Saturday, April 8, 2023

Weekend Open Thread

23 comments:

  1. G'day!

    The Super Mario Bros. Movie

    Im a smidge older than the nintento/mario generation so i dont have a lot of nostalgia for the IP. Took my son and his friend. The movie is fun as a kids flick with a good amount of references and representation from the Mario verse of games. Nice voice work all around. I did very much enjoy Seth Rogen as Kong and an unexpected song or two from 1/2 of Tenacious D. Also i think the movie did build to a fun conclusion. Fans of Mario World will dig. Kids will dig.

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    1. It was fun and pleasant enough. I liked the decision to go animated over live-action. I think that’s a better way to go about video game adaptations. The voice cast was good and particularly Jack Black was the MVP of the movie with his vocal performance.

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  2. The 4K TV saga continue. I just found put that the PS5 doesn't support Dolby Vision. Which i was sure would be supported, because, you know, it's a freakin' PS5. So now i'm on my way to get a dedicated disc player.

    The good news is, i won't need a sound bar. Tv sound is fine for now. It's far from perfect, but good enough for me.

    Technology man, we hate it, but we love it anyway.

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    1. Doesn't support DV with the discs only. It's fine with streaming plateforms. But i mostly play discs... so... wallet out

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    2. That's unfortunate. But all the same, how is 4K? Since your post a couple of weeks ago, the thought of upgrading has been simmering.

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    3. It's great, it's so good looking. Of course not all movies are made the same. So a movie like Bourne Identity is not really worth the upgrade because the picture is so 'dirty' and made to look that way. But i'm currently watching Star Trek 2009 and it look so good and clear, a huge upgrade from the blu-ray, which was already good looking. Most of the movies i bought i looked at reviews on blu-ray.com before, just to confirm it was worth the upgrade

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    4. Kunider - highly recommend the Panasonic UB820. It's best 4K disc player out there. I personally have 2x UB420's that's are half the price but do not support DV (only HDR10, HDR10+, which honestly, I've never been able to tell the difference between DV and HDR10). The UB820 is pricey, but if DV is a necessity, that's the best in it's price range.

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    5. Thanks Chaybee. I got the Sony X700. It's not perfect, but it was the best reviewed after your Panasonic and another pricier Panasonic. And it was the only one they had at the local Best Buy (didn't want to wait for it to be delivered, and for some reason they don't have any Panasonic).

      I watched The Northman yesterday and it was gorgeous. I'm currently watching Logan, also very good looking.

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  4. DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES (2023). Super fun! Yes, I could nitpick it to death. The dramatic bits were flatly filmed compared the monsters and chases, and there were quite a few differences between this and the game (to my knowledge, at least). BUT... it was old-fashioned popcorn fantasy adventure in a good way, and I'm on board for a sequel.

    ELVIS (2022). I tried to have an open mind, but this was a bit much for me. Apologies, but Baz Luhrmann just isn't one of my guys.

    THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 (1974) a.k.a. Moustaches: The Movie!

    REPO THE GENETIC OPERA (2008). This is my annual "put it on in the background while I do my taxes" movie.

    DAY OF ANGER (1967). Nobody Van Cleefs better than Lee Van Cleef.

    AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (2015). Rewatched this on a whim. Yes, it's all over the place narratively, but the George Perez-inspired visuals are quite thrilling.

    TAR (2022). This is nicely filmed and has excellent performances throughout, yet I'm left asking... why? It's one person's fall from grace, and then what? Why did this particular story need to be told? I don't get it.

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    1. Age of Ultron is a favorite of mine, but i know it's not the best liked movie of the bunch. But i'll watch this one over any of the other Marvels

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    2. Im with ya Kunider! alot of folks poop on Ultron but i absolutely ADORE James Spader's voice work...its this wonderful level of smarmy confidence meets menace. As we all know, movies of this type often live or die based on a good baddie...welp i think Ultron is a wonderful baddie!

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    3. Also, Ultron gives us one of the absolute best quotes in the whole of MCU:

      "The most versatile substance on the planet, and they used it to build a Frisbee."

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    4. Yeah, Spader is a big part of why the movie is so good.

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  5. Watched Ron Howard's movie, THIRTEEN LIVES (2022) with Colin Farrell, Viggo Mortensen and Joel Edgerton. I remember that story about the 13 boys being rescued from the cave in Thailand several years ago, but had no idea how they got them out. I had NO IDEA IT HAPPENED LIKE THIS. How could I not have known? Maybe they purposely didn't broadcast it widely, even after rescue. So I was shocked and ...thankfully I already knew all the boys came out alive, because that was insane. And my heart was so touched by everything that went into that rescue. I watched it twice!

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    1. I thought this was really good too! It was released quietly to streaming without any promotion, and unsurprisingly didn't get seen by many. I recommended it to my family and friends, but no one has watched it yet (afaik). I didn't know how the rescue was done either, but finally that was pretty crazy, and was a very tense and dramatic story which I thought the film captured well.

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    2. Agree!! Done very well. Thank goodness people LIKE to do cave diving? The only thing I might have changed about the movie...is give the movie star treatment to some of the Thai cast, like at least Teerapat Sajakul. More fancy angles, closeups, lighting, the whole formula.

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    3. Can't stop rewatching this...

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    4. BTW, there's a documentary on Disney+ called The Rescue about the same event. I've heard that it's excellent as well. Perhaps it gives a slightly different perspective that is focused less on the role of the Westerners.

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    5. Thanks, Paul! :) I may just watch it. I even listened to a cave diving podcast yesterday. The skepticism/tension btw the divers and the SEALS makes way more sense when you see the real divers, who are not reminiscent of Lord Aragorn or Sonny Crockett.

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    6. Reading this interview with John, Rick and their team is terrifying and calming at the same time: https://aflam.vip/movie/680058/The-Rescue?q=The-Rescue#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=The-Rescue&gsc.page=1
      The real rescue sounds more dramatic than the film.

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