The Films and Movies Thread

[Gator Hazard]

31 minutes ago, JetFan1983 said:

Just to make Erik feel better, I wrote this review for Wonder Woman on June 7th after all the enthusiastic reviews for it on this thread (plus the Rotten Tomatoes love). I ended up not posting it because I thought it was too negative and mean (I tend to do that sometimes here in general). Buuuuuut, I figure, screw it. Here's the original post I wrote just a couple hours after watching it: 

I saw Wonder Woman tonight based on the enthusiastic recommendations of you guys. Unfortunately I thought it was terrible. Oh well. No hard feelings. I tend to find most movies terrible, so I'm a lot harder to entertain than most. 

This movie was a 499 par 5 on a 68.1/123 rated course. The drive was a 210 yard pop up into the fairway with its bastardization of Greek mythology for the sake of laying a platform for the SJW, third wave feminist narrative. At this point, I guess I pretty much knew I was in for what I was in for.

Act two was the best stretch of the flick with its humor. I equate it to a 171 yard thinned 3 hybrid layup/approach that generally was a pretty nice swing, but with an unlucky kick, trickles into a fairway bunker, leaving you 118 yards to a middle pin. You chunk the wedge, leaving you a pretty standard 15 yard pitch to a receptive green. Unfortunately, by act three/the third shot, it really started to unravel as a story, introducing a slew of characters who really had nothing interesting going on, all of them perpetually stuck in two dimensions . Who are all these supporting characters, and why exactly should we give a shit? That question is never really addressed in any substantive way. 

As the movie begins to wrap, the fifteen yard pitch fourth shot is hit it too hard and we're left with about a 20 footer for par. Trying desperately to make it, the putt just scrapes by but with too much heat on it, and you've got a tricky seven footer to save bogey. It lips out.  Tap-in double. Sigh. I guess we're supposed to be intrigued by the big reveal that Ares is Chris Pine's boss after a series of pretty lame red herrings it was the German bad guy? Yea, I didn't care. 

There is a happy ending though here: In keeping with the golf related movie style review, in spite of the double bogey, the film ultimately succeeds IMO on these grounds: despite its talents insufficient for the tour, it has a million Instagram followers and therefore, has still found legitimate success. That's the type of movie this is, IMO. 

In the end however, the word dreck comes to mind when I think of this movie. The positives were it was funny at times between the 20 and 40 minute mark (the 171 yard thinned hybrid was the best shot of the hole), and Gal Gadot is smoking hot, but other than that, I thought this was pretty poor writing that really panders to a large demographic of people, and not in a good way. I guess for financial reasons I can't fault them for that. 

Anyway, if little else, I enjoyed stuffing myself with popcorn and zoning out for two hours. It's 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, and if you're reading this, you're probably not agreeing with me, but if you're "that guy" like me, you're best waiting until HBO puts this on demand in a year. Unfortunately for me, it was devoid of a whole lot of substance in the way of an actual story, pandering to trendy "women empowerment" while at the same time satisfying a typical male's enjoyment of hot women and explosions. In some senses, it's actually somewhat amazing they were able to kill two polar opposite birds with the same stone, but  unfortunately didn't do a whole lot for me individually. Call me old fashioned, but I guess I still appreciate a well told story above anything else. 

So yes, at times it was funny (mainly in act two of five) and overall it was visually stunning, but other than that it was a shallow movie typical of the studio, big budget experience, injected with trendy left wing ideals, big explosions, and hot women that they weren't wrong about being well received by most people who buy tickets. 

I swear that is darned near how I played number 11 at Northdale last Friday! 

Edited July 6, 2017 by Gator Hazard

[nevets88]

28 minutes ago, JetFan1983 said:

Just to make Erik feel better, I wrote this review for Wonder Woman on June 7th after all the enthusiastic reviews for it on this thread (plus the Rotten Tomatoes love). I ended up not posting it because I thought it was too negative and mean (I tend to do that sometimes here in general). Buuuuuut, I figure, screw it. Here's the original post I wrote just a couple hours after watching it: 

I saw Wonder Woman tonight based on the enthusiastic recommendations of you guys. Unfortunately I thought it was terrible. Oh well. No hard feelings. I tend to find most movies terrible, so I'm a lot harder to entertain than most. 

This movie was a 499 par 5 on a 68.1/123 rated course. The drive was a 210 yard pop up into the fairway with its bastardization of Greek mythology for the sake of laying a platform for the SJW, third wave feminist narrative. At this point, I guess I pretty much knew I was in for what I was in for.

Act two was the best stretch of the flick with its humor. I equate it to a 171 yard thinned 3 hybrid layup/approach that generally was a pretty nice swing, but with an unlucky kick, trickles into a fairway bunker, leaving you 118 yards to a middle pin. You chunk the wedge, leaving you a pretty standard 15 yard pitch to a receptive green. Unfortunately, by act three/the third shot, it really started to unravel as a story, introducing a slew of characters who really had nothing interesting going on, all of them perpetually stuck in two dimensions . Who are all these supporting characters, and why exactly should we give a shit? That question is never really addressed in any substantive way. 

As the movie begins to wrap, the fifteen yard pitch fourth shot is hit it too hard and we're left with about a 20 footer for par. Trying desperately to make it, the putt just scrapes by but with too much heat on it, and you've got a tricky seven footer to save bogey. It lips out.  Tap-in double. Sigh. I guess we're supposed to be intrigued by the big reveal that Ares is Chris Pine's boss after a series of pretty lame red herrings it was the German bad guy? Yea, I didn't care. 

There is a happy ending though here: In keeping with the golf related movie style review, in spite of the double bogey, the film ultimately succeeds IMO on these grounds: despite its talents insufficient for the tour, it has a million Instagram followers and therefore, has still found legitimate success. That's the type of movie this is, IMO. 

In the end however, the word dreck comes to mind when I think of this movie. The positives were it was funny at times between the 20 and 40 minute mark (the 171 yard thinned hybrid was the best shot of the hole), and Gal Gadot is smoking hot, but other than that, I thought this was pretty poor writing that really panders to a large demographic of people, and not in a good way. I guess for financial reasons I can't fault them for that. 

Anyway, if little else, I enjoyed stuffing myself with popcorn and zoning out for two hours. It's 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, and if you're reading this, you're probably not agreeing with me, but if you're "that guy" like me, you're best waiting until HBO puts this on demand in a year. Unfortunately for me, it was devoid of a whole lot of substance in the way of an actual story, pandering to trendy "women empowerment" while at the same time satisfying a typical male's enjoyment of hot women and explosions. In some senses, it's actually somewhat amazing they were able to kill two polar opposite birds with the same stone, but  unfortunately didn't do a whole lot for me individually. Call me old fashioned, but I guess I still appreciate a well told story above anything else. 

So yes, at times it was funny (mainly in act two of five) and overall it was visually stunning, but other than that it was a shallow movie typical of the studio, big budget experience, injected with trendy left wing ideals, big explosions, and hot women that they weren't wrong about being well received by most people who buy tickets. 

I totally see where you're coming from and while I enjoyed it, thought it was gushed over a little too much. Same for Baby Driver. That's how it is these days, there's less and less middle ground. 

[Gator Hazard]

1 hour ago, Eric C said:

Another good zombie movie that's out of the mainstream is Train to Busan.  It's a South Korean film, so it's subtitled, but you'll never notice once it gets started. I promise that it's worth your time, even my wife liked it.

I have a few zombie movies to catch up on. Are these on Prime/Netflix @Eric Cand @jsgolfer?

[nevets88]

Train to Busan was good. Also check out the Nazi zombie one, Dead Snow.

[Eric C]

5 minutes ago, Gator Hazard said:

I have a few zombie movies to catch up on. Are these on Prime/Netflix @Eric Cand @jsgolfer?

Train from Busan was on Netflix. Since we're on the subject, I'll go ahead and list my favorite Zombie movies in order:

1. 28 Days Later
2. Zombieland
3. World War Z
4. 28 Weeks Later
5. Train from Busan
6. Dawn of the Dead
7. Shaun of the Dead
8. Day of the Dead

 

 

[Jeremie Boop]

4 hours ago, iacas said:

Why?

See my post earlier.

I don't get the love for it. Is it ONLY because people finally got a Wonder Woman movie or something?

I've been curious about the "enthusiasm" for this movie myself. I have no interest in watching it, didn't care much about Wonder Woman growing up. Probably because the show was a little before my time. I was actually a little annoyed with her "saving the day" in Batman V Superman, but I didn't really enjoy that movie all that much anyway so it wasn't too big a deal. And before people start thinking I'm some misogynist who doesn't like action movies with female leads, I enjoyed Ghost in the Shell, Lucy, Aeon Flux, Hanna, Salt, and countless others. I may watch this movie at some point at home or I may not watch it at all like the Ghostbusters remake.

 

Now, for an actual movie review:

Alien Covenant: I call this one a barely made par... I was really disappointed and I'm not even sure why. Perhaps it was just all the build up to this movie or perhaps it was just that nothing was even remotely surprising to me in the movie.

[Gator Hazard]

8 minutes ago, Eric C said:

Train from Busan was on Netflix. Since we're on the subject, I'll go ahead and list my favorite Zombie movies in order:

1. 28 Days Later
2. Zombieland
3. World War Z
4. 28 Weeks Later
5. Train from Busan
6. Dawn of the Dead
7. Shaun of the Dead
8. Day of the Dead

 

 

Thanks. Nice list. Have you ever seen Aaah! Zombies!!  That one was good. The premise was better than the execution but still an entertaining movie. Was on Netflix some time ago. 

[Elmer]

21 minutes ago, Jeremie Boop said:

I've been curious about the "enthusiasm" for this movie myself. I have no interest in watching it, didn't care much about Wonder Woman growing up. Probably because the show was a little before my time. I was actually a little annoyed with her "saving the day" in Batman V Superman, but I didn't really enjoy that movie all that much anyway so it wasn't too big a deal. And before people start thinking I'm some misogynist who doesn't like action movies with female leads, I enjoyed Ghost in the Shell, Lucy, Aeon Flux, Hanna, Salt, and countless others. I may watch this movie at some point at home or I may not watch it at all like the Ghostbusters remake.

 

Now, for an actual movie review:

Alien Covenant: I call this one a barely made par... I was really disappointed and I'm not even sure why. Perhaps it was just all the build up to this movie or perhaps it was just that nothing was even remotely surprising to me in the movie.

Why would you be "annoyed" that one of the top 3 characters in the DC universe saving the day?
Even though it is Superman who stabs Doomsday with kryptonite to finish the battle.

I had a lot of issues with B vs S, but Wonder Women was not one of them.

[Jeremie Boop]

11 minutes ago, Elmer said:

Why would you be "annoyed" that one of the top 3 characters in the DC universe saving the day?
Even though it is Superman who stabs Doomsday with kryptonite to finish the battle.

I had a lot of issues with B vs S, but Wonder Women was not one of them.

Probably because I've never been a big comic book reader and I never associated Wonder Woman with Superman in any way. I don't know the difference between Marvel and DC for the most part. I had watched cartoons growing up where Batman and Superman had interacted so that didn't seem strange to me, but never put Wonder Woman in the same "world" as them. Therefore, having her in there didn't make sense to me. Obviously, for people who are more versed in the "DC Universe" that's not the case.

[Elmer]

27 minutes ago, Jeremie Boop said:

Probably because I've never been a big comic book reader and I never associated Wonder Woman with Superman in any way. I don't know the difference between Marvel and DC for the most part. I had watched cartoons growing up where Batman and Superman had interacted so that didn't seem strange to me, but never put Wonder Woman in the same "world" as them. Therefore, having her in there didn't make sense to me. Obviously, for people who are more versed in the "DC Universe" that's not the case.

Makes sense.
After 35 years I am still an avid comic book reader. Therefore this was not out of place. Wonder Women is part of the big 3 in DC universe. She is always there along side BatMan & Superman. A simple google image search returns pictures of all the DC heros and WW is usually just to the side of Superman who is front and center.

What I find out of place in current day comic movies is characters like Mary Jane Watson/Gwen Stacy being involved in the super shenanigans. Where their comic incarnations were heroines, but usually damsel in distress.
I know that no longer works in this day and age, so re-writes are necessary. 
OFF my geek soap box.

Watched "Loving" the other day. Excellent small, indie film. The acting was beyond exceptional!

[jsgolfer]

2 hours ago, Gator Hazard said:

I have a few zombie movies to catch up on. Are these on Prime/Netflix @Eric Cand @jsgolfer?

Yes both were on Netflix.

[nevets88]

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was so bad, I stopped watching after 20 minutes.

[JetFan1983]

6 hours ago, Gator Hazard said:

I swear that is darned near how I played number 11 at Northdale last Friday! 

Done it a million times myself haha.

6 hours ago, nevets88 said:

I totally see where you're coming from and while I enjoyed it, thought it was gushed over a little too much. Same for Baby Driver. That's how it is these days, there's less and less middle ground. 

Awww, I was hoping Baby Driver was good. Figures.

I have no problem with a story tackling certain issues, but it's the execution that falls flat. I'm a big fan of Mad Men for example. 

[nevets88]

3 minutes ago, JetFan1983 said:

Done it a million times myself haha.

Awww, I was hoping Baby Driver was good. Figures.

I have no problem with a story tackling certain issues, but it's the execution that falls flat. I'm a big fan of Mad Men for example. 

I kind of wish Peggy and Don would be Bonnie and Clyde in Baby Driver. Maybe too much stunt casting. Would have been fun to watch Elisabeth Moss do a mini version of Free Fire.

[jsgolfer]

Here Alone-Birdie 

Really good zombie movie

[jsgolfer]

Them-Birdie-Romanian thriller

Like the Strangers only better, although had to watch with subtitles very good movie. Lots of good on the edge of seat moments.

 

[iacas]

Pretty much what I thought, @JetFan1983.

[dennyjones]

Watched Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks.  It's a 2015 movie.  I had no preconceived assumptions and thought the movie was well done.  It was during the ending credits, I saw Steven Spielberg was the director.    I thought the movie was well done.   

tap-in  PAR