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

[revo]

Unfortunately watched G.I. Joe: Retaliation. My 6-year old loved it, and my 3-year old claims it's his favorite movie ever, but for those of us with a wider movie viewing experience, you should probably avoid it. My favorite scene was at the end when the GI Joes are feted at a White House medal ceremony replete with laughs and wisecracks, this just days after London and its 8 million inhabitants were blown off the face of the earth. As long as it's not Americans, who cares!!

[TranaGreg]

saw Elysium on the weekend. a very good movie - yes it's pretty preachy but everyone knows that going in. The storyline is well told, Damon is solid, Foster is scary-excellent, the effects are very well done, the action sequences are great, and the villain - the on the ground villain that is - is a real badass. highly enjoyable.

[revo]

anyone watch the HBO movie "Clear History?" For you Curb Your Enthusiasm fans out there, it's basically a 2-hour long episode.

[ironfist]

anyone watch the HBO movie "Clear History?" For you Curb Your Enthusiasm fans out there, it's basically a 2-hour long episode.

Yeah I watched it and thought the same exact thing.

[revo]

Yeah I watched it and thought the same exact thing.

While I enjoyed it (since I enjoy Curb), can Larry David do anything besides playing that character?

[ironfist]

While I enjoyed it (since I enjoy Curb), can Larry David do anything besides playing that character?

I doubt it, at least not in a starring role. I like Curb too, so it was entertaining for me.

[johnnya24]

Some movies I've seen of late:

No - about the Pinochet Yes / No campaign in Chile in the late 80's. Very good. They deliberately aged the footage (or used some technique) to make the movie look exactly like the original film and TV footage from the time. So there are some really fluid scenes that have been spliced together. Gael García Bernal stars.

Now You See Me - The trailers for this didn't appeal to me when it first came out, so I never bothered seeing it in the cinema. I regret that. Preposterous concept, but I found it highly entertaining. The cast were enjoyable to watch. I like the fact they kept it simple and just told the story.

We're The Millers - It was funny throughout, with maybe 1 or 2 real laugh out loud moments. Over all a very solid comedy.

Elysium - pretty good, but not great. Thought the aesthetic was a little to similar to District 9, especially when the brilliant Sharlto Copley (Kruger) was onscreen. He stole the show as usual. Solid, but could have been better.

2 Guns - entertaining comedy-buddy-action flick that probably could have been done a bit better. But the repartee between Mark Walberg and Denzel Washington was excellent. That carried the movie. Mark Walberg has one role he can play well ... himself ... arrogant, aggressive, overly confident A-holes. He's know his strengths.

Mud - great little movie. Matthew McConaughey has had a nice comeback in recent years.

Next Up:

The Gatekeepers
Greedy Lying Bastards
Hannah Arendt (can't find a torrent anywhere )

Looking forward to Rush ... looks awesome.

[TranaGreg]

for those who care about such things, our TIFF - Toronto International Film Festival - starts today. 288 movies this year - crazy. I tend to stay away but have friends who take the week off & spend the week going from premiere to premiere. Pretty much the entire downtown becomes chaotic as everyone who has ever been in a movie or directed one comes to town. I'll be out there hunting for Catherine Zeta-Jones since she just broke up with Michael Douglas ...

[johnnya24]

Got back to my 1970's Movie To Do list yesterday.

Sorcerer is really good. I think it was William Freidkin's follow up to The Exorcist. It went over budget, and was released on the same day as Star Wars, so no surprise it's been forgotten. Should really get more credit than it does. It has that 70's feel, but also some terrific and very realistic set piece action sequences. Brilliantly crafted. A bomb in Jerusalem in one of the opening scenes looks almost like raw footage, the explosion at the oil well was spectacular, and then 2 huge trucks trying to cross an old rickety rope bridge. I read somewhere it's getting remastered for a Blue Ray release, so it might be worth checking out then.

[swampdragon]

Blue Jasmine is very well done - the complexities of the characters are spot on. It wonder how the casting works to find well matched actors that have hardly done any previous work

[Fresno Bob]

Got back to my 1970's Movie To Do list yesterday.

Sorcerer is really good. I think it was William Freidkin's follow up to The Exorcist. It went over budget, and was released on the same day as Star Wars, so no surprise it's been forgotten. Should really get more credit than it does. It has that 70's feel, but also some terrific and very realistic set piece action sequences. Brilliantly crafted. A bomb in Jerusalem in one of the opening scenes looks almost like raw footage, the explosion at the oil well was spectacular, and then 2 huge trucks trying to cross an old rickety rope bridge. I read somewhere it's getting remastered for a Blue Ray release, so it might be worth checking out then.

I like Sorceror better than The Wages of Fear.....but then again, I like Roy Scheider in basically everything he's done

[johnnya24]

I like Sorceror better than The Wages of Fear.....but then again, I like Roy Scheider in basically everything he's done

I haven't seen The Wages of Fear. I wonder if the town could possibly look any bleaker than in The Sorcerer? I don't care what you're running away from, nothing can be worth living like that.

Agree on Roy Schneider ... he was the nuts.

[johnnya24]

There was one Roy Schneider role that stuck in my head, and it just came to me - The Rainmaker. Not a huge role, and only in the movie for like 3/4 minutes, but he totally nailed the out-of-touch, thinks-he's-invincible, doesn't-give-a-shit CEO.

[johnnya24]

Saw White House Down recently. Have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Really didn't expect much with the memory of the awful Olympus Has Fallen still fresh.

It's preposterous like most action movies, but it's entertaining in a relentless Die Hard kinda way, and it has a serious critical political undercurrent. In fact it's almost a political allegory. Along with Star Trek: Into Darkness, Hollywood is doing a pretty decent job at criticizing the establishment narratives (aka lies) that our dominating our time.

[BuckyBuckner]

I have a friend in the final stages of making a movie of his own. He wrote, directed and produced it. He has started a Kickstarter campaign to help raise the bit of funds needed to finish the movie. The campaign is almost over and while he got to his original goal he's set a new goal that he's close to. If you are interested here is a link to the Kickstarter page.

Here is the video from the page that includes the trailer. I've only seen the trailer but it seems pretty good. Since I haven't seen the movie yet I don't know if it's Exceelent but I thought some of you might be interested in checking it out.