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  #16  
Old 09-02-2021, 12:53 PM
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Originally Posted by UnwindedDreams View Post
Next to Army of the Dead (the Vegas horror film with Bautista)... is this one funnier?

The Shark character just looks too lame for me.
I would say it's in the vein of the Evil Dead to a point, or maybe the Toxic Avenger. It definitely deserved an R rating. I really liked it but some people can't tolerate it. The movie is warped and has many cringeworthy, funny moments.

PS. Sharkman is fun. He grows on you and he does a lot of gross stuff.

Last edited by Jondalar; 09-02-2021 at 04:34 PM..
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  #17  
Old 09-02-2021, 01:00 PM
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9. Candyman, grade C - = (horror movie) starts out pretty decently but has three big problems. 1. It's not scary and it's a horror movie. 2. The ending is confusing and sucks. 3. It's anti police. On the other hand, the movie is nice too look at and uses shadow puppets for some of the visuals. I liked the actors. It also takes place within the arts world and that is interesting. It's not as good as the original and felt like a waste of time.
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  #18  
Old 09-02-2021, 01:04 PM
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10. The Night House, grade C = (Indie, horror movie) About a woman who lost her husband and believes she is being haunted by his ghost. It's a low budget, well-acted horror movie that is intriguing until the very end. The ending felt a bit a forced and was confusing and I think it really hurt the movie. It also made me quite aware of how low budget this movie really was. I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again. It's ok.
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  #19  
Old 09-02-2021, 04:34 PM
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Originally Posted by TrueFaith77 View Post
THE Suicide Squad is not funny or fun. It’s nihilistic and visually repellent.


Meanwhile, here was my mini-review of the original superior film:

Suicide Squad (David Ayer): “You are looking for friends, I’m looking for leverage”: devious Viola Davis sums up divisive Politics 2016. This post-credits dialogue with Bruce Wayne also clarifies the spiritual-comic book underpinning of auteur-producer Zack Snyder and director Ayer’s approach to the conceit of supervillains doing good. Private longings unite this team, as explored in the members’ pop song-scored backstories. Ayer externalizes this longing in graphic-novel imagery that recalls von Sternberg films and Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry music (a karaoke performance of “Love Is the Drug” notably appeared in Snyder’s own Sucker Punch). Such bracing Romanticism climaxes in the final sucker punch landed by MVP Margot Robbie’s Joker-devoted Harley Quinn who refuses to kneel at the altar of power, remaining faithful to an idolatry of love.

2016 JOHNNIE AWARD WINNER: Best Actress (Margot Robbie)
I totally disagree. The first movie was terrible. This movie actually captured the spirit of The Suicide Squad. It also has the best depiction of Harley ever. Their are gross moments it was supposed to gross people out in a fun way.
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  #20  
Old 09-03-2021, 11:52 PM
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11. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, grade A- = This is one of the better Marvel superhero movies. It has really good fight scenes, beautiful scenery and some very good side characters - Awkwafina steals the show. It's also just very charming and funny. My only criticism is it felt a little too Disney and was almost too light. I never really felt that any of the main characters could die.
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  #21  
Old 09-12-2021, 04:37 PM
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ASPHALT GODDESS (LA DIOSA DEL ASFALTO)

In ASPHALT GODDESS, 21st century master filmmaker Julian Hernandez punctuates lesbian barrio gangster Ramira's (Mabel Cadena) castration-at-gunpoint threat with vertiginous camera angles: "Don't step out of line!" It flips the post-punk band the Au Pairs' classic challenge to hetero-patriarchy in the song/album "Stepping Out of Line" on its head. Hernandez dares to delve deeply into how masculine oppression and economic squalor warp feminine instinct by placing value on power over nurturing, berserk violence over artistic purgation.

Like the ice-woman cometh, the return of rock-'n'-roller Max (Ximena Romo) to her old stomping grounds--converted from a garbage dump into "more boxes" for people to live in--dredges up primal guilt and thwarted desire. The resulting brutality signals a title card that takes the audience back into the characters' past to chart cycles of violation and vengeance that take on the overwhelming force of fate as traced by Alejandro Cantu's unfettered camera and the Greek-Chorus of ginormous graffiti and illustrated t-shirts. "Cool, it feels good to breathe free air," Ramira says when released from prison only to end the day by unburdening herself from responsibility and from her humanity: "What's done is done.”

Hernandez's gangland film expressionistically conveys biological tribalism so that its vision keeps expanding from the personal to the social to the cosmic--blood oaths and revenge acted out as ancient ritual. With his existential elan, Hernandez transforms realism into classical Tragedy and epitomizes operatic filmmaking like nobody since Bernardo Bertolucci (a transformation akin to Morrissey detailing "sunlight thrown over smashed human bones" on "First of the Gang to Die"). Released in the U.S. direct-to-Netflix, ASPHALT GODDESS exposes the impenetrable border-wall maintained by America's hypocritical elite cultural gatekeepers. By the time Hernandez revitalizes the most famous scene from Shakespeare's MACBETH, one shudders to think of Steven Spielberg's upcoming descent into the ersatz-Shakespeare kitsch of WEST SIDE STORY while Hernandez's star-crossed Tragedy wails in isolation on television.
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"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other."

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  #22  
Old 09-13-2021, 02:23 AM
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Originally Posted by TrueFaith77 View Post
ASPHALT GODDESS (LA DIOSA DEL ASFALTO)

In ASPHALT GODDESS, 21st century master filmmaker Julian Hernandez punctuates lesbian barrio gangster Ramira's (Mabel Cadena) castration-at-gunpoint threat with vertiginous camera angles: "Don't step out of line!" It flips the post-punk band the Au Pairs' classic challenge to hetero-patriarchy in the song/album "Stepping Out of Line" on its head. Hernandez dares to delve deeply into how masculine oppression and economic squalor warp feminine instinct by placing value on power over nurturing, berserk violence over artistic purgation.

Like the ice-woman cometh, the return of rock-'n'-roller Max (Ximena Romo) to her old stomping grounds--converted from a garbage dump into "more boxes" for people to live in--dredges up primal guilt and thwarted desire. The resulting brutality signals a title card that takes the audience back into the characters' past to chart cycles of violation and vengeance that take on the overwhelming force of fate as traced by Alejandro Cantu's unfettered camera and the Greek-Chorus of ginormous graffiti and illustrated t-shirts. "Cool, it feels good to breathe free air," Ramira says when released from prison only to end the day by unburdening herself from responsibility and from her humanity: "What's done is done.”

Hernandez's gangland film expressionistically conveys biological tribalism so that its vision keeps expanding from the personal to the social to the cosmic--blood oaths and revenge acted out as ancient ritual. With his existential elan, Hernandez transforms realism into classical Tragedy and epitomizes operatic filmmaking like nobody since Bernardo Bertolucci (a transformation akin to Morrissey detailing "sunlight thrown over smashed human bones" on "First of the Gang to Die"). Released in the U.S. direct-to-Netflix, ASPHALT GODDESS exposes the impenetrable border-wall maintained by America's hypocritical elite cultural gatekeepers. By the time Hernandez revitalizes the most famous scene from Shakespeare's MACBETH, one shudders to think of Steven Spielberg's upcoming descent into the ersatz-Shakespeare kitsch of WEST SIDE STORY while Hernandez's star-crossed Tragedy wails in isolation on television.
I've never heard of this until now. Thanks.
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  #23  
Old 09-13-2021, 02:30 AM
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12. Malignant, grade B- = Can a move be saved by the ending? In the case of Malignant, James Wan's new horror movie, I think so. On the bad side, there is no character development and really not much happens but people getting killed for most of the first half of the movie. However, after about 65% of the movie is over, the movie turns into a pretty good action movie with a big reveal and I think it's enough to recommend the movie, However, be warned - some people hate this movie. (I can't reveal much about this movie because the big reveal is everything.)
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  #24  
Old 09-19-2021, 04:01 AM
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Cry Macho (Clint Eastwood): The cock named Macho transforms Clint Eastwood’s humbly beautiful CRY MACHO into a fairy tale—the film *looks* like the Twilight of the Western. The cockfighting rooster externalizes the depth of masculine feeling in Clint Eastwood and young Eduardo Minett’s heartbreaking confessions that reveal their need for redemption and for belief (one monologue is delivered in a shrine to Our Lady). Significantly, both characters ameliorate their wounds by teaching each other to heal and tame animals (the dream of cowboys and horses that are the inheritance of the global pop audience). Doing so prepares them for precarious fates and uncertain reunions—Macho symbolizes hope. Rooted in the culture’s spiritual heritage, CRY MACHO is the most moving Western since John Ford’s masterpiece 3 GODFATHERS.
__________________
"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other."

Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way"

Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart.
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  #25  
Old 09-24-2021, 10:51 AM
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Saint-Narcisse (Bruce LaBruce):

Notes on Saint-Narcisse:

5/9
@BruceLaBruce makes a new, unexpected, leap with #SaintNarcisse—drawing upon classical and Catholic imagery (Odysseus’ gambit with the Cyclops, Mother-and-son rhapsodies out of Michelangelo, Euripidean voyeurism, the piercing gaze of St. Sebastian) but with PoMo porno subversiveness (a nude in sneakers). If not quite a master sensualist like Bertollucci or Morel, he matches their transgressiveness and ascends here as North America’s premiere gay-cinema auteur because he challenges gay hegemony with history’s radical kernel of truth. Bra-f**king-vo!

9/17
So great to see the visual feast of @BruceLaBruce ‘s #SaintNarcisse on a big screen with a game audience. A second viewing reveals its brilliant structure (tripled incest) that combines Parent Trap farce with the melodrama of #DePalma’s Obsession (and much more).

Also clocked his erotic interpretation of the Visitation. More iconography to dive into, for sure. Don’t miss it, NYC! @BruceLaBruce #SaintNarcisse

Interestingly I’ve noted De Palma’s influence in the last 4 movies I saw. Malignant (De Palma reduced to an amusement park ride) and The Voyeurs (De Palma reduced to television), but also…

the camera dynamics of @JULIANHERPER #AsphaltGoddess (the Vertigo kiss in Body Double) and the 70s-style psychosexual melodrama of @BruceLaBruce #SaintNarcisse (the psychosexual casting gambits of Sisters and Obsession). Both films revitalize cinema’s essence. Viva #BrianDePalma!

Worth looking for the influence of De Palma in Bruce La Bruce’s Saint-Narcisse which explicitly references *Sisters and which the director also has explained is inspired by Obsession stylistically and in one key casting/plot point.

[Screenwriter’s response: We also put some Carrie references in there, notably on the subject of religious fanatism. Bruce and me share the same admiration for De Palma.

To which I responded: Ah! Saint Sebastian’s eyes are very Piper-Laurie-Christ eyes! Amazing!!]

9/18
Third time seeing the film remains a charm. From the Sticky Fingers opening shot to the radical wink at the end, @BruceLaBruce POV challenges the spectator to look deeply into family and culture in his new film #SaintNarcisse — now playing at @QuadCinema in NYC. Don’t miss it!

9/22
I got a sweet shout-out in Armond White’s eye-opening review of @BruceLaBruce #SaintNarcisse De Palma’s Sisters and Carrie resonate!

[From Armond White’s review: Critic John Demetry [ed. that’s me] pointed out a connection to De Palma’s Carrie (a great movie not generally appreciated for its profound satire of sexual-social-religious guilt) in the scene where an arrow-pierced Saint Sebastian statue (often a gay objet d’art) looks down, comically condemning a perverse supplicant.]
__________________
"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other."

Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way"

Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart.
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  #26  
Old 10-17-2021, 08:59 PM
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13, Venom 2, grade C- = It feels like a great big music video and the special affects aren't that good. The acting is good and some of the banter is good, but this is just not memorable. The first movie was better and it wasn't very good. Blah.
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  #27  
Old 10-17-2021, 09:03 PM
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14. No time to Die, grade C+ = It's way too long and hard to follow. I'm still not sure I understood all of it and by the end of the movie I couldn't wait to leave. However, there are some really good scenes in the movie and Daniel Craig is excellent as Bond. I wouldn't watch it again though.
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  #28  
Old 10-17-2021, 09:06 PM
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15. Halloween Kills, grade D = This movie pretty much sucks but I guess I never expected it to be good. I just wanted to watch a horror movie in the theaters for Halloween. Jamie Lee Curtis is hardly in the movie and the acting is pretty bad. It's not scary at all but there are a few good kills. Oh well... like I said, I never expected it to be good so I'm not really disappointed.
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  #29  
Old 10-18-2021, 11:13 PM
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Dune (Denis Villeneuve)

Denis Villeneuve's #DUNE begs the questions: Is it too dull to accuse of "Fascism"? No! Look beyond the intellectual murk of the beige-on-beige-on-beige Brutalism of the futuristic sci-fi production design and photography. DUNE fans will geek out on Easter eggs but popular audiences will be left unimpressed: Villeneuve casts obnoxious and pouty Timothee Chalomet as protagonist Paul because he looks a rodent (the character's future namesake), a sandworm's homage--the film's cgi anti-climax--foreshadows Paul's unfathomable genetic destiny, Jason Mamoa's sacrifice as Duncan Idaho feels meaningless (rather than legendary), and more. Remember that David Lynch's 1984 DUNE imaginatively interprets--and transcends--the source material to examine culture personally, constituting an under-appreciated mystic and triumphant vision. Through idiosyncratic imagery, Lynch conveys religious longing for salvation and justice: hypnotic images of obsidian water drops, uncontainable sexual surrealism contradicting and expressing sterile eugenic planning. Meanwhile, Villeneuve conflates puppy love with genocide. Yes, Zandaya's narration makes this as hiply depressing as an episode of EUPHORIA. Compare that to Lynch's myth-making and palpably mythic prologue delivered by Virginia Madsen. A moral let-down: Villeneuve's #DUNE ends mid-story, sprinkled with spice-dust hallucinations as "coming attractions." At over 2-1/2 hours, it all amounts to movie history's longest trailer. In Villeneuve's half-adaptation, Paul's revenge quest erases the moral challenge--a fatalistic humanism--of even Frank Herbert's book. Instead, Villeneuve provides exposition that establishes religion as merely a manipulatable human impulse ("superstition")--making the Middle Eastern and Irish tones in Hans Zimmer's score particularly risible and never rousing (derivative of Peter Gabriel's THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST and Zimmer/Junkie XL's own Wonder Woman theme in BATMAN V SUPERMAN). Through the audience proxy Paul's ratty brattiness, Villeneuve reduces Faith to a final solution of vengeance exacted upon irredeemable races by an oppressed tribe. Consumerism IS the new Fascism. Even sandworms--and a COVID-conquered global populace--bow down to it. Audiences don't need--and I predict won't want--the promised sequel. We live its nightmare.
__________________
"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other."

Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way"

Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart.
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  #30  
Old 10-24-2021, 02:15 AM
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Originally Posted by TrueFaith77 View Post
Dune (Denis Villeneuve)

Denis Villeneuve's #DUNE begs the questions: Is it too dull to accuse of "Fascism"? No! Look beyond the intellectual murk of the beige-on-beige-on-beige Brutalism of the futuristic sci-fi production design and photography. DUNE fans will geek out on Easter eggs but popular audiences will be left unimpressed: Villeneuve casts obnoxious and pouty Timothee Chalomet as protagonist Paul because he looks a rodent (the character's future namesake), a sandworm's homage--the film's cgi anti-climax--foreshadows Paul's unfathomable genetic destiny, Jason Mamoa's sacrifice as Duncan Idaho feels meaningless (rather than legendary), and more. Remember that David Lynch's 1984 DUNE imaginatively interprets--and transcends--the source material to examine culture personally, constituting an under-appreciated mystic and triumphant vision. Through idiosyncratic imagery, Lynch conveys religious longing for salvation and justice: hypnotic images of obsidian water drops, uncontainable sexual surrealism contradicting and expressing sterile eugenic planning. Meanwhile, Villeneuve conflates puppy love with genocide. Yes, Zandaya's narration makes this as hiply depressing as an episode of EUPHORIA. Compare that to Lynch's myth-making and palpably mythic prologue delivered by Virginia Madsen. A moral let-down: Villeneuve's #DUNE ends mid-story, sprinkled with spice-dust hallucinations as "coming attractions." At over 2-1/2 hours, it all amounts to movie history's longest trailer. In Villeneuve's half-adaptation, Paul's revenge quest erases the moral challenge--a fatalistic humanism--of even Frank Herbert's book. Instead, Villeneuve provides exposition that establishes religion as merely a manipulatable human impulse ("superstition")--making the Middle Eastern and Irish tones in Hans Zimmer's score particularly risible and never rousing (derivative of Peter Gabriel's THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST and Zimmer/Junkie XL's own Wonder Woman theme in BATMAN V SUPERMAN). Through the audience proxy Paul's ratty brattiness, Villeneuve reduces Faith to a final solution of vengeance exacted upon irredeemable races by an oppressed tribe. Consumerism IS the new Fascism. Even sandworms--and a COVID-conquered global populace--bow down to it. Audiences don't need--and I predict won't want--the promised sequel. We live its nightmare.
16. DUNE, grade A = I loved this movie. Having read the books and watched the awful 1982 movie, I thought there was no way they would be able to successfully bring this to the big screen again. Well, they did and thanks to Denis Villeneuve, it's almost a masterpiece. This movie is all about world building and this is just part 1. Don't expect a great dramatic ending. The book is soo dense and complicated, that trying to cram the whole story into 1 movie is a death knell. Thus, the movie is only an introduction into this world and Denis Villeneuve's DUNE is a magnificent, visual masterpiece. You have to watch this on the big screen. I cannot wait for part 2. I'm soo glad that the director is really trying to world build and not just after a quick buck. DUNE is such a great book. It deserves this type of care.♥️
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