W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by Buscemi »

Hey W, you want to pick a week's worth of movies for the Movie of the Day series on the Facebook account? You seem like you could do well at it.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

Maybe. I really don't use Facebook at all. I never really have.

3/4

London Has Fallen 5/10: Man, this was pretty bad. The first one was passable in a cheesy way, but this one went above and beyond in the horrible dialogue department. It really just shows that anything that makes even a little bit potentially has a sequel. Gerard Butler keeps getting these action film starrers, but no one sees that Zach Snyder's style was the star of 300. Besides one of the most underrated performances in a superhero film, what has Aaron Eckhart done? I generally don't know. He's pretty much the "he has a good face" guy, right? Based on Two Face, he can seriously do something, but I'm not exactly sure what that is.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot 8/10: This is a good mix of comedy and drama. They could have went much harder into one or the other, but it wouldn't have been as good of a movie. I'm not a fan of Alfred Molina's character, which is all over the place. Martin Freeman's Iain is probably the best character of the bunch and a lot of the soldiers aren't really flushed out. Good movie nonetheless.

Zootopia 9/10: One of the better animated films in a long while, on the level of Inside Out. The characters are more flushed out than most any live action film and you sympathize with them much more than a big stupid popcorn film. It's a detective movie almost as good as Gone Girl or Prisoners (both of which I loved), but in animated form. If you compare it to something like Ride Along 1 & 2 (a buddy comedy detective film, like Zootopia), Zootopia really blows it out of the water. I love it when I can take my kid to a movie and both of us can enjoy it because it is not completely dumbed down.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by Buscemi »

I'd actually say Zootopia is Chinatown meets Lethal Weapon (though 48 Hrs. may make more sense due to the pairing being a cop and a con artist and the film's short time frame) but made kid-friendly.

And I think Aaron Eckhart keeps getting big roles because Patrick Wilson's busy with whatever James Wan's up to.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

3/11, 3/18

10 Cloverfield Lane 10/10: Movies like this and Ex Machina show that you can make cheap (from the Hollywood definition) tense, confined films that are amazing. You can make a film that has a huge budget feel going on outside, but have it focused on three or four rooms and three people for 80% of the movie. It's much easier to get three people to do what you want than a hundred. And it especially works out when you get three that give performances like this. I loved John Goodman as the villain and his transformation into what's basically a monster was pretty awesome. So tense and the few lighthearted parts work very well. I wonder if it's a coincidence that my two favorite movies this year are just a few people in a room for most of the film?

The Brothers Grimsby 7/10: Maybe my super low expectations clouded my judgement, but I really liked this one. The action sequences are pretty much on par with most mid budget action films. The jokes are hit and miss depending on who's watching it. They hit more for me, so a positive review.

The Bronze 4/10: It's pretty unfunny most of the way through. The production is pretty rough compared to most movies nowadays. Just a very crude movie filled with unlikeable characters where very little happens and few jokes land. I wanted to like it because I do like a lot of other things the comedic actors have made, but it just didn't work out for me.

Allegiant 4/10: YA adaptations are getting worse and worse. How can a film with a series of novels and two other films behind it feel like they're making shit up on the spot? It was the same way with The 5th Wave. None of this makes sense at all and you don't care about anything that happens. And it's not the main actors. I've seen most of them do very good things before. It's long, drawn out, boring, and nonsensical.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

3/25

Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice 6/10: Normally superhero films rate above average for me. This was passable at best. Pretty much style without substance. I won't kill you because both of our moms are named Martha? Really? It worked well for Snyder in 300 and Dawn of the Dead, but I don't think it has since. It does make me excited for Wonder Woman, especially if done in the past like the original Captain America. Also I'm intrigued by what a solo Affleck-man film will look like because he was more than decent. The character that killed it was Superman. If you have someone that cannot die and has every power under the sun (literally) there really aren't any stakes to the film. Throwing him in with Batman especially doesn't work for me tone-wise. Hopefully he stays in that casket for a long while and they figure out what to do with him in the meantime.

I Saw the Light 8/10: For country music fans, making a movie about Hank Williams is like making a movie about the Beatles, but if they ended up like Jimi Hendrix. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I'm sure it's watered down like pretty much every music biopic out there, but it wasn't a puff piece. How could it be with a tortured soul like Hank as the subject? It's pretty basic ans straightforward as the genre typically goes. It was based on a biography and you could really tell. It was pretty much about what happened, but not really why it happened and it didn't show his thoughts and why he was doing the things he was doing. Tom Hiddleston was pretty excellent as Hank and the music was pretty excellent. I would not recommend this to anyone who doesn't like the artist but for me it was great.

The Lobster 6/10: (There are also spoilers--in black spoiler bars--for Inception and of course The Lobster, but I'm sure everyone has seen Inception already) This is a pretty weird film, but I kind of figured that going in to it. Kind of like if Wes Anderson was extremely depressed. It was pretty intriguing, but I typically want to know what actually happens at the end of the film. It works sometimes like with Inception. In Inception he's in the dream world or he's not, it really doesn't matter since he doesn't care anymore. He's with his family either way. Here, a thousand things could have happened to end the story. He could have blinded himself, told her he blinded himself like he was lying earlier, just left and lived in the place(s) he said he wanted to visit, or he could have gotten transformed (into what? A lobster or the "horrible thing nobody wants turned into"). A shot of a lobster, or him walking in the background behind Weisz may have bumped it up a couple of spots for me.

I'm pretty much always up for "what if" type films (fantasy, sci fi, dystopia, whatever) and this does raise a lot of good points on expectations of relationships and mating. It may raise too many "what ifs" instead of focusing on a few, though. The second half dragged and I think it'd be a lot better if they focused the last hour on the hotel as well instead of venturing into the singles forest. It would have solved some of the problems I had with the movie. It's also about the weirdest thing you can watch without it going into the nonsensical. It's very monotonous in tone, bleak, slow, and dull color wise, but it really works well for the film. You can tell that the director is very deliberate in pretty much every aspect of the film. That's not to say most aren't, but every shot seemed to turn out pretty much perfectly for what he was going for. The entire cast is really good at what they're being asked to portray, which is probably due to the deliberate direction. It is really pretty good throughout, but I just had to dock it a couple of points for the points I made in the spoiler bars.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by undeadmonkey »

Mild Spoilers below for Superman vs Batmans and Gone Girl, ye have been warned.

Yea, Warner should give Superman to someone else, Snyder has always been style over substance, he should be a DP and let someone else direct. Also, I hated the Lex Luthor portrayal, all he needed was some makeup and he could have been The Joker, a poor one but still his character was closer to that than to Lex.

Superman could make for some fascinating movies but they are afraid to move beyond the generic superhero fighting the bad guy story line. as you said, since superman is immortal there's really no stakes to the basic superhero story plot, so they try to add some with, 'oh how do humans (or batman) feel about this' or 'do what i say or i'll kill your loved ones'.

just to throw some ideas out there, what about a superman movie where he takes over the world because he's convinced that the only way to protect the world and the humans is to control them, or he's actually trying to live a normal life, raise a family (ala incredibles). and the fact that there is no religion to worship superman as a deity is downright unbelievable, what about a movie where he has to deal with zealots killing and plundering in his name.

I'm not looking forward to the Bat-fleck. Unless he brings back Rosamund Pike as his wife, and she frames Batman for her murder, then maybe id buy a ticket.

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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by Buscemi »

Am I the only one (besides Six) who didn't think Gone Girl was a good movie? The whole thing felt like a two-and-a-half hour Lifetime movie that only got praised due it to being from Fincher (perhaps the most overrated director today).
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

Buscemi wrote:Am I the only one (besides Six) who didn't think Gone Girl was a good movie? The whole thing felt like a two-and-a-half hour Lifetime movie that only got praised due it being from Fincher (perhaps the most overrated director today).
Maybe. It may have been the best movie I saw in 2014. Definitely top 3. One of the best mysteries in a long time.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by Chienfantome »

I'm not fan of Gone Girl. It was okay, but nothing spectacular.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by undeadmonkey »

I didn't care for Gone Girl either (but Fincher is fantastic). I was just saying if Batman and Catwoman have hot steamy shower scene together in costume, i might watch it. :lol:

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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

4/8

The Boss 4/10: Just one of the worst kind of comedies out there. Worse than Identity Thief and Tammy. I know McCarthy can do better because, well, Spy. It looks like she's getting progressively worse if you don't factor in the Spy uptick. I hope her next films doesn't follow that pattern since I really am hoping the Ghostbusters hate is just idiots that have something against females. I don't typically like awful people doing awful things (especially involving kids like this one). Kristen Bell is ok, I guess, but pretty much everyone else was just unfunny and awful. I love Peter Dinklage, but I hope he stays away from these type of films from now on (Pixels, this, Underdog...). He's great with witty stuff and he's one of the best actors out there... Low brow, not so much.

Demolition
7/10: This is one of the better made films in the "figure out my life quietly" independent film genre that includes Everything Must Go, Henry Poole is Here, The Station Agent (best of all), etc. He has to manage his wife's death while trying to deconstruct his marriage, which he realizes he pretty much floated through. It might as well hit you with a sledgehammer when they show him deconstructing everything and equating that with deconstructing his life time and time again. Gyllenhall, Watts, and the kid are really pretty good in the film. In time it'll probably be one of those movies you forgot you watched.

Hardcore Henry 8/10: One of the best pure action films in a while. The first person POV suits the high speed action genre very well. My theater had notices up that said you may get motion sickness and I've never seen that before, nor was I affected. It's a lot of fun and Sharlto Copley steals pretty much every scene he's in.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by transformers2 »

Buscemi wrote:Am I the only one (besides Six) who didn't think Gone Girl was a good movie? The whole thing felt like a two-and-a-half hour Lifetime movie that only got praised due it to being from Fincher (perhaps the most overrated director today).
Gone Girl wasn't that well-received around these parts. I believe W, JohnErle, Banks and myself were the only people that heavily praised it.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

4/15

Barbershop: The Next Cut 5/10: It's mostly unfunny and super heavy handed. It reminds me a little of when Cartman said "How am I going to get through to these kiiiiiiids???" The big turn around thing is to get something trending on Twitter with a hashtag that's like thirty characters long and it's done in a montage... Nicki Minaj is as bad as Rhianna in Battleship. Common is pretty bad. No one is really as funny as they were in the first two (especially the first one). It was watchable, but just barely.

The Jungle Book 9/10: Jon Favreau makes another pretty excellent blockbuster. The film is gorgeous to look at It and every casting decision is spot on. It's hard to say it improves on the original (both are so excellent), but I can't think of anything better in the cartoon-to-live action genre.

Green Room 10/10: Probably the best movie I've seen all year, I preordered it without it having some kind of special edition which I pretty much never do. Horror is just about my least favorite genre and a horror film has to have something else to make me watch it. This one is is a (mostly) confined survival horror film that pits a punk band vs new age Nazis. This movie is so tense, then erupts into thrills of violence. Like some films with a protagonist that you know is going to make it through the movie alive (or at least makes it to the end) this one feels like nobody is safe and anything can happen. Just an excellent film and probably in my top 5 horror films.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by W »

4/22, 4/29, 5/6

The Huntsman Winter's War 6/10: A pretty passable grim fairy tale film that's not as good as the first one. Not much of a story, but good visuals. I honestly cannot remember much about this. Nick Frost and the rest of the dwarves brought some decent humor into it.

Keanu 8/10: A pretty funny pic starring Key and Peele and a cat (well, a bunch of cats) named Keanu. There's a bunch of great goofs and the action is decent for a comedy. It's a lot about how you fit in which, from listening to interviews, is a pretty personal subject for the leads. Love the George Michael stuff. Just an extremely watchable comedy.

Captain America Civil War 7/10: Look, it's Marvel. They do big. They do explosions. They do our childhood. And they do it better than pretty much anyone. But it's just too much everything. Too many characters, they introduced too many people and they probably should have cut it in two like they're doing for the other Avengers movies. I really like the two new Avengers they introduced, but they should have been done in a different movie or if they had more time. It was a lot of fun, but I'm more of a fan of the standalone films (Iron Man, Guardians, Captain America, etc) than the Avengers stuff.
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Re: W's 2016 in Film (So Far) Thread

Post by Buscemi »

I wish Marvel would make a new Howard the Duck movie instead of making him a throwaway gag in the obnoxious (but popular, because Marvel fans) Guardians of the Galaxy. But of course, Kevin Feige would never allow for an R-rated, surrealist comedy (the end result would probably be Inherent Vice with sci-fi elements) to be greenlighted.

Maybe Netflix could come to the rescue. All of the R/TV-MA-rated Marvel stuff's going there (and Feige isn't handling those).
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