Movies The Movie Thread! - Continuation

[Riku]

So' during a last few days, I've been been watching animations of few recent years I hadn't seen yet, so here is a bit of what I thought;

Ice Age 3: Oh gawd this film was awfull. Stupid, not funny, very predictable, new characters were stereotypes and old ones had lost the little personality they did have. Even the squirrel wasn't funny anymore. The film wasn't even visually impressive.

Toy Story 3: Here we go, don't kill me. It wasn't that good, I expected more. The beginning was bit to the boring side and the plot wasn't too creative. Got better towards the end, and had quite some emotion in a few scenes. In addition to a few nods back to the previous films, the best part of the film was the drama. Quite suprised how deep they could get with the emotional life of a toy. But still it left me bit indifferent. It wasn't a bad film, but despite the fact that I were huge fan of the first two as a kid I still didn't really get into it. I wasn't thrilled or greatly impressed. Though I speculate this has more substance for several views.

UP: Now this left me with a better impression. The montage at the beginning was just heartbreaking. And the whole concept is simply lovely. After that it got bit more light-hearted, but still an adventure to my liking. Dissapointed about the conclusion with the villain, quite unsuprising. Very villainy end. A couple of solutions seemed a little play it save, but overall I enjoyed the film greatly.

How to train your Dragon: Despite built on basic tropes, I really liked this film! Not only because it was about dragons and vikings, though that was a big plus. Toothless was adorable, and I loved how his behaviour was clearly based on that of cats. It got me thrilled, despite the fact that the plot was centered around the very basic conflict between father and son from different mind-sets. That has been done to death. But the little boy within me was thrilled by vikings, drangons, taming dragons, flying fighting, saving the day and making peace between the to factors of the war in the end. It was a great adventure. The first 30mins or so was most to my liking. Aww, I want myown Toothless <3 I don't see much rewatch value though.

 

[HegemonKhan]

I liked Up! and How To Train Your Dragon as well. Up! made me cry... was very emotional... and How To Train Your Dragon brings back the kid in you, is how I guess I'll describe it, lol

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If you like How To Train Your Dragon, then you should also see Eragon, as it has the same theme, "taming" a dragon, in it as well. It's fun to compare them, which dragon you liked better, and other stuff, hehe. See if one copied/plagerized from the other, and etc... hehe

 

[thornofcarrion]

I watched Source Code. I wasn't expecting it to be good but I was wrong. It turned out to be a good movie. The plot was complex and something new and the ending was very good.

I too liked How to Train your Dragon.

 

[juUnior]

Regardless Ice Age series/trilogy <xd> - I enjoyed every movie in the series, one more one less but nonetheless I enjoyed all of them <basically in all of them there was some laughing time, in one more, in one less > I can't wait for nr 4 <trailer, or was it teaser with squirrel is yet another laughing time, HHAHAHAHAHHA XD> Yeah, for me this series keeps its 'style' over the time so I can't agree with what Ustegius wrote about nr 3:

Oh gawd this film was awfull. Stupid, not funny, very predictable, new characters were stereotypes and old ones had lost the little personality they did have. Even the squirrel wasn't funny anymore. The film wasn't even visually impressive.

Basically I can turn it around and say that I like that those movies are stupid, I do not agree that they are not funny because I laugh at every one of them, they were predictable from the very beginning so I didn't count that as minus when I was laughing xd, and new characters nonetheless were appealing <and funny xD>, while the old ones hadn't lost their 'character' which I loved from the beginning; yes, and even relationship between the characters is still there <3 BUT its my opinion, I respect other opinions and I wrote about all of the movies not the nr3 one, but just wanted to point out my feelings towards the series using an actual post from here

btw. frankly speaking I watched all 3 movies of Ice Age this year <it was around march or sth> - I never did watch them before as I was sure that those animatons are crap ^^' Wow, I was so wrong.

 

[goldb]

Finally just saw 13 Assassins and I have to say I really enjoyed it, it takes a while for the pace to pick up but once it does it's just a really good watch. The fight sequences are very fluid and real compared to what you'd get from chinese martial arts films, you even had some comedy in it which I always think is a good thing for dramatic movies such as this cos it serves as an ice/tension breaker. They really need to make more edo period films like this. 8/10

 

[baboysai]

I saw 13 assassins too and I thought- meh.

I also saw Kung Fu Panda 2, and though it brought tears to my eyes, in the end, it was still... meh. ehehehe.

 

[goldb]

13 Assassins, okay I'll let that go but Kung Fu Panda 2?

 

[Naomi]

I agree with you on this one, goldb. Kung Fu Panda 2 was delightfully and surprisingly good. One of those rare sequels that surpassed the first in both plot and humor.

How to Train Your Dragon is one of those movies that I will watch over and over again without getting sick of. Those types of films are really hard to come by for me. They're making a sequel to this movie, so it's either sink or swim. I hope they don't soil the first film for me by making a half-assed follow up.

I watched Fantastic Mr. Fox today and it was ehhh. I mean, it was refreshingly weird and I chuckled here and there, but... I dunno. Towards the end of the movie I found myself thinking "so is it over yet?" :/ Not really a must-see.

 

[Organizized]

Fantastic Mr. Fox is fantastic, I've watched it three or four times. It's just so feel-good and quirky with aaaaaaaaawesome stop-motion and a cool soundtrack. I can definitely say I like it better than How To Train Your Dragon, for which I share Ustegius' opinion: it's really good, probably the best Dreamworks film to date, but not something I'm going to rewatch any time soon.

I have yet to see Kung Fu Panda 2, but if it's as good as the first one it seems it's going to be worth watching, at least (although I find the first one a tad overrated).

 

[goldb]

Orgz, you need to watch Kung Fu Panda 2, you will not be disappointed if you liked the first one. Po is even more ridiculous in the sequel. I also rewached How to Train your Dragon last night and I still loved it, one of the best animation films to have come out recently.

I also watched True Grit yesterday; I have to say I grew up in a time where Westerns weren't really as big as they were during the John Wayne, Eastwood Dollars Trilogy period. I hope the Coen bros make more Westerns because of the job they did on this one; you would hardly believe that this movie is a remake, such is the quality of it. Outstanding performances from Jeff Bridges, Haylee Steinfeld and Matt Damon. The on screen chemistry between the 3 of them was really good and the girl was fantastic from beginning to end. 9/10

Now I need to watch Crazy Heart because I hear Jeff Bridges performance in that is better than in True Grit, where I thought him playing a drunk US Marshall was second nature to him.

 

[Schabrak]

What does being a remake have to do with being good or not? Hollywood is doing too many remakes lately though.

13 Assasins was very good, if it just wasn't for those CGI cows.lol

 

[Devil Hunter]

Cowboys & Aliens is awesome.

 

[Organizized]

Orgz, you need to watch Kung Fu Panda 2, you will not be disappointed if you liked the first one. Po is even more ridiculous in the sequel. I also rewached How to Train your Dragon last night and I still loved it, one of the best animation films to have come out recently.

I also watched True Grit yesterday; I have to say I grew up in a time where Westerns weren't really as big as they were during the John Wayne, Eastwood Dollars Trilogy period. I hope the Coen bros make more Westerns because of the job they did on this one; you would hardly believe that this movie is a remake, such is the quality of it. Outstanding performances from Jeff Bridges, Haylee Steinfeld and Matt Damon. The on screen chemistry between the 3 of them was really good and the girl was fantastic from beginning to end. 9/10

Now I need to watch Crazy Heart because I hear Jeff Bridges performance in that is better than in True Grit, where I thought him playing a drunk US Marshall was second nature to him.

Well.. Not that Po's Jack Black-y ridiculousness was my favorite part about the first movie... Actually, it was probably one of the things that brought it down to 7/10 from an 8. But still, I'm going to watch it. Logically, the animation quality should be even better (the stunning visuals was one of the best things about the first one), and I hear Gary Oldman is supposed to be brilliant in his voice acting role as the villain (Gary Oldman is the best bad-guy actor ever, so I'm not surprised). Even better than Ian McShane as the villain in the first one, and he was one of the really great things about Kung Fu Panda as well, imo.

It's hard to say which of the two roles Bridges does the best... I'll have to be boring and say he's equally good in both. To me, it seems the Oscar for Crazy Heart was, while well deserved, for his continued great effort throughout his whole career rather than just for that movie. But I'm not complaining; he's one of my favorite actors and should've won three Oscars for The Dude alone.

 

[goldb]

Oh don't worry I didn't mention the animation because it's a given, but there's an awesome slow motion scene for you to look forward to

I still haven't seen the Big Lebowski I have to get it, it's going on my list.

So I saw The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Zodiac last night. The first movie, because the title tells you what already happens, I spend the entirety of trying to guess when Jesse James(Brad Pitt) would be killed by Bob Ford(Casey Affleck) and that just made me find the film tense and was always on edge. The way the relationship between these 2 characters is shown on screen is really something that caught me; a lot of their moments together, especially in the begining were very awkward with silences and forced laughters, but as Ford grew to resent Jesse and his attempt to be famous, it became very tense, especially the moment he dies. I really liked the narration of the movie, very descriptive. Especially the introduction in the begining. Its quite a long film at 2h30mins but I really did enjoy it. 8/10

Zodiac I found to be good too, The story really had a great start but 2hrs+ of it felt really long. Some good character performances by namely Robert Downey Jr, Jake Gyllenhaal and etc but near the end it felt a bit dragged but I realise it's a true story so . It was interesting seeing Jake's character's slowly but increasingly become involved and more obssessed with the Zodiac killer and the basement scene really creeped me out!! anyways I'm giving this a 7/10 because it's a still a really good watch.

 

[xi0]

What does being a remake have to do with being good or not? Hollywood is doing too many remakes lately though.

13 Assasins was very good, if it just wasn't for those CGI cows.lol

True Grit technically isn't a remake, since they're both based on a novel. It's easy to say it has the same title as the classic with John Wayne, but the Coen Brothers' adaptation is more from the viewpoint of Mattie, like the original novel. So I'd venture to say it's a more faithful adaptation of the original source material

@goldb You really need to see The Big Lebowski. Other Coen Brothers films I'd recommend are Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Fargo, No Country for Old Men and Burn After Reading. The last two being more recent than the others.

Zodiac is a really underrated film in my opinion. The creepy car scenes with "Hurdy Gurdy Man" playing ...and it's Fincher which is always a plus.

I've been meaning to see The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford for a while now, but it sort of slipped out of my mind since there wasn't much publicity for the film.

 

[Riku]

I also think Zodiac is underrated. The athmosphere of the film was brilliantly haunting, and towards in end you could really get the feeling of frustration and obsession. I understand though why many people would desribe the latter half boring, but I found it interesting myself. And pretty realistic.

 

[goldb]

@xi0: Noted, I'll make sure to find those Coen Bros Movies. Same way you need to watch The Assassination of Jesse James. I really loved watching True Grit, reminded me of how amazing an actor Jeff Bridges really is and Matt Damon is not bad in it either.

 

[juUnior]

@goldb You really need to see The Big Lebowski. Other Coen Brothers films I'd recommend are Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Fargo, No Country for Old Men and Burn After Reading. The last two being more recent than the others.

hehe, after watching No Country for Old Men I was pumped up by Coen Brothers and decided to watch every movie of which they directed xD Man, not to mention this film is really cool. I also recommend watching their movies, but I recommend starting with his one. And Javier Bardem.. the first time I saw him, haha

 

[Riku]

So anyone one seen Terrence Malicks much discussed The Tree of Life? Or 2011: The Space Odyssey as I like to call it.

First of of all; beautifull pictures. That cannot be denied. The cell forming and space shots were beautifull. But not really striken by the film as a whole. Sure was thought provoking and some metaphores were pretty ingenious (note; pretty much every scene in the film has some kind of symbolism etc. in to it) but it was most of the time just... dull. Some scenes had nice feeling to them, lot due amazing music. Mostly it just didn't hit me. Tried too hard to be artsy. OR well, I'm not really fond of art films anyways.

But it was an interesting watch. It didn't really have this "wooow, awesome" effect on me, but I can see why it has so much critical appraise. Quite a case as a film.

 

[baboysai]

I saw "Mars needs Moms" by Disney.

Okay, first off, excellent animation. They actually reveal as they roll the credits how they do it, that the actors really act it out in white screen with sensors attached to them so that their facial expressions and entire body movement is captured and it turns out very real.

Somewhat interesting plot- except also somewhat politically controversial. The gist of the story is that Marsians have a more advanced female population than the men, and they separate the sexes from birth, discard the male babies since they cannot be disciplined, and keep the female babies to be part of the elite female nation. They kidnap earthling moms that are good in disciplining children, extract data, and use it to discipline these female babies.

It would turn out that the females are cold and uncaring while the males are in touch with emotions and a happy colorful bunch.

It blows my mind, if I really give it any more thought and not take it at face value instead. It kind of gives me a WTF moment all through out if I think of all the gender issues they inject in the movie.