The "last movie I saw" thread

[BoylenOver]

"The Apartment"

Really enjoyable. Jack Lemmon's physical comedy is awesome, and Shirley McLaine was a fox.

[Green Lantern]

I took my daughter to the Family Film Series at the Tower Theatre last night. They were showing a collection of family friendly animated shorts from around the world and it was only $5 each so I figured it would be a nice outing. And even though we had a good time and my six-year old enjoyed the shorts, I was a bit annoyed that the whole program was barely 60 minutes long. We only saw 5 shorts! Come on Tower!

Fortunately that gave me time to check out some movies to rent from the Tower's video library. I took home documentarian Errol Morris's Gates of Heaven. It's about a bunch of people involved in the pet cemetary business in 1970s California. I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the more focused Morris documentaries like Mr. Death or Tabloid, but it was still a fascinating reminder that the world is made up of some weird personalities.

[ERCougar]

I re-watched this the other night. The film that JGL watches at the theater is really enjoyable. And I still swoon over the expectations vs reality scene.

I'm no film connoisseur and have no idea what makes a great scene, but I agree that this is the most memorable (and painful) scene of the movie. Strikes an all too familiar chord.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Saw Crazy, Stupid, Love. on Tuesday. It was a decent romantic comedy, redeemed by the chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. They were fantastic. Actually, with a couple major exceptions, the cast was very good. Steve Carell, Julianne Moore and Marisa Tomei were all great. The script itself was kind of a mess and it gives in to formula. Enjoyable though.

Last night I finally caught X-Men: First Class. Maybe my expectations were too high, since I'd been hearing from several sources that it was the best comic book movie of the summer, but I found it pretty mediocre. Outside of Michael Fassbender as Magneto and James McAvoy as Professor X, the cast was pretty terrible. Not a single person stood out in any noteworthy way (ah, except Kevin Bacon, who makes a great scenery-chewing villain.) On top of that, most of the action was second rate and there was a campiness to the whole affair that made the proceedings seem pretty silly.

The best comic book movies are able to marry these fantastic concepts and action with grounded, charismatic heroes, letting the audience suspend their disbelief and overlook how ridiculous the whole thing may seem at first glance. The best I can say about this one is that it was better than Green Lantern, but that ain't high praise. It was nowhere near as enjoyable as Thor and Captain America.

I was also confused by the great reviews for X-Men First Class. The kid that flies through screaming is terrible (the character sucks) and the battle with the naval ships was just cheesy. January Jones is soooo hot, but she is equally a terrible actress.

With that said, I liked it better than Captain America. Captain America is a lame comic book hero. All he does is swing that damn shield around, lame. I'm also not a huge fan of that actor.

Thor was the best comic book movie of the summer and I suppose that was in large part due to the cast. The guy that plays Thor has more charisma than any of the leads from the other movies. Additionally, Hopkins, Portman and the guy that played Loki were pretty good.

I didn't see Green Lantern. Looks like that one's going to need a reboot. From boxofficemojo, it looks like the WB lost quite a bit of money on it. Why do the studios try to force the issue with guys like Ryan Reynolds. Either go with a real leading actor, an unknown or some guy from the indie movie scene (e.g. Christian Bale).

[Green Lantern]

I didn't see Green Lantern. Looks like that one's going to need a reboot. From boxofficemojo, it looks like the WB lost quite a bit of money on it. Why do the studios try to force the issue with guys like Ryan Reynolds. Either go with a real leading actor, an unknown or some guy from the indie movie scene (e.g. Christian Bale).

The sad thing is they're already going ahead with the sequel.

[Mormon Red Death]

[QUOTE=Color Me Badd Fan;629862]I was also confused by the great reviews for X-Men First Class. The kid that flies through screaming is terrible (the character sucks) and the battle with the naval ships was just cheesy. January Jones is soooo hot, but she is equally a terrible actress.

With that said, I liked it better than Captain America. Captain America is a lame comic book hero. All he does is swing that damn shield around, lame. I'm also not a huge fan of that actor.

[\QUOTE]

BOO!! Captain America kicks ass.

[Green Lantern]

BOO!! Captain America kicks ass.

I'll second that. Saying all Cap does is hit people with his shield is like saying all Indiana Jones does is swing a whip. His awesomeness goes beyond his super powers.

[Flattop]

Rooster Cogburn (and the Lady)

Pretty good sequel to True Grit starring John Wayne and Katherine Hepburn.

[MarkGrace]

The final HPotts.

[New Mexican Disaster]

Hot Tub Time Machine.

Nothing special, but good for a few laughs.

[BoylenOver]

The Illusionist is brilliant. Absolutely beautiful and very poignant. Especially if you get a little context surrounding Jaques Tati and his daughter. One of my favourite films of the year. I may be a bit biased due to my Sylvain Chomet affinity.

I saw this tonight. You're right, it was visually stunning and very interesting.

"Triplets of Belleville" is next in my queue.

[LA Ute]

"The Help." Funny, intriguing story. Also touching, with some fine acting. I'd be interested in knowing what wuap thinks of it.

[Katy Lied]

Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Hail Caesar.

[Green Lantern]

Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Hail Caesar.

Such a pleasant surprise. I liked how they made all of the human characters so boring or evil that there was no doubt you were cheering for the apes the entire time. Hugely satisfying.

One of the movies I'm looking forward to this Fall is Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, with Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. So, in preparation, my wife and I rented Refn's Pusher Trilogy from the Tower. The three movies are all studies of characters in the criminal and drug underworld of Copenhagen. Each one is a self-contained story but they all have some common characters and take place in the same area. Good grief these are some bleak movies. They are very stylishly made and portions of them are almost unbearably intense, but they also leave you emotionally drained. Several parts reminded me of The Wire.

Refn does an amazing job of keeping his characters alternately repugnant and sympathetic, so the viewer can never just emotionally disconnect from what's going on. The first film follows a low level drug dealer through probably the worst week of his life as a blown drug deal forces him to take more and more desperate action to stay alive. While it wasn't my favorite of the three, it did get me thinking along a gospel perspective as it is a very literal example of the old lesson that when we use our agency to make bad decisions, while we may feel more free at the time, we are actually limiting our future choices more and more, until we have only one path left to us.

In the movie, after his major drug score goes bad, Frank makes bad decisions at every turn, always thinking just far enough ahead to make some short-term gain and stay alive. As a result, his available options keep dwindling until he is left in a position where the only choices available are kill or be killed. Great morality tale (about people with no morals, but still...)

Also, in one movie there is a scene involving a dead body, a winch and a clogged garbage disposal that robbed me of my appetite for about a day.

[LA Ute]

Review of "The Help" here. Warning: mini-spoilers are in it:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...editorsPicks_2

It's worth seeing.