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First thing's first: I enjoyed this movie a lot more than ASM. That wasn't ASM's fault, as it's main plot - of Peter discovering his powers while battling a massive green villain and getting closer to his high school crush - all seemed to have been done before in Spider-Man. However, it did introduce a few new threads, including raising questions about what happened to his father and several hints of Oscorp's involvement in a lot of plotlines in the movie, and in this movie, those threads truly start to develop, a massive plus right there.
This includes a completely fresh take on Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan, playing a not too dissimilar role to his character of Evan Andrew in Chronicle a couple of years back), as he and Peter, although old friends in this film, haven't seen each other in years, and Harry realising he truly needs Peter's help on a serious problem. The love story of Peter and Gwen is developed further too, and while it almost overbears on the plot at times, its powerful resolution is a great payoff. I'd also like to say that Gwen Stacy is, along with Anderson in Dredd, one of my favourite female protagonists in a comic book movie in recent years, both to how well she's written as a three dimensional character who's even smarter than Peter as well as the brilliant performance by Emma Stone in the role.
Andrew Garfield also continues to play Peter well, especially when finding out some major revelations about his father that tie in beautifully to the events of the first film. The development of Jamie Foxx's character as Electro, a surprisingly sympathetic villain at times, was also cool to see, although towards the end, he does end up losing some of that development and starts coming across as a standard villain, though considering the events of the climax, that's no real surprise. There's also a couple of moments in the plot that made me think, "Wait, WHAT?" at how dumb they were (seriously? A single massive generator that powers an entire city (plus one backup)?), but overall, I thought the film was a pretty entertaining one to watch. It's not one of the best comic book films you will ever see, but it's a good one, especially if you weren't too keen on some of the repetition of the first film and wanted to see more originality, which this installment provides more of. 7/10
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
That's out? Can't believe I've seen no marketting for it.
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Don't think it's out in Canada or USA for a couple of weeks yet.
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike
I watched Sleepaway Camp last night. It's a sort of horror movie from 1983. And it's magically bad. I really enjoyed it
On a completely different but related note, have any of you heard of or listened to the podcase "How Did This Get Made?" That's where my roommate Steph heard about this movie and all of their recommendations are simply ... special. If you like podcasts and horrible movies, I'd really recommend it.
I saw Sleepaway Camp. I agree with your assessment. Magically bad is the definition.
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's just ... it's so bad, it's almost good. that's almost not fair
yes. I love such films time to time.
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice review, James. I enjoyed Garfield's first film as Spiderman. I prefer him to Tobey Maguire. In fact, I pretty much loathe Maguire as an actor. I'm looking forward to this one.
I find it funny how UK sometimes gets films a few weeks before US and sometimes weeks after US. I would love to know the reasoning behind this.
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The Ninth Gate -
An excellent contemporary thriller with super natural overtones deftly handled by Polanski. It's a slow burner to be sure, but once the film has its hooks in you you will be on a one way ticket to the films brilliant climax/ending.
What impressed me most about this film was the near perfect pacing - events unfold at just the right moment - and the restrained yet strategically used strands of super natural.
Johnny Depp and Polanski didn't sound like it would have been a particularly fruitful partnership on paper, but it worked out wonderfully. I think I'll watch this again just to spot all the different clues towards the ending.
7/10
Nice one, Feev. I truly believe Johnny Depp needs to get back to doing films like this.
It should be really interesting to watch him over the next decade and see what kind of work he starts choosing. He's in somewhat of a creative slump right now.
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Insidious Chapter Two: I was expecting this film be very Whahnelly and it definitely was, much more so than Insidious was. The atmosphere was entirely manufactured (the red stained glass windows were an obvious 'look at this creepy set' attempt) which ruins the only thing that worked about the first movie was a very unassuming haunted house and it worked. I'm not sure what Wan's fascination with dolls and rocking horses are but they surely aren't creepy. Whannel is far more interested at explaining his scripts and having some multi-layered plot that his characters are simply going from point a to point b to point c to have things jump out at them but we never feel afraid for them because these ghosts are all BWAH! and no DEATH. And his ghost hunters the worst ghost hunters ever, they freak out anytime something slightly paranormal happens despite being surrounded by it seemingly all the time, they try too hard to be comic relief in a film that should have no comic relief and after five or six scenes with them clunking about the film making me groan instead of laugh, I was hoping they'd just die already, but, alas, we'll get these meandering nincompoops in Chapter Three. They open the film with a police investigation into what happened to Elise, which you think, a husband being pretty much accused of strangling an old woman being allowed to not only walk around free but move his family is pretty silly to begin with, but they brush that entire plotline off with a half-assed phone call 20 minutes into the movie which makes you wonder, why include that at all, when you could have avoided having to reference at all with a simple cover up of the death. There were jump scares that tried too hard and the film was basically nothing but a pointless subplot to delay the demon until they make an inevitable third film, which I will probably see and also be disappointed with because the demon is pretty much the only thing this franchise has going for it and they've pretty much done nothing with it and wasted our time with a bunch of other malarky. Also, Mr. Wan and your editor, when you jump cut to some picture a kid drew from earlier in the movie when Patrick Wilson sees what was drawn in that picture, you insult my intelligence and you do this constantly througout these movies: I'm not an idiot, I can remember what happened twenty-five minutes ago, okay?
2/5
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bears too!
feverish, I posted one of my endless reviews here, would be happy if you gave it a look
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Watched Fly Away Home (starring Jeff Daniels and a young Anna Paquin) which I haven't seen since I was younger. It's a very close to home movie for me as it's loosely passed on the true story of a Bill Lischman, an inventor, sculptor and lightweight aviation enthusiast who lived in Blackstock, Ontario (about 35 minutes away from me) and created a system for using small, lightweight aircrafts to teach migration patterns to Canadian Geese. Much of the movie was filmed in Linsday, Ontario (An hour away from me, ten mins from Pontypool; the beloved A Christmas Story was filmed there too) so it really contains the landscapes and sounds that I'm familiar with. The fictional plot of a girl from New Zealand who had to move to Canada to live with her father after her mother dies in a car accident is handled well by two capable actors and really helps gel the true story with the fictional story in a way that is believable and even affecting during some scenes, espcially a few with Daniels quiet intensity. In terms of photography it's such a nice move to look at, from the non-CGI flying scenes which feature (not actually shown of course) the real Bill Lischman flying the geese around Port Perry, Ontario; there are stunning landscape and wildlife shots, a lot of very effective visuals shot in and around the skies of Toronto and it's all excellently constructed by the same director/cinematographer dup that did The Black Stallion and the adaptation of the recently passed Farley Mowat's Never Cry Wolf. There were plenty of oppourtunities where they could have gotten preachy with talk of saving wildlife and the environment etc, but it comes in at just the right dose. It's a really good movie to watch with the kids, as I am sure they will be enthralled by it as I was as a kid.
Here is the Wilde Beaste sculpture Lishman made at Canada's Wonderland amusement park, which is pretty wicked looking in person.
He also did a wicked Dragon sculpture for the park and you see him working on it in the movie which is a nice though. Lishman still to this day flies birds down south.
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Saw Neighbors yesterday. Very funny, and they resisted some sappy ending. Laughed my ass off. Seth Rogan just nails his part as does Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, and Dave Franco. The Robert De Niro party was fabulous.
Also gives new humor too a woman's "choker" necklace.
5/6 beers on the RFSPRS.
I'm seeing Neighbours with the family tomorrow night. I'm not expecting much which leaves more room to be surprised.
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The World's End: I'm not sure exactly what this movie was even trying to be. It's like it wanted to be everything and in wanting to be everything it became nothing. Simon Pegg tried way too damn hard and I saw all the 'twists' coming miles away. I laughed maybe five times during the whole movie and most of the dialogue I could tell wanted really hard to be funny but I just wasn't laughing. Then all the action sequences were ridiculously over the top in that these five drunk guys who don't have an athletic bone in their bodies are kicking a bunch of ass which makes even less sense when you consider they're drunk. The first real laugh I got out of the movie is when Nick Frost was drunk and was pushing the pub door open and put his his arm through the glass, that was a nice touch. And I think Edgar Wright wanted to set some kind of record for the longest out running an explosion sequence...it might have been longer than Dante's Peak's outrunning the paraclastic cloud sequence. I give this movie two stars only for the final parts of the film when it depicted what the future was like and I was left thinking...why wasn't this last five minutes the entire movie? It was far more interesting than the hour and a half that preceeded it, other than that it gets one star for having Pierce Bronsnan in several scenes.
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This is why I love movies and talking about them. Everybody is so different.
The part of The World's End that you liked was my least favorite part. The ending felt tacked on and out of place. I loved the rest of the film and put it ahead of Hot Fuzz.
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The ending was tacked on but I enjoyed it more than what it was tacked on too lol.
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Captain America: Winter's Soldier for the second time. Loved it!
As did I. I am also sooooooo looking forward to the release of "Godzilla" the trailers seem to show that they freaking nailed it!!!
Side Note: The last "Godzilla" film was shot, in large part right down the block from my office on 23rd St. I recall driving to work and seeing them break down the set each morning. They shot the scene where they "feed" the monster right across from the "Flat Iron" building. They had a tarp with fish sewn in and a balloon underneath that they inflated and wet down to look like a pile of fish!!! LOL I often saw crew members walking with building pieces that looked real, but were made of styro-foam!! LOL
28 in 23 (?)!!!!
63 in '23!!!!!!!!!!
My Collection: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...ion-Merlin1958
The Houston Astros cheated Major League Baseball from 2017-18!!!! Is that how we teach our kids to play the game now?????
This was a film I had been eager to see ever since finding out that Joseph Gordon-Levitt had both written and directed it. The subject material of a man's addiction to porn also promised something both a little more subversive and a little more frank than the usual rom-com, but even with my high expectations for something a little different, this film really surprised me in so many ways.
Firstly, it's a great examination of how some people can have unrealistic expectations of both sex and relationships, not just because of porn or even how much media and advertising use sex to sell easily, but with movies too, particularly more traditional, generic romantic films (there's a wonderful example with cameos from Channing Tatum and Anne Hatherway doing a little bit of self parody at one point). It also avoids telling the story you'd expect it to tell with the romance angle, and while I won't give much away, it's wonderful to see a romantic film where neither of the leads are exactly perfect.
Also, gotta say that while this film does have more than a few unexpected layers (particularly in the development of Jon), it also has to be said that this film is fucking hysterical. This is partially due to Don's rather frank narration (his reasons for why he actually prefers porn to actual sex are just brilliant to listen to), but also it's full of little things like the expressions Jon's mostly silent sister keeps making as she texts. Oh, and I have never found a log-on sound funnier than in this movie. (Well, maybe with one nsfw exception: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUaSQBHgH-0) Its repeated use throughout the film is just so brilliantly done, especially when it comes up when its least expected. As it goes on though, you do hope to hear it less, not because it's annoying, but because you begin to realise just how addicted to porn Jon really is.
This film is definitely one of the best rom-coms I've seen in a while, and it's a film I wished I had been able to see at the cinema when it came out. Needless to say, I'll be keeping an eye out for any more JG-L directed films. 9/10
Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends.
You are a walking talking Doctor Who encyclopedia to me. - Melike