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

Saw ROGUE ONE last night, it was absolutely incredible. My heart is still beating fast from the last sequence.

I'm going to write a five-second review shortly and will avoid any spoilers, but MAN is it hard to talk about this movie without spoilers. There's SO MUCH to talk about. I'll go visit the spoilers-laden thread after I write my review cuz I really need to talk about a great deal. What an incredible movie.

Black Barney wrote: Saw ROGUE ONE last night, it was absolutely incredible. My heart is still beating fast from the last sequence.

I'm going to write a five-second review shortly and will avoid any spoilers, but MAN is it hard to talk about this movie without spoilers. There's SO MUCH to talk about. I'll go visit the spoilers-laden thread after I write my review cuz I really need to talk about a great deal. What an incredible movie.

Wow, I had the opposite reaction. Two stars for me. A few great scenes, but not enough character or story to work as connective tissue. I haven't dived into the spoiler thread just because I was kinda bored by the whole thing.

check my review and tell me what you think. I didn't give it 5 stars or even 4.5 stars (i almost did tho, it was really hard not to give 4.5 stars).

It's really a movie for people that LOVE A New Hope. It's a very focused movie for those people. It's not surprising that critics are taking issues with it being "nerd fan-service" which bothers me seeing the movie drawn down to that. Like I say in my review, the throwbacks aren't being done to be cute and winks. They are integral to the storytelling and connecting the fabric that is the tapestry of Star Wars.

I guess we should move this to the spoilers thread cuz I'd like to get into many specifics.

This also saves Episode III in a few ways. Makes it better. wow.

I watched Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas for the first time after seeing it in the Christmas movie thread and it was decent, but not earth shattering. It also reminded me why A Christmas Story is such a bad movie.

EOJBC summary: Emmet and his mother are dirt poor, and find out there is a talent contest with a large prize. They enter separately, but are required to lose the belongings that they use to make a living. Sadly they lose the talent contest, but afterwards find that they enjoy working with each other and find better paid employment, and thus risks they took pay off for them.

A Christmas Story summary: Ralphie wants a present for Christmas that everyone tells him that he is too young for. At Christmas he receives the present, and finds out that he is indeed too young for it. He still believes it was the best present he ever received.

Jingle all the Way is a terrible movie but at least has a plot with a decent Christmas message. A Christmas Story is all about the present, and seems to ignore that important message from The Grinch that Christmas isn't about presents or food or possessions. "Arthur Christmas" manages to be a Christmas movie about the presents, but still has a message (Christmas is about making sure everyone is included and no-one is left out). A Christmas Story is just a shit movie.

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote: A Christmas Story is just a shit movie.

Get the fuck out of here with your hipster bullshit. This was the first Christmas movie to acknowledge the crass commercialism of the holiday and still managed to do it with heart and humor. Every crypto-christian kid in America sees Christmas as Present Day. If they go to church, it's because they HAVE to. No 10yo is thinking, "man I sure do love celebrating this service with the Lord Jesus Christ on this his birthday." They want LOOT and the whole season is tied up with that and this movie captures it perfectly without a bunch of ball-punching jokes.

Just got out of Manchester by the Sea. That's a heavy, heavy movie. I got out and it felt like an elephant had been sitting on my chest.

There's a scene between Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams on the street that I think is the best scene on film this year.

I don't know if I liked this or Moonlight better...

Black Barney wrote:
I haven't seen La La Land yet but I know Oscar pretty well at this point and I'm already at a place where I could comfortably wager some money on both the movie getting Best Picture and Emma Stone winning best actress. I saw The Artist and wasn't surprised at how Oscar reacted to that. This should be the same. That kind of movie will sweep best picture, best director.
.

I thought Gregarius' review of La La Land was spot on. It was wonderful, but won't appeal to some. I loved Sing as well, and don't know what would happen if they went into the Trashdome. La La Land made me tear up at one point, but I have grown tired of the idea that Hollywood success is something that you should base your life around, or that obtaining fame and wealth is something we should be thrilled to see.

cranberries wrote: La La Land

What did you all think about the ending, and the flashback?

Spoiler-tag that shit, please (meaning, responses to that). Probably another week or two before it hits my area.

Black Barney wrote: Just got out of Manchester by the Sea. That's a heavy, heavy movie. I got out and it felt like an elephant had been sitting on my chest.

There's a scene between Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams on the street that I think is the best scene on film this year.

I don't know if I liked this or Moonlight better...

I'd give Manchester a slight edge, but I think they're both just a little bit overrated. Great films, but not GREAT FILMS. [Ducking for cover from all of the movie critics.] Both have some real depth and insight and poignance, but not quite enough for their verrrrry slooooow pacing.

Manchester is about as real-life as any movie I've seen. If you've ever had to plan a funeral or had a strained relationship or felt inadequate about dealing with life and loss and a teenage kid, yup, there it is. And that's powerful at times (as you mention in the five-second review, the scene with Affleck and Williams meeting out in town later in the film is a killer), and at times meaningful and touching and sad and humorous, just like life. I loved that about this movie.

I guess for me there's still a point where the mechanics of the film can overshadow what the experience is, and with this and Moonlight, the choice of the pacing (possibly the editor's choice/fault as well as the director) couldn't be ignored. Kubrick could make slow pacing work; there were payoffs that came from it and more illumination of character and setting within the slower moments and scenes. I'm not saying that Manchester and Moonlight don't have that; they definitely do, but not enough for their continual slow pacing. Manchester does a little better job of mixing things up a bit, and the flashbacks help.

Reading about all this heavy cinema made me want to expand my horizons, so I watched Live Free or Die Hard. I know I should have looked for Die Hard on Christmas Day, but there was too much football on. It's about as stupid as a movie can get, but Timothy Olyphant and Justin Long do an okay job. The sad part is that my choice at the moment was that or Star Wars: TFA and I chose Live Free or Die Hard.

How is watching Motorcycle-into-helicopter expanding your horizons?!?

THE ARRIVAL: Pretty good! The pacing can be wonky, and man, the military guys calling scientists eggheads every ten seconds needs to go, but it's very tidy. Definitely angling for Spielberg feelings, doesn't really generate them.
ROGUE ONE: Very cool, and I definitely want more of this kind of SW movie than I do the actual main storyline. I like not knowing who's going to make it out.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR: As huzungous franchises go, this is the best one. Spider-Man is perfect, there are a lot of jokes for all the explosions, I liked this a lot.

Next up:
THE IMITATION GAME: Started this, but I worry it's going to spend a lot of time on Turing's utterly tragic end, rather his amazing genius.

Black Barney wrote:

How is watching Motorcycle-into-helicopter expanding your horizons?!?

It's not. But cop-car-into-helicopter has opened new worlds of cinema for me.

lol, ah yes, I am mixing it up with the cinematic masterpiece that is Judgment Day (T2).



for people that saw Manchester by the Sea (spoilers here so don't read if you're going to see it or if your username is Cranberries):

Yesterday I saw La La Land, and it was really, really fantastic. If I saw a better movie in the theater this year, I can't think of what it was. If you don't mind a musical, you need to see it.