Recommend a movie?

[Sandra Craft]

A lot of people seem to think Tarantino is all about gore for some reason when 90% of his films are dialogue

Probably because dialogue is inevitable, but gore is not so it makes the gore stand out so much more.  And he does do serious gore, which makes it even more overwhelming. 

Question:  did you laugh during the hanging scene?  Maybe my sense of humor is twisted, but I did -- and maybe 2 or 3 other people in the audience.  I sensed the rest of the audience was glaring at us, and I suspect what humor may have been in the scene depends on whether the viewer concentrated on Daisy or on Warren and Mannix.

[Ecurb Noselrub]

"Joy", starring Jennifer Lawrence, is a good watch.  It's loosely based on the life of Joy Mangano, who invented the self-wringing mop (yes, I know that doesn't sound too exciting), but the value of it is showing how difficult it is to break into that world and become successful.  Most would have given up, I think.

[xSilverPhinx]

The Hateful Eight was a good movie, and I'm generally not a Tarantino fan. 

I intend to watch Joy when it's out in theaters here.   

[Sandra Craft]

   

Heh!


Last night I watched, one right after the other:

A Walk in the Woods, with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.  Cannot recommend it -- lackluster acting and story, not enough scenery.  Which was surprising all things considered.

Mr. Holmes, with Ian McKellen.  I had a hard time following the plot of this one at first, in which an elderly and, I think, dying Sherlock Holmes recalls his last case (which was also his first failure), as well as a recent meeting with a Japanese man whose life he unknowingly affected, while also dealing with his unhappy housekeeper and her bright, curious son. And bees, lots of bee talk.  I did eventually sort out the tangled plots and enjoyed it.

The Martian, with Matt Damon.  Tech was taken down a bit from the book but was still too much for many viewers.  I love listening to sciency and techy talk, even if I do only understand one word in (if I'm lucky) 10.  A lot of people mention the funny scene of Sean Bean, playing the flight director character, explaining to the PR woman why he named the secret meetings about the rescue "Elrond".  For me the funny part was that this woman was in geek central (even the sophisticated and urbane NASA director chimed in with his choice of a LotR name for the meetings) with everyone in the room trying to explain it to her at once, until she finally got fed up and said "I hate you all right now".  I enjoyed it, it was oddly funny and moving.

[Firebird]

A lot of people seem to think Tarantino is all about gore for some reason when 90% of his films are dialogue

Probably because dialogue is inevitable, but gore is not so it makes the gore stand out so much more.  And he does do serious gore, which makes it even more overwhelming. 

Question:  did you laugh during the hanging scene?  Maybe my sense of humor is twisted, but I did -- and maybe 2 or 3 other people in the audience.  I sensed the rest of the audience was glaring at us, and I suspect what humor may have been in the scene depends on whether the viewer concentrated on Daisy or on Warren and Mannix.

I saw it last week, in 70mm. I'm a Tarantino fan and I liked this one too, but I didn't love it like some of his other movies. The dialogue was good, but not enough to fill the first half, which seemed to drag on for no particular reason. It picked up in the second half, but the narration by Tarantino to lead off that part of the movie felt condescending in some way; why feel the need to spell things out so explicitly rather than trust your audience to pick up on it?

It was beautifully shot though, and the acting was top-notch, as it always is for him. The Kill Bill movies are my favorite, just ahead of Pulp Fiction and then Inglourious Basterds.

The Martian, with Matt Damon.  Tech was taken down a bit from the book but was still too much for many viewers.  I love listening to sciency and techy talk, even if I do only understand one word in (if I'm lucky) 10.  A lot of people mention the funny scene of Sean Bean, playing the flight director character, explaining to the PR woman why he named the secret meetings about the rescue "Elrond".  For me the funny part was that this woman was in geek central (even the sophisticated and urbane NASA director chimed in with his choice of a LotR name for the meetings) with everyone in the room trying to explain it to her at once, until she finally got fed up and said "I hate you all right now".  I enjoyed it, it was oddly funny and moving.

Absolutely loved this movie. I haven't read the book yet, but it's now sitting on my pile of future reads.

[Guardian85]

The Martian, with Matt Damon.  Tech was taken down a bit from the book but was still too much for many viewers.  I love listening to sciency and techy talk, even if I do only understand one word in (if I'm lucky) 10.  A lot of people mention the funny scene of Sean Bean, playing the flight director character, explaining to the PR woman why he named the secret meetings about the rescue "Elrond".  For me the funny part was that this woman was in geek central (even the sophisticated and urbane NASA director chimed in with his choice of a LotR name for the meetings) with everyone in the room trying to explain it to her at once, until she finally got fed up and said "I hate you all right now".  I enjoyed it, it was oddly funny and moving.

Absolutely loved this movie. I haven't read the book yet, but it's now sitting on my pile of future reads.

Saw the movie then read the book. Both highly recommended.

[Essie Mae]

The Danish Girl. I was going to say a lot about this but did not want to spoil it for anyone. Emotional and a bit syrupy at times but involving and thought-provoking. Would recommend.

[Sandra Craft]

but the narration by Tarantino to lead off that part of the movie felt condescending in some way; why feel the need to spell things out so explicitly rather than trust your audience to pick up on it?

I thought that was Tarantino's voice.  My big problem with the narration is that he just doesn't have the voice for it -- too high and thin.  If he was going to insert a narrator here and there, he needed someone with a huskier voice.  Sam Elliott, for instance.

Absolutely loved this movie. I haven't read the book yet, but it's now sitting on my pile of future reads.

Bump the book up on your TBR pile, it's fantastic.

[Crow]

Watched The Revenant this evening. Act 1 is the setting, act 2 is Bear Grylls the movie, and act 3 is a typical revenge film squeezed into an act. Cinematography is fantastic and the acting very good. Not worth the praise it has been getting especially compared to The Danish Girl or Brooklyn but well worth the watch.

[xSilverPhinx]

The Danish Girl. I was going to say a lot about this but did not want to spoil it for anyone. Emotional and a bit syrupy at times but involving and thought-provoking. Would recommend.

Watched this today. Would also recommend.

[Biggus Dickus]

Recently I've watched the following three movies.

1) Martian
2) Intern
3) Tumbledown

I enjoyed the Martian quite a bit and thought it was visually appealing. I liked Matt Damon's character, but had expected the movie to be better than it was. I would have preferred more of Damon and his character dealing with being the first earthling left alone on a planet and how to not only survive, but cope with the ultimate isolation.

I also thought the ending was a bit of a stretch, and that's were the movie lost me as it got more Hollywood (Can't simply rescue the castaway, they have to make it a bigger than life probably statistically impossible rescue)

But this is definitely worth watching on the big-screen.


Intern...well, it's a cute movie. If you know the plot you can probably figure out how it's going to end...Widowed, retiree (Dinero) goes to work as an intern for a successful business woman running a fashion web-site.
This was okay, but I watched it at home, and would not recommend going to see it at the theatre. (I was bored through parts of it)

I liked Tumbledown a lot, especially Rebecca Hall's performance as the widower of a small town musician who came out with one great album that has the world reeling over.
She makes the movie in my opinion, and I enjoyed every minute of her on screen. Jason Sudeikis (Of SNL fame) plays a professor who comes out to meet with her so he can write a book about her late husband, and the impact his one great album has had on not only other people, but himself. I thought Jason played the part well,...bit of a surprise actually.

There's a great line in this movie that stuck with me: Rebecca Hall's character is standing on the shore of a frozen lake with Jason Sudeikis's character, and she say's, "I like living in a place like this where you have to earn your seasons". (Something close to that)

Would recombined this movie for a date night, whether at the movies or at home.
(Rebecca Hall reminds me of a younger Olivia Williams, another lovely British actor)

[Guardian85]

Just watched Deadpool and I really like it.
Happily violent and suitably dirty for it's lead character.
Recommended if you want a funny movie that isn't too serious.

[Firebird]

We netflixed "An Honest Liar"  last night,  a documentary about James Randi, the magician who's also made a career out of calling out and revealing con artists and fraudsters like Uri Geller. Really fascinating and surprisingly raw.

[Tank]

We netflixed "An Honest Liar"  last night,  a documentary about James Randi, the magician who's also made a career out of calling out and revealing con artists and fraudsters like Uri Geller. Really fascinating and surprisingly raw.

Seen that. Very good.

[Siz]

Just seen Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.

I gotta say it was very, very good.

I'm normally a bit 'Meh!' about action flicks (blah, blah, car chase, blah, blah, shooting, blah, blah, love interest...) but this one did everything intelligently and with panache - without taking itself too seriously. Best of the generally decent M:I franchise IMO.

9/10. Would've given it 10 but there was one too many Cruise look-how-handsome-I-am sidelong glances.