Movies you've just watched

[dspoonrt]

Enders Game. Seen the trailer a bit back and really seemed like it would be bad with the one kid idea. But wanted to check it out to because it's a space movie and... well gee, Harrison Ford in another sci-fi flick? About time.

Anyway, just finished watching it and I was quite surprised. I recommend it.

Really? I had no expectations going in (I was familiar with the book but hadn't read it - also didn't remember seeing the trailer) and found it to be pretty terribly written, acted, and executed. It was honestly one of my least favorite movies of 2013.

[Sinful]

Sci-fi outerspace has a strong appeal to me (movies that spark imagination are the best). And like I said, I really thought the movie was going to suck but gave it a chance because it's sci-fi outerspace and Harrison Ford (everyone's fave merc from a land far, far away).

One thing that surprised me is the focus on just the tactical in everything in life from beginning till end. Seeing the movie from that perspective was pretty interesting viewpoint. Only wish they used older kids or fix the story for adult soldiers instead.

Terribly written, acted, and executed. Well that's the directors fault. But that's sadly always the case. Why I don't watch TV/movies outside of this current binge.



Anyway, just read a post with someone mentioning TED. Couldn't finish watching this movie (like many others for past 2 days). Wish I was warned it contained to much focus on romantic drama. Not in the mood for puppy love. Otherwise it seems good if that's your mood.

Also fired up Battleship. And the start showed outerspace. So I'm going to save it for when it gets dark. It better not suck too much...

[Frenetic]

I've been on a Criterion Collection kick as of late. Days of Heaven is such a sumptuous film, the storyline/narrative is criticized for uneven and meandering. However, if you read it as a sort of magical realism/biblical allegory then it really opens you up to the beautiful cinematography.

[Ixmucane2]

Jupiter Ascending

The Wachowski brothers, once again, care too much about spectacular action scenes and too little about characters and plot.
Not really bad by any means, but compared to Matrix and the "fast food chain" thread of Cloud Atlas it lacks glamour and novelty and it has an even sillier version of the premise of using people as resources (both genetic engineering and medicine are miraculous, but whole planets of people are "harvested" to obtain an elixir of immortality from slaughtered people) and compared to e.g. Guardians of the Galaxy the protagonist is dishearteningly weak, passive and stupid, enough to ruin the plot.
Still worthwhile are the more or less science fiction aspects (for example, fitting traditional elements of UFO lore in a rather original setting) and most of the spectacular action scenes, even if the alien with antigravitational boots (Channing Tatum) appears to skate while flying.

[Sinful]

I bailed at downloading Battleship last time, cause that name only invoked one thing. Then my brother walks by as the starting credits writes one of the big company names at the start, and he goes "*company name*?? The toy company?" And I was like to myself "Seriously. It actually is that??" True story.

So yeah, someone out there really, really, really likes the game actual worldwide known Battleship game to put in so much freaking effort, love and a heck of a budget into this movie. ... l o l ... And I was praying maybe, just maybe, it might be a starship battleship, because it started in space. :p Oh well, at least the enemy was from outerspace... at least I really enjoyed the opening scene of the movie about buddy's wish. I also enjoyed the actors and acting a lot in this movie along with their sense of humour "Who are we firing at?" There were still moments when it seemed like Hollywood big wigs had their way... I honestly don't know what to say about this movie...

[lilmanjs]

A Taxing Woman's Return.
I haven't a clue why I've put this off for so long. Very much enjoyed the first movie. This time around sees them going after a fake religion what is taking donations and hiding money in order to not pay taxes on it. Along with that, they also want to buy land with a senator and do it in a way that is tax free as well. Was pretty good. A little too complex at a couple of points, but they made a movie that was just as good as the first.

[JBC]

Can anyone recommend some medieval horror? I want something that's like Dark Souls on film.

I've already seen Black Death & felt it was too slow & uneventful. Loved Valhalla Rising, & I've had a friend point me towards Sauna, but I haven't seen it yet. It seems like an untapped genre.

[drauch]

It unfortunately is still an untapped genre. Can't say there's really anything exactly like what you're looking for outside of more sword & sorcery outings. However, here's some fairly dark medievalish stuff:

Flesh + Blood
Ironclad
13th Warrior
Excalibur (not too dark per se, but it's amazing and the armor may be up your alley.)
Army of Darkness (I imagine you've seen this; if not, action-adventure with horror/comedy and a great medieval vs undead finale.)
Marketa Lazarova

Really, if you haven't seen it, The 13th Warrior is probably the only thing that *almost* meets your criteria. There's a good chunk of medieval films I'm leaving off, but I don't feel like the majority of those are dark or relevant in imagery.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

On March 6th, 2015, that's the debut of another sci-fi flick by the name of Chappie (from the same guy whom brought us District 9 and Elysium, director/writer Neill Blomkamp). If you recall watching the cool armored military androids (with their cool military weaponry procedures/training) in Elysium, this flick takes a single robot character of similar stature in a new direction (trodding down the tried-and-true Short Circuit 1 alley/route). It gets the Imax/DFX big screen treatment upgrade as well. Still no proper District 9 sequel this time around, folks, perhaps a little bit longer for it then (to resolve the on-going story within that particular universe/timeline)?

Another cool sci-fi film that deals with robots and artificial intelligence is Automata (circa 2014) with actor Antonio Banderas getting top billing. It does have some cool Blade Runner visual nods/tributes sprinkled throughout the film. The CG EFX combined with practical EFX are stunning, especially out in the wastelands/desert scenes. Automata has an overall production budget of an estimated $7 million USD but looks more like a big budgeted sci-fi flick. The ending credits makes no mention of the various curvy (and well stacked) models depicted in the various eye-candy hologram EFX scenes. If you do a frame-by-frame analysis of the holograms, the models are, indeed, topless/nude (even scanline EFX & hologram distortion EFX are added to the holograms for that old-school retro vibe/look as a bonus).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Sinful]

Fast & Furious series is up to 7 flicks total & with 2 more planned?! D:

Of all other movies I wanted to have as many sequels, one about cars gets it... if was funny as I was watching them how all scenes had to lead to racing. Reminded me of the Simpsons Knightboat spoof. At least the newer releases started including more action outside of just racing, like Diesel VS The Rock.

Only ever seen the first one a long time ago, but recently decided to watch all of them for the heck of heck of it... I hate folks talking car talk, and you expect me to enjoy fake BS Hollywood car chit chat more? Plus memories of the first flick showed it tried too hard to be "too cool." But it became a huge franchise, so maybe the series improved? Did check a wiki page on series and seen first two had their own director, while the next 4 was by the same guy. Upcoming 7 is by someone else. But the writing team from part 3 continue throughout, which in turn gives the writers much more control over multiple releases story arcs. So that showed promise.

Anyway, from part 3 is were I started enjoying the movies enough too. And why not, it was filmed in Tokyo. After that, the introduction of the Rock in part 5 really surprised me. They gave the guy a very memorable role. So the ones with him were quite enjoyable, even thought I'm not a Rock fan. As the role matched him very well, and that's what makes actors popular.

I don't have problems with with no realism and prefer it, but this series feels so grounded to reality otherwise and then you see stuff like two cop cars pulling a giant heavy safe around the city like a wreaking ball with nothing coming close to stopping the momentum? If those vehicles were spaceships or other futuristic vehicles and on another world, then it would be much easier to buy it as possible... oh well, it's a popcorn flick. But I still say too bad it's not a sci-fi series instead.

Can anyone recommend some medieval horror? I want something that's like Dark Souls on film.

I've already seen Black Death & felt it was too slow & uneventful. Loved Valhalla Rising, & I've had a friend point me towards Sauna, but I haven't seen it yet. It seems like an untapped genre.

Er, The Sword in the Stone by Disney? ... Yeah, I'm drawing blanks too.

[Satan]

Most car spacks I know live with their mums and drive to the local car park to sit in each other's cars watching DVDs on portable players. Sad lives.

[system11]

Kung Fu Killer - another typically brilliant Donnie Yen film, can't really go wrong with this one.

[Leandro]

Gone Girl, what a crazy bitch. Entertaining movie, had lots of laughs.

I wanted to watch Birdman because I like Michael Keaton, but I'm sure I won't enjoy the movie...

[Ixmucane2]

Whiplash

A young and talented drummer (Miles Teller) enlists in the jazz band of his music school, where the director (J.K. Simmons) puts a lot of pressure on him.
A combination of excellent music, good dialogue and good acting, very well photographed and edited; highly recommended.

[Xyga]

Flesh + Blood
Ironclad
13th Warrior
Excalibur (not too dark per se, but it's amazing and the armor may be up your alley.)
Army of Darkness (I imagine you've seen this; if not, action-adventure with horror/comedy and a great medieval vs undead finale.)
Marketa Lazarova

The Name of the Rose has its moments. No knights and battles though.

[Leandro]

Foxcatcher

Mark Ruffalo seems to be the nicest actor and his character is the nicest guy in the movie. It makes the ending even more painful

[Some-Mist]

Gone Girl, what a crazy bitch. Entertaining movie, had lots of laughs.

I wanted to watch Birdman because I like Michael Keaton, but I'm sure I won't enjoy the movie...

why don't you think you would like it? I'll do my best to try and convince you otherwise

[Leandro]

I've just seen it. I was wrong, I enjoyed it. It could be as good without the surreal elements

[Some-Mist]

dat drum soundtrack and those seamless transitions...birdman would definitely make my top 10 of the year.

[DEL]

Birdman - Norton and Keaton bounced off each other very well. The realisation point for me (no spoiler) was nice.
Keaton deserves his night at the Oscars.
Drums didn't work for me, but otherwise great.

[soprano1]

Uh, anyone watched Selma? Worth a watch?

[Sinful]

Pandorum was just up my sci-fi alley and my last movie for yesterday before sleep. At least the very first watch, as part of the kick was also what the heck is going on. Setup is one person waking up from prolonged cryo sleep, but buddy doesn't remember anything outside of his basic training, see's a note that say's prolonged cryo sleep affects memory for some time, and that clearly something went wrong on the ship. So for me it was very nice to see another strong sci-fi element flick.

John Carter. A movie I bailed on since I seen the Disney name attached. Maybe I felt I needed to give it a chance or maybe I wanted to see how far Disney would push violence since they are doing the next Star Wars film. So now that I seen it I can say I guess it was ok enough for a first watch? Wasn't that impressed.

EDIT

Just seen Elysium. Reminds me why I hate Hollywood and the BS formulas they follow. Took forever to get started, and instead of focusing on the cool interesting stuff (like the cool Mass Effect like Citadel), they focus lame over dramatization and way too much time on a future Earth that looks just like today's Earth. Then add Matt Damon and other actors that don't fit, and voila. I hate this movie. What a waste of some good sci-fi elements. Sucks that I need to get back to videogames for some good sci-fi action & atmosphere/lore.

[Ixmucane2]

Seventh Son

More predictable than a chess problem, and less thrilling.
In a world of apparently plentiful witches, shapechangers and fantastic creatures, Master Gregory, the last remaining "spook" (a badass warrior-wizard) left to fight the Dark, takes the Chosen One (the titular seventh son of a seventh son, who is even more special than it seems at first) as his apprentice and successor. Training is cut short, because they have only a week before a rarely occurring blood moon makes Mother Malkin, evil witch leader and Gregory's old love interest, disastrously unstoppable.

The book series it's adapted from might or might not be interesting and deeper, but this film version shows a singular lack of feeling and heroism compared to normal fantasy stories.
Major characters show less grief for the loss of their mother than a normal person for a dead hamster, Mother Malkin's apocalyptic band of supervillains amounts to little more than a violent counterpart of the Addams Family (with nicer costumes, but only marginally more dangerous), magical duels build up epic expectations but end quickly with the utter incineration of the weaker party, both mundane armed forces and evil mooks ("my best assassins!") are ridiculously incompetent, the good guys win so easily that one feels sorry for the witches, and so on.
Master Gregory's magical staff, which is ugly and used as a combination of sturdy quarterstaff and unimpressive blowtorch/flamethrower, marks a new low in unglamorous "magical" objects; however, it finds a good match in the almost mundane nature of spook abilities (combat first and foremost, and appropriate application of fire, iron and silver to the problem at hand).

Cast: as Master Gregory, Jeff Bridges isn't particularly wrong, but sometimes he looks hilariously similar to the Dude from The Big Lebowski. Everyone else unremarkable.
Very good special effects, design in general, and high production values. Who knows, maybe better writers and directors might have made a good film instead of an average one.

[Sinful]

Seventh Son

Major characters show less grief for the loss of their mother than a normal person for a dead hamster,

This quote right here is making me download this movie right after this post. Thanks for the tip!

[Sinful]

I did eventually seen the Seventh Son. At first the acting bothered me too thanks to your post, but quickly fixed that with two hits of Mary Jane. Then the acting was fine enough, and even enjoyed the acting/characters of the young couple in this story.

The main problem with this movie for me was the length. Too much was crammed into the short movie format. So yes, it sure had potential.


K, some more sci-fi flicks I've seen that stuck out. Serenity, Zathura A Space Adventure, The Island, V For Vendetta. Too lazy to comment of them today.

[Ed Oscuro]

Currently working through Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the 1978 version. This movie is in a class of its own compared to other things I've seen recently. And Goldblum! and Sutherland! Looking here pretty much as they do and running recognizable enough characters compared to films of theirs from the early '90s. Inbetween those dates - very nearly all of Arnold Schwarzenegger's career! Great film so far, and the only jarring note is literal - I don't quite get some of the musical choices. The intro has me laughing, imagining the aliens announcing their launches with silly yells. Most everything is great though - even things that might look kind of poor with another director - like the flowered form of the space buds from the beginning of the film - don't look so bad because of excellent lighting choices and camera work. At brief points this seems like noir, even, but it's its own thing. Man, if I follow this up with The (Carpenter's) Thing, the '50s will be ruined forever.

You know, I bet people back at the time bitched a good deal about how Hollywood couldn't come up with any new ideas. These are legitimately excellent films though - why can't Hollywood work the formula like they once did?

[Mischief Maker]

why can't Hollywood work the formula like they once did?

I blame George Lucas. The prequels were the laziest hackwork imaginable buoyed by a name franchise and CGI. The fact that they made a shitzillion dollars told hollywood they didn't have to try for the millions to come rolling in. And so they didn't.

[Squire Grooktook]

Personally I just think it's Sturgeon's Law. In 20-30 years we'll only remember the 5 good movies made during this decade.

[GaijinPunch]

Wow -- I never knew there was a law named after something I realized quite some time ago. I think the internet compounds everything as well. More shitty stuff, and an avenue to be exposed to as much of it as we want to be.

I think the 10's already have way way more memorable films than the 00's and we're barely past the halfway point. Also worth noting is high production value TV started booming in the noughties, which might count for something.

[Ixmucane2]

Inherent Vice

As can be expected from an adaptation of a novel by Thomas Pynchon, the story makes some sense (in Los Angeles during the early seventies, a P.I. is dragged into contact with disappearing people, spies, heroin importers, dentists, surf bands, etc.) but weirdness and exaggeration run rampant.
The tone isn't particularly grim (compared e.g. to Vineland, which shares a similar period and themes) and the traditional intense paranoia is partly substituted by extensive drug-induced hallucinations; the protagonist is almost constantly stoned, and much of what we see must be taking place inside his head. In fact, particularly at the beginning, many scenes are very funny.
Remarkably good acting and photography, and many nice motifs and meaningful details. Great period music.