General Chat / 2013 in Film

At last, an 8+ movie for 2013! And I didn't even see it coming until only last week. What a pleasant surprise. And another pleasant surprise is that Gravity apparantly has no sound in space. Seems to be good science fiction. Or actually maybe not science fiction at all. Anyway.

 

8,1 - Prisoners (great plot, great acting (I don't say that often, at all), great cinematography and very intense, dark atmosphere. There was some deus ex machina I didn't like, but not nearly enough to drag the movie down. Also the only 'flaw' I could find.)

Fuck it, I'm gonna come out and say it.

 

My family sees a new movie every year on Black Friday, and as you could see, there aren't many good options right now (Book Thief wasn't playing in the theater we went to). Therefore, the only viable option safe to see with younger cousins aged 3-12 was Disney's Frozen. The whole time leading up to the film I was thinking "Fuck this, fuck that, fuck my cousins, this movie is going to be horrible" that is, until it started.

 

I FUCKING LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT

 

The princesses were adorable, and the jokes were ACTUALLY FUNNY. I absolutely loved the Scandinavian cultural references (lutefisk, etc.) and THAT MOTHERFUCKING PLOT TWIST HOLY SHIT.

 

Anyway, 8.9/10. The snowman was a tad bit cheesy at times, and the trolls were too forgettable. However, the soundtrack/score is fantastic (I'm listening to it right now), the voice acting is great, and ultimately, as Disney said, this is probably one of their best animated films since Lion King.

 

Would recommend Frozen.

2013 is almost over already, and there's a lot of movies I haven't seen yet. Over the past few weeks I've been watching quite a lot of 2013, trying to catch up completely before the year's end.

 

Additions since last post, in chronological order:

5,6 - Don Jon (bordering on boring)

7,8 - World War Z (Best thing about this movie was the convincing apocalyptic atmosphere. A positive surprise, this movie was!)

8,5 - Gravity (A small story executed to perfection. Multi-layered plot and visually stunning. The last ISS-scene is one of the most exciting things of the past few years of cinema, easily)

7,8 - Rush (Compelling story, intense, and the acting is very good. I don't say that often.)

7,0 - Warm Bodies (Not saying this is a tough intellectual piece of art, but it was surprisingly layered. And good fun)

7,0 - Monsters University (Terrible Disney plot, only saved by Pixar humour and style)

5,8 - The Lone Ranger (Too much bullshit - even though I understand it's supposed to be pure entertainment like Pirates and Indiana Jones. Too much bullshit of the bad kind. Very underwhelming.)

6,2 - Kick-Ass 2 (Not a worthy sequel)

8,0 - Stoker (Very solid, and a little Hitchcockian which is certainly a good thing!)

7,5 - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Very good. Not great. Like the first movie, much better than you'd expect)

 

2013 Watchlist:

Side Effects

Dans la Maison

Pacific Rim

The World's End

Captain Phillips

Soshite chichi ni naru (Like Father, Like Son)

About Time

(And of course the movies yet to be released, most notable The Hobbit; hope it's better than the first part...)

 

Frozen is intentionally not on my list. Looks like terrible Disney crap to me, and one positive review doesn't change that for me... I'll keep my eye open however.

I agree, Catching Fire didn't measure up. It was a lot more stereotypical Hollywood, although the CGI was a great improvement. I will bravely say that I think the first Hunger Games movie was better than the book.

 

Most of the people that I've talked to who weren't excited about Frozen had the same reaction. I thought it would be total crap, like the other recent Disney movies, but it wasn't. To each their own, though.

My disgust of Disney goes deeper than 'recent movies'. Virtually everything they put out is crap, in my opinion. I even can't stand Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. The first two POTC movies are probably the only exception to this...

Anyone who thinks any Disney film during their 90s "renaissance" was "bad" doesn't deserve to have an opinion on movies. Sorry Liam. Especially if they think the second Pirates film was decent (it wasn't).

 

I do recommend Side Effects, though. Have you seen 12 Years A Slave yet? Definitely a must see for this year.

Anyone who thinks any Disney film during their 90s "renaissance" was "bad" doesn't deserve to have an opinion on movies. Sorry Liam. Especially if they think the second Pirates film was decent (it wasn't).

Well maybe bad isn't the right word, I definitely acknowledge some artistic value in some of the classics. In the 90's, that are Beauty and the Beast, The Lion and possibly a few others. But still I can't watch any of them. Literally, I tried to watch Beauty and the Beast a few years ago, but I retreated with a headache ten minutes into the movie. Whatever might be good about any Disney movie, it's almost always overshadowed by terribly annoying songs (I HATE musicals), terrible stereotype characters, predictable plots and cheesy dialogue. Everything is so fucking fake, it pisses me off (evidently). And currently they're raping Pixar franchises out of pure greed which is sad.

 

The first Pirates movie was actually good in my opinion. I wouldn't call the second one an artistic masterpiece, not even close, but I enjoyed it which is quite an achievement for a Disney movie. It's darker than most Disney stuff.

 

I do recommend Side Effects, though. Have you seen 12 Years A Slave yet? Definitely a must see for this year.

 

Based on the IMDb and Metacritic scores I'm sure it's a movie worth seeing! It won't be released in cinemas here until february 2014, sadly... So you've seen Side Effects? It's only on my list because I heard some websites say it's hitchcockian. Is that true?

1 good review about frozen? How about 137?

^^^

I saw it again on Monday with my girlfriend and it was just as good the second time. It's funny to hear the reaction of the audience at the plot twist, which still made my heart skip a beat.

Catching Fire was a TRILLION times better than The Hunger Games (movie-wise)

^ really? I heard the opposite, but have yet to see it.

I thought the first Hunger Games was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I actually enjoyed Catching Fire

^wtf. Catching Fire was too much Hollywood. I think its nothing compared to the first.

On another note, saw the Hobbit part 2 last night. Apparently it didn't follow the book that well. I thought it was pretty good though. However, in the river scene, it's extremely obvious when they switch from a film camera to a GoPro. Meh, there's really no other way to do it. I thought it was cool how it ended up being Sherlock vs Watson as Smaug vs Bilbo. 

Meh I just enjoyed Catching Fire and despised the first movie. Rue was basically nonexistent, the arena seemed so rushed, and the famous fire dress scene was ridiculously bad. Also, I tend to automatically dislike movies that I read beforehand. Luckily, I didn't read Catching Fire so I was able to enjoy the movie.

Hobbit 2 was great because of Smaug. The theater I was in is extremely bass heavy so the scenes with bilbo and Smaug were awesome.

I haven't seen the second hunger games, but the first one was terribly directed. For Catching Fire, it was not that hard to improve over the first.

 

Can't wait untill january/february, when the film copies for awards consideration go out the door! (: I have a lot of catching up to do...

I've seen some more 2013 movies.

 

8.0 - About Time (one of the few romantic comedies that's actually good. Very, very sweet.

 

7.6 - Side Effects (solid Hitchcockian movie)

 

7.3 - The World's End (entertaining, but not as entertaining as the other two Cornetto movies)

 

7.0 - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (so much cringy scenes, dialogues and deus ex machinas... But I really loved Smaug. +1 for Smaug.)
 

6.6 - The Spectacular Now (Typical coming of age movie with teenagers played by 25 year old people, but of slightly above average quality)

 

5.4 - Pacific Rim (managed to disappoint me even with moderately low expectations. Dumb shit)

I saw the secret life of Walter Mitty yesterday and I really liked that one. Nice feel good movie which makes you think.

 

"MFG"

RANT: World War Z should not have been called World War Z

 

 I loved the movie, but the book was WAY better, and close to nothing is the same. The book has 1 character in common with the movie, and a few events. For example, Israel does build a wall in the book, but it doesn't get overrun, it lasts, and Israel is just besieged by food shortages and diseases. Brad Pitt's character and family are not in the book.

 

As well, the overall all premise of the zombies in the film *SPOILER ALERT* is different then the book. The idea that the zombies are spreading a diseases (that takes 12 seconds take effect) and that guides there motives is all made up for the movie.

 

The book is exceptional. It is essentially a all-encompassing look at how earth would handle a zombie outbreak, socially, economically, and politically. As such, the zombies are normal. They move slow, they just want to eat human flesh, they are killed by a shot to the head. It's a basic understanding of zombies put into the context of the modern world, and it's wonderful.

 

So to conclude my rant, the movie was great, but it just stole the title World War Z and a few details, then re-wrote the whole thing. Good, but shouldn't have been called World War Z.

 

FK