Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Apr 2, 2018 4:39:16 GMT -5
Charlize Theron, that oddly-attractive Egyptian girl and their lesbian sex scene deserved a better movie.
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Pbar
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Post by Pbar on Apr 2, 2018 8:53:46 GMT -5
Congratulations Doomsday!!!! Just now seeing this.
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 4, 2018 2:40:01 GMT -5
Live By NightWatched 4/3  Remember this movie? It was released at the end of last year and vanished almost as fast as it came. It was a pretty big bomb which is saying something for a Ben Affleck movie. It had a lot of ingredients for what should have been a successful movie; it's a period movie that people like, it features actor/director Ben Affleck who at this point in his career is probably more highly regarded behind the camera and has some pretty good action sequences. So what was the downfall for this movie? One reason that's unquestionable is the terrible script. The other reason, in my humble opinion, is that Ben Affleck miscast himself. Not only that but his character was dead on arrival. Affleck plays Joe Coughlin, a hood working during Prohibition for an Irish gangster, Albert White, but is also having an affair with the gangster's mistress. When the romance is discovered Joe is almost killed but is sent to jail for another robbery gone wrong. When he's released he realizes that his lover is dead so he decides to work for his old boss's rival, Maso, so he can get revenge against White. Maso decides to move him to Miami and take over the rum trade. All of this takes about 45 minutes to explain when it should have taken twenty. Stay tuned though because we have a long way to go. Joe falls in love with a Cuban girl living in Miami but soon the KKK comes around looking to move in on Joe's action. One of the KKK goons is brother-in-law of the police chief Figgis (Chris Cooper) and you know he's a bad guy KKK goon because he's stupid and has a cleft palate. Once they're dealt with though Figgis' daughter comes back to town from Los Angeles, an ex-drug addict and now a born-again Christian preacher. There was a casino that Joe wanted to build and now she's preaching against it and...holy crap what the hell is going on? This movie is a complete mess and nothing flows together at all. It's a series of events, almost random events, that Joe has to deal with in his struggle to retain power. There's not a lot of rhyme or reason to why things occur and Joe himself isn't written with much confidence. We're expected to think he's this reluctant criminal, a guy who wants to make a buck but avoids violence at all costs. But he doesn't avoid violence, he kills several people. But he regrets it? He's not okay with it but he doesn't have a problem with it? Is he a badass or deep down a good guy? It's nonsense, everything that happens is nonsense and it's why this movie is an unfortunate misfire. Affleck's eye for the camera is without question but he really should have had some people give his screenplay for this a once, twice or thrice over. This is an occasion where the script 100% sunk the movie before it even started. It's a shame because this had the makings of being something good, it just wasn't given the attention it deserved.
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Apr 4, 2018 15:03:58 GMT -5
My review from about a year ago.
Pretty, but also pretty boring. Ben Affleck clearly put a lot of work into getting the look of the film right and the costume and sets are impressive. Too bad this is in service of a totally cliched gangster storyline we've seen a million times before. A small timer who never wanted to get into the rackets but become a cold-hearted crook, a guy who was crossed by a tricky dame, heavily spelled out thematic connections between the gangster life and the American Dream, linking of the criminal life with the experiences of minorities and veterans, difficulty leaving the criminal life; there is absolutely nothing new here. The film doesn't even present this cliched material in a fun way. Way too much of the story is told through narration and the characters are completely lifeless, including Affleck's Joe Coughlin, who might be the most boring gangster of all-time.
Some decently staged shoot-outs help, but they can't save this movie. Honestly, Live by Night might actually be worse than I'm scoring it, but my attention waned so much I can't really say.
D+
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Apr 9, 2018 13:21:41 GMT -5
Atomic Blonde has some cool action sequences, but the overly convoluted plot makes the movie a complete bore.
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 10, 2018 14:10:20 GMT -5
The PrestigeWatched 4/9 ![]()  This was my first time watching this movie. Again you can choose to believe that or not, I've seen parts of it here and there but this was the very first time I actually sat down and watched The Prestige from beginning to end. It's probably hard to read this coming from me without thinking that no bias will show through and you're probably right. I'm probably the most vocal critic of Chris Nolan on these boards and even when I decided to watch I thought I might not give it the chance it deserved. It all went out the window though when it all clicked and I realized that this is easily one of Chris Nolan's best films. You all have seen the movie before, probably several times so I won't even talk about the plot. I will say that it's a very unique idea with great characters and a great setup. I enjoyed how you never completely sympathize with Angier or Borden as both of them were good people until they competed against each other. As soon as you start to side with one they do some terrible thing that brings you out of it. As to the script, as I've said ad nauseum I never found Chris Nolan to be a very good screenwriter and one of the main reasons is that he way overindulges in the explanation and exposition. To this day my favorite scene is the painfully stupid parent teacher conference in Interstellar where every single theme and every single character is thoroughly explained to the audience in about 3 minutes. The Prestige however is actually a great movie for a guy like Chris Nolan who has this particular writing style. He over-explains everything and The Prestige is a movie where everything needs to be explained. It's a perfect fit! All joking aside though, it did seem well constructed, very well paced and had I been watching it completely fresh with no knowledge about it beforehand the ending probably would have really hit home. Now there are some things about it that I could nitpick, like what the odds would be of randomly picking Borden out of an audience of dozens if not hundreds while he's looking to sabotage your show? And the staggered timeline that was used much like Dunkirk started to throw me off at times and seemed unnecessary but by and large there's nothing that's really egregious that hurts the narrative that falls outside of my personal preferences. Well, maybe the Christian Bale/Fallon makeup, you could tell it was him from the first time you see him. Maybe that was intentional? I don't know. Regardless, The Prestige is far and away Chris Nolan's best film since Memento. To me nothing else even comes close.
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Apr 10, 2018 20:10:27 GMT -5
The PrestigeWatched 4/9 ![]() This was my first time watching this movie. Again you can choose to believe that or not, I've seen parts of it here and there but this was the very first time I actually sat down and watched The Prestige from beginning to end. It's probably hard to read this coming from me without thinking that no bias will show through and you're probably right. I'm probably the most vocal critic of Chris Nolan on these boards and even when I decided to watch I thought I might not give it the chance it deserved. It all went out the window though when it all clicked and I realized that this is easily one of Chris Nolan's best films. You all have seen the movie before, probably several times so I won't even talk about the plot. I will say that it's a very unique idea with great characters and a great setup. I enjoyed how you never completely sympathize with Angier or Borden as both of them were good people until they competed against each other. As soon as you start to side with one they do some terrible thing that brings you out of it. As to the script, as I've said ad nauseum I never found Chris Nolan to be a very good screenwriter and one of the main reasons is that he way overindulges in the explanation and exposition. To this day my favorite scene is the painfully stupid parent teacher conference in Interstellar where every single theme and every single character is thoroughly explained to the audience in about 3 minutes. The Prestige however is actually a great movie for a guy like Chris Nolan who has this particular writing style. He over-explains everything and The Prestige is a movie where everything needs to be explained. It's a perfect fit! All joking aside though, it did seem well constructed, very well paced and had I been watching it completely fresh with no knowledge about it beforehand the ending probably would have really hit home. Now there are some things about it that I could nitpick, like what the odds would be of randomly picking Borden out of an audience of dozens if not hundreds while he's looking to sabotage your show? And the staggered timeline that was used much like Dunkirk started to throw me off at times and seemed unnecessary but by and large there's nothing that's really egregious that hurts the narrative that falls outside of my personal preferences. Well, maybe the Christian Bale/Fallon makeup, you could tell it was him from the first time you see him. Maybe that was intentional? I don't know. Regardless, The Prestige is far and away Chris Nolan's best film since Memento. To me nothing else even comes close. I'm surprised your hatred for Nolan didn't drive you to hate watch this sooner. |
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Apr 10, 2018 20:43:23 GMT -5
LOVE The Prestige
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 11, 2018 16:03:27 GMT -5
I'm surprised your hatred for Nolan didn't drive you to hate watch this sooner. It's not a hated for the man himself nor has it ever been, it's more of a disdain for the amount of overpraise that he received. |
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Apr 11, 2018 23:11:06 GMT -5
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