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

Grudunza wrote: 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.

INSOMNIA is a remake of an Scandanavian film (same name) with Stellan Skarsgaard in the lead. It's great. There was a whole Northern noir thing for a bit with SMILLA'S SENSE OF SNOW and THE FAST RUNNER amongst others.

Last Friday was Do Nothing Day, so I spent the entire afternoon watching the 60's comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I can just recognize the better part of the cast, which was pretty much any comedian or comedic actor in the early 60's. That huge cast didn't help it much, though, because it wasn't better than okay. It reminded me of 1941, another huge comedy that was kind of mediocre.

I just finished watching the Mutant Chronicles. I happened by one of those used DVD bins and saw it for a $1. Not knowing anything about it or having any background with the story, I didn't understand some of the things that happened in the movie, but, I enjoyed it--it was worth a buck. Isn't there a board game being release in this world? I remember reading something about that here on F:AT?

I saw it. It was definitely worth the 5 or so I spent on it.

Just watched "BEST OF ENEMIES" on Netflix. It's about Vidal vs. Buckley. Really fascinating if you like politics.

Last night I went to a livestream theater showing of Rifftrax (being broadcast from Nashville) Santa Clause and the Icecream Bunny. What a horrible, horrible movie... but the rifftrax portion was suitably hilarious.

Creed: This would be a good boxing film in its own right, but probably gets a few extra points from its legacy. The fight scenes are fantastic, and I liked the little character touches they added here and there. Stallone as an aging Rocky is just so iconic and familiar, and carries that role so well. It was fun to watch this being so invested in its internal history that I practically took it for granted as real history. I grew up loving those Rocky films, so that boxing footage is almost part of my subconscious. They really seem to tap into that idea very well, and seeing them visit the Rocky statue in Philly kind of reinforced that. I liked the last movie, too (Rocky Balboa), being more of a small character story like the original was. This one aims a little bigger than that, but still is grounded in the characters. And they do an amazing job with the music... teasing that original score in very subtle ways now and then, but bringing it home when most powerful.

Victor Frankenstein: I saw this so you don't have to. You're welcome. (Not that most of you would have bothered, anyway.) Actually, there were some interesting individual things in the script and characterizations, but it didn't amount to much. It has a few of the side character actors from Sherlock and Game of Thrones, so that had interested me, as well as the hot younger sister who died in Downton Abbey. Seeing her on a big screen was good incentive for me to watch this. She and the other supporting actors were fine, but if there's one major flaw with this film, aside from the script being a hodgepodge, it's that the two leads (James McAvoy as Frankenstein and Daniel Radcliffe as Igor) just aren't great in those roles. I'm picturing Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in those roles, and it wouldn't even have been close (especially if the script had been written by the Sherlock writers). They also make a Young Frankenstein reference/homage that was just a "really?" kind of thing. The film wasn't clever enough to get away with that.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: This seemed to slip under everyone's radar, but it's a pretty entertaining spy/action flick. The pacing is probably a little subdued by Guy Ritchie standards, but that's probably a good thing. And damn if Henry Cavill isn't pretty great in this kind of role, where he can be more funny and charming, and not a dour Superman. The rapport and conflict between him and Armie Hammer was entertaining, and it was good to see Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina) again. Forgettable, and doesn't compare to the latest M:I films, but worth a rental for a reasonably fun time.

Cool, I had been curious about the UNCLE movie, after being reminded how much fun I had watching Kingsmen.

hotseatgames wrote: Cool, I had been curious about the UNCLE movie, after being reminded how much fun I had watching Kingsmen.

Kingsman gets the edge for its clever action scenes and for being more unique in general, but UNCLE was quite entertaining, especially without much in the way of expectations going in.

Btw, since you mentioned the Rifftrax thing, I assume you heard that they're rebooting MST3K. Patton Oswalt just joined the cast. Should be great.

So it helps to have relatively low expectations, but Creed is a really good sports movie! Someone mentioned to Stallone he should try to act in this installment and he decided to do it. If anything, though, I could have used less Rocky and more Adonis. Well written character with a lot of charisma.

Took the kids to see The Good Dinosaur...I dunno, Pixar definitely has set the bar almost too high for themselves. I still go into all of their movies expecting them to be on the level of Toy Story 3/Incredibles/Monsters Inc/Wall-E. But they just aren't hitting that level right now. This one was decent and like Grudunza said, it was still probably better than anything they showed trailers for before it.

What they didn't bother to tell anyone is that it's a Western.

I mean, totally a Western. Frontier story. Longhorns. Sam Elliot.

So this is kind of an awesome idea, Dinosaurs on the range and so forth. But the film just doesn't commit to it enough. I'm not saying that the T-rexes need to be wearing Stetsons, but it sort of pulls up the reigns to quick and too often when it starts to get into more genre-specific territory. The best sequence is with the ranch-ing T-Rexes, and that's where it's the most Old West.

It's also a HUGE mistake, IMO, to have made the characters so cartoony. On one hand, I kind of like that they are sort of generic cartoon dinosaurs. I think that's sort of unexpected and funny. But on the other, they totally don't match their medium and they look out of place in the photorealistic settings. I'm sure someone in a board room completely 86ed the idea of doing more realistic talking dinosaurs (remembering the flop that was Dinosaur), but the goofy character designs don't sell the more severe story material well. Even a scene where some Pteranadon-ish characters pack up and eat a small mammal feels weirdly violent with googly-eyed, silly characters.

It really feels like someone at Pixar didn't trust this movie so it was meddled with...given that it had a loooong development cycle and some general uncertainty about it ever being made, I'd be willing to bet that was the case.

I wouldn't call it a total bust and it's WAY WAY WAY better than anything to do with Cars...but as far as second-tier Pixar goes it was disappointing.

Red Sonja, to finish up the de-facto "Conan*" trilogy. Still better than all of the Hobbit movies.

*Prince Kalidan, indeed.

Red Sonja is one of those childhood WGN Saturday afternoon movies.

It's sort of hard to explain syndication and non-network, pre-cable TV to younger people.

Being from England, for me it was always more of a Christmas holidays movie. Every year (and only around this time), our family would buy the Radio Times, and TV Times, for the four(!) channels available*, and I'd pore through the listings looking for the cool movies. James Bond was always a shoe-in for Chrimbo day itself, but a lot of these other action movies would show up also. There was always a sense of sadness when you got to around Dec 29th in the listings, and it was just movies like Digby.

Sunday movies seemed to always involve either cowboys or soldiers, usually in black & white.

*Later it was five, oh my.

Pixar's upcoming list is more sequels than anything:

oh no, a Toy Story 4 for realsies? 3 was so perfect with the ending and everything. Can't believe they're doing another.

What the heck is Coco?