc.

Saw the newest Star Wars today.

It was good, but not as good as the Force Awakens. Without spoiling anything, there were just a lot of plans/schemes carried out that didn’t amount to anything. I guess I was just hoping for more.

Kreegs wrote: ↑17 Dec 2017 03:25 Saw the newest Star Wars today.

It was good, but not as good as the Force Awakens. Without spoiling anything, there were just a lot of plans/schemes carried out that didn’t amount to anything. I guess I was just hoping for more.

I saw it Sunday night and thought it was excellent. It did a lot of what I was hoping it would do to move the series in a good enough direction to set up for episode IX.

Regarding plans and schemes:

Spoiler

The idea of a lot of plans and schemes not amounting to anything is a pretty important part of the plot. (To clarify,
they may not have amounted to anything in-world, but narratively they played a major role.) For example, Poe/Finn/Rose's plan to find the codebreaker and disable the tracking so the fleet could escape to light speed was a miserable failure. This demonstrates that what's important isn't the one-off flyboy hero doing his own thing to save the universe, but the team. It's not about flash at this point, it's about survival.

One of my own initial complaints was that the whole casino sequence just seemed like a diversion, but I've rethought that position in light of the above too. Finn and Rose thought they were there to carry out a grand scheme, but the more important reason they were there was to seed hope in the oppressed kids. Other characters kept talking about the rebellion not being a big war at this point, but a spark of imagination, and that's exactly what Finn and Rose did there (as evidence by the kid at the end).

The fact that the whole movie represented their grand movement gradually being whittled down to a handful of people and an idea is a really nice, bittersweet echo of the bad guys' victory in Empire Strikes Back, complete with the non-Hoth battle at the end.

Finally, my brother complained that they "changed Luke's character" but that's honestly one of the dumbest complaints I've heard about this movie.
Luke as an old man, tempered by failure, is obviously a different character than brash, haughty, untrained, tempted-by-the-dark-side 20-year-old Luke. Maybe my bro read too many of the non-canonical Star Wars novels or something and thus had some different expectations of what an old Luke could be, but I thought the portrayal of Luke in this one was superb, and Hamill's performance was superb.

It'll be very interesting to see what approach they take to Episode IX given where they've left all the pieces now.

I've seen a few more movies since my last post. In order:

Fargo (1996) - Loved this. The Coen brothers are the creators of my favorite movie, The Big Lebowski, but I've seen little else that they've made. I took a step toward rectifying that by finally seeing Fargo, a hitherto perennial on my to-watch list. I particularly enjoyed the acting of McDormand, but Buscemi and Macy put in characteristically solid performances as well. That's, of course, to say nothing of the plot, but I tend to avoid that in these mini reviews, lest I upset someone else who is 21 years late to the show.

Toy Story 2 (1999) - I originally saw this movie back in theaters when I was six, but I have not seen it since. The original Toy Story is my favorite movie from my early childhood. I adore it. However, when TS2 rolled around and I was six, I had moved on from such baby stuff, on to more serious matters like Pokemon. I turned my nose up at it and was annoyed to have to go see it with my younger cousin. Years later, of course, I would shed such pretense and delight in the synchronicity of Toy Story 3's plot with my departure to college. So it occurred to me when browsing movies recently that I ought to see Woody and Buzz's second adventure under a more appreciative lens. I'm glad I did. The movie is great fun, and it even got me misty-eyed in one sequence, in a way that only media for which I bear the deepest of nostalgia can. I expect I'll watch all three again whenever Toy Story 4 rolls around.

The Disaster Artist (2017) - As a long-time fan of The Room, seeing this was a no-brainer. Franco's portayal of Wiseau is remarkably accurate, based on my understanding of the man and more candid moments I've seen him in in interviews, etc. There's something about Wiseau that utterly piques my interest, so I was hooked the whole way through. Fitting to the source material, I was laughing the whole way through as well.

As a side note, I subsequently read the book the film was adapted from, and I can't recommend it enough. I couldn't name the last book I read, but I finished The Disaster Artist in just a couple days. I don't think I could ever tire of anecdotes about Tommy's life/mannerisms/neuroses. Fascinating dude.

Claytone wrote: ↑20 Dec 2017 09:45 The Disaster Artist (2017) - As a long-time fan of The Room, seeing this was a no-brainer. Franco's portayal of Wiseau is remarkably accurate, based on my understanding of the man and more candid moments I've seen him in in interviews, etc. There's something about Wiseau that utterly piques my interest, so I was hooked the whole way through. Fitting to the source material, I was laughing the whole way through as well.

Wiseau is easily one of the most intriguing humans, whatever that means. It was also great to see a movie where the audience was as vocal as they were on this one. Heavy laughter nearly the entire time.

Claytone wrote: ↑20 Dec 2017 09:45 I've seen a few more movies since my last post. In order:

Fargo (1996) - Loved this. The Coen brothers are the creators of my favorite movie, The Big Lebowski, but I've seen little else that they've made. I took a step toward rectifying that by finally seeing Fargo, a hitherto perennial on my to-watch list. I particularly enjoyed the acting of McDormand, but Buscemi and Macy put in characteristically solid performances as well. That's, of course, to say nothing of the plot, but I tend to avoid that in these mini reviews, lest I upset someone else who is 21 years late to the show.

Margie is THE BEST!

Please note that while Fargo takes place in thr Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, my accent does not sound like that!!

Kreegs wrote: ↑28 Dec 2017 16:34 Please note that while Fargo takes place in thr Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, my accent does not sound like that!!

Sure it does, spot-on, just like me, Vic, and Shoe all sound like drunk Newfoundlanders and Clay sounds like Leo in Django Unchained.

I though he sounded more like the Crocodile Hunter.

Went and saw Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in the cinemas and loved it. Worth noting I had never seen the original. The plot was nice and it was really funny and well done. Jack Black did a great job with his character.

I then watch the original (1995) Jumanji with Robin Williams and was very disappointed. It fell flat and wasn't really funny.

Spoiler

The cover of the movie showed Robin Williams character looks like a caveman yet there was only about 5-10 minutes of him dressed like that. Also they rescued Robin Williams then there were some bugs and monkeys on the loose and decided to continue playing the game that sucked him in in the first place which almost killed them and many people in the town. I really didn't see much of a threat where as with the new movie (this is mentioned in the trailer) they get sucked into the game so they are required to finish. Making it logical where as in the original there was no need to continue. As they had no idea that the 2 main characters were going to be sent back to 1969.

I found it really sad and went to look it up to find that the original Jumanji had pretty poor reviews which surprised me.

The new ones does everything so much better and is really clever the addition of teenagers instead of kids made it that they could add depth to the character which I felt they didn't do with the original.

Nonetheless I recommend watching Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle really great movie.