What have you watched lately?

[Ran]

Caught parts of Lethal Weapon 2 and 3 recently. Remember when Mel Gibson was cool?

[anarky]

No.

Okay, yeah, I do. I pretend he died at a young age and never stopped being cool.

As to the subject at hand, Wreck-It Ralph. Holy shit, you need to watch this movie, like right now. As in put down the computer and watch it this second. Very rarely have I had pretty high expectations for a movie and had them exceeded.

[The Grin]

Rectum Ralph is Bizzaro The Grin's gamer ID.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

As to the subject at hand, Wreck-It Ralph. Holy shit, you need to watch this movie, like right now. As in put down the computer and watch it this second. Very rarely have I had pretty high expectations for a movie and had them exceeded.

I thought it was pretty good, but not the most amazing thing ever. Maybe the CGI candy racing just reminded you of Speed Racer. :p

Similarly, Oz: The Great and Powerful was okay but nothing great. I'm not too big a fan of the slightly cartoony CGI, but it was used everywhere. I liked the saturated colors and near-constant magic hour in Oz, and the CGI was maybe supposed to look like that, but ended up looking a little too fake at most times. The story and everything was just okay. Zach Braff as the monkey had some reasonably funny lines. Not bad, not great, just okay.

[anarky]

Did I say it was the best? No. But it is awesome. And--and understand I do not mean this in any sort of insulting fashion at all--I suspect a lot of the jokes might've been lost on you or just not seemed as funny to you because you're from a different generation.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

I got many of the video game references - so maybe you're right that they just wouldn't hit me as much as someone raised in that era. My main issue with the film was the unfunny moments from Vanellope, but other than that I quite liked the story, characters, world, and animation.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

Hulu has 24 of Akira Kurosawa's films streaming online this weekend for free. You have no excuse to not watch all of them. (Unless you're busy, or something.) From the list, I had already seen Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Rashomon, The Hidden Fortress, and Stray Dog. I'm about to watch Ikiru. Yeah.

[Ran]

Was Machete a Robert Rodriguez directed movie, or only produced? I think it's the character from Spy Kids (which he directed), right?

See, I'm a fan of his directing, but not all of the movies he's put his name on.

EDITED: I see he directed it. Might have to have a look at it then.

Do any of you have FMC (Fox Movie Channel)? They show movies, but there are commercials. There didn't used to be commercials, but things changed. They also used to show nudity later at night. Tonight, they showed Machete. They edited out the nudity, but left in all of the violence. Yes, be-headings, knives through heads, etc. were left in. But, no titties. Censorship confuses me.

Anyway, as I was watching the movie, I was looking stuff up on the internet. Robert Rodriguez has been busy. He has sequels to Machete and Sin City coming out this year.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2002718/

[Ran]

We had free Starz this weekend. Watched Men in Black 3, which wasn't bad, but it was rather predictable. Also saw Rooster Cogburn. Can't go wrong with John Wayne and Katherine Hepburn. Also caught part of the original Jurassic Park. Saw between Newman getting eaten and the girl getting snotted on by the brontosaurus.

[Tom Foolery]

42. Went to this today. Ford is wonderful in it. If this hadn't been released in April, I would say he's a shoo-in for a Supporting Actor nom. As it is, they'll have probably forgotten by then. Boseman is great as Robinson and lots of fine supporting performances by everyone.

Secret Origin: The History of DC Comics. This is a documentary from 2010. My dad got it for me for like $5. It's hard to compress 75 years of history into 90 minutes, so it's nothing I didn't already know. It's more for casual or novice fans. It also glosses over some things. Fer instance, it mentions Jim Lee creating 'Wildstorm' in 1992 without going into any of the Image stuff. But for what it was, it was okay.

Here Comes the Boom. The Kevin James movie about a biology teacher who starts MMA fighting to save his school's music program. The premise was dumb when I saw the trailer last year, but the movie wasn't bad. I think liked the fact it didn't resort to dick and fart jokes. Not anything I'll ever need to rewatch, but it was okay.

[Diabolical]

The last 2 weeks or so:

Devil - 5 people get stuck in an elevator. One of them is the devil. Absolutely stupid.

Kick-Ass - Rewatched after seeing the trailer for Kick-Ass 2.

12 Monkeys - Good time-travel flick, but a bit over-praised, IMO.

Zero Dark Thirty - Excellent flick. The last 20 minutes or so are pretty intense, despite knowing how things turn out.

Psycho - Been watching Bates Motel and wanted to see the flick that inspired it. Had to settle for the 1998(?) remake on Netflix. Bland, but I got to see Anne Heche's butthole.

Bully - The acclaimed anti-bullying doc. Sad, yet moving.

Men in Black 3 - Also from the Starz free weekend. Meh. Josh Brolin was the best part.

Iron Sky - Nazis have been hiding in a secret base on the dark side of the moon. The time has come for them to attack! Great, fun, stupid premise. Stupid film.

[Tom Foolery]

Oblivion. Better-than-I-thought-it-would-be post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi movie. Tom Cruise, as a human Wall-E, tries too hard to be likable at the beginning of the movie, but I chalk that up to maybe a semi clumsy screenplay/director. And the end kinda cheats in a 'have your cake and eat it too' kinda way. But minor quibbles about an enjoyable sci-fi flick. A damn sight better the last big budget Sci-Fi movie I saw, which was Prometheus. (was it? I feel like there should've been something more recent..)

They also had trailers for Superman, R.I.P.D., After Earth and Star Trek. This is first time I've noticed/realized M. Night Shamalamadingdong directed After Earth. I mean, have they been actively avoiding associating him with it? Because he's now cursed?

[Tom Foolery]

Winter's Bone. A bunch of Missourah hillbilly douches smack Jennifer Lawrence around. Because hillbilly rednecks are all badass yo...when it comes to beating up teenage girls. There's also some kind of murder mystery/thriller subplot. But "thriller" is reaching. Unless your pulse quickens at people skulking around cattle auctions and such.

The Missing. Cate Blanchett's daughter gets kidnapped by injuns and she needs Tommy Lee Jones' help to find them. The movie had two Two-Faces and one Batman in it. (Aaron Eckhart and Val Kilmer had small supporting roles).

The Help. A pretty white girl starts the entire Civil Rights Movement. And Ron Howard's daughter eats a shit pie.

[vynsane]

The Help. A pretty white girl starts the entire Civil Rights Movement. And Ron Howard's daughter eats a shit pie.

well, we know white people are better at being asians than real asians (per #4) so i'd assume the same holds true for those of african descent, right? they couldn't possibly come up with the civil rights movement themselves...

[RoIIo Tomassi]

The Place Beyond The Pines.

It's a fucking travesty that films released in April have absolutely no fucking chance of being remembered come "awards season". A. Fucking. Travesty.

Superb performances all around.