Last movie you watched......

Completely agree on Wahlberg. Thought he played his role at the appropriate pitch. Too many larger-than-life personalities crowded his character's existence, and I thought Wahlberg's subtle portrayal was smart.

Bale and Adams were riveting, Bale especially. So much rage/turmoil/physicality in his every movement. Awesome.

Also don't get all the love for Leo. She was good, but she didn't command the screen like a few other actors in that movie. I knew she was playing a role.

Thought it dragged a little in the middle, but the ending was very satisfying and left me wanting to know more.

 

Also saw Catfish last night. Totally mesmerized by this movie, having no idea what to expect going in. The ride to the ending was interesting, and when I started to realize where the film was taking me, my stomach was in knots. At a certain point I wanted the "villain" to be left in peace...I thought the filmmakers went a little far with some of those final moments. Fascinating and tragic, I thought.

 

Step Brothers.

What a dumb fucking movie ... and I don't mean dumb in a good way (ala "Anchorman")

 

What, Step Brothers was awesome! Movie snob.

 

Sledgehammer snob.

 

"Seed"

The fuck? I need to watch Beerfest or something to get back in a good mood.

 

Just came back from watching "Paul."

Not out-of-this-world (no pun intended) great, but funny and kind of a sweet story with just enough cuss words and innuendo to bump it up to an R rating.

The best thing about the movie was all the clever sci-fi movie references throughout (my favorite was the song the band was playing in the roadhouse in the middle of the film) right up to the identity revealing of the main villain(ess).

 

I watched "The Town" last night, and I'm really, really curious about what some of you thought about it.

Personally, I thought it was a really good, entertaining movie that had a chance to be great. As in Oscar great.

SPOILERS:







Too many of the key sequences are just too unrealistic. In particular, the big chase scene through Boston after they knock off the armored truck and shoot the guard. You mean to tell me that they would be able to escape through the city with ever member of the BPD after them? And no one is killed?

I felt like they did a great job establishing Jeremy Renner as a loose cannon. "Whose car we gonna take?" may have been the best-delivered line in a movie I saw this year. But I don't think the payoff justified the buildup. He's a loose cannon so that he can go all "Rambo" multiple times? There's no tension in that.

There was, however, certainly tension in the scene where he shows up at the dinner table with Affleck and his girlfriend. I was more on the edge of my seat with that tattoo just out of her view than I was at any point during their heists.

There was some more room for characterization and relationships. Blake Lively was outstanding, but I have to wonder whether a lot of her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. When Draper corners her in the bar, then in the hospital, I don't care enough about her and her daughter to care about the development any more than as a vehicle for plot movement. The two other bank robbers were largely undeveloped, as well, which was fine. Reminded me a little of the "Inception" crew. There isn't enough time to establish personalities for everyone in the gang in a two-hour movie. However, I do think the Renner-Affleck bond could have been tinkered with to resonate just a little more.

Oh, Chris Cooper was outstanding. Wonder if he was close to a Supporting Actor nomination for his five minutes.

Again, so, so close to being great. Hopefully Affleck will grow as a director and screen writer and start to understand when to press the pedal and when to lay off a little better. He certainly seems to have a lot of potential.

Quick question: When Don Draper accuses Affleck's girlfriend of lying, what was she lying about? Quitting the bank job? Shacking up with Affleck? For a second, I thought she knew the whole time that he was her captor, or at least figured it out at some point? But that didn't seem to be the case as the movie went on.

 

I really enjoyed 'The Town' and the thing that kept it from being Oscar-worthy, to me, was that it was a little too derivative of 'Heat' and not quite as good.

As you noted, Renner and Cooper were outstanding. Affleck is really finding his legs as a director. I'll forgive the unreality of escaping the cops during the truck heist (and the Fenway heist, for that matter) because it was well-made action and the rest of the film had me entertained enough that I was willing to suspend my disbelief. Plus, it's virtually the same thing in any movie ... If the cops get a helicopter out on you, you're done. It's almost impossible to escape at that point.

My biggest complaint was the lack of chemistry between Lively and Affleck, but I forgave the same sin in 'Heat' between DeNiro and a homely Amy Brenneman.

 

Do you mean Hall?

Lively is the drug addict sister. Hall is the female romantic lead.

I watched two movies yesterday, "The Switch" and "The Town," and both of the female leads were extremely empty vessels. Kind of disappointing in 2011.

 

Yes, Hall ... my mistake.

 

Watched "The Lucky Ones" from 2008 on in-demand last night.

I love "The Best Years of Our Lives", but frankly this one was derivative enough to not even call it a re-make.

But it did suck. Oh, did it suck.

What was it about Iraq that made all the movies made about it so wishy-washy and trite?