What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

Frozen: Fan-freaking-tastic return to form for Disney Animation.  Prefer hand-drawn still, but this flick had so much good stuff going on in terms of narrative, songwriting, animation effects with ice and snow, and inspired and humorous voice work by the cast.  I have a few problems with things that happened in the 3rd act, but overall a fun, enjoyable Disney flick that should not be missed.  4.5/5

Saving Mr. Banks:  Well, seeing as how much I love behind the scenes stories often much more than movies themselves, see The Godfather, I had high hopes for this one.  Unfortunately, it did disappoint me in its narrative choices and unrelenting cliche feel.  I wanted to like these characters and the tales being told of them, but in the end, I found them all somewhat unlikable and two-dimensional for the most part.  Best parts:  Colin Farrell's haunting, award-worthy performance as Travers Goff, Emma Thompson being flawlessly stubborn, and Paul Giamatti.  Lows: Hanks trying too hard, the shoehorned musical sequences, the predictable third act.  3.1/5

"Lone Survivor"
It's a much more better movie by director Peter Berg than "Battleship".

"47 Ronin" - OK, but not great. Someone needs to run that poor movie through a filter to turn down the quality because that Digital or HFR effect its got going on really just hurt what should be some spectacular visuals.

"American Hustle" - Fucking fantastic movie..!   Jennifer Lawrence summoned up her best "Sharon Stone from Casino" and it worked well after initially being a bit grating.

"The Legend of Hercules" - A lovable complete ball of cheese. That's the good. The bad is the CGI/Green screen close ups and horrible CGI lion. Then the end...wow...it ended it pretty close to perfectly as it followed with the story build up, but then BAM!!! they stuck an extra bit on that completely ruined it. Terrible. Also it looks like the movie will probably get an UNRATED cut once it hits DVD as there is a clear lack of blood/gore where there definitely should be.

Holy Mountain - A fun little film about a guy who thinks he's Jesus and kind of fails at the roll. (At least to my understanding.) The film has an abundance of amusing and interesting scenes and settings. I particularly liked the mage's tower what with it's bright variety of colors and such. I like wacky films like these. They're my favorite.

You're Next:
Brad was right, wholly unlikeable cast, utterly insane scripted dialogue [not a fan of mumblecore/gore], and batshit tonal shifts made this one painful to sit through for the first 2/3rds.  Final act delivered in suspense and action but was not enough to save this movie.
+ Sharni Vinson makes for a capable action heroine and the 3 killers were strangely, silently charismatic.
Good synth score appears halfway through and makes for better mood.
Good gory money shots and effects work.
Final Act works as a suspense set piece as well as a twisted adaptation of Home Alone.
- Every other character is annoying, irritating, and unbelievable in every goddamn scene.
Too many jump moments early on.
Jarring tonal shifts all through the first 2/3rds.
The script can KMA.
Final Score: 2.2/5

Re-watched XMEN FIRST CLASS instead of the State of the Union, like the Bad American that I am. Same reaction as my initial viewing - if it were just 90 minutes of Fassbender telekenetically murdering Nazis it would be my favorite movie ever. Everything else, eh, better than LAST STAND....

90s movie weekend:

SINGLE WHITE FEMALE - one of those psychosexual stalker flicks that were so popular in the wake of FATAL ATTRACTION. After she catches her boyfriend cheating, a young woman advertises for a roommate with the opener "Single White Female seeks same" -- and gets a little more "same" than she bargained for. There's a lot of logic stretches here, but Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh are both fantastic. 6/10

CRIMSON TIDE - Tony Scott thriller about an intense clash of wills between submarine officers. I'd forgotten what a powerhouse this movie's cast is: you've got Denzel and Hac-Man of course, but there's also Viggo Mortensen, Matt Craven, Steve Zahn, and James Gandolfini. Aside from the impossibly spacious submarine interior, I don't really have any problem with this movie. 7.5/10

WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT - young Anna Mae Bullock meets innovative rock musician Ike Turner. They form an act, get married and she takes the stage name "Tina" but Ike is a controlling, angry partner; and the more audiences & music execs like Tina's singing, the more hostile he grows. Direction-wise, this is really by-the-numbers. But Angela Bassett's portrayal of Tina Turner is still pretty much the biopic gold standard, and Laurence Fishburne is also unnervingly effective as Ike. 6.5/10

Oscar double feature:
Nebraska- This film stunned me.  Bruce Dern's possible last hurrah was a poignant snapshot of a sentimentally dysfunctional nuclear family going on a journey to initially humor the patriarch's delusional winning of millions and ends with one of the most heartwarming sequences I've seen in my film-going career.  I went in with grudgingly low expectations.  This movie is the rural Midwest in a nutshell.  My friends and I left silenced by its frank portrayal of Midwest stereotypes, archetypes, and good ol' family values.  Beautifully constructed narrative, thoughtfully shot, and immaculate performances thrust this into my Top 3 of 2013 retroactively.  June Squibb was a riot as the frankly derisive wife of Bruce Dern and rambunctious mother to Will Forte and Bob Odenkirk.  She deserves an Oscar, but methinks 12 Years will steal Best Supp Actress. -sigh- 4.8/5

Desolation of Smaug- -lengthy sigh- I'm gonna be bitchy becuz I saw this in the front row in 3D.  My neck still aches.  Story's still a bit too convoluted and messy for my taste.  Tauriel's storyline was fine, nothing to gripe about.  Cumberbatch was okay, but I was underwhelmed by his digitally overlaid presence.  Design wise, it's getting a bit less interesting with each film made.  I find it bitterly ironic that Martin Freeman gets second billing in The Hobbit under Super Thespian Ian McKellen who has about half his screentime.  Eh, the last third was the best part, with all sorts of shenanigans and excitement in the Lonely Mountain.  Needed more Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchette, and a lot less Orlando Bloom.  3.1/5

Weezy-LUiGi wrote:

Oscar double feature:
 June Squibb was a riot as the frankly derisive wife of Bruce Dern and rambunctious mother to Will Forte and Bob Odenkirk.  She deserves an Oscar, but methinks 12 Years will steal Best Supp Actress. -sigh- 4.8/5

But you're fine with Matt McC beating Dern for Best Actor and American Hustle winning literally everything else?

ChaosTheory wrote:

Weezy-LUiGi wrote:

Oscar double feature:
 June Squibb was a riot as the frankly derisive wife of Bruce Dern and rambunctious mother to Will Forte and Bob Odenkirk.  She deserves an Oscar, but methinks 12 Years will steal Best Supp Actress. -sigh- 4.8/5

But you're fine with Matt McC beating Dern for Best Actor and American Hustle winning literally everything else?  

McConaughey, Yes. I thought he was fantastic in DBC. I couldn't stand American Hustle and I don't think it'll win anything besides possibly a coupl'a design awards. Methinks Gravity will take most of the technicals and Director. Sandra deserves the Oscar this time, but she won't get it. So Blanchette will win instead of Amy Adams, who was the only good part of Hustle.

28 days later

Really good stuff, I can see why it's Brad's favorite horror film of the last decade. It's also kind of funny to think that the movie is technically a shot-on-shittio film - a majority of it is shot on Canon's prosumer camcorders, which instead of making it look shittier gives it more of a gritty disturbing feel in some parts. Really impressive in my opinion.

Oh, and there was that weird wtf moment at the end where (spoilers) the jet fighter pilot is talking Finnish to the radio  I guess we were the only ones to survive the apocalypse huh?  

perkele wrote:

28 days later

Really good stuff, I can see why it's Brad's favorite horror film of the last decade. It's also kind of funny to think that the movie is technically a shot-on-shittio film - a majority of it is shot on Canon's prosumer camcorders, which instead of making it look shittier gives it more of a gritty disturbing feel in some parts. Really impressive in my opinion.

Oh, and there was that weird wtf moment at the end where (spoilers) the jet fighter pilot is talking Finnish to the radio  I guess we were the only ones to survive the apocalypse huh?  

28 DAYS LATER is fantastic. 28 WEEKS LATER, not so much.

Predator - which I haven't seen until now.

Did not disappoint. Arnold plus ridiculous amounts of violence = win!

ChaosTheory wrote:

28 DAYS LATER is fantastic. 28 WEEKS LATER, not so much.

Well, Brad seemed to like that one as well. Maybe I'll check it out some day.

Watched two movies today.

Shaolin soccer
Extremely over the top, cheesy, stupid, but pretty fun at the same time.

'nuff said


Delicatessen
Ok, that was a fucked up movie if I ever saw one. It's like being on acid while watching the French dub of Brazil

Slither

Really fun movie filled with blood, gore, slime and grotesque creatures. Nice little throwback to movies like Carpenter's The Thing and Re-Animator. This was actually surprisingly good considering the director's other work which includes titles such as Scooby-Doo and Movie 43...

perkele wrote:

Slither

Really fun movie filled with blood, gore, slime and grotesque creatures. Nice little throwback to movies like Carpenter's The Thing and Re-Animator. This was actually surprisingly good considering the director's other work which includes titles such as Scooby-Doo and Movie 43...

Hell yeah! I always see Slither get a lot of flak and I don't know why because I always thought it was a really fun movie. It also reminds quite a bit of The Deadly Spawn, which is an obscure low budget alien-horror flick from the 80's.

Also Delicatessen is great. That movie inspired me to learn to play the Bowed Saw!

Re-watched Dead and Buried (1981) earlier. An awesome John Carpenter-esque shocker with some very grotesque special effects from Stan Winston and a twist ending that was way ahead of its time. Also has Robert Englund in a small role.

another Oscar double feature, cuz the awards are tomorrow plus a ringer

12 Years a Slave- I approached this one with caution as I knew it was gonna be up for awards once I heard the title. Beautifully directed, intelligently written historical horror film. Acting is really solid, especially from Ejiofer, Nyong'o, Fassbender, and Sarah Paulson as Fassbender's wife. Not for everyone, its a flick you gotta prepare for, like Schindler's List or Requiem for a Dream. Like the latter, I'm glad I finally saw it, and equally glad I never have to watch it again. 4.5/5

Philomena- I'm a Judi Dench fan, so I had to check this one out. Okay human interest drama. Dench is incredible, as always. Coogan plays a good jerk with a heart of gold. Mystery was solved halfway in, so that surprised me. Overall, worth a watch. Dench is oscar-worthy, but nothing else here is. 3.7/5

Anchorman 2, Super-Sized Cut- I finally saw the first Burgundy movie this past December, and liked it, but you need to watch it with the right audience or it's not as fun. This one was a barrel of fun. Good jokes abound, containing just enough callbacks without being infuriating [unlike Into Darkness]. 3.2/5 alone, 4.1/5 with friends

Terminator Salvation

Well, it was kind of ok. Pretty forgettable. And it didn't really feel like a terminator movie at all, more like Matrix meets Road Warrior meets Transformers or something...

Just watched Dario Argento's "Giallo" last night. Not nearly as overtly stylistic as the other films I've seen by him though in a way that made it easier to watch; I remember finding Suspiria a pretty hard sit just because it was SO reliant on garish mise en scene and little else. That said I'm pretty sure "Giallo" will be the more forgettable film. Adrien Brody was great in it, the villain was interestingly strange and the pacing was really good. The ending felt like kind of a let down, but endings have never been Argento's strong point. Not nearly as bad as most people would have you believe.

Also the previous night I finally got round to watching the fairly recent Hammer Horror movie "The Woman in Black" with Daniel Radcliffe. This one I really enjoyed. It was just a straight forward classic Gothic horror with lashings of atmosphere. Nothing particularly original, but these kinds of genuinely spooky movies seem few and far between these days and it's a shame because I just love them. In fact if anyone can recommend me any movies in that vein please do. Anything along the lines of Insidious, The Conjuring, Ghost Story, The Sixth Sense, The Changeling etc.

Ender's Game - It was an okay movie. Reminded me of Stargate a bit. Felt lame though. Seen the twist coming from a mile away and I'v ever even read the book, so, eh. Watched it with the family. I found thep lot of Indiana Jones recruiting squeakers for his army of highly trained commander's or whatever to be rather dim.

Thor: The Dark World - I feel the same way about this movie too.

Getting sick of these new high budget movies though.

80'sDavid wrote:

Also the previous night I finally got round to watching the fairly recent Hammer Horror movie "The Woman in Black" with Daniel Radcliffe. This one I really enjoyed. It was just a straight forward classic Gothic horror with lashings of atmosphere. Nothing particularly original, but these kinds of genuinely spooky movies seem few and far between these days and it's a shame because I just love them. In fact if anyone can recommend me any movies in that vein please do. Anything along the lines of Insidious, The Conjuring, Ghost Story, The Sixth Sense, The Changeling etc.

I was pleasantly surprised by that one too. It used the setpieces really well and Radcliffe & Ciaran Hinds are both actors I love to watch.