Films Recently Watched

@ o00o: I dig the beginning's look, but people hate it b/c the rest of the film is no good, last fight scene goes on forever and makes supe look like a sociopath. Fuck Hack Snyder, he is trying to make us think he is good at this. He isn't.

It's all a downhill ride baby.

2 days in new york 9/10 just brilliant, julie is an amazing director and there are some really funny moments in this heartwarming comedy.

the life of pi 8/10 it's rare that a film is as good as the book, but this is one of those occasions. really fantastic, visually stunning epic.

totally true; the book was drivel of the highest order

i'd argue that Man of Steel is probably the worst superman film ever made, and I'm counting 3 and 4 in that also. Even though 3 and 4 are absolutely horrible films by any measure they seem more cohesive and not confused about what they are. Man of Steel was a disaster honestly. There were some great ideas and actors in there, but overall it was a huge wtf. It seemed like Hollywood had 3 different directors/editors working on it to create the final cut. Even Zack Snyder's characteristic style is totally missing instead replaced with a a faux gritty Nolan aesthetic that doesn't work at all.
The movie is a downhill slide from the moment Kent is a grown man onward. Some of those early child-kent scenes from the preview that made it seem sappy and emo actually are probably the strongest emotional bits in the entire movie, but once they are over and we get into full Superman mode it's one of the most problematic scripts and story arcs I've seen in a recent tentpole movie.

  On 11/10/2013 at 11:07 PM, MadameChaos said:

 

the life of pi 8/10 it's rare that a film is as good as the book, but this is one of those occasions. really fantastic, visually stunning epic.

i liked this movie a lot more than i expected to. Could have done without the Titanic style book ends with the grown up kid, but other than that surprisingly solid movie. Probably some of the most interesting use of cgi i've seen in a while. Sort of regret not seeing it in 3d, I feel like Ang Lee wouldn't have dialed the 3d down like most hollywood movies do.

  On 11/10/2013 at 11:09 PM, dr lopez said:

totally true; the book was drivel of the highest order

ah khamahhhhnnnnnn, it wasn't that bad.

  On 11/10/2013 at 11:07 PM, MadameChaos said:

the life of pi 8/10 it's rare that a film is as good as the book, but this is one of those occasions. really fantastic, visually stunning epic.

oh' what a wonder filled film

  On 11/11/2013 at 12:04 AM, Redruth said:

  On 11/10/2013 at 11:07 PM, MadameChaos said:

the life of pi 8/10 it's rare that a film is as good as the book, but this is one of those occasions. really fantastic, visually stunning epic.

 

oh' what a wonder filled film 

Which one are you referring to?

pi

Oops ignore that, yes I loved it. Especially the sea life (the whale wasn't in the book though).

Ang LEe seems to be the only director who's attempted to do what a psychedelic experience actually looks like with high budget CGI effects. That terrible movie he made about Woodstock with that guy Dimitri MArtin had an amazing 5 minute sequence in it where the main character takes acid and as he looks at the whole crowd it starts to turn into a luminescent ocean of glowing rainbow colored people/fractals

All is Lost - 8/10 - This was an incredible film. Not only were the visuals mind-blowing and incredibly realistic, but the sound design was impeccable. The creaking ambience of the boat was ridiculously detailed and really created a brilliant atmosphere. The soundtrack was unreal. Bone-chilling and haunting, the swells and subtle ambience are fantastic. Roughly a page of dialog in this btw, and it was some of the best writing I've ever experienced. The film opens with a beautiful passage revealing some possible backstory for the lead character, but leaves everything else to the viewer. Redford's expressions carry the narrative perfectly, leaving you to ponder what he is feeling and what is driving him to go on. Certain set pieces also hint at possible emotional implications, but they are faint and brief, and do not distract you from the situation playing out.

Some may feel that this is just another carbon copy of the "stuck in the middle of the ocean" narrative seen before, but I disagree. This is the only survival thriller I've seen that feels perfectly balanced and crafted in all regards.

  On 11/10/2013 at 11:48 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

i'd argue that Man of Steel is probably the worst superman film ever made, and I'm counting 3 and 4 in that also. Even though 3 and 4 are absolutely horrible films by any measure they seem more cohesive and not confused about what they are. Man of Steel was a disaster honestly. There were some great ideas and actors in there, but overall it was a huge wtf. It seemed like Hollywood had 3 different directors/editors working on it to create the final cut. Even Zack Snyder's characteristic style is totally missing instead replaced with a a faux gritty Nolan aesthetic that doesn't work at all.

The movie is a downhill slide from the moment Kent is a grown man onward. Some of those early child-kent scenes from the preview that made it seem sappy and emo actually are probably the strongest emotional bits in the entire movie, but once they are over and we get into full Superman mode it's one of the most problematic scripts and story arcs I've seen in a recent tentpole movie.

  On 11/10/2013 at 11:07 PM, MadameChaos said:

 

the life of pi 8/10 it's rare that a film is as good as the book, but this is one of those occasions. really fantastic, visually stunning epic.

i liked this movie a lot more than i expected to. Could have done without the Titanic style book ends with the grown up kid, but other than that surprisingly solid movie. Probably some of the most interesting use of cgi i've seen in a while. Sort of regret not seeing it in 3d, I feel like Ang Lee wouldn't have dialed the 3d down like most hollywood movies do.

lol oh come on. really? it's worse than superman and the mole men? stop being purposely contrarian to even your own previous opinions. it isn't the worst superman movie, it wasn't even that bad.

it was the worst superman movie, im deadly serious. I've never seen superman and the mole men. I'm talking about everything from Donner on. Is it really contrarian to speak openly about how much I hated Man of Steel? I walked into it actually pretty excited after seeing the last trailer. Please point out how i'm being contrarian to my own opinions, did i at one point rank it above 3 & 4 or something?

i'm not going to go through and find the quote, but i seem to remember you saying you liked a lot of aspects of it, though others were weak. i don't remember any hyperbole laden "worst ever" statements being thrown around. if that's really your opinion, fair enough, but maybe rewatch those donner films. they all suck. and i'm not a big fan of man of steel, but i enjoyed it for what it was. the level of destruction was out of control, but more suited to a hulk film than a superman one. i do agree that whatever style snyder has was genericised (sic not a word) out. but that didn't affect my enjoyment of it as a summer tentpole movie. it was mediocre, had some cool moments. they'll probably never make a really good superman movie, but oh well.

I hope for a more sociopathic government toadie out of Superman in the next film and a Batman planning to kick his ass.

I bet my hopes shall not be satisfied.

They will still try to make him out to be good.

He was so timid in Man of Steel.

So boring.

Thor is so much better.

It should be the other way around.

Let Grant Morrison write the Superman script.

Or any script.

I want to see that film.

  On 11/11/2013 at 2:24 AM, zaphod said:

i'm not going to go through and find the quote, but i seem to remember you saying you liked a lot of aspects of it, though others were weak. i don't remember any hyperbole laden "worst ever" statements being thrown around. if that's really your opinion, fair enough, but maybe rewatch those donner films. they all suck. and i'm not a big fan of man of steel, but i enjoyed it for what it was. the level of destruction was out of control, but more suited to a hulk film than a superman one. i do agree that whatever style snyder has was genericised (sic not a word) out. but that didn't affect my enjoyment of it as a summer tentpole movie. it was mediocre, had some cool moments. they'll probably never make a really good superman movie, but oh well.

it wasn't even the destruction i had a problem with, it was the bizarre pacing editing and story arc they chose to go with for the actual present-time part of the film. I thought most of the flashbacks in the beginning were very well done until it got to the whole tornado thing. It was such a movie ruiner esque scene on it's own honestly. I got that they wanted to create this emotional pa kent scene but it came off as totally comical. Just the sheer amount of cgi was strange too, people make fun of the MAtrix Reloaded because of the clone Agent Smith fight scene or Peter Jackson because of the dinosaur chase in King Kong, but jesus christ what happened in Man of Steel with the cgi? At one point he's fighting that tunneling machine and it shoots out giant liquid metal tentacles, and this scene lasts about 4 minutes where he's just grappling with this Scifi channel original quality monster. It was honestly shocking. I've never seen anything like that in a 200 million dollar tent pole movie, and I've seen a lot of shitty ones. I can seriously write a 50 page essay on why the movie was so poorly done.

ended up really enjoying this, despite having a few made-for-tv drama cliches. the guy who played lee harvey oswald was really good and the dame who played his wife was smoking (hot)

im interested in seeing it, crazy that they actually made a movie based off a Bill Oreily book

it's not the first...

2nd half of Casper the friendly ghost. I like how they just leave casper as a ghost at the end for the sequel that never happened (or did i miss it?).

Room 237

Couldn't make it through this. What a terrible terrible documentary. It wasn't about the people behind the crazy theories (which could have been interesting) and the theories weren't laid out well enough to be plausible - which I feel they could have done. Theory. Evidence. Conclusion. Repeat. etc. It was rambling. I was gobsmacked when the guy went off to shut his kid up - why would you leave that in? did they not have audio editing equipment? Not showing the theorists is also annoying to me, because then you are left picturing what they look like instead of what they are saying. Overall this was absolute garbage. Avoid at all costs. There is a good documentary to be made about The Shining but this is not it.

Yeah, it's pretty bad. I read a bunch of positive reviews before going in about how mindblowing the theories were, and then I was handed a plate of drivel.

Ender's Game [the book] 7/10

Ender's Game [the movie] 6/10

In Ender's Game [the book] two underage and incestuous siblings troll the internet for several months while their bigger brother gets jealous and batters some vermin to death.

After this onslaught, Ender fucks off to rehab to play endless 2D space simulations on a BBC Micro with green and black vector graphics.

His mental healthy deteriorates until he can't stop murdering people.

Clearly his brother had the right idea taking out his frustrations on the vermin.

The tale is mostly of woe although there are some laughs based around the use of the word bugger.

In Ender's Game [the film] they remove all the fascinating plot and set it a substanceless yet shiny future.

Without all the lovely incest and internet forum alter egos Ender is forced to save the world for no reason at all.

Somehow this leads him to recreate the final scene from Prometheus.

The end.

Upstream color. Just saw this at a film festival. I have rated a movie 1 out of 5, first time in my life. This movie is really not good. I also hated the new Takashi Miike. Fuckin stupid hippie movies, what a waste of time!

  On 11/11/2013 at 8:38 PM, Gocab said:

Yeah, it's pretty bad. I read a bunch of positive reviews before going in about how mindblowing the theories were, and then I was handed a plate of drivel.

there was so much hype about this doc too. but it was like they did the least amount of work possible.

1. record crackpot talking via skype or something. don't bother editing it

2. slap bits of other films on screen that are slightly related to theory

3. slow frame walk through bits that reveal nothing

4. PROMOTION

5. PROMOTION

6. PROMOTION

All this doc did was make me want to watch eyes wide shut. which is odd.