The Official Movie Thread

[no country for old wainds]

Collateral is a masterpiece and Cruise's peak performance of all time. Da fucc you on aboot bruh?

Then you have The Outsiders, The Color of Money, Born on the Fourth of July, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, The Last Samurai. He's done a ton of good stuff.

most of the mission impossible movies have been action masterpieces or close enough. not great or even good films whenever they aren’t doing action, but the set pieces are consistently incredible especially in the recent ones, and cruise contributes to that. i watched the new one the other day and i wish i’d seen it on the big screen. i like them more than i.e. the daniel craig bond movies, which are like the MI movies at their worst but with less of the good stuff.

 

[no country for old wainds]

Also on Netflix...caught two Herzog doc's that I thoroughly enjoyed. Into the Inferno, about volcanoes and their local mythology and Encounters at the End of the World, about those in Antarctica, were really enjoyable. I dare say must-see! In a re-do of my life, I'd go back and be a volcanologist.

i remember liking the part when herzog talks about how much he hates the sun lol

 

[rms]

haha was hilarious, pasty old nazi

 

[Slammed]

Jack Reacher kinda stunk IMO.

One of the few movies staring Tom Cruise I've seen where he didn't ruin it, the producers did it for him. I'd probably watch the series when it comes out but I wont watch the movies if they make more.

I don't bother with netflix or any paid service purely because I'd never get my moneys worth from it. I so rarely sit down to watch a movie or tv series the price quickly negates the service and I'm really not the sort of person who has to watch shit the second it comes out. If I don't see a movie in the same year it comes out I don't loose any sleep.

 

[CiG]

One of the few movies staring Tom Cruise I've seen where he didn't ruin it, the producers did it for him.

Agreed.

most of the mission impossible movies have been action masterpieces or close enough. not great or even good films whenever they aren’t doing action, but the set pieces are consistently incredible especially in the recent ones, and cruise contributes to that. i watched the new one the other day and i wish i’d seen it on the big screen. i like them more than i.e. the daniel craig bond movies, which are like the MI movies at their worst but with less of the good stuff.

I recently rewatched the first one and I still can't get into it, not that I think it's shit. But you're right the scenes and action sequences are good and since you mention the Craig Bond films, another set of films that are Mission Impossible-esque are the Bourne films which I do enjoy quite a bit. Great action sequences and like Cruise, Matt Damon excels at doing action choreography in general.

 

[Oblivious Maximus]

The first MI film seemed like such a strange choice for De Palma. He's had a varied career and all, but it still seemed like an odd fit. It worked, though.

 

[no country for old wainds]

not to mention john woo doing the second one. probably the worst of the series too from what i can remember. i think i like the ones from this decade the most tbh, they're a perfectly oiled machine at this point.

i just think they're the last of a dying breed, i guess, and deserve more love from action freaks (although actually a few of those people on letterboxd have been going apeshit over the new one). it's the only big money blockbuster franchise left that exists solely to keep outdoing its own brilliantly conceived and executed action sequences; there's a chase around paris and a helicopter chase through the mountains in the new one that are technically extraordinary, and exhilarating. the john wick movies get a lot of love, and while i like them more on a character and aesthetic level, i think even the set pieces in those pale in comparison, personally.

i like the bourne identity quite a lot, not so much the next two. probably because doug liman is generally cool and paul greengrass is generally lame. i haven't seen the ones after the trilogy.

i didn't like jack reacher much either, but it made me think i'd like the source material. and it had herzog, that's always a plus.

 

[CiG]

I need to see the newer MI films, if you're giving them that kind of praise it should be worth it. I can appreciate an action film that has established its identity to the point that it can focus on other things. It's why I love Jackie Chan so much for example, he established his brand and then spent the rest of his career trying to outdo himself with stunts and choreography.

 

[RadicalThrasher]

Watching:

Spoiler

 

[challenge_everything]

even i liked MI Ghost Protocol, and i'm not usually into that kind of thing. I'll get around to seeing Rogue Nation and Fallout at some point

 

[no country for old wainds]

the later MI films do indulge in some mythologising and thematic stuff which doesn't really work too well (and isn't dissimilar to the last couple of bond films really), but thankfully they don't dwell on that stuff too much and i'd still recommend them for sure. preferably loud on a pretty big screen.

ghost protocol is directed by pixar's brad bird, weirdly enough. he did the iron giant, the incredibles, ratatouille, then mission impossible 4? probably even odder than de palma doing one.

 

[challenge_everything]

I've never been a big Bond fan, but the Craig era films (apart from Casino Royale) are just trash. Action scenes dull, Bond girls dull, Bond himself looking jaded and disinterested, by-the-numbers villains who these days all seem to be echoes of Bane from Batman - "the system is fucked so let's blow it all up"

 

[Oblivious Maximus]

Watching:

Spoiler

Whole lotta titty for a PG-13 movie. Good luck getting that Hungry Heifer jingle out of your head.

 

[no country for old wainds]

i think casino royale is quite good, personally. not only does it acknowledge that the charm of past bond eras seems increasingly contrived and vacuous today, but it presents james bond the man on the verge of being consumed by James Bond the myth, asking uncomfortable questions about audience identification by essentially demonstrating how the indestructible sociopath moviegoers know and love is the product of stripping a man of the last vestiges of his humanity. it seems quite prescient to me now, in that i think it's critical of our increasing obsession with superheroes/gods at the expense of classical heroes who love, bleed and die like we do. a pretty bold, introspective approach for such an established franchise, and i'm sure it pissed off a lot of h/c bond fans at the time (although for the record i've never seen the original nor read the book, so i don't know exactly how much they changed).

but yeah, after that i've had no use for them. there's no self-awareness whatsoever in a dour portentous slog like skyfall.

 

[CiG]

i'd still recommend them for sure. preferably loud on a pretty big screen.

NCFOW size queen confirmed.

 

[challenge_everything]

i think casino royale is quite good, personally. not only does it acknowledge that the charm of past bond eras seems increasingly contrived and vacuous today, but it presents james bond the man on the verge of being consumed by James Bond the myth, asking uncomfortable questions about audience identification by essentially demonstrating how the indestructible sociopath moviegoers know and love is the product of stripping a man of the last vestiges of his humanity. it seems quite prescient to me now, in that i think it's critical of our increasing obsession with superheroes/gods at the expense of classical heroes who love, bleed and die like we do. a pretty bold, introspective approach for such an established franchise, and i'm sure it pissed off a lot of h/c bond fans at the time (although for the record i've never seen the original nor read the book, so i don't know exactly how much they changed).

but yeah, after that i've had no use for them. there's no self-awareness whatsoever in a dour portentous slog like skyfall.

Agree 100%

 

[CiG]

...lmfao!

 

[CiG]

The first MI film seemed like such a strange choice for De Palma. He's had a varied career and all, but it still seemed like an odd fit. It worked, though.

In hindsight, now that I've seen more of De Palma's films dealing with themes like voyeurism, the scenes he shot in POV in Mission Impossible make a lot of sense. I might watch the first one again soon just to see how much De Palma magic made it into the film.

 

[Oblivious Maximus]

Peter Jackson Returns to His "Naughty Years" With Restoration of Gory Early Films

 

[CiG]

Cool. I've not ever seen Heavenly Creatures.