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

[Bloumeister]

Don't want to be mean but that Pour toujours les canadiens movie is garbage

Garbage is offended

 

[MasterDecoy]

While known for his horror novels one of my favorite King book growing up was a book called The Eyes of the Dragon. I met a girl whom I felt was the only other person who's read that book and we talked about it all night.

The last good movie I watched was the American Hustle. 10/10

i found it stylish, but ultimately empty, 7/10

watch three kings if you like Russel

 

[Bryson]

i found it stylish, but ultimately empty, 7/10

watch three kings if you like Russel

Hmm empty? That would best describe the last few movies I watched recently. Finally got around to watching the latest Robocop(couldn't finish), X-men, Transformers, Need for Speed, The Hobbit, Guardians of the Galaxy and Planet of the Apes. Don't know why I can't enjoy these movies any more considering I used to be a huge comic book/video game nerd and Rise of the Planet of the Apes is up there among my favorites.

Edge of Tomorrow was ok.

Watched Three Kings. That was a great movie.

 

[xposbrad]

If it's anything like Smoking Aces (same director) I would have to give it a look. What is it like? non stop action, campy b movie?

It's not too graphic but you could watch it with a gf/wife. Jessica Alba is in it too. It has funny parts, and didn't look at all like a B movie. You will enjoy it for sure. Stretch is amazing.

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

The last good movie I watched was the American Hustle. 10/10

American Hustle was a garbage movie to me. I give that film a very generous 5.5/10. I am glad that this movie didn't get any Oscar.


Five Broken Cameras 8/10 Good documentary.

 

[ThaDevilGirl]

Don't want to be mean but that Pour toujours les canadiens movie is garbage

It's awful. Floating hockey cards!


And I liked American Hustle. Got many laughs out of it.

 

[mitchmagic]

Oh hey, What We Do In the Shadows is one of the best films I've seen all year. Dope dope dope.

 

[peate]

Great finale for The Late Late show with Craig Ferguson last night. He was a genius and it's too bad he quit.

 

[Redux91]

It's awful. Floating hockey cards!


And I liked American Hustle. Got many laughs out of it.

bale was hilarious

"...two dates?"

 

[DAChampion]

Hmm empty? That would best describe the last few movies I watched recently. Finally got around to watching the latest Robocop(couldn't finish), X-men, Transformers, Need for Speed, The Hobbit, Guardians of the Galaxy and Planet of the Apes. Don't know why I can't enjoy these movies any more considering I used to be a huge comic book/video game nerd and Rise of the Planet of the Apes is up there among my favorites.

Edge of Tomorrow was ok.

Watched Three Kings. That was a great movie.

1) I don't share the opinion that Robocop is the worst of those movies.

2) It will always be the case that most blockbusters are mediocre or bad, by definition. However it's weird to me that movies like xmen and guardians score 92% on rotten tomatoes.

Most blockbusters recycle plot points, so as you see more and more of them the effect will be weaker and weaker. They also recycle plot devices, such as blowing up CGI cities, using music to force emotional responses that are not earnedby the script, et cetera.

3) dawn of the planet of the apes had a different writer, different director, and sonewhat different cast from the first movie. I enjoyed Rise more but Dawn has uts strengths. The opening fifteen minutes with all the sign language is awesome. There's also some good cinematography. The part where Koba piints to his scars and says "human work" is good too. I liked the shot of Koba on the tank.

A critique I heard was that the human characters are less interesting than the ape characters. Not one human character has a real arc.

4) For whatever it's worth, if you want suggestions, I rank Noah and Interstellar as the best blockbusters of 2014, and Dracula Untold, Godzilla, and Amazing Spider Man 2 as the worst.i

 

[Habsawce]

Killer Clowns from Outer Space - 11/10, GOAT.

 

[MasterDecoy]

Killer Clowns from Outer Space - 11/10, GOAT.

haha damn son, brings back memories

i counter with attack of the killer tomatoes

 

[Kimota]

The last line is awesome!!

That would explain why there's no missing link(unless you count George Lucas)

 

[Kimota]

According to the stories, the creation of Adam and Eve was indeed "magic" but as soon as they got banished from the garden, **** got real for them (including the pain of multiple childbirths for Eve). The idea is that we're ALL their children (even the really ethnic looking ones among us)

If anything I find the story of Noah to be even more magical than the origin of man. That somehow a wooden boat with "clown-car" properties can hold every kind of animal on the planet (twice) along with food and water to sustain all of them for at least 40 days is a miraculous achievement of bronze-age engineering

Hey maybe they said it was just some wooden boat cause the mortals of the time reading it would never understand the tech.

I personally believe in the teachings of the classic movie Prometheus and we're the offspring of a giant ripped superior being that purposely broke himself down at the top of a waterfall to give rise to a bubble bath of amino acids that would inevitably lead all the way to us contributing to this forum

Magic or no magic, it seems like humans have the romantic notion that we came from a unique origin. Hey I like the big guy with the beard, but if we would learn that there's no magic but we came from weird alien beings, that would nifty. It's almost as cool.

 

[DAChampion]

I saw Nightcrawler tonight. Really good film, with good action sequences that make good use of its 9 million dollar budget, good dialogue, good acting, good story and themes. I was really brought in by the strength of the character and the themes tackled, with the themes themselves being extremely timely.

With that said the movie has a few weak points:

1) The main character, Lou, drives like a maniac. It requires suspension of disbelief to follow him driving recklessly for a few months and not wonder how he hasn't lost his license. In the real world you would lose your license in a week. That's an annoying problem in a movie that otherwise takes place in the real world ... Lou is basically a superhero, he has a superpower of being able to drive recklessly without ever losing his license.

2) The movie's excellent theme is about how ridiculous US News media and its consumers (the people) are for being so interested in the issue of violent crime in white suburban neighbourhoods at the expense of other issues, such as the root causes of said crime, other kinds of crime, or even other kinds of news. That's good, but unfortunate;y the movie is unnervingly heavy-handed in letting us know that this is the theme. It states the theme via dialogue several times.

There's also a completely unnecessary scene at the end where a woman police officer leans down on Jake Gyllenhaal to let him know that he's a murderer. The purpose there is so that we can be disgusted in Gyllenhaal's character, so that we can know that he actually is a bad guy and not a good guy. However, we already know that from the prior events of the film, viewers are already disgusted by that point or at least should be, so the heavy-handedness of that scene is superfluous.

Grade: A

ETA: Was he responsible Bill Paxton driving into the pole?

 

[Kojo]

I saw Nightcrawler tonight. Really good film, with good action sequences that make good use of its 9 million dollar budget, good dialogue, good acting, good story and themes. I was really brought in by the strength of the character and the themes tackled, with the themes themselves being extremely timely.

With that said the movie has a few weak points:

1) The main character, Lou, drives like a maniac. It requires suspension of disbelief to follow him driving recklessly for a few months and not wonder how he hasn't lost his license. In the real world you would lose your license in a week. That's an annoying problem in a movie that otherwise takes place in the real world ... Lou is basically a superhero, he has a superpower of being able to drive recklessly without ever losing his license.

2) The movie's excellent theme is about how ridiculous US News media and its consumers (the people) are for being so interested in the issue of violent crime in white suburban neighbourhoods at the expense of other issues, such as the root causes of said crime, other kinds of crime, or even other kinds of news. That's good, but unfortunate;y the movie is unnervingly heavy-handed in letting us know that this is the theme. It states the theme via dialogue several times.

There's also a completely unnecessary scene at the end where a woman police officer leans down on Jake Gyllenhaal to let him know that he's a murderer. The purpose there is so that we can be disgusted in Gyllenhaal's character, so that we can know that he actually is a bad guy and not a good guy. However, we already know that from the prior events of the film, viewers are already disgusted by that point or at least should be, so the heavy-handedness of that scene is superfluous.

Grade: A

great film but I wouldn't grade it an A.
I thought Gyllenhaal was a master at his craft but otherwise there is no way that this movie is A. B++ maybe but not A. It's a great movie but I think he stole the show, he's a very, very good actor.

 

[Kojo]

ETA: Was he responsible Bill Paxton driving into the pole?

This is what I've been wondering as well.

 

[ninjagaiden]

gone girl

i couldn't get 15 minutes in
it could have been the dialogue

just don't give a ****/10

 

[DAChampion]

Kojo,

What you may not get is the pertinence of the main theme if you live in Canada.

I moved to the USA from Canada in 2007 and lived there until 2012. One thing they do differently is local news ... it's about crime, there's very interesting in showing and discussing black males committing violent crimes against white people. They discuss that and local sports and the weather. It's pervasive and it's distinct from what you grew up with in Canada.

I always thought it was ridiculous when I lived there ... here we have a movie about this issue, and it mocks it from behind. Gyllenhaal's character is nominally a hero we're supposed to cheer for, but really we're supposed to be disgusted with him and by extension with ourselves (those of us who have lived in the USA) for festering this culture where such reckless behaviour is inevitable. The main character wants to work in news so instead of going after homelessness or urban developments or what have you, he goes after the issue of violent crime.

The movie covers this and mostly succeeds in showcasing this culture, our culture, as perverted, disgusting, backwards, and delusional.

However, if you live in Montreal and you're used to watching Dennis Trudeau talk about the Jazz Festival and that's your conception of local news, then the movie won't resonate as much with you.

 

[Kojo]

gone girl

i couldn't get 15 minutes in
it could have been the dialogue

just don't give a ****/10

I thought it was bad too and I still watched the whole thing.

I'll never get back the two hours I wasted.

 

[Kojo]

Kojo,

What you may not get is the pertinence of the main theme if you live in Canada.

I moved to the USA from Canada in 2007 and lived there until 2012. One thing they do differently is local news ... it's about crime, there's very interesting in showing and discussing black males committing violent crimes against white people. They discuss that and local sports and the weather. It's pervasive and it's distinct from what you grew up with in Canada.

I always thought it was ridiculous when I lived there ... here we have a movie about this issue, and it mocks it from behind. Gyllenhaal's character is nominally a hero we're supposed to cheer for, but really we're supposed to be disgusted with him and by extension with ourselves (those of us who have lived in the USA) for festering this culture where such reckless behaviour is inevitable. The main character wants to work in news so instead of going after homelessness or urban developments or what have you, he goes after the issue of violent crime.

The movie covers this and mostly succeeds in showcasing this culture, our culture, as perverted, disgusting, backwards, and delusional.

However, if you live in Montreal and you're used to watching Dennis Trudeau talk about the Jazz Festival and that's your conception of local news, then the movie won't resonate as much with you.

Maybe you're right but I don't believe in this where you live thing, I'm a citizen of the world and I'm quite aware of what happens in our neighbor country. I actually find your last paragraph offensive. You don't need to move to another country to know this. I don't follow world news daily but I'm aware.

Anyway as I've said it's a great film, but to me Gyllenhaal made it greater than it actually is. He's a very good actor, without him this movie would only be average.

 

[KingTux]

Any American Horror Story fan here ? I watched the first 4 episodes and this is quality stuff. I love horror movies, but most of the time they bored the heckyall of me. AHS is taking their time to create a creepy environment and I love it ! So far ill give them a 9/10, and a friend of mine told me its only getting worse (or better, depends on how you see it) episodes after episodes

 

[xposbrad]

I thought it was bad too and I still watched the whole thing.

I'll never get back the two hours I wasted.

I know, 2+ hours and even the ending was garbage..I recommended Stretch to someone else, watch it, you will thank me.

 

[Natey]

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Saw the film on opening night in a packed theatre. Pretty much full except for a few seats up at the front. Surprised we actually managed to find decent seats considering how far back in the line we were.

The first 15 minutes of the film was awesome. I'm not going to posts any detailed spoilers, but anyone who followed the book or watched the previous film knows exactly what happens. It was intense scene with Smaug and overall, very well done. They managed to pack a couple cheesy laughs in the way if you like that sort of thing.

If anyone has seen The Desolation of Smaug, they would have seen Legolas chasing after Bolg at the end of the film on horseback. However, after the opening sequence he appears back with Tauriel, which left me a little confused. Now, like all Hobbit/LOTR films, something very well may have been cut for the extended edition - but it was still strange. Then again, Saruman final scene not being shown in RotK was even worse.

The pacing is a bit weird because after such a high octane opening, the film cools down for awhile, all to set-up the final battle. The middle section of the film is used to character development of the dwarves, and it's very well done. Peter Jackson always seems to get the best out of his actors. It shows the greed and madness that Thorin falls into, while showing Kili (Balin and Dwalin as well) as dwarves who seem to disagree with his new found persona. Martin Freeman is fantastic during this sequence (well, the entire series) as well.

The final battle was very long and I have no issues with that whatsoever. The crazy part is that I feel like most of the cut scenes in the film came during the battle. There were so many gaps in the fight where you're left wondering what happened to a few characters. Normally, I'd have an issue with this but let's be honest - it's going to be in the extended edition, whenever that comes out. As excited as I get for these films, the extended cuts are generally always a point higher.

Now the battle has a lot of one on one battle scenes. I'm sure you can (for the most part) figure them out. They were fairly well done, with one laugh out loud moment (in a good way). There were also a few facepalm moments, but you expect those in these types of films. Suspend reality, right?

Oh, and if you were worried about the dwarf/elf romance stuff - it's very minimal. It plays a part in the beginning of the film and in the final battle, but aside from that it's not going to be shoved down your throats. If you didn't see the extended edition of the Desolation of Smaug, the romance doesn't make too much sense anyway. But in the extended edition, their conversation (while Kili was in prison) is a lot longer and makes the connection better.

Anyway, I enjoyed the movie overall. I know for sure the extended edition will fill in the gaps and be a lot better of a movie, but it's still a fun time to see them in theatres. It's not on the same level as the LOTR films due to reasons mentioned a million times, but it's still a solid trilogy and this was the most fun of the bunch.

IMDB: 8.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 6.4/10 critic, 8.2/10 fan
My Score: 8.0/10

 

[Natey]

Any American Horror Story fan here ? I watched the first 4 episodes and this is quality stuff. I love horror movies, but most of the time they bored the heckyall of me. AHS is taking their time to create a creepy environment and I love it ! So far ill give them a 9/10, and a friend of mine told me its only getting worse (or better, depends on how you see it) episodes after episodes

Season 1 is very good.
Season 2 was incredibly and definitely my favourite (the last two episodes not included as they were pretty bad).
Season 3 was absolutely awful. I couldn't even make it through.

Hopefully Season 4 is better.

And I liked American Hustle. Got many laughs out of it.

I liked it too. Was a little overhyped, but it was still a very good film.