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

[Ichinisan]

Never saw Gravity in theaters, but I couldn't even finish it at home, gave up maybe half way in. Hell, I own Children of Men, so I was going in plenty willing to give the movie a fair shot. That said, I don't see the theater experience improving anything much, I saw Avatar in a 3D theater and that experience didn't even come close to saving that mess.

To each their own obviously, don't mind that people enjoyed it, but I certainly don't think it deserved best directing or cinematography.

Hated Avatar 3D. Had a blast with Gravity IMAX 3D. That said, the acting always made me cringe because it was so bad in some parts.

 

[zinfamous]

Oh God, that documentary pissed me off. Also, this short video helps put things into perspective.

PG-13 is supposed to be pushing the envelope of PG, not pulling R backwards.

PG-13 also used to be guaranteed boobs in the 1980s--and the best kind of boobs: completely pointless boobs for no other reason than to just show boobs.

It was a great time to grow up.

 

[slayer202]

channeling pontifex, if I may...

interstellar - 6.8/10 - good but not good

 

[KeithTalent]

Hated Avatar 3D. Had a blast with Gravity IMAX 3D. That said, the acting always made me cringe because it was so bad in some parts.

Agreed on all counts, though I put it more on the writing than the acting.

PG-13 also used to be guaranteed boobs in the 1980s--and the best kind of boobs: completely pointless boobs for no other reason than to just show boobs.

It was a great time to grow up.

Indeed. That documentary was annoyingly good too.

channeling pontifex, if I may...

interstellar - 6.8/10 - good but not good

Hmm, interesting. Surprisingly only at 75% on RT as well. Trying to decide between this and Birdman for Saturday. :hmm: Did you see it in IMAX? Did it at least look great?

KT

 

[slayer202]

Going to letterboxd in a few, but yeah I saw it in IMAX. It definitely adds to the experience, but probably no more than any other action film in IMAX. The visuals honestly weren't that impressive. They were fine, and there were a couple really nice scenes, but it wasn't too flashy overall.

 

[rh71]

The 100 - 8/10. It's been a while since I've found a tv series on Netflix to get me hooked for many nights in a row until I found this through the popular list. There have been many shows like this (such as The 4400), but this moves at a good pace and the characters are interesting (though a bit much with the love storylines - but it is a CW show). Pretty decent acting by Abercrombie and Fitch models. Not going to say too much more about it since I haven't gotten too far in and it's only in its 2nd season on air. Glad they put this on Netflix.

 

[Ns1]

channeling pontifex, if I may...

interstellar - 6.8/10 - good but not good

seems consistent with reviews so far.

 

[KeithTalent]

Going to letterboxd in a few, but yeah I saw it in IMAX. It definitely adds to the experience, but probably no more than any other action film in IMAX. The visuals honestly weren't that impressive. They were fine, and there were a couple really nice scenes, but it wasn't too flashy overall.

I'll give it a shot. Been a while since I last saw something in IMAX. Expectations sufficiently tempered though.

KT

 

[Ns1]

I'll give it a shot. Been a while since I last saw something in IMAX. Expectations sufficiently tempered though.

KT

srsly =X

Guess we're in for more "Gravity" than "Inception"

 

[slayer202]

It's a bit of a mixture of the two

 

[StarTech15]

Killing them sofly - 1/10 - boring!!!! didn't even finish it.

Agreed. Killing them softly was a bore even though the material was pretty captivating and all the actors were great. It was too slow, and too heavy handed about its anti-capitalism message. When movies widen their lens too much to try to be "about" something, they wind up hard to relate to. Movies that focus in on people end up being universal because we can relate to the characters.

 

[StarTech15]

Hell, I own Children of Men, so I was going in plenty willing to give the movie a fair shot.

Children of Men. What a truly great film.

Gravity was about pushing cinema to the next level with technology. They invented the technology the film was shot with. So the story was meh, but the visuals were WHOA! Overall a phenomenal thrill ride that makes you feel like you're stuck out in space (in 3D).

God I hated how inspirational the ending (and Bullock) tried to be.

 

[StarTech15]

IIRC, they were all for the technical aspects of the film, which doesn't make it a good film.

Gotta disagree here. Gravity is one of the most thrilling movies of all time. The visuals and sound on the big screen floor you. The long shot where Sandra Bullock is spinning into blackness and the camera somehow goes inside her helmet to show you what she's seeing?! That kind of experience is enough to make it an outstanding film despite the flat characters. You gotta rate movies within the genre they belong to, and whether they accomplish what they set out to do: A thrilling 3D experience about survival in space.

 

[Thebobo]

Rounders - seen it before but forgot it. was ok 7

 

[Thebobo]

Gotta disagree here. Gravity is one of the most thrilling movies of all time. The visuals and sound on the big screen floor you. The long shot where Sandra Bullock is spinning into blackness and the camera somehow goes inside her helmet to show you what she's seeing?! That kind of experience is enough to make it an outstanding film despite the flat characters. You gotta rate movies within the genre they belong to, and whether they accomplish what they set out to do: A thrilling 3D experience about survival in space.

What I didn't like about gravity

The physics - the arm scene where all he had to was pull him self closer I was screaming the whole time.

Sound as you say??? There is no sound.

The man announcing the russian spaceships coming is totally hoaky crap.

The lackadaisies way they are flying around the shuttle. NASA would of had a program - fly here fly there/

In the theaters large screen with 3d and on Acid it might of been ok.

 

[CZroe]

What I didn't like about gravity

The physics - the arm scene where all he had to was pull him self closer I was screaming the whole time.

Sound as you say??? There is no sound.

The man announcing the russian spaceships coming is totally hoaky crap.

The lackadaisies way they are flying around the shuttle. NASA would of had a program - fly here fly there/

In the theaters large screen with 3d and on Acid it might of been ok.

Hard to tell if you were complaining about sound, but they were very careful not to play sounds where there shouldn't be. The score made up for it perfectly. Every place where you are expecting a misplaced explosion sound effect is a satisfying tense shift in score. It's enough to convince you that there were inappropriate sounds where there were not.

They explained the pointless flying but you weren't listening: it's a prototype and he was specifically instructed to put it through it's paces for extreme range and maneuverability testing. They explained that he was really out there for that particular reason and yet you missed (dismissed?) it. NASA would HAVE to test it, you know? (have != "of")

 

[Ichinisan]

What I didn't like about gravity

The physics - the arm scene where all he had to was pull him self closer I was screaming the whole time.

Sound as you say??? There is no sound.

The man announcing the russian spaceships coming is totally hoaky crap.

The lackadaisies way they are flying around the shuttle. NASA would of had a program - fly here fly there/

In the theaters large screen with 3d and on Acid it might of been ok.

Have. Might HAVE.

Anyway, he made it clear why he was flying around. They were trying to test the performance limitations of an experimental new jet pack device.

The man announcing is Ed Harris. Did you criticize him in the other great space-themed movies he was in? Apollo 13. The Right Stuff. I think they did the sound exactly right. Only as the astronauts would have heard / felt. Only when there's air pressure or they're touching something that conducts vibrations. Notice the "man down!" scene early on? Notice the the debris storm when she was trying to free the tangled craft? No sound. Intense musical score. Exactly as it should be.

 

[StarTech15]

What I didn't like about gravity

The physics - the arm scene where all he had to was pull him self closer I was screaming the whole time.

Sound as you say??? There is no sound.

The man announcing the russian spaceships coming is totally hoaky crap.

The lackadaisies way they are flying around the shuttle. NASA would of had a program - fly here fly there/

In the theaters large screen with 3d and on Acid it might of been ok.

Other posters explained why the sound was actually exceptional.

All I can say is you can't please all the people all the time.

 

[Muse]

Never saw Gravity in theaters, but I couldn't even finish it at home, gave up maybe half way in. Hell, I own Children of Men, so I was going in plenty willing to give the movie a fair shot. That said, I don't see the theater experience improving anything much, I saw Avatar in a 3D theater and that experience didn't even come close to saving that mess.

To each their own obviously, don't mind that people enjoyed it, but I certainly don't think it deserved best directing or cinematography.

I thought Gravity was kind of meh. Saw at home with my HD projection system from DVD. Amazing that it cost more to make this fictional space movie than it cost India to send that mission to Mars.

My take just after seeing it:

It's innovative and makes you wonder how they did it. The characters, OK but one dimensional and there was nothing in terms of development and there were only two characters, not counting the Shariff guy who you knew nothing about and the voice Houston. I thought several times that they took far too much in the way of liberties with the science, especially for a movie whose underpinnings seemed to be verisimilitude. I may have been wrong on some of that, haven't researched it.

Spoiler

Oh, and landing 200 yards from shore, well, how likely is that? I guess they were just hoping that at that point in time you were so identified with the main character that you wouldn't give a damn about such things. I think their ace in the hole was trying to get you to imagine what it's like to take that first step after weeks of weightlessness.

 

[clamum]

The November Man - 7.5/10

I liked this quite a bit; Pierce Brosnan rocked it even though he's getting older. Fairly predictable story but I thought it was a solid action movie.

 

[StarTech15]

I thought several times that they took far too much in the way of liberties with the science, especially for a movie whose underpinnings seemed to be verisimilitude.

On this point, I think a movie that makes realism its top priority ends up coming up short on what matters. So Gravity is realistic enough that you feel the gravity of the characters' fight for survival in the most inhospitable place, but you don't get too lost in realistic details that don't do much for the experience except ensure that the one-off meticulous viewer isn't distracted by inaccuracies. That said, as far as realism goes, they did a pretty good job.

I think Gravity's true faults are in the other flaws you pointed out: Flat characters, shallow story. Maybe the director shouldn't have written it with his son; given it to a more experienced writer. But that said, how could they improve upon those things and still have an action movie about a space disaster happening over the course of an hour or so???

Oh and I think it really has to be seen in 3D at a movie theater. It seems made for that kind of viewing experience.

 

[KeithTalent]

Meh, I just thought Gravity was a special effects action thriller. In a genre pic like that, I am not expect 100% scientific accuracy, I am looking for cool things to look at which, for me anyway, Gravity had in spades. Also, the sound design was fucking amazing.

KT

 

[Ns1]

Meh, I just thought Gravity was a special effects action thriller. In a genre pic like that, I am not expect 100% scientific accuracy, I am looking for cool things to look at which, for me anyway, Gravity had in spades. Also, the sound design was fucking amazing.

KT

+1

didn't notice the story cuz I was too busy wondering "htf did he do this shot?"

 

[StarTech15]

Meh, I just thought Gravity was a special effects action thriller. In a genre pic like that, I am not expect 100% scientific accuracy, I am looking for cool things to look at which, for me anyway, Gravity had in spades. Also, the sound design was fucking amazing.

KT

1+

 

[MustISO]

Saw Delivery Man last night.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2387559/
6 / 10

Easy to watch, moved along nicely, a few laughs.