The Movie Thread

[princessofcairo]

Saw "Source Code" the other day...agreed with all the good reviews.  The only gripe I have is the last three or so minutes aren't necessary.  It would have been happy enough as is.  But, that's forgiveable.

SPOILER ALERT!
I think the last three minutes were necessary to explain how no one in the world realised that the...thing that happened in the beginning hadn't ever really happened. I was certainly awaiting some explanation, and was about to write the film off as a logistical mess until the last part. But I could have done without the coocooing lovey dovey couple scenes.

[RGMike]

If movie posters were honest:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/2011/05/if-this-summer%e2%80%99s-movie-posters-told-the-truth/#more-39301

[mshray]

If movie posters were honest:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/2011/05/if-this-summer%e2%80%99s-movie-posters-told-the-truth/#more-39301

Those are hysterical!

[radical347]

Caught an advance screening of Priest 3D yesterday... B-.  Spare & cold is an apt descriptor.  I was left wanting more (this was both good & bad).  Not a lot of character or plot development.  Stoicism worked for the main character...the others not so much.  Final fight is underwhelming.  At 1:20 at least it stops just short of overstaying its welcome.  However - attention to detail (esp. the city/town/outback), use of slow-motion & 3D = brilliant.  It's based on a Korean graphic novel, & I felt like it everything jumped right out of the pages.  I gather it's difficult to make a cohesive plot out of something like that but I suspect this isn't going to make the reviewers too sympathetic, so I'm fully expecting it to get critically panned.  Still, I think it's worth seeing on the big screen (it will probably suck if you wait til it gets to Cinemax), but be aware that it's not going to knock your socks off.

Other recent movies:
Thor: C-.  Derivative of a derivative of a derivative.  Couldn't really root for any of the characters, Thor's revelation was not convincing & even the villain couldn't really make up his mind & then the movie gets rid of him in the most generic way.  Good but not great SFX can't save it as "eye candy."  3D could have made it a lot better...but it didn't.

The Greatest Movie Ever sold: D+.  I actually love seeing name brands plastered across the screen as much as anyone could but honestly I found this a snooze-inducing self-serving 90 minute infomercial.

Hanna: C.  Colorful but didn't seem to know what it was doing.

(Geez, I'm harsh.  )

[Gazoo]

Now that I've seen a trailer for it, I actually kinda want to see The Beaver.

[RGMike]

Now that I've seen a trailer for it, I actually kinda want to see The Beaver.

Saw it the other nite: pretty disappointing. Mel can certainly do crazy; no surprise there. But it would''ve been better had it been darker and funnier -- it's way too Oprah-ized and touchy-feely. A misfire, sez me.

[RGMike]

Saw a really interesting flick on PPV (IFC On Demand): Super. Dunno how many of you saw Kick-Ass last year but this is sorta the (very) dark side of the same concept: average people dressing up like superheroes to fight crime. Not as cartoony as Kick-Ass and much much bloodier -- the point is that anyone who would do such a thing is probably ... nuts. Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler and Kevin Bacon (playing the sleaziest coke dealer ever!). Liked it a lot.

Meanwhile, high on my list of "movies I've never seen but really really want to" is 1980's The Idolmaker

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Idolmaker

The fictionalized story of the guy who discovered Fabian, Frankie Avalon etc. It was Taylor Hackford's directorial debut and is always being short-listed as one of the best movies about music, like, EVER. Didn't do well at the box office and I'm not sure if it's even on video. So now Ryan Gosling is going to direct and star in a remake. WTF?

[Wayback]

Today, May 16, is the 25th anniversary (!) of the release of Top Gun
Time magazine piece: Top 10 Reasons Why Top Gun Is Still Awesome
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2071414_2071416_2071427,00.html

[RGMike]

First pic of Ed Harris as John McCain in the HBO flick Game Change. Uncanny.

[RGMike]

not surprising that Pirates of the Carribbean: On Stranger Tides is getting some bad reviews, but this is effin' priceless:

One of the worst films of all time, On Stranger Tides has absolutely and utterly no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I wanted to say it's like watching an enema, but even that's a good thing: you get rid of the filth. Instead, here, you are force-fed shit, then made to regurgitate it, and then eat it again. It's as if you were cloned, and the clones shared the same consciousness, and then were turned into the human centipede, but instead of three, this centipede is endless. It's not so much pain, though there's that, too, but, instead, nausea.

What can I say about it? There are pirates and movie stars and ships and mermaids and whatever. Something about the Fountain of Youth. I don't know. I don't fucking care anymore....The film has no scope, no imagination, no sense of wonder. It's just a product, and it's a product for the international audiences more than the U.S. ones; like most of Hollywood's latest major product, it sets sails for these morally dubious shores. It's like a circus geek show, but instead of the geek biting the head of a chicken, in this one, he shits in your mouth.

If we cannot take solace from an art form, what can we take solace from? As I tweeted that I was on my way to see the film, a friend replied to say he considered Jerry Bruckheimer a marketing genius. This is it, though, isn't it? Marketing. Products. Consumption. Joy of fucking joys. We had dreams once, we fought for liberté, égalité, fraternité. While doing that, we were supposed to be given hope and power by the arts. Now the arts have become our enemy.

I will be the first person to admit that not everything is a front in the Kulturkampf. And, as I said, indignation is an unattractive quality (the gatekeeper, it seems, to modern wisdom is indignation). But, in the words of the great Jean Luc Picard, the line must be drawn here—this far, no further! Stop fucking seeing pieces of shit like this, start demanding better from your gods. Because, if you like this film, you are a cunt.

(Ali Arikan, writing on Slant.com)

[Tinka Cat]

not surprising that Pirates of the Carribbean: On Stranger Tides is getting some bad reviews, but this is effin' priceless:

One of the worst films of all time, On Stranger Tides ..

(Ali Arikan, writing on Slant.com)

awesome, thanks for posting.  

Clarification of the domain, though: it's on slantmagazine.com (slant.com is some designer) >>
http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2011/05/a-fountain-of-maggots-rob-marshalls-pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides/

[Wayback]

Some movie entertainment for tonight and Saturday:
"The Rapture" (1991) with Mimi Rogers, David Duchovny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmX7d9B20WQ

Arnold in "End of Days" (1999): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzkwtbyiaME

"Left Behind" (2000): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h2LtAG3Mkw

[RGMike]

Some movie entertainment for tonight and Saturday:
"The Rapture" (1991) with Mimi Rogers, David Duchovny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmX7d9B20WQ

Arnold in "End of Days" (1999): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzkwtbyiaME

"Left Behind" (2000): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h2LtAG3Mkw

"The Rapture" is a good movie, actually -- it's got enuf to piss-off both fundies AND atheists. "Like, OMG -- what if this stuff is actually true??"

The "Left Behind" films (there have been several sequels), starring that great thespian Kirk "Growing Pains" Cameron, are as crappy as you'd expect. "Piously acted, stiffly directed, and infused with a view of world politics that might charitably be described as delusional." (the Phila. Inquirer)

[Wayback]

Attn: Geoff and others: Magic Trip (Official Movie Site) - Starring Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, and The Merry Band of Pranksters... http://www.magictripmovie.com/

[RGMike]

Just saw Bridesmaids -- damn, it's hilarious. Kudos to everyone, but Kristen Wiig (who stars and co-wrote) RULES. And I'll never say anything bad about Wilson-Phillips ever again.