Movies you've recently watched

Oburi

All praise Grail
Griffith said:
Recently saw the The Hobbit, and considering I didn't have enough interest to bother with it before... I actually quite enjoyed it. As a matter of fact, I think I liked it more than any of the Rings movies. Maybe it was because I was watching it in the comfort of my own bed with zero expectations (other than it would be technically well made), but it was one of the best fantasy/adventure movies I've ever seen. The fact that it's a children's book probably helped temper Jackson's penchant for the epic and vice versa, so it occupied a nice middle ground. I recently saw the Fellowship of the Ring again and there's really no comparison between the two, both in terms of special effects and directing; The Hobbit is much better (Martin Freeman is a better hobbit than anyone in the trilogy too). I'm glad Jackson got a chance to make these, even if they're unnecessarily bloated and ridiculous (pretty sure they still could have done this better in two movies), but we'll see. So far so good. Maybe I'll stay home again and wait until I can watch it from the comfort of my hobbit-hole.

:ubik:

Just got the extended edition myself. It's only 13 minutes of extra footage and doesnt really add much. But the 9 hours of special features are great :guts:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Aazealh said:
That surprises me. I saw it in the theater with friends and while I had no expectations I still felt it wasn't very good. Maybe I'm just jaded.

Well, I probably went a bit far saying it was one of the best fantasy movies I've seen, but that's mostly be default since it's not like there's an abundance to choose from (and fewer still featuring Trolls, Goblins, and Orcs of such quality =). I just really enjoyed it, despite the length. I even enjoyed the stuff with Radagast for sheer whimsey, and because I never thought I'd see a dogsled pulled by rabbits.

Oburi said:
Just got the extended edition myself. It's only 13 minutes of extra footage and doesnt really add much.

Considering it was already veering toward three hours I don't imagine there was much to add or that he left out. Is Jackson's goal to make these movies' cumulative run time pass 24 hours? He's well on his way, particularly if he adapts any of Tolkien's other works under this banner.

Oburi said:
But the 9 hours of special features are great :guts:

See, I didn't like it that much. :ganishka:
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
I also saw Gravity in imax 3D which was really good. I thouroughly enjoyed the whole trip, even if it got a bit ridiculous at parts. It was unique and exciting.

I also watched Thor 2 last night as well. Kinda got dragged by a friend. It was pretty stupid, but I didn't hate it like I thought it would. There was enough comedy to keep me from rolling my eyes the whole time and it went by quick. It didn't feel like it dragged at any point.
 

Lithrael

Remember, always hold your apple tight
Oburi said:
I also saw Gravity in imax 3D which was really good. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole trip, even if it got a bit ridiculous at parts. It was unique and exciting.

Yeah Gravity was worth it just to see some of the scenes they set. Every once in a while the movie would stop and there would be some acting but then the movie would go again! Slightly exhausting. I was reasonably entertained. LOVE the whole sequence on the way to the Shenzhou.

It looks like it must have been exhausting to make too. Imagine your 9-5 job was to act hyperventilation-quality stress out for the big screen.
 
It was a challenge to direct too! Plus studio pressure to change the script.

The interview's longer - http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/10/center_of_gravity/

Why was it so hard?

We had to do the whole film as an animation first. We edited that animation, even with sound, just to make sure the timing worked with the sound effects and music. And once we were happy with it, we had to do the lighting in the animation as well. Then all that animation translated to actual camera moves and positions for the lighting and actors. We did a whole exploration of the screenplay, every single moment; we made judgments about everything. Once we began shooting, we were constrained by the limitations of that programming.

How so?

We shot space scenes in a sort of virtual-reality box that had the characters’ environments projected on the walls. The actors had very little room to change their timing or their positions. But we adapted. Sandra Bullock trained like crazy to be able to be a part of all these technological challenges. It was choreography for her. I think her background as a dancer helped a lot. It was so much by numbers. After all the training and all the rehearsals, she was able to just focus on the emotional aspect of her performance.

How long did it take altogether?

We animated for two, maybe two and a half years before we started shooting the actors. Then we shot the film—and then the poor animators had to start from scratch because they had to base their final animations on what was shot. Someone suggested we just call Gravity animation, but I don’t think we can because there’s a fair amount of live action. And it was really hard work for the animators. After all, you learn how to draw based on two main elements: horizons and weight.

And you had neither!

Exactly. They had neither of those things, poor guys. It was a nightmare for them. They would make stuff and I’d say, “Yeah, but that looks like they’re standing at a bar, not floating in space.” We had a physicist explain the laws of zero gravity and zero resistance. After three months, the animators really got the concept and it started to become second nature. You could always identify the new animator on the block because he’d be the guy having panic attacks and a nervous breakdown, wanting to quit.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
I watched The Wolverine last night, I guess it was an Extended Cut version?? But I really liked it. In fact I'd say its just as good as First Class and X-2 if not better. At least the version I saw was. It's more straight forward and comes off less chaotic and... plot-holey?? But it's very entertaining, despite being focused on Logan yet again. Special effects are mostly at a minimum and it's got some good violence and schlock moments. I would recommend it, for sure.
 

Deci

Avatar by supereva01 @ DA
Oburi said:
I watched The Wolverine last night, I guess it was an Extended Cut version?? But I really liked it. In fact I'd say its just as good as First Class and X-2 if not better. At least the version I saw was. It's more straight forward and comes off less chaotic and... plot-holey?? But it's very entertaining, despite being focused on Logan yet again. Special effects are mostly at a minimum and it's got some good violence and schlock moments. I would recommend it, for sure.

So you liked Wolverine and didn't care for Thor 2? That's the opposite of everything I've heard.

I did see Gravity though, and I'll say that this movie is a must-see in 3D. It was made to be seen in 3D. The homage to 2001 and the "evolution"-ish ending were very cool too. I usually don't like Bullock but they could've had a cardboard cutout in there and I still would've enjoyed it for the cinematography alone.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Just finished Man of Steel. It was okay..? I was close to drunk by the end of it, and while I had no trouble following things, it became less interesting to me as it progressed. Ending was weak, confusing, awkward.

Still, it was much better than I expected.
 

Antonius Block

We must make an idol of our fear, and call it god.
Just re-watched The Hidden from 1987 starring Kyle MacLachlan. What a gem!!! It has been close to 20 years since I first saw it, but it is still cool as all hell. Perfect example of 80s sci-fi/horror classics. 10 out of 10 definitely!
 
Deci said:
I did see Gravity though, and I'll say that this movie is a must-see in 3D. It was made to be seen in 3D. The homage to 2001 and the "evolution"-ish ending were very cool too. I usually don't like Bullock but they could've had a cardboard cutout in there and I still would've enjoyed it for the cinematography alone.

I second that. I cant imagine you´ll even get half the experience in 2d. Not that I´ve seen a whole lot of 3d movies but this one is the best yet from that perspective.

I know its just a movie blah blah
but can you really be conscious, let alone live at all, for that long without oxygen??? :???:
 

Lithrael

Remember, always hold your apple tight
There's a fair amount of handwaving to do in Gravity, yeah. I don't think she's ever supposed to be OUT of oxygen though just always *almost* out. Except for the one part where she turns it off on purpose and
gets all hallucinatey (and presumably turns it back on herself)
.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I just finished Pacific Rim and was thoroughly embarrassed for everyone involved. What a Kaiju-sized turd. The biggest, dumbest movie I can remember seeing.

It's funny, because when Aaz said he didn't like it, my first thought was, "No man, you probably just don't get it. It's SUPPOSED to be cheesy, like an anime!" But no, it's absurd and over-the-top to the point of embarrassment. I can't believe this movie was made. I barely made it through it, contemplating turning it off toward the last third of the movie. When there were human beings on screen, it was always cringe worthy. Neat robot CG. Thats about all I can say positively about this movie.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Walter said:
It's funny, because when Aaz said he didn't like it, my first thought was, "No man, you probably just don't get it. It's SUPPOSED to be cheesy, like an anime!"

Oh so that's what you think of me! :puck:
 
I recently watched both Hunger Games movies. Not impressed.

Like Someone To Love - slow and charming story of an old widower who develops an interesting bond with a young prostitute and gets entangled in her world. Ending could appear to be abrupt and might piss you off, but in a way it's acceptable. Wouldn't recommend this if you're looking for a casual movie.

The Wolverine - surprisingly watchable and decent, wow! It felt a little long but this was a movie made for the ladies. Wolverine could not help taking his shirt off every chance he got. Decent acting by the supporting cast, pretty faces here n there but also expect cheesy moments.

Insidious 2 - glad I didn't get the time to watch this in the theater, it was disappointingly not scary. Wan dropped the ball on predictability and a bad story. They should've stopped with the first one. The ending to the second is
open to sequels, so who knows? Both movies have done really well, I expect greedy studios to make more with or without Wan.

Frances Ha - Greta could win the Oscar for this if she's nominated, pretty good movie overall.

Stories We Tell - I looked up the movie's details after watching it cos I just had to and amazed that Sarah Polly wrote and directed it, kinda like Shane did with Upstream Color earlier this year. It focuses on Sarah's mother, like a documentary and the latter's secrets or relationships. It's a bit depressing but not as depressing as the next one I'll post about.

The Broken Circle Breakdown - I'd posted about this in the trailers section (http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=8350.msg224546#msg224546) and finally got around checking it out in the theater. I was by myself in the sense, didn't go with a friend and I'm glad I did because it hit me hard. It's out as a limited release only but I hope it gets watched more.

The Way Way Back - coming of age movie is pretty decent and sometimes fun. Recommend it for a casual watch. Sam Rockwell, Steve Carrel, Allison Janney, Toni Collette, Maya Rudolf ... an interesting mix of actors.
 

Antonius Block

We must make an idol of our fear, and call it god.
I caught a gem on Turner Classic Movies recently called, "Where Is My Friend's House?". It is an Iranian film from the mid 1980s. Very simple story, but done extremely well. A nice heart warming film about an 8 year boy who mistakenly takes his class mates notebook, and tries to return to him before school the next day. 5 Stars.

It was really cool to see that Toonami broadcast Akira last Saturday, what was not cool was the 2001 dub... :mozgus:

So, I decided to watch it again only with the Streamline dub, and it brought back lots of good memories. The Japanese version is by far the best, but I must say that Streamline did a pretty damn good job on the dub back in the day. Akira is definitely one of the greats! :ubik:
 
^
The 3D´s not too bad eh? :carcus:

Re-watched The Hobbit in preparation for DoS next week. Goddamn its one awesome movie. And boy am I hyped right now. Maybe I should add I havent read the book, and I wouldnt, it in case it´d ruin the movies for me, cause Im having too much fun with it, so far anyway.
 
O

Obscure

Guest
Just got home from watching The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Not as good as the first one in my opinion, but good nonetheless. It had great action scenes, at times beautiful music and the art directors/production designers did a fantastic job.
 
Last night I enjoyed myself watching pretty bad/ laughable Bollywood movies.

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Ram Leela comes from a highly respected director Bhansali and it was sort of his version of Baz's Romeo & Juliet. A lot of cheese, less humor, 20 mins of songs within the first 30/35 mins, bad songs overall, bad accents and more. The director's known to be over-the-top on the emotional side but this was bad execution.

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Translates to 'fair girl in love with you' ... the couple come from different cultures and religious beliefs, have differences over marriage and other issues like the guy is not as emotional as the girl and has more material/ corporate ways about getting things done. She's more of a social worker and he comes from a big bad corporate family. She leaves him and goes out to help out a village in the middle of nowhere. A bridge across a fast streamed river can help their people progress (safer for kids to go to school, get quicker medical help, etc.). In the meanwhile, he is arranged to marry a girl sharing the same religious beliefs and comes to realize he still has feelings for her. Runs away and goes to find, get her back. The movie isn't worth watching. I was in a weird funk last night that I let it finish. I haven't watched any Bollywood movies in weeks, prolly that's why.
 
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Hit up American Hustle last night and it's over-rated, disappointing ... decent no doubt but the buzz around the movie is pretty crazy for what it actually is. Amy Adams and Louis C.K. steal the show, Bale comes in second and the rest of the cast do a good job. It starts off solid with Adams and Bale's characters coming together to con people, there's good humor and the pace is quick. When it hits the 2nd act things go iffy and by the 3rd you feel underwhelmed, hoping for some spark from the beginning to show up. The bigger con in the end is meh, editing's choppy.

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Prisoners surprised me, didn't expect it to be engaging or good. There's just the right amount of tension and it grips you 15 mins into the movie right up to the end. It's not perfect but Deakins' cinematography (Skyfall, True Grit, No Country For Old Men, A Serious Man, Assassination Of Jesse James, Fargo, Shawshank Redemption), acting, decent mystery make this an under-rated flick. Recommended.

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Anchorman 2, goofy, funny, over-the-top fun. Awesome
cameos
.

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12 Years A Slave packs good performances and an emotional end. Cumberbatch, Pitt and Giamatti have less screen time in general so it's funny to see them in posters or promo material. Ejiofor's character (a free black man with a wife and two kids) was kidnapped and sold into slavery. He's told to strip all knowledge of his old self, given a new identity and to accept his situation.
Like Shame, McQueen has a few scenes without dialog letting the character's emotions breathe. Oscar-worthy.

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About Time is what it is, a fluffy romance, not as good as Love Actually. Got a bunch of plot holes and if you ignore them, it's a decent rom-com.
 

Deci

Avatar by supereva01 @ DA
Left The Hobbit 2 really wishing I had a straight up adaptation of the book, without all the added in appendices and crap. In my opinion these movies are suffering from the invisible need to be a more clear prequel to The Lord of the Rings and force feed the audience a more "epic" story than the book. Long-winded and overblown. Smaug and Bilbo are a lot of fun though.

The Conjuring surprised me, I really enjoyed it!

Aaaand Kick-Ass 2 was lacking. Not as good as the first one, don't think I'm a fan of these actors in these rolls. Imagine the first one if you took Nic Cage out of it. His role really surprisingly made that movie, I think.
 
Wasn't sure if I should check out Kickass 2, glad I didn't miss anything. Yep, The Conjuring was good fun compared to the usual crop of Horror that came out. It was not all that original yet well made with a decent/ satisfying end.

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Found a decent rip for Frozen and decided to check it out. It's charming with witty short songs and good voices. I didn't know Kristen Bell could sing like that. Anyway, this was refreshing because the villain isn't your usual typical one. The older sister isn't sure of her power (to freeze stuff) and she was scarred by an accident while playing with her sister when they were young. Her magic abilities are kept secret. Many years later she is forced to come out in public and that's where the story picks up.

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What I didn't know about August Osage County was that it's adapted from a play and now I'm curious to watch the play! Everyone from main to supporting cast play their parts so well, you get sucked into this dysfunctional family with strong characterized women - daughters and mothers. Someone's either drunk or drugged out or rude or yelling but often honest. It'll be tough to beat Meryl Streep for this one.

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Re-watched Blue Jasmine and it felt better. You can't help feeling bad for Blanchett's character and watching her in denial or lying about her life or her having an effect on the people around. The movie starts with her flying to live with her sister who she hasn't kept in real touch with but she's a newly bankrupt widow who has to sort of adjust to living a normal life compared to lavish riches she was used to. I didn't know Woody Allen directed it and was delighted to see Louis C.K. in yet another movie! This's what ... the 2nd Oscar worthy movie he's had a part in. Blanchett is surely up front with Meryl Streep for bagging an Oscar for this.

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This past Tuesday it was NY's coldest day of the week but 3 friends and I had planned last week to go see this movie on the big screen, one of them was seeing it for the first time. I often keep my eye out for it and go watch in the theater if I know it's playing, whatever once or twice a year or more. I've made up my mind to reserve my viewing experience only for the big screen. Just awesome and this print had the Intermission screen in the middle of the Jupiter mission like the other time a theater in Brooklyn screened it in July or June of 2012.

Queued up Her, Enough Said, The Spectacular Now, The Wolf Of Wall Street and The Act Of Killing.
 
I gotta say that Lone Survivor was much better than I expected. I appreciated the director for not trying to make this movie into something that it wasn't. Just a solid movie about heroism and courage, Ben Foster was really spot on as well. Personally I rank it below The Hurt Locker, but well ahead of Act of Valor and Zero Dark Thirty.
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
JoeZeon said:
I gotta say that Lone Survivor was much better than I expected. I appreciated the director for not trying to make this movie into something that it wasn't. Just a solid movie about heroism and courage, Ben Foster was really spot on as well. Personally I rank it below The Hurt Locker, but well ahead of Act of Valor and Zero Dark Thirty.

If you're ranking it below and already overrated movie then it must not be that good.
 
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