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2014 MOVIE OMNIBUS THREAD


RIPPA

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Arguably the best part of the film, but its not saying much, he's basically playing himself.

 

There's no character development at all or any effort to make anything seem important that is supposed to be. The whole plot is essentially driven by the deaths of two background characters who are on screen for about 10 minutes combined, both death scenes are completely anti-climatic to boot. No suspense as to whether the theme of "are these monuments worth dying for" is ever seriously questioned or acted upon, or whether Cate Blanchett will trust the Americans more than the Germans or the Russians. Everything just happens at a leisurely pace. They just wander through war zones being shot at, and no-one really ever sells how dangerous it is.

 

The film takes all the worst parts of Oceans Eleven and tries to make a PG version of Inglorious Bastards out of it.

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Biggie and Tupac: Nick Bloomfield is pretty awful, IMO. I liked the Aileen Wurnous doc he did (mainly because he was just letting her talk), but everything else I've seen from him is really lacking. Kurt and Courtney was absolutely awful (anyone who thinks an utter trainwreck like Courtney Love is capable of pulling off a murder and successfully getting away with it needs their head examined.)

 

This is in the same vein. Here he just picks seemingly random people from the fringes of that world, who each have about as much credibility as Lance Armstrong, and uses it to weave together some elaborate conspiracy. He points out that people have motives but doesn't seem to bother with the fact that there has to be more than a motive to prove someone's a murderer. Only true part that resonates is when Biggie's mom points that both her son and Tupac were basically killed by their own stupidity. She's the sole sympathetic person in this film.

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Went to go see Divergent last night having no knowledge of the books. It was...

 

surprisingly really good. I think I'm going to head to my library after work and check out the books in the series. I liked it much better than Hunger Games, but I have not seen Catching Fire yet.

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Biggie and Tupac: Nick Bloomfield is pretty awful, IMO. I liked the Aileen Wurnous doc he did (mainly because he was just letting her talk), but everything else I've seen from him is really lacking. Kurt and Courtney was absolutely awful (anyone who thinks an utter trainwreck like Courtney Love is capable of pulling off a murder and successfully getting away with it needs their head examined.)

This is in the same vein. Here he just picks seemingly random people from the fringes of that world, who each have about as much credibility as Lance Armstrong, and uses it to weave together some elaborate conspiracy. He points out that people have motives but doesn't seem to bother with the fact that there has to be more than a motive to prove someone's a murderer. Only true part that resonates is when Biggie's mom points that both her son and Tupac were basically killed by their own stupidity. She's the sole sympathetic person in this film.

I get what you're saying about some of the people on the periphery of the story, but a lot of the stuff about the LAPD's Rampart Division was ground breaking at the time, and led to various lawsuits & investigations. I believe thru Ms Wallace's lawsuits, the mystery was pretty much resolved along the lines of what was alleged in the docu.

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I'm about 15 minutes into WHITE HOUSE DOWN.  I hate this movie so much.  Every little detail.  The sets, like of people's apartments even.  The absurd lighting in every room.  the overly detailed mannerisms and overly graceful ways that people move and pose and touch their lapel.  The desperate attempt to make the protagonists cute before the action starts.

 

The hyper closeups on things they want to make sure we don't miss.  The typical Roland Emmerich unbelievably cliche dad with troubled daughter thing..."I'm sorry I missed your talent show."  Talent show?  It's like they just filmed the outline he made up when he was first throwing placeholder ideas out.

 

Dad: I'm Sorry I missed your important personal event

troubled daughter: distant dismissive comment

 

 

WHY IS EVERYTHING SHOT IN CLOESUP???  WHY IS EVERY ROOM IN WASHINGTON LIT BY SHARDS OF BRILLIANT SUNLIGHT LEAKING THROUGH BLINDS AND SLASHING ACROSS WALLS?????

 

Hey that girl from the weird BING "scroogled" commercial about how she sees nothing but commercials at school because of Google is in this too.  She's everywhere lately.

 

I hate this and I'm quitting.

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Biggie and Tupac: Nick Bloomfield is pretty awful, IMO. I liked the Aileen Wurnous doc he did (mainly because he was just letting her talk), but everything else I've seen from him is really lacking. Kurt and Courtney was absolutely awful (anyone who thinks an utter trainwreck like Courtney Love is capable of pulling off a murder and successfully getting away with it needs their head examined.)

This is in the same vein. Here he just picks seemingly random people from the fringes of that world, who each have about as much credibility as Lance Armstrong, and uses it to weave together some elaborate conspiracy. He points out that people have motives but doesn't seem to bother with the fact that there has to be more than a motive to prove someone's a murderer. Only true part that resonates is when Biggie's mom points that both her son and Tupac were basically killed by their own stupidity. She's the sole sympathetic person in this film.

I get what you're saying about some of the people on the periphery of the story, but a lot of the stuff about the LAPD's Rampart Division was ground breaking at the time, and led to various lawsuits & investigations. I believe thru Ms Wallace's lawsuits, the mystery was pretty much resolved along the lines of what was alleged in the docu.

 

 

I think the theories that the cops were involved and/or it was some conspiracy by Sage Knight to sell more records have been largely disproved. Especially when he was right there when bullets were flying. Logic fail.

 

Chuck Phillips and Greg Kayden (while their reports don't quite match with each other) probably gave the definitive accounts. Phillips' article is here.

 

Long story short: Tupac pissed off a Crompton gang, they decided he had to go and then decided they may as well get Biggie to pay them since he wanted it done anyway. (Kayden pins the blame on Diddy more in his account, though. I assume at the very least Diddy knew about it, even if he wasn't actively involved.)

 

Knight got a good look at the guys in the car and knew exactly who had done it. But instead of going to the cops (snitching was a big no-no for him) settled it his own way, and in the following months Biggie and the other people involved were killed.

 

The thing is it's actually an interesting enough story on its own. You really don't have to bring up conspiracy theories or claim something was up with the cops.

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Wow. Frozen is really good. Maybe the most entertaining music in a Disney film that I've seen in a long time. The Anna character also made me laugh more than just about any other Disney character. My only problem was the first time Olaf speaks and I discover it's Josh Gad doing the voice. Goddammit I hate Josh Gad.

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Love Frozen. Took my 2 1/2 year old daughter to it as her first theater experience and she kept engaged the entire time. Tried my luck with Lego movie with her and that failed. Anyways, I thought that Josh Gad was trying to do a Jonah Hill impression throughout the movie.

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A Jennifer Lawrence discussion on another board reminded me I'd never seen this despite meaning to so...

 

watched The Beaver last night.  Mel Gibson is Walter, a profoundly depressed CEO of his father's toy company who is barely able to speak.  After his wife kicks him out, he comes across a beaver puppet in a dumpster and takes it with him for some reason.  After a long night of drinking and failed suicide attempts, he awakens and begins using the beaver to communicate on his behalf.  The beaver frees him to communicate like he previously could not and he is soon seemingly his old self - albeit with a puppet attached to his arm.  Things don't just work out perfectly though but you'll need to see the rest of the movie for that.  Anyway, other than it being a reaaaaaaallllly tough-to-accept premise (like a company would allow a dude with a puppet on his hand to have any kind of input as CEO) and having some other weirdness (Mel & Jodie Foster gettin' it on while he's wearing the puppet), there's a lot to like here.  Some moving stuff and a nice subplot involving the teenage son.  Anyway, this is isn't great but it was entertaining.  I'll say 6/10, maybe 6.5.  Definitely not up to the Tabedoza line of 7.

 

As for Jennifer Lawrence?  She's really good in a small role as the love interest of the teen son.

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Wait.  I'm confused.  The actual Tabedoza line is far too distorted to be of use.  Like, the Dexter finale was a 7, but while to you and me that would make FROZEN like a 33 and, say, SHAUN OF THE DEAD like a 694, to Tabe that would make FROZEN like a 7.2 and SHAUN like a 7.214333333333333333312.

 

It's like all refracted and twisted like the orbit of light around a black hole.

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Hunger Games: Catching Fire was fucking awesome. I was bored tonight and wanted to watch something. I saw The Hunger Games and didn't think much of it. I actually thought it was pretty boring. I don't know what changed with Catching Fire, but it was about 1000 times better. From beginning to end I loved it. Wow. Wow.

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I heard Mark Kermode's review of Need for Speed. He complained about how they were constantly driving innocent people off the road/running them over. Said you could get away with it in a video game, but in a movie it's a different thing altogether.  Said it came off as more morally messed up that Death Race because at leas there was, like, social commentary in that film.

 

I'm a bit like that too, which is probably why I never liked these car racing movies. OK, it's great Vin Diesel and Rock pulled off their heist and defeated the bad guys and all, but what about the fact they basically left a city in ruins?

 

There should really be a movie dedicated to the poor people who have to do the clean up job after these race car drivers storm through their town.

 

They're the real heroes.

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