Movie/film thread: resurrected

These Final Hours

A self-absorbed dim bulb is redeemed (nearly) by the apocalypse.

The story is familiar but also well-told and extremely well localised (set in modern day Perth, Western Australia), and except for the fact that the world ends, comprehensively and completely, there's just enough story left over for a sequel. Issues: (1) one sequence has so many continuity errors it's almost funny; (2) I think the movie would have been better without that particular voice over.

 

Zombi 2 (1979)

Famous (Italian) zombie movie. Also a boring zombie movie, except for those glorious sixty seconds wherein a zombie wrestles a shark on the seabed. Also, there is no Zombi 1 except inasmuch as the makers hoped to cash in on the release of Dawn of The Dead. Thus, pfft.

   

"Fury" starring Brad Pitt.  I thought it was too long and I found myself telling them to hurry up and when to take a shot etc. To be honest, I thought the story was designed to make Brad out to be a real hero.   Have any of you guys seen it yet?

"Fury" starring Brad Pitt.  I thought it was too long and I found myself telling them to hurry up and when to take a shot etc. To be honest, I thought the story was designed to make Brad out to be a real hero.   Have any of you guys seen it yet?

Saw it.  Loved it.  The dinner scene was more than a little off kilter, but loved the grittiness, the odd, religious character and Pitt was pitch perfect. No hero. Just a man guilt of many war crimes who wanted it all to make a positive difference and went all-in at the end. The tank battle scenes were breath taking even though they were on a small scale.  And, for the most part, the tank team were not caricatures, but interesting adjuncts.  Just my opinion and I'm a bit of a sucker for good, war movies.

"Birdman" by Iñárritu is a frenetic, crazy and humorous romp with more acting than plot/direction, but entertaining from beginning to end. Not sure what it means, but I'm glad I witnessed it.  Edward Norton gets the best lines and Keaton displays his best acting ever.  Not sure what it amounts to in the end, but I saw a bit of myself in many scenes.  That was plenty for me.

Not as good as "Birdman", but "Night Crawlers" makes some dreadfully, truthful points about the emptiness of popular entertainment and the self-importance of the cipher-humans who televise this drek.  It's a sick nation and we're eating up the poison with both hands.

Thanks A-Train! I like a good war movie too. I think that his going "all in" at the end, was designed to make him look like a "hero".  I thought that most of them couldn't hit the side of a barn at 20 paces, but I'm a good shot, so I probably expect too much.
 

A Chinese Odyssey Part 1 - Pandora's Box (1995)

Cheerful, slapstick, semi-surreal comic fantasy drama from Hong Kong, still funny almost twenty years later.

 


A Chinese Odyssey Part 2 - Cinderella (1995)

Confusing. If I hadn't already known, more or less, the Monkey King and Journey to the West stories, I doubt I'd have followed any of this story at all. It's like watching an extended edition of all Part 1's deleted scenes.

 

Fury (2014)

Nasty, brutish, and long. And strangely adrift. It's a WWII movie, obviously, but what WWII movie? There's an absence of context that leaves the movie one lengthy track through episodes of brutality. They are, to some degree, not even increasingly desperate episodes of brutality, except for near the end. So, one knows it was a WWII movie, but one doesn't know what it was a WWII movie about. Jason Isaacs has a very neat, but ever so brief turn as the intense and angry Cpt. "Old Man" Waggoner, and if he and Brad spent more time together, we could have had a movie, but well, there it is.

Not a bad movie by a long straw though. Just unresolved.

Still Alice (2014)

Julianna Moore, a cognitive psychologist, gets Alzheimers, her family responds poorly. Apple products may or may not be the cause. Certainly they conspire to aid her death. Meanwhile, Kristen Stewart is Angels in America. About halfway through Julianna gives a speech. Watch for it.

 

Hubby and I are presently revisiting the Herbie movies.  Cute, inane and perfect for a weekend of NuffinMuch

The Interview (2014)

Steeeee-ew-pid, stupid movie. But funny.

It's not the jokes, because most of them are dumb, and it's not the acting, because, lord, they're so woodenly unfunny almost all the time. It's how sacrilegious the movie is. The real lol moments come from the hyper-emotionalism, and knowingly included in all that is a bunch of Asian stuff as well, which is like, no, omg, you can't laugh at that because OMG?! But no, it works. In a very stupid setting.

Two thumbs up, and a toe.

Also saw Still Alice ,CP and thought it was wonderful in every way,sad,touching,well acted and most endearing in a non typical Hollywood way.
Have The Interview and will give that a whirl tonight.
I hear there are new episodes of Black Mirror out so I am on the prowl for those.

The Interview

Steeeee-ew-pid, stupid movie. And not funny. A waste of bandwidth to download and a waste of two-and-half-hours to watch.

Sony's genius PR hype worked - you cant buy advertising like it got because of the 'threat', cancellation and reinstatement.

If you want to see a funny movie about the DPRK, watch Team America: World Police.

Eminem wasn't funny. James Franco wasn't funny (except perhaps when talking about his tell all book). Seth Rogen never is funny (although "me so sollee" almost worked). I lol'd at such things as the cascading grief (where Glorious Leader grieved, then everyone in the room grieved harder) and the painted children (because heavily made-up children performing complex, massively over-perfected artistic expression is hilarious). Also, butts. Who doesn't laugh at things in rectums?