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

Mr. White wrote: JJ, in the realm of potential sci-fi scenarios...I wouldn't write off Fury Road so easily. With the Middle East still as volitale as ever, questionable states getting h bombs, and the planet continuing to warm, there still seems plenty of opportunity for a Mad Max type scenario at some point down the line. Granted, Fury Road doesn't deal with the events leading up to the situation, but another tale on how a group approaches survival. In this case, hope for a better place or fix what they got.

What Fury Road has to say about a post-apocalyptic world is by-the-by. It's real strength is what it says about the here and now. Fury Road is neck-deep in current social politics. It is very much a commentary on the world we are in, not the world we may get.

Watched The Godfather and Part II. I'd seen the former ages ago, never saw the latter until now. Both are incredible works, just done beautifully. I know III is not well-regarded and honestly, II ends without really needing anything to "finish" the story. People say Part II is better than the first, but I just don't see it. I liked it, but the first is just SO well done. Plus Sterling Hayden has a part in it, so you know it's quality.

I enjoyed The Hateful Eight. Initially, I was put off by the heavy delivery of the dialogue, but I eventually realized that it was the kind of forceful speaking that you see in a stage play, where the actors need to be heard all the way in the back of the theater. And until the action finally kicks in, The Hateful Eight is more like a play than a movie. Unlike some previous Tarantino dialogue which often included leisurely and amusing small talk, much of the dialogue here is very purposeful, defining complex and flawed characters and setting up the relationships between them.

There were several strong performances in this movie, especially Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern, and Walton Goggins. Others went more cartoonishly over the top, like Tim Roth and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Though I normally find him to be an expressionless and untalented slab of mystery meat, Channing Tatum was actually okay here. Zoe Bell was a bit disappointing in that she just played herself, but she is so upbeat and charming that I didn't even mind.

Though I saw this movie on a weekday afternoon, my viewing was slightly marred by a couple of young racist asian dudes sitting not too far from me. They giggled every time they heard the N-word, even late in the movie, and they completely lost their shit during Samuel L. Jackson's disturbing account of how he killed a certain bounty hunter. I wish that Tarantino had been present during that viewing, so that he might re-think how some of his audience is reacting to the N-word and possibly find different ways to express himself in future films. Race is definitely a central topic in The Hateful Eight, and Tarantino addressed it with more grace than he did in Django Unchained.

Although The Hateful Eight is clearly set in the Old West, I saw it as more of a Alistair MacLean kind of story than a western. The long buildup in dialogue sustains suspense admirably, and the eventual payoff in violence is at least equal to any other Tarantino flick except Kill Bill Part 1. Because of the big reveal, the movie is definitely worth a second viewing. Personally, two viewings would be completely sufficient, as the long buildup might become tedious on subsequent viewings.

Watched Interstellar with the wife and daughter over the weeked. It was 2 vs 1, them vs. me, with the ladies arguing that it was only the Plan B people who send the black hole and the Tesseract back to our timeline. I think it's your usual time travel bootstrap thing, but the ladies don't buy that. All that aside, it's a really good grown-up SF movie.

McConaughey s scene where he's listening to his children's video logs is worth the price of admission alone

RobertB wrote: Watched Interstellar with the wife and daughter over the weeked. It was 2 vs 1, them vs. me, with the ladies arguing that it was only the Plan B people who send the black hole and the Tesseract back to our timeline. I think it's your usual time travel bootstrap thing, but the ladies don't buy that. All that aside, it's a really good grown-up SF movie.

I think everyone on Earth died in the original timeline, but left behind that robotic AI which evolved and eventually found a way to save humanity.

I saw two movies this weekend....
Hateful Eight - if you like Tarantino, you'll like this movie. I'm happy to say it didn't feel like 3 hours at all. It's a pretty fantastic movie. And as always, Walton Goggins steals every scene he's in.

He Never Died - Henry Rollins is invulnerable. This sounds like the recipe for awesomeness. But it isn't. Dumb story, lame action, Henry not really being much of an actor... nothing really works here. One interesting high note: the actor who plays Trevor in GTA V is in this. I immediately recognized him, both from his looks and his voice.

I actually just watched Guardians of the Galaxy, and thought it was very, very good, but can't help being pissed for its Marvelism. In a way, they are very successful keeping it the comic-book-way where everyone says something smart/funny/awesome every 5 minutes, having unusual characters just for the sake of being different, having a twist just for the sake of making surprise, super ultra powerful being with a martial-artist right arm, etc, etc, etc. Everytime this happens, I'm yanked out of the universe.

I saw The Martian on the plane today and enjoyed it quite a bit. I was also able to catch about 30 minutes of A Man From U.N.C.L.E. I do enjoy Guy Ritchie stuff and this seems like it is delivering. I'll have to see it on the return trip.

Mr. White wrote: I feel the window is closing on Avatar's message though. I don't anticipate us colonizing a habitable planet anytime soon, and we seem to have already made the decision on how we're going to treat the resources and people on this one.

Depends on what you mean by habitable. It's very likely we'll be colonizing Mars within our lifetime, however people over there will be living inside bases or under domes. Terraforming is an undertaking that would take hundreds or more likely thousands of years.

If we ever find another earth-like planet with an existing ecology, notwithstanding the fact that distances between stars are simply immense and will take generations to cross even at great speed, chances are the alien bacteria over there will kill us anyways.