Just saw this. I loved the book it was based on (Here Be Monsters!) and though the story was completely changed, I loved the movie, too. Laika does it again.
Great to hear all the lovely voice acting, too.
So many questions as to why such an awful movie was ever made and why it ever got funded. So pointless to try to answer those questions and a real waste of time to even discuss them. Instead, I will just apologize to everyone in this thread for wasting your time and also say that I was careful not to waste very much of it.
Recently seen at home on DVD:
About Time
Quirky British romance/time travel comedy. If you liked Love Actually or Four Weddings and A Funeral, you’ll like this, despite some gaping plot holes.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Rewatched this Wes Anderson masterpiece - a funny, wry, bittersweet Ruritanian tribute to high society between the wars. Ralph Fiennes really should have gotten an Oscar as a nitpicky concierge with a thing for much older women; he reveals an amazing comic talent. The rest of the all-star cast are also excellent. Two thumbs 'way up.
I also went to a local film festival recently and saw a lot of movies in a relatively short time:
Gett
A Israeli courtroom drama about an Orthodox Jewish divorce trial. Mostly gripping, but a bit tedious by the end.
In Country
Documentary about Vietnam War vets, and younger wannabes, who do weekend Vietnam War reenactments out in the woods of Oregon. Offbeat but interesting.
Who Am I - No System is Safe
A brand-new German cyberthriller about hackers, organized crime and the Europol cops trying to stop them. Some great twists and turns, with echoes of both The Matrix and The Usual Suspects.
Silenced
Documentary about recent prosecutions under the WWI-era Espionage Act against U.S. government whistleblowers. Well worth a look.
The Visit
What would we really do if aliens landed on Earth? In this documentary, NASA scientists, United Nations officials, a priest and former top British government officials discuss the scientific, public relations, military and religious implications of first contact. Very intriguing movie.
I Am Big Bird: The Carroll Spinney Story
Well-crafted, affectionate, heartwarming documentary about the actor who has, for almost 50 years now, played the beloved Sesame Street character. I learned a lot and really enjoyed the film.
I bit the bullet and watched Guardians of the Galaxy. 91% at RT. Figured about 20% of that was genre inflation.
Holy crap, that was bad. Maybe 30 minutes of “story” filled out to 2 hours with a ridiculous amount of incoherent, overkill, “action” sequences. And even a lot of that half hour had a bunch of backstory exposition.
What is the matter with the critics for this movie? No way should so many give this a pass. So what if a lot of things blow up just for the sake of blowing things up?
I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief about the “immortality” of the heroes. Good grief, the death technology in this universe is astonishing. They have a rock that does <very bad things>. And somehow no one can properly use any of dozens of super dangerous weapons shown to kill these losers?
Did they specifically ask Glenn Close to do the worst acting of her career?
OTOH, it did have Brandi Svenning’s father and a guy who invented a portable computer.
Catwoman. It was as awful as I’d heard.
Never saw Catwoman, but I, too, was underwhelmed by Guardians of the Galaxy.
Eurgh, Cheap Thrills was the polar opposite of a good black comedy. Sickening, ugly, no finesse.
Which is odd because I really enjoyed Starred Up which is also very violent, seems to want to fit more swear words into a movie than ever before, and the characters are all deeply flawed. But it had a lot of humanity and a touch of humour, and some great acting. Even as a Londoner, though, I needed the subtitles for some of the dialogue.
The final note is '71, about ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland; I thought it was very sensitively done, again with humanity and some truth, not unlike Calvary. Also very good acting and script.
Watched “Eight Million Ways to Die In The West” on cable. There were some laughs in the first 40 minutes or so, though some of it was just bottom-of-the-barrel gross-out humor. But the idea of having a character with fully developed modern sensibilities in the Old West being appalled at the gunfights and carrying-on was a nice conceit. However, after about half an hour it started to run out of funny and the last 50 minutes or so of the movie kinda dragged, just a standard Western theme. The gross humor was still there, but it was nothing but disgusting after the initial shock. So, watch the first half hour, ignore the rest. I think with some sharper observation and a greater willingness to bend Western tropes this could have been a very funny movie. Sort of like “Blazing Saddles” only more idiocractic.
“It Follows” is a good horror movie. Great atmosphere, generally no cheap scares jumping out at you, mysterious monster, and a really memorable soundtrack
Saw “The Heat.” Sandra Bulloch and Melissa McCarthy do an excellent job of trying to cover up the fact that “The Heat” is a just another run of the mill buddy cop movie. Cliches abound. Bulloch is an uptight, businesslike FBI agent and McCarthy is a tough, street-smart cop who plays by her own rules. They have to learn to work together and respect one another as they track down seriously evil serial killer on the mean streets of Boston.
McCarthy does a great job here, bringing life to her role, and Bulloch plays pretty much the same character she developed in “Miss Congeniality.” But the writing is kind of dumb and crude. Oftentimes I will see a review of movie that says, “The lead actors do their best but the script gives them little or nothing to work with.” This movie should be considered the perfect embodiment of that phrase.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Saw it last night.
If it had been made without CGI, it would simply be a bad movie. But it’s loaded with CGI, making it nearly unwatchable.
My wife just finished reading The Third Man, by Graham Greene, so we thought we’d watch the old Joseph Cotton/Orson Welles film noir B&W movie, shot partly on location in post-war Vienna. It holds up pretty well and has a strong supporting cast. The camera work is outstanding.
I watched Jack Reacher out of sheer boredom. What a relentless piece of shit that was. Ham-fisted direction and editing, scenery chewing by all concerned, and Rosamund Pike’s presence in the movie industry is a total mystery to me.
Our most recent MotW was Jon Stewart’s Rosewater. We figured we pretty much had to see it eventually. Not really looking forward to it based on audience (vs. critic) reviews.
Yeah, it was okay for the most part. Not really “all that”.
The opening sequences were a muddle. Too much “time travel” with too little context to help figure things out. Also, Stewart really needed to give a better context of who-was-who and who-they-were-friends/enemies with among the Iranian political figures. I thought I was up-to-date on this and I still found it confusing.
Shohreh Aghdashloo is a tremendously strong actress. She just dominated each scene she was in. And since the others in those scene’s weren’t playing at her level, it took me out of the movie. One of those cases where a lesser actor would have been better.
The title is just plain A Bad Idea. The rosewater is such a tiny element of the story, it’s barely worth mentioning let alone making it the title.
Now: for the bad (?) movie of the week: Home Sweet Hell. (Originally North of Hell.) Katherine Heigl and Patrick Wilson as the perfect dysfunctional couple facing some really bad things (and people).
The release history of this movie warns you off: First released on VOD Feb. 3, then supposedly released in theaters March 13, then already on disc by April 7.
I say “supposedly” because I find no record of box office at BoxOfficeMojo or similar. I’m thinking it only had a token release to satisfy contracts.
Which brings up another infamous Heigl movie: Zyzzyx Rd. Made $30 (not $30 million, or thousand. Just $30.) Some of which was refunded. I’ve seen this. It is indeed an unbelievably terrible movie. (“Whew, xxx is dead, let’s move on.” “No, xxx isn’t dead, look out!” repeated over and over.)
But Home Sweet Hell is actually an almost okay movie. Not great, but nowhere as bad as Zyzzyx Rd. Generally well made and acted. The secondary actors are pretty good. It even has Kevin McKidd, also from Grey’s Anatomy, in a very small role just goofing around with accents. (You’d think only Scottish, but you’d be wrong.)
For some reason I have a problem with Patrick Wilson. He just doesn’t seem to be that good to me, so that drags the movie down IMHO.
Heigl plays a super-sweet Miss Perfect on the outside, incredibly twisted and nasty on the inside person. Let’s just leave that at that with a minimum of snark.
The ending is only halfway satisfying.
Heigl’s husband did the soundtrack. Just a minimal job. And the main theme is incredibly simple pop/earworm crap.
It’s 6%, 1 for 18, at RT. But I think it should rate higher, like in the 30s or 40s. And it should have gotten a modest release.
Note that Heigl has 2 other completed movies sitting on the shelf with no push to get them out in theaters.
Watched the first 15 minutes of “Tammy” and quit. The characters were just too stupid and annoying. I did not want my imagined plot where they are both dumped into a river and drown 15 minutes in, to be messed over by the real plot.
Oh gosh, I REALLY liked this movie! Yes, it was gory and disturbing, but I did think it had some truly funny moments. One of my recent favorites.
Finally caught up with Jupiter Ascending at the cheap show. Glad I didn’t pay full price, it was beautiful but really didn’t make much sense, even with the suspension of disbelief I agree to uphold when seeing a sci-fi movie. Don’t need to see this one again.
Went to Mr X earlier this week and it was FUN. The BF and I argued over whether this is a true “Bollywood” movie, and as I’m not at all familiar with the genre I didn’t have much evidence to prove that it was. The reviews and press all call it one, so that’s what I’m going on.
Truly silly plot, laughable special effects, and some pretty glaring plot holes, but I still enjoyed the hell out of it.
The Water Diviner: Seemingly loved by Australians and Turkish people, it didn’t strike me as anything special.
The Voices: As a black comedy is was more funny weird than funny ‘ha ha’. A good performance by Reynolds as a very, very screwed-up guy.
Jim: Is All By My Side: Actually better than I’d expected but too short. Also not being able to include any of his songs put a dampener on it.
Force Majeure; Top Five; A Most Violent Year; Love, Rosie: None of them lived up to their billing.
Because I was in a WTF mood last night, watched She-Devil with Meryl Streep, Rosanne Barr, and Ed Begley Jr (whatever happened to him?)
Not very many movies that you get to see Streep outacted, but in this one, I think her decision to play her character so flamboyantly and one-dimensional hurt the movie. Barr was well-cast as the frumpy housewife who gets her revenge, while Begley was just a doofus.
Not a bad movie if you want that late-80s vibe, need to catch up on your lesser Meryl Streep movies, or am going through a “revenge is best served hot” marathon, but otherwise… meh. I’ll give it a 6 out of 10 - and that’s a generous 6.
Seriously? Begley just keeps popping up all over the place. E.g., several episodes of Portlandia and a host of other shows.
Our MotW was Night Moves. No, not that one, this one. With Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard. Some eco-nuts have a problem with a dam in Oregon. Non-hilarity ensues.
Reasonably okay movie, if over long at 1:53. Eisenberg played his character a bit too toned down. Fanning was a miscast. Sarsgaard was very good. Two of my favorite lesser actors: James Le Gros and Matt Malloy had unfortunately quite small roles. And several other interesting supporting actors. Basically it’s a three person movie.
But it really fell apart near the end:
Eisenberg needs to leave. He has to get out of town now. But he hangs around and more Bad Stuff happens. Sheesh. When it’s time to go, GO!
Eh, not much of a TV watcher.