Last Movie You Watched? 6.0

Harmsway wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Hulk (2003)

It has such a bad rep from what I've heard, but I actually thought it was pretty good. About 20 or so minutes too long, but pretty good. I even liked Bana. I was expecting him to win second place to Sam Worthlesston for the Biggest Personality Void award. But I liked him. The rest of the cast is top-notch. I also really dig Ang Lee's style with the panels and split screen. It gets a little overboard when Josh Lucas gets blow'd up, but otherwise it's really neat and I found it to be a dynamic way to relay some moments and scenes. Decent score from Elfman too.

So... I found it to be above average in most respects for this genre. Just a little too long. The pace could have been massaged a bit.

Yeah, I agree the biggest problem with it is pacing. It runs too long. But there's a level of craftsmanship on display in HULK that's not there with the vast majority of other superhero films. The editing is nothing short of stunning (should have won an Oscar for it, really).

And I gotta say, I like that HULK makes no real apologies for its own comic-bookiness. The climactic battle, with the Hulk fighting off against elemental forces, climaxing with his tangle with a giant energy cloud is pure 1970s Marvel material.

I would absolutely LOVE that first Hulk if the majority of Nick Nolte's part and plotline was cut out. Whenever that stuff comes up in the film is when it goes astray. But otherwise I quite like it. I think the entire cast is superior to the rebootquel, and the Hulk effects in that first movie look much better in 2004 than the second one's looks in 2008.

Also -- Tux, are you watching ALL the Marvel movies? As opposed to just the Avengers lead-up ones? Because the FF movies have nothing to do with Avengers. And if so, why did you skip the Blade, X-Men and Spidey movies on your Marvel meter?

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

[ think the entire cast is superior to the rebootquel,

Yeah, the cast for the other fails to excite... At least Liv Tyler taking over for Jennifer Connelly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP_9zH9Q44o

Quote :

Also -- Tux, are you watching ALL the Marvel movies? As opposed to just the Avengers lead-up ones? Because the FF movies have nothing to do with Avengers. And if so, why did you skip the Blade, X-Men and Spidey movies on your Marvel meter?

I had planned to watch HULK and then the MCU films... But I saw the FF ones at a local rental place and thought, "what the hell...". It's a crossover with Netflix and this local rental place. I plan to see the IRON MAN films and TIH tomorrow.

I've seen the X movies. I'll wait a few years til I watch them again. Might watch the Spidey flicks this summer if I see the new one. I still have the first two on DVD. It's just that I hadn't yet seen FF.

Ah, okay.

Yeah, on paper Edward Norton should be a better Banner than Bana (say that three times fast), but Bana seemed to actually give it his all, whereas Norton just phoned it in, which is why I shed no tears when they replaced him with Ruffalo. It probably has something to do with Bana having a real director and Norton having a french VFX supervisor.

Now Hulk is like the Felix Leiter of the Marvel Universe.

And really Jennifer Connelly and Sam Elliot are just head and shoulders over Liv Tyler and William Hurt -- although granted Hurt was better than he has been in a long time.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

whereas Norton just phoned it in, which is why I shed no tears when they replaced him with Ruffalo.

Guess Norton is the go-to guy for phoned-in replacement performances.

Yeah it was disappointing because Ed Norton looks the part far more, better to visualize the whole "wimpy scientist becomes muscular monster" nerd power fantasy that Hulk represents with Norton than Bana, who looks like a football star. And Norton's definitely got a good track record with the whole repressed multiple personalities thing. But Bana gets across the whole "repressed rage" thing so much better than Norton, who acts like its a mild annoyance when he turns into Hulk -- it never seems like he's getting mad.

Of the three, I think Ruffalo worked the best in the "team" setting of THE AVENGERS, if that makes sense. He worked in an ensemble.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Chris Evans is also pretty funny in SCOTT PILGRIM, even Brandon Routh's fun to watch.

Enjoyed the hell outta Scott Pilgrim, terrific movie.

Spellbound (1945)

Terrific Hitchcock thriller, Peck and Bergman make a great screen couple even if their 'romance' is rather too rushed for my liking. The psychology is old hat today but its delivered in a masterly manner that still imo makes it come alive and seem fresh. Some great comedy moments sprinkled along the way and the tense scenes work all the better for the contrast.

8/10

Hitchcock invented the first-person shooter.

Iron Man (2008)

Pretty excellent, and I liked it better this second time I've seen it. And I fast-forwarded to the last bit with SLJ. Wasn't sure if it would have an end bit, but it did.

I'd say something is keeping this movie from real greatness, but I'm not sure what it is. Maybe not enough Iron Man action? May Favreau can't line up a really great shot. Or whomever the DP is. The lighting is fine, but the framing doesn't seem very tight.

But the cast is terrific. RDJ completely owns this movie. Seriously, this guy is by far the most entertaining movie star in Hollywood today.

MARVEL-O-Meter

1. IRON MAN
2. HULK
3. FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER
4. FANTASTIC FOUR

With you on RDJ, Tux ... he's got a naturally charismatic screen presence, there's no doubt about it.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I'd say something is keeping this movie from real greatness, but I'm not sure what it is.

Shit direction and cinematography? Poorly executed action? Mediocre script? Brainless celebration of the military-industrial-entertainment complex? Jeff Bridges utterly wasted as a forgettable baldilocks villain? RDJ annoyingly smug? Stock Middle-Eastern bad guys? Cheap sentimentality? One of the worst superhero scores ever?

I can't see why anyone would this was a better movie than HULK.

Oh Sharky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdd6_ZxX8c

I enjoyed it more than HULK, but it was a tough call. I think it has a great energy, and RDJ drives it like a locomotive. Smug? Isn't that how Tony Stark is supposed to be? What should he be, a sensitive wallflower?

RDJ makes smug fun.

Sharky wrote:

Brainless celebration of the military-industrial-entertainment complex?

I think that, given that the hero is a the CEO of a military industrial corporation, the movie has a pretty decent take on all of that, given that the whole film is his arc of taking responsibilty for the action and uses of his technology. I mean, what else could they do other than have him sell off his company and go to live in the jungle and make his suit out of wood and fairy hopes? How the hell would you make an Iron Man movie?

Also, not every movie has to celebrate your politics, Sharky. Maybe those of us who enjoy seeing men of the mind as heroes, with technology as the answer to the problems of the world, deserve a movie or two as well, huh?

EDIT: Also, I like that you qualify "brainless" in front of the rest there, as if any movie celebrating the military-industrial complex would in fact be good for you if it could somehow prove its intelligence to a sufficient quotient.

I'm not quite as anti-IRON MAN as Sharky here--I, for one, like RDJ's "smug" performance--but I do agree that it's not altogether that special. Take RDJ out of it and you have a pretty lame movie.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Sharky wrote:

Brainless celebration of the military-industrial-entertainment complex?

I think that, given that the hero is a the CEO of a military industrial corporation, the movie has a pretty decent take on all of that, given that the whole film is his arc of taking responsibilty for the action and uses of his technology.

Sure, but what we get is pretty insipid stuff. My problem with IRON MAN is it rides between gag-inducing liberal guilt (if CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR were a superhero flick, this would be it - "You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction" *barf*) and trying to be fun and entertaining in lame videogame action. It's neither ideologically deep nor thrilling. RDJ's sarcastic and ironic without ever being funny, as is Favreau's direction. The whole film needed a lighter tough.

Harmsway wrote:

I'm not quite as anti-IRON MAN as Sharky here--I, for one, like RDJ's "smug" performance--but I do agree that it's not altogether that special. Take RDJ out of it and you have a pretty lame movie.

That's more or less how I feel. RDJ really makes the movie work in such a big way.

I didn't care for IRON MAN.

I prefer the film about his cousin, IRON DOOD.

CAPTAIN AMERICA is still my favorite (recent) comic book film. But, I know as much about comic characters as a elderly person knows about an iMac.

Harmsway wrote:

I'm not quite as anti-IRON MAN as Sharky here--I, for one, like RDJ's "smug" performance--but I do agree that it's not altogether that special. Take RDJ out of it and you have a pretty lame movie.

That was sorta my take, but I still ranked it over HULK as a movie-watching experience.

Okay, so I was gonna watch something non-MARVEL, and I started watching ANTICHRIST. I was watching the "prologue" with a baby and a penis or whatever, and my reaction was, "So this is what I have to watch to be considered cultured?" And then I remembered reading about the nasty stuff in this movie, so I paused it and read up on that.

Yeah, I'm never going to watch this movie.

Can't say I didn't warn ya.

I don't think it's about being cultured.

I like Von Trier because of the subject matter that he covers and his great visuals. His movies are fresh and engaging. I recommend BREAKING THE WAVES, DANCER IN THE DARK, and MELANCHOLIA over ANTICHRIST, though. It's not that ANTICHRIST is a bad movie, it's just not as easily digested. It's as eerie as hell, though.

If you want an alternative, try THE CELBERATION, by Thomas Vinterberg.

Regardless, Dogme95 is going to get you further than anything from Marvel.

The one-two punch of ANTICHRIST and MELANCHOLIA has guaranteed that I will never see a new Von Trier film again.

You didn't like MELANCHOLIA either?

Mr. Brown wrote:

You didn't like MELANCHOLIA either?

I think I liked MELANCHOLIA less than ANTICHRIST.