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Shaolin Grandma was great. Perfect execution of a silly stupid spoof movie. No huge laughs, but a lot of little good ones. It is a silly movie, so I guess all the people that don't like it don't like silly humor.
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Mar 6, 2013 04:41
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How are we rating Shaolin Grandma on the Pootie Tang scale? Does it earn a simple Runny Kine, or is it a perfect Sadatay?
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Mar 6, 2013 04:44
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^^^I award it one Wanda Sykes. I liked how it was totally silly and innocuous for the first like 90%, and then boom, domestic violence outta nowhere, and then that final shot of Grandma breaking our narrator's neck. What the gently caress. I loved that. I'm still not totally sure what to think. At like 80 minutes, it at least didn't outstay its welcome.
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Mar 6, 2013 04:46
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I got around to watching Jiro Dreams of Sushi from my queue last night and it is an amazing, amazing documentary about an 85 year old, 3-star michelin sushi chef.
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Mar 6, 2013 04:50
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Yay Pudding! posted:Shaolin Grandma was great. Perfect execution of a silly stupid spoof movie. No huge laughs, but a lot of little good ones. It is a silly movie, so I guess all the people that don't like it don't like silly humor. I love silly humor. But they went all silly and no humor. I even loved a different silly Kung Fu movie with Kung Pow: Enter the Fist. I just didn't see any redeeming quality to Shaolin Grandma. It wasn't even a well made movie to boot.
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Mar 6, 2013 05:12
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teagone posted:I got around to watching Jiro Dreams of Sushi from my queue last night and it is an amazing, amazing documentary about an 85 year old, 3-star michelin sushi chef. This was a great documentary on so many levels. One, I don't particularly love sushi, but his fare looked absolutely mouth watering. And two, Jiro is really the opposite of the stern, gruff elderly japanese man most people would picture when they hear of him. Although he's firm and disciplined, he's still really humble about his work and even admits that he's basically just a showman at this point and his chefs are the ones that do 90% of the work. The shift near the end about how his son is really the future of his legacy, and was actually the chef that earned those Michelin stars was a nice twist as well.
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Mar 6, 2013 05:36
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Mahoning posted:I love silly humor. But they went all silly and no humor. Shaolin Grandma supremely well-made, from its editing and framing to things like lens filters. They're just going for a particular aesthetic and nail it.
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Mar 6, 2013 05:54
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:Alright, I'll try again. I quit at about the point she leaves the school. If you have a Frys nearby they have the bluray for 5 bucks. Check out Tucker and Dale vs. Evil for some good recent comedy too.
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Mar 6, 2013 06:29
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Lefty Lugubrious posted:I watched 12 and Holding last night. "When 12-year-old Rudy dies in a tree-house fire set by bullies, his death affects a circle of young lives. While Rudy's twin brother, Jacob, focuses his wrath on revenge, Malee finds comfort in one of her psychotherapist mother's clients (played by Jeremy Renner). Meanwhile, Leonard, an overweight boy who escaped the blaze, begins a weight-loss regimen -- much to the dismay of his fat family." This movie is made by the executive producer and occasional director of Homeland and Dexter (Michael Cuesta) before he started on bigger projects. It really showcases his talent for editing and directing. He tackles a lot of taboo subjects about adolescence that most filmmakers wouldn't dare touch.
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Mar 6, 2013 08:06
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. And maybe I'm dense but the ending surprised me.
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big business sloth posted:It suffers from a similar problem that The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret does, where the main character is such a fuckin dope and every (increasingly poor) decision he makes just reeks of "no no god dammit that is so dumb why would you think that would be smart" instead of the Larry David "augh no larry you can't say that right now Glad someone else said this, I couldn't stand Todd Margaret (quit after two episodes) or Klown. The one laugh I got out of the latter was when they actually showed the kid's micropenis at the end because it was like "holy poo poo they're this desperate"
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Mar 6, 2013 09:20
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" that they think they are achieving.
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big business sloth posted:It suffers from a similar problem that The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret does, where the main character is such a fuckin dope and every (increasingly poor) decision he makes just reeks of "no no god dammit that is so dumb why would you think that would be smart" instead of the Larry David "augh no larry you can't say that right now Todd Margaret doesn't presume to have a Curb thing going. It is absolutely aware the character's decisions are absurd and nonsensical. It's the whole point, and every episode raises those stakes from the initially absurd opening scene with Todd on trial for about every crime imaginable. The show even ends with (serious spoilers DO NOT READ if you ever plan on watching it) Todd nuking London, killing all the other characters as they pick at the insane contrivances leading up to the story . They know what they're doing. EvilTobaccoExec fucked around with this message at 13:13 on Mar 6, 2013 |
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Mar 6, 2013 11:03
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SRM posted:It was my first exposure to Nicolas Winding-Refn, who also directed Drive and Valhalla Rising. Hardy puts in an insane performance, and it's a really interesting movie. I like it a lot. Thanks for reminding me that Refn is one of my favorite directors. I just watched Bronson the other day knowing it's coming off instant soon and I still love every minute of it. It's becomming one of my most quotable movies. Hardy is a loving maniac. The look in his eyes when he goes to fight the dogs is insane.
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Mar 6, 2013 12:04
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Beyond sane knolls posted:^^^I award it one Wanda Sykes. You forgot the half disturbing half hilarious cunnilingus scene.
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Mar 6, 2013 13:52
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Just finished "Thief". James Caan does a go job but man the dialog is sometimes just goofy. It is a by the numbers "one last heist"story and a Willie Nelsons character needed more exploring. But that said its fun to see my Chicago filled with corrupt fat cops being dumb and swarming over Caan like a horde of bees. Also the musical score stunk. The entire last part of the film sounds like someone had a boombox blasting over what could be my film.
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Mar 6, 2013 17:20
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gmq posted:You forgot the half disturbing half hilarious cunnilingus scene. Oh man how could I forget something like that? Besides by way of traumatic memory repression. That and the entirety of parts 3 and 4 might have made the film for me.
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Mar 6, 2013 17:47
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:Thanks for reminding me that Refn is one of my favorite directors. I just watched Bronson the other day knowing it's coming off instant soon and I still love every minute of it. It's becomming one of my most quotable movies. Hardy is a loving maniac. The look in his eyes when he goes to fight the dogs is insane. Just finished Bronson. I like how it has all these strong, stylistic touches similar to a clockwork orange, but felt completely its own piece. Clockwork orange is very much an indictment of a broken system. In Bronson, the epigraph notwithstanding, I thought it was a much more focused view of psychopathy. And Hardy is a joy to watch when he doesn't make you cringe. The scene where he plays Bronson and a nurse by flopping from right to left was amazing -- his long, drawn out pauses (not to mention the single take) made him seem so in-control.
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Mar 6, 2013 23:23
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Thanks for the Manhunter recommendations. I really enjoyed it, despite sort of knowing the story from seeing Red Dragon (haven't read any of the books). I thought Manhunter was a stronger movie (minus the shotgun shootout) and Noonan seemed a hell of a lot more creepier than Fiennes.
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Mar 7, 2013 01:01
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Daedra posted:Thanks for the Manhunter recommendations. I really enjoyed it, despite sort of knowing the story from seeing Red Dragon (haven't read any of the books). I thought Manhunter was a stronger movie (minus the shotgun shootout) and Noonan seemed a hell of a lot more creepier than Fiennes. It's the same exact difference between Cox's Lecktor and Hopkins' Lecter. One is an badass serial killer who composes opera in his spare time, the other is mesmerizingly demented.
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Mar 7, 2013 01:16
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Manhunter is like the tactical simulation to Red Dragon's arcade-y beat em up.
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Mar 7, 2013 02:20
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I watched Mike Birbiglia's Sleepwalk With Me last night with my ladyfriend. I've been pretty familiar with his material since his thirty minute Comedy Central special, and while I'm a fan, the movie is populated with jokes from years ago. He's a funny guy, but there were only a few really funny moments. It was interesting to see a semi-biographical look into how he made it, and I don't regret watching it, but I just don't feel an urge to re-watch it in a long time. I know that basically the story is resolved, but I just don't like how it all just kinda wrapped up in a few minutes. I felt unsatisfied. I did like the pictures of the window he jumped through and the pictures of him finally getting tested during the credits. I thought that was an interesting personal touch. Also, Sam Raimi's The Gift was awesome. I really like mysteries that get investigated with unusual abilities. It was kinda like a southern gothic take on Twin Peaks, just not as surreal or quirky. I read where people complained about [spoiler]Buddy's ghost saving the day[/b], but that seems to be a weird criticism when the movie's about a woman's supernatural cognitive powers. Also, Keanu Reeves was pretty good. Speaking of Keanu Reeves, I also watched the documentary he produced and narrates, Side By Side. It compares the rise of digital films compared to traditional photochemical films. I enjoyed all of the information and hearing some of my favorite filmmakers discussing both mediums, but I felt the underutilized some of the more interesting personalities. David Lynch gets top listing on the cover, but I feel like he was in it for less than ten minutes total. It's funny hearing him talk to Keanu, though, because he refers to him by name a lot. quote:Keanu: Will you ever use photochemical again? Also, it added weight to my distaste for James Cameron. He seems to get annoyed or hostile at a few legitimate questions. And it's fun seeing David Fincher get so worked up and Christopher Nolan so calmly adamant about sticking with photochemical film.
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Mar 7, 2013 15:26
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Watched Perfect Host the other night, gotta disagree about it being mediocre and falling apart in the third act. I did not see the entire third act coming and it was just the right amount of amazing. And yes, if nothing else, it's so worth it for Hyde Pierce's performance, because good lord man. If you live in a cave and never heard of or watched The Host, it's on now. It's a Korean monster movie, but it's not... typical of the genre. I don't want to ruin it by saying too much, just watch it.
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Mar 7, 2013 23:12
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With regards to Sleepwalk With Me, I still enjoyed it but I think it is much better as a one man show than a movie. The One Man Show recording is free on spotify.
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Mar 7, 2013 23:21
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One thing that I liked about Sleep Walk With Me was that when he's starting out and sucks as a comedian, he actually sucks. His jokes just aren't funny. Once he improves so do the jokes.
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Mar 7, 2013 23:44
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If you liked Sleep Walk With Me, you should really check out Jerry Seinfeld's Comedian. It was done when he got back into doing stand-up after the show ended. It is not very funny at all, it gets into the nitty gritty darkness of the stand-up world. Which is probably old hat now that Louie is a hit and all, but still worth a watch. Unfortunately it's not on streaming right now. edit for streaming content: Hell House, a documentary about one of those Christian "Halloween houses" where they show how gay people and sluts are going to Hell. The brothers Kadane (of Bedhead and The New Year) did the soundtrack, and it's halfway between utterly depressing and unintentionally hilarious. Myself and a couple friends are in it near the very end. precision fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Mar 8, 2013 |
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Mar 8, 2013 00:02
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I agree with the joke development in Sleepwalk With Me . I liked a lot if the parts of the movie; the dream sequences, the comedy routines, insight into being a starting comedian. It just didn't add up to a satisfying conclusion. edit: fixed formatting Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 04:56 on Mar 8, 2013 |
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Mar 8, 2013 00:19
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The problem I had with Sleepwalk With Me was that is wasn't an improvement on the spoken word in any way and in many ways it was much worse and much duller. Like alot of what makes the spoken word version so great is the way he tells it and in the movie we just get what happened without any of the storytelling and nothing to replace it. In the spoken word it all just seems much bigger to. When you see it it's underwhelming and in the end just doesn't seem to add up to a whole lot.
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Mar 8, 2013 00:22
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I know it's a couple days old, but I wanted to thank everyone for your suggestions. I'll be checking all of those movies out.
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Mar 8, 2013 00:37
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Franchescanado posted:Also, it added weight to my distaste for James Cameron. He seems to get annoyed or hostile at a few legitimate questions. And it's fun seeing David Fincher get so worked up and Christopher Nolan so calmly adamant about sticking with photochemical film. I hope you have a distaste for him on a personal level, because Terminator 2 is one of the best action movies ever made, and it's available on Instant Watch. Seriously, if you haven't seen Terminator 2, go watch it right now. It's seriously amazing.
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Mar 8, 2013 03:23
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Franchescanado posted:Speaking of Keanu Reeves, I also watched the documentary he produced and narrates, Side By Side. It compares the rise of digital films compared to traditional photochemical films. I enjoyed all of the information and hearing some of my favorite filmmakers discussing both mediums, but I felt the underutilized some of the more interesting personalities. David Lynch gets top listing on the cover, but I feel like he was in it for less than ten minutes total. It's funny hearing him talk to Keanu, though, because he refers to him by name a lot. For me the mere presence of Keanu turned me off from the film. The cover immediately caught my attention given the names and subject matter, but something about Keanu Reeves doing a critical analysis of film just doesn't do anything for me. What is he like as an interviewer?
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Mar 8, 2013 03:56
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X-Ray Pecs posted:I hope you have a distaste for him on a personal level, because Terminator 2 is one of the best action movies ever made, and it's available on Instant Watch. The thing I love about T2 is that it was right before computer effects took over everything, so even though there's some obvious CG they really went to great lengths to make it fit well with the film and story. See also Jurassic Park. T2 is just a hell of an action movie ride though.
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Mar 8, 2013 05:10
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Dimebag posted:For me the mere presence of Keanu turned me off from the film. The cover immediately caught my attention given the names and subject matter, but something about Keanu Reeves doing a critical analysis of film just doesn't do anything for me. What is he like as an interviewer? As a narrator he sounds like an old book talking about microcomputers. Or GW Bush doing a state of the union. Keanu Reeves posted:Film cameras use film. Digital cameras do not use film. Instead they use digital sensors. The digital sensors make pictures that are made up of 'picture elements,' or pixels. These pictures are put together to make 'talkies' that are seen in 'moving picture palaces,' or 'movie theaters.' Here's my babysitter David Lynch, who says that two potato chips would spoil my appetite.
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Mar 8, 2013 05:19
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My distaste for Cameron is only personality based. It's hard not to love Terminator 2, and Avatar is a great technical achievement, even though the story doesn't do much for me (I liked it better as Ferngully  ). He just grates on me. The only thing that really sticks out is during the Cameron interview, Keanu mentions something about how people complain that movies filmed digitally don't look as real as they do in the photochemical process, and Cameron starts talking about how movies have always been fake and everyone has always known that movies aren't real. It just causes this shift in the conversation that just unnerved me and he seemed overly defensive, especially when the other directors are so casual (except for Fincher, but he seems just like an enthusiastic/excitable guy). I watched it a week or two ago, so maybe I'm just exaggerating it now, I dunno. Not to say any of this detracts from the behind-the-scenes parts about the filming of Avatar, which was interesting.I went into Side By Side hesitant about Keanu Reeves part, since he produced, narrates, and interviews, but he comes off as charming and genuinely interested in what the directors are saying most of the time. He throws his own opinions or ideas in the mix every so often, but it helps fuel the conversation, especially with director's he's been involved with, such as Linklater and the Wachowskis, so it seemed a bit more friendly/personal. He's not the most enthusiastic narrator, but it wasn't grating and it kept my attention. That and Keanu got a haircut halfway through the filming process and goes from long hair and a beard to short hair and a cleaner beard, which can be distracting when they shift back and forth. Speaking of Richard Linklater, Bernie was fantastic. Not as funny as I was expecting, but it's an interesting exploration of what happens when the most charming and likeable person in town kills the most hated person in town.
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Mar 8, 2013 05:29
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Franchescanado posted:Speaking of Richard Linklater, Bernie was fantastic. Not as funny as I was expecting, but it's an interesting exploration of what happens when the most charming and likeable person in town kills the most hated person in town. Additionally, Matthew McConaughey as the self promoting D.A. was pretty great. And the lady that visits him in prison was just awesome for a non-actor.
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Mar 8, 2013 06:32
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precision posted:Hell House, a documentary about one of those Christian "Halloween houses" where they show how gay people and sluts are going to Hell. The brothers Kadane (of Bedhead and The New Year) did the soundtrack, and it's halfway between utterly depressing and unintentionally hilarious. Myself and a couple friends are in it near the very end. The subject is pretty interesting but the documentary just isn't done very well.
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Mar 8, 2013 06:52
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Politicalrancor posted:Additionally, Matthew McConaughey as the self promoting D.A. was pretty great. And the lady that visits him in prison was just awesome for a non-actor. The D.A. character was easily the highlight of the movie for me.
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Mar 8, 2013 07:05
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I really liked how Jack Black played such an un-Jack Black role. Was a nice change. Also the townsfolk were pretty great in it.
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Mar 8, 2013 07:27
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Of note: Not only is Bernie a true story, but the townsfolk in it are largely playing themselves, and wrote their own lines.
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Mar 8, 2013 11:07
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Bernie is the only role of Black's where I didn't want to strangle him.
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Mar 8, 2013 12:10
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mr. stefan posted:I decided to watch Rubber with some friends. It is a movie about a tire that kills people with psychokinesis. I tried to watch this, right after I bailed on Meek's Crossing. I banned myself from picking movies for a month as a result.
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Mar 8, 2013 12:21
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Forgot to post this earlier, but it may be of some interest: There was a lot of talk back in the thread about Jesco White, the documentaries on him, and especially the one on Netflix now about his whole family The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. Well, I used to live right next to Boone County. A lot of friends of mine, and myself, are friends with Jesco (a girl I know even cuts his hair exactly once a year). That particular documentary is full of poo poo - the police/government they interview love the White family, because they're the only reason anyone ever visits that area. There's a reason they rarely get arrested despite being incredibly blatant about their illegal behaviors. Also, Jesco is basically estranged from the rest of the family - according to him, it's because he's not stupid, violent and insane in the way they are. He's actually an extremely mellow guy. I haven't seen him in about 2 years, but last time a bunch of us visited him, he spent the whole time waxing philosophical about Terrence McKenna and psychedelic drugs. I'd still recommend the Wild and Wonderful Whites, because it's funny, just bear in mind it's essentially a mockumentary. The various Jesco docs are on YouTube and are really good.
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Mar 8, 2013 12:28
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