MOVIE COMMENT CATCH-ALL THREAD

[Elsalvajeloco]

HATFIELDS & MCCOYS (2012) - Really a quality miniseries. Paxton (as Randall McCoy) and Berenger (as Jim Vance) were absolutely exceptional, and Powers Boothe was great when he is onscreen. Costner and Mare Winningham were good as well as the guys that played Cap & Cotton Hatfield. My only gripes is some of the pacing and the accents being all over the place. Outside of Percy Cline and Devil Anse's wife (Ronan Vibert and Sarah Parish), you would be hard pressed to believe the English cast members were from mid-to-late 19th century Kentucky/West Virginia. They had a really hard time stopping their true accent from coming through. Hell, one of the minor, minor characters started in his real accent and then switched back and forth. The guy playing Devil Anse's younger brother Ellison (who I recognize from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise) had me fooled, but he really didn't have a ton of lines to screw up. One of the older kids (forget whether he was a Hatfield or McCoy) did well, but the Welsh guy playing Bad Frank Phillips struggled mightily. I liked the character a lot, but they should have did some retakes of his stuff. But given that they shot this in Romania, it probably made sense to hire more European actors and actresses in those roles. It was unintentionally funny though that some of the extras are clearly Romanian. The prostitutes from episode one looked like girls you would find on a mail order bride website and not from Civil War era West Virginia.

 

Anyway, Paxton and Berenger really stood out and deserve plenty of praise. The Romeo and Juliet stuff between the McCoy girl and the Hatfield son was alright, but I wanted crazy, old coldblooded Appalachia Tom Berenger along with Cap to come back on onscreen and fuck more shit up. In the third episode, I halfway expected Jim Vance to look his family and go, "Death? What do you all know about death?". Just absolutely amazing stuff.

[Curt McGirt]

Gangster Squad was on something like ten times on five different HBO channels last night; I just caught it. If you ever wanted a sequel to The Untouchables, be my guest. It's pretty much identical right down to the character profiles (incorruptible main dude, grizzled vet, young whippersnapper, the smart nerd, the scenery-chewing villain) -- they even split Andy Garcia into three so they could have a black dude and a Mexican on the team. This is a whole lot more violent. A guy's head gets the Driller Killer treatment at one point, even. I really wish this could have been better, but if you turn your mind off for 90 minutes you can enjoy it. 

[Brian Fowler]

Saw Ender's Game.  As an adaptation of a novel I love, it's got some serious issues, but is not a total failure.

 

As an attempted sci-fi action blockbuster film, it's fairly solid, middle of the road work.  I literally have no recommendation either way on it.

[odessasteps]

Gangster Squad was on something like ten times on five different HBO channels last night; I just caught it. If you ever wanted a sequel to The Untouchables, be my guest. It's pretty much identical right down to the character profiles (incorruptible main dude, grizzled vet, young whippersnapper, the smart nerd, the scenery-chewing villain) -- they even split Andy Garcia into three so they could have a black dude and a Mexican on the team. This is a whole lot more violent. A guy's head gets the Driller Killer treatment at one point, even. I really wish this could have been better, but if you turn your mind off for 90 minutes you can enjoy it.

It seemed to me to just be a retread of The Hat Squad.

[assfax]

Drank Double Black Label all day and watched Blow Out. Pretty good.

[Bustronaut]

Saw Ender's Game.

 

Oh Brian, no.

[Tabe]

Two Netflix, one theater movie for me:

 

Captain Phillips.  This was great.  Great job by Tom Hanks (especially if you ignore his accent coming and going) and the four Somali pirate guys.  Really, the only thing hurting the movie is that you know the outcome going in.  Still, this was great.  The very last scene is off-the-charts great.  This movie was good enough that I need to downgrade Gravity to an 8/10 because this was a lot better.  9/10, maybe 9.5/10.

 

We Steal Secrets - Documentary on Wikileaks and Julian Assange.  This one's pretty great, interviewing Wikileaks employees and lots of other people.  Starts out as really positive but does a lot of trashing of Assange once the story gets to the rape allegations against him.  Oddly enough, the movie seems to be supportive of his accusers but both women pretty much state that they claimed he raped them because he didn't use a condom or the condom broke.  Anyway, this was really good.  8/10.

 

TWA Flight 800 - For those who don't remember or don't know, Flight 800 was a plane that exploded off the coast of New York in 1996 while bound for Paris.  The official line was that one of the gas tanks exploded.  However, LOTS of witnesses claimed to have seen missiles fired at the plane.  This movie delves into that aspect and concludes, pretty much beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it was missiles that brought the plane down.  They've got some of the original investigators, they've got a lot of witnesses, they've got radar maps, and so on.  This one is GREAT.  10/10.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Captain Phillips was the best movie I've seen this year, and it's not even close. I still have to find a theater with 12 Years a Slave, but it's #1 right now. It was so good that I have been calling people Irish since seeing it.

 

PARKLAND (2013) - Keep in mind, I rewatched JFK the day before seeing this. And boy, this ain't JFK. This was half the length of JFK and managed to drag in certain spots. It's not a bad movie at all, but this is the cliff notes version of a cliff notes version of JFK. The cinematography was good, but they really didn't have much to work with in terms of plot. I mean the film JFK covered November 1963 to Robert Kennedy being killed. This went from JFK's assassination to Oswald's funeral. For a movie with such a powerful subject, everything felt overdiluted and overdramatic.

 

The girl playing Jackie had two lines and still managed to be not good. Plus, everything she did was cliche. From the weeping to the single tear to the one palm on the window. Giamatti didn't have an honest performance as Zapruder, and Billy Bob Thornton was just kind of there. Billy Bob was suppose to be this hard ass authority figure but it felt so forced. Efron was okay but he didn't really serve much purpose. His one shining moment is trying to revive JFK when clearly all is lost. When he finally comes back into the movie to save Oswald, he doesn't really stay in character. The big moment is suppose to be that he doesn't care about Oswald dying, but the scene is blown because the movie doesn't make anyone give a shit about Oswald. Jeremy Strong looks more like him than Oldman and was passable here, but Oldman's performance in JFK fucking shit all over most of this film. A lot of people probably can't stand the conspiracy theories and the long dialogue scenes in JFK (ex. the scene with Donald Sutherland), but this movie needed that to move it along. The one great scene here is James Badge Dale as Oswald's brother and Jacki Weaver as Oswald's mom. Weaver might have chewed a little scenery here, but goddamn did it not breathe a little life into this film. If you watch this scene, you would believe that everyone else is terribly miscast.This is what Parkland should have been and not bits and pieces of Wikipedia entry stuff. Barely decent film with almost zero passion.

[Reed]

Parkland is based on the Four Days of November section of Vincent Bugliosi's Reclaiming History, which is the most anti-JFK conspiracy book ever. I'm guessing that's why the film didn't go into it.

 

And, yeah, Oswald's mom was a total nutcase, so Weaver had a lot to work with.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Parkland is based on the Four Days of November section of Vincent Bugliosi's Reclaiming History, which is the most anti-JFK conspiracy book ever. I'm guessing that's why the film didn't go into it.

 

And, yeah, Oswald's mom was a total nutcase, so Weaver had a lot to work with.

 

It straddled the line but no obvious dialogue. I mean they had a scene where the Secret Service took the body without letting the Dallas coroner perform an autopsy, but that was the end of it. Plus, there was a little on Oswald's commie connects but it was super ambiguous. He went to Russia, married a twenty-one who spoke no English, and came back to the U.S. to have a kid. That's almost verbatim the dialogue of one scene. It didn't even feel like it was anti-conspiracy, but they left a bunch on the cutting room floor. And if you're going to go the anti-conspiracy route, fucking go in that direction. Just Lazy Screenwriting 101 imo. They couldn't even convey how it felt to be in Dallas that day. It felt like some local celeb had offed himself and not the POTUS being brutally murdered in plain sight.

[Jingus]

I'm watching the extras on His Name Was Jason, and wow do they kick the actual movie's ass.  I saw a 2-disk set for five bucks at a used bookstore and thought, why not?  Turns out they did interviews with EVERY actor and stunt man who ever played Jason, along with interviewing every single director in the series (except for Steve Miner, who was left out for whatever reason).  That shit is fascinating, way better than the "boy, remember when Jason did that?  That was awesome!" shallow tone of the central documentary.  

[Lawful Metal]

 A three-fer:

 

The Possession.  Pretty standard PG-13 horror movie.  In this case, a possessed kid.  Reading about the supposed "real" history of the dybbuk box was probably more interesting.  It was by the numbers.  We all cheered for the badass Jewish exorcist.  He was pretty awesome, and he got down with the wailing stuff.  

 

The Imposter.  Pretty wild documentary about how a street-smart half-french kid impersonated a missing child and actually went home with the real family who apparently never suspected a thing.  I mean, the kid was half-Nigerian, had a French accent and was seven years older than he was supposed to be.  It's unbelievable, but it's real.  It was suggested that they took in the kid because someone in the family had killed the kid, but nothing comes of it.  

 

The Dictator.  Funny in parts, but obviously a major step down from Borat and Bruno.  I guess he can't go out in public and do the really shocking stuff anymore.  Still, it felt more like some ridiculous character Will Ferrell would play.  

 

All these movies started with "The."  I shall commence watching "The Cell" and "The Fall" post-haste.

[Marty Sugar]

I know Halloween is over, but I had a bunch of horror movies on my Netflix "list" so I was just kinda killing time last night because I couldn't sleep...and holy shit, did I love LET ME IN.  The American version; and I'm sure the Scandinavian (?) original is better, but whatever...

 

...what an amazing piece of work. As a story of vampires (that don't glow and fucking act like pussies), as a story of standing up to shitty bullies when you're a kid...shit, as a Shakespearean love story. So good. Enjoyed almost every minute of it. 

 

Conversely, THE REEF is a piece of shit. 47 minutes to see a shark fin? 55 minutes for the shark to interact with our hapless crew...and with the shittiest FX ever, at that? And that horrible woman leaving her ex-boyfriend to die, right after telling him she loves him? Barf. Worst. Shark. Movie. Ever.  Which covers A LOT of ground.

[Burgundy LaRue]

Aww, I liked The Reef well enough.  Not at a lot going on, but I appreciated how everyone tried to keep their wits instead of the usual hollering and screaming scenario.  For its small budget, it was pretty effective.

[Curt McGirt]

Let Me In is great. 

 

Let the Right One In is a stone classic.

[Curt McGirt]

To bring back our Peter Weir obsession: Picnic at Hanging Rock is on TCM right now. A little ways in but a lot of ways to go...

[Reed]

 

Parkland is based on the Four Days of November section of Vincent Bugliosi's Reclaiming History, which is the most anti-JFK conspiracy book ever. I'm guessing that's why the film didn't go into it.

 

And, yeah, Oswald's mom was a total nutcase, so Weaver had a lot to work with.

 

It straddled the line but no obvious dialogue. I mean they had a scene where the Secret Service took the body without letting the Dallas coroner perform an autopsy, but that was the end of it. Plus, there was a little on Oswald's commie connects but it was super ambiguous. He went to Russia, married a twenty-one who spoke no English, and came back to the U.S. to have a kid. That's almost verbatim the dialogue of one scene. It didn't even feel like it was anti-conspiracy, but they left a bunch on the cutting room floor. And if you're going to go the anti-conspiracy route, fucking go in that direction. Just Lazy Screenwriting 101 imo. They couldn't even convey how it felt to be in Dallas that day. It felt like some local celeb had offed himself and not the POTUS being brutally murdered in plain sight.

 

 

 

Sounds like they should have just focused on one storyline rather than trying to cover everyone. 

 

I always found Zapruder kind of an interesting figure. Just this normal everyday guy who somehow ended up taking the most infamous, and studied, movie ever made.  Just think how different things would be if he hadn't decide to film that day.

[caley]

From Up on Poppy Hill is such a wonderful little gem.  Just this warm and gentle love story.  Lots of terrific visual details that you would never get in a live-action film, but can be faithfully recreated in animation.  I really loved it, just made me feel warm and happy all over.  You don't get that very often, anymore.

[The Natural]

I know Halloween is over, but I had a bunch of horror movies on my Netflix "list" so I was just kinda killing time last night because I couldn't sleep...and holy shit, did I love LET ME IN.  The American version; and I'm sure the Scandinavian (?) original is better, but whatever...

 

...what an amazing piece of work. As a story of vampires (that don't glow and fucking act like pussies), as a story of standing up to shitty bullies when you're a kid...shit, as a Shakespearean love story. So good. Enjoyed almost every minute of it. 

 

As you enjoyed Let Me In, I strongly recommend the original called Let the Right One In. Terrific film. I'd like to see the remake so I can compare the two.

[J.T.]

Let The Right One In is the best vampire movie I've seen since The Lost Boys.

[Tabe]

The Imposter.  Pretty wild documentary about how a street-smart half-french kid impersonated a missing child and actually went home with the real family who apparently never suspected a thing.  I mean, the kid was half-Nigerian, had a French accent and was seven years older than he was supposed to be.  It's unbelievable, but it's real.  It was suggested that they took in the kid because someone in the family had killed the kid, but nothing comes of it. 

This one was crazy.  How the heck could the family be that stupid?  It just doesn't seem plausible.  The murder angle actually makes a lot of sense but then it went nowhere.

[jaedmc]

PIRANESI IT'S TIME!

 

50% off Criterion sale at Barnes and Noble starts now and lasts all month. I call it, "The Hole I Throw My Birthday Money In" Sale

[Reed]

 

The Imposter.  Pretty wild documentary about how a street-smart half-french kid impersonated a missing child and actually went home with the real family who apparently never suspected a thing.  I mean, the kid was half-Nigerian, had a French accent and was seven years older than he was supposed to be.  It's unbelievable, but it's real.  It was suggested that they took in the kid because someone in the family had killed the kid, but nothing comes of it. 

This one was crazy.  How the heck could the family be that stupid?  It just doesn't seem plausible.  The murder angle actually makes a lot of sense but then it went nowhere.

 

 

The "murder explanation" sounds a lot like Robert Thomas' play Trap For A Single Man. Guy kills his wife, tells the police she's missing, then an imposter comes forward, and he's forced to live with her because he can't tell the truth about what happened. 

 

It is possible the family were just grief-stricken and delusional though. And the guy was supposedly an amazing con artist.

[Burgundy LaRue]

PIRANESI IT'S TIME!

 

50% off Criterion sale at Barnes and Noble starts now and lasts all month. I call it, "The Hole I Throw My Birthday Money In" Sale

 

Got you beat.  DVD Planet is having a sale on Kino, Blue Underground---almost any movie that has a cult-like following is at least 50% off.  And apparently, if you leave something in your basket overnight, DVD Planet will send you a $5 off coupon.

 

Oh, and Amazon's deal of the day is the Columbo Complete Collection.  That alone gives me the win. Piranesi's love is all mine now.  *purrs in victory*

[caley]

 

 

It is possible the family were just grief-stricken and delusional though. And the guy was supposedly an amazing con artist.

 

It IS possible, but it's weird.  We're talking a family in Texas, taking in a heavily-accented frenchman in his twenties of half-Algerian ethnicity.  The family was obviously devastated but it's kinda like a Japanese family taking in an Australian because they think it's their son.  Great movie, though, I had it in my Top 10 of 2012.  It plays like a really good thriller, even though it's a documentary.