I saw Chappie and Kingsman Both are worth a look, but Chappie is a better film. I don't know what people aren't getting about it; if you thought District 9 was good, watch this. It's a similar heavy hitter. It's not just about a robot, in the same way that District 9 wasn't just about some aliens. I thought it was incredibly sad, funny, and thoughtful. I thought Kingsman was pretty good - just enough irreverence to give it its own place in the market. Somewhere between XXX (which I enjoyed) and the countless "Dude takes a dude under his wing for greater things" films that aren't very good. This was also pretty funny, lots of good action, and it was pretty tense.
Saw Chappie. it was good, but it was kind of hard for me to just concentrate on the story in a vacuum because I already knew the main characters. If you don't know Di Antwoord, the music group, look up some of there videos, and you'll see what I mean. Ninja and Yolandi from the movie are pretty much EXACTLY the same as NINJA and Yolandi in the music group, from dress, to phrases, like Zef, to persona. They didn't even change there names for god's sake. Because of that, it didn't feel like I was watching a movie, it feelt like a really long Di Antwoord video.
Flicks of late...at least last weekend anyway. Dracula Untold...not bad though it got comic bookish in the last 30 minutes. Different angle of story telling on the iconic bloodsucker. The sci-fi Lucy with Scarlett Johansson. The second was...uuummm...it had Scarlett Johansson in it.
I have the day off so I decided to re-watch a random assortment of all movies. First, I watched Zoolander with the recent news of the sequel. I didn't remember much about it, but my friends always hype it up. It was pretty funny, but nothing great. I like the cast though, so I'll watch the sequel unless it get really bad reviews. Right now, I'm watching The Village. Shymalan gets crapped on a lot, and I always remember talking crap on this movie, but when I thought about it, I actually enjoyed it the first time I watched it in theaters even if the twist was pretty cheap. Let's see how it lives up. And then assuming I don't get completely turned off by my re-watch of The Village, I'm going to watch Signs again tomorrow. I've seen this movie plenty of times. It's been a while, but I always enjoyed it.
Just saw a double feature of Divergent and Insurgent last night since I had never seen Divergent. The first movie had terrible reviews, but I thought it was a solid 3 out of 5. They did the whole heroin with little to no personality or dialog, that everyone thinks is so special, so girls can picture themselves in her place thing like Twilight or The Hunger Games to a much lesser extent. It was also most definitely a teenager move. Dialogue between the characters was very basic. Still it was pretty enjoyable IMO. The second movie Insurgent was better, but just barely. All in all I liked them both enough to rate them around the C to B range.
I don't plan on watching Insurgent, but I agree completely with your take on Divergent. A kid's movie with a heroin which is fine, but the acting was not good and the production/direction was incredibly average. It was the epitome of an average movie, but it was marketed as a blockbuster so I can see why it got some negative reviews.
I enjoyed Birdman, but I'll never watch it again. WWTAWWTAL is one of the most memorable things I've ever read for a class, and I was happy to see it was prominent in this flick.
Watched the movie, Focus, this weekend. Will Smith's newest movie in a while. I really liked it a lot and frankly am a little surprised at how low some of the rating are on some sites. With any con related movie there will always be twists and turns but throughout this movie when I was surely expecting something I was caught off guard by the movie leading me to a different resolution than I suspected. The ending caught me by surprise and I thought the whole movie was a fun ride. Fun fact, this was Will Smith's first R rated film since 2003 with Bad Boys 2
John Wick - surprisingly good. A friend told me it was better than the Equalizer. I doubted him. Ten minutes into the film I texted him to say, "Holy S***." Really well done.
Just watched John Wick because @trodgers reminded me I wanted to see it. It was really really good. The best American action movie I've seen in a long long time. This was just an old throwback fun action/killing movie
Saw FF7 last night. I have to say that I really enjoyed it. One of the friends I went with to see it couldn't stand it. It all depends on how you view the film and the franchise as a whole. No, it's not going to win an Oscar like Vinny is hoping for. But it is thoroughly dumb entertainment at its finest. Check your logic and thinking cap at the door, sit back, enjoy some big names fighting and some vehicles doing some ridiculous things that vehicles can't really do (with none of the stars getting hurt in the process) and you'll have some fun. I view it as a superhero movie...with cars. I couldn't tell where the CGI'ed Walker in at except the end, so they did a good job in that respect. The director really did some interesting camera tricks during some of the action. The Rock is flat out awesome in this franchise as Hobbs, he didn't have much screen time in this one, but made the most of what he had. Kurt Russell delivered and according to Diesel, we can expect to see him in a larger role when they head to NYC in the next film.Actually, all the new additions in this one nailed it. Statham was easily the best baddie the franchise has seen. Tony Jaa is a badass in anything he's in. Djimon Hounsou didn't have a lot to do, but made a good 2nd tier baddie (outside of some straight to dvd stuff, he usually delivers). The final 5 minutes are sad, that's when the Walker tribute kicks in. They handled the departure of his character with a lot of care and it shows. Well done. My biggest complaint was too much of the Vin and Michael Rodriguez love story. I know that have to pump that up now since they're other love story is leaving the franchise...but damn, I care nothing about that relationship. They should've kept her as a corpse. If I had to rank the films, it would probably be (don't hold me to this): 5, 6, 7, 4, 1, 2, 3. Six and seven are close, might flip flop if I watch them back to back.
^^ Agree with every thing you said JSM. A little too much Vin and Michelle was my only complaint about the movie. Otherwise, it was over the top stupid fun. It made $150 million on Thursday and Friday. Crazy numbers.
I'm excited for The Southpaw. Written by Kurt Sutter who wrote the SOA series. Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day / Equalizer). Was supposed to star Eminem, but he backed out, but did do the soundtrack. Jake Gylanhall is starring in it and he's cut up. Said all he did was box for 2 hours a day for 4 months. Dude is ripped. Thick. LOL Anyway, movie looks really good and has an interesting supporting cast.
^ Hadn't heard of Southpaw before but after reading your message and checking out the trailer I too am excited.
@John3:16, it does look good. I'm a sucker for a good boxing movie. I think Annapolis was probably one of the worst ones I've come across. Grudge Match wasn't good but it had the nostalgia factor working for it. Back to Southpaw, I'm really bummed Eminem backed out. Seems like it would have been such a home run for him. Sutter, Fuqua, and Eminem...I'm there at the midnight showing. I'm still looking forward to it, but I already know the whole time I'm going to be saying to myself, damn this should be Em.
@JSM have you seen the movie Cinderella Man? Great boxing movie, one of my favorites with Russell Crowe
Cinderella Man wad quite popular the year it came out. Good boxing movie. Check out Diggstown for a good boxing / comedy that has some good twists and turns. Underrated movie.
