Went to no less than three movies this last weekend/break: Creed: A. It was flat out great. Cinematography was great, plot was great, acting was really good. I'm ready for the next Creed movie. Mockingjay Pt.2: B. My wife read the books so I watched all four movies. The first two were at least watchable but not great. The third movie is one of the worst franchise movies ever. Terrible. But this one was really above average. They go places you're not expecting and do some cool things. It was a really great way to end the franchise. Good Dinosaur: C+. It's worth a watch but maybe not in the theaters. It's your typical Disney movie that plays with your heartstrings a bit. It felt kind of like Land Before Time meets Lion King but didn't live up to either. If that makes sense.
Agree. Such a good movie. Boxing movies rarely disappoint. Definitely not what I was expecting from Rocky VII. Great twist and I look forward to many more.
Creed was awesome. I took my pop to see it and he can be an old curmudgeon sometimes. He hates going out and hasn't been to a movie theater in years. When he didn't sleep through the movie and ended up saying "it was okay," that is high praise.
I saw the Martian 2 weeks ago. I thought it was ok to good, I expected better to be honest. I never read the book so I don't know how closely they followed it, but I kept getting taken out of it trying to figure out if it was going for super realistic sci-fi, or pure sci-fi, or, or both. With a movie like this I felt they needed to pick a direction and stick with it, because a lot of stuff was impressive and cool, and then other stuff had me going, "come on, really, I'm supposed to buy this as possible?". The audience around me seemed to get a lot of laughs from Damon's narrating his situation, but I only got a couple. My biggest laugh was the Lord of the Rings Sean Bean reference. At the very least I thought the ending was gripping and worth sitting through what felt like a looooong movie for, but this isn't one I'll ever watch again. B- I saw Mockingjay Part 2 yesterday, and honestly was a little disappointed. Was quite a bit slower and filled with nothing but dispair for what I expected. I get that it's war and a terrible time, but every single second everyone is down, it's ok to throw in a light moment to break it up I think. Just like Part 1 half the movie is underground, I get sick of bunkers and such and would like to see daylight. I never read the books, so I get this is probably all according to the story, but dang, with the set-up of the 1st 2 movies I expected a much more epic conclusion. I think a big problem is this didn't need to be 2 movies, it was a cash grab. It could have probably been one great movie, paced better and more to the point, but instead it's 2 ok/good movies. This one kinda makes Mockingjay 1 feel even more unnecessary. C+ I like what I'm hearing about Creed, I plan on seeing that one this weekend. My sister has never seen the Rocky movies, so I'm currently showing them to her before we go. So far we've watched 1&2. 3&4 I think are crucial before seeing Creed too, but I'm debating on 5. On the one hand it kinda stinks, but on the other, if you don't see it you won't get how Rocky ended up relatively poor and back in his old neighborhood. Oh and I finally saw Mad Max Fury Road about a week ago. Loved it, hell of a fun ride. I should say it's the first I've ever seen of any Mad Max movies, but I loved the world they created, all the crazy characters, the look of it, the colors they used (orange for day, blue for night), it really sucked me in. For me it went by quick, 2 hours of pure fun. I love that most of the effects/stunts were real stuff too, I think that really makes a difference in a movie like this. Loved all the cast, especially Theron and Hoult. Will be buying this on bluray at some point.
Rocky 5 is one of the worst franchise movies ever man, don't do it. You're going to regret it. Just tell her what happens in it and move on to Rocky 6. My buddies and I recently held a little movie event with a group of people in which we prepped for Creed. My one buddy was adamant that we watch Rocky 1-4 and 6 to get ready for Creed. Really you need 2-4 and maaaaybe 6 but honestly not really. Also as amazingly fun as 3 and 4 are they're nowhere near how great 1, 2, and 6 are. If you include Creed as a Rocky movie it goes: I, II, Creed, VI, IV, III,................. ................ .... Star Wars Ep. 2, Mocking Jay Pt. 1, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, and Rocky 5.
I actually don't mind Rocky 5, I think I just love the franchise that much. I know it isn't a good movie, but I could watch the character of Rocky do pretty much anything. I recently saw 5 on tv and couldn't stop watching, it's bad but it's still part of the story. And yeah of course 3 and 4 drop off from 1 and 2, but they're full of so much cheese and 80s-ness that they're fun, and have been parodied on so many things my sister has to see where it came from. The beach bromance of Rocky and Apollo, Mr T, the Cold War stuff, Rocky vs Dragon training sequences with cheesy music, I love it all. She's actually already seen 6, she saw it when it came out, and it was one of the first blurays I ever bought. Oh and I like that you have Star Wars 2 as one of the worst franchise movies. Most people put episode 1 there, but I think 2 is worse. At least 1 had Liam Neeson, Darth Maul, the pod race, and a lot of actual buildings used as sets so it LOOKS more like the originals. 2 looks like a video game half the time and the acting is somehow worse.
Rocky IV is one of the greatest propaganda pieces for the American Empire that has ever existed. I show the training montage every semester in either philosophy or mythology.
Oh don't get me wrong I adore Rocky 3 and 4, they're a blast. For fun, rewatch four and count how much of the movie is NOT 1. a montage or 2. a musical number or 3. a fight. It's pretty much 10 minutes of actual "movie" and I love it. Mr. T was maybe my favorite opponent Rocky had! He was great. As far as a real "movie" goes though with an arc and a plot and all that fun stuff only 1,2,6, and Creed match that description. And as much as I love Rocky, the fifth one just... ugh man I can't do it. I can't watch it. What's crazy is they were ahead of their time with the whole concussion issue and yet they found a way to make it a whiny movie about a couple of immature kids that devolves into a street fight. Oi. Definitely 2 is worse than 1 by a wide margin to me. You replace Liam Neeson with Hayden Christensen's amazingly wooden acting and the whole thing is green screened. It turned into a rave for a while there and the climactic fight scene with Dooku/Anakin is a light show in the dark with their two faces. Ew.
We can all agree Rocky V is clearly the worst of the franchise. That said, I've seen worse movies. But yea, it's the one movie you only need to see once really, or just read the Wikipedia plot summary if you've never seen it. My favorite villain was Clubber Lang. First of all, great name. Second, he seemed the most menacing and animalistic opponent. Straight up crazy, bloodthirsty, foaming at the mouth. I know Drago killed Apollo and all, but he always seemed more like a government stooge. Cold and robotic. Plus they played a bit of the sympathy angle where he was like "I'm fighting for me!" As for the Star Wars prequels. I can't stand any of them really. You guys are on the money with episode 2. Lots of action, but it all feels so damn bright and artificial. And even though I know Ep3 got more praise, it still fell short in a lot of ways to me. Honestly, the high point of that movie for me was probably the opening sequence, culminating with "another happy landing" to screenwipe. I am still praying for The Force Awakens to be good. I can't take another heartbreak.
Rocky opponents: Clubber Lang, Apollo Creed, Spider Rico, Drago, all the guys he beat in that montage in Rocky 3, Tommy Gunn, and then after all those guys is Dixon from Rocky 6. I find Ep. 1 mostly watchable if completely silly, Ep. 2 unwatchable, and Ep. 3 surprisingly adequate. If Hayden Christensen wasn't one of the worst young actors out there, Ep. 3 would be pretty decent. He was so insanely wooden it was like the guy they'd actually cast wasn't there that day so they had some random stand in do it for a while and then said "ah eff it let's just keep him and save some money". I've seen better acting on SNL than 99% of what Hayden did. His only redeeming moment might have been that final fight scene with Obi-Wan but even then Ewan McGregor just didn't have much to work with.
IMO, Rocky 1 was FAR above the rest. 2 is second, then 7, 6, 3, 4, and WAAAAAY at the bottom, 5. I think they were trying to close the franchise with 5 and just lept so far forward, when really, 7 should've been 5. I agree with others who said 3 and 4 were just so 80s. A lot of fun, but in the grand scheme of things, not gonna be on any IMDB top 100 list (or 250 for that matter).
Saw a free screening of In The Heart Of the Sea which is a Ron Howard movie. Generally a solid movie based off of actual events. I will say the plot did feel rushed at times but with so much that happened I'll excuse that for the timing. But the story pretty much stayed true to the actual events save for a few Hollywood add ins and what not. Did see it in 3D which imo didn't really add to the movie. Overall I'd give it a solid 3 out of 5.
That's trailer just screamed of them trying too hard to make it good. I'm not confident at all that this will be good.
I felt nothing with that Independence Day sequel trailer. I thought I might feel nostalgia, as someone who went nuts for the original as a kid and saw it like 8 times and twice in one day, but I didn't. It doesn't look bad, but it felt overly dramatic for what it is, sort of like the Transformers movies. The first one was dramatic, but it also had a lot of humor, I hope they keep that. At least Goldblum is back, because I love that guy. I'll still see this anyway even if I'm not excited initially, simply because there aren't enough big budget movies about fighting alien invasions. Low budget crap and Sy-Fy Channel stuff doesn't count.
I think it has potential and unlike some people I don't think it needs Will Smith to be good. I liked everything about the trailer except 1) Wish they got Michael B Jordan to be Hiller's son 2) the overly clean look of the futuristic technology. I wish it was a little grimier and dirtier, more reminiscent of the real world present day. Thinking back to the original films, the alien tech didn't look super clean and sleek. Parts of the trailer reminded me of Starship Troopers and not in a great way.
I just want to share that Inside Out is probably one of Pixar's finest films to date. My daughter loves it and I've watched it twice with her now. I just love the message at the end there: "It's okay to be sad. It's okay to cry." Society doesn't do that enough. Nearly everyone around us tells us to just "be happy... cheer up!" forcing us to ignore the other emotions we have. It's a great way for kids to learn about emotions, expressing your feelings and in a way, mood disorders.
