[Movies] Talk about the last movie you saw 2: Electric Threadaloo

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Celt Z said:
I wanted to respond to this sooner, but I've been stupid-busy this week. I think, over-all, this showed It could be a good movie, and streets ahead of the original mini-series, but a GREAT adaptation would probably be a mini-series in the style of HBO, or maybe Netflix or Hulu. I'm still glad they removed some of the clunkier parts of the book (the orgy, the Ritual of Chud*, the Lovecraftian elements), but they took out so much of the characterization that makes the story so appealing. I really wanted Mike and Stan to have personalities instead of fading into the background. I'm disappointed Ben was whittled down to a shadow of himself, and Bev became "the girl" rather than a full-fledged Loser like the rest. But I really miss them bonding over the outside forces that were just as threatening to them as It. In the book, Henry was a psychotic and serious threat to the kids, maybe even as much as It, and the movie didn't have the time to build that up . I miss how they formed a family because their own were, more or less, poisoned by a combination of It's influence and Derry's indifference. It made the adult half so much more compelling, which is something I'm really iffy about at this point.

But I really wish It could be adapted in a way to really show how twisted and ferocious Pennywise could truly be. The miniseries couldn't do it, being network tv, and the movie didn't have that kind of time to devote to it. To say he's a scary clown isn't enough. I'd really like to see it in a way that builds atmosphere around his scenes, building on the deepest fears of his victims and crawling back into the sewers. This is one King book where I think the devils in the details need to be explored, even if other parts get trimmed.

(*What does it say about this stupid ritual that after reading the book 4 times, I always forget about it until someone else mentions it? It's like, "Oh yeah, the tongue thing... I don't get it.")
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As representing the book, I completely agree with you, and there are many things gone that are heavy losses. I guess I'm just happy they made it a movie that at least on its own is a good movie.

I hope they change more for the sequel. If it isn't going to be the book, which at this point it can't be, I'd rather it fully embrace being its own thing. My friend who saw it with me and neither read the book nor remembers the miniseries, had her own perspective from the climax. Seeing the tower, the Pennywise ads, etc, she said after the movie "I wonder what happened." And that made me think, yeah, what if they ditch the Lovecraftian stuff entirely, new origin story, etc. They probably won't deviate that far, considering Bev saw the deadlights in the movie, but we'll always have the book. I'm okay with the movies doing as needed to be worthwhile in their own right.

Frank said:
You're making me want to make the trek into that book, despite not being the biggest fan of King's prose.
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There's some pages you'll want to ... skip near the end. Like, three or four of them out of the 1100 to 1200 page book.
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

Frank said:
You're making me want to make the trek into that book, despite not being the biggest fan of King's prose.
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It's not a flawless book, but it's one of my favorites. I think the good outweighs the bad. But I think the development it gives each kid, and even some of the villains, is why it's so good. All of them are different flavors of "loser", but they find common ground. Plus, there's a lot of things that would honestly be hard stuff into a movie or a limited series.
I say give it a try, but understand there's going to be parts that are a little unnecessary or eye-rolling dumb. The usual King stuff. ;)
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

After the opening clown attacks, the book doesn't really pick up on first read until the point in the movie when Ben is leaving on the last day of school. That's roughly 100 pages into the book.

Only reason those starter pages are better on a later read through is because then you know and care about the characters, so it's at least moderately interesting seeing how they are on the night of the phone calls.

IT is my favorite book. That doesn't mean it's the best book I've ever read. :p
 
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Yoshimickster

Yoshimickster

Night of the living dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the dead-ALL-in a row, just awesome. Also saw John Russo speak, and I'm ninety percent sure the IHP host will be regretting calling him George accidentally.
 
Frank

Frank

I haven't hated a movie as much as Kingsman 2 since Transformers 2. I almost walked out of it several times. It was pure misery.

I need some time to gather my thoughts on why I hated that march of insulting garbage. It was such an onslaught of crass trash.
 
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Dave

Dave

Staff member
I've heard that if you liked the anal sex reference of the first movie then you'll LOVE this one.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Dave said:
I've heard that if you liked the anal sex reference of the first movie then you'll LOVE this one.
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I didn't hate the anal sex reference, maybe I won't hate Kingsmen 2.

But I probably will, especially since X character is in it, and wasn't even hidden in the trailers, wtf is up with that?
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
I mean, I didn't HATE it, but I thought it was there to be intentionally jarring and unexpected. If the whole movie is going to be like that, it loses its desired effect and becomes tiresome.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
I personally thought it was stupid that they added that. It totally detracted from the rest of the movie. Had they just had him go in and then close the door, then cut to Merlin going, "Oh. OH!" it would have been fun and in keeping with the aesthetic of the rest of the movie.
 
Frank

Frank

I didn't care for it, but it didn't ruin the first movie for me. The second movie is just a train of boring, miserable nonsense punctuated by attempts to capture the magic of the original film's church fight scene and in the process, missing the mark entirely.

Here's some disjointed reasons I hated this piece of shit movie. Spoilers here and there.

Roxy/Lancelot is killed off unceremoniously right off the bat. Hi character from the first movie, fuck off, you're not important enough to play with the big boys.
Merlin sacrifices himself in the most God awful way possible that's COMPLETELY nonsensical and with him dying, they lose the funnest character in the two movies.
The Elton John cameo becomes less of a cameo and eventually he becomes a major part of the movie in a run-on joke that stops being funny IMMEDIATELY.
Julianne Moore's villain scenes felt like they were filmed over the weekend on the same set and her plan was so God damn stupid it hurt me inside.
I don't know why Channing Tatum was even in the movie, since he's incapacitated almost immediately.
Halle Barrie's role is best left ignored, just like her character was by all them menfolk around her.
The middle of the movie fingerbang scene was one of the worst things I've ever seen in a movie. The entire thing from start to finish made me cringe so hard that I almost turned inside out.
The music was a horrible, audience deafening assault. Seriously, it's one of the loudest movies I've ever winced through.
They brought back Colin Firth's character in the fucking dumbest, intelligence insulting, seriously, Transformers 2 dumb, way possible.
The fact that these world spanning intelligence agencies that were founded at the same time didn't even know the other agency existed stretched even this films flimsy grasp of believability. They never once bumped into each other in the hundreds of years they've existed? Not once. Not once saving the world? Fuck off.
Personal tastewise, this film was low brow trash of the highest order. Gross trash. It was cynical, disgusting trash.
Pedro Pascal was actually a high point. A fun character who is betrayed by a nonsense heel turn before being ground into literal hamburger and there's not a God damn word from his fellow agents about anything.
The loser yuppie from the first film turns out to be a main villain. He gets a bionic commando arm. He's a shitty joke, but even he's more important than Roxy.
Some folk are claiming since we didn't actually see her die that she might not actually be dead. WHO FUCKING CARES? They barely mention her again through the rest of the movie. The building she's in explodes, she's never seen again. It doesn't matter if she's actually dead, she's effectively dead for this movie.
Seriously, fuck this movie.
 
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mikerc

mikerc

Frank said:
I don't know why Channing Tatum was even in the movie, since he's incapacitated almost immediately
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I assume it's to set him up as the main character of Kingsman 3 since we see him at the end of the movie in London wearing a suit & bowler hat, and Eggsy is retiring due to becoming a public figure. Not that that doesn't mean you couldn't have given him something to do in this movie. Or if you wanted to do more movies but Taron Egerton doesn't want to come back you could always just not kill Roxy off. (Hmm, I wonder if the reason they'd rather have Channing Tatum as lead for the next one over Sophie Cookson is that he's male or he's 'Murrican?)
 
Gryfter

Gryfter

ThatNickGuy said:
Just watched Stephen King's Misery for the first time and...wow. WOW. Why did I wait so long to see it? The guttural violence, the cat and mouse games, the subtle and not so subtle acting.

I'll need time to think more about it, but this might rank high in my list of favourite movies now. REALLY regret not seeing it sooner.
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And to think, that the same guy who directed Misery is the same who directed Spinal Tap and When Harry met Sally.
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

Gryfter said:
And to think, that the same guy who directed Misery is the same who directed Spinal Tap and When Harry met Sally.
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And The Princess Bride! Though I suppose that gave him some practice for torture scenes. I'm not sure how I'd feel about Count Rugan asking Wesley if he was a "dirty birdie"...:confused:
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Blade Runner 2049: Very good. The plot is a bit more complicated than the first movie, but the spirit is there, and the movie presents a lot of interesting world building. A lot of unexpected choices.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Clown (2015)

Well, this was a disappointment. It takes the whole concept way too seriously, takes forever for anything good to happen, and doesn't really do anything with the "turning into a clown monster" concept. I think about movies like Trick R Treat or Krampus who take their respective concepts and run with it. Here, aside from some "Why are you still dressed like a clown?" lines, the guy could have worn any possessed costume and it would've been the exact same movie.

One major bright side to the movie is the effects. It's all practical effects and especially practical gore and body horror. If only the effects were within a better movie.
 
drifter

drifter

Zero Esc said:
Blade Runner 2049: Very good. The plot is a bit more complicated than the first movie, but the spirit is there, and the movie presents a lot of interesting world building. A lot of unexpected choices.
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Welp, I'm sold. Zero Esc I'm personally blaming you if I don't like this movie :p
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Saw IT today. Pretty damn great take on a Steven King classic.

As is traditional, the big releasea of the month at my cinema get a special drink. So for IT, we have the Pennywise's Everything Float.

- Rootbeer
- Vanilla Ice Cream
- Strawberry Glaze (For the hair...)
- Two shots of Absolut Vanilla Vodka

Actually pretty tasty this month.
 
WasabiPoptart

WasabiPoptart

ThatNickGuy said:
Just watched Stephen King's Misery for the first time and...wow. WOW. Why did I wait so long to see it? The guttural violence, the cat and mouse games, the subtle and not so subtle acting.

I'll need time to think more about it, but this might rank high in my list of favourite movies now. REALLY regret not seeing it sooner.
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Have you ever read the book? As per usual, the book is different than the movie. It's definitely one of my favorite reads though.
 
Null

Null

Blade Runner 2049

Okay, I don't know if it was just my theater, but the soundtrack needs to CALM THE FUCK DOWN. There were numerous scenes where the music made the dialogue inaudible.

Overall, a worthy sequel to the cyberpunk classic, a very good movie with a few flaws that keep it from being great.

Jared Leto is the incarnation of misogyny. Also, the character he plays in 2049 is as well.

On the other hand, there's quite a bit of female nudity and most of it is delightful, so.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

The Fog: I hadn't seen this in many years, so my memory had muddled a few parts. I forgot that Father Malone found the journal that spells out the backstory, and I really think the movie would've been stronger if that task was left to one of the protagonist narratives. I feel like this was in part from the drama behind the scenes, as I feel Debra Hill would've noticed this kind of thing and at least asked the writer to lampshade it somehow.

But that's a narrative problem in an otherwise really spooky and well-made ghost story. The sound is a big part of what makes this movie work, from John Carpenter's score to the sound design, like a moment when the fog rolls in and is so cold that the frogs, which had been unnoticed white noise, go abruptly silent.

The only unfortunate thing about watching the original again is that I remember the remake with more clarity now. They tried to fix some of the narrative stumbles in awful, hilariously stupid ways. Sometimes it's better to just leave a small flaw rather than try fixing it and break the whole thing. Though that movie would've sucked either way, because CGI is never scary.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Basket Case: Two questions: What the fuck did I just watch? and How could something so badly-acted still be this compelling?

The way it's laid out, it's better to know less than more before watching, but you really have to put up with some problems, like the brief stop-motion. I thought the story was solid though. I almost wish this would be remade because it's so unique.

That said, I was wondering around the hour and 20 mark how this was going to end.

I knew Belial wouldn't kill Duane when his hand reaches over the bed, instead pets his hair, and then I thought, "Oh, he's leaving. He realizes Duane can't have a happy life with him around, and Duane will never choose someone else over his brother, so Belial will make the choice for him."

Boy, I was fucking wrong! I could not have been more wrong! Jeeeeesus.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Just watched It Follows. I kinda dug it. Great allegory for STDs. Incredibly well shot. Interesting concept, even if it raises a lot of logistics questions (kind of like how the Gremlins rules raise many questions). I was also really confused with the final confrontation and the ending.

I'll need to think on it more before I decide whether I really liked it or not.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
Somehow, I don't think It Follows 2 will be as hilariously self-aware and in some ways superior to the first.
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It won't be, but if it was that'd be pretty ballsy. There's no bar scene in the first It Follows to expand upon. :D

I'm concerned about the potential sequel for the same reason I'm intrigued--although I'd love to have some answers to where this thing comes from, what happened to start it off, and why these different rules are in place, those answers could be completely unsatisfying or stupid, and it may just be better to let It Follows exist by itself. We just watched Christine last night, and when my wife and I were talking about it after, we both noted that it was a really good idea to never explain why the car was like that. The book might--it seems like a Stephen King thing to do--but Carpenter and co wisely left that alone and the story is stronger for it.
 
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