Movies You’ve Only Just Watched

Off-Topic
1167

I just don’t get it, a lot of people seem to think this was a brand new Indy film that was exactly like the last four but not a lot of what I have seen of it doesn’t really say that it will be a prescriptivist adventure film at all.

Hah that would imply that Disney wanted to take a significant risk in the direction of the series. They made one film that was radically different from a hugely popular series it was in and the online backlash it got and still continues to get was/is so strong it scared them into taking artistic half-measures ever since.

Dials is that same sort of glad-handing approach where the creatives are just allowed to be creative enough to allow for something radically different but never given enough room or freedom to develop it into anything substantial at all so you get mutant films like this that are both paeans to the same old and attempts at making something new.

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1168

Yeah, you can still do all of those things.

We still haven’t found the Ark? Well just go to Ethiopia and dig.

Fight Nazis? Still plenty of them, book a flight to Florida.

Experience Actual Spirits? Kill yourself! Plenty of ghosts in the undiscovered country.

Defeat a death cult? All cults are death cults when you think about it. Just find a Scientology Recruitment Centre and start wailing on the auditors.

Save a village? Join the Peace Corps or Peacekeepers, better yet fight UN Peacekeepers you wouldn’t believe how awful some of them are.

Find the Holy Grail? Just go to the UK and dig, you will find it eventually.

Talk to a Medieval knight? Plenty of them in crypts and tombs all over Europe, Just talk to one of them, you didn’t say they had to talk back.

Fight Communists? Again there are still plenty of them, go to Reddit and yell at Tankies for half an hour or something.

See actual aliens and their space ship? Just go to Nevada and stare upwards, it is that simple.

Lonely Planet, please hire me. I am obviously the world’s best travel planner.

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1169

I don’t know which of those statements was the funniest, but I think it’s a toss-up between book a flight to Florida and kill yourself. :joy:

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1170

Eh, it pretends to be like the others but the only things it does to remind the viewer that it is in fact an Indiana Jones film and not just some knockoff are a brief moments of fan service. I didn’t have big expectations for it but having enjoyed all the other films I went in with naive hope that I’d get something out of it and mostly I didn’t, the first 20 minutes were not complete waste of time though.

Not saying that they should have changed the lead actor or anything like that, I just think the film should not exist at all.

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1171

Oh it shouldn’t really exist at all but Hollywood is a post-originality world right now so if it did have to exist I would have rather have had Indy be the Salah type character to either Mutt (instead of having him killed in 'Nam???) or Phebe Waller-Bridges’ character. He can be there to give out advice and maybe do some light whipping or a car chase scene or something that won’t make afraid he will break a rib.

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1172

Surely that would have been better too, I would have liked to see an entire movie of de-aged Indy even if it was a controversial decision. Well, I can’t see how the reception would have been any worse in that case.

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1173

I don’t want that, it would be even sadder than seeing an elderly Harrison Ford on the screen for some reason, it feels more shallow intellectually and dehumanising as well. Everything I heard says that the people making Dials at least had the self-awareness to utilize Harrison Ford’s advanced age as a story element and on top of that it is at least something novel even if it resulted in a film didn’t want or expect. If I wanted to see a CGI Indy romping around in a realistic world I would play LEGO Indiana Jones.

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1175

Saw the new Mission Impossible movie. Saw it with my dad, he loved it, I thought it was very good. It’s just a very solid, extremely well made blockbuster. With so many Hollywood movies struggling to gives audiences what they want, you get something like this that just does everything so easily. Looking forward to part 2, really need to watch the other MI films as I’ve only seen Rogue Nation which I also thought was awesome.

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1176

The only issue with an older Indy is it’s hard to get right due to the fact that while you can form a Grand Adventure which factors his age it also has to make sense.

Young Indy Adventures has an older Indy and it didn’t work. Crystal Skull flirted with the idea, and Dial constantly flipped with Indy where one moment he is jumping between Tuk Tuks and is agile and the next moment he is too old and Wombat is making sure the audience knows he is old.

I have issues with Dial but it mainly stems from the Mcguffin being the worst in the series in terms of writing and missed potential that was written but never realized.

Mad Mikkelson abruptly dies and there’s no real “horror” coming from the Dial compared to the Ark, Grail, Crystal Skul, and the Thuggie Cult. There are just key things missing in Dial of Destiny that make it a Indy Film.

James Mangold understands Indy in his prime and that’s evident with how people love the opening, and the film took a lot of risk depicting an older Indy. It’s very much possible and can work but it has to make sense and not flip in logic when convenient.

Won’t go into Wombat and her child side kick cause that’s just Pandora’s box of assumptions with no real concrete evidence but I was frustrated with the characters during various parts of the movie.

I’ll just conclude what I’m saying by stating if the third act went differently this film could have easily been better than CS. But as of right now it’s interchangeable.

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1177

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One gave me PTSD in the third act. “All you had to do was follow the damn train, CJ!”

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1178

Finally got a chance to watch Decision to Leave.

It doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel plot-wise–modern noir with married detective attracted to murder suspect–but it pretty much nails everything else, with great writing, impeccable acting and gorgeous cinematography.

One of the best movies I’ve seen in a while.

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1179

Finally watched No Time To Die tonight, and the whole thing that I’ve spoken at length before about the WoA trilogy essentially ripping off the Daniel Craig era of Bond films seems to have come full circle, to the point that now there’s a few parts of the film that seem ripped from WoA. Bond wears an outfit about two-thirds through that is basically the Casual Undercover suit without glasses or gloves; the whole Heracles thing was basically Silvio Caruso’s virus put to film; and one other thing that I’ve forgotten as of the time of this writing.

Though there are still some signs of H3 ripping off this film; the facility at the end has some hallways similar to those found under Villa Yates next to the wine production rooms; Noel Crest’s betrayal and intention to wipe out the main villains and take their place as the big threat by doing so seems to echo Safin’s actions here; and even the safehouse in Freelancer seems, at least partially, taken directly from Bond’s place in Jamaica at the start of this film, particularly where he can fish from his own property. Even though H3 came out before this movie did, it’s pretty clear it was made while H3 was still in production (also the movie was delayed several times by the pandemic), and so the game would still be the copier.

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1180

And that ending knocked me for six more than any other Park Chan-wook film since Oldboy. Devastating.

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1181

Watched the newest Mission: Impossible film and it was very good, just like pretty much every M:I film. This is probably a controversial opinion but I still prefer most of the others in the series even though it’s obviously top quality. It just didn’t have that many unique and memorable scenes, the airport section was definitely my favorite part. Overall this is how I would rank the films so far, I hope part two has something big for us.

  1. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
  2. Mission: Impossible (1996)
  3. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
  4. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
  5. Mission: Impossible III (2006)
  6. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
  7. Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
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1182

Saw the new Indiana Jones last night. I enjoyed it overall but definetly think the best part was the opening and the stuff in NYC. Think it does get weaker as it goes along. I don’t like Wombat, I understand what they were trying to do with her, but no, I feel nothing for her. Couple parts I don’t really get:

What was the point of the CIA woman? I thought her role would of been a bit bigger, she knowingly lets Wombat escape NYC. Thought maybe she’d assist Indy later on, but she just gets killed. I also don’t really understand what the Dial does. Is it a time machine, or does it merely point you in the direction of time fissures?

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about the ending. Quite frankly, I think it should be different.

I think Indy should of got to stay in the past, while Wombat and Teddie went home. Maybe find a text saying he spent his last few years happy getting to live the history he was so passionate about. Rather than have to go back to the present where 2 of his university colleagues are dead, his Greek friend is dead, and his son is dead. Guess he gets to get back together with Marion at least.

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1183

Just came home after watching
Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1
from the late night show at theatres.

Firstly hats off to the veteran actor Tom Cruise, how does he do this stunts with age above 60 years. Signature Sprint scenes by Tom.
Luther and Benzi was cool and Kittridge from the first movie.

I liked the story and subject, the word Reckoning means the action or process of calculating or estimating something.
I really feel we should be worried about AI (Artificial Intelligence), you cannot trust them (not ChatGPT either). Maybe someday AI can control this post and write something which I didnot write in reality and frame me. There is digital data footprints everywhere and calculates future like ads in social media.

A scene in the movie showing how an Intelligence Department employing bulk workers using typewriters instead of computers and servers as they were scared of the invisible ghost (AI) was real cool.

Honestly, it is a good movie as it makes a plot for part 2. But if you compare it with its previous movies it lacks something, felt like The Lost World Jurassic Park in one of an important scene. Some scenes made the movie slow paced, maybe for the plot in part 2.

Agree the rank listed by @Beldingford

Lets see what part 2 has to bring.

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1184

Just saw Entergalactic – the animated romance film based on rapper Kid Cudi’s album of the same name. On Netflix.

Came out sometime last year, and I just didn’t get around to taking an afternoon off to watch it till now.

It’s a very beautiful animated film. There are some really stunning visuals and the upbeat/galactic colour palette they use is awesome.
The art style is also very reminiscent of Spider-Verse and Netflix’s own I Lost My Body. Painterly, and able to see the brush strokes and pencil marks of a scene…

It follows Jabari (played by Scott Mescudi/Kid Cudi) moving into a New York apartment, and starts a relationship with his new neighbour Meadow.

There’s fun comedic aspects to the film, quite a few explicit steamy romances and a great soundtrack from the titular album. But yeah, its a pretty adult film.

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1185

Can anyone please explain to me the 2nd half of Oppenheimer? It is kinda embarrasing to admit but I fell asleep after the first half, I was really tired, so now I just got lots of questions like why did they bombed Japan and why is it Oppenheimers’ fault?

Btw I’m still amazed I fell asleep, how tf did I fell asleep in a movie about Nuclear Bombs? Every 15minutes the theater went boom and I had one of the best sleeps I had lately

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1186

The first things to remember about the Oppenheimer movie is that the parts of the movie in colours represents Oppenheimer subjective point of view, and the parts in black and white are meant to be objective.

So for the “why did they bombed Japan?”

The movie presents/tells explicitly that it’s because the number of casualties were going to be less than the alternatives. The bombs were made not to bomb cities, but to end the war. Which they did.
(historically, you need to remember that in addition WWII was a total war, and that nothing but an unconditional surrender of the Empire of Japan would have been accepted)

Now for the “why is it Oppenheimer’s fault?”

This is the entire message of the movie.
The movie seems to show Oppenheimer as embodying nuclear anxiety/guilt.

There is moment during the second half of the movie, during the hearings, where Oppenheimer is showed in conversation by a lake with Einstein. A fact observed from a distance by Strauss. This is showed in black and white.

Ambiguously it is left open if the conversation was about the hearings, Strauss, the personal, and the political. As Strauss thinks, and express. Or something else.

The last scene of the movie is a return to this conversation. In colours. And the conversation is showed to be about the bombs, what will follow it, and what it means for humanity.
I think that’s the message of the movie. The subject is Oppenheimer, the message is that guilt and anxiety ended up defining him.

Oppenheimer blames himself, it’s not objectively his fault. But it is for him. Again the black and white and colours.
In the movie, after the trinity test he keeps having hallucination (or least thoughts represented by hallucinations) of the results/casualties of a bomb. And he his haunted by them.

It showed to be, at first, a really primal reaction.
In the end he tries to bring more, and rationalise it. Which does not help him, and just makes his regrets more educated. He basically foresee the cold war, and fear of nuclear annihilation.

I also think it will be interesting to see the parallel made by the movie between the creation of the bomb, and the romance/affair he had with Jean Tatlock.
The famous quote from the Bhagavad Vita is introduced by her after they sleep together,
It’s ending with a suicide, due to clinical depression.
And when he is plagued by guilt over it, he is told by his wife that it wasn’t his fault, and should move on.
Which in a way, the movie presents as true.
She is instigator, the movie puts attention that she calls him, he just can’t help answering. He was a participant of her life, and was a bit reckless, but he is not presented as the cause of the suicide, it’s a tragic spiral of its own.

Also saw Barbie, I recommand.

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1187

Wow thanks, this is a very good explanation, helped me alot m8.

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