[The Cult Leader]

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[inksb]

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The Beekeeper dir by David Ayer

This is one of the worst things I've seen in ages. I was baffled by the writing, the entire concept felt like some dude in his 60s dictated the plot through bullet points then a bunch of people who have never written a feature film before cobbled a script together with little to no effort. I would describe the film as John Wick for boomers. Statham is being the absolute most Statham he can be which is the most enjoyable part of the film. There's a lot of decent action scenes sprinkled in unfortunately it's 105 minute film with about 20 minutes worth of actual action, the rest is terribly written dialog. I know @bez enjoyed it and it got a lot of decent reviews so maybe I'm just not the demographic for this type of film, I love big dumb action but this did not work for me at all. It was shot really well though, some incredibly dramatic shots of Statham bee keeping with huge orchestral swells that I found very funny but enjoyable just the same. I'll give people a small snippet of the type of story telling you are in for here as maybe an indicator of whether you think you'll like it or not, Statham is a bee keeper who is retired and just bee keeping as his life focus, of course he used to part of a secret shadow organization of elite killers, they are called The Beekeepers.

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Gunbuster dir by Hideaki Anno

This is a 6 episode OVA series from Anno (Neon Genesis Evangelion/Shin Godzilla/Shin Ultraman), I believe it was the first series he was in charge of. It starts off as a typical 80's high school girl drama set in the future with mechs. The main character is trying to be a pilot. It's kind of goofy and light hearted but as the series progress the themes of alien genocide, earth defense and the effects of time dilation on the people fighting for earth in space weigh down on you. On one longer mission the main character is in space for a few months when she gets back she discovers she missed graduating high school and her best friend from her childhood is an adult with a child. It becomes a bit heavier and concludes in such a crazy awesome way I just didn't expect. This is easily one of my favorite discoveries of old anime. Highly recommended but comes with a warning about typical 80's OVA nudity as it looks fairly innocent and for all ages.

[Bezulsqy]

I enjoyed the Beekeeper for all its nonsense but will never watch it again :-) That story and characters are pretty infantile...

Since I removed my Netflix account and created my own Bezflix as it where I have been watching more movies together with my girlfriend. She hates anything supernatural/horror/scifi/stupid so it isn't easy to find stuff to watch.
Past week we watched Aftersun. Small movie but it left a real mark on me. It is about a 20 year old girl's memories of her father when she was 10 or 11. It shows how her father suffered from depression and that is something I can relate to when I was that age. I brought back a lot of memories. Highly recommend the movie.

On Tuesday we watched Saltburn. Really loved that one as well except for the final part. The director went a little bit overboard at that point. A little bit in the same way as with her film Promising Young Woman, but I could handle that ending better/

Wednesday during work I get a message she wanted to watch Inside Man. I reply it is a great action thriller that we should watch together that evening. She really hated it :-) I loved it of course. Hadn't seen that one in 15 years or so.

[inksb]

I really enjoyed Saltburn as well. This weekend we are hoping to watch Iron Claw and Poor Things

[ScoJo]

Counterpoint:

Saltburn is the pits. It might be a working-class English thing ;)

The Beekeeper was the pits. Almost soured me completely on mid/action fodder. Ayer started out as an interesting (though problematic) voice but has since morphed into a true hack.

Aftersun is beautiful.

Inside Man is heaps of fun, despite Owen really over-working his character (esp the voiceover) but Spike is never one to ask an actor to ‘tone it down a bit’ ;) The Debbie Mazar/big breasts b-plot is pretty eyebrow raising.

I’ve been rewatching John Sayles. The man was incapable of writing/directing something not interesting, and most of them are near masterieces.

[bpwlogan]

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AXE

[zuko]

I remember Inside Man being excellent, definitely need to give that one a rewatch. Subtext, baby!

[bpwlogan]

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Suspiria

[ChrisMcQueen007]

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Suspiria

This just looks so bloody amazing in 4K.

[Bezulsqy]

[ScoJo]

Hell yes, @bez.

I’m really enjoying s2 of Tokyo Vice. Even Elgort can’t dim my enjoyment, Ken Watanabe and a fantastic Japanese cast all throwing heat.

So I’m thirsting for more - this weekend I plan rewatches of Black Rain, Year of the Dragon, Rising Sun and The Yakuza. Which will probably lead to some Beat Takeshi crime flicks, and then who knows where.

Tonight:

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[Bezulsqy]

I watched a lot of Beat Takeshi flicks in the beginning of the 2000s. Loved them.
Great idea @ScoJo

[bpwlogan]

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Suspiria

This just looks so bloody amazing in 4K.

Yes Chris it really is unbelievable.

[inksb]

I still need to pick up Suspiria in 4K, I have Tenebrae and Phenomena


I've been watching Shogun and 3 episodes in my only complaint is the main English is just trying to do his best Tom Hardy impersonation. Outside of that the cast is excellent, I really like Anna Sawai & Hiroyuki Sanada

[ChrisMcQueen007]

Have Shogun and Tokyo Vice high on my watchlist. Used to love the original Shogun with Mr Chamberlain.

[Bezulsqy]

In 4K and with tremendous sound. Last time I watched this it was during the SD-days... maybe 20 years ago.
Brilliant movie. What a feat.
Can't imagine watching this without the AI smoothing and complete lack of grain ;-)

[ScoJo]

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Or, if you prefer (and like all your movies made of smeary AI plasticine…)

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🤪

[inksb]

Oppenheimer. A three hour movie that felt like 6 hours. It's a well made, acting is good and I understand the appeal but holy hell was it a bit of a snore. There was about 30-45 mins in the middle that was engaging where I wasn't feeling the pacing crawl by. Alright back to my scheduled programming of trashy horror and b grade action films.

[Bezulsqy]

Watched these two yesterday evening.



Korean action movie about a boy how is bullied and ends up in a facility where he gets a mentor that teaches him fighting skills. It contains a montage :-)
Not bad at all but one watch is sufficient.

After that one my first ever viewing of Daughter of Darkness.



I hadn't realized how Belgian this movie is. Really loved it.

[Bezulsqy]

[inksb]

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You'll Never Find Me

Really tense films with impressive performances from it's two leads. The climax is anxiety inducing chaos.

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The Holdovers

This was quite enjoyable. Performances were excellent all around. Runs a little long and felt drawn out, my wife even said to me as the credits rolled, I'm not sure if I would have finished this one if you were not here.

[Bezulsqy]

Thanks @inksb
Completely missed You’ll never find me. Sounds great.
I did love The Holdovers very much.

Today I also watched this:



Pretty boring… a shame. Really thought this would be better.

[inksb]

Thanks @inksb
Completely missed You’ll never find me. Sounds great.

It just hit shudder/vod last Friday. Definitely worth checking out

[Bezulsqy]

I like this one. Not because of it being scary but I thought it was original and well made.

[inksb]

I like this one. Not because of it being scary but I thought it was original and well made.

Can't wait to check this one out. Hopefully this week or weekend.

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The Abyss by Jimmy "I fucking hate grain as much as I want to fuck a blue alien" Cameron

First time watch for me and The Abyss fucking rocks. I missed this initially in the 90's then I decided to wait for a HD transfer before I watched it, I made this decision when bluray first became a thing and it took this fucking long. Add to that this film has been completely scrubbed of film grain and sharpened it's kind of a shame I denied myself the awesomeness of this film for the end result. Honestly the transfer seems to be the best of the 3 recent 4K transfers from Jimmy's catalog, it looks pretty good most of the time, there's some glaringly bad smooth shots here and there but others look really clean too. Some of the composite shots still have grain and I assume that's bc it would have completely fucked the shot up if they removed it entirely. Worth checking out the new transfer just to see what they did. I hope one of these days some on scans a 35 mm print, I'd love to see what that looks like.