Amph What was the last movie you saw?

the toy story sequels were good.

 

Clerks (1994)

I'm glad I gave Kevin Smith a second chance (because J&SBSB is a turd) because this is one helluva debut film. In other words, I *****ing loved it. It really spoke to me man. It holds up remarkably well. Equally bleak and hilarious in measure.

 

The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).

Literally the last possible day in theaters in my area. It was... fine. Mostly I left wishing that we, as a species, could collectively get over the whole "Robots and A.I.? Better talk about origins and birth!" thing; it's a tedious theme.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

Terminator Genisys... even with some headache inducing time-travel/timeline issues, some flat plot points & Jai Courtney making for a so-so John Connor, this is still a fun entry into the franchise. The action is good, Jason Clarke & Emilia Clarke do good work as John & Sarah Connor, while Arnold's actually believable in this (due to some nice meta-humor, and the explanation that the human tissue wrapped around the T-800s can & do age). *** out of ****.

 

Warm Bodies (2012) - Ever wonder what would happen if Cameron Crowe and George Romero made a movie together? No, me either. But I'm guessing it would look something like Warm Bodies, a romantic dramedy about a young zombie who falls in love with a beautiful human survivor and begins to regain his own humanity. Just when you think the zombie genre is played out and then some, along comes this unique take. That's not to say I liked it, because in the end I didn't, but I do appreciate the attempt at something different. - 5/10

 

One of us is confused. Courtney's playing Reese, right? Or is this yet another plot twist?

I've not seen it yet, obviously.

 

Correct about Courtney playing Reese. Jason Clark is playing Connor.

 

Ah, good. The way they play about with these things I couldn't be sure.

 

The Kung Fu Instructor - another Ti Lung / Sun Chung vehicle. It plays out like Yojimbo with a benign lead who is framed into working with the bad clan rather than Mifune's classic belligerent samurai. Not as good as Avenging Eagle or The Magic Blade for that matter, but definitely worth seeing for Ti Lung's martial prowess and charisma. Director Sun Chung usually creates very intimate and intense character studies (even if there's a large cast), but this one felt a little distant and detached. 5.5/10.

 

'Twas a typo I made.

 

I just got back from seeing the new Terminator movie. I liked it, but then again, there are very few movies I have seen that I have actually hated (cough, cough, Legend of Hercules, cough, cough).

Non-spoilers: it basically pretends Rise of the Machines and Salvation doesn't exist, although it does retain an element of Rise of the Machines in the villain's plan (won't reveal who the villain is in case no one has seen the recent trailers or any other promotional materials). I loved the homage it paid to the original Arnold Terminator.

 

Walking with Dinosaurs. I just wanted to see some dinosaurs and this has CG dinosaurs and mostly real environments. The Blu Ray needs an isolated sound effects track to keep out the annoying narration and nonstop dialogue (without mouth movements) of the animals, which is in the trendy modern style of speech. I just muted it halfway through and put on some music.

 

The Bucket List (2007)

Not even Jack and Morgan can save this trite fest and Rob Reiner's continuing downward spiral. But I'm pretty sure Armen probably gave it *** out of **** as he does to everything.

 

The worst thing about that movie The Bucket List is that it has given us that stupid and widely overused pop term to describe anything someone thinks he or she has an interest in doing beyond the immediately foreseen future. Omigod I heard there's a new Minions movie coming out. I am so putting that on my #bucketlist.

I just looked up some reviews of the Walking with Dinosaurs (2013) movie I mentioned earlier. It's so funny how everyone else felt that way about the voice-over... but why not the many people responsible for the movie? How can filmmakers so easily screw something up?

 

I actually rate it **, and it's only that high because of the presence of Freeman & Nicholson.

 

Terminator Salvation. I really hope its successor fails at the box office and the franchise is no longer expanded upon.

 

I've never seen it in its entirety but I have read Roger Ebert's review which is one of his best. The man was suffering from cancer and the plot of these two guys having such fun on adventures was extremely offensive to him. I think there was a line about cancer patients viewing successfully getting to the bathroom was more of an achievement than any of Nicholson or Freeman ' s adventures. It's one of my favorite Ebert reviews, full of righteous anger.

 

Brave Archer and His Mate (Brave Archer 4) (1981) As great as Kuo Choi can be, sometimes he cannot save a film (this and Ode to Gallantry). I understand this more now having seen Brave Archer 2 and 3 several times over the past month, but still. I thought if Lu Feng does not show up by 10:00 p.m. I am switching off - well Lu showed up at that exact time (seriously I need to hone my inconsequential ESP on more important things like the winning lottery numbers.) His appearance meant some welcome and inventive combat for a little while. Yay! His monk called everyone a shameless bastard for a few minutes so I got a good laugh from that. The Dipper formation used by the clan Lu was part of was in an earlier Brave Archer film, however the swords added a much more fun and dangerous element to that stance - good fun. So 4.5 / 10 for the Lu Feng interlude which saved an otherwise disappointing film (everyone looked like they were seriously disinterested.) I probably won't watch this one again for awhile.

 

Insidious 3

While it lacks the variety of cheap thrills one would see in the second film, this one seems to have a much more coherent story. Lin Shaye puts out another quality performance. While it's not as good as "The Conjuring" or the original "Insidious" it is much better than "Annabelle" and I would argue it's also far superior to "Insidious 2"--especially when viewing the cast's performances.

My only complaint is the title. Chronologically, it's a prequel, so why is it named the third?

All in all, a fun film to watch in the dark.

6/10


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The Fast And The Furious (2001) - I hadn't seen this since '01, and frankly I wasn't all that impressed at the time. So much so that I skipped 2 and 3, and watched 4 only because it had solid buzz. And then of course the franchise evolved from a Point Break rip-off (and I mean beat for beat) with street racing substituted for surfing into Ocean's Eleven for the Red Bull generation. After enjoying the fifth one on DVD I actually caught the last two at the theater and had a blast both times. So with all that in mind, I revisited the original with some trepidation. How would a movie I obviously didn't care much for the first time hold up against its more popcorn-style sequels? The answer; surprisingly well. Though it lacks the over the top action of the more recent films, the movie itself moves along at a brisk clip. Diesel and Walker have really good chemistry, with the former really carrying the flick on his V-neck clad shoulders (much as his Point Break counterpart Patrick Swayze did). Diesel's Dominic Toretto has become a rather somber, mumbly character of late, but here he's downright jaunty by comparison. I'm not afraid to say that Paul Walker was a ridiculously good looking man, and honestly that may have worked against him a bit. He never did get much respect for his acting, and while I wouldn't say he was exactly Brando, he did well when he was in his wheelhouse, and this is directly in said wheelhouse.

It's not going to win any awards for originality or brains, but like many of the films in this franchise, it's a lot of fun. - 7/10

 

It's got JACK! He gave it ***** out of ****.