Argo A-

The minus is for giving short shrift to the Canadians who helped orchestrate the escape (John Sheardown is cut out of the story altogether) but overall this is a great film. I had lost most of my respect for Ben Affleck during the Gigli/Armageddon years only to discover - starting with Gone Baby Gone - that he is a terrific director. Who knew? Argo is terrifically suspenseful and well paced, punctuated by just the right amount of humour. The cast is very solid, right down to the secondary characters. It takes some liberties with the truth of the event, but it's forgivable in the overall context of crafting an entertaining film.

Springbreakers - c

Tits, ass, drugs, booze, money, guns, springbreak springbreak forever, britney spears, white people complaining about their middle class existence.

Seriously though this movie sucked ass, its about a bunch of college kids who spent all of their money ok drugs and booze then wonder why they cant afford to go on springbreak. They rob people and dont get caught.

Selena gomez who's supposed to be the heart of the movie spends most of the time talking about how bored she is with her average life and how she thinks going on spring break will mean she finds herself.

You went on fucking holiday you moron, of course you had a good time, all you had to do for that week was get drunk and spend money, you really thought you were going to have a deep spiritual moment in florida?

But my main problem with the film is it brings stuff and doesnt explore them, Selena gomez's character is clearly depressed and is very obviously loosing her faith in god but all that happens is she talks about how she feels good in florida in a pool then she gets uncomfortable when james franco turns up then she is litterally put on a bus and her story is done.

The other girls continue to get drunk, take drugs and shoot people.

There is barely any dialogue through out the movie about the only thing that ever gets said is spring break, spring break forever (which they totally stole from dog town and the zboy's) . The film is kind of told out of order and he spends a lot of time repeating shots.

Honestly he made boobs boring.

The film has absolutely no meaning whats so ever and there are no consequences to the girls action.

Its just beautifully shot.

I think that's sort of the point of the movie, to show how these girls idolize the gangster/thug life and how they believe it's the best way for them to truly be happy. Kind of shows how twisted and messed up a generation's goals and aspirations can be. I don't know I kind of loved it for many of the same reasons you seemed to hate it.

The scene where James Franco, who was awesome in this, was playing that Britney Spears song on the piano while the other girls were dancing in their bikinis and ski masks was so ridiculous and strange and great.

I saw Evil Dead this weekend and it was a lot of fun. Super gory and intense and an awesome retelling of the original. What do you even call this film? A remake? a retelling?

My biggest gripe would probably be the first act. The whole film is meant to have a pretty serious tone for a horror film (compared to something like Cabin in the Woods), so before any of the horror takes place it's all pretty bland and boring.

jublin said:

I saw Evil Dead this weekend and it was a lot of fun. Super gory and intense and an awesome retelling of the original. What do you even call this film? A remake? a retelling?

My biggest gripe would probably be the first act. The whole film is meant to have a pretty serious tone for a horror film (compared to something like Cabin in the Woods), so before any of the horror takes place it's all pretty bland and boring.

I always prefer my horror with comedy, it tends to make the characters more fully realized (when done right), so i'll be interested to see if I enjoy it. I mean, it's a strange situation with this film, because The Evil Dead 2 was already a remake, but this is a remake of the original. Hollywood is weird, and now I know that first hand.

jublin said:

I think that's sort of the point of the movie, to show how these girls idolize the gangster/thug life and how they believe it's the best way for them to truly be happy. Kind of shows how twisted and messed up a generation's goals and aspirations can be. I don't know I kind of loved it for many of the same reasons you seemed to hate it.

The scene where James Franco, who was awesome in this, was playing that Britney Spears song on the piano while the other girls were dancing in their bikinis and ski masks was so ridiculous and strange and great.

I have a feeling the movie wasnt for me, I'm a big fan of structure, I want to be told a story and I'm a sucker for big hollywood blockbusters like the avengers.

James franco was enjoyable but the thing is we never learn anything about these characters, hell I'm pretty certain most of the leads weren't even given names, I felt the acting was weak when they finally got a line to say most of the time it had no context and it was like the actors had no idea what they were saying or why they were saying it.

I've also heard its by far the worst harmony film, though I havent seen the rest.

I was bored, I like when a plot builds up to something but this was, and then this happened and this happened.

I didn't care about the characters because they werent given a chance to develop a personality, they weren't even caricatures they were just nothing spurting off random lines.

I watched this recently: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2106476/

The Hunt (2012) - A

I think everybody should watch this movie.

***Spoiler******Spoiler******Spoiler******Spoiler******Spoiler*** It's a story about an elementary teacher living in a small town whom, because of a little lie, were accused of sexually mistreated one of the kid. As the story progressed we could see how the parents instead of thinking rationally, forced their own child to accept the lie as the truth. The story spread throughout the city as more children joined the "excessive imagination" squad and the whole town seemed to be jumping on board on making the teacher's life miserable.

The story felt very real and I felt wrongfully angry throughout the movie.

Evil Dead remake...C-

I am a fanatic for the original though so I had unrealistic expectations going into it I guess. So many bad clichés (spoiler alert! The head deadite tells the female lead at the end "I'll eat your soul" yawn).

This just felt like another rip off of other Evil Dead rip offs.

Saw the new Total Recall this weekend and I give it a Meh+. Standard action movie stuff, but the action scenes were pretty neat. I liked the part with the elevators, but I feel like the bad guy wasn't built up enough. By the end of the movie I found myself not really giving a hoot about what was going on.

Life of Pi- I really liked this movie. Visually, it was magnificent. This movie really makes you believe that animals have souls which I think is a good thing. I also like movies that make the viewer think and bring up significant philosophy questions without being too preachy. I have not the book but this movie made me really want to read the book. A

Safety Not Guaranteed- This was a charming movie, a good movie to watch with your significant other. It is funny, quirky, has some mystery, and some romance. It is a movie where the ending really makes the whole movie worth it. B

I love anime, so:

1. Princess Mononoke - Epic

2. Nausicaa of the wind valley - EpicEpicEpic

it means A and A++

stubby43 said:

I have a feeling the movie wasnt for me, I'm a big fan of structure, I want to be told a story and I'm a sucker for big hollywood blockbusters like the avengers.

I've also heard its by far the worst harmony film, though I havent seen the rest.

I was bored, I like when a plot builds up to something but this was, and then this happened and this happened. I didn't care about the characters because they werent given a chance to develop a personality, they weren't even caricatures they were just nothing spurting off random lines.

Yeah makes sense, it's definitely a weird movie. But I don't agree that it's his worst film. It's probably the easiest of his films to watch, mainly because everyone in it is an attractive celebrity. Maybe that's why they think it's his worst film?

GI Joe Retaliation I had zero expections for the first film, and that helped it be moderately entertaining. but with that movie setting the bar, I now had some expectations for the new film. were they met? did they surpass it? I think they did. I don't know. I can say that in an age where half the world knows exactly what'll happen in a movie before a trailer even premieres, this movie is a cinematic achievement in secret-keeping. walk into this movie knowing that 95% of the jokes will fall flatter than flat, and some plot points will be so inexplicably "what?" that you'll turn to the guy next to you and shrug in a room full of confusion. but there are a few little charming things that make the movie worth it. one scene in particular involving an over enthusiastic member of the president's cabinet. keep a lookout for that guy. this stuff is grade A cheese.

a note on that action. I can't remember what happened in the first one, but I remember robot suits? this movie had no robot suits, and the Joes are more like marines or something? I don't know. so in the GI cinematic universe, the only thing that makes them special this time around is that they have a ninja. but the ninja does so many cool things, and a few of those things involve a mountain and an out-of-nowhere cameo appearance.

Taken 2 how did this happen a second time?! but now the family is used to this stuff, and they make quick work of it this time around. Liam Neeson uses maps and ears in creative ways. and you can safely assume that common sense laws do not apply in countries that are not America. expect lots of quick transitions that feel like they came straight from a US Navy commercial, and a bunch of bad guys that are really bad at their jobs. I don't know. I will say that this movie might be worth it to watch Liam Neeson in a scene involving normal middle-aged men. he mentions basketball and it's just perfect. I want that movie. I want a movie where Liam Neeson tries to be a normal person. this franchise is almost it if it weren't for him killing a few people.

Battle Royale this was much more Hunger Games than Hunger Games. but instead of cliche YA sci-fi, they went with rad 80's sci-fi. a much better creative decision! teens die in this movie. fun stuff!

I forgot to mention that Battle Royale is actually legitimately heartbreaking. I didn't expect that.

The Croods: 8/10 Surprisingly better than expected: very funny (seriously laughed a lot), great characters who develop throughout the movie, awesome animations and some very breathtaking shots. CGI wise very nicely done, maybe not the most insane rendering ever, but I think Dreamworks really made a lot of progress the last years (compared to Shrek for example). It's a movie about a tribe of cavemen trying to survive in a prehistoric environment. It's also about a girl in her teen years, feeling misunderstood by her family, hating everything about the tribal life. But it all starts to change for her when she meets a Guy (sounds very cliche, I know). As most family animated movies there are some lessons to be learned, and it's a bit moralising (which, to me, isn't a bad thing). Maybe not as good as the director's previous movie (how to train your dragon), but still worth the watch!

Saw Total Recall the other day. Can't write much about it because my eyes are still recovering from the ludicrous amount of lens flare.