What movies have you seen lately? Now with reviews!Movies

[Danoff]

Frozen 👍👍

Pretty much nailed it. There was a moment, at the end, where I had just a glimer that this movie would be more than just really good. There was a glimmer there, only a few seconds, where I thought this movie could be perhaps if not the best kid's movie ever made, among the very best. But that glimmer faded quickly and Frozen sank down to just a solid entry in the category. There are moments when this movie really elevates above standard kids' fare. One is the opening background sequence, another is the now-famous "Let it Go" sequence, where you get to see character transformation explored visually and poetically.

Spoiler Text Hidden

There was a moment at the end, when the sister sacrifices herself and becomes a statue where I thought... wow if they end it this way this movie is officially awesome. The "frozen" title would take on a whole new meaning - referring to the dead sister at the end. It would be a fantastically clean ending in a way that doesn't pander to kids. I knew, of course, that there was absolutely no way Disney would do that. But I have to admit I was hoping - it was a moment where I saw the movie's full potential and I was very impressed.


Edit 2:

You had me at "fractal".

 

[FoolKiller]

Edit:

Spoilers tags not working properly so I couldn't finish this post.

Use White text and note it as hidden spoiler text. I'm interested in knowing which parts you are talking about.

 

[Danoff]

@FoolKiller Done!

 

[FoolKiller]

Spoiler Text Hidden

That's what I thought.

Spoilers hidden
Disney has gone through two major storytelling changes recently.

1) An act of true love does not have to be romantic love. They did this once in Once Upon a Time then failed to remember it in every instance that it could apply after.

2) Evil villains no longer exist. In Sofia the First she meets Cinderella, who tells her that if she had just tried to understand her step sisters, then they could have gotten along. Once Upon a Time is filled with backstories that show how the heroes pushed their villains, sometimes without realizing it, to become villains. They're just victims of circumstance.

Frozen never had a definite villain. A greedy prince and a greedy lord who only acted as they did to end the winter and save their own future. I miss when people were bad because they were bad. Protagonist/antagonist. Keep it simple or draw it out Game of Thrones style.

I enjoyed the film. My daughter loves it (be very glad your kid isn't old enough to be obsessive yet), to the point of annoyance. I can unfortunately sing every song in the film. My one issue, which I hate because he's my favorite character, is how did Olaf come to life?

 

[niky]

And is extremely important if you wish to make the sequels.

Given the brouhaha over Orson Scott Card's politics, and how it affected the film, I doubt a sequel is ever coming. Sad. "Speaker for the Dead" is a wonderful book... though probably too heavy and difficult to adapt to a two hour film (but they did Watchmen... so... who knows?)

It's slightly maddening how someone who can write characters so well can be so daft when it comes to gender politics.

As for Frozen (spoilers)

I don't think villains are an issue, if you're trying to build a story based on characters. Granted, in something like the Avengers, they ended up with LOTR-style flying orcs, which nobody took seriously, but the movie worked, anyway, since it was a character-driven plot.

I think Frozen's take was a very nice twist, with no actual villain of any import until near the very end of the movie, when Hans revealed his true nature. And the sacrifice at the end would have been a very nice ending to the story. But given what they did with tragedies like the "Little Mermaid" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", you know they'd never do it.

Pixar might.

I think Olaf's nature might be better explained in the numerous scenes left on the cutting room floor. There's a lot of deleted or unfinished scenes on Youtube, though I haven't seen one dedicated to Olaf's origins.

Could be the Snowmen represent aspects of the Snow Queen's personality, given life through her powers, though as her powers were depicted as the ultimate "do anything you want" powers, capable of creating complex architectural forms and sentient life with but a thought, it's disappointing that they didn't do more with them.

An army of zombie snowmen would have been interesting.

 

[Danoff]

@FoolKiller and @niky

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I don't think that the lack of a proper villain is a problem. Actually I like it better that way because it's more realistic, and it makes all of the characters more believable. I can't stand when movies have one dimensional bad guys who do nothing but try to crap in the punchbowl - even when at the end of the movie, it's obvious that they won't get what they wanted to begin with, they still want to mess with the protagonist because... they're bad. It grates on me.

I also really enjoyed that Frozen was about the sisters' relationship with each other. Too many kids movies focus on one (albeit ery important) relationship - marriage. I like the deviation from the norm on that one.

Olaf was awesome - I really loved his summer song.

Actually if you pull up "Let it Go" on youtube, jump to the 1 minute mark and you'll see Olaf created.

 

[niky]

@Danoff : Granted, it's there, but it's not explained how. On the first watch-through, you would assume it's done because: random nostalgia on the Snow Queen's part... if you didn't already know from the million-and-one trailers what's to come next...

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Captain America The Winter Soldier
My brother and his gf took me to see this for my bday. This movie was much better than the first. The fighting scenes were miles ahead of the previous film. You can truly see the effort Chris Evans put into his martial arts training. Shame to see he wont be acting any longer. I am sure he will eventually be back. Really enjoyed this movie and highly recommend it.

Ha, just trying to thing of a better superhero movie than Winter Soldier, which was all around very solid. I thought I remembered really liking the 1st Wolverine...

You are not alone. I am not a comic book reader and still to this day I really like Wolverine Origins a lot.

On a side note the to best comic book movies I have seen are Avengers and Man Of Steel. And that's coming from someone that never liked superman at all growing up. But dang Man of Steel was incredible. Right up there with the Avengers. IMO.

 

[FoolKiller]

@FoolKiller and @niky

Spoiler Text

No need to pull up You Tube. I own it.

He gets made. It is the second time he gets made. But he has full-on self-realization and humanity now?

Spoils:
Even Elsa was surprised when she saw Olaf. Her only purposeful attempt to create a living creature was a golem.

Captain America The Winter Soldier
My brother and his gf took me to see this for my bday. This movie was much better than the first. The fighting scenes were miles ahead of the previous film. You can truly see the effort Chris Evans put into his martial arts training. Shame to see he wont be acting any longer.

Not the case.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/01/captain-america-chris-evans-not-quitting-acting

You are not alone. I am not a comic book reader and still to this day I really like Wolverine Origins a lot.

But it is one giant plot hole after another. Well, the bullet won't kill him. I was wrong. But if I shoot him in the head he will forget everything.

Huh? How could he remotely know that?

 

[Danoff]

No need to pull up You Tube. I own it.


Spoils:

Spoils:
A lot of her magic in the movie is accidental. She starts out the scene where she creates Olaf not understanding her own full potential. She throws together a snowman and accidentally gives him life and doesn't even realize it. After she realizes what she's done (when he shows up), she knows she can do it again and creates the golem purposefully. I think it's actually quite consistent and a nice way to do it.

He surprised me too at first, kinda jarring. But I think that was the point.


Still think they should have left the sister dead.

 

[jeffgoddin]

Well, I see imdb users say 6.8 on Wolverine Origins, so maybe I need to watch it again to remember why it isn't really that good...

Just watched Beat Takeshi's "Hana-bi" ("Fireworks", though the title translation isn't very good, it should be more like "flowers-inthesky") Very nice, surprisingly since I'd only seen him in Sonatine and Zatoichi, which were both a little nice, but more thoroughly violent. If you're into Japanese movies that are at least somewhat violent, I'd recommend it, 8/10 at least.

 

[GT5Redsucker23]

I just watched Veronica Mars. I loved it which is a surprise because I have never watched the TV series before. Really cool movie, I just thought it's a little too long (was a bit bored at the middle part).

PS: Kristen Bell is HOT.

 

[Louie_Schumii]

I just watched Veronica Mars. I loved it which is a surprise because I have never watched the TV series before. Really cool movie, I just thought it's a little too long (was a bit bored at the middle part).

PS: Kristen Bell is HOT.

Time to watch this. I enjoy her show with Don Cheadle (House of Lies) but that story is for a different thread.

Watched the original Ironman with a friend that never watched it. Still such a great movie.

We're talking about the Marvel flick that brought Robert Downey Jr.'s acting career back on track right? If so I completely agree! I could probably recite the whole script off the top of my head with the number of times I've seen that film

 

[terminator363]

Pirate Radio 7.5/10

 

[niky]

When was this released?

 

[DK]

I remember @[COLOR=indigo][B]The Indigo On[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=rgb(75, 0, 130)][B]e[/B][/COLOR] tearing that to pieces.

 

[FoolKiller]

@Danoff

This pretty much hits Frozen on the head, plus some comedy.

 

[niky]

Never get tired of that one.

 

[terminator363]

When was this released?

2009

 

[Wamoflux48]

Child's Play

 

[GT5Redsucker23]

I've just watched The Amazing Spiderman 2 on the local theater here. I really liked the movie especially the soundtrack, it was pretty *Cough *Cough. Amazing. There is one scene that I didn't like, it was kinda near the ending of the movie.

 

[jeffgoddin]

Dallas Buyer's Club - good movie, but a couple of annoying points.... if this is Dallas (a big town) why do we always see the same podunk childhood friend cop, and why is he always taken to the same hospital? Not believable.

And 3rd, something I hope all GTP members would catch, why is there, in one scene (1985 remember) a freaking Aventador poster behind McConaughey?!?!?

 

[Sage Ages]

If you have an hour and a half to kill and want to watch the worst movie ever made, I would suggest this.

 

[FoolKiller]

the worst movie ever made,

I don't know. I've got Megashark vs Mechashark on my Netflix queue right now. I expect shenanigans of a new level.

As a fan of The Asylum's films, I'd put Titanic 2 at the worst. It was bad, even by their standards. I do love their crazy monsters fighting and killing people though. Sharktopus is a classic.

 

[Mike Rotch]

Enemy (2013)

Basically Donnie Darko mark II. Replete with Jake Gyllenhaal.

I don't know what rating to give it, but, the ending....yikes.

 

[Vic Reign93]

If you have an hour and a half to kill and want to watch the worst movie ever made, I would suggest this.

Well I wouldn't say it's the worst film ever made but it's quite bad.

In my opinion, the two worst films I know of and seen bits of are, The Room (2003) and Birdemic: Shock&Terror (2008).
One is badly scripted and the other is poorly edited. Take a guess which ones which.

I think with Sharknado you go into it knowing it's going to bad but you can't help but laugh at the cliches and bad acting and slightly over the top CGI.

 

[Sage Ages]

It is an extremely predictable movie.

 

[AlvaroF]

Finally saw Senna on the 3rd of May. The best documentary I've ever seen. Even my mother which doesn't care about F1 and stuff just focused on the documentary. I've seen lots of tributes to Senna, but this was the best. Outstanding. 9/10.

 

[jeffgoddin]

8/10 after the build up I expected at least 9/10.

And, Lego Movie, 8.5/10, nothing too special, but thoroughly good fun, and great to hear so many familiar voices from TV shows I love. Parks and Rec, Community, and Always Sunny.

 

[AlvaroF]

There was a few thing that could be better but it was a typo... 9/10