[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 21 January 2015 - 06:38 PM, said:

Spoiler

Flynn's sold a ton of books with that ending. I think it works for what the story is - the torturing of a flawed husband by a woman raised to be psychotically perfect.

I wouldn't change the ending. Plus Flynn has the sequel in the works (I think).

Different context than the Pahlaniuk/Fincher one.

Meh, 50 Shades of Grey sold a ton of books too. That's not a signifier of a clean telling of a story.

I don't like the ending, and I don't buy it for a second.

And you might want to spoiler tag your comments in case some haven't seen it.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 21 January 2015 - 06:49 PM

[Macros]

I can see peoples problems with American Sniper, I watched it as a film, not considering it as a portrayal of the man. Whom I had never heard of before watching the film.

Having a read a little more into his back story I can agree that Eastwood seems to have tried to make him a sympathetic character by showing how PTSD affected his home life and his mentality in later tours.
But I would argue Cooper puts across Kyles narrow mindedness quite well and (to me anyway) it seemed quite obvious he was an egomaniac who over estimated his own importance and quite frankly was happy to gun people down, when his brother says "fuck this place" or sometihng similar and looks clearly broken, he looks taken aback, as if he can't understand why someone would hate the war.
The problem being most guys who've watched it that I work with haven't looked beyond what the film offered up as Kyle and so don't appreciate the full story and what the film glossed over.

[Gust Hubb]

Anyone seen La Casa Fin de los Tiempos (The House at the end of time)? Super fun. Seems like a classic horror film, but ends up something different entirely. Really enjoyed it (and having the shit scared out of me !)

[QuickTidal]

After seeing AMERICAN SNIPER last night I think my feelings pretty much line up with Macros. It spends a bunch of the running time showing that Kyle is an ego-stroked, condtioned husk of a human and is a weapon and tool instead. By his second tour (at least) he's operating on instinct drilled into him as a Seal. There is a scene after he comes home from his last tour where he nearly beats the shit out of his own dog because the dog was playfully roughhousing with his son. It was telling for me to watch, because he wasn't comfortable in his own skin as a human in a peaceful place anymore. When he gets over there for his second tour (of four) his fellow Seal says "Welcome Home" and he smiles...and his brother (who was a marine) on his way back to the States, scared and broken after his only tour says of Iraq "Fuck this place. Fuck it." And Kyle's response is "What? What did you just say?" as if disparaging the place had upset Kyle as he'd begun to see it and his fellow Seals as home. I pretty much watched the whole movie as his humanity crumbling away. He was an egomaniac, and sometimes asshole who did heroic things. That's what I got from it.

And it does benefit looking up the actual guy afterwards to pull out the lines of fiction from the reality.

Solid film, Eastwood's direction is as good as it's ever been. I don't think it's Best Picture material...but Cooper deserves the nod for his acting.

[worry]

QuickTidal, on 23 January 2015 - 11:16 AM, said:

I pretty much watched the whole movie as his humanity crumbling away. He was an egomaniac, and sometimes asshole who did heroic things. That's what I got from it.

That's precisely the lie I don't want to be told for two hours. But that's just me, I ain't telling anyone not to see it. If you're taking it as just an entertaining fiction and divorce it from reality completely, then I guess there's no harm on the individual level.

[QuickTidal]

worry, on 24 January 2015 - 10:55 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 23 January 2015 - 11:16 AM, said:

I pretty much watched the whole movie as his humanity crumbling away. He was an egomaniac, and sometimes asshole who did heroic things. That's what I got from it.

That's precisely the lie I don't want to be told for two hours. But that's just me, I ain't telling anyone not to see it. If you're taking it as just an entertaining fiction and divorce it from reality completely, then I guess there's no harm on the individual level.

I've never taken any film as any sort of reality, "based on a true story" or not. "Based on a true story" is always embellished for enterttainmeny value. Always, without fail.

Films are fictional for me, unless they are documentaries. Full stop. I have no line in the sand for fiction I'll consume. If I did I'd have never gone to see AMERICAN PSYCHO or NATURAL BORN KILLERS because I might disagree with reckless killing being glorified...but they were movies, so I accept that.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 25 January 2015 - 12:14 AM

[worry]

I can see that for sure. Then again, I tend to side with amph in terms of factoring in whose pockets I'd be willing to put my money (I know you have too, to some degree, in other instances), so that's a deciding factor here in this particular case for me. Different (and ever-wiggly) line for everybody though, I recognize.

[QuickTidal]

Completely. I respect that.

[Gnaw]

amphibian, on 20 January 2015 - 04:50 PM, said:

There are indeed lines of thought and art that shouldn't be pursued or pursued as heavily as they are.

I don't even know what prompted your comment - I was scanning upthread to find the last post I'd read.

There are NO lines of thought or art that should be off limits.

[amphibian]

The dwarves, they delved too deep.

[QuickTidal]

Saw THE IMITATION GAME finally and was reallly impressed. What a great film, and illustrates the WWII portion (and after) of Turings life spendidly, and the ending is poignantly done. Soraring score (Alexandre Desplat, so I knew I'd enjoy it), great drection and cinematography. Cumberbatch is perfect.

[McLovin]

QuickTidal, on 26 January 2015 - 11:23 AM, said:

Saw THE IMITATION GAME finally and was reallly impressed. What a great film, and illustrates the WWII portion (and after) of Turings life spendidly, and the ending is poignantly done. Soraring score (Alexandre Desplat, so I knew I'd enjoy it), great drection and cinematography. Cumberbatch is perfect.

Just saw this too and loved it.

Also saw BIG EYES. Another fantastic movie. Amy Adams is wonderful. The whole cast is great actually. Really enjoyed it.

[QuickTidal]

I was already not excited about Josh Trank's FANTASTIC FOUR reboot...

this trailer does nothing to elevate that into actual excitement. It doesn't FEEL like the FF to me. But then I'm a fan. EDIT: It DOES feel science-ish...so that's good...but otherwise I'll have to reserve judgement till a longer trailer drops or I see the film.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 27 January 2015 - 04:05 PM

[polishgenius]

It looks to me like it could be a good film but a terrible Fantastic Four film. It just messes with way too much.


It's not shown in the trailer but word a few months ago had it that Doom is

Spoiler

not the leader of his own country, but a disgruntled blogger. I mean what the fuck.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 27 January 2015 - 05:07 PM, said:

It looks to me like it could be a good film but a terrible Fantastic Four film. It just messes with way too much.


It's not shown in the trailer but word a few months ago had it that Doom is

Spoiler

not the leader of his own country, but a disgruntled blogger. I mean what the fuck.

I heard that too. It does nothing but set my teeth on edge if true.

And I agree with the sentiment...if this weren't a FF film I'd be fine with it...but it simply doesn't feel like an FF film from this look at it.

EDIT: Also, the square 4 logo...is just a punch in the eye. the circle with the 4 is ICONIC and Fox felt the need to change it. Call that a nitpick, but it;'s one of the things that makes me realize that Fox isn't willing to embrace the comic-past of the FF and instead wants to make something well outside that box.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 27 January 2015 - 05:49 PM

[worry]

That actually made me consider watching it. My only issue is that if you're calling your 2 minute trailer a "teaser" you should be fired by the studio and your family should be jailed if they don't denounce you.

[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 27 January 2015 - 05:41 PM, said:

EDIT: Also, the square 4 logo...is just a punch in the eye. the circle with the 4 is ICONIC and Fox felt the need to change it. Call that a nitpick, but it;'s one of the things that makes me realize that Fox isn't willing to embrace the comic-past of the FF and instead wants to make something well outside that box.

I actually don't mind the logo (not that I've ever been a gigantic FF fan, despite my concerns above- not that I dislike it, it's just never crossed my radar in a big way). Sure, not a circle, but at least it's a take on the same idea with the square, rather than just abandoning the geometry completely.


I think the reason for doing how they're doing is that they went for a lighter-hearted, family tone last time, and it failed miserably, so rather than going "well we must do it better next time" they've scrapped it entirely and gone completely the other way. I mean, it does look considerably more polished and competently made than those films, but it's a bit extreme and does betray a lack of understanding of the franchise.

If they manage to reach the sort of emotional tone that Man of Steel did, with perhaps a less troublingly brushed-over-carnage ending, I'll be satisfied. It's still possible, from what we've seen.

[Slow Ben]

http://www.huffingto..._n_5934874.html





Meower Super Troopers 2 info.


For the love of god please just dont try to top the first one and make it so over the top ridiculous that it sucks.

[worry]

Watched a couple family dramedies:

This Is Where I Leave You: very much in the tense family reunion genre of like Home for the Holidays, The Family Stone, or Dan In Real Life. Doesn't do anything new with the genre, but it does have a winning cast who all pretty much perform up to task (Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, some others). I liked it, but didn't love it.

The Skeleton Twins: smaller, focused on estranged twin siblings (Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader). Quite funny and otherwise emotionally gripping. Really liked this one, though it's on the grim side.

[McLovin]

Forgot to mention that I finally saw GAME CHANGE, the movie about Sarah Palin. Julianne Moore nailed it. And it's funny, the movie makes you feel almost sorry for Palin. I did say almost.