MOVIE COMMENT CATCH-ALL THREAD

[Lawful Metal]

Just watched Cloverfield for the first time in many moons.  It's really well done.  The brief glimpses of the giant creature are exhilarating, and so are some of the longer shots of the thing.  I'm not annoyed by the "found footage" aspect or the shaky cam.  It was a fun romp, with interesting mythology. 

 

I think I'm in the camp that believes that the creature that kills Hud is a baby version; it seems considerably smaller than the main creature, which is building sized.  But it doesn't matter.  It's scary when it needs to be, exciting when it needs to be, and there's a good amount of WTF and confusion going on that makes it seem more real. 

[Reed]

Just watched Cloverfield for the first time in many moons.  It's really well done.  The brief glimpses of the giant creature are exhilarating, and so are some of the longer shots of the thing.  I'm not annoyed by the "found footage" aspect or the shaky cam.  It was a fun romp, with interesting mythology. 

 

I think I'm in the camp that believes that the creature that kills Hud is a baby version; it seems considerably smaller than the main creature, which is building sized.  But it doesn't matter.  It's scary when it needs to be, exciting when it needs to be, and there's a good amount of WTF and confusion going on that makes it seem more real. 

 

IMO, Cloverfield made a mistake showing so much of the monster. I think "found footage" movies are better when things are left to the imagination (Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity).

 

I think you could have had the odd glimpse or seen it in the distance, but an actual  close up of the thing just ruined the mystery a lot.

[Lawful Metal]

War of the Worlds, the Tom Cruise one.  I remember liking this when it came out, and I loved to death the original movie with the spark-shooting alien ships and stuff.  This I don't like much at all.  Cruise's zany off camera life is too ingrained in my head to take him seriously.  The shitty boyfriend dude from Shameless is his son?  How old is his son?  27?  The Tripods shoot rays that make people go poof, so naturally, there's a ton of bodies in the river.  Tim Robbins character is such a doof.  There's all sorts of inconsistencies as to when electricity works and doesn't work. The insistence of using 9/11 iconographic allusions.  I could go on. 

 

I accepted the ending in the original.  It doesn't work for whatever reason in the new one.

 

/hated it

[TimLivingston]

Giving The Godfather Part III a try right now considering I've never seen it. Just watched the first two (enough has been said about those) but man alive, this is a bad movie. Cash grab to say the least.

[caley]

War of the Worlds, the Tom Cruise one.  I remember liking this when it came out, and I loved to death the original movie with the spark-shooting alien ships and stuff.  This I don't like much at all.  Cruise's zany off camera life is too ingrained in my head to take him seriously.  The shitty boyfriend dude from Shameless is his son?  How old is his son?  27?  The Tripods shoot rays that make people go poof, so naturally, there's a ton of bodies in the river.  Tim Robbins character is such a doof.  There's all sorts of inconsistencies as to when electricity works and doesn't work. The insistence of using 9/11 iconographic allusions.  I could go on. 

 

I accepted the ending in the original.  It doesn't work for whatever reason in the new one.

 

/hated it

I actually didn't see this until a year or two ago but I absolutely LOVED it.  I thought everyone was really good (FTR, the son would've been about 22 at the time of filming, so I'd say that's perfectly acceptable).  I can see where you're coming from in terms of complaints, even though I mostly disagree and am willing to suspend disbelief, but I think you completely underrated the awesome performance Dakota Fanning puts in.  She looks absolutely terrified throughout and I was just genuinely blown away by how good she was.

 

BTW, I had to google your sig and that is AMAZING.  Why did I never hear about that?!

[Control]

Watched TIME AFTER TIME last night. Man, I wish Malcolm McDowell hadn't killed his career with CALIGULA (as is my understanding). (Plus he got old-looking real quick). He was just a charming, charismatic motherfucker, but once the 80s hit he became a straight-to-video B-movie villain. Lamentable. Here, as H.G. Wells, stuck in 1979 San Francisco, he's fucking epic. The writer/director was the screenwriter for the "good" STAR TREK (OS) films (2, 4, and 6), so if you like those, check this shit out.

 

Also, Mary Steenburgen was cute as hell.

 

The film is kind of weird, since it almost strikes the tone of a family movie, but then there's Jack the Ripper, casual sex, and some very off-colour comments from Steenburgen.

[caley]

I watched Westworld this week.  Man, if there's a movie that's ripe for a remake, it's 'Westworld'!  But, the problem is you could never cast an evil robot quite as good as Yul Brynner who was born to play a robot, but it plays into his reputation as a tough-guy cowboy actor.  Anyways, this was really fun as long as you don't think about things too much (Wait, a minute, why would they encourage guests to get into barfights where they could get seriously injured?!).  The biggest obstacle to me enjoying this was that A. there's a Simpsons episode that parodies this to a 'T' and B. I kept remembering the Hallowe'en episode of 'Freaks and Geeks' where Harris told Sam's mom that her cowgirl costume looked like Richard Benjamin in 'Westworld'.

[Lawful Metal]

 

War of the Worlds, the Tom Cruise one.  I remember liking this when it came out, and I loved to death the original movie with the spark-shooting alien ships and stuff.  This I don't like much at all.  Cruise's zany off camera life is too ingrained in my head to take him seriously.  The shitty boyfriend dude from Shameless is his son?  How old is his son?  27?  The Tripods shoot rays that make people go poof, so naturally, there's a ton of bodies in the river.  Tim Robbins character is such a doof.  There's all sorts of inconsistencies as to when electricity works and doesn't work. The insistence of using 9/11 iconographic allusions.  I could go on. 

 

I accepted the ending in the original.  It doesn't work for whatever reason in the new one.

 

/hated it

I actually didn't see this until a year or two ago but I absolutely LOVED it.  I thought everyone was really good (FTR, the son would've been about 22 at the time of filming, so I'd say that's perfectly acceptable).  I can see where you're coming from in terms of complaints, even though I mostly disagree and am willing to suspend disbelief, but I think you completely underrated the awesome performance Dakota Fanning puts in.  She looks absolutely terrified throughout and I was just genuinely blown away by how good she was.

 

BTW, I had to google your sig and that is AMAZING.  Why did I never hear about that?!

 

 

Oh, you're right, Fanning is excellent in this.  But it doesn't redeem the movie.

 

And, yes, Terrence Howard is the gift that keeps on giving.  The quote fits the Prince of Darkness image well, I think.

[Reed]

Giving The Godfather Part III a try right now considering I've never seen it. Just watched the first two (enough has been said about those) but man alive, this is a bad movie. Cash grab to say the least.

 

Sofia Coppola probably gives the worst acting performance in a big-time studio film I think I've ever seen. Just a total trainwreck.

[Elsalvajeloco]

THE GREAT GATSBY (2013) - I put off watching this when it came out in theaters in May. I probably should've never watched it in the first place. I barely made it through the book in 10th grade. The whole concept of the plot is pretty damn outdated. This would have worked fine if it came out when you had stuff like The Wiz. But after watching it, it confirmed my fears of this being a giant cash grab.

 

The set pieces and cinematography were amazing. Joel Edgerton was amazing and his performance fit the time period of the movie. That's where the positives end. Everything else was just bad.

 

From the flashes of racism at the beginning to the new music all thoughout, it's just a complete shitshow. First off, the protagonist (Gatsby's love interest) shouldn't be a early 1920s racist in a movie that starts immediately with hip-hop music. They had her be a racist along with Edgerton's character (her estranged husband), but he was suppose to be the main antagonist. His character being some type of Earnest Sevier Cox scientific racist actually works in context with the character. Then, they never came back to it. Just left it there that white people are the superior race and should control black people. Okay, then. This happened 15 minutes into the movie. It also didn't help that she didn't have any redeeming qualities. A former poor person (Gatsby) who is now is inexplicable rich fighting over some average looking woman (for any time period) married to a racist, pompous asshole. The catch is that average looking, racist lady dated Gatsby before ever meeting her husband, who is cheating on her with some gas station whore. Gas station whore happens to be married to a crazy, doufus mechanic played by Jason Clarke. This would good if you actually had the main characters on the same page, but everything seems extremely fake. Leo as Gatsby should have brought some life to an otherwise non-descript character (that's suppose to be bigger than life in the book) now, but it was like he was in whole different movie than everyone else. When he was saying "old sport" in every sentence, it was like he was saying it with a wink-wink-nudge thing. His performance didn't work well enough to make you want to cheer for him to earn back racist lady. Then, it doesn't take all that much effort as Edgerton's character is too concerned about hiding his relationship with gas station whore from dumb gas station attendant guy. Then, they do the switcheroo where they show Gatsby running over gas station whore but it was actually racist lady. Gatsby tries to cover it up. Then, Jason Clarke shoots Gatsby in a jealous rage not knowing racist lady actually did it. End movie.

 

I not even sure why Tobey Maguire was even needed in this. They could have just written that character out. He wasn't pivotal in any shape or form other than to ask Gatsby questions. But Leo's Gatsby had NO mystery to him. That's why I said the plot's concept is outdated. Today's movies are going to make certain characters immediately accessible. That is all fine and dandy, but it isn't suppose to apply to Jay Gatsby. Once Leo hits the screen, Tobey Maguire is no longer needed. It doesn't seem like Gatsby is hiding anything other than a few newspaper headlines appearing on the screen every so often and the poor dialogue from the secondary characters. For a movie that's 2 and 1/2 hours long, he shows up pretty damn fast in the movie.

 

The music is just completely off tempo from the movie. When the movie trailer first came out, I was already tired of "No Church in the Wild" between Dodge commercials and Safe House even though the instrumental is wicked. So when it started off the movie, I was completely alright with it. Then, it fell off the side of a fucking mountain. Instead of a score, we got some fourteen year old's Youtube playlist. That's what it sounded like exactly. Imagine you're watching a movie on Netflix and decided to pause and mute it. Then, you go to your personal Youtube music playlists. Pick any one you want and restart the movie. Now you have the music tempo for The Great Gatsby. Just an utter tossup from scene to scene. Heck, your personal playlist would probably be better than what we actually got. Once the white (?) girl started singing Beyonce acapella in possibly the most unintriguing fashion ever, I wanted to stop the movie and give up on it. Idlewild was pretty bad as a movie and the music was atrocious and anachronistic, but it wasn't as serious as this was. No sense of funny irony that would add in any way to an underwhelming movie besides the visuals. Just straightforward DJing from YouTube. If you had an inclination to stay away or avoid this like I did in May, do not watch this in any shape or form.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

OLD

 

SPORT

 

I loved it, but I can't remember why. Maybe just DiCaprio and that Lana Del Ray song.

[Elsalvajeloco]

OLD

 

SPORT

 

I loved it, but I can't remember why. Maybe just DiCaprio and that Lana Del Ray song.

 

You were brainwashed like the unfortunate individuals that went to the theaters to pay for this mess.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

 

OLD

 

SPORT

 

I loved it, but I can't remember why. Maybe just DiCaprio and that Lana Del Ray song.

 

You were brainwashed like the unfortunate individuals that went to the theaters to pay for this mess.

 

I must have been, Old Sport.

[Elsalvajeloco]

"Old..sport?"

 

Just putrid.

[Reed]

Killing Kennedy: Will Rothaar was very good as Lee Harvey Oswald and Michelle Trachentberg was shockingly competent as Marina. It was good as a character study of Oswald, and I liked the idea at the end where the guy finally got the attention and notoriety he'd been craving his whole life...only to get shot like 10 seconds later.

 

Everything else was OKish. Rob Lowe and Ginnifer Goodwin weren't very good, though. Has there every been a decent performance as Jackie Kennedy? Pretty much every one I've seen (Goodwin, Katie Holmes, Minka Kelly) has been dreadful.

[Burgundy LaRue]

Roma Downey played her in a miniseries, A Woman Named Jackie, back in the 1990s.  My memory says Downey was solid in the role.

[Antacular]

I look forward to Papa Bear's next adaptation, Killing Santa. /maher

[Lawful Metal]

Only God Forgives.  Best Movie of the Year?

[Elsalvajeloco]

Only God Forgives.  Best Movie of the Year?

 

I know everyone hated this film, but I thought this was good for what it was: violent and obscene. Far from my movie of the year, but I don't get some of the flack it got. It was like a Wong Kar Wai film that did a massive speedball.

[EVA]

I thought it was terrible and began dipping into self-parody starting about at the scene where the dude putters dumbly around the room while torturing that guy. If not then, then definitely when it immediatley cuts to yet another karaoke scene. That's the movie in a nutshell. From that point on, I found myself laughing uncontrollably at just about everything.

[Lawful Metal]

If people hate Only God Forgives, what's the consensus on Valhalla Rising?

[J.T.]

Watched TIME AFTER TIME last night. Man, I wish Malcolm McDowell hadn't killed his career with CALIGULA (as is my understanding). (Plus he got old-looking real quick). He was just a charming, charismatic motherfucker, but once the 80s hit he became a straight-to-video B-movie villain. Lamentable. Here, as H.G. Wells, stuck in 1979 San Francisco, he's fucking epic. The writer/director was the screenwriter for the "good" STAR TREK (OS) films (2, 4, and 6), so if you like those, check this shit out.

 

Also, Mary Steenburgen was cute as hell.

 

The film is kind of weird, since it almost strikes the tone of a family movie, but then there's Jack the Ripper, casual sex, and some very off-colour comments from Steenburgen.

 

Everyone is great in that movie, especially McDowell who is ridiculously convincing as HG Wells.  Wells's first trip to McDonalds was fucking metal. especially his discovery of french fries and formica.

[Curt McGirt]

I loved Only God Forgives despite its complete ridiculousness. Helps to smoke 'em if you've got 'em beforehand. 

 

Now I take this moment to remind everybody that the best film Refn ever did and probably will ever do is Pusher III: I Am the Angel of Death. If you haven't watched it then do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not do shit until you watch it. IMMEDIATELY. It will fuck your world up.

[Curt McGirt]

I also want to second that Westworld is AWESOME. Yul Brenner... Yul Brenner.

[piranesi]

I also want to second that Westworld is AWESOME. Yul Brenner... Yul Brenner.

 

 

Richard Benjamin was the best "hapless 70s everyman."