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  • #16
    I'm always up for an A24 film. The ones that I've seen and enjoyed are UNDER THE SKIN, LIFE AFTER BETH, THE CAPTIVE, EX MACHINA, DARK PLACES, GREEN ROOM, THE LOBSTER, THE BLACKCOAT'S DAUGHTER, and A GHOST STORY. Their offerings are always intriguing, to varying degrees, even the ones I have found somewhat disappointing (ENEMY, THE WITCH, EQUALS, THE MONSTER, IT COMES AT NIGHT, HEREDITARY, THE HOLE IN THE GROUND).
    VHS will never die!

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    • #17
      Originally posted by agent999 View Post
      I stumbled across Hereditary on Prime last week. Hard to empathise with the characters as I thought they were all insane and probably shouldn't be allowed to further pollute the gene pool. Okay, Gabriel Byrne was sane but a complete wet fart. Films that make me think like a eugenicist make me uncomfortable. It kept reminding me of The Witch, only not as good. Still, it was interesting enough to make me want to see this. Eventually.
      Yeah, but that telephone post scene, man!

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      • #18
        Well, I saw Midsommer.

        In an earlier post here, I really questioned how the nearly 2 1/2 hour time would be filled. It started out OK, Midsommer does seem to be a bit more grounded in reality, than Hereditary. Hereditary seemed to take place in some other world, where people are really extra weird and stupid.

        So, my big complaint about Midsommer is, I felt it could have easily been 30 minutes shorter. Maybe even 45 minutes shorter. A lot of stuff gets dragged out.

        I wouldn't say I liked Midsommer, or that I disliked it. I just feel a bit indifferent about it. It's not a movie I'll probably visit again, since nothing too much happens, and it feels so padded.

        There is only 1 particularly gruesome scene. Other than that, it's some bush, and schlong schlinging around. People tripping. Screaming.

        I'm still curious what else this director does int he future, since his movies have something going for them, but, they still need work. Midsommer I feel would have worked better if it were a bit tighter, trimmed 30-45min off.

        Anyway, if you liked Hereditary, give this a go. I think this is a slight improvement over Hereditary.

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        • #19
          Originally posted by Dick Ringeisen View Post
          Well, I saw Midsommer.

          In an earlier post here, I really questioned how the nearly 2 1/2 hour time would be filled. It started out OK, Midsommer does seem to be a bit more grounded in reality, than Hereditary. Hereditary seemed to take place in some other world, where people are really extra weird and stupid.

          So, my big complaint about Midsommer is, I felt it could have easily been 30 minutes shorter. Maybe even 45 minutes shorter. A lot of stuff gets dragged out..
          So, if it were, say? 94-99 minutes? You mean like it's obvious model? The superior original THE WICKER MAN?! ;);););)

          More to say later, but, MIDSOMMER is more than a little influenced by the Hardy 1973 classic. Sure, there are enough diversions to allow it to stand a bit on its own. But, dragged out it is. It's also more than a little unintentionally humorous at times.

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          • #20
            Yeah, JoeS, It could have even done with a 90 minutes running time.

            Still, this guy, there are some thing sI liked about Hereditary, and some things I like about Midsommer, but, they just don't fit together to make good films, at least in my taste. It's like, all the puzzle pieces are there, but some are missing, or in the wrong place. I am curious to see how he progresses, with other films.

            So, yeah, Wickerman is of course, superior. But, though it's been a while, even though Midsommar is a long movie, I think i might rather watch this, than The Wicker Tree, again.

            I hope this guy improves more with his films, as it seems he has a really good film, somewhere in his head, I feel he could put one together. Midsommar, just ain't it. Way too much of a padded feel. If it were under 2 hours, and ran a bit tighter, I may be a bit more kind to it.

            it was not a total loss of 150+ minutes. After the movie, I stopped in a nearby Dollar Store, since a lot of them have been receiving dumps of DVD and Blu-rays the past month. I've found some decent stuff lately. Anyway, I dug through some stuff, nothing really stood out, or I already owned it. Then I saw a Blu-ray for, "Super", I was about to put it back down, then I looked at the back of the Blu-ray case and I saw it was rated R. It's some Super-hero spoof that James Gunn was involved in. hmmm, I've never seen it. Also, probably one of the better movies I saw this year at the theatre, was Brightburn, James Gunn produced that, or co-wrote it, I forget. So, I bought Super from the $1 dollar store. I wonder if I will like that more than Midsommar....

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            • #21
              Originally posted by Dick Ringeisen View Post
              Other than that, it's some bush, and schlong schlinging around. People tripping. Screaming.
              Sounds like my teenage years in a nutshell. Not sure if I need to revisit those
              'You know, I'd almost forgotten what your eyes looked like. Still the same. Pissholes in the snow'

              http://www.paul-a-j-lewis.com (my photography website)
              'All explaining in movies can be thrown out, I think': Elmore Leonard

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              • #22
                Director's cut to include 30 minutes of new footage!

                https://www.indiewire.com/2019/07/ar...ge-1202157294/
                Rock! Shock! Pop!

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                • #23
                  Originally posted by Ian Jane View Post
                  Director's cut to include 30 minutes of new footage!

                  https://www.indiewire.com/2019/07/ar...ge-1202157294/
                  Oh, great, the summer's most overlong and poorly paced major release really needs another half hour to slog through!

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                  • #24
                    Haven't seen this.

                    If the plan was to release a three-hour version later, I wish the theatrical cut was two hours. That's just me.

                    If anything was cut for an R-rating, I welcome a director's cut. But I don't think that it was.

                    From Reddit: "Did you get any pushback for including Jack Reynor's boner in the film? I know it was only at like, two-thirds mast, but I can't recall seeing even that in anything but an NC-17 or unrated film."

                    "Yes, we had an NC-17 for 6 weeks. Lots of back-and-forth with them."

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                    • #25
                      Coming off of his intense HERIDITARY, Ari Aster's follow-up certainly doesn't let up in the dysfunctional family drama department from the get go. A young woman, Dani (Florence Pugh), is stunned by tragedy as brutal and lacerating as anything in Aster's first film. But, even with that backdrop, the central story here is more about Dani's flagging four year old relationship with her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). Still reeling, Dani discovers that her beau is going to go on a European road trip with two of his college buddies, Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Mark (Will Poulter). They have been invited by a Swedish student Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) to attend a summer festival in his homeland. Dani, kinda sorta invites herself.

                      Once they arrive in Sweden, Pelle informs that this isn't just any annual fest - it's a very special once every 90 years bash. Of course, anybody who's seen the movie's obvious (and acknowledged) model, 1973's THE WICKER MAN, knows -- bad things are going to happen (more on that later).

                      To Aster's credit, he doesn't just follow the typical horror movie playbook. He takes his time detailing the structure of the cult. The Scandinavian Midnight Sun setting gives it an eerie glow (the digital photography is both a plus and a minus here, with the gleaming whites sometimes veering into a milky artificial look). The story unfolds slowly and it takes a while for it to get to the heart of the matter. But, once it does, there is a certain intensity that builds, even if it never rises about a low simmer.

                      On the downside, the characters aren't very interesting, save for Dani. Outside of Pugh (who, since her breakthrough in LADY MACBETH has continued to prove to be an actress to watch), the performances are mostly flat (and that's being kind to a couple of them). If you don't care about Christian or his friends, Dani's personal trajectory is trimmed. While showing admirable restraint, Aster's pacing eventually becomes more than a bit protracted. The viewer knows where it is headed, even if the characters are too dense to see it. Those intricate ritual details are interesting at first, but, soon one wonders if Aster and his editors fell so in love with them that they lost the thread along the way, more concerned with fetishistic attention to minutiae than telling a compelling story (Aster has recently said that he is going to add another 30 minutes or more to the already bloated 147 minute run time!). At a certain point, the torpid pacing, simpleminded characters and weak development veers it into unintentional humor (yes, there are some deliberate sardonic bits). The climactic scene (while predictable) has a certain grand guinol quality that partly redeems the bloat.

                      P.S. On THE WICKER MAN comparisons. Aster has copped to the fact that his producers wanted a "bloodier" version of that tale. Now, as pointed out in the piece, Aster adapts Director Robin Hardy and writer Anthony Shaffer's (SLEUTH, FRENZY) piece with his own details and emphasis. Still, it's more than an homage. The outlines of the two movies are easily traced upon each other. Naming the male lead "Christian" is more than a bit obvious (I guess naming him "Edward Woodward" would have been too much?). Aster goes into far more details, but, all the elements are there in the original work (and, it's no small matter to point out that in a horror movie, what is NOT shown, can be more important - and effective - than what is). And, the ending? Really? Aster couldn't have come up with ANYTHING different?

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                      • #26
                        Press release for the Blu-ray coming from Lionsgate:

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                        Visionary Writer-Director Ari Aster Returns with a Whole New Kind of Terror Arriving on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD October 8 from Lionsgate®

                        SANTA MONICA, CA (August 19, 2019) — Horror auteur Ari Aster, the filmmaker behind last year's breakout horror film Hereditary, is back with the unnerving and viscerally disturbing sun-soaked horror film Midsommar, arriving on Digital and On Demand September 24 from A24, and on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital), and DVD October 8 from Lionsgate. The film stars Florence Pugh (upcoming Black Widow and Little Women) as a young woman who reluctantly joins her boyfriend on a summer trip to a remote Swedish village for a midsummer festival, which becomes more and more sinister as the days pass. The Rotten Tomato Certified Fresh™ film also stars Jack Reynor (Kin, Free Fire, TV's “Strange Angel”), William Jackson Harper (TV's “The Good Place,” They Remain, TV's “Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan”), and Will Poulter (The Maze Runner, Detroit, The Revenant). Executive produced by Philip Westgren (Hellboy), Fredrik Heinig (Thelma), and Ben Rimmer (Ibiza, TV's “Mr Selfridge”), Midsommar is “an expert piece of daylit terror” (Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York).

                        After a family tragedy, a young American couple joins some friends at a midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that grow increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing. From the visionary mind of Ari Aster (Hereditary), comes this dread-soaked cinematic fairy tale where a world of darkness unfolds in broad daylight.

                        Bring home Midsommar and unravel the mystery behind the making of this harrowing tale with a never-before-seen making-of featurette, offering insight into Aster's vision. The Midsommar Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $39.99 and $29.95, respectively.

                        BLU-RAY / DVD SPECIAL FEATURES
                        • “Let the Festivities Begin: Manifesting Midsommar” Featurette
                        • “Bear in a Cage™” Promo



                        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MidsommarMovie/
                        Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/midsommarmovie/
                        Twitter: https://twitter.com/MidsommarMovie
                        #Midsommar

                        PROGRAM INFORMATION
                        Year of Production: 2019
                        Title Copyright: © 2019 A24 Films LLC. All Rights Reserved.
                        Type: Theatrical Release
                        Rating: R disturbing ritualistic violence and grisly images, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language
                        Genre: Horror, Mystery, Drama
                        Closed-Captioned: N/A
                        Subtitles: Spanish, English SDH
                        Feature Run Time: 147 Minutes
                        BD Format: 1080p High Definition 16x9 2.00:1 Presentation
                        DVD Format: 16x9 2.00:1 Presentation
                        BD Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audioâ„¢
                        DVD Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
                        Rock! Shock! Pop!

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                        • #27
                          I was hoping that was a telephone pole in the cover art. I'm disappointed now.


                          Now I wanna make a fan film about a cult that worships the telephone pole from Hereditary.

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                          • #28
                            MIDSOMMAR is back in theaters this weekend in an expanded 170 minute (!!!) cut. It's not a bad movie, if flawed. But, length certainly wasn't one of it's issues. Even Director Aster admits that none of the added scenes are important. He said they just explain the details more fully. In other words, if you were too dense to figure out every beat after 147 minutes, here's even more repetition. Kind of admitting he didn't do his job well enough with the first cut. Skip.

                            One intersting side-note: MIDSOMMAR has been oft-described (accurately) as a redo of THE WICKER MAN. It will almost certainly gross less than the adjusted total of the derided 2006 official remake with Nic Cage ($32M).
                            MIDSOMMAR has been described as a successful horror entry, while the 2006 film is considered a major bomb. Yes, the official remake was released by a major (WB), while MIDSOMMAR is A24 and the 2006 had a larger budget, but, it's interesting to see that comparison. And, they opened in almost exactly the same number of theaters to boot!!!

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                            • #29
                              The extended cut is being released exclusively to Apple TV.

                              https://bloody-disgusting.com/home-v...ased-apple-tv/
                              Rock! Shock! Pop!

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                              • #30
                                Originally posted by JoeS View Post
                                MIDSOMMAR has been described as a successful horror entry, while the 2006 film is considered a major bomb. Yes, the official remake was released by a major (WB), while MIDSOMMAR is A24 and the 2006 had a larger budget, but, it's interesting to see that comparison. And, they opened in almost exactly the same number of theaters to boot!!!
                                The same number of cinemas is an interesting point. But you kind of gloss over the importance of the difference in cost and takings of the two films. The Wicker Man's production budget was about 150% of its box office take. That's a bomb. Midsommar box office is about 350% on its production budget and that's good business in anyones books.
                                "Never let the fact that they are doing it wrong stop you from doing it right." Hyman Mandell.

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