Professor Posted December 11, 2014 Report Share Posted December 11, 2014 Tim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra Live - I love Minchin. I really do. But this wasn't very good. The orchestra actively makes every song played worse. The entire thing felt like a greatest hits concert, which doesn't really help matters. And 2.5 hours is beyond pushing it for a comedy special. Disappointed as this is the only special on Netflix. His other two are so much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted December 13, 2014 Report Share Posted December 13, 2014 Cabin Fever-Patient Zero: This is a prequel (though I think it could simply be the third film in the series with a single line of dialogue) to the Cabin Fever series. The gross out outbreak (Gross Outbreak, named a genre!) genre has its titan with this series. The first film could have been brilliant. Truly brilliant without the wacky comedy element. The second film in the series nailed the comedy, but wasn't a lot more than just a gross out film. This one? Well, I guess I'm reviewing it for Monday. Guardians of the Galaxy: bought the blu ray for family movie night and had a rewatch. Megan drooled all over Chris Pratt and I looked at it a lot more critically. Ronan has been the big complaint, and I suppose people are sort of right. He isn't any worse than any other Marvel villain so far. Loki isn't very good either, but people think Hiddleston is cute and pretty so they let it slide. Ronan is the first true Black Metal supervillain. Even his opening monologue is full on black metal. Take this quote... They call me terrorist. Radical. Zealot. Becuase I obey the ancient laws of my people the Kree and punish those who do not. Because I do not forgive your people for taking the life of my father and his father before him. A thousand years of war between us will not be forgotten. Change "Kree" to "Northman" or "Viking" or "Norse" and you've got yourself a jailhouse interview with one of the First Wave Norwegian black metal dudes. Slick. Groot's facial features are outstanding and the effects on Rocket are equally amazing. The fact that those two characters are so easy to identify with goes a lot more toward the effects guys than the actors doing the voices and that's an amazing thing to say about a film. Drax's "whore" line is really the only standout for negative in the film. It's really out of place for his character. There are moments where you can chalk his reaction up to "not bothering to mention that he didn't understand what they just said" but the things he says are important to his character. That doesn't seem to work. He calls her "murderess." Not "whore." The action's great and the sci fi/superhero action is just as great. Marvel's best movie by far. Feature Films: 161 Documentaries: 25 Shorts: 20 Rewatches: 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dc20willsave Posted December 13, 2014 Report Share Posted December 13, 2014 Heathers: Sure, John Hughes made some of the most iconic of the 80s Teenager Films but this is the best. A Black Comedy with Suicide being the punchline. I love the fuck out of this film and always have. This Winona Ryder coming off of Beetlejuice, still riding high with Christian Slater still at this Christian Slateryest but with some signs of something better. Definitely recommend if you haven't seen it before. You will walk away with at least one new one-liner. Films: 76 Documentaries: 2 Direct to DVD Films: 6 Short Films: 1 Rifftrax/MST3k Assisted Films: 13 Rewatch: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dc20willsave Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 Home Alone: One of the go to Christmas movies for me. I watch it and I'm a Kindergartner seeing it with my dad and sister after school. Sure, I love making the jokes about the McCalister family fostering their son to become a sociopath but still. I unabashedly love this movie. The sequels.... a little to much less. Big Hero 6: While all of the Marvel films have made the Disney purchase worth it, Big Hero 6 is the ultimate example of what kind of awesome it can produce. It's fun, some of the most fun I've had this year. Also, I think I briefly had something in my eyes. Only reason I can think for the tearing up that might have happened. Feast: This was the short that came with the movie. I'm not a dog person. Seeing this beautiful short (Cel Shading, good choice) made me want to get one for a few moments. Then I remembered that I kill everything I own and probably for the best that I don't have one. Films: 78 Documentaries: 2 Direct to DVD Films: 6 Short Films: 2 Rifftrax/MST3k Assisted Films: 13 Rewatch: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 Scrooged: I fucking love this movie. It's the only Christmas movie I look forward to watching. The casting in this is amazing. Bobcat Goldthwait, three Murray brothers, Robert Fucking Mitchum, Carol Kane (who Megan hates for some reason), Karen "Hubba Hubba" Allen, Buddy hackett, John Houseman, Lee Mahors, Robert fucking Goulet (!), David "New York Dolls" Johansen...insane. Miles Davis is a street performer! You could do a two hour review of this movie just talking about all the people that are in it. Feature Films: 162 Documentaries: 25 Shorts: 20 Rewatches: 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonC Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 Home Alone: One of the go to Christmas movies for me. I watch it and I'm a Kindergartner seeing it with my dad and sister after school. Sure, I love making the jokes about the McCalister family fostering their son to become a sociopath but still. I unabashedly love this movie. The sequels.... a little to much less. This remains one of only three movies in 40 years of watching that I have walked out of before the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koete Posted December 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 John Glover! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dc20willsave Posted December 21, 2014 Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 Thir13en Ghosts: Visually, it looks good. I like the designs on the ghosts and the set design. Storywise... ehhh. Most of the characters are annoying and I never cared for the plight of the family but still, harmless fun. Boyhood: Holy Christ this was good. I remember when I first read about it, I just thought, "It's a nice gimmick, filming a movie little by little over 11 years but I doubt it would be that great." I was so fucking wrong. Maybe it's because so much time passes so quickly, maybe it's because these characters grow up in real time, but even with an over two hour runtime, I never felt it dragging. So many things could have went wrong over the length of the production but that everything came together so right, phenomenal! Acting wise, Ellar Coltrane who plays Mason, seeing him age over the course of the film is so weird but he turned out to be a good actor. The real star here is Patricia Arquette as his mother. So much of the movie is how she changes as well with her final scene just being a gut punch along with another scene towards the middle. She should be running in Best Actress instead of supporting but she's bound to win where she is. Another great touch is how Richard Linklater just included these references to things that were popular then and I found myself thinking, "Okay, that's gotta be an out of date reference" only to immediately remember that that was shot when it was a thing. Films: 80 Documentaries: 2 Direct to DVD Films: 6 Short Films: 2 Rifftrax/MST3k Assisted Films: 13 Rewatch: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slothian Posted December 23, 2014 Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 Pandy & I are watching The Love Guru. Thoughts to come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koete Posted December 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 A suicide pact between brothers doesn't seem very festive, but hey, everyone celebrates the holidays in their own way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venneh Posted December 23, 2014 Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 Oh dear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pan-dub Posted December 23, 2014 Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 Time: 50:00. Laughs: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slothian Posted December 23, 2014 Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 All done. So glad I didn't pay to see that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slothian Posted December 23, 2014 Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 So we watched Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa to wash our palates. That was bloody funny! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koete Posted December 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 It was indeed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
You Know Who Posted December 24, 2014 Report Share Posted December 24, 2014 A View To A Kill: This is probably the Bond film I've seen the fewest times. Nowhere near as bad as Better in the Dark would have you believe. However, it's not very good either. I thought I'd get some enjoyment out of Walken and some so-bad-it's-good moments, but barring the horse race, it's kinda dull. And yes, Roger Moore really does look older than Santa Claus in this film. Braveheart: "It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venneh Posted December 25, 2014 Report Share Posted December 25, 2014 So, watching Wild Wild West for the first time. This is a thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slothian Posted December 25, 2014 Report Share Posted December 25, 2014 A thing of divine beauty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pan-dub Posted December 25, 2014 Report Share Posted December 25, 2014 The perfect accompaniment to Christmas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donomark Posted December 25, 2014 Report Share Posted December 25, 2014 My brother had never seen A Christmas Story before, so thankfully TNT was there to help him out and we watched that, followed by 15 minutes of the sequel which was on the CMT channel for some reason before he turned the TV off in disgust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dc20willsave Posted December 26, 2014 Report Share Posted December 26, 2014 This is going to be a bit of a long post. Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment: Confession time. When I was a kid, Li'l' Will loved this series. Yeah, I didn't even remotely get the more adult jokes but a lot of it was the kind of humor that I liked. Now that I'm older, I want to slap Li'l Will so hard and force him to watch some Marx Brothers or something. Don't get me wrong, a part of me still likes this series but it is very dated. That all said, there are some good laughs even if some of the humor is more than a little unfortunate (see the Blue Oyster Bar.) Police Academy 3: Back in Training: So, someone probably saw #2, realized the title kinda didn't mean anything, and decided to bring the old cast back to the Police Academy just to do whatever. There are still a couple of laughs but so much humor is repeated and tired. Babes in Toyland: It's easy to forget about a good chunk of Disney's live-action films. This is one of them that I saw a lot as a kid but, when I went back to rewatch it, was less than astounded. It has some good performances here and there but most of the characters are boring and the songs, dear Jesus, there's a song about balancing your budget! Christmas Carol: The Movie: It's a British animated version from the early Aughts. The animation varies between being dreadful to incredible. The voice cast is great with Simon Callow as the voice of Scrooge and, also in some prints of the film, a live-action Charles Dickens narrating the film. There are some off choices in the plot (Belle remains a prominent figure in the film and actually reunites with Scrooge) but, I really can't hate it. Christmas Crush: This, on the other hand, was probably the single worst thing I've seen in the history of me doing my early Christmas Marathon. It's bad. Really bad. It's a Lifetime Original Movie about a woman who goes to her high school reunion which is a week before Christmas. It's like someone watched Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, decided it was too fun, wrote out anything interesting, and added Christmas because it was the only way they were selling this stinker. There's a subplot about a chick seducing her old science teacher, played by Harry Hamlin, and she cums off of him saying random science terms. Christmas Vacation: My favorite Christmas Movie of all time and one of the best. I watch this during the closing hours of my marathon every year, get overly sentimental about it, and laugh. I always find some new detail and, I dunno, I just love the thing. It's a toss-up between this and Scrooged for the best Christmas Film of the 80s. (And for the first chucklefuck who wants to counter with Die Hard, yes, make the joke to yourself. Just let me have this, okay? Thank you. Consider it my Christmas Present.) Wild: In a quieter year, Reese Witherspoon would have won Best Actress for this. As is, it's still probably her best performance to date. Where do I ever begin? The film is based off of a memoir that played fast and loose with the time frame. The narrative of the film keeps that so well. The present tense of Witherspoon hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is contrasted with her character's loss of her mother, addiction to heroin, and loss of her marriage. Really, by disregarding a lot of what we see in regards to standard narrative structure, helps us really sympathize and feel all of Witherspoon's pain throughout the movie. The Imitation Game: First things first, Benedict Cumberbatch is incredible in this film. If he brings a quarter of what he has here to the role of Doctor Strange, we're in for some awesome. Anyway, the film in great, playing with a two step flashback. Cumberbatch's Alan Turing is a complicated character. At first, he feels like a more historical Sheldon Cooper. Then, unlike that one-dimensional sitcom role, he starts to resonate, show layers, etc. It helps that he has Keirra Knightly's character to bounce off of for most of the movie. My one criticism is that it almost feels like they white wash Turing's homosexuality for much of the film. For awhile, it feels like they're actually trying to play up a romance with Knightly. By the end, they set things right though and show the horrors of what exactly they did to such a brilliant man. Into The Woods: Most of the thoughts will probably be in a future Hey Gurlfriend but, quickly, A decent film. The back half of the film feels a little rushed compared to the front half. All of the performances are wonderful with Chris Pine as The Prince, Anna Kendrick as Cinderella, and Emily Blunt as The Baker's Wife. Actually, Pine steals every scene he's in. It's worth seeing just for being fun. Films: 87 Documentaries: 2 Direct to DVD Films: 7 TV Movies: 1 Short Films: 2 Rifftrax/MST3k Assisted Films: 13 Rewatch: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted December 26, 2014 Report Share Posted December 26, 2014 So, watching Wild Wild West for the first time. This is a thing.A thing of divine beauty. The perfect accompaniment to Christmas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venneh Posted December 26, 2014 Report Share Posted December 26, 2014 I only saw about a third of it (because cooking). The last bit I remember seeing is the part with the magnetic collars and them being real awkward about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 Pitch Perfect: I fucking loved this movie. I thought it was hilarious. I thought the music was pretty good. I liked that it was basically Bring It On but with acapella singing. I liked that it was something my wife and I could watch and both like. I also have two new crushes. Boom. Solid film. Feature Films: 163 Documentaries: 25 Shorts: 20 Rewatches: 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted December 30, 2014 Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 The Guest: This doesn't come out on DVD til next week, but I got a screener, so I'm going to call this the best film of 2014 AND 2015. Feature Films: 164 Documentaries: 25 Shorts: 20 Rewatches: 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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