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Movies You've Seen Recently |OT| JULY 2014

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B

beacon 0f light

Member
Recently saw two movies on Netflix:

Blue is the warmest color - Blown away by this movie. Probably my favorite from 2013, just ahead of Her. The two lead actresses give performances of a lifetime. Their relationship is one of the most honest, passionate, and intensely sexual relationships you'll see on screen, but the movie is so much more than that. It's difficult to speak about it without writing an essay. All I can really say is watch it!

Bully (the documentary) - I'm a bit late on this movie since the anti-bullying movement seemed to be more front and center in the news over the last two years. The movie isn't perfect–largely ignoring the problems with bullies that lead them to lash out. Despite that, this movie absolutely wrecked me. I'm not a big crier, but I spent 75 of the 90 minutes weeping, which left me with a headache for the rest of the day. I hope my future children will stand up for people that treat other people like shit. The physical and emotional abuse some of those kids took on a daily basis is unbelievable, and everyone just stands by and watches.

This conversation one of the victims has with his mom towards the end of the movie was heart-rending. I'm tearing up just posting this.

Does it make you feel good when they punch you? Or kick you? Or stab you? Do these things make you feel good?
Click to expand...

bullymovie.41o.gif

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:*(
 
O

overcast

Member
Just watched Brazil for the first time, after hearing about it for years. A lot to sit and think about afterwards. Thought it was hilarious, disturbing, and visually inventive as hell. Not like anything I've seen in that regard. Creativity all over the place.
Did the theatrical version end with the "happier" ending? Pretty fucking haunting and bleak ending with Sam being (essentially) lobotomized.

I've only seen 12 Monkeys before this from Gilliam.
 
Z

zoukka

Member
overcast said:
Just watched Brazil for the first time, after hearing about it for years. A lot to sit and think about afterwards. Thought it was hilarious, disturbing, and visually inventive as hell. Not like anything I've seen in that regard. Creativity all over the place.
Did the theatrical version end with the "happier" ending? Pretty fucking haunting and bleak ending with Sam being (essentially) lobotomized.

I've only seen 12 Monkeys before this from Gilliam.
Click to expand...

I recommend Tideland.
 
SOME-MIST

SOME-MIST

Member
and the zero theorem which became my personal favorite and is part of the loose dystopian future trilogy (brazil, 12 monkeys). Christoph Waltz's performance is mindblowing.
 
J-Roderton

J-Roderton

Member
Grand Budapest Hotel- Loved it. Probably because I'm a huge Anderson fan.
Devil's Due- Wasn't expecting it to be found footage style, but not bad.
 
F

Fancy Clown

Member
Finally saw Boyhood! It was as great as everyone has been saying, and I'm not sure I have much to add. It was really cool that the protagonist is basically the same age as me (a few years younger) so I got huge nostalgia watching the early parts of the movie
. He was into all the same stuff that I was as a kid too, watching DBZ, playing GBA SP, or Halo with friends. My mom even read the Harry Potter books to me and my older sister as well.
. There was actually a lot of things I related to Mason with, and experiential overlap, it was weird but it definitely made the film all the more relatable and it really affected me.
Thank god my parents have a happy marriage, though. Some of those seens with the drunk stepdad were harrowing.
 
B

Blader

Member
Escape Goat said:
I bought Anchorman 2 because I looooved the first one but this is not good at all. I haven laughed once so I turned it off. What the hell? Im so sad and disappointed.

Im in a glass case of emotion. :(
Click to expand...

I watched that for maybe 15 minutes, saw that's exactly how I was going to end up too, and decided to spare myself.
 
D

daffy

Banned
Enemy is pretty good. Ending didn't really scare me. I was just like oh there's that. Then I sat there for a few mins.
 
R

Ridley327

Member
overcast said:
Just watched Brazil for the first time, after hearing about it for years. A lot to sit and think about afterwards. Thought it was hilarious, disturbing, and visually inventive as hell. Not like anything I've seen in that regard. Creativity all over the place.
Did the theatrical version end with the "happier" ending? Pretty fucking haunting and bleak ending with Sam being (essentially) lobotomized.

I've only seen 12 Monkeys before this from Gilliam.
Click to expand...

No, the theatrical version is pretty much the same as the version that Criterion put out, minus a couple of scenes (including the "processing" scene after
Sam and Jill get captured
). What you're thinking of is the notorious Love Conquers All version, which was the TV edit of the film that incorporated all the changes Universal wanted to make for the film. The irony that will never cease to be amusing is that the changes make the film completely incomprehensible from beginning to end, which was their complaint about what Gilliam turned in.
 
V

ViewtifulJC

Banned
Speed: 20 years old, been about ten since I seen it or at least it feels that way. Anyway, it still holds up, for a variety of reasons the other "Die Hard on a *blank*" probably don't. One of them that Keanu Reeves(Bram Stoker's Dracula) and Sandra Bullock(Demolition Man) have a really great chemistry together. I mean, you either have it or you don't and if a movie gonna have them slowly fall in love over the course of a wacky day of bonding and life-threatening situations, then the audience better like them and want to totally make out at the end, which they do. Other thing I really like dis that Reeves character isn't like Cobra or Dirty Harry or whatever the fuck kind of macho action hero, he's a bomb defusal expert. I think this was Whedon's idea, who famously rewrote most of the movie and almost all its dialog, that a bomb defusal guy will be very calm and accordingly, all "sir" and "ma'am are you alright". The supporting cast are all pretty fun though, and they kinda have to be in a movie like this where most of it is this contained area going through tense situations in-between funny Whedon-flavored banter. Dennis Hopper(Super Mario Bros) is in here too and he chews up all kinds of fuckin' scenery, total Blue Velvet mode he's a lot of fun.

I guess the one part I was pretty sketchy about was the big subway set piece at the end. The movie is basically three parts, the elevator opening, the bus, and then the subway, but the bus is like, the entire conflict and it feels like the movie's over, but its like "oh wait we need Keanu Reeves to fight Dennis Hopper before the credits roll uh quick kidnap Sandra Bullock lets go pop quiz hotshot". Its not even actively bad or anything, it feels tacked on. It feels like at the end of Die Hard, that big blond German dude comes backs to kidnap Holly and there's this big ass set piece in the parking garage or something.

Speed 2: Yeah, this was shit. I would say "doesn't hold up", but everybody and their mom knew Speed 2: Cruise Control was bad even back then. Hell, they knew it was bad the minute Reeves passed on and they had to get this Jason Patric(something nobody ever heard of) guy nobody can possibly care about. I mean, its not like Keanu "to Calfox's Abbey" Reeves is some kinda master thespian or anything, but at least the man has a screen presence. And for some reason, Sandra Bullock has suddenly become a terrible driver in this movie. Which ok, she had to take the bus in the last movie cuz she got her license suspended for speeding, but she looked pretty good to me going around all those corners and jumping huge highway gaps. I guess its just Sandra Bullock's thing, "ahhh I'm so adorably out of my element here get out of the way", which made her a perfect fit for Gravity.

Don't how they called this shit "Speed", cuz the cruise ship is hella slow. It finally crashes near the end and its some Roland Emmerich kind of shit that goes on FOREVER, but really it doesn't even look that bad.

500x215xstill_speed2-4.jpg.pagespeed.ic.P0orMWOppU.jpg


I mean, that's not even the whole ship in there, and don't ask me how it got through all that solid earth.

Willem DaFoe(Clear and Present Danger) is the bad guy here, sticking with the crazy idiosyncratic actor theme started with the original, but the only interesting thing he does is he has these leeches that suck the poison out of him and are good for his health. Its like Obamacare.

There's this deaf girl who wants to fuck not-Keanu Reeves and starts dressing in 'sexy' outfits the camera lingers on, and its like, "what the fuck my nigga NO". So that was weird

anyway yeah this was bad
 
R

Ridley327

Member
Scanners is still mid-tier Cronenberg, but given that man's filmography, most directors would consider that a compliment. The biggest problem has always been the storytelling, in that there's large chunks of exposition that get explained rather than shown, but that wouldn't be so bad if many of the film's revelations happen as soon as they're explained to us, which gives the film a very disjointed feeling that feels ultimately unsatisfying in that aspect. It's a shame, as several of the core story ideas are strong, and a few of which were thankfully repurposed for Videodrome to a much more successful effect. That being said, there is an awful lot to like, particularly as this film had Cronenberg really coming onto his own as a visual director, with a far more polished look and feel compared to his earlier films, while refining his ability to stage a scene to be much more suspenseful while retaining his trademark obsessions with the horrible, disgusting, and ultimately compelling ways that our bodies can betray us. He's smart about his casting (which I will include the oft-criticized Stephen Lack with, as he gives exactly what's need for his role as Cameron, even if taken out of context it's a bit, well, lacking), as everyone is pretty game for the oddness that ensues without going treacherously over the top. It's not Cronenberg's most serious film, but there's nothing wrong with some innocent exploding heads and violent psychic warfare, especially when it's rendered in such an interesting way as it has been here.
 
D

Delta Assault

Member
The Postman

Boy... the critics were right about this movie. What a bungled mess it turned out to be. The Postman, based on David Brin's acclaimed sci-fi novel, has somehow been turned into... a Hallmark Channel movie by Kevin Costner. The post-apocalyptic premise is genuinely captivating, but the movie's unfortunately full of tremendously hokey, saccharine, and corny scenes that are seemingly composed with a timid, unsure hand. These languid and lethargic scenes also combine to form a film that's three hours long, when Costner only seems to have devoted enough thought to fill up one hour's worth of script. On the bright side, the movie has been filmed with rather beautiful cinematography, and there are many sweeping shots of scenic vistas that evoke nature documentaries of the American Northwest.

Acting wise, I found Will Patton's General Bethlehem to be a great movie villain. He's got all the hallmarks of a modern age Hitler, but Patton also succeeds at subtly hinting at Bethlehem's past life as an unremarkable salesman. I'm only familiar with Patton's work as Captain Weaver in the show Falling Skies, and I can see now why they picked him for the show. The guy's fantastic at portraying a leader with a seemingly iron will, while hiding inner vulnerabilities from his men.

Kevin Costner never seems completely sure of himself as the Postman and gives a strangely halfhearted performance. His attempts at delivering humor in the rare instances where it's available completely fall flat, such as when he announces that all dogs must be leashed, or when he states that residents must claim their mail at the bottom of a dam, after climbing up a steep flight of stairs to the top of the dam where the town is. The legend around the Postman grows and he eventually attracts an entire outpost full of eager young mail carriers who would die for the mail, yet you never understand why because Costner's sketchy performance never gives the heft or gravitas or personality necessary to make it believable. Olivia Williams is more of a sure presence in the movie and she does an admirable job of presenting a tough frontier woman, but sadly she's saddled with terrible lines of dialogue, with the winner being "You give out hope like it was candy in your pocket" which can't help but induce groans. In movies, you're supposed to show, don't tell, so I can't understand why Costner felt it necessary to tell us so forcefully the entire message of the movie.

Part of the problem with the movie's runtime is that the entire first act is completely unnecessary and could have been discarded without any loss. It's nothing more than the experiences of the Postman being a prisoner/forced conscript in Bethlehem's army. This seems to be solely so we can see how terrible Bethlehem is. Well... that's not needed, since we can clearly see how terrible Bethlehem is in the next two acts of the film, where he butchers and rapes innocent villagers. And the few characters the Postman meets in this beginning act are all completely wasted and killed off at the end of the act, so they don't even factor into the remaining film.

The lowest point of the movie is the ending, where we get some inane ceremony scene in the future where they unveil a bronze statue to the Postman, positioned on horseback grabbing a piece of mail from an eager young boy. It's a reenactment of a previous scene where he nabbed the mail from a boy, yet it's so perfectly captured that I struggle to understand how they could have gotten every detail right. Then a man in the audience tearfully chokes and utters "I was that boy!" Oh brother... like it wasn't obvious enough. Thanks for clarifying it for the dullards in the theater. The whole scene is heavy handed, maudlin pap that belongs on the Hallmark Channel and feels completely unworthy of being in a serious post-apocalyptic story. When Roger Ebert reviewed The Natural, he complained that it was simply "idolatry on behalf of Robert Redford." I disagree with Roger about that one, but I do think that's a perfect way of summarizing The Postman. The movie is simply idolatry on behalf of Kevin Costner.

Jodorowsky's Dune

Good documentary about the pursuit of madness. I think it's pretty obvious that Jodorowsky's movie was never going to work, going off of what he said. I mean, it sounded like it would've been about 12 or 14 hours long. He also seemed to have a lot of kooky ideas, like making Duke Leto castrated for some odd reason.
 
O

overcast

Member
zoukka said:
I recommend Tideland.
Click to expand...

Divius said:
12 Monkeys and Brazil are my favorites but if you are looking for more Gilliam; Time Bandits and Baron Munchausen are a lot of fun. And of course Fear and Loathing is a cult favorite.
Click to expand...
I've seen Fear and Loathing. Gilliam's work can be pretty polarized though, right?
Ridley327 said:
No, the theatrical version is pretty much the same as the version that Criterion put out, minus a couple of scenes (including the "processing" scene after
Sam and Jill get captured
). What you're thinking of is the notorious Love Conquers All version, which was the TV edit of the film that incorporated all the changes Universal wanted to make for the film. The irony that will never cease to be amusing is that the changes make the film completely incomprehensible from beginning to end, which was their complaint about what Gilliam turned in.
Click to expand...
That's pretty great. Somebody was telling me I would have to watch it a few times to get it, but it wasn't tough.
 
S

Spinluck

Member
beacon 0f light said:
Bully (the documentary) - I'm a bit late on this movie since the anti-bullying movement seemed to be more front and center in the news over the last two years. The movie isn't perfect–largely ignoring the problems with bullies that lead them to lash out. Despite that, this movie absolutely wrecked me. I'm not a big crier, but I spent 75 of the 90 minutes weeping, which left me with a headache for the rest of the day. I hope my future children will stand up for people that treat other people like shit. The physical and emotional abuse some of those kids took on a daily basis is unbelievable, and everyone just stands by and watches.

This conversation one of the victims has with his mom towards the end of the movie was heart-rending. I'm tearing up just posting this.

:*(
Click to expand...

Damn, fuck that looks sad.
 
R

Ridley327

Member
overcast said:
I've seen Fear and Loathing. Gilliam's work can be pretty polarized though, right?

That's pretty great. Somebody was telling me I would have to watch it a few times to get it, but it wasn't tough.
Click to expand...

He can be, but if you dug Brazil, I can't imagine why you wouldn't like Time Bandits or The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which have a lot in common, despite being substantially more kid-friendly than Brazil.
 
F

Frustrated_Grunt

Member
The Usual Suspects was pretty good. Not knowing anything about it (All I knew about it was the poster), it really surprised me how much depth it had. 8/10
 
D

Divius

Member
Korean Film youtube channel uploaded some new movies for anyone interested: https://www.youtube.com/user/KoreanFilm/videos

Definitely, Maybe - Totally predictable romcom with beautiful people. I'm not even going to pretend I didn't like it though. Sappy and corny in all the right places. Was somewhat lacking in the rom and the com areas though. ***
 
V

Vampirolol

Member
Frozen : my childhood was strange, I used to watch Hot Shots 2 and Naked Gun everyday while instead I don't remember a single Disney movie. I liked them but never loved'em, I hated the songs that interrupted the movies and felt the stories to be predictable. Now I'm changed and I want to rewatch the Disney classics to maybe appreciate the simplicty or the directing. I started with Frozen because my gf had to watch it for the 10th time. Did I say that I loved Enchanted because it was kinda different? Well I said it to her and she said: "I don't know if you'll like Frozen, it's a bit different but on the other hand is more classic and full of songs. I prefer Tangled anyway and this does remind me of it."
So what about the movie? I liked it. There was a problem with the TV and the colors were a little too dark but overall the look of the movie was awesome, I love ice and snow generally. The songs were ok but it was the Italian version and I wanted so hard to hear "Let it go" in its original form, too bad. The troll part felt useless and I didn't like Elsa at all, while the snowman was pretty funny and the rest of the cast was pretty good. Now I want to see Tangled, do you guys recommend me another Disney movie?
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
The Rock

...Michael Bay movies were always horribly written. It's just actors like Nicolas cage, Sean Connery and will smith (bad boys) were able to overshadow that with their sheer screen presence

Without ppl like that you get transformers franchise and pearl harbour
 
D

Delta Assault

Member
Discotheque said:
The Rock

...Michael Bay movies were always horribly written. It's just actors like Nicolas cage, Sean Connery and will smith (bad boys) were able to overshadow that with their sheer screen presence

Without ppl like that you get transformers franchise and pearl harbour
Click to expand...

Really?

I thought The Rock had a pretty good script.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
There are seeds of bay's indulgences in here. If it were made today this exact script with the shittier quality of leading actors we have now it would be butchered

Sean Connery's role is straight, no problems with him. Witty and charming

But nic cage's role. I could totally see Shia ruining this film.

Bay's best movie though forreal. Really makes me miss Sean Connery. I'd totally take an expendables style old folks home drama with him, Michael Caine and Robert Redford or something
 
T

TheKaeptain

Banned
Can't say the name buy let's just say a remake being in released next January is going to be fucking balls. No editing is going to save the movie.
 
B

big ander

Member
TheKaeptain said:
Can't say the name buy let's just say a remake being in released next January is going to be fucking balls. No editing is going to save the movie.
Click to expand...

Man-from-U-N-C-L-E or A-m-i-t-y-ville I'm guessing. tho I don't even think the latter is a remake and the former is Ritchie so it being balls would make sense, so it's likely the former.
 
H

harSon

Banned
I really feel like going to a film festival within the next year. I'm not sure which to attend though. I've actually never been to a film festival that's worth a shit, so it's time to make a pilgrimage...
 
M

MidnightCowboy

Member
Frozen was whatever, can't say I hated it or loved it. Seemed by the book. Also, I think it's just a matter of it being CGI, but sometimes the characters just looked weird as fuck. Like not fully rendered or something.
 
T

TheExhaustedWalrus

Member
Gonna get around to watching some stuff I've put off for a while. That being said, I've only really seen a couple of movies lately:
Enemy (2013) - 3.5/5
I thought this was well shot, written, paced, and acted from Gyllenhaal. However, the movie's message kinda lost me. Wish its themes were clearer. It could've been amazing had it not tried to be a puzzle. Same problem I had with Under The Skin.

Out of The Furnace - 2/5
Pretty solid acting from Bale, and I do like how the story is told at times. But overall this one lost me. I felt nothing for the characters and by the end the plot hadn't made an impact on me. Felt like hollow Oscar bait.
 
M

Mifune

Mehmber
MidnightCowboy said:
Frozen was whatever, can't say I hated it or loved it. Seemed by the book. Also, I think it's just a matter of it being CGI, but sometimes the characters just looked weird as fuck. Like not fully rendered or something.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this was thoroughly mediocre. I thought it started pretty strong but devolved into blandness pretty quickly. Songs were okay but pretty weak lyrically. I thought. And the villain was an afterthought.
 
N

Net_Wrecker

Member
Messofanego said:
So, I'm hearing actually good things about this Purge Anarchy, a much better sequel than the first movie deserves?

http://cdn.fansided.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/304/files/2014/02/d2vRWk.jpg

http://grantland.com/hollywood-pros...-bodes-well-for-the-next-812985-purge-movies/

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vid...0-The-Purge-Anarchy-Original-Idea-Done-Better

Sounds like a Verhoeven-like satire. One dude is The Punisher. The look reminds me of Collateral. Might have to check it out, hope it's a pleasant surprise.
Click to expand...

Oh man, did they actually Carpenter up the sequel like I thought the first should've been? Might watch
 
G

glaurung

Member
Saw The Signal in a weird-ass screening at a third rate local cinema. I don't even know how they got the reels/files.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2910814/

It's a simple, nice little scifi adventure with good ideas. Unfortunately the last quarter of the movie delivers an overabundance of slow-motion effects. But otherwise an interesting take on the genre.
 
K

kurisu1974

Banned
The Zero Theorem was almost unwatcheable, childish shit, that looked like a big mess visually, with a messy story and cardboard characters (and backgrounds), message of the movie seemed also to be a bit behind the times. I guess Gilliam has lost it, had high hopes for this, he made two of my favorite movies and a couple of very good ones... almost 20 years ago.

Pupi Avati's Zeder was, in contrast, a lot better than expected. While they somehow marketed it to be the umpteenth Living Dead ripoff, this is more of a Giallo with an undead twist and an amazing setting (an abandonded contruction yard of an enormous hotel somewhere in the jungle). The original poster art really conveys much better the kind of movie this is.

MjRYYRF.jpg



In the Heat of the Night was amazing, I guess everyone here has seen it but for some reason I hadn't. Great characters in a great murder mystery and a tense setting. Couldn't be much better if they tried.

Letters from Iwo Jima was good too, but I was expecting more, a quite straightforward film that I felt was a bit light on plot. Great performances though. Maybe the overall impact was a little less because I watched this after Flags of our Fathers.

Walk of Shame was a pretty shitty comedy, like a very light version of After Hours, I mean so light that it disappears when examined.

Finally, The Constant Gardener... I had never seen iot but a lot of people kept telling me I should. It was an okay movie with good performances, but nothing that will stick with me, even if Rachel Weisz looked very pretty (she was also very annoying).
 
F

Fallout-NL

Member
Messofanego said:
So, I'm hearing actually good things about this Purge Anarchy, a much better sequel than the first movie deserves?

d2vRWk.jpg


http://grantland.com/hollywood-pros...-bodes-well-for-the-next-812985-purge-movies/

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vid...0-The-Purge-Anarchy-Original-Idea-Done-Better

Sounds like a Verhoeven-like satire. One dude is The Punisher. The look reminds me of Collateral. Might have to check it out, hope it's a pleasant surprise.
Click to expand...

Net_Wrecker said:
Oh man, did they actually Carpenter up the sequel like I thought the first should've been? Might watch
Click to expand...


Yeah baby, interest piqued.
 
P

PuppetSlave

Member
Watched Men at Work from 1990.

I had never seen it before and watched it on a whim. Was very pleasantly surprised. Very stupid but fun movie. The fact that Keith David, my favorite actor/voice from Saints Row 4 was in it... Took it to a great movie.

It did
loose a lot of steam in the end and got a bit too silly/stupid.
 
B

Borgnine

MBA in pussy licensing and rights management
Under The Skin: 4/10. Christ this was dull. Driving around luring people in to your van, how boring, I do this every day. A few high points (no not that) but not nearly enough to save this slogfest.
American Graffiti: 7/10. Cute.
When Harry Met Sally: 6/10. Cute.
The Wicker Man (not the bees one): 8/10. I usually loathe freak out movies, even though this really isn't, it still kind of is. Bizarre but with enough mystery (and resolution) to keep me engaged. Even some of the music at first I was like uhhhhh but then it actually gets pretty good. Loved all the tits.
 
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