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I am opposed to the negative bloodlust koolaid that is dominating movies and tv lately. It doesn't serve up drama or ideas, just mindless limbic excitement. Even in high end fare like Inception the negativity is the established point of view as the heroes are covering for murder, mind control, and theft. A long time ago, the transgressive value of anti-heroes and contradictions in human behavior would have a novelty effect but now it's the dominant means of expression. The psychopath is the new normal- entertainment yes, but possibly boring and exploitive. Everyone can bring something to the mix in having opinions about movies, because everyone is different, and it's just part of existing with other people I guess. It's why I refuse to argue with people anymore. They may have an understanding I missed. The non-animate object though can be criticised. On that idea, I really recommend Seven Psychopaths 7/10 It makes fun of all these endless tarantino hiptard male killer movies. Tons of great comedic performances. Farrell, Rockwell, Walken, they're all equally hilarious. Go see it.
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Posted: |
Dec 9, 2012 - 9:10 AM
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By: |
mastadge
(Member)
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V/H/S (2012) dir. Adam Wingard ("Tape 56"), David Bruckner ("Amateur Night"), Ti West ("Second Honeymoon"), Glenn McQuaid ("Tuesday the 17th"), Joe Swanberg ("The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger"), Radio Silence ("10/31/98") -- A horror anthology film that is as ugly as it is ugly. A shame, too, because at least a couple of the contributing directors have made some above average genre films. But there is very little to like here. Not recommended at all. The Apparition (2012) dir. Todd Lincoln -- An extremely stupid movie. Looks good, has good sound design, but it's so by-the-numbers that there's no tension whatsoever, no scares, nothing interesting about any of the characters, and the movie even has to go out of its way to come up with a (completely unsatisfying) explanation of the apparition's erratic and random behavior. I've now seen three awful horror movies in the last few weeks. Ugh. Step Up Revolution (2012) dir. Scott Speer -- I don't know how to talk about these movies. They exist for people to watch attractive people in colorfully choreographed dance sequences. Whether they have anything to do with street dancing culture I have no idea, but I have my doubts. If this is the kind of thing you can enjoy (and I can!) then this is an enjoyable enough example of it. The leads are slightly better actors and slightly more attractive than I recall the leads being in Step Up 3, but the dance sequences are less epic. There's one really good one set in a museum, and a couple decent ones, but never really reaching the kind of epic intensity that Chu managed in the previous installment. As a turn-off-your-brain eye candy during finals studying, though, this hit the spot. Magic Mike (2012) dir. Steven Soderbergh -- Liked it. Don't really understand the depth of loathing some have for Tatum, who to my eyes is no great actor but isn't any worse than a number of other bad actors gracing our screens. The movie was more of a character study than the raunchy comedy-cum-romance that I expected, and Soderbergh competently navigates its tonal shifts. Like most of Soderbergh's oeuvre, this is not a great film but also not bad, and as with many of Soderbergh's "small" projects, his eye generally keeps it just a notch better than it had any right to be.
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The Hearse
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Posted: |
Dec 19, 2012 - 7:21 AM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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The Hobbit- 5-10 I'll just copy and paste from another thread. My response after viewing the film was "Meh". This is the most "Hollywood" of any of the Tolkien adaptions. (Add "very Lucas like" in all respects) Typical Hollywood jokes, burps, snot, cliche one liners, and ridiculous death defying situations. Some of the CGI characters looked amazing, (Cave Trolls, Goblin King) others like the white wolf(?) and set pieces (Goblin caves) had a video game quality to them. The eagles were far more impressive in ROTK. Every action sequence falls flat on its face. Again we get a CGI orgy fest of over indulgence and confusion. No thrill at all. Compare any battle sequence here with the Cave Troll fight in FOTR. Even the little sneak peak at the end was badly rendered. I did like the entire cast, some of the character driven moments and sections of the score. With its uneven quality, lengthy scenes and over the top nature, it felt more like a made for television mini series.
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Posted: |
Dec 21, 2012 - 8:04 AM
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By: |
mastadge
(Member)
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The Watch (2012) dir. Akiva Schaffer -- A nothing movie. Stiller, Vaughn and Hill doing their usual asinine schtick. If that amuses you, then you may enjoy this movie. But there's nothing going on beneath the nonsense surface. Grave Encounters (2011) dir. The Vicious Brothers -- A movie that has some genuinely scary stuff -- which the filmmakers seem to think is less scary than cheap shock scares. Even so, it remains slightly above average until the idiotic ending. Life of Pi (2012) dir. Ang Lee -- A beautiful, impeccably crafted film, like many of Lee's films -- and like most of his films, one that I never really was able to become immersed in. I enjoyed this film and I admire it but in the end I couldn't love it as I wanted to. Total Recall (2012) dir. Len Wiseman -- A bad movie that's just competent enough, most of the time, to avoid being a bad good time, and instead just manages dully bad. The Verhoeven version was not without its issues, but at least Verhoeven has a talent for kinetic storytelling and visceral action and a sense of humor, all of which Wiseman completely lacks, instead jumping from video-gamish setpiece to overlong video-gamish setpiece without ever managing to invest me in the goings-on. Farrell is better than this. This movie could have been better than this. Instead it's just another forgettable bad sci-fi actioner.
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Posted: |
Dec 23, 2012 - 6:16 PM
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By: |
joan hue
(Member)
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A SEPARATION: 8/10 This is an Iranian film that won best foreign film last year, and it is great. It isn’t political film, but it does provide clear pictures of the various aspects of Iranian culture. A rather secular middle-class married woman has the visas she needs to leave the country. She wants her daughter and husband to go with her so they can provide a better life for their daughter. The husband refuses to leave because his father has Alzheimers, and he feels they should stay to take care of him. He’ll let the wife divorce him, but he will keep the daughter who wants to stay with him in order to keep her mother from leaving. The mother moves in with her parents. The father has to hire a female caretaker for his father, and she is devoutly religious and from a lower class. This caretaker can’t tell her unemployed husband that she is working in a home where the wife has left. When the tragic old man soils himself, she has to call her church to see if she is allowed to clean him. This is a male-dominated society. Later a tragedy occurs that causes further “separations.” This movie shows us the Iranian system of justice, the class system, and the roles of men and women. While two families are the focus, the movie portrays many separations that occur in this culture and the toll these separations take on families. It was very well-done and interesting. (I am so not moving there.)
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