What movie did you see today?

[Hazir]

La Pazza Gioia, an Italian comedy/road-movie, which gets it all right. It's been a while since I saw an Italian movie, but I think that was my mistake. They really got this down to the tees.

[Aimless]

So I've been catching up on standup specials on Netflix

It all began with Aziz Ansari's "Buried Alive". I've had a soft spot for Aziz ever since we stalked him on our wedding day but I've always been a little ambivalent about his shows. Even so, "Buried Alive" was even more fun than his Netflix special in MSG and I've recommended all my friends who're in or entering that settle-down-have-kids phase of life to see it

After this I of course had to re-watch classics like Raw, Bring the Pain and Bigger & Blacker, For What It's Worth and Killing Them Softly, Live on Broadway etc after which I was hungry for new stuff so I ploughed through

Chris Rock - Live (bad. He wasn't really in it, his eyes were dead, kept laughing at his own jokes, the jokes frequently didn't land, nothing really felt genuine and it felt like a rip-off of Raw etc.)

Hannibal Buress - Comedy Kamisado (vulgar, sly, fun, better while drunk)

John Mulaney - The Comeback Kid (friendly, relaxed, well-written with perfect delivery... extremely white and a little Catholic)

Chelsea Peretti - One of the Greats (Gina from Brooklyn 99. Clever, confident, heartfelt and an absolute delight from beginning to end minus the weird gimmicks for the special)

Gabriel Iglesias - The Fluffy Movie (he gets pretty real, and it's like that part of Raw where Murphy talks about his dad... but Iglesias makes people happy instead of bumming them out)



I also finally got around to seeing Focus, because it was mentioned in like every review of Suicide Squad. I liked it, it was fun and exciting. Decent writing, great casting, solid performances even from the supporting actors. Margot Robbie was great, Smith was a little boring but still decent.

[Hazir]

Not today but this week :

Sausage party; could have been funny, as a comedy highly irreverent to religion, but is simply too long to not feel too slow.

Captain fantastic; movie is all over the place and just drags on and on and on. Survivalist free thinker bla bla bla. What grated most was a scene in which an 8 year old starts telling that without the Bill of Rights 'we would be just like China' as proof that the child is actually really really well educated without never even having any formal education.

Free State of Jones; something went terribly wrong with this movie when they started weaving in the story of the descendents of the main character into the narration. What could have been a great movie about resistance in the Confederate States rapidly descended into what's best described as a dramatized documentary. Maybe it had to do something with post-production unease about having another movie where a white hero saves the black runaway slaves, from their masters and their own inaction. Wait for it to come out on Netflix or the like.

[Hazir]

Sully, solid movie, watch it on Netflix. The multiplex in my area showed this in IMAX 3D only. Which made me take the metro to a part of town where I could watch it in 2D. I am still wondering why they have an IMAX 3D version of that movie.

[Hazir]

Florence Foster Jenkins, a bittersweet comedy. Streep does the older, excentric socialite again, but with a slightly different twist. This is one you probably should see in the theatre rather than on TV.

[Aimless]

Saw Fantastic Beasts. Excellent production values, good direction, decent script, lame leads. The supporting cast was awesome but Redmayne's stupid facial contortions and overacting annoyed me in the first part of the movie and Waterston kept failing to find the right level of anxiousness. Jakob and Queenie were great, as was Colin Farrell. Ezra Miller was meh and Johnny Depp earned a turkey in his two minutes of screen time, low point of his career. The Niffler stole the show.

The CGI-laden monster-movie-channeling climactic third act was not good, didn't do the rest of the movie justice at all, and the gimmicky solution near the end was lame but as a whole the film was thoroughly enjoyable and we were very pleased

[Hazir]

Did not like fantastic beasts too much.

Finally watched Superman vs Batman. On a small screen (65") so I may have missed some of the cinema experience, but I really don't know what the point of that movie is. Hardly anything in it seems to make sense. I finally understood the quip of the need to save Batman from Ben Affleck.

P.S. I still think BA is reason enough to sit through it

[Hazir]

The accountant, there was a message hidden there somewhere. Otherwise very much enjoyed this movie with Ben Affleck in the lead ������

[Wraith]

Saw the extended cut of Suicide Squad. Maybe it was just because it was the extended cut, but it wasn't as bad as everyone was saying. I liked it more than BvS, at least. Assault on Arkham was still the better Suicide Squad movie, though.

Also recently saw Doctor Strange - I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Cumberbatch's American accent took a bit of getting used to, and was occasionally spotty. The visuals were fantastic, and this is the first movie where I regret not seeing it in 3D.

So the Soul Gem is the only one we haven't seen yet, right?

[Timbuk2]

Sully

Was fairly good. Hanks solid as always, and he definitely suits the calm leadership roles like this that he has played of late. Clint's direction was ok but a little overly ... cloying I think is the right word. Too much play on the human emotion aspects, which I felt wasn't necessary. I couldn't shake the feeling that this vehicle was far better suited to Greengrass, who portrays the drama of the real so brilliantly without the need to focus especially on the emotion element. The flashback, jumping around narration didn't work terribly well either - I thought a linear story line would have been more dramatic - again as per Greengrass's style.

I'd also have liked more description of exactly why Sully's landing in the Hudson was so outstanding, why his technical skill was worthy of heroism status. The narration gave us the fact of the heroism, but not the why. But I am an aviation buff, so perhaps the smattering of technical description given in the movie was fine for most movie-goers.

Still, this story is a fantastic one, and it was put across well enough on the screen.

[Loki]

Saw the extended cut of Suicide Squad. Maybe it was just because it was the extended cut, but it wasn't as bad as everyone was saying. I liked it more than BvS, at least. Assault on Arkham was still the better Suicide Squad movie, though.

Also recently saw Doctor Strange - I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Cumberbatch's American accent took a bit of getting used to, and was occasionally spotty. The visuals were fantastic, and this is the first movie where I regret not seeing it in 3D.

So the Soul Gem is the only one we haven't seen yet, right?

Just read the plot for Assault on Arkham. Why the hell does DC spend more time on creating a suspenseful and realistic plot for a direct-to-video movie than on a supposed blockbuster?

[GGT]

The accountant, there was a message hidden there somewhere. Otherwise very much enjoyed this movie with Ben Affleck in the lead ������

I saw that in the theater (ie paid full price) and it was just okay. What surprised me was that my sister didn't get the ending (the role of the autistic girl) even though she's a big fan of mystery novels. I'd recommend waiting until it's available On-Demand for just a few bucks, or even until it's "free" on cable tv.

[Ominous Gamer]

Rogue One.

Felt like a true extended universe story rather than your standard star wars soap opera. Very much enjoyed it. I like that we are getting these movies soon enough to enjoy Jame Earl Jones' voice, but the CGI isn't there yet for what they attempted. It was so damn obvious it was beyond distracting for how unrealistic it was. The lack of mannerisms and jerky movement was really bad.

[Ominous Gamer]

[EyeKhan]

What We Do in the Shadows -- very good and great fun. Have to watch it a couple times to take it all in. I recommend getting a disk copy with all the extra content. How they made the film and some of the deleted scenes were terrific stuff. I didn't appreciate how much effort they put into making it look like a low budget documentary until I saw the behind the scenes work. Well, that might be nothing more than me not knowing much about film-making, too. "Do you like buh-sketti?"


Me, Earle and the Dying Girl -- very good, watched it twice. This one made me cry, but not in a shameless way, and it breaks the fourth wall to apologize about it, sort of.


Arrival -- if it hadn't been in the theater, I'd have watched this one twice to test out my theories about the weird-ass ending. I'm tempted to criticize that the movie was as much about achieving its own peculiar structure, that you don't recognize until the end, as it was about the story. Have to see it again, though, to know for sure.

[wiggin]

Saw the latest Jungle Book. Gorgeous. The story itself was, well, a kids movie, and clearly trying a bit too hard to pay homage to its antecedents while still being its own creature. But I loved Christopher Walken and Bill Murray in their roles, the kid they cast for Mowgli wasn't bad, and did I mention it was gorgeous? Wow, the animation was incredible (except for a few bits) and they did a pretty good job with the animation/live action interface.

[Aimless]

Rogue One

It was awesome. Enjoyed it even more than tFA. If you must see it in 3D, go for IMAX. Visuals are great, the score is spot on, characters are good. Action scenes are head and shoulders above most other movies in the series.

Forest Whitaker's character was rubbish and his portrayal of the character ruined every scene he was in. Cassian was also a rubbish character for whom the writers had to mess up some of Jyn's scenes.

[Ominous Gamer]

I agree with Cassian, and I think thats a big part for why so much of the movie, especially the ending, was rewritten. To reduce his impact.

Saw Gerrera however was amazing and was played very well. I was glad when I heard rumor and suggestions that they have bigger plans for him, even beyond Rebels.

[Timbuk2]

Yep, saw Rogue One yesterday too.

Blown away by it. Soooooo much better than The Force Awakens. Much darker and more adult. The desperation of the rebels to get the plans was tangible, and the sense of doom was always there in the background. Excellent direction.

I was shaking with emotion and on the edge of my seat by the end with the lead-in to A New Hope, and of course Leia's CGI appearance was incredibly poignant at this time.

I liked all the characters. Wasn't sure what I'd make of Felicity Jones, having only seen her in a very different role as an English housewife in The Theory of Everything, but she was great as Jyn here. I thought Cassian was superb, not sure what your issue is with him Minxy? His counterbalance to Jyn was excellent. I liked the blind monk character too.

The battle scenes were amazing, the attack on Scarif was incredible; I lapped up every minute.

Best movie in a long time.

[Dreadnaught]

Where do Netflix shows-that-are-really-just-long-movies come in? The OA was interesting.

[wiggin]

Finally got around to seeing Rogue One with the wife. Overall I enjoyed it; it certainly didn't feel as much of a rehash as Episode VII did, and it was written far better than I-III. Spoilery critique below:

Spoiler:

Okay, first off the beginning was paced very oddly, with lots of rapid shifts to entirely new storylines. Honestly it was somewhat confusing (and I don't easily confuse in these kinds of films) and jarring. There were a lot of 'cool' new places to introduce us to, but the sheer number and the brief period of time we got to see them meant that they made little lasting impression. In previous films, there are only a handful of places - Dagobah, Tatooine, Cloud City, etc. - and they carry much more narrative heft. As a corollary, there were some clearly unnecessary scenes and plotlines that simply didn't need to exist and screwed with the pacing, especially early on (e.g. the octopus interrogation).

There were also too many characters - the monk and his sidekick, while on infrequent occasion entertaining, simply didn't need to exist for the story and added little substance. Similarly, the addition of Tarkin was both unnecessary and got into uncanny valley territory. The foursome of pilot, Jyn, captain, and droid would have been fine as the main characters, with the white clad weapons guy as the villain. (BTW it should tell us something that I didn't even bother to learn the names of any of the characters - there were too many and I knew they were all going to die anyways.)

In addition to the aforementioned pacing issues, the plot had some substantial holes and 'just so' coincidences that didn't make any sense. Why did the villain have to physically travel to Scarif for the showdown? He could have easily had the communications center transmit the information to him on the Death Star or wherever. Why did the ground troops spend so much time and effort getting a message up to the fleet to tell them something they obviously already knew? The 'sacrifice' of all of those nameless troops, the monk and sidekick, and the shuttle pilot was entirely meaningless. For that matter, it's obvious that the villain shouldn't have sent his crack troops outside to deal with mop-up once he figured out where the real attack was happening. Seriously. Why did the captain have a squadron attack the base he was casing out for an assassination and intelligence mission? They could have easily attacked after they were gone. And why, oh why, would the daughter of a Senator be sitting on the Alliance flagship in the middle of the largest battle of their existence? In fact, it's entirely unclear why the only copy of the transmission was on the flagship instead of in the rest of the fleet as well. Also - given the obvious knowledge of Vader/etc. of the likelihood of a flaw in the Death Star (since they knew not only of the theft of the plans but also of the treachery of their chief designer), it's mind boggling they would have sent it into battle against the very same people who have the information! They should have simply sent a fleet of Star Destroyers to Yavin. Etc.

Then there are the characters themselves. The development of the characters is, on the whole, pretty lazy. If I have to see one more character with daddy issues... they've pretty much milked that for as much as they're going to get. Most of the characters are mere sketches - especially since there's too many of them - and we simply don't see enough of them for us to really be invested in their sacrifice. I'll give them credit for developing an interesting dynamic with the ethical dilemma posed to the captain; I actually thought they were going to go somewhere complicated and interesting with the confrontation in the shuttle after Jyn's dad dies. But they sidestep the real issue by having him die by an 'act of God', if you will, and the confrontation doesn't stop her from becoming good buddies with the captain in the two days they've got left before they blow up. Merely volunteering for a suicide mission doesn't somehow change the fact that he was willing to murder her father on the basis of something as flimsy as orders, and it's not a redemptive storyline (in the way that you might say Han Solo did, in fact, have).

One last flaw was unavoidable, but it was the fact that we knew every new character was going to die heroically in this film - because otherwise, why wouldn't they be around for Episode IV? It took much of the suspense out of things and made their deaths seem inevitable, rather than a grand sacrifice for the rebellion.

Things I liked: the droid was a welcome change. I love the C3P0 and R2D2 dynamic but it was played out, and having a droid present with a very different (and, frequently, amusing) take on things was very welcome. One of these days I'd like to see Star Wars take on the issue of AI rights more directly, but even the tangential reference they had here was worth it. I thought the Scarif battle scene was pretty well done, with a new and interesting dynamic both planetside and in orbit. Although the typical good vs. evil story was a bit muddled, I liked the greater complexity they gave to both moral and political decisions of the Alliance. There were a lot of little Easter Egg like bits you could find in the film that had subtle hints to other parts of the franchise - I suspect that if I were a much larger Star Wars nerd I would have caught even more of them.

[Aimless]

The beginning of Rogue One was probably the most ill-conceived and poorly edited part of the film. Everyone I know who's seen it disliked the jumping around they did in the beginning.

[GGT]

Watched "Crash" on cable TV. Hadn't heard anything about the movie when it was made, wasn't the kind of movie that got holiday theater viewers. But it had a great cast, and a compelling theme. At first it was just a movie I'd never seen, but pretty soon it became a really good movie I'd never heard of, and wondered why I'd never heard of it?

Also, I love how cable TV movie programmers follow popular themes in social media. Now that espionage and Russia are on everyone's radar, we get all sorts of movies about spies, Communists, and propaganda. And now that cyber space and "the cloud" has become a reality, we watch science fiction movies made in the past with a new appreciation.

[Ominous Gamer]

The LEGO Batman movie.

It starts strong, really really strong. The first 30 minutes are funny, full of references, and really enjoyable.
Then it all falls apart. The jokes, easter eggs, everything fun and exciting slows to a trickle. It feels like a cheesy made for Kids TV show about family at one point.
The ending was dumb.

I had high hopes for this too

[Hazir]

Jackie, what a snorefest.

[wiggin]

The last of the Hunger Games movies. Jeez, they continue to get worse. The first one, even with the teenage angst, was tolerable, but they just go downhill from there. Suspension of disbelief gets impossible very rapidly; the numbskull decisions made by nearly every character and the sheer unlikeliness of the plot (clearly designed to result in yet another copy of the basic premise in the first book) really grates. I haven't read the books after the first one (it was childish enough that I declined to read further), so I don't know if it is accurately reflected in the movie, but I think you can definitely skip this one.

Watching 13 Hours, a dramatization of the Benghazi consular attack. I was shocked when I realized it was a Michael Bay film - by his standards, it's exceedingly restrained. Hmm. It wants to be an updated Black Hawk Down, but it fails in some important ways. First, it has a deep flaw many of these spec ops movies have, in that many of the characters seem interchangeable. Sure, a token effort is made to humanize and differentiate the, early in the film, but it fails pretty quickly. Another issue (hard to get around) is that when you throw armore, a helmet and night vision gear on a bunch of white guys, they are more or less impossible to distinguish in action sequences. The script is a bit lame as well and I can see some obvious political hot-buttons that probably caused some controversies (though I haven't had the interest in looking them up). Overall an okay action flick but hardly amazing. B-/C+.

[Ominous Gamer]

Hardcore Henry

Interesting concept, for both its story and filming process, ruined by horrible execution.

Plot was full of holes, both large and small, nearly every step of the way. A lot of the acting was bad, as in immersion jarring B movie bad. The budget was all over the place, some parts had seemless CGI while other parts had CGI that made the Doom movie look good. I can't tell if the incomplete translations were done on purpose or not. Every time you'd get into the groove needed to enjoy a movie filmed in first person one of these problems would pop up and force you out of the movie and leave you to once again struggle to get back into it.

I remember when this went viral (pretty sure I shared it in the youtube thread), heard about the bidding war for distribution rights, and was impressed that it got a trailer before the Deadpool movie. So I was hyped to finally get to see it. What a let down.

[wiggin]

Eye in the Sky

Surprisingly good. Excellent cast and acting (Rickman did a great job in particular, as did Mirren). Good pacing - they managed to keep such a relatively abstruse topic extremely tense throughout, and got into a surprising level of depth on their subject matter. The script was pretty decent as well. Spoilers to follow.

Spoiler:

Some nitpicks: I think the level of surveillance technology was a bit sci-fi for now - there's no way that drone feeds are that good yet (or ever?), and the spy tech seemed a bit futuristic (though who knows, it might be more real than I think). On the operations side, there were a few bits of creative license I suspect are not representative of reality. Though I'm not an expert on MQ-9 operations, it seems likely that the time between being given a fire order and actually releasing a weapon should be a lot shorter - certainly it is in manned fighter operations. There were narrative reasons to stretch it out, though, and it also helped to underscore the bureaucratic nature of drone operations. Lastly, I'm not really sure why US drone operators would need British approval for an airstrike if it already meets US standards for a strike; it makes sense for it to start as a joint operation due to UK intelligence assets and connections with Kenyan authorities, but once it became a kill mission it didn't make much sense.

One thing I thought was interesting was the contrast between the American and British methodologies represented here (and indeed I think it has a kernel of truth). Both governments have a very formalized and legalistic approach to approving drone strikes (and, likely, airstrikes in general), but the US system seemed to be (a) far more practiced, and (b) more concerned with legal issues and military necessity than political blowback. The British government (not military) officials are seen as indecisive buck-passers who don't want to get stuck with responsibility for an airstrike gone wrong, rather than someone willing to authorize the tough decisions necessary.

That being said, the film seemed a bit self-congratulatory overall: everyone involved agonizing over completely eliminating collateral damage and going through rigorous legal, moral, and political calculus in order to assure themselves they are doing the right thing. There are a few moments where the macabre monstrosity of what they're doing becomes clearly evident (notably during an exchange where a politician argues that allowing a terrorist attack that kills dozens is better optics than a single civilian casualty in an airstrike that prevents said attack, as well as a scene with the US Sec of State who very definitively supports a strike against a pre-approved kill list, then goes back to playing ping pong at a diplomatic visit), but most of the moralizing and agonizing seems a bit too convenient for Western consciences. I don't disagree with the general characterization of these strikes as thoroughly bureaucratized, but the agonizing by everyone involved - both the US drone operators and the British politicians - seemed a bit overdone.

All in all, though, it was a very good way to explore the issues of collateral damage, the fallout from drone strikes and other airstrikes, and concepts of proportionality and distinction. One thing I liked was that the legal aspects of the film seemed to be on solid footing - no one really doubted that the strike was legal, the only question was whether it was a good idea, and they were furthering the discussion by using legal instruments e.g. collateral damage assessments. This did weaken the major 'compromise' in the film, though, since the legalities of the strike were not at stake whether or not the CDE came in under 50% fatality for the civilian; this was just a convenient excuse to allow the politicians to assuage their consciences. It was still a compromise because the military should never massage the numbers to influence a political decision, but it was hardly a major catastrophe. Even so, a very interesting dynamic.

[Hazir]

That's a movie I absolutely want to see.

What I saw recently were La la land; absolutely loved it, seriously wellmade movie that even manages to make you think about life as you see it happen before you in technicolor. Then Split; another one of those Shyamalan movies that punch you in the gut grab you by the throath, then let you down so dramatically in the last 10 minutes that you feel it was a complete waste of time. Finally Fences; feels like you're watching a stage play, but it's so well done, so realistic. Even though the 'hard action' happens off camera it doesn't get boring at all. Despite the movie being at least two hours.

[wiggin]

If you have Prime, it's free (at least in the US). Definitely worth watching IMO.