Movie/film thread: resurrected

The Theory of Everything (2014)

So, yeah, I watched it. Beyond that, yes, a tour de force for Eddie Redmayne. He captured the expressive physicality. And actually, an impressive, expressive performance by whatshername too, Felicity Jones.
All in all, not bad. Kinda romantic.

Thanks Calach. I was really interested in your opinion of the acting.

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE. This show has been given three and a half stars here in OZ. I'm glad they say that its a thriller-comedy as I laughed a lot and only one other person in the theatre laughed as much as I did. Colin Firth plays a posh British spy who recruits a housing-estate kid  with potential, to join a secret society of super spooks. I know that there was a lot of "crap" in it, but I found it amusing.

Thanks Calach. I was really interested in your opinion of the acting.

I'm not usually a connoisseur of acting. I only ever really notice acting when there's stuff that takes you out of story (without making a bigger more interesting story). Like, for instance, in Birdman you can sometimes see the actors behind the performance. Come to think of it, I think stage acting, the few times I've seen it, is cool stuff. For movies, I kind of don't notice the craft. So I don't actually know how to say that Redmayne's performance was the shizz. But, on the screen, what I did see was the Hawking I suppose I know, and never saw the actor.

You mean though it's impressive that he captured and presented the disability? I reckon I agree. There's something about long term disability and decline, and living with it, that is there to see on the screen.

The Beaver (2011)

A depressed man, suicidal, has alienated his children, is kicked out of the house, and finds a new voice, that of a plain-speaking Cockney hand puppet called.... The Beaver.

Best. Movie. Ever.

Best. Movie. Ever.

Thanks - I'm downloading it (after wading through a LOT of porn to find it on Kickass). 

Quote from: Calach Pfeffer on February 23, 2015, 04:20:11 AM

Best. Movie. Ever.

Thanks - I'm downloading it (after wading through a LOT of porn to find it on Kickass). 

Oh.

Well, in that case, my real review holds that this movie only hints at the darkness inherent in its story. The hints are strong enough that the story is there. Effect is damped down perhaps a little too much to make the humor truly black. But it comes close and it's a beaver.

Citizenfour (2014)

As a documentary, this movie has a bizarre, nearly non-sequitur cliff hanger ending which detracts. That aside, the story falls into three parts with meeting Snowden as the middle. The movie functions like an extended version of those initial interviews with him when he outed himself as the leaker. As such, a major feature of the exposition is the size and effect of the programs he brought to light. They and he with his concerns about them become easier to understand. Government responses look even more outrageous. You should take a look anyway. This documentary helps to make sense of the breadth of the disclosures. Quoth J Appelbaum, a fellow from the third part, "What people used to call liberty, and freedom, we now call privacy.

"...And we say, in the same breath, that privacy is dead."

Funny I just finished downloading that CP.

Also...

Searching for Sugar Man

Chronicles the life and music of an unknown American philosopher/artist whose albums, unbeknownst to him, were the soundtrack of the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa.

It needs to be watched a few times, I think. The scope of the surveillance programs are honestly mind-boggling. And it's not clear what they mean. It's definitely important to have this kind of version of the information, too. There should be no doubt that the documentary represents one kind of view, but that in the absence of other voices like this one... well, I don't know. Just that the other side - "them" - has access to monolithic powers. It is not reassuring to know that politicians are just people nor that governments have checks and balances. The kind of access to power the governments have now is so very heavily weighted in their favour it's no longer clear how to be free on their watch, nor what it's worth.

Under The Skin was just friggin' weird.   I don't know what I just watched... but while I was watching it, I couldn't stop watching it.

Under The Skin was just friggin' weird.   I don't know what I just watched... but while I was watching it, I couldn't stop watching it.

Neither could I.  I kept expecting something interesting would happen.  It didn't.

I must say that it takes am amazing amount of talent to wreck a movie involving an alien, sex with an alien, multiple homicides, and the very shapely Ms. J, but somehow the writer, director, and producer went far above and beyond the call of duty to achieve this unfortunate waste of time.

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY This is and has been, for the last couple of weeks, the BIG movie in Brisbane. No wonder the author E.L.James (Erica Mitchell) was very worried about translating the sex on to the screen. She wanted it to look classy and not trashy and that it should be sexy and erotic. I believe that she was happy with the film adaptation of her book which has been translated into 52  languages worldwide.  Again, I laughed when no one else did, but perhaps I could see how weak and fragile  Christian Grey really was and that Ana was the strongest of the two of them. I can't wait to hear what you guys think of this movie, particularly from the male perspective. Calach and ETR, if you haven't seen it yet, I suggest that you put it on your list.    I must confess that I found myself saying "hurry up" a few times, but I am inclined to lose patience.

Is there a reason to see that movie other than it's notoriety? I will watch movies just because they're part of the popular imagination - Twilight for instance, or the hobbit stuff - but notorious for kinky sex? Pffft. In a movie, when the sex scene starts rolling, I'm like, all right, fine, but let's get this over with so we can see something that advances the story. On the whole ( ), sex in movies is the actress boob scene. And soooo earnest. I'd rather not.

Or, to put it another way, is there anything to recommend FSG other than it's what's on right now?

Under The Skin was just friggin' weird.   I don't know what I just watched... but while I was watching it, I couldn't stop watching it.

That was pretty much my reaction. I like that they left so much unexplained, yet enough for my imagination to work with. I'm guessing she was put here to gather information and the guy on the motorcycle was her overseer, yet they never cement that. I REALLLY don't understand the killing scenes. Thought the water was symbolic; how a man will go so far into danger to chase a beautiful woman, even to the point of no return. But, then I had to say it was real and not a metaphor which really lost me.

Can't blame anyone for not liking it, but unlike EL, I thought Johansson was more beautiful in this than in the movies where they make her up, Hollywood-style. I'm not usually given to highly mysterious science fiction at all, but this one I bought in to. Like a few of David Lynch's movies. This director also did "Sexy Beast" with Ben Kingsley cast completely against type and "Birth"; both of which have just enough surrealism for me without blowing up the test tubes.

The review that got me started on "Under The Skin" is below if interested and I still think it really nails it.

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/under-the-skin-2014

- but notorious for kinky sex? Pffft. In a movie, when the sex scene starts rolling, I'm like, all right, fine, but let's get this over with so we can see something that advances the story. On the whole ( ), sex in movies is the actress boob scene. And soooo earnest. I'd rather not.

You sound just like me Calach!
 

Or, to put it another way, is there anything to recommend FSG other than it's what's on right now?

I was really interested in the male perspective, particularly when the "head" on the shoulders is the one being used. I ask, because People are always asking me about the latest movies I have seen. There has been a LOT of interest in FSG and probably because of the publicity it is getting. To be completely honest Calach, it didn't do a lot for me, but I thought that it might have just been me. I do value your opinion and I'd certainly like to hear what some of the other regular movie watchers think.