The Movie You Saw Last

[Angel Beat]

Watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier today.

 

Mad fun.

[Rausaro]

Gattaca, for a film class. Creepy.

[BBBBalta]

Man of Steel. You know, the whole thing really could've gone a lot more smoothly:

 

Zod: yo superman can we have some of your blood we're gonna turn Earth into Krypton

Superman: nah brah Earth's pretty cool and such why don't you try Mars instead

Zod: Mars oh ok yeah that'll work too

Superman: k here's my dna then

Zod: cool

 

E: Also

 

Edited March 30, 2014 by Baltarc

[Toa Kayn]

Frozen. It was fun.

[Dapper-Sama]

I watched Gattaca for a class too. Biology, and there was a wonderful debate afterwards.

[Voltex]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Excellent film, though I'll have to reflect for awhile before I can determine where I'd place it in comparison to other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

 

Fury's car sequence might be one of my favorite moments in any movie, though. That was really cool.

[Vakama-san]

Rewatched The Return of the King, for the Umpteenth time.

[Manducus]

Tropic Thunder. A very hilarious movie. I just love it when Lincoln whips out two M16s and yells out "I'M A LEAD FARMER!"

[Spiderus Prime]

Captain America Winter Soldier on last Tuesday,and it's very good.

[BBBBalta]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

 

hail hydra

[Hodor]

Watching Return of the Living Dead right now. Pretty much the only zombie movie I consider myself a fan of, not counting the Evil Dead trilogy. Great balance of comedy/camp and horror.

 

YOU MEAN THE MOVIE LIEEEEEEEEEEED?!

[Pomegranate]

Just watched Cap'n Murica: Wintah Soldurr and oooohhh myyyy gooood that was insaaane I was blown away. Such a good movie, just wow.

[Kazi the Matoran]

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Good classic!

[Hodor]

Willow.

 

Fun movie. So rolling Madmartigan as my next character in an RP.

[FireEmblem]

The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Pretty solid. Cried at two parts.

[Pomegranate]

Finally caught Thor: The Dark World.

Totally kick butt and those costumes made weep bitter jealous tears, but it was paced weirdly and I felt like they coulda done that a lot better cause there was like no drama or suspense and even the death scenes were like "meh"

[adjective]

Saving Mr. Banks and, before that, Frozen. Thought both were great; the former for its acting and the latter for its music and overall theme. I've had "Let it Go" stuck in my head for the past few days, now, and I don't really care too much!

[Vorahk1Panrahk2]

The Counselor- About a man who, come some financial difficulties, tries to make money by breaking into the drug trade. Shenanigans ensue. When it was announced in February of 2012 that Ridley Scott was going to direct a script from Cormac McCarthy, I got really excited. And now, more than two years later, I finally got to see what the results of that collaboration. And they are... okay.

 

When the movie first came out it got pretty heavily bombarded with negative reviews, and I can completely understand why that is. Unlike No Country for Old Men (which was mentioned reasonably in the adverts for Counselor) which has a fairly unique style, The Counselor was directed in a fairly straightforward manner by Scott, in what I can assume was an attempt to ground the movie in a way that makes it feel more real. It certainly wasn't a bad idea, but as a consequence the first half of the movie plays very much like nothing more than a series of dull conversations. And, admittedly, the first half of the movie seems fairly problematic from a writing perspective as well. The conversations seem disjointed, certain scenes seem completely arbitrary, and if they were added to bring to light some thematic element I can't quite figure out what that is. Certainly the thematic elements are much more prevalent in the second half where the tension really starts to add up.

 

But despite that there's definitely something to like here. As expected McCarthy's screenplay is all about bleakness, in particular how we deal with the consequences of our own immoral decisions. And as expected from McCarthy there is a lot flowery dialogue, which in some cases can seem over the top or borderline pretentious. This isn't something that bothers me as I expected it pretty much from the get go, but I can understand why some viewers might be turned off by it. So, as a whole, The Counselor is a very uneven movie with some uneven acting. It's not awful, but at the same time one would expect a Scott-McCarthy union to be a little better than 'not awful.'

 

I also watched Philomena, but just don't feel like writing a review on it now. I did like it, though, much more than The Counselor.

Edited April 23, 2014 by Vorahk1Panrahk2

[Phovos]

Snowpiercer. Movie about the world bring frozen and the last people in existence living on a train that moves non-stop around the world, in a strict caste system. I did like it but I found it predictable.

[NorikSigma]

Captain America: Winter Soldier

[BBBBalta]

Saw Twelve Years a Slave. It was quite intense, and certain parts were difficult to watch. It's sobering to think that such events as those depicted in the movie not only once took place in the United States but are also still taking place today elsewhere in the world. That said, I felt that several scenes dragged on and/or seemed out of place. For instance, the scene where Solomon is nearly hanged and stands there gasping for air - that must have been around five minutes of screen time with nothing happening. Both his suffering and the apathy of those around him could easily have been conveyed in half that time. I also don't quite understand why the movie began the way it did, with a sort of flash-forward to a scene that doesn't occur until about two-thirds of the way into the film. Maybe I'm missing something in that particular scene's significance...?

 

Then I watched Frozen again. It's still great, but I didn't really notice before how many plot holes there are. Like

 

Why did Anna leave Hans in charge? Shouldn't there have been a legally-appointed regent who had ruled before Elsa came of age who would have taken over in her absence? Why was it necessary to remove Anna's memory of her sister's powers if she's not affected in any way when they're revealed? Why is Anna getting hit in the head at the beginning a big deal and then the troll elder guy later says that getting struck in the head is "simple" to fix? Why is Elsa's first act as queen to cut off all trade with Arendelle's biggest trade partner based on the hasty actions of one man who may or may not even be Wesselton's highest authority rather than to negotiate a treaty and come to a mutual agreement from which both nations benefit?

 

And what's the deal with the trolls, anyway?

 

 

 

Also, as has been mentioned by numerous others both on and off this site, the distribution of songs was extremely unbalanced. For about the first half of the movie we get one song after the other and then suddenly there's none.

 

But for all my ranting, it's still a fantastic film.

[Vorahk1Panrahk2]

Saw Twelve Years a Slave. It was quite intense, and certain parts were difficult to watch. It's sobering to think that such events as those depicted in the movie not only once took place in the United States but are also still taking place today elsewhere in the world. That said, I felt that several scenes dragged on and/or seemed out of place. For instance, the scene where Solomon is nearly hanged and stands there gasping for air - that must have been around five minutes of screen time with nothing happening. Both his suffering and the apathy of those around him could easily have been conveyed in half that time. I also don't quite understand why the movie began the way it did, with a sort of flash-forward to a scene that doesn't occur until about two-thirds of the way into the film. Maybe I'm missing something in that particular scene's significance...?

 

It's funny, most of the reviews I've read for 12 Years mention how long the hanging scene lasted, and I cannot for the life of remember it as being long. I don't know what that says about me and my attention span, but it's definitely interesting. As for the opening (assuming you're referring to the one that followed the brief sugar-cane scene), yeah I thought it was weird as well. The only thing I can think of is that the screenwriter wanted a direct contrast between his life as a free man, and his life as a slave. Perhaps he felt the best way to do that was show the scenes with his wife and children right after the scene of him with the other woman. And he uses that contrast to express just what a life of slavery can do to a man. I might just be making stuff up, though. Or misremembering what the opening scene entailed. But it was odd, I'll grant you that.

 

As for Frozen (since I'm here typing this post anyway and I like Frozen):

 

 

Yeah the lack of a regent (or any other authoritative body) bothers me. I guess we just have to assume that Arendelle is an absolute monarchy. Or an autocracy. Or a benign dictatorship. Someone else more knowledgeable than me can figure out which one fits best.

 

As for your other questions, I just sort of assumed that the trolls removed knowledge of magic to prevent it from 'reactivating' and hurting her again. Her hair did remain white (until the end anyway) so some of that magic still had to be inside her and it could still have been harmful. But it's still a simple fix- it only took the troll a few waves of his hand to render a head-shot non lethal. I'm sure he could have done the same thing again.

 

As for the trade statement... as much as I hate this response, it's a Disney movie. You can't overthink it. Having the Queen take away what the Duke wants is the easiest way (from a screenwriting perspective) to punish a brief supporting villain for his actions. Besides, Elsa's supposed to be pretty smart. I doubt she'd do deliberate economic harm to her kingdom just to spite someone. Maybe Wesselton was expendable to Arendelle even if the reverse isn't true.

 

 

But, yeah, Frozen definitely does not have the most air-tight script. In fact one of my first thoughts after watching it was that it felt like a first draft script. Another year in pre production/production could have strongly benefitted the story, I think. Maybe not the budget, though.

 

Anyway, speaking of Disney, I watched Peter Pan for the first time in forever what must be 15 years or so. And, boy, does seeing it with new eyes change things. Regardless of the rest of the film's quality, I find it really difficult to look past the blatant racist stereotypes of the Indians. It's a sad reminder of what kind of mindset we had in the 50's. Even Tinker Bell came off less authoritative or independent and more of a little brat. Although, from what I understand, some of her moments (like her blatant attempt to murder Wendy) are almost reflective of the darker tone of the original play, so maybe there's a reason they wrote the character that way. I'll have to read it one day to see exactly what it's like.

Edited April 26, 2014 by Vorahk1Panrahk2

[BBBBalta]

Saw Saving Mr. Banks last night; caught feels. I've never seen Mary Poppins, so I'm not sure how much that detracted from the experience, but I enjoyed the film nonetheless.

[Hodor]

WNUF Halloween Special.

 

A found footage flick that emulates a local channel's Halloween special in 1987 gone horribly wrong. Really worth a watch and probably one of the only times found footage really works.

[The Doctor U]

Hangover III. I haven't seen the other parts so this was sort of ok movie.

[TNTOS]

Saw The Amazing Spider-Man 2 yesterday.

 

It was actually a lot better than expected. I'm genuinely excited for the next movie now and the Sinister Six and Venom movies they have planned for this movie universe. Hopefully they'll be awesome.

 

-TNTOS-

[Hodor]

Amazing Spider-Man 2.

 

Much better than ASM1. That said it was... more than a little unfocused.

 

- The parent stuff did not need to be so long. Felt like deleted scenes from ASM1. They could've cut this subplot almost entirely and the story would not have any real faults.
- Electro needed more time in the movie. He felt like they forgot about him halfway into the flick and scrambled to insert a climax. They kinda bit off more than they could chew with him and Harry.
- Harry's arc was forced into a very short time. It was ONLY to do The Night Gwen Stacy Died. It felt less like an organic arc, more like sequel bait. ESPECIALLY the really blatant references to the Sinister Six. I've heard that a lot of the arc around him was cut in favor of the parents arc, and it really shows
- Why was the airplane scene in the movie at all? It fails to give any sense of danger, since nobody the audience cares about is on board.
- Stan Lee's cameo was really, really weak, but eh, he's getting old.

The positives are almost everything else. Garfield nailed Peter Parker this time around, and the chemistry between him and Emma Stone was still the highlight of the film.

The action was fantastic, but very short and pretty much almost entirely in the trailers. Spider-Man was cracking jokes and goofing around, too. He also showed that, despite the media hating him (though I don't think they have that element nearly as much in either Webb's or Raimi's movies), he still does his best to help the average guy- the scenes with him rescuing the kid from being bullied and then the kid standing up to Rhino at the end were honestly the best scenes in the film.

As much as I HATED how the Green Goblin was in this movie, and how it felt like they glued in him into this, Gwen's death was /heart breaking/.

 

 

All in all, I'd say it's worth seeing. I'd rank it a bit above Raimi's Spider-Man 1, but just short of his Spider-Man 2.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Elric of Melnibone

[BBBBalta]

Last weekend I watched The Little Mermaid in celebration of a successful production of the musical adaptation at school. I'd only seen it once before, I think, and that was a while ago. I enjoyed it, especially the music.

 

Today I watched Wreck-It Ralph for the first time. Fantastic movie. I caught feels.

Edited May 11, 2014 by Baltarc

[Perp]

Die Hard with a Vengeance, just the other night, to kill time. Watched 12 Angry Men before that. Going to study Film Next year, so I've been brushing up on a bunch of great films I've never watched until now. 38 since December.

[Pomegranate]

Saw Amazin' Spidah-Dude Two for the second time today, in 3D again, 'cause the 3D is just soooo perfect in it. Since I had like a week to recover from the heartbreak and all those tears the first time around, this time I focused on all the backgrounds and paid close attention to the sets and special effects. They really nailed 'em everything was alive and interesting. Watching it the second time around I can soooorrrttt ooffff see what the negative reviews complain about? But I still don't really get it. Still as good as it was the first time ^^ I loooovvveeee his suit this time around, before I saw it I was disappointed that they left the cool unique design of the suit from the previous movie and went back to a very Raimi-films inspired costume, but although the design is similar the material makes all the difference cause its like silky and reflects light in this really cool way and the eyepieces are giant and gorgeous.

Two things that irk me in the film and really distract me is like this ooonnnneee tiny bit of a scene with Electro doing Electro things, where a police car flips and crashes, and I noticed both viewings that it looked like CGI, which was lame cause the rest of the CGI in the film is pretty photorealistic and totally well done; the other thing is that Spidey's costume has like, tennis shoes integrated into the boots or something, and I just don't understand how Spidey can stick to things on his feet if there is like a whole layer of shoe material in the way ._.

But yeah I love this moviieeee it was the bomb

[Hodor]

Godzilla.

 

Great movie!

[BBBBalta]

Watched Batman Begins last Thursday. Hadn't seen it before and thought it was awesome. Can't wait to watch The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.

 

Yesterday I saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Pretty cool movie. Makes you think about ... stuff. I liked it.

 

Saw The Amazing Spider-Man today. Certain parts were a bit ridiculous, but then, what do you expect from a movie about a guy who can stick to walls after getting bit by a radioactive spider? Planning on seeing the sequel next weekend.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Watching it the second time around I can soooorrrttt ooffff see what the negative reviews complain about? But I still don't really get it. Still as good as it was the first time

 

I'm not sure what problems exactly you are referring to, but let me list them all:

 

- There was far, far, far too much time devoted to Peter's parents. I don't care exactly how they died. No one does. In fact, that whole part about Peter going to the secret train track lair could have been deleted. It served NO purpose in the film at all.

 

- Electro and Rhino could have easily been cut from the film. They were there just to show off the CGI and increase the runtime. They looked like they were out of a video game.

 

- I was very upset to see how lazy the writers were in respect to Electro's origins. In The Spectacular Spider-Man - simply the greatest Spider-Man cartoon ever made - Max Dillon turns into Electro by being electrocuted and then falling into a pool of mutated electric eels. That was copied scene-by-scene in this film. Nowhere in the comics does this happen - it was blatantly ripped off. And oh yeah, Green Goblin being Harry and not Norman was ripped off from the first season of TSSM too.

 

- Another great aspect of the show they copied was the idea that a lot of the supervillains of the world come from OsCorp. Whereas in the show it's all made fairly believable, in this movie it's just ridiculous. Aside from Ben's death, every bad thing - every bad thing - that ever happens in these films is a result of the evil OsCorp! Even Ravencroft - a mental hospital - is owned by OsCorp. Geez, you lazy writers, have some restraint.

 

- It was a lot like the first. A LOT like the first. In the first, Uncle Ben leaves Peter a kooky phone message about responsibility or something, but Peter doesn't listen to it. Peter lets George die, and renounces his identity as Spider-Man forever. But he listens to that phone message during a silly montage, and becomes Spidey once more.

 

In this one, Gwen gives a creepy speech about death (that serves as extremely non-subtle foreshadowing), but Peter doesn't listen to it. Peter lets Gwen die, and renounces his identity as Spider-Man forever. But he listens to that speech during a silly montage, and... wait a second... this sounds a little familiar.

 

- There was no plot. Seriously, if you tried to simply explain the plot to me in a few sentences, your mind would beg you to stop. Everything's jumping around so fast that you have to realize that there is no core plot. If you were to chain monkeys to a keyboard and force them to bang on it incessantly, you would get a more concrete story than the well-paid writers of this disaster.

 

- They cut THE BEST PART from the film. In the trailers they made it seem like Harry knew Peter was Spidey the whole time thanks to OsCorp surveillance, which would have made their character interaction that much cooler. But I guess someone at the studio dumped those scenes in the trash by accident, or some overpaid dimwit decided to cut them from the final product.

 

That's not to say the actors aren't great - they all were - even the one for Rhino and his very exaggerated accent. I love the acting in these films! But the story was lackluster, the music was pretty bad, Electro started rapping, and in the end you find out it was all just a big two-hour ad for the movie no one wanted - The Sinister Six.

 

Sony still has time to fix this nightmarish creation which is worse than Spider-Man 3 (a movie I actually liked) - and redeem themselves in the next film. But I doubt they'll learn from their mistakes.

[Hodor]

- They cut THE BEST PART from the film. In the trailers they made it seem like Harry knew Peter was Spidey the whole time thanks to OsCorp surveillance, which would have made their character interaction that much cooler. But I guess someone at the studio dumped those scenes in the trash by accident, or some overpaid dimwit decided to cut them from the final product.

Yeah, why DID they cut the OsCorp sub-plot? I mean, I liked the movie enough to see it again, but that really bothered me.

 

They still had the majority of its foreshadowing in the movie- in particular the scene where Harry and Pete are catching up with each other, which I noticed way more when seeing the movie again. It also would have lead to the exact same thing as the parent's subplot did. You can even TELL that they did a couple of reshoots to cover up the gaping plotholes that removing it introduced- look at any scene with the Daily Bugle being referenced (still hoping ASM3 or Venom will have JK Simmons as Jameson again, but I doubt they're going to have him now).

 

Actually, that whole subplot would've made the entire movie make more sense. The movie's biggest pitfall was how rushed the arc with Harry was- it was in there ENTIRELY to adapt the only storyline people really remember Gwen Stacy for. Really, it doesn't help they inserted what's probably a huge fake out with Norman. It's not like he's faked his de- wait...

 

I also noticed that they removed the Venom symbiote's appearance from one of the trailer- with the Rhino suit in the final movie's shot. Which makes me wonder- was the blatant set up for SinSix replacing the set up for the Venom movie? The Amazing Spider-Man movies are a strange mix of the mainline Spidey comics and the Ultimate Spider-Man comics (IIRC, the reboot was announced as a USM movie). They also kept a big mystery over whatever caused Richard Parker to drop his son off with Ben and May.

 

You know what he was making in USM? The Venom symbiote.

 

That ONE appearance makes me think that the parent subplot wasn't supposed to be leading up to what they did in the movie. They were setting up Venom, initially. This also roughly aligns with what we ultimately got in the movie's scene with him and Norman- Ultimate Venom wasn't an alien symbiote. It was a cure for diseases. Webb even posted a tweet showcasing where the thing was kept in the comic.

[dotcom]

Saw X-Men: Days of Future Past a few hours ago. It was really, really great.

 

 

That said, I kind of expected there to be a bigger cast (of relevant characters) and a bigger interplay between the two timelines. There were technically a lot of mutants in the film, but most of them were either in the little-featured future, or the group in Vietnam. As far as the main plot of the film goes, there were really only 5 or 6 really relevant characters. And as far as bringing the timelines together there really wasn't much of that beyond Logan traveling back and that one scene between Professor X and Professor X. I don't know how they could have made the timelines interact otherwise, but I guess I just thought we would see more of 2023. I wasn't disappointed, but I guess I built my expectations for this film in the wrong direction? I got the impression from pre-release material that it would be a large ensemble cast kind of film with heavy time funkyness going on, but it turned out to be a somewhat more straightforward film with a smaller core of important characters. One way or another, it was really a good film, with some good development, great effects, and a very good plot.

 

If I have any real complaints, it's that they killed off pretty much all of the First Class characters (except of course Charles, Erik, Raven, and Hank) before the film even started, and the one that survived (Havok) was on-screen for like 2 minutes. (I think it kind of makes FC and the decisions made at the end of that film look meaningless.) I wouldn't necessarily have wanted them to play a bigger role in this film specifically, but it kinda sucks that we can't even expect to see them in future films. It is what it is, though, I guess...)

 

Edited May 26, 2014 by dotcom

[Elissa]

I repeat watch a lot. Saw Godzilla for the second time, really enjoyed it, though not as much as I did the first time.

Captain America TWS I saw for the fifth time I think? Enjoyed it equally as much as the first time. (Regarding its placement, as someone mentioned above), I think it's best in both storyline and entertainment value (I have two lists for each of those). If not best, then tied with the first Ironman.

[Neelh]

i've been cycling through a few movies recently which consist of:

 

• the hunchback of notre dame
• frozen
• les mis (both movie and 10th anniversary concert depending on whether i want a decent confrontation or to play Spot The Blagden)
• hercules
• rent (final performance on broadway, which i don't know if i prefer to the movie or not)

 

however, i watched mask of light a week or so ago which was great. i've missed it a lot and the only time where i wasn't happy was when vakama said "paradise" due to an argument (more like a debate, i didn't storm out and leave my laptop on the floor like when she insulted the fish) my girlfriend and i had about whether he said "paradise" or "island paradise". "island paradise" does roll off the tongue better though, in my opinion.

 

wait do bootlegged musicals recorded on broadway count as movies though because i've watched the original cast of next to normal twice in the past few days. i relate so easily to diana and natalie that it's kind of scary. i want to play natalie so badly but that's likely. (exit sarcasm mode)

[Vakama-san]

Darkest Hour. I saw the trailer a few years back, but never saw it. It wasn't exactly awful, but it was disappointing.

Edited June 6, 2014 by Vakama-san

[The Legendary TNT]

X-Men: Days of Future Past. Pretty epic, especially in 3D. Quicksilver's a boss.

[Master Inika]

The last movie I saw theatrically was A Million Ways to Die in the West. It's predictable and raunchy, but enjoyable. I wouldn't recommend spending money on a ticket for it, but I might get the DVD.

 

I re-watched Hancock last night. I like the concept but the execution leaves much to be expected.