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Posted: |
May 22, 2017 - 10:24 AM
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By: |
jackfu
(Member)
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Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2
Man, what a convoluted mess of a movie. If you find your characters in a tough situation just pour on the special effects and all is resolved! Did we really need jokes about turds?
Chris Pratt and Kurt Russell do well with what's given to them. Sylvester Stallone has a tiny role.
I realize it's a fantasy film but if a character can whistle and have a flying arrow destroy all his opponents then where's the threat? Very little humor in the film as well. I love lots of visual effects as much as the next guy but I didn't really enjoy the film much. The filmmakers seem to think peppering the soundtrack with classic songs will make everything better. Not so.
4/10
I might have had a better time if someone didn't bring a baby to the theater!
I despise the GOTG franchise to no end.
I saw it over the weekend and gave it 7/10, mainly for the entertainment value.
I have never been into the Marvel or DC worlds, even as a child I had almost no interest in them, so I saw the first GoTG and this one with few expectations. I liked this one better than the first, actually.
While I found Independence Day Resurgence frustrating and hated it, GoTG II was amusing for me. True, it's in the vein of "bigger and more is better", I liked the action and the characters with one exception - Groot II, who was clearly there for the cute factor. Yes, a predictable plot with a rather implausible twist, no real surprises, some crude jokes, but I only got bored with the extended "father and son" dialogue and fight. The golden oldie tunes were overused, but not a major distraction. Maybe having attended a matinee (even at $12.50/ticket for 3-D) with only 2 other people being at the theater and having a great day had me in a good and receptive mood.
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Posted: |
May 22, 2017 - 10:41 AM
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By: |
Ado
(Member)
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Thanks Adam B for saying my thoughts on GOTG 2.
I was forced into see it by the kid, otherwise I would not watch it ever.
I sat there, finding myself bored throughout much of it, then ironically, when a scene here or there had something to it the director fell into the same self destructive pattern as the first movie, blowing up the narrative or dramatic purpose of a scene by disruptively inserting either cheesy humor or old pop songs, or both. In either case it pushed you right out of the scene, and right out of the movie, at which point I say to myself, yeah, I am watching a piece of crap, like a microwavable cheeseburger. It is the crap-iest $200 million movie I have ever seen. But when jokes passed over a scene, like the Mary Poppins thing, and a lady laughed like it was the damn funnest thing she had ever heard in her whole life, I realized that the success of this thing depends on simple and uncritical minds that do not know anything better.
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Posted: |
May 27, 2017 - 6:43 PM
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By: |
DeputyRiley
(Member)
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Logan (2017) -- 7/10
Finally got around to seeing this, have wanted to for awhile. I thought it was very good, an extremely well-made film. I truly appreciated its bold nature even if maybe it wasn't my particular favorite thing to watch. It's possible to appreciate something on a very high level, of course, while acknowledging that it's not really your cup of tea -- and in this case I'm referring to the extremely dark and violent nature of this film. To paraphrase Chris (Rick Rossovich) in Roxanne: "They said it would be violent but I didn't expect it to be violent!" I honestly don't care that they heightened the gore quotient for the film and I think it was appropriate for this story and for the tone of the narrative, it just wore me down a bit, coupled with the relentlessly dark environment these characters inhabit. It all just became a little bit too much for me. Honestly, if it had just been the gore it would've been okay, but when it was compounded by the grim and harrowing murders of innocent people like the Munson family on the farm and Gabriela the Transigen nurse, the bleak future view, the casual and homicidal disregard for mutant children, the sad deaths of Charles and Caliban, and finally the eternally sour disposition of the main character himself...it was just such a dour affair. Having said that, it was an amazing film on all other accounts and I was able to push through the somber, melancholy, pessimistic tone and enjoy the terrific filmmaking and storytelling. Everything done here was top-notch: casting, music, fight sequences, cinematography, music, editing, character evolution, set-pieces, acting, thematic content...it was admittedly all very thrilling. Dafne Keen was a revelation, Stephen Merchant showed me a side of him that floored me, Boyd Holbrook introduced himself to me in a barnstormingly impressive manner, Jackman executed his best Logan performance yet, it was a joy to see Eriq La Salle back in the spotlight again. The scene where Logan has to fight through the paralysis caused by Charles' migraine while dispatching gun-toting ne'er-do-well villains was a highlight for me, as was the startlingly abrupt death of one of the chief villains (that was crazy...I was like, really? Mid-sentence? Wow, that's kind of awesome!). Overall, this movie was extremely impressive for the bold choices that it made in both narrative steps and execution, and its delivery of action and emotional content was second to none. However, the relentlessly bleak mood that clouded the whole affair did somehow cloud my ultimate enjoyment of the picture.
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Judgment at Nuremberg
spencer tracy, burt lancaster.
Been years or never since ive seen this film. Powerful stuff. Quite engrossing, tackled a lot of issues post war germany, whi knew what, who was to blame, berlin airlift etc. 7.5 out of ten.
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Office Christmas Party (2016) -- 3/10
Jason Bateman is typically reliable and deadly with a one-liner and a smirk. The guy is constantly comedy gold. His delivery is always exemplary. TJ Miller can be entertaining as well, if you like his sort of thing, which I do. Unfortunately, the two of them together are not enough to save this terrible comedy. They are two very funny actors who manage to stay standing while the rest of the production burns to the ground around them. Jennifer Aniston, Kate McKinnon, Rob Corddry, they offer nothing to this movie, which is not very funny at all, nor is it enteraining, nor is it original. Nearly everyone in this movie behaves repulsively and it's not fun, or funny, to watch. Someone compared it to Old School, in the sense of older people casting aside inhibitions and just behaving wildly and having a good time and the results are "hilarious." No. No, no, no. They "high jinks" are not amusing, they are lame and juvenile but that does not equal funny. The most out-of-control Christmas bacchanal with a coked-up Courtney P. Vance might sound like a wacky time, but please trust me, it was just sad. I never did realize, however, how utterly gorgeous Olivia Munn was until watching this. I don't think I'd ever seen her in a movie before. Seeing her in this almost makes me want to watch the most recent X-Men. Almost (not gonna happen).
Doctor Strange (2016) -- 3/10
This was the worst Marvel movie I've seen. To get it out of the way, yes the visuals were amazing, yes Benedict Cumberbatch was irreverently unique and it's always fun to see an unlikely actor fill the shoes of a "superhero" -- the more unlikely the better (see: Paul Rudd, Robert Downey Jr. in the first movie). Otherwise, I am completely bored by this kind of thing; Doctor Strange represents to me the worst of the dull, fx-driven, character/relationship-lite, brainless eye candy diversions. I can't remember being so bored. None of the actors engaged me, or the fight scenes, and even the colorful fx and collapsing worlds began to be tedious. It would've been more gripping if there was more of a balance of character, complex themes, or drama that actually made you feel something...but the villain who is trying to bring a chaos monster into the world to destroy it or whatever? So very yawn, and Mads Mikkelsen completely left his engaging charisma at home. He sleptwalked through this. Cumberbatch had a few good lines and seemed to have fun, but Rachel McAdams had a thankless role, Chiwetel Ejiofor was actually very bad, and Tilda Swinton did nothing that I found impressive. I also couldn't stand Michael Giaccino's score. It was so bland and unmemorable, until the end credits, when it was only memorable because it sounded like so much of his other stuff. He definitely did this movie no favors. I'm not sure if anyone did? Maybe this movie was just my comic book/superhero film "breaking point." That doesn't make it any less guilty of its trespasses, though. That doesn't excuse it -- I had high hopes going in, but they were completely deflated and I was completely disappointed. Holy shit and the next time I see Stan Lee in one of these movies I'm going to reach through the screen and smack the glasses off his face. Enough already with the cameos, we get it! The running joke has run, and run, and run! Yes, you created all of this and have the right to do whatever you want and even star in the movies if you want, but your presence in every single one of the movies is as irritating and takes me out of the narrative of the film as much as the bloody Wilhelm scream.
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Doctor Strange 4.3/10 not very engaging at all, the worst Marvel film for me
Shark Night 0.5/10 moronic on every level
Land of Mine 8.4/10 a very decent film about German soldiers defusing landmines on Danish beaches after WW2.
Mother Lode 5/10 odd Chuck Heston film that looked very nice but wasn't that good
Howard the Duck 0/10 unwatchably bad
Tomorrowland 3.5/10 dull and never really gets going
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Posted: |
Jun 6, 2017 - 10:53 AM
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By: |
jackfu
(Member)
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Alien: Covenant (2017) - 7/10
I liked it. I found it much more enjoyable than Prometheus. Katherine Waterston stole the show. She has those fluid-like eyes that can convey terror, fury and sorrow so well and I thought she was believable in her role as “Dany”. Smart, tough yet tenderhearted and Ripley-esque but not quite on par with Ripley. And yes, I like her hair.
Scott is amazing for visuals but he seems to take himself too seriously anymore. So now that we know how it all works, can we be done with the Alien franchise (especially Fassbender/David/Walter and the various “morphs”)? Is there really any need for Alien: Pegasus or whatafumo comes next? Does anyone really care to explore the mythology any further? I say we put some space between us and nuke the entire franchise. Just to be sure.
A friend had a great suggestion, I thought. It might not have been original with her, but she proposed that James Cameron had the right idea with Space Marines and their “bug hunts”. Of course they encountered particularly nasty bugs on LV-426 and we know how that went. Maybe they could expand on this core idea like Marvel and DC have with the superheroes. Who knows, the Space Marines’ path might could intersect that of the Starship Troopers?
Edit: Update - To Sir Ridley Scott, please re-release Alien (1979) in theaters June 22, 2019 with Jerry Goldsmith's original full score as intended, admit your error (just prior to credit scroll) in butchering his masterpiece and all will be forgiven! Thank you!
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