Movies

[Shale]

Anchorman 2: Some parts are kind of terrible, others are great. The great outweighs the terrible. It feels like the first half of the movie is too rapid-fire, with jokes that have almost no setup and get no time to breathe, while the second half is more deliberately paced and errs on the side of letting the gags go on too long, but mostly gets it right. Didn't need the satire elements at all.

[Lady Door]

Saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty on Christmas day.

Not bad. 6/10?

The cinematography was beautiful. The story arc was Idiot Ball all over. A lot of the action was wholly unbelievable. (And yes, the conceit is that he goes off into his "zone" imagining cool things, but I'm talking about the ones he actually ends up doing.) But despite that, I think Ben Stiller managed to be a little bit charming, and Sean Penn (?!) played the perfect gruff, world-worn, still-loves-his-job wilderness photographer. The final punchline was touching.

I was really distracted by Evil Executive's lack of chin, but he played the perfect douchebro acquisitions manager, so I forgive him for his physical weakness. The beard probably helped, although it highlighted his lack of chin to an alarming degree.

I had no idea when this movie was taking place. They had cell phones and computers and internet, but they didn't have Google on their phones. The original story was from the 50s or 60s, and this was decidedly not then. But was it present day with more Idiot Ball? Or was it the 90s? BUT NO ONE HAD PAGERS OR RIDICULOUS SAT PHONES.

Well, whatever. Pretty pictures.

[Shale]

Why do people keep writing scripts for Walter Mitty where he actually does things. Why.

(Not that the Danny Kaye version is all bad by any means, but that part of it is still infuriating.)

[Captain K.]

47 Ronin:  Keanu Reeves really, really wishes he had made The Last Samurai.  This is not it.  But it's a pretty movie nonetheless!

[Anthony Edward Stark]

47 Ronin:  Keanu Reeves really, really wishes he had made The Last Samurai.  This is not it.  But it's a pretty movie nonetheless!

As long as he's still able to have an accent or convey emotions, but not both at the same time, I'm comfortable with it.

[Captain K.]

He doesn't even bother trying an accent.  Or emotions.  Just says fuck it all I am who I am, an inanimate block of wood.  I am comfortable with this.

[The Duck]

Philip Seymour Hoffman is dead. He was so fucking good in everything.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2014/02/02/philip-seymour-hoffman-dead/5162669/

[Sierra]

Elysium: I see Neil Blomkamp has yet to run out of social issues to oversimplify for the purpose of exploding via hyperkinetic action sequences. Pretty much what I expected, lands squarely in the "Eh, it was alright," category. Some nice set design but really nothing outstanding, and a lot of what happens just makes no sense. Okay future rich guys, so you build a gated community in space to keep the poor folks out of your healthcares but you evidently have no form of security outside of one dude on the ground with SAMs? Who you then fire for the gross immorality inherent in his obediently murdering whoever the fuck you tell him, and then it's open season so pretty much any hobo in a spaceship can crash on your lawn with basically no interference? You are just the worst rich person gated community in space. Seriously three dudes with grenades take this place apart from the inside. Where's all your droids at? The lategame betrayal is also highly nonsensical. I mean, people in that line of work, I tend to think they know what they are. If they had the personal skills or ambition to be PRINCE OF SPACE they probably would've tried already, it takes more than a computer program.

But man Wikus has seriously been popping the crazy pills. Took me a while to recognize him.

[Captain K.]

The Lego Movie:  They got *everything* right.  Down to the way the helmets break and the designs get tarnished on the 80s spacemen.  Everything is indeed, awesome.

[superaielman]

Heat- Saw this for the first time yesterday. It's too long, Pacino is chewing scenery like nothing else, and the pacing is as bad as you'd expect from a three hour movie. What a waste of a strong cast.

[PrestonRolen]

Look at this thread.  It isn't full of people talking about how Looper is the best movie of the year.

Go watch Looper.  It is the best movie of the year.

There was not 5 minutes in that movie where they didn't do exactly what I hoped they would do with a scene.  Holy fucking shit this movie is great.  The setting is fantastic, the casting is amazing, the story is great and the dialogue is well written.  The tagline and quick run down do absolutely nothing to do justice to this film. 

I think the only thing I can really talk about without spoilering stuff (meh to spoilers as per normal but you know, respect for the audience and all that) but most importantly with sufficiently describing what is so great about them.

The setting is a run down near future.  It works really well because they keep it vague on the how or why of it, but it is pretty much Future Depression, there is vagrants all up ins and people skip town on trains.  Crime is pretty all encompassing and people kill drifters often etcetc.  The really cool part is that while there is still nods to technological progression and there being newer inventions, the vast majority get by on fixed up functional modern technology.  Cars are repurposed for alternate more efficient cheap power sources, but those expensive bulky metal chassis are reused (cars with solar panel strapped to them and random tubes is pretty much it for set design).  They use some of the more automated tech for heavy work (maintaining a farm), but plenty of simple work is still done by hand. 

It honestly reminded me of two films from the last few years in setting.  Starting with the sacrilege first, honestly it is a similar approach to tech that Real Steel took.  Its lo-fi sci-fi, its cool and simple.  No where near as soft and friendly as Real Steel of course (though it does actually head in a bleak direction like I mentioned I would have done after watching Real Steel!).  The other one is Children of Men.  Both are set in a bleak kind of run down future, but for their own reasons.  Children of Men is bleak and run down because people just gave up because everyone is sterile.  Definitely going out with a whimper there.  Here stuff is more run down, but it is just that they both use conventional functional design for everything.  Its cool.

The other great thing about the setting? Well it is a story that involves time travel* so we have a second even more future future that is referenced.  We find out fuck all about this.  Just some simple bits and pieces.  There is Time Travel there.  Some stuff happened.  People still live and mostly get on as they always do.  Tech is higher and tracking people around the world is much much easier.  That is about the extent of it.

Watch this movie.  It is Inception good and well worth your time and money.

*As opposed to a time travel story where it is the thing that drives the plot, in this it is merely a tool and is kind of set dressing.

I do agree with you.. Looper was the best movie but which movie do like most in 2013? There were plenty so please share your opinion.

[Lady Door]

What the actual fuck, Disney. You need to fire your promotion teams.

Frozen had practically nothing to do with that stupid snowman and reindeer. I get that you're all about the kids, but for christ's sake I didn't even know there were PEOPLE in this movie!

Finally saw it, though. I enjoyed it. I am not sure I'd put it in the same category as The Lion King or Aladdin, but it fits with Princess and the Frog and the "new" classics. I liked "Let It Go" a lot. The beginning was beautiful and heart-breaking. The middle and end parts got a little more eh, but I'm glad the ending (MINOR SPOILER) did not revolve around the love story. (END SPOILER)

[Grefter]

I do agree with you.. Looper was the best movie but which movie do like most in 2013? There were plenty so please share your opinion.

Genesect and the Legend Awakened easily the best of 2013

[Shale]

Lego Movie was a lot of fun. They use the property in some neat, creative ways, the writing is sharp (it's the Clone High guys, that's to be expected) and, most importantly, I will never get tired of Morgan Freeman insulting people. The movie could be 100 minutes of him being a dick to Emmet and I would buy the blu-ray on Day One.

[AndrewRogue]

Frozen: More or less see Ashley. Though incest jokes proving to be more slightly more accurate than expected surprised me.

[The Duck]

Lego Movie was a lot of fun. They use the property in some neat, creative ways, the writing is sharp (it's the Clone High guys, that's to be expected) and, most importantly, I will never get tired of Morgan Freeman insulting people. The movie could be 100 minutes of him being a dick to Emmet and I would buy the blu-ray on Day One.

Agreed. I also think a movie centered around Lego Batman would be more compelling than whatever the hell Zack Snyder's going to do.

[Meeplelard]

High Anxiety: I got a lot of Mel Brooks movies on Blu-ray in a set and while I saw most of them, this one is one I barely heard anything about, nor have seen...so figured I should fix that!

It's good fun, as you'd expect from Mel Brooks.  Not much else to say.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Frozen: I liked this one a hell of a lot. Very resonant. I liked its deconstructions of the "Princess story". It is actually the first Disney movie I have unashamedly enjoyed this much since like... Mulan. And considering how much of a turn-off CG animation is to me, this is saying a lot more than you think.

[Shale]

Iron Man 3: Finally got around to watching this. I was genuinely surprised by how much I liked it. Fun script, good (if somewhat sparse until the end) action, and I really like where all the main characters end up. It doesn't make much difference for the Marvel movie universe as a whole, but as development for Tony in particular it works really well - certainly a hell of a lot better than IM2. Also Guy Pearce is always great so I didn't mind him taking center stage as the main villain (plus I was spoiled on the big twist by general pop-culture osmosis, so there was no rage at the bait-and-switch. It's actually a clever Evil Plot!).

[The Duck]

The Wind Rises has some pacing problems, is full of dissonance and barely touches on some of the larger issues that come along with the subject material, but my God it may be the most aesthetically beautiful film I've ever seen. In some ways it is a fantastic sendoff for Hayao Miyazaki since it is very introspective, but I just want him to keep making movies forever.

[AndrewRogue]

Six String Samurai: I forgot how dumb/amazing this movie was.

[Shale]

Taken 2: Well that was lame. It's a stripped-down version of Taken without the globetrotting, or Liam Neeson really hunting anybody down, or much of anything beyond a minimalist retread of the first movie (the daughter gets a few badass moments but then gets thrown onto a shelf before the climax). There are bad guys, they fuck with Liam Neeson, Liam Neeson shoots them all in the most rote way possible. Liam Neeson.

[Grefter]

He has a specific set of skills that are completely under-utilised in the name of money.  Fuck it, daddy is getting paid son.  As much as I enjoy him as an actor, it is a step up from doing stunt casting in video games like he was before the while Liam Neeson is a bad ass old man thing was kicked off by Taken.

And hey at least this one is fun compared to the time they tried it with Mel Gibson in Payback.

[Cotigo]

Liam Neeson is more fun than Mel Gibson.

Fuckin' revelation of the millenium.

[Hunter Sopko]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yFwQAelDrY

That's just not true.