2013 Movies Discussion Thread

[nolfoc]

This thread is to discuss all movies for 2013.. you may post your list here as well, but please use the "Your Top Movies 2013 (So Far)" Thread just to list the movies..

[montereypop]

Originally Posted by iScottie

X Byzantium
X Much Ado About Nothing
X The Numbers Station
X Prince Avalanche
X 21 And Over
X Upside Down

Wow, you really hated Prince Avalanche, didn't you? I liked it a lot and I'd love to hear your more in depth thoughts on it.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by montereypop

Wow, you really hated Prince Avalanche, didn't you? I liked it a lot and I'd love to hear your more in depth thoughts on it.

I couldn't even watch it. I think I watched half of it and I was puzzled about why the film was even made.

It's randomly set in 1988 and the first 5 minutes or so consists of random people walking around the woods (they didn't really look like the main characters, but it's possible they were). The next 20 minutes or so is just them painting lines on the road and talking about random things (one writes to his girlfriend; the other whines about how he's bored without women). We meet a random old guy and then we repeat.

[montereypop]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I couldn't even watch it. I think I watched half of it and I was puzzled about why the film was even made.

It's randomly set in 1988 and the first 5 minutes or so consists of random people walking around the woods (they didn't really look like the main characters, but it's possible they were). The next 20 minutes or so is just them painting lines on the road and talking about random things (one writes to his girlfriend; the other whines about how he's bored without women). We meet a random old guy and then we repeat.

I can't disagree with this as I was similarly disenchanted with the first half. However, from the moment that Lance (Emile's character) comes back and on, I thought the film was really good and, at times, even achieved greatness. There were some extremely touching moments and, if you can, I'd give the second half another shot some day.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by montereypop

I can't disagree with this as I was similarly disenchanted with the first half. However, from the moment that Lance (Emile's character) comes back and on, I thought the film was really good and, at times, even achieved greatness. There were some extremely touching moments and, if you can, I'd give the second half another shot some day.

I may try to tackle it again tomorrow. I wasn't really in a movie mood earlier, but still, I was highly turned off by it.

I found out earlier that the director also did Pineapple Express and The Sitter (both of which I hated).

[SimBelm]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I couldn't even watch it. I think I watched half of it and I was puzzled about why the film was even made.

It's randomly set in 1988 and the first 5 minutes or so consists of random people walking around the woods (they didn't really look like the main characters, but it's possible they were). The next 20 minutes or so is just them painting lines on the road and talking about random things (one writes to his girlfriend; the other whines about how he's bored without women). We meet a random old guy and then we repeat.

I think it was set in 88 so there wouldn't be any mobile phones to distract the characters.

[vader4]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

2013 in Film
(out of )

Fruitvale Station
Frances Ha
½ Side Effects
½ Mud
½ Stoker
½ Pacific Rim
½ Upstream Color
½ Before Midnight
This is the End
The Heat
To the Wonder
Pain & Gain
The Way, Way Back
The Iceman
Trance
Mama
World War Z
Dead Man Down
The Great Gatsby
The Wolverine
White House Down
42
Turbo
Peeples
The Last Stand
Much ado about Nothing
The Place Beyond the Pines
½ Spring Breakers
½ Disconnect
½ The Call
½ 2 Guns
½ Fast & Furious 6
½ Now You See Me
½ Star Trek into Darkness
½ The Croods
½ After Earth
½ Lords of Salem
½ The To Do List
½ Evil Dead
½ Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain
½ The Power of Few
½ Snitch
½ The Bling Ring
Elysium
Despicable Me 2
Oz: the Great and the Powerful
Red 2
The Conjuring
Home Run
The Company You Keep
Sharknado
Only God Forgives
Epic
Oblivion
Iron Man 3
Warm Bodies
Monsters University
Quartet
Girl Most Likely
Beautiful Creatures
½ Broken City
½ Filly Brown
½ Stand Up Guys
½ The Lone Ranger
½ At any Price
½ The Internship
½ Admission
½ Bullet to the Head
½ The East
½ Everybody has a Plan
½ G.I. Joe: Retaliation
½ The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
½ Jack the Giant Killer
Emperor
Gangster Squad
A Good Day to Die Hard
Man of Steel
Olympus Has Fallen
Phantom
The Purge
½ We're the Millers
½ 21 and Over
½ The Hangover: Part III

Yeah, sounds about right.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by vader4

Yeah, sounds about right.

Unfortunately it was the one movie I had huge hopes for this summer.

[legendarymatt92]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Unfortunately it was the one movie I had huge hopes for this summer.

I look forward to your reasons behind the rating, 'Drewes.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Unfortunately it was the one movie I had huge hopes for this summer.

Originally Posted by legendarymatt92

I look forward to your reasons behind the rating, 'Drewes.

Yes, me too.

[vader4]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Unfortunately it was the one movie I had huge hopes for this summer.

Same here. District 9 is one of my favorite films of the past two years, but this just didn't do it for me. It didn't blend plot with social awareness and because of that all of the political symbolism was as subtle as a punch in the face. Characters are clichéd and the plot is predictable, too bad, I really wanted it to be as good as District 9.

[vader4]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

Yes, me too.

Baseballbat gets me everytime!

[Abdrewes]

Blonde, I agree pretty much. Did you not get chills, though, during theElysium establishing shots?

[MrBlonde]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Blonde, I agree pretty much. Did you not get chills, though, during theElysium establishing shots?

No chills, but it did look amazing, I can't deny that.

This paragraph from Scott Tobias is pretty spot-on:

The politics of Elysium are just brutally heavy-handed, and I’ve been struggling a little to figure out why, given that District 9, a film we both liked, gives a similar allegory a hard push, too. I think it may be a Mary Poppins problem: It takes a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down, and Blomkamp keeps refilling a bottomless cup of wheatgrass juice. Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Ed Neumeier solved this problem with satire in RoboCop and Starship Troopers—and a compelling human center in the former that’s rooted out ruthlessly and hilariously in the latter—and with District 9, Blomkamp combined a news-story urgency with some of the slapstick splatter-comedy familiar from early Peter Jackson movies. Elysium is po-faced and leaden by comparison, setting the world of have-nots, with its parade of crippled kids and rubble-houses, against the haves, who are dealt with so glancingly that all we see are pool parties at colonial mansions and white preppies listening to classical music. (Though I’ll admit to being amused by the thought that 1-percenters watching the film will quietly root for Elysium to survive this assault by the Great Unwashed.)

Opportunities for more subtle social commentary are missed left and right, and the action feels obligatory, like Blomkamp is reluctantly giving us the bread and circuses needed to sustain his political agenda. Ironies like Max working to produce the same robots that harass him on the street don’t land softly, and the bullet-time effects feel a little late-1990s/early-2000s. I’m struggling to find something nice to say about Elysium.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by MrBlonde

No chills, but it did look amazing, I can't deny that.

This paragraph from Scott Tobias is pretty spot-on:

Yeah, there's alot I didn't even get to in my write up because it was already going way over length. But yeah, other than a few early robot encounters, there is little in the way of wit in the film.

[nagysaudio]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Yeah, there's alot I didn't even get to in my write up because it was already going way over length. But yeah, other than a few early robot encounters, there is little in the way of wit in the film.

What about when Kruger grills his chicken with the Katana? That's pretty witty!

[MrBlonde]

I was literally holding back laughter a couple of times, I hate to be "that guy" who laughs during, what is supposed to be a serious moment. but god damn, the dialogue in this film made it hard not to.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by nagysaudio

What about when Kruger grills his chicken with the Katana? That's pretty witty!

Hence two stars. I would say I was mixed on it as a whole: equal good and bad.

Originally Posted by MrBlonde

I was literally holding back laughter a couple of times, I hate to be "that guy" who laughs during, what is supposed to be a serious moment. but god damn, the dialogue in this film made it hard not to.

Why can't you just be Elysiumman as well as Sharknadoman?

[Pounder]

Finally watched Mud and its a 4.5/5. Cracks my top 7 of the year. Frances Ha on the other hand was a POS in my opinion. Boring. Saw on rec. of my arthouse nut friend and she never lets me down.

[MrBlonde]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Why can't you just be Elysiumman as well as Sharknadoman?

Copley's performance should go down in bad-good performance history.

Sharkanado > Elysium.

Some of the tech was really cool though.

[Show spoiler]I almost let out a squeal when I saw the face regeneration.