The Official Films Thread

I saw Halloween Kills today, and it was epic! I was especially fond of the fact that they pay homage to one of my personal favorites in the franchise, Season of the Witch.

Halloween 3 is usually the one film that gets the most criticism, since it intentionally deviates from the Myers storyline. But I loved it as a kid; as it terrified me way more than Michael Myers ever did. Mostly because the idea of someone like Michael Myers registered as pure fantasy to me (i.e. supernatural beings walking the earth is "fake"). But the idea of government and corporations plotting a take-over of consumers around the globe... totally real! lol

Halloween Kills dropped a great easter egg for fans of Season of the Witch.

My oldest son is 13 years old now, I guess it's time for some real Eastwood this Saturday evening 🤠

Btw, also ordered this steel book arriving next week:

I'm normally not much into movies about martial arts and the like, but Shang-Chi has gotten great reviews - for long was 8.0 on IMDB, but is now 7.9 - still a lot higher than Black Widow:

Just got some 4k films delivered for the Christmas holidays - also for the kids and the wife 😇 Just wanted the new Suicide Squad movie - and then it's been so long since I saw Unforgiven I can't remember much of the movie, time to refresh my memory! And never got to see Logan - never been fond of men with long fingernails, lol - but I'll give it a shot. Nobody looked interesting too.

Mulan and Cruella for the wife and kids - but never seen Mulan before and it's got a $200 mill budget, it can't be bad! 

Btw, I'm fully aware I might be able to stream most of the above on Disney+ for a fraction of what I just paid, but the difference in both quality also for the sound is great - only on disc you get uncompressed Dolby Atmos sound. 

Everything Everywhere All at Once looks awesome. A multiverse of Michelle Yeohs.

Plus James Hong is in it. He's 92 years old and still acting. Then again, Lo Pan is immortal.

Hmm, maybe I've overdone the movie shopping for this Christmas - but got an offer for the Special Steelbook Edition of Indy for $100 (normal price $150 over here) - and could not resist. Also just got Dune in Steelbook edition - we're starting with Dune in a few minutes 😎 

The Indy box is very heavy - 800 grams, guess it's the metal, lol. The new Indy 4K movies have gotten much praise - rated as some of the finest 4k remastered movies ever made. 5/5 in 4k image quality rating on Bluray.com. 

Also just preordered this one in Steelbook edition, but I'll have to wait many months, sigh:

I don't think that's the final cover. 

Read that 4k streaming on Netflix is about 7GB per hour, so 14GB for 2 hours. 4k/UHD discs usually carry 70 - 100GB of data, so much higher quality than streaming. And only on disc you get uncompressed Dolby Atmos. I'm not fond of streaming, and I'm fully aware that I could get 4 months of Disney+ for the price I just paid for Spidey. 

Btw, we do have Netflix and I just saw don't look up:

While I do think that movie has a great message, I wasn't too impressed with the acting, the pace and felt kinda bored. 5.5/10 in my book. The wife enjoyed it though, if it wasn't to keep her company, I would probably have stopped watching after 20 or 30 minutes. 

Btw, took a few shots from the limited edition Indy 4K Steelbook collection - it looks quite awesome:

Front

Back

We're starting on Raiders later today 🙂

Dune was awesome, but maybe a bit slow the last 45 min or so, still looking forward to part 2! Also the 4K quality looked grainy and slightly blurry - I read they tried to make the digital version look more soft and cinema-like, I wasn't too fond of that. Was really close to stopping the movie to check if I accidentally had put on the blu-ray disc instead of the 4K disc, lol. But HDR was great. 

To me, the very dark humor in Suicide Squad made it maybe the best movie I've seen this year - but many may not get that movie. Having seen all the other superhero movies, it was simply awesome to see so many gruesomely killed - and the final opponent just clicked with me 😂 Also Suicide Squad was extremely sharp in 4K image quality - like a razor - premium 4K quality, never seen it better. 

And I just checked - seems I wasn't the only one to notice the awesome razor-sharp 4K image quality in Suicide Squad - rated 5/5 here:

"Seen in its native 2160p glory, The Suicide Squad is a scruffy stunner in 4K and one that impresses with technical proficiency and great use of HDR enhancement (presented in either Dolby Vision or HDR10+, depending on your setup) to deliver a basically flawless presentation. Colors are stunningly rendered; many scenes make use of the trendy but biologically effective "teal-orange" combo to create immediately impressive compositions, such as the subdued interiors of Project Starfish's underground laboratory (above) or the bright orange jumpsuits of Belle Reve inmates (at top). Others go for all-out color, from obvious candidates like Polka-Dot Man's vivid secretions and the cotton candy-colored Starro, as well as flowery fireworks when Harley Quinn goes into all-out badass mode during her violent escape from ruthless captors. Black levels and brighter highlights are balanced nicely, even the white-out downpour during the film's second half that threatens to wash out critical details but instead stands as a visual highlight. Fine detail and textures are likewise perfectly rendered, with many scenes leaving an immediate impression on visual clarity alone. This is a smooth but not waxy picture overall, and one that should delight those who saw The Suicide Squad theatrically or on HBO Max, where it debuted simultaneously. This 4K presentation likely meets or beats both options, offering die-hard fans and first-timers an outstanding visual experience that suits the main feature perfectly."

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Suicide-Squad-4K-Blu-ray/295757/

Yeah, my problem with Dune 4K image quality is probably that I watched Dune after and not before Suicide Squad, lol. 

My 4K movie of the year could easily be... 

- though I'm not done with Indy, have not even begun, but like Gandhi, which received praise for awesome 4K image quality, I did not agree, Gandhi was nice but not perfectly 4K-sharp - seems to me most remastered old movies don't look perfectly sharp in 4K, so interesting how that goes with Indy. For now, only recently made 4K movies have truly impressed me - maybe movies need to be shot digitally in 4K or better to perfectly transfer 1:1 to 4K TVs...

I still consider this 4K movie one of the very best of 2021, lol - but did anyone notice that Sylvester Stallone was part of the movie? 

Might not be easy to find him 😂 - if you give up, here's a hint:

Btw, just bought another steelbook - maybe silly paying $8 extra for a dumb cover, and in 20 years these 4K movies may be as worthless as my VHS movies (still have a few ... hidden so the wife don't throw them out 😅)

$50 with shipping for a movie with no spaceships and no super-humans is starting to feel slightly expensive - but the family wants the movie 🤗 - And I read the budget was $250 mill - that can't go wrong 🤔 🤞

Also gave in and bought this one - I normally no longer buy blu-ray movies, but over here I cannot find this one in 4K - and still have not seen the movie:

My stepson is now 18 years old, and my oldest son is 14. Maybe time for a trip to Nam 🤔 Not sure where to start as there're several interesting destinations:

Might go for Platoon though, Deer Hunter may be too long for the kids, and Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket may be better for more mature persons...  

So did see the latest Batman movie: 

It wasn't bad - but I was not very impressed either, kinda bored, the movie felt way too long - not sure why it got such a high IMDB rating, more like 6.5/10 to me. Then saw the latest Spidey movie:

That movie was better than The Batman, but still didn't really impress me - it still felt somewhat boring - never a real nail-biting adrenaline-pumping moment, I'd probably rate it 7.5/10. Then got to see the underdog last night - having a kinda bad IMDB rating:

I actually enjoyed that movie more than The Batman and Spidey No Way Home. I think some reviews on IMDB touched upon important points - namely that you may need to see this movie more than once:

"I'm writing this while I'm watching it for the 4th time in 4 days Each time I watched it , I had a different opinion ( Remember when you watched the first Matrix? ) maybe it was the same!"

"If you are a true Matrix fan you will love this movie. It is at least as good if not better than the original Matrix.
Often when you have high expectations a movie is a disappointment and often when expectations are low the movie is a pleasant surprise. This was one of those rare movies where expectations were high and it was actually better than expected.
I cannot understand the negative reviews. I can only conclude that they wanted non-stop fight action as dialogue is too complicated for them to grasp.
The first hour was fantastic. It did get a little slow in the middle but soon built up to a grand finale.
If you are a true Matrix fan wondering whether to watch then I say do not hesitate."

I'd rate the new Matrix movie 9/10 - due to its ambiguity - different persons may end up seeing different movies, depending on your understanding of things - and that's the true underappreciated magic of the latest Matrix 4 movie, so good that many may never see more than one perspective. 

You're subconsciously taking the blue or red pill when watching this movie. And you may live a happy life never knowing that. And you may give the movie a bad rating because the story you believe you experienced was not very good. 

I think the post credit scene did give something away - and it's really no spoiler at all, this scene will be a puzzle to most, or maybe you'll think it's funny without being able to really explain why:

I'm starting to think that the only thing real in Matrix 4 was:

Spoiler

is there this dorama?