Recently viewed movie thread - Rental, Streaming, Theater etc (7 Viewers)

[jdoggydogg]

There are movies I love (David Lynch movies, PT Anderson movies) where I totally get why people don't like them. I don't understand how a grown man could watch Fury Road and not love it, so I lack any objectivity in this area.

Different strokes and all. Just like you have stated several times you have lost your desire to watch the horror/gory stuff. I have lost the patience to watch action movies just for stuff blowing up. Something else has to happen as well.

I would say that the costume designs, art direction and photography give the viewer far more to look at than just explosions.

I dig, but I can also get those things things in those Lynch and PT Anderson movies you mentioned and others of that ilk - on top of some acting and plot. Action movies also can have acting and plot.

I am just saying that if there is nothing going on plot-wise and the acting is not there I will bail on a movie regardless of genre. It is just not what I like in a movie.

By the way, without lending more fuel to the "jdogg's a movie snob" fire, small movies with great scripts and wonderful acting are by far my favorite genre. So I prefer that genre by a huge margin. I just appreciate Fury Road the way I'd appreciate a loud, vulgar punk rock band.

 

[KarmaPolice]

There are movies I love (David Lynch movies, PT Anderson movies) where I totally get why people don't like them. I don't understand how a grown man could watch Fury Road and not love it, so I lack any objectivity in this area.

Different strokes and all. Just like you have stated several times you have lost your desire to watch the horror/gory stuff. I have lost the patience to watch action movies just for stuff blowing up. Something else has to happen as well.

I would say that the costume designs, art direction and photography give the viewer far more to look at than just explosions.

I dig, but I can also get those things things in those Lynch and PT Anderson movies you mentioned and others of that ilk - on top of some acting and plot. Action movies also can have acting and plot.

I am just saying that if there is nothing going on plot-wise and the acting is not there I will bail on a movie regardless of genre. It is just not what I like in a movie.

By the way, without lending more fuel to the "jdogg's a movie snob" fire, small movies with great scripts and wonderful acting are by far my favorite genre. So I prefer that genre by a huge margin. I just appreciate Fury Road the way I'd appreciate a loud, vulgar punk rock band.

I get it. There is nobody on this board that just watches one type of movie, and not everything has to be an award winner. I guess I was never that into action movies, and my go-to guilty/bad/brainless movies or whatever we will call them are usually horror movies. But even that I won't stick with a movie just because. Bad is bad, no matter the genre.

I just thought your comment about not getting how a grown man couldn't love Fury Road a little curious. In your analogy could understand how somebody would ever be down for enjoying some Black Flag?

 

[nirad3]

Harumph. Last time I trust the "Netflix rating" on a movie. The Reunion with John Cena (maybe that should have been my first clue), was rated 4/5 by Netflix customers. I usually take a peek at RT as well but just decided to jump in.

2 hours later, I feel like gouging my eyes out. Heck, even going off RT (8% critic, 33% viewer) I would have probably still given it a try. I can't believe a third of viewers actually enjoyed it.

Do yourself a favor and find something else. Just dumb from start to finish.

 

[jdoggydogg]

There are movies I love (David Lynch movies, PT Anderson movies) where I totally get why people don't like them. I don't understand how a grown man could watch Fury Road and not love it, so I lack any objectivity in this area.

Different strokes and all. Just like you have stated several times you have lost your desire to watch the horror/gory stuff. I have lost the patience to watch action movies just for stuff blowing up. Something else has to happen as well.

I would say that the costume designs, art direction and photography give the viewer far more to look at than just explosions.

I dig, but I can also get those things things in those Lynch and PT Anderson movies you mentioned and others of that ilk - on top of some acting and plot. Action movies also can have acting and plot.

I am just saying that if there is nothing going on plot-wise and the acting is not there I will bail on a movie regardless of genre. It is just not what I like in a movie.

By the way, without lending more fuel to the "jdogg's a movie snob" fire, small movies with great scripts and wonderful acting are by far my favorite genre. So I prefer that genre by a huge margin. I just appreciate Fury Road the way I'd appreciate a loud, vulgar punk rock band.

I get it. There is nobody on this board that just watches one type of movie, and not everything has to be an award winner. I guess I was never that into action movies, and my go-to guilty/bad/brainless movies or whatever we will call them are usually horror movies. But even that I won't stick with a movie just because. Bad is bad, no matter the genre.

I just thought your comment about not getting how a grown man couldn't love Fury Road a little curious. In your analogy could understand how somebody would ever be down for enjoying some Black Flag?

Oh definitely. You know what it's like when you love something, though. There's a part of your brain that understands that every individual has unique taste. But you love that thing, so it's hard to imagine that everyone else doesn't agree.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Harumph. Last time I trust the "Netflix rating" on a movie. The Reunion with John Cena (maybe that should have been my first clue), was rated 4/5 by Netflix customers. I usually take a peek at RT as well but just decided to jump in.

2 hours later, I feel like gouging my eyes out. Heck, even going off RT (8% critic, 33% viewer) I would have probably still given it a try. I can't believe a third of viewers actually enjoyed it.

Do yourself a favor and find something else. Just dumb from start to finish.

In other news, John Cena is hilarious in the new Amy Schumer movie.

 

[KarmaPolice]

There are movies I love (David Lynch movies, PT Anderson movies) where I totally get why people don't like them. I don't understand how a grown man could watch Fury Road and not love it, so I lack any objectivity in this area.

Different strokes and all. Just like you have stated several times you have lost your desire to watch the horror/gory stuff. I have lost the patience to watch action movies just for stuff blowing up. Something else has to happen as well.

I would say that the costume designs, art direction and photography give the viewer far more to look at than just explosions.

I dig, but I can also get those things things in those Lynch and PT Anderson movies you mentioned and others of that ilk - on top of some acting and plot. Action movies also can have acting and plot.

I am just saying that if there is nothing going on plot-wise and the acting is not there I will bail on a movie regardless of genre. It is just not what I like in a movie.

By the way, without lending more fuel to the "jdogg's a movie snob" fire, small movies with great scripts and wonderful acting are by far my favorite genre. So I prefer that genre by a huge margin. I just appreciate Fury Road the way I'd appreciate a loud, vulgar punk rock band.

I get it. There is nobody on this board that just watches one type of movie, and not everything has to be an award winner. I guess I was never that into action movies, and my go-to guilty/bad/brainless movies or whatever we will call them are usually horror movies. But even that I won't stick with a movie just because. Bad is bad, no matter the genre.

I just thought your comment about not getting how a grown man couldn't love Fury Road a little curious. In your analogy could understand how somebody would ever be down for enjoying some Black Flag?

Oh definitely. You know what it's like when you love something, though. There's a part of your brain that understands that every individual has unique taste. But you love that thing, so it's hard to imagine that everyone else doesn't agree.

Yeah, like Radiohead.

I was trying to think if there are any movies that I would be flat out shocked if somebody didn't dig. Maybe Back to the Future?

 

[El Floppo]

lol... that's been on lately, and my wife just informed me that she HATES back to the future.

 

[nirad3]

Real swingin' day here at work, watched another on Netflix. Automata with Antonio Banderas. 29% critics on RT and only 31% viewers. How more people liked friggin' The Reunion than this completely baffles me.

Automata was pretty dang awesome in my opinion. Lots of dystopian movies out there, a genre I really dig... and this was excellent. Visually beautiful in spots, acting wasn't terrible. Just a very, very good film. 8/10

 

[KarmaPolice]

lol... that's been on lately, and my wife just informed me that she HATES back to the future.

lol.

What does she hate about it?

 

[Cold Dead Hands]

Harumph. Last time I trust the "Netflix rating" on a movie. The Reunion with John Cena (maybe that should have been my first clue), was rated 4/5 by Netflix customers. I usually take a peek at RT as well but just decided to jump in.

2 hours later, I feel like gouging my eyes out. Heck, even going off RT (8% critic, 33% viewer) I would have probably still given it a try. I can't believe a third of viewers actually enjoyed it.

Do yourself a favor and find something else. Just dumb from start to finish.

Netflix uses an algorithm for recommendations based on your ratings cross referenced with other user ratings with commonalities with your ratings. So really, only yourself to blame.

 

[Zow]

There are movies I love (David Lynch movies, PT Anderson movies) where I totally get why people don't like them. I don't understand how a grown man could watch Fury Road and not love it, so I lack any objectivity in this area.

Different strokes and all. Just like you have stated several times you have lost your desire to watch the horror/gory stuff. I have lost the patience to watch action movies just for stuff blowing up. Something else has to happen as well.

I would say that the costume designs, art direction and photography give the viewer far more to look at than just explosions.

I dig, but I can also get those things things in those Lynch and PT Anderson movies you mentioned and others of that ilk - on top of some acting and plot. Action movies also can have acting and plot.

I am just saying that if there is nothing going on plot-wise and the acting is not there I will bail on a movie regardless of genre. It is just not what I like in a movie.

By the way, without lending more fuel to the "jdogg's a movie snob" fire, small movies with great scripts and wonderful acting are by far my favorite genre. So I prefer that genre by a huge margin. I just appreciate Fury Road the way I'd appreciate a loud, vulgar punk rock band.

I get it. There is nobody on this board that just watches one type of movie, and not everything has to be an award winner. I guess I was never that into action movies, and my go-to guilty/bad/brainless movies or whatever we will call them are usually horror movies. But even that I won't stick with a movie just because. Bad is bad, no matter the genre.

I just thought your comment about not getting how a grown man couldn't love Fury Road a little curious. In your analogy could understand how somebody would ever be down for enjoying some Black Flag?

Oh definitely. You know what it's like when you love something, though. There's a part of your brain that understands that every individual has unique taste. But you love that thing, so it's hard to imagine that everyone else doesn't agree.

Yeah, like Radiohead.

I was trying to think if there are any movies that I would be flat out shocked if somebody didn't dig. Maybe Back to the Future?

This really is an interesting question. I'd nominate in no particular order:

1. The Godfather

2. The Dark Knight

3. Monsters, Inc.

4. Indiana Jones (not counting Crystal Skull)

5. Top Gun

6. Rocky

7. Shawkshank Redemption

I question people's tastes when they say they don't like movies like Star Wars, 12 Angry Men, Goodfellas, Schindler's List, and Pulp Fiction/Reservoir Dogs but I could sort of see why certain aspects of these movies would turn people off.

ETA: IMDB's top user liked movies: http://www.imdb.com/chart/top

 

[KarmaPolice]

There are movies I love (David Lynch movies, PT Anderson movies) where I totally get why people don't like them. I don't understand how a grown man could watch Fury Road and not love it, so I lack any objectivity in this area.

Different strokes and all. Just like you have stated several times you have lost your desire to watch the horror/gory stuff. I have lost the patience to watch action movies just for stuff blowing up. Something else has to happen as well.

I would say that the costume designs, art direction and photography give the viewer far more to look at than just explosions.

I dig, but I can also get those things things in those Lynch and PT Anderson movies you mentioned and others of that ilk - on top of some acting and plot. Action movies also can have acting and plot.

I am just saying that if there is nothing going on plot-wise and the acting is not there I will bail on a movie regardless of genre. It is just not what I like in a movie.

By the way, without lending more fuel to the "jdogg's a movie snob" fire, small movies with great scripts and wonderful acting are by far my favorite genre. So I prefer that genre by a huge margin. I just appreciate Fury Road the way I'd appreciate a loud, vulgar punk rock band.

I get it. There is nobody on this board that just watches one type of movie, and not everything has to be an award winner. I guess I was never that into action movies, and my go-to guilty/bad/brainless movies or whatever we will call them are usually horror movies. But even that I won't stick with a movie just because. Bad is bad, no matter the genre.

I just thought your comment about not getting how a grown man couldn't love Fury Road a little curious. In your analogy could understand how somebody would ever be down for enjoying some Black Flag?

Oh definitely. You know what it's like when you love something, though. There's a part of your brain that understands that every individual has unique taste. But you love that thing, so it's hard to imagine that everyone else doesn't agree.

Yeah, like Radiohead.

I was trying to think if there are any movies that I would be flat out shocked if somebody didn't dig. Maybe Back to the Future?

This really is an interesting question. I'd nominate in no particular order:1. The Godfather

2. The Dark Knight

3. Monsters, Inc.

4. Indiana Jones (not counting Crystal Skull)

5. Top Gun

6. Rocky

7. Shawkshank Redemption

I question people's tastes when they say they don't like movies like Star Wars, 12 Angry Men, Goodfellas, Schindler's List, and Pulp Fiction/Reservoir Dogs but I could sort of see why certain aspects of these movies would turn people off.

ETA: IMDB's top user liked movies: http://www.imdb.com/chart/top

I am guilty of not liking one of those and feeling meh towards a couple others. This might be worth a separate thread.

 

[GilbertGrape]

Inside Out:

Took the son to see this one yesterday. I walked away being torn on this one. On one hand, it seemed to be more of a one trick pony than I come to expect from a high end Pixar movie. On the other hand, that one trick was still pretty damn good. Really liked some of the core ideas they were presented about how our memories and emotions work together - especially that it is healthy to have a mix of these emotions. The son and I joked about what his 6 month old sister's people are like in her head. Really some touching moments, and I am not ashamed to admit that it got dusty for both of us in there. However, even for an original Pixar movie, it did seem to be hitting a lot of the same beats we have seen out of them - especially from the Toy Story franchise. Good to see a non-sequel from them, but I don't think I could put it much higher than right in the middle of the pack of the Pixar movies (let's be honest, that is still a damn good movie as they don't produce many stinkers). 7.5/10

Feels like we've forgotten how children's movies were mostly terrible pre-Pixar. Nowadays, even an average Pixar film is still better than 90% of the dreck parents are forced to watch in that genre. Loved this movie.

I agree with the first sentence, but not the second. They definitely set the bar and forced other studios to step up their games. We all reaped the benefits from that - before that you got to watch Disney movies that that's about it. That said, it doesn't absolve them of letting their foot off the gas, and I feel they are on coast mode. It is all personal preference, but I would rather watch all of: Lego Movie, How to Train Your Dragon, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Rango, Big Hero 6, Wreck it Ralph, Despicable Me, Kung Fu Panda, and Megamind before anything Pixar has done in the last 4-5 years. Long gone are the days when Pixar was putting out the best product by far for animated movies.

I liked a lot of the movies you mentioned. I do think that fantastic Pixar movies such as Brave will always be compared to the legendary movies like Toy Story, and that devalues some very good movies. It's like The Departed or The Wolf Of Wall Street: that those movies aren't as good as Goodfellas doesn't mean they aren't very good.

The Departed was terrible. Wolf of Wall Street is watchable, but I wouldn't contrast it with Goodfellas.

 

[Bob Magaw]

Days of Heaven:

Have seen it before, but the bluray confirmed that it just might be the most gorgeous movie I have seen. Just beautifully shot.

Agreed. Badlands and Thin Red Line also Malick movies in the Criterion collection.

Thin Red Line will be in a couple weeks when the 8yo goes back to school. Will be able to tackle some longer movies during the day.

this is a good but unsatisfying film in a lot of ways. it's a mess of storytelling for the most part. it also bears the burden of being the first Malick film after his hiatus. there may come a time when his "directors" cut makes it to the market and it may be better. there were character arcs and scenes just cut out of the thing. i think the running time he showed the studio was like 7 hours. also, i don't remember the book being set up much like the movie at all.

Agree with this...

me too- and I loved the movie... but yeah, it's a mess... and awfully pretentious (everybody's inner voice narrative is a poet laureate?)

TL/DR alert!I also loved the movie, and after watching it again (third or fourth time?), do think it is great. For me, one of the best war movies I've ever seen (Apocalypse Now probably my favorite, Kubrick's Paths of Glory and Dr. Strangelove also seminal anti-war films about martial madness). I must be in the minority, based on a few other similar reviews. BTW, has anybody seen it more than once. Maybe not, if it was viewed as severely flawed the first go round? The only reason I ask, I think I probably saw it similarly the first time, but I began to appreciate it more after a few viewings.

Malick's directorial mechanics underlying his unique style (arguably one America's greatest living directors imo, and I think in some critical circles, and this includes Scorcese, Coppola, etc.) involve extreme overshooting , and letting the "finished" vision emerge during the process of editing. He reportedly shot over a million feet of film for Thin Red Line, and it took three editors approximately two years to coalesce (such as it is ). Many actors such as Bill Pullman and Mickey Rourke were completely eliminated and left on the cutting room floor. Adrian Brody went from maybe the central starring role, to an afterthought and little more than a few cameos. Jim "Evel" Caviezel's role was the complete opposite, from conception to realization.

Another Malick signature is the voice over, which is there from the beginning. Badlands with a young Cissy Spacek is in some ways reminiscent of To Kill A Mockingbird (with some formative events in a young girl's life recounted from an older perspective), IF Scout had befriended a serial killer. His next movie Days of Heaven wasn't planned as such, but others described the movie taking a very different shape and tone once he heavily cut the dialogue and used the voice over narration of the young girl as a kind of connective tissue to the whole, and adding another layer, level and dimensionality. Both of these stream of consciousness internal narratives are alike in being simple, home spun, sometimes quirky, not necessarily to advance the plot or serve as exposition, but just convey a sense of the character, place or time that would be hard to do in any other way.

The Thin Red Line (after a two decade hiatus, the longest I can think of for a major director) did depart from the previous two films with the multiple narrator voice overs. Read the beginning of the novel source material but it was a while ago, so don't recall how close or far away the film was in terms of structure and style. His daughter said that after writing a first draft for six months and his wife critiquing it as too clinical, he just scrapped it and started over. His breakthrough was in describing C (Charlie) Company as an ORGANISM, like a big worm squirming through the jungle. The author (who also wrote the novel source material for even more successful film vehicle/adaptation From Here To Forever) supposedly hated war movies, and thought they were near universally fake. I think a central theme of his writing was deglamorizing and deglorifying war, and not glossing over the real horror. My impression of the split inner narratives/voice overs was to make it more real and powerful overall. In an actual war situation, you wouldn't have everybody with headphones and an omniscient narrator describing what was happening for everybody. Everybody would have their own thoughts, sometimes similar, sometimes very different (in some ways, maybe this resembled Wings of Desire, don't know if that was an influence - though in that case, the angelic mind reading was of generally more prosaic material). Leading up to the climactic conclusion of the hill battles, a visual of the Japanese pill boxes/machine gun nests is withheld from the viewer, leaving the viewer just as in the dark and disoriented as the soldiers about how and where they are being decimated from, and (as much as is possible vicariously through film) capturing the fog of war experience.

Until the major battle sequences were resolved about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through the film, there was maybe only about 5-10 minutes total of cumulative voice over (?), definitely more towards the end. Some appeared to be working in some of the author's material. It should be noted, he was a soldier (though with very little combat experience due to an injury), but also later a writer, so some of his reflections that may have appeared mock profound in the words/thoughts of an 18-20 year old soldier, were coming from the perspective of an older person - again, maybe not unlike in To Kill A Mockingbird. Not all were super profound (Where does evil come from?), though the end part did sound like it came from Malick's philosophy and sensibility (paraphrasing - Soul, look through these eyes and see what you have created). He is a big thinker who translated a work by Heidegger after dropping out of a doctoral program at Oxford, and taught at MIT, probably another unprecedented aspect of his resume among directors.

He seems in someways part of an American Transcendentalist tradition (Emerson, etc.), seeing God in nature, though in his case, not necessarily with a superior place. In Badlands and Days of Heaven, a recurring theme was humanity being dwarfed and haunted, almost oppressed by immense spaces, maybe contributing to a sort of "frontier insanity". Some of my favorite parts of this trio are the many shots of nature and creation, the elements (fire, Biblical plagues of locusts, etc.) and cycle of the seasons in the midst of the ostensible story almost overlaying a spectral eternity to the whole, or in some cases putting that into the foreground and pushing humanity and the story into the background?

There is an annual Hemingway stylistic likeness contest. I wonder if The Thin Red Line would have been improved if more of the voice overs were about more mundane subjects and matters, arguably more consonant with the life experiences and concerns of a teenage soldier? "What is a shart, where do they come from?"

 

[El Floppo]

lol... that's been on lately, and my wife just informed me that she HATES back to the future.

lol.

What does she hate about it?

ok- I kinda get where she's coming from... and it's less about the movie and more about the universal buzz around the movie, and particularly with an arch-nemesis college professor who LOVED it. so she hated it. I've hated things for far more petty reasons.

I really disliked Life is Beautiful, which everybody seems to love. I had been living in Italy prior to that, and there's a particular kind of schmaltz that's endemic to Italy... that I was completely over. Life is Beautiful hit every schmaltzy button that irritated me, particularly Benigni's over-acting (and I LOVED him in Down by Law).

 

[El Floppo]

good stuff, bob. I love Malick- and yeah, the man vs nature theme definitely recurs strongly throughout his work. my favorite scenes in Red Line deal with this- and he's able to do it from micro, quiet solitary moments of single people to even within battles. I loved the movie- but agree with sf that it's a mess, and for me on subsequent viewings, became annoyed with the almost singular vocal tone of the voice-overs.

I think there's also a narrative structure that feels a bit disjointed and choppy- which is maybe the point? But it gets in the way for me of the overall flow of the movie.

I also love New World- but that becomes even more of a disjointed mess, particular with the coda in England. I love the shots, but it was too much camera time spent on birds flying in formation, water running and leaves/grass blowing in the wind. beautiful, but at a certain point for me overkill and redundant.

 

[nirad3]

Harumph. Last time I trust the "Netflix rating" on a movie. The Reunion with John Cena (maybe that should have been my first clue), was rated 4/5 by Netflix customers. I usually take a peek at RT as well but just decided to jump in.

2 hours later, I feel like gouging my eyes out. Heck, even going off RT (8% critic, 33% viewer) I would have probably still given it a try. I can't believe a third of viewers actually enjoyed it.

Do yourself a favor and find something else. Just dumb from start to finish.

Netflix uses an algorithm for recommendations based on your ratings cross referenced with other user ratings with commonalities with your ratings. So really, only yourself to blame.

Thanks for the attempt at a little gut jab but I have yet to rate a movie on Netflix. Try again.

 

[Chaka]

Harumph. Last time I trust the "Netflix rating" on a movie. The Reunion with John Cena (maybe that should have been my first clue), was rated 4/5 by Netflix customers. I usually take a peek at RT as well but just decided to jump in.

2 hours later, I feel like gouging my eyes out. Heck, even going off RT (8% critic, 33% viewer) I would have probably still given it a try. I can't believe a third of viewers actually enjoyed it.

Do yourself a favor and find something else. Just dumb from start to finish.

Netflix uses an algorithm for recommendations based on your ratings cross referenced with other user ratings with commonalities with your ratings. So really, only yourself to blame.

Thanks for the attempt at a little gut jab but I have yet to rate a movie on Netflix. Try again.

Perhaps if you rated movies on Netflix then you wouldn't get recommendations like The Reunion. So really, only yourself to blame.

 

[nirad3]

Harumph. Last time I trust the "Netflix rating" on a movie. The Reunion with John Cena (maybe that should have been my first clue), was rated 4/5 by Netflix customers. I usually take a peek at RT as well but just decided to jump in.

2 hours later, I feel like gouging my eyes out. Heck, even going off RT (8% critic, 33% viewer) I would have probably still given it a try. I can't believe a third of viewers actually enjoyed it.

Do yourself a favor and find something else. Just dumb from start to finish.

Netflix uses an algorithm for recommendations based on your ratings cross referenced with other user ratings with commonalities with your ratings. So really, only yourself to blame.

Thanks for the attempt at a little gut jab but I have yet to rate a movie on Netflix. Try again.

Perhaps if you rated movies on Netflix then you wouldn't get recommendations like The Reunion. So really, only yourself to blame.

That's a better jab. Not much better, but better. I've trusted the "rating system" there in the past and have been satisfied. This was only outlier thus far. Maybe I'll go back and rate that steaming pile of poo zero stars and see what happens.

Next up, Howard the Duck.

 

[jdoggydogg]

There are movies I love (David Lynch movies, PT Anderson movies) where I totally get why people don't like them. I don't understand how a grown man could watch Fury Road and not love it, so I lack any objectivity in this area.

Different strokes and all. Just like you have stated several times you have lost your desire to watch the horror/gory stuff. I have lost the patience to watch action movies just for stuff blowing up. Something else has to happen as well.

I would say that the costume designs, art direction and photography give the viewer far more to look at than just explosions.

I dig, but I can also get those things things in those Lynch and PT Anderson movies you mentioned and others of that ilk - on top of some acting and plot. Action movies also can have acting and plot.

I am just saying that if there is nothing going on plot-wise and the acting is not there I will bail on a movie regardless of genre. It is just not what I like in a movie.

By the way, without lending more fuel to the "jdogg's a movie snob" fire, small movies with great scripts and wonderful acting are by far my favorite genre. So I prefer that genre by a huge margin. I just appreciate Fury Road the way I'd appreciate a loud, vulgar punk rock band.

I get it. There is nobody on this board that just watches one type of movie, and not everything has to be an award winner. I guess I was never that into action movies, and my go-to guilty/bad/brainless movies or whatever we will call them are usually horror movies. But even that I won't stick with a movie just because. Bad is bad, no matter the genre.

I just thought your comment about not getting how a grown man couldn't love Fury Road a little curious. In your analogy could understand how somebody would ever be down for enjoying some Black Flag?

Oh definitely. You know what it's like when you love something, though. There's a part of your brain that understands that every individual has unique taste. But you love that thing, so it's hard to imagine that everyone else doesn't agree.

Yeah, like Radiohead.

I was trying to think if there are any movies that I would be flat out shocked if somebody didn't dig. Maybe Back to the Future?

Not to get too sidetracked, but I really didn't like Radiohead first few times I heard them. I'm not a superfan now, but they have some songs I really love. One song is my print shop's anthem. We work at a college campus, and we sometimes laugh and are amazed we got jobs here. So on our wall are the words:

I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here.

 

[El Floppo]

Harumph. Last time I trust the "Netflix rating" on a movie. The Reunion with John Cena (maybe that should have been my first clue), was rated 4/5 by Netflix customers. I usually take a peek at RT as well but just decided to jump in.

2 hours later, I feel like gouging my eyes out. Heck, even going off RT (8% critic, 33% viewer) I would have probably still given it a try. I can't believe a third of viewers actually enjoyed it.

Do yourself a favor and find something else. Just dumb from start to finish.

Netflix uses an algorithm for recommendations based on your ratings cross referenced with other user ratings with commonalities with your ratings. So really, only yourself to blame.

Thanks for the attempt at a little gut jab but I have yet to rate a movie on Netflix. Try again.

Perhaps if you rated movies on Netflix then you wouldn't get recommendations like The Reunion. So really, only yourself to blame.

That's a better jab. Not much better, but better. I've trusted the "rating system" there in the past and have been satisfied. This was only outlier thus far. Maybe I'll go back and rate that steaming pile of poo zero stars and see what happens.

Next up, Howard the Duck.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Oh definitely. You know what it's like when you love something, though. There's a part of your brain that understands that every individual has unique taste. But you love that thing, so it's hard to imagine that everyone else doesn't agree.

Yeah, like Radiohead.

I was trying to think if there are any movies that I would be flat out shocked if somebody didn't dig. Maybe Back to the Future?

This really is an interesting question. I'd nominate in no particular order:

1. The Godfather

2. The Dark Knight

3. Monsters, Inc.

4. Indiana Jones (not counting Crystal Skull)

5. Top Gun

6. Rocky

7. Shawkshank Redemption

I question people's tastes when they say they don't like movies like Star Wars, 12 Angry Men, Goodfellas, Schindler's List, and Pulp Fiction/Reservoir Dogs but I could sort of see why certain aspects of these movies would turn people off.

ETA: IMDB's top user liked movies: http://www.imdb.com/chart/top

I am well aware not everyone likes the following movies. But I think they are so appealing, I'm surprised when people don't like them.

Movies where I'd be shocked if someone didn't really like them

The Usual Suspects

Amadeus

Planes, Trains, And Automobiles

Gladiator

The Matrix

October Sky

Toy Story 2

Galaxy Quest

 

[jdoggydogg]

I liked a lot of the movies you mentioned. I do think that fantastic Pixar movies such as Brave will always be compared to the legendary movies like Toy Story, and that devalues some very good movies. It's like The Departed or The Wolf Of Wall Street: that those movies aren't as good as Goodfellas doesn't mean they aren't very good.

The Departed was terrible. Wolf of Wall Street is watchable, but I wouldn't contrast it with Goodfellas.

This couldn't be more wrong if your name was R. Wrongy Wrongerstein.

 

[James Daulton]

Oh definitely. You know what it's like when you love something, though. There's a part of your brain that understands that every individual has unique taste. But you love that thing, so it's hard to imagine that everyone else doesn't agree.

Yeah, like Radiohead.

I was trying to think if there are any movies that I would be flat out shocked if somebody didn't dig. Maybe Back to the Future?

This really is an interesting question. I'd nominate in no particular order:

1. The Godfather

2. The Dark Knight

3. Monsters, Inc.

4. Indiana Jones (not counting Crystal Skull)

5. Top Gun

6. Rocky

7. Shawkshank Redemption

I question people's tastes when they say they don't like movies like Star Wars, 12 Angry Men, Goodfellas, Schindler's List, and Pulp Fiction/Reservoir Dogs but I could sort of see why certain aspects of these movies would turn people off.

ETA: IMDB's top user liked movies: http://www.imdb.com/chart/top

I am well aware not everyone likes the following movies. But I think they are so appealing, I'm surprised when people don't like them.

Movies where I'd be shocked if someone didn't really like them

The Usual Suspects

Amadeus

Planes, Trains, And Automobiles

Gladiator

The Matrix

October Sky

Toy Story 2

Galaxy Quest

Galaxy Quest getting way too much love ITT. It's pretty good but let's not go nuts.

 

[Cold Dead Hands]

Galaxy Quest

Galaxy Quest getting way too much love ITT. It's pretty good but let's not go nuts.

Just heard yesterday they're developing a TV series

Wasn't it already done in 1966?

 

[Chaka]

Harumph. Last time I trust the "Netflix rating" on a movie. The Reunion with John Cena (maybe that should have been my first clue), was rated 4/5 by Netflix customers. I usually take a peek at RT as well but just decided to jump in.

2 hours later, I feel like gouging my eyes out. Heck, even going off RT (8% critic, 33% viewer) I would have probably still given it a try. I can't believe a third of viewers actually enjoyed it.

Do yourself a favor and find something else. Just dumb from start to finish.

Netflix uses an algorithm for recommendations based on your ratings cross referenced with other user ratings with commonalities with your ratings. So really, only yourself to blame.

Thanks for the attempt at a little gut jab but I have yet to rate a movie on Netflix. Try again.

Perhaps if you rated movies on Netflix then you wouldn't get recommendations like The Reunion. So really, only yourself to blame.

That's a better jab. Not much better, but better. I've trusted the "rating system" there in the past and have been satisfied. This was only outlier thus far. Maybe I'll go back and rate that steaming pile of poo zero stars and see what happens.

Next up, Howard the Duck.

Considering how poorly you rate movies I will take that as a compliment.

 

[sports_fan]

Southpaw - 3/5

Nothing too interesting or unique about it but still decent. Worth a 1 time watch.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

Insurgent.

Better than the first one. Shaileene Woodley is an attractive woman.

 

[Riversco]

The Mosquito Coast. 7/10.

I had no idea what it was about but started going thru Harrison Ford films because Star Wars 7 is coming. Turns out Ford plays some ranting genius who hates America and hates commercialism and so he packs up the family and moves to central America and tries to set up some kind of marxist utopia. It was actually pretty good.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

John Wick - 7.5/10

Not normally my kind of movie - it's really violent - but this one worked for me.

It's a mashup of Jack Reacher and Equilibrium (the gunkata part).

 

[Zow]

Your sister's sister 4/5

I wish I had the kind of time on my hands that this characters in this movie do, but it's quirky and enjoyable.

 

[Zow]

John Wick - 7.5/10

Not normally my kind of movie - it's really violent - but this one worked for me.

It's a mashup of Jack Reacher and Equilibrium (the gunkata part).

Agree with this. It also kind of reminded me of the punisher for some reason.

 

[GilbertGrape]

I liked a lot of the movies you mentioned. I do think that fantastic Pixar movies such as Brave will always be compared to the legendary movies like Toy Story, and that devalues some very good movies. It's like The Departed or The Wolf Of Wall Street: that those movies aren't as good as Goodfellas doesn't mean they aren't very good.

The Departed was terrible. Wolf of Wall Street is watchable, but I wouldn't contrast it with Goodfellas.

This couldn't be more wrong if your name was R. Wrongy Wrongerstein.

Way too many lead actors, a crap story, and poor direction. It sucked.

 

[JoeSteeler]

Your sister's sister 4/5

I wish I had the kind of time on my hands that this characters in this movie do, but it's quirky and enjoyable.

almost anything involving Mark Duplass is at least pretty good (Cyrus, Jeff Who lives at Home, Safety Not Guaranteed, The Skeleton Twins, Togetherness).

 

[17seconds]

There are movies I love (David Lynch movies, PT Anderson movies) where I totally get why people don't like them. I don't understand how a grown man could watch Fury Road and not love it, so I lack any objectivity in this area.

Different strokes and all. Just like you have stated several times you have lost your desire to watch the horror/gory stuff. I have lost the patience to watch action movies just for stuff blowing up. Something else has to happen as well.

I would say that the costume designs, art direction and photography give the viewer far more to look at than just explosions.

I dig, but I can also get those things things in those Lynch and PT Anderson movies you mentioned and others of that ilk - on top of some acting and plot. Action movies also can have acting and plot.

I am just saying that if there is nothing going on plot-wise and the acting is not there I will bail on a movie regardless of genre. It is just not what I like in a movie.

By the way, without lending more fuel to the "jdogg's a movie snob" fire, small movies with great scripts and wonderful acting are by far my favorite genre. So I prefer that genre by a huge margin. I just appreciate Fury Road the way I'd appreciate a loud, vulgar punk rock band.

I get it. There is nobody on this board that just watches one type of movie, and not everything has to be an award winner. I guess I was never that into action movies, and my go-to guilty/bad/brainless movies or whatever we will call them are usually horror movies. But even that I won't stick with a movie just because. Bad is bad, no matter the genre.

I just thought your comment about not getting how a grown man couldn't love Fury Road a little curious. In your analogy could understand how somebody would ever be down for enjoying some Black Flag?

Oh definitely. You know what it's like when you love something, though. There's a part of your brain that understands that every individual has unique taste. But you love that thing, so it's hard to imagine that everyone else doesn't agree.

Yeah, like Radiohead.

I was trying to think if there are any movies that I would be flat out shocked if somebody didn't dig. Maybe Back to the Future?

This really is an interesting question. I'd nominate in no particular order:

1. The Godfather

2. The Dark Knight

3. Monsters, Inc.

4. Indiana Jones (not counting Crystal Skull)

5. Top Gun

6. Rocky

7. Shawkshank Redemption

I question people's tastes when they say they don't like movies like Star Wars, 12 Angry Men, Goodfellas, Schindler's List, and Pulp Fiction/Reservoir Dogs but I could sort of see why certain aspects of these movies would turn people off.

ETA: IMDB's top user liked movies: http://www.imdb.com/chart/top

Maybe I need to watch it again but I didn't like The Dark Knight

I found Christian Bale's voice as Batman annoying, and I found the teen and 20-something's overwhelming love for the movie really annoying.

 

[cstu]

I liked a lot of the movies you mentioned. I do think that fantastic Pixar movies such as Brave will always be compared to the legendary movies like Toy Story, and that devalues some very good movies. It's like The Departed or The Wolf Of Wall Street: that those movies aren't as good as Goodfellas doesn't mean they aren't very good.

The Departed was terrible. Wolf of Wall Street is watchable, but I wouldn't contrast it with Goodfellas.

This couldn't be more wrong if your name was R. Wrongy Wrongerstein.

Way too many lead actors, a crap story, and poor direction. It sucked.

Infernal Affairs is a much better movie.

 

[El Floppo]

Underwhelmed with Ex Machina. As soon as it it started, I thought of 3 possibilites for where it was going, and didnt get surprised. As such, I found myself wondering about technical things and not just going for the ride. Ok, but nothing great or thought-provoking

 

[jdoggydogg]

Underwhelmed with Ex Machina. As soon as it it started, I thought of 3 possibilites for where it was going, and didnt get surprised. As such, I found myself wondering about technical things and not just going for the ride. Ok, but nothing great or thought-provoking

:unfriend:

 

[jamny]

I have a movie, The Canal. Is it good?

I thought I was getting It Follows

Decent, watchable. Not particularly excellent, but good enough for what it is.

Finally got around to watching it. I found it better than decent. Definitely worth watching. 3/5

 

[Chaka]

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid just starting on Encore.

Such an incredible film always worth watching.

 

[Mr. Mojo]

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid just starting on Encore.

Such an incredible film always worth watching.

 

[On The Rocks]

"Kill the Messenger" with Jeremy Renner.

Poor mans version of "All the Presidents Men".

I like Renner. This movie had good material and subject matter but was missing something.

5/10

 

[TripItUp]

"Kill the Messenger" with Jeremy Renner.

Poor mans version of "All the Presidents Men".

I like Renner. This movie had good material and subject matter but was missing something.

5/10

Just got done watching this...one helluva story. I was all in on it.

9/10

 

[rockaction]

Best Of Enemies - 9/10

This has to be the best documentary of the year. A movie about the 1968 Democratic Convention and the television news "debates" that transpired between William F. Buckley, Jr. and Gore Vidal on ABC. Caught this one at a screening locally, and it is every bit the dramatic and tense piece you'd imagine from a major motion picture. In 1968, ABC, which was dead last in the news, decided to not cover the convention like the other networks, but instead substituted two pundits in place of gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Republican and the Democratic convention. When they asked Buckley to come on, he agreed. When asked who he would not come on with, he said, "a communist or Gore Vidal." Afraid of seeming too communist-friendly, ABC booked Vidal, and an early version of Crossfire was born.

There are tons of things to say about this film, and the critics are doing it in spades. It's well done, its point about the degeneration of TV news is made well, if late into the movie, and it shows exactly how personal animus and politics can abjectly color even two great minds when they come together. A must-see for the FFA political denizens, frankly.

The End Of The Tour - 5/10

I love David Foster Wallace. I caught this screening, too, at a sort of local cinema. I can't add much more than the assenting and dissenting critics of the movie other than to say that they never captured DFW's authorial voice. He was so funny, so rich, and so multi-dimensional that a movie that portends to be a biopic cannot function from a source material that covers five days of a book tour in 1996. I don't hate this movie, and I understand the greatness and adaptation that must have gone into even trying to make this a major motion picture project, but in his introduction to the world, DFW's voice is lost within the clutter of both the adaptation and the overarching theme of the tortured and unwilling soon-to-be famous artist. DFW was smarter than these reductive tropes, and while I love the adapters and screenwriters and directors, this movie fails the artist in significant ways.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Casino Royale:

I finally watched my first Bond movie from start to finish. (have seen a few bits and pieces here and there - I am sure on TBS). Really liked this one. Great action scenes, a couple laughs, and Eva Green = . There were a couple slow parts, but overall it was one of the better action movies I have seen in a bit. Will definitely watch the newer ones, even though I heard that Quantum of Solace was a bit of a disappointment. 7.5/10

 

[Sweet J]

I am well aware not everyone likes the following movies. But I think they are so appealing, I'm surprised when people don't like them.

Movies where I'd be shocked if someone didn't really like them

The Usual Suspects

Amadeus

Planes, Trains, And Automobiles

Gladiator

The Matrix

October Sky

Toy Story 2

Galaxy Quest

I like this game. The key here is that movies that EVERYONE would like means that it can't really be cutting edge or quirky. So almost immediately PT Anderson movies fall of the list, Terrintino movies, Terry Gilliam movies, and maybe even Cohen brothers movies. You could possibly get stuck with a lot of Speilberg (not necessarily an awful thing). So, if we are looking for universal love, something that even grandparents would like, probably the only thing on my list of "I'd be shocked if someone didn't like this" is:

1. Princess Bride.

There are some others, too, and others that have been mentioned. But I also think that this is where movies like Galaxy Quest or Back to the Future, ET, Star Wars, or Toy Story/Finding Nemo/Incredibles come in. It's a decent movie and enjoyable. That's exactly the type of movie that you'd be shocked if someone didn't at least like.

If I were to push the envelope a little bit, something a little quirky, I might add some of my personal favorites, that are a little lesser known (outside of this thread), like The Station Agent, Oh Brother How Art Thou, and October Sky.

If we are talking men in our age demographic, then yeah, I think the above movies are solid. Gladiator, Matrix, Usual Suspects, Pulp Fiction, Lock Stock Smoking Barrels, etc.

This is a fun exercise.

 

[Zow]

Casino Royale:

I finally watched my first Bond movie from start to finish. (have seen a few bits and pieces here

and there - I am sure on TBS). Really liked this one. Great action scenes, a couple laughs, and Eva Green = . There were a couple slow parts, but overall it was one of the better action

movies I have seen in a bit. Will definitely watch the newer ones, even though I heard that Quantum of Solace was a bit of a disappointment. 7.5/10

Sky fall makes up for it.

 

[KarmaPolice]

I am well aware not everyone likes the following movies. But I think they are so appealing, I'm surprised when people don't like them.

Movies where I'd be shocked if someone didn't really like them

The Usual Suspects

Amadeus

Planes, Trains, And Automobiles

Gladiator

The Matrix

October Sky

Toy Story 2

Galaxy Quest

I like this game. The key here is that movies that EVERYONE would like means that it can't really be cutting edge or quirky. So almost immediately PT Anderson movies fall of the list, Terrintino movies, Terry Gilliam movies, and maybe even Cohen brothers movies. You could possibly get stuck with a lot of Speilberg (not necessarily an awful thing). So, if we are looking for universal love, something that even grandparents would like, probably the only thing on my list of "I'd be shocked if someone didn't like this" is:

1. Princess Bride.

There are some others, too, and others that have been mentioned. But I also think that this is where movies like Galaxy Quest or Back to the Future, ET, Star Wars, or Toy Story/Finding Nemo/Incredibles come in. It's a decent movie and enjoyable. That's exactly the type of movie that you'd be shocked if someone didn't at least like.

If I were to push the envelope a little bit, something a little quirky, I might add some of my personal favorites, that are a little lesser known (outside of this thread), like The Station Agent, Oh Brother How Art Thou, and October Sky.

If we are talking men in our age demographic, then yeah, I think the above movies are solid. Gladiator, Matrix, Usual Suspects, Pulp Fiction, Lock Stock Smoking Barrels, etc.

This is a fun exercise.

I am just tired of the movie, but I would tend to agree with you on Princess Bride.

I also think that we can't expect everybody to fall in love with these movies or think they were the best thing ever, but I would be surprised if I heard that somebody thought they were just bad and didn't like them.

When I was at the video store we would try this, and usually the closest we came to "universally liked" were some core 80s movies, Pixar movies, and a couple other newer PG moviess. With the 80s movies you have the nostalgia for mom and dad, and enough there to keep the kids liking the movies. With Pixar you have movies targeted for kids but with heart and humor for the adults. Every time we suggested these it was a positive (the only ding on the 80s movies is most have more swearing than today's PG movies), or any time we had them playing in the store they would rent or people would comment about how good they are:

Princess Bride (although I could see some guys not liking this)

The Goonies

Back to the Future

Karate Kid

Remember the Titans

Rudy

Dead Poets Society

Once you start pushing into the PG-13 and R movies, somebody usually starts getting their panties in a wad about something, but I think movies like Stand By Me and Shawshank pop out as being as close to universal as I've found. Also can't dip into sci-fi or other genres or you will lose people very quickly.

As far as "guy" movies, I am probably the last to do a list like that, but I would think that stuff like Godfather, Die Hard, Usual Suspects, and Blackhawk Down would be on that.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Casino Royale:

I finally watched my first Bond movie from start to finish. (have seen a few bits and pieces here

and there - I am sure on TBS). Really liked this one. Great action scenes, a couple laughs, and Eva Green = . There were a couple slow parts, but overall it was one of the better action

movies I have seen in a bit. Will definitely watch the newer ones, even though I heard that Quantum of Solace was a bit of a disappointment. 7.5/10

Sky fall makes up for it.

Good to know, plus it looks like Quantum is a bit shorter too.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

The 39 Steps - 7/10

Early quintessential Hitchcock. A man on the run from wrongful accusation of murder and swept up in events bigger than himself keeps his cheeky sense of humor, woos the girl, and ends up the hero.

About in the middle of the pack of Hitch's movies I've seen.