All Things Movie/Documentary Reviews/Recommendations Thread

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coolhandgopher said:
The Darjeeling Limited-I´ve quite enjoyed Wes Anderson movies over the years, but found myself lagging with this offering. It does seem like he´s making the same (or very very similar) movies over and over again.
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I really like Anderson's movies. The Life Aquatic is one of my all-time favorites (though most people like that one the least). I think it's a really unique movie premise and extremely funny. I also love the music Anderson uses in his movies, particularly The Kinks in Darjeeling and David Bowie in Life Aquatic.
But you're right; all his movies have a similar feel. But Bill Murray is perfect is each of his roles. I was really looking forward to Moonrise Kingdom. While I enjoyed it, I thought it fell a little short. Maybe because it did feel like kind of an Anderson retread. Even Fantastic Mr. Fox (an awesome movie), which seemed to break the mold, had a lot of the same themes.

Best closing credits sequence ever:

 

I have heard Undefeated is very good and will watch it soon.

I just watched The Central Park Five. It was very good, a fascinating story.
 


"Take Shelter" is one of my favorite indie films of the past few years. I'm surprised it didn't get more attention considering Jessica Chastain was in it.

 

BleedGopher said:
Official Anchorman 2 Trailer
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Where the hell is Christina Applegate???

<img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/christina_applegate_biography_2_11383.jpg" />

Christina-christina-applegate-262995_1024_768.jpg
 




Not trying to hi-jack from original topic but if you haven't seen 'Rumble Fish' you need to add it to your list. Coppola, Mickey Roarke in his prime, Matt Dillon in his prime, Dennis Hopper, Lawrence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Tom Waits, Nicholas Cage. It's the good stuff.
 

As far as "mainstream" movies, I saw "Man of Steel" on Saturday, and I had a very mixed reaction to it. I liked Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman, but I thought there really wasn't much chemistry between Cavill and Amy Adams as Lois Lane. I also had some real problems with the ending. I thought the fight scenes were over the top, and the amount of damage made me very uncomfortable. I understand this was supposed to be a more "realistic" take on Superman, but they just ignore the fact that civilian casualties would have been extensive, not to mention the property damage. Plus, scenes of buildings collapsing and dusty people running down the street just didn't sit right.

For me, it points out the difference between Marvel and DC in how their characters are being depicted in the movies. Marvel understands that superhero movies don't have to be deadly serious - they can have some fun with them.
 



Just saw, Bobby Fischer Against the World. Really good-better than anything else out there on Bobby.
 

A woman who works with my wife recommended Identify Theft to us, she said it was really funny. We turned it off with 20 minutes to go last night. Brutal movie, we didn't laugh once. We won't listen to this person's comedy recommendations again.

Go Gophers!!
 

Here's another topic for this thread. Almost started another thread for this but opted to stay within this one.

Movies with a Female Heroine

There have been a few good ones, and there have been a lot of bad ones. At the risk of sounding sexist, many of these movies just have story lines that are just impossible to believe; let's face it, there aren't that many women running around that are hot, good looking, have the balls to confront a serial rapist, and have the physicality to kick the living bejeezus out of him. Really? I'll get the ball rolling with a few I've seen in just the last week or two:

Gone - with Amanda Seyfried. My 19-yr old daughter had seen it and said it was "great". Should have known right there. One of the worst movies I've ever seen, and when it comes to movies, I'm pretty easy to please. As I've said before, if the popcorn is good, that's more than half the battle.

The Call - with Halle Berry. This one actually wasn't bad. A little tough to believe at the very end, but for the most part it was fairly decent, entertaining

Ashley Judd has been in a number of these (Kiss The Girls, Double Jeopardy, et al) and I can't get enough, mostly because she is smokin hot. I give her a pass on just about everything. In many of her movies of this style, she's also fortunate enough to have a decent male actor/character playing along side her to help carry things along; Tommy Lee Jones, Morgan Freeman, et al.

What have you got? Good ones? Bad ones?
 




BleedGopher said:
A woman who works with my wife recommended Identify Theft to us, she said it was really funny. We turned it off with 20 minutes to go last night. Brutal movie, we didn't laugh once. We won't listen to this person's comedy recommendations again.

Go Gophers!!
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Was thinking of adding this to my netflix list, but probably won't. I've seen the show she's in a few times and didn't think she was funny at all.

Anyone else see This is the End? It's gotten good ratings and reviews but I really didn't care for it much. Crude humor is so unoriginal and gets really old after awhile. I don't find Seth Rogen funny at all. Many of these so-called "comedic actors" now days suck in my opinion.
 



Winnipegopher said:
Anvil. The Story of Anvil.

Watch the trailer and then watch the movie:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/anvil_the_story_of_anvil/
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I watched that a year ago or so. It was a really well done piece. Reality can really suck sometimes. Hard to watch it and not feel bad for those guys. As much of a fan as I am of that music and as avid as I was back in the day, I had never really heard of Anvil until I saw this documentary being advertised. That's almost scary. Nice to hear some of the heavy hitters in Metal give them some major props during the documentary.
 


Ogee Oglethorpe said:
I watched that a year ago or so. It was a really well done piece. Reality can really suck sometimes. Hard to watch it and not feel bad for those guys. As much of a fan as I am of that music and as avid as I was back in the day, I had never really heard of Anvil until I saw this documentary being advertised. That's almost scary. Nice to hear some of the heavy hitters in Metal give them some major props during the documentary.
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They were quasi-big in Canada. Saw them at Metal in the Park in 1983. They were really heavy, really early. it is kind of sad and inspirational- they never gave up on their dream. I think the documentary gave them a bit of a boost. "At least we have a tour to have things get f*cked up on". That is a postive attitude.
 

Just started watching House of Cards, the Netflix exclusive with Kevin Spacey. Outstanding.
 


House of Cards

GophersInIowa said:
I watched that whole thing in three days. Great series.
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It took my quite a few episodes to get into this show. Spacey is a great actor, but his southern accent just took some getting used to for me. By the end of the season I was eager for another season for sure.
 

WilliamsArenaGuy said:
I have heard Undefeated is very good and will watch it soon.
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My wife and I watched it this past weekend and loved it. A must see for any football fan. Amazing what kind of things the coaches/players had to go through day in and day out. That head coach had to be a father-figure for most of them because they didn't have a father around.
 

Undefeated was great! Also Netflix's Orange is the New Black is hillarious. My wife and I both love this show.
 

I don't remember if Sound City was mentioned here. It's a documentary about the famous recording studio made be Dave Grohl. It's great for any music lover.
 

WilliamsArenaGuy said:
I don't remember if Sound City was mentioned here. It's a documentary about the famous recording studio made be Dave Grohl. It's great for any music lover.
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Yeah, mentioned it before. You're right, it was interesting and a lot of fun. Did you know that Grohl took some of the performers mentioned, Hawkins, Novoselic, Smear, Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield, Rick Neilson from Cheap Trick, Lee Ving from Fear etc. and took them on the road to perform and plug the movie? Saw them on Letterman and Kimmel. They seemed to be having a great time!
 

My wife and I watched "Capturing the Friedmans" tonight. Weird and bizarre family. I recommend it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342172/

Any updates on movies you'd recommend? I've seen several that you guys have recommended in this thread and have a bunch more in the netlifx queue.
 

My wife and I saw "August: Osage County" with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts at the Mpls Film Festival in October and it was one of the best films I've seen in a long time. It's being released at Christmas and it's being marketed as a comedy, and it is anything but. If you want to see great acting and scriptwriting with an excellent story, go see it. If you want a lighthearted couple of hours, don't.
 

I did see "Good Ol' Freda" when it was playing here at the Film Society. Very worth seeing, especially if you're a Beatles fan.

 

Last night we rented The Way Way Back, with Steve Carell. It's a "coming of age" type of movie, and a great departure for Carell compared to his traditional comedy roles he plays. It did well at the Film Festival's and if you liked Juno and those type of movies, you'll like The Way Way Back, although Juno was better.

Go Gophers!!
 

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