Guilty of same. Saw the first and thought it was awful, awful, awful

I guess the sequel it was on HBO or something and I was probably on my laptop or phone, wound up seeing a good chunk of it including the scene you mentioned. It was just as bad. I guess there will be a 3 as this one made decent money.

Lizzy Caplan is pretty hot though

I thought Now You See Me was not bad. I enjoyed the tricks. I thought the reveal of the mysterious magician was silly, but I enjoyed the ride.

The sequel was horrible. The scene described by Dom made no sense whatsoever. What was the point of doing all the switches when they had already been checked? It was incredibly dumb.

You always have fairly interesting recommendations. Gonna have to find this one.

As a fellow Austinite, have you heard anything with regards to Song to Song ?

AFAIK it will debut at sxsw, but other than that I haven't heard anything. I've been on the sxsw rail for the last 15-20 years.

Jackie - Bout what I expected, meaning an Oscar bait [attempted] tearjerker. Does a decent job at showing the human side of this stuff we think of as mythical (White House in general, Zapruder), but I don't think I care. I didn't hate it, but I don't plan on ever seeing it again which isn't a great sign.

Had like 7 false endings.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

I thought I had seen this animation before. It's considered the first Ghibli. Turns out I had never seen it -- but might have read some of the comic books. Anyway, it was really fantastic. I had a great time and can't recommend it enough.

Post-Apocalypse: Check.
Princess Heroine: Check.
Cute pet: Check.
Fanciful Flying Machines: Check.
Warring Tribes; Warring Species; Warring Ecologies: Check.
Sword Fights: Check.
Kinda Like? -- Dune.
Sand Worms? -- No, Doodle Bugs.

Really, really, really good.
Check it out.

Really Good: Check

Nocturnal Animals

This is a highly engrossing, well polished gem, that will keep you on the edge of your seats as very little actually happens. I was spellbound by the characters, the multiple plotlines that overlapped, the direction, the cintematography, etc...

The plot is not as complex or confusing as you may expect, given that people have compared this to a David Lynch type of movie. Amy Adams plays your typical bored, rich, LA wife, with the boring husband (Armie Hammer) who does something with business or finance, but who cares. She is an art curator at a modern art gallery, and it's easy to tell that she is depressed, lonely, and yearning for some excitement.

She gets a manuscript from her ex husband from 20 years ago (Jake Gyllenhaal) called nocturnal animals, which was a nickname he gave her back in the day. At this point, we get three different narratives going on. Present day with her reading the manuscript, 20+ years ago when her and her ex first met and their subsequent breakup, and you get the manuscript played out on the screen as well.

The three stories interweave in a heart pounding, edge of your seat fashion, where you don't really know what's coming next. The manuscript plot is a brutal portrayal of rape, murder, and revenge. The 20+ years ago story is a vanilla plotline about human nature, class struggles, and identity. The modern story is basically her just reading the book. On their own, each one of these plot-lines would've fallen completely flat, but sometimes the total is much much greater than the sum of the parts.

Tom Ford does an excellent job of weaving (not jumping) back and forth between the stories, so that it's fairly easy to see the symbolism and connections between them, and that makes all the difference.

The final scene is just the best. It was an absolutely perfect way of ending this film, and leaves you having to think a whole heck of a lot as the credits are rolling.

This movie is about revenge. There's the obvious 'you hurt my family, now I'm going to hurt you' type of revenge. Then there's the more subtle type of revenge. The type where you burrow your way into the mind of your victim with precise calculation, and wait for the perfect moment to strike.

Michael Shannon is perfectly cast as the sheriff in the manuscript who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty. Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams play double duty, as both the manuscript's husband and wife, and as real life ex-husband and wife. Aaron Taylor Johnson does some fine work as the antagonist from the manuscript.

The shots are breathtaking, from the cold art gallery, to the remote areas of Texas. The cutaways are brilliant, and Ford has a clear vision for this film.

The wife in the manuscript is Isla Fisher not Amy Adams. But otherwise good review

this was an inspired piece of casting, as it has been remarked for years that they're dead ringers for each other.

Dreadfully dull, turned it off after half hour or so. Did not give a single ****

On the animation front, i will have to put a plug out for the works of Satoshi Kon. Wonderfully trippy and imaginative.

Perfect Blue
Millenial Actress
Tokyo Godfathers
Paprika

To echo the sentiments of others, Ghost in the Shell is a landmark animated film and a must watch if you are at all in to sci fi. All the more reason to see it now before the live action version comes out this year.

I will also recommend on of oshii's other works. Jin Roh the Wolf Brigade. An allegorical retelling of little red riding hood placed in alternative history Nazi occupied Japan.

Don't think it's available on demand yet..hmm...

Whoops. Can't believe I missed that.

I had a long flight recently and I watched the following:
Dr. Strange. It was quite good. The visual effects were fantastic. I also really liked the way Strange defeats Dormammu. Clever.

The LEGO movie. I wasn't a fan of the first hour, thinking it was worse than I expected, but then it grew on me. I think it was really good.

The World's Finest a Batman/Superman crossover suggested earlier in the thread. I enjoyed it.

Better check with TheCroPolice first to see if it's ok to watch those new movies

Boggles my mind when you dumb ****s openly discuss stealing movies, then get sad when I report you. In-flight movies are common, so that won't get reported.

how do airlines get those movies so quickly?

So I assume it's strictly a legal thing that angers you? Because the economics behind how it truly affects the industry is, at best, very mixed. The LSE even published a study a couple years back arguing it helped the industry, but it's certainly muddied water.

John Wick 2 - 4/10

I'm with Cro on this one.

Ban please

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice

Well, after all of the bad reviews and things I heard about this, I wasn't expecting much....at best, maybe Man of Steel level competence.

Surprisingly, I liked it...really enjoyed the dark, adult themes of this one. Affleck was great, Cavil just embodies the Man of Steel so well that's almost impossible to see anyone else in the part, and Gadot is a perfect Wonder Woman.

Jessie Eisenberg was eviscerated for his performance, but I really enjoyed it...thought he did a great job and was both really menacing and suitably unhinged.

Snyder has gotten rid of the shaky cam that was so annoying in the first one, and the film is improved because of it.

There were some obvious problems with the script. Some things just didn't make sense. Why does Batman suddenly decide to not kill Superman? Because their mothers share the same name? Well, that's kinda lame. Why isn't Superman at all regretful for the carnage of the first film? And many more questions....

Doomsday was pretty lame...Snyder really can't do action interestingly. I've heard people say there should've been more actual Batman v Superman, but I thought there was enough...any more, and I just wouldn't be able to buy Batman being able to go toe to toe with Superman for much longer. They did the whole Kryptonite thing well, though.

But I still really liked the movie, for some reason...and I'm a superhero fan, I really liked the whole "meta-human" explanation for people like Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Aquaman.

One major quibble:


Grade: solid B. Pleasantly surprised.

michael shannon was so godamn good in nocturnal animals it made me want to go watch everything he's ever done.

if he doesn't win an oscar my head will explode.

Yep, him and ddl are in a league of their own, and he doesn't mind taking fun or non-artsy roles which is cool.

Edit: also, he has no chance at one this year, looks close to a flip between Affleck/Denzel on the books.