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

[revo]

Bizarre story: I'm chatting via text this afternoon with a good buddy of mine from work who I've known about 8 years now. We were talking about going to lunch one day next week when out of the blue he says "did I ever tell you my brother in law co-wrote Argo with Ben Affleck?" I was like "Whaaa?" He says "yeah, my wife's brother wrote it. His name is Chris Terrio. I thought I had told you this before." I'm like, uhhh, I'd remember that dude.

I guess he had been a little known screenwriter/director of tv shows on and off and somehow ended up writing this potential Oscar winner. And he's up for an Oscar himself too. Very strange.

[JudeBaldo]

Bizarre story: I'm chatting via text this afternoon with a good buddy of mine from work who I've known about 8 years now. We were talking about going to lunch one day next week when out of the blue he says "did I ever tell you my brother in law co-wrote Argo with Ben Affleck?" I was like "Whaaa?" He says "yeah, my wife's brother wrote it. His name is Chris Terrio. I thought I had told you this before." I'm like, uhhh, I'd remember that dude.

I guess he had been a little known screenwriter/director of tv shows on and off and somehow ended up writing this potential Oscar winner. And he's up for an Oscar himself too. Very strange.

That's a cool story and pretty exciting.

[JudeBaldo]

I finally got to see Perks of Being a Wallflower and I absolutely loved it. I'm a sucker for coming-of-age movies but this one ranks up there with all of the John Hughes movies. This movie is heavy on some great music to accompany the heartfelt scenes.

Did anyone else make mix-tapes? I know I made my share of them. The two best outcomes I've ever had relating to a mix-tape was making a girlfriend cry because it was so good and my hot art history teacher drunkenly kiss me at a bar. Mix-tapes rock.

[Erik]

and my hot art history teacher drunkenly kiss me at a bar.

Hmmm... that sounds like something out of a script for a coming-of-age movie.

[johnnya24]

I finally got to see Perks of Being a Wallflower and I absolutely loved it. I'm a sucker for coming-of-age movies but this one ranks up there with all of the John Hughes movies. This movie is heavy on some great music to accompany the heartfelt scenes.

Did anyone else make mix-tapes? I know I made my share of them. The two best outcomes I've ever had relating to a mix-tape was making a girlfriend cry because it was so good and my hot art history teacher drunkenly kiss me at a bar. Mix-tapes rock.

Definitely a Top 10 movie of 2012 for me. In a normal year easily Top 5, but 2012 has been a classic year for popular cinema, and there's a lot I still haven't seen.

Released too early in the year to be an awards contender, but certainly deserving of some sort of recognition. Like the Breakfast Club, Stand By Me, or Donnie Darko people will still be watching and talking about this movie for years to come ... long after Argo is a distant memory.

[TranaGreg]

Did anyone else make mix-tapes? I know I made my share of them. The two best outcomes I've ever had relating to a mix-tape was making a girlfriend cry because it was so good and my hot art history teacher drunkenly kiss me at a bar. Mix-tapes rock.

+1 on this. Can't say I had a teacher kiss me but it's kind of bizzarre how a great playlist can affect the fairer sex (BTW, in this context a great playlist doesn't include Metallica, awesome as they are ...).

[JudeBaldo]

Hmmm... that sounds like something out of a script for a coming-of-age movie.

Or a Fresno Bob story.

[JudeBaldo]

+1 on this. Can't say I had a teacher kiss me but it's kind of bizzarre how a great playlist can affect the fairer sex (BTW, in this context a great playlist doesn't include Metallica, awesome as they are ...).

Yeah that's a science to making them. I always found that introducing people to new music from a genre they liked made it more likely that the mix-tape would be kindly received.

[Fresno Bob]

Or a Fresno Bob story.

[overkill94]

I made a bunch of mix tapes (well, CDs) for myself but only ever made one for a girl.

Saw a few movies lately:

Carnage - Featuring only four characters (played by Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, and Christoph Waltz) and one location (a NY apartment), this one tackles the issue of one couple's boy beating up the other couple's and the fallout. It starts out super uncomfortable while the couples go out of their way to play nice but soon devolves to a drunken shouting match which was pretty hilarious. Clocking in at a mere 75 minutes it luckily doesn't overstay its welcome, making it a nice little diversion.

Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie - Being a big fan of their ridiculously irreverent Adult Swim show, I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, despite supporting turns by Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, and Zach Galifinakis, there aren't many laughs to be had here. Their TV show had 15 minute episodes for a reason, so stretching it out to 90 minutes turned out to be a horrible misstep.

[johnnya24]

Django Unchained - It finally opened this week. I thought it was terrific for the first 2 hours, then the story fell apart in the last 20 minutes ... which is unusual for a Tarantino movie. Fortunately there was some good humor to partially conceal the nonsense at the end. Up until the point when [spoiler Calvin Candie got shot] it was top tier Tarantino stuff ... then it just got mindlessly stupid. But the main part of the movie was so good you can almost forgive that.

Spoilers:

1. Django allowed to leave the plantation alive without being unduly tortured ... he would have been beat to a pulp at least.
2. Trying to convince us that being sent to a mine is more severe punishment than could be served out on the plantation. He betrayed and killed the big boss FFS! ... and the other slaves are allowed to see him just walk out? He'd have been tortured, flayed alive, and left as an example to the others.
3. Django merely tied up with some ropes when there is a perfectly good cage ... why?
4. Australian's, with broad Aussie accents in Mississippi in the 1860's? (It made no sense, but I actually found this amusing ... Aussie's are consistently the most unabashedly and openly racist people I've ever met, especially when it comes to Aborigines ... I'm guessing Tarantino has experienced this also)
5. Broomhilda is found by Django unharmed ... as if.

I also thought there were some story-lines that were left strangely untouched ... [Django basically condemned the Mandingo slave to death when he interrupted Schultz from buying him. The guy got tore apart by dogs ... Django never showed any remorse about this, yet he showed remorse about shooting an unknown white guy just a few months earlier? Schultz did ... Schultz could't get it out of his head ... it was one of the reasons why he murdered Candie in the end.]

Christoph Waltz and Samuel L Jackson were outstanding ... in fact the whole cast was great (apart from Tarantino's dreadful Aussie slave trader ugggh).

[Erik]

Did some Netflix instant watching of B-movies recently.

Hobo with a Shotgun -- Trying for "so bad it's good," but it's just bad, aside from the performance by Rutger Hauer. The other Grindhouse revival movies had some joy to them. This one just came off as depraved trash.

Naked Fear -- Essentially a Criminal Minds episode on crack (and also starring Joe Mantegna). Serial killer kidnaps hookers and strippers and takes them to a remote area to hunt them. (Based on a true story -- yikes!) There were a lot of points where the protagonist and the antagonist could have reasonably killed each other, but don't, otherwise the movie would have been too short. Despite that, and an ending that rips off Monster, it was pretty engaging for its genre.

Superstar -- Back when SNL was churning out movies based on recurring characters, Mary Katherine Gallagher got her shot. I loved the sketches but it just doesn't translate to a feature. The scenes where she talks to trees and stop signs are funny. Most of the rest is painfully not. Seemed way too long, even though it was just 82 minutes.

[heyelander]

Django Unchained - it was top tier Tarantino stuff ... then it just got mindlessly stupid. But the main part of the movie was so good you can almost forgive that.

I knew the person I was with wasn't enjoying it so I'm not sure if that negatively effected my opinion, but I agree with all of what you said but I was less forgiving in the end. Too long and ended poorly.

[frae]

Zero Dark Thirty I have to say that I loved it. Chastain nailed her role. When she meets Paneta for the first time she has the best line of the year. I got to see it in a full theater and the intensity of the viewing was awesome. Even though you know the ending the story of how they get there is worth watching.

[johnnya24]

I knew the person I was with wasn't enjoying it so I'm not sure if that negatively effected my opinion, but I agree with all of what you said but I was less forgiving in the end. Too long and ended poorly.

Oh yeah ... and one other jaw droppingly inept moment I forgot:

6. During the scene at the end when [Django is being for frog-marched to the mines ... they traveled along a modern looking dirt road with friggin' tire tracks on it!!!!!]

Very un-Tarantino like! It was almost like someone else took charge for the last 20 minutes.