Recently Viewed Movies Episode 2: The Vampire Bites Back

[GrimReality]

Even if you're not a fan of musicals....go see Les Misérables. It's fucking good. If you arent careful though, Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway will tear your soul out with just their voices.

Russel Crow sings as bad as his band sounds.

NO. All singing = no go. I'll try it out when it comes to Blu, though.

Premium Rush -
***/4 stars
What a fun movie! You'd never think a movie about New York City bike messengers would be much to watch, but this proved that wrong. I especially liked thew camera views of the fast paced riding and weaving through the traffic-congested streets. Total adrenaline.
The movie DOES fall apart a bit when you start talking about the story. Crazy ass bike messenger Wilee(the awesome JGL) gets an urgent delivery and ends up hounded by a crooked cop looking for an easy way to solve his own gambling problems. Some of the things that go on involving this guy really stretch into the realm of ridiculous. Then we have the girl who just wants her kid back brought over from China. THEN there's the stupid love triangle/ dick swinging contest between Wilee, and two other messengers. One his girlfriend, and one his rival.
The story may be silly, but the way it's told is fun and fast-paced. I really liked this movie.

[(Tunnels)]

Django Unchained is violent, absurd, full of racism, discomforting, and breathtakingly awesome.

Agreed. This was one amazing film. The best one I've seen all year.

[Yoda]

So I watched The Hobbit. Despite a initially having a crappy feeling that they cashed in big time by making three movies I enjoyed this a lot. It's been a long time since I've read the book, so I can't really say what's been added in but I thought the movie had good pacing. Having been bummed by "meh" reviews I was very guarded about this. But as soon as the thing started I was caught up in the awesome production values. The excellent attention to detail from LOTR is back but even more refined. This movie is a stunner and technically awesome. The characters are pretty solid too, for the most part. I'll watch Martin Freeman eat a ham sandwich though, for Pete's sake.

I like the slow reveal of Smaug too. I can't remember if the Necromancer was in the hobbit...or not. In fact I'm not angry about the addition of extra material at all. They're excellent storytellers and will do everything justice.

[Tooker]

Finally saw Wreck-It Ralph, and enjoyed the heck out of it.  Great job by the voice actors in particular.  Alan Tudyk's impersonation of Ed Wynn (best known these days as the Mad Hatter in Disney's animated Alice in Wonderland or the laughing uncle in Mary Poppins) was dead on, and John C. Reilly fit Ralph to a T.  I was a little worried that Sarah Silverman's real-life persona would pull me out of things, but her voice and the character are different enough that I hardly remembered it was her.

I have a friend who worked on it years ago when it was Joe Jump, and I was really torn as to whether I wanted it to be awesome or crummy, because he and his co-workers from that time didn't get any credit in the final movie.  But in the end, I'm glad it's good, credit or no.  I understand why they didn't get it made back then, because they just had the basic idea of the movie and a bunch of places he could go, and couldn't really figure out any real central motivation for him to do so.  The switch to using the villain as the main character was a good one, because it gave him clearer reasons to leave his game, and I think it's good that they cut the number of other games he went to, because it gave them the time to develop other characters rather than making it a constant parade of new faces who you never got to know very well.

[Esper_Crusader]

Walk The Line. It's Johnny Cash and its great:) Great performances all around.

[Dice]

This is 40.

Cute, funny, but done better before.  It's pretty aimless, there's no real plot except for an issue that comes up for Rudd and Mann each.  Their daughter's sort of tag along, and the supporting cast as fodder to fill up time I guess.  Some scenes felt like an excuse to bring up embarassing things that couples do/discuss at some point... which I guess is amusing, but the rest of the film is pretty plotless.  It's good for a watch, for sure... but probably not worth a re-watch any more than that.  ... Paul Rudd's dad's Jewfro bothered me every time it was on screen.

[GrimReality]

The Amazing Spiderman -
***/4 stars
Well, this turned out better than I could have hoped. It's really hard to find anything negative about it. Besides how quickly it arrived after the previous 3.
It looks great, sounds great, has numerous good actors, has plenty of action, and is a fun origin story. They really did a good job on this one, despite all that could have gone wrong.
Andrew Garfield makes a pretty darn good Peter Parker. He DOES seem a tad old for the part, but that's a minor point.
Emma Stone does Gwen Stacy well, although I think Emma herself looks so much better with red hair.
Everyone else is good as well, in their respective roles.
The movie has a very modern "slick" look about it. Almost TOO slick at times. Like it went through the CG generator one too many go arounds. Once again, minor point.
I very much look forward to a sequel, as I'm sure there will be one.

[dyeager]

Saw Margin Call, which a lot of folks had told me I HAD to see because I work in that biz.

I thought it was really good. Did a great job of capturing the general feeling of "oh crap" that went on as the implications of what was about to happen became clear between 2007-2008. It doesn't explain the technicalities of what happened, but is more about the convergence of individual interest and corporate interest, etc. Challenging insofar as it makes you think about what exactly the "right" thing to do, knowing what we know now, would have been in the same situation again. Excellent if you are into a more cerebral, Wall Street thriller type of thing.

[Ashtrot]

The Amazing Spiderman -
***/4 stars
Well, this turned out better than I could have hoped. It's really hard to find anything negative about it. Besides how quickly it arrived after the previous 3.
It looks great, sounds great, has numerous good actors, has plenty of action, and is a fun origin story. They really did a good job on this one, despite all that could have gone wrong.
Andrew Garfield makes a pretty darn good Peter Parker. He DOES seem a tad old for the part, but that's a minor point.
Emma Stone does Gwen Stacy well, although I think Emma herself looks so much better with red hair.
Everyone else is good as well, in their respective roles.
The movie has a very modern "slick" look about it. Almost TOO slick at times. Like it went through the CG generator one too many go arounds. Once again, minor point.
I very much look forward to a sequel, as I'm sure there will be one.

A friend of mine says that Amazing SPider Man is what comes out when you mate Spider Man and Twilight. I grudgingly accept this notion, because I like Amazing Spider Man but it has that fucking Twilight sheen I hate.

[GrimReality]

The Amazing Spiderman -
***/4 stars
Well, this turned out better than I could have hoped. It's really hard to find anything negative about it. Besides how quickly it arrived after the previous 3.
It looks great, sounds great, has numerous good actors, has plenty of action, and is a fun origin story. They really did a good job on this one, despite all that could have gone wrong.
Andrew Garfield makes a pretty darn good Peter Parker. He DOES seem a tad old for the part, but that's a minor point.
Emma Stone does Gwen Stacy well, although I think Emma herself looks so much better with red hair.
Everyone else is good as well, in their respective roles.
The movie has a very modern "slick" look about it. Almost TOO slick at times. Like it went through the CG generator one too many go arounds. Once again, minor point.
I very much look forward to a sequel, as I'm sure there will be one.

A friend of mine says that Amazing SPider Man is what comes out when you mate Spider Man and Twilight. I grudgingly accept this notion, because I like Amazing Spider Man but it has that fucking Twilight sheen I hate.

A good way to describe it. The romance between Peter and Gwen IS a bit Twi-like. There was definitely more of it than I, and my uncomfortable son, were expecting. Fortunately, the rest of the movie makes up for it.

[Dice]

Django Unchained

One reason I'm always happy to be a fan of Tarantino is that for the most part he's always able to deliver a really solid film.  Django is no exception.  It's what happens when you mix the action of Kill Bill vol. 1, and the talkity-talk of Kill Bill vol. 2, and while you don't get it in the same extremities as those two films did, the end result is still an incredibly satisfying Western film... heck, probably the best since True Grit, and....fuck... Tombstone (I'm your huckleberry) before that (either way, it brought life to a certainly dying genre).

The performances were perfect. 

[Klyde Chroma]

So I watched The Hobbit. Despite a initially having a crappy feeling that they cashed in big time by making three movies I enjoyed this a lot. It's been a long time since I've read the book, so I can't really say what's been added in but I thought the movie had good pacing. Having been bummed by "meh" reviews I was very guarded about this. But as soon as the thing started I was caught up in the awesome production values. The excellent attention to detail from LOTR is back but even more refined. This movie is a stunner and technically awesome. The characters are pretty solid too, for the most part. I'll watch Martin Freeman eat a ham sandwich though, for Pete's sake.

I like the slow reveal of Smaug too. I can't remember if the Necromancer was in the hobbit...or not. In fact I'm not angry about the addition of extra material at all. They're excellent storytellers and will do everything justice.

I was pleasantly surprised with The Hobbit myself.... I didn't think I was going to dig it at all considering it was my least favorite of Tolkiens writing.... and to top it off the appeal of Middle Earth seemed to have wore out entirely to me after the recent years of excessive LOTR media.... but I was totally wrong! In fact, I liked it enough to erroneously run out and purchase the terrible Lego LOTR game right after.... I was sucked in! Baited.... fell for it... and middle earth took me for another 60 bucks damnit.... but that movie was absolutely worth my time :)

[Yoda]

That lego lotr game is getting good reviews

[Dice]

That lego lotr game is getting good reviews

If "so-so" means "good".

[Agent D.]

So who else is ready to see Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters?