Summarize and Rate the Last Movie You Saw

[John McHenry]

Only God Forgives
Loved it. People will complain about the lack of dialogue from Gosling, but he portrayed a guy who's been shattered and scarred by his family perfectly. They'll complain about the amount of violence, but I feel the content wasn't as graphic as people are making out. The bits that didn't need to be shown weren't, and those that were shown were done so out of symbolism rather than pure entertainment. People will also say that it's style over substance, but I think it's a great ant-revenge story that has an engaging dark fantasy side to it. On top of that, the music and lighting is amazing, Kristin Scott Tomas puts in an excellent performance, and the pacing is wonderful. I may be a big fan of Refn and Gosling, but I don't think I'm being biased in saying how good this film is. Maybe it'll just take a while for people to see it for its true quality. Or maybe I'm just talking out of my ass. Either/or. 9/10

His prior two movies were amazing and they also had very little dialogue.

 

[Keith]

Scream

Scream has always been a classic for me. It is basically a killer in a mask who's signature tactic of murdering people is giving them a call first to scare them. In the end you find out that it was two people who both had the same costume that was the killer.... Some may say it is a cheesy movie, but it has classic written all over it.

8/10

No I love it, I think the characters and dialogue are just so smart and it pulls of that rare trick of being both scary and funny. Its also good that its a film which appeals to a knowing horror fan base but also a teen audience who might not be so in on in jokes.

 

[Keith]

His prior two movies were amazing and they also had very little dialogue.

Think I am a bigger Gosling fan than Refn, but Drive is maybe one of my favourite films of the last decade so I will be checking this out.

 

[Troy]

Pain & Gain

The plot here is a group of bodybuilders who are sick of where they are in life kidnap a rich client and extort him for all his money. The Rock and Tony Shaloub drew me to this movie. The concept seemed interesting enough, so out there that it is hard to believe it was a true story so I went and saw it today. However when I walked out of this movie I honestly didn't know if I had enjoyed it or not. It was alright but it didn't seem to know if it wanted to be a comedy or a serious film, some of the camerawork was terrible as well. The tone of the film wasn't right and the first half was a bit odd, got better in the second half but still wasn't that good. Wouldn't recommend rushing out to see it.

Rating: 5/10

 

[Kiffy Lube]

Tribulation

The end of the World is comin' and evil men that got thrown out of heaven are takin' over the World. And it's a non-believer played by Gary Busey that has to save the day. Man, I loved the concept of this movie. Busey was amazing throughout this. Hard to take him seriously for the most part. So it takes some extraordinary things to happen and the entire World puttin' on these goggles. These goggles take you to a white room with the leader of this rapture of sorts. But if you were a true Christian or some bullshit you got taken to heaven just for the sake of it as this was all goin' down. Busey gets in a coma and has no idea what is goin' on for the longest time. He wakes up and makes his escape from this fortified hospital. He keeps runnin' from these evil doers that want him to commit his soul to the devil through you know the goggles. Some real life altercations and more hidin' he finds his Family. Well what's left of it. So they got some satellite set up transmission ready to go off as the Leader is gonna to finally complete his plan on worldwide televsion. So here ya go from out in the middle of nowhere this transmission throws him off TV and you get some Christian Evangelist speakin'. These wakes up everyone that has been brainwashed and the World is saved.

7.5/10

 

[Keith]

Pretty great week for me movie wise.

Stories We Tell (2013) 10/10
Talented actress/director Sarah Polley's very personal documentary is about her own family, and the story of her mother (who died some years ago) and the revaluations surrounding her and Polley's farther, the story is told by the remaining members of the family as well as other people connected to the main subjects. Of course not everyone's version of the story is the same. What struck me first was how even though as a viewer I was intruding on their lives, it never felt that way, I enjoyed the characters and settled into the film, there was a warmth to them, and the story. There was great use of old super eight footage and dramatic reconstruction. It was a very tender, but also tragic and sad film, which raised questions about memory, and storytelling and art and whether film or documentary should tell the whole truth or just a version of it. For me a funny, charming and sad film all in one.

The Bling Ring (2013) 6.5/10
A bit hit and miss, but easily the director's best film since Lost in Translation. At times I did find the characters too empty and uninteresting and some parts of the film did drag, also I didn't think it told me much about this life style which I could not have learnt from a magazine or the internet. But there were a couple of strong performances from Leslie Mann and Emma Watson, the script was balanced so that you judged the characters for yourself and the once again the visually world of the film and use of music was very effective.

Kontroll (2003) 7.5/10
Very stylish and edgy thriller, set around the lives of a group of ticket inspectors working on the subway. It takes a bit of time to get into the characters, but it was entertaining and a gripping watch mostly.

 

[AF.]

Red Dawn (2012)

Decided to give this a go despite the bad reviews because I like the premise of the movie. Going to try and stray away from being overly negative, but this movie wasn't nearly as bad as I expected going in. Chris Hemmsworth, great young actor and led the movie really well. His death was unexpected and anti-Hollywood and I commend the movie in that regard, because it came literally out of nowhere. The action in the movie was executed well and is on par with most Hollywood blockbusters in regards to the quality of the sequences. The first scene of the movie was great, probably the best of the entire movie and set up the movie really well. Looking at some negatives, however, because there are quite a few. Casting. Josh Peck is way out of his league here. His calling is kids movies and comedies, not being the 2nd lead in an action driven movie. It didn't suit him whatsoever. Irrelevant characters. Other than the two brothers, there was literally nobody else to give a shit about (and I barely cared for the younger brother). A North Korean invasion isn't a 'Red Dawn' either, although that doesn't bother me because it is hinted that the Russians are helping them. The 'Wolverines' with only 1 person with military experience being able to get away with bombing and killing loads of Koreans is highly unlikely in a realistic scenario. Also it wasn't really explained why some people were locked up in prisons and others were able to roam freely. A decent movie overall. I'd like a better movie with the premise being so interesting (a U.S invasion). It's a hard concept to pull off and I think they've done a decent job here.

6.5/10

 

[Troy]

Now You See Me

Watched this yesterday and boy am I glad I went and saw it. After how poor Pain & Gain was it was nice to see a film that lived up to the hype and was actually entertaining. Basic plot is four street magicians are brought together and perform a Vegas show together, their tricks keep getting bigger and bigger and they are seemingly robbing banks using magic. It was a well cast film that had a good twist at the end, didn't have a perfect plot but it was a fun film and it delivered what it promised. Really enjoy Woody Harrelson in comedies rarely disappoints, Jesse Eisenberg has that neurotic personality down pat that he played so well in The Social Network, Isla Fisher is stunning and played her role well. Hoping that they produce a sequel after how successful this one was, they left it open enough that they could easily come back for a second movie.

Rating: 8/10

 

[Schmidty]

seeking a friend for the end of the world

Steve Carell Started out this movie very depressed. As it went on he found somebody that he grown to love.

I don't have a lot to say about the movie but, the second half was entertaining to me since the first half was so depressing.

7/10

 

[AF.]

Now You See Me

It's nice to see a modern day movie apply a bit of thought and depth to its story. Enjoyed this heaps. Cast was great and the pacing of the movie was perfect. Will watch again soon to see the little things I missed.

8/10

 

[Chris]

Now You See Me

It's nice to see a modern day movie apply a bit of thought and depth to its story. Enjoyed this heaps. Cast was great and the pacing of the movie was perfect. Will watch again soon to see the little things I missed.

8/10

Literally my only problem was the ending which I won't spoil on here, was swervy as fuck it just didn't make any sense with how the rest of the movie was (think Fight Club where how you can watch it the second time and see the hints that you missed), there were no hints to it and some parts of it just don't make sense with the swerve. The first 3/4ths or so were pretty amazing though, and the ending didn't hurt it too much, I just felt that was one of the worst ways they could have ended it.

 

[AF.]

Literally my only problem was the ending which I won't spoil on here, was swervy as fuck it just didn't make any sense with how the rest of the movie was (think Fight Club where how you can watch it the second time and see the hints that you missed), there were no hints to it and some parts of it just don't make sense with the swerve. The first 3/4ths or so were pretty amazing though, and the ending didn't hurt it too much, I just felt that was one of the worst ways they could have ended it.

I didn't see it coming AT ALL which is weird for me because I pick the endings to movies like these a lot (eg. The Prestige). But I can understand where you're coming from. They probably needed to drop hints throughout the only one I can think of is Morgan Freeman telling Ruffalo that

Spoiler: nysm

it was an inside job

It makes sense that everything was a massive diversion which ties into magicians acts nicely.

 

[Chris]

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Thought the concept of this one was really cool especially because most movies of the time period that dealt with WWII were actual war movies, and then you had this one that dealt with the returning soldiers' transition back into society which most of the time didn't work so well. It was long as hell (almost 3 hours) but I didn't even really realize that because it paced itself so well, a few scenes drug out a little longer than I wished they would have but overall, this was a very enjoyable film. The acting was great all around, even by the non-actor who legitimately lost both his hands in the war (think he even won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). And Tom's wife was a cunt.

8.5/10

 

[AF.]

Pain & Gain

Honestly thought this was an awesome movie lol. It was pretty hilarious at some points, extremely gritty in others. A good blend of action, drama and comedy. Michael Bay's style is good and it works extremely well here. Can see why people wouldn't like this movie, but I thought it was pretty darn good.

8/10

 

[Chris]

Good Will Hunting (1997)

First time seeing this actually and it was very enjoyable. I kinda' knew what to expect going into it, so I wasn't just blown away or anything but the two hours went by so fast. Absolutely amazing acting the whole way through, especially from Robin Williams and Matt Damon. Really loved the ending, no swerves or anything and I love a movie that can have the cliche happy ending and you like it instead of wishing something else happened.

10/10