Amph What was the last movie you saw?

Chef. I like foodie movies, generally. This was hit and miss, a lot to like, but a bit meandering at times. The social media angle between generations was a nice idea, but really underused overall. Enjoyable enough, but not something I think I'll ever watch again.

 

My local theater is a giant national multiplex chain that put the other national multiplex under that put my local theater under 30 years ago.

Althought there is the Music Box Theatre - next up there: "The One I Love." Another small genre movie that, if it's good, will also be good on an airplane.

 

Yup. I don't know why I didn't watch this before.

 

Hellcats of the Navy, 1957. Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis. Less flag-waving than I expected, and more drama. It's not one of the great WW2 submarine movies, but I've seen a lot worse.

 

Get On Up (2014)



Well, let’s get the main point out of the way first. Chadwick Boseman does a phenomenal James Brown. He has to play Brown as a young man in the fifties and then all the way up to his elder statesman role in the nineties and it’s really remarkable the way he disappears into the role. The direction is also quite a bit better than I thought it would be; Taylor eschews straight chronology for a structure that hops all around through time and space and it generally works really, really well. The musical scenes are pretty well good to fantastic. The best sequences are a rehearsal in which the band breaks down Cold Sweat and a lengthy live performance in 1971 in Paris. The music is, of course, wonderful and Boseman just really kills it in these scenes. He may not be doing the singing, but he’s found an amazing groove as a dancer. But the film isn’t perfect by a stretch. The script isn’t very good in the personal drama stuff; it’s a string of clichés at its worst and, save for one wonderful scene between Boseman’s Brown and Nelsan Ellis’ Bobby Byrd after the Paris show, only fair at best. It’s a good thing that the film ends with a song; it’s a song that ties up some emotional beats that the film has been hitting and the song says it far better than any scene in this script ever could. And the script knows how to raise issues without exploring them, which is annoying. There’s one single scene of Brown hitting his mistress and it’s a good scene, but it just whips by and the issue of his domestic abuse is never raised again. It probably deserved more than twenty seconds; if that’s all you’re going to do, why do it at all? And sometimes the director’s attempts at “meaningful” symbolism fall really flat. It’s a film that’s good, but could have been great. When the scenes work, they really work; standouts include the sequences mentioned above and a heart-stopping boxing match. When they don’t, they’re never exactly horrible, just mediocre and dull. It’s a pretty good genre piece; a biopic, I mean, but it never transcends that to become something better. It’s no Walk the Line. Still, I’d call it good. I give it a conditional recommendation. If it looks like the kind of thing you’ll like, give it a shot. If it doesn’t, don’t bother; it’s not going to change your mind. 3 stars.

tl;dr – Boseman’s remarkable performance, some creative direction and phenomenal music sequences elevate a dull, shallow and very average script. A solid enough biopic, but nothing more. 3 stars.

 

It's not that I think everyone should see all the movies in the theater; I only went twice this summer. It's just not convenient for me to go out there. I was referring to watching something at home on a TV or in the theater.

 

Jarhead

 

The Pink Panther. Amusing, but I didn't find it amazingly hilarious. Sellers's physical antics are great, and when it's on, it's on -- I love that absurd car chase -- but it seems to go for the comedy only intermittently, meaning too often it's content to just let the mediocre drama the comedy is built around play out. It could have been more than it was.

Rebel Without a Cause. It's the great teen rebellion movie, but I found it interesting how non-rebellious the kids really are. They're not fire-spitting, hostile, antisocial toughs in the classic rebel mode. They're just kids who want good parents and can't get them and act out. Natalie Wood wants to be daddy's little girl but he's distant, so she runs with a bad crowd and looks for affection with the cool kids. James Dean, who's just absolutely magnetic, just wants his bickering, weak parents to set him a good example, but instead his home is hell and he has to try to figure out how to be a man on his own (Jim Backus as his bumbling, spineless father is good too). It's striking that Dean makes being uncool cool -- Dean sets the standard for teen cool by getting bullied. He's passive, avoiding confrontation, and he's sensitive and well-meaning, a nice guy who gets his bad boy veneer from his emotional torment. The real teen rebels are the villains of the piece (though I liked the touch of having Buzz come around on Dean). Part of it fifties squareness, but there's a lot to like, a lot of truth, in its take on teens' emotional space, too. And the last of the trio is Sal Mineo, who's great as a kid with no dad in his life and an absent, selfish mother, a pathetic loner who's just desperate to have some sense of family. He reads as gay, but I liked that they didn't make him emasculated. Rather, his problem is that he's infantilized -- without parents, he's regressed to constant timidity and a terrifying depth of neediness. He's in the worst situation, and it's no surprise that he's the only one of the group who's actually dangerous, because he's so emotionally unstable. The film just does great work with the characters and their relationships. I love the way that Dean and Wood, observing Mineo's mismatched socks as he sleeps, have a good giggle, but it's never mean-spirited. "I've done that; haven't you?" he asks Wood, defusing any notion that they're laughin at Mineo himself and just projecting this incredible warmth and friendship. The movie can hit its points a little heavily in the dialogue, and the choice to have everything happen in about 24 hours makes it feel a little artificial, but what an incredible movie. Nicholas Ray is a really underrated director.

A Streetcar Named Desire. Newman, Dean, and Brando in three nights. Brando is just ungodly here, absolutely captivating. His Stanley Kowlaski is hot-tempered, too used to getting his own way, a man of absolute confidence and pride even in his fairly squalid setting, but most importantly, under all that charisma, he's a bad man. It's one of the most fascinating performances I've seen. He's up against Vivien Leigh's Blanche, a character less ultimately malignant but more repulsive on the surface, an increibly obnoxious, obviously unwell imposition who haughtily sneers her way through her sister's life. She's unbalanced, hysterical, with a trafic backstory, but she never manages to be too sympathetic because of the way she carries herself. It sets up a tremendous conflict. I've also got to give credit to Karl Malden for a great performance. What a tremendous movie.

 

Snowpiercer.

 

I really hate biopics. Sometimes it seems like they all use the same script and just change the names. It's just tough to take an entire life or even career and condense it down to 2 hrs. Just as you get settled in to a particular moment, it leaps forward again. I think these things work better when they focus on a specific period or event. 13 Days or Rescue Dawn for instance. That said, the trailer for Get on Up looked good. Definitely a rental.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) - (re-re-re-re-watch) More than ever I'm convinced that Cap has the best Phase 1 and Phase 2 films. To me, this is the most underrated movie of the MCU, and not by a little. - 8/10

 

The November Man-Think James Bond meets The Bourne Identity in a way, only rated R.

 

Overnight, the 2004 documentary about the rise and fall (and crash, and burn, and...) of Troy Duffy, director and writer of The Boondock Saints. Pure schadenfreude porn.

 

THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER: Another highly entertaining Wayne flick. Not his best, and boy was it sloppy in places.

Still, Wayne can carry a movie. Never be another like him.

 

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

 

Huh, weird. I just saw it listed on AV Club a day or two ago and decided to watch it later.

 

Ha. That's the reason I watched it.

 

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

I guess I'm a fan of the series, this is the only movie in the series I hadn't seen. It just never interested me, it seems like a boring idea, I remember being sorta baffled at the choice when it came out. I had seen bits and pieces of it, and none of it made me think otherwise.

I decided to give it a try based on one thing: Bill Nighy. I love this guy, especially his performances in this series. Well, he didn't fail to deliver here. His wonderfully hammy performance of a well-written character is really all the movie has going for it, indeed it seems as if the movie was written solely for this purpose, even though he's not even the protagonist, there's just not much else there. I think his performance alone was worth the ninety minutes.

Well, there was Rhona Mitra, too. She's a rubbish actress, but she's nice to look at.

Otherwise, the movie is lacking what has made the series successful so far, coolness factor. Just not enough action, and what action there was, often wasn't great. Just not enough visual candy making everything look cool.

I can't say I liked seeing Viktor shown to be so weak, but I guess it makes sense (however unsatisfying) at this point in the timeline, far in the past, not too long after he was first turned. I did loathe seeing him basically killed in a prequel.

The romance was generic R&J affair, totally uninspired.

Which is kinda surprising, since it was made by the same people who made the first Underworld. I really enjoyed the romance from the first movie, it's kinda subtle. It's more R&J, but I just like the way it was done. For Selene, it's really lust at first sight, but grows into something more when Michael, a puny human, saves her life. Michael clings to her because she's his strong protector, so it's a gender role reversal. Plus, everything is basically unsaid, there's very little dialogue between them, and certainly no terribly sappy dialogue that I can remember. It's all shown in glances and hidden facial expressions.

Anyone else like this series? I did a thread search for it, but couldn't find anything, which is sorta surprising.

I looked up the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and I'm surprised to see them so poorly rated, all in the 30s, with Evolution dipping to 16%. Certainly these movies aren't high art, and each one is worse than the previous, but I think they're entertaining and the box office results seem to agree, they've all made money on small budgets.

I think the first one is legitimately a solid and very stylish movie, introducing an interesting and detailed background mythology, enjoyable characters, and entertaining action. The second suffers as many sequels do, from a weaker, even cheesier story and diminished character work, but tries to make up for it with bigger action. It doesn't succeed, and basically falls apart completely heading toward the end. The third, Rise of the Lycans, as I said is just thin and boring outside of Bill Nighy. The last one, Awakening, is just an awful mess from beginning to end, based on a garbage premise, producing an equally garbage story, with completely forgettable cardboard characters and lifeless performances to match, and the crappiest of crappy 3D action. It's so bad it definitely should have killed the franchise, and I would have been glad, except for some reason they're apparently doing another one.

 

Ping Pong Summer (2014) - As you can probably tell from the title, this is a German Expressionist film. Nah, it's actually an indie comedy set in the 80s that's a weird hybrid of The Karate Kid and Napoleon Dynamite. A little rough around the edges, but it rewards you for sticking with it and it's got a big heart. - 6/10

 

What did you think of the fact that the ending had to be changed for it to be somewhat more palatable to the 50's audiences? I think it definitely takes something away from the picture. I've always felt 'Streetcar' to be a great piece of theatre because it has a lot of similar tropes to a classic tragedy but there is no moment of catharsis for Blanche or anyone for that manner. It leaves you jarred and empty

 

Never understood the Underworld series. A very hyped series, one that so many knew was just going to be Awesome. Yet, first one comes out, its barely decent. Yet all these weirdos are jumping around saying how AWESOME it was. Such excitement comes off a fake. That part of you saying, "Yeah, Cool." While the other half of you is saying,"It wasn't as good as I wanted."

It was supposed to become a series, and it became a series. A series, that I feel lots of people "FAKE LOVE." It's the missed opportunity that you just don't want to let go of. My all rights Underworld should have worked. The tone was there, the look was there, the character was there, but in the end it's a big shrug.


Awesome, shouldn't be used to describe quality anyway.


Anyway:

JAWS: Always watch it in August.

Cabin in the Woods: Still great. Still funny.

 

I think it works to the extent that it's not overly happy. She says she's not coming back, but really, do you think she hasn't said that before? It's not some grand thing where she gets on a bus out of town or sends him to jail or there's no rape and Stanley becomes a better person. It's not as strong as it could be but Kazan did the best he could under the circumstances.

 

Soylent Green.

Good flick, although not as intense an experience since pop culture references ruined the big twist for me ages ago.

 

Is there a particular reason for watching it in August (tradition, childhood memory, etc.)? Not that there needs to be a reason to watch Jaws.

 

Tradition. Noticed several years ago that I always watched Jaws in August.

 

Calvary (2014)



Brendan Gleeson plays a small town Irish priest. One day in the confessional, he gets a surprising message. In one week, the person on the other side of that grate is going to kill him. It’s a small town, so Gleeson knows who that other person is; we, the viewers, do not. The film then follows him through the week as he attempts to deal with the poisonous, cruel, venal people that are his parish, come to terms with his purpose in life, attempt to reconnect with his estranged daughter and prepare for death. It’s an unutterably bleak film and one of the best I’ve seen all year. McDonagh’s direction is spare but beautiful. Gleeson’s performance is minimal, restrained and powerful. The score is minimal and gorgeous. And the actors playing the parish regulars are, to a man/woman, astounding. Aiden Gillen as an atheistic, vitriolic doctor; Dylan Moran as a sociopathic landowner; Kelly Reilly as the broken, suicidal daughter; Orla O’Rourke as an unrepentant, vicious tongued adulterer; Domnhall Gleeson in a brief cameo as a man in prison for murder. It’s a film about so many things; the crimes of the Catholic church, the cruelty of the average person, the failure of goodness to accomplish anything, the modern flippancy toward religion, the role of religion in modern society. And, of course, a deeply, powerfully affecting personal drama. The film has the single most arresting opening line of any film I’ve seen in years and the final shot is one of the most devastating of recent memory. In between, it’s absolutely perfect. I fear this film will sink into obscurity instead of becoming the classic for all time it deserves to be. Please find a way to see it and tell everyone you can to do the same. It’s a masterpiece and if there’s any justice, not that this film argues that there ever is, it’ll still be seen and discussed in a hundred years. It’s astonishing. Highly recommended. 4 stars.

tl;dr – thought-provoking, masterful, intensely of the moment, yet a classic for all time. A film that simply must be seen. 4 stars.

 

Monsters University. It was an out of the blue choice since I didn't give it much thought when it first came out and never had much interest in seeing it, but I enjoyed it. Not as good as the original, but it was time well spent.