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JANUARY 2015 MOVIE DISCUSSION


RIPPA

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I am gonna try something different and break these into months. The board should like 20 page threads better than one giant 200 page thread.

 

As per usual - general discussion about movies - mostly what you have watched goes here.

 

Obviously some things (especially the Marvel movies) have their own thread/folders.

 

Oh and upcoming stuff still goes in the upcoming thread

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Christmas meant sitting through Kids movies I wouldn't normally sit through.

The Annie remake was no where near as horrible as I thought it was going to be. Part of this was for some reason I thought Willow Smith was cast as Annie - so seeing Quvenzhané Wallis immediately gave it a pass. And Rose Byrne is a gorgeous human being.

 

I think I ended up watching Mr. Peabody & Sherman 4 times since that was my son's go to. Thankfully it's barely 90 minutes long.

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Since i just saw it yesterday and the other thread is closed now...

Saw Foxcatcher. Carrell is great, Ruffalo is very good, Channing Tatum looked like Kurt angle.

Good picture, although some of the historical inaccuracies bugged me.

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I think I ended up watching Mr. Peabody & Sherman 4 times since that was my son's go to. Thankfully it's barely 90 minutes long.

 

I love the cartoon but couldn't bring myself to even watch the movie with my kid. Looked like a lot of stupid fart jokes and poochie style dancing. 

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I could put this in the 'Best of 2014' thread (Shameless plug) but I thought I'd put it in here so I can get in on the first page!

 

Watched Blue Ruin last night which was a pretty fabulous little film.  It stars Macon Blair (Whom I'd never seen before and reminds me a little of Stevie Janowski from 'Eastbound and Down') as Dwight, a wayward drifter at the start, sneaking into people's homes to take a bath, eating food out of dumpsters, living out of an abandoned car.  One day a police officer comes up to him and takes him downtown where they reveal "he" is getting out.   Immediately Dwight springs into action, putting gas in the car and a new battery in, and he drives to the jail.  Within hours of the man's release, Dwight is stalking him with evil intentions.  It sounds like the plot of your standard revenge thriller, but where this movie differs is the lead is basically an everyman and it shows what would happen if most everymen tried to carry out brual revenge (His first attempt involves an attempt to slash a tire that ends up cutting himself, a lost pair of keys, and being forced to steal the vehicle with the tire he just slashed).  But while revenge is the motor for the entire plot, the movie isn't so much about the revenge, itself, as it is about how revenge just destroys the life of everyone involved.  It's bloody, it's incredibly intense, thoroughly well-acted (Including Buzz from 'Home Alone'!) and has the teeniest bit of subtle, dark humor running throughout.  Really quite a revelation.

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Oh man, Blue Ruin was one of my favorite movies this year. I keep forgetting about all the arthouse stuff I saw at the, er, arthouse when I think about 2014. After the initial setup the plot and lead take a 180 degree turn in action/appearance, while still being focused on the revenge concept, and it's really fresh and unexpected. Highly recommended.

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I liked that quite a bit. The myth of redemptive violence is so entrenched in our culture, it was cool to see a movie that showed characters that could not stop themselves from carrying it out, even when the result would invariably mean disaster. It shows the act of redemptive violence as the definition of insanity, an obsessive compulsion that need to be broken. I know this won't improve my life in any way, in fact it will only make it worse, but I must carry it out because I don't know how else to cope with my loss.

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For a while, after Dwight was camped out at his Sister's house and he was waiting for the people from the other family to come after him, the movie felt like an adult version of "Home Alone". Until it no longer did. I am probably the only person that got this impression.

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Speaking of darkly comic revenge films - I watched Dead Man's Shoes the other day. Can't recommend it enough, I just sat glued to it as the carnage unfolded.

 

I hadn't seen The Ipcress File since I was a kid, so all the stuff about processes and mechanisms seemed new to me, all the stuff about Palmer making food, Caine is great as this kind of pseudo-everyman. There's probably something really interesting to be articulated about this film, but I'm not the one to do it. It's a nicely shot film too, and the trippy stuff with the box is great.

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For a while, after Dwight was camped out at his Sister's house and he was waiting for the people from the other family to come after him, the movie felt like an adult version of "Home Alone". Until it no longer did. I am probably the only person that got this impression.

I loved the way his plan slowly kind of fell apart there: "Okay, I'll use this pitchfork as a weapon, turn the upstairs sink on to distract them" then he peeks out, sees the guys are carrying weapons, and quickly ditches the pitchfork and runs away.

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So I watched the entire Night at the Museum trilogy in the last week or two, finishing off with the latest one when I took my daughter to it.

 

That series is decidedly not nearly as awful as I thought it would be. I really didn't like the first one, but the second and third ones were entertaining enough. In the second one, Amy Adams, Bill Hader and Hank Azaria were basically like, "we're putting this fucker on our backs and dragging this thing to something resembling a good movie." The third one actually got me right in the feels with all of the Robin Williams stuff. I totally do not regret seeing these movies and surprisingly, my daughter really loves them and she usually only likes animated things.

 

She also really likes Guardians of the Galaxy, which delights me to no end.

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For a while, after Dwight was camped out at his Sister's house and he was waiting for the people from the other family to come after him, the movie felt like an adult version of "Home Alone". Until it no longer did. I am probably the only person that got this impression.

 

No actually I think that was the point. Dwight is trying to do things that work in the movies, except it doesn't work because Blue Ruin really is the vigilante deconstruction that flicks like Death Sentence or The Brave One pretended to be. Dwight never "levels up", all his initial plans fail miserably, and he only survives due to the fact that his opposition aren't much more competent than he is. For another example, compare Dwight's attempt at DIY first aid to Anton Chigurh's in No Country For Old Men. Whether it's assassination, home defense, self-surgery, or hostage negotiation, one of the recurring themes of the film is Dwight realizing that real life doesn't work like the movies.

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I found myself watching Basic Instinct for the first time in years. The opening is great but this movie really is absurd. So why exactly was Catherine even doing all this? I'm not really sure what the end game was meant to be. Was this all some years-in-the-making revenge plot against Jeannie Tripplehorne's character for rejecting her in college? Did she just want to sell more books?

 

Is it controversial to say Jade is better?

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I think it's a decent neo-noir, and Douglas' acting is way better than you'd think it would be, but the plot is just a mess.

 

I mean I know with a film like that it's not the script that draws people. But still: The Last Seduction has a very similar femme-fatale character but it's like, you know why she's doing everything: she wants rid of her husband and she wants his money. Even Wild Things had something resembling a storyline amid all the sex stuff.

 

Basic Instinct just has you asking "Why would they even do that?" after every big twist. It's Russo-esque. 

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So im rewatching Gremlins 2... What an amazing satire this is. It took me so long to pick up on it but it really is a fantastic little window.

It hit me when we see Marla (who is a stone cold FOX btw) smoking in front of the HR guy one scene before some poor bastard gets fired for doing the same thing.

I seriously recommend people who havent watched this in a while go back over this with a more satirical eye.

Its not on the level of Starship Troopers but it's damn good.

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Speaking of Michael Douglas, I just re-watched The Game. It's one of those movies I never get tired of watching. Probably my favorite of all Douglas' films, and one of Fincher's best (in my opinion). 

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I just saw Wolf of Wall Street. Did anyone else think it was pretty bad?'

 

As far as a story goes -- There's not much to it past "assholes become rich assholes and do a lot of drugs and have sex with a lot of prostitutes" as far as I can tell. A lot of the scenes dragged on and on -- like the one at the pay phone, for instance.

It's also pretty morally bankrupt. I think there are a lot more people who will walk away after watching that saying, "Man, I want that life" than "These guys are the worst."

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I can see what you are saying Gregg. I did walk away from The Wolf of Wall Street thinking "what's the point here?" but it was so damn entertaining. I thought Leo and Jonah were absolutely incredible in every way. Then I thought about it some more and maybe the point is that "assholes win the race" and it's pretty fucked up. They don't spend a lot of time on the people who were wronged because society in general doesn't spend time on the people who are wronged.

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I mean I know with a film like that it's not the script that draws people. But still: The Last Seduction has a very similar femme-fatale character but it's like, you know why she's doing everything: she wants rid of her husband and she wants his money. Even Wild Things had something resembling a storyline amid all the sex stuff.

I will fight anyone who says Wild Things isn't a damn fine piece of moviemaking.

It's silly fun without being actively stupid, the twists all make sense, and best of all:

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