Movies you've seen recently

[Hiro Protagonist]

I enjoyed Gravity. It made me think about if I ever wanted to go into space, do I really want to? Because I felt it captures quite well how dangerous it is in space. I was on the edge of my seat. Also the filming of it is something I'd never seen. I also liked how the camera would pan in and out of the space suit's visor and you see what the actors were seeing, and then pan out of the space suit through the visor and see their face. Some great techniques.

[LadyCrimson]

I liked Gravity as well. I didn't, however, think it was the best space/action movie ever worth oodles of awards or something. But I enjoyed it as a visual space fantasy and didn't regret taking the trouble to see it on the big screen. It did sorta lose steam in the final third or so, imo.

[Blarghagh]

I just noticed this Gravity dominates the Academy Awards with seven Oscars and its 8.2 on imdb( Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller )

 

Someone previously stated it was crap, can anyone please elaborate i.e. good/bad and why ?

 

It's not crap. It's decent enough, but not amazing. Honest Trailers explains it best.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzzLngXfCcI&list=PL86F4D497FD3CACCE&feature=c4-overview-vl

Edited March 4, 2014 by TrueNeutral

[Gfted1]

Falcon Soars in New Captain America: The Winter Soldier Teaser.

[LadyCrimson]

Coincidentally, I was watching Captain America on TV the other day. I think I liked it better upon a 2nd viewing. Not that I disliked it before, I just found it a bit dull. 2nd time, I liked the humor and chr./origin buildup more.

[ManifestedISO]

Watched the director's commentary for Skyfall. Impeccably well-spoken, is Sam Mendes, with an equally keen eye for cinema, although he offered no explanation or apology for, nor even the slightest mention of why Severine was killed so abruptly. I'd been fully invested in her rescue since the character's introduction, and then BAM. I'm assuming it was Ian Fleming's fault, but it remains the one dark disappointment in the film.  

[LadyCrimson]

The Bag Man, with John Cusack and (in a small role) Robert DeNiro.

 

Terrible title. The movie, as my hubby put it, is "really independent." eg, rather weird. Had some David Lynch flavor, perhaps. I always like Cusack and he's good, and DeNiro was ... DeNiro. At least he wasn't in family comedy mode. A few chilling moments, some weird sorta-comedy moments. I didn't feel much suspense and the last few minutes felt kind of tacked on, but it's an ok late-night type watch.

[Monte Carlo]

Star Trek - Into Darkness.

 

Disclaimer - I'm not really a Trekkie and can take or leave the franchise. However, I grew up with Star Trek on the TV and have a strangely emotional investment in certain aspects of it. For example, I love the bromance between Spock and Kirk and dig the hokey Scottie / Bones / Checkhov characters.

 

So I like the characters more than the space opera I suppose.

 

Anyhoo, like the other Star Trek movie with Chris 'OMG-is-that-really-his-forehead' Pine, it's a bit too... fast. There's too much happening and it's all crash-bang-wallop. And Benedict Cumberbatch... why the fuss? He plays a copperplate English villain in a Hollywood movie. It's like he's the new Alan Rickman but without the talent.

 

So the movie moves too fast to let us enjoy the great stuff in it. For example, Karl Urban is so ****ing brilliant as Bones, man he could have his own movie. He skates so cleverly in the line between impersonation and... falling off it. It's those little touches that make these movies great but here-comes-another-spaceship-crash. Sigh.

 

Chekhov is great as a bumbling youngster. Uhura is sassy and sexy and just-right. Sulu sort of simmers as a man who knows he can do the job better than his boss. In fact, the only guy not really pulling his weight is Chris Pine. But he's the beefcake, so it ain't his job I suppose.

 

If only these movies were a bit more, well, Star Trek. The start of this piece, a groovy piece of exploration on an alien planet (with a nod to Raiders of the Lost Ark at the start) is a skilful prologue that only teases us with what might be. A slice of not-too-serious, character driven space opera. What's not to love?

 

But noooo we have to have spaceships crashing, buildings collapsing and Benedict-bloody-Cumberbatch as a pantomime villain.

 

Double sigh.

 

6.5 / 10. There's a great film utterly dying to get out of this franchise, and the dead hand of JJ Abrams.

 

Monte says - the first one with Eric Bana is much, much better.

[LadyCrimson]

It's always interesting how differently people familiar with the original Trek feel about the "new" Trek characters. I actually do like Karl Urban, from other roles ... but for some reason I just haven't taken to his version of McCoy at all. It's not that I dislike his McCoy - just doesn't feel like McCoy, even when saying the signature lines. I almost feel like he's trying too hard to be like DeForest Kelly, perhaps.

I didn't like Pine as Kirk that much at first, but during the 2nd movie there a few moments on the bridge where I suddenly went "there! he nailed it!" and he became Kirk, even as he wasn't Kirk. So now I rather like Pine in the role.

Benedict - it's just the voice. And Sherlock. Did I mention that voice...

[Gorgon]

Kirk seems dangerously stupid. He can do one thing well, play chicken with hostile spaceships, but surely there is more to being commander of the Enterprise than being unpredictable. Spock is imminently more qualified. 

[LadyCrimson]

Pine-Kirk feels in keeping with the Abrams Trek universe, to me. Loud, brash, brawn before brain, action before thought. Fits.

Shatner's Kirk was like that too, only to a bit lesser of a degree. And Shatner's Kirk was less of a risk-taker when it came to the welfare of his ship/s. Usually. Course, in the end, all Trek Captain's seem to end up with wrecked Enterprises at least once every couple movies ....

[Monte Carlo]

Kirk had more of a twinkle in his eye and more knowing swagger, but of course Pine's Kirk is meant to be younger.

 

Still, I find myself agreeing with Gorgon. I'd like to see the character change over the story arc. At the moment we've two whole movies of stoopid-but-brave Kirk.

[Mor]

well I seen Gravity. I think that people who like Thriller watching it in 3d would really get their money worth. To me it was just average, with nice special effects and Clooney who made it bareable :/

 

EDIT:

...A slice of not-too-serious, character driven space opera...

I don't recall when was last space opera movie that I enjoyed, books on the other hand is another thing. If you don't mind go little on a bend, here are some more recent books/series along those lines not-too-serious, character driven space opera, actiony and starttreky:

 

* Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse series)

* Into the Black (Odyssey One)

 

They come in audiobook format as well.

Edited March 8, 2014 by Mor

[ManifestedISO]

I'd say the Trek universe shines as an operette, and less as the long opera. Whatever mysterious quality good writing brings to serialized story-telling is apparently impossible to remaster for length.

 

The movie, Into Darkness copied the movie, Wrath of Khan because everyone liked Ricardo Montalban, but it was because his character was from the original TV series, and fans were already invested. 

 

Since he was completely rebooting, I wish Abrams had gone for an original story of exploration and character instead of aiming for the Khan jugular immediately after the origin story. What a bloody waste of talent to stick Cumberbatch in a role that should never have been reprised. 

[Walsingham]

I just thought I should mention that Citadel is on Netflix right now. It's an absolutely fantastic horror film that does more than scare, it actually says some interesting things about being scared.

 

Check it out.

[TheChris92]

Recently watched "I Love You, Phillip Morris" - Very sweet and funny romantic-comedy based on the exploits of fraud & conman Steven Jay Russel, and one of Jim Carrey's best performances in recent years since Eternal Sunshine. Just goes to show that if you really let him do his A-game then he'll deliver. I love the chemistry between Carrey & McGregor, it's pretty sweet.

Edited March 8, 2014 by TheChris92

[Raithe]

I haven't seen the film yet..but this  io9 review was too good not to share..

 

io9 - 300 Rise of an Empire is Zack Snyder's Greatest Intellectual Masterpiece...

 

 

 

300: Rise of a Empire isn't even a sequel to 300 — it's set in a parallel timeline. That's just how intellectually challenging this film is. The scathing, multi-layered political commentary begins with the movie's very first scenes: As Queen Gorgo describes the fall of Athens in voiceover, a soldier grabs a woman and jiggles her bare breasts in front of the camera. Producer/writer Zack Snyder has recreated the depth of King Lear, only elevated to the sophisticated level of a YouTube comment thread.

 

This movie demands that we hold a lot of stories in our minds as we relive the events of 300, so it's a great choice to include so many clips and images from the previous film. Otherwise we might get lost in the intricately interwoven tales of Artemesia, the Greek sex slave who grew up to be a great Persian warlord; the god-king Xerxes, who wants nothing more than to please his father with his divine depilation plan; and Themistokles, the man who leads the artists and farmers of Athens against the evil military threat from magical Persians who fight with oil tankers. The drama of these characters' ambivalent relationships unfolds as Queen Gorgo tries to decide whether the Spartans should join with Athens.

 

As blood squirts in slow-motion streaks across the screen, and men die with swords smashed into their brains, we're asked to ponder the value of the nation-state in the face of seemingly stateless actors like Xerxes and Artemesia. What, after all, does Artemesia represent? What is this "Persia"? Obviously Snyder wants us to consider the plight of today's Middle East, and its tragic clash with the freedom and democracy of the United States.

 

You'll relish his nuanced representation of the Persians, who are thoroughly humanized when they put on their bondage outfits and golden chains. Xerxes' transformation into the God-king, with his glowing, hairless skin and golden briefs, is a positively harrowing and emotionally gripping journey. We truly understand his motivations when he walks into that hermit's cave and dives into the enchanted pool, and are given a new appreciation both of Iranian cultural history and what's at stake in today's global conflicts.

 

The clash between Western democracy and Middle Eastern statelessness reaches its climax in the scenes between Artemisia and Themistokles, which are rife with tension and convey the complexity of battlefield politics better than movies like Argo and Hurt Locker ever could. When Artemesia jumps on top of Themistokles and has sex with him on top of a military map, we see how passions can overwhelm tactics. And during their final sword fight, Artemesia's brilliant line — "You fight harder than you ****!" — sums up these characters' commitments to warring ideologies that threaten to sunder the ancient world.

 

Perhaps the greatest moment in the film, though, comes during the battle that the Athenians nearly lose to Artemesia's massive fleet of ships. Dressed in black fringe worthy of a goth Stevie Nicks, Artemesia commands a tanker full of oil to dump its payload into the ocean. Then, as the Greeks try to figure out how to react, men with flammable backpacks swim secretly toward the spreading black stain on the ocean. The backpack detail is one of those moments where you see how much Snyder respects his audience to figure out the suicide bomber connection for themselves — he could just as easily have put them in suicide bomb vests, but he lets us figure this reference out for ourselves, using historically accurate details.

 

When the Greek fleet is destroyed by the suicide bombers, Themistokles is hit and sinks deep underwater. Arrows and dead men and ship parts float past his head, in the gooey slow motion style that elevates the 300 franchise from mere war porn to aesthetically rich political statement. At that moment, Themistokles sees huge sea monsters rising up from the depths, eating men out of the water. The metaphorical implications are incredible. These creatures snarf up men the same way Artemesia tried to consume him with her anti-democratic sexuality. And their immense size suggests the power of Persia, rising up against the perfect democracy of Athens, where slaves treated really well and women who don't want to be chattel have the choice to become slaves or whores if they don't like patriarchy.

 

We're on the edges of our seats. Can the good white men of Athens withstand the authoritarian forces of women and brown people from Persia? But then Themistokles awakens: the sea monsters were all a dream. And he still has a war to fight. Snyder will never allow you to forget the important messages in this film. Just in case you do forget, though, he's sure to include several voiceovers from Queen Gorgo, some of which repeat at least two times. Luckily the words in those speeches are so magnificently well-chosen that you'll be glad to hear them again. I could have listened to Queen Gorgo telling Themostokles to stop "stroking your ****" all day.

 

If you are looking for a shallow, rapey movie that undercuts its amazing battle scenes with boring monologues, then I'm afraid you're out of luck when it comes to 300: Rise of an Empire. This movie is going to be remembered for centuries, the same way Shakespeare's plays have been, for its complex treatment of political enmity in a changing world. With its sympathetic, well-rounded characters and thoughtful allegorical references to current events, 300: Rise of an Empire is probably Snyder's greatest triumph. That's right — it's even better than Sucker Punch.

 

 

[Monte Carlo]

i09 is good in parts, but wears it's social justice warrior colours too heavily for me.

[sorophx]

Sucker Punch was a piece of crap, though. so saying "the new 300 movie is better" isn't much

[Hurlshort]

Sucker Punch was a piece of crap, though. so saying "the new 300 movie is better" isn't much

 

The entire review is tongue in cheek.  It's a comedic device where praise is actually concealed as a scathing condemnation.  Insert dry chuckle here.

[ManifestedISO]

Weather Girl.

 

25% on Rotten Tomatoes ... 5.9/10 on IMDB ... 

 

Could be the best photographed, most well-written, charmingly-acted movie I have ever seen. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Die! Die! My Darling!

 

Was alright.

[LadyCrimson]

 

Sucker Punch was a piece of crap, though. so saying "the new 300 movie is better" isn't much

 

The entire review is tongue in cheek.  It's a comedic device where praise is actually concealed as a scathing condemnation.  Insert dry chuckle here.

 

All I know is when I saw the 300 sequel advertised on TV the other day, I went ".... whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy."

Ok, I know why...money. But you know what I mean.

[Calax]

Hansel and Gretel...

 

Honestly? this should have been a PG13. It's an R for bewbs, out of place use of the F word, and people exploding in red mists.... and thats about it.

[ManifestedISO]

 

 

Sucker Punch was a piece of crap, though. so saying "the new 300 movie is better" isn't much

 

The entire review is tongue in cheek.  It's a comedic device where praise is actually concealed as a scathing condemnation.  Insert dry chuckle here.

 

All I know is when I saw the 300 sequel advertised on TV the other day, I went ".... whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy."

Ok, I know why...money. But you know what I mean.

 

 

Maybe not so much money, as Lena Headey. I worship her everyday, not just Women's Day. zomg