PCF at the Movies (7 Viewers)
- Thread starter jbutler
- Start date
Bloody Marvelous
3 of a Kind
Kung Fu Hustle is awesome, as is Shaolin Soccer
i rewatch one of the cornetto trilogy probably once every six months or so. i've said it before that despite shaun of the dead seeming to have the most vocal following, i actually think they get better as you move through the trilogy.
tonight i watched hot fuzz and laughed my ass off. i don't lol irl often at all, but i can't help myself during any of these movies.
tonight i watched hot fuzz and laughed my ass off. i don't lol irl often at all, but i can't help myself during any of these movies.
tommythecat
Flush
I just read a great article on Kotaku about Hot Fuzz. I still haven't seen World's End yet and that makes me sad. I will be watching Hot Fuzz tonight though and agree that it is better than Shaun of the Dead (though not by much).
http://kotaku.com/hot-fuzz-is-a-god-damned-masterpiece-1699788041
spikeithard
Flush
just finished 'Rush'. Pretty good movie! was surprised actually.
bookmarked for later reading - thanks!
rewatched house of the devil this weekend and felt like i should have at least tried to watch some other movies by Ti West (the director) that i've not gotten to rather than rewatching what i had already seen. but it's hard to not want to go back to house of the devil. so many things i love about it. and how could you not love this title card:
just great old school horror stuff right there. if you haven't seen it, definitely check it out. it doesn't overstay its welcome at an hour and a half and does a lot with very little in terms of budget, cast, and set.
as i said, though, i thought i should go back and catch up on Ti West's other movies that i'd missed. the two most obvious ones are the Innkeepers and the Sacrament. i chose the latter, thinking it would be sort of an easy win for me since it's based loosely on the jonestown massacre and i love watching basically anything about cults.
trouble with the Sacrament for me was that it is basically an exact retelling of the jonestown massacre. if you know the story well enough, there are literally no surprises, which is a problem when it's intended to be experienced as a horror/thriller/suspense film. the performances were fine, but a movie like this isn't about the performances, so it's difficult to rely on them to push the movie forward as a whole.
i guess i would say see this if: (a) you don't know much about the jonestown massacre AND (b) you prefer fiction films to documentaries. if you prefer documentaries, watch the PBS documentary on jonestown available in full on youtube here. if you don't know much about jonestown and would prefer to watch a fiction film, you'll probably like the movie.
just great old school horror stuff right there. if you haven't seen it, definitely check it out. it doesn't overstay its welcome at an hour and a half and does a lot with very little in terms of budget, cast, and set.
as i said, though, i thought i should go back and catch up on Ti West's other movies that i'd missed. the two most obvious ones are the Innkeepers and the Sacrament. i chose the latter, thinking it would be sort of an easy win for me since it's based loosely on the jonestown massacre and i love watching basically anything about cults.
trouble with the Sacrament for me was that it is basically an exact retelling of the jonestown massacre. if you know the story well enough, there are literally no surprises, which is a problem when it's intended to be experienced as a horror/thriller/suspense film. the performances were fine, but a movie like this isn't about the performances, so it's difficult to rely on them to push the movie forward as a whole.
i guess i would say see this if: (a) you don't know much about the jonestown massacre AND (b) you prefer fiction films to documentaries. if you prefer documentaries, watch the PBS documentary on jonestown available in full on youtube here. if you don't know much about jonestown and would prefer to watch a fiction film, you'll probably like the movie.
detroitdad
Royal Flush
I tried watching Jupiter Ascending over the weekend. I made it 15 minutes before turning it off. Honestly, 15 minutes was generous.
tommythecat
Flush
I ordered World's End so that will be watched soon. Saw this trailer yesterday and thought it looked interesting. Not a huge fan of "found footage" movies, but I can tolerate them if they are good...
Also, I wish M. Night Shyamalan would stop making crap and start making Unbreakable 2...
Also, I wish M. Night Shyamalan would stop making crap and start making Unbreakable 2...
i'm actually watching this as i type. all of edgar wright's movies start strong, but the first 20 minutes of the world's end are just hysterical. i'm sure everyone feels this way when they watch it, but i have a couple of guys like simon pegg's character in my life and it makes it that much greater.
i'm actually a member of the minority who really liked both signs and the village. would love to see unbreakable 2 get made, though.
I wasn't a big fan of Worlds End personally. Just felt like a mash up of Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
Signs was good, not great, but definately re watchable. I also thought the Village was good, had you guessing most of the movie. I remember the first time I watched it I wasn't sure if it was some post apocoliptic type film or a cult village.
tommythecat
Flush
I saw Signs in the theater and enjoyed it. I haven't given it a second watch though and I wonder how it would hold up. The Village was meh. I had a feeling about the "big twist" throughout the whole movie so it just wasn't that great. I could never finish Lady in the Water and The Happening was just terrible.
i think the interesting thing about the cornetto trilogy is that each movie exists in two parts: the emotional thematic core and the genre film set pieces. they all have a structure wherein the first half of the film sets up the character motivations and conflicts and the second half gives way to the genre influences and becomes precisely the type of film its paying homage to.
so shaun of the dead is a film about maturing into adulthood through the lens of a zombie film. hot fuzz is a film about finding work/life balance in adulthood through the lens of an action film (with a bonus agatha christie element). and world's end is about reconciling your past through the lens of a science fiction film.
i think people's responses to the films depend largely on their personal responses to the emotional thematic elements with the genre elements acting more as a bonus. though i suppose if you really didn't care for the genre aspect of one of the films, it could spoil the rest of it since it's such a large part of the film.
for me, the world's end's themes resonate most strongly.
the end of signs was definitely its weakest point imo, but i am not the type to throw an entire movie out because the end is underwhelming. i just don't think it's fair to the rest of what was a very enjoyable film. i was pretty confident i had the village figured out very early on, but it was still so enjoyable to watch. i've rewatched both a few times and i actually think the village is the superior film on rewatches.
detroitdad
Royal Flush
My son and I hit Avengers yesterday morning. We really liked it. If you liked the first one, you'll like this one. I think my favorite character might have been "Vision". It was very well done.
The one-liners and the action is exactly what you would expect.
Not sure if this is a spoiler or not.
Spader was excellent as Ultron. The three new additions in Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Vision were all executed very well.
A couple of nights ago my wife and I watched "Still Alice". Its about how a 50 year old professor (Julianne Moore) and her family deals with an early diagnoses of a rare Alzheimer's disease. If you like sad movies this is it. Moore carries the movie with her performance. It was fantastic.
The vampire chick is in it. She plays one of her adult children. Anyone could have played her role. She did better than I expected once I saw who was playing it.
This is how you see a movie btw
The one-liners and the action is exactly what you would expect.
Not sure if this is a spoiler or not.
The budding romance between Black Widow and Bruce Banner felt rushed/forced. Could have done without that.
Spader was excellent as Ultron. The three new additions in Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Vision were all executed very well.
A couple of nights ago my wife and I watched "Still Alice". Its about how a 50 year old professor (Julianne Moore) and her family deals with an early diagnoses of a rare Alzheimer's disease. If you like sad movies this is it. Moore carries the movie with her performance. It was fantastic.
The vampire chick is in it. She plays one of her adult children. Anyone could have played her role. She did better than I expected once I saw who was playing it.
This is how you see a movie btw
tommythecat
Flush
Finally watched The World's End over the weekend. Really enjoyed it. Way more serious than the other two, but every bit as funny. It was cool to see Pegg play such a tragic character without generating false sympathy. We all know someone like Gary King and have probably been involved in or watched this type of scenario at some point in our lives.
saw avengers friday night and hated it. i thought it was a narrative abortion and ineptly structured. there's always a tension in these comic book blockbusters between attempting to present an interesting enough story, but having to pack all the plot points in between the action set pieces that make up 85% of the movie. this installment failed miserably.
give a pop quiz to all who leaving the movie and i would love to take the under on 30% who could tell you: (a) the reason for stark and banner's fight; (b) where ultron came from in the first place; (c) the nature of the relationship between jarvis and the vision. i could go on. the movie throws all this at the audience with so little explanation because they only care about jamming in more and more action rather than allowing the story or characters to develop in any meaningful way.
consider that offering action at the expense of narrative is not at all necessary. we've seen well-balance marvel films in the past - iron man 1 and 3, captain america, thor - which makes the failure here that much more disappointing. to make it all worse, it was about 10% as funny as the first (or basically any other marvel movie).
they renovated our theaters here about 2 years ago to those all la-z-boy seats and i could never go back. beautiful.
glad you liked it! i've rewatched shaun of the dead, hot fuzz and world's end in the last two weeks and i'm still going with my world's>fuzz>shaun's ranking, but they're all quite a bit closer to one another than i'd remembered. great films.
give a pop quiz to all who leaving the movie and i would love to take the under on 30% who could tell you: (a) the reason for stark and banner's fight; (b) where ultron came from in the first place; (c) the nature of the relationship between jarvis and the vision. i could go on. the movie throws all this at the audience with so little explanation because they only care about jamming in more and more action rather than allowing the story or characters to develop in any meaningful way.
consider that offering action at the expense of narrative is not at all necessary. we've seen well-balance marvel films in the past - iron man 1 and 3, captain america, thor - which makes the failure here that much more disappointing. to make it all worse, it was about 10% as funny as the first (or basically any other marvel movie).
they renovated our theaters here about 2 years ago to those all la-z-boy seats and i could never go back. beautiful.
glad you liked it! i've rewatched shaun of the dead, hot fuzz and world's end in the last two weeks and i'm still going with my world's>fuzz>shaun's ranking, but they're all quite a bit closer to one another than i'd remembered. great films.
manamongkids
Full House
this is the case for almost all sequels in the past 10 years, as is the case with almost all things in life in 2015.
ill give a few examples.
Pirates of the Caribbean 3, OMG that was a shitstorm. I loved the 1st Pirates, 2 was ok and 3 went so far off the deepend it was insane
Spiderman 3 (toby maguire) again spiderman 1 at that time was pretty good, spiderman 2 was ok, and 3 was such an atrocity
Transformers 3 - see above points lol
Can the developers and movie big wigs who finance these movies realize for one fucking time that often times LESS IS MORE, keep the audience engaged, sprinkle in funny one-liners here and there, they dont need to be in every scene.
i definitely agree with all those you cited, but it is definitely possible to do it well. i guess iron man 3 was the only one i cited above, but i also liked thor 2 and captain america 2. these are not as well-regarded as the first films in each series, but they did balance story and action well imo. going outside the marvel universe, dark knight and dark knight rising were both very good films, the former being far better than batman begins and the latter being at least its equal.
age of ultron also suffers from the demands of the overall release schedule for marvel movies. it's required to introduce characters and storylines the studio feels are necessary to set up further films and therefore buckles under the weight of even more plot it has to jam into the nooks and crannies of the movie not already filled with (in this instance very mediocre) set pieces.
it's sort of sadly comical that the studio feels compelled to jam in plot for the same of story continuity in later films at the expense of the film i'm actually trying to watch right now. but i guess they have their crowd which will reliably pay it's $15 for everything stamped marvel so wtf do they care.
tommythecat
Flush
I haven't seen Age of Ultron yet, but I think Marvel Studios (aside from having to wedge shit in to tie in to upcoming releases) thinks that the casual MCU fans are as rabid for information as the more intense fans. I haven't read the comics, but since I usually have fuck all to do at work I will usually read the articles published on tor.com or the Kinja sites. Being a little more informed about what is going on between films/behind the action probably helps in making the movies easier to follow. However, Marvel needs to realize that that is a small fraction of their demographic.
One of the major complaints from directors doing MCU films is the having to wedge in continuity related stuff at the expense of telling a good story. Whedon has already said he won't do another.
One of the major complaints from directors doing MCU films is the having to wedge in continuity related stuff at the expense of telling a good story. Whedon has already said he won't do another.
spikeithard
Flush
just watched Interstellar. Holy frak. Talk about being lost. Although I got the jist of it, so the ending was pretty cool.
Have to make sure I watch it again to take it all in and fully comprehend whats going on.
But awesome movie
Have to make sure I watch it again to take it all in and fully comprehend whats going on.
But awesome movie
that's sort of the problem, though. i'm a casual fan and i DO want the information. the problem with the films is that they're terrible at communicating the plot points they feel compelled to include because they're unwilling to let up with the action long enough to actually develop the plot points in a way that the audience (who doesn't already know it from reading the comics) is able to understand it.
there's a fair bit to try to get a hold of and probably 90% of the more complex elements of the plot are presented in the last half hour. i really, really liked it on first watch and believed that subsequent viewings would flesh out some bits that didn't quite come through. unfortunately the opposite was true: subsequent viewings (i saw it three times in theaters) only highlighted the shortcomings of the movie. not so much so that i developed an overall negative opinion of the movie, but it went down a couple notches. the aesthetics are amazing, though. if any film requires multiple viewings, it is definitely helped by being as beautiful as interstellar.
As a big Pirates fan I will disagree here... I thoroughly enjoy 3 while 2 is damn near unwatchable.
Per Avengers 2, I enjoyed it for what it was. I was never in to the comics in my youth but ever since IM1 I am in love with the entire Marvel Universe thing they have going on and salute them for keeping this film as coherent as they did with everything/everyone being squeezed in to one movie.
Not really a fair comparison IMO seeing as they need to fit five "main characters" in to one film (along with BW, the twins, Hawkeye). One thing I would absolutely change is the amount of time spent on Hawkeyejbutler said:
which apparently was all in "the plan" to fool people in to thinking he would be the one getting killed off... so dumb
I believe the series is going to start getting a bit darker with Cap3. Not nearly what the Dark Knight movies were (this IS Disney) but they have release dates for the next eleven movies set in this universe over the next four years... there simply isn't going to be room for everyone by the time the Infinity War wraps up.
Ranking the first eleven (simply because I haven't yet done it and am curious myself)
IM
Cap
Thor
Cap2
A
GotG
Thor2
A2 (subject to change, I tend to appreciate most of these more after multiple viewings)
IM3
IM2
IH
spikeithard
Flush
Jbutler, what can you recommend in ways of horror? I mean really suspenseful stuff. Stuff that will make you cringe while watching it in the dark. Gory, brutal I want it all.
I dont get scared much but I would like a movie that finally could get me really sweating.
thanks
I dont get scared much but I would like a movie that finally could get me really sweating.
thanks
i don't really like the modern gore porn stuff, i.e., hostel, saw, etc. my tastes tend more toward mood than gore. i'm assuming you're not really interested in older films. if you are, this list gets a lot longer and if you haven't covered the real classics, then it can get a LOT longer.
the below are some of my favorite modern (say 2000 or later) horror movies in no particular order. i did include a few foreign films, but if you're not interested, just toss them out.
you're next
drag me to hell
the conjuring
28 days later
the house of the devil
let the right one in
the mist
thirst
the babadook
it follows
the descent
i saw the devil
the innkeepers (i waited too long to watch this one - highly recommended)
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tommythecat
Flush
I also watched Edge of Tomorrow over the weekend. Not a great movie, but well worth a viewing just to watch Tom Cruise die over and over again, in often funny ways.
tommythecat
Flush
Though I am not jbutler I will recommend The Strangers. There are a couple issues with the movie, though I can't exactly remember what as I have only watched it once and it was a while ago. I do remember it being suspenseful and is a great one for watching in a super dark room.
manamongkids
Full House
cosign onto that screed in its entirety. i'm sure it will just be part of the back and forth that is inevitable these days, but i have to think the backlash against this movie is building.
detroitdad
Royal Flush
I mostly agree. I wasn't a huge fan of the Thor movies (did like the first one). IM2 was tolerable. Didn't care for IM3 at all.
IM
Cap
CAP2
GotG
A
Thor
A2
Thor2
IM2
IM3
IH
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