| Author |
Message |
|
| billyweeds |
 Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 5:36 am |
 |
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
The new comedy Neighbors has great buzz but do. not. believe. the. buzz. It's pretty terrible despite game acting by Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, both of whom know what they're doing but neither of whom can triumph over the overall sloppiness of the venture. Looks okay on paper. Middle-class couple tries to stave off encroaching middle age by attempting to bond with frat house that moves next door, but frat boy shsnanigans wake their infant daughter, tensions rise, and mayhem ensues. Meant to be funny, and probably could have been, but doesn't work most of the time--just loud and incoherent thanks to undisciplined direction by Nicholas Stoller..
And then there's Zac Efron as the leading frat boy. Belushi this guy is not. Dude is cut. Dude is ripped. Dude has a world-class six-pack. Stipulated. Given. Done. But dude has not one funny bone in that entire gorgeous rib cage. This is not a great asset when you're doing comedy. |
|
|
| Back to top |
  
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 9:44 am |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
Not really my kind of film.
Neighbors looks like one of those films where you get all you need from the trailer. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| knox |
| Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 12:16 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
|
Or more than you need. Seth Rogen is kind of overexposed right now.
God's Pocket looks good. John Slattery trying his hand at directing. PS Hoffman's last film (unless there's another one in the can somewhere in distribution limbo). Opens Friday. Sounds like Slattery goes into Coen territory.
Congrats, Bart. But where will you go to see indie films? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 7:59 pm |
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
|
Oh dear! "Grace of Monaco" is even worse than "Diana" shock. Those critics who got to attend the Cannes screening are even making unflattering comparisons, in terms of relative awfulness, with that other right Royal disaster, Madonna's "W.E.", which, admittedly, I haven't seen...and probably never will. Am I detecting a pattern here.
The following extract from Peter Bradshaw's review in The Guardian gives you a flavour:of how "Grace of Monaco has been received. It makes you wonder how many more flops Nicole Kidman's career can handle.
"It is a film so awe-inspiringly wooden that it is basically a fire-risk. The cringe-factor is ionospherically high. A fleet of ambulances may have to be stationed outside the Palais to take tuxed audiences to hospital afterwards to have their toes uncurled under general anaesthetic....The resulting film a...is like a 104-minute Chanel ad, only without the subtlety and depth. |
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Thu May 15, 2014 8:41 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
knox wrote:
God's Pocket looks good. John Slattery trying his hand at directing. PS Hoffman's last film (unless there's another one in the can somewhere in distribution limbo). Opens Friday. Sounds like Slattery goes into Coen territory.
Congrats, Bart. But where will you go to see indie films?
TY! "A Most Wanted Man" be PSH's last film - last real film, that is. I'm not counting Hunger Games XXXVII or whatever.
God's Pocket looks very much like a Coen bro inspired project, from what I can tell of the plot. Will be in Lincoln now and then, so hope to catch some indies there.
Can't really see the Kidman as Grace Kelly. Seriously? That's just wrong. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu May 15, 2014 9:59 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| The only movie I liked Nicole Kidman in, was To Die For. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Thu May 15, 2014 10:45 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
I think she has a cold blond quality that fits Grace Kelly.
But apparently the film is a turkey.
I liked Kidman in Rabbit Hole and Dogville.
And to a slightly lesser extent in Margot at the Wedding.
She takes on some interesting projects, though often not my type (ie Birth, Paperboy, the latter I didn't see) |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Thu May 15, 2014 12:49 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
|
| GoM has the appearamce of the movie critics have been waiting for to use their "Ooooh! I can't wait for the opportunity for a bad movie to use that line on!" lines on. |
_________________
I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
|
| Back to top |
|
| jeremy |
| Posted: Thu May 15, 2014 2:33 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
|
whiskeypriest wrote: GoM has the appearamce of the movie critics have been waiting for to use their "Ooooh! I can't wait for the opportunity for a bad movie to use that line on!" lines on.
Definitely; the the thought, "You've been saving that up," occurred to me more than once when reading the reviews. |
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 4:41 pm |
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
Godzilla (2014). Well-made and this time they play it straight. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass), Ken Watanabe and Juliette Binoche are the biggest names in the cast, and Sally Hawkins, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston and David Straithairn are on hand, making this an unusually high-powered* cast to be upstaged by the monsters. I wish Hawkins and Olsen had more to do; this may be their first exposure to a mass audience in America. I found myself looking forward to seeing Hawkins' scenes; I was curious to know more about her character.
Much of the film is set at night or under the smoke of a burning city, and since the monsters emit EMPs, the movie gets very dark in more ways than one. This has a certain effectiveness, as it did in Cloverfield, especially where the MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms**) are concerned, but I would have liked to have gotten a better look at Godzilla himself.
Still, 7.5 of 10, and far better and more intelligent than the 1998 film.
*Okay, maybe not Taylor-Johnson, though he's okay. Binoche is quite good in her brief screen time.
**Not the radiation-eating cousins of the ROUS.***
***Rodents of Unusual Size. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 4:44 pm |
|
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
| I'm more convinced than ever that I don't want to live in California. Earthquakes, fires and the threat of tsunamis are bad enough without the threats of nuclear bombs and giant radiation-eating monsters. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 11:31 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
The Rocket (released Jan 2014 in NY) was Australia's 2014 submission to the Oscars. The film is set in Laos with all Laotian actors. The story of a boy who is thought to be cursed, and his family's forced relocation due to a massive damn being built which will flood their village. The new land isn't that great, and preparations for their arrival are well behind schedule.
With things not going well, the boy befriends a girl around his age (8?, 9?) who shows him the ropes in the resettlement camp. Her uncle is an outcast who drinks a lot, wears purple suits and has an odd mop of hair -- he models himself on James Brown. This leads to some comic relief, and a good chase through the camp, after the boy rigs up electricity for Uncle Purple, but causes a blackout in most of the rest of the camp. So Uncle Purple's Tv starts working for the first time in ages, and he cranks on his Dvd of vintage Godfather of Soul and his band, while a local tough with a torch chases the boy to the strains of Get on the Good Foot. The rural Laotian lower class suddenly scored like a Hollywood film, but it all makes sense because Uncle Purple has James Brown on, and we get cuts from the chase to JB on the small screen and Uncle Purple doing his imitation ... and back to the chase.
The film itself is okay.
The two child actors are winning and do a solid job.
A number of scenes seem rather over-constructed.
And many characters are just cyphers (hello mom and dad).
I did like the grandmother as tough old bird, who dresses in traditional Laotian garb (kind of traditional Thai, but with leg warmers). She's pretty uncompromising and harsh throughout the film.
A fine enough film to catch on cable sometime.
And probably one of those films where you can catch any random 15 - 20 minute chunk and have a good sense of the whole thing. The James Brown chase through the Laotian resettlement camp is the highlight. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Wed May 21, 2014 8:15 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
Syd wrote: I'm more convinced than ever that I don't want to live in California. Earthquakes, fires and the threat of tsunamis are bad enough without the threats of nuclear bombs and giant radiation-eating monsters.
Even worse: the rents. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 5:30 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Fans of Mad Men should definitely check out Million Dollar Arm, in which Jon Hamm makes his debut as a full-fledged movie star and does a great job. It tells the true story of J.B. Bernstein, a sports agent on his last legs, who devises (mainly for his own gain) a program called "Million Dollar Arm," where he goes to India and attempts to recruit cricket players and transform them into major league baseball pitchers.
It's a Disney movie, but not dumb or overly manipulative, and the screenplay is by Tom McCarthy, who wrote and directed The Station Agent and The Visitor, so although predictability is almost built into the plot, it's always interesting and witty. And Hamm does a starworthy job as the selfish go-getter who learns a thing or two. He's supported deftly by Lake Bell as his g.f., Bill Paxton as a baseball coach, and others including Alan Arkin. This is a fun movie with some heart, well worth seeing--and not only by fans of Hamm and Mad Men. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 11:59 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
| Sounds like a must-see for us (she likes MM, and Mr. Hamm and I have a mild interest in cricket). In Squawks, I mention "God's Pocket" another current film with a MM regular, Cristina Hendricks, and directed by a MM regular, John Slattery. Radically different in theme and tone from MDA, however. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
