I Just Bought Popcorn and a Drink and Now I Have No Money - (movie reviews)

[Reply #760 on:]

Paddington

This was a lot better than I thought it would be. Sure, there are some crass and/or stupid bits but the film is also charming, funny and even touching, at times, and all in that weird, over the top sort of way that the British can do so well.

There are a couple of plot-holes which, on reflection, bug me slightly and the opening felt as if it was lifted directly from Pixar's Up but it seemed surprisingly true to the the source material (or at least what little I remember of it from my childhood) and I certainly enjoyed this movie much more than the last CGI talking animal in a live-action film I saw (Hop).

B+

[Reply #761 on:]

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies

Even though this was a long and epic battle in the end of an elongated trilogy, I felt like it was pretty good movie. I have only seen each part once, but I think I liked this one best.
I must say they did a good job with Hobbit to resemble LotR as much as possible...

[Reply #762 on:]

(Hobbitses Part I and Part II)

I got a little impatient with the first one, which I chalk up to not being in the right frame of mind.  I got the second one a couple of weeks ago but haven't yet opened it, and I'm going to clear my calendar some Saturday or Sunday evening and watch them both back-to-back.

I got a little impatient with the first one, which I chalk up to not being in the right frame of mind.  

As opposed to it being terribly structured, incredibly bloated and completely self-indulgent? Really, why blame yourself?

Watched them back-to-back last night.  Yeah, pretty, but also pretty boring.  It seemed like a formulaic string of challenges all smeared together like it was a typical adventure video game.

Rating: C

[Reply #763 on:]

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

This one was much faster-paced than the others and felt shorter, even though I'm pretty sure it wasn't.

It was enjoyable despite a few stupid scenes, much like the previous two. Overall the trilogy's not as good as LOTR, but still pretty good in it's own right.

Show spoiler

-The deaths of Thorin, Fili, and Kili were much better than they were in books. In the books they died off-screen off-page which was some grade-A bullshit.
-I still firmly believe that Legolas fits in the story, however some of the shit he did was ridiculous. I was facepalming hard when he ran up the falling debris.
-I'm still glad they made Bard into an actual character instead of some random guy who shows up from nowhere just to kill Smaug.
-The Kili/Tauriel romance was still dumb as hell. It didn't add anything to the story, although thankfully it's only a very small part of it.
-Surprisingly, I liked the scene at the start with Saruman, Elrond, and Galadriel fighing the Nazgul. We never really saw those characters in combat during LOTR. The line "Leave Sauron to me." was chilling.

I'd probably give it something like a 7/10. I definitely feel like the Hobbit movies got progressively better.

[Reply #764 on:]

Hobbit 3
I guess it was ok, but I will wait for the fanedit of all 3 films with the dragged out and unecessary crap removed
C+

The Interview
If you liked other Rogen & Franco movies you will probably like this too.
C+

[Reply #765 on:]

...but I will wait for the fanedit of all 3 films with the dragged out and unecessary crap removed

"The Phantom Hobbit"?

[Reply #766 on:]

Tusk
I would label the initial concept/idea as "Kevin Smith on dope having his own take on Human Centipede, while listening to Fleetwood Mac". It was all right and had its moments. But - overall - a crazy idea not sufficiently executed to carry effectively through a whole movie, and often not living up to the possible weirdness the concept implied.
C

[Reply #767 on:]

"The Phantom Hobbit"?

There have been a few edits of the first two already, my fav (title) so far is: "Hobbit: The Desolation of Superfluous Narrative"

[Reply #768 on:]

The Hobbit 3:

The last few pages of the book, plus a lot of gratuitous violence. It was pretty well done, it didn't really disappoint (thanks largely to lowered expectations from the first and second films), and we got to see some pretty sweet dragon attack shots. Go see it. Now.

Penguins of Madagascar:

It's funny, but not so hilarious that it's worth paying to see. Wait for this one to come out on DVD and then steal it.

[Reply #769 on:]

Big Hero 6

I liked it. It was fun, colourful, energetic, heartfelt and funny. The story wasn't the strongest — even I could see some of the plot twists coming a mile off — but I get the impression that might have been a deliberate choice on the film makers' part and at least the setting gave an air of freshness to otherwise well trod ground.

Some of the people I saw it with thought it was better than The LEGO Movie. Personally I wouldn't go that far but it was still pretty good.

A–

[Reply #770 on:]

Top Fifteen Movies of the Year - Spacedal Edition

1. X-Men Days of Futures Past
2. Life Itself
3. Big Eyes
4. Gone Girl
5. Grand Budapest Hotel
6. Only Lovers Left Alive
7. Blue Ruin
8. Snowpiercer
9. CA: The Winter Soldier
10. The Guest
11. The Babadook
12. The Lego Movie
13. Foxcatcher
14. Birdman
15. Interstellar

[Reply #771 on:]

There's a lot of love for Snowpiercer that I've seen.  I should catch that one.

In that 15 I would also suggest Under The Skin which was deeply unsettling, and utterly engaging in equal measure.  Plus it has Scarlett Johannson naked in it, which can't be all bad.

[Reply #772 on:]

It's funny you mention Snowpiercer because I had forgotten to include it on my top 15 and consequentially it ended up bumping Under the Skin off #15. You definitely should see Snowpiercer, it's on Netflix. I really did like Under the Skin a lot (it's #16) but I would say that it was not as good as Beyond the Black Rainbow, a movie that I would recommend if you liked Under the Skin for it's super surreal and bizarre qualities.  

[Reply #773 on:]

Glad to see The Guest make your list, that was a great weird flick that I don't think anybody saw.

[Reply #774 on:]

You guys got my curiosity up so I scanned my cable On Demand movie list for Snowpeircer.  No joy.

The list does have Gone Girl, but only for purchase, not as a rental.  I'd consider dropping $6 for the experience, but not the $16 they want for the purchase.  And I have been studiously avoiding anything relating to Gone Girl, after reading an earlier post and inferring that there was a major twist.

[Reply #775 on:]

Indeed there is. I recommend keeping up your aversion to spoilers for that movie.

Also, get Netflix dude. Or are you afraid you'll never leave the house?

[Reply #776 on:]

I've barely seen anything that was released in 2014, yet, so my top 10 is severely lacking. I'm pretty sure Gone Girl would be there if I'd actually seen it yet.

Anyway:
10. Noah
9. Guardians of the Galaxy
8. Calvary
7. The Inbetweeners 2
6. What We Do in the Shadows
5. Edge of Tomorrow
4. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2. X-Men: Days of Future Past
1. Interstellar


And looking forward to the future, here's my top 10 of films I'm looking forward to from 2015:
10. Crimson Peak
Guillermo Del Toro taking things down a notch do create a traditional, haunted house film, more in line with his early work, except on a modern Del Toro budget.

9. The Martian
Ridley Scott's film about an astronaut that essentially sounds like castaway in space.

8. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
There's hasn't been a big budget zombie comedy since Zombieland and whilst that wasn't very long ago, I'm starting to crave another.

7. Ant-Man
If Edgar Wright was still directing this, it'd be a contender for the top spot.

6. The Hateful Eight
Tarantino.

5. High-Rise
Ben Wheatley directs Tom Hiddleston in a film set in a weird dystopian future where people live in high-rise blocks on floors relevant to their social standing and some sort of siege takes place.

4. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
This is out of morbid curiosity more than anything else, but I love cartoon comedy and it's always a thrill to see them adapted to the big screen, for me.

3. The Good Dinosaur
Based purely on the premise, this has the potential to be one of Pixar's best films to date.

2. Life on the Road
The David Brent movie. Whilst Ricky Gervais' output has been shaky in recent years, his little experiments with bringing David Brent have been great and they were his way of dipping his toes in the water for this film adaptation of The Office in which David Brent blows his savings to fund a tour for his band. As a big fan of The Office, I can't wait.

1. Avengers: Age of Ultron
The first The Avengers remains the highlight of Marvel's slate to date in my opinion and everything we've seen and heard about this one suggests it's going to be every bit as good, if not better.

[Reply #777 on:]

Also, get Netflix dude. Or are you afraid you'll never leave the house?

I don't understand this concept of "leaving the house".  Also, I have DSL over barbed wire that gets about 2Mbit/sec on a good day.  The biggest reason I don't get Netflix is because I watch movies only very infrequently -- maybe three to five a year.  If I had Netflix or similar I'd be forcing myself to watch movies all the time in order to self-justify the subscription, and it would suck all of the fun out of what now is an occasional treat.  I'm just not a movie person.  Or even a TV person, really. 

[Reply #778 on:]

Penguins of Madagascar

Pretty funny and wacky but dragged down by it's forumlaic structure and plot. Also it doesn't quite live up to the standards of it's stars previous outings, possibly because they work better in small doses. (This is why I am also a bit fearful for the upcoming Minion movie.)

Still, it wasn't bad as such and I'm not sorry i saw it.

B+

P.S. I wonder if this thread will make it to page 21?

[Reply #779 on:]

Apparently, it's worth it for the Werner Herhog gag at the beginning.

[Reply #780 on:]

The Interview

A decent but forgettable film. It was fairly enjoyable without being good.

C

[Reply #781 on:]

Ultraviolet

A mashup of Resident Evil with The Matrix.  Lots and lots of choreographed dance-fighting with countless swords and guns and Milla Jovovich doing nearly all of her own stunts.

Mindless background entertainment. Good visuals.

C- for most people. C+ for fans of Milla.

[Reply #782 on:]

Currently going through all the X-Men movies. So far, I've seen the first two.

X-Men

Fairly enjoyable plot and characters, but I was honestly quite disappointed by the action scenes; the only decent one was Wolverine vs. Mystique. All the others boiled down to: Good guy sees bad guy, and goes to attack him. But surprise! Another bad guy snuck up on them and threw them away!

Pretty good movie though. I will definitely say that Wolverine, Professor X and Magneto are all perfectly cast.

X-Men 2

A big improvement from the first. However, there's way too many characters. Like, far too many to the point where most of them wander around doing nothing. Rogue was pointless. Cyclops apparently went to Stormtrooper training. Pyro did practically nothing barring that one scene. And Jean's "sacrifice" at the end? Hmm, if only they had someone who could freeze water!

Still, it was very enjoyable overall. Magneto and Mystique were the highlights for me, and Wolverine's climatic fight was also pretty badass. If think a TV series would be the best way to handle the X-Men (Heroes, anyone?), and I hope Marvel go that route if they ever get the rights back.

Now... onto the ones that apparently suck!

[Reply #783 on:]

I watched all the X-Men movies in a row last year as well to work my way up to Days Of Future Past. I was actually really surprised by a few realizations I made.

My verdict on each one:
X-Men: This movie has aged horribly. It barely holds up. It looks silly, the action isn't very good, and it's overall pretty clunky. Funny that it holds the distintion of basically jumpstarting the superhero film era.
X-Men 2: Still the best of the original trilogy, has the strongest mix of story and action.
X-Men 3: Sure, the choice to kill certain characters was spitting in the face of fans of the franchise...but honestly, this movie is not as bad as we remember it. It probably has the most polished action of the original three movies, and the acting and story is not really any worse than the previous two.
Origins Wolverine: This was the first time I saw this actually, and while I understand why comic fans hate it, it's actually kind of fun. It probably helps that I went in expecting a mindless affair, but the action scenes are just over-the-top enough to be amusing, and I actually think this movie uses mutant powers in some of the most inventive ways in the series. Stupid as hell but enjoyable.
First Class: My favorite X-Men movie. Great cast, and I think the best execution of the main premise of the franchise.
The Wolverine: This movie is actually pretty damn good. It's probably the least X-Men-ish movie...unlike the other ones before it which try to cram in as many mutants as possible, I think there are only like three total in this whole movie? It's a good story with some surprisingly cool action scenes (bullet train!).
Days Of Future Past: Pretty cool movie, I liked it. I'd probably have to see it again to know where it ranks.

[Reply #784 on:]

I feel like Days of Future Past and First Class are definitely the best two.

The third one is atrocious.

[Reply #785 on:]

Have you watched it recently? I was a sworn enemy of Last Stand since I first saw it when it came out, but a recent viewing of it has softened my opinion greatly, especially when watching it right after the first two...in terms of acting, dialogue, and action it's really not much worse than them (in fact it's probably better than the first in those respects). That said, I do think certain story decisions were unforgivable, especially considering that they essentially made it impossible to continue the franchise on its current path and forced Sony to consider new avenues for it. But considering that they've somehow been able to salvage the franchise with surprising success, I'm more willing to overlook Last Stand's flaws in retrospect to acknowledge some things it does well.

[Reply #786 on:]

Yeah, I watched Last Stand last night and it was definitely not as bad as I expected it to be. Like Josh said the acting and action were as solid as the previous two (in fact, I'd say the action was certain above the first) although the dialogue was a bit... shit, at times.

Note: I've never read any X-Men comics or stories, so I've got no issues with how certain things were adapted. However, I was amazed at how much I hated Cyclops; he was a little bitch in all three films who did bugger all.

[Reply #787 on:]

I haven't watched it recently, but I also didn't watch it when it came out. I rented X-Men 2 years after the third one had been and gone, and then I rented X-Men 3 and it was shocking.

Edit: I think you mean "Last Stand", UnrealLegend. First Class is excellent.

[Reply #788 on:]

Edit: I think you mean "Last Stand", UnrealLegend. First Class is excellent.

Oops, that was what I meant. I haven't seen First Class yet.

[Reply #789 on:]

I think Last Stand's biggest sin against anybody with a familiarity with the X-Men comics (besides the character deaths) was how horribly they bungled the potential of the Jean Grey-as-Phoenix storyline. The tease at the end of X2 was so delicious to anybody who knew what they were hinting at, that to see the concept executed so lamely in Last Stand was treason.

[Reply #790 on:]

That and ruining the Juggernaut.  I think I took a break from it in the theater.

[Reply #791 on:]

Note: I've never read any X-Men comics or stories, so I've got no issues with how certain things were adapted. However, I was amazed at how much I hated Cyclops; he was a little bitch in all three films who did bugger all.

Well...at least he contributed to one of the greatest dialogs in modern movie, en par with old, revered classics:
"Who are you?"
"The real one"
"Proof it"
"You are an ass"
"...Okay".

[Reply #792 on:]

The Gambler

This was okay. There were a few scenes that were really well-done and interesting to watch, but the majority of this just felt like a lot of stuff thrown together. The scenes involving actual gambling were painful to watch. Many things were addressed early on and never touched again--used only as excuses to introduce important characters, it seemed--and it felt resolved even after it finished. The main character gambled like an imbecile and was a complete dick the rest of the time. This would have been much better if Jim hadn't been an asshole whose development as a character was almost nonexistent throughout the entire film.

C-

[Reply #793 on:]

Hobbit 3

I like how they made sense of Saruman's line in Fellowship: "Your love of the halflings' leaf has clearly slowed your mind."

Yeah, that was some strong stuff to make him forget what went down with the "Necromancer".

There wasn't enough story left to tell for another film, let alone one in excess of 120 minutes so they added a few tragedies to make things more emotionally involving and that worked for me cause the book has a complete absence of tragedy.

The attempt to tie Aragorn to the story was totally unnecessary and so shoehorned in that the shock almost made me stop thinking about Orlando Bloom's ageing face.

I found the build up to the battle irritating cause I just wanted them to start and the battle itself became quickly tiresome.

Smaug was good.

And oddly I did enjoy the film despite the criticisms I have. It just doesn't matter because it is wonderful to see this world brought to life and I look forward to getting the blue ray in December as the special edition because I'll get to see more of it.

It's a shame there won't be more after that because I really enjoy watching that world and complaining about how it isn't a perfect depiction.

A rating is irrelevant as I both love and loathe all of Jackson's Tolkien adaptations and would score any of them as 0 or 10 or anything between depending on my mood.

[Reply #794 on:]

I haven't seen First Class yet.

I have now, I can say with confidence that it's my favourite one so far. Very, very good. I just love the way they handled the relationship between the Professor and Magneto, and clothed-Mystique's role was also excellent (although given everything that happened, it seemed a bit out of character for her to abandon Charles at the end).

Also, Wolverine's cameo was priceless.

And speaking of Wolverine, I also saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine. That... wasn't that great. It had a few cool scenes but it felt very predictable and shallow.

[Reply #795 on:]

I very much enjoy the "reboot"(?) X-Men series. First Class and Days of Futures Past are really good and I'm stoked for Apocalypse.

[Reply #796 on:]

John Wick

Oh my!  Keanu Reeves is John Wick, retired mob hitman/fixer with a reputation not to be toyed with.  After years of walking away from this to be with his wife, the occasion of her death (from a long illness), she leaves him with an adorable puppy.  When Russian gangsters (an oily tick played by Reek from Game Of Thrones) steals his car and murders the puppy, it's up to John to remind them who they were messing with.

Frankly, from the trailer this looked utterly ridiculous, but I have to say that I enjoyed this enormously.  Keanu is great when he's not called upon to "act" too much..... And his character in this has very little to say, just to exact bloody revenge upon the Ruskis for the death of his adorable puppy (the adorableness of which cannot be understated).

It's like Neeson in Taken with more bloody headshots.

8/10

[Reply #797 on:]

John Wick was totally awesome and absolutely justified.

[Reply #798 on:]

Fury

All of the bloody, brutal action of Saving Private Ryan without the pesky story and character development.

B+ for the visuals.

Is that B+ solely for the visuals or the overall movie? Because I'm inclined to agree with you on visuals and acting but I didn't like the movie even kinda. Like did it even matter that it was a WWII film? No, not really.

B+ solely for the visuals and the acting.  After thinking about it, I'd give the overall movie a C-.  On my scale I give D and F grades to movies where I'm pissed that I spent the money on them.  Fury succeeds as war porn, so it was entertaining, but otherwise it has to be one of the emptiest movies I've seen.  That's why it almost enters D territory for me. 

The film reminds me of watching someone play a video game. The characters move from place to place and shoot at things without any other purpose.  The tone is serious, but the film says nothing as far as I can tell other than "It's WWII."

I did enjoy that the only real pause in the action in this film seemed to be there so Brad Pitt could take his shirt off.  Extra bonus because the other characters at this point in the film try to make a somber point that they have been fighting non-stop since the North Africa campaign.  Apparently there were enough stops in the fighting along the way so the sergeant could get a gym quality workout! 

I enjoyed it, even if it was an extended commercial for World Of Tanks.

Follows the standard "war is hell" tropes, but the action is pretty intense.  I couldn't quite understand why it was necessary for Shia Luh-Booooof to remove his tooth...  The chap is clearly quite mad.

7/10

[Reply #799 on:]

John Wick
Fun action thriller, and had Lance Reddick in it too!
B

The Guest
Fun action thriller, and had Lance Reddick in it too!
B+

Well that was easy, (I did not pick them both for being action thrillers featuring Lance Reddick, it was a happy coincidence , The Guest gets the plus because the central performance was a little more interesting)