Film Review & Discussion

[holmes221B]

A few days ago I got to see Mad Max: Fury Road Black and Chrome Edition at the cinema. I was expecting to get a little tired of seeing only in black and white, but because this was digital black and white, and not shot with a black and white camera, it actually ended up looking really cool for the whole length of the movie. Everything still managed to look fresh, and, well, shiny.

Can't say much about the movie itself. I personally think it's a lot of fun. I like how all the exposition is squeezed into the beginning of the movie, and from there it's mostly just insane car chases. It doesn't have much depth, but that's ok. It's entertaining.

Ah, I heard of that movie, especially since there are many other Mad Max movies. However, I didn't know that the Black and Chrome Edition. Did that appear after the movie was made in colour? Or was it the exact opposite?

[polerberr]

A few days ago I got to see Mad Max: Fury Road Black and Chrome Edition at the cinema. I was expecting to get a little tired of seeing only in black and white, but because this was digital black and white, and not shot with a black and white camera, it actually ended up looking really cool for the whole length of the movie. Everything still managed to look fresh, and, well, shiny.

Can't say much about the movie itself. I personally think it's a lot of fun. I like how all the exposition is squeezed into the beginning of the movie, and from there it's mostly just insane car chases. It doesn't have much depth, but that's ok. It's entertaining.

Ah, I heard of that movie, especially since there are many other Mad Max movies. However, I didn't know that the Black and Chrome Edition. Did that appear after the movie was made in colour? Or was it the exact opposite?

The Black and Chrome edition came out after the initial release of the movie. You could buy special Mad Max: Fury Road DVDs that had both the normal movie and the Black and Chrome edition.

Below is what the steelbook looks like. I considered buying it, but I'm not overly fond of the design at the front. I would prefer it without the raised edge, and I would have edited the titles to remove the plus sign and the "&" and "edition" from the black and chrome side. I prefer minimal designs, though I can see the importance of including a title. Even though my Jungle Book steelbook doesn't even have a title on it, haha.

[Captain Peregrin]

A few days ago I got to see Mad Max: Fury Road Black and Chrome Edition at the cinema. I was expecting to get a little tired of seeing only in black and white, but because this was digital black and white, and not shot with a black and white camera, it actually ended up looking really cool for the whole length of the movie. Everything still managed to look fresh, and, well, shiny.

Can't say much about the movie itself. I personally think it's a lot of fun. I like how all the exposition is squeezed into the beginning of the movie, and from there it's mostly just insane car chases. It doesn't have much depth, but that's ok. It's entertaining.

Yeah, I noticed something like that for Logan, too. It just makes sense for throwback movies like that.

[CosmicCryptid]

Has anyone seen the LEGO Ninjago movie? Is it any good? People seem to be really split on it, but a lot of them are mostly saying that it's just bad in comparison to the other LEGO movies, and they honestly set the bar fairly high.

Overall its a pretty average movie, the plot is eh and predictable and some of the scenes feel rushed and out of place, but the main character is pretty great and the villain is probably what made me enjoy the movie the most. If you've seen the show its going to disappoint you a bit because the other three characters along side the main character barely play any role in the movie. There are a few jokes that are in the movie that only people who have watched the show would actually get, but my family enjoyed the movie and none of them had seen the show. I'd recommend it but don't expect it to be as great as the original. (Its probably out of theaters by now so this was most likely pointless lol)

[polerberr]

I went to a screening of the recording of Hans Zimmer's concert in Prague. It was an amazing experience, even though I didn't get to be there IRL. Seeing it in the cinema made me feel like I got to be there.

I was impressed at Hans himself. He played so many different instruments himself and was clearly super into his music. When I went to see Ennio Morricone, he only conducted it, and he was pretty stiff and formal about it. Nothing like Hans Zimmer at all. Hans was all over the stage, rocking out with the guitarists.

Lebo M was at the performance for The Lion King part, which was a great touch. He came onto the stage singing the beginning of Circle of Life, then transitioned to singing Shadow Land with another performer in what I can only guess is their native language. After the singing, the orchestra transitioned to playing Mufasa's theme from the part of the movie where Mufasa appears to Simba as a ghost, then the Busa theme, and then they wrapped it up with King of Pride Rock, which is the reprise of Circle of Life all the way at the end of the film. Pretty great format IMO since it covered all the more important and recognizable themes in chronological order.

The score for Gladiator is just amazing. The Dark Night trilogy was insanely intense. Then beyond that of course there was just fun stuff like Sherlock Holmes, Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception, etc. Oh man the audience in Prague went wild for Inception. When those bassy BWAHHHHHH noises started people went nuts, haha.

Ahh I really wish I could have been there IRL, but this was my next best option so I'm glad I at least got this second hand experience. It was awesome.

[van]

Yoo a film thread, I'm kind a novice but I watch a ton of movies and am sort of thinking about minoring in film studies, haha prepare for me to real rambly...

Favorite Movie(s) and Why
Mad Max Fury Road, Paranorman, and Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Ok, the latter two may definitely be flawed, but they're a whole lot of fun and I love them. Fury Road may not be incredibly profound or Super thematically complex, but it's incredibly concise, well done, has effective and immersive world building, compelling characters, and stunning visuals. Paranorman has some pacing issues, and some of the humor and underlying messages fall flat for people, but I'm a sucker for stop motion, stylistically & aesthetically I LOVE the feel of this movie (It's my favorite Laika film, with Coraline as a close second), and the animation is stunning. Aaand finally The Hunchback of Notre Dame is just such an anomaly to me. The original novel is one of my favorite books of all time, and IMO the Disney movie is definitely its Own thing, more inspired by the novel than based off of it, but it still does it enough justice, tho I guess that's a whole other can of worms. It's obviously beautifully animated (of course, it's Disney, they're usually pretty on the nose there), and has my favorite soundtrack of any disney movie without a doubt (Alan Menken AND Stephen Schwartz?! Bringing their all? Latin choirs? Sweeping orchestrals? Yes !!! The stage musical is one of my all time favorite musicals for this reason but you just can't beat original movie Hellfire or the Bells of Notre Dame - Paul Kandel and Tony Jay's voices...HEART EYES) but the movie is probably Disney's most tonally confused by far, aside from Hercules. To spare y'all from a looong rant, yeah, it's got some of the lowest lows of any Disney movie lol. But on the flip side the highs are soo high and it has, imo, a number of the most compelling and well done scenes of any disney movie, so. The lows can be forgiven, mostly.
I'll be the first to admit some of my favorite movies are far from perfect, but I love them all the same.

Least Favorite Movie(s) and Why
Man, I'm not sure. I can't really think of any. I usually can milk some enjoyment out of any movie - I think almost every movie has at least one redeeming quality. Even if they're terrible.

Best Movies Ever Seen
That's a tough one. Aside from favorites, I'm just going to go with some that I've seen lately and are fresh on my mind -
Bladerunner 2049, Baby Driver, Moana, Kubo and the Two Strings,, uhh Moonlight was good, and I liked La La Land, Wind River & Logan Lucky were pretty good too

Worst Movies Ever Seen
A certain movie I'm not sure i can name on CS lol. Also, any Michael Bay movie.

Favorite Director(s)
There's not really a whole lot of directors that always make movies I love. My tastes are pretty sporadic. I suppoose I really enjoy all of Guillermo del Toro and Tomm Moore's movies.

Favorite Actor(s)
I'm not too invested in specific actors or actresses but proobably Rami Malek. He good. Also Vincent Price. And Doug Jones.

Favorite Actress(es)
hmm I really like Charlize Theron and Sofia Boutella (ok, so she hasn't been in too terribly many movies and some are.. not great -
looking at you The Mummy - but I totally don't have a huge crush on her & she has such a presence about her.)
Realizing I just answered those questions as Who Are Your Celebrity Crushes but really they're all incredibly talented to boot. :p

Any Film Critics you follow?
mostly just youtube critics, I'm definitely an amateur film enthusiast, but I really love Jim Gisriel, Lindsay Ellis, and YMS on youtube, they're all very analytical & have a great grasp of film theory

A few days ago I got to see Mad Max: Fury Road Black and Chrome Edition at the cinema. I was expecting to get a little tired of seeing only in black and white, but because this was digital black and white, and not shot with a black and white camera, it actually ended up looking really cool for the whole length of the movie. Everything still managed to look fresh, and, well, shiny.

Can't say much about the movie itself. I personally think it's a lot of fun. I like how all the exposition is squeezed into the beginning of the movie, and from there it's mostly just insane car chases. It doesn't have much depth, but that's ok. It's entertaining.

Whaaat?! I can't believe I completely missed this! Sadly there seems to have not been any cinemas near me playing it anyway. : ( That's so cool though, I can't believe I'm hearing about this just now. I'm curious, do you know if this is something being done with other movies? And is there any specifically you'd go and see if shown like this? I think it's such a neat idea.

[polerberr]

Welcome to the thread!

Whaaat?! I can't believe I completely missed this! Sadly there seems to have not been any cinemas near me playing it anyway. : ( That's so cool though, I can't believe I'm hearing about this just now. I'm curious, do you know if this is something being done with other movies? And is there any specifically you'd go and see if shown like this? I think it's such a neat idea.

The Black and Chrome thing was just a decision the director made for Mad Max: Fury Road. I'd imagine the director made the decision because it fits with the "shiny and chrome" theme, and it just looks really great with the visuals of the film. You could get it on special DVDs after the release of the actual movie, so it's been around for a while, but it's never gotten an official international cinematic release. The cinema chain I go to specializes in doing events and niche screenings, so I think it was just limited to that chain? It's called Pathe.

I can't think of a lot of movies that would work in black and white. Fury Road works because there's a clear contrast between the subject and the background, if that makes sense? Like, the background is just desert and open skies, so it's easy to visually separate that from the cars and characters without color. I think it'd work for films with a focus on visuals. Like how Sin City is in black and white. It'd also work for some war movies. I bet Bridge of Spies would work really well in black and white. There needs to be a solid reason for it, though. Like you wouldn't just make a black and white screening of Marvel movies because those are fairly dependent on color. Or comedies, where visuals don't matter as much. It'd need to be a visually focused film that doesn't need the color to work. Maybe Skyfall? The Matrix? The Dark Knight Trilogy, maybe.

[polerberr]

Yesterday I took a train ride to Amsterdam to see Nosferatu at the Tuschinski Theater, a 96 year old theater that's been kept in its original state (with the addition of a newer more modern wing). The main hall, where the movie was screened, had balconies, a curtain over the screen, and the original organ that was built into the stage when the theater was built. It was an amazing experience.

The music was provided live by a Londoner who's been playing the organ for classic films professionally for almost 30 years. He did it entirely without sheet music, improvising it as the film went along, and it sounded great. Just like you'd expect it to have sounded like back when the film was released.

The opening of the event was actually pretty hilarious. The lights dimmed, everyone hushed, and the organist, who was still hidden under the stage with the organ, started to play that classic spooky piece as the organ rose up from underneath the stage. I mean it couldn't have been more dramatic.

I knew that Nosferatu was a vampire movie, but I had no idea that it was Dracula... To be accurate, a blatant rip-off of Dracula. I mean it wasn't even credited anywhere but it just WAS the story of Dracula. I've read the book countless times and there's no mistaking it. Here's an interesting article about how it happened and how the Stoker estate actually filed a lawsuit against the film.

It was pretty entertaining though. The organist came into the hall sometime after and I managed to shake his hand and thank him for his performance, so that was cool too.

Would recommend going to see something like this if anyone here gets the chance to.

[Dizzy socks]

I watched Shallow Grave and The Lady Vanishes yesterday. Both really good, but I loved loved loved Shallow Grave. McGregor is about the most enigmatic actor I can imagine, the whole film was just so compelling. Any thoights on these films?

I also saw If... recently, which was really interesting.

[dovah]

do you have to be a member to post on here? i just need a quick review

has anyone seen murder on the orient express? my friend and i were planning on seeing it tomorrow afternoon but i'm not sure how good it is. he looked at the ratings and they were kind of average. any help would be much appreciated! xx