Movie Review Thread

[WillyGilligan]

Just saw Going in Style. Think Grumpy Old Men with some social commentary and crime, and it's directed by J.D. from Scrubs. I laughed my ass off at parts, others were a bit more poignant. It has made me slightly more crotchety tonight, but that's getting more normal as time goes by.

[Phoebe]

Saw the non-animated Beauty and the Beast. It was good - fun movie for theatre with kids. The one thing they simply could not duplicate or surpass was the "Be Our Guest" sequence, which had more humor and verve in the original animated version. Otherwise it was like a bigger, prettified, intensified version of the original, this time with even more emphasis on the occulty parts. The new songs were pretty good on the whole. Le Fou's actor made that a whole new character of interest out of thin air. I liked all the tinkering they did with the sequence of plot events and the greater prominence of the Enchantress, which helped a few things make more sense. Kids enjoyed it. I feel bad for whoever was sitting in front of us, since Jim became very, very excited at various points and started earnestly narrating the events about to happen. It was a high-quality narration, at least.

[akiva]

[Phoebe]

MIND BLOWN that Jerry Orbach was Lumiere. SERIOUSLY THAT IS ALMOST LIKE MR KRABS / KURGAN LEVEL MIND BLOWN.

Wonder Woman trailer was on offer at the movie, btw, and it gave me actual goosebumps. If the movie sucks I will be so sad. I can make a lot out of a little with this thing, really. Just help us a little.

[Phoebe]

Now there's a final big trailer for WW and it too gives me the actual goosebumps, and again I will be so sad if the movie sucks. It could be so good. I like Lynda Carter WW; my standards aren't so terribly lofty. I just don't want another one of these dark, gritty, things-being-blown-up-loudly-amidst-stupid-side-banter superhero movies.

[poorpete]

[Cazmonster]

Who was happy with Covenant? I was not.

I don't much like Michael Fassbender or the David character. Bringing him back in this capacity didn't help matters.

I need my Xenomorphs to play by some basic rules and these didn't. I didn't even get to sound right.

[El Jefe]

Unlike Caz, I've got no issues with the Fass. I'm a fan, though David is certainly not his best character.

It is a really simple problem here. Ridley Scott has lost his goddamn mind. Somehow, he's still behind a camera, and he's lost his goddamn mind. Not Lynch kind of lost his mind. Not Kubrick kind of insanity. This is straight up Uwe Boll wackadoodle-fucking-doo.

[Phoebe]

So they lost the previous narrative entirely now? That's unfortunate. The first one is still probably the scariest movie I can recall ever seeing. Is this one scary or just shock/gore like it had been devolving into before?

[Phoebe]

Love and Friendship

Kate Beckinsale is supposed to be an extraordinarily charismatic but scheming, selfish lady in early 1800's England. This doesn't really work, but that's what we are intended to believe. She tries to find a rich husband after her former mistreated one dies. She's also having a smarmy affair. Chloe Sevigny cannot act, at all. This movie sucks and is supposed to be funny but is not. Ugh. Avoid.

[akiva]

[Phoebe]

Ohhhhhh I remember that, she WAS actually very good in Boys Don't Cry. I didn't see the other one. So I will amend my statement to can't act in this particular movie. Could be she's ill-suited to period pieces anyway, given her diction and pronunciation, but who knows.

HEY! Is anyone going to see Wonder Woman this week? I might actually get off my butt and do it. I normally wait until, you know, the fifth ring of netflix before seeing things. I feel motivated to see this one.

[Phoebe]

[Phoebe]

The Physician (2013)

Sweeping epic about an orphan in the Middle Ages who attaches himself first to a local doctor/barber and then travels across the world to study with Ibn Sina. Ten stars for making a movie about Ibn Sina, another three for casting Ben Kingsley in that role, and another star just because Tom Payne who plays the main character is hottttt. Subtract ten stars for assorted historical and plot-related fuckery and bad character tropes, and subtract one more just for one particular bad "reveal" scene. Cool medical history stuff, even though wildly garbled, and interesting issues related to the disapproval of dissecting corpses. Worth watching.

[Phoebe]

[Phoebe]

Wonder Woman

Wow, they did it! They captured the proper spirit of the thing, which was the hardest part. Could the story have been a bit more complex and interesting and better explained? Sure, ok. However, my kids from age 5 up all understood the story about war it presented, and it felt very meaningful to them, and because they captured the proper spirit of the WW thing, they can make other WW movies now that bring further detail and intrigue. They gave us who she is, essentially, which was the key. Huge success.

I like that they chose WWI as the point of entry, so that there was some meaningful way that a single battlefield could affect the armistice, and the introduction of chemical weapons could be marked as a unique horror. Chloe summed up another important point: "I wish had a story so we knew where she came from." Yes, Chloe, she does have a story, and hopefully we get a movie version of that story soon. There were pleasing elements like this one designed for fans, perhaps less easy for people new to WW to follow, but that's ok! Worth it. Yes to making the lasso so important! Yes to them emphasizing her knowledge of languages and why that's so symbolically powerful.

This is about all I care to say now due to fear of spoilers. But I liked everything about the Amazons and Themyscira (and omg goosebumps when they fight for real), I liked that they decided to run straight out the gate with WW as actual child of Zeus with all the powers and privileges pertaining thereto, I liked Chris Pine (omg do I like Chris Pine from Star Trek to here), I liked Gal Gadot, I liked the way they told a story about WW's relationship to humanity and war in general. Every single bit of the Steve Trevor love story was PERFECT and honestly, maybe this is sexism but I thank the woman director for that. Wow did she get it. The writer too, but the goodness of it was in large part a function of how it was put together on film. WW is innocent, yet fully in command of herself and others, unapologetically loving and sexual, and all of it is meaningfully presented with nary a false note.

This is a spoiler: That was my only major gripe. They made up for it with his HELMET.

[Phoebe]

Someone Like You

Ashley Judd dates Greg Kinnear, who is a tiresome jerk already involved with someone else. Lesson: don't get involved with someone who is already involved with someone else, as nobody emerges happy from that scenario, and certainly not if they're as jerky about it as Greg's character. These characters were so blandly non-memorable that I have no other way of referring to them. Anyway, Ashley then dates Hugh Jackman. Big upgrade. There is nothing memorable or interesting in the slightest way about this movie. I fell asleep repeatedly, trying to watch it late in evening while in bed. Bad environment for that plan. A better movie would be: Ashley is a race car driver involved in a confusing and intense psychosexual drama with her domineering and narcissistic pit boss, Ellen Barkin, but unfortunately Ellen is already in love with Greg, mainly because he owns a supercute and smart little dog, and therefore she is unable and unwilling to reciprocate whatever Ashley's weird feelings for her might be, so Ashley consoles herself with Hugh Jackman after seeing him suddenly burst forth with retractable hand-razors to defeat a group of violent criminals who are terrorizing people in the race track stands. Could be mixing up a few other movies there, but definitely would have improved it.

[Phoebe]

Match

Patrick Stewart stars as a famous dance instructor who has a strange and intense encounter with a scholar (Carla Gugino) visiting to interview him along with her police officer husband. I can't spoil anything about this movie, streaming on Netflix. It's a work of art and if you like Patrick Stewart you owe it to yourself to watch this sometime. He's wonderful. The first two minutes I'm all like, there's Picard! And after that you forget there ever was a Picard or a man named Patrick Stewart - there's just this ex-dancer ballet instructor named Tobi. The plot is extremely emotionally intense and philosophically intriguing. I started off watching while doing a marathon laundry folding and ended up sitting on the floor amongst the folded baskets, weeping for humanity. There is a lot of sexually frank talk, the f word, and one disturbing violent scene. The whole thing is very "slow talk movie" overall, but the conversation is gripping. The themes range widely with special focus on the nature of freedom, art, and obligation to others. Basically it was stuff I think about a lot that drives my brain, so obviously a 5-star movie for me. My formative family life was so good, so 100% A+, that I wasn't even as disturbed by this movie as some would be. Ron for example was captivated for a time but then shut himself down and walked away. Maybe too intense.

[Kyle]

[Phoebe]

So glad someone sees the problem with that. It would be one thing if it were some random disguise that goes on and off as needed - maybe there are multiple manifestations and in some cultural periods it comes out this way. Another thing, though... Black.