Movies you just saw

[SonofOahu]

Finally saw Ben Affleck in The Accountant. It was OK. However, I figured out the two biggest twists at the end by the middle of the movie latest. Jon Bernthal was very good in it. Anna Kendrick was wasted and just did her standard quirky, stammering bit to bring any life to the character. The only character that had any connection to the audience were the FBI agents (JK Simmons & Cynthia Addai-Robinson)

I love this movie. Plot holes be damned, this was fine entertainment.

The kid who played young Christian (Ben Affleck) was great.

 

[connor_in]

I love this movie. Plot holes be damned, this was fine entertainment.

The kid who played young Christian (Ben Affleck) was great.

The role Ben Affleck was born to play

:stickoutt

 

[Black Irish]

"The Good Shepard." A thinly fictionalized account of the early days of the CIA. It has an all-star cast (Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, etc) and an interesting premise. But the movie just drags; you feel every minute of the nearly 3 hour running time. For a movie that moves that slow, I still felt like they rushed through things without really explaining so it was confusing about what was happening. Robert DeNiro directed and it shows him limitations behind the camera. Slow pace, uninspired shot composition, barely any tension.

 

[zelezo vlk]

"The Good Shepard." A thinly fictionalized account of the early days of the CIA. It has an all-star cast (Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, etc) and an interesting premise. But the movie just drags; you feel every minute of the nearly 3 hour running time. For a movie that moves that slow, I still felt like they rushed through things without really explaining so it was confusing about what was happening. Robert DeNiro directed and it shows him limitations behind the camera. Slow pace, uninspired shot composition, barely any tension.

Fun fact: Bobby DeNiro passed on playing Frank (Jack Nicholson's character) in The Departed for this. He was also directing, but it seems like a terrible decision in hindsight

 

[Irishnuke]

Watched a couple of Stephen King adaptations on Netflix recently, Gerald's Game and 1922. Gerald's Game IMO was the better of the two. The ending was pretty weird though. 1922 was pretty decent. I didn't realize it was Thomas Jane playing the lead character until the end. His performance was really good. I think it was a little longer than necessary. There could have been several scenes cut out and it wouldn't have affected the story. I guess it's based on a short story though so maybe that's why it feels too long.

 

[GATTACA!]

Suburbicon and the Snowman both sucked. Don't waste your money. Suburbicon is worth a watch if you have a moviepass.

 

[zelezo vlk]

Suburbicon and the Snowman both sucked. Don't waste your money. Suburbicon is worth a watch if you have a moviepass.

So disappointing, I had been a little excited to see these until the reviews started leaking out.

However, I have heard good things about The Florida Project, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer

 

[connor_in]

Suburbicon and the Snowman both sucked. Don't waste your money. Suburbicon is worth a watch if you have a moviepass.

You mentioned these and I thought of another movie out that is pretty new, Geostorm.

I look forward to seeing that (on Netflix or something free). I love to watch vacuous action flix that have been critically trashedb ecause you go in with no expectaions of anything great and can treat it like Mystery Science theater 3000. Every now and again you can be pleasantly surprised and even like it a little since you have no hope going in.

Has anyone seen it yet?

 

[ND NYC]

Florida Project director was on Charlie Rose last night, the clips seemed pretty good, critical praise already given to William Dafoe and also the kids in the movie.
may not see in theatres but looks like could be a sleeper hit this year.

 

[ND NYC]

Watched a couple of Stephen King adaptations on Netflix recently, Gerald's Game and 1922. Gerald's Game IMO was the better of the two. The ending was pretty weird though. 1922 was pretty decent. I didn't realize it was Thomas Jane playing the lead character until the end. His performance was really good. I think it was a little longer than necessary. There could have been several scenes cut out and it wouldn't have affected the story. I guess it's based on a short story though so maybe that's why it feels too long.

too bad the stand was made into that cheesy miniseries on abc long time ago...would love to see what a Netflix or hbo could do with it with a proper budget, no dumbing down the violence etc for "regular" tv.

 

[connor_in]

too bad the stand was made into that cheesy miniseries on abc long time ago...would love to see what a Netflix or hbo could do with it with a proper budget, no dumbing down the violence etc for "regular" tv.

m-o-o-n spells moon

 

[ND NYC]

m-o-o-n spells moon

haha...what was that character name again its been a while since I read it.

 

[Black Irish]

Fun fact: Bobby DeNiro passed on playing Frank (Jack Nicholson's character) in The Departed for this. He was also directing, but it seems like a terrible decision in hindsight

I think Jack Nicholson's performance in "The Departed" was ridiculous. He was more crazy homeless man than mob kingpin. I also think "The Departed" is one of the most overrated movies of the past 10-15 years. I can't believe that mess of a movie was what finally won Scorcese his Oscar. And I doubt having DeNiro in it would have made it much better. DeNiro just chose one misfire over another.

 

[GATTACA!]

So disappointing, I had been a little excited to see these until the reviews started leaking out.

However, I have heard good things about The Florida Project, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer

A24 just keeps hitting home runs.

I think Sacred Deer looks better than the Florida Project but I'll be seeing both for sure. I guess Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman must have had fun being insane together filming the Beguiled since they decided to do it over again. The singing was making me physically uncomfortable watching that trailer. Florida Project is going to come down to the strength of the child actors which is always a risky proposition.

 

[zelezo vlk]

I think Jack Nicholson's performance in "The Departed" was ridiculous. He was more crazy homeless man than mob kingpin. I also think "The Departed" is one of the most overrated movies of the past 10-15 years. I can't believe that mess of a movie was what finally won Scorcese his Oscar. And I doubt having DeNiro in it would have made it much better. DeNiro just chose one misfire over another.

To be fair it was an incredibly weak year

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

 

[connor_in]

haha...what was that character name again its been a while since I read it.

Tom Cullen

 

[Black Irish]

"The Foreigner." I liked it. A pretty tight film that's more than just the "Dad on a blood-soaked revenge mission." One of the biggest knocks on the film is that it's a mash-up of two different stories; the Jackie Chan revenge thread and the Pierce Brosnan Irish politics thread. The filmmakers did a good job of tying the two together and not letting one story crowd out the other. It made it more compelling as well, so that the villains weren't just stock evil black hats. I recommend it.

 

[TheItalian]

Halloween night the wife and I watched Saw 6. Holy hell. We wanted to watch 7 but my anxiety wasn't having it.

 

[SonofOahu]

"The Foreigner." I liked it. A pretty tight film that's more than just the "Dad on a blood-soaked revenge mission." One of the biggest knocks on the film is that it's a mash-up of two different stories; the Jackie Chan revenge thread and the Pierce Brosnan Irish politics thread. The filmmakers did a good job of tying the two together and not letting one story crowd out the other. It made it more compelling as well, so that the villains weren't just stock evil black hats. I recommend it.

I was excited to see this, then never made the time to do so.

 

[connor_in]

Hoping to see Thor: Ragnarok this weekend...anyone else?

 

[zelezo vlk]

Hoping to see Thor: Ragnarok this weekend...anyone else?

Possibly next Thursday.

 

[Black Irish]

"The Pawnbroker" with Rod Steiger, 1965. I didn't expect a movie about a Holocaust survivor to be a barrel of laughs. But this has to be one of the grimmest, most depressing movies I've seen in a long time. It's good and very powerful and worth seeing once. And only once. It's in that category of film like "Schindler's List;" definitely worth watching but you never really need to see it again unless you like being sad.

 

[GATTACA!]

Hoping to see Thor: Ragnarok this weekend...anyone else?

Saw it last night. Very fun movie.

 

[SonofOahu]

"The Foreigner." I liked it. A pretty tight film that's more than just the "Dad on a blood-soaked revenge mission." One of the biggest knocks on the film is that it's a mash-up of two different stories; the Jackie Chan revenge thread and the Pierce Brosnan Irish politics thread. The filmmakers did a good job of tying the two together and not letting one story crowd out the other. It made it more compelling as well, so that the villains weren't just stock evil black hats. I recommend it.

Finally went to go see this movie. I really liked it. It's like a mashup of "Taken", "Kiss of the Dragon", and "The Accountant". There was more action and violence in it than the trailer hints at. It's not mindless, gratuitous violence, though. Also, the "palace intrigue" was entertaining.

Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan were both excellent, in different ways. Brosnan's ability to show his (literal) eye-twitching fury was cool. So different than his usual one-dimensional debonair roles. Chan was the epitome of despondence. The scenes where he holds his daughter, and the one where he talks to the two cops in his apartment, are both devastating. Especially if you have a daughter.

I see your point about the two storylines. I thought it worked pretty well, although some of the backstory seems rushed, or missing. I don't have any complaints, though. This movie was better than I thought it would be.

 

[Irishnuke]

Watched "Brawl in Cell Block 99" with Vince Vaughn yesterday. Not a feel good movie and probably 30 minutes too long, but still enjoyable. Pretty brutal, sometimes unrealistically. Definitely not Dodgeball Vince Vaughn.

 

[connor_in]

Saw Justice League yesterday.

Meh...

Some decent action but so much fyi and not all of it very good. Some of the team interaction was good, movie picked up when HE came back and was on screen (spoiler of he that is worst kept secret). The maguffin in this was about equal to first Transformers maguffin.

I thought Flash would be weak part but was one of the best. Cyborg and Aquaman kind of flat and uninteresting Affleck ok, but not quite Lego Batman quality to me. Neither DC nor Marvel have much luck with villains.

 

[SonofOahu]

I saw "Coco" last night. Visually, a very stunning movie. Disney/Pixar's ability to animate water is simply amazing, as is their ability to capture emotion in subtle facial movements. It's worth spending money to see it in a theatre.

Like "Moana" (a Polynesian Movie), I don't think it's going to do as well as it should in revenue. Coco is a Mexican movie. These animated movies that stray beyond plain-vanilla never do as well.

I thought Moana was the best Disney movie since "Beauty and The Beast" (the original.) Coco is the best Pixar movie since "Monsters Inc.", with just as many feels. The closing scenes of Coco are about as devastating as the first ten minutes of "Up".

 

[IrishLion]

Just watched “The Dark Tower.”

Ugh.

They should have just signed some young-ish actors to 7-film deals (or 6-films-and-two-seasons-on-Netflix deals) and adapted the books faithfully. Would’ve been a Harry Potter success story, but for adults who like fantasy/syfy/western mashups. Rate it all R and go all-in on everything with no sensorship. You lose the teenage audience numbers, but you’d make up the money because of how much better the product would be overall.

Instead, they used a nice Easter Egg that King planted in the source material and made the film a *sequel*, which is a nice idea on the surface, but was terribly misguided and poorly executed. I don’t see how any newbies could have understood or enjoyed the narrative, and I don’t see how any fans of the books would have been satisfied with anything other than the visuals themselves.

Any “continuance” or “revisiting” of the cycle should have been saved for King himself, when he’s old, bed-ridden, and ready to close his career with a high, glorious fantasy full of white light and a happy ending (which would still manage to twist a knife in your gut at the very end somehow, anyway).

 

[ohara831]

Son is 10 and daughter 17. Wife and I took them to see Wonder this weekend. Good movie to help teach some important lessons in life. It is a terrific movie.

 

[RDU Irish]

Saw Justice League yesterday.

Meh...

Some decent action but so much fyi and not all of it very good. Some of the team interaction was good, movie picked up when HE came back and was on screen (spoiler of he that is worst kept secret). The maguffin in this was about equal to first Transformers maguffin.

I thought Flash would be weak part but was one of the best. Cyborg and Aquaman kind of flat and uninteresting Affleck ok, but not quite Lego Batman quality to me. Neither DC nor Marvel have much luck with villains.

Watched Suicide Squad last night after seeing Justice League this weekend. DC just doesn't get it done like Marvel. JL would have been better without "HE" - no reason they couldn't have gotten the job done without him. As soon as HE shows up, its a complete no contest. The egg with Luthor and whoever that other guy was was so lame - like these two pussies stand a chance? Agree that Flash was best character except for some gratuitous WW camera angles - she might be the best potential franchise out of the whole team. They managed to make Aquaman not a puss which is an accomplishment but overplayed his tough-guy-don't-give-a-crap card.

SS - just a lot of wtf is the point of this crap. Trying to make bad guys a bunch of soft hearted saps? Boomerang guy - seriously did he do anything? Another all powerful being that is suddenly vulnerable in the end? I mean those guys should have been smoked in half a second. Dial down the power of the villains and settle for destroying the city instead of the world as the MO and it becomes more believable. Just over the top for no good reason creating a completely unbelievable sequence to win. Joker was meh.

I feel like I mainly watch DC stuff to validate how well Marvel is killing it with their universe. JV vs. Varsity really. Feels like they are pot committed to Batman via Justice League so no solo follow ups to the Dark Knight series that was really good. Now it is old Batman, the savvy veteran leading a band of superheroes. Cyborg will even make his gadgets look lame.