Movies you've just watched

[JBC]

We Are Still Here -

Slow to start & seems generic at first, but before long they stop being vague about things & give you the low down. By the end the action has ramped up pretty fast. It gets some points for originality in casting - the movie focuses on a nearly elderly couple. Great sound, interesting camera work, & some genuinely surprising moments. All around good horror. Cool villains as well.

It Follows -

Great sound, good camera work, original variation on the poltergeist concept. The movie has a few lapses in logic & a couple of bad sfx, but nothing unforgivable. It's sex-themed but doesn't get raunchy or tasteless. It's even pretty good about having likable characters, which isn't common for teen horror. I never got creeped out, but it was an enjoyable story nonetheless & I'm glad I watched it. It felt like an adults-only episode of Are You Afraid Of The Dark!

[boagman]

They did. Test audiences found the original recordings even harder to understand than the final cut, so they ADR'ed his entire performance with more coherent voice effects.

And they *still* messed it up that badly? Were these ADR people deaf as well as dumb? I mean, if you're going to go to the trouble/expense of ADRing his entire performance, wouldn't you at least go to the trouble of, well, you know...actually *accomplishing* what you've set out to do? Never would subtitles have been more welcome. I've seen movies/shows in languages that I'd had absolutely no exposure to that I was able to understand better than Bane's dialog.

I mean, that wasn't the movie's only problem, but it certainly was one that should have been solvable prior to its release.

[GaijinPunch]

I liked 2 the best. The only cringe worthy part was the gymnastics scene (WTF?!)

More people to eat: Check
Raptors running rampant: Check
That bus falling off the cliff scene: Check

2 also had Dr. Malcolm and Pete Postlethwaite.

But it also was overlong, scatty, full of worthless characters doing inane idiotic things and the premise had no way near the intrigue or tension of the original. The bus/cliff scene is the best, the gymnastics the worst, and just about nothing of anything else in it matches the original in terms of dramatic highs.

The original's biggest crime is the relatively anti-climatic ending - but considering everything that's played out before it just about gets off on the charge.

My rebuttal in video form.

Lol, just watched that. Yeah, it was bloody awful, thanks for the reminder.

Grown men talking about which tastes better: horse shit or cow shit.

[Skykid]

I liked the first JP movie quite a bit, but I heard the movies are nothing like the books (still need to read the first book).

I tried reading the novel and couldn't get into it.

Grown men talking about which tastes better: horse shit or cow shit.

Not exactly. Although I don't think Jurassic Park should be entered into the national film registry, it does have a notable place in the realm of popcorn Hollywood movies - not least it was probably Spielberg's last decent attempt at the adventure genre following the likes of Indiana Jones.

It's flawed. Laura Dern is a horrible actor, some of the dialogue is stupid, and again Spielberg's unnecessary shmaltz/sentimentality is present where it shouldn't be. But the aspects that it does well it often does superbly: tension, build up, the sense of wonder and the essence of a theme park (the latter being a prominent part of taking the audience on a 'ride' as it were). There's also a much stronger sense of fear, and much better controlled, than any of its sequels. When people die in JP, be it Dennis Nedry's incredibly protracted and quite horrible death, or the lawyer buying it in the can - you really get the impression that these are a bunch of people who came to see something awe-inspiring and ended up being lunch. The sequels don't work the same way because people don't exhibit enough fear of their surroundings. 2 has a veritable fucking army out on the ranch rounding up dinosaurs and Julianne Moore is literally rolling around in the dirt trying to take photos. It's absurd and the sense of threat is diminished.

JP1 is basically all about the power going out right when you get to the T-Rex paddock - that's the crux of the entire film. And that's all it really needed to make its mark.

Everything that came after is both horse shit and cow shit, and considerably poorer.

[GaijinPunch]

I would have liked the first better if half of America wasn't wanking to it.

[Skykid]

I would have liked the first better if half of America wasn't wanking to it.

Being in England at the time I didn't have that problem, although it was significantly popular here and ran for an eternity.

Wanking to Hollywood movies is really an American thing though. I think other parts of the world just watch them and leave with an opinion.

I'll never forget being a youngster and visiting my family in the US - we all went to see Independence Day.

During Bill Pullman's presidential morale speech ("This is OUR INDEPENDENCE DAY!") the entire theatre went into a roaring standing ovation complete with whoops, whistles and air punches.

Basically you guys are either really stupidly, blindly patriotic or really fucking nuts.

[Mischief Maker]

I liked the first JP movie quite a bit, but I heard the movies are nothing like the books (still need to read the first book).

I read the first book as a teenager and never touched anything else by Crichton ever again. It's mean-spirited and preachy in equal turns. Malcolm in the book ends up critically injured then spends the entire last half of the book wagging his finger at the old man every other chapter, which sucks all the excitement out.

Jurassic Park 2 the movie is where Spielberg jumped the shark as an action director.

All the cast in the first movie had at least some sort of characterization so it meant something when one of them died. Jurassic Park 2 was a snuff film in the style of the most cynical Friday the 13th. Gee, this guy is an asshole to the little compys, I wonder if he's going to get killed and by what?

Like the parody trailer said, most of the disasters in the movie were purely driven by idiot plot moments, mostly at the hands of Julianne Moore. I despised the animal rights guy, and found the movie's attempt at a moral puzzling: "leave nature alone." These are not natural creatures, these are dinosaur/frog chimeras created in a laboratory that have gone rampant. The original made more sense: "life will find a way" because it was about how genetically engineering lifeforms isn't like engineering computers, there is so much unaccounted-for complexity in life chances are very good it will find a way to escape your control (gender-switching).

The gymnastics scene wasn't the only bad part of the movie, it was just so mind-bogglingly awful that it made the rest of the movie look good by comparison.

JP1 wasn't one of the greatest films of all time, but it was a solid adventure movie. JP2 was just Carnosaur with a budget.

[Stevens]

I'll never forget being a youngster and visiting my family in the US - we all went to see Independence Day.

During Bill Pullman's presidential morale speech ("This is OUR INDEPENDENCE DAY!") the entire theatre went into a roaring standing ovation complete with whoops, whistles and air punches.

I first saw the ID4 poster six months before its release. I was so incredibly excited for it.

We bought tickets early in the day, holy shit I couldn't wait to see it. Got to the movie early and had to wait on a long ass line because the amount of people was staggering. Balcony seating? Check. This is going to be awesome....

I was beyond disappointed. What a steaming pile of horse shit that movie is. I went home and watched Aliens - and despite my minor gripes with its script, I felt much much better afterwards:D

[Skykid]

I read the first book as a teenager and never touched anything else by Crichton ever again.

I've been told Coma is terrific.

I'll never forget being a youngster and visiting my family in the US - we all went to see Independence Day.

During Bill Pullman's presidential morale speech ("This is OUR INDEPENDENCE DAY!") the entire theatre went into a roaring standing ovation complete with whoops, whistles and air punches.

I first saw the ID4 poster six months before its release. I was so incredibly excited for it.

We bought tickets early in the day, holy shit I couldn't wait to see it. Got to the movie early and had to wait on a long ass line because the amount of people was staggering. Balcony seating? Check. This is going to be awesome....

I was beyond disappointed. What a steaming pile of horse shit that movie is. I went home and watched Aliens - and despite my minor gripes with its script, I felt much much better afterwards:D

As a kid it was kind of great, I was amazed by the special effects at the time. Retrospectively it's shit of course, but I actually think it's very self-aware. It's a comedy adventure with a pinch of 30s alien attack in there and Goldblum happened to be a perfect foil to Will Smith - the two were well cast to play opposite each other in their respective roles.

Basically it's still a million times better than The Day After Tomorrow, which makes the mistake of taking itself seriously despite being utterly fucking braindead, considerably boring, poorly cast, badly written, and an out of control mess from beginning to end.

[Stevens]

To be fair I think I was expecting ID4 to be more of what Starship Troopers was.

ST is a guilty pleasure of mine.

[Necronopticous]

It Follows -

Great sound, good camera work, original variation on the poltergeist concept. The movie has a few lapses in logic & a couple of bad sfx, but nothing unforgivable. It's sex-themed but doesn't get raunchy or tasteless. It's even pretty good about having likable characters, which isn't common for teen horror. I never got creeped out, but it was an enjoyable story nonetheless & I'm glad I watched it. It felt like an adults-only episode of Are You Afraid Of The Dark!

Man, I just don't get the hype for this movie. The critics fell in love because it is an allegory for the danger and regret of teen sex, but doesn't it have to actually be a good movie, too? My wife and I were floored at how bad it was. That pool scene near the end was one of the worst and dumbest scenes in any horror movie I've ever seen.

[BIL]

The Scooby Doo angle culminating in the pool had me wondering if the movie had ruined a creepy concept by going too literal. I was ok with it, ultimately... it's a bit daft, but little moreso than trying to drag Freddy Krueger out of your dream so your boyfriend can brain him with a baseball bat. It's that sort of scenario.

If anything I'm surprised it seemed to get such points for novelty. It felt like a pretty clear modern pastiche of classic slasher/ghost-themed material to me, albeit an enjoyable one with good cinematography, an excellent soundtrack and a welcome bit of restraint.

I suspect it'll divide popular opinion rather like Under The Skin, another recent critical darling with similarly intertwining themes of sex and mortality and little in the way of resolution.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Checked out the Argentina based film known as "Wild Tales" -- six short stories dealing with violence and revenge. One short story had me cracking up in dealing with road rage issues as it leads the audience on a wild chase...it starts off nice and slow and eventually, escalates into something else entirely. The eventual conclusion will leave you wondering if it was fate (or rather circumstance) that leads to the unthinkable/madness that unfolds. It seems that the film crew pulled it off convincingly as this particular "road rage" episode takes place in a time period of a single day if you will (with some slick novel twists and spins that you won't see coming).

Finally snagged the Steelbook Blu-Ray version of Chappie and was pleasantly surprised to learn that Neil Blomkamp had designed all the cool Scout and Moose prototype mecha shown in the film himself and that with Weta Workshop's expertise, made it a reality with full-sized props & CG EFX. The Scouts have that stylized hard-edged look and feel like the military-spec droid soldiers that were shown in Blomkamp's earlier Elysium flick. The Moose prototype droid reminds me of Phil Tippet's ED-209 mecha hailing from the classic 1987 Robocop film.

Makes me wonder when Mr. Blomkamp will finally do a proper District 9 sequel as the present storyline is still on-going and yet, unresolved. Perhaps after the next and newest Alien flick with Blomkamp at the directorial helm, it'll happen (or not).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Satan]

Watched David Cross' Hits on Netflix. I usually have quite a lot of time for anything Cross has done previously, but this stinker is just the biggest pile of shite I've seen in quite some time. I think its only reason for existing is to make 'constitutionalists' appear stupid, anti-Semitic and racist.

[Skykid]

Makes me wonder when Mr. Blomkamp will finally do a proper District 9 sequel

I'm wondering when he's going to make another film that's not total shit.

[Xyga]

The Amityville Horror (79) - first time viewed around the mid-80's when I was about 5.

Of course as a kid a thought that damn house was fucking horrific and all, and the black liquid/shit scene at the end was a trauma.
30 years later, well, let's say I just wasted another 150min of my life watching that shit film a second time.

The only good part I would say is the three seconds scene with the glowing eyes at the window, that will always startle or soil pants, whether in movies or in real life.
Also noticed the demon-like apparition at another window at some point, but that felt really off.

Of course I won't bother watching anything else in the franchise nor mention it ever again.

[Ixmucane2]

Youth

Reflections about death and old age, attached to a suitable protagonist and setting: a very popular symphonic composer (Michael Caine), old and retired, on vacation in a luxury hotel/spa in Switzerland.
Secondary characters provide variety, dramatization and a surprising amount of plot: his daughter and assistant (Rachel Weisz), a "Californian actor" who admires him (Paul Dano), and above all his childhood friend, about the same age but much less old (Harvey Keitel), a film director who's preparing his last work (about death and old age) with a team of young and innocent screenwriters.

Sorrentino remains faithful to his usual style of gorgeous photography, quirky editing and intrusive music, but of course it adapts to the subject: the beauty of mountains in the summer becomes magnificent (and strongly contrasting with the artificial environments of the hotel: life and death), while the music comes mostly from the protagonist's mind. Gratuitous strangeness is toned down and mostly limited to scenes of dreams and visions.

It's hard to tell more without spoilers, but on the whole it's a rollercoaster of symbolic moments, subtle observations, and unsubtle sincere irony, running smoothly on rails of unusual beauty.

[Ixmucane2]

Jurassic World

To attract more visitors to Isla Nublar, the R&D department combines a bit of this and a bit of that to invent a dinosaur species, which turns out to be too large and too intelligent. The monster goes on a rampage against humans and dinosaurs alike; heads are bitten off and bodies are torn in half, with the right amount of fire, explosions and collateral damage.

The good guy characters mostly run from, study, and fight the monster (more for revenge than to save people) and keep their own group safe while thousands of uneaten tourists are evacuated: there are a manager (bitchy but well intentioned), her two teenager nephews on vacation (brave and smart boys), and her love interest (a zoologist, hunter and all-purpose action hero who runs an interesting experiment).

The main "bad guy" is an unpleasant person who's guilty, basically, of supporting a very bad plan; the park owner is reckless but he cares about dinosaurs; the chief genetic scientist, arguably the one with the greatest responsibilities, has very little screen time and actual involvement. The lack of evil intentions and conflict between humans (the abundant and harmless threats, warnings, complaints and discussions are fluff, useful for character development and explanations, not real conflict) solidly places the monster dinosaur in the villain's shoes.

The self-referentiality of the plot runs deep enough to be interesting. Just seeing plain old dinosaurs isn't enough any more (the first part of the film does a very good job at showing dinosaurs as something commonplace and taken for granted, with gems of degradation like a petting zoo and a pool show), the masses of visitors are a bit bored, the awe and glory of John Hammond's work have been replaced by a profit-oriented corporation. Likewise, the problem with the film is that special effects are excellent but merely industry standard, not the wonder of the first Jurassic Park: nowadays, seeing animated dinosaurs means very little. But the show must go on, and a new sequel needs to be bigger and better: an upgraded theme park, masses of tourists, a greater threat, better technology, a worse catastrophe. Unfortunately there's only a basic survival story to fill the void; even if it isn't particularly bad, it's a particularly superfluous sequel.

[JBC]

That's basically exactly like I called it. I just have no reason to get pumped up about another Jurassic Park movie. I like them, but I'll just watch it on video.

[boagman]

"The Lego Movie"

Half-decent to decent. I guess this movie *really* benefitted from being released at a time when people were really clamoring for a family-friendly picture/comedy. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't the hilarity-fest that I was told it would be. There were some interesting and cute ideas, and the writing wasn't bad.

That being said, I never have to watch it again.

[Skykid]

But the show must go on, and a new sequel needs to be bigger and better: an upgraded theme park, masses of tourists, a greater threat, better technology, a worse catastrophe. Unfortunately there's only a basic survival story to fill the void; even if it isn't particularly bad, it's a particularly superfluous sequel.

I'd say this is spot on, although I'd like more people to be able to figure out what the actual flaws are. It's really (really) important in movies - especially popcorn flicks - to develop the characters who comprise your central cast. Just having a good guy, a bad guy and vulnerable individuals who need rescuing is fine on paper, but they need to have appropriate screen time and personality arcs to make the audience invested in their plight.

Sam Neill, Goldblum, Attenborough etc had much more in the way of pivotal communicative roles in the original JP: they were anchor points the audience could use to understand how the effects of messing with nature could go catastrophically wrong, even if they were all well-intentioned. Simply, they were fleshed out enough to make the carnage around them both interesting and terrifying. Jurassic World is completely cursory when it comes to utilising human characters to relay the collapse of the park (again) and instead expects template scenes of rampaging dinosaurs to fill in the gaps. They don't.

[Skykid]

JURASSIC PARK: ONE


So after all this talk, I went back to it.

It was better than I remembered it being, and between this and Jurassic World it's a case of night and day. Importantly, owing to Jurassic Park's summer blockbuster angle it retroactively serves as a wonderful comparison piece to Jurassic World. It highlights everything missing from modern blockbusters and the critical failings of the modern producer system - something that's robbing adventure film of all personality and placing a glossy husk in its place.

From the top then:

Jurassic Park has characters, and I was surprised to rediscover exactly how much time is invested in those characters to properly engineer the direction of the movie. From the word go it's pure character development, oodles of dialogue that round and shape your protagonists and an ensemble who all have a meaningful place within the fracas. From the English game hunter watching over the Raptors to Samuel L. chain smoking the fuck out of the control room.

It's surprising, in-fact, how written a film it is: there's a huge amount of emphasis placed on dialogue and interaction between the endangered humans, and the pacing is somehow quite divine, managing to give everyone just enough time to solidify before the train wreck starts. Goldblum is a fantastic key, his womanising, chaos theorising and verbal pathos leading into the park's disassembly quite perfectly.

Of course the movie has an edge Spielberg has all but lost. It opens with a worker being mutilated by a raptor and doesn't let up. Nedry gets blinded and butchered by something horrible, the lawyer is wrenched up by the T-Rex and thrown about in its jaws like a rag doll, and the Raptors at the end are really terrifying in their patience as they stalk the kitchen for child food. It's no way near as bloodless or disposable as Jurassic World.

And the reason why it all works so well is there's imagination in the making. The opening really leads you in to a theme park wonderland, shows you around, gives you a cast with opinions, personal interest, vulnerability, strength, knowledge, greed and ethics (or a lack of). And when all the power goes out at the T-Rex paddock there's absolutely zero dramatic music throughout the entire scene - just the sound of rainfall and the Rex screeching like a nightmare as it walks between the cars. The lack of CG is incredibly uplifting too, with the combined and impressive animatronics saving it from early ageing in remarkable fashion. It still holds up better than... well Jurassic World, and that's brand new.

So all in all, it helps to have a novel to write your screenplay from. It helps to have a director who knows how to construct tension and give enough time to flesh out his universe. It's not a masterpiece of film, but within its specific genre and goals, it overachieves, especially retrospectively now that basically everything has turned to shit in modern Hollywood.

For those moments, for the impressive effects, sound design and execution, and genuine terror, it manages to suppress the weaker aspects of dialogue, acting and nonsensical acts. Simply, it's still a helluva ride.

[CMoon]

Just saw the rather incredible Tale of the Fox (1930) on youtube. In a better world we would have all seen this in our childhood, as it clearly comes from the same milieu as the Loony Tunes cartoons, and feels just as modern. There is something anachronistic here because all the trappings of the films of the 30's come through...the fucking meow meow song is damn catchy but clearly a trapping of this period. I love it! Stop motion animal fable that is the clear direct inspiration for Fantastic Mr. Fox (which I also love), but is probably better. Dancing rats, pious choir bunnies, main characters (mostly chickens) that get eaten, everyone is gullible and must concede to the fox and his family. Seriously, this is just as good as film as the other greats from this period (King Kong, Alexander Nevsky, etc.), but apparently was never known in the US, and as a kids film probably wasn't taken too seriously. Fuck all that, it's great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsdTCsfnxc

[GaijinPunch]

Makes me wonder when Mr. Blomkamp will finally do a proper District 9 sequel

I'm wondering when he's going to make another film that's not total shit.

It's amazing how much worse Elysion is than District 9.

[Skykid]

Makes me wonder when Mr. Blomkamp will finally do a proper District 9 sequel

I'm wondering when he's going to make another film that's not total shit.

It's amazing how much worse Elysion is than District 9.

I know, I couldn't believe it. After District 9 I went in with high hopes. What a kick in the balls.

[GaijinPunch]

I know, I couldn't believe it. After District 9 I went in with high hopes. What a kick in the balls.

With spike-tipped boots. Fingers crossed on this Aliens Gaiden project.

[Skykid]

I know, I couldn't believe it. After District 9 I went in with high hopes. What a kick in the balls.

With spike-tipped boots. Fingers crossed on this Aliens Gaiden project.

After hearing about Chappie (even worse reception than Elysium) my expectation for a worthy return to the franchise = 0.

[boagman]

"A Walk Among The Tombstones"

I will save you the trouble of actually wasting any portion of your life to watch this horrible, horrible movie. And no: if there's some "street word" that has "horrible" meaning "good" the way "phat" and "stoopid" used to be, that's not the way I'm using "horrible" here. It's just plain awful.

Skykid, since you care about character development so much, I can absolutely assure you: this movie has *none* of it. It doesn't even *try* to have any of it. You care about *none* of the people in this movie, at any time in this movie. It's just so, so poor.

Liam Neeson, for all of the great stuff he's done in the past, is really making himself a poor legacy with unadulterated garbage like this.

I want my two hours back. Honest. It's *that* bad.

[Skykid]

^ Don't worry, I'd never watch it anyway. Neeson is just picking up another paycheck. The curse of good actors these days is that they're forced to star in shit because there's nothing good being made.

Skykid, since you care about character development so much

I'm assuming you read my Jurassic Park critique on the last page?

Character development of some kind is integral to film-making, it's what connects the audience with the events unfolding on the screen. Deduct this crucial element from the whole and you're just watching things happen with absolutely no investment in the outcome, making it all hollow and shallow.

And character development doesn't need to be difficult, deep or complex. It can be The Breakfast Club or Weird Science, Planes Trains and Automobiles or American Pie. Meaning it can be superficial as required by the goals of the movie, but it should at least exist so you care about the protagonists and whatever opposition/rollercoaster ride they might face.

The reason it no longer seems to exist? I think Hollywood has become excruciatingly lazy. Actually writing a movie is not as important as scheduling the special effects in post production. The actors are like background material to move the CG along.

[Some-Mist]

criterion collection just released the fisher king. I think it's time to snag it and rewatch