What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching? ARCHIVE

Finally caught up with Birdman over the weekend. I was mixed/positive on it, while my wife didn't like it. It definitely didn't seem like the Best Picture of last year. It seemed a little too over-the-top gimicky for the story to really resonate. The performances were all good, though.

yeah it's more about the great performances than anything else, and the cool shooting style.

I try not to think about Boyhood losing to that.

Star Trek: Into Darkness was exciting, fun, and somewhat nonsensical. That last part is unsurprising given that it was written by that idiot hipster Damon Lindelof, the same fool who bungled both Lost and Prometheus. Even so, I enjoyed Into Darkness for the character beats. This cast is so strong that they can overcome the weak material at hand, though the frantic pacing was still excessive even by Star Trek standards. Kirk is literally dying! The ship is going to crash! Spock is trading punches with a superman! !!!!!!

Aren't Vulcans supermen too? I'm not the biggest Trek fan but I seem to recall Vulcans are far superior to humans in terms of physical strength. Any Trek fans out there care to set the record straight?

Green Lantern wrote: Aren't Vulcans supermen too? I'm not the biggest Trek fan but I seem to recall Vulcans are far superior to humans in terms of physical strength. Any Trek fans out there care to set the record straight?

You are correct. That is how Spock survives trading punches with a superman.

Black Sea is good. Jude Law as a submarine captain with a ragtag crew trying to recover gold from a downed U-Boat. On the one hand, it has the kind of characters and situations you'd expect in this kind of story, but it also was better than most in that respect.

X-Men: First Class was a bold disappointment. I haven't read the mini of the same name, but I suspect that this movie took massive liberties anyway, given the many random differences between the previous X-movies and the standard Marvel continuity. I liked the upbeat tone that took a dark turn near the end. I liked the characterization of young Xavier and Magneto, though Xavier was sometimes too Austin Power-ish for my tastes. The sub-plot with Beast & Mystique was decent. But there were way too many characters, and the story tried to cover too many plot points. So the pacing is rushed and many of the character moments fall a bit flat as a result. And just a minor quibble, but with all the Brits cast in this movie, how did Banshee and Moira end up portrayed by Americans? Even so, the whole movie was almost redeemed by a hilarious cameo featuring Wolverine.

EDIT: Watched First Class again, because I found myself stiil thinking about it for days afterwards. It stood up well to a second viewing. The funny parts were still funny. The dramatic parts were still dramatic. I could see now that every mutant played a useful role in the movie. And now I could relax about the frantic plot and see that they really addressed the themes well and did a nice job of filling in some backstory for the movie version of the X-Men. And it was a pretty good cast, all things considered.

I saw Ex Machina. I thought it was pretty good. My wife and I had a conversation about AI on the way home, which was kind of weird.

I don't want to say much more, but for those that have seen it or don't care about spoilers:

I'm up way too late and I found something completely not worth normal hours, but worth 1:30 AM viewing. It's called Jedi Junkies. Its a documentary about Star Wars fans of all different kinds. It's something, alright.

After really enjoying Nightcrawler I wanted to see Gyllenhaal in Prisoners, a film from a couple of years ago where he's a detective investigating the disappearance of Hugh Jackman's kid. Paul Dano has an interesting role and overall it's a very dark thriller/detective story in the vein of Seven. Of course, nowhere near as good as Seven but some good all around performances. It was the first time I was really kind of uncomfortable during a movie due to having a kid though. I'm not sure if I was more entertained or disgusted overall.

Gary Sax wrote: I don't think anyone should apologize for liking the fast and furious series.

The fourth and fifth were on the other day in anticipation of the release of the new one. Of course it's over the top and I'm not a big car racing fan at all (although I did watch most of Initial D), but that's not all there is and they've still got some cool heists going on. The bit where they're driving and towing the huge safe at the end of #5 was great. Also Diesel and The Rock duking it out!

Hey I heard that Ryan Gosling got pegged for Blade Runner 2 and that Quebec's own Denis Villeneuve is directing? I love the Ryan Gosling casting but as much as I support home grown talent, I can't figure out how Denis Villeneuve scored this?

Anyway, I never liked the first one so I'm not excited for this or anything.

Prisoners was really good. Really, really good.

I just marathoned the Hunger Games films. Acting was spotty, and I don't get how people think Jen Lawrence is hot...she's a solid 7 IMO, which I think makes her character more believable. If anything, they made her way too lethal and accurate of a bow-shooter, considering hunting man is different than deer.

Still, mostly enjoyed the three films, although the first is easily the best.

I re-watched Guardians of the Galaxy again this weekend. 1) My man crush on Chris Pratt is reaching scary heights. 2) This is easily my favorite Marvel Superhero film. 3) I think I like this one even more each time I view it.

Last night I checked out Chef on Netflix. This is a nice little film that is billed as a comedy, but it's more of a family movie of sorts. It's about a brilliant chef (Jon Favareau) who is stuck in a creative rut due to the shackles of cooking at a 5 star restaurant. He is divorced from his wife, barely knows his son and isn't very happy...though he doesn't really realize it. The film is about him coming to grips with all of these things and I think anyone who has ever been stuck in a job they didn't like or lost passion for something they once loved can easily relate to the film. It's got nice performances, cameos from some big named stars and a nice breezy pace. It never gets overly gloomy or pessimistic. It's just a nice little ride to enjoy. Plus, you get to see some awesome food. Worth checking out.

We saw Chef too - it was really kind of fun to watch. Every time I see Favreau I feel sorry for him. He always kind of plays the guy getting shit on by something.