What was the last movie you've seen?

Post by **MrPopo** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 2:28 am

marurun wrote:
MrPopo wrote:Jupiter Ascending.

I have no idea what the hell I just watched.
Did it keep you entertained, if clueless?

The movie definitely brought the spectacle.

Post by **samsonlonghair** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 11:51 am

I watched it too. I want you guys to know that I really do love movies. I don't set out to immediately hate every movie I see. That said, here we go...

Jupiter Ascending
Jupiter Ascending gives you the visual flair you expect from the Wachowskis. The space scenes are gorgeous with shots of Planet Jupiter's famous unending hurricane. The quasi-immortal great red spot of Planet Jupiter is a visual metaphor for the villainous house Abrasax who extend their own lives for millennia by consuming planets. The character Jupiter Jones is also gorgeous. I felt like I was in danger of falling right into the pools Mila Kunis's big brown eyes. This movie gives the audience an abundance of eye candy, but is there any steak and potatoes under all that sugar?

Let's talk about world building for a moment, or in this case world borrowing. In Jupiter Ascending we see noble families trying to take control of galactic resources as in the Dune franchse. Indeed the family Abrasax sounds an awful lot like Planet Arrakis, no? We see lizardmen from the D&D franchise. We see genetically spliced animal people from James Cameron's Dark Angel series. I get the impression that the Wachowskis wanted to build up an elaborate mythos to make their own franchise, but I don't see this movie turning into a trilogy anytime soon.

I'll give the filmmakers credit for tackling the issue of first world over-consumption, but they go about it in such an obtuse way. The bad guys live by killing everyone on a planet. That's it. There's No nuance, no depth, just evil people who extend their lives by consuming yours.

I'll end this review on a positive note by saying that Eddie Redmayne really surprised me as a great villainous actor. In a movie this stupidly blunt, Redmayne was the one actor who supplied some much-needed subtlety. I'll probably be exploring his imdb page later to see what other films he has acted in since The Other Boleyn Girl.

The Verdict: Watch this on DVD or Netflix. Skip the theatre.

Post by **Pulsar_t** » Mon Feb 09, 2015 11:47 am

2014 was a bloody good year for film.

Anyone seen Boyhood? It won at the Baftas.

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Mon Feb 09, 2015 3:53 pm

My wife really, really enjoys Agent Carter. (Seriously, she loves that show.) And, since we have enjoyed the show so much, we decided to watch Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Whereas, Captain America: The First Avenger contends with Iron Man 2 for the duboius distinction of worst MCU film, I think that Captain America: The Winter Soldier contends with Iron Man for the honor of best MCU film. It was consistently entertaining; the atmosphere and setting were excellent; and the action sequences were spectacular. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Post by **Sload Soap** » Mon Feb 09, 2015 3:58 pm

Pulsar_t wrote:2014 was a bloody good year for film.

Anyone seen Boyhood? It won at the Baftas.

No, but I heard it took twelve years to make.

Post by **nullPointer** » Mon Feb 09, 2015 5:52 pm

prfsnl_gmr wrote:Whereas, Captain America: The First Avenger contends with Iron Man 2 for the duboius distinction of worst MCU film, I think that Captain America: The Winter Soldier contends with Iron Man for the honor of best MCU film. It was consistently entertaining; the atmosphere and setting were excellent; and the action sequences were spectacular. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I first saw The Winter Soldier this summer during a flight from Minneapolis, MN to Orlando, FL. We were traveling with our twin girls (age 5) though, so it was a far cry from what one might call an optimal viewing experience.

So fast forward to the present; my wife and I watched The First Avenger and Winter Soldier back to back last night. I have to say your assessment is spot on. The First Avenger does a few things right, and had the potential to be awesome, but ultimately winds up as a missed opportunity. You know something has gone terribly wrong when the best scenes in the film are the ones featuring Steve Rogers prior to his becoming Captain America. The WWII setting is rife with opportunity for fantastic vignettes of the Cap knocking some Nazi heads together, but it's an opportunity that's almost completely overlooked. Hugo Weaving puts in a solidly diabolical performance as Red Skull, and it's alwasy fun to see Tommy Lee Jones ... being Tommy Lee Jones, but the few decent performances here are not enough to salvage the film. It just never really gels. The lack of effective action scenes and overwhelming moments of cheesiness prove to be detrimental. Furthermore despite some rather nice portrayals of WWII America and Europe, the design team widely missed the mark in terms of well presented retro-futuristic elements (essentially any of the Hydra weaponry). Given the amount quality dieselpunk design available for inspiration (I'm looking at you Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), that part should have an easy gimme.

The Winter Soldier rights many of the wrongs committed in the first film. Among other things I think the sequel nails the classic anachronistic theme of Captain America being "a man out of time" when set against the backdrop of post 9/11 America. The action scenes are fantastic (Black Widow is a longtime favorite of mine), and it's a pretty impeccable example of how proper pacing in an action film should be done. Lastly the 'long game payoff' reveal harkening back to the first movie is well planed and neatly executed. If not for this last bit the first Captain America could (and possibly should) be skipped all together.

Post by **Ack** » Mon Feb 09, 2015 6:16 pm

Robin and the 7 Hoods

I don't care who is in it, or that it got nominated for an Academy Award(for best song), or that it is the last of the real Rat Pack trilogy of films. For me, this movie is a beautiful train wreck. Watch this movie if you want to see Sammy Davis, Jr., tap dance on a bar top while shooting two pistols, if you want to see Frank Sinatra singing about how much he loves Chicago while dressed like a leprechaun, if you want to see Bing Crosby dance with children, if you want to see Peter Falk have a musical number! I just can't take this movie seriously...

...which is probably the point. It's obvious that everyone involved was goofing off and having fun. There are gags galore, and the whole production is ridiculous. It's the story of Robin Hood, but it's like Guys and Dolls, but less serious, yet still keeping to a "bad guys lose" message while showing how evil women's groups are and making sure that not all the bad guys lose...just the hero bad guys. And there are lots of jokes about burying people in cement blocks. I just, I just....wow.

Parasite

Hey, it's Demi Moore! This is her second film, and she was only 20 at the time. But she's not the hero of the film, she's a young woman with a passion for growing lemons and wearing baggy pants. Instead, our hero is Bob Glaudini, who plays Dr. Paul Dean. Instead of cooking up things in the kitchen, he cooks up exotic new parasites for the government, thinking somehow that this will be a good thing. It's not, and the good doctor gets himself infected by one of the parasites he created. So he takes another parasite to experiment on, kills the rest, and flees. But in this post-apocalyptic wasteland, where runaway inflation and a mega business guild known only as the Merchants has effectively taken over the government and instituted Soviet-style work camps, Paul has little hope. He's now being pursued by one of the Merchants' own, a one-gloved assassin named Wolf, and his parasite is slowly growing in size.

If you haven't figured it out yet, the name that is tingling in the back of your mind is "Alien." Yep, it's an alien knock off, with a Stan Winston-created blood sucking worm with a killer smile that loves to sink its teeth into things and explode out of old women's faces. Unfortunately it also takes its dear sweet time showing up on screen, so we have to watch a good 45 minutes of characters trying to develop and an "evil" group of wasteland teenagers try to appear threatening. And there's the crazy fake rape scene at the beginning too, in which I guess the tied up woman went insane and develop Stockholm syndrome real quick and helps her tormentors attack the guy who just rescued her. High art, this is not.

So what are the highlights? The parasite, when it finally shows up. Most everything else is filler, and while there are a couple of interesting characters in the post apocalyptic wasteland, most are either stereotypes(angry gas station guy, friendly old man, valiant but scarred African American supporting cast member) or they are woefully pathetic(teenage kids). Unfortunately, the big villain falls into that second category. Wolf is about as menacing as a Wall Street stockbroker armed with a laser pointer, and outside of the few times he gets the drop on someone, he's about as effective. I can pull better evil out of my ass, dude!

Above all, I found this film middle of the road. It's not so terrible as to become laughable, but there isn't enough to make this even approach the idea of a good movie. And there are awkward mistakes, like the closeups of a man being burned to death which show it's obviously a stunt guy in a fire suit that's about twice as big as the guy getting burned, or a kid getting his ear cut off and then having it much later.

Post by **J T** » Mon Feb 09, 2015 6:40 pm

Pulsar_t wrote:2014 was a bloody good year for film.

Anyone seen Boyhood? It won at the Baftas.

I did and I loved it.

Post by **samsonlonghair** » Tue Feb 10, 2015 4:55 am

nullPointer wrote:
prfsnl_gmr wrote:Whereas, Captain America: The First Avenger contends with Iron Man 2 for the duboius distinction of worst MCU film, I think that Captain America: The Winter Soldier contends with Iron Man for the honor of best MCU film. It was consistently entertaining; the atmosphere and setting were excellent; and the action sequences were spectacular. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I first saw The Winter Soldier this summer during a flight from Minneapolis, MN to Orlando, FL. We were traveling with our twin girls (age 5) though, so it was a far cry from what one might call an optimal viewing experience.

So fast forward to the present; my wife and I watched The First Avenger and Winter Soldier back to back last night. I have to say your assessment is spot on. The First Avenger does a few things right, and had the potential to be awesome, but ultimately winds up as a missed opportunity. You know something has gone terribly wrong when the best scenes in the film are the ones featuring Steve Rogers prior to his becoming Captain America. The WWII setting is rife with opportunity for fantastic vignettes of the Cap knocking some Nazi heads together, but it's an opportunity that's almost completely overlooked. Hugo Weaving puts in a solidly diabolical performance as Red Skull, and it's alwasy fun to see Tommy Lee Jones ... being Tommy Lee Jones, but the few decent performances here are not enough to salvage the film. It just never really gels. The lack of effective action scenes and overwhelming moments of cheesiness prove to be detrimental. Furthermore despite some rather nice portrayals of WWII America and Europe, the design team widely missed the mark in terms of well presented retro-futuristic elements (essentially any of the Hydra weaponry). Given the amount quality dieselpunk design available for inspiration (I'm looking at you Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), that part should have an easy gimme.

The Winter Soldier rights many of the wrongs committed in the first film. Among other things I think the sequel nails the classic anachronistic theme of Captain America being "a man out of time" when set against the backdrop of post 9/11 America. The action scenes are fantastic (Black Widow is a longtime favorite of mine), and it's a pretty impeccable example of how proper pacing in an action film should be done. Lastly the 'long game payoff' reveal harkening back to the first movie is well planed and neatly executed. If not for this last bit the first Captain America could (and possibly should) be skipped all together.

These are cases where my expectations influence my assessments of a movies.

I expected Captain America: The First Avenger to stink up the theatre. I was impressed that this movie made steve rogers likeable, told a good story, had charismatic villain, and helped unify the franchise. I didn't expect a good movie, so I was pleasantly surprised.

I liked Captain America: Winter soldier even more. I shouldn't, but I do. I don't generally enjoy spy movies, which is basically what this movie is. The hero uncovers a conspiracy, finds corruption at home (imagine that), goes rogue, blows stuff up, unmasks a double-agent and saves the western world. This is basically the plot to every James Bond, Mission Impossible, and Jason Bourne movie ever made. Despite falling into this old formula, I enjoyed Winter Soldier more than I expected to. Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson are more likeable than Pierce Brosnan and Roger Moore teaming up with George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton to punch Daniel Craig in the nose. Also, I found CA: Winter Soldier very timely in regards to the NSA, wikileaks, and the Eric Snowden scandal.

Post by **samsonlonghair** » Tue Feb 10, 2015 1:36 pm

I was going to post this next bit in the "smile/ticked off" thread, but based on its content, thought it was more relevant to the movie thread.

KalessinDB wrote: Mel Brooks talking Spaceballs 2 for semi-serious

Wouldn't do it unless he could get Rick Moranis on board.

Luke wrote:
MrPopo wrote:Spider-Man... Spider-Man... does whatever an Iron Man can...
I really do think that Sony and Disney got together and someone from Sony said "If you can help us not screw up another Spider-Man movie and help make a good one...You can use him too".

This is going to make Civil War oh so much better and intriguing. Meanwhile DC Films must be thinking "Oh shit".

As far as Spaceballs 2 goes, it's not happening unless Joan Rivers is in it too so take that into consideration. Fairly certain all this talk is just Mel reminding Rick that he deeply cares for him.

Regarding Spaceballs sequel talk:
Mel Brooks said the same basic thing ten years ago when Revenge of the Sith was coming out. It's just Hollywood talk. Mel Brooks hasn't directed a movie in twenty years, and when he was directing he didn't make sequels. On the other hand, he did produce a spaceballs animated series in 2008. That's probably the closest thing we're ever going to see to a sequel.

Regarding the Spider-man Sony Pictures / Marvel Studios deal:
I'm glad this deal finally gained traction. I was afraid that talks had stalled out.
The information in this press release tells everything we really know for sure.

I think we can reasonable assume that Spider-man will appear in Captain America: Civil War, which is a relief. The story of Marvel's Civil War crossover just wouldn't be complete without Spidey. I don't think that the Russo Brothers are going to start this off with the Nitro / Speedball Stamford tragedy. Rather, I think that the Age of Ultron incident will be the turning point that leads to the superhuman registration act.

In any case, the next few years are going to be one hell of a ride for Superhero movies.

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