What you watchin' tonight?

The Amazing Spiderman 2 (at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in IMAX 3D). Just like the last installment the best parts of the film are the ones featuring Spiderman and Gwen together, they have a great chemistry (they are also a couple in real life) and keep things sparking along when they are on the screen. Just like the last installment the villain is unconvincing and dull and some of the action set pieces end up looking like video game boss battles. The best sequence is the opening car chase which rivals The Blues Brothers in the sheer number of cop cars demolished.

At home later...

The Amazing Spiderman - Decided to watch this one again and I'm convinced it's the better of the two films.

Easy A - I guess it was "Emma Stone day", this updating of The Scarlett Letter is her best performance and it's a very smart and funny film.

also watched the latest episodes of The Good Wife and Orphan Black.

Currently making my way thru the first season of "Supernatural" via Netflix.

I'm currently on the first season of "Everybody Hates Chris".

Some Sci-Fi B-movie madness tonight:

Battle Beyond the Stars - Been wanting to see this since I was a kid; just never got around to it. I doubt I would have even enjoyed it as a kid. Competent ship design and a diverse cast can't save this from the dull mess that it is. The dogfights are so ineptly edited that you lose track of who's shooting who. What makes this worse is that the entire 10-20m climax is made up of this. And Sybil Danning looks much better than she acts. I was expecting a little more, to be honest.

Moontrap - Chekov and The Chin! Silly space fun with a good layer of 50's camp where A Lot of Things Happen before the real plot of robots on the moon kick in. It's far from decent--the gravity on the moon shifts frequently, pacing is horrible, and Walter Koenig is just a bad, bad actor--but it is competently directed with a lot of imagination and fun. Major points go to the FX and set design--looks like an endless supply of dry concrete was effectively used for moon dust, and the robots look absolutely terrifying. One thing that harms the films is how our hero astronauts come across a massive derelict ship, a body, and an alien pod in deep space--only to bring back the latter two as the ship is entirely forgotten for the remainder of the film. You'd think they'd explore it some. Bonus points for getting the science right, for the most part, in this one.

On a side note, there's an old christian movie from the 80's called On Our Own--it's filth--that had an attractive lead that I had a huge crush on. Welp, in this movie I actually got to see her breasts. Too bad I missed out on this one when I was young.

"Moontrap!" I watched that on Youtube a couple of months ago. Total hoot.

"Battle Beyond the Stars" is an old HBO fave. It's cheez but it's fun cheez.

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Battle Beyond the Stars" is an old HBO fave. It's cheez but it's fun cheez.

I did enjoy Robert Vaughan's mercenary performace. "Mister, are you a bad man?" "Yes." "Were you bad when you were little?" "I wasn't little."

Guilty pleasure week: watched Seagal's "Under Siege" this afternoon and I've got its sequel "US 2: Dark Territory" lined up for tonight.

I saw Battle Beyond The Stars in the theater. I re-watched it a couple years ago and while I still enjoyed it from a camp perspective to say that it hasn't aged well is an understatement.

I finished up watching the excellent season 2 of Bates Motel. One of the best series this TV season.

The camp is fun stuff but those space battles are just boooooring. I was literally fighting sleep.

I'm going to start Bates Motel soon. I've heard enough great things about it to make the Psycho fanboy in me happy.

Roger Corman got his money's worth out of those effects tho. He recycled them in at least two later movies - "Space Raiders" and "Forbidden World' - and he used the theme music in his no budget "Fantastic Four" flick.

I'm going to see the original 1954 Japanese version of Gojira on Sunday. Never seen it on the big screen so I'm excited, they are showing the recently restored version.

S.D. wrote:

I'm going to see the original 1954 Japanese version of Gojira on Sunday.  Never seen it on the big screen so I'm excited, they are showing the recently restored version.  

It was great.

I also went and saw Neighbors and that's a very funny "stupid-on-purpose" comedy with above average characters. It's kind of like an 80s college comedy with an actual script.

Silver Linings Playbook (wow!)

Firefly.

Which theater did you see Gojira at?

corplhicks wrote:

Silver Linings Playbook (wow!)

Firefly.

Which theater did you see Gojira at?

The Arclight in Hollywood. Isn't Silver Linings Playbook fucking awesome?

A couple days ago...

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This morning before work...

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Watched a 70s haunted house flick called "The Legend of Hell House' on TCM last night. It started out intriguingly enough and seemed to be building up to something really big for a climax, and then....pffft. It just fizzled out.

Godzilla (2014) - great flick

Fat Freddy wrote:

Watched a 70s haunted house flick called "The Legend of Hell House' on TCM last night. It started out intriguingly enough and seemed to be building up to something really big for a climax, and then....pffft. It just fizzled out.

The book is intense and far superior to the film in every way. It was written by Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) and it's one of my favorite haunted house novels.

This will be long. Been gone awhile for several reasons, have watched quite a bit of stuff:

Shawn, yes SLP is by far the best romantic comedy of the 21st century so far. I haven't felt that sort of connection to a love story since I was a kid. Very old fashioned feel to it, sort of reminds me of Billy Wilder's work in different ways. Loved it, planning on owning it (which says a lot). Speaking of Russell...

-American Hustle. Russell, like Alexander Payne, really knows how to manage consistency. While I can't say it's as great as SLP, it's still a zippy watch with solid-as-fuck characters. The period detail and music is a big plus, and holy shit is that Hawkeye actually ACTING as Mayor Carmine? I can't believe he's actually got chops! The only downside, if one wants to call it that, is the somewhat dense plot, but it's really not much to complain about since it really does take a back seat to character creation. A fuckin' plus.

-Firefly/Serenity: decided to binge on the entirety of the greatest short-lived franchise of sci-fi. What's interesting here is my introduction to Firefly, and Whedon in general, was the Serenity film when it came out (I had nothing but hate in my heart for Joss due to not knowing his work beyond Alien Resurrection, and that was before I actually read his awesome yet studio-plundered script). I simply adored Serenity so then caught up with the Firefly episodes. It was really a pleasure to digest it all in two sittings, and funnily enough I find the show to be a mite better than the film. Truly a universe I hope he goes back to exploring after his stint with Marvel. Also, Nathan Fillion is the greatest American actor working today. Speaking of Fillion and Whedon...

-Much Ado About Nothing. One of my favorite Shakespeare plays (and my favorite reading to participate in) doesn't quite hit the mark that Branagh had set, but it comes close. I should be clear here that I'm not a fan of Shakespeare's works placed in a modern setting for a plethora of reasons. However, Whedon's company does an enjoyably plausible job of transcending the contemporary backdrop. Fillion is much better than Keaton at playing Dogberry, and Amy Acker actually kicks Emma Thompson's ass as Beatrice. Happy to see Firefly's Sean Maher play opposite to type as Don John, and some subtly sly references to some of the more awkward dialogue such as a "negro" reference and a weirdly non sequitur line in Borachio's arrest. Overall, very funny and feel-good.

-Pain & Gain: good shit, a Michael Bay movie I actually enjoyed! No joke, this is the only movie of his that actually WORKS. It's an incredibly true story about three truly stupid macho bodybuilders in mid-90's Florida who pull a heist-torture-attempted murder-scam-murder and just blow it at every move. The three principles are hilarious, and the whole movie is one hyperviolent riot. I can't believe I'm saying this about a Bay flick, but I recommend. It just goes to show that less is more with this guy.

-Lifepod: anyone remember this? Made-for-TV sci-fi based on Hitchcock's Lifeboat, directed by lead actor Ron Silver (RIP). Several people stranded on a lifepod in space, one of them is a killer. Though the twist is already obvious from the start (especially if you've seen Lifeboat), and some of the characters are pretty dense at times, the set design is winning along with the moderate-to-strong acting, and I can't help but love how nasty and full of contempt these people are for a TV movie. The script, which has some strong moments, was an early co-write for director Jay Roach (of Austin Powers fame).

Glad you enjoyed Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, my favorite films from 2012 and 2013.  

I don't mind the modern day update of Much Ado About Nothing, of all the Shakespeare plays that one is easiest to pull off in a modern setting because it's essentially a screwball/romantic comedy.  I thought it was beautifully acted and Amy Acker I think should have gotten an Oscar nomination for it.  Also, Joss has a seriously nice house (which is where it was filmed).

I might watch Pain & Gain...though I might need to smoke a couple bowls first to prepare for a Michael Bay movie.

Yeah I'm certainly in love with Russell's body of work at this point; now I need to see The Fighter. As for Ado this was certainly the one time a modern transposition really worked. I don't know if I should credit Whedon or his company or both, but it actually fits.

Pain & Gain was a shocker. You may hate it, you may enjoy it (I doubt anyone would LOVE it), but it's indisputably his best movie, or really his only good one. In fact--I'm going out on a limb here--the whole plot seems to be a subconscious reference to how he both fails at filmmaking and butchers franchises. Seriously, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense, douchebag bodybuilders and bullheaded patriotism et al. Which makes it that much more enjoyable, I suppose.

While the two of us may hate Michael Bay it should be noted that his films have made over 4 billion dollars for their respective studios, it's no wonder the guy can do whatever he wants.

And which is why he'll be around for a long ass time lol.

Star Trek: Into Darkness. Felt the same I did with the first movie: fun, but empty, which isn't the Star Trek I grew up with. Also, that score for both films is wretched, stock, and nondescript. Giacchino has got to go.

On a side note, Netflix streaming quality has been quite awful at our house lately. Most time it looks like a video from a 2006 phone camera. Not sure what gives, but it's rendering a lot of stuff here unwatchable.

X-Men:Days Of Future Past - possibly the best X-Men film thus far..... easily the best of the Singer directed X-Men films and obviously better than The Last Stand. Not sure if it is a better film than First Class, I'll need to watch both of them back to back when the new one comes out on blu-ray.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark - still perfect.

Jurassic Park - Remove the dinosaur sequences and this is not a very good film, the effects sequences are the entire reason this is considered a classic. Compare this back to back with Jaws sometime and you'll see how weak this is by comparison.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park - A little better than I remembered but still rather anti-climactic and it goes completely off the rails logically once the action moves to San Diego. Still, I almost never hate a movie that Julianne Moore is in.

I planned on watching all three of the Jurassic Park movies but I can't face III so I'm giving up.