DVDs and Films You Have Watched Recently 3 - The Final Insult

[HarmonicGenerator]

On 10/20/2018 at 9:06 PM, Devon Malcolm said:

Saw Goosebumps 2 today. Not my choice you understand, but actually far more entertaining than I was expecting.

Tell me more! The first one hit all the right nostalgia buttons for me but the trailers for this one didn’t inspire. 

[Devon Malcolm]

9 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Tell me more! The first one hit all the right nostalgia buttons for me but the trailers for this one didn’t inspire. 

Well, not much to tell really. Just a fun little kids' horror film, nice and breezy, over and done with pretty quickly. I never saw the first one but from what I can gather it's all new characters so it didn't matter.

[SuperBacon]

Flower

Disclaimer: I'm slightly obsessed with Zoey Deutch, and will watch any old piece of shit with her in it, but this was excellent.

Sexually promiscuous teenager connects with fresh out of rehab future brother in law, and helps him sort something out from his past. Not much plot, but well written, well paced with a cast including Adam Scott and the always amazing Kathryn Hahn, and of course Deutch, this was a breezy 90 minutes. 

[Brewster McCloud]

21 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

Remakes have always been around it's just distribution and volume are far greater now. There's still loads of fresh horror out there. It's pretty easy to ignore remakes. Plus John Carpenter's The Thing is bloody brilliant. Horror is genre that fits well for remakes imo. 

I suppose. I see it the same way Alan Moore does about Watchmen, though - rather than inspiring people to do something new with the genre, it unfortunately just created pale imitations. Halloween's been done so many times, why not just create a new baddie and a great score to go along with it? I understand that producers/financers like reliable brands, but I can't get that excited about them. It's all just diminishing returns. Maniac being a notable exception. That was ace. 

[chokeout]

10 minutes ago, Brewster McCloud said:

I suppose. I see it the same way Alan Moore does about Watchmen, though - rather than inspiring people to do something new with the genre, it unfortunately just created pale imitations. Halloween's been done so many times, why not just create a new baddie and a great score to go along with it? I understand that producers/financers like reliable brands, but I can't get that excited about them. It's all just diminishing returns. Maniac being a notable exception. That was ace. 

People are creating new baddies, all the time. In fact Horror, because it lends itself to a lower budget, is still one of the genres that is given that freedom and wider distribution. We're getting films like It Follows, Get Out, The Witch and The Quiet place. We're getting horror franchises like The Conjuring, Insidious and Saw. Films like Halloween topping the box office will lead to even more films being greenlit, because that's how studios work. 

[Brewster McCloud]

3 minutes ago, chokeout said:

People are creating new baddies, all the time. In fact Horror, because it lends itself to a lower budget, is still one of the genres that is given that freedom and wider distribution. We're getting films like It Follows, Get Out, The Witch and The Quiet place. We're getting horror franchises like The Conjuring, Insidious and Saw. Films like Halloween topping the box office will lead to even more films being greenlit, because that's how studios work. 

The Conjuring and Insidious? Lucky us! I can't think of a new decent baddie in the tradition of Jason Myers-Krueger since yer man from The Collector. Let's not lump things like The Witch and A Quiet Place with the slasher subgenre, apples and oranges. I wouldn't say the works of James Wan are exactly low budget, either! 

[chokeout]

Who's lumping them in with slashers, I specifically mention horror as a genre. And regardless of if you like The Conjuring or Insidious (or Paranormal activity or Sinister), they were all new, successful franchises with new characters and examples of something you seem to think wasn't happening.

And as far as small budgets, that's the whole business model of Blumhouse, Low budget, high return horror films. Insidious was made for $1.5million, which is crazy money for something with a wide cinema release (and was directed by James Wan)

I don't think we're ever going to get a character with the reach and cross over appeal of Freddy or Leatherface or Jason again, they were a product of their time. Jigsaw from the Saw films will probably be the last one, although The Conjuring are really trying to make The Nun a thing. There's a few examples of 'nearly theres' though. Sam from Trick 'r treat, The baby mask from Happy Death Day and the characters from The Purge.

[Devon Malcolm]

Speaking of Happy Death Day, can't wait to see Happy Death Day 2U, should be some scope for some interesting ideas with that. Great to see Jessica Rothe is in it again too, she was superb in the original.

It got me thinking that it's a shame we haven't had anything more as relates to It Follows though. I know there was some talk of a prequel to trace where 'It' started but there's been nothing concrete and that ship seems to have sailed. A great shame. Brilliant film though.

[Keith Houchen]

4 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

 

It got me thinking that it's a shame we haven't had anything more as relates to It Follows though. I know there was some talk of a prequel to trace where 'It' started but there's been nothing concrete and that ship seems to have sailed. A great shame. Brilliant film though.

To be honest, I'm glad about that.  Sometimes a film can dwell too much on the need for a backstory and can dilute the how and why.  I think The Ring (Japanese) trilogy managed it well, and as we discussed, a John Wick extended universe could be excellent.  Sometimes, a thing just is and should be left as such.  Blair Witch for example.

[Devon Malcolm]

2 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

To be honest, I'm glad about that.  Sometimes a film can dwell too much on the need for a backstory and can dilute the how and why.

I guess it depends on the person but I personally don't agree. I really don't mind how many remakes or sequels or spin-offs something gets, I'll take everything on its own merits. If a new film around the It Follows storyline proved to be a disappointment, it wouldn't dilute the quality of the original story. I just think there's a lot more to explore even beyond an origins story.

[Keith Houchen]

That's fair enough.  For some reason, and there is no reason why this is being brought up given the context, I'm reminded of Supreme Leader Snoke from Star Wars and how the neckbeards (yes I went there) were being neckbeards about how they didn't know his rise to power and how they knew nothing about him etc.  That's exactly how it was with The Emperor and that didn't matter.

Mind you, the prequels didn't diminish The Emperor so fuck knows what I'm going on about.

[Devon Malcolm]

Watched some really good horror films the last few days. Today was The Borrower from 1991, about an alien walking round stealing people's heads. Doesn't quite nail the ending but good fun.

Saw Ebola Syndrome yesterday, and it was every bit as revolting as its reputation suggests. So many hilarious bits in this and Anthony Wong plays the rapiest bastard outside the UKFF.

And Cockneys vs Zombies was really quite a surprise and great fun. Better when the OAPs get involved and Michelle Ryan is shooting things, but better than I expected considering its zombies and cockneys, both of which are normally shit.

[zep81]

Halloween 2018

Didn't overly love it, but I didn't hate it either. I'll spoiler the shit I wish to say;

Main cons;

Wasn't a big fan of the ending. The Laurie/Myers battle in the house was very well done and shot beautifully overall. The movie just ended pretty abruptly and it was like "Oh, so that's it then?". I thought maybe Judy Greer for example would have been caught by Myers and become a sort of sacrificial lamb for Laurie and her granddaughter to survive, rather than all three of them surviving.

Some characters were just not fleshed out and were very inconsequential. Allison's boyfriend being one and that whole dance party scene was p.pointless all because they needed a way for Allison to lose her phone and leave the school.

The whole Doctor turning heel shit and killing the leutentant. What the fuck was that lol. Then he put on the Myers mask for about 30 seconds just to dump him in the car, then he took it off again. Nah, didn't like that.

Judy Greer's husband was throwaway too and I cringed at that "I've got peanut butter on my penis" line. Plus, when Myers killed him, nobody noticed or questioned where he was. Before or after the battle with Myers.

As much I liked a lot of the various callback to the first movie and others, two that I did ever so slightly cringe at were at the end when Laurie disappeared like Myers did at the end of H1. Plus when she/her face appeared out of the shadows to stab Michael, just like Michael did in H1. It worked perfectly in H1 because of the mask. Didn't work in this one.

I admit, I did smile at that black kid cracking jokes but at the same time, I was not suited in particular to the bit when the babysitter is being stabbed and he goes running past the boyfriend spouting wise cracks as it's happening. Definelty affected the tension. Plus seeing Myers casually walking down the stairs and outside when Will Patton walked in took me back a bit.

Oh and the two cops having that conversation regarding sandwiches in the police car. Wow.

Main pros:

The whole Myers going through the houses randomly killing. Tremendously shot and it portrayed Myers is back and he's as bad as ever.

Jamie Lee Curtis. Thought she was brilliant throughout and the quality immeditaly went up whenever she was on screen.

Jay Courtney as Myers. There will never be anyone as good as Nick Castle, but Courtney did a great job. He looked and moved so well and he got that presence pretty much down to a tee.

The bathroom scene at the start was excellent. Brutal and shit so well. With quick camera cuts to not show much of Myers' face. Although I think there'll be a few pausing the DVD when it's out in that scene lol.

That whole motion sensor scene at the Elrod household. Man that was shot fucking so well. With Myers staying in the shadows and slowly coming into view as he got closer. Plus you get some great shots of Myers and the great timing of his heavy breathing.

There's some really great cinematography in this that elevates some scenes so much. I would have liked to have seen Myers more in the shadows in scenes, but there some tremendous shots throughout.

It may seem as I didn't like it as much going by my comments, but I did like a vast amount of the movie, it's just done things fell flat IMO and the script could have done with some tightening and trimming. Plus the ending did leave me a tad underwhelmed.

But, I liked the movie more than I didn't and it was great to see Myers back and played so well and I'll be more than ready for him to return.

I'm certainly glad I went to see it on the big screen and I'm still looking forward to seeing it a second time. Wether that's in the cinemas or on the Blu Ray. I'm sure some of the cons I have might may play out better.

It's a very good Halloween movie though and still a more than worthy entry. Not sure where I'd rank it atm tho against the others.

[W35ty]

7 hours ago, chokeout said:

I don't think we're ever going to get a character with the reach and cross over appeal of Freddy or Leatherface or Jason again, they were a product of their time. Jigsaw from the Saw films will probably be the last one, although The Conjuring are really trying to make The Nun a thing. There's a few examples of 'nearly theres' though. Sam from Trick 'r treat, The baby mask from Happy Death Day and the characters from The Purge.

Even though played by various people Ghostface is an iconic figure.

[Carbomb]

5 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

That's fair enough.  For some reason, and there is no reason why this is being brought up given the context, I'm reminded of Supreme Leader Snoke from Star Wars and how the neckbeards (yes I went there) were being neckbeards about how they didn't know his rise to power and how they knew nothing about him etc.  That's exactly how it was with The Emperor and that didn't matter.

Mind you, the prequels didn't diminish The Emperor so fuck knows what I'm going on about.

Yeah, but the Emperor was central to the entire storyline, not just a bit of it. Snoke was simply there as a plot element; Kylo Ren couldn't be the Big Bad straight away, he had to be conflicted similarly to Anakin, etc., and keeping everyone on tenterhooks before making his choice to become the Big Bad. Snoke was merely a motivator and a place-holder for him. 

Can't speak for anyone else, but I wasn't interested very much in knowing anything about Snoke - he looked, sounded, and behaved like a generic Sith adversary. The neckbeards should've been asking themselves: "What could there possibly be about Snoke's life that would be more interesting than Palpatine's?" We've seen it all before. He was simply meant to be Palpatine-lite; I guess to the extent where we could finally see Ren match Vader and kill his master to become the leader of the Not-Empire-Honest.