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Post by Dex Macleod on Mar 1, 2014 1:02:13 GMT
I've been watching movies a bit more recently for some reason so I figured I'd share my thoughts on the two most recent.
First up "Hunger Games: Catching Fire". I kind of hated it. I wasn't exactly a huge fan of the first film but I didn't dislike it in anyway. It sort of felt like "Goblet of Fire" with more violence and a far less interesting everything else. Catching Fire for the most part just felt like more of the same with a slightly different dynamic to the romance angle.
The actual Hunger Games portion of the film was easily the most entertaining but it only lasted for like 40 minutes of the film's over two and a half hour runtime. Too little, too late for me. The ending was extremely abrupt as well and just as things were starting to get interesting. It literally felt like I'd been watching the first act for two and half hours and the main plot while finally starting to kick into gear. Then there's a smash to black and the thing's over. Though it did make me eager to find out what happens in the next one, that's about all it did.
The other one I just watched the other day was "Old Boy", the American version starring Josh Brolin. I really didn't know what to expect when I started watching this. I've never heard anything about the original apart from the fact that exists and the advertising didn't really give any details about the plot. That's probly for the better as this movie really surprised me in a lot of ways. I don't want to say too much about it as going in half blind is probably the main reason I enjoyed it. Not a great film but it is different and that was refreshing.
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Post by Dex Macleod on Mar 9, 2014 7:28:19 GMT
Homefront - Just kind of a mess of a movie, I thought. the performances were all pretty decent, Kate Bosworth as a methed out milf was surprisingly brilliant casting and James Franco makes a convincing bad guy but the story was just so all over the place. What could have been a pretty simple but good story just got way too overcomplicated with characters semi switching from bad to good then back to bad with no real motivation for any of it.
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Post by Dex Macleod on Mar 24, 2014 11:06:07 GMT
Anyone seen the Veronica Mars Movie yet? I was a pretty big fan of the show but I think the movie proves that the show's charm was really the whole high school/college setting. Veronica as an adult is a lot less adorable and therefore tends to just come off as a bitch most of the time.
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Post by Dex Macleod on Apr 14, 2014 0:31:34 GMT
I'm trying to resist the urge to watch this crappy CAM quality version of Winter Soldier I've downloaded. I'd like to see it in the theaters but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make it anytime soon and I hear Agents of Shield has gotten better because of it. I don't wanna end up with a bunch of episodes sitting on my DVR.
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Post by RJ Alden Lackie on Apr 22, 2014 9:54:03 GMT
I'm spending the summer in a town without a movie theatre, so I'll have to wait until a good copy becomes available online. Which is probably fitting bc of the Marvelverse I've so far only seen the Iron Man films and The Avengers. I should probably carve out some time to watch the Thor films and the first Captain American before Winter Soldier.
Just watched GBF, which was a cute little movie. Next in my queue is Labor Day, which I've been waiting since TIFF to see. Also, gonna marathon Veronica Mars S1-3 rewatch so I can watch the Veronica Mars movie...
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Post by Dex Macleod on Apr 27, 2014 1:18:50 GMT
Finally gave in and watched a telesync of Winter Soldier. Easily my favorite of the Marvel Movies so far. I find that most Marvel movies tend to lack any real emotional or intelligent substance and cover it up with a desperate need to be laughed at but Winter Soldier really broke away from that. Scarlett Johansson continues to be the best thing Marvel's Movies have going for them.
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Post by Dex Macleod on May 12, 2014 0:01:14 GMT
Finally caught the New Spider-Man movie. It was kinda... meh. I really like Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone's chemistry but that's about all this movie had going for it for me. Jamie Foxx did his best but his into plotline felt like it would have been right at home in one of Joel Schumacher's Batman movies. Paul Giamatti and to a lesser extent Harry Osbourne felt the same way. It's almost like Garfield, Stone and Fields were the only three people in the movie attempting to portray actual people rather than campy cartoon characters.
Who knows, maybe it'll get better on a second viewing in a few months.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2014 17:58:08 GMT
I didn't even realize that was Giamatti!!! What the heck. I felt the same way. I wasn't totally impressed by this movie for some reason. I am a total Garfield fan over Tobey - way more and I think these moves are far better but I just couldn't feel it. I may have to watch it again when it comes to dvd. You can almost tell when 'something' is going to happen. I'm not familiar with the spider-man comics and I know certain things happen but didn't realize it was going to be in this one. Anyways.
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Post by RJ Alden Lackie on May 16, 2014 17:20:02 GMT
Can't wait for all these blockbusters to become available online. Spending the summer in a town with no cinema as its disadvantages...
Watched Tiger Eyes, the film adaptation of the Judy Blume novel starring Willa Holland, last night with my sister. Holland was pretty great, but the film was messy and the direction wasn't great. The performances generally elevated a meh script and direction. Wouldn't recommend, even if I wouldn't say I hated it.
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Post by Srini Madhavan on May 17, 2014 0:58:17 GMT
Insanely excited for this film.
The Nolan brothers do it again.
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Post by RJ Alden Lackie on Jun 25, 2014 2:58:16 GMT
Has anyone else checked out SnagFilms yet? It's like a smaller Netflix competitor with some interesting indies on offer.
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Post by Srini Madhavan on Jun 26, 2014 2:39:32 GMT
Need to check it out - seen a ton of ads for it on Indiewire. I'll be freeing up a huge amount of time in the coming weeks so it's perfect timing to check it out.
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Post by RJ Alden Lackie on Aug 14, 2014 14:02:32 GMT
I watched and loved Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier. The obligatory action sequences were thrilling, the characters were engaging, and there was way more gay subtext than I ever expected. Seriously, it was palpable. Regardless of that, though, quite possibly my favourite Marvel film so far. Neck and neck w Iron Man 3 there.
I watched a Joseph Gordon-Levitt bike messenger film called Premium Rush that I really liked. It didn't blow my mind, but it was a ton of fun, and JGL was in top form. That protagonist should have been irritating, but in his hands, I actually got the need for speed his character experienced throughout. And Michael Shannon was perfectly cast as the villain - again, being an offbeat choice that elevated the character from a basic corrupt cop. I quite liked it.
I also grabbed an indie, Date and Switch, off Amazon for thesis research purposes. It was really cute and lightweight, based on a script that made, I believe, the 2008 Black List ("Gay Dude") which I actually got to read before watching the movie. After seeing Dakota Johnson in a couple things and being unimpressed, this was the project that finally proved to me that, used correctly, she's a really distinct and enjoyable performer. Nicholas Braun was well-cast as the confused best friend, Zach Cregger was fun as the beardy, 'dude-ish' love interest. The revelation for me, though, was Hunter Cope - who I'd never seen in anything before - who was perfectly cast as the sexually confused 'gay dude' at the center, trying to figure out what 'being gay' actually means. The film's main misstep was focusing so much on Braun's best friend character and losing a lot of opportunity to dig into Cope's journey, as his was the more interesting narrative and ended up underserved. Good, lightweight teen movie, though.
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Post by Dex Macleod on Aug 29, 2014 5:23:53 GMT
Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of what Marvel's been doing (kind of just something to put on the background normally) but Winter Soldier was a great movie. Lot's of heart and the humor actually felt "real" as opposed to the usual "let's just pretend this forced humor counts as character development" schtick they've been playing off of since Iron Man.
I also just watched "I'll Follow you Down". It's a pretty nice little "twist" on the Time Travel genre. I quoted twist because the plot isn't really all that different from Michael Crichton's "Timeline" (and I'm sure a few other Time Travel tales) but it's lack of budget forced the writers to keep it about the people rather than the special effects.
Also, "Locke", starring Tom Hardy was really good. It's literally just Tom Hardy driving a BMW while talking on the phone for about an hour and a half but somehow he makes it work.
I can't recommend "Batman: Assault on Arkham" enough. Using "Batman" in the title is really just an attempt to sell more copies as this is really a Suicide Squad movie set in the Arkham videogame series with Batman as a supporting player. All the same, though? This movie is fuckin' awesome!
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Post by Dex Macleod on Dec 23, 2014 20:13:43 GMT
Finally decided to watch "Frozen". Possibly the most overrated movie I've seen since The Avengers. I had about five songs stuck in my head after the first ten minutes and the plot wasn't nearly as original as I'd been lead to believe. As a student of CGI I'll admit that the film is very pretty though. Normally non-Pixar Disney CGI is kinda blah but the snow effects in Frozen were amazing.
"Gone Girl" was amazing! I think the less you know about it the better but Rosamund Pike is insanely great in this.
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