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Getting to the bottom of my Netflix queue, 2 days ago I received "The First Time" with Dylan O'Brien and Brittany Robertson, and was quite pleased with it. Here's the tiny review I dashed off about it:
I realllllllllllllllly liked this movie! I've long been a Dylan O'Brien fan since the beginning of MTV's "Teen Wolf," and he brings the same sort of awkward geeky-ness to this role, and it works beautifully -- he is quite endearing! And Brittany Robertson is just as perfectly cast. It's a movie about young people trying to find their emotional way in an imperfect world, and I liked it so much that I'll probably buy it. It's much better than far bigger movies made these days that make me groan when I watch them. What a delight!
In the meantime, the first 2 1/2 seasons of "Teen Wolf" are on their way to me and should be arriving today or tomorrow. So more Dylan O'Brien as well as the rest of the crew.
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And thanks MikeP for mostly agreeing with me about "Man of Steel" -- it was a poorly-conceived script which needed, dare I say it? More humanity. Such a disappointment, and I thank Netflix again for saving me from the $20 I would have spent for the Blu-ray!
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"He Was a Quiet Man"(2007) - surprisingly, an intriguing story of an everyman who's just had had enough. Brilliant performance by Christian Slater in the lead - and don't tell me he's not a good actor!
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Today I watched "Elysium" with Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, and while i didn't hate it and watched it all, it's a hard movie to really like. It seems like 75% of all science fiction movies these days deal with after-the-apocalypse, and this was one more of them. There's a lot of action and it's often exciting, but I just wasn't entirely invested in the characters as much as I'd like to have been. So it was another of those movies where you're relieved when it finally ends … so you can go back to what you were doing BEFORE you started watching it (unlike, say, "Oblivion," where I was ready to start all over again when it ended!
Next I streamed "Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould," intending to watch "32 Short Films About Glenn Gould," but started it without paying close attention. But I had already seen both of them before and enjoyed re-watching the absorbing documentary about late pianist Glenn Gould. Fascinating man, however tormented he may have been so much of his life.
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Posted: |
Dec 21, 2013 - 9:02 AM
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By: |
Grecchus
(Member)
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I saw Oblivion recently and it prompted me to make a list of all the films on whose shoulders it stands, russian doll fashion. But I won't go into that because I'm sure anyone who has seen it and thought the same thing will know exactly what I mean.
It was a very simply told narrative that couldn't have been any cleaner than it is, however, it does require viewers to be aware of the role-reversal that takes place half-way through. It isn't the sort of film I'd go back to. I have seen it once, and then again in snippets by going backwards and forwards to clarify certain aspects of the plot. It suffers from the same problem the Alien continuances were plagued with. Tech 49 and Tech 52 both have the same genetics, but they also have the same memories of Jack Harper. You can clone the original Jack Harper or Victoria (or whoever) but the memory state of any individual should be a clean slate from birth because other than what is innate, a newborn has to assimilate experiences throughout time. You just have to assume the two astronauts have been assimilated from the inside out by Sally & Co so that everything about them has neen 'captured' using alien means and technology that is quite simply beyond comprehension. If Sally is that advanced I doubt very much 'it' could be so easily deceived.
Although the 'Tet' is referenced copiously within the film, I wasn't quite sure if it was the shorthand for 'tetrahedron' or if it was a bastardization of the french word (tête) for the 'head' in english - as in literally the 'head,' or thinking part, of the body. I decided that it doesn't really matter as both, in the final analysis, are relevant
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Posted: |
Dec 22, 2013 - 11:24 AM
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By: |
Michael24
(Member)
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R.I.P.D. (2013) - 2/5
Not the worst movie I've seen all year (a couple others take that honor), and it's not necessarily "bad" per se, but rather just kind of dull and boring. Some scenes are just really goofy and weird; Jeff Bridges drooling Indian food as he interrogates a suspected Deado, for example. When there's an action scene, it's entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the all-out finale, as the city stands on the brink of destruction and our heroes battle the bad guys on a rooftop. But there are a number of glaring plot holes or just little things here and there than never make sense. And when did Mary-Louise Parker become such an obnoxious, nerve-grating actress? I couldn't stand her in the RED movies, and she's just as intolerable here. Bridges definitely has fun with his role, and the special effects are generally well done. Overall, it has some neat ideas and a couple entertaining moments, but otherwise is barely just so-so.
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Last night, with ABC scheduled to broadcast the original "The Sound of Music" with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer (with commercials), I decided to finally watch my Blu-ray of it in its huge boxed set, which I had never watched in its entirety, and, to be honest with you, I really didn't think I'd watch it all, but did, which was a big surprise to me. And I kept thinking "This movie will last FOREVER!" People in 100, 200, 300 years from now will STILL be watching Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music," and it remains probably the best musical ever put on film. And the movie looks and sounds great (the Blu-ray has terrific 7.1 audio). There's not much to say about it -- who here HASN'T seen "The Sound of Music"? -- except that it's a classic and deserves all the awards it got. And in another year it will be approaching its 50 year anniversary!
Another surprise was that I next went to Netflix streaming and watched "The Promise," a Gil Cates-directed tearjerker that I've always loved, starring a radiant Kathleen Quinlan and Stephen Collins, and watched all of it too. And while it was an odd double bill with "The Sound of Music," I enjoyed it -- and wish they'd bring out a proper DVD of it (I've written before about the wretched DVD with pan and scan that looks like it was mastered from a bad VHS copy!). Add it to my wish list.
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Sirusjr: I saw "Place Beyond The Pines" several months ago and pretty much hated it, although I FORCED myself to watch it all, and wish that I had, like you, spared myself the misery of watching it all!
This afternoon I decided to watch my Collector's Edition DVD of "Somewhere In Time," possibly to see if I had any interest in buying the just announced release of it on Blu-ray. First, it's been a favorite film for ages (or at least since it was released in 1980). But I hadn't watched it in several years. It's a gorgeous movie, but the DVD is awfully grainy, and for that alone a Blu-ray would probably be a big improvement. As I recall, this was Christopher Reeve's first movie after he exploded on the screen in Richard Donner's "Superman," and unlike that movie, he gets his name above the title, which is well-deserved, since he's on screen practically 99% of the time. And he carries a film that requires considerable suspension of disbelief -- that one can go back in time nearly 70 years to meet the woman whose picture he has become obsessed with and do so with nothing but sheer willpower is quite a stretch. But I enjoyed it, as I always do, and the images are so gorgeous (including both leads) that it'll probably look amazing on Blu-ray. But my DVD will suffice. And John Barry's soundtrack, which was a departure for him and signaled the start of a period that would bring us equally gorgeous scores for "Out of Africa" and Dances With Wolves," is, as always, simply perfect. And I've told the story elsewhere how Jane Seymour tells us in the special features how she asked her pal John Barry to help them when their budget couldn't afford him, and it resulted in a score for the ages!
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Posted: |
Dec 22, 2013 - 6:07 PM
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By: |
DeputyRiley
(Member)
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R.I.P.D. (2013) - 2/5
Not the worst movie I've seen all year (a couple others take that honor), and it's not necessarily "bad" per se, but rather just kind of dull and boring. Some scenes are just really goofy and weird; Jeff Bridges drooling Indian food as he interrogates a suspected Deado, for example. When there's an action scene, it's entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the all-out finale, as the city stands on the brink of destruction and our heroes battle the bad guys on a rooftop. But there are a number of glaring plot holes or just little things here and there than never make sense. And when did Mary-Louise Parker become such an obnoxious, nerve-grating actress? I couldn't stand her in the RED movies, and she's just as intolerable here. Bridges definitely has fun with his role, and the special effects are generally well done. Overall, it has some neat ideas and a couple entertaining moments, but otherwise is barely just so-so.
How was Kevin Bacon?
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Sirusjr: I saw "Place Beyond The Pines" several months ago and pretty much hated it, although I FORCED myself to watch it all, and wish that I had, like you, spared myself the misery of watching it all!
Good to hear that I chose wisely. Sometimes I am unsure but since I didn't pay to watch it in theaters, no need to push myself to finish.
I pretty much lost it when after getting mad and attacking Eva Mendez' boyfriend, Gosling's character decides to go crazy and do two robberies in a row. Once he started to storm out and do it anyway after being warned I just couldn't stand to continue. It didn't seem like it was going anywhere good.
Good point. I only rented it because of Ryan Gosling, and then he gets killed off barely halfway through the movie!!!
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Recordman:
Realize that it doesn't work for many, and I remember back when it was just out that people seemed to either love it or hate it. (Which seems to be the case these days with most movies!) But I think we all agree that John Barry created a soundtrack for the ages, and for that alone I have a very sentimental attachment to the movie. But WON'T shell out the money for a Blu-ray I would probably only watch once.
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) is riveting here... she really delivers a knockout performance.
