What are you watching?

[Dirty Duck]

I finally got around to the last two Mission: Impossible movies. Terrible writing and some other factors easily make them the weakest of what was otherwise a good-to-great series until this point. I wouldn't recommend *starting* with these for novices. Honestly, unless they make another, I would normally just recommend stopping after the excellent sixth film, Fallout.

However. For as bad as the two Reckoning movies are, I was surprised to find a number of plot points borrowed from Metal Gear! Most especially Sons of Liberty and Guns of the Patriots. They aren't handled nearly as artfully or meaningfully as Kojima did, but gave me an interesting sense of deja vu.

I actually saw loads of people on MGS Twitter comparing the two when logged onto the forum's account. Though they seemed a lot more positive about it than you I won't lie.

I've never actually seen any of the Mission Impossible films. I have wanted to check them out.

[starschwar]

I finally got around to the last two Mission: Impossible movies.  Terrible writing and some other factors easily make them the weakest of what was otherwise a good-to-great series until this point.  I wouldn't recommend *starting* with these for novices.  Honestly, unless they make another, I would normally just recommend stopping after the excellent sixth film, Fallout.

However.  For as bad as the two Reckoning movies are, I was surprised to find a number of plot points borrowed from Metal Gear!  Most especially Sons of Liberty and Guns of the Patriots.  They aren't handled nearly as artfully or meaningfully as Kojima did, but gave me an interesting sense of deja vu.

I actually saw loads of people on MGS Twitter comparing the two when logged onto the forum's account. Though they seemed a lot more positive about it than you I won't lie.

I've never actually seen any of the Mission Impossible films. I have wanted to check them out.

While I think that the lore introduced in the newer films retroactively diminishes the plots and characters of the previous films, that doesn't ruin them forever. It just makes me like the newer ones less, if that makes sense. The first two have some glitches - the first one will absolutely get on your bad side if you have any amount of history with the original TV series, and the final action scene looks really fake.  The series went on to pride itself on practical effects and stunts, so it stands out as very artificial to me.  The second movie has a pretty dull first half, and then lets director John Woo fully off the chain for the second.  All of this awash in pure "This was made in the year 2000" stylistic excess.  It has a lot of redeeming qualities beyond that, but it does stand out as being very different from the rest.

But 3-6?  That's one of the best runs of any action/adventure series, especially in recent memory. 

If you can put up with some early teething (the first movie winds up being very important down the line), it's a series that's well worth your time.

[Dirty Duck]

Watched The Drama last night and thought it was great. I really respect the restraint shown in the marketing for once, as they locked themselves out of showing so much stuff and made it a much better experience by doing so. The reveal for what the trailers setup happens early on in the film, but not knowing really did enhance the viewing. Recommend it.

[NateDog]

Watched The Drama last night and thought it was great. I really respect the restraint shown in the marketing for once, as they locked themselves out of showing so much stuff and made it a much better experience by doing so. The reveal for what the trailers setup happens early on in the film, but not knowing really did enhance the viewing. Recommend it.

Going to see it this week and have avoided the spoiler so far thankfully, enjoyed the first deep trailer having not been convinced by the initial teaser. Although I am toying with catching Amelie instead since it's a classic that I've never seen and it's in theatres now.

[CpmStudios]

Lately I have been watching: TV--The Rookie, Memory of a Killer, and finishing Stranger Things. Movies--War Machine (Metal Geeeaaar!!!!), Iron Lung, Happy Gilmore 2, Predator: Badlands and a few others I forgot lol

[Dirty Duck]

How's Predator: Badlands? I've been wanting to watch it as I love Predator but haven't found the right moment

[Aragorn]

How's Predator: Badlands? I've been wanting to watch it as I love Predator but haven't found the right moment

it's so good that you end up wondering how no one thought that giving us a movie focused on the damn monster we came to see was a good idea

[Dirty Duck]

Watched The Drama last night and thought it was great. I really respect the restraint shown in the marketing for once, as they locked themselves out of showing so much stuff and made it a much better experience by doing so. The reveal for what the trailers setup happens early on in the film, but not knowing really did enhance the viewing. Recommend it.

Going to see it this week and have avoided the spoiler so far thankfully, enjoyed the first deep trailer having not been convinced by the initial teaser. Although I am toying with catching Amelie instead since it's a classic that I've never seen and it's in theatres now.

I love Amelie but I suggest going to see The Drama if you can only see one. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since seeing it, and the film will still work if you avoid the full context of the premise but it definitely is a plus going in blind. Amelie gets payola at indie cinemas relatively frequently so I reckon you'll be able to catch it at some point if you miss it during this big rerelease, but I guess The Drama will play for a few more weeks so you could just see it in a fortnight or something and see both but with modern cinema you never fucking know. If you can do it that way then do see both though, I'm gonna try see Amelie again myself.

[NateDog]

Watched The Drama last night and thought it was great. I really respect the restraint shown in the marketing for once, as they locked themselves out of showing so much stuff and made it a much better experience by doing so. The reveal for what the trailers setup happens early on in the film, but not knowing really did enhance the viewing. Recommend it.

Going to see it this week and have avoided the spoiler so far thankfully, enjoyed the first deep trailer having not been convinced by the initial teaser. Although I am toying with catching Amelie instead since it's a classic that I've never seen and it's in theatres now.

I love Amelie but I suggest going to see The Drama if you can only see one. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since seeing it, and the film will still work if you avoid the full context of the premise but it definitely is a plus going in blind. Amelie gets payola at indie cinemas relatively frequently so I reckon you'll be able to catch it at some point if you miss it during this big rerelease, but I guess The Drama will play for a few more weeks so you could just see it in a fortnight or something and see both but with modern cinema you never fucking know. If you can do it that way then do see both though, I'm gonna try see Amelie again myself.

I'm afraid you're too late, I already went... to see The Drama! I thought it was excellent. Thought Pattinson was great and Zendaya too. I've only really ever gelled with a performance of Zendaya once before (Challengers) and have seen her on a lot of occasions where I struggled to see the love for her, but this was another where I thought she was great. Maybe she's just typecast as the tsundere type a little too often. Some unbelievably uncomfortable scenes, great soundtrack, editing and cinematography was superb. Really glad I saw it as I figured the point that the movie balances on would have been spoiled on me otherwise eventually (although funnily enough I did actually guess what it would be about despite seeing many saying it was impossible to guess, then again the controversy over it gives you some sort of angle to work with).

But I thought it was great. On paper feels like one that you might struggle to have the desire to rewatch but I'll be picking this up when it's out for sure.

[Dirty Duck]

Oh good! Yeah Challengers is the film that made me really appreciate Zendaya as well. I never disliked her (I used to watch her on Disney Channel so I always had a slight bias for her lmao) but I do think her roles in franchises like MCU Spider-Man and Dune don't give her much wiggle room to really show off what she can do.

Speaking of actors from both films I also thought Hailey Gates was really good as Misha, kinda surprised that she's not really been in loads because she always seems so familiar. (She was good in The Moment as well lmao)

Also I've been listening to this constantly because of The Drama:


It's not on Apple Music so I just bought it for £1.50 off the artist's bandcamp lol