Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched (2013-2016)  (Read 973394 times)

DarkeningHumour

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #9870 on: December 16, 2016, 01:17:55 PM »
Rogue One
* * * - Okay

There will be much more to say once we've all seen it. For right now I just want to say re-watchibility is very low, which is out of step for a Star Wars movie. Even the prequels have more moments I would look forward to seeing again. The story takes over 90 minutes to realize it's Star Wars.

I am going to rewatch it before I write about it but I am really bothered about that rewatchability issue.
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Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #9871 on: December 17, 2016, 12:57:51 AM »
Central Intelligence (2016)

There were a few scenes early where this did something interesting. We see Calvin (Kevin Hart), who was the big man (figuratively) in high school engage with a negative conception of masculinity, as even though he is married to a remarkably successful and beautiful woman, he can't help but pick out areas to feel he isn't measuring up, such as at work. On the other hand we have Bob (Dwayne Johnson), who was tormented in high school, but now is confident enough to not need to project masculinity (though being The Rock, does so inherently), thus embracing a love of unicorns and wishing he could be Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles.

Unfortunately, this is about the extent of the gender commentary as we soon learn that Bob is a CIA agent and he's looped Calvin into a mole hunt that forces him to be the reluctantly masculine go-getter everyone thought he was in high school. In this buddy cop/spy intrigue vein, I just wasn't that intrigued. There are a couple things as it goes that even undercut the strength of the earlier scenes. There are so many mainstream films that got minor buzz, but as I watch them and generally remain disappointed, I wonder if they are getting generous "for what they are" treatment. At least these are films that are easily gotten from the library and thus bear limited cost aside from my time.

P.S. The opening "prank" scene plays false. The notion that a whole student body would break out in raucous laughter over such a horrific action I think greatly undersells the youth of today, or the youth of the period in which this was set.

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #9872 on: December 17, 2016, 01:29:46 AM »
P.S. The opening "prank" scene plays false. The notion that a whole student body would break out in raucous laughter over such a horrific action I think greatly undersells the youth of today, or the youth of the period in which this was set.
I hated that scene so much. I ended up liking the movie because The Rock embraces his character's deep nerdy side. It could've pushed that more into gender fluidity and I can see Dwayne doing it well, but playing an uber-nerd in a rock hard body was certainly interesting enough to stand above the mainstream.

DarkeningHumour

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #9873 on: December 17, 2016, 03:02:56 AM »
Johnson was great in that. The prank functions on foreign audiences because that is what we've always been told American high schools are like.

Is Sixteen Candles good ?
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Totoro

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #9874 on: December 17, 2016, 11:05:28 PM »
Rogue One
* * * - Okay

There will be much more to say once we've all seen it. For right now I just want to say re-watchibility is very low, which is out of step for a Star Wars movie. Even the prequels have more moments I would look forward to seeing again. The story takes over 90 minutes to realize it's Star Wars.

What does this mean to you?

Because I didn't feel that THE FORCE AWAKENS was "STAR WARS", but I definitely felt that ROGUE ONE was "STAR WARS" - from start to finish.

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #9875 on: December 17, 2016, 11:32:39 PM »
Because I didn't feel that THE FORCE AWAKENS was "STAR WARS"

What is weird about this statement is literally the number one complaint about the film was that it was EXACTLY A New Hope.

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #9876 on: December 17, 2016, 11:35:16 PM »
Rogue One
* * * - Okay

There will be much more to say once we've all seen it. For right now I just want to say re-watchibility is very low, which is out of step for a Star Wars movie. Even the prequels have more moments I would look forward to seeing again. The story takes over 90 minutes to realize it's Star Wars.

What does this mean to you?

Because I didn't feel that THE FORCE AWAKENS was "STAR WARS", but I definitely felt that ROGUE ONE was "STAR WARS" - from start to finish.
Yeah, I've been expecting this response, my comment was so vague. The world is definitely deeply dipped into Star Wars. This is The Hobbit, barely resembling LOTR. It has all the detail in the characters and production design. What I mean to say is, there is a serious lack of fun. It's not a dour movie like Nolan or Snyder, there are jokes and they're good ones, but there's none of the "yee haw" swashbuckling excitement that is the bedrock of the series until the finale. The tone of the adventure is more dramatic than any of the other Star Wars films (and I'm not referring to the end, but the first 90 minutes.) That's a way to tell it and something that will set the stand-alones apart from the main trilogies, but I'm not going to want to watch it again.



I was never involved much with Rey or Finn, but I was very involved with Jyn,
No way to debate this - I think. Is there a way? - but I'm of the complete opposite opinion. I liked Rey, Finn and Poe immediately and wanted to go everywhere with them. Jyn was a blank, kept me at arm's length and I never cared.

Junior

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #9877 on: December 18, 2016, 01:09:59 AM »
I moved Totoro's response to the spoiler thread because it had spoilers in it. Please remember to keep to short reactions here and deeper discussions (including plot points from the second half of the film) to the spoiler thread. Thanks!

http://www.filmspotting.net/forum/index.php?topic=14183.0
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MattDrufke

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #9878 on: December 18, 2016, 08:49:35 AM »
The Muppets Christmas Carol (1992)
Dir: Brian Henson


Not a lot of thoughts about this film, though it was the first time I watched this film in its' entirety since I saw it in the theater when I was 13, and I've always had bad memories associated with it, because on my way back from the theater, I was involved in a horrible car accident.

Anyway, it's a fine movie. The years have done it fine. It's certainly way too hoky and the jokes don't hit a whole lot, but it's heart is in the right place. And, impressively, it has a lot better music than I remember. There are at least 3 songs here that I really enjoyed.

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #9879 on: December 18, 2016, 02:24:03 PM »
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014).

Nelly returns to Berlin after having survived from the concentration camp and tries to find her husband who might or might not have betrayed her to the nazis.

Paced like a turtle and staged and directed like play this did not work so good, until the final scene, which gave resolution in a miraculous way!

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