What Did You Watch Today?

[Jimmy]

Yep, you were all right, Whiplash is fantastic. Take a bow, J.K Simmons.

[GhostMachine]

My girlfriend has the Netflix dvd queue clogged up for a bit with the Good Witch tv movies, because Hallmark is turning the franchise into a regular tv series. So we went to a Redbox and rented the movie that was next in the queue before she added those to the list and put them on top: John Wick.

John Wick is a damned good film, but tbh I probably rate it higher than I should due to the casting and the way the fight scenes are portrayed (its straight up Gun Fu, and some of the kills are actually somewhat funny). Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Adrianne Palicki, Dean Winters, Willem DaFoe, John Leguizamo, and Ian McShane are in it. Sadly, Leguizamo and McShane only have two scenes each, but McShane's second is one of the best scenes in the entire film.

My only real gripe that's not a major spoiler is that Alfie Allen's character is pretty much a modern version of his Game Of Thrones character, Theon Greyjoy.

If you've already seen it....

They announced this week that there will be a sequel.

May get A Walk Among The Tombstones next, since Redbox doesn't have the next movie I wanted: The Hundred Foot Journey.

Edited February 8, 2015 by GhostMachine

[Benjamin]

Wild Card is such a cartoony action movie. I kind of like it for it's utter silliness, but it just doesn't go as over the top as it should.

[Benji]

Hanna was great fun, Saoirse Ronan again was really good, the story was obvious but fun, and the sountrack (done by The Chemical Brothers) was absolutely out of the park.

[Monkey D. Lars]

Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Nicolas Cage, I love you again!

[stokeriño]

Kingsman was excellent. I am now about to be dragged into the crock of shit that will be Jupiter Ascending.

[Benjamin]

I've actually heard it's not bad. It's got a wealth of talent invested in it, and the Washowskis usually pull off outlandish and extravagant incredibly well. Looks like a super fun space opera to me.

Can't wait to see both, 2015 has been pretty meh so far for me.

[stokeriño]

Okay, so Jupiter Ascending wasn't as bad as I had been led to believe. Not bad, not great. It's got a shit-tonne of pretty graphics but is otherwise pretty unremarkable and not something that anyone will regret missing out on if they don't see it.

My best compliment is...of the genre of films which all go along the way of "I'm a [short, brunette] girl who discovers I am SPECIAL and a BIG DISHY GUY comes and rescues me and we fight TOGETHER against people who hate/are jealous of/want to exploit my SPECIALNESS. Did I mention that the GUY is BIG and DISHY and is probably PART-WOLF or HAS WINGS or BOTH?" (e.g. The Host, Divergent, etc.), it's the first one that hasn't made me want to bash my head against things the whole way through.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

I will probably have to see Jupiter Ascending purely because it fits the criteria you described and my girlfriend loves that kind of crap, so good to know it's somewhat watchable

[Jimmy]

Okay, so Jupiter Ascending wasn't as bad as I had been led to believe. Not bad, not great. It's got a shit-tonne of pretty graphics but is otherwise pretty unremarkable and not something that anyone will regret missing out on if they don't see it.

My best compliment is...of the genre of films which all go along the way of "I'm a [short, brunette] girl who discovers I am SPECIAL and a BIG DISHY GUY comes and rescues me and we fight TOGETHER against people who hate/are jealous of/want to exploit my SPECIALNESS. Did I mention that the GUY is BIG and DISHY and is probably PART-WOLF or HAS WINGS or BOTH?" (e.g. The Host, Divergent, etc.), it's the first one that hasn't made me want to bash my head against things the whole way through.

The girl who played Sean Bean's daughter was the lead in the short film I directed! Will probably go see it for that alone, although I'm interested because I loved Cloud Atlas, and that was originally a film I had no interest in seeing.

In preparation for casting our new film, I watched Snow White and The Hunstman for a few of the supporting British actors in it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, and it's actually a decent enough blockbuster that has a really good cast...and Kristen Stewart, who is just awful.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Wasn't feeling Parks and Rec today so started the TV version of Fargo. Bloody hell, what an opening episode.

[Benjamin]

Pretty sure Jupiter Ascending is what my girlfriend and I are going to be watching for Valentine's / her birthday on Friday. Either that or the Water Diviner.

Speaking of Valentine's Day movies, I think we watched Snow White and the Huntsman that day once... it was not fun. We've had a string of bad luck on our Valentine movie-watching.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

My first Valentines with my girlfriend I subjected myself to The Devil Wears Prada and some other crap chick flick I don't remember.

The things we do for women.

[Colly]

There's a documentary on Genesis on BBC4 at the moment that I genuinely have to keep reminding myself isn't a Brian Pern show. That's how well that was shot.

[Benjamin]

Oh wait, looking at my Letterboxd diary, we watched LEGO Movie last year. Yeah, that was awesome

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Lego Movie was indeed awesome.

One of my girlfriend's better film choices. She doesn't always subject me to crap.

[Jimmy]

My first Valentines with my girlfriend I subjected myself to The Devil Wears Prada and some other crap chick flick I don't remember.

The things we do for women.

The Devil Wears Prada is amazing!

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

I'm not gonna lie, I did enjoy it

[Benjamin]

Okay, so Jupiter Ascending wasn't as bad as I had been led to believe. Not bad, not great. It's got a shit-tonne of pretty graphics but is otherwise pretty unremarkable and not something that anyone will regret missing out on if they don't see it.

My best compliment is...of the genre of films which all go along the way of "I'm a [short, brunette] girl who discovers I am SPECIAL and a BIG DISHY GUY comes and rescues me and we fight TOGETHER against people who hate/are jealous of/want to exploit my SPECIALNESS. Did I mention that the GUY is BIG and DISHY and is probably PART-WOLF or HAS WINGS or BOTH?" (e.g. The Host, Divergent, etc.), it's the first one that hasn't made me want to bash my head against things the whole way through.

The girl who played Sean Bean's daughter was the lead in the short film I directed! Will probably go see it for that alone, although I'm interested because I loved Cloud Atlas, and that was originally a film I had no interest in seeing.

In preparation for casting our new film, I watched Snow White and The Hunstman for a few of the supporting British actors in it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, and it's actually a decent enough blockbuster that has a really good cast...and Kristen Stewart, who is just awful.

Have you seen Camp X-Ray? Stewart is pretty good in that, a huge leap in improvement from what I saw of her before that. Plus it's Peter Sattler's first feature film and I think he could become really good. PLUS PLUS Peyman Moaadi, who is like the bestest and one of my favorite actors in the world right now. If anything people should watch Camp X-Ray just for his excellent performance.

[King Ellis]

Groundhog Day

Always like to watch this on Groundhog Day itself and enjoy Bill Murray as Phil Connors experiment with the unique situation he finds himself in. Interesting too to look at things outside the movie like how many different groups have grasped onto it for it's theological aspects and guesses at just how many times Phil relives the same day over and over based on how long it would take to learn a new language, play the piano, ice sculpt etc etc.

Ghostbusters

As enjoyable as this one is, I've always felt there's like 10 minutes in the middle of the movie where Louis Tully gets chased by the dog thing that kinda makes things grind to a halt. Though, I have grown to appreciate some aspects of that section like Louis' party and him trying to converse with a horse whilst possessed. I can also appreciate the casting for Walter Peck having not seen Die Hard the first time I watched this, the antagonising pencil pushing type guy being played by the man who would go on to be 'Dick' Thornburg? Works well.

Ghostbusters 2

Whether it's them just not liking it or viewing as a step down from the first, I know people don't too kindly to this sequel but I enjoy it. Maybe I just really like Louis though, it's fun to see him be much less of the creep the first movie portrayed him as and even get to be something of a hero by the end when he rocks up with the Ghostbuster uniform and does essentially nothing but saves the day in the eyes of the crowd.

Leaving Las Vegas

It was kinda funny to me at first how you had on the one hand this serious stuff going on with Sera, her pimp and this looming threat of these other mobsters, and then you have Ben who just seems obvlious to everything. You know, funny if it weren't for all the scary or creepy shit like when he turns up to the bank all pale and visibly shaking, only to come back later talking into his tape recorder about wanting to fuck someone.

Monsters University

Pretty forgettable. Nothing horrible but nothing too amazing either, other than perhaps the moment when the mother of one of the nerdy fraternity drops them off and says she'll just be listening to her music while she waits and she's listening to some sort of death metal. Felt like they really shoe horned the chameleon into the ROR fraternity for no other reason than he was one of the bad guys in the first movie and they're the bad guys here soooo....I don't even recall any reason for him doing so, he just turns around and joins them. I mean, you can see why they want Sully since he wows everyone at the start and is famous thanks to his family name but Randall is just some nerd.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Liked this one better than the first Burton Batman I watched last week. Without going into the moment of the death of his parents, we still get to see some of the other aspects of his backstory. I'd liken it to the Spiderman movie, you get to see both Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker start out fighting these low level thugs in just street clothes and a bandana and try sketching out possible outfits. Interesting too to see flashbacks into Wayne's struggles between wanting to live a normal life and wanting to fulfill the vow he made to avenge his parents. The titular Phantasm is pretty cool too, kinda generic in design with the dark cowl and skull like mask but a cool look nontheless.

The Black Cat/The Raven

Putting these both together as it's easy to do so with their shared stars in Lugosi and KARLOFF and general similarities. I think I prefer the setup to The Raven more with Lugosi's character's manipulation of KARLOFF's and the more fringe characters are more fleshed out and have a greater purpose. But Black Cat is more subtle, there's this feud between the two that's waiting to boil over and you don't know where it's going, whereas The Raven is more up front and in your face about it.