Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched  (Read 683947 times)

smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2420 on: June 11, 2018, 12:32:08 PM »
Ocean's Eight (2018)
Dir: Gary Ross



I didn't expect to like this nearly as much as I did. For it's flaws, and there are many, and so many of them are in the script, this is a likable and cool cast being fun and badass for two hours. Cate Blanchett is out Brad Pitt-ing Brad Pitt, which is a feat in it's own right. Are the cast having as much fun? Maybe, but they're also having to carry much more meh material than the "Ocean's Eleven" boys, and heavy lifting is no fun sometimes. But all in all, a perfect fine, likable movie.

B

I went and watched the trailer after reading your review. I hadn't realized it was an all female crew. I had just assumed it was a prequel.

Daniel Ocean had an equally clever sister in prison that he never mentioned over the course of three films? The Ocean's connection is so thin, it's impossible to argue that it was concocted for any reason other than to cash in on the brand. While it may give the film a head start in generating interest, I also feel like it puts a ceiling on the film by forcing it to be measured against its siblings. Was nothing learned from Bridesmaids vs. Ghostbusters? If you're going to do an all-female iteration of something, why limit its upside to being a worthy addition to a franchise? Take the reigns off, let it be a genre-best. The Descent is one of the best horror movies ever precisely because it's not just The Cave: Part 2.

Also, Oceans 8? Leaving room for the trilogy? Bleh. Could it be any more obvious about it's carefully calculated business plan? Just be your own thing!

MattDrufke

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2421 on: June 12, 2018, 10:07:11 AM »
Ocean's Eight (2018)
Dir: Gary Ross



I didn't expect to like this nearly as much as I did. For it's flaws, and there are many, and so many of them are in the script, this is a likable and cool cast being fun and badass for two hours. Cate Blanchett is out Brad Pitt-ing Brad Pitt, which is a feat in it's own right. Are the cast having as much fun? Maybe, but they're also having to carry much more meh material than the "Ocean's Eleven" boys, and heavy lifting is no fun sometimes. But all in all, a perfect fine, likable movie.

B

I went and watched the trailer after reading your review. I hadn't realized it was an all female crew. I had just assumed it was a prequel.

Daniel Ocean had an equally clever sister in prison that he never mentioned over the course of three films? The Ocean's connection is so thin, it's impossible to argue that it was concocted for any reason other than to cash in on the brand. While it may give the film a head start in generating interest, I also feel like it puts a ceiling on the film by forcing it to be measured against its siblings. Was nothing learned from Bridesmaids vs. Ghostbusters? If you're going to do an all-female iteration of something, why limit its upside to being a worthy addition to a franchise? Take the reigns off, let it be a genre-best. The Descent is one of the best horror movies ever precisely because it's not just The Cave: Part 2.

Also, Oceans 8? Leaving room for the trilogy? Bleh. Could it be any more obvious about it's carefully calculated business plan? Just be your own thing!

Thankfully, the film's connections to the previous Ocean's films are brief, because they're also irritating (the two cameos don't do the film any favors, and one really annoys me for reasons I don't feel like getting into. When this movie is it's own thing, it's a fun little ride.
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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2422 on: June 13, 2018, 12:29:14 PM »
Had me a busy weekend.

Upgrade

Upgrade is a great movie trapped in an ok movie's body. Logan Marshall Green is just ok at the dramatic stuff (and maybe worse at the bits of sarcasm that the character has to perform) and the bad guy(s) are kind of forgettable. But damn, there's a ton of fun to be had with an interesting premise.

LMG plays the terribly named Grey Trace, whose wife is killed by some bad dudes who also paralyze him from the neck down. But wait, there's Stem, a chip containing an artificial intelligence that might be able to restore movement for Trace's body so he can find his wife's killers. Stem is the movie's best asset, as it both provides some dry comic relief and makes for some excellent action scenes when Trace confronts the men responsible for his grief. Because Stem doesn't have human failings and it brings Trace along for the ride, there's some delightful juxtaposition of the violence his body is performing and his face's reactions to that violence. The movie also give you some intellectual meat to chew on during the parts when people aren't getting torn apart. A better movie would be even more complex, but the cheap thrills this movie provides plot-wise are fun enough.

C+


First Reformed

This movie goes bonkers later on and I loved that. I also loved the more staid introspective drama that takes up the majority of the movie. Ethan Hawke's performance is so strong that some of the slower scenes are still fascinating just for watching him. His voiceover is good, too, which is important in this movie for helping us understand what he is thinking (and not thinking, and avoiding thinking). The Academy ratio makes for gorgeous closeups, uncomfortable two-shots, and wide shots that envelop the characters in their surroundings. A perfect match for this film. Amanda Seyfried is brilliant, and Cedric Kyles (aka The Entertainer) shows off some surprising dramatic chops.

I've seen people call this a dark comedy and I guess I could see that, but it's not how the movie struck me upon my first viewing. Time and another go of it will tell if it really pans out for me.

B+


The Hurricane Heist

This movie couldn't be any dumber and yet I had a pretty good time with it. It's absurd on almost every level, but it's the fun kind of absurd. It doesn't waste too much time on stuff that we don't care about, which is crucial in a movie like this. And there are a few decent action scenes, too. It's the best two-star movie you're likely to see this year. If you like movies where hurricane clouds form into skulls and then roar at the characters, this is one you need to see.

D+


Hereditary

This was almost brilliant. It's so close. The opening third is pitch perfect and the ending is quite good, too, but in the middle things get a little bogged down. There's so much incident in this, and yes, horror is a plot-heavy genre, but there came a point when I craved the baser thrills that the genre usually provides. None of the scenes in the relatively fallow middle section are bad on their own, I just don't think they add up to what they should. All the actors are great, unsurprisingly, and there's a streak of very bleak humor that runs through this based on wry observations of the absurdities of family life and the act of grieving. It's a gorgeous movie, too, expertly composed and beautifully designed. You know that shot in The Shining where Jack is leaning over the model of the maze and the camera zooms in to see Wendy and Danny running through it in an invisible transition? The whole movie feels like that. The world is just a bit off and I love it when a movie can make me feel so uncomfortable for such a long period of time. I just think a little nip and tuck here and there would have made this an all-timer.

A-

Look for an article from me later in the week about Upgrade, First Reformed, and Hereditary and one surprising element they have in common.
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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2423 on: June 13, 2018, 07:14:18 PM »
Look for an article from me later in the week about Upgrade, First Reformed, and Hereditary and one surprising element they have in common.

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2424 on: June 13, 2018, 11:30:19 PM »
Mission accomplished.
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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2425 on: June 15, 2018, 12:41:42 AM »

Incredibles 2

The Incredibles is my #7 movie of All Time and I had no expectations of this one matching the original. If it was Okay, I'd be fine, and I can safely say it's not as bad as Cars 2. This isn't even a case of fanboy nitpicks, like the last film ended with Jack Jack harnessed to Helen Parr, this one opens right where we left off only now Jack Jack is in a stroller.

The movie isn't all bad and there's a moment leading into the 3rd Act where the film from then on became the Incredibles sequel I was hoping for. It's just that getting there... because this is from the same team, from Brad Bird, when it wasn't working it broke my heart. There are dialogue scenes as bad as something by George Lucas, mostly between Helen and Evelyn Deavor. The story separates Elastigirl from the family for Most of the film. (Even Bob would return home in the first film.)

That's getting ahead of myself, because one of my biggest problems is how closely the story duplicates the first, just switching Bob and Helen's duties. From Helen announcing on the phone "I'm in" to the timing of Edna Mode's appearance. It's very similar, except for Michael Giacchino's score, which seems to be doing everything to come up with new themes and not embrace the James Bond brass of the main one. There's also a scene with Jack Jack and a raccoon that plays like it started as a short film. It's like Scrat chasing the acorn in Ice Age.

The first face-to-face battle with Screenslaver employs a dazzling visual strategy, and like I said the film comes alive before the finale to where I thought Bird just might turn it around, but that also made me realize it wasn't that I was in an odd mood. The film was failing me. I'm going to watch it again in a couple of weeks and I'm going to be reading a lot of opinions between now and then.
Rating: ★ ★ ½
« Last Edit: June 18, 2018, 10:27:06 PM by 1SO »

Will

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2426 on: June 15, 2018, 01:32:06 AM »

Incredibles 2

The Incredibles is my #7 movie of All Time and I had no expectations of this one matching the original. If it was Okay, I'd be fine, and I can safely say it's not as bad as Cars 2. This isn't even a case of fanboy nitpicks, like the last film ended with Jack Jack harnessed to Helen Parr, this one opens right where we left off only now Jack Jack is in a stroller.

The movie isn't all bad and there's a moment leading into the 3rd Act where the film from then on became the Incredibles sequel I was hoping for. It's just that getting there... because this is from the same team, from Brad Bird, when it wasn't working it broke my heart. There are dialogue scenes as bad as something by George Lucas, mostly between Helen and Evelyn Deavor. The story separates Elastigirl from the family for Most of the film. (Even Bob would return home in the first film.)

That's getting ahead of myself, because one of my biggest problems is how closely the story duplicates the first, just switching Bob and Helen's duties. From Helen announcing on the phone "I'm in" to the timing of Edna Mode's appearance. It's very similar, except for Michael Giacchino's score, which seems to be doing everything to come up with new themes and not embrace the James Bond brass of the main one. There's also a scene with Jack Jack and a raccoon that plays like it started as a short film. It's like Scrat chasing the acorn in Ice Age.

The first face-to-face battle with Screenslaver employs a dazzling visual strategy, and like I said the film comes alive before the finale to where I thought Bird just might turn it around, but that also made me realize it wasn't that I was in an odd mood. The film was failing me. I'm going to watch it again in a couple of weeks and I'm going to be reading a lot of opinions between now and then.
Rating: ★ ★

Nope.

Well, it's not as smart as the first, but it's as, if not more, purely entertaining than the first.

Will

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2427 on: June 15, 2018, 01:42:39 AM »

Incredibles 2

That's getting ahead of myself, because one of my biggest problems is how closely the story duplicates the first, just switching Bob and Helen's duties. From Helen announcing on the phone "I'm in" to the timing of Edna Mode's appearance. It's very similar, except for Michael Giacchino's score, which seems to be doing everything to come up with new themes and not embrace the James Bond brass of the main one. There's also a scene with Jack Jack and a raccoon that plays like it started as a short film. It's like Scrat chasing the acorn in Ice Age.



Even though it, on the surface, duplicates the structure of the first, the two could not be more different (outside Helen figuring out the villain on the computer which is... unfortunate). We didn't get to see a lot of what Helen was doing while Bob was on the island in the first - which was raising three super kids - which is something you don't see in any superhero films (the tone of the Incredibles is far lighter than the vast majority of superhero films, even something like Spider-Man: Homecoming). It takes the theme of what it means to be a superhero with the secret identity and juxtaposes it with the banality of day-to-day fatherhood which is needed in an era of ultra-serious superhero films. If DEADPOOL is the FAMILY GUY of superhero movies, then INCREDIBLES 2 is the peak era SIMPSONS of superhero movies. It's great satire rather than just serviceable satire.

Also, the Jack Jack Vs. the Raccoon bit is funnier than anything Scrat has done. How dare you even compare the two! What, animated films can't do silent slapstick without being compared to ICE AGE? It reminded me of peak TOM & JERRY, made me yearn for an awesome TOM & JERRY remake.

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2428 on: June 15, 2018, 02:50:40 AM »
Also, the action sequences in this are better than any in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2429 on: June 15, 2018, 04:28:40 AM »
I am staying clear from that review 1SO. It breaks my heart to even see that rating.
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