redhorsejacket

@redhorsejacket@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New ‘Starship Troopers’ Movie in the Works from ‘District 9’ Filmmaker Neill Blomkamp (Exclusive)⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I watched the older animated one (Invasion) a few months ago, and my experience tracks with you. Brain bug is taking over a Federation ship and trying to crash into Earth for conquest purposes (sort of an Alen: Resurrection thing going on there). It’s up to Rico, Carmen, and (maybe) Carl to stop the ship before it arrives. It’s 90 minutes of mid-2010s videogame cutscene, and is a fun bit of frivolous nothing, if that’s what you want.

  The latter animated movie (Traitor of Mars) brings back Casper van Dien (and Dina Meyer, which is interesting depending on if this is a sequel or a prequel), but I’ve not seen that one yet.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New ‘Starship Troopers’ Movie in the Works from ‘District 9’ Filmmaker Neill Blomkamp (Exclusive)⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t believe Heinlein ever wrote a sequel to Starship Troopers, though certainly the “military science fiction” genre owes a lot to that book.

  Ed Neumeier (who wrote Robocop and the 97 movie) however, wrote and directed the 2 live action film sequels. The second is, from memory, God awful and not worth a watch. The third is ALSO God awful as I recall, but it has the advantage of going pretty big with its ideas, so there’s a bit of zany fun to be had. Plus, despite it being one of the defining features of the book, it’s also the first time (I think) power armor makes an appearance in the film franchise. Casper van Dien’s star had fallen sufficiently by that point too, so he also reprises his role as Rico, which is another point in its favor.

  There also a handful of computer animated movies and a TV series that I believe originated in Japan. They are about on par, quality wise, with the CGI Resident Evil movies. Depending on your tastes, that could either be a mild endorsement or a resounding condemnation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is your single favourite movie soundtrack?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Man, I literally wound up listening to that entire playlist last night after I posted the comment. I’ve only seen the film once, probably a decade or more in the past at this point, so I really only had the overall impression of the score in my head. It’s even better than I remember it.

  Also, I put together that Nyman also composed the score to Gattaca, which is another very stirring soundtrack. I can hear elements it in the more traditional portions of Ravenous.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What movies have you watched this week?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I watched the Scott Adkins film Accident Man this week. It’s a film for a particular audience, one pre-disposed to enjoy direct-to-video action/martial arts schlock. On that level, it’s fairly successful, though limitations of budget and time are apparent in the fight choreo. I’d guess about 10% of the blows are mistimed, or aimed obviously wide. Furthermore, as a showcase for stunt performers, they wisely avoid overly editing the fight sequences, but (presumably in an effort to inject “intensity” without utilizing editing) the camerawork strays occasionally into unmotivated shaky cam territory. It isn’t hugely distracting outside of a couple beats though, and, without rapid fire cutting, the action remains mostly legible.

  Speaking of stunt performers, the cast is the obvious selling point of the film. Adkins, Michael Jai White, Ray Park, Amy Johnston, and Ray Stevenson are probably the biggest draws for the film’s intended audience, and they certainly deliver. While anyone who has seen Black Dynamite knows that Michael Jai White has excellent comedic instincts in addition to his physical prowess, I was pleasantly surprised by Ray Park, who I found to be quite funny as White’s partner in crime. Stevenson provides some of his trademark intensity and gravitas, and a handful of other trusty character actors fill out the cast list. Comparatively speaking, Johnston draws the short straw, as her katana-wielding honey pot assassin suffers the most from the movie’s early 90s, deliberately edgy, independent comics origins.

  With all that being said, the experience is sort of spoiled by the narrative tying the fights together. Adkins is an amoral assassin who views his targets not as people, but as deposits into his bank account. He is misanthropic to the extreme, and it’s a testament to Adkins’ charisma that I continued to watch after he justifies brutalizing a group of bar patrons (who, to be fair, are depicted as harassing a woman) as necessary to diffuse his “PMT - Post Murder Tension”. Tempting though it is to blame Stu Small and Adkins (who debuts as a screenwriter here), as I mentioned, the movie is an adaptation of an early 90s comic by Pat Mills. Mills is most famous for his involvement with the early Judge Dredd stories, so I’m inclined to believe that there’s an element of satire in just how edgy everybody is. Much of Adkins’ narration appears to be quoted directly from the comics, based on what I was able to find online, so I’d guess that much of what I’m about to criticize the film for is present in the source material and not a reflection of either writer.

  The crux of the movie’s plot is Adkins’ ex-girlfriend (who, after leaving him, began a relationship with another woman) winds up dead, and Adkins sets out to uncover what happened. It’s established that Adkins has hang ups about the relationship’s end, because she was the only thing in his life that made him feel something. Despite this, it’s clear from everyone that he interacts with that she wanted nothing to do with him after they split, and the brief glimpses we get in flashbacks show him to have been utterly uninterested in her as a person, rather than a sex object. Additionally, Adkins discovers that Beth was pregnant with his child at the time of her murder (and that Beth and her new girlfriend, Charlie, intended to raise the child as their own), which he immediately gloms onto in exactly the sort of toxic, possessive masculinity that you might expect from the shittiest kinds of men. To the movie’s credit, there are a number of scenes in which Adkins’ personal “stake” in the plot is criticized by the less sociopathic characters. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fully commit to the bit, and there’s a third act pep talk from Charlie to Adkins that feels ridiculously unearned given their history. Additionally, it doesn’t sit right with me that Adkins is continuing to use misogynistic language pretty liberally during the final fight, when he’s supposed to have experienced some character development on that front.

  Also, as a minor annoyance, despite the film’s title and his assassination gimmick being based around making his hits look like accidents, we really only see that twice, very early in the film. That’s kind of a bummer.

  All things being equal though, the movie mostly delivered on the promise of its cast, and the narrative issues I have with it aren’t so glaring that I couldn’t be bothered to watch the interstitial scenes in between showdowns. 3/5 stars.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What movies have you watched this week?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, consider me sold. Messy, but entertaining is exactly what I’d hope for from the sequels. Thanks for taking the time to reply!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is your single favourite movie soundtrack?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I can’t answer what my favorite is per se, but two of the most memorable scores I can think of are for Swiss Army Man and Ravenous.

  I believe Daniels tapped the band Manchester Orchestra to do the music for Swiss Army Man. For whatever reason, they chose to have Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe sing on the soundtrack and the lyrics are usually just narrating what is happening on screen. case in point. It’s a lot of fun.

  Equally avant-garde, but substantially more “challenging”, shall we say, the score for Ravenous is very striking and idiosyncratic, as befitting the film it’s accompanying. Also written by a popular musician, in part at any rate. Michael Nyman, the second composer, said Damon Albarn (of Blur and, later, The Gorillaz) wrote about 60% of the tracks and he composed the remainder. Several of the tracks were performed by people who had never played their assigned instruments before in their lives, to create a deliberately off-putting soundscape. Others are traditional period marching songs befitting the frontier America setting. Some are based around electronic loops and samples. And others are very traditional, pleasant (if ominous) orchestra pieces. It’s really a wild listen. Check it out for yourself.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is your single favourite movie soundtrack?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  My local symphony regularly screens movies while playing all of the score, and I would LOVE if they would do Conan. Sadly, I think it’s unlikely, but I can dream! As far as I’m concerned, it is the Platonic ideal of an epic fantasy score.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What movies have you watched this week?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Are the Re-Animator sequels worth a watch? I love the OG, but I’ve always assumed any sequels would lack its charm.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The creator of upcoming life sim Inzoi says he was "recklessly brave to even think about creating a game of this scale"⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  He sucks, but it was such a good set-up for a shitty Dice Man style joke, I couldn’t resist.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The creator of upcoming life sim Inzoi says he was "recklessly brave to even think about creating a game of this scale"⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  An emotional box? Enough about my wife!

  OH!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨life changed due to shrimp⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  “Keep your stick on the ice fellas, and remember, I’m pulling for ya. We’re all in this together!”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Killing Floor 3 Delayed (With no new release date)⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Just came from another thread detailing them walking back the skin=class change. Glad to that’s being fixed, as that’s definitely the most egregious issue, but I’m very disappointed to hear the gunplay is less impactful. That was KF2’s biggest strength imo, esp as a Commando main when I played it frequently. Popping domes in slo Mo was art.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Vinegar Syndrome Announces March Releases⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Brimstone and Treacle has my attention. An early 80s British Gothic movie about a conman worming his way into a family’s good grades and the con man is Sting? Sounds interesting if not thing else.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Star Wars: Kathleen Kennedy Expected to Retire from Lucasfilm⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  She’s 71 and has been producing films since ET. I’m pretty sure she’s not pulling a Palpatine here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon experiences freedom⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  He wasn’t necessarily wrong, he was just an asshole. The context for the meme was a speech he gave in vehement opposition to a proposed bill amendment which would have codified net neutrality principles into law. The concept he was blundering through explaining was basically just an eli5 version of limited bandwidth. I send this message (or, in his parlance, this internet) from my phone to Lemmy. It travels through a series of tubes to get there. If the tubes are clogged with traffic, my message might have to get in line. And that’s not fair to people who have the money to not be treated like a poor.

  Fun fact, Senator Stevens was the longest serving senator to lose a bid for reelection, largely due the fact that he was embroiled in a big corruption scandal at the time. The conviction ended up being vacated due to prosecutorial misconduct though, and I didn’t care to dive any deeper, but I’m inclined to believe he was a grifter. Rest in piss.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon experiences freedom⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If it makes you feel any better, you can rest assured that Capitol Hill doesn’t know how the Internet works either.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Basic courtesy⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  cart retrievers are paid to do a job. I allow them to do it.

  You intentionally make that job more difficult under some presumption that you’re ACTUALLY doing them a favor?

  Cool.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are people around you still excited about MCU movies?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  A charming, yet baffling, lack of guile comes to mind.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What movies have you watched this week?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I watched Speed for the first time last night. I can’t explain why it has taken me so long to see it, considering how much I love action schlock. Hell, I’ve seen Speed 2 multiple times.

  It was great, though it had to win me over. Once Keanu boards the bus, I thought it found its stride, or maybe I finally settled into the movie’s vibe. The most surprising thing about my experience (to the extent that it was nearly the only thing I wrote about in my letterboxd diary) was how compelling I found Keanu. I suspect that I’m biased by his post-John Wick resurgence and Internet darling status, but I really thought he was, in his own way, implying a huge amount about his character’s interior life through his line readings and body language. As I understand it, that was not the consensus at the time.

  It very much convinced me that I should get my butt into gear when it comes to looking at other 90s action movies. I feel like the whole decade is just packed with other, similar blind spots. At the very least, I’m advancing Point Break to the top of my watchlist.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are there still good movies review personal blogs? Which ones do you read? Looking for some content that would be more review and discussion oriented than industry news⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know if any specific blogs that still operate in that sort of space, but I will say I’ve had luck with finding folks on letterboxd who put care and thought into their reviews. Admittedly, you still have to sort through a lot of "this was good! I liked it!"to find those reviewers, but it’s not impossible. My starting spot was looking up the hosts of some of the movie podcasts I listen to (shout out to Blank Check and Eye of the Duck) and then seeing who they interact with on the platform, checking those folks out, and so on.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Michael Mann: Heat (1995) | Bank Robbery Scene⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It is my constant hope that my local Alamo will bring this back someday and I’ll be able to watch (and more importantly hear) this in an actual theater. As you pointed out, the sound engineering in this is almost more important than the visuals for conveying the intensity here, and I have to imagine that it is simply concussive with the aid of professional sound equipment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨imagine⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  What kind of monster steals 30 kids’ lunches?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Films by Steven Spielberg⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I guess I was hoping you would have an argument to make about Spielberg’s filmography, since "he hasn’t done anything good since Temple of Doom is a nutty statement to me. I don’t see how you could hold that opinion, and I was asking for you to explain what it was about his post-1984 output that rubbed you the wrong way, in the hopes of possibly unlocking another angle by which to evaluate these movies.

  However, based upon your statement that you’re unsure of how to explain your opinion, I’m thinking I was barking up the wrong tree for that sort of discussion. If you don’t engage with film criticism in that way, we’ll just be talking past one another, I fear.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Films by Steven Spielberg⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Hot take. Would you like to expand on that?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨HoMM3 is still fun!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  4 was something of a departure from the formula, wasn’t it?

  HoMM2 was my game from the series. For whatever reason, I never really progressed past that one, even though I had heard 3 was the consensus favorite.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon thinks Aragorn could have done more⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Idle thought, not fully staffed: kinda turns the whole “you cannot use the tools of the Enemy, as they are evil in and of themselves and will bring even the most noble low” vibe of the books on its head.

  Or, at least, I seem to recall passages to the effect of fear being one of Sauron’s chief weapons. Could probably find a lit crit essay on this subject if I went digging.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Does the US really have no instruments in case a newly elected president immediatelly and openly exposes he's a nazi?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Correct.

  I think they’re implying you’re making a distinction without difference. OP states the Anti-Federalists opposed the adoption of the Constitution, which was largely modelled after the constitutional monarcy of England. You clarified that they didn’t object based on the system’s model, but rather on the basis of all centralized government being bad. Their response is basically saying, yeah man, the Anti-Federalists were against centralized government , that’s what I said.

  I am inferring that OP believes that they had the right of it in the first go, no centralized government is preferable to any centralized government, specifically because of how centralized governance encourages the consolidation of political power into parties.

  I’m not nearly well versed in this time period to dissect that argument in detail, but I believe your rebuttal that their plan had been tried under the Articles of Confederation and found wanting, hence the whole debate about the Constitution to begin with, is a fairly succinct counterargument to the position I am sketching out on their behalf (read as: the strawman I have set up).

  All of which is to say, I’ve expended entirely too much mental bandwidth on this interaction and need to go touch some grass for a bit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Looking for 4K bluray recommendations⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I would also suggest finding boutique retailer you vibe with. The Criterion Collection is oft cited, but it’s not the only game in town. I was looking at what was out there last year and these were a few of the retailers that stood out to me.

  Kino Lorber: Similar to Criterion in its seniority (started in 77) and art house focus. However, it seems as though their collection has become fairly diverse over time. I saw a 4k of Ben Affleck’s Reindeer Games listed next to a Blu-ray of an Italian film I’d never heard of from the 70s, so who knows what you might find.

  Arrow Video: UK based company, seems to operate in the same sort of genre space as Shout Factory in the US, with an emphasis on premium box art and pack in bonuses like posters and other bits and bobs. Runs a 2 for $60 UHD Bundle promo pretty consistently on their website. Seems like it’s 2 for £40 on the UK version of the site.

  Indicator Films (I swear this used to be its own label, but it seems to have been purchased by an entity called Powerhouse Films Ltd.). Another UK based label, seems to have themes for its offerings. Currently, they categorize their catalog in to Film Noir, Hammer Films, Ray Harryhausem, Mexico, Ozploitation, and Jean Rollin. So, covering a lot of bases there lol.

  Severin Films, Vinegar Syndrome, American Genre Film Archive, and many others, specialize in the sort of schlock that gave rise to the Video Nasties, a reference I make having never lived in the UK, nor been alive during the time period that term was originated, so forgive me if I’m off the mark on its usage lol. To greater or lesser degrees these focus on the typical genre trifecta of action-horror-sci fi, with some light toe dipping into erotica, which is something to be aware of if you do your Blu-ray shopping at work, like I tend to do lol. Some boutiques are on a strict “check from home” regimen lol.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Looking for 4K bluray recommendations⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I check blu-ray.com with some degree of frequency. I’m not sure how reputable they are as a review website, but they appear to fairly objective with their assessments of A/V presentation, citing metrics that sound legit to my otherwise clueless ass. I will say that, subjectively, I tend to agree with their assessments, so I think they’re onto something.

  Their “deals” section is pretty hit or miss, but they’ll occasionally do news post if a particularly good sale is going on somewhere. Similarly, I keep tabs on Criterion to catch any discounts they throw down.

  With that being said, the majority of my acquisitions have been from local book resellers, the occasional yard sale, and impromptu bargain bin dives while passing through a retailer. For example, my 4K steel book of Magnificent Seven was marked down to like $12 in a big tub of random DVDs and Blu-rays. I had to look up this particular release in the store (on blu-ray.com) just to be sure I wasn’t getting scammed with an inferior cash grab transfer. I also picked up a similarly priced 4k steel book of The Lair of the White Wyrm, which was a total impulse buy on the basis of it being $12 and looking nutty as hell.

  So, it’s a lot of luck, and I only own a dozen or so 4k discs, despite having started obtaining them several years ago, well before owning the requisite playback equipment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Looking for 4K bluray recommendations⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Congrats! I’m in a similar position, recently acquiring a 4k player myself. I’ve been assembling discs as I’ve come across deals. Movies which I think really benefit from the 4k treatment include:

  • Lawrence of Arabia. Ideally, the first time anyone sees this movie would be on an IMAX screen. My first viewing was with 720p DVD rip watched on a cracked tablet screen, and it was STILL visually impressive. Watch it on a scale commensurate with the story itself, and it’s quite possible some sequences will take your breath away.

  • The Magnificent Seven. Similar vein as Lawrence (sweeping widescreen shots of desert locales), but a little grimier. The whole image has this really lovely texture and vivaciousness to it. I particularly enjoy the latest releases new color grade, which lends further vitality to the picture, emphasizing the panoply of color in many scenes through increased saturation and dynamic range. It does not tread into cartoony, Technicolor excess though, instead feeling “just right” to my eyes. Like how I remembered the film looking, rather than how it actually appeared on my old DVD release of the movie. –> Addendum to the above, the Criterion release of Seven Samurai is also worth picking up. It a perfect example of how good an “old” black and white movie can look.

  • Blade Runner. It’s a movie driven by vibe and aesthetic as much as plot, if not more, and the clarity of an HDR 4k picture enhances those features. Those aerial shots of LA, where you can see every little detail of the miniatures, down to each individual window of the Tyrell megastructure, are, again, breathtaking.

  • Alita: Battle Angel. A 21st century update of the cyberpunk aesthetic, but looked at through the maximalist lens of anime/manga, as opposed to the brooding noir tone of the Blade Runner. I don’t know when the next time we’re going to get Jim Cameron levels of production value in a cyberpunk setting any time in the near future, so I appreciate being able to pick out all the little details in the background of the frame, as well as the heightened impact of the crystal clear action sequences (thinking of the rollerball death match race sequence in particular).