Amph What was the last movie you saw?

Edge of Tomorrow - Groundhog Day meets Independence Day. I enjoyed the first half. Fell off a bit in the second half but would give a modest recommendation. Way better than that Oblivion turd.

 

With Farrell/Bullseye, it was less his performance and more the tone of the character. When we first meet him, he's playing darts in a pub as House of Pain's "Top O' the Mornin' to ya" is playing. I'm still aching from the full-body cringe. Then he kills a guy with paperclip darts. It's all just too hammy IMO, even by 2003 standards. On the flip side, his counterpart in crime Michael Clarke Duncan seems to think they're doing The Godfather. I wouldn't say Duncan is better--though I do think he's quite good here in an underwritten role--but at least for me he felt dangerous where Bullseye felt silly in a Schumacheresque way. But at least he had a handle on the character. Affleck never really managed to find Murdock, and Garner seemed to shrink on the big stage.

But I'm with you on Ferrell in Saving Mr. Banks. He's the heart and soul of the movie, and gives its best performance IMO. Quite an accomplishment with the likes of Hanks, Thompson and Giamatti around.

 

In Theaters: Avengers Age of Ultron
at home: The Road Warrior (rewatching the movies before I go to see Fury Road this Friday)

 

Finally saw Avengers: AOU. Went in with lower expectations based on word of mouth. But I enjoyed it very much. The plan was to sneak into Mad Max after this, but I had really bad IMAX 3D headache.

 

Big Hero 6--I wanted to cry so many times!

 

Brazil (1985).

The first time I watched Brazil I fell in love with it. It's the right sort of pessimistic, incredibly dark, highly stylized, and yes, incredibly funny, film to precisely win me over, which it did; though I admit there was some luck in that I was never subjected to the theatrical cut. The second time I watched Brazil I decided it was one of my favorite movies of all time. The subsequent instances where I watched Brazil I really wished I could watch it in a better quality than the admirable but incredibly dicey Criterion DVD release, which didn't even have enhanced widescreen. So this time I watched Brazil on Criterion's blu-ray transfer from 2012, and I fell in love all over again. Who says you can't go home?

The proper ending to the movie, that's who.

 

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) - I've never seen such relentless spectacle. It's a total carnage ballet. And yet despite its pedal to the metal pace and bare bones plot, it somehow gains enough emotional purchase by the end to give it all some meaning. To my complete surprise, the hype is justified. - 8/10

 

No, that's another one! I also need to see The Guard, John Michael McDonagh's last film. He's Martin McDonagh's brother. Somehow they'd both slipped by me until I saw Calvary last year and now I just really need to get to their other stuff.


Taken 3 (2015) – Olivier Megaton


The Taken franchise: keeping Liam Neeson in giant stuffed bears and wine for almost ten years.

I mean, what is there to say? Neeson just keeps wasting himself in these brain-dead, incoherent messes. Dougray Scott, also a fine actor, decides to join in on being utterly wasted. Maggie Grace still sucks as an actress. Forrest Whittaker decides that if he can shove enough tics in, he’ll be able to make his utterly forgettable character register and he’ll prove that he’s some kind of method actor or something. Megaton’s direction is brutally bad; the action scenes are just incoherent, deafening blurs. And, oh, yes, there’s a pregnancy subplot shoved in here that is one of the dumbest things I’ve seen in a really long time. God, that last scene of Neeson & Grace is just brutally terrible. Well, at least we’re set up for T4ken (and you know that’s what they’ll call it): it’ll be the grandkid that goes missing, right? Oh, also missing from T4ken? Me. Warned against. 1 star.

tl;dr – another in a string of disappointing, stupid action thrillers from Neeson; the drama is as dreadful as expected, but even the action sequences fail to engage. 1 star.

More Movie Reviews!

 

This 3rd quarter transformation by Neeson into a cash-grabbing action hero is head scratching. Don't get me wrong, I like the genre, and he's done some good work in this post-Taken era of his career (I particularly like The Grey), but not only are his efforts increasingly bad of late, he's totally eschewed straight drama. I do see that he's doing a Scorsese film at the moment, though.

 

Yeah, word is that he said in some interview that he's going to stop with the action movies soon. I mean, the action genre can be excellent, of course, and some of Neeson's late career stuff has bumped up against that. You mention The Grey and the first Taken has a lot of good stuff. And I particularly enjoyed Non-Stop, which was much more of a mystery-thriller than an action movie. But, yeah, it is pretty sad, taken in total. We can only hope that the rumor of his retiring from the genre is true.

 

Ironically, he was considered for James Bond at some point, but turned it down because he allegedly didn't want to do action movies.

As for the Taken sequels, maybe they're still made because audiences are quite taken with them.

 

I said GOOD DAY SIR

 

A Walk Among Tombstones another gem by Liam Neeson. This one started out interesting and held my interest. But quickly dissolved into garbage.

 

Mad Max: Fury Road

very good film. This may be out of left field, but if they make another, I would love to see Max have a run in with a Northern Tribe and meet the older and wiser feral kid. As much as I like seeing Max in the wasteland, I hope that he somehow gets more humanity back in his old age because it lies below the surface and it seems to pop up when he is helping people.

 

Invincible Armor - but LOL the bad guy's black hair is showing under the white wig.
and

Hitman in the Hand of Buddha - that was interesting.

I'm beginning to see a lot of the same character actors in these Kung Fu films too.

 

Rear Window (1954).

It's ****ing Rear Window.

 

Mad Max: Fury Road: Ridiculous. In every conceivably fantastic way imaginable. A refreshing change of pace from the lackluster, CG laden "blockbusters" that now dominate the summer cinematic landscape. What a lovely, lovely experience.

 

Vertigo (1958).

According to Wikipedia, this is Hitchcock's "most personal" film. Man, Alfred's dating life was screwed up.

Incidentally I got a five movie Hitchcock box set, hence the two in a row. I might even follow up with North by Northwest, I'm kind of on a roll.

 

Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie.

 

North by Northwest (1959).

There is no George Kaplan of the Moon, really. Matter of fact it's all Kaplan.

 

Yeah, I read that too. Obviously the clock is ticking on him anyway, and unlike Arnold and Sly, I think Neeson can slide right back into drama and work as long as he chooses to. I could even see him snagging some Oscar noms if he can find the right projects. Then again I could see him pulling a Michael Caine/Morgan Freeman where he says yes to every offer to come in and class up popcorn flicks as the avuncular sage. That's a fate I hope he's spared.

Yeah, that one seemed to have some potential early on, but it eventually collapses under genre clichés and questionable choices. But at least Neeson gets to do a little acting in it.

 

Avengers: Age of Ultron.

 

American Beauty.

Good lord, that's a fine piece of film. 1999 was such a good year.


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