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Autumn Leaves

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Just finished Timescape, a 2022 Canadian family film. I really don’t like dinosaurs (the title was actually translated as Back to the Dinosaurs and the description advertised it as something “for fans of Jurassic Park”) and only began watching when the subscription that includes the streaming platform promised bonuses for me watching a sci-fi :)

Actually, it doesn’t have that many dinosaurs — though the two main characters do indeed travel back in time by accident, they barely meet the dinosaurs, and the film is more about their relationship with each other and their families than an action-adventure sci-fi as advertised. For me, who doesn’t like dinosaurs, it was nice, but I understand that some viewers would be disappointed.

What I liked: the actual focus of the film — as I’ve said, the friendship between the main characters, teenage Lara and preteen Jason, and their interactions with their families — was done pretty well. The cinematography was mostly beautiful (except for too-obviously-CGI giant dragonflies), and I was really impressed with the casting choices for Lara and her mother — the two actresses looked incredibly alike.

What I didn’t like: first, the stakes were way too low. Sure, a couple of times the dinosaurs dramatically chased the protagonists, but I never had the feeling of them being in real danger. It would have IMHO been better to cut the dinosaurs altogether and let the characters wander around in a friendlier time, making it a time-travel friendship film without a claim to action. Second, I didn’t like the ending: It’s set up to be a bittersweet one:

Jason helps Lara and her mother reconcile, but Lara, who comes from the far future, saves Jason’s deceased parents — but Jason’s memories of their adventures are wiped because it’s not allowed to know the future, and he and Lara can never meet again. Then, post-credits — surprise! (Well, not so much, because I could see there was too much time left for it just to be a credit sequence). Lara’s robotic helper Mia appears to restore Jason’s memory, because Lara needs his help!

Were the creators hesitant to make it a full-on bittersweet ending in a family film? I don’t know. For me, the “and the adventure continues” moment felt really too rushed to be satisfying —

It’s forbidden to mess with time. Why should an exception be made for a preteen boy, who is admittedly quite smart but still not a mega-genius for whom one can bend the rules? At least, had it been a romance, it would have been understandable — kind of like how it’s easier to move into a foreign country if you’re married to a resident. But it’s not a romance, and although the friendship between Lara and Jason, again, was depicted very nicely, I still couldn’t see him being her best, dearest friend.

To put it short — it’s a nice, pretty-looking and uplifting film, mostly well-acted, but don’t expect high stakes in the plot, and if you watch it, my advice would be for you to turn it off once the credits start rolling.
 

CuriousCaseOf

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Just watched Conclave. Wow. I always thought Angels and Demons was going to be the most dramatic movie about selecting a pope...

But this one, based on the book by Robert Harris, is really thrilling. The plot twist at the end was definitely that no one could have seen coming.

Great acting by Ralph Fiennes and cast. The guy who portrays the cardinal from Afghanistan used to work as an architect; he didn't start acting till Covid.
 

nighttimer

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Hey, an original Netflix flick that doesn't suck! Yeah, I was surprised too!

That's Carry On, an Xmas-themed flick that reeks of Die Hard Lite but with Taron Egerton, Sofia Carson, Jason Bateman standing in for Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Alan Rickman, and Reginald VelJohnson. It is fast and implausible fun we watched from beginning to end and never felt bored until it reached its predictable finish.

You could do worse. Seriously.
 
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gettingby

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If you've got Hulu, there's a really great movie called Dinner in America. I've already watched it twice since it came out.
 

benbenberi

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Red One, on Amazon. I enjoyed the opening sections a lot! J.K. Simmons, Dwayne Johnson, and Lucy Liu deserve to be in a buddy flick all by themselves. Once the "quest" got going it was pretty formulaic & predictable, but my main complaint is mostly about the lighting. Can't these productions afford a few more lightbulbs????
 

mrsmig

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Attempted Red One last night, and found it too stupid to finish. I wish we'd done the same with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice the other night.
 
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Cobalt Jade

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Sorry, mrsmig, but now you've made me want to watch Red One!

Re-watched Happiest Season just to see Kristen Stewart's character make the wrong choice all over again in who to love.

I take it you're not a fan of this actress?
 

nighttimer

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Finally watched Fire of Love, a documentary about Katia and Maurice Krafft, two linked souls who shared a mutual fascination with volcanos. It's beautiful and terrifying, but the Kraffts were not afraid---even if it meant they might perish. (y)
 
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Cocops8

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Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - I watched the first one the other day too. It's my first time watching this series.
 
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Maryn

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We watched Blitz last night on Apple TV+. (Apparently you can also get it on Amazon Prime.) Saoirse Ronan plays a single parent of a mixed-race son in WWII London who sends the boy away from the city to keep him safe--until he jumps off the train and makes his way back during Nazi bombing raids.

I don't know that it was good-good, but it was good enough to hold our attention. Good special effects, too.
 
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Brightdreamer

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I needed a distraction, and saw an article on it that intrigued me (plus it's free via hoopla at the moment), so I watched Hundreds of Beavers (trailer, YouTube link, SFW). In an homage to silent movies, slapstick comedy, and classic cartoons, 19th century frontiersman Jean Kayak is a successful apple jack salesman (and frequent sampler of his own wares) among the trappers of the northern woods, until a disaster destroys his home and his business... a disaster caused by a beaver. After stumbling his way through the forest struggling to survive, he catches sight of a trader's comely daughter (who wields a mean blade stripping carcasses at her father's trading post). The lovestruck drunkard decides he needs to clean up his ways - and when her father demands many pelts to endorse a marriage, he sets out to tame the northern woods. But these are no ordinary beavers he's up against...

On a technical and artistic level, this is a very impressive feat, melding modern techniques, animation, and framing very similar to classic silent film comedies, plus several nods to old video games and other franchises. The movie has a surreal air reminiscent of old cartoons, where sled dogs (men in cheap rental costumes, like every "animal" in the movie) play poker by the campfire at night and a beaver Holmes and Watson investigate the many suspicious deaths of their fellows. Also like those classic films (and some of those cartoons), the plot could be a bit threadbare and wandering, and the characters simple caricatures created to deliver the gags. It takes a while to kick into gear, and then overstays its premise by the time it finally ends. It also leans a bit hard into toilet/crude humor now and again. But it does cleverly tie in many of its seemingly off the cuff moments as the tale trudges onward through the ubiquitous snow and ice. It's a very unique movie experience, especially as it was all apparently done on a shoestring budget, but ultimately I found it too "art house" for my tastes, ultimately more interested in the aesthetic/gimmick than anything else.

(I also get tired of the "evil wolf" trope... and, yes, "dogs" die. As do "beavers". And many other animals. Gore and violence is limited to cartoonish rendings of animal costumes, plus a few scenes of bones and stuffed innards inside the fabric skins, all with the classic comic X's through the eyes of the deceased.)
 
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Alessandra Kelley

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Somewhere in Time, except I didn't finish it.

I remember enjoying it when it came out in theaters 45 years ago. Now I can see that its 1912 costuming is first-rate, a really impressive job of evoking history.* And of course Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour are adorable.

But, errrrr yikes, Reeve's character is acting exactly like a creepy stalker and it's raising so many red flags I found it deeply uncomfortable, and no amount of fabulous 1912 costuming could make up for that. So I bailed maybe halfway through.




*(OTOH, its 1972 costuming in a brief prologue set a mere 8 years before the film's main action, is terrible. They all look like 1980 people pretending it's 1972.)
 

Tocotin

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My friend and I saw Creation of the Gods II yesterday – they released it on Chinese New Year. It was awesome! A truly epic fantasy movie with a dynamic storyline, breathtaking visuals, lots of extras, wonderful acting (I wish there was more of Daji, because she is one of my favorite mythological characters for absolutely no reason)... just great fun all around.

Regretfully we haven't seen the first part sadly, but it wasn't difficult to follow. One of the most interesting parts was observing the audience react. We were the only non-Chinese viewers in the movie theater, and there were moments when the audience reacted very strongly and we were very curious about it. There was a scene when a cute girl kissed an immortal at a town feast, and our reaction was "yeah", but the audience went "AHHH"! Or when an old lady helped General Deng (who is acting very manly all the time) put on makeup, and she was in shock upon seeing her face in the mirror – the whole audience was giggling for a long time afterwards.

Highly recommended.

:troll
 

halloweeencat

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Does it have to be new movies never watched before, or re-watches? Because I always play something in the background while I'm on my laptop. Right now, I'm re-watching the move The Help, one of my favorites.