The 'reminds me of my childhood and makes me feel old' effect worked positively for me with Nebraska, just finished watching it...it is maudlin, yes, but there were a million little touches that made it quite authentic in its rendering of the place, and of the increasing desolation of the area as the residents die off. Central Nebraska towns do make for a strong metaphor for death, failure, and better times in the past. Definitely not great due to the predictable sentimentality, but it worked for me nevertheless.

Yeah, it's definitely more geared towards an American audience.

Oblivion - man this was dumb. really, really cool helicopter-thingy, like that idea. really cool drones idea. but everything else is dumb. why would they leave the "original" alive, let alone mix him in with the others? that's just the leading question about the many, many dumb things in this. did i mention it was dumb? neat to see the kingslayer in something else, but man... this was just dumb.

He's not the original. They are all clones. His clone is remembering things of the original.

TC wrote:Oblivion - man this was dumb. really, really cool helicopter-thingy, like that idea. really cool drones idea. but everything else is dumb. why would they leave the "original" alive, let alone mix him in with the others? that's just the leading question about the many, many dumb things in this. did i mention it was dumb? neat to see the kingslayer in something else, but man... this was just dumb.

If you're looking for more Kingslayer, maybe go with last year's decent horror flick Mama. Even with it sitting there on HBO waiting for me, I haven't bothered to watch Oblivion. Cruise plus the guy who made a disjointed Tron sequel, no thanks.

But it does have cool laser effects.

darkness wrote:But it does have cool laser effects.

You're biased

This Is The End - franco/rogan/mcbride/hill - tons of other hipster-pack celebs basically playing versions of themselves. gotta say, some of it was pretty damn funny, but not enough. i have a feeling it would be waaaaaay better if you were really, really high. but a long list of films fit that criteria. it was pretty satisfying to see some of them die terribly awesome, gruesome deaths, particularly michael cera.

Trouble With The Curve - i watched this accidently when i was on the road a few months back. amy adams, clint eastwood, amy adams, justin timberlake, amy adams, john goodman.... i do not like baseball whatsoever but i kinda liked this film, even for some less obvious reasons. then i watched it again the next night, liked it again. watched it a few days ago and still liked it, so that says something.

Walk of Shame - comedy cliché checklist go: Simple misunderstanding that could easily be solved (and would be by anyone in real life) in several ways but isn't due to main character's stupidity: check. Gang members who turn out to be misunderstood nice guys: check. Ridiculous ending where everything works out despite main character completely screwing everything up: check. There's nothing to see here. Move along.

Now You See Me - the actual tricks were pretty interesting and the way they were filmed/presented was cool, but it seemed like a whole like of middling shit was happening in this. should have been much more spritely. could have cut 20-30 minutes. also, who told eisenberg he was a good actor? i mean, he was a great zuckerberg because zucks is a huge, arrogant, introverted nerd. playing every part you get that way doesn't work. ruffalo and harrelson were really good, caine and freeman were the same guys they've been playing for years now... ending was super dumb. meh.

We're The Millers - anniston is of course lovely, but wow is this a pile of crap. heavy cast but really not many surprises here. very movie-by-numbers. best scene/biggest laugh in the whole movie is in the "blooper reel" at the end, where, rather than the song that's supposed to come on the radio, the rest of the cast replaces it with the theme from friends to "prank" anniston. pretty funny. oh, and the way sudekis describes the haircut he wants. per IMDB:

Styist: OK, what are we doing today?
David Clark: Yeah. I say, give me somethin' that says, 'I get up every morning at 5:30 and commute for an hour and a half to some bullshit job where my jag-off boss expects me to kiss his balls all day just so I can afford to keep my ungrateful, screaming kids decked out in Dora the explorer shit and my wife up to her fat ass in self-help videos until the day I get up the courage to put a shotgun in my mouth.'
Middle Aged Man: [Indicating his own haircut] Right here.
David Clark: [Points in the mirror] Yeah. That's it. That's the one.

look up the anniston sexy bits online if you wish and you've seen the best of the film.

The funny thing is, I recall thinking the film wasn't too bad actually, but the only thing I can remember from it now is the Friends song prank. Which I suppose says something.

Yeah, We're The Millers is ultimately not funny, and if you're making a comedy with few laughs then you have failed.

her--well worth your time, a thoughtful meditation on tech and humanity, with more laughs than the above mentioned comedy and some good pathos. Some of ScarJo's better acting, to be honest.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre--one of those great white whales that somehow I never saw, got to see a beautifully restored print at the Alamo Drafthouse tonight at a packed showing (the Mile High Horror Club was in attendance). Clearly a film that launched a thousand ships (and Rob Zombie's entire film career, apparently). Such fantastic sound and production design for a no budget indie in 1974. Perfect balance of creep, jump scares and white trash horror. A simple, nasty story, well told. Kudos to Mr. Hooper. We even got an intro that featured someone in leatherface with an actual chainsaw, the theater stunk of gasoline for the first 20 minutes. Really can't imagine seeing it any other way. As I was driving home with my buddy I noted that it's one of those rare debuts of a filmmaker where everything broke right and a classic was born. The escalation was marvelous, with the constant screaming and eyeball closeups of the lone survivor (whatever happened to her boyfriend? we are left to wonder) reaching the height of nasty exploitative horror.

Glad you finally saw it. I don't watch it a ton but it sure lives up to the hype.

Along the lines of elusive great white whales, I've yet to watch Animal House. Who else has one?

O-dot wrote:Along the lines of elusive great white whales, I've yet to watch Animal House. Who else has one?

Shawshank Redemption is mine.

Oh, I've got a ton, especially if you go back to older films (Lawrence of Arabia and Spartacus always jump to mind). On the horror front, still haven't watched The Exorcist...yet in college I probably saw Exorcist III like 10 times. Go figure.

Never seen any of the original Star Wars, E.T., or Wizard of OZ. And don't care to.

The Wolf of Wall Street

Watched this over the weekend. An enjoyable, extremely fast three hours (though some judicious trimming wouldn't have been the worst idea ever). I am befuddled by the supposed "controversy" the movie engendered — people who think Scorsese was in any way presenting this lifestyle in a positive light are plainly not very bright. Or they are just seeking materials to be offended by. On that note, I oddly didn't notice most of the 500-plus F-bombs that apparently flew by, and the sexual content wasn't nearly as explicit as hyped nor as pervasive. People must live sheltered lives.