Recently watched movies!

[jellydonut25]

[klen7]

Mad Max is about the breakdown of civilization. You see a guy trying to hold onto some sense of justice and order as the world falls apart around him, which ultimately climaxes with him embracing the madness. It's unfortunately a victim of the success of its sequels.

Think of "Mad Max" (1979) similar to "Evil Dead" (1981), if you go into "Evil Dead" only knowing the humor of "Evil Dead 2" and "Army of Darkness" you end up watching a movie expecting it to be a comedy when it's not. It's still a milestone film, it has just been eclipsed by the public perception of its more popular and larger budgeted sequels.

[MekaGojira3k]

[Psycho Soldier]

Berserk: The Egg of the King - Backtracking after having seen the second and third movies, and the TV series before those. The 3D animation's pretty poor at the start, but either it gets better, stops being distracting, or just isn't used as much further into the film. The story's been chopped down somewhat, too, from the manga and show. The movie moves too quickly as a result. On the other hand, the 2D animation is really good for the most part, and the last 20 minutes or so are well handled. If you've never experienced Berserk before, this is an okay place to start.

[jellydonut25]

I think most people like Evil Dead II most, yes?

[Dr Kain]

[klen7]

Yeh, I'm on Team AoD as well.

[MekaGojira3k]

I think I saw AOD first, and I really loved it. After I saw Evil Dead and Evil Dead II I couldn't sort of help but love the more even doses of horror/comedy in II. Evil Dead has such a weird/homemade feel to it that I'm far more impressed with that than AOD.
*shrug*

[XvGojira]

I'm in camp ED2. Love humor and love scare. It's got both. It's why I loved Drag Me to Hell.

[Dr Kain]

I hate Drag Me to Hell. The first two times I watched it I enjoyed it, but after that, I started to hate it with each viewing so I just stopped. The whole plot is just flat out stupid and the characters are dumb as hell. Of course, that is also the problem with the horrific Evil Dead remake. God that thing was such a piece of ****. It should have been called Darwinism The Movie.

[jellydonut25]

I love Drag Me to Hell AND the Evil Dead remake. They both rule.

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

A 90 minute horror movie that has wall-to-wall blood, weaponized nail guns, duct tape as a cure-all for major wounds, and an unburnable book hardly qualifies as pretentious.

And I blame Avengers 2 for being a MESS because it's got nearly a full HOUR of extra running time compared to Evil Dead. I can deal with (and wholeheartedly ENJOY) quick, fun movies even if they're a bit sloppy (like Evil Dead's "Five must die" plot that doesn't quite add-up) because they just breeze by in 90 minutes. When I have time in the movie itself to sit and ponder its writing gaffes, plot holes, and messiness because it's SO long, and when these are things I notice instantly on my first watch, I'm less forgiving.

It's not JUST Age of Ultron's messiness that irks me, it's that combined with its length (and budget, scope, expectations, etc.). It's not just the ONE thing. A "culmination of other movies" movie with a $280 million budget (Holy crap, that's just OUT OF CONTROL), gets held to a different standard than a reboot of a cheezy horror franchise on $15 million.

[Dr Kain]

No, a 90 minute horror movie with annoying characters that act selfish because they can't get their way. One of them is so super depressed that she tried to kill herself because "Oh look at me, nobody is paying attention to me and giving me what I want so I need to do drugs and die to get people to notice me, boo hoo hoo."

[MekaGojira3k]

I like both Age of Ultron and the Evil Dead remake.


F I G H T M E .

[jellydonut25]

[MekaGojira3k]

[jellydonut25]

Not yet, no. Supposedly there's an extended version, and they even talk about it on the Blu-ray release but it's not yet surfaced.

[DannyBeane]

On netflix I watched an interesting horror drama called A Girl Who Walks Alone. Its about a vampire girl prowling around the fictional Iranian city of Bad City. It was filmed in America but all the actors and dialogue are in Iranian and its all in black in white. Its a slow burn for sure but if I had to describe it, I say it was like a cross be Let the Right One In and Sin City. It was absolutely gorgeous.
Here's the trailer.

[klen7]

I've heard good things about that, glad to know its on Netflix now

[lhb412]

The Great Escape

I didn't know anything about the historical incident this film is based on, so the whole thing ended up being kind of a downer for me. Had I known, my reaction would likely have been different.

[klen7]

^ That's one of those movies where if I see its on while flipping channels, I inevitably watch it.

Calvary - I usually love films by either of the McDonagh brothers so I had high hopes for this film which were immediately derailed by the opening of the film in which a character describes being repeatedly raped as a child. That particular subject matter usually puts me in a bad mood and ruins a movie for me. So it took me a bit to get past that, and focus on the story. Its definitely more of a drama than a black comedy, and it's somewhat meditative on themes of faith, detachment, spirituality in the face of a spiritual void, human nature, and the human need for connection. The film is incredibly dark without ever showing most of the darkness. The movie ended up being nothing like I expected, but its depth, occasional humor and ability to dive into some philosophically deep areas without getting preachy really made me love the screenplay. Brendan Gleesan was a tremendous presence as were the backdrops of Ireland.
I don't know that its a movie that can be completely absorbed in a single viewing, and I would never recommend it to someone else due to the themes and generally abyssally dark story, but this would have to go in my top films of 2014 list.

[Dr Kain]

Escape from New York - Amazing movie and Shout's new BD is phenomenal. It looks absolutely fantastic and I can never watch the movie on anything lesser again. I give it a 9/10.

The Spy Who Loved Me - A little too silly at times but this is one of Moore's best movies with some truly great set pieces. I love nearly everything that is done in Cairo, especially the folklore bit. I give it a 7/10.

Mad Max - I have no idea what the big deal of this movie is about. Sure, it is a harmless movie and it had some really great moments to it. It wasn't bad or anything, but I just don't see why people praise it. It didn't even feel remotely post apocalyptic. The characters seemed to mumble more than speak and it didn't really seem to go anywhere. I'm glad I finally saw it, but I just don't see how it goes from this to what has been shown in the trailers of the new one. Granted, there are two more movies, so maybe some big nuclear bomb goes off in one of those, but for what this was, it was average. I give it a 6/10. Like I said, nothing spectacular, but nothing terrible either.

[lhb412]

Island of Terror

Just watched this on Svengoolie. Scientists accidentally create green blob things that kill by absorbing their victim's bones. Peter Cushing and Edward Judd (from First Men in the Moon) are on hand to deal with the problem, though.

[DannyBeane]