What was the last movie you've seen?

[dsheinem]

another entry in the 300 series.

Saw that trailer on Wed.

[MrPopo]

another entry in the 300 series.

Saw that trailer on Wed.

The evil leader of the fleet has that evil hot chick thing going. I might see it based on that.

[Forlorn Drifter]

another entry in the 300 series.

Saw that trailer on Wed.

The evil leader of the fleet has that evil hot chick thing going. I might see it based on that.

It might be the bro in me coming out, but I still like 300. Not a good movie by any means, but I like it.

[Sload Soap]

The Red Shoes was on the telly so I re-watched it. Superb film, beautiful and entrancing to watch. Very melodramatic but in a way that suits the boldness and richness of the restoration. There's some choppy editing that I don't think can be blamed on the time it is from. Great film and a great adaptation of the source material.

Not such a great adaptation is Star Trek: Into Darkness, which is still a bad Star Trek film and a poorly plotted, cheesy, basically the same plot as previous movie mess for anyone not into Trek. Not one character changes or learns anything that they hadn't already at the end of Star Trek. Simply switching the order things that happen in Wrath of Kahn and bombarding me with references is not the same as homage.

Waste of Benedict Cumberbatch. I still hate how Kahn is supposed to be the twist, it's simultaneously obvious and confusing. Gah! And a teleporter between Earth and Qo'noS? Jog on.

Still the sound the vengeance makes at high warp is cool. I'd put it up there with Sebulba's pod racer and the HOOOOOOOOONK! the tripods from War of the Worlds(2005) in my "good sound effects in bad sci-fi movie" top ten.

[BurningDoom]

Not such a great adaptation is Star Trek: Into Darkness, which is still a bad Star Trek film and a poorly plotted, cheesy, basically the same plot as previous movie mess for anyone not into Trek. Not one character changes or learns anything that they hadn't already at the end of Star Trek. Simply switching the order things that happen in Wrath of Kahn and bombarding me with references is not the same as homage.

Waste of Benedict Cumberbatch. I still hate how Kahn is supposed to be the twist, it's simultaneously obvious and confusing. Gah! And a teleporter between Earth and Qo'noS? Jog on.

I'm a longtime Star Trek fan, and I LOVED Into Darkness.

So much better than Abrams first film (which I wasn't particularly impressed with outside of the visuals). I thought the characters acted a lot more like their original counterparts, than they did in the first movie. The special effects were amazing, but then they were in the first movie, too.

Can't deny there was a little predictability, but then it is basically a reimaging of The Wrath of Khan, so you have to expect that a little. But at the same time, it was FAR from a scene-for-scene recreation. There was still enough new here, that it kept me entertained.

[Sload Soap]

But at the same time, it was FAR from a scene-for-scene recreation.

For the majority, yes, but there is a stretch that is copied almost exactly. However unlike WoK it doesn't have the guts to actually kill. Some other issues I had:

Spock seems to have forgotten his entire homeworld was destroyed. I don't know about you, but that'd play on my mind.

Kahn has to basically give all his back story as two minutes of exposition because the writers had to condense an entire TOS episode to explain why he is both a threat and a McGuffin. Lame.

Kahn does the whole getting himself captured bit that all modern super-villains have to do. Again, lame, though in fairness Skyfall did it worse.

Robocop doesn't need a fancy trans-warp ship to fight Klingon's if he got Kahn to invent him a super-transporter. Or is he the only military leader ever to fail to see the tactical value in being able to literally make bombs appear on top of your enemies? Also he's just Space-Rumsfeld.

Kirk's story is exactly the same as the first film. Starts off brash, gets demoted, eventually regains the captaincy and saves the day.

Not enough Sulu, Chekov or Bones. These films seem to think that the original series was about Kirk and Spock's interstellar bromance. It wasn't. Bones was a bigger part of the core dynamic and Sulu and Chekov actually did things other than exist.

I love Simon Pegg, but that is not a scottish accent.

By contrast though, Uhura is now a passive-aggressive female stereotype, whose subtext would have you believe is more concerned with her personal feelings than the fate of a entire planet or the prime directive.

Does the prime directive even exist in this reboot?

Both Abrahms films have now ended with a climatic battle near earth. For the next installment Kirk should just hang out at spacedock until the Borg/Klingons/Iconians/Tribbles inevitably attack. He can still be brash and lose his captaincy.

Kahn crashes a 700m long starship on San Fransico because the federation has neither anti-air(space?) weaponry or any ships beside the enterprise.

/rant over. There's more but it'd be nit-picking.

[mjmjr25]

My wife and I have been watching mostly TV shows, getting caught up on Walking Dead and now Dexter, but we did find time for a couple movies during our Christmas Break.

"The Iceman" - this is a true story about a contract killer in the 60's-80's. Brilliant acting all-around, particularly Michael Shannon as the lead, but Winona Ryder, David Schimmer and Ray Liotta were all very good in their roles - and that is something I don't normally say, at least not for the first 2. The movie was dry at times, but not bad and definitely worth the watch. Like most biopics, you find yourself with an affinity for this bad person. After the movie we watched some youtube videos of him, from HBO interviews in 2002. The affinity was lost in about 30 seconds. Wow.

"Revenge" - a Jason Statham flick, same formula as most of his films. I like him, I like simple action plot with nice action / fight scenes. Worth 90 minutes if you like his stuff.

"Lars and the Real Girl" - The only dood I dig more than Statham is Ryan Gosling, but i'd never seen this one as the description and advert shots made it look like a bit of sick film and not the sort of stuff we are in to. The pics on netflix and elsewhere are a bit misleading. This is a sweet, endearing, and often funny / often sad drama. Good performances all-around.

[Jrecee]

I recommend catching up on dexter only until the season 7 finale and then pretending it ended.

I watched:

The Wolverine. Could have been more. Too bad Aronofsky dropped out. I guess it was still the 3rd best Xmen film..... I did enjoy the last 15 minutes as well as the villain.

Pacific Rim. A very very pretty looking, average film. Like almost every action movie, it peaked with the fight scene in the middle, and was then followed by an okayish action scene at the end. Characters had the potential to be interesting, but fell flat. I'm not saying that getting revenge for her parents death isn't a perfectly workable storyline, but in a world where half the population has been killed, it seems like it'd be a pretty common feeling among humans...

[hashiriya1]

I just watched "Blackfish" on Netflix.

Well, that was a depressing documentary.

[Cronozilla]

Trading Places. I still love it.

I think Green Lantern is OK for being a hacked up mess. I'm curious if you can really judge all of Reynolds performance considering almost half the move isn't shown. It's in the same position as the Incredible Hulk flick. It's difficult to judge because in its current state it's kind of garbage, but the movie was really manhandled in editing.

I don't think Green Lantern is ultimately terrible ... but I don't think it's particularly entertaining or memorable either. The only aspect I thought was done very well was Mark Strong as Sinestro.