Movie Review Thread

[buckett]

Green Room

Do you like well-made super-violent thrillers? Did you love Blue Ruin? Do you want to see Jean-Luc Picard play a badass neo-Nazi antagonist?

See this film. Maximum ownage beyond comprehension. 8.5/10

[Cazmonster]

I can tell you this will be a waste of your money. I've read all I had to read to know this.

[Tahlvin]

The Twilight Samurai

Really liked this. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. And no, it doesn't have anything to do with vampires living in the Pacific Northwest.

It was an interesting samurai movie from a bit of a different perspective. Much less action than a normal samurai movie, but I found the story interesting. Not to give away too much, but it deals with a samurai who, because of his family/personal situation, has lost interest in fighting and killing, but who is order by his clan to go kill a fellow samurai who refused to commit ritual suicide when ordered to do so. Most of the movie deals with the personal struggles of the samurai who loses interest in fighting.

[Cazmonster]

The best part of the experience was the Ghostbusters trailer.

There are people in this world - actual living, breathing, hurting people - who spent their time and energy and talent to animate sunlight through a stream of urine for this movie.

During the movie (and I never talk during movies, except to get the popcorn back from Grinder)
Barb, "Good lord. I haven't seen a synchronized swimming joke since the '90s."

Barb, "I could be at the DMV right now."
Caz, "I could be at the DENTIST."

Barb, "Y'know, I really wish we'd gone to see Batman vs Superman instead. At least then we'd get to see Wonder Woman."

Yesterday
Barb, "Yeah, that's not going to be fun (some unspecified errand). Still better than Angry Birds, of course, but not fun."
Caz, "Some day, when they tell us what terrible parents we are, we're going to remind them we took them to see Angry Birds."
Barb, "Absolutely. Honestly, I resent that more than labor."
Caz, "Labor was SEVENTEEN HOURS!!!"
Barb, "Yes, but at least I got something at the end of it."
Caz, "Point."

[Elle]

Where can I get one of these "Barb"s?

[Mike]

She's pretty awesome. You'd like her.

[Elle]

Ah yes. I have been told this before. She is a knitter. Yarn. That is why. Ohhh that brain, how it will creep up on itself with sudden rememberings.

[Elle]

Finally watched Schindler's List. Started it too late in evening. You always know you're watching truths but the reveal of the real people behind the characters at the end was still overwhelming.

[El Jefe]

Film fanatic mode is engaged here, and we're talking X-men films, so spoilers will follow. Likely lengthy, so there's the warning.
I've been trying to get my thoughts into words for a few days, and written this about four different times. But the simplest thing to start with is that the I've been a little surprised when I talked about my thoughts on Apocalypse with other folks. A fair amount of them seemed to think I was nuts. I felt like I watched an entirely different film than they did.

I really enjoyed it, and for the first time in a while, I felt like Singer finally had a successful vision AND execution on an X-film. More importantly, the series has finally marked a line that sets it apart from the MCU. That line is exactly why I liked it. I'm not even sure that I'm comfortable comparing the Avengers line of films and the X line anymore. It's two entirely separate styles of storytelling, with two entirely different end goals, in my eyes. When I want the exposition, the focus on character driven drama, I've got the X franchise. That's the same kind of thing that attracted me to Mass Effect. When I'm looking for that event/action driven story, I've got the (non-Netflix) MCU. That's the Max Payne or Deus Ex familiarity.
I wasn't sure if I was letting my love for the source material color my thoughts on the film, so I went back again. Then, I took somebody else to see it. I said nothing until after they say it. Their thoughts came out pretty similar to my own. I loved the more leisurely route it took to build up some of the intermingled storylines, the longer intro period to get familiar with the newer faces, and for the climax to build up on both sides. Much like in First Class, there was a fantastic quality to the way that powers are depicted, both in terms of actual usage and scope/scale of those powers. It was fantastic to see Jean, Xavier, and Erik given the space to show off just how terrifying that level of power can be. There was attention paid to details by showing progression in previous powers (Alex's growth), as well as having continuing strong showcases for powers previously shown (Quicksilver...seriously, pay attention here MCU).

And storyline-wise, I got exactly the feel I wanted. The MCU films have tried to focus on taking existing comic storylines/themes and remixing them, quite successfully in most cases. Between the three current gen of X films, I found a different tactic used. I really felt like I was seeing the tone and style of an actual comic book (storyline as well, but more importantly the actual feelings that era of the comic book medium evoked) put onto the big screen. Sure, names and dates were changed to protect the innocent. Absolutely, it's not the Apocalypse of the comics. There's no Dark Riders, no Cable, and no Eternals. But it was still an internally consistent character with similar motivations, similar manias, and just the right mix of flavors that were pretty close to that original. That's how I felt about most of the film. I had Scott, Jean, Kurt, and Storm that hewed close enough to seem familiar, giving me that throwback to the 80's/90's Claremont fan, but still managed to have their own individual flair.

There were mistakes made, no doubt. Singer delivered his best X-Men film, which is a compliment and a curse. It's only about equal to First Class, because that one had a different director (and a better quality one). The scale and scope overpowers First Class, but First Class did a much better job of tightly focusing the film and the story. Psylocke had minor moments of using Olivia Munn well (that combined look of interest/disgust/arrogance at the end was spot on perfect for that character), but across the board a disappointment. Angel was largely squandered in this, and little better than a nice edition to action scenes. I found it to be a solid A- if you're a big Claremont era fan, a solid B if you're not. Some of the responses have been interesting to see, because it serves to remind me just how different perceptions can be of the same material.

[Elle]

Sometimes you're responsible for a group of kids and you end up seeing the Angry Birds movie. You aren't sure that you really understand what it is like to do psychedelic drugs. Even so, you feel that you have attained some approximation of the experience. Yet some people choose to partake of such things more than once, and you are certain that you would not want to partake of this thing more than once.

[Cazmonster]

Barb and I saw Angry Birds because we love our children. The best part was the trailer for Ghostbusters.

Oh, I already said that in this thread. It still applies.

[Reika]

Saw Warcraft today, I loved it though I'm sure that there are some purists that will hate it. Even mom, who isn't familiar with the games, loved it.

[TheMaster]

[Reika]

Yeah, both the original Warcraft games and World of Warcraft had moments of humor to help break up what would otherwise be really grim stories.

I was so happy they had one of the mages sheep someone. That was one of my favorite spells in WoW.

[TheMaster]

I liked the line 'I don't know... it's never done that before' lol

[Elle]

Zootopia

Loved it. Cute bunny policewoman allies with bad boy fox; realizes her life's dreams, solves all the crime, finds romance. The sloth scenes are in fact as funny as the previews indicate.

[Elle]

Forgot I also saw Leap Year again. This is a four star movie for me that I would expect to be a two star movie for everyone else. The movie is flawed insofar as it expects you to believe that a guy would propose to a woman he had known for like three days and kissed once. It is flawed in other ways too. Whatever. The guy is the hot one they finally tried to mate Alicia Florrick with on the Good Wife, but maybe that fizzled out.

[TheMaster]

[Mike]

I will be watching Zootopia tonight (for the second time) while spending the night inside the aquarium at the zoo!

It's a Scout trip, and we get to sleep in the glass shark tunnel. So awesome.

[Elle]

You will love it. Sounds like fun! We are doing our father's day action today and tomorrow. I must ball a melon with my tiny baller. Finding Dory is surely coming soon. The Master is totally correct. Pretty much every scene has humor or cuteness - it's like they made it for parents to be able to watch ten times.