What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)

[krtek a houby]

Narcos Mexico, the first season. Or fourth of the Narcos world.

Anyway, absolutely gripping and it helped that am not up on the history of the drug trade in Mexico.

 

[Reno]

Host, the first horror film of the Covid-19 era (Corona Zombies doesn't count, as it's mostly a repurposed zombie movie from the 80s) shot under social distancing conditions. It's one of those films which take place entirely on a computer screen and it's about a seance via Zoom, due to the lockdown. It's all supposed to be a laugh but of course it all ends in tears and mayhem. Under an hour long, this works quite well and is one of the better "on-screen" movies.

 

[Johnny Doe]

Finished Series 1 of The Wire, yo

It's my third or fourth watch. I'd forgotten so much of the detail. It's still brilliant.

Yeah, I've just watched this again over a few nights. All in the game, yo

 

[T & P]

The Devil’s Candy. Billed as a supernatural horror film. One of those films that has rave reviews from the critics but no more than okay-ish ratings from audiences. Must say I have to side with the latter, though definitely still a 6.5 / 10 for me and worth watching.

It’s a decent tense film though the sub-genre it was meant to be really wasn’t much, and the film is more of a house invasion thriller than anything else. The very ending scene left me confused and I had to check online for its meaning. It wasn’t was I thought it was meant to be, which makes the film far less dark though also far less surprising.

 

[Reno]

I started to watch the TV series adaptation of Huxley's Brave New World. It got mixed reviews and two episodes in, it feels too lightweight to really grab me but it's watchable enough. I read criticisms that it barely follows the novel but so far it follows the plot, with all the main characters present but a lot more action added. Some of the changes are necessary, like changing the Native American reservation to a tacky 20th century theme park and making the female characters more interesting. Visually I quite like it, it reminds me of Logan's Run. That film was more influenced by Brave New World than the novel it was based on.

I'll give it another couple of episodes before I'll decide whether to stick with it.

 

[Chz]

Been watching the Harley Quinn animated series. Much better than the film that came out a year or two back. Batman is very much his Lego persona in it.

 

[DotCommunist]

Been watching the Harley Quinn animated series. Much better than the film that came out a year or two back. Batman is very much his Lego persona in it.

Had a lot of time for this, Jim Gordon is V.funny, comedy bane as well.

I'm re-watching all of SG1 for the first time in years eh, when its good its good.

 

[Knotted]

Blakkklansman. Turned out to be a disappointing centrist dad potboiler where the main gag was that a black guy can sound "white" on the phone. They had some powerful and well edited footage of the Chartlottesville counter protests tagged on at the end as if Spike Lee was saying, "I would have made a documentary on that instead if only there were cash in it." Can't believe the same guy made American History X.

 

[Orang Utan]

Blakkklansman. Turned out to be a disappointing centrist dad potboiler where the main gag was that a black guy can sound "white" on the phone. They had some powerful and well edited footage of the Chartlottesville counter protests tagged on at the end as if Spike Lee was saying, "I would have made a documentary on that instead if only there were cash in it." Can't believe the same guy made American History X.

He didn't

 

[belboid]

Can't believe the same guy made American History X.

He didn’t

 

[Knotted]

He didn't

Oops my bad. OK not so fussed now. It's the disappointment that hurts.

 

[Supine]

Blakkklansman. Turned out to be a disappointing centrist dad potboiler where the main gag was that a black guy can sound "white" on the phone. They had some powerful and well edited footage of the Chartlottesville counter protests tagged on at the end as if Spike Lee was saying, "I would have made a documentary on that instead if only there were cash in it." Can't believe the same guy made American History X.

Main gag? It's based on a true story

 

[Sue]

Blakkklansman. Turned out to be a disappointing centrist dad potboiler where the main gag was that a black guy can sound "white" on the phone. They had some powerful and well edited footage of the Chartlottesville counter protests tagged on at the end as if Spike Lee was saying, "I would have made a documentary on that instead if only there were cash in it." Can't believe the same guy made American History X.

He didn't. Malcolm X?

 

[Marty1]

The Invisible Man (2020).

Absolutely superb 8/10.

 

[platinumsage]

Lincoln Lawyer - i had passed up the chance to watch this before, having thought I had already seen it, but that was Lincoln, which is a different film.

It may have been the weather but my brain seemed unable to follow all the plot details. The scenario seemed a bit contrived, and as I couldn’t really understand the baddy’s motivation, it wasn’t particularly gripping.

 

[May Kasahara]

The Peanut Butter Falcon. Absolutely gorgeous, visually and emotionally, funny and refreshing - the perfect film to watch on a hot sticky day. Really recommend.

 

[Reno]

With Sputnik Russia finally got round to make an Alien-rip off. It's better than expected but then most of Russian commercial films are not that great so my expectations were low. A perfectly fine way to waste a couple of hours if you like monster movies, but also not that memorable.

 

[platinumsage]

Venom. Did about 20 minutes before realising it was one of those kind of movies which I don’t really like.

A brief moment of humour when Tom Hardy playing a US TV reporter uses the Chinese QQ messaging app on his phone, like it was totally normal thing. Worst product placement ever thanks to the funding from Tencent.

 

[Humberto]

I watched Stand By Me the other night for the first time in ages. It's a really good film no doubt, but that has to have the worst product placement I've seen that I can recall/didn't just sink into my mind unnoticed. It was for cigarettes.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Bone Tomahawk. Really good western. A bit gory.

A. bit.

 

[magneze]

Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace
How is it, years down the line from the initial outcry? It's an entertaining film but it's difficult to get past the awful acting and bad CGI. Every scene where CGI and real things are together looks shit.

 

[Reno]

Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace
How is it, years down the line from the initial outcry? It's an entertaining film but it's difficult to get past the awful acting and bad CGI. Every scene where CGI and real things are together looks shit.

When it first came out, Star Wars fans appeared so intent on loving it that initially it was fairly well received. Not being much of a Star Wars fan, I couldn't believe how shit it was when I went to see it. Eventually the world caught up with me, admitting that it's an awful film, but I don't remember an initial outcry. I think the opinion didn't turn against it till Attack of the Clones when it became clear that Lucas had lost it and The Phantom Menace wasn't a fluke.

 

[Maltin]

When it first came out Star Wars fans appeared so intent on loving it that initially it was fairly well received. Not being much of a Star Wars fan, I couldn't believe how shit it was when I went to see it. Eventually the world caught up with admitting that it's an awful film, but I don't remember an initial outcry. I think the opinion fully didn't turn against it till Attack of the Clones when it became clear that Lucas had lost it and The Phantom Menace wasn't a fluke.

I think Jar Jar Binks was considered an embarrassment from the start.

 

[magneze]

When it first came out Star Wars fans appeared so intent on loving it that initially it was well received. Not being mich of a Star Wars fan, I couldn't believe how shit it was when I went to see it. Eventually the world caught up in admitting that it's an awful film, but I don't remember an initial outcry

I seem to remember thinking it was bad at the time. Today I see that the story is ok, but the film is simply poorly made. Its so bad that you never really believe in it. The puppets are fine. Yoda doesn't seem out of place like the CGI characters and mostly acts better too.

 

[magneze]

I think Jar Jar Binks was considered an embarrassment from the start.

Agreed. Again, the story of Jar Jar is fine but the realisation of the character is again just.. shit.

 

[Maltin]

Agreed. Again, the story of Jar Jar is fine but the realisation of the character is again just.. shit.

With the film being released in the early days of the Internet and before having my own computer connected to the internet, I did have quite a few reviews printed. Reading Roger Ebert’s review, he does note that many of the early reviews were blasé although went on to give the film 3.5 stars out of 4. Variety’s review by Todd McCarthy, which was probably one of the early ones Ebert referred to, said it can scarcely help being a letdown but it’s bad that it disappoints in so many.

 

[Reno]

Star Wars has always been critic proof. The Empire Strikes Back initially got middling reviews, it was considered a cynical cash in at a time when sequels were always seen as inferior films (The Godfather II being the one exception) and it took a while to gain its reputation as the best Star Wars movie. I still have a scathing review in Cinefantastique, then the most influential genre-movie magazine. The Phantom Menace also got middling reviews, but initially the fans embraced it. It took a while for people to admit that it was a stinker, though even now there are rabid Star Wars prequel trilogy fans.

Anyways, not my battle, I'm the non-Star Wars fan who thinks The Last Jedi is the best Star Wars film ever made, a film which was loved by film critics, but hated by fans.

 

[magneze]

Episode 2 next week

 

[Maltin]

Star Wars has always been critic proof. The Empire Strikes Back initially got middling reviews, it was considered a cynical cash in at a time when sequels were always seen as inferior films (The Godfather II being the one exception) and it took a while to gain its reputation as the best Star Wars movie. I still have a scathing review in Cinefantastique, then the most influential genre-movie magazine. The Phantom Menace also got middling reviews, but initially the fans embraced it. It took a while for people to admit that it was a stinker, though even now there are rabid Star Wars prequel trilogy fans.

Anyways, not my battle, I'm the non-Star Wars fan who thinks The Last Jedi is the best Star Wars film ever made, a film which was loved by film critics, but hated by fans.

Variety, which would have been one of the first reviews of Empire, said "The Empire Strikes Back is a worthy sequel to Star Wars, equal in both technical mastery and characterization, suffering only from the familiarity with the effects generated in the original and imitated too much by others. Only boxoffice question is how many earthly trucks it will take to carry the cash to the bank."

Film Review: ‘The Empire Strikes Back’

'The Empire Strikes Back' is a worthy sequel to 'Star Wars,' equal in both technical mastery and characterization.

variety.com

Vincent Canby at The New York Times was less kind but it's not probably the type of movie that The New York Times would be raving about.

'The Empire Strikes Back' Strikes a Bland Note

archive.nytimes.com

Based on a summary of major reviews per Wikipedia, I would say it got mixed reviews rather than middling, on release.

The Empire Strikes Back - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Reno]

I know where to find the Wikipedia page for The Empire Strikes Back is, but thanks

I remember many reviews at the time as simply unimpressed. A nice exception was Pauline Kael, who didn't care for Star Wars but who had genuine praise for Empire.