[polishgenius]

Number 1. is a moot point because although it was directed by Roland Emmerich, it might as well have been a Tony Scott movie - one of the good ones.
Number 2. Channing Tatum can't act, but he's got a charming presence if you give him the right role. This is the right role. I don't really think Gerrard Butler is better in any significant way.
Number 3. Well they got this one right. I don't judge a film by its producers.
Number 4. Well, maybe.
Number 5. I'm not sure why this is matters in either direction tbh.
Number 6. this is about a draw for me.


I'll see OHF at some stage. But since I'm already firmly in the White House Down camp, I'm already biased against it.

 QuickTidal, on 01 July 2015 - 05:47 PM, said:

Rocky movie is always going to get butts in the seats. ESPECIALLY with Jordan reciting Rocky's speech to his son from the 6th film in the trailer (which everyone knows from that X-Box commercial).

I have no doubt that it'll be the most successful of the four (though maybe not more so than Scorsese's potential Mike Tyson film, if that happens). Whether it's the best is another thing entirely.

[Primateus]

 polishgenius, on 01 July 2015 - 05:59 PM, said:

Number 1. is a moot point because although it was directed by Roland Emmerich, it might as well have been a Tony Scott movie - one of the good ones.
Number 2. Channing Tatum can't act, but he's got a charming presence if you give him the right role. This is the right role. I don't really think Gerrard Butler is better in any significant way.
Number 3. Well they got this one right. I don't judge a film by its producers.
Number 4. Well, maybe.
Number 5. I'm not sure why this is matters in either direction tbh.
Number 6. this is about a draw for me.


I'll see OHF at some stage. But since I'm already firmly in the White House Down camp, I'm already biased against it.

 QuickTidal, on 01 July 2015 - 05:47 PM, said:

Rocky movie is always going to get butts in the seats. ESPECIALLY with Jordan reciting Rocky's speech to his son from the 6th film in the trailer (which everyone knows from that X-Box commercial).

I have no doubt that it'll be the most successful of the four (though maybe not more so than Scorsese's potential Mike Tyson film, if that happens). Whether it's the best is another thing entirely.

I've seen both and I have to agree with QT. White House Down is fun and good in its own way. And while the premise is essentially the same it's still different. WHD is an over the top action flick with lots of comedy and a sugar sweet ending. OHF is a straight up action flick with comedy limited to what you might experience on a regular ordinary day. It's rather violent and doesn't really skimp on brutality.

I'll grant that the "domestic vs. foreign" terrorism thing isn't that relevant, both works well and both have their merits.

On the whole, they're both good movie, but I have to say that Olympus Has Fallen is the superior one. You should definitely see it.

[Traveller]

Just watched Grave of the Fireflies.

Bloody hell.

[Illuyankas]

A bit late but Fury Road is incredible.

[worry]

 Traveller, on 16 July 2015 - 09:26 PM, said:

Just watched Grave of the Fireflies.

Bloody hell.

Pair it with Barefoot Gen on date night.

[Macros]

Finally caught the Lego movie.

Initially the jerky movement caught my eye and I thought it would he distracting and annoying. It quickly faded from my mind, a hugely entertaining and well paced film. Constant laughs, and great characters.

[amphibian]

I watched Inherent Vice again.

It's a masterpiece of a book adaptation (maybe best ever) and still a very, very weird movie. I love it. Every bit of it.

PT Anderson cuts out the extra stuff in the book and very firmly connects each segment of the story to each other (while Pynchon's book wanders, as per his usual style).

Sportello/Joaquin Phoenix in the movie comes off as a much, much more focused and competent character than in the book and that's a good thing.

[paran falcon]

Just finished watching Ex Machina. I had been greatly anticipating watching this one; somehow convinced from the first preview I saw that it would be good. It did not disappoint IN THE LEAST. This movie is riveting, intense, eerie, creepy and even somewhat scary. And I loved the contrast in the two settings: inside and outside. I've not had time to fully digest it all yet but WOW. We've known for decades that we're going to create AI and all the possibilities that could come of it, some of which might not be good for humans in general, yet we're hurtling toward it at a seemingly unstoppable speed. A very thought provoking film done very well imo.

[Macros]

Grown ups.


How they decided to make a sequel to this trite streaming pile of shit I will never know

[Traveller]

Deathly Hallows part 2.

The last 20 minutes of this film are so very, very disappointing.

(I may have mentioned this before.. once or twice!)

[QuickTidal]

Saw ANT-MAN Saturday morning. It's a competent, charming, action-packed, fun superhero origin movie...that I feel might have scored more points with me as a TV character. I liked it. In fact I have very few complaints about it. With the exception of it feels like a very competent filler of gaps, if that makes sense. Everyone in it is great. It has a beginning, middle, and end (and mid-credits scene that ought to silence a lot of the people who bitched about a certain aspect of this movie before). I will happily own it as part of my MCU BluRay collection...but does it need to be seen in the theatre? Meh, probably not. Sidenote: since it IS Disney, I got to see THE FORCE AWAKENS trailer in the theatre in 3D...so that was a bonus.

Finally got around to seeing OBLIVION with Tom Cruise. Went in with low expectations, and came out thinking that it's a DAMNED good movie for what it set out to do. Aside from all else it proves that Joseph Kosinski is a very competent director when doing his own story, rather than adapting a previous material (TRON: LEGACY). But yeah, acting, score, cinematography ect. ALL great. Really quite enjoyed!

WORLD WAR Z - Meh. I got about 45 minutes in before bailing out. I was just bored.

[Andorion]

Quote

WORLD WAR Z - Meh. I got about 45 minutes in before bailing out. I was just bored.

Did you read the book though? It was awesome!

[QuickTidal]

 Andorion, on 20 July 2015 - 01:53 PM, said:

Quote

WORLD WAR Z - Meh. I got about 45 minutes in before bailing out. I was just bored.

Did you read the book though? It was awesome!

Sadly, I read ROBOPOCALYPSE first, and the two are essentially the same base story, just with zombies instead of sentient AI and robots. So WWZ the book even felt "meh" to me.

[Andorion]

 QuickTidal, on 20 July 2015 - 02:03 PM, said:

 Andorion, on 20 July 2015 - 01:53 PM, said:

Quote

WORLD WAR Z - Meh. I got about 45 minutes in before bailing out. I was just bored.

Did you read the book though? It was awesome!

Sadly, I read ROBOPOCALYPSE first, and the two are essentially the same base story, just with zombies instead of sentient AI and robots. So WWZ the book even felt "meh" to me.

I read WWZ first, and I think it a lot better than Robocalypse. Its the only zombie themed piece of pop culture I like

[Illuyankas]

Robocalypse is a pile of absolute shit and World War Z the book is infinitely better. You read them in completely the wrong order, which I mean you were fooled (as I was) into reading Robocraplypse at all.

[QuickTidal]

 Illuyankas, on 20 July 2015 - 02:46 PM, said:

Robocalypse is a pile of absolute shit and World War Z the book is infinitely better. You read them in completely the wrong order, which I mean you were fooled (as I was) into reading Robocraplypse at all.

And I take partial responsibility for you reading ROBO Illy...as it was upon mine (and a few other people's) recommendation(s) that you did so.

I liked it at the time, but in hindsight it's not as good as I thought. WWZ just felt samey for the tropes on display. And the movie was boredom incarnate to me.

[Tiste Simeon]

I too saw Oblivion the other day pleasantly surprised by how entertaining it was!

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

I really liked ex machina. That movie is fucked up. She it was so underpromoted. Very very good.

[amphibian]

The Minions movie isn't good - not because the concept/characters cannot be stretched out to a full length movie, but because the writers aren't used to working with characters who either don't speak or don't speak intelligibly. Brian Lynch got the singular credit, but it's a movie, which means there's a writing team.

Look at the early Looney Tunes cartoons. Roadrunner vs. Coyote took place over and over and over again in an almost non-verbal fashion. Same for Tom and Jerry, Elmer Fudd vs. Daffy Duck and many other famous pairings. Chuck Jones and the writing staff got very used to working with characters that didn't speak or spoke rarely/gibberish. It's an actual art form to make this method of story-telling support a complex set of directives. The Minions movie doesn't have writers who are used to doing that (not sure anyone does these days, outside of the people who put together the first 20 minutes of Wall-E). Criticizing the Minions movie for not doing this well isn't nitpicking, boxing what the movie is now as a slightly below average kids' movie isn't limiting what it is or the audience it'll connect to well, and understanding why it isn't particularly good helps us deal with future movies/stories.

Imagine a backstory of Minions landing on the planet in a broken spaceship at Roswell or Tunguska, deciding that they want to go home, that working with mad scientists/evil geniuses is the best way to go home because they'll have access to the best technology that way and so on. That's a better origin story, leads to them working with the direct predecessors to Gru and eventually linking up with Gru. The set pieces that make kids laugh can be fitted in during this longer story.

But nope, what we got was a different deal with Scarlett Overkill getting 50% more plot development than the Minions did. Kevin, Stuart, and Bob got all their plot development in the first 25 minutes of the movie and then basically went on plot rails from then on.

[QuickTidal]

Saw MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION last night and thought it was absolutely excellent. It doesn't QUITE reach the constant, kinetic highs of GHOST PROTOCOL as there needs to be a lot of table setting here for an all new story...but it does a really good job of continuing the series and opening up a few new doors. Going into spoilers a bit:

Spoiler

What's great here is that I feel that the IMF for 4 films was being pushed back against the wall, either by the CIA, or rogue agents or someone else and they were "on the run" in one way or another...each film was basically the IMF who are friends with Ethan Hunt acting in accordance with his hunches and saving the world. Which is awesome, but you begin to wonder when the IMF will be fully legit again with a team at home backing them up. This sets that up with Alec Baldwin's Director character at the end basically showing that the team will now be legit again, and have a leader at home supporting them. I loved that aspect of RN.

A wonderful summer tentpole action film that doesn't fall apart in any CGI mess of a 3rd act (I'm looking at you AGE OF ULTRON), nor does it ask you to suspend disbelief too often. It's a good ol' rollicking spy actioner with all the twists, turns, and motorcycle chases you love. Probably one of the best films of the year on par with FURIOUS 7, JURASSIC WORLD, and MAD MAX, definitely the best film of the summer for me eeking JURASSIC WORLD out of the top spot by a little bit.