Movie Discussion Thread

Manchester by the Sea is a fantastic, very well-acted, movie. It's a very good story, and moving.

Casey Affleck gives a great performance.

As I was leaving the theater, the girl I went with leaned in and whispered, "Well, we know Casey is the actor in the family." Sorry, Ben.

 

I thought Rogue One was a better compliment to the series as a whole than I was expecting going in. The way it bridges Ep. 3 and 4 together is cool. Not sure how the ending would confuse any true Star Wars fan that wasn't suffering from oxygen deprivation though. It's pretty straightforward. That said - I did hear someone excitedly opine after the opening night showing that he'd sure like to see a sequel.....

 

If anyone here is a fan of musicals you owe it to yourself to see La La Land. Just a really wonderful movie.

 

Watched the Deadpool film on DVD with all the profanities.

Good film, very amusing and the soundtrack was on point. It had a Tarantino feel to it I quite liked.

The sly pop culture references, beautifully done (especially that end credit scene).

 

Patriot's Day was a pretty good movie overall, with one caveat being Mark Wahlberg's role, which seemed overly contrived and hence disingenuous in the overall context of the film.

Split was a bit of a mixed bag, but mostly a negative experience. The concept is fascinating enough, and cinematography was okay. James McAvoy was great as the lead antagonist. But the directing and script seemed flimsy, confused and occasionally out-of-place.

 

Yesterday watched "Lion," the film based on the book "A Long Way Home" by Saroo Brierley. The trailer said "based on a true story" but I was sceptical.

You know what? This film is a proper "based on a true story'" film with some end credit scenes that deliver a twist Hollywood cannot match.

This is a good film, a film where you actually feel and in the end understand what happened. The twist in the end, simply beautiful.

 

Just watched Arrival.

Until now I have never actually experienced the sensation of being on the edge of my seat while watching a movie before. Most faux-intellectual movies like Inception or Interstellar fit in the "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit" category.

Not this. This might be the most finely executed film I have ever seen.

The sound engineering was part of that greatness. I need a better HT system. First time I've ever actually seen a Crown IOC light come on without intending to. Oops...

 

Anyone see John Wick 2 yet? Dying to see it, loved the first one. Great mindless, action movie.

 

@Warrior, the first one was a pisser, lots of fun. Just watched it for the first time last week.

 

Can anyone recommend "Hidden Figures"?

That film seems very interesting.

 

Hacksaw ridge was good. Manchester by the sea onlybok

 

So many great movies last year. I agree with most of Academy choices. Here's my rank (best to "worst"):

Overall: Moonlight >= La La Land > Moana > Arrival > Manchester by the Sea
Performance: Casey Affleck > Moonlight casts
Cinematography: La La Land > Moonlight
Scenery: Arrival >> the rest
Score: La La Land >= Arrival = Moana

Haven't seen Fences, Hackshaw Ridge, Jackie yet.

 

Welp. Caught 4 movies on the big screen over the last 48 hours. Gone are the days where I was young enough to do a 3-in-a-row and feel completely awake. I wanted to catch a 5th (Silence), but was way too exhausted by then.

John Wick 2 was a great action movie which lived up to the heights achieved by the first instalment. I'm generally not a big Keanu Reeves fan, but he is superb as 'The Boogeyman'. The fight choreography is right up there with the best I've seen (a close second to 'The Raid'). Script and dialogue was also impressive, what I would call cheesiness done right, if that makes any sense. The only criticism I have about it was that most of the goodness of the film came in the first half, whereas in the second half and especially towards the last 20 minutes, the lustre seemed to wane off slightly.

Hacksaw Ridge was somewhat of a disappointment. I thought Andrew Garfield gave a very decent performance, Hugo Weaving was amazing in the short screen time he had, and that the film succeeded greatly in evoking a visceral reaction to the brutality, chaos and horror of war. Two things that I could not let go of: I get the need to depict the tremendous volley of gunfire during the fighting on Okinawa, but several nuances of battle such as small unit tactics and actually needing to f'ing reload were glaringly ignored. Secondly is the shitty casting of the Japanese soldiers, many of whom looked like they feasted on ten course meals for a whole month. The Japs at Okinawa were pretty much on the throes of death due to starvation for Christ sake. Pacing of the film and what I perceived to be slight pretentiousness(?) in exploring the religious aspect of things were also slight issues in my mind.

Manchester-by-the-Sea was... powerful. I'm can't wrap my head around this yet, and perhaps I'm not quite used to such an 'indie(?)' type of film, but everything just clicked, and the impact of the film was quite profound. The naturalness and realism in the interactions between both leads was great. The gradual unveiling of the Lee's horrific backstory was tastefully and masterfully executed. The graduations between funny and heartbreaking (and the large portion of the movie spent building up those scenes) was really good. I became a huge fan of Casey Affleck after 'Gone Baby Gone', but his performance here was absolutely phenomenal, encapsulated no more so than by that one scene where he bumps into Michelle Williams outside the grocer -- I can hardly remember any movie scene I've ever watched that was so well acted and emotionally devastating.

La La Land completely blew my mind. I'm not a big fan of musicals, but this was unquestionably and by-far the best of the lot so far. The very first scene with the dance choreography on the highway was un-f'ing-believable. In fact, all the dance sequences were made to cinematic perfection. Everything about this film was so well thought out, meticulously planned out and structured, and precisely executed. The pacing was spot on, the lighting and cinematography were incredible. Dialogue was a great balance between wit and charm. The overall script and directing was also bloody fantastic. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone had such great chemistry, which was not at all surprising given their familiarity working with each other.

 

Deathgasm was a good flim to watch. One of those late night comedies flim where you just want to see wacky stuff mixed in with some slight adult humor

 

Saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 last weekend (came out earlier in Asia). Wasn't as good as the first one, flow was a bit choppy with a few slow plot transitions. Still worth a watch if you're a fan. Guess the concept lost some of its freshness (I'm not a comic book reader) and the music wasn't used to as good an effect.

 

IMO this is a bit of a spoiler. You could say, "make sure and stick around for the credits." Not a big deal. More than likely my aging memory will fail me if/when I get around to watching it

 

I am not telling you. That twist almost made me tear up...

 

While the first one is better, I think GotG 2 is still a pretty good movie. I felt some of the jokes got used too much, like the light spoiler:

Spoiler: Very light

Groot getting the wrong thing

But overall I enjoyed it quite a lot, especially the ending.

 

This is GotG v2 director James Gunn on the red carpet with Oreo, the raccoon who modeled for the character Rocket.


Here's more about Oreo:

http://www.oreoandfriends.co.uk/animals/oreo-the-raccoon/