What movies have you seen recently?

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The Good The Bad The Weird - This is basically a "modern" Korean film with a Western aesthetic and essentially follows the "semi-protagonists team up reluctantly to take down common enemy" story of old samurai movies and westerns, notably The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. It is a great film - very stylish and awesome action sequences, but enough story to keep things moving and enough humor to keep it from getting dull.

[Koolie G]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I haven't watched a movie in a while, but saw 2 this weekend.

Went to the theater and saw Olympus Has Fallen while my wife when shopping. (42 was not on at this theater, which sucked) Pretty good movie. Full of action and lots of shooting and explosions. The plot line is pretty basic and is virtually the same as a lot of other movies. A guy ends up in a lone wolf situation and has to save the US and the world by being a freakin' bad***. I was entertained the entire movie. Really enjoyed it.

Watched Django with my wife. She was kinda indifferent, Tarantino movies are little out of her realm. She just doesn't really "get them". I was cracking up at the dialogue throughout the whole movie. It was just so random and funny. Felt similar to Inglorious Bastards in that area. The music was pretty awesome with it's randomness as well. I still think it might have been a little overrated, but it is an excellent movie.

[JazzMan]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched Lincoln in Government class the past 4 school days, and I can see why it's a highly-regarded movie. Well-acted, directed, and put together. I'm just upset that I didn't get to see an assassination, but I understand why they wouldn't put it in there.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The Place Beyond the Pines - I thought the first act was amazing with the second act being serviceable for the story and the third act being very good. Gosling as another psychotic drifter with a driving fetish is always money in the can and he delivers - as usual. Cooper is good, but kind of forgettable in comparison to the other performances. Its a great dramatic film. Early favorite of the year for me.

[Cabke]

I fully agree with what everyone is saying about The Place Beyond the Pines.

I saw Mud last night. It was absolutely outstanding. I loved the way it was shot, very very good acting, with Matthew McConaughey giving one of his best performances. And Reese Witherspoon didn't have too big of a role, which made the movie all the better.

[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Silver River (1948)

Plot Summary:

Unjustly booted out of the cavalry, Mike McComb strikes out for Nevada, and deciding never to be used again, ruthlessly works his way up to becoming one of the most powerful silver magnates in the west. His empire begins to fall apart as the other mining combines rise against him and his stubbornness loses him the support of his wife and old friends.

This is an EXCELLENT film starring Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan and Thomas Mitchell. Flynn basically plays an anti-hero scumbag and the role totally fits like a glove for him. You really see the progression of a somewhat independent thinking soldier who gets thrown out of the army even though what he did was pretty understandable and becoming someone who only looks out for himself what with his gambling business and then seeing the opportunity of horning in on Ann Sheridan's mining business. He gets his greasy hands on things by getting the guy in charge of moving equipment way over his head in a game of poker and thereby buying the wagons away from Sheridan.

They eventually go off to Silver City together much to Sheridan's chagrin and distaste but you can clearly see the Flynn is totally enamored by her and what he wants he gets and so he sets up his own gambling house in Silver City where he meets an alcoholic down on his luck lawyer played by Mitchell. Frankly, Thomas Mitchell really stole the show here. He's a guy that from every movie i've seen him is asked to do a lot of speechifying sounding high falutin. One wonders how long it took him to do his scenes. Anywho, Flynn hires him to be his lawyer and through a series of events becomes the big man in not only the town but the state what with owning mines, banks and gambling houses. In essence he's a tycoon but he's played hard ball with everyone and a combine of mine owners try to bring him down which inevitably happens.

The movie draws a lot of parallels with King David and Bathsheba with Flynn trying to get Sheridan to be his woman despite the fact that she's married. I thought the parallel was quite apt and it led to many scenes of Mitchell, realizing how much of a scoundrel Flynn is drunkenly pontificating against his methods and outwardly calling him King David in a mocking tone.

The story is pretty good but suffers from a very weak ending which I won't get into. I'd have preferred to see Flynn completely stripped of everything including the love of Sheridan but they decided to tack on a happy ending and giving Flynn's character a very contriving redemption.

This would be about 3 stars but due to the ending I knock it down to 2 1/2. This movie has strong character acting and the motivations of the characters are explored in great detail.

EDIT: nearly forgot here's the trailer

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/a-KIDS5kDVc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[JazzMan]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Went to Iron Man 3 last night with the girlfriend. It was pretty good. We were going to go to 42, but we were running late, and the only other movie we would watch is Iron Man. Didn't regret it.

[Mo]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Liberal Arts- Best way I can describe it is, a mix between Lost in Translation and Garden State, but nowhere near as good as either of those two.

Still watchable though

Did enjoy the non-twin version of the Olsen acting sisters.

[ubernoob]

Not a movie but all I've been watching lately is rewatching the XFiles.

Still one of the greatest shows ever made. Also, the opening, for as low quality as it is, is beautiful in it's simplicity.

That theme has been my main ringtone for as long as I can remember.

The last movie I watched was this is 40. Nothing great, but it was entertaining.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Iron Man 3

Really enjoyed it. I really think The Avengers was a mediocre film in comparison, as I thought IM1 was better than The Avengers as well. That movie just had too much going for it too easily to be that forgiving, but IM3 truly goes balls to the wall with some things. I actually had moments where I would tense up during an action scene because I just had no idea how it could turn out. The 3D really, really helped during some scenes, one scene in particular which I just wanted to stand up and clap for.

I thought the villain(s) were more sinister as well, which was a good start, though I didn't really like them in general. I know one way I would have gone about things differently, and I think most would agree with what I'm talking about. Overall though, the effects were just crazy all over the place in many awesome ways. I'm glad Favreau stepped aside for this one. The only thing Shane Black didn't bring to this film was any AC/DC.

The casting was great. As often as it's said, it's just not said enough: RDJ is Iron Man. I thought Mickey Rourke was terribly used in IM2 and the Avengers angle in that film took away from the bigger roles, but this one had a nice spread for people to do their own thing. Paltrow of course, then Cheadle got more screen time, and Kingsley, Pearce, Hall (loved her in The Town), and even William Sadler was welcomed with this cast.

I would ask that they worked a bit more on the cutting room floor, though. As funny/great as some scenes were, they just weren't needed in the long run, or they could have been shortened. This includes some action scenes. They certainly didn't overstay their welcome in any way, but they sought too much attention when the film already had it. I'm not eager to jump back to the theater and see it again because of how long some moments take.

Though I do have one question that I didn't really hear explained in the film (though the topic was brought up a few times):

Spoiler

Where were the Avengers at this time?

Completely unrelated to the film, there were like six film trailers that I avoided seeing for this long only for them to all show up before the start of this movie. Oh well, I'll be seeing the films sooner than later anyway.

[DonkeyJote]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I too think Iron Man is better than Avengers (though I do think Avengers is the second best of the "Avengers" series, and probably in my top 5 of superhero movies). I rewatching Phase One befor I watch Iron Man 3. Watched Iron Man and Iron Man 2 the last two nights. Thor is next (I'm skipping Hulk because I don't actually own that one, and I'm kinda okay with that fact).

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Iron Man 3 - Probably on the same level of Avengers or close to it, though the chemistry felt off compared to Avengers and previous IM films. Kind of felt phoned in in Marvel's safely calculated, action-packed way. IM3 was good for what it was, but the villains were lacking and the twists felt a little wacky and took away from their intended impact. Action sequences were fantastic if a bit campy.

[Chrisksaint]

What I like is seemingly as the movies have progressed they have had the perfect balance of story, comedy, and action.

[JODYE]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched The Departed again last night.

Movie never gets old.

[Bellsprout]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Gangster Squad: Not bad, I enjoyed it. I remember it getting pretty savaged by reviews when it hit theaters, but I liked it for what it was.

That Emma Stone person is pretty.