Guardians of the Galaxy - Lived up to the hype. Spent most of that weekend listening to the soundtrack. Great summer action movie with some plot issues that I'll happily overlook.
Grand Budapest Hotel - I haven't seen most of the recent Wes Anderson films. This felt like he was so locked in to his signature style that it was practically a self-parody. I loved it. The cast was particularly good, and not just the Wes Anderson regulars.
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie - This was a solid B-movie in my book. I won't spoil the forthcoming GeekNights review other than to say you may want to wait for VOD in a few waits.
Sin City 2 is awful. And I'm kind of astonished it's so awful, because the changes from the first movie to the second aren't very major. It's still shot the same, has the over stylized feel and dialogue, but it's just so sloppy and poorly handled this time around.
It's has to due with the deteriorating skills of Frank Miller. All the plots are dumb, repetitive, and all the characters are in the same molds. Really evil rough-and-tough crooks or crooks in suits and all the women are whores. It's so overbearing with the gritty atmosphere that you just stop caring about everything. Sin City is horrible, people are shit, and ultra-violence solves all. Bad, bad movie.
Sin City 2 is awful. And I'm kind of astonished it's so awful, because the changes from the first movie to the second aren't very major. It's still shot the same, has the over stylized feel and dialogue, but it's just so sloppy and poorly handled this time around.
I think that might be because the first movie was built around existing stories from miller at his peak, whereas this one features only two: the titular "A Dame to Kill For", and "Just Another Saturday Night".
It also adds two new stories in three parts - "The long bad night" and "Nancy's Last Dance", which were written for the film, and therefore come from not the pen of Frank "WHORES WHORES WHORES WHORES" Miller who wrote Sin City, but the Cranky, indignant, right-wing "listen up you pond scum the left are all louts, thieves, and rapists" Frank Miller.
Sin City 2 is awful. And I'm kind of astonished it's so awful, because the changes from the first movie to the second aren't very major. It's still shot the same, has the over stylized feel and dialogue, but it's just so sloppy and poorly handled this time around.
I think that might be because the first movie was built around existing stories from miller at his peak, whereas this one features only two: the titular "A Dame to Kill For", and "Just Another Saturday Night".
It also adds two new stories in three parts - "The long bad night" and "Nancy's Last Dance", which were written for the film, and therefore come from not the pen of Frank "WHORES WHORES WHORES WHORES" Miller who wrote Sin City, but the Cranky, indignant, right-wing "listen up you pond scum the left are all louts, thieves, and rapists" Frank Miller.
What Churba said, however I'm a fan of Frank Miller, all these stories from the first and second were written at different times and not in order. They have been changed from a non-linear order to a linear movie.
The newer stories are not so great and translating the medium breaking work to film does not have the same effect.
The number of times modern comicbook artists emulate and build on the ideas that were first explored by these comics is quite startling.
Then again I was one of the few people who really liked "The God Damn Batman" where all the comic book nerds were crying about him being depicted as a crazy, horny, ultraviolent guy that runs around dressed in spandex.
Sin City 2 is awful. And I'm kind of astonished it's so awful, because the changes from the first movie to the second aren't very major. It's still shot the same, has the over stylized feel and dialogue, but it's just so sloppy and poorly handled this time around.
I think that might be because the first movie was built around existing stories from miller at his peak, whereas this one features only two: the titular "A Dame to Kill For", and "Just Another Saturday Night".
It also adds two new stories in three parts - "The long bad night" and "Nancy's Last Dance", which were written for the film, and therefore come from not the pen of Frank "WHORES WHORES WHORES WHORES" Miller who wrote Sin City, but the Cranky, indignant, right-wing "listen up you pond scum the left are all louts, thieves, and rapists" Frank Miller.
What Churba said, however I'm a fan of Frank Miller, all these stories from the first and second were written at different times and not in order. They have been changed from a non-linear order to a linear movie.
The newer stories are not so great and translating the medium breaking work to film does not have the same effect.
Then again I was one of the few people who really liked "The God Damn Batman" where all the comic book nerds were crying about him being depicted as a crazy, horny, ultraviolent guy that runs around dressed in spandex.
I even think "A Dame To Kill For" has issues, like when Eva Green changes her voice and that whole subplot with Christopher Meloni was just plain bad. What to me was the biggest disappointment with was the story with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He's acting his ass off and it actually feels like a noir, but when it finishes, you can't help but notice how idiotic and pointless it was.
Sin City 2 is awful. And I'm kind of astonished it's so awful, because the changes from the first movie to the second aren't very major. It's still shot the same, has the over stylized feel and dialogue, but it's just so sloppy and poorly handled this time around.
I think that might be because the first movie was built around existing stories from miller at his peak, whereas this one features only two: the titular "A Dame to Kill For", and "Just Another Saturday Night".
It also adds two new stories in three parts - "The long bad night" and "Nancy's Last Dance", which were written for the film, and therefore come from not the pen of Frank "WHORES WHORES WHORES WHORES" Miller who wrote Sin City, but the Cranky, indignant, right-wing "listen up you pond scum the left are all louts, thieves, and rapists" Frank Miller.
What Churba said, however I'm a fan of Frank Miller, all these stories from the first and second were written at different times and not in order. They have been changed from a non-linear order to a linear movie.
The newer stories are not so great and translating the medium breaking work to film does not have the same effect.
Then again I was one of the few people who really liked "The God Damn Batman" where all the comic book nerds were crying about him being depicted as a crazy, horny, ultraviolent guy that runs around dressed in spandex.
I even think "A Dame To Kill For" has issues, like when Eva Green changes her voice and that whole subplot with Christopher Meloni was just plain bad. What to me was the biggest disappointment with was the story with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He's acting his ass off and it actually feels like a noir, but when it finishes, you can't help but notice how idiotic and pointless it was.
I haven't yet watched the movie yet so obviously I can't express an informed opinion.
Ok, the giant bats use radiation for energy, fine, it's a movie. They're also walking rolling blackouts? ...sure. And none of our military equipment is EMP-hardened? Losing me here, guys.
Oh no! The school bus is stuck in traffic on the bridge! Guess the driver will floor it and drive it through all the... empty lanes on the bridge?
Those are just a couple forehead-slap things that spring to mind. I feel like the movie suffers from 2 problems simultaneously: the 1Q84 dilemma*, aka "why doesn't modern technology completely obviate this problem?" combined with the writers' lack of understanding how radiation actually works, or EMPs, or Faraday cages.
"Hey, let's make a Godzilla movie where monsters tear the shit out of San Francisco." "Ok, but why don't the humans just wipe them out with daisy cutters?" "Uh I dunno, EMPs?"
* I call it this because 1Q84 avoided the problem entirely: it was set in the 80's, before ubiquitous cellphones, cameras, and the internet.
Thanks to two flights over the Atlantic, I had the time to watch 5 movies that I've been meaning to get around to.
The Lego Movie was not nearly as good as most people led me to believe. I will admit that a lot of the ideas were good and the animation was excellent, but I didn't find it funny at all. My girlfriend thought the same thing, and she's usually a lot easier to amuse.
The Muppets: Most Wanted was also not good. It was not only unfunny, but there were several times when I cringed at how bad it was. When they said during the opening song that sequels aren't as good as the original film, they were absolutely right in this case.
Casino has been on my list for a long time as a fan of Scorsese's work, and it was pretty good. I didn't enjoy it as much as Goodfellas or The Departed, but it was solid.
The Grand Budapest Hotel is actually the first Wes Anderson film I've seen, and having seen it, I'm more inclined to give some of his other movies a go. I really liked the presentation and pace of the film. I didn't find it particularly funny, as my friends suggested it was, but I chuckled a couple times (which was more than any other movies on this list).
The Monuments Men was probably my favorite of the list, though I think that has a lot more to do with the subject matter than the actual quality of the film itself. It was solid and did what it needed to do, but I found myself more invested simply because I knew this was stuff that actually happened. Having just been in Europe and seen the art that it has, I found myself really appreciating what the real men did for the history of the world.
Grand Budapest is awesome having recently seen it again with my mom... I'd say Rushmore next, unless you really want more of the zany wacky elements, then Steve Zissou would be a move more in that direction.
Saw The American a few weeks back, after someone figured I'd be into it cuz the dude is a gunsmith.
I was into it, but I wouldn't say it was particularly awesome. It felt like when I watched Only God Forgives but filmed on the sets of the Bourne Identity and The Godfather part II. And Clooney channeling his best Henry Rollins
I watched In Bruges the night before visiting Bruges. That wasn't as interesting as the first time I watched In Bruges, as I was in the cinema in Bruges.
The Grand Budapest Hotel is actually the first Wes Anderson film I've seen, and having seen it, I'm more inclined to give some of his other movies a go. I really liked the presentation and pace of the film. I didn't find it particularly funny, as my friends suggested it was, but I chuckled a couple times (which was more than any other movies on this list).
The Grand Budapest Hotel is my favorite Wes Anderson movie. I think all of his visual flourishes and cues from the use of colors, the dollhouse imagery, and the single-person frames are perfectly used in that movie. Loved the plot, the setting, the characters...just about everything. It's without a doubt one of my favorites this year. If you enjoyed this movie, definitely watch The Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Royal Tenenbaums because I think those two are the closest in his catalog to Grand Budapest. But he's one of those directors where everyone is varied over which is their favorite.
Keaton wasn't all that bad. Not really. Not compared to the first movie. In the first there were two corporate asshole bad guys, both trying to out-asshole each other. One creates massive war robots that shoot an executive by accident. The other then, in a dick move, gets Murphy re-assigned to a super dangerous area so he can be a victim and be turned into a robot. And the gang he was shot by was led another awesome bad guy, a bad guy controlled by the first corporate asshole, and Boddicker is introduced as someone who is happy to throw a slightly injured henchmen onto the hood of a police car just for... what? A distraction? Whatever the reason, it's a perfect character introduction. And there isn't just a little bit of police corruption, the whole police force is owned by Omni Corp.
Compared to all that? This new movie had fuck all. There was a gun dealer. Who was the most tepid and boring bad guy ever. There was the robot trainer, but he seemed to be just doing his job. Keaton was a very mildly evil CEO, but of a company that was sponsoring medical advances. This is not the Omni Corp I grew to know and love-to-hate as a teenager!
I watched The Royal Tenenbaums. I really loved it up until about two thirds of the way through. Then it got long and boring. I had the same problem with both The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited. I didn't have this problem with Moonrise Kingdom. I hope The Grand Budapest Hotel is better.
Admiral: Roaring Currents was absolutely amazing. I had never heard of this Korean movie before until I went to the theater to see Guardians of the Galaxy, and the theater was pretty much jam-packed with Koreans all going to see Admiral. I went home to read up on the movie and saw it a week or two later. Awesome awesome movie. Gorgeous cinematography and unbelievable action sequences, both on the water with warships and hand-to-hand combat.
If this movie is still playing where you live, I highly highly recommend it.
Netflix launched in Germany, so I'm doing a free trial. We watched Rush Hour. I've not seen it since it was in the cinema... 16 years ago! Oh man, I feel old. Still a very entertaining movie.
Finally got around to seeing How to Train Your Dragon which was much much better than I was expecting. This might be the first DreamWorks movie that reaches Pixar levels of quality.
I also saw This Is Where I Leave You. I had read a couple not-so positive reviews saying that this movie wasn't that funny, and after watching it, I think the reviewers went into the theater with the completely wrong mind-set. This is not a comedy. This is a family drama with comedic moments. Also, the cast is excellent.
Comments
Get ready. For one last Terrible Ride.
Grand Budapest Hotel - I haven't seen most of the recent Wes Anderson films. This felt like he was so locked in to his signature style that it was practically a self-parody. I loved it. The cast was particularly good, and not just the Wes Anderson regulars.
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie - This was a solid B-movie in my book. I won't spoil the forthcoming GeekNights review other than to say you may want to wait for VOD in a few waits.
It's has to due with the deteriorating skills of Frank Miller. All the plots are dumb, repetitive, and all the characters are in the same molds. Really evil rough-and-tough crooks or crooks in suits and all the women are whores. It's so overbearing with the gritty atmosphere that you just stop caring about everything. Sin City is horrible, people are shit, and ultra-violence solves all. Bad, bad movie.
It also adds two new stories in three parts - "The long bad night" and "Nancy's Last Dance", which were written for the film, and therefore come from not the pen of Frank "WHORES WHORES WHORES WHORES" Miller who wrote Sin City, but the Cranky, indignant, right-wing "listen up you pond scum the left are all louts, thieves, and rapists" Frank Miller.
The newer stories are not so great and translating the medium breaking work to film does not have the same effect.
The number of times modern comicbook artists emulate and build on the ideas that were first explored by these comics is quite startling.
Then again I was one of the few people who really liked "The God Damn Batman" where all the comic book nerds were crying about him being depicted as a crazy, horny, ultraviolent guy that runs around dressed in spandex.
Ok, the giant bats use radiation for energy, fine, it's a movie. They're also walking rolling blackouts? ...sure. And none of our military equipment is EMP-hardened? Losing me here, guys.
Oh no! The school bus is stuck in traffic on the bridge! Guess the driver will floor it and drive it through all the... empty lanes on the bridge?
Those are just a couple forehead-slap things that spring to mind. I feel like the movie suffers from 2 problems simultaneously: the 1Q84 dilemma*, aka "why doesn't modern technology completely obviate this problem?" combined with the writers' lack of understanding how radiation actually works, or EMPs, or Faraday cages.
"Hey, let's make a Godzilla movie where monsters tear the shit out of San Francisco."
"Ok, but why don't the humans just wipe them out with daisy cutters?"
"Uh I dunno, EMPs?"
* I call it this because 1Q84 avoided the problem entirely: it was set in the 80's, before ubiquitous cellphones, cameras, and the internet.
Bad story, plot and sub par acting. Only Aaron Paul actually acted well but was given very little chance to.
I watched it for the cars and the cars alone.
The Lego Movie was not nearly as good as most people led me to believe. I will admit that a lot of the ideas were good and the animation was excellent, but I didn't find it funny at all. My girlfriend thought the same thing, and she's usually a lot easier to amuse.
The Muppets: Most Wanted was also not good. It was not only unfunny, but there were several times when I cringed at how bad it was. When they said during the opening song that sequels aren't as good as the original film, they were absolutely right in this case.
Casino has been on my list for a long time as a fan of Scorsese's work, and it was pretty good. I didn't enjoy it as much as Goodfellas or The Departed, but it was solid.
The Grand Budapest Hotel is actually the first Wes Anderson film I've seen, and having seen it, I'm more inclined to give some of his other movies a go. I really liked the presentation and pace of the film. I didn't find it particularly funny, as my friends suggested it was, but I chuckled a couple times (which was more than any other movies on this list).
The Monuments Men was probably my favorite of the list, though I think that has a lot more to do with the subject matter than the actual quality of the film itself. It was solid and did what it needed to do, but I found myself more invested simply because I knew this was stuff that actually happened. Having just been in Europe and seen the art that it has, I found myself really appreciating what the real men did for the history of the world.
Saw The American a few weeks back, after someone figured I'd be into it cuz the dude is a gunsmith.
I was into it, but I wouldn't say it was particularly awesome. It felt like when I watched Only God Forgives but filmed on the sets of the Bourne Identity and The Godfather part II. And Clooney channeling his best Henry Rollins
Compared to all that? This new movie had fuck all. There was a gun dealer. Who was the most tepid and boring bad guy ever. There was the robot trainer, but he seemed to be just doing his job. Keaton was a very mildly evil CEO, but of a company that was sponsoring medical advances. This is not the Omni Corp I grew to know and love-to-hate as a teenager!
If this movie is still playing where you live, I highly highly recommend it.
I also saw This Is Where I Leave You. I had read a couple not-so positive reviews saying that this movie wasn't that funny, and after watching it, I think the reviewers went into the theater with the completely wrong mind-set. This is not a comedy. This is a family drama with comedic moments. Also, the cast is excellent.