anyone seen the conjuring 2? i enjoyed it but i am even more excited to watch this

^ Eh um is there a reason to be excited for this? Looks like your typical average modern horror with a clear as day gimmick (lights out) stretched for two hours.

No kidding, that one looks like crap. There's another almost identical one coming out at the same time. That kind of stuff is easily my least favorite sort of horror.

I got 10 minutes into it and turned it off because holy fuck it feels disjointed. The entire pre-title sequence was unnecessary since we immediately are given the same information after (when she's putting the photos up), and that it lasts nearly 7 minutes with the 1-2 punch of minimal dialogue and boring wide shots makes it worse. I understand mood building and a slow-burn type, but I didn't need a single-camera 45-second take of a guy carrying firewood into the house that serves no fucking purpose. That's not artistic, that's fucking boring.

I heard it ramps up by the third act, though, so I'll give it another shot.

@Droneriot, you speak fondly of the prequels, each positively better than the last apparently, and in the same breath summarize Episode 7 as non engaging and purely visual. Oh yeah I especially liked Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor's portrayal of pompous smugness for the duration of their featured character roles. "Obi Wan, did you know I farted in my Jedi robe?" "I also did that of which you speak, Qui-Gon." Riveting stuff.

@ Marsdude, even though Episode 7 featured very little CGI compared to all other new action/sci-fi/fantasy movies and practically none at all compared to the prequels. I'm sure you'll hate the next films for being too different and outlandish and your own acute pigeonhole ideal interpretation of Star Wars will never be of fruition. You are exactly right about Kylo Ren, needed him being like some cartoon one dimensional villain like Darth Vader and not taking his helmet off because apparently the same as A New Hope.

Not surprisingly the same director is directing, and wait for it.. Annabelle 2.

I'm at the point where people complaining about The Force Awakens is just tiresome. Yes, it follows the same plot points as A New Hope. No, the characters are not the same. Yes, there's a reason Kylo is a whiny ineffective dick, and you'd realize it if you actually thought about. Yes, there's a lot of coincidence and happenstance and blah blah blah...just like the original trilogy.

I saw the movie twice in theaters and I thought it was great. It doesn't have the raw thrill of seeing the original trilogy for the first time, but that's hardly an indictment of TFA so much as it is of having too much rose-colored nostalgia for the originals. TFA is a good movie and the new characters make it worth seeing. I have a lot of hope for Rogue One and Episode VIII, which I wouldn't have said before seeing TFA.

also the same director as the conjuring and the conjuring 2 and those are 2 movies i enjoy

demolition (2015). this one's about jake gyllenhaal spending time writing letters about his dead wife. and a vending machine. he also breaks a lot of stuff. i liked it enough.
7

popstar. i love the lonely island, and that's why i love this mockumentary. stupid and intelligent humor (in form of satire, dominantly) combined.
7

whiskey tango foxtrot. how come there are no fun movies about afghanistan from american perspective? well, here's one, starring tina fey. it's not a comedy, though.
7

The Shallows is getting decent reviews. About time the world had a good shark movie again.

actually my bad James Wan is just a producer not the director but it still looks a lot like both movies to me

Yeah, a new Star Wars movie every year! What a time to be alive.

Actually he knew that he was starting to have... "feelings" of remorse and regret, which is why he offed his dad at the end and thanked him for it, so he no longer had any emotional ties. It was all cleverly done IMO.

.

And it all ties back to that thing I said not long ago about generational differences and how millenials seem to idealize certain figures from the past without actually knowing much about them. Almost like that's a regular theme throughout a movie where discovering the truth behind a mythology is one of the driving plot points.

I don't have an issue with his character, that's not what I was trying to say. I think a villain who sucks at being a villain is a cool and rarely used (outside of comedy) cinema archetype. I just think the casting failed on the character, the guy doesn't look fitting for the role for starters, and what the fuck is that "acting" he does? He doesn't actually deliver any of his lines, he looks like a contestant in a quiz show trying to think of the right answer.

I think it worked, actually. His acting style is very "indie" or "mumblecore," quite neurotic, and the character is one of completely unstable and mixed emotions that's trying to fulfill a role he knows he never truly can. What better way to act it out than by delivering your lines with caution and forced bravado?

I didn't mind the actor that much. I think we are only just beginning to see the depths of his character. Episode VII served sort of as a nostalgia piece and also as a launching pad for the new series and for good or bad that impacted the writing in its own way. The director of the next film is really, really great. He did Looper which I thought was pretty outstanding, and because of that film I believe this second one will be way out there plot-wise. Perhaps your complaints about Adam Driver's acting will be remedied, perhaps not. I do for one believe his character will take an even darker turn and possibly show more behind the man who is Kylo/Ben. For me though, I think he played him rather well in TFA and I really bought into his character, I felt he was very much a conflicted person who is in the pursuit of identity and greatness, but isn't 100% sold into the idea of becoming the man he needs to be to achieve that. He's clearly being manipulated by Snoke and has been for a long time. I look forward to what happens next at any rate.

Battle Beyond The Stars. Kind of drags but enough PEW! PEW! BOOM! to keep me watching. Not bad not great. I would watch it again...maybe?

That movie fucking rules. Seven Samurai gone trash sci-fi, campier than Adam West Batman, what's not to love? I love that you can easily see how they blew all their budget on their two star actors and see the movie running out of it in all the other places.

Reminds me of Battlefield Earth, lol.

After watching the 3 hour version of Dune no movie can possibly drag.

Lights Out looks really good. I liked The Conjuring 2 so that one seems up my alley.


It seemed like it was marketed as a comedy.

Lights Out looks really gimmicky, but at least it looks leagues better than Darkness Falls.

it was, but a comedy it is not. a war dramedy, at best.

You can tell the difference between them, then?

One's not about the Tooth Fairy.

Pasting my thoughts on The Shallows from a Facebook movie discussion group I'm in:

"The Shallows" is probably one of the better popcorn thrillers I've seen in the last few years. It doesn't skimp on the jump scares, and packs in some of the goriest scenes I've seen squeak by in a PG-13 movie since the late '90s. Blake Lively manages to engage with the audience very well, something hard to accomplish when carrying most of the film with no other humans on screen. The practical make-up effects are outstanding, and while never perfect, the CGI shark is fairly life-like and menacing. And while the story doesn't stand out much in any way (you can see things coming a mile away), the rest of the film manages to compensate enough that you can overlook how shallow it is (pun fully intended).

If I had to select the one flaw that keeps The Shallows down, it's that the movie knows its intended "teenage boy" demographic very well. The Shallows makes sure to peddle scares and blood almost as much as it peddles close-up, slow-motion shots of Blake Lively's breasts and ass bouncing, heaving and glistening in conveniently-too-tight swim wear. And I mean this in a literal sense; virtually every shot featuring Lively, even during scenes showing her in great peril or excruciating pain, is conveniently angled to include all of her curves and contours, and it became distracting enough that it started to remove me from the narrative the farther into the run-time we got. And with the movie clocking in at a rushed 87 minutes, I feel like too much time was squandered showcasing Lively's metabolism and work-out regiment as opposed to the script or her acting chops.

Overall, 7/10. The script is fairly by-the-numbers, and sacrifices substance for titillation, but quality production and a solid performance by Blake Lively manage to hook you in, with just enough gore and shark scares to keep you engaged until the credits roll. It never takes itself too seriously, and and I suppose neither should we.

I re-watched Dick Tracy for the first time in forever and man, that movie is way better than I thought it would be based on nostalgia often turning out to be wrong. Really great use of color and set design, cool camera work, great comic strip action scenes, solid casting and performances all around. I love Dustin Hoffman as a super minor character with basically a single actual line, ultra manic Al Pacino as Big Boy, and smokin' hot Madonna as Breathless Mahoney. Not to mention Dick Van Dyke as the D.A. and The Big Lebowski as the chief of police! Super fun movie.

Just got back from seeing Independence Day: Resurgence. I don't know why it's getting so much hate. People are impossible to please. It's just a fun movie, like the first one was. There are some cool concepts, awesome weapons, and enjoyable performances. Also, it, ah, has Jeff Goldblum.

Jeff Goldblum playing Jeff Goldblum. He's an okay/serviceable actor but I don't see any range with him, well at least the majority of mainstream roles he chooses.

Have any of you watched him in interviews? He's always touchy feely, and not in a casual friendly way but more just unashamedly weird and doing it to cop a feel, and stuttering and loving the sound of his own voice while he uses very descriptive adjectives that belong in a novel than a normal discussion.

Part of me thinks he's like Gary Busey and leaves his front door open and casually waits for intruders so he can whip up a 5 star omelette with Chardonnay, while the other part thinks he watches videos of himself riding a refurbished mountain bike to The Proclaimers.

I thought it was a fun movie, too. It wasn't perfect but it pretty much delivered exactly what I thought it would. Jeff Goldblum really needs more roles because his acting style and voice are unique.

Yeah man, I love Jeff Goldblum. He's fun to watch. I was never expecting a sequel to the first Independence Day, but this one delivered the goods. I enjoyed it, and I wouldn't mind seeing it a second and third time.

Why the shit would anyone want range out of Jeff Goldblum? He's fucking awesome at being Jeff Goldblum. About to go check out the new Independence Day myself.

Well apparently I missed the memo where it's cool to like Jeff Goldblum because he plays the same character despite an obscene amount of difference between his memorable funny role in Jurassic Park and virtually everything else. I better go worship latter-day paycheck-driven John Cusack, John Travolta and Bruce Willis now, their straight-to-DVD movies are fucking awesome.

i like jeff as well. like him in the i-don't-hate-you way

for me, his most-memorable performance was in mr frost (1990). not a great movie, but jeff was great in it, playing the villain.

criminal (2016). a steaming pile of shit. whoever wrote this movie should be hanged. it had a few funny violent scenes and that's it.
5

mr brooks. a fine movie about a homicidal businessman, starring kevin costner. i especially liked the dream sequence in this one.
7

Well it all boils down to whether you are attracted to the particular charisma of one-character actors like that. I find Goldblum immensely enjoyable but have literally never liked Cusack at all. Bruce Willis is great, too, and instantly elevates whatever's going on around him if you ask me.

Independence Day: Re-Two Once again or whatever it's called was pretty good. It misses some of the charm of simply being a new thing (i.e. huge budget alien invasion/disaster movie) that the original had, and Will Smith's absence is lamentable, especially since he was effectively replaced by about ten different dull characters. The action was neat, though, and the disaster movie elements were the most ludicrously over-the-top I've ever seen.

Just saw a Chinese leak/high quality version of Warcraft and I must say it was a somewhat enjoyable movie despite being obviously a bad one.

The plus:
-What from what I know of the WOW series, the universe has been respected.
-I thought the Orcs were very well done
-Magic was over the top and cheesy as it should be in this sort of high fantasy movie.
-Acting was correct with Troy Sanders from Vikings and Dominic Moore
-Costumes were cool.

The minus:
-The pacing was super lame, it felt like 3 hours and not 2.
-The story was sort of lame and generic. I guess it was adapted from one of the storylines in the game? Ehhh
-Just not quite "fun" enough to be good?

5.5/10

Best thing about the original Independence Day was Brent Spiner as the long haired scientist guy. I don't know if he's in the new one. Probably not. Will Smith not being in it is by no means a bad thing.