Tuned in to Random Acts of Kindness!

>>1018
That's a good one.

>>1018
spirited away was a fun movie! i liked its story. plus, the scenes had a cool and calm feeling to them. the ending didn't make much sense, though...

I watched Dune (1984) mainly to watch the original before I watch the latest one and the sequel.

Cool movie although I was a tad confused with some plot points, but I guess that's what happens when a world with, what I'm assuming is rich lore is dumped on you in like 3 minutes and you're just kinda meant to take it along with a big book being made into a 2 hour movie. Some of the actor choices were very interesting. Kyle MacLachlan as Paul is always the one I remember but Jürgen Prochnow (Captain in Das Boot) and Patrick Stewart being in there was really surprising. Not to mention, fucking Sting.

Set design was on point and looks really cool and "out there", something I miss from that period of time. The CG effects were both incredibly crude but also kinda stylish because of how crude they were. The movie had a weird fighting style where they'd activate a blocky translucent brown shield that'd envelope their body and they'd fight with knives and it was strange to see but also somewhat quaint.

I wonder how the new Dune will be, it'd be interesting to compare them since they're about 40 years apart.

Also hearing, what I believe was an electric guitar used in a sort of holy and grand light was actually kinda cool. I've never really heard that instrument be used in that way. It'd be like replacing hymns in a track with an electric guitar twang instead

>>1018
Great movie, first Ghibli thing I saw I think.

>>1025
As dumb as it sounds I can never watch Wall-E. It destroyed me when I first watched it and then again four years later when I rewatched it. It just makes me think about how lonely I am.

>>1038
>I watched Dune (1984) mainly to watch the original before I watch the latest one and the sequel.
Check out the Spicediver edit if you haven't seen it. It rearranges the structure of the movie and adds in parts from the extended cut and deleted scenes too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faHQA_0d9Mo
I would recommend that any newcomer to Dune start with the theatrical cut just to understand the reception it got when it came out. Dune is a movie close to my heart, but it's also something of a train wreck.
>The CG effects were both incredibly crude but also kinda stylish because of how crude they were. The movie had a weird fighting style where they'd activate a blocky translucent brown shield that'd envelope their body and they'd fight with knives and it was strange to see but also somewhat quaint.
I don't think there were any computer effects in the movie. The special effects for me are one of the weak points of the movie though, like the blocky shields and the scene with the navigator folding space. Another thing that irritates me is the "ornithopters" not moving their wings at all.
>Also hearing, what I believe was an electric guitar used in a sort of holy and grand light was actually kinda cool. I've never really heard that instrument be used in that way. It'd be like replacing hymns in a track with an electric guitar twang instead
People say the way electric guitars were used in the music is cheesy, but I've always really liked the soundtrack. It's the only thing I've ever heard from Toto that I've liked.

Camp X-Ray (2014)

Kristen Stewart is a camp guard at Guantanamo Bay where she develops as unlikely relationship with an Arab detainee. I really liked this movie. Its a subtle and patient retelling of Romeo and Juliette for the GWoT era. Too bad it fumbles the ending with a predictable conclusion.

The storytelling here is mostly visual with Stewart's Private Amy Cole and Detainee #262 talking through a cell door or a wire fence. Stewart's acting really carries the film. She's a small town girl believing what she's doing is right, forced to be a stoic automaton but resented by her male colleges for being too frigid. Ali is the cell block's problem prisoner. A literal shit stirrer who's jovial, bookish attitude betrays a rebellious spirit and stubborn refusal to play along with house rules.

Once Cole's feigned stoicism and Ali's hostility give way to mutual affection and small acts of kindness but there's a realization that its all forlorn. Fellow guards scorn her getting too friendly with an inmate and hate him for flirting with her. Both are trapped in their roles as prisoner and guard. This is Guantanamo and this is war. It will never blossom into a real relationship and they have no future together. It tugs at the heart strings and feels genuinely tragic.

I enjoyed it. The only downside is the last quarter of the film where the subtlty is ditched for more a more conventional and dramatic sequence that's way too predictable. Really wish they'd spent more time polishing the screenplay.

>>1018
Im watching all the star wars movies in chronological order with a friend of mine. We got through the first two prequel movies so far. They honestly arent nearly as bad as people say they are. The politics are really interesting, and make the world feel more real and deep. The battle on geonosis is really, really cool and I like the more serious nature of both the clones and the droids in these movies than in the modern clone wars cartoon.

>>1218
Despite knowing the prequels may not be that great, I love watching them.

>>1225
You have no idea how desperate I am for good star wars content. The prequels have SOUL and thats what matters. With the exception of Andor and Rogue 1, all the disney stuff is complete garbage. The arrogance to just toss out all the legends stuff, and what did they replace it with? Gravity-based bombers in space, luke skywalker as a grumpy old loser drinking blue space titty milk, contradictory lore focused on some ideological agenda instead of actual storytelling, dave filoni's endless self-insert OCs. I don't understand it, all they had to do was adapt the thrawn trilogy. It was there, it was already written. Same with the games too. I want to learn how to animate just so I can make my own EU content and ignore it all.

>>1230
I did feel that despite all the faults of the prequels, there was indeed soul put into it. I liked Episode 7, but I remember leaving the theater on episode 8 feeling confused about what I had just watched. Star Wars isn't treated as a story anymore. It's only treated as a product and it shows.

>>1232
I think a lot of people liked episode 7 more than they would have normally, because it was the first time in over a decade that a star wars movie had been released. So the hype, and the feeling that star wars could never die, and the fact that it was basically just a rehash of things people already liked, all combined to inflate a lot of peoples impressions. People coming out of the theatre and saying "wow that was great" werent talking about the movie, but rather the excitement of getting more star wars. And in under a month a large portion of that discourse very quickly soured, far more than what happened with the phantom menace. With episode 8, I was bored and even annoyed with what I was seeing, and I think that sentiment is shared by the vast majority of fans (which is why, as is often rumored, solo lost money).

At the very least, its apparent that the folks running the show at lucasfilm and even disney at large lack the necessary talent, skill, passion, and general experience to actual create anything worthwhile, much less good. Coupled with the increasing and overt idealogically focused messaging to the exclusion of all else, and what you end up with is the pure distilled corporate slop thats getting drizzled nonstop into theatres everywhere. Its probably also why every movie now costs 200-300 million dollars to make, despite generally being of such poor quality and failing to bring in audiences so consistently. Its an incredible achievement, really, to not only sink a franchise previously thought to be unstoppable (twice! the other being marvel) but to also destroy the reputation of nearly every single major movie studio and additionally nearly bring a permanent end to an industry almost as old as the medium itself. It's the kind of momentously damaging act that could only be achieved through stupidity, because masterminds capable of such things only exist in the fiction these hacks wish they could write.

>>1233
I can only speak for myself, I watched Episode 7 for the first time with skepticism but genuinely enjoyed it, and still rewatch it. Now that you mention it, I remember my frustration while watching 8. The ideology and "the message" sicks out like a sore thumb and turns their movies and shows into an extended glorified infomercial.

I feel the same way about the downhill spiral of this media, though I wonder if the real problems lay in the leadership and organization of people and resources in such a way that makes the whole process backwards. Either way, it's frustrating to see people walk in and leach and distort works of passion into their own ends.

>>1234
When you look into why movies cost so much nowadays the answer is primarily in two areas: movie stars and extravagent services. Movie stars are starightforward, if you pay someone 80 million dollars to be in your movie the budget is obviously going to be high. This is basically never worth it, because there isnt a single movie star who will make you back the money you spent on them. Extravagent services are in a similar vein, you have to house the big shot movie star in the fancy hotel and everyone flies first class etc. but also things like $100,000 non-refundable catering for outdoor shoots during stormy weather, or armies of hr ladies and diversity consultants and other people who dont do anything really but cost $100,000 in salary alone. Its a mixture of incompetent, wasteful spending and also paying lots of money for things that arent actually needed. And of course, the art suffers for it. I'm convinced hollywood needs to crash and burn for this issue to get fixed. Indie projects being successful, like the amazing digital circus recently, gives me hope though. The popularity of stuff like edgerunners as well and other normalfag-tier anime will hopefully sway the market in the right direction soon. If not, then at the very least indie creators can slowly take over and we can get all the cool stuff from fans of the IPs instead.

I watched Mutant Girls Squad yesterday. I wasn't sure what to expect, it was very bloody and unexpectedly funny.

i just watched an improvised musical from off-book! it was... meh. it kind of makes me want to make a movie myself, though! maybe one day...
>>1236
that sounds like a cool movie! i think i'll get around to watching it one day. and what is that thing on her hand?

>>1235
I'm convinced hollywood needs to crash and burn for this issue to get fixed.
Probably. Unless there's a radical change the problems will only spiral in on themselves. Indeed, much of the good stuff we see today are indie content. It may not be professional work, but it has soul. I wonder though, will people recognize and appreciate the indie works, or only settle for the corporate products?

>>1240
hollywood has loads of money to spend on advertising. it's not surprising that they continue to be popular. most indie creators don't have this.

>>1245
Its definitely true that the indie scene is growing at breakneck pace though.

>>1240
I want them to, even if it isn't necessary, for how badly they've mangled nearly everything I cherished in childhood. How much damage they've done to the world through the systematic obliteration of all our modern legends, all our heroes, all our myths and stories out of pure vanity.

>>1254
>I want them to, even if it isn't necessary, for how badly they've mangled nearly everything I cherished in childhood.
what do you mean? are you talking about the sequels of your favorite movies?

I found this old collection of VHS tapes and decided to watch them. I got through about 4 tapes. They were mostly Japanese low budget and TV movies. All untranslated. I don't speak Japanese so I had no idea what was going on but some were interesting to just look at. One seemed to be about two guys put in a sealed room with a prison glass divider. On the other side of the glass is a hot girl who's possessed by an evil spirit. The idea is that the guys will fight over her and the evil spirit will leave her body and possess one of them instead.

>>1272
I wonder if any of them are like borderline lost media

>>1277
Good point

>>1272
Pics?

I watched The Last Samurai (2003) while on a plane to Japan.
It was a nice watch with a bit of that being embraced wish fullfillment of fitting in with a foreign culture. It was certainly a journey. If you like Japan I think you'd like the movie, though it does start off a bit raunchy (damn yankees!).

I watched the Toxic Avenger from 1984 last night, after I saw they apparently made a reboot but only showed it at selected screenings last year (looks like it's too grotesque for publishing or something)

The movie was a fun ride but definitely went for shock value a lot, I can see why they would have trouble releasing the new movie. A poor guy gets bullied by everyone around him until he falls into a toxic waste container. This deforms him badly but also makes him superstrong, plus he now has an immense instinct for justice, so much that he beats up bad guys and finishes them off with the mop he carries around. I thought it was funny that they made him grunt like a monster, yet when he speaks he does so with a calm gentleman-voice. Just for the experience about how different movies were made back then it was worth it, and I'll need to check out other campy horror movies now.

Recently I watched Alien. I have not seen it before. It was pretty good. It had an amazing atmosphere but sometimes the characters behaved so amateurishly, it was a bit hard to watch without complaining. The plot explained some of the odd behaviour but I don't feel like it did justify all.

>>2244
I agree that sometimes they make dumb decisions, but that's part of the fun! I personally prefer the second movie to the first, still you have to give them credit for having such an impact on things that came after. Like Metroid or Half-Life are inspired by it, and I think in general the franchise was one of the main reasons monster movies were taken seriously.

>>1018
"If..." is my favourite film. Malcolm Mcdowell is the greatest actor of all time and the setting of an english boarding school is kino, watching this with my Dad who grew up in a similar setting was sick.

Just rewatched the original star wars trilogy. Really mediocre with return of the jedi being straight bad. As a kid I was only into it because it was a cultural touchstone, and now I've got nothing tying me to it.

>>2252
Return of the Jedi is almost as forgettable as Attack of the Clones.

>>1018
'max max: fury road' was awesome!! the action scenes were kickass! and i liked the really bright and detailed lighting! it made me feel like i was on a post-apocalyptic wasteland...

I watched Memories of Murder (2003) directed by Bong Joon Ho. A South Korean film about detectives hunting for a serial killer in a rural village. This film is very subtle and famous for its surprise ending. There's lots of clever visual story telling, interesting twists, and a fair amount of humor along the way. While your generic cop thriller slowly reveals a hidden truth via science and reason, this movie goes in entirely the opposite direction by turning the detective genre on its head.

Whereas classic detectives like Sherlock Holmes use reason to expose the truth, in Memories of Murder the detectives' rationality obscures reality. They misread clues, see patterns that don't exist, and resort to torture to brute force their theories when they fail to pan out. Rationality is exposed as arbitrary, violent, and incapable of grasping reality. In this sense, Memories of Murder is a piece of post-modern anti-detective cinema.

There's also a subtle layer of political commentary: the South Korean state is constantly carrying out civil defense drills and crushing protests in the name of national security, yet this almighty institution is incapable of protecting ordinary people from a simple murderer. Korean modernity is on trial here. Bureaucracy can't solve social problems, reason doesn't bring psychological comfort, and industrial development creates a level of anonymity and social breakdown that makes it possible for a killer to hide in a crowd.

Highly recommend this movie.

I usually hate Holocaust movies, but The Zone of Interest is really up there. The setup is fairly simple: its about the Hoess family who live in the shadow of Auschwitz where their father serves as the camp commandant. Its not like I can add much to what's already been said about it, the film is cinematically innovative and despite their being no real gore, no real action, or pornographic visuals of suffering that suffocate most Holocaust movies, its manages to be uncomfortable. The Hoess family are painfully ordinary and the immense suffering taking place just over the wall is pretty banal aspect of their lives, a topic of dinner table conversation or watercooler talk like any other job. There's some brief moments where it falls into the typical shoah porn genre tropes, but its brief and not really glaring enough to be annoying. The cinéma vérité style might turn off some people.

Evil Dead Burn (2026)
At first I found myself enjoying this film. The gore and brutality is initially satisfying and while not as schlocky as other entries in the series, it has its fair share of well placed humor. Sadly, the horror scenes quickly descend into shots of people aimlessly wrestling in different areas of the house. The most disturbing aspect of this movie is the plot, and I don't mean that in a good way. The theme here is domestic violence. The MC's spouse is depicted as an abuser, but this is retroactively established through convenient flashbacks and not depicted with much nuance. One character, the MC's mother in law, works hard to care for the family's dementia riddled grandmother in the midst of deadite attacks. This should make her sympathetic or at least warm us to a character that's quite bad tempered, instead the film works hard to portray her as a villain whose entire family deserves their grisly end because of one abusive son. Guilt by association is wheeled out to justify family annihilation. This vindictive and anti-social streak dulls the horror. Its hard to root for these characters when they are all depicted as shitty assholes who are gonna die anyway. I left the theater hating this movie.