Movies you've just watched

[Lord Satori]

I just saw Dawn of the Planet of the Apes last night. (speaking of which, I heard that they got the titles of the two movies mixed up) I thought it was pretty good. I love how it depicts just how stupid and violent some people (and apes) can be. I'd be terribly disappointed if there wasn't a third film coming out eventually.

[options]

Mullholland Drive

Never seen anything by David Lynch before, but I knew to expect weirdness, and he didn't disappoint.
Although I wouldn't be able to explain to you what anything meant, I did enjoy the film and its twists and turns up until I'd say the 80% mark. At that point, I started drifting away and just wanted it to end. I've got no problem with weird/artsy/abstract/WTF films, but once you hit the 2-hour mark...



I'ma give myself a little bit of time to try and sort out the story on my own before I cheat and dive into its IMDB page...

[Skykid]

Mulholland is interesting but not the best of Lynch.

Next watch Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man, The Straight Story, Eraserhead.

[options]

I'll add 'em to the queue once this one has been fully digested.

[Vexorg]

Guardians of the Galaxy: ****

Ignoring some of the other opinions in the thread on this one (because really it's all pretty subjective anyway,) I saw it tonight in a full theater and quite enjoyed it. It tends to get a bit bogged down in a couple of places, but the Guardians are easily the most interesting characters I've seen in the Marvel movies by merit of actually being interesting when they aren't in the middle of some overwrought action sequence.

To give you some idea of how I view the various MCU characters, I generally don't care much for Tony Stark/Ironman (too angsty), Captain America seems really generic, Thor and Loki are enjoyable for the camp factor of watching them be overdramatic, and haven't seen the Hulk outside of the Avengers, so I don't have much of an opinion on him. The Avengers movie is a "skip to the action sequences" type film.

[boagman]

"Man of Steel"

While not nearly the wretched thing I was told it was, neither did it do a whole lot for me. It's cheesy, and rather stupid, with lots of Nolan-esque music floating about to give it that "feel". I would not have walked out of the theater on it, but when it's said and done, it is basically an eye-roll-inducer of a movie. Couldn't give one rat's behind about basically *any* of the characters in the movie, and the plot? Oh, I guess the whole world's in trouble again.

Here's a secret: Superman wins.

I've seen far worse, but I *completely* understand why many folks wondered how this movie could have pulled the coin it did. It's just not that good at all, but fair is fair: neither is it the completely unwatchable, horrific grunt fest that I was told it would be.

I'll be about as back-handed as I can: "Avatar" has much better special effects and such, but is a *far* worse movie than this. "Man of Steel" may not be a very good movie, but it's more watchable in terms of story, characters, etc. than "Avatar" is.

Very glad I didn't spend money to see it, though. The free movie channel on cable was just fine, thank you very much.

[Skykid]

I'll be about as back-handed as I can: "Avatar" has much better special effects and such, but is a *far* worse movie than this. "Man of Steel" may not be a very good movie, but it's more watchable in terms of story, characters, etc. than "Avatar" is.

No.

[emphatic]

Mullholland Drive

Never seen anything by David Lynch before, but I knew to expect weirdness, and he didn't disappoint.
Although I wouldn't be able to explain to you what anything meant, I did enjoy the film and its twists and turns up until I'd say the 80% mark. At that point, I started drifting away and just wanted it to end. I've got no problem with weird/artsy/abstract/WTF films, but once you hit the 2-hour mark...

Did you have David Lynch's clue sheet handy when you watched it?



Here's my take:

Spoiler

Most of the movie is a dream. The first clue is showing one character going to bed before the credits.

I love Mulholland Drive, the audition scene with Naomi Watts' character is incredible.

[GaijinPunch]

Coherence

Enjoyed this. A good idea, and as the idea is the selling point, they didn't need A-listers. The cast, none of whom I recognized, did a fine job though. The idea is explored in science, but of course some of it's bent for convenience's sake in the movie, but is definitely livable. Pretty intense as well.

I was going to add that it did indeed feel like a real dinner party (the main setting of the film) and it turns out that the actors were given notes on the direction of their lines only - not the lines themselves. He must be a Curb your Enthusiasm fan.

[lilmanjs]

The Naked City
Film Noir that is a little offbeat but does its job very well. You get a couple of stories in this movie that end up weaving together by the end. One about a model that ends up dead, and another you see actually happen in the first few minutes about a guy who gets drunk and is thrown into the river. They go all out trying to find the guy who threw the other man into the river and ends with a nice chase scene. Great movie and I highly recommend it.

[rapoon]

joe - crap

two-lane blacktop - seen this about 12 or 13 times. a gem.
"....this minimalist road movie, screeching tires and dust, with a legendary script by Will Corry and Rudy Wurlitzer, is the Roadrunner meets Kerouac meets Samuel Beckett."

enemy - strongly recommend going in blind or knowing as little as possible. watched for the 2nd time.
not as exciting as seeing for the first time and piecing everything together, still one of the better movies ive seen this year.

[boagman]

No.

Yes.

[options]

Did you have David Lynch's clue sheet handy when you watched it?

I love Mulholland Drive, the audition scene with Naomi Watts' character is incredible.

Just the fact that a film would need a cheat sheet to understand is hilarious to me. I skipped through it again, eyeing the list (and the IMDB page ) and it made more sense. But it's a testament to the film that I liked it even when I was completely in the dark about what its various clues were pointing to.

And yes, the audition scene was fantastic. However, the most compelling scene to me was the guy talking about his dream in the diner. I still don't really understand how it fits in, tho...

[Skykid]

No.

Yes.

No.

Even the worst of Cameron is superior to that gutter trash Syder turned out. Calling a grey, soulless, horribly cast movie with absolutely no redeeming features except the point where the credits roll as better than Avatar sounds like a kind of pointless anti-Avatar bandwagoning.

I thought Avatar was real crap, but at least competently made crap, which is what I'd expect from Cameron. As such I could get to the end and just about stomach the embarrassing dialogue and Disney level plotting thanks to his ability to control the production.

Man of Steel I was fighting not to leave the theatre. If I was on my own I would have. That movie is really fucking bad through and through: no character, no fun, no brains, no entertainment. Avatar at least managed some of those.

So I call your comparison as wholly incorrect, and I have no idea how you drew the conclusion. But it's disappointing. I know it's like picking through trash to figure out which trash is less trashy, but between these two it's quite obvious MoS stinks a hell of a lot more and offers far less.

[Mischief Maker]

The character of "Bob" was added to Twin Peaks by accident when a grip named Bob accidentally got caught in the mirror in the first episode's closing shot.

Mulholland Drive was originally going to be Lynch's second big TV series, but nobody picked it up, so Lynch took the pilot and slapped together an ending to turn it into a feature film. You can really feel the gears grinding as it shifts from TV show pilot to art movie ending.

My thought: it would have been an incredible TV show.

As a movie it has great scenes (toward the beginning) but the ending is disappointingly simple once you clear away all the art film fog:

Spoiler

Naomi Watts was the lesbian lover of Laura Harring. Laura Harring left her for the movie producer. Naomi Watts kills her in a jealous rage. A little while later she is overcome by guilt and kills herself. The first half of the movie is her imagining what the perfect relationship with Harring would have been like as she lay dying in bed.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

^so it was basically the plot of Lost Highway again? That's disappointing.

[Some-Mist]

Did you have David Lynch's clue sheet handy when you watched it?

I love Mulholland Drive, the audition scene with Naomi Watts' character is incredible.

Just the fact that a film would need a cheat sheet to understand is hilarious to me.

primer is a hilarious example of this

Spoiler

also, I honestly think Twin Peaks is the best Lynch creation, though blue velvet would be my runner up. it might just be that I have a man crush on kyle maclachlan tho.

[system11]

Newest Muppets film.

Still awesome.

[neorichieb1971]

Guardians of the Galaxy.. Good fun.

Next up The Raid 2. Liked the first one.

[Volteccer_Jack]

Guardians of the Galaxy majorly disappointed.

Okay, to be fair, maybe I was just overhyped. It's got a Marvel logo and it's not X-Men or Amazing Spider-Man, the casting is genius on paper, the phrase "better than The Avengers" is being tossed around (I should've realized these were the same idiots who didn't like The Avengers (seriously you are idiots)), it's based on the best portion of the modern Marvel universe, I guess I expected more than just a movie. Instead, the only thing I'm impressed by is how thoroughly they've under-achieved. It's not outright bad, but they've done the absolute bare minimum to make me not hate it, and then just shoved in lots of blatant pandering to fill the seats.

Has the exact opposite problem to Transformers. Age of Extinction had a garbled nonsense plot that only existed to try to justify all the random things characters did. In Guardians of the Galaxy, all the actions characters take are garbled nonsense without rhyme or reason; as far as I can tell, things only happen and characters only do things as a thinly-veiled excuse for one of the Guardians to have a "character moment." I guess maybe the goal was to be like a two-hour long Saturday morning cartoon, in which case they've certainly got the stupidity down pat. Everyone is apocalyptically moronic in order to move the story forward, only briefly gaining competence when it is character X's turn to be the star of the scene. It doesn't help that all the good action sequences occur in the first act, either. Meanwhile the protagonist, Peter Quill, has a climax-stealing character arc that relies incredibly heavily on the opening scene of the movie, except that entire opening scene is laughably bad, like "I honestly cannot believe someone gave this scene their approval" bad. The villain of course fits right into that Saturday morning routine, having no personality whatsoever apart from a desire to kill all the good guys, and being 100% completely invulnerable to literally everything except the one thing that the script calls for at the end. It's kind of sad when you are so lifeless you make Thanos look like a super deep and intriguing villain; especially when Thanos is barely more than a cameo. Speaking of. We've also got the two 'daughters' of Thanos, who both hate him but don't hate him, and there's like a really complicated relationship there but rather than actually work with any of that, the audience is just supposed to take their word for it while the two of them have a couple lazily thrown together confrontations and yell vacuous things at each other.

Immediately after GotG I turned around and bought a ticket for Expendables 3, because I wanted to get the bad taste out of my mouth and casual sex was not an option. It worked well enough. Better than the first two movies by a long shot, but saying that is kinda pointless. If you saw the second one, you know pretty much what to expect, and if you didn't, I highly doubt I could convince you to see this one.

The actors are really trying to act this time, instead of just having a laugh like the second movie. Harrison Ford walks around like he owns the scene because he does. Kelsey Grammar is impeccable as usual. Never really saw what was so special about Antonio Banderas, but good god, he is special in this. Even Wesley Snipes seemed good and I normally hate everything about the man. The young characters don't have the same screen presence, but they're good when they have your attention (big ups for having a competent female character and not obsessing over the 'female' part). The climactic showdown that forms the tail end of the plot degenerates into rampant silliness rather quickly, but I'm willing to bite that bullet for the excellent bits that come with the silliness. Especially Stallone's amazing line as he kills the villain.

Also Arnold yelling 'CHOPPA' is getting old. Please stop it.

[BIL]

Saw something other fans of John Carpenter's "The Thing" might find interesting, spoilered if anyone's somehow not seen the movie.

Spoiler

Early storyboard of Norris-thing's reveal (<-- link), with one unfilmed detail that struck me, the "corpse" turning its head to give a rather eerie smile after biting Doc's arms off.

Of course it doesn't make much sense in the movie's context with the exposed alien having no discernible human emotions, but it's a creepy illustration nonetheless.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Of course it doesn't make much sense in the movie's context with the exposed alien having no discernible human emotions

Spoiler

Are you sure? When Palmer utters that great line; "you gotta be fucking kidding" during the same scene - he's already one of them. The Thing itself is a real kidder, moreso if you buy into the 'Blair was infected very early on' theory.

[1983parrothead]

Earth To Echo. It looks like it's marketed toward the younger audience. Bland, except for the part where "Echo" beeps once to say yes and twice to say no.

[Skykid]

Taken 2

Absolute fucking trash. I've walked out/switched off movies before, this is first time I've ever skimmed through the last twenty minutes just to get to the credits. Should have done it with the whole thing.

Abitrage

The back of Richard Gere's head is exquisite in this, lots of camera time. Decent if not particularly special thriller with some interesting themes. Gere was actually reasonable considering his limited ability, but then the silver fox fit the role of corrupt super rich businessman like a glove. Liked the pickle he was in, fair amount of intrigue, and liked the ambiguity of the ending. Would recommend if you got nothing better to do/watch.

[BIL]

Of course it doesn't make much sense in the movie's context with the exposed alien having no discernible human emotions

Spoiler

Are you sure? When Palmer utters that great line; "you gotta be fucking kidding" during the same scene - he's already one of them. The Thing itself is a real kidder, moreso if you buy into the 'Blair was infected very early on' theory.

Oh no, I mean the literally exposed Thing. Once the jig is up, it always discards all semblance of humanity and goes into animalistic fight/flight mode, until it either escapes or dies (just like in the exposing of the one you mention). It doesn't appear to take pleasure or satisfaction in eliminating enemies or securing objectives, like that storyboard has it apparently doing (it doesn't express malice either, the other possible reason for that hideous smile).

Would've been reductive to the total extraterrestrial and biological horror it represents, I think. An utterly alien entity, that casually reduces "humanity" to indistinguishable meat xeroxes. Still really like the illustration, though - better than anything in the outright wacky Dark Horse comics for sure.

[Mischief Maker]

Of course it doesn't make much sense in the movie's context with the exposed alien having no discernible human emotions

Spoiler

Are you sure? When Palmer utters that great line; "you gotta be fucking kidding" during the same scene - he's already one of them. The Thing itself is a real kidder, moreso if you buy into the 'Blair was infected very early on' theory.

Oh no, I mean the literally exposed Thing. Once the jig is up, it always discards all semblance of humanity and goes into animalistic fight/flight mode, until it either escapes or dies (just like in the exposing of the one you mention). It doesn't appear to take pleasure or satisfaction in eliminating enemies or securing objectives, like that storyboard has it apparently doing (it doesn't express malice either, the other possible reason for that hideous smile).

Would've been reductive to the total extraterrestrial and biological horror it represents, I think. An utterly alien entity, that casually reduces "humanity" to indistinguishable meat xeroxes. Still really like the illustration, though - better than anything in the outright wacky Dark Horse comics for sure.

Spoiler

I always liked the idea that the Thing makes such perfect copies they don't KNOW they're a Thing until it needs to defend itself or has a chance to eat.

[BIL]

^Along those lines, I particularly like the debate around

Spoiler

Norris-thing and his heart attack.

Did it have no idea it was a copy, and simply expire? Or was it just plausibly setting up a later ambush? Or somewhere in between, maybe it was self-aware but recklessly overworking.

Or several other permutations, none of them comforting at all. There's a miasma of terror and subterfuge thorughout the movie, never knowing exactly how the alien operates. It remains alien by definition. Prime example of horror fiction knowing what's better left undefined.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Spoiler

I always felt that Norris was human but had thing cells slowly taking over inside him, causing his heart attack. That why a second, gnarled version of Norris' head pops out of his stomach. The Thing was busy copy and replacing his cells like in Blair's simulation.

[BIL]

I was going to mention that too, but it opens the ultimate can of worms in gradual VS fast assimilation. (do you read the Outpost 31 forums by any chance? I like to browse occasionally, those guys take Things seriously!)

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Yes I visited that place and tried to dig up the best bits. I don't post there.