The Films and Movies Thread

[nevets88]

52 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Not spoiling 

You get a hint from the trailer though, right? Trailers give away so much these ays.

[iacas]

Saw Molly's Game tonight with the wife.

I haven't read the book (http://amzn.to/2D22FCh), but the movie was a bit of a disappointment. It didn't have the usual Sorkin type talking. Not like you'd expect, anyway. It was there, but much subdued. Ultimately it was kind of boring.

Well acted, well written, but… meh. Probably a better book than a movie.

Par.

[nevets88]

16 hours ago, iacas said:

Saw Molly's Game tonight with the wife.

I haven't read the book (http://amzn.to/2D22FCh), but the movie was a bit of a disappointment. It didn't have the usual Sorkin type talking. Not like you'd expect, anyway. It was there, but much subdued. Ultimately it was kind of boring.

Well acted, well written, but… meh. Probably a better book than a movie.

Par.

Yes, now that I've seen the movie... ish, tempted to read the book.

It was awesome seeing Stringer Bell and Ray Kinsella doing Sorkin dialogue. 

[dennyjones]

My son and his kids were in town this week and we went and saw Jumanji.   I wasn't expecting much because I thought the trailers would be the best part of the movie.    I wasn't disappointed.   My kids say I don't have a sense of humor but I didn't laugh throughout the movie.   I thought it was predictable, typical of most Dwayne Johnson's movies.   To me, it was a bogie.   The grandkids liked it though.  

[nevets88]

I haven't seen Jumanji, just following its box office. Ouch. It may sniff 300m. Probably 290m ish.

[iacas]

14 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Ouch.

?

What's "ouch" about it?

[nevets88]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

?

What's "ouch" about it?

That ouch was meant for Justice League. Justice League is DC's Avengers, the building and culmination of its characters / character arcs and supposed to be the biggest money maker. The first Avengers made over 600 million domestically 5 years ago. Even the second one which was a bit of a flop, made over 450m. DC's JL making "only" 227 million is a big disappointment. That Jumanji, a movie that people didn't expect much from, is going to outperform it and not by a small margin, puts more sting into JL's underperformance.

[saevel25]

Due to my Internet going out for 2 hours. I finally put on Your Name, a Japanese anime.

I give this an easy Birdie. The animation was awesome. The sound was great. The story was predictable, but the characters were fantastic. There are enough twists in the story to make the predictable ending worth it. Shockingly the English voice acting was top notch. 

[nevets88]

On 1/9/2018 at 11:11 PM, saevel25 said:

Due to my Internet going out for 2 hours. I finally put on Your Name, a Japanese anime.

I give this an easy Birdie. The animation was awesome. The sound was great. The story was predictable, but the characters were fantastic. There are enough twists in the story to make the predictable ending worth it. Shockingly the English voice acting was top notch. 

Speak of the devil, going to see it tonight, for the 2nd time. Love this movie. The first time I saw it, it was dubbed. Gonna guess it's subtitled this time, have seen both versions (I cheated and streamed a low quality Japanese version before it was available in the US), I agree, the dub is well done.

I, Tonya - par. I have mixed feelings on this. It was well directed and acted, I'm ambivalent as to the subject matter. I side on Harding in terms of her getting unfair treatment from the skating association, the press, the public in general, but she does have some involvement in mitigating her circumstances. If you followed the incident closely, it'll be a refresher and maybe you might see some aspects you haven't thought of before. If you're young, it'll be a crash course it what happened, but I'm just wary of movie biopics shaping people's perspectives.

[JetFan1983]

On 12/24/2017 at 6:24 PM, JetFan1983 said:

I recently saw the director's cut of Gettysburg (1993). It has a run time of 4 hours, 31 minutes. Yea... it's pretty epic. 

I'll give it a birdie. By the end, it's so long that you feel almost as worn out and beaten up as the soldiers probably do. OK, I'm exaggerating, but it's a long slog... but it feels worth it in the end. There were two very memorable moments/scenes in it that I'd put up there with any in all of cinema. 

There are certainly things to criticize sure, but IMO the good far outweighs the bad. Man, I can't believe actual human beings did the stuff portrayed in this movie. Insanity. 

And of course, with any interesting movie, there wwere a lot of awesome performances... Jeff Daniels, Tom Berenger... I even enjoyed Martin Sheen's Robert E. Lee most of the time. But Richard Jordan really stole the show for me, in his final role before dying of cancer. 

Pretty epic flick. 

In the three weeks or so since writing this review, I've continued my study of the Civil War and its surrounding years. I would highly recommend studying the Civil War as a hobby to anyone. It is truly fascinating and important information. One subject in particular that I have been pretty blown away by was reading about the Lost Cause narrative and just how widespread and pervasive it was for so long. It continues today in a lot of ways. Its history as a narrative is truly incredible to learn about.

Unfortunately though, I would have to classify Gettysburg (1993) as part of that narrative's history. It's not nearly as bad as, say, Gone with the Wind (1939) is in this regard, but it is notable nonetheless. So while the facial hair and cinematic moments in this movie are still great, it's important for me to add this new information to my review. I might even go as far in saying that my original review was me signing for an incorrect score on the hole.

That being said, Gettysburg has IMO three very memorable scenes in it: 1) Little Round Top 2) Lee's entrance and 3) Armistead's death. These are still great scenes. But at the same time, the Lost Cause Narrative is a very real thing and as a reviewer, I'd be doing myself a disservice by not mentioning my awareness of its existence. 

The Civil War and the 19th century as a whole was a truly fascinating time and place in human history. I highly recommend its study. Just an hour a day of reading adds up over time, and I have officially hit a point of information where I'm stepping back now, looking at it all in my head, and being both in awe of it and disturbed by it at the same time. And I still have a long way to go and a lot more to read. What an incredible history this country has indeed. 

[Eric C]

My wife and I watched American Assassin the other night.  I was excited to see it because I'm a huge fan of the Vince Flynn books with Mitch Rapp.  I understand the need to fill in the back story for the main character, and  it's hard to do in a 2 hr movie, but they just spent too much time on it and there wasn't enough action.  I found Dylan O'Brian well suited for the Mitch Rapp role though, and Michael Keaton did a good job as Stan Hurley, so I'm holding out hope for the next installment and would give this one a solid par. 

And since we're talking about Zombie movies, has anyone seen Day of the Dead: Bloodlines yet?

[nevets88]

On 1/11/2018 at 8:18 PM, JetFan1983 said:

In the three weeks or so since writing this review, I've continued my study of the Civil War and its surrounding years. I would highly recommend studying the Civil War as a hobby to anyone. It is truly fascinating and important information. One subject in particular that I have been pretty blown away by was reading about the Lost Cause narrative and just how widespread and pervasive it was for so long. It continues today in a lot of ways. Its history as a narrative is truly incredible to learn about.

Unfortunately though, I would have to classify Gettysburg (1993) as part of that narrative's history. It's not nearly as bad as, say, Gone with the Wind (1939) is in this regard, but it is notable nonetheless. So while the facial hair and cinematic moments in this movie are still great, it's important for me to add this new information to my review. I might even go as far in saying that my original review was me signing for an incorrect score on the hole.

That being said, Gettysburg has IMO three very memorable scenes in it: 1) Little Round Top 2) Lee's entrance and 3) Armistead's death. These are still great scenes. But at the same time, the Lost Cause Narrative is a very real thing and as a reviewer, I'd be doing myself a disservice by not mentioning my awareness of its existence. 

The Civil War and the 19th century as a whole was a truly fascinating time and place in human history. I highly recommend its study. Just an hour a day of reading adds up over time, and I have officially hit a point of information where I'm stepping back now, looking at it all in my head, and being both in awe of it and disturbed by it at the same time. And I still have a long way to go and a lot more to read. What an incredible history this country has indeed. 

You can go down a Jupiter sized planet rathole with the Civil War, so much written about it. Soooo many books. I wish I had time to read some of them. Another Civil War movie I liked was Ang Lee's Ride with the Devil.

A recent zombie movie I liked was The Girl with All the Gifts - it's on Amazon Prime. Glenn Close is in it. It's a little different than your typical zombie movie.

Visages Villages - birdie. Inspiring and feel good documentary on art and its interaction with everyday people.

[JetFan1983]

On 1/14/2018 at 6:36 PM, nevets88 said:

You can go down a Jupiter sized planet rathole with the Civil War, so much written about it. Soooo many books. I wish I had time to read some of them. Another Civil War movie I liked was Ang Lee's Ride with the Devil.

 

That's a...pretty darn apt way of putting it. Well said. 

I haven't seen Ride with the Devil, but I do know of the historical incident it fictionalizes. 

I recently just ordered E.L. Doctorow's the March (2005) from Amazon, so I'm right there with you on the Civil War fiction front. This seems like an interesting one. 

As to keep this post on topic, I did recently watch The Birth of a Nation (1915). It's on Youtube. I'll give it a double bogey. Despite its huge popularity at the time of its release and all its innovative cinematic techniques, I had an extremely difficult time getting through Part 2: Reconstruction. At first, the racism was something of a novelty to me, but pretty quickly it gets old, and frankly, I didn't feel like finishing it. Of course, I did anyway. 

Still, it's always fascinating to see a movie that's over a hundred years old. And there is a lot to be learned from it when watching with 21st century eyes. It's truly amazing to see how far we have come as a country since those days, both from 1915 and 1865-1877. 

[Yukari]

Watched American Made with Tom Cruise, which is based on a true story about CIA supporting Nicaragua contras while turning blind eye to drug smuggling.  Very entertaining.  Tap in birdie.

Now I will watch Kill the Messenger about a reporter who uncovered the CIA's role in importing cocaine into the U.S. to support contras.

[iacas]

Saw Jumanji. I rate it as a birdie on a long putt made. It's good, and a worthy reboot/re-do of the older movie. It was funny, had some good action. The romances were forced, but hey, anything with Karen Gillan gets some bonus points.

[dennyjones]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

anything with Karen Gillan gets some bonus points.

You a Dr. Who fan?

[iacas]

9 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

You a Dr. Who fan?

No, but I know she's been on that. I feel like I'd have to go back and start from the beginning just to understand it all, or something.

[nevets88]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

No, but I know she's been on that. I feel like I'd have to go back and start from the beginning just to understand it all, or something.

26 seasons, but you can just start from whatever's on Netflix and wiki the references you don't get.

Gillian was in The Circle too but man that movie was terrible. I think it's still on US Netflix or Prime.