What Movies Have You Seen Lately?

I certainly welcome the use of computer graphics to shelter the actors and stuntmen from real danger, but I don't really care for movies that are really cartoons.

Quote: Nareed

Rumor has it there's going to be a sequel of Rogue One!
I hope it won't just be a rip-off of The Force Awakens :)

Disney has certainly controls the worldwide box office with the top 4 films this year. Rogue One having been out for only 6 days will probably make the top 5 films.

Doctor Strange is a solid investment in the future. Alice and The BFG seem to be an outright failures. Pete's Dragon looks like it had a modest budget and goals , but was profitable.

The three live action films nominally seem to be purely for artistic achievement, but only the Queen of Katwe got solid reviews. The other two are considered "old fashioned" films like Disney would make 40 years ago.

1 Captain America: Civil War $1,153.30 64.60%
2 Finding Dory $1,027.60 52.70%
3 Zootopia $1,023.80 66.70%
4 The Jungle Book (2016) $966.60 62.30%
10 Doctor Strange $654.00 65.20%
18 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story $388.10 47.10%
26 Alice Through the Looking Glass $299.50 74.30%
27 Moana $289.70 41.20%
41 The BFG $178.10 68.80%
52 Pete's Dragon (2016) $142.40 46.50%
89 The Finest Hours $52.10 47.10%
118 The Light Between Oceans $23.20 46.00%
155 Queen of Katwe $10.00 11.80%
Total Disney $6,208.40 60.40% Overseas / %

The $6.2 billion Disney worldwide gross is out of total $25.3 billion worldwide gross for films including foreign films. But Disney leverages billions more in merchandise and ticket sales to theme parks.

Quote: Fleastiff

I certainly welcome the use of computer graphics to shelter the actors and stuntmen from real danger, but I don't really care for movies that are really cartoons.

I can't imagine a ginger bread man as a real actor.

La La Land

I guess I am missing the hype on this one. It was "fine," but certainly didn't knock my socks off like it seems to have for most of the critics.

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are great in it, but other than that I didn't find much that really blew me away. I can't point and any particular scene or sequence that really stands out for me.

If you like old fashioned movie musicals, you'll like it. It goes out of its way to be a throwback to those types of films.

If you don't like those - stay far away.

Are Emma Stone or Ryan Gosling known for their singing? I don't want to pay for a ticket to another, "Paint Your Wagon".

Quote: Ayecarumba

Are Emma Stone or Ryan Gosling known for their singing? I don't want to pay for a ticket to another, "Paint Your Wagon".

I thought their singing was quite good.

Ryan Gosling was on The New Mickey Mouse Club when he was younger, along with successful singers like Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera.

Quote: ams288

If you like old fashioned movie musicals, you'll like it. It goes out of its way to be a throwback to those types of films.

The Academy likes movies about movies. Speaking of which, the movie "Hugo" set in 1931 Paris is now on Netflix. The following images are important to the film.

Train wreck photo 1895, movie poster from 1902.

I'm assuming Arrival has been in theaters long enough that I can proceed with spoilers. So here's the warning:



SPOILER WARNING FOR ARRIVAL!


There. You've been warned.


While I regard the whole movie as a gimmick using flashbacks to mislead the viewer (I've not read the story it's based on), there are a few things about it worth discussing, should one buy the premise that knowing the Heptapod language allows you to see the future.

1) Where there any "flashbacks" to the future before Dr. Banks learns even a syllable of Heptapod? I seriously can't recall, other than the opening of the movie which I can take as being "offstage." If there were, there shouldn't have been.

2) Knowing fully well her daughter will die (apparently of cancer), the assumption is that Dr. banks nevertheless goes on to conceive her Presumably the father is Dr. Donnelly, and he will leave when, I assume, Dr, Banks tells him she knew how it would play out.

3) In the one unrelated future flashback, we see the Chinese General tell Dr, Banks her call to his private number, relaying to him his wife's dying words, made him change his mind. He then proceeds to give her his number and tell her what his wife's dying words were. In short, did General Shang travel to the future to change the past?

This brings to mind a Trek novel, i forget which, where Geordi LaForge is quoted as having said "That's why time travel gives me nose bleeds."

Saw "La La Land".

Musical, love story, whimsical. Well done. If you really don't like the genre, then it's not a movie you would enjoy. Couldn't really find anything to criticize.

The drama or interaction part is all familiar territory. Boy meets girl in a traffic incident but this is more the honking and giving the finger. It all slowly turns around while they kind of ignore that they like each other.

Trying to think of what the ending reminded me of. Just isn't straight forward, that is all.

Emma Stone performances stands out in many of the scenes, both alone and with others

Definitely would be a good date movie.

Quote: rxwine

Boy meets girl in a traffic incident.

In the movie biz, this is called the 'meet cute'.
In comedies I always look for the meet cute,
it's an important part of the movie. The
weirder and more unlikely the better. They
usually start off hating each other, or being
bitter rivals. Real relationships almost never start
that way.