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  1. #626
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    Quote Originally Posted by PB View Post
    ...But I will be checking out The Land of Steady Habits, just to check up on Benny's sanity.

    Not really - it actually looks pretty good.
    I think it would help to appreciate it if you grew up - or had a lot of experience - in suburban Connecticut. Like Benny said, it’s closely related to The Ice Storm. Crushed souls of the 1%.

  2. #627
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    hoping to see this film tmrw.
    skid luxury

  3. #628
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper View Post
    I think it would help to appreciate it if you grew up - or had a lot of experience - in suburban Connecticut. Like Benny said, it’s closely related to The Ice Storm. Crushed souls of the 1%.

    "Rich people have feelings, too." - John Cheever
    Last edited by Benny Profane; 09-22-2018 at 11:59 AM.

  4. #629
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    ^Heh, he would say that.

    A Simple Favor - It's being described as Gone Girl done as a comedy, which is a pretty fair description. Funny, and a decent mystery with twists. Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick carry the movie well. I enjoyed it, and I'd call it a good date movie that you can both enjoy.

  5. #630
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    ASSASSINATION NATION
    3.5 / 5

    I saw this on Wednesday and I am still digesting it. Made the mistake of spiraling down the rabbit hole of reviews before I had sat with it a few days and written down my own thoughts.
    Critics are really divided on this film.
    On the surface, I loved it. It pretty much borrows from every conceiveable genre film imaginable from girl gangs to home invasion to Italian horror/giallo (mostly borrowing Mario Bava and Dario Argento's flair for saturated color drenched cinematography). It's smart, dumb, funny, teeming with shock and awe violence, cool meta moments, and snarky, attention deficit disorder-styled mayhem. It's exploitive and brash, and while there is obvious (and rather blunt) socio/political commentary, it can also succumb to mundanity in a flash. It's a John Hughes-styled teen flick on crystal meth and psychedelics.

    I am planning to see it a second time...

    RIYL
    Heathers; The Purge series; A Clockwork Orange; Kill Bill (either volume); vintage Brian DePalma; vintage Dario Argento



    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

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  6. #631
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    So if anybody is going to see "A Star is Born" - the Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper film - be aware; it is a romantic TRAGEDY, meaning its NOT a happy ending. About as far as one could get from a happy ending actually.

    I had no idea what it was about walking into it, thinking it would be a fun music movie (wife's favorite artist is Gaga) and boy was I wrong.

  7. #632
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    Quote Originally Posted by Diamond Joe View Post
    So if anybody is going to see "A Star is Born" - the Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper film - be aware; it is a romantic TRAGEDY, meaning its NOT a happy ending. About as far as one could get from a happy ending actually.

    I had no idea what it was about walking into it, thinking it would be a fun music movie (wife's favorite artist is Gaga) and boy was I wrong.
    You mean the plot is similar to the 3 previous versions of the same film?

  8. #633
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    Quote Originally Posted by billyk View Post
    You mean the plot is similar to the 3 previous versions of the same film?
    Laugh.
    Well maybe I'm the faggot America
    I'm not a part of a redneck agenda

  9. #634
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    Venom: barely entertaining - Upgrade beats it 12 ways from Sunday.

  10. #635
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    Quote Originally Posted by billyk View Post
    You mean the plot is similar to the 3 previous versions of the same film?
    Apparently!

    I was not aware that this was a remake when I went into it. Sorry I hadn't been BORN YET when Streisand did the movie last in 1976

  11. #636
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    I know, it's not in theatres per session, but Leave No Trace is out on video, an suffice to say, it's amazing. Do yourself a solid, and save yourselves some money too. Best movie of the year.

  12. #637
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    Quote Originally Posted by PB View Post
    Venom: barely entertaining - Upgrade beats it 12 ways from Sunday.
    I still plan to go see it, what with being a comic book nerd and all.
    But I have really low expectations (the trailers were seriously underwhelming...speaking of underwhelming trailers/trailers that manage to make movies look stupid (as in dumb, not fresh), the trailers for Aquaman, Shazam, and Godzilla: King of Monsters all manage to make those films look horrendously bad...)

    In unrelatedness, I saw Bullitt yesterday. The car chase is still gonzo, but I always thought it lasted longer than 10-minutes and was the climax of the film! I had only seen it on the small screen prior. Still holds up.

    And further non-sequitorial blathering: I am planning to see The Sisters Brothers tomorrow, fwiw. The novel it is based on is pretty solid (except for the ending).
    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

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  13. #638
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    THE SISTERS BROTHERS
    3/5

    When I saw the trailer for this film earlier in the summer I thought it looked okay, kind of hokey, but with a good cast (Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly).
    A few weeks after seeing the trailer I stumbled upon a copy of the novel on which the film is based for $2, so I bought it and read it in about 2 days. I enjoyed the first 2/3 of the novel, but found the ending to be a bit abrupt and trite.
    At any rate, I caught a screening of the film this afternoon and found it to be interesting, to say the least.
    On the one hand it is beautifully rendered in lush earth tones and the score is a strange neo-jazz tinged affair that is simply mesmerizing. It is easily one of the best film scores I have heard in quite some time and works well within the confines of the film, adding tension, creating atmosphere, and generally doing what a good score should do.
    In terms of the story angle of the film, I feel that it missed the boat on some of the better aspects of the novel, but it really stuck the ending. Where the ending of the novel was somewhat of a letdown and very anticlimactic, here, in the cinematic element, the director really made it work by taking an essentially abrupt and saccharine moment and rendering it with warmth and emotion and subtle visual composition.
    There were some other interesting visual moments scattered throughout the film, but they felt as if they were just kind of tossed out there with random abandon (several frames were shot as if looking through a periscope, for example, but there was no consistency in when they popped up).
    While the film looked and sounded great, I felt that it was severely miscast in terms of several of the roles (for example, Riz Ahmed portrays a chemist-turned-prospector, who, in the book, is described as a short, stubbly older man). I never really clicked with Joaquin Phoenix's portrayal of Charlie, either. And it took me some time to cotton to Jake Glynnenhall's somewhat strange East Coast drawl (at least I think he was trying to channel the twang of somebody from Maryland or some such area). John C. Reilly is great, but his character is missing quite a bit of the edgy nuance that he had in the novel). And look for a great turn from a wonderful female comic at the end (it will certainly have you going "Wait, is that _____ ____?").
    I also felt that the director (Jacques Audiard, who also co-wrote the screenplay) never really captured the tenuous relationship of the two titular brothers and additionally, he glossed over some of the key character traits that makes their rivalry work in the book.
    All that said, if you dig somewhat unconventional and revisionist westerns then this may be right up your alley.
    Again, I feel that the first 2/3 of the book are superior to the film, but the ending of the film is superior to the one in the book.

    RIYL
    MacCabe and Mrs. Miller; True Grit (the Coen Bros. version); Slow West

    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

    https://www.blizzard-tecnica.com/us/en

  14. #639
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meanfruit View Post
    I know, it's not in theatres per session, but Leave No Trace is out on video, an suffice to say, it's amazing. Do yourself a solid, and save yourselves some money too. Best movie of the year.
    It was good. But not my best film of the year.

  15. #640
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meanfruit View Post
    I know, it's not in theatres per session, but Leave No Trace is out on video, an suffice to say, it's amazing. Do yourself a solid, and save yourselves some money too. Best movie of the year.
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Pow View Post
    It was good. But not my best film of the year.
    I yammered about it back in post #603, fwiw...

    Quote Originally Posted by dookey67 View Post
    LEAVE NO TRACE
    4/5

    A slow-burning, very quiet, visually tranquil, and emotionally potent rumination on family and the definition of “home” which is further augmented by an overtly subtle anti-war message and pointed criticism of bureaucracy.
    If you don't cry during the final scene, then you ain't human.

    RIYL:
    Wendy and Lucy; Into The Wild; A Winter’s Bone





    Definitely on my "Best of 2018" list.
    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

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  16. #641
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    On reflection, I'd agree that it's perhaps not the best movie, but would be in my top 3 ATT. I obviously didn't go back in the thread far enough to see your post. When will I learn.

  17. #642
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    A little disappointed by Neil Armstrong movie First Man.

    Very much a drama than a Right Stuff sequel. I thought Gosling a strange choice but he was superb.

    Buz is going to be pissed at being portrayed as such an ass. Although apparently it's accurate.
    Quote Originally Posted by Downbound Train View Post
    And there will come a day when our ancestors look back...........

  18. #643
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    Bad Times at the El Royale: Moderately entertaining, but a little disappointing given the cast; enjoyed the sound track.

  19. #644
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    Quote Originally Posted by PB View Post
    Bad Times at the El Royale: Moderately entertaining, but a little disappointing given the cast; enjoyed the sound track.
    While I have yet to see BTatER, this is the initial impression I got from the barrage of trailers I have been subjected to over the past several months.
    For some reason those trailers reminded me of Hotel Artemis, another film that had a great cast but ended up being less-than-moderately entertaining.
    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

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  20. #645
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    There's hope: I judged BTaER to be better than H. Artemis

  21. #646
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    Guessing you might have the info/contacts, Dooks - did they shoot BTatER at the old Cal-Neva lodge in Brockway/North Shore?!?!

  22. #647
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    my daughter told me about this the other day. She knows me too well
    Bacon tastes good. Pork chops taste goood.

  23. #648
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    Quote Originally Posted by PB View Post
    Guessing you might have the info/contacts, Dooks - did they shoot BTatER at the old Cal-Neva lodge in Brockway/North Shore?!?!
    Good question and a reasonable assumption...but my info/contacts are slim these days, so I went to Wikipedia. They say it was shot in Vancouver and Burnaby, BC.

    It has been almost a decade since I was in the Cal/Neva and I have to say the shots I saw of the El Royale in the trailers looked nothing like it (it has been under construction for the past decade, so I have no clue what the interior looks like these days, though).

    My guess would be that they built their own hotel (a la The Shining) or they used one in B.C.

    IMDb states that it was also filmed in Acton, CA (had to look that up on a map and I'm a native Californian born-&-bred!)

    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

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  24. #649
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    HALLOWEEN (2018) and HELL FEST Double Bill

    Halloween: 2.75/5
    Hell Fest: 2/5

    I Tripped down to Reno today to do a "double-feature" of Halloween and Hell Fest (I saw them back-to-back and two different theaters).

    Saw Halloween first and my initial response was: Meh.
    Act 1 and Act 2 are kind of weak. Act 3 is interesting, but just mildly. It attempts to get philosophical in terms of the concept of evil, which comes off a bit heavy-handed.
    While the film had some interesting moments sprinkled throughout, many of the cool kill scenes were shown in the trailers, thus a number of what should have been intense and harrowing scenes resonated with serious deja vu (I do my best to avoid watching trailers before seeing a film these days, but it's somewhat unavoidable these days; it's too bad that Hollywood feels the need to include every funny/scary/important scene in the trailers essentially spoiling the film(s) in question before you even get to the theater).
    Overall I felt that the film was an unnecessary "sequel". It also has an ending that loosely implies that another sequel could be made, which is lame, imho (add to that the fact that this film pretty much retcons the whole Halloween story, so everything that came after the original film did not happen and you get a whole other can of worms...I fucking hate retconning, fwiw).
    Great score, though...Carpenter re-imagined his original and created some new music that was killer and really added some desperately needed atmosphere and tension (not enough to save the film, though!).
    There were some seriously missed opportunities, too, but I won't mention them as they would spoil the film should you two choose to see it.
    I do need to sit on it for a day and collect my thoughts, but first impressions, again, were not that great.

    As for Hell Fest, I didn't expect much more than I got, so I wasn't surprised. What did "surprise" me is that both films had a lot of similarities (as in very similar scenes sprinkled throughout). Now I fully realize that Hell Fest would not exist (most likely) without the original Halloween, but then again the new Halloween probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for the 1978 original, too.
    Hell Fest was typical teen slasher fare with a few gore moments, some jump scares, and a "twist" ending that while somewhat original, felt forced. Basically it was a slick and vapid horror film aimed at teens with little-to-no-experience watching horror films. Not horrible, just innocuous.
    "Man, we killin' elephants in the back yard..."

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  25. #650
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    Quote Originally Posted by PNWbrit View Post
    Buz is going to be pissed at being portrayed as such an ass. Although apparently it's accurate.
    I was wondering the same thing. Knowing a little bit about him, I think it was accurate. Points to Mrs. Plug for imitating the final scene as I was in the shower the next morning.
    Well maybe I'm the faggot America
    I'm not a part of a redneck agenda

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