| Author |
Message |
|
| Marc |
 Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 2:56 pm |
 |
|
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
|
| Killer Joe is a blast and Matthew McConaughey is every bit as good as everyone is saying he is. This brutal black comedy will be in my top ten of 2012. |
|
|
| Back to top |
  
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 4:00 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Marc wrote: Killer Joe is a blast and Matthew McConaughey is every bit as good as everyone is saying he is. This brutal black comedy will be in my top ten of 2012.
With Bernie and Magic Mike in his back pocket and now this personal triumph, it's not too much of a stretch to predict a possible Oscar nod for McConaughey this year. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 5:21 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| Is Magic Mike good? I've been wondering if I should see it. Killer Joe isn't here yet. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 7:44 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
marantzo wrote: Is Magic Mike good? I've been wondering if I should see it. Killer Joe isn't here yet.
Magic Mike is a pretty good movie with good acting, especially by McConaughey. Not as good as it thinks it is, but pretty good. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 8:04 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:21 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
|
| The Dark Knight Rises is rotten to the core. A boring, lifeless, steaming pile of batshit. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2012 7:50 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6961
Location: Black Hills
|
(deleted)
But while I'm here...anyone seen Total Recall? My instinct tells me this won't be as good as Paul Verhoeven's original, even if they do keep the triple-breasted Martian hooker. Still, Bryan Cranston as the bad guy....tempted. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2012 8:44 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Marc, so you didn't like it?
Bart, I don't know if I already posted this before but when I heard about the new Total Recall and saw some of the ads etc. I didn't think it would be very good. When it was released I read a couple of reviews and a number of capsule reviews. With the exception of one of the capsules they were all negative.
In my opinion, the original Total Recall was a classic wild goofball sci-fi flick. I've seen it three or four times and entertained from beginning to end every viewing. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 11:39 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
I saw The Avengers yesterday. I had fun. I found the final battle overdone. Enjoyable anyway, but could have been edited more judiciously.
What surprised me (I saw it in the early afternoon), was that there was a pretty good crowd at the movie even though it had been running for three months at a number of theatres. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 12:06 am |
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
Beasts of the Southern Wild is one of those situations where a filmmaker's artistic ambitions get in the way of his art. Here we have an extremely shaky camera, elliptical storyline (that seems almost plotless), prehistoric beasts coming back to life in a child's imagination, and non-actors for the sake of authenticity. The last work very well; Benh Zeitlin has a gift for working with non-actors.
The Bathtub is a region of the Mississippi Delta between New Orleans and the ocean; thus it is the region most likely to be inundated during a storm surge, and one comes via Katrina. In the Bathtub is a small, ingrown community that live mostly by scavenging, capturing gators, shellfish (including crawdads) and catfish. In the wake of Katrina, the government wants to evacuate them and they don't want to go.
This is all viewed through the eyes of Hushpuppy, a six-year-old girl who has lost her mother and whose father is half terribly irresponsible, including disappearing for days at a time, and half responsible, teaching her skills she'll need if she has to fend for herself. At one time she was told about aurochs, which she envisions having been frozen into glaciers and now freed by global warming. [In actuality, aurochs looked like oversized cattle with large longhorn-type; horns; in the movie, they look like giant boars because Hushpuppy's never seen a cow but has seen pigs since her father owns one.]
Despite its flaws, I recommend the film. It's unlike anything else I've seen recently. I expect it to appear on quite a few critic's ten best lists and an Oscar nomination is a distinct possibility. Young Quvenzhané Wallis may get one herself. |
_________________
Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 6:20 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Easy Money is a generic, forgettable title for a gritty and excellent crime drama starring a great actor at the beginning of what could be a stellar career. Joel Kinnaman is a Swedish-American who starred in the very disappointing and now-cancelled AMC television series The Killing as a cop with a druggie demeanor and past. In one memorable sequence, he stole the Denzel Washington-Ryan Reynolds flick Safe House lock, stock, and barrel.
Easy Money, however, was his breakthrough. It predates the other two appearances and is directed by the same man who helmed Safe House, and it's better than either of the other two items. It's a very complicated story about gangster politics in Sweden, but it grips you all the way. Three leading men alternate in focus, and all three actors are expert and charismatic, but it's Kinnaman who really stuns. He's a major star in the making and this movie, violent but emotionally satisfying, is a must. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 8:06 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6961
Location: Black Hills
|
Wasn't clear from your comments if Easy Money was an English language film set in Sweden or an actual Swedish film with subtits and all. Will look for it.
Safety Not Guaranteed - Mark Duplass creates a memorable eccentric inventor. For most of the film, it's ambiguous as to whether or not he has really invented a time machine, and it's the sort of character-driven indie where the possible sci-fi element doesn't much matter. Resonated with Take Shelter, albeit in a more antic mode, and also had a sweetness and charm similar to Jeff Who Lives at Home. Outdoor shots made me nostalgic for my time spent in the Pacific Northwest (it's set near Seattle). I enjoyed it, and it's a film that will give you something to talk about afterwards. If I had a personal nitpick, I guess it would be that the ending SPOILER ALERT could have left the central question of the film unresolved, and it would have been okay with me. The use of SFX in the last scene struck me as an odd intrusion into its otherwise low-budget simplicity. END SPOILER |
Last edited by bartist on Thu Aug 09, 2012 10:56 am; edited 1 time in total
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 10:03 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
bartist--It's a Swedish film, set in Stockholm, with subtitles.
I agree with you to the letter about Safety Not Guaranteed. It's very much like Jeff (and Your Sister's Sister and The Five-Year Engagement), it's one of my favorite movies of 2012 so far (along with the other three cited), and SPOILER ALERT I wish the ending had been left ambiguous. END OF SPOILER I do think you should make the ending of your post a SPOILER ALERT. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marc |
| Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 3:13 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
|
Quote: very disappointing and now-cancelled AMC television series The Killing
The Killing was without question one of the best TV series of the past several years. I am sad that AMC cancelled it. And I'm not alone by a long shot. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 5:34 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Marc wrote: Quote: very disappointing and now-cancelled AMC television series The Killing was without question one of the best TV series of the past several years. I am sad that AMC cancelled it. And I'm not alone by a long shot.
Marc--Are you so against the Television forum that you refuse to post there?
My views on The Killing: Joel Kinnaman gave a great performance. That was it. The show started strong, but very soon lost its way. Much too much of the first season was wasted in a long, drawn-out red herring about the schoolteacher-as-prime-suspect, and the ending of the first season caused a furor among whodunit fans. And yes, I know, I know, I know--this was a show that "transcended" the whodunit. I usually dislike whodunits with pretension and this was no exception. The second season was murky and dull and I stopped watching.
My wife adored the whole thing. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
