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

[Pagey279]

Guardians of the Galaxy

It was a little difficult to follow at first, with it flicking between scenes pretty quickly but once everything was explained and the film got going properly it was utterly magnificent. Apart from what I've just mentioned I can't fault it at all. All the previous Marvel films whilst good (mostly) were lacking something, just something that could have made them not just good but great and this had it.
It was quirky, funny, with a good story, great likeable characters, brilliant CGI, it had everything.

9/10

Spoiler

I don't know if this qualifies as a spoiler but I thought I would put tags on it anyway. Which previous Marvel film has the Collector been in?

Sharknado

Terribly brilliant. That's the only way I can describe it, it was so bad it turned out good. Mainly because I was in fits of laughter the whole way through, from the appalling CGI, appalling acting to the appalling plot normally that's a recipe for a flop but this film didn't take itself seriously, it was meant to be bad. The bit with the chainsaw at the end was particularly funny.

It's a tough one to rate, because of the film itself being so bad I would rate it a 2/10, but then because I enjoyed it so much I'd bump it up to a 7/10.

 

[Brett]

Guardians of the Galaxy

It was a little difficult to follow at first, with it flicking between scenes pretty quickly but once everything was explained and the film got going properly it was utterly magnificent. Apart from what I've just mentioned I can't fault it at all. All the previous Marvel films whilst good (mostly) were lacking something, just something that could have made them not just good but great and this had it.
It was quirky, funny, with a good story, great likeable characters, brilliant CGI, it had everything.

9/10

Spoiler

I don't know if this qualifies as a spoiler but I thought I would put tags on it anyway. Which previous Marvel film has the Collector been in?

Spoiler

End credits scene of Thor 2

 

[Bopop4]

Captain America: Winter Soldier


I was going to review this, but I've already forgotten what happened.

Highlight of the movie was Abed.

 

[Roger the Horse]

That was the one where somebody shoots Samuel L. Jackson, wasn't it?

 

[VEXD]

When I was a kid, Christmas meant a few things...

I'd get to see the relatives, I'd get new toys, which I'd asked for.
I'd get new transformers, which I maybe had or hadn't asked for.
I'd get some Christmas cake, which mum had been making for ages.
I'd get a stocking with some surprise stuff in it, and a walnut and an orange, which was always there.
And I'd get to settle down and have Darth Vader scare me to death at some point.
We didn't have internet or video players or DVDs or blurays so I had to wait till it was on TV, and then I could be transported off to that magical world of space and robots and light sabers and a big black guy with breathing difficulties....

I have an awkward claim that I like to announce when I'm in the right circles, which is that I came out on the same day as episode IV.
I've always been a Star Wars fan.

After reading the last few reviews this evening, I checked the show times and got in the S2000 and went to the cinema to see Guardians of the galaxy.

Somehow they've done it.
They've made a wholly new film, in the space and robots and aliens genre, that will undoubtedly be shown at Christmas for many many years to come.
Granted, it will be on at a later time, as there were some profanities used, and some slightly harrowing scenes for kids under ten, but other than that, I have just witnessed the screen birth of some very memorable and likeable characters that people will be buying on bluray, in plastic figure form, and probably on lunch boxes in the foreseeable future.
Was guardians of the galaxy for kids?
Yes.
Was it for adults?
Yes.
Was it for marvel fans only?
Not really.
I have no prior knowledge of the comics, back story, or characters, but I found myself quite easily dropping into the whole adventure, and laughing along with the audience and going quiet when things were taking a turn for the worse in places.
It was fun.
It had laughs.
It had guns.
Magic powers.
Special weapons and abilities and some heartfelt moments.
As I was born on the same day that Americans first heard C3PO telling Artoo to "Go that way you ungrateful pile of scrap" I cannot really imagine how it must have felt a little strange trying to relate to these weird and wonderful characters on screen back in 1977.
But tonight I was there.
I was in a movie theatre, watching some weird and wonderful characters I'd never seen or heard of doing some amazing and hilarious things in just the same way that people did nearly 40 years ago.
It was awesome when that occurred to me.
It only enhanced my experience and also my anticipation of what is to come in the sequel/s.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film, from beginning to end, only leaving the theatre at the end of the end credits, and on my way home had only a few questions.
But I'm sure the answers will present themselves in due course.

This is not one to miss, unless you are not able to watch sci-fi without scoffing in incredulity.

Get yourself to a theatre and indulge your inner child for two hours.

To think I almost sat in front of the planet of the apes movie instead.

I'll do that next week.

I'm off to browse amazon for rocket raccoon figures.....

Roll on Christmas....

👍

 

[FoolKiller]

@VEXD

One other thing this had in common with Episode IV: You never looked at an alien and said, "That doesn't look realistically possible."

I'm off to browse amazon for rocket raccoon figures.....

"Ain't no thing like me, except me!"

 

[VEXD]

I see if you buy all six 6" figures you get to build a Groot.

I may do that, then store them all in airtight containers for 30 years.....

Not until I've gone over them all with a blacklight first though......


👍

 

[Brett]

Spoiler

I want a dancing Baby Groot for my desk at home and work.

 

[FoolKiller]

@Brett Yes.

Out of curiosity, would many of you say that GotG likely has one of the best soundtracks this year? If you don't compare original scores I'd argue that it is definitely the best.

I know this much, I want to destroy all copies of "Let it Go" and "Everything is Awesome" but could play this one on repeat.

 

[sems4arsenal]

Captain America twooooooooooooooo

The Amazing Spider Man twoooooooooooooooo

Two superhero sequels and without delving too much since I don't know how to spoiler hide texts, one is a mess and one is one of the all time great superhero movies. You know which is which

 

[Bopop4]

That was the one where somebody shoots Samuel L. Jackson, wasn't it?

Yeah, and "Look at all these generic explosions and guns!"

 

[xXKingJoshXx]

I saw Let's Be Cops the other night and it was absolutely hilarious. I was laughing the whole time. I'd write a review but that's not exactly something I'm good at...

 

[JTB10000]

I recently saw Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (English Dub) in theaters and I was surprised at how well-dubbed and funny it was. I won't give away any details in case any DBZ fans here haven't seen it yet and don't want anything to be spoiled.

 

[niky]

Guardians of the Galaxy

It had its problems. If you really dug in deeeep and cared enough about picking nits to look for them. Such as how quickly Drax was convinced to join the group. Or how a 20 year old mix-tape has survived daily use... in spaaaaace... considering the varied environments, electromagnetic fields and etcetera (also, as any 80's kid can tell you, those tapes tend to stretch and get brittle over time, and the strip loses definition over time)... and where do you buy double-A batteries... in spaaaaaace...

Spoiler

And can you imagine thousands of baby Groots sprouting everywhere Groot has been hacked to bits (which is everywhere)?

-

Not going to complain about Quill and Gamorra in space... they're not human.

I'll say this: It's almost Firefly worthy. This is the movie we were expecting Joss Whedon to make with the Avengers. To be fair, Whedon was more constrained by his source material and the need to tie multiple movies to his one piece, so he had to sacrifice a few things. Gunn managed to work in some good character development for the main characters. Felt like Gamorra was sort of left out of that, serving merely as a love interest early in the movie, but she got more fleshed out as the movie went on.

GOTG is a spaghetti Western, road trip movie, space opera, prison movie and caper movie all rolled into a rousing and funny hero epic. And it's set to some truly awesome music.

9.5/10

 

[Lucas]

Nueve reinas (English: Nine queens)

The movie spans two days in the life of scam artists Juan and Marcos, who meet by chance at a convenience store during the morning. Following a call from one of Marcos' associates, they will try to sell forged stamps (the Nine queens) to a rich Spanish business man leaving Buenos Aires that same day.



I loved every minute of it. We started watching The Godfather with my brother yesterday, but had to stop the movie because we didn't like it at all by the end of the first sequence. And this was a very refreshing change, since it was an interesting and funny movie from the start to the end.

 

[Driving Park]

I'm going to throw in one review for Guardians of the Galaxy that isn't "this is the greatest movie of all time".

I just got home from a showing of it.

I liked it.

It was well paced, the characters were great, the acting was great, the CGI was great, the plot was great, it was funny, etc. It portrayed its mission clearly and effectively - after watching, I'd say concisely that it's a fun, slightly irreverent sci-fi action flick, and in that capacity it delivered in spades.

I also really enjoyed seeing characters new to the big screen for the first time. Interestingly, in my head I thought "future Star Wars" both before I saw it (based on other people's reviews) and after. I can definitely see this becoming one of those movies that I could say to my kid one day "I saw Guardians of the Galaxy in theaters back in 2014" and got a wow reaction, just as my dad is still able to recount his experiences watching the original Star Wars in theaters when he was a kid (and getting a wow reaction from me).

But to me, despite how well done and polished it was, it was just good. Not great. The whole time I just felt like there was something missing. Some magic that would make me really hooked on it and sold by it. It certainly wasn't the cool sci-fi bits, which I enjoyed very much (and sci-fi is my favorite genre). It wasn't any of the other things that I already stated were great. I just can't put my finger on what it was lacking, but that lack was there for me.

Also, while the non-original song selections were very nice, I was left wanting for a better original soundtrack (the orchestral portions). It was pretty forgettable to me, but I'll admit if there's anything I have any right to be extremely picky about in a movie it's the soundtrack, as I'm a classical musician and listen to all kinds of soundtracks and the orchestral music that inspires them almost constantly. In fact, all of the movies I saw this summer had effective (setting the mood, heightening drama, etc.) but uninspiring soundtracks, so I can't really fault GotG specifically for it. And I'm only talking about the heavy-hitting, dramatic orchestral soundtracks and not the kid stuff (Lego Movie (a movie I very much enjoyed), Frozen, et al).

It also probably didn't help that the audience was very distracting. A guy in front of me started to text on his phone towards the end of the movie, there was a little kid behind me talking and commenting on everything constantly, and there was another (older) kid to my right laughing obnoxiously at anything even slightly humorous. I was reminded exactly why I never go see a movie before it's been out a long time and at an unpopular showing time.

---

And, I don't know what the prevailing opinion of this movie is in this thread, but I saw X-Men: Days of Future Past earlier this summer and absolutely adored it. It was one of the best and most emotionally rewarding movies I've seen in a long time. Use as you will to invalidate my opinion. This unqualified movie watcher feels like walking into a hornet's nest every time I post in here.

 

[FoolKiller]

@Driving Park X-Men DoFP did what it did well, which was portray the saving the future by going to the past story. It was well done, except for one thing: they acknowledge The Last Stand as having happened. That was good fine because

Spoiler

it allowed the time travel to wipe that monstrosity from continuity. It rebooted the way Star Trek did. But by doing so they left some very huge plot holes. Magneto lost his powers, and they were just teased as coming back. Prof Xavier was dead but came back, as teased, but in the exact same body. There is a story in the middle that is not detailed. A lot of big hows and whys. Also, it rebooted Wolverine's movie timeline (yay!), but created the history for it to occur, meaning the needed reboot was setup to continue as normal. And that seems odd, because the original timeline shouldn't exist without this movie.

So, while it was a good movie by itself it creates continuity issues as part of a series. A minor blip that will be unnoticed as future movies get to ignore it.

GotG had very few plot holes that left me asking questions. The MCU films have managed continuity far better than your usual Hollywood films. GotG was also far more welcoming to non-comic fans while containing tons of nods to comic fans. It isn't perfect, nor even the best Marvel movie. It is the most fun Marvel movie to date, if not comic movie. And at the end of the day, not dealing with philosophical discussions, no-win terror plots, dealing with alcoholism, politics, or lover's spats just calls out to an audience. It is a refreshing change of pace. I think that was the key to the audience love.

 

[Driving Park]

@FoolKiller I definitely enjoyed GotG for all of those reasons. It was refreshing to watch, even if it didn't tick my amazing meter. Also, I didn't feel left out because I know nothing about comics. Perhaps if I did it would've had that something?

 

[FoolKiller]

@FoolKiller I definitely enjoyed GotG for all of those reasons. It was refreshing to watch, even if it didn't tick my amazing meter. Also, I didn't feel left out because I know nothing about comics. Perhaps if I did it would've had that something?

Just a few in-jokes and OMG moments added for fun. Nothing that would make you feel less about the movie without.

Maybe it just didn't hit that special spot for you.

Are you a fan of Firefly/Serenity? That has a similar reaction for some. Lots love it and that occasional guy says it was good and fun, but doesn't see the hype.

 

[Driving Park]

Are you a fan of Firefly/Serenity? That has a similar reaction for some. Lots love it and that occasional guy says it was good and fun, but doesn't see the hype.

I've never watched it. I meant to check it out but haven't gotten around to it (I don't watch TV that often), and really should considering the good things I've heard about it.

 

[GTboyz]

Expendables 3, God that film was a joke compared to previous ones.

very bad CGI, some of the action scenes is ridiculous that it makes me a bit mad lol, reminds me a lot of flying Vin Diesel in Fast 6.

5/10 because despite of it all, i still enjoy Arnold, Mel Gibson and Wesley Snipes in it.

looking foward to GoTG (hasn't been released until today in my country), Doraemon : Stand By Me and Initial D Legend 1.

 

[Lucas]

I saw half of The Wolf of Wall Street... and I didn't like it one bit. I don't understand why people treat me like an alien or something for not liking it, but in one hour and a half I felt stuck in the same place I was when the movie was around the 40 minute mark.

 

[niky]

TWoWS was good cinema. The kind you can't make anymore because people are so used to one-and-a-half hour movies. It was rambling because it tried to stay true to the source material (which may or may not have been true to life), and needed to build things up properly for the resolution to work.

But it's one of those things you watch once and are done with. Could be worse. There was a film that won at a recent festival that was nine hours long.

The one-and-a-half hour mark is about where things turn around, and everything goes downhill from there, for the main character. The meltdown, however, is just as fascinating as the build-up.

 

[Bopop4]

Watched Chicken Run again, still awesome as ever.
One of my favourite movies even with that Gibson ass.


Also saw Moon.
I liked it, it was on the moon.
Can't really go into the story too much but it's about a single guy looking after a mining operation on the moon.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Amazing Spider Man 2, was as disappointed by it as mainstream movie goers seemed to be, the CGI was bad like as if they the last series trilogy and used that imaging. Quite sad, there was decent acting by the regulars, Harry Osborn wasn't nearly as good as when played by Franco. Though I did like they did a few things that were still related to the comics. The only good part for me was the jokes and some action sequence. I thought the CGI for electro was the best imaging out of the movie. Other than that...

5/10


Need For Speed. Came into it without even thinking about what to expect, and was surprised. The start was a little strange for me, the main bad guy wasn't menacing at all but a good cowardly type to hide behind money. Jess...I mean Aaron Paul played his character pretty well and that was about the only redeeming thing on the actor portion, oh and actress Imogen Poots was great, I liked the chemistry they had and her characters attitude. I liked the jokes in this movie as well and found it funny many times.

The best part was clearly the car chases and races and how they were performed, I didn't mind the knock off cars and it all was quite fun to watch. For me this movie gets a higher vote than the otehr

6.8-7.5/10 somewhere in that area.

 

[Lucas]

TWoWS was good cinema. The kind you can't make anymore because people are so used to one-and-a-half hour movies. It was rambling because it tried to stay true to the source material (which may or may not have been true to life), and needed to build things up properly for the resolution to work.

But it's one of those things you watch once and are done with.

That's true. I realize it's unfair to judge a movie without finishing it, it's just that I personally felt there was too many things going on that weren't needed. IMO, Midget throwing and prostitutes everywhere was enough to get the point across for me.

And yeah, I actually asked my brother once we stopped the movie (who had seen it on cinema) "Did you really like this movie?", and he was like "I don't know... But I don't want to see it again".

 

[Roger the Horse]

Well, since I already basically said what I had to say in The General Anime Thread, here it is here, since it fits just as well. The movie I have seen was a not especially long awaited sequel to a 2011 TV series. The rest is below. I'm still feeling kind of high from watching it.

Anyway... I finally got around to it. Yes. It's been a fair few months, but it happened. I have watched Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion.

And wow. That was psychedelic, beautiful, and completely and utterly freaking badass. Some parts were comedic, some parts were anything but, and some parts were... Well... Trippy. In the most awesome way possible.

My only problem was the ending, they seemed to be setting themselves up for a sequel, and let's face it, the Dosh King demands it; but until I have seen said hypothetical continuation, I can't really say my full thoughts on it. If the continuation is good, I may well be able to say that Rebellion is one of my favourite films of all time. If it isn't... Well, they'd have to mess up pretty badly for me to stop loving Rebellion as much as I did, but it drags it down a bit for me, and if there is no continuation... Then... Well... Here we are now. The ending didn't seem confident in what it was saying, it set up more questions than answers... It just left me feeling a bit unsatisfied, wanting more, as if the story wasn't finished.

In simple terms:

View attachment 214933

 

[Omnis]

So Maleficent was basically a misandrous, neofeminist wet dream.

It all adds up: amazing makeup and wardrobe; all men are evil; Angelina Jolie plus magic powers; double pterectomy; baby shower; wild, untamable bush; sneaking into a man's world and rendering his devices useless; Prince Charming kiss ineffective, Angelina Jolie kiss saves the day; ends happily ever after as Queens of Everything.

 

[Roger the Horse]

If someone is a misandrist, then calling them any kind of feminist is misleading.

 

[Omnis]

I don't follow your reasoning. Are you sure you don't mean misogynist?