What Are You Watching?

[Fixer808]

Capping off the 'first time watched in years' trilogy is The Neverending Story, which is still awesome to me. I really like its portrayal of fantasy elements; the sphinx gates, the ivory tower, and the Nothing feel grand and magical in an old-school way. I always appreciate well-done practical effects, too. They got some great performances out of the child actors, especially the princess, who I don't think blinks on camera at all, adding to her slightly creepy/ethereal quality.

If my knowledge of movie lore is correct, I often go to that bookstore. McLeod's in Vancouver. Haphazard piles as far as the eye can see. I love it. The basement is even better. I expect a giant snail with a shell made of books to confront me whenever I go down there. If a stack fell on you, you would never be seen alive again. Wonderful!

[Space Suicide]

"A tisket, a tasket I brought you a motherfuckin' gift basket."

[Piko]

Just finished season 3 of Community. Great show! Two episodes into Boardwalk Empire. I'm hooked.

[Dra508]

Longmire - I watch it mostly for the scenery and the music. The male characters are the kind that men want to have a beer with and women want to fuck. I'm surprised the series doesn't do better - I'm sure it's a comes off as a bit dark and violent, but not HBO level, but not network tv. A&E doesn't know how to market it I guess.

[Alexandros]

I've started watching a 2011 BBC drama/espionage series called The Hour. I'm four episodes in and so far it's really well made. Good characters and interaction, intriguing plot and solid immersion in 50's England. Lasted for two seasons, don't know if the story was concluded or not.

[Millionaire]

Saw a couple films that could loosely be described as "action":

Zulu(2013): This one seems to have been ignored on movie sites when it came out, oddly. I was pleasantly surprised by it. Its more like a police procedural with sudden, brutal action elements. The story is a bit crazy in a good way, and Orlando Bloom(who I've never thought much of as an actor) is surprisingly quite good as a drunk, volatile detective. Definitely a career-best performance for him.

The Grandmaster: For whatever reason, I wasn't looking forward to this even though I love most of Wong Kar Wai's films. Maybe its because he is coming off the unspectacular My Blueberry Nights, or maybe because this seemed like his bid for mainstream success that has eluded him in China. Well, I should've been anticipating it more because I liked this quite a lot. The action scenes are a lot better than in his other "martial arts" film, Ashes of Time. In fact, I've never seen action quite like this: very kinetically edited, but still easy to follow and has that signature WKW experimental vibe in some capacity. The acting and cinematography is, of course, on point since this is WKW. Surprisingly, the love elements are very subtle in this one; not quite as smoldering as some of his other films, but it feels a bit more mature and its handled quite nicely. Like all WKW films, this is very subjective, but I dug it a lot. Note: I saw the original cut, not the Weinstein edit.

Pompeii: I don't know why I saw this; maybe because ol' Johnny Snow is present, but I don't really know. This is Paul WS Anderson. It bored the shit out of me. Its not even in "so bad its good" territory. Its not total garbage, but its mediocre in every facet of filmmaking you can think of. Think of it as Gladiator, but on the level of that Clive Owen King Arthur from a few years ago, but worse. Thats basically it.

[nobies]

[Space Suicide]

Longmire - I watch it mostly for the scenery and the music. The male characters are the kind that men want to have a beer with and women want to fuck. I'm surprised the series doesn't do better - I'm sure it's a comes off as a bit dark and violent, but not HBO level, but not network tv. A&E doesn't know how to market it I guess.

I watched a season 4 episode of it last week on TV and it was oddly intriguing. Is it worth visiting the show from the pilot for me? I'm pretty easy to please so have at it yeah, h.

[onthewall2983]

​Ordering discs from Netflix again. Here's what came in this week.

Her: Really impressed by the performances and the digital photography. Hopefully for winning the Oscar, Jonze can write more of his own stuff now. I was pleasantly surprised at how sweet it was, as I was expecting something much more bleak and cynical given the basic plot as I thought I knew it.

All Is Lost: Very engaging and thrilling adventure story, a promising second effort from J.C. Chandor, and an unfairly ignored career-defining performance from Robert Redford. Even more than something like Jaws, it definitely will keep me away from the ocean for awhile.

Enough Said: Cute contemporary love story, held up by a good cast. As great as he was as Tony Soprano it's sad to me that Gandolfini never had a film performance of equal stature to that because he was so much more. And here you could feel the character's warmth and insecurity.

[eversonpoe]

my fiancee and i started agents of SHIELD yesterday and we're already 7 episodes deep...i guess we like it hahaha

[theruiner]

Just finished Barton Fink. I just don't get the Coen Brothers sometimes. I really enjoyed the beginning of this movie. From the very first scene I was in. Then...then nothing happened. For an hour. Over an hour. For over an hour nothing much happened. I kept waiting for something, anything to actually happen. Nothing. Then the plot finally kicked in and the second hour was pretty good.

There are so many things I enjoyed about it. John Turturro was fantastic. John Goodman was really good (as usual). It had a nice, intriguing story during the second half. There were a few really funny jokes. The cinematography was wonderful. The atmosphere was nice. The ending was weird but satisfying. But I just can't get over the first half. It was...odd. Really odd. Very weirdly paced.

So ultimately I have to say I thought it was just ok. I'm glad I watched it, though. Eventually I'd like to see everything in their filmography. I've seen probably around ten movies of theirs now.

[cashpiles (closed)]

Transcendence... You can see what happens when you take Nolan out of the equation. The characters that Morgan Freeman and Scarecrow guy had to play were awful. Seems like all these big actors agreed to be in this film because of the director's connection to Nolan. Some interesting ideas as far as nanobots helping mankind. Whoever wrote the characters did a terrible job. Just so many flaws having to do with the movie world. Like why doesn't the government give a larger response to the new threat? And why is Morgan Freeman and the Scarecrow guy part of the armed response? The movie jus seems so amateur... Or lacking in passion... Very second rate. One thing though.. Some of the shots were beautiful. That's about it.

[Vertigo]

I've been slowly and painfully trudging through The West Wing, series 1. Only got the finale left now. For fans of the show, I have to ask - does the show get better as time goes on, or am I never likely to enjoy it if I'm not already?

[Space Suicide]

[thevoid99]

Mrs. Doubtfire in tribute to Robin Williams.

[Fixer808]

Lucy: Wtf...?
Guardians of the Galaxy: Loved it! Got a little dusty in the theater at a couple points...

[martin_b]

LEGO Movie.





Trailer discouraged me to even watch this movie. Completely. But I listened to a buddy from my work and I decided to see it.

And you know what? It's awesome! In life, I would not expect that after a such terrible trailer, I will be able to watch so good movie.

[eversonpoe]

Lucy: Wtf...?
Guardians of the Galaxy: Loved it! Got a little dusty in the theater at a couple points...

guardians was so fucking good.

why the "wtf" for lucy? i've heard some discouraging things about it (such as the characters written on the wall in the scene where she's cuffed to a chair are complete gibberish, making the film come off a tad racist) but the concept still sounds really cool, and i usually love luc besson.

[theburningreptile]

Doctor strange so I can become familiar with him cause I don't want to read right now. Also planet hulk. I also cannot wait until Murica 2 comes out on digital next week

[ibanez33]

Sons of Anarchy is fucking amazing

[Millionaire]

Silent Hill: Saw this again the other day. I actually quite like it, but I understand why some don't. The story isn't great, but I dig its atmosphere and how it looks like the game. They did pyramid head very well; he seems very intimidating and powerful, and I liked the scene where he Spoiler: threw a victim's bloody flesh at a church.

Sabotage: Ah-nuld is really good in this and without him I don't think I would have liked this movie much. The dialogue is a bit cringe-worthy at times, but the film has an edge to it and some really awesome infiltration action scenes. Something that I found a little unbelievable is how some of the DEA agents seem unprofessional and immature, like how they dress and act like a high-schooler's idea of what a badass is(cornrows, nu-metal goatees, etc). Maybe some are like that in real life, though; I don't really know.

[Maul]

Recently watched Taxi Driver (1976) and felt fascinated by it.Such an awesome movie.

Edit: Tonight I watched 12 Years a Slave (2013).The movie is so real it's horrifying.A must-see.

[miss k bee]

Finally caught up on Mad Men. The last scene of the last episode

Megan was a bit of a waste this season I feel.

[Fixer808]

guardians was so fucking good.

why the "wtf" for lucy? i've heard some discouraging things about it (such as the characters written on the wall in the scene where she's cuffed to a chair are complete gibberish, making the film come off a tad racist) but the concept still sounds really cool, and i usually love luc besson.

I dunno, I kind of went into it expecting some rippin' action, like Black Widow meets Leon, but it for an 86 minute movie it just dragged ass, and had the most abrupt, unsatisfying ending.

[eversonpoe]

I dunno, I kind of went into it expecting some rippin' action, like Black Widow meets Leon, but it for an 86 minute movie it just dragged ass, and had the most abrupt, unsatisfying ending.

that's pretty disappointing. guess i'll be waiting for a home video release...

[WorzelG]

15 minutes into Season of the Witch (2010 film with Nicholas Cage, not the Halloween one). Laughably bad with Templar knights saying 'let's get the hell out of here". Not sure I'll watch enough of it to see whether it goes in the 'so bad it's good' category.

[Fixer808]

that's pretty disappointing. guess i'll be waiting for a home video release...

Yeah, I'd thought it'd be kinda Matrix'y, but save your money, it's nothing groundbreaking at all.

[Space Suicide]

[Dra508]

American Hustle.

I enjoyed it. Not a huge Christian Bale fan, but enjoyed his under played character despite the fact the entire time anyone watching this film knows it's Christian fucking Bale under all the fat and wigs. The accuracy of early 70's NY/NJ is spot on. I'm going to have to watch it again since I later read so much of the film was actually filmed around Boston, not NY.

This film got completely left out of the Oscar winners. Some times you just pick the wrong year to release a film. Finally, Larry Ellison's (from Oracle) daughter produced it. Must be nice to have deep pocket dad. :/

[Vertigo]

That was by far my favourite film last year.