Be Excellent To Each Other

Disagree about the cameos, I think they (and most of the other callbacks [1]) felt a little forced. You could lose every single cameo and it'd be a better film for it. But when the film was given room to breathe and be its own thing, I thought it was great. For example, I thought it was stronger because they didn't try and map Holtzmann, Gilbert and Yates onto Spengler, Stantz and Venkman. They were their own characters and I liked that.

Hemsworth deserves a shoutout, too. He's got great comedy chops.

Oh, and I vaguely recall people disliking the effects. I thought they were great. I loved the neon glow to everything, it felt like what 1984 Ghostbusters would have looked like if it was made with modern technology.

[1] callback I really liked:

In terms of Feig/McCarthy movies, I'd rate Ghostbusters and Spy about level, The Heat slightly ahead, and Bridesmaids a bit worse. I don't like Bridesmaids as much as everyone else seems to.

Callback?

Timing.

What?

What? I'm confused. What is going on?

Callback. What is it, aside from an actor's second interview?

Disagree on the callbacks, they were great. Also the cameos. Other than Murray, they were brief, witty, and didn't feel forced at all. Particularly Sigourney Weaver, who was brilliant.

"Safety lights are for dudes!"

The particular spoilered callback was brilliant in Ghostbusters and Hemsworth was being brilliant at being stupid. I felt Holtzman was a little forced at times but then I saw interviews with Kate McKinnon and found out that she's basically like that in real life so I guess not then. Generally speaking a thoroughly enjoyable fun movie that made me laugh loads.

Kubo is still probably the best movie I've seen this year.

Watched Payback on the commute. Well, that's a brilliant way to spend an hour and a half or so.

Have seen it before, but not for many years. Everything still felt fresh, apart from Mel Gibson's oversized jacket, which gave him a bit of a trampy vibe. Which was perfect.

"Here's your $140,000, but that's the closest you're ever going to get to it."

*Gibson, tied to a chair, goes to open his mouth, then just sighs*

New Ghostbusters. Thoroughly enjoyable.

New Magnificent 7. Thoroughly enjoyable, hadn't seen the original (blah blah seven samurai is actually the orginal etc...) for years, but this seemed a match for it. A bit drawn out in places but all the actors in it were great and the action was on the button.

Old Magnificent 7. Thought I would rewatch this afterwards. Oh dear, it really hasn't held up that well if you compare it to the remake, really shows up just how "acted" and fake everything used to be.

There are actually two completely different versions of Payback available. I suspect you probably saw the original version, with Kris Kristoffersen?

The reedited version removes the voiceover, takes away Kristoffersen's character (onscreen at least. IIRC he's replaced by female voice over) and changes the ending. I think it was also colour graded as well to give a darker feeling.

Having seen both, I would rate he re-release as superior. I think it's called "Straight Up"

Hang on... Yep: http://gb.imdb.com/title/tt0958860/

If you've never seen the director's cut you should give it a try, it's generally referred to as 'Payback Straight Up'.

Very different film, but arguably better. (It's not like the usual cheapy cash-in director's cut, but a substantially different version of the film and closer to what was originally intended, but the studio didn't want to release, this was pre-crazy Mel and they didn't want him playing too much of a nasty sort of character.)

http://www.cinemablend.com/dvds/Payback ... -2222.html

On a wider note this is a DVD I imported from the States back in the day (1999-2000 IIRC), when the BBFC were cutting the fuck out of everything even at 18, so importing the US 'R' rated DVD was the only way to get hold of the film in its unmolested state.

EDIT - Seems like I was writing my post at the same time as DavPaz

Interesting! All the elements they've changed are things I liked about the film (though Gibson's voice-over was a bit predictable in places. His on-screen dialogue was brilliant however: "Boil an egg.")

I will give it a few years and watch the remake.

Edit: re-edit rather than remake, I guess. And thanks also Hearthly.

You should have mentioned this before that you imported DVD because of the cuts

Beat ya!

Having a quick read around, it seems the director's cut was the original version and it was cut up and a new third act was filmed to give a 'happy' ending

If you're interested (and I am)

I love Payback. I prefer the Director's Cut, but the original release is solid.

Tale of Tales. Weird, sometimes grotesque, adult version of fairy tales. The stories the film is based on are 17th century, not that that matters. It is very odd, and sometimes slightly incoherent - not in the 'what is going on?' sense, more in the 'quick cut then something else happens' and you just have to infer the in between bit. I enjoyed it, but beware - weird. Small about of bewb.

Watched 'The Witch' (stylised as 'The VVitch) the other night. That was odd. Not scary, it said it would be scary but it wasn't. It was very odd though, a couple of slightly uncomfortable scenes but those were mostly because it didn't show you much of what was happening so your mind sort of jumped ahead and assumed you'd be shown something more horrifying very soon. It had 4 child actors in it who were extremely good, I thought. It's a historical movie, based on accounts of the time (aren't they all) so the language is 17th century but easy to follow.

Ralph Ineson is in it, he was in Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, as well of loads of other things you'll remember his face from but forget the name of.

The Girl With All the Gifts is a very good British zombie film, if you like that sort of thing. And if you've played The Last of Us you may see where some of the inspiration came from.

Oh, the film is out now? I enjoyed the book.

Indeed. I went to see it at the cinema last night.

I am going to see this tomorrow night having heard very little about it really (friend's suggestion) so the above is reassuring.

We watched it last night and thought it was a good interpretation of a cracking book.

Saw John Wick last night - that's not too shabby, is it? Really liked the fight scenes, the fight director was obviously a bit of a wrestler as they were quite different from the punch-out style you often get. Plus Keanu kills like a 100 people, and at the end

Also, I love the idea of a Hitman hotel where all the Hitmen go to sleep and drink Hitman cocktails and read the Hitman trade journals.

Sequel next year!

Woo! If there's one thing I love more than an embittered hit man coming out of retirement for one last job, it's an embittered hit man coming out of retirement for two last jobs.

Saw 'The Big Short' last night as it's been added to Netflix. Pretty good and had some good ways of approaching some of the complex bits, but I still prefer Margin Call, which is still on Netflix too I think.

I finished reading it this morning.

If you like his writing then do check out the Felix Castor books, which are about an exorcist. Or any of his comics. He's written a crazy amount of things.

I've read some Felix Castor books! I didn't realise they were by the same guy.

Yep. He also wrote a shitload of comics back in the day, like Lucifer, Hellblazer, and a ton of X-Men stuff.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Carey_(writer)

Hah! Those out takes are great.

I watched TMNT. It was a cartoon. I think it wasn't the one Grim... watched but it was pretty good. Had Prof X doing a voice

Stewart or McAvoy?

These timelines can get so confusing

Oh yes very much

Saw it last night and enjoyed every minute of it. Great performances - especially by the girl who played Melanie - lot to convey there and she did it really well.

It's so Last of Us in parts that I screamed internally "There's bound to be a ladder nearby" at one point.

Ruth is out watching Bridget Jones so I have the telly ( also I get to go to a beer festival tomorrow night, so I think I got the better end of that deal) and I've just started watching John Wick. I want a beagle.

John Wick is a great film.

But the beagle

Not so great for the beagle.

LOVEJOY!

My dad (The Rock) did Lovejoy's electrics at his house. He took me to meet Lovejoy when I was small. I had literally no idea who he was. We also fixed his TV.

You can tell how long ago it was by the fact that he had his TV repaired rather than just by a new one.

I remember how to fix an eighties TV. You look concerned and upset, shake your head and say 'it's your tube that's gone'.

Your dad is Dwayne Johnson?

I don't know. It's who people on here said he looked like 'The Rock'. I don't know who Dwayne Johnson is, though.

It was Craster. He meant the wrestler viewtopic.php?style=26&p=907194#p907194

yes, Dwayne Johnson is The Rock. He's awesome.