Amph At The Movies (film discussion thread)

These are the films I plan on seeing.

January

Underworld Blood Wars

Feb
John Wick 2 though I have to see the first one.
The LEGO Batman movie

Mar
Logan
Kong Skull Island
Beauty and the Beast
Ghost in the Shell

May
Guardians Of The Galaxy 2
King Arthur The Legend of the Sword
Alien Covenant
POTC Dead Men Tell No Tales
Baywatch but maybe not.

June
Wonder Woman

July
Spider-Man Homecoming
Valerian And the City Of A Thousand Planets
The Dark Tower

Sept
Marvel's the Inhumans

Oct
Bladerunner 2049. Ugh. Have to wait too long for this.
Cloverfield 2017

Nov
Thor Ragnarok
Justice League

Dec
Star Wars VIII

That's a hell of a nerd year right there.

 

So according to Ben Affleck, The Batman might not happen after all

 

Yup, hell of a nerd year, especially if you include the TV shows like Iron Fist, Defenders, Punisher, Legion, etc.

My list of films for 2017 is very similar to yours, which is:

January:
Underworld: Blood Wars
A Dog's Purpose

February:
John Wick 2
Lego Batman Movie

March:
Logan
Kong: Skull Island
Beauty and the Beast
Power Rangers (maybe)
Ghost in the Shell

April:
Fate of the Furious

May:
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Alien: Covenant

June:
Wonder Woman
The Mummy
Transformers: The Last Knight

July:
Spider-Man: Homecoming
War for the Planet of the Apes
Valerian
Dunkirk
The Dark Tower

September:
Inhumans

October:
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Blade Runner 2049
Cloverfield

November:
Thor: Ragnarok
Justice League
Murder on the Orient Express

December:
Star Wars: Episode VIII


If I could only see five of the films listed it would be:

Star Wars: Episode VIII
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Wonder Woman
Thor: Ragnarok
Justice League

 

I'm not even gonna attempt a limited to five list.

 

I'm not even going to attempt a list at all.

 

Woody Harrelson In Talks For Han Solo Movie - Collider Movie Talk

 

Which is interesting given that only a month or so ago the word was everything was going smoothly. Did Ben's new movie getting **** reviews get WB scared?

Did Ben and Johns not see eye to eye on the script?

Did WB get scared about what Affleck wanted to do in the movie and are now interfering?

 

Yeah, Affleck's comments certainly set off a lot of alarms of concern in the nerd community. And the speculation is the problem is about creative control for the solo Batman film.

I was watching a YouTube video discussing this topic, and the co-writer(?)/producer for the Batman solo flick, Geoff Johns, had recently Tweeted his top 5 things he's excited about 2017 and not on that list is writing the script for the Batman film.

I think Affleck's comment is something to be of slight concern about in the wake of The Flash film losing it's director because of creative control and the way Suicide Squad was cut up and then pasted back together. I'm thinking Affleck wants a dark and gritty Batman film and the studio is gun shy about it with the poor critical reception of BvS. Moreover, the studio may want to work in set up for spin off films like Gotham City Sirens, where characters might be shoe horned in.

Affleck's comments might be a leverage move against the studio to get more creative control. I'm sure shareholders don't want to hear the Batman flick could be in possible jeopardy.

 

First Look At Bryan Cranston As Zordon In Power Rangers - Collider Movie Talk

 

Here's me best of 2016 movies list (you can find fresh reviewage every Thursday at www.viewmag.com plug!). As always, there's a whole whack of stuff I really like and there's never any year that I throw my hands up and say "Bah! To hell with this!" Although you may have had to search a bit more, and a lot of good movies died much too swift a death at the multiplex, but there were a few decent widescreen blockbuster-ing out there:


Honourable mentions: Blue Jay, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Kubo and the Two Strings, Deadpool, The Neon Demon, The Birth of a Nation, The Nice Guys, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Star Trek Beyond, Weiner

10. Hunt for the Wilderpeople

A tribute to malcontent freaks everywhere. Teenage orphan Ricky (Julian Dennison) is adopted by oddballs Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and Hec (Sam Neill). When Ricky and Hec are stranded in the bush for weeks, it causes a nationwide manhunt and media frenzy led by child services agent, Paula (Rachel House). Neill shows that Hec cares about his young charge even though he doesn’t want to admit it. Wiata as the obsessed child services agent is uproarious and Dennison is trying to be gangsta but hiding an inner pain. It’s funny, zippy and has unexpected emotional depth.

9. Sing Street

In 1980s Ireland, Connor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is enrolled in a rough Catholic school, bullied by the students and Brother Baxter (Don Wycherley). Instead of crumbling, he starts a “futurist” band with his classmates and makes low budget music videos starring Raphina (Lucy Boynton). With great songs like the goth-y “Riddle of the Model” and the boisterous “Drive It Like You Stole It” there’s also amusing band arguments, the romance between Connor and Raphina is sweet, and scenes with Connor and his stoner brother, Brendan (Jack Reynor) show the frustration at unfulfilled potential. The power of being you through music makes a miserable high school uplifting.

8. Nocturnal Animals

Depressed artist Susan (Amy Adams) is in a loveless marriage with the wealthy Hutton (Armie Hammer) when she receives a novel manuscript from her ex, Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal). The story involves Tony (also Gyllenhaal) who loses his family in a terrible crime perpetrated by Ray (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) so Tony teams up with a detective, Bobby (Michael Shannon), for justice. The novel story is a freaky, riveting noir crime tale of revenge with a sneering performance by Taylor-Johnson and craziness from Gyellenhaal and Shannon. Featuring expressively weird visual direction from Tom Ford, Animals uses different stories to display life reflected through art.

7. Amanda Knox

A documentary about American abroad, Amanda Knox, who with her boyfriend Raffaele, is accused of killing her roommate while living in Italy. The overzealous Italian prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, pictures himself as a crusading avenger against the oversexed, godless American and railroads her for the crime despite sloppy evidence, ignoring confessions, and a lack of facts. It’s stunning to see a miscarriage of justice as a lax investigation snowballs into exploitive media about “Foxy Knoxy” which fuels ugly nationalistic pride. Amanda is slowly being broken down but to the media it’s just a juicy reality show.

6. Zootopia

Disney’s animated, noir influenced talking animal fable is an astute allegory for race relations but also features big laughs. In the multi-animal city of Zootopia, newbie cop Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) teams up with a con fox, Nick (Jason Bateman) to figure out why normal animals are reverting to crazed predators. Featuring one of the best jokes of the year about sloths at the DMV, Zootopia is vibrantly colourful with crackerjack scenes like Judy racing after a thieving weasel that becomes a giant monster movie. Zootopia shows the need to come together in unity. Plus dopey sight gags.

5. Green Room

A locked room thriller that continually ratchets tension upwards. Obscure punk band The Ain’t Rights are booked into a sketchy gig at a Neo-Nazi club. Soon the group witnesses a crime so Pat (Anton Yelchin), Sam (Alia Shawkat), their bandmates, and punk girl Amber (Imogen Poots), fight to stay alive as the Nazi leader, Darcy (Patrick Stewart) tries to dispose of them. There are gripping scenes of the band attempting escape with makeshift weaponry and Stewart is chilling as a guy who views murder as a job. It’s a horrific, exciting, bloody, loud, and sometimes darkly funny experience, leading to a perfect final shot.

4. La La Land

Downtrodden actress, Mia (Emma Stone), meets a downtrodden jazz musician, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), and they bringing out their creative sides as their relationship grows. Mia gives her all in auditions but no one cares and Sebastian has a passion for jazz that runs against commerce. There are soaring musical numbers with lush single-take shots, a great tap number, a gridlocked freeway dance, and Mia’s achingly heartfelt audition song as Stone shows an inner vulnerability of a dreamer. A wonderfully imaginative ode to old musicals, it climaxes with a powerful ending that is both sad and yet joyous.

3. Captain America: Civil War

A superhero enabled rumination on limiting unlimited power. The Avengers are held responsible for global collateral damage and while Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) believes they need to be kept in check, Captain America (Chris Evans) thinks hindering them will cost lives. There’s also the introduction of the spectacular Spider-Man (the amazing Tom Holland), Cap trying to save his friend Bucky (Sebastian Stan) and a fantastic villain with Zemo (Daniel Bruhl). Expertly juggling dozens of characters, Civil War has great gags, cool beats, multiple superheroes throwing down and an emotionally devastating climax. A nifty metaphor for an increasingly fractured world represented via super-powered punching.

2. Arrival

When spaceships mysteriously appear across the globe, linguist Louise (Amy Adams) teams up with the U.S. Government, led by Colonel Webber (Forest Whitaker) and mathematician Ian (Jeremy Renner) to talk with aliens that speak only through images as the world is rapidly spiraling towards armed conflict. Directed with darkly strange scope by Dennis Villeneuve, there is an unsettling blending of the real world and the otherworldly as flashbacks of domestic life change into something alien. Arrival is a brainy sci-fi flick with twists that expand the scope, showing that talking to each other is as important as talking to aliens.

1. Hell or High Water

A sparse modern western about people ground down by an uncaring financial system. Brothers Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster) are robbing banks to pay off their debt and on their trail are two Texas Rangers, Marcus (Jeff Bridges) and Alberto (Gil Birmingham). The foreclosed and broken landscape serves as a desperate, uncaring backdrop for the brother’s quest. Hell or High Water has distinct characters, dry quips, intense scenes and great performances, especially Foster as a convict happily propelling towards self-destruction. Poverty is a disease they are trying to cure even if people end up dead.

 

My 10 favorite movies of 2016 are Arrival and The Lobster

 

Top movies of 2016: No particular order

1: Nocturnal Animals
2. Captain America Civil War
3. Arrival
4. Manchester By the Sea
5. DeadPool
6. The Neon Demon
7. Hell or High Water


Honorable mention: La La Land. I'm the odd one out on this one, but I can only say I liked it. Didn't love it. Very charming film.

Most disappointed by:

Dr. Strange and Rogue One.

this isn't to say they were bad, just that these were the one's I went in hyped for and came out underwhelmed.

 

The music of La La Land was dull, but this scene knocked my socks off.



I spent the remainder of the movie wondering how they pulled that off. It looks like a sound stage, but also utterly real. Faux and authentic at the same time. Also, impossible to do practically. I thought I detected green screen light spill on Emma's hair.

But no, they did it practically. 10 takes over two nights in half hour shoots when they had exactly that light. If you're willing to kill people to get exactly the right light, then you're doing cinema right.

 

Yikes, that was a location for the tap number? Holy hannah! I totally thought it was a soundstage also, which totally fits the genre, but, hey, doing it for reals is doubly impressive.

I will say, my favourite gag in La La Land is literally about 30 seconds long when Mia is trying out for a cop / detective / doctor roles and Stone gets to shamelessly mug and riff on random one-liner roles for a brief montage. "Damn Miranda rights!"

 

I also did not particularly care for La La Land. The one-take Lovely Night bit is definitely the best musical number. I thought Stone was great; Gosling not so good. And I thought the ending was great; I'm not sure why the movie continued for twenty minutes after the ending, however.

I got to get my top ten in here. Was I really such an ass in the favorite movies of the year threads the last two years that the Community literally just decided not to have one this year?

 

If I extended mine to a top 35 (sorta) off the top of my head, the non-ordered 21-35 would go something like Keanu, Captain Fantastic, Audrey and Daisy, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Hacksaw Ridge, Suicide Squad, Moana, Sausage Party, Eye in the Sky, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Morgan, Hail Caesar, 13 Hours: the Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (Best Michael Bay movie in years, great siege flick), War Dogs, Midnight Special

Personally, I think the last five minutes of movie are just heartbreaking / joyous way to end it. Just to spoiler-tag it

Spoiler

The whole "what could have been" musical dance number take / making their past interactions which definitely had their down moments but painting it with a musical rose-coloured shine (Mia's play in the final montage is a rousing success), as a tribute to what they had and what could have been. And then it ends and they're back in reality, which is a trick the flick does throughout. It's a good happy/sad moment to end on.

 

Oh, also The Witch too was fantastic. My post top 20 could easily be another 20.

Also I'm about an hour into Victor Frankenstein and I'm really digging it. Whenever James McAvoy does crazy I'm down. Professor X may be the most normal character he plays!

 

I should have included The Witch in my top 10 list, but I only had room for two films.

 

Here's my list for 2016:

1. Star Wars: Rogue One
2. Captain America: Civil War
3. Deadpool
4. Sing Street
5. The Lobster
6. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (Ultimate Cut)
7. X-Men: Apocalypse
8. 10 Cloverfield Lane
9. Don’t Breathe

10. Suicide Squad/Doctor Strange/Hell or High Water


I saw Arrival but for me it didn't live up to the hype. I figured out the twist early on in the film as it's been covered in other films and TV shows I've seen and the rest of the story was good and interesting, but I just didn't have a connection to the film.

I have yet to see LA LA Land or Hacksaw Ridge.

The Witch and Neon Demon was too symbolic and/or stylistic for me.

 

Forgot to put the Witch on my list too...

Went ahead and bought it the other day. Such a great movie.

 

I will agree with this. You have no real emotional connection with the characters, and in fact you could say no relationship in the film really seems earned in any way.

 

I don't know who might have seen it in the Ghost In The Shell thread but the original animated film will be in theatres in limited release next month.