Be Excellent To Each Other

I've seen other reviews saying that it's good. The main criticism appears to be that it isn't nearly as 'fun' as the trailer makes it out to be. It's still very much DC IS THE DARKNESS! Though it has more fun than BvS, obv.

Wonder Woman could be ace, though the trailer does make it look a bit like Capt America.

Yes, Joseph Campbell. Ever since Lucas cited him as a core inspiration for Star Wars, Hollywood have held him close to their hearts, to the exclusion of all else.

I forgot to add another golden age, the golden age of Television. At least there's that. And with it I can see trouble for Hollywood up ahead. I heard tell that the big actors out there are expressing dissatisfaction with the unvarying scripts and punishing spectacles. And there's only so many Avenger sequels I can see them being happy with appearing in unless they are allowed to get their teeth into some genuinely different and interesting roles. Meanwhile, a ways ahead there's the threat of a talent gap as younger talented actors might begin to hew closer to television where they can be assured of better roles. Sure, they'll be happy to pick up the big paychecks with the odd franchise film, but television represents a solid ongoing wage in audiences that are increasingly bigger than films. I'm already pretty convinced that the good scriptwriters are sticking to TV, or at the least if they're trying film they become so hopelessly compromised by the studio system that the film ends up the same as written by some hack.

I mean I can see the bind Hollywood is in. The DVD market has gone and Blu-Ray can't last forever. Online streaming doesn't really favour smaller, obscurer films because people find it harder to browse and take chances, unlike in a video store, and it makes it more difficult to a studio to target their recommendations. So Hollywood falls back on the big obvious crowd-pleasers. It used to be that you'd chance so many break-evens and flops for a big breakout hit. Now the IP franchise is firmly entrenched, no studio executive wants to take the chance of being fired. If a film fails they can at least point to the spreadsheets and say, "Look at the name recognition this thing charted. Not my fault for green-lighting this, see?" Thusly everyone up and down the chain can pass it off as an act of God. So long as they're grabbing bankable properties and Orci and Kurtzman for every bloody film, they can defend themselves against the shareholders.

And so film largely remains awful. I'd kill for Harrison Ford to finish off with something as good and original as Witness.

Meanwhile, to see lots of trailers for unsung films with commentaries by such greats as Joe Dante, John Landis, Rick Baker, Edgar Wright etc - go here:

http://trailersfromhell.com/

Found it two nights ago and have wasted an entertaining hour on it already. Check out the ones you don't know - most of the flicks look bloody intriguing!

I did like most of those films, to be sure. Especially Guardians of the Galaxy, Mad Max Fury Road and Toy Story 3. But I can't honestly say I'm interested in seeing much in the way of comic book movies anymore. Captain America 3 was entertaining in the cinema, and quite thoughtful in places, but so, so long and I just can't imagine wanting to own any of them on DVD to watch again and again. Even the great Avengers, which was superb, has retrospectively suffered from my superhero fatigue. Fury Road is holding its own somewhat more owing to its sheer strangeness and refreshing mix of quiet beauty and jaw-dropping action aplomb. But though I liked Thor and X-Men in the cinemas... no, I just don't want to revisit them again. They all share that same story and they all go the same places. City destruction, punching, bad guys letting themselves get caught, endless reaction shots, insert quipping here... sigh.

And you know why Wrath of Khan is great? It's restraint. Even with the "KHAAAAAAN!" and "With my last breath I spit at thee!" it has two great action sequences, and a hell of a lot chewey great character stuff and tension throughout the rest of it. Now blockbusters have to run two and half hours and have at least six big action set-pieces and three climaxes.

Now put on Targets - raw, horrifying, thrilling stuff. Or Miracle Mile. Hell, even look at Wargames! Ferris Bueller! Our blessed saints in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure! Memorable iamges from all of them. And MarkG, I totally agree with you. The 80's had lots of films feeding off the same story but they were all considerably brightened by idiosyncratic directors, stars and writers who created remarkably inventive moments that stay with you.

"The eighties" is ten years. So considering just the IMDB top five or so most popular movies of each year from 2006-2016, with just a quick look through to pick the most significant, I can see

* Deadpool
* Mad Max: Fury Road
* Cloverfield
* The Dark Knight
* Twilight
* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
* The Departed
* The Prestige
* Casino Royale
* No Country For Old Men
* Juno
* Star Trek
* Inglourious Basterds
* Avatar
* Zombieland
* Inception
* Shutter Island
* Black Swan
* Scott Pilgrim vs The World
* Bridesmaids
* Drive
* Django Unchained
* The Wolf Of Wall Street
* Interstellar
* Gone Girl
* Whiplash
* Straight Outta Compton

In what world are these films not "distinct from one another visually and thematically"?

I think everyone's saying that they only go and see big budget films and that the big budget films should be different big budget films while ignoring the vast number of non big budget independent films in their search for a new story.

Of course big budget films will follow a limited number of standard routes. They're big budget so need to command a return.

• Freddy got fingered

But unless you're in a city with an arts cinema you're fresh out of luck seeing most indie films.



Hmm, okay, let me check my IMDB's over the next few days and see if I can get some ratios.

You have an IMDB?

You IMDB's what?

ARGGGGH!

*Hurls ex-librarian self out of window*

It's coz your brain's turned to mush under a barrage of cookie-cutter comic book movies.

Objection: Singham returns wasn't a film. It was a force of nature.

Seriously though, go and enjoy the Trailers from Hell website. Lots of great stuff there.

I guess I was thinking more in terms of family blockbusters. Can't see this generation of films inspiring a TV series like Stranger Things in twenty odd years time. I dunno maybe it will, it's obviously not for me to say but it just seems that kids who grow up now will having nothing to remember in the same way we have The Goonies or Back To The Future or Indiana Jones or Ghostbusters or Star Wars or ET etc etc.

They should do a follow on from ET called ETc.

Or set it back in the days of Julius Caesar and call it ET 2 - Brute

Good work.

You'd only moan if they did anyway.

Well yeah, it would be a remixed rehash of a series of rebooted rehashes and then they'd make ten more sequels in its reimagined expanded universe of shit.

There'll be a film in 20 years about a group of 4 Pokémon Go players who go out on their Heeleys and witness an alien abduction on their iPhones while trying to catch a Jigglypuff. All the cops in town are too busy shooting black people to listen to their story so they ask their transgender homeopathist for help. All scenes will be saturated with orange and teal and include Bullet-time. Soundtrack supplied by Psy, Mumford & Sons, Skrillex and Ellie Goulding.

Oh, you mean like The Lego Movie or Finding Nemo or The Incredibles or Frozen or Frankenweenie or Life of Pi or We Bought A Zoo or...?

"Inspired by" good, "rehash" bad. Got it!

I think the girls will remember the 2016 Ghostbusters. Anyway, what's your problem here? That modern cookie-cutter Hollywood isn't continuing to make the exact sort of films you nostalgically remember from your youth? Are you angry at there being too many remakes or not enough remakes?

Also: you're not a kid growing up now, so you're not seeing today's movies through kid's eyes, so you don't really know what kids will look back on fondly. Christ, the kids don't know yet either. Your parents and grandparents probably don't have the same affection for BTTF, Indiana Jones, or Ghostbusters that people our age do, either.

Yeah that's why I said that it's obviously not for me to say. But it just feels as though they have got so good at laser targeting films to make massive returns that there are very few total flops, objectively awful films but also as a consequence fewer stand out ones that kick off their own mini-genres.

I approached the new Star Wars in this way... Quickly realising that I wasn’t the target audience helped greatly with my enjoyment of the film.

I watched Jason Bourne last night. Decidedly average.

Way too much shaky cam and basically the same plot of all other Bourne Films only with more surveillance (but only when the plot needs it)

The message on privacy vs security is in there but it's touched upon at times but never properly explored.

I have been very excited for a long time that one of my all-time favourite books/trilogies are being turned into a film/films. That being Patrick Ness's "The Knife of Never LettingGo", the first book of the Chaos Walking trilogy.

I am now even more excited that Daisy Ridley has signed on to star in it. Yay!

I didn't like the TV show but I left partly due to not really having as much time as I originally thought. But even then the 30 minutes I sat through were pretty terrible, much like the TV show. Though Joanna Lumley remains brilliant.

I saw Finding Dory the other day. It's pretty good. The sploopy octopus kind of steals the show. Still pretty clever story about living with disability and finding what strengths you do have.

Is finding Dory sad?

Is Julia Sawalha still incredibly sexy as Saffy? So bookish and sexy and Saffyish.

Yes and no.

Lots of sad moments as certain events are related, that brought a tear to my eye.

Ultimately though plenty of sweetness and happy.

Plus it has Idris Elba and Dominic West as sealions, which is frankly worth the admission alone.

She doesn't seem to be ageing. Creepy.

so very much

I went to see Star Trek last night. I really enjoyed it, I like how it focused on there crew rather than the ship.

I'm not very good with sentimental things. I can't watch the first Finding Nemo film because I find it too upsetting, and then I end up thinking of it years later and getting upset.

I love Idris Elba, so I'll look for a clip of that bit.

I watched a clip. Nemo is in it. He's upset. Idris Elba is a sea lion but he sounds so much like Idris Elba always does that I'm just imagining him laying on that rock instead of the sealion.

Obviously he's naked.

ONLY BECAUSE SEALIONS DON'T WEAR CLOTHES.

It's more upsetting than Nemo, so I would avoid it.

Good film though!

I saw World War Z last night. It started off with some promise then quickly turned into a parody of itself. Pretty pap I reckon.

Did you watch the proper version of it?

The PG-13 version, which was released in cinemas as a 12 over here I think, had an astonishing number of changes made to bring it in at that rating.

The UNRATED or DIRECTOR'S CUT or HARDER VERSION or TOO HOT FOR CINEMA or BRUTALIX UNLIMITED or whatever the fuck they called it, doesn't fix the inherent problems the film has, but does at least tip it over into being a proper zombie style film. I'm not sure if the neutered version was even released on DVD/Blu-Ray or not.

There's no single thing that's different about the proper version, more a cumulative effect over the course of the running time that much improves the 'feel' of it.

http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=594947

New Rogue one trailer

Lobster - I half watched this. It seemed really good. You have 45 days to find love or you get turned into an animal.

Watched Suicide Squad last night. It was a fun action flick, and they tried to allude to some deeper stuff with Harley, but overall nowhere near my Top 5 comic book movies/series. Or Top 10 for that matter. But it's fun.

Should have also been called "Deadshot is fucking awesome, also Harley Quinn does some neat stuff too and we zoom in on her butt in short-shorts every 5 seconds, oh and don't watch it for Jared Leto he's in it for like 10 minutes". Not as catchy though.

No, but with that title I'll probably go watch it. It was otherwise on my 'meh' list.

We all went to watch Finding Dory as part of Ms Z's birthday outing yesterday.

I really enjoyed it, loved Hank the cranky Octopus Mrs Z fell asleep for 10 minutes and Master Z only needed one toilet run. If you like Pixar films you (and your kids) won't be disappointed.

The short film "Piper" that was on before it started was beautiful.

That's a pretty short film.

Funny, the screenplay was exactly 1000 words

Rogue One continues to look utterly, utterly amazeballs.


In other news, Transformers Age of Extinction is actually watchable.

Oh, another Death Star. That's the last thing they'll expect.