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Cameron H.

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Posts posted by Cameron H.

  2. Posted

    1 hour ago, Quasar Sniffer said:

    So the military super-soldier program stuff is actually the least interesting parts of 'The Guest,' but I think it's worth it for the presence of Lance Reddick, whom I will take being authoritative and intimidating in a Rice Krispies commercial.

    I agree with this. That stuff made it get into Universal Soldier territory for me, and I would have preferred less explanation. 

    • Like 2

  3. Posted

    2 hours ago, GrahamS. said:

    In what way? Genuinely curious. I watched the trailer to see if I could handle a feature length of this and I decided that I could not.

    I'm not sure how, but it was hurting my eyes. I couldn't look at it for very long, much less focus. Something about the way it was filmed also made me feel dizzy, which isn't something I'm prone to. On top of all that, all the ADR crap gave me headache.

    I've never had such a visceral reaction to a film. At some point I just stopped paying attention altogether while it played in the background. 

    • Like 3

  4. Posted

    Hey all! It's been brought to my attention that it's my pick next week. 😳 I was just wondering, for future reference, what streaming/premium services do you all have? I know things still aren't great for a lot of people, and I'm trying not to pick anything that would put people out of pocket. I have a few picks, but if for instance I know most people have Amazon Video rather than, say, HBO or something, I'll pick something from there. 

    Thanks!

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    13 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

    It worked for me. He's pretty good looking.

    I think the initial point of the movie is a weird take on how veterans and families of veterans are screwed over. Dave is their son and they are his family since he can't return home. It's not that Dave is charming, it's that Dave fills the void of the dead son. So, they accept him regardless of logical response to a stranger or his charisma.

    They kind of dump that idea after half an hour (at least for the audience) because we know he's evil once the father's coworker dies and he attacked the kids in the bar. By then, I think the movie wants us to think of Dave as this weird, programmed weapon in a Rambo First Blood "look what they did to me" way.

    I don't think the movie accomplishes either of these goals, but I think that's what they are aiming for. I think they were trying to elevate an action thriller as opposed to, again, First Blood with is trying to make a action thriller out of a drama on vets returning home (although, I don't think First Blood totally accomplished it's goal either).

    No, I get that. I was (mostly) joking. My point was exactly what you’re saying. I get what they were trying to do, I just don’t think it worked. 

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    1 minute ago, AlmostAGhost said:

    I've picked up my nieces at the end of school no problem without any sort of anything. I reckon that if I picked them up in the middle of the school day or something, they would have checked?  

    I'm thinking maybe it's due to public school? I think when they were in private daycare, then I had to sign in to get them.

    They're little though. I don't imagine they'd make someone sign in to pick up a 17-year old kid, would they? (I guess they should.)

    Not sure about high school. My son is 8. Did you go in or was it a car line? Public school car lines are probably pretty loosey-goosey. My son’s school (which is admittedly pretty small) requires any person picking up a child, that’s not immediate family, to be prearranged and approved. The people who help with car line recognize all the parents, so they probably wouldn’t have allowed you to do that. I’ve seen them stop kids from getting in cars with people they don’t recognize.

  9. Posted

    Just now, AlmostAGhost said:

    It would also help if they actually made him charming

    That’s what I mean. The movie tells us that he’s charmed us, but for this to work, not only does he need to charm them, he needs to charm the audience. I mean, maybe he did for some?

    I don’t know. I’m notoriously hard to impress. I don’t trust anyone who jogs for miles, but doesn’t sweat a drop. 

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    1 hour ago, grudlian. said:

    I forgot about the principal's office part. That seemed crazy to me. I don't have any children but don't schools now keep a record of the student's guardians? So they don't release a child to someone without custody or whatever. I would think discussing expulsion of a minor with someone who isn't a legal guardian is a big deal even if the parent is present. 

    At my son’s school, everyone has to sign in electronically with their relationship to the student. Last time I checked, “sexy drifter” wasn’t an option, but maybe you could write it in under “other.”

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1

  12. Posted

    I absolutely hated how quickly the parents believed "David" over their own daughter. They've known him for a minute, and they immediately side with him. In fact, their entire attitude with him is nuts. They have them picking up their son from school after knowing him for less than a day; they invite him to come to the principle's office when the kid is about to be expelled. I'm sorry, none of this would happen. Ever. No way. And if the movie was trying to make a point of saying, "yes, this is unusual, but they were disarmed by his charm," it needed to do a much better job explaining why they felt so comfortable trusting him so completely so quickly. In fact, that's a big problem I had with it.

    I think the movie fails for me because it shows the family trusting him so readily, but it also needs to convince the audience that he's trustworthy too. It's tell not show writing. They trust him because the movie says they do, but they never really make a convincing argument why they should.

    • Like 3

  13. Posted

    5 minutes ago, GrahamS. said:

    If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth watching an episode or two of Legion. You still might think he’s a terrible actor, but it’s a completely different performance.

    Oh, I’m not saying he’s a terrible actor. Just terrible in this 😉

    I’m a Downton Abbey head for life!

    • Like 2

  14. Posted

    1 minute ago, GrahamS. said:

    I get your points. My take on this movie —which is the follow-up from the guys who made You’re Next—is that it’s subverting where you think it’s going from the jump (similar to you’re Next, but I actually like this film more). 

    The key to the film to me is how Dan Stevens plays this character. I probably revealed too much last week saying he was psycho. When I saw it on the theater, part of the fun is you’re never QUITE sure where he’s coming from. Does he intend to harm the family? Or is he there because he legitimately wants to pay his respects but still has a screw loose?

    The fun of the film is that there’s no way to know for sure. Personally, I think he legitimately wants to help this family, not victimize them, but he is insane. In his head, breaking bullies’ arms, killing the dad’s boss, teaching the son to stick up for himself by giving him psychotic motivational lectures is all things that his “friend” would have wanted. In his mind, he is genuinely being a good guy to them. He offers to leave at the beginning when he sees he’s upset the mom and I think he genuinely means it. Her taking him in is a combination of her neediness (and even the husband’s although he won’t admit it initially) and his twisted moral compass. He’s happy to stay there while he does shady shit to earn money to pay for a plastic surgeon to escape Lance Reddick. It’s a twisted two-way street. When the daughter reveals that she’s onto him, he could simply kill the whole family, but he doesn’t want to do that. He even tells her to give him time and he’ll leave and I think that is his plan. It’s only when Lance shows up that things spiral out of control.

    Even at the end, when everyone’s been slaughtered, I believe him when he says he forgives the son. In Dan’s fucked-up worldview, the son has done the right thing by literally stabbing the bully (which is Dan) in the back. since this earns Dan’s respect, he will let them slide and just go on to kill anyone else who gets in his way.

    Unfortunately, I've never seen You're Next so I can't use it as a comparison. Personally, I felt Stevens was pretty terrible. His line deliveries made me chuckle and he never really pulled off "threatening" or "bas ass" to me. With that and scenes like when the sister interrupts him in the bathroom, I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be hammy and over the top or not. 

    And if that's the case, I'm all for it, but for me, it just didn't stick. The whole movie I was asking myself if Dan Stevens is a terrible actor or if he was mimicking the kind of actors traditionally in these types of movies. I mean, dude, I cracked up at the thumbs up at the end, but I literally couldn't tell if it was intentionally lame or if it was just dumb. It just really needed to land harder for me one way or the other. 

    I think Scream, for example, is pretty good at doing this -- although maybe that's a bit of cheat since it is deliberately self-referential. Scream plays with tropes and genre conceits, but you're never questioning the filmmaker's intention. It's meant to be a funny, metatextual send up of slasher movies, while also being a legitimately well-crafted entry to the genre. There's no ambiguity there. I just couldn't tell how straight they were being with The Guest.    

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    7 hours ago, Cinco DeNio said:

    If a devastatingly handsome guy, with piercing blue eyes, shows up at your door around Halloween and says he knew your soldier son, RUN!!!!!  We watched

     

    No joke, I'm not letting ANYONE into my house unannounced. There's no way in Hell. I guess I wish Dan Stevens had been a little more charming. I know he's preying on their emotions, but even still, I would be even more suspicious of someone if the said they had been friends with my son and I had never heard of them. Yet, within ten minutes, she's basically asking him to move in.

    I guess I never really got what the movie was going for. It starts off with some very dated 70's/80's Slasher movie style fonts with music that would be appropriate for that genre, but it never really goes there. I couldn't tell if the movie was playing it straight or being factitious, and that lack of intention made it kind of neither/nor for me. 

    • Like 1

  17. Posted

    2 minutes ago, GrahamS. said:

    I still burned CDS in 2014, but I’m an old-school 46. I don’t know what bomb boxes are??? They are out in the sticks, so it’s possible that widespread music streaming was not a thing and I doubt Dan Stephens’ character gives a fuck about iTunes since he’s carrying a burner.

    * Boom boxes

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

    4 minutes ago, GrahamS. said:

    Also, to clarify, when I initially joined the group, I was told that any type of film COULD be picked, not just traditional musicals/music-related movies (I remember because I asked if there were any ground rules and was told no). Not trying to be confrontational in any way, shape or form, but if people would prefer more traditional films, that would be good to know.😁

    Honestly, I don’t mind. We’ve done non-Musicals before (Baby Driver, The Long Dumb Road). 

    • Like 2

  22. Posted

    5 minutes ago, Elektra Boogaloo said:

    Okay, if they did “Oh Hello” Jumanji crossover I would be very happy. Because I loved the first Jumanji, mostly because of Jack Black. 

    And Jack Black has to be—mostly—the Black football player that Kevin Hart played in #1 in the second and I was NERVOUS. Because that could get racist real fast. And I was like, “oh he is actually better at it than Kevin Hart was” (because Kevin Hart was really just doing himself). 

    But I was mad because I thought his character in Jumanji 1, Madison, was the real character that had the strongest arc and saved Joe Jonas and I was happy. And she is BARELY in 2. So I was pissed. Like I had to listen to the Rock do this weird Jewish stereotype voice (DeVito isn’t Jewish, is he?) and I didn’t get to see her at all. 

    The Rock and Hart clearly think they are funny but they... shouldn’t be allowed. 

    Karen Gillan does get fight the Hound (from Game of Thrones) with nunchucks which is kinda fun but I wish she got to kill Thanos instead. 

    I love both of them, but yes, more Jack Black as Madison. She is the heart of the franchise (for me anyway) and her absence was sorely missed in the second. 

    • Like 1

  23. Posted

    23 minutes ago, Elektra Boogaloo said:

    Well thank you, all and Paul. I did not expect to win because I contributed nothing to the discussion. But I also win nothing so that’s fair. 

    I just listened to this after my one year post surgery cancer check up. So I did tear up which is possibly not related to my winning nothing but more because I also just got a call that all the tests and blood work came back normal. Yay me. 

    That’s wonderful to hear! When I read your Tweet, I wanted to congratulate you on your win, but I thought you might enjoy the surprise.

    • Like 1

  25. Posted

    Find out who invented the robot, Jason explains Jumanji 2, and more on this week’s mini episode! Paul offers up advice on the Help Line, goes through Corrections and Omissions for Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, and catches up with Jason in another Quar Chat. Plus, we announce our next movie!
     
    Listen to the Transformers For Charity episode over at https://www.hdtgminfo.com/
     
    Subscribe to Unspooled with Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson here: http://www.earwolf.com/show/unspooled/
     
    Check out The Jane Club over at www.janeclub.com
    Check out new HDTGM merch over at https://www.teepubli…wdidthisgetmade
    Where to Find Jason, June & Paul:
    @PaulScheer on Instagram & Twitter
    @Junediane on IG and @MsJuneDiane on Twitter
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