Yeah, I never heard Friedkin say anything about it. But it is one of the best horror movies of the last five years. I watched it totally unbiased, no real expectations aside from hearing it was good on this board, and loved it. I think like with a lot of things, people hear the hype and then build up in their own mind what they want it to be, so they're disappointed.

Weeeeeeeeell that's not quite true. It's certainly mostly true, but I can think of at least two or three instances where something happened suddenly, accompanied by a loud banging noise or something. I've always defined a jump scare as "startling" instead of "scary", and like 99% of the movie was scary, but there was one or two startling parts.

Overall though he's right, it's a very dreadful, atmospheric movie. I like it a lot, though the ending had me wracking my brain for a day because it was kinda stupid and threw me in regards to how to interpret the movie. I did eventually put it together in a way that made sense, I was actually upset at the ending at first because it just didn't seem to mesh with the rest of the movie at all, but it doesn't really matter because the journey there was incredibly well done and very creepy.

It's not amazing though. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is amazing because it built up tension. The audience knew something horrible was going to happen and it felt uncomfortable and dreadful. Babadook had a few moments where tension was being built but then it was just thrown out the window due to its horrible pacing. And the end Even if they had managed to make a film with tension and atmosphere that ending would have definitely brought it down.

Yeah, but not every horror film that comes out has to be better than (or exactly like) Texas Chainsaw or other classics. Not living up to the standards of a 40 year old groundbreaking genre classic doesn't make a newer movie suck. The Babadook is nothing like TCM. You clearly did not get what it was trying to do. Not that you have to like it, but at least try harder to understand that it was a more metaphorical, fantastical film and not a gritty, realistic one like TCM - that's very basic. You can go ahead and think it wasn't scary, etc, but I'm just saying your critique there was flawed and nonsensical.

I got what the film was trying to do. I know it wasn't supposed to be like TCM and I certainly knew it wasn't going it to be better than any of the classics. I used it as an example simply because it very effectively created a dreadful atmosphere. I like how they made The Babadook realistic with the single, working class mother raising a kid and showing the serious mental, emotional and physical toll that it had on her. That seemed to be the only source of tension for the movie. Very little of it seemed to come from the Babadook and the threat it posed. If the horror aspects of the film were done well, they would have perfectly complemented the strained mother/child relationship and I'm sure I would have loved the movie. I can very easily get behind an atmospheric, bloodless, jump scare free horror film.

Not sure about your last sentence but it's good others also strongly disliked The Babadook. I've already said my piece however so I'll let it be, I'm trying to repress my memory of that film.

Furious 7 is about to take Frozen's position at #5 of all time.

As in the 5th best movie of all time? Good thing the box office has long since been something to hold high regard for.

I watched The Babadook on a whim on netflix the other day and thought it was pretty damn good. It didn't appear to me to be a movie that would be so polarizing, but whatever. I will say that even if I didn't particularly enjoy it, it wouldn't be hard to see why others do. Separating it from whatever hype some people claims it has, it's a solid film whether it was amazing or not.

And yeah, the box office "best of" lists are usually a good thing to ignore I'd imagine.

As in highest grossing. The top 15 definitely isnt on quality, as Pirates and Transformers are up there, even though I enjoyed some of them. Avengers 2 will obviously be up there.
The other day, I saw that Star Wars is predicted to earn over $500 million in the opening weekend. Wouldnt surprise me.

I'm figuring Star Wars is gonna break the $3 billion mark. Pre-release hype and ticket prices are high enough nowadays for that to be a legit possibility, and this movie making anything less than $2 billion is going to be a MAJOR disappointment. Hopefully Age of Ultron will enjoy the few months it'll have as highest grossing movie of 2015.

On the subject of box office grosses becoming so ridiculous over the past decade or so, I still remember Pirates of the Caribbean 2 becoming only the third movie ever to break a billion and everyone losing their shit over it. That was 9 years ago. Now big summer blockbusters that break a billion are so commonplace that it's more a question of how many in any given year will make that much than if any will at all.

Also, of the 20 films that have broken a billion dollars in worldwide gross (unadjusted for inflation), only six were released by Disney. Honestly thought there'd be more, but even then quite a few of the 14 other movies on the list were released before Disney's plan for total world domination started.

If a genie granted me 3 wishes, I would seriously wish that nobody goes to see Star Wars in theaters. Imagine how amazing that would be. "The movie world was shocked today when Star Wars: Episode VII made a record-breaking $000,000,000 in its opening weekend. When reached for comment, 'I just had better things to do,' said everyone. In other news, J J Abrams was found dead in his apartment of an apparent suicide."

Wow. I've seen people skeptical of upcoming movies, but....wow. Okay, I might get excited, but I'm not gonna say that the new Star Wars movie is gonna be this super-excellent-best-movie-ever-made kind of movie. I wouldn't say it's gonna be horrendous either.

What would you say would be your other two wishes?

Saw Ex Machina tonight. Was pretty good.

Saw Ex Machina tonight. Was pretty good.

Nobody really thinks it's gonna be horrendous, it's just that there are usually much more interesting movies out in a year than reboots of 40 year old world renowned franchises, is all.

You don't think it's gonna be horrendous, it's just that some people are so pessimistic when it comes to upcoming movies with a lot of hype, especially those reboots. Hey, it could be worse, it could have Jar Jar in it!

I'm pumped about Star Wars. Those trailers got me wet. You stuffy nerds can be all hate-y but I'm gonna catch this shit in theaters and have a blast while you sit around grumbling about how much you hate reboots and superhero movies.

We've got four blockbusters on the way to four highly regarded movie properties, Jurassic Park, Terminator, Star Wars and Mad Max. That's got to be some record. Not exactly excited at all about the new Terminator but this year and the next (Batman Vs Superman) are mammoth in their entertainment value. I could care less if they're rehashes/just the same thing, they should expand the universe of those properties as far as I'm concerned. If we're doomed to 10 Paranormal Activities and 10 found footage waste products, I'll gladly take 3 Fury Road films. And don't act like there isn't original films being made because there is.

Yeah, there's definitely original stuff coming out but sometimes good IP is good IP, and Star Wars and Mad Max are good IP. I have serious doubts about Terminator and Jurassic Park - I'll wait and see what people think for those two - but Star Wars and Mad Max both look cool as hell and I will definitely be seeing them in theaters.

I also found out that Avengers 2 came out here over a week before it does in the US so I've gotta see it before many of you can. Perhaps tomorrow night!

Star Wars will probably be okayish, maybe pretty enjoyable - we'll see. Don't have high hopes for Batman vs Superman though - hated both of the last movies they were in individually, so I don't see why this would suddenly be any better.

Seeing Unfriended today. What a lucrative experience this will be.

My issue with Jurassic World is that it looks far too bombastic and over the top. The new trailers probably give away way too much, I shouldn't have watched all of them. But they were just nonstop huge scale action explosions etc everywhere. The first movie is an initially casual journey of adventure for a small tight knit group of characters and leaves the viewer enough room to feel like they're living such a dream as well. Even the sequels and 3 as much as I hate it, get this element too. The "active" themepark idea and crazy stuff like helicopters blowing things up etc might hurt this new one for me.

I don't plan to take the new Terminator seriously at all so hopefully it's fun. I like how Arnold called out Salvation and said it sucks, because it did. But 3 was certainly not good either.

I must confess that I look forward to the new Terminator movie, but definitely not as much as the new Star Wars movie. I know to expect that the new Terminator movie would have plenty of shortcomings to go around. As for the new Avengers movie, I don't think it's gonna be as good as the first one, but it'll still be enjoyable.

Haha nah I don't think it will suck, it'll probably be entertaining and I plan to go see it in theaters myself. I just hate how much of our culture revolves around fucking Star Wars. Seriously, I don't think most of you have any conception of how much Star Wars merchandise there is, and I don't mean weird obscure collector's items, but like actual things being made and sold in major retail chains right now.

Look at this shit. There's a whole series of them.

Get it? Darth Vader is an evil badass and here he is being cute! HAW HAW LET'S BUY MILLIONS OF COPIES, AMERICA

Okay, I get your point. The whole merchandising thing ruins a lot of franchises. Consider the Christmas Story movie. It was a classic on its own, but so much merchandising, commercials spoofing scenes, and even a Broadway musical, have caused it to go stale. It's gotten so bad, that they've even made a sequel to the movie. For obvious reasons, it sucked.

Or just ignore the merch? Your problem seems to be massive popularity and being everywhere has made 'Star Wars' lame/unwatchable when why the fuck care? I literally haven't seen a single Star Wars merch item or had a Star Wars discussion in years because it's pretty easily avoidable.

Thing is I see similarities between Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Jurassic World in that it's more of a reboot than a sequel, people were skeptical about it and in my opinion it's probably better than the original (which has undue praise and is an actually a fairly mediocre movie, the sequels considerably so). The trailer of ROTPOTA showed a pretty pivotal action scene that was in tone completely different to the original, and it turned out to be the best scene of the movie. Point is; try not to write off a potentially great movie based on a trailer marketed to sell more seats, also stay away from trailers from the past couple of decades as they spoil the movie.

Yeah, the merch shouldn't define a move. A movie should define a movie. As far as trailers go, when the new Avengers movie comes out, I hear there's gonna be a trailer for the new Star Wars movie. Knowing how trailers spoil everything, I'll try and stay away from social media around that time.

Heh, well, I'll watch Avengers in the next couple of days and let you know if there's a Star Wars trailer.

If there is, I wouldn't wanna know how it its, 'cos chances are, it'll spoil the whole movie for me. Sure, it'll look cool, but I want to enjoy seeing everything as the actual movie. I don't want bits and pieces of it to spoil the plot.

Whiplash - 4.5/5

Really fucking good. High-energy, driving movie about passion and what makes great art - i.e. total, unbridled pushing to the next level. JK Simmons is a music teacher who engages in a sort of battle of wills with this kid who really wants to be this great ensemble drummer. He's hilarious in this, and also poignant later on when he talks about the loss of the kind of greatness that artists of the past had that he feels is gone now. There's a lot of good scenes here, a lot of energy and style - it's just a kick ass film and one I really enjoyed. It was a movie about the difference between great art and just okay art, and can apply to people who do music, writing...anything. Take your skills to the next level and push yourself, the movie says - but it also turns that on its heel and shows the consequences as well, avoiding becoming just a more garden variety inspirational tale. It turns the cliches of the "you can do anything if you try" genre on their heels and makes a dark, bloody, hilarious and compelling romp. Highly recommended.

The Grand Budapest Hotel - 2.5/5

As much as I liked Moonrise Kingdom, this is a big disappointment. The visuals are nice, and the characters have moments here and there where I liked them. But the story is just overly cluttered with nonsense and way too many plotlines, the dialogue is annoying and unfunny, and the way the characters talk is just irritating as fuck - that way too fast, overly polite style of speaking that's supposed to come off as ironic or witty I suppose. Me, I just thought it made everything stilted and felt like it was trying too hard. I didn't care about the crime plotline, I didn't find the weird goth family of the dead lady to be funny or interesting - I did like the romance between the main kid and that girl, and I liked the small parts of the story where it seemed like it was going to be a coming of age for the kid, but those were very minor parts of the movie overall. Pretty annoying and lame.

Unfriended - 3/5

Really not that bad. It's a silly premise, but the way everything is set up, and the detail put into all the computer screen stuff, the written text chats, the mouse cursor moving and the little details of how a person uses a computer are really interesting. The acting is good and the story is a pretty basic revenge, anti-bullying one - nothing great, but solid and it doesn't have any huge holes or anything. On the other hand the characters are usually pretty annoying to listen to, spending a lot of the film just screaming and crying, and there isn't a lot to take away besides 'bullying is bad' - but the movie still goes on for 90 minutes. The deaths are pretty hilarious and there are really more funny moments than scary ones. It dragged at times, but it wasn't as bad as some thought it would be.

All I've heard about Whiplash is my professional musician friends absolutely railing on it on social media - they're going on about how the whole "insane teacher pushing a student to the limits" thing has no basis in reality and is disrespectful to commonly accepted theory, and the movie is just all exaggeration with no substance or meaning (their words, not mine). Glad to hear an alternate opinion, hehe.

You might like it. If you liked Birdman you certainly would, anyway. It's a satirical tale and has a lot of wry, understated humor in everything it does. I didn't think it was trying to poise Simmons' crazy teacher character as realistic or representative of music school teachers, it was just a way of talking about great art versus mediocre art. To do that, they had to grab our attention.

Yeah I kind of hated Whiplash other than Simmons' performance. Sure it's about jazz drumming but the whole movie was basically "fuck art, music is about extreme technical precision only." I actually found the ethos of the movie pretty offensive as someone who values his creativity. Practice makes perfect, and only perfect is real? Ugh.

Well, precision was what Simmons' character wanted out of that particular performance he was trying to get his students to do, but I don't think the movie was saying art all had to be like that, or perfect, etc. I thought it was a really positive message for art. Saying that absolute devotion to the craft is a rare thing now and the way society is doesn't value it the same way (being content with "just pretty good" as he says in that awesome speech near the end) - but some people can still see it, and it will always be there in some form or another. Though really, I'd personally argue it's always been that way, but eh. But like I said above, it simultaneously also showed how destructive it can be as well, two sides of a coin. I don't think you were supposed to see Simmons as either all good or all bad in terms of what he was trying to do. Interesting how different the interpretations we had are anyway.

So Unfriended was better than Grand Budapest Hotel? Ooooookkkk Buddy.

I just recently saw the trailer for Whiplash and it seemed super interesting. I'm excited to check it out in the next week or so.

Haha! I don't really take the opinion of someone who thinks that The Hunger Games series is a masterpiece seriously.

I couldn't wait till Friday so I got an Avengers 2 screener (good quality). Cool little indie flick with Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, will probably be ignored at the Box Office.

I'm not even a fan of Wes Anderson and find his stuff mostly pretentious wank but I think your ratings system is askew if Unfriended beats Grand Budapest.

Not that it matters as I'm sure we'll get 30 Unfriended movies.

Neither one was very good in the grand scheme of things, but I laughed way more at Unfriended than I did at Budapest Hotel, and the latter was the one that was intended to be a comedy. So there's that.

Tony doesn't take my opinion seriously, just enough so to pick out a random unrelated thing I like and attempt a burn. Good job, man, keep it up.

It's just pretty weird since you liked Moonrise Kingdom (a very good movie, for sure) and TGBH (my favorite movie of 2014) is better in almost every way possible. Also, roasting is fun, I simply remembered the fact you called Catching Fire a "classic"!

Since I've seen Avengers - Age of Ultron and it's out outside of North America already, I'll write some comments about it: SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY.


All and all, it's a good movie, while not as great and spectacular as the debut, it's perhaps a bit more streamlined while still having a fair share of involvement for the whole cast and it's good at introducing new characters. Thanks to Robert Downey Jr. who sent me a review copy since he liked my metal reviews, cool dude! It's out Friday, I might go see it anyway.