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The Last Movie You Watched; And how was it?
Topic Started: Mar 29 2011, 10:37 AM (20,109 Views)
Asfan
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Two Days, One Night: This is a tough one to review because it was almost exactly what I expected. No big surprises, just one really solid film. As always, Marion Cotillard knocks it out of the park. One of the things the film does best is create somewhat layered characters within minutes of exposing them (and only having them around for a couple of scenes). The main drawback, I'd say, is how repetitive it is. When the movie is about a woman trying to convince 16 different people to do the same thing, I guess that's the hazard you'll come across. Overall though, it was a pretty minor drawback and can be overlooked with the differences between those characters and Cotillard's great performance in every scene she's in. This was actually my favorite foreign film of the year for a couple of days, until...

Mommy: Holy shit. Move over Whiplash, this is the most intense movie I've seen this year. I was caught off guard a little bit, since the trailer seemed, for the most part, to be upbeat and inspirational. And decent portion of it was. This film basically goes down the emotional checklist and knocks every one off, with emphasis on intense and heart-breaking. It makes me really sad that it didn't do very well. It's not an easy movie to watch (and I'm sure the 1:1 aspect ratio turned some people off of it), but it's a really good one, and Anne Dorval was every bit as good as Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night. The other two main performances were really good as well. If it's still showing in your area, I'd highly recommend you see it while it's still around.

The Imitation Game: After perhaps two less-than-conventional films (especially the latter), this one felt like a return to normalcy. A very normal, albeit well done, biopic. I guess this is similar to Two Days, One Night in that I pretty much got what I expected going into it. Strange man with a gift solves world's toughest problem while having a hard time figuring out basic human interaction. It was very solid, but I'm not sure how often it accomplished what it intended. I never really felt excited, never too emotional (even though this, something that actually happened, would be something to get emotional about). It could have been done better, but it was good enough, and it was certainly the kind of movie that Oscar voters love. Side note: Not sure if because of legitimately great acting or partially attributable to amazing looks, but Matthew Goode, not Benedict Cumberbatch or Keira Knightley, stole every scene for me.
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Asfan
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Watched Birdman again. It really did not hold up well. It had a few great scenes, but I really didn't care much about what was going on in the non-Edward Norton scenes. Reminded me that, of the nominees, Eddie Redmayne really was the most deserving to win Best Actor.

What We Do in the Shadows: This was the funniest movie I've seen in a long, long time. It was actually quite short (86 minutes), but they make ever minute count. The plot seemed to wander around and not have any clear destination, but that didn't matter at all because just about ever joke landed perfectly. Watch it.
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Asfan
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TRIPLE POST

Timbuktu: As you might expect from a film about jihadists taking over a city, it's not a very happy movie. It's an interesting set-up, where you have a main character and his family, who live just outside the city, and then a bunch of scenes with different inhabitants of the city, who are primarily Muslim, failing to live up to the expectations of the jihadists. It was also cool to see how the film managed to take a nuanced look at the individual extremists, while fully condemning the movement. But yeah, very depressing. Still good.

'71: It's not exactly original, but having an action thriller that doesn't take sides and condemns both the government and insurgents as equally evil (not just, "Oh, the government has its problems but the insurgents are way worse") is rare enough to make it refreshing. Basically, the only good guys are the protagonist and the few who help him out, and the movie did a great job of creating sympathy for those people and their situations. That way, even though you know the main character is at least safe until near the end, there is some suspense with regards to those characters. The last thing I can clearly remember from this movie is that it avoids a good number of tropes and cliches, and the ones it doesn't avoid, it does feel like it does a good job of earning/putting them in for a reason. Overall, good, and doesn't really require too much thinking beyond the moral implications of the actions each side takes.

Wild Tales: I was going to wait to write this post until later in the week since I'll probably be seeing 2-3 more (one or two of Gett and Red Army, plus Furious 7), but after seeing this today, I wanted to get my thoughts down. This one was really, really good. Like, right up there with Whiplash and Grand Budapest (my favorite movies of last year) good. It's basically a collection of six short stories about people pushed to their breaking point and seeking revenge on the one(s) who wronged them. All of them are very good. The only disappointing part about it is that none of them, for me, topped the first one. On top of being completely insane, they all have plenty of funny parts too, so each time you go, "Holy shit, this guy/woman is crazy," you can laugh to it as well. Pretty much, it has everything going for it. In the words of Jay Onrait: WATCH IT
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Snowman
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Finally watched The Shining and I was sufficiently terrified. I can't wait to be an anxious mess every time I walk into the bathroom for the next week! Horror movies have that effect on me. But I'd recommend it! It was fun. Although I didn't think the end was as scary as the first half or two-thirds or so. At a point it felt like it became a drawn-out chase scene with some funky stuff going on intermittently. It wasn't bad, I just thought the slow build-up from the beginning was really good and then it just lost the subtlety at the end.
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DucksFAN93
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So Avengers 2 was a mess.
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Snowman
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Mad Max: Fury Road -- Lots of fun and destruction and female propaganda.

Dr. No -- Well now the only Bond movies I've seen are the oldest one and the newest one, and idk what's good between the two of them, but I definitely liked Skyfall more than Dr. No. But part of that is probably me liking the sleekness of the modern stuff more than the "hey look it's the 60s" look for Dr. No.
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CALJR_8760
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Jurassic World

Jurassic Park, a franchise that consists of two books, four movies, an amusement park area, and tons of merchandise. Of all the blockbuster series, it is one that is of the most plausible blockbuster Sci-fi movies and thus might be one of the most important. The problem though has been that since the amazing first entry, the series has went downhill. I wouldn't argue that any of the movies were bad, but the second was just good with overly cheesy moments and the third was mediocre.

Jurassic World on the other hand changes this trajectory. Don't get me wrong, this movie is far from as great as the original, but at the end of the day it is a great movie.

Let's start with the pros. Jurassic World opens up in such an amazing way. No I'm not talking about the opening scene per se, but the first part of the movie. It is the dream come true. We finally get to see a Jurassic Park fully operational. Not only that but the filming of the movie was entirely old school, yet so crisp, just like the original. There are other parallels set up to the original also like having two kids being sent to the park to spend time with their important family member who doesn't have enough time to spend with them.

While normally product placement is at least a bit agitating in movies, in Jurassic World I actually found it quite cleverly placed and a bit humorous. It is incorporated into the park in the same way that you would expect it to be in an actual amusement park. Not only that but they make fun of its use also, as a character finds disdain in using brand names for the attractions, something he finds not genuine.

But the biggest pro is perhaps the story and all the new themes the new movie deals with. Many of the older themes make a comeback, but there are also new themes. There are themes of modern society constantly not having enough. The government and corporations constantly wanting to weaponize everything. Among others. On top of the themes is a story about humanity going wrong. The connection of man with nature. Friendship and loyalty. It's just a wondrous story.

I'd also like to give a couple honorable mentions. I thoroughly enjoyed the continuation of the story of a more minor character from Jurassic Park. I also very much liked the fact that they gave explanation to why the dinosaurs from the movies don't match up to their real life counterparts, something that wasn't the fault of the movie as it was mostly scientifically accurate at the time of it's release.

Now there are some faults to the movie also. The special effects in the movie are plainly amazing. However, it saddens me that sometimes they don't hold up to the original, which seems to be because they either didn't use animatronics or didn't rely on them as much as the first movie. Once again, the special effects are still amazing, but it's just starting to become sad that modern movies can't hold a candle still to a movie that came out in 1993.

The other complaint is that as the movie goes on it starts becoming too similar to the original. They start as nice little odes that are at times magical, but at the final part, I'm left just think, really? That plus a bit too much of easily remedied plot convenience offsets the movie from being amazing and on par with the original to just being great.

Overall the movie holds up. There is great characterizations, even among some of the dinos, although perhaps not as much as the first movie. However I applaud the fact that never did the movie feel like the movie was trying to outdo the first like the sequels before it, but instead just tell a great story, that unfortunately gets a bit too dragged down by the overabundance of nods to the first movie, in which the movie couldn't completely be it's very own beast.


Spoiler: click to toggle
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Asfan
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It's been a while since I posted here and I've seen quite a bit, so most of these reviews probably won't be lengthy in the least.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: I don't remember the first one very well, but I sure remembered it being a lot better than this. This one was just a bunch of old people (and a young guy) being clueless idiots with no idea how to handle certain basic situations in their social lives and going to random people off the streets who give them fortune cookie advice. Really not very good at all, even with Maggie Smith doing her best to drag it into decent ground.

Furious 7: Warning: I'd seen maybe half of the Tokyo movie (which I'm told is detached from the rest of the series) before this one and that was it. So not much context for the series. It wasn't bad, but it was incredibly cheesy. I enjoyed a lot of the characters, but couldn't bring myself to enjoy their storylines. Especially Michelle Rodriguez' character.
this is a spoiler
I guess the Paul Walker stuff was pretty good, which is a shame. You know, since he won't be back. It was a solid stand-alone movie. Maybe I need to see the others for it to be good.

Little Miss Sunshine: I don't know how I lived without Abigail Breslin's performance in this movie. It made me so happy. If I'm down, I can just think of Olive and I'll be happy again. The rest of them are good and story is good and stuff but the only thing that stands out a lot to me is Abigail Breslin as Olive. There. Done.

Merchants of Doubt: This one's a documentary about people/companies who lie about certain things to make money (focuses on tobacco, the anti-flame stuff in couches, and climate change). A lot of it is not surprising, and you even feel like you knew before, but the little tidbits from the people on the other side were pretty interesting. There was one guy who I am assuming is still active, who goes on the news and is super flashy and dumbs things down and attacks the people on the "other side" in those news channel debates, and he talked about how he knew he was lying to/misleading a bunch of people, so I thought it was really cool that he was included and willing to talk about it in the documentary. Good doc.

Ex Machina: Don't have much to say about this one. It was pretty much what I expected. If you like Oscar Isaac like literally everybody else, then you'll really enjoy him in this one. I wouldn't say it's predictable, but it's not necessarily difficult to see where the movie is going. Worth watching, but I wouldn't go out my my way to see it.

While We're Young: Meh. It did a pretty good job of avoiding cliches, but that's about it. It wasn't particularly engaging or funny (I think it was supposed to be a comedy?). None of the characters are very likable, except for maybe Amanda Seyfried's. And even she's pretty plain. I love Naomi Watts, but they didn't give her much material to work with. So yeah, it was fairly original, but I can't give it too many compliments other than that. I think it's more of a film for the middle-aged.

Clouds of Sils Maria: This one was unique and really clever in the way it was shot. It's about a woman (Juliette Binoche) who takes a role in the play that started her career, but takes the role opposite of what she played when she was younger. It was really cool though in that a lot of the time, it takes a while to figure out whether Binoche's character is just reading lines with Kristen Stewart's or if they're actually having a conversation. Speaking of Stewart, she was really good in this. A lot of people say that it's only because she took a role that fits her, but regardless, she was top-notch. There are some great shots and lots of great dialogue throughout. Two thumbs up.

The Salt of the Earth: Another doc! And this one is, like, really good. Wasn't too excited by the trailer, but my friend really wanted to see it, so I decided to tag along, and I'm happy I did. I'm not super into photography, but the way the narrators describes everything and brings the photographer's (Sebastiao Salgado) pictures and film to life, it was fascinating. They have such a way with words, it was fun to listen to. I wasn't as big a fan of most of the last act (never thought I'd have enjoyed the photography portion more than the environmentalist portion), but it was fine and the rest of the film more than made up for it.

Danny Collins: This one is a nice foil to While We're Young in that just about all the characters are likable despite their faults, countering the other's trait of creating very unlikable characters despite their positive attributes. Al Pacino is good, as always, and for once, Bobby Cannavale plays someone who isn't a creep/insane (note: I've seen him in two other roles). And no review would be completely without at the very least mentioning the always wonderful Annette Benning in her American Beauty-fifteen-years-later-uptight-on-the-surface-but-a-little-more-fun-beneath-it role. It wasn't quite Little Miss Sunshine (hey, it's not their fault that Abigail Breslin grew up), but it was a delightful little feel-good movie in its own right.

Mad Max: Fury Road: My favorite movie of all of these, this was another example of not going by my gut reaction after being put off by the trailer. I can't take all the credit myself though (thanks MRAs!). It was incredible how they conveyed so much information with so little dialogue from its main characters (Charlize Theron is quite a chatterbox compared with everyone else, and even she doesn't talk excessively) and with almost the whole thing being a giant car chase (or a lot of shorter car chases). The visuals were all amazing and the action was all awesome. I've come really enjoy Tom Hardy over the past year, and this only helped contribute to that. And whoever played Nux was awesome too. Haven't seen the original, but I kind of want to now, if only as a comparison. Since I doubt it could be much better.

Jurassic World: Holy cliches, Batman! I think every character in this movie was a cliche. The little kid who is super excited for his vacation, knows everything about it, and can't contain himself in the least. The older brother who's only interested in girls and is put off by having to look after his little brother. Is not excited about/interested at all in a ridiculously expensive vacation because of it. The aunt who knows absolutely nothing about her nephews and neglects her family because she's too committed to her career and can only think in math and statistics. Her rugged, amazing-at-everything former fling who is her foil. His idiot boss who is too self-absorbed and self-interested and stupid to listen to him. I think I got most of them. You get the idea. Other than the bountiful cliches (there are plenty in the plot as well- they're not contained to the characters), it wasn't bad. People have been criticizing the CGI, but I thought it was pretty well done for the most part. It was pretty fun to watch, for the most part. And Chris Pratt was still super dreamy and worked well with Not Jessica Chastain. So yeah, get past the myriad cliches and you get a solid summer blockbuster (that might just break every record ever).
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Snowman
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Asfan
Jun 16 2015, 02:43 AM
Chris Pratt was still super dreamy
10/10 would see again

EDIT: Srsly tho he's just awesome in everything I've seen him in and I hope he continues to be awesome.
Edited by Snowman, Jun 16 2015, 02:50 AM.
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Asfan
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I'll See You in My Dreams: I was expecting comedy with some drama parts. It was drama with some comedy parts with a lot of pondering death. Apparently Blythe Danner is very well known among people (about half the people asking to buy tickets to this from me were getting tickets for "What's that Blythe Danner movie?") but I'd never heard of her before. Going through her IMDb page, the only thing of interest I found was surprise that Will & Grace lasted until 2006. But after seeing her acting chops, I could see why everyone knows her. Loved her performance. She had to go through tons of different emotions in this role and nailed every one. Most memorably, perhaps because it was my lingering emotion afterward, was bittersweet, with a whole lot of bitter and a tinge of sweet. I think they were going for a little more sweet, but perhaps I'm just not grown-up enough yet to "get it" like the target audience (age 65+) might.

Side note: I wish June Squibb was in this more since she's a bad-ass and was awesome in her limited role, but I can sort of understand why she wasn't. Her character was pretty inessential and inconsequential except for the comedy.

The Birdcage: The Alamo was doing a free screening of this for Gay Day, so that was cool. It was on my watch list and I'd never seen it before, so I guess good timing. I feel like I might need to watch it again though. A lot of the time, I was really annoyed with Nathan Lane's character, even though he really was supposed to be the "hero" of the film. I hope. Or maybe it was Agador Spartacus. But anyway, first half was pretty good, second half was really good. Plenty of laughs, very quotable ("Oh god, I pierced the toast!"). I believe it's also the first Robin Williams movie I've seen since his death. Not sure if that's significant or anything. Just thought I'd share.

The Normal Heart: Gay movie #2, this was a lot less funny than The Birdcage. I guess you'll get kind of sad when you're watching a movie about the start of the AIDS crisis. Basically the entire second half of the movie, I'd think, oh, this must be the saddest part of the movie. And I was wrong every time I thought that until the final few minutes. Even Jim Parsons made me really sad when he was giving that funeral speech and lamenting the lack of help they were receiving from the government because "they just don't like us." So yeah, if you don't mind being sad and learning about the AIDS crisis, definitely watch this. If you don't want to be so sad, watch something more upbeat, like Schindler's List.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: This one's a bit tougher than the rest to review because so much of the good stuff is either retrospectively influenced by the climax or comes afterward. So I'll do my best. This one kind of seemed like if you had a cross-over between Perks of Being a Wallflower and a Wes Anderson movie, except instead of awkwardly becoming friends with a group of people three years older than he is, he just awkwardly becomes friends with one girl that's his age who has cancer. One very notable aspect of this film is that, unlike almost every other coming-of-age movie where the character is slightly flawed but still wonderful people, Greg ("Me" from the title) is kind of not that wonderful. He's goofy to the point of not being funny, really socially unaware, self-hating, sort of annoying, and above all, incredibly awkward. There are some issues I had, most notable that Earl, who was apparently important enough in the book to be in the title, doesn't develop much at all. He gets there eventually, but by then, the movie is almost done. Good news: Olivia Cooke, who plays Rachel ("the Dying Girl"), was awesome. There's this one scene where she literally does not say a word and you can tell exactly what she's thinking the whole time. I love it when actors can do stuff like that. Now for spoilers in case anyone has seen it/will see it:
spoilers guysssssss
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kmr95
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Snowman
Jun 16 2015, 02:50 AM
Asfan
Jun 16 2015, 02:43 AM
Chris Pratt was still super dreamy
10/10 would see again

EDIT: Srsly tho he's just awesome in everything I've seen him in and I hope he continues to be awesome.
I want to be Chris Pratt tbh
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Snowman
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Grease -- I hadn't seen it all the way through, so I finally did. It wasn't as good as I expected. I mean, I didn't expect it to be 10/10, but I just expected better with it being a classic and stuff. But I only really liked three songs (Summer Nights, You're the One That I Want, and Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee), and didn't really like any of the characters or the story, so yeah kinda disappointed I guess.

Going Clear -- HBO's Scientology documentary. I knew Scientology was weird and kinda sketchy, but I didn't realize how cruel and manipulative it was until I watched this. I don't watch documentaries often, but if you're into them, I'd recommend it.

Jaws -- Hadn't seen this one all the way through either. However, it was better than I expected. It wasn't always very suspenseful, but it had character, which was more than I anticipated.

I think I need to watch more movies more often. I've been pretty slow here lately.
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Asfan
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It's been a while since I posted here last, so quick reviews:

It Follows
- Very good, possibly my favorite horror movie not called Scream. (Note: I very rarely watch horror movies.)

Avengers: Age of Ultron - Bad

Spy - Not good

Heaven Knows What - Slow and depressing but a different look at homelessness from what I've seen in the past.

Gone Girl
- Good

Inside Out - Just pretty good until the ending, which was very good.

Irrational Man - It was okay

Love & Mercy - Started out great and the rest of it was pretty good.

John Wick
- It was okay

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation - Very good

Best of Enemies - Good but a little less interesting than I think it could have been.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl - Very good

Phoenix - Better than very good and easily the best German movie I've seen.

Scream 2 - Not as good as the original but still pretty good if you ignore the plot contrivances.

Scream 3
- Not very good

Scream 4 - Had some great moments but the rest wasn't that much better than 3.

99 Homes
- Pretty depressing and not enough Laura Dern. Pretty good though.

Rear Window
- Not as good as I'd hoped.

Sicario - Pretty depressing but it had enough Benicio Del Toro. Pretty good.

The Martian - Not that good, sounded like it was written to make science look cool to people who know nothing about science.

Steve Jobs - Not what I expected but good.

Room - One of the best movies of the year and Brie Larson should win an Oscar, probably.
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Snowman
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They had Phoenix at a theater here on campus for like a weekend or something but I didn't go. Glad to hear it was good, will check it out sometime. I've seen a few movies too and will double post later, but as a preview, The Evil Dead is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen.
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tfghost92
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swag on this dick, bitches
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Snowman
Jul 6 2015, 12:58 AM
But I only really liked three songs (Summer Nights, You're the One That I Want, and Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee)
r u fuckin kidding me rn


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