NOW CLOSED ; List some movies you've watched recently. Theatre, rental, TV... and give a */10

[Don Vito Corleone]

I find that with most Will Farrell movies it takes me 2-3 times to really find them funny. 1st time is usually "This is the dumbest thing ever". 2nd time starts to make me chuckle. The third time it's like I'm expecting the jokes and laughing hysterically.

Adam Sandlers earlier comedies were similar to me. I hated Anchorman the first time I saw it, but it grew on me after a couple more viewings.

I feel like my preferences in Will Ferrell movies are different from most. He is a great talent and every movie seems to have a belly laugh, but personally I absolutely loved Blades of Glory (which was not particularly successful by his standards), actively disliked Talladega Nights (which was), and was lukewarm on Anchorman. I didn't crack a smile in Anchorman until the jazz flute scene, which was probably half an hour in. I did laugh hard at that scene and a few others in the movie, but I don't think it merits the reverence some people have for it.

 

[Muse]

Enter the Dragon (Bruce Lee, 1973) 7/10

Watched a few nights ago. Now, most of this is very forgettable. Except the scene with the mirrored chamber, that's unforgettable. I wasn't at all sure I'd seen it before until I got to that scene, then I was certain. The performances, mostly really hack. John Saxon, he was OK. The guy cast as Han, the mega-villain, was IMO totally unsuited to the role. Miscast, absolutely. Well, it was 1973. The costumes (clothes), the hair styles, the script and acting were often ridiculous, but it was 1973, so.... One thing made this movie, and one thing only and that was Bruce Lee. It's really a vehicle for him and his acting was fantastic, uniformly. He was the ultimate Asian martial artist, at least in the movies, and unsurpassed. Has anyone come close? I kind of doubt it.

Trouble with the Curve 7/10

Relatively predictable (embarrassingly so), but it held my interest anyway. Hollywood, although anything with Eastwood is kind of alternative, I guess.

 

[JamesV]

Elysium 9.6/10

Sci-fi usually sucks, with a handful of good movies a year. These will all be somewhat familiar, with zero real 'messages' behind them.

District 9 and now Elysium however, put sci-fi into the context of large issues we deal with; class distinctions and real issues that are developing. The rich not only can claim their financial status as a reason to get them off of a manslaughter charge, is it too fantastic to believe our future will consist of the rich having near-magical medical devices unavailable to the 'rest' of us?

And if your daughter needed one of those devices; might you become a 'terrorist' to get her to one?

Utterly fantastic. Didn't love it all, but loved it overall.

 

[zinfamous]

4/10 Only God Forgives

just couldn't get into it, dark film.

Oh, it's a rough one. Loved it...not sure why, and I am getting sick of the brooding Refn/Gosling joints (seriously--it is every fucking move they make), but there was something about this where I couldn't turn away.

still, a 7/10 for me. Brilliant visually. well-paced. very sparse with dialogue, so it was image driven, which is right in my wheelhouse.

 

[zinfamous]

Out of the Furnace -- 7/10: Woody Harrelson was made for these roles. Christian Bale and even Casey Affleck served admirably, supported by an absolutely great secondary cast featuring Willem Dafoe, Sam Shepard, Forest Whittaker and Zoe Saldana (yum!)

Gritty. Unlovely, unsentimental, ugly, unsettling, non-Stooper Hero violence and hurt. No highly polished turds of exquisitely choreographed bullshit are served up, no cartoon clips masquerading as high art. Nobody flies in this one.

Someone would grab their hunting rifle from their pickup and just blast the shit out of Bruce Lee if he showed up here and went into his stupid stance of would be dominance.

Robert Downey Jr. and Johnny Depp, fine actors currently fronting feature length cartoons, are nowhere to be found in this shabby mill town.

Smug, shallow, Hollywood hipster ironic detachment banned by town ordinance. Death is real, and not particularly noble. The good guy doesn't get the girl. Deal with it.

Not a home run, but not bad at all. You got a problem with that?

Cool, was just looking at this one for the weekend. Though I am still behind on a few others. I really wish Her and Inside Llewyn Davis would freaking open here.

KT

wow--now I really want to see this.


going to see Llwyeyen Lweeyen Lewlelen .....inside the folk singer guy this Saturday! :awe:

 

[JamesV]

I feel like my preferences in Will Ferrell movies are different from most. He is a great talent and every movie seems to have a belly laugh, but personally I absolutely loved Blades of Glory (which was not particularly successful by his standards), actively disliked Talladega Nights (which was), and was lukewarm on Anchorman. I didn't crack a smile in Anchorman until the jazz flute scene, which was probably half an hour in. I did laugh hard at that scene and a few others in the movie, but I don't think it merits the reverence some people have for it.

I feel like Will Ferrell was a lucky guy that got big over his hype and not his talents.

Elf was great. A silly comedy perfectly suited to a SNL member. But then all of a sudden he was a great comedy actor somehow. Everything including Anchorman afterwards are comedy turds. Stranger than fiction had potential he couldn't fill the shoes of (even a dramatic actor like Tom Hanks would have made that movie better). Anchorman was just silly, promoted mostly by the corporate hype, and not the viewer hype.

He is like Adam Sandler's friends. Good enough to put in movies for minor bit parts where their ineptitude works in their favor to make their roles plausible. But he is no Sandler, Carey, or Belushi. Hell, I wouldn't even say is the quality of a Chuck Norris value of actor.

Just don't get any love for him.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I feel like Will Ferrell was a lucky guy that got big over his hype and not his talents.

Elf was great. A silly comedy perfectly suited to a SNL member. But then all of a sudden he was a great comedy actor somehow. Everything including Anchorman afterwards are comedy turds. Stranger than fiction had potential he couldn't fill the shoes of (even a dramatic actor like Tom Hanks would have made that movie better). Anchorman was just silly, promoted mostly by the corporate hype, and not the viewer hype.

He is like Adam Sandler's friends. Good enough to put in movies for minor bit parts where their ineptitude works in their favor to make their roles plausible. But he is no Sandler, Carey, or Belushi. Hell, I wouldn't even say is the quality of a Chuck Norris value of actor.

Just don't get any love for him.

I can understand this sentiment but don't agree with it at all. To me Will Ferrell just has that "it" quality - somehow he is just intrinsically funny. He was great on SNL and I really do laugh hard at something in every one of his projects. I think Blades of Glory and The Other Guys are likely my favorites of his movies, but I always laugh at something. Adam Sandler, on the other hand, does nothing for me - I have hated pretty much every film I've seen him in (though I liked him on SNL and particularly on Remote Control, 20+ years ago). I do really like Punch Drunk Love, but that is really better understood as a Paul Thomas Anderson film than a Sandler one.

 

[slayer202]

Spoiler

I can't stand Ferrell anymore. Anchorman 2 looks so terrible

KT, not for your eyes

 

[Xonim]

Spoiler

I can't stand Ferrell anymore. Anchorman 2 looks so terrible

KT, not for your eyes

Agree 100%. Except I never could stand him.

Spoiler

The only thing less funny than Will Ferrell is Napoleon Dynamite.

Anyway........

Don Jon (2013) -- 6.5-7/10
Immediately after watching it, I probably would have given it 8.5 or so. Having a few hours to think about it, I have some problems with it.

The super fast cuts / image flashes were far too numerous. Once or twice? Ok. But that many times? I have a problem with it. I did find the repeated visits to the church funny. And the road rage. And the singing in the car.

Re: the scene where

Spoiler

Scarlett Johannson and JGL are in the store, and he's talking about going to go get swiffer pads, and then she goes all rage mode -- I don't understand the purpose of this scene except to show that she's a total bitch and she wants to just control him. Then that was mentioned later in the movie anyway.

I don't get it.

At ~90 minutes long, I felt the last 30 minutes or so of the movie was rushed. It seemed to end rather abruptly -- my wife felt the same way about it. I'm not really sure what else I was looking for, but it almost felt ... incomplete? That's not the right word ... but close enough.

JGL's short friend from the clubs reminded me of a skinnier Turtle from Entourage. Couldn't separate them.

 

[Perknose]

Will Ferrell did great physical comedy on SNL, and I actually really liked him in some film where he had a non-comedic role (can't remember the name of it.) But his films? ALL of his other films? They blow. He reminds me of that guy in your office who isn't really funny at all, but thinks he is, or that he should be, so he tries too hard at every opportunity until he becomes uber annoying.

Adam Sandler also parlayed some good turns on SNL into a film career, but he's worse than Will Ferrell, which should be punishable by death. Not only isn't he funny or clever, but many of his roles are ridiculously mawkish and faux sentimental -- all Adam Sandler's hero ego topped off by a big smear of, "STFU already, you talentless douchebag."

 

[Dirigible]

Will Ferrell did great physical comedy on SNL, and I actually really liked him in some film where he had a non-comedic role (can't remember the name of it.) But his films? ALL of his other films? They blow. He reminds me of that guy in your office who isn't really funny at all, but thinks he is, or that he should be, so he tries too hard at every opportunity until he becomes uber annoying.

Adam Sandler also parlayed some good turns on SNL into a film career, but he's worse than Will Ferrell, which should be punishable by death. Not only isn't he funny or clever, but many of his roles are ridiculously mawkish and faux sentimental -- all Adam Sandler's hero ego topped off by a big smear of, "STFU already, you talentless douchebag."

NOPE!

Elf is awesome. Your argument is invalid.

 

[iRONic]

Will Ferrell did great physical comedy on SNL, and I actually really liked him in some film where he had a non-comedic role (can't remember the name of it.) But his films? ALL of his other films? They blow. He reminds me of that guy in your office who isn't really funny at all, but thinks he is, or that he should be, so he tries too hard at every opportunity until he becomes uber annoying.

 

[KeithTalent]

Elf is indeed awesome.

KT

 

[purbeast0]

elf is definitely my favorite will ferrel movie.

 

[Xonim]

elf is definitely my favorite will ferrel movie.

The standard def version is free on the Google Play store today.

 

[Perknose]

NOPE!

Elf is awesome. Your argument is invalid.

Well, I admit, I haven't seen Elf. Is it perhaps a documentary about the former French oil company Elf Aquitaine?

I'm a big fan of energy infrastructure documentaries that hold out even the slimmest chance of a gratuitously interspersed clip of a young Brigitte Bardot wearing nothing but a glistening mantle of Arabian light crude.

It makes my derrick pump!

 

[purbeast0]

The standard def version is free on the Google Play store today.

lol standard def.

 

[zinfamous]

Will Ferrell did great physical comedy on SNL, and I actually really liked him in some film where he had a non-comedic role (can't remember the name of it.) But his films? ALL of his other films? They blow. He reminds me of that guy in your office who isn't really funny at all, but thinks he is, or that he should be, so he tries too hard at every opportunity until he becomes uber annoying.

Adam Sandler also parlayed some good turns on SNL into a film career, but he's worse than Will Ferrell, which should be punishable by death. Not only isn't he funny or clever, but many of his roles are ridiculously mawkish and faux sentimental -- all Adam Sandler's hero ego topped off by a big smear of, "STFU already, you talentless douchebag."

Where he's the drunk guy camping out on his ex-wife's lawn? There was also this rather decent flick where he was living within some book that someone was writing. Or something like that.

I think a few of his movies--Anchorman, especially, are pure gold. He was great in Zoolander, and much of his SNL stuff was amazing.

Sandler was good in Billy Maddison and Happy Gilmore, but to me, that type of humor doesn't really fly these days. His best performance was in Punch Drunk Love, but Sandler just annoys the piss out of me on a general basis.

 

[KeithTalent]

I assume Perk is talking about Stranger Than Fiction. That was a good movie.

KT

 

[CZroe]

lol standard def.

Perfectly fine for smartphones.

 

[Printer Bandit]

don jon = characters from jersey shore.

scar jo was a bitch. hate everything about her.

 

[Perknose]

NOPE!

Elf is awesome. Your argument is invalid.

Ok, ok, thanks to the Google freebie, I just started to watch Elf. So far, it's not at all awful. Plus, major points for having Leon Redbone play the worldy snowman Leon.

 

[shortylickens]

Will Ferrel cant lead. He's fine as a supporting member, like in Drowning Mona.
Ditto Ben Stiller. Cant lead, only support.

Except for Keeping the Faith, which really wasnt a Ben Stiller movie.

 

[vi edit]

Saw Anchorman 2 last night. Definitely had some great parts. And some not so great parts. Needed to be 30 minutes shorter for sure. That's a plague that has afflicted Hollywood. I don't need my comedies and action movies to be 120 minutes long. I just don't. Condense the content and stick with the laughs and action. Don't unnecessarily draw it out.

Anchorman 2 is much like the first. If you don't like Will Ferrell you won't like this. End of discussion. The "fight" at the end was worth the price of admission alone. So much laughing. I was with a group of 10 people, we had had several drinks before going in, and we were easily one of the louder crowds in the theatre. We hit an 8:40 show on a Friday night and the theatre was about 1/3 full. Granted it was on three screens...but it's not a great sign for the box office numbers.

I enjoyed it, but wouldn't go out of my way to see it at theatre prices. Went with a big group and had fun though. If you are on the fence, wait for home/redbox release.

 

[purbeast0]

elysium - 9/10 - just really enjoyed it and it was non-stop.

2 guns - 5/10 - cash grab where denzel plays denzel and it was just a bad plot. had some humor.

we are the millers - 10/10 - thought the movie was simply hilarious. the outtakes at the end are great too so be sure to stay for those.