Movies you've seen recently (Part 1)

I didn’t care for it much, but I did see it a second time and liked it better. I liked all the actors so much, I really wanted it to be better. But it wasn’t. Agree with @Gyrate that Adrien Brody was very good. The best role in the film for me. Too bad he was the first one killed – though he does appear in flashbacks.

Saw Oppenheimer yesterday (streaming on Peacock). A good film, but overhyped and overrated. I wished it had been more focused and linear; I was sometimes confused about when a particular scene was supposed to be set or why we were being shown what we were being shown.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — To the Hashira Training

Recommended…if you have seen the show.

My daughter asked me to watch every single Demon Slayer episode so we could go see this movie and I did. Fun show, movie was just one double-length episode, but was fun. Was more about the experience of seeing Demon Slayer on the big screen than anything else.

Unfollowable if you did not watch the show.

Brazil (1985). I came across this while searching for good comedies I had not yet seen. Directed and co-written by Terry Gilliam, and highly rated, so I sez to myself, how bad could it be? Well, …

First of all it’s not a “comedy” in the conventional sense of the word, but sure, a sort of “black comedy” without many outright laughs – despite its Monty Python connections via Gilliam and the fact that Michael Palin is in it. It’s set in a dystopian future most closely reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984 – full of gadgets and cars that deliberately look more retro than futuristic – but it also has elements of Star Wars and some of the wild absurdity of Monty Python. The people are ruled by an authoritarian bureaucracy obsessed with forms, and in hot pursuit of alleged terrorists, as evidenced by the big explosions that occur throughout the movie.

This might be worth a second look but TBH after the first 30 minutes or so I had a hard time getting through it the first time, maybe because it was so different than the light-hearted comedy I was expecting. I certainly won’t dissuade anyone from watching it, but frankly I was underwhelmed.

Brazil is definitely a very dark comedy, leavened by Gilliam’s profoundly absurd vision (see also The Fisher King). IMHO it’s a great film but hoo boy is it not a “light-hearted comedy”. The ending is…noteworthy. I won’t say more than that.

It’s slow but it’s very good. Worth at least one full watch.

Brazil is a film I was very impressed with on first viewing but I have never had any desire to rewatch it.

In my Intro to Computers class, I would play the scene from Brazil where they take you through the busy, noisy office with stacks and stacks of paper getting moved around. It ends with the big boss retreating to his office, with everyone then tuning into watching some Western on their Fresnel-enhanced screens. My closing remark was “This is what the future might have been, so don’t complain about Microsoft Windows.”

Yes, I can’t imagine anyone describing Brazil as a light-hearted comedy. Terry Gilliam really doesn’t do light-hearted. I like your pairing it wtih The Fisher King which I love. They both very much on the same wavelength.

Poor Things

Recommended.

I like Yorgos Lanthimos and one thing great about him is that he always goes all-in on his movies. Not all of them have worked, but this one really does and it is his best movie since The Lobster. Emma Stone definitely should win the Best Actress award. I think her performance is one of the best of the year.

Was this a comedy? I kind of think so, but such a bizarre one, I don’t know what to make of it at times. This and Boy and his Heron are movies the require multiple viewings to fully take in, but both are really great.

What a strange movie this was. Did anyone else get to see it? It’s streaming now.

Dune Part 2.

Not going into details because it hasn’t actually opened yet, but it was incredible, epic, and I am seeing it again on Saturday. Really deserves to be seen on the biggest screen around.

Dune Part 2 needs its own thread. I hope it is amazing!

Not only is it mentioned above, not only is there a CS thread about this film, there’s a Pit thread about this movie.

So… yeah. A few of us have seen it. :grin:

PSA: Dune Part 1 is being dropped by Netflix after Feb. 29 (this Thursday), so I’m scurrying to re-watch that on the small screen before going to see Part 2 in the theater.

I had completely forgotten all the events of Part 1 (geez, that came out only 2.5 years ago?), and from what I’ve heard that backstory is necessary to understand what’s going on in Part 2.

I just tried to rewatch it for that reason, and man did I struggle…I did not finish, even though I liked it the first time through.

Yeah, it basically drops you right in where the first one ended and assumes you already know all of the relationships between houses, how things work, etc. Nothing is restated for new viewers. Re-watching the first is a must, luckily I was able to see the one-day theatrical re-release last month so I was all caught up.

I had to stop and figure out which of the two pretty much opposite meanings of “drop” was meant here.

Oh right, sorry; I am an old and I keep forgetting that nowadays new things coming into circulation are being “dropped”, not just old things going out of circulation.

As you figured out, I meant that Dune Part 1 is being removed from Netflix as of March 1.

It is also streaming on MAX since it’s a Warner Brothers film.

Is that in the UK or just the USA? Sorry you may well not know this!