The Movies

[Mark Rippetoe]

Fury Road was cool, but not great.

I wasn't that impressed either. Tried to watch it a second time, got about 40 minutes deep.

Somehow, I think Rip was not a big fan of Elysium

Missed it. Why?

[olddognewtricks]

Missed it. Why?

Variety: 'Elysium' Pushes 'Openly Socialist Political Agenda' - Breitbart

[Mark Rippetoe]

Variety: 'Elysium' Pushes 'Openly Socialist Political Agenda' - Breitbart

Ah. Socialism. From Hollywood. How odd.

Rip, have you watched John Wick? It's just a fucking badass and humorous revenge-action film.

Also, Beasts of No Nation looks pretty good, but it doesn't sound like its up your alley.

Just ordered John Wick. I see no movie by the title Beasts of No Nation on Amazon.

[Farback]

Ah. Socialism. From Hollywood. How odd.



Just ordered John Wick. I see no movie by the title Beasts of No Nation on Amazon.

Both of these are recent favourites. I think 'Beasts' is on Netflix.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Beasts of No Nation is a Netflix original film. It might not be available on Amazon?


I thought it was great, but extremely depressing.

[spacediver]

As a result, I have never seen The Shawshank Redemption because I'm not interested in prisons.

You're missing out on a truly great story. At least read the novella the movie was based on. The book is Different Seasons, by Stephen King, a collection of four stories. Three of them got turned into movies, two of them were some of the best movies ever made, including "Stand by me".

p.s. two of my fav action movies:

Predator
Léon: The Professional

[LizF]

Why do you want more women in action movies? If its supposed to be realistic, I hate it when the women are super strong, badass fighters (for obvious reasons).

Well, half the time I'm watching movies that aren't particularly realistic, in which case I think there's no problem having super strong, badass women fighters. Comic book movies are a great example. If we've got people with literal superpowers running around, then there's no reason more of those people can't be women.

Even in action movies where things are supposed to be realistic (in a Hollywood sort of way) there are lots of stock characters with different skill sets that could easily be played by women. Hackers, snipers, drivers, thieves, demolitions experts -- not gendered, not reliant on absolute strength, and yet a sizeable majority are men. Hell, a lot of the top villains in these things aren't fighters themselves; they just have a lot of people to do the fighting for them.

Why do I want to see more women? I dunno, how would you feel if men were massively outnumbered and hardly ever got to do anything interesting in the kind of movies you liked best?

[George Christiansen]

I watch movies that make me want to be there instead of here. So, I watch sword movies, space movies, science fiction movies, westerns, and the occasional Clint Eastwood movie. As a result, I have never seen The Shawshank Redemption because I'm not interested in prisons.

I a way too pretty for prison, but I seem to like quit a few films that take place in prison. i think it may be that that backdrop realistically eliminates all the fluff from the characters' lives.

I often catch myself wondering how the average film character actually pays their bills, but it is believable that Andy Dufresne can spend all his night chipping away at a concrete wall and not get fired the next day. Gang raped maybe, but not fired.

Shawshank Redemption, Cool Hand Luke, and The Green Mile have so much in the way of great social commentary and character studies that I think come across better because of the backdrop than they would in a different setting. So many great one liners too.

[Drewcar]

One of my favorite movies is "Hope and Glory" - a film about an 8 year old boy and his family living through the London Blitz. Pretty funny, but then again I'm half British. My uncle was the same age as the character, and he used to tell tales about the mischief he got into in the bomb ruins. The grandfather in the movie is pure comedy gold.

[Dr.T]

He has to be trolling about the Avengers, because no one intelligent could like those movies, and from someone that has written a few books, Rip has to be a little bit intelligent at least.

Ex Machina was pretty good.

Over all I find most movies disappointing and boring, very little character development, halfway through I couldn't care less if anyone in the movie lives or dies. It would actually improve most movies if they killed the protagonist. A good superhero movie would be the villain killing all of the superheroes, mercilessly and without prejudice. Then the movie would be over.

I think Hollywood is a pretty good indicator of the overall intelligence of the populace, stupid movies, stupid plots, unbelievable action sequences, dumb viewers. How can anyone today still believe that when you unholster a Glock it somehow makes a clicking sound? 200 bullets fired out of a pistol with a standard magazine? Sure.... One badass taking on 10 other slightly less badasses at once, and winning? Believable. . .

I remember watching, Walker Texas Ranger as a kid. "Hang on bad guy while I round house kick you in the head, don't move... *BAM*" Perfect.

Anyone seen that stupid fucking Scorpion series? Oh my god, it's made by retards for retards. "Let's hack into his computer ECU, and then make his car overheat, while it's off" ... "Oh perfect, it's catching on fire that will get him out". WHAT!?

Like any genre, there are high quality (Winter Soldier, Avengers, Ultron, X-Men 1,2, First Class and DOFP, Iron Man 1, 300, Watchmen, Burton’s Batman, etc.) and lesser (Wolverine 1,2, Iron Man 2,3, Hulk movies, Nolan’s humorless Batman, Man of Steel, Green Lantern, FF 1,2, etc.) examples. Condemnation of the entire class of movies, or their fans, is preposterous, as it would be for action, horror, western, drama, comedy, sci-fi.

The demo that drives these movies, and is courted every year at San Diego Comic Con and other venues by the creators and actors, tends to be highly culturally-aware, artistic, intelligent and analytical crowd, the “creative class”, if you will. Probably the smartest group of fans out there, though I guess not your crowd Alcon.

Cant wait to see The Hateful Eight.

Wife and I saw Hateful Eight 70mm Roadshow last night in Austin. Stunning visuals, perfect acting and great writing, obviously a tremendous cast. Catch the 70mm Roadshow if you can. It is a rare treat and you may not see another Ultra Panavision 70 movie in your lifetime. Also it is an extended version of the general release. Not to be missed by movie-heads.

Hurling, I understand the anger with the politics of artists, but if you let that stop you, it rules out enjoying about 90% of art.