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Rate the latest movie you've seen.

Started by GalacticBusDriver, February 16, 2013, 12:37:09 AM

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Cavebear

Star Wars 10.  Darth, Luke, and Leia all join into one being "Dukal" (a vaguely disturbing thought) and become the Being Star Trek finds in 'Star Trek Finds God'.  The particles of the destroyed Being unify (in Innocence Of Purity) to become Eru Ilúvatar leading to Tolkien's Middle Earth world, which leads to that galaxy "Far Far Away".

I considered deleting this but hey, its KIND of funny.  And Hollywood MIGHT go for it...

I don't watch enough new movies...
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Munch

Quote from: Cavebear on October 14, 2018, 03:21:36 PM
Star Wars 10.  Darth, Luke, and Leia all join into one being "Dukal" (a vaguely disturbing thought) and become the Being Star Trek finds in 'Star Trek Finds God'.  The particles of the destroyed Being unify (in Innocence Of Purity) to become Eru Ilúvatar leading to Tolkien's Middle Earth world, which leads to that galaxy "Far Far Away".

I considered deleting this but hey, its KIND of funny.  And Hollywood MIGHT go for it...

I don't watch enough new movies...

you know, your starting to sound a little like Baruch in that description.
'Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners' - George Carlin

Gawdzilla Sama

We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Cavebear

Quote from: Munch on October 14, 2018, 03:24:57 PM
you know, your starting to sound a little like Baruch in that description.

Weak minds think alike...
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Baruch

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on October 14, 2018, 03:38:46 PM
Going to see "First Man" today.

In spite of one, just one, deficiency, I hope you enjoy it ;-)  Poor young people, they missed out on real history.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Gawdzilla Sama

"First Man". Interesting back story for Neil Armstrong, details I've never heard before. Lots and lots of close-ups of everybody. Still, one of the rare movies where I didn't check my watch.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Hydra009

#3576
Blair Witch 2 - imho, the best bad movie

Once a year on October, I rewatch old horror films that captivated me as a kid.

Before I begin, I know this movie has been blasted by critics and fans alike.  It certainly has a lot of flaws, not the least of which was substantial studio meddling - especially in terms of the rushed schedule and studio editing.  But I think a lot of the flak is because it went a totally different route than the previous movie.

The director didn't want to do a rehash of the first film, but instead wanted to cast a critical eye on the interplay of mass media and mass hysteria - how a pop culture phenomenon sucks in a lot of people (some who aren't all that stable to begin with) and really messes with their heads to the point that there's a blurring of the line between fantasy and reality.  That's right, the true horror of the Blair Witch is us.

If you're looking for psychological horror - characters' perceptions of reality are damaged, the group is plagued with unease and paranoia, and there's at least one plot twist - then you're in the right place.  If you're looking for a thriller or slasher or Blair Witch redux, then keep looking.

One thing that I absolutely love about this film is that all five main characters are deeply damaged people, despite the facade of normalcy at the beginning.  Also, the film starts out really bright and cheery but bit by bit, tensions escalate until some serious shit goes down, and then the big reveal just blasts all these characters away.  It's so beautiful.

I also really love the delusions.  A good portion of what happens in the film never happened in actuality.

For example, a character crashes the van.  Just a minor fender-bender, no biggie.  She drives back home that night.  The next day, another character sees that it's practically totaled. (how'd she even drive it back?)  And later we see that the van is perfectly intact.  Which one is the truth?  Do we have any way to tell?

Thankfully, the film helps us out by telling us that what has been filmed by the characters is 100% real and what the characters see and hear may or may not be the truth.  Using that as the foundation, it's possible for theorists like moi to construct a narrative of what really happened.  This is the main joy of the film - taking ambiguous data and constructing a plausible explanation that best fits the data.

And that brings me to the final strength of this film.  I loved how the first movie was ambiguous about whether or not the witch is real - it puts it out there, but ultimately, it lets you draw your own conclusions.  And my conclusion, the hill I'm willing to die on, is that there is no witch, no magic - that's just BS used as a smokescreen to deflect attention away from the real murderers - good ol' muggle humans.  That's right, the "spooky" forest isn't what you should be afraid of - it's people you should be afraid of.  Maybe even your friend.  To me, that's way scarier than some ghost in the woods.

And to its credit, the second film has the exact same ambiguity.  Is it supernatural or natural?  Whodunit?  And what the hell is up with that electrician?  Find out!  Tune in same bat time, same bat channel!

Mr.Obvious

Quote from: Hydra009 on October 15, 2018, 01:08:02 AM
Blair Witch 2 - imho, the best bad movie

Once a year on October, I rewatch old horror films that captivated me as a kid.

Before I begin, I know this movie has been blasted by critics and fans alike.  It certainly has a lot of flaws, not the least of which was substantial studio meddling - especially in terms of the rushed schedule and studio editing.  But I think a lot of the flak is because it went a totally different route than the previous movie.

The director didn't want to do a rehash of the first film, but instead wanted to cast a critical eye on the interplay of mass media and mass hysteria - how a pop culture phenomenon sucks in a lot of people (some who aren't all that stable to begin with) and really messes with their heads to the point that there's a blurring of the line between fantasy and reality.  That's right, the true horror of the Blair Witch is us.

If you're looking for psychological horror - characters' perceptions of reality are damaged, the group is plagued with unease and paranoia, and there's at least one plot twist - then you're in the right place.  If you're looking for a thriller or slasher or Blair Witch redux, then keep looking.

One thing that I absolutely love about this film is that all five main characters are deeply damaged people, despite the facade of normalcy at the beginning.  Also, the film starts out really bright and cheery but bit by bit, tensions escalate until some serious shit goes down, and then the big reveal just blasts all these characters away.  It's so beautiful.

I also really love the delusions.  A good portion of what happens in the film never happened in actuality.

For example, a character crashes the van.  Just a minor fender-bender, no biggie.  She drives back home that night.  The next day, another character sees that it's practically totaled. (how'd she even drive it back?)  And later we see that the van is perfectly intact.  Which one is the truth?  Do we have any way to tell?

Thankfully, the film helps us out by telling us that what has been filmed by the characters is 100% real and what the characters see and hear may or may not be the truth.  Using that as the foundation, it's possible for theorists like moi to construct a narrative of what really happened.  This is the main joy of the film - taking ambiguous data and constructing a plausible explanation that best fits the data.

And that brings me to the final strength of this film.  I loved how the first movie was ambiguous about whether or not the witch is real - it puts it out there, but ultimately, it lets you draw your own conclusions.  And my conclusion, the hill I'm willing to die on, is that there is no witch, no magic - that's just BS used as a smokescreen to deflect attention away from the real murderers - good ol' muggle humans.  That's right, the "spooky" forest isn't what you should be afraid of - it's people you should be afraid of.  Maybe even your friend.  To me, that's way scarier than some ghost in the woods.

And to its credit, the second film has the exact same ambiguity.  Is it supernatural or natural?  Whodunit?  And what the hell is up with that electrician?  Find out!  Tune in same bat time, same bat channel!

That's my conclusion of the first Blair Witch movie too. In fact, I think the two guys.
Tbh though, while I never interpreted it as the Blair Witch being real, the idea that the murderers were both the guys came from the film theorists.
"If we have to go down, we go down together!"
- Your mum, last night, requesting 69.

Atheist Mantis does not pray.

Munch

I still remember the hype around Blair witch project, people throwing around that its a real event documented of these people going missing. The internet wasn't big then and they could spin it way easier to convince people. Of course it didn't take a second to realize if this was a real life thing of campers going missing they wouldn't be having the footage released to cinemas across the country.
'Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners' - George Carlin

Hydra009

#3579
I remember that when it came out, I wondered if there was any truth to it.  There definitely was a lot of ambiguity about that on release.  It certainly looked genuine and this was at a time when these Found Footage pseudo-documentaries weren't popular yet and video manipulation wasn't in widespread use among amateur filmmakers - so if you saw footage that looked real, it probably was.

It wasn't until a few days later when I looked into how it was produced that I realized that it was 100% fictitious.

GSOgymrat

I bought into the hype of The Blair Witch Project and enthusiastically enlisted a group of friends to see it. The movie was being shown at the small art house theater in Greensboro and I remember thinking it was a very adult audience for a horror flick. As we watched the movie my giddy anticipation quickly evaporated and was replaced by resentment. We were watching a couple of undergrad film school students who had gone out into the woods behind their house with Dad's camcorder and this was their B- semester project. I wasn't buying ANY aspect of this movie and I sensed no one else in the theater was either. The film broke part way through, someone loudly said "Thank God..." and people started laughing. About a third of the audience walked out. I stewed throughout the rest of the movie realizing I had fallen for a marketing stunt. When we left the theater, I was really embarrassed and apologetic and my friends were like "It's okay, you didn't know."

If I was younger and with a younger crowd, if I had come upon this movie without the hype, if I didn't feel responsible for other people's entertainment that night, I might have appreciated it. As with most things, when you have high expectation you are setting the stage for disappointment.

SGOS

The only hype heard about Blair Witch 1, was that a bunch of kids made this movie and then sold it to Hollywood for a million dollars.  I don't recall anything about the movie documenting actual murders, just that some kids who were slightly more creative than average, spent a few days playing "make a horror movie," and then sold the rights.  As such, I gave them a tip of my hat.  I've watched home movies taken by well meaning adults that were hopelessly pointless.  So here's a bunch of friends that actually made an amateur movie that did manage to give me a minor experience of the creeps.  I didn't see BW II, as it was missing the factor that kids made it, which was where the real interest was for me in the original.

SGOS

Colette  Keira Knightley 

This just showed up at the theater midweek, and I wasn't that enthusiastic about seeing First Man (apparently a bad mistake).  Colette did well with the critics, even though it doesn't even show up on "This Weeks New Movies" at Rotten Tomatoes.  You have to type it in the search bar to read about it.  I like Keira Knightley and this sounded like one of those delightful sleepers missed by the box office crowds, and I was intrigued.  I left before the end.  It wasn't a terrible movie.  It's just that I've seen this ripped off plot before, and it was boring me to death. 

drunkenshoe

#3583
I was at the university, last grade when The Blair Witch Project came to here. It exploded. Everyone was crazy about it. It was regarded as good, creative art. I think still is. They hype was that I think there wasn't anything like it before. 

[spoiler]One of the best example of less is more. The whole deal is the amateur shooting, lack of any visual effects and so giving the feeling of the more realistic. Especially in the day (1999) when everything is about making better and better high tech effects to make it look real, it's actually brilliant to remove it alltogether to make it more real.

Especially in this genre it works. The first Paranormal Activity is based on the same idea. Not bad. 

In the end there is no better effects than our own imagination,lol.[/spoiler]
"science is not about building a body of known 'facts'. ıt is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good." - tp

Gawdzilla Sama

I was thoroughly disgusted with the ending.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers