The "I just saw" thread

[Kyriakos]

Though his bark cannot be lost yet it shall be tempest-tossed

[Lord of the Drunk Penguin]

Good Vibrations

Terry Hooley, Irish Punk Guru, record-store owner and world events-changer.
This is the story of his life.

[Lord of the Drunk Penguin]

Senna 2010

Nothing can prepare you for this. Witness the man, the legend. Before Schumacher, there was Senna.
Requiescat In Pace .

And before Senna, there was Hunt. And Lauda.
Two of the greatest.

Hunt vs. Lauda

[Lord of the Drunk Penguin]

Wicker Park

What a cluster of relations!

First, let me just say I'm not into this kind of movies. Then, let me add that I hope that characters like Alex don't exist in real life.
Because it will make real love kinda impossible for others.
Diane Kruger was superb here

[Kyriakos]

Ringu (1998)

The original japanese film version.
Hm, i wasn't that into it. Likely expected far more due to the hype as well, but ultimately it is not that intense or interesting a film, despite the important change they made from the novel regarding who the father of that girl is

[RubiconDecision]

The American version is vastly superior. Likewise Black Water (2005) exceeds the original. The original Thai film is better than Shutter the remake.

Naomi Watts and Jennifer Connelly should get far more credit. Both can do very complicated independent films or blockbusters,

[Kyriakos]

Dark Water was a stylish film indeed, despite fragmentary 'reveal' of what is going on (itself not definitive, and in my view neither pleasantly ambiguous there)

[RubiconDecision]

The horror genre can be schlock, torture porn, or high art and true cinema. So when there's a glimmer of artistic sensibility in a horror film, I praise it.

I'm planning on watching The Hive for that reason.

It's being compared to Memento.

Fangoria's review.

I'm glad that the horror genre is getting some respect. Because of the high ROI, it's a great vehicle for young talent in a tough cruel business.

EDIT:
I believe young insightful script/treatment writers who made character synopsis and analyzed character's motivations and interactions as a supplement, would help the director, dp, the actors, the costume designer, and really make everyone shine...including themselves. It's a young person's business due to limited budgets, and facilitates the production. Young people lack the experiences and maturity, but the guide would make their performances believable. It might be ignored but still noted.

A greater actor will try to create a mini-biography to fill in the blanks, which the writer could easily generate.

This site is full of frustrated writers, some of whom could work in the business.

[Maximinus Thrax]

The Wolf of Wall-Street. The poor man's Goodfellas.

This movie looks like it was directed by some poor man's Martin Scorsese, and not by Scorsese himself. A total embarrassment: ludicrous scenario, poor character development, bad acting, cringe-worthy dialogues. Three hours of pure garbage.
To sum up this movie: yelling, more yelling, ing, people taking drugs, people acting like Neanderthals, more ing, yelling again, people saying dumb things, people taking drugs, people acting dumb, yelling, people acting retarded, more yelling, people taking drugs yet again.

Trivia: according to imdb.com there are 577 f-bombs, 70 instances of people saying , 6 of d***, 4 of , 3 of :wub:**, 3 of , 2 n-words, etc.

[RubiconDecision]

Well, despite the promising premise, the Hive is so amateurish that it's not worth seeing. It's a mashup with an incoherent narrative, and it's obvious the writer knows nothing about summer camps in America. Several of the main actors will no doubt be involved in better productions and cringe over their early scale effort. A zombie/contagion with a Hive mind could have been a decent B film. What a shame.

[Your Lame Sister]

Just finished watching the first (and so far, only) season of 'Daredevil' (2015). Here are my spoiler-free impressions of the entire season:

(Just to clarify - I never read any of the Daredevil comics, and I never watched the old Daredevil movies. This is the first version of this character that I've seen)

Pros:
- INCREDIBLE acting all across the board. Seriously. I don't really have much to say about this, but that's just because it was PERFECT.
- Great fight-choreography. Way above TV standards.
- Great fight scenes... usually. I'll get into the problem with them later, but most of the time, they were really great - inventive and impressive.
- A lot of moral dillemas, which is always a plus for me.
- Good character development. Not GREAT, but good.
- very good chemistry among all of the main characters from the very beginning. These are the kind of characters that are pretty entertaining to watch even when they're not doing anything plot-related.
- Very well-paced plotting. A good amount of plot twists, but the plot twists never come at the expense of the emotional resonance.
- Terrific production values all around.
- Daredevil's custome is REALLY minimalistic, which is a huge plus for me. I hate flashy superhero customes, They always look silly. This show manages to avoid this trap.

Cons:
- SO MANY CLICHES... Seriously, if you've ever seen any version of Batman, or Green Arrow, or Angel, or any other dark broody superhero, you've seen this story already. I heard that they're staying very close to the source material, which is nice, but they really, REALLY should have changed stuff a bit. The plot is completely generic, and the dialogue is almost worse - when the characters are just talking light-heartedly, it's great and authentic (again, great acting), but whenever they get serious, they just start spouting all of the old cliches of the genre - "this is my city", "you and I are not so different", etc. The actors really do a LOT to make it work, but the writers are totally failing them on that front. It's a very well-made show, but GOD there's just zero originality here.
- Occasionally, the fight scenes are too long, and a little self-indulgent. I guess it's good that they're playing to their strengths, but still - they could cut back on the fights a little.
- (minor spoilers alert?) Remember how I said that Daredevil's custome is minimalistic and great? Well, near the end of the show, he gets a new custome, and it's colorful, and flashy, and looks totally retarded. Seriously, People need to realize that flashy superhero customes have no place in films and TV.

Overall... it's a very good show, but only if lack of originality doesn't bother you. Personally, I'm gonna give season 2 a shot, but I really hope that the writers learn to be less generic. This one flaw is almost enough to destroy this otherwise FANTASTIC show.

[RubiconDecision]

Please see the very fine Australian sci-fi fable Terminus.

It's a serious film, perhaps too much so, but it's dealing with the death of the American economy, foolish futile wars, the death of loved ones, and so that turns off people desiring laser blasts and wirework.
7.0

With better writing and more money, this could have been an 8.0

http://www.quietearth.us/articles/20...hriller-Review

Just seeing the mixture of emotions, the sense of fear, hurt and anger on display, it reminds us how effective it can be when we chance upon a genuinely excellent performance in a film. There are no actively 'bad' scenes or performances, but the really good parts often serve to highlight the more mediocre.

Plot and characters aside, everyone involved in this production acquits themselves well. Furmie's direction is agreeably elegant, making use of gracefully executed crane shots and smooth tacking shots, while not pulling any punches when it comes to violence or gooey alien artefacts (and their unpleasant side-effects). Musician Brian Cachia's eerie electronic soundtrack nicely underscores the film's gloomy, doom-laden tone, while Kieran Fowler's cinematography provides an appropriately sharp, stark and at times cold texture to events.

All in all, this is a well-crafted film. While certain scenes may have felt forced or even hokey, there's a lot of talent on display here. Terminus falls prey to some of the trappings of a low-budget indie, but it also feels brave and uncompromising, and that's pretty rare. Simply considering how well the film projects its own sense of fearful apprehension and foreboding, it's well worth a watch... and just wait until you see the last five minutes. Ka-boom.

[RubiconDecision]

Sadly, the only way to find hidden gems in film is to put up with lesser efforts.

Here's two that are very mediocre, but hopefully they'll do better the next time.
...

Starry Eyes comes across as a fumbled miscast senior drama project. Everything is familiar. It's tenuous Faust, an extremely weak Mephisto Waltz, and through the eyes of a budding actress. The only difference is trichotillomania (hair-pulling). You know it's bad when you have to result to an oral sex scene in a film slamming Hollywood for abusing actresses.

I spent the entire film cringing and thinking, "Come on, you can do it...". But they didn't.

A horror film must be scary or it's not a horror film.
Audiences have to identify with characters to like films, otherwise no one cares to see their struggles. The best writers, actors, and directors can make us cheer for monsters and ignore our beliefs during the magical spectacle.

See Mephisto Waltz (1971) instead. The well-worn path of Faust can generate a good entertaining film per year.

...
Synchronicity might have been an interesting time-travel film. Instead the set designer, the composer, and the director spent too much time watching the visuals and music of Blade Runner.


Michael Ironside is a great character actor, and Brianne Davis is very sexy and charming, but they cannot pull up this Scy-Fy channel wannabee.

What a shame. If there's an iota of talent in independent film, I'll praise it.

Some of you will find them one time watches while multitasking.

[Lord of the Drunk Penguin]

The Wolf of Wall-Street. The poor man's Goodfellas.

This movie looks like it was directed by some poor man's Martin Scorsese, and not by Scorsese himself. A total embarrassment: ludicrous scenario, poor character development, bad acting, cringe-worthy dialogues. Three hours of pure garbage.
To sum up this movie: yelling, more yelling, ing, people taking drugs, people acting like Neanderthals, more ing, yelling again, people saying dumb things, people taking drugs, people acting dumb, yelling, people acting retarded, more yelling, people taking drugs yet again.

Sounds like my life.

The Martian

Hate Matt Damon. With a vengeance.
Don't like his smug face, don't like his attitude.
But this movie made me fall in-love with the human race.

It's about endurance. And the human spirit achieving against all odds.


American Hero

This... was a waste of my time.



Gravity

Another space movie, about an astronaut lost in space.
This one felt more like a one woman Odyssey than anything.
Liked the differences between the Russian and American spacesuits.


400 Days

Being a bit puzzled by this: was this a hallucination or a well-worked hoax?
Still, an interesting movie, even though some characters were borderline annoying.
Yes, it's still about astronauts.

[Condottiere 40K]

Batman: Bad Blood - Actually, one of the better animated movies.

Batman disappears while saving her life, and the rookie superhero Batwoman investigates, while Dick does his understudy act, and someone has enough of wax on/wax off contemplation.

Kori gets a mention, and you get a cameo of another member of the family.

Not too thrilled with the new Batmite. Also, maternal affection might be overrated.

Worth watching.

[IlluminatiRex]

Full Metal Jacket:
I'm not really a stranger to dark war movies at all, but damn, this hit me really hard. I think the only comparable time something hit me so hard was when I first read All Quiet on the Western Front. That was something else, fantastically crafted movie.

[Kyriakos]

^Every year a (very small) percentage of people involuntarily drafted (some countries have mandatory service) commit suicide.

[John Doe]

The Americans TV show,

I binged on first serie and it's a well written show, the action is well paced but the character development is top notch.

[Inhuman One]

Full Metal Jacket is a great movie yes, both parts of it while I know many only seem to consider the first part to be good. I think it really shows well what war can do with the soldiers.

[IlluminatiRex]

Yeah, I was reading that a good chunk of people didn't like the second half, mainly because it felt disconnected and disjointed. But honestly, either half would lack without the other. The second half works precisely because its unfocused and has a disjointed feeling, pretty much what a war feels like to a soldier on the ground. The first half works because it shows the rigidity and realities of training with its filmmaking.

I'd argue that was Kubrick's intent. To show the two wildly different, but ultimately similar aspects of soldering and show how the people involved either cope with, or fail to cope with, their realities.

It's been like 12 hours and I'm still thinking about, and processing what I saw. Not many movies or books or tv shows have ever impacted me in this way. That's a testament to the film's quality imo.