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

Page 296 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Status
Not open for further replies.

motsm

Golden Member
Jan 20, 2010
1,822
2
76
Blue Ruin - 7.0/10

A basic revenge flick on it's surface, but with some key differences in the pacing and antagonist. More specifically, the movie prefers tension over action, and the hero is just a normal guy, no mysterious military background that seems to be a cliche in these movies. It's a good looking movie, and it succeeds on it's premise; it's also on Netflix at the moment for anyone interested.

the English Patient - ??/10

Seemed to be a very good movie, but I guess it just wasn't my thing. I wouldn't feel right giving it a low score though, as it has interesting enough characters and beautiful cinematography, I suppose the plot just never clicked with me enough for it's 162 minute run time. I did watch the entire thing, but wouldn't have minded it being a bit shorter.
 

ControlD

Diamond Member
Apr 25, 2005
5,440
44
91
I won't because it's awesome for what it is. The Blu-ray showed up at my house yesterday and I can't wait to re-watch the film over the holidays.

KT

Agreed.

And for the record, liking a movie doesn't make one an apologist. It just means that person likes the movie.
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
79
86
Ink Master - 1/10 if you ever want to get a tattoo. Caught up on this season (GF recorded last season and this one had been auto recording, so we watched a few) and wowzers! there are some janky ass tattoos being put out by "professionals". I wonder if it is like this every season? I only saw the last few episodes last season and the quality of work was much better, but they were close to the end of the competition. Could it be they bring in people who are just terrible on purpose?
 

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
I won't because it's awesome for what it is. The Blu-ray showed up at my house yesterday and I can't wait to re-watch the film over the holidays.

KT

It's just...so...bad. Seems like a style-over-substance kid straight out of school made that crap.

The ending doesn't even start to make sense. They act like the polar bear at the end had some significance. Something like: An animal is alive outside. That means humans can survive too. So the movie lies to you and says that all life on Earth is dead, except for life on the train. SPOILER! We tell you one thing and then show you that we lied to you. OMG TWIST! OK. So a polar bear is alive. There's no indication that conditions are any more hospitable to humans now than conditions when the rest of humanity was killed off. What does the polar eat? Why is the bear near these mountain peaks? Even before the cataclysm, there was no polar bear food to be found (Seals? Penguins? Fish?) near mountain peaks. Are people going to eat the polar bear? Is that sustainable? Why did the rebels destroy the train if there's no fucking plan?

Just awful. I felt the same way about In Time. Also, to a lesser degree, Looper and District 9. I'm not talking about cinematography and general film-making competence. I'm talking about story crafting and writing. These are all fucking terrible.
 

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
I only saw the first Hunger Games and thought it was complete shit, not necessarily because it was using things from other films, which it most obviously did, but because it was poorly written, acted, and directed. If you want to hate films which borrow things stuff from other films, then you are going to end up hating like 90% of all movies.

Sure, some films do it more elegantly than others, but that is what genre pics do; they do things that are indicative of the genre and just place them in a, hopefully, new and interesting world. That is why horror movies are horror movies; 95% have many of the same things happening in them, it's just how they are presented and what other elements are brought to the table.

KT

I agree 100%. That same description applies doubly to Snowpiercer.
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,679
119
106
poorly acted and directed?

the story is kinda dumb, but it's a dumb action thriller.

hunger games acts like it's something more
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
79
86
My biggest problem with The Hunger Games is the entire premise of the Hunger games is completely idiotic. And, with how the districts were constructed, the idea of firebombing and wiping out one makes zero sense. They were structured where individual districts produced a resource of everyone else (like a coal mining district). Completely destroying this district ruins all of that resource production and endangers the entire society. No competent tyrant would do that. Plus, the whole oppression by force is entirely not interesting. 1984 isn't as scary as Brave New World.

And, they wasted an entire movie setting up a sequel, and from what I've heard, the book does the exact same thing.
 

KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
Administrator
Nov 30, 2005
50,231
117
116
I agree 100%. That same description applies doubly to Snowpiercer.

Again, disagree. Hunger Games was trying to be incredibly earnest with what it was doing and failed miserably, not to mention it looked like shit. Snowpiercer was an absurdest action sci-fi black comedy (with heavy nods to Brazil in parts) and pulled that off extremely well. The acting was also very good for the most part; Tilda Swinton was freaking awesome.

This conversation caused me to go and rank my favourite films of the year so far and Snowpiercer cam in at #12! :D

poorly acted and directed?

the story is kinda dumb, but it's a dumb action thriller.

hunger games acts like it's something more

Agreed.

My biggest problem with The Hunger Games is the entire premise of the Hunger games is completely idiotic. And, with how the districts were constructed, the idea of firebombing and wiping out one makes zero sense. They were structured where individual districts produced a resource of everyone else (like a coal mining district). Completely destroying this district ruins all of that resource production and endangers the entire society. No competent tyrant would do that. Plus, the whole oppression by force is entirely not interesting. 1984 isn't as scary as Brave New World.

And, they wasted an entire movie setting up a sequel, and from what I've heard, the book does the exact same thing.


I have no problem with the premise. I enjoy lots of movies with ridiculous overall ideas, to me it's about how you execute them. The Hunger Games executed their premise terribly, Snowpiercer, which also had a ridiculous premise, did not.

KT
 
Last edited:

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
... Tilda Swinton was freaking awesome.
Her character was one of the worst things about the movie, IMO.




I have no problem with the premise. I enjoy lots of movies with ridiculous overall ideas, to me it's about how you execute them.
Agree. I thought the premise was interesting. No problems with that.

The Hunger Games executed their premise terribly,
Agreed.

Snowpiercer, which also had a ridiculous premise, did not.
Disagree. Though I didn't like either of those movies, Snowpiercer was worse by far, in my opinion.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
I really liked Snowpiercer. I only so so liked Hunger Games 1 -- because it FELT like a book that was missing a ton of internal dialogue and character development. There were no reasons given for the characters actions beyond the overall plot so their actions towards each other made no sense.

That being said, I thought Hunger Games 2 was a much better film..
 

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
857
126
I really liked Snowpiercer. I only so so liked Hunger Games 1 -- because it FELT like a book that was missing a ton of internal dialogue and character development. There were no reasons given for the characters actions beyond the overall plot so their actions towards each other made no sense.

That being said, I thought Hunger Games 2 was a much better film..

What explanation was given for their actions in Snowpiercer?

Why did the kid get in that seat and why do we care that the seat moved into the wall? Why did they think that blowing their way out was a good idea? Why did everyone CONSTANTLY need to reference the drug's flammability like that was what made it so condemnable (yeah: we kinda figured it would be relevant the first time you said it was highly flammable)? Why had they never seen life outside if it just happened to be there when the train stops? Why did they think that ice disappearing around a crashed plane every year implied that there was food and life outside in a dead world? Why did the engineer think that the hero might accept his proposal? What made them think it was sustainable when things were already falling apart and even their system of culling failed? Would the successor be able to use a brainwashed zombie kid to replace any part that could possibly fail? There were so many things that didn't make sense with their "actions" that I lost count. No "reason" was given.
 
Last edited:

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
What explanation was given for their actions in Snowpiercer?

Why did the kid get in that seat and why do we care that the seat moved into the wall? Why did they think that blowing their way out was a good idea? Why did everyone CONSTANTLY need to reference the drug's flammability like that was what made it so condemnable (yeah: we kinda figured it would be relevant the first time you said it was highly flammable)? Why had they never seen life outside if it just happened to be there when the train stops? Why did they think that ice disappearing around a crashed plane every year implied that there was food and life outside in a dead world? Why did the engineer think that the hero might accept his proposal? What made them think it was sustainable when things were already falling apart and even their system of culling failed? Would the successor be able to use a brainwashed zombie kid to replace any part that could possibly fail? There were so many things that didn't make sense with their "actions" that I lost count. No "reason" was given.

It was much easier to understand their reasoning (and maybe I wasn't as worried about those particular details), than in Hunger Games in how they interacted with each other. It was just very apparent there was a lot of character development missing. I didn't feel that way with Snowpiercer. For clarity, the plots in both are easy to understand. I'm referring to their interactions with the same classes.

Also, overall I felt Snowpiercer was just much cooler movie. I can't say why...
 

StrangerGuy

Diamond Member
May 9, 2004
8,443
124
106
The Prestige (2006) - 8/10. Predictable plot twists but still entertaining and intriguing enough to hold my attention throughout.
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
79
86
The Prestige had a great premise and good acting, but as per Nolan, he added some crap that made no sense. Why have a replicator type devise? It just muddies the plot with actual magic and is incredibly terrible.
 

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
The Prestige had a great premise and good acting, but as per Nolan, he added some crap that made no sense.
Why have a replicator type devise? It just muddies the plot with actual magic and is incredibly terrible.

Spoilers in a movie recommendation thread. :colbert:

I thought it was the best part of the plot and it took multiple viewings to fully understand. Their rivalry was so intense, the unbelievable dedication of one magician to his trick pushed the other so far that
he and Tesla found a way to do that shit fo' realz
.
 
Last edited:

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
79
86
Spoilers in a movie recommendation thread. :colbert:

I thought it was the best part of the plot and it took multiple viewings to fully understand. Their rivalry was so intense, the unbelievable dedication of one magician's to his trick pushed the other so far that
he and Tesla found a way to do that shit fo' realz
.

The movie is almost 10 years old. If that isn't old enough for a spoiler, I suppose I should refrain from saying I was disappointed who Rosebud turned out to be.

Jackman's character was nothing more than a con artist who loved to hear applause. Bale's character is the true artist, willing to give up two lives for one completely dedicated to the craft. That is the prestige!
 

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
857
126
Spoilers in a movie recommendation thread. :colbert:

I thought it was the best part of the plot and it took multiple viewings to fully understand. Their rivalry was so intense, the unbelievable dedication of one magician's to his trick pushed the other so far that
he and Tesla found a way to do that shit fo' realz
.

That part was sci-fi. Does sci-fi get dismissed for not being "real magic?" They were adamant that it wasn't magic, so I totally accepted it as sci-fi in a historical context (Tesla really was a bigger genius than many realize and may well have had secrets which remain undiscovered to this day). I am totally OK with it.

What I am not OK with is the "Look at this magic! Aren't you impressed?!" crap from "The Illusionist." No, I am not impressed by convenient scene changes and CGI. The locket that couldn't exist and isn't real magic doesn't impress me no matter how proud the director is having made two props. Yes, I listened to the director's commentary. Another groan-worthy part was listening to them go on and on about how the orange growing off a tree trick was modeled from a "real" trick with "real" growing stems and unfurling leaves, but then they end the discussion with "except for the orange, of course." :facepalm:

"The Prestige" did NOT have this problem.
 
Last edited:
Sep 29, 2004
18,656
67
91
Snowpiercer

I couldn't believe how bad this movie was. It is just a collection of stolen cliches.
It was still fun to watch, but the acting was horrendous and the plot was horrible.

No idea how it has such a high rating everywhere.

Notable movies/cliches is stole from: The Matrix, The Truman Show, Hunger Games, Soylent Green

On Netflix correct? I am tempted to watch it but have avoided it. Is it worth watching if you ignore the stolen concepts?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.