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Watched The Theory of Everything last night. It was OK, but no Birdman or Imitation Game.

Saw Focus today. Margot Robbie. That is all.
 


Ok, before we go any further...I watch a fairly good amount of low end horror flicks so be guided appropriately. My seatmates for this one, Kingsqueen and SmytheKing enjoyed this a LOT more than I did...
See, it's a good idea...that wasn't thought out as well as it could have been. The overly long hour and 40 is padded out with redundancies and horribly cribbed Carpenter Halloween moving street views of old style decaying houses. The music really should have a credit 'influenced by John Carpenter' too. Like I said, good idea...the Ring as a venereal disease, but you have to do SOMETHING besides have a good idea. A few really good jump scares and creepy moments aside, there aren't a lot of kills and it basically turns into the same borderline odd set of characters trying to outrun a slow creeping dread. Effective, as I said, at times...but just too redundant. A dodgy, yet servicable ending does nothing to cement this as anything special. The critics seem to be all over this, probably because it has an 'important' message, but it just furthers the notion that critics don't really know horror. Biggest crime in a horror film...being boring. And this one is guilty for some fairly long stretches. If you don't see a lot of horror, your mileage may vary.
 
Watched Interstellar (again!) with my 60-something parents (for their first time) and they really enjoyed it. My mom had stated as the BD booted: 'I hope it's better than that last space movie'. (Gravity, which I think is epic) Had to explain 1-2 science things but they got everything else.
 
The Babadook

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An Australian horror movie about a struggling widow and her son who slowly begin to fear the presence of a boogeyman like entity, The Babadook.

There is a lot of hype surrounding this movie and I thought it was warranted since I enjoyed it was creeped out. It is a suspenseful psychological horror film that gives you goosebumps throughout. :O
 
Finally watched this last night
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I very much enjoyed it. Cooper did an amazing job as did Sienna Miller. The only thing I didn't really like was the abrupt change in the storyline when he returned from his 4th Tour - that could have been fleshed out for a few minutes more. Overall, though, I think they did a nice job portraying him and a very different kind of life story.
 
Finally watched this last night
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I very much enjoyed it. Cooper did an amazing job as did Sienna Miller. The only thing I didn't really like was the abrupt change in the storyline when he returned from his 4th Tour - that could have been fleshed out for a few minutes more. Overall, though, I think they did a nice job portraying him and a very different kind of life story.

I saw it this past Monday night and enjoyed the heck out of it. The only gripe I had was why-oh-why did they use a friggin doll, in lieu of an actual newborn in the "Baby #2 Home Nursery" scene??? It completely and utterly f-ed up my immersion in the movie. I saw that and was quicky reminded its just a movie. VERY distracting.
 
I saw Avengers 2 on Sunday and thought it was a good representation of a comic book. Lots of explosions, fighting between characters, and some humor sprinkled in. I give it about a B.
Then saw Her last night at home with the wifey, and was really surprised by it. It was a very interesting look at our potential future and our growing dependency on technology. Even though it's just a movie, Jonze did a great job with portraying how AI might evolve if it desired a relationship with a human, and vice versa with respect to a human wanting that relationship. Jonze, Phoenix, and Johansson do a great job at showing the different stages of the development of a relationship. If you haven't seen it yet, you really should. It's a great movie.
 
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My only gripe is that since most of it is action, most of it is in real time. Can't tell much of a story so quickly, but it's action packed from start to finish. My husband and my 22 year old daughter absolutely loved it.

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Never heard of this, but came across it on HBO. It's low budget with obvious mistakes, but it never drags and there are some good, laugh out loud moments. It may help to know that Elizabeth Banks runs around in that slinky yellow dress throughout.
 
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Muppets Most Wanted - Very enjoyable. I think I may still prefer the first one, but this was fun.


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The Babadook - I enjoyed the film quite a bit, but I have to admit I was slightly let down because of how many reviews built it up so much. I watched it twice, though, and am not sad that I purchased it (even though it showed up Netflix the same day). Plenty of good creepy stuff, just don't go in expecting it to blow you away.


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A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night - Another one I pre-ordered that showed up on Netflix the same day. This Iranian vampire flick is half horror and half arthouse/coming-of-age story and it does both of those things really well, but I can't help but wish it would have been 75% horror and 25% arthouse. There are some really great, intense vampire sequences that I loved, but then there's also three minutes of the girl dancing in her room to some pop song that sounds like it was from the 80's. The cinematography was beautiful and what original score music was there was great. Like I said, I just wanted more vampire. Would still recommend you Netflix it.


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Vigilante - Turner Classics has started showing a lot more of these kinds of genre B movies, which is making me a very happy camper. I'd never really seen much of Robert Forster's older work, but you hear about how badass he was all the time, so I jumped chance to see this. The story is not real unique, but I do love a good, violent revenge story. Enjoyed this thoroughly.


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Flesh + Blood - Rutger Hauer goes medieval on some bitches. I wasn't overly impressed with the first half of the movie, though it was enjoyable enough, but the last half was pretty great. The last half hour especially. It got pretty ****in' dark at the end and it was awesome.


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Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck - As someone who was a very big Nirvana fan back in the day, and still enjoys their music now, I enjoyed this immensely. I never held Cobain in the same regard (re: deity) as a lot of his fans did, but I still have a soft spot for him and seeing all the home videos and hearing him talk about some of the stuff hit me right in the nostalgia. Not sure anyone who wasn't a fan would get anything out of this, but I enjoyed it.


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Bad Words - Pretty ****in' funny. The relief I felt at seeing Jason Bateman in something worthwhile again was almost overwhelming. Definitely recommended. Also, I'm happy to see Kathryn Hahn getting more roles. She's pretty great.


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X-Men: Days Of Future Past - Meh. It had it's moments, but I just couldn't really get into it. Even Fassbender Magneto seems to have lost some of its luster. The Quicksilver sequence was cool, but I don't recall anything else about this movie that stood out as all that cool or likable.


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Godzilla - Not sure if it's because of the movie or because watching it at home is nowhere near as good as watching it in a theater, but the second viewing of this was nowhere near as good as the first. I still enjoy the movie and all the monster stuff, but just not as much. Probably because I don't have an IMAX in my house. Yet.


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Edge Of Tomorrow - This, on the other hand, stands up very well through multiple viewings. Dat Emily Blunt, tho. Woo.


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Let's Be Cops - Pretty damn funny, but I wouldn't buy it. Definitely worth a watch.


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The To-Do List - Also pretty damn funny. It's nice to see Aubrey Plaza do something (somewhat) different from the character she usually plays, and the supporting cast is pretty solid. Clark Gregg in particular, who plays her dad, got a laugh in every scene he was in. Solid.


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Ex Machina - ****in' fantastic. Not what I expected at all, based on the trailer, but LOVED it. I don't want to say too much for fear of ruining any surprises, but I will say that it felt very Kubrick to me at times, but without being overly reverent, you know? The music was fantastic, the cinematography was great and the story was able to surprise. I'm not saying it was perfect, but it was awesome.


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This Is Where I Leave You - What do you get when you take a bunch of great comedic actors and put them in a meh family drama? A slightly better than meh family drama. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't recommend anyone take the time to watch it, as you could instead spend that time watching good movies made by these people.


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Retaliation - Solid old school Yakuza flick with a very, very young Meiko Kaji in it. It's a slow-burn that leads to one of those big, violent fight scenes. I've seen dozens of the exact same kind of movie by now and I would say that this one was well above average.
 
Nice job, I really enjoy reading these bulk review posts. And I just realized I haven't posted one myself in like four months (wow, really?) so I really should get to work on that.
 
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Flesh + Blood - Rutger Hauer goes medieval on some bitches. I wasn't overly impressed with the first half of the movie, though it was enjoyable enough, but the last half was pretty great. The last half hour especially. It got pretty ****in' dark at the end and it was awesome.
I tried watching this, just couldn't make it all the way through. Managed to make it through an hour, but that was it. Poor acting, low budget effects... Couldn't invest another half hour.

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I tried watching once before and couldn't really get into it. Tried it again, and I appreciate Lewis' acting, but I still can't really understand why so many people hold it in such high regard. I just find it to be pretty boring.
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Oh, so good. Lots of action and hilarious. Loved this flick. A bit of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a bit of Mad Max, a bit of the Pegg, Wright Frost vibe. You name it, it's in there.



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Not up to "Oldboy" standards, but still pretty damn good and worth seeing. Goes without saying that it is not for the faint of heart.




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NOT a romcom, although it has some of the elements. Actually a sci-fi flick that doesn't fit into any sci-fi category; would make for a good Twilight Zone episode. Very well acted and well-written. Never heard of this flick until I saw it as a recommendation on my Netflix feed. I really enjoyed it.


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Can Tom Hardy act? Yes. Yes he can.
 
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My wife and I just saw Jurassic World,it had good special effects and the story line was also good. Not as good as the other Jurassic Park movies though.
 
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Must See....


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Must see...


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Terribly unfunny, pass.


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Some funny moments but overall a weak sequel, maybe a rental.
 
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Roller Boogie - Seriously, whoever it was at Turner Classics that decided they should play weird/****ty genre movies on Friday nights instead of just showing North By Northwest again deserves a raise. Normally, I wouldn't have bothered with a movie like this, but I have a friend who thinks Linda Blair is the greatest thing that god has ever graced the world with and I watched it for him. This movie is so dated and of its time that it's almost painful to watch at times, but it's bad/cheesy enough to be entertaining the whole way through. Not going to be adding it to my collection, but worth a laugh at all the short shorts and horrible dialogue.


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A Million Ways To Die In The West - Undeservingly devastated by critics. It wasn't as funny as Ted, but it was still plenty funny.


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The Man Who Would Be King - Michael Caine and Sean Connery are former soldiers who plan to go out to a remote area in the mountains of Afghanistan to find some primitive locals and take over. They do that and when Connery takes an arrow during a battle that doesn't mortally wound him thanks to a leather strap around him, the locals revere him as a God. Having a Mason pendant around his neck doesn't hurt when the locals religion is based around it, either. And from there, you have a bit of a morality tale about absolute power corrupting absolutely. It's a pretty fun movie, with some good banter between the two of them and Connery just kind of edging into the area where he became a parody of himself. Wouldn't buy it, but it was worth watching.


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Gun Woman - Blind bought this on blu-ray because it got all kinds of praise from the various genre websites. For a zero-budget exploitation flick it was pretty impressive, but if you start to compare it to any other type of film it falls short. It is what it is, and if you're the type of person that enjoys watching a naked woman covered in blood killing people, then there is a high likelihood that this is for you. I enjoyed it, but don't know if I'll hang on to the disc. Probably end up selling it.


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They Came Together - Just about the funniest romantic comedy I've ever seen. It's a spoof of romantic comedies taken to what I thought was an extreme degree, but most of the reviews I read prior to it's release seemed to miss the spoof angle. Or maybe they just didn't like it. I don't know, but I thought it was awesome. Worth the price of admission (it's on Netflix and Amazon Prime) for Christopher Meloni's small role all on its own.


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Spy - The best post-Bridesmaids Melissa McCarthy movie thus far, and in large part to supporting cast performances by Jason Statham and Rose Byrne. I generally enjoy McCarthy/Paul Feig movies, so keep that in mind when evaluating whether or not you have any interest in this (I know she isn't everybody's favorite), but, seriously, Statham is ****ing hilarious in this. They either need to give him his own spin-off movie or he needs to do something like this on his own. Even the wife, who is not normally a fan of his, thought he was the best thing about this movie.


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Tammy - It really was not intentional, but I watched three McCarthy movies in a row over a 4 or 5 day period. This was alright. Had a couple of good moments, but... ehh.


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The Heat - Liked this more than I expected to, but I don't care if I never see it again.


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Riddick - Bleh. I could have sworn I read that this was a good movie, but at no point did I give a **** about it during it's runtime. I think it might have been the excessive CGI (I think this was the first movie I watched post-Mad Max?), but it did nothing for me. And Katee Sackhoff's character was kind of annoying. This type of movie has been done before and it's been done better.


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Only Lovers Left Alive - Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a Jim Jarmusch vampire film. Very artsy, lots of pretty pictures and slow motion shots of Tilda Swinton walking down the street. I liked it, though. I've never really gotten into Jarmusch films other than Dead Man, and that was mostly because of Johnny Depp, but I enjoyed this one. There's not a whole lot of scary vampire action, though, and just like the recently watched A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, this movie really made me wish one of these artsy-fartsy directors would do a real vampire horror movie. I still haven't seen Trouble Every Day (by Claire Denis), but something like Let The Right One In or Thirst. I need more like that.


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The Prestige - Hadn't seen this in ages. Still really enjoy it. Dunno about Scarlett's accent, though.


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Tetsuo: The Bulletman - The third Tetsuo movie and Shinya Tsukamoto's first english language movie (kind of, there's still a lot of Japanese, but the main character is white). This got really bad reviews from everyone, but I liked it. It's not one of Tsukamoto's best, not even close, and it's got NOTHING on the original, but I still really liked the energy and look of it. NOT recommended for people who get motion sickness. Maybe all the frantic camerawork helped with the bad reviews, but... yeah, I enjoyed it.


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A Deadly Adoption - Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig's movie for Lifetime. Not as funny as I'd hoped. Not sure why I expected more, they all said it was a straight up Lifetime movie, but I did. Meh.


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Gone Girl - Goddamn, I love David Fincher. The bedroom scene with Rosamund Pike and Neil Patrick Harris was ****ing amazing. I had to go back and watch it again immediately. Thoroughly enjoyed this.


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The Face Of Fu Manchu - Christopher Lee finally gets his wish and gets to play Fu Manchu. Like almost every goddamn movie in which Christopher Lee plays the villain, I have the same complaint: not enough Christopher Lee. Beyond that complaint, the movie was pretty standard. By nature of the character's stoicism (is that a word), Lee doesn't have much opportunity to show off his charisma or chops, so if someone were to call the movie boring I wouldn't argue. Still really bummed about his death.


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John Wick - Enjoyed this immensely. Liked the fight choreography a lot, really happy to see Keanu is Born Again. Will be first in line for the sequel.


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We're The Millers - Exactly what you'd expect. Has it's moments, but all the dramatic, predictable parts where these characters who hated each other now feel like a real family felt really forced and unbelievable and kind of grinded the movie to a halt.


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American Hustle - Remember when this got nominated for, like, every award and then won none? And everyone was shocked? Well, after watching it, I think the Academy probably did the right thing. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great and definitely did not live up to the hype that was going around pre-awards. The performances were good, the costumes and look was good, but for me the story just didn't really pay off that well. It was alright, I wouldn't mind watching it again, but this wasn't exactly The Sting.


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The Signal - Pretty good for a low budget sci-fi film. It kind of reminds me of Moon in that low budget, good idea way, but it's not quite that good. Kept me guessing and though the ending did not have the impact on me the filmmakers probably wanted, I still thought it was a solid way to do it. Recommended.


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The Homeless (aka Yadonashi) - Three awesome Japanese stars (Ken Takakura, Shintaro Katsu and Meiko Kaji) at or near the peak of their acting prowess, but on the downside of their careers as far as box office draw and movies they're known for. This movie bombed so heavily in fact that it is credited for the shift in Japanese film from stars producing their own films and their own cast. And a lot of big name stars, including Meiko Kaji, started moving to television as a result. The film itself is ok. There's a lot of pretty cinematography and the story isn't bad, but it can be hard to follow at times (though that may be because the subtitles on the bootleg I watched). It wasn't bad, but I don't think it'll be getting a Criterion release.


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Black Belt Jones - The primary inspiration for Black Dynamite. The first 15 minutes or so were pretty fantastic, but after that it got a little too serious. It was still fun and Jim Kelly is still awesome, but I didn't enjoy this as much as I'd hoped.


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Grave of the Fireflies - I had never seen this before, but I can now confirm that, yes, this is one of the most depressing movies ever made. It was fantastic, but it's going to hit your Feels in the nuts.


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Hellbenders - Clifton Collins Jr and Clancy Brown in a movie together!!!!!!! I loved the idea of this movie, about a team of exorcists who sin as much as they can so that if it comes to it they can commit suicide and take the demon with them to Hell, and the performances were excellent, but the movie falters some in the execution. It's not very clear at points about what's going on and it took longer than it should have for me to figure out what exactly the point of all their sinning was. If you watch it, you can thank me for explaining it to you in advance. Disappointing. I really wanted to love this movie.
 
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I'll have to admit to seeing the Minions this morning...and I still have the 3-D glasses... The thing I was the most surprised about was that there were no kids in this one...just adults... I do believe they were all at the other screens that weren't 3-D... Still...not bad for $5.50...
 
Grave Of The Fireflies was so frickin' good and so frickin' sad. I never want to see it again, but I'm so glad I did.
 
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