The Master 7.2/10

I took my kids to see Box Trolls. The movie was terrible - not clever, not original, very weak story and characters. It was not entertaining for the kids either - I am not sure who this movie was made for...

I hated it

Audience loved it

Shrug

Every BC-shot movie when I attend Vancouver Film Festival. haha It kinda adds to the frustration when you hate a film that the audience loves.

It looks like they wanted to try and make this real dramatic courtroom drama, idk what it is but the trailers bug me. Looks fake I guess.

Saw Riddick for the first time. Know it isn't new but have always been a fan of the franchise. They clearly threw a bone to Vin for doing all the Fast and Furious movies but for what they threw him I was entertained enough. Got back to Riddick being Riddick even though I'm in the minority of enjoying Chronicles, and my god was that badass blonde hot.

I watched Edge of Tomorrow, it's pretty nice movie. I was positively surprised.

The main problem is that it tries to be many different movies. Of course, you can make a movie that is about a father-son relationship, a hot shot big city lawyer back in small town he left, a romance, a divorce, mortality, mourning, abuse, on and on, at the same time. But, you better have a hell of a screenplay. The Judge touches base on all kinds of themes without giving them the necessary respect. It is very tone deaf to some of these issues, although not all. The creators overreached their abilities.

Having three different scenes where someone watches old family movies and comes to a sudden realization is pretty lazy writing

agree. I thought THE JUDGE was just ok. the trial stuff was not really handled all that well imo, almost like it was an afterthought to include it amongst all of the overly sentimental stuff crammed into the rest of the movie. The scenes with RDJ and Robert Duvall were great though and Billy Bob Thornton has moved on from his excellent work in FARGO to another excellent guest performance in THE JUDGE.

also I still haven't stopped thinking about GONE GIRL even though I saw it almost 2 weeks ago. It does seem to be an extremely polarizing movie but I'm on the side of "loved it". The only thing I didn't really like was that the ending seemed a bit incomplete and rushed. But, from what I understand, the book had a similar ending so I guess Fincher and author/script writer Gillian Flynn figured if it worked in the novel, it will work on the big screen so no changes needed.

ratings
THE JUDGE 6/10
GONE GIRL 8.5/10

I saw The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo for the first time last night. I thought it was very visually appealing. I thought the ending beyond the solution to the murder mystery was unnnecessary. In my view, if they had have left some of the premise for finding the journalist in the first place unresolved it would have been better than the way they tidied everything up. A thought the acting was solid but not spectacular.

Fury was good, not great. Same formula as Saving Private Ryan but I prefer that over Fury.

so someone kicks the bucket at the end...

Yes, but no Germans were killed.

I saw a great little movie the other day by Blake Edwards...

Experiment in Terror.

It seems so out of character for blake edwards to direct something like a psycho drama, but that is what he had done with this movie... and rather well I might add with a very nice visual style that bordered on noir. One would never have known it was a blake edwards movie.



starring Glenn Ford as an FBI agent trying to catch a lady murder and bank robber that is rather played brilliantly by none other than Ross Martin of wild wild west fame.




Very much worth a watch if you can find it.

re'written

You need to clarify whether original or remake. Your comments could apply to either, although given the visual comment more likely to be the Fincher one?

Yeah, I mentioned this in the Twin Peaks thread, I thought it was predictable and mundane when it was all about the police procedural stuff, but actually rather fantastic and wonderful when it wasn't.

Forgot to post this. Leonard Maltin was featured in a sixty minute conversation at Fantastic Fest. I recorded it and The recording turned out great. It's a fascinating listen to one of the great film critics of our time. I shook his hand afterwards and he offered kind words. Class act right there

http://thegreenscreenofdeath.podbean...eonard-maltin/

Ah... I missed that I think. I just happened to catch it on tv the other night.

I have to view the movie in the era in which is was made... not ground breaking or near the top of the food chain in any manner... but still notable and enjoyable in my mind.

I went back to read that recommendation... I remember it now. I caught this purely by accident, but you pretty much nailed it right on the head.

I personally like the procedural stuff, so that didnt bother me as much as it did you. As a matter of fact, the only time procedural things bother me is when they are severly short cutted or modified to fit a story. I think the story should be able to stand on its merits notwithstanding of procedure.

Ahhh, yes. The Daniel Craig one.

Watched Gone Girl last night. I can't really offer any new insight. It was riveting and the acting was superb. But, like many, the ending just didn't sit right with me.

It's not that the ending was bad. It's just that nothing in the entire movie suggested it could be remotely possible. I think some sort of different character developments could have lead it to be less impossible.

^^ I have the same opinion, but I'm not surprised that most people liked the ending. It's not a bad ending but it's not going to satisfy everybody.

The author wanted to do something a little less predictable and I can respect that I guess. Just feels like an incomplete story and with a business plan behind it.

I think I was being overly harsh about the policework stuff yesterday, it was perfectly fine. It's just...everything else was so damn great in this.