What was the last movie you've seen?

[Ack]

There was an interest in my thoughts on The Green Inferno, so here we go! My review has gone live.

One thing that I love about Eli Roth is his work to bring attention back to forgotten horror films and subgenres. I'm not saying it's always timely or well done (Death Wish...), But I respect a desire to focus attention in areas that are being forgotten.

Aha! Thanks! You got the same message out the movie I did, which eases my mind a bit. The others I saw the movie with thought I was crazy.

I was actually surprised with how toned down his version of Death Wish was compared to the original. One of the biggest cases of him leaning away from the dark bits of what he makes.

I just think it was a bad time to remake Death Wish. Not just due to political climate, but also because the vigilante genre has gone in a totally different direction. Superhero films are really just acceptable vigilant movies at their core, while the model that Death Wish helped build up became the dominion of Liam Neeson flicks.

I'm guessing with The Green Inferno, you mean specifically it being a film about exploitation in general. No worries, man, I got your back. What did your friends get out of the movie?

[samsonlonghair]

No Spoilers here!

I recently watched an overall fantastic movie which was overburdened by the weight of two worlds.

Captain Marvel gives the audience practically everything we could ask from a Superhero movie. We get to see another Marvel superhero spectacle, but don't assume it's just another Marvel flick. Captain Marvel takes cues from 1990s action sequels like Terminator 2 and Die Hard With a Vengeance. This means that in addition to superpowered fight scenes, the audience also gets car chases, motorcycle thievery, and witty quips from Samuel L. Jackson. Oh, and 1980s movies fans are going to notice more than one reference to Top Gun. There's a lot to love in this film. Captain Marvel kicks ass, beats the bad guys, saves the universe, and looks good doing it. That really should be more than enough.

And yet... here we are. It's not enough for Captain Marvel to save just one Universe, because she has to hold up the weight of two universes. On her right hand is the Marvel Cinematic Universe - a behemoth unto itself, and on her left hand is our universe - the real world wherein Captain Marvel has to be everything to everyone.

Marvel Studios is sometimes the victims of their own success. They've knocked it out of the park with so many amazing movies that a merely great movie feels like a relative letdown. If I had never seen Guardians of the Galaxy or The Avengers I would think that Captain Marvel is amazing. At this point, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is so wrapped up in its own lore that it's practically impossible not to compare one Marvel movie to another. Fans will spend so much time speculating exactly how Nick Fury loses his eye, that no answer can sufficiently fulfill the hype. Fans will find it difficult to enjoy the movie Captain Marvel on its own terms without speculating how the character Captain Marvel will affect the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

That's a pity because Captain Marvel really would be a tremendous stand-alone film, but standing alone is not a choice when there's crossover money to be made here in the real world. The investors must be appeased, and that means that Captain Marvel absolutely must team up with the Avengers in the next film. The fans know this too. Satisfying the investors and the fans isn't the only a balancing act here. Brie Larson and Marvel Studios have decided to make a superhero film for feminists (not always an easy group to please) while simultaneously taking care not to alienate their core target demographic. Whether or not Marvel Studios succeeded in pulling off that balancing act is not for me to say. I can only acknowledge that it's a balancing act that most filmmakers wouldn't even begin to attempt. Captain Marvel is being pulled in multiple different directions by the competing interest of investors, fans, film makers, feminists, and core demographics. Any film can only stretch so far.

So what do we have? Captain Marvel is a strong movie all by itself, but it's not stronger than the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which it resides. It's not stronger than the desires of the investors to have another blockbuster summer. It's not stronger than the cultural divide between the feminists and the reactionaries. I wish this film existed in a vacuum without being weighed down by two worlds. Instead Captain Marvel has to work twice as hard as the male superhero movies to achieve as much. What do you call a woman who works twice as hard? I guess you call her... a Marvel.

[MrPopo]

That's a whole lot of words for "the movie kicked ass, and some people are still going to poo poo it due to unrealistic expectations".

I really enjoyed the movie; I feel like they really captured the essence of the character. She's got that fighter jock cockiness, and the movie taps into something one of her writers on the comics said: "Steve Rogers gets up every time because it's the right thing to do. Carol Danvers gets up every time because Fuck You."

[Forlorn Drifter]

There was an interest in my thoughts on The Green Inferno, so here we go! My review has gone live.

One thing that I love about Eli Roth is his work to bring attention back to forgotten horror films and subgenres. I'm not saying it's always timely or well done (Death Wish...), But I respect a desire to focus attention in areas that are being forgotten.

Aha! Thanks! You got the same message out the movie I did, which eases my mind a bit. The others I saw the movie with thought I was crazy.

I was actually surprised with how toned down his version of Death Wish was compared to the original. One of the biggest cases of him leaning away from the dark bits of what he makes.

I just think it was a bad time to remake Death Wish. Not just due to political climate, but also because the vigilante genre has gone in a totally different direction. Superhero films are really just acceptable vigilant movies at their core, while the model that Death Wish helped build up became the dominion of Liam Neeson flicks.

I'm guessing with The Green Inferno, you mean specifically it being a film about exploitation in general. No worries, man, I got your back. What did your friends get out of the movie?

I get what you are saying with Death Wish. Personally, vigilante and revenge movies really work for me, and they are probably my biggest exploitation guilty pleasure, so I'm probably way off from most people there.

My friends took Green Inferno as a "other cultures are scary" movie, which, while I can see where they got that, didn't even click with me until they said it. Most of them really disliked it because of that.

[Ack]

Ah, yeah, I gotta say I disagree with your friends. The real villain of the movie wasn't the tribe who turned out to be nothing like the idealized vision set forward by the self-indulging protest leader, it's the self-indulging protest leader who is happy to exploit his own people for personal profit and fame. There's a reason why he is decked out in the black body paint of the cannibal chief in the end...

Man, I also love a good vigilante film...or a bad one. Exploitation in general is my guilty pleasure, but vigilantism and revenge are such heavy recurring elements throughout all the various subgenres that we get a ton of stuff to enjoy. What are some of your personal favorites, forlorn?

[stickem]

A favorite of mine is Falling Down cause who hasn't wanted to go off on McDonalds lol

[prfsnl_gmr]

Not me. I don’t eat much fast food, and when I do, I often feel sympathy for the people that work there. Working in customer service is really, really hard and not very remunerative. My first job was working as a cashier at a toy store, and it was awful. Neither the company nor the customers treated you very well, and I expect people working at fast food restaurants have the same experience.

On topic...my favorite vigilante film that isn’t a king fu film, superhero film, or western is probably Hobo with a Shotgun. One of the few intentionally ridiculous movies that actually lives up to its potential.

[Ack]

Dude, you have no idea how many times I've wanted to just abandon my car on the Interstate in the middle of rush hour traffic.

Hobo with a Shotgun was an entertaining and bat shit ride (more movies need to take flamethrowers to school buses), but I admit that I kinda wish we could have seen the original fake trailer cast do it. That would have been fun.

[MrPopo]

I've found my favorite vigilante movies are a tie between Man on Fire and the Equalizer; Denzel Washington makes a good vigilante movie.

[Forlorn Drifter]

Oof. Favorites... haven't dug in to my older library in a while, so mostly newer stuff. The Crank films are intentionally trashy in the best way, I Saw the Devil is sick enough I actually managed to cringe, Old Boy has that classic hammer scene. Lots of other stuff I could probably think of if I checked what I have laying around. And while not a favorite, there's a Vann Damme movie where he's trying to get a stolen kidney back. Love the idea, but execution was too clean overall.

Hobo with a Shotgun is good. Been a long time since I've seen it though.