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Super 8. First two-thirds were FANTASTIC. The last third kind of fell apart. Not BAD, but didn't own up to the set-up.

I watched Trust a few nights ago, because it appeared on Roger Ebert's "Best of 2011" list, and wow. Directed by David Schwimmer (yes, that David Schwimmer) and starring Clive Owen, it tells the story of a young teen-age girl who engages in an on-line relationship with someone who is not who he claims to be. Great movie, but oh, so hard to watch at times - I imagine it could be a trigger for some.

That premise reminds me a bit of Hard Candy. I really need to watch that again because it was so eerie and Ellen Page blew my mind the first time around. I want to see if it holds up now that I know what eventually happens.

Watched The Adjustment Bureau last night. I liked it, mostly. I do think the story was a little lacking, especially the ending which was just kind of there. I actually half expected

Spoiler:

But Matt Damon and Emily Blunt were good together, and totally believable, and I forget how much I like Matt Damon sometimes. I think because he makes so many movies I don't watch. But he's charming, and a solid actor. Plus, he can work a suit.
And speaking of working a suit, I don't know why

Spoiler:

I am randomly watching Stepmom on tv. I forgot how much I hate everyone but Julia Roberts in this movie (which I think shes a good actress, but not a particularly warm one, so that's saying something). She does her best, she doesn't overstep her bounds and yet Susan Sarandon and Jena Malone are so petty and awful and Ed Harris is so ineffectual.

mokey75 wrote:Watched The Adjustment Bureau last night. I liked it, mostly. I do think the story was a little lacking, especially the ending which was just kind of there.

I kept expecting Matt Damon to bust out a little Jason Bourne on the bad guys - I was all, "Come ON, why are you running? You know how to kill someone with a magazine!"

I was really looking forward to Hanna but I found it to be slowly paced and ultimately just very boring, to be quite frank. Saoirse Ronan was well cast, I'll say that - she was compelling to watch, and I think any other actress would have just been so generic. Saoirse has a great look and presence on screen that gets your attention, and she certainly brings a lot to the character. I liked how she played experiencing being out in the world - feeling the wind on her face, seeing a desert landscape, seeing other people, etc (the one who played the daughter in the family she meets was a hoot. Now there was an actress who made the most of the role she was given!) But she was surrounded by too much of not much happening, plus mostly everyone else was just generic Bad Guy characterization, and I had no interest in them at all. Cate Blanchett, in particular, seemed to go way over the top for no discernible reason, if you ask me. Plus some of the more adventurous camera shots and angles were just outright annoying.

So yeah, a very disappointing movie, unfortunately.

RiverThames wrote:Super 8. First two-thirds were FANTASTIC. The last third kind of fell apart. Not BAD, but didn't own up to the set-up.

Agreed. This was the movie I was looking forward to seeing the most this past summer, and the last third really disappointed me. Which is a shame, since the acting (especially from all of the young actors) and setup are all so wonderful.

Warrior was a little melodramatic at times, but I liked it and got completely caught up in the action by the final fight. The final scene of the movie was perfect and beautiful. Also, best use of The National EVER. Why does Nick Nolte not have Oscar buzz for his role? I found him to be completely heartbreaking.

He does. He got nominated for a SAG and a Critics Choice Award. I think he'd be a frontrunner but the movie didn't do well at the box office. Which is unfortunate because as you said it was good. I didn't think it was as good as the Fighter (which I saw a lot of comparisons to), but I still really liked it. I saw it in the theaters and it was like communal weeping at one point.

I watched Captain America and Rise of the Planet of the Apes over the weekend. The CGI of pre-injection Chris Evans was painful to watch, to the point of distraction. I think they should have just hired a separate actor. Once Evans got his steroid injection, I really liked the movie, though there wasn't nearly enough half naked Captain America for my taste. I thought Rise of the Planet of the Apes was disappointing since I'd heard really good things about it. I'm sure this has been said a million times already, but the CGI acting was better than most of the live action acting. How stoned was Franco? I was really pleased at how this movie set up Planet of the Apes, but it annoyed me to no end that Franco could just walk out of a major pharmaceutical company with a highly experimental drug.

We also watched Super 8 last week and enjoyed it. The kids in it were great, and I much preferred this to Cloverfield (which I know are not supposed to be the same film, but I didn't know much about Super 8 before watching it and thought it would have a similar premise. I just thought this film had a much better execution overall).

And we watched Red Dog, which is an Australian film starring Josh Lucas and is just gorgeous. If you ever see it available to watch, I definitely recommend it. Makes me miss having a dog as a pet.

My big problems with Super 8 were this:

Spoiler:

I did a lot of movie-watching on my vacation week. First, my sisters and I (and assorted SOs) have a yearly tradition of a movie marathon, and this year it was the Bourne movies, which somehow I'd never gotten around to seeing. As I've mentioned I'm not an action fan generally, but I really liked these. The first and third were the best. I realize I'm the last person on earth to see them, but, yay for me finally joining the 2000s. Of course I missed some parts because we all had to take shifts playing with the two-year-old niece, but it's all good. I want to watch them again sometime when I can pay closer attention. I have a lot of residual affection for Matt Damon and that probably didn't hurt either, but he was great.

Then I finally watched Raise the Red Lantern, which I've had for a while after I kinda OD'd on Zhang Yimou. I was expecting to like it more than I did. It was beautifully shot and Gong Li is Gong Li, but it was sooooooooo unrelentingly depressing and Gong Li's character was just so sad and mean and everyone was mean and it was such a freaking bummer (intentionally so, but still). I think I actually found The Story of Qiu Ju (where Gong Li is a peasant who spends the entire movie trudging from bureaucracy to bureaucracy in order to monotonally request a judgment against the village chief who injured her husband) LESS depressing than this super downer of a movie. There were a couple moments where I caught my breath at how gorgeous it was. But it was definitely not my favorite Zhang Yimou (that was The Road Home for years but I think it's now tied with Hero).

And then Sunday night I watched Our Idiot Brother, which I LOVED. It just worked really well. Seeing my darling Paul Rudd without an ounce of smarm was kinda trippy. I loved Zooey, I loved Rashida Jones (the more I see of Rashida Jones the more I love her), friggin' Adam Scott was in it, Elizabeth Banks is not generally a favorite of mine but she was great, I like Emily Mortimer a lot and she's always fearless, and BONUS STEVE COOGAN, I love Steve Coogan. Even though he was such a douchebag in the movie and I've kind of heard he's a douchebag in real life and so that was a little uncomfortable, heh. But it was a great movie. I have some quibbles about a few plot elements but, whatever. It made me happy and reminded me of my own close goofy family. A good way to end vacation.

Elizabeth Banks is not generally a favorite of mine but she was great,

I had to keep reminding myself during the middle of most of her scenes that it was Elizabeth Banks and not Parker Posey.

I admit that I found the trailer for Rise of the Planet of the Apes unintentionally hilarious, but I must concur with everyone at Snarkfest 3.0 who praised it. It was truly entertaining--much more so than the crapfest that was Burton's reboot, though I admit some appreciation for the production design on that movie. Andy Serkis and his animators make an amazing team. Caesar made a meal out of everyone else's acting chops.

The worst part of that movie was Malfoy's "Get your stinkin' paws off me..." line. It was too much - it undercut the drama of Caesar yelling, "No!"

But that was a pretty minor quibble, I thought. Though at the end, I was thinking, "Well, that's hardly the rise of a planet of apes." And then the credits rolled with the infection vectors and WHAM. That was AWESOME.

laddical wrote:The worst part of that movie was Malfoy's "Get your stinkin' paws off me..." line. It was too much - it undercut the drama of Caesar yelling, "No!"

But that was a pretty minor quibble, I thought. Though at the end, I was thinking, "Well, that's hardly the rise of a planet of apes." And then the credits rolled with the infection vectors and WHAM. That was AWESOME.

I laughed and laughed at the paws line. It was completely unnecessary, totally hammy, but oddly endearing.

laddical wrote:Though at the end, I was thinking, "Well, that's hardly the rise of a planet of apes." And then the credits rolled with the infection vectors and WHAM. That was AWESOME.

That was VERY clever storytelling--respectful to the original series but on target for modern audiences, what with our current obsession with zombie/plague apocalypses.

Puncture starring Chris Evans. The film is based on the true story of the fight in the late 90s to get safety needles into hospitals that would prevent health care workers from accidental needlesticks. Evans plays one of the lawyers who originated the case, Mike Weiss, who was also a drug addict.

I'll admit I could be biased as an Evans fangirl, but I thought he was great in this role and the film is definitely worth checking out, especially if the subject matter interests you. It's piqued my interest and made me want to read up more on the case and on the people involved.

bloomtoperish wrote:Puncture starring Chris Evans. The film is based on the true story of the fight in the late 90s to get safety needles into hospitals that would prevent health care workers from accidental needlesticks. Evans plays one of the lawyers who originated the case, Mike Weiss, who was also a drug addict.

I'll admit I could be biased as an Evans fangirl, but I thought he was great in this role and the film is definitely worth checking out, especially if the subject matter interests you. It's piqued my interest and made me want to read up more on the case and on the people involved.

I've been intrigued by that, just because the director/co-star is a guy I went to high school with.

I watched Tree of Life. Apparently I'm not in agreement with every single critic, cos I hated it. I was bored.

I hadn't heard of Puncture until I was looking today to see if What's Your Number (don't judge me!) was out on DVD yet. The reviews seemed to say that the performances were good, but the script was weak, so I'm on the fence about it.

Miss Moneypenny wrote:I hadn't heard of Puncture until I was looking today to see if What's Your Number (don't judge me!) was out on DVD yet.

No judging here. I watched What's Your Number with a friend last weekend, who acquired it through completely, totally legal means, and I thought it was delightful. I generally think that Anna Faris and Chris Evans are pretty delightful, so the movie would have had to be extremely sucky for me not to like it.

Miss Moneypenny wrote:I hadn't heard of Puncture until I was looking today to see if What's Your Number (don't judge me!) was out on DVD yet. The reviews seemed to say that the performances were good, but the script was weak, so I'm on the fence about it.

I was all about to judge you, then suddenly got distracted and lost the judgment train. Weird.

I finally watched Love Actually.

That's it?