I'm about to watch... - Page 108

Seriously considering renting Premium Rush.

I saw Premium Rush. Now I'm going to watch Star Trek Generations in HD on Amazon Prime.

Pool Of London, an Ealing Studios noir from 1952.

Having a rough night, renting Savages and hoping Oliver Stone doesn't let me down.

My night tonight is as follows....

 

Total Recall (2012)

The Queen of Versailles

Bourne Legacy

I'm watching Dredd on DVD tonight.

Avengers Assemble.

This had better be worth the hype you dogs.

After AHS tonight I might sit down with Cosmopolis. When I can, I plan on checking out Dredd.

2 hours 20 minutes of mediocrity.

Was expecting much more.

I don't want to slam those who love the film like no other, but I do feel the hype it's received has been overblown given the fact the film amounts to a light romp. It will be curious to see how perception of Avengers shifts years down the line as people reevaluate it.
Edited by Dr Harford - 1/9/13 at 7:11pm

Yeah I wan't really a fan of The Avengers either. I liked a few moments in it and I liked Ruffalo as Hulk/Banner but overall it felt way too long and convoluted for me to be able to enjoy it.

Is anyone really hyping The Avengers as a deep statement on human nature? "Light romp" is basically all the hype ever promised (and frankly all any Marvel movie adaptation has ever delivered).

I meant that it's pleasures were for me light on the spectrum of cinematic satisfaction. I enjoyed it, but for me anyway it's not a movie I find myself thinking about much these days, the way other films live on in my imagination. Over hyped in the sense that it's now the second highest grossing film of all time, and yet I'd probably not even put it in my top 150 movies of all time (not a slight, I've just seen many movies - Avengers still was not bad by any means).

 

Well hell, nothing in the top100 highest grossing films of all time would sneak into my top150. And I'm not even being an elitist here, even from a popcorn/blockbuster pov there's very little on that list that isn't utterly forgettable.

 

Fwiw I don't think about The Avengers much either, I think it's inconsequential but a good time while you're watching it and that's basically all I needed from it.

Had a sleep and a few hours to chew over The Avengers and it's grating on me even more.

 

I'm sick to the back fuck teeth of swooping overhead shots between tall buildings with continual cars and hot-dog stands blowing up from pew-pew death rays and people running for cover.

 

Now I understand that's pretty much whats on the cards for a superhero crossover mega-event movie and what the hell else should I have expected, but it's all so generic now. We've seen it a thousand times already. And no one dies. Ever. Apart from the unlimited, faceless, soulless respawning CGI baddies - they can be shown to be blown up, smashed, ripped to shreds etc - but there's litteraly no human mortality at stake here. What do I care if Loki takes over the Earth? At least he might stop smashing up the buildings in NYC.

 

I thought Ruffalo was great as Banner/Hulk. I liked Cap America but Hawkeye was a non-entity, Thor is a constipated jock but I could watch a movie starring Scarlet Johanson's ass all day long. Never understood what her special power was - what were those rocket things on her wrist?? The main character failure was Tony Stark whose Iron Man came across as totally bored - his one-liners felt flat and he was just going through the motions.

 

I think I'm more annoyed that this was soooo successful financially - I mean did everyone go and see this movie? Is this the level of what's being lapped up by the public? I was just all so generic, soulless and well, obvious really.

 

While I still maintain that The Avengers is pretty much the best case scenario of what this kind of movie can be - Whedon's dialogues and character beats never fail him - I'm as sick as you are of what "this kind of movie" entails. I'll still take Marvel's approach to filmmaking over Nolan's pompous regurgitations of 80's Batman clichés, but all their movies can ever really hope to provide is a Cliff's Notes of what the comics are about. Can't wait for the superhero movie in general to no longer be a thing.

 

Maybe it was such a hit because it was one of a handful of "light romps" that didn't make you feel like a drooling simpleton after watching it, a la any Michael Bay movie.

It wasn't Days of Heaven but it wasn't exactly Armageddon either.

But it wasn't Iron-Man either.

 

As long as it wasn't as bad as... but at the same time, it wasn't as good as...

 

Law of diminishing returns.

I know everyone's supposed to love Iron Man, but that movie's strenght is really only down to Robert Downey Jr. being charming as an egomaniacal, charismatic tycoon. Which is cool and all, but pretty in line with the pleasant-but-unchallenging formula the Marvel movies always seem to shoot for.

 

 

I like Iron Man but yeah, the movie's strength is essentially RDJ charisma. Hence why it's better than Thor and Captain America - while Hemsworth and Evans are fine, they ain't RDJ. 

 

At least the two Hulk movies, if nothing else, attempted to shoehorn some depth in (and that final fight between The Hulk and The Abomination would've been right up there with Eastern Promises if it had been shot using "real" people - I was shocked (pleasantly) at the brutality of it). 

I liked The Avengers, but stopped thinking about it the minute I walked out of the theater.

I'm about to watch Virtanen's "The Bodywasher" video in the Post Your Best Videos thread.

Don't tell anyone but just between you and me I'm a little bit scared.

...
Edited by Bucho - 1/11/13 at 2:09am

The Dark Knight would be on my list of the top 150 favorite movies of all time.

Edited by Dr Harford - 1/11/13 at 9:55am

Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell

Time to watch Wake In Fright

I had that in my DVR forever and never got around to starting it. Ever seen Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People?

Starting Empire of the Sun with the kids. Hope my son loves as much as I did.

That will be the only time in human history that Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People and Empire of the Sun are mentioned in the same post.

I wonder how these 2 would be back to back.

I caught maybe 20 episodes of Deep Space Nine when Spike TV started running the episodes back in the early part of the last decade. As a Next Gen super fan who stuck around for all of Spike's TNG marathons,  I really liked what I saw, and was excited at the prospect of more serialized Trek storytelling, but I ended up holding off on the show till I could buy the DVDs and watch it all the way through.

 

Now of course there is Netflix. After years of delay I am now going through DS9 episode by episode. I am up to season 2 episode 8. 

Edited by Dr Harford - 1/16/13 at 4:19pm

Warhorse.

 

Yes? No?

Happy to report that he loved it. He usually wakes at dawn, and has been rewatching in the mornings before school.

I'm pretty sure Highlander 2 on Hulu is not the Renegade Version. That means my eyes need it now. Maybe afterwards I'll watch Institute Benjamenta to soothe my brain.

Boris Karloff in The Mummy.

Henry Fonda in The Ox-Bow Incident.

Going to watch a bunch of DS9 season 3.

I've been spending the past couple of weeks going through my complete MARRIED WITH CHILDREN boxed set.  I'm about to start disc two of season 6.  Perhaps a bit too low-brow for most tastes, but it hits my comedic sweet spot in all the right ways.
 

Iron Sky is on Netflix. Nazis... In SPACE!

Wraith of the Titans on HBO

I thought the final monster, Chronos, was impressive in that movie. A rare example of excellent monster design.

 

It was Grade-A Hollywood cheese!  Oddly, I liked it better than the first one.

...Still forgettable.

Judy Garland and Gene Kelly in Vincente Minelli's The Pirate.

I enjoy this movie, but I'm always taken out during the "Be A Clown" number, just because the song is identical to "Make 'Em Laugh" in Singin' in the Rain. (Granted, "Be A Clown" was written first, but "Make Em Laugh" is the sequence we all know and love.)

 

Yeah, I tried to give "Be A Clown" a fair shake, and I think that on paper it's probably tied with "Make 'Em Laugh" for good lines, but the movie makes this difficult because a) that fucking tacky clown make-up is no match for Donald O' Connor's crazy physical comedy and

 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

 

Still, The Pirate has morality on its side, I guess. It's a pretty blatant theft, surprises me it isn't mentioned more often.

 

Anyway, highly enjoyable movie. Gene Kelly's acrobatics are as mind-blowing as ever, and the whole thing has a nice raunchy, amoral tone to it that reminded me of Lubitsch a bit. Also Disney could have picked this up during their 90's renaissance, it's got all the trappings! Naive protagonist who wants to see the world, comically connving villain, love story, comic relief characters, and some of the shit Kelly pulls off with the rooftop-jumping certainly feels like it should be in a cartoon.

99 francs (now on iTunes)

I'm psyched for this one since I enjoyed the hell out of it when 3 years ago a small kino theater screened it in Kaiserslautern, DE. They showed it with the original French language track and German subtitles.

The film is so rich visually that it can be watched without any understanding of French at all. It plays like an extremely well made Bret Easton Ellis work and the non-linear narrative stays interesting and energizing throughout.

I recommend it for anyone who wants to see a damn good Jean Dujardin film that's as cynical and existential as Fight Club and A Clockwork Orange. Also, Vahina Giocante!

A double bill of The Dark Knight Returns Parts 1 & 2.

Wrong & The ABCs of Death

Ruby Sparks!

John Dies at the End

The CHUD Show podcast #83 convinced me to see it now. Clancy Brown & Angus Scrimm!!!

Just started Indie Game: The Movie, on Netflix streaming.