Movies you've just watched

[boagman]

"Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation"

Putting the "fun" in "merely functional", I guess.

"Ghost Protocol" was, in my opinion, a lot more fun than this movie was, but this movie wasn't *bad*...it just wasn't up to the standards that the last one raised the series up to. I still think that the first one was terrific, and the fourth was really great. This one probably falls in the middle of the five, way, way, way, *WAY* ahead of the atrocity that was/is/always will be the second, and ahead of the bore-fest that was the third.

Still, it bears saying: this one is a fairly decent sized step from "Ghost Protocol".

[lilmanjs]

Angry Ranger
A good movie. A Hong Kong action movie with fights by Jackie chan's stunt team at the time, 1991. Peter cones home after getting thrown in jail for 7 years for being caught in gang fighting. He comes back and steals a car on his first night with a friend and makes an enemy of lung. Revenge falls through several times from lung who has thugs who can't do anything against Peter. Lost of fights and he falls in love with Jane, a women taken by a rival gamg. Nice story, acting, and most of all great fights.

[DEL]

boagman wrote:

"Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation"

Putting the "fun" in "merely functional", I guess.

"Ghost Protocol" was, in my opinion, a lot more fun than this movie was, but this movie wasn't *bad*...it just wasn't up to the standards that the last one raised the series up to. I still think that the first one was terrific, and the fourth was really great. This one probably falls in the middle of the five, way, way, way, *WAY* ahead of the atrocity that was/is/always will be the second, and ahead of the bore-fest that was the third.

Still, it bears saying: this one is a fairly decent sized step from "Ghost Protocol".

I would agree with everything you said there. 2 and 3 aren't worth it.

-----------------------
Rewatched The Fisher King - Most Excellent
Rewatched The Year of the Gun - Not too bad. Its amazing how Frankenheimer can make very little stretch out so long (that's not exactly a compliment), but I did find his 1966 Rock Hudson film Seconds quite interesting.

[emphatic]

I love MI:3. JJ Abrams is a competent guy.

[Vexorg]

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015): ****

Saw this in the theater last week with my wife. Based on an old 60s TV series and set in Cold-War era Europe, the plot deals with a CIA agent and a KGB agent forced to work together to stop an even greater threat (in this case, former Mussolini supporters trying to build nuclear weapons to sell to former Nazis.) It does fall into some of the more overused tropes of the spy genre, does have a few instances of Guy Ritchie being a little too artsy (and there's enough lens flare that I had to make sure JJ Abrams wasn't involved) and isn't anywhere near as action-heavy as a lot of these movies tend to be these days, but overall I think the characters really make this one, and there are a couple of really funny scenes along the way as well. Think of it as more of a "Buddy Cop" type movie than a spy movie and you get the idea.

[JBC]

Order of quality best to worst

MI:3
MI:1
MI:5
MI:4
MI:2

[Mischief Maker]

Order of quality best to worst

MI:Original TV Show (There's no such thing as a problem that can't be solved by Barney-in-a-box!)
MI:3
MI:1
MI:5
MI:4
MI:2

Fixed!

[JBC]

Ha, nice!

[boagman]

I love MI:3. JJ Abrams is a competent guy.

I'm a big fan of lots of JJ's work. Not there, though. Hey: nobody bats 1.000 for a reason.

[boagman]

Order of quality best to worst

MI:3
MI:1
MI:5
MI:4
MI:2

I'd say it's more like this:

M:I
M:I4
M:I5
M:I3
BIG FREAKING GAP!!!!!!!!
M:I2

And yes, I love the television show as well, but it's not fair to drop it in here, I don't think.

[BrianC]

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015): ****

Saw this in the theater last week with my wife. Based on an old 60s TV series and set in Cold-War era Europe, the plot deals with a CIA agent and a KGB agent forced to work together to stop an even greater threat (in this case, former Mussolini supporters trying to build nuclear weapons to sell to former Nazis.) It does fall into some of the more overused tropes of the spy genre, does have a few instances of Guy Ritchie being a little too artsy (and there's enough lens flare that I had to make sure JJ Abrams wasn't involved) and isn't anywhere near as action-heavy as a lot of these movies tend to be these days, but overall I think the characters really make this one, and there are a couple of really funny scenes along the way as well. Think of it as more of a "Buddy Cop" type movie than a spy movie and you get the idea.

Any cameos from Robert Vaughn or David McCallum?

[Skykid]

I don't understand people who don't like Elysium.

Not weird, it's a pretty shitty movie.


Re: Mission Impossible, Abrams 3 is the series best - it's got the darkest edge, the cruellest villain, the best pacing, and endless set pieces, all of which are cleverly (if absurdly) composed.

That said there's not a lot in it - they're all fairly even bar 2, which is fucking atrocious. The first is actually a fairly good movie if you prefer actual spy/espionage movies with plotting as opposed to non-stop action.

4/5 are debatable. Some things are better in 4, some things in 5. They sort of cancel each other out in a lot of areas.

MM is right though: the original TV series is still teh awesome.

[JBC]

The Martian.

I can't believe Ridley Scott managed to make another good movie. I thought he was done.

[lilmanjs]

The Martian.

I can't believe Ridley Scott managed to make another good movie. I thought he was done.

My dad says the book is just so good, that you'd have to be the worst director in the history of movie making in order to screw up the movie adaption. He's a force of knowledge on Sci-fi books, so I take him for his word. Waiting for them to get back from seeing this. A force he is as he has a ton of old printer paper boxes filled up with sci-fi books, and even more sitting out in hardback. He is running out of space at this point. lol

[options]

Yakuza Apocalypse

Disappointing. I haven't seen all of Takashi Miike's films, but the few I have had my eyes glued to the screen and interested in what was gonna happen next (even if I dreaded it). Despite the screwball premise ripe for craziness (small town taken over by yakuza vampires), things just never pick up and it's easy to lose interest. The scattered moments that produce genuine laughs (or jumps) are always followed by more ho-hum brooding and mood setting that drops your engagement level back to zero. This coulda been a lot more fun.

Also, it seemed like Miike had about 7000 yen to make this. The sound design was great, tho.

[BIL]

Darkman (1990) Perfect comic book action movie. Cruel, melodramatic and raucously black-humoured, played utterly straight by a manful lead and despicable villains. Raimi's explosive fits of ghoulish nightmare-vision an absolute delight. Loved all the guttural, bellowing death screams from various baddies. That bald fucker that went out the window's "GUOOOOOARRR" would make a great ringtone. Also JUUU-LAAAYYY

A better Robocop 3 than the dud bearing that title has any right to call itself.

Jurassic World (2015) Not bad for what it is. Big dumb dinosaur rampage feature. Some irritating content for sure ("WE'RE BROTHERS WE ALWAYS COME BACK 4 EACH OTHER"), but not quite overpoweringly so (see the truly intolerable Transformers - any of them). Liked the tight winding of the movie around evil neo-tyrannosaurus. Will never rewatch, but not mad = best you can hope for with this stuff, right?

Poor Joss Whedon. Valiantly attacked evil SEXISM movies like this (it has men and women in it!) only for the twitter horde to put his head on a pike after AVENGERS 2. :[ I thought that was bullshit too. But people are retards.

The Green Inferno

Haha, I wonder if Gradius Gaiden intentionally references Cannibal Holocaust...

[Obiwanshinobi]

Not finished yet as I had to take a break, but The Story of Adele H. starring the Herzog's Nosferatu-young Isabelle Adjani.



Half the load I struggle to carry is the same as what Brave the movie and Frantic burdened me with (I also doubt I'd take Repulsion very well in this day and age). The other half is that I got to know a woman just as apparently PTSD-ridden and - by gum - I can't believe the actress copied it from the book. She must have known a person with such a disorder.

[lilmanjs]

Two-Lane Blacktop
A road movie of sorts with James Taylor and Dennis Wilson. They have a sweet custom built 55 Chevy they drive around the country looking for places to challenge other racers and destroy. They happen upon a gto and follow him till they somehow meet up with him and challenge him to a cross country race. Racing scenes are will shot. My dad talked about this movie for a couple of years now. How did I never think Criterion might have this on dvd. Great movie.

[DEL]

^Yeah Two Lane Blacktop is very stylish, plus includes Warren Oates.
It made me seek out another Monte Hellman/Oates film 'Cockfighter' a while back. Also a pretty good film (if you can stand the 'sport' ). Probably real hard to get hold of an original.
Still haven't sen The Shooting yet though.

Watched Bale's Out of the Furnace. Pretty solid but I can't help but feel it casts an unfair stigma on ALL people living in the Appalachians. In a similar style to that crappy film Red State, which tried to make Christians look bad.

[emphatic]

Hotel Transylvania 2. 3/5

I'd say about as funny as the first, but not as innovative. A solid 3 outta 5.

[Mischief Maker]

Primer

I'm not sure if this is the most overrated movie since Memento, or the most overrated movie since Snakes on a Plane. I'm inclined toward the former because all the work the audience has to put in to unravel the film's convoluted storytelling covers up a "meh" plot and fools them into thinking that it was mentally taxing because it was really smart. I'm inclined toward the latter because it seems talking about the movie is way more fun than actually watching it.

It is most DEFINITELY not the best hard sci fi since 2001.

[Skykid]

Will never rewatch, but not mad = best you can hope for with this stuff, right?

Precisely.

Saw Bridesmaids. Not sure what all the fuss was about really. Biggest comedy of the last several years, made a ton of money, but it's really very run of the mill and not all that funny. I like Apatow productions generally, and it was nicely handled and pulled together, but the better gags were too few and far between, with a lot of others simply feeling like very flat Woody Allen knock-off improv.

I couldn't really recommend it to be honest.


Get Him to the Greek

This was funny. I really enjoyed it, totally surprised me. Basically I think I like comedies where there's some kind of mad excess of binge drug taking and alcohol consumption leading to ridiculous hijinks - this was just made all the more fun because Jonah Hill's character was so straight up.

Russell Brand was really quite likeable in this. In Forgetting Sarah Marshall I thought his performance was kind of terrible, so I was surprised as a leading man he held it together so much better and controlled the character (which isn't too difficult, since he was playing a version of himself). Still not what I'd call acting, but not bad.

Anyway, certainly more laughs for your money than Bridesmaids.

[lilmanjs]

The floating p Diddy heads after the credits are a trip in get him to the greek. I enjoyed that, but Russell Brand is horrible in his other movies though.

[GaijinPunch]

Primer

I'm not sure if this is the most overrated movie since Memento, or the most overrated movie since Snakes on a Plane. I'm inclined toward the former because all the work the audience has to put in to unravel the film's convoluted storytelling covers up a "meh" plot and fools them into thinking that it was mentally taxing because it was really smart. I'm inclined toward the latter because it seems talking about the movie is way more fun than actually watching it.

It is most DEFINITELY not the best hard sci fi since 2001.

Agreed. This one went right under my head. I'm wondering if his two subsequent films are any good. They're on Netflix.

[Skykid]

The floating p Diddy heads after the credits are a trip in get him to the greek. I enjoyed that, but Russell Brand is horrible in his other movies though.

Yeah, I've only seen Sarah Marshall and he was pretty dire in that. Not seen any of the others.

I still think Superbad is the best Apatow thing of them all.

[Some-Mist]

The floating p Diddy heads after the credits are a trip in get him to the greek. I enjoyed that, but Russell Brand is horrible in his other movies though.

Yeah, I've only seen Sarah Marshall and he was pretty dire in that. Not seen any of the others.

I still think Superbad is the best Apatow thing of them all.

unless you include his tv shows freaks & geeks and undeclared.

trainwreck sucked big time, and I never saw it... but I heard that "this is 40" is just as bad. although general consensus says "funny people" is shit, I really liked that one too.

Primer

I'm not sure if this is the most overrated movie since Memento, or the most overrated movie since Snakes on a Plane. I'm inclined toward the former because all the work the audience has to put in to unravel the film's convoluted storytelling covers up a "meh" plot and fools them into thinking that it was mentally taxing because it was really smart. I'm inclined toward the latter because it seems talking about the movie is way more fun than actually watching it.

It is most DEFINITELY not the best hard sci fi since 2001.

Agreed. This one went right under my head. I'm wondering if his two subsequent films are any good. They're on Netflix.

didn't realize carruth released a 3rd film, but upstream color is easier to follow and not really as great as primer. if you didn't enjoy primer, there's a big chance you won't like upstream since it's kinda out there.

[Ixmucane2]

The Martian.

I can't believe Ridley Scott managed to make another good movie. I thought he was done.

My dad says the book is just so good, that you'd have to be the worst director in the history of movie making in order to screw up the movie adaption.

After watching the film and reading about half the book, I agree: the movie adaptation is mostly very close, with some simplifications and alterations (just enough to hurt), and quite uninspired; only good because it tells a good story and for ideological reasons (the love for a bright future where space exploration is a priority again).

[Mischief Maker]

if you didn't enjoy primer, there's a big chance you won't like upstream since it's kinda out there.

Well just to be clear, my point was that Primer ISN'T out there:

Spoiler

You can pretty much sum it up as "Back to the Future 2" with the world's worst editor and all the fun sucked out.

Tagging themes is not the same thing as exploring them.

[xxx1993]

I don't understand people who don't like Elysium.

Not weird, it's a pretty shitty movie.


Re: Mission Impossible, Abrams 3 is the series best - it's got the darkest edge, the cruellest villain, the best pacing, and endless set pieces, all of which are cleverly (if absurdly) composed.

That said there's not a lot in it - they're all fairly even bar 2, which is fucking atrocious. The first is actually a fairly good movie if you prefer actual spy/espionage movies with plotting as opposed to non-stop action.

4/5 are debatable. Some things are better in 4, some things in 5. They sort of cancel each other out in a lot of areas.

MM is right though: the original TV series is still teh awesome.

Wasn't the second movie considered the darkest of the series? I thought that movie was the only one that came close to getting an R rating.

[Some-Mist]

if you didn't enjoy primer, there's a big chance you won't like upstream since it's kinda out there.

Well just to be clear, my point was that Primer ISN'T out there:

Spoiler

You can pretty much sum it up as "Back to the Future 2" with the world's worst editor and all the fun sucked out.

Tagging themes is not the same thing as exploring them.

it's kind of out there if you really try to follow the time lines. I mean... I guess a better word is convoluted... which makes later viewing a lot more fun since you're trying to figure out who is who. I'm assuming you referred to the timeline when figuring it out? because I definitely couldn't figure it out on my own..

Spoiler

9 timelines, 6 aarons and 5 abes