General Movie Thread

[Omar]

Best film of 2012:

http://imposterfilm.com/

Is this a sincere recommendation, Omar?

All of my recommendations are sincere, Sir.  The Imposter is essential viewing.

[dave from knoxville]

Best film of 2012:

http://imposterfilm.com/

Is this a sincere recommendation, Omar?

All of my recommendations are sincere, Sir.  The Imposter is essential viewing.

Among "Things I Never Learn".....trust Best Show royalty implicitly.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

I watched Little Children the other day, was thoroughly disturbed by it, and decided one viewing was enough. And I hated the ending.

I also watched Lawless and was so unimpressed, I was out of the room for most of it and still managed to understand what was going on by the end...snore.

[nec13]

I know I'm really late to the party on this, but I finally saw Hard Boiled for the first time last weekend. I was completely blown away by it. For my money, it's the most exciting film of the last 25 years.

[franknbeats]

Definitely late to this one as well, but I watched The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford last night and was extremely impressed. Very excited to see Killing Them Softly now, though I've heard it's not as good.

[wood and iron]

Killing Them Softly is a stylish crime movie with some clumsy, obvious "message" about the US economy. The performances are fantastic with some talky scenes to highlight them. I recommend a watch but temper your expectations.

However, as a follow up to The Assassination of Jesse James, one of my favorite movies of all time, it's very disappointing.

[Joe Rogaine]

How great was The Color Wheel right?

[Purple Aki]

I actually loved The Hobbit.

[JonFromMaplewood]

If I wanted to watch Salem's Lot (1979) right now, how could I do it. Not breaking the law would be preferable. Thank you.

[cutout]

I've noticed Tom and Julie K are both really good at factoring in the intended audience of something while critiquing it. Like talking about Bill Hicks' ranting  about the Backstreet Boys even though the music is clearly not made for someone like him.

I had that experience today seeing The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I knew nothing about it other than hearing it was a "smart" movie about difficult high school relationships. I guess I thought it would be like Freaks and Geeks, which I can still appreciate at age 37. But wow, this movie. It was a 2-hour after school special (there was the sensitive kid, the goth, the gay theater guy, the plucky girl, the inspiring English teacher), just hokey and cliche to the point of almost walking out. Like Juno, the 15-year olds spoke in overly clever, poetic dialogue and listened to The Shaggs and Nick Drake.  My date and I laughed openly throughout. I was sure the critics would hate it.

But I felt stupid when I got home and saw the rave reviews for it. Then I saw the IMDB forums where teenagers were saying it was the most meaningful movie they'd ever seen, much in the same way I might have after seeing The Breakfast Club way back when.

But even though it wasn't for me, I thought the dialogue and acting were conspicuously bad. Has anyone else seen it?

[buffcoat]

I only watch the edited-for-tv version of The Breakfast Club now.

"I don't think I need to sit with you STINKIN' DUMMIES anymore."

[ndmvhc]

Best film of 2012:

http://imposterfilm.com/

Is this a sincere recommendation, Omar?

All of my recommendations are sincere, Sir.  The Imposter is essential viewing.

Thanks for the recommendation. We watched this on Christmas eve and myself and everyone else were entertained. I was put off by the recreation scenes at the start but ended up not caring as the film went on. The private investigator is a star. "Adobe Photoshop."

[buffcoat]

The Hobbit is pretty good - sort of like a pointless detour where you get to see your old friends again.  Even after seeing it, I can't believe they decided to stretch it out to three movies.

Peter Jackson (and the original books) often flirted with spectacularly cringe-inducing hero-to-hero "you're so awesome" speeches during the first three films, but Thorin's speech to Bilbo at the end must set some kind of record for awfulness.

It's the classic - "classic"? - "I'm going to pretend to give a hard-edged speech about how you suck just so it will be all the more tear-jerking when I talk about how awesome you are" moment, but there is no possible way you could believe that he still believed Bilbo was a coward at that point. 

I saw it coming, and I had to watch it through my hands and I wanted to chuck popcorn at the screen.  No one else seemed to mind, though.  I thought big-city audiences in "now playing in selected theaters" theaters were sophisticated.*












* No, I didn't.

[Smelodies]

The Hobbit is pretty good - sort of like a pointless detour where you get to see your old friends again.  Even after seeing it, I can't believe they decided to stretch it out to three movies.

True, but the next two might be better (paced).

I'm kind of surprised people who liked the Lord of the Rings trilogy don't like this one.  It's definitely in the same ballpark, if a little slower.

I really liked that little brook around the perimeter of the conference room type place in Rivendell.  Really cool looking.

[Kormodd]

My date and I laughed openly throughout. I was sure the critics would hate it.

But I felt stupid when I got home and saw the rave reviews for it. Then I saw the IMDB forums where teenagers were saying it was the most meaningful movie they'd ever seen, much in the same way I might have after seeing The Breakfast Club way back when.

But even though it wasn't for me, I thought the dialogue and acting were conspicuously bad. Has anyone else seen it?

Critics are ridiculous. See: overwhelmingly positive reviews of pieces of trash We Need To Talk About Kevin, Avatar, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. There has to be some payola involved in the making of these reviews, right?