The Films and Movies Thread

[JetFan1983]

I saw the Way, Way Back last night. Pretty funny. I enjoyed it. Typical coming-of-age story, but somehow entertaining. I thought it captured Cape Cod pretty decently well. The place definitely feels like that when I visit, but I'm no where near "local" enough to make a call like that

Still, kind of a subdued comedy... no real major laughs or anything. Just a nice, feel good tale of a 14 year old kid spending his summer at the Cape. Steve Carell was kind of miscast, but he pulls it off really well despite that. Good range on him.

Oops, I forgot to give the Way, Way Back a grade. I'll give it a solid par... maybe a missed GIR with a nice sand save. Even though I didn't like Lost in Translation , this movie for some reason kind of had a similar vibe to it, in a good way. Also, not a whole lot happens, but for whatever reason, the movie is charming and kind of refreshing. I'm not sure why. The reviews basically said the same thing: It's nothing new, but somehow it's got a good feel to it.

[cipher]

Watched The Short Game on netflix.  The play by play announcing was very overdone, but overall it was somewhat fascinating.   It is amazing the swing that some of those kids have.  Makes me wonder how much of their dedication is their own?

[JetFan1983]

Watched The Short Game on netflix.  The play by play announcing was very overdone, but overall it was somewhat fascinating.   It is amazing the swing that some of those kids have.  Makes me wonder how much of their dedication is their own?

Would you recommend it? I saw the trailer a while back.

Yea, I would agree it's more the psycho parents, but hey... I wish my parents knew about golf when I was a kid haha

I'm not a parent, but if I was, I'd imagine I'd be a psycho sports dad... possibly to a fault, but since I'm somewhat self-aware, I'd like to think I would be able to balance it so it isn't unhealthy.

[cipher]

Would you recommend it? I saw the trailer a while back.

Yea, I would agree it's more the psycho parents, but hey... I wish my parents knew about golf when I was a kid haha

I'm not a parent, but if I was, I'd imagine I'd be a psycho sports dad... possibly to a fault, but since I'm somewhat self-aware, I'd like to think I would be able to balance it so it isn't unhealthy.

I would recommend it although it is a bit long.  There are some fascinating personalities in it and the kids are pretty dang good.  The kids in the film seem to be genuinely crazy about the game as well.  Still makes me wonder though. I do have a 5 year old, who shows little interest in the game and so I will definitely not be one of those parents pushing him into it.

[nevets88]

Watched The Short Game on netflix.  The play by play announcing was very overdone, but overall it was somewhat fascinating.   It is amazing the swing that some of those kids have.  Makes me wonder how much of their dedication is their own?

That bit where one of the parents says we're C people not A people, I grimaced. I shuddered. Ouch . I think the same kid and parent are in the HBO documentary, State of Play, about parents who drive their athlete kids hard.

I have mixed feelings about TSG. Yeah, it's cute, some of the kids seem grounded, some not, but I got a tinge of a dark vibe but I'm very cynical. Here's one of my favorite parts. You don't want to get bogeys. I love the way she says it. Ha ha...

[boogielicious]

Would you recommend it? I saw the trailer a while back.

Yea, I would agree it's more the psycho parents, but hey... I wish my parents knew about golf when I was a kid haha

I'm not a parent, but if I was, I'd imagine I'd be a psycho sports dad... possibly to a fault, but since I'm somewhat self-aware, I'd like to think I would be able to balance it so it isn't unhealthy.

I doubt you would be one of THOSE parents.  Your personality on this thread indicates otherwise.  I can see you being a coach of whatever sport your potential child plays. @JetFan1983 , cheerleading coach of the year!

Coaching was very rewarding for me.  I did soccer (11 years), basketball, baseball.  I was very lucky in that the parents of my teams were excellent.  They cheered the game and not just their own kids.  They would even cheer for a great play by the other team at times.

[Golfingdad]

Trading Places last night. Eagle (on a drive-able par 4. It's got Eddie Murphy and Jamie Lee Curtis in their primes) Not technically a Christmas Movie, per se, but its got a drunk, homicidal/suicidal Santa in it, so it's kind of a Christmas movie. ;)

[JetFan1983]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

Would you recommend it? I saw the trailer a while back.

Yea, I would agree it's more the psycho parents, but hey... I wish my parents knew about golf when I was a kid haha

I'm not a parent, but if I was, I'd imagine I'd be a psycho sports dad... possibly to a fault, but since I'm somewhat self-aware, I'd like to think I would be able to balance it so it isn't unhealthy.

I would recommend it although it is a bit long.  There are some fascinating personalities in it and the kids are pretty dang good.  The kids in the film seem to be genuinely crazy about the game as well.  Still makes me wonder though. I do have a 5 year old, who shows little interest in the game and so I will definitely not be one of those parents pushing him into it.

Thanks @cipher . Appreciate the follow-up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

Would you recommend it? I saw the trailer a while back.

Yea, I would agree it's more the psycho parents, but hey... I wish my parents knew about golf when I was a kid haha

I'm not a parent, but if I was, I'd imagine I'd be a psycho sports dad... possibly to a fault, but since I'm somewhat self-aware, I'd like to think I would be able to balance it so it isn't unhealthy.

I doubt you would be one of THOSE parents.  Your personality on this thread indicates otherwise.  I can see you being a coach of whatever sport your potential child plays.  @JetFan1983, cheerleading coach of the year!

Coaching was very rewarding for me.  I did soccer (11 years), basketball, baseball.  I was very lucky in that the parents of my teams were excellent.  They cheered the game and not just their own kids.  They would even cheer for a great play by the other team at times.

Haha, in this thread. Other threads however....

Yea, I'd say you lucked out with well-balanced parents. Some of these youth games can get out of hand pretty easily.

Trading Places last night. Eagle (on a drive-able par 4. It's got Eddie Murphy and Jamie Lee Curtis in their primes)

Not technically a Christmas Movie, per se, but its got a drunk, homicidal/suicidal Santa in it, so it's kind of a Christmas movie. ;)

Definitely an eagle. And also definitely a Christmas movie!

^^ Clearly the face of someone in a festive mood.

[Warren Zevon]

I watched After Earth today.  It suffers from some clunky dialogue, and for some reason M.Night.Shamalayan still thinks it's dramatic to convince actors to completely deadpan performances, but all in all I didn't entirely hate it.  Some of it had merit.  I give it a solid bogey.

Also enjoyed Elysium over the weekend.  Easily a par, although it left me wanting more.

[mvmac]

Watching Inception, one of my favorite movies, give it an eagle.  Love cerebral thrillers and this one is as cerebral as it gets

Yesterday saw Walter Mitty, gets a birdie from me.  Ben Stiller did a great job as actor/director, fun story.

[boogielicious]

Watching Inception, one of my favorite movies, give it an eagle.  Love cerebral thrillers and this one is as cerebral as it gets

Yesterday saw Walter Mitty, gets a birdie from me.  Ben Stiller did a great job as actor/director, fun story.

The original with Danny Kaye was on last night on Turner Classic Movies . I didn't watch it, but I will have to give the new one a try.

[JetFan1983]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mvmac

Watching Inception, one of my favorite movies, give it an eagle.  Love cerebral thrillers and this one is as cerebral as it gets

Yesterday saw Walter Mitty, gets a birdie from me.  Ben Stiller did a great job as actor/director, fun story.

The original with Danny Kaye was on last night on Turner Classic Movies. I didn't watch it, but I will have to give the new one a try.

I remember reading the short story in 6th grade and really liking it... of course, the original story (if I recall) is just about a guy running errands with his wife... but considering I still remember reading it must mean it was pretty good. It looks like they really ran wild with the premise of "imagining you're somewhere else, somewhere fantastic at all times" in this movie. RottenTs didn't like it much, but they're wrong a lot. I'll probably end up seeing it when it comes out on HBO or something in a year. I've always liked Ben Stiller.

[iacas]

I remember reading the short story in 6th grade and really liking it... of course, the original story (if I recall) is just about a guy running errands with his wife... but considering I still remember reading it must mean it was pretty good. It looks like they really ran wild with the premise of "imagining you're somewhere else, somewhere fantastic at all times" in this movie. RottenTs didn't like it much, but they're wrong a lot. I'll probably end up seeing it when it comes out on HBO or something in a year. I've always liked Ben Stiller.

Rotten Tomatoes is like the inverse of most grading systems.

In most systems, something has to be 7/10 or higher to consider it good. Almost nothing gets beneath 5/10.

On Rotten Tomatoes, anything over 30% is worth watching, and even some stuff in the high teens to 20s can pass the time satisfactorily without being a waste.

I give a lot more weight to the viewer ratings than the critic ratings on RT.

Last night I watched Columbiana (27 and 67 on RT). It got a solid par. It wasn't great, it was barely good, but it was anything but bad. Pretty average. It had some nice action sequences, and the story was unimportant but not super far-fetched or weird. I wasn't looking to think last night - just to watch a movie until I was tired so I could sleep. I certainly don't think it's in the lower third of movies ever made.

[JetFan1983]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

I remember reading the short story in 6th grade and really liking it... of course, the original story (if I recall) is just about a guy running errands with his wife... but considering I still remember reading it must mean it was pretty good. It looks like they really ran wild with the premise of "imagining you're somewhere else, somewhere fantastic at all times" in this movie. RottenTs didn't like it much, but they're wrong a lot. I'll probably end up seeing it when it comes out on HBO or something in a year. I've always liked Ben Stiller.

Rotten Tomatoes is like the inverse of most grading systems.

In most systems, something has to be 7/10 or higher to consider it good. Almost nothing gets beneath 5/10.

On Rotten Tomatoes, anything over 30% is worth watching, and even some stuff in the high teens to 20s can pass the time satisfactorily without being a waste.

I give a lot more weight to the viewer ratings than the critic ratings on RT.

Last night I watched Columbiana (27 and 67 on RT). It got a solid par. It wasn't great, it was barely good, but it was anything but bad. Pretty average. It had some nice action sequences, and the story was unimportant but not super far-fetched or weird. I wasn't looking to think last night - just to watch a movie until I was tired so I could sleep. I certainly don't think it's in the lower third of movies ever made.

Agreed 100%. IMDB used to be reliable back before Amazon bought them... a 6.0 was a good score for a movie. Now if a movie has a 7.9 it still might be crap.

But there are a ton of movies I love that RT thought were busts.

[nevets88]

I think based on gut feeling from actors in movie, director, producer and trailer is better than RT or IMDB. If I want to see a movie, those numbers or critic reviews don't influence me. Although trailers can be awfully deceiving.

[mvmac]

Wolf of Wall Street

Birdie, reminded me a little of my time in the mortgage business Some really crazy scenes in this movie but it's entertaining.  Only negative is that it's three hours long.

[boogielicious]

Rotten Tomatoes is like the inverse of most grading systems.

In most systems, something has to be 7/10 or higher to consider it good. Almost nothing gets beneath 5/10.

On Rotten Tomatoes, anything over 30% is worth watching, and even some stuff in the high teens to 20s can pass the time satisfactorily without being a waste.

I give a lot more weight to the viewer ratings than the critic ratings on RT.

Last night I watched Columbiana (27 and 67 on RT). It got a solid par. It wasn't great, it was barely good, but it was anything but bad. Pretty average. It had some nice action sequences, and the story was unimportant but not super far-fetched or weird. I wasn't looking to think last night - just to watch a movie until I was tired so I could sleep. I certainly don't think it's in the lower third of movies ever made.

Agreed.  Especially viewers that I know, friends and family.  My son is a good judge of what I would like.  So I will be seeing Anchorman 2 soon.

I almost never listen to any paid reviewer for movies or books.  The are like all other reporters in that they want to be part of the story.  Reviewers always come off as pompous wannabes to me.

Columbiana was par for me too.  Zoey Saldana is a good actress.  Loved her in the new Star Trek movies.

[nevets88]

Wolf of Wall Street - 50 foot birdie despite wrong read. Some people interpreted the debauchery scenes as glamorous, but they turned my stomach. And I did not want to see Jonah Hill's pecker, prosthetic or not. That scene with DiCaprio getting into the Lamborghini. Laughed till I cried.