Gendo watches more movies in 2018

[Gendo]

New year, new thread. My hope is to get through a lot more this year than last.

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Good. I dunno what all the complaints are about. Yeah, the Casino sidequest was pretty unnecessary. But the action and character relationships were both great. I could have been happy if the whole movie had been just Rei, Luke, and Ben.

2. Vertigo - Wow that twist. As with North by Northwest, I felt like it went on a bit too much after that though. The movie was slow to get going, but got more and more interesting as it went on.

[Derived Absurdity]

There's a huge backlash to TLJ on the Internet for some reason. I haven't seen it so I can't judge, but they all seem to be complaining that it didn't answer any questions from The Force Awakens, that a lot of plots went nowhere, that there wasn't really any character or story advancement, and that the humor was unfunny.

Idk. It has an A on Cinemascores so there's not much of a backlash in real life.

[Gendo]

3. Psycho (1960) - Wow, so good. I'd seen the Gus Van Sant version before for some reason, so I already had my amazement at the twist moment (somehow it had never been spoiled for me before that). But the atmosphere was just so creepy; I found myself feeling the suspense even during times when I knew nothing was going to happen.

That puts an end to my current run of Hitchock; finishing out the set of his really well-known work (having already seen The Birds a long time ago).

[Raxivace]

Until you've seen the shocking drama of Minta the Maid in the film The Farmer's Wife, you haven't seen Hitchcock's best work.

[Gendo]

4. Why Him? - Horrible. Awful. I wish I'd seen it a few days ago so I could say it's the worst movie I saw in 2017. I didn't crack a smile the entire time. I hate that 2 of my favorite actors would subject themselves to such a thing. The problem, other than the note for note predictability of it all, is that it was way too unrealistic. Franco's character wasn't just the type of person you hope your daughter doesn't end up with, he's the type of person who doesn't even remotely exist. Or if he does, you don't hang out with him and get to know him.

The message of the film seemed to be that Cranston's character needed to learn to lighten up and to let go of the past... but the things he does that are supposedly too uptight are not being ok with his daughter sleeping with a complete psychopath, and refusing to have sex with his intoxicated/drugged wife.

I kept hoping it would at least the sort of twist ending that Anger Management had, because at least then I could begin to accept that such a world the movie presented made sense. I know it was supposed to be a stupid comedy, and not taken too seriously, but really? Just no. I want my couple bucks back that I spent on this. Ugh.

[Eva Yojimbo]

2. Vertigo - Wow that twist. As with North by Northwest, I felt like it went on a bit too much after that though. The movie was slow to get going, but got more and more interesting as it went on.

Much more than the twist itself I've come to appreciate the brilliant structure of that film: the symmetry and what it suggests about truth VS illusion and its relationship with filmmakers/films and audiences. There's also something profoundly, almost nihilistically, tragic about that film that I'm not sure if I've ever really articulate or seen articulated by critics... something about the idea that both delusion and truth ultimately end up at the same place: death. I don't know if even Bergman's The Seventh Seal drove that point home so profoundly.

[Gendo]

5. The Accountant - Excellent. The twist was a bit over the top, but still great. Couldn't wait to see what was coming next the whole time.

[Raxivace]

We're neck and neck right now at five movies each...

[Gendo]

6. The Founder - Really good. A fascinating story, and Keaton is always a win these days.

7. Now You See Me 2 - Not bad. Not good. Some of the "magic tricks" jumped into the realm of the superpowers; moreso than in the first. Still a fun cast and characters that worked together.

[Raxivace]

7. Now You See Me 2 - Not bad. Not good. Some of the "magic tricks" jumped into the realm of the superpowers; moreso than in the first. Still a fun cast and characters that worked together.

Now You See Me 2 is weird because while the presentation is super plain, if you just describe what happens in the film it sounds insane. This was a post I made about it a year or so ago.

Now You See Me 2 (2016, Dir. I forget and can't bother to look it up) - I was morbidly curious about what a sequel to Now You See Me would look like (A strange film about how the Illuminati had sympathies for Occupy Wall Street), and the very generic blockbuster filmmaking and standard performances hide what, on a script level, is a very strange, campy film. This movie features...

-Harry Potter deciding to defeat the magic of Edward Snowden's celebrity team of magician-thieves using the power of SCIENCE
-All of the magic is seemingly done with CGI (Is the metaphor that Harry Potter hates CGI effects?)
-Woody Harrelson having mind control powers for some reason
-Magician thieves hijacking an Apple presentation and mind controlling fake Steve Jobs
-Mark Ruffalo pretending to be his character from Spotlight at one point, and he keeps fighting characters from Nolan's Batman movies (Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman)
-Woody Harrelson playing two different characters for some reason
-Mark Ruffalo's father being a dead magician that failed to escape from a locked safe underwater. The villains plan to kill Ruffalo in this same way, and he must master the magic trick that killed his father
-One of the big plot points so far is that Harrelson doesn't know how to stylishly throw playing cards across a room very well (He's training someone how to hypnotize people in exchange for getting trained how to do this). At one point Harrelson has to get a playing card that has a computer chip attached to it past a metal detector in a ridiculous sequence.
-There's one scene where the magicians are getting patted down by security guards, so they have to keep throwing this playing card with the chip on it between each other. It goes on for like five minutes. At one point we get a POV shot of the card going up someone's sleeves, and see the card "watch" the sleeve get patted down from inside.
-Like twenty seconds of the song "Magic Stick" is played for no reason that I can tell other than the fact it has the word "magic" in it. If you've listened to this song in full, you should now how LOL this is.

This is an odd, campy movie that almost works as a satire on modern blockbusters but not quite. No one else has seen this movie, so it is my duty to inform America about how weird it is. I wish I could say it was great, but it isn't quite good.

I guess you're the second person to see this now.

[Gendo]

7. Now You See Me 2 - Not bad. Not good. Some of the "magic tricks" jumped into the realm of the superpowers; moreso than in the first. Still a fun cast and characters that worked together.

Now You See Me 2 is weird because while the presentation is super plain, if you just describe what happens in the film it sounds insane. This was a post I made about it a year or so ago.

Now You See Me 2 (2016, Dir. I forget and can't bother to look it up) - I was morbidly curious about what a sequel to Now You See Me would look like (A strange film about how the Illuminati had sympathies for Occupy Wall Street), and the very generic blockbuster filmmaking and standard performances hide what, on a script level, is a very strange, campy film. This movie features...

-Harry Potter deciding to defeat the magic of Edward Snowden's celebrity team of magician-thieves using the power of SCIENCE
-All of the magic is seemingly done with CGI (Is the metaphor that Harry Potter hates CGI effects?)
-Woody Harrelson having mind control powers for some reason
-Magician thieves hijacking an Apple presentation and mind controlling fake Steve Jobs
-Mark Ruffalo pretending to be his character from Spotlight at one point, and he keeps fighting characters from Nolan's Batman movies (Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman)
-Woody Harrelson playing two different characters for some reason
-Mark Ruffalo's father being a dead magician that failed to escape from a locked safe underwater. The villains plan to kill Ruffalo in this same way, and he must master the magic trick that killed his father
-One of the big plot points so far is that Harrelson doesn't know how to stylishly throw playing cards across a room very well (He's training someone how to hypnotize people in exchange for getting trained how to do this). At one point Harrelson has to get a playing card that has a computer chip attached to it past a metal detector in a ridiculous sequence.
-There's one scene where the magicians are getting patted down by security guards, so they have to keep throwing this playing card with the chip on it between each other. It goes on for like five minutes. At one point we get a POV shot of the card going up someone's sleeves, and see the card "watch" the sleeve get patted down from inside.
-Like twenty seconds of the song "Magic Stick" is played for no reason that I can tell other than the fact it has the word "magic" in it. If you've listened to this song in full, you should now how LOL this is.

This is an odd, campy movie that almost works as a satire on modern blockbusters but not quite. No one else has seen this movie, so it is my duty to inform America about how weird it is. I wish I could say it was great, but it isn't quite good.

I guess you're the second person to see this now.

Yeah, I agree with all your points.

And... is it just me, or were their choice of actions during the pat-down scene completely confusing? It appeared that

1) All the pat-downs were done to one person at a time, and
2) They continually passed the card to the person who was just about to get a pat-down each time.

Like, they could have simply passed to to the guy who just finished getting a pat-down first, and kept it with him the entire time.

[Raxivace]

And... is it just me, or were their choice of actions during the pat-down scene completely confusing? It appeared that

1) All the pat-downs were done to one person at a time, and
2) They continually passed the card to the person who was just about to get a pat-down each time.

Like, they could have simply passed to to the guy who just finished getting a pat-down first, and kept it with him the entire time.

Yeah it was absolutely not the most logical choice the characters could have made.

Still, if nothing else, it made for a memorable sequence.

[Gendo]

8. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Wut. Depp was fantastic. Del Toro was great. But what the heck did I just watch? There was some really interesting things going on, visually. And did I mention Depp? But I don't know if anything actually happened during the whole movie. I feel like it was intended to be watched while taking drugs.

9. Mama - Del Toro wins again. The other one. A horror movie that was actually somewhat scary! It was great.

[Monk]

There's a huge backlash to TLJ on the Internet for some reason. I haven't seen it so I can't judge, but they all seem to be complaining that it didn't answer any questions from The Force Awakens, that a lot of plots went nowhere, that there wasn't really any character or story advancement, and that the humor was unfunny.

Idk. It has an A on Cinemascores so there's not much of a backlash in real life.

There were a couple major reasons why fans are pretty upset. One you mentioned, though not entirely correct. TLJ answered open question "mystery boxes" left by JJ in TFA - they just didn't like the answers. Basically, Rian Johnson decided not to provide as much fan service, and didn't really care at all about the theories regarding Rey's parents or Snoke's identity. I actually blame JJ Abrams for this, as he clearly had no idea either, he just put in that little mystery to entice audiences and hoped someone would figure out something later. Johnson basically said fuck that and did his own thing. Pissed a lot of fanboys off, but I respect him for it.

The other was the treatment of Luke. People are basically upset he's not the idealistic figure from the originals, and he's morphed in a broken, bitter old man. People ignore a lot of his brash and impulsive behavior to justify their beliefs that Luke "wouldn't do that" regarding particular actions he took.

Regarding plots that go nowhere - that was very much a conscious point about the film. Those who complain about it didn't really understand the major theme of the movie. Which is surprising, since it wasn't exactly subtle.

The humor thing I get, because people's tastes differ. I thought some of it was quite funny, some of it a bit cheesy. Basically, there was a lot of the slapstick humor we see in the prequels or with 3PO/R2D2 from the originals - it's never close to Jar Jar levels, but I did find some of the humor forced.

[Raxivace]

I actually blame JJ Abrams for this, as he clearly had no idea either, he just put in that little mystery to entice audiences and hoped someone would figure out something later.

This seems pretty consistent with some of Abrams' other work too. Like he helped start Lost and come up with some of the mysteries before handing the reigns of the show over to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse almost immediately.

[Monk]

I actually blame JJ Abrams for this, as he clearly had no idea either, he just put in that little mystery to entice audiences and hoped someone would figure out something later.

This seems pretty consistent with some of Abrams' other work too. Like he helped start Lost and come up with some of the mysteries before handing the reigns of the show over to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse almost immediately.

It definitely is his thing. He even did a TED Talk about them:

https://www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Raxivace]

Ah of course. The Mystery Box. How could I forget.

There's ways to do that well, but Abrams has really beaten his version of that horse dead at this point. But hey maybe the horse will come back alive in the sequel.

[Gendo]

10. Natural Born Killers - Great. I think I like all Oliver Stone stuff. Oh, just now saw that he directed Alexander... well, I like most of his stuff. Anyway, the style was just so much fun; and the overall message was on point.

[Raxivace]

Haven't seen that particular Stone film, though in general I'm not sure how much there is to him beyond his angry shtick.

Also he's weirdly pro-Putin these days, to the point he did that tv miniseries documentary about interviewing him. I'm kind of morbidly curious about that.

[Gendo]

11. The Book of Life - Another Guillermo del Toro produced film. Really good. Great music, fun animation. A unique style overall. The story itself was even unique and interesting.

12. Kubo and the Two Strings - Beautiful animation. I was amazed when I found out it was stop motion. It was like watching a painting. The action was pretty solid throughout; the climax was the best part. Great movie.

[maz89]

Loved Kubo myself. Such imaginative, hypnotic visuals.

[Eva Yojimbo]

11. The Book of Life - Another Guillermo del Toro produced film. Really good. Great music, fun animation. A unique style overall. The story itself was even unique and interesting.

12. Kubo and the Two Strings - Beautiful animation. I was amazed when I found out it was stop motion. It was like watching a painting. The action was pretty solid throughout; the climax was the best part. Great movie.

Loved both of these:

Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight) - 8.5/10

Here's a wonderful surprise: an American animated from a studio besides Pixar that has aspirations to something beyond family entertainment—namely art. Laika was not a name I was familiar with, though I realize that I've seen their previous films—Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls. None of them were adequate preparation for a phenomenal success such as this.

It's essentially a classic fable rooted in Japanese lore and culture: Kubo is a young boy who takes care of his ill mother on an isolated mountain while traveling to town and delighting audiences with his magical ability to bring origami to life while playing his shamisen. After being attacked by his evil, magical ninja aunts, his mother sends him on a quest to retrieve his father's magical samurai items to guard against his grandfather's evil. On his journey he's joined by a talking monkey statue and an amnesiac Beetle/samurai warrior.

It sound silly, and while Kubo isn't without its whimsical humor it's most remarkable for its darker elements—broaching the subject of mental illness and death—and the complexity of its themes, which are essentially told in an allegorical fashion: the association of the night/moon with coldness, forgetfulness, death, and anti-social behavior as a defense mechanism.

But animated films sink or swim on the strength of their visual imagination and this is where Kubo joins the ranks of the great. If not quite as gorgeous as the best Ghibli or, say, the films of Tomm Moore, it's perhaps a step above Pixar and Dreamworks, with the most memorable sequence being an underwater adventure with the “Garden of Eyes," ie, huge monster plants/flowers whose gaze causes hypnosis and hallucinations.

Really, from the so-smooth-I-can't-believe-it's-stop-motion animation, to the superb voice vast—Charlize Theron, Ralph Fiennes, Roony Mara, Matthew McConaughey—who bring the perfect balance of levity and gravity, there's only top-shelf quality here wherever you look; and perhaps most exciting is the thought there's another serious contender in the animated age of Ghibli and Pixar.

The Book of Life - Jorge R. Gutiérrez - 9.0/10

Another phenomenal animated film, this time by 20th Century Fox and influenced by
Mexican culture. Quite simply, this is one of the most visually imaginative films I've seen
from this century, animated or otherwise, and I wasn't the least surprised to see
Guillermo del Toro's name on the production credits. The film takes on the folklore of
Mexico's Day of the Dead to present a wager between two rulers of different afterlife
realms--Xibalba and La Muerte--over which boy will end up marrying the central heroine.
Behind this simplest of fable-like narratives, Gutierrez is able to craft visions of the
afterlife quite unlike anything I've ever seen. Narratively, the film is not perfect; at 95
minutes it feels quite rushed, as if its runtime simply can't contain every wondrous detail
and, indeed, the film could've used another 15-20 minutes to relax the pacing in some
places. But even with that one flaw, it's a tragedy this film wasn't even nominated for
best animated film.

As an aside, we may be living in the new golden age of animation. Between Pixar, Ghibli,
Dreamworks, and Disney all doling out masterpieces, we're now getting those from
outside that circle influenced by everything from cultures (Book of Life, Secret of the
Kells) to autobiographies (Persepolis) to the darkest of contemporary social issues
(Waltz with Bashir)

If you haven't, check out The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea from Tomm Moore.

[Gendo]

13. Promised Land - lol... it's like if the basic plot of There Will be Blood were directed by Al Gore. Like, it's one thing to have an environmental message to your film; but to literally show an entire presentation on the evils of fracking in the middle of the movie? Not that Gus Van Sant ever really does subtlety (based on the very few of his films I've seen). But still; hard to see that a film this silly could be directed by the same guy that did Good Will Hunting.

As a whole, not a good film. It has a twist that's pretty amusing due to how over-the-top it is; and not something I saw coming at all (though it was kind of obvious that there would be some sort of related twist the whole time; I just didn't know what).

[Raxivace]

I dunno man I don't remember anything as dumb as the milkshake scene from TWBB in Promised Land. But I also barely remember Promised Land at all.

[Gendo]

Are you implying you didn't like TWBB? Or just that one scene? But yeah, Promised Land is definitely a film I'll barely remember in a year; while TWBB is quite memorable.

[Raxivace]

I didn't enjoy TWBB a whole lot in general but that particular scene stands out as the worst one in my memory.

It's not a film I would ever describe as subtle either tbh, but maybe it is in comparison to stuff like Promised Land.

[Gendo]

Not that I think TWBB is a subtle film; but I don't remember it having an anti-oil message nearly as much as an anti-psychopaths-who-happen-to-work-with-oil message. Promised Land felt like just a documentary against the natural gas industry.

[Raxivace]

I mean, the movie came out at the height of the George W. Bush presidency. I don't think the villainous psychopath protagonist working in oil is some accident or coincidence, though I think Anderson was smart enough to know that his film would be viewed in contexts outside of the era it was made in.

[maz89]

Raxi, you might go to cinephile hell for not liking TWBB.

[Raxivace]

Raxi, you might go to cinephile hell for not liking TWBB.

FWIW I don't think its a bad movie, just not one I really like much.

[maz89]

That summarizes my stance on The Big Lebowski, which I've been told is also blasphemous.

[Raxivace]

I liked Lebowski though I could understand if the humor doesn't land for you.

[Gendo]

Yeah Lebowski strikes me as a movie that if I've never seen before, and watched it today, I would think is dumb. But since I watched it in college; several times per year; it's one of my all-time favorites.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Yeah Lebowski strikes me as a movie that if I've never seen before, and watched it today, I would think is dumb. But since I watched it in college; several times per year; it's one of my all-time favorites.

Quite the opposite for me; I avoided it for years because it seemed so dumb and really not my thing. I saw it for the first time as an experienced cinephile in my late 20s and it became an instant favorite, and even ranks at the top of the impressive filmography of the Coens (but quite close with No Country). So I don't think its appeal is limited to watching it young; it's just a brilliant, hilarious, and highly imaginative film.

[BruceSmith78]

I saw it in my late 20's or early 30's, don't remember which, and I was hugely disappointed. It was pretty dumb. But so was Oh Brother Where Art Thou and Raising Arizona and pretty much every other Coens comedy (except Fargo, which I never thought of as a comedy but was apparently marketed as a comedy).

[Raxivace]

I still maintain that Fargo is one of the Coen's weakest efforts, with only like Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers below it. Maybe Burn After Reading too.

[Eva Yojimbo]

I saw it in my late 20's or early 30's, don't remember which, and I was hugely disappointed. It was pretty dumb. But so was Oh Brother Where Art Thou and Raising Arizona and pretty much every other Coens comedy (except Fargo, which I never thought of as a comedy but was apparently marketed as a comedy).

Coen comedies are essentially live-action cartoons, or throwbacks to the age of silents and slapstick. O Brother even got its title from the movie-within-a-movie in Preston Sturges's Sullivan's Travels, and there's some interesting parallels between them. I think the superficial silliness seems to belie a lot of the sophistication they have in the direction and editing; it's an odd combination. A Serious Man and Barton Fink may be their only comedies where the sophistication is more obvious (I also think they're both better than Arizona and O Brother).

[Gendo]

14. M - Excellent. Good suspense, good story, great acting from Lorre although only for a few minutes. Amazing that the fears of 1931 Germany would so closely resemble the fears of 2018 America.

15. Justice League Dark - Needs more Justice League. I mean, that's not the movie's fault; I didn't know about that comic previously, so I was expecting the traditional Justice League. Having them appear in the movie briefly didn't help. The story just didn't do much for me; though I liked the twist ending.

[Raxivace]

Yeah that paranoia really struck me about M when I watched it a few years ago. The usage of In the Hall of the Mountain King is really good too.

Even more than that though, M really made me realize that one of the best aspects of sound cinema, somewhat paradoxically, was that it could actually be truly silent for extended periods of time. The usage of silence is as memorable in that film to me as anything else.

And yeah Lorre kicks ass.

[Gendo]

Yeah that paranoia really struck me about M when I watched it a few years ago. The usage of In the Hall of the Mountain King is really good too.

Even more than that though, M really made me realize that one of the best aspects of sound cinema, somewhat paradoxically, was that it could actually be truly silent for extended periods of time. The usage of silence is as memorable in that film to me as anything else.

And yeah Lorre kicks ass.

I really loved the full silent scenes.

[Eva Yojimbo]

14. M - Excellent. Good suspense, good story, great acting from Lorre although only for a few minutes. Amazing that the fears of 1931 Germany would so closely resemble the fears of 2018 America.

Yes! Another of my favorite films. Absolutely agree with both you and Rax.

[Gendo]

16. 1984 - I couldn't really get into the feel of it. I loved the book; and even so had some trouble following the events of the movie.

17. Gosford Park - I liked some things about it; but it was really slow. With so many characters, it was really hard to follow who was who in the first half. So much so that by the time the killer was revealed; I couldn't remember what that person had said/done in the first half as a character. The mystery was good though. The conclusion was an interesting surprise/twist, but also felt pretty fake. Didn't find it at all believable that the mother would have just "known" that her son was planning on killing his dad. Her reasoning is that it's a servant's job to be observant. Not good enough. It was never really made clear even to the audience why he wanted to kill him; but we're supposed to believe that this other woman picked up on it. And knew not only that he was thinking about it, but that he was actually going to go through with it.

[Gendo]

18. A Little Princess (1995) - Pretty good. A family movie with a surprising amount of depth / drama.

[maz89]

18. A Little Princess (1995) - Pretty good. A family movie with a surprising amount of depth / drama.

Remember watching it in my childhood and quite liking it. When I discovered later it was directed by Cuaron, I wasn't surprised.

[Eva Yojimbo]

17. Gosford Park - I liked some things about it; but it was really slow. With so many characters, it was really hard to follow who was who in the first half. So much so that by the time the killer was revealed; I couldn't remember what that person had said/done in the first half as a character. The mystery was good though. The conclusion was an interesting surprise/twist, but also felt pretty fake. Didn't find it at all believable that the mother would have just "known" that her son was planning on killing his dad. Her reasoning is that it's a servant's job to be observant. Not good enough. It was never really made clear even to the audience why he wanted to kill him; but we're supposed to believe that this other woman picked up on it. And knew not only that he was thinking about it, but that he was actually going to go through with it.

I remember not caring much for this either. Altman seems like a filmmaker who's more miss than hit with me, in general. I just don't really connect with his sprawling, novel-esque films with too many characters and a camera/audio that tries to capture it all at once. My "hits" from him have almost exclusively been his more focused, "chamber" dramas; McCabe and Mrs. Miller being the best, IMO.

Agree with you and maz and A Little Princess. I also saw it as a kid.

[maz89]

Shame that ALP bombed at the box office. What happened there...

[Eva Yojimbo]

Shame that ALP bombed at the box office. What happened there...

I wasn't aware it did. That is rather curious, though.

[Gendo]

Oh wow, I didn't realize it was Cuaron. I didn't know him by name until now.

Wikipedia says that "Due to poor promotion by Warner Bros., the film hardly made back half its budget." Whatever that means.

http://articles.latimes.com/1995-08-10/ ... arner-bros" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Gendo]

19. Everybody's Fine - Wow... so depressing. And good. A couple times it felt a little manipulative in that they sacrificed realism just to make the audience more sad. But still, I really liked it. And Sam Rockwell is always a win.

20. Wonder Woman - As I'd heard, it's a DCU movie that's actually good!

21. Poltergeist (2015) - Did I mention that Sam Rockwell is always a win? I can't compare this to the original, because it has been way too long since I've seen that one. Anyway, I liked it. Didn't find it scary though.

[Raxivace]

Wonder Woman is the fourth good DCU movie, actually.