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12-24-2013, 04:31 PM | #581 |
Gathering Rangers for D&D
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Orgrimmar
Posts: 7,949
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Just watched the greatest holiday movie of all time, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.
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12-24-2013, 04:51 PM | #582 |
Banned
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Englewood CO
Posts: 10,893
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A Christmas Carol (Alistair Sim): I really like Sim's version of Scrooge. The man does a great job acting like a rotten asshole and then pulls off the change in his personality quite well and make it believable. On the other hand, I do not like how this movie really plays out Tiny Tim as they added scenes with him just for the sake of making us feel sympathy for him. I am not a fan of this at all. I also feel the movie drags out the stuff with the Ghost of Christmas Past, adding in additional scenes we did not need, but then cuts out some of the important scenes with the other two ghosts that were in the book. Once again though, the movie does a great job with the effects on Marley's ghost, which does outshine some of the modern live action takes we get today. Overall, this movie has a lot of going for it, a lot of great ideas and some excellent acting, but at the same time, it throws in pointless crap we did not ask for nor needed. As such, I am giving this version a 7/10.
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12-24-2013, 06:10 PM | #583 |
Big Bad Wolf.
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Raiding tombs.
Posts: 9,529
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Surprisingly? Whicher got a second film. And how do I feel about it? I'm kinda torn. On the onehand, the lack of filmicness of Road Hill was its biggest problem, it was less a movie and more a filmed stageplay. But in an attempt to not repeat this, Angel Lane is almost 90s comics level of ludicrous as it attempts to top its predecessor at every story beat.
Road Hill had its fair share of twists, but they were carefully spaced out, crucial to the plot and most importantly made sense. Here so many twists are piled on, the pile grows so high aeroplanes crash into it. By about the half way point I really had no idea what was going on any more, with only a handful of faces to put to about three dozen names. In the original it all largely took place in a single house, as the secrets of that house were revealed. Well in the second film, despite taking place across London, they try and make every single damn character connected whether through sheer coincidence so obviously engineered or because apparently at this time London had about ten people living in it (not including extras). Not to mention that once again Whicher is full of suspicions he has no evidence for, so his reputation gets dashed before he eventually turns out to be right. This time though he isn't chasing a single piece of crucial evidence, oh no that is far too subtle for this film... And then of course we have the plot that blasts at a breakneck pace and never slows down as Whicher darts from location to location, as if the film fears that if he stops in a single place for to long the boredom of the first movie and the prison of Road Hill House will take over. And as if they were needed, action scenes! Whicher faces a knife wielding suspect, busts out of an insane asylum (which is apparently very easy) and it all leads to a shooting. Probably the only compliment I have for this is the character of Whicher himself. Considine reprises the role, which I am thankful for, both because I am a huge fan of his work but also because he deserves this Whicher. This Whicher is everything the character was hinted to be in the last instalment. Extremely complex, racked with grief and paranoia and his drive to do the right thing although consistently noble, is perhaps driven by deeper more personal and more selfish conflictions within. In short, he is utterly human in his flaws.
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12-24-2013, 06:20 PM | #584 |
Resident priest of Godoka
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 4,176
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The Nightmare Before Christmas is such a timeless classic.
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Necrozma, thirsts for your light!
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12-24-2013, 09:02 PM | #585 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 3,313
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DIE HARD
Awesome. Oh, also Red 2. The first time I saw this, I liked it as much as Red. This second time, showing it to my wife, I still enjoyed it a lot, but I can now say, I do think the first is a little better. By which I think I mean, it's a little more funny. |
12-24-2013, 09:15 PM | #586 |
Gathering Rangers for D&D
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Orgrimmar
Posts: 7,949
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Quote:
FUCK YOU IT'S DIE HARD! |
12-24-2013, 09:21 PM | #587 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 3,313
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Red 2 isn't a Christmas movie, but Die Hard certainly is.
I want to watch Die Hard With A Vengeance tonight, cuz it was the next best one, but it doesn't take place during Chrstimas (if I recall), so I should watch Die Hard 2 because it does, but I'm not really interested in watching it again right now. |
12-24-2013, 09:53 PM | #588 |
Retired
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Northwest Pennsylvania
Posts: 901
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Just finished up with my annual viewing of Jingle All The Way.
'Put the coookie dawhn! NOW! Man, it's hard to convey Arnold's accent in text. |
12-26-2013, 03:17 AM | #589 |
Big Bad Wolf.
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Raiding tombs.
Posts: 9,529
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Art is all in the perspective. If you approach Epic as just another piece of family animation then yeah, it really is nothing special. And as it came out the same year the genre defying masterpiece Frozen did, it doesn't have a chance. However, if you approach it as another movie trying to be the next Twilight, you get something much more interesting... What?! Trashy young adult supernatural romance novels are my vice, okay?
Epic is full of beautiful animation taking the more cartoony looks of other similar animated features, then wrapping it in a coat of realism and featuring one of the most stunning representations of two races, one of life and one of death. And this animation is truly at its finest during the slick action scenes which are full of exciting imagination. It has fantasy elements, but just the right amount. I personally find the Swords and Sorcery genre one of the most uninteresting, so I was happy that the fantasy here was ground in a modern reality and punctuated with human drama. There is of course swords, magic and stupid names but that isn't all there is. Thank Christ for that. But now, as said, where Epic really shines is in the romance. It is a pretty traditional set up, we have a teenage girl, her mother is dead and her father is chasing something only he believes in which causes a chasm between him and his daughter. By pure chance, seemingly, the girl finds herself in a fantasy world of monsters and magic and most importantly - in the arms of a handsome boy. The set up, like many aspects of Epic, is nothing special but it's the way this set up is treated that makes it stand out. A lot of the time these romances are so by the numbers because they've become so cliché it's like writers assume you HAVE to include them and go through the motions with these plot arcs just so they are there. But here MK doesn't just fall for Nod simply because he's the only boy her age around, or whatever the reasoning is behind the likes of Clary and Jace or Bella and Edward. It springs off of an initial attraction, sure, and Nod is a sort of blend between Jacob and Jace and we can't help but be charmed by his cocky asshole attitude. But his actual relationship with MK takes time over the course of the film, forming perhaps not quite naturally, but is probably one of the most convincing romances of the year. Hutcherson and Seyfried have a lot of chemistry as well, given its only their voices, and the animation has to do the rest. And thankfully, minus a comic relief slug who I wanted to dunk a load of salt on, these central lovers are supported by a great supporting cast. Usually when a voice cast is made up of famous names, it usually sucks, as just because you're a famous actor doesn't mean you can voice act but here it works wonderfully, thanks largely to some wonderful dialogue that the numerous writers give them to chew on.
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12-26-2013, 05:39 PM | #590 |
Big Bad Wolf.
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Raiding tombs.
Posts: 9,529
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Don Jon takes time, a lot of time, to truly get good. For almost the first hour the film is basically just noise. It's big, loud, in your face, bolshy, repetitious to the point of monotony and utterly vulgar. But Gordon-Levitt spends this time building this utter douchebag so he can tear him down, and after the movie makes us hate everything about him, it's so satisfying to see him brought close to ruin on his path of salvation.
It's the most clever kind of smart movie, it's a critique of itself and Gordon-Levitt lays the pieces so carefully, and distracts you so much with the vulgarity, that we don't even realise a great movie is unfolding before our very eyes until almost all the pieces have fallen into place already. Plus come on, the fact that the movie alone centres around a guy addicted to porn, who could hate that? Really the most problematic aspect of the movie is Barbara, played by Scarlett Johansson. I'm sorry, I just don't find her attractive. And before someone tells me that's not the point, that is the WHOLE point of nearly the whole movie. And if you can't join in on 'The Dons' drooling, then you can't really appreciate the movie. Thankfully (admittedly pretty late into the movie) steps Julianne Moore as Esther, her actually character may be pretty thinly drawn, but it's less who she is and more what she is about that matters in this context. Esther has a more lasting impact on the film than Barbara does despite having like three times the screentime. Barbara turns out to be a bit of a bitch, and Jon realising this and through the help of Esther he is able to grow into a better person so the movie can leave on a high note. We're just fucking lost together. Obviously a big part of the movies strength though is not Gordon-Levitt's acting ability, but his directing skills. He has a brilliant eye and imagination for staging a scene and finding beauty in every day surroundings, using lots of visual motifs to tell stuff that other movies would do through boring dumps of exposition, and most crucially he knows how to use his actors to get the best performances he can.
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