Sam's Thread of Chattin' w/ Jake & Other Robust Subjects

[JGlass]

I saw Steve Jobs (the film, not the corpse). It was alright.

I liked it. It played like a play more than a movie, but that's okay. I thought the performances were excellent.

 

[Uncle Sam]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road ★★★★★
2. Spy ★★★★
3. It Follows ★★★★
4. Whiplash ★★★★
5. Inside Out ★★★★
6. A Fistful of Fingers ★★★
7. The Lobster ★★★
8. Slow West ★★★
9. The Martian ★★★
10. Ex Machina ★★★
11. Jurassic World ★★★
12. Ant-Man ★★★
13. Steve Jobs ★★★
14. Song of the Sea ★★★
15. Fast & Furious 7 ★★★
16. Avengers: Age of Ultron ★★★
17. Pitch Perfect 2 ★★★
18. Kingsman: The Secret Service ★★★
19. Amy ★★
20. Inherent Vice ★★
21. Straight Outta Compton ★★
22. The Gift ★★
23. Macbeth ★★
24. Big Hero 6 ★★
25. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol ★★
26. Spectre ★★
27. Terminator: Genisys ★

I'd been reading about the histories of Nintendo and id Software respectively so a biopic about Steve Jobs rounded it out nicely. It was better for being selective and JGlass is right when he says it could easily be staged as a play. [Obligatory comment about Aaron Sorkin script] There are moments, namely when shit is being projected on walls behind the actors, that it would serve just as well to have Danny Boyle run onto set and shout "Look at me! Look at me! This is my film!" but they only take you out of the film for a moment or so. The gimmick of each period being shot on period-specific film stock (or lack thereof) was pretty neat.

What have we got before the end of the year? I told some magazine's Twitter account that I'd watch Carol, and I suppose my word is my bond, then we have The Good Dinosaur, Star Wars and... I feel there's one escaping me. They've not snuck a Marvel film in there, have they? Because I'm still upset by how almost-really-good Ant-Man was.

 

[Uncle Sam]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road ★★★★★
2. Spy ★★★★
3. It Follows ★★★★
4. Whiplash ★★★★
5. The Good Dinosaur ★★★★
6. Inside Out ★★★★
7. A Fistful of Fingers ★★★
8. The Lobster ★★★
9. Slow West ★★★
10. The Martian ★★★
11. Ex Machina ★★★
12. Jurassic World ★★★
13. Ant-Man ★★★
14. Steve Jobs ★★★
15. Song of the Sea ★★★
16. Fast & Furious 7 ★★★
17. Avengers: Age of Ultron ★★★
18. Pitch Perfect 2 ★★★
19. Kingsman: The Secret Service ★★★
20. Amy ★★
21. Inherent Vice ★★
22. Straight Outta Compton ★★
23. The Gift ★★
24. Macbeth ★★
25. Big Hero 6 ★★
26. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol ★★
27. Spectre ★★
28. Terminator: Genisys ★

After spending roughly an hour and a half watching it, I've still no idea what the title of The Good Dinosaur means (there are several 'good' dinosaurs in the film and the title just seems the blandest one imaginable). One supposes the marketing team pulled a John Carter - i.e. didn't know exactly what they were marketing, didn't want to exclude any potential demographic and ended up choosing a title that appeals to precisely nobody. That said, I can understand why it happened because the film itself is weird as fuck.

Even the visual style of The Good Dinosaur is peculiar - you have literally photoreal environments occupied by some of the most cartoonish characters Pixar has ever created. On a basic level, the film is a western with dinosaurs, but it's also a coming of age film, and a film about poverty and death. It's a bit like Kes, it's a bit like Stand By Me, it's a bit like ET, it's a bit like Deliverance, it's even a bit like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I can't think of another Pixar movie in which the protagonists, both children, trip balls and have vivid hallucinations. It's sad, funny and peculiar all at once. I really, really liked it. I think that's a really solid top five - all films I'm enamored with.

I feel like, at some stage, someone pitched "The Good, the Bad and the Dinosaur" and some ******** took out the middle bit.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I hated The Good Dinosaur. But I also want to give Krampus five stars, so what the fuck do I know.

Best film I've caught at the cinema this year: Die Hard. It's great. Check it out.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

Going to see Star Wars, The Revenant, and Macbeth if I can find it.



That's basically quadruple my usual film seeing experience.



Speaking of, got to see Black Mass, that gangster biopic starring Johnny Depp I told you guys about.


The film itself was so-so, but Depp is phenomenal in it.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I could have seen it in Boston, I chose not to. I could have seen it two months later in London, I chose not to. It just doesn't really appeal to me.

I'd like to watch The Krampus though.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

I'd like to watch The Krampus though.

Me too. Im going to live in the greater Boston area in a few years.

So next time you are over.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Don't listen to Norcal, Depp still thinks he's in a Tim Burton film.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

Don't listen to Norcal, Depp still thinks he's in a Tim Burton film.

Only because he indeed resembles Satan incarnate in some shots.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Me too. Im going to live in the greater Boston area in a few years.

So next time you are over.

I'll see if Tasty wants to come. I'm sure the girlfriend will be thrilled. Then again, 50% of the people she met up with in Boston were *****. A guy from Missouri who uses the word "loo"!

 

[Uncle Sam]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road ★★★★★
2. Spy ★★★★
3. It Follows ★★★★
4. Whiplash ★★★★
5. The Good Dinosaur ★★★★
6. Inside Out ★★★★
7. A Fistful of Fingers ★★★
8. The Lobster ★★★
9. Slow West ★★★
10. The Martian ★★★
11. Ex Machina ★★★
12. Jurassic World ★★★
13. Ant-Man ★★★
14. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens ★★★
15. Steve Jobs ★★★
16. Song of the Sea ★★★
17. Fast & Furious 7 ★★★
18. Avengers: Age of Ultron ★★★
19. Pitch Perfect 2 ★★★
20. Kingsman: The Secret Service ★★★
21. Amy ★★
22. Inherent Vice ★★
23. Straight Outta Compton ★★
24. The Gift ★★
25. Macbeth ★★
26. Big Hero 6 ★★
27. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol ★★
28. Spectre ★★
29. Terminator: Genisys ★

Sorry, Glassman.

As bad as the prequels were - and they were astonishingly bad - they did at least add something new to the Star Wars universe. Jedi councils, clones, pod-racing, droid armies, a bloke with the surname Fett actually doing badass stuff - things you hadn't seen in a Star Wars film before. At no point was an old cast member trotted out so we could stare in astonishment at their withered features. What JJ Abrams has done is remake Episode IV. Thematically, it feels like we're back at square one. From a story perspective, the original trilogy, over six hours of film, seems pretty much inconsequential, beyond whose spunk ended up where.

Between this and Jurassic World, the amount of by-the-numbers nostalgia projects popping up over the next few years are going to be unbearable. Fuck, we're already getting a shitty-looking Independence Day sequel, though I suppose at least, unlike Star Wars, it looks like an evolution. I'm quite looking forward to Creed so I suppose I'm hardly one to talk.

One star added for going for dodgy-looking practical effects instead of dodgy-looking CGI. The two new protagonists are quite likeable. "R2-D2 but a ball" doesn't count as a new character.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Ventured out to see it today. Queue was too big. Like five people.

Maybe in the new year, Star Wars.

 

[Uncle Sam]

No rush, mate.

Merry Christmas.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Merry Christmas Sam, and to all the other regular posters in this thread.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I know.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Yeah, merry Christmas

 

[Uncle Sam]

The Revenant, Creed and The Hateful Eight to start the year off. It should be a good one.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Mind you, I'd rather pull my urethra out with pliers than watch another David O. Russell film starring Jennifer Lawrence (i.e. Joy). The Fighter was great but a definite anomaly. They'd really have to work to make another one as bad as American Hustle.

 

[JGlass]

Did you really think American Hustle was that bad? I thought it was okay, just crazy overrated. That said, I also was extremely high when I watched it, and my opinions of movies tended to be a great deal higher than I was when I was into that sort of thing.

 

[Uncle Sam]

It won an Oscar for best costumes, which was justified, which is the nicest thing I can say about it. Christian Bale got fat for it and then got angry about how people point out he's always dropping and gaining weight for roles and how that's not true somehow.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Agree on Star Wars.

American Hustle is one of those films we're told is great. It won Academy Awards so it must be brilliant. I think it could be subliminal. Alternatively people really take on board those star riddled posters where Cosmopolitan gives them a five.

 

[JGlass]

American Hustle aside, Joy is getting pretty poor reviews. I really hope we can all get over David O. Russell soon as he's made a career off of two very good films and a bunch of films with very good actors and not much else.

Planning on seeing The Big Short today. If not that then I'll see Hateful 8. If not that then I'll see Sisters. I'm seeing a movie today, dammit.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I'm about to be Edgy:

I didn't like Silver Linings Playbook all that much either.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Wait, hold up, you guys already have Creed AND Hateful Eight? Don't tell me - you already saw The Revenant in August.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Nobody has a thing to do in January. I'm glad some strong looking films are coming out.