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On 10/8/2019 at 2:22 PM, chirorob said:

See, I saw it, I didn't like it that much.

It's set in the DC universe, but other than being in Gotham City, with mentions of the Wayne family, it really has nothing else to do with it.  It just feels like 1980 NY.   Phoenix is very, very good, and I agree, it's about a mentally ill person going further down hill.

I guess, for me, the problem is, he didn't really seem that much like the Joker.  The Joker, totally insane, but also intelligent, ruthless.  This one, not as much, although it is an origin story.  There were definite nods to other movies, King of Comedy, (starring younger DeNiro).  There was a scene very similar to one in Dark Knight Returns. 

Yeah, but, the DC Cinematic universe is that cheesedick environment where Aquaman and Wonder Woman live. If I was a serious director, I wouldn’t not set my story in that place, at all.

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2 hours ago, T0mShane said:

Yeah, but, the DC Cinematic universe is that cheesedick environment where Aquaman and Wonder Woman live. If I was a serious director, I wouldn’t not set my story in that place, at all.

This.  I'm so glad they didnt give a rat ass about the comics or paying homage or giving credence to DC or anything like that.  It was just an awesome movie that happened to be about the Joker.  It was brilliant.  I'm still reeling from it. 

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56 minutes ago, JiF said:

This.  I'm so glad they didnt give a rat ass about the comics or paying homage or giving credence to DC or anything like that.  It was just an awesome movie that happened to be about the Joker.  It was brilliant.  I'm still reeling from it. 

IMO, it was the most grounded incarnation of the Joker I’ve ever seen. Batman has been terrified of this character forever and I’ve never really been convinced as to why. He’s always been portrayed as a scheming vaudeville-style villain and psychotic gang leader, which isn’t something that would particularly bother a genius like Bruce Wayne, you’d think. But reimagining him as a populist icon and symbol of proletariat revolution was brilliant, and casting the Wayne family as out of touch elites who need to be taken down was breathtaking in a way. Like, holy sh*t, Batman is actually a foot soldier of capitalist excess and social inequality? Batman is a cop? It’s brilliant. 
 

I need to see it again. I’m wondering why the most was so consciously white, as well. The only black characters were neighbor (whom he fantasizes about), his social worker and the psychiatrist he kills in Arkham. I know Phillips was making a movie about 1980’s NYC, and if you remember Bernard Goetz (who killed three dudes on a train and became a near-icon himself) you wonder if it was intentional. 
 

 

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28 minutes ago, T0mShane said:

IMO, it was the most grounded incarnation of the Joker I’ve ever seen. Batman has been terrified of this character forever and I’ve never really been convinced as to why. He’s always been portrayed as a scheming vaudeville-style villain and psychotic gang leader, which isn’t something that would particularly bother a genius like Bruce Wayne, you’d think. But reimagining him as a populist icon and symbol of proletariat revolution was brilliant, and casting the Wayne family as out of touch elites who need to be taken down was breathtaking in a way. Like, holy sh*t, Batman is actually a foot soldier of capitalist excess and social inequality? Batman is a cop? It’s brilliant. 
 

I need to see it again. I’m wondering why the most was so consciously white, as well. The only black characters were neighbor (whom he fantasizes about), his social worker and the psychiatrist he kills in Arkham. I know Phillips was making a movie about 1980’s NYC, and if you remember Bernard Goetz (who killed three dudes on a train and became a near-icon himself) you wonder if it was intentional. 
 

 

Agreed.  The only attempt that I recall of even showing the Joker in this light is The Killing Joke.  Loved what they did with Thomas Wayne.  Thought it was perfect.  And I'm not sure if intentional but I love how they took the angle of the Joker being the "vigilante" similar to how Batman is first received.  They create parallels of taking justice into your own hands and kind of force you to almost accept that in this crazy person's mind, it is subjective.  Especially because he was the voice of the people that never made any of themselves ie; the clowns, per Wayne.  That's why the ending scene though completely different still reminded me a bit of Brando's morality monologue in Apocalyze Now.  It forces you to see logic of murder in the mind of a mad man.

It didnt feel intentionally white to me.  I mean, there werent very many characters and the airtime off of Phoenix was limited.  Obviously you're making his Mom white and the Waynes white, who else was there?  His clown buddies? The detectives?  Murray?  One of the most prominently featured characters other than him and his mother was the black neighbor which happened to be the only person we thought he felt emotions toward ie: an interracial couple.  There was also the mom and daughter on the bus, the file clerk at Arkham and the clown at HaHa and when you think about it, the social worker had 2 scenes and only a handful of characters had multiple scenes.

 

 

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4 hours ago, T0mShane said:

Yeah, but, the DC Cinematic universe is that cheesedick environment where Aquaman and Wonder Woman live. If I was a serious director, I wouldn’t not set my story in that place, at all.

Sorry, I didn't quite say what I meant.

Not the DC Movie Universe thing with Wonder Woman and Aqua Man.   I just meant, it is in a DC Universe, somewhere that DC exits.   That being said, other than the name of the city, and some family named Wayne, it could easily have been 1980 NYC during a garbage strike.

It was well acted, very grounded as you said.  I have a hard time putting my finger on it, and I know a lot of people really like it.  I guess also, the Joker has always been this intimidating force that everyone is scared of, and also a very intelligent person (albeit totally bonkers).   This version didn't seem like that character.  

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28 minutes ago, JiF said:

It didnt feel intentionally white to me.  I mean, there werent very many characters and the airtime off of Phoenix was limited.  Obviously you're making his Mom white and the Waynes white, who else was there?  His clown buddies? The detectives?  Murray?  One of the most prominently featured characters other than him and his mother was the black neighbor which happened to be the only person we thought he felt emotions toward ie: an interracial couple.  There was also the mom and daughter on the bus, the file clerk at Arkham and the clown at HaHa and when you think about it, the social worker had 2 scenes and only a handful of characters had multiple scenes.

There were actually very few characters in the movie.   The Waynes and the Joker are going to be white.  Robert DeNiro's character at that time was going to be a white guy.   Other than that, there weren't that many other ongoing characters.  

 

I had to look it up to realize that the black neighbor he liked was Domino from Deadpool 2.  I just knew I had seen her somewhere.

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3 minutes ago, chirorob said:

Sorry, I didn't quite say what I meant.

Not the DC Movie Universe thing with Wonder Woman and Aqua Man.   I just meant, it is in a DC Universe, somewhere that DC exits.   That being said, other than the name of the city, and some family named Wayne, it could easily have been 1980 NYC during a garbage strike.

It was well acted, very grounded as you said.  I have a hard time putting my finger on it, and I know a lot of people really like it.  I guess also, the Joker has always been this intimidating force that everyone is scared of, and also a very intelligent person (albeit totally bonkers).   This version didn't seem like that character.  

Not really following your criticism here.  It's an origin movie.   Why would Joker have ties to Batman who doesnt exist yet in this movie?  Other than living in Gotham, what could they have done to make it more DC centric?  The fact they tied in anything at all to Wayne family is exactly what made it a DC movie.  They gave you the scene that eventually turns Bruce to Batman, no?

The version you saw in this movie, wasnt the Joker you've know your entire life because you've always seen, the Joker and not the man he was before he became the infamous genius criminal we've come to know.  That said, he was pretty freaking scary and intimidating once he decided who he truly was and I didnt take him to be stupid at all.  Just demented.  

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Probably way too biased as I am a huge Breaking Bad fan but I thought El Camino was brilliantly done. The ending so tense. Definitely one of the best scenes Gilligan has ever written.

The one thing that always ate at me from the finale was the idea that Jesse had a happy ending. All the publicity around what happened with Walter, and Jesse is just going to drive away without any problems? No way. I'm glad they wrapped it all up. A fitting epilogue.

The one thing that just sucks about it is the dude who played Todd. What a d-bag. Like come on dude, drop a few pounds. It's hard to suspend disbelief during some of those flashbacks because of how ridiculous he looks.

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Watched Terminator 2 last night with my 2 boys (10, 7). They thoroughly enjoyed it, and I thought it has aged pretty well. Fun well made action movie. 

 

I'm still waiting for a movie of the future war and the badass John Connor they showed at the beginning instead of all of the garbage sequel reboots they keep coming up with. 

 

The one with Daenerys was terrible, and the new one looks embarrassing.  

 

Oh, what could have been....

 

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On 10/14/2019 at 5:27 PM, RutgersJetFan said:

The one thing that just sucks about it is the dude who played Todd. What a d-bag. Like come on dude, drop a few pounds. It's hard to suspend disbelief during some of those flashbacks because of how ridiculous he looks.

Me during El Camino:

- Wait, why is the creepy cop from Game Night in this?
- Wait, why are there flashback scenes of Jessie with the creepy cop from Game Night?

- Wait, why is the creepy cop from Game Night being called Todd in the flashbacks?

 

- Wait....

 

 

- WAAAIIIITTTTTT!!!!!?!??!??!?!!???...

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On 10/10/2019 at 10:56 AM, JiF said:

Not really following your criticism here.  It's an origin movie.   Why would Joker have ties to Batman who doesnt exist yet in this movie?  Other than living in Gotham, what could they have done to make it more DC centric?  The fact they tied in anything at all to Wayne family is exactly what made it a DC movie.  They gave you the scene that eventually turns Bruce to Batman, no?

The version you saw in this movie, wasnt the Joker you've know your entire life because you've always seen, the Joker and not the man he was before he became the infamous genius criminal we've come to know.  That said, he was pretty freaking scary and intimidating once he decided who he truly was and I didnt take him to be stupid at all.  Just demented.  

I've got to figure out a time to go see it... my buddy and I were talking about it before it was released, and one thing we were both concerned about was the notion that an origin story could reframe the Joker as a sympathetic character. Part of what makes him maybe the most popular comic villain of all time, is that we've never known his purpose. We've never cared how he came to be. He just is. Psychotic. Ruthless. His motivation and back-story never mattered. 

I am going to bail from this thread before hitting any spoilers, but my hope for this movie is that it gives us his evolution without basically telling the story of mental illness and just calling it Joker, even though it's really not.

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Saw "The King" on Netflix. Paint by numbers what you expect, ahistorical retelling of Shakespeare without the The Speech.Had it's moments.  

Rounded up every ill fed girly actor in the English-speaking world to play...warrior knights. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" looked more plausible. Look, if these guys were carrying around 120 pounds of armor, fair bet they had some size and muscle tone. At least they saved a bunch on catering, if not portapotties to throw up lunch. 

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On 11/4/2019 at 5:55 AM, Untouchable said:

Watched ‘Bone Tomahawk’ on Amazon last night.

Best damn western since ‘Unforgiven’.

Kurt Russell was awesome and the last half hour is f*cking brutal.

The two movies that director has made since are amazing too. Brawl in Cell Block 99 brings the B-movie goodness.

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Netflix suddenly has a ton of old Shaw Bros - always a good bet.

Anyway, saw Joker. Loved it. One complaint was when he explains himself before that magic moment on Deniros show. That much psychosis? Not sure he’d explain the context of everything culminating in his actions. He’d  just act... otherwise brilliant. 

I was a little wary of having a back story, but it was a handle nicely. I hope they take it further... evolution of crime in Gotham in that era. Be fun the watch. Like the Deuce meets Gotham.

 

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Went and saw Midway today with my 10 year old son and my Mom and Dad. 

 

It's not a perfect movie, but considering Hollywood had no interest in backing it and was financed through Chinese production companies, it was technically good enough.  But man, it's a good flick for what it is. It's a history of the Pacific theater, sticks to the History,  and is a genuinely entertaining movie. 

My 10 year old was riveted the whole time, and was asking a lot of good questions afterward. 

Oh, and the theater was packed and the audience was quiet the whole movie (aside from my son asking questions, lol), but the movie got an ovation.

 

Anyway, that was my opinion, but I'll wait for the cynical sharps here to tell my why it sucked, and how a movie about gay cowboys f*****g each other in the woods is a brilliant movie. LOL.  

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On 11/6/2019 at 7:54 AM, slowmoe57 said:

Watched "Dolemite is my name" with Eddie Murphy.  Worth it very enjoyable. Now I have to watch the original movie.

Had some giggles to it. Eddie Murphy also knows how to spread the wealth to his cast. Wesley Snipes doing comedy was great. 

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3 hours ago, RutgersJetFan said:

If you're an Alex Gibney fan, he's got a new one out called Citizen K about the former richest man in Russia and his relationship with Putin. It's absolutely incredible and as good as anything Gibney has ever made, including Going Clear.

Sounds riveting. 

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24 minutes ago, Scott Dierking said:

Yes!!! Saw it this weekend and both the wife and I loved it. Creative storytelling on what could be a very bland subject.

One of the very best sports movies (excluding boxing) that I have seen.

 

Yep, saw it on Friday - really, really good movie and I'm not even an auto race fan.

 

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