The "last movie I saw" thread

[Green Lantern]

I think it's pretty awesome that you have four star reviews from the Guardian and Roeper saying it's one of the best films this year, contrasted against "it's the worst movie I've ever seen" kind of stuff. The "it's shitty" camp definitely seems much bigger than the former, however. That said, I'm expecting such a pile of crap I'll probably still enjoy it because it won't be as bad as I'm expecting at this point. I'm the pornographer of cinema! Refn...lol.

Yeah, it's nowhere near the worst movie I've ever seen. It's too technically accomplished to merit that kind of label. (Seriously, every single shot in this movie approaches technical perfection.) But it needed some kind of narrative or at least thematic weight behind it for all of the technical accomplishments to add up to anything more than window-dressing.

[Green Lantern]

I tried Valhalla Rising. Very different. Didn't love it, but I give it a mild thumbs up. I was planning on getting to the Pusher Trilogy.

The Pusher Trilogy is a rough (but rewarding) sit. I recommend NOT watching them back-to-back-to-back.

[DrumNFeather]

Finally got around to seeing World War Z. I enjoyed it quite a bit...I had wondered how they were going to turn the book into a movie, but I thought they did a good job of making it a separate entity.

[Blueintheface]

Dispicable Me 2

I took my 13 year-old, too-cool-for-school daughter and her two friends and they all 3 said it was their favorite movie of the summer. I don't know what it is about the minions but they make me laugh. BTW, did anyone who saw this see the HFN minion?

[Green Lantern]

WE Redbox'd a couple of movies this weekend: Stoker is directed by Olboy's Park Chan-Wook. It's kind of a gothic family horror story about a widow, her daughter and the shady brother of their dead husband/father who comes to stay with him with a TON of Hitchcock elements thrown in. Like Only God Forgives it is stylistically pretty amazing; every shot is a piece of art and some of the transitions between scenes will stick with you for days. Unlike Only God Forgives this one actually has a fairly compelling story at its center. It's not Park's best film by any means but he's so assured stylistically that I'll stand in line for whatever is coming next. Good cast too: Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode and Mia Wasikowska are all terrific.

We had a 2-for-1 code at Redbox so we also rented The Call, featuring Halle Berry and a pretty terrible wig. Our expectations were low but this is actually a well-made and tightly plotted suspense movie. It's probably been mentioned before on the board but for the benefit of those who haven't heard of it Berry is a 9-1-1 dispatch operator who gets a call from a girl who has been kidnapped and is stuck in the trunk of her kidnapper's car. It's especially good during the first 3/4's as Berry has to keep the girl on the line while feeding any clues they can gather to the police who are trying to close in on the kidnapper. It loses a bit of its essential believability in the final act but it's still pretty enjoyable overall. Solid B-movie entertainment.

[Surfah]

The Descendants again. I swear this movie gets better each time I watch it.

[PaloAltoCougar]

The Descendants again. I swear this movie gets better each time I watch it.

Strongly agree. I enjoy the various performances even more, and I love the scenes where the Clooney and Woodley characters restrain themselves from responding to the grieving father when he rants about what a lousy husband and daughter they were to his "perfect" little girl. There are some great lessons there.

[UVACoug]

I'll join LAU and Paperback in recommending The Way Way Back. With no explosions (other than a fireworks display) or CGI, it was a refreshing change from standard summer fare, a very nice coming of age movie about a young teenager dealing with pretty screwed up adults. Written by two of the three guys (Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, sans Alexander Payne) who wrote The Descendants (and the two have brief but funny roles in the movie), the script is nicely done. Steve Carell does a good job at playing a completely unfunny jerk. Lots of other good performers, including the painfully awkward teen, Liam James.

Not to mention Sam Rockwell, who is amazing.


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[UVACoug]

Saw Only God Forgives last night. It's Nicolas Winding Refn's follow-up to Drive and, like that movie, stars Ryan Gosling as a man-of-few-words with a penchant for extreme violence. However, unlike that 2011 movie, this movie is absolutely terrible. Refn is phenomenally skilled at framing his shots and using colors and lighting to set a mood; every scene looks artfully composed. But in the end it's a lot of directorial flourish in the service of what? A muddled, violent tone poem with ugly characters, incestuous overtones and no real themes to speak of. There's nothing to latch onto here, just ugliness for the sake of ugliness. Gosling doesn't do the film any favors. His angry, intense, wordless glare thing is growing tiresome, especially when he doesn't balance it with any kind of feeling or softness. The film comes across as a giant pretentious (and, worst of all, totally humorless) mess that leaves you thankful when the credits roll.

Worst movie I've seen this year.

So disappointing. Drive is my favorite movie since it came out. I'm still going to watch this one, but its not looking great.


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[Coach McGuirk]

The Descendants again. I swear this movie gets better each time I watch it.

I really love that movie.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I really love that movie.

Me too.

[Surfah]

I really love that movie.

I think it's in my top 5 now. Certainly top 10. BTW, didn't we have a top 5 movie thread? I swear search isn't turning up jack for me anymore.

[The_Tick]

Wolverine.

Liked it.

[Katy Lied]

I really love that movie.

Me too.

[Green Lantern]

The Wolverine. It was just okay but I think I'm suffering from Summer movie fatigue at this point. Hugh Jackman is great in the role and the first 2/3's of the film were interesting but the climax devolved into standard CGI fighting and it might as well have been the end of any other big movie this summer. (Still better than The Descendants though. I kid!)