Movies you've seen recently

[Woldan]

Gravity. I enjoyed this refreshingly unconventional film immensely, should have watched it in the theater.

 

I'm sure a man more knowledgeable in physics and space stuff than me could complain about the many things the movie possibly didn't get right. Ignorance is a bliss I guess.
Anyway, besides the awesome CGI I really enjoyed the acting as much as the script, even though the story went from bad to worse like a hundred times, it got a little silly at times.

But thats ok.

 

Oh, and two things I've learned from Gravity:

 

Sandra Bullock is still hot, hot as in instantly-melts-my-hands-away-hot. Holy wow.  

 

And that I'd be one hell of an Astronaut since I have long very strong arms with the grip strength of a hydraulic press. Which seems to be HUGE plus in case things get messed up up there.  

Edited April 6, 2014 by Woldan

[sorophx]

try Europa Report. a very similar but a better shot movie

[Volourn]

Geez.. You guyz always get it wrong. Gravity sucks and Bullock, while I used to like her, seems to be getting worse. Just the Gravity commericals with her screeching was enoguh for me not to want to watch that movie EVER.

 

And, Ronin was an enjoyable fantasy action adventure. Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better than that trash Gravity to be sure.

[Woldan]

Geez.. You guyz always get it wrong. Gravity sucks and Bullock, while I used to like her, seems to be getting worse. Just the Gravity commericals with her screeching was enoguh for me not to want to watch that movie EVER

I love how people judge movies they haven't even seen, thats how you form a valid high quality opinion fu yeah! Whatever happened to the philosophy of having an unbiased open mind? 

Edited April 6, 2014 by Woldan

[Valsuelm]

try Europa Report. a very similar but a better shot movie

 

I wouldn't say Gravity and ER are similar at all. And ER was horribad imo.

 

Gravity is the only movie I've seen in 3D that I actually liked in 3D.

 

And Volourn.... the commercials for Gravity turned me off to it as well, but I went with my movie buddy as he wanted to see it and was pleasantly surprised. Gravity was at least a good flick, great really in IMAX 3D (how I saw it).

Edited April 6, 2014 by Valsuelm

[Volourn]

"I love how people judge movies they haven't even seen, thats how you form a valid high quality opinion fu yeah! Whatever happened to the philosophy of having an unbiased open mind? "

 

Thousands of movies are released each year. I can't watch them all. Commercials - which tend to to show some of the ';better' scenes - are supposed to make you interested in the film. ie. sell it.

 

Besides, everyone here has judged movies they haven't seen. In fact, EVERYBODY has. It's how we decide which movies we watch and don't watch.

 

Did you watch a film like Vampire Academy? If not, why? Did you watch that Ahnold movie that just came out and bombed? If not, why?

 

 If you expect me to feel shame because I pick and choose which movies I watch you failed.

 

All I know is the commercials were Bullock is screeching her head off made me not want to watch it becasuse she is horrible. Anmd, like I said, I'm usually pro Bullock and have been since Speed and The Net.

[LadyCrimson]

As I've said before, I enjoyed Gravity, thought it was ok for 3D (still didn't convince me 3D is a great thing tho) and while it was pretty silly at times, it was fun. Plus I loved the space shots - that said, I will admit that sometimes Sandra's first staccato yelps of terror were extremely annoying to listen to. Cringe-worthy, even. Seeing the full movie does not make those any better then they were in the ads. But the film does not consist of her yelping in that manner 24/7.

[Oerwinde]

"I love how people judge movies they haven't even seen, thats how you form a valid high quality opinion fu yeah! Whatever happened to the philosophy of having an unbiased open mind? "

 

Thousands of movies are released each year. I can't watch them all. Commercials - which tend to to show some of the ';better' scenes - are supposed to make you interested in the film. ie. sell it.

 

Besides, everyone here has judged movies they haven't seen. In fact, EVERYBODY has. It's how we decide which movies we watch and don't watch.

 

Did you watch a film like Vampire Academy? If not, why? Did you watch that Ahnold movie that just came out and bombed? If not, why?

 

 If you expect me to feel shame because I pick and choose which movies I watch you failed.

 

All I know is the commercials were Bullock is screeching her head off made me not want to watch it becasuse she is horrible. Anmd, like I said, I'm usually pro Bullock and have been since Speed and The Net.

Stop making me agree with you. The trailers and such for Gravity made it look awful. I had absolutely no desire to see it and didn't understand why people kept saying it looked amazing. I want to check it out eventually, probably when it hits netflix.

 

Saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier, was awesome. Arnim Zola was goddamned perfect, name dropped Dr Strange, plot was great, explained why Hydra hasn't been on Agents of SHIELD. Just a great movie. Probably the best Marvel Studios flick so far.

[Blarghagh]

Sandra Bullock did a fair amount of Shia LeBeouf-ing in Gravity, just muttered "no no no no no no" ad infinitum. :D

 

I thought the movie itself started out really strong and slowly collapsed - they made Bullock's character incredibly incompetent (to the point it was hard to believe she had been through any form of basic training) just to keep up tension and it completely destroyed the suspension of disbelief. The first half hour, however, was incredible and it was worth watching for that. A word of caution, if you have problems with motion sickness the first half hour is going to make you hurl. Not an oscar winner by any stretch, but that first half hour at least is must see, especially that badass twenty minute tracking shot.

 

I watched Knights of Badassdom and was thoroughly entertained although the monster design was forehead-slappingly-bad. It looked like a giant Gremlin. But oh well, low budget and it was still hilarious. Do the pages of thine Monster Manual remain... stuketh together?

[Lexx]

I thought Gravity was p.cool. It hooked me in front of the tv for the whole time. Haven't seen many movies in recent time that managed to do this with me.

[sorophx]

finally watched Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies, and while it's not as good as Life Is Sweet, it is slow in the beginning, but the scene that resolves the conflict is so powerful it's all worth it. and Timothy Spall is just wonderful.

[sorophx]

watched Sands of Iwo Jima and The Longest Day. now I finally understand why John Wayne was such an icon: he's the only one who can deliver his lines properly. was it a producers' ploy to surround him with bad actors so he stood out or something? not to belittle his acting ability, just funny seeing him in a company of wannabe actors. maybe these movies are bad examples, though.

 

of his work in Westerns I've only seen True Grit 

[Valsuelm]

I recommend The Shootist for a great John Wayne movie. It's his last film, my favorite of his, and he's surrounded by good actors in it.

Edited April 6, 2014 by Valsuelm

[TheChris92]

Mr. Nobody

 

One of the problems that usually occur, when writing about films that stands out from the crowd is that they tend to lack concepts to explain them properly. How genre film almost by definition interferes with the already well-defined patterns - and thus is easier to explain - as are the few movies that are not simple to capture, often difficult to describe. But you know what? That's why I love them. The kind of intense drama that asks something from the audience is something I commend with utmost respect. Mr Nobody is such a movie, it too feels like something that could have been weaved together by Charlie Kaufmann & Spike Jonze's zany-minds as the movie sometime wanna be science-fiction, romantic drama, then a philosophical playground and even a social commentary on humanity. There aren't exactly many movies, involving future "Blade Runner"-worlds mixed with divorce, depression, forbidden romances and space missions, but the whole show blends nonetheless merrily together here. In retrospect it's really neither of these things and yet it's all of them.

A red herring that drives the different stories together is love. It's love that puts the boy into a impossible decision, the decision of whether or not to go live with his father or mother & the choice between 3 women to spend the rest of his life with. The main character Nemo Nobody played masterly by Jared Leto, in most of his incarnations, functions as a sort of unreliable narrator as we originally envision him as a declining old man and apparently the last 'mortal man' on an unfamiliar futuristic Earth, where the secret to immortality has been found -- It's completely absurd but it doesn't matter because in fact, it's irrelevant to the story the film wants to tell but it functions as a subtle vessel for it to unravel. Relaying his story to a nosey journalist, Nemo tries to convince how it is like to be 'mortal' to love, to age and to die. It feels like less like he's trying to convince a stranger to his world, and more like he's trying to convince himself. As the plot unravels one will find how its perplexing flow is scattered into several different tales, all of them being Nemo's life as how they would be had his child-self made the corresponding choice.

Instead of following either the one or the other way, the film, however, takes a surprising jolt turn by telling both stories and by further dividing them up each time the protagonist finds himself within a new outcome. They occur particularly in the form of encounter with the opposite sex, the three different mentioned women, whom each leads to its very different result. 

 

The plot being the driving point here I gotta say that its meaning can be interpreted on many levels as much as David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. On some, Mr Nobody functions less as a enigma to be solved, and more like a relatively straightforward, yet fascinating account of the world's decor. I do remember hearing about how as children we are relatively explorers & philosophers, constantly questioning the functions of how the world is shaped but as we age we come to accept our daily routines and do less exercise thinking on "Why is it the way the it is?", which is perhaps a question worth asking.

This is also where I'll take the opportunity to talk about The Butterfly Effect and how it 'affects' the movie because it most certainly does as the movie is so keen to remind. The theory, in short, determines of how a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a great wind to occur a week later -- Putting it simply, a small choice can lead to a greater outcome. Without spoiling too much -- The way I suppose the plot is to be understood is that only 1 of the many realities are real and it functions more or less as a struggle to finding the right one. The plot bases itself on choice affecting outcome and thus one can take that to heart as they watch it. As a massive hint the movie provides many throughout the many stories as to which one would seem like the most natural to he who makes the choice. This, however, is but one of many interpretations as to how the movie could be put together for it make coherent sense. It's where the Butterfly effect comes into play. It elaborates on the weight of choice and how sometimes even one choice can only alter an outcome slightly and some may carry something larger than that. That's all I can say without reaching into spoiler territory.

 

Outside of its un-chronological plot, Mr. Nobody also presents some of the best cinematography I've seen in a while. It looks wonderful and sometimes it even downright scares and surprises me with the rather absurd sequences between each scene, examples like Nemo waking up from the pickles he's been placed in and how it subtlety blends it all the different 'realities' together. Another thing that is worth praising is Jared Leto's performance -- While his music is nothing to be excited about his acting, however, is a very different story. We are presented with a ton of stories where some develop wistfully touching, while others are tragic and exhausting. Whether you do or do not get that special someone, it may well in both cases turn out to have negative consequences in different ways. To create a character, where both are the same and yet very different, is a bit of a challenge for an actor, but in Jared Leto, director Dormael has found a man who proves worthy of the job, and he provides a cohesion all over the place, which means that you do not get lost despite the variety of plotlines

 

Overall, there's not much more I can say other than the actors who portrayed a young 15-year old Nemo & his girlfriend Anna were both superb and deserves as much recognition as their already Star-made colleagues in the film. 

Mr. Nobody are many things but one it may have in common with films like Eternal Sunshine or Fight Club, is its surreal approach to how the world is shaped.

Its child-like curiosity is welcome and its point well made. 

Edited April 6, 2014 by TheChris92

[ManifestedISO]

I'll see your surreal Nobody and raise you a surrealier Stranger Than Fiction with an un-Will Ferrell and a bakerette Maggie Gyllenhaal. 

 

 

oops, and a peak Emma Thompson, I forgot.

Edited April 6, 2014 by ManifestedISO

[TheChris92]

It's not 'surreal' in the same manner as David Lynch, Darren Aronofsky's "Pi" or anything made by Terry Gilliam. It's more along the lines of semi chaotic I'd say. As for Stranger Than Fiction. It's on my list of to-watch films.

[Hurlshort]

Stranger than Fiction is one of my favorite movies, for sure.

[Bryy]

Man of Steel.

 

Such a bad film. It has no idea what it wants to be.

[Tagaziel]

Watched Silent Hill after Walsingham's suggestion. Individual elements are decent enough (mostly whatever is recreated from the game), but it's a train wreck. Kind of a shame it's one of the movies where Sean Bean doesn't die.

[sorophx]

Game of Thrones makes up for that by killing everyone remotely related to Sean Bean, though 

[Raithe]

On the movie trivia news...

 

 

The director of The Goonies, Richard Donner, has said a sequel to the cult 80s children's adventure is in the works.

Donner told gossip site TMZ that he hoped to bring back all the stars of the original film for the follow-up. That would mean a return for actors such as Corey Feldman, Josh Brolin, Sean Astin and Jeff Cohen, whose lives have taken diverse paths since the 1985 movie. Feldman, who has for years been the biggest cheerleader for "Goonies 2" is a reality TV star and singer in a ska band (as well as occasional actor), Brolin and Astin retain Hollywood careers and Cohen (Chunk) is an entertainment lawyer.

Donner, also the director of Superman and the Lethal Weapon films, was signing autographs in an undisclosed location when he was asked to comment on the proliferation of superhero movies in 2014 Hollywood. Asked if he would make another comic-book film, he said: "If you call The Goonies a comic book – we're doing a sequel." Prompted to reveal which stars of the original would return he replied: "Hopefully all of them."

The original Goonies centred on a group of Oregon pre-teens facing the loss of their homes due to the imminent building of a country club who find themselves on a hunt for pirate treasure. It was produced by Steven Spielberg and is often cited as one of the top children's movies of the 1980s. Rumours of a sequel have abounded for much of the past decade but no film has ever entered production.

Edited April 7, 2014 by Raithe

[Blarghagh]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

 

Of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I'd rank it second only to the first Iron Man in terms of coherence, plot and character and second only to The Avengers in terms of adrenaline and spectacle. It's been a while since one of these films felt like more than a "here's something while you wait for the movie you actually want to see" and works in it's own right.

[TheChris92]

Watched Silent Hill after Walsingham's suggestion. Individual elements are decent enough (mostly whatever is recreated from the game), but it's a train wreck. Kind of a shame it's one of the movies where Sean Bean doesn't die.

He also doesn't die in Ronin either - He just gets 'sent away' and never appears for the rest of the movie. That's new! x)

[Amentep]

I liked Silent Hill and Silent Hill: Revelations but I didn't watch either expecting a scary film either.

 

Also, I enjoy Plan 9 From Outer Space.

 

FWIW, I also liked 47 Ronin but it is a "not good" film.

 

I watched CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER and liked it a lot, possibly better than the first one.

[Raithe]

 

On the movie trivia news...

 

 

The director of The Goonies, Richard Donner, has said a sequel to the cult 80s children's adventure is in the works.

 

Donner told gossip site TMZ that he hoped to bring back all the stars of the original film for the follow-up. That would mean a return for actors such as Corey Feldman, Josh Brolin, Sean Astin and Jeff Cohen, whose lives have taken diverse paths since the 1985 movie. Feldman, who has for years been the biggest cheerleader for "Goonies 2" is a reality TV star and singer in a ska band (as well as occasional actor), Brolin and Astin retain Hollywood careers and Cohen (Chunk) is an entertainment lawyer.

 

Donner, also the director of Superman and the Lethal Weapon films, was signing autographs in an undisclosed location when he was asked to comment on the proliferation of superhero movies in 2014 Hollywood. Asked if he would make another comic-book film, he said: "If you call The Goonies a comic book – we're doing a sequel." Prompted to reveal which stars of the original would return he replied: "Hopefully all of them."

 

The original Goonies centred on a group of Oregon pre-teens facing the loss of their homes due to the imminent building of a country club who find themselves on a hunt for pirate treasure. It was produced by Steven Spielberg and is often cited as one of the top children's movies of the 1980s. Rumours of a sequel have abounded for much of the past decade but no film has ever entered production.

 

 

Of course, I did mean to say I half expect that to be an April Fool's joke.. but just that it was being reported in the British newspaper's today rather then last week...

Although that could just mean they picked up the story by accident...