What are you watching?

[Beber]

I have just binge-watched Stranger Things season 1 this Sunday. Now that season 2 has been released and since the time I've been hearing about it, plus the latest Honest Trailer, it was time to catch up. It's great. A very good and improbable merging of old Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter.

[Beber]

Justice League. On the whole, I liked it. Nice to hear a few notes of the 89 Batman theme. I couldn't hear the ones from 78 Superman, but now that I've listened to the soundtrack, I got it. I still don't know where to place them in the movie, but I'll see it again Tuesday night. My 1st screening was digital IMAX 3D on a 1.90:1 screen, and in a couple scenes, I was shocked to see how badly it was framed.

- Number 1 : When Bruce and Diana have an argument, Bruce's forehead is not even on screen. There's no headroom over him. And I'm talking pretty wide shots. If it's an "artsy" choice, then I can excuse it as being a way to convey the audience that Bruce uses only half his brain to come up with his idea. But I don't think so.

- Number 2 : When Clark and Lois are in the field. Same thing, pretty wide shot and Clark's forehead is cropped out. What the hell?! I'm starting to think it might be an IMAX 1.90:1 AR problem only, but hey, can't they frame it better for the IMAX release? I'll see it again in a regular theater in ATMOS this time and 2D only (by the way 3D is mostly useless anyway), to see if I notice the same thing. The official AR is supposed to be 1.85:1, so maybe in a regular theater we can see more on top...

[Beber]

Today, it was Obsession, De Palma, on DCP and Falling Down, Schumacher, on 35mm. Both films having in common the editor Paul Hirsch, Oscar winner for Star Wars, who was the guest of honor that picked these movies, and who gave a masterclass in between. Overall, a nice day at the movies.

[Feallan]

They never show movies on 35mm anywhere in my country

[spoRv]

Space Station 76 - curious to watch this comedy... but really disappointed; apart the nice 70s touch to everything, from robots to costumes to smoking etc. story is... slow, boring, dull, unfunny, pointless; actors, even if not that bad, seemed tired, almost forced to act, like "OK, let's do it as a favour to the director/studio/someone else"; you expect something to happen after every scene, and nothing interesting really happens; even the end, that could be interesting, if treated in the right way, turned into nothing. Really, can't think a reason someone should watch this film. - 4/10

The Dark Tower - didn't read the books, so can't make a comparison, but I can say it is another distopian story, that takes place between various worlds, with a good guy, a bad guy with some magic powers, the boy with visions blah blah blah... nothing really new; SFX are good, acting is quite good even if not exceptional... what can I say? If you like the various late young adult similar flicks, maybe you'll like it... I can't say I didn't like it completely, but, watching the trailers, I expected something more... much more! - 5.5/10

Fifty Shades Darker - watched Fifty Shades of Grey about two years ago on TV (not that great, but not that bad either, but frankly I can't remember it well, also because I haven't followed it carefully), I was curious to watch it, and when broadcasted on TV I decided to give it a chance; well, *it seemed* a bit better than the previous one, story was interesting, acting was... well, appropriate for this kind of films and the cliffhanger at the end pushed the viewers to wait for the third episode... never read the book as well, so can't say if it's a good transposition of it, but all in all not a bad production. - 6/10

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets - completely agree with what PDB wrote about this; want to add that it's basically a tour into colourful, beautiful images, with a little (if any) substance... turn off your brain, keep your eyes open all the time, and *maybe* you could have (some) fun! - 4.5/10

[Beber]

Justice League. On the whole, I liked it. Nice to hear a few notes of the 89 Batman theme. I couldn't hear the ones from 78 Superman, but now that I've listened to the soundtrack, I got it. I still don't know where to place them in the movie, but I'll see it again Tuesday night. My 1st screening was digital IMAX 3D on a 1.90:1 screen, and in a couple scenes, I was shocked to see how badly it was framed.

- Number 1 : When Bruce and Diana have an argument, Bruce's forehead is not even on screen. There's no headroom over him. And I'm talking pretty wide shots. If it's an "artsy" choice, then I can excuse it as being a way to convey the audience that Bruce uses only half his brain to come up with his idea. But I don't think so.

- Number 2 : When Clark and Lois are in the field. Same thing, pretty wide shot and Clark's forehead is cropped out. What the hell?! I'm starting to think it might be an IMAX 1.90:1 AR problem only, but hey, can't they frame it better for the IMAX release? I'll see it again in a regular theater in ATMOS this time and 2D only (by the way 3D is mostly useless anyway), to see if I notice the same thing. The official AR is supposed to be 1.85:1, so maybe in a regular theater we can see more on top...

OK, now that I have seen it on a regular non-IMAX screen, I can testify that the "optimized for IMAX" they claim in the end credits is total BS! You can actually see more verticaly on a regular widescreen than on an IMAX screen. They have not adjusted the framing for IMAX. They just cropped out the top/bottom of the 1.85:1 framing to fullfill a 1.90:1 digital IMAX screen. Since when do we go to an IMAX theater to see less picture?

[Koopa Luath]

Justice League. On the whole, I liked it. Nice to hear a few notes of the 89 Batman theme. I couldn't hear the ones from 78 Superman, but now that I've listened to the soundtrack, I got it. I still don't know where to place them in the movie, but I'll see it again Tuesday night. My 1st screening was digital IMAX 3D on a 1.90:1 screen, and in a couple scenes, I was shocked to see how badly it was framed.

- Number 1 : When Bruce and Diana have an argument, Bruce's forehead is not even on screen. There's no headroom over him. And I'm talking pretty wide shots. If it's an "artsy" choice, then I can excuse it as being a way to convey the audience that Bruce uses only half his brain to come up with his idea. But I don't think so.

- Number 2 : When Clark and Lois are in the field. Same thing, pretty wide shot and Clark's forehead is cropped out. What the hell?! I'm starting to think it might be an IMAX 1.90:1 AR problem only, but hey, can't they frame it better for the IMAX release? I'll see it again in a regular theater in ATMOS this time and 2D only (by the way 3D is mostly useless anyway), to see if I notice the same thing. The official AR is supposed to be 1.85:1, so maybe in a regular theater we can see more on top...

OK, now that I have seen it on a regular non-IMAX screen, I can testify that the "optimized for IMAX" they claim in the end credits is total BS! You can actually see more verticaly on a regular widescreen than on an IMAX screen. They have not adjusted the framing for IMAX. They just cropped out the top/bottom of the 1.85:1 framing to fullfill a 1.90:1 digital IMAX screen. Since when do we go to an IMAX theater to see less picture?

Must be the fact that this one was shot at 1.33:1 and cropped for theatrical exhibition.

[PDB]

Haven't updated this in a while

In Theaters

Thor:Ragnarok- Already in the 2nd run, cheap theaters here. Well after the turgid mess of the previous Thors, this was a breath of fresh air. Had the same problems as all other marvel movies but that doesn't matter since much of the joy delivered from this movie is that you clearly see the actors having fun with their roles. Clearly, that fact that this is an interesting, fun movie is a credit to Marvel going out of the box and hiring director Taika Waititi. 4/5

American Made-- Also in the second run theaters. This was just an ok film. The historical aspects to it were fun and intriguing but tonally it was all over the map. If it was trying to have a moral it was lost in the mess. 2/5

Coco- Took my daughter to see this and we both walked away really liking it. Beautiful design, interesting plot, well developed charterers but not sure the story holds together as well on a second viewing. 3.5/5

On Video

The Dark Tower - didn't read the books, so can't make a comparison, but I can say it is another distopian story, that takes place between various worlds, with a good guy, a bad guy with some magic powers, the boy with visions blah blah blah... nothing really new; SFX are good, acting is quite good even if not exceptional... what can I say? If you like the various late young adult similar flicks, maybe you'll like it... I can't say I didn't like it completely, but, watching the trailers, I expected something more... much more! - 5.5/10

Agreed with spoRv but probably would rate even lower. Didn't read the book either but everyone seemed bored in the film, which is sad given the talent.

[deleted user]

Kingsman: Golden Circle - I was pleasantly surprised by this one, not having expected the second part to live up to the first one. A bit preachy and naive towards the end considering how otherwise weirdly ruthless it is, which is one of the few criticisms I have. Otherwise mad fun, rather creative and the style is still fresh; soundtrack also works wonderfully (wish I could get my hands on the vinyl). Much better than most of today's remakes, franchise movies and otherwise overused themes. Humorous and fun and playful while not getting carried away in artsy-ness or irrelevance or suffocating on lightness, which I sometimes really am astonished how this movie pulls this combo off. I'd give it a good 7.5/8.

Re. Dark Tower:

I read the books and would readily describe them among my favorite novels of all time. Plus I kinda grew up with them so I love 'em. I'd give the movie itself probably also a 5 AS a movie that stands for itself. As an adaption of the books, I can't give it more than a 3, for reasons that you can read up on a hundred online forums.

[Beber]

The Last Jedi :

Just got back from my digital IMAX 3D screening. Nothing IMAX in it. Another LIEMAX movie presentation in scope from start to end. I watched the end credits all the way, only mentions 35mm Kodak. No IMAX whatsoever. I don't get that IMDB still states this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527336/tech...tt_dt_spec
Since there was nothing in 1.90:1, I won't bother go and discover what a Laser IMAX projection looks like with this film. I'll just wait for the next Nolan movie. However The Last Jedi is mixed in Atmos, so I'll see it again in a regular scope theater that has Atmos sound.