TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV series) 2015

Archer

Big Bang Theory

Pawn Stars

Birdman (2014)



This is the kind of film that renews my faith in the medium. The most original, inspired and audacious film of 2014...and also one of the funniest. A jet black comedy about a former comic-book hero star fighting for his own validity by producing and starring in his first Broadway play. Keaton is superb, probably his finest ever performance and he's got a great supporting cast around him who reach similar heights. Technically impressive, the film is edited together to appear like one long interrupted take, but unlike many films it doesn't rest lazily on the visuals, the real meat of the film is the performances, the visuals are just the icing on the cake.

Also have to mention the score which is primarily drums. Jazz drummer Antonio Sanchez improvised the majority of the score (occasionally other instruments drift in) and it fits perfectly with the vibe of the movie. The film itself kind of feels like a great improvised jazz solo. Sadly, Sanchez didn't get an Oscar nomination because improvised music does not qualify for the Academy Awards.

Birdman now sits happily atop my list of favorite films of 2014, right alongside The Grand Budapest Hotel.

S.D. wrote:

Birdman (2014)


This is the kind of film that renews my faith in the medium.  The most original, inspired and audacious film of 2014...and also one of the funniest. A jet black comedy about a former comic-book hero star fighting for his own validity by producing and starring in his first Broadway play.  Keaton is superb, probably his finest ever performance and he's got a great supporting cast around him who reach similar heights.  Technically impressive, the film is edited together to appear like one long interrupted take, but unlike many films it doesn't rest lazily on the visuals, the real meat of the film is the performances, the visuals are just the icing on the cake.  

Also have to mention the score which is primarily drums.  Jazz drummer Antonio Sanchez improvised the majority of the score (occasionally other instruments drift in) and it fits perfectly with the vibe of the movie.  The film itself kind of feels like a great improvised jazz solo.  Sadly, Sanchez didn't get an Oscar nomination because improvised music does not qualify for the Academy Awards.

Birdman now sits happily atop my list of favorite films of 2014, right alongside The Grand Budapest Hotel.  

I still need to see Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel. I am really looking forward to both.

My father and I went to see this last night; good movie!

Family Feud

American Horror Story - a decent finale but a few threads were left way too loose. It was an okay season.

Downton Abbey
Luther
Parenthood (series finale next week; lotsa heartstring moments but I'm unashamed to say they're destroying me)

Caught High Society and Philadelphia Story back-to-back this week. Comparing them now, it's interesting how much better and funnier a movie the latter is with Cukor's hand at play--yet I find High Society more enjoyable.

thejokeriv wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

Jack Ryan: B+. What a weird movie.

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I think I mentioned this before, they tired to make a Clancy type story and failed.... that said Pine would have been fine as Jack Ryan in adaptation of one of the early Ryan novels.

Yeah Pine made a very good Ryan; it's a shame they didn't do an original adaptation. This felt like it was going for a Mission Impossible feel--but just ended up being inconsistent. There's so much more strangeness about this film but I would end up writing a way long post haha.

Spiral ( French TV show)

The Interview.

Yeah, it was pretty bad for the most part. Some funny moments and the guy who plays Kim is hilarious but all in all there was about 30 minutes of funny material stretched out for 2 hours.

So far I've heard nothing but shit about Interview so I think I'll spend my time elsewhere. A shame because I really thought it was going to be funny, but word of mouth is saying less than marginal.

Watching 2001: A Space Odyssey tonight, a birthday ritual.

I much prefer The Philadelphia Story to High Society by the way. High Society is quite hip because of the cast, but I think the original version is the better film...at least in my opinion.

"From Russia With Love" (1963)


SPECTRE cons James Bond and a lovely Russian diplomat into stealing a top secret Soviet decoding machine for them in the second 007 adventure. Italian actress Daniela Bianchi, who plays "Tatiana," definitely ranks as one of the hottest Bond girls in the history of the series.

Fat Freddy wrote:

"From Russia With Love" (1963)


SPECTRE cons James Bond and a lovely Russian diplomat into stealing a top secret Soviet decoding machine for them in the second 007 adventure. Italian actress Daniela Bianchi, who plays "Tatiana," definitely ranks as one of the hottest Bond girls in the history of the series.

One of my favorite Bond movies, more intrigue and less goofiness.

I'm revisiting the Park Chan-wook's "vengeance" trilogy starting with "Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance".

tohostudios wrote:

I'm revisiting the Park Chan-wook "vengeance" trilogy starting with "Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance".

One interesting note about Korean names is when they introduce themselves they say their last name first. Written in English his name is Chan-Wook Park.

Which way do they prefer in reviews? It's confusing because IMdb uses "Park" first but the credits on the DVD list "Chan" first.

IMDB has him as Chan-Wook Park.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0661791/

In English they adopt the first name/last name order like we do. Another interesting tidbit is Koreans don't have middle names, but all their first names have two parts; example: Min Sung, Sun Jin, Yoon Ji, etc.

Scarily, there's supposedly a US version of this film in the works. I haven't seen the US version of Oldboy but based on reviews, I don't hold out a lot of hope for a remake of this film.

tohostudios wrote:

Scarily, there's supposedly a US version of this film in the works. I haven't seen the US version of Oldboy but based on reviews, I don't hold out a lot of hope for a remake of this film.  

Did you watch his English debut "Stoker" that came out in 2013? I loved that one.

S.D. wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

Scarily, there's supposedly a US version of this film in the works. I haven't seen the US version of Oldboy but based on reviews, I don't hold out a lot of hope for a remake of this film.  

Did you watch his English debut "Stoker" that came out in 2013?  I loved that one.  

Nope, never heard of it.

I just wish US audiences could overcome their aversion to subtitles. I admit that for a long time I too refused to watch any movie where the dialog wasn't in English. But once you get used to reading and watching at the same time, it really isn't that big of a deal. I don't even bat an eye anymore when I see a movie I want to watch only has English subtitles. In fact, I prefer it now because once you get used to it you realize that even if you don't understand what the characters are saying in their original language, reading subtitles is definitely preferable to the crappy "Engrish" most dubbed movies use.

Here's the trailer for Stoker.

S.D. wrote:

Here's the trailer for Stoker.  

That looks good. I'll have to scope it out.

Dual Survival