RA Movie Thread (Read 5918 times)

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rectumdamnnearkilledem

    How To Train Your Dragon 2 -- quite possibly the best animated movie I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing (in IMAX 3D, no less).  Totally got me in the feels!  Releasing it on Father's Day weekend was a poignant move.  Pretty sure we'll see it again at least once more before it leaves theaters.

    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

    Capt Awesome


      Watched Edge of Tomorrow... though I really don't care for Tom Cruise as a person I do respect his acting skills. That being said, this movie didn't offer much, it was Groundhogs Day, in the future with weird aliens. I liked it better the first time around with Bill Murray.


      god hates us all

        Crazy Stupid Love is a crappy stupid movie.

        mab411


        Proboscis Colossus

          Watched Edge of Tomorrow... though I really don't care for Tom Cruise as a person I do respect his acting skills. 

           

          Right there with you.  Looking forward to watching Edge of Tomorrow, specifically because it's Groundhog Day in the future with weird aliens.  I'd much rather watch Bill than Tom, though.

           

          We watched The Lego Movie last night.  Oh. My. Gosh.  What a fun, out-of-nowhere flick!  Well-written, funny, good great voice-acting, and a a message at the end that is heart-warming, if a tad trite.  The way it's delivered shakes off a lot of the cliché, though.  Did not see it coming until a few minutes before all became clear.

           

          Watching it again today while I work...very rare for me to do that so soon after seeing something the first time.

          "God guides us on our journey, but careful with those feet." - David Lee Roth, of all people

            Crazy Stupid Love is a crappy stupid movie.

             

            Eh, I thought it was pretty good.

            Dave

            BeeRunB


              Did some traveling recently, and used my new noise-cancelling headphones to enjoy a few movies on the flights. Back and forth we had the same old 767 where everyone had to watch the same movie (no computers in the seats):

               

              Need For Speed ....awful, awful, awful, awful, awful movie about idiots who race through city streets with complete disregard. Aaron Paul, a dynamite dramatic actor, could choose better I think.

               

              The Monuments Men... enjoyed this. An amazing and true WW2 story about a group of men trying to recover stolen art treasures from the Nazis before they destroyed it. Would you die for art? Bullets Over Broadway explores the theme much better, but I still would recommend the film just for learning about this mission.

               

              We Bought A Zoo...Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson. I was into it. Based on a true story. Damon was good. A decent 3-star family flick.

               

              I found it funny that the censors bleeped out the word "sex", but left in the word "intercourse."

               

              I didn't think "sex" was a dirty word. Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex.....(I like being bad).

              yeoldefatguy


                Tom Cruise sometimes surprises me with his roles. I thought he was incredible in The Last Samurai.

                Just watched Riddick. If you saw Pitch Black, you've seen this movie. Still a decent way to kill a couple of hours and there are a few good one-liners.

                stadjak


                Interval Junkie --Nobby

                  The Monuments Men (2013) - Wow, what a vapid movie.  The opening hour plays like a first draft of "Oceans Eleven" as a bunch of buddies from the art world plan to re-heist what Hitler heisted.  Chummy chummy buddies with 2-bit quips and "I always wanted to be in a WWII flick" smiles on the actors faces.  About the only good thing about the film . . . hmm . . . nope; there wasn't anything good about the film.  (1/5)

                   

                  Valkyrie (2011) - Tom Cruise plays a disgruntled German officer who tries to whack Hitler before the Allies whack him and make all of Germany look like they willingly went along with this madman.  The film is okay.  The action is tense.  The acting is pretty good.  Tom Cruise does an okay job.  It's a bit annoying that nobody in the film even attempts a German accent.  Cruise, a war hero who lost a hand and some fingers, doesn't even attempt to portray the emotional impact of the loss; though he still manages to give the proverbial finger to someone higher on the command chain.  The best thing of the film might be the fashion.  It was so striking that I had to lookup who designed the Nazi uniforms in WWII.  None other than Hugo Boss, in case you're curious.  The desert uniform looks especially smart.  IN all the film suffers from being true.  It's hard to be suspenseful when your major plot point is well known history.  Still, an enjoyable movie. (3/5)

                   

                  The Emperor (2012) - After watching the high fashion of the Nazi, the Pacific American troops look like they're wearing garbage bags.  Tommy Lee Jones has the MacArthur swagger.  But the rest of the film is kinda empty.  Officer in charge of prosecuting the Emperor for war-crimes (in 10 days) is in love with a Japanese woman he knew before the war.  And like everything else he knew of Japan before the war: she's gone . . . for the same reason everything else is.  There's no bite to this movie.  There's no real arch.  It's just plain boring.  (2/5)

                   

                  The Wall (Die Wand) (2013 - German/Austrian film you can stream on Netflix.  95% of the dialog is in English, though.  The film is about one woman, a dog, a cow and two cats, who are trapped in an Austrian hunting lodge separated from the rest of the world by an invisible wall.  It's a slow internal struggle film as she tries not to become an animal (go insane / lose all civilization).  It's a really good film if you like these sorts of things.  I do.  (4/5)

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

                  BeeRunB


                    The Monuments Men (2013) - Wow, what a vapid movie.  The opening hour plays like a first draft of "Oceans Eleven" as a bunch of buddies from the art world plan to re-heist what Hitler heisted.  Chummy chummy buddies with 2-bit quips and "I always wanted to be in a WWII flick" smiles on the actors faces.  About the only good thing about the film . . . hmm . . . nope; there wasn't anything good about the film.  (1/5)

                     

                    What was good about it for me (watching on an airplane) was that I never knew about these men, and I found the story fascinating. I thought of it being kind of a Kelly's Heroes rip-off, but the story intrigued me enough that I want to know more about it. It would make a good documentary subject. I love European art, and have seen many of the great works, and so it held my interest on that level as well.

                     

                    I think if we knew more about the characters before they went on the mission, it would have been better. I was clueless as to why Damon didn't sleep with Kate Blanchett when she offered. I might have missed a few things being on the airplane.

                     

                    Speaking of Kelly's Heroes, has anyone seen it lately? I haven't.  Does it still hold up? I saw it when I was a teen, a few times, and loved it. Especially Donald Sutherland's character.

                      It's hard to be suspenseful when your major plot point is well known history.  

                       

                      I don't know...Argo, Miracle, Apollo 13 - those all held plenty of good suspense, even with a well known outcome. It can be done and done well.

                       

                      Agreed about Monuments Men though. That was terrible.

                      Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and rogues
                      We're on the road to nowhere, let's find out where it goes
                      RunJasonRun


                        The Monuments Men (2013) - Wow, what a vapid movie.  The opening hour plays like a first draft of "Oceans Eleven" as a bunch of buddies from the art world plan to re-heist what Hitler heisted.  Chummy chummy buddies with 2-bit quips and "I always wanted to be in a WWII flick" smiles on the actors faces.  About the only good thing about the film . . . hmm . . . nope; there wasn't anything good about the film.  (1/5)

                         

                        If you're up for a great movie about this subject, then I recommend The Train (1964).

                         

                        The Train, which stars Burt Lancaster, is about the French Resistance trying to stop the Nazis from transporting valuable art back to Germany from Paris on a train in 1944.  This movie has some incredible action scenes, but it is also grounded in reverence to the issues at hand.  The story is inspired by actual events.

                         

                        Nobody leaves this place without singing the blues.

                        bhearn


                          Watched Edge of Tomorrow... though I really don't care for Tom Cruise as a person I do respect his acting skills. That being said, this movie didn't offer much, it was Groundhogs Day, in the future with weird aliens. I liked it better the first time around with Bill Murray.

                           

                          Just wait, it will come back every 21 years, and we'll have to watch it go through the same steps until the directors finally get it perfect.

                          FSocks


                          KillJoyFuckStick

                            Went and saw the movie version of Jersey Boys on Saturday night.  The movie is a musical biopic of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.  I'll say I was surprised as to how crowded our theater was.  We arrived 25 minutes early and there were probably 25 people waiting to be seated.  By the time the movie started there may have been 30 empty seats.  It was an older crowd unsurprisingly.

                             

                            I'll preface my review by saying that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons were some of my primary introduction to music as a youngster in the early 70s.  My parents had some compilation albums of theirs and I simply fell in love with their music and singing.  Needless to say I was anticipating listening for the singing most importantly.  My understanding is that Producer/Director Clint Eastwood chose to use the stage cast for the main characters and he had them sing live onset rather than lip synching.  Both choices seemed to work well.

                             

                            Let's face it the story pretty much takes a back seat to the music.  And the music didn't disappoint.  Frankie's voice is very unique (especially at a younger age) and therefore practically impossible to completely replicate.  But the actor playing the part did a fantastic job with only a couple little nasally tones.  The rest of the Four Seasons were fantastic too musically.  The acting was good but not great; the sets were fantastic.  There were a few other little minor complaints here and there but overall a great movie for any 60's music lover.

                             

                            8.5/10 Socks

                            You people have issues 

                            yeoldefatguy


                              Watched Resident Evil Retribution last night. I want those two hours of my life back. I paid nothing for it, but I still feel like I got ripped off. I liked the first two movies of the series and the third one was tolerable on a " I have a couple of hours to kill" kind of thing. I wish there such a thing as erasing memories ala Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind because I need to have these flicks stricken from my record.

                              mab411


                              Proboscis Colossus

                                Just watched Warm Bodies.

                                 

                                I enjoyed the comedic take on the zombie genre in My Boyfriend's Back and Idle Hands (really dating myself here), so I've been intrigued by this one since I saw the trailers.

                                 

                                Disappointed, for the most part.  Despite the presence of Rob Freakin' Cordry - who did have some good lines, granted - the comedy I anticipated from the budding romance between a living girl and a boy zombie was largely relegated to jokes that could have been made about any such situation between two young people from different backgrounds.

                                 

                                In fact...that brings up kind of a redeeming quality, as I see it: but for a big departure in the third act, the movie is Romeo & Juliet, a good introduction to Shakespeare for the teenagers it's obviously made for.  There's even a balcony scene toward the end of the 2nd act in which the boy zombie, whose name is "R" (he can't remember the rest of it) calls up to the girl, "Julie."

                                 

                                Anyway, like I say, I was looking for a goofy comedy and got a movie too preoccupied with terrible CGI, banal teenage banter and cute leads.  And which stubbornly refused to let John Malkovich get as much screentime as I wanted.  And which gave us a resolution that is wildly beyond all plausibility...and that's coming from a guy who expected to see a movie about a reanimated dead man romancing an attractive blonde 18-year-old.

                                 

                                MTA: one other good thing about the movie I almost forgot: it has a terrific soundtrack, which sadly doesn't seem to be available for purchase.  The Black Keys tune in the trailer was noticeably absent, but we got Feist, G'n'R, Springsteen, Bob Dylan...some classic Roy Orbison, Scorpions...pretty solid soundtrack for the teenage fluff it backed up!

                                "God guides us on our journey, but careful with those feet." - David Lee Roth, of all people