The "Movies I recently saw" thread

[Loki]

I wanted to see Argo, but it wasn't playing at my local theater and I'm too lazy to go to the ones further away.

[PikaGod]

Last night I watched an early screening of Pitch Perfect with a couple of friends. Holy shit, it was hilarious. Rebel Wilson was by far the best part of the movie, though the rest of the cast definitely put in good performances. The songs, I thought at least, were all well done but that might just be because I am a musical junkie. Though there was a slight problem with the theatre, they had the stereos up too loud so during some of the songs, they where actually too loud and the stereos started to make a weird noise and it made the Les Miserables ad before it painful to the ears.

[Loki]

Saw Django Unchained. It was filled with violence, blood, and a lot of use of the N word. Well over 100 times in almost 3 hours. It felt like a African American empowerment movie like Inglourious Basterds was a Jewish empowerment movie.

[Amras.MG]

Django was awesome. Probably between Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill in terms of the feel of the movie, and the quality, and I thought it was better than Basterds, which I also liked.

[Tyranidos]

Saw a few movies. Will critique them in the order in which I saw them. These are 100% spoiler free.

Spoiler: show

Argo: Solid movie overall. Interesting story, especially since (apparently) it's true. Was funny when it intended to be and was thrilling when it intended to be. 7/10

Lincoln: We all know how it went down, so the story itself isn't a fresh new idea. However, I found myself worrying that the 13th Amendment wouldn't get passed, even though I knew it did. Some of the best acting I've ever seen, especially from Daniel Day Lewis. If you're going to watch a movie, watch this one. 9/10

Django Unchained: Classic Tarantino flick. I haven't gotten around to watching Inglorious Basterds, but apparently it's quite similar. It's pretty funny and has a cool story. Definitely see it if you like QT's movies.

Zero Dark Thirty: Sadly, I boarded the hype train. The first 30 or so minutes were excellent, as was the actual raid of bin Laden's complex. The middle hour and a half was pretty boring and the female lead was getting on my nerves. Comparable to Argo, but less funny, longer, and more relevant. 7/10

Silver Linings Playbook: Funniest movie of the batch, but it was also quite sad. Very much lives up to the term "dramedy." If you've ever watched the show Louie, it's quite similar to that. I enjoyed it very much. 8/10

[Amras.MG]

I have recently rewatched The Rescuers and The Great Mouse Detective, and have seen James and the Giant Peach for the first time. All good.

[Trepie]

Recently watched Mama

Spoiler: show

Ok to start off, I love horror movies, so there may be a little bias in my review of said genre.

As far as scary movies over the last decade are concerned, this one lands high(Like in the top 10) for me. It's rare that I jump a little in my seat in a horror movie and I will say there were a few parts of this movie which made me jump. When it comes to horror movies ambiguity is necessary for fear to be present. A lot of scary movies lose that by over explaining why something terrible is happening, or why some evil creature is attacking them. This movie falls into that pit trap, but only after it's given you a few frights along the way. It makes the bulk of the movie have the element of surprise that horror junkies thrive on.

Another high note for this movie is that it doesn't focus on gore, guts and blood to try and scare people. This is by no means a slasher flick. In fact most of the death scenes in the movie don't actually show the murder, but still instill the fear that should be present when something terrible and abhorrent is happening to a person. This is refreshing because lately that's all that horror movies are, gore guts and blood tagged with Mature ratings. Slasher flicks are in no way frightening because the human element is ridiculous and the people always make terrible decisions. So if you're looking for a scare but don't enjoy blood and guts, this move is a good fit.

Also scoring high is the acting of the two leads. Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, who is also insanely hot btw, plays a set of twins. Sadly his acting skills don't get much of a challenge in this movie, but he does end up with some of the most memorable moments in the film. Jessica Chastain, who is the female lead, had a lot more to work with and does a great job portraying her character. Even the two little girl actors did very well with their parts. The older sister gets to show quite a bit of internal conflict while the younger one gets to act incredibly creepy and quite frankly if I ever met this little girl in real life, she would creep me the hell out. Sort of like meeting the girl who played Reagan in the Exorcist.

Now to the flaws.

Like I pointed out earlier this movie gets bogged down in the details which wrecked the end for me. The first 85% of the movie was great, but I could tell it was going down hill by about half way through just through the plot developments. Less is more when you're trying to create fear. Describing the who and the why can sometimes destroy the element of fear. I don't need to know why the evil thing is evil I just want it resolved at the end. Also all the crap they reveal about "mama" ends up meaning nothing in the end anyways.

Which brings me to the quintessential failure of 95% of horror movies. The Ending. The ending was bad. Surprise surprise a horror movie with a crappy ending. By the end I was hoping someone would do something unexpected, like bitch-slapping mama in her ugly face, but instead they went with the usual awkward cliffhanger which doesn't really make any sense but who cares FIN!

So I guess in the end I'll give it a 7/10. Could've been better than it was, but a solid scare non the less. I appreciate that not everyone enjoys this genre but like I said, it sticks to the scare and fear instead of the guts and gore, which to me is what makes a movie scary. Definitely worth a watch if you like to be freaked out a bit.

[Mercutio]

Everyone should go see Lincoln. Being British, I had no idea who most of the characters were, but it really didn't matter. Great stuff!

Mild spoilers: he dies.

[Concept]

Watched The Room for the first time last night. Just... it's so unbelievably bad it's awesome. Everyone should watch it.

[Mercutio]

Watched much of Knight and Day in my hotel last night. Vaguely decent.

[Shuckle]

Just watched Dark Knight Rises. I personally was struck by how the later events of the movie

Spoiler: show

were almost exactly similar to those of the French Revolution. Blackgate Prison was the Bastille, and it was stormed and the "oppressed convicts" released. That random citizen was Robespierre, sentencing all of the rich men and women of Gotham to death. "Your guilt has already been determined" was the kicker there, but I recognized the reference beyond all doubt right after he stormed Blackgate Prison.

It's interesting how there was no Napoleon though. Unless we were supposed to view Batman as the champion of the people?

[DaveTheFishGuy]

>Shuckle

Spoiler: show

>That random citizen was Robespierre
>That random citizen

...you did watch Batman Begins, right? Because that guy is not a random citizen at all.

[Mercutio]

Dark Knight Rises is a film that gets worse each time you watch it, I've found.

[Slash]

Watched Warm Bodies on a double date the other night, and it was excellent. Best movie I have seen all year thus far.

[Loki]

Saw Looper. Am now angry at my friends. I expressed interest to see it in theaters, they then told me the movie was awful. Then after the movie wasn't in theaters anymore, they told me they didn't see it either, but the premise was dumb. Now after seeing the film, it was REALLY GOOD.

[Mercutio]

It's definitely one of those 'suspend your logical processors' films. Enjoyed it?

[Loki]

Well, they had a whole scene that basically told you to suspend your logic.

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Raptor Jesus

Saw Looper. Am now angry at my friends. I expressed interest to see it in theaters, they then told me the movie was awful. Then after the movie wasn't in theaters anymore, they told me they didn't see it either, but the premise was dumb. Now after seeing the film, it was REALLY GOOD.

Sounds like you should get new friends!

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

Sounds like you should get new friends!

And Loki was never seen nor heard from again on UPN.

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Talon87

And Loki was never seen nor heard from again on UPN.

Just like Balder!

[Talon87]

Saw a very favorable review for Kung Fu Panda that made me really, really want to see it. Also added to the list were Kung Fu Panda 2 and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. Still haven't seen Up or Toy Story 3 yet either. I have fallen very far behind on my animated films. They need to make a public broadcasting equivalent of Netflix for people like me. "Don't have Netflix? No problem! One free movie a month, your pick, to try and get you hooked so you'll subscribe! :3" That or I should save for the films and buy them blindly, I guess.

So what movies have I seen recently? Umm ............. hmm ... ^^; ... I, uh ... look, I just didn't think it'd be good to post a "Movies You Haven't Seen But Want To See" thread, alright? ;_; Although if it counts, I did catch part of The Mechanic a few weeks back.

[McSweeney]

I went into Kung Fu Panda expecting some annoying talking animal comedy movie like Shark Tale, but it was actually really good! The great thing about it is it's not just comedy, it has genuinely cool fights and heartfelt moments.

[Mercutio]

Watching Naked Gun. Ahahahaahahahahah everything about this is fantastic.

[deoxys]

Iron Man 3. Good movie, in my opinion it might be the best of the three. I'm not sure, there was a tad too much humor in it for how dark the movie was otherwise:

Spoiler: show

I have to say, I'm not sure they're going to milk the Iron Man franchise anymore after this. I don't know if there will be an Iron Man 4 based on how it ended. I speculated to a friend that I think it would be possible that Iron Man might be killed/sacrificed in The Avengers 2. My friend scoffed and told me they wouldn't do that because it would basically destroy a lot of little kid's dreams - and I disagree. Then today I found out that RDJ is only signed on for 6 movies and The Avengers 2 would be his last unless he signed on for more, and Gwenyth Paltrow said she doesn't think there will be a 4th.

I don't know how to feel about the Mandarin not using his ring powers, but eh.

[Rangeet]

Deoxys -

Spoiler: show

I think it's pretty obvious how they're still going to milk the Iron Man franchise.

Spoiler: show

Tony Stark IS Iron Man.