Rate the Last Movie You Saw

[jester05jk]

Seven Psychopaths... first off I loved the soundtrack. The acting left nothing behind. I'm starting to think Sam Rockwell is truly deranged to be able to play these parts so well. The action is spread out pretty evenly, and has Tarantino-esque dialogue IMO. Go see it. Pretty sure this is my first post in this section so that should really say something about how much I liked it.

[Sock Monkey]

Sam Rockwell is one of my favorite actors (Moon is amazing, if you haven't seen it already). I had high hopes for this one. Glad to hear that it is good. I was going to hold off to it came out on DVD, but it sounds like a movie I won't be able to wait that long for!

Seven Psychopaths... first off I loved the soundtrack. The acting left nothing behind. I'm starting to think Sam Rockwell is truly deranged to be able to play these parts so well. The action is spread out pretty evenly, and has Tarantino-esque dialogue IMO. Go see it. Pretty sure this is my first post in this section so that should really say something about how much I liked it.

[RJK1981]

Sam Rockwell is one of my favorite actors (Moon is amazing, if you haven't seen it already). I had high hopes for this one. Glad to hear that it is good. I was going to hold off to it came out on DVD, but it sounds like a movie I won't be able to wait that long for!

Fully agree, absolutely love Rockwell. I got lucky and found a theatre showing that one when I went on a road trip to see a friend in CO. There were either no screens or a only couple of them in downtown Minneapolis here in MN, where I likely would have never driven to (don't like the idea of paying to park, lol). Went to see my friend in Grand Junction and me my friend were walking down the street and saw a small movie theatre that was showing it that day at around that time on their only screen, so we ended up going in and seeing it. Wasn't really the type of movie my friend normally watched but she really liked it too.

[TJCams]

Recent flicks I have seen:

ParaNorman - fun flick. Well written and animated.
Frankenweenie - Tim Burton's best movie in awhile and a loving tribute to those classic Universal monster flicks - my full review - http://tinyurl.com/97r2nbm
Dredd 3D - glorious, violent fun - my full review - http://tinyurl.com/8wvzujb

I really really want to see Frankenweenie - I love most of Tim Burton's stuff anyways, but the story behind this sounds good.

Latest movie I saw - Goon. Funny twist on a real life minor league hockey player.

[Lou Sytsma]

My review of Looper - http://tinyurl.com/bweerzy

In short, I liked it a lot but didn't buy the character arc of Young Joe.

[srboone]

I know it's been several months, but I thought I'd drop in and post a few things here. Lots of movies seen have I.

Just a few though.

Dredd: This is a terrific movie. Slick and unapologetically ultraviolent with a great performance by Karl Urban's chin! (anybody familiar with the Dredd mythology knows how important the chin is. ) Not everybody's cup of tea, but very entertaining. Needed a better villian though.

3.5/5

The Master: I have a feeling that this is a better movie than I can give it credit for. A great performance by Jauquin Phoenix, fine work by Hoffman and Amy Adams plays against her lovability quotient very effectivly, but the movie doesn't go anywhere. A second viewing would be very illuminating I'm sure, but I don't want to see it again. Paul Thomas Anderson has lost his taste for third act catharsis and to the detriment of this film's success.

2/5

Argo: Excellent, low-key thriller--even though you know how it will turn out, it is unbearably suspenseful. From a "moviemaking as a technical craft" POV, a near perfect film (the same critique I gave No country for Old Men). Affleck has successfully rebounded from all his misfires as an actor and returned as a director of merit with three outstanding movies and this is his best. This will win the Best Picture Academy Award next year. It's a "Hollywood Saves the Day" movie--how can it miss?

5/5

Cloud Atlas: I need to see this film again to catch all the connections between characters and stories, but this film is extraordinary. Long, but never boring, it presents much matter for meditation afterwards. The 23rd century story has Tom Hanks and Halle Berry talking in a primitive English that for the first part of the story sounded as if they were mumbling; by the time I caught on to it, I missed the major plot point of why she had come down to earth and what exactly she expected to find in the Temple of Somni.

4.5/5

I've had a 4-week jury duty stint on an armed robbery charge; my brother relapsed into alcohol, I'm looking a buying a new house and I'm down to only one dog (I gave one to another brother of mine who had lost the family dog last december), but I'm still alive, though I don't have much money now for books and posting online doesn't excite me as much as it once did. Anyway, I apologize for the abrupt way I left.

[Joe315]

Glad to hear your ok even though your dealing with tough circumstances. Hope to see you around here more often. No need to apologize, there are much more important things then posting on an Internet forum.

[Xiabei]

"Rock of Ages" - umm, I'm glad it was free. :-) Tom Cruise was enjoyable, and there were some funny moments with Russell Brand and Alec Baldwin, but I really don't like Hayden Paniteri (sp?) and having to listen to her "sing" was absolute torture. The guy who played the lead was pretty bad too; not believable at all, and he kind of had an "I don't have a strong voice so I'm going to be really breath-y" thing going on. Those two made the movie seem more like "Glee".

[srboone]

Saw Cloud Atlas again. Even at a three hours I'd seen before, it still wasn't boring. I have satisfactory answers to all of the questions of story and character connections and plot points I had after the first viewing and now...I want to see it again. I don't know if it will be in the theater, but I will see it again. I thought about revising my rating, but I can't do so because it has some glaring flaws. I don't think any of the stories of CA could hold up on its own, except New Seoul 2144, which would just look like a reboot of The Matrix--and not a very good one at that. And the six stories here are told in moments rather than complete arcs (which prevents boredom from setting in, but also means that the movie's deeper intricasies are harder to follow since you are constantly moving between narratives). Everything packed into CA is hard to take in on a single viewing, which can be a seen as a flaw (though I don't think so) and the makeup used to turn Jim Sturgess into an Asian is passable, but not very convincing.

One scene toward the end of the movie astonished me not only with it's simplicity, but also by the fact that I missed it the first time around. In the 24th century story, Hanks and Berry speak in English that uses an unusual syntax. When Berry thanks Hanks after an attack by the cannibalistic Kona tribe, Hanks replies, "No, thank you." In that moment, he started speaking in standard English as if his eyes had been openned to connections and consequences of the stories. And from that moment on, Berry and Hanks speak in standard English. I was floored and actually started misting up when that happened.

I'll leave it at a 4.5/5, but this might be the year's best picture, even though I wouldn't bet on it winning.

Spoiler!

This time around, I decided to take note of who bears the comet birthmark, but what I didn't find was just as startling as what I found. Most of the major players in CA are shown to have the mark on one of their characters: Ben Whishaw, Halle Berry, Doona Bae, Jim Sturgess, Jim Broadbent, and Tom Hanks; but then there are those who don't have it: Hugh Grant, Susan Surandon, James D'arcy, Hugo Weaving, and David Keith. If the birthmark is the sign of souls reborn in different persons regardless of race, color, or sex, what of the ones that don't have it? They too have been reborn into different persons.

The souls that have the mark seem to be in transition, walking the razor's edge between good and evil. They waiver ever so slightly in their moral code from character to character. The ones without the mark don't. Their journeys are complete and their moral makeups has been set: Grant and Weaving are souls bent on evil while Sarandon and D'arcy are neutral to good souls. Thus these souls have been relagated to suporting characters influencing the ones still in transistion.

Finally, this is Hanks' movie. He bookends the movie and he is the only actor to have the mark shown on two of his characters: the first and the last. You don't see any of his marks until the end of the movie, though. Zachry, the 24th century goatherd has it on the back of his head (the final shot of the movie), but the monstrous Dr. Henry Goose (1849) has the mark under his left eye. However, the mark on Goose is more of a scar, not a birthmark, suggesting that his soul's journey is about over. But he is redeemed over the movie and has a full-fledged birthmark at the end. Thus, no soul's ultimate fate is predetermined. And the redeeming force? Love. Go figure.

I could go on and on about this movie, but I'll stop. Let it just be said that comet mark is the key to the movie.

[srboone]

Flight: An absorbing and very intense character study of a flawed hero--an alocholic and drug addict who saves a flightful of passengers with quick thinking and big cojones. The movie remains non-commital about him the whole way which is one of it's strengths and Denzel Washington gives one of his best performances. A romance with a recovering heroin addict doesn't ring completely true, but it serves it's purpose. The whole thing feels like an AA meeting (which, not surprisingly, it turns out to be), but it's nice to see director Zemeckis get away from animation and back to live action directing where he belongs.

4/5

[Xiabei]

"The Cabin in the Woods" - B-. I liked the overall idea, it just seemed to me it could have been developed a little more, especially the whole "old evil gods" thing.

[Teriw]

Well finished Amazing Spiderman last night and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I think they really portrayed Peter Parker and Spiderman the way they where meant to be.

If that is true then I simply HATE spiderman. What a shitty movie. I wanted to smack that stupid smirk off his face the whole time.

[Teriw]

Seven Psychopaths - Friggin Awesome. I can see some people coming out of this one and just going WTF? But I really enjoyed it. I am a HUGE Sam Rockwell fan. If you haven't seen Lawn Dogs you most certainly should. Psychopaths was certainly different in all kinds of wonderful ways. Its now one of my favorite movies. 10/10

Flight - Another great movie. Denzel was fantastic as usual. 8/10 but only because its not a favorite...only those get 9-10's out of me. An overall great movie.

And to Squire, Welcome back again. Sorry to hear about your troubles. Hope all is well now. Be sure to visit your other doggy whenever you can so you both feel better

[srboone]

I have to admit, I've missed your "I hate you"'s. Hope things are going well for your after your relocation.

[frik51]

Skyfall

One of the best Bond films in many a year. I even think Daniel Craig might make a better Bond than Sean Connery. Although - Connery was my first Bond, and my favorite Bonds are with him -Goldfinger and Thunderball- but Skyfall is high up there with the best of them.
The storyline -no spoilers- is really very simple, and very personal, for Bond, and for others. I love the fact that M is present much of the time - Judi Dench is very, very good. As is Craig. The best Bond films have the best villains. Javier Bardem's Silva is..how shall I put it, one of the strangest ever. Very effective though. Creepy even.
What else is there to recommend. There's plenty of spectacular action scenes. Too bad the first fifteen minutes can barely be topped - and aren't, but there's barely a dull moment in almost 2.5 hours of Bond.

****/*****

sk