PCF at the Movies (6 Viewers)

[bivey]

Saw Revenant last night. All I can say...might be the most intense film I have ever seen. It never lets up. This from a movie with maybe 60-80 lines of dialogue in 2.5+ hrs.

Wonderful use of light, sound, and cinematography.

Amazing performance turned in by Tom Hardy.

Not a feel good movie, don't expect to get some if you take your S.O. but well worth the time.

 

[tommythecat]

Not sure how I haven't heard of this until now, but it looks great.

I love John Goodman when he is on his A-Game. This is just the type of role that I love seeing him in so I am on board 100%.

 

[Ronoh]

Second viewings of The Hateful Eight and Star Wars over the last few days, took the kids to both (1st viewing of TH8 for them, kiddos are 16b and 14.5g).

TH8 was viewed in standard format after having seen it in 70mm opening week... this never happens with me and QT movies but it took a step down on the second viewing. Visually it was lacking a good bit after watching in it's full 70mm glory but it's not just that. I was really surprised at how long, drawn out and quite boring the open was this time around (open = pre-Minnie's), especially once they picked up Mannix. The whole bit with the four of them in the coach was frankly pretty painful to get through... it felt like they were all trying too hard to be cool or cute or funny and it just didn't work. The rest of the film was still quite good and the kids enjoyed it.

We went to Star Wars this morning and watched it while using the D-Box seating. I was wondering where the D-Box seats would fall on the scale from awesome to gimmicky and have to say they were really pretty cool. The seats rumble, shake and turn enabling one to feel the action of the movie (same thing you find at Disney, etc). Feeling the explosions and such was cool, movement of the seats following along with the flying scenes was awesome but the part that sticks with me most is when Poe is strapped in the chair and Kylo Ren has his hand out and is "Force-reading" his mind... too hard to explain with much accuracy but the seats vibrated so hard at that moment you could really imagine you were the one strapped in being mind-fucked by The Force.

Far as the movie goes, it was as good the second time around... I had a few things I was specifically looking for and have to say I no longer believe any of the mumbo-jumbo about Kilo Ren being a good guy/Resistance spy/assassin or whatnot. He may end up switching sides in one of the future films but in this one he is all about the evil. I can easily dismiss most of the minor theory points as in when he is talking to Vader's helmet Kilo says he will "finish what you started" many people say Vader turned good and killed the Emperor so that is what KR is referring to... no, immediately before that line he says to the helmet "show me the power of the dark side". Biggest point I was looking for was the whole thing with Han activating the lightsaber and Ben seeming to be upset when it happens... no. Not a chance Han killed himself. KR wasn't upset in the least, I would call the look on his face a look of ecstasy and the kid definitely "leaned into it".

 

[bivey]

I'm with ya on all counts Ronoh. I think we've inflated our Star Wars theories.

 

[manamongkids]

Rented 3 movies this week

Trainwreck(wife's pick) - 4.5/10

Jurassic World - 6/10

Sicario - 7/10

 

[detroitdad]

Trainwreck(wife's pick) - 4.5/10

Jurassic World - 6/10

Sicario - 7/10

I only made it about 20 minutes into Trainwreck. Neither the wife nor I liked it.

A six for JW seems right. Actually, maybe a little high.

 

[Grobin03]

Just saw The Big Short at the movies.
Found it very nice.
Anyone saw it?

 

[jbutler]

Django Unchained
Inglourious Basterds
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
Jackie Brown
Hateful Eight
Death Proof
Kill Bill, vol. I
Kill Bill, vol. II

Rewatched all these in the past couple of weeks and have to make some changes. New best to worst:

Inglourious Basterds
Pulp Fiction
Django Unchained
Jackie Brown
Reservoir Dogs
Death Proof
Hateful Eight
Kill Bill, Vol. I
Kill Bill, Vol. II

I think I was unreasonably harsh on Pulp Fiction in my memory for some reason, but it really does hold up and Reservoir Dogs, while great, is slightly bested by both Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction.

Jackie Brown is criminally underrated imo, but I think that's to a large degree because it's not stylized in the way the rest of QT's movies are. But since he's adapting someone else's source material (a first and only for him apart from the segment he directed in Sin City), he seems to want to let the movie exist outside of his universe to a greater degree than the rest. There are still some signature QT elements - soundtrack, used-to-be stars reemerging, and even some tracking shots that are semi-unique to QT - but the movie is more straight than genre and that's the only movie of his you could say that for.

Also, @bivey, re: our discussions of QT's screenplays, I totally forgot he also had a significant (though uncredited) role in reworking the script for Crimson Tide. Definitely one of Tony Scott's better films imo, probably not in small part due to the script, though I haven't rewatched it in a few years. I also spaced on his role in directing a short section of Sin City. And he evidently worked on the scripts for Past Midnight, It's Pat, and The Rock. So lots of secondary pieces to the QT filmography, some more apparent in the final result than others.

 

[bivey]

QT also directed one quarter of a movie, I think it was Four Rooms. I'd need to hit up IMDB for that one....yes between Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown in 1995. I remember thinking it was ok, but it's been twenty years since I've seen it.

 

[jbutler]

QT also directed one quarter of a movie, I think it was Four Rooms. I'd need to hit up IMDB for that one....yes between Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown in 1995. I remember thinking it was ok, but it's been twenty years since I've seen it.

Yeah I remember Robert Rodriguez's section of that was hilarious as well. It featured his kids, so I figured when he came out with Spy Kids a while later, "Hey maybe this will be sort of dark like his Four Rooms bit." Nope. QT's section was basically a straight up rip off of an old Albert Hitchcock Presents episode, I believe. And the other two sections were forgettable.

 

[manamongkids]

Yeah I remember Robert Rodriguez's section of that was hilarious as well. It featured his kids, so I figured when he came out with Spy Kids a while later, "Hey maybe this will be sort of dark like his Four Rooms bit." Nope. QT's section was basically a straight up rip off of an old Albert Hitchcock Presents episode, I believe. And the other two sections were forgettable.

I listened to a couple film critics on a podcast recently talk about QT films. While all his films surely are shot a bit different than the norm, and while his first couple of films were truly one of a kind when they were released, the film critics could not agree on QT as being a truly great director/producer/etc. The reason they came to this conclusion as QTs films are somewhat predictable in nature, all will lead to a complete bloodbath final 30 mins or so of the movie. I think he is great at nailing his motif during his films, but I do agree in a vacuum their assessment is true.

 

[jbutler]

I listened to a couple film critics on a podcast recently talk about QT films. While all his films surely are shot a bit different than the norm, and while his first couple of films were truly one of a kind when they were released, the film critics could not agree on QT as being a truly great director/producer/etc. The reason they came to this conclusion as QTs films are somewhat predictable in nature, all will lead to a complete bloodbath final 30 mins or so of the movie. I think he is great at nailing his motif during his films, but I do agree in a vacuum their assessment is true.

There has been so much written about QT over the last 20 years that it's beyond the time constraints of reality to try to process it all. People got so butthurt about his movies for the first 10 years of his career because they more shamelessly cited their influences than was normal at that time. Then the next ten years we had to decide whether it was okay to say the N word and show women getting beaten up.

I guess we could go through them one at a time, but it's pretty fair to say that every one of his films apart from Jackie Brown depict pretty horrific violence throughout, so yeah, there will be some violence in the last 30 minutes. But then again, QT works in genre, primarily crime drama, and most crime dramas will include "bloodbaths" at some point or another, so to say there's violence in the last 30 minutes is a pretty easy criticism.

The fairest way to judge him as a filmmaker imo is to simply look at each of his movies and see whether you enjoy them on their own. Even if they each followed a pretty strict pattern, if I enjoyed each of them when I watched them, they are successful films imo.

For me, half his films get perfect scores, Death Proof is probably a 4.5/5, Hateful Eight is probably a 4/5 and the Kill Bills get 4/5 and 3.5/5, respectively. That is a pretty damn solid record. Probably only rivaled among contemporary filmmakers (at least those with significant numbers of films under their belts) by Scorsese, the Coen brothers, Alexander Payne and maybe Terrence Malick. Each of those directors have made movies (some more than one) that rival Tarantino's best, but their strength - like QT imo - is in their reliability.

Is he one of the most inventive or original filmmakers of all time? In a way, but his power is in his style and I guess that's something you either like or don't.

 

[manamongkids]

There has been so much written about QT over the last 20 years that it's beyond the time constraints of reality to try to process it all. People got so butthurt about his movies for the first 10 years of his career because they more shamelessly cited their influences than was normal at that time. Then the next ten years we had to decide whether it was okay to say the N word and show women getting beaten up.

I guess we could go through them one at a time, but it's pretty fair to say that every one of his films apart from Jackie Brown depict pretty horrific violence throughout, so yeah, there will be some violence in the last 30 minutes. But then again, QT works in genre, primarily crime drama, and most crime dramas will include "bloodbaths" at some point or another, so to say there's violence in the last 30 minutes is a pretty easy criticism.

The fairest way to judge him as a filmmaker imo is to simply look at each of his movies and see whether you enjoy them on their own. Even if they each followed a pretty strict pattern, if I enjoyed each of them when I watched them, they are successful films imo.

For me, half his films get perfect scores, Death Proof is probably a 4.5/5, Hateful Eight is probably a 4/5 and the Kill Bills get 4/5 and 3.5/5, respectively. That is a pretty damn solid record. Probably only rivaled among contemporary filmmakers (at least those with significant numbers of films under their belts) by Scorsese, the Coen brothers, Alexander Payne and maybe Terrence Malick. Each of those directors have made movies (some more than one) that rival Tarantino's best, but their strength - like QT imo - is in their reliability.

Is he one of the most inventive or original filmmakers of all time? In a way, but his power is in his style and I guess that's something you either like or don't.

I also find your rankings funny, only for this reason. when I was in high school Kill Bill was amazing, I was first introduced to reservoir dogs at about age 12, saw pulp fiction the same year. Naturally it put me on to all his movies, but when Kill Bill was released I dont know how to describe it, it was amazing. but now, for me, it doesnt do anything for me.

 

[ssanel54]

I listened to a couple film critics on a podcast recently talk about QT films. While all his films surely are shot a bit different than the norm, and while his first couple of films were truly one of a kind when they were released, the film critics could not agree on QT as being a truly great director/producer/etc. The reason they came to this conclusion as QTs films are somewhat predictable in nature, all will lead to a complete bloodbath final 30 mins or so of the movie. I think he is great at nailing his motif during his films, but I do agree in a vacuum their assessment is true.

I'd say there are too many pod cast film critics out there making these sort of statements because they know it will rile up the QT fanboys. To say he is not a great director because he stays true to a genre that he practically invented is a pretty stupid opinion. Kind of like saying John Ford sucks because he was too reliant on expansive backdrops of monument valley, or Scorsese relies to heavily on Rolling Stones music.

I saw a clip the other day (think it was on Barstool) of QT doing an initial reading of Kill Bill for Robert Rodriguez. Its was really amazing to see just how into his craft he really is.

 

[jbutler]

I also find your rankings funny, only for this reason. when I was in high school Kill Bill was amazing, I was first introduced to reservoir dogs at about age 12, saw pulp fiction the same year. Naturally it put me on to all his movies, but when Kill Bill was released I dont know how to describe it, it was amazing. but now, for me, it doesnt do anything for me.

Yeah I think Tarantino's impact has a lot to do with age as well. I had seen Reservoir Dogs at 14 and loved it, but had no idea what to expect when I saw Pulp Fiction in the theater. I was blown away and ended up seeing (no exaggeration) 15 times in the theater. There was a discount theater (then 99 cents) within bike riding distance from my house and it played there for like 6 weeks. I and a friend who were both just getting into movies were insane for it and saw it over and over and over.

When Jackie Brown came out it was also perfect timing for me. I was watching a ton of 70s movies (as one does when first discovering American movies) so it fit right into what I dug at the time (and still do, I suppose). Then...Kill Bill. It felt like a step backward when I first saw it. Lots of fun stylized violence, but not a ton more going on. I felt like the mixed format (b/w, color, animation) was derivative of Natural Born Killers which I also loved, but more directly so in a way that hadn't bothered me with Tarantino up to that point. Certainly plenty of his plot points and some of his actual shots are directly lifted from other films, but I thought of him more as a curator of those things than trying to reuse them for the same purpose. I saw those elements of Kill Bill as just trying to hit the same notes as were hit in NBK.

So I sort of tuned out on QT after that. I went to see Grindhouse when it was released just for the novelty of the theater-going experience and I really enjoyed it, but I didn't even watch Inglourious Basterds in the theater. When I finally gave it a shot I was blown away and then jumped back on the bandwagon for Django. At this point I'm fully back on board even with an imperfect outing in the Hateful Eight. I like filmmakers (and all artists, I guess) who work without limitations and he finally has the freedom and the confidence to do it, I think. We'll see if it works out. There are plenty of modern examples of filmmakers who have hit that point commercially and creatively and we found out that their best days were gone. I hope that's not the case with Tarantino.

 

[manamongkids]

I'd say there are too many pod cast film critics out there making these sort of statements because they know it will rile up the QT fanboys. To say he is not a great director because he stays true to a genre that he practically invented is a pretty stupid opinion. Kind of like saying John Ford sucks because he was too reliant on expansive backdrops of monument valley, or Scorsese relies to heavily on Rolling Stones music.

I saw a clip the other day (think it was on Barstool) of QT doing an initial reading of Kill Bill for Robert Rodriguez. Its was really amazing to see just how into his craft he really is.

I think their thought of a director staying within the same genre and not being a great director is certainly a debate, not saying I agree or not, just saying its an argument. Maybe the appropriate thought of QT is that he is a great CRIME DRAMA director.

The reason I say this is because i think universally it can be applied downstream to actors as well, a lot of people praise Leo DiCaprio for the multitude of characters he plays, and on the flipside you hardly ever see someone like Tom Cruise get into character, he always just plays Tom Cruise as Tom Cruise in a role.

 

[ssanel54]

I think their thought of a director staying within the same genre and not being a great director is certainly a debate, not saying I agree or not, just saying its an argument. Maybe the appropriate thought of QT is that he is a great CRIME DRAMA director.

The reason I say this is because i think universally it can be applied downstream to actors as well, a lot of people praise Leo DiCaprio for the multitude of characters he plays, and on the flipside you hardly ever see someone like Tom Cruise get into character, he always just plays Tom Cruise as Tom Cruise in a role.

I guess the question is what makes a great director? Can you say NBA players aren't great athletes because they only play basketball? Is the reason MJ is better than Lebron because he also played baseball? I also believe that you don't need to make multiple films to be a great director. I can't even name another film by Orson Welles, yet many regard him as the GOAT for Citizen Kane.

Tom Cruise received the same type of praise for his roles in Last Samauri and Magnolia. Leo is just better

 

[jbutler]

I think their thought of a director staying within the same genre and not being a great director is certainly a debate, not saying I agree or not, just saying its an argument. Maybe the appropriate thought of QT is that he is a great CRIME DRAMA director.

The reason I say this is because i think universally it can be applied downstream to actors as well, a lot of people praise Leo DiCaprio for the multitude of characters he plays, and on the flipside you hardly ever see someone like Tom Cruise get into character, he always just plays Tom Cruise as Tom Cruise in a role.

I guess the question is what makes a great director? Can you say NBA players aren't great athletes because they only play basketball? Is the reason MJ is better than Lebron because he also played baseball? I also believe that you don't need to make multiple films to be a great director. I can't even name another film by Orson Welles, yet many regard him as the GOAT for Citizen Kane.

Tom Cruise received the same type of praise for his roles in Last Samauri and Magnolia. Leo is just better

With regard to directors sticking within a certain range, I don't think Kundun or the Age of Innocence or Hugo are getting Scorsese the accolades he deservedly gets. He gets them for his crime dramas. And they stay very narrowly within the genre.

As I said previously, though, when you line up someone's body of work and he has a couple of the best movies of all time and even beyond those there isn't a clunker in the bunch, it's just pointless to argue that they're not a great filmmaker imo.

 

[bergs]

http://bit.ly/1T2nfXf

Hateful Eight actor destroys priceless guitar. Jennifer Jason Leigh's reaction when Russell smashes the guitar is actually authentic - a dummy guitar was supposed to have been swapped in. Apparently the authentic reaction made Tarantino smile.

 

[atomiktoaster]

Just saw Deadpool tonight. It was filthy, over the top violent and fun as hell. They really did the character right.

 

[detroitdad]

Just saw Deadpool tonight. It was filthy, over the top violent and fun as hell. They really did the character right.

excellent............were going tomorrow morning. Then Jersey Mikes for lunch

 

[gopherblue]

http://bit.ly/1T2nfXf

Hateful Eight actor destroys priceless guitar. Jennifer Jason Leigh's reaction when Russell smashes the guitar is actually authentic - a dummy guitar was supposed to have been swapped in. Apparently the authentic reaction made Tarantino smile.

This actually made me angry. Who the fuck does something like that? These are professional actors...you'll get a real-enough reaction from them without having to destroy a priceless object. So selfish.

 

[jbutler]

Well I liked Deadpool more than I expected, but overall I would still rate it 2/5 stars. The action scenes were mostly better than average and I can say that I really liked the structure of the movie with the interspersed flashbacks. A ton of the jokes were very lazy (Ugly xmas sweater jokes? They stopped doing that on sitcoms three years ago because it's so played out) and some were downright cringeworthy (most of the TJ Miller stuff is flat out horrid). I did laugh out loud probably three or four times (not super common for me), but when you're watching a movie that's attempting to make you laugh 5 times a minute, that's not a great result. A friend of mine has a rating scale that takes into account attempted jokes as well as successful jokes and using that scale, Deadpool would fail miserably. And I think they kind of mailed it in with Colossus, which is unfortunate since I was kind of looking forward to his character.

I was really surprised to see the runtime when I looked it up after my screening. It felt a lot longer than 108 minutes. All that said, you do get some Morena Baccarin titties (very briefly) and I like Gina Carano, so not a total loss. I'm hoping they don't try to get too much (any?) Deadpool in the the new X-Men movie because I do have a bit of hope for that one.

 

[detroitdad]

I'm going to lean more towards @atomiktoaster . I can see where this isn't for everyone. I didn't LOL throughout the movie. I was fairly entertained for most of it. I thought the action was very well done. My biggest complaint is probably the villains. Even "A Jax" wasn't that big of a threat to him. The standard goons didn't have a chance.

Nonetheless I had a lot of fun watching it. I'd probably go 3 out of 5 stars. I loved seeing a "hero" get pissed off, drop F bombs and have fun killing people.

Spoiler

I'm really glad he didn't let Colossus talk him out of killing the baddie at the end.

 

[Puggy]

I could watch this days in days out:

Yepp...she's a babe

 

[jbutler]

Also saw Where To Invade Next this weekend.

It was my wife's choice. I loved Roger & Me, Bowling For Columbine, and Fahrenheit 9/11, but really didn't care for his next few movies. And the title is horrible and gives the impression it's about war. It's not at all - it's about culture.

There are a couple of the Michael Moore-isms I could do without and fifteen minutes in I was thinking, "Meh, it's alright," but it really grabs you at about that point and makes some really interesting points. Plus, regardless of the message, his movies are generally just very well-made and funny. I definitely laughed out loud three or four times and at one point in particular probably as much as I have at any comedy in the last year.

If you like Michael Moore, you'll like it. If you don't, you probably won't. But it's worth seeing.

 

[ChaosRock]

Finally watched last years' The Survivalist... I thought it was quite good! Quite don't understand the substance of the negative reactions going around, i.e. lack of plot, slow, low budget, etc... I really liked the treatment of the premise... Much more subtle than just an action packed 'running and gunning' affair... Definitely not for everyone though as there's no more than a few spoken phases in the movie... I have to confess though that once a movie strays from the Hollywood norm it already gains a couple of brownie points in my view... It was totally worth the watch for me...

 

[jbutler]

Finally watched last years' The Survivalist... I thought it was quite good! Quite don't understand the substance of the negative reactions going around, i.e. lack of plot, slow, low budget, etc... I really liked the treatment of the premise... Much more subtle than just an action packed 'running and gunning' affair... Definitely not for everyone though as there's no more than a few spoken phases in the movie... I have to confess though that once a movie strays from the Hollywood norm it already gains a couple of brownie points in my view... It was totally worth the watch for me...

Good reminder. I haven't caught this one yet either despite hearing good things.

 

[chase]

Finally got to the theater to see The Big Short. Thought it was awesome.

 

[tommythecat]

I watched Housebound on Netflix over the weekend. It's a New Zealand horror/comedy. I thought it was awesome and had a few really hilarious moments. Check it out!

I saw the trailer for Taika Waititi's new movie and it looks awesome as well.