What have you watched lately?

[Tom Foolery]

Captain Philips. Intense drama about the Somali Pirate incident from 2009. Tom Hanks gives a great performance. And even though you know how it ends, it's still a nailbiter. Also, Navy SEALs kick ass.

Where the Wild Things Are. What an absolute downer of a film. How do you get from Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book to this wrist opener?

Zen. A BBC series based on a series of novels about a police inspector in Italy. Starring Rufus Sewell. It only lasted one "season" which was three 90 minute films. It was pretty good.

[anarky]

Where the Wild Things Are. What an absolute downer of a film. How do you get from Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book to this wrist opener?

Oh, and the main monster dies of a heart attack a couple of years later.

[Tom Foolery]

Where the Wild Things Are. What an absolute downer of a film. How do you get from Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book to this wrist opener?

Oh, and the main monster dies of a heart attack a couple of years later.

He may have been flipping channels and saw the movie on Starz or something and decided to just give up. It's like Willy Wonka meets Schindler's List.

[vynsane]

Captain Philips. Intense drama about the Somali Pirate incident from 2009. Tom Hanks gives a great performance. And even though you know how it ends, it's still a nailbiter. Also, Navy SEALs kick ass.

did they, at any time in the movie, mention how he was repeatedly warned to sail 600 miles or more away from the coast of somalia but then maintained course below 300 miles (and some reports go as low as 235 miles) and to his own admission he "couldn’t tell you exactly the miles" and that he's actually a big, fat, cowardly liar?

[Slicker]

I watched Pacific Rim yesterday. I had wanted to see it in theaters and now I'm kind of upset that I didn't. The action starts almost immediately and it's a neat concept. It'll be a definite DVD buy or Christmas idea.

[Tom Foolery]

The Counselor. Cormac McCarthy does NOT write happy endings. Well acted, but could've quickened the pace up a bit.

Scarface was on TV last night. Hadn't seen it in probably 20 years. I had a good laugh.

[Jargo]

Man of steel. Overblown pile of pig terd. Truly awful. Thingywotsit the director needs to face a firing squad for this atrocity.

Pacific Rim is just thinly veiled propaganda for the ass bandit brigade. Evolution was a much better movie about that. A whole movie and it ends with them shoving a bomb up the alien's anus. Unfuckingbelievable.

Stakeland. Wrist slittingly awful.

End of the world. Thankfully the end of the trilogy. Hideous characters, awful plot and dreary execution. British movies suck worse than a buck toothed schoolgirl.

This sounds like I'm beefing for the sake of it but I'm just in despair at how bad movies are of recent years. Even independent movies. They're either over long interminably tedious talky movies with characters not even remotely likeable or CGI heavy turds with totally unlikeable characters and big things smashing up cities. It's all destruction and bleakness and vileness. Unless it's a Disney animation and then it's tooth rottingly sacharin and vapid. Everything is too loud as well. I've found more enjoyment in watching short movies from Brazil on YouTube.

[jjreason]

Movies are so far down the list of things I want to do in spare time it's not even funny. I'd rather sleep for 2hrs than a watch a movie almost every time. ><

[vynsane]

for some reason, just having found this out, the fact that the ridiculous hair band that sings the song "Head Honcho" ("the face of an angel / the wings of a dove / the heart of a lion / that's pumping with love") is actually written AND performed by Queens of the Stone Age (under the pseudonym "Gown") makes the movie all that much more awesome. i can't tell you how many times i've watched it on netflix at this point.

also, we just took the little one to see 'frozen' - i was surprised that it wasn't all about the snowman and reindeer (since that was all that was in the trailers), but two sisters who are princesses (i thought disney was going to stop doing princess movies - did i make that up?) anyway, for a princess movie it was good, not as good as 'tangled' but almost.

the best part, however, was my daughter's knowledge of how tropey disney movies are. during the trailer for "Walking with Dinosaurs" there's a part where the main dino says something like "little did i know my world was about to change" and my daughter goes "let me guess, his parents die?" then, in "Frozen", the princess' parents get on a sailing ship and she goes "Op, they're going to die..."

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

Gravity - My friend insisted, since he had seen it in IMAX 3D and loved it. We saw it on a regular screen, and either the projection was off (probably) or I need to get my glasses prescription updated (definitely), but something was fucked up so it didn't look as good as it should have. I thought it was a little unbelievable how easily she was able to hop from object to object out in space, as if there were rest stops every 50 miles or something. But the opening shot was pretty fucking spectacularly done. I would like to see it again under better conditions - story-wise I thought it was a little weak, but visually it was (or at least should've been) astounding.

Monsters University - My family got this and watched it on Thanksgiving. Not Pixar's new crowning gem or anything, but not bad at all. I appreciate that the story was so different from the original film while still finding new ways to explore the monsters' world. Charlie Day is pretty hilarious as the voice of Art. Correct me if I'm wrong, anarky, but didn't you take issue with the screaming-vs.-laughing factor in this film? The only place I thought it could've been a problem was when the human kids saw Mike in their cabin, but even though they said he looked funny there wasn't any actual laughter. They didn't address the issue but it seemed like the filmmakers were well aware of it.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - I liked the first book and movie, but I tried to read this one and it took so long to get going that I became uninterested. The film doesn't waste as much time, but it also doesn't really dig in as much as it could have - I'd like to know more about the new allies, for example. Visually it looked much better than the original film, with impressive smoke and baboon effects. The jabberjays were genuinely creepy in the theater's surround sound. But yet again it's a sequel that doesn't end so much as it sets up the next one, so a little more closure could have been nice. Still, it was entertaining, well-made, and well-acted.

I watched Pacific Rim yesterday. I had wanted to see it in theaters and now I'm kind of upset that I didn't. The action starts almost immediately and it's a neat concept. It'll be a definite DVD buy or Christmas idea.

The Blu-ray was on sale for $6 at Target this weekend, but it was sold out by me. I haven't seen it but still want to.

[Tom Foolery]

Catching Fire. Decent sequel. Its pretty faithful to the source material. Moreso than many other book adaptations. The abrupt ending was the books fault, not the films. But it's still a weak ending.

12 Years a Slave. Brutally stark view of slavery. Lots of moments to make you flinch. Made me hate the South all over again. You people are assholes.

The Book Thief. Having never read the book, I was unprepared for the downer ending. Great performances by Geoffrey Rush and the rest.

Out of the Furnace. Slowly paced, underwhelming "revenge" flick. Decent performances, but uninspired directing that had nothing fresh to say. And nobody understands the final shot of the film.

[Slicker]

I started to watch Sinister last night but had to stop...not because I became a little bitch or nothing. Just because...stuff...and things...and I got a little scared...

[Diabolical]

Some of the notables since my last post:

The Lone Ranger - Not as bad as I'd heard. It takes a bit too long to get going.

Man of Steel - I still like it. Fuck the internet.

Ghost Team One - Straight-to-DVD bullshit ghost hunting comedy. The chick was really hot.

R.I.P.D. - Even worse that I'd heard.

Bad Grandpa - Hilarious.

Blackfish - The depressing anti Sea World documentary.

The To-Do List - Aubrey Plaza sluts it up over the summer in the 90's. Funny with lots of great cameos.

Thor: The Dark World - Best superhero flick of the year, IMO.

The Wolverine - The extended version. More blood and some extra cussin'.

Elysium - Good, but a weak follow-up to District 9.

We're The Millers - Overrated, but it had a few good moments.

Machette Kills - Disappointing sequel. It lacks so much of the ridiculous fun of the first.

Parkland - The regulars people, like doctors and Mr. Zapruter on November 22, 1963.

Haunter - Decent twist on the ghost genre with Abigail Breslin.

Wake Up Ron Burgundy - The other Anchorman movie made from the deleted shit of the first. Not that good.

Total Recall - The extended version of the remake.

West of Memphis - Documentary about the imfamous West Memphis Three.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Good, faithful sequel. Obvious bigger budget.

Dredd - Karl Urban is so badass as Dredd. I want a fucking sequel.

The Way Way Back - Indie-ish comedy about a teenager opening up over the summer. With Sam Rockwell and Steve Carrell (who plays a dick).

Sons of Anarchy - Started season One.

[jjreason]

Desolation of Smaug. Rollicking action, interesting to see more characters (Beorn, Bard) and locales from the book (Woodland Elves city in the forest, Laketown) and to finally get a look at the fucking enormous and terrifyingSmaug. Opinion points to follow with a view toward spoilery:

The cat & mouse between Bilbo & Smaug I found plausible. I can see Smaug leaving Bilbo alive because he is interesting. The book way, where Smaug can't see him because of the ring, would have made more sense. I don't understand the reason for the change but whatever.

Laketown seemed about right. Maybe built up more than it was in my mind's eye - multilevel dwellings on docks?

Beorn & Bard looked the part, but again different from what I had envisioned.

They spent so little time with the Elves in the forest, the fact that "the clock is ticking" didn't really kick in until much later in the film was odd, this is where that concept should have been at the forefront. No pressure on Bilbo to get them out of prison & he wasn't under stress at all - it just sort of happens. They could have easily spent more time here, but then they would have had the full allotment of time for the - and yes I'm using this term in a negative way - droid-factory-esque molten metal sequence in the Dwarven city. That whole thing is largely too silly & unnecessary for my liking... but some will love it.

Interesting how they tied Legolas into this prequel trilogy. I wonder why/how that whole idea came about.

Gandalf figuring out Sauron is returning is an interesting side story & works well to set viewers up for Lord of the Rings.

There is NO reduction in intensity of violence between these movies & Lord of the Rings. The Spider battle will have you sweating, guaranteed. I would have chosen for the to tone it down slightly so that it would ready to show slightly younger viewers to get them excited about the greater story, but it's Peter Jackson. Of course that wasn't going to happen on his watch.

[Tom Foolery]

American Hustle. Fantastic embellished story of the Abscam sting by the FBI in the late 70s/early 80s. Wonderful performances by everyone in the film. And glorious Amy Adams titties. But those were just icing on a great cake of a film.

Anchorman 2. While there were some generally hilarious moments throughout the film, it was trying too hard to be exactly like the first movie, except more and bigger. And it ended up being kinda suck. The dinner scene was uncomfortable and not funny at all. And the kid playing Ron and Veronica's son is awful. Every scene he's in is just him reading cue cards off screen. I don't usually bad mouth 7 year olds but he sucked. He makes Jake Lloyd look like Peter O'Toole.