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

[revo]

Looking forward to the Lego Movie as I heard it was pretty good (for us that only see animated movies at this point in our lives).

Saw it yesterday with my 6-year old. Meh.

[Teenwolf]

Frances Ha - Brilliant, awesome, hilarious, etc. Noah Baumbach has been making these sorts of understated dramedies for years now, and this one is possibly his best film yet. I avoided it because the whole black and white, new york, rom-com, indie sort of thing has been done to death. But this material is really great, and Greta Gerwig puts on an incredible performance as a 20-something figuring herself out.

A.C.O.D - Adult Children of Divorce - Really enjoyed this comedy. Not super deep, but I found that all of the small relationships and lessons learned felt genuine. It's not really a rom-com, but still manages to say something of note on relationships, which kind of shocked me. Good for a watch with the wife and kids, I would think. Richard Jenkins is awesome in this.

And then a bunch more horror...

The Wicker Man (1973) - Crossed this off my unwatched classics list, after reading about the similarities to True Detective. All of the horror cliches are on display, with some lame jump scares, a lead character who ignores obvious signs of trouble and renders him pitiless. It wasn't up there with my fave 70's horror, but I get to tick the box. Not close to Omega Man, The Visitor, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, Deep Red...

Phenomena (1985) - Loved this forgotten and weird Dario Argento horror, about Jennifer Connelly communicating with insects to stop a killer.

Cabin Fever 3: Patient Zero - Not as good as Eli Roth's original, but a capable sequel. Love the infectious disease theme, even if it's done a bit clunky.

The Battery - Small budget horror. Zombie flick that manages to do some original things with the concept. 2 guys traversing a mostly uninhabited country, who happen to have been former baseball battery-mates, avoiding zombies. I'm over zombie movies, but enjoyed this, despite the small budget and slow pacing. Felt more like The Road than World War Z.

[Teenwolf]

For those of you who like the horror genre, my wife and I just finished Haunter. Some surprisingly good acting, a decent story line. More creepy than scary. But a lot of creepy.

Not a bad way to spend 90 minutes if you like this sort of thing.

Haunter was better than I expected it to be, even if playing within well worn territory. Plot twists throughout keep it interesting, and up until 10 minutes before the end, I didn't see any way they could wrap it up that made sense, but they did. Directed by Vincenzo Netali, who did the creepy genetic mutation flick Splice, and the awesome 90's horror classic Cube.

Curse of Chucky was quite good. They dropped the campy tone of the last 2 films, mostly by waiting 30+ minutes for Chucky to talk. The middle of the film lags, and there's no meat in here, but I hope nobody goes into this 6th installment of Chucky expecting Casablanca. For what it is, I was satisfied, and I'll probably download and watch the 7th if they make one.

[overkill94]

Finally got around to seeing Inside Llewyn Davis and I don't really know what to think. There's not really much plot development, and some of the plot points that come along seem to have no point. On the other hand, the music was fantastic and the main character was definitely fascinating. This reminded me a bit too much of A Serious Man which I absolutely hated, but something about the feel of the movie kept it on the "like" side for me. Also, I'm pretty sure I didn't wholly understand some of the symbolism or whatever you want to call it.

[johnnya24]

Finally got around to seeing Inside Llewyn Davis and I don't really know what to think. There's not really much plot development, and some of the plot points that come along seem to have no point. On the other hand, the music was fantastic and the main character was definitely fascinating. This reminded me a bit too much of A Serious Man which I absolutely hated, but something about the feel of the movie kept it on the "like" side for me. Also, I'm pretty sure I didn't wholly understand some of the symbolism or whatever you want to call it.

I couldn't get into A Serious Man either.

On the other hand, I loved the apparent aimlessness of Inside Llewyn Davis. Just like The Man Who Wasn't There, they reverse the typical narratives and resolutions of Hollywood cinema and in doing so present a fairly scathing critique of the American Dream.

[johnnya24]

Saw Grand Budapest Hotel recently. I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool Wes Anderson fan, but this was great.

Netflix'd Blue Valentine with Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. One of the most messed up, yet honest and somehow down-to-earth relationship movies I've seen. Really downbeat story of lives being destroyed by selfishness, poor choices and love-blindness. You'll be thinking about this one for a long time ... but not one to watch if you're feeling down. There's not much in the way of catharsis to be found here. But definitely put it on your to-do list.

[overkill94]

Netflix'd Blue Valentine with Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. One of the most messed up, yet honest and somehow down-to-earth relationship movies I've seen. Really downbeat story of lives being destroyed by selfishness, poor choices and love-blindness. You'll be thinking about this one for a long time ... but not one to watch if you're feeling down. There's not much in the way of catharsis to be found here. But definitely put it on your to-do list.

Agreed. For those who like to feel good after they watch a movie, you should probably stay away, but this movie totally rang true with me even though I've never been in one of those toxic relationships. It was one of my favorites of 2010.

[swampdragon]

I just watch Robot and Frank - It is very interesting, slow, confusing but very watchable. The whole thing is quite compelling and touching - with some good wise-ass humor dialog thrown in.

[johnnya24]

I just watch Robot and Frank - It is very interesting, slow, confusing but very watchable. The whole thing is quite compelling and touching - with some good wise-ass humor dialog thrown in.

That one has been intriguing me for a while. Been meaning to look it up since I read a nice article about Frank Langella last year: link

Might give it a go this weekend.

[johnnya24]

Noah - I didn't really like it that much. It was interesting enough ... I liked how they played with the story, which stopped it from being boring. But aside from the tweaks and the motif, it just wasn't a great movie.

Locke - now this is a quality movie. Tom "muther fucking" Hardy ... this guy is brilliant. Really interesting concept: Tom Hardy is a big deal site manager for major construction projects. He has a really important multi-million $ concrete pour the next morning. However, the night before the pour, some woman he had a one-night-stand with is about to give birth. He doesn't even know this woman. Met her one time. But haunted by his own father's abandonment, he is prepared to risk everything in his idyllic life to make sure he is there for the birth of the kid. It all unravels in one car journey ... feels like real-time, but it's probably not exactly real-time.

[Gregg]

I needed something this weekend to watch with my In-Laws. Flipping through the stations I found K-Pax. They had not seen it so I put it on. I had forgotten how much fun this movie was. They really enjoyed it and I did too.

Spacey was his usual great self. Jeff Bridges gave a nice normal performance, not so...well Jeff Bridgey.

The two hours went by really fast.

[johnnya24]

Just watched Lone Star ... seen it before a long time ago. good movie, though I feel cheated. I was going through a list of "top movies" and this appeared with the sub heading that it was one of Matthew McConaughey's best ever performances. I reckon the reviewer somehow managed to confuse Chris Cooper with Matthew McConaughey. He was in the movie for about 40 seconds!

[overkill94]

Watched Anchorman 2 a couple weeks ago and barely made it through that trainwreck. Like most comedy sequels it was just a lot of the same jokes reworked in a less funny manner. I'm glad the guys finally got to make the sequel they've been lobbying for, but the original's brilliance is a bit tainted now IMO.

Also saw Captain Phillips on a plane today. Very tense pretty much all the way through and very similar in tone to another Greengrass true life movie that I loved, United 93. Tom Hanks and the Somalian dude were both great and I was glad to hear they didn't Hollywoodize the story much.

[johnnya24]

Watched Anchorman 2 a couple weeks ago and barely made it through that trainwreck. Like most comedy sequels it was just a lot of the same jokes reworked in a less funny manner. I'm glad the guys finally got to make the sequel they've been lobbying for, but the original's brilliance is a bit tainted now IMO.

I thought the sequel worked better as a movie, and the weakest parts were attempts to recreate elements from the original. IMO because of the quotes, the great characters and some terrific scenes, people have a tendency to recall the original as being much better than it ever was.

[overkill94]

I thought the sequel worked better as a movie, and the weakest parts were attempts to recreate elements from the original. IMO because of the quotes, the great characters and some terrific scenes, people have a tendency to recall the original as being much better than it ever was.

Oh the first one was not a great "movie" but it's still one of the funniest movies of the last 15 years. I left the theater cold after the first one since the ending is so dumb, but upon repeated viewings I realized that the story was just a vehicle for their ridiculous characters and scenarios. It's rare for a goofy comedy to be a good movie as well (40-Year-Old Virgin is the only semi-recent example I can think of) - for me it's more important that they find a way to make me laugh.