Rate the latest movie you've seen.

[Baruch]

Too real? That's the only one reflecting reality bluntly on that list.

I am not the type that likes to see post-Spanish Civil War cruelty, or the death of a little girl.  Entertainment is rejection of reality, for a little while.

As an anthropologist, I did like the historical zeitgeist.  Modern Spain is little used as a meme here.

On the other hand, my ancestors left Europe, even GB, because of the barbarous vendetta there.

[Sal1981]

The Last Days of American Crime - 2/10

Just look at this contrived bullshit - I did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdWxGwiuhnU

[Baruch]

As long as there are humans, there will be crime.  Only Americans are so childish as to rename their criminality as something else.

[LoriPinkAngel]

We watched Scream 1996, oh boy, how stupid.

[drunkenshoe]

I tried to have look at the new Lion King. I couldn't watch it. Jumped forward to check Tomin in and Pumbaa... AAARRGH! It's not even bad, it is an abomination. Now, I am watching the original to clean the recent memory. I hope the original voice cast haven't seen any of it...which included names like Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Rowan Attkinson, Whoope Goldberg...etc. E: I fortgot Nathan Lane. And the lines... ffs.

Ed?

[Shiranu]

Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

Really good mix of comedy and action, with the comedic-aspect of it helping gloss over and explain some of the ridiculous CGI scenes. The story and world-building seems very bareboned, but it works.

If you like martial arts and/or comedy movies, definitely a recommend.

On a related note, it's interesting to notice how much modern comic movies are based on the old martial art films of Hong Kong, using many of the same techniques (just with more 'realism' and advanced CGI) to accentuate the action. Edit: And the more I think about it, those films really were "super hero" films as well, just based on folk-legend and the like rather than comics... which I would argue have reached the point of being the modern day equivalent of folklore with how iconic they are.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

One of those love it or hate it movies. Still a side-splitter in place for me.

[Baruch]

"Flirting Scholar" ... so funny I had to turn away at times.  What China could produce before the CCP banned humor ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dghEmuAjUPY

[Hydra009]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZd3xUDudy8

I dunno how to feel about this.  On one hand, it looks like good production values and they nailed that retrofuturistic aesthetic, especially with the vehicles.  Though some of the costumes are kinda wonky - I swear one guy was wearing athletic pads painted blue.  And this trailer is cut like a thriller movie, which Foundation absolutely is not.  Is that just to get asses in seats, or is indicative of the overall tone?  Cause I sure hope the former.

And did I just see a friggin' monster?  WTH!

[trdsf]

I dunno how to feel about this.  On one hand, it looks like good production values and they nailed that retrofuturistic aesthetic, especially with the vehicles.  Though some of the costumes are kinda wonky - I swear one guy was wearing athletic pads painted blue.  And this trailer is cut like a thriller movie, which Foundation absolutely is not.  Is that just to get asses in seats, or is indicative of the overall tone?  Cause I sure hope the former.

And did I just see a friggin' monster?  WTH!

I know how I feel about it.

Let's start with a heapin' helping of "WHAT THE ABSOLUTE TECHNICOLOR FUCK DID 98% OF THAT HAVE TO DO WITH 'FOUNDATION'?"

I re-read the core trilogy about annually.  Some of the dialog could be a fair extrapolation from the first novel.  I'm fine with Gaal being a black woman; it was written in a different time when minorities and women were poorly represented (if at all), and Asimov himself tried (with limited success) to redress that in later additions to the series.

I have looked at the Wikipedia page on the upcoming series, and I am not encouraged.  Who says, "Yeah, let's take the winner of the Hugo for Best All Time Series and fuck around with it without any good reason to do so"?  Well, apparently the production team of this mess does.

I can guarandamntee that there are no such things as 'Brother Dawn', 'Brother Day' and 'Brother Dusk' in the entire series.  Salvor (presumably Hardin) is absolutely not contemporaneous with Seldon and can not be contemporaneous unless they're turning this into an adaptation in the same way that "I, Robot" (spitspit) was an "adaptation".  There are plot reasons that Hardin is 50 years after Seldon's time -- fundamental enough that if they're playing with that plot thread, then they are not making an actual Foundation series.

Fucking disaster.

[Baruch]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZd3xUDudy8

I dunno how to feel about this.  On one hand, it looks like good production values and they nailed that retrofuturistic aesthetic, especially with the vehicles.  Though some of the costumes are kinda wonky - I swear one guy was wearing athletic pads painted blue.  And this trailer is cut like a thriller movie, which Foundation absolutely is not.  Is that just to get asses in seats, or is indicative of the overall tone?  Cause I sure hope the former.

And did I just see a friggin' monster?  WTH!

The great scifi novel by Asimov.  Trantor, capital of a post-Earth galactic empire.  The psycho-historian has statistically modeled that it will inevitably fail, producing centuries of darkness.  Reminds me now of the bad Covid model from GB.  Like Dune without the drugs.

[Hydra009]

I re-read the core trilogy about annually.  Some of the dialog could be a fair extrapolation from the first novel.  I'm fine with Gaal being a black woman; it was written in a different time when minorities and women were poorly represented (if at all), and Asimov himself tried (with limited success) to redress that in later additions to the series.

I read Foundation long ago and although I still broadly understand the series, I do not at all remember the details, especially character names and ethnicities.  I just checked out the wiki and apparently, most of Trantor is multiracial due to centuries of interracial marriage.  I'm sure that'll go over well with certain audiences, lol.

Fucking disaster.

Patience.  All we have so far is the trailer.  If I made snap decisions based on trailers, I'd think that Suicide Squad was a masterpiece and Ghostbusters (1984) was awful.  I want to wait for the critics' reviews to come in before drawing any firm conclusions.

[trdsf]

Patience.  All we have so far is the trailer.  If I made snap decisions based on trailers, I'd think that Suicide Squad was a masterpiece and Ghostbusters (1984) was awful.  I want to wait for the critics' reviews to come in before drawing any firm conclusions.

Actually, it's the writeup about all the extraneous stuff that really has me... worried, concerned, upset, somewhere in that vicinity.  It doesn't look like they're going to tell the actual story in Foundation, it looks like they're going to do an "inspired by" like I, Robot.

Asimov has historically been treated terribly by Hollywood.  Three versions of "Nightfall" have been made.  The first was unmitigated trash... and the two that followed were even worse.  Ellison's brilliant script for I, Robot was never produced, mainly because Harlan insulted an exec.  Fantastic Voyage wasn't actually his -- they contracted with him to write the novelization, and Asimov was such a fast writer he had it on the shelves a couple months before the movie released.  So far, the only movie of any of Asimov's work that's been not bad is Bicentennial Man.

From what I've read about what they're doing to the story -- Foundation does not sound like it's going to challenge Bicentennial man for "least worst adaptation".  I said a long time ago that Joe Straczynski should be showrunner of any Foundation miniseries, and I stand by that.  He respects the work -- Foundation was an inspiration for his own Babylon 5.  I see no evidence the team doing this version respects the work.

[Mike Cl]

I no longer expect anything good from hollywood when they put one of my favorite sci-fi books on the screen.  I was super excited when the first Planet of the Apes and I Am Legend first came out.  Deeply disappointed when I saw them.  I don't expect anything from books to movies.

[Hydra009]

I said a long time ago that Joe Straczynski should be showrunner of any Foundation miniseries, and I stand by that.  He respects the work -- Foundation was an inspiration for his own Babylon 5.  I see no evidence the team doing this version respects the work.

JMS is still kicking around?  The last thing I remember from him was The Lost Tales.  Heh, remember the time the Devil possessed someone and some priest has some sort of spiritual head-to-head with him?  Quality scifi right there.  :P

But yeah, none of the indicators for this Foundation movie are particularly good so far.  I don't understand why it couldn't get the Dune treatment - big budget, quality actors, deep respect for the source material.  Not some lowballed, hastily put together shitshow.  I don't understand why Hollywood still hasn't figured out that if you take the money and time to make a high quality product, you will make a killing in the box office.  It's not rocket science.