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Movies You've Seen Recently |OT| April 2015

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Akahige

Member
Exodus (2014) - I don't know why I was expecting something halfway decent, the music was nice and beard/hair make up looked realistic at least.
 
I wish more movies had cartoons in front of them. I saw this one in front of Forbidden Planet, and having that little bit of levity at the front-end was relaxing and made one more able to get into the fantastical circumstances of the movie, itself.
 

big ander

Member
big ander you mentioned some Hal Hartley shorts last page- How well versed are you? I've seen Surviving Desire, Trust, Simple Men, and Amateur, all of which I've enjoyed. I have Henry Fool, The Book of Life, Fay Grim, and Ned Rifle lined up next. Anything else I should get to? Am I missing any "must watch" material?
The Unbelievable Truth jumps out-- Hartley's one of those guys who didn't take a feature to warm up at all, it's as fully formed as Trust or Amateur. I might even like it more than either of those.
Flirt is worth a watch too, I think AU is a big fan of it. From his shorts NYC 3/94, Ambition and Opera No. 1 are all great but none are so good that they're worth tracking down specifically.
 
The Unbelievable Truth jumps out-- Hartley's one of those guys who didn't take a feature to warm up at all, it's as fully formed as Trust or Amateur. I might even like it more than either of those.
Flirt is worth a watch too, I think AU is a big fan of it. From his shorts NYC 3/94, Ambition and Opera No. 1 are all great but none are so good that they're worth tracking down specifically.

I could've sworn I saw The Unbelievable Truth already oops. Thx.
 

megamerican

Member
Exodus (2014) - I don't know why I was expecting something halfway decent, the music was nice and beard/hair make up looked realistic at least.

I was passed out for a good hour and it still felt like the longest boring slog.

Only thing interesting about was Christian Bale promoting it by shitting all over Terminator Salvation only for Exodus to be even more hated / ignored than that flop.
 

Ridley327

Member
This is hilarious. Apparently, the producers behind De Niro's version are looking to Stephen J. Rivele and Chris Wilkinson to write it....y'know, 2 of the 4 credits on Ali. They really should just Captain Planet the whole thing with Mann's movie. Looks like Eastwood might do the De Niro one though. I know which I'd rather watch.

Knowing Eastwood's thriftiness, he'd probably have De Niro rolling around in Pintos while rival manufacturers are in awe of how incredible the cars look, all while the sepia filter makes the trademark red paint of his cars look like rusted brown. Bobby, plz.

Best Worst Movie: It had makings of a nice little look into how people who aren't really acting professionals handle the second life infamy of a film that would have normally been lost to the ages, but it settles early on by focusing on star George Hardy going through all that. What's weird is that it's still unfocused as a whole, as it tries to incorporate a rather threadbare examination into why Troll 2 became such a cult fave, all while trying to fit in as much of the cast and crew as possible to see how they've been getting on. The jovial tone tends to clash with some of the harsher realities a couple of the cast members go through, particularly for Margo Prey, whose appearances in the film takes on an unfortunately cruel quality, despite the good intentions of getting her in front of a camera again. Still, it's fairly rare that we get any kind of a comprehensive look into a film of this kind, which carries a good novelty, even if I'd sooner watch the film it's about long before watching this documentary again.

Nurse: When the only redeeming factor of a movie is that the frequently nude Paz de la Huerta continues as such, you may be fucking up more than you realize. The film makes the fatal error of allowing her to do anything else at great length, and in particular giving her the opportunity to narrate the film in a voice-over, which is every bit as stiff and unconvincing as her performances with other actors. The film matches de la Huerta's lack of veracity by already assuming it's going to be the next big cult classic by frequently letting you in on knowing it's in on the joke (including an obnoxiously kitschy score), but by the end of it, the only thing on my mind was that Katrina Bowden surely had better things to do than appear in a film that does nothing with her other than focus on her underwear-clad ass. I'd be more impressed with how quickly it drops the central premise of Paz's character being a cheating husband serial killer for some Single White Female-aping fuckery, as well as dropping characters entirely from the proceedings despite unclear fates, but it's all done so dully that even the final bloodbath leaves me wholly unimpressed. You can never force a bad movie to be an entertaining one if you don't actually make it entertaining to begin with.
 
Justice League War
JLW_ACT_C_11299_580_52ec50b070b711.22454716.jpg


Ok, that was just a great action movie. Loads of fun.
batman_justice_league_war_smile_by_digi_matrix-d8q3alf.gif

The 24min final action setpiece (47:00-1:11:14) is one of the longest I remember but never boring like a Transformers movie cause I care about these characters thanks to the chemistry and want to see how they survive. It's Darkseid, so none of the heroes go by without a bruising. Shit, even when it's not a villain, a fight between Superman vs Batman and Green Lantern comes out pretty great. Took me a while to adjust until I realised it was an off-kilter origin story for the forming of Justice League. Superman doesn't quite feel like the happy cheery Superman, but I guess it makes sense for how he cuts loose on the enemies when usually he'd hold back. There is some pretty funny and witty dialogue thanks to the script of Heath Corson, and has the right amount of interpersonal character moments. Batman as always is great, even when not voiced by Kevin Conroy; the back-and-forth tension between him and Green Lantern was a joy. Wonder Woman comes out as the most badass, and her design is more interesting than past outfits. Didn't even notice Michelle Monaghan was voicing her.
justice_league_war_wonder_woman_outfit_by_digi_matrix-d8q3akp.gif

In fact, all of the character designs by Phil Bourassa are pretty cool looking.

Mostly, it made me realise why live-action superhero movies even bother with focusing on action choreography or scale when they'll never compare in creativity or quality of these (DC) animated movies. Credit to Moi animation studios. Most of the action in superhero movies have been forgettable and plagued with technical limitations (lackluster camerawork and editing because nearly everything will be a visual effect shot), so I only remember the actual drama and acting as they're aspects in which movies excel. You have to go to a much lower scale comparatively, to get memorably staged action setpieces. I've been realising this ever since the Justice League tv series that could pump out action like this...
iIv9VScOcNe2e.gif

...and the closest we've come is maybe Man of Steel (but that lacked any fun or charm which is where Marvel movies reign). DC animated movies just happen to have the best of both worlds: Marvel charm and DC epicness. Anyway, highly recommended if you're an action junkie.
 
The Babadook - This movie made my wife and I laugh throughout, until the
Mom killed the dog and took out her tooth
, which was just cheap horror. There was some really neat stuff with dream imagery and audio, but this is a movie that thinks it is subtle yet isn't at all. Didn't spook me, but it had a good enough premise.
 

Ridley327

Member
Wes Craven basically made a decent 50s B-movie with Swamp Thing. There's a tendency to feel a tad uncinematic at times, particularly with the constant abuse of specialty dissolve transitions (if I see that curtain drop/raise dissolve one more time...), and there's a big sin in that Swamp Thing himself is more of a bit player for a film bearing his name, but it's a good time. Adrienne Barbeau is a nicely resourceful heroine that won't go down without a fight, and Louis Jourdan reins it in enough as the villain to give him a quietly sinister quality to go along with his quoting of Nietzsche and somewhat unclear plans of how he's going to go about ruling the world once he has his hands on Holland's secret formula. Craven doesn't seem to know what to do with David Hess other than making him another backwoods sadistic rapist/murderer, but to his credit, the rapey stuff comes fairly late in the game for his character, so it's not quite Krug Redux. Some good on-location shooting for the budget, which gives it a good lived-in sheen that most comic book adaptations at the time didn't bother to aspire to. All in all, not a bad way to spend an hour-and-a-half of your time.
 

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
so The King of Comedy remains one very underrated Scorsese, and an hilarious movie to boot. Jerry Lewis is spectacular as the tired, lonely talk show host while De Niro is just hysterical all around. It still feels like an imperfect movie, the humour is something of an aquired taste, but it's definitely very entertaining and rewatchable

tumblr_lgtroeia8K1qe6mn3o1_500.gif
 
so The King of Comedy remains one very underrated Scorsese, and an hilarious movie to boot. Jerry Lewis is spectacular as the tired, lonely talk show host while De Niro is just hysterical all around. It still feels like an imperfect movie, the humour is something of an aquired taste, but it's definitely very entertaining and rewatchable

tumblr_lgtroeia8K1qe6mn3o1_500.gif

Just watched this for the first time recently. Loved it!
 
so The King of Comedy remains one very underrated Scorsese, and an hilarious movie to boot. Jerry Lewis is spectacular as the tired, lonely talk show host while De Niro is just hysterical all around. It still feels like an imperfect movie, the humour is something of an aquired taste, but it's definitely very entertaining and rewatchable

tumblr_lgtroeia8K1qe6mn3o1_500.gif

This is a movie that has only waxed in relevance in the Youtube generation.

It's roles like this that I think make the case almost airtight that there has never been an actor that could match de Niro in his prime. There are, perhaps, actors that could match his heights, but he has a greater number of great roles, with more variety among them, than anybody else yet lensed.
 
Knowing Eastwood's thriftiness, he'd probably have De Niro rolling around in Pintos while rival manufacturers are in awe of how incredible the cars look, all while the sepia filter makes the trademark red paint of his cars look like rusted brown. Bobby, plz.

So accurate it hurts.
 

idlewild_

Member
Interstellar - This movie started out pretty cool, but man it gets really stupid towards the end. It's almost like someone took the original movie and replaced the last third with fan fiction.
 
This is a movie that has only waxed in relevance in the Youtube generation.

It's roles like this that I think make the case almost airtight that there has never been an actor that could match de Niro in his prime. There are, perhaps, actors that could match his heights, but he has a greater number of great roles, with more variety among them, than anybody else yet lensed.

I think there are few actors that would have taken the roles he did.


I watched Ex Machina. It's great. Loved that it wasn't afraid of the technicality and morality behind building an AI.
 

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
The Raid. I was excited to finally watch this, but overall it was a disappointing experience. I liked the first half, when the group gets pinned down and there's tension about who's going to make it out. But in the second half the movie transforms into an orchestrated martial arts ballet, with a non stop revolving door of enemies. Yep, the fighting is pretty cool, but otherwise there's not much meat to it.
 

obin_gam

Member
The Raid. I was excited to finally watch this, but overall it was a disappointing experience. I liked the first half, when the group gets pinned down and there's tension about who's going to make it out. But in the second half the movie transforms into an orchestrated martial arts ballet, with a non stop revolving door of enemies. Yep, the fighting is pretty cool, but otherwise there's not much meat to it.

Now watch the second one. If you want meat, you get 2½ hours of it :)
 

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
This is a movie that has only waxed in relevance in the Youtube generation.

It's roles like this that I think make the case almost airtight that there has never been an actor that could match de Niro in his prime. There are, perhaps, actors that could match his heights, but he has a greater number of great roles, with more variety among them, than anybody else yet lensed.

yeah, the De Niro/Scorsese partnership is one of the strongest in the story of cinema, definitely. So much variety, raw talent, skills and dedication; I would perhaps address the fact he's also found himself working during a very fertile time for Hollywood, but I don't mean to put this against him
 

UrbanRats

Member
The Raid. I was excited to finally watch this, but overall it was a disappointing experience. I liked the first half, when the group gets pinned down and there's tension about who's going to make it out. But in the second half the movie transforms into an orchestrated martial arts ballet, with a non stop revolving door of enemies. Yep, the fighting is pretty cool, but otherwise there's not much meat to it.

Go watch Nid de Guepes.
 
Hi FilmGAF! Been lurking for a while and my account just got activated, so here we go.

1. What's your favorite Movie?
I have a few I like to pick and choose from, but my favourite movie is PTA's Magnolia, because it literally gripped me like no other film I've seen so far, and is pretty much why I want to be a filmmaker.

2. Who's your favorite director?
My favourite director is Robert Altman for the way he directs actors - I think the collaborative process he uses is incredible, and of the stuff of his I've seen his work is extremely high quality.

3. Who are your favorite actors/actresses?
Joaquin Phoenix & Laura Dern.

4. Favorite Genre(s)?
I always enjoy a good Spaghetti Western or Film Noir, but I don't have a firm favourite.

5. What's your favorite performance in film?
Going to go with Elliot Gould in "The Long Goodbye". Fantastic interpretation of Marlowe, and was constantly entertaining.

Go gentle!

I recently watched Carpenter's They Live, and had a really great time doing so. Thought the cinematography was very good and did a great job of hiding the low budget, and loved the plot, both as a satire and Rowdy Roddy Piper's magic sunglasses. The dialogue was perfect for the film, with some lines I'm definitey never going to forget. I'm definitey looking forward to seeing more of JC's work, I think Big Trouble in Little
China is next for me.
 

Ridley327

Member
Welcome to our cabal of crazies, SuperInuit. I'd be hard-pressed to think of a film as flat-out entertaining as Big Trouble in Little China, so enjoy!
 

Trey

Member
Purge: Anarchy was better than the first one. Taking the story to the street was a much better choice. Anarchy came out as a sort of solid action thriller flick, whereas its predecessor choked underneath its funky plot, and characters who behaved less like humans and more like some facsimile.

Bounce is one of the more ridiculous love stories I've ever seen, and that's no small feat.
 
I gathered that from the preview, which made me burst out laughing and I am not one to do that sort of thing. ;)

I'm a horror movie fan, but I grew up on the classics and find most modern horror movies to be lacking, which is a nice way to put it. There are odd good ones, but foreign horror is better these days.

I usually want to see some of the new horror movies that come out, especially if ghosts are involved, because they pique my interest. However, I was planning to wait on this one and likely see it on TMN until a date asked me to go with her.

Today, I watched Duel. It was alright.
 

Ridley327

Member
Might be time to start catching up on a bunch of Asian films I've been meaning to watch. I watched Fulltime Killer for the first time in a while, and I still can have a great time with that one, which put me in that mode.
 
Song of the Sea

It's pleasant and nice to look at but the story is whatever. Still a step up from The Secret of Kells. They did a better job covering up their meager budget this time.
 
Wild Tales

Saw high praise for this from another poster in here, so I decided to finally give it a shot, with only knowing the title and that it was an Oscar nominee. I though it was very good. Once the strangeness of the first story started to kick in, I was pretty much hooked. Hard for me to pick a favorite story
 

AlternativeUlster

Absolutely pathetic part deux
The Unbelievable Truth jumps out-- Hartley's one of those guys who didn't take a feature to warm up at all, it's as fully formed as Trust or Amateur. I might even like it more than either of those.
Flirt is worth a watch too, I think AU is a big fan of it. From his shorts NYC 3/94, Ambition and Opera No. 1 are all great but none are so good that they're worth tracking down specifically.

Flirt is pretty decent and liked the variations of the scenes even though it felt like Hartley was slightly out of element but its worth watching if you do enjoy Hartley's films. I would never recommend it for a starting point though.

Next weekend, time to finally see Roy Andersson's A Pigeon. Loved You, The Living.

Where do you live? I need to fucking be there.
 
Welcome to our cabal of crazies, SuperInuit. I'd be hard-pressed to think of a film as flat-out entertaining as Big Trouble in Little China, so enjoy!

welcome! and BTILC is a fantastic movie, you'll have a great time

Thank you for the kind words! Just waiting on the postman to deliver it to me.

A Long Goodbye avatar and Robert Altman as your favorite director. A poster after my own heart.

It's just such a magnificent film, had to show my love for it! And Altman is just a god among filmmakers to me.
 
Divergente 2

Just like the first one, the movie is enjoyable, I went with my family to see it and they liked too. This kind of movies are like summer beach books, just an easy going story but with enough entertainment value to keep you coming back! But then again it is adapted from a book so maybe that's why.
 

Arkos

Nose how to spell and rede to
So semi-off topic, but I walk into the gas station and casually glance at this rack of shitty DVDs in little sleeves, and they have the movie disc of the Criterion version of Life Aquatic for $4. Soon I will be beneath the waves with Bowie
 
For the longest time I've felt like I should watch the Fast and Furious movies, because apparently from 5 onwards they turned into the exact kind of stupid nonsense I like. The problem is that I would want to watch the 4 earlier movies beforehand, and cars are boring as shit, so those 4 movies are probably a pain to watch. But then everybody started raving about 7 and I decided to start.

The Fast and the Furious

Well yeah there are cars and racing, but overall it felt like they were going for a good action movie that has a racing theme, instead of a car movie that also has some other stuff. I didn't expect to see actual attempts at story and good characters. They're nothing amazing, but "actually trying" is still better than the "Look at these cars driving" thing I thought this series was.

(I think
the way Vin Diesel finds out Paul Walker is a cop
is a genuinely good moment)

2 Fast 2 Furious

Heavier on the car porn, less attempts at...not being boring. It's not outright bad, it's just kind of there. Also half the characters are gone? Also cars are boring.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

There we go, this is what I thought this series is. There's cars and those cars are driving and that's about all that's going on here. Why does the cast change so much between each installment?


At this point I'd go 1>>2>>>>>>>>>>3
 

SpaceHorror

Member
1. What's your favorite Movie?

-The Bridge on the River Kwai

2. Who's your favorite director?

-Tough as hell to pick out my favorite, most days it's Kubrick while others it's John Ford. For years it was William Wyler, so let's just go with him. The variety and quality in his oeuvre still impresses the hell out of me.

3. Who are your favorite actors/actresses?

-Burt Lancaster and Bette Davis

4. Favorite Genre(s)?

-Film noir and western.

5. What's your favorite performance in film?

-Burt Lancaster in Sweet Smell of Success

Last movie I watched was my yearly re-watch of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Still as great as ever, with the added joy of showing it to my brother for the first time. He enjoyed the hell out of it and I can finally stop shaming him for having not seen it.
 

Borgnine

MBA in pussy licensing and rights management
The Straight Story: 8/10. I mean, I've watched more than my fair share of Hallmark movies and this is right up there with them, but I don't know man. I guess it was pretty much all Richard Farnsworth. And then when they trot out you know who at the end I mean come on.
Driving Miss Daisy: 4/10. Oh lawd. What were they thinking in 1989. Not completely irredeemable, it was still half a comedy so it couldn't get too mawkish.
The Outlaw Josey Wales: 8/10. Kick ass. Nothing really too much deeper than that though. I really liked the word of life and death part. Also that girl that Eastwood was fucking at the time was cute as hell.
The Overnighters: 6/10. Doc from last year about men coming to a small town to work in the oil fields and the pastor of the local church who's trying to help them find a place to sleep. It's got just a few too many reality TV moments for me, moments that probably were not scripted but were presented in a way that made it seem like they were. And without spoiling anything it takes a hell of a turn in the last 10 minutes or so. It's honestly a better movie than I'm giving it credit for but it just made me feel gross.
 
This might interest you: French publisher Carlotta is releasing Out 1 and NOLI ME TANGERE on blu-ray at the end of the year. I wouldn't hope for English subs but another publisher might release them on your side of the pond?

Hi FilmGAF! Been lurking for a while and my account
I always enjoy a good Spaghetti Western or Film Noir, but I don't have a firm favourite.

1. What's your favorite Movie?

Welcome! I like this new batch of Juniors already.
 

Timeaisis

Member
What We Do in the Shadows was pretty funny. Liked it better than I thought I would. Pretty good sight gags, decent wit and zip that didn't go dumb. Not the funniest movie ever, but solid. 7/10
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
300: Rise of an Empire: Really dull sidestory with only a scant few standout moments(most might know one of them). Lavish visuals, but the hyper-violence was so constant (I don't think 20 seconds go by without blood splatter) that even that rang hollow. I had low expectations going in, and they were kind of matched. Eva Green was fine in the role, but hardly as magnificent as I had been told.
 

Teggy

Member
Just wanted to poke in here because I saw there was some Hal Hartley talk. I am big fan of Hartley, particularly his early stuff (Trust is probably in my top 5 favorite movies) but I didn't even know of Ned Rifle's existence until about a week ago.

I actually hadn't seen anything he's done since No Such Thing, so I rewatched Henry Fool first and then Fay Grim for the first time. I hadn't heard the best things about Fay Grim, but it really seemed to wander about aimlessly and seemed entirely preposterous. Storywise, it kind of took a crap on Henry Fool. I have no idea what Hartley was trying to accomplish with it.

Ned Rifle is kind of like the "anti-Fay Grim". It is compact and direct, and it seems to want to try and clean up some of the mess. It's also very funny and is filled with a who's who of Hartley vets. Made me very sad about Adrienne Shelly again. I definitely recommend it to Hartley fans.

Oh yeah, I guess people with Aubrey Plaza obsessions might want to give it a go too. :p
 
Well, I haven't really watched anything in about a week since games and playoff hockey is killing my free time. I did catch Street Trash last Tuesday on BR at my friend's place. As juvenile and disgusting as it is, I had a pretty great time watching that film. I could see my younger self being obsessed with it if I had gotten a hold of a copy in middle school or early high school. A ridiculous over-the-top fun time. 8/10

Probably gonna hit either Child 44 or Clouds of Sils Maria tomorrow at my local indie theater. Still deciding which but I'm leaning more towards Child 44 since I don't think it'll be there next week since it only has 2 showings tomorrow and everything else has 3.
 

Ridley327

Member
Breaking News is very devious fun. It manages to undercut the normal HK-style gunfight with a more grounded depiction that has a lot more property damage than an actual body count while still feeling incredibly stylish, thanks to the wonderful camerawork that feels inspired by the likes of Michael Mann while doing its own uniquely Johnnie To thing, particularly in the case of some rather impressive single-take shots. It also does a great job of making you question who the real antagonist is, as the media manipulation angle raises far more ethical conundrums than any robber on the run does, and for its part, the film does follow through with keeping those waters murky when it comes to the sympathy you may or may not feel for the people responsible for putting on a show at the risk of endangering a lot of innocent lives. It's not the most realistic film, but it's a very effective one, and at a blistering 90 minutes, you can bask in the precision it has for its content and be very satisfied in watching how it all plays out. A somewhat limp ending spoils a bit of the excitement, but considering what came prior to it, it's hard to fault it that much for it.
 
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