Amph What was the last movie you saw?

Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's a divisive film but I don't think it's without merit. It's the only vampire love story I think is interesting and not based on silly slave/master fantasies. It's taken a few viewings but I've really come to appreciate that aspect of the film. Both people are getting something from this relationship and that is great praise in this tired sub genre. Dracula is Mina's escape from the victorian society Bram Stoker wrote 'Dracula' as a horror metaphor critique of. And Coppola's visual style is so beautiful. Every frame is filled with rich imagery. You can't help but admire some films that are as a subtle as a brick in the face if they have this much imagination. I'm willing to tolerate Keanu Reeves for the good in this movie...

 

In honor of the season, I watched Creature from the Black Lagoon last night. The effects, were slightly dated, are still very enjoyable and there are some great moments of tension.

 

Escape Plan

 

Ventured up to the city to check out 'Birdman' at one of the swanky theaters. Usually I wait for these kind of movies to get to the suburbs but I wanted to see this one really badly. I was not disappointed. It's the best movie of the year and Michael Keaton is absolutely brilliant and certainly Oscar worthy. It's one of the best films I've ever seen about the theatre. It's very cynical and angry about the theatre business in all the right ways.

 

Furry Feel-good movie of the season. Bring the kids!

Spoiler

I liked its harsh brutality and mostly without the justification of a Righteous Cause. The acting was also good. The ending was pretty damned ridiculous, though. Brad Pitt got shot three times in the chest with a sniper rifle and not only managed to stay standing for a while, he was still able to speak as though somebody had only slapped him across the face.

 

Brick Mansions

 

bad words. jason bateman plays an obnoxious and abrasive adult who enters a children's spelling bee in order to humiliate his absentee father who runs the spelling bee. luckily, even though he only found out who his father was months earlier he happens to be the best speller in the world. as far-fetched as the premise was, the movie was surprisingly funny and touching at times. it's also shot pretty well. nothing spectacular, but it's okay.

 

citizenfour. gonna try to catch birdman tomorrow.

 

The Prestige (2006) - I really wanted to love this when I saw it back in '06, but ultimately I didn't think it quite lived up to the hype. I'm still not sure I like it as well as most seem to, but I appreciated it much more the second time around, and I think it definitely rewards repeat viewing. - 7/10

 

Last night, first, I saw the Lon Chaney version of "Phantom of the Opera", with live organ accompaniment. I saw it last year, at a different theater with an electronic organ. This year, it was with an old-style, non-electronic Wurlitzer organ that was built into the theater itself. Top notch!

Then, I went home and watched the Rifftrax version of "Galaxy Invader". Bottom notch, at best.

 

Transformers: Age of Extinction- Ugh. Just ugh.

Please stop Michael Bay, and give the Transformers to someone who actually gives a damn about giant robots.

 

birdman. i didn't really care for the subject matter particulary (it's been done to death), but it was totally exhilarating. great camera work and performances.

 

Great matte paintings in the film and terrific costumes. I still love the prologue of the film narrated by Hopkins where he talks about the crusades and Constantinople with the puppets in silhouette. I wanted a whole movie about that period. No Dracula Untold was not it. Coppola's Dracula: The Early Years.

 

You know I would say that it is a similar theme but I think it does something really new with it. It's a movie not entirely about the theatre and entertainment business but rather about the love of acting. Maybe I'm speaking from my theatre experience but a scene that particularly worked for me is when Keaton's character confronts the theatre critic. She calls him a celebrity and not an 'actor'. That's what I really think the film is about.

 

i feel like i've seen a bunch of films about the love of acting, but maybe not one that focused on theater acting. well, one actually. that i can think of right now.

 

That's definitely a point of difference. Theatre acting and film acting are very different and I liked seeing 'Birdman' take that approach. I think 'Birdman' is also about the conflict over what one gets from acting as an art vs. what one gets from acting as a business.

 

yeah, art vs. commerce, high art vs. "low art", professional vs. hack, authenticity vs. phoniness, elitism vs. popularism...

 

that drum score was really freaking good.

 

Red Tails.

It made TPM Howard The Duck Caravan of Courage the Holiday Special look like Citizen ****ing Kane.

 

That bad huh? I could have figured

 

stargate. believe it or not i had never seen this. i always thought it was mostly people shooting laser guns at each other, but it was so much more wonderfully cheesy than that. i feel like someone could make a separate film just about the tragedy that is the haircuts in this movie.

 

'The Phantom of the Opera'. I like it but I've always felt it was one of Chaney's lesser films. The side cast and characters are pretty uninteresting and when Chaney isn't on the screen the film kind of sags. That being said all the iconic moments are still wonderful. The unmasking scene is still one of the most powerful in film history.

 

I agree with others who've said that while "Red Tails" had better visual effects, the HBO-produced movie on the same subject, "The Tuskeegee Airmen", had a better script.

 

Teletubbies has a better script.