Giles

How to Train Your Dragon 2 - see my thoughts in the movie's own thread discussion.

asianxcore

21 Jump Street (2012)

A lot funnier than I was expecting! I should have expected that cameo.

Jory

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)



It's frustrating that so many people cite this as the best film adaptation of Dracula, but that's a matter of opinion, so I can accept it. What really gets under my skin is that so many cite it as the most faithful adaptation, which is just fucking wrong. Whatever points it scores for including details and plot elements from the book that are left out of (or altered) in other film versions, it's all made pointless by the fact that Francis Ford Coppola and James V. Hart turned the whole thing into a love story in which Dracula is a tragic antihero and every character's motivation for every action they take is changed.

Judging it on its own terms, apart from the book, it's a mess. It's a beautiful train wreck, the kind of movie that's mediocre not because it's mediocre from start to finish but because each scene is an equal mixture of brilliant and terrible. Great performances coexist with embarrassing ones, and excellent special effects coexist with some of the most disgustingly sappy and laughable "romantic" dialogue ever put to film until the Twilight series came along. I can't call it a good movie, but it's certainly entertaining, sometimes for the right reasons and very often for the wrong ones. The effects and brilliantly bizarre costumes alone make it worth a watch, or in my case, multiple watches.

asianxcore

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

tommyp007

How to Train Your Dragon 2

X-men Days of Future Past

both excellent!

Jory

Paul_SD

Sort of like a riff on the Magnificent Seven, with the twist being "what if the group you hire to protect you ends up being worse than the original threat"
A good premise, poorly executed- though Victoria Principal sure looked hot.

Jory

Jory

Rise of the Machines (2003)



A terrible sitcom pilot about wacky robots that was mistakenly released in theatres under the title Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Five years later, the excellent TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles corrected the mistake by erasing the events of Rise of the Machines and taking its rightful place as the legitimate Terminator 3, and we can now all thankfully forget that this ever happened.

asianxcore

You're Next (2011): Just as fun as the first time I saw it in the theater.

Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs (1974): Sleazy from beginning to end. I loved it!

joe_b

Saw it in theaters and disliked it. Bought the DVD from a pawn shop years ago because I thought I might have missed what all the fuss was about (Ebert gave this four stars?). Ended up disliking it even more.

Fifteen years later, I read an article talking about what an important and influential film The Blair Witch Project truly was -- prompting me to stream it on Netflix. Once again, I find myself baffled at this movies ability to frighten people. As I recall, that "Curse of the Blair Witch" TV special was far more spooky than the film it was meant to promote.

JANK

Well we had folks lined up around the block and it Did Not Disappoint. Sorry you were there and missed it. I thought it was stunning.

inri222

Same here, IMO it's one of the greatest horror films of all time

joe_b

In theory, I get the appeal: lost in the woods, hopeless... paranoia sets in. Seeing tiny rock formations and twig people hung from trees everywhere I turned would scare the shit out of me too. The actors (especially Donahue) were pretty convincing, but - realism be damned - I just did not care about or identify with these three people. As a viewer, I needed that connection for the tension to build. Just wasn't there for me. I could not have cared less if they lived or died. Their hysterics in recation to the events they were experiencing (especially the scenes in the tent) seemed so overblown compared to what little we as an audience actually heard. I know that imagination plays a large part here. The audience's own fears can go a long way in how they are affected by the footage. Unfortunately, I had grown so numb by that point that these moments of panic did little more than cause me to shift in my chair.

As with anything, fear is subjective. I've now watched TBWP on three separate occasions (many years apart) and my opinion of it hasn't improved. It's not from lack of trying, but the movie never clicked with me. Sorry to derail the thread... please continue.

Inhumans99

In the past week - 22 Jump Street, Robocop (2014, and actually a pretty enjoyable flick), and Instructions Not Included (netflix)

Giles

(35mm print @ AFI Silver) I find this poster hysterical.

iNCREDiPiNOY

Earth to Echo - 2/5 - Mini robot. Annoying kids. Terrible movie!

DJariya

Closed Circuit. 2013 thriller starring Rebecca Hall and Eric Bana. Watched it on Cinemax. Not bad, but not really memorable either. Very dialogue driven. Glad I caught it on TV instead of theaters or paying for a rental.

Giles

hanshotfirst1138

How many versions of Queen Margot are there?

EDIT: Whoa! I didn't know it'd gotten a 4K restoration!

joe_b

Last Tango in Paris - This certainly wasn't the easiest film to sit through, but worth it just to check out Brando's monologues. Maria Schneider was beautiful and held her own on screen. It's a shame she was never given a chance to grown in the industry after the "scandal" this movie created upon release.

Orca - Not quite outrageous enough to be considered a camp classic... though the scenes of the whale attacking the house (and Bo Derek) and blowing up a good chunck of the village without ever leaving the sea certainly qualify as howlers. While I found the movie to be as mediocre as it's reputation suggests, there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes.

Junebug - Nice little slice of life movie. Embeth Davidtz is wonderful as a metropolitan gallery owner who meets her rural in-laws for the first time while visiting North Carolina on business. The movie does a good job illustrating the insecurities felt on both sides. Amy Adams (as the heavily pregnant sister-in-law) plays her character in broad strokes. Her inquisitive nature and stream of conciousness dialogue might have come across as annoying in the hands of a lesser actress, but Adams always keeps her sincere and endearing.

JimRochester

I rented it and will agree with your assessment. Not terrible but certainly in the mediocre category. Can't say my life is any better or worse on account of spending the time to watch it.

Longest Day I'm on a war movie kick, so I'm watching this this weekend. It's funny, last weekend I saw Saving Private Ryan. To go from the graphic, raw, bloody SPR to the G rated Longest Day really makes LD look dated. Still enjoyable and a good story in spite of the 50 year old style acting.

hanshotfirst1138

Planet of the Apes- Franklin Schaffner's sci-fi classic about an astronaut who crash-lands on a planet of intelligent apes where humans are mute animals. Certainly dated in places, but time has been surprisingly kind to it in many respects, and the avalanche of franchising merchandise tend overshadow what was an interesting sci-fi film with a fascinating "what-if" premise. Wilson and Serling's witty screenplay is full of classic lines, and the film's sucker-punch ending is still one of the finest ever.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes- Even more pulpy sci-fi sequel which leans a bit on Star Trek about a new faction of mutant psychic humans who worship a cobalt bomb capable of destroying the planet (subtle). No necessarily bad, but a comedown after the previous film. Still, Paul Dehn set in motion a big mythology here, and some of the images remain effectively spooky.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes- A fish-out-of-water tale similar to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home about the apes on modern-day Earth. Much more lighthearted, with some more humorous and campy satire, though some of the darker underpinnings work surprisingly well.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes- Extremely dark fourth installment in the saga about the apes, tired of being brutalized, choosing to fight back. A thinly veiled allegory for the Watts riots, director Thompson's grim vision is highly effective and disturbing.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes- I don't know if it's because they dumped screenwriter Paul Dehn, Fox slashed the budget to ribbons, or what, but the final installment is decidedly disappointing. Connecting the dots of the franchise mythology with disappointing laziness, it drops the ball after the fantastic last movie, and is tonally inconsistent. Still some fun post-apocalyptic imagery.

Giles

inri222

London Boulevard - 2.5/5

The Departed screenwriter William Monahan's directorial debut about an ex-con who keeps being pulled back into the criminal lifestyle.
A good cast let down by a script full of bits & pieces from every London crime film ever made.