Movies You've Seen Recently

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I'm still waiting for Donald Glover as Spider-Man goddammit!

[Oerwinde]

I'm still waiting for Donald Glover as Spider-Man goddammit!

He's too old. Miles Morales is like 13.

[Hurlshort]

I can't believe LC just dissed my boy Ryan Gosling.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

 

I'm still waiting for Donald Glover as Spider-Man goddammit!

He's too old. Miles Morales is like 13.

 

I don't give a ****, he would be fantastic.

 

[Orogun01]

I'm still waiting for Donald Glover as Spider-Man goddammit!

For some reason I read that as Danny Glover. In which case I would agree that he is getting too old for that ****.

[Labadal]

Looper.

 

I actually liked it. Bonus for having Bruce Willis in it.

 

That little kid was also great.

[IndiraLightfoot]

I saw Grown-Ups yesterday. It was labelled a "feel-good" movie. But it made me feel queasy. If it at least was Ebeneezer Goode, his ever as good. 

 

Labadal: If you are going to watch a good movie with Bruce Willis and a kid, I suggest The Sixth Sense. Be prepared to rewind when you've seen it, like a frantic garbage scrambler.

Edited August 24, 2013 by IndiraLightfoot

[Labadal]

I've seen it two times and did like it.

[Raithe]

Now You See Me.

 

I actually quite enjoyed this one a lot.

Four magicians receive a mysterious invitation and meet up at a creepy address. One year later they're headlining at a Las Vegas show as "The Four Horsemen" and end it with robbing a bank in Paris and giving the money to the crowd. (Jessie Eisnburg, Woodie Harrelson, Dave Franco, and the ever cute Isla Fisher)

This then spirals into Mark Ruffalo's FBI agent being tasked to investigate them alongside an Interpol agent and find out how they did it... but it turns out to be only the first step in one big magic trick...

Throw in Michael Caine's smirky CEO, Morgan Freeman's former magician turned "Magic Debunker", and it all turns into a nice series of illusions, dark secrets, set pieces and bizarre investigations all carried out at a fairly smooth pace and slickly done.

 

And the nice tag line: "Look closely, because the closer you think you are, the less you will actually see"

[kgambit]

Saw four movies recently (all rentals)

 

Olympus has Fallen - Paper thin plot but tons of action which is all I wanted out of this.  I half expected Gerard Butler to scream THIS IS AMERICA in the final confrontation with the head terrorist.     

 

Oblivion - Interesting sci-fi flick with a fair amount of action and a decent if somewhat predictable plot.  Cruise's performance is probably the low point of the movie as the rest of the cast is fairly good.  Still it was fun.   

 

A Place Beyond the Pines - This plays out as three mini-movies within a movie.  Part 1 revolves around Ryan Gosling reconnecting with an old flame and a son he never knew he had. In part 2 a rookie cop played by Bradley Cooper becomes the central character.  In Part 3 Cooper, his son and Gosling's son (now a teenager) are the central characters.  The twists and turns are moderately interesting but the characters are just boring.  I simply didn't care what happened to them.   Most critics love this but I don't see the attraction.   There is a lot more to the plot but I can't go into too much detail due to potential for spoilers.

 

Admissions - Tina Fey as a Princeton University admission officer.  I think that sums it up.  Underwhelming at best.  If you're expecting a Tina Fey comedy, you can save your time and money.   My wife hated this as well.  She thought it was just boring.

Edited August 25, 2013 by kgambit

[Walsingham]

Saw four movies recently (all rentals)

 

Olympus has Fallen - Paper thin plot but tons of action which is all I wanted out of this.  I half expected Gerard Butler to scream THIS IS AMERICA in the final confrontation with the head terrorist.     

 

Sad how often Hollywood feels it needs to define America by punching someone in the face.*

 

I wonder if you could pitch a movie that basically encapsulated all the parts of the Constitution? You know, with plot points on freedom of speech, abolition of slavery etc. etc. With explosions. And at least one visit to a strip club.

 

*As opposed to British movies which define the nation using slow establishing shots of derelict housing and scrotey barefoot children

Edited August 25, 2013 by Walsingham

[Oerwinde]

The Shadow Cabal, an indie fantasy epic I pledged on Kickstarter. Actually wasn't bad. Some of the effects were cheesy, but it was otherwise visually very good, plot wasn't terrible, and the elf girl did a really good job I thought. Was sometimes jarring to see lord of the rings props though. I think most of Arrowstorm's movies are on Netflix so I imagine this one will hit soon too.

[Amentep]

 

Mortal Instruments: City of Bone - Entertaining movie that covers old ground but with some new mixed in. Dissapointed in how vampires were represented but enjoyed the pseudo step father and the best friend. Lead was solid in your typical lead in these type of movies. 7/10

Going to see this next week. I was rather disappointed in who was chosen to play Jace. But I'll wait and see how it plays out.

 

I saw it, never read the books. It was okay but could have been better.

 

 

I felt like, unlike other book series adapted to movies they did a fairly clumsy job of getting the audience the important information and streamlining the story. I gather the releationships between characters must be mega-important because plenty of time is spent with them in the story, but honestly there are a lot of things that are really hammered home that didn't need to be. Also some superfluous scenes are kept (there's really no reason for the poetry friend to be in the story - he adds nothing) at the expense of explaining other more important things (how the demons know to take over the witch, how Magnus knows the Institute is in trouble, details around the phobia/curse of the institute leader or even what his fate was).

 

Also what's the point in having an army of werewolves if they're just going to get killed en masse by the demons? Normal humans could have done that...

 

 

Edit: Also re-watched

 

THE INCREDIBLES - lovely fun superhero film

FORBIDDEN PLANET - best sci-fi film of the 50s, IMO.

 

Edited August 26, 2013 by Amentep

['GM']

 

 

Mortal Instruments: City of Bone - Entertaining movie that covers old ground but with some new mixed in. Dissapointed in how vampires were represented but enjoyed the pseudo step father and the best friend. Lead was solid in your typical lead in these type of movies. 7/10

Going to see this next week. I was rather disappointed in who was chosen to play Jace. But I'll wait and see how it plays out.

 

I saw it, never read the books. It was okay but could have been better.

 

 

I felt like, unlike other book series adapted to movies they did a fairly clumsy job of getting the audience the important information and streamlining the story. I gather the releationships between characters must be mega-important because plenty of time is spent with them in the story, but honestly there are a lot of things that are really hammered home that didn't need to be. Also some superfluous scenes are kept (there's really no reason for the poetry friend to be in the story - he adds nothing) at the expense of explaining other more important things (how the demons know to take over the witch, how Magnus knows the Institute is in trouble, details around the phobia/curse of the institute leader or even what his fate was).

 

Also what's the point in having an army of werewolves if they're just going to get killed en masse by the demons? Normal humans could have done that...

 

 

Edit: Also re-watched

 

THE INCREDIBLES - lovely fun superhero film

FORBIDDEN PLANET - best sci-fi film of the 50s, IMO.

 

 

I really don't expect it to be all that good, just hoping it'll be fun ... and hopefully resemble the books a little. I remember being vastly disappointed in 'Twilight'. Bleh...

[Amentep]

Yeah never read or watched a Twilight film.

[Malcador]

I can't believe LC just dissed my boy Ryan Gosling.

 

Gosling sure has that vacant look down pat.

[kalimeeri]

 

Olympus has Fallen - Paper thin plot but tons of action which is all I wanted out of this.  I half expected Gerard Butler to scream THIS IS AMERICA in the final confrontation with the head terrorist.   

 

They pretty much did a find/replace on the script of Die Hard, I kid you not.  It's that obvious.  Only Olympus' grand-scale reboot scenario didn't work at all logically, and the majority of the characters were 'meh' (Morgan Freeman is always awesome).  Need to watch Die Hard again to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

[BruceVC]

I watched Cold Mountain again last night, I forgot what a brilliant, sad and evocative movie it is.

 

For those who don't know about the movie its about Jude Law who is a Confederate soldier who makes his way at the end of the American Civil War back to his true love, Nicole Kidman, through the dangerous and war ravaged countryside of Virginia to North Carolina

 

Highly recommended

Edited August 27, 2013 by BruceVC

[HoonDing]

They sure made the Union look bad in that one.

[Raithe]

Heh, A nice fake trailer that might actually give folks a few thoughts about the potential..

 

http://youtu.be/U4U4he3GgC4

[Nonek]

Watched this Firefly series over the weekend with my boy, and surprisingly enough I found it quite enjoyable, due mainly I think to the lack of the usual squeeing humour and far more emphasis on character building and an ensemble cast. However I watched the film Serenity tonight and found it a bit of a let down in comparison, River turns into Buffy, the pathetic one liners are back and the Shepard's identity mystery built up throughout the series is wasted.

 

The Operative was without a doubt very interesting and the film in general is I think very good, but one could have replaced every silly Kung Fu scene with a psychic outburst and ensured River remained a far more interesting character than the usual (and frankly by now cliche) super martial artists schtick.

 

Edit: Totally forgotten about Forbidden Planet, thank you for the reminder Amentep, best adaptation of the Tempest i've ever seen and the effects were totally amazing for that day and age, not to mention the soundtrack.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Nonek

[LadyCrimson]

A Single Shot - wow that was a glacially paced film. A lot of visuals, not much dialogue. It did serve to make the few dramatic moments more jarringly effective, but at the same time, while I love Sam Rockwell, watching him snooze in his car/bed and gaze into the distance while in a mental stupor for long minutes isn't all that interesting. The other issue was when there was dialogue, it was half incomprehensible mumbling. Seriously, couldn't understand what they were saying much of the time.

 

Which is too bad, because it had some aspects I liked. eg, it's not a terrible movie, but it could've used some more work.

[sorophx]

 while I love Sam Rockwell, watching him snooze in his car/bed and gaze into the distance while in a mental stupor for long minutes isn't all that interesting.

watch The Winning Season, he's awesome in it

[Woldan]

Don't look now. (1973) What a strange, strange film. And the end, wow. 0_o

[Walsingham]

Watched this Firefly series over the weekend with my boy, and surprisingly enough I found it quite enjoyable, due mainly I think to the lack of the usual squeeing humour and far more emphasis on character building and an ensemble cast. However I watched the film Serenity tonight and found it a bit of a let down in comparison, River turns into Buffy, the pathetic one liners are back and the Shepard's identity mystery built up throughout the series is wasted.

 

The Operative was without a doubt very interesting and the film in general is I think very good, but one could have replaced every silly Kung Fu scene with a psychic outburst and ensured River remained a far more interesting character than the usual (and frankly by now cliche) super martial artists schtick.

 

Edit: Totally forgotten about Forbidden Planet, thank you for the reminder Amentep, best adaptation of the Tempest i've ever seen and the effects were totally amazing for that day and age, not to mention the soundtrack.

 

1. Serenity was a film. It had to have material that could mass appeal. That meant punching.

2. Serenity was a last gasp, so it was obliged to tie up loose ends. Not much sodding point keeping secrets to the grave.