Movies You've Seen Recently

[Tale]

Old thread is acting wonky, so here's a new one. Let's get back to yelling at how each others' opinions are wrong. GO!

 

Old thread: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/87304-movies-youve-seen-recently-thread/page-37

[Blarghagh]

Yes, but again, those were people we neither knew or cared about. Logically hard won, emotionally boring. So the Empire carries a big stick, they're not allowed to use it until each character finishes their respective mission. Even knowing most people were going to die nobody was ever in danger until it didn't matter that they were.

 

Maybe if that had been the case I wouldn't be disappointed that Vader dud nothing important. Plus they still made a point of making him whip it out anyway, so to speak. Not only that, they made a point of showing his badass Sith Castle and Sith Force choking powers AND had characters, locations steeped in Jedi and Force mumbo jumbo. Talk about having your cake and eating it too. It doesn't help that those were the most interesting moments, so if that were the goal I'd say they failed in more ways than one.

 

And I'm still not sure it was a needed goal. Yes, the prequels leaned ob those things but the response is to cut out uniquely Star Wars things from Star Wars? Sounds like an overreaction to me. The correct response is not to overuse on it and use it when appropriate. Not purposely underusing it.

 

Edit: Oops, was typing while you closed it. The problem with being able to post in locked topics.

Bah, board is not agreeing with my phone.

[Tale]

The only reason the force moments were the only interesting ones in the first half is because Chirrut and Baze (and K-2S0) were the only characters with personality, IMO. Not because the Force is so great and iconic to Star Wars or anything like that.

[Blarghagh]

That does have a lot to do with it. Maybe my frustration with not enough Vader has to do with the fact he's more interesting to watch than anyone else we got - either way, if you make a point to show how badass someone is and then relegate him to only look cool and make no real impact on our heroes, that seems wasting it to me. If he hadn't appeared and some imperial said "they escaped, send word to lord vader" he would have made the same impact on the plot. Maybe if anyone I liked was ever tested I wouldn't have been waiting for him to show up.

 

But I do feel like the Force and the Jedi and lightsabers are pretty iconic to Star Wars. It's all about space knights and the power of good after all. Lots of other franchises with space battles and robots, but none if them have the dark knight cutting down the old wizard with his laser sword.

[Malcador]

Ah, I had forgotten those guys' names.  I just called them Donnie Yen and the dude with the support weapon - kind of a neat gun, kind of an MG-shotgun hybrid.  Shame he went out like he did though.

Edited December 21, 2016 by Malcador

[Darkpriest]

Watched the Rouge 1 today - I feel it's good for what it is - a show of special effects with standard bland Disney story. I kind of knew that everyone in the "hero" group will die, although I imagined the move will have a bit different ending. The only mind boggling moment was the final battle and "wtf moment" when one of the main heroes of the saga appeared. Like what did that person was even doing it there? It's also a very inconsistent with what we see when that person is introduced and faced with Vader first time in the ep. 4 New Hope - the dialog in that scene makes no sense with the ending in Rogue 1...

[Malcador]

Hm, Carrie Fisher had a heart attack mid-flight.

[Starwars]

Saw a Korean movie called The Wailing which is pretty much one of the best new films I've seen in a really long time. Extremely impressed with it.

 

In other news, Alien: Covenant trailer:

 

[Orogun01]

Saw a Korean movie called The Wailing which is pretty much one of the best new films I've seen in a really long time. Extremely impressed with it.

 

In other news, Alien: Covenant trailer:

 

Hollywood doesn't just beat the dead horse, it cuts into parts, mix them with other horses and puts coils making lighting cross through it reanimating it...all so that they can beat it again.

[ManifestedISO]

Second time since release, World War Z. Never realized Peter Capaldi, former Doctor Who, plays a doctor in the World Health Organization, or W.H.O.

 

 

*not former, current

Edited December 26, 2016 by ManifestedISO

[algroth]

Very interesting article on Children of Men, which still stands for me as one of the finest films of the century so far:

 

http://www.vulture.com/2016/12/children-of-men-alfonso-cuaron-c-v-r.html?mid=twitter_vulture

[Lexx]

I loved Children of Men. It's a great movie, imo.

[Raithe]

City of Lost Children.

 

A good classic from the 90's, and had to do it with the French dialogue and English subtitles.

One of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's slightly surreal films, with an edge of steampunk, and Ron Perlman and a couple of very good child actors.

 

A scientist kidnaps children to steal their dreams for reasons, and after Ron Perlman's brother is kidnapped he goes looking for him, teaming up with the young girl who leads a group of orphan thieves.

[Gorgon]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4263482/?ref_=nv_sr_2

 

Go see it already. It's not just another one out of 10000 terrible horror movies realeased over the last few years. 

[Lexx]

But I am scared that it could scare me.

[BrotherFerg]

Zootopia it was really cute hehehe

[Blarghagh]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4263482/?ref_=nv_sr_2

 

Go see it already. It's not just another one out of 10000 terrible horror movies realeased over the last few years.

Followed your advice but was underwhelmed. Great performances and attention to period detail, but the pacing is off, shows its hand far too early (in the first five minutes) and has an ending that's ridiculous even by horror standards. I applaud it for being different and not leaning on cheap scares, but I wouldn't say it's a good movie.

[Gorgon]

I dunno, I don't think the premise was ever 'is there really a witch'.  It's completely off formula for a 2015 horror movie and I might be a little biased. I like that sort of thing. 

[Blarghagh]

If it wasn't then it should've been. To each their own obviously, but I thought it was a weakness. Like the 'intense rabbit' scenes, they would've been freaky in a 'what the hell is wrong with that thing' way if the film didn't make it so easy to go 'oh the witch did something'. And the family's consistent paranoia against each other was well-acted, but would've been much more effective if I could have shared it. Now it started to get irritating because I knew they were wrong, made them feel a little stupid despite their actions being logical because the film gave me too much info to work with as a viewer. It's not fun to see people be wrong all the time. The atmosphere was terrific but there wasn't as much tension in 'what's the witch going to do now' as there would have been in 'what the hell is happening to this poor family' IMO.

[Raithe]

The Accountant.

 

As long as you don't go into it expecting an all-out action film, it's pretty damn good. It's more of a slow burn one, with Ben Affleck playing the part of a high-functioning autistic who just happens to be a troubleshooting forensic accountant brought in by assorted underworld elements when they need a trustworthy outsider to check the books.

There's assorted backstory for it, a father who happened to be a psy-ops warfare officer and refused to coddle his kid and taught him how to survive. A few subtle twists to the tale and some threads that run concurrently until they start joining up.  Along with some good supporting roles, such as Anna Kendrick as the damsel who gets caught in distress, but it avoids wandering into romance territory, J K Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Treasury Agents trying to track down the mysterious "Accountant",  John Lithgow as the CEO of a tech company, and Jon Bernthal as a mercenary type troubleshooter.

[Orogun01]

The Accountant.

 

As long as you don't go into it expecting an all-out action film, it's pretty damn good. It's more of a slow burn one, with Ben Affleck playing the part of a high-functioning autistic who just happens to be a troubleshooting forensic accountant brought in by assorted underworld elements when they need a trustworthy outsider to check the books.

There's assorted backstory for it, a father who happened to be a psy-ops warfare officer and refused to coddle his kid and taught him how to survive. A few subtle twists to the tale and some threads that run concurrently until they start joining up.  Along with some good supporting roles, such as Anna Kendrick as the damsel who gets caught in distress, but it avoids wandering into romance territory, J K Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Treasury Agents trying to track down the mysterious "Accountant",  John Lithgow as the CEO of a tech company, and Jon Bernthal as a mercenary type troubleshooter.

He did a heck of a good job playing an autistic. 

[Oerwinde]

Secret Life of Pets wasn't bad. Also saw Paranorman, which was good. The Martian was good. Grabbed Warcraft for cheap and looking forward to watching Ted 2. Got it on Blu-Ray for 7 bucks so I have no regrets.

[Raithe]

 

He did a heck of a good job playing an autistic. 

 

 

 

Indeed. I'd say it was a very impressive turn, with all of the right small body language elements.

[Amentep]

City of Lost Children.

 

A good classic from the 90's, and had to do it with the French dialogue and English subtitles.

One of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's slightly surreal films, with an edge of steampunk, and Ron Perlman and a couple of very good child actors.

 

A scientist kidnaps children to steal their dreams for reasons, and after Ron Perlman's brother is kidnapped he goes looking for him, teaming up with the young girl who leads a group of orphan thieves.

 

Krank can't dream, therefore he needs the kids dreams so he can sleep.  Great film, I need to re-watch it.

 

 

I dunno, I don't think the premise was ever 'is there really a witch'.  It's completely off formula for a 2015 horror movie and I might be a little biased. I like that sort of thing. 

 

Yeah the film isn't "Is there a witch?" its "The Witch" (or if you're being pedantic, "The VVitch")

 

If it wasn't then it should've been. To each their own obviously, but I thought it was a weakness. Like the 'intense rabbit' scenes, they would've been freaky in a 'what the hell is wrong with that thing' way if the film didn't make it so easy to go 'oh the witch did something'. And the family's consistent paranoia against each other was well-acted, but would've been much more effective if I could have shared it. Now it started to get irritating because I knew they were wrong, made them feel a little stupid despite their actions being logical because the film gave me too much info to work with as a viewer. It's not fun to see people be wrong all the time. The atmosphere was terrific but there wasn't as much tension in 'what's the witch going to do now' as there would have been in 'what the hell is happening to this poor family' IMO.

 

I thought the tension was really tied more to the fact that you know there's a witch out there, you know the family has broken with their faith (even as they see themselves as the pious ones) and so the source of suspense is whether any of them will be able to extricate themselves from what is preying on them.

 

I quite liked the film even with its authentic period English dialogue. 

 

If you're looking for more questions than answers, I can suggest 1983's EYES OF FIRE.  Slightly later time period in the US (early to mid 18th instead of 17th century) but similar ideas - people leave the protection of town due to religious difference and run afoul of dark things in the woods - but with a lot less explanation.

[ShadySands]

Also saw the Accountant and was expecting a much slower film after reading the review here but I thought it was great