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I saw Pacific Rim last night (2D) and loved it. I was worried it would be like Transformers where the robots are so big and the action is so fast that you can't see anything, but I thought the monster fights ended up being great to watch. Wish there were more. One thing I was totally distracted by was Charlie Hunnam's swagger with his thumbs tucked into his belt. It seemed so not military and so Jax Teller.

I saw it last night and my usually-general-malcontent friend summed up what we all were thinking by turning to us at the credits and saying "I WANT TO SEE THAT TWENTY MORE TIMES."  It was just so freaking awesome when it should have been so stupid. I loved every robot-punching-alien second of it, and I was sort of sucker-punched by FEEEEELS towards the end, which I appreciated.  I honestly thought

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Also, Ways I Know I am Getting Old #3418: Idris Elba and Max Martini were so much hotter than the interchangeable blond guys.

Whatever, you're not old.  They were hot.  I admit, I loved it.  I saw it in 3D on a big screen, and it was awesome.  The visual effects were stunning, and the movie rarely meandered, you know?  I felt like most of the scenes had a purpose.  It was a very telegraphed movie, but not in a bad way.

I admit I may of yelled

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Cynara wrote:Also, Ways I Know I am Getting Old #3418: Idris Elba and Max Martini were so much hotter than the interchangeable blond guys.

Nah, that just means you have good vision.

I wish it had gotten me as pumped as everyone else. To me it was just okay. I didn't dislike it, I'd watch it again if it came up with friends, but awesome robot designs aside, I thought it was uneven. Charlie Day kind of annoyed the shit out of me in one way... but then Burn Gorman annoyed the shit out of me in another. Idris Elba was badass, except when he was being a cliched stiffnecked father figure.

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I did enjoy the worldbuilding. The kaiju shrine in a kaiju skull, the itinerant wall-builders, the way the kaiju became kind of celebrities in their own right. I'd love to know how the "Atlantic Rim" countries are doing. Obviously their economies would be screwed up by the kaiju attacks, but since they don't have to live with the unavoidable reminders of it on their doorstep, it'd be interesting to see how things have changed for them.

I was almost disappointed with how one scene played out, how it didn't seem to have the expected payoff. But then it did, and "Where's my goddamn shoe?" became the highlight of the night.

I saw The Conjuring this weekend and really enjoyed it. It's much more of an old-school film in terms of atmosphere and pacing, but it managed to keep our incredibly obnoxious and high school aged dominated theater engaged. The acting was really solid across the board. It felt a little surreal to have a horror film with Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Lili Taylor, and Ron Livingston as the leads, but you can see how it pays off in the lack of "ugh, just kill them already" moments you get with so many other annoying characters played by subpar actors in horror films.

I saw it too, and I liked it. I was thinking the scares were sort of slow and low until

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. I did think the acting was solid, but I admit I thought Ron Livingston's demeanor was a little laid back

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I was like dude these are not TPS reports, stop playing tetris!

I think the most freaked out moment for me was

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I enjoyed Pacific Rim so much I've seen it twice now. I had a good time both times and between that movie, his role on True Blood and his appearance at the NerdHQ during SDCC, I now have a crush on Rob Kazinsky. He has dimples!

Right there with you on that account. His Nerd HQ panel was really adorable. I'd love to see Pacific Rim a second time, but getting a babysitter can be a bit of a hassle.

Pacific Rim has been the best popcorn flick of the summer by far.

Only God Forgives, however, is pretentious crap. Even hot Ryan Gosling couldn't save it.

I have now seen Pacific Rim twice. I sprung for IMAX 3D for the second viewing and it was totally worth every penny. I just really, really loved everything about it. Mostly Charlie Hunnam's face (and abs) and Idris Elba and Max Martini were also nice to look at. Rinko Kikuchi also was pretty awesome. I loved Mako Mori so much.

Also, I'm obsessed with the soundtrack and can't stop listening to it.

The Way Way Back is sweet, funny, and charming. An absolute delight!

Lovelace you'll feel like you need a scrub brush and a shot of penicillin from any one of Peter Saarsgard's glares at Amy Seyfried.

As harrowing as the movie is, they left out even some worse details of the real story.

How was Amanda's performance? I've been wanting to watch that movie since hearing about it last year.

She did well, if you've seen interviews of Linda Lovelace Amy gets the voice down without it turning into a caricature. A deffinate improvement over what LiLo would have been.

The distracting performance is Hank Azaria uses his Moe Syzlak voice, which is not all that inappropriate.

There's a bit of uncomfortable subtext in that Debbie Mazar is playing Thora Birch's real life mom.

The Dude wrote:There's a bit of uncomfortable subtext in that Debbie Mazar is playing Thora Birch's real life mom.

Not as uncomfortable as if Thora were playing that role.

The subtext is lost on me. What?

Now that you mention it, I'm surprised Jack Birch didn't insist she get the part. You see a lot of him in Chuck Traynor.

There's a wink at one of the more humorous episodes (if you can call anything involving her story that) of her story in that she meets a Sammy Davis Jr, but I can't see anyway the film would have been able to include it without rancor from his estate.

bookworm wrote:The subtext is lost on me.  What?

Thora's parents were in the adult film business, and evidently her mother is played by Debi Mazar in this film.

That and Jack Birch is a skeevey control freak with his daughter.

Blue Jasmine. It was, you know, Woody Allen doing what he does: following some interesting characters around for a while until 90 minutes have finished. Not great, but better that his early-aughts stuff. However, Cate Blanchett is freaking amazing. She takes a role that could easily be taken way over the top, but keeps it on the ground. I don't know if she'll get nominated for anything, but she ought to.

The Conjuring, which was pretty good for a horror movie (not my bag). It had some creepy moments without the over the top gore or shaky cam. I did enjoy how the demonologists

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just chilling in their home.

Elysium, which I enjoyed because I love big budget sci-fi, but it suffers from a WTF plot (especially in the last third) and Jodie Foster chewing scenery like whoa. I really hated that aside from her, the only female character existed to run around toting an ill child. Lazy as hell gender roles. I did love Sharlto Copeley. And I could actually understand most of what he said (couldn't understand his accent at all in District 9).

I liked Elysium overall, and I agree with you about Jodie Foster. Serious scenery chewing.

Turning in my critic's card-- I went to City Of Bones last night with a much-younger friend from my barn, and I unironically loved it. Silly, shiny, with an appealing cast playing surprisingly likable characters who took their quest seriously while the movie simultaneously did not take itself too much so--I'm in. I went because Aidan Turner, and the sight of him playing a werewolf just made me giggle to myself all evening, but I even liked the emo-boy love interest and the spunky heroine (who mostly wore low heels, which I always appreciate.) And I had popcorn for dinner. Win all around.