RA Movie Thread (Read 5918 times)

bhearn


    The only thing I liked about Inception was the cool city-folding effects. My suspension of disbelief completely disappeared when it was explained that for every level of dreaming we descend, time moves 5 (or whatever it was) times as fast. Oooookay. None of the psychology / philosophy / metaphysics worked for me at all. And in the end it was just another big shootout, with an empty shell pretending to be philosophically interesting.

     

    Might be relevant that at the time I was doing a postdoc in computational neuroscience. 


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    rectumdamnnearkilledem

      Bourne Legacy reviews look pretty mixed.  Not sure if we will go see this in the theater, or not.  DS really loves the series (we just picked up the original Ludlum novel for him at B&N, yesterday), but if it's mediocre it's probably not worth spending nearly $30 to go.  Sounds like Renner is fine in the role, but it's just become redundant.

      Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

      remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

           ~ Sarah Kay

      stadjak


      Interval Junkie --Nobby

        The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - This movie presented a deceptively sophisticated story for a comic-book action film.  The non-CGI stunts are wonderfully visceral.  While the movie is almost 3hrs long I didn't mind at all because it felt like it still had more to say, more interesting story to tell, more juicy narrative bits to wrap up.  It wasn't so much outstanding and mind-blowing as wholly satisfying.  Batman himself, ends up being a minor character, the show stolen by hands-down the best portrayal of a female co-star/villain by Anne Hathaway.  She walks the tightrope between physical prowess and sexuality, between confidence and vulnerability, and between morally aloof materialism and hinted emotional availability like she's on a cat-walk.   Often these cat-burglar-women are hyper-feline-sexualized to the point of  embarrassing mockery of both cats and women.  Or they are cold non-women of cold emotional cruelty which makes them only slightly more relate-able than robots and thugs.  Hathaway hits it pitch-perfect.  Formidable and woman.  This is captured perfectly in a scene where she is riding the stripped-down Bat-Bike with her voluptuous butt, spread over the seat, contained only by a shiny black skin-suit, racing through urban decay; then without a wink that she's doing anything special, she slides into the bike's signature tight-turn maneuver, where it spins on its axis.  She is equal. (4/5)

         

        Act of Valor (2012) - Old-school action film.  Stars a bunch of active-duty SEALs, who can't really act, but damn can they do their own stunts.  This is basically one long recruitment video.  But there are two scenes well worth the price of admission: in one the SEALs are submerged in a swamp/river.  One puts his hands up out of the water toward the sky.  Cut to the sniper scope trained on a bad-guy standing guard on the dock. *pfft* Red mist.  The guy starts to fall into the water for a splash but is caught by the hands just before he's pulled slowly below the surface.  Wonderful.  The other scene is a lot louder.  Hot-extract while the team is being chased by guys with AK-47s hanging off the side of a big truck.  The team runs their truck into the water at the end of the road just as two gun-boats of Marines pull up and unload 50cal Gatling-guns into the pursuing trucks.  The triangulation of the fields of fire, the tracers, the view from bird's eye: such a convincing scene of coordinated dominance.  Again, the story isn't much and the acting is wooden.  Some of the relations between people you don't even get.  But it might be worth a bucket of pop-corn and your home TV.  (2/5)

         

        Hunger Games (2012) - Yes, true to the book.  Yes, violent -- just like the book.  If you like the book you'll like the movie.  If not, you'll probably still like the movie.  The biggest (and maybe only) surprise in this film was that Woody Harrelson can act like someone other than Woody Harrelson.  When I found he was playing Haymitch (an over-the-top drunk in the book) I could already imagine Harrelson's hamming it up even further.  But he played it straight and he hit a tone for the character that wouldn't have worked in the book.  And he was really good.

        The movie is certainly worth seeing.  (3/5)

        2021 Goals: 50mpw 'cause there's nothing else to do

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        rectumdamnnearkilledem

          Skyfall...it was awesome.  I almost needed tissues at the end, though.  Very bittersweet.  I will say I agree with everyone who says that Casino Royale is still the best Bond movie. That one scored 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. Skyfall scores 93%. I'd agree. Skyfall is awesome, but still #2 to CR. And I'm pretty certain that Daniel Craig is officially my favorite Bond.  Never thought I'd put anyone above Connery, but there it is.

          Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

          remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

               ~ Sarah Kay

          ZZCaptainObvious


             Wait, they made that into a movie? It was a French play that I read for a theatre class. 

             

            Went and picked it up again. The God of Carnage, by Yasmina Reza. I remember enjoying it, but there was a bunch of bickering.  May check it out just to see what got changed. 

             

             

            Carnage (2011) 

            stadjak


            Interval Junkie --Nobby

              Skyfall...it was awesome.  I almost needed tissues at the end, though.  Very bittersweet.  I will say I agree with everyone who says that Casino Royale is still the best Bond movie. That one scored 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. Skyfall scores 93%. I'd agree. Skyfall is awesome, but still #2 to CR. And I'm pretty certain that Daniel Craig is officially my favorite Bond.  Never thought I'd put anyone above Connery, but there it is.

               

              Couldn't agree more.  The thing that puts Craig above Connery is the complexity of the character that each is portraying.  Connery's bond is slick, perfect, invincible and always wins at whatever he plays.  He is Superman in a tux.  And while that bond really had a place in the series, it now looks paper-thin.  That's why those who followed Connery couldn't really compete -- it just got more ridiculous and nobody had the raw masculine confidence of Connery.  Craig's Bond is allowed to screw up, miss a shot, make a bad decision, and generally be more vulnerable and human, which gives Craig a LOT more to do with the character.  The epitome of the difference is in the very first scene of Royale.  He's chasing some Parkor guy through an industrial building site.  While the rabbit is deftly moving through the terrain with incredible agility, ease and creative path-finding, Bond is smashing through dry-wall like a lumbering hulk.  Connery's Bond would never have done something so crude.

               

              Skyfall was a great movie, both with story-arch and cinematography.  There were some great shout-outs to classic Bond fare.  When the astonmartin appeared everyone in my audience cheered.  The back-hoe was my favorite reference, though.

               

              I hope Naomie Harris gets more action roll gigs.  Very pretty, but had that nice edge of competence.  And the role was written so it was clear she wasn't as good as Bond, but not a duffer either.

               

              Anyway, loved the movie.  And Judi Dench is amazing.  Talk about gravitas!

              2021 Goals: 50mpw 'cause there's nothing else to do


              Imminent Catastrophe

                Skyfall...it was awesome.  I almost needed tissues at the end, though.  Very bittersweet.  

                 

                Minor spoiler alert...

                 

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                Yeah, me too. When they blew up the Aston Martin I was in tears!

                "Able to function despite imminent catastrophe"

                 "To obtain the air that angels breathe you must come to Tahoe"--Mark Twain

                "The most common question from potential entrants is 'I do not know if I can do this' to which I usually answer, 'that's the whole point'.--Paul Charteris, Tarawera Ultramarathon RD.

                 

                √ Javelina Jundred Jalloween 2015

                Cruel Jewel 50 mile May 2016

                Western States 100 June 2016

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                rectumdamnnearkilledem

                  Minor spoiler alert...

                   

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                  Yeah, me too. When they blew up the Aston Martin I was in tears!

                   

                  I whimpered.

                  Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

                  remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

                       ~ Sarah Kay

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                  rectumdamnnearkilledem

                    1st Hobbit movie...OK.  Underwhelming, maybe.

                    Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

                    remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

                         ~ Sarah Kay

                      1st Hobbit movie...OK.  Underwhelming, maybe.

                       

                      Agreed. It was pretty...but really...did he need to story board every SENTENCE of the book? Exhausting.

                       

                      Life of Pi was pretty good...a few changes from the book I didn't care for, but the graphics were incredible...very believable.

                       

                      I really want to see Les Mis. Hopefully Sunday.

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                      rectumdamnnearkilledem

                        I still want to see Lincoln, too.

                        Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

                        remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

                             ~ Sarah Kay

                          Lincoln was OK...not worth the big screen (IMO, and not that I paid!)...but definitely worth seeing. The acting was fantastic...but, you know, the story is pretty predictable. Smile

                          xor


                            Even when he lays into the vampires and zombies and shit?

                             

                              Especially.

                              DirtyGraceFlint


                              The Crap Whisperer

                                 

                                 

                                I really want to see Les Mis. Hopefully Sunday.

                                 

                                Me too! Dragging the BF along Smile Right hon? hahahaha!

                                Being the best tiny spec that I can be!