Movies you've just watched

[Satan]

Birdman - it's alright, I suppose - it's a bit luvvy, a bit self-serving LOOK AT US ACTORS ACTING.
Gone Girl - I liked it in spite of disliking Affleck. Bitches be crazy - troof bruv.
The Wolf of Wall Street - I absolutely loved every minute, every shot and pretty much every line of dialogue. Jonah Hill and DiCaprio are godlike.
Anchorman 2 - regurgitated themes, got a few laughs. I loved Anchorman when I saw it first, but it doesn't hold up to a second viewing, so the sequel isn't quite as disappointing as some would have you believe.
The Warriors - been on the to do list for a couple of decades, it's on Netflix so I had a look. Nice to hear where all those audio samples I grew up with came from, but I have nothing positive to say about the film at all. That Warriors come out to play scene people waffle on about is hilariously shite. Fuck your own ear.
Kill The Messenger - journalist actually kids himself into doing his job, tells truth to power and winds up shooting himself twice in the head lol
Chappie - it's alright, I like Die Antwoord. I hate their music, but I like what they're about and I love how they managed to get stadiums full of people chanting BABIES ON FIRE because I hate my own species.
Elysium - it's alright, nothing really to say about it.
Ex Machina - another OK film I could have happily lived without seeing.
Interstellar - I really liked this film, not the best the Nolans have come up with, but not horrible either.
What We Do In The Shadows - the clips make it look hilarious. It's good not great. Jemaine Clement consulted me as an authority on being a sexy man and he pulled it off - I'm very happy for him and his face.
Mad Max Fury Road - hated it, I switched it off after 10 mins.
John Wick - easy to criticise, but if you compare it to something like an old Bronson film you can see a real evolution of this type of film. Serves the purpose if your purpose is seeing humans being disposed of in stylish and deliberate fashion.


Been a busy couple of weeks playing catch up.

[Ixmucane2]

Pixels

A particularly bad example of Hollywood comedy, at the intersection of two specific subgenres: one traditionally shallow and formulaic, comedy based on a supernatural fantastic premise (here the space invaders) and one traditionally shallow and stupid, comedy with Adam Sandler in it.

Everything is made even worse by a combination of more specific factors:

• Terrible plot holes. For example, there's no reason for Adam Sandler's fast-talking character to be such a loser: he's very smart and neither a socially inept paranoid or a natural born criminal like his two fellow videogame champions. More horrible: cheat codes. For arcade games.
• A basically implausible premise (aliens show up to challenge Earth to ritual war according to the form of old videogames, and Earth's champions are the three top players of a 1982 arcade games tournament), with a terrible amount of scenes and characters and excuses devoted to making the whole thing look less silly than it actually is. For example, skill at old videogames is far more common and easier to learn than depicted.
• Contempt for videogames; the "creative" team behind this film presumably hired experts, but opted to ignore them without understanding that they don't understand. For example, the flashback about arcades in 1982 is historically accurate enough, but on a more artistic level there are only alien creatures that look and act superficially like stuff from videogames, but are fake. There are very few depictions of actually playing videogames (a few seconds or less of several classics, the only good performance among them being Asteroids at a very suspect superhuman, maybe impossible, skill level); vague montages of levels and scores are preferred over the real thing.
  I'm particularly offended by their taking excessive liberties with game rules (for example, expanding Centipede mushroom fields and Galaga formations to 3D space or letting people cling to platforms and pull themselves up in Donkey Kong) while at the same time insisting that our heroes can apply the patterns they memorized, showing they they don't grasp the concept of virtual worlds with rules, and by the visual appearance of the "pixels" of debris and damage (cubes with outlines, of random sizes and positions, and of randomly varied colours), of the videogame entities (3D lumps of similarly pretty outlined voxels, of far higher resolution than the originals but fashionably retro) and of the obscene contemporary-style "pixel art" of the end credits.
• Contempt for characters. The videogame champions are losers who wasted their life with videogames, and they remain losers. There's no real hope for them.

Extra credits for irritating sexism: for the whole film, videogames and war are a manly pursuit and women are useless.

Summary: some the most sensitive viewers are going to walk out and/or express their disappointment violently.

[lilmanjs]

Pixels

A particularly bad example of Hollywood comedy, at the intersection of two specific subgenres: one traditionally shallow and formulaic, comedy based on a supernatural fantastic premise (here the space invaders) and one traditionally shallow and stupid, comedy with Adam Sandler in it.

Everything is made even worse by a combination of more specific factors:

• Terrible plot holes. For example, there's no reason for Adam Sandler's fast-talking character to be such a loser: he's very smart and neither a socially inept paranoid or a natural born criminal like his two fellow videogame champions. More horrible: cheat codes. For arcade games.
• A basically implausible premise (aliens show up to challenge Earth to ritual war according to the form of old videogames, and Earth's champions are the three top players of a 1982 arcade games tournament), with a terrible amount of scenes and characters and excuses devoted to making the whole thing look less silly than it actually is. For example, skill at old videogames is far more common and easier to learn than depicted.
• Contempt for videogames; the "creative" team behind this film presumably hired experts, but opted to ignore them without understanding that they don't understand. For example, the flashback about arcades in 1982 is historically accurate enough, but on a more artistic level there are only alien creatures that look and act superficially like stuff from videogames, but are fake. There are very few depictions of actually playing videogames (a few seconds or less of several classics, the only good performance among them being Asteroids at a very suspect superhuman, maybe impossible, skill level); vague montages of levels and scores are preferred over the real thing.
  I'm particularly offended by their taking excessive liberties with game rules (for example, expanding Centipede mushroom fields and Galaga formations to 3D space or letting people cling to platforms and pull themselves up in Donkey Kong) while at the same time insisting that our heroes can apply the patterns they memorized, showing they they don't grasp the concept of virtual worlds with rules, and by the visual appearance of the "pixels" of debris and damage (cubes with outlines, of random sizes and positions, and of randomly varied colours), of the videogame entities (3D lumps of similarly pretty outlined voxels, of far higher resolution than the originals but fashionably retro) and of the obscene contemporary-style "pixel art" of the end credits.
• Contempt for characters. The videogame champions are losers who wasted their life with videogames, and they remain losers. There's no real hope for them.

Extra credits for irritating sexism: for the whole film, videogames and war are a manly pursuit and women are useless.

Summary: some the most sensitive viewers are going to walk out and/or express their disappointment violently.

The fact you sat through this is beyond me. I can't imagine anyone sitting through this, but you've done the legwork for the rest of us!

[emphatic]

Ant Man 3/5

I was entertained. There were some really nice special effects, some really good running gags (the lip sync retelling of events). A strong 3/5.

[Leandro]

Kingsman 5/5

How could I've missed this one? The kind of movie I've been wanting to see since playing No One Lives Forever...

[Skykid]

The fact you sat through this is beyond me. I can't imagine anyone sitting through this, but you've done the legwork for the rest of us!

xxx1993 sat through it and loved every minute. He was seriously entertained, got his $20 worth, would pay again if they make similar in future.

And they will.

[Squire Grooktook]

Is Strange Days any good? Remember being recommended it a while back.

[Skykid]

Is Strange Days any good? Remember being recommended it a while back.

Awful. Everything terrible about the 90s right there.

[Stompp]

Kingsman 5/5

How could I've missed this one? The kind of movie I've been wanting to see since playing No One Lives Forever...

Agree with you on this one. It was not what I expected but I was positively surprised

[Ixmucane2]

I generally take pride in sitting through awful films to the end, for a number of reasons:

• Bragging rights
• Wanting to see how it ends; why cut a story in half?
• Intellectual curiosity for novel and unusual ways to fuck up: a bad film can be more interesting and instructive than a good one
• Irrational hope that it might get better
• I've paid a ticket and I want the show

[Skykid]

a bad film can be more interesting and instructive than a good one

Very true. Observation is education.

[chempop]

Is Strange Days any good? Remember being recommended it a while back.

Awful. Everything terrible about the 90s right there.

A lot of people liked Strange Days, at least when it was released. It might be one of those movies that was appealing to me as a 14 year old. 20 years later I’m not sure I’d feel the same way about it.

Kathryn Bigelow’s best is Near Dark, watch that instead

[Squire Grooktook]

That's a shame, was hoping to be pleasantly surprised for once.

Will add Near Dark to the list though.

[Skykid]

^ Fk'n A, Near Dark is much better.

I watched Strange Days about 3 years ago for the first time. At first it seems competent but becomes this sprawling embarrassing mess of utter nonsense, terrible 90s style Hollywood cliche, and a deflating, perfunctory ending that seals the deal.

Also way too long considering the end result was nothing of value.

edit: Dug up my entry for it from Sept 2012:

Strange Days

An utter mess from beginning to end. Cameron writing, Bigelow directing. No fucking idea what went wrong there, but I'm glad the public didn't vote with their wallets. Bad script, bad editing, bad casting, bad soundtrack, bad plot, bad acting, and a non-entity of a twist. Yuck. Typifies the worst of 90's movies/teen crazes.
Even Ralph Fiennes was bad, and he's normally good.

[jonny5]

Small independent theater near my house had a late showing of Alien saturday night so the missus and I went. Not the hugest, most modern theater, but awesome to see it on the big screen. Hoping they show the rest of the series too.

[JBC]

There's only one more entry, so chances are good :p

[options]

The King of Kong

Never heard of this doc until I noticed numerous references to it while reading reviews of Pixels.
It was really good. Does a great job of pulling you into the events and personalities even if you may only have a passing interest in the subject matter (but really, anyone who's ever played a video game should be able to relate at least somewhat).

Although I have no intention of watching Pixels, I'm glad someone (in this case, Peter Dinklage, according to the reviews) was wise enough to mine the treasure trove of material offered up by Billy Mitchell; everything about that guy was screaming to be parodied.

[Satan]

The King of Kong

Never heard of this doc until I noticed numerous references to it while reading reviews of Pixels.
It was really good. Does a great job of pulling you into the events and personalities even if you may only have a passing interest in the subject matter (but really, anyone who's ever played a video game should be able to relate at least somewhat).

Although I have no intention of watching Pixels, I'm glad someone (in this case, Peter Dinklage, according to the reviews) was wise enough to mine the treasure trove of material offered up by Billy Mitchell; everything about that guy was screaming to be parodied.

For balance check out the story from the Twin Galaxies side with Chasing Ghosts.

[BrianC]

Watched Bride of Frankenstein at the local theater. A bit campy and had Mary Shelly rolling in her grave (especially with the intro), but was very enjoyable with nods to the book missing from the first movie. I like how the monster learned to talk in this movie (fire bad). It's also the movie that had the scene with the blind man that was parodied in Young Frankenstein.

[jonny5]

There's only one more entry, so chances are good :p

^this guy

I actually watched 3 for the first time in years recently and it wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered. Well watchable.

And I've always liked Resurrection, don't know why it always catches so much grief. That character development

Don't tell anybody but if I'm absolutely honest I prefer Aliens to Alien so...

I put the AVP films in a different subset altogether. Not great films by any stretch, but watchable.

[JBC]

I actually do like 3 a little bit, but I still feel the sting my 11 year old self felt when it completely missed the mark. I wanted an infestation of Earth or a xeno homeworld story. As it is though, it's not really a bad movie. It has a pretty likeable depressive quality.

The rest, including Prometheus, just didn't live up to the legacy for me. Looking forward to Blomkamp's take though.

[dozicusmaximus]

Barton Fink, I finally bought it.
John Goodman rules!

[boagman]

Don't tell anybody but if I'm absolutely honest I prefer Aliens to Alien so...

I have no issues with this. I actually love them both, but quite honestly, you have to be in different places to really get the most out of either movie. The first is so, so terror-ific, it's just a great story, stem-to-stern. The second is far, far more action-oriented, and does a terrific job of sussing that out. Yes, they share a storyline and main character, but the movies themselves are just so categorically different from each other. I wouldn't even put them in the same genre, quite frankly.

[Xyga]

^ Well yeah considering its horror-thriller nature the first Alien is a blast the first time you watch it. After that the magic is kind of gone.
The second being a polished sci-fi action flick, it's reviewing value is naturally considerably higher.
Could say exactly the same for T1 vs. T2; even if the first is the better film, the action flick sequel is more fun to watch over and over again.

[boagman]

Could say exactly the same for T1 vs. T2; even if the first is the better film, the action flick sequel is more fun to watch over and over again.

Your comparison is apt as well.

[kaicooper]

its ALIEN and Terminators TIME lol

honestly

Alien is one of the Best BUT..the magic is kinda gone with second watch
Aliens is ACTION STAR..never get board of it at all

ok

Terminator 1 ..Best Timeline Horror/Thriller movie..this's the 80's movie that the Magic keep getting
bigger and bigger every time i watch..i even like it more then T2 BUT...

Termintor 2 is the BEST EPIC Sequal in Movies History(for me..yea i know GODFATOR II too )
its completely diffrent..Opening Soundtrack..Actions..Jail Amazing scene..Final scene..its awesom

[Lord Satori]

Just saw San Andreas. Got in for free along with my dad and sister because my sister has a job at the theater.

It was actually not that bad. Of course the supposed "science" behind why the earthquakes happened was bogus, there was a surprisingly good narrative.

[Skykid]

there was a surprisingly good narrative.

Was there?

As disposable entertainment it could have been worse, but I can't even remember a narrative beyond man saves daughter in the most cliché disaster movie ever.

[Lord Satori]

That's because whenever you see a movie you don't like, everything even remotely decent about it gets completely eclipsed in your mind by everything that was bad. You do this every time, and I'm not going to engage.

Didn't you ever wonder why you were banned from Off Topic for awhile?

[emphatic]

Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 1 4/5

Less "bang for the buck" than the first, but higher stakes and emotionally much more potent. I still enjoyed the second movie the most so far.