Let's Talk Movies #36 - 2020 - Yep it is a new decade

It won a lot of critics awards but it seems it may be too “indie” for the mainstream awards.

I saw it and loved it. It was such an honest film, about a topic that mainstream Hollywood rarely delves into - if at all. There was a film about abortion called 'If these walls could talk' some years ago - Sissy Spacek was it it. But I don't think it was a mainstream Hollywood film.
 
Mortal Comat trailer. . Hope cinemas are reopened by April so I can see it on the big screen.
 
Dr. Strange 2: In The Multiverse of Madness teaser trailer.
I was so excited to see this, and then ... meh. There really is no new footage in this trailer. At all. It's all just carefully edited stuff that's been shown before. The movie is being filmed right now, however. A bit of disturbing news from the set, per The Sun:

BENEDICT Cumberbatch has demanded a set of hefty security guards on the set of his new superhero flick – after two fans broke in and demanded a selfie.
We can reveal Sherlock star Benedict, who is filming Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, at the Longcross Studios in Surrey, was left shocked when the snap-happy intruders dressed in high-vis jackets to disguise themselves as workers and get up close and personal with him.
A source said: “Benedict is fuming that this was allowed to happen to him. It’s a huge security breach so he’s now insisted he be surrounded by security at all times.”
 
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I was so excited to see this, and then ... meh. There really is no new footage in this trailer. At all. It's all just carefully edited stuff that's been shown before. The movie is being filmed right now, however. A bit of disturbing news from the set, per The Sun:
The description under the video says it's their concept teaser trailer. They should have just put fan made trailer in the title it would be less misleading.

As for the fans breaking into the set: I'm not surprised it happened, honestly. Cumberbatch has very enthusiastic fans with a loose concept of what constitutes boundaries and appropriate behaviour. The rumours I used to see people try to spread about his wife that used to seep into my other fandom tags on Tumblr were intense and a little frightening before I blocked his name out entirely (I'm not a fan of his anyway, I don't think he's a bad actor, I just don't care about his work outside of my vested interest in Wanda Maximoff) but he's had it rough with some of the more enthusiastic Sherlock fangirls.

That said, constant security seems like a bit of a reach but we are in the middle of a global panorama so Disney probably should have stepped up the security a bit anyway for the sake of everyone's health at the very least.
 
Top Grossing Movies of 2020

#1 - Bad Boys For Life - Will Smith dominates another year of filmdom

#3 - Sonic The Hedgehog - I knew this one was going to be a blockbuster

#9 - The Call Of The Wild - Expect a ton of Jack London works to be made into movies

Other top movies of 2020:

#12 - Halloween (1978)

#46 - National Lampoon's Christmas (1989)

#51 - It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

#57 - Hocus Pocus (1993)

#61 - A Christmas Story (1983)

#94 - Die Hard (1988)

#100 - Toy Story (1995)
 
I saw The Lost husband (2020) on dvd. So boring and predictable! The only unpredictable thing was the family story about the house. It was the only interesting part and it lasted five minutes.
Acting was just ok. I couldn’t wait for it to end.
5/10
 
Couldn’t see. It said Video unavailable.
I was going to say that it must be geo-blocked but we're both in the US so that can't be it.

Let's put it this way: you have been spared by not being able to see it. It was worse than the SNL one and the worst part is that they were entirely serious.
 
One of the columnists that I follow did a tweet thread on Nomadland this past weekend and completely panned it, calling it boring, mediocre, and, I think, disingenuous, among other things. LOL. Just wondering if people here have seen it & what the opinions are. I'm drawn in by a strong female character and the concept of exploring retirement-age issues, but somewhat turned away by the idea of an extended look at elders' poverty, which seems like a very grim subject.
 
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One of the columnists that I follow did a tweet thread on Nomadland this past weekend and completely panned it, calling it boring, medicocre, and, I think, disingenuous, among other things. LOL. Just wondering if people here have seen it & what the opinions are. I'm drawn in by a strong female character and the concept of exploring retirement-age issues, but somewhat turned away by the idea of an extended look at elders' poverty, which seems like a very grim subject.
I loved it. I can see some critiques, but I think a lot of them are reaching and projecting their own biases and what they wanted to see onto it. I felt it was a very important movie and showcased a population living in this country that never gets any attention and allowed them to authentically tell their stories. Some criticisms have used Zhao's supposed position of privilege against her in making this movie, but I think that's such a stupid critique and it doesn't matter unless you see that privilege reeking in the end product. I also think some people are using that to hide what they really feel, which is that Zhao, as a Chinese-born person, has some sort of voyeuristic interest in American life. Well, ALL STORYTELLERS worth their salt are voyeurs in some way. They're observers and can eloquently put down what they observe. That's the art of writing and if you think one can only write about things they've gone through themselves, then they really have a narrow scope and view of the field of writing in general. Zhao just let the story unfold the way it did and actually gave the nomads a truly respectful depiction and made that lifestyle look like an actual viable one so long as one knows the risks, how to survive, and has the "capital" to start on such a journey.
 
Cumberbatch has very enthusiastic fans with a loose concept of what constitutes boundaries and appropriate behaviour. The rumours I used to see people try to spread about his wife that used to seep into my other fandom tags on Tumblr were intense and a little frightening before I blocked his name out entirely (I'm not a fan of his anyway, I don't think he's a bad actor, I just don't care about his work outside of my vested interest in Wanda Maximoff) but he's had it rough with some of the more enthusiastic Sherlock fangirls.
No kidding. There's a whole branch of the BC fandom that are/were very invested in his marriage being fake. I think he's an amazing actor, and I'm a huge fan, but he's entitled to a life outside his work and I just don't get all the hate for Sophie. Plus their kids are completely adorbs and Ben clearly loves his family. Is fiercely protective of them, in fact.

Fellow BC fans, I have a question: Have any of you seen "The Mauritanian"? I haven't been able to find a theater that's screening it around here, and I'm wondering if I should invest in the "Theater at Home" purchase, or wait for the video release.
 
One of the columnists that I follow did a tweet thread on Nomadland this past weekend and completely panned it, calling it boring, mediocre, and, I think, disingenuous, among other things. LOL. Just wondering if people here have seen it & what the opinions are. I'm drawn in by a strong female character and the concept of exploring retirement-age issues, but somewhat turned away by the idea of an extended look at elders' poverty, which seems like a very grim subject.
I thought it was a beautiful movie about love, loss, individualism with community. Yes it deals with poverty but it seemed more matter-of-fact than grim. The cinematography is gorgeous. I can see where some would find it boring, it’s not suspenseful or action packed. I don’t know why it was panned as disingenuous. All of the characters did seem to remain hopeful even in dire situations, so maybe that is why? However, I would not want to watch a movie where the characters had all lost hope.
 
No kidding. There's a whole branch of the BC fandom that are/were very invested in his marriage being fake. I think he's an amazing actor, and I'm a huge fan, but he's entitled to a life outside his work and I just don't get all the hate for Sophie. Plus their kids are completely adorbs and Ben clearly loves his family. Is fiercely protective of them, in fact.

Fellow BC fans, I have a question: Have any of you seen "The Mauritanian"? I haven't been able to find a theater that's screening it around here, and I'm wondering if I should invest in the "Theater at Home" purchase, or wait for the video release.

I have ventured back to the movies.
I saw 'The Mauritanian' - and it was great. Jodie Foster, Benedict Cumberbatch and especially Tahar Rahim were so good.
Wonderful acting. Told the story well, felt a little slow a few times, but the ending was worth it.
Watch all the credits - film of the real Slahi and you see how well Rahim captured him. And Shailene Woodley looks like the person she played - Teri.
Message was obvious - but needs to be told. Only negative - Jodie's wig was distracting.

I also saw 'The Courier' - with Benedict Cumberbatch. It was really good, and acting with BC and Meradb Ninidze was great.
I enjoyed the movie, but it felt formulaic until the last third - then it got very good.
This film also had clips of Wynne in real lie - and BC underplayed him which made the relationship between the 2 characters seem not as deep as it was in real life.

Hardly anyone was in the theater when I went - seats are reserved and they have 40% capacity. Felt safe. Lots of cleaning supplies visible. It was not on purpose that I happen to see 2 BC movies.
 
We watched Jack Synder's Justice League and it was better than the original but I thought the original was pretty stupid so it's a low bar. The best thing I can say about it is that it only felt like 3 hours instead of 4. (But we did stop it twice to do things like let the dog out and pee.)
 
I have ventured back to the movies.
I saw 'The Mauritanian' - and it was great. Jodie Foster, Benedict Cumberbatch and especially Tahar Rahim were so good.
Wonderful acting. Told the story well, felt a little slow a few times, but the ending was worth it.
Watch all the credits - film of the real Slahi and you see how well Rahim captured him. And Shailene Woodley looks like the person she played - Teri.
Message was obvious - but needs to be told. Only negative - Jodie's wig was distracting.

I also saw 'The Courier' - with Benedict Cumberbatch. It was really good, and acting with BC and Meradb Ninidze was great.
I enjoyed the movie, but it felt formulaic until the last third - then it got very good.
This film also had clips of Wynne in real lie - and BC underplayed him which made the relationship between the 2 characters seem not as deep as it was in real life.

Hardly anyone was in the theater when I went - seats are reserved and they have 40% capacity. Felt safe. Lots of cleaning supplies visible. It was not on purpose that I happen to see 2 BC movies.
Thanks for the review. "The Courier" is playing at our local theater so I may have to go see it.

I went to my first movie in a theater in over a year today. I saw "Raya & the Last Dragon." It was quite good, but then I am a total Disney nut so I expected to.

Also saw "Zack Snyder's Justice League" on HBO Max. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, but then I've always been a sucker for director's cuts. I thought it was a better story than the original "Justice League," though there were a few jarring scenes because they directly contradicted some of the narrative in subsequent movies, like "Aquaman" and "Suicide Squad." (I won't spoil it for those who haven't watched yet.)
 
I don't usually go for superhero films, but I'm very curious about Chloe Zhao's Eternals. I came across this write-up that seems promising:


As if we weren't already excited enough for Eternals, the Marvel movie has received the utmost praise from MCU boss Kevin Feige. According to a profile of director Chloé Zhao by Rolling Stone, Feige called "Zhao’s pitch for the movie the best he’d ever heard."

"Not only does Chloe make remarkable, small, personal movies in a remarkable, small, personal way, but she thinks in grand, cosmic, gigantic terms, which fit perfectly with what we wanted to do," Feige said. "Eternals is a very big, sweeping, multimillennial-spanning story. And she just got it."
 
I thought it was a beautiful movie about love, loss, individualism with community. Yes it deals with poverty but it seemed more matter-of-fact than grim. The cinematography is gorgeous. I can see where some would find it boring, it’s not suspenseful or action packed. I don’t know why it was panned as disingenuous. All of the characters did seem to remain hopeful even in dire situations, so maybe that is why? However, I would not want to watch a movie where the characters had all lost hope.
Well I was going to recommend what may be a similarly-themed movie (I haven't seen Nomadland so this is based not he description) as a "you might also like" but your last sentence makes me think you might not want to see it because it's very bleak!
 
Well I was going to recommend what may be a similarly-themed movie (I haven't seen Nomadland so this is based not he description) as a "you might also like" but your last sentence makes me think you might not want to see it because it's very bleak!
Go ahead and recommend. I recommended Nomadland to someone and they thought it was bleak, so who knows I might think your movie is not. :lol:
 

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