Movies you've just watched

[neorichieb1971]

Army of Darkness -

My choice for bringing in the new year. Strangely the movie makes the TV show look cheap. Every set piece has a laugh or two and the lines Bruce delivers is much more funnier than in the TV show. The fish out of water storyline definitely works in its favour.

8.5/10.

[MintyTheCat]

Army of Darkness -

My choice for bringing in the new year. Strangely the movie makes the TV show look cheap. Every set piece has a laugh or two and the lines Bruce delivers is much more funnier than in the TV show. The fish out of water storyline definitely works in its favour.

8.5/10.

It is funny. I have the first three on DVD and one or two on VHS.

"she-bitch" has to be one of the best new words.

[Volteccer_Jack]

Really wanted to like The Force Awakens. Got as far as the opening text crawl. The army that supports the reigning government is called The Resistance. Now suspension of disbelief is impossible for me because they're gonna keep saying that name throughout the movie, so all I have left is cold emotionless analysis.

Remake of the opening scene of IV, Darth Vader II Electric Boogaloo is OP as fuck. Weird melodrama about horrors of war or some crap that is completely out of place in Star Wars, causes Finn to abandon the First Order. It's even more out of place when the rest of the movie ignores it, and Finn kills people left and right without showing a glimmer of remorse, even being gleeful at the thought of putting a live person in a trash compactor.

Poe Dameron, stated to be the BEST ULTIMATE ACE PILOT of the Resistance, has trouble operating a TIE fighter because he's never been inside one before. Rey has lived on RenamedTatooine all her life, and is stated to have never flown anything. Naturally she instantaneously knows what every control on the Millennium Falcon does, and is an expert pilot. Then Han Solo shows up, and Rey knows more about the inner workings of the Millennium Falcon than Han Solo. Then Han Solo gives her a gun, and she's also a better shot than he is. Then Darth Vader II Electric Boogaloo shows off some more OP as fuck Force powers, and then Rey (who didn't know the Force existed an hour ago) easily overpowers those force powers in the next scene. Then she masters the Jedi mind trick in 10 seconds flat having never seen a Jedi mind trick before. Then she somehow knows her way around a military facility she's never been in before, a military facility which for some reason has no cameras or security of any kind. Then she picks up a lightsaber for the first time in her life, and easily defeats a guy who was trained from birth by Luke Skywalker. Then Leia sees Chewbacca and Rey walking towards her, and chooses to hug the teenage girl she's never met. Also Rey speaks Wookie and Droid, even though she has probably never seen a Wookie before. Also literally everyone she meets likes her and trusts her implicitly, including Han Solo and the main antagonist.

Spoiler

The bad guys have a new super duper Deathstar that gets hastily shoved into the movie two-thirds of the way through the plot, and destroyed just as quickly. The scene inside the Resistance base feels like the shortest scene ever, and pretty much consists of:
"there's a new deathstar, but luckily we found these schematics by the side of the road off-screen"
"it probably has an exhaust port"
"okay everybody move out"
Then they send like ten X-wings or so, because obviously that's all you need to destroy a fucking planet.

For some reason Anakin's lightsaber is magical, and gives Rey visions of stuff completely unrelated to Anakin. Still struggling to figure out why a lightsaber that never did anything except cut open a Tauntaun and be on the losing side of fights is being treated as a legendary object. Also how did it get off of Bespin? Oh, right, "A good question for another time." At least Orange Yoda was nice enough to fill in for The Creator of Lost and tell me that no, they have no plans to explain any of this bullshit, so I can go ahead and skip the next 11 movies Disney apparently has in the works.

[rapoon]

With the end of the year, I'm curious to see what people thought were their favorite 2015 films. Keep in mind this list is purely subjective.

The End of the Tour
Sicario
It Follows
Best of Enemies
Red Army

[chempop]

Volteccer_Jack, pretty much all your criticisms of Rey would be explained if my theory is correct; that she did train at Luke's camp, but was ditched in the dessert and her memory was wiped as shit was hitting the fan. I mean, there is a good change Leia is her Aunt, so to say she's never met her is making a pretty broad assumption.

[nissling]

The Hateful Eight on 70mm. Awesome print, awesome film. Nuff said.

[neorichieb1971]

Really wanted to like The Force Awakens. Got as far as the opening text crawl. The army that supports the reigning government is called The Resistance. Now suspension of disbelief is impossible for me because they're gonna keep saying that name throughout the movie, so all I have left is cold emotionless analysis.

Remake of the opening scene of IV, Darth Vader II Electric Boogaloo is OP as fuck. Weird melodrama about horrors of war or some crap that is completely out of place in Star Wars, causes Finn to abandon the First Order. It's even more out of place when the rest of the movie ignores it, and Finn kills people left and right without showing a glimmer of remorse, even being gleeful at the thought of putting a live person in a trash compactor.

Poe Dameron, stated to be the BEST ULTIMATE ACE PILOT of the Resistance, has trouble operating a TIE fighter because he's never been inside one before. Rey has lived on RenamedTatooine all her life, and is stated to have never flown anything. Naturally she instantaneously knows what every control on the Millennium Falcon does, and is an expert pilot. Then Han Solo shows up, and Rey knows more about the inner workings of the Millennium Falcon than Han Solo. Then Han Solo gives her a gun, and she's also a better shot than he is. Then Darth Vader II Electric Boogaloo shows off some more OP as fuck Force powers, and then Rey (who didn't know the Force existed an hour ago) easily overpowers those force powers in the next scene. Then she masters the Jedi mind trick in 10 seconds flat having never seen a Jedi mind trick before. Then she somehow knows her way around a military facility she's never been in before, a military facility which for some reason has no cameras or security of any kind. Then she picks up a lightsaber for the first time in her life, and easily defeats a guy who was trained from birth by Luke Skywalker. Then Leia sees Chewbacca and Rey walking towards her, and chooses to hug the teenage girl she's never met. Also Rey speaks Wookie and Droid, even though she has probably never seen a Wookie before. Also literally everyone she meets likes her and trusts her implicitly, including Han Solo and the main antagonist.

Spoiler

The bad guys have a new super duper Deathstar that gets hastily shoved into the movie two-thirds of the way through the plot, and destroyed just as quickly. The scene inside the Resistance base feels like the shortest scene ever, and pretty much consists of:
"there's a new deathstar, but luckily we found these schematics by the side of the road off-screen"
"it probably has an exhaust port"
"okay everybody move out"
Then they send like ten X-wings or so, because obviously that's all you need to destroy a fucking planet.

For some reason Anakin's lightsaber is magical, and gives Rey visions of stuff completely unrelated to Anakin. Still struggling to figure out why a lightsaber that never did anything except cut open a Tauntaun and be on the losing side of fights is being treated as a legendary object. Also how did it get off of Bespin? Oh, right, "A good question for another time." At least Orange Yoda was nice enough to fill in for The Creator of Lost and tell me that no, they have no plans to explain any of this bullshit, so I can go ahead and skip the next 11 movies Disney apparently has in the works.

This is pure gold. I can't argue with any of it.

[Stevens]

Finally got around to seeing Kung Fury. It was awesomely bad.

More please.

[BrianC]

I'm a little skeptical about Civil War since the comic arc it's based on received mixed ratings, but the trailer looked promising.

[Some-Mist]

favorites of 2015..
anomalisa
the end of the tour
7 chinese brothers
dheepan
the dark horse


still really want to see the revenant and the hateful 8.

[GaijinPunch]

The Hateful Eight (70mm Road Show).

So glad someone is making a racket against digital, and backing it up with action. Awesome film, and the pamphlet, overture, and intermission were excellent touches.

[BrianC]

I saw Star Wars the Force Awakens. It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Not as good as the first two movies in the original trilogy, but arguably better than RoTJ (which I liked) and much better than the prequel trilogy.

[Skykid]

The Hateful Eight


Yeah I done gone and seen it. Fer those e'ya inneresed, here's what I wuz thinkin' of it:

Spoiler

I had every ambition of not watching the leaked screener for this because I'm the sort of movie goer who will give hard cash to a deserving filmmaker and Tarantino is one of very few who I feel falls into that pot. That said, after some investigation, some whiteys living out East said that it would never actually come out in theatres here - and after the 11th hour Django fiasco I'm inclined to believe - and someone at work teased the fuck out of me by offering to see the screener that they already had waiting on their enormous TV. So I bit.

It's Tarantino's weakest movie. I can't believe that's the case, but it is. Death Proof had weaknesses too, similarly, but it kind of pulled itself up from the first act. This one seems to keep teetering on the edge of becoming something, yet never achieves it. I was mystified. It is the only film I've seen from QT where I felt as though he was playing to his own stereotypical tropes rather than inventing them. 70mm or not, the level of artistry wasn't as strong, and the dialogue was hazy - some good, some bad, some really needing to be consigned to the cutting room floor.

What was really dissapointing for me, however, was the lack of both momentum and payoff. It was like a wheel that was just about to start spinning, then didn't, and the upshot was sadly little more than a very tepid twist - if you could call it like that, it was more of a development - and a sort of unnaturally OTT ending.

Was it a bad film? Of course not. He's stil a capable director. But the script was not meant to be 3 hours long by any stretch. This was more like a 45 minute TV episode stretched far beyond its means.

If I said I wasn't a little sad about all this, I'd be lying. I don't think I've ever been more hyped about a movie, or at least not for a very long time. It should have been genuinely superb, but for whatever reason this wasn't Tarantino's day. I'm hoping the death of his former editor, Sally Menke, isn't the reason that this one suffered, and I'm hoping that fear will be put aside with whatever he does next.

Looking forward to seeing him back on his game next time.

For now I caught only one snippet of a critic's review I really agreed with, and I'll close with that:

"The first half seems like Tarantino's worst movie. Then there's a plot flip, and you think: Okay, here we go. But then it goes on seeming like Tarantino's worst movie."

Not a total loss, but certainly a shame.

[neorichieb1971]

Cabin in the woods -

Watched this because my blu ray hadn't had a whizz on my 5.1 surround system. Quite an enjoyable watch if you like your horror with a slight twist. Had some good 5.1 moments in there making this come well recommended.

[dan76]

2001: A Space Odyssey. 70mm print with intermission at the Prince Charles Cinema in London. In many ways it's sill the greatest science fiction film ever made.

A few weeks ago we also watched a 35mm print of Eyes Wide Shut, which transformed the film from being a fugly 90's movie into one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. It's a bit ropey for sure but the effect of the film grain and Kubrick force developing only shows whilst watch an actual print. My girlfriend hated it on BluRay but loved it at the old cine. Clockwork Orange is next month.

[xxx1993]

Two days ago, I saw Gone in 60 Seconds, The Italian Job, and The Island. Yesterday, I saw Ride Along. That movie was hilarious.

[Bar81]

Really wanted to like The Force Awakens. Got as far as the opening text crawl. The army that supports the reigning government is called The Resistance. Now suspension of disbelief is impossible for me because they're gonna keep saying that name throughout the movie, so all I have left is cold emotionless analysis.

Remake of the opening scene of IV, Darth Vader II Electric Boogaloo is OP as fuck. Weird melodrama about horrors of war or some crap that is completely out of place in Star Wars, causes Finn to abandon the First Order. It's even more out of place when the rest of the movie ignores it, and Finn kills people left and right without showing a glimmer of remorse, even being gleeful at the thought of putting a live person in a trash compactor.

Poe Dameron, stated to be the BEST ULTIMATE ACE PILOT of the Resistance, has trouble operating a TIE fighter because he's never been inside one before. Rey has lived on RenamedTatooine all her life, and is stated to have never flown anything. Naturally she instantaneously knows what every control on the Millennium Falcon does, and is an expert pilot. Then Han Solo shows up, and Rey knows more about the inner workings of the Millennium Falcon than Han Solo. Then Han Solo gives her a gun, and she's also a better shot than he is. Then Darth Vader II Electric Boogaloo shows off some more OP as fuck Force powers, and then Rey (who didn't know the Force existed an hour ago) easily overpowers those force powers in the next scene. Then she masters the Jedi mind trick in 10 seconds flat having never seen a Jedi mind trick before. Then she somehow knows her way around a military facility she's never been in before, a military facility which for some reason has no cameras or security of any kind. Then she picks up a lightsaber for the first time in her life, and easily defeats a guy who was trained from birth by Luke Skywalker. Then Leia sees Chewbacca and Rey walking towards her, and chooses to hug the teenage girl she's never met. Also Rey speaks Wookie and Droid, even though she has probably never seen a Wookie before. Also literally everyone she meets likes her and trusts her implicitly, including Han Solo and the main antagonist.

Spoiler

The bad guys have a new super duper Deathstar that gets hastily shoved into the movie two-thirds of the way through the plot, and destroyed just as quickly. The scene inside the Resistance base feels like the shortest scene ever, and pretty much consists of:
"there's a new deathstar, but luckily we found these schematics by the side of the road off-screen"
"it probably has an exhaust port"
"okay everybody move out"
Then they send like ten X-wings or so, because obviously that's all you need to destroy a fucking planet.

For some reason Anakin's lightsaber is magical, and gives Rey visions of stuff completely unrelated to Anakin. Still struggling to figure out why a lightsaber that never did anything except cut open a Tauntaun and be on the losing side of fights is being treated as a legendary object. Also how did it get off of Bespin? Oh, right, "A good question for another time." At least Orange Yoda was nice enough to fill in for The Creator of Lost and tell me that no, they have no plans to explain any of this bullshit, so I can go ahead and skip the next 11 movies Disney apparently has in the works.

Pretty much; I tried but I just couldn't. Can't believe this is the shit that's tearing up the record books but between the garbage that is Avatar and Titanic, this is probably the least bad one to hold the title (which it will shortly).

[Mischief Maker]

Can't believe this is the shit that's tearing up the record books but between the garbage that is Avatar and Titanic, this is probably the least bad one to hold the title (which it will shortly).

It's that winter release date. Not many other options are available for entertainment in the cold besides movies and still several studios are focused on the summer blockbuster and use wintertime as a dumping ground, so there's barely any competition.

[GaijinPunch]

The Hateful Eight


Yeah I done gone and seen it. Fer those e'ya inneresed, here's what I wuz thinkin' of it:

we didn't see the same film.

[Skykid]

The Hateful Eight


Yeah I done gone and seen it. Fer those e'ya inneresed, here's what I wuz thinkin' of it:

we didn't see the same film.

Which one did you see? Discuss.

2001: A Space Odyssey. 70mm print with intermission at the Prince Charles Cinema in London. In many ways it's sill the greatest science fiction film ever made.

I can't think of one that's better. 2001 70mm is a beautiful thing. About 10 years ago on the re-release I went to see it twice in 4 days at a London independent with the same print. Incredible.

[GaijinPunch]

we didn't see the same film.

Which one did you see? Discuss.

The one I saw was worthy of far more praise.

I can't think of one that's better. 2001 70mm is a beautiful thing. About 10 years ago on the re-release I went to see it twice in 4 days at a London independent with the same print. Incredible.

Curious if anyone could spot the differences in a 35mm print or a 70mm print for the non-ultravision films... especially now. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the big deal about ultra panavision is the 1:2.75 aspect ratio, whereas Super Panavision only went up to 1:2.20 (less than 35mm through some anamorphic lens/projectors). You're also at the mercy of the quality of the projector and screen.

[nissling]

Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 are the only two anamorphic 70mm formats, unless I remember something completely wrong. Super Panavision 70 and Todd-AO uses spherical lenses, which gives an aspect ratio of 2.2:1 due to the frame size of 5/70mm.

My first experience with 70mm was a screening of Aliens at Filmhuset in Stockholm. Although it was basically a blow-up from a 35mm the picture was ridiculously enjoyable in every single way and far more enticing than most modern films. Even the well produced Blu-Ray looked like a joke in comparison.

[Skykid]

we didn't see the same film.

Which one did you see? Discuss.

The one I saw was worthy of far more praise.

Well tell me about it then! You know I'm a huge fan of Tarantino and always have my high expectations either sated or surpassed. This one felt very off in a number of key areas - it was unshakeable. I could see the cogs here, the missteps and the shortcomings plain as day. I'm not doubting the man's ability, but for once I'm actually on the side of many of the critics. I also have no idea why a movie that takes place almost primarily in a cabin needed to be shot in 70mm, but that's a small aside. My main issue is why the simplicity of the script and the relative lack of development, including any kind of worthy upshot, required 3 hours of viewing. It didn't manage to hold any real elements of suspense or mystery for the duration, and started to fizzle out entirely by chapter 3. The flashback sequence added nothing significant to the plot either before or after, and seemed like a shoe-in for gunplay. There were little to no significant revelations about the characters.

Basically, it was surprisingly thin considering the pedigree, acting talent, casting (bar that awful New Zealand girl, no idea wtf happened there), period setting and beautiful location.

I wouldn't say I'd never watch it again. I might. But there's no doubt in my mind it lacked an all-important substance that Tarantino usually delivers on dialogue alone.

[GaijinPunch]

I guess I went in expecting Tarantino's take on a western (a genre of film not exactly known for rivetingly complex storylines) and that's what I got. I thought the performances were praise-worthy all around, and while although nothing defining, I had a blast. Why it needed to be shot in 70mm (or ultra wide even) is definitely going to come down to taste. I have a panoramic film camera that shoots 35mm film at a whopping 1 : 2.90 aspect ratio... and I only have the portrait lens for it. O.o

Note, this is not my shot, but you get the idea:


As someone that knows the hardships of medium format film and controlling such a huge frame, I was pretty blown away. By a similar measure, I rank Kill Bill lower than most for a couple of reasons... most notably Uma Thurman's atrocious Japanese. For paying homage to a style of film in a specific country, you'd think you'd not make such a colossal fuck up. A small detail to some but it killed the immersion factor for me.

Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 are the only two anamorphic 70mm formats, unless I remember something completely wrong. Super Panavision 70 and Todd-AO uses spherical lenses, which gives an aspect ratio of 2.2:1 due to the frame size of 5/70mm.

Cheers!

[nissling]

I think that the two reasons he shot the film in 65mm was because he's very into old-fashioned films in general and for the fact that we've seen tons of films in 3D, IMAX and other stuff. I honestly thought Django Unchained looked pretty bad on Blu-Ray, so I'm happy to see him return with something completely different.

[MR_Soren]

Mad Max: Fury Road was my favorite 2015 movie. The Martian was my second favorite.

I enjoyed Ant Man and Star Wars, but neither left a lasting impression.

Avengers: Age of Ultron was the most disappointing, but I am still looking forward to Civil War.

[Skykid]

I guess I went in expecting Tarantino's take on a western (a genre of film not exactly known for rivetingly complex storylines) and that's what I got. I thought the performances were praise-worthy all around, and while although nothing defining, I had a blast.

Well, I considered Django to be a western too, but far superior as a film.

Performances of Tim Roth, Samuel L, Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern and especially Walter Goggins were all excellent.

Some of the actors struggled with some of the dialogue not being quite right in places, and some of the performances were surprisingly off - for example Kurt Russell was a bit shouty at times, Madsen was very underfed, and the energy seemed wrong in places. I have a theory about this that QT shot fewer takes than normal because of the massive expense of the film format. This may have been a contributing factor as to the less than satisfactory results that seemed to crop up.

Elsewhere, editing issues. Some of the music cutting was odd, the general editing lacked a certain grace. Cinematography was nice, but more straightforward than I had hoped for.

If all this sounds kind of middling then that's a good indication of how I felt. It was like QT at half mast in terms of overall ability - and that's still a far higher level than most directors out there. But I still couldn't quite get over the fact that this one went awry despite so much potential.

[GaijinPunch]

Performances of Tim Roth, Samuel L, Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern and especially Walter Goggins were all excellent.

Agreed... and seeing as Walter Goggins is the under dog (although he's proven his acting chops, mainly on TV) I was quite delighted to see him do so well.

Some of the actors struggled with some of the dialogue not being quite right in places, and some of the performances were surprisingly off - for example Kurt Russell was a bit shouty at times, Madsen was very underfed, and the energy seemed wrong in places.

I took it that it was supposed to feel awkward, but that's me.

I have a theory about this that QT shot fewer takes than normal because of the massive expense of the film format. This may have been a contributing factor as to the less than satisfactory results that seemed to crop up.

I could see where someone might think this but I'd probably dismiss it. Film isn't as expensive as you'd think... definitely not enough to put a dent in a release of this size. They might have even saved some dough by using vintage cameras/lenses.

[Vexorg]

The Money Pit: **

A 1986 film about a young couple that buys an (allegedly) million-dollar house for $200,000 from a shady real estate broker, only to have the place fall apart (literally) on them. Notable mostly for starring Tom Hanks, the plot is forgettable, and all the good "stuff falling apart" scenes seem to be on YouTube anyway, so you can just watch those and skip the rest.

[Necronopticous]

Which movie remakes in your opinion lived up to the originals then?

I haven't checked this thread in awhile, so I missed out on this brief discussion. I wanted to add one remake which was not mentioned: Werner Herzog's Nosferatu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Rachk7ipI

This always instantly comes to my mind as the greatest remake in film history, and I actually do like the original quite a bit as well. It seems criminally unknown. I highly recommend watching this if you haven't seen it, or even if you have.

Re: Star Wars

What Volteccer_Jack said. Fuck this thing.

Re: Hateful Eight

I loved every minute of it, but I definitely see where Skykid is coming from.

Spoiler

I also thought that the flashback sequence felt weirdly unnecessary (though still completely entertaining) and the final act was fine but also a bit unsatisfying. The movie overall actually reminded me a lot of Reservoir Dogs or the tavern scene in Inglorious Basterds except without the gripping element of knowing who is who, and without that it definitely seemed to be lacking a certain something, or maybe the big reveal/payoff just wasn't as surprising or interesting as I was hoping for after such a long buildup, and especially following the incredible sequence before the intermission. I wonder if this is even partially due to having to rewrite the ending after the Internet leak fiasco? Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. If anyone other than Tarantino had made this I would be praising the fuck out of it, I think the bar is just so high with his work that even something as stellar as this seems pretty much par for the course.