Unbroken

Read the book. It's amazing. It does not work at all as a film. It's basically torture porn without context.

Grade: C

fell asleep 30 minutes into Frequencies

Try adjusting your frequency bro

Going on a binge of 2014 movies I haven't seen yet:

The Trip to Italy - decent, if superfluous follow-up to the Winterbottom/Coogan film.

The Immigrant - old-fashioned, lush, wonderfully acted - yet somehow lacking.

Guardians Of The Galaxy was easily the best movie I saw in 2014 - until I watched it again. Winter Soldier second viewing > GOTG second viewing.

Do you only watch superhero movies?

Zing!

For 2014 it seems Ida cannot be missed. It's playing on Netflix Instant Watch.

Museum Hours, Jem Cohen, 2014

On Netflix. This is an Art film with a capital A. It's a quasi- documentary/travelogue/chaste love story/museum tour.

It takes place in Vienna and is narrated by this Austrian museum guard who forges a friendship with a Canadian woman who is in town visiting her sick cousin. We get a fantastic tour of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, lovingly studying the Bruegels and the other Masters.

The guard shows the woman the city, as well, and it's like we're back in the museum, as if art and life are not at all dissimilar. Get it?

Cohen has one of the most amazing eyes I've ever had the pleasure to see. His framing is exquisite, and his camera is almost always fidgeting slightly, as if trying to find an even better composition.

This is a one-of-a-kind movie that is unlike anything I've ever seen. It's slow and slice-of-life with little narrative structure, but I found it fascinating all the same.

The Guard is this 60ish Austrain dude who used to be a rock band manager and now just does his work and plays online poker. He befriends the woman because she is alone in a cit she does not know. He's also gay, so there really is no romance possible...but there still is, you know? He's got a face and manner that you can't stop watching, one of those faces that was made for film - and he's not an actor. His German-accented English is marvelous to listen to, and his German narration (subtitled in English), as he explains about the museum and its visitors and art, is exceedingly pleasant.

I don't really know how to quantify or qualify this film - it's pretty damn different. But I loved it.

watched Bullhead / Rundskop http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1821593/?ref_=nv_sr_1



nice film. very dark, great performances. also dug the atmosphere of belgian/dutch ****ty little rural areas

No...but from I've seen (not much), GOTG and CA-TWS are both top 5. I'd also include Nightcrawler and Gone Girl. If ten films wind up getting nominated for Best Picture this year, I've probably seen 3 of them tops at this point. My opinion isn't super informed. My point was GOTG wasn't nearly as good the second viewing.

The Loved Ones Boy driving narrowly misses bloody man in the road, runs into tree, kills father, cuts himself from guilt, disses girl who asks him to the prom, almost falls off of cliff. And that's before anything really happens.

Uneven Australian horror/torture film. The main plot is pretty enjoyable but there's a subplot that just distracts from the movie. Really weird tone to the film. Sort of a cross between Napoleon Dynamite and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I liked it but it may not be to everyone's taste.

Picked up where I left off.
meh.
Tries to be Primer level clever/smart, but fails. The whole last third just fizzled. Now if the film


Then watched Guardians of the Galaxy - fun summer movie. Like if Pixar did Star Wars. In a good way. Looking forward to sequels. Would watch again in a theater, not on the small screen.

Don't worry bout it, your kid will just be more knowledgeable/have a leg up on her friends if she ends up watching more R movies than you would prefer.

And she'll be a genius with enough not rated ones.

One of the better horror movies i have seen in the last few years

I found Locke compelling, and I think it's one of the better films of the year. Also watched Frequencies the other night, and I liked its fractured narrative, but had a bit of trouble with the ending that seemed, to me, forced. Wondering if anyone else thought it a little too tidy.

Dom, I really liked this one too, especially the way Cohen uses the artwork to mirror the narrative at times. Looking at art is a way of looking at the city and a way of looking at human beings with fresh eyes, which the guard and the woman seem to find with each other.

The trailer is out for t malicks King of Cups

Looks awesome

Only Lovers Left Alive - Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as centuries old vampire lovers? Sign me up! Wait.. directed by Jim Jarmusch? How did I miss that before pressing the play button?!!? Noooooooo!!!!!!!! Anton Yelchin kills it here in a sweet supporting role, but it's still a Jarmusch film. The music is great.

The Cooler - A re-watch. I have a soft spot for films about luck and magical realism, so this is right in my wheelhouse. Having three of my favorite actors (William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, Maria Bello) as leads is just icing on the cake. Just as good as I remember it from the first watch. Go into this without knowing anything about it, then read about it, then watch it again.

The Wrestler - Had been meaning to watch this for a very long time, finally got around to it. Went in with pretty high expectations despite a deliberate decision to temper them, and still enjoyed this one. Rourke absolutely kills it. I understand why everyone loves this movie and it received universal acclaim.

Guardians of the Galaxy - Lots of fun, but as an adult I'm definitely not the target audience. If I were a kid, I'd absolutely love this movie. It was a fun watch, but lots of things just don't make sense and you need to deliberately ignore them to enjoy the ride.

Out of the Furnace - This one ended up with mixed reviews and bombed in the box office. I never saw a trailer so I don't know if it was just mis-marketed or what happened. It also has a pretty meh rating on most of the review sites. I went in not knowing anything about it and enjoyed it, thought all the main actors did a great job. There is one section of the film that uses cut scenes to go back and forth between two things happening at the same time which was poorly executed and detracted from the experience, but other than that, no complaints. Bale kept things subdued, and the supporting actors were all top notch with their performances.

Byzantium - Mother & daughter vampire who are hiding from other vampires. This was pretty bad. You can easily predict everything that's going to happen, and the acting is over the top from everyone except Saoirse Ronan. Gemma Arterton was distractingly bad and Jonny Lee Miller was basically nothing more than a caricature.

Cold in July - Another box office bomb, this was Michael C. Hall's first work after Dexter. I decided to give it a chance and enjoyed it. Not going to go into any details here other than to say some criticism was leveled at it based on stereotypical genre/tone acceptance issues. There are a few enormous story flaws, but if you enjoy atypical anti-genre adherence stuff, you'll probably like this.

Cold in July will be on my best of the year list

yeah cold in july was awesome imo. one of my fave movies of the year

i thought it was just an indie movie that wasn't released very many places

i watched it on demand before it was even in theaters at my house

Watched The Gambler, Unbroken and The Fox Catcher with a friend today.

Was really excited for all three movies, and have to say I was quite disappointed. I liked Unbroken, although I still only give it 7/10. Outside of that the only positive thing i have to say is about Steve Carell. Guy killed it.

Spoilers!

Nightcrawler - Definite A+. Gyllenhall outstanding, an Ed Norton quality performance.

The Drop
Very good. There are some great lines and scenes in this.
I find it hard to rate movies, I am quite forgiving.
But I have never posted in this thread for anything else, so that may mean something.

Predestination
also worth a watch