Amph What was the last movie you saw?

12 monkeys

this is terry gilliam's greatest film imho. i know most people would argue that brazil is but i stand by my conviction. fascinating story based on a series of still photographs in a collection called la jetee from ages ago, fantastic visuals and great performances from its cast. awesome movie, i love it.

 

Deliverance (1972) - it will be a while before i go camping again...

 

See No Evil, Hear No Evil. The third team up of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, and while it's not as good as Silver Streak or Stir Crazy, I still thought there were some decent laughs.

 

Don’t Think Twice (2016) – Mike Birbiglia

In Don’t Think Twice, comedian Mike Birbiglia writes and directs a masterful look at the life of improve comics. The improv troupe at the center of this movie is six people large and I’ll admit I, at first, thought this was too many for everyone to get developed, but Birbiglia manages to gives them all character arcs (some admittedly more abbreviated than others) and make them all feel real. The troupe is loaded with wonderful comedic performers. And if you’re a podcast nut like me, you’ll know a lot of people from that arena. Keegan-Michael Key gives a really wonderful performance as the member of the troupe who gets a big break and finds himself drifting apart from his less successful compatriots; there’s a scene near the end of the film that showcases a surprising gift for purely dramatic acting that I wasn’t expecting from Key. Gillian Jacobs is Key’s girlfriend and troupe leader and she’s career best here. Birbiglia himself is a revelation as the schlubby improv teacher who’s grown more and more bitter over the years as his students achieve greater success than he does. Chris Gethard, a comedian I’ve had a negative reaction to in the past, is fantastic as the man trying to balance live performing and the sadness of his real life. Tami Saghar & Kate Micucci (one of my comedy crushes, if I’m being honest) are both really great as well. The script is extremely funny and incredibly sad. It would be easy to say this film is “about” any number of things: friendship, art & commerce, maturity & the funny ways we avoid it and maybe find it, nostalgia, the feeling of reaching a dead-end in your life. I really found this to be one of the most effecting films I’ve seen all year. Birbiglia’s script is dead-perfect, hitting all the emotional moments Birbiglia wants it to while having the air of rambling aimlessly. It’s a quiet film, but the emotions are real. I feel all of the above themes I mentioned are present, but to reduce the film to any of them feels like a reduction of its brilliance. Birbiglia has a worldview that’s really quite beautiful. He sees a kind of restless melancholy and a nagging sadness as central to our lives, central to the human experience. But he argues that we should embrace these things instead of fleeing them because they are ultimately neither impediment nor even opposite to a real happiness that expresses itself in both explosive moments of exuberance and in quiet moments of contentment. It’s a philosophy both profound and deeply moving. There are plenty of movies that manage to be both funny and sad; I don’t think I’ve ever encountered one that really made those emotions feel so legitimately part of each other. It isn’t a mastery of shifting tones as much as it’s a very specific single tone that manages to embrace and evoke both. This is a beautiful movie that I can’t recommend strongly enough. And a special note: this has the best credits music I’ve heard in a really long time. No spoilers, but the way the transition from the ending of the film to the credits is absolutely perfect and the music sums up everything that’s come before. Great film. 4 stars.

tl;dr – beautiful script examines the emotions of an improv troupe with insight, sensitivity and plenty of humor; funny, sad & thoughtful with great performances. 4 stars.

More Movie Reviews!

 

I can say from experience it's a perfect movie to improve the mood after you and your friends all sat through Paths of Glory.

... It was a weird movie party, okay?

 

The Need for Speed, 2015. A film based on a video game about street racing, and it's about as clichéd, stereotyped, and predictable as I expected. There were some cool cars in it. And that is the sum total of this movie's positive attributes.

 

The Need for Speed, 2015. A film based on a video game about street racing, and it's about as clichéd, stereotyped, and predictable as I expected. There were some cool cars in it. And that is the sum total of this movie's positive attributes.

 

Star Wars the Special Edition - the 1997 tinkering with the 1977 classic. Nice to see this again after a bit of a break, I do not like the vast majority of the digital additions and scenes, though the death star trench run is still exciting and awesome.

Gangster Payday (2014) Though this triad drama bills itself as a comedy it is anything but...aging small group of triads loses their long time legitimate night club to opposition and picks up the tab on a floundering teahouse. The young lady who runs the teahouse becomes would be love interest for the aging triad boss (Ghost) and his younger associate Leung. I was really watching to see Chan Wai Man make pineapple buns (he eventually does) and it was nice to see him wield a blade again even if it was very limited. When his Brother Two barks and yells at younger triads I immediately found myself wincing because that comes from real life. I'd never, ever want to piss CWM off.

All-in-all, it was okay but nothing like I'd hoped. I was expecting some very funny triad insanity with pineapple tarts. Oh well. I do have to say the sing-song dialect of Cantonese works better for this film than the more formal Mandarin. Given the lack luster lives of most of the characters, that kind of relaxed, fluid inflection made the characters more relatable, especially the older guys.

 

just saw captain america civil war . ( where's the thread for it btw ?)

well it is very good , the action scenes are great , especially that airport battle , the story takes a great turn near the end , it's funny etc.

my only gripe is - it's always about Tony Stark , I do think they need to build some of these other characters a bit , like I don't even know who the guy with wings is , altho the guy playing him was good .

Marvel reall are on a roll , and I watch some of these action scenes and I'm thinking - man this is better than the comics now , never thought I'd say that .

.

 

"The guy with wings" is Falcon; he was a major character in Cap 2 The Winter Soldier. You saw that one, right? If not, go see it right now. It's one of the best of the Marvel films.

 

I did see that , and I remember he was in it but I can't remember much about his character , I may have forgotten tho .

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Revenge of the Sith (2005) Outside of Hayden & Natalie together and Ian, I still like this. R2-D2 and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Now that's a movie I want to see their solo adventures, fine messes included.

 

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week. Fans will have probably heard most of the information before, but the film is worth seeing for the archive footage and the way it captures the excitement of their live performances.

 

The Martian
I prefer the book because of Mark's amusing thoughts but the movie was ok. The Elrond reference was funnier though with Sean Bean being in the movie.

 

Smokey and the Bandit, the second best movie of '77. Now that's what a car movie should be: FUN!!! Burt Reynolds and Sally Field are likeable and play well off each other, but Jackie Gleason's Sheriff Buford T Justice elevates the comedy to a higher level.

Also, older action movies with lots of stunts are always more exciting to me because I know nothing is CGI, it's all real.

 

Was it on tv or DVD?

 

Netflix.

 

The Ex-Mrs. Bradford

It's Thin Man with Powell and Jean Arthur instead of Powell and Loy.

I find Jean Arthur to be lovely, but she doesn't quite have the same chemistry with Powell that Loy did. Naturally. Still, I enjoyed it.

 

Its a good movie, but it didn't have to be so long. There are so many things you could cut out, scenes that you could do without and still tell a good story.

 

for me the long and slow pace of the film was a big part of why i found it so compelling. i found myself immersed in its world, and it's just so beautifully shot.

 

Heroes Shed No Tears (1980) Well despite being yet another convoluted Chu Yuan wuxia, this one had a very entertaining anti-hero in the form of the Man with the mystery box, Xiao Leixue. Yueh Hua gave this character all the elusive, intriguing qualities needed for a man who is the most "feared fighter in the martial arts world." And for good reason. Before you can imitate Brad Pitt in Se7en by saying "What's in the box?" You'd probably be dead. A couple of fun minor characters and good fights ensue, but this movie begins and ends with Xiao. Yet another one of these cool wuxia characters that needs their own movie.

 

The Secret Life of Pets - Not bad at all but I was expecting more and something different. The movie fell apart once the rabbit was introduced. Favourite character was Chloe, she was spot on.

 

The Ghost/The Ghost Writer, one of my favourite Polanski films.

 

The Legend of Tarzan. Different to what I was expecting and I quite enjoyed it for that reason. Grand scale shots, beautiful cinematography and everyone did well in their roles, especially Christoph Waltz, he always makes a good villain.