The "last movie I saw" thread

[UtahDan]

lol. I was seriously just about to when I saw Katy's comment. But it's a little more fun to pick on you!

I can take it.

[LA Ute]

Nice to have CUF to bring to our attention these under-the-radar movies and TV shows.

Hey, this is "The Last Movie I Saw" thread.

[Top Ute]

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Screened it for my avid fisherman son, soon to be 11 (movie itself is PG-13). Good thing I did -- this is a movie about adult relationships, with fishing as a backdrop. My wife would like this movie more than my kiddo, who could probably handle a couple of the movie's more intimate scenes.

It's a quirky movie that provides some laughs, but the plot turns are beyond predictable (and I felt like a sucker for not spotting them for what they would eventually be earlier in the movie). Kristin Scott Thomas kills it in her role as an overburdened press secretary, and Amr Waked is fabulous as the rich Yemeni sheikh who "brings" fishing to his country.

[Commando]

Bernie

WOW. I loved this movie. The first 30 minutes or so are magic. I'll definitely echo what other critics have said and say that this is Jack Black's best role since School of Rock. He is genius in this role and really demonstrates serious acting chops (as opposed to just being himself like he did in school of rock).

I thought the director had a tough time creating some of the tension necessary to the narrative with all the comic relief in the movie, and that really bugged me because I think it really detracted from the movie's plot arch and created some serious tonal confusion, but that's about my only complaint. Granted, I'm about the world's biggest Jack Black fan, but this movie was my favorite of the year. Sure shot Oscar nod for Jables. Mark it.

[Katy Lied]

Battleship

I knew this would be bad, but I wanted to see it for the Hawaii footage, and there is a section where they take a helicopter and buzz between naval ships during a rim pac exercise that was awesome.

It was bad in new and interesting ways. What offended me the most was that it starred Rhianna, who also got top billing. Liam Neeson must be crazy to play second fiddle to Rhianna, who cannot act, and was cast in stupendously moronic role.

Shame on director Peter Berg. I liked him oh so very much when he was just an actor playing a doctor on ER. I did like how the writers found a plot to connect this movie to the Hasbro Battleship game. (Yeah, that game, where you try to find your opponent's battleships).

If you are forced to see this movie, fear not. Simply bring an index card, and a pen, and document how many skills 5-foot-nothin' Rhianna's character has in this movie:

soccer star
communications officer
mans the gun on an inflatable boat
pilots a modern day destroyer
pilots an old fashioned non-digital battleship
drops depth charges
artillery specialist on modern destroyer
artillery on old battleship
etc.

[Commando]

Battleship.

This whole thing is a spoiler.. that is, if you believe that knowing what's coming is somehow the thing that will spoil this movie for you. Trust me, it's not.

This was breathtakingly horrible. I went with a group and knew I should have faked like I was too tired and gone home to some BBC Sherlock when the Hasbro logo appeared on the silver screen during the opening credits .

This played out sort of like a new, horribly conceived Friday Night Lights spinoff called something like, "Friday Night Life Accelerated." Here, we join the ever-untamed stallion Tim Riggins just in time for his latest drunken antics to get him into hot water with his responsible-Naval-officer-older-brother, who, in a moment of righteous brotherly reprimand, summons all the intergalactic transdimensional indignation of Mighty Odin and informs him that he's joining the Navy-- which forceful entreaty Riggins was apparently powerless to resist under the circumstances (seeing as how this was the last straw and all ).

Flash forward to Riggins thriving within the rigid structure of the Navy while still managing to play by his own rules-- we are shown that he is clearly admired by his peers for his unabashed confidence, disregard for self-discipline, and skill at soccer, while he remains a rugged outlier to the usual protocol that applies to seamen and- oh let's not forget that he's also hot on the radar of his painstakingly sober and majestic superior officers.

Also, throughout the exposition we are bombarded with reminders of how much potential he has and how smart he is, if only he would ______ he could really ______!!

Rihanna inexplicably shows up as a lead in this for what we can all safely assume is her attempt at her own personal 'Anaconda' moment. We shall see. Oh and by the way, no joke, Landry is also on hand (as a sailor this time) to provide that trademark bone-dry Texas-style gingersnap wit we've come to rely on to make us crack a smile when the goin' gets tough! There are also a couple of subplots involving Riggins' hard-won gf and a veteran amputee who is coming to terms with his physical limitations while discovering his true inner strength.

Ok, so that's the structure. Now the movie goes into apeshit overdrive in an obvious attempt to incorporate at least one key element from every single movie from the Alien Attack genre. We are treated to the unannounced arrival of alien ships accompanied by signature pillar-of-light moments (Independence Day, V), with reptilian eyes (independence Day, V), are nearly invincible hunters (think Predator in an Ironman suit and you're getting warm), a premonition of Earth's destruction under fire of innumerable alien squadrons (War of the Worlds), an army of intelligent robotic thingies (Transformers, Revenge of the Sith) etc. etc. etc.

Of course no cinematic abomination would be complete without at least one jaw-droppingly awful one-liner, and this movie doesn't disappoint on that front!

"Mahalo, Muther(big explosion)"

"Let's drop some lead on these muther(big explosion)"

There are others of which I made mental notes in anticipation of writing this review, but, mercifully, they have escaped me for now. I kept wincing in anticipation of the moment when somebody inevitably uttered "you sunk my battleship," or some variation thereof, but thankfully it never happened. (Unless I somehow missed it, but I don't think so.)

I did enjoy how the movie somehow managed to shoehorn the actual structure and strategy of the Hasbro game of the same name into the battle strategy that was, of necessity, drawn up on the fly in the movie. When that grid showed up on the big screens in the war room, I couldn't stifle my giggles. Make no mistake though, those were giggles that escaped my lips in spite of myself.

And just when you thought this movie couldn't be any more insulting, they go and get real-life navy veteran old-timers and have them storm into the movie just in time to take over the embarrassing one-liners and awkward plot turns right at the crucial moment when you thought the career actors couldn't take them anymore.

Why did I write this long review? Because I sat there for 2 hours $10 poorer thinking mean things about the person in our group who put all his chips in for this movie, and also being mad at myself for being so passive. What was I thinking? Did I really let him get away with dragging us into Battleship on the clearly faulty basis that Liam Neeson was in it so it must be decent? :igiveup:

[Katy Lied]

wow our reviews are strikingly similar. Or at least, we mocked the same things, and admired the same thing.

[Northwestcoug]

Watched "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samarai" on a long flight last week. I had wanted to see this for quite a while, on the advice of friends and generally favorable critic reviews (82% on rottentomatoes). Also, because of pictures like this:



I'm generally kinder on films when I'm not paying for them. But in this case, WTF? Nothing happened! No samarais! Just Forrest Whitaker killing a few Italian mobsters! Interspersed with long scenes of nothing!

I chuckled at a few scenes and lines. But there was a lot of nothing in this film. Or did I miss some great samarai parallels because of jet lag?

[Northwestcoug]

And on another long flight, "The Rum Diary". Bleh. Boring. Lame. This is coming from a Johnny Depp fan.

[Jacob]

Battleship.

This whole thing is a spoiler.. that is, if you believe that knowing what's coming is somehow the thing that will spoil this movie for you. Trust me, it's not.

This was breathtakingly horrible. I went with a group and knew I should have faked like I was too tired and gone home to some BBC Sherlock when the Hasbro logo appeared on the silver screen during the opening credits .

This played out sort of like a new, horribly conceived Friday Night Lights spinoff called something like, "Friday Night Life Accelerated." Here, we join the ever-untamed stallion Tim Riggins just in time for his latest drunken antics to get him into hot water with his responsible-Naval-officer-older-brother, who, in a moment of righteous brotherly reprimand, summons all the intergalactic transdimensional indignation of Mighty Odin and informs him that he's joining the Navy-- which forceful entreaty Riggins was apparently powerless to resist under the circumstances (seeing as how this was the last straw and all ).

Flash forward to Riggins thriving within the rigid structure of the Navy while still managing to play by his own rules-- we are shown that he is clearly admired by his peers for his unabashed confidence, disregard for self-discipline, and skill at soccer, while he remains a rugged outlier to the usual protocol that applies to seamen and- oh let's not forget that he's also hot on the radar of his painstakingly sober and majestic superior officers.

Also, throughout the exposition we are bombarded with reminders of how much potential he has and how smart he is, if only he would ______ he could really ______!!

Rihanna inexplicably shows up as a lead in this for what we can all safely assume is her attempt at her own personal 'Anaconda' moment. We shall see. Oh and by the way, no joke, Landry is also on hand (as a sailor this time) to provide that trademark bone-dry Texas-style gingersnap wit we've come to rely on to make us crack a smile when the goin' gets tough! There are also a couple of subplots involving Riggins' hard-won gf and a veteran amputee who is coming to terms with his physical limitations while discovering his true inner strength.

Ok, so that's the structure. Now the movie goes into apeshit overdrive in an obvious attempt to incorporate at least one key element from every single movie from the Alien Attack genre. We are treated to the unannounced arrival of alien ships accompanied by signature pillar-of-light moments (Independence Day, V), with reptilian eyes (independence Day, V), are nearly invincible hunters (think Predator in an Ironman suit and you're getting warm), a premonition of Earth's destruction under fire of innumerable alien squadrons (War of the Worlds), an army of intelligent robotic thingies (Transformers, Revenge of the Sith) etc. etc. etc.

Of course no cinematic abomination would be complete without at least one jaw-droppingly awful one-liner, and this movie doesn't disappoint on that front!

"Mahalo, Muther(big explosion)"

"Let's drop some lead on these muther(big explosion)"

There are others of which I made mental notes in anticipation of writing this review, but, mercifully, they have escaped me for now. I kept wincing in anticipation of the moment when somebody inevitably uttered "you sunk my battleship," or some variation thereof, but thankfully it never happened. (Unless I somehow missed it, but I don't think so.)

I did enjoy how the movie somehow managed to shoehorn the actual structure and strategy of the Hasbro game of the same name into the battle strategy that was, of necessity, drawn up on the fly in the movie. When that grid showed up on the big screens in the war room, I couldn't stifle my giggles. Make no mistake though, those were giggles that escaped my lips in spite of myself.

And just when you thought this movie couldn't be any more insulting, they go and get real-life navy veteran old-timers and have them storm into the movie just in time to take over the embarrassing one-liners and awkward plot turns right at the crucial moment when you thought the career actors couldn't take them anymore.

Why did I write this long review? Because I sat there for 2 hours $10 poorer thinking mean things about the person in our group who put all his chips in for this movie, and also being mad at myself for being so passive. What was I thinking? Did I really let him get away with dragging us into Battleship on the clearly faulty basis that Liam Neeson was in it so it must be decent? :igiveup:

On one hand, it's not like there is anything else to watch at the theater right now, having seen Avengers. On the other the best I can say for it is that it wasn't as bad as recent Transformer offerings.
After a short cart nap in the middle of this movie, I awoke refreshed and was able to enjoy the second half. Not a total loss of an evening.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I read a review of Battleship the other day where the critic predicted it would be the dumbest movie of the summer.

Pass.

[RobinFinderson]

Watched "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samarai" on a long flight last week. I had wanted to see this for quite a while, on the advice of friends and generally favorable critic reviews (82% on rottentomatoes). Also, because of pictures like this:

I'm generally kinder on films when I'm not paying for them. But in this case, WTF? Nothing happened! No samarais! Just Forrest Whitaker killing a few Italian mobsters! Interspersed with long scenes of nothing!

I chuckled at a few scenes and lines. But there was a lot of nothing in this film. Or did I miss some great samarai parallels because of jet lag?

LittleRobin loved this movie. You are officially less sophisticated than my 13-yo son.

[Commando]

LittleRobin loved this movie. You are officially less sophisticated than my 13-yo son.

This was scored by the RZA, which is why I've been meaning to see this...

[Northwestcoug]

LittleRobin loved this movie. You are officially less sophisticated than my 13-yo son.

Apparently. What did he like about it? I was bored; I can't imagine a teenage kid being less bored than I was.

This was scored by the RZA, which is why I've been meaning to see this...

The score was OK. Again, there were a few scenes/lines that got a chuckle out of me (in kind of a 'that was clever' way), but everything else seemed amateurish.

If you see it, just don't have high hopes.

[marsupial]

I watched a bootleg copy of the movie Hysteria last night.

Yes, it's a sweet love story and also a little history on the invention of the vibrator.

[YOUTUBE]tFy6cfPmjd4[/YOUTUBE]