Gendo's 2017 list of movies

[Gendo]

I was glad to have a full list of everything I watched last year, so I'll be doing it again. This time with numbers.

1. Star Trek Beyond - I liked it just fine. Heard it was worse than the others, but I'd say about as good as Into Darkness.

[Anakin McFly]

I liked Beyond much more than Into Darkness, which I found too draggy and convoluted at times.

[BruceSmith78]

I was pretty disappointed with it. Not nearly as good as Abrams' Star Trek, which is the only Star Trek I've ever liked.

[Gendo]

2. Mr. Church - A surprisingly strong performance from Eddie Murphy. The move itself was pretty good.

Man I'm going to have to pick up the pace; I'd seen about 10 movies already this time last year!

[thesalmonofdoubt]

I was pretty disappointed with it. Not nearly as good as Abrams' Star Trek, which is the only Star Trek I've ever liked.

Sort of this - I wasn't disappointed with it but, it wasn't as good as Abrams Star Trek - but was much better than Into Darkness.
At this point tho, and much like Spider-Man/superman/batman/the Avengers, it almost doesn't matter whether the movies are exceptional, I'm just at saturation point with rehashed material - which is one of the reasons why I liked guardians so much, it felt fresh, had new subject matter and stands alone.

[Gendo]

3. Joe - Pretty good. Nick Cage shows he can act when he actually wants to, and Tye Sheridan is great like always.

[Gendo]

I've been watching movies; just been lazy about writing them up here.

4. Triangle (2009) - Another great recommendation from I-Am-Robin. Absolutely amazing film. It's like a cross between Cube, Predestination, and Dead End. A complete delight.

5. Now You See Me - Good, fun action/heist type thing. Looking forward to seeing the sequel now.

6. Cloud Atlas - Pretty sure I liked this. I need to watch it again though.

7. The Hunger Games - Not bad. I wanted to see more about the world itself outside of the games.

8. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Great. It gave me what I was wanting in the last movie.

9. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 - Ok. Ironically wanted to see more of the games again.

10. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 - Good movie; combined all the good stuff from the others.

11. Mr. Holmes - Interesting. A little slow for my tastes, but well done.

12. Robin Hood ( 2010) - Boring. Basically nothing really happens.

13. Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders - Great movie. If you like the old 60s Batman movie, this is basically everything that is. Except animated.

14. Concussion - Great movie. Will Smith was great.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

I loved Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders.

[Gendo]

Quickly Robin, to the crosswalk!

[Faustus5]

4. Triangle (2006) - Another great recommendation from I-Am-Robin. Absolutely amazing film. It's like a cross between Cube, Predestination, and Dead End. A complete delight.

Was this the TV series with Eric Stoltz, Catherine Bell, and Lou Diamond Phillips? (Trying to narrow it down.)

[Gendo]

4. Triangle (2006) - Another great recommendation from I-Am-Robin. Absolutely amazing film. It's like a cross between Cube, Predestination, and Dead End. A complete delight.

Was this the TV series with Eric Stoltz, Catherine Bell, and Lou Diamond Phillips? (Trying to narrow it down.)

Oops, was 2009, not 2006. This one:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1187064/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Gendo]

15. Black Mass - I liked it. Of course I like most things about Boston. Depp was pretty amazing.

[Faustus5]

4. Triangle (2006) - Another great recommendation from I-Am-Robin. Absolutely amazing film. It's like a cross between Cube, Predestination, and Dead End. A complete delight.

Was this the TV series with Eric Stoltz, Catherine Bell, and Lou Diamond Phillips? (Trying to narrow it down.)

Oops, was 2009, not 2006. This one:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1187064/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks. Added it to my Netflix based on the movies you compared it to.

[Gendo]

15. Noah - I didn't expect to like it, but I did. Aronofsky's style actually works for the epic genre.

[Raxivace]

I liked Triangle (2009), though I think the way the stuff with the main character's child plays out comes off as a little needlessly edgy.

Also if you've seen anything else in the genre the big twist is a little predictable, though still well done.

[Eva Yojimbo]

15. Noah - I didn't expect to like it, but I did. Aronofsky's style actually works for the epic genre.

I was shocked by how much I loved that one too. I think it was the perfect combination of Aronofsky's "epic" and "dramatic" sensibilities. Though The Fountain remains my favorite of his.

[Islandmur]

4. Triangle (2006) - Another great recommendation from I-Am-Robin. Absolutely amazing film. It's like a cross between Cube, Predestination, and Dead End. A complete delight.

Was this the TV series with Eric Stoltz, Catherine Bell, and Lou Diamond Phillips? (Trying to narrow it down.)

Oops, was 2009, not 2006. This one:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1187064/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I loved the Triangle... even though i knew we were heading for a twist and what it was likely to be, it was still suspenseful.

[aels]

I really like Now You See Me. It's got Mark Ruffalo and Woody Harrelson, two actors I really enjoy, and is about magicians doing magic shit, which is always good. I really liked the first three Hunger Games films too although I haven't seen part two of Mockingjay yet. And Ridley Scott's Robin Hood *is* a pile of nothing, although it has a beautifully diverse range of accents, all of which are coming from Russell Crowe.

[Derived Absurdity]

I thought Noah was extremely dumb, but that's how I think of every Aronofsky film I've seen, even Black Swan, which I liked.

[Eva Yojimbo]

I thought Noah was extremely dumb, but that's how I think of every Aronofsky film I've seen, even Black Swan, which I liked.

Dumb in what way, precisely? I would agree that Aronofsky isn't the subtlest and most nuanced of filmmakers, but in a sense I think his heart-on-the-sleeve, romantic approach is refreshing in an age of cool, detached cynicism.

[Derived Absurdity]

But I like cool, detached cynicism!

Idk. Requiem for a Dream felt like a melodramatic drug PSA from the 80s. All the time I was watching it I was like, "Um... am I supposed to be taking any of this seriously?" It felt very silly. The Fountain was just ridiculous from top to bottom, although it's been a very long time since I've seen it and my tastes have changed since then. I mean, I remember it was interesting and ambitious and all, but so was Jupiter Ascending, and, well. Black Swan felt very heavy-handed and was not anywhere near as deep as it seemed to think it was, although like I said I liked it a lot and it was very well-made. Noah was just bad.

I have not seen The Wrestler and I'm not sure if I've ever seen Pi, so I'm reserving judgment on those.

[Islandmur]

I didn't like REquiem for a Dream not a single bit of it.

I did enjoy the Fountain a lot. Jupiter Ascending was good fun to me lol.

Haven't seen black swan or the wrestler

Oh I hate the musical Sweeny Todd with Johnny Depp, and I'm a huge musical and Depp fan.... go figure.
There is a Sweeny Todd with Ray Winstone in 2006 which I very much enjoyed though.

[Eva Yojimbo]

But I like cool, detached cynicism!

Idk. Requiem for a Dream felt like a melodramatic drug PSA from the 80s. All the time I was watching it I was like, "Um... am I supposed to be taking any of this seriously?" It felt very silly. The Fountain was just ridiculous from top to bottom, although it's been a very long time since I've seen it and my tastes have changed since then. I mean, I remember it was interesting and ambitious and all, but so was Jupiter Ascending, and, well. Black Swan felt very heavy-handed and was not anywhere near as deep as it seemed to think it was, although like I said I liked it a lot and it was very well-made. Noah was just bad.

I have not seen The Wrestler and I'm not sure if I've ever seen Pi, so I'm reserving judgment on those.

I like cool, detached cynicism too, but it's become such a dominant mode that you just don't see hardly anything else anymore. Plus, most of those that do it don't do it nearly as well as, say, 60s Godard.

I agree about how much Requiem sucks, but I like the rest. Black Swan is an interesting gender-swapping take on the career-obsessed perfectionist, psychological-thriller genre; similar to Cassavetes' Opening Night and Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue. I actually think it's one of the more interesting feminist films made in this century. The Wrestler I thought was just good, solid drama with good performances. I think both Wrestler and Requiem suffer from Aronofsky being uneasy in full-on "gritty realism" mode. Black Swan is a better mix of his epic/allegorical and gritty realism sides. Pi is a darn-good film too; perhaps Aronofsky at his most idiosyncratic, but I love the sense of paranoia that film creates.

The Fountain... well, I'm an unapologetic lover of that film. I think it's one of the most visually splendid, emotionally poignant, narratively sophisticated films to come out of mainstream Hollywood in many years. One thing I love is how many motifs and echos Aronofsky crams into it: the color orange, the passageway/light, the 180-degree top-down camera tilt, the high-angle top-down shot, the "ring/circle" symbol. I like how the film explores how art is, among other things, a consoling coping mechanism against the harshness of reality. Or, as Wallace Stevens said: the imagination is what pushes back against the pressures of reality. It also has one of my absolute favorite soundtracks ever. I'd definitely suggest giving it a rewatch as it's gotten better the more I've seen it. I can understand the criticism about it being over-the-top, and I've often said there's a thin line between the sublime and the silly. The Fountain, for me, falls on the sublime side.

Jupiter Ascending was a mess, I agree. I somewhat recently saw it and wrote a short-ish review if you'd care to read.

[Derived Absurdity]

I should certainly see The Fountain again.

My tastes have really changed dramatically in just the past year or two, all after I've seen my last Aronofsky film, so don't trust my judgment too much.

Jupiter Ascending was a mess, but it was an interesting, ambitious, creative mess which didn't have its head up its own ass, and for that I appreciate it. There's also been some reviews which pointed out that it's basically a gender-swapped version of the Matrix, which is perfectly obvious and clear in hindsight, and which makes the contrast between the reception the two movies got somewhat interesting.

I'd like to read your review.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Here it is:

Jupiter Ascending (Wachowskis) - 5.0/10

Though based on an original screenplay, Jupiter Ascending has the dubious distinction of feeling like it tried to condense an epic-length comic book series into a 120-minute feature film. Watching it is like trying to watch a video game competition in which the viewer doesn't know the rules or objectives of the game being played.

The film feels like the Wachowski's attempt at creating a new mythology to rival that of The Matrix, and while the two share some basic similarities in structure (the banal everyday reality that gives way to a much more imaginative and terrifying reality beneath/above it), Jupiter Ascending is as messily baroque as The Matrix was cleanly modernistic. Throughout Jupiter you half expect the characters to burst into song given the opulence of the production design and campiness of the drama (Eddie Redmayne's “performance" is practically a parody of serious acting). I'm sure the mythology is better worked out than it seems, but the film throws so many jolting revelations at the viewer in an endless succession—Jupiter is a reincarnated queen? They're planning on harvesting Earth/humans for a substance that fuels their fountain of youth? Caine is a werewolf? Jupiter can speak to bees?—that making sense of it during an initial viewing is nearly impossible and blunts much of the drama and excitement.

This ultimately equates to a film that's epic in scope but convoluted in execution. Yet despite the seeming incoherence, Jupiter is an interesting visual spectacle, proving yet again that the Wachowski's have more visual imagination than most filmmakers rooted in this genre. If only their storytelling sensibilities could once again catch up with their visual sensibilities.

As for another ambitious, interesting sci-fi film that I thought was much better executed: what do you think of Cloud Atlas?

[Faustus5]

The Fountain... well, I'm an unapologetic lover of that film. I think it's one of the most visually splendid, emotionally poignant, narratively sophisticated films to come out of mainstream Hollywood in many years. One thing I love is how many motifs and echos Aronofsky crams into it: the color orange, the passageway/light, the 180-degree top-down camera tilt, the high-angle top-down shot, the "ring/circle" symbol. I like how the film explores how art is, among other things, a consoling coping mechanism against the harshness of reality. Or, as Wallace Stevens said: the imagination is what pushes back against the pressures of reality. It also has one of my absolute favorite soundtracks ever. I'd definitely suggest giving it a rewatch as it's gotten better the more I've seen it. I can understand the criticism about it being over-the-top, and I've often said there's a thin line between the sublime and the silly. The Fountain, for me, falls on the sublime side.

I really adore The Fountain. There is a lot of secrecy surrounding his next movie, Mother!, but what has leaked out is that it is trippy and crazy, so I hope that means he's back in the mode of Pi and The Fountain. I can only cross my fingers.

[Gendo]

16. Foxcatcher - Not sure how to feel about this one. Amazing acting and directing. The whole thing was well done and well told. But the story itself was mostly boring and a little confusing. Perhaps if I had known what really happened in real life to begin with it would have helped. But without spoilers, a character does something very unexpected near the end, which if it weren't an actual thing that happened, I would have thought "well that's just silly writing, why would they make his character do that??"

[Derived Absurdity]

Haven't seen Cloud Atlas. I've been wanting to for a while but I haven't gotten around to it. The list of movies I want to see but haven't are probably in the hundreds by now. I'd probably like it.

Here are some of the reviews I was talking about that go into how Jupiter Ascending was basically a gender-flipped version of the Matrix:

http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2015 ... nding.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://fozmeadows.wordpress.com/2015/0 ... egendered/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Raxivace]

The list of movies I want to see but haven't are probably in the hundreds by now.

I find watching movies is like battling the hydra. I watch one film, and suddenly there are five more in its place I want to see.

[Gendo]

17. Chappie - Loved it. Something about the way Chappie's character was done just felt so genuine. Not sure about Hugh Jackman being an over-the-top villain though.

[CashRules]

I still haven't seen Star Trek Beyond but it has Idris Elba so that means it's automatically one of the 15 best movies ever made. Of course it would have been even better if every member of the main cast had been played by Idris Elba.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Haven't seen Cloud Atlas. I've been wanting to for a while but I haven't gotten around to it. The list of movies I want to see but haven't are probably in the hundreds by now. I'd probably like it.

Here are some of the reviews I was talking about that go into how Jupiter Ascending was basically a gender-flipped version of the Matrix.

Better be prepared to watch Cloud Atlas twice, because it has one of the most convoluted plot structures in recent memory; but once you understand which time period is which, it's easier to follow a second time, and still pretty awesome.

Thanks for the links. I kinda picked up on the gender-flipped Matrix thing too.

16. Foxcatcher - Not sure how to feel about this one. Amazing acting and directing. The whole thing was well done and well told. But the story itself was mostly boring and a little confusing. Perhaps if I had known what really happened in real life to begin with it would have helped. But without spoilers, a character does something very unexpected near the end, which if it weren't an actual thing that happened, I would have thought "well that's just silly writing, why would they make his character do that??"

I basically felt the same thing. Solid film worth it for the acting, but a little bland and forgettable beyond that.

The list of movies I want to see but haven't are probably in the hundreds by now.

I find watching movies is like battling the hydra. I watch one film, and suddenly there are five more in its place I want to see.

You guys can start complaining when you a have a "to watch" document that's the text-length equivalent of a short novel.

[Raxivace]

My to-watch document is called my memory.

I think I do have a few Word documents lying around too though...

[Gendo]

My to-watch document is called my memory.

I think I do have a few Word documents lying around too though...

Mine is here: http://gendoikari.filmaf.com/owned/not-seen" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So that's the list of all movies I own but haven't seen yet. I don't have a separate list of movies that I just want to see / should see.

[Eva Yojimbo]

My to-watch document is called my memory.

I think I do have a few Word documents lying around too though...

Really, my Word Document is basically a list of directors I'm semi-interested in and all their films that I cross out when I watch them. There are probably online resources that would've been better for this now, but I started that list nearly a decade ago.

My to-watch document is called my memory.

I think I do have a few Word documents lying around too though...

Mine is here: http://gendoikari.filmaf.com/owned/not-seen" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So that's the list of all movies I own but haven't seen yet. I don't have a separate list of movies that I just want to see / should see.

Hope you have a good subwoofer whenever you get around to watching 9. That film has perhaps the best engineered bass of any movie I've ever seen.

[Gendo]

18. In Bruges - Man, that was beautiful. Fantastic film; great job of crossing genres and being something new.

I've been slow with my movie watching so far this year; hope I'll make up for it.

[Gendo]

19. Proof - Good movie. Not amazing or anything, but good.

[Islandmur]

i enjoyed Proof!

[Gendo]

20. Bottle Shock - Another ok movie with some great acting, but but very basic and not offering anything new really.

21. I'm Not Ashamed - A surprisingly good Christian film about one of the students who was killed during the Columbine shooting. An interesting mix of high school drama, with some typical faith-based movie stuff, but with the lingering tension of the upcoming shooting felt throughout the movie. Pretty depressing / sad by the end.

[Gendo]

Slowly but surely continuing on.

22. Spotlight - Great as expected. Not sure if I get the Best Picture thing; but I haven't seen half of the other movies that were nominated in 2016 yet. Ruffalo was really great.

[Raxivace]

Can't say I thought much about Spotlight. Formally I find it very drab, dramatically I find it kind of hollow (Despite the best efforts of all the many good actors involved there isn't much of anything to any of their characters), and thematically I find it fairly toothless (Even the Catholic Church praised the film. Think about that for a moment).

The only thing I think the film really did well was explain how the abuse functioned and perpetuated itself...which is great, but five minutes on Wikipedia could tell you that too. Had this movie come out in 2005 I think it might have been bold enough though it would not have aged well. In 2015, I'm not sure it had any business existing as is.

[CashRules]

I finally watched Star Trek Beyond and the word that comes to mind is disappointment. Why hire an actor the caliber of Idris Elba and then give him a part that could have been played by any random actor? Were they banking on name recognition?

[Raxivace]

I finally watched Star Trek Beyond and the word that comes to mind is disappointment. Why hire an actor the caliber of Idris Elba and then give him a part that could have been played by any random actor? Were they banking on name recognition?

Elba was in like none of the promotional material that I saw for the movie. I think his appearance was supposed to be a surprise, similar to Matt Damon popping up in Interstellar.

[Gendo]

23. Metropolis - Finally got around to watching this classic. I think I've only seen a couple silent films before. This was amazing. At first it was a bit hard on the eyes due to the way the lighting was with the old film quality. But I eventually didn't notice it. I was impressed as to how easy it was to follow given how infrequently there was written "dialog". The story itself was great.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Slowly but surely continuing on.

22. Spotlight - Great as expected. Not sure if I get the Best Picture thing; but I haven't seen half of the other movies that were nominated in 2016 yet. Ruffalo was really great.

I basically agree with Rax RE Spotlight. I thought it was one of the worst BP winners I've ever seen. I think I summed up my feelings in my review with this line: "The film is told with all the factual detail accruement of a great documentary, all the drama of bad fiction, and all the aesthetic style of a string mop. How the Academy went from awarding one of the most aesthetically daring mainstream film in recent memory like Birdman to awarding this is a mystery."

23. Metropolis - Finally got around to watching this classic. I think I've only seen a couple silent films before. This was amazing. At first it was a bit hard on the eyes due to the way the lighting was with the old film quality. But I eventually didn't notice it. I was impressed as to how easy it was to follow given how infrequently there was written "dialog". The story itself was great.

This, on the other hand, is one of the towering cinematic masterpieces of all time. Just as visually impressive as film gets, and truly the standard for all the great, intelligent sci-fi films and TV that came after it. Once you see it there are moments and images that you'll never forget.

Though it's not nearly as popular--probably due to its length: two films running a combined ~5 hours--Lang's Die Nibelungen is even better.

[Gendo]

24. Logan - Quite good, as I'd heard. I would have liked to get a bit more detail about the world they lived in; what's been happening the last 20 years, etc. But it was very well done.

25. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome - Pretty good stuff. Good world, good action.

[maz89]

24. Logan - Quite good, as I'd heard. I would have liked to get a bit more detail about the world they lived in; what's been happening the last 20 years, etc. But it was very well done.

I need to see this soon, if only to drown out the taste of that horrid Apocalypse movie - which was even worse than the previous low the X-Men series hit with The Last Stand.

[Gendo]

24. Logan - Quite good, as I'd heard. I would have liked to get a bit more detail about the world they lived in; what's been happening the last 20 years, etc. But it was very well done.

I need to see this soon, if only to drown out the taste of that horrid Apocalypse movie - which was even worse than the previous low the X-Men series hit with The Last Stand.

Wow, I quite enjoyed Apocalypse...better than The Wolverine at least.

[maz89]

Wow, I quite enjoyed Apocalypse...better than The Wolverine at least.

I only saw bits and pieces of Wolverine, and I knew it wasn't worth a deeper dive lol.

After a solid outing in Days of Future Past, Apocalypse is predictable from the get-go. Ancient, bland, evil mutant amasses mutant followers (including the good guys such as Magneto, who has conveniently been reminded of how horrible humans are) to kill humans; good guys amass mutant followers as well; there's a big battle, and the good guys in the evil team have a change of heart, heroically saving the day. The only bit I admit to enjoying was when Jean Grey unleashes her super freaky, insane telephathic power and finally rids us of the bland villain, but then she's always been my favorite character (I will never forgive Singer for fucking up the Dark Phoenix story in The Last Stand, after the beauty that was X-Men 2.) Jean Grey's remark was facetious but I think she hit the mark when she said, talking about the third Star Wars movie, 'at least we can all agree that the third one is always the worst'. They certainly were, for both X-men trilogies.

[Gendo]

26. The Secret of NIMH - Really great. It's possible I'd seen it before as a kid, but don't remember, so it counts as new. The art style and the characters were just wonderful.