TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV series) 2014

Monsters (2010)



Very well done micro-budget (reportedly $20,000) piece of guerrilla filmmaking that follows a couple as they try to make their way from Mexico to the U.S. through the "infected zone" where alien creatures have taken up residence. Essentially a road picture, the film focuses primarily on the characters but the times we do see the aliens they are impressively rendered. Quite a unique little film, recommended.

The film was shot using consumer grade equipment, director Gareth Edwards was also the cameraman and completed all the FX sequences on his home laptop using consumer grade software. This film paid off for Edwards because based on the strength of this $20,000 production he was given the $160 million Godzilla film to direct.

^^Monsters blew me away. Everything I want in a post-apocalyptic monster movie, including strong characters and thought-provoking themes. Edwards has a great hand.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

And Monday night, I watched 'Oblivion'. First Tom Cruise movie I've seen since 'Jerry Maguire'. 'Oblivion' seemed like a little mish-mosh of a bunch of different sci-fi movies themes all thrown together, but it comes together very nicely. I was entertained for 2 hours.

I would recommend going back and watching Minority Report from 2002, one of the better later Spielberg movies based on a short story from Phillip K. Dick and also starring Cruise.

I really liked Oblivion, yes, the plot was largely borrowed from other films (most obviously Moon from 2009) but it was beautifully realized and I loved the pacing of the movie, it leaves you time to absorb the surroundings.

S.D. wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

And Monday night, I watched 'Oblivion'. First Tom Cruise movie I've seen since 'Jerry Maguire'. 'Oblivion' seemed like a little mish-mosh of a bunch of different sci-fi movies themes all thrown together, but it comes together very nicely. I was entertained for 2 hours.

I would recommend going back and watching Minority Report from 2002, one of the better later Spielberg movies based on a short story from Phillip K. Dick and also starring Cruise.

I really liked Oblivion, yes, the plot was largely borrowed from other films (most obviously Moon from 2009) but it was beautifully realized and I loved the pacing of the movie, it leaves you time to absorb the surroundings.  

Despite all his Scientology shenanigans, I don't think I made a deliberate effort to steer clear of his movies (maybe sub-consciencely), but Tom made allot of movies in genres that I have little (sci-fi) or no (action/adventure) interest in. I kinda wanted to see 'Valkyrie', just never got around to it. If 'Minority Reports' shows up on cable, I'll give it a go.

S.D. wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

And Monday night, I watched 'Oblivion'. First Tom Cruise movie I've seen since 'Jerry Maguire'. 'Oblivion' seemed like a little mish-mosh of a bunch of different sci-fi movies themes all thrown together, but it comes together very nicely. I was entertained for 2 hours.

I would recommend going back and watching Minority Report from 2002, one of the better later Spielberg movies based on a short story from Phillip K. Dick and also starring Cruise.

I really liked Oblivion, yes, the plot was largely borrowed from other films (most obviously Moon from 2009) but it was beautifully realized and I loved the pacing of the movie, it leaves you time to absorb the surroundings.  

Both great films! I was surprised at how much I liked Oblivion. Minority Report was also excellent. Interesting fact - the film version of Minority Report initially started life as Total Recall 2 (from the same source material as Minority Report), with Ah-Nold playing the Cruise character... except the idea was he returned to Earth after his adventures on Mars to work in the pre-cog division. Commander Riker (ST:TNG) was slated to direct. It obviously didn't happen and ended up being the Spielberg flick.

TNA Impact

Big Bang Theory

The Millers

Community
American Horror Story

Pawn Stars

Gravity.

Been a long time since I've felt this exhausted from watching a movie. This son of a bitch really puts you through the ringer. Awesome survival story with convincing effects work that rarely lets up. I'm so happy that we finally have a space movie where a. no external noise is present and b. zero G is not inaccurately to have the same effect as swimming underwater with resistance.

My only qualm would have to be the bombastic score. Some subtlety there would have been nice (of course for a movie like this, in achieving total realism, I would have nixed the score completely). And 3D glasses and folks with long eyelashes do not mix. I kept having to wipe the bloody inside smudges off.

Smackdown

"Ghost Shark" (2013) - the angry spirit of a wrongly murdered great white shark (yes, really) terrorizes a small Louisiana bayou town, and it's up to a couple of local beach bunnies and a grizzled old lighthouse keeper (Richard "Night Court" Moll!) to stop it in this enjoyably cheesy slice of SyFy schlock.

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Despite all his Scientology shenanigans, I don't think I made a deliberate effort to steer clear of his movies (maybe sub-consciencely), but Tom made allot of movies in genres that I have little (sci-fi) or no (action/adventure) interest in. I kinda wanted to see 'Valkyrie', just never got around to it. If 'Minority Reports' shows up on cable, I'll give it a go.

Valkyrie was the movie that got me back into Tom Cruise the actor. Tom Cruise the celebrity I have no use for - but as an actor I'm cool with him. Valkyrie is really good IMO.


American Hustle - just give them all the awards now and save everybody the time. What a damn good movie this is. It is one of those rare ones where there wasn't a single thing I didn't like about it or thought they could've done differently.

Switched over to Directv this week and got 3 months of Cinemax,HBO,Showtime,etc. for free so I caught up on a couple movies I've been wanting to see :

Iron Man 3 - pretty good but a bit of a letdown,still better than Iron Man 2

This Is The End - a pretty good comedy about the Rapture and it's aftermath. I laughed out loud quite a few times

jstate wrote:

American Hustle - just give them all the awards now and save everybody the time.  What a damn good movie this is.  It is one of those rare ones where there wasn't a single thing I didn't like about it or thought they could've done differently.  

Agreed. Easily my favorite film of 2013, not that surprising since David O. Russell also directed my favorite film of 2012, Silver Linings Playbook.

I listened to the recommendations of S.D & hicks and watched Monsters wow! proof yet again that you don't need $100,000,000 to tell a story. Impressive, thought provoking movie. On a side note, I have to get the song on the closing credits, it's beautiful.

My biggest problem with Monsters was the lead guy.  Or I should say the lack of chemistry I felt he had with the other lead.  Just never bought them together.  But everything else about the movie was pretty amazing.  And it may rank up there with one of my favorite trailers ever.  That made me want to run out right then and see it.

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Easily my favorite film of 2013, not that surprising since David O. Russell also directed my favorite film of 2012, Silver Linings Playbook

I could tell a ton of stories about Mr. Russell since my brother was his assistant for years (up until completion of 3 Kings).  Nothing in the horror vain but more interesting and unique.  Guy has led quite a life.  My lone time with him was completely not what I was expecting from a then hot indie guy going to the bigs.  As is evident by his films he is a real character studier.  What shocked me was how intent on listening he was and how interested in what I had to say.  It was almost like an interview.  It also led, for reasons I'm still hazy about, to me taking his goldfish for a week and fish-sitting it.  And by that I mean taking it home to Maryland (complete with bowl and all) and returning with it to NYC when I came back the next week.  In return I got a bag of swag from Sundance and various promo items.  I also have to say I loved each of his movies more than the ones that came before.  Not a single misstep in his filmography.  It'll be hard to top American Hustle though.

Thanks for sharing that story! From interviews it seems like he's an incredibly intelligent person that I would really enjoy getting a chance to sit down and talk with.

What I love about Russell (aside from being one of the very best director of actors in Hollywood right now) is that he is able to take material that in other hands could be very cliched genre pictures (romantic comedy, crime film, boxing film, etc) and he makes them into something far more than meets the eye. He's subversive from within, never straying too far from the particular genre he's working in but breathing life into them like few other directors can manage. It allows him to make very personal, intelligent films that are still broad enough to appeal to wide audiences, so he's one of the few that can get critical accolades and major box office success.

I have a feeling that 12 Years A Slave will most likely take the best picture this year (the Academy does love their social issue historical pictures), but I'm rooting for Russell just as I did last year.

As you all know, I rarely stray from my demented, way out there, gore flicks or from my Kaiju movies but David O. Russell's "The Fighter" was one of the few movies that managed to pull me away from my genres of choice. And I was glad it did because the acting and direction in that film are excellent and really brought the backstory to a boxer I used to watch all the time on ESPN.

Deep Rising (1998)

A surprisingly good horror film by Stephen Sommers about high seas high jackers vs tentacled sea monsters aboard a cruise ship. A good cast led by Treat Williams and good gore (a little too reliant on cgi for the monsters but what can you do).

tohostudios wrote:

As you all know, I rarely stray from my demented, way out there, gore flicks or from my Kaiju movies but David O. Russell's "The Fighter" was one of the few movies that managed to pull me away from my genres of choice.  And I was glad it did because the acting and direction in that film are excellent and really brought the backstory to a boxer I used to watch all the time on ESPN.  

I think you would dig American Hustle, it's one of the most entertaining films (regardless of genre) from last year and also one of the funniest.

AM Raw

UFC on Fox

Pacific Rim - not a bad summer flick, but with a better script could have been great. Enjoyable way to pass time.