Flea wrote:Been meaning to catch Nightcrawler. How did you like it?

It was cynical as hell, and Gyllenhaal was extremely creepy, definitely worth watching. I would have been cool with some backstory explaining why he was the way he was, but nonetheless worthwhile. Always good to see Rene Russo

Red Sparrow lived up to my expectations/hopes. I thought it was really good, thoroughly enjoyable and I'm mystified by the negative reviews. OTOH, the NYT said something like "preposterously entertaining" which I think is about right. I've read the book a couple of times, so I don't know how much that impacted my ability to follow the story and enjoy it, but as best I could tell it was a well-told clear story. The lack of chemistry between the workmanlike lead actor whose name I can't even remember (joel somebody...eggerton?) was disappointing because, c'mon, Jennifer Lawrence. Who is her usual talented, beautiful self. My wife, who has not read the book, enjoyed the movie but not as much as I did, if that helps you calibrate your likely interest.

The assignment was to find an "absorbing" movie to keep the Sunday nite blues away. Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation certainly fit the bill w/ its texture of claustrophobic paranoia. Hard to believe this fear of wiretapping movie came out before any of the intrusions we consider normal or almost normal today (think NSA) but the message is more or less the same. What I did not remember from seeing this a long time ago is the gaping hole in the plot, which is totally inexplicable and really affects the momentum negatively. Still, absorbing, and if you've never seen it you should. Plus, you know, Gene Hackman doing his gene hackman thing.

Tequila Cowboy wrote:
I've seen the other recent DC movies and will continue to but no, they aren't very good. It's perplexing as the DC has a stable of much better characters than Marvel does but the latter has been able to make better movies for whatever reason.

I know this post is six months old, but what? DC top superheroes are more iconic than Marvel's (except for Spiderman and arguably Captain America), but aside from some incarnations of Batman*, they don't have a fraction of the depth that Marvel's A-listers have. Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, etc. all lack the human element and realistic conflicts that plague characters like Iron Man, the Hulk, Wolverine, etc which make them much more compelling IMO.

*I will concede an exception for Batman's roster of villains, particularly if you include the Animated Series backstories.

this was a lot of cheesy fun. charlie sheen plays this murdered kid who comes back to life as some sort of racing ghost out to get revenge.

Smitty wrote:

Tequila Cowboy wrote:
I've seen the other recent DC movies and will continue to but no, they aren't very good. It's perplexing as the DC has a stable of much better characters than Marvel does but the latter has been able to make better movies for whatever reason.

I know this post is six months old, but what? DC top superheroes are more iconic than Marvel's (except for Spiderman and arguably Captain America), but aside from some incarnations of Batman*, they don't have a fraction of the depth that Marvel's A-listers have. Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, etc. all lack the human element and realistic conflicts that plague characters like Iron Man, the Hulk, Wolverine, etc which make them much more compelling IMO.

*I will concede an exception for Batman's roster of villains, particularly if you include the Animated Series backstories.

And Marvel had Howard The Duck. The original run of that series is as subversive as it gets without dipping into R & X rated material.

i basically grew up on lowbrow comedies like this (which isnt to saw i ever grew out of them) but somehow never saw this one. i thought it was cheap and dumb and great.


pretty dumb but the aliens were goofy fun to look at and there were a lot of weird parallels to rocky 4, which i love desite/due to all its absurdity.


this was cool. very ridiculous at times (the gist of it is this girl and her brother go on the run after an accidental shooting, and she ends up cutting her hair and becoming a martyr among teens) but everyone in it was great, the (unrelated) slaters especially, and it had a ton of heart

Shakespeare wrote:

this was cool. very ridiculous at times (the gist of it is this girl and her brother go on the run after an accidental shooting, and she ends up cutting her hair and becoming a martyr among teens) but everyone in it was great, the (unrelated) slaters especially, and it had a ton of heart

whatever happened to Helen Slater?

How is Death of Stalin, wwcd. Been curious since i first read about it.

Molly's Game - Great story, decent movie that should have been a lot better considering the story, the stars and the writer/director. Overall, worth seeing but without expectations.

beantownbubba wrote:How is Death of Stalin, wwcd. Been curious since i first read about it.

Excellent, though have to state that I am a huge Ianucci fan. The Thick of It, In in the Loop, and VEEP are genius in my book. Hell, he'd have me if for nothing other than co-creating the legend that is Alan Partridge!

As for this film, Jen and I both LOLed so many times. Such a bizarre juxtaposition of ungodly serious content treated with slapstick and, at times, Three Stoogesesque comedy. And the cast is stellar. Didn't hurt that I was quite familiar with the Soviet history of the time, I imagine that let me get some jokes/references that might pass the casual observer.

Lastly, never in my life did I ever expect to see Steve Buscemi portray Nikita Khrushchev

Watched the 4K restoration of Close Encounters of the Third Kind this afternoon. Probably been 10 years since I'd watched it, and the new restoration is beautiful! I was two when it came out, so this was my first time seeing it on a big screen, and it definitely still has the "wow" factor.

The new Avengers is hella fun. If that's the kind of thing you like, you are really gonna like it.

Flea wrote:The new Avengers is hella fun. If that's the kind of thing you like, you are really gonna like it.

I'm going to go tonight.

this had a really solid premise (a band on their way to this huge gig crashes in their spaceship) and a lot of potential to be just the kind of goofy but self aware thing i love, but not enough musical performances and its like they gave up halfway through writing it and it really limped to a pointless ending

Shakespeare wrote:
this had a really solid premise (a band on their way to this huge gig crashes in their spaceship) and a lot of potential to be just the kind of goofy but self aware thing i love, but not enough musical performances and its like they gave up halfway through writing it and it really limped to a pointless ending

If you haven't done so, you should check out these:

havent seen either but they do look promising

Smitty wrote:

Tequila Cowboy wrote:
I've seen the other recent DC movies and will continue to but no, they aren't very good. It's perplexing as the DC has a stable of much better characters than Marvel does but the latter has been able to make better movies for whatever reason.

I know this post is six months old, but what? DC top superheroes are more iconic than Marvel's (except for Spiderman and arguably Captain America), but aside from some incarnations of Batman*, they don't have a fraction of the depth that Marvel's A-listers have. Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, etc. all lack the human element and realistic conflicts that plague characters like Iron Man, the Hulk, Wolverine, etc which make them much more compelling IMO.

*I will concede an exception for Batman's roster of villains, particularly if you include the Animated Series backstories.

Funny, I mostly dislike Batman's villains (outside of the Joker when done right) and Batman himself is one of my least favorite DC characters, although there have been some great stories told over the years. My favorite DC characters are Green Lantern, Green Arrow, The Flash, the eighties era Titans, Martian Manhunter, Red Tornado and pretty much all of the golden age characters and the Justice Society. As a kid I did like some of the Marvel books and characters, particularly X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil and occasionally the Avengers and Captain America was always a favorite. I was never much of a Spider-Man fan and a lot of the others were boring to me. Now that all said, nobody does a space story like Marvel. DC does OK with the Green Lanterns and that mythos but Marvel always able to nail the big space battles, especially when Jim Starlin was writing the cosmic titles. Still the strange corners of the DC universe are always what got to me the most. Plus Marvel always felt a little too "wink wink nod nod" to me whereas DC seemed more serious (after the sixties and the silly Batman stuff of course).

All that said, Marvel makes infinitely (pun intended) better movies than DC and I have no idea why. Infinity War was really good and felt like one of those 1970's space operas I mentioned above. Like the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and Thor: Ragnarok it was a bit too jokey for me at times, but not enough to spoil it. The characterization of Thanos was far more interesting than any of his comics appearances and somehow, despite all teh characters, no one got lost. I'm never going to like the Tom Holland Spider-Man but even his scenes were OK. Thumbs up.

Tequila Cowboy wrote:

Smitty wrote:

Tequila Cowboy wrote:
I've seen the other recent DC movies and will continue to but no, they aren't very good. It's perplexing as the DC has a stable of much better characters than Marvel does but the latter has been able to make better movies for whatever reason.

I know this post is six months old, but what? DC top superheroes are more iconic than Marvel's (except for Spiderman and arguably Captain America), but aside from some incarnations of Batman*, they don't have a fraction of the depth that Marvel's A-listers have. Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, etc. all lack the human element and realistic conflicts that plague characters like Iron Man, the Hulk, Wolverine, etc which make them much more compelling IMO.

*I will concede an exception for Batman's roster of villains, particularly if you include the Animated Series backstories.

Funny, I mostly dislike Batman's villains (outside of the Joker when done right) and Batman himself is one of my least favorite DC characters, although there have been some great stories told over the years. My favorite DC characters are Green Lantern, Green Arrow, The Flash, the eighties era Titans, Martian Manhunter, Red Tornado and pretty much all of the golden age characters and the Justice Society. As a kid I did like some of the Marvel books and characters, particularly X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil and occasionally the Avengers and Captain America was always a favorite. I was never much of a Spider-Man fan and a lot of the others were boring to me. Now that all said, nobody does a space story like Marvel. DC does OK with the Green Lanterns and that mythos but Marvel always able to nail the big space battles, especially when Jim Starlin was writing the cosmic titles. Still the strange corners of the DC universe are always what got to me the most. Plus Marvel always felt a little too "wink wink nod nod" to me whereas DC seemed more serious (after the sixties and the silly Batman stuff of course).

All that said, Marvel makes infinitely (pun intended) better movies than DC and I have no idea why. Infinity War was really good and felt like one of those 1970's space operas I mentioned above. Like the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and Thor: Ragnarok it was a bit too jokey for me at times, but not enough to spoil it. The characterization of Thanos was far more interesting than any of his comics appearances and somehow, despite all teh characters, no one got lost. I'm never going to like the Tom Holland Spider-Man but even his scenes were OK. Thumbs up.

SpiderMan: Homecoming beat hell out of those abortions featuring Andrew Garfield.

Flea wrote:SpiderMan: Homecoming beat hell out of those abortions featuring Andrew Garfield.

Yeah, I didnt see any of those in their entirety. Definitely bad. I only made it twenty minutes into this last one though.

I'm about 10 movies behind in the Marvel series so no chance I see Infinity War in the theater

somehow never saw this as a kid even though it was right up my alley. its fine but definitely stretches itself too thin, as snl movies tend to do. molly shannon can be annoying but id forgotten how great early will ferrell was. a handful of lines from tom green was a nice surprise too


unfortunately did not care for this. a great overall idea but a few major flaws kept it from really succeeding for me. first, i thought chris and roses performances together were awful. each was better on their own later on but i couldnt buy into their relationship at all so i didnt really care when the twist came. roses family was brilliantly played though. second, too many things seemed played for laughs and it left me confused about what kind of movie it wanted to be. the uncomfortable humor was fine (i loved stuff like the old golfer guy praising tiger woods when he met chris. i ultimately felt like small things like that made a greater point than anything else) and served its purpose well but i thought chris' tsa friend functioning as straight comic relief the whole time was baffling. overall it didnt really work for me as a thriller or a drama or a comedy but it felt like it aimed for all three. all in all, noble intentions but really disappointing

I appreciated that it didn't try to fit neatly into a preconceived genre

i usually do but in this case it felt clumsy and distracting. take away the weak TSA shtick entirely and i might feel a lot different

I liked Get Out a lot more than you did, Shakes, but I can't really disagree w/ your comments/criticisms. I guess I felt that the overall concept, some of the genre mixing and the social commentary worked better than you did. I especially agree that the viewer cannot believe in the central relationship (chris & rose), which is a problem.

j

it was definitely an interesting movie and im glad i saw it and that so many folks love it. i think im probably overly harsh towards it because of its ambition and good intentions, and maybe thats not fair.

not to humblebrag but i saw the rose twist coming a mile away, possibly due to never really buying their relationship. allison williams was great after that point (and again, so was her family, who all had me squirming in my seat for their own reasons), i just wished she had better chemistry with chris from the start. kinda dulled the impact when it happened

that party scene, arguably the movie in a nutshell, was brilliant, so the general social commentary felt fine for me.