Films The Official bit-tech Movie Thread - What have you seen lately?

I'm sold

 

The Hunt

Again, allegedly, under the category of 'horror' but it's utter comedy.

Elite liberals drug rednecks and the like and fly them to a hunting ground to pick them off.

They didn't count on one savvy lass (Betty Gilpin)

Absolute hoot.

 

Gonna be honest, it reads like you guys watch a hell of a lot of utter bilge…

 

Lol, true. I'm constantly looking for anything I've not watched tbh.

I mean I put The Hunt on expecting it to be absolute tosh but I found it hilarious. That was primarily down to Gilpin who I found completely endearing.

 

You know what they say: One mans entertainment is another's excuse for mockery.

 

Rebuild of Evangelion - “You Are (Not) Alone”, “You Can (Not) Advance”, “You Can (Not) Redo”, and “Thrice Upon A Time”: 9/10

Yes, those are four different films, released between 2007(!) and 2021, but I’m going to put them all under one banner. You can thank Hideaki Anno, since (AFAIU) he considers this version to be the definitive version of the story that he wanted to tell.

It's still batshit crazy. The characters are all still broken in one way or another. Shinji is still a difficult character to empathise with. It still throws around terms like “The Key of Nebuchadnezzar” or “The Gates of Guf” as if it expects the audience to nod sagely in understanding. I mean… I’m pretty familiar with the “gates of guff”, I open them quite regularly, but it’s not considered polite to do it when you have company.

But it’s still Evangelion, and it’s still a great story. I’ve already seen the original series and all the variations of the ending, but this version definitely does a much better job of explaining the core story and the motivations of the principle characters. I found this version much more humanising; it allowed a much greater understanding and empathy with the characters, and ultimately I found it a lot more moving.

 

Sisu - Finnish Commando / 10

It's not big, it's not clever: but it doesn't have to be. For those that like their violence simple and relatively plot free. Recommended.

 

Zero Hour! 6.5/10 - The film that Airplane! was based on

Take out all the comedy of Airplane! and that is what this is. As a long time fan of Airplane I did not know it was a "remake" so I had to give this a go and actually enjoyed it, maybe because I had the comedy in my head or because the comedy of Airplane made the story fun but I was a good enough film

 

Daylight - The only disaster film where you root for the disaster/10

I'm surprised Stallone's character didn't just up and leave the survivors for being such absolute bunch of insufferable ****s. had to turn it off halfway through they were that nauseating.

 

Wicked - It's skippable/10

I saw the Broadway production of Wicked many many years ago and enjoyed it quite a bit.
The movie . . . not so much. Broadway musicals are notoriously difficult to adapt to film.

Truly, the best I've ever seen is Mean Girls (2024) which is an film adaptation of the Broadway musical which is an adaptation of the 2004 movie of the same name. The Broadway show clearly wished it was a movie, with cinematic aspirations it never quite lived up to. The movie, being a movie, overcomes those shortcomings fairly easily. Yes. It's fan service. But it's fun fan service. If you loved the 2004 movie and watch the 2024 movie as if you're watching a stage play (and not a movie), it's actually very good.

But this isn't a review of Mean Girls (2024). This is a review of Wicked, the movie based on the Broadway musical, which is based on the book, Wicked.

The Broadway musical is efficient because you can't waste a second for a stage show. The movie, which is only a part one of two, is itself longer than the entirety of the Broadway show, but none of the additions do much except hurt the pacing. The social issues aren't expanded upon. The world feels small and empty, like a cartoon of a society instead of a real place that real people could live. This is fine when it's a stage show, but feels inexcusable in the limitless possibility modern film making allows.

The result is a movie that is long, visually interesting at times, but mostly just long.

The worst part is the audio mixing. Hollywood musicals have a mixing problem.

When the orchestral score plays its introduction, before anyone sings, it sounds fine. But then people start to sing and the voices are all mixed behind the instruments. It makes you feel like an old man yelling, "WHAT?" at the screen. The voices sound like they were recorded from down a long hallway or in another room with the door shut, but with the orchestra right there in the room with you. Worse yet, all of the foley sounds and crowd murmurs are not pushed to the background, so every splash of water, or "ooo" or "ahh" or laughter comes across fine while the melody is apparently being sung from somewhere else entirely.

Additionally, you can hear various forms of compression in the voices. There's some auto-tune clipping in places. The dynamic range of the voices has been flattened so that you never really feel like you reach an emotional low or high in any song, despite the actors singing passionately. All of this results in a muddy voice mix that's stuck behind the orchestra.

I heard this same problem in The Greatest Showman, but it's even worse in Wicked. Some songs were worse than others, which is somehow worse. Like, it's not even consistent. Who is mixing these songs? Are these decisions being made or just mistakes?

The movie has a few moments that I enjoyed, and it wasn't so bad that I had to turn it off without finishing it, but it was a little painful.

 

Ketchup Entertainment have bought "Coyote vs Acme" from Warner's tax writeoff shelves and will distribute it worldwide!

Source:- https://uk.news.yahoo.com/coyote-vs-acme-lives-ketchup-141624440.html

 

G20 - not even close to 20/10. 6/10 for the first bit, 0/10 for the last third
If there is an IMDB page for "Derivative" (I haven't checked) then this would be top of the list. I don't know where to begin, so I won't. Just don't waste your time - if you want to know what happens, ask me.

 

Good lord. I'm seven minutes into this cheese and he's already making an egg smoothie in a headband. Which he's now just fed to a monitor lizard.

There are no words to describe this "film".

EDIT: Apart from missing out dangly man earrings, I think Pete did actually cover it, in fairness. But can anyone actually throw another grown man twenty feet?

 

The Gentlemen
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8367814/

OK so it's no Layer Cake or Snatch, but it is a decent British gangsta film, well worth watching

 

It's left you shouting with your keyboard.

Probably in a cockney accent.

That's recommendation enough for me, I'll give it a watch ta

 

I thought it was okay too.

 

Dirty Harry 4k - 5/6-10

Classic film, between Eastwood scowling and Garak going mad its an absolutely stunning remaster and the Atmos track sings, the scores a pun, its deffo near a 9.

 

Rewatched Dune before hitting up Dune part Two.

Big fan. I have a few takeaways.

Rebecca Ferguson is still Rebecca Ferguson which is always a win.

Zendaya always seems to have a resting annoyed face. Must be that Arrakis dry heat and sun.

Chalamet continues to sound like a young Nicholas Cage.

Oh and worm riding. I get it. I follow it. What I don't get is how they dismount them. Seems to be just a thing that happens.

 

Probably because there's no dignified way to get down off a worm*
I'd imagine there'd be much sliding and rolling, jumping off at precisely the right time, only to face plant in the sand.

* and yes, before anyone mentions it, I know you get down off a duck

 

I was thinking the same but then when they're transporting someone in a glorified peapod on the back of one I guess they'd just have to hoik them off and hope for the best.