• Welcome to the new Internet Infidels Discussion Board, formerly Talk Freethought.

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

A Fantastic Fear Of Everything
1/10
This is a movie that made Simon Pegg very very painfully unfunny
I really didn't think that was possible but this movie managed it
And it did that by just being so completely stupid
This movie takes a genuinely interesting premise (A Guy reasearching serial killers for a book become paranoid about serial killers) and just completely screws over every interesting idea it can find until it just dies of embarrasment
Avoid this movie
 
Hector and the Search for Happiness 9/10

Turned out to be a very good movie. It's about this guy Hector and his search for happiness. A bit off in the beginning. I nearly didn't bother with it. Glad I came back to it. It is very well put together.
I just happened to read this story earlier today: How Doctors Die and then rented this movie by chance. They went together like cheese and crackers.
 
Imitation Game 9/10

Incredible movie. The only reason I'm not giving it the full 10 is because I generally want to leave myself wriggle room in case something comes along later and really blows me away.
 
angelo said:
Once Upon A time In Mexico A terrific cast is wasted on this hard to follow plot of a hit man becoming involved in an assassination plot involving a psychotic CIA agent and corrupt Mexican general. I only watched it to get a glimpse of the very delicious Salma Hayek. :o 5/10 only rated it that high because of my Salma! :o
Click to expand...

Johnny Depp stole the show with this movie.
 
The Signal 7/10

A nifty little sci-fi thriller that came out last year. Three MIT students on a road trip decide to take a detour and track down the person or persons who hacked into their records. They arrive at what appears to be an abandoned house in the desert, and then?

The lead student (Nic) awakes in what appears to be a government facility...wounded, in a wheelchair, and drugged into a stupor. His girlfriend is in a coma, and there's no sign of the other kid. Everyone in the facility is in hazmat suits, and Laurence Fishburne turns up to interrogate Nic. He's apparently been exposed to some sort of alien something or other, and is either being held in quarantine or for testing...you're never quite sure which.

Up until this point it is like a weird mash-up of Blair Witch Project meets Andromeda Strain, but then Nic tries to break out of the facility, and...that's as far as I can go without spoiling things.
 
Gone Girl. Nice 8.5/10 if not better, if you like existentialism you'll like it.
 
The Bird Cage In this remake of the classic French farce "La Cage aux Folles," engaged couple Val Goldman (Dan Futterman) and Barbara Keeley (Calista Flockhart) shakily introduce their future in-laws. Val's father, Armand (Robin Williams), a gay Miami drag club owner, pretends to be straight and attempts to hide his relationship with Albert (Nathan Lane), his life partner and the club's flamboyant star attraction, so as to please Barbara's father, controversial Republican Sen. Kevin Keeley (Gene Hackman).

In my opinion Nathan Lane stole the show in this French cinema Hollywood remake. The ending is a bit of a farce otherwise a good movie. 8/10
 
Last night I saw Fury 5/10

I've been waiting for a good world war 2 tank movie and this was ALMOST it. I had a bad feeling about it with the opening scene, where a german officer rides his horse (!!) nonchalantly through the wreckage of a recent tank battle, only to be jumped by Brad Pitt, who breaks his neck and lets his horse go free. Why was this officer riding his horse alone through a field of wrecked vehicles that had obviously not been properly swept by infantry? This is just one of many really stupid germans to feature in this film. From there, we are given the most generic plot ever, so generic I barely have to describe it: veteran tank crew loses man. Replacement is brand new ex-rear echelon soldier and audience surrogate. Screws up in his first combat, is yelled at by more experienced soldiers, says; "I'm not supposed to be here.' Gruff but caring and surprisingly cultured commander (Pitt) takes him under his wing and makes him into a man. Briefly meets and screws a nice german girl who is soon killed in an artillery strike. Is accepted by now brotherly experienced soldiers.

All this wouldn't have mattered if the action scenes were what I was hoping for. There are four action scenes, not counting our introductory equestrian murder. The first scene is good, an infantry supported attack on a fortified position. The second is even better, where they capture a town. The third is the highlight of the film, and the best tank combat scene I've seen, where a Tiger tank takes on four Shermans, and destroys three before being destroyed itself. It would have been awesome if it had stopped there. But there had to be a final show down, and for some reason the director decided that the tank should be disabled and the crew should have to defend it alamo style against a battalion of really dumb germans who's equipment varies according to the needs of the scene. Seriously. When they are marching up, looking like badasses, one out of ten of these two hundred or so guys has a Panzerschrek (Bazooka). When they attack the immobilized tank, its hordes of riflemen running up and attempting to climb up the sides of the tank. At one point, attacking germans are waiting behind cover, and suddenly a couple of soldiers brings up a box. What's in the box? Panzerschreks! So apparently all the soldiers who were carrying them a few moments ago decided to pack them up in boxes and futiley attack with rifles. A grand total of two panzerschreks are shot at our hero's tank. One misses the still immobilized, now burning tank from well under the normal range one fires such a weapon. Oh, and there's the worlds worst sniper ever. And the tank crew having to leave the tank in the middle of the fight to get ammunition that was stowed on the outside of the tank. I know that it was common for excess equipment to be so stowed, but you'd think that they would have brought it into the tank before the fight started. All in all, the final, climactic and dramatic fight scene of this film was so stupid it ruined the entire movie. The generic plot and characters did not provide anything else for the film to lean on, so it lived and died with its battle scenes.

I hope that the Russian film I will be seeing soon "White Tiger," will finally give me the World War 2 tank movie I've been craving.
 
Margin Call (2011)

A good movie, but disappointing for me.
Great shoots, solid acting, great pacing (not to mean frantic pacing, it knows to leave time to breathe, reflect, and appreciate the views), no romantic plot tumor or manichean plot, the only gripe I have with it is the use of the dog's death, I'm not sure it makes the film stronger than if it had stayed dry and on point (although a little tie to "real life" isn't bad for it either.
But, in the end, I have little interest in the day of the crash, in the day when some discover they had been playing with fire and decide to cut their losses and "sell everything". I believe I already know how this works. What would have interested me is the build up. To understand how responsibility gets diluted enough that warnings go unheeded until it's too late, how the short-term gains can silence the whistle blowers. But that is just evoked in a couple of lines. So, in the end, a very frustrating film for me, although great from a cinema point of view.

I recommend it if you can approach it with no expectations about the content, just as a people drama.
 
Eat The Rich

Billed as the "Comic Strip movie", despite most of the Comic Strip people involved only having minor parts. Disjointed, hard to follow and, ultimately, not very funny. I'm a big fam of the Comic Strip; I loved Five Go Mad On Mescaline and I thought Bad News Tour and More Bad News were perfect TV foils to the classic movie This Is Spinal Tap. But this, despite the presence of such Comic Strip luminaries as Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Dawn French, Nigel Planer and Robbie Coltrane, as well as Lemmy, Hugh Cornwell (of The Stranglers), Paul McCartney, and Shane McGowan, was an unmitigated pile of shit, not worthy of the name of "movie".

2/10, and I'm being generous there.
 
C_Mucius_Scaevola said:
Eat The Rich

Billed as the "Comic Strip movie", despite most of the Comic Strip people involved only having minor parts. Disjointed, hard to follow and, ultimately, not very funny. I'm a big fam of the Comic Strip; I loved Five Go Mad On Mescaline and I thought Bad News Tour and More Bad News were perfect TV foils to the classic movie This Is Spinal Tap. But this, despite the presence of such Comic Strip luminaries as Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Dawn French, Nigel Planer and Robbie Coltrane, as well as Lemmy, Hugh Cornwell (of The Stranglers), Paul McCartney, and Shane McGowan, was an unmitigated pile of shit, not worthy of the name of "movie".

2/10, and I'm being generous there.
Click to expand...

The entire film is like an in-joke for cool people of a very specific era. I remember this being a smash hit when it csme, for reasons I have no clue about. I thought the same as you when I saw it again
 
Jupiter Ascending: 8/10

it was a simple, breezy, kinda campy and schlocky sci-fi romp - it was silly, if you think about it too much it's pretty dumb, but it's not too self-serious and it's not pretentious at all.
it reminded me a lot of the hokey (but good!) sci-fi/fantasy movies of old, like the neverending story, the ice pirates, time bandits, explorers, the goonies, etc etc... great to look at, simple, enjoyable.
it's damn well the perfect definition of a great popcorn movie.
 
White Tiger 7/10

The search continues for the World War 2 tank movie I want. This wasn't it, but unlike the last contestant, at least succeeded as a movie, albeit a strange one. In a sentance: Moby Dick, with tanks.

Synopsis: Russian tanker rescued from burnt out tank with burns on 90% of his body and a case of the dreaded cinematic amnesia. Here however, the amnesia is not used as a cheap plot device for surprises later, but merely as a way of clearing this guys slate. He is now a mystical tank guy, worshipping a tank god (really) and believing his tank talks to him. The eponymous tank, the white tiger, is a german tiger tank with winter camoflage (despite movie being in the summer) which mysteriously appears, fucks the russians up, and then vanishes, over terrain felt to be impassible. The russian response is to soup up a T-34/85, put crazy tank man in charge, and send it out to find the White Tiger. Crazy tank man feels that the Tiger is more than just a tank, but a spiritual force of some kind. There are a couple of indecisive encounters where the tanks fail to destroy one another, and then the war ends. Crazy tank man feels that the Tiger is still out there despite this, waiting for the next war.

Prominently states that this movie was made with funds from the Russian ministry of culture, and its propoganda function is very clear. It rather obviously was an attempt to incorporate the communist period into the wider context of russian history, to sanitize it, etc. In one scene, Marshal Zhukov states "I am a Communist, but I also believe in God and the Devil; this war proves they exist." A rather shocking statement that the good marshal almost certainly never said. What it does is bridge the gap between communism and our currently religiously renewed russia, using the authority of Marshal Zhukov. Also, the communist authorities blandly accept crazy tank man's newfound tank religion, simply dismissing it as crazy and not worth bothering about.

As far as the actual tank combat goes, it is well-done; Obviously not having the same special effects budget as Fury. The director however shot the tanks very lovingly, showing them churning through the mud, belching exhaust with an almost pornographic eye. The climactic combat scene is also the best one (unlike Fury) with the two super-tanks fighting in a deserted russian village, shredding the sturdy log buildings with terrifying ease. My main complaint is that it does not accurately portray combat, as the protagonist tank has only a three man crew, which is particularly puzzling, because the missing two men had important jobs that would have been helpful on a few occasions.

Also, stay for the bizarre closing monologue from Hitler. (!!)
 
The Hurt Locker 2008 war film about the Iraq misadventure. It follows three members of the US Army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit through the last 38 days of their tour of duty in Baghdad. So many heroics are hard to fathom seeing that the Iraqi army meekly surrendered or ran away. This film was highly rated by the critics and the director won an Academy Award. So, who am I to criticise!
8/10
 
angelo said:
The Hurt Locker 2008 war film about the Iraq misadventure. It follows three members of the US Army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit through the last 38 days of their tour of duty in Baghdad. So many heroics are hard to fathom seeing that the Iraqi army meekly surrendered or ran away. This film was highly rated by the critics and the director won an Academy Award. So, who am I to criticise!
8/10
Click to expand...

Do film enthusiasts really care about the Oscars? I thought the only people who use the Oscars as a standard of quality are housewives and yobbos? Don't get me wrong. I tend to enjoy films that win Oscars as well. But I can only remember a couple of years that the best films of the year were even nominated. Mostly the top movies are pretty half-arsed. Big budgets. But just money alone does not a movie make. The Oscar nominees are by definition all high budget movies. High budget movies rarely take risks. They all play it safe to make sure they get their investment back. So they won't be cutting edge films nor interesting. Which they rarely are. The fact that a film has won an Oscar barely tells me anything regarding how much I will enjoy it. I remember some time in my late teens I gave a shit about the Oscars. Then I discovered Palm d'Or, Berlin film festival, Sundance and the rest of them. That's when I stopped caring about Oscars for good. Maybe it's a Swedish thing. But none of my friends over here ever discuss the Oscars. The topic simply doesn't come up. Certainly not as a badge of honour.
 
It is not just a swedish thing. Whether a film wins an oscar is dependent on it fulfilling a certain standard of quality and appeal to a certain audience. You can be sure that films that win oscars are quality films. However, they are obviously not always the best films, in that, virtually everyone is in agreement.

the Hurt Locker is indeed a quality film, one that I recommend as well.
 
DrZoidberg said:
The Oscar nominees are by definition all high budget movies.
Click to expand...

2015 Oscar Nominees for Best Picture include:

Boyhood - $2.4M
Whiplash - $3M
Imitation Game - $14M
The Theory of Everything - $15M
Birdman - $18M

And that's just for movies coming out in 2014. I don't have time to research past history.

Where do you draw the line at "high budget"?
 
Shadowy Man said:
DrZoidberg said:
The Oscar nominees are by definition all high budget movies.
Click to expand...

2015 Oscar Nominees for Best Picture include:

Boyhood - $2.4M
Whiplash - $3M
Imitation Game - $14M
The Theory of Everything - $15M
Birdman - $18M

And that's just for movies coming out in 2014. I don't have time to research past history.

Where do you draw the line at "high budget"?
Click to expand...

That serves me right for not checking. But a number pulled right out of my ass would be 5 million. Which makes a few of those pass... and now makes me ibterested. Good work. Boyhood actually seems interesting. Imitation Game as well. But that's just because Alan Turing is one of my biggest heroes. I hope they're keeping him gay in the movie. They made him straight in the film Enigma, which really rubbed me the wrong way. Especially since his love affair with a woman was key to the story. Anyhoo... slight derail there
 
DrZoidberg said:
Shadowy Man said:
2015 Oscar Nominees for Best Picture include:

Boyhood - $2.4M
Whiplash - $3M
Imitation Game - $14M
The Theory of Everything - $15M
Birdman - $18M

And that's just for movies coming out in 2014. I don't have time to research past history.

Where do you draw the line at "high budget"?
Click to expand...

That serves me right for not checking. But a number pulled right out of my ass would be 5 million. Which makes a few of those pass... and now makes me ibterested. Good work. Boyhood actually seems interesting. Imitation Game as well. But that's just because Alan Turing is one of my biggest heroes. I hope they're keeping him gay in the movie. They made him straight in the film Enigma, which really rubbed me the wrong way. Especially since his love affair with a woman was key to the story. Anyhoo... slight derail there
Click to expand...

The Imitation Game is definitely a good film, I would rate it 8.5/10, and yes, Turing was portrayed as gay, which was a major sub-plot of the film.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom