Rate the Last Movie You Saw

[Guest]

Sword Art Online: The Movie - Ordinal Scale (Hulu)

4/5

Its a good fanservice film for fans of the show, while also being a decent standalone. Starts slow, but ends well.

 

PS: I'm really out of good shows to watch. Seem to be reaching my limit on what can be enjoyed in television. Might have to get into another activity. Any suggestions for alternates to TV/film? You know, things that occupy the eyes/ears without occupying the body.

[Ish]

High Plains Drifter. It's Clint Eastwood directing Clint Eastwood playing the part of Clint Eastwood... Of course its good!

[WestRider]

The Scorpion King 5: The Book of Souls. Another entry in the "I knew this was going to be bad, but wow." file. On top of all the things that you might imagine going wrong here, there's even a substantial amount of dialogue that's just slightly re-phrased lines from the first Conan flick.

Roger Corman's Death Race 2050: Now here's a sequel worth watching. It's got all the Corman hallmarks: Low budget special effects, dark humour, lots of violence, and just a tease of skin.

[Ish]

On 10/21/2018 at 7:15 PM, paxmiles said:

Any suggestions for alternates to TV/film? You know, things that occupy the eyes/ears without occupying the body.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Ish said:

Still have to use your hands to hold the books.

Yeah, audio books may be the right route. I've been having trouble finding good books lately too. I'm pretty picky, which is a good chunk of the issue. 

[Ish]

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Ish said:

Doesn't work for me. Can you enjoy a reading a book (as above) while also painting models?

[Ish]

Sheesh. Some people are just impossible to shop for!

[Duckman]

10 hours ago, Ish said:

Sheesh. Some people are just impossible!

ftfy 😀

But seriously, I get Pax's predicament.  I am pretty discerning about my sci-fi reading and like him I prefer something that I can listen to while working on something else with my hands (painting, coding for work, etc.).

[Ish]

If you’re listening to it, you aren’t reading it. I’m mostly just yanking his chain, but he did ask for something that occupies “the eyes/ears without occupying the body.” A book seems to exactly match that original description. 

[Brick Bungalow]

 

Get Out. 

Not sure what to think about this. A very incendiary idea. I will not detail the plot because it would be impossible not to spoil. It was watchable enough. Insofar as I can tell what the goal was I must say that it did not succeed for me... there was plenty of cringe but no real tension. 

The best thing, I think would be to see it and discuss its social implications with people close to you. It's ineffective as a thriller but might be useful as commentary. Several good performances. 

[Guest]

Bleach (Live action film. Netflix suggested it...)

2/5

If you are a fan of the show, you'll not enjoy this. And if you don't like the show, this also isn't worth your time. They tried to sum up the entire first season of a TV show into a 2 hour film. Result is a plot that doesn't make sense, characters with unclear motivation and no depth, rushed acting, and just a bad film. Fans of the series will also note substancial changes to the plot, significantly miscast actors, and a huge lack of emotion displayed in the characters.

The only thing really true to the anime, 20minutes in they started doing flashbacks from earlier in the film. Yeah....

Computer animation villians (Hollows) were top notch, some of the most realistic CGI I've seen (of fantastic creatures). Not worth watching for those rather short scene with CGI. 

[InfestedKerrigan]

13 hours ago, Brick Bungalow said:

 

Get Out. 

Not sure what to think about this. A very incendiary idea. I will not detail the plot because it would be impossible not to spoil. It was watchable enough. Insofar as I can tell what the goal was I must say that it did not succeed for me... there was plenty of cringe but no real tension. 

The best thing, I think would be to see it and discuss its social implications with people close to you. It's ineffective as a thriller but might be useful as commentary. Several good performances. 

Just remember, it's Stepford Wives with black people.

Lots of good performances. Definitely a lot of social commentary. 

[Guest]

On 11/1/2018 at 8:09 AM, Ish said:

If you’re listening to it, you aren’t reading it. I’m mostly just yanking his chain, but he did ask for something that occupies “the eyes/ears without occupying the body.” A book seems to exactly match that original description. 

Is there a distinction between "yanking my chain" and trolling? I'm not upset, just curious because of that other conversation.

[Guest]

On 10/31/2018 at 9:13 PM, Ish said:

Sheesh. Some people are just impossible to shop for!

As an aside, the device you mentioned would work if I read slower, a lot slower. That device is for reading reference material (like recipes) where leaving it open to a fixed page works because you need to reference that same page over and over. Doesn't really work for reading where you need to turn the pages.

It is otherwise a good suggestion.

[Ish]

13 minutes ago, paxmiles said:

Is there a distinction between "yanking my chain" and trolling? I'm not upset, just curious because of that other conversation.

One is intended in good fun, one is intended to antagonize. 

[InfestedKerrigan]

I'm not seeing movie reviews!!

 

Passion of the Christ 2/5

Decent foreign action flick. Could have done without religious subtext.

[Romans832]

17 hours ago, paxmiles said:

Bleach (Live action film. Netflix suggested it...)

2/5

If you are a fan of the show, you'll not enjoy this. And if you don't like the show, this also isn't worth your time. They tried to sum up the entire first season of a TV show into a 2 hour film. Result is a plot that doesn't make sense, characters with unclear motivation and no depth, rushed acting, and just a bad film. Fans of the series will also note substantial changes to the plot, significantly miscast actors, and a huge lack of emotion displayed in the characters.

The only thing really true to the anime, 20minutes in they started doing flashbacks from earlier in the film. Yeah....

Computer animation villians (Hollows) were top notch, some of the most realistic CGI I've seen (of fantastic creatures). Not worth watching for those rather short scene with CGI. 

I'd give it a 3... I'd use different words to summarize it, but rushed is perfect... " Result is a plot that doesn't make sense, characters with unclear motivation and no depth, & rushed acting"

I spent the movie explaining to my wife who each one of them are and filling in all the holes they made and left

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Romans832 said:

I'd give it a 3... I'd use different words to summarize it, but rushed is perfect... " Result is a plot that doesn't make sense, characters with unclear motivation and no depth, & rushed acting"

I spent the movie explaining to my wife who each one of them are and filling in all the holes they made and left

It did make me want to rewatch bleach, though, just to see it done right. I wrote a few paragraphs listing the faults. Deleted it. They just did a bad job and it's petty to list all the faults. 

This film makes me wonder if Japan has casting issues. Do they just not have enough people to fill the roles with the intended character appearances? Or is it an issue of being unwilling to cast non-japanese actors? 

[WestRider]

21 minutes ago, paxmiles said:

It did make me want to rewatch bleach, though, just to see it done right. I wrote a few paragraphs listing the faults. Deleted it. They just did a bad job and it's petty to list all the faults. 

This film makes me wonder if Japan has casting issues. Do they just not have enough people to fill the roles with the intended character appearances? Or is it an issue of being unwilling to cast non-japanese actors? 

I think the issue is more with whoever at Netflix is in charge of overseeing their live-action adaptations of anime. From what I've heard, they've pretty much been uniformly awful.

[Guest]

26 minutes ago, WestRider said:

I think the issue is more with whoever at Netflix is in charge of overseeing their live-action adaptations of anime. From what I've heard, they've pretty much been uniformly awful.

Your not the first to suggest this, but as I told them, I'm under the impression that Netflix doesn't actually make foreign films, they just license them in the states and that qualifies them as Netflix Orignals. I've seen a couple of anime where they came out much before in Japan, and then were later released as netflix "originals."

My suspicion with this film is that the target audience is the people that pre-ordered tickets to see it in the theatres, as it seems like one of those where the scenes would look good in isolation, but they make a terrible whole. As for the netflix end, I feel that netflix chooses shows based on popularity of the show's franchise, not on quality of the actual product. So they picked up this one because Bleach is popular, not because they thought this film was good.

 

[WestRider]

23 minutes ago, paxmiles said:

Your not the first to suggest this, but as I told them, I'm under the impression that Netflix doesn't actually make foreign films, they just license them in the states and that qualifies them as Netflix Orignals. I've seen a couple of anime where they came out much before in Japan, and then were later released as netflix "originals."

My suspicion with this film is that the target audience is the people that pre-ordered tickets to see it in the theatres, as it seems like one of those where the scenes would look good in isolation, but they make a terrible whole. As for the netflix end, I feel that netflix chooses shows based on popularity of the show's franchise, not on quality of the actual product. So they picked up this one because Bleach is popular, not because they thought this film was good.

 

Whoever selects them for Netflix, then. Because whoever is responsible for these adaptions ending up on Netflix, their track record is not good.

[Ish]

1 hour ago, paxmiles said:

This film makes me wonder if Japan has casting issues. Do they just not have enough people to fill the roles with the intended character appearances? Or is it an issue of being unwilling to cast non-japanese actors? 

Something like 98–99% of the population of Japan are Japanese citizens, with the rest being foreign nationals residing in Japan.

The Japanese government doesn’t officially record ethnic or racial data in its censuses, but studies by academics and NGOs estimate that there are nine ethnic minority groups large enough to count as “minority groups” and not, y’know, “that one weird looking guy who moved here from wherever.” These are Ainu*, Americans, Arabs, Brazilians**, Burakumin*, Chinese, Koreans***, Philippinos, and Ryukyuans*. These populations are all very small, maybe 2-3% of the population if you’re being generous.

So, no, Japan does not have a very large pool of non-Japanese acting talent to draw upon. 

 

* These are all “native” ethnicities that pretty much everyone else on earth would consider Japanese. But not the Japanese, because of complicated historical reasons *cough* caste system *cough* they “don’t count” as Japanese.

** Brazil actually has a large Japanese population, many of the “Brazilians” living in Japan actually have Japanese ancestry. But because of complicated historical reasons *cough* rampant xenophobia *cough* they “don’t count” as Japanese.

*** Many of whom come from families that have been living in Japan since before WWII but only became citizens in the 1980s. Let’s just say that Korean and Japan have a VERY complicated history and leave it at that.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Ish said:

Something like 98–99% of the population of Japan are Japanese citizens, with the rest being foreign nationals residing in Japan.

The Japanese government doesn’t officially record ethnic or racial data in its censuses, but studies by academics and NGOs estimate that there are nine ethnic minority groups large enough to count as “minority groups” and not, y’know, “that one weird looking guy who moved here from wherever.” These are Ainu*, Americans, Arabs, Brazilians**, Burakumin*, Chinese, Koreans***, Philippinos, and Ryukyuans*. These populations are all very small, maybe 2-3% of the population if you’re being generous.

So, no, Japan does not have a very large pool of non-Japanese acting talent to draw upon. 

 

I was actually talking about international hiring for japanese films, at least with regard to seeking non-japanese actors. Does seem like Japan, despite being part of the world, doesn't hire actors from outside japan. Even of their Japanese actors, does seem like they don't have as wide a selection as in american films as shown in capacity of their actors. 

Though regarding race in japan, I have wondered if the studios purposely miscast non-japanese characters with japanese actors purely because cultural/politial/racist issues with non-japanese. If the viewers were against non-japanese in japanese film, I can see why they'd have issues getting actors to realistically fill the non-Japanese character roles accurately. 

[Ish]

Finding actors who aren’t from Japan who speak Japanese with enough fluency to be able to act is probably extremely challenging. It’s not just about the words either, acting isn’t just repeating the words written down on paper.

You couldn’t just hand Lawrence Olivier the script to Ikiru and expect the same level of performance that Takashi Shimura was able to give. Doesn’t matter that they’re both actors of extraordinary talent, Olivier didn’t speak the language, didn’t know the physicality, and just couldn’t do it. Likewise, Shimura couldn’t have replaced Olivier.