Movies in a thread

[jebreject]

Like, if the goings-on in the topmost dream level affect the physics of the next level down, why doesn't it affect all levels below? If you get shot in the topmost level, why are you still injured in the other levels, albeit less so? Why do the tokens work like that? I mean, you can't dream that a top stops spinning and falls the way it would in the real world (or at least seems to you like it does, in the dream)? I'm sure there's more but those are the first things I can think of.

[jm]

Yeah, I thought that some of the logic (the things you pointed out, and more, I think, but I'd have to re-remember what my specific issues were) was wonky.  I hated the ending, partially because I saw it coming (in that it's one of the handful of endings that is sort of presupposed by the plot in the first place), but it's not like I had anything more satisfying in mind.  I loved the hotel hallway shit.  I thought that was probably the coolest fucking thing in the movie.

[jm]

Though I will say that, given some of the premises we're introduced to, it's one of the best depictions of dreaming that I've seen in movies.  Most movies tend to be extremely charitable in regard to the continuity and consistency of dreams, and where this one was, it at least sewed that up with some internally plausible background.

[reebty]

@GCR: I had the opposite experience watching Army of Darkness for the first time in forever last New Year's Eve. My friends and I would probably seem like massive jerks to you.

[Greg Nog]

I actually thought that "dreamtime" in Inception was portrayed somewhat unrealistically in the movie, as just a sort of stand-in for "cinematic set-piece Nolan would like to film".  Like, the dreams were wayyyy too consistent; in most of mine, it's more like some kind of Lynch/Herzog/Pootie Tang series of loosely interlocking non-sequiturs.

In fact, thinking about it now, I believe the movie I've seen that best replicates how it is when I'm dreaming is Southland Tales.  A series of bizarre unrelated scenes that almost make sense, but are really more about a simulacrum of logic than logic itself.

That said, Inception had some fun action sequences and a very dapper Joseph Gordon-Levitt, so I dug it all right.

[jm]

That's why I said "given the premises we're introduced to", really.

[Greg Nog]

Yeah, I gotcha.  I just got a little pouty when, watching the movie, I was all, "MAN WHERE ARE THE FLYING MANATEES AND SUCH"

[jm]

Yeah.  I think someone else said upthread somewhere that they were a little disappointed in the lack of weirdness, which I can dig.  I definitely didn't think it was as bizarre or inconsistent as the dreams I'm used to (which are much like what you've described).  But my disbelief was suspended on account of the whole "architect" premise.

I honestly think my biggest issue with it was the "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS?" and "There's something I should tell you before we XYZ" that seemed to crop up every four minutes or so starting about twenty minutes into the movie.

[YojimboMonkey]

Yeah, I gotcha.  I just got a little pouty when, watching the movie, I was all, "MAN WHERE ARE THE FLYING MANATEES AND SUCH"

it only takes the tiniest of nudges to get me to repost this image

[jm]

OH, HUGH THE MANATEE

[Nick Ink]

I think the hardest part to swallow was the combination of 3 improbable factors that created the dream worlds. You need an 'architect', a bloke cooking up moonshine in some very rudimentary looking laboratory setting, and a machine that seemed to be half a dozen inner tubes connected to a squeezy button!

Another thing - even if you accept the far-fetched idea that the 'forger' character could somehow suggest himself to be the dreamer's uncle after just a brief time spent in that uncle's company, even if you go with that, how was he able to also adopt the form of the sexy blonde girl at the bar? Why was it only him that had this ability?

But I liked it a lot - it was never boring, I didn't think - even at 2.5hrs.

[girl]

Session 9 is streaming on Netflix! I love this movie. Peter Mullan is so great!

edit:
Woo! Also streaming on Netflix is Fast Times at Ridgemont High!

[jebreject]

Session 9 is streaming on Netflix! I love this movie. Peter Mullan is so great!

I just noticed that. Totally stoked, one of my favorite horror films.

[girl]

I know, right?! And it's so great that they got to film at Danvers before it was converted into apartments or condos or whatever it is right now. So creepy!

[davy]

There was a party at my house tonight and we rocked the shit out of some instant streaming. We watched cheesy sci-fi, Tom Selleck, Yanni, GG Allin, Yes, American Ninja, Andrew WK, Hall & Oates Live, and some concert in Spain that was basically like Riverdance only with a spanish guitar. It was some fucking good times.

[G.C.R]

@GCR: I had the opposite experience watching Army of Darkness for the first time in forever last New Year's Eve. My friends and I would probably seem like massive jerks to you.

Ha no man, I think I would have enjoyed it a bucketload more if I wasn't watching it by myself. As it is, I found its weird pacing and central performance interesting, but I didn't have a whole lot of fun, which seems to be what the film is trying desperately to provide. I still feel kind of affectionate towards it though.

[JamesSchneider]

Disco Pigs, Cillian Murphy's first starring role in a little Irish indie is streaming on Netflix and it is sublime in every way. Absolutely a WI gem.

[Nick Ink]

Just saw this on DVD - a pretty good thriller - for fans of Blood Simple-era Cohen Brothers, perhaps.

[davy]

Was Jonah Hex really, really terrible or something? I thought the preview looked cool, but it only stuck around the theater in this town for about a week, then it came to the dollar theater, and spent even less time there. And I don't know anyone who has actually seen it.

[jebreject]

I heard it was about as awful as a movie can be.

[jebreject]

http://www.avclub.com/articles/jonah-hex,42236/

[davy]

Ouch.

[G.C.R]

I watched Otto; or Up With Dead People, and while I didn't hate it or anything, I think i can safely say that it is the only movie that i felt could have done with a whole lot more zombie cocks penetrating the holes just ripped in people's stomachs. Even though it included moments like this, it felt surprisingly tame in terms of the sex and gore that it promised, and instead spent a lot more time poking fun at independent filmmakers who hang out in graveyards giving each other headstones as presents and making angry film manifestos about how zombies are simulataneously persecuted and symbols of complete societal conformism. Is LaBruce's other stuff worth a look, at all?

[JamesSchneider]

Also on Watch Instantly: Henry Fool and Fey Grim.

[jebreject]

Is LaBruce's other stuff worth a look, at all?

The Raspberry Reich absolutely is!