Films (Almost Entirely Surround)

[esimms86]

She'd probably give Sir Laurence Olivier a run for the money ......

There’s nothing like a dame.

 

[mrcond]

Coming February 21st from CRITERION and director Richard Linklater the Native UHD4K restoration of DAZED AND CONFUSED

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Dazed-and-Confused-4K-Blu-ray/327468/#Review

 

[~dave~~wave~]

I would LOVE QQ Forum feedback on THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN! I had DVRed it from HBO in 1080 resolution with a DD 5.1 soundtrack and watched it intently last night and frankly, expecting a 'comedy' it was anything BUT! Of course the acting, cinematography and Carter Burwell's immersive score were without fault but the thick Irish accents and slang throughout necessitated engaging the cc subtitles. Taking place during the Irish Civil War of 1923 on a remote and ficticious Island off the coast of Ireland, I found it ultimately depressing and when Colin Farrell's character [spoiler alert] Such despair, isolation and ennui all pointed to a civil war within the inhabitants of that remote fictional island of Inisherin! And if that was the point, IMO, it succeeded brilliantly!

Who am I to quibble with the Academy Awards nominations and all the Best of 2022 critics lists?

A cranky old fart who had the same reaction to this film.
I would never have sat my tender-hearted animal-loving wife down with the cat on her lap to watch this "dark comedy" had I any inkling of the content.

We even took the precaution of playing the trailer before agreeing to watch it.
Can't be too careful these days, but we feel like we were played for suckers by the trailer and the promotional hype that gave us no inkling of

Spoiler: TRIGGER WARNING & SPOILER ALERT

graphic depiction of a psychotic episode leading to multiple incidents of savage self-amputation resulting in the death of a beloved comfort animal

We've enjoyed many films with these actors.
Ditto for "dark" art-house & foreign cinema with plot twists & ambiguous unresolved endings.
This is no In Bruges.
This was a bridge too far for us.
We would never recommend it to anyone.
It should have come with a trigger warning disclaimer IMHO as if it were Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
YMMV.


In closing, I humbly suggest the quoted post above could have done with a proper spoiler alert.
Not difficult on this forum.

 

[Mackspower]

Who am I to quibble with the Academy Awards nominations and all the Best of 2022 critics lists?

View attachment 87852

A cranky old fart who had the same reaction to this film.
I would never have sat my tender-hearted animal-loving wife down with the cat on her lap to watch this "dark comedy" had I any inkling of the content.

We even took the precaution of playing the trailer before agreeing to watch it.
Can't be too careful these days, but we feel like we were played for suckers by the trailer and the promotional hype that gave us no inkling of

Spoiler: TRIGGER WARNING & SPOILER ALERT

graphic depiction of a psychotic episode leading to multiple incidents of savage self-amputation leading to the death of a beloved comfort animal

We've enjoyed many films with these actors.
Ditto for "dark" art-house & foreign cinema with plot twists & ambiguous unresolved endings.
This is no In Bruges.
This was a bridge to far for us.
We would never recommend it to anyone.
It should have come with a trigger warning disclaimer IMHO as if it were Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
YMMV.


In closing, I humbly suggest the quoted post above could have done with a proper spoiler alert.
Not difficult on this forum.
View attachment 87849
View attachment 87848
View attachment 87850

View attachment 87851

'Top Gun - Maverick' will easily tip this movie out of top place.

 

[timothyemerson]

Who am I to quibble with the Academy Awards nominations and all the Best of 2022 critics lists?

View attachment 87852

A cranky old fart who had the same reaction to this film.
I would never have sat my tender-hearted animal-loving wife down with the cat on her lap to watch this "dark comedy" had I any inkling of the content.

We even took the precaution of playing the trailer before agreeing to watch it.
Can't be too careful these days, but we feel like we were played for suckers by the trailer and the promotional hype that gave us no inkling of

Spoiler: TRIGGER WARNING & SPOILER ALERT

graphic depiction of a psychotic episode leading to multiple incidents of savage self-amputation resulting in the death of a beloved comfort animal

We've enjoyed many films with these actors.
Ditto for "dark" art-house & foreign cinema with plot twists & ambiguous unresolved endings.
This is no In Bruges.
This was a bridge to far for us.
We would never recommend it to anyone.
It should have come with a trigger warning disclaimer IMHO as if it were Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
YMMV.


In closing, I humbly suggest the quoted post above could have done with a proper spoiler alert.
Not difficult on this forum.
View attachment 87849
View attachment 87848
View attachment 87850

View attachment 87851

I haven't seen this yet and don't know what the spoiler(s) be (so no one spoil it for me please!) but your post has just shoved it up my list a few notches - thank you!

I thought In Bruges was alright and quite liked Seven Psychopaths. Three Billboards was OK and worth a look for that one-take scene with Sam Rockwell. Not sure it deserved all the awards though. Awards schmawards I say!

 

[Rhinojack]

Watch it, I saw it in theater, I bought it on Blu-ray and will see it again. Why people mention other movies as a comparison, I don't know. Stick to American movies if foreign dialog driven movies are challenging. Relying on trailers for a full explanation of a given movie is like looking at a picture advertisement of a beautiful hamburger at a fast food place and expecting it to look like that when you take it from the bottom of the bag. On the other hand we don't want trailers to show us the whole movie now do we? "The Banshees..." is a first rate film that explores life in another culture at another time that has good and bad elements just like ours. Disturbing things can be humorous and happy things can sometimes be upsetting.

 

[~dave~~wave~]

On a more positive note, the best film I've seen recently is Il Buco ( The Hole) which is now streaming on the Criterion Channel after a limited art-house theatrical release in 2021.

During the economic boom of the 1960s, Europe’s highest building is being built in Italy’s prosperous North.
At the other end of the country, young speleologists explore Europe’s deepest cave in the untouched Calabrian hinterland.
The bottom of the Bifurto Abyss, 700 meters below Earth, is reached for the first time.
The intruders’ venture goes unnoticed by the inhabitants of a small neighbouring village, but not by the old shepherd of the Pollino plateau whose solitary life begins to interweave with the group’s journey.
Another work of nearly wordless organic beauty that touches on the mystical, IL BUCO chronicles a visit through unknown depths of life and nature and parallels two great voyages to the interior.

https://grasshopperfilm.com/film/il-buco/

The picture is unique in that after the first minutes there are no subtitles available or needed.
One simply watches a mountain cattle pasture host a cave exploration as if a pre-verbal child.

It was produced with an Atmos soundtrack.
By switching the audio on my FireStick to Dolby Digital Plus, I hear the surround decode fill the room.
Stereo headphones were very satisfying as well.

Mostly environmental sounds of cowbells and cries of the herders reverberating across a mountain valley, and the actual echoes of the deepest cave in Europe.

Stunning article here about the production and location shooting:

https://filmmakermagazine.com/11449...no-il-buco-100-percent-humidity/#.Y9BMDS-B0Ql

 

[Bill B]

Who am I to quibble with the Academy Awards nominations and all the Best of 2022 critics lists?

View attachment 87852

A cranky old fart who had the same reaction to this film.
I would never have sat my tender-hearted animal-loving wife down with the cat on her lap to watch this "dark comedy" had I any inkling of the content.

We even took the precaution of playing the trailer before agreeing to watch it.
Can't be too careful these days, but we feel like we were played for suckers by the trailer and the promotional hype that gave us no inkling of

Spoiler: TRIGGER WARNING & SPOILER ALERT

graphic depiction of a psychotic episode leading to multiple incidents of savage self-amputation resulting in the death of a beloved comfort animal

We've enjoyed many films with these actors.
Ditto for "dark" art-house & foreign cinema with plot twists & ambiguous unresolved endings.
This is no In Bruges.
This was a bridge too far for us.
We would never recommend it to anyone.
It should have come with a trigger warning disclaimer IMHO as if it were Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
YMMV.


In closing, I humbly suggest the quoted post above could have done with a proper spoiler alert.
Not difficult on this forum.
View attachment 87849
View attachment 87848
View attachment 87850

View attachment 87851

Thank you for the heads up. Won't be watching that one. I'd rather waste my time watching Human Centipede again.

 

[~dave~~wave~]

Thank you for the heads up. Won't be watching that one. I'd rather waste my time watching Human Centipede again.

Most films I only care to see once. Leaving Los Vegas being a case in point.
That one I knew exactly what I was signing up for.

This review assures me I can skip The Whale:
“In the 1995 film ‘Leaving Las Vegas,’ Nicolas Cage played a man determined to drink himself to death.
Here, [Brendan Fraser as] Charlie is on the same course, except that he’s drowning his existential sorrows in buckets of fried chicken, candy bars, pizza and whipped cream.
The eating scenes in ‘The Whale’ are staged with horrified detail, the sound design tuned to accentuate every gloppy slurp.
[Director Darren] Aronofsky and [screenwriter Samuel D.] Hunter leave little to the imagination, emphasizing at every graphic turn that, for Charlie, food isn’t the stuff of life-giving nourishment, but a vector for compulsion and self-annihilation.” (In theaters)— Ann Hornaday

I found Elvis very uneven, too long, difficult to sit through in a theater, will never watch it again.
Even though I applaud the effort & concede it was a fresh take on a tired worn-out story we all lived through.

The same reviewer above echoes my reaction to it:
"...a dizzying, almost hallucinatory experience —
akin to being thrown into a washing machine and mercilessly churned for 2½ hours.

That isn’t to say that ‘Elvis’ doesn’t provide moments of insight, or even genuine inspiration;
it’s just that they occur fitfully, when the viewer is briefly pasted up against the window before being plunged into the barrel of [writer-director Baz] Luhrmann’s lurid sensibility once again.” (HBO Max) — Ann Hornaday

 

[esimms86]

Most films I only care to see once. Leaving Los Vegas being a case in point.
That one I knew exactly what I was signing up for.

This review assures me I can skip The Whale:
“In the 1995 film ‘Leaving Las Vegas,’ Nicolas Cage played a man determined to drink himself to death.
Here, [Brendan Fraser as] Charlie is on the same course, except that he’s drowning his existential sorrows in buckets of fried chicken, candy bars, pizza and whipped cream.
The eating scenes in ‘The Whale’ are staged with horrified detail, the sound design tuned to accentuate every gloppy slurp.
[Director Darren] Aronofsky and [screenwriter Samuel D.] Hunter leave little to the imagination, emphasizing at every graphic turn that, for Charlie, food isn’t the stuff of life-giving nourishment, but a vector for compulsion and self-annihilation.” (In theaters)— Ann Hornaday

I found Elvis very uneven, too long, difficult to sit through in a theater, will never watch it again.
Even though I applaud the effort & concede it was a fresh take on a tired worn-out story we all lived through.

The same reviewer above echoes my reaction to it:
"...a dizzying, almost hallucinatory experience —
akin to being thrown into a washing machine and mercilessly churned for 2½ hours.

That isn’t to say that ‘Elvis’ doesn’t provide moments of insight, or even genuine inspiration;
it’s just that they occur fitfully, when the viewer is briefly pasted up against the window before being plunged into the barrel of [writer-director Baz] Luhrmann’s lurid sensibility once again.” (HBO Max) — Ann Hornaday

Before I read your post I had never heard of Hornaday. Now she’s one of my favorite reviewers. She’s certainly fun to read.

 

[barfle]

There are several movies I like to watch multiple times. Yeah, I know how 2001 ends, I know how “Dr. Zhivago” ends, I know how “Hugo” ends, but tney are either spectacular to watch ot they reveal SOMETHING ELSE each time I see them. I’ve bought a few movies that didn’t appeal to me the first time I saw them, and perhaps I’ll cull them out if and when space becomes an issue, but having a movie collection, like having a music collection, is something I enjoy.

I can certainly understand those who don’t find the same joy that I do. Maybe they like looking at the same paintings or riding the same horse or cooking the same casserole. Lots of people like lots of different things.

 

[kap'n krunch]

There are several movies I like to watch multiple times. Yeah, I know how 2001 ends, I know how “Dr. Zhivago” ends, I know how “Hugo” ends, but tney are either spectacular to watch ot they reveal SOMETHING ELSE each time I see them. I’ve bought a few movies that didn’t appeal to me the first time I saw them, and perhaps I’ll cull them out if and when space becomes an issue, but having a movie collection, like having a music collection, is something I enjoy.

I can certainly understand those who don’t find the same joy that I do. Maybe they like looking at the same paintings or riding the same horse or cooking the same casserole. Lots of people like lots of different things.

My favorite one to watch /I think I may have watched it about 50 times- is The Fifth Element, I find something new every time I see it...

It's like READING the same book over again, I have read "Don Quijote de la Mancha" twice , en español, ¡OBVIAMENTE!... spoiler.. the SECOND BOOK is THE Masterpiece

 

[timothyemerson]

There are several movies I like to watch multiple times. Yeah, I know how 2001 ends, I know how “Dr. Zhivago” ends, I know how “Hugo” ends, but tney are either spectacular to watch ot they reveal SOMETHING ELSE each time I see them. I’ve bought a few movies that didn’t appeal to me the first time I saw them, and perhaps I’ll cull them out if and when space becomes an issue, but having a movie collection, like having a music collection, is something I enjoy.

I can certainly understand those who don’t find the same joy that I do. Maybe they like looking at the same paintings or riding the same horse or cooking the same casserole. Lots of people like lots of different things.

For me, that's what makes the best movies; rewatchability. Said another way, my favourite flicks are the ones I can watch again and again, and still enjoy. After all, that's what it's primarily about; entertainment.

 

[windhoek]

The only films (and TV) I want to have in my collection are films that I'll also want to watch again and again. In some cases, I've got films that I've watched a fair number of times already and I'll probably only watch a few more times before my time is up, but in general, I want my collection to only consist of films I really want to watch.

I did the Marie Kondo tidying up thing a few years ago and I definitely don't want to end up buying lots and lots of films just for the sake of owning lots and lots of films. So I typically only buy films from charity shops for peanuts so that if I don't like it, then it can just go back. But if it's a keeper, then it's a keeper. I guess I'm saying I want a quality collection rather than a collection of quantity.

 

[Clement]

EDIT: Do a search on Amazon: Criterion 4K – all titles appear to be $14!
I just received a PRICE DROP email: Criterion Collection 4K For All Mankind for only $14! That's -72%!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QS51T5B?th=1&psc=1
Here's some reviews:
https://ultrahd.highdefdigest.com/1...tic score,a thrilling and inspirational ride.https://thedigitalbits.com/item/for-all-mankind-criterion-4k-uhd-2022https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/For-All-Mankind-4K-Blu-ray/309418/#Reviewhttps://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/4...-for-all-mankind-on-the-criterion-collection/

 

[Rhinojack]

EDIT: Do a search on Amazon: Criterion 4K – all titles appear to be $14!
I just received a PRICE DROP email: Criterion Collection 4K For All Mankind for only $14! That's -72%!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QS51T5B?th=1&psc=1
Here's some reviews:
https://ultrahd.highdefdigest.com/1...tic score,a thrilling and inspirational ride.https://thedigitalbits.com/item/for-all-mankind-criterion-4k-uhd-2022https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/For-All-Mankind-4K-Blu-ray/309418/#Reviewhttps://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/4...-for-all-mankind-on-the-criterion-collection/

Not anymore they're not.

 

[4-earredwonder]

An interesting blurb from thedigitalbits website:

Finally today, I’ve just learned that our old friend Mike Fidler has been named as the executive director of the 8K Association! Mike is a longtime industry veteran who served as a senior executive for both Sony and Pioneer, helping to launch and promote the DVD and Blu-ray formats, before going on to lead the DEG (Digital Entertainment Group) as well as the UHD Alliance in support of 4K.

I’ve known Mike for over 20 years in those roles, and I can’t think of a better person to lead the 8K Association. While I don’t anticipate a future 8K physical media format targeted at consumers, I’ll be very curious to see where Mike helps to guide 8K in terms of consumer displays and other home entertainment experiences. (And I’m looking forward to talking with him about all of that!)

 

[4-earredwonder]

Bodies ... Bodies... Bodies...... a bunch of totally despicable gen x'ers converge on a friend's mansion during an upcoming hurricane for a weekend of 'fun' and debauchery ...... I have the exclusive Best Buy Lionsgate/A24 Native UHD4K edition [HDR10/Dolby Vision/Dolby ATMOS]. It's shot in very low light [mostly from Iphones] and has some very tense moments but I found the 'twist' ending relatively meh. The performances are great and it does hold one's attention.

AmazonUS is now seilling the 1080p edition for $9.99. Wonder how that will look under such low light conditions

https://www.amazon.com/Bodies-Bodie...34-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

[Bill B]

EDIT: Do a search on Amazon: Criterion 4K – all titles appear to be $14!

That price of $14 is interesting, very interesting. I posted a similar deal alert on the EJ "Madman Across The Water" deluxe edition (regular price mid-$60s) at about the same time. That was also listed as $14. I ordered it and got confirmation that it shipped today.

 

[4-earredwonder]

That price of $14 is interesting, very interesting. I posted a similar deal alert on the EJ "Madman Across The Water" deluxe edition (regular price mid-$60s) at about the same time. That was also listed as $14. I ordered it and got confirmation that it shipped today.

If you recall, the FIRST pressings of Madman had a defective BD~A disc and replacements were offered ...... I was cautious ordering this title because who knows if that $14 deal includes the 'corrected' version!