Movies You've Watched Recently

Which of the best picture nominees has everyone seen?

The Grand Budapest Hotel and Boyhood. Very few of the other nominees played in my area (not for long). I'm still surprised by American Sniper; there hasn't been universal praise for it and it isn't blowing up commercially either.

Whiplash, Birdman and Selma looks amazing. The Academy can vote up to 10 but they closed it to 8 for no reason. Their rules and criteria - such as they are - are so arbitrary that the whole process feels like a fucking joke, which it is.

I have the same problem. The only one I really wanted to see that's been shown here so far is Grand Budapest. Maybe American Sniper but that can wait. The ones I really wanted to see were Birdman (coming to the cheap theater soon) and Whiplash (barely seems to exist outside of trailers.)

I saw Grand Budapest Hotel and Boyhood. Really want to see Birdman though. Might get a run of some of the others in Japan now that the Oscars have been announced and the Japanese seemingly wont see anything until it's been "proven" in the west first.

I watched Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and I must say, it is my surprise film of the year. I mean that in I had NO interest in it going in, and first 10 minutes thought the CG was a bit jarring but was very impressed by the characters and story. They did a really good job painting both sides and taking their time building everything. And there's real tension in quieter scenes between the apes and humans that a lot of CG heavy stuff lacks. Just goes to show that a good script can overcome special effects (see most sci-fi films from the 50's as an example of that too I suppose). But it also makes me depressed because if this movie had that kind of budget and wasn't dumbed down, why don't other CG-heavy movies stick with smarter scripts?

Krubixcube wrote:But it also makes me depressed because if this movie had that kind of budget and wasn't dumbed down, why don't other CG-heavy movies stick with smarter scripts?

You make it sound like you have faith in the people who decide these kinds of things.

Yes, that is the problem in a nutshell, isn't it?

Basically what it's like trying to talk them out of those decisions

I like to think that if there were more intelligent scripts it wouldn't hurt the bottom line though. I have a dream, my friends...

Watched Foxcatcher. I feel like they were trying to keep everything just a bit too subtle and ended up with long periods of time where nothing that interesting develops. It has the characters, storyline, and acting (Channing Tatum was great) to be an amazing movie but it treads old ground for too long and makes it feel a lot longer than it should. I enjoyed watching it once but I'll probably skip the Blu-ray

Watched Grand Budapest Hotel. I liked it, but get the feeling it's one of those movies I won't really appreciate until I see it again.

Glad you liked it though. Wes Anderson tends to be a love/hate thing with most people.

It's the only movie of his (except maybe Bottle Rocket but it's been forever since I've seen that) that I'd suggest to non-fans. I'm mixed on his style otherwise. I mean Moonrise Kingdom was hilarious but the kids creeped me out, and Fantastic Mr. Fox was downright unsettling.

Re-watched Dawn of the Planet of the Apes last Sunday. Still brilliant. Definitely makes my top 10 of '14.

Also watched Locke, this amazing UK drama with Tom Hardy where he drives for 90 minutes, keeping all communications through cell phone and tending to a personal matter while trying to keep his job and marriage intact. The camera never leaves him as he's driving and we never see anyone else. Sounds like a gimmick but its fantastic cinema and Hardy gives possibly my favorite performance of anything last year.

I was thoroughly impressed by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and I really didn't expect it. Wouldn't mind chatting that up with you guys.

Watched the Interview. It was good. James Franco's character was really goofy with some great one liners, even if all his jokes didn't land. Rogen was just the guy who spends the whole movie asking "WTF is wrong with you?" Surprised how much I liked the North Korea stuff though. It was stupid, yeah, but a good and satisfying stupid. Like, if we were going to take down Kim Jong Un, that would be a pretty cool way to do it.

Watched The Babadook, those of you who have me on facebook know my opinion already but in short: it's crap. And the child actor in it (who was in peril) was so annoying I was rooting for the villain. Like A lot! And when you stop caring about the person who's in danger, horror kind of stops working.

Watched Pacific Rim. It was... cool I guess. It's a good movie to show off Bluray and it has giant robots fighting giant monsters without being terrible. But it felt like one of those movies where ideas are constantly being shelved without explanation because it made it more suspenseful. Like how they have these huge guns but hardly ever use them. And that sword that they only bother to take out once the Kaiju has practically taken them into space. And the guys monitoring from the base that shut up when they're right at the breach, letting the heroes get snuck up on. I dunno. It was frustrating.

Also they hired the most generic looking white dudes to play the pilots. I kept getting them mixed up unless they were talking. Main white dude was a boring character too. I'm pretty sure he was literally just a placeholder white guy because the studio didn't think a movie about an asian girl and Idris Elba could sell, but I say the more time I spend looking at those two things, the better

I TOTALLY GET YOU! THANK YOU! Someone else who felt that the movie could have been way cooler!

I saw Birdman tonight. It was fantastic. Possibly my new #1 of 2014. Watch it

I really want to watch Birman and Nightcrawler. Both films look fantastic and right up my alley. I used to watch movies all of the time, but now I rarely do. Need to get back into that hobby more.

Does anyone know where I might be able to stream Studio Ghibli movies (preferably in high def)?  Netflix doesn't have them, and I'd really like to watch one of them.  It's no secret I was a huge fan of Ni No Kuni, and part of that had to do with the brilliant art style the game had.  Also, what movie would you suggest I watch first?  Wal-Mart sells some on blu-ray, but they're $25 and it seems steep to splurge on movies I have no idea about.

None of them are streaming right now. I guess Disney (which distributes them here in the states) is stingy on the streaming rights. Your best bet in my opinion is to sign up for Netflix's disc rental service because they're all available on dvd (some on blu-ray).

I feel this needs its own thread if we're going to continue it. But to be short, I seriously disagree with the both of you.


On a more positive note, I saw Jupiter Ascending in 3D yesterday and it was an amazing movie. The world-building, the visuals, the cast, the action set-pieces and even the story is great. I suppose if I want to nitpick, I'd say the movie tries to do so much in a little over 2 hours but I'm fascinated by this unique take on the universe. It isn't afraid to be silly or strange, too.

I posted something about Inglorious Bastards on Twitter and had a guy saying he wonders if the movie was secretly pro-Nazi. This, my friends, is how you know when to mute someone.

He probably also thinks that the phrenology monologue in Django Unchained was convincing.

I finally got a chance to see Birdman and was blown away by it. Really really great film.

Inherent Vice finally hit my cable's VOD lineup this week so I watched it a couple of days ago. It's everything I was hoping it would be from a Paul Thomas Anderson film: excellent 70's period detail (and song selection); brilliant script with a mystery this close to labyrinthine but more in love with characters and dialogue; the amazing ensemble cast that bring life to the amazing weirdos that Joaqiun Phoenix's character comes across (his forever-stoned, hippie p.i. is NOT the craziest person in the film; wait till you see Josh Brolin); the gorgeous cinematography by longtime PTA collaborator Robert Elswit. Very fucking funny, often moving at times and destined for repeat viewings once I get my hands on the blu-ray when it comes out.

I need to see Birdman. Everyone whose opinion I care about says it's amazing and all the critics I hate say it's overrated.

Always a good combo. I admit it's not for everyone. My girlfriend watched it, appreciated it for its craftsmanship but just didn't get into it. I think it's kind of polarizing that way.

I actually didn't think it seemed like your kind of movie Greenman. Though if you want to see it, definitely do that

I watched Life Itself and I don't say this to say it's a bad movie (I thought it was pretty good) but I can see why it was snubbed at the Oscars. Well, can and can't...but anyway: it was good but I think spent a lot of time focusing on aspects of the man's life that weren't super interesting. I cried like a baby at the end because seeing real people go through sickness and stuff really gets me (there's a Japanese documentary about a man's final years of life that also is guaranteed to make me cry).

Anyway, long story short - a pretty good movie, worth seeing if you liked Ebert or respect the guy for sure.

I bought Birdman on blu-Ray tonight. If I don't get too tired I might watch it.