Last movie you watched......

Star Trek Into Darkness
I'm not a big fan of the Trek franchise, never watched the shows, don't own the old movies, but the reboot was okay. Bright, noisy, dumb, popcorn flick to turn your mind off and enjoy. This new one was the same, but too long. What's with all these damn movies running over two hours?

I think this one gets bogged down in trying to reference the old movies too much. And Robocop is a dick.

 

I would agree with this. I watched "The Aviator," and completely forgot that I was watching Leonardo DiCaprio, a big, recognizable and charismatic enough actor that that is awfully hard to do, especially when he's in the leading role and on-screen all the time.

I thought he got robbed of an Oscar for best actor that year, by Jamie Foxx, I believe, in "Ray," which I also saw. It was a good performance of a blind person by a non-blind person, but it wasn't something where you were so into the character that you forgot who you were seeing, or so engrossing that you forgot you were even watching a movie. That's how "The Aviator" was for me.

Of course, I'd also agree with any props regarding DiCaprio's performance in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" Anyone who saw that movie knew we were going to be hearing from that kid in a big, big way. I remember thinking it was an almost unbelievable, impossibly good turn as a mentally handicapped person by someone who isn't. He upstaged the stars of that movie, and it was a very good movie, by all involved.

I'm glad to see the thoughts on the newest Star Trek movie. I'm a big "Trek" fan -- always have been -- and I was just thinking I'd probably go to see "Into Darkness" today. Reviews of it were what I was looking for when I opened this thread.

 

I've seen a slew of movies recently.

STAR TREK: Saw it yesterday afternoon. For a 1:30 showing in my 20K burg, pretty crowded. Hadn't seen the other Trek reboot, but was still able to follow along. Fun flick, but thought it could have been trimmed. Was Scott, eh Scotty/Scottie, comic relief in the first reboot or the TV series? Hadn't paid much attention.

After going to Star Trek, ate early dinner with fiancee (who will be my wife in less than 2 weeks) at Panera and then watched a WWE house show in Bowling Green that night with my younger brother/best man. Good day.

IRON MAN 3: Saw it twice, once on IMAX for my bachelor party (baseball game got rained out and with four of us being sports writers and having to work the next day, staying out late and drinking wasn't likely. Plus, I'm diabetic, so I rarely drink as it is). Didn't see IM2, but loved IM3 both times. Me and KySportsWriter both agree that somehow, the version we saw in our small town was different from the one in Louisville on IMAX. Like when RD calls the kid a pussy. Don't remember that when I saw it the first time.

THE BIG WEDDING: Fiancee's choice. Decent cast, bad writing. And you knew it would end well.

THE CROODS: Took the 7-year-old nephew. Movie started way late -- technical difficulties -- but to his credit, he kept his composure. I've seen better cartoons (Shrek, most every Pixar), but I liked the Croods better than Pirates! and Rise of the Guardians!, so there is that.

OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL: Jury is still out. Williams was good, Kunis and Weisz not so much. Good CGI in parts. Not a huge fan of Franco. Would have loved to have seen Depp or Downey in that role, though.

In 2013, have also seen Admission (not as good as I'd hoped), Silver Linings Playbook (loved it), Identity Thief (laughed quite a bit, which is surprising because it was fiancee's choice), Safe Haven (lame ending) and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (nice ending trick and Jim Carrey was awesome).

The first date I went on with my soon-to-be wife was Hangover II on June 17, 2011. She has already decided we will be seeing Hangover III during our honeymoon in three weeks, which is coincidentally in Vegas (plan on watching it at the MGM threatre when it is like 1,000 degrees outside. I know, it's the honeymoon, other things we should be doing, but it's her choice.

 

Yes, Scottie was comic relief in the reboot. Supposed to be good at his job, but also played for laughs.

 

Good, loud popcorn movie. The actors clearly are playing not just the characters, but in the case of Kirk, Spock, Bones, etc., they are playing the characters "as played by" the actors who came before them. Sort of like how your buddies in the '90s couldn't impersonate George H.W. Bush, but they could impersonate Dana Carvey impersonating George H.W. Bush.

I can't decide if I really like that approach for this Star Trek, but I didn't hate it.

But the more interesting and debatable creative choice is tucked inside this section of a review from OC Weekly:




** SPOILER ALERT **





Today, while William Shatner is sealed in his pop-culture terrarium chanting lounge covers of "Space Oddity," Nimoy returns again so old Spock can advise young Spock on how to defeat Khan decades before the original Khan defeats the original Spock, causing such a doubled-back crimp in the chronology that in our universe, Wrath of Khan may now no longer exist. Thus freed, Abrams lifts Khan's climax, thievery that will enrage the devout as it suggests the Star Trek saga is merely a game of Mad Libs into which he plugs characters and catastrophes.

http://www.ocweekly.com/2013-05-16/film/star-trek-into-darkness-jj-abrams/

The part I italicized is a pretty good third-party synopsis of the beginning of my head exploding while trying to sort out that part of the movie. But overall, two thumbs up as summer entertainment. I mean, it's not like it's a Baz Luhrmann Star Trek. Can you imagine?

 

Central, IM3 is far better than IM2. All you missed was a little setup for Avengers, like the introduction of Black Widwow. Other than that, it was more like Iron Man 1.5.

More thoughts on Trek ...

If they do another, they've got to tie the one loose thread of the Klingons. Humans went to the Klingon planet of ... uh, whatever it was called, killed Klingons on Klingon turf. That shit cannot slide, right? So I'm guessing Klingons need to step up and bitch slap some Humans in the next one, then we'll get the new version of Kirk hates Klingons. Right? I mean, that was never resolved in this, and the whole movie was about a pre-emptive strike. If the filmmakers don't take the next natural step in story to have a full-on Klingon conflict, then I'll say they're dumb.

And one more thing ... I hate the pajama shirt uniforms. They're awful looking. Great constumes for the other uniforms. Dress uniforms, etc. But the pajama tops have to go. Even the old movies had better uniforms. I can dig the crimson command coats from Shatner Trek. I can even dig the jumpsuits from First Contact, because real servicemen wear jumpsuits. Pilots, etc. But the pajama tops ... no. I like Greenwood's admirals coat, the gray and white thing with the shoulder straps and rank lapel pins. That was cool

 

IM3 was an enjoyable pop-corn flick...a well-made movie with the most entertaining actor of our times.

Meanwhile, on the DVD front, Hyde Park on Hudson was boring and weird; the best part of the movie was the actual footage shot by the King shown during the credits.

 

Warning, spoilers.


The new Star Trek. It was pretty good. I too stayed away from spoilers or rumors on the second Trek film by Abrams and was pretty excited on the reveal of the villain. I loved the setup of Harrison, but sort of feel the second half fell flat. Regardless, still a fun watch and glad it wasn't a complete rehash of WoK.

 

Finally got around to seeing Lincoln as part of my trek through last year's Best Picture nominees.
Not what I was expecting. At all.
Don't get me wrong, it was a great movie and one of the top acted movies I've ever seen but I thought it was going to be more of a movie about Lincoln the man than what it was.
I expected a typical bio-pic but what I got was a flick on the political process surrounding a controversial amendment. I would have been fine with this flick if it was titled "The Abolition of Slavery" or something like that but for a film titled "Lincoln," I kind of wish we had more on his life than just the brief period that ultimately defined him.
Still, hard to beat the cast here, particularly Daniel Day Lewis who was unquestionably worth of the Best Actor award.
I'd give it a solid B+ or an 8/10.

 

Watched a bunch of movies over the weekend.

The Baytown Outlaws. Pretty funny, lots of action. Enjoyed it.
Lay the Favorite. Lots of heavy hitters in a movie no one's ever heard of. More importantly, I discovered Rebecca Hall.
Everything Must Go. More Rebecca Hall!! And Will Ferrell is great.
Jeff Who Lives at Home. Meh. Didn't love it, didn't hate it.
Whores' Glory. Only 2/3 of the way through. Very disturbing and depressing.

 

I once got 2/3rds of the way into whore's glory...but still needed 6 weeks of antibiotics.

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You'd need more than 6 weeks of antibiotics if you messed with these whores.

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