Last movie you watched......

WWZ was entertaining, but you certainly can't think too hard about it.

 

Out of the Past - So I'm listening to these podcasts on the history of noir and the hosts really seem to love this one. I can see its appeal, but watching this stuff in 2013 does not shock nor surprise that much. Still trying to figure out how the deaf kid killed a guy with a fishing pole, though.

 

This Is The End. Few good laughs, but it tries to hard at times. Caught Melancholia in the morning — one of Dunst's best roles, maybe best since Virgin Suicides.

 

Saw Monsters U last night and This Is The End today. Both were good.

 

I thought This is the End was pretty hilarious. It doesn't always hit but I liked the idea of them playing themselves and making fun of each other. Thought they actually could have gone after each other a little more than they did. Still, a fun way to spend a couple hours.

 

Saw WWZ last night in XD/3D. Very entertaining film; thought the ending was smooth. The start was very much Bond-like; action packed and made me cling to my seat.

Was really anticipating after reading the book about 18 mos ago. In hindsight, realize screenplay could not just dutifully follow book, awkward on screen, so they did fairly well here.

Also finished "Savages" on DVR. Pretty fun ride, pretty good reminder that Salma Hayak has some serious curves; you also could do worse than Blake Lively as the female lead.

 

Savages was one of my favorite movies from last year.

I think the guy from Kickass was one of the leads in that movie. I saw the preview for Kickass 2 when I saw This is the End on Friday. The original was one of the most surprisingly entertaining movies I've seen in a long time...

 

Watched 'Savages' a couples weeks ago and thought it was terrible.
Saw WWZ this weekend. I expected to hate it but didn't.

 

Over the weekend:

What's Eating Gilbert Grape - Depressing, but wow what a performance by DiCaprio.

Star Trek (reboot, first Chris Pine one) -- There is very little about this movie that isn't just cool as hell.

Pelotero - Doc about baseball players in the Dominican Republic. Interesting stuff about age fraud and how MLB's system can be manipulated.

Olympus Has Fallen -- Saw this at the dollar theatre. Glad I didn't pay more. It's Die Hard at the White House. If you'd never seen an action thriller before, it'd be OK. I'm rethinking my desire to see White House Down.

 

"World War Z."

I liked it quite a bit, particularly compared to most summer action blockbusters. I should note this: "WWZ" was the first big-action summer blockbuster I've seen in the theater since "Revenge of the Sith." And before that, it had been four years since I'd seen the first "Fast and the Furious" and "Pearl Harbor" in the theater. The truth is that I quite enjoyed the experience. More than I thought I would. It helps that it was pretty damned good. But something like this plays so much better on the big screen, in a darkened theater, than at home with the pause button and light sneaking into the room. I see why Hollywood pumps so many out: There are good reasons why people would not miss something like this in the theater, but don't have a problem waiting for "Lincoln" or "Silver Linings Playbook" to come to DVD.

Plot-wise, it actually reminded me a great deal of "Contagion," although obviously ramped up.

I think the biggest problem for the writing and directing team was when they decided to involve Pitt's character, Gerry, in quite a bit of action sequences. That pretty much killed most of the plausibility of the movie, because he ends up being Houdini in a bunch of sequences. You believe it once, maybe twice. But SPOILER BELOW







The last straw was when the plane crashes. Gerry seems like the only survivor for a second. Implausible enough, particularly the way it went down. But then ... the second survivor is the chick who came with him who he needs to go to the WHO with him!

And then they start walking ... and stumble upon the WHO lab!

Now, once the plot is able to move them to there, everything's all good, and the third act of the film, all inside that lab, are tremendous and tense. But the biggest misstep of the movie, and what keeps it from being a four-start film rather than a three-star film, is everything from the plane crash to their arrival at the lab. And I don't think I was the only one they lost because of that - the packed house I was in was mostly laughing at the zombies in the third act. Which is OK, because everyone was still having a rollicking good time. But I think that the series of great escapes took the steam out of the scariness of the thing.

 

SPOILER DISCUSSION





I wholeheartedly agree, a complete plane crash, and they walk to the WHO office they were looking for?

 

Saw a bit of "Just Go With It" on FX last night. Surprised Aniston and Kidman agreed to do that pile of crud. But then I saw "That's My Boy." I get Vanilla Ice, Todd Bridges, Tony Orlando, they probably thought this would mark a big comeback. But Sarandon? Caan?
About the only person who emerged with any dignity was Rex Freakin' Ryan (who did a good job).