Movies you've just watched

[drauch]

Really wish I could like Tombstone. Lacks the edginess and filth I want from this kind of film. Maybe I just don't like the period, the director, or the actors...or maybe all three.

The problem with almost all US Westerns besides some of the revisionist stuff in the 60s and 70s. I like John Ford and all that, but I prefer my Westerns like my women, filthy and with no morals.

[Ixmucane2]

Interstellar

Christopher Nolan's talent vs the Hollywood Taint; he wins by a small margin, and the resulting film, while very good, bears all signs of the battle.

There are terrible moments (like explaining to a suddenly dumb astronaut what a wormhole is by folding a piece of paper in half, and most other quasi-scientific explanations), bad physics (why does the main spaceship need a two-stage booster rocket to reach outer space from Earth, but not from a planet with greater gravity? What marvelous luck makes various spaceships spin exactly around their airlocks, conveniently permitting docking? How can decompression accidents cause fire?), strange plot holes (e.g. the protagonist reveals an old piece of gossip that he is unlikely to have heard about to a more senior astronaut, who is very likely to have known for years, as if the actors swapped their lines), severe cases of glossing over difficulties with captivating montages and other distractions (e.g. the successful use of one of the most impractical and inadequate means of communication ever).

There are, of course, great characters and scenes and ideas too: the robots, the emphasis on agriculture, the avoidance of technobabble and fake technology (future space programs just happen to make very dependable, advanced and high-performance vehicles, nothing fancy or distracting), the alien planet scenery, the lack of violence, etc.

The plot is reasonable, even if an important development is fairly obvious from the beginning. Even if there are obvious huge differences, the epic

Spoiler

heroic abuse of time travel loops

for the common good makes

Spoiler

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

a much more significant parallel than the mentioned Gunbuster.

Good actors, good music, perfect special effects. Alien planets apparently filmed on location in Iceland.

[GaijinPunch]

It's hard to like Val for anything,

Real Genius

[Stevens]

A month back a friend sends me the trailer to John Wick. Hadn't heard of it, watch it, see Reeves is in it and I figure it is most likely going to be your typical disposable shitty action movie with one or two good scenes.

I was right about the movie having one good scene, I just didn't think the scene would be the entire movie.

Possible Spoilers ahead:

The script is actually pretty good. I won't say it isn't without cliche' here and there but it is mercifully kept to the minimum. Reeves and supporting cast do a good job with it. The story is not as involved as something like The Raid 2, which in this case is a good thing. I don't always want to have to think so hard:)

It is well shot, particularly the action scenes which focus on a nice mix of martial arts and gun play. Reeves shines here, as does the production team as there is little to no shaky cam to be found. These guys know what they are doing and it shows.

Go see it. I don't think you'll be disappointed. Probably the nicest surprise of the year.

[Stevens]

It's hard to like Val for anything,

Real Genius

Always check your lens.

[GaijinPunch]

It's hard to like Val for anything,

Real Genius

Always check your lens.

It was hot, and I was hungry!

80's classic... where the fuck is the BluRay?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGczXkknl80

Girl reminds me of Sheryl Lee / Laura Palmer.

[lilmanjs]

The Weather Man
One of the few Mr. Cage movies that is actually something to watch. Some nice black humor throughout the movie and the drama stuff doesn't feel out of place either. Seeing him as a weatherman makes me realize he probably should have been one all along instead of being the weird ass actor he is. Michael Caine is pretty good in the movie as well.

[Some-Mist]

went and saw The Skeleton Twins last night
Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig in more of a serious/dark comedy role. It was kind of weird to see at first, but both Bill and Kristen were fantastic. There were a few uncomfortable moments throughout the movie, but I'd say it's probably one of my favorites this year. Great supporting cast with Luke Wilson and Ty Burrell, it's basically about two siblings that haven't talked to 10 years and are brought back together... finally realizing that their issues are due to their separation. You learn a lot about their past and how close they used to be, and then the somewhat graphic event that led to their separation. It had me laughing out loud quite a few times which is kinda rare for comedies nowadays. Kind of want to go see it again :>

the theater I went to redid all their seating and turned each seat into a leather recliner for the same ticket price as their normal movies... I was in heaven.

It's hard to like Val for anything

kiss kiss bang bang

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Ol' PCE-FX here finally sat down and watched the entire 169 minutes of Interstellar today after work presented in DLP format (11/08/14)...made sure to use the loo beforehand due to the longer than usual time alloted for this particular film. Went to the 10:40am first showing of the day but the actual movie didn't start until a bit after 11:00am (which was showing some commercials and numerous movie trailers as usual). There's a pivotal scene in the third act that made me break down in tears -- rare for a sci-fi film to be so moving at that certain scene.

The ending is one that even though it isn't shown, the audience is smart enough to figure out what'll happen eventually (with the help of an ol' friend making it all possible but it would create another parallel world/timeline to reside in if carried out/executed -- multiverse senario if you will which is fascinating in itself).

Upon viewing the ending credits, principle shooting was done in Alberta, Canada whilst some scenes for the alien planet were filmed in Iceland (same country for the background scenery of some alien planet scenes used in Ridley Scott's Prometheus, indeed).

I see that cryogenic-induced sleep is one novel but realistic way to shorten the long voyage towards the "wormhole" phenomena located by the planet Saturn by the rag-tag team of NASA explorers.

Comic Bill Irwin provides the voice-over for the simplistic but effective TARS robot character as shown within the film.

It's a known fact that brothers, Christopher and Jonathan Nolan both joined forces to write the script of Interstellar.

I'm sure that some deleted scenes will surface on the eventual release of Interstellar on Blu-Ray, DVD and digital download formats down the road making the theaterical version seem like mere child's play in terms of overall running time (perhaps breaking the 3 hour film duration barrier).

Am curious to read what comment and opinions of fellow shmuppers Skykid and GaijinPunch have say about Interstellar.

If you watch the cool CG produced anime short of Makoto Shinkai's Voices of A Distant Star, it, too, deals with the issue of communication across vast distances of space/time continuum except with a twist using cell phone messages.

-----------------------------------

On the Redbox kiosk, there currently is a lone horror genre flick by the name of "See No Evil 2" with a 2014 direct-to-video release that's directed by the twin Soska sisters duo and stars Katharine Isabelle (whom got top billing in the Soska directed horror flick of "American Mary" circa 2012). Ms. Isabelle is quite sexy with her hourglass figure + ample rack in this SNE-2 sequel romp that continues the further adventures of Jacob Goodnight and his reign of terror on his unsuspecting victims. By combining good ol' practical special EFX with a bit of CG wizardry, it all works/gels well in spades to progress the story along. Seems like there's room for a future SNE-3 sequel down the road perhaps.

You might recall the Soska sister's earlier crazy flick called "Dead Hooker In the Trunk" circa 2009.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[ColonelFatso]

I'm somewhat interested in and cautiously hyped for Interstellar, but having difficulty imagining how it could possibly hold a candle to the last hard (or even semi-hard) SF movie I saw, the magnificent Europa Report. There's a film I would unreservedly recommend to anyone who grew up reading Clarke and Asimov - despite the veneer of a cheap scare flick, it does a better job of realizing the pure wonder and sheer terror of space than any other movie I've seen. And it's a surprisingly emotionally-charged movie, too - one lengthy scene in particular

Spoiler

where we get to watch one of the EVA crew slowly run out of air and suffocate, knowing full well the whole time what is going to happen

I found particularly moving.

Best of all, though, it's a movie about scientists and engineers actually acting like scientists and engineers, which is all too scarce these days.

[Lord Satori]

I just saw Guardians of the Galaxy in a second run theater. I really liked this movie. I'm going to have to nominate it for "Worlds saddest opening scene in a non-tragic film". Only other film like that I can think of is Up.

[GaijinPunch]

The Weather Man
One of the few Mr. Cage movies that is actually something to watch. Some nice black humor throughout the movie and the drama stuff doesn't feel out of place either. Seeing him as a weatherman makes me realize he probably should have been one all along instead of being the weird ass actor he is. Michael Caine is pretty good in the movie as well.

Love this one. I wrote about it many, many pages ago. I can see why it doesn't catch on in the US though. Very subtle, very dark... very funny.

went and saw The Skeleton Twins last night

Also dope. If you like one of these you will likely like the other. Similar themes.

[blackoak]

Best of all, though, it's a movie about scientists and engineers actually acting like scientists and engineers, which is all too scarce these days.

Good to hear that endorsement of Europa Report. I've been meaning to watch it for awhile... some evening this week I think. I also want to see interstellar too, but am worried it will ultimately be a little (a lot?) schmaltzy from the trailers and reviews. Actually I've been revisiting some of the written "classics" of hard sci-fi lately, and they can be pretty damn cheezy too. Asimov is passable, but Clarke's characters are really poorly written. Ditto Larry Niven, who is abysmal. I long for the film that will combine a higher degree of social realism with non-pandering hard sci-fi...

[GaijinPunch]

Big Hero 6

Took the kid. Style over substance redefined.

The good:
-Visuals. Big budget Disney stuff.
-Some cool fights.
-The stage is an amalgam of San Francisco and Tokyo to the nth degree. The problem is it was clearly designed by Americans (as were the characters).

The bad:
-Script is awful. Borderline after school cartoons. Yeah, it's aimed at kids, but if you're expecting something on par w/ The Incredibles or Toy Story, go home.

The Okay:
-Some decent laughs.

The script and overly lame characters really did negate just about anything good with it.

[Some-Mist]

went and saw The Skeleton Twins last night

Also dope. If you like one of these you will likely like the other. Similar themes.

saw weatherman back in the day but there's only a few things I can recall from it. I'll have to give it a rewatch. I remember

Spoiler

nicolas cage goes crazy and there's an archer scene where he's about to snipe someone he doesn't like at a business party or something.... and the only reason he picked up archery in the first place is because he used it as a bonding tool between him and his kids (or something along those lines) that he doesn't talk to any more... so he sticks with it to 'spiritually' to maintain that bond or something along those lines

[Domino]

So I went on a Star Wars trip and rewatched Episodes IV-VI for the firs time in years. Better I was able to get the Despecialize Editions that is floating around the internet. Noting too much of my opinion has changed, Empire Strikes Back is still my favorite of the original trilogy. I still think they were too much action in Episode VI but I really love the part where both Skywalkers and the Emperor where on the ship.

[GaijinPunch]

saw weatherman back in the day but there's only a few things I can recall from it. I'll have to give it a rewatch. I remember

Spoiler

nicolas cage goes crazy and there's an archer scene where he's about to snipe someone he doesn't like at a business party or something.... and the only reason he picked up archery in the first place is because he used it as a bonding tool between him and his kids (or something along those lines) that he doesn't talk to any more... so he sticks with it to 'spiritually' to maintain that bond or something along those lines

Yeah, something like that...

Spoiler

It's actually his ex-wife's BF who becomes her fiance.

Considering I just moved to your fine, cold ass city I should watch it again. By just , I mean I landed 2 hours ago.

[GaijinPunch]

Enter the Void

Not sure how I missed that one for so many years, and I think I did myself a huge disservice by watching it on an iPad on an airplane. Will likely buy the BluRay when I get a TV. I don't think any other single experience in life has made me feel so many different emotions in a 2 hour 45 minute time frame... and if they did, they definitely didn't do it w/ that soundtrack! A handful of inconsistencies, but very forgivable. He utilized the grungier side of Tokyo, for sure. Not sure if anyone picked up on it, but the majority of the action (including Oscar's apartment) takes place in Kabukicho, which is about as close to shit hole as Japan gets.

[Kaiser]

Deliver Us From Evil (2014)

So my brother again threw me a movie to watch (and I STILL HAVE a backlog of those), he saw that i've become a sucker for horror movies (at least those that don't suck ass) so he was like "Dude you should enjoy this flick".

So I popped it in yesterday in the late evening, lights off, headphones on, and I was glued from the beginning to the end, this movie certainly does a lot of things right, basically the basic plot is, a police officer is investigating a series of mysterious murders in Bronx, which are all connected to each other, but further investigation leads him to something worse than a serial killer. There's much more to it but I won't spoil it. I'll give it a short summary to not drag this post on:

The Good
- Serious protagonist character development.
- The plot nails the mix of a crime story and supernatural. Lots of neat unexpected twists included.
- Realistic gore, bit too realistic at times which is GOOD because it made me gasp hard towards the end.
- The atmosphere and suspense are oozing out of the screen, keeping your ass tight on the chair until the credits.

The Bad
- The "final showdown" may be too dragged out for some reason, it was close to being dragged out for me.
- Not a really bad thing, the gore may be too much for people who are not used to it. It's the painful kind of it.
- There are unfortunately few plotholes but they do not affect the overall enjoyment, but nitpickers will take off 1 point

Overall it was a solid 7/10, it has few issues but nothing that ultimately make the movie worse as whole.

Backlog:
- Suspiria
- Exorcist (Funny this movie I am posting about took a note from it, I won't spoil what is it but you should be able to notice it)
- The Ninth Configuration
- Videodrome
- Scanners
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Dune
- Captain America Winter Soldier
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Interstellar (will watch this one when it gets a BD release)

[Stompp]

Dracula Untold. Some visual candy but over all a disappointment The ending opens up for a possible sequel - I hope not.

[Ixmucane2]

Dracula Untold. Some visual candy but over all a disappointment

Can you elaborate a bit? It's on top of my queue of films to watch, should I choose between Nightcrawler and Clown instead?

[Mischief Maker]

Dracula Untold. Some visual candy but over all a disappointment

Can you elaborate a bit? It's on top of my queue of films to watch, should I choose between Nightcrawler and Clown instead?

I saw the trailer. There are no impalings (gotta keep that PG-13 rating!), and Dracula uses his psychic vampire powers to turn a cloud of bats into a giant fist and PUNCH the Turkish army.

[Some-Mist]

Enter the Void

Not sure how I missed that one for so many years, and I think I did myself a huge disservice by watching it on an iPad on an airplane. Will likely buy the BluRay when I get a TV. I don't think any other single experience in life has made me feel so many different emotions in a 2 hour 45 minute time frame... and if they did, they definitely didn't do it w/ that soundtrack! A handful of inconsistencies, but very forgivable. He utilized the grungier side of Tokyo, for sure. Not sure if anyone picked up on it, but the majority of the action (including Oscar's apartment) takes place in Kabukicho, which is about as close to shit hole as Japan gets.

<3 gasper noe

Considering I just moved to your fine, cold ass city I should watch it again. By just , I mean I landed 2 hours ago.

crazy! permanently? you definitely picked the worst time to do so with the winter right around the corner haha. just missed the shmupsmeet last month too tho I'm sure we're gonna be having another one pretty soon.

there's a buncha awesome theaters here too.
the music box theater, gene siskel film center, landmark century cinema, amc river east, etc..

[Stompp]

Dracula Untold. Some visual candy but over all a disappointment

Can you elaborate a bit? It's on top of my queue of films to watch, should I choose between Nightcrawler and Clown instead?

Well, um. It's an unorthodox take on the Dracula story. Visually it's a ok. Some nice eye candy but I feel the story being somewhat thin. Basic love story, good prince/father/husband needs to do the ultimate sacrifice in order to to protect his family and kingdom.

Spoiler

...and everyone dies in the end.

That said it's not a bad choice for a Friday night in the sofa. Can't compare with Nightcrawler/Clown since I haven't seen them, sorry.

[blackoak]

I finally saw Europa Report last night. Good effort, and the attempt at realism, both aesthetic and psychological, was much appreciated. I don't think the balance between lyricism and realism is quite right--the film has something of a minor-key dryness--but I think this is heading in the right direction.

Overall I think the biggest problem is the attempt to turn what should have been a pure drama about exploration, curiosity, discovery etc into a monster/suspense/action movie. The tone is thankfully restrained but it still has to have certain action beats in the narrative which honestly just seemed out of place. Nothing like the abominable latter third of Sunshine, just a bit of a missed opportunity. Science fiction can be about ideas and drama--fuck boring monster aliens and boring action stories.

[GaijinPunch]

crazy! permanently? you definitely picked the worst time to do so with the winter right around the corner haha. just missed the shmupsmeet last month too tho I'm sure we're gonna be having another one pretty soon.

Yep! Landed a job, which I'm quite excited about. I'm actually excited about just about every part of the relocation except the added time of being away from my son (he should be here for the next school year), and of course, the winter. I will live & work downtown though, so if it's really THAT shitty on any given day, I will cab both ways. Also, I'm seriously considering grad school, so I need to get a pretty good GRE score. I figure during the horrible winter months is a good time to get that done.

there's a buncha awesome theaters here too.
the music box theater, gene siskel film center, landmark century cinema, amc river east, etc..

Word. Maybe one day I will realize my dream of doing the American version of the festival w/ the crazy sound. The aforementioned Enter the Void would definitely be a good one for that.

[Moniker]

Interstellar

I'm profoundly ambivalent. While watching in a digital theater with surround sound, I was completely rapt, start to finish. Definitely a worthwhile experience (save some bleh mystical stuff, which, while it did detract from the experience, I was too enthralled to really care).

In reflection, far too much made no freaking sense. It went for a sci-fi quasi-realism sorta similar to 2001, but went a bit too far in bending science to the narrative. And I'm still not completely sold on MM as a 'serious' actor. He was great in True Detective, but I think his ambition is starting to reveal that his reach exceeds his grasp. Similar to the film as a whole.

Still, a recommended viewing. A sort of companion piece to Gravity, whose unique ambitions (as opposed to Interstellar's more conventional ones) were, in contrast, fully realized.

Also, have to give props to Nolan for resisting the 3D mania.

[KindGrind]

Under the Skin

Liked it. Thought it was quite straightforward, as far as movies within that genre go. I was prepared for head-scratching, but I really feel like this is a rather simple piece. I liked the use of edgy music, and thought the imagery was very evocative. More is less worked very well here. The beach, the forest and the interior scenes worked particularly well with me. Johansson fit the bill, but the locals were quite convincing.

Young Adult

Now, that was great acting from the lead. Theron was truly excellent here, perfectly cast. I believed her from the very beginning, and she stayed totally true to type throughout. It was hard to watch at times, her being so socially awkward and all, but that's a great sign of a believable script and an actor delivering a great performance. One of the good movies I've watched recently.

[Acid King]

Last week I watched Crime Against Joe and Hell Bound, two b-noirs from the end of the classic noir cycle, both produced by the same people. Crime Against Joe concerns a drunk artist who gets implicated in a murder, while Hell Bound is about a plot to lift narcotics from a shipping vessel. Hell Bound is definitely the better of the two, with a ludicrous set up for the theft plot and a couple of truly great scenes including a squirming dope addict scoring heroin from a blind drug dealer, and Stuart Whitman going off the rails when the plan starts to fall apart. The collapse is pretty great and the end is suitably grim.

Last night I drifted from classic noir to a more modern take in Devil in a Blue Dress. It's an adaptation of Walter Mosley's first Easy Rawlins book and a good one at that. It hews pretty closely to classic noir in the plot and style (a World War 2 vet struggling with debt is offered cash to track down a missing woman), but has its own feel since it features a black protagonist and injects the racial dynamics of the time in to the plot. I liked it, especially Don Cheadle as the unhinged sidekick and Tom Sizemore as the sleazy set up man, but I'll have to give it another watch since it didn't really grab me like it could have.

I dug through the stuff available on Amazon Prime and found enough stuff to keep me busy for awhile. A number of movies I've been meaning to watch again (the Stranger, Plunder Road, the Big Combo, and House by the River) and even more I've heard good things about but have yet to see (the Hitch-Hiker, Dark Passage, DOA, and Detour). Hitch-Hiker has a killer poster too.

Spoiler

[GaijinPunch]

Interstellar

I'm profoundly ambivalent. While watching in a digital theater with surround sound, I was completely rapt, start to finish. Definitely a worthwhile experience (save some bleh mystical stuff, which, while it did detract from the experience, I was too enthralled to really care).

In reflection, far too much made no freaking sense. It went for a sci-fi quasi-realism sorta similar to 2001, but went a bit too far in bending science to the narrative. And I'm still not completely sold on MM as a 'serious' actor. He was great in True Detective, but I think his ambition is starting to reveal that his reach exceeds his grasp. Similar to the film as a whole.

Still, a recommended viewing. A sort of companion piece to Gravity, whose unique ambitions (as opposed to Interstellar's more conventional ones) were, in contrast, fully realized.

Also, have to give props to Nolan for resisting the 3D mania.

Good sum up. Just saw it. My first IMAX experience. Pretty wild. It's a shame that that experience is all but lost when they stop showing it in IMAX theaters. I thought the score would be a little different. Wasn't bad, just wasn't what I expected.