NOW CLOSED ; List some movies you've watched recently. Theatre, rental, TV... and give a */10

[sdifox]

Is that a genre I've never heard of?

As opposed to something happening every five minutes.

 

[DigDog]

watching season 3 (should be the final one) of Godfather Of Harlem - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8080122/reference/

absolutely excellent show by otherwise unknown showrunner Chris Brancato, starring Forrest Whittaker as Bumpy Johnson.
Obviously, provided that you like this particular type of setting - the classical "italian family" mafia drama - but reeally wished that American Gangster was 15 hours long.

What this show gets right, is that the many many secondary character that plague modern TV shows and stretch them to ridiculous content-per-runtime percentages, here are kept to the minimal time necessary to absolve their function. There are a number of subplots (mostly dealing with Malcom X, the Nation Of Islam and the civil rights movement) that are relevant to how the story develops, but you don't get things like "oh this entire fucking episode is dedicated to the wife's knitting circle", instead they show you the things that are relevant to Johnson, and then they cut back to him because the show isn't called Godfather Of Harlem And Associates.

8/10 if you like mafia films. and i know you do.

 

[Muse]

Just booked a ticket to see Oppenheimer in IMAX 70mm in a month. Real good seat. I never do stuff like this but this isn't just any movie and it's also to celebrate my BD. Downtown San Francisco.

‘Oppenheimer’ Is the ‘Best’ and ‘Most Important Film of This Century,’ Raves Paul Schrader: ‘This One Blows the Door Off the Hinges’​

‘Oppenheimer’ Is the ‘Best’ and ‘Most Important Film of This Century,’ Raves Paul Schrader: ‘This One Blows the Door Off the Hinges’

"Taxi Driver" writer and "The Card Counter" director Paul Schrader says Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" is important.

variety.com

“If you see one film in cinemas this year it should be ‘Oppenheimer,'” Schrader added in a Facebook post shared widely across social media. “I’m not a Nolan groupie but this one blows the door off the hinges.”

 

[mikeymikec]

The Lorax (2012)

IMO this is a film for the kids only, or maybe a parent who is happy to just watch their kids enjoying something (as opposed to those kids' movies that seek to at least give the parents some entertainment). It's pretty mediocre. I was expecting an explanation/twist of how the sales guy manages to sell his 'fresh air' to people that would tie in nicely with the conclusion of the film, for example.

 

[DigDog]

Happy Birthday @Muse . I am looking forward to a thorough review of the film when you are back.

 

[Muse]

Just booked a ticket to see Oppenheimer in IMAX 70mm in a month. Real good seat. I never do stuff like this but this isn't just any movie and it's also to celebrate my BD. Downtown San Francisco.

‘Oppenheimer’ Is the ‘Best’ and ‘Most Important Film of This Century,’ Raves Paul Schrader: ‘This One Blows the Door Off the Hinges’​

‘Oppenheimer’ Is the ‘Best’ and ‘Most Important Film of This Century,’ Raves Paul Schrader: ‘This One Blows the Door Off the Hinges’

"Taxi Driver" writer and "The Card Counter" director Paul Schrader says Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" is important.

variety.com

“If you see one film in cinemas this year it should be ‘Oppenheimer,'” Schrader added in a Facebook post shared widely across social media. “I’m not a Nolan groupie but this one blows the door off the hinges.”

Bought my e-ticket online through Fandango. I looked for IMAX 70mm, there's only 30 on earth, 19 being in the USA, which are showing this in IMAX 70mm. OTOH, there are IMAX non-70mm, evidently. I picked my theater, having specified IMAX 70mm, there's several in CA. There's one in Dublin, CA, but it's 30 miles away. San Francisco's is less than 9 miles and I can take public transportation (B.A.R.T.).

Having chosen my theater, I had to pick a day, and then a start time, then my seat (It showed seating and which were taken, which still available). I wanted 2 weeks out but the seats available didn't appeal to me so I went to 4 weeks out and snagged one I really like.

Then, payment. It asked if I had a Fandango promotion, and I remembered that I do indeed. I went for the card. On the back it says it "never expires." I keyed in the code and Fandango said it was no longer good! So, I keyed in the card number, same thing happened. Goddamn! WTF! I don't remember how I got the card, I've had it for quite possibly over 10 years. I have no idea how much money was on it but it sucks that it says Fandango and "never expires" and Fandango says it's no longer usable.

Edit: Well, it looks like I can maybe recoup the card:

DO FANDANGO GIFT CARDS EVER EXPIRE?​

No, Fandango Gift Cards never expire. If you are having issues using your Gift Cards, please contact our Customer Service Department at https://support.fandango.com/en_us/contact/contact-us-fandango-rkksORSDO.

 

[DigDog]

I had to pick a day ... I went to 4 weeks out and snagged one I really like.

so .. next month?
And we were kinda hoping you would be the first of our bunch.

 

[Muse]

so .. next month?
And we were kinda hoping you would be the first of our bunch.

My 1st priority was good seating, not when as long as I see no conflict with other goings-on in my life. BD is in two weeks but looking at their graphic of the venue it appeared that the screen is really really wide and that optimal seating requires reasonably central placement and not too near the front. All the seats yesterday available on my BD looked to be far from optimal. The actual ergonomics might be something else entirely, but I figured go with my sense of it. I wasn't thinking of this thread when I put dibs on seat K19 (practically perfect position, seems to me), be assured. What does it matter if I'm the first? I'm rarely the first for anything and I don't care. Most of the best things in life have been experienced before by a lot of people.

 

[dainthomas]

Bought my e-ticket online through Fandango. I looked for IMAX 70mm, there's only 30 on earth, 19 being in the USA, which are showing this in IMAX 70mm. OTOH, there are IMAX non-70mm, evidently. I picked my theater, having specified IMAX 70mm, there's several in CA. There's one in Dublin, CA, but it's 30 miles away. San Francisco's is less than 9 miles and I can take public transportation (B.A.R.T.).

There are only 30 70mm IMAX film screens. I bought a ticket to see it in 70mm digital at a theater in Oregon.

Fun fact: the IMAX film for this movie is 11 miles long and weighs 600 pounds.

 

[Pohemi]

Fun fact: the IMAX film for this movie is 11 miles long and weighs 600 pounds.

How is it still on film? I would have guessed it'd have been filmed on digital and not needed the film-to-digital transfer.

Crazy though. I worked in a theater when I was a teenager and I recall how heavy those film reels were when they'd get delivered. Usually two reels per film, and I'd guess maybe 40-50 pounds for the set. So yeah...600lbs sounds insane.

Also, a movie I watched recently...

'Yesterday' ... a subjective 7/10

IMDB summary:
"A struggling musician realizes he's the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate reality where they never existed."

Danny Boyle film, and I thought it was impressive that the lead (Himesh Patel) did all of his own singing. Fun fantasy story, and it was nice to revisit music I hadn't listened to in a while. Decent pacing and progression, and had some good messaging about life as well. Fun movie.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I would have guessed it'd have been filmed on digital and not needed the film-to-digital transfer.

Physical film can be scanned for a future higher resolution, like 16K. With digital, they are stuck at whatever resolution they capture it and then the only option is upsampling from the digital copy.

 

[Muse]

'Yesterday' ... a subjective 7/10

IMDB summary:
"A struggling musician realizes he's the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate reality where they never existed."

Danny Boyle film, and I thought it was impressive that the lead (Himesh Patel) did all of his own singing. Fun fantasy story, and it was nice to revisit music I hadn't listened to in a while. Decent pacing and progression, and had some good messaging about life as well. Fun movie.

Yes, I read about this some time ago and decided it is likely well worth my checking it out. I bet my library has it now, I'll have a look online... YES! They have the BR and DVD, just put a hold on the BR! Yay! I'm a huge Beatles fan. I'm not generally into weird sci-fi that's just fantasy, no possibility of being real, but this could be an exception, it's the music, afterall.

 

[Thump553]

Yes, I read about this some time ago and decided it is likely well worth my checking it out. I bet my library has it now, I'll have a look online... YES! They have the BR and DVD, just put a hold on the BR! Yay! I'm a huge Beatles fan. I'm not generally into weird sci-fi that's just fantasy, no possibility of being real, but this could be an exception, it's the music, afterall.

You're going to love it. Very imaginative story. I'd give it an 8 or 9.

 

[dainthomas]

IMDB summary:
"A struggling musician realizes he's the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate reality where they never existed."

Danny Boyle film, and I thought it was impressive that the lead (Himesh Patel) did all of his own singing. Fun fantasy story, and it was nice to revisit music I hadn't listened to in a while. Decent pacing and progression, and had some good messaging about life as well. Fun movie.

I loved the frantic version of 'Help' in that movie.

 

[HomerJS]

How is it still on film? I would have guessed it'd have been filmed on digital and not needed the film-to-digital transfer.

Crazy though. I worked in a theater when I was a teenager and I recall how heavy those film reels were when they'd get delivered. Usually two reels per film, and I'd guess maybe 40-50 pounds for the set. So yeah...600lbs sounds insane.

Also, a movie I watched recently...

'Yesterday' ... a subjective 7/10

IMDB summary:
"A struggling musician realizes he's the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate reality where they never existed."

Danny Boyle film, and I thought it was impressive that the lead (Himesh Patel) did all of his own singing. Fun fantasy story, and it was nice to revisit music I hadn't listened to in a while. Decent pacing and progression, and had some good messaging about life as well. Fun movie.

It's an enjoyable movie. Good Netflix and chill material with your SO

 

[DigDog]

Godfather of Harlem Season 3 was good shit. it is not the final season though, i expect it to be the next, S4.

 

[Muse]

I loved the frantic version of 'Help' in that movie.

I saw Help in Los Angeles when it came out. Heady days, I tell you.

 

[stargazr]

I saw Help when it came out as well in Atlantic City with my mother and uncle. Was only five though, lol.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Oppenheimer 6/10

Spoiler

Way too long

Plot focused more on Strauss trying to frame Oppenheimer to take away his security clearance

Would have preferred a more straightforward telling of the story, instead of flashbacks, dream sequences etc.

Director's intent seemed to be to vindicate Oppenheimer

Jack Quaid as Richard Feynman??? What kind of joke was that???

Got quite restless at the end

The only exceptional thing was the sound but that's probably coz I was in a Dolby Atmos theater

 

[Dr. Detroit]

For The Love Of The Game - 6/10

This movie has alluded me for many years as I've been working through Costner's sports movies.
It's a pretty sappy love story about an aging pitcher with lots of "memory sequences" as he looks back through his career and his love interest.

It's no Bull Durham, Tin Cup, Field of Dreams, Draft Day or American Flyers - My Top 5!

 

[Muse]

Oppenheimer

The buzz is Barbenheimer and on TV news they are saying "2 movies that couldn't be more different" and that they have "no connection at all."

The funny thing is, I have a very real connection to both. So am I the connection? No!

Thing is Barbie was Ruth Handler's creation, she named Barbie after her daughter, Barbie. Barbie's boyfriend was named after Ruth Handler's son, Ken. I met the flesh and blood Ken Handler in grammar school (Castle Heights Elementary School), in West Los Angeles, just below Cheviot Hills where our family lived, and very likely so did Ken and Barbie's family. I didn't know about the connection to the Barbie Doll (and Ken doll) initially, don't remember when I found out. Last time I saw Ken was a chance encounter in the parking lot of a well known diner in Westwood, near U.C.L.A., about 8 years after our high school graduation. I heard that he died from a brain tumor sometime in the 1990's. I have no idea about the personal life of Barbie and don't know if I ever encountered her. She probably went to my high school, as did Ken.

As far as Oppenheimer is concerned, well, I was a physics major in the 1960's, and so I studied nuclear physics, naturally, it was a major part of the curriculum. It was at U.C. Berkeley, who ran the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. I was quite good at it but I didn't envision a career in it and switched to mathematics because it seemed more fundamental to a solid education and I needed to major in something. Of course, I was good in math too.

The 1950s​

The Cold War was raging, and on August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb—much sooner than expected by Western experts. Less than a year later, communist North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel to invade the Republic of Korea. National Security was at stake.
The urgent need to accelerate the nation’s H-bomb program led Ernest O. Lawrence and Edward Teller to argue for the creation of a second laboratory to augment the efforts of Los Alamos. On September 2, 1952, a branch of the University of California Radiation Laboratory opened near Livermore, California.
Livermore’s first director, Herbert F. York, and a remarkable group of young scientists set out to be a “new ideas” laboratory. They were committed to pursuing innovative solutions for the nation’s pressing need to advance nuclear weapons science and technology. The Laboratory’s first nuclear experiments were failures. But later in the decade, Laboratory scientists made a major breakthrough—the design of a strategic warhead for ballistic missiles that could be launched from submarines.

Edit: I went to the driving range today and saw very very likely the most striking woman I have ever seen at a golf course. I didn't make the connection until I watched TV news tonight that the head to toe shocking pink outfit she was wearing was probably her Barbie moment. She was walking by the practice putting green on her way to the pro shop. Stunning figure, there's no other way to put it!

 

[hardhat]

The Lodge on MAX - 3/10

Much too long and boring suspense/horror movie. The movie relied on making you feel invested in the characters, but neither the plot nor the acting was very good.
Premise: a father and his two kids go to spend the holidays at their isolated cabin, along with the father's mistress-turned-fiance. The kids don't like their new mom because dad was cheating and this most likely lead to their mother's suicide. No one really gets along and then strange things start happening. Harmless pranks or diabolical entity invading their life?
Also, random dollhouse. I won't reveal the 'surprise', but it's safe to say you really won't care about the characters enough to care if they live. The kids are more concerned with saving their doll in an ice hole than saving the drowning woman? Really?

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Nope - a film by Jordan Peele - 3/10

Cinematography was great but this was a rambling mess of a movie. Way too long and needed much better editing, every scene was unnecessarily long and rarely added value, character development was unimpressive.

 

[DigDog]

i watched Withnail & I - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094336/reference/

which is, apparently, a bit of a cult film in britain. Throughout i was divided between "oh it's good" and "oh, it's not good".
Two bohemians - tentative actors - live in a shaggy flat in 1969's london. They can't really cope with life and so decide to take a weekend in rich-uncle's cabin in the woods. They meet ruff' n' gruff farmers who give them a hard time.
The dialogue is wannabe shakespeare and often inappropriate to what is on-screen. The two protagonists are near-constantly in conflict, but this conflict then just magically disappears, to the point where one protagonist is more of the alter-ego of the other, rather than two individuals.

Richard E Grant and Paul "i was Doctor Who, briefly" McGann star as the titular characters, and none other than Harry Potter's uncle Richard Griffiths as, well, the uncle.

Idk, it wasn't particularly offensive, but i wouldn't recommend it. 6/10

 

[igor_kavinski]

Idk, it wasn't particularly offensive, but i wouldn't recommend it. 6/10

Your next movie if you haven't seen it: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1684628/reference/

Moroccan cast pretending to be Iranians.

Slow movie but a lot of the story is told through face expressions and you just guess what the character might be thinking. So far a score of 6/10 from me but I'm only halfway through. There's a chance you might enjoy it. Subtitles required.