What movies have you seen recently?

[Kodii Rockets]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

American Hustle: Really good, not quite great. Long as hell, but I was never bored. Bale gives a pretty interesting performance here.

Also Jennifer Lawrence is pretty. And so is Amy Adams.

Surprisingly good. I had absolutely no interest, my girl wanted to see it, but I was pleasantly surprised by it. Oddly enough, I just saw Catching Fire last week and loved Jennifer Lawrence, and this this week her performance made me hate her character, I wanted to stab her. Which says something 'to me' about her acting. Darn good job all around by everyone.

[Cabke]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I'll chime in on the American Hustle talk. I really enjoyed it. I think it's much better than a 6/10, but it's by no means the Oscar buzz-getting film they wanted it to be. Christian Bale was great, Amy Adams was gorgeous, and Jennifer Lawrence stole the show. It was long by about a half hour, but like Jesse said, I wasn't ever bored. It did confuse me, though, who the writers wanted me to root for. At first it felt like the FBI, but with the way the movie ended, that obviously wasn't it. That was poor writing for sure. I'd say a solid 7.5/10, but not near as good as I wanted it to be.

[JayBee74]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Miller's Crossing (Amazon Instant), by the Coen brothers. It's a totally different kind of gangster film, but doesn't disappoint. I checked it out when someone had it #11 or #12 of the best movies of the 90's.

[KG]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Miller's Crossing (Amazon Instant), by the Coen brothers. It's a totally different kind of gangster film, but doesn't disappoint. I checked it out when someone had it #11 or #12 of the best movies of the 90's.

One of my favorite movies.

[Jr.]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Just saw Anchorman 2 and I have to say I was very disappointed. I feel like it tried way too hard to be funny and I ended up barely laughing at all. The rest of the theater seemed to enjoy it, though, so maybe I just wasn't in the right mood to watch and enjoy it.

[UWfan206]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Miller's Crossing (Amazon Instant), by the Coen brothers. It's a totally different kind of gangster film, but doesn't disappoint. I checked it out when someone had it #11 or #12 of the best movies of the 90's.

It was aight..Seen this last year. I was also looking at a list from the internet of top 25 movies of the 90s or something like that and seen this movie on there so it got me curious and I decided to watch it. LOL

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

One of my favorite movies.

Sure. "Look into your heart!" Gets me every time.

Spoiler

Actually, I've never seen the movie. That's just a quote from Ocean's Twelve about the movie.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

We saw Smaug tonight...great ride.

PJ added quite a bit extra...mostly from the appendices and some from his imagination but it is all good to me (and I love the books). It's all in the right spirit and works great as a film adaptation.

[ubernoob]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

We saw Smaug tonight...great ride.

PJ added quite a bit extra...mostly from the appendices and some from his imagination but it is all good to me (and I love the books). It's all in the right spirit and works great as a film adaptation.

Yeah... I'm admittedly a huge LotR nerd and I thought it was absolutely fantastic. The only two things I can point out that wasn't in the book (or the appendices taking place at that time like the White Council meeting, and the Necromancer/Sauron stuff) were Tauriel and an alive Azog.

Tauriel was put in to be the "strong female" like Eowyn was, since there is none in the Hobbit books. Can't miss out appealing to that large part of the population. It's also there to foreshadow Gimli. Gimli (at the end of the story) leaves to the Undying Lands with Legolas. Galadriel allowed Gimli to do so, and Gimli's reasoning was that he wanted to see her beauty again. Tauriel & Kili in this storyline set up the fact that though Dwarves and Elves aren't on friendly terms, love can spring in the most unlikely of places.

As for the Gandalf thing, it's like the first few movies. You can't just have Gandalf (a very large part of the story and the most 'powerful' character) disappear for half the story without having any reason for it at all - people would whine about "WHERE'S GANDALF?!?!?"

It's just ridiculous internet venom directed at something because it wasn't what they pictured in their head and they are unwilling to accept anything different.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Very well said, ubernoob.

Are you noticing any retcon issues going on with the films? The way these movies are shaping up, I'd pretty much show an interested friend (non-book reader) the LOTR EE's first, the The Hobbit films after that. Especially where Sauron is concerned, seems like too much is tipped in the Hobbit films (not an issue in the books).

I also noticed in Smaug that PJ has the ring begin to exude itself on Bilbo and again, the book would just have you think it's a magic invisibility ring and that's all.

[ubernoob]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I haven't watched them all that recently, so it'd be tough for me to say between the movies.

Tolkien did a lot of retconning himself, actually (since The Hobbit was written way before "The Trilogy".)

Originally (before the ring was determined to be the link between "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings") Gollum was to give Bilbo the ring during the riddles segment. He's actually disappointed that he can't give it to Bilbo because he lost it. That got changed from the original version. Gollum got a huge retcon then, as the ring was basically made into a very sinister tool (compared to a simple magic ring) so Gollum needed to be entwined with it. He went from giving it away, to being a slave to it completely and the game's prize was now Bilbo's survival.

I'm gonna have to get my hands on some book copies (mine are all still boxed up at my parents house) and sit down again and read them. It's been a few years, so I'm going off of a vague memory here.

Though the LotR trilogy movies (especially Fellowship) never fail to put me to sleep. Not because I dislike the movies, but because the scenery and music is so vivid and fantastic, with a music score to match, it's pretty much as relaxed as I'll ever get and I just conk out.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I get what you mean about relaxing with LOTR: in particular the Fellowship of the Ring: EE for me. That version is BEAUTIFULLY paced and has the all around best score, and the soothing green and gold palette and lighter tone. The 'road trip' movie of the three LOTR films.

[The Chef]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Just saw Anchorman 2 and I have to say I was very disappointed. I feel like it tried way too hard to be funny and I ended up barely laughing at all. The rest of the theater seemed to enjoy it, though, so maybe I just wasn't in the right mood to watch and enjoy it.

Pretty much my thoughts, my expectations were probably way too high but it really failed to deliver in the end and while there were a few funny parts that made me laugh it overall most of the movie felt forced.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Valhalla Rising - A Mute Le Chiffre leads a group of Crusaders to the New World in one of Refn's (Drive) earlier works. Similarly to his other films, Rising is few for words while using violence and debauchery as a means to explore men's psyche. While not as stylized as his newer films, there's always some correlation between the scene and One-Eye's...one-eyed outlook. Essentially the film feels like Refn took Apocalypse's Now final ten minutes and expanded them to 90 minutes as the entire film is heavy with decay and looming despair.

[doubledeuceR6]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Insidious: Chapter 2 - Was a big fan of the first one. This one did not have the same scare factor as the first for me and the way they tied things together from the previous movie was a little confusing.