Dec 27, 2017 6:48:35 GMT Big Pete said:

Lady Bird - I'm not sure if I'm feeling the Oscar buzz for this movie, but it was a good coming of age movie all the same. It reminded me a lot of Richard Linklater in that the dialogue felt improvised and there were a lot of loose ends in the movie. Going in, I expected the movie to be really quirky, but outside of the main character rejecting her birth-name and calling herself 'Lady Bird' it didn't go over-board with stylistic choices. At the heart of the movie, it's a story about a mother and daughter failing to come to terms with one another and the complexities surrounding the relationship. What could have been incredibly wrought and over-bearing was actually handled really well. One moment they'd be at each other's throats and the next they'd be each other's best friends - which seems pretty normal. If you enjoy your coming of age fair, it's worth a watch. I would have had it around #5 on my end of year list.

Logan - I like the idea of using the R-rating and instead of going down the raunchy comedy route like Deadpool, you go the gritty action route with high levels of gore and dark themes. This has to be the most depressing superhero movie of all-time, just about every X-Men is dead, Charlies has dementia and has these seizures that can kill thousands of people and Wolverine is dying a slow painful death. The only gripe with the movie is that it was 30 minutes too long and some of the action scenes seemed poorly laid out. So many of the 'cool' Wolverine moments hinged on the cyborgs being complete dummies and not responding at all. I can cut it some slack though and would consider it one of the better super-hero movie flicks, maybe THE best.

Loved Logan.  And this is from somebody who was never really that into the X-men movies. I'd say it's easily in my top 3 for best of the year.

I saw Downsizing - one of the more bizarrely bad movies I can remember watching. It came across like there was a whole bunch of writers involved who all wanted to take the general idea in various directions - some comedic, some serious, some environmental, some social satire - and instead of coming to a consensus on what it was they were trying to create, ended up trying to do a bit of everything but none of it very well...

...but then I come on to the internet and find out that one guy was the director, writer and producer - making the whole hodgepodge even more hard to understand. I've got a bunch more thoughts but I might save them for when/if anyone else sees it.

Mother!
Arinofsky really crammed a lot into this one. While this isn't his best work, it still has his signature style. I enjoyed the religious symbolism and I thought Jennifer Lawrence and Barden were both extremely good in this. Really I thought this was Jennifer Lawrence at her absolute best as far as giving a performance. I know this seems to be kind of a love it or hate film and I get why so many hated it but I also don't think a lot of people who hated it really understood everything that was going on. Some of the complaints i've heard about the movie illustrate that they didn't understand at all what the movie was about. I give Mother! a B+

Dec 30, 2017 20:41:00 GMT vendrell said:

Mother!
Arinofsky really crammed a lot into this one. While this isn't his best work, it still has his signature style. I enjoyed the religious symbolism and I thought Jennifer Lawrence and Barden were both extremely good in this. Really I thought this was Jennifer Lawrence at her absolute best as far as giving a performance. I know this seems to be kind of a love it or hate film and I get why so many hated it but I also don't think a lot of people who hated it really understood everything that was going on. Some of the complaints i've heard about the movie illustrate that they didn't understand at all what the movie was about. I give Mother! a B+

I understand the movie was a giant allegory for god and the garden of eden and Mother Earth and yada yada yada, wrapped up in a beautiful story about the pains of being a commercial artist. But it still was mostly miserable to me, but that’s what I think of most of the mans work.

Dec 30, 2017 23:56:07 GMT mikec said:

Dec 30, 2017 20:41:00 GMT vendrell said:

Mother!
Arinofsky really crammed a lot into this one. While this isn't his best work, it still has his signature style. I enjoyed the religious symbolism and I thought Jennifer Lawrence and Barden were both extremely good in this. Really I thought this was Jennifer Lawrence at her absolute best as far as giving a performance. I know this seems to be kind of a love it or hate film and I get why so many hated it but I also don't think a lot of people who hated it really understood everything that was going on. Some of the complaints i've heard about the movie illustrate that they didn't understand at all what the movie was about. I give Mother! a B+

I understand the movie was a giant allegory for god and the garden of eden and Mother Earth and yada yada yada, wrapped up in a beautiful story about the pains of being a commercial artist. But it still was mostly miserable to me, but that’s what I think of most of the mans work.

Didn't like Black Swan?  Requiem For A Dream? The Wrestler?  I get the hate on Noah and I didn't care much for PI.  I've yet to see The Fountain.

Black Swan was ok I guess. The Wrestler was rough for me but that may have something to do with how the expectations were so built up by this place. Didn’t like Requirm for a Dream and have no interest in the others. I only watched Mother! because it was the only thing to see. It was fun to talk about but not fun to watch.

Had my little niece spend the night last night. She ended up having a break down tantrum, my go-to for this is a horror or monster movie, always stops her in her tracks and she gets so into it, asking me what's going to happen and shit. Last night I put on Halloween movie from 2003 with Busta Rhymes, I can't even remember the name of it. I loaded it up randomly on HBO GO because I figured it would be somewhat clean, my niece loves Chucky and Jason so I figured I'd try Michael Myers. She dug it, watching horror movies with her becomes like a fun game where we both try to cover up each other's eyes when something bad is about to happen. She gets pissed off when I cover her eyes right before something grizzly happens, "JUST WET ME WOOK!".

It was fun watching this with my littles but holy hell I never realized just how truly terrible this movie was. I think I watched it back when it first came out on DVD and hated it but watching it again last night, man this is one of the most god awful horror movies I've ever seen. A real true shit turd of a movie from start to finish, maybe the worst single entry of all the major slasher series(Friday, Nightmare, Halloween etc).

Oh yeah, that Halloween movie was utter shit. Although quite frankly I think Halloween in general was a pretty overrated series anyways. That one in particular though was just beyond horrible.

Not sure if it was a homage or plagiarism but they stole that one scene with the tripod camera kill from Don't Look Now old school horror movie from the 60's.

Bright

Human/Orc Buddy-Cop drama set in an alternative present day, where folklore and fantasy has caught up with the modern world. Not great, but definitely not as awful as the elite film critics would like you to think. 

B.

I keep seeing ads for Bright and have no interest in watching it until I read somewhere that it is a lot like Shadowrun the old school pen and paper RPG I used to love back in the day, may have to check it out after all.

Let's see...

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri - In the small town of Ebbing, a grieving mother is fed up with her local police and vents this frustration on three billboards that happen to be outside of the town. Normally you would think the townsfolk would agree with the mother, but the chief is played by Woody Harrelson, so naturally he's beloved by the community and they're supporting him through his fight with terminal cancer. Can the police solve the case to relieve Frances McDormand of her grief, or will the town rally and beat the fight out of Frances? I enjoyed the overall presentation of the film, but must admit certain parts of the film bugged me. One of Harrelson's constables played by Sam Rockwell is so ridiculously incompetent you wonder how he's been able to hold his job for so long. They hand-wave a lot of it by suggesting he had a hard upbringing and the police are patient with his violent outbursts but it still seems like too much to swallow. It's a fairly vital part of the movie and while Rockwell is entertaining to watch, it does make the tone somewhat wonky. Otherwise, the performances were great, McDormand in particular was brilliant in her role and I was glad that the film resisted any temptation for cliches.

The Disaster Artist - A solid adaptation of the book. On the whole it was an enjoyable film to watch, Franco's performance as Wiseau was spot on and I thought Rogan was great in his role pointing out all the flaws in the movie. One issue I have with biographical movies is that they always have to fit these life stories into a movie template. In a way it's understandable and I'm fine with the odd short-cut here and there but it's always obvious when they make up the conflict and this film was no exception. For the most part, I would recommend Greg Sestaro's audiobook over the film, but I did think it was cool that all these actors got together to pay tribute to Tommy. It was very reminiscent of Ed Wood, except it felt a bunch of actors came together for this one project passion.

The Florida Project - During the initial moments of this movie, I didn't know what I was in for. I thought it was largely going to be this stylistic movie, something you would expect from Harmony Korine, but the movie settled into something that resembled a Richard Linklater flick. Essentially the movie follows a little girl living in this cheap complex filled with the scum of the earth where she has to make friends with the other kids and make their own fun. While this is going on, Willem DaFoe is the ultimate nice guy manager and he has to deal with all sorts of issues through out the movie. The film is wonderfully shot and is one of the most visually pleasing movies I've seen through out the year. I also thought the performances were great, outside of DaFoe, a lot of actors were making their debut and they were authentic in their roles. These days kids are usually written to be like mini-adults, but in this case it felt like I was watching real children. I would consider this film as potentially my #1 film of 2017, but I have to get my head around the ending. I don't think I've seen anything presented so strangely since Kaboom.

Also forget the year of the mouse or the year of horror, 2017 was the year of Caleb Landry Jones. Check out this list of credits: Get Out, The Florida Project, Three Billboards, American Made, Twin Peaks...I'm pretty sure he stood in for Skarsgard a few times as well. Or maybe it was Bev?

Usually I write too many words for movie reviews, and I don't feel like doing that today, so I'll keep these short and sweet. Films I've watched in the past week.

Brave
Breathtaking animation, but the plot was too juvenile and formulaic for me. Comedy didn't hit the mark. Stopped watching 2/3rds through.

The Santa Clause
Inoffensive and boring.

Baby Driver
At first I found the main character and the forced soundtrack/artsy fartsy stuff to be almost unbearable, but as the plot unfolded my affection grew for Baby and the musical direction. Above average action film that stands out from the pack.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Super tense horror movie with believable characters, and an original and engaging premise, but like many other horror films of its ilk, descends disappointingly into a convoluted cliché-ridden conclusion.

Jingle All The Way
Fuck Turbo Man, and fuck this film. The only good thing about this movie is the line "You can't bench press your way out of this one!"

Saving Private Ryan
I liked it a lot more than I expected to. I have more to say, but I'll wait for the Tom Hanks countdown for that.

The Disaster Artist - 5/5

Great movie with an excellent performance by James Franco, his brother Dave was great as well. As someone that has seen The Room multiple times as well as listened to Greg Sestero's book on Audible, this was perfect to me. James Franco captured Tommy Wiseau perfectly with the accent, mannerisms, and the laugh. If anyone ever gets the chance you should listen to The Disaster Artist audio book because it's read by Greg Sestero, who also does the perfect Tommy impression.

My Neighbor Totoro - 4/5

I went to a midnight showing of this with a friend and it's only the second Miyazaki film I've seen with Spirited Away being the other. I enjoyed this a lot from what I remember, but unfortunately me being tired caught up with me and I started dozing off during the film, not the film's fault at all just a case of it being a long day catching up to me. I'll have to give the film a proper watch when I'm better rested but I did enjoy it for the most part.

Wife and I watched the new Jumanji and then also Atomic Blonde the other night.

Wife enjoyed Jumanji more than I did. I didn't think it was bad, but it also wasn't great to me... I dunno, something just didn't sit right. Maybe it's just how they make these kinds of movies these days? Like they lack true "heart".

And then Atomic Blonde felt empty too. We appreciated the visual styling, and the long single shot fight scenes were super impressive from a technical standpoint, but the story felt dumber than some of the storylines from super spy parody movies. Biggest positives were probably boobs and a fleeting interest by Wife in the history behind the Cold War and Berlin Wall.

Dec 31, 2017 16:33:53 GMT Emperor said:

Usually I write too many words for movie reviews, and I don't feel like doing that today, so I'll keep these short and sweet. Films I've watched in the past week.

Brave
Breathtaking animation, but the plot was too juvenile and formulaic for me. Comedy didn't hit the mark. Stopped watching 2/3rds through.

The Santa Clause
Inoffensive and boring.

Baby Driver
At first I found the main character and the forced soundtrack/artsy fartsy stuff to be almost unbearable, but as the plot unfolded my affection grew for Baby and the musical direction. Above average action film that stands out from the pack.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Super tense horror movie with believable characters, and an original and engaging premise, but like many other horror films of its ilk, descends disappointingly into a convoluted cliché-ridden conclusion.

Jingle All The Way
Fuck Turbo Man, and fuck this film. The only good thing about this movie is the line "You can't bench press your way out of this one!"

Saving Private Ryan
I liked it a lot more than I expected to. I have more to say, but I'll wait for the Tom Hanks countdown for that.

A little surprised you didn't enjoy the ending as much , I guess I get it but I thought everything leading up to the very end was great and I wasn't disapointed at all with how they ended it. 

Jingle All The Way - Lol - that review doesn't surprise me at all even if I disagree. It's a place and a time type movie , not to be watched for the first time by an adult looking for a legitimately quality movie. 

Looking forward to your take on Saving Private Ryan , only because I know you said you aren't a fan of war movies. I think it's one of the easier watches though for the genre. 

Dec 31, 2017 21:03:37 GMT UT said:

A little surprised you didn't enjoy the ending as much , I guess I get it but I thought everything leading up to the very end was great and I wasn't disapointed at all with how they ended it. 

Which one are you talking about?

Dec 31, 2017 21:22:37 GMT Emperor said:

Dec 31, 2017 21:03:37 GMT UT said:

A little surprised you didn't enjoy the ending as much , I guess I get it but I thought everything leading up to the very end was great and I wasn't disapointed at all with how they ended it. 

Which one are you talking about?

Oops. 

The Autopsy of Jane Doe. 

The plot got nonsensical at the end. They said that she wasn't a witch but the horrible things they did to her as part of the Salem witch trials made her a witch? What kind of sense does that make? You torture/murder a normal citizen, they turn into a witch and become immortal and all powerful? What?

I'm generally not too big on open-ended/open-to-interpretation plots, but this was the perfect situation to do so. Weird shit is going on, both within the autopsy and externally, the hints to the Salem witch trials are presented, and you leave it at that. The first interpretation that comes to mind is that they tried to murder a real witch but it didn't work because magic, and her corpse lived on forevermore, because magic. The viewer is kept guessing. What happens in the film is unexplainable to rational people, but they have the rational people explain it anyway, as if they knew it on a certainty based on the insufficient evidence that found. I didn't like it.

Yeah I wasn't feeling the second half of Autopsy of Jane Doe either. I don't know what would have made it better but I just started enjoying it less and less as it went along.

There is an old resale shop that I used to go shop for VHS tapes at all the time. Haven't been in a while until earlier this week, I was in the neighborhood on my way home from work so I stopped by. I forgot how awesome it was digging through looking for tapes at this place. I ended up finding some pretty good stuff, I found "The Burning Bed" but I didn't buy it. This was an infamous made for TV movie that blew out Monday Night Football in ratings one night in 1984, causing a lot of people to start speculating that the NFL was dying.

I found Trespass, excellent 1992 action movie starring William Sadler, Bill Paxton, Ice T, and Ice Cube. Check out the box art on this bad boy:



Love the barbed wire dividers, also on the VHS box it's a little different it says it like this; "They ALL came to the WRONG place at the WRONG time". Excellent early 90's movie.



Also scored a 1991 VHS copy of Night Of The Hunter classic horror/suspense movie from the 1950's, haven't seen it since probably 2004 or 2005, I like this better than the old school Cape Fear, Robert Mitchum is excellent. Also picked up City Slickers, Weekend At Bernies 2, and Road House, 5 tapes for $5 can't beat that. Watching these on my old CRT TV in my den, VHS picture quality for older movies really isn't that much worse than DVD. Works just fine for me. Road House is such a classic, been a long time since I seen it I forgot how good it was. 

Life As A House:
Seen this multiple times over the years but got the urge to watch it again. I really love this movie. The father/son dynamic becomes so touching and I really like Kristen Scott Thomas in everything...she's a hot lady, I like her. I wanted to bang her so bad in Only God Forgives....anyways. My only complaint with this movie is that Hayden Christensen is annoying to a level that he is almost intolerable to watch at times but that is by design and it does make his turn and eventual understanding of his father have much more impact. Kevin Kline is great as always as the lead. Also Jenna Malone...not bad at all.

Pitch Perfect 2:
Loved Pitch Perfect and this is also very good. Not as good as the first but it's fine. I didn't think the finale performance was as good as what the first one had. This does have Hailee Steinfeld in it and Vendrell is pretty much in love with her so big time bonus points there.

Stopped by the little thrift/resale shop and dug through some VHS tapes yesterday on my way home from town. I hit the jackpot and found Pacific Heights, great 1990 thriller starring Michael Keaton.



Pretty solid movie, extremely well directed/shot. I've been looking for it for a while but couldn't find it on Netflix and it's "unavailable in your region" on Amazon instant video. I've been meaning to order a used DVD online for a while now but never got around to it, my heart skipped a beat when I seen it buried in that shop. Also picked up Thunderheart(Val Kilmer), Boiling Point(Wesley Snipes/Dennis Hopper), Little Mermaid with the dick on the box art, and a movie called "The Paper" that I've never heard of, from 1994 starring Robert Duval, Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, Randy Quade.

Going back to Pacific Heights, there were 2 or 3 actors in this movie that were in X-Files episodes, Deep Throat the informant pops up in a minor role and I marked so hard.

The VHS quality doesn't bother you, Shin? I've tried and it's horrible when i've been living in the world of HD and blue ray and even DVD.

It really doesn't, it's noticeable if you got it hooked up to an HD flatscreen but it's really not that bad on an old CRT TV. I'm watching The Paper now on my VCR on my flat screen HD in my office and I don't find the picture quality that bad at all. It's a shame I paid all that money and got a full 4K rig in my living room and can't find shit to watch on the thing. 

I'm waiting for the new Blade Runner to come out, definitely getting that shit in 4K! Until then $1 VHS tapes will suffice. 

Just watched Little Mermaid with my little littles. This is the first time in forever I've seen this, probably since I was 5. I was surprised at how weak it was. The first parts of the movie are fun but once Ariel turns human for the first time and loses her voice the movie really goes down hill. There's not enough singing and the songs aren't that great other than Under The Sea. We almost didn't finish the movie because once it started to drag my niece was ready to put on Pocahantas or play Mario, I forced her to finish the movie against her will! I wanted to see the end.  Pocahontas was a lot better though. 

But the dick in the box art is just disturbing. I guess I've heard about this but never seen it until the clerk at the store pointed it out to me, now it really creeps me the fuck out. Dudes that did that shit were pedos for sure. 

Dec 31, 2017 2:11:00 GMT vendrell said:

Didn't like Black Swan?  Requiem For A Dream? The Wrestler?  I get the hate on Noah and I didn't care much for PI.  I've yet to see The Fountain.

The Fountain is one of my favourite films. Easily my favourite Aronofksy and it isn't like I'm not a big fan of his other stuff. Visually and thematically, it is a gorgeous picture. One that I feel will get a critical reappraisal in the future. You should check it out.

Jan 9, 2018 17:16:30 GMT Strobe said:

Dec 31, 2017 2:11:00 GMT vendrell said:

Didn't like Black Swan?  Requiem For A Dream? The Wrestler?  I get the hate on Noah and I didn't care much for PI.  I've yet to see The Fountain.

The Fountain is one of my favourite films. Easily my favourite Aronofksy and it isn't like I'm not a big fan of his other stuff. Visually and thematically, it is a gorgeous picture. One that I feel will get a critical reappraisal in the future. You should check it out.

Alright.  I'll give it a shot man.

The Big Lebowski
A film can never live up to the immense praise of the kind lauded upon it by fans of The Big Lebowski, but when the credits rolled I didn't feel the least bit disappointed. That's not to say I think it a masterpiece, or the greatest comedy ever, but it's definitely way above average and I can see why it's revered so much. The cinematography is excellent, particularly The Dude's dream sequences. The POV shot from inside a bowling ball is genius and didn't feel at all forced.

It's clear this is a comedy film, but I don't see it that way. I just see it as an entertaining, well written and well acted film. To put it another way: if I wanted to watch something that made me laugh, or even smile, this would be far from my first choice. It's funny, but not a laugh out loud funny film like Dumb And Dumber or Wayne's World. I appreciated a lot of the gags, even if I didn't react beyond a slight chuckle at most. Apart from a couple of moments, it doesn't try to force laughs, it just lives in the moment of its characters, and is witty in more subtle ways than the typical comedy of its era. This makes it a lot more rewatchable than most comedies.

Of course as the lead, Jeff Bridges gets the lion's share of the credit, and rightfully so. One of the all-time great movie characters. I never once saw Jeff Bridges. I saw The Dude. Still, I found Goodman's Walter to be the funnier character. He's a complete doofus, but in a realistic way (in contrast to, say, Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne), which serves the tone of the film and is just as amusing. He was the perfect foil to The Dude's straight man (stoned) act. The supporting cast was mostly excellent, my favourite being Julianne Moore.

The Big Lebowski is pretty great, I hated Julianne Moore in that movie though, all of her lines are like nails on a chalk board to me for some reason, also I fucking hate dream sequences in movies/TV with a passion.