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

Slap Shot's a big classic here in Québec, it features a couple local actors in early roles (notably Yvan Ponton), and it was dubbed over here so the French version feels authentic.

In the late 90's I worked at the Senators arena in Ottawa, and they brought the Hansen Bros over for some intermission shenanigans. I was in the elevator with a couple of them and had a laugh. I'm pretty tall at 6'2'', but those guys dwarfed me. Maybe not Zdeno Chara tall, but still.

Legomancer wrote: Watched All the President's Men. As a look into the Watergate scandal, it's not too great, as it's not really about the scandal itself but how Woodward and Bernstein worked the story. As a look into how Woodward and Bernstein worked the Watergate story, it's not too great, because how they did it isn't particularly gripping or interesting.

I couldn't disagree more. All the President's Men is great because it's about process. Putting together clues, finding sources, substantiating claims. Fascinating. And to think they made it within months of the actual scandal is astounding. I also love that overhead shot of them going through the records in the library. Boring, meticulous work that nobody wants to do, but they do it anyway because it's important. There's rarely evidence of that kind of work and journalism in today's media, but I'm hoping the upcoming Spotlight will show that it still exists.

Except so often they're not putting together clues. They're just being told something. Like the scene where they need the top-secret CREEP list so they ask the woman to get it for them. She says no, but the next day, she hands them the complete thing. Okay, maybe that's how it happened but it's not exactly gripping.

Black Barney wrote:

stoic wrote: I watched The Purge:Anarchy. It had a Warriors and Mad Max vibe. I give it 4/5. I haven't seen the original.

Don't see the original. It was the worst movie of that year. I saw pieces of Anarchy and it was better

Did the original explain why people didn't just go on an out-of-country vacation for 24 hours when the Purge happens? It seems like they'd be flowing across the borders in droves and coming back in 24 hours.

stoic wrote:

Black Barney wrote:

stoic wrote: I watched The Purge:Anarchy. It had a Warriors and Mad Max vibe. I give it 4/5. I haven't seen the original.

Don't see the original. It was the worst movie of that year. I saw pieces of Anarchy and it was better

Did the original explain why people didn't just go on an out-of-country vacation for 24 hours when the Purge happens? It seems like they'd be flowing across the borders in droves and coming back in 24 hours.

You just put more thought into the script than the writers ever did.

Time of EVE - An anime movie. Definitely a slow-burn as it takes place primarily in a coffee shop and follows the conversations of two guys with various patrons. The catch is that some of the patrons are androids (who must follow Asimov's 3 laws) and the cafe has a rule that nobody is supposed to say if they're human or android while there. Outside of the cafe, androids are easily identified and basically viewed as tools or servants. If you like more philosophical type anime or want to see human/android relationships explored where there is no violent uprising its worth checking out.

Ant-man - I guess this was all hype. I didn't think it was all that great and wouldn't even make my top 10 Marvel movies.

With the cultural ubiquity of Star Wars I just recently realized that my sons' only cinematic exposure to the franchise has been the prequel trilogy. Before someone calls DHS, the primary reason for this is that I don't want their first OT viewings to be of the godawful Special Editions. I also realized that time is growing short for them to see the movies before our scheduled Ep VII viewing so I procured the Despecialized Edition of each OT movie. The DE's are obsessive fan projects that use the best possible sources to craft HD versions of the movies to replicate as closely as possible the movies as they were when they were originally released.

We watched Star Wars (no, not "Episode IV," the DE has the original theatrical title crawl from 1977) and it was as much of a revelation for me as it was for my sons. I've been done with the Special Editions for at least 10 years so I've never seen nor had the urge to watch blu-ray versions of the OT, so to see Star Wars in HD with proper color correction was mind-blowing. Without the fucking Ronto-riding jawa, horrible CGI Dewback and crappy Jabba scene (among other "improvements"), you're left with a gritty, 70's sci-fi movie with a lot of character. This version single-handedly rekindled my affection for the OT and it was the perfect antidote for 15 years of Star Wars fatigue. I can't wait for them to see ESB (yes, of course they know the twist, but there are plenty of other surprises) and I'm looking forward to RoTJ without the Sarlacc beak, and with the original Sy Snoodles and Ewok songs.

I'm definitely a fan of the Despecialized Edition too. Whoever made it did a fantastic job.

My girls and I watched that the other day (Star Wars). Unfortunately it was one of the special editions. Boy, are those additions dumb and unnecessary. I can *kind of* understand why the Jabba scene was added, as it had already been filmed and set up some things for later, but it just doesn't look convincing at all, especially the stepping on his tail part. But aside from that stuff, the film is still amazing. This time, I paid particular attention to the sound design, which was so cool and original in many ways; the voices of the Jawas, the X-Wing and Tie sounds, the light sabers, R2, Darth, etc. So distinctive and creative.

Also watched Inside Out again. Held up the 2nd time like the best of Pixar goodness.

A couple of Netflix queue viewings...

Frank: Great cast with Domhnall Gleason, Maggie Gyllenhall and Michael Fassbender, about an avant-garde musician who always wears a fake head, and his band trying to record an album and find relevance. As a musician and songwriter/composer, there was some fun stuff for me to appreciate, but it kind of bounces between satirical comedy and more serious drama in a way that doesn't always work that well. Like Gleason's protagonist, the film has trouble finding its voice. But still worth a look.

The Conversation: A Francis Ford Coppola film from 1974 starring Gene Hackman and including a young Harrison Ford. Hackman is a guy who is paid to eavesdrop on a couple's conversation, and starts to see some potential issues and danger with what's happening. Very 70's slow burn, but pays off reasonably well.

The copy of Slapshot that I checked out from the library is the 25th anniversary edition, so it came with a few extras. The really interesting part is the commentary track by the Hanson Brothers. I have listened to quite a few commentary tracks over the years, including comments by directors, producers, actors, etc. Sometimes there is very technical discussion of how a stunt or effect was done. Sometimes you get an interesting anecdote of something that happened on the set. A lot of times, you get people saying that they "love" everything or everything is their "favorite" whatever. Not the Hanson Brothers.

The commentary by the Hanson Brothers is more like sports commentators at times. They comment on the technical proficiency of a pass, or a save by a goalie, or marvel at how well Paul Newman is skating. Or they will comment on which actors actually played for which teams in which leagues. And sometimes all three will go silent for a while, because they have nothing to add and they are just watching the movie. In general, they are of the opinion that this movie is about them, and they may have a point. It seems that the script was written by the sister of a player on their minor league hockey team, after she spent a season going to all their matches and hanging out with the team. Her brother (who also plays the notorious Oglethorpe in the championship) sometimes took a tape recorder into the locker room, just so she could get a better idea of how these players talk among themselves. So they consider themselves to be the stars of the movie because the movie is based on their team, and they were numerically a big part of the team.

By the way, the running gag in the movie about their toy cars was based on reality. They actually really enjoy racing those toy cars. When they all lived in the same apartment building with another one of their teammates, that guy moved in with one of them so they could use his apartment for a big racetrack setup. When the bars were closed on Sundays, they would invite a bunch of friends over and race cars all day on the track.