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

I finally watched Ex Machina myself last night...WOW.

What a mediocre movie.

It certainly wasn't bad, but it also wasn't anything particularly novel, compelling or unique. Same old SF tropes about what it means to be human, implications of AI, simulation and simulacra, man playing god, surveillance states, morality vs. science, etc. etc. etc. All stuff that was incredibly impressive when I was 20, maybe not so much at 40. I would have flipped for this movie 20 years ago...now it has the profundity of a ABC After School Special.

I mean, really, this movie did not have anything to say that Bride of Frankenstein didn't already cover. 80 years ago.

The leads were good, the robot design was great, the minimalist sets were nice. It was a good looking, stylish picture. But guys, come on...it's not like y'all haven't seen plenty of smart, intelligently written SF films before.

The ending was STUPID. Every twist, completely telegraphed. Not that I want movies to have twists anyway, but don't try to trick me and then do it badly. Everything about the plot was transparent. I felt like I was just waiting for things I already assumed to go on and happen.

Anyway, the whole time I was watching it, I kept thinking how much I would rather watch Hardware for the 1000th time.

I also watched half on Inside Out. I kind of hate it. Not at a Cars level, but because the whole film just makes me feel like I'm watching pop psychology geared toward the audience of a Target advertisement. OMG, growing up is hard. It causes FEELINGS. Dang, Pixar. Y'all are really digging deep on this one. That said, I think kids that are 8-10 years old might get a lot out of it because it does effectively visualize some pretty abstract concepts. But as an adult, it kind of feels like I'm in a room with a dude wearing a turtleneck sweater, strumming an acoustic guitar and entreating me to open up to my feelings.

man you're so cool, sometimes I don't think I can even stand it.

The whole kid feelings thing is something schools are starting to push a bunch up here. Getting kids to identify what they are currently feeling and how they could be feeling a different thing on any given day. This stuff is all good, getting kids to express their feelings and understand them. I thought the movie did a great job at all.

I thought the movie was awesome.

Michael Barnes wrote: I also watched half on Inside Out. I kind of hate it. Not at a Cars level, but because the whole film just makes me feel like I'm watching pop psychology geared toward the audience of a Target advertisement. OMG, growing up is hard. It causes FEELINGS. Dang, Pixar. Y'all are really digging deep on this one. That said, I think kids that are 8-10 years old might get a lot out of it because it does effectively visualize some pretty abstract concepts. But as an adult, it kind of feels like I'm in a room with a dude wearing a turtleneck sweater, strumming an acoustic guitar and entreating me to open up to my feelings.

My six year old says you have no idea what you're talking about and has put you onto bullshit island. Kids today.

What kind of idiot watches half a movie?

i don't even think he got to watch the whole Bing Bong part, which was my favourite.

I didn't finish it...the kids fell asleep and I didn't want to watch it twice. But we'll probably resume tonight. I did get to Bing Bong, who was probably the best part of it.

I did not expect my opinions on either film to be popular.

I watched another one last night, Dark Star...it was one of those things that pops up on Netflix at random. It's a documentary about HR Giger, it was made right before he passed away last year. As a piece of fan wank, it was good- lots of awesome artwork, lots of never before seen stuff, lots of candid footage of a quite prematurely elderly Giger with his family. But it was also more or less completely style-less and it didn't really have any kind of insight or revelation about Giger at all. It was nice to see him just really as kind of a regular old dude, not some bizarro goth cult figure. But I didn't come out of it feeling like the filmmakers really had any kind of perspective or sense of uncovering who Giger was, what his motivations were and so forth. Contrast it to Listen to Me Marlon, which is HUGELY stylized and almost shockingly intimate.

One thing I did learn was that Thomas Gabriel Fischer (aka Tom G. Warrior from Celtic Frost) was his personal assistant. Which was really kind of neat, this guy from one of the most innovative and influential metal bands of all time...doing his paperwork and taking care of him.

Barnes, sometimes with films you're like a fun-murdering Eurosnoot. Of course there's nothing *new* in Ex Machina. But does it make sense to compare it to Bride of Frankenstein in 2015, as if we shouldn't have new settings and framings for the same ideas that we're still considering as a species? And there are some new concepts there, or at least, put into a modern framing. The idea of sentience being driven or formed from people's collective internet lives is, on one hand ridiculous, but also interesting and different. No doubt a lot of what our passions and opinions are can be derived from our online presence, and we know that Google and Facebook gather as much of that as they possibly can (to make more money, but as a sci-fi conceit, it also works to play it this way). And the point of her existence, as a next step in human evolution... Sure, Kubrick and Asimov did that with Hal, but it's depicted very well here, and in a way that feels realistic to our times, or to how we view our immediate future (as 2001 probably felt in 1968). Yes, the ending is telegraphed and inevitable. Leonard Bernstein once described good music as "fresh but inevitable," and I think that applies to this depiction overall. If they had gone with a different "twist" or resolution at the ending, that probably would have felt gimmicky and unearned. All put together; ensemble, writing, cinematography, interesting concepts, the score, the setting... it's a great film. (Granted, it's no Birdman.)

Spotlight retells the investigative story the Boston Globe did about Catholic priests molesting kids, and moreso about the church itself covering that up. Really solid handling of the details here. There are a lot of layers and specifics about what happened and why certain things were important, and it could have been either really dry or too convoluted, but it's all very gripping. The cast is almost universally understated (Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Leiv Schreiber, Stanley Tucci), except for Mark Ruffalo, who has a weird kind of manic approach to his character. But I think that works well to have only him be that way, whereas if everyone was more high-energy the whole thing would have felt too panicked. And more importantly, none of this is about those characters. There's almost no attention to the reporters' personal lives; their relationships, etc. It's all about the story, which more than fills up the time and attention. Because I'm raving about it, Barnes will surely pan it. :o)

The Good Dinosaur: Sweet and charming, with some great Pixar-y character moments, but it also felt a bit insubstantial or lacking somehow. It's a simple tale of a lost dinosaur finding his way back home and befriending a human kid. I liked it a lot, and no doubt it's better than all of the other kid/family films in the trailers, but this is probably one of the weaker Pixar films. Not to say it's weak, at all... I hate to even imply that, but with Pixar the bar is so high. But it just ain't no Toy Story 3... or Inside Out.

I'm calling off all future movie dates with Grudunza.

Michael Barnes wrote: I'm calling off all future movie dates with Grudunza.

Aww, and I was gonna try my best "yawning arm move."

We could probably do a decent Siskel & Ebert type show, though. You're the David Dunn to my Mr. Glass. And at least I know now that you exist. :o)

I'll go on movie dates with you Grud! You can help me wipe the tears away

Barnes' recommendation of Runaway Train several years ago was the last time I followed a film recommendation from him. I have a similar friend who hates everything that anyone else likes, and except for these odd, specialized films and they are always terrible. Definite point above in that I have an extreme tolerance of bad sci-fi and will watch pretty much anything in the genre multiple times, and one of the few exceptions to that is Hardware. I really wanted to like that movie as it has so many things I should like about it, but it is so boring.

My family was watching When Worlds Collide the other day for the first time in years, prompted by a discussion about the last time it was watched in our house. At the time my wife was going to early evening classes and I was picking out family friendly cool films for me and my 5 year old daughter to watch before she went to bed. As it is a sci-fi from the 50's, there is no sex or violence in When Worlds Collide so I thought it would be fine and I remember being extremely irritated as my daughter literally talked non-stop through the film. It is only years later I realized that I had really freaked her out because it is about the end of the world, which is a concept that she was not not ready for. Added to that was the fact that only about 50 people could be saved by transporting them to the other planet (there was only room inside the rocket for 50 people) and the concept of being in a situation of having to choose who lives and who dies is a mind-freaking one for a child. As a five year old she decided that we had to save more people and could do this by attaching handles to the outside of the rocket and have it take off like an Indian train with hundreds of people clinging to the outside.

Anyway the film contains this wonderful exchange which is now a meme in our house:
Cole: Do you want to spend what time is left as Tony's wife?
Joyce: I suppose it really doesn't matter... and it is what Tony wants.
Now you can force anyone in our house to do your bidding by simply adding "and it is what Tony wants" to your request.

Chapel wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: I also watched half on Inside Out. I kind of hate it. Not at a Cars level, but because the whole film just makes me feel like I'm watching pop psychology geared toward the audience of a Target advertisement. OMG, growing up is hard. It causes FEELINGS. Dang, Pixar. Y'all are really digging deep on this one. That said, I think kids that are 8-10 years old might get a lot out of it because it does effectively visualize some pretty abstract concepts. But as an adult, it kind of feels like I'm in a room with a dude wearing a turtleneck sweater, strumming an acoustic guitar and entreating me to open up to my feelings.

My six year old says you have no idea what you're talking about and has put you onto bullshit island. Kids today.

The main problem I have is the young character Riley makes some really bad choices, but for the most part has no consequences because she is emotional. The producers focused too much on the cerebral and abstract and not enough in Riley's real world.

My wife got both kids to agree to come to see Creed with us. That is an achievement by itself.

We all loved the movie. I thought it was faithful to the great first movie in the series. There were elements of the story that were so similar that it felt like an homage, but not in any corny or cheap way. The characters, even the minor ones, were fully developed. As in the first movie, there was not a villainous character. It was also great to see Sylvester Stallone do real acting again, after years and years of goofing around. This was quite an achievement, and a work of art they could not have made, but for the bankability of the franchise.

Shaun the Sheep is amazing. So clever and funny. Loved it.

Caught Insomnia last night on Netflix. I'd seen it before, but didn't remember much about it. I knew that Christopher Nolan directed it after Memento, but didn't write it. Great dynamic between Pacino as the detective and Robin Williams as the killer Pacino is chasing down, and I liked how they both had something on each other, which nicely ramps up the suspense and tension between them. Not as interesting overall as Nolan written films like Inception, but pretty solid and better than I had remembered.

D_S wrote: My wife got both kids to agree to come to see Creed with us. That is an achievement by itself.

We all loved the movie. I thought it was faithful to the great first movie in the series. There were elements of the story that were so similar that it felt like an homage, but not in any corny or cheap way. The characters, even the minor ones, were fully developed. As in the first movie, there was not a villainous character. It was also great to see Sylvester Stallone do real acting again, after years and years of goofing around. This was quite an achievement, and a work of art they could not have made, but for the bankability of the franchise.

Really need to see this, thanks.