Amph At The Movies (film discussion thread)

Certainly no reason to object to a Disney/Fox combinedosaurus now that the $85 billion ATT/TimeWarner is a go. Throw the end of net neutrality into the mix. We're most likely heading toward some kind of even more pronounced infotainment indentured servitude in which we "choose" one of two possible providers who will force feed us content for life, with our children involuntarily inheriting that contract for life as they join the media consumption peasantry.

 

Any fan of Paul Thomas Anderson here?

 

Yes

 

Did you enjoy The Phantom thread?
I loved it, even though my favourite is still There will be blood.
I love how new layers of interpretations of his movies come to mind with time. It's beautiful.

 

I like the Creed II trailer, although I'm not sure about the motivation of Adonis wanting to fight the son of Drago. Speaking of Drago, that just more nostalgia milking, like the stars and stripes boxer trunks, which worked on me.

Not surprised that Disney counter offered Comcast's bid. I'm not sure if Comcast will return the favor.

Of course, I'm only interested in this because of the Marvel properties.

 

The Drago tease is the real compelling part of the trailer. Rocky IV had its moments, and the Drago/Creed scene was certainly tops.

 

Does any use Movies Anywhere to watch movies? I connected to all the vendors: Vudu, iTunes, PrimeVideo, FandangoNow, and Google Play. As a gift for connecting, you were given free movies like The Incredibles, Lego Movie, etc. That was an old promo, not sure if it's still availble, but I did see that there is a current promotion if you connect your Vudu account, you get Bridesmaids for free.

Anyway, with the Movies Anywhere app on my Amazon Fire Stick I can see and watch all these free movies. So no issue there.

So I rented Black Panther on FandangoNow and for some reason rented movies don't show up in the Movies Anywhere app. I don't understand why. Unfortunately there is NOT a FandangoNow app for the Fire Stick or the Playstation 4 and I don't have a Smart TV so I've hit a road block.

My last option and only option I have left is to play on my laptop and connect that to my receiver via HDMI. Anyone else run into problems with this platform? They don't make it easy for you.

 

From what I've read, I'd give a slight edge to MoviePass because it's half the cost, you're not married to a location, and movies are essentially unlimited.

MoviePass
1) $10 / month
2) a movie a day so 7 a week if you were so inclined
3) no repeats (but if you really wanted to be unethical, you could buy a ticket to X and go see Y)
4) no commitment
5) IMAX and 3D - thumbs down

AMC Stubs A-List
1) $20 / month
2) 3 movies a week
3) repeats are allowed
4) 3 month commitment
5) IMAX and 3D - thumbs up

 

Just watched Paul Schrader's First Reformed. Best film I've seen in years. Naturally, because it approaches faith in provocative, ambiguous and genuine terms, it won't--as was the case with Calvary and Scorsese's Silence--receive any serious nominations from the Academy next year. Watch this anyway. It's a masterpiece.

 

But wasn't that the point of Rocky IV, to allow Rocky to avenge Apollo? And then it was all resolved with Rocky defeating Drago and the winning over the Russian crowd. It seems like an ego thing with Adonis, which as part of the original Creed film, in that he didn't want to be known as "Baby Creed." Now, it seems like another ego thing. I don't know, but the cinematography does look good, and it appears they'll be building up the fight quite well.

I'll be moving over to Movies Anywhere soon. Right now, I'm using both Vudu and PrimeVideo from streaming movies that I own. I don't like my Amazon Fire Stick because of it's limited app store, and therefore been using Google's Chromecast for Vudu. It's a better experience as you can use your phone as a remote to find, select and play movies on your TV. My brother is currently using Movies Anywhere with his Chromecast and been highly recommending it to me. I've just been too lazy to look into on how to do this.

Yeah, from what I understand, MoviePass, is not sustainable and would have probably gone out of business within a few months. Additionally, I heard they were requiring their clients to take photos of their ticket stubs as proof their clients weren't abusing them. Supposedly, MoviePass was willing to lose money in order to attract enough users to leverage and force movie theater chains to cut them in on revenue from ticket sales and concessions.

I prefer AMC theaters because most of their theaters in my neck of the woods are newer and have been renovate. Plus they provide self serve butter for your popcorn, but Cinemark is the closest theater chain near my house, and I signed up with their subscription for $8.99 a month. However, AMC's plan is better, as Cinemark subscription only covers 1 movie a month and 20% discount at the concession stand, but all other films will come with the $8.99 price (excluding their XD and luxury screens, which has an upcharge of like $2-$4) and no online ticket purchasing fees.

I like that theater chains are becoming more of a subscription base model, because of the raising costs of movie tickets. Especially nowadays with advance ticket sales and that more and more US theater chains are offering assigned seating. It makes the theater going experience cheaper and easier.

 

Yeah, AMC would probably be something I would do eventually, especially since I like to repeat movies I enjoy. As much as I dislike some of their theatres, that's a good plan. I hope they still have this later this year or early next when I would probably be in a better place to commit to it.

Will be interested in hearing if you do go ahead with AMC afterall and what you think of it.

Thanks for breaking that down.

 

So, about ten years ago I took a film history class in junior college. One of the movies we watched was Battleship Potemkin. This is one of those movies that's not a movie your average moviegoer is likely to be familiar with but in cinephile circles is considered one of the greatest or most influential movies of all time. It's especially famous for its "stairs sequence."



Well, an incredibly convoluted series of events which I'm not going to recount here has brought me and my girlfriend to Odessa, Ukraine, and as I walked about the city center the first day I was here, I noticed on the tourist-friendly map of the city something near the harbor called the "Potemkin Stairs." Wait...stairs....Potemkin...could it be?




Yes, indeed!

 

apparently DePalma pretty much copied it in The Untouchables

 

Well, that was a tribute/homage, not a rip-off.

 

Yeah, a lot of directors homage that scene. The Untouchables one is almost a shot-for-shot remake though IIRC.

 

No, they're almost completely different in terms of visual presentation.



Funnily enough IFC posits that the scene isn't an homage but an attack on the concept of montage precisely because of how differently it's done.

 

The wife and I watched The Maltese Falcon last night. It's definitely one of those classics that still stand the test of time. It's funny how much tension is added to a scene while someone is dialing an old rotary phone or while someone is rolling and then lighting a cigarette. Nothing comes to mind in present day cinema where that is repeated. Usually tension is added now with a musical cue. I think we definitely need less action packed CGI spectacles and long car chases and more actors acting or reacting to a scene to ground it more to reality.

 

Just based on that photo, Taratino's "Once upon a time in Hollywood" is looking good.

 

I thought it was a Persuaders! remake .