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2014 MOVIE OMNIBUS THREAD


RIPPA

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Anybody seen Cold in July with Michael C. Hall?

 

Hall's character is the victim of a home invasion and kills the intruder. This leads to the perpitrator's ex-con father stalking Hall's family. This is the first act of the movie; after that, the story shifts into one about mistaken identity and police conspiracy. The action was really tense thanks to an awesome score.

 

It's in my queue but I haven't watched it yet.  Is it worth it?

 

Yes, it is worth seeing.  I enjoyed it.

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First movies for me in awhile:

 

Gone Girl - I really, really wanted to like this one.  Heard great things about it, was intrigued by the story and......was let down.  I'd heard all about this "shocking twist" but I saw it coming from pretty much the opening 5 minutes of the movie.  In fact, it was so underwhelming that my wife & I actually sat there and discussed other options that would have been better twists.  Felt there was never really tension and the ending disappointed greatly.  When the credits started rolling, everyone in my theater was looking around and asking each other "That it's?  It's really over?", expecting there to be more.  We felt the same way.  In the end, this was a mediocre effort that really should have been a lot better.  6/10.

 

If I Stay - The wife really wanted to see this one and I had to pay penance for taking her to Gone Girl, LOL.  Mia is a world-class cellist who falls in love with Adam, the lead singer of a local rock band that's about to go big.  Mia and her entire family of impossibly cool parents and brother are in a car crash that leaves Mia fighting for her life.  We then see her spirit running around the hospital reviewing her life while she tries to decide whether to live (and return to a horribly altered life) or die (and end her suffering).  This movie is a mess.  I thought the premise was stupid when I saw the previews and I was right.  The script is a joke, ignoring the ages of the characters constantly (yeah, I'm sure the local bars are more than happy to have 16-year olds drinking without checking IDs), with faux angst and tension, and just...ugh.  I get that I'm not the target demo for this movie but c'mon.  This stunk.  3/10 - maybe.

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Captain Phillips: Essentially this film is Under Siege if it happens in real life. Like the villains take over the boat but instead of going into Seagal-mode and ninja-kicking everyone in sight, Hanks can't really do anything except try to calm the situation down and break down and cry a bit.

 

Granted, this is a well-directed, compelling and well-acted movie, but I think I would have preferred Seagal storming in and ninja-kicking people.

 

Real life sucks.

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Did not enjoy Annabelle at all.

 

Way too much signposting of things to come. Way too much illogical shit going on left, right and centre.

 

By the end of it, I just wanted them all to die painfully.

 

Yeah, Annabelle spent more time telling me why I should be scared rather than scaring me.

 

I enjoyed Gone Girl more than most people because I know it is supposed to be a fable about the difference between perception as reality vs. perception as truth and not a mystery thriller.  Reading the book helps out a lot.

 

Addicted did what it was supposed to do.  It is dumb and stupid and preachy, but if you go see this movie with your woman and you don't get laid almost immediately afterwards I don't know what to tell you.  One of you is frigid.  Maybe both.

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Indiewire put up its 2015 Oscar nominee predictions this morning.

 

http://www.indiewire.com/article/2015-oscar-predictions

 

It's not quite as cut-and-dried as this, since they rank everyone who they see as a contender, but here's what they're essentially saying for the major categories:

 

Best Picture
"Boyhood"
"Birdman"
"The Imitation Game"
"Gone Girl"
"Unbroken"
"Interstellar"
"American Sniper"
"Selma"
 
Best Director
Richard Linklater, "Boyhood"
Alejandro González Iñárritu, "Birdman"
David Fincher, "Gone Girl"
Angelina Jolie, "Unbroken"
Christopher Nolan, "Interstellar"
 
Best Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch, "The Imitation Game"
Michael Keaton, "Birdman"
Eddie Redmayne, "Theory of Everything"
Steve Carell, "Foxcatcher"
Timothy Spall, "Mr. Turner"
 
Best Actress
Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"
Reese Witherspoon, "Wild"
Rosamund Pike, "Gone Girl"
Felicity Jones, "Theory of Everything"
Amy Adams, "Big Eyes"
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Watched Tenebre.  Well, actually watched Unsane.  This was on amazon instant.  Realized halfway through it was heavily edited.  Real fucking dumb.  Had to look on wikipedia to see what the fuck those flashbacks were supposed to mean. Of course it's one of those "oh the unedited version is way better" deals.  I don't think that lame ending is going to fly no matter what they do.  There's that part where a dog chases the landlords daughter and she goes right to the killer's house that was left unlocked.  Like, they made sure to deliberately establish that the guy left this poolside door with the key hanging in the lock. Soundtrack made me think Goblin needs to do a Metroid game.  This is the second time I tried to watch an Italian horror movie this month and it turned out to be Giallo.

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The plot is absurd but it really is one of his best films. I didn't even think the Unsane cut even existed anymore except on old VHS; that's a shame. Def. find Tenebrae to at least know what you're missing. 

 

Also, the uninterrupted Louma Crane shot going over the building and into the window in this has to be the most insane piece of cinematography in any Argento film and that's saying something.

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Hey, everyone go watch ""My Man Godfrey" with William Powell and Carole Lombard. It's so funny and perfect. It's in the Criterion Collection that Hulu Plus has all of. Just fucking incredible. I haven't seen it in years and years and just watched it again.

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First movies for me in awhile:

 

Gone Girl - I really, really wanted to like this one.  Heard great things about it, was intrigued by the story and......was let down.  I'd heard all about this "shocking twist" but I saw it coming from pretty much the opening 5 minutes of the movie.  In fact, it was so underwhelming that my wife & I actually sat there and discussed other options that would have been better twists.  Felt there was never really tension and the ending disappointed greatly.  When the credits started rolling, everyone in my theater was looking around and asking each other "That it's?  It's really over?", expecting there to be more.  We felt the same way.  In the end, this was a mediocre effort that really should have been a lot better.  6/10.

 

I just saw this last night, and this pretty well sums up my feelings on it. It was also at least 20 minutes too long, and maybe more. Cutting the last 20 minutes or so would have made the ending a lot better too. And like you, my girlfriend predicted the twist almost right away.

Decent performances by the main cast though.

 

Think Birdman will be next movie we'll go see, having a Groupon for Alamo Drafthouse this month makes going to movies a little more appealing.

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Yeah, I should have mentioned the length, too.  My wife turned to me well into the movie and gave me the "how long IS this movie?" question.  It felt longer than it was - and it was plenty long.  Definitely could have been tightened up some.

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Finally got around to finishing Don Jon.  I wanted to love it, but just sorta begrudgingly liked it.  Probably my favourite Scarlett Johanssen performance here where she plays a Jersey girl who falls for the titular Don Jon and tries to turn him into the perfect boyfriend.  Little does she know Don Jon is a porn-addicted, road rager.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt is fine in the lead and Julianne Moore is fine as the widow he meets at a night class who is the voice of reason.  I actually think Tony Danza pretty much stole most of the movie as Don Jon's leering, lecherous father.  I never knew he could be so...off-putting.  But I do think this is Johanssen's flick, as she's just perfectly natural as Barbara, not like she's playing a character at all (Though the accent is jarring, at first, by the end of the flick it sounds totally natural) and I feel the movie kinda lurches toward the end without her as involved.  I also don't think relationship between Don Jon and his friends came through properly.  For the first half/three-quarters of the film you kinda feel like his friends are a-holes who he's never quite outgrown, but then all of sudden they become catalysts for him to change and a late scene is meant to show how essential they are to his life when it feels like the film was driving at a different conclusion earlier on.  Still, I sound like I'm being very negative here, but I did like it.  Pretty solid directing debut for Gordon-Levitt, though the rumors that originally he wanted Channing Tatum in the lead instead of himself make me pine for what could have been.

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Yeah, after seeing the movie, I did get around to reading the Gone Girl book. I'd say it is better in that

 

In the book, Nick is a prick and Amy's actions are a bit more sympathetic. He's more than a bit to blame for her going crazy. Her parents too. She comes off as less cartoonishly evil. In the movie, it's just "well, she's a psycho and that's about it."

 

I can see why it's done so well. It's not The Great American Novel or anything, but it must be great to go into it not knowing all these twists and turns. It's sort of like if Hitchcock were a female pulp fiction author who liked soap operas a lot. I'd like to see Flynn do more scriptwriting; she's got talent. She knows how to pace things.

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I haven't seen it yet either, but pretty much every review I've read except Tabe's has been, whether overall positive or negative, absolutely lavish in praising the editing and pacing of the film.

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My favorite Gone Girl story is how Reese Witherspoon's production company bought the rights, she's credited as the producer, and she wanted to star in it as Amy Dunne. And Fincher was, like, yeah, that's not going to happen.

 

I like her but yeah, that would have been disastrous casting.

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I haven't seen it yet either, but pretty much every review I've read except Tabe's has been, whether overall positive or negative, absolutely lavish in praising the editing and pacing of the film.

It's lonely being the sole voice of reason.
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Gone Girl is perfectly fine when you accept that it is a fable and an indictment of relativism.  Perception may be reality, but it is not truth.  This is the moral of the story.

 

If you are looking for a movie where the ending is tied up with a pretty bow and where good people are good and bad people are bad, this is not the movie for you.

 

Accept it for what it is and you will enjoy the experience much better.

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Was hoping to get out and see Gone Girl tomorrow night with the lady. It will be our first "date night" out since we had our baby 2 months ago. Not sure when we'll get another night out. Reading this thread is making me possibly rethink the movie we're going to go see. If we're getting out to see our first movie in months, I want it to be a good experience and not disappointing.

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Was hoping to get out and see Gone Girl tomorrow night with the lady. It will be our first "date night" out since we had our baby 2 months ago. Not sure when we'll get another night out. Reading this thread is making me possibly rethink the movie we're going to go see. If we're getting out to see our first movie in months, I want it to be a good experience and not disappointing.

 

Do not go see Addicted as your date movie.  You may wind up with another kid in nine months, if you know what I'm sayin'.

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Was hoping to get out and see Gone Girl tomorrow night with the lady. It will be our first "date night" out since we had our baby 2 months ago. Not sure when we'll get another night out. Reading this thread is making me possibly rethink the movie we're going to go see. If we're getting out to see our first movie in months, I want it to be a good experience and not disappointing.

 

Do not go see Addicted as your date movie.  You may wind up with another kid in nine months, if you know what I'm sayin'.

 

 

Do not listen to this man, MonteCarl.  Kidnapping is wrong.  Today, nine months from now ... not even once.

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I saw Gone Girl the other night and agree with you guys. It was pretty good but felt like they could have lopped off about 20 minutes. It definitely had the feel of a dark comedy to me b/c it was so over the top. And am I the only one who found the sister more attractive than Amy?

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