Movie Recommendation Thread

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As much as a fanboy as I am towards the MCU, I feel the breakdown of the 21 movies is approximately 1/3 must-see, 1/3 see if you want and 1/3 don't bother unless you've got nothing better to do. None of them were actively awful, but the bottom third can make the franchise seem pretty pointless. Here is my list of the must-sees in the order that they occur to me:
  • Iron Man
  • Captain America: Winter Soldier
  • Thor: Ragnarok
  • Avengers
  • Avengers: Civil War
  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Ant Man
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
The middle group is probably the biggest, and there are a few borderline movies that could arguably fit in the first category like GotG2, Ant Man and The Wasp, Black Panther and Spider-Man: Homecoming. Of course, YMMV.

So if you see the wrong ones, I can understand not being into the MCU. If I had to watch all the Thor 1 and 2, followed by Iron Man 2 and 3, that might easily sour me on the franchise, for example.
That's a solid list of must-sees. I'd throw in the first Captain America movie as well. My only complaints with that one are that the second half is too rushed, and that then need to get Captain America quickly frozen in ice in time for The Avengers meant that they couldn't give us more movies of WWII Captain America.

My impression of Civil War is dimmed a bit by watching it on the night immediately after I saw Age of Ultron, which I didn't like that much. While I liked Civil War a lot more, the events of the two just melted together in my head, dragging down my impression of Civil War.
 
My impression of Civil War is dimmed a bit by watching it on the night immediately after I saw Age of Ultron, which I didn't like that much. While I liked Civil War a lot more, the events of the two just melted together in my head, dragging down my impression of Civil War.
Totally understandable. Age of Ultron wasn't the worst MCU movie, but it might have been the biggest disappointment. You should try watching Civil War again after you get the taste out of your mouth. It has two of the best fight scenes of the franchise - the massive airport scene is a pure delight, and the final fight between Cap, Iron Man and Winter Soldier was as dramatic as it was inventive.

One of the best things that Marvel movies do with the action scenes is that they are often imaginative with how they use the powers. I feel like they learned something from some of the better battle anime like Naruto and Jo-jo's.
 
One of my growing complaints with Marvel movies was the blandness of the locations. It's great that we have moved past the days when superheroes all has to wear black leather, but in Age of Ultron and Civil War (which have blurred together in my mind), it felt like half the movie was taking place in the Avengers corporate office, which I am pretty sure was just the set of NCIS with a blue filter on it. Every now and then, they'd venture out to a gray parking garage or a gray airport tarmac (which admittedly was a fun scene). I get the setting is largely modern-day Earth, but Earth is actually a pretty colorful place.

Black Panther. Go see it. Now.
 
Do it. It's like Batman and King Arthur had a baby and Mother Africa raised it.
I'd watch it tonight, but I am doing with someone in Australia, so I'm going to be getting texts for at least the next couple of hours. The movie comes recommended highly enough that I don't want to spend the whole time looking at my phone or wondering when it will ping next.
 
That you felt the need to redact what you're doing and to hide your coconspirator's identity under the codename someone is highly suspect.
The word that I omitted after "doing" was "business". I guess adding that back in really doesn't shed much more light on the matter, does it?
 
Watching The Tin Star, a 1957 Western directed by Anthony Mann and starring Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins, and Lee van Cleef. There's a fantastic scene where Henry Fonda, an experienced bounty hunter, teaches Anthony Perkins, a novice sheriff, how to wear and handle a gun, how to draw, etc., dispelling many moronic notions about gunplay you've likely seen in numerous inferior Westerns.

 
Watching The Tin Star, a 1957 Western directed by Anthony Mann and starring Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins, and Lee van Cleef. There's a fantastic scene where Henry Fonda, an experienced bounty hunter, teaches Anthony Perkins, a novice sheriff, how to wear and handle a gun, how to draw, etc., dispelling many moronic notions about gunplay you've likely seen in numerous inferior Westerns.



Mann is a master of the genre. His noirs are equally as good.
 
The 2018 Suspiria finally showed up on Prime here in the UK. It's had mixed reviews - the negative ones mostly seeming to bemoan the fact that it is something other than a shot-for-shot remake of the sacred cow that is the 1977 version. I enjoyed it - a lot actually. Considered on its own merits I think it's a very good horror movie. It's moody and creepy and bloody and a bit bonkers. And it portrays witchcraft as something ancient and primal. I thought that the set pieces were impressive and I liked the overall aesthetic. And the use of breath - rasping, sighing, gasping - was pretty cool.
 
The 2018 Suspiria finally showed up on Prime here in the UK. It's had mixed reviews - the negative ones mostly seeming to bemoan the fact that it is something other than a shot-for-shot remake of the sacred cow that is the 1977 version. I enjoyed it - a lot actually. Considered on its own merits I think it's a very good horror movie. It's moody and creepy and bloody and a bit bonkers. And it portrays witchcraft as something ancient and primal. I thought that the set pieces were impressive and I liked the overall aesthetic. And the use of breath - rasping, sighing, gasping - was pretty cool.

I love the original Suspira but any remake was going to get the business because of its reputation.
 
It's available on Prime in the US now too
 
I watched that about 2 weeks ago. It was pretty good.

I just finished Dark Was the Night, a decent horror movie. A small town sheriff is investigating some disappearances of animals and such, which escalates into people getting killed. Something is out in the woods, and he has to protect his family and the rest of the town from whatever it is. I saw it on Hulu, but I think it's on Prime Video. It's also on tubi

 
I tried to watch Ready Player One but turned it off after The Shining sequence as it bored the fuck out of me. Up there with Scott Pilgrim for proving that the last thing a film should do is take plot structure inspiration from bloody video games of all things.

Why Spielberg, who was nearly back to his peak with good films like Bridge of Spies, decided to make this garbage is beyond me.
 
Why Spielberg, who was nearly back to his peak with good films like Bridge of Spies, decided to make this garbage is beyond me.
Because it was a best selling book of course.
 
Because it was a best selling book of course.

Seems he's big enough he can do pretty much what he wants these days. I think he feels he needs to balance his more 'adult' films with more 'populist' films but he doesn't really have the populist touch anymore that allowed him to so dominate the pop culture of the 70s and 80s.

Speaking of dominating pop culture the teaser trailer for the second part of IT is out. Love Jessica Chastain. This is one of the creepiest scenes in the book, as with the PG-13 approach that allowed the first film to become the huge hit it was, here they hint at but avoid the blunt pscyhosexual content of the book's sequence. Regardless I expect to like this, hopefully it improves on the first film which I also liked but found too bland in the scares for a rewatch.

 
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Just finished Blood, Sweat & Terrors an anthology of action shorts, some of which have horror elements to them. There's 15 in total, and it's a mixed bag. The fight scenes are pretty good in most of them; better than Iron Fist had going for it. Definitely worth a watch

 
Caught the new The Predator film and it is concentrated dreck, avoid at all costs. Can’t believe this muddled, witless mess is by the same Shane Black who made the quirky and charming The Nice Guys, which is one of my favourite comedies in the last few years.
 
The 2018 Suspiria finally showed up on Prime here in the UK. It's had mixed reviews - the negative ones mostly seeming to bemoan the fact that it is something other than a shot-for-shot remake of the sacred cow that is the 1977 version.
That's part of why I liked it as much as I did. It's NOT trying to be a re-shoot of the original. It brings in wholly new elements and makes its own story.
I kind of hope they continue and remake the other bits of Argento's trilogy.
 



Man, that's one badass tabletop RPG writer.


This just opened in the UK, saw it last night. It was enjoyable but not as good as the previous films in my opinion.

They both have their preferred fighting styles. John likes to take fights to the ground, often for no discernible reason whatsoever.

This is explained in the film!
 
I saw Hamilton on Broadway on Saturday night. I know it's not a movie, but there's not musical recommendation thread. In case you haven't heard, it's really really good. We had literally the second worst seats in the house, but it was still magnificent.

 
I went and saw Brightburn on Sunday. I enjoyed it, though it has its flaws. The movie starts off mundane for the most part, and the kid playing the "villain" so to speak is kind of not good (ie his acting wasn't doing much for me). When things took a turn for what you see in the trailer, his acting was much, much better. He really nailed being an emotionless sociopath. Some of the death scenes are pretty brutal too. If you really want to see the evil a prepubescent boy with many of Superman's powers can do, this is your movie.
 
I went and saw Brightburn on Sunday. I enjoyed it, though it has its flaws. The movie starts off mundane for the most part, and the kid playing the "villain" so to speak is kind of not good (ie his acting wasn't doing much for me). When things took a turn for what you see in the trailer, his acting was much, much better. He really nailed being an emotionless sociopath. Some of the death scenes are pretty brutal too. If you really want to see the evil a prepubescent boy with many of Superman's powers can do, this is your movie.

Chronicle did a riff on the same idea back in 2012. I quite liked it and it has developed a cult following.

 
I've seen Chronicle. They have some similarities, but Brightburn is a darker film imho. It's literally Superman's origin story, except he was sent to Earth with an agenda (that he learns during the film), and uses his powers to kill people in some pretty brutal ways. If you watch this, then watch Amanda Waller's comments about what if someone like Superman were to go to the White House to kill the president, it makes her monologue all the more chilling.

There's also a scene during the end credits with Michael Rooker as some conspiracy nut, and he mentions other beings, who taken in a certain context, sound like counterparts to Aquaman and Wonder Woman

Funny enough, Image comics did a story in Freak Force (a team book tied to Savage Dragon) where a kid becomes literally invulnerable and super strong, and he goes on a killing spree on everyone who ever picked on or abused him. The heroes just get their asses kicked, until Savage Dragon finally talks him down. Later on, they are facing a villain they can't stop, and Dragon (using his police connections) gets the kid out of jail long enough for him to show up, flick his finger in the villains face (enough to decapitate him), then ask to go back to his jail cell.
 
I've seen Chronicle. They have some similarities, but Brightburn is a darker film imho. It's literally Superman's origin story, except he was sent to Earth with an agenda (that he learns during the film), and uses his powers to kill people in some pretty brutal ways. If you watch this, then watch Amanda Waller's comments about what if someone like Superman were to go to the White House to kill the president, it makes her monologue all the more chilling.

There's also a scene during the end credits with Michael Rooker as some conspiracy nut, and he mentions other beings, who taken in a certain context, sound like counterparts to Aquaman and Wonder Woman

Funny enough, Image comics did a story in Freak Force (a team book tied to Savage Dragon) where a kid becomes literally invulnerable and super strong, and he goes on a killing spree on everyone who ever picked on or abused him. The heroes just get their asses kicked, until Savage Dragon finally talks him down. Later on, they are facing a villain they can't stop, and Dragon (using his police connections) gets the kid out of jail long enough for him to show up, flick his finger in the villains face (enough to decapitate him), then ask to go back to his jail cell.

There's a comic book that pretty much starts with the premise 'Superman turns evil' too but the name is escaping me, sure someone here will remember. I thought it started well but lost steam as it progressed.
 
There's a comic book that pretty much starts with the premise 'Superman turns evil' too but the name is escaping me, sure someone here will remember. I thought it started well but lost steam as it progressed.

Irredeemable by Boom Studios. The companion comic was Incorruptible, where his former arch-enemy becomes a hero. 20th Century Fox was going to adapt it into a movie, but with it now being part of Disney, I doubt it will continue there
 
When Brightburn first started being trailed a few people recommended the Supreme Power mini series. It’s about a hero turned evil and the power used against him. It’s definitely got some interesting ideas in it to steal for RP plot lines.

There is a whole tonne of real-world back story to this around the name ‘Captain Marvel’ but this series side-steps that with a rename of the central character.
 
When Brightburn first started being trailed a few people recommended the Supreme Power mini series. It’s about a hero turned evil and the power used against him. It’s definitely got some interesting ideas in it to steal for RP plot lines.

Not sure why, as Hyperion (as Supreme Power is another take on Squadron Supreme) didn't turn evil. There was a possible future where Hyperion took over the world, but it never comes to pass in any of the comics (including the one you linked to). His people were on their way to Earth to try and conquer it, but he wasn't working towards helping that happen. It mentions he had killed the President of the United States, but I can't find a reference to when (as in when in any of the previous series/mini-series)

This is a good breakdown of all the different series featuring those characters before they got killed off in New Avengers in the lead in to that last Secret Wars event. It does cover the mini you linked to, and nothing mentions him being evil. While I haven't read that specific mini, I did read most of the previous series, and like I said, Hyperion wasn't evil, nor did he turn evil. It was hinted a possible future could see him doing so, but it never actually happens (as they all die at the hands of Namor and The Cabal, and their world destroyed, except their Nighthawk)
 
Regarding "must-see" MCU movies, I begrudgingly submit Age of Ultron as a must see, only because it introduces some characters that have relatively important moments in Infinity War and Endgame.

And we get to meet Hawkeye's family. That movie made me actually like Hawkeye.

OH also Iron Man's character arc is a bit more satisfying during Endgame because of some shit that goes down in Ultron.

Otherwise the movie is MEEEEHHHH
 

That doesn't really convince me he is evil. If you read it from the beginning, he was manipulated and used by the US government. The copies his powers, and gave them to a serial killer of all people, who then escaped and went on a killing spree. IIRC, they also tried to imprison him later on for not being their obedient super weapon. Does that mean what he did was right? Not likely, but this doesn't have context to go with it.

And it's still nowhere near as bad as Brightburn
 
Brightburn asks: how would you stop an evil superman,, and other people suggested Supreme Power as another example of this, is all.

Even a four-part mini series probably has more scope for character development than a film so it doesn’t surprise me that Hyperion is more developed. This story makes clear that there are external forces at play:

Both Hyperion and Doctor Spectrum / Captain Ledger hear alien voices encouraging them to prepare the earth for invasion. Captain Ledger is ex-special forces in this story.
 
Brightburn asks: how would you stop an evil superman,, and other people suggested Supreme Power as another example of this, is all.

Even a four-part mini series probably has more scope for character development than a film so it doesn’t surprise me that Hyperion is more developed. This story makes clear that there are external forces at play:

Both Hyperion and Doctor Spectrum / Captain Ledger hear alien voices encouraging them to prepare the earth for invasion. Captain Ledger is ex-special forces in this story.

There's an external force at play in both; that (and the fact both characters are Superman analogues) are the two main similarities that I can see.
I don't really see much more, because Brightburn never asks how you stop him. That's answered early on, but until the film's final act, nothing is done with it (because the person who knows keeps it to themselves), and it just leads to a larger body account.

I'm still not sold on it being that good an example. I think Irredeemable does that better (Plutonian actively goes around killing people, and destroys cities and towns), but if there are people who do, more power to them.

On another note, is anyone else going to see Godzilla this weekend (or have seen it all ready?) I might see it Sunday night
 
I'm thinking of chancing Godzilla although the reviews are giving me pause.
 
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