Movie opinions thread (what have you seen, what did you think?)

[jro]

Unfriended: Very unique setup- I didn't realize until about 20 min in that the entire thing is from the POV of staring at a computer screen. It works surprisingly well. The ending wasn't very good, but the pacing was excellent and it was still quite entertaining.
Jeepers Creepers: this still holds up okay after 10 or 12 years (maybe more). Justin Long carries it well. By far the worst aspect is the mystic who might as well carry a sign that says "exposition" with her.
Jeepers Creepers 2: I like the setup for this one better than the first one, but the execution is horrid. The script is awful, the acting is awful, and, again, a mystic comes along to explain every damn thing.
Inside: Oh my. I knew going in that this was pretty much legendary for its gore, and I still about thought I was going to be sick at the end. Wow. Just, um, wow. It's kind of amazing, if you can take it. Very good slasher movie, overall.

 

[famicommander]

I just ordered The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Trilogy on Blu Ray.

I've never seen the extended editions, and it was way past time to replace the fullscreen (lol) DVD trilogy someone got me for my 14th (I think?) birthday.

 

[smokehouse]

I just ordered The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Trilogy on Blu Ray.

I've never seen the extended editions, and it was way past time to replace the fullscreen (lol) DVD trilogy someone got me for my 14th (I think?) birthday.

In my opinion...they're pretty good. The added material isn't obviously needed for the overall plot...but it's very seamless. So much in fact that when my wife and I first watched the ext versions years ago...we'd have to actually do some thinking to see if we could remember a certain scene being in the theatrical cut or not.

 

[HDRchampion]

The Man with the Iron Fists 2: surprisingly different from the first one (which I like a lot). RZA went back to the old-school for this, it's clearly an homage to kung fu flicks from way back in the day. Makes sense, considering he's always loved them and been influenced by them. It also reminded me of Bloodsport in several ways, which may or may not have been intentional.

Overall, it was really damn fun to watch. Going all out on being a love letter to the genre worked well. High recommendation if you like the genre at all.

Killers: (this Killers, not the one with Kutcher and Heigl): Asian cinema dealie with a very odd story that could kind of work. One guy is a serial killer and he posts videos of said murders online. Another guy, seemingly normal-ish journalist, sees one. Then he gets into a spot where he kills a guy in self-defense. Then he posts cell-phone vid of that online. Then both guys get in contact and, well, it goes.

Not bad, but not really all that good. The ending was solid and Nomura, in particular (the serial killer) was an interesting character. Far too long, though (2 hours and 17 minutes).

I thought the 1st Iron Fist was fucking horrible. I had a gathering & we all ended up trashing it Mystery Science style & we did enjoy ourselves quite a bit. I think i might have it for my next gathering. I dont think i can finish watching it alone.

 

[Naika]

Finally saw the Babadook. Not horrible by any means, and the pacing is great, but the kid is so DAMN ANNOYING!!!! Feeling like it's a tad overrated.

 

[LoneSage]

Unfriended: Very unique setup- I didn't realize until about 20 min in that the entire thing is from the POV of staring at a computer screen. It works surprisingly well. The ending wasn't very good, but the pacing was excellent and it was still quite entertaining.
Jeepers Creepers: this still holds up okay after 10 or 12 years (maybe more). Justin Long carries it well. By far the worst aspect is the mystic who might as well carry a sign that says "exposition" with her.
Jeepers Creepers 2: I like the setup for this one better than the first one, but the execution is horrid. The script is awful, the acting is awful, and, again, a mystic comes along to explain every damn thing.
Inside: Oh my. I knew going in that this was pretty much legendary for its gore, and I still about thought I was going to be sick at the end. Wow. Just, um, wow. It's kind of amazing, if you can take it. Very good slasher movie, overall.

Yo homeboy, how you got so much time watching movies

Check out George Romero's Knightriders

 

[MattBlah]

I watched What We Do in the Shadows last night and it was great fun. I'd highly recommend it, especially if you enjoyed Flight of the Conchords. It really was hilarious.

 

[jro]

Finally saw the Babadook. Not horrible by any means, and the pacing is great, but the kid is so DAMN ANNOYING!!!! Feeling like it's a tad overrated.

I was sort of hoping that if the Babadook didn't kill him mom would give in and strangle that little fucker.

Yo homeboy, how you got so much time watching movies
Check out George Romero's Knightriders

Eh, I dunno. Lot of times on weeknights I'm too tired to pay close attention to games or whatnot so just putting a movie in is easier. More relaxing. Movies are more my thing, at base level, than games.

I'm always willing to check out Romero, many thanks for the recommendation!

edit: just looked it up on RT, looks pretty amazing.

 

[Naika]

I was sort of hoping that if the Babadook didn't kill him mom would give in and strangle that little fucker.

Eh, I dunno. Lot of times on weeknights I'm too tired to pay close attention to games or whatnot so just putting a movie in is easier. More relaxing. Movies are more my thing, at base level, than games.

I'm always willing to check out Romero, many thanks for the recommendation!

edit: just looked it up on RT, looks pretty amazing.

That little shit drove me bonkers. He has to yell every 5 seconds, does he????

 

[jro]

Taken 3: I really hope this is the last in the series. The other ones aren't great, but they're also not terrible, which this was much closer to than not. Awful script, laughably predictable, and the most retarded cops I've seen in a movie in a long time (at one point Brian says to Kim "this cop is really smart, he'll recognize anything at all out of the ordinary" and I was saying no, no he won't, since he apparently graduated from the police academy from Police Academy. Just silly, basically. Watch Nonstop or Run All Night or A Walk Among the Tombstones, skip this.

A Serbian Film: So it turns out that Serbian movie makers are completely insane. At least whoever came up with this is- um, there's death by dong impalement, for starters.

More detail... an ex-porn star is offered a shitload of money to do a few films for a guy who's really, really into "porn as art." Ex-porn star agrees to do it to help support his wife and son, and shit gets weird. Really weird. Nasty, violent, violent sex, etc. So over the top at times that I wondered if it was supposed to be taken as black comedy. Very memorable, if nothing else.

 

[FilthyRear]

I broke down and saw the last X-Men movie. What a hunk of shit.

I DID like seeing Colossus get torn in half.

 

[jro]

Irreversible: the DVD case has a big warning on the front: "WARNING - contains scenes of extreme sexuality and violence. Should be viewed by adults only."

Essentially, this is a revenge movie. Not really a revenge thriller, more so how revenge is inherently pointless and whether or not the future is set or can be altered.

Anyway, it runs all of the scenes in reverse order, sort of like Memento. It wasn't easy to follow at times, given that a character that does something major in one scene isn't identified until later (and then you have to think back and go, yeah, that was him). It also didn't help that for the first 20 minutes, the camera is swinging wildly in circles. Really, twenty minutes of that, the only way I made it through was by staring at the subtitles and not watching the movie.

Couple of scenes that are notorious- one is a rape scene, the other is brutal violence.

Monica Belluci naked for a while.

Eh, not really all that great. Okay if you want something that pushes the limits and may make you go WTF at the end, but I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[jro]

The Marine 3: Homefront - just a guilty pleasure, the Marine series, pretty much. They're objectively awful, but still entertaining in that b-action movie sort of way. The Miz stars in both 3 and 4 (John Cena was in the first one and Ted DiBiase Jr. was in the second), and he's actually tolerable. This one has Neal McDonough as the main bad guy, which helps a lot. Awful fight scenes, oddly (you'd think a pro wrestler could do decent fight scenes).

The Marine 4: Moving Target - Worse story than 3, much better fight scenes, and the laughable "debut" of Summer Rae in film. She has 3 lines. Also, the female lead's (some random chick) acting make Miz look like Brando. Worst acting I've seen in a long time.

 

[rgarla.tn550]

I broke down and saw the last X-Men movie. What a hunk of shit.

I DID like seeing Colossus get torn in half.

I am so damn tired of all these superhero movies. They just put me to sleep. At least we haven't had one like batman and Robin yet.

 

[Neorebel]

jro, I'm enjoying your movie review blurbs. I see you have at least a passing interest in French new wave of horror type films. Martyrs is amazing...

Are you going to watch Gaspar Noe's upcoming film 'Love?'

Thought I would chime in about the Babadook as well. I thought it was genuinely creepy at times, and the message in the end made it worth watching, even though it was basically spelled out from early on.

Also, here is one Matthew McConaughey film I want to see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Trees_(film)

I am so damn tired of all these superhero movies. They just put me to sleep. At least we haven't had one like batman and Robin yet.

SAME

 

[SouthtownKid]

At least we haven't had one like batman and Robin yet.

I don't understand this statement. We had Batman and Robin. Which was a movie. And we had it.

 

[smokehouse]

Well...anyone seen bla, bla, bla Ultron yet? I'm interested to hear the reviews on this one.

Personally, being completely underwhelmed by The Avengers, I probably won't see this on unless it's free or silly cheap.

These films are really getting boring. Super hero, bla, bla plot, epic end fight where yet another city is destroyed by over the top CG and completely over the top action sequences, end scene is so long, it takes up the last 40 min of the film.

Winter Solder did me in...that film was just terrible. Capt Ame meets new, instant best friend with magic tech, lackluster, dry and unemotional tie in to the Winter Soldier, limp along plot, absurd tech battle at end with unemotional characters supposedly having the fight of the ages, city get wrecked. End fight scenes go on and on...

Sure...

 

[100proof]

Well...anyone seen bla, bla, bla Ultron yet? I'm interested to hear the reviews on this one.

Personally, being completely underwhelmed by The Avengers, I probably won't see this on unless it's free or silly cheap.

These films are really getting boring. Super hero, bla, bla plot, epic end fight where yet another city is destroyed by over the top CG and completely over the top action sequences, end scene is so long, it takes up the last 40 min of the film.

Winter Solder did me in...that film was just terrible. Capt Ame meets new, instant best friend with magic tech, lackluster, dry and unemotional tie in to the Winter Soldier, limp along plot, absurd tech battle at end with unemotional characters supposedly having the fight of the ages, city get wrecked. End fight scenes go on and on...

Sure...

The real issue in my mind is that there's just too damn many of them now and people are getting burnt out. Taken individually, the majority of the recent batch of comic book movies have at least been competent: technically sound, respectful of the source material and cast appropriately (Amazing Spiderman 2 not withstanding). There was a time in the not too distant past when that wasn't the case. But between Marvel's slate of 10 upcoming movies, DC trying to churn out 10 movies of their own and other studios desperately trying to snap up every remotely usable franchise they can get their grubby hands on, we've reached the point where more than 50% of all big budget movies being released are fucking superhero movies and that's just ridiculous. I honestly wish Marvel would just do the current batch of movies they have planned and then close shop for 10 or 15 years to give the market a chance to breathe.

That said, if you haven't watched Guardians already smoke, do so. It's not perfect but it's a welcome distraction from the more boring, self-serious Thor/Capt America movies.

 

[smokehouse]

The real issue in my mind is that there's just too damn many of them now and people are getting burnt out. Taken individually, the majority of the recent batch of comic book movies have at least been competent: technically sound, respectful of the source material and cast appropriately (Amazing Spiderman 2 not withstanding). There was a time in the not too distant past when that wasn't the case. But between Marvel's slate of 10 upcoming movies, DC trying to churn out 10 movies of their own and other studios desperately trying to snap up every remotely usable franchise they can get their grubby hands on, we've reached the point where more than 50% of all big budget movies being released are fucking superhero movies and that's just ridiculous. I honestly wish Marvel would just do the current batch of movies they have planned and then close shop for 10 or 15 years to give the market a chance to breathe.

That said, if you haven't watched Guardians already smoke, do so. It's not perfect but it's a welcome distraction from the more boring, self-serious Thor/Capt America movies.

First off, I saw Guardians and I loved it. For lack of better words, it was "fun" to watch. Probably th best comic based film I've seen in years.

Second, you 100% hit the nail on the head about this insane flood of comic-crap. There was time, probably the late 90's where I clearly recall asking why Hollywood didn't make more comic based films. I figured the entire groundwork and fan base was already there...why wound't they want to do it.

Fast forward to now and it's gone from "GO!!!" to "WOA!!!". Enough!

I agree 100%, WAY too many movies in way to short period of time (and, in my opinion, mostly lackluster quality).

 

[greedostick]

Word. That shit is played out. They saw the success of spiderman and ran with it. But there have been some really awesome movies based on comics since then.

If they would just do non superhero comics for a change. I get tired of the JRPG genre, but jesus the comic world has been flooded with superhero crap since what like the 40's. It's so old and used up. I hate walking into the comic shop and seeing 95% superhero shit.

Maybe if they would do some archaia stuff like mouse guard, or the killer. Or even sandman or a new army of darkness, that would get my attention.

 

[jro]

jro, I'm enjoying your movie review blurbs. I see you have at least a passing interest in French new wave of horror type films. Martyrs is amazing...

Are you going to watch Gaspar Noe's upcoming film 'Love?'

Thought I would chime in about the Babadook as well. I thought it was genuinely creepy at times, and the message in the end made it worth watching, even though it was basically spelled out from early on.

Also, here is one Matthew McConaughey film I want to see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Trees_(film)

I have developed a bit of an interest in the French New Wave stuff, I would definitely agree with that- kind of picking and choosing for now- I'm sort of tempted to watch the other two movies I Stand Alone and Carne to finish that series out, but Irreversible was so utterly odd that I'm not overly eager to pursue Noe all that much further- I would be more interested in watching Love, for sure- the 3D is an interesting choice, though I don't know if maybe he's actually getting a little overboard at this point : (poster here is extremely NSFW). I'll buy the 3D Blu-Ray when it comes out, no doubt, but my expectations, I guess, won't be all that high. It almost sounds like hardcore porn reading about it. I also have wavered on Enter the Void- I can't tell if it sounds awesome, boring as hell, or some of each. I'll probably get it sooner or later, I guess.

I have to re-watch High Tension one of these nights, see how it's aged.

Well...anyone seen bla, bla, bla Ultron yet? I'm interested to hear the reviews on this one.

Personally, being completely underwhelmed by The Avengers, I probably won't see this on unless it's free or silly cheap.

I saw Avengers: Age of Ultron today. It makes for a phenomenal experience while you're watching it, more so than the original, but then when you get a chance to think about it, it's not quite as great.

That's not overly helpful, I suppose, let me try to explain.

In the moment, the setpieces and the character interactions were fantastic (Scarlet Witch and Ultron were both awesome throughout, and when Vision shows up he's also badass), but there was an odd, nagging sense of "there's too much shit in this movie" that only gets more pronounced when I have a chance to go, yeah, half the stuff that they did was blatantly stupid or horribly contrived (Scarlet Witch is great, as I mentioned, but the Wonder Twins as a whole weren't handled well at all, and the others constantly pick the single hardest way to do anything).

The ending was oddly anticlimactic, too. The idea of how it ends is much more interesting in theory than in practice, IMO.

Also didn't really go for the way the next Avengers were revealed- impossible to say anything without spoilers, I'll just say it was like "hey, oh yeah, in Infinity Wars, these guys will be center stage, even though they collectively did jack and shit in the 150 minutes you just watched!"

So, summing up- Pros: several interesting new characters in SW and The Vision, the Hulkbuster is cool, Ultron is a good bad guy.

Cons: overstuffed and then some, oddly similar to the original (substitute robots for Tutari), some weird choices with character motivations and actions, and a weak ending.

Fun to watch, but about a mile wide and an inch deep. Not as good as the original Avengers or even in the same stratosphere as The Winter Soldier or The Wolverine.

 

[dullbuoy]

I saw Avengers: Age of Ultron today. It makes for a phenomenal experience while you're watching it, more so than the original, but then when you get a chance to think about it, it's not quite as great

Since there are breaks inbetween the action sequences (and it's a long movie) the movie gives you too much time to think about stuff like...how convenient it is that the enemies aren't attacking yet etc (trying to be vague to avoid spoilers) or the usual cliche moment(s) of heroic sacrifice (and there are many characters).

Pros: much more epic scale than the first movie; there was enough story given to other characters that didnt have their own movies; good/great action sequences; included cameos of other characters from the standalone movies making it really feel more like a movie universe

Cons: Pacing was off...like at the beginning how Ultron develops seems rushed; then the main final action sequence just seemed to drag too long.


i don't think this is a spoiler, DONT WAIT FOR AN END CREDITS TEASER! there's a teaser in the middle of the credits, dont bother waiting around for a second teaser after that first one shows. there is ZIP NADA ZILCH after that.

 

[jro]

Since there are breaks inbetween the action sequences (and it's a long movie) the movie gives you too much time to think about stuff like...how convenient it is that the enemies aren't attacking yet etc (trying to be vague to avoid spoilers) or the usual cliche moment(s) of heroic sacrifice (and there are many characters).

Pros: much more epic scale than the first movie; there was enough story given to other characters that didnt have their own movies; good/great action sequences; included cameos of other characters from the standalone movies making it really feel more like a movie universe

Cons: Pacing was off...like at the beginning how Ultron develops seems rushed; then the main final action sequence just seemed to drag too long.


i don't think this is a spoiler, DONT WAIT FOR AN END CREDITS TEASER! there's a teaser in the middle of the credits, dont bother waiting around for a second teaser after that first one shows. there is ZIP NADA ZILCH after that.

Accurate assessment, I would agree with you on all counts.

Lol about the end credits- I didn't stay for the end, now I'm glad to confirm that I didn't miss anything. Also re the end credits, and I don't think this is a spoiler for anyone who's followed these at all- doesn't Josh Brolin pretty much have to play, um, that character now? When he showed up at the end of the first Avengers and GotG, both times the claim was "well, he's just doing the voice, someone else is going to be cast for the part in the Infinity Wars movies." Now, though, damn, that's the voice and the look I expect to see there. Gotta be Brolin.

 

[LoneSage]

Thanos's face was clearly modeled after Brolin's face in GOTG the same way Ruffalo was for Hulk.

 

[jro]

Thanos's face was clearly modeled after Brolin's face in GOTG the same way Ruffalo was for Hulk.

And it was in A: AoU, too. That's a huge indicator that I think he plays the part in the movies- why clearly establish the sound of his voice and what he looks like if they're going to surprise everyone and give the part to Neil Patrick Harris?

Watched:
Equilibrium- I hadn't seen this before. Had been meaning to watch it, then saw the BD at Best Buy for $5 last week. In short, I don't really see what the hype is. It's just not very good, with a poorly-developed world, a terrible script, and a bad central performance from Christian Bale. Oh, and the other characters are all utter idiots.

The gun katas are sort of interesting, but also kind of retarded. I would add that I was a little surprised when I looked and Kurt Wimmer wrote and directed, and not Luc Besson- it felt like his type of style over substance.

The Boy Next Door- hilariously bad, but still also entertaining as hell. Utter trash, basically, but the guy opposite J-Lo is so committed to his role, he makes it into highly watchable, fun pulp. Not recommended by any means unless you have some alcohol and nothing better to do for 90 minutes.