Movie/film thread: resurrected

Gotta give this guy some credit for huevos.  IMDB says he made it for only $800,000.  Also:

"Gareth Edwards created all the films visual effects himself using only his home computer and store bought visual effects programs."

"The film was shot opportunistically, with little to no outline of scenes and their direction. The two actors were given a general outline of scenes and simply interacted with one another and the other cast members, all whom are not actors."

"In the scene when the guerrilla fighter is retelling his experience with one of the monsters and explains how it was over 100m tall, he is actually talking about an encounter a relative had with a UFO."

Paddington (2014)

I watched it. I kind of wish I hadn't. This movie is effectively charming but I wasn't charmed. There was two or three instance of gross-out humour not needed for the movie but tacked on anyway. Visual elements of the fantastic where included too, and that was pretty okay. It's hard to take the charm out of visual effects. All in all, perhaps since I have never read the Paddington Bear stories nor had them read to me, the only thing I recognised in the story was how creepy the bear is - a well-spoken and polite bear that sounds like a man wants to play with your children and live in your house?  Sure, okay. Why not?

I also didn't like the Lego Movie. Sue me.

I haven't seen The Lego Movie because I watched two minutes of it and stopped. It sucked... big time! My students didn't want to see it either.
 

Pompeii - 2014

The one good part - Kiefer Southerland is slowly turning into William Shatner.

I could tell by the cover that this was going to be Titanic, except with a volcano.  I had no idea just how accurate that first impression would turn out to be.

Girl skips chance to marry up in order to hook up with studly rogue far below her social station and then disaster strikes and lots of people are killed by excessive special effects (volcanologists and Roman historians - please don't watch this - it will cause you to suffer great mental anguish).  I kept expecting her to call him Jack.

One small change from the Titanic ending best summarized in song:

Oats, hay
It's we who must stay
We must die
So my horse can go on and on

I think Pompeii may find a sort of immortality and become required viewing in university film schools... as the quintessential example of how not to make a movie.

The Voices (2014)

Ryan Reynolds is a cheerful, disturbed young man who's daily life is mediated by a layer of hallucination, including the friendly voice of his dog and the needling voice of his cat. Then he starts killing people.

A little hard to take the measure of this movie. Possibly we are seeing a swing away from serial killer as cool to serial killer as miserable, and Ryan Reynolds is the one to show us the way. I think we can draw a line between this movie and Other-Ryan's movie, Only God Forgives. This one wouldn't have been made if that one hadn't been. In summary, I don't know what was going on.


 

Let Us Prey (2014)

A mysterious stranger, and Rachel, a rookie cop, provoke extreme reactions among the overnighters at a remote police station in Scotland. Some hell brakes loose.

The central conceit, which doesn't really become apparent until the end, doesn't work. The rest of the movie does though. The misfits  knock each other around convincingly, and there's blood and guts and anger aplenty.

 

"Going Clear"

A new documentary about The Church of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. I know it seems like all the craziest shit in the world occurs in the U.S., but even by those standards, this film shocked and surprised me. Extensive footage of John Travolta and Tom Cruise as well as other long time, high ranking members of this "church". It's hard to conceive of how gullible and obedient otherwise reasonable people can be. And I didn't know the lengths of vindictiveness that this organization would and will go to in order to keep their members in line and punish those who have left. Of size and complexity of the organization is surpassed only by the size and scope of the founder's insane visions and prophecies. If it was a drama instead of a documentary, it wouldn't be believable.

"Going Clear"

A new documentary about The Church of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. I know it seems like all the craziest shit in the world occurs in the U.S., but even by those standards, this film shocked and surprised me. Extensive footage of John Travolta and Tom Cruise as well as other long time, high ranking members of this "church". It's hard to conceive of how gullible and obedient otherwise reasonable people can be. And I didn't know the lengths of vindictiveness that this organization would and will go to in order to keep their members in line and punish those who have left. Of size and complexity of the organization is surpassed only by the size and scope of the founder's insane visions and prophecies. If it was a drama instead of a documentary, it wouldn't be believable.

Thank you for the heads up A-Train. "Going Clear" was one of the better documentaries that I've seen on Scientology thus far. It hits close to home for me. During the 80s, I watched sleepy little Clearwater, FL turn into International Scientology HQ complete with white shirt clad security goons standing on every corner downtown. Fortunately, I had enough sense not to sucked into the cult. I stood firm on my principals, as I believed that if Scientology was a real religion then the auditing and course work would be free or at least offered on a donation basis. I lived there during the struggle between law enforcement and big Scientology money. As it stands, Scientology won. They own downtown Clearwater now. 

Clambaked is an awesome resource if you care to peruse it's archives, you can find additional documentaries, articles and documents exposing Scientology. http://www.xenu.net

Spring (2015)

Everything falls apart for a pleasant young man in California so he splits and on a whim winds up backpacking in Italy, where he meets Louise. Genuinely charming horror romance ensues.

 

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Ridiculous. Bloated. Overblown. And all the more so for the overly dramatic score and the just plain wrong aesthetic sense used to makeup the hero. Which is bizarre given that everything else about the visuals is stunning. Must watch in HD on a huge screen. The premise is interesting though.

 

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

First time to watch this. I WASN"T SCARED AT ALL. I did sit back from the screen a few times when I absolutely knew they were going to throw something out of the shadows.... and then they didn't. Really though, although it does grind on a bit in the third quarter, the development of the drama was great. Managing somehow to make those arseholes relatable...

I remember when I watched that...halfway through I longed for a witch to come out and kill them all the movie to end and the remainder of the time be taken up by Looney Tunes shorts...Blair Witch Project is, to me, one of the crappiest and least scary movies ever made. A movie entitled "The Manic Edible-rainbow Pooing Unicorn and Her Friends from Funville Goes to the Circus" would be scarier.

The Last Horror Movie (2003)

A "found footage" movie of a serial killer documenting his activities. Kind of dumb, really. Not very horrifying. (Mostly because the victims seem not to be scared for their lives.) The switcheroo near the end though takes the movie to another level. (And it almost stays there.)

 

Wish I had seen it before all the buzz raised expectations to an impossible level. Probably wouldn't have liked it anyway.  Similar hype right now for the movie "It Follows". The premise sounds great but all the talk is starting to scare me off.