Which movie did you watch today and how would you rate it?

[Jayjay]

I'll join the chorus. Dredd was a relatively low-budget film that might easily get confused with all the other recent remakes of 80s classics (Robocop, Total Recall, Conan, The Thing, ...) but it manages to be quite a subversive movie as well as getting away with R rating. Definitely recommended.

 

[angelo]

Ashton Kutcher joins the ranks of the worst actors in the known universe. After all, he's managed to ruin Two And A Half Men and most films he's starred in. I should start a new thread along the lines of a poll, Who Is The Worst Actor In The Universe?. I watched [because there was nothing else on] a flick titled Killers last night. Had it not been that the delicious Katherine Heigl also starred, I wouldn't have bothered.

2/10

 

[dx713]

I concur, thoroughly enjoyed this film myself. I particularly appreciated the fact it was portrayed as just another event in the life of Dredd, without the whole world at stake. Just a vicious situation in a bleak dystopia handled with due ruthlessness and cunning.

I don't think they did enough to mock typical action movies, which was part of the charm of the source material.

I'm still waiting for someone to adapt the "judgement on Gotham" storyline.
I want to see a director tackling that Death singing metal in a poultry-based costume scene!

 

[credoconsolans]

We used to call it "telescoping" when I was writing comedy bits. You don't want the audience to see the punchline from a distance. That's what they did several times, and it wasn't terribly subtle.

Was it obvious that they'd do it in front of her to try to rattle her before the games?

Yes.

I'm gonna call BS on that. Otherwise you'd've mentioned it in your earlier post. It's only when I brought it up that you 'remember' you saw that coming.

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The whole dress thing is indicative of the problem. We know Lenny designs outfits that change when she twirls, and for this one they even say explicitly that there's a "surprise." She goes on the show, does her thing, and then they cut back and forth between Lenny being self-satisfied and smug, and President Snow being angry. Repeatedly. Right then you know "this dude is gonna die, and they're gonna make it hurt." Once he walked into the staging area with Katniss I was like "and here's when they do it." It was just so ham-handed.

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Re the dress: And you really saw a bird coming? C'mon, now you're being disingenuous. We all knew he was planning something but you didn't see a bird coming. Admit it. And there was no way you knew he was going to do something that would get him in serious trouble.

And he wasn't being self-satisfied and smug. He knew the risk he was taking and he knew what was going to happen to him. Katniss feels dread for him and Cinna is just acting for the crowd. That was pretty obvious to me and I hadn't read the book at that point.

My sister always says this. "I saw that coming."

My response is always "Really? Then why didn't you say something beforehand?"

Hindsight is always 20/20.

 

[Ford]

I'm gonna call BS on that.

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So you were genuinely surprised?


Re the dress: And you really saw a bird coming? C'mon, now you're being disingenuous. We all knew he was planning something but you didn't see a bird coming. Admit it. And there was no way you knew he was going to do something that would get him in serious trouble.


I never said I saw a bird coming, but that anybody could have seen the dress was going to be a statement, and it was going to be one that pissed off the President. They'd been setting this up since the character was introduced in the first movie.

 

[angelo]

Not Another Teen Movie Funny in parts, plenty for the admires of the female form to see but apart from that, an average teen romp. 5/10

 

[KeepTalking]

Not Another Teen Movie Funny in parts, plenty for the admires of the female form to see but apart from that, an average teen romp. 5/10

So, it was pretty much just another teen movie?

 

[DrZoidberg]

I'll join the chorus. Dredd was a relatively low-budget film that might easily get confused with all the other recent remakes of 80s classics (Robocop, Total Recall, Conan, The Thing, ...) but it manages to be quite a subversive movie as well as getting away with R rating. Definitely recommended.

It's a shame that they problably won't keep making them. If there ever was a franchise that would work well as an endless series of sequals, this is it.

 

[Daioh]

Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow
3/10
This one seemed to lack any heart
It never seems to have the seonse of fun the other (better) PA movies had
So because of that it just kind of meanders around before fizzling out
It does have some good moments which saves it from being terrible
But it isn't all that good

2001: A Space Travesty
1/10
This movie limps along without anything tying the random (and often not funny) gags together
The acting is also pretty phoned in
Really this was a bit of a chore to watch

How To Train Your Dragon 2
6/10
I'm torn on this movie
Firstly the returning characters are all pretty much the awesome characters from the first movie, with the only complaint being that maybe MAYBE Stoics character was forced to backslide slightly because of plot reasons
But the aged the characters well, and they felt like they were aged well (Like Hiccup and Ingrids relationship felt like it had grown for example)
But on the flip side the two new major character both felt a bit flat
Drago Bludvist is just bland, and he is never given a chance to really have any depth and become more then a horribly generic evil dude
Valka gets all this interesting backstory and buildup that never really gets a big payoff to justify it
If they simply picked one or the other and ran with them then the movie could have been alot stronger
And the divided plot is probably the other big problem
Not that the plots are bad, they are both brimming with great ideas and awesome scenes
But neither gives the other a chance to really breathe and so they both kinda butt heads too much for screen time

That review seemed kinda negative
But it wasn't meant to be
HTTYD2 is still a good movie, and the bad points do not destroy it's watchability
If you liked the first then definitely give this a go

 

[spikepipsqueak]

I finally watched Avatar all the way through. Not sure why I avoided it all this time. Nice piece of green propaganda with a message I am comfortable with. 7/10

Exactly what I thought of it.........green propaganda. I was watching the credits to see if some green movement had something to do with the production. I would rate it 6/10 tops.

The difference is that I recognise it but don't think it's a bad thing.

Watched Quartet the other night. The one with Billy Connolly, set in a retirement home for musicians. Another British Stately Home Story. I liked it, but there was nothing to make you go "Wow!". 7/10

In looking for that I saw another Quartet a few months ago featuring a much younger Maggie Smith. Another 7/10, but I want to age the way she has aged.

 

[Ford]

Interstellar 9/10


Wow.


Coincidentally, I've been watching Ken Burns' documentary "The Dust Bowl" over the last couple days, and seeing some of the interviews used in this movie was a surprise.

 

[DBT]

Exodus. 7/10. Had doubts about the casting of the leading characters, but I think it works well enough. Sets, effects and scenery are excellent.

 

[angelo]

To Rome With Love A Woody Allen film also starring Judy Davis, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Page and the delicious Penélope Cruz.

Follows the lives of visitors as well as residents of Rome. This movie could've been so much better. The laughs are practically non existent, and it can't make up it's mind whether it is a drama or a comedy like many of Woody Allen's films.

6/10, and that's been generous.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Who the fuck is Arthur Fogel? 1/10

Loads of people had recommended this. It's famous. High rating on imdb. Inexplicable

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3479180/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_2

It's from start to finish and unbridled gushfest. Everybody is saying how awesome he is in hyperbolic and clearly unbelievable terms. Stuff like this "when Arthur Fogel jumps in the sea he doesn't get wet. The sea gets Arthured". The entire documentary is nothing but advertising. All the records he's broken are just stacked atop one another as if it proves something. A seemingly endless stream of musicians are paraded across the screen telling the audience how awesome the guy is. These are musicians in active contracts with the man. What else are they expected to say? There is not even the slightest attempt to go a little deeper or find people who didn't like him. In comparisson the Bible makes Jesus come across as a more complex character. If I want to be entertainingly lied to there are better ways.

The only interesting bit about it is how one guy looks into the camera and says with a serious face how Arthur Fogel always put the audience first, the little guy who bought the ticket, above himself or the artist. It's all about the public. And then a minute later another guy looks into the camera and says with a serious face how Arthur Fogel always puts the artist first. Above both the public and himself. Clearly one of these (or both of these) statements are false. Thanks documentary film-maker for letting it be so obvious that it's all bullshit.

This "documentary" is shit. It's clearly all lies. There is nothing to learn from it. Anybody who says they had their lives enriched by this film are gullible morons. I hate everybody who has recommended it. Give me my minutes back.

 

[bradw]

To Have and Have Not (1944)

Very entertaining. I'd watch it again. In a few years.

7/10

 

[Jayjay]

Blindness. An infectious blindness causes society to crumble. Pretty good. 9/10.

 

[bradw]

Cane Toad: The Conquest (2010)

A documentary about the spread of the cane toad in Australia. Less about the science and more about the quirkiness of the humans.

7/10

 

[Ford]

Who the fuck is Arthur Fogel? 1/10

Loads of people had recommended this. It's famous. High rating on imdb. Inexplicable

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3479180/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_2

It's from start to finish and unbridled gushfest.

I think that's a fair statement to make about a lot of recent music documentaries.


Around the same time I watched this film, I also saw "20 Feet From Stardom" and "Muscle Shoals."

The former would have you believe that it was the backup singers who were responsible for all the hit records coming out of Motown, and the latter would have you believe that the session guys in Alabama were more important than the Allman Brothers or the Rolling Stones or Aretha Franklin.


Of course the subject of a documentary is going to be outsized in the final product. They've often got a say in how it turns out. I watched "The History of The Eagles" not long ago, and it is basically "the story of how Don Henley and Glenn Frey are the band, and everyone else was an employee."


So yeah, the Fogel movie is a gush-fest, but not all that different from other music docs. The one thing I will fault it for is that it glossed over the fact that Fogel is personally responsible for the birth of Live Nation, which is basically the Ticketmaster/Clear Channel/Wal Mart of the concert biz.

Concert promoters are (generally) sleazy individuals who are only in it for the money. Fogel just took this and made it bigger.

 

[dx713]

Who the fuck is Arthur Fogel? 1/10

Loads of people had recommended this. It's famous. High rating on imdb. Inexplicable

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3479180/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_2

It's from start to finish and unbridled gushfest.

I think that's a fair statement to make about a lot of recent music documentaries.


Around the same time I watched this film, I also saw "20 Feet From Stardom" and "Muscle Shoals."

The former would have you believe that it was the backup singers who were responsible for all the hit records coming out of Motown, and the latter would have you believe that the session guys in Alabama were more important than the Allman Brothers or the Rolling Stones or Aretha Franklin.


Of course the subject of a documentary is going to be outsized in the final product. They've often got a say in how it turns out. I watched "The History of The Eagles" not long ago, and it is basically "the story of how Don Henley and Glenn Frey are the band, and everyone else was an employee."


So yeah, the Fogel movie is a gush-fest, but not all that different from other music docs. The one thing I will fault it for is that it glossed over the fact that Fogel is personally responsible for the birth of Live Nation, which is basically the Ticketmaster/Clear Channel/Wal Mart of the concert biz.

Concert promoters are (generally) sleazy individuals who are only in it for the money. Fogel just took this and made it bigger.

Yes, docs about live artists (and often dead ones too), are often overly focused on that person accomplishments, or overlook negative things.
After all, to be successful, they need interviews from the artists and/or his entourage.
I've liked "Standing in the shadows of Motown" though, if only because at the time, those guys didn't have their names on the jackets, while being integral to the sound. (And because as an amateur bassist, I'm still in awe of Jamierson's parts, so just for letting me discover him, that doc has a special place in my heart)

 

[dx713]

I finally watched Avatar all the way through. Not sure why I avoided it all this time. Nice piece of green propaganda with a message I am comfortable with. 7/10

That was another stone in the garden of my love-hate relationship with James Cameron.
I like the theme, I like the cyberpunk background, this whole "sci-fi hijacked by big money" dystopian thing, I'm comfortable with the message, and the man does have an eye for striking visuals (or a great photo director).
But the characters are one-dimensional cardboard cuts, none has ever evolution or complex motivations. It says something when Chavez phoned-in turn makes her the most complex character of the whole movie!
And the story is so manichean... There are so many hings that could be objectionnable in the Navi culture, (don't remember where the apostrophe is supposed to be), so many times the bad guys could have a point!

Please, someone pair this guy with a good scenarist!