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Movie Thread

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Rewatched Prom Night (1980) again - It's not really a bad slasher, but as someone had astutely put it it's a combination of Carrie, Halloween, and Saturday Night Fever. So it's nothing terribly original. The disco soundtrack is actually the worst thing about this flick - the budget in this movie was so poor they couldn't afford to pay the rights for the real disco hits, so they threw their own soundtrack together in just a few days. Normally I like disco, but this poor man's disco music was just awful.

Prom Night II (1987) - Honestly the only reason I watched this at all is because this had been filmed at just about the same time I was attending high school, I wanted to see the clothes and the hair and such, the hair and fashions were predictably and accurately woeful. (The 80s - what were we thinking?!) Otherwise the movie was a total waste of time, the plot was complete nonsense. I won't even bother watching the other sequels, I've got other horror movies to watch during this Halloween season.

On a side note - I think it's funny how in the past it was okay for actors who were in their mid-twenties (or even thirties) to play high school teenage characters, I don't think this is as prevalent nowadays.
 
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Triangle (2009) horror thriller that starts out interestingly enough but the central idea is nothing new. Well filmed, adequate acting but ran out of steam before the finish. Sort of an expanded Twilight Zone episode.
I might give this a shot just because I find ships spooky anyway, and I'm looking for horror movies I haven't seen before to watch. It's the Halloween season, after all. Muahahahahahahaaah!
 
First Man (2018) about Neil Armstrong and the Apollo program. Visually very good, well acted. One of the better movies about NASA and the space program. This one had a bit more to say about the personal lives of those involved. The lack of flag waving and actually showing the US flag on the moon seemed to bother some people quite a lot. It had zero effect on the quality of the movie.
 
First Man (2018) about Neil Armstrong and the Apollo program. Visually very good, well acted. One of the better movies about NASA and the space program. This one had a bit more to say about the personal lives of those involved. The lack of flag waving and actually showing the US flag on the moon seemed to bother some people quite a lot. It had zero effect on the quality of the movie.
I really, really like The Right Stuff (the 1983 movie, not the NKOTB song), I'll have to put this on my viewing list. I didn't even know it existed, so I'm glad you mention movies I've never heard of.
 
Avatar (2009) missed this the first time round. Visually very good even though it was like watching a video game. Acting was okay but it was all about the spectacle and the story was nothing new. Entertaining enough but hardly hit the heights of Cameron's best films : the first two Terminator movies and Aliens.
 
The Right Stuff was very good as was the book but this movie is very different in tone. Can see why some didn't like it.
Unfortunately I can't access a free stream of First Man right now, so I rewatched The Right Stuff for the umpeenth time. I'm surprised with its star power and Reagan's patriotic America it did poorly at the box office, you would think people would just flock to the theaters to see it. Maybe they just didn't want to sit through over three hours of stuff they weren't necessarily interested in, who knows.

Anyhoo, despite its cheesy moments I never get bored watching it, there's just so much interesting info in that movie. Perhaps even more interesting is reading all the trivia tidbits, I can just spend hours reading about space travel and the breaking of the sound barrier and whatnot. Think I'll have to rewatch Apollo 13 now, as I recall it was pretty good as well.
 
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Apollo 13 (1995) - While the dialogue is a lot hokier, the score annoying, and the plot similar this movie still ties in nicely with its predecessor The Right Stuff. many of the characters from The Right Stuff are mentioned in Apollo 13. (Ed Harris gets to star in both, though his acting and character are much stronger in The Right Stuff.) I think The Right Stuff is a much better movie, but Apollo 13 is still worth a looky, the tense moments are truly tense.

Fun trivia tidbit - while The Right Stuff had lost money at the box office Apollo 13 had made a huge killing, something like $300 million in profits worldwide! :eek: Guess Hollywood felt the pulse of what the public wanted to see at the time.
 
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Apollo 13 (1995) - While the dialogue is a lot hokier, the score annoying, and the plot similar this movie still ties in nicely with its predecessor The Right Stuff. many of the characters from The Right Stuff are mentioned in Apollo 13. (Ed Harris gets to star in both, though his acting and character are much stronger in The Right Stuff.) I think The Right Stuff is a much better movie, but Apollo 13 is still worth a looky, the tense moments are truly tense.

Fun trivia tidbit - while The Right Stuff had lost money at the box office Apollo 13 had made a huge killing, something like $300 million in profits worldwide! :eek: Guess Hollywood felt the pulse of what the public wanted to see at the time.
Hollywood tries to make formula movies for formula profits but it rarely works that way. Sometimes it's just word of mouth that make s hit movie. No one expected Star Wars to be a hit or the Blair Witch Project and often star vehicles tank badly and end up losing money. Even the Marvel movies which generally seem to have a loyal audience have had hits and misses as have some of the Star Wars movies. People forget that the budgets for these movies are huge so the movie has to do very well to be in the black. Even the modern method of using test audiences that score the movies can't always predict a hit or miss but the studios keep trying.
 
Escape Plan (2013) - The concept was great, but Stallone's and Schwarzenegger's performances were rather anemic, and Amy Ryan looked like she didn't want to be there either. It's too bad Vincent D'Onfrio had such a small role, he looked like he was actually into it. Don't know if I'll watch the sequels, maybe if I truly run out of ideas I'll tackle them.

Lock Up (1989) - More prison escaping from Stallone, even he will admit this movie wasn't his best. The tone was just so uneven, some scenes were dragged out and some looked like they didn't even belong there. Stallone gets to do a lot of fighting though, so there's that.

Fortress (1992) - More prison escaping, this time from Christopher Lambert in this sci-fi thriller. I actually liked this movie, don't know how I feel about Lambert though. I liked him as Highlander, because, well, Highlander. But I thought he and his wife's characters in Fortress were the weakest, thankfully the rest of the supporting cast was likeable and had saved the movie. I'm actually looking forward to the sequel to Fortress, it's next on my viewing list.
 
Hollywood tries to make formula movies for formula profits but it rarely works that way. Sometimes it's just word of mouth that make s hit movie. No one expected Star Wars to be a hit or the Blair Witch Project and often star vehicles tank badly and end up losing money. Even the Marvel movies which generally seem to have a loyal audience have had hits and misses as have some of the Star Wars movies. People forget that the budgets for these movies are huge so the movie has to do very well to be in the black. Even the modern method of using test audiences that score the movies can't always predict a hit or miss but the studios keep trying.
Can't argue with any of that and I would just add a movie's popularity might have to do with the lead actors' reputations. Tom Hanks, for example, usually does well at the box office, he always plays such a nice and good guy. Many of his movies tend to be family friendly, so people already know what to expect of him, for the most part.
 
Rewatched Prom Night (1980) again - It's not really a bad slasher, but as someone had astutely put it it's a combination of Carrie, Halloween, and Saturday Night Fever. So it's nothing terribly original. The disco soundtrack is actually the worst thing about this flick - the budget in this movie was so poor they couldn't afford to pay the rights for the real disco hits, so they threw their own soundtrack together in just a few days. Normally I like disco, but this poor man's disco music was just awful.

Prom Night II (1987) - Honestly the only reason I watched this at all is because this had been filmed at just about the same time I was attending high school, I wanted to see the clothes and the hair and such, the hair and fashions were predictably and accurately woeful. (The 80s - what were we thinking?!) Otherwise the movie was a total waste of time, the plot was complete nonsense. I won't even bother watching the other sequels, I've got other horror movies to watch during this Halloween season.

On a side note - I think it's funny how in the past it was okay for actors who were in their mid-twenties (or even thirties) to play high school teenage characters, I don't think this is as prevalent nowadays.
In the '80s I wore Levis 501 and a t shirt. Now I wear whitewater shorts or Levis 514 (depending on tep) and a t shirt. :)
 
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In the '80s I wore Levis 501 and a t shirt. Now I wear whitewater shorts or Levis 514 (depending on tep) and a t shirt. :)
Some of those 80s movies are appalling on rewatch and some are suprisingly not bad. My memory plays tricks on me sometimes or as an older person my tastes have changed though not too much I don't think.

I wonder how the latest Tom Hanks movie went financially because it only got a streaming release. My brother saw it and liked it. Don't think it's on DVD yet. The new James Bond movie has been delayed again till April and the cinema owners were not happy as that would have been one of their big Christmas releases. The new Dune movies has also been delayed. I can understand their thinking.. If many cinemas are closed or closing what's the point ? They want to maximize their profits of course.
 
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Down to the bone..Vera Farmiga is consistently great

You can count on me..as I said before I went through a Laura Linney phase,that looks to have lasted @20 years..If Ozarks is truly trashed that will be sad..I hope that some network could find a way to get her on screen.
some discussion about movie making..one can only wonder if the current climate,the consumer taste is sustainable? If every movie is a 100,200+ million dollar gamble,will all studios and producers be willing and able to make the big bets? I for one am not drawn to all things Marvel and don't usually leave a theater amazed by CGI and vast technical advances..

I was born with a bladder the size of a lima bean, so while I too participated in love for Levi's 501's the button fly is not a device that is recommended for frequent bathroom emergencies..
There are a series of videos on YouTube about the rich and famous.. Spielberg, and Harrison Ford each have a video that includes early career highlights and evolution..seeing how much money people made just before and just after movie blockbuster fame is fun..
Tom Hanks has made many movies I enjoy..when I see his financial stake in his work,it's no wonder he comes off as America's nice guy
 
Down to the bone..Vera Farmiga is consistently great

You can count on me..as I said before I went through a Laura Linney phase,that looks to have lasted @20 years..If Ozarks is truly trashed that will be sad..I hope that some network could find a way to get her on screen.
some discussion about movie making..one can only wonder if the current climate,the consumer taste is sustainable? If every movie is a 100,200+ million dollar gamble,will all studios and producers be willing and able to make the big bets? I for one am not drawn to all things Marvel and don't usually leave a theater amazed by CGI and vast technical advances..

I was born with a bladder the size of a lima bean, so while I too participated in love for Levi's 501's the button fly is not a device that is recommended for frequent bathroom emergencies..
There are a series of videos on YouTube about the rich and famous.. Spielberg, and Harrison Ford each have a video that includes early career highlights and evolution..seeing how much money people made just before and just after movie blockbuster fame is fun..
Tom Hanks has made many movies I enjoy..when I see his financial stake in his work,it's no wonder he comes off as America's nice guy
Vera Farmiga was great in the Bates Motel series but she's good in everything at least the ones i have seen.
 
Have we talked about movies and how we would change them if we directed them? I think that'd be an interesting idea.
Too many movies and series are ruined by silly endings. But of course conclusions to a story are never easy and some are just written that way to provoke a sequel. Product placement I can do without also. Sometimes it's just over the top. Of course you get the funny ones like the Starbucks cup in Game of Thrones. How that was missed ..............
 
Intolerable Cruelty (2003) even a so so Coen Bros movie is still watchable. This was okay and at 95 minutes just the right length. A throwback to the old Hollywood screwball comedies. Generally I prefer the Coens dramas to their comedies but Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski were very good comedies and much better than this one.
 
Too many movies and series are ruined by silly endings. But of course conclusions to a story are never easy and some are just written that way to provoke a sequel. Product placement I can do without also. Sometimes it's just over the top. Of course you get the funny ones like the Starbucks cup in Game of Thrones. How that was missed ..............
While true I was thinking of just small things or subplots. Especially if the movie was already planned to have sequels. Like for example the prequel trilogy. With hindsight they could have added some small things or changes that would have made the movies better. Like introducing Dooku and Jango in Epi 1, Grevious hint and better Jango death in Epi 2, more of pre suit Darth Vader with some flashbacks to win he killed the Tuscan Raiders in Epi 3.

Of course for those George had a changing script, especially with Jar Jar. On a different Star Wars note, it would be amazing if they added in the fan made Darth Vader vs Obi Wan "Ben" Kenobi with some touch instead of the old and slow fight.
 
Down to the bone..Vera Farmiga is consistently great

You can count on me..as I said before I went through a Laura Linney phase,that looks to have lasted @20 years..If Ozarks is truly trashed that will be sad..I hope that some network could find a way to get her on screen.
some discussion about movie making..one can only wonder if the current climate,the consumer taste is sustainable? If every movie is a 100,200+ million dollar gamble,will all studios and producers be willing and able to make the big bets? I for one am not drawn to all things Marvel and don't usually leave a theater amazed by CGI and vast technical advances..

I was born with a bladder the size of a lima bean, so while I too participated in love for Levi's 501's the button fly is not a device that is recommended for frequent bathroom emergencies..
There are a series of videos on YouTube about the rich and famous.. Spielberg, and Harrison Ford each have a video that includes early career highlights and evolution..seeing how much money people made just before and just after movie blockbuster fame is fun..
Tom Hanks has made many movies I enjoy..when I see his financial stake in his work,it's no wonder he comes off as America's nice guy
I've seen only a handful of Farmiga's movies and can't remember much because it's been too long ago since I've seen them, but I do recall liking her in Up in the Air. I think that is a good movie overall.

On a side note - ever since college many moons ago I still wear the 501 Buttonfly, I just think they're so comfy.
 

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