What Movies Have You Seen Lately?

Quote: Pacomartin

I think there are a lot of time travel stories, but the repeating time loop is not as common. It is more used in TV shows than in movies to use a repeating time loop.

Yes indeed. Keep this in mind and read on.

Quote:

But just because a basic idea is fairly old, doesn't mean you can't come up with fresh take on the concept.

Oh, you don't even have to come up with a fresh take. A good story will do, even if the take on the concept is as stale as last year's version of Android.

The thing is that, at least down here, the Tom Cruise movie is being promoted as a BRAND NEW IDEA(TM). The "in-depth" promo in cable even makes a great deal about how the hero dies near the beginning. Big deal. The Enterprise was destroyed in the first act in a Trek time loop episode. I think T'ealc died or lost fairly early in the "trapped in the repeating simulation" episode (a sort of time loop without the bother of actual time travel).

What this tells me is the movie's being promoted at the SF illiterate. I'm SF literate. Therefore I look upon it with contempt and will likley see it years from now when it's on basic cable.

I'm not saying the movie's bad. Conceivably it could be done right (unlikely, but possible). But I've no desire to see it.

The last time I saw an SF movie I dind't want to see, precisely because of the way it was promoted, it was "Back to the Future." The promos boiled down to "kid has to travel back in time to make sure his parents meet," which is ridiculous and intellectually offensive in many levels. Fortunately the movie had nothing at all to do with the promos. It was a good movie, and a great light-hearted take on time travel.

Minority Report, now, was the opposite. It's not bad, but it has a plot-hole the size of Jupiter which rather ruins it for me.

Finally saw Prince of Tides 23 years after it was
made. No wonder it got 11 AA nominations.
Nick Nolte's best work by far. I thought it
was a chick flick and it's not at all. The last
15min is, but the rest of it is cinema at it's
finest.

Quote: Nareed

The thing is that, at least down here, the Tom Cruise movie is being promoted as a BRAND NEW IDEA(TM)..

The Boxofficemojo list of movies for Mexico this year, is sadly short of Spanish films.

1 Maleficent Disney $44,474,893 5/30 #4 in USA
2 Rio 2 Fox $30,905,962 4/10
3 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Sony $28,460,534 4/17 #5 in USA
4 Captain America: The Winter Soldier Disney $25,720,282 3/28 #1 in USA
5 X-Men: Days of Future Past Fox $24,547,378 5/23 #3 in USA
6 Godzilla (2014) WB $16,479,339 5/15 #6 in USA
7 How to Train Your Dragon 2 Fox $15,846,143 6/19
8 Noah PPI $15,736,543 3/21
9 300: Rise of An Empire WB $14,892,708 3/7
10 The Fault in our Stars Fox $13,883,072 6/5
11 Cásese quien pueda (Get Married If You Can) Videocine $12,710,975 2/14
12 The Lego Movie WB $10,004,633 2/7 #2 in USA
13 Mr. Peabody & Sherman Fox $8,342,462 2/28
14 Robocop (2014) Sony $8,012,807 2/14
15 Edge of Tomorrow WB $7,917,692 6/5
16 Divergent n/a $7,797,101 4/4
17 Non-Stop n/a $7,497,250 5/1
18 Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones PPI $6,776,552 1/3
19 Blended WB $6,253,219 6/25
20 Transformers: Age of Extinction PPI $5,909,454 7/10
21 47 Ronin UPI $5,844,181 1/31
22 The Wolf of Wall Street n/a $5,706,398 1/10
23 12 Years a Slave n/a $5,558,102 2/21
24 I, Frankenstein n/a $5,387,885 1/24
25 Qué le dijiste a Dios? Videocine $5,161,905 1/17
26 El Crimen del Cácaro Gumaro Fox $4,757,098 3/14
27 Pompeii Gussi $4,141,754 2/21
28 Need for Speed Disney $3,936,801 3/14
29 The Other Woman (2014) Fox $3,875,056 5/1
30 The Book Thief Fox $3,804,647 1/17
31 Devil's Due Fox $3,543,448 1/31
32 Son of God n/a $3,158,936 4/10
33 Ender's Game n/a $3,028,212 1/3
34 American Hustle Sony $2,995,621 1/17
35 Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit PPI $2,815,135 1/17
36 Muppets Most Wanted Disney $2,637,357 3/21
37 Transcendence n/a $2,585,980 6/19
38 Tarzan (2013) Gussi $2,474,594 3/14
39 Neighbors UPI $2,250,756 7/3
40 Obediencia Perfecta n/a $2,170,783 5/1
41 3 Days to Kill Gussi $2,080,394 5/8
42 The Pirate Fairy Disney $2,058,700 4/24
43 Oculus Gussi $1,840,396 4/17
44 The Monuments Men Fox $1,753,510 2/14
45 The Legend of Hercules n/a $1,713,602 2/7
46 The Grand Budapest Hotel Fox $1,638,127 4/24
47 Fachon Models Videocine $1,489,112 2/28
48 Khumba Gussi $1,378,199 1/17
49 God's Not Dead n/a $1,308,582 4/4
50 The Quiet Ones n/a $1,256,083 5/8

Saw a birding movie, "The Big Year". I enjoyed it, but I didn't know it was intended to be really funny. According to some it was intended to be just that, yet wasn't, therefore it was a big flop.

It was a comedy in the sense it wasn't a tragedy. I think the producers actually intended it to be a light look at the competitive side of Birding, but also a competent look at Birding in general.

I'd have to say they were simply nuts to think that a movie about Birding could have any chance to be a success. They perhaps were lulled into this by the current buzz that birding is getting to be more popular. This must be based on something, but I imagine it is a matter of young people interested in the outdoors choosing birding now more often than they used to vis a vis hunting or fishing or hiking and climbing or whatever.

You might think hunters would consider Birding too lame to respect, but I have not found this to be the case. I'd say only the crudest amongst us would have such an attitude, the rest appreciate it to some degree, keeping some wariness about any anti-hunting elements within those ranks. As for me, I can dig it, certainly enjoy seeing and identifying birds. I've even spent some time with birding tapes, easily the best way to identify over half the birds. But I've never given a thought to join some group who was "going out birding".

Quote: Pacomartin

I think there are a lot of time travel stories, but the repeating time loop is not as common. It is more used in TV shows than in movies to use a repeating time loop.

Probably the first one:
Christmas every day By William Dean Howells 1892

Gee, I'm a bit surprised at this. William Dean Howells was known as the leader of the American Realist movement. I would not expect him to deal with time travel or science fiction. As a matter of fact, I believe he became violently ill each and every December due to the falsity of the "Christmas spirit" stuff that he had to put up with.

We saw Chef a couple weeks ago. Great feel-good story, well shot, believable characters and acting. Not perfect, but good enough that you don't think about the flaws.

Regarding Edge of Tomorrow, what I didn't like was the attempt to cast Cruise and his character as a romantic interest in what is 100% a "save the world" story. It comes off as skeevy. The future of humanity is at stake, and here is this shallow frat boy trying to bone a 100% badass female soldier who is completely focused on defeating the enemy? Sorry, not only did I not believe it, I was offended that I was asked to believe it.

Quote: Wizard

I saw Edge of Tomorrow last weekend. The movie is Groundhog Day meets War of the Worlds. Aliens are trying to conquer the earth with the ability to start each day over from scratch. However, this ability transfers to Tom Cruise's character in battle and now he can do it. So, against huge odds, he keeps repeating the same day over and over, learning from his mistakes each time, with the goal of winning the war in a day.

I'd say it gets a little slow at the end and is a bit anti-climactic but I was on the edge of my seat most of the time. My rating is a solid 7 on the 0 to 10 scale.

If anyone is interested, I'd like to discuss the ending in spoiler tags. It didn't make complete sense to me.

I saw this movie two weeks ago. My wife really liked it. We forget that Tom Cruise can act. I liked it a bit, but found it too incredulous to suspend belief.

Had an excellent movie going experience tonight. You Americans get some of your movie-going right.

The AMC here in Buckhead (Atlanta) has reserved seating, Lazy-Boy recliners, and a full bar - you can take drinks to your seats. Rather than a long line up for food, each item has its own station to grab stuff, and they have fill-your-own Coke Freestyle machines after you pay, so you can refill at any time. Yeah, it was more expensive ($18 - each), but 3D in your privatish lazy-boy chair and alcohol at your seat was pretty cool. There's enough room with your lazy-boy completely reclined for people to walk by, and the extra price is due to the fact that there are alot less seats.

We saw Men In Black: Days of Future Past, another time travel movie. As far as action movies go and 3-D, it was very good. I like that franchise. I give it an 8/10. Some of the plot twists were deliberately confusing.

Around the corner from our hotel is an AMC Dine-in Theater, which we might try next week, though I hear Cinebistro down the road is quite better.

I saw Dawn of Planet of the Apes today. I though technology really did a great job in giving the apes emotional faces and expressions. Andy Serkis as Caesar was a worthy performance. As for the story, there's room for more sequels as Hollywood leads up to the original story with Charlton Heston. "How did the apes come to speak and be in control?", "How did the humans die out and become mute?"...etc. More movies to come if this one makes mucho dinero.