What movie are you watching right now?

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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby OL » Tue Aug 16, 2016 2:56 am

Finally got around to watching the original two Tim Burton Batman flicks while listening to the commentary tracks Kevin Smith put on youtube a couple years back. Fucking double feature, back-to-back (can't remember the last time I ever watched two movies in a row like that). Of course I'd seen the movies as a kid, but it's been a long damn time, and it really is a different experience listening to Kevin Smith rattling off opinions the way he does. Always fun listening to that guy prattle on about comic stuff.
Anyway, the whole experience kind of opened my eyes to how bad the movies both are as actual renditions of Batman. In my mind they've kind of just sat in the background for years as movies that I've already accepted as being generally good, but it's funny what a slightly more aged, matured perspective can reveal to you. Never really thought about it before listening to Smith point it all out at length, but these were both pretty damn awful as "adaptations" go. Batman barely does anything Batman-esque for two whole movies. He gets his ass kicked constantly, does a lot of posing, constantly fails to spring into action when it makes the most sense, etc etc. Almost literally doesn't save anyone, doesn't actually solve any mysteries, doesn't effectively halt any crimes, and doesn't formulate any plans that make a single ounce of sense. It's almost embarrassing how poor a rendition of Batman it all is.
But as Smith points out, Tim Burton was obviously more interested in playing with the villains. Jack Nicholson's Joker is obviously great. Not much more needs to be said about that. I still maintain that it's little more than Jack Nicholson being Jack Nicholson, but giggling more and acting kooky. It's not so much a great "acting" performance, as it is just a fun and engaging screen presence to watch. He's just one of those guys. The polar goddamn opposite of Jared Leto's boring fucking Joker, that's for sure. I still think Heath Ledger's version is the best of the live-action ones either way, bit Nicholson's is still a damn joy to behold. If anything, probably the most comic-accurate in a lot of ways.
The villains from Batman Returns are odd though. I think because I saw the movie so early in life and previously didn't really have any preconceived notions about who they should be, I've always just sort of accepted them for what they are. Sure, they're basically nothing like their comicbook counterparts, but taken as some kind of "Elseworld" versions, I've always thought they were just fine. That opinion is only slightly different now. I still accept Danny DeVito's Penguin for what he is; a dirtier, far more off-putting version compared to the more common "dapper" version you usually see. But whatever, he's entertaining nonetheless. Ignoring any notions of accuracy to the comics, the idea of him with his gang of circus folk is fun. Kevin Smith really tore into it in the commentary, but I'm okay with that; he's gotta be around 15 years older than me, so he obviously first saw the movie with his own ideas about who the Penguin should be, so y'know, no harm. It's just the same as how I ripped into Suicide Squad, while an audience younger than me might really like it.
Anyway, Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman is simultaneously the best and worst thing about Batman Returns. On the worst side of things, she simply makes no goddamn sense. She gets... nibbled on by cats after dying? And comes back to life? With nine lives and automatic whip skills? There's literally no explanation given for what she's supposed to be. It's one of those things where you just have to chalk it up to Burton trying to tell a vaguely surreal, fairytale-esque story. So hey, fuck it, magic cats. Or something.
Yeah, it makes no sense.
Yet at the same time, I'd argue she gives easily the best performance in the entire flick. Sure, some of the shit she has to do is silly (namely when she's tearing up her apartment), but she does it all with such aplomb that, much like Nicholson, she's just a lot of fun to watch and listen to. Even given some particularly terrible lines of dialogue to say, she's so good at saying them that it's almost forgivable.
And Jesus, the look of her.
Not just the Catwoman costume (which I've always really liked; almost entirely black and white with red lips, like a damn Frank Miller illustration), but as Selina Kyle herself. Easily ranks as one of the top 90s blondes I'd totally fucking wreck. Ranks right up there with Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct and that chick who played Callisto in Xena. But Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns still sits right at the tippy top.

Anyway, the point is I've come to the realization that these movies are actually pretty damn bad altogether. Little logic is used in either, and in Returns specifically, the story just kind of wanders with no direction (much like this post). I still like the visual style of Returns a lot (basically once Tim Burton was given free reign to Time Burton the shit out of everything), but that doesn't save it from some really bad scripting and whatnot. And even with the overall cool style, Gotham still looks fake as hell (all filmed on sound stages after all) and barely seems populated enough to exist.
I'm still nostalgic, but I won't argue that they're "good" movies. More like guilty pleasures now.

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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby Henry Spencer » Tue Aug 16, 2016 1:59 pm

No offense but you're listening to a guy bitch about the movies the whole time and it would naturally inform what your actual opinion of the films are or what they should be (it's a Tim Burton movie for crying out loud, that guy was always just going to do what the feck he wanted to do with it anyway, fanboys like Kevin Smith be damned). If somebody is convincing you the whole time that something "sucks" then your natural response is going to be "yeah, you're right, it sucks". I still think they're a hundred times better than the crap DC movies we get nowadays, nostalgia or not. I love the gothic aesthetic of those films and the atmosphere. Plus the Danny Elfman musical score>Hans Zimmer. I much prefer Burton's films on an aesthetic level to Nolan's films even though I prefer Nolan's storylines, even if some of the dialogue is hokey at times. They're pretty equal on the characters scaling for me, except the obvious ones like Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Dent. I enjoy both Burton and Nolan's Batman films almost equally, honestly and they get frequent re-runs for me every couple of years.

I just hope Ben Affleck's films are going to be on the same level of interesting for me after how bad the latest DC films have been, I don't have much hope. I want them to be independent of the trash they have at the moment to work with and do something different rather than just retain that oh so trying hard to be "gritty" and "edgy" but failing...
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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby OL » Tue Aug 16, 2016 6:26 pm

Nah, don't get me wrong, it wasn't that Kevin Smith's opinions on them were making me think they suck or anything; I'm really not that impressionable. If anything, I'm the guy who tends to stick by it to the end if I always thought something was good to begin with. And Kevin Smith's doesn't have a lot of sway over me anyway; he thought Suicide Squad was great, for example, and I ain't biting that shit. I just think the guy is fun to listen to.
The thing is, I hadn't seen these movies in a looong time. The last time I genuinely sat down and paid direct attention to them, I was still a kid, so I'd never actually realized how downright hokey and dumb they are as a whole (particularly Returns). The cool Tim Burton-y gothic visuals do a good job of distracting from it all (I absolutely agree, that stuff is phenomenal), but in a lot of ways the movies aren't actually that far from the old 60s Batman show in terms of silliness. Penguin plays around in a miniature version of the Batmobile when he hijacks control of the real thing, for example, and it intentionally looks like a little kid on a bouncy ride outside of a grocery store. I'd totally forgotten about that stuff, but yeah, it's really not that much more embarrassing than anything from Batman Forever, which for years I'd been under the false impression was infinitely hokier than this.
Like I said, I still enjoy the movies for what they do well (mainly the visuals and the music), and I'm nostalgic for them anyway. I just realize now how cheesy they actually are, and how choppy and illogical the stories are. That stuff had never occurred to me previously, because I hadn't seriously thought about them in so long. From an adult perspective, they look a lot different to me than they did as a kid.
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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby Calshot » Tue Aug 16, 2016 8:55 pm

OL wrote: it's really not that much more embarrassing than anything from Batman Forever, which for years I'd been under the false impression was infinitely hokier than this.

So you're saying you would compare them to a kiss from a rose on the grey?

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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby OL » Tue Aug 16, 2016 9:23 pm

Well let's be fair: 1989 Batman had Batdance.
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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby MiTT3NZ » Wed Aug 17, 2016 7:19 am

The Revenant. I wanted to go to the pictures to watch it when it came out. Dodged a fucking bullet with that one though. Easily one of the worst and most boring films I've seen in my entire life.

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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby Sonikku » Wed Aug 17, 2016 2:05 pm

He got the Oscar because everybody basically felt bad for him at this point.
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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby MiTT3NZ » Wed Aug 17, 2016 9:30 pm

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Enjoyable film. Not the best Guy Ritchie film ever, but it's still better than the fucking Revenant.
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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby OL » Fri Aug 19, 2016 9:23 am

Following the Batman movies with commentary by Kevin Smith, I stumbled upon some episodes of his podcast where he watches motherfucking Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, and some episodes of Batman: TAS alongside one of the primary writing forces from the old animated series, Paul Dini (who also wrote a bunch of the comics and the first two Arkham games) and does commentary for those, and that stuff is just sublime. It's already great fun watching something I love so much and have practically memorized, but with commentary from a couple of people who love it just as much as me and actually have interesting things to say on it, it's an absolute joy. Kept me up to 4 in the damn morning listening to that stuff.

On a side note, kind of nice to find out a humble writer like Paul Dini scored himself a hot magician wife. He fucking married Zatanna, dude.

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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby Monkei » Fri Aug 19, 2016 9:34 am

^ Where can you watch that/listen to it?
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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby Calshot » Fri Aug 19, 2016 6:58 pm

OL wrote:
On a side note, kind of nice to find out a humble writer like Paul Dini scored himself a hot magician wife. He fucking married Zatanna, dude.

The best part is Zatanna is one of Dini's favorite characters, so it's like somebody told Dini "she's not real, you can't marry her" and Dini went "watch me."

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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby OL » Fri Aug 19, 2016 7:20 pm

Monkei wrote: ^ Where can you watch that/listen to it?

The podcasts are here:
Heart of Ice and Over the Edge commentaries (Batman: TAS, seasons 1 and 4 respectively) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7Sb-ERI6l0&t=1m13s
Mask of the Phantasm -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbsZyjQ7rzE&t=1m13s
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrVCyAx5bTc&t=1m13s
Christmas With the Joker, Holiday Knights (Batman: TAS seasons 1 and 4 respectively), and Comfort and Joy (Justice League season 2) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMjLSCwcV8w&t=1m13s

You have to get the actual episodes and movies elsewhere (luckily I own them all on DVD, but Batman: TAS is also free to stream on Amazon Prime if you get that service, and Justice League is on Netflix).
All I did was set my laptop next to me with the podcast on, turned on whichever episodes/movies they mention are going to be on the show on my tv, and just press play when they say you should, and it's all lined up. Fun stuff.
The podcasts are from around 2012, so they're a little old, but it's no biggie since the subject matter is pretty much timeless.

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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby Kintor » Fri Aug 19, 2016 11:50 pm

OL wrote: The podcasts are here:
Heart of Ice and Over the Edge commentaries (Batman: TAS, seasons 1 and 4 respectively) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7Sb-ERI6l0&t=1m13s
Mask of the Phantasm -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbsZyjQ7rzE&t=1m13s
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrVCyAx5bTc&t=1m13s
Christmas With the Joker, Holiday Knights (Batman: TAS seasons 1 and 4 respectively), and Comfort and Joy (Justice League season 2) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMjLSCwcV8w&t=1m13s

You have to get the actual episodes and movies elsewhere (luckily I own them all on DVD, but Batman: TAS is also free to stream on Amazon Prime if you get that service, and Justice League is on Netflix).
All I did was set my laptop next to me with the podcast on, turned on whichever episodes/movies they mention are going to be on the show on my tv, and just press play when they say you should, and it's all lined up. Fun stuff.
The podcasts are from around 2012, so they're a little old, but it's no biggie since the subject matter is pretty much timeless.

Thanks for the links OL; I might have to give these a listen later when I find the time. There's no doubt that Mask of the Phantasm is a fantastic film but I also think that Return of the Joker is seriously underrated. So I'm pleased Kevin Smith decided to a take a look at Return of the Joker.

[...]

Anyway, since this is the movie thread... Recently I watched Kubo and the Two Strings - it's easily the best film I've seen this year.

The quality of the stop motion animation is unlike anything I have ever seen before, the characters and their movements are so expressive and fluid. While the rest of the visuals are vibrant and highly detailed, the equal of anything that can be achieved with CGI. The story is also great; on the surface a streamline hero's journey, with some surprisingly emotional moments and some dark undertones. The world of Kubo is magical and wonderful, with a melancholy and sinister core lurking in the shadows.

So yeah, I implore everyone to see Kubo and the Two Strings if you get the chance. Films this special don’t happen very often, it deserves all the support that it can get.
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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby Monkei » Sat Aug 20, 2016 5:04 am

Thanks a lot!
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Re: What movie are you watching right now?

Postby AnimeGamer183 » Sun Sep 11, 2016 5:29 pm

Clear and Present Danger

I finished the Harrison Ford Jack Ryan movies, and while I think I liked Patriot Games more, I like the direction this film took Jack Ryan and his story with the corruption and cover up side of the political equation that is shown in this film. In general the Jack Ryan flicks are good fun and I think his character is unique with him being a stand up desk/office CIA worker that can go out there and kick a little ass too and is not afraid to do the right thing. Is it work watching Sum of All Fears and Shadow Recruit for those who have seen them?

Resevoir Dogs

Man it had been entirely too long since I had watched this movie. I think this is my 3rd time watching it to date, and its one of the Taratino films I kind of look over watching again (come to think of it giving Jackie Brown another watch wouldnt be a bad idea either). I think this movie really is kind of a prelude to Pulp Fiction, it has that un orthodox scene editing set up, it gives the characters back stories in the middle of the movie via cut aways, it gives the audience so little in terms of information and instead verbalizes most of it well, like it never actually shows the diamond heist and what actually happens inside. Also its a movie of many mistakes by the characters, and really just an example of a heist gone completely wrong. The opening scene at the Diner is also unforgetable very original and special film that does what many films cant, and thats just the magic of Tarantino.

Star Wars The Force Awakens

I hadnt seen it since the theaters, its my 3rd time seeing it, it premiered on Starz last night so I DVRd it. Kinda dissected it a bit more, rewound scenes watched them again or a few times to try to catch certain things and understand certain plot points more. Still like the film but still am meh about alot of the re-hashing.
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