Board 8 > Movie Club Topic 3 - Murder by Marnie: Hunt for the Blue Hand Stalker Lobster

(+) Yeah! (+)

Kevin

Camden posted...

I quite liked this movie, even with John C Reilly in it. He's past the point of no return for me where I have trouble watching him in non comedy roles at this point because even the sound of his voice puts me in 'want to laugh' mode, like I'll be watching him trying to be serious and my mind is just going Catalina Wine Mixer, Catalina Wine Mixer...

i have similar thoughts about Reilly tbh. it comes off as an awkward casting for me. i guess he fits the 'oblivious parent' part/look but the tone and subject matter of the film just makes it weirder to me. also thought it was interesting that the characters name (Khatchadourian?) is noticeably Armenian which also affected how i perceived the casting. obviously an overall minor thing and from a quick search it tells me that this aspect is touched more on in the book.

gamefaqs should bring back the post# for quotes

on a somewhat lighter note, one of my tv/movie pet peeves "kind of" occurred in this. and i don't think i've asked about this yet but what are your movie pet peeves/minor annoyances?

do i even spoiler this. the scene where they were playing an n64 game. i mean first it made me think about how fucked the n64 controller was. and i only say "kind of" because it wasn't that bad here. also i was wondering which games you could played with your hands on the d-pad/face but not the analog (did mario party have some minigames like that?). like that they even got an n64 instead of a 360 during the time Kevin was a kid i think shows there's some attention to detail there. unless it happened to be literally a random chance that an n64 was the one console they had lying around for that scene lol.

but like almost any time characters are playing games in shows/movies i'm just taken out of it immediately. and typically it's because they're frantically pushing buttons and jerking around in a way that wants to make it 'obvious' they're playing a game. i appreciate so much when a movie/show takes the extra effort to address all the small details where it's believably realistic even to people experienced in that field (e.g. scientific/medical/legal jargon & procedure, musical performances, etc.) so like why can't they just be playing a game 'normally'

i could go on about this but i'm sure people don't care lol and yes it's nitpicky and of course i'm referring more to the more "egregious" scenes. like the kevin scene isn't a big deal, it just reminded me of this pet peeve of mine.

example that always comes to my mind was when i saw a Modern Family episode where the character playing a game is frantically and visibly pressing the space BETWEEN the buttons and analog on the controller

also: Tony Soprano playing Mario Kart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxy-qjy_cGM

Two things come to find that drive me crazy.

Fight scenes where someone gets hit, and then spins/rotates in the air about five times before landing. I'm not sure I have a better way of describing it but I hate it, even in kung fu movies where fight scenes aren't usually bound by the laws of physics it still gets an eye roll out of me.

The villain wants the thing that will allow him to destroy/enslave/control the entire world, but the hero currently has it. So, the villain steals the girl and, inevitably, the hero gives said thing up in order to save her... except now instead of the girl being dead literally everyone is, and since the girl happens to be a member of 'everyone' all the hero has done is literally fuck over everyone else.

And not a pet peeve with movies as much as it is how they're made, but everything feels like it has to be way too dark now. I want to be able to see the god damn movie, thank you very much.

---

Camden posted...

And not a pet peeve with movies as much as it is how they're made, but everything feels like it has to be way too dark now. I want to be able to see the god damn movie, thank you very much.

This is bad, but poor sound balance is even worse in my opinion. I'm sick of watching newer movies where you have to turn the volume way up to hear the dialogue at all and then getting deafened by SURPRISE INCREDIBLY LOUD MUSIC.
---

It's as much in video games as in movies, but when the action hero kills dozens of guards or lackeys to get to the main villain, but then they won't kill the main villain because doing so would go against their moral code or something.

Also a lot of character tropes I'm getting tired of. The "Ice Queen" came to mind pretty recently.

---

Xeybozn posted...

This is bad, but poor sound balance is even worse in my opinion. I'm sick of watching newer movies where you have to turn the volume way up to hear the dialogue at all and then getting deafened by SURPRISE INCREDIBLY LOUD MUSIC.

God, this is especially noticeable given how everything's been released for streaming lately. Finding a balance between "can't hear the conversation" and "this is going to piss off my neighbors" has become such a chore

---

i think the dark thing is in games too. they also have the subtitles being way too small.

another one

when the characters are supposedly fluent in a language that's not English/have a different native language or the movie is set in a country where the primary language is not English but they speak in English for the convenience of the audience or because of the actor's limitations

People having perfect & white teeth in situations where they definitely shouldn't. I don't know why it bothers me so much.

---

ViolentAbacus posted...

People having perfect & white teeth in situations where they definitely shouldn't. I don't know why it bothers me so much.

This but with full faces of intact makeup

---

Unbelievably fast comebacks/witty banter, nobody in real life actually talks like an Aaron Sorkin character.

It may just be that Aaron Sorkin's stuff bothers me
---

i've definitely gotten a little irritated at some Sorkin stuff when it starts feeling a little too artificial

i was actually prepared to BUY a digital copy of Hoop Dreams for reasons but it looks like the version on amazon has quality concerns? some of the reviews mention subtitles being out of sync and there's two versions with one of them being dated 2021 with no explanation of any differences

like come the fuck on

i'm going sailing

Hausu - 6/10

My review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkg8Jb7ubNo

---

Oh I've actually been wanting to watch this one. I'll find the time.

---

welp it's @kateee's turn again to recommend

Space Jam (1996) - Do you know what movie comes out in a few weeks? While I have no intention of seeing the sequel, I did become interested in the idea of revisiting this absolute CLASSIC. Available for streaming on HBO Max.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995) Okay I dont expect anyone to vote for this but I had to throw it up here once I got the 90s train going. This is probably in my top 3 most watched movies of all time even based only off the times I saw it during childhood I genuinely really like the movie and it actually has only been a couple years since my last rewatch but who knows the degree to which my perception has changed. I know most of (if not all?) of the lines and will be keeping a tally of all the times I cringe throughout. Ill be rewatching this either way sooner or later but if you want to OFFICIALLY join me on this nostalgia trip Theres a decent quality version of it on youtube but no other "official" streaming service options at the moment as far as I know.

Liar Liar (1997) i guess my...3rd favorite Jim Carrey performance after Eternal Sunshine & Truman which i haven't seen in over 10 years? might still be good? might not?

Serial Mom (1994) directed by John Waters. Available for streaming on peacock.

Vote for all movies you would be interested in seeing for the next week (~June 25th, NA). Rank your choices. If you do not intend to vote for whatever reason, please reply with "No Vote" so there is as little of a waiting period as possible. Please vote by Friday, June 25th, 3:00 A.M EST./12 A.M. PST (midnight)

Space Jam (1996)
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)
Liar Liar (1997)
Serial Mom (1994)

@Camden
@jcgamer107
@Johnbobb
@lucifiere
@Raka_Putra
@Seginustemple
@SwiftyDC
@ViolentAbacus
@Xeybozn

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie

---

Serial Mom

---

kateee posted...

This is probably in my top 3 most watched movies of all time even based only off the times I saw it during childhood

Apparently when I was 8 or 9 my favorite movie was Sister Act. I don't remember anything about the movie at this point but my parents got me a vhs copy for Christmas back then and I guess I watched the shit out of it. I remember watching Homeward Bound an inordinate amount of times as a kid but my parents tell me Sister Act was my jam.

Part of me doesn't believe them, but along with all of the old vhs TMNT movies and what not I had as a kid that they've kept all of these years, there is a copy of Sister Act...

---

Also, I'm down.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie

I'm thinking maybe I'll nominate nothing but movies I liked as a kid that probably aren't very good next time around.

---

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)
Space Jam (1996)

---

No Vote
---

Ah you had to do it to me with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie - probably the first movie I dragged my parents to as a kid and I still have the promo big gulp cup they gave out at the popcorn stands - https://imgur.com/u2KdE86 - I've used it to stash pens/pencils/brushes forever

Haven't seen the movie in probably twenty years though...
---

Serial Mom

Ive been slacking lately. I watched Lady on Fire but I was high AF and couldnt follow it. Ill have to watch it again. Same with Hoop Dreams. Maybe this weekend.

---

Also slacking. Watched House but forgot to rate it. Haven't watched Hoop Dreams (and tbh I've been having a hard time convincing myself to sit down and watch a basketball documentary) and I've seen Portrait but I'm gonna try to watch it again before rating

House I want to give a 9.5 but I'll round up to a 10/10 because i don't think I've ever enjoyed a haunted house movie more

---

I started watching Hoop Dreams today, but I wasn't expecting it to be three hours so I stopped a little before the half way mark. I need to finish it and the next movie pretty soon though because temps here are going to start hitting 110 on Sunday or Monday and I'm going to be too miserable to do anything around the house except sweat.

---

yeah during summer my motivation to do almost anything goes down because of the heat even at night. although thankfully we're not touching 100 for a little longer (i hope)

Johnbobb posted...

Haven't watched Hoop Dreams (and tbh I've been having a hard time convincing myself to sit down and watch a basketball documentary)

i think you'll find that like most well-made documentaries, (and really just most well-made things in general) it kind of transcends the subject matter with the story it tells and the actual parts that deal with the subject matter are really more like a bonus to people who are into it rather than some kind of barrier to entry

Camden posted...

Apparently when I was 8 or 9 my favorite movie was Sister Act. I don't remember anything about the movie at this point but my parents got me a vhs copy for Christmas back then and I guess I watched the shit out of it. I remember watching Homeward Bound an inordinate amount of times as a kid but my parents tell me Sister Act was my jam.

Part of me doesn't believe them, but along with all of the old vhs TMNT movies and what not I had as a kid that they've kept all of these years, there is a copy of Sister Act...

Seginustemple posted...

I still have the promo big gulp cup they gave out at the popcorn stands - https://imgur.com/u2KdE86 - I've used it to stash pens/pencils/brushes forever

these are both amazing for different reasons

tied between MMPR and Serial Mom at the deadline and nominator breaks the tie.

wellll i didn't think it would happen and an apology beforehand if you decide to watch it and reaaally don't like it but i'm picking the Rangers

our next movie is Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995) directed by Bryan Spicer.

@Camden
@jcgamer107
@Johnbobb
@lucifiere
@Raka_Putra
@Seginustemple

@Suprak_the_Stud
@SwiftyDC
@tyder21
@ViolentAbacus
@Xeybozn

Was about to come out of retirement and give Serial Mom the win it was robbed of!

---

Alright

---

I do feel bad for snubbing John Waters this time, I'll have to include him on my next turn. I'm thinking of doing a bizarro batch anyways

Finally starting Hoop Dreams now, took me too long to realize I actually have it on showtime through my spotify account
---

i thought you already fulfilled your bizarro quota with HOUSE

ps super secret link on youtube for mmpr...which you can find pretty easily but still

no subtitles tho

crVjY0RXIBw

Hoop Dreams

the stories felt unfortunately familiar because of all the media i've been exposed to that deal with similar issues so i wasn't blown away or anything but it's such an admirable effort. the amount of effort and work that goes into following the two mains for that long a period and going through all that footage is extraordinary not to mention the captivating stories they managed to tell. i imagine the familiar feeling that it inspires from its style is just a testament to how influential the doc was for its time.

8/10

Hoop Dreams - 8/10

So I mostly liked the movie, but watching older documentaries focused on individual people has the downside of me wanting to know what's happened in the time since the film came out. I know they didn't become stars in the NBA, but beyond that it's a fight between wanting to know what became of them and being way too lazy to deep dive into google to find anything out beyond surface level stuff.

That said, starting some time in July both Gates and Agee are apparently starting a Hoop Dreams podcast together, which is kind of interesting.

---

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Before I watched the movie, I planning on a joke post giving this a 0/10 because no women are literally set on fire. But I guess that one scene was close enough, so good work what the tile promised, I guess.

As for the movie itself, I'm a bit divided on how to score it. Slow-paced romance films just aren't a genre I care for, and that drags my opinion down a good bit. But other than that, it's pretty much perfect. Not really my kind of movie, but I'm glad I watched it and would highly recommend it to anyone who does like this kind of story.

8/10
---

Camden posted...

individual people has the downside of me wanting to know what's happened in the time since the film came out. I know they didn't become stars in the NBA, but beyond that it's a fight between wanting to know what became of them and being way too lazy to deep dive into google to find anything out beyond surface level stuff.

usually after a movie is over, i let the credits play out and i use a new tab or my phone to check out the imdb trivia section or wikipedia. not all of it is verified and i wish imdb would require sources to stop certain untrue things from being spread around but more often than not there's some interesting things there. and it's the perfect time too since i'm still in the mood so laziness is less of a factor.

for Hoop Dreams i think they revealed in the end that they didn't make it to the NBA but i did see some more details about the aftermath and there's some rough stuff there

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie

So yeah, this is not a good movie. I enjoyed watching it, but that was entirely due to nostalgia and laughing at how terrible it is. For what it's worth, it's mostly almost as good as the series itself normally was. Well, except for the special effects thanks to the terrible CGI (even for 1995). The biggest problem is that somehow the movie seems way too long. The runtime is short, but the stuff in between the fight scenes somehow drags on forever even though the plot itself is almost nonexistent. I can't really think of anything this movie does well other "has Power Rangers in it".

Also, there's not enough Bulk and Skull. They're the best characters, why are they barely in the movie at all?

3/10
---

kateee posted...

i thought you already fulfilled your bizarro quota with HOUSE

I can always go weirder >_>

Hoop Dreams

I'll admit I wasn't as immediately swept up by this as I was hoping, and I suspect there's some Seinfeld Effect going here in terms of the impact this had on the documentary style. But it comes with a lot of qualities that will lead me to revisit it later - the atmosphere, the setting, this may be shallow but the authentic early 90's nostalgia is very appealing to me. The way the buildings look, how the high school kids dress, the picture quality. I know the movie wasn't meant to be a time-capsule necessarily but it works on that level for me in a big way.

I don't want to romanticize it too much though. This has a lot to say about poverty, exploited aspirations, commodified students, institutional callousness and greed. "One walks out the door, another one comes in the door, that's what it's all about". Man, I hated that guy. At one point Spike Lee briefly appeared to highlight the root of all evil and I momentarily wondered why he wasn't the one making this. I think his version would have been interesting. Anyway, basketball is a fine enough subject for study on its own but for me this movie was all about the broader commentary, seeing the kinetics of the sport as an externalization of the struggle with unreasonable social pressure.

Side note, it really bugged me when the high school coach was telling these kids that they're lazy, don't work hard at all, have no potential. Like, bitch one of these kids has a documentary team following him around, obviously there is potential. It's just a coaching style I guess but something about that guy bothered the shit out of me. 8/10
---

Portrait of a Lady on Fire - 9/10

It's my kind of movie when you can look up the cast list on Wikipedia and count the names on one hand. Love me a limited cast where the same characters just keep interacting with each other and absolutely nobody else for pretty much the entire movie. Also, I must say there's something about watching simple brush strokes, even with the painter off screen so all you see is the hand, that I find incredibly soothing. The only scene in the entire movie I didn't particularly care for was the argument they get in to, if only because it felt like they were trying to force some tension into the relationship when it was entirely unnecessary and didn't really have much payoff.

A pair of questions, though. First, while I understand the running to the point of exhaustion and herbal remedies, what would the possible reasoning be for hanging from a board like me trying to do pull-ups in gym class when it comes to forcing an abortion? Also, beyond it just being a good way to get some overt sexual imagery in the film, who was telling these women back then that the place to rub your magic drugs is your armpit?

---

Seginustemple posted...

Side note, it really bugged me when the high school coach was telling these kids that they're lazy, don't work hard at all, have no potential. Like, bitch one of these kids has a documentary team following him around, obviously there is potential. It's just a coaching style I guess but something about that guy bothered the shit out of me. 8/10

yeah i guess the idea is that talk like that would motivate you to play harder because you would want to prove them wrong and some people might respond to that. personally i would probably just shut down in that type of situation because i already beat myself up for mistakes and people telling me off for them would just reinforce my thinking that i'm just fucking garbage >_>

and yeah i can't imagine the coach was happy with how he was depicted especially with that bit where Gates said he wasn't much help during his personal situations.

what is everyone's like top 5 documentaries?

In Search of Darkness (THE quintessential 80s horror film retrospective documentary)
The Nightmare (Horrifying doc about sleep paralysis with intense reenactments and dramatizations)
Blackfish (About Orca whale treatment at SeaWorld and other captive whales, this will make you sick to your stomach)
The Decline of Western Civilization (Probably the best and most raw punk rock doc ever)
Some Kind of Monster (Bit of bias since Metallica is my favorite band but this doc is revealing of many aspects of the music industry and one of the best peaks behind the curtain you will ever get)

Quick shout out to Never Sleep Again too, amazing Nightmare on Elm Street doc and retrospective.

---