Movies You've Seen Recently |OT| AUGUST 2014

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Coherence - Wow. This one was a goodie. A sci-fi thriller I watched on Amazon Instant and it was a real treat. Story follows a bunch of friends at a dinner party the night that a comet is supposed to pass over the earth. I won't spoil much but the passing of the comet upends their lives in a big way. It is extremely smart sci-fi and well acted. Shares a lot of similarities with another recent sci-fi/thriller/horror film that came out called Triangle (2009). If you enjoyed that movie at all, this movie touches a lot of those same elements with a lot less blood and tons more of the interpersonal relationship stuff.

Dark Mountain - Another thing I watched on my Amazon Instant binge. Found footage horror about a small group of filmmakers heading into Arizona mountains to search for an legendary gold mine. This is probably the most rote found footage I've seen in a while. It is Blair Witch with no woods and no witch. The main cast is 2 men and 1 woman. Woman wants the big scoop. They get lost. Weird things happen. Etc. They even call out Blair Witch specifically so it's doubly insane. All of that doesn't mean it's bad necessarily though, it's just not at all good. You've seen it before.

The Possession of Michael King - Another "Found footage" movie on Amazon Instant. It's about an atheist who chooses to document his exposure of everything supernatural after his world is rocked by the death of his wife; starting with trying to summon a demon, as you do. Most interesting thing about this was the set up. After that, completely bland in my opinion. Pretty much every single scare in this movie is a jump scare. I can put up with them but any horror aficionados who can't stand them at all should skip it.
 
Enemy was interesting, but I'm sure I will have forgotten it completely a in a month or so.
You probably will. I was really intrigued by the mystery of it, but gave it some thoughts afterwards and 'figured it out'. Gave it a slight chuckle and moved on.

About The Rover; I can see Robert Pattinson giving it his all. With all the little mannerisms, face twitching and mumbling, but for some reason I'm just not a fan of the guy. Guy Pearce on the other hand can do no wrong. I liked the movie itself. Mad Max x Rain Man seems like a pretty apt description and made me laugh :)
 
Leprechaun: Origins - I don't get how this movie is much of an origin tale at all. Aside from that, pretty generic slasher/horror film. Even has almost every core member tripping while being chased.
 
Boyhood

Oh man, so good. The hype is real. I'll write more later, but this was really impressive. Hits close to home at times, mostly the part with the professor daddy. And that soundtrack is in the awesome tier.

EDIT

Boyhood

"You don't want the bumpers. Life doesn't give you bumpers."

Just one of the many quotable statements from this film, a piece of advice on life during a game of bowling. I'm glad Linklater realised he didn't need bumpers in his life and decided to start this 12 year long epic project which resulted in one of the most touching cinema experiences for me since forever.

Trying to put in to words what's so good about Boyhood without going to deep into story details is pretty hard. Hell, just writing down my thoughts about it in general is hard enough already. I'll just begin with the cast that did an excellent job. I suppose selecting actors to work with for over 12 years is pretty hard to do. Especially for the children since you can never predict how they will grow up and how their acting skills develop over time. Linklater managed to get some great actors on board though with Ellar Coltrane as the boy Mason and his very own daughter Lorelei as the boys sister Sam. Both managed to really convince troughout the movie and their growing up felt really natural. As they grew older Linklater took the chance to put in a lot of references to news (9/11, Obama), popular culture (Harry Potter, Halo on Xbox) and other things so the audience has a good idea of what period we're at. A lot of the typical childhood things Mason experienced or was into I could really connect to. Like being a massive Harry Potter fan as a kid. Or playing videogames with friends for hours on end. The mum and dad in the movie are played by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette. They carry the adult parts of the movie most of the time supported by a group of actors in smaller roles like school teachers, employers and other family members. Both Hawke and Arquette did a stellar job. Hawke plays the father who isn't around that much since he and Arquette split up some time before the point where the story picks up. Because he apparently wasn't in the picture for quite some time we get to see the relationship between him and the kids develop over the course of the film. Which I think was a great choice because it allows for a lot of personal moments and vulnerability from the father in front of his kids. Arquette's role as the mother who has been around the kids for always and is the parent who raises them is very opposite from the father role. She needs to be the responsible one and tries to sort things out in life as we follow the story. I can't dive into details too deep because this is spoiler heavy territory. But I can say that certain events she caused to happen in the film and also afflict Mason's life are parts where it hits very close to home for me. One scene especially I won't forget easily.

Linklaters camera work in this film is most of the time very much in your face and up close. He really likes the shakey cam and it certainly helps capturing a more intimate feeling and look in to their lives. One minor point of critique here is that the fading in and out of blurriness can be a bit too much at times. I'm also not really sure what purpose it serves for the story. The story it self is just a very strong capture of Mason's childhood all the way up to high school graduation and everything in between. It's almost impossible for viewers to not have at least one thing you can relate to. If it's not with Mason you'll find something with the other characters. And to me Mason's life resembles mine on more than once ocassion. Some things fun and some things less fun. And mostly his feelings of not feeling like doing things I can relate to. I understand that's a vague description but I just can't go in deeper without giving away story details. Last but not least I have to mention the soundtrack. Which is a collection of rather well known songs and very indie songs mostly from the period of time Mason is growing up in. I listen to most of the music on the soundtrack myself so it gave me a very comfy feeling hearing those songs with certain scenes. Especially Wilco's "Hate it Here" will never sound the same after having seen Boyhood. And I wished my father was as big as a Beatles fan as Mason's dad.

I want to conclude this write up by saying to not take any of the words above too serious and just go to the cinema and experience this film for your self. Assuming you even read any of these words. Boyhood is the kind of movie you wanna go in to not knowing anything about it and be completely overwhelmed. And after that you'll want to check out Wilco and more Linklater films. Enjoy.

9,5/10

It got a little longer than I thought it would. And it's a mess.
 
Lucy

Aww it ends just as it was getting awesome, super short movie! Mostly wanted to give this a pity watch because nice to see a female action movie do well and Luc Besson. Starts getting into Akira x Tree of Life x immortal jellyfish rain stuff, last 10 minutes are a visual extravaganza. But Luc Besson doesn't show enough of his own imagination other than the cool rain thing and Akira-like neural network, just imagery borrowed from others. I wouldn't expect Leon levels of meticulously executed action sequences, most of it is already done by superhero movies. There is an awesome car chase, which made me think Luc Besson should do a Bourne movie.

Would like a Lucy 2, Scarlett Johannson made for a cool hero. I can't excuse the 10% stuff cause they give that 10 minutes of exposition, like they're trying to go for a more science-y angle rather than just using it as a throwaway excuse for a superhero movie, but I kept on laughing out loud literally. The plane scene doesn't make sense with what they've developed in their own science of immortality/reproduction.

Found it funny how it straight up ripped off images from Samsara while Morgan Freeman goes on his exposition. Nice to see Pacific Rim on a newspaper in the middle of that Paris car chase.
 
God is Burn After Reading funny. Excellent ensemble tragicomic thriller sendup. They're the Coens so it's not like O Country through Ladykillers is bad, but the run from No Country through Llewyn matches anything they made from before the turn of the millennium. I love how this uses modern pulp thriller stylization, which wouldn't be out of place in any Bourne movie or Taken ripoff (the brothers also cite Tony Scott), but applies it to utter idiots. Second-funniest Coens after Lebowski I think.
 
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I don't get the hate for this movie honestly, I enjoyed it. It had hilarious over the top dialogue, great chemistry between the team members, some twists that I saw and didn't see coming and probably what surprised me the most is how well shot the action scenes are in that you could see everything clearly, you felt the heft and weight of the action scenes. Loved the ending as well. I enjoyed this way more than Escape Plan. I don't know what anyone wants in an action movie really this had it all and was over the top in a good way.


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I liked the movie but didn't love it. Aside from the wonderful chemistry between Andrew Garfield/Emma stone and the action scenes, I didn't care about anything else. I still can't see Andrew as Spiderman unfortunately, I keep telling myself how much I enjoyed Toby. Some CGI looks video-gamey while others looked great. One thing that really bothered me at the end
I hated the whole " I'm the young kid who still has hope for SM to return!" The fuck was Rhino doing just staring at SM talking to the young kid, It made me laugh honestly. Gwen Stacey's death I felt was handled very well and was sad.
Overall, I liked it and enjoyed it but bleh it wasn't amazing that's for sure.

I think it's worth seeing just to keep up with ASM universe and the ending points to a much better film if it is handled well.


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It was good for what it is. Not as good as the first movie infact I still think the first one is the best but I still enjoy all of the vacation movies and this one is no exception. More Griswolds or to put it more specifically Chevy Chase is always a good thing.
 
The Talented Mr. Ripley

Another classic that I have only watched now. From the descriptions I was expecting a witty and quick paced movie. The first hour was the exact opposite, It was sooo slow. I almost turned it off and just then it got interesting. The rest was brilliant, though the ending left me kind of unsatisfied.

edit: oh, I was thinking of Catch Me If You Can. Another movie I have yet to see.
 
I spent the last two weeks watching all five Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theatrical films. If I had to rank them in order from most enjoyed to not so much, I would say:

One, three, remake, two, TMNT. I enjoyed all of them to some degree, but I do agree that the first holds up well. This could change down the road but I am glad I watched all of them.
I probably wouldn't have bothered with any of them if not for Now Playing Podcast doing a retrospective on them.
 
The Talented Mr. Ripley

Another classic that I have only watched now. From the descriptions I was expecting a witty and quick paced movie. The first hour was the exact opposite, It was sooo slow. I almost turned it off and just then it got interesting. The rest was brilliant, though the ending left me kind of unsatisfied.

edit: oh, I was thinking of Catch Me If You Can. Another movie I have yet to see.

Watched the French take on this starring a young Alain Delon recently and felt it was much better tbh.
 
Just watched Amazing Spiderman 2, thought it was excellent, a very fun movie. I rewatched the original trilogy last year and absolutely hated it despite liking them at release. I actually think every cast member in the new series is a massive upgrade on their Raimi equivalents, Emma Stone being the best example (I know it's technically not the same character). Dunst is so whiney and annoying in every film, she's basically a female Gene Hackman.
 
Not really prepared to say anything about Sans Soleil but what exactly was the zone supposed to signify? *shrugs* I was just sitting there with my mouth open honestly.

Husbands and Wives was pretty decent. I haven't seen all of Woody Allen movies but I notice that the ones I've seen are all really easy to watch and kind of comforting in that way.
 
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