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

Last week I went to The Big Lebowski in filled big old fashion theater. If you ever get a chance to see a cult classic movie like the The Big Lebowski in the theater, do it. It's such a great experience seeing people dressed up at as the Dude and Walter and having the audience really into the movie. When, I saw The Big Lebowski with my wife in 1998, I thought it was just pretty good. But like most cult movies, I've liked it more and more each time I've seen it.

Michael Barnes wrote: Now that we have two Pee Wee films to compare against PWBA, it really shows how much Tim Burton Phil Hartman brought to the film- and character.

FTFY.

KingPut wrote: Last week I went to The Big Lebowski in filled big old fashion theater. If you ever get a chance to see a cult classic movie like the The Big Lebowski in the theater, do it. It's such a great experience seeing people dressed up at as the Dude and Walter and having the audience really into the movie. When, I saw The Big Lebowski with my wife in 1998, I thought it was just pretty good. But like most cult movies, I've liked it more and more each time I've seen it.

I had some friends back then who rented the movie week in, week out. I didn't get what the big deal was. Of course, I wasn't really into the drug scene either and was drifting away from them.

OK. That's interesting. I thought the dress up thing only really happened for Rocky Horror (and Star Wars premiers).

What other movies does this happen at?

Watched What We Do in Shadows. Was great to see Rhys Darby from Flight of the Conchords put to use a werewolf. It had one of th funniest lines I've seen in a movie for a while.

Why do Vampires prefer to snack on virgins?

Did he play Murray in Flight ? That's my favorite character.

Ya He was Murray. I agree that guy is brilliant. I am not sure what it is about his delivery, but he could read the phone book and it would be hilarious, to me anyway.

ThirstyMan wrote: OK. That's interesting. I thought the dress up thing only really happened for Rocky Horror (and Star Wars premiers).

What other movies does this happen at?

I saw it happen when I saw The Room in a theater in Ann Arbor. It was hilarious.

ThirstyMan wrote: OK. That's interesting. I thought the dress up thing only really happened for Rocky Horror (and Star Wars premiers).
What other movies does this happen at?

Movies with passionate fan bases. For a movie to have a passionate fan base it has to either be a cult classic or sequel. For sequels you have to go to the premier for the film. Examples include Harry Potter, Avengers, Startrek and even Minions. According to my daughter, who goes to Premiers, the number of people dressed up varries widely from half the audience at the last Harry Potter movie to a handful of people at the Avenger, Startrek or Minions.

Saw Whiskey Tango Foxtrot last night and really liked it. A true-ish fish-out-of-water story well told, about a bored news writer who becomes a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan in 2003. There were some poignant moments mixed with a generally solid witty/humorous script. Not a Tina Fey being outrageously funny kind of thing at all, but she was quite good in a role that had some more depth to it.

I had also seen the somewhat similar Rock the Casbah on video a few weeks ago, and with very low expectations that wasn’t as bad as the consensus reviews described it. If you’re not expecting a screwball Bill Murray, then it’s a reasonably interesting, and occasionally amusing tale about an American music agent discovering an unknown singing talent in the Middle East. And I guess it was also based on a true story, which I didn’t realize before and added some interest. WTF is clearly better, all around, but Casbah is okay for a rainy day rental.

Watched Automata as I continue my sci-fi on netflix while painting BB minis.

This one I think I actually enjoyed more than the reviews would have me believe. I thought the world building was fairly compelling and the effects were fantastic. It did sort of drag (pun intended) during the second half but overall I enjoyed watching it and didn't feel like it was a waste of time. Again this is one of those mid-budget films I wish were made more often. The sort of high quality, yet B grade films that end up sticking with you. Sort of like Carpenter classics. Not saying this is up there with those, but I think overall I prefer this level of film over the big blockbusters or the video/drive-in trash.

Anyway, the flick is more AI becoming sentient stuff that we see a lot of but has more of a Blade Runner bent to it. Antonio Banderas is an insurance investigator or something for this company that makes 'pilgrims'. Pilgrims being these androids mankind has built to help deal with the ecological disaster the earth has become. Dylan McDermott's inclusion felt like a great call back to Hardware and I really liked his turn as a loose cannon cop. I actually think I'd like to read a novel or two set in this universe as I think there would be some cool stories to tell...probably even better than this one. EDIT: Correction, this universe would make for a _great_ tv series sort of like the old Alien Nation show. There's a real missed opportunity here.

Saw 10 Cloverfield Lane Last night and really liked it. I'm glad I avoided spoilers cuz I never felt sure where the movie was going to go. Got surprised often which is great. Loved the ending.

I'll write a review in a couple days

I really enjoyed Automata. It was wholly underrated and Banderas delivered what may have been his best performance ever.

Great story, well acted, great effects.

Saw Zootopia today I really liked it and the messages it portrayed. It was a big family outing and we even took the 11-mont-old baby so my attention wasn't entirely on the movie and I spent some time out in the hallway. Itching to see it again, but I'll have to wait until it's on DVD.

No surprise, I'm sure, but BvS was long, labored, lugubrious, and lacking levity. (And yes, I am an asinine abuser of alliteration)

I have a hard time appreciating something like this after the Nolan Dark Knight films, which I love (and yes, I do also love Dark Knight Rises, though it is the weakest of the three). There is just so much more depth in those movies, thematically and in terms of the writing and dialogue and direction (sorry Josh, but you're wrong).

There is an absolutely criminal amount of slo-mo in this film, but even many of the regular-speed scenes seemed to be dragged out, as if taking longer to do something would make them more dramatic. And everyone is so darn serious about everything. I kind of liked Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, but for what interesting energy and mannerisms he gave to it, it wasn’t written with *any* humor, whereas Heath Ledger had a similarly edgy take with his Joker, but there was some real wit and character there, both as portrayed and written.

Batfleck was okay, though it seemed like he was trying too hard to be too serious. Again, so hard to appreciate this when we had a wonderfully layered Batman series just a few years back. If I could objectively remove that series from my memory, I’d say Affleck was fine in the role.

I do really like Wonder Woman, from what we see of her. Her musical theme, introduced later when she’s fully in hero character, is awesome. I hope that continues into her solo movie, which I am more interested to see after this. That *has* to be better than this.

I'm happy to see Amy Adams with any measure of frequency, and Laurence Fishburne was great as Perry White, but that’s a small part. Jeremy Irons seems wasted as Alfred, though. Compare the impact or memorable moments he has in this film (none, really) to those of Michael Caine in the Dark Knight trilogy. Not even close.

Thematically, I did find the basic idea of how the world would deal with a real Superman/Christ figure, and its implications for what that might mean politically and in terms of safety and procedure, to be very interesting, but the film doesn’t really give that a whole lot of weight or time, ultimately. It sets some things up which are explored a bit, but then, well, there’s no real resolution or continuation of that as of a certain point.

Action-wise, nothing special. More CGI fighting and big colossal monsters destroying things and being destroyed. I did enjoy the fight Batman has about halfway through in a warehouse, and the confrontation with him and Superman is pretty solid, dramatically.

Knock an hour off (removing the slo-mo and dream sequences would probably do it), add some levity, explore the theme better, and it would be okay.