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[MOVIE] AUGUST 2016 MOVIE DISCUSSION


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35 minutes ago, EVA said:

Well, the smart thing he did post-Titanic was to always work with great directors.  Obviously you have all the Scorcese collaborations, but you also see Spielberg, Boyle, Scott, Mendes, etc.  Probably the "least" director he's starred for in the last 20 years is Ed Zwick in BLOOD DIAMOND, and he's not exactly a bum.  He never took the easy cash-ins for rom-coms or blockbuster action flicks (the one time he kinda did, it was INCEPTION with Nolan - another director with a great rep).  Nor did he ever become a Tom Cruise-type who insisted on becoming the chief creative voice on his movies.

He entrusted his career to the hands of great directors, and obviously learned a lot along the way.

Oh, of course. DiCaprio made good choices.

But he does absolutely have something incredible as an actor.

The look of anger and frustration and longing in his eyes..

It never quite goes away.

On-screen, he's always a man looking for something. 

 

 

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My dumb ass almost completely forgot he was the most venomous villain in modern film -- Calvin Candey -- in Django Unchained. Hot damn what a performance. That role was a mic drop in and of itself.

EDIT: In writing that I am ignoring Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen and I apologize profusely. But hey, him and Candey were a tag team, so I don't feel as bad.

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39 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

My dumb ass almost completely forgot he was the most venomous villain in modern film -- Calvin Candey -- in Django Unchained. Hot damn what a performance. That role was a mic drop in and of itself.

EDIT: In writing that I am ignoring Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen and I apologize profusely. But hey, him and Candey were a tag team, so I don't feel as bad.

It's interesting because he's really only in the second act and he manages to be really great without gnashing up the scenery. He gives a Tarantinoverse performance but never really shows up the rest of the cast and actually functions as a supporting actor. 

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17 hours ago, Cliff Hanger said:

Girlfriend and I just finished THE LITTLE PRINCE, and then cried for ten minutes. It's wonderful and sad and I'm really angry about the way Paramount treated it now.

I think I cried for about a half-hour straight. This movie ripped my soul open.

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I watched Paul (2011) with my lad, because he's a big Seth Rogen fan. It's OK... the bar is pretty high for Pegg/ Frost films, and with this one not having Edgar Wright involved, it's not all it could have been. It's not a pile of shit or anything, it has some good ideas, and some surprising cameos (the mysterious female character who doesn't show her face is fantastic casting), but it can't help but be disappointing.

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I caught "Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Sharon Jones" last night. I was hoping to be able to meet Miss Jones herself, but she was unable to make it, so they had the director and cinematographer there without her. It's a great flick. The intent of it was supposed to be about her album she recorded in 2012, but ends up being detoured into her treatment for pancreatic cancer and her comeback after. There's one scene where she sings in church that is absolutely magical.

 

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I watched Neighbors 2 earlier, and it was pretty funny. If you liked the first, then you'll like this one too. It follows the same formula too, but that's okay. Central Intelligence was a lot of fun, I called the "swerve" ending as soon as an important flashback happened, but it doesn't really matter because I had enjoyed the movie from start to finish. I'm finding more and more that I like Kevin Hart in action/comedy movies more than anything else (this, and Ride Along 1+2).

I think the less I talk about X-Men: Apocalypse and Independence Day: Resurgence the better (but I will anyway). The former I liked, because I like the X-Men and comic book movies and I'll always find something to like in those types of movies, even the worst ones. I didn't have any big problems with it, but compared to First Class and DoFP, it just didn't seem as good. I'll still watch the next one, without a doubt. ID: Resurgence was just... really bad. Everyone in this movie was just phoning it in, and the only person who gave a good performance was Jeff Goldblum (and I don't even typically like Goldblum's acting). Both of these movies suffered from some horrible CGI and obvious green screens.

Apparently HBO Signature, I think it was, aired an Al Pacino marathon last night. I caught a little bit of Carlito's Way before I fell asleep, I'll probably go back and watch the whole thing next weekend since it's OnDemand. I'm pretty sure after that was Scarface, which I've seen multiple times before and also slept through. I woke up at the very end, watched Scent of a Woman again, but I still don't really understand the "meaning" of it. Pacino gives another stellar performance. No surprise there. Then it was a movie I didn't even know existed, The Insider. I really enjoyed this, but this wasn't even really Pacino's film, I thought Russell Crowe was better than he was. Still a really good movie though. And finally, before I fell asleep again because that's all I do is sleep on the weekends - You Don't Know Jack. All of the awards Pacino won for this HBO made movie were well deserved, and overall it's just a really sad movie (but quite moving).

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Home Alone is on.

So, yeah, Uncle Frank is the villain of this movie, isn't he? OK, so Harry and Marv were burglars and definitely not good people, but they weren't outright cruel or sadistic.

Meanwhile, the way Uncle Frank yells at and humiliates Kevin, a vulnerable little boy, in front of everyone, is still truly quite uncomfortable to watch. 

That's why the McCallisters were shitty parents. Not necessarily the "Home Alone" stuff. (Admittedly that didn't help, but OK, accidents and mishaps can happen, I guess ). It's that this adult man verbally abused and cruelly bullied their child right in front of them...and then they turned around and blamed the kid for it. And happily went on vacation with the man the next day.

Is it wrong I feel those people probably did deserve to be robbed? 

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It's interesting that Home Alone is viewed mostly as a happy-fun-good-time movie especially by those looking back on seeing it when it first came out.  The reality is, however, that the movie is a messed-up view of a truly awful set of people.

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On ‎8‎/‎7‎/‎2016 at 0:20 AM, Cliff Hanger said:

Girlfriend and I just finished THE LITTLE PRINCE, and then cried for ten minutes. It's wonderful and sad and I'm really angry about the way Paramount treated it now.

Yeah, it is a wonderful film.  I also remember weeping for hours when I saw it on television as a kid.  I think it could've done well if Paramount had put a little more faith into it.

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I commented on Facebook about it, but the Little Prince wrecked me. I think I was crying about 3 or 4 times during it. It hits at you so hard and made me upset for forgetting what it's like to be a child.

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On 8/9/2016 at 7:56 PM, Tabe said:

It's interesting that Home Alone is viewed mostly as a happy-fun-good-time movie especially by those looking back on seeing it when it first came out.  The reality is, however, that the movie is a messed-up view of a truly awful set of people.

The mom's indifference to Kevin's suffering at the start of the film is shocking. 

Um, your child is obviously depressed and traumatized to the point he even tells you flat-out he prays for a different family. And instead of comforting him or trying to make him feel better or telling him you love him, you just shrug it off and tell him not to ruin the rest of your vacation. 

That's why I dislike everyone spending much of the movie telling her: "But...you're not a bad mother!"

Um, yeah. She was. Sorry, John Candy. But she was.

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You know things are bad when you look at Harry and Marv, two immoral burglars who raid people's homes at Christmas, and think: "Yeah, but you still ain't anything close to being the shittiest people in this film." 

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Home Alone is up there with Big, Forrest Gump and another movie that I'm forgetting that are supremely fucked up, but I like Home Alone. The other two I fucking hate.

I think I explained my hate for Gump in the past, but with Big, you have a movie where a child is forced to live an adult life, is, well, raped, his mom is lead to believe her son was kidnapped, and then when the kid actually settles into being an adult, he has to leave that all behind, never mind the fact that the love interest has been in love with a child the whole time.

The amount of therapy everyone will need will last for years. Also, has there been a weaker, do nothing response to thinking your kid was kidnapped in a movie? 

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The two movies that I still can't get over from that time period were Radio Flyer and Jack the Bear. They were made by major studios and on rotation on cable constantly, but are DARK movies about child abuse that I guess got greenlit because period setting coming of age movies were big after My Girl. If I recall correctly they were both marketed as light nostalgia fare to sucker people in. 

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Regarding Radio Flyer...Is the ending the older brother's way of coping with his younger brother being beaten to death. So, as an adult, he tells his kids about how his brother flew away in a Radio Flyer and they're at the airport waiting for him, but really, his brother was killed and it's his way of remembering his brother. It's been awhile since I watched it, but how far off am I?

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Wanted to take my mom to a movie this week and our original choice, the Ab Fab movie (shut up) was already out of theatres, so we went to see Captain Fantastic instead. So glad we went, I was very impressed. Basic story is that Viggo Mortenson is the father of 6 children, raising them outside of society on some land in a Pacific Northwest forest. Think commune type living, but only one family. They live off the land, hunt, but also are intensely homeschooled (one of the daughters is asked to describe a book she's reading and is not allowed to use the word "interesting", because it is a nothing answer) and are probably all geniuses.

The mother dies after health complications and Viggo wants to take the kids to the funeral, but is barred by Grandpa Frank Langella (YES!) because he blames him for corrupting his daughter and bringing on her death and isolating his grandkids from the world.

Had seen one trailer and wasn't sure what to expect. Could have been a quirky Wes Anderson style movie (Royal Tenebaums in the Woods) or a dark family drama and it does have elements of both. It's funny and quirky without being slapsticky and precious and sad and dark without being maudlin. You think that the confrontation between Mortenson and Langella is going to be the main focus of the movie and while it does lead into it, I wouldn't say it's the main conflict. That is probably the effects coming into contact with the outside world has on the kids.

The acting is great throughout, outside of maybe Steve Zahn because fuck Steve Zahn. And the script does a really good job of taking what could be a very one dimensional disapproving father-in-law character in Langella and making his view very understandable. You don't want the kids to be taken away from Viggo, but you definitely understand why he sees things the way he does. The idyllic forest life that you think they have is shown to be not the case either.

Really recommend it if it ends up in a theatre near you.

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9 hours ago, Craig H said:

Regarding Radio Flyer...Is the ending the older brother's way of coping with his younger brother being beaten to death. So, as an adult, he tells his kids about how his brother flew away in a Radio Flyer and they're at the airport waiting for him, but really, his brother was killed and it's his way of remembering his brother. It's been awhile since I watched it, but how far off am I?

That's a popular theory that I think the director coyly agreed with at one time. I'd rather think the kid's just been out there flying around for twenty years because the whole thing's a bummer as it is. 

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23 hours ago, Craig H said:

I commented on Facebook about it, but the Little Prince wrecked me. I think I was crying about 3 or 4 times during it. It hits at you so hard and made me upset for forgetting what it's like to be a child.

The worst part, for me, was when The Little Girl is racing to the hospital to see The Aviator. It's almost the one-year anniversary of my racing to the hospice (and failing) to get there before my mother passed away. I was sitting there with my youngest daughter, already bawling my eyes out, thinking that if she doesn't make it in time I wouldn't be able to continue watching...

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Last House of the Left (the original)

This was the first time I've actually sat down and watched this. I know this is meant to be a cult classic and "one of the best horror films evah~!", but honestly, it's too cheap and sleazy. And not even the good type of cheap and sleazy.

Like, the scene where the girl walks into the river as she awaits death....that should be powerful. It truly should be. But then the characters involved are so cardboard it's an insult to useful packaging material and the acting is so bad that you struggle to feel anything.

I couldn't even be bothered to be offended. The film was sorta, well, just, there.  

 

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