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Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched  (Read 684088 times)

Smoke

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2710 on: October 03, 2018, 07:20:44 PM »
^heard a good review of that on Mr. Mainstream WGN radio just a few minutes ago - glad to hear another, it gets me a little excited.

Se7en

Watched this with the high school Film Club I sponsor (I'm a public school teacher).  It was a rewatch, and it had been quite some time since I saw it last, and it was better than I expected.  Fincher's direction is so sure-handed and the story is pretty darned tight (I looked up the writer and couldn't believe he hasn't written anything else of consequence or quality).  I was surprised at how noirish the dialogue and relationship between Pitt and Freeman was at times.  And I might be willing to argue that this is Brad Pitt's best performance.  For once he's not doing anything tic-y that draws attention to itself.  He plays Mills as truthfully as one could hope, with just the right cockiness covering for insecurity.  Freeman is indisputably good, as usual.  I was expecting to introduce my students to a dark thriller they'd barely heard of that I'd expected wouldn't age as well as I'd hoped, and I ended up surprising myself with how good it was.

I also saw Se7en somewhat recently (around the time of filspottings best of decade polling) for only the second time, and the first since it was fairly new...and I was also extremely impressed. It's one of the "great movies" for sure.



Went to the show yesterday and caught A Simple Favor. It was perfectly fine. Both funny and reasonably suspenseful. Not one of the great movies, but an enjoyable entertainment nonetheless.

I also caught Master and Commander, another filmspotting mention if I remember, and it deserves the good reputation it's got. Highly recommended, a tad dudecentric but I'm a dude myself so that was fine. It's so nice to find a movie I've never heard of which turns out to be a great watch. Especially a mainstream one with a big star. Not sure how it escaped me all these years but I'll hopefully be around a while longer to see it again as time rolls by.

smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2711 on: October 03, 2018, 11:47:35 PM »
I also caught Master and Commander, another filmspotting mention if I remember, and it deserves the good reputation it's got. Highly recommended, a tad dudecentric but I'm a dude myself so that was fine. It's so nice to find a movie I've never heard of which turns out to be a great watch. Especially a mainstream one with a big star. Not sure how it escaped me all these years but I'll hopefully be around a while longer to see it again as time rolls by.

I'm so glad to hear it was a good experience. It's probably the gold standard for production value as far as those tall ship movies go. And it's all the best bits of the series of novels on which it's based, rolled up in one film. :)

jdc

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2712 on: October 03, 2018, 11:59:19 PM »
I also caught Master and Commander, another filmspotting mention if I remember, and it deserves the good reputation it's got. Highly recommended, a tad dudecentric but I'm a dude myself so that was fine. It's so nice to find a movie I've never heard of which turns out to be a great watch. Especially a mainstream one with a big star. Not sure how it escaped me all these years but I'll hopefully be around a while longer to see it again as time rolls by.

I'm so glad to hear it was a good experience. It's probably the gold standard for production value as far as those tall ship movies go. And it's all the best bits of the series of novels on which it's based, rolled up in one film. :)

Not sure why I don't have this in my top 100 actually, agree on the production value and one of my go to films to demonstrate and push my sound system in my setup.

As far as being dudecentric, well, not sure how else to make such a film that wouldn't be.


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smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2713 on: October 05, 2018, 05:53:41 PM »
Trophy (Christina Clusiau & Shaul Schwarz, 2018)        7/10

Where in the world would you guess the highest population of tigers exist? The answer is Texas apparently. I'd heard these sort of surprising stats before watching this film, and even now it's still hard to believe it could be true.

This is a good doc for opening the door on an interesting topic. I thought all of the different perspectives covered in the film were worth hearing. From the poachers to the ranchers to the hunters to the guides. If there were two groups of protesters taking opposing sides on the issues covered in the film, I wouldn't say I came away with any more knowledge about which side I should be standing on. The topic seems too large and complex for that. It would take real study to form an opinion and have any real conviction about it being correct. But this doc would make a good jumping off point.

I wish it had been more data-heavy. That would be my only real complaint I guess. They interview some scholars and other people with real numbers and real results... I wish those interviews had been longer because they seemed to have a lot of good information. But the doc is light on talking heads, and heavy on hunting footage. We tag along with various big game hunters as they go through the process of killing an elephant. From the initial auction for the tag, to the ultimate kill and butchering of the animal by, and for, the local population. That it happens to be an elephant that is getting distributed as food is hard to watch, although logically I know it is merely a matter of not being accustomed to it. There are many opportunities to explore one's own hypocrisy in reacting to what is shown... perhaps even for those among us who forgo eating meat.

It's a topic ripe for the kind of shouting match which accomplishes nothing. There is a fair amount of that captured in the doc itself. I would like to see more of what the data has to say on the matter.

smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2714 on: October 05, 2018, 06:30:29 PM »
The Accountant (Gavin O'Connor, 2016)        7/10

Within the genre of one-man-army action films which star well known actors, that aren't necessarily well known for playing action heroes, this is one of the better films. Personally I enjoyed it more than Liam Neeson's Taken, Keanu's John Wick, Denzel's Equalizer, Mel Gibson's Payback or Clive Owen's Shoot'Em Up. Still, it's not a great film, merely a good one.

There is an unfortunate side story featuring the now ubiquitous Jon Bernthal which drags the film into tropey waters. If you know Jon Bernthal, than you know how he's typically cast... and that's exactly the case here. There's an additional side story featuring JK Simmons which isn't really any better. But when the film is focused on Affleck it's quite effective.

Affleck has never struck me as an imposing physical figure in a film before, but here he seems tower over everyone else. He has clearly gone through the get-thick-quick, Huge Jackman, Mexican vitamin regimen which has become so popular (or necessary) amongst Hollywood's leading men. As long as he's not angling to compete in the next Olympics he'll be fine. Ultimately he looks good. He looks appropriately powerful for the sort of physical things he accomplishes in this film (none of which are too over the top, and are well executed).

It's interesting having an action star whose tough demeanour isn't attributable to a vague history of violence (retired Green baret, French Foreign Legion, 20 years in San Quentin, or whatever the cliche may be). In this case his thousand yard stare has more to do with his Asperger's than his past murders.

Pleasantly surprised... but still plenty of room for improvement.
« Last Edit: October 05, 2018, 07:55:02 PM by smirnoff »

smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2715 on: October 06, 2018, 01:04:11 AM »
Shot Caller (Ric Roman Waugh, 2017)        7/10

Another uncompromising and bloody movie from director Ric Roman Waugh, about an ordinary man forced to become a much more ruthless version of himself. Much like his film Felon, this film takes our protagonist to prison where he must fend for himself amid all the perils which the modern prison system presents. Actually it's exactly like Felon in that regard. What's changed is the circumstances under which the character comes to be in prison. Overall very similar though.

That's not such a bad thing. Felon was a strong film and Shot Caller is its equal. This director's continued exploration of one particular type of story is... interesting. I can't really think of any director making such similar films, three-in-a-row. Waugh has shown himself to be very competent, there is nothing at all amateurish about his films, they are all very polished. I could easily see him getting tapped to direct some stupid action rehash with a 200 mil budget ($140 mil for marketing said piece of crap). Bullitt, for example, starring Tom Hardy or something. I'm sure it's coming, it's just a matter of who and when.

But I would like to see Waugh given something more meaty. His films up till now have all had very strong themes of "the justice system is f***ed, here's an extreme but very real example". It seems like a message he cares about. I'd like to see that theme explored to a more epic degree. There's a bit of a ceiling on what he's doing now. I don't think he's going to evolve in how artfully he tells his stories.... I think the stories themselves need to expand in depth and complexity somehow.

If he does just carry on making prison movies though, I'll keep watching them. I dig the casting. Jeffrey Donovan seen above (you might recognize him from Fargo S2), was the most effective of the scary white supremacists in the prison.

                         



Director's Filmography
Felon (2008)
Snitch (2013)

« Last Edit: October 06, 2018, 08:52:04 PM by smirnoff »

don s.

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2716 on: October 08, 2018, 03:58:14 PM »


This soundtrack is Zamfierce!
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Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2717 on: October 12, 2018, 07:24:48 AM »
Wolf Warrior II (2017 Wu Jing)

Wu Jing is the director and star of this sequel to his 2015 film (there is a third of these films due out next year). Like a classic 80s Hollywood action flick this is a film with all the jingoism you can swallow, and then a bit more for good measure. This Chinese film seems in part to be an expression of China's growing sphere of influence, particularly in Africa, where this film is mostly set.

Like it's Hollywood counter part there is an early scene showing the hero being awesomely heroic. This film has some excellent fight scenes and Wu Jing is a very good lead. Well worth the 2 hours and a bit of my time.

Rating: 74 / 100

philip918

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2718 on: October 12, 2018, 12:01:25 PM »
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

#notallNazis apparently

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2719 on: October 13, 2018, 06:17:44 AM »
The Adventurers (2017 Stephen Fung)

I picked this movie because it had Andy Lau and Jean Reno in it. It was a nice bit of fluff. I was 30 minutes into watching this when another familiar face showed up. So I did what I usually do and hit IMDB. Eric Tsang was who it was, and no wonder I recognised him 261 acting credits, I spun down his list and noticed he had appeared in 44 movies from 1987 to 1989, he was in 6 movies last year. Someone who does like to work I am guessing.   

Rating: 73 / 100