The not so good but enjoyable, for the most part, more or less, until you stop to think about their problems: Avengers: Age of Ultron Jurassic World Tomorrowland Chappie
The instantly forgettable: The Wedding Ringer
The so-bad-they're-good: The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power
The just plain bad: Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse Everly (or is this from 2014?)
The movies that are lesser echoes of films that could have been if they hadn't been abandoned, but were assembled years later from their incomplete elements to cash in on the director's popularity: Accidental Love
Looking forward to seeing Kumiko next week when it arrives from Netflix, and kind of dreading but still maintaining a glimmer of hope for Jupiter Ascending.
What good ones have I missed that I should keep an eye out for?
For a small budget straight to streaming/home video flick, I thought Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse was far more enjoyable than JW. Had a lot more heart (no pun intended) and even the CGI dragon looked a heck of a lot better than the dinos in JW.
This will unquestionably be our biggest disagreement of the year, Francis. Didn't care for MAPS TO THE STARS either, and found GONE GIRL overrated (these were 2014 films, though). But IT FOLLOWS was a fantastic film that deserved every piece of praise it got; it's just after EX MACHINA in my list, the second favourite of the year so far.
This will unquestionably be our biggest disagreement of the year, Francis. Didn't care for MAPS TO THE STARS either, and found GONE GIRL overrated (these were 2014 films, though). But IT FOLLOWS was a fantastic film that deserved every piece of praise it got; it's just after EX MACHINA in my list, the second favourite of the year so far.
I just couldn't get into "it follows" (and its convoluted premise, it still annoys me thinking of it).
Yeah will probably be some late 2014 entries in that list but most of those I saw this year (updated my list to 2015 only).
And Ex Machina was finally an A.I. movie which delivered with great and believable characters (even the artificial ones), however it did go a tad overboard in the final act which I hoped it would rise above. But still very strong movie.
Mortdecai ** 1/2 Project Almanac *** 1/2 Seventh Son *** Taken 3 ** 1/2 Kingsman: the Secret Service **** Focus **** Dragonheart 3: the Sorcerer's Curse ** 1/2 Chappie *** Run All Night *** 1/2 Hot Tub Time Machine 2 *** Cinderella *** 1/2 Unfriended *** Avengers: Age of Ultron **** 5 Flights Up ** 1/2 Mad Max: Fury Road **** Tomorrowland *** 1/2 San Andreas *** When Marnie Was There **** Spy *** 1/2 Dope *** 1/2
Ex Machina Aloha hope to see Me and Earl and the Dying Girl later this week.
As usual most of the year's more interesting films won't be released until much later in the year, or not until next year (Knight of Cups, Scorsese's Silence, Hail Caesar! [assuming the last two even get 2015 premieres somewhere], etc.)
I'm most intrigued with these upcoming movies: The Lobster The Light Between the Oceans Son of Saul Wolf Totem Spectre Star Wars: TFA Mistress America The Revenant Unimachi Diary La Giovinezza Bridge of Spies
I have seen MAD MAX: FURY ROAD which has become my all time favorite film! And JURASSIC WORLD which I really enjoyed as well. And JAWS last weekend which I also love.
I have seen MAD MAX: FURY ROAD which has become my all time favorite film! And JURASSIC WORLD which I really enjoyed as well. And JAWS last weekend which I also love.
Is that a new 2015 version of JAWS I haven't heard of?
None yet, I've sort of stopped going to the cinema. I will buy the Blu of Mad Max. And I will visit a cinema (multiplex) at the end of the year to see: The Martian, In The Heart Of The Sea & The Hateful Eight...probably.
I have seen MAD MAX: FURY ROAD which has become my all time favorite film! And JURASSIC WORLD which I really enjoyed as well. And JAWS last weekend which I also love.
Is that a new 2015 version of JAWS I haven't heard of?
Hi Thor! I added JAWS since I saw it in the theater for it's 40th anniversary.
I'll save you the grief, here were my initial thoughts:
Finally got round to this movie. The score is very 80s with nods to Charles Bernstein, John Carpenter, ... (80s synth scores in general) but to me it felt like a Mr. Oizo score in the wrong movie; the cues at the start were good, but it got repetitive real fast to distracting and taking me out of the movie. Watch the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers to experience how you don't need music all the time to make bystanders suspect or appear menacing; eerie sound design, odd locations and setups can achieve it much better.
The movie itself I didn't find one bit scary at all nor all that clever. As a matter of fact during its downtime as "it" was catching up, it gave me plenty of time to think over how absurd the premise and the rules of the movie are... OK, it does take the notion of someone dieing after having sex in a horror movie quite literally and I get the whole STD allegory and fear of it (again done better in other horror movies) but the whole curse itself is handled so poorly by its anxious teenager cast.
Some questions;
Is it only transmitted through straight sex or can it be gay sex as well? What if there is a condom involved? What happens if it arrives during intercourse? Why can others feel it but not see it? Does it walk in a straight line through buildings or does it go around them? Does it take breaks? Does it go up and down hill? Can it cross water (I thought of this early on and still don't know the answer lol)? Why is it susceptible to gravity? If you fuck an astronaut, will it follow said astronaut into space? Wouldn't you be better off fucking a pack of hookers and pay said hookers to compete in an alternating gang bang to give yourself a good head start? What happens if you have a threesome? Or if you finally decide you've had enough, wouldn't you just kill yourself?
Movies about curses usually provide ample backstory to distract you from the silliness of the curse to allow you to suspend disbelief and actually go onboard with the premise (The Ring, Drag me to Hell, The Box). I found "It follows" hipster horror on a shoe string budget, but definitely not all what it is hyped up to be.
and because of the hype surrounding it, it's almost forbidden to criticize it:
Spy: This really surprised me, thoroughly entertaining, seen it twice... Great fun!
Jurassic World: A worthy follow-up to the first film, and with the proper opening of the Park felt like it offered that sense of wonderment again that 2 and 3 didn't provide me, enjoyable though they were.
San Andreas: This year's Big Disaster Movie, probably similar in feel to 2112 where the cartoon characters unbelievably manage to escape every perilous CGI obstacle by a split-second. I do enjoy that kind of big dumb fun!
Avengers: Age Of Ultron: Considering it's mainly fighting and action all the way through, it held my interest and didn't become tiresome.
Mr. Holmes: An interesting and moving drama, not normally the sort of thing I'd pay to see at the cinema but I was engrossed all the way through.
John Wick: Quite good, lots of violence and killings, not really much else to say.
