PCF at the Movies (8 Viewers)

[detroitdad]

To go seriously old school here - anybody seeing Jaws? I'm thinking of checking it out on the big screen at one of the special showings in my area. Seen it dozens of times, but never in a theater. Saw it with my parents in 75 at, if you can believe it, a drive in theater!!

Same here. It was awesome as a kid at the drive inn. We used to do the Drive In all the time. Until about 10 years ago we had one locally that I would take my kids too. Only my middle daughter would make it through both movies (even at 5).

Its one of me and my boys favorite movies. Watch it at least once a year.

 

[Thisfiendis138]

Might've missed the boat (no pun intended, Newman!) on the talk of Jurassic World... I finally saw it this evening...

 

[Toby]

I'm about 6 months+ behind on this thread but we finally watched Birdman.

Excellent flick. Perhaps only made better by jazz drumming throughout the entire movie, instead of just most!

Might get to go to the cinema in a couple of weeks. Meg is a fan of Despicable Me, so I'll be taking her to see Minions.

 

[detroitdad]

Just turned on lone wolf McQuade

 

[jbutler]

I'm about 6 months+ behind on this thread but we finally watched Birdman.

Excellent flick. Perhaps only made better by jazz drumming throughout the entire movie, instead of just most!

Might get to go to the cinema in a couple of weeks. Meg is a fan of Despicable Me, so I'll be taking her to see Minions.

the drumming score from birdman was a huge part of why i loved that movie so much. it was absolutely propulsive.

i didn't see despicable me and generally don't like animated movies (no not even pixar), but for some reason minions looked entertaining to me. if i see it i'll be waiting until netflix, but i might give it a shot.

the last few weeks of new releases have been shit. that said, i'll be checking out both dope and spy at either at the theater or on netflix.

 

[detroitdad]

What, no Chuck Norris love

 

[jbutler]

What, no Chuck Norris love

there are few things i have ever been sicker of than i am sick of chuck norris.

 

[detroitdad]

there are few things i have ever been sicker of than i am sick of chuck norris.

Fair enough, lol. ...love me some lone wolf McQuade. Nothing like mediocre action flicks while you enjoy your last buzz of vacation

 

[grandgnu]

there are few things i have ever been sicker of than i am sick of chuck norris.

Chuck Norris doesn't get frostbite, Chuck Norris bites frost

 

[jbutler]

saw Terminator: Genisys last night. meh. it was passable. it looks like it's at 26% on RT right now and i'd say that's well lower than reasonable. if you're really into the terminator franchise, it's worth seeing, but it's not a great film. i was hoping that salvation would be the beginning of a real reboot to the series, but i guess they wrote it off. too bad as that storyline had a lot more going for it than this one imo.

at this point, i would rank the terminator films as: terminator ≥ T2 >>>> salvation >> genisys >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> rise of the machines.

 

[jbutler]

a little tempted to wait until i see a couple potential contenders this weekend, but it's technically after the mid-year point now, so...

BEST OF 2015 SO FAR:
mad max: fury road
it follows
chappie
kurt cobain: montage of heck

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
an honest liar
unfriended
black sea
furious 7
while we're young

MOST DISAPPOINTING:
ex machina
tomorrowland

MOST FORGETTABLE:
taken 3
survivor
blackhat
san andreas
focus

WORST:
avengers: age of ultron
jupiter ascending

MISSED BUT PLAN TO SEE:
clouds of sils maria
white god
spy
manglehorn
cop car
spring
the nightmare
results
the wolfpack
faults

 

[MaxB]

WORST:
avengers: age of ultron

I liked that movie..... it was almost like a cartoon with the CGI, but still enjoyable. Wanted to see Mad Max, but I'll have to wait til Blu-ray or Starz/HBO now

 

[jbutler]

I liked that movie..... it was almost like a cartoon with the CGI, but still enjoyable.

the trouble is that marvel is capable of doing fun, competent cartoonish CGI movies with wit and (at least a little) heart. ultron was a disaster on several levels. my original thoughts back from post #106:

saw avengers friday night and hated it. i thought it was a narrative abortion and ineptly structured. there's always a tension in these comic book blockbusters between attempting to present an interesting enough story, but having to pack all the plot points in between the action set pieces that make up 85% of the movie. this installment failed miserably.

give a pop quiz to all who leaving the movie and i would love to take the under on 30% who could tell you: (a) the reason for stark and banner's fight; (b) where ultron came from in the first place; (c) the nature of the relationship between jarvis and the vision. i could go on. the movie throws all this at the audience with so little explanation because they only care about jamming in more and more action rather than allowing the story or characters to develop in any meaningful way.

consider that offering action at the expense of narrative is not at all necessary. we've seen well-balance marvel films in the past - iron man 1 and 3, captain america, thor - which makes the failure here that much more disappointing. to make it all worse, it was about 10% as funny as the first (or basically any other marvel movie).

it was discussed later in this thread (or perhaps maybe in another thread), but a huge cause of the failures of the movie is the studio's demands that every marvel film set up and the next 10 films coming down the hatch. so they hamstring writers and directors from actually implementing their visions. the result is what one would expect: middle-of-the-road pap.

and what's maybe worse, they cause directors who might have a unique voice to abandon ship because their voices are so muted by the demands of the studios that the aesthetics and tone of each film match the boilerplate marvel mold. that's why joss whedon has stated publicly he'll never do another marvel movie and why edgar wright abandoned ant man. the former i couldn't care much less about, but it was really disappointing to hear edgar was leaving ant man. that could have been something special a la guardians imo.

 

[MaxB]

Guardians was really good, but I'm sure that will interconnect with every other movie as well. You are right about them all setting up other future movies ..... its like they will all merge into one final trilogy. Wish Spiderman was back with Disney and not Sony.

 

[jbutler]

saw Spy with Melissa McCarthy today and it was really funny in parts, but like Bridesmaids and the Heat, just too damn long. there's no reason a comedies like these should be 2 hours. if they were cut down to 90 minutes they could trim a ton of the excess junk that pulls down overall opinion.

still entertaining and you get some really good (and in Jason Statham's case, great) performances out of the supporting cast. looks like it was setting itself up for at least one sequel and i would go back for round 2.

 

[tommythecat]

Guardians was really good, but I'm sure that will interconnect with every other movie as well. You are right about them all setting up other future movies ..... its like they will all merge into one final trilogy. Wish Spiderman was back with Disney and not Sony.

Spider Man is on loan to Marvel from Sony. He will be showing up in I believe Captain America:Civil War or The Avengers:Infinity War 1&2.

 

[Bradcorn]

Recent movies I've seen -

Jurrasic World - I thought some of the stuff (the actual amusement part) was flat out incredible. The story and the human characters were both pretty dumb but I had a lot of fun getting caught up in the magic

Entourage - dumb. Maybe the worst "plot" I've ever seen in a movie. Felt like back to back episodes (bad episodes) on hbo. Low expectations that weren't really met. Haley Joel Osmands character was so absurdly dumb

Inside Out - really close to a five star film. The magic is back for Pixar and the way they depicted emotions and memories was genius. Actually makes me reflect on my memories and emotions; something I never expected. What a great and fun film.

Movies I want to see - dope, me earl and the dying girl, and straight out of Compton.

Straight out of Compton has one of the best trailers I've seen

 

[Bradcorn]

 

[jbutler]

Inside Out - really close to a five star film. The magic is back for Pixar and the way they depicted emotions and memories was genius. Actually makes me reflect on my memories and emotions; something I never expected. What a great and fun film.

Movies I want to see - dope, me earl and the dying girl, and straight out of Compton.

Straight out of Compton has one of the best trailers I've seen

i'll admit i was a bit taken with the first trailer for compton, but the last couple new ones lead me to think it's heading down the same tired roads as 95% of other crappy biopics. hopefully i'm wrong.

i don't get the love for inside out. seemed like a big mess to me and nowhere near the heights of the first few pixar films. there was a time when they made movies that transcended their trappings at least to a degree. inside out had the same problems the last half a dozen or so pixar movies had: a forced moral into a mediocre story fixated on the plot device they think is so creative, but which isn't compelling enough to overcome the failures elsewhere in the movie. i'd love for pixar to make a movie that isn't so determined to teach lessons.

 

[spikeithard]

Throwback flick... Cruel Intentions from I think 99. Just watched tonight again after many many years

Wow lots of good high school memories came back while watching this one. I really liked it again.. I think Phillipe nailed it.
Sorry getting all nostalgic here

I still need to see Mad Max. keep hearing its sweet

 

[jbutler]

saw self/less last night. it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good. the writing could have been better, but it was really the casting that screwed it up. ryan reynolds just can't play a serious role to save his life. he's not even really good in comedies imo, but at least he's not distracting bad there.

the basic concept of the movie actually has a bit of a dickian (as in philip k.) feel to it, but it is executed pretty poorly, too focused on the interpersonal rather than the conceptual. with a rewrite of the script and better casting, i could see this as a very competent sci-fi film. as it is, it's not something i would bother with even on netflix.

 

[detroitdad]

Wife wanted to watch Insurgent last night. Boring a mediocre acting.

 

[jbutler]

Wife wanted to watch Insurgent last night. Boring a mediocre acting.

i watched that, but only because it happened to be starting right after another movie was ending, so i did the theater hop and snuck in for free. probably the only way i'll watch the last of the trilogy, too (or last two if they break it up a la hunger games).

the maze runner movie was alright and i'll probably watch the sequel to that, too. these kids dystopian movies are sort of a genre unto themselves and i can appreciate them in a way. even the hunger games is not great even though people were cumming themselves about the books back when they first came out. but they're enjoyable in a really on-the-nose political commentary way.

 

[grandgnu]

Wife wanted to watch Insurgent last night. Boring a mediocre acting.

Yeah, my wife read the books so she's been making me sit through Divergent and Insurgent as well, ick.

 

[grandgnu]

. even the hunger games is not great even though people were cumming themselves about the books back when they first came out. but they're enjoyable in a really on-the-nose political commentary way.

I really enjoyed the books, but am not a fan of the movies. I mean, it's not like there's a ton of material to cover, it's a fairly small book. How does the first movie go that long and cut out so much stuff? Not to mention you never get the impression that people are starving/hungry in the districts, just that they're poor.

 

[grandgnu]

Just caught Horrible Bosses 2, if you're a fan of the first flick (or the show Always Sunny in Philadelphia) you will most likely enjoy it. My wife and I were cracking up throughout. Jennifer Aniston is brilliant as a sex addicted dentist, Kevin Spacey was equally brilliant in the few parts he played.

 

[dennis63]

Just watched "The Woman in Gold" last night. Very well done.

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[Ronoh]

Finally went to see the new Terminator yesterday. The first half(ish) was very good but it all fell apart for me the moment

Spoiler

John walked in the door in 2017

It had so much potential... until it didn't. Meh.

 

[jbutler]

rewatched a relevant documentary this weekend - the War Room by D.A. Pennebaker, which follows Bill Clinton's '92 campaign from just before the NH primary through his ultimate victory.

you don't really get all that a revealing look at bill or hillary (though they are in there), but it's pretty great to watch carville and stephanopoulos behind the scenes and before they got completely full of themselves. i've always found carville charming, but it has been a while since i'd seen this and i pretty much knee-jerk puke when i hear stephanopoulos thanks to the horrible This Week on ABC which has turned into nothing but entertainment weekly for DC.

highly recommended. and the full thing is on youtube if you don't have a copy laying around.

trailer:

full movie:

 

[jbutler]

saw Ant-Man tonight and liked it quite a bit. two things i thought detracted from the movie were the writing and the general lack of chemistry between paul rudd and evangeline lilly. evangeline was fine and paul rudd is a pro, but together they just didn't do it for me. the writing wasn't terrible by any means, but the semi-dramatic scenes took themselves a bit too seriously which is made that much more noticeable by the mediocre dialogue.

still, there was a lot of creativity in the action and fight scenes and other than the dramatic scenes, the movie did a really good job of striking the right balance. even amidst the intrinsic absurdity of the premise, i still cared about the confrontations between the characters. and it had a heck of a supporting cast: michael douglas, corey stoll, michael pena (whose performance completely stole the show imo), judy greer.

overall, i would say it started a bit slow, but picked up tremendously about halfway through the second act and is certainly worth watching if it seems like something you'd like.

one final thought: i couldn't help but think during a lot of the movie how much better some scenes would have been had edgar wright stayed as writer/director. obviously they kept elements of his screenplay (and if you know edgar wright you'll be able to pick them out pretty easily), but i know he would have handled the "serious" bits a lot more capably.