What is the latest movie you watched and what did you think of it?

[Artemis]

Real Steel- Hugh Jackman, an adorable little boy, some robots and Kim Kardashian (I think).

So, how do you screw up a movie about fighting robots?
Well, you could ask Michael Bay but that would be taking the easy way out. Real Steels producers decided to go another route and simply graft robot boxing onto a generic Lifetime network plot.
Substitute a cheerleading competition or a 4H Club hog fair and you'd have the identical movie...that's how peripheral to the story the robots are.

There is not a single scene- for that matter, very few lines- that you haven't heard/seen before and the emotional tides of the movie are as predictable as they are trite.

The robot fights, which should be highlights, are brief and maddenly stupid.
The bad guys have Mohawks...really?

I like splashy setpieces, I can abide sentimentality, I'm all for simple entertainment...but Real Steel is just lazy and pointless.
It was good to see the Iron Giant again though, he's been quiet since his breakout starring role.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions clocker, after seeing the 2minute mini movie version (i.e. trailer) I was struck by that same old schmaltzy feeling. You have confirmed that they just wheeled out formula movie script #541 with fighting robots to give it some 'originality'.

[Shahrukh]

The Hangover 2 BD RIP

[IdolEyes787]

The Hangover 2 BD RIP

Call me quick to judge but it only took five words for me to form an opinon of you.

[clocker]

after seeing the 2minute mini movie version (i.e. trailer) I was struck by that same old schmaltzy feeling.

"Schmaltz" is exactly the word I should have used.
I tried to work in "hackneyed horseshit"- because I'm a fan of alliteration-but it didn't make the final editorial cut..."schmaltz" works much better.

Note: With this second post about the movie, I've now spent more time on the script than the writers did.

[IdolEyes787]

The Way Back (2011)
In 1941 group of prisoners escape a Soviet gulag and attempt a 4000 mile walk to freedom.

I almost bypassed this movie as it seems to have gotten mixed reviews condemned as it is by some for lack of proper characterization.I though didn't have a problem with that as the movie really isn't ( to me ) about conflict but about more unity and indomitably and colouring of character was therefore far less necessary.
Character development or not , through the skill of director Peter Weir and the talent of the cast(Ed Harris,Jim Sturges , Mark Strong, Saoirse Ronan - someday she's going to be a major star) I still really felt for these people.

Other than that it's ,for all the scope and life or death situations, a very "quiet" movie which probably a lot of people looking for overt action will see as a negative. I again didn't as it made everything that transpires as the more significant and (perhaps) meaningful.
Unfortunately as much as I enjoyed everything up to that point, by far the weakest part of the movie is the end where Weir seems at a loss as to what to do to tie it all up properly on the required high note.Not that it was bad just very rushed and anticlimactic.

Otherwise I have nothing but good things to say about The Way Back.Peter Weir again demonstrates he is one of the most talented directors of his generation.

[clocker]

Thanks for the reminder.
This was on my radar months ago and I'd forgotten all about it.

[clocker]

And now I've watched it.
The Way Back is absolutely worth a watch despite some serious flaws.
As Idol mentioned, the acting is fine (Ed Harris has become the embodiment of "grizzled") and thanks to the involvement of National Geographic, the scenery is spectacular.

The story (and as stories go, this one is a corker) seems too big for director Peter Weir to fit into his movie.
The mindboggling scale of this groups journey required three major setpieces but Weir runs out of steam in the middle of the second and the third (the Himalayas in winter, no less!) is fleeting to the point of absurdity.
There were also jarringly abrupt time/location changes...at one point I was wondering if I was seeing the same film because I couldn't recognize anyone and they were suddenly in caverns instead of the snowy forest. It was weird.

It is a "quiet" movie by today's standards but it doesn't insult the audience and it's very nice to look at, so it's already better than most of the competition.

[mjmacky]

cant wait for a Way Back: Darkside of teh Moon

[Funkin']

Just saw Paranormal Activity 3. The only thing entertaining was when the usher and cop came in the theater to kick out all the dumb ass teenagers that were acting like fools.

It was nowhere near as good as I was hoping it to be. I still haven't seen the first one though and most people I've talked to said it was the best of the three so I'll probably watch that next.

[IdolEyes787]

Battle: Los Angeles.

What an odd film.
Grab every cliche from a 1940's Hollywood war movie, replace the Nazis and Japs with aliens (who have slightly, but not overwhelmingly, superior weaponry and truly execrable tacticians*) and spice up the action scenes with today's de rigueur jumpy cutting...voila!, I give you Battle: Los Angeles.
It's competently produced and not terribly acted.
The CGI (which had to be extensive) is OK.
The aliens seem kind of crude and are mostly seen from afar or blurred by speed or smoke.

In many ways, B: LA is just a poorer, stripped down Independence Day with some Hurt Locker pretensions mixed in.
I didn't hate it but didn't feel engaged or even manipulated...it was basically rather boring.

*About the alien invasion...
If your goal is to siphon off our oceans, why the hell are you attacking our coastlines and engaging land forces?
Plop your weird alien asses down in the middle of the ocean- conveniently free of pesky natives- and start sucking away...it shouldn't take long (after all, it's mentioned on a background TV that the ocean levels are already falling measurably- a mere few hours after the invasion has begun. With whizbang alien tech like that, completely draining the planet should take maybe three weeks, tops) and your ground troops are spared losses storming assets you have no strategic interest in.

A counterpoint.

Battle: Los Angeles:

If some told me that they thought this movie was good my first two questions would be "Do you speak English?" and " Are you clinically insane?"

Not only does it seem to drag every hoary old War movie cliche up but it does it with such a total lack of believability that if someone told me that I was watching a parody and not a serious attempt at a movie then I would have no problem believing them.
I won't go as far as saying that the director is totally devoid of talent because obviously he has a real talent for bringing forth the very worst performances from his actors.
Other than, that going by the old adage "if you can't say something nice,don't say anything at all" that about does it.
Actually no, this move was so bad that the addition of Adam Sandler might actually have improved it.

OK now I'm done.