Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

JULY 2017 MOVIE THREAD


RIPPA

Recommended Posts

On 7/24/2017 at 5:06 PM, Elsalvajeloco said:

The experience. I couldn't understand 3/4s of what Tom Hardy said or like most of the dialogue. Didn't need to understand it, apparently.

Considering there's like 2 minutes of dialogue total in the movie, no, you don't miss much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/24/2017 at 8:05 AM, S.K.o.S. said:

A Ghost Story completely wrecked me.  Was holding back tears for at least 2/3 of the movie.  I don't think I had ever been seriously worried that I would start audibly sobbing in a theater but it happened here.  Not perfect (for one thing, there's one minor character who I think everyone would hate) but it's my #1 of the year right now.

Saw this last night with my wife. She had no idea what is was about. Twenty minutes in I could tell she was struggling with it, by the end she was in tears and told me it was amazing. Nearly 24 hours later and I still can't shake the movie. The best description I could come up with would be a meditative look at life, death, and the passage of time. See it in a theater if you can.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/24/2017 at 6:06 PM, Elsalvajeloco said:

The experience. I couldn't understand 3/4s of what Tom Hardy said or like most of the dialogue. Didn't need to understand it, apparently.

My dad and I went to see Dunkirk this week, and we both loved it. You may be right about the IMAX experience. I guess I will find out when it's on home video. 

Which was Hardy? The "glider" pilot? I definitely couldn't understand a lot of what the pilots said.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, Kronos said:

My dad and I went to see Dunkirk this week, and we both loved it. You may be right about the IMAX experience. I guess I will find out when it's on home video. 

Which was Hardy? The "glider" pilot? I definitely couldn't understand a lot of what the pilots said.

 

I swear to God I thought he sounded like Bane. Maybe they just did ADR with a mashup of stuff from TDKR.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Recently watched

Brooklyn: Swoon-y little romantic film.  Saorsie Ronan is great, as is Emory Cohen whom I've loved the two times I've seen him (This and 'Place Beyond the Pines').

War on Everyone: Good action comedy though I don't think anything in the film tops the opening scene of two cops chasing a mime in their car.  I thought for the longest time that this was supposed to be set in the 70s because of the vehicle choice, music on the radio and some of the fashions, and then all of a sudden it isn't.

Ghost Rider: This was pretty bad.  I've toyed with watching all the Marvel superhero movies this summer that I haven't seen (Which is basically this series and the second Spider-Man series, and the second Punisher movie) so I caught this on cable and it was just dreadful.  Especially when the basic plot of the movie is that you have to suspend disbelief that Eva Mendes is in love Nicolas Cage with those terrible hair plugs.  Also to have Peter Fonda in that cast and barely use him is inexcusable.  Also the way one of the main characters is kind of killed off and never mentioned again is pretty silly.  I'm looking forward to the sequel where it looks like it gets even dumber.

The LEGO Batman Movie: This was fun, but not in the same universe as 'The LEGO Movie'.  A lot of the jokes felt forced and I don't think this iteration of the Batman character lends itself well to a full-length movie, is much better used in a supporting role like in 'TLM'.

I Don't Feel At Home in This World Anymore: This was great.  Melanie Lynskey (Whom I will go to bat for as maybe the best working actress on the planet!) stars as a depressed woman, disenchanted by everyone around her, who finds her house robbed and decides to take matters into her own hands with the aid of lovable local wacko Elijah Wood.  Starts off as almost silly comedy, then suddenly turns really dark and violent without warning without ever completely losing that comedic charm.

Live By Night: I wanted to love this as I've loved everything Ben Affleck has directed (Especially 'Gone Baby Gone') but there was just something lacking.  A quick IMDB scan says that the initial cut was 3 hours and the studio had it cut down to a 2 hour action flick so that might explain the changes in tone but I still think it's overwrought with a lead character who's a little too noble for a criminal.  Some beautiful cinematography, though, and some great performances by Matthew Maher as well as Elle Fanning (BTW, there was some talk a little while ago about Kirsten Stewart being regarded as one of the best young actresses and people put Jennifer Lawrence's name into the conversation but I never see Fanning come up and I think she's been absolutely over the last few years).  The final shoot-out scene is pretty spectacular and, in this case, I like the way one of the main characters is anticlimactically killed off because it kind of subverts the genre in this sense.  Still a disappointment overall, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Kronos said:

My dad and I went to see Dunkirk this week, and we both loved it. You may be right about the IMAX experience. I guess I will find out when it's on home video. 

Which was Hardy? The "glider" pilot? I definitely couldn't understand a lot of what the pilots said.

 

Yes, he was the glider pilot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Watched Lady Macbeth last night.  The first descriptive word that comes to mind is "metal", lol.  A lot of people, including me, have an aversion to period pieces but I urge you not to skip this movie for that reason.  It's based on a Russian novel from the 1800s, not Shakespeare, about a young woman in a loveless marriage who has an affair with one of the laborers at her estate while her husband's away.  There is a comment from a reviewer in the trailer (which you might not want to watch as it gives a lot away) along the lines of it being like if Hitchcock did a Brontë sisters adaptation, but Hitchcock was never this nasty.  And it's less than 90 minutes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, caley said:

the second Punisher movie

You're in for a treat there. Dominic West chews scenery (and gets chewed up himself), bullets fly and blood splatters, and the end turns into The Raid (or Dredd). For my money one of the best, or at least most fun Marvel movies since the whole shebang got started. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had a little credit on amazon, so I have rented the new KING KONG and GHOST IN THE SHELL films. (and Mr. Nanny - shut up, I am curious)

Have not seen any of these films, so I look forward to them. Love me some ScarJo and have never seen the original anime, so I don't have much baggage there. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not expecting it to be great, but I'm looking forward to GitS live action too.  Didn't see it in theaters. I'm expecting it to be fun but probably slightly infuriating.  I'm in a slightly odd position of not being too attached to the source material (the original movie and Innocence), but being a huge fan of the GitS: Standalone Complex tv series.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

GHOST IN THE SHELL was a breathtakingly beautiful movie.  I refuse to believe it didn't cost $300 million.  Everything looked better than most Marvel/DC movies.  Get him a decent writer, and I'm pretty sure Rupert Sanders could make something amazing.

But that was not this movie.  The plot is basically a grab bag of the greatest hits of the various anime/manga series and as such, none of it really hangs together and there's too much going on for any of the characters to breathe or at least for the actors to have a good time.  Euron Greyjoy probably makes the best go of it as Batou.  Michael Pitt's crazy ass was criminally wasted as Puppet Master/Laughing Man/Kuze.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone seen ATOMIC BLONDE yet? I just watched the trailer. Charlize, Goodman, McAvoy. It looks gratuitously violent, gratuitously lesbionic, and gratuitously foulmouthed. 

I think I have to see it very soon. Maybe tomorrow morning. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw it.  Liked it a lot as a popcorn time waster, but mileage will vary depending what you're looking for. The stunts are incredible, it's hyperviolent, and the pacing never really lets up.  On the other hand, it's badly paced in the sense that the film just rushes from one violent set piece to another, and there's only lip service paid to characterization and plot.  I think the plot was pretty basic.  I think it was, cause honestly. I forgot a lot of the details as soon as they were off-screen.  For me, the plot was both basic and murky.  I wasn't always sure why things were being done, and it seemed kinda irrelevant.  It's one of those films you walk out of and think that you could find a lot of holes in the story if you thought about it for a minute.

Theron carries the movie.  McAvoy gives a hyper performance, so he's kinda fun.  No one in the film is especially likable and there soundtrack is full of wacky 80's pop tunes.  I don't think it's a superior action flic but the stunts and fight scenes are really well choreographed and I had a good time.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Horton Hears a Wooo!!! said:

I saw it.  Liked it a lot as a popcorn time waster, but mileage will vary depending what you're looking for. The stunts are incredible, it's hyperviolent, and the pacing never really lets up.  On the other hand, it's badly paced in the sense that the film just rushes from one violent set piece to another, and there's only lip service paid to characterization and plot.  I think the plot was pretty basic.  I think it was, cause honestly. I forgot a lot of the details as soon as they were off-screen.  For me, the plot was both basic and murky.  I wasn't always sure why things were being done, and it seemed kinda irrelevant.  It's one of those films you walk out of and think that you could find a lot of holes in the story if you thought about it for a minute.

Theron carries the movie.  McAvoy gives a hyper performance, so he's kinda fun.  No one in the film is especially likable and there soundtrack is full of wacky 80's pop tunes.  I don't think it's a superior action flic but the stunts and fight scenes are really well choreographed and I had a good time.

I am perfectly okay with everything you just described. Sometimes you just need 90 min of one of the hottest women in the world kicking some ass and kissing some girls. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a Korean film titled The Villainess that premiered at Cannes this year and got a standing ovation afterwards that looks very similar to Atomic Blonde. Also's it's basically an hour longer so I don't think the whole rushing from one set piece to another is going to be a problem.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, EVA said:

GHOST IN THE SHELL was a breathtakingly beautiful movie.  I refuse to believe it didn't cost $300 million.  Everything looked better than most Marvel/DC movies.  Get him a decent writer, and I'm pretty sure Rupert Sanders could make something amazing.

But that was not this movie.  The plot is basically a grab bag of the greatest hits of the various anime/manga series and as such, none of it really hangs together and there's too much going on for any of the characters to breathe or at least for the actors to have a good time.  Euron Greyjoy probably makes the best go of it as Batou.  Michael Pitt's crazy ass was criminally wasted as Puppet Master/Laughing Man/Kuze.

Watched this this morning and thought it was kinda bland and boring.  They mostly borrowed the plot of the first anime movie, but it all seems sort of insubstantial when it's played as a straight action flick and doesn't have the philosophical bent about souls and identity.  I was disappointed they tossed the original ending of the anime to show the Major back with Section 9, fighting crime.  

Shoehorning riffs from the SAC series for no real reason was an odd decision.

For an action flick, I thought it was kinda boring.  None of the stunts or fight sequences were particularly creative or interesting.  Also didn't feel ScarJo and the writers captured the Major's persona particularly well.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Joseph-Gordon Levitt deserves some serious props for how well he transformed for Snowden. Maybe the look wasn't down 100%, but his voice was just about dead-on and the mannerisms were too. Zachary Quinto was good as Glenn Greenwald, but his performance was dialed up to 11 at times which might be true about Glenn the person in reality, I don't know. For instance, that scene with Quinto, Wilkinson and Leo around the laptop felt out of place, mostly Quinto's Greenwald. Other than that... it's a fairly good movie representation of Snowden's career before and up to the NSA leaks.

Knowing Snowden himself had some input and met with Oliver Stone multiple times makes me feel good at how things were presented, but some will say it's an obvious biased source for the story. But does anyone really want to see/hear the other side of the story, where Generals and high ranking government officials try to make us feel bad about someone stealing information that the public absolutely needs to know? It'd make for a great comedy, maybe.

It's one of those films where it makes you think about the subject matter well after you've left the theater or turned the movie off, and that's exactly what this movie wants you to do. Which is a good thing, people are way too complacent about the government spying on the public and hold Obama in high regard... but that's a topic for another board, since we're barred from talking about politics here (hmmm).

EDIT: By the way, if you haven't seen any of Laura Poitras' documentaries... do yourself a favor and watch them immediately. The hotel scenes in this movie are basically lifted from Citizenfour, mostly, and way more interesting in that film. If you have Showtime and OnDemand, her documentary about Julian Assange and Wikileaks called Risk is up right now - go watch it. I don't care for Assange and Wikileaks, personally, but she always delivers in her films.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Saw The Little Hours, the comedy that Aubrey Plaza produced while her boyfriend directed. Thin, decent, but not great. It's a raunchier version of a Chris Guest movie as its put together in the same way, but with a lot more swearing and sex jokes.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Horton Hears a Wooo!!! said:

Watched this this morning and thought it was kinda bland and boring.  They mostly borrowed the plot of the first anime movie, but it all seems sort of insubstantial when it's played as a straight action flick and doesn't have the philosophical bent about souls and identity.  I was disappointed they tossed the original ending of the anime to show the Major back with Section 9, fighting crime.  

Shoehorning riffs from the SAC series for no real reason was an odd decision.

For an action flick, I thought it was kinda boring.  None of the stunts or fight sequences were particularly creative or interesting.  Also didn't feel ScarJo and the writers captured the Major's persona particularly well.

I thought it was okay in parts, but as a not so big GitS fan, I'm not really invested in watching Scarlett Johansson sleepwalk through a film. I enjoyed one part with Beat Takeshi way more than I did the entire rest of the film and the visual aesthetics.

You would think this would be one of those films that becomes a cult classic, but it doesn't even have that appeal IMO. It's just going to be a very odd cinematic footnote 15 years from now.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Atomic Blonde is the best Bond movie in a decade. The soundtrack is pretty great too, although it stumbles at the beginning by using Cat People, which Tarantino owns forever, and Under Pressure, which is in everything. Come on, if you're going to use Bowie in a movie set in Berlin there's choice stuff from Low and Heroes. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...