Movies you've just watched

[Obiwanshinobi]

In the cold light of the day, some of that TV-like Heat's dialogue isn't badly written either. Not the striking sort of good, but some of those lines keep echoing in my memories.

[DEL]

GaijinPunch wrote:

One of the few books I read. Yes, very pedantic, but an entertaining read. I never once thought "this would be a cool movie" and I still don't think it will be.

Oh definitely not "cool". Its just a survival story after all. But I'll still check the movie.

[Satan]

Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising - odd.

[lilmanjs]

The Avenging Eagle
Good action, a decent plot, and a mysterious traveler with a companion. Nicely done revenge tale and the action is well done. A couple of the trampoline stunts, but overall a more grounded in real action. Off to take revenge on the man who raised him to be a killer, and a guy who happens to show up to help save him and sticks around. The ending scene could have been longer as you get barely enough time to process what's going on and bam, The End shows up.

[kaicooper]

just watched Age of Adaline 2015
first and second act Great..the 3rd act really ruind the whole movie

now i'll watch
Chaser 2008...Korean Crime movie

[Xyga]

*sigh*
Avengers: Age of Ultron
What a mess, barely any more refined than a sentai-on-stage show for kids, or an endless super expensive commercial made of 99% cheapo CGI.
Hell those superhero movies are getting shittier with every film, it's become a fucking plague.
Stahp.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The Man from U.N.C.L.E., theatrically. Worth the price of admission. Glad to see they finally learned to apply the "retro" film stock tint convincingly (picture too clear used to be a huge problem with digital cameras).

[The Coop]

Poltergeist II: The Other Side. Why?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krC-F2ITTIU

[KindGrind]

Although at my third attempt to watch Heat (1995) I still didn't make it to the end (something gets in the way every time), I found it little short of astounding. Not that I care so much for the characters or the story (live by the sword - die by the sword, what else is new?), nor do I think any more of Al Pacino's acting than I did previous time I'd watched his movie (at least De Niro doesn't take any job lightly, even in less than great films), no sir. It's just that:
a) the photography/colour/lighting are sublime*) (I'm considering getting it on Blu-ray) and
b) it simply tells things that ususally take more "serial" media to unfold, such as TV series. It's like a kiddy genre film for grown-ups. At least I suspect I would've struggled to watch all of it 10+ years ago. Oh I think I know which closet harbours a skeleton there, but it doesn't make the film any worse kind of ambitious, does it?

*) So many crime fiction flicks shot in LA, but never before have I seen desert area exposed with such compassion.

The sound work in Heat is absolutely stunning. These gunfights... Unreal.

[GaijinPunch]

The sound work in Heat is absolutely stunning. These gunfights... Unreal.

Bonus: God Moving Over the Face of the Water

[copy-paster]

After a minute watching Doraemon : Stand by Me, the ending makes me fucked up.

[KindGrind]

The sound work in Heat is absolutely stunning. These gunfights... Unreal.

Bonus: God Moving Over the Face of the Water

^-*Goosebumps for days*

Jurassic World with my son. He's 8, pretty much the target demographic judging by the content of the room/movie. Entertaining bits, product placement did throw me off. Felt a lot like a Sharknado vs Megacroc kind of deal at times, cheapo jump scares. Dug the redhead, thought Pratt was fine. It's not art house, but it does what it means to do and not too badly.

[Ixmucane2]

Martin

As usual for Romero, a metaphorical and satirical horror story set in contemporary (1976) Cleveland.
Martin is a vampire living with his family, barely distinguishable from a typical angry young man living with his family; at the beginning, it's unclear whether he's really a vampire or "only" a serial killer. He discovers the horny housewife scene and the joys of non-lethal sex, but it turns out to be the beginning of the end.

There are a number of silly moments, like the vampire dressing up in a vampire costume to be scary, and the goofiness of the protagonist (no special powers apart from eternal youth, by the way) and the ineptitude of his victims and adversaries (particularly notable: Martin's job and a lesson about failing to call 911 with two people and three phones) are taken to hilarious levels, but the overall atmosphere is mostly anger and ennui.

A worthwhile variation on vampire themes, with very nice actors.

[CMoon]

Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising - odd.

It's a psychedelic music video with an amazing soundtrack. Get with the times Satan!

[Skykid]

Just caught a little more of Avengers: AoU on the plane, only this time I was examining it with no sound and in fleeting passes when I looked up from my Ahnuld autobiography to the overhead TV at the end of the cabin.

Several things struck me about the movie I may not have grasped on initial watch:

It's super dull in terms of aesthetic. Deduct all CG cartoon sequences from the equation and the actor vs actor scenes are literally like watching paint dry. Every exchange is filmed with zero dynamism or invention, an almost endless set of shot-reverse-shot exchanges. And the lighting is equally terrible, over comic-booked in garish blue and red light.

I also twigged - and let me know if you did already - that super speedy boy and super emo girl are the exact acting duo from God-how awful-Zirra 2014. It's the shaved headed military zero and his wife, transformed into naughty superheroes.

Considering how absolutely fucking terrible they both were in G2014 I boggles the mind as to why Whedon would reunite them in this. Admittedly they stunk slightly less because their scenes are usually CG maelstroms and shred-cutting, but they're stil the equivalent of human cardboard and worth burning.

All in all, AoU is actually kind of shitty. Like, totally forgettable and a genuine failure if compared to its predecessor. Dull, dull, dull.

For my in flight entertainment I watched The Second Best Marigold Hotel which I'm assuming was a sequel to a movie I haven't seen. Bar several excellent actors, it was all a bit weird and vacant of direction, some piffle about really old fuddy duddies falling in love in India. The backdrop was exotic enough and I assume I skipped the character development by not seeing the first movie, but it was still pretty meh as a standalone thing - but probably still a better made movie than Avengers 2 if we were to dissect by raw components.

[lilmanjs]

Bayside Shakedown 3: Set The Guys Loose
I enjoyed the Tv series a lot, and the other 3 movies. I have yet to find anywhere to watch all the specials though. Anyways, this was really good. You'd think 7 years after the 2nd movie and losing one of the main characters that this would be bad. But I liked how they kept his spirit alive with his nephew and the little notebook he was given from him. Tons of cases happen during the move to a new building and they are quite odd. They end up losing pistols and people start dying. Interesting movie and one I quite enjoyed. Better than 4, but nowhere near as good as the second. Time for a rewatch of the original series?

[neorichieb1971]

Avengers AOU was dull. Cannon fodder, cannon fodder and more cannon fodder. At no point in its length did the main characters ever feel threatened.


Heat - Best line (I can't remember exact words) goes like "You can screw my wife, but you can't watch my fucking TV".

[the_last_shmupper]

Star Trek: Renegades. Tim Russ's fan project. I didn't like it.

[lilmanjs]

Star Trek: Renegades. Tim Russ's fan project. I didn't like it.

Other than that, why? Clearly looks like the pilot it is now labeled as. Too many closeups for my liking. Axanar will be better.

[the_last_shmupper]

Star Trek: Renegades. Tim Russ's fan project. I didn't like it.

Other than that, why? Clearly looks like the pilot it is now labeled as. Too many closeups for my liking. Axanar will be better.

This is true. I first read about it while randomly trek searching a few weeks ago. Seems like I found out about it at the right time since it was just thrown onto Youtube. I was able to watch it before I started hearing about how bad it was. Go into it fresh without corruption. I try to do that with all movies and games and I tend to like things more than the reviews, but I just didn't like it.

Speaking of bad movies, TMNT: Michael Bay is on Netflix, so I saw that for the first time. It stars Megan Fox and Megatron as Shredder. I guess they had to go that direction since each of the turtles was played by the Incredible Hulk. I didn't realize it until Raphael appeared in the back of the van.

[Leandro]

Nice seeing some Heat appreciation. I remember a time when some guy was shitting on this movie here.

Just watched the last Mission Impossible. What a fun ride, and that leading lady is beautiful

[boagman]

Watched "Jurassic World" in 3D IMAX ROTF R2D2 whatever else tonight.

Just fine. Nothing wrong with it that a little less CGI and a *lot* less Bryce Dallas Howard wouldn't help. To me, BDH has about as much appeal as one of those commercials where they show abused and emaciated animals, only, you know...some of those animals would be good-looking animals if you fed them. She's not enough to ruin the movie, but she's still pretty awful.

Some of the CGI special effects were good, some not. Overall, though, the better outweighed the bitter with the CGI.

Script was relatively predictable, but I thought that Pratt and D'Onofrio were good (though D'Onofrio was a bit over the top), and I thought the kids did a good job, far better than the kids in the original.

A perfectly good summer popcorn movie. I liked it, I laughed in a few places, and enjoyed myself.

Skykid would hate it.

[Skykid]

I didn't hate it, I just thought it was average at best.

Obviously not as good as the original. Spielberg at least understood scene construction, tension, build up, hype and payoff. Jurassic World is utterly bloodless: death is obfuscated at every opportunity or turned cartoon enough by the CG to lose all impact.

The characterisation is nonexistent. Chris Pratt is wasted and totally underdeveloped. It's a movie screaming for human characters like a John Hammond or Dr Malcolm to offset its CG dinosaurs. It's actually reasonably entertaining, to its credit, but follows its predecessors with scant concern for originality.

It also uses the same one dinosaur to wrap up two pivotal scenes, which is too lazy for words.

There's really nothing wrong with Bryce Dallas Howard, not sure what the beef is there, and I have no idea why you think the kids in this are better than in JP1.

Having recently rewatched all three predecessors I can assure you JPWorld has the least characterisation of the lot. The kids were total blank entities throughout, despite the forced brotherhood bond and teenage lust, because they were underdeveloped and had no real role or personality. They were just appendages to the CG sequences rather than tangible elements within it.

[Ixmucane2]

The Gallows

Twenty years after a student actor is accidentally hanged in a school production of "The Gallows" (at the implausibly large and surprisingly professional theatre of the implausibly large and strangely built Beatrice High School, Nebraska), the next generation of students reprises the ill-fated drama. The night before the premiere, some students enter the school; an evil supernatural presence is already there. Guess what, someone is hanged.

One of the trespassing students is in charge of making a video documentary, and the film adopts the traditional device of using the character's camera as its only viewpoint. However, it's done badly, with the camera strangely changing hands, confusion between the camera and a lamp, characters unreasonably keeping the camera in hand (e.g. while chased up a ladder) or stopping for a good shot at unreasonable times. Worst of all, the camera suffers from rather fancy glitches in scary moments instead of working or not working like a real camera.

The survival horror action fares a bit better than the photography, with normal people breaking down in a threatening situation; they are a bit imprudent and inefficient, but within reasonable limits (they don't stand a chance against the Threat anyway).
The twist ending that comes very suddenly makes sense, but (for the sake of surprise) it retrospectively makes the behaviour of certain characters quite incoherent and/or unexplained.

Remarkably good atmosphere; many school environments are strange, but they are very scary, with notable scenes where characters look into, or advance into, dangerous darkness.

[Obiwanshinobi]

A couple of days ago I realised what (little) I disliked about The Man From, U.N.C.L.E. (2015). In the scene where the girl's dancing, I could tell the actress isn't much of a dancer. Now, it was hardly willing-suspension-of-disbelief-breaking (the kind of graciousness she was lacking is extremely rare amongst humankind, much moreso than a pretty face), but whenever I see actors or actresses who can't bloody dance, I wish them going back to acting school. (There's a similar dud of a scene in Kiss Me Deadly by Aldrich.) No, it is not fair that some actors must work harder than others to let their bodies go, but so must athletes, singers and the likes - those are harsh jobs. Politicians too, I'm sure. Wilfully getting into situations where most people would prefer to just disappear.

[Ixmucane2]

Minions

A great potential disappointingly wasted by a weak plot and weak characters, demonstrating that aiming for "good enough" isn't good enough.

Some characters are well thought out and original, for example the three cute and funny protagonists (and the other minions) or the surprising villain family, but the "villains", starting from their exceptionally pathetic leader Scarlet Overkill, are shallow and harmless rather than just tragic enough to be sympathetic like the ones in Despicable Me.
Situations are similarly wasted: almost everything the minions do ranges between adorable and very funny, but whole scenes and sequences are meant as a backdrop for throwaway gags, without significant dramatic value even when the gags are brilliant (example: the beefeater striptease). Maybe minions looking for a villain aren't the best premise for a deep and emotionally intense story, but better comedy was certainly possible.

Animation, character design and scenery design are quite competent, but without the ambition to be perfect and/or to proudly advance the state of the art that inspires most CGI cartoons from Disney and Pixar.

[BrianC]

yeah, I felt mostly the same way about minions. It had some clever gags in parts and some surprising nods to the 60s, but it was let down by a weak plot and a weak main villain (I actually liked Herb Overkill more than Scarlet Overkill). The Minions are fun and funny, but they aren't strong enough to carry a whole movie.

[Lord Satori]

I didn't even need to see that movie to know it'd be weak. In Despicable Me, they're funny comic relief that compliment a likeable main character. In Minions, they're essentially a cheap marketing tool used to sell Minion brand everything.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Checked out the new horror genre flick by the name of "Let Us Prey" clocking in at a meager 1 hour, 32 minutes and 19 seconds in overall duration -- deals with a mysterious stranger dressed in all black named "Six" and the strange series of events that lead to the eventual conclusion that you won't see coming. What's with all the names jotted down in the personal little black book of Six's? What's with the new Police Constable rookie gal and what is her role in the events that take place in the span of a single night? There'll be hell to pay for what has occured/will happen during those few hours left until the clock strikes at midnight -- by then, it'll be too late if "the line has been crossed" (as there's no turning back once crossed to the point of no return). If you do a frame-by-frame analysis of the little black book being thumbed through, the clue of a certain name will reveal itself (as shown in one key scene).

It does have it's moments of suspense within the horror genre (mixed in with a bit of running 'n' gunning action to spice things up a bit) with all the characters involved/interconnected in one way or another. And yes, there'll be blood split. Has an interesting premise that seems befitting for another sequel (assuming if it does get greenlit) with the on-going story. Was shot entirely on location in both Scotland and Ireland and released in 2014 (was properly released direct-to-video for the North American market just recently in 2015).

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Target Movie Factoid Time:

On a side related note, not one but two theatrical movies that prominentily feature the American based Target department store within the storyline include "Career Opportunities" and "10 Items or Less" with Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega. Hey, there's nothing like free and shameless promotional advertising with Target within those two particular films.

I like the playful chemistry that develops between the two main characters played by Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega (yes, she is quite curvaceous in it).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[boagman]

There's really nothing wrong with Bryce Dallas Howard, not sure what the beef is there...

"The beef there" is that she's freaking unbelievably bad at acting. Granted, I haven't seen every movie she's been in (thank heaven), but let's see now...I've now watched her darn near ruin five different movies, and she drags each one of them down because of her very-not-able-to-emote-or-convincingly-pull-off-a-role-ness. I mean, holy crap:

1. "The Village" As if M. Night Shymalan doesn't screw things up well enough on his own.
2. "Spider-Man 3" The movie is very awful to begin with, yes. She brings it down even further.
3. "Terminator Salvation" See #2's description.
4. "50/50" She/her character is SO FREAKING UNBELIEVABLE in this movie. Completely makes no sense whatsoever. Ridicu-stinking-lous.
5. "Jurassic World" Gave her yet another shot. Sorry. Can't buy into her. The movie still succeeds, but in spite of her, not because of her.

She's not good-looking enough to make up for it, either. In fact, she's not good-looking at all. I don't know why Hollywood won't stand up to her father, who makes some seriously kick-tail movies, and just tell him she's not good enough. Maybe they're scared to do so. Who knows? BDH should take a page out of the Jennifer Aniston playbook and TAKE CLASSES TO LEARN HOW TO ACT. She should take Liv Tyler with her and they could do it together. Perhaps they'd offer a Discount For Lost Causes or something.

I don't think a five movie snapshot is too small to make the call on.