What are we watching now?

[State of Epicicity]

Seriously; that flick is I'd recommend watching it 100x over giving The Edge another shot. He also did Mulholland Falls and that is one I need to revisit. I don't remember liking it near as much as I should have back in the day.

Oh very cool. I took a look at the cast list and only recognized Cliff Curtis, which makes it more intriguing, the fact that there are no huge movie stars in it. And for what little I've seen of Cliff Curtis, he's a cool actor. I'll keep an eye out.

 

[State of Epicicity]

We're truly in a golden age for film, the ability to stream obscure and huge movies uninterrupted and on demand. It's the dream. But it's so funny I keep going for stuff that's just not available at the moment, or is made available to stream months after I find it elsewhere. My wife actually requested Q&A as a birthday gift, and I got it for her way early, but in high definition it was only available as a French bluray, which I found used on eBay haha. Hell, it was a good transfer of the audio and video. Afterwards I realized it is available in exactly one place to stream, Apple TV+!

As I wrote, Armand Assante is completely awesome in that film, and that inspired the beginning of an Assante run. I was looking for the HBO movie Gotti, where he's the lead, but it's not on Max! Dude, it's a damn HBO original film! So we're watching some person's upload to YouTube, at a shitty quality. But you can still see how fucking amazing this guy is. It's like he's got so much personality he can't contain. He's like James Caan if James Caan tried the transformative style of acting, not only bluster and feel and character and personality but also technique and really fucking hard work too. It's a sin he wasn't given roles like Robert De Niro or Al Pacino. To me he's in league with those guys. And what's crazy is, his filmography looks like it's a ton of direct to video stuff, stuff that just looks so bad. But I'll suffer through for him. I think he's one of those guys who might even be able to save bad movies. We'll see!

 

[Aelred]

We're truly in a golden age for film, the ability to stream obscure and huge movies uninterrupted and on demand. It's the dream.

Perhaps for viewing movies at home instead of the cinema, for which films are designed. The last movie I went to the cinema for was Mad Max: Fury Road. Most recent releases have bombed, with exceptions, obviously. A new Indiana Jones movie lost squillions.

Many of the movies from the past are being censored so we cannot see them in their original form, if at all.

I saw Star Wars (not A New Hope) in the cinema in 1977, and the edits and updates change it. Of course Han Solo shot him cold in the taverna!

And as with a lot of entertainment, there's a lot of rubbish along with the gems.

Just my opinion, of course. But now "Star Wars" is a badly rated bunch of TV series I just feel slightly sorry for my 12-year-old self who remembers the original movie in the cinema and the excitment for The Empire Strikes Back when it came out. What?!? Darth Vader is his father?!?

I don't think I'll be spending my $$$ to go and see Furiosa. YMMV.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Perhaps for viewing movies at home instead of the cinema, for which films are designed. The last movie I went to the cinema for was Mad Max: Fury Road. Most recent releases have bombed, with exceptions, obviously. A new Indiana Jones movie lost squillions.

Many of the movies from the past are being censored so we cannot see them in their original form, if at all.

I saw Star Wars (not A New Hope) in the cinema in 1977, and the edits and updates change it. Of course Han Solo shot him cold in the taverna!

And as with a lot of entertainment, there's a lot of rubbish along with the gems.

Just my opinion, of course. But now "Star Wars" is a badly rated bunch of TV series I just feel slightly sorry for my 12-year-old self who remembers the original movie in the cinema and the excitment for The Empire Strikes Back when it came out. What?!? Darth Vader is his father?!?

I don't think I'll be spending my $$$ to go and see Furiosa. YMMV.

I really don't feel any excitement about modern film styles, mostly. Jeff Nichols is an exception to that. I can't wait for The Bike Riders.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Perhaps for viewing movies at home instead of the cinema, for which films are designed. The last movie I went to the cinema for was Mad Max: Fury Road. Most recent releases have bombed, with exceptions, obviously. A new Indiana Jones movie lost squillions.

Many of the movies from the past are being censored so we cannot see them in their original form, if at all.

I saw Star Wars (not A New Hope) in the cinema in 1977, and the edits and updates change it. Of course Han Solo shot him cold in the taverna!

And as with a lot of entertainment, there's a lot of rubbish along with the gems.

Just my opinion, of course. But now "Star Wars" is a badly rated bunch of TV series I just feel slightly sorry for my 12-year-old self who remembers the original movie in the cinema and the excitment for The Empire Strikes Back when it came out. What?!? Darth Vader is his father?!?

I don't think I'll be spending my $$$ to go and see Furiosa. YMMV.

To expand on that I'll say that so much acting is so bad at this point it ruins it for me. Just no character or personality. And directors are just ripping off earlier films, mostly. That's what turns me off.

 

[Aelred]

And directors are just ripping off earlier films, mostly.

To expand on that in my turn, a lot of Directors today seem to be "cast" in that role, and often the action scenes and stunts are done by other "Directors" and the CGI (so much CGI!) sent off to multiple studios who have never seen the sets.

Not an obvious recipe for creating a coherent and seamless work of franchise content, let alone entertainment or "Art", at least to me.

 

[norminal]

I saw Star Wars (not A New Hope) in the cinema in 1977

The Star Wars film released in 1977 was “A New Hope.”

 

[Aelred]

The Star Wars film released in 1977 was “A New Hope.”

There was no such movie as A New Hope in 1977 when I saw Star Wars. Han Solo shot him cold!

It was renamed and edited later (1981 initially).

 

[laxu]

We're truly in a golden age for film, the ability to stream obscure and huge movies uninterrupted and on demand. It's the dream. But it's so funny I keep going for stuff that's just not available at the moment, or is made available to stream months after I find it elsewhere.

justwatch.com is a great service for figuring out if something is available for streaming.

I've started visiting the local video store again because some things aren't available for streaming anywhere. We were living the dream when "everything" was on Netflix but now it's fragmented and is basically turning into cable TV over internet. This will likely lead to a pushback where people just start buying DVD/BluRay again, or just turn back to piracy. Media companies really know how to ruin a good thing.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

We're truly in a golden age for film, the ability to stream obscure and huge movies uninterrupted and on demand. It's the dream. But it's so funny I keep going for stuff that's just not available at the moment, or is made available to stream months after I find it elsewhere. My wife actually requested Q&A as a birthday gift, and I got it for her way early, but in high definition it was only available as a French bluray, which I found used on eBay haha. Hell, it was a good transfer of the audio and video. Afterwards I realized it is available in exactly one place to stream, Apple TV+!

As I wrote, Armand Assante is completely awesome in that film, and that inspired the beginning of an Assante run. I was looking for the HBO movie Gotti, where he's the lead, but it's not on Max! Dude, it's a damn HBO original film! So we're watching some person's upload to YouTube, at a shitty quality. But you can still see how fucking amazing this guy is. It's like he's got so much personality he can't contain. He's like James Caan if James Caan tried the transformative style of acting, not only bluster and feel and character and personality but also technique and really fucking hard work too. It's a sin he wasn't given roles like Robert De Niro or Al Pacino. To me he's in league with those guys. And what's crazy is, his filmography looks like it's a ton of direct to video stuff, stuff that just looks so bad. But I'll suffer through for him. I think he's one of those guys who might even be able to save bad movies. We'll see!

HBO Max is missing a bunch of stuff that HBO, WB, etc should have. The most obviously glaring is Tales from the Crypt and a lot of other 90s originals, including comedy specials, Dream On, etc.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

I really don't feel any excitement about modern film styles, mostly. Jeff Nichols is an exception to that. I can't wait for The Bike Riders.

The propaganda and "horror movie filter" (that is now used on almost EVERYTHING regardless of genre) need to fucking go!

 

[JiveTurkey]

Max is really the absolute worst (best?) at putting commercial breaks where there should be none. At least do it like Peacock where are rhe commercials are front loaded. That's my biggest pet peeve in streaming services. I'll just sit through the 4 bazillion movies free on Tubi if that's the way we're going.

 

[State of Epicicity]

justwatch.com is a great service for figuring out if something is available for streaming.

I actually used to use that, but I found it but to be accurate, so I switched to ReelGood, which I also find to be inaccurate haha. We just have a few subscriptions, so I now find it easier just to check each one on my phone manually. For instance, Q&A was listed as available for rent on Vudu and Amazon, but it's not available in the US for rent or purchase on those services.

 

[State of Epicicity]

HBO Max is missing a bunch of stuff that HBO, WB, etc should have. The most obviously glaring is Tales from the Crypt and a lot of other 90s originals, including comedy specials, Dream On, etc.

Dude, I actually bought Dream On season 1 on DVD because I couldn't stream it. I basically live that concept with my wife. We're airways quoting random films out of context, and that's some great comedy. But I could not get through but maybe four episodes of the show because the acting was so incredibly horrible. How these people got hired amazes me.

 

[State of Epicicity]

The propaganda and "horror movie filter" (that is now used on almost EVERYTHING regardless of genre) need to fucking go!

That's interesting. What are those filters? I sense a sameness, but I haven't been able to put my finger on it.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Max is really the absolute worst (best?) at putting commercial breaks where there should be none. At least do it like Peacock where are rhe commercials are front loaded. That's my biggest pet peeve in streaming services. I'll just sit through the 4 bazillion movies free on Tubi if that's the way we're going.

How does Tubi do it? Thanks for reminding me about Peacock. I forgot they front load their commercials. Max is one of the services we subscribe to, so we don't get commercials there.

 

[JiveTurkey]

How does Tubi do it? Thanks for reminding me about Peacock. I forgot they front load their commercials. Max is one of the services we subscribe to, so we don't get commercials there.

We subscribe to Max as well. I'm just not wanting to pay extra for no commercial package when they recently rolled in all those channels I never watched decades ago when we had cable

Tubi has commercials and to my knowledge; no subscription service. They have wayyyy too many movies but all sorts of obscure things I tend to find myself hunting for from time to time. Just a good non-pirated option if the need arises.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

That's interesting. What are those filters? I sense a sameness, but I haven't been able to put my finger on it.

Watch the second Alien vs Predator. Then watch any horror movie since the early 2000s, and you'll start to see it more and more as the years go by. It's at the point where it is in non horror stuff as well. I hate it. It basically makes everything overly dark.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Watch the second Alien vs Predator. Then watch any horror movie since the early 2000s, and you'll start to see it more and more as the years go by. It's at the point where it is in non horror stuff as well. I hate it. It basically makes everything overly dark.

Oh, I gotcha, like a video filter or a cinematography style.

 

[DrewJD82]

The one thing that Elvis flick did for me that I was appreciative of was getting me to go down an Elvis rabbit hole after. My mom loved Elvis when I was growing up and I kinda always dismissed him because of that, but that dude was a great fucking singer and I’m not sure there’s a single frontman or woman that’s existed since without some of Elvis coming out in their performance. I have a whole different appreciation for Elvis after that movie, even if the movie didn’t cause the change itself.

I remember digging Them, I’ll put that on tonight so I can promptly fall asleep and then try re-watching it 10x over the next 2 months until I get sick of trying.