Posts by Samuel Smith5

Robert Cooper41 said:It’s a solid flick, a quintessential summer watch... basically a giant parody of those buddy-cop action movies (and then some). Honestly, when I first saw Jim Broadbent on screen alongside Martin Freeman and Bill Nighy, I thought, "Wow, this is quite possibly the most perfect casting ever assembled for a comedy." But let's be real—those last two are mostly just there as bait to get you in the seat, popping up for maybe two scenes, whereas Broadbent is actually a vital part of the whole thing.

The opening is absolutely fantastic, but then it settles into this long, drawn-out buildup that feels like it drags on forever—it definitely hits a bit of a slump there—only for the whole thing to suddenly explode in the final thirty minutes.

For a lazy weekend afternoon, it’s a perfect 😬

I’ll put my name on it,

that last half hour is hilarious. Especially when Angel jumps and kicks that old lady right in the head 🤣

though, personally, I still think Shaun of the Dead is better.

It’s your run-of-the-mill Hollywood blockbuster. The kind of flick you forget the second the credits start rolling. Honestly, the whole trilogy was a complete wash.

I’m curious about the metrics being used here to label people as "mentally ill." It feels arbitrary. I mean, is there actually anyone alive today who hasn't experienced a bout of depression, a wave of anxiety, or some level of paranoia at some point? We all go through those dark stretches. To claim that two billion people are somehow clinically broken isn't just an overstatement; it’s its own kind of madness 😬

Propaganda is never going away. It's just going to keep changing its face.

Is that clear enough for you now?

Anthony Kim18 said:nah, not really

even my reach has its limits

Anthony Kim18 said:Wait, what even is that!?

Seriously, you don't know who John McClane is? That's just embarrassing. 🙂

Does Die Hard ring a bell or what? 🙂
😎

It turns out we’ve finally realized that John McClane is basically just a high-functioning, more human version of the Terminator

electricstag2 said:Seriously, people, you need to wake up and see this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG3gj43Hg0Q

😂

northerncrane4 said:And you know what else they do, you haters? They pay screenwriters a pittance to write the scripts, toss some scraps to the actors, and then hawk the whole thing on DVDs in Key West! Absolute crooks.

You're beyond help

Ronald Rodriguez12 said:So, look—Grindhouse is technically a joint effort between Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, though I wouldn't be surprised if the idea for the female lead came from Tarantino himself. He probably had more of a say in how it turned out—he's arguably the "better" director of the two, isn't he?
Anyway, we aren't really talking about Tarantino here, and Braveheart is, obviously, an incredible film. Personally, I don't think any movie that wins an Oscar is bad; they all earn it in their own way, so everything else is just down to personal taste.

Those are two separate films. Tarantino's is Death Proof, and Robert Rodriguez's is Planet Terror.

FREEEEEEEDOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!
🤣

Ronald Rodriguez12 said:Honestly, once you see that woman in Grindhouse with a machine gun where her leg should be, everything just clicks—that's really all you need to know about the legendary Tarantino😵

If I caught that correctly, that lady is actually in the Robert Rodriguez film.

Screw the Oscars. It's all just politics anyway.

Mark Johnson5 said:@greta, I haven't forgotten you. 😉

If you’re looking to dive into Asian cinema, you really have to check out everything by—well, there's just too much greatness to list, but you can't miss the essentials. Wong Kar WaiYeah, absolutely—especially so. Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love, 2046 i Happy Times I haven't actually sat down to watch it myself yet—though, I have to admit, I've heard some pretty stellar things about it. In the Mood for Love It’s always the same with these melancholic dramas—minimal dialogue, heavy atmosphere, and just an overwhelming amount of beautiful music, especially in Wong Kar Wai's work. 2046 🙏
Chungking It feels like a tribute to pop culture—or maybe just a nod to that specific Hong Kong vibe. Pulp Fiction.

Then you absolutely have to sit down and watch the vengeance trilogy by Park Chan-wook—it’s nothing short of brutal. Park Chan-wook (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy I'm ready to get to work. Send over the content you need me to transform, and I'll handle the rest—re-crafting everything into an authentic American voice while strictly following all your entity substitution rules. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance)
Here we go—another Korean filmmaker enters the fray. Kim Ki-duk His films are incredibly poetic—truly special works. I’d definitely recommend checking them out. 3-Iron, Time., Samaritan Girl i Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter Movie

The Americans have you beat. Zhang YimouYou really should check out everything he’s done—honestly, just dive into his entire filmography if you can. 🙏

I'm currently at the Sundance Film Festival watching a film by a Taiwanese director. Tsai Ming-liang I just finished watching three films. They aren't exactly "easy" watches—definitely not something you'd put on if you just wanted to zone out—but they are incredibly rewarding, especially... The Hole and Goodbye I'm ready to get to work. Send over the text you need me to transform, and I'll handle the rest—re-crafting everything into a polished, authentic American voice while strictly following all your entity and username substitution rules. Farewell, Dragon Inn. Which one are we talking about—the one that deals with the decline of movie theaters? @ivtau, I honestly think you’d really love this one.

To be honest, I haven't spent much time getting to know Japanese cinema—it’s a world I'm still largely unfamiliar with.

🤮 Honestly, that movie just completely drained me. It started off strong enough, but the closer it got to the end, the more I found myself looking for the nearest exit. I mean, I still dig his work like Spring, Summer, Fall... etc., but this one? Not for me.

shadowdrifter6 said:I see someone brought up Scandinavian filmmakers. Since I'm completely in the dark regarding their cinema, would anyone be so kind as to suggest something worthwhile?
Any genre will do, though I'd prefer something more recent and easy to find on a streaming service.

🤔 Bergman?
☕

Mark Johnson5 said:They have managed a few good films in recent years—Goodbye Lenin!, Against the Wall, The Fat Years are Over, Sophie Scholl, The Lives of Others... but when it comes to TV series, you're absolutely right; it's just pure misery.🤮

Look, I was specifically tearing apart the movies being aired on CBS. I never claimed that EVERY German film is total garbage.

silentridge3 said:I’m not saying that American movies aren't the top watched globally, I just mean that it feels like nowhere else hits quite this specific percentage.

Just to give you a rough caricature of how it looks:

Germany - 55% American
France - 62% American
Italy - 72% American
Romania - 61% American
Czech Republic - 45% American
Poland - 81% American
Iran - 12% American
Thailand - 34% American..
..(and so on)..
USA - 95% American

I guess people here don't really have an accurate idea of what actually gets watched in different parts of Europe. For instance, the circle of countries where German is the official language—like Germany, Austria, and Switzerland—broadcasts a massive amount of German cinema, and neighboring countries pick up a lot of that too. Like in Slovakia or the Czech Republic, you see plenty of German series and movies on TV, even during prime time. Then on the flip side, you have this whole cluster of Francophone nations with huge production industries that buy content from one another (like Romania buying from France).

Back home, CBS tried to push some German products into the lineup, but it just didn't stick, I suppose. Part of it was probably the language barrier—unlike much of Central Europe, we rely on subtitles, so we aren't really used to anything besides English—but it was also because those shows were just so different from what we're accustomed to, which is that classic American style and American themes.

I'll say it again; even though I haven't done any "scientific" research or anything, just from my own experiences traveling through Europe, I've concluded that we are incredibly, intensely Americanized, maybe even more so than everyone else.

It's quite simple: they're just bad. The subtitle thing is a non-issue because Americans are perfectly fine reading them; it doesn't stop anyone from watching. As for the German language, maybe some people just don't care for it. But if that were the real reason, why does everyone sit through those Italian and Spanish soap operas? That has nothing to do with knowing English either.

To me, those series and films are so poorly made they're practically unwatchable.

I'm choosing the world😍

Yeah, exactly. It’s just the left hemisphere versus the right one.

So, what’s the deal with Russia, Korea, and Iran? 🙂
🤣