The last movie you saw Thread

[Passdagas the Brown]

Battle of the Five Armies. Interesting little film!

[Alatar]

Just watched "Edward Scissorhands" with the kids. God, I adore that movie.

[Teremia]

'Tis the season for movie viewing:

1. The Hobbit/BotFA
2. Force Majeure
3 (today). Interstellar

Force Majeure was terrific, and Interstellar was very interesting. Kind of a remake of 2001, with a dash of Solaris. But I would say Interstellar insists on making "real" things that 2001/Solaris understand are really psychological. And the film suffers from that insistence. (Compare the ending of 2001 with the ending of Interstellar!)

[Frelga]

Hobbit: BotFa. It was entertaining.

Actually the preview of the upcoming Terminator that they had with it was surprisingly promising.

[yovargas]

Just saw The Imitation Game. Cumberbatch was quite excellent but otherwise I thought the movie was just so-so.

[Frelga]

Yeah, I was wondering whether to go see it, given that I don't usually go to the movies all that often. I am familiar with the story, and while I like Cumberbatch, just looking at him for two hours is not an incentive on its own. I just feel like I ought to support it out of principle. Whatcha think, yov?

[yovargas]

It's a good enough movie and I doubt you'll be bored by it but I was frustrated by the sense that it could have been so much more than it was. I had two big complaints:

- the movie is completely afraid to talk almost any math or science at all which is a problem when most of your movie is spent watching a team who are supposedly doing a bunch of math and science. I was frustrated by feeling like I had no idea what anybody's role was because the movie refuses to give even the most basic, cursory explanations of their work. That's true even for Turing who we're told over and over is a math genius but are never really given a glimpse into what his genius was.

- surprisingly, the movie slightly glosses over the tragedy of his end, leaving it as almost a bit of a minor epilogue. To me, it felt a little like only being told half the story which was a bit of a disappointment.

[Dave_LF]

I re-watched The 13th Warrior on one of my vacation days for no particular reason and was struck by how many plot (not thematic) parallels it had with The Hobbit. I know both stories borrowed from Beowulf (the former much more than the latter), but the similarities go beyond that:

-Basic conceit is a civilized gentleman who gets swept up in a quest with a bunch of Nordic barbarians almost against his will
-Ahmed is chosen because the company must consist of 13 warriors, and the 13th must "no Norseman be." Bilbo is chosen because 13 is unlucky, and a 14th is needed.
-The enemy is a fire wyrm
-The leader of the company, with whom the gentleman eventually establishes a sort of grudging respect, is killed in the final battle
-Ahmed and Bilbo both end up writing the story of their adventures, and in both cases that story is purported to have become a famous book in the real world

I suspect this is not a coincidence.

[Lalaith]

Thanks for that review, yovi. I was wondering about that one, too.

I saw Wild on Friday. I had read the book earlier this year (or last year?) and thought it quite good. (I had some frustrations with it, but, overall, it was good.) The movie was really faithful to the book, as far as I can remember. I enjoyed it. With the book, I remember being very frustrated with Cheryl for turning to heroin and self-destructive sexual exploits after her mother died of cancer. I mean, I got it. She was angry and full of despair, but still. Such dangerous behavior! I was scared for her. However, I think the movie actually does a better job of making you sympathize with that a bit more. You get a better sense of that rage and despair.

If you've read the book, you know the horse scene. Yes, it's in the movie. No, I could not watch it. I closed my eyes till my friend said it was over (and it wasn't quite over, so I had to close my eyes again and wait some more). That chapter in the book gutted me; there was no way I was putting the visual image in my head any more than my own imagination had already done so.

The scene with the hunters? <shudder> :scary:

Otherwise, it's rated R for a fair amount of nudity and sex, the f-word, and the drug use, I'm sure. But it was good.

I really liked Reese Witherspoon, and I've never been a huge fan. I thought Laura Dern was very good. I liked her character a lot, and there were some poignant moments there, full of wisdom.

[River]

My parents sprang us loose to see BoFA yesterday. I'll share my thoughts in the relevant thread if/when I get around to it.

I've also finally watched How to Train Your Dragon, Maleficent, and Guardians of the Galaxy. GotG was silly and knew it. Therein lay the charm. Somehow they pulled off a talking raccoon with such aplomb that my husband, whose tolerance for such things rounds to to zero, did not run away screaming or whine and howl at me about it later. Maleficent is a feel-good movie for mommies. I liked the raven character. How to Train Your Dragon was very different from the book it took its title and some characters from. Not sure which I like better as both were sweet little coming-of-age stories. The movie had stronger female characters. Maybe I'll catch the sequel after I've put kiddo to bed tonight (tried watching the first one with her but if it's not kiddie music on YouTube it doesn't hold her attention).

[Smaug's voice]

The last two weeks has been some kind of movie critic marathon! I saw;

Seven Samurai
12 years a slave
The King's Speech
2001
The Apu Trilogy
Bridge on the River Kwai
Lawrence of Arabia
Lego Movie
Star Wars all three original
WALL-E
Pan's Labyrinth
FotR
Shawshank Redemption

[Primula Baggins]

Saw Moon tonight, one I have wanted to see for a long time. And I was glad I did. It's a true science fiction movie—one that postulates a condition and then extrapolates relentlessly. In the process it's creepy, sad, moving, funny, and surprising. There is one human actor, and a voice actor. The sets are impressive. The effects are, too, although they don't really try for lunar gravity.

About halfway through I guessed where it was going, but didn't put much weight on the guess because it would be too smart; there were more obvious ways out. Then the movie went there, and went beyond. This really doesn't happen to me very often—that the imagination of SF movie makers comes up with anything that surprises me even slightly. This time that happened. I recommend it. You do not have to be a geek to enjoy it. The pleasures are on the human level.

[Túrin Turambar]

I just saw The Water Diviner, Russell Crowe’s directorial debut. The moribund Australian film industry really needs a drama along the lines of Breaker Morant or a comedy like The Castle, and it isn’t either of those. But it’s a pretty solid film, and it’s holding a solid 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.

It isn’t entirely free of the usual stereotypes – foppish British officers, forbidden cross-cultural romance leading to foreign people fighting for family honour, avaricious Catholic priests with broad Irish accents, making friends with the noble enemy, etc. And it does sometimes jump at really low-hanging opportunities for drama, sentimentalism and comedy. But it does cover a lot of new ground. I was impressed, for example, with the depiction of the Turks and the exploration of the Ottoman Empire’s experience of the First World War, and the fact that the film doesn't shy away from the fact that war crimes were committed by both sides. Crowe also gives a really good and very understated performance.

[Sunsilver]

Saw part of two ST movies: The Undiscovered Country and Wrath of Khan, on the telly last night. Wrath of Khan is still by far the best ST movie I've seen. The shots of the Enterprise leaving its spacedock lose quite a bit of impact on the small screen, but I still recall how magnificent they were on the large screen, and how they put a great big lump in my throat!

And it occurred to me that I was more moved by the departure of a much-loved spaceship than I was by ANY of the scenes in a certain Hobbit movie I saw this week! It just emphasised again how badly P.J. blew it this time around.

I've always liked Montalban, and he puts in a solid performance as Khan, though maybe just a bit over the top (but his character's a madman after all, so he's allowed...)

The ending is so obviously a setup for Spock's return that it sucks, but still, I can think of worse ways to spend a few hours on New Year's Eve.

I watched the start of 'The Search for Spock', but decided to call it a night when my new tenants came home from their New Year's celebration, because I didn't want to disturb them.

[Lalaith]

River, I want to see Maleficent and GotG.

Has anyone seen Into the Woods? It looks kind of good and has a great cast of characters. (Noooo, I'm not just wanting to see it because of Chris Pine. <bats eyelashes innocently> )

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I saw Wild on Friday. I had read the book earlier this year (or last year?) and thought it quite good. (I had some frustrations with it, but, overall, it was good.) The movie was really faithful to the book, as far as I can remember. I enjoyed it. With the book, I remember being very frustrated with Cheryl for turning to heroin and self-destructive sexual exploits after her mother died of cancer. I mean, I got it. She was angry and full of despair, but still. Such dangerous behavior! I was scared for her. However, I think the movie actually does a better job of making you sympathize with that a bit more. You get a better sense of that rage and despair.

If you've read the book, you know the horse scene. Yes, it's in the movie. No, I could not watch it. I closed my eyes till my friend said it was over (and it wasn't quite over, so I had to close my eyes again and wait some more). That chapter in the book gutted me; there was no way I was putting the visual image in my head any more than my own imagination had already done so.

The scene with the hunters? <shudder> :scary:

Otherwise, it's rated R for a fair amount of nudity and sex, the f-word, and the drug use, I'm sure. But it was good.

I really liked Reese Witherspoon, and I've never been a huge fan. I thought Laura Dern was very good. I liked her character a lot, and there were some poignant moments there, full of wisdom.

We saw it today. We both liked it a lot. I have not read the book (but since I had read your post I knew to look away during the horse scene). And yes the scene with the hunters was scary. I've not done backpacking on that level, but I have done enough to empathize. And I agree with you about both Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern. I would also say that none of the nudity and sex is gratuitous; it definitely is there to serve the story.

[Lalaith]

I agree, and I think the language is appropriate, too. There are times when only certain words can express the depths of your emotions.

I'm glad you both liked it! I'm sorry if I spoiled anything for you by mentioning the horse scene, but I was haunted by that scene from the book. I didn't think I could handle an actual visual of it, and it would be the kind of scene that would really bother me if I had come across it unawares. (Of course, I don't actually know what they showed!)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

On the contrary, I was glad to be wary of it. Regarding the language,

Hidden text.

I laughed out loud at the one place where the f-word was used in writing

[Teremia]

I'd like to see WILD! For the scenery, since like V, I've walked parts of that trail and would like to walk more.

On the plane I saw BOYHOOD, and it made me think about life. (Appropriate New Year's behavior!)
In short:
Is life a story--or a collection of moments?
Seems to me that the "story" model involves a lot of heartbreak. So I'm aiming to accumulate Moments this year.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Teremia, I would curious to hear your opinion, but I am confident that there are aspects of the film that you would find both powerful and difficult.