Results 501 to 525 of 1678
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02-28-2018, 11:24 AM #501
I thought the Shape of Water was like a kids' movie for adults. Pretty colors, upbeat music, shallow characters and predictable in every aspect. I did enjoy it though.
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03-01-2018, 09:46 PM #502
BLACK PANTHER
3/5
Found this flick to be a pretty standard MCU event: which means solid production, solid acting, lottsa action.
Yet for some reason it just didn't grab me that much; I liked the film enough, but when the [SPOILERS] giant rhinoceroses show up it lost major points with me.
Again, it's solid, but felt kind of ho-hum overall, especially in regards to the story. Then again, many of the Marvel films have been like that (for me, at least). To wit: there's your basic story set-up (i.e introduction of characters, etc), then some exposition in the middle, and ultimately an overlong/over-the-top BIG battle/fight which ends, naturally, in resolution (pretty much standard MCU cinematic operating procedure). I'm a bit more about character development than over-the-top CG battle scenes. To this point, I feel the character might have been better served in a series a la Luke Cage/Daredevil/The Punisher.
All in all it's a decent enough "origin" story and lays the groundwork for a second film (no question that there will be a second one after the box office success of this one), so there's definitely room for improvement on the story angle.
The cast is top-notch, though. Dude who plays BP is great, Chadwick Boseman (though one wonders why they didn't actually cast an African actor in the lead) and Lupita Nyong'o is very good as his love interest. But the two stand-outs to me were Danai Gurira (best known for portraying Michonne in The Walking Dead); she kicks some serious ass here. And Andy Serkis (best known as the voice of Gollum in LOTR and Caesar in the POTA reboots). The latter is seriously yoked in the film and chews the scenery something fierce.
The costumes and production design are amazing, too.
And the action scenes (prior to the climactic, over-blown battle) are pretty tight, as well.
If you've dug all the previous mainstream MCU films (Captain America/Avengers/Thor), then you will no doubt be happy/enjoy this film.
Oh, and from a socio/political standpoint, it's pretty damn groundbreaking in that it's a 99.9% black cast (there's only 2 white characters with speaking parts in the entire film), that, coupled with it's box office success may just pave the way for tent pole pictures with more diverse casts. We shall see.
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03-05-2018, 08:38 PM #503
ANNHILATION
3/5
4 hours post viewing and I'm still not quite sure how I felt about Annhiliation.
I will say that I definitely don't think that it is as "great" as Roeper (Chicago Sun-Times) and Rolling Stone are saying, that's for sure.
In many ways it reminded me a lot of Prometheus (a film I kind of hated on first watch, but ended up realizing that I actually liked it upon post-screening reflection and discussion).
I will say this: Annhilation looks great (it is visually stunning) and the cast is solid and it makes me want to check out the source material (the novel).
The score, by Geoff Barrow (Portishead) and Ben Salisbury, is completely immersive and adds a lot of tension and drama and mystery to the proceedings, too.
But again, not quite sure where I stand overall with the film as it had some plot/story problems and some overall ambiguity that never got resolved (again, these might be addressed in the novel, I don't know).
The one thing I am certain of: I felt the ending was a bit crap/cliched.
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03-07-2018, 10:53 PM #504
The Unofficial Ongoing Current Movies in Theaters thread
^ yup
Minor spoiler
What exactly was the payoff to plot point of 4 chosen experts in their fields other than one could handle a weapon and one theorized refraction?
No Ex Machina, but worth a view on big screen rather than Netflix net month (yikes)Life of a repo man is always intense.
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03-17-2018, 05:04 AM #505
This shit will be EPIC!
"I don't pretend to have all the answers, and I think there's something to be said for that" -One For The Road
Brain dead and made of money.
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03-22-2018, 12:46 PM #506
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03-22-2018, 08:14 PM #507
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03-22-2018, 08:28 PM #508
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03-22-2018, 08:35 PM #509
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03-23-2018, 04:33 AM #510
Saw last night and completely agree with your review. As I sit here awake at 5am, I am still wondering how I felt about the movie....aside from: a) I still love Natalie Portman and b) the WP grenade idea was a lazy bullshit resolution...all that excellent drama and tension done in by that....I felt cheated.
Sent from my iPad using TGR ForumsIt makes perfect sense...until you think about it.
I suspect there's logic behind the madness, but I'm too dumb to see it.
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03-23-2018, 09:58 AM #511
I really enjoyed this. Couldn't stop talking like tommy for days. it gets in your head.
Bacon tastes good. Pork chops taste goood.
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03-23-2018, 11:59 AM #512
IMAX on acid , would rule
Bacon tastes good. Pork chops taste goood.
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03-24-2018, 07:42 AM #513
My bad. When you stated "it's relatively easy to "obtain" in the US" I inferred that to mean it was readily available online...or from the bootleg DVD salesman down the corner...
Looks like it's coming to a couple of small town arthouse theaters in central northern California in the coming weeks (Sacramento's Tower Theater and Chico's Pageant Theater at least).
Solid looking cast, that's for sure.
And it's written/directed by Armando Iannucci, the co-creator of Alan Partridge, which I have never seen, but know is a massive cult hit in the UK.
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03-26-2018, 03:26 PM #514
so cool that in atomic blonde they use the original cat people soundtrack version of the song. so bad ass.
Cla-reese is pretty bad ass too."Can't you see..."
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03-30-2018, 12:21 AM #515
READY PLAYER ONE
3.75 / 5
Best way to approach this film is to almost forget the source material (if you read the book, that is).
I spent the first 30 or so minutes scratching my head as much of the film is a complete detour from the book. While there are many elements from the book, lots of them are mutated/severely changed, lots are missing entirely, and there's a ton of stuff emanating from the screen that wasn't in the book.
Once you resign yourself to this being its own entity (or, perhaps viewing it as a companion piece to the book) then it's a great slab of over-the-top, energized, exciting, and visually stunning escapism.
Some of the changes tp the story are great, but equally, some of the omissions are frustrating (the pivitol role the music of Rush plays in the novel, for example, is completely missing in the film; the quests are all considerably altered; just to name a few differences--there are already quite a few stories floating around the Webz detailing all the differences, so if you're a super geek who loved the book, you may wish to search some of those out).
Likewise, the character development (or lack thereof) onscreen isn't nearly as deep as in the novel; characters are literally thrown at the viewer and their back stories/depth are more or less just glossed over quickly. The action and visuals here are king, that's for sure.
Overall, though, I thought the casting was solid, at least the two main leads playing Parzival and Artemis, though Ben Mendelsohn as the villain was a bit miscast, imho (he just wasn't malevolent enough or cutthoaty enough compared to how I viewed the character whilst reading the novel).
That said, I am sure that I probably missed a grip of the pop cultural references that were added to the film and as much as I feel I enjoyed the book better, I'd still go see this again as it was well-paced, super fun, and overall a typical Spielbergian enterprise: i.e. a summer blockbuster (albeit one released in early spring) and supreme popcorn flick.Last edited by dookey67; 03-30-2018 at 12:41 AM.
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03-30-2018, 11:25 AM #516Registered User
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Thx for the mini. I was all fired up to see this one until I started seeing mediocre reviews and realized this is a Spielberg movie getting released in March! THAT is a a huge signal this movie is probably a piece of crap. Your take makes me slightly more willing to go to a theatre but I'll prob just wait for the pirated versions to hit the web.
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03-30-2018, 11:47 AM #517Registered User
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Thx for the mini. I was all fired up to see this one until I started seeing mediocre reviews and realized this is a Spielberg movie getting released in March! THAT is a a huge signal this movie is probably a piece of crap. Your take makes me slightly more willing to go to a theatre but I'll prob just wait for the pirated versions to hit the web.
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03-30-2018, 02:43 PM #518
Going to see it tonight so I’ll give my $.02 afterwards too
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04-03-2018, 01:52 PM #519Registered User
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The Unofficial Ongoing Current Movies in Theaters thread
Overall decent and entertaining. My kid loved it. I liked the pop culture refs, but thought there could have been a lot more and the ones used got kind of talked over. I thought the lead kid was terrible and didn't really like the choice of avatars quality for a lot of the characters. I think the opening act w that's mainly P and his friend H was stiff as a board and terrible VO acting. The girl was great. Not spielbergs best effort (seemed out of his skill set w all the VR and games plots), but if you have kids it is is definitely worth going. Marginal thumbs up.
Not sure how I feel about the actors playing the games founders. Kind of interesting casting, not sure it was best choice tho
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04-03-2018, 02:10 PM #520
It felt just a bit too long to me as well. It was a pretty fun and entertaining film overall, but at 2.5 hours including previews I was ready to leave.
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04-09-2018, 10:22 AM #521
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04-09-2018, 11:19 AM #522
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04-10-2018, 05:52 AM #523
Anyone see A Quiet Place?
Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums
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04-10-2018, 04:31 PM #524
TOMB RAIDER
2.5 / 5
Decent enough action film that more or less just sits there on the screen, not being terribly bad, but not being overlly great, either.
Quick pacing and a great score by Junkie XL aid matters, but overall this is a pretty paint-by-numbers "origin" film.
While there are some solid action sequences, sadly, most of them were shown in the trailers.
The story is pretty ho-hum and the character of Lara Croft isn't terribly fleshed out (she's shown as kind of a slacker in the beginning, but one with tenacity, however her turn from semi-meek (but, again, tenacious) into a badass just doesn't ring all that true.
Alicia Vikander is okay in the role (she seems a bit demure and sveldt for Lara Croft, imho, at least based on the videogame character), but her acting is solid.
The real problem here is the story: it's just pretty routine.
I know the film has more or less made its money back, thanks to foreign box office, so it will be interesting to see if they franchise it out with a second film and, if they do, will they write a better story?
Interesting article(s) listing films that may have influenced the new TR:
https://filmschoolrejects.com/movies...h-tomb-raider/Last edited by dookey67; 04-13-2018 at 12:35 PM.
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04-10-2018, 04:36 PM #525
Saw it on Tuesday morning...
A QUIET PLACE
giving it a "soft" 3 out of 5
This film is basically an audibly impared Pitch Black taking place in Upstate New York.
While there are some genuine moments of intensity and terror, overall it just blindly follows basic horror film tropes.
What really ruined it for me, though, were two glaringly incongruous plot devices--one involving a nail; the other a broken water pipe--that just seemed to pop up for the sake of popping up (they make no sense intellectually other than to blatantly move the action along and hope that nobody notices how out-of-synch/ridiculous they are).
Additionally, there's a trite "martyr" moment towards the end, but, the ultimate ending is pretty cool, albeit a bit tongue-in-cheek, which plays drastically against the vibe of the rest of the film (which is descernably serious).
I think the use of sign language and the consistent "quietness" of the film feels like kind of a gimmick, too.
There's also a ton of ambiguity in regards to the story, which worked well in the similarly nuanced film It Comes At Night, but here it feels like they just did it as an easy way out of explaining anything.
Owes a heavy debt to Alien, Pitch Black, It Comes At Night, and Signs.
Overall, not bad, but not great, either.Last edited by dookey67; 04-13-2018 at 12:36 PM.
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