What movies have you seen recently?

[WildFan22]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Judge Dredd. My expectations were very low but it turned out to be a great action movie with crazy violence. I thought it was a lot of fun and it's one of the best looking 3d movies that ive seen.

[goh]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Iron Man 3

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?

Spoiler

Doing their own thing I suppose. Iron Man doesn't call them up every time there's a problem. That's kinda like asking why didn't the Justice League help with Bane?

I still don't know what to think of the movie. It could've been sooooo much better. Kinda stuck comparing what it is to what it could've been. It was better than The Dark Kinght Rises at least.

I'm not sure if I missed it or it was something they just dropped entirely but...

Spoiler

did that little girl get her legs back?

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I watched Django Unchained this weekend.

I think QT misses his editor (Sally, RIP) as this one isn't as tightly crafted as his other films. There's still some excellent writing and acting, but QT's little 'elbow nudges and winks' to the audience seem to come at some bad times. This movie gets SO heavy in some scenes and then it switches tones.

I dunno. It's good but not his finest. First half of the film is quite good then he kind of loses steam after that and then we wind up with

Spoiler

"Scarface" in the South at Candie's and that big shootout

.

I'll need to give it a couple more views, but I really prefer Inglorious Basterds.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Django Unchained. I enjoyed it. The constant and quick change in tone didn't bother me. Will be looking to pick this up in the future.

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Saw Django as well. I put it off for a long time, but I won't say why as some might take it as a TOS violation. Christoph Waltz' rarely disappoints and this was no different. I think it pretty much equaled his performance in Inglorious.

[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I recently watched Parker (2013). The movie is based on the character/books written by Donald E. Westlake which have been made into a bunch of movies such as Payback and Point Blank. (which is the only of the Westlake adaptations i've seen) I haven't read any of the books so Point Blank is my only frame of reference and unfortunately that means i'm going to compare Statham to Lee Marvin.

There are some good and bad things about the movie with the main good thing being the action and the main bad thing about it being J-Lo. First of all she's not very believable as a high end real estate broker. Her character is also dumber than a bag of bricks as she very nearly gets herself killed when Parker is retrieving the jewels and killing off the guys who ripped him off at the beginning of the film.

There's also a HUGE plot contrivance that just made my head hurt.

Spoiler

Parker has just gotten beaten within an inch of his life by the assassin hired by Danzinger and goes to J-Lo's house and she's completely freaking out when he tells her to call a number and go to work. Next thing you know her mother shows up and tells her to GO and apparently has NO problem with a bloodied up robber in her home. It's just...odd They also dropped the cop having suspicions about Parker element way too conveniently for my tastes.

Despite all that the movie is pretty fast paced except for the lull in the middle where J-Lo is showing Statham all these high end real estate and doing so very poorly.

The movie also tries to portray Parker as a "means justify the ends" kind of guy with some of his niceness at times. This doesn't come across very well to me considering that the Parker character is supposed to be seething with danger and self loathing. That's one element that Lee Marvin brought to the character all those years ago that is completely missing in Statham's interpretation. You got the feeling that Marvin was about to burst into a violent uncontrollable rage whereas Statham's violent actions are pretty rational given the situations he's put in.

That being said the action was quite good and the (somewhat) gory fight in an apartment between Statham and another guy was very well choreographed and well done in every facet.

I give this 2 1/2 stars. J-Lo's character and the redemption of Parker in the end drops it down a bit.

[Beantown]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Why am I not surprised that, even when you watch a movie from 2013, I have STILL never heard of it.

[Mo]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

J-Lo? Wait, I think I've actually heard of this one. And almost thought about seeing it.

EDIT: Now I remember why I know this movie, cause in the trailer, Statham asked J-Lo to take her clothes off to check for a wire, which I keep forgetting to test out to see if it works

[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Why am I not surprised that, even when you watch a movie from 2013, I have STILL never heard of it.

"sigh"

I can never win can I?

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Why am I not surprised that, even when you watch a movie from 2013, I have STILL never heard of it.

C'mon....it's the movie where Statham beats the **** out of everyb..... oh, wait. Nevermind.

[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Well we're going back into my wheelhouse


The Underworld Story (1950)

Plot Summary:

Mike Reese, yellow journalist and antihero, prints a story that leads to a gang killing, and is blacklisted from the city papers under suspicion of ties with racketeer Carl Durham. So, with a shrug, he makes the suspicion come true, then elbows his way into the editorship of the local paper in a small town where, opportunely, a sensational murder case threatens to destroy the family of newspaper magnate E.J. Stanton. When a black servant is made the patsy for this killing, Reese helps himself by helping her...but proves a dangerous ally

This is a FANTASTIC movie!

It deals with some heavy social commentary stuff but the movie has a B movie pace to it which makes some of the high falutin concepts go down much easier if it slowed down to delve into those issues. The movie is really served well by having the always interesting and almost always slimy Dan Duryea in the lead role of Mike Reese. I know Duryea more for his work in westerns but here he's ALMOST right in his element. I say "almost" because he just doesn't look right in (then) contemporary clothing and the clothing was pretty ill fitting on him as well. That being said it lent a charm to this decidedly scummy character who'll do just about anything for a big story and/or a payoff.

The movie has a lot of fine actors in it who give their characters a sense of believability. Herbert Marshall was wonderful as the powerful newspaper magnate who gets caught up in his son's coverup of the murder of his (the son's) wife because if he doesn't than it'll come out that the now deceased wife was having an affair with the old man and was going to leave the son for him. You'd think he would be an unscrupulous man based on this but in reality the EJ Stanton character is one who'd kill his competition and keep stories quiet but when it comes to people getting the blame for crimes they didn't commit well, he becomes conflicted. Even up to the end when they have Duryea on the brink of being killed he has reservations and tries to offer a payoff to Duryea to not publish what he knows about the killing.

Howard Da Silva is very memorable as the gang boss Carl Durham. His role isn't a large one but it's a bit chilling and unsettling to watch at times especially at one point in the movie where he warns Duryea not to publish the story or he'll have to take a "ride". Da Silva is laughing and making bad jokes all throughout but it's not a jovial kind of laughter but more of a "you better listen to me" kind of approach being masked by jocularity. Every minute of screen time Da Silva has is worth paying close attention to.

This movie was a noir film in many ways, the lighting and the feel of the production is pretty gloomy and the use of shadow and lighting was excellent. It isn't a full blown noir but it's worth watching the movie just for the way the scenes are framed and lit. The only drawback is that this was a studio bound flick as it's clear that it's all going on in a studio backlot but with that being said it leads a certain bad dreamlike quality to the scenes in the small town of Lakeville.

This is a great film to watch for the acting, cinematography and the underlying message about how the power and the press can be corrupted but said corruptable power can serve the greater good with the right people in charge.

3 stars

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched Cabin in the Woods tonight. I really do not get why this got such rave reviews. Acting was your typical horror flick acting. Parts of it made no sense.

In better news, finally got a friend to watch Back to the Future for the first time.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched Cabin in the Woods tonight. I really do not get why this got such rave reviews. Acting was your typical horror flick acting. Parts of it made no sense.

What parts didn't make sense?

I'll put this in spoilers just in case (though there aren't any real content spoilers):

Spoiler

The point was far from the acting in the film. It was about this not being your typical horror film despite what you expected. Perhaps that didn't make sense to you, but if you knew nothing about this film going into it, you should have been able to crack up about everything, and in a good way.

[Chrisksaint]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Anyone see Pain and Gain? Haven't heard much on it here, can't decide between seeing that or 42 tomorrow. Been waiting to see both of these for awhile.

[Jr.]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Anyone see Pain and Gain? Haven't heard much on it here, can't decide between seeing that or 42 tomorrow. Been waiting to see both of these for awhile.

Actually saw Pain and Gain this weekend and thought it was really good. Lots of comedy (intentional and unintentional), and pretty well acted, I thought. It's good for some light-hearted entertainment without having to think or analyze too much.