Rate the latest movie you've seen.

[SGOS]

Birdman 1/10

92% at Rotten Tomatoes from critics, and 84% from audiences.  I got up and left the theater mid movie, leaving a total audience of two sitting in the seats.  Granted it was a Tuesday afternoon.  I'm not sure what the point of the movie was, but I'm quite sure I wouldn't have cared.  It was much too artsy fartsy for my tastes as it apparently tried to delve into the existential angst that all Broadway actors can relate to.  The actors acted like they were acting like actors. 

Each of the main characters took turns delivering those long monologues of three pages of script delivered with intense anger and indignation.  This always seems so unrealistic in my opinion, but plays use the device frequently.  In real life, if someone was ranting on with such intensity telling me all I ever thought about was myself, bla, bla, bla, and the world wasn't just about me, bla, bla.  I would just say, "Fuck off," and leave.  I'm not sure what the other actors were doing while these scenes were being filmed.  Maybe they went out for snacks and returned just before whoever was firing off his turn at monologue.

Maybe someone can explain to me why this film gets such high ratings, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't care, even if I understood.

[SGOS]

Atlas Shrugged Part III  5/10

Good Grief!  I might need to reread the book.  I actually remember liking it, but that was many years ago.  I don't remember the plot being so heavy handed.  It's not unusual for Hollywood to exaggerate a message or concept, but they are usually more subtle, even attempting to be thought provoking.  This brings the Libertarian ideology down like thunder with such intensity that it tends to drown out any evaluations you have going on in your head.  It's Ayn Rand speaking in person:  "Do not consider disagreeing with what I say.  Any attempt to think on your own shall be considered an act of treasonous defiance."

Now aside from the transparent acting and the heavy handed plot, I did enjoy it, as I did the first two parts.  It has a visceral appeal which I can't account for.  It might have something to do with the black and white divide between good (Corporate greed in the best sense) and evil (the rest of the riff raff wanting to be fed and housed without lifting a finger).  Apparently, there was nothing in between in Rand's ideology.

I would have rated it higher, just because I found enjoyment in it, but it's mostly for the niche group of Ayn Rand's followers.  The fundamentals of the ideology are laid on much too thick to be seen as anything more than blatant propaganda.

[SGOS]

Racing Hearts  9/10

I don't know whether to call it a movie about romance or pigeon racing.  Both I suppose.  No explosions or special effects.  Just a solid movie that capitalizes on good story telling.  I enjoy these kinds of movies that don't seem dependent on Hollywood formulas.  I put this one off for awhile, but was delightfully surprised when I watched it tonight.

[caseagainstfaith]

American Sniper

I oppose the war.  But, I want to try to discuss the film on its own merits.  Occasionally when I watch a movie, for whatever reason, I'm not able to "get into it", for lack of a better word.  Obviously, whenever you watch a movie, you are, well, watching a movie.  But you are supposed to, to some degree, feel as if the story is unfolding before you.  But on occasion, I can't do that.  I just feel like I'm watching actors saying lines.  That doesn't necessarily mean that it is a bad movie or bad acting. I'm not sure why I feel that way. But, through this movie, that is how I felt, I felt constantly aware that I was watching actors saying lines.

The Islamic enemies are portrayed one dimensional, they are just guys that have to be killed.  The scenes while he is at home, you are to understand that he is becoming emotionally distant. The wife tells us this.  But, I didn't feel like I was really being shown his change.

So, just from a movie perspective, I didn't particularly like it.  I've seen worse.  But, I can't recommend it.

[aitm]

Night Stalker….Holy Crap gang. Now this here is pretty fucked up, but the acting….Jake.. man,, he creeps you out within a couple minutes and it gets so bad and so creepy that you start to admire the guy. I am serious. This is a seriously wonderful script, sick, but wonderful script. You know the acting is good when the guy gives you the fucking willies. I think this is one of the best I have seen as far as acting and plot. Normally this is not my type of movie because creepy doesn't do it for me. But man, I am giving this a 10.

[Sal1981]

Jupiter Ascending - 6/10

thin plot, with spaceships and shit.

[the_antithesis]

The Pink Angels (1972)

When you watch a lot of shit movies, occasionally one comes up that puzzles you for days after, perhaps forever. The Pink Angels is the latest of to do so for me. It's about a gay biker gang. beyond that, I am not sure how to describe it.

It has no plot. Anything that could have been a plot is dropped at some point when you're not looking. It's just composed of a series of things that happen. None of it adds up to anything. It doesn't say anything. It's not pro-gay. It's not anti-gay. That these bikers are homosexual is mostly used for comedy. They go into a shoe store and try on women's shoes while some old lady looks at them all shocked and shit. Yes, that kind of humor. The kind of humor that's not funny.

There are a couple threads that could have been developed into, I don't know, something but they don't. I have a theory on this which I'll get to in due time.

First thing that could have gone somewhere is there's mention of a drag ball that they're heading to. This really doesn't do much except keep them moving. But part of the reason this does not pay off is because of the baffling ending, which we'll get to.

Second is while the gay bikers (they never refer to themselves as Pink Angels in the film) are eating lunch at a rest stop picnic table (complete with table cloth, polished silverware, candles and candelabras, and champagne. Gays, amIright?) a group of straight bikers show up. They party for a bit until the straight guys pass out and the gay bikers doll them up with make-up and hair ribbons. The straight bikers act all mad about this and give chase with the stated purpose of killing them. But when they finally catch up with the gay bikers having cocktails in the hotel lounge in drag, they just sit down and talk with them and decide to go to that drag party with them.

Wait. What?

I guess they're all gay bikers? I really don't know. It isn't very clear.

There are a couple other nuggets that could have paid off. The leader of the gay bikers is apparently someone important. When they check in to their hotel, the nerdy desk clerk asks for a deposit. the leader says his signature is good enough. The clerk looks at his signature and enthusiastically agrees. So he's someone important or rich. Want to know who? So the fuck would I. This is never mentioned again.

Now we get to that fucking ending. This is going to take a bit, so stay with me.

While the nothing that happens in place of the plot unfolds, the film is intercut with scenes of this general character. His presence here is completely baffling because he doesn't have anything to do with the gays bikers or their quest to be the prettiest queen at the ball. These scenes were obviously filmed after the principle photography and added later because the movie needed a villain and shit. So this guys isn't general whatever his name is, he is the personification of "The Man" as they used to say back then. He is the establishment, the previous generation who does not understand or tolerate bikers, gay or otherwise, or anything else that might corrupt America's precious traditional values or some kind of shit.

His scenes don't do much except remind us that he's there for the most part. He does have one interesting scene where he cleans his handgun blindfolded while his secretary times him. He falls short of his own minimum time so he raises the minimum. This is kind of interesting because it's symbolic and shit. The Man is all judgmental but he can't even meet his own standards. So he's a hypocrite. It's pretty ham-fisted, but it's the only thing in this movie that has anything, and I mean anything going on beneath the surface. So I harp on it a bit.

So now we get to the ending, which I'm going to spoil in case anyone else want to see this movie and have the full impact of the ending.

[spoiler]Actually, the opening of the movie is the ending where the gay bikers in drag and their straight biker dates (one of whom is played by Dan "TV's Grizzly Adams" Haggerty)  arriving at a mansion for the drag ball. There's a bunch of people here but it becomes obvious quickly this isn't the drag ball. The leader of the gay bikers takes of his wig and pulls the stuffing out of his bra shouting "Wrong wrong wrong wrong party party party party," with a cheesy echo effect. It's a weird place to start the movie, but it's all we get of the original ending before the general's scenes were added. So many questions unanswered. So many plot thread that do not pay off.

At the end, they arrive at the mansion but once inside one of the gay bikers is ushered into the general's office because he was the only actor who wasn't doing anything that Saturday. The general can't tell he's a dude until he takes his wig and reveal long hippy hair that was longer than the wig he was wearing, which spoils the effect. The general exclaims "faggots!" as if the very presence of homosexuals in the same room makes him rock hard. Then in the final shot, we see the general standing outside his mansion and all the gay bikers are being hanged from a tree!

Well, it's a bunch of fake-looking dummies that are wearing similar clothes. This is quite a sharp left turn for an otherwise light movie where we mostly see the spectacle of a gay dudes acting like stereotypes. I guess this is a convention of the biker movie genre since Easy Rider, which I haven't seen. [/spoiler]

In the final analysis, The Pink Angles is not a very good movie. It's interesting from a political standpoint in that back then gay, transvestite, transsexual, etc were all lumped into one because even sleazy exploitation filmmakers didn't understand the different hues of the homo rainbow and probably didn't care to educate the masses even if they did. Kind of like listening to old episodes of Amos and Andy in regards to civil rights.

Most of the running time is fluff that goes nowhere with the few potential plot points unresolved because of the added scenes and ending. So it becomes a mystery where those things were originally going and how bad they were that they completely changed the ending to a total downer.

[aitm]

Star Trek… I admit a heavy bias as I grew up with the series and was always partial to the movies despite them being..er…..not so good, but I love this one, the "into the darkness" not so much but this one I love. The idea of presenting it as an alternative universe is a spectacularly obvious choice to maintain the original idea without infringing upon it. I truly enjoy watching this with enthusiasm. To me it is an 15/10. And if you disagree,,,,,fuck off.

[Aletheia]

Watched "The Imitation Game" which was about Turing.

Excellent movie. Recommend watching it; you will not be disappointed.

They really brought to life the heartaches, triumphs, and injustices that Turing had endured. How he managed to keep it together is an enigma in itself. The man was awkward, but a hero nonetheless. He deserved better from the world.

[Jutter]

Citizen Four (the Edward Snowden documentary)
I'm not going to rate this like i would a movie, but I found it gripping and well put together. For your own opinion, you can watch it here
http://www.anonsweden.se/?p=6925

[SGOS]

Whiplash  6/10

OK, that's not a very high score, but the movie has some good things in  it.  If you have an interest in movies about music, the story of this young drummer might interest you.  Of all the instruments, I don't have a lot of interest in drums, but given that almost every modern band has a drummer regardless of what other instruments compose the make up of the band, the drums are important, and some drummers occasionally catch my attention.  The movie ends with a long drum solo that knocked my socks off.  That was worth the rental price at Redbox.

The plot is an old worn out formula pitting good against evil, and there is no subtlety in the good and evil, as the movie exaggerates the evil to the point where it becomes unrealistic, almost bordering on absurd.  It's as if the director was trying to hard to make a point.  When a character is being a jerk, he's a jerk more than he needs to be.  I wanted to say, "Yeah, OK, OK.  I get it.  This guy is a jerk."  That and the fact that the plot is based on a time worn formula, are the weak points.

Having pointed that out, this film held my attention, and offered some nice surprises along the way.  I liked the big band jazz music, and the drummer was excellent.

[the_antithesis]

Night Club (1989)



I....

Every once in a while, I come across a a movie that utterly baffles me.

I could not tell you what happens in this movie.

Wait, I should explain that a bit. I can tell you what happens in this movie in that it's about a guy who wants to open a night club in an old industrial building with his (fingerquotes) "hot" new wife. He runs into a snag when there is toxic waste in the building and he's having trouble either getting it cleaned up or just making the bank take back the property and refund his money. This is bad for him because he had borrowed money from a mob guy to buy the place and he's putting the squeeze on our hero to get his money back. Tensions mount and then his wife leaves him and things somehow work out and he gets his night club.

That all happens in the movie, but I can't tell you what of that actually happens in the movie because the movies is made out of dream sequences.

I am not kidding. There appear to be dream sequences piled on top of dream sequences. I do not know what actually happens here. It's also why I said "things somehow work out" earlier because at that point, I had no idea what was going on.

The film is framed with scenes of the guy after he has his club up and running, so most of the running time is a flashback after he receives a letter from his estranged wife as he remembers everything that happened with trying to open the club. Early on there are weird editing choices. There is a scene where they first go to the building for the club after they'd bought it and suddenly it's months later and obviously things aren't going well. It's a jarring transition that would have been a minor mistake in a better movie. Here, it becomes a running theme.

At first I wasn't even sure if there were dream sequences and I thought he was just having an affair with a woman who happened to look like his wife. I wasn't even sure if she was played by the same actress or played by a similar-looking talentless bimbo. He called her by a different name, so I was confused until the end credits confirmed it was the same actress.

I fear I may be making this movie sound more fun than it is, though. If I were to tell you that at one point he comes home (he and his wife are living in the industrial building full of toxic waste because it's unsafe to have a night club here, but perfectly fine to live there. And no, the hallucinations are not explained by this) to find a blow up doll on the ceiling, which then floats to the floor that turns into the dream woman, you might thing that's pretty amazing, right?

Well, it isn't. It's dull.

No wait. It's DULL.

I can't even begin to express how dreary this movie is. I only noticed it was mostly dream sequences after I hadn't been paying attention for a while and suddenly realized I didn't understand what the fuck was happening. So I backed up and tried to pay better attention. I have wasted my life.

So in the end, it's just not a good movie. It's boring and only noteworthy for it's bizarre dream-ladened narrative and boobs. Not nearly enough boobs to make it worth it.

[Green Bottle]

Left Behind...       shit movie, shit script, shit acting, and nicholas cage..   1/10

[stromboli]

I pray to god you didn't pay money to see that movie.

[Green Bottle]

No mate, i was browsin movietube the other nite an i thought i would give it a wee watch, i was drunk but thats no excuse, nearly 2hours of my life gone for ever, iv'e seen a coupla nick cage movies that have been ok but this was really dire.................ill know better next time hopefully.