Polarising Movies Discussion Thread

[Shady Slim]

face/off was is and always will be an utterly captivating brilliant cinematic experience and anyone who doesn’t appreciate face/off for all the majesty and the fun it is has their head up their ass imo

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

face/off was is and always will be an utterly captivating brilliant cinematic experience and anyone who doesn’t appreciate face/off for all the majesty and the fun it is has their head up their ass imo

My only problem with this post is that this is supposed to be the polarising film thread. You've strayed off topic by posting something so self-evidently true.

 

[MW1304]

I think the last time I had a strong reaction against the critical consensus was Wolf of Wall Street, which I thought was terrible. I usually really like Scorsese too.

Fully endorse this take. It's just such a have your cake and eat it kind of film. You don't need three and a half hours of a Wall Street **** revelling in midgets and hookers, before showing a five minute scene of how bad and empty he really is. It's not especially clever or funny.

Margot Robbie though tbf.

 

[Matteh]

Fully endorse this take. It's just such a have your cake and eat it kind of film. You don't need three and a half hours of a Wall Street **** revelling in midgets and hookers, before showing a five minute scene of how bad and empty he really is. It's not especially clever or funny.

Margot Robbie though tbf.

Yeah I wasn't a fan too. You start off with the 'Get rich' story, then get ages of a cross between Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Wall Street, before a small amount of the downfall story when he becomes a supergrass.

 

[stephen]

I know most people loved it when it first came out, but I was less than impressed by The Force Awakens. I remember saying that the movie basically needed the next two to be masterpieces to make up for it. Movies should exist to tell a story, not rehash an old one shot for shot and lose everything that made it special.

Then The Last Jedi came out and while I enjoyed it enough on first watching I was left with an empty feeling afterwards, like I'd eaten two big macs.

Finally Rise of Skywalker, which I only saw a few days ago was more enjoyable than I was expecting even if I had to completely switch my brain off and consider it nothing more than a special effects movie. It had some eye-rollingly awful moments in it and did nothing to enhance any of the characters so it too left me feeling empty and a bit sick, like I'd just eaten ten packets of lollies.

Most of all, I see a massive opportunity wasted and that makes me more sad than anything else in the saga. The story writers could have written a new, interesting story in the Star Wars saga, which was not tied to any particular future or end point (like the prequels were) and had a virtually unlimited budget to do what they wished with. Not only that but they had all the original actors signed up for it. They completely blew it and didn't even show us a reunion scene between Luke, Han and Leia. So it utterly failed as fan service, failed as both individual movies and as a movie trilogy and failed to even connect us consistently with characters that were already established and being acted by the same actors as before.

 

[honestbharani]

They won't admit but they never had an actual plan. Never had a vision for this trilogy other than "Star Wars + Christmas = Money" and they couldn't even keep that up, releasing Solo in the summer. Contrast it to their brothers over at Marvel, and its obvious they always had a plan, even though they always left themselves enough room to hedge on those plans too.

Was watching Iron Man yesterday to kill some time, and there is a wonderful throwaway line in the scene where he gets rid of his original arc reactor and replaces it with a new one. He sees something from his father and instructs one of his robots to "Throw it away to the trash". Lovely character moment that kept paying off over Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Civil War and finally Endgame.

I mean, I do get its easier to plan these things with a franchise no one had any idea of at that point as against a beloved cultural icon like Star Wars but still, actually having a game plan is so under-rated it seems in the movie industry.

 

[grecian]

They won't admit but they never had an actual plan. Never had a vision for this trilogy other than "Star Wars + Christmas = Money" and they couldn't even keep that up, releasing Solo in the summer. Contrast it to their brothers over at Marvel, and its obvious they always had a plan, even though they always left themselves enough room to hedge on those plans too.

Was watching Iron Man yesterday to kill some time, and there is a wonderful throwaway line in the scene where he gets rid of his original arc reactor and replaces it with a new one. He sees something from his father and instructs one of his robots to "Throw it away to the trash". Lovely character moment that kept paying off over Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Civil War and finally Endgame.

I mean, I do get its easier to plan these things with a franchise no one had any idea of at that point as against a beloved cultural icon like Star Wars but still, actually having a game plan is so under-rated it seems in the movie industry.

Rogue One is the only good Star Wars movie, stop talking like the others mattered.

 

[Daemon]

Wolf of Wall Street is automatically one of the worst movies ever on account of how it’s production was funded through stolen money.

 

[grecian]

I didn't mind Wolf of Wall Street, because I'd seen some awful reviews so wasn't expecting a lot, Yes none of the characters have any redeemable features which makes it an hard watch, but I'd give it a 7/10 for entertainment value and beautifully shot obviously, and yeah Margot Robbie.

Oz Soap stars really punch above their weight famewise.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Wolf of Wall Street is automatically one of the worst movies ever on account of how it’s production was funded through stolen money.

Given the subject matter presumably they were just method funding.

 

[Matteh]

They won't admit but they never had an actual plan. Never had a vision for this trilogy other than "Star Wars + Christmas = Money" and they couldn't even keep that up, releasing Solo in the summer. Contrast it to their brothers over at Marvel, and its obvious they always had a plan, even though they always left themselves enough room to hedge on those plans too.

There's a Youtube video that skewers this. A trilogy should have an arc and character development etc. So in the first film Finn fights Phasma and gets beaten, the next film he's supposed to come back strong and do alright in a fight and then win in the 3rd film. Naah, he just kills her in the 2nd film, job done. There's stuff about how the set-up for Rey was all about maybe she had a Jedi father, maybe it's Luke?! Ah no, it's just people who got killed.
And so on and so on.

As you say, there's these ideas that are supposed to be developed across 3 films but get chopped because there's a new writing team on each film or something, who then picture something else happening. So everything is just half-baked and never fully seen through to the end.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Fully endorse this take. It's just such a have your cake and eat it kind of film. You don't need three and a half hours of a Wall Street **** revelling in midgets and hookers, before showing a five minute scene of how bad and empty he really is. It's not especially clever or funny.

I've not seen WoWS but I find Goodfellas suffers because the 'It gradually falls apart for them' act of the story isn't nearly as engaging as the 'Look at them being wild, hedonistic jerks' parts of the film. The last third drags in comparison with what goes before. I guess cutting that final act down to five minutes is one way to try and address this...

 

[Pratters]

Let’s start with Suicide Squad which is considered the absolute worst thing ever by critics and was pretty well-liked and successful among fans.

Personally, I was dissapointed that they couldn’t really get much mileage of the characters and world they created but I remember enjoying the first third of the movie a great deal. I think the sound track is ATG level and adds a lot to the movie. Quinn was ace and I think Leto’s joker was a pretty legitimate alternate take on joker which I still enjoyed despite not being as good as Ledger. The movie was a stylistic/aesthetic masterpiece and a failure as a traditional story.

Overall, while my closing emotion on watching the movie was dissapointment, I remember far too many good things about the movie in comparison to the vast majority of super hero films which were more internally consistent but also a lot more forgettable.

What are your thoughts on it?

Enjoyed it. I wish it wasn't as dark and was better lit than it was though. The bolded part is a key aspect. This is a movie which was pretty good in parts and could have been a bit better too, but I didn't feel I had watched yet another boring Marvel Superhero movie, for instance.

 

[Pratters]

I think 95% of David Lynch movies are utter trash.

An immensely clever and talented director who’s only desire is to show other people how weird and clever he is. Movies with no point besides to “get it”. Critics who love to circle jerk everything he does. Get ****ed ya pompous ****wit,

Un Chien Andalou is also in the same boat. Movies to me are to tell stories or share experiences and thoughts , happy, sad, realistic or surreal. The point shouldn’t be to deliberately design something to trigger audience aversion. That’s Clockwork Orange ****.

Agree re Lynch, not re the bolded part. For instance, I love Apichatpong Weerasethakul films even though they do not tell a traditional story per say.

 

[grecian]

Enjoyed it. I wish it wasn't as dark and was better lit than it was though. The bolded part is a key aspect. This is a movie which was pretty good in parts and could have been a bit better too, but I didn't feel I had watched yet another boring Marvel Superhero movie, for instance.

yeah the bolded part was the only good thing in it, I particularly like the bolded part in all dc movies they are much better than marvel, for instance. I also am a man whose reviews need to be taken seriously, and think trump's presidency will be great for the lols, per se.

 

[Gnske]

Suicide Squad was like watching the results of Vine / TikTok users make a movie.

 

[grecian]

Suicide Squad was like watching the results of Vine / TikTok users make a movie.

Yet with the same proviso on WOWS, Margot Robbie is hot.

 

[GIMH]

Favourite Tarantino is either the fun of Inglorious Basterds or the epic of Django Unchained. Probably unsurprising that Christophe Waltz is in both.

Inglorious basterds is mine and the missus go to. Watch it far more than I should and never fail to enjoy it

 

[stephen]

Inglorious Basterds
Pulp Fiction
Django Unchained
Reservoir Dogs

And I'm not a huge fan of the rest of his.

I won't even watch Django again, it's a bit too much but I think it was excellent.

 

[GIMH]

Well Stephen, with Inglorious topping that list you've finally expressed a decent opinion.

Seeing as it's your lucky day why not go express another one in the BOTM thread