What Movie Did You Just Watch

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Personally, I'm not a fan of the FF movies. Everyone has at least one big franchise that they just can't get into despite its popularity, and for me that's FF. They just don't do much for me, personally.

As for MI, I like how each new film is done by a different director to keep it feeling fresh and unique from the others.

Mission: Impossible (Brian De Palma); The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense but the situations are really intense and engaging, and that's what keeps the movie interesting.

Mission: Impossible 2 (John Woo); This one is admittedly not very good, despite my love for Woo, but at least it certainly has a flare for style.

Mission: Impossible 3 (J. J. Abrams); It's a typical Abrams' movie, which means that it's high on flash and merely kind of "meh" when it comes to everything else, though once again, the villain is its one saving grace, due more so to Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance rather than the writing itself.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird); From the guy who brought you The Iron Giant and those famous Pixar films like The Incredibles, comes his first live-action feature film. Though, he does it so masterfully that you couldn't tell that it was his first foray into the live-action medium based on the quality of the film. This was the first film since the original that felt like a worthy sequel, IMO, and it totally saved the franchise.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (Christopher McQarrie); I'm not as familiar with this guy's work as I am with the other directors, but thankfully he carries the torch on from Bird and does the series justice yet again by just doing what the series does best: putting Ethan Hunt and the IMF into seemingly impossible situations to overcome and keeping you engrossed by showing you how they get through them. That said, this movie is still pretty fresh in my mind, so I can't properly judge it until I give it a second viewing a few months from now when it comes out on video.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I've never seen past the first two, but I did like the old series. I dig that old timey spy vibe.

I was gonna sit down with Ghost Protocol until it was taken off of Netflix literally the day before I was going to watch it. Now who knows when I'll get to see it.

[Avaitor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=76&v=hIKhoEIBSxU

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, Rogue Nation is probably my favorite movie of the Summer as well.

Fant4stic always looked like ass to me, but I have to admit, I was expecting it to be MoS bad, but was shocked to hear that it's on a completely different level of bad. Like, the kind of movie disaster that we rarely ever get anymore. Apparently even some of the special effects look like they are from a 20-year old movie (based on multiple reviews that I've read).

[Dr. Insomniac]

I love how Josh Trank is trying to blame the studio for the mess, saying he has a better version of the movie but won't show it because he's too afraid to pull a Terry Gilliam. I can believe Fox meddled with some things, but hearing about the director's behavior on set makes it sound a disaster from both ends.

And besides, there's nothing worse than a creator refusing to take responsibility for their work's flaws and passing the blame to others.

[gunswordfist]

Spoken like a true mad scientist.

I'm glad this movie sucks and I'm not even sure why.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, there are cases like with David Fincher's Alien 3 in which everything that I've heard about the movie from behind the scenes (from people besides Fincher himself, who refuses to even acknowledge the film anymore, let alone to even talk about it) makes it seem like the studio really fucked up the movie and put the blame on him.

However, with Fant4stic, I've heard that Josh Trank was incredibly difficult to work with, so I honestly can't pinpoint exactly where most of the blame for this movie lies.

Still, you've got to have respect for a guy like Steven Spielberg who will openly admit when he fucked up as a director, like he did for 1941 (and that was way before he was as big of a name in Hollywood as he is now).

[Avaitor]

I finally got around to seeing The Babadook, and holy shit, it's fantastic. The film does such a good job of keeping its creepy atmosphere, but the human, psychological core is what keeps it going. And it never stops to be utterly fascinating.

Easily one of my favorite films from last year.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I finally got around to seeing The Babadook, and holy shit, it's fantastic. The film does such a good job of keeping its creepy atmosphere, but the human, psychological core is what keeps it going. And it never stops to be utterly fascinating.

Easily one of my favorite films from last year.

Yes! Glad you liked it! It's my favorite film of last year, but more than that it's one of the best horror films that I've seen in years. It doesn't rely on any cheap gimmicks, but instead plays out like a drama and character study that just happens to have elements of horror in it by extension (the horror being a perfect metaphor for the drama).

Essie Davis turned in my personal favorite performance of any movie last year, as well. And that kid is one of the few good child actors that I've ever seen. He is only irritating because the film actually calls for him to come off that way at first, but he does such a brilliant job of getting you to sympathize with him as the film progresses.

The Babadook is a great film because it works as a great drama with great characters and great writing and acting to back it all up, regardless of the horror elements. In other words, it doesn't feel like it's trying to be suspenseful or scary, but rather it is suspenseful and scary as a natural effect of the story that it's trying to tell. This is something that more modern horror movies need to learn from, including some of the other critically praised ones like It Follows (which is overrated, IMO).

[Avaitor]

I'll get to It Follows soon, but it'll take a lot for that to match this for me. This really is a great mix of strong acting, writing, and directing into a unique melting pot of storytelling.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'll get to It Follows soon, but it'll take a lot for that to match this for me. This really is a great mix of strong acting, writing, and directing into a unique melting pot of storytelling.

I honestly don't understand the praise for It Follows, myself. It's about as mediocre of a horror movie as I've ever seen, and it can be downright dumb in its logic (or lack thereof) at times.

The Babadook definitely earned its praise, though. I'd rank it among my 10 favorite films in the genre, and I definitely plan to bring it up again this year when we do the next 31 Nights of Halloween (yes, given how we got some good discussion out of it last year, I'll be doing it again this year).

[talonmalon333]

next 31 Nights of Halloween (yes, given how we got some good discussion out of it last year, I'll be doing it again this year).

Nice. For me, October starts on September 1st (because of time restraints, it tends to take me a lot of time to watch all the horror movies I want for a Halloween). So pumped for some horror.

[Avaitor]

I'm watching Birdman, and I'm 100% with Todd here.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I don't quite think that it's as self-indulgent as he makes it out to be. I get not liking a film, but some of those criticisms of what he thinks that it means are a pretty large stretch of interpretation, IMO.

Keep in mind, it wasn't even one of my favorite films of last year, or even close to it (certainly not in my top 10), but that doesn't mean that the praise that it gets from others is wrong or undeserved.

As for my opinion, I think that it's a well-made film, but one that I can't find any personal attachment to, nor any reason to re-watch it.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I haven't seen many of the best picture nominees last year, more out of laziness than any spite, but one thing putting me off watching Birdman in particular was an interview from Inarritu about how genre movies were cultural genocide. It's the kind of talk that turns me away from viewing, because I can't stand that level of snobbery from filmmakers who think they're better because they've never made any science fiction.