Its a shame we were low on eggs, that movie gives you a hankering for them.
[Movies] Talk about the last movie you saw 2: Electric Threadaloo
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So you can be Jesus?
Imagery!
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Star Trek Into Darkness
Well half of it, anyway. This movie was pretty bad. The first Abrams movie was silly but fun. This one is all over the place. Nothing Kirk does makes any sense. Ship and vehicle hardiness is relative to the plot. The plot is frankly a mess, and the characters are all needlessly plot-dumb. I gave up and turned it off halfway. I'll try to make it through the rest later.
Well half of it, anyway. This movie was pretty bad. The first Abrams movie was silly but fun. This one is all over the place. Nothing Kirk does makes any sense. Ship and vehicle hardiness is relative to the plot. The plot is frankly a mess, and the characters are all needlessly plot-dumb. I gave up and turned it off halfway. I'll try to make it through the rest later.
Just watch Wrath of Khan. It's pretty much the same movie.
Only, you know, not a terrible piece of shit.
You've played D&D, a game where every aspect of it is pretending you're a character in a magical world, where there's barely visual representation to what you're doing so that it relies entirely on your imagination to fulfill its non-existent structure, but robots that fight monsters is beyond your suspension of disbelief?
I want to talk about a Taiwanese film I saw in the theater this weekend, called Paradise in Service.
Originally I had no interest in watching this movie. It looked like one of them arty movies in which nothing happens, and people are always angsty and make snippy speeches about the life, the universe, and everything. And, to be honest, it really is one of them arty movies in which nothing happens, and people are always angsty and make snippy speeches about the life, the universe, and everything. However, that is not all that this movie is. I really liked this movie. All of the actors give awesome performances. The characters and script are solid. And it really hits those emotional highs and lows.
Paradise in Service is about a young conscript named Xiaobao who's sent to the island of Quemoy in 1969, during the height of tensions between Taiwan and Mainland China. Quemoy, also known as Kinmen, is merely 1.8 kilometers from the coast of Xiamen. In other words, it's basically the front line in the conflict between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The two sides like to shell one another with artillery when they get the chance to, and also constantly broadcast propaganda to the other side.
Despite this, though, this is not a war movie. This is not a movie about the Chinese civil war. This is a movie about soldiers, and more specifically it tells the story of soldiers through the military brothel that Xiaobao ended up working at. He ends up falling in love with one of the prostitutes, but later he finds that he knows practically nothing about her. When they grow close, he ends up rejecting her because he doesn't see a real future with her. And then when she's gone, he's consumed by regret, because he realized that he really did love her.
The soldier's superior officer, a sergeant major, is also in love with one of the prostitutes, and constantly pawns or sells his own possessions to buy nice stuff for her. She's a master at plying men and getting them to buy her things, but it's all a cover to hide her intense self-loathing at her profession, as well as her belief that no man will ever truly love her. Except it turns out she's wrong, the sergeant major really did love her, and when he finds out that she never really felt anything for him, well, the results aren't pretty.
A third storyline involves Xiaobao's friend, who's sent to a supply regiment that's based in an underground tunnel. The tunnel leaks constantly, leading to a fungal infection, and the more senior soldiers in the regiment love to haze the new guy. The friend meets a prostitute in the brothel, who also wants to escape, and together they make a plan to desert their respective units and swim across the Strait to the Mainland. The movie doesn't go into detail about what happens to them, but chances are they drowned along the way.
Having served in the ROC army myself, a lot of this stuff felt incredibly familiar to me. Hell, I even had to memorize some of the propaganda litanies we were meant to shout at the communist soldiers, if we ever encountered any. Anyway, good movie, quite liked it.
Trailer for the curious.
Originally I had no interest in watching this movie. It looked like one of them arty movies in which nothing happens, and people are always angsty and make snippy speeches about the life, the universe, and everything. And, to be honest, it really is one of them arty movies in which nothing happens, and people are always angsty and make snippy speeches about the life, the universe, and everything. However, that is not all that this movie is. I really liked this movie. All of the actors give awesome performances. The characters and script are solid. And it really hits those emotional highs and lows.
Paradise in Service is about a young conscript named Xiaobao who's sent to the island of Quemoy in 1969, during the height of tensions between Taiwan and Mainland China. Quemoy, also known as Kinmen, is merely 1.8 kilometers from the coast of Xiamen. In other words, it's basically the front line in the conflict between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The two sides like to shell one another with artillery when they get the chance to, and also constantly broadcast propaganda to the other side.
Despite this, though, this is not a war movie. This is not a movie about the Chinese civil war. This is a movie about soldiers, and more specifically it tells the story of soldiers through the military brothel that Xiaobao ended up working at. He ends up falling in love with one of the prostitutes, but later he finds that he knows practically nothing about her. When they grow close, he ends up rejecting her because he doesn't see a real future with her. And then when she's gone, he's consumed by regret, because he realized that he really did love her.
The soldier's superior officer, a sergeant major, is also in love with one of the prostitutes, and constantly pawns or sells his own possessions to buy nice stuff for her. She's a master at plying men and getting them to buy her things, but it's all a cover to hide her intense self-loathing at her profession, as well as her belief that no man will ever truly love her. Except it turns out she's wrong, the sergeant major really did love her, and when he finds out that she never really felt anything for him, well, the results aren't pretty.
A third storyline involves Xiaobao's friend, who's sent to a supply regiment that's based in an underground tunnel. The tunnel leaks constantly, leading to a fungal infection, and the more senior soldiers in the regiment love to haze the new guy. The friend meets a prostitute in the brothel, who also wants to escape, and together they make a plan to desert their respective units and swim across the Strait to the Mainland. The movie doesn't go into detail about what happens to them, but chances are they drowned along the way.
Having served in the ROC army myself, a lot of this stuff felt incredibly familiar to me. Hell, I even had to memorize some of the propaganda litanies we were meant to shout at the communist soldiers, if we ever encountered any. Anyway, good movie, quite liked it.
Trailer for the curious.
I decided to watch this again based partially on this comment. I'm just past the halfway point right now. Kirk is clearly emotional, the ship is hardly featured in the first half at all (and just as clearly sabotaged, not just broken), and the characters appear to be cautious, not plot-dumb. Kirk definitely has suspicions about what is going on. Either you made it further than you indicated and something specific ticked you off or you aren't giving it a fair shake.
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It could be. Then again, they seemed pretty plot-dumb in the self-contained scenes. I see the cautiousness, yet they seem to blunder on ahead despite the cautiousness. I turned it off when Kirk put Khan into cuffs. I mean, he just took on a battalion of the toughest warriors humans know of and didn't even bat an eyelash, then surrenders right after asking about the torpedoes? Clearly he wants on your ship. I've read no spoilers, but I'm going to guess the torpedoes
.
aren't explosive at all, and given his question about numbers, they contain people he cares about rather than warheads
I see the blundering differently, I think. Kirk is emotionally unhinged and acting without much foresight. This is actually addressed (not too long after you stopped, I'd wager).
And then death is cured, and the need for spaceships is made obsolete now that they have transporters that can send you apparently anywhere in the universe.
There are definitely some problems in Abrams' Star Trek...
As long as you've been there before! Basically, Kirk and the Enterprise are now doing the Star Trek equivalent of walking to a new destination and getting it on your world map before you can fast travel there in the future.
The Drop
Damn good movie from the same writer that also did Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River. Same kind of modern noir-style movie. Definitely recommended if you're into that.
Damn good movie from the same writer that also did Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River. Same kind of modern noir-style movie. Definitely recommended if you're into that.
Jay and Silent Bob's Groovy Cartoon Movie: Not the best movie he's made, but still a fun ride. I also like how they straight up acknowledged how they couldn't get Mark Hamill, and just went with the complete opposite voice with Tara Strong. Freakin' funny.
Who's "he"? This is the first movie Jason Mewes produced, and the first movie Steve Stark directed.[DOUBLEPOST=1410922232,1410921948][/DOUBLEPOST]X-Men: Days of Future Past
It was way better than I expected. And then then ending happened.
I don't understand. What's wrong with the ending?
Kevin Smith co-wrote it with Steve Stark, as well as writing the comic which it was based on which I need to buy now.
After establishing twice already that Logan ' s mind is only in the past while Kitty is there to maintain the link, and that if the link is severed his mind returns to the present, Logan wakes up in present day ( just a random, nothing special ordinary day, mind you. So he's been living out his life from 1973-2014, presumably just fine) suddenly remembering the future and unsure of what happened in the interim. They ignored their own bs time travel rules for the sake of a cheesy feel good ending.
Actually I think that was supposed to show that the "future" scenes in DoFP were actually set in the present. At least my reaction to the ending was "Huh it was the present all along. Guess that's why they didn't bother making the actors in the future scenes look older." Closely followed by "Wait so the Sentinels conquered the world between The Wolverine & this movie? How did everything go to shit in such a short period of time?"
doesn't change the fact that when that alternate universe id eradicated, alternate universe Kitty Pryde and alternate universe wolverine are also eradicated. the link is gone, wolverine would have lived the following thirty years without the memories. They even had a scene earlier where the link is extinguished and we see 1970s Logan's mind restored to his body and he's completely confused about where he even is- establishing that he doesn't retain future Logan's memories.
I'm not sure I like that explanation, but I'll buy it because I really dug the rest of the movie.
GotG and Cap 2 are still the better super hero movies from this year though, IMO. but i didnt think that Days of Future Past could POSSIBLY work, and it turned out to be pretty damned good overall.
GotG and Cap 2 are still the better super hero movies from this year though, IMO. but i didnt think that Days of Future Past could POSSIBLY work, and it turned out to be pretty damned good overall.
It's a story involving time travel. It's just like they said in Austin Powers 2: don't give it too much thought, sit back, and enjoy the ride.
(Obligatory prom night reference.)
(Obligatory prom night reference.)
Casablanca: I can't recall how many times I've watched this ... several. But I feel like as I get older, I understand it more and the characters' feelings better. Watching it last night with my wife, it was a different movie from the one I saw as an 18-year-old with my first girlfriend, or as a 20-year-old after a bad breakup, and so on, and so on.
Tusk
This is a mixed bag, but my god is this a fascinating film. The comedic portions of the film, particularly the stuff that concerns Quebec detective Guy Lapointe, are weak and falter, but the horror elements work and show some some good development for Kevin Smith. He does a nice job with building the tension as the main villain's insanity becomes further revealed and he certainly captures the grotesque nature of a man turned into a walrus. It's been a long time since a film made me audibly say, "What the fuck?" in the theater.
Should you see it? Maybe. It is a mixed bag, with strong parts that get hampered by coexisting along the comedic portions, but at the very least, this is a very different film than most out there.
This is a mixed bag, but my god is this a fascinating film. The comedic portions of the film, particularly the stuff that concerns Quebec detective Guy Lapointe, are weak and falter, but the horror elements work and show some some good development for Kevin Smith. He does a nice job with building the tension as the main villain's insanity becomes further revealed and he certainly captures the grotesque nature of a man turned into a walrus. It's been a long time since a film made me audibly say, "What the fuck?" in the theater.
Should you see it? Maybe. It is a mixed bag, with strong parts that get hampered by coexisting along the comedic portions, but at the very least, this is a very different film than most out there.
Everything I've heard about this is people saying that it was trying to be a completely stupid but charming horror movie (like Birdemic or Sharknado), but it fails because it's so obviously forced. Like it was TRYING to be bad instead of trying to be charming.
I don't feel like it was trying to copy something like Birdemic or Sharknado, simply that Kevin Smith had this crazy idea for a film that he talked about on his podcast, reached out to his fans to see if anyone would want to see him make it, then made it after they responded. As I said, the bad parts are the comedic stuff that comes into play with stuff like that character Guy Lapointe. When it's just allowing itself to do the horror and grotesque nature of a story concerning a man turned into the walrus, it's good.