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

[swampdragon]

watch this after you've seen Snowpiercer

thanks

[swampdragon]

After enough people see Whiplash, I will post my thoughts on it

[GwynnInTheHall]

After enough people see Whiplash, I will post my thoughts on it

My friend from college is married tot JK Simmons, who I heard won for best supporting actor last night and is in Whiplash. I guess I gotta see it now.

[overkill94]

Boyhood just won the Golden Globe, but if you want my opinion (you probably dont) it was maybe the most boring 3 hours Ive spent in years. Three hours of basically nothing happening except 2 kids rapidly aging. I know Im in the minority here, but my wife, who loves these types of movies, also hated it. You wont be able to get that 2:45 back

I just saw it myself last week and loved it. While it's true that there's no real plot in a classic sense, I thought the journey was fascinating and there were plenty of relatable moments throughout. All the performances were great, especially Ethan Hawke as the somewhat deadbeat dad. It was my favorite movie that I've seen this year except...

Birdman - Holy crap did this movie blow me away. Everything was original and effectively stylish, especially the cinematography and score. Michael Keaton totally deserved his GG and I was hoping Edward Norton would get the nod for supporting actor also. Even though it's a dark comedy, there were still lots of moments of suspense and it never followed the path you expected it to. Boyhood will probably still win the Oscar since it was also such a unique movie, but I'll be rooting for Birdman. Hoping to see some more of the assumed-to-be-nominated movies in the next few weeks - planning to check out The Imitation Game tomorrow night.

[bryanbutler]

have heard nothing but good things about _The Imitation Game_. it's on top of my current want-to-see list.

[Gregg]

Taken 3 better than 2 not as good as 1.

[chancellor]

Taken 3 better than 2 not as good as 1.

Not surprising - 1 is one of the best vengeance / action flicks ever.

[GwynnInTheHall]

After enough people see Whiplash, I will post my thoughts on it

Watched that along with Gone Girl and Grand Budapest. All wonderful and I will say this, JK Simmons was brilliant, should win the Oscar for best supporting, but its not surprising at all. If you watched him in OZ, you knew he had that character in him.

Edit. saw birdman too, great flick should win editing hands down.

[GwynnInTheHall]

I just saw it myself last week and loved it. While it's true that there's no real plot in a classic sense, I thought the journey was fascinating and there were plenty of relatable moments throughout. All the performances were great, especially Ethan Hawke as the somewhat deadbeat dad. It was my favorite movie that I've seen this year except...

Birdman - Holy crap did this movie blow me away. Everything was original and effectively stylish, especially the cinematography and score. Michael Keaton totally deserved his GG and I was hoping Edward Norton would get the nod for supporting actor also. Even though it's a dark comedy, there were still lots of moments of suspense and it never followed the path you expected it to. Boyhood will probably still win the Oscar since it was also such a unique movie, but I'll be rooting for Birdman. Hoping to see some more of the assumed-to-be-nominated movies in the next few weeks - planning to check out The Imitation Game tomorrow night.

Íf you are in the industry this show is amazing in it's depictation of the incestual life that is professional acting. Keaton was great, though I loathed the batman voice over birdman.

[heyelander]

Birdman - Holy crap did this movie blow me away. Everything was original and effectively stylish, especially the cinematography and score. Michael Keaton totally deserved his GG and I was hoping Edward Norton would get the nod for supporting actor also. Even though it's a dark comedy, there were still lots of moments of suspense and it never followed the path you expected it to.

I agree with all of this, and still couldn't wait for it to end. I just never really cared about anyone or anything that was going on.

[johnnya24]

I agree with all of this, and still couldn't wait for it to end. I just never really cared about anyone or anything that was going on.

I liked Birdman, but didn't love it as much as I thought I would ... especially after the first 30 minutes. It got steadily less and less interesting as the movie went on, and I don't think the resolution was particularly satisfactory. I really liked the use of the jazz drumming as it segued between scenes ... that was pretty cool.

[GwynnInTheHall]

Wild in the books, it was ok, but not as moving as I thought it could have been with more backstory about her family and marriage.......Reese was ok, though nowhere near the performance of Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl.

I've also seen The Theory of Everything and I loved both Jones and Redmayne, but I think they'll both miss out on the hardware come Oscar time. Right now Keaton and Pike are my picks.

Tonight, the Imitation Game...........

[swampdragon]

I liked Birdman, but didn't love it as much as I thought I would ... especially after the first 30 minutes. It got steadily less and less interesting as the movie went on, and I don't think the resolution was particularly satisfactory. I really liked the use of the jazz drumming as it segued between scenes ... that was pretty cool.

Birdman
tremendous acting by Keaton, Norton and Stone

but, the way it was filmed following people around through the crappy bowels of backstage was beautiful, ramshackle and dingy all at the same type

[GwynnInTheHall]

Imitation Game was good, but not spectacular for me. Cumberbatch is good, but IMO, not at the top of the Oscar class. Boyhood tonight and if I can stomach it, finish Foxcatcher.........

[johnnya24]

The Good:

Whiplash - might be the best movie I've seen in the last year. Somehow managed to make you hate all the characters, but still completely engross you and care about the outcome.

Ex Machina - really interesting idea based AI sci fi. Slow paced, and probably not one for the 'splosion sci fi action crowd. Oscar Issac is excellent ... quite a physical transformation since Inside Llewyn Davis. Oscar Issac will be a big star in the coming years IMO.

The Theory of Everything - stunning lead performance from Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking. Not a whole lot usually happens in these kind of flicks, but the lead performance is more than enough to elevate it.

The OK:

Foxcatcher - really fine performances from the 3 leads, but the movie left me cold. It felt like I was supposed to imply EVERYTHING. I love it when movies and TV shows don't treat their audience like morons by laying everything out. But it was almost as if they were afraid to tell the story in a clear and decisive manner (for whatever reason), so they just implied everything. Seriously, fuck that. The one thing they did very well was the upstairs / downstairs attitude of the family and their associates (the lawyer in particular) with these low class underlines.

The Bad:

Taken 3 - ugh. Just ugh!

The Disgustingly Atrocious:

Might be Spoilerish (actually will definitely be spoilerish)

American Sniper - been holding off on my thoughts on this piece of shit, because I knew it would come off as a rant (it will still probably be rant-like). I generally don't read any reviews before movies, except to fire open RT.com and check the % score ... if it's 20% or something I'll maybe dig deeper before handing over my $. American Sniper was 74%, so it's gotta have some kind of redeeming feature right? Wrong. I felt dirty and actually quite angry after watching this lying disgusting piece of fantasy propaganda.

The only accurate biographical elements of this movie are: there was a guy called Chris Kyle, who was a sniper in Iraq, and killed a lot of people. That's it. The rest is all fantasy propaganda shoe horned to fit the movie's disgusting narrative. Are we seriously supposed to believe that Chris Kyle joined up after seeing the Embassy Bombings? Fuck off. But of course, the point of movie isn't Chris Kyle, it's justifying Iraq, so it fits the narrative much better if he joined up in a nationalistic post 9-11-like fervour that seen so many young people want to sign up. Didn't happen.

In case you were wondering, the Coalition weren't in Iraq fighting an illegal war of aggression and dealing problems of our own creation ... no no. We were in Iraq fighting pure evil. We were over there fighting a metaphysical concept which had taken human form. The mother and child with the grenade would have been laughable if it wasn't so horrible. They were clearly possessed by evil. Chris Kyle had the cure. Not to mention the BIG BAD GUY ... THE BUTCHER. He likes to murder kids by drilling holes in their head, he also has a BDSM murder torture chamber. Chris Kyle found that by channeling his inner Columbo. I wasn't sure whether to laugh of cry when the kid tried to lift the bazooka later on ... but don't worry, Kyle only kills bad guys and evil doers.

Chris Kyle wasn't just a sniper who killed people from 500 yards way .... no no. Even Clint Eastwood realized that trying to make a sniper a hero is a bit ridiculous. If an enemy sniper was captured in WW2, let's just say they weren't taken prisoner. So Kyle apparently stopped being a sniper and became a front line leader, banging in doors, leading the charge, riding a white steed into the heart of the combat, investigating crimes, uncovering hidden enemies ... and of course the ultimate battle which consumed his entire life ... the battle with enemy sniper Mustafa. All bullshit. Made up bullshit. He was a dead eyed killer who blew people's heads off from the shadows. What next Clint? A Sequel? "American Drone Pilot"?

"He eats pizza. He masturbates over internet porn. And at the same time he blows people up from 3000 miles away. It's American Drone Pilot ... coming to a cinema near you"

I thought for a minute that we were going to see some semblance of humanity when Kyle returned home ... starring at the screen, haunted by his deeds. Nope. He was haunted by the feeling he should be back in Iraq killing more folk.

American Sniper makes The Green Beret seem like an anti-war movie. Pure filth.

... and to top it all off ... a pathetic clunky piece of NRA propaganda, when Kyle grabs his gun, flirts with his wife in the Kitchen then, and like all good responsible gun-slinging gun owners should, puts his pistol on top of a shelf before going to play with his kids.

I paid a full price ticket for this shit. At some level I'm helping fund this bullshit propaganda. That makes me sad.