What movies have you seen recently?

[AUChase]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

War Dogs


I went into it with pretty low expectations, but by the end I was pretty hooked on the story and movie.. even if it was basic. Ana De Armas appearance was a +.

Also think Jonah Hill really excels as an actor.. comedic or serious. True Story was a pretty cool side of him I had never seen before so these serious/comedic roles like War Dogs and even The Wolf of Wall Street are really fun to watch.

[The JareBear]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I just watched "The Fits" again. This was a movie that got a lot of buzz on the indie/arthouse scenes and I read some really positive reviews about it.

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I gotta be honest. I have no idea what this movie is about. I hate when movies make me feel stupid, and on the flip side I love searching for meaning and metaphors in film but this one is just beyond me. I am not smart enough to figure it out.

A girl goes to the community center every day with her brother. She trains boxing with him but then becomes enamored with the competitive hip-hop dance team in the building and joins the squad. Girls on the team start having weird seizure-like episodes. In a news report regarding the incidents, the episodes are referred to as "the fits."

The movie is a good length, I think around 70 minutes, and almost kind of feels long for 70 minutes. It isn't that the pacing is bad, it is just that you're pretty much in the same environment the entire time.

The music is kind of eerie and unsettling, kind of Hitchcockian, which is great. The acting, considering every actor seems to be a teenager or even younger, is great. The girl that plays the main character (Toni) is awesome.

The last five minutes of this movie are kind of like 2001: A Space Odyssey, if 2001 was about an aspiring adolescent hip hop dancer. It's hard to explain.

I feel like all the individual parts of the movie are solid, I just have no idea what the movie is about or what it is trying to tell me. I guess maybe it is about puberty, growing up, innocence, hell I just dunno. I guess I need to go read some analysis on Reddit and whatnot. The main girl is an outsider and I feel like there is some sort of lesson about staying true to yourself or something like that but I really can't say for sure. The film really might just be about "being a girl."

Overall score - 7

if you like quirky indie stuff that is trying to be artsy, you might like it. Otherwise, probably not for you.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Friday - It had been awhile since I watched this and the first time I watched it completely sober, but man I still laughed my butt off. Ice Cube is a little rough acting wise, but man the rest of the cast more than makes up for whatever he lacks. So many great lines and scenes.

[Matt10]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The Brand New Testament. I love these kind of movies, and seriously this is a good one. 81% on RT as well. Highly recommended.

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The Brand New Testament. I love these kind of movies, and seriously this is a good one. 81% on RT as well. Highly recommended.

Looks interesting. Some of the YouTube posters have me further intrigued. Need to check it out.

[TripleCrown9]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Went to go see Sausage Party last night. Oh boy.

I loved it. I wouldn't suggest taking anyone, unless they have a very open-minded sense of humor.

[The JareBear]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Just watched "Goodnight Mommy"

Warning, trailer is probably NSFW, has some disturbing scenes in it

Spoiler

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Weird movie. Definitely a little unsettling. Not a movie that uses jump scares, honestly I can't think of a single one, except maybe a very minor one in the beginning.

This is another one of those movies that leave things a little open for interpretations. I think there's some sort of metaphor for loss and grief in there.

It's also a hard movie to label as it really isn't "scary" in the way "The Conjuring" is scary and it isn't "horror" the way a movie like "Frontier(s)" is.

If you like weird kinda creepy movies it is worth a watch.

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Just watched "Goodnight Mommy"

If you like weird kinda creepy movies it is worth a watch.

Saw this a bit back, not knowing what I was in for. Man, I didn't know what I was in for.

[AUChase]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Went to watch Bad Moms with two other guys.

We all laughed hysterically.. probably more so than most of the theater.

[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

So continuing on with my movie catch up I watched:

X-Men: Days of Future Past (The Rogue Cut) 9 times out of 10 when watching a movie I'll watch the theatrical cut but in cases like this and Batman v. Superman it's sometimes better to watch the longer/director's cut of a film. In this case, from what i've read the Rogue Cut made the plot a bit clearer and easier to follow. I got to say this was a fabulous movie. I loved the fact that the action scenes and such took a back seat to the narrative that was being told. The theme of hope and redemption was quite striking in that Prof. X realized that there is a better hope for mutantkind while Mystique, who is still clearly conflicted and broken to an extent was able to redeem herself in order to avert the dark future.

There are other things I liked such as Bolivar Trask being a midget/little person (sorry I don't know what the accepted term is these days) as it plays with the idea that Trask himself is also in some respects a mutant himself. This is more of a reference to Trask's son in the comics who brought back the Sentinels and he aimed to wipe out all mutants only to discover that he himself was a mutant and killed by his very own creation. There is a self loathing inherent in Trask's characterization in this movie much in the same way you see self loathing hateful rhetoric and law making from politicians on both sides of the ideological spectrum.

I also loved the use of parallel story telling such as when in the dark future they went and rescued Rogue while at the same time we were seeing Magneto in the past breaking into the Pentagon to get his helmet and costume.

Overall, this was probably the best X-movie to date (until I see Apocalypse I guess) as it rightly pushed the stereotypical and contrived action set pieces to the side for the most part in order to tell a strong story.


and then I watched something completely different


The Lego Movie (2014) Holy Smokes! This movie was insanely manic and fun right from the start. There are so many great moments great and small that made this movie a sheer joy to watch. I LOVED 80's space ship guy and Batman the most. I just about laughed my head off every time he exclaimed "You've got to be kidding me!" and the whole thing with 80s space ship guy wanting to build a space ship was fun as well.

On a technical level I loved how they made it as much of a stop motion Lego movie as possible, giving the Lego people, blocks and the whole world an organic and well worn feel to it. I was a little put off on just how much we saw the "real world" at the film's climax but it worked for the most part. I see that they're doing a Lego Batman movie next year and I will be most looking forward to seeing it. Anywho, this was pretty damn fun from start to finish.

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

There are other things I liked such as Bolivar Trask being a midget/little person (sorry I don't know what the accepted term is these days) .....

Side note: Bill Burr clears this up !!

NSFW

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After your write up, now I want to find the Rogue Cut!

[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

After your write up, now I want to find the Rogue Cut!

From what I read there isn't too much that's added but as I said in my write up it does add a little more to the film's cohesion. I hope that you find it.

[The JareBear]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The Rogue Cut is great. I typically always prefer the extended/directors cuts of movies, tho

[Blzer]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The Bucket List

This was surprisingly really good. When I first saw commercials for this back when, I thought it was just going to be a film of Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson essentially "playing themselves" and almost turning into a mockumentary of sorts while they just do a bunch of wacky things. Instead, I got to turn off from the actors and focus on the characters whom they were playing.

It starts off somber, and for the first half hour it really is a downer (I mean this in a good way by the way, like I really liked every bit of it). The characters are given time to develop, and everything they want to do is meaningful in their own special way. I can't say it had a stronger ending than its beginning, and I honestly don't know what road I wanted it to go once the bucket list itself kicked off, but I thought it was just a well-written and well-acted drama piece. Definitely not the kind of movie I expected it to be is all.

The one thing I thought would have really brought this movie to the next level is if they actually did the things they set out to do in the film. I'm not insinuating the actors should have taken bold risks they wouldn't have wanted to, but given that the film really is about doing such things before you die (skydiving and such), it would have brought a whole new something to the mix that I would appreciate for being more "genuine." Instead, you can really feel the CGI and green-screen elements to anything that they're doing which you would consider more "high octane." Again, I get it... but I really wish they did do a bit of their bucket list if you know what I'm saying.

I didn't know both of the actors are really only a couple of months different in age from one another. It'll be a sad day when they're not here anymore.

[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Agreed with you, Bucket List is an excellent little movie and I liked the character driven aspect of it. I also didn't know they were similar in age. I thought maybe Nicholson is a bit older but there ya go. It's interesting, Morgan Freeman is still going strong while it seems Nicholson has gone into retirement. I remember reading a while ago a rumor that Nicholson is having memory problems and such associated with old age and that's why he hasn't been around much.