What are you watching?

[Ikawaru]

I was previously quite excited about this series since I like both Star Wars and anime, and the fact that all episodes would be 100% written and animated by Japanese studios seemed like a good sign.

Eh, Japan is losing its verve in my opinion. During the 1980's-1990's they were a cross-culture wonder but nowadays they seem to be running out of magic and seem content being a diluted Japan incorporated as an extension of the Western financial apparatus. Copy paste-copy paste. Japan is a political, economic, and cultural mess currently.

 

[KManX89]

I just got back from Halloween Kills in the theater, it was very "meh". There WERE some fun kills/gore, and some, like the

Spoiler

elderly couple murder where MM goes ham on the husband while making her helplessly watch in a bloody heap

really go the extra step to show just how f**ked up and sadistic Michael Myers is, which I liked.

However, there's some gaping plot holes that blew my mind, one of which I pointed out from the first trailer: why in the blue f**k wouldn't Laurie call the cops and make sure Michael Myers is dead after all she's been through and carrying out her master plan to FINALLY put him in the ground for good? But they managed to take it an extra stupid step further in the actual movie and

Spoiler

have her convinced he's dead when she gets to the hospital even though she was just screaming for the firemen to "LET HIM BUUUURN!" in the previous scene.

WTF?

It did have some interesting ideas like Laurie and Frank's rapport in the hospital and I personally liked the whole town mob towards the end, and I liked the callbacks to the original Halloween (even though the house shot in the beginning looked like it was ripped from John Carpenter's original in 1978 lighting, which felt REALLY grating when jumping back to the present in 2021 cinematography), but they didn't really do enough with them. Hell, they were kneecapped with logic holes in and of themselves. I love how Myers "conveniently"

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gets up and overpowers every single one of the town mobsters after taking a schmorgesborg of beatings/stabbings when they had no problem merking Myers fresh off a few stabs in the old Myers house earlier. And why didn't you dispose the body afterwards, dumbasses? JFC.

At that point, my mind just gave up.

It didn't help that there were also so many "convenient" kills with no real tension (which the 2018 movie did a great job of) like

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Hawkins missing the one shot cops and military are trained to make and we've all seen them make in COUNTLESS movies as Michael holds the gun to his partner's head. All so Myers can get the guilt trip plot armor that totes won't come back to bite 'em in the ass later.

And for the cherry on top,

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they capped it off with a non-ending. Talk about learning NOTHING from Devil Inside. It wasn't QUITE Devil Inside levels of fail (you're talking about the Mass Effect 3 of movie endings), but same stupid idea with no payoff.

2.5/5

 

[KManX89]

Project X

I just rented this on Prime Video out of curiosity and really didn't much care for it. It's basically a poor man's Superbad with paper thin characters played by annoying kid actors who see practically NO consequences for any of the juvenile sh!t they pull in this movie (and believe me when I say, there's lots of it). Skinny white kid gets dragged into big party with wacky hijinks by sleazy sexist and homophobic friend and also there's a fat guy there. I (pretty much) literally just summed up the entire movie for you in one sentence without really spoiling anything. Moreover, any sense of parody for said juvenile sh!t is tossed out the window by the found footage/first person cam throughout the movie, which I guess is the filmmakers' way of saying "you ARE supposed to take this sh!t seriously", and even that is ruined in the opening scene.

And I'm no prude, either, the aforementioned Superbad, Tropic Thunder, Ted, Old School, The Hangover, Jackass 1-3, and Harold and Kumar/Borat/Deadpool 1 and 2 all did offensive comedy much, much better with characters you actually care about. This, this and this is how you pull off offensive/juvenile humor. Also this. This works, too.

Oh, and through no fault of the movie or the filmmakers, it also inspired a number of real life kinky teen parties (is that why the "do not attempt anything you're about to see in this movie" disclaimer appears in the opening, I wonder?). Great, now you're gonna have soccermoms saying "see? Videogames/movies DO cause violence".

 

[bSTAR_182]

Went and watched No Time to Die in theaters. I really enjoyed it and thought it was a great way to wrap up Daniel Craig’s 007. Some awesome action/chase scenes. Loved Rami Malek as the villain. I’d probably give it an 8.5/10. This was also the first movie we saw in a while in theaters- I forgot how much fun it is to actually go and watch a new movie on the big screen (next up will be Dune). Great experience all around.

Now I wanna rewatch the other Daniel Craig Bond flicks now as I haven’t seen them in few years and forgot what all happened in them.

Now onto the Netflix & Chill viewings

Squid Games - wasn’t sure what to expect from this one with all the hype surrounding it- but it really didn’t disappoint and was super entertaining (ended up shamelessly bingeing it in a day). Great actors. Some gruesome death scenes. But I will say they ended it on a weak note.

Spoiler

I really liked the main character- he was one of my favorite characters but he absolutely ****ed me off at the end. Between not jumping on to help that one chick’s family members out and then not stepping up to the plate to be a better dad and getting on the plane.

I was also disappointed that nothing really came of the agent’s storyline. Was hoping they would hint to the fact that he’s still alive but they didn’t. Maybe they’ll do something more with his story if they do another season though.

 

[Turo602]

That's funny, I actually went down the 007 and Dune rabbit holes after watching those films recently. I really enjoyed No Time to Die. I thought the ending was bold and can appreciate it as Daniel Craig's last outing. But man, it really did make me want to go back and watch all the Craig films back to back so I could understand how they connect after a more fluid viewing as opposed to waiting years between each one.

But then I had to go further. There was a lot of talk about Rami Malek playing Dr. No and I was disappointed when that wasn't the case despite the film having various callbacks to older Bond films. So then I got curious about just how much the Craig films have borrowed from Bond's history being a reboot and all and I was quite shocked to learn how little. I also admit, I've never seen any of the old Bond flicks as I grew up with the Pierce Brosnan films which were also far removed from the more classic era of Bond, so I went back and looked up all the old movies and books to compare and contrast them and actually learn the story of James Bond as it originally unfolded.

I was aware of Casino Royale being the first Bond book when the series was first rebooted and I've since learned the film was a pretty faithful adaptation of the book. But for some reason, they didn't bother adapting or remaking any stories after that. The only major connection to the older series which blew my mind was the inclusion of Spectre and Blofeld who apparently had a major presence in the old Bond films and books and is who Dr. Evil was a parody of in the Austin Powers films.

There was apparently some legal issues happening regarding the use of the Spectre organization and Blofeld which is why they weren't used in Quantum of Solace and Skyfall. But I could tell from the Spectre trailers that the reveal was meant to be a big deal and I didn't understand why and can even see now why so many people were upset at how it was all handled. But I found it very interesting nonetheless.

Dune on the other hand I found quite boring but intriguing. But what made me look so deep into it was just how much it reminded me of Star Wars. I was fully aware that Dune predated Star Wars, so I had to see for myself just how much Dune influenced Star Wars and holy sh*t... It's like a total f*cking ripoff. Not only does the original trilogy take elements from the Dune books, but the prequels do as well.

Like Anakin having visions of Padme dying from childbirth and even the fact that he has twins. The sand planet of Tatooine is literally just like the planet in Dune. There's an evil emperor. One of the characters mirrors Han Solo. Paul Atreides is a messianic figure just like Anakin. The whole Jedi Mind Trick is just The Voice from Dune, not The Force. Even the names Paul and Luke are biblical names and they both have weird sci-fi last names, which I always found strange about Luke in Star Wars.

While I didn't really enjoy Dune too much, I hear it's quite faithful to the book and it's only half the story which I've seen people say was a bit of a necessary slow burn that worked better in the book than on film as it's mostly all just political setup to the more interesting 2nd half which sounds very familiar... Man, here I thought George Lucas was a genius. Regardless, I feel far too invested now so I'll definitely check out the 2nd film whenever that happens. The rest of the series sounds quite insane too from what I've read. But I definitely appreciate the fact that they were able to properly adapt this story on film with proper technology and less comprise as it's been long considered unadaptable.

I actually recently became an AMC A-Lister. So I've been going to the movies quite frequently and honestly, it's a huge money saver. I figured, I go to the movies nearly every month for Marvel or DC films alone, and tickets are already quite expensive. Why not just pay essentially 2 tickets a month and see as many movies as you want? I've been watching a lot of stuff I wouldn't have originally paid a ticket for and it's honestly been quite cool. Gonna watch Ghostbusters Afterlife later today and I already got tickets for House of Gucci later this week. Both movies I wouldn't have seen in theaters otherwise, and that's after having seen Shang-Chi and Eternals earlier this month for 99 cents.

 

[Ikawaru]

Man, here I thought George Lucas was a genius.

Hardly. The only reason 'Star Wars' was such a smash hit was because the producers of the film actually altered Lucas' original vision to make it more viewer friendly. If Lucas had 100% control of of the films production it would have come off as very weird and outlandish to the average viewer and would have been easily forgotten.

Fun fact: Alan Ladd Jr. was 20th Century Fox's executive at that time and he actually greenlit many projects that would come off as strange to the average suit but in fact turned into massive classics like 'Alien', 'Star Wars', and 'Blade Runner' among others. 'Star Wars' was the oddball there because it came very close to being shut down but Ladd actually allowed it to finish production, provided some things were altered. The result was a commercial smash hit and a classic example of 'accidental genius' that shocked everyone involved in the films production.

 

[bSTAR_182]

You and I are on the same wave with the Bond flicks @Turo602. Other than Craig’s Bond movies I’ve only seen a couple of the Pierce Brosnan movies growing up. Golden Eye being the one that stands out the most (along with 007 for Nintendo 64 being just the best thing). That’s the extent of my knowledge on the whole series so very interesting to hear all of that.

I did read in a recent article about how Daniel Craig’s Bond has more emotional attachments to the women in his life than any of the other Bonds which I can actually appreciate and really loved that they played that up for the last movie.
Really excited to revisit the previous films now.



All I‘ve heard are great things on Dune and when I heard that it actually inspired Star Wars and has a grander story to tell, its only peeked my curiosity to see it especially on the big screen.

I actually ended seeing the new Ghostbusters Afterlife last night instead though. I enjoyed the way they carried on the series with this one.

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It was pretty cool how they still featured Harold Ramis- I loved seeing the 4 of them stand together at the end.

It was full of cheeky humor just like the originals.
Paul Rudd also felt very appropriate for this movie.

 

[Turo602]

In regards to Dune, I think it's definitely worth watching on the big screen. But as someone who didn't know anything about Dune and just saw the trailers, the movie wasn't what I was expecting it to be at all. It even says it's Dune: Part 1 which I feel was just kinda sprang on the audience who were expecting to just watch one film.

I think Dune fans are going to get the most out of it but your average viewer might find it boring and feel out of the loop with those saying it's great. It is a very long and drawn out film and doesn't really follow the three act structure and feels like it ends after its logical conclusion. But again, if you're someone who has read the book, you'll definitely get a lot more out of it.

Yeah, Ghostbusters was fun. I actually revisited the first movie last week and saw the 2nd one for the first time too before watching Afterlife and I hate to say it but, I don't get it. I don't understand the craze and phenomenon for Ghostbusters. I think it's a cool concept and the theme song kicks ass, but was it really executed that great? I feel like the cartoon was probably better executed from what I've heard about it so maybe that contributed a lot to its popularity.

But this is just one of those 80s things that I just feel kinda out of the loop with. Maybe you had to be there for it to really resonate with you. I actually ended up enjoying this new film a lot more overall and really appreciated how they went about the entire film in general in regards to the fandom's general opinion of a Ghostbusters 3, especially that ending.

 

[bSTAR_182]

It’s honestly been a minute since I watched the originals. I know I saw Ghostbusters 2 more than the first film though and loved it growing up. Maybe it was the cast that really stuck out for everyone though?
Plus it was the 80s so I guess I see where it stood out amongst other flicks especially in the way of comedy.

One thing I will say though, and I say this knowing damn well that I have always enjoyed seeing kids being kids in shows and movies, is that I’m getting tired of the overplayed child nerds saving the day storyline. I felt like I was watching more Stranger Things rather than Ghostbusters.
If they carry on with the series, I’d rather them move forward with characters/actors like Paul Rudd.
Which makes me think how disappointing it is that the 2016 Ghostbusters flopped so hard. I personally haven’t watched it in it’s entirety - always caught it on TV at weird times - but it never seemed that bad from what I did see… might have to watch the full thing before I say anymore though but it seemed like it had a decent cast of funny ladies.

 

[Ikawaru]

One thing I will say though, and I say this knowing damn well that I have always enjoyed seeing kids being kids in shows and movies, is that I’m getting tired of the overplayed child nerds saving the day storyline.

Same. Child nerds are fun and all but then they grow up to be Incels and other unpleasant personalities.

 

[Turo602]

It’s honestly been a minute since I watched the originals. I know I saw Ghostbusters 2 more than the first film though and loved it growing up. Maybe it was the cast that really stuck out for everyone though?
Plus it was the 80s so I guess I see where it stood out amongst other flicks especially in the way of comedy.

One thing I will say though, and I say this knowing damn well that I have always enjoyed seeing kids being kids in shows and movies, is that I’m getting tired of the overplayed child nerds saving the day storyline. I felt like I was watching more Stranger Things rather than Ghostbusters.
If they carry on with the series, I’d rather them move forward with characters/actors like Paul Rudd.
Which makes me think how disappointing it is that the 2016 Ghostbusters flopped so hard. I personally haven’t watched it in it’s entirety - always caught it on TV at weird times - but it never seemed that bad from what I did see… might have to watch the full thing before I say anymore though but it seemed like it had a decent cast of funny ladies.

I was just talking about this today with my brother. I thought the ending, at least if you stayed for the after credits scene, seemed to hint at the possibility of a new cast of Ghostbusters. The kids didn't really strike me as Ghostbusters as they happened to be involved out of pure circumstance and kids going around busting ghosts for a living would be pretty stupid anyway.

But I definitely do like the idea of Paul Rudd being a future Ghostbuster and would also like to see Chris Rock as well like Dan Aykroyd wanted at one point. I wouldn't be against Kristen Wiig returning either. But it does definitely seem like they could be straying away from Afterlife which seemed to serve the purpose of addressing Harold Ramis' death before moving on with anything which I think was the smart thing to do.

 

[bSTAR_182]

Spoiler

I only saw the bit with Sigourney Weaver right when the credits started but didn’t stay till the very end after.

I actually really love the idea of Chris Rock joining the crew as well as Kristin Wiig returning!

 

[Turo602]

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I only saw the bit with Sigourney Weaver right when the credits started but didn’t stay till the very end after.

I actually really love the idea of Chris Rock joining the crew as well as Kristin Wiig returning!

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The post credit scene started with a deleted scene from the first movie where Janine gives Egon some coin and then it transitions to her holding the coin in the present day and then interviewing Winston who now owns a successful business and reveals he's been helping the other's financially and even saved the firehouse as he has plans to do something with the Ghostbusters and then the screen pans to the red containment thingy from the first movie with a red light flashing on it.

 

[Turo602]

Recently finished watching the 2017 DuckTales reboot on Disney+. I caught some of it on TV when it originally aired because of my nephew and it intrigued me enough to give it a full series watch and I was actually really surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

I'd say it's up there with something like Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated as far as reboots go. It got me invested enough to dig into some Duck lore early enough during my viewing that I actually ended up catching a lot of references to the original comics as well as its many callbacks to the original show and even the DuckTales video game on NES.

It's hard to find good cartoons these days, unless I'm just not looking hard enough. But this one was definitely made with a lot of passion for the material while tastefully modernizing it. I especially like the writing and season long story arcs which keep you invested throughout their various adventures as it adds some necessary depth to what could have easily become a nonsensical adventure of the day type of show. It's actually genuinely funny and the characters are very endearing too.

It's a shame though Disney hasn't put more stock into this iteration of DuckTales. I have no idea why it ended, but certain plot points did feel a little rushed towards the end. It had a solid run and a proper finale but I don't think it was really showing any signs of dwindling for it to be cancelled.

The show had many cameos and episodes dedicated to characters from other Disney works, like Darkwing Duck, who maintained a strong presence throughout the show's run and even had a backdoor hour long pilot that went nowhere as they currently have plans for an entirely different Darkwing Duck show on Disney+... Other characters like Goofy, The Rescue Rangers, and Kit Cloudkicker from TaleSpin were featured to various degrees, giving the impression of a larger connected universe and it's just been swept under the rug for no good reason.

Wouldn't be surprised if they end up doing a stupid Teen Titans Go! or ThunderCats Roar type of show next. They'll probably even call it DuckTales Woo-oo! Ah sh*t, it's too perfect so it'll probably happen now.

 

[bSTAR_182]

Saw Dune last night and really enjoyed this one. It’s like a darker and slightly more realistic Star Wars that feels more focused.
The settings and technology featured in this movie were really awesome and more thought out. It was really neat to see some of the technology mimic the different ecosystems of the planet.
Then of course there’s the cast of well known and fantastic actors, and that soundtrack- phenomenal. Really excited to see where the sequel goes with the story.

 

[KManX89]

I finally got around to watching Ghostbusters: Afterlife a few days ago, I really enjoyed it. I really dug Carrie Coon's performance as the mom. She was great in Gone Girl and she showed she can carry a movie as the lead here. Strangely enough, Gone Girl was the only other thing I saw her in before this movie, but yeah, her career should definitely take off after this. I also liked the quirky banter with Paul Rudd, who is also great, as usual. You can tell chunks of the plot was forced around them hooking up despite her clearly being out of his league and even being weirded out by him initially, but by the end of the movie, it all ties together perfectly, and it subtly implies they might still have a "thing".

As for the kids, they're very well-fleshed out and given plenty to do with their share of funny jokes to boot, but I'll agree that their whole Ghostbusting was contrived and happened purely by chance or because the plot needed it to. There's also not a whole lot of Ghostbusting in the movie, which I guess makes sense seeing how the original Ghostbusters have long since moved on, but I would've liked to see more of what we came to see in the first place. It also doesn't do new fans who've never seen the original a whole lot of favors because it randomly throws in references to 1984 and just expects you to know them without really filling in the blanks. There's some small issues with pacing in the third act as well, but it was alleviated with a VERY satisfying ending that'll no doubt tick longtime fans' nostalgia.

4/5. Not quite up to par with the first one, but far better than GBII. Oh, and I still haven't watched that 2016 one yet, but I do know it starts with a queef joke from watching some reviews on YouTube... because of course it does.

 

[bSTAR_182]

Started watching Cowboy Bebop both the 1998 anime as well as the new live action series.

I never really got into anime except for Sailor Moon as a kid, but I’m really enjoying the themes of this series. Love the cowboy-bounty hunter theme mixed in with space and advanced technology. But I also really enjoy the older spaceships and rough cities featured in the show. It brings a sort of familiarity to the concept of space travel and terraforming. I’m only 5 episodes in but very entertaining overall.

I’m only one episode in with the live action series but I really liked it. So far I think that have a sold cast that has me looking forward to watching more.

 

[bSTAR_182]

Ted Lasso - it’s such a sweet and wholesome show revolving around the human condition. Can’t wait for season 3!

 

[KevinStriker]

Watching someone discovering an art pop masterpiece.

Reaction videos are largely my "guilty pleasure" YouTube genre.

 

[bSTAR_182]

I'm about halfway through The Shrink Next Door and what a great show so far. IDK why I'm a little surprised at it being based on true events and that a shrink would be this manipulative but greed and corruption is everywhere I guess...
This is the most serious performance I've seen Will Ferrell take on (granted he still brings his goofy charm) and I'm here for it. Paul Rudd is amazing as always too... My favorite character is definitely Phyllis though. Great cast and interesting story all around.