Kaos' way behind movie reviews

[Snaggletiger]

Rainy a$$ day yesterday...and today.  So, I veg'd out on the couch and watched the tube all day, including Da Vinci Code.  Was a decent flick with a great plot but went way too long and then just pfffft...fizzled...popped.  I'd much rather have watched Monty Python's search for the Holy Grail than Tom Hanks'.     

[Saniflush]

Captain America The Winter Soldier

Better than the first Captain America. Better than both Thor films. Still not all that great. Evans is fine in the role and Redford must have wanted to do something for the grandkids, but this movie is mostly a tease of "what's to come" and therefore it fails to make any lasting points. At this stage, the Avengers universe has so many interconnected parts, it is hard for any film to just stand on singular merit.

Really?  I disagree. 

Practically non-stop action thru the whole thing, and a hell of a retrospect with a Marvel flair on where the world's going with all this NSA/CIA information collecting fun and what not, that we keep hearing about, Marvel's hit, yet another one, out of the park.

[Kaos]

Cap'n America: Winter Solider
and
Superman: Man of Steel

Watched both movies this weekend, one at the theater the other on HBO/Skinomax/Starz/Showtime whatever. 

Did so purposely because I find similarities between the two characters and their "american way" patriotism.  They are in some ways the DC/Marvel mirror image of each other just with different back stories. 

Both are too bland by a degree to me. Neither has that jagged edge or inner demon or outsized alter ego that drive other major comic characters.  Batman has the revenge factor, Spiderman also lost a paternal figure, Hulk was driven half mad by radiation, Iron Man has a recklessness, etc.  Superman and the Captain are pure good in a world of evil.  Both could use a little swagger, just a dash of Tony Stark's flippancy. 

(Six is completely wrong and needs to get his own thread.)

If I'm ranking Marvel films, Captain America: Winter Soldier would fall behind Avengers, behind any of the Iron Man films and somewhere in a mix that includes the last Thor, the first Thor and the first Captain America.  It would be above Ghost Rider, mainly because Nicholas Cage is one of the worst actors of our generation.  His performance in GR: Spirit of Vengeance was laughable to the point of parody.

Captain America Winter Soldier was fair.  It seemed a little disjointed in places and the ending seemed rush and almost artificial. No spoilers (not that there could really be any, honestly) but there are lots and lots of fights and the good guys sort of win in the end. 

I found the underlying motivation of the bad guys to be a trifle asinine and it pained me to see Robert Redford in the role he took.  Nazis in 2014 really? I understand the need to tie Captain to his frozen lost era, but the same story could have been told without the Nazi insinuations.  Would probably have been better, actually.

The movie was at least 30 minutes longer than it needed to be.  It could easily have trimmed out one or more of the repetitive shield-flinging fight scenes that dragged on and on. 

It also suffers in comparison to The Avengers, Iron Man and even Thor all of which had opportunities for comic relief and were better paced. Each had a foil (whether it be Loki or Iron Man's own ego) that Captain was seriously lacking.  The Captain was just too stuffed and taciturn.

Got zero bump from the bird dude.  Expected he'd bring a different dynamic to the film and maybe that chance for some levity but it didn't happen.

And finally Scar-Jo didn't look well.  Something was wrong with her face and it didn't show enough of her body to even it out.

On to Man of Steel.

I was pre-disposed to dislike the film.  I'm a Batman guy and Batman guys typically aren't Superman fans.  All of the Superman films I've seen to this point pretty much sucked.  The ones with Keanau Reeves' father (or whoever that equestrian fellow was) were hokey and jokey.  The one that destroyed Brandon Routh's career was pretty abysmal. 

So I didn't have much hope for this Superman reboot and avoided it at the theaters.  But given the weather and the opportunity to compare the boring Captain to the boring Superman, I took a chance.

Turns out I actually liked this film much better than Captain America.  The guy playing Superman did well with the part.  I found the Scrod guy's motivations to be a little far-fetched and the scenes on Krypton didn't really do a good job explaining why he would be so hell-bent on that level of fury. 

In some ways the two films actually told the same story -- the destruction of earth's population in order to create a more perfect society -- but they came at it from different angles. 

Not a fan of Amy Adams as Lois, for what it's worth. Not that Rachel McAdams or that creepy old Margot Kidder with her false teeth in the 70s were any better, though.

Got tired of watching buildings fall in Man of Steel.  My daughter watched it with me and was reduced to going -- "there's another entire building hitting the ground."  It's like since Transformers (or maybe before) these superhero directors seem obsessed with taking down high rises for dramatic effect.  I got so weary of the constant stream of building, car, truck, store, street, tree, house and earth carnage. 

As in Captain America, the fight scenes were just overlong and in the case of Superman, far too much collateral destruction.

Still, it was a story better told. 

Superman was a B-.  Winter Soldier was a mid to low C.  Wish I hadn't spent the money to see Captain in theaters, wish I had spent it to see Man of Steel. 

[Townhallsavoy]

The collateral damage in superhero movies (and some others like the most recent Star Trek) really takes away the enjoyability of the ending. 

Like in The Avengers.  Gigantic flying eels with insect-space ships that swarm and destroy just leveled half of the city.  The Avengers in order to take the bad guys down have to also destroy half of the city.  And at the end, it's a bunch of kids celebrating and adults singing songs and reporters treating it like New Year's Eve. 

Or in Star Trek.  A starship crashes into San Francisco and levels a huge chunk of the city.  MILLIONS of people would have died.  Countless injured.  Infrastructure crumbled.  A decade to rebuild and most likely widespread fear and panic of the starships in orbit capable of doing that or more if a bad terrorist gets the helm. 

Or like you mentioned in Man of Steel.  Skyscrapers being reduced to rubble.  It's like 9/11 happen 15 times in one day except it's not Muslims hijacking planes you have to worry about.  It's a demi-god guy who can fly having to fight off other alien beings that are just as strong as he is. 

[Kaos]

The collateral damage in superhero movies (and some others like the most recent Star Trek) really takes away the enjoyability of the ending. 

Like in The Avengers.  Gigantic flying eels with insect-space ships that swarm and destroy just leveled half of the city.  The Avengers in order to take the bad guys down have to also destroy half of the city.  And at the end, it's a bunch of kids celebrating and adults singing songs and reporters treating it like New Year's Eve. 

Or in Star Trek.  A starship crashes into San Francisco and levels a huge chunk of the city.  MILLIONS of people would have died.  Countless injured.  Infrastructure crumbled.  A decade to rebuild and most likely widespread fear and panic of the starships in orbit capable of doing that or more if a bad terrorist gets the helm. 

Or like you mentioned in Man of Steel.  Skyscrapers being reduced to rubble.  It's like 9/11 happen 15 times in one day except it's not Muslims hijacking planes you have to worry about.  It's a demi-god guy who can fly having to fight off other alien beings that are just as strong as he is.

A disaster analyst has pegged the damage done to Metropolis during the climactic battle between Superman, General Zod and his forces in Man of Steel at $700 billion–that’s five times what The Avengers would have cost New York, or roughly fifteen times the cost of the damage done in the real-life September 11 terror attacks on the city. They also guess that the financial fallout from the attack would ultimately end up costing $2 trillion.




Ridiculous.  I knew it was excessive and I seriously got tired of watching glass shatter and skyscrapers crumble. 

[The Six]

Cap'n America: Winter Solider
and
Superman: Man of Steel

(Six is completely wrong and needs to get his own thread.)

[Godfather]

A disaster analyst has pegged the damage done to Metropolis during the climactic battle between Superman, General Zod and his forces in Man of Steel at $700 billion–that’s five times what The Avengers would have cost New York, or roughly fifteen times the cost of the damage done in the real-life September 11 terror attacks on the city. They also guess that the financial fallout from the attack would ultimately end up costing $2 trillion.




Ridiculous.  I knew it was excessive and I seriously got tired of watching glass shatter and skyscrapers crumble. 

It's Obama's plan for job creation.

[Snaggletiger]

Put me in the "like" column for Captain A.  Saw it last night.  Great action flick and not too over the top.  More fight scenes than $8 trillion in collateral damage.  I would like to have seen them try and make it a little more humorous.  Numerous opportunities to throw some comedy relief in there but they keep Cap way too serious and stoic.  But, overall a really entertaining super hero movie.

[Snaggletiger]

Brick Mansions.  Quite possibly the cheesiest, worst made action flick in the history of man.  I have a feeling after Paul Walker died, they had to tear 25 Vin Diesel posters off his wall.  Fuck sake this was bad.

[Godfather]

Brick Mansions.  Quite possibly the cheesiest, worst made action flick in the history of man.  I have a feeling after Paul Walker died, they had to tear 25 Vin Diesel posters off his wall.  Fuck sake this was bad.

You see dead people.

[djsimp]

Brick Mansions.  Quite possibly the cheesiest, worst made action flick in the history of man.

Obviously you have never seen the movie Bug(2006) or The Bag Man(2014)

[Kaos]

Oculus

Oculus. Spanish for sucks.

Awful movie

[Kaos]

Transcendence

Seen this movie panned by critics but I liked it.  It raised a lot of interesting questions about what a present day God or Messiah might be. 

I found it interesting because so many of the concepts (mapping the brain and reducing consciousness to a series of electrical impulses, the power of nano-technology to heal, where does the soul begin) are things that I sometimes ponder and study.  The dramatic aspect was overplayed somewhat and the resolution a bit too simplistic but it did keep my attention and set my internal wheels to spinning slowly.

If all we are is contained in our thought processes and our flesh is merely a vehicle for transport, would we remain "alive" if those thoughts, memories, feelings, desires and emotions could be digitized?  And if we were alive, could we not theoretically create another flesh and blood vessel into which those digital files could be transferred?  At what point in the future does our Carbonite backup include our mental relays so that we never die, they are just downloaded into a new copy should something happen to us? 

Would that be a bad thing?

Christopher Nolan directed this movie. Most of his films have deep layers.  Some (Inception) are too flawed for me to embrace the concept. Others (Memento) intrigue me.  Transcendence falls somewhere in between. The story is too broad and the brushstrokes too light to have the impact of Memento, but it didn't (for me) contain the logical loops that derailed Inception. 

It's not a movie you can go to with a bucket of popcorn and turn your mind off while superheroes or robots trash another major American city.   As with all Nolan films, you're required to think.  The film raised some troubling concepts for me. Nothing that's faith-shaking, but definitely some questions about whether we'll recognize the lines that shouldn't be crossed in our mortal quest to be gods. 

[Townhallsavoy]

Transcendence was directed by Willy Pfister, and this was his debut as a director.  He worked as a cinematographer for Nolan for multiple movies, but on this one, Nolan only served as a producer. 

The previews for the movie made me think of a combination of Lawnmower Man, The Matrix, and Surrogate. 

[Kaos]

Transcendence was directed by Willy Pfister, and this was his debut as a director.  He worked as a cinematographer for Nolan for multiple movies, but on this one, Nolan only served as a producer. 

The previews for the movie made me think of a combination of Lawnmower Man, The Matrix, and Surrogate.

You are right. Saw Nolan in the credits prominently and thought it was his. He had something to do with it but now I don't know for sure what his role was.


Was more a mix of 2001, War Games and Max Headroom.

[The Six]

Transcendence

Yeah, notice how Nolan hasn't been out trumpeting this? Copycats rarely get close on the facsimile.

[Kaos]

Neighbors

I don't really like Seth Rogen, but this movie delivered on the promise of its previews. 

It was funny enough that I enjoyed it.  Definitely not what you'd call a classic comedy and it's not something that's going to persist long term (like Raising Arizona or Stripes). But it did have its moments. 

Problems?

1) Unnecessary crudity.  I didn't need to see Rogen's sweaty ass grinding (same problem with Knocked Up, honestly) to get the concept of what was happening in a scene.
2) Inconsistent story.  Pieces of it didn't make sense or fit.  At the end the movie had a chance to turn the dial over to 11 and become epic. It could have reached for Project X insanity, which would have been the perfect move.  Instead it let the last bash fizzle.  Also the emotional flip of Efron from the scene where he confronts the couple on the porch and makes almost pedophiliac threats about the daughter to his "bro" demeanor four months later wasn't fleshed out and didn't carry the right weight. 

The movie scratched the surface of a number of legitimate issues: How to still be a couple and have kids; the angst of children of divorce; slogging through school and ending up with nothing but a piece of paper; learning to be an adult... but it didn't explore any of them quite enough to matter.

It was a good movie, but with a couple of tweaks it could have been so, so much better. 

I liked the girl who played Rogen's wife.  Her character was the right mix of what I think a good wife should really be.

[bottomfeeder]

http://www.neighbors-movie.com/tagged/video

[The Six]

I've walked out of a theater 3 times in my life.

#1. 8MM  - This is where I gave up on Nicholas Cage for good.

#2. Halloween II (Rob Zombie version) - thanks for ruining your good ideas yourself, Rob.

#3. Neighbors - got through 33 minutes of this crap and turned the other way. Never again, Seth Rogan. Never.

[Kaos]

I've walked out of a theater 3 times in my life.

#1. 8MM  - This is where I gave up on Nicholas Cage for good.

#2. Halloween II (Rob Zombie version) - thanks for ruining your good ideas yourself, Rob.

#3. Neighbors - got through 33 minutes of this crap and turned the other way. Never again, Seth Rogan. Never.

You clearly need to get out more.  Walking out of Neighbors was a mistake.