I never liked the original Avatar, didn't watch the 2nd one but watched the Honest Trailer which confirmed it was dumb. Avatar stole from a dozen other movies and recycled it (mainly Fern Gully and Dances with Wolves), the plot and dialogue were all terrible. At the time, everyone was saying it looked amazing and the visuals you can't miss. I wasn't interested and hadn't seen it, it was out for about a month and everyone kept saying you HAVE to see it, and you HAVE to see it in 3-D. We finally went. Meh. It was bright colors and CGI. I don't like 3-D to begin with, some of the images are blurry. I'd rather a crystal clear image. There were some bugs flying around the theater in 3-D, big whoop. Audiences were enamored with shiny objects like bright colors.

The only real technology change that was great was the face capture technology. That's what was groundbreaking. Not 3-D, not bright colors and creatures we've seen all that before. Cameron worked a long time on technology that would do a better job with accurate facial expressions and emotions conveyed through CGI characters. Yet everyone said "ooh the colors are so bright, you just HAVE to see this movie in theaters."

10 hours ago, NOTW said:

I never liked the original Avatar, didn't watch the 2nd one but watched the Honest Trailer which confirmed it was dumb. Avatar stole from a dozen other movies and recycled it (mainly Fern Gully and Dances with Wolves), the plot and dialogue were all terrible. At the time, everyone was saying it looked amazing and the visuals you can't miss. I wasn't interested and hadn't seen it, it was out for about a month and everyone kept saying you HAVE to see it, and you HAVE to see it in 3-D. We finally went. Meh. It was bright colors and CGI. I don't like 3-D to begin with, some of the images are blurry. I'd rather a crystal clear image. There were some bugs flying around the theater in 3-D, big whoop. Audiences were enamored with shiny objects like bright colors.

The only real technology change that was great was the face capture technology. That's what was groundbreaking. Not 3-D, not bright colors and creatures we've seen all that before. Cameron worked a long time on technology that would do a better job with accurate facial expressions and emotions conveyed through CGI characters. Yet everyone said "ooh the colors are so bright, you just HAVE to see this movie in theaters."

I don’t really know what the F you’re babbling about with all the colors Nancy 😂 (jk), but I saw this on Thursday night, and I felt like I was on a flight to LA in coach in an IMAX theater. I’ll never do that again. Dolby from now on. Actually, I don’t care if it’s on a projector from 1954. If I have to sit that close to disgusting humans for that long ever again I’ll die. No armrests bc my wife’s cousin is fat, and I sat next to another fat guy with a giant soda. Everyone around me had a large popcorn. I am spoiled by the luxury seats provided in the majority of movie settings. I was stretching in my seat through parts of the movie bc everyone around me had me encapsulated in my own personal hell.

Also, this is the 3rd same movie in a row, which you correctly pointed out, was a total ripoff to begin with. Last Samurai is another…the list is endless.

11 hours ago, hputenis said:

I don’t really know what the F you’re babbling about with all the colors Nancy 😂 (jk), but I saw this on Thursday night, and I felt like I was on a flight to LA in coach in an IMAX theater. I’ll never do that again. Dolby from now on. Actually, I don’t care if it’s on a projector from 1954. If I have to sit that close to disgusting humans for that long ever again I’ll die. No armrests bc my wife’s cousin is fat, and I sat next to another fat guy with a giant soda. Everyone around me had a large popcorn. I am spoiled by the luxury seats provided in the majority of movie settings. I was stretching in my seat through parts of the movie bc everyone around me had me encapsulated in my own personal hell.

Also, this is the 3rd same movie in a row, which you correctly pointed out, was a total ripoff to begin with. Last Samurai is another…the list is endless.

Does your wife's cousin have nice hair? 🤪

The colors thing: it's true, so many people at work, church, social media, everyone I heard from kept hyping up the movie. They were shocked I hadn't seen it and were like forceful about it. "You HAVE to see it." Not a single person mentioned the face capture technology (I saw the interviews with Cameron on that). People just went on about the bright colors and the exotic creatures.

What are some good drama movies in recent years that have great story and acting?

I've seen some social media posts about what happened to the great movies? We used to have so many movies that would grab your attention and didn't have to be sci-fi and super hero. To list a handful of comparisons, are there any movies on par these days? Looking up a list of movies from the 90s...

Forrest Gump, A Few Good Men, Shawshank Redemption, Schindler's List, Good Will Hunting, Jerry Maguire, Braveheart, Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Boyz N The Hood, L.A. Confidential, Pulp Fiction, The Truman Show, The Silence of the Lambs, Malcom X, Goodfellas, Unforgiven, Se7en, American History X, Apollo 13, The Green Mile, Scent of a Woman, Tombstone, A Bronx Tale, Heat, Leon: The Professional, Quiz Show.

11 minutes ago, NOTW said:

What are some good drama movies in recent years that have great story and acting?

bugonia, sinners, one battle after another, black bag, last breath, brutalist, Anora, a real pain, my old ass, the substance, civil war, dune 1 and 2, boys in the boat, Saltburn, Godzilla minus one, killers of the flower moon, the Irishman, Oppenheimer, the covenant, tar, banshees of inisherin, the menu, (unsure if barbarian or weapons count because they have horror/thriller leanings), top gun maverick, the Northman, CODA, king Richard, tenet.

Important to remember that we don’t consume movies like we used to. Grew up without streaming and cable channels on in the background 24/7. Few things will get the opportunity to "hit” for us like they did 25+ years ago

15 hours ago, hputenis said:

I don’t really know what the F you’re babbling about with all the colors Nancy 😂 (jk), but I saw this on Thursday night, and I felt like I was on a flight to LA in coach in an IMAX theater. I’ll never do that again. Dolby from now on. Actually, I don’t care if it’s on a projector from 1954. If I have to sit that close to disgusting humans for that long ever again I’ll die. No armrests bc my wife’s cousin is fat, and I sat next to another fat guy with a giant soda. Everyone around me had a large popcorn. I am spoiled by the luxury seats provided in the majority of movie settings. I was stretching in my seat through parts of the movie bc everyone around me had me encapsulated in my own personal hell.

Also, this is the 3rd same movie in a row, which you correctly pointed out, was a total ripoff to begin with. Last Samurai is another…the list is endless.

Talk about personal hell. When it's time to start cranking it, you can't even get through a session without rubbing elbows.

On 12/24/2025 at 10:38 AM, Agent23 said:

bugonia, sinners, one battle after another, black bag, last breath, brutalist, Anora, a real pain, my old ass, the substance, civil war, dune 1 and 2, boys in the boat, Saltburn, Godzilla minus one, killers of the flower moon, the Irishman, Oppenheimer, the covenant, tar, banshees of inisherin, the menu, (unsure if barbarian or weapons count because they have horror/thriller leanings), top gun maverick, the Northman, CODA, king Richard, tenet.

Important to remember that we don’t consume movies like we used to. Grew up without streaming and cable channels on in the background 24/7. Few things will get the opportunity to "hit” for us like they did 25+ years ago

Thank you. I have seen some of those, some are on my radar to want to watch soon, and some I've never heard of. I'll check them out.

4 hours ago, NOTW said:

Thank you. I have seen some of those, some are on my radar to want to watch soon, and some I've never heard of. I'll check them out.

I think I forgot to mention, but The Holdovers I think was in the 2020s and was filmed with a visual layer to make it feel like 80s movies we grew up on

I just saw someone post online that Bugonia is now on peacock

On 12/23/2025 at 1:16 PM, NOTW said:

I never liked the original Avatar, didn't watch the 2nd one but watched the Honest Trailer which confirmed it was dumb. Avatar stole from a dozen other movies and recycled it (mainly Fern Gully and Dances with Wolves), the plot and dialogue were all terrible. At the time, everyone was saying it looked amazing and the visuals you can't miss. I wasn't interested and hadn't seen it, it was out for about a month and everyone kept saying you HAVE to see it, and you HAVE to see it in 3-D. We finally went. Meh. It was bright colors and CGI. I don't like 3-D to begin with, some of the images are blurry. I'd rather a crystal clear image. There were some bugs flying around the theater in 3-D, big whoop. Audiences were enamored with shiny objects like bright colors.

The only real technology change that was great was the face capture technology. That's what was groundbreaking. Not 3-D, not bright colors and creatures we've seen all that before. Cameron worked a long time on technology that would do a better job with accurate facial expressions and emotions conveyed through CGI characters. Yet everyone said "ooh the colors are so bright, you just HAVE to see this movie in theaters."

You're selling it way short. Cameron has an arsenal of tricks that pulls you into his world the way no other 3D project does. The seamless blend of real and digital both with the the characters and the surroundings is a mind F. Movie 2 was about using real and digital water together. This time he upgrades that and adds smoke. Oh and the spaceships are better than Star Wars.

A ton of people tried the 3D thing and only two were successful, Cameron and Cuaron. The plots of both are bare bones because anything complicated would get lost in the overload. I look forward to these movies, don't care at all about the plot and I'll suffer the 45 minutes too long run time.

One Battle after Another is a curious piece of cinema. Antifa-sploitation? Weird flick, but might win best picture in a weak field. Sean Penn does his best movie & role in decades.

On 12/27/2025 at 8:12 AM, Agent23 said:

I just saw someone post online that Bugonia is now on peacock

I just assmued this was trash

2 hours ago, Poopy said:

I just assmued this was trash

it was teh awesome. Plemmons was great

Ok this weekend I watched:

Black Bag: meh. I like Fassbender, but if you're going to be bland and stoic the entire time with zero personality then you have to make that interesting in other ways. He also just played a similar stoic quiet role in The Killer. Cate Blanchett was underutilized, barely had any screen time. Did they shoot this during COVID? They limited it to mostly 2 dinner parties. I looked it up to see if it was originally a stage play, but it wasn't. Steven Soderbergh had his signature peppy soundtrack which didn't fit, it's not like Oceans 11 with charismatic actors quipping and lots of action. I didn't expect Mr. & Mrs. Smith but there wasn't much espionage and mystery, it was predictable.

Sinners: I'm a big Ryan Coogler fan, I really like his directing. I knew going in that it had vampires and when watching with my wife who doesn't like horror stuff have to pick the right night that we feel like watching certain things. It's hard not to compare to movies like From Dusk Til Dawn and Django Unchained but nevertheless it still did its own thing. There's the symbolism and allegory as well. Everything that I thought was great: the cast, acting, directing, cinematography, music, pacing, editing. Really well done. Some minor issues and a couple things that were odd choices but overall really liked it. A lot of movies would either rush or go too slow on some things and Coogler paced it really well. I think he does that well in all his movies, lets moments breathe, builds tension and doesn't rush. There were a few things that didn't feel like true to the time period (Did people say "Let me holla at you for a minute" in the 1930s?) but those were minor as well. I'm excited for what Coogler will do next.

Coogler is that dude

On 12/29/2025 at 9:55 AM, Agent23 said:

it was teh awesome. Plemmons was great

I 2nd this.

9 hours ago, dawkins4prez said:

I 2nd this.

what I couldn't stop thinking about was... how much notice to Vince Gilligan give him for El Camino? The only real critique of that was "fat Plemmons" and Bugonia showed that skinny Plemmons is a real possibility -- and it would have been easier to drop weight a decade ago (40 year old me knows from recent experience )

On 12/26/2025 at 1:12 PM, Agent23 said:

I just saw someone post online that Bugonia is now on peacock

Plemons and Emma Stone were very good in their respected roles in this movie. This was surprisingly good for a dark comedy. Would recommend

On 12/31/2025 at 10:50 AM, RoadToHell said:

Plemons and Emma Stone were very good in their respected roles in this movie. This was surprisingly good for a dark comedy. Would recommend

they don't miss

The Ballerina - Dumb. Real dumb. I mean, she’s kinda cute but her fight sequences were ridiculous. Any one of the guys she fought would have done to her what Wick diid. All that said, it was pretty sweet when she started lighting dudes up with the flame thrower though.

On 12/24/2025 at 11:15 AM, NOTW said:

What are some good drama movies in recent years that have great story and acting?

I've seen some social media posts about what happened to the great movies? We used to have so many movies that would grab your attention and didn't have to be sci-fi and super hero. To list a handful of comparisons, are there any movies on par these days? Looking up a list of movies from the 90s...

Forrest Gump, A Few Good Men, Shawshank Redemption, Schindler's List, Good Will Hunting, Jerry Maguire, Braveheart, Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Boyz N The Hood, L.A. Confidential, Pulp Fiction, The Truman Show, The Silence of the Lambs, Malcom X, Goodfellas, Unforgiven, Se7en, American History X, Apollo 13, The Green Mile, Scent of a Woman, Tombstone, A Bronx Tale, Heat, Leon: The Professional, Quiz Show.

In the 90s and 00s the mid levels would make their money on rentals and VHS/DVD sales.

They’re not putting out as many of them because companies haven’t figured out that streaming is a consumer replacement for the rental/purchase market, so they rush movies out of theaters and into streaming because they’re trying to generate revenue there, which doesn’t give the movies a chance to get some revenue and word of mouth to build off of, and the lack of any time b/w theaters and steaming kills any anticipation of it coming out on streaming.

Back in the 90s you had to wait months to a year for a movie to come out on tape, but now it’s the modern day equivalent of being able to rent Saving Private Ryan like four weeks after it came out.

The minute they realize that streaming is the new tape store and space ish out, they’ll start making more money off the hype.

On 1/1/2026 at 4:25 PM, Agent23 said:

they don't miss

Saw this over the weekend, and I thought it was unbelievable. The dialogue alone was some of the best writing I've ever seen in a movie.

Spoiler

I think I flip-flopped 3-4 different times during the movie on whether or not she was really an alien. 🤣

50 minutes ago, Bill said:

In the 90s and 00s the mid levels would make their money on rentals and VHS/DVD sales.

They’re not putting out as many of them because companies haven’t figured out that streaming is a consumer replacement for the rental/purchase market, so they rush movies out of theaters and into streaming because they’re trying to generate revenue there, which doesn’t give the movies a chance to get some revenue and word of mouth to build off of, and the lack of any time b/w theaters and steaming kills any anticipation of it coming out on streaming.

Back in the 90s you had to wait months to a year for a movie to come out on tape, but now it’s the modern day equivalent of being able to rent Saving Private Ryan like four weeks after it came out.

The minute they realize that streaming is the new tape store and space ish out, they’ll start making more money off the hype.

Exactly right. I remember this clip from Matt Damon saying exactly this.

btw Matt Damon does a good job in interviews, tells good stories and explains things like this well.

52 minutes ago, Bill said:

In the 90s and 00s the mid levels would make their money on rentals and VHS/DVD sales.

They’re not putting out as many of them because companies haven’t figured out that streaming is a consumer replacement for the rental/purchase market, so they rush movies out of theaters and into streaming because they’re trying to generate revenue there, which doesn’t give the movies a chance to get some revenue and word of mouth to build off of, and the lack of any time b/w theaters and steaming kills any anticipation of it coming out on streaming.

Back in the 90s you had to wait months to a year for a movie to come out on tape, but now it’s the modern day equivalent of being able to rent Saving Private Ryan like four weeks after it came out.

The minute they realize that streaming is the new tape store and space ish out, they’ll start making more money off the hype.

I think another aspect of the DVD/VHS culture and going to Blockbuster was the excitement for seeing the latest popular movie. People would go to look for the new releases, ask the employees to check the return bin and if they didn't have that, you'd be checking the new releases for the backup plan.

Now with streaming there are a lot of options and you see a movie you've never heard of but has some recognizable actors and you don't know if it's like the B movie DVD you should skip, or if this was actually a good movie. Especially with cutting the cord, you may not be seeing commercials as much. There's not as much shared experience and buzz. Apart from major releases like Marvel or Star Wars, I don't really hear buzz from friends about having to go see a movie in the theater or when it comes out on home release.

Even then, when there's a movie you're interested in you have to check if it's on any of the different streaming subscriptions. You could rent it on Amazon Prime, but they also rotate often so eventually it will hit Netflix or Peacock or something. Then you have series of sequels where the entire series isn't on one platform, randomly one of the sequels will be on a different service. People get tired of scrolling all the various services to see what's new, not really being interested, and then settling to watch something. There's also a culture with streaming of watching what you want, when you feel like it. You might have movies on your watch list but not in the mood to watch just yet.

I still think the quality of movies is a factor. I used to rewatch movies 2 or 3 times because they were so good. I don't do that with most movies these days. I think less is more, there's too many options and we have a lot of entertainment options so it's saturated.

I've also seen videos where people explain that movie studios are now making movies with streaming in mind: they know people are on their phones or tablets or doing something else and the show is in the background so they make the plots simpler, they have characters over explain exposition and point out the obvious. They also are making the cinematography and colors and lighting suited for home viewing, making movies look less authentic and grounded.

Plus you have movie theater tickets are expensive, people are on their phones or kids crying, snacks are ridiculous price and the movie will just be on streaming in like a month or two anyway so why bother?

Like this