What Are You Watching?

[Elke]

I finally started Elementary yesterday, and I really like it - despite my original intention not to like anything about it except Lucy Liu. It's witty, and it has some interesting hooks. I'm only four episodes in though.

[eversonpoe]

Just got back from seeing Snowpiercer. Loved it. It lived up to my high expectations, which is great enough, but it also made my jaw drop (hard) about halfway through -- how many movies can you say have done that? I really have to see some of Bong Joon Ho's other work now.

Chris Evans, leading a great cast, brings it harder than ever in this. Probably the best I've ever seen him. Tilda Swinton is of course amazing: she actually reminded me of James Callis in BSG in that she effortlessly found the comedy in her character's villainy. Great stuff. Again, though, the whole cast is great (*cough* Alison Pill *cough*).

It's wildly creative and keeps surprising you narratively and visually. It deftly navigates between the heaviness of the plot and some of the humorous idiosyncrasies of the actors & characters. If it's fair to put it in the category of this year's summer blockbusters, I'd definitely put it up there with Edge of Tomorrow.

See it!

yeah, i saw it at the music box here in chicago on saturday, and the theater was pretty full. i love it when the whole theater laughs or audibly cringes together, it makes it such a fun, communal experience. and there were no jerks trying to talk through the movie or anything!

seriously, though, it was fantastic. no bullshit love story (like there would have been if it was an american film), nothing more than the perfectly cooked meat of the film. and i loved how stylized it was. i haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

[Maul]

Tomorrow I'm finishing the last task of my Laws degree so I'm making a Fincher marathon to celebrate it.
And this may be the first thing I'm watching.

[Millionaire]

The Raid 2: One of the better action films I've seen in a while. I'm usually quite forgiving of the story in action films as long as the action scenes are good, but no need for this one. The story is solid and well-paced, and the action scenes are kinetic, appropriately brutal, and nicely shot.

The film used some Ghosts tracks to excellent effect, which was a welcome surprise to me. I wondered why ol' Trent tweeted about meeting the director in London sometimes last year, then forgot all about it. When the tracks came up I remembered it and thought "Oh, thats why." Theres an interview somewhere where the director says he was a NIN fan for most of his life and was listening to Ghosts when he wrote this, and he heard Trent was a fan of the first one, met him, and got to use some songs that inspired the film. Good for him; it must've been like a wild daydream he had years ago that came true.

[ready 2 post]

The Raid 2: One of the better action films I've seen in a while. I'm usually quite forgiving of the story in action films as long as the action scenes are good, but no need for this one. The story is solid and well-paced, and the action scenes are kinetic, appropriately brutal, and nicely shot.

The film used some Ghosts tracks to excellent effect, which was a welcome surprise to me. I wondered why ol' Trent tweeted about meeting the director in London sometimes last year, then forgot all about it. When the tracks came up I remembered it and thought "Oh, thats why." Theres an interview somewhere where the director says he was a NIN fan for most of his life and was listening to Ghosts when he wrote this, and he heard Trent was a fan of the first one, met him, and got to use some songs that inspired the film. Good for him; it must've been like a wild daydream he had years ago that came true.

I couldn't agree more! I watched it a few months back and I'm pretty sure it'll end up being my fav movie of 2014. The fight choreography was spectacular, especially the final sequence of fights which played out like a mini Raid 1 and the final "boss" fight has to go down as the best 1 on 1 fight scene of all time!


I'm probably gonna make a calendar here out of the stills of the fight, it was so good!

[elevenism]

Two of my favorite directors got big time movies...Guillermo Del Toro's Mama was fucking TERRIFYING...
And Aronofsky's (Pi, Requiem For A Dream) Noah was deeply imaginative and frankly, utterly fucking amazing.

[Deepvoid]

Watched Noah last night. What a disaster. What happened to the brilliant mind of Darren Aronofsky?
By the first 30 minutes I was bored to death. Literally fell asleep at the 45 minutes mark for about 30 minutes. Managed to get to the end but damn that was tough.
Sub-par acting, not so great CGI and I felt the script failed to reel you in.

Coming from the guy who brought us Pi, Requiem for a Dream & Black Swan (although not the writer).
So disappointed.

[orestes]

A Field in England, oh man!

[thefragile_jake]

I couldn't agree more! I watched it a few months back and I'm pretty sure it'll end up being my fav movie of 2014. The fight choreography was spectacular, especially the final sequence of fights which played out like a mini Raid 1 and the final "boss" fight has to go down as the best 1 on 1 fight scene of all time!


I'm probably gonna make a calendar here out of the stills of the fight, it was so good!

I liked this movie but I still feel like the first one has some of the better moments. I love how self-contained the story is.

Oh and I'm watching this...because I'm feeling super nostalgic tonight.

[eversonpoe]

been watching Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge

i'm not big on reality TV but i love watching these kinds of competitions where people are actually making stuff. and the stuff they're making is FUCKING INCREDIBLE. especially for the short amount of time they have to complete it!

[implanted_microchip]

The Strain series premiere. Promising so far.

[elevenism]

man we watched this shit like it was episodes of a tv show.

[Deepvoid]

Watched The Saratov Approach last night. Movie is based on the kidnapping of two Mormon missionaries in Russia in 1998. Average movie with a terrible score.

[thevoid99]

I just re-watched Heaven's Gate for the first time in quite some time and through the new transfer from the Criterion Collection. I liked it even more. It still has some flaws in its storytelling. Yet, it is such a grand film that couldn't be made today. Michael Cimino needs to forgiven and get one more chance to make a film.

[theruiner]

Well, I finished Terriers. What a terrific show. It's a shame that it was cancelled after only one season but they did a good job of wrapping things up so it felt like a fully contained story. When I first started watching it, I thought it would be a relatively enjoyable piece of fluff. By about midway through the series, I realized that it had much more depth than it initially let on. By the end I was surprised how emotionally invested I was. Really well done. It's all on Netflix and while it may not seem like much at the beginning, it's worth sticking with. It gets much, much better.

[Millionaire]

Saw the original Matrix for the first time in forever. I still enjoyed it, but it kind of had the feeling you get when you listen to a nu metal album you liked as a kid, that it feels older than it is since what was good about it has been done to death at this point. Watching it now, though, its interesting how much it has affected the entire business of movies today, like how much influence it had on the current superhero movie juggernaut that is going on now. Without the Matrix, the trajectory of film I think would have been very different in the new millennium, especially among big-budget blockbusters.

Also saw Grosse Point Blank for the first time in a while, which I think has been slightly forgotten and underrated. Its one of the best comedy/action hybrids I've seen, and seems to pull it off so effortlessly. The relationship between Cusack and Driver is really endearing and cute for this kind of movie, and they seem more like real people than the usual relationship archetype couple that movies tend to portray. Good movie to watch with the girlfriend. Cusack should write something again.

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.

[Charmingly Miserable]

The Lego Movie. I don't care if this is a kids' movie, it's still pretty funny. I just use my 7 year old daughter to watch it. (Mom of the year.)

[miss k bee]

Utopia series 2

[Space Suicide]

[Space Suicide]

[Deepvoid]

I can't get enough of Suits. One of the best show I've seen. Right up there with The Wire.
Writing is brilliant so is the entire cast.

[Throw_it_away9]

Rewatched Pi.

Forgot how disorienting that movie is.

Shame that he went from that to Noah...

[implanted_microchip]

I read the first couple of books years and years ago and for whatever reason never made my way through to the next, despite enjoying them, and now I'm finally starting to watch the show. Just watched the episode with a certain crown being placed on someone's head, and I'm in love to say the least.

[theburningreptile]

Stephen King's the Stand which is probably one of my favorite works ever. Also I will be getting, what I think is my favorite work by him, which is Storm of the Century. I think it has one of the best villains i've seen. I remember seeing it as a kid and being blow away.

[neveroddoreven]

while we wait…

[Alexandros]

I just watched a documentary about Jodorowsky's (never-made) Dune and it was pretty interesting if you know about Dune and really want to see it on screen. His passion for creating his version of Dune really shows throughout his interviews, although I must say that after getting a better idea of what he was planning to do, I think it's better that he didn't do it. This seems like a case where an artist is determined to transcend his source material and in his overenthusiastic haze does not know when to stop. He has an immense vision of what he wanted to bring to the audience, but when he describes his ideas for certain scenes, they sound downright cheesy and nowhere near the soul-transforming experience he claims. On the other hand, he had assembled an impressive team during pre-production and it was very interesting (and revealing) to see how much of the movie's concept art survived in one form or another in several other Hollywood films. Anyway, after watching this, my craving for a stunning film adaptation of Dune re-ignited...

[kdrcraig]

I watched Homefront (Jason Statham, James Franco) last night since it's streaming on Netflix. It was pretty good, Statham kicks the shit out of a lot of people as per usual, it kind of fell apart at the end though. Noticed that Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay. Kate Bosworth and Wynona Rider are both in it and play drug addicts, took me a few minutes to recognize either one of them.

[Jinsai]

I just watched the original Karate Kid last night, and it was really bizarre. A young boy and his single mom move into a new town, where a cryptic asian stereotype jumps in to fill in the missing father figure role and facilitates his quest to become the alpha male.

[marodi]

Ric Burns' documentary The Donner Party. Why am I doing this to myself? The Donner Party's story is one of the very few real life event that scares the heck out of me.

Fantastic documentary but now, I'm going to have nightmares for weeks.

[Piko]

Saw Fargo for the first time, last night. TV show is much better imo. And just went see Guardians, which was pretty awesome.