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

[TranaGreg]

I belive my review on goodreads was "excellent competence-porn"

you spelled exceelent wrong.

[Gregg]

Jurassic World - I thought it was excellent. The 2 younger actors were terrific, the humour was well executed (lot's of Jurassic in-jokes and references), and the action was great.

Only 70% on RT.

Glad to read this. My family and I are jacked up to see this. We are going to see it Monday night.

[Fresno Bob]

you spelled exceelent wrong.

But I still survived reading the book!

[Gregg]

Glad to read this. My family and I are jacked up to see this. We are going to see it Monday night.

The family loved Jurassic World. I only liked it. I didn't think the dinosaurs were as realistic as the first two. It certainly had some fine moments. Maybe I was expecting too much, but I was a bit disappointed in how the plot developed.

[TranaGreg]

if you get the chance watch ex machina it's like taking the turing test.

Saw this on the weekend. Really enjoyed it. Don't expect an action flick, but it's the kind of movie that sticks with you a couple days after watching it.

[overkill94]

International flight means movie time!

Still Alice - like most movies about Alzheimer's it's heartbreaking but this one's got a little extra since it deals with a 50-year-old being diagnosed. Julianne Moore was incredible and the supporting cast did a great job as well - very good movie.

This Is Where I Leave You - the jokes in the trailer weren't great but the cast was top-notch (Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, that one dude from Girls) so I figured I'd give it a shot anyway. It's a testament to how poor the writing was that this movie missed the mark so bad. The plot of having family come together when someone dies has been done plenty and this one checked off everything on the checklist - hot girl who stayed in town, old high school romance rekindled, siblings get drunk/high and bond, everyone learns a valuable lesson before heading back to the big city. This movie wasn't quite terrible but the attempts at comedy were feeble and it brought nothing new to the genre.

Big Hero 6 - it was late enough into the flight that I just wanted something fun and it's been a while since I saw an animated kids movie. This one was pretty good although a few things kinda bugged me - it's set in San Francistokyo or some other weird portmanteau which was further bastardized by having the main characters have Japanese names but everyone around them be American (international pandering?); also, the "science" they're trying to use is a little silly even for a kids movie. That being said, it was still pretty fun.

[Gregg]

... and Colin Firth was amazing in those action scenes. Colin Firth "action star" ... what next? Liam Neeson "action star"?

I'm not sure what the rating of the movie was, but it had some really adult oriented humour among all the zaniness. The fight scenes were extremely graphic, and yet I had a big smile on my face through all of them. Kingsman was the biggest surprise of the last year for me ... I really did not expect to like this as much.

My wife, daughter and I rented Kingsman last night. I agree with everything you have written here.

It was so much better than the trailers. We all were shocked at how much we enjoyed this movie. The choreography for each fight scene was fantastic.

Enjoyed the humor very much.

You mentioned smiling at fight scenes. I found myself laughing out loud at a few of them. Not because they were so funny but because I could hardly believe the amount of action I was watching. Each individual combat building on itself. Left with an excited "did I just see that?"

It would be hard for me to imagine that anybody who likes action movies would not find this enjoyable.

[revo]

Wild - while Reese Witherspoon was great, I thought this movie did not go anywhere. Her encounters on the hike went nowhere; and . while a 1,000+ mile hike is a grand and somewhat dangerous activity, it was on a park trail -- so it's not like Into the Wild. Plus she seemed to hitchhike and take buses a lot. "Hey, let's make a movie about a dangerous solo hike, but when it really gets dangerous, let's take a bus instead!" Plus, the movie focused on the fact she was a single girl, but then she encounters another single girl hiking it as well -- so what was the point?

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 -- my sons wanted this one. The first one was better than I had hoped; this one was more turrble than I could've imagined.

Survivor -- enjoyable B-movie, with Pierce Brosnan as a bad guy, which was fun.

Jurassic World -- solid entry in the franchise. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas-Howard (man, she's hot!) were great; the storyline was fine. Her assistant meets one of the more brutal deaths in the series, which I thought was a little much, but overall, a very enjoyable movie.

[Fresno Bob]

just watched "Primer", one of the more mindfucking movies I've seen in ages, short too, would love to discuss with someone else that has seen it...

[revo]

Jurassic World and Kingsmen were just about the same to me - kinda low expectations but they more than delivered. I can't remember the assistant's death, though.....

See below:

Spoiler!

Everybody's running from the pterodactyls and she gets snapped up by one, dropped, then as she's falling back to earth, snapped up by another violently by her ankle. She's then dropped into the sea, snapped up again, dropped again, and then appears to be drowning when another pterodactyl does a torpedo dive and grabs her underwater, only to be both eaten alive by that gigantic dino-whale.

This is a death they probably should've reserved for Vince D'onofrio, not some cutie patootie whose only negative was being too focused on texting!

[revo]

Chappie - it's kind of like District 9 (also directed by Neil Blomkamp) meets Mad Max, and really was a cool story -- but like many stories that show the angle from the side of the baddies, it's hard to feel for this group of hooligans. Plus, the two main hooligans -- apparently a real-life husband/wife rapping group from South Africa -- were not great leading actors. Hard to believe they were the stars of the show in a movie with Hugh Jackman!

[heyelander]

Yep, I was one of the 3 guys in the packed theater last night to see Magic Mike XXL. RJEL Girl (can she still be RJEL girl now that I'm not even in RJEL?) wanted to see it and she/we don't really have any friends out here (I guess she could have gone with my mom) so off I went.

The movie was actually decent enough. It doesn't take itself seriously at all and has a good time with how silly the whole thing is. I laughed out loud more than once. The best part was watching her squirm and giggle through the entire thing. On our way out a cute 20-something chick smiled at me and said "You're a good sport" to which I relied, "yeah, apparently I get to pick the next 3 movies."

[Gregg]

My wife and I went and saw Ant Man in 3D last night. I went with very low expectations. The only reason we gave it a try is that the movies we wanted to see had such bad ratings that we will wait for those to come out on tv and that Ant Man had pretty good ones.

Maybe it was the low expectations, but I found it to be pretty darn entertaining. The humor played well. I found myself laughing pretty much. I could have done without the 3D. It was more distracting than adding anything.

I thought all of the characters did a very good job.

Both my wife and I were pleasantly surprised. Made for an enjoyable evening.

[Fresno Bob]

I enjoyed Ex Machina very much

[DMT]

I enjoyed Ex Machina very much

Yea I liked it too.