[Movies] Talk about the last movie you saw 2: Electric Threadaloo

Homefront had me hooked with "James Franco playing a villain named 'Gator' ". and I guess it delivered on that premise.

Which version of Anchorman 2? I have all three and can't decide how to go at it.

On the topic of John Travolta - he was pretty great in Grease, Blow Out (Brian De Palma way early thriller, it's a criterion collection release!), and Saturday Night Fever (I think he got an oscar nomination???). I also kind of liked him in Primary Colors, Hairspray, Savages, and Broken Arrow. There's a difference between being a bad actor and taking shitty roles/movies. OH and he was the best part of the Thomas Jane Punisher movie, but that is faint praise.
Honestly I'm not sure. I got the movie off RedBox, so I'm assuming it's the theatrical release.
 
I heard a very audible gasp at the reveal from about a third of the audience when I saw it last weekend. It was rather cool to know they hadn't been spoiled of the moment.
My wife and I kind of guessed it around when Cap and Black Widow went to their "honeymoon" location, but there were people in the audience going "oh no" and "shit".

Captain America 2 was excellent. Solid action, great character moments (Peggy scene broke my heart). The story rang true to a lot of stuff going on in real life, but stuck with Cap's character in opposing it. When the first Cap movie came out I was hoping the eventual sequel would have him dealing with how the world has changed since his time, and this movie delivered on that.

I doubt Zola is gone. He's a computer program--that little USB could hold more space than all those old computers put together.

Also, loved the Bucky at the museum scene. Didn't see that coming, but it was a great moment. All the museum stuff was good.
 
Winter Soldier was fantastic. A little hard to see the action in places but that may have to do with my wonky eyes and it being in IMAX.

That midcredit scene with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch has me hella curious. I actually gasped in the theater when I realized who they were.
 
Ok, so... I've had some time to decompress after Captain America: The Winter Soldier. From this point on there will be spoilers. I guess I should use a spoiler tag.

So, why was this movie so good? I had heard going in that it was politically charged, and touched on drones (this was the only information I had going in) and that made me a little worried. Shoehorning politics into a movie like this hasn't always been done well, just look at the horrible drone allegory in the reboot of Robocop (on second though, don't, just ignore that movie completely), or the terrible occupy Wallstreet blah blah crap of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. But hey, if you're going to put politics in a marvel comic movie, then Captain America is the best place to do it, right? I mean, his name is Captain Goddamn America.

But whereas those movies painted their allegories with big neon lights and said "LOOK AT OUR COMMENTARY!" Winter Soldier does a really good job of keeping it all in universe. It's a direct sequel to some of the darker elements hinted at about shield in The Avengers, and really explores what they could mean to their full extent. It has the great surprise twist of Hydra not only still existing, but being in charge of everything, and having our modern world built by them. It's as if America didn't beat the Nazis, the Nazis just snuck in and became America.

The movie also did a great job with it's man out of time motif. Steve Rogers is from the past, living in a world that has drastically changed from what he had lived in. He had fought for an idea, and now is transported to the future to see how what he fought for has changed and mutated.

I've said before that I feel like Captain America is marvel's version of Superman. Not in their powers, but in who they are, at their core. Cap is very much the boyscout. He's not defined by his muscles, or even his shield, but by his willingness to do what is right. He's not perfect, he has his doubts, but at the end of the day he's willing to fight for what he believes is right, no matter the odds in front of him. And there's no better scene of the effect his personality has on the world than during the helicarrier launch, when he announces that Hydra has taken over SHIELD and is using the helicarriers as weapons of mass destruction. The action moves momentarily to one random engineer working at the launch, being held at gunpoint and told to launch, and the stressed but determined reaction on his face as he refuses. He knows he's about to die, that if he doesn't launch this man is likely going to shoot him in the head, but he can't bring himself to do it. "Captains Orders." Great scene.

Black Widow had some great moments in this, more development than she's had in any of the other marvel movies. And while I'm tempted to draw that as a negative in the previous movies, I actually think it's ok. She hasn't had a lot of development because she keeps everything in. She's mysterious because she doesn't want anyone to know anything. She makes a great foil to Cap because of how different her character is. Rogers is all about hope and trust, BW is about cynicism and keeping people at arm's length. They compliment each other that way.

So, yeah... rambling over. Enjoyed the movie, would watch again.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Saw Cap 2 today. Man, I wish I knew less about comics. I feel kinda jealous of the people who were actually able to be surprised by the reveals/plot twists in it... but even merely having watched "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" made this movie have no surprises for me from start to finish :/

Also, what was with the shaky cam? Even the quiet conversation after showering at Falcon's apartment scene, it was like they let Michael J Fox hold the camera on them.
 
People complaining about shaky cam in this must have never sen a Bourne movie. While the camera swerved a lot, it didn't jolt and shudder like the kind of shaky cam that often causes problems. It followed the action around.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
People complaining about shaky cam in this must have never sen a Bourne movie. While the camera swerved a lot, it didn't jolt and shudder like the kind of shaky cam that often causes problems. It followed the action around.
It wasn't as bad as bourne, but there was no reason to shake the camera during quiet conversation scenes.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I'll have to take your word for it; I didn't notice it doing that during conversations.
It was just one in particular... when they just got done "cleaning up" at Falcon's apartment, and Cap sits down and talks to widow while she dries the ends of her hair. Maybe it was just my theater, but it looked like it was taking place during a small scale earthquake.
 
I had a discussion about Fargo earlier today. People in Minnesota are in complete denial about how accurate the accents are. They're SUPER offended by that movie. I've literally had people tell me in the almost exact same accent from the movie that they don't talk like that. I guess it's cause I'm not from around here, but MAN, do I notice the accent.
 
I used to get mistaken for a Canadian all the time. The upper peninsula of Michigan accent is very Canadian, down to the use of eh.
 
Yeah, but your accent is an OUTRAGEOUS FRENCH (canadian) accent
Yes, I'm a polyglot. Those who speak more than one language will most likely have a stronger accent in the 2 or more languages they speak. I personally speak 4 languages and I'm sure I got accents in all languages I speak. For monoglots, accents from polyglots will be more obvious for them.

So when you hear me speak and go OUTRAGEOUS FRENCH, when I hear you speak I go BATH SALTS - UNABLE TO VOTE.

So, all in all, everyone has accents to everyone else.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Pauline had that problem too... her English sounded so very Dutch.. her family gave her a hard time for being the "American Sister" when she spoke dutch with what they said is that accent.
 
I studied Spanish for almost a decade, with teachers who were Hungarian, Italian, German, and even Indian. When I finally went to live in a Spanish-speaking country for a while, they told me my accent sounded very South American. :confused:

--Patrick
 
Well, the General American dialect is said to be relatively accent free. That is to say that it is so prevalent it is somewhat of the norm to which deviations are compared (rather than the other way around.) Naturally comparing dialects is relative to a frame of reference but the typical frame of reference for North American english is the General American dialect.
 
And why most movie stars are taught to speak in the General American accent. I don't know what it is, but women from outside the US LOVE my voice and tell me I sound like an actor.
 
The Grey

Recently, I finished reading White Fang, a novel I'd always meant to read but never did until now. Anyway, I decided to watch something with a similar theme - or at least the first couple of chapters and their theme.

I forgot how great this movie is. There's not a lot of story or character development behind it, but there's plenty of really tense action scenes. I saw it in theatres when it was first out, really dug it then, and still dig it now. Though I must admit the wolf effects are a bit more obviously fake seeing them a second time and knowing when they'd appear. The first time around, I was too busy crapping my pants to notice the special effects. :p
 
The Grey is really good, and I'd argue it makes great use of the running time and everything to pack in enough character development to make the rest of the movie really great and hit hard.
 
The Grey is really good, and I'd argue it makes great use of the running time and everything to pack in enough character development to make the rest of the movie really great and hit hard.
I remember it doing a good job at character development too, however I need to see it again to see if it actually developed character or just found ways to make us feel sympathetic for the main character, which often feels like character development.
 
I remember it doing a good job at character development too, however I need to see it again to see if it actually developed character or just found ways to make us feel sympathetic for the main character, which often feels like character development.
I think it's more the latter, with the exception of Neeson's character, who starts the movie with a death wish and that develops into...something different by the end. I'm not really sure what. It's not quite a death wish, but it's not quite fighting for survival, either. Kind of a mix of both. Like, he knows he's going to die, but he's not going down without a fight.

The rest of the characters, I think, get just enough play so you feel bad when something happens to them. It's not that there's NO character development, it's just that it's meagre compared to the survival/action aspects of the movie.
 
The Big Heat (1953)

Just before the move to Halifax, I picked up these two cheap boxed sets of Film Noir movies. This was the first I watched tonight.

Man, if they're all like this, it's gonna be a good time. It's such a dark, vile movie with a lot of bad stuff that happens to good people. The main character - Sgt. Bannion - is a good man who slowly transforms into the monsters he's hunting, struggling not to go that far.

It's brilliantly shot (directed by Fritz Lang) and has some really great characters in it. The women, in particularly, all jump out as unique individuals with more personality than arguably the men. Great stuff.
 
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