Elysium

I was a little disappointed but this was still ok.

My main issue with it was a complete lack of context for everything that happens. There is a complete failure in setting up the future world to help the audience understand the context of the plot. There are only two locations, LA and Elysium. We know nothing about the rest of the world, how it actually works, what is the political situation, anything. All we know is Elysium is ridiculously luxurious and Earth is kinda poor. It appears that LA is the only city that survived some sort of apocalyptic event? Otherwise not much makes sense. I don't know. Also I have no idea how Elysium actually worked, how did the atmosphere stay in there? These kinda things are not incidental minor points to me, they are a huge part of the fabric of futuristic sci-fi.

Overall I found it impossible to buy into this vision of the future. I also hated hated Jodie Foster's performance. Her character was stupid as hell and she puts on a faux elite future accent that was like nails on a chalkboard.

Decent action though, ok performances from most of the others, satisfying ending. Could have been on a par with District 9 but falls short.

6/10

The Grandmaster was pretty great. However, you could tell the story was a little truncated and edited down from the what-I'm-sure-is-magnificent four-hour version.

Loved the train station fight. that's was incredible.

Not sure if I want to bother seeing The World's End. I loved Shaun of the Dead but I hated Hot Fuzz.

is it subtitled here or dubbed?

Anyone have tips on good comedies?

Worlds End and Alpha Papa are both pretty good from this year.

from what era?

Anything from 00 and 10, but if it's from way back I prefer college comedies.

Do you mean like.. I dont know.. THE SUN?

Thanks. I'll check them out as soon as they are out online.

I would never in a million years watch a dubbed movie.

Try What's Up Tiger Lily

ditto... Egg salad?

Run Lola Run. Watched both and actually enjoyed the dubbed better because the movie was so visually frenetic and I could keep my eyes on the action instead of losing focus to read. But yeah, as a general rule dubbed is awful.

I thought 21 jump street was good

Bet Raise Fold is great. The pacing is just right and the film focuses on the two most interesting people. I didn't play a lot of online poker so a lot of it was educational to me.

Thanks to an interest and investment into the lives of those documented I was quite moved at times. It's a definite must see for all poker ppl, casual or pro. I believe it has a lot to offer non poker people too. I'll probably write a full review after a second viewing.

I like offbeat comedies.

I don't watch a lot of comedies, but here is a list of a few that I have seen in the past few years that I loved:

Sideways
In Bruges
Safety Not Guaranteed
Punch Drunk Love
The Royal Tenebaums (anything made by Wes Anderson)
Up in the Air

Here's some good RomComs if you are interested in those:

500 Days of Summer
Definitely, Maybe
Crazy, Stupid, Love

Les Miserables is such a bizarre movie.

Granted, I pretty much hated the musical when I saw it years ago.

The performances of the cast are uniformly great. Jackman, Hathaway, and Crowe really do a wonderful job with the material and the songs.

But that's the problem...the songs. They suck. They've always sucked. Oh, "I Dream a Dream" is pretty good, but the rest of them just tell the story of Hugo's classic as artlessly and clunkily as they can.

I did like the choice to have the actors sing live...at least that gives them the ability to emote through the bad lyrics.

But man, it's a bad movie.

Well, that doesn't count, obviously. Either do a few choice Bruce Lee movies.

to bad... the 1935 version of Les Misérables is superb.

I know.

One of the things that just makes no sense with this version, is that the poor French and the street urchins talk and sing like in Oliver. Cockney accents, etc.

But they're in, you know...Paris.

I ranted and ranted about how I hated Les Miserables and everyone was agin me. Glad to have a little support. I think Huge Jackman was bad. Maximus was awful of course. (singing, not acting) The real singers were ok. Cat woman singing her song was the only part that was really good (I don't know if people were supprised that she could sing, but the first thing I ever saw her in was Ella Enchanted (good movie if you have daughters the right age), so I knew she could sing.)

BUT MAINLY THE SONGS ARE AWFUL!!!!!!!!! Wait, that's not fair. There's no way you can call most of them songs.

I thought wolverine was pretty great, but otherwise I agree. It was fairly over the top, but I tend to think that of musicals in general. Also the pseudo-liberal but actually quite reactionary plot tilts me.

I never stop films before they are done but lasted 30 minutes into les Mis. Nut low film of last year