Topic: Rate the last movie you've seen

[Khushrenada]

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want with my grapefruit. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my grapefruit go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will juice your grapefruits."

I like it already.

It's true I didn't even mention anything about the camera work in Taken 2. Despite watching the first one 3 days ago, I can't remember the camera shaking too much. It might have during the ending boat scene but even so, it was well done and didn't detract from the action. In Taken 2, Michael J. Fox was given camera duty for some reason. I maintain my stance that the only person who should do shaky cam is Paul Greengrass. I know he isn't the cameraman but his direction seems to be the only one that makes it work. Of course, others have disagreed with that point and felt shaky cam is shoddy no matter what but his work is the only one where it seems to work in conveying the action more than a traditional steady cam does. The Bourne Supremacy, Ultimatum and Captain Phillips are the examples I would point to.

Interestingly, I saw The Lego Movie last night and to my surprise, Liam Neesan was the voice of Bad Cop in the film. So, apparently, it is Liam Neesan movie week for me.

[Stogi]

Doing some IMDB research and he's in an upcoming Scorsese film called 'Silence'. So...**** yeah.

Might as well do a review

Fruitvale Station

This is the type of movie where you know what's going to happen at the end, yet it only makes it more powerful. You get to see this person, this human dealing with their struggles, trying to solve them and change for the better. It becomes increasingly personal and it's hard not to hold your breath when you see the setting for the end. It's simply sad. It's a sad movie. But it's extremely well done.

4/5

[Plugabugz]

Noah - this film was weird in many many ways. The biggest bit that got me was that noah kept saying "we will rebuild humanity" yet the youngest was 2 newborn twin sisters and then a 10-15 year old boy. There's either a lot of incest or lesbian incest. The latter somehow making kids.

The film basically ignored that point. Weird.

If you're religious, don't watch. If you're not then consider it.

[oohhboy]

Lawrence of Arabia.

Wow. A Beautiful stunning film full of colour. Here is a film where actors act, not play themselves. Peter O'Toole gives an amazing performance playing Lawrence with all the complexity, contradictions, highs, lows and madness that must have been felt at one point or another.

They almost don't shoot movies like this anymore. Long still shots which let the actions on the screen speak for themselves. Wide limitless vistas of horrifying infinity. Most of the violence happens out of frame but the gruesomeness of the act is sold by the actors. The scale of the action is fantastic, computers don't even compare embarrassing themselves trying.

A must watch to understand what a real movie is like.

[ShyGuy]

Yeah Lawrence of Arabia is fantastic "I am a river to my people"

[Oblivion]

I feel like it's less that they don't and more that they can't. Nothing before LoA was like it, neither has anything happened like it since.

Gotta love that slow film stock, though. So freaking beautiful.

[Plugabugz]

I've seem both Amazing Spiderman 2 and Transcendence.

Spiderman - A little overlong, and Paul Giamatti's role was frustratingly limited - he only bookends the front and end of the film and is not seen or mentioned anywhere else. Jamie Foxx holds the core of the film together as Max Dillon, but the real star is the chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. Deliberately avoiding the plot, the single worst part of the film is the post-credits scene, which has nothing to do with spiderman.
It is entirely to do with xmen - and no it doesn't link both franchises together - so you're not missing much if you walk out

Transcendence - This film has a lot of promise but totally falls apart under its premise towards the end. It also makes a significant plot jump as soon as the primary story begins - he needs more power as soon as he is uploaded, but is never explained why - and everything hinges on that. It does introduce a few interesting concepts like avatars, which takes it very VERY close to how Rommie worked in Andromeda but doesn't expand on them. This film is very ultra-serious like Nolan properties (Christopher Nolan's movies, Jonah Nolan's Person of Interest) but lacks the writing and general cohesion to hold it all together. Rebecca Hall and Johnny Depp have ZERO chemistry together.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I just watched The Winter Soldier this week. I can only say two things, first it is the first time ever I actually thought Cap was kinda cool and not a total loser, second it makes me rethink my views on Snowden.


As for the movie itself, I liked it, especially the way they tied it into everything else. I would give it an 4/5

[BranDonk Kong]

Amazing Spider-Man 2 - IMO the best Spider-Man movie

Electro is simply  badass. He only has two weaknesses and is by far the most powerful villain Spider-Man has faced in any movie. But holy **** I can't believe Gwen Stacy dies - even though one trailer did basically spoil it, and of course it happens in Amazing Spider-Man #121 as well, I just didn't think they would do that in the movie. I was also surprised at how limited Paul Giamatti/Rhino appears in the movie, but halfway through I figured that was how they would do it, and it is actually much, much better that way.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Amazing Spider-man 2... this movie is covered in cheese.
It may be entertaining, kinda funny, exciting at times and even sorta touching at 1 part, but buckets of cheese dumped all over the dialog.
Most specifically "Rhino" and everything he says was absolutely horrible. the the lines to the accent, the entire delivery had to be a bad joke. Even some of the quips Peter makes were cringe worthy.

The origins seemed a little forced/rushed and the movie ran too damn long.
I had typed up a much longer and more detailed review when I first got out of the movie, and then I typed up another one about an hour ago when I realized the first one never sent somehow... but somehow that one didn't either. I'm doing this one from my computer instead of my phone.

(Edit: Electro was so damn powerful, I can understand that Spideys suit is some sort of rubber leaving him unaffected physically, but would magnitizing his web shooters really resist that kind of charge? I only ask because they kept making a big deal over providing more charge than a Barrett can hold will make it explode, so I assume that's what was shorting out his shooters to begin with.
Also how can Gwen hit Electro with the car and knock him out when just seconds ago he was like lightning and can become a current at any moment?

And then goblin shows up....
Spidey: Gwen! Stay there....
Me: No Gwen!! Go the **** back inside!! Now!!!
WTF Spider-man!?)

Oh, and Max & Harry were horrible and the licensed music, especially for the ending seemed out of place.

I also forgot to re-mention that the X-Men teaser in the mid credits left the whole theater confused. Why the **** would someone splice together two movies like that, that have absolutely nothing to do with one another. And it wasn't even a particularly good clip. It just starts with no context and then ends as an out of place advertisement for another unrelated movie within the movie I'm watching.

Edit 3: and the Stan Lee cameo seemed like a last second insert to the point where they should have just left him out.

pre-post edit:
Ocuius - This was a better movie than Spider-man and my favorite movie of the day.
This was a psychological horror where they seemed to have covered pretty much all the bases and no one did anything obviously stupid, which is rare in a horror flick.

A Haunted House
It's been a while since I've wanted to walk out on a movie. The amount of forced racial stereotype jokes that are just rapid fired at you, the retread of events at similar times in this movie as they were in the original and the general "try-hard" nature of the comedy just didn't work for me. Sure there were a few laughs squeezed out of me, but overall the movie is just stoopid. (the first one was Hilarious though)

[Halbred]

Saw Spider-Man 2 yesterday. I wasn't super impressed.

Let's put it this way: I liked all the Peter Parker stuff, but I didn't give a **** about any of the Spider-Man stuff. Electro is just weird and inconsistent. He can use Force Lightning, which is great, and he apparently eats electricity. Fine. But then he can turn INTO electricity and then reform elsewhere--but when he reforms, all his non-electrical stuff is intact, like his clothing and that battery charge meter on his head. That stuff doesn't just fall off when the dude DEMATERIALIZES.

That really bugged the crap out of me. It's similar to how Elsa magically used her ice powers to make a new dress, but with electricity. It was stupid and distracting, and you'd think that, if Electro can DEMATERIALIZE, he'd just do that whenever Spider-Man threw a damn punch or shot webbing at him.

Seriously. They did NOT think him through.

Oh yeah, and Green Goblin just kinda SHOWS UP because we have to end the movie now.

I didn't like it.

[BranDonk Kong]

The late Goblin/Rhino stuff was just to build up for the next movie, they didn't want to do another Spider-Man 3 where Venom comes and goes within 15 minutes. Electro being able to keep his suit (and where did he get it) when he transforms was kind of stupid, but first you have to believe that someone can actually turn into electricity in order to think that this is a big deal. The Spider-Man universe is not exactly based in reality. In the comics, Rhino typically does the same kind of bad jokes and stupid phrases too.

[BlackNMild2k1]

There were so many things wrong with that movie that they build up and detract from your enjoyment on some level. It was still an entertaining movie but alot of it really doesn't make any sense.

Like  Harry taking the venom, which starts to change and probably kill him almost instantly, but for some reason he climbs towards the mechanized medical armor, which is strangely inviting, with the doors opening at him approaching from a distance in crawl. and then the suit apparently starts healing him.... so maybe he should have tried getting in the suit first?

Their motiviations were kinda paper thin, but you gloss over this as the movie is already long enough as it is, and there were quite a few missing scenes that were shown in the movie trailers that already showed the entire movie.

Electro was detained by the police... in cuffs? but now he's locked up in a secret facility by Oscorp in a harness made of metal and run on electricity. He is dry of any energy, but after a short taser burst  recharge, not only does he have enough energy to kill 3-4 guards in a split second, he can now dematerialize into pure electrical energy freeing himself from the machine...

that's not even to mention how Harry got into this secret lab and all the way down to Electro with badge of a front desk guard, before any other security even knew they facility was breached and long before they could get down there to stop him.

(edit:) and why do the cops have everyone barricaded off and standing around to watch a crazed man in a mechanical Rhino suit fire off .50 Cal bullets and small missiles at police officers... only to stop a mother from grabbing her son from wandering out into the direct field of fire, while no one else bothers to stop the kid either. ridiculous.

that's just off the top of my head, there are so many more things to point out off of just a single viewing. so many holes to fill in this movie it's ridiculous, and it was 2.5hrs long, which already felt about 30 minutes too long, so I really didn't want them to explain anything else. It just needed to be a tighter story, soo much time was wasted, I think it could have been written/directed better.

I would give it a 6.5/10
It's not horrible, and it was entertaining, it just wasn't that good.
I think the 1st 2 Raimi spiderman movies where better movies, but this was certainly better than Spiderman 3.
I think Garfield makes a great Parker/Spiderman and Gwen was great as well, but they weren't the problem with this or the last movie.

[nickmitch]

Draft Day

This movie is better than bad, but worse than good.  Hard to pin a grade on it.  The editting is the best thing about it, but seriously, it's the same split screen transition thing.  I recently learned about the "rule of threes" and this film uses a lot of it.  My brother's friend works as an agent and heavily vouches for its accuracy, so there's that.  The film is also shot at real NFL facilities, which is neat, and has some great aerial shots on NFL stadiums.  BTW, if you're unfamiliar with the premise, the movie follows the GM of the Cleveland Brown's on the day of the NFL draft as he balances decision making and personal issues.  That being said, almost all the acting feels phoned in. 

5.5/10

[NWR_insanolord]

I haven't seen the movie, but I'm pretty sure Kevin Costner would be a better GM than most of the ones we've had in the last 15 years, and Denis Leary would certainly be a better coach.

[nickmitch]

Lol, probably.

The funny part is, the hope of the Browns fanbase is played up in parts of this movie, ultimately leading to a happy ending that can only end in disaster once the season starts because Browns.

[Plugabugz]

Pompeii - Stuff happens and Jack Bauer hams it up hard. The volcano erupts and everybody dies. Except maybe the horse at the end..

The trailers, posters and even the name signal exactly what this film is actually about.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I am torn between going to Spider-Man next weekend or waiting for X-Men to release.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Wait for X-Men, reviews so far have been MUCH better than Spider-Man.
And after you watch X-Men, just stick around for a showing of Spider-Man too. I'm sure the theater will be pretty empty, no one will notice.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

Jack Reacher:


This didn't suck as much as I was lead to believe or what I call "The John Carter"  syndrome. Solid film with good action and not all the movie cliches play out as expected. Tom Cruise as a jaded military investigator works well and while I'm familiar with the source material, I didn't have a problem with Cruise playing a role meant for a really large guy.

[oohhboy]

Jack Reacher reeked of a movie that no one asked for. Who is Jack Reacher and why should I care? Same thing with the new Jack Ryan movie. It was the strong fundamentals the Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford movies had that made them good movies, not "Jack Ryan".

On an additional note Chris Pine should find a new job as he sucks at acting.

[BranDonk Kong]

Just watched Taken and Taken 2...both badass.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I just watched "We Are What We Are' on Netflix as they kept hounding me to watch it, and boy were they right on this time, the first suggestion Netflix ever recommended me I agreed with, this movie was great, It was a little slow and it had some what the **** moments but it was exactly what I was hoping for and turned out better than I anticipated. The plot was kind of interesting, the characters were believable and the gore was not the sole selling point like I would have expected, in fact it was hardly gory till the very end and even that was tame by current standards.


The movie is about a religious family who somehow turned a folk story about their ancestors surviving on cannibalism into a part of their religion. It is more of a thriller than a horror movie so it is more about the psychological aspect rather than cheap scares and excessive gore. There are some disturbing moments but for this kind of movie that was to be expected. The ending was perfect and made the rest of the movie totally worth it.


I would rate it a 4 out of 5 easily. Maybe a 3.75 as there was one scene that almost ruined the whole movie for me.

[Stratos]

Can you elaborate on the one scene? I might watch it with my wife and don't want to walk into something truly awful. Is it worse than something on Game of Thrones/HBO/Saw series?

[BlackNMild2k1]

I barely remember the details, but was it a scene in the woods?

And no, I don't remember anything truly graphic in the movie.
It's a slower paced movie, but interesting.  It's more psychological than shocking in theme.