General Movie Thread

[nec13]

I finally got around to seeing "The Master." What an incredibly strange film. The acting was superb, I honestly can't say enough good things about Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman's performances. But on the whole, I felt like the film was a bit too ponderous and opaque for my tastes. That's the thing about Paul Thomas Anderson films, they don't offer easy answers or interpretations. "The Master" is no different.

[Steve of Bloomington]

Comedy movies need to stop being 2 hours long. It's not podcasting.

[dave from knoxville]

I saw This Is 40 when it seemed like everyone I knew was talking about it positively. Upon leaving the theater I wanted to make a Nixon-style enemies list (or at least a useless recommendation list.)

I'm waiting for "This Is Desperately Hanging On to 54".

[fonpr]

I saw This Is 40 when it seemed like everyone I knew was talking about it positively. Upon leaving the theater I wanted to make a Nixon-style enemies list (or at least a useless recommendation list.)

I'm waiting for "This Is Desperately Hanging On to 54".

"This Was Fifty"

[masterofsparks]

I finally got around to seeing "The Master." What an incredibly strange film. The acting was superb, I honestly can't say enough good things about Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman's performances. But on the whole, I felt like the film was a bit too ponderous and opaque for my tastes. That's the thing about Paul Thomas Anderson films, they don't offer easy answers or interpretations. "The Master" is no different.

Mark Kermode described it as "ambient filmmaking," which I really thought was a perfect description.

[buffcoat]

Anybody ever seen any of the "__ Up" films?  They just released 56 Up and they sound somewhat interesting.  Those cats are (with luck) enough older than me that I'll get to see the last one - maybe I'll powerwatch them on the DVR of the Future.

[Bryan]

I've only seen the first one, which I thought was OK, but didn't excite me enough to see the rest. Though, I guess I can imagine that they might have a cumulative effect.

But also, England is depressing, and that doc captured that atmosphere all too well.

[YuriDedman]

Comedy movies need to stop being 2 hours long. It's not podcasting.

I remember a friend of mine joking that movies are eventually going to be as long as seasons of TV shows, reasoning that movie makers will see shows like Breaking Bad or Mad Men get better reviews and in the logical fallacy of "affirming the consequent" make their dumb movies 13 X 45 minutes (or about 10 hours) long.

[cutout]

For instance they did that thing where a character decides to use a clean word instead of swearing and uses it throughout the movie like it's supposed to supply this ongoing supply of charming humor.

I hope it wasn't "shut the front door!" instead of shut the fuck up. My uncle keeps trying to get that one started at every family event. Each time he looks around the room for applause which never comes.

[Steve of Bloomington]

Anybody ever seen any of the "__ Up" films?  They just released 56 Up and they sound somewhat interesting.  Those cats are (with luck) enough older than me that I'll get to see the last one - maybe I'll powerwatch them on the DVR of the Future.

I just started watching these on Netflix. I just finished '28 Up'. I find them interesting, although at times the 'well look at me I'm just an average man/woman married with a house and kids' business in 28 Up got a bit dull after the rapid changes from 7-21. There's a lot about class in England and lack of social mobility in general that's interesting, and even the guy you at first think is going to be loathsome prep school villain actually displays some likable qualities (albeit ones that are vanishing, for example: 'England provided me with all these opportunities, so I feel a sense of loyalty and think it would be immoral to leave') and handles defending his image in the films about as well as anybody in a reality-type production can do.

The Neil character is also rather fascinating. I will stick with it and like you say maybe I'll get to see the last one someday.

[gravy boat]

Watched "Compliance" over the weekend on netflix.  Definitely the most disturbing movie I've seen in a while, particularly since you know going in it's based on a true story. Heartbreaking. 

[Joe Rogaine]

Watched "Compliance" over the weekend on netflix.  Definitely the most disturbing movie I've seen in a while, particularly since you know going in it's based on a true story. Heartbreaking.

I watched it over the weekend and I thought it was pretty good. I really hope they gave that girl free chicken sandwiches for life.

[dave from knoxville]

I saw it this weekend, and don't quite know what to think of it. Hard to imagine no one would break out of this wacky little universe to try to get answers. One phone call to almost anybody would have brought the thing to a dead stop.

Watched "Compliance" over the weekend on netflix.  Definitely the most disturbing movie I've seen in a while, particularly since you know going in it's based on a true story. Heartbreaking.

I watched it over the weekend and I thought it was pretty good. I really hope they gave that girl free chicken sandwiches for life.

[buffcoat]

I reread the real account after reading a summary of the movie and it turns out that the real-life incident was WORSE.

C'mon, people.

[effecT]

I watched the Superman movie and it was alright, but there was one thing, that was totally off-putting:

The one Kryptonian lady, who came along with Zod, was beating up Superman at about the midpoint of the movie and had a little speech about how she had an evolutionary advantage over him as she had no moral hangups concerning murder.
Then she uttered the most stupid line ever:
"And if history tells us anything, it is that evolution always wins."