What Are You Watching?

[theruiner]

^^The music was pretty cool. That was honestly the only thing about the movie I could really give it credit for.

So, on another note...

Um...wow. WOW. Wow for a different reason today: Jeff, Who Lives At Home, turns out, is a really good movie. Almost great. It was close. Just such a sweet, sweet movie. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Oh, and someone, once again, was cutting onions in my theater a few times during the movie. Had I not gone with my dad I would have definitely shed some tears. As it was it was really tough not to. There were some downright beautiful scenes in that movie, and they kind of took me by surprise. I did not expect to be moved as much as I was.

I was also shocked to find out that the movie is only about an hour and twenty minutes long. Like, barely an hour and twenty at that. It didn't feel short in the least. If I hadn't checked my phone right after the credits started, I honestly would have thought it was an hour and a half, at least.

[sentient02970]

[Dra508]

An old Frontline about Meth. The one where they show a series of mugshots of meth addicts and how quickly they age and get generally dead. Best drug prevention ever.

[theruiner]

Primer- I honestly have no idea what I just watched.

[Goldfoot]

Primer- I honestly have no idea what I just watched.

That movie is so good.

Over the weekend I had a lesson in how to put your brain into standby; I saw Battleship. If you were wondering how they could turn such a simple concept into a full movie, well, that's all they accomplished. They took all of the features of the game they could feasibly (I'm overstating here) adapt to fit into a movie, added aliens, and cherry-picked action movie plot devices, finishing by blending it all together and spewing it at your face. Which is not to say I expected something thought-provoking at all, I'm just saying this was the exact opposite. I had to actively refrain from questioning what I was seeing in order to enjoy any of it. Somehow I managed to do both of those things, but I've never had to try so hard to think so little.

[miss k bee]

Mad Men - man alive it just keeps getting better and better!

[Goldfoot]

^^The music was pretty cool. That was honestly the only thing about the movie I could really give it credit for.

Same guy that did the music for Drive. Cliff Martinez.

Um...wow. WOW. Wow for a different reason today: Jeff, Who Lives At Home, turns out, is a really good movie. Almost great. It was close. Just such a sweet, sweet movie. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Oh, and someone, once again, was cutting onions in my theater a few times during the movie. Had I not gone with my dad I would have definitely shed some tears. As it was it was really tough not to. There were some downright beautiful scenes in that movie, and they kind of took me by surprise. I did not expect to be moved as much as I was.

I was also shocked to find out that the movie is only about an hour and twenty minutes long. Like, barely an hour and twenty at that. It didn't feel short in the least. If I hadn't checked my phone right after the credits started, I honestly would have thought it was an hour and a half, at least.

When I was here earlier, I saw this message of yours and decided to go see it. I had wanted to see it since I saw the trailer, but just never got around to it. It's in the second run theater now, so I figured after your post I'd definitely spare the $1.50 to see it. I didn't actually remember anything about the trailer except Jason, Ed, and that it looked like something I'd like. Was very pleased to see Judy Greer in the opening credits as I'm a fan of hers and now I have to say JUDY FUCKING GREER! Holy shit, that scene at the hotel. Wow. Just, wow. And yes, this is a very good movie. It is short, but doesn't feel it. Not that it dragged at all, because it didn't, but it seemed like it was at least 20 minutes longer than it was. It's just got that kind of impact. I teared up a couple times, but not bad as some things have made me.

For those of you who don't know what it is, Jason Segel plays a guy who lives at home with his mom. His brother also lives in Baton Rouge (I think), with his wife (Judy Greer). The film takes place over the course of one day, which happens to be a significant day. That's all I'm going to say, but it's definitely worth watching.

Also, the other day I saw Salmon Fishing In The Yemen. I had only recently heard of this and the only thing that seemed appealing to me, based on the words of the title and the trailer, was the fact that Emily Blunt is in it. I am (unhealthily?) in love with that woman. I've watched like 5 of her films in the last 2 months. Anyhow, it was actually really good. Though the premise is stupid, and McGregor's character even thinks it's stupid, it turns out to be a very touching story. It's also rather funny; at least to me, and I found myself laughing out loud many times in the theater. I think it's kind of a dry humor, mostly, but I love that shit.

[onthewall2983]

MST 3000: A Warrior Of The Lost World on Netflix. Laughing my damn head off.

[aggroculture]

The Dictator: not too bad but kind of meh.

[Goldfoot]

I'm going to have spoilers in this. I'll tag the biggest ones, but some really don't matter. I went to see John Carter today because the trailer actually made it seem interesting to me. I've now seen two movies with this Kitsch dude and I'm not buying it. In Battleship his character hardly makes any sense as a person, but to be fair, very little about that movie makes sense. In this one he's at least got tangible motivation, but he mostly fits the selfish, tough guy, loner archetype. Once the movie kicks into flashback mode, we see that John is a confederate soldier who is now looking for gold. In his search he happens to find a cave and goes inside. A dude appears out of nowhere ("I'll explain later") and tries to kill him, but John kills him instead and is magically "telegraphed" to Mars. Up until this point, everything was fine from my point of view. Then he starts to move and it results in a scene that goes on too long, consisting of him trying to run and jump, but consistently falling because he isn't used to the lower gravity. At least they address this issue, and I could get behind his extra strength because he is adapted to Earth. That actually seems like a pretty cool addition to the story, but they seem to have no grasp on how it would work. Not only does he fall just as quickly and hard as if he were on Earth, but at times he can damn near fly. And when he jumps long distances, both horizontally and vertically, he lands like a cat; even with someone in his arms, which he does about half the time.

I understand this is fiction and there is a thing called suspension of disbelief, but when your unbelievable things aren't consistent in their execution, we have a problem. It probably seems like I disliked this movie, and that's not true. I actually enjoyed it for the most part, but there are a few glaring issues with it. The next one is this race of beings called the Therns. The people of Mars don't know if they're real or not; they have myths but noone has ever seen them. Or something. The main Thern is using some Martian to take over the whole planet. Apparently these beings are immortal and like playing chess with real people. Anyway, noone can see these things unless the Therns themselves want to be seen. (I made that up because they don't explain it, which is a recurring theme with these things.) I say that, but there is a nice scene of exposition in which John is held nearly immobile and has to listen to this guy yammer on, explaining the things I already told you about this race. And as it turns out, the guy that John killed before he got "telegraphed" to Mars, he was one of these immortal beings. So they can be killed, I guess, even though on Mars the head guy teleports out of harm's way whenever he wants, changes his appearance, knows about Earth (even pinpoints the state John is from, based on how he talks), and can even grow. He uses this convenient ability to trick everyone who has this device John is looking for. Oh yeah, all John wants is to get back to Earth. He has no interest in helping either side win this planetary war, even though this beautiful woman is begging him the whole time. Anyway, John prevents that Thern from acquiring this...thing and, just as he's about to strike, the dude disappears. Since it's in the middle of battle, John doesn't have time to tell the Martian what he just witnessed, so John says, "I'll explain later." Spoiler alert, he doesn't. I still have no idea what the deal is with these things other than they want to watch people kill each other for the sake of balancing the planet. Maybe.

So, trying to figure out why they would have a race be so important to the story, and yet refuse to properly explain them, I figured it was covered in the book. This presents an issue because I shouldn't have to do homework to understand a movie. Throwing in insignificant stuff as a benefit to people who read the book is one thing, but having the entire story hinge on something that you don't explain is inexcusable. Except the book doesn't seem to have these things at all. I looked at the plot summary and almost nothing about the movie coincides with the book. So, what that tells me is they wanted to take this typical hero story, set it to the tune of Burroughs' novel, and pep it up so that it was more interesting to watch on screen. That's fine, and I did enjoy the main hero story (they even hinted that John Carter isn't one dimensional), but they just didn't seem to have a grasp on how to work all these elements together.

It really makes me wonder how a script with so many flaws can get $250 million production behind it. I'm not saying I think it deserves to do as poorly as it's doing, but it certainly could have used a lot of help. I figure a good chunk of the budget was thrown into the CGI, which looked pretty nice, but the plot falls apart the more I try to think about it. I'll just mention one more thing, and that's the whole idea of him getting transported to another planet. Now I'm fine that they just ignore what Mars is really like and pretend not only that the atmosphere is exactly like ours, but that there's a human race on there that speaks English. Oh, so it's two more things. The other race doesn't speak English and there's subtitles for them. I liked this, except it presents the issue that John can't tell what they're saying to him. They fix this by having one of them give him a drink that contains "The Voice Of The Thark," allowing him to understand their language. Thing is, after this, they inexplicably understand what he's saying as well. Anyway, with all that aside, they actually try to explain how he got to Mars, and the concept on the surface is fine; this necklace thing sent his body as a "telegram" across space. The translation specifically used the word copy, indicating that he was cloned...ish. He proceeds to mention that there's still a him on Earth, and he examines his arms in awe of what he's learned. This was actually pretty cool, until Spoiler: he gets back to Earth and his body has just been laying there for whothefuckknowshowlong. He's got a beard and, when he sits up, there's a lot of popping going on. And then later, he reveals that his body has to stay alive on Earth, or he'll die on Mars; again without explanation. Assuming he has a valid reason to think that, this raises the issue of keeping his body nourished. He recruits his nephew to make sure nobody (the Therns) kills him while he's gone. This indicates the writers thought that far ahead, but they ignored the fact that people die if they don't do anything, which is what he'd technically be doing while his other self is prancing around Mars, banging the princess.

In short, I enjoyed the mindless parts of the movie. It's a pretty standard tale of an underdog becoming a hero and getting the girl. I didn't have to actively tell myself not to think like I did with Battleship, but there is a lot wrong with the plot. Oh and Taylor is not a good actor. Hah, and I just learned that he's teaming up with Peter Berg on another project. That one's sure to be a winner.

[halloween]

I just finished watching "Au Revoir les Enfant"...and goddamn it, it was a powerful movie. I don't want to say "depressing" because hell, anything Nazi related is fucking depressing, but during that very last scene I just completely lost it and cried a lot (I'm actually still recovering slightly). Just taking a moment to let the reality of such a thing sink in- thinking of everything that it takes for cultures to "allow", so to say, for such illogical, hateful behaviours to become manifested and learned on such a large scale. And just thinking how that type of thing never really goes away...

Anyways, about the movie, I loved it and I was able to pick out a lot of the french too which made me happy! Meme si j'etais pleure...

[Alexandros]

Watched "Intouchables" yesterday, a french light-hearted comedy/drama. It was quite good, more so because it could easily veer towards cheap drama (having to do with a tetraplegic and all), but it didn't. Some very funny moments in the film, the banter between Phillipe (the tetraplegic guy) and Driss (his caretaker) was especially enjoyable.

[halloween]

Watched "Intouchables" yesterday, a french light-hearted comedy/drama. It was quite good, more so because it could easily veer towards cheap drama (having to do with a tetraplegic and all), but it didn't. Some very funny moments in the film, the banter between Phillipe (the tetraplegic guy) and Driss (his caretaker) was especially enjoyable.

That reminds me of the movie I saw recently, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"- which was much more of a drama, but it has some brilliant comedic moments and the cinematography was gorgeous, without bordering on cheesy.

[Corvus T. Cosmonaut]

So Men in Black 3 is actually pretty good. Far better than the travesty that was the second one and comparable in quality to the first. Jemaine Clement as the villain is ridiculously, freakishly great, and all the players, really, succeed in their roles and provide worth to what seemed like a doomed and entirely unnecessary sequel.

[kdrcraig]

So Men in Black 3 is actually pretty good. Far better than the travesty that was the second one and comparable in quality to the first. Jemaine Clement as the villain is ridiculously, freakishly great, and all the players, really, succeed in their roles and provide worth to what seemed like a doomed and entirely unnecessary sequel.

That's good to hear, I doubt I'll drop the cash to actually go see it but I figured it would be terrible.

[Deadpool]

Watched "Intouchables" yesterday, a french light-hearted comedy/drama. It was quite good, more so because it could easily veer towards cheap drama (having to do with a tetraplegic and all), but it didn't. Some very funny moments in the film, the banter between Phillipe (the tetraplegic guy) and Driss (his caretaker) was especially enjoyable.

I saw this yesterday (going into it knowing next-to-nothing) and really enjoyed it. The guy who plays Driss, Omar Sy, absolutely makes the movie. I can see why he beat out Jean Djardin for the Cesar. The crowd ate it up, too - the opera scene got some huge laughs, deservedly so.

I also saw a movie called Mighty Fine last week, starring Chazz Palminteri and Andie McDowell, which has its moments of sentimentality but is still very good (Palminteri is especially excellent in it). There was a Q&A with him and the writer/director afterwards which was great, too.

Saw this some weeks ago as well. Refreshing to see a "sex comedy" from the female perspective. Genuinely funny and dramatic at the right moments.

[Goldfoot]

John Mulaney - New In Town because it's fucking hilarious and I must watch it again.

[Findus]

Huh. 7 pages of movie threads, and no Star Wars saga. I won't start a new thread, but I will post this:

[ImTheWiseJanitor]

I caught the first episode of the anime Deadman Wonderland on the Toonami re-launch this weekend, and now I can't stop watching it. I'm 5 episodes in so far. I'll probably have the rest of the show done before they even air the second episode.

[Alexandros]

Watched Iron Sky yesterday, it was surprisingly fun and pretty solid on the CGI front. Campy humour to be sure, but overall of the good kind. I really laughed at the scene where (I'll spoiler tag it but it's not like it will ruin it) Spoiler: the satellites of all countries turn out to be weaponised and the President of the United States (i.e. Sarah Palin's doppelganger) gets all pissed.

[xmd 5a]

Currently watching the Mildred Pierce miniseries from last year with my wife. I'm actually really enjoying it.

I've also been catching up on a bunch of films I missed last year. Really really liked The Tree of Life, thought The Descendants was decent and was suitably entertained by The Ides of March.

[Dra508]

Hatfields and McCoys

Meh

[theruiner]

^^I caught a couple of minutes of that last night and it looked really fake to me. There was some scene where they were in a saloon and I swear to God it looked like they were standing in front of a green screen. Maybe it's the way the scene was lit, I don't know. I can't imagine they'd be THAT cheap that they'd have a green screen instead of building a saloon set.

Anyway, speaking of westerns...

Just finished the first season of Deadwood. I really enjoyed it. The finale didn't blow me away or anything, but I liked it. It left things on a really nice note and felt like there was closure, even though there were two more seasons after that. I kind of liked that, though. It didn't end on a cliffhanger; it just felt like it wrapped up the story, and had the show ended after one season, it wouldn't have felt like a ripoff. I'm hoping the season three finale feels the same, since it was cancelled right after that and they never got a chance to finish the show. Damn shame.

[Dra508]

^^I caught a couple of minutes of that last night and it looked really fake to me. There was some scene where they were in a saloon and I swear to God it looked like they were standing in front of a green screen. Maybe it's the way the scene was lit, I don't know. I can't imagine they'd be THAT cheap that they'd have a green screen instead of building a saloon set.
.

Being that the guy who directed Waterworld did this one, I bet it is in front of a green screen. No one willing to give THAT guy any cash.

[dlb]

Just finished watching all three of Hatfields & McCoys and I gotta say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some scenes (as you depicted) looked pretty bad or lets say unreal and had that typical HBO treatment, others were beautifully shot IMHO. As I had to do paper on this feud in my English classes a few years ago it was nice coming back to the subject and seeing how much I still remembred. The acting was pretty good (don't care abou t accents as I can't distinguish them anyway), too, but that was to be expected from most of the cast.

Then again I pretty much enjoy everything Costner did in a western setting (Open Range, Wyatt Earp, Dances with the Wolves). Postman was utterly terrible though.

[Fixer808]

So when I flip past MTV I realize there's only like 5 shows on that channel and half of them have Jersey Shore cast members in them. One show that's Snooki-free is Campus PD. Basically, I've discovered that it's COPS, only instead of perps and black men mistaken for perps it's always terrified college kids getting shaken down for having beer. Gets old real quick.

[hellospaceboy]

I'm watching the X-files, and I'm about to finish season 1.

It recently dawned on me that I never actually watched that show. I had a strong dislike to it when it was originally airing (seemed cheesy and naive) but now I love it. Mostly because it's cheesy and naive.

[Piko]

I'm watching the X-files, and I'm about to finish season 1.

It recently dawned on me that I never actually watched that show. I had a strong dislike to it when it was originally airing (seemed cheesy and naive) but now I love it. Mostly because it's cheesy and naive.

It only gets better. If you're running through the series, be sure to catch the first movie in-between seasons five and six.

[ImTheWiseJanitor]

Casshern: Sins is incredible. I'm only two episodes in and it's probably one of my favorite anime. I know, I really need to start expanding my anime base out beyond just what's on Adult Swim. :P

[Goldfoot]

I just saw this new movie with Jason Statham, and he plays a role I'm sure he's never played before. I mean, he's done a semi-comedic role and done a voice role in an animated feature, but this is completely new territory for him. He sees that this little girl needs help because some Russians are after her. He decides to take them out and then proceeds to protect her against a slew of dudes that want a number she's memorized. He plays the role of action star quite well, it's almost as if he's done it before. Anyway, it was a pretty typical action movie, with the usual action movie tropes and one-liners. I found myself zoning out during the actual action, but Statham should stick with it, unless he's afraid of being typecast.