Movies You've Watched Recently

That's a negative, Bret. That's not the cowboys and samurai in space we all know and love. And Yoda still has a lightsaber...

Yoda with a lightsaber doesn't bother me.  Yoda with proper grammar would bother me.

BretBaber wrote:

So much better.

So much better

Wow. I'm not online for 12 hours and look what happened.

I watched Pain & Gain recently. Michael Bay's ode to the American Dream and pure, unfiltered stupidity was more enjoyable that I expected. It contains the unbelievable immoral tone of Bad Boys II and I'm one of those who find that to be a worthwhile movie based on that factor alone. Bay's signature look to Miami and its inhabitants have this wild mix of neon, orange and blue; it looks like such a disgusting place.

I liked the script and the way it pursued this tale of idiocy. Most of the main characters get their set-up voiceovers; that was a nice touch. There's plenty of humor; even the crimes of the 2nd half are on equal footing in terms of horror and hilarity. Dwayne Johnson just owns this film with his charismatic performance.

Bay isn't saying anything of real importance here but the settings fit his sensibilities to a tee. I truly hope more Transformers movies isn't all that in his future.

Watched Despicable Me 2. It outdoes the first the same way Ice Age 2 is better than the original. Everything about it is a fun time. I wasn't really expecting much going in so it took me by surprise. This is definitely a buy for me when the blu-ray drops.

Rewatched Apocalypse Now. Goddamn that film is heavy.

Watched Hamlet 2...has some good jokes in it but inconsistently. As you can see I add...a VARIETY of films to my list.

Right, you guys are going to flay me for this. Saw Hunger Games...not a bad movie. Yeah, it doesn't avoid all the traps of teeny movie...stuff, but there's some solid acting, Donald Sutherland and, I would argue, better pacing than 80% of the action movies I've seen recently.

I like the Hunger Games. Well, for the most part, the third book ends in a worse way than Mass Effect 3. But there's tons of stuff to like, mostly kids killing each other and a dystopian future full of people too stupid to realize how evil they are.

I have no opinion on the books, but the movie was pretty solid. Except for that god awful CG at the end, good lord.

Watching the Hunger Games again since you guys recommend it. Fell asleep the first time I tried to watch it. It's pretty good but I have a feeling reading the book would be better.

The books were better at during the intense action scenes. All these scenes that I read I was expecting to be awesome, but they were only okay (kind of like the last Harry Potter movie). One thing the movie did better was the drama and emotion. It was sad when one character died in the book. It was really sad when it happened in the movie. Also, when Katniss goes in and takes her sister's place is a really great and moving scene. I don't get that kind of emotional weight from the book like I did the movie. So to me, they both did right/wrong things.

I wish Avid and T-wolf would Bill Murray the apacolypse with me. I'd Homer-Ned Greenie. He was a zombie?

Watched House of Flying Daggers. Really enjoyed it, especially the last few scenes.

I saw Catching Fire back on Tuesday. Lots of really good moments throughout. But I also have the usual complaint—even though it was two and a half hours, there were a lot of things that they had to rush through. I guess I can't complain about the third book being split into two movies.

Saw Catching Fire with some family members. I enjoyed it. Better written, directed, paced and absolutely no annoying shaky-cam shit. Not having read the books, I didn't know what to expect so that cliffhanger ending was a nice surprise. Jennifer Lawrence continues to impress, as does Donald Sutherland and Woody Harrelson. I didn't like the Peeta character but I think Josh Hutcherson had more to do here. I like Elizabeth Banks but Effie was goofy as shit, so her final scene was a surprise and very moving. Always great to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman. And holy shit: that was Jena Malone?

I really liked Catching Fire also. Was my favorite of the books and they captured everything I liked about it. The riots kept the first half interesting, Finnick's creepy smile fit his character so perfectly, and the arena was exactly how I imagined it. Still wasn't great, but the books never were amazing either, just really solid reads. And with that, it did the source material justice.

Now I'm wondering if Mockingjay will actually do a good job of explaining the clusterfuck that was the third book or if I'll be confused there too. Also wondering what they're doing about the ending. Haven't met a single person who liked it or even defended it. Even Mass Effect 3's ending had people who liked it.

I watched the first Hunger Games movie a while back and actually enjoyed it. I take it you guys would recommend the books? Maybe I will do that before watching the second movie.

Yeah, the first two books are definitely worth a read. The third less so, but I still say give it a go just to see where they take the second's cliffhanger. But the second book just has such an awesome arena full of all these crazy contenders, it's pretty awesome.

Ya, I'm still not sure about that ending. I'm actually looking forward to seeing it in the movies. Seeing it from outside of Katniss' point of view might help.

Bought the 4-disc blu-ray set of The Wolverine this morning, just so I could watch the unrated cut (this is only available with the 4-disc set). I'd say it a stronger cut and the action scenes are great (and bloodier; I really don't think that last fight with Wolverine and the ninjas could've made it into a PG-13 film) but my only problem with the film was the Viper character. Not only is she not that interesting, her powers aren't well defined (at one point, she stabs a guy in the neck with a pen - the tip of which she laced with poison/toxin of some sort - and then the guy is still alive? The fuck?). I look forward to getting into the extras, of which there are plenty.

How much bloodier is it? Cause I might be willing to check it out if they give those claws the gore they deserve.

It isn't Kill Bill-level of blood spray (unless you count that last ninja battle where the snow-blower truck gets involved) but its still too intense for PG-13. There's noticeable moments when Wolverine cuts someone and I notice blood-splurting from the wound. In an early scene, a ninja/archer is constantly dropping guys, and you see bloody arrow wounds. His fight scene with the Shingen character was impressive in this regard as well.

By the way, if you don't feel like ponying up more money for the blu-ray set, the extended cut should still be available VOD.

Yeah, I'll probably wait until before Days of Future Past comes out anyways. Just good to know they're at least doing Wolverine justice. Still think Tarantino really needs to do an X-Men movie though, and not just for Wolverine (though that's definitely a large part).

It's far and away the best Wolverine film. Jackman gets so much to work with here. Previously in the films, the catch about him was that he didn't remember his past and was screwed up. Here, he remembers everything and is still screwed up. There's a 15 minute break halfway through the film where he and the Mariko character get a chance to breathe and develop a relationship; one of my favorite scenes.

Oh, and the actress playing Mariko? Such a babe.

volvocrusher wrote:Still think Tarantino really needs to do an X-Men movie though, and not just for Wolverine (though that's definitely a large part).

This would be one of the best things ever.

Watched the new Ghibli film Kaguya Hime...SO GOOD! The animation is absolutely gorgeous as well, whole thing has this water-color feel to it.