# Movies you've seen recently (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [September 29, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906 "2014-09-29T21:53:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 417
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8340 "2024-01-09T16:31:29Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > _Contact_ is one of the few movies (_Patriot Games_ and _Limitless_ are the others) that, for me, are significantly better than the books on which they were based. And, to me… precisely because of the 18 hours and the deviation from the books ending… it’s worse than the book. It pandered to the anti-intellectualism of the American audience by giving them a flip one-liner “well, I guess you have to take me on faith” and completely ignored the books closing sequence, where evidence of God’s existence _was_ found. I go into more detail here: > [@Great Movies that Betrayed Their Source Material](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-betrayed-their-source-material/819821/98): > > It’s been a while since I was able to bring up the betrayal which was… Contact … so here I go again. The novel was thematically about one womans search for evidence of God’s existence. As in the movie, they get the transmissions, she goes on her voyage (6 others are with her in the book, but don’t exist in the movie. No big deal, ya’ gotta cut a LOT with only 2 hours to tell the tale.) She comes back, subjective time on Earth is as shown in the novel, other than a bunch of static on her reco… ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8341 "2024-01-09T16:36:32Z")
[quote=JohnT] It pandered to the anti-intellectualism of the American audience by giving them a flip one-liner “well, I guess you have to take me on faith” and completely ignored the books closing sequence, where evidence of God’s existence _was_ found. [/quote] Just curious cause I didn’t read the book. What evidence for god did book version of Jodie Foster find? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8342 "2024-01-09T16:47:03Z")
Looking up an earlier post I wrote about this and I found that I HAVE BEEN COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS MOVIE ON THIS BOARD FOR 23 YEARS!!! … from 2001: Book: While talking to the alien made up as her father, Ellie asks him if they believe in a God, to which the alien replies “Yes, and we have found his writing etched into the fabric of the Universe, in mathematical constants such as Pi, e, etc” (but not in so many words). Ellie then gets back to Earth and nobody believes that she made the trip because the subjective time of the trip for the people on Earth was 0, all the cameras were erased, etc (just like the movie). Ellie then programs her home computer to dig deep into the numbers of Pi, analyze them for any anomalies, and then tell her. A few weeks/months later the computer finds that if you render a particular sequence of Pi into an 11X11 grid, you have a circle made up of 0’s and 1’s: 00000100000 00001010000 00010001000 00100000100 01000000010 10000000001 01000000010 00100000100 00010001000 00001010000 00000100000 And that basically concludes the novel. Movie: Ellie visits Pop, he says little about God and nothing about the “fabric of the Universe,” she arrives to a disbelieving Earth, gets hauled into Congress and says “Take me on faith.” The book ending was logically, thematically, and characteristically (am I using that right?) correct, while the movie ending was an insult to Carl Sagan, an insult to the story and even more importantly, an insult to the audience. Since I like lists, I’ll just lay out my objections to the conclusion(s) of the movie: 1. Hollywood still thinks that we can’t handle a philosphically and intellectually challenging story (what I call “the Star Wars effect.”) 2. That the search for God _must_ take on the mystical and the irrational, and that we shouldn’t even bother trying to look for scientific proofs of his/her/its existence. 3. That the individual, in the biggest moment of their lives, should subscribe to the norms of society even if her entire life has been devoted to challenging those same norms, and worse, _even if she knows she is correct and the others are wrong_. :eek: 4. Even though its kind of silly, I feel sorry for Eleanor Arroway (and her alter-ego, Carl Sagan). The theme of the novel is Eleanor’s quest for God, and she would have _never_ said “take my word for it.” _Never_. Iirc, Carl had serious problems with the script but gave up the fight when he discovered that he had cancer and wasn’t going to live for long. I would like to think that the studio/director would’ve given in had Carl lived long enough, but the Star Wars effect and the relative non-influence the screenwriter has over the final outcome of any film meant that it was probably a losing effort. In short, the movie was very modern in its setting but very medieval in its lessons. I like it, its a good-looking movie, but I can never watch the ending again. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8343 "2024-01-09T17:10:32Z")
Thanks for that, **JohnT**. You make a good point. I think, though, that her character arc in the movie is meant to show that she’s no longer dogmatically, even blindly, committed to science _alone_ as an explanation for the wonders of the Universe. The book just gets her there by a different route. I understand and appreciate your objections to the movie’s plot, but it does lead to a similar outcome to the book’s, more or less. ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8344 "2024-01-09T17:39:32Z")
I watched _Gran Turismo_ and then _Ford vs Ferrari_ on the flight home on Sunday. I really enjoyed them both and the racing footage in both was amazingly filmed. I enjoyed GT a little more than FvF because of the redemption story and the fact that pretty much everyone in FvF other than Shelby and Miles was a complete prick. Plus, Miles dies… I did find out it was not by immolation (which the movie strongly implies) but instantly by impact. So that’s nice. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8345 "2024-01-09T18:45:09Z")
> [@Tride](#): > > I watched _Gran Turismo_ and then _Ford vs Ferrari_ on the flight home on Sunday. I really enjoyed them both and the racing footage in both was amazingly filmed. I enjoyed GT a little more than FvF because of the redemption story and the fact that pretty much everyone in FvF other than Shelby and Miles was a complete prick. Plus, Miles dies… I did find out it was not by immolation (which the movie strongly implies) but instantly by impact. So that’s nice You might enjoy _Ferrari_ (2023), still in theaters, but streaming at the end of this month. It focuses on Enzo Ferrari and his efforts to save his struggling company and establish Ferrari as a pre-eminent racing marque in the mid-50’s (my god, you had to be suicidal in those days to be a race car driver). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8346 "2024-01-09T20:15:48Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Apparently this is based on a book by Carl Sagan. To be exact, Carl Sagan and (his third wife) Ann Druyan wrote a treatment (i.e., a full description of the story without being quite in movie form) in 1979. Sagan then wrote a novel based on that treatment which was published in 1985. The movie came out in 1997. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8347 "2024-01-09T22:56:16Z")
I watched **The Creator** last night. The plot holes were bigger than the ones in half the characters’ heads but it was a fun ride. Just don’t think too much about the premise. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8348 "2024-01-09T23:08:02Z")
Watched **Oppenheimer** on Prime. Excellent film that follows the book closely. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8349 "2024-01-10T01:10:22Z")
I just watch The Flash. Geez, what a hot mess. First of all the good- many cameos, like Wonder Woman, many Batmans, Supermans, etc. Nicely done. Now the bad. Its Flash so _of course_ 🙄 it has to be a Time Travel story. The Flash really wasnt about time travel in the comics or animated shows. But anyway, Flash goes back in time to prevent his Mother from being killed. Fine, And it goes wrong- _of course._ Now, we all know about the butterfly effect, but how that can reach into the past and many star systems away is such a huge stretch my eyes hurt from all the rolling. 🙄 There are battle scenes- which of course are actually - due to more time traveling- entirely pointless. So, a good half of the film is thus rendered totally “it was all a dream” pointless. Well there is a cool coda, and like I said the alt-universe/timeline superheroes that show up for a second or two is entertaining. No wonder it bombed. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8350 "2024-01-10T01:18:56Z")
On another note- there were not many hit films in 2023. of the top ten highest grossing films > **[These are the 10 highest-grossing movies of 2023: 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer'...](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/20/the-10-highest-grossing-movies-of-2023-oppenheimer-is-no-3.html)** > > Of the 10 highest-grossing films of the year, half are sequels. Of them, _Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania_ was a box office bomb. _Elemental_ was a 'sleeper hit". _Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One_- lost money. and _The Little Mermaid_ _seems_ to have made a profit. Maybe. So many bombs last year. People were just not going to the theatres. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8351 "2024-01-10T02:27:35Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > So many bombs last year. People were just not going to the theatres. My theory is that basic theater maintenance has been so neglected since the start of the pandemic people are just turned off by the experience. The theaters lost so much business that they just don’t have the funds for any kind of refurbishment. I don’t want to pay $14 to sit in a musty, cracked recliner in an auditorium that smells of vintage 2019 popcorn butter. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8352 "2024-01-10T02:33:56Z")
My local multiplex, owned by Cinemark, upgrade the seating to “luxury loungers” from conventional theater seats. They can recline and have a back heater, though that feature seems to lull me to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8353 "2024-01-10T02:38:21Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > _Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One_- lost money. I’m not sure that’s right. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8354 "2024-01-10T02:58:59Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I’m not sure that’s right It will be profitable, but not in the theaters. > **[Mission Impossible 7's Box Office Losses Revealed, New Profit Target For Home...](https://screenrant.com/mission-impossible-7-movie-box-office-profits-loss/)** > > MI7's budget was roughly $300 million. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8355 "2024-01-10T04:35:11Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > It will be profitable, but not in the theaters. Same as the Dungeons & Dragon film. Toys and such for that one. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8356 "2024-01-10T12:04:44Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > It will be profitable, but not in the theaters. Wiki has it grossing $567.5 million in theaters on a net $219 million budget, which AFAICT puts it $20 million past the 2.5x mark. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8357 "2024-01-10T22:06:25Z")
**Saltburn** - I found it enthralling, mostly due to Barry Keoghan’s haunting portrayal. Rosamund Pike was very entertaining as well. As many reviews have mentioned, it has a huge Talented Mr. Ripley vibe (but I love that one too). For the record, the bathtub scene that everyones’ fretting about isn’t visually _that_ gross (it’s not as if you see pearly drops of semen floating in the water), though it is disturbing and rather said. Ditto the menstrual cunnilingus. Gross concept, but you don’t see anything. The only thing that really offended me was the lingering closeup of the vomit covered sink and mirror I can see how it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s not body horror, or even porn. The outrageous acts by Keoghan’s character are appropriate to his character. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8358 "2024-01-10T22:20:15Z")
Did you ever read the book _Jaws_? It was a formulaic summer potboiler, with the obligatory sex scene between, well, I won’t spoil it in case someone does want to try it. The movie and the book have only a few things in common. The title, the names of some of the characters, and the major plot point of a big shark killing people. The movie was much, much MUCH better. And Spielberg was only 26 at the time. One trivia factoid, in the beach scene with the reporter talking about what’s going on, that’s the book’s author Peter Benchley. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/8359 "2024-01-10T22:24:47Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > One trivia factoid, in the beach scene with the reporter talking about what’s going on, that’s the book’s author Peter Benchley. Very cool! Murray Hamilton played Mayor Vaughn in **Jaws**. He was still the Mayor in **Jaws II**. It’s important to vote, people! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906.md?page=416) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906.md?page=418)