Review the Movie You Viewed VII: We're Done, Professionally

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LMP said:
Die Hard, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Aliens top it, son. But that's about it, from what I've seen, at least.
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Those are three great calls actually. But I'm sticking with Judgment Day. I know now why you cry. But it is something I can never do.
 
corianderstem said:
I still feel compelled to go see this for two reasons:

1. Hugh Jackman
2. Taylor Kitsch

They are $10 worth of hotness.
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I'm a major sucker for comic book / superhero movies, and for some reason I've been under the assumption that Hollywood has finally figured out to do a good job with them. On paper, it seems like a movie entirely focusing on Wolverine would be fantastic no matter what. Unfortunately, they somehow found a way to throw in more characters that you don't care about than even the X-Men movies had (and completely ruin some that you do: Gambit), and then throw in some of the most ridiculous scenes since the Pirates of Caribbean sequels. Add in blatantly obvious CGI all over the place, possibly the worst script of any comic book movie I've seen in years, a prequel that convolutes and confuses plot points from the other movies in the series, and a story that makes X-Men 3 look "good" in comparison.

In short, it was just a huge bummer. They made so many silly choices that it's surprising anyone agreed to work with that script. Everything you'd want from a movie about Wolverine isn't there, everything you wouldn't want is. It's like they took everything that fans hated from the Star Wars prequels and went out of their way to throw things like that into the movie. Is it still entertaining? Yes. Is it the worst major comic book / superhero movie in years? Yes. Is it a terrible way to start off the "big summer blockbusters"? Yes.

That said, I still sorta want other people to see it just so I can hear their thoughts as well.
 
Yeah Gambit appears for about 5 minutes and that fight with him just seemed random...the appearance of Cyclops was pointless. Will.I.am is in it. It was also very incoherent and the only person who got any screen time was Wolverine, everyone else got lip service.
 
I was confused when I saw the trailers. I'd heard all this talk about how the movie was all about the origin of Wolverine. And then the trailers come, and there are like 500 extra people in there.

Still going to go, though. Maybe. If I can drag myself off the couch and get down to my neighborhood theater. And if it's not pouring rain, because when it pours, that theater is packed to the gills.

But the only stuff I know about X-Men is what's in the movies, so I have no expectations about what I want to see or what I'll be disappointed about.
 
3206092390_4a5cd57e12_o.jpg



not very good - 6/10

it will be a huge hit
 
deep said:
it will be a huge hit
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Already is. $87 million this weekend.

No surprise it sucked. It looks absolutely awful. I mean I'm no fan of the genre, but still. It looks just plain bad.
 
Tokyo! was pretty satisfying. Certainly one of the most successful omnibus films I've seen in this vein, if not necessarily in the strength's of the particular shorts' highlights than in its surprising thematic and stylistic unity. Then again maybe it shouldn't be so surprising considering the three directors here are all pretty well known for their off-beat and imaginative filmmaking. Overall it's a great look at the city's urban psychology and its cultural identity (made both explicit particularly in Carax's film, and implicit throughout in its outsider's view looking in, as none of these director's are intimately familiar with Japan themselves). I'll score each segment individually:

Interior Design (Gondry) - 8.0
I went in expecting this to be my least favorite and had those expectations turned completely around. It makes sense this is the most successful though as Gondry was always a better fit for the short form than for features. He captures the city's and culture's unique close-quarters alienation. Deviously stylish and outrageously funny at time, Gondry's segment is both the most entertaining and successful in its examination of distinct cultural idiosyncrasies and pure cinematic ingenuity. Honestly, if it weren't for Kaufman's brilliant contributions to Eternal Sunshine, this would easily be my favorite thing Gondry had done.

Merde (Carax) - 6.0 Both the least entertaining and least successful, despite an initially fantastic premise. The short begins with a playful and somewhat horrifying take on Godzilla and other urban terror/ monster films, but unfortunately its more political and social satire in the second half is considerably less effective. Carax himself already said he was never comfortable working in the short form, and it shows. However, his segment still shows some serious cinematic chops and a virtuoso performance from Denis Lavant.

Shaking Tokyo (Bong) - 7.5 Falls somewhere in between the other two, but likely suffers from its placement in the film. I think this piece would have been better served having switched positions with Gondry's film, opening Tokyo! with a quietly romantic tale about an 11-year recluse being drawn out from his hermetically sealed home by a chance encounter with a cute pizza girl. Bong's camerawork and sound design here is astounding, and best captures the claustrophobic atmosphere of the city and taps into the main characters psyche with admirable subtlety. Really, it shares a bit of thematic ground with Interior Design, unfortunately I feel this segment was in dire need of elaboration and expansion. Bong never really gets to dig into this material to the level it demands, and the short consequently comes up a bit short.

Overall, I was very pleased. I'll give the film in its entirety a 7.0. Strongly recommended if only because it really rises above the rest in its form.
 
impy13 said:
Already is. $87 million this weekend.

No surprise it sucked. It looks absolutely awful. I mean I'm no fan of the genre, but still. It looks just plain bad.
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I doubt it'll top $150 after word-of-mouth soaks through.
 
Is there a precedent for a film movie with such a monster opening failing to hit a mark of $150?
 
impy13 said:
Is there a precedent for a film movie with such a monster opening failing to hit a mark of $150?
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Ang Lee's Hulk took in about $65 and topped at 135.

Watchmen made about 55-60 and is at about 110 right now.

This isn't in that range, but the new Friday the 13th movie opened at about 40 and only made 65. That's an 80% drop, holy shit.
 
I didn't realize Hulk did even that well. I thought that film was completely reviled. And I thought Watchmen cost like eleventy billion dollars.
 
It has pockets of fans, but it seems like most prefer the recent reboot. If that one had been the only release, it would've done better, too.

Watchmen cost about $150, not including marketing costs. And because Warners and Paramount split the domestic/international grosses, with Fox sucking profits because of the retarded lawsuit, that's an even bigger loss. Seeing as though Warners still owns DC, and all of the Watchmen merch, plus it'll make a ton on DVD (think of the the LOTR releases) and it'll make it's money back.

I truly do think Warner Bros. is the ballsiest studio around right now, judging by their output in the past couple years or so. They need to get the ball rolling on their own DC properties though... Jonah Hex, as badass as it sounds so far, ain't gonna cut it.
 
I'm a sort of closet Hulk fan. More for Ang Lee than anything though. He put a lot of love into that project and it shows, despite its obvious creative and commercial failings.
 
Bana was good, and the split-screen comic frames were a nice touch, but the story was butchered and the effects were disappointing. Beyond enjoying destruction its hard to sell the Hulk for story and that one didn't do it. The new one managed to be a lot simpler, and relatable even, have good action and a pretty low-key but awesome look to it, plus Edward Norton.
 
GirlsAloudFan said:
T2 is the best action movie ever made. Fact. Confirmed fact.
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I've never understood the worship of James Cameron, I mean he's freakin' brilliant at directing action, but his stories are somewhat campy, blasphemous though that may be. T2 is far greater than anything else related to that franchise, but I'll always pick Alien as the best from that one because of the subtlety of the whole thing, Ridely Scott brings something to everything he touches that is so unlike most of whatever particular genre he's working in. Granted Cameron crafts his own stories, whereas Scott's strength is visuals and is brought down sometimes by screenplays, but I'd take Ridley every day (but Aliens is one of the greatest sequels ever).

Also about Avatar, I will never understand how it gained hype as groundbreaking ON PAPER, years ago. Even now you can't say anything about it until we've seen footage, in 3D. I'm not doubting it could be really cool, just saying the hype is silly beforehand.

I will say that Ghosts of the Abyss was my favorite IMAX film though, so cool, and more interesting than Titanic for sure.
 
I'll bite my tongue regarding Cameron, but I will say that even if Avatar is a terrible film, it will still be groundbreaking even on paper, for the virtue of the massive leaps its creators have taken technologically in the creation of the film.
 
Lancemc said:
Tokyo! was pretty satisfying. Certainly one of the most successful omnibus films I've seen in this vein, if not necessarily in the strength's of the particular shorts' highlights than in its surprising thematic and stylistic unity. Then again maybe it shouldn't be so surprising considering the three directors here are all pretty well known for their off-beat and imaginative filmmaking. Overall it's a great look at the city's urban psychology and its cultural identity (made both explicit particularly in Carax's film, and implicit throughout in its outsider's view looking in, as none of these director's are intimately familiar with Japan themselves). I'll score each segment individually:

Interior Design (Gondry) - 8.0
I went in expecting this to be my least favorite and had those expectations turned completely around. It makes sense this is the most successful though as Gondry was always a better fit for the short form than for features. He captures the city's and culture's unique close-quarters alienation. Deviously stylish and outrageously funny at time, Gondry's segment is both the most entertaining and successful in its examination of distinct cultural idiosyncrasies and pure cinematic ingenuity. Honestly, if it weren't for Kaufman's brilliant contributions to Eternal Sunshine, this would easily be my favorite thing Gondry had done.

Merde (Carax) - 6.0 Both the least entertaining and least successful, despite an initially fantastic premise. The short begins with a playful and somewhat horrifying take on Godzilla and other urban terror/ monster films, but unfortunately its more political and social satire in the second half is considerably less effective. Carax himself already said he was never comfortable working in the short form, and it shows. However, his segment still shows some serious cinematic chops and a virtuoso performance from Denis Lavant.

Shaking Tokyo (Bong) - 7.5 Falls somewhere in between the other two, but likely suffers from its placement in the film. I think this piece would have been better served having switched positions with Gondry's film, opening Tokyo! with a quietly romantic tale about an 11-year recluse being drawn out from his hermetically sealed home by a chance encounter with a cute pizza girl. Bong's camerawork and sound design here is astounding, and best captures the claustrophobic atmosphere of the city and taps into the main characters psyche with admirable subtlety. Really, it shares a bit of thematic ground with Interior Design, unfortunately I feel this segment was in dire need of elaboration and expansion. Bong never really gets to dig into this material to the level it demands, and the short consequently comes up a bit short.

Overall, I was very pleased. I'll give the film in its entirety a 7.0. Strongly recommended if only because it really rises above the rest in its form.
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Not sure if you've ever seen any of Carax's other work, but The Lovers on the Bridge (which features Juliette Binoche and I'm pretty sure the guy from who's in Merde) is cinematic gold, and Pola X is a pretty impressive film as well.
 
Frost/Nixon

You know, I enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting to. I didn't realize the film spent so much time leading up to the actual interviews; I had expected the bulk of the film to be the interviews themselves.

Langella was amazing.
 
powerhour24 said:
I've never understood the worship of James Cameron, I mean he's freakin' brilliant at directing action, but his stories are somewhat campy, blasphemous though that may be. T2 is far greater than anything else related to that franchise, but I'll always pick Alien as the best from that one because of the subtlety of the whole thing, Ridely Scott brings something to everything he touches that is so unlike most of whatever particular genre he's working in. Granted Cameron crafts his own stories, whereas Scott's strength is visuals and is brought down sometimes by screenplays, but I'd take Ridley every day (but Aliens is one of the greatest sequels ever).
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Wait, Gladiator was subtle? I enjoy Ridley Scott for what he is, a capable action director with two bona-fide fucking masterpieces (Blade Runner and Alien), but he's never matched that sort of success. Granted, I'll be watching the Director's Cut of Kingdom of Heaven for the first time today and still need to see Black Hawk Down, but if we're matching these two guys by their filmography, Cameron's is far more solid.
 
Calm down, fuck-o's. It's coming from NetFlix soon. Right after Amadeus.
 
Or, you could just not see Black Hawk Down, because it's sort of not-that-good-enough-to-warrant-much-discussion-...-sort-of.
 
I figured I'd get Ridley's filmography out the way since I just saw Black Rain and the Extended Cut of Gladiator.

Not too interested in Body of Lies, but I heard The Duellists was good.
 
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