Movies you just recently watched
- Thread starter Jman
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Well I love sci-fi, but for me to enjoy a film it doesn't need fancy CG and realistic space physics, it needs a story. A really good story, the kind of story you need to watch twice to take in, I liked movies like Inception, Moon, Interstellar, Donny Darko and Shutter Island, because it was all about the story. Yeah, there was great CG, that was one of the reasons I liked Interstellar so much, but without the story it would be crap.Adsolution said:
Gravity had no story at all. You could write the story in, say, 10 words. Here, let me have a go:
(Spoilers I guess)
[Woman goes to space. Craft crashes. Makes way back home.]
Yeah, there was action, like the spinning and the clinging and things, but unlike some, it didn't put me on the edge of my seat at all. There was nothing stopping me looking up the best clips from the film on YouTube, shortening the experience and making it less of a bore, because there was no plot that I would miss without reading that 10-word-synopsis.
Over all, I think Gravity was lacking in plot, and it made the movie incredibly boring. Other people must have loved the action and thriller scenes, but I'm not one for those much, not without plot. it's just my opinion, anyway.
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Haruka said:
But it seems that nobody outside of US can watch the broadcasts, not even on Sony's YouTube channel where they say it is not avalible in other countries. Ah well, I just downloaded 1080p torrent and it has amazing image quality. Next step, find time to actually watch the movie and also find soundtracks to listen. Seriously, the movie is probably mediocre at best but this trailer music is in my opinion really good:
The closest I could find to that song is the song these korean kids play:
Anyone can help me with soundtrack?
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Please tell me that I am not the only one who thinks that "The Interview" is just overrated, or talked about too much. To be honest, I don't think it's that much of a great movie 
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Gonna watch it tonight so I will know if it is good or not, but it looks mediocre from trailer except for awesome music.emshomar said:Please tell me that I am not the only one who thinks that "The Interview" is just overrated, or talked about too much. To be honest, I don't think it's that much of a great movie
Only reason why is this movie popular is because of Sony hack. I did not even know this movie existed prior to hacking events.
About movie itself from what I heared about it, I can't help but think it is a bit provking. Sure Kim Jong Un is not a nice guy but movies like this won't help in relations of the US and North Korea and can only cause an even bigger hatred. I have no issue with someone making a movie where real person is mocked but the fact that movie is about his assassination is what bothers me a bit. Dunno how much others will agree with me on this and it is totally fine if you don't, I just wanted to share my thoughts. I think it would be best if people just left North Korea alone since it clearly cannot be changed and attempts to do so could cause war. Let them be isolated country with their own problems and I think they won't attack other countries first for no reason. If North Koreans really hated their current regime so much, they would do same thing that was done in Libya in 2011.
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That's exactly why people liked it, it was all about her struggle to survive and make it back home. You got to live inside her head and feel what she feels, experience her doubt and loneliness. It was an incredibly immersive/psychedelic experience for that reason; an intense narrative would have only gotten in the way and broken that immersion.Ambidextroid said:
Are you saying you're unable to enjoy a movie like Fantasia because it has no story?
Everyone is different, but I don't think it's great for someone to require one particular aspect of an artform to always be prominent in order to give them enjoyment, it means you're closing yourself off to great experiences that don't lie within your little 'niche'. I myself can enjoy anything that's got good artistry put into it, and Gravity certainly has that.
Anyway, here are some movies I've seen recently:
Big Hero 6
A nice concept with a colourful cast of characters. This is one of those movies where I felt the first half was a lot better than the second half (in this case, I was really, really liking it when it was dealing with Hiro's school situation and technology, up until [they became superheroes]). After that, it felt rushed and sub-par, but did contain a breathtaking ending scene, and I'm not referring to a third act, rather, one particular scene that shows up for about five minutes.
I don't know whether I liked it more than Frozen, but Wreck-it Ralph still takes the cake as being my favourite of Disney's aforementioned new yearly releases.
The Inbetweeners Movie
Raunchy of course and nothing special, but lighthearted and a lot of fun. I was laughing through pretty much the whole thing.
Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Rather old indeed, but probably one of my favourite Ghibli movies. I didn't know that the soundtrack was from this movie, I've always heard it all over the place.
Interstellar
I'm at a loss for words on this one. It is, without a doubt, one of the greatest movies I've seen in my entire life. Clearly very inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of my favourite movies, I think this is the perfect spiritual successor, and it matched 2001 for me. From the moment the first scene on Earth rolled in, I could feel the brilliant direction, my heart started pounding and didn't stop until the end. The cinematography, the narrative, the soundtrack, the visuals, the journey, the heart-wrenching emotion, the science fiction, it's a downright masterpiece, and I say this with complete sincerity. My friend Gordon (also loves 2001, is a huge film guy but also very critical, yet had almost nothing but praise for this movie) and I couldn't stop talking about it and actually shivering the entire night after we went to see it. I wish I'd seen it in IMAX, that would've been an even bigger experience. I hope to one day!
One particular scene I recall where [they were flying by Saturn, accompanied by this beautiful, minimalistic piano music] put me in a trance, I was leaning back against my seat with my mouth half open, completely still.
I sincerely hope that this movie becomes remembered as one of those great films of our era, because it really deserves it.
Gone Girl
I thought Amy (the character, not the actor) was a terrible liar though, nothing about the way she conveyed her stories was convincing in the slightest, and the way she acted afterward was the complete opposite of how someone would actually act. Maybe that was intentional, but the the character's responses kind of tells otherwise, so I'd attribute it to iffy writing.
Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the movie. It was surprisingly captivating and suspenseful, but it had some glaring flaws.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
It was swell! Whereas I thought the first Hobbit movie was really overlong, boring and lame, the second one was a huge step up, giving us an adventure, great environments (that water town), and the best dragon in all of film. The third one here I liked just as much as the second one, they managed to turn a two-and-a-half-hour battle into a heroic tale, which interestingly gave each character the chance to be explored more than in either of the previous films. The scene at the very beginning where [Smaug is shot with the black arrow] was phenomenally done, and seeing [the town and everyone in it burned alive] was probably the darkest, most intense scene in the series.
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I also saw some other, shittier movies I can't recall.
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The conspiracy-theorist part of me thinks the whole hack thing was a publicity stunt - the saner part of me promptly says "shut the fuck up you're embarassing me" because Sony just stands to lose too much from the various lawsuits that can now arise. Personally, I think it wasn't the North Korean government itself, but a sympathetic group somewhere in the vicinity, likely in China.OldClassicGamer said:
What bothers me is the way we aaaaaalways love to focus on the crazy dictator rather than the very real suffering of the people. We did it with Libya too. I was commissioned by a charity some years ago that worked for Christians in North Korea who of course face ridiculous persecution, as do all who dissent in that country. It is a place ruled by fear, fear that the slightest misstep will put you in a gulag, fear that saying anything at all will see your family punished no matter what rung on the social ladder you're on. But people do nonetheless rebel. They rebel, they risk everything for freedom. And, in most cases, they are crushed by the brutal arm of the state, because Libya was always fragmented and North Korea is the opposite. Revolution is harder in NK for too many reasons to list here. North Koreans are starving, reliant on aid from China, the EU, the UN at large. They and their children are fed one message on repeat with no opportunity to refute it. We sit in boardrooms and use their leaders as comedy villains.OldClassicGamer said:
Movies like "The Interview" - heck, "Team America" even - are catharsis for Westerners who would like to pretend they aren't irrationally afraid of this little state with its mad kings. And when the credits roll, we wish for this little state to fade back into isolation, out of sight and out of mind, like it's a show. The thing is, we don't need catharsis. We have nothing to fear. But we'd rather be not-afraid than confront the horrors in NK/Libya/Syria/Turkmenistan/Uzbekistan/I could go on. It's the trend, more than the movies themselves, that bugs me.
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I don't have a problem with these kinds of films existing, they're funny in a way focusing on the people could never be. That said, more capita-centric stories would be appreciated, but not slotted in with or replacing these satires, they're their own things.
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Well of course they're funny, they're comedies! It's just annoying that some injustices are automatic fodder for jokes, which NK has become. More variety would make a huge difference, because otherwise we get views like "oh NK will never change AHAHAH LOOK AT HIS HAIR oh just let them be isolated" etc. It's a freakshow approach. I don't think I'm explaining myself very well, but eh, just my tuppence.
It would be interesting to look at why we pick certain dictatorships, like Libya and NK, to enjoy on our movie screens and other dictatorships to rally against. I suppose its to do with how hierarchical and how entertaining the leaders are... doesn't say much for us does it
It would be interesting to look at why we pick certain dictatorships, like Libya and NK, to enjoy on our movie screens and other dictatorships to rally against. I suppose its to do with how hierarchical and how entertaining the leaders are... doesn't say much for us does it
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Yesterday, I watched two movies and a mini-movie.
Toy Story That Time Forgot - It was a short film but what I did particularly like was the character design for the Dinossaurs in the tribe. The story was entertaining too.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked - Uhm... The 3D renders are very cute but... The movie is really made for kids. The story is really boring and easily forgettable. I think they were struggling for the jokes too. I don't recommend.
Life of Pi - Wow. It had a pretty interesting story, but I really liked the photograph in this movie (Wasn't where it got awarded with the Oscars?). I particularly remember an image with the sea completely mirror-alike with Pi and Richard Parker in the boat. A really good movie.
Toy Story That Time Forgot - It was a short film but what I did particularly like was the character design for the Dinossaurs in the tribe. The story was entertaining too.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked - Uhm... The 3D renders are very cute but... The movie is really made for kids. The story is really boring and easily forgettable. I think they were struggling for the jokes too. I don't recommend.
Life of Pi - Wow. It had a pretty interesting story, but I really liked the photograph in this movie (Wasn't where it got awarded with the Oscars?). I particularly remember an image with the sea completely mirror-alike with Pi and Richard Parker in the boat. A really good movie.
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Not sure what Seth Rogen could do about the North Korea situation, he's a comedy writer, so he does what he does best and writes a movie that makes fun of the leadership. It certainly wouldn't be a good idea to make a comedy based on the people suffering under the dictatorship, that being said I'm a believer that anything is open to parody, and making fun of a dictator shows that they're not going to comply with his desire to be respected and taken seriously.
It's on the politicians and governments to actually do something about situations like North Korea, not the film industry, and in the meantime, the more movies that make fun of shitty delusional evil dictators the better in my opinion.
I'll see the movie, I'll laugh, and that's good enough for me.
It's on the politicians and governments to actually do something about situations like North Korea, not the film industry, and in the meantime, the more movies that make fun of shitty delusional evil dictators the better in my opinion.
I'll see the movie, I'll laugh, and that's good enough for me.
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I don't know how much you've read up on the leak, but many Sony employees' medical records and PPS numbers were made public, as well as secret plans for several future films, prominent actors' salaries, and emails where top Sony executives made racist jokes about Barack Obama. It's been devastating for the company's image and financial security. There's no way any part of this was deliberate on their part. After an investigation, the FBI announced that the hack was orchestrated by the North Korean government.Jewish Candy said:
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I don't know how did they concluded that North Korean government was involved. I mean, it could be random fans of Kim Jong Un who are not affiliated.
Also, Fun fact, Kim Jong Un is respected by some where I live and there is Facebook page with over 3000 likes. They could have been hackers as well
Also, Fun fact, Kim Jong Un is respected by some where I live and there is Facebook page with over 3000 likes. They could have been hackers as well
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Of course it was by the North Korean government, they loooove reinforcing their own stereotypes. The leak itself is essentially an unintentional trailer for the movie.
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spiraldoor said:
I know, and that was exactly my point?
In response to various other thingies:
I already mentioned that I was more concerned with the trend than the actual movie itself, but I’ll address this anyway. Seth Rosen, as a human being, cannot shirk responsibility for himself and his fellows. That is the curse of humanity, that we require one another. Yes, he can make an okay movie that continues the party line of “NK is a joke because kuh-razy leadership”. He could also have made an okay movie - heck, with the right research and a LOT of help from the right sources, even a comedy! - about the reality of a being a North Korean in the most oppressive state in the world. Or, if he didn’t feel up to the task of covering North Korea appropriately, he could also have not made a movie about North Korea. Calling his work ‘satire’ or whatever does not magically excuse his decision from criticism, and mind that I’m not calling him an asshole or anything for it - and I don’t have a huge issue with ‘The Interview’ in a void anyway. To say it is ‘the government’s job’ excuses us our duty as citizens of a democracy. if we don’t put more pressure on our leaders to put pressure on other leaders (like China) to cripple the NK elite, they won’t because there are so many other things they think the populace wants to focus on. That, and they also have their own quota of shady deals.
Perhaps Rosen, like many others, believes that any treatment of North Korea is raising awareness of the horrors there, and that his comedy is indeed a service of some sort to the people whose broken backs it depends on to work. But I can’t agree with that, because it is simply parroting a view that the NK government uses to its advantage, as Ad mentioned. The viewpoint that sees North Korea as a joke country, one I used to hold, is entirely based on us - we evaluate them based on their threat to us exclusively. My problem is that this is the ONLY viewpoint paraded at large, so ubiquitous that opinions like OCG’s are the norm: isolationist and ignorant of the reality through no fault of his own. We hardly see the real threat NK poses, which is to its people, except the occasional BBC 5-minute segment (which hardly touches on the gulags and more on Pyongyang eccentricities) and some smaller charities. And when neither East nor West takes this seriously, while China turns a blind eye and we enjoy giggle after giggle, the dictatorship has room to survive in a manner unrivalled in the modern world.
So TL;DR BOTTOMS UP AND THE DEVIL LAUGHS