Amph What was the last movie you saw?

Pyramid
An OK movie, nothing great but not terrible either. Running time seemed just right and my only real complaint is that it was way too dark a few times.

 

Lincoln

 

I saw a news story about someone putting a kruggerand in a Salvation Army kettle (something that seems to happen a lot across the country) and one thing came to mind: Lethal Weapon 2. Ever think of a movie you like and even own and just don't have the motivation to watch it because you feel you're so familiar with it, but then watch it and still have a nice time no matter how well you know what will happen and what will be said? The first movie seems to be the highest regarded by many but this is the favorite of the series. The toilet, "okay, okay", the house on stilts, the drive-through, the condom commercial...this is definitely a movie of the time. The socially-conscious messages sprinkled throughout ranging from the talk of tuna fishing killing dolphins, anti-smoking, and South African apartheid would rile the same people who jumped all over WALL-E over climate change or George Lucas over the "death sticks." It's been my opinion since 1990 that its popularity and bringing apartheid to the mainstream movie audiences might have led to the release of Nelson Mandela the next year. I saw it before I saw the first in that crowdpleasing summer of 1989. Twenty-five years ago this was coming out on video and might have been priced-to-buy, which was becoming more common.

 

Dead Snow 2: Red Vs. Dead.

Eh...it was ok.

 

Gone Girl

I really liked the movie but it's not really doing much to advance how women are treated in the media, which I'd say is a failing. Everything else was great.

 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

 

Better concept than execution on the first one at least.

 

Underworld: Evolution, 2006. Meh. Bigger faster more intense!

Kate Beckinsale wears spandex and does her own stunts.

Trying to think of something else positive to say about it... No, I got nuthin'.

 

I've been meaning to rewatch E.T. for a long time. I watch the theatrical version and have the DVD that put both versions in one set. Those 20th anniversary changes really damaged the movie's reputation but I still didn't think most people cared about it anymore anyway. E.T. was so popular people got sick of it. I lived through the whole phenomenon and didn't really care that much about it in my single digit ages--maybe I would have if the very neat and thorough 2002 toy line had been out in 1982--but I later appreciated it by the early '90s. Aside from the guns removal issue were the digital changes to E.T. which were completely unnecessary. That puppet/costume was alive, already expressive as it was, and a work of art. It's nice to see that Spielberg regrets changing anything. I couldn't help but think of those annoying kids in the YouTube videos where they show kids Game Boys and Nirvana videos to see what they think of them (as if their parents were too stupid to tell them about the past or just don't keep anything) and I wondered how they would view this 32 year old "modern" movie. This looks more modern to me than a movie from 1950 did in 1982... right? The toys have been remade and can be found in stores. It's in color, the dialogue is more real than people in movies talked in the '50s and early '60s, bicycles still look the same, cinematography and film score for such a subject isn't drastically different, etc.

 

Accidental double post. Post did not initially show up..

 

When anyone says "Lethal Weapon 2" the first thing that always comes to my mind is "Diplomatic Immunity!". Next of course is Patsy Kensit .

I may be wrong, but I believe I read somewhere that those social messages were a stipulation of Danny Glover's. LW3 of course has the "gun control" message, and LW4 focuses on human trafficking.

Yeah, the first movie I ever bought on VHS was Batman that same year. $15.99. To make a comparison, when Raider's of the Lost Ark came out on home video, my Dad borrowed it from a guy he worked with and I remember him telling me that he had paid $100 for it, which blew my little mind.

 

HOBBIT: BOFA was pretty good.

....not great, but pretty good. Not in the same league as LOTR.

 

It's hard to find a horror movie that isn't pieced together from elements of other, better horror movies. Mostly I have to be satisfied if the pieces have been reassembled in an appealing and hopefully somewhat novel way. The Babadook doesn't quite get there, but it's effective enough to be disturbing, and it's mature enough to go places no Paranormal Activity would dare to tread.

 

I really like how when the DVD of the re-release came out it included both versions. I was double-checking my memory of that just now and I even discovered that according to Spielberg, he demanded that the studio release it that way -- and for the same price of one disc. I think it's great for directors to be able to offer their vision where they've clashed with the studio (ie situations like Blade Runner which is one of those rare director's cuts that I prefer) or tweak their vision years later, but whenever you've got multiple versions out there, especially iconic movies like E.T. (and some other movies of a franchise that shall remain nameless) you should put them both out there for the audience and let them decide which they prefer. Let time decide which is the better one.

 

i watched a few redbox rentals. neighbors i turned off after about 15 minutes. it was so stupid. the calling was a pretty bad, overacted, poorly directed thriller. i did watch the whole thing though. tammy was pretty dumb, but occasionally funny and at least it had some heart. susan sarandon only plays alcoholics now i guess. godzilla put me to sleep about two thirds of the way through. not exactly on a roll with movies.

 

Another Year (2010)

A very quirky and simplistic little British comedy with some great performances that all of a sudden turns into an incredibly bleak and relentlessly depressing experience towards the last act. I've never seen a movie change tone so damn abruptly like that.

The Grudge 2 (2006)

 

Just saw that last night. It's definitely the smartest horror movie I've seen since The Conjuring. I don't know that it's one of the four best horror movies ever (William Friedkin tweeted "Psycho, Diabolique, Alien . . . and now The Babadook" the other day), but it's a great one I'd say. Most credit to Essie Davis for that astonishing lead performance.

 

The first movie I bought was Top Gun in April 1987, one of the first to be sold like that. It was $26. It was on Betamax because of course, we were of the few people with a Beta VCR. It was hard to find a video store with Beta tapes even in 1986 and 1987.

Yes, I remember seeing the news on IMDB in 2002 about Spielberg having Universal include the theatrical version with the low cost set. It was only going to be included with a bloated $50 set that included other extras. Spielberg said he never meant the new version to replace the original and wanted that to be available to everyone. It was a limited edition but I think the Blu Ray only has the original version. I'll find out, since I just bought it.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy.

It was fun.

 

nightcrawler. it was good, though a bit silly and on-the-nose at certain points. jake g. was quite brilliant. i really like that guy. the opening credits are fantastic. this is the music that went with them:

 

So it's not about the X-Man?

Figures....

 

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

 

I was conned into seeing "Let's Be Cops" at the cinemas recently. A mate organised for all of our friends that had just graduated law school together to get together to see, and I quote, a 'great film'. Assuming it would be Interstellar I went along.

It's honestly the worst film I've ever been made to pay money to see (and I include Trans4mers in that reckoning). I've never walked out of a film before, but this is about as close as I've come. If it had been only three or four of us I reckon we'd have left.

 

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Well, that was... different. I sat down to watch this movie fully prepared to switch my brain off and enjoy a couple hours of flashy effects and over-the-top fight scenes, but a bit like Cowboys & Aliens the movie just refuses to admit how silly it is, and suffers from intense delusions of grandeur. The result is an overly serious, overly long affair that was far less entertaining than it should have been. The fight scenes were relatively fun, at least. 4/10

 

Death at a Funeral (2010)

Nowhere near as good as Frank Oz's 2007 flick.

 

'The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies'

Jackson's worst Middle Earth film with some of the stupidest dialogue a film like this can have. It truly feels as if we are merely going through the motions...

but really can I hate it that much?