What we watching? – Mudspike at the movies

Weapons was my favourite film of the year.

Although, i must say, War machine was a close 2nd. Not because it was particularly great cinema. Because i watched it with Obi and it was absolutely kick ass.

I should be allowed one of those robots.

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My problem with War Machine was that I couldn’t see past all the hooh-rah jingoism. But like I said that was a me problem.

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Hmmmmmm……

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Ah, and finished GoT. I remember hearing all the complaints of writing going downhill in seasons 7 and 8 but I honestly didn’t get that vibe. Things felt compressed, but the story and dialogue in general didn’t seem that bad to me. Except upon reflection I realized the whole thing is basically just European history with magic and dragons thrown in.

I’m waiting for Warfare to hit streaming services. It was released here in January but I didn’t get a chance to hit the theaters. It really interests me for the sound design and lack of dumbed-down Hollywood dialogue. One Battle After Another is also on my list.

I would have to agree with you.

Project Hail Mary was a decent film. A fun book written with a screenplay in mind I think but done well. The practical effects rather than pure CGI was nice to see as well.

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I am looking forward to seeing it. I’ve been forced by my daughter to wait until we can see it together. A reviewer stated that the 1st act was solid. But once Rocky showed up the film tilted too far to the comedic. Your experience is probably more in line with what mine will be. I am still very much looking forward to it.

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Heh we were in exactly the same circumstance, in that I really wanted to see it before but my daughter forbade it until we could all go together and she was back in town.

For an ‘earth is doomed’ story it feels pretty upbeat and ‘buddy road trip’ than the book. They did do some ‘uh, science stuff’ trimming to make it more watchable but the visuals are great. Apparently there was an original 4 hour cut that needed pruning down to 2 1/2 hours so the 3rd act did feel a bit speed ran. Basically only someone keen on the book would notice or care though, and it’s still a really good sci-fi movie.

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I have the ebook in my ‘library’ and I will see this because it was written by Andy Weir, but will wait to read the book until after that

I knew I had to watch the Martian, after reading the book… But there were enough years between them that I didn’t do my usual of ‘but that’s different to the book, I now hate this movie’.

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Honestly the book was a struggle for me, much more so than The Martian. The attempts at comedic writing that @smokinhole was talking about was much more heavy - handed in the book, and it really got old fast. Add in way too much of the formulaic “crisis happens, and the super smart protagonist who happens to be good at all these kinds of science (though the understandings are honestly very much on the simplistic side) to solve his way out of them” and it got kinda tedious. Interesting concept, and I wish there had been a deeper exploration of the implications, but it was so obvious the book was written as a screenplay.

I’ll still see it in the theater though.

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The author Andy Weir did an interview where they seemed to have a great self awareness (and I’ll paraphrase badly as can’t find the link now) but it sort of came down to ‘I am good at plots, and the whole competency porn part (lol), but my characters can be a little thin. Ryan Gosling just took it from there and added more depth in the movie, to the extent that some of the Grace/other character back and forth stuff was improvised at each take’.

The lack of the ‘inner voice genius solving puzzles’ because it was a movie kind of helped in a way, if that makes sense. Oh and Sandra Hüller was a great Stratt as well, which helped a lot.

It’s no Interstellar or anything but worth the popcorn tax.

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Totally makes sense, which is why I’m looking forward to seeing it.

And I know the movie doesn’t have the baggage of the book where I unfortunately have enough knowledge of several subjects he touched on that I got hung up on the stuff he got quite wrong.

This last part has been a problem for me as well with the background world building for seasons 3-4 of For All Mankind.

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Yeah go see it quick, I wanna talk about bits they left out - as it made some sense movie runtime wise (my prostate goes ‘fist my bump!’ at not being 4 hours etc) but did leave out some of the more interesting depth. :slight_smile:

edit: for non book readers that’s gonna read as so inappropriate, but it’s that kind of day, I’ll leave it in.

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AI…. The future of film-making?

Emerging paradigm: The fans do sci-fi better than the studios??

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I have the audiobook and listened to this last year. I really enjoyed it, so would recommend it.

The guy who voices Rocky in the ebook doesn’t voice him in the film, nerd fact he was one of the “rejected” voices though, which I thought was a nice Easter egg for ebook listeners who see the film.

I agree with this. The Martian suffers from this as well, more so in the book than the film. Having said that I guess it has to be there to allow character development. I didn’t mind it as much and expected it, kind of like watching disaster movies and spotting the plot hooks for future impending crisis or character deaths.

All in all, a good film and I really liked Gosling’s performance as Grace.

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After watching that. I would say yes. They have obviously read the book and know that Wampa’s were breaking through to the base.

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Sorry I personally found it jarring and off putting in a very “uncanny valley” sort of way.

Nearly puked.

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Watched Project Hail mary with the wife. We both loved it. I preferred it to the martian.

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Another Walter Matthau flick. Charley Varrick

A man, his wife, and their friend stage a bloody bank robbery without realizing that they are stealing from the Mob.

The movie was directed by Don Siegal

It also stars

  • Joe Don Baker
  • Andrew Robinson
  • Felica Farr
  • Sheree North
  • & Norman Fell

IMDb reviews it as at 7.5/10 stars. I think that is a fair assessment of the movie.

Wheels

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Debate on if same cinematic universe lol. When Grace mentions his girlfriend’s new partner and Rocky goes ‘I hate Mark’ then I want to think that’s Watney, even if it might not line up at all. :slight_smile:

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