What movies have you seen recently?

[Bellsprout]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Why I'm starting to really hate Hollywood, in one helpful graphic.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Why I'm starting to really hate Hollywood, in one helpful graphic.

That's fair enough. But for me, I have been enjoying the Marvel films as good entertainment, for the most part, and certainly looking forward to more.

[Cabke]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Marvel movies are fine, but they're all the same, overly CGI'd destructathon over and over again. However, I do have hope for some of the smaller films, like Guardians of the Galaxy was. But I never care to see another Iron Man/Avengers/Captain America again. Same movie every time.

[Beantown]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

That picture reminds me why I'm so happy that I enjoy superhero movies. Can't wait for most of those.

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Marvel movies are fine, but they're all the same, overly CGI'd destructathon over and over again. However, I do have hope for some of the smaller films, like Guardians of the Galaxy was. But I never care to see another Iron Man/Avengers/Captain America again. Same movie every time.

Well, if you're going to try to bring a comic book to life, you'll need massive destruction at times. A lot of people on this site have a problem with CGI, but I don't see the big deal (e.g, Jurrasic World). Clearly, they're not all the same film. I think opinion polls would show that generally. IM 1 was significantly better than 2 or 3. Cap 2 > Cap 1 and Thor 1 > Thor 2. The reason simply being the storylines. "Same movie every time" isn't valid.

[RockinDaMike]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Here's an interesting take on cgi.

https://youtu.be/bL6hp8BKB24

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bL6hp8BKB24" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Sent from my Lenovo S860 using Tapatalk

[redsox4evur]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Here's an interesting take on cgi.

https://youtu.be/bL6hp8BKB24

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That was informative to the say the least. I was shocked to see that most of the stuff we in movies is CG. I figured some of the stuff was still practical like your car chases and some of the explosions.

[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

That was informative to the say the least. I was shocked to see that most of the stuff we in movies is CG. I figured some of the stuff was still practical like your car chases and some of the explosions.

There's a B Movie podcast that i'm listening through the archives of and an episode from 2009 with famed Hollywood car designer George Barris bemoaned the fact that even car chases in Hollywood are all CGI'ed. I don't think there's very much practical done at all anymore.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

V/H/S: Viral

While I was in the mood, had time, and wanted to get it in before Netflix booted it out, I put this on last night. This one was very different and kind of strange for trying to deliver a different tone. Even if I wanted to spoil it for you, I'm not so sure I would be able to do it right... not because I was lost, but because where they normally left things unexplained in the first two films (which was fine), here they jump you right in the middle of something and there are just too many voids to piece things together well enough.

I don't think I could call this one a horror movie. It's not even a matter of them trying to scare you or not, but it was really missing the horror aspect for quite some time. After the first segment, I honestly think I could have tied more aspects of this film to Chronicle than I could with V/H/S or V/H/S/2, and I'm not exaggerating about that. That being said, I would have loved a full-length feature of the first segment without any ties to this franchise. Nevertheless, the gore was conspicuously absent, the creep factor was omitted, and the shadow of mystery was not the attractive piece of any segment but one of them. The last segment started to remind me of the other V/H/S films again, and although it was kind of fun to watch, it wasn't one of the better or more original segments. There was a good group of characters, but I'm not so sure the direction that any segment went was the hoped one. Having only three segments in this one and a strangely pieced together wraparound, and altogether I don't remember a single VHS tape in the entire film.

Definitely worse than the first two, at least in that it didn't bother to carry the same tone and it had less to make happen. I mean, it had a soundtrack playing in the background for many parts of what are supposed to be found footage! I don't ever recall that happening in 1 or 2. I could keep watching these over and over, even if they were a TV series or something. Sadly, they decided with each film to have less segments each time, and I think that hurt them more than helped them. Still a fun franchise though, but Viral didn't quite fit the way the other two molded theirs.

[bigfnjoe96]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The Gift: 1 of the best thrillers I've seen in a long time.

Joel Edgerton knocked this out the park in his directorial debut.

Must see...

Sent from My Communication Device...

[JayBee74]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The Gift: 1 of the best thrillers I've seen in a long time.

Joel Edgerton knocked this out the park in his directorial debut.

Must see...

Definitely.

Robyn (Rebecca Hall) kept reminding me of a hotter version of Mackenzie Phillips. Did anyone else get that?

[DJ]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Why I'm starting to really hate Hollywood, in one helpful graphic.

Marvel movies are fine, but they're all the same, overly CGI'd destructathon over and over again. However, I do have hope for some of the smaller films, like Guardians of the Galaxy was. But I never care to see another Iron Man/Avengers/Captain America again. Same movie every time.

I've definitely hit my saturation point with the comic book/superhero movies. Tried watching The Avengers 2 on a cross-country flight and made it 30 minutes before growing bored and turning to something else.

I think the movies themselves are well-done, but there is a good deal of repetitiveness to them, even if the stories are different, either in terms of tone or message.

Might be different for me since I didn't read any of the comics growing up, so my emotional attachment/investment in the characters isn't as high, I'd guess.

It'd be nice to see more variety, but hard to blame Hollywood for riding this train since just about every one of these films return a hefty profit for the studios.

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

It might just be me, but I liked Age of Ultron way better than the first one. Ultron himself just ended up being Reddington in a robot outfit, but I thought the film was tighter overall.

[areobee401]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Fury

Badass!

[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Couldn't really sleep last night so I burned through 3 movies.

Cop ***** (1958)

This is the first filmed adaptation of Ed McBain's series of 87th Precinct novels and despite being a cheap production it's a pretty solid movie. It doesn't hurt that this flick boasts some very familiar names in some of their earliest work. (Robert Loggia, Vincent Gardenia and Jerry Orbach in his first credited screen role) This is a pretty hard boiled little flick about a suspected cop killing psycho killing the cops from the precinct. The clues to who was behind it are sprinkled throughout the film though to be honest I didn't catch on to who it was until it was revealed and I literally slapped my forehead because all the clues were there!

Robert Loggia as the main cop character was pretty good and the byplay between he and Gerald O'Laughlin who played his tough talking partner was excellent. It's a good little film. It's available on DVD though at only 75 minutes maybe it's best to see if it's somehow on Netflix.

Recommended.



Come Blow Your Horn (1963)

Another first, as this is the first Neil Simon play to be adapted to the big screen and boy howdy does it ever show! This is more or less a play in celluloid form but despite that it's a pretty entertaining bit of fluff that has some great performances by Lee J. Cobb and Frank Sinatra is his usual cool self.

Basically Sinatra plays the swinging, bachelor "bum" of his parents Lee J. Cobb and Molly Picon. Sinatra's younger brother Tony Bill leaves home to live with him and with Sinatra's juggling of 3 different women (Jill St. John, Barbara Rush and Phyllis McGuire) things get a bit crazy.

The story structure is actually quite good as Bill slowly turns from a meek, shy type to a rowdier version of his older brother while Sinatra soon sees the error of his ways and ends up choosing one of the 3 women in his life.

It's a pretty good film but be advised that there's quite a bit of shouting going on especially from the parents but it's done in the service of humor. Lee J. Cobb actually shouts out a couple funny lines which I won't spoil here.

The film is a good snapshot at the swinging '60s and there's a fun little cameo with Dean Martin as a wino.

It's good fluff and recommended.



The Bedford Incident (1965)

I can't begin to express how good of a film this is! Starring Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Martin Balsam and Eric Portman in an excellent support role.

Here's a good plot summary:

Tension is high aboard the destroyer USS Bedford as it tracks a Soviet submarine in the North Atlantic. Capt. Eric Finlander (Widmark) runs a taut, disciplined ship and his stern approach isn't appreciated or understood by the lone civilian on board, journalist Ben Munceford. (Poitier) The sub they are tracking can only stay under for a maximum of 24 hours and Finlander has every intention of being right there when it has to surface. With the ship on what is essentially a constant war footing, the officers and men are always on edge. Mistakes are inevitable.

Richard Widmark was such a great actor who played guys who just seemed to have something wrong with them in one way or another. This is no exception as his Capt. Finlander is pretty much General MacArthur on steroids. Every time he's told by NATO to wait and be patient he literally fumes and you can tell he just wants to blow up the Soviet sub. Poitier's character sees the destructive capabilities of the Captain and how he has utter disdain for everyone. He completely emasculates the new doctor played by Martin Balsam to the literal breaking point as near the climax the doc finally has had enough and yells at Widmark. In the end though, he acquiesces and does what he's told.

Poitier isn't the only one that sees the Captain as an irrational mind with a deadly weapon. The ship's technical advisor, former German marine Schrepke (played by Portman) sees all the danger signs but he's too old and burnt out to do much of anything until the very end when he tries to talk the Captain down to basically no avail.

The ending was something I didn't see coming but it's very fitting. I won't spoil it for you but it's definitely an ending that makes you think. The film definitely shines a light on all the Cold War fears at the time. They say that the movie Crimson Tide was heavily influenced by this one and I can see some of the similarities however Crimson Tide seemed to think that raising the tension level comes from loud shouting matches whereas here the tension is ratcheted up by the actions of Widmark. Indeed there are confrontational scenes to be had (an excellent scene of Poitier and Widmark in the captain's quarters highlights the film) but they keep their tone civil until one breaks and there is shouting.

I can see how some of the sonar detecting scenes and such might seem slow to modern viewers but once you're fully immersed into the story it actually keeps things going and indeed you don't know how much worse things can get as Widmark has literally gone all Ahab on everyone.

Excellent film and very highly recommended. It's available on DVD.



EDIT: a person who hates is suddenly censored here? I didn't know that LOL So yeah, that's the title of the first flick