DVD Rental Day (2011 - ?)

[TooLiveBrew]

X-Men: First Class had me with Michael Fassbender, superpowered James Bond. He's great and James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence are also very good.

 

I was pretty underwhelmed by this incarnation of the X-Men saga*. And I have to vehemently disagree on Jennifer Lawrence -- she nearly ruined the entire movie for me. 'Cringeworthy' only scratches the surface for me of how painfully bad she was.

* However, I agree with your assessment that it's good blockbuster/popcorn-chomping fare

[brettac1]

It's insane that this thread is 7.5 years old... wow.

[RobertR]

X-Men: First Class had me with Michael Fassbender, superpowered James Bond. He's great and James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence are also very good.

 

I was pretty underwhelmed by this incarnation of the X-Men saga*. And I have to vehemently disagree on Jennifer Lawrence -- she nearly ruined the entire movie for me. 'Cringeworthy' only scratches the surface for me of how painfully bad she was.

* However, I agree with your assessment that it's good blockbuster/popcorn-chomping fare

Compared to January Jones, Jennifer Lawrence should get an Oscar for her work in X-Men.

 

Robert

 

[TooLiveBrew]

Compared to January Jones, Jennifer Lawrence should get an Oscar for her work in X-Men.

 

Absolutely, but that just means she was better than garbage! http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[homer]

Incendies
During the reading of their mother's will, a set of Canadian twins discover they have a father and brother living in the middle east. They set off to deliver a pair of letters per their mother's dying wishes. On the way they learn more than they probably want to about their family history.

 

This was an Academy Award nominee for best foreign language film and it certainly is a very solid picture. It takes a while to get into and a few of the plot twists seem sort of contrived but on the whole it's very good.

[Team Canada]

Agreed on X-Men; it was ok, and Fassbender was good, but otherwise didn't stand out from any other blockbuster fare. And McAvoy wasn't really doing it for me as Professor X.

[TooLiveBrew]

Agreed on McAvoy too, but I didn't want to crap so completely on Robert's post. McAvoy was ok, some scenes he really worked, others not really.

[GAME05]

Goodbye Solo is a great watch and available for streaming on Netflix. set in Winston-Salem (yay!) it's about an older guy who wants to commit suicide in a week (not a spoiler) and the taxi driver who kinda-sorta takes him in and tries at least to understand him. it's not judgemental or preachy and thankfully doesn't use contrasting characters. also well-paced, since these types of movies tend to feel slow. no moral or lesson, just a tender bit of time spent with two interesting people.

[RobertR]

Agreed on McAvoy too, but I didn't want to crap so completely on Robert's post. McAvoy was ok, some scenes he really worked, others not really.

Hey, feel free to disagree. I'd rather start a conversation than end it.

 

I don't think any of the superhero movies from last year will have that much staying power. I really liked the first half to two-thirds of Captain America, but when it turned into a series of montages it felt like it was just marking time until the big fight at the end. Was I supposed to care about Bucky? Green Lantern was messy throughout, although I really didn't think it was that much worse than the other superhero films of the summer. Thor was the least problematic to me, probably because Branagh's good at the family drama aspects, but SHIELD seemed wedged in there just to give Thor someone to fight in the middle.

 

Honestly, Vaughn's a talented director, but looking at his pictures as wholes they're a lot less satisfying than seen as a series of individual scenes. You bounce from deadly serious scenes of Magneto hunting former Nazis to a CIA agent stripping down who happens to be wearing a fetishtic lingerie ensemble on the spur of the moment? Is the tone serious or slightly campy? I don't know if the film ever settles on a tone. I have similar issues with Kick Ass where Nic Cage and Chloe Moretz wander in from a different movie than the one established.

 

Robert

 

[homer]

Not a DVD review but I wanted to make mention that I met Werner Herzog today. He's a really nice guy.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Hey, "Sucker Punch" wasn't as bad as I was led to believe. Doesn't mean it was good or anything. "Red" on the other hand..... there was a nice homage to "Die Hard" thrown in the set decoration . . .other than that....

[homer]

City of Life and Death

 

This film by Chinese director Chuan Lu is a graphic representation of the Rape of Nanking in 1937 - a siege which to this day still causes conflict between Japan and China. Shot in black and white, it is an almost unrelenting look at the horrors of war. This is not for the faint of heart and certainly not a film you watch to be "entertained". The violence is not exploitative and not particularly gory but it is without question disturbing on many levels. It may sound like I'm bashing this picture but I'm not. It's a modern war film classic. The violence is used in such a way as to evoke a severe negative reaction to war (and it does so with stunning success) while at the same time demonstrating the capacity of human survival. I would put it up there amongst the best of the genre.

[RobertR]

Not a DVD review but I wanted to make mention that I met Werner Herzog today. He's a really nice guy.

 

Name dropper. I, for one, am jealous.

 

Robert

[homer]

Not a DVD review but I wanted to make mention that I met Werner Herzog today. He's a really nice guy.

 

Name dropper. I, for one, am jealous.

 

Robert

Ha! Hey if Kat can drop the Coen brothers I can drop Werner.

[pitchleague]

Not a DVD review but I wanted to make mention that I met Werner Herzog today. He's a really nice guy.

It only took me 3 re-reads of this post to figure it out after wondering why meeting Whitey Herzog should be in the DVD thread and not in the MLB forum. Man, my eyes are tired.

[RobertR]

Catching up on my DVD watching.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II

If you liked the series overall, I can't see complaints about the last film. They make a good decision by turning the film into a siege movie which gives the film structure. I'm not pleased overall by the decision to split the last book in two, but moreso because of Part I.

The Exterminating Angel

Woody Allen inspired me to check this out via Midnight in Paris. It's my second Bunuel film and I'm already becoming a big fan. It's absurd, sharp, and satirical all at once.

Super 8

I really liked the kids making movies material, but the alien monster on the loose material never felt integrated into the story in a satisfactory way. I can only assume that JJ Abrams is messing with us with lens flare at this point. Lots of good ingredients that never come together.

The Ghost Writer

It's Roman Polanski, so if you're boycotting I'm not arguing. That said, it's one of the best thrillers I've seen in a long time, harkening back to the paranoid thrillers of the 70s.

Scandal

Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film about unscrupulous newspapermen, noble artists, and a lowlife lawyer playing both sides. I've never seen Kurosawa so blatantly manipulative before and I hope to never see it again. It's not a terrible picture and there are some genuine moments of inspiration, but Kurosawa is clearly angry so it clouds his judgement of what makes a good movie.

I've gone over Moneyball and The Help in the Oscars thread. Moneyball's a good movie, The Help is tolerable solely due to the acting.

The Thin Man and After the Thin Man

I watched these New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and they're entirely appropriate. William Powell and Myrna Loy are still completely winning. I don't know if the mysteries are anything special, but when you're having this much fun who cares.

Robert

[homer]

 

Super 8

I really liked the kids making movies material, but the alien monster on the loose material never felt integrated into the story in a satisfactory way. I can only assume that JJ Abrams is messing with us with lens flare at this point. Lots of good ingredients that never come together.

 

 

Robert

 

Did you notice the lens flares inside the cave? Where there was no light source from which they could have emanated?

[RobertR]

Did you notice the lens flares inside the cave? Where there was no light source from which they could have emanated?

As I said, I can only assume Abrams is messing with us. Or he realizes he has no distinctive style of his own and is trying to come up with something.

 

At this point, I have no idea what a JJ Abrams movie actually is. He's tackled two preexisting franchises and a deliberate throwback. At some point, he has to create something with no cinematic predecessor, or at least make something radically different than what came before.

 

Robert

 

 

[TooLiveBrew]

homer wrote:

Did you notice the lens flares inside the cave? Where there was no light source from which they could have emanated?

I believe the only satisfactory answer to this is "Polar bears on a tropical island"

[jjfanec]

I am probably one of the few that really enjoyed Super 8, but not as an alien film. I just liked the movie overall. I thought it moved well. I thought the kids were really good. The alien was blah and the end was cheesy but for some reason I found myself really enjoying the film

[chadomac]

Yeah, I liked Super 8 too. It was an updated ET, but I still enjoyed it. Went opening night in the theater.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Saturday night Kung fu theater......

 

Bunraku.

 

This looked like it had promise. An all star cast, a wild visual style, and tons of martial arts action. For some reason, it just fell short. The action sequences never had any 'pop', and the story line just fell really flat. The reveal at the end from Josh Hartnett's character had more of a 'really? That's IT?" feel than anything else. Still, the visuals were excellent, and Woody Harrelson makes everything he's in at least tolerable. 6/10

 

13 Assassins.

 

All I can say is simply.......wow. I went into this with high expectations, and came out of it suitably impressed. The best thing I can say about this movie, is it gave me flashbacks to the early 80's, when my brother and I would stay up late on Saturday nights, and watch Kung Fu Theater on WGN, with back to back cheesy overdubbed Kung Fu movies from the 60's and 70's, and eat a boat load of popcorn. That's what this movie made me feel like. The story was so-so, but the action scenes were nothing short of amazing. The last 45 minutes of this movie are a blood soaked love letter to the Samurai/action movies of that era (and in fact, this is a remake of 1962's '13 Assassins'). There's not much time to get to know the characters, and really, that's ok. I don't like to use the word epic, I think it gets throw around far too often, but the final battle in this movie meets the criteria. 9.5/10

[chadomac]

Just watched The Help today... absolutely fantastic uplifting movie. I don't know why I had reservations about seeing it, but I hope it somehow wins Best Picture.

[TURBO]

This past weekend, I watched a few movies. I didn't rent them, I own them. I have a problem in that I feel the need to own any movie I watch. If I don't like it, it gets sold. I have an immense dvd library in the process, but it is nice to know that when I feel the urge to plug in my favorite movie of all time, The WARRIORS, it is at my finger tips, as well as the other 1000 dvds I own.

 

Anyway, I watched Semi Tough with Burt Reynolds. Saw this back in the 70's when it came out as a teen and thought it was great! Watching it now in my 40's, not so much. It was corny and boring. It goes directly to my sell pile after I watch the other movie on the disc, GATOR, also with Burt Reynolds. (Unless GATOR is great, but I have my doubts)

 

Aslo watched The Village. A lot of people I talked to hated that flick, but I found it engrossing as heck. Loved it in fact. The actress who played the blind girl was awesome.

 

Watched Cobb with Tommy Lee Jones. Another movie that I liked the first time I saw it in theaters, but this time around I wasn't too impressed. If that movie has an ounce of truth to it, Ty Cobb was a very bad person.

[homer]

Drive

 

Ryan Gosling plays a stuntman by day and a getaway driver at night. He's pretty much a bad ass. He gets involved with his neighbor who has a young son only to find out her husband is coming home from prison shortly. He cares so much for the lady that he ends up trying to help out the husband when he gets in a jam with his old cronies. This leads to lots of cool violence and death. A very stylized movie that is shot very well. I don't think the script is all that original or interesting but it's such a neat movie to take in visually (and a terrific soundtrack) that I can forgive those shortcomings. Thumbs up. Ryan Gosling continues to make really interesting and daring choices.