Amph What was the last movie you saw?

Rob Roy

 

Have you seen Braveheart, and if so, which one do you prefer? I ask because I vividly remember that heading into 1995 there was a lot of talk about the two competing Scottish epics, and early on the buzz was that Rob Roy was the Oscar bait and the one to beat. Of course we all know how that turned out. I actually didn't watch Rob Roy until 4-5 years ago and found it rather dull. Braveheart on the other hand is one of my all-time favorites. Perhaps not top-20, but certainly top-30. Bad history, but great storytelling.

 

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes : Excellent. Simply excellent. Without a doubt it surpasses it's predecessor by leaps and bounds. Simply one if not the best movies of this summer, which is a pleasant surprise in a summer lineup filed with so much drek. This movie deserves all the technical Oscars it might get nominated for and perhaps so much more.

 

Agh, double post.

 

Yes, I've seen Braveheart and wasn't really a big fan of the movie, good movie of course, but Rob Roy was alright, Neeson was great so was Roth.

But I do prefer Braveheart.

 

Rob Roy is indeed not a great movie, but it's punctuated with moments of Fight Club/Heat/Goodfellas level awesomeness.

 

My one abiding memory of Rob Roy is the foppish brilliance of Tim Roth.

 

Slap Shot, for the first time.

I shoulda watched this movie years ago.

 

I think that's kind of the problem with Men in Tights - in addition to Brooks just running out of steam by that point, for the most part it lives and dies as a direct retort to Prince of Thieves. Two mediocre films that work better in tandem, I guess is how I'd describe it.

 

Actually, not really. Its more of a send up of Errol Flynn's Adventures of Robin Hood. The feast sequence in RH:MIT matches the same sequence in TARH almost shot for shot.

 

The entire plot is structured around Prince of Thieves and most of the characters are loosely based on the ones in that film. I'm not saying there's not elements from other Robin Hood films, but c'mon.

 

The Odd Life of Timothy Green

 

I really got into Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves when it came out, but that excitement quickly faded away and I wouldn't admit it to myself for a long time. I bought the videotape and don't remember watching it much. Anyway I liked it because 1) it was the first such swashbuckling adventure movie I'd seen since maybe 1989, and being younger, two years was a long time. It was unexpectedly witty. The second reason was I got a STAR WARS-like boost of interest days before the release when I saw Alan Rickman on The Arsenio Hall Show with his Kenner action figure. The packaging, with the movie still or set photo and the little bubble to the side and the little oval with the name in it, looked just like SW packaging. To top it off, the cameo blew me away. When I saw Robin Hood: Men in Tights two years later in the theater, it felt uncomfortably embarrassing for Mel Brooks because there was not one real laugh during the movie.

 

i saw a monster movie called godzilla vs. mogadishu

 

Wake of the Red Witch. Adventure, skullduggery, and romance in the South Seas with John Wayne as a square rigger captain. It's nothing spectacular, but I thought it was fun.

 

Out of the Furnace Starring Christian Bale

 

I love that movie.

Source Code. Pretty good. I liked the way it wasn't content on just sitting on the premise of going back to relive eight minutes to find a criminal, but expanded to be about finding out what the program itself was, and trying to push the boundaries of what was possible with the technology. Gyllenhaal's confusion and attempts to get any information at all about what the hell was actually happening really helped make what could have been a straightforward action-thriller unique, creating a sort of paranoid nightmare mystery. And when Gyllenhaal solved the crime only an hour into the movie, I was excited that it would be going in further directions to really explore the technology and the implications of his situation in a way that was very appropriate for sci-fi. And it was pretty great, and we got a good ending . . . and then it kept going and that was an unfortunate decision, because it's just too have-it-all happy. I think a slightly more bittersweet ending would have been preferable. And it's also deeply problematic that the film isn't willing to even tackle the issue that in this reality he's now basically killed the guy who was there and is creepily inhabiting his body to woo his girlfriend under false pretenses. It's really ****ed up when you give any of it even the slightest bit of thought. But up until then, it was a really good sci-fi action thriller.

 

Snowpiercer. Everyone needs to go see this film. It was fantastic.

 

Yeah, Brooks had clearly lost a few MPH off of his fastball by then, but I think your second point is also key. Just as he was at least four years too late with Space Balls (a movie I like, but still), I'm not exactly sure Robin Hood was the ripest target he could've chosen. Sure, it was only two years after Prince of Thieves, but doing a direct sendup like that felt more like a Zucker/Abrahams kind of thing.

The typical criticisms of Prince of Thieves are certainly valid, but I love it anyway. I'll take it over Ridley Scott's joyless slog any day.

Yeah, it's like %90 recycled from ROTJ and DC Super Powers. I guess the thinking was, "Kids that played with those are teenagers now and won't recognize that Friar Tuck is essentially a Gamorrean Guard with a new head and a robe.". You can pick up the figures, carded, on eBay for around $7-10 each. The card backs are pretty nifty in that classic Kenner style, with a nice photo of the character. A small, inexpensive line to collect, if you're so inclined.

 

Night Moves (2013)


Troubled people; a troubled mission

This newest film from Kelly Reichardt follows three radical environmentalists, played by Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard, as they plot to blow up a dam as an act of protest. It's a film that marries the thriller and the character study really, really well. There are moments that are very suspenseful, but it really is the characters that make the film work. I first saw the "no-longer-child" version of Dakota Fanning last year in The Motel Life and she's quite good in both that film and this one. There's still something of the distinctiveness she had as a young child; at the same time, she's very natural, minimal and real - she doesn't seem at all like a "movie star." Eisenberg is really excellent; he's an actor who gets dinged for being the same in every role, but watch him here and you'll see that he's more than capable of giving a deeply emotional, profoundly great performance without any of the tics that he sometimes uses in his schtick. Sarsgaard is, unfortunately, underused, but he's always a pleasure to watch. The scripting is really wonderful; the three mains are all different from each other in really obvious ways, but they're not cardboard stereotypes. You can generally know how the characters will react to different events and to each other, but just when you're getting really comfortable about it, one of them will act in a way that's surprising. They feel absolutely real, in other words. And a word for James Le Gros, who shows up in a nice, very small role as a feed store clerk; he proves the "no small parts" cliche to be true by making the character one of the most memorable parts of the film. All in all, it's a moody, methodical, gripping and bleak film. The ending will be divisive, I suppose, but for me it's perfect. It fits right in with Reichardt's great theme, that of being directionless, lost, wandering, in both the physical and the emotional senses. It may take you a bit to adjust, or readjust, to the rhythms of Reichardt; I had some difficulty for the first twenty to thirty minutes myself, but once you let her take control, you're in for greatness. Great film. Highly recommended. **** stars.

 

I'm in the middle of Horrible Bosses because there's a thunderstorm and I unplugged the TV. I'm trying to watch some of these goofy raunchy comedies I've avoided for the last several years just out of curiosity like Wedding Crashers, Due Date, The Heat, and soon The Hangover, maybe Superbad, etc. By not seeing a lot of these movies, I'm completely unfamiliar with a whole bunch of actors. One thing I've noticed about a lot of these modern movies is there is lots of ad-libbing or just a certain babbling ad-libbing style as if everyone is trying to deliver lines like Robin Williams use to, and the references and jokes just go too far. They'll make a reference to something, like in this movie the differences between Throw Mama from the Train and Strangers on a Train, and I get the reference, but they'll explain it for those people in the audience who might not get it. That just ruins the comedy.
I want to elaborate on my Under the Skin post with major spoilers of sorts, but I can't find the spoiler tag.