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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Amph What was the last movie you saw?

Discussion in 'Community' started by TheEmperorsProtege, Aug 15, 2004.

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  1. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 2, 2000
    You know . . . it's funny you mention this . . . just sayin'. The next couple of months may . . . well, it's too early yet. But things are in the works.

    [​IMG]

    Kubo & the Two Strings (2016) – Travis Knight

    If you must blink, do it now . . . if you look away, even for an instant, then our hero will surely perish.

    Kubo & the Two Strings is a real triumph. It’s the tale of a young boy, fleeing vengeful spirits, who finds himself discovering untapped potential within himself with the help of a motley crew of unlikely allies. It’s a magical movie in many, many ways, not least the astounding visuals, which are gorgeous and breathtaking even if you aren’t aware that this is stop-motion work. The magical world comes wonderfully to life as the characters explore it. There’s some really great work with the paper Kubo uses to create his magical dramas. The film is, in essence, a visually beautiful film in which various visually beautiful dramas play out. There’s a lengthy sequence that takes place on the sea that is some of the best adventure filmmaking in ages. The fight sequence that happens on the boat is really intense and thrilling. The character designs and the vocal performances are both really great and add up to create really wonderful characters that you can empathize with in a really strong way. Charlize Theron’s monkey is a compelling action hero of her own kind. Matthew McConaughey is surprisingly on point as a samurai/beetle hybrid (talk about sentences I never thought I’d hear), keeping just enough of his own signature flair without completely making the character seem out of place. The two aunts, voiced by Rooney Mara, are surprisingly scary; the first scene where they appear on the other side of a lake from Kubo is incredibly creepy and a later scene where one of the masks they were is broken is also really chilling. Ralph Fiennes is fantastic as the Moon King and let me just talk about this character for a minute. The Moon King is a real pleasure as an antagonist – he’s kept off screen for an incredibly long time and when he finally arrives, he’s really striking in a lot of ways. He’s a villain with an odd motivation and the end he hopes to achieve is one that we, as an audience, kind of can’t help but sympathize with when he lays it out calmly and sensibly. And the ultimate climax is surprisingly compelling in the way that the movie deals with the character. The Moon King’s ultimate fate was surprising and effective. If there’s a flaw, it’s that the movie leans a bit heavily on its themes. Yes, this movie is very much about the stories we tell about our world and about ourselves and the number of times they say “story” in the last twenty minutes or so of this movie is really over the top. But I won’t quibble with a movie this effective and beautiful. It was breathtaking visually, often funny, always thrilling, surprisingly emotionally resonant; just a great, great movie. 4 stars.

    tl;dr – beautiful & powerful animated tale is breathtaking, witty, heartbreaking and terrifying by turns; nothing less than a masterful animated triumph. 4 stars.

    More Movie Reviews!
     
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  2. CT-867-5309

    CT-867-5309 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jan 5, 2011
    What did you think of Edge of Tomorrow, Deputy Rick Grimes
     
  3. Sarge

    Sarge Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Oct 4, 1998
    Fast Five. I'm sure at some point in my life I've seen a more ridiculous movie, but I can't think of any.

    At least the feds showed up in a C-130, probably an old A or B model judging by the external fuel tanks. The engines sounded wrong; probably sound fx just used a recording of a generic commuter turboprop instead of the real thing with the classic Herky growl.
     
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  4. AndyLGR

    AndyLGR Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 1, 2014
    The Returned - Loosely based on the French series of the same name and The Walking Dead. A virus that turns people in to zombies hits the world and kills hundreds of millions of people. Using the spinal fluid of dead victims a formula is developed that (if caught early enough) keeps the symptoms at bay and prevents people changing in to zombies, but the patients have to inject themsleves with a shot for every day of their lives. If they miss a shot and they become a zombie, theres no way back. These people are called the returned. The world is gripped by a fear of these people and attacks on them are common place, they also have to check in daily to a returned centre so the government can keep track of them.

    The story follows a doctor who looks after returned patients before they can be allowed to go home to their family, she lost her parents to the virus, and her husband is also a returned. Supplies of the suppressant are running low and medical companies are racing against time to develop a synthetic version. As a result the doctor is buying supplies off the black market to ensure her husband has enough.

    A terrorist group attack her hospital, kill all the patients and take all the records cataloguing returned patients in the city. Subsequently theres an attempt on her husbands life in their apartment, he manages to kill the assassin so they dump the body and they go on the run and are in hiding with their best friends, a couple who are also hiding a secret.

    Meanwhile the government are rounding up all the returned patients before the suppressant runs out, the city is in panic and her black market supplier has been murdered. So our heroine is gettting more and more desperant. Even more so when it turns out their best friends wife is also a returned and they steal all his drugs, 60 days worth, and disappear with them.

    Can the doctor get hold of enough to keep her husband alive before a synthetic version is manufactured and available? Of course not........... she has to kill her husband as he turns in to a zombie. But the cruel twist of fate is that she had lost her phone fighting in a hospital car park over a secret hospital supply of the drugs, and so her boss couldn't get hold of her to tell her the new drug was available. The film ends with her pregnant and trying to track down their 'friends' who desserted them and stole the drugs.

    Quite an average film really. The ending was quite predictable, and that must be a bad thing as I'm usally terrible at guessing film endings. Its bordering on being a zombie light film thats giving out messages that are akin to events in history like racism in the early - mid 20th century or the persecution and rounding up of the Jews during the second world war.
     
  5. The Krynoid Man

    The Krynoid Man Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Dec 24, 2015
    Scared to Death. The basic concept of the story is good, but the execution is poor. The only reason to watch it is to see Bela Lugosi in colour.
     
  6. Juke Skywalker

    Juke Skywalker Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 27, 2004
    And this entry represents the absolute zenith of the saga. Make of that what you will.
     
  7. Deputy Rick Grimes

    Deputy Rick Grimes Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012

    Pretty great
     
  8. bizzbizz

    bizzbizz Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2015
    The Big Short. Very complex plot about how a few different groups saw the US housing bubble was about to burst in the 2000s and made millions/billions when it did. Despite the complexity of the plot (certainly for a financial nufty like me), the film does a brilliant job of explaining difficult to understand terms by simply cutting away to different celebrities to explain them. Margot Robbie in a bathtub would be the highlight of many films !

    A brilliant cast do a wonderful job, with Christian Bale the stand out. Another terrific straight performance from Steve Carell.

    8.5/10
     
  9. PCCViking

    PCCViking Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2014
    Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
     
  10. DAR

    DAR Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 2004
    Indpendence Day:Resurgence

    This was so bad it was embarassing.
     
  11. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    May 4, 2003
    Was that the subtitle or your recommendation to us as potential viewers?
     
  12. PCCViking

    PCCViking Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2014

    That's the subtitle. It was a good movie.
     
  13. The Krynoid Man

    The Krynoid Man Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Dec 24, 2015
    Moon. It's a very compelling and dark Sci-Fi drama, that I could see becoming a classic in the future.
     
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  14. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    While i agree with you about his fate, I actually thought the Moon King was the only part of the film that was disappointing compared to the rest of the film. Primarily because he's severely underdeveloped, held off until the end of the film and then, just when they start to develop him, he regresses into evil villain monologue type material. He ends up being a (mostly) two-dimensional character in a film surrounding him with well-rounded, interesting characters.

    The film really needed more scenes with him to flesh him out more (maybe another dream sequence or two earlier in the film would have helped, for instance). They really just needed to make him more sympathetic so that the resolution of the film has weight (since the resolution revolves around his character so much).

    Because he is underdeveloped, it undermines the punch of the finale (beyond the lovely visuals) and so the film ends up being less than perfect (even though I'd still consider it an instant classic despite this flaw).
     
  15. DAR

    DAR Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 2004
    The Accountant-Thought it was great
     
  16. Drac39

    Drac39 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 9, 2002
    The best Lugosi public domain film from that period is 'The Devil Bat'. It isn't good but he is outstanding in it. I think it is the movie people going into the older Ed Wood films were hoping for. Lugosi is hamming it up beautifully there and theres even a little pathos which is amazing given the film is about a killer bat trained to sniff cologne.
     
  17. The Krynoid Man

    The Krynoid Man Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Dec 24, 2015
    A Bay of Blood aka Twitch of the Death Nerve, Blood Bath, Last House on the Left II and about a 1000 other alternative titles (I think this actually holds the record). The story is full of holes and a bit confusing, but it's suspenseful and has some very good cinematography and special effects (some of which were ripped off in the Friday the 13th films) for a low budget Italian horror film. It also has a Bond Girl in it (Claudine Auger), which is always a bonus.
     
  18. CT1138

    CT1138 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 4, 2013
    Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the 2003 remake. It's more deranged than the first one, and not in a good way. It's overly convoluted and turned what was a pretty straightforward and scary movie into a big mess.
     
  19. heels1785

    heels1785 Skywalker Saga + JCC Manager / Finally Won A Draft star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 10, 2003
    Top Gun.

    My monthly viewing of the greatest film ever made.
     
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  20. Sarge

    Sarge Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Oct 4, 1998
    Inside Out Yeah, some feels, but I gotta say Bing Bong annoyed me.
     
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  21. Master_Lok

    Master_Lok Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 18, 2012
    Mr. Vampire (1985) - This was a lot of fun and still has more than a few LMAO moments.

    Our local Taoist priest tries to keep bad supernatural elements in line with his two bungling assistants. When a local shop owner wants to rebury his father for good luck - we find that said pop died angrily which results in the corpse becoming a vampire. And soon our good priest is up to his yellow robed elbows in fine messes as his dumb disciples get bit by said vampire (Dan) and/or nearly possessed by a lady ghost (Harry). What's a taoist priest to do but unleash his kung fu magic and make things right?

    As for the funny stuff, it's mostly Dan and Harry (including the first time Harry's lady ghost tries to snare him. It's such a classic piece of slapstick humor but still funny because as a ghost this should have never happened to this character, but it did). And the gags with our priest removing his head from between prison bars were hilarious.

    What I loved about this was I 100% believed I was in this world and I felt bad for the priest knowing he had such misguided dumb a$$es for assistants. I loved the magic and rituals with their mix of kung fu movies, Chinese medicine and all kinds of written spells and such. Sticky rice as a combatant for hopping vampires? Um, yes please. I couldn't quite get myself to watch it with the English dub this time, but I think I will because that will probably make it as ROTF funny as it was when I first saw this almost 20 years ago.

    The late Lam Ching Ying became type cast as Taoist exorcists after this role, but he's so great here - it is easy to see why everyone wanted him as their Taoist master. Chin Siu-Ho played the beleaguered Harry (and I believe starred in the first sequel to this); interestingly he returned to the genre in the unfunny and somber Rigor Mortis from 2013.
     
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  22. Drac39

    Drac39 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 9, 2002
    'The Babadook'
    I have some mixed feelings about it. Do not get me wrong it gets an awful lot right.

    It is a meticulously crafted thriller with a brave and intense performance from Essie Davis. There are sequences that are extremely creepy and definitely leave a very surreal effect. One that particularly left a very chilling effect was the use of some old Melies films as the world becomes more nightmarish. The musical score may get undercooked but it plays with the themes of the film very well. It's child like and sinister without being too much.
    The thing I most liked about 'Babadook' is that it produces all it's scares without the use of any gore.
    The problems I have with the film and why I can't quite give it the title of horror masterpiece stem from the vagueness of haunted house films. I don't want the whole thing explained but the fact that the babadook can seemingly do anything without any parameters or explanation actually sort of takes away some of the tension for me. I want to know what drives this evil. Also, the easiest choice you can make in a horror film is to place a young child in danger. I didn't feel this the whole film but there were times when it gets tough to see a child get terrorized to produce the thrills.
    The new millennium has not seen a quality horror output. 'The Babadook' at least is thrilling and eerie. It doesn't work all the time but at it's best moments it has an ability to get under your skin.
     
  23. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    May 4, 2003
    Morgan: This was not a good movie. It wasn't really a bad one either, though. The tension building up in the first hour was interesting, and opened the door for a lot of possible avenues the film could take. In fact, though, the big moment was the signal that the climax was starting, not the actual story of the film as I had expected. I appreciated that this wasn't some massive, stupid, revisited "universe." This was the sort of film that used to be typical and used to end up on TNT over the weekend. I would gladly watch it there.

    22 Jump Street: Contemporary trends in comedy jam-pack everything with jokes. Compare how quickly they come in here, or in a more recent sitcom to something made a decade or two (or three) ago. It's a different sensibility, and I'm not sure it's the one I like the most. That said, it can sometimes be fun. The film skews raunchy at points but ignoring that it was adequate.

    Birth of A Nation: There's something to be said for perspective. The last few years have brought us our first and only looks at the experience of slavery from the descendants of the same. It's been interesting and enlightening. The real highlight of this film, for instance, is the Turner wedding sequence. I have for decades read about the ring shout, and traced its cultural successors, and even watched demonstration. But the real, devastating beauty of a period film is having the imagination to pull all the elements together and show something how it might have been. The way Parker breathes life into it here is arresting and beautiful. Despite the horrendous moments that this film has--at multiple points I was literally looking away from the screen with my eyes closed--what emerges for the first time is not a story of victimization, but a look at lived culture. It's adaptation to hardship, the slippage between Aristotle's "natural slave" and a person who is, after all independently thinking, the syncreticism that takes half understood pieces of African culture and refigures it into something newly meaningful. It's a wonderful tapestry of newer research on the life of African slaves that simply hasn't penetrated the popular consciousness yet, and even where it has was never displayed so vividly. Even if the film were nothing but one slave's life and death, without any rebellion or larger significance, I would have enjoyed it.

    But in fact it did go on. I have seen some comparisons to other "revolution" films. They variably impress or disgust me. For the latter, I am thinking chiefly about Django, which I continue to detest as an exploitation film. Even the briefest comparisons reveal why. For one, everyone--and the film itself--is much more ambivalent about its violence. After killing the plantation owner, there is a longish scene of Turner vomiting and trying to come to terms with it. When he asks his family if they approve, it's not at all certain what they will say. The troop debates among themselves about the line between revenge and justice. The domestic/"house" servant is an equally complex character. We never really sympathize with him. But he is a realist about the plantation's owner's personality, where Turner is naive. His argument against armed revolution is one that has real moral force, and which is very easy to agree with. His predictions, though gloomy, are ultimately not wrong. Eschewing caricature, they dealt with him plausibly in what was one of the most difficult situations imaginable. This sort of roundedness and depth, really make the film stand out. I would classify it as firmly nationalist without being a war/freedom fighter film. I'd recommend it to any and everyone.
     
  24. PCCViking

    PCCViking Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2014
    Denial: a movie about David Irving (Timothy Spall) suing for libel after being labeled a Holocaust denier, and the defendants having to prove that he knowingly lied about the Holocaust not happening.
     
  25. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    I saw that too. It was better than I thought it'd be, just going off critical response. Spall was definitely great, as were Tom Wilkinson and Rachel Weisz.
     
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