Serious Movie Discussion XXXVIII

[Matt M]

Just saw the official full trailer for 'Straight Outta Compton', a new movie about NWA and Compton.
Looks really good, I get the feeling it could be the best film of that type since Boyz N The Hood.

 

[ufcfan4]

Laurence Fishbourne in Mystic River has some of the worst dialogue I've seen in a while.

She wants to bed you, not wed you.


That one kind if made me cringe. But otherwise I was cool with him and Bacon. Felt they were more likable than about 95 percent of the rest of the principals.

 

[Bullitt68]

Bachelorette wasn't as bad as Bridesmaids, but it wasn't much better, either. It tried to be heavier with legitimately flawed and troubled characters, but the writer/director wasn't smart enough to pull it off. It just ended up being a tonally weird movie with bizarre characters with strange resolutions. Still had some funny moments, though, and Isla Fisher is a strange brand of cute that'll make you want to pinch her cheeks while at the same time give you wood for days.

Hot Tub Time Machine was fucking HILARIOUS.

Didn't get to it last night but I'll probably watch it at some point today. I remember people talking about it at the time but I can't remember any comments good or bad, so it's nice to at least have one vote of confidence.

That list from 2010 sounds interesting, where can I find that?

It's not an official list or anything. I just went through the Wiki list for 2010 releases and jotted down the ones I wanted to see. Here's what I'm working with for 2010:

127 Hours
Alice in Wonderland
All Good Things
The Bounty Hunter
Brooklyn

 

[theskza]

She wants to bed you, not wed you.


That one kind if made me cringe. But otherwise I was cool with him and Bacon. Felt they were more likable than about 95 percent of the rest of the principals.

Every one of Larry's lines was cringeworthy to me. So forced.

 

[theskza]

That whole movie was such a huge letdown. Great story from a great author directed by a great filmmaker with a great cast and yet it's a big dud.

I thought we both agreed a long time ago that it was better than LOTR the third? And should have won Best Picture.

I still like it a good bit, but like most movies I watch for the second time I began to pick it apart. However, there really wasn't much for me to complain about. Movie should've ended with Sean Penn walking down the street, cut out Bacon's stupid subplot with his wife, and for the love of God had better lines for the Fish. Marcia Gay Harden was really annoying, but that might have just been her character. Everything else was great stuff.

 

[Bullitt68]

I thought we both agreed a long time ago that it was better than LOTR the third? And should have won Best Picture.

First off, I should clarify that saying Mystic River is better than one of the LOTR movies, all of which suck, isn't saying much. Added to which, considering what a shitty year 2003 was, saying it should've won Best Picture isn't saying much more.

Nevertheless, my comment may have come off more negatively than I meant it. Mystic River is good enough as movies go, and compared to the rest of Eastwood's recent efforts it's one of his strongest (though, again, I should clarify the extent to which that is praiseworthy, as he hasn't exactly been lighting shit up in the last decade), but considering the potential, it's quite the dud. There's a lot in it that's good (the opening is excellent and I love the feel of that town, and the mood surrounding Robbins and his trauma works well, although not as well as something like Sleepers) but there's just as much if not more that's bad, and when you add on top of it the shitty ending, I just can't help but walk away in disappointment.

And I know you've always dug Penn in that role, but I can still hear the empty emotionality of his "Is that my daughter in there!" line. That's up there with Brad Pitt's "What's in the box?" for the most cringeworthy attempts at heavy emotion :redface:

 

[theskza]

Lol no way. Brad Pitt shows real emotion by crying his eyes out when he watches Sean's scene.

 

[Bullitt68]

And after that line when he starts freaking out, I always think of the sound Joey makes when he goes to Monica's Halloween party as Chandler.

[YT]NT8nEtWfAwc[/YT]

 

[theskza]

Dude, some things you should keep to yourself. How am I ever supposed to watch that scene without laughing now?

 

[Bullitt68]

Come on, skza, you know that one was too good not to share :icon_chee

Today was a very productive day. Wasn't strictly chronological, but there was consistency within my viewing. First up for today was Hot Tub Time Machine. Didn't know Lizzy Caplan was in this, which made for some nice continuity as I finished yesterday with her in Bachelorette and opened today with her in Hot Tub Time Machine. Hate to say it, HUNTER, but I wasn't really a fan of this one. There was plenty of laughter, but the ramifications of the plot really pissed me off and left me angry and depressed. The whole butterfly effect thing is familiar enough in time travel narratives, but this one really managed to make time travel thoroughly depressing and frustrating as they have to relive all of the bullshit and mistakes they made for fear of changing things in the future. And then by the end they finally decide to change one thing, making the preceding irrelevant and stupid, and then worst of all, the only one who actually changes anything is the biggest douche of the group, and as if that's bad enough, the changes that impact the future are not experienced by anybody. Dreams come true, but the coming true process is entirely skipped over. In that scenario, what would it matter if you spent 20 years living as the richest and most attractive person to ever walk the face of the Earth or 20 years in the nastiest prison imaginable getting gang raped every night if you skip over the whole thing? So many comedies, particularly nostalgia comedies like Hot Tub Time Machine, are about life, about living it true to yourself and living it to the fullest, but none of the characters actually got to live their lives, so WTF was the point?

After that I kept the comedy going with a Jonah Hill double feature. First up was Get Him to the Greek. If you would've told me going in that Puff Daddy would steal the show and be the funniest part with every single scene bringing laughs, I would've had a very hard time believing it, but credit to the man, he was fucking hysterical. The mind fuck talk in the beginning was the funniest scene of the movie IMO. I also actually really liked Russell Brand, which I honestly didn't see coming as he's always irritated me. The script kind of ran off the rails at the end (threesome scene WTF?) but it was well worth the ride.

My second Jonah Hill movie was Cyrus. I remember the trailer perking my interest, but this one sucked. Run-of-the-mill indie crap without much genuine humor or pathos. Hill was honestly the only thing that made it worth it although I still had to fast-forward a bit.

After those three I went back to consult my list and How Do You Know caught my eye. Paul Rudd, Reese Witherspoon, and Jack Nicholson. How can you go wrong with that? I really loved Rudd and Witherspoon together, I love them individually and they were both funny and charming in this one and they worked off each other very well, but the script tried to pack WAY too much story into it. It came in at the full two hours and could've easily lost a half-hour. There's an insanely long storyline with Witherspoon dating Owen Wilson, which could've easily been shortened to five or ten minutes spread out over the course of the film with a lesser actor so there was no responsibility for feeding pages to a superfluous side-plot. Even the stuff with Nicholson could've been minimized, although I did enjoy seeing Jack do his thing (I loved when he was trying not to lose his shit talking to Rudd and remarks "It's hard not to yell"). The time spent with Rudd and Witherspoon made up far too little of this film, which was all the more frustrating considering how fantastic their scenes together were. Still, it was a very enjoyable film and it was a welcome reminder as to how hot Witherspoon still is (the dress she wears at the party near the end of the movie, holy shit!).

After so many comedies, I wanted a change of pace. I ended up selecting Source Code. I'd been wanting to see it ever since it came out and man was it fucking awesome. Much better than Moon, basically a professional film from someone who had begun with such a brilliant amateur effort. This time, Duncan Jones had a legit production budget and crew and even though he was working off of someone else's script he did an excellent job. Gyllenhaal did a superb job, the script was top-notch, but I could really feel Jones' hands guiding this one all the way through, and his sure-handedness gave the film such a smooth feel, always maximizing the suspense, the comedy, the romance, or whatever was of concern at a given moment. The only flaw in the film was the ending, which, while undeniably awesome, could've been even more awesome. Before I discuss it, though, I'm going to put it in spoilers because this movie was so great that even though the time has passed where spoilers are necessary, anyone who hasn't seen it should still have the chance to go in fresh:

Spoiler

I felt the exact same way at the end of this movie as I did in The Dark Knight Rises. The "false ending" where Batman blows himself up to save Gotham was so fucking bad ass, I kept thinking to myself, "Did Nolan really do it? Did he have the balls to go out like this?" and then when it didn't happen, I can't deny being a little disappointed. The same thing happened in Source Code. There's that false ending where his loop ends on a happy note, and that frozen image of everyone who dies on the train enjoying their last moments was insanely powerful, but they just didn't have the balls to stay the course and they had to allow the parallel universe to continue and give it an even happier ending.

In sum, the ending cheapened the experience a little bit and kept a great film from being a really great film, but even with the way they chose to end it, it's still a great mind-bending action movie that I highly recommend to anyone who has yet to check it out.

And then with Source Code being so much like Groundhog Day, it seemed only natural to move to Edge of Tomorrow, which I did. I'm having a hard time deciding which I liked better, Source Code or Edge of Tomorrow. As of this moment that I'm typing this, I'm going to go with Source Code, but they were both really fucking awesome. Edge of Tomorrow had a lot more comedy to it (I was eating while watching this and when Cruise gets hit by the car trying to save Blunt in one of the early failed beach scenes I had the water I was drinking come out of my nose :icon_chee) and it worked to really humanize Cruise. I'll admit to being really weirded out seeing him as such a bitchy character, but he's such a phenomenal actor that he can make anything work, and Cruise playing that character had the added bonus of being able to play the scared bitch in the beginning and then turning it on as the bad ass soldier (I loved the scene where he was at his wit's end and he's just wrecking the mimic training things).

Similar to Source Code, though, I didn't like the ending.

Spoiler

And worse than Source Code, the Edge of Tomorrow ending made no sense. In Source Code, it's primarily explained by the filmmakers pussying out and having to provide the happiest ending possible, but it's an easier pill to swallow since the loop logic of the plot supports it. In Edge of Tomorrow, I can't comprehend how Cruise was able to wake up again, let alone why he woke up when he did and why everything was the way it was when he woke up when he did and why he was able to wake up once but not be in a loop where whenever he died things would start over again. Source Code was convenient, but Edge of Tomorrow was too convenient.

Still though, awesome fucking movie and anyone who enjoyed Edge of Tomorrow should definitely check out Source Code.

 

[theskza]

Glad you liked Edge of Tomorrow. Cruise did a fantastic job. He nailed all 15 or so versions of the character he's portraying. Can't wait to see it again.

 

[Flemmy Stardust]

I didn't like source code that much. Had a long post about it a few threads back digging into it, so you can search that if you please. It was good enough (hate both the main female characters) but as far as being a time travel type movie - my favorite mechanism for fiction - it ranks toward the bottom.

Also, P Diddy is funny in almost everything I've seen him in. Made especially. He had a relatively good cameo in an episode of It's Always Sunny as well.

 

[Flemmy Stardust]

Ps. Hendo and Gus losing badly in one night is devastating for the Flemster. I'm a mild fan of Rumble and have always liked Mousasi, but I wasn't ready for that shit.

 

[ufcfan4]

Ps. Hendo and Gus losing badly in one night is devastating for the Flemster. I'm a mild fan of Rumble and have always liked Mousasi, but I wasn't ready for that shit.

Missed most of the card but watched AJ beast out live. Holy shit that was something to see. That is just amazing stuff that I think I'm still processing. I knew the guy was very legit but I just did not see him beating Gus, particularly not putting him down like that.

I like Gus a lot but I've been loving Rumbles resurgence so I really can't complain. I hope he gives Jones some problems.

 

[ufcfan4]

Sexiness of Lizzy Caplan notwithstanding, I saw The Interview and felt it was really lame. It had it moments for sure, but for the most part it just struck me as a silly, over-the-top mess.

I loved This is the End and enjoyed Pineapple Express, too, so you know I'm pulling for these guys. I think Franco was part of the problem. I remember back in 08 being surprised at just how amusing he was in Pineapple Express. And I found him underratedly hilarious in This is the End, really riffing on his artsy/pretentious image in an effective way. But here, he just didn't hit a right note for me. Rogen was Rogen. The film combines violence and comedy like all their teamups but this one just seemed to be a lesser effort from them. It's almost as if they were enamored by the audacity of their concept and then just forgot to deliver the funny.

Philomena- very sweet and poignant movie with great performances from Dench and Steve Coogan (in a change of pace role). I really liked it and would watch it again. Dench was great as she typically is but her character was also just really lovable and endearing. Coogan really did a great job with a somewhat ambivalent character, making him increasingly more sympathetic as the film went on. It's brief (90 minutes) but it delivers.

 

[sohocanaan22]

The list of the original thread regulars' 25 favorite films, a nice gauge for any newcomers to see where/how their taste falls in line with that of the posters who make up this thread.

I love high and low culture (everything from Dumb and Dumber, to Cries and Whispers). So, I'm not knocking either list AT ALL, but between Hunterscreed's "This thread isn't for..." and "This thread is for..." the list you tallied seems more in tune to the "isn't for" group. No?

 

[ufcfan4]

And after that line when he starts freaking out, I always think of the sound Joey makes when he goes to Monica's Halloween party as Chandler.

[YT]NT8nEtWfAwc[/YT]

So funny. Definitely one of the funniest moments from that season. And an apt comparison on your part lol.

 

[Bullitt68]

Glad you liked Edge of Tomorrow. Cruise did a fantastic job. He nailed all 15 or so versions of the character he's portraying. Can't wait to see it again.

In a lot of ways, it's one of the most complex characters he's ever had to play. The drive of the plot can be so intense at times that it's possible one could lose sight of it, but he has so much to do in any given scene yet the character/plot dynamic never comes unbalanced.

I didn't like source code that much. Had a long post about it a few threads back digging into it, so you can search that if you please.

You know I will :wink:

The way relationships developed between the characters, and the fact that it becomes about Gyllenhaal and Monaghan's budding romance was just awkward as hell.

Couldn't disagree more. In fact, of all the comparisons to be made between Source Code and Edge of Tomorrow, this is the one where I think Source Code wins without so much as a fight. The same thing happens in Edge of Tomorrow but the way they were trying so hard to make Blunt an ice-in-her-veins soldier chick made her and Cruise's "relationship" a million times more awkward, and the awkwardness wasn't helped by what I sensed as the filmmakers' indecisiveness. It was like they knew they had to put in some kind of relationship, yet they were at the same time trying to hold that angle at arm's length, which made a lot of it seem odd and perfunctory.

In Source Code, meanwhile, he starts off literally not giving even a little bit of a shit about her, then he comes to care about her one human being to another, and then he starts to develop romantic feelings. It feels more organic and the progression, despite being far more compressed in both diegetic time and running time, is nevertheless more believable and poignant.

didn't like how much Gyllenhaal's moods clashed between the present and his trips back into the past.

I thought his mental state was consistent. In the beginning, the difference was based on his thinking he was oscillating between real life and a military simulation, and then as the film progressed and he started to understand the stakes, his worlds started to come together and everything boiled down to his sense of what he wanted to do knowing he only had so much time left, a running theme for which there is a good payoff (even though I maintain it could've been better).

Spoiler

the end could have been really cool under different circumstances. basically, my thoughts are that the source code software (or whatever it is) could be something that has existed for a long time, but as long as they keep using it (and succeeding) to remedy the event, it's as if it never gets the opportunity to be put into action - an idea the movie suggests in the closing lines.

Spoiler

What you're describing would've had to have been a different movie. Based on your thoughts, that seems like precisely what you wanted, but given the movie that was made, an emphasis on the software itself rather than the people responsible for its functioning and for whom it functions wouldn't have been a welcome shift IMO. Additionally, the fact that, as you mentioned, it is still there on the periphery satisfies, for me at least, that implication. I couldn't help likening it to Inception, like how thinking about how cool the concept of inception is and how, for all we know, a lot of the events of that world could've been the result of it, but that doesn't mean we needed any more of it than what we got.

Spoiler

tragedy and terrorism take place all the time. Source code ain't stopping that. if they had used some event less applicable (or ideally not applicable) to our experience, it would be much more interesting to consider that there's all this awful shit that goes on but it's always remedied by the source code. no one ever knows it happened and the technology remains dormant as far as the present is concerned.

Spoiler

Again, this would have to be a different movie. Source Code is like the origin story for this idea, while what you're describing would be more suited for a sequel once the idea had already been established.

Spoiler

additionally, the goal of the technology is to benefit the future (ID the perps after the fact) and not to alter the event. this is fine, because the present not understanding the potential for the technology is more interesting than them just being like "Please, go save the day!" However, the facilitators of the tech. constantly insisting Gyllenhaal not change the event renders his experience too anomalous. The anomaly should have been his success in communicating the source code's potential to the present. Instead, the whole movie feels like a one-time deal because Jake Gyllenhaal is oh so heroic.

Spoiler

I don't understand this criticism. I know it's been a while now since you've seen this movie, but if you remember it well enough, could you expand on what you're getting at here? I don't know what you mean by his experience being "too anomalous." Nobody had ever used the source code software before, so how can an unprecedented experience be anomalous? And, as near as I can make out what you're getting at, it was precisely the point in Gyllenhaal's message to Farmiga at the end that he had discovered that their software had even more potential than they'd realized.

Spoiler

Knowing you're a vegetable is a good enough, and general enough reason to want a crack at stopping that bomb from ever blowing up. Regret seems intrinsic enough in that situation for everyone to find their own reason to try and change the outcome, and maybe that's what they were hoping i'd come away with, but making it so personal definitely muddied the water.

Spoiler

I don't buy this at all. The way I saw it, it was very similar to Avatar where the fact that Worthington couldn't walk was his initial incentive to join up, but then his experience becomes something more (indeed, something more personal) and that's what gives it its real emotional weight. Personalization is a key in storytelling and refusing to go into personal territory with characters strikes me as an abdication of the responsibilities of being a storyteller.

hate both the main female characters

I'd liked Gyllenhaal in a few things (The Day After Tomorrow, Brokeback Mountain, Rendition) but I'd never really loved him in anything. Source Code was the first time I thought he was perfect. And I've never liked Michelle Monaghan in anything but I thought she was perfect, too.

Going in, I was all about the plot, but by the end, I was sold on the characters and the actors playing them.

Also, P Diddy is funny in almost everything I've seen him in. Made especially.

Only seen various pieces of Made and never saw any with him. As much as I like Favreau and Vaughn together, ironically enough their two big movies together never really did anything for me.

I saw The Interview and felt it was really lame.

Been my suspicion since I first heard of the idea of the movie.

I love high and low culture (everything from Dumb and Dumber, to Cries and Whispers). So, I'm not knocking either list AT ALL, but between Hunterscreed's "This thread isn't for..." and "This thread is for..." the list you tallied seems more in tune to the "isn't for" group. No?

Been a while since we had one of these posts, huh?

So funny. Definitely one of the funniest moments from that season.

Agreed, although IMO it's still a distant second to the first time (very early in the series, too) they make fun of Chandler's cadence and attitude.

[YT]CFKXwvX9Fa8[/YT]

Ross' line always kills me.

And an apt comparison on your part lol.

 

[HUNTERMANIA]

Bullitt68 ... I started to discuss Hot Tub Time Machine, but... I stopped myself because I'm feeling kind of brain-dead ATM, lol. I don't think it was meant to be taken very seriously as like, 'everyone had to do everything the same so as not to change the future' - well, everyone that did was in a livable future already. The difference was with the character whose future had become unlivable.

And I think the point of those 'live life to the fullest' comedies is like... you ARE living life to the fullest, and they did in those moments to the best of their abilities - but you don't know which action is going to allow you to live your life 'to the fullest' LATER ON in those moments like they did then.

You know what, I'm not even capable of writing cogent thoughts right now, so just don't worry about that, lol! I can't think too hard right now.

Anyways, I didn't take it very seriously, it was just a funny movie, and I think the ending was just to make everything a happy ending. I don't think it was meant to be anything more than that, although I could be wrong. I might actually watch it again because I'm interested in this discussion, I'm just not equipped to have it right now for whatever reason.

I love high and low culture (everything from Dumb and Dumber, to Cries and Whispers). So, I'm not knocking either list AT ALL, but between Hunterscreed's "This thread isn't for..." and "This thread is for..." the list you tallied seems more in tune to the "isn't for" group. No?

And... sohocanaan22 - I didn't follow the sequence of quotes, but are you trying to hate on Bullitt68 right now with this comment?

 

[theskza]

I love high and low culture (everything from Dumb and Dumber, to Cries and Whispers). So, I'm not knocking either list AT ALL, but between Hunterscreed's "This thread isn't for..." and "This thread is for..." the list you tallied seems more in tune to the "isn't for" group. No?

Lol can't say I disagree, but come on in and discuss some movies.