What Movies Have You Seen Lately?

Quote: Evenbob

Go and read some of the Hated It reviews on IMDB. Some of them are very lonnnnng and detailed.

Veteran Director Paul Feig attempts to cross genres in this satirical espionage comedy

I think EB was following a chain of consciousness, and not a deliberate attempt to plagiarize.

This publicity shot from Ant-Man just makes me laugh.

Quote: Pacomartin

Veteran Director Paul Feig attempts to cross genres in this satirical espionage comedy

I think EB was following a chain of consciousness, and not a deliberate attempt to plagiarize.

It wasn't bad enough to hate, it wasn't good enough to like. i was bored through most of it. The best parts were the zingers tossed back and forth between the characters, like a cinematic flame war. But the rest of it was a waste.

Wow, you guys are a really tough crowd. I thought Spy was very funny, especially if you are familiar with all the Bond movies, and most people are.

Also recently saw Dope which I loved but the dialogue was a bit too self-consciously clever and a few situations too contrived. I was willing to overlook that for pure entertainment value.

Inside Out I thought was one of Pixar's best. It stuck well to the formula of having lots of stuff to entertain kids in parallel with a stream of adult jokes and storylines. Also, Lewis Black as Anger, come on, that's genius.

I knew the latest Vacation movie sucked because
advertised the crap out of it. 28% on Rotten
Tomatoes. The orig gets 95%.

'While there are a handful of good laughs, VACATION can't hold a candle to the original film and emerges as a surprisingly tone-deaf and mean-spirited comedy'

Quote: Evenbob

I knew the latest Vacation movie sucked because
advertised the crap out of it. 28% on Rotten
Tomatoes. The orig gets 95%.

'While there are a handful of good laughs, VACATION can't hold a candle to the original film and emerges as a surprisingly tone-deaf and mean-spirited comedy'

I'm disappointed in the reviews, I was hoping this one would be good. Ed Helms was great in Cedar Rapids, a film which has much of the charm of the original National Lampoon's Vacation.

Quote: Wizard

I saw Jurassic World a few days ago. It is a worthy addition to the series. The original is still the best and I think the sequels are all about equal to each other.

Jurassic World hit $626m on day 47 and is still clears a million dollars a day on a weekday.
Avatar was at $601m on day 47 and broke $700m on day 72.
So if they leave it in the theaters until Thanksgiving, Jurassic World will probably grab the #1 of all time domestic rank.

So no prediction is fool proof. Last year analysts were saying it looked like movies on tablets and phones had finally deeply wounded the movie business. Now this year Universal and Buena Vista are leading movies back to one of the best years this decade.

While Jurassic World is an incredible bonanza, animated films are still a reliable profit centers for the industry. Four of the top 10 domestic films are animated.
Inside Out (production budget $175 million) $552.7m worldwide
Minions (production budget $74 million) $768.9m worldwide
Home (2015) (production budget $135 million) $369.6m worldwide
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (production budget $74 million) $312m worldwide

I'm holding out for JW2: The T-Rex Ate my Homework.

Quote: Pacomartin

So no prediction is fool proof. Last year analysts were saying it looked like movies on tablets and phones had finally deeply wounded the movie business. Now this year Universal and Buena Vista are leading movies back to one of the best years this decade.

When you can have a BIG image and fantastic, high-quality sound in a phone or tablet, then these big-budget, low-IQ movies will suffer in theaters.

Early on in my tablet days I watched a Futurama movie on it. Granted a 7" tablet isn't very big, it's bigger than a 5-to-6" phone. I didn't enjoy the experience.

With things like Chromecast, one can stream them to a proper TV, with an HD image and decent sound (depending on one's setup). But that still falls short of a decent movie theater.

You'd also need studios to release them direct-to-phone.

Now, "small" movies, that is without massive special effects or even grand-spectacular cinematography(*) might be viewed just as well streaming than in theaters.

Quote:

Four of the top 10 domestic films are animated.

I like some of the modern computer animated movies, but I miss drawn animated movies.

(*) Non-grand but spectacular cinematography comes across rather well in a small screen. A great example is "Citizen Kane." A "small" movie like "The Sound of Music" plays well on TV, but the majestic opening shot in a theater screen is amazing.

Quote: Pacomartin

animated films are still a reliable profit centers

Am I the only one that can't watch animated
movies? The only one I saw part of was Shrek,
and I fell asleep. I find them incredibly boring
because there's no acting involved. I just watched
Bloodline all the way thru for the 2nd time in 2
weeks just for the great acting.

Quote: rxwine

This publicity shot from Ant-Man just makes me laugh.

I recently screened "Ant-man". As a fan of Marvel superhero films, it was fun. A lot of the credit for holding this film together goes to Michael Douglas for doing a solid job, but Michael Pena steals the show.

If you enjoyed "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Avengers: Age of Ultron", you will certainly enjoy Ant-man. It follows the tried and true formula for superhero movies quite closely, and ties into these two films with cross pollinating story lines.

Fans of a certain age will recall parallels with this movie, and the "Innerspace" ride that used to be in Disneyland's Tomorrowland. I got the feeling they were consciously trying to give screen time in the form of minor roles and walk on extras, to as many minorities as possible.

If you do go, please plan to stay all the way through the credits, as there is a tease at the very end in addition to the usual "Easter Egg" that shows up after they show the names of the people with a vested interest in the gross profits.

I give it 7.5 out of 10 Pym particles.

Note that the big trailer before this film was for the new Star Wars movie coming in December. It is going to be Humongous.