It's Back: Exceelent Movies I've Seen Lately

[johnnya24]

saw a couple of good movies this week:

Margin Call -- fantastic cast (Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons, The Mentalist dude) and great plot about the coming subprime crisis, and what one brokerage firm decided to do about its plight. Not a true story, but clearly this was based on the true events of '08.

Read a review of this last week .. looking forward to it. In the same ballpark, Too Big To Fail is pretty good also ... although I'm not totally convinced by this one. It was critical, but IMO didn't go far enough ...

Also going to see War Horse and Haywire over the next few days.

[heyelander]

You gave away one of the two big twists in the book/movie ... how can you deny this? ... and still you leave it there to ruin other people's enjoyment of the book/movie.

I sent him a PM too.

[Mithrandir]

sorry about that...i deleted the info...

[Mithrandir]

You gave away one of the two big twists in the book/movie ... how can you deny this? ... and still you leave it there to ruin other people's enjoyment of the book/movie.

sorry..i didn't make the connection...brain freeze...i really did forget about people reading this that didn't see the movie or read the book yet...

[johnnya24]

War Horse - hated it. The war scenes were effective and well staged. But almost everything else was horrible: script, plot, acting, music ... dripping in cringe-worthy sentimentality. Hated it. Spielberg has completely lost the plot since he started focusing on crappy TV shows. Best scene was the cavalry charge, and in particular a brief aerial shot of the charge in full flow.

[Teenwolf]

Tree of Life - Very slow, a little too real for me at times. It's a wonderful film, but certainly not an easy watch. Not something you can absorb while playing around on the laptop/ipad. It was the first Terrence Malick film I've seen, so I'll be watching the rest of them soon.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - What a horrible film. I'm sure it works WAY better in the tv format, with more time to connect with the characters. The film handles every aspect terribly though. Acting, lighting, script, etc. I felt like the entire mystery element of the film was meaningless because I couldn't possibly care less about the characters. If I knew it was going to be so convoluted I would have went to Mission Impossible 4 instead.

Warrior - Very much a formula film, but it works because Tom Hardy is amazing. Kind of silly that they're all middleweights, given that some of them appear to have 50 lb advantages over a shrimp like Joel Edgarton, but it's a pretty forgivable flaw. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot.

Who Is Harry Kellerman And Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me - 1971 film with Dustin Hoffman as an eccentric and successful musician. I loved it. Hoffman is great, and it's a small time investment (86 minute run-time).

Being There - I haven't seen anything with Peter Sellers, so this was an interesting place to start. I've already watched it twice now, and think it's pretty incredible. It's a strange film, because it's never comfortable to watch. Took me a few years to get around to it. Glad I finally did.

A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy - Lots of very funny people in this (Nick Kroll from The League, Martin Starr from Party Down, Lake Bell from Children's Hospital) but unfortunately not a great script. Worth watching for certain performances, or if you just devour all things comedy, but not unskippable.

Bad Boys II - I've wanted to watch this for years based on how ludicrous I've heard it is. It lived up to that, and then some.

Assault on Precinct 13 - Finishing off my list of John Carpenter films (one more to go). I really liked this. I was expecting more rough edges, based on how mediocre I felt the other early Carpenter films were (Darkstar and Elvis), but this was well made and has some good performances.

The Hand - 1981 horror film starring Michael Caine, who gets his hand cut off. All hell breaks loose from there. A touch of camp, but mostly just a decent horror flick.

Paranormal Activity 3 - I'm a big fan of 1 & 2, but felt like the third one was pretty mediocre. The jump scares are on par with the previous films, but I didn't care as much for the story it tells.

[Fresno Bob]

Being There - I haven't seen anything with Peter Sellers, so this was an interesting place to start. I've already watched it twice now, and think it's pretty incredible. It's a strange film, because it's never comfortable to watch. Took me a few years to get around to it. Glad I finally did.

[B]Bad Boys II

Assault on Precinct 13 - Finishing off my list of John Carpenter films (one more to go). I really liked this. I was expecting more rough edges, based on how mediocre I felt the other early Carpenter films were (Darkstar and Elvis), but this was well made and has some good performances.

Dude, you should run out and watch "Dr Strangelove" next......what carpenter movie do you have left? I love the thing, EFNY (that's where Fresno Bob comes from) and Big Trouble in Little China, the rest isn't that great.....


The only good thing about bad boys is the pillowcase full of coke cans.....

[Erik]

The Hand - 1981 horror film starring Michael Caine

Exhibit A in the "Michael Caine will take any part he is offered" theory.

[revo]

I had the misfortune of seeing Bad Teacher last night. It was like re-living my High School chemistry class -- painfully boring, then the sweet, sweet relief of it finally ending.

Cameron Diaz's car wash scene it pretty amazing, though. Fast forward to that scene and then you can shut it off.

[Erik]

The Conversation was a '70s masterpiece that I hadn't gotten around to seeing until this morning. Outstanding.

Last night we watched Bridesmaids. The airplane scene was hysterical, some of the rest of it was also funny, but it was too long and too predictable.

[swampdragon]

The Conversation was a '70s masterpiece that I hadn't gotten around to seeing until this morning. Outstanding.

Last night we watched Bridesmaids. The airplane scene was hysterical, some of the rest of it was also funny, but it was too long and too predictable.

I mentioned The Conversation in another thread - great stuff

I am also going to revisit - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

[DMT]

The Conversation was a '70s masterpiece.

Agreed.

[johnnya24]

Tree of Life - Very slow, a little too real for me at times. It's a wonderful film, but certainly not an easy watch. Not something you can absorb while playing around on the laptop/ipad. It was the first Terrence Malick film I've seen, so I'll be watching the rest of them soon.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - What a horrible film. I'm sure it works WAY better in the tv format, with more time to connect with the characters. The film handles every aspect terribly though. Acting, lighting, script, etc. I felt like the entire mystery element of the film was meaningless because I couldn't possibly care less about the characters. If I knew it was going to be so convoluted I would have went to Mission Impossible 4 instead.

Tree of Life ... I've been meaning to watch this for a while ... but I'm just never in the right mood. I know what it's going to be like, I know I'll really like it (I assume) ... but I just can't find the right moment.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy & MI4 ... enjoyed them both. Opposites in many respects ... Tinker took a simple story and made it seem more complicated, and MI4 took a simple story and kept it simple. Both worked in their own way for me. I remember nodding off in Tinker but not in MI4 ... I blame the large meal and reclining seats in the cinema rather than the movie ... so comfortable and just the right amount of resistance.

[Mithrandir]

Gaslight - 1944 classic..Ingrid Bergman won the Oscar for her performance..an 18 year old Angela Lansbury made her acting debut...a wonderful movie..

[rhd]

Gaslight - 1944 classic..Ingrid Bergman won the Oscar for her performance..an 18 year old Angela Lansbury made her acting debut...a wonderful movie..

Yes, very good movie. Surprisingly, it was a remake of an earlier Gaslight movie done just 4 years earlier, w Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard in the leads. Basically, almost the exact same movie w different actors. That was also a very good movie and I recommend it. They show it on TCM periodically.