Tabe Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 A weekend just went by, must be time for some new movie reviews from Tabe! Enough - Remember when Jennifer Lopez was trying to become a big movie star and thought that a female empowerment vehicle was the way to go? Yeah, this is that movie. Anyway, J-Lo plays "Slim", a waitress swept off her feet by a millionaire into a wonderful life. There are signs early on that he's a creep but nothing too obvious. Years later, she learns he's being unfaithful. When confronted, he becomes physically abusive and tells her, basically, learn to live with it, Jenny From the Block. Well, Jenny ain't havin' it, so she flees. It all comes to a head with a showdown at his house after she's had roughly a month of training - becoming a super-awesome ninja/MMA god/assassin in the process. Anyway, this is essentially a big budget Lifetime "woman gets revenge on abusive man" movie. There are some gigantic plot holes and leaps in logic along with some weird side things (J-Lo is called, essentially, unattractive a couple times in the movie. WTF?) This is a dumb movie but not exactly terrible to watch. Wonder if her new movie, which undoubtedly will play out almost exactly the same, will be much different or better? Anyway... 4/10. Taking Lives - Angelina Jolie is an FBI profiler called to Montreal to assist with a murder case. Seems some guy is killing people and then taking their identities. Except Jolie is the one who figures that out, so why she got called in the first place is a mystery. Ethan Hawke is a witness to one of the murders. He and Jolie solve the case, hook up, etc. This is a pretty much by-the-numbers thriller that mostly is designed to have Jolie walking around looking "sexy professional" in her suits. That you never for one second believe she could possibly ever actually have that job is secondary. Another movie for the "not great" category - 5/10. Twisted - Sometimes you just want something pretty mindless playing in the background while you're occupied with something else. Hence this movie. It was either that or Boys Don't Cry, but I figured that would require a bit more of my attention. Anyway, Ashley Judd is a very promiscuous homicide detective who gets a big promotion on the back of solving a series of murders. The twist is she's also the daughter of a former cop turned serial killer who also killed her mom. Soon, another killer is active and he's killing...her sexual conquests. And she's got no alibi for the times of their murders, soon becoming a prime suspect. Or is the killer her partner? Or ??? When I chose this as a "mindless movie", I was definitely right. Another thriller that fails to rise above the mediocre entries in its genre. The cast is good - Judd, Andy Garcia, Samuel L Jackson - but they've got nothing to work with. Ho hum... 4/10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 The Theory of Everything: Eddie Redmayne is great and clearly he put in 100% of the effort to portray Hawking and his symptoms accurately, but this movie is...not good. It will win awards. It was made to win awards. It's like The Blind Side, in that respect. But, also like The Blind Side, it's dull Lifetime-style crap. It's so mediocre I pity that Hawking, a man who has already suffered enough in his long, painful life, has likely been forced to sit through it more than once. I feel that Lost in Translation-era Bill Murray has finally been dethroned from his "great performance that redeems an awful movie" crown. The lead performance outclasses everything else in the movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Decided to aim a little higher with my movie selection last night. Netflix said I'd think this one was a 9 or 10 and it fit the time window I had so... The Story of Luke - Luke is a 25-year old autistic man raised by his grandparents from an early age. His grandmother, who taught him to cook and homeschooled him through high school, has just passed away, leaving Grandpa to go into a nursing home and Luke to go live with his aunt and uncle. They are nearing a divorce, the aunt is unlikable, and Luke thinks he'd like to get a job and "screw". The movie centers on Luke's different relationships with the folks in his life - the bitchy aunt he helps to soften, the receptionist at the job place that he decides he should date, the cousin who helps him look for jobs, etc. And those relationships work well. It's the one with his job trainer, played by Seth Green, that doesn't. Green plays an autistic man very aware of his condition who pretends to be normal but mostly just spends the movie screaming at Luke and calling him "retard". It's a painfully awful exaggeration of a character and a huge negative on the movie. He's also developed a software program that imitates "normal" people so Luke can talk to it and practice being normal. That's about as realistic as me dating Julianne Hough & Amy Adams - at the same time. Good grief. Green's entire character drags the movie down big-time. Luke himself is awkward but a lot higher functioning than expected, in that he's able to understand sarcasm and figures of speech, etc. In the end, this is a movie that could have been a nice, sweet tale of a young man overcoming difficulties but instead is just a mediocre maudlin attempt at doing that. 6/10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Goddamn but Man of Tai Chi is an awesome action movie! I saw the cover with Keanu Reeves and that it was directed by Reeves and the words 'Tai Chi' and thought "NOPE" but saw a decent review of it on The Concourse's semi-regular review of Netflixable action movies and decided to give it a shot and it's so much fun. It stars Tiger Hu Chen (Who has only been in three other movies as an actor, but undoubtedly crossed Reeves' path as a stunt guy on the Matrix sequels) as a disciple of Ling Kong Tai Chi who wants to show the world that Tai Chi is actually a viable fighting style, not just for show. He enters a martial arts tournament and has some success which is where he is spotted by evil Keanu Reeves who recruits Tiger (Yes his name is Tiger in the movie, too) to join his underground fighting league. The fights are well-filmed, no-frills and occasionally quite brutal and always entertaining. It's nice to see a movie shoot the fights so clearly, not worrying about weird angles or shaky cam (Which doesn't as a rule bother me, but I know it annoys quite a few) and just focusing on the fighting and stuntwork. Story is basically that Keanu Reeves wants to corrupt Tiger and make him into a killing machine, and Tiger slowly being won over by how much fun he has fighting and beating people up. Also shockingly nice cinematography in this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 After watching the Golden Globes I have decided that while I don't give a crap about 99% of celebrity couples, I would be legitimately sad if Anna Faris and Chris Pratt ever broke up. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Finally made it out to Into The Woods. As a movie, it's actually quite good. Cast is really strong, visually interesting... As an adaptation it's pretty deeply flawed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeeball Wizard Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I do enjoy that my son immediately picked up on the fact that TJ Miller (who was voicing Fred) also voiced Tuffnut in the How To Train Your Dragon stuff. If he recognized him from this, he would be the coolest kid ever: http://youtu.be/P-hUV9yhqgY Yeah my son was like "Ah its fuckin Hud from Cloverfield." He's 7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AxB Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 My son didn't even realise Star-Lord was the main guy in the Lego movie until I told him. And he's 10. He still can't quite comprehend that Luke Skywalker is the Joker on TV and in games. Although he does sound nothing like himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nate Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Show him the Trickster eps of the old Flash show. There's this one scene where he shouts, "You've stolen my heart" to the heroine, and there it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nate Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Also: is there even a remote chance that film "I" by Shankar makes it to domestic DVD/Blu? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.K.o.S. Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Also: is there even a remote chance that film "I" by Shankar makes it to domestic DVD/Blu? I know very little about this movie but I think the answer's yes? It's playing in 9 theatres here right now in the Toronto area, and I'd think that any kind of North American theatrical release suggests that there'll be a North American DVD at some point. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS81177 Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Gone Girl and A Walk Among The Tombstones: either one worth purchasing on blu-ray? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 I already put this in the 'Best of 2014' thread, but man We Are the Best is so frikkin' goooood. Two punk thirteen year old girls in 1982 decide to form a band, largely out of spite, then decide to actually have a band and recruit another school outcast to teach them how to play. It's so honest, and fun, and funny, and heartfelt. If you've ever had a punk rock phase, or just felt like an outcast, there should be something in here for you to love. The ending was just exhilarating. One of my favourite watches of 2014 flicks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 So by me - they just opened a Regal IMAX theater in the mall. I figured that meant they were closing the other Regal theater across the street. I was wrong and I couldn't be more pleased about it since it appears that the original 20 screen theater will now be used - in addition to showing the big movies - to play those smaller movies that tended to not get released around here (or at least a longer than one week run) Heck - when we went to see Big Hero 6, I saw that they were showing three different Bollywood movies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 so i watched three fairly recent movies in as many days. Here's what i thought: the Wolf of Wall Street- this movie was a fun enough watch, but at 3 hours i needed more of a plot. While i agree with the masses that DiCaprio deserves an Oscar, this was not the film to attain it. I wish they would've explored some moments and struggles with any sort of depth, because everything felt very shallow. Leo's is the only character delved into whatsoever, and that was only in brief moments. 5.5/10. the Equalizer- this Taken inspired movie will be performed by Denzel Washington. This film was pretty decent at times and mediocre at others. What was with Denzel's OCD? after the action starts, it's never mentioned again. Everything that happens in the Home Mart towards the end reminded me of Home Alone. setting traps and etc. While sometimes it made sense, many times i wondered why Denzel didn't just use a gun? He clearly had no aversion to killing. The end scenes with the Russian boss in particular was dumb, with setting off an electrocution trap instead of just shooting him. I did get sucked in once the action really got going tho. 6.5/10. the Expendables 3- easily the weak point of the trilogy. I felt the first was really good and the second was fantastic. All the stuff with the new recruits felt stupid and pointless. Ronda Rousey is a terrible actress. Schwarz looked old as shit in this. All that said, the action was top notch. the addition of Wesley Snipes was awesome. Once the original team got back together to save the day is when i felt the movie finally started to be good. Jet Li's short appearance was good to see. i was afraid he'd been left out. Overall, it was enjoyable. 7/10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimLivingston Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 So go see Inherent Vice. And then go see it a second time because you're gonna be TOTALLY tripped out after seeing it the first time. Just an awesome, awesome film. Phoenix was downright fantastic in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nate Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Also: is there even a remote chance that film "I" by Shankar makes it to domestic DVD/Blu? I know very little about this movie but I think the answer's yes? It's playing in 9 theatres here right now in the Toronto area, and I'd think that any kind of North American theatrical release suggests that there'll be a North American DVD at some point. Thanks for the reply; I'm hoping it does. The trailer has me interested in seeing more of that story. The entire film could be shit-on-a-stick, but hell, the imagery is flat incredible and I've enjoyed movies for far less reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 A Haunted House 2. Better than most spoof movies but what is that saying? Granted the first one had some funny jokes re: how black people would theoretically deal with a haunted house vs. white suburban people but the joke has been played out. Everything I see Marlon Wayans in pretty much turns into me thinking "Dude, you can do better than this." Not good at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterien Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Foxcatcher;I really wanted to like this because of the great reviews and hype around Carrells performance,but I hated most of it (the last 20-30 mins are ok). Carrell plays it well for a guy that usually does comedies but I think his performance is way overrated. I found the film itself slow, plodding and very very boring. I thought Tatum was the best thing about the whole film,he played his part very well imo, Ruffalo was ok. I will say one thing though- as boring as I found it, it built up well to THAT scene at the end.. The gunshot had me leaping from my seat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AxB Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Yeah, I've seen reviews talking about hoe Foxcatcher is a fantastic study in the physical expression of maleness through non-verbal communication, and I've also seen reviews where they said it was boring, snail-paced and featured lots of long scenes in which nothing happens and nobody says anything for ages. So I might wait for telly on that one. Plus everyone's playing the don't google it, you'll spoil the ending thing, but I thought everyone knew what happened in real life anyway. It's in Kurt Angle's autobiography and stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Koch Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Goddamn but Man of Tai Chi is an awesome action movie! I saw the cover with Keanu Reeves and that it was directed by Reeves and the words 'Tai Chi' and thought "NOPE" but saw a decent review of it on The Concourse's semi-regular review of Netflixable action movies and decided to give it a shot and it's so much fun. It stars Tiger Hu Chen (Who has only been in three other movies as an actor, but undoubtedly crossed Reeves' path as a stunt guy on the Matrix sequels) as a disciple of Ling Kong Tai Chi who wants to show the world that Tai Chi is actually a viable fighting style, not just for show. He enters a martial arts tournament and has some success which is where he is spotted by evil Keanu Reeves who recruits Tiger (Yes his name is Tiger in the movie, too) to join his underground fighting league. The fights are well-filmed, no-frills and occasionally quite brutal and always entertaining. It's nice to see a movie shoot the fights so clearly, not worrying about weird angles or shaky cam (Which doesn't as a rule bother me, but I know it annoys quite a few) and just focusing on the fighting and stuntwork. Story is basically that Keanu Reeves wants to corrupt Tiger and make him into a killing machine, and Tiger slowly being won over by how much fun he has fighting and beating people up. Also shockingly nice cinematography in this one. Keanu actually spent years developing cameras to film fight scenes. I agree the movie looks really good, especially for a first time director. http://hkfilm.net/movrevs/2/mantaichi.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Koch Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 So go see Inherent Vice. And then go see it a second time because you're gonna be TOTALLY tripped out after seeing it the first time. Just an awesome, awesome film. Phoenix was downright fantastic in it. I agree with you, though it may be in my case I was about as high as Joaquin while watching it. The movie will obviously lose some people (several walked out of the showing i was at) but I thought it was really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 'Inherent Vice', to me, plays to me like a less inherently silly 'Big Lebowski'. Massive complicated plot and laundry list of characters that doesn't really ultimately go anywhere in the end. I mean, he finds Mickey Wolfmann but doesn't do anything about it, then he's just freed right afterwards. He kills those two guys, but it's Bigfoot pulling the strings. Then the big drug double-cross is ultimately meaningless, because he just gets a call from the kingpin offering to take it off his hands, no problems. but I like that about the movie. I have a feeling it's going to be a real hit or miss flick with different people. There were a walk-out or two in my theater, as well, and there were parts where sections of the audience were laughing and I literally saw nothing funny going on onscreen, and other points where I was doubled over in laughter, and everyone else in the theater was silent. Such a great cast, too. I mean, it might be the least awesome Paul Thomas Anderson movie since 'Hard Eight/Sydney' but that's a pretty massive filmography to overcome and saying it's the sixth or seventh best Paul Thomas Anderson film isn't exactly an insult! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Maximum Overdrive ends with Lisa Simpson throwing up as AC/DC plays on the soundtrack. After several senseless, massive explosions. If that isn't reason enough to put the film in the Drive-In Hall of Fame I don't know what is. Meanwhile Pet Semetary remains completely and horribly depressing. EDIT: That's not to say I don't love the film, it's just hard to watch. Fred Gwynne is the man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roman Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I watched John Wick last night. Very fun action movie. The fighting was gorgeously set. Not the typical Hollywood-style fighting at all, but rather fluid, intense and beautiful. Like the Taken movies, but somehow more graceful and powerful. And the acting was very good all around. Also, Kevin Nash cameo! On the other hand, VHS Viral was an utter piece of shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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