Movies you've seen recently

[Blarghagh]

Just came back from seeing Frozen, fantastic film. With Tangled and Wreck-it-Ralph being just as great and the last few Pixar flicks being subpar, Disney has really clambered it's way back up to being the animation king. Hoping Pixar will start doing their thing again soon, though.

[sorophx]

wow, talk about differences in opinions. I hated Frozen. I don't think there was a single thing in it that didn't make me roll my eyes. especially the writing, dialogues sound as if they were written by a 12 year old

[Oerwinde]

Just came back from seeing Frozen, fantastic film. With Tangled and Wreck-it-Ralph being just as great and the last few Pixar flicks being subpar, Disney has really clambered it's way back up to being the animation king. Hoping Pixar will start doing their thing again soon, though.

Cars 2 was the only subpar one. Toy Story 3 and Monsters University were better than the originals.

[Blarghagh]

Toy Story 3, yes. Monsters University, not so much (it was hampered by the fact all character growth was rendered meaningless by the developments of the original). Cars 2 was subpar, and Brave was extremely subpar - an awful ripoff of Miyazaki movies crossed with Brother Bear. Beyond that, I'm not as positive about Wall-E and Up as some other people - pretty good adventure movies, but they were only elevated to great movies because they had fantastic opening sequences - I personally feel both films worked better as shorts (Wall-E alone, and the tragic lovestory beginning Up). Neither of them were on the level of Ratatouille or Finding Nemo when it comes to pure storytelling.

Edited January 19, 2014 by TrueNeutral

[Lexx]

The World's End.

 

Was ok-ish. Not bad, but I wouldn't want to watch it again anytime soon.

 

But I want to listen to the Sisters of Mercy now.

[BLnoT]

I saw Dogville recently. A very unusual film. I didnt mind it to be honest but it is definitly a film that alot of people wont like.

Its a very dark / miserable film, set out like a stage play. It was something different which i enjoyed, but again it's not for everyone.

Edited January 19, 2014 by BLnoT

[Meshugger]

The Comedy

 

It's not a comedy. It's a sad story of a man refusing to grow up.

 

I did not laugh.

[Monte Carlo]

Riddick...

 

After the rather overblown Chronicles, they've tried to get back to Pitch Black territory with this one. Riddick leaves the Necromongers and is cast adrift on a hostile planet. Then some bounty hunters come to catch him and we end up deep in Aliens / Predator territory.

 

I love Vin Diesel as much as the next geekoid pulp movie fan, but this was pretty uninspiring given what you could do with the Riddick character IMO. A sort of meh-tastic 6/10, and that's only for some of the action sequences.

[Labadal]

Monsters University

 

A great movie to watch with kids. I also enjoyed it.

[JFSOCC]

 

I watched enders game, I liked it better than I expected I would. I thought the main actor was pretty good, especially for his age.

I heard about that only recently. I was actually at a book store and saw enders game with a new cover ( clearly a film cover )

Its not out Down our way yet, but from the trailer i am VERY dubious of it. I am a huge fan of the book, and i very much doubt the film

could live up wo what i imagined Enders game to be.

For those that have not read Enders game i highly suggest it. Its a great piece of written work.

 

better than expected doesn't mean good, but it wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Riddick...

 

After the rather overblown Chronicles, they've tried to get back to Pitch Black territory with this one. Riddick leaves the Necromongers and is cast adrift on a hostile planet. Then some bounty hunters come to catch him and we end up deep in Aliens / Predator territory.

 

I love Vin Diesel as much as the next geekoid pulp movie fan, but this was pretty uninspiring given what you could do with the Riddick character IMO. A sort of meh-tastic 6/10, and that's only for some of the action sequences.

 

 

To me the film can be summed up as Pitch Black was cool but Chronicles was a mess so let's just remake Pitch Black and we'll spend four minutes writing off Chronicles at the beginning. Not a bad Riddick film, just Pitch Black with different monsters and nowhere near the same atmosphere.

[LadyCrimson]

Here's the thing about Pitch Black ... Vin Diesel wasn't the main character. Ok ok, he ends up as such I suppose, but what I mean is the ensemble cast, most of them were important in some way. The young girl. The pilot woman. The bounty hunter. etc. Riddick wasn't completely interesting of himself (outside of his eyes), it was the dynamic/struggle between him and the others and their different skills and personalities/ethics to survive (or not). Do we trust each other, can we trust each other. Film used that formula pretty well.

 

Chronicles and Riddick on the other hand, are all about ... Riddick. How marvelous he is. How super-human he is. Which isn't inherently bad for an action pic, mind you, but in this case, for me that's largely meant .... zzzzz.

[Volourn]

Disagree. he was the main character. It's success was 90% of the character. This should be undisputable. Afterall, 2 other movies wer emade   for the character not other characters. Case closed. I actually don't think the 2nd film was all that horrible. It wasn't all that great either. Then again, Pitch Black was overrated to start with.

[LadyCrimson]

Yes, he ends up as the main character and I'm sure the idea was he was the main/important character, since his visual ability is what helps them survive. But I, at least, felt at least a few of the other characters were just as important at making Pitch Black stand out from the average low-budget horror thriller. Ensemble cast sometimes has more meaning than "just a bunch of people for a star to bounce off of action/plotwise."

 

I mean, in most Stallone vehicle films, it's all about Stallone, even if he's surrounded by other actors or even absent for a chunk of the film. That's what Chronicles/Riddick makes me think of, while Pitch Black doesn't.

 

And yes, Pitch Black isn't a masterpiece or anything like that. It was just a surprise, I think. One went in expecting a marginally watchiable cheapie b-grade flick and while it was that, it was also a lot better than most.

[LadyCrimson]

"Cold Comes the Night" - the Bryan Cranston movie I mentioned earlier.

 

It was ok, but nothing special. Not particularly thrilling or intelligent enough to turn it into something more than a by the numbers crime tale. Cranston and Alice Eve do credibly well with what they're given and the film is short enough to not wear out its welcome, but slow and doesn't engage you that much. I'd give it a 5.5 or 6 at most. Bryan Cranston's accent still makes me giggle tho.

[Amentep]

Toy Story 3, yes. Monsters University, not so much (it was hampered by the fact all character growth was rendered meaningless by the developments of the original). Cars 2 was subpar, and Brave was extremely subpar - an awful ripoff of Miyazaki movies crossed with Brother Bear. Beyond that, I'm not as positive about Wall-E and Up as some other people - pretty good adventure movies, but they were only elevated to great movies because they had fantastic opening sequences - I personally feel both films worked better as shorts (Wall-E alone, and the tragic lovestory beginning Up). Neither of them were on the level of Ratatouille or Finding Nemo when it comes to pure storytelling.

I liked MU better than MI simply because it didn't get stuck with a certain degree of over-sentimentality (the one flaw I've always had with MI).

 

And while Cars 2 isn't as good as Cars I thought it did good in being fun for what it was doing.

 

Now I hate-hate-hated Wall-E (the second half is terrible and illogical) and Up (one of the most blatantly emotionally manipulative movies I've ever seen) but I loved Brave a whole lot. While I can understand the comparison to BROTHER BEAR, I think it does its own thing and I'm quite fond of it.

 

For my movie watching -

 

The Last Wagon (1956) Richard Widmark, Felicia Farr, Nick Adams, Susan Kohner. A bit of a typical and atypical western at the same time. A lot of tired tropes (Widmark plays a "white man" raised by Comanches wanted for murder that he did to revenge the murder of his full Comanche wife; captured by a lawman who is the last brother who murdered his wife). Its turned on its head when only the "kids" - older teens and one boy - survive an attack and have to look to Widmark to help them get out. Nice trial bit at the end. Okay if you like 50s era westerns

 

War of the Gargantuas (1966) - the weird sequel to Frankenstein Conquers the World (aka Frankenstein versus Subterranean Monster Baragon) that - in the US version at least - cuts any connection to Frankenstein. Somewhat plodding for a kaiju film, and Russ Tamblyn looks perpetually bemused at the proceedings. Some nice effect work but the mostly human monsters are weirdly less emotive than other Toho suitmation work. Okay but doesn't distinguish itself much. But at least Brad Pitt liked it.

 

The Falcon in San Francisco (1945) Tom Conway again stumbles upon murder, this time reunited with pal and ex-criminal Goldie Locke. Together they encounter young heiresses, a criminal smuggling conspiracy and murder. A bit too much going on, really, and the mystery is muddle by presenting a confusing narrative not explaining who people are until the last minute. Still Conway manages a breezy attitude typical of the series and has fun with the material. Also amusing is Goldie's attempt to improve his tax bracket by getting married. Doesn't make me forget The Falcon in Hollywood, a series highmark.

 

The Burrowers (2008) Low budget western horror; people are kidnapped and a group (led by Clancy Brown) go after them, thinking that it was a raid by Native Americans. Only it wasn't, it was locust like monsters that used to feed on Buffalo, but they're not there and have switched to human feed. Its actually a pretty good film excepting a few moments of character dumbness, but I felt the end really ruined it - one of those "oh humans are monsters too!" kind of things that was unnecessary to the story being told (but typical of films where someone feels the horror should have some kind of commentary on humanity buried (not so deeply) in it).

[Oerwinde]

I don't get people calling Brave a rip off of Brother Bear. Someone gets turned into a bear in both, that's aboit all they have in common

[Amentep]

I don't get people calling Brave a rip off of Brother Bear. Someone gets turned into a bear in both, that's aboit all they have in common

True, but when they're by the same company I can see people thinking they have to be the same.

 

I'd rate Brave much, much higher than Brother Bear.

[Blarghagh]

To be fair, I find the shameless ripping off of Miyazaki's work much more grating than the "turning person into a bear to make them realize the value of family" plot and theme conceit ripoff.

Edited January 21, 2014 by TrueNeutral

[Lexx]

Watched Kick Ass 2. Not a bad movie. Was pretty much what I've expected.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Damn, I really enjoyed that. The ending makes me want to go and read the third book.

[Tagaziel]

Rewatched Inglourious Basterds with my wife. That was awesome.

[Amentep]

The Dark Sleep (2012) - movie loosely inspired by HP Lovecrafts "Dreams in the Witch House", it'd be considered a poor adaption if it billed itself as such; as it is its an enjoyable low budget horror film (although I think they overloaded the opening with conflict between the heroine and her ex, making her look worse as a character than necessary).

 

The Lurking Fear (1994) another poor adaption of an HPL story (this time billed as such). As an adaption its a total failure changing the mood and story elements. As its own - divorced of the HPL connection - as a crime film that happens in a horror town its okay. Ashley Laurence is pretty good as the main heroine, Jeffery Combs is brilliant as a boozy doctor, Vincent Schiavelli is very welcome in a sleazy cameo. Jon Finch is good in a thankless role that asks little of him (his acting pretty much makes it). Allison Mackie's character seems to veer between sympathetic and psychotic for no reason and there's little explanation why Paul Mantee's reverend is crazy or why/how the creatures are. Its the kind of film where characters can be killed in the next room and no one hears or monsters can break through a window and drag someone off and no one bothers to try and block the broken window up.

[LadyCrimson]

Not a "movie", but a stop-animation short called Junk Head 1. Anyone else watch this? I came across it randomly (tho I might've heard something about it a while back). For my tastes it's pretty weird, but kinda cool...I'm not sure I entirely "get" it (heheh), but animation is quite amazing, imo. Although there's this one tiny moment where I went "wtf? ewww!" lol.

 

The guy spent years making it by himself - he has the full 30min. version on YouTube now and he's trying to raise money for a sequel.

 

The first 10 minutes: (full version is on his YT profile page too)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc2i4pFlqYo

[Lexx]

That looks pretty good. Makes me wish to have the skills to do stuff like this too.