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FEBRUARY 2015 MOVIE THREAD


RIPPA

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I finally saw GONE GIRL and loved it.

What's weird, though, is that the one aspect of the film that seemed to get universal awards recognition (Rosamund Pike's performance) seemed like the worst part to me. Not saying it was a bad performance per se, just extremely one-note. Like, it's obvious from the first 5 minutes she's on screen that she's a sociopath. Even in the flashbacks, which are from her perspective, she comes across crazy as a loon.

I thought Carrie Coon did way more with less of a part as Affleck's twin sister.

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I watched The Interview last week. I thought it was pretty funny. Also pretty dumb, but there were plenty of laugh out loud moments.

 

I watched The Package with Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones yesterday. It's one of those Hackman movies he made that you didn't even probably knew was made. Came out in 89 and is another one of those Gene Hackman military thriller movies. It's about factions in the American and Soviet armies who want to kill the Soviet Premier on a trip to America where some treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons will be signed. It was on Encore yesterday so I assume it will be on the loop of movies shown. Not bad for a sunday afternoon when there's nothing on.

 

It's a shame Hackman retired from acting. He could still be doing some great roles as evil ceo's or something. But he enjoys writing books now.

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Just watched Book of Life and it was a lot of fun. It didn't know what kind of movie it wanted to be, so it kind of tried to be Cloudy with a Chance of Toy Stories About Dragon Training, but despite the identity crisis it's worth watching, if only to see Ice Cube voice a friendly god. 

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My local theater finally got Birdman. I'm slightly biased because Michael Keaton has always been one of my all-time favorite actors - and I thought his speech at the Globes was one of the best award speeches I've ever heard - but he really did pull off a brilliant performance. Emma Stone and Ed Norton - Norton especially - also gave really strong performances.

 

The movie itself was great in a very meta way. For comic movie geeks, there was a lot of meta-humor regarding Keaton as Batman and the superhero movie genre in general (not to mention you had Gwen Stacy and Bruce Banner in the flick). And then there was the satire of the whole NYC theater scene which was the core of the flick. In that area this movie reminded me a lot of an old DVDRMC Pick called Living In Oblivion.Except that movie was funnier where this one went for a more dramatic and surreal approach.

 

Speaking of surreal, that ending man...

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One that's been on my "Need to watch that!" list for a long time:

Boys Don't Cry - The movie that MADE Hilary Swank. Swank plays Teena Brandon, a gender-confused young woman taking on the persona and mannerisms of a man by the name of Brandon Teena. As Brandon, she meets and falls in love with Lana, played by Chloe Sevigny. Lana learns of Brandon's deception but accepts him anyway. Lana's brother and friends? Not so much. This is a powerful movie about a subject that's still not talked about much today (gender confusion) let alone in 1999 when this was released. Swank is pretty amazing here. This is a risky role for her, playing a woman who can appear to be a man with few physical changes - the kind of thing that could stigmatize a Hollywood actress. She carries it off really well, and carries this movie all the way to the heartbreaking conclusion. Anyway, terrific movie with strong performances from Swank and Sevigny and well worth watching. 8/10.

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She is an amazing actress. I've never seen that movie but I was watching Insomnia again the other day and Hilary Swank is a beautiful woman. You never hear anyone discuss her as being such but she is.

She has a bit of an unusual look for Hollywood women - her features are a little sharper, a little differently-proportioned, etc - but they work. Yeah, she's very, very good-looking.

hilary-swank-920222l.jpg

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Obviously, she's doing perfectly fine and getting work, but for a woman with two oscars, you'd think Hilary Swank would be more famous. She doesn't seem to be in that much stuff.

 

Maybe she's just very picky, I don't know.

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I'm watching Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back. I've always liked it the most out of the View Askew universe movies. Even moreso than Clerks, which is now 20 years old and holy fuck I'm old.

I always felt that movie got bagged on more than it deserved. Same with Mallrats. Are they good movies? Probably not. Are they fun? Yes, very much so.

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No idea where to put this -

My wife had an unpleasent customer service experience today and after telling me about it she hits me with this:

"I felt like that Leslie Nielsen guy. I will find them and I will kill them..."

Me - You mean Liam Neeson? The guy from Taken.

"Yeah. That guy."

Now I am picturing a totally different trilogy to the one we got.

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I'm pretty much late to the party on everything but I highly recommend Nightcrawler to anyone who hasn't seen it.  Great performance by Jake Gyllenhaal  that brought to mind Travis Bickle and other weird loner types who are just a little off on the human interaction front.  A very good film and a fun little indictment of TV news' "if it bleeds it leads" culture.

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