Thread: The "I just saw" thread

  1. #3601
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Union of Salvation



    Pretty much the entire movie.
    Last edited by Lord of the Drunk Penguin; May 13, 2021 at 10:16 AM.


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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Blood Rain

    Some sins can never be forgotten.
    This is like a samurai murder mystery without the samurai.
    Korean cinema doesn't disappoint.


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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread




    Unforgiven


    Masterpiece.
    Nobody, and I mean, nobody makes a western like Clint Eastwood.


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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Army of the Dead

    7 out of 10
    Mainly because of this guy...


    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    When the smartest character in the movie is a zombie, that says something of the quality of the entire movie, doesn't it?


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    Araval's Avatar Protector Domesticus
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Nobody (2021)

    I recommend this movie. It felt kind of realistic, his skills seemed rusty at first, taking quite fair a bit of damage and even in the end this guy didn't feel allmighty. Even though he didn't have a big role, Christopher Lloyd delivers a few priceless moments.
    The trailer I saw was a bit misleading for me, btw.

  6. #3606

    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Araval View Post
    Nobody (2021)

    I recommend this movie. It felt kind of realistic, his skills seemed rusty at first, taking quite fair a bit of damage and even in the end this guy didn't feel allmighty. Even though he didn't have a big role, Christopher Lloyd delivers a few priceless moments.
    The trailer I saw was a bit misleading for me, btw.
    Yes an overall good movie. Felt a bit different and more "newish" in the sense. Loved the mouse trap & other tricks used in the end. Haha was great.

  7. #3607
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Zama (2017)
    Originally a novel, which is considered one of the Argentine classics. The novel is touted as being the epitome of nothingness. How did it translate to the screen? Seeing as I haven't read the novel I can't compare them. But I can judge the film.

    This movie is long and boring. Actually it isn't that long, but it is so slow that it feels twice as long as it really is. It took me two days to finish this movie because I found it so mentally exhausting that I went to bed early. It is indeed a movie about nothing. In every scene something happens, but it is so minor that it feels like nothing. The story is about nothing. Diego de Zama, a local magistrate or lawyer in a small Paraguayan frontier town in which nothing happens. He wants to bee promoted and specifically wants to be transferred to a town called "Lerma". He never gets promoted and his life wastes away on the colonial frontier.

    The obvious problem with this movie, not that it is slow. Rather than nothing in it makes sense or is seemingly explained. This leaves me with so many questions about the plot, which apparently it doesn't matter, cause nothing matters. The pacing actually makes any plot point pretty forgettable because the movie then moves on to another really slow scene. Only some of these plot points come back in the rest of the movie. What is more every scene is so strange and the camera angles are so uncomfortable that it feels like an actual meth trip. Some of these scenes are so odd and surreal that I am confused as to whether it was meant to be real, or if Zama is imagining it, or if it is a dream sequence. I found myself asking the relevance of some of these scenes. But it left me with so many questions that I don't see how this even works as a movie. The story plot points appear to be barely explained. Or I was tripping out and missed all of it.

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    So Diego de Zama was claimed to have killed a dangerous bandit, which apparently he never did. When did this happen? Why do they claim that he did? How come he didn't? He obviously never even saw Vicunia Porto, if Gaspar later claims to be Porto and Diego is surprised.

    Why does Diego want to be transferred to Lerma specifically? What the heck is in Lerma? If he is a careerist then wouldn't he want to go to Montevideo or Buenos Aires instead?

    Was Diego de Zama married? Or did I misinterpret statements in the movie? I know he has an illegitimate son. But my initial assumption is that he wanted to go to Lerma to be with his family. However this wasn't clear to me at all. But honestly if he wants to leave so badly why doesn't he just pretend to be sick and then leave?

    Who are those strange women who give him towel baths? More importantly why are they allowed to give him towel baths?

    Who the heck is that bald guy who keeps showing up in the background?

    The local governor told Diego de Zama that he had to send two letters to Spain. Does that mean that he never sent the second letter? How come he didn't? It appears that by the end the governor is a different guy.

    Why does the new governor send Diego de Zama on an expedition to find Vicunia Porto? Wasn't Diego just some lawyer or something?

    So... there was no Vicunia Porto? Or was there a guy called Vicunia Porto who was killed? Why do they claim that Vicunia Porto is dead but then send an expedition to find him? Whose ears were those? Is Gaspar the same as Vicunia Porto or is he taking on the mantle because he is actually a wannabe bandit?

    Apparently Gaspar is not such a bad guy... but did Gaspar join the expedition to find Vicunia Porto in order to kidnap Diego de Zama? If so why did he want to intentionally capture this random lawyer? Did Gaspar know the Indios who captured them on the Paraguayan frontier? Did they escape the Indios? Maybe it is implied that they stole a horse but... couldn't that have just been a scene? Did Gaspar join an expedition to find himself in order to hide more effectively and throw them off?

    Gaspar and his men said that Diego de Zama knows where the supposed rare stones are. Why does Gaspar think this about Diego? But then Diego says that those stones are just worthless geodes... how does Diego know? Why do they associate Diego with those stones?

    What the heck were all those weird trippy scenes? There was this kid being carried around on a chair saying all sorts of crazy schizo stuff. There was another kid running around and crawling in crowded rooms... what was the point of that? That last scene with Diego lying in a canoe and that kid saying "do you want to live", what the hell was all that?

    From what I gathered this movie is about breaking the illusions and expectations. Especially people thinking that they will be successful or have a good life. When instead it just sort of drifts away into mundane nothingness until it finally ends. Gaspar's men got angry because he shattered their illusions and tried to kill him. But did it really have to conclude so dramatically? For a movie about realism and nothingness. The conclusion was something. He could have just sat at home and died in his sleep if it wanted to stay consistent.

    Without any explanation, not to mention all of these disjointed scenes that usually lack flow... am I supposed to assume that Diego went on this expedition because he wanted something more exciting? Or maybe he was hoping that he would just die or something? Or perhaps he thought he might help capture "Vicunia Porto" and get promoted? But see, without an explanation this is just head canon.

    "Famous general without peer in any age, most superior in valor and inspired by the Way of Heaven; since the provinces are now subject to your will it is certain that you will increasingly mount in victory." - Ōgimachi-tennō

  8. #3608
    John Doe's Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Warth of man: well made but i didn't expect such a superficial story from guy ritchie. Let's blame that on covid...

  9. #3609
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Oda Nobunaga View Post
    Some of these scenes are so odd and surreal that I am confused as to whether it was meant to be real, or if Zama is imagining it, or if it is a dream sequence.
    Yes! This is the point!

    What's interesting in this review is that you recognize the film is about nothing, or rather this sort of emptiness, but then you seem disappointed by that. Neither the novel nor the film really focus so much on a story as a state of being and state of mind, and so trying to find evidence concretely in favour of one interpretation of an event or another is a fruitless enterprise (in fact, there's some scenes towards the end that have no logical explanation at all). This is quite common in modern literature (and very much true of the source novel), and yet often seems to come as a shock when it's presented in film—perhaps because it is assumed that visuals in film must be taken as literal, while words on a page can be read as subjective.

    With a film like this when you watch it, you should use your imagination and knowledge of the setting to arrive at your own conclusion. If at a later point you realize there can be an alternative theory, there's a thrill to that discovery. For me, there's more richness to that experience than having the director hold my hand through the whole way.

    A bit of background that may help you, though:

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    • Lerma is the hometown of the director, in the novel Zama wants to go to Buenos Aires and in both the explanation is that's where his wife and son are.
    • The novel is divided into 3 parts, each spaced about 5 years apart. The same happens in the film, and while not explicitly marked each passage corresponds to a different governor.
    • What's going on with his attempt to get a transfer is meant to be read as Kafkaesque, and so you will be frustrated trying to find some definite logic.


    I do hope that with all these questions that it stays with you, there are many elements in the film that are subtly unsettling or disorienting and that's what gives it power.

  10. #3610
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    The issue was really not being able to understand what was happening. Pretty much nothing was explained. The actual trippy scenes were not that much of a problem.

    "Famous general without peer in any age, most superior in valor and inspired by the Way of Heaven; since the provinces are now subject to your will it is certain that you will increasingly mount in victory." - Ōgimachi-tennō

  11. #3611
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Barbarians



    Bene, ma non benissimo,
    to quote our Italian brothers.
    It's always good to see Romans lose and they did make an effort with the Latin and the costumes but still...
    meh.

    Battle scene was great though.
    Had me in tears and everything.
    Last edited by Lord of the Drunk Penguin; June 04, 2021 at 01:44 PM.


  12. #3612
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Oslo



    Historical movie.
    It's also sad that the peace did not last.

    'Abu Ala, what is that sound?'
    'They are crying. All of them. They did not think they will live to see this day.'


  13. #3613
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Friends: Reunion

    Wow, they really squeezed all the nostalgia juice out of this one, didn't they?
    Last edited by Lord of the Drunk Penguin; June 06, 2021 at 12:48 PM.


  14. #3614
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Voyagers: the original lord of the flies is much better

  15. #3615
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Oxygen: claustrophobic thriller, it's a pleasant watch but lacks thrills.

  16. #3616
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Hysterical

    Yay, women.
    Boo, the patriarchy.
    Gets a little redundant and repetitive.



    But Iliza Shelsinger is still cute as hell.
    Truly inspirational.
    Last edited by Lord of the Drunk Penguin; June 07, 2021 at 04:48 PM.


  17. #3617
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Lower Decks

    Great series.
    Great characters, great writers, great comedy, great action.
    Here's some truth about Star Fleet:



  18. #3618
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    It's Kind of A Funny Story



    This cured my depression.
    Very wholesome


  19. #3619
    Araval's Avatar Protector Domesticus
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    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    Boss Level (2021)
    Offers enough entertainment for what it is but I wouldn't say you need to see it.

    What bugged me with this is:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    that it's a science project which they don't bother to explain much, thus leaving the characters working on it not particurlarly convincing for my taste.

  20. #3620

    Default Re: The "I just saw" thread

    I just saw rurouni kenshin! and it was awesome!!!

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