Movies you've just watched

[Mischief Maker]

Just caught Edge of Tomorrow. Great flick!

...and by great I mean I never facepalmed. How the standards have slipped in this age of, "Transformers 4 may be a shit sandwich, but LOOK how thick they sliced the bread!"

Huge double standard in this post. Edge of Tomorrow isn't a "great flick", even by popcorn standards.
If the rationale is never facepalming you must have missed the entire cast of squaddies with their cringeworthy delivery and lamentable excuse for performances. I palmed.

It's entertaining enough if you ignore the holes and regrettable casting/acting and dialogue - exactly like Transformers 4. The two aren't that dissimilar, actually: both ultimately disposal nonsense, both superior disposable nonsense to Godzilla.

Only trick is, you ain't seen one of them.

Once upon a time I was bombarded by similar comments. "You can't say Revenge of the Sith is a bad movie unless you've seen it yourself! It's the BEST of the prequels!" Never again.

Even if Transformers 4 is nothing but action scenes, the action scenes in transformers movies are terrible. Matrix slowmo dive through the air shots are cool when it's a human being, but when they started doing it with robots in "I, Robot" it was incredibly stupid because who cares that a machine is doing physical acts that are humanly impossible? Take that level of stupidity, make the brawling robots look like Tetsuo the Iron Man masturbating, and you have the Transformers movies.

In Edge of Tomorrow, other than the comic relief fat guy piloting his mech suit nude, I don't see what about the squad has you rolling your eyes like Dr. Smith and saying, "Oh, the pain!" The movie makes perfectly clear that as a deserter, Cruise is being paired with the loser squad. No, the movie doesn't have any character-building moments for them, because such scenes are unnecessary to the narrative. In fact, the movie expresses very clearly to the audience that they're not supposed to be asking nitpicky questions when...

Spoiler

...the old men are speculating in the bar why the aliens are invading and Cruise just says, "Does it matter?" Every scifi action movie can maintain suspension of disbelief if the boundaries of its rules are clear, and this movie tips its hat to the audience's intelligence with that line. As opposed to, "Wait, what? Transformers can turn into humans now?

I hate to break it to you, Skykid, but you've gone overboard in the cynicism department. You won't even countenance that Heat had a subtext, the blatant commentary underlying Roger Rabbit went over your head, and were you the guy saying the slowmo scenes in Dredd weren't a visual metaphor for the allure of drugs? I imagine all this cynicism must be exhausting for your soul. What a pity the moment you decided to release the icy death-grip on your heart was while watching Michael Bay's 3 hour long bowel movement.

[Skykid]

I'll have to deal with you tomorrow man, I'm way too drunk.

I don't remember ever saying such things about Dredd though - got a quote?

[Some-Mist]

watched Terry Gilliam's "The Zero Theorem" starring Christoph Waltz... and holy crap was Christoph amazing. The visuals remind me a lot of the futuristic timeline of "Mr. Nobody" with eye candy at every turn. The last 10 minutes were kind of disappointing, but for a philosophical movie about "the meaning of life" (pretty cliche for art films now adays) it was pretty powerful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWgPnQi-XG4

I'd probably say it's my favorite of this year (so far) followed by Dance of Reality and The Grand Budapest hotel.

[BrianC]

I watched both How to Train Your Dragon movies, the first one Blu Ray from Netflix and the second at the theater yesterday. Both were good stuff. I like how the characters are young adults in the sequel and how it gets a bit more dark at times. I find it sad how stuff like Tammy is doing better in the box office than the second How to Train Your Dragon.

[Acid King]

Odd Thomas - A poor horror/sci fi/comedy. The tone is all over the place and the baddies don't live up to the promise of the protagonists powers.

I Wake Up Screaming - Either a proto-noir melodrama or a very early example of film noir depending on who you ask. This leans heavier on the romantical aspects, but the setup and much of the visuals are firmly in hardboiled noirland. Betty Grable looks as good as you would expect and Victor Mature plays it pretty much the same as Kiss of Death, but again, like Kiss of Death, he's overshadowed by the antagonists. Some nice photography though and worth checking out, despite the middle dragging a bit.

Crowley was off his nut on huge doses of LSD and Heroin.

Where was he getting LSD? It wasn't synthesized until 1938, Hofmann didn't trip until until 1943, and Crowley died in '47.

[President_Obama]

Mushrooms then, Jesus. Hurrah for you mate, here's your fucking medal.

[Skykid]

Once upon a time I was bombarded by similar comments. "You can't say Revenge of the Sith is a bad movie unless you've seen it yourself! It's the BEST of the prequels!" Never again.

I feel like I'm having my own logic used against me. Generally speaking you're correct, but in this instance only half so. Transformers 4 is a piece of shit, as I said so often already - it just happens to have come of age in terms of finding a way to be entertaining as opposed to unwatchable. If that were coming from anyone else I'd understand your pessimism. But whatever, I didn't expect it to be a pill that went down easy since it still qualifies as garbage.

Even if Transformers 4 is nothing but action scenes, the action scenes in transformers movies are terrible.

Actually in T4 they're pretty good, all things considered.

In Edge of Tomorrow, other than the comic relief fat guy piloting his mech suit nude, I don't see what about the squad has you rolling your eyes like Dr. Smith and saying, "Oh, the pain!" The movie makes perfectly clear that as a deserter, Cruise is being paired with the loser squad.

Oh so that was it. Because it's loser squad it also requires loser actors and loser dialogue to go with it. Silly me, there I was thinking film screenplays had some other kind of responsibilities.

No, the movie doesn't have any character-building moments for them, because such scenes are unnecessary to the narrative.

Jesus. Could you be any more forgiving?

In fact, the movie expresses very clearly to the audience that they're not supposed to be asking nitpicky questions when...

...the old men are speculating in the bar why the aliens are invading and Cruise just says, "Does it matter?" Every scifi action movie can maintain suspension of disbelief if the boundaries of its rules are clear, and this movie tips its hat to the audience's intelligence with that line.

I guess that's a yes.

In all honesty if that's your grade for dialogue "tipping its hat to the audience's intelligence" I really don't think I should be bothering to have a conversation with you. In all the great scripts out there and those of them I've enjoyed, Tom Cruise saying "does it matter" doesn't quite qualify with the stop Dave's, my mind is going contingent. It's an average, cliche, borderline lazy retort that was consistent with the rest of the movie's base Hollywood scripting, and absolutely nothing more.

I hate to break it to you, Skykid, but you've gone overboard in the cynicism department. You won't even countenance that Heat had a subtext

I appreciate your interpretation of a distinctly average movie, but that doesn't mean it's accurate. You're affording an amoeba brained director with far too much credit.

the blatant commentary underlying Roger Rabbit went over your head

The thing about the cable cars? It wasn't a subtext that exactly leapt out at me when I was eight years old. Back then I just wanted to see cartoon rabbit get flattened by a mallet.

and were you the guy saying the slowmo scenes in Dredd weren't a visual metaphor for the allure of drugs?

Citation needed. I don't remember saying such a thing.

I imagine all this cynicism must be exhausting for your soul. What a pity the moment you decided to release the icy death-grip on your heart was while watching Michael Bay's 3 hour long bowel movement.

Cynicism is what I live for, as long as I strive for accuracy to compliment it. You can include Expendables 2, Maleficent and Edge of Tomorrow alongside the relinquishing of the the icy death-grip thingy. But not Godzilla. That was fucking awful.

[Acid King]

Mushrooms then, Jesus. Hurrah for you mate, here's your fucking medal.

Nice edit. Maybe next time you can just not shit out factually inaccurate statements, ya cunt.

[President_Obama]

Fucking pedant spacker

You're the cunt you fucking asshole. Getting on like a fucking spacker over the 'difference' between LSD and mushrooms.
Awesome. What do you do for an encore? Suicide I hope. Skullfuck yourself into a fine mist you fucking joyless travesty and take your ma's face for a shite

[Acid King]

....Annnnd another fine edit! This time just an added insult? You're getting lazy, ya cunt.

[President_Obama]

Ungh fuck, you're one of them...

[President_Obama]

Take your sadness out on someone else champ.

[Obiwanshinobi]

"LSD" triggered alarm in my head as well, but only because I thought Crowley was a dude of the twenties, not because hallucinations weren't a thing at the time.

[President_Obama]

Get out more.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Just been home for an hour or so now, thanks.

[President_Obama]

I don't want your 'life' story.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Thanks for sharing the sentiment.

[President_Obama]

Fuck off now or I'll make you cry.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm posting a post.

[Ghegs]

I'm posting a temp ban. Back to regularly scheduled topic.

[BryanM]

That AVGN interview with Lloyd Kaufman... Lloyd is an amazing human being. He just talks and it's fucking hilarious. Even when he's absolutely legit livid and pissed at someone, he's hilarious.

They have a lot of their old movies up for free on Youtube. Lots of grindhouse style exploitation films; borderline pornography at times. There's also a lot of documentaries, which range the gamut from terribly sad (catching the cancer always is) to dreadful. I love how much they hate making movies; how it's not something they want to do it's just something they have to do. Poor OCD bastards; I completely understand.

"I was ready to walk out. But no, that would have been too easy." -- Roger Ebert on Mother's Day

[jonny5]

[BrianC]

Personally, in the first Transformers, I liked the scenes with the Transformers more than the scenes with the humans (which isn't saying much), especially when it came to Prime or Megatron. I was still lukewarm about the designs and wasn't impressed by the movie as a whole, though. I haven't bothered with any of the sequels.

I also liked Edge of the Tomorrow quite a bit. Not the biggest Tom Cruise fan, but he was entertaining here. I also liked Emily Blunt in the movie. My favorite scene was the scene where she was driving around with that trailer. I wasn't bothered by the other recruits since they were minor characters and the focus was more on Rita and William Cage.

[Skykid]

I wasn't bothered by the other recruits since they were minor characters and the focus was more on Rita and William Cage.

Audience: wow, that guy can't act for shit, he looks like an extra from Jersey Shore.

Director: Oh it's ok, he's a secondary character.

Audience: Holy Maria, that scientist is so awful he's making my very soul cringe with every poorly delivered line, and his dialogue is clumsy as fuck.

Director: Not a problem, he's only a temporary sidekick to the main character.

Audience: That trio of supposed comic relief counterparts are so badly cast, written and implemented it's lowering the entire movie in quality terms and making me ask questions about the director's ability and commitment to making a watchable movie.

Director: It's ok, they're part of a larger ensemble totalling five, one of which is the main character, who should make up for it since he's a famous billionaire celebrity.

Audience: Fuck you.

Director: Thanks for your money. Be sure to tell all your friends it's a great flick and we'll make you a sequel.

[Ixmucane2]

Transformers 4

I plan to skip it, like the first three.

You're next

A nice slasher. At a family reunion in an isolated house, mysterious killers with creepy animal masks (as amply shown in promotional material but not when they make their appearance) begin to hunt them. Around halfway through the film, their purpose is suddenly revealed in full and their identity is explained enough to treat them as proper characters.
The heroine, and more or less the protagonist, is Erin, the girlfriend of one of the sons. She is unusually effective for her character type, as can be seen from statistics:

• 16 characters, 15 dead at the end.
• Axe to the head: 2
• Crossbow to the head: 1
• Stabbed: 3
• Slit throat: 2
• Machete: 1
• Generic close combat and bludgeoning, unclear, or offscreen: 5
• Too fun to spoil: 1
  Spoiler

  Blender
• Killed by the bad guys: 8 good guys
• Killed by Erin: 6 bad guys and an idiot

On the whole, characters aren't very stupid, only slightly optimistic; and some of this optimism doesn't even cause death. There are a number of silly lines and moments that characters take very seriously, and nice touches like "hiding" a wounded character with the tacit purpose of letting him die alone.

The plot isn't very original, but at least it is straightforward and focused. There are so many people to kill that no time is wasted.

[BrianC]

You missed my point. I didn't find the supporting cast in Edge of Tomorrow to be offensively bad or to detract from the movie. I felt the presence was minor and innoffensive. I wasn't saying that bad acting is ok becuase of minor characters, I was saying that I found the characters to inoffensive becuase they don't detract from the main focus of the movie. I liked Bill Paxton, as well.

[Skykid]

You missed my point. I didn't find the supporting cast in Edge of Tomorrow to be offensively bad or to detract from the movie. I felt the presence was minor and innoffensive. I wasn't saying that bad acting is ok becuase of minor characters, I was saying that I found the characters to inoffensive becuase they aren't the main focus. I liked Bill Paxton, as well.

I liked Bill Paxton.

I found everyone else, with the mild exception of Blunt, to be offensively bad and detract from the quality of the movie.

[drauch]

Was out of town for work and missed all the drama. 'Tis a shame!

I think that was me who disagreed on the drug metaphor in Dredd, by the way.

[Skykid]

Hellboy 2


Pretty good fun. Props to Del Toro's screenplay and artistry, the visual design in this is absolutely out this world, and there's a very impressive number of sets and props being used, as well as a pragmatic blend of CG and scale models. One of the best original fantasy visualisations I've ever seen, but Del Toro has that remarkable imagination going for him.

Plot, acting and script are all intermediate, but never offensive, so on the whole it hangs together well. A really positive comic to film transfer outside of the Marvel stable.

[cools]

What did you think of the first one? I found the sequel didn't leave quite as lasting an impression as the original, which I've watched multiple times.