Amph What was the last movie you saw?

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

I still think this is a incredibly underrated fantasy film. Though I am a bit bias as I remember fondly seeing the film on Christmas Eve in theaters at a young age. Add to the fact my mom read to me and my siblings a Narnian book or two and how are whole family loved to listen to the Focus on the Family audio dramas (I still like to listen to them to this day in fact). Then you have someone that has the world of Narnia close to their heart. The film itself is fairly decent with a innocent wonder to it that doesn't come across as to cheesy compared to other fantasy films. It has it flaws for sure but I still quite enjoy it.

 

I just so happen to have a Narnia re-watch cued up for (hopefully) this week. I've always liked the first two, not so much Dawn Treader. Been quite awhile since I've watched them, so I'm looking forward to revisiting them to see how they hold up for me.

The Machine (2013) - Covers rather well worn territory about A.I. and really doesn't bring anything new to the table philosophically, but it's solidly made with good production values that belie its extremely low budget. The mood is set by the Vangelisesque score by Tom Raybould, clearly doing an homage to Blade Runner (not the only tip of the cap to the latter in The Machine). Good turns from Toby Stephens and particularly Caity Lotz as the titular Machine. Also features Denis "Wedge" Lawson doing his best Jonathan Price impression. It's not a great film, but I think it's absolutely worth a watch for genre fans. For all others, your mileage may vary. - 6.5/10

 

Dior & I (2014) – Frederick Tcheng



I went to see Dior & I at our local arthouse on the strength of the reviews, but I still honestly didn’t expect to like it all that much. I mean, I know nothing about fashion, and this film follows Raf Simons, apparently a very controversial pick for the post, as he comes into Dior as its new creative director and begins immediately to prepare for the new Haute Couture show. So far, so what, but this film really blindsided me. I absolutely loved it. Simons is a really compelling and charismatic guy and the film allows him to show both his confidence in his out-sized talent and the vulnerable fear of the man who can’t quite believe that he’s where he is. The film really delves deeply into the process of what goes into producing one of these fashion shows and the film is gripping & fascinating in all the right ways. It finds ways to humanize small characters, like a seamstress that’s been part of the company since its inception and a young woman that’s been chosen as the “face of Dior” at this new show despite having never been in an actual show before. The film finds ways of really getting to the emotions and feelings of these characters in such a way that I really empathized with them and their struggles. I never thought I’d be empathizing with the supermodel “face of Dior,” but when the camera catches her look of absolute terror just before she rounds the corner to hit the runway for the first time, I did. It’s a great, great movie and it’ll probably end up being my biggest surprise of 2015; I went expecting not to particularly like it and hoping, at best, to just kind of enjoy it. In the end, I absolutely loved it. 4 stars.

tl;dr – film about haute couture fashion puts a human face to the people behind the scenes and gives a fascinating look at the process of high fashion. 4 stars.

More Movie Reviews!

 

Lincoln (2012)
Dir. Steven Spielberg

A paean to the power of the anecdote. Refreshing to have a political film that is not acidic but rather is about how politics can function for good. It goes without saying that it is immaculately performed, and Kushner's writing is tremendous, but I marvel at Spielberg's blocking choices in this film. His signature camera moves are dialed down and instead he lets the blocking do the work; for that reason alone it might be one of his finest achievements. It's an old man's film from Spielberg, in a good way, and hopefully he has a few more up his sleeve.

 

Soul of the Swords (1978) Another Ti Lung Wu Xia, in which Ti plays a Nameless swordsman who desires to become King of the Swordsmen. He has to defeat the mysterious adversary Lu who has held that position for many years now. There's a little bit of ghostly goings on as Nameless witnessed Lu defeating a young swordsman years earlier and that young swordsman's girlfriend committed suicide on the spot. The girl appears before the adult Nameless presumably to guide him to Lu.

The fight choreography by Tang Chia was really good (I have to start paying attention to his work) but I know he and Ti Lung have collaborated many times. It's kind of a dreamy, fable-like Wu Xia without looking like one. Ti looks a little too mature to be playing a 20 something but I can roll with that. 7/10

 

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

 

Vacation:

Passable, I guess. Most of the comedy is in the vein of the "awkward comedy" that Ed Helms is typically good at. I felt this one lacked his usual charm.

5/10

Ps: if you do go to see it, walk out when the trailer for The Martian starts. It seemed spoilery to me when I saw it, and then my thoughts were confirmed online. Stay away from that trailer, because the film seems pretty good otherwise despite its terrible marketing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The Great Gatsby (2013)

 

Toy Story 2

Replaced Up as my favorite computer animated film.

Lot of it has to do with nostalgia as I did watch it quite a bit as a kid. But it must be doing something right if when I got it from my library I watched it four times in a row.

 

How are the TCONADs? I saw them in Chapters a few weeks ago and thought about getting them, but they were pretty expensive, over a hundred dollars.

 

I always liked them, and they do have pretty good quality. The acting ,sound effects and music are top notch to me at least. I would give them a try though before spending a hundred bucks on them just in case you don't care for them.

Here's actually a complete audio drama of one of the books on youtube.



Hopefully that will help.

 

I wish I was posting my "DBZ: Resurrection F" review right now, but I went to the theater last night and it was sold out. I was able to get tickets for next Tuesday so only one more week to wait.

 

I watched Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol the other day and just noticed a huge plot hole.

How was it that the villain was able to almost pull off his plan with only himself and his henchman? Granted, they still needed to buy the codes from Moreau, the female assassin, but in terms of having a gang, it was just him and his henchman. He may have a good number of resources, but it still seems a tall order to almost bring about nuclear war with only two people. The other Mission Impossible movies, the villains had at least three henchmen helping them.

 

Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation



I really enjoyed this movie as I found entertaining and intriguing. I thought the pace of the film moved along very well as there wasn't alot of deadspots for exposition or create emotional empathy. The action sequences are thrilling and not too over the top that is causes you to shake your head in disbelief. The spy vs. spy elements of the film are spot on where you're kind of sure of what's going on, but there's still a suspicion of doubt in your thought.

Good movie and worth seeing in the theater.

 

Hannah (2011).

Fantastic if somewhat unoriginal in its basic elements. Stylishly directed, well acted and paced spy thriller with a twist and fairy tale concept.

 

Man with the Golden Gun .

this really is the worst Bond movie , (and I like Moore) . It's always baffled me that Live and let die was so great and the follow-up so bad .
and it's so low on action , it relies on that one car stunt really , and even that is ruined by a swanny whistle .

and it veers from silly comedy to quite nasty - Bond seems to like whacking Maude Adams , and then there's a really creepy bit with Scaramanga running the barrel of his gun across her body and her mouth - rather obvious metaphor .

.

 

No, Die Another Day is the worst Bond film. Anyway, I saw Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation yesterday. It was great and I hope that Rebecca Ferguson's career really takes off after this, because she was AWESOME in that film.

 

it gets bad at times , but it has some good stuff in it too , I'd say the pre-title sequence alone is better than all of man with a golden gun .

 

I'll tell you a good movie I saw last week - "Results" with that Cobie Smulders . it's a comedy , but not one of those jokey comedies , it's about the people that work at a gym and this guy that starts working out there whose just inherited a load of money , basically all the characters don't know what to do with themselves . And of course there's some weed smoking , it's kind of amazing just how much weed there is in movies these days !

Guy Pierce and Giovanni Ribisi also star .

it kinda has an Australian movie feel to it .

 

What does an Australian movie feel like?

It's the weed, isn't it.

 

Saw AntMan over the weekend.

 

I'll watch the rest of the Alien anthology. I'm a sucker for a good monster. After seeing a few Ridley Scott films I can say I'm not a fan of his style. However, that will not stop me from watching Blade Runner as my next took-me-long-enough first view. I'm a sucker for some good A.I. and Rutger Hauer.

 

Tammy

 

Walking With Dinosaurs.

 

Upside down.