Last Movie You Watched? Mark 9

Cormac Mccarthy is a hack. There, I said it.

No, after watching THE COUNSELOR, I agree. The film trades a lot on the success of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. It's marginally better if you think of it as a reverse heist film, but it still doesn't change the way McCarthy seems to think that being bleak means that you don't have to write an ending. THE AMERICAN is a perfect example of how you can have both, but McCarthy seems to start out writing a thriller, then realises he has no idea where the story is going, so he goes back and rewrites it as a tragedy with minimum effort, then hits the same brick wall and decides to kill everyone off because he's too lazy to write another draft.

It's not just the narrative that's inept, his dialogue here is utterly cingeworthy. Lots of laughable attempts at 'significance' that wouldn't seem out of place in a Nolan screenplay.

For me, the turning point comes about halfway through. After the villains conspire to steal a truck carrying $20 million in cocaine from the cartels, the cartels reclaim the truck. One of the villains claims that they knew where the truck was going all along, making the heist pointless. But there is no explanation of how they knew where the truck was going, or how they could be in a position to plan and execute the heist.

Most importantly, the scheme involves pinning the heist on Michael Fassbender. But doing so requires a specific set of circumstances to play out, circumstances that the villain has no ability to influence or predict, but which they rely upon very heavily as there is no alternative and the heist does not work without a fall guy

BULLET TO THE HEAD (2013, directed by Walter Hill). It's somehow heartening to see Sylvester Stallone continue to kick ass in action movies as he approaches seventy. It's not a case of simple nostalgia, or of mutton dressed as lamb, with an obvious stunt double hovering over every scene. Why? Beacuse Stallone doesn't just turn up and go through the motions - he still brings an impressive physicality and vigour to the table, every bit as much as he did way back in the day in the likes of ROCKY and FIRST BLOOD. Alas, an improbably fit and energetic Sly (showcased best here in an axe fight with Jason Momoa) is just about all that BULLET TO THE HEAD has going for it. This is a ludicrously routine and deeply dull cop thriller of the sort that has clogged the world's TV channels for the past few decades. Uninspired and undistinguished, it makes THE EXPENDABLES seem as good as the first DIE HARD or LETHAL WEAPON.

CLOUD ATLAS (2012, directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski). Never quite as strange, poetic or visually impressive as hoped for (compare and contrast with something like Wong Kar Wai's 2046), CLOUD ATLAS also gets bogged down in overlength, with at least one plot strand that might as well have been dropped entirely. The film appears to make all its points long before it ends and occasionally comes across as chiefly an exercise in giving multiple heavily-disguised roles to the likes of Tom Hanks and Hugh Grant. All of which said, there's an awful lot to admire here. For the most part, CLOUD ATLAS is riveting stuff, deftly combining various genres (historical epic, period drama, sci-fi, Richard Curtis comedy, 1970s conspiracy thriller, and probably one or two others) and telling an absorbing tale (tales). Despite a couple of detours into Spielbergian sugariness (not that Spielbergian sugariness is always a bad thing), it's also fairly moving in places. Above all, it seems almost miraculous that CLOUD ATLAS even got made - it's not often that films as unusual or ambitious as this one come about.

Rocky (1976)

As far as sports films, it's definitely up there. I dunno if the best, but certainly one of the most entertaining.

Gravity (2013)

Pretty good. Overall solid. F/X are incredible and I didn't hate Sandra Bullock, which is an accomplishment of sorts.

World War Z

Watchable but a trifle meh -The early part of the film promises a much better movie than actually pans out in terms of story and everything is undermined by a dogged addiction to shaky cam action and a tendency to heap on excess when subtly would go much much further.

most amusing is the appearance toward the end of Peter Capaldi and his being listed on the credit as W.H.O Doctor.

4/10

Rocky II (1979)

I was afraid this would be too much of a rehash, given that he fights Apollo. But I like that it gets to what Rocky might have done with all the money he won, and how he gets stuck again because he can't read good or be hired anywhere else. Works well as a second chapter, I say. The only stupid bit is the kids running with him during Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now". Where did all those kids come from?

Rocky III (1982)

Rocky's SKYFALL. Or THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. Or just ROCKY III. More camp with Mr. T chewing up the scenery. Mickey's death is pretty sad (Micky? M???) Not as good as II but it's pretty fun to watch.

Rocky IV (1985)

I remember seeing this on TV years ago thinking how by this point it felt like series had become more comic book like, especially as the villains become more cartoonish. It's a movie you either love or hate. I love it just because of how it's dripping in 80s cheese with the villainous Russian angle, the MTV style montages with then's biggest artists, Vince DiCola's syth score, ect.

Then there's this:



Couldn't feel any further from the first film.


ROCK-O-METER

ROCKY
ROCKY II
ROCKY III
ROCKY IV

Kind of just going downhill from the start, though still entertaining even at the bottom.

I had a sort of sequel double feature yesterday.

Started out watching Star Trek Into Darkness, as we finally bought that on DVD. That's an entertaining way to take one of the franchise's best TV episodes and slap it together with the franchise's second best film. It was an improvement over the first film, and had a lot of good moments. My favorites still involving Bones, with his great euphemisms ("You don't rob a bank when the getaway car's got a flat tire", in relation to the Enterprise's current situation). Although I can't wait to see Abrams' take on Star Wars, it'll be sad to see him missing for a third Trek film.

After that came my trip to the local theater for Thor: The Dark World. It's amazing just how much the status quo has changed, even on Asgard, after The Avengers. Hilariously, they still don't seem to have guards patrolling their most important areas (it wasn't until they throw anybody in the dungeon that there are actually guards in the dungeon, and they're keeping Loki there, for Chrissakes). The cast is still good, with my personal favorite going to the crazy Erik Selvig, who streaks through Stone Henge at one point and just can't seem to think while wearing pants. The movie had a lot of unintentional humor (to me), starting with the opening, where the Asgardians with their swords and shields go up against the Dark Elves with their laser rifles. Asgard now, apparently, has anti-aircraft capability (and makes the stormtroopers look like they're actually hitting something, in retrospect). And, I'd really like to know why Loki only used the single shot capability on Odin's staff, because that thing's got a super laser that'd make the Emperor piss his pants. Now, none of this is to say the film wasn't good. The film was great, and an improvement over the first despite the fact that Agent Coulson wasn't there (it would have been hilarious to see him go to Asgard).

All in all, I saw two great movies yesterday, neither of which was ruined by the fact that I didn't see them in 3D (a gimmick that I hope dies again, soon). I guess the only sad part of the day was that it was all overshadowed by the awesome episode of The Walking Dead that aired that night.

Gravity - stunningly flawless effects work and a series of grippingly tense 'survival' set-pieces make this probably one of the best movies I've seen this year.

Got to find the time to see that movie. Maybe create some kind of time flux thingy. Sandra Bullock...in space...

THE EXPENDABLES 2 (2012, directed by Simon West). Solid entertainment, although when one considers that its stars have headlined such genre classics as DIE HARD, FIRST BLOOD, PREDATOR and THE TERMINATOR, it's hard not to feel slightly disappointed. Heck, this franchise should really be shooting for a modern WILD BUNCH, yet it's questionable whether THE EXPENDABLES 2 even delivers as much goofy fun as something like COMMANDO. West's direction is less visually interesting than Stallone's, and this sequel also lacks the moments of demented brilliance that one tends to get with Sly in the director's chair - think of Mickey Rourke's monologue in the first EXPENDABLES outing.

GOODFELLAS (1990, directed by Martin Scorsese). The missing link between THE GODFATHER and THE SOPRANOS, still stunning after almost a quarter of a century.

Rocky V (1990)

I get what Stallone tried to do here, but I don't think it really worked as much as he liked. The set up to have Rocky back in his stomping grounds seems very tacky and unbelievable. After that, it feels very aimless and ends in a way that makes me go "that's it?". Nothing seems to have been learned by the climax, unless "fighting solves everything" is the point. ROCKY IV had that issue too, but it was at least fun and campy.

ROCK-O METER

ROCKY
ROCKY II
ROCKY III
ROCKY IV
ROCKY V

I love how nobody is adding Rocky Balboa (for good reason) to their lists. Rocky's III and IV happen to be my favorites. Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago are much better adversaries for Rocky than Apollo Creed and Tommy Gunn.

Haven't added RB because I hadn't watched that one in this run. I'm sure it'll end up at #2, because I remember really liking that one and thinking it capped the series in a way V failed to do.

Rocky 1 & 2 are quite different styles of film to 3 & 4 its easy to see why enjoying one pair may all but exclude the other - I probably like them equally but for differing reasons. I haven't seen RB yet and I've only seen V the once but have little enthusiasm to revisit it.

Agent007391 wrote:

I love how nobody is adding Rocky Balboa (for good reason) to their lists.

What's wrong with ROCKY BALBOA? It's excellent and probably the best of the sequels.

It moves along a little too slowly, with little to no payoff, aside from showing Rocky that he can still box (which I figured was obvious from the first moment). I think it's better than Rocky V, but other than that... Oh, and it pretty much ignores Rocky's degenerative brain condition from Rocky V.

Since Sly always acts like he's got brain damage, I don't really mind. It's implied.

That's just because Rocky is an under educated man. John Rambo and Barney Ross aren't acted like that.

So all uneducated men slur their speech?

Agent007391 wrote:

That's just because Rocky is an under educated man. John Rambo and Barney Ross aren't acted like that.

I don't get the impression that Rambo or Barney had any more formal schooling than Rocky did. Both left school at the earliest opportunity and entered the military at the earliest opportunity (I assume). If Rocky is undereducated, so are they all.

Largo's Shark wrote:

So all uneducated men slur their speech?

I wasn't saying that, it just seemed like Stallone made it very apparent that a good portion of how he sounded was because he was uneducated. In Rocky Balboa, he sounded quite a bit different.

Largo's Shark wrote:

So all uneducated men slur their speech?

I read it was in part because of how he was born or something. But watching the likes of Was It Something I Said recently a lack of education is what is pinned on ol' Stallone.

Personally, Rocky Balboa is a good enough film. No Rocky but sort of helps after Rocky IV/V