Last movie you watched......

Should I watch Djano Unchained or Lawless tonight?

 

Saw Lincoln this afternoon with my dad. I definitely echo some of the observations here. I felt several of the interactions with Lincoln and commoners felt a bit forced.
I thought Daniel Day Lewis was great as Lincoln, but my favorite was Tommy Lee Jones as Stevens. Wow.
I absolutely agree on the Abe/Robert storyline being weak. I did like the interaction with Tad. I'm hoping the part about Lincoln spending time with Tad on the day of the vote was accurate, because I thought that was great.
I didn't care much for the random fighting scene at the start, but neither my dad nor I cared much for the ending. I can understand Spielberg wanting to make a Lincoln movie centered around the vote on the 13th Amendment. About two hours was spent with that as the focus, which I had no issue with. But that would have been a natural ending point. We both felt adding the assassination added nothing to the story being told. I'm sure it was a tough call about adding that part or not -- if a movie about Lincoln ends with the amendment passing, I could people complaining about the assassination not being covered. But to me it was a jarring difference from the first two-plus hours.

 

The Specialist.

 

Saw two old ones the last day or so on cable.
Twister, still love it and thought for the most part it holds up rather well considering it's 17 years old.

Dodgeball, it is what it is, I still laughed, its still a good time.

 

Zipped through the inferior remake of "Straw Dogs" last night. Not a damned thing interesting about the movie itself, although the final title sequence - framed by a burning barn - was kinda nice.

 

"Killer Joe."

I really hope this gets some rental word-of-mouth, because it's one of the best movies I saw this year. Maybe the best, at least so far. I'd say it's this year's "Drive," though grittier and less stylized. But it triggers that same level of third-act discomfort.

In a just world, Matthew McConaughey would be up for a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role here. One of the most frightening movie villains since Frank Booth in "Blue Velvet." I suspect he's watched Dennis Hopper's performance in that more than once, because he really channels him here.

 

Finally saw Life of Pi tonight, cheap night and late show.

I actually quite enjoyed it. Beautiful visually, and quite uplifiting. Hit the right spots for me tonight. Acting didn't blow me away, especially the supporting cast, but other than that, very good.

On a side note, I want to beat the crap out of whoever sat behind me tonight. Because there was no need to sit in the seats directly behind me in a near empty theatre -- I think there were a grand total of five other people in the entire place. Especially if you and your three friends were going to give play-by-play through the entire movie (Oh look, a rainbow! What's he eating? Is that a fish? Oh look a tiger).
Sorry, had to get that off my chest.

 

If I'm the only one if a theater and people sit directly next to me, I get up and move away. I'm just antisocial like that.

The Man with the Golden Gun
I have no idea why I rented this, but library rentals are free so what the hell. I love Bond, but I was never able to get into Roger Moore's movies. I never cared for him as Bond. But, I gave this a try.

And it was shit, but not because of the story. That's pretty decent. I think what really killed me was Sheriff JW Pepper acting like a racist hillbilly bastard and the car chase with a ... wait for it ... AMC Hornet. The corkscrew jump over the canal was a great physical stunt (no CGI), but the slide whistle sound effect was stupid. And, it was an AMC Hornet. Of all the classic cars Bond has driven, an AMC. Sigh.

Edit to Add: Christopher Lee drove the Matador, and Bond the Hornet. Still, they drove AMCs.

 

The Impossible - A heaping load of disaster porn. Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts practically begging for Oscar nominations in every scene. That's not going to work. The kid who plays Lucas absolutely crushes it. He's going to be huge. Reminded me of a young Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun.

 

I do think Herve Villechaize acquitted himself rather well in the half-a-henchman role.

 

Cool stunt, but yes, slide whistle wrecks it.

http://ca.ign.com/videos/2012/10/04/bond-22-the-car-spin-the-man-with-the-golden-gun

Oh and sitting where I was in the theatre, there was some pride built into it. I was the first one in the theatre and about as perfectly central as I could get for best sound. These clowns showed up just a couple of minutes before the movie started. Was not about to pull up stakes after waiting for about 40 minutes (had come from work, went on a whim, didn't plan it so well). Inconsiderate people just piss me off.

 

Loved this cameo and popped for it in the theatre right away as I freakin loved this show as a kid.



I watched Unstoppable with Denzel last weekend. It was enjoyable but I can't help but think that there could have been a real tight thriller somewhere in there instead of a tepid cliched pedestrian effort.