OT: Let's talk about movies (and TV shows)... Part V

[DAChampion]

Dracula Untold (2014)
Rotten Tomatoes: 25%
IMDB: 5.9/10
Directed by: Gary Shore
Screenplay by Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless

One of the screenwriters for Dracula Untold has the name "Sharpless", and I find that fitting as this is the worst movie I've seen in 2014, the worst movie I've seen since Thor 2. It's dark, boring, stupid, and uninspired from beginning to end, an endless sequence of cliche plot points strung together from beginning to end, unseamlessly and typically irrationally. We have the son whose love for his father motivates him to be good, the loving beautiful wife who lives only to support her almighty heroic husband, the dumb religious people blinded by faith, the characters who fall of a ledge but are able to hang on with their two hands for a moment, the weapons created by the protagonist who became too dangerous, he innocent child who has a british accent only to seem more important, the racist caricatures of the enemy as greedy and dumb and misogynystic, et cetera.

A lot of scenes are recognisable from Man of Steel and Amazing Spider Man 2. Remember when Superman cries in agony after kiling Zod? Dracula cries out in agony in exactly the same way ... in several independent scenes. Reemember how Parker's web makes a hand to save Gwen after she falls but he fails? Dracula has that scene too, he reaches down to try and catch his wife and his hand stretches out, but he barely fails and he holds her as she dies.

This was... really bad. I'm in awe as to how something this awful can be made... even the camera movement was bad, throughout the first 20 minutes I felt like the camera was too close to the action, and I had trouble following and I was getting dizzy. There's also the casting failures that a lot of the actors look alike, so I don't remember who was who other than 4 or 5 characters, of whom I can only remember two names. But beyond that ... endless series of cliche.

Grade: F

*******


Ongoing ranking of 2014 movies, within each grade the movies are unranked and are sorted by order in which I watched them. I'm using a coarse grading scheme (no decimal places lol) as an exercise.

A grade: Noah, The Lego Movie, Grand Budapest Hotel, The Fault in Our Stars, The Edge of Tomorrow, Snowpiercer, Gone Girl
B grade: 300: Rise of an Empire, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Robocop, Divergent, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Guardians of the Galaxy, Maze Runner
C grade: Amazing Spider Man 2, Godzilla
F grade: Dracula Untold
Ungraded: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, "Smetto quando voglio (I can quit anytime I want)”

 

[ClasslessGuy]

Saw neighbors yesterday with the wife. Boring

 

[QuebecPride]

Dracula is not a must-watch, but I liked it. The Villains were pretty good, and I actually learned bits of history, between Romania/Transylvania and Turkey. Fights were pretty cool, the armors were beautiful. It's not the plot of the century, but I feel the critics are very harsh to rate it so badly.

 

[ClasslessGuy]

Volcano on tv. I feel old

 

[Kimota]

Dracula Untold (2014)
Rotten Tomatoes: 25%
IMDB: 5.9/10
Directed by: Gary Shore
Screenplay by Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless

One of the screenwriters for Dracula Untold has the name "Sharpless", and I find that fitting as this is the worst movie I've seen in 2014, the worst movie I've seen since Thor 2. It's dark, boring, stupid, and uninspired from beginning to end, an endless sequence of cliche plot points strung together from beginning to end, unseamlessly and typically irrationally. We have the son whose love for his father motivates him to be good, the loving beautiful wife who lives only to support her almighty heroic husband, the dumb religious people blinded by faith, the characters who fall of a ledge but are able to hang on with their two hands for a moment, the weapons created by the protagonist who became too dangerous, he innocent child who has a british accent only to seem more important, the racist caricatures of the enemy as greedy and dumb and misogynystic, et cetera.

A lot of scenes are recognisable from Man of Steel and Amazing Spider Man 2. Remember when Superman cries in agony after kiling Zod? Dracula cries out in agony in exactly the same way ... in several independent scenes. Reemember how Parker's web makes a hand to save Gwen after she falls but he fails? Dracula has that scene too, he reaches down to try and catch his wife and his hand stretches out, but he barely fails and he holds her as she dies.

This was... really bad. I'm in awe as to how something this awful can be made... even the camera movement was bad, throughout the first 20 minutes I felt like the camera was too close to the action, and I had trouble following and I was getting dizzy. There's also the casting failures that a lot of the actors look alike, so I don't remember who was who other than 4 or 5 characters, of whom I can only remember two names. But beyond that ... endless series of cliche.

Grade: F

*******


Ongoing ranking of 2014 movies, within each grade the movies are unranked and are sorted by order in which I watched them. I'm using a coarse grading scheme (no decimal places lol) as an exercise.

A grade: Noah, The Lego Movie, Grand Budapest Hotel, The Fault in Our Stars, The Edge of Tomorrow, Snowpiercer, Gone Girl
B grade: 300: Rise of an Empire, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Robocop, Divergent, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Guardians of the Galaxy, Maze Runner
C grade: Amazing Spider Man 2, Godzilla
F grade: Dracula Untold
Ungraded: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, "Smetto quando voglio (I can quit anytime I want)â€

I still say AMS 2 takes the cake cause there was not one good scene in it while Dracula Untold had the scene where after Dracula and his vampire horde have killed the Turks and he is with his child and the vampires turn on him. That had some..bite but the rest sucked.

The last good vampire movie I saw was Bizantium by Neil Jordan and Gema Hartintonwhatever. In fact I'm pretty sure they ripped off the turning into a vampire in Dracula Untold from this.

Universal should have made a movie about this guy:

 

[DAChampion]

How do you compare the scene where Gwen dies to the scene where Dracula's wife dies? They were so irritatingly similar.

 

[68*]

just finished watching Gone Girl. It was ok. 7/10

First half was great. Second half was too far-fetched and tedious. I really didn't enjoy the second half.

Just watched it. I agree with you. Good first half but the rest was ridiculous.

 

[DailyKaizen]

Going Chinese...

Anybody watches Chinese movies here? And no, Hong Kong movies don't count

I do...I recommend any and everything to do with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms...

Consider...http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425637/

Anyone who is interested in the nuances of power...politics...war...strategy, tactics...is in for a real treat with this Chinese cultural gem...Enjoy.

 

[Kimota]

How do you compare the scene where Gwen dies to the scene where Dracula's wife dies? They were so irritatingly similar.

Holly ****, I'm LMAO!!! it's true! Man, I can't believe they did that. And in both cases, the girl doesn't really splatter, she is like held comfortably in a bed of cement. Shows how freakin corporate this movie was.

 

[General Fanager]

just finished binge watching The Walking Dead. Its really amazing!!

 

[DAChampion]

Grave of the Fireflies
1988 Film
8.5/10-IMDb
97%-Rotten Tomatoes
Director: Isao Takahata
Production company: Studio Ghibli
Story by: Akiyuki Nosaka
Screenplay: Isao Takahata
Cast: Yoshiko Shinohara, Akemi Yamaguchi, Ayano Shiraishi, Tsutomu Tatsumi

I saw the 1988 animated Japanese film Grave of the Fireflies tonight, it's by Studio Ghibli. The above two images should prove to every single one of you that it's a physically beautiful film, but let me say that it's also an emotionally beautiful film. It warmed my heart throughout, and at the end, it broke my heart.

It follows two siblings in 1945 Japan, the older brother Seita and his younger sister Setsuko. They live in Kobe, Japan which is being frequently firebombed by faceless American bombers. Their mother suffers serious burns in one of the fires, and subsequently dies. We follow the two siblings, as they try and maintain a life for themselves in a crumbling society. We primarily follow Seita as he tries to care for his little sister, which he has a hard time doing since, again, society is crumbling, and he himself has limited skills, though the film teaches us he does have some talent. The things he does to care for his sister are extremely touching.

In western countries, it's naturally perceived to be an anti-war film. That was not the intention of the director, nor is it how it's perceived in Japan.

However, director Takahata repeatedly denied that the film was an anti-war film. In his own words, "[The film] is not at all an anti-war anime and contains absolutely no such message." Instead, Takahata had intended to convey an image of the brother and sister living a failed life due to isolation from society and invoke sympathy particularly in people in their teens and twenties, whom he felt needed to straighten up and respect their elders for the pain and suffering they had experienced during arguably the darkest point in Japan's history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies

I'm having a bit of a trouble wrapping my head on this, he's critical of how society functioned during the war, but he didn't consider it an anti-war film. I don't get quite get it, but he is the genius who put this together so I have to resect that.

All in all, a magnificent film, from animation to score to voice acting to plot to themes.

Grade: A

 

[Brass]

Any great modern war movies or docs that takes us into the action while not
Being phony ( almost impossible i know : )

 

[DAChampion]

I'm watching Breaking Bad for the first time, it's as good as you all said it would be.

 

[mitchmagic]

Saw Maps to the Stars. Film ruled.

 

[Mrb1p]

Dracula Untold (2014)
Rotten Tomatoes: 25%
IMDB: 5.9/10
Directed by: Gary Shore
Screenplay by Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless

One of the screenwriters for Dracula Untold has the name "Sharpless", and I find that fitting as this is the worst movie I've seen in 2014, the worst movie I've seen since Thor 2. It's dark, boring, stupid, and uninspired from beginning to end, an endless sequence of cliche plot points strung together from beginning to end, unseamlessly and typically irrationally. We have the son whose love for his father motivates him to be good, the loving beautiful wife who lives only to support her almighty heroic husband, the dumb religious people blinded by faith, the characters who fall of a ledge but are able to hang on with their two hands for a moment, the weapons created by the protagonist who became too dangerous, he innocent child who has a british accent only to seem more important, the racist caricatures of the enemy as greedy and dumb and misogynystic, et cetera.

A lot of scenes are recognisable from Man of Steel and Amazing Spider Man 2. Remember when Superman cries in agony after kiling Zod? Dracula cries out in agony in exactly the same way ... in several independent scenes. Reemember how Parker's web makes a hand to save Gwen after she falls but he fails? Dracula has that scene too, he reaches down to try and catch his wife and his hand stretches out, but he barely fails and he holds her as she dies.

This was... really bad. I'm in awe as to how something this awful can be made... even the camera movement was bad, throughout the first 20 minutes I felt like the camera was too close to the action, and I had trouble following and I was getting dizzy. There's also the casting failures that a lot of the actors look alike, so I don't remember who was who other than 4 or 5 characters, of whom I can only remember two names. But beyond that ... endless series of cliche.

Grade: F

*******


Ongoing ranking of 2014 movies, within each grade the movies are unranked and are sorted by order in which I watched them. I'm using a coarse grading scheme (no decimal places lol) as an exercise.

A grade: Noah, The Lego Movie, Grand Budapest Hotel, The Fault in Our Stars, The Edge of Tomorrow, Snowpiercer, Gone Girl
B grade: 300: Rise of an Empire, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Robocop, Divergent, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Guardians of the Galaxy, Maze Runner
C grade: Amazing Spider Man 2, Godzilla
F grade: Dracula Untold
Ungraded: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, "Smetto quando voglio (I can quit anytime I want)â€

Dracula was horrible. There's three aspects that made the movie okay in my mind. The costumes were some of the best I've seen.

If I ever had the chance to be a knight, this is exactly how I'd want to look.

The whole scene after Dracula defeats everyone and his own pack turns against him.

And the fact that everybody in the Turkish army knew who Dracula was and that they elavated him in an almost legendary way, similarly to how it was in real life. Also loved the line men don’t fear swords, but they do fear monsters, which comes back to the way Vlad has been perceived throughout history.

Aside from that .. Pretty much below average.

Any great modern war movies or docs that takes us into the action while not
Being phony ( almost impossible i know : )

Did not see Fury, but I've heard good critics.

What is modern ? Jarhead, The hurt locker, Act of valor, Max manus, the kingdom, band of brothers, Schindlers, Defiance, The pianist, Sophie Scholl, Valkyrie, Hornest nest, Last days in vietnam are all movies I enjoyed/interested me.

I'm watching Breaking Bad for the first time, it's as good as you all said it would be.

It gets even better.

 

[gunnerdom]

I think he made one great flick and it's Se7en. And I enjoyed the Game.

I really loved the Game. I found it really entertaining, to my surprise.

Fight Club and Se7en are classics. Especially Se7en (probably my favourite ending to a movie).

 

[Mrb1p]

I'm McConaughey binging today. How can this guy put out a tv show for the ages, a cameo in one of the best movie this year and make two other oscar worthy movie in a year ?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I'm watching Breaking Bad for the first time, it's as good as you all said it would be.

Aaaawww yeah!

 

[Mrb1p]

Watched Fury. Aside from the last scene, which was really Michael Bay, it's the best war movie I've seen since... heck I don't even know.

 

[Barriwhite]

Dat Hannibal season 2 finale though.

 

[ninjagaiden]

I'm McConaughey binging today. How can this guy put out a tv show for the ages, a cameo in one of the best movie this year and make two other oscar worthy movie in a year ?

Mud was really good.

 

[Redux91]

Grave of the Fireflies
1988 Film
8.5/10-IMDb
97%-Rotten Tomatoes
Director: Isao Takahata
Production company: Studio Ghibli
Story by: Akiyuki Nosaka
Screenplay: Isao Takahata
Cast: Yoshiko Shinohara, Akemi Yamaguchi, Ayano Shiraishi, Tsutomu Tatsumi

I saw the 1988 animated Japanese film Grave of the Fireflies tonight, it's by Studio Ghibli. The above two images should prove to every single one of you that it's a physically beautiful film, but let me say that it's also an emotionally beautiful film. It warmed my heart throughout, and at the end, it broke my heart.

It follows two siblings in 1945 Japan, the older brother Seita and his younger sister Setsuko. They live in Kobe, Japan which is being frequently firebombed by faceless American bombers. Their mother suffers serious burns in one of the fires, and subsequently dies. We follow the two siblings, as they try and maintain a life for themselves in a crumbling society. We primarily follow Seita as he tries to care for his little sister, which he has a hard time doing since, again, society is crumbling, and he himself has limited skills, though the film teaches us he does have some talent. The things he does to care for his sister are extremely touching.

In western countries, it's naturally perceived to be an anti-war film. That was not the intention of the director, nor is it how it's perceived in Japan.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies

I'm having a bit of a trouble wrapping my head on this, he's critical of how society functioned during the war, but he didn't consider it an anti-war film. I don't get quite get it, but he is the genius who put this together so I have to resect that.

All in all, a magnificent film, from animation to score to voice acting to plot to themes.

Grade: A

Seen it a couple times...rough ending... get choked up. i always thought they could pull off a fantastic live action version of this film, where as making one of say, akira, would be just way too hard

 

[Redux91]

Watched Fury. Aside from the last scene, which was really Michael Bay, it's the best war movie I've seen since... heck I don't even know.

Ah last scene was not micheal bay cmon, it was a fantastic battle, really intense

insane movie, really enjoyed it, the canonfire and bullets WHISTLING by peoples heads really had you on the edge of your seat

havent seen a good WWII like that since saving private ryan easily,

only scene i wasnt too crazy about was the dinner scene, felt odd the whole time

 

[MasterDecoy]

Dat Hannibal season 2 finale though.

that one threw me for a giant wtf loop

 

[KrejciMVP]

The Walking Dead started off pretty good so far. Last season tired me out with all the walking through the woods scenes.