Topic: Rate the last movie you've seen

[nickmitch]

Looper
I liked it, maybe not enough to have spent $20 on the Blu Ray. The time travel is a bit tricky, as it often is in other movies. One plot device has characters' in the present having their bodies changed to affect their future selves, but almost anything in the changed present should affect whether their future selves even get any back in time. The problem is basically that the movie can't decide whether there is 1 or multiple timelines. It changes it's mind to fit the plot. I get it even if I kept trying to reconcile it in my mind.

Old Joe getting erased from existence kind of bothered me. I'm not saying it makes the movie bad or worse. Rather, I just kept thinking, "Man, that's shitty." He just doesn't get to be. Additionally, the ending doesn't ensure that the Rainmaker doesn't become the Rainmaker. The audience is led to that conclusion. I felt that not specifically telling you is the point. Rian Johnson wants you to think about it and talk with others. I'm in the "Joe saves the future" camp. Just the way I interpreted the ending.

I just saw Looper as well. The funny thing about the time travel is that movie tells you not to think about it by having one of the characters literally say, "Don't think too hard about all this time travel bullshit. It'll fry your brain like an egg." I found that line to be funny. I tried to think of the timeline as constant, but self correcting. I guess meaning that certain things can happen to characters to affect them in the future but only as they already happened. So, if say future me cuts present me's leg off, he'll lose his leg, but still be in the present because present me hasn't yet been hindered from going back in time.

That probably didn't make sense.

Anyway, Looper 7.5/10 for me.

[gbuell]

The rules of time travel are very different in Looper than in most other time travel movies, and I definitely appreciated that.

[Caliban]

Super 8. I enjoyed this movie from beginning to end, including the short at the credits. I think it ended as it should have.

[Fatty The Hutt]

Saw a sneak preview of Warm Bodies last week. It was OK. Neat premise and the film is well made. It just meanders too much in the middle. There are some great "gem" moments that feel fresh but not enough of them. And I got pretty tired of the protagonist's "Zombie Speak". He should have developed faster.


All in all, not bad. 7/10

[jvgsjeff]

I recently saw The Avengers, which I got for Christmas. It started out a bit slow, but I enjoyed it quite a bit once it got going. 8/10

[tendoboy1984]

MIB 3 9/10
Much better than I expected. Josh Brolin is a dead-ringer as young Tommy Lee Jones. He got the accent, mannerisms, and facial expressions down perfectly.

Speaking of Tommy Lee Jones, he looked hideously old in this movie. I don't know if it was makeup or severe aging, but he looked like a walking corpse.

The films plot was simple and paced well, but it felt rather rushed. Boris was a great villain, much better than that female alien from MIB 2. Actually, the whole film was better than MIB 2.

Frankenweenie 7/10
I'm a huge Tim Burton fan, especially of his stop-motion films. Frankenweenie is a return to Tim's roots, a project he's been dreaming of for over 20 years. The film is Tim at his best, making movies that tell a simplistic story with bizarre, yet charming characters.

That being said, he could have done more with the plot. The whole thing could have been done in a 1-hour TV special. There were a few "filler" moments that needlessly extended the film's length.

The overall parody of Frankenstein and his monster was well-done, filled with clever ideas and likable characters. The whole film was a nice nod to the classic monster movies of the 1950's. The animation was incredible, and the set design was perfect (that graveyard!).

[Oblivion]

I actually saw Coraline, Frankenweenie, and ParaNorman yesterday. I give Frankenweenie a 6/10 for being pretty mediocre compared to the other two films.

[tendoboy1984]

I actually saw Coraline, Frankenweenie, and ParaNorman yesterday. I give Frankenweenie a 6/10 for being pretty mediocre compared to the other two films.

Did Henry Sellick (James and the Giant Peach, Coraline) make ParaNorman?

[Ceric]

MIB 3 9/10
Much better than I expected. Josh Brolin is a dead-ringer as young Tommy Lee Jones. He got the accent, mannerisms, and facial expressions down perfectly.

Speaking of Tommy Lee Jones, he looked hideously old in this movie. I don't know if it was makeup or severe aging, but he looked like a walking corpse.

The films plot was simple and paced well, but it felt rather rushed. Boris was a great villain, much better than that female alien from MIB 2. Actually, the whole film was better than MIB 2.
...

Your being generous to MIB3.  It is better than MIB2 but not as good as MIB1 and none of the movies can compare to MIB:The Cartoon Series.  I like the franchise but I wish they just take the scripts from the Cartoon Series and make a Live Action version of an hour and a half story arc or just do mini-episodes.  The whole Alpha ark would make a good movie...

[TJ Spyke]

I actually saw Coraline, Frankenweenie, and ParaNorman yesterday. I give Frankenweenie a 6/10 for being pretty mediocre compared to the other two films.

Did Henry Sellick (James and the Giant Peach, Coraline) make ParaNorman?

No. In 2010, he signed a contract to make films exclusively for Disney. He has nothing to do with ParaNorman.

[ThePerm]

The time travel in looper contained huge amounts of causality and feedback. So in effect. The time stream corrects itself. A paradox wouldn't cause the universe to end, but it would go from soft probability to hard probability through constant loops.

[TJ Spyke]

I still think the ending was BS. Id didn't need to go down that way, and the events of the future could still play out the way they did (whereas if young Joe had killed the kid, it would guarantee that future would never happen).

[BlackNMild2k1]

I still think the ending was BS. Id didn't need to go down that way, and the events of the future could still play out the way they did (whereas if young Joe had killed the kid, it would guarantee that future would never happen).

But he was just a kid, and the future of that kid was shaped by the events that happened to him in the present and the near future....

and they leave you hanging with the thought that what he did in the end may not have even mattered, on purpose. He made the ultimate sacrifice to do what he thought was right at the time, and that was to hopefully preserve the innocence of kid who may one day grow up to change the world, in favor of saving himself so that he can go on killing people from the future till the day when he must once again kill himself (which was about to be right at that moment).

[TJ Spyke]

Innocent? LOL. The kid had already killed at least 2 people when he became scared. There is nothing to say he won't still get scared/angry and becoming a warlord just because his mom didn't get killed at that time. The best solution would be to kill the kid, which stops him from becoming a warlord, then he can kill himself. Instead, there is the very likely possibility that the kid will kill AGAIN. His mom being alive didn't stop him from killing before..

[nickmitch]

Did anyone else feel that the girl was from the future? Because she knew about loopers, and said that maybe if the kid had a mother, he wouldn't grow up to evil. Further, her TK powers were a huge step over normal people at the time, and maybe that's so because the powers get stronger for people in the future.

Under that theory, the ending is less BS because the future wouldn't necessarily play out the same way.

[EasyCure]

I forgot how loopy I was at looper that I barely remember the movie and have no idea what you guys are talking about.. I should probably watch it again soon.

On a side note, Netflix doesn't want me to continue with my Batman movie 'marathon'. It was bad enough that Batman was scratched and almost didn't finish watching it, but TWICE now I've gotten a very damaged disk for Batman Returns.

[ThePerm]

One thing is for sure though. If the young hero is dead then he can't travel from the future to start all the havok
that will lead him to kill himself and also effect countless other events in the future that will invariably affect the past. So, after this all plays through none of this will happen and the young hero will be back a live, and there will be some new unseen tangeant. After all time travel happens before this time period


another tangeant, somewhat related to the movie

This is an interesting concept, because I thought about a similar scenario. I never thought of the idea of hitman, but i thought of the idea of a permanent loop of time. The time when time travel is invented would become the beginning of a new era. Travel before the start date should be prohibited, but people would be able to manage their time much more efficiently, and actually would be scheduled to live in alternate Time Shares. Say for instance you work Monday through Friday and have the weekend off. You would then relax for an entire week at an alternate location. You would return saturday and work till Wednesday and then take another week off at an alternate time and location. That way even if it appears as though you're constantly working, you are actually spending your time half at leisure. Not only that you would be able to affect progress moving forward from the future to the past. So it would be a loop of development as well. Through alternate timelines you would end up doing less work. Eventually everyone would have leisure lifestyles with super long lives with robot slaves with mansions on planets.

[Adrock]

Instead, there is the very likely possibility that the kid will kill AGAIN. His mom being alive didn't stop him from killing before..

I don't know about "very likely." The possibility is certainly still there, but the entire climax of the film showed that he can control his powers, especially with his mother's help. That may not have stopped him before, but that's the point of teaching a child.

I viewed the ending as a best case scenario. Cid shows he can control himself and in a roundabout way, Joe saves Old Joe's wife since she won't die the way she did if she never meets him. The mafia in the future doesn't exist as it originally would have since Old Joe killed Abe and all the Gat Men which renders the Loopers pointless. Maybe the future mafia tries to start over, but then you have Not-Rainmaker Cid who could stop them. Ultimately, time travel as a plot device sucks if you think too much about it. There will always be infinite possibilities. And you can look at any ending negatively. Happily ever after? Nope, end in divorce or murder-suicide.

Did anyone else feel that the girl was from the future? Because she knew about loopers, and said that maybe if the kid had a mother, he wouldn't grow up to evil. Further, her TK powers were a huge step over normal people at the time, and maybe that's so because the powers get stronger for people in the future.

I remember thinking that was going to be a major plot point, but it was just abandoned entirely. She was the only person besides the mob who knew about Loopers. I was thinking maybe Cid's father was a Looper who abandoned Sara after they closed his loop.

[nickmitch]

That's a good possibility, but I still think they hinted at that and dropped it on purpose. Young Joe said that the kid watching his mother get killed is what would make the kid grow up to be evil. The kid already saw his mother get killed. He was already going down the path to evil, and the "mom" was trying to prevent that from happening.

As for the other thing you mentioned, the movie takes place in Kansas. I'm sure there's more mob in actual major cities.

[gbuell]

Kansas City has major historical connections to the mob.

[nickmitch]

That's true, but I'd just think that crime would still happen elsewhere. Even JGL down plays that one future guy taking over the local mob by down playing the location.

[Halbred]

Watched quite a few movies on vacation:

LOOPER - Didn't like it. Started out with a lot of promise, but then the whole thing comes crashing to a halt when Joseph gets to what's-her-name's farmhouse. The movie just STOPS. And the conclusion was pretty...predictable. I was expecting a mind-blowing twist that never came.

MEN IN BLACK 3 - Loved it. Returns to the camaraderie of the first movie. Good villain, too.

PARANORMAN - Stopped watching it 45 minutes in. I appreciated the stop-motion animation (I always do), but the story just wasn't doing anything for me. I don't like zombies. I'm kinda over them.

10 YEARS - Just don't watch this.

LIBERAL ARTS - One of the most pretentious movies I've seen in a very long time. It's one of those "college movies" that tries to be "deep" and "reflective." Unfortunately written, produced, and directed by Ted from How I Met Your Mother. I now think much less of him.

BRING IT ON - Holds up surprisingly well.

THE LION KING - Has anyone else realized that Nala is actually Simba's half-sister? THINK ABOUT IT.

[NWR_insanolord]

It sounds like I'll be going to see Zero Dark Thirty sometime soon since my dad wants to see it and doesn't want to go alone. I really don't know how I'll suspend my disbelief, though; there's no way bin Laden would have been able to stay hidden as long as he did with Bert Macklin on the case.

[BranDonk Kong]

Bert Macklin is dead. That's his brother, Kip Hackman.

[oohhboy]

LIBERAL ARTS - One of the most pretentious movies I've seen in a very long time. It's one of those "college movies" that tries to be "deep" and "reflective." Unfortunately written, produced, and directed by Ted from How I Met Your Mother. I now think much less of him.

Ted is a douche nozzle and I am not at all surprised that the character he plays actually reflects the actual person. If it wasn't for Barney/NPH counter acting Ted, I would have given up on HIMYM years ago.

There will be blood-
Not my kind of movie, I couldn't finish watching it. I know it is a moral story about one man's slow corruption, but it's too slow and his opposite number is so creepy and unlikeable I just couldn't connect with the movie.

Conan The Barbarian (2011)-
Watched it out of morbid curiosity and it killed the cat. Watch a **** movie. The bloody Hercules and Xena TV show is better than this. I think Scorpion King is better than this. **** I wasted my life.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (2012)-
Messy film. Very uneven. It can't decide whether to be a serious documentary on AL's vampire hunting or a fun pulp fiction movie. the lack of focus meant that there were a lot of scenes there that exists only to fill out Lincoln's real history for no gain. If they had went full on Inglorious Bastards instead and **** history, it could have been a pretty good. Still, the effects in general were subpar and had far to heavy use colour filter use.