At The Movies

Third Monday Movie Day

97 Comments

Third Monday already?! I was hoping for another big movie month, but my Kickstarter derailed that (and everything else). I saw about four...I'll cover them a bit later. As I type this, it's pretty late and I'm not feeling great. I now have two straight days off with very few commitments...I'll probably see as many as I saw all last month.

97 thoughts on “Third Monday Movie Day”

  1. I watched Life of Pi with the kids. They didn't know what to think of it. It wasn't black and white like they are used to.

    I thought it was great and led to good discussions with the kids. They learned something about metaphors, grey area, etc.

    I also went to We're the Millers. It was funny if you like sophomoric humor. About what you would expect.

    1. Re: Life of Pi - I haven't seen the movie, but I'm about 3/4 of the way through the book. Pretty great on paper...so much so that I'm not sure if I want to see the movie version.

      1. I don't think I know anyone who's read the book who was disappointed with the movie. The tiger is freaking amazing.

        1. The 3D in that movie is the only time I've ever seen where the technology wasn't a horrific eyesore. If that were the only thing their graphics people did, it would be a crowning accomplishment, but yeah, the whole thing was (especially the tiger) was beautiful.

          1. Haven't seen Pi yet. But basically, I refuse to see movies in 3D (unless maybe at an IMAX). It adds nothing worthwhile in most cases, and is headache-inducing.

            2. 3D is the devil. I don't know of a single movie that it's added anything to (Avatar, silly as it was, was a more beautiful and enjoyable movie when I saw it on Blu Ray at home). After my eyes adjust to the false images being thrown at them about twenty minutes in (the part that - I would assume - gives people headaches, I don't really see the 3D 'pop' anymore, so it basically ends up being a darker version of the same movie... with glasses.

              What really weirds me out is that I don't know of anyone who disagrees with that supposition. For how much of a craze it was, there have to be people that eat it up, right? Where are those people??

              Pi had some of the standard issues with 3D (mostly the fact that it makes things darker), but the effects that were there were impressive. There's a hummingbird in the beginning of the movie that ranks as the single best 3D effect I've ever seen....and then it's gone, and 3D can go right along with it.

              2. I've been slinging TVs for over a year now, and I can say that no more than five or six people have asked specifically for a 3DTV. People buy TVs with 3D in them because of the other specs that make them impressive. 3D is not a selling point at all, and when people come in dead with no idea of what they want, I never bring it up unless they ask.

  2. Bought the DVD/BlueRay for Miyazake & Miyazake's "Poppy Hill", without knowing anything about it, but it was a decent price at Costco.
    Watched it Friday night. I enjoyed it, got emotionally involved with these teenagers.

  3. I watched no movies this month. That's the first time in a LONG time that that's happened.

    I did watch Breaking Bad. That show's pretty awesome. Last night's episode was the first of the series where I actually did have dreams about it - panic-laden, paranoid dreams. It was pretty awesome.

    Linds also got me started on Scandal. I think she's trying to ruin my reputation by hooking me on silly ABC primetime soaps. The problem is that it's working. I like both this and Revenge (I'd probably give the edge to Scandal right now, just based on Kerry Washington), even though neither of them make any sense on anything close to a real world basis.

  4. On last night's Breaking Bad . . .

    Spoiler SelectShow
      1. Spoiler SelectShow
    2. Spoiler SelectShow
    3. Spoiler SelectShow
    4. Spoiler SelectShow

  5. saw the new Riddick movie with the Boy last week.

    Spoiler SelectShow

    We had a good time. Some laugh-out-loud moments that may or may not have been intentionally funny. $5 Tuesday, so we got our money's worth.

      1. Count me as someone who love Pitch Black and thought Chronicles is much better than it gets credit for.

      2. I'm with cheaps - I liked the first two enough that I'm almost willing to pay to see this one in the theater.

        1. I also very much enjoyed both Pitch Black (which really is excellent, IMO) and Chronicles (a bit campy, but enjoyable).

  6. Breaking Bad - 2 episodes into Season 4. I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen now. That's cool. But I don't want to wait for it to happen. I love the way characters backslide in this show.

    Spoiler SelectShow

    Lots of kids movies, Cheers and the newest seasons of Futurama otherwise.

    Oh, and I started Iron Sky which has the most absurd B-movie premise ever. And for the first third, at least, delivered on the promise it held for comedy. I got tired and stopped watching then, and probably won't ever pick it up again. But there it is.

    1. The very first trailer for Iron Sky years ago had me very intrigued and I was excited when it got funding. But the full trailer turned me off and I never watched it.

      1. I have no idea whether it carried through beyond 30 minutes, but those first 30 minutes definitely worked for me.

        1. I was interested in the premise, but thirty minutes was about how far I made it into Iron Sky, too. It wasn't really working for me, just too intentionally campy- at least I felt it was intentional.

  7. Ted--what everyone else had said. Better than Family Guy, a few genuine laughs, not a waste of a time.

    Beasts of the Southern Wild--fantastic cinematography and good acting, but the story made me yawn a few times.

  8. I'm still not home, but here's a rough list:

    The Sorceror and the White Snake -- think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets Neverending Story

    Erik the Viking -- Pythonesque but meh

    The Cloud Atlas -- entertaining in the way it stretched the actors

    Red Dwarf season 9 -- I miss the laughter

    Wallander -- several 1-1/2 hour episodes about a police detective in southern Sweden, starring Kenneth Branaugh. I liked them.

  9. Oh, yea. Saw the matt damon-blows-stuff-up-in-space flick soon after it came out, with the Boy. Was that this month.

    If you really suspend disbelief, it is entertaining. Suspending disbelif is one of my superpowers.

      2. yes. entertaining, but teh politicks and economics are teh Stupid. I really dislike it when films want to preach to me about [fill in blank] while going for realism but can't be bothered to craft a credible political-economic world.

        I mean, you have a super-technology that can

        Spoiler SelectShow

        , but it is restricted to only the elite on a space habitat, while everyone back on earth lives like [redacted]??? And you have the economic surplus to build kajillions of robot cops? Uh, no.

        but as a relatively mindless action flick/morality play, it was fun. And Sharlto Copley as the big bad was excellent.

        1. Spoiler SelectShow
          1. Spoiler SelectShow

  10. Not many movies this month. I did watch The Life of Pi and thought it was a real visual treat as well as a great treatise on storytelling, but I want to read the book now to fill in the expository gaps that are nearly inevitable in a novel-to-film translation. Also, I've really enjoyed The Newsroom this season with the Genoa story arc that tied each episode to the next, but the last five minutes of the season finale last night were really disappointing.

    Spoiler SelectShow
    1. Spoiler SelectShow

  11. World War Z - Lots of Brad Pitt running around, story was completely different from the book (which I really liked...the book that is), zombies were kind-of cool - faster & 'smarter' than normal - but the whole thing still felt a bit too CGI/summer blockbuster. 6/10

    The Man from Nowhere - This was really cool, like Taken only more visceral somehow. Nothing necessarily new or groundbreaking and there were a few corny lines, but the pacing was spot-on, the story & characters pulled me in and the action sequences were gripping (so much so that I even found myself rewinding a few times to see them again). 8.5/10

    Breaking Bad: Season 2, Episode 6 (Peekaboo) - nothing new to report here though I am itching to continue the series.

    2. i think i'll eventually watch WWZ, but i'm already expecting (and the few previews i've seen seems to confirm) that it will have nothing to do with the book (which was totally wicked awesome).

      1. I think, and sorry for saying things about books here, bS, that I will probably have to read WWZ once I finally get this Wheel of Time stuff under control.

        1. i think i heard that max brooks worked really hard on the audiobook, but had little to do with the movie. if he did what i think he did with it, the audiobook could be pretty awesome, and the book would lend itself well to that format.

          1. From the repository:

            The audiobook version, performed by a full cast including Alan Alda, Mark Hamill, and John Turturro, won an Audie Award in 2007.

            Does sound awesome.

          2. I don't know why, but that makes me think of the English dubbing of Shaolin Soccer, which, if you've only watched it with the subtitles you'd be missing out.

            1. I've actually never watched the dub, but that was because Miramax cut a bunch of the film out. They're kind of notorious for that. I was really excited to go see The Grandmaster but alas... 🙁

              1. I bet it'd be pretty easy to get a bootleg out of China on eBay these days. It's totally worth it because Stephen Cho very obviously thought it through to hilarious results.

      2. I really wanted it to be like the book: a bunch of vignettes from different people/perspectives with some actual commentary about about society and how we'd respond to something like that. Even held out hope that Pitt might just be the narrator and the movie would be something special until I saw the first trailer. It wasn't bad, just not as good as I think it could have been.

        1. This is probably a "blame the producer" situation. Summer blockbuster producers aren't looking to make something special, they're looking to make assloads of cash.

          1. I figured that was a big part of it. Not sure what his track record is as a producer, but Pitt had a part on that team as well. Here's the lineup:

            Brad Pitt
            Ian Bryce
            Dede Gardner
            Jeremy Kleiner

        2. I have not seen WWZ, nor read the book. But I am happy to analogize to my feelings about the Tom Cruise-infested Mission Impossible films. They took a terrific ensemble-oriented TV series and converted it into all-Cruise, all-the-time. I hated that. The films themselves were acceptable action-flicks, but I hate the way they simply abused the brand name of the series. Why was that even necessary? Just make a goddamn Cruise vehicle about a 5'5" Jason Bourne-wannabee.

          1. I'm with you there. A screenwriter needn't be a slave to the franchise's backstory, but there's no point in using a brand name if you can draw as much money without it.

  12. Finished up Orange is the New Black and take back any positive (or not-negative) things I said about Jason Biggs. He really can't act. Other than that, though, the show was great and I look forward to additional seasons.

    I've still got four episodes of the first half of season 5 of Breaking Bad to watch. I think we're kind of waiting for the bauble to sleep a little more at night because its difficult to watch it until after the kids go to bed.

    Other than that, its been all tv for me. Started watching season 4 of The League and I imagine season 4 (or is it 5?) of Parks and Rec should be up soon.

    1. it's season 5 for parks and rec, which i re-watched recently. a couple clunkers, but still great TV. not sure how spoiler-ish it is so i won't mention specifics, but episodes 13 and 14 are about as awesome as that show gets.

    2. Yeah, I really wonder what went behind the decision to cast him. It's not a big role, so a big name was not needed (and his name has never been associated with good acting), and I'm sure there are a bazillion cheaper actors out there. Like Nibbish said, his role is minimal enough that it's not a big deal, but every time he's on screen I wish the story would go back to the prison.

      1. At least his scenes with Piper's brother allowed the more interesting character to do things so we didn't have to pay attention to him.

      2. I noticed the other day that Laura Prepon is on it as well, and she's one of the very, very few actors that I like even less than Jason Biggs. I might really need some convincing on this one.

        1. Its definitely a weird show where the main characters are the worst ones from an interesting/entertainment standpoint. I'm certainly not going to be one to tell you to try to power through your dislike of a certain performer, though the rest of the cast was all very good. That'd be really hypocritical of me.

  13. I saw The World's End some weeks ago. It was extremely enjoyable on all levels. Even the fight scenes were well done. It is the crowning achievement of the Cornetto trilogy and I highly recommend it.

      1. One of the best resons for waiting until movies come out on DVD, aside from absurd theater prices. I wouldn't be able to accidentally walk into a Seth Rogen movie thinking I was going to watch something I'd like.

        1. I know we revisit this every month, but it kills me that you have such rage for one of the subtlest comedic actors of this generation. Rage of this nature is usually reserved for the broad, loud types, like Jim Carrey in his early films.

          1. Are we talking about Seth Rogen or Steve Carell here? (I'm guessing Carell based on your use of Subtle.) But anyway, there's no accounting for taste, I suppose.

              1. I think this could bring up a really interesting discussion of perception, then, becuase subtle is about the last word I would use to describe Rogen.

                1. You've seen the wrong movies, I think. It's not about perception, it's about the character in each individual film.

                  A lot of people see a performance they hate - whether because of the character or the actor - and they apply it to everything the person has done. This hasn't been the case with him, though. He gives a very quiet, subtle performance in This is the End, among others.

                  1. Rogen is capable of subtlety and nuance(Freaks and Geeks comes to mind), but I haven't seen him do it very often. That may have to do with the director and the roles he takes, but Rogen has seemed to play slight variations on the same character in all the movies I've seen him in.

                    And no, I haven't seen This is the End, so that might be completely different.

                    1. Whether he's a different character or not is a separate question, and I'm not going to argue that he's a great actor with a lot of range. Whether he's playing it loudly or quietly, he's usually playing the same character. That's never been what I'm arguing against.

                      That may have to do with the director and the roles he takes

                      When an actor plays similar characters (even on the page) over and over again, I think it's less about the roles they take, and more about the roles they're offered. One of the best actors in my graduating class rarely got to show off his range on our stage, because he's a good-looking guy who can sing and was repeatedly asked to play dull romantic leads. He was always working, but was rarely satisfied.

                  2. Well, the movies with him in it I've seen are, I think, Judd Apatow films. But the only time I've seen the guy outside of one of his movies was his cameo in The League and it left me unable to laugh for a good two weeks afterwards, even if funny things were happening around him.

                    I do feel kind of bad noodling you about stuff like this every month because I imagine, as an actor, it'd be incredibly frustrating knowing some people just won't watch something you're in because they've decided they hate you even if its only from one movie/show/whatever. I do feel less bad about it now that you're heading into the card game industry, however.

                    1. I'm still more an actor at heart than anything else, no matter what else happens for the rest of my life, and yes, I find it frustrating how folks outside the industry are often so ungrateful for the work they see. It's not that simple in this argument, though; I respect you as a person and friend, so I simply find it interesting to deconstruct such a strong emotional response about an actor who's usually not broad enough to elicit any strong emotional response. As far as "people to HATE" go, he's just such an unconventional choice. That's why I find this so fascinating.

                    2. A lot of it has to do with hype. Maybe hatred isn't the word we should be using here, since I don't know any of these people. Maybe distaste is better. Anyway, my distaste for Rogen and Carell comes from hearing, seemingly constantly, that Knocked Up and The Office were the funniest things anyone has ever seen ever and that I just had to watch them. When I finally did, I felt so completely the opposite of those opinions that it made me annoyed that I wasted my time watching them. So, I develop a very strong opinion about what I liked the least about those things (although in the case of Knocked Up, the thing I like least was everything except maaaaaybe Paul Rudd.)

                      Also on my list are Ben Stiller and Tracy Morgan. Ben Stiller because I've never seen him in anything that has ever entertained me and Tracy Morgan because of his delivery. When it comes to the entertainment world, I'm a man of strong opinions.

                    4. Hype doesn't affect me at all. Maybe that's because I shelter myself from the opinions of the normals, and maybe that's because I've been let down so many times before, I don't pay attention. It took a long time, but hype just isn't part of my expectation anymore. If anything, I'm much too clinical and logical when I go into a film, which leaves me feeling cold unless it really stands out as something special.

                      Once on IM, I said to Beau, "It was only through years of careful study that I was finally able to stop enjoying movies."

                      Seriously, I can see the key grip, boom operator and director of photography in the room every time I watch a scene. It's a pain in the ass.

                    5. So what do you like for comedy?

                      Everything else.

                      Kidding, kidding. I don't know, though. That's a tough question to answer, really. A lot harder than "what do you like for music?"

              2. I've been thinking about this... it seems to me one of the things I like about Rogen is that I feel like he's very direct (a lot of that might be writing, of course). I feel like I've heard him say things like "Well that is [good/bad/whatever] because [reason x/y/z]" so many times. That's not subtle, at all. At the same time, he's not even close to over-the-top in his emotional range, and I've seen him nail some small things there too... so, in that way, he is subtle.

                I see what both of you are saying, is what I'm saying.

    2. World's End was on the my short list of "date-night" movies last week. I'm still excited to see it but my wife didn't care for Shaun of the Dead so I likely won't catch it until the DVD release.

        1. Deal, but you have to provide the libations. I thought of you last week when I saw this. I applied for the 2nd one and was informed that they'd ceased accepting applications after 2 days of being bombarded by responses. First one's still open and right up your alley.

          1. Heh, that'd be awesome. If my current mortgage didn't suck and I didn't have any kids, I would totally consider taking the risk of trying to get that job. I've like what I've had from Fulton so far, which is really only Sweet Child of Vine.

  14. I saw The Avengers this month. I liked it as much as everyone else did, I think, which is uncommon for me with comic book fare. There was actual character development and everything. I didn't get emotionally attached to anything, but that's not something I was expecting, so that was fine in this case. Good banter, good fight choreography, great casting. I've always strongly disliked Chris Evans, and even he did a decent enough job, and he certainly looks like Cap ought to. Scarlett Johanssen was forgettable, but she got the least focus on the team, so it's all good.

    Wreck-It Ralph was a lot of fun. It didn't grab my emotional core as much as other films with the same essential teams, but it was funny, the final moment and lines were aces, and I got all the in-jokes, which probably made me the most entertained person in the room.

    I know I saw a couple more, but it seems my list is MIA and my memory just isn't cutting it these days.

  16. Watched Whip It last night. Drew Barrymore's directorial debut.
    I wasn't sure if I'd like it. I did enjoy it.
    Jimmy Fallon plays the announcer and I know that over-the-top punny announcing that knows too much and cares too much might actually be appropriate but I still hated the announcing. It's a pet peeve of mine in sports movies that even stuff like high-school intramurals have announcing like it's the final four or something, but that I guess we have to assume that the audience watching the even and the players can't hear.

    1. All movies are making misguided attempts to top the brilliance of Fred Willard's announcing in Best in Show.

  17. I honestly can't remember much of what I've watched (or if I've watched much) over the last month, but I wanted to share this. It's an oral history of The Shield from the people who worked on the show. Spoilers obviously abound, but I think a couple people at least have finished it.

Comments are closed.