*** OFFICIAL Movies & Movie Recommendations Thread ***

[Jack Sawyer]

Kingsman 2 was no good? That's unfortunate because I loved the first one.

The acting in Kingsman 2 is very shitty, it ends up being very stylistic but very hollow imho. A lot of style very little substance

In the same vein, John Wick 1 is loads better than 2, and John Wick 2 is loads better than Kingsman 2

[BananaStand]

What fucking dimensional portal did I stumble into where everyone is insane??

I'm having a problem reading criticisms like....

A lot of style very little substance

...while you simultaneously endorse John Wick multiple times in the same thread!!

You think 'man avenges dog' = substance??

[Jack Sawyer]

What fucking dimensional portal did I stumble into where everyone is insane??

None. If everyone is insane in your eyes, the chance that you are the insane one instead increases immensely to the point of being 1

I'm having a problem reading criticisms like....



...while you simultaneously endorse John Wick multiple times in the same thread!!

You think 'man avenges dog' = substance??

If the dog was the last gift given to him by his dying yet now dead wife, who was the only person in the world who could calm him down, with the sole intention of him accepting her impending yet unavoidable death, then yes

Context breeds substance banana. Know that

[BananaStand]

If the dog was the last gift given to him by his dying yet now dead wife, who was the only person in the world who could calm him down, with the sole intention of him accepting her impending yet unavoidable death, then yes

Context breeds substance banana. Know that

No, the premise is entirely silly.

Lots of people have all kinds of sentimental attachments to pets that die. I've never heard of one going on a vengeful murderous rampage over it.

[Poopadoop]

There's only so many revenge movies about the guy's kids or wife you can make. So someone decided it was time for a dog one.

Hollywood has not had a good revenge movie since Unforgiven imo.

[wufwugy]

Hollywood has not had a good revenge movie since Unforgiven imo.

One of the best of any genre.

[Jack Sawyer]

No, the premise is entirely silly.

Lots of people have all kinds of sentimental attachments to pets that die. I've never heard of one going on a vengeful murderous rampage over it.

Guess what, the dude is like the most notorious contract killer so there is that. Also happens that the dude that killed his dog and took his car is the son of one of his former employers.

Everyone knew he was out of the game. Even the dogkiller. Everyone knew he was the baddest ass of all badasses. Even the dogkiller. What they did not know the details of was WHY he was out of the game: turns out it was for love of his wife. The dog symbolizes all that

Now dogkiller apparently wanted to curry favor with his dad, by doing some disrespect shit (steal car, kill dog) against the most notorious ck of all.

Results were unexpected for him , yet entirely logical

[BananaStand]

Guess what, the dude is like the most notorious contract killer .......the baddest ass of all badasses

Does not compute. You can't be "the baddest of all badasses" and then act like a fairy with no balls when your puppy dies.

[boost]

Does not compute. You can't be "the baddest of all badasses" and then act like a fairy with no balls when your puppy dies.

You can if this is making a mockery of genre tropes in which we have cold blooded killers who otherwise behave like well adjusted, psychologically healthy humans, raising families by day and killing dozens of "bad guys" by night-- many of which are undoubtedly family men themselves.

[boost]

A film that I think highlights this point I'm making: The Raid. I wanted to love this movie. It takes the craft of action movie sequences very seriously, and does not fail to deliver. However, it also takes itself far too seriously. It is not self aware. And so, I found that while the action sequences were great, I found myself wishing I just had a super cut of all the action sequences.

[Jack Sawyer]

Does not compute. You can't be "the baddest of all badasses" and then act like a fairy with no balls when your puppy dies.

A fairy without balls goes out and kills everyone in sight. People fear his name throughout the movie, Voldemort style. Yeah, you are right on the money!

[boost]

No, the premise is entirely silly.

Lots of people have all kinds of sentimental attachments to pets that die. I've never heard of one going on a vengeful murderous rampage over it.

We may still disagree about whether or not John Wick had substance that these other movies lacked, but I do agree that Jack was looking in the wrong place.

This video I think does a really good job of explaining why ostensibly similar movies with similar production values, narrative arcs, and dialogue can be so substantively different.

https://youtu.be/pT75YHqlD9k

I think the reason John Wick became such a cult hit is because it marries parody or burlesque with a love for not just the genre but the craft of the spectacle of the genre. So while the entire story is sort of tongue in cheek mocking the motivations of action heroes and villains, and maybe more importantly the leaps a script needs to make to string action sequences together, when John Wick actually gets to the action sequences, it takes them very seriously and executes them flawlessly. The sequel lost some of it's charm, not because it dropped the ball with the action, but because it felt like it lost some of it's self awareness and started to take its dramatic sequences, world building, and plot too seriously.

[BananaStand]

I think the reason John Wick became such a cult hit is because it marries parody or burlesque with a love for not just the genre but the craft of the spectacle of the genre.

This makes more sense to me.

And if that's your thing.....Tango & Cash for the win.

[boost]

Wuf, I fucking love 2008 Rambo too-- but I think the reason it works lines up with the above linked video's break down of the life cycle of genres. I think of both Rambo and John Wick as sorts of ingenious subtle parody-- people who just want to tune in for a shoot em up get what they want, and those who are immersed the genre pick up on the mostly (maybe exclusively in Rambo 2008's case) dry delivery of parody and can enjoy it on that level.

It reminds me of this Pirates of the Caribbean knock off's production that I read about. It's a little different, in that it relies on multiple cuts to achieve the broad audience satisfaction, but the gyst is the same-- They intentionally filmed the movie so that it could be cut as a PG after school made for TV episodic kid's show, a Cinemax softcore, and a budget theatrical opener for Asian and South American audiences. In this example, the love for the genre is absent, but the ingenuity is similar.

[wufwugy]

Wuf, I fucking love 2008 Rambo too-- but I think the reason it works lines up with the above linked video's break down of the life cycle of genres. I think of both Rambo and John Wick as sorts of ingenious subtle parody-- people who just want to tune in for a shoot em up get what they want, and those who are immersed the genre pick up on the mostly (maybe exclusively in Rambo 2008's case) dry delivery of parody and can enjoy it on that level.

It reminds me of this Pirates of the Caribbean knock off's production that I read about. It's a little different, in that it relies on multiple cuts to achieve the broad audience satisfaction, but the gyst is the same-- They intentionally filmed the movie so that it could be cut as a PG after school made for TV episodic kid's show, a Cinemax softcore, and a budget theatrical opener for Asian and South American audiences. In this example, the love for the genre is absent, but the ingenuity is similar.

Interesting. I'm not sure what I think of Rambo in these terms.

My personal adoration for it stems from I love the pure action hero genre, and Rambo is probably the most crisply shot one I know of. Rambo's action movements are so tight that they make me feel like I'm watching a pro-gamer who has replayed the situation ten thousand times and has perfected all possible instances. I just love it.

Like in the boat scene. The crispness of that struck me as rare in 2008 and when I first saw it I knew the rest of the movie was gonna be amazing. https://youtu.be/Pt2LMPP8wdg?t=107