Movies You've Seen (or would like to see) Recently

[Tale]

I walked away feeling wholly unmoved. My judgement on movies is always around "how did it make me feel" and then I start nitpicking and analyzing from there.

 

I felt nothing overall. There were moments I thought were annoying and dumb, there were moments I thought were cool. I could compliment the performance of three actors in particular. I could rant about how big a moron other characters are or entire sequences should have been cut a loooong time ago. I could complain that the film's central tension missed entirely. I could talk about the very very brief moments that made me smile. Or how the movie felt way too busy and the good stuff felt like it was rushed along to make room for bad stuff.

 

But at the end of the day, I never sat on the edge of my seat. I never cried. I barely smiled. I just sort of shrugged and walked out when the credits rolled.

[algroth]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527336/reviews

 

IMDb is not really to ever be trusted, but it's curious that I've yet to find a single positive review for TLJ so far.

[Tale]

 

The Last Jedi idle thoughts:

 

 

-Didn't have much of an issue with the tokenism as previous posters had, as when we're dealing with an interstellar civilisation comprising of at least dozens of sentient species making humans so uniform in ethnicity would honestly be more uncanny valley for me. That said you guys were on the money on the war-profiteering aesop being a bit too on the nose.

 

-For the Luke portions in the beginning to the middle part I definitely saw shades of Chris Avellone's take on the Star Wars universe in KOTORII, and hoped to see it lead to Rey emerging as a "Grey Jedi" under Luke's tutelage as a result of it. Alas, probably due to Disney's insistence they didn't go in that direction (and from what I've read even George Lucas wasn't hot on the idea of a Force-user falling between "Light" and "Dark" sides).

 

-Come the time of Finn's (attempted) Kamikaze run on the laser-battering ram I almost groaned that there was going to be a second (or third, if you count the bombing run at the beginning) Randy Quaid in Independence Day moment in the movie, but at least the movie's tendency towards twists saved me from that indignity.

 

-Definitely got the sense that Phasma ended the movie just as much a punk as she did in the last film.

 

 

 

 

I think it's worth noting that the new trilogy so far is doing a pretty piss-poor job at presenting its villains as anything *other* than punks. I recall a saying from screenwriting class that went something like "a good antagonist always seems three steps ahead of the protagonist", but the exact opposite seems true here, where every confrontation seems to invariably go in the favour of the rebels and heroes. Can we really say that Hux or Kylo Ren really command any presence by now, after they've been foiled so many times by so many people? Snoke may have possessed a modicum of threat but, well, that's done and over with. Phasma was always a damp squib, right from the get-go. To this effect, a friend of mine mentioned that an interesting twist could have been to *invert* the positions of Ben and Rey instead, where Rey, clearly possessing a dark side to her, got tempted by Snoke, whilst Ben's conflicts eventually took him to embracing the light again.

 

 

 

Hux might be the dumbest person in the galaxy. The opening of the film saw to that. I feel that we're dealing with Cobra Commander and Skeletor levels of villainy at this point.

 

Kylo Ren is actually kind of cool, but his impulsive flaw is going to be horribly easy to exploit. He's not a planner. He's not even a leader. He's just strong.

 

Snoke was cool and had a lot of power, menace, and seemed a competent manipulator. He could give the Emperor a run for his money, he really could. And then he's gone.

 

I'm really not sure where they're going to go from here.

 

[ShadySands]

 

 

I haven't seen it yet

 

But you guys don't seem too enthused with it

 

:/

 

 

[Blarghagh]

I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I adored parts, am conflicted about others. In any case, it was much more interesting than TFA.

[Malcador]

In any case, it was much more interesting than TFA.

 

So was making my grocery list, though....

[Volourn]

So.. they did exactly what they did in part 7. EPIC FAIL. Thankfully, I don't waste my time and money on these until I can watch them for free on tv because it seems they made the same exact decisions as the first one  which hurt the experience.

[the_dog_days]

Haven't watched it yet, but I find it funny that people are saying TLJ is to campy. Perhaps I'm the only person who remembers how George Lucas decided to take out the galaxy's greatest bounty hunter all the way back in Return of the Jedi, or an accident prone gungan that single handedly wiped out a whole platoon of droids, or a moody teenage who goes about five minutes between weeping over a bad dream and murdering younglings.

 

Campy is kinda Star Wars whole thing.

Edited December 15, 2017 by the_dog_days

[Chilloutman]

I always like SW as space fairy tale and I never took it as 'serious' movie. Maybe thats why only liked it as a kid

[Tale]

Haven't watched it yet, but I find it funny that people are saying TLJ is to campy. Perhaps I'm the only person who remembers how George Lucas decided to take out the galaxy's greatest bounty hunter all the way back in Return of the Jedi, or an accident prone gungan that single handedly wiped out a whole platoon of droids, or a moody teenage who goes about five minutes between weeping over a bad dream and murdering younglings.

 

Campy is kinda Star Wars whole thing.

We all remember those things and hate them. It doesn't seem like the part one should strive to emulate.

[Hurlshort]

As I hinted at earlier, I think the campiness stands out more in contrast to Rogue One, which was basically a serious war movie set in a rather silly universe. Some of it worked. Chewbacca and the Island Chickens, for example.

 

The movie was worth watching for the Imperial Guard scene though. I waited a long time to see those guys do stuff.

[Blarghagh]

So.. they did exactly what they did in part 7. EPIC FAIL. Thankfully, I don't waste my time and money on these until I can watch them for free on tv because it seems they made the same exact decisions as the first one  which hurt the experience.

 

Not really. Part 7 was a loose remake. This one pretended to be a remake with every development and then, for better or worse, dumped some twist on it.

[majestic]

The movie was worth watching for the Imperial Guard scene though. I waited a long time to see those guys do stuff.

 

I thought the Imperial Guard scene was terrible. Well, no, not the scene, the scene itself was fine. It just had some issues, like the sudden multiplication of guards and the fact that it looked and was coreographed like a Marvel Superhero battle. It felt jarringly out of place after the actually pretty good stuff between Kylo and Rey.

 

 

Except that part where Kylo offered Rey to rule the galaxy with him. *sigh* Really?

 

 

 

So.. they did exactly what they did in part 7. EPIC FAIL. Thankfully, I don't waste my time and money on these until I can watch them for free on tv because it seems they made the same exact decisions as the first one  which hurt the experience.

 

Not really. Part 7 was a loose remake. This one pretended to be a remake with every development and then, for better or worse, dumped some twist on it.

 

Oh yeah, they dumped some twists on us. Some of them felt like a big "well, screw you!" - taking the interesting parts of the episode IV remake and... discarding them with the grace of the proverbial bantha in a porcelain shop.

 

 

That's going to be fun, I wonder how threatening the Frat Boy connection is going to be next movie. They're both hillarious. Hux is incompetent in a manner that would have made Vader choke him faster than Admiral Ozzel and Kylo is just as stupid, gullible and unstable as Snoke moustache-twirled in his face.

 

There were better villains in saturday morning cartoons.

 

 

Edit:

 

Fixed spoiler tags, woops.

Edited December 15, 2017 by majestic

[Malcador]

I think everyone knew Hux sucked from his speech in TFA. Amazed some people think it was 'epic'

[majestic]

I think everyone knew Hux sucked from his speech in TFA. Amazed some people think it was 'epic'

 

It would maybe have been more interesting if it didn't reference to things that we know absolutely nothing about. At the time it comes in TFA, nobody gives a damn about the Republic or what they did nor do we really know why the Empire is now called the First Order and how the Imperial Remnant's only oppsition can be the RESISTANCE.

 

But even if we had all the information that's apparently available in books (yay) the speech was bad, and while I like Bill Weasly he was not the right actor for the role (or was given utterly insane directions).

[Katphood]

Blade Runner 2049

 

Pretty decent. Very good acting which made the characters feel memorable. Gotta watch it again later some time.

[Agiel]

 

 

I haven't seen it yet

 

But you guys don't seem too enthused with it

 

:/

 

 

 

Don't get me wrong, I had a good time (however for my 2017 movies I'd still rank Bladerunner higher, a movie I still had one or two niggles about). There was one scene Laura Dern that made the price of admission and wearing a piece of eyewear worth it, and elicited a collective gasp from the theater.

Edited December 15, 2017 by Agiel

[Blarghagh]

I think that may be the problem with TLJ. It's a collection of awesome moments tied that are held together by dumb connective tissue.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I got drunk and watched Jackie Brown. What happened to that Tarantino?

I think that may be the problem with TLJ. It's a collection of awesome moments tied that are held together by dumb connective tissue.

Sounds lile real life.

[Malcador]

I think that may be the problem with TLJ. It's a collection of awesome moments tied that are held together by dumb connective tissue.

So it's a CoD game ?

[Katphood]

One thing I didn't like about the new Blade Runner movie was that...well, where are the humans?! I think I saw more synths/androids/replicants/whatever than actual humans.

[Enoch]

Kids are at Grandma's, so the wife and I went to an 8AM showing of TLJ.  (An acronym which I still associate mostly with The Longest Journey.)

 

 

For my part, some it was very good and some of it wasn't.  I loved everything about Hamill's performance in this film.  The Rey-Ren stuff was also very good, for my money.  I liked the character element of the Finn-Rose arc, but everything they were given to do was just stupid.  Worst character by a mile is Poe.  Cool stuff happens when he's in an X-Wing, sure, but otherwise he's a total bore.  And the whole mutiny/casino nonsense stemming from a rom-com style "there would be no problem if you people just talked to each other!" mix-up (why didn't Purplehair just give Poe, etc., some assurance that she had a plan with a chance of success?) was infuriating.

 

Although I do enjoy Driver's performance as Ren, I also agree with what others have posted about the villains all looking dumb.  Gen. Ginger McSideburns' only moment of competence (enabling the lightspeed tracking trick) was off-screen technobabble-- he'd come across much better had that been the result of something clever that the audience actually got to see him do.  Snoke in TFA presented an interesting mystery, and he started this film as a suitably menacing threat, but they overexposed him and dumped him so quickly.  There was potential there, but now he'll be remembered as another Dooku with a slightly less silly name.  With enemies like this, it's hard to believe that the fate of the resistance rests with the few survivors who fly away on the Falcon at the end--Ren and McSideburns' bumbling malice will surely bring plentiful (and effective) resistance wherever it goes.

 

I am very confused about Republic/Resistance rank structure.  Poe is called Commander, a General demotes him, and then a Vice Admiral calls him Captain.  Huh?

 

Shiny Stormtrooper Chick was a much more egregious "just here for the toy sales" gimmick than the Porgiewoks.

 

I see potential going forward.  If Ep. 9 gives us heavy doses of Rey-Ren, Finn-Rose, and BB8-R2D2 interactions, building on what we've seen from those characters so far, I'd probably like it very much.

 

Edited December 17, 2017 by Enoch

[Fiach]

The Foreigner

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1 615160/

 

https://youtu.be/33iuQu3UtjI

 

Jackie Chan's daughter is killed by an IRA splinter group bomb. Aging Jackie wants names, so he starts kicking IRA ass until he gets some, preying on duplicitous EX IRA , now politician Pierce Brosnan.

As the story unfolds, it turns out Jackie is ex special forces who served in 'Nam .

 

Bloody good movie as Jackie schools the terrorists on urban and rural terrorism.

 

Another good movie , in a similar vein is '71, about a British soldier stranded behind enemy lines one night in Belfast as he tries to get back to his barracks, taking no sides, the movie takes a kind of Ulyssesian type of odyssey as he encounters many factions on his journey.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2614684/?ref_=nv_sr_1

 

https://youtu.be/J-BaKfl1Ms4

Edited December 18, 2017 by Fiach

[aluminiumtrioxid]

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​Az Ember Tragediaja or the Tragedy of Man (2011). Really unusual animated Polish film that looks at creation, the advancing of civilization and the human condition through the eyes of Adam and Satan, starting at the Garden of Eden, to Rome and then the Renaissance, the present and then a proposed future. It had its peaks and valleys, but overall was a decent watch. Super weird, though, and definitely not for children.

​

​

 

For shame, dude. It's a Hungarian movie, based on one of the, like, three good plays the country has collectively managed to **** out over the centuries  "Marcell Jankovics" doesn't even sound Polish!

[Bartimaeus]

Oops. Yeah, Polish, not Hungarian. Good call, .