Amph What was the last movie you saw?

Pathfinder. I knew the reviews weren't very good, but I thought, "It has Karl Urban, Clancy Brown, and Vikings. How bad could it be?"

Someday, I will learn not to ask that question.

 

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

 

Robot and Frank This is labelled as a "comedy," but there aren't a whole lot of attempts at humor. And the ending is quite a downer. Other than that, though, it's quite light and easy to follow. The characterizations are bit shallow (especially the daughter and the "bad guy," who both come off as stereotypes of young people in different ways). It was interesting and entertaining enough.

Also, they have the technology for autonomous, semi-sentient robots but haven't come up with better treatments for dementia? That's depressing.

 

Meh. Nobody ever likes the remake of anything. I know nothing about The Haunting, but I could still have told you this in advance.

 

I've never seen the original and I think the remake is ****ing awful.

 

Crazy Heart (2009)

Jeff Bridges is in top form here playing a self-destructive alcoholic country star. Too bad the rest of the movie can't match his performance.

ParaNorman (2012)

A delightful little animated film with lots of adult humor. It's probably the most mature PG rated animated film I've seen.

 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. US version. I liked it, possibly a lot. The terrible accents confused me, but other than that, pretty solid. The worst bit was my wife giving me a commentary of how it differed from the book (but she really liked the adaptation). I have the 3 Swedish movies, still wrapped. Tempted to finally watch them, even though I've heard the US version of Tattoo is much better.

 

I like the Swedish version more, though they're both great movies.

 

Muscle Shoals yet?

 

They pick me up when I'm feeling blue!

Spoiler

No. I guess I'll torrent.

 

And again, and again. The score for this film (by Goblin) is remarkable.

 

Does your conscience bother you?

 

All the time.

Now how 'bout you?

 

Just got back from Tom Hiddleston: Lord of the Attack of the Ring Clones.

 

For A Few Dollars More

Classic. They don't make them like this anymore.

 

All remakes are awful. Always.

 

Well, as just discussed, The Girl with Dragon Tattoo remake is solid, and arguably surpasses the original.

 

dp

 

It's actually not a remake, as it's not based on the Swedish film. It's another adaptation of the book.

 

I find the "It's not really a remake" argument incredibly annoying. Just own it. No shame!

 

It turned out quite well. While a few of the jokes harkened back to the earlier treatments from MST3K and Cinematic Titanic, most were pretty new and worked good. Probably the funniest live moments were when Bill Corbett blew a couple of lines and tried to literally crawl away, only to be stopped by Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy.

The pre-show title cards (DID YOU KNOW...the song "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" was yet another attempt by Aquaman to take the Dark Knight down a peg.) and songs (especially the one about Grandma's Christmas Dinner) were funny. And the opening short ("Santa and the Fairy Snow Queen") was just...just...oh, dear.

 

Except "Ben-Hur".