Talk About Movies: Part 4

This is a lot of films tbh.

28 Days Later featured several absurdly impossible routes across London that had natives laughing when they watched the film.

I feel like you either didn't watch or didn't understand what happened. They literally made a point of saying they can't just pull a u-turn in outer space.

The whole maneuver was based on approaching a planet and using gravity as a slingshot which is something that has been done not even in the movies, but in real life. It depends on the existence of an ion engine but if we accept mars level space travel and the current state of technology, this isn't a magical idea.

Just google "is the rich purnell maneuver realistic" and what you'll find is general agreement that while a bit of a stretch from current technology, it's grounded in real science.

Everything in every science fiction movie has had things in it that are impossible with current technology.

We can't get people to Mars right now so if they followed the feasibility rule, no movie slot going to Mars would have made any sense.

Don't watch Superman whatever you do.

Recent 2024 watches:

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes - 7/10
Challengers - 8.5/10
Civil War - 8/10
Monkey Man - 8/10
Immaculate - 2/10
Love Lies Bleeding - 6.5/10

First Time Watches:

The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018) - 6/10
About Time (2013) - 7/10
Big Fan (2009) - 6.5/10
Knock Knock (2015) - 2.5/10
Red Eye (2005) - 6/10
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - 7.5/10
Adventureland (2009) - 7/10

Are there any "good" movies that embrace the cellphone/smartphone generation? Sure there are plenty of recent romcoms that show a lot of text message exchanges. I hate that aspect, too much like the dreaded subtitle 😀

But it seems to me most "good" movies are either period pieces of sci fi/fantasy that don't have a smartphone universe. I'm sure someone will come up with a good one at some point but it seems to me that the smartphone world we live in doesn't translate well to movies. At least not just yet.

a bunch of Chinese romcoms have texting scenes - it's usually done in a pretty interesting way as they overlay the texts like subtitles but in a very interactive and engaging way

also not a smartphone film by any means but it's called cell phone as the plot revolves around one - this was the film that

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_Phone...)

it's done by one of the most famous directors who's career sort of came to a halt after he did a film as a coming of age drama set during the cultural revolution - specifically under the backdrop of the brief war they had with vietnam - called Youth - which is an excellent film - it was not enough to get censored/banned but you make a film like that and suddenly find yourself having difficulty raising money for new projects

cell phone also stars one of China's biggest actors who is a bald guy and launched the career of fan bingbing, who was arguably the most famous Chinese actress in recent time

I think i mentioned Youth here before as a really good film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_(201...)

since most Chinese production companies don't bother with copyright strikes, you can often find multiple copies of most Chinese films uploaded by random people on youtube - often without subtitles though

ie here's cell phone but probably not much use since this copy has no subtitles

I'll always love his show, but he's definitely out of touch with modern audiences, and he comes across as a pretentious ahole in pretty much every interview I've seen of him. Also the way he treats comedians as some noble profession, and nobody outside of the industry has a right to judge what's funny, or even the ability to tell a joke, is absurd.

Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars.
Let me see what Spring is like on Jupiter and Mars.

But! There's no life on Jupiter and Mars! No Spring!

I love these sorts of discussions/arguments because it shows how invested we are in films. Some filmgoers only discourse about movies amounts to either liking or hating a movie.

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I liked Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and I liked his early standup when he was breaking in.

I think a lot of comedians who haven't made their nut have been hurt by the loss of income from not being able to perform on campuses, and I sympathize with them.

fantastic movie and every time someone mentions it I feel compelled to recommend the other movie written and directed by nicole holofcener: enough said.

as for the martian I feel like when the book came out one major reason for it's huge popularity was that the author was incredibly scientifically accurate and he basically didn't have anything happen that wasn't grounded in real science.

now I know absolutely nothing about advanced physics so I can't weigh in on if that was true in the book or not but I remember the scientific community making a huge deal about that.

my main point being it would be evem more hilarious if hollywood took that book and then just made up a whole bunch of nonsense that completely broke all the rules of physics.

it's also starring JLD alongside what I believe was his final film role james gandolfini who is amazing as always.

Yeh I liked Enough Said as well. Makes sense they’re the same director as there’s a symmetry between them. Looks like Gandolfini’s second last role (The Drop released later anyways) - glad we got to see him play a completely different role.

oh man I LOVE the drop have seen it so many times
I know some ppl are turned off by the slow burn but I loved it and the ending was A++++

entire cast was fantastic but man hardy just made for that role.

I watched this movie 20 years ago in university and was walking around in a daze for 2 days. Completely ****ed me up and I decided I never want to see it again except for when I had kids of the right age (16-18?). I still stand by that (may have to fast forward ass to ass).

Can’t think of a better way to explain the dangers of drugs / addiction. And I like drugs! Probably the number 1 reason I never messed with pills or powders tho.

counterpoint - ass to ass got me into drugs

Requiem is an all timer for me. I’ve prob seen it 8 times. It’s disturbing af but I used to really want people to watch it with me. First time I saw it, I was high and the music and editing absolutely mesmerized me.

Did anybody ever try Mad Dog Time? Only a couple hundred of us saw it apparently, lol, it was devastatingly panned ... but I loved it. I'm admittedly very partial to the genre of gangster spoofs, but I thought it was great at doing that. Would love to hear a fellow gangster comedy fan comment on it.

There's Searching, about a father using social media to find his missing daughter. The gimmick is that every scene is set on a computer or smartphone. Works fairly well. There are inevitably some contrivances, and moments where you wonder why the hell he'd look something up on the internet instead of talking to someone.

Requiem was great, but 0 chance I ever watch it again.

I feel this is too simplistic a take. It’s much more “slice of life” than “drugs are bad.” The story, as with all of Selby Jr’s writing, is about tapping the pulse of the urban underbelly. His intent is less “cautionary tale” and more “the city is our jungle.”

I can agree that Aronofsky’s tendency is more “porn” than the book, though.

very well put

I've never read Selby's book, but I assume it's less simplistic than the movie

As brutal as the whole damn thing is, Goldfarb’s descent was the harshest to watch for me. I still shudder at the thought