Movie News, Reviews, and Discussion Super-Thread

[Steve Contra]

Good lord that looks good.  Probably the only movie I see in theaters this year.

[fistfulofmetal]

It's also Snowpiercer only stationary and vertical.

[Steve Contra]

It was also written in 1975.

And sooooooooooo much better than Snowpiercer (which I liked).  Jesus.

[Quaker]

Anyone familiar with Ben Wheatley's other work? I've only seen Kill List but now after this trailer I want more. A Field in England is streaming on Amazang Prime so I'll definitely check that out at least...

[fistfulofmetal]

Oh god for some reason I kept thinking it was Wil Wheaton who was directing it. When it said acclaimed director I just assumed he had some some stuff people liked.

Fuc

[toku]

Anyone familiar with Ben Wheatley's other work? I've only seen Kill List but now after this trailer I want more. A Field in England is streaming on Amazang Prime so I'll definitely check that out at least...

I've seen a Field in England and liked it. If you thought Kill List was a bit weird field is him going even further into that indie/play-esque void. I haven't read up on it but I could immediately see it working well on a stage. It's also very death/trauma centric much like Kill List was.

[Phoenix Dark]

Kill List was really good.

[benjipwns]

[benjipwns]

can't unsee Michigan Central Station sry

[ToxicAdam]

That wire-fu batman fight scene in the warehouse looks dumb as hell, but people seem to be marking out for it. I dunno.

[TakingBackSunday]

that still looks awful

[Stoney Mason]

that still looks awful

That trailer looks god awful to me. Like literally everything I think that is wrong about modern movies.

[Phoenix Dark]

You guys know what action movie is incredibly not awful? Mad Mad: Fury Road.

[Madrun Badrun]

And you know what else?  Ant-man.

[Joe Molotov]

You know what?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Chicken butt.

[close]

[Bebpo]

Deadpool was good.  Read enough Deadpool comics recently in my marvel unlimited run that some of the stuff felt out of character and the first 15 mins was kind of so-so, but they throw everything at the wall to see what sticks and quite a lot of it does and is great.  The movie is consistently entertaining and some of the jokes are very funny.  One of the better comedies of the last year.  The movie at it's core comprises and is structured like a by-the-book generic superhero flick, but within that it takes a bunch of risks (and the R-rating really helps) and is a rewarding experience because of it.  The pop culture references and 4th wall breaking are good (though waaaaay too much 4th wall so it kind of loses impact), and the Colossus stuff is way better than anything Colossus ever got in the X-men movies.  It's nice seeing him have some good action.

Movie is probably gonna bomb, but in a nice world it'd do really well in the box office and they'd at least make one more that doesn't have to do the whole origin story for a chunk of the runtime.  If it does bomb, it'd be nice if Fox at least kept the character around and gave him cameos in the X-men/X-force stuff.  X-Force with the right team & staff could be good.  Deadpool works better as a support character who plays off other characters anyways.  I'd put real $$$ down to see Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force get adapted with Wolverine/Deadpool/Psylocke/Fantomex/Archangel.

The movie won me over at:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Liam Neilson Taken dream joke.  "After 3 movies, at some point isn't it just bad parenting?" So.good.

[close]

And sometimes the writers and Reynolds are so in character and that's when the movie is just perfect like:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The second cab ride where deadpool is double-talking to Colossus and the cab driver at the same time.  That feels straight out of a deadpool comic and is hilarious and what deadpool is all about.

Saving girlfriends and getting big kisses, not so much.

[close]

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

that still looks awful

That trailer looks god awful to me. Like literally everything I think that is wrong about modern movies.

I think this looks even worse.

[demi]

Deadpool was awesome

[Rahxephon91]

All those talented leading ladies in what looks like a Red Sonjia caliber movie.

[Dickie Dee]

You know what?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Chicken butt.

[close]

 

Why would you do that Joe? Why?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Chicken thigh.

[close]

[Boogie]

Deadpool was a lot of fucking fun.

Edit:  I did feel a lot of the best comic beats were already shown in the trailers though.

[Boogie]

Movie is probably gonna bomb

It's actually tracking to do pretty damn well.  Got $17 million in Thursday previews, might be an $80 mill weekend through Sunday.

[G The Resurrected]

Deadpool was damn awesome! I wanted some more action scenes though.

Zoolander 2 was safe and not very funny. I was expecting more out of it, but instead got blueballs. There are a few bit that are great though. Talk about unnecessary cash in. 

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

Zoolander 2, AKA, Celebrity Cameo - The Movie, is not bad. A bit hit and miss, and not all the cameos really work (I'm not kidding, many of the jokes in this film revolve around, oh lets say, John Malkovich showing up for about five seconds). But the funny parts are pretty dang funny (Kristin Wiig's two joke character, the brutal murder of a widely hated pop star) and its tonally consistant with the last Zoolander but doesn't really feel like a tired retread.

So I dug it, no masterpiece, but it made me laugh. Best to watch with friends so you can all geek out about Benedict Cumberbatch's bizarre appearance together.

[fistfulofmetal]

And yep, Deadpool was pretty great.

Saw it at an AMC near Time Square and the line for the showing was massive.

[Beezy]

And yep, Deadpool was pretty great.

Saw it at an AMC near Time Square and the line for the showing was massive.

You live in NYC now. Stop choosing to go near Time Square.

[Great Rumbler]

Movie is probably gonna bomb

It's actually tracking to do pretty damn well.  Got $17 million in Thursday previews, might be an $80 mill weekend through Sunday.

47 million on Friday [plus Thursday], so I think it's going to do just fine.

[fistfulofmetal]

And yep, Deadpool was pretty great.

Saw it at an AMC near Time Square and the line for the showing was massive.

You live in NYC now. Stop choosing to go near Time Square.

Well it's the closest to me after work and its a really good theater!

[Beezy]

Deadpool was pretty great. And hilarious. Hardest I've ever laughed at super hero movie. It had a low budget in comparison to the other super hero movies we've been getting?

[Joe Molotov]

Movie is probably gonna bomb

It's actually tracking to do pretty damn well.  Got $17 million in Thursday previews, might be an $80 mill weekend through Sunday.

47 million on Friday [plus Thursday], so I think it's going to do just fine.

$135M weekend estimate, which makes it the biggest R-rated opening ever by far.

[chronovore]

Zoolander 2, AKA, Celebrity Cameo - The Movie, is not bad. A bit hit and miss, and not all the cameos really work (I'm not kidding, many of the jokes in this film revolve around, oh lets say, John Malkovich showing up for about five seconds). But the funny parts are pretty dang funny (Kristin Wiig's two joke character, the brutal murder of a widely hated pop star) and its tonally consistant with the last Zoolander but doesn't really feel like a tired retread.

So I dug it, no masterpiece, but it made me laugh. Best to watch with friends so you can all geek out about Benedict Cumberbatch's bizarre appearance together.

(snip)
Zoolander 2 was safe and not very funny. I was expecting more out of it, but instead got blueballs. There are a few bit that are great though. Talk about unnecessary cash in.

23% (and 37% consumer) approval on RottenTomatoes, so it's not surprising that it felt lukewarm. I'm probably going to just buy it on iTunes once it is out of theaters. I like having the original on from time to time, and expect this will be similar.

[chronovore]

THE THING (2011) - Starts strong with great homage shots to John Carpenter's original, as well as set design, color palette, and even type-treatment for the opening credits. Character introduction is tight and competent. And then it turns out that the first two acts are much better than the third act. It largely eschews the paranoia of the first movie for a straight-up monster chase format, which is not great. It is not well-served by a scene straight-outta-Jurassic-Park scene: a character hiding in a kitchen while the monster comes through swinging doors to look for them.

tl;dr: Fun, but loses steam, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead is too pretty.

[Bebpo]

Finally got around to watching What we do in the shadows.  Good horror comedy about vampire flatmates in new zealand.  Some of the early stuff is really funny.  Like when you're first introduced to the gag, it's great.  After about 30 mins the gag is mostly over, so they have to come up with more traditional comedy jokes and it's still good.  Would recommend it for anyone who likes horror or comedy.

[chronovore]

Finally got around to watching What we do in the shadows.  Good horror comedy about vampire flatmates in new zealand.  Some of the early stuff is really funny.  Like when you're first introduced to the gag, it's great.  After about 30 mins the gag is mostly over, so they have to come up with more traditional comedy jokes and it's still good.  Would recommend it for anyone who likes horror or comedy.

I felt similarly. It's fun, but overstays its welcome. Later laughs and some of the groping continuity made it feel like long-form improv, not in a good way.

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

Harvey Weinstein writes about how proud he is of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, takes credit for films he's recut (Donnie Yen's Wu Xia, retitled Dragon for international release, Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster) or obstructed releases for (Michelle Yeoh's still unreleased Reign of Assassins).

tons of choice quotes of Harvey Weinstein fellating himself, not that I'm bitter over his company continually screwing the pooch over Asian film releases for the last twenty years or so.

[Great Rumbler]

The releases he headed up for Asians movies were almost universally complete disasters. Hopefully he never touches another Asian movie ever again.

[Joe Molotov]

Harvey Weinstein writes about how proud he is of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, takes credit for films he's recut (Donnie Yen's Wu Xia, retitled Dragon for international release, Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster) or obstructed releases for (Michelle Yeoh's still unreleased Reign of Assassins).

tons of choice quotes of Harvey Weinstein fellating himself, not that I'm bitter over his company continually screwing the pooch over Asian film releases for the last twenty years or so.

What an asshole.

[brob]

Harvey Weinstein writes about how proud he is of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, takes credit for films he's recut (Donnie Yen's Wu Xia, retitled Dragon for international release, Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster) or obstructed releases for (Michelle Yeoh's still unreleased Reign of Assassins).

tons of choice quotes of Harvey Weinstein fellating himself, not that I'm bitter over his company continually screwing the pooch over Asian film releases for the last twenty years or so.

He, specifically, is annoying as all hell with this shit, but american distribution of asian film in general is sorely lacking. Weinstein co got a lot of these rights because there simply isn't that much competition in the US over them. And others are fucking it up too, here's a bit from a review of Stephen Chow's latest film

You may be wondering, If this movie is so bizarre, so wonderful, so funny, why haven't I heard of it? The answer to that question is infuriating. Chow's "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu Hustle" were international hits, and he's a mega-star in his native Hong Kong. Last weekend, "The Mermaid" shattered domestic box office records in China and became the #2 movie in the world, after "Deadpool." Its American release is an afterthought for one reason: mismanagement by its American distributor, Sony Corporation of America. 
Sony ought to be ashamed for keeping such a good film from American viewers who aren't already part of the Chinese diasporic community. Three of the four Sony representatives I spoke with didn't even know that the company was releasing "The Mermaid." The fourth rep told me that his company hadn't thought to set up advanced screenings for US press, or even send out an email alerting them to the film's impending release. I was told that the film had already gotten positive reviews—all pegged to its release in Asia—and that Sony didn't expect it to interest many people, outside of Chinese or Chinese-American film fans.
This is the sad reality of foreign films in America today: the domestic marketplace is so hopelessly biased in favor of English-language films, most of them produced in the United States, that the second most popular movie in the world is treated as if it doesn't even exist.

 

[Mupepe]

Damn. I watched The Witch and I was really surprised. It's a damn good movie. It's more of a drama or psychological suspense film than horror. In fact, there is very little horror at all. Lots of great themes and imagery. It'll be hard to top this as surprise of the year for me.

[Stoney Mason]

I'm not a big superhero movie fan....

So that's seems like a perfect reason to watch an entire week of SuperHero movies I've purposely avoided over the last 10 years or so one a night.


Tonight was Captain America: The Winter Solder.

It's solid popcorn flick. It's not my personal favorite kind of superhero movie as I think the story is kind of garbage and its all about let's save the universe/planet/nation/freeedom thing from top to bottom but that being said its a solidly executed film with solid performances from everybody. I mainly enjoyed it as a good action flick and just let my brain go numb when the plot points kicked in. Robert Redford as a bad guy kind of elevates what would be a pretty rote character in most other actor's hands. The heroes while fine were mostly boring and vanilla to me outside of maybe Samuel L Jackson. I know there are a lot of back handed complaints here but I mean its fun for what it is and the best sign is that I wasn't bored as I watched which tends to be a problem for me in superhero flicks. Most of the fight scenes and action bits were really good stuff and didn't feel all cg'ed to hell. So well done.

Up Next for Tomorrow night: The Avengers


edit: I was happy to see Garry Shandling who've I've always kind of loved as a funny person. And then I was sad when I thought to myself he doesn't look so good...

[Stoney Mason]

It wasn't quite as good as I had been led to believe but it was good. The Samuel L Jackson scene where he's chased in that car was really standout. I kinda wish the movie had just been about him and with stuff like that going on. That's a far more fun flick to me.

[chronovore]

(snip)
Up Next for Tomorrow night: The Avengers


edit: I was happy to see Garry Shandling who've I've always kind of loved as a funny person. And then I was sad when I thought to myself he doesn't look so good...

Prepare for disappointment with the Avengers if you're looking for a smart story; it's a lot of fun for character interaction, but not much else. It's a Big, Fun, Dumb Action Movie, and it knows it.

As for Garry Shandling, he looked bad in the movies, kind of weird and puffy. In the Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Seinfeld, he tossed out some random remark about being ill and it caused the puffiness. It sounded like BS, but he also looked better in that short film, so he either recovered or got additional surgery. :shrug

[ToxicAdam]

Maybe he was on steroids or had thyroid problems. That can make you look puffy/ill.

[VomKriege]

Prepare for disappointment with the Avengers if you're looking for a smart story; it's a lot of fun for character interaction, but not much else. It's a Big, Fun, Dumb Action Movie, and it knows it.

The Avengers is the embodiment of "mediocre". It wasn't as bad as I feared and the character interaction is pretty decent, but in the end it's the same competent but uninspired & uncorporeal CGI fest you've seen a few dozen times by now with all the shitty trappings of today's megafranchises, first and foremost an inconclusive story more fixated on teasing the next film than saying anything. A lot of yadda yadda happens on a couple rooms of the Helicarrier so the whole thing often feels as cheap as a TV show despite the absurd level of VFX work put into everything.

Haven't seen CapAm 2 yet but I need to get to it because everyone I trust / Marvel nerds around me all think it's good.

[chronovore]

Maybe he was on steroids or had thyroid problems. That can make you look puffy/ill.

http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/garry-shandling-its-great-that-garry-shandling-is-still-alive

He mentions it somewhere in here. Seinfeld doesn't comment or counter it, but they're old friends and Shandling is famously guarded about his life. It's a great episode and very much worth watching, but not watching twice and just for a factoid.

[Madrun Badrun]

Why would you watch Cap 2 before Avengers!  Watching out of order will affect the meta story.  This upsets me in ways only known to 12 yearold boys. 

[Stoney Mason]

Why would you watch Cap 2 before Avengers!  Watching out of order will affect the meta story.  This upsets me in ways only known to 12 yearold boys.

lol.

I debated watching them in correct narrative order but then I talked to a nerd friend who explained to me the order and my eyes glazed over and said fuck that. Plus I would have had to end up watching a bunch of movies I didn't really care about. At least most of the ones I'm going to watch I have an interest in.

Currently the plan is:

Captain America The Winter Soldier
The Avengers
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Iron Man 3
Thor 1 or 2
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Chronicle
Dredd

The only ones I really don't want to watch are the thor movies. They just look awful to me but I'm going to try to suck it up and watch one of them. Not sure which. Which awful Thor movie should I watch bore?

[Great Rumbler]

Dredd is the best movie on that list. Not even kidding.

[Joe Molotov]

The metastory is dumb anyway.

Just wait until Batman v Superman turns out to be a stealth release of Marvel vs. DC that ties both universes together including the Nolanverse, and then you'll be like 

[Stoney Mason]

Dredd is the best movie on that list. Not even kidding.

I'll give em all a fair shot. The Avengers and Winter Soldier were the two I was most interested in seeing and have the highest expectations for based on feedback and praise. As always we'll see.

The good thing is that after this and outside of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Deadpool, I feel like I can skip the next 10 years of superhero movies and do it again then.

 

[VomKriege]

Hellboy II is everything meh about Del Toro. It's not outright bad, but it feels a bit like a tired gothic Men in Black.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Even categorizing Dredd as a comic book movie feels dirty and disrespectful.

[Steve Contra]

Hellboy II is everything meh about Del Toro. It's not outright bad, but it feels a bit like a tired gothic Men in Black.

Speaking of Del Toro, I watched Crimson Peak.  What a bunch of shit for like 2 good scenes.

[chronovore]

I liked this supercut.

[Stoney Mason]

Finished The Avengers.

Yeah, I didn't like that one as much as I hoped I would. I mean for a marvel movie it seems okay but I guess I thought it was gonna be a lot funnier and unique. For some reason I had it in my head that it was gonna be like Guardians of the Galaxy level or something. Instead its like a decent version of the same movie they make every single time. I preferred the Winter Soldier to this one.

And forgot whatever I said about the story being garbage in that movie. Compared to this it was top tier. I mean this was absurd. I know its a comic book ass comic book movie so to complain about a comic book being absurd is silly, but as Loki wears a ridiculous outfit while calling in a portal into the sky that aliens flood through and start destroying the city..... Well we've reached Transformers level of story telling.

This movie of course isn't as bad as a transformers film. The better actors, and fun interactions between the characters alone save it from that, but its hard for me to take it seriously when people keep talking about The Tesseract and how important it is!

The best part about the movie. It's undeniably fun to see super heroes rolling around together and doing outlandish cg special effects. I think that's just what general audience want. I was expecting more though from Joss Whedon but these movies seem to follow a very strict formula so I guess its hard for anybody to break that.

For whatever reason those last two x-men movies seem way more grounded and human to me than the stuff that happened in this movie and I appreciate that a lot more. I could relate to those movies. I couldn't relate to the avengers despite the occasional jokes that made me smile a bit.
   
TL DR: Avengers is "ok" but it made me appreciate Winter Soldier more.


I think I'll do a palate cleanser and watch chronicle tomorrow night before I soldier into more marvel stuff.

[chronovore]

The only ones I really don't want to watch are the thor movies. They just look awful to me but I'm going to try to suck it up and watch one of them. Not sure which. Which awful Thor movie should I watch bore?

You're going to hate both of them, so it doesn't matter. The second one is slightly less horrible. Better visuals and it doesn't take itself quite as seriously. But it's still crap.

Avengers has a lot of flaws, but Loki dressing up in a costume and having aliens as his minions isn't exactly a problem that makes it Transformers tier. Can't say I understand that argument.

I personally think it's just an average movie that I really liked on initial viewing. Guardians Of The Galaxy is by far the best MCU movie, btw. Mostly because it's easily the most original one where they didn't have characterizations from comics that they can't deviate from while the source material being so niche that it basically was an original idea with an old brand backing it.

Yeah, I was stunned that they chose Guardians as a property to develop, but they really probably just wanted to make something different in the MCU to expand to science fiction/space opera to get people who aren't necessarily into superheroes. It's also neat that they apparently are making Bill Mantlo's existence better; even if it's just a PR move on Disney's part to avoid making billions on the creations of a guy who is in chronic pain and broke, it's still nice that Bill's family has stated that they're better off by far than they had been before.

[Stoney Mason]

Avengers has a lot of flaws, but Loki dressing up in a costume and having aliens as his minions isn't exactly a problem that makes it Transformers tier. Can't say I understand that argument.

I think it comes down to what people want in movies like this. I think some people like it really comic bookish. And that's fine. For me there is line where really comic bookish can seem really really dumb or random or unmotivated or undeserved. I felt Avengers was all of this. Loki and his motivations seemed dumb to me. These random aliens attacking earth seemed dumb and out of place and unmotivated and uncharacterized. That is why I compare it to Transformers. Because it feels like things are happening only because these things are written to happen. Not because any of it makes sense or are developed. Maybe all of this setup and motivation was explained in prior movies but just watching it as a standalone none of it felt earned. So it may just be a me thing since I assume most people are watching these movies and know about this expanded universe. But for me it felt as dumb as any other random movie I would mock albeit with more interesting protagonists.

Basically it was an alien invasion movie where I didn't know who the aliens were or why they were invading or who was in charge, etc. There was a scene where Loki meets some alien that I assume was referenced in a prior movie but its not done to setup anything to establish narrative order here. It just feels like a quick callback to something that happened in maybe some earlier movie that I didn't see. Winter Soldier had a little of that but it was standalone enough that even though it was a little silly I understand why things were happening as they happened. I could tolerate it being goofy if it felt more fleshed out.

[ToxicAdam]

I appreciated The Avengers because it's real easy for a movie like that to feel bloated and long. So many characters to honor and trying to force in storylines for no reason. The pace they had in that movie was quite remarkable, it did not feel like a 2+ hour movie.

[benjipwns]

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

wow, that's really nice of Warner Bros. to let me know so far in advance of the theatrical date of Bats v Supes to stay home and not go see the inferior theatrical version.

thanks guys.