TC wrote:neighbors... is that the seth rogan/frat house movie? i saw that. parts were funny, but your assessment is accurate.

That would be the one. I try to sit through most Rogen movies because some are actually good and he was very kind to my aunt on the set of Green Hornet, apparently he's a genuinely nice guy. But I have my limits.

American Sniper: Not nearly as bad in the right wing propaganda department as one might think. My bigger beef with the film is that it's a narrative bore that never really goes anywhere. A lot of people get shot, people die, but no one really changes. There's little story here. He's pretty much the same person at the end of the film as he was a the start. Eastwood is a good director as always, but he doesn't seem to have had much to work with in a script. Maybe that's why Kyle had to make shit up for the book like punching out Jesse Ventura and sniping looters from the roof of the superdome. They should have thrown that in, or, it's a Warner Brothers film, maybe add Batman. This is two hours of my life I won't get back.

Zardoz - i swear this gets better every time i watch it. i introduced the wife to it friday, as twilight time just released a nice blu-ray. we were cracking up from the first frame. such a great oddity. love this movie.

not a movie, but we just plowed through S1 of Secrets And Lies, the Juliette Lewis ABC drama, over the last four nights. it had me yelling at my TV quite a bit, and saying "holy SHIT, this guy's an IDIOT!" more times than i could count, but it was pretty entertaining for trash TV. if it weren't for lewis, don't think i would have kept up, though. renewal/cancellation is still up in the air, apparently. but, lucky us, we get to see her again very soon on that m. knight TP rip-off series.

If anyone runs across a horror film called Muck, run, run far, far away. It was apparently a kickstarter funded film (never a good sign to start with) supposed to be in the tradition of old school horror films. This thing is so awful it makes Troma films look good. It's technically moderately competent. But dear god, the plot and writing seem like something a 12 year old would have done. I never thought it possible to make hot women and bare breasts painful to watch.

darkness wrote:White House Down: Die Hard in the White House. With an annoying kid thrown in.

just watched this last night. holy shit, this movie is so ridiculously over the top that it surpasses "bad" and moves into the "hilarious" category. there are just so many things wrong with this film that by the time i finished laughing at one thing, something else happened that i was like "oh no fucking way", laughing again. highly recommend white house down, one of the best comedies i've seen in a while.

Whiplash - finally saw this (i know, i know). really enjoyed it. JK is quite simply fantastic, happy he was rewarded for his performance. rang pretty true to things i've seen in my life. except, you know, the end where

the kid, who hasn't played in how long - months?, magically becomes the greatest drummer on the planet in a day or two (practicing in his city apartment, somehow). still, that last performance was full of so many great moments from JK, seeing him go from being furious to just lighting up when he realized what was happening, being able to go with it like that - the mark of a true artist - was performed sublimely. i will watch this again several times i'm sure.

TC wrote:Whiplash - finally saw this (i know, i know). really enjoyed it. JK is quite simply fantastic, happy he was rewarded for his performance. rang pretty true to things i've seen in my life.

We watched it a couple weeks back, liked it pretty well. As a drummer, I am curious to hear more about your take on the film from the standpoint of someone who's trained and worked as a musician.

O-dot wrote:

TC wrote:Whiplash - finally saw this (i know, i know). really enjoyed it. JK is quite simply fantastic, happy he was rewarded for his performance. rang pretty true to things i've seen in my life.

We watched it a couple weeks back, liked it pretty well. As a drummer, I am curious to hear more about your take on the film from the standpoint of someone who's trained and worked as a musician.

there are absolutely guys like that. i know neil peart says he hated it, that there are not guys like that in jazz, but he's wrong in my experience. i've seen guys like that in all styles - orchestra, jazz, concert, pop, etc. in the movie, at the level that band is supposed to be, i can easily see him expecting professionals to show up with their big boy pants on and take his shit or get out. neil also said that there is no blood in jazz, he didn't by that scene. i beg to differ. i've seen a guy practicing exactly like that kid that was much more bloody. the fake part is him putting a bandage on it and expecting it to stay. pro tip: only electrical tape works.

Yeah, we caught this on cable last week, good stuff. Nice showy role for Simmons, I'm glad he got it and went on to win the Oscar, sure ain't picking up a statue for T5 (just typing that last thing makes me sigh). I have on very rare occasion had teachers like that, self aggrandizing sociopaths.

TC wrote: there are absolutely guys like that. i know neil peart says he hated it, that there are not guys like that in jazz, but he's wrong in my experience. i've seen guys like that in all styles - orchestra, jazz, concert, pop, etc. in the movie, at the level that band is supposed to be, i can easily see him expecting professionals to show up with their big boy pants on and take his shit or get out. neil also said that there is no blood in jazz, he didn't by that scene. i beg to differ. i've seen a guy practicing exactly like that kid that was much more bloody. the fake part is him putting a bandage on it and expecting it to stay. pro tip: only electrical tape works.

Since the drumming universe has been kissing Peart's ass (rightly so) for decades, he probably doesn't see much behavior in the musician community outside of fawning.

You guys see this? http://www.the-editing-room.com/whiplash.html

JK SIMMONS
Okay guys, let's play some Rush!

MILES TELLER
Dammit.

MILES TELLER
Sorry, what? I was too busy counting out the syncopations in your nagging.

MILES gains TEN FRUSTRATION POINTS.

JK SIMMONS
All right band, before we go out there let's just establish that this concert is some kind of permanent no-takebacks affair that will define your careers forever and ever. Apparently the president of music is in the audience or something, and if you fuck up here then for the rest of your life you won't be able to get hired to so much as run a concession stand at a Nickelback concert. Understood? All right, let's jazz.

MILES TELLER
No. I'm sorry. I'm just not cut out for mediocrity and happiness. I have to drum, even if it means being sad and lonely and insane.

MILES TELLER
(drums, just, really, really, REALLY well, for like fifteen minutes, until he starts sweating, crying, bleeding and orgasming all at once, and the drums transform into massive dragons and take wing, and he leaps towards them wielding golden swords made of drumsticks to do battle in the ethereal realm that is Jazz)

amazing!

It Follows

A solid horror flick that stands out from the crowd with some really nice cinematography (Mike Gioulakis) and an amazing soundtrack by Disasterpeace. Worth 100 minutes of your time, if nothing else than as a palette cleanser from most other horror movies out there.

_Marcus_ wrote:It Follows

A solid horror flick that stands out from the crowd with some really nice cinematography (Mike Gioulakis) and an amazing soundtrack by Disasterpeace. Worth 100 minutes of your time, if nothing else than as a palette cleanser from most other horror movies out there.

My favorite film of the year so far.

I Am Number Four - did not fare well on rotten tomatoes with either fans or critics, but my younger son is plowing through this book series and wanted to watch it. his opinion was that they changed a lot of things for no good reason (when

olyphant's character dies

, the powers the girl has (

in the books, it's invisibility, in the film it's teleportation

) and that no one looked like they were described, but it was ok. my opinion, knowing nothing about the books, was that it was kind of a mess and could have used some editing. some of the plot lines were pretty silly as well. but, the underlying idea wasn't bad - books are probably decent.

Casino Royale (1967) - holy shit is this film just incredible. incredible that it was made, incredible in ridiculous scope and cast, so over-the-top that it's hilarious, both intentionally and unintentionally, and the stories behind the production. i had never seen this, but wow is it hilarious.

As Above, So Below - interesting basic plotline totally fucked by extreme gratuitous shakey-cam "found footage" schtick. i wanted to murder the DP. a little way into the film, they start showing us things that characters are hallucinating. note to writers: we cannot see what is in someone's head. if you want to do that, you should probably switch to the POV cam of that character. i don't know, lots took me out of this. then 3/4 through it, seems like they must have suddenly realized that they need to wrap it up, as the last 15-20 minutes are so completely rushed and out of character for what they set up that it's just nuts. wouldn't waste your time.

TV edition:

Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll - marathoned what's out so far. has a great cast and some great ideas but somehow comes across very milquetoast. i'd be surprised if it got renewed. too bad for bobby kelly, as it's his first main role.

Married - marathoned what's out of S2 so far, only caught one or two of S1. again, solid cast, some good ideas, but execution is sometimes way on the safe side. it's hit & miss for me but seems like it should be good. guess i'll just wait for the return of "you're the worst".

Yeah, You're The Worst is much better than Married. And I had no desire to watch the Sex Drugs Rock and Roll thing, looked like all sorts of awful.

The Drop - watched this and it just made me miss james gandolfini all over again. i guess it was one of his last things? regardless, a really nice take on a common mob trope. liked it quite well.