Movies you've just watched

[GaijinPunch]

I thought Bradley Cooper was better in Silver Linings Playbook. A solid date flick. It should appeal to anyone that is somewhat awkward or knows someone that's really awkward. So yeah, that covers basically everyone here like 2-3 times over.

[Skykid]

I thought Bradley Cooper was better in Silver Linings Playbook. A solid date flick. It should appeal to anyone that is somewhat awkward or knows someone that's really awkward. So yeah, that covers basically everyone here like 2-3 times over.

[boagman]

I thought Bradley Cooper was better in Silver Linings Playbook. A solid date flick. It should appeal to anyone that is somewhat awkward or knows someone that's really awkward. So yeah, that covers basically everyone here like 2-3 times over.

I've got no issues with that, but my vote's still going to swing her way a bit. Brad got to shout a bit more, and it's a bit easier to shout your way through things and be seen as a "crazy" than it is to actually use more solidly spoken dialogue, which she did. "He yells, ergo he's crazy" is just a bit too easy in my opinion.

That being said, I thought he did a pretty great job, too, as did basically everyone in the rest of the movie. The cast was pretty stellar, acting-wise. Even Chris Tucker pulled his weight, and that's saying something. Good for him.

I found the movie to be surprisingly good, and coming from a pretty conservative guy like me, that's saying something.

[KindGrind]

What I *really* don't get is people who loved There Will Be Blood (which I also loved) but couldn't get into The Master. In my mind, they're two sides of the same coin.

I think the biggest differences between The Master and There Will Be Blood is that the narrative in the latter goes places.

I was mesmerized by Plainview in the first half hour of TWBB... His dedication, his Voldo-like way of going around... His Eye... When the adventure starts, you understand where he comes from, the hardships, what everything means to him. The edgy score lifts you up and throws you down at will, and PTA knows exactly how to tell you this amazing story. He takes his time, frame by frame, and nothing is rushed. Picture perfect. Hell, I even liked Dano... While obviously not in the same league as the lead, he managed to be very good, never feeling out of place.

In The Master, I felt little connection to Quell. Let's face it, he not exactly a likeable character: socially very awkward, drunk, beats off when he has a chance. I felt uneasy many times during the movie, watching him. Where Plainview fascinated me, Quell put me off. Phoenix really had me believe he was that guy, and it made me feel really weird throughout. If that's not great acting, then I don't know what is... But it was hard for me to watch. Hoffman as the spiritual leader was great. The way he faced the people who "doubted", the silences... The close-ups on his face, as you could see that he himself begins to doubt... which leads me to Adams's character as the underlying force, who admittedly also did very good here. Nothing at fault with the acting. Score was excellent as well. The setup is so well done, with the cult, the boat, the performances, that I felt the movie promised me more. I have to watch again, I think. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't discuss it any more here!

[Skykid]

The Purge: Anarchy


Some ham-fisted dialogue, useless actors, and a bit of an anticlimax don't stop this being far superior to its predecessor. Basically the Manhunt vibe is accurately captured with a splash of Warriors-esque street fear.

The tough guy guy was actually half-decent, pivotal to saving the film from sliding too far toward the mediocrity side of things, and the concept was much more rounded. The relationship between the mother and daughter pair didn't work, they seemed to treat each other like friends, or at best, sisters, and a lot of the violence lacked a proper sense of retribution when the tables flipped - but as a low budget murder-fest I think it's worth a recommendation.

[GaijinPunch]

The cast was pretty stellar, acting-wise. Even Chris Tucker pulled his weight, and that's saying something. Good for him.

Totally forgot about that. He did have a nice little cameo.

I found the movie to be surprisingly good, and coming from a pretty conservative guy like me, that's saying something.

Agreed. As per before... solid date flick. Doesn't make it any less of a movie, just categorizing it by it's content.

don't stop this being far superior to its predecessor.

The only thing that would have helped that movie would have been Lena Heady showing us her box.

[Moniker]

Silver Linings Playbook (Netflix)

Eh... Started out interesting - emotional illness/distress/dysphoria/whatever is a topic that needs better exploration and better integration into basic cultural discussion - in other words, it reminded me a bit of Little Miss Sunshine. But ended up a standard romcom. A good romcom, but still a pretty standard romcom. And latter day De Niro continues to disappoint. Can't help but compare it to Don Jon, which made similar overtures but was ultimately more real and compelling.

That said, it's good to see Chris Tucker up and running. Was beginning to worry after the debacle that was Rush Hour 3 and the subsequent silence.

[Skykid]

^Doesn't sound overly thrilling.

[boagman]

^Doesn't sound overly thrilling.

Which is exactly what I was thinking when I was walking into the theater the first time I saw it.

[BryanM]

You know, I'm not really big on this whole "ACTING!" canard. The common criticisms of something like The Prometheus Trap makes me think, what? If it doesn't look like shit and the people can act, how can you suspend disbelief? People can't act in real life. And when you're looking at something like Prometheus, you might as well be watching a cartoon.

But. There is something that's haunted me for forever.

Nicolas Cage. Can anyone explain why he's in movies to me? Besides the obvious nepotism.

[Skykid]

Nicolas Cage. Can anyone explain why he's in movies to me? Besides the obvious nepotism.

It's a question we will probably never have a satisfactory answer to.

^Doesn't sound overly thrilling.

Which is exactly what I was thinking when I was walking into the theater the first time I saw it.

I get that, but it's a bit different when it's coming from a guy who just watched it.

[boagman]

I get that, but it's a bit different when it's coming from a guy who just watched it.

I watched part of it today. Does that count?

[DEL]

BryanM wrote;

Nicolas Cage. Can anyone explain why he's in movies to me? Besides the obvious nepotism.

Yes I can. Apart from the obvious Ford Coppola nepotism, the answer is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcf4tXYjaxo

[BryanM]

Oh man, that reminds me of that time time I saw National Treasure. : (

Went to the theater with my now-currently ex and a coworker. Now, This coworker was behated at work and that says a lot: programmers tend to be a gentle lot. Keep in mind.

The options at the theater were terrible as they usually always are, but unusually some Japanese children's cartoon was on the menu. Something I never heard of before. I opted for that, but Coworker was like "Nah, I don't like anime. I want to see National Treasure!" This struck me as a bit odd; is this guy really a programmer? Or even a people? But whatever, this was an outing and I didn't care what we watched.

After the movie was over I thought "Man, I wish we watched Steam Boy..." Coworker guy? His opinion was that he really liked National Treasure.

Acclaimed film critic Peter Rosenthal knows how it is.

[jonny5]

The Wolf on Wall Street - Great movie!! Loved everything about it. Didn't even feel like a 3 hr long movie. Much better than I expected and will probably watch again in the near future since the missus fell asleep 20 mins in, as she usually does whenever we throw on a movie

[Some-Mist]

Nicolas Cage. Can anyone explain why he's in movies to me? Besides the obvious nepotism.

not that this is any reason for him to star in anything else, but he was fantastic in adaptation, matchstick men, and raising arizona.

[emphatic]

the missus fell asleep 20 mins in, as she usually does whenever we throw on a movie

The story of my life.

[amdiggywhut]

I loved Wolf of Wall Street, but can guarantee that I'd have liked it even more if I'd watched it without my significant other.

[jonny5]

the missus fell asleep 20 mins in, as she usually does whenever we throw on a movie

The story of my life.

Even better... 'Don't put on that scary movie, it will give me nightmares!!'

Falls sleep before the opening credits are even over on whatever stupid comedy she wanted to watch instead.

I keep telling her, the opening credits usually aren't very scary, you'll be fine. Of course the one time she says 'fine' it opens with super gore.

There's just no winning sometimes.

[lilmanjs]

Running 7 Dogs
What can I say about this movie? It certainly jumps around a lot but starts off with a taxi driver running into a guy run just suddenly runs out into the middle of the street with a briefcase full of money he's stolen that happens to be dirty money. From there we see 2 gangsters who happen to be doing a job and have gotten the wrong guy and taken his legs. After that though the 2 cops that are also throughout the movie show up. Each time we see the gangsters who happen to be going around with a chainsaw, they play that crap for laughs. Needless to say this is like part thriller and part black comedy. Damn I enjoyed this, but that warped sense of humor in the movie is just woah.

[GaijinPunch]

The Wolf on Wall Street - Great movie!! Loved everything about it.

Asked a friend one time if he saw it. Response was classic.

"Yes. Almost went with my mom. So glad I didn't..."

[Moniker]

Iron Man 3 (Encore)

Far better than expected... given Iron Man 1 & 2. It seems that the Joss Whedon voodoo that turned The Avengers from soulless cash-grab into top-notch entertainment rubbed off on some folks. Solid recommendation. Easily the best of the Marvel movies (small praise, obviously), perhaps even including The Avengers.

[boagman]

Iron Man 3 (Encore)

Far better than expected... given Iron Man 1 & 2.

What the heck was wrong with the first one? I'm *totally* with you on the second one. Yes...it was pretty stinking awful. But "Iron Man"? That was a great movie. Really.

[Moniker]

Iron Man 3 (Encore)

Far better than expected... given Iron Man 1 & 2.

What the heck was wrong with the first one? I'm *totally* with you on the second one. Yes...it was pretty stinking awful. But "Iron Man"? That was a great movie. Really.

IM1 was alright. It had some facile pacifist-let's-get-along arguments that worked to its detriment. The finale combat was more-or-less a transformers movie. As with 2, it relied heavily on RD Jr.'s charisma. And with IM1, it worked: the one-liners were good, the chemistry w/ Paltrow was great, etc. And the final glib admission was really magic. But still, was kind of a CNN revisionist vibe to the whole thing. And I love Terrence Howard. Don't know why they switched to Cheadle, but I disapprove.

Anyway, 1 was decent, 2 was shit, and 3 is really quite good.

[Skykid]

But "Iron Man"? That was a great movie. Really.

None of the Iron Man movies are "great". 3 is irritating too, really super stupid. Downey's OTT hyper-performances grate after a while, I don't understand the praise heaped on the series at all.

[boagman]

But "Iron Man"? That was a great movie. Really.

None of the Iron Man movies are "great". 3 is irritating too, really super stupid. Downey's OTT hyper-performances grate after a while, I don't understand the praise heaped on the series at all.

I've just given up on you with movies, Skykid. There's just no point in having a conversation with you about them.

[boagman]

And I love Terrence Howard. Don't know why they switched to Cheadle, but I disapprove.

Yeah, that was definitely one part of the problem with 2 (of very, very many). Howard got costed out of the series (dropped in a most horrendous fashion, according to him...), and while I usually quite like Cheadle, his script in 2 was absolutely atrocious. That's part of what made 3 much better: Cheadle had been actually *written for*, and Rhodey worked again. I'll be honest: had Terrance Howard been playing Rhodey in 2, Rhodey *still would have* sucked. There's nothing that Howard could have brought to the table to save that script.

What I will disagree with you on is the ending of the original: I find it to be almost anti-Transformers, which you compared it to. Yes, there are two suits fighting each other, I'll give you that, obviously. The bigger, better difference is that, in IM, you can actually TELL WHAT'S GOING ON. You can follow the fight. You can *GASP* see who's doing what. This is absolutely untrue in basically all of the Transformers movies, and it's something that I just won't let go of.

I'm of the same mind with any of the Shaky Camera Syndrome movies that have come around in the last decade or so. I do not approve of jerky camera motion which only serves to portray ACTION, when all it does is overload the visual senses and keeps the viewer in limbo until the scene is over, at which point you find out what actually just happened, because one character (or set of characters) is dead or injured, and the other one(s) "won". Witness the difference between the first "Bourne" movie and the succeeding ones for examples.

Anyway: I see the final IM scene as far, far superior to anything the "Transformers" series has brought to the table.

[Acid King]

Joe - A pretty good noir-ish Southern drama starring Nicolas Cage as a broken down ex-con who falls apart trying to help a teenage kid dig himself out of an abusive household. The atmosphere is appropriately bleak, one review said it makes Winter's Bone look like a Lil' Abner strip, and I like Nic Cage here.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley - Solid drama about two brothers who join the IRA during the Irish War of Independence. Good enough for one viewing but I probably won't go back for a second.

Vengeance - This one started out promisngly enough, a family is murdered by hitmen and the matron's father swears revenge, but ended up dragging too much for my taste. The shootouts were nice but the emphasis on slo mo and style sucked the energy out of them.

McCanick - A sub par cop on the edge flick that suffers from pacing issues and a lame reveal toward the end. I read a handful of reviews that complained the cops motivation was implausible, but it wasn't implausible as much as it was just poorly done.

A Simple Plan - A very good crime film directed by Sam Raimi. A couple of guys stumble upon a downed plane containing a corpse and a few million in cash and the shit storm that follows is nice and grim. Hard to pinpoint any major faults here, everyone is good in it and it may be Bill Paxton's best movie.

[Skykid]

But "Iron Man"? That was a great movie. Really.

None of the Iron Man movies are "great". 3 is irritating too, really super stupid. Downey's OTT hyper-performances grate after a while, I don't understand the praise heaped on the series at all.

I've just given up on you with movies, Skykid. There's just no point in having a conversation with you about them.

Please provide definition of a "great" movie.

[BryanM]

I literally can only remember one scene in Iron Man:

Guy in F-16 zooms past Iron Dude. Has to have flown about 3 miles at least, and then looks to the side in the cockpit and spots him. The movie expects me to suspend disbelief that a) A human sized doodle is visible from that distance with water vapor in the way and b) the line of sight requiring the pilot to turn his neck more than 90 degrees and use x-ray vision to see through the plane are both feasible.

I'm a horrible person to watch bad movies that try to be serious, with. "WHAT?! Can we pause and rewind this to analyze how it violates the laws of physics?" "It's just a movie. You don't have a problem with the magic robot suit." "THAT'S NOT THE POINT."