Philotic Web

I do want to see Hugo because of the possible Ender actor but also the wicked high rottentomatoes rating doesn't hurt.

We were all sitting around, feeling absolutely stuffed, and decided to take advantage of the empty movie theaters.

Movie theaters are empty on Thanksgiving around your parts? Thanksgiving in one of the busiest days of the year at theaters around here.

Movie theaters are empty on Thanksgiving around your parts? Thanksgiving in one of the busiest days of the year at theaters around here.

It was absolutely empty. It was also after nine, and we attributed the emptiness to people tired from the long day AND wanting to go shopping the next morning. AND, finally, people around here tend to leave the city for Thanksgiving, apparently, instead of people coming in from somewhere else. Just going from my own experience.

This isn't a movie review (as if any of my posts in here ever are proper reviews) but it is something of a preview review. I'm pretty damn excited about Snow White and The Huntsman and Mirror Mirror, both takes on Snow White but taking wildly different approaches to it. Mirror Mirror seems more Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland while Snow White and the Huntsman looks...I'm not sure what to compare it to but it looks more along the lines of what I'd enjoy; it looks less quirky and more serious.

Then again, I somehow thought Red Riding Hood looked pretty cool from previews and I was so incredibly wrong.

Last night, my roommate and I watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Definitely had some giddy moments. I'm such a sucker for happy endings. Amy Adams is a babe, and way too good at playing the peppy chick. I wonder if she's anything like that in real life.

Triple Movie Day!

TinTin 9 of 10 (may go down slightly)

The film is tremendous fun, it is incredibly visually inventive with just ingeniously designed set pieces. However it feels almost too designed, the mocap process gives Spielberg incredible tools but it also seems to take away some of the spontaneity that also makes appearances in all his live action pieces. So there's a sense of watching--awestruck--a really impressive domino rally when it comes to the action, everything is so precisely in place it's pretty much too perfect. The film also lacks a bit of heart, Tintin has no emotional stakes in the arc of the movie, Haddock does, but I don't feel like we get a meaningful arc from him because he's just fulfilling an ancestors destiny and living up to his own potential, we don't learn so much who Haddock is in his own right so the emotional core of the film doesn't seem to have as much resonance for me. I cared more about Snowy than any of the cast members. Makes you appreciate just how much a little dash of sexual tension in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Transformers, or the Pirates movies does to make the emotional stakes of an action movie much more meaningful and impactful.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol 9 of 10 (may go up slightly)

Speaking of which, Mission Impossible has tension in spades and fully exploits the dramatic while barely addressing the sexual, but it really only needs one little scene and comic kiss to fill the film's quota. Brad Bird does a phenomenal job on a freshman live action directing debut. It's as packed with fantastic humor, Simon Pegg is wonderful and Jeremy Renner is absolutely terrific. This is easily the very best of the Mission movies (haven't seen 3), the set pieces had me chewing my fingers to pieces, and my heart was literally hammering in most of the dramatic scenes. Fabulous, fabulous ending (and I'm talking about the denoument with the team). Best Action film of the year.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 9 of 10

Rooney Mara is stunning delivering a whirlwind, powerful and intense performance as Lisbeth Salander. The entire film is hard, intense and brilliantly made, when it develops from mystery into thriller at the end when Mikael goes to the house I was on the edge of my seat. The performances were all brilliant, the cinematography was f****** fantastic and there were a ton of really brilliant editing decisions to the film. Narratively, I wasn't expecting the plot to unfold as it did (that it would take half the movie for Mikael and Lisbeth to meet), goddamn that's a creepy as all hell family. But other than Mara, it's the score that sticks out in my mind the most, Rezner and Ross deliver a spectacularly special piece of work with this music, it's unlike anything you expect and it gives the film such an incredible feel and tone that can't be compared to anything else. Insane and amazing music.

Okay, so I'm currently stealing(well she left it on my Laptop) my friend's Netflix, and since it's Spring Break,
splurging on movies. Two a night.

I'm open to suggestions for Horror, Suspenseful, Action, or generally scary movies to watch. Por favor?

So far I've watched
1. Paranormal Activity 2
2. Quarantine 2
3. 2012: Zombie Apocalypse(Literally the worst zombie movie ever conceived)
4. Smokin Aces 2

Scary movies please.

I've seen three really good to awesome movies this week; I feel strangely lucky for that.

Hunger Games - I liked this movie, quite a bit. It was well done and seemed true to what I remember of the book (that I've only read once, when it first came out 4 years ago). But. The end felt a little underwhelming to me (the end of the actual Games) and, to be honest, I think people all around me being so excited about how great it was raised my expectations to undeliverable highs. Anyway, glad I saw it, no major complaints, gorgeous movie as far as colors and the like.


Melancholia - This movie is like the best art I've ever seen in person, squeezed into a film; I deeply regret not seeing this in theaters. I thought I'd hate the movie after the opening seemed to drag on -seemed very Space Odyssey 2001, which everyone seems to love but I hate beyond words...in an understated, "Please only ever make me watch this if I'm suffering from insomnia" sort of way- but after having seen the whole movie and letting the opening fully digest, I'm glad for how it was done, from beginning to end. Watching Kirsten Dunst's character and her sister's character go from where they started to where they ended...amazing. I also thought to myself I'd probably react in the exact same way as Kirsten Dunst if I was forced to have such a big, lavish wedding; it looked like hell to me, even though I know that's a personality-dependent thing. I guess that's my way of saying, in a way, I could relate to her, though not on the same level.


Like Crazy - Oh, this movie. Ends not too unlike The Graduate, though I felt a little, and I do mean just a very little, more optimistic about this one than TG. The main male character is slowly becoming one of my favorite actors ever, as an aside. It is a very bittersweet story of a couple in love for the first time and how that is affected by her being from England and him being from America. All that said, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Definitely worth a watching.

Real Steel - This was a morsel of 80s fun wrapped in a Teens' package. It started off slow but it got fun partway through. There was much grinning and giggling.

Footloose: In the same way that the remake of the Karate Kid was respectful to the spirit of the original, this, too, was a great remake and in some ways, I daresay, improved upon the premise. Or, if I can't go that far, it at least put it in a more believable context. The dancing was superb, the soundtrack, as was to expected of an 80s-based movie, was updated, foot-stomping fun stuff. So many of the scenes seemed to be taken frame for frame from the Bacon version but I was okay with that. I can hardly wait to see this in 20 years, when it, like the original, has dated itself with some of the cultural references it makes.

Maybe it's because I've never seen the original but I hated the remake of Footloose. Is it because I haven't seen the original? While I loved the Karate Kid remake (and have seen the original).

I haven't seen the original

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. One crisis at a time.

You haven't seen the movie that made Kevin Bacon Kevin freakin' Bacon? Nomi, I think my heart just cracked a little...the same way it did when I found out Wil came here and hadn't seen Breakfast Club or 16 Candles or any movie you need to see to have a full, "I embraced the 80s" life. (Which is the only type of life worth living.)


It was a love letter to the original, copying a good portion of it and paying homage to it in other places, so while it in theory should be enough on its own, I think a further appreciation for it requires having seen the original. So...if you don't like this one, you probably won't like the original.

I've been a bit nervous to see it. I love the original. I love the musical. Originally, this remake was supposed to be adapting the musical version back onto the screen, and it's not really that at all. So I've been nervous.

I haven't seen the original either : (

Originally, this remake was supposed to be adapting the musical version back onto the screen, and it's not really that at all.

I didn't realize that. I've also never seen the stage version, so consider me the one missing out in this case.

I haven't seen the original either : (

*dies*

I haven't seen the original either : (

*dies*

I berate Paul for the same sin. We should have a footloose watching party/live-blog and you all can finally see the glory that is Kevin Bacon dancing in a barn.

We should have a footloose watching party/live-blog and you all can finally see the glory that is Kevin Bacon dancing in a barn.

YES.

I wholeheartedly support this plan.

I'm not a Bacon fan, see. The only movie I have seen with him, that I liked, was "He Said, She Said". I think he looks like Skeletor.

I've seen a surprisingly small number of his films (13ish) but notables for me were Tremors (campy fun...family favorite), Flatliners, and A Few Good Men, which I only just saw a few months ago for the first time.

I think he's great and that he comes across as a real down to earth, average Joe sort. I also really love that he and his wife are still together and cuter than sin together.

The Help was a movie I didn't have much excitement to watch and a book I still intend on not reading since I've now seen the movie and would be bored with it if it has even passing similarities, but I'm glad I watched it. I loved that the important things the little girl was told were "You are kind, you are smart, you are important" and not "You are beautiful." It's nice to hear that, of course, but man, if we all spent more time making sure women knew they were the other three things, the beauty thing would matter so much less.

Captain America...was interesting to see Chris Evans as a runt but I never really got into this movie, emotionally. Neither what happened to his friend or his breaking his date made me all that upset.

Thor, on the other hand, was surprisingly good.

Donkey Punch was just so laughably horrible, it was entertaining. Not sure I'd recommend it though.

Trick R Treat was good. I don't know how to expand on this review, it was cute, it was funny, it was scary, it was gory.

Devil's Playground...Errrr.....the idea of zombie gymnasts just doesn't appeal to me. I understand zombies that can run longer, faster, and may be stronger because of no pain limitation. But, your zombies shouldn't simply be more athletic than people in general. They shouldn't be doing parkour, jumping off walls, and flipping through windows. Don't get me wrong...this movie isn't about zombie gymnasts. This movie is about people who get turned into zombies...which apparently turns them into gymnasts. Yeah, go ahead and facepalm now.

Avengers is all sorts of awesome.

Battleship (as in, 'you sunk my')

pre movie, coworker, "At some point in the movie, I predict someone will say, 'fire on C-16', or they're going to escape/survive the aliens by clustering all their ships in an unlikely formation in the corner."

"Target Echo one one" "Target Foxtrot one three" (lines from the actual movie).

In the great vein of Armageddon, and well, Armageddon, Battleship is a PROFOUNDLY stupid movie when it comes to basically anything resembling science, physics, or bartenders. It does however feature quite a lot of naval worship as the slow moving ships slug out with vastly more powerful fast moving alien ships and a romance that is about as awful as the one in Armageddon (It and posits that asking a father's permission to marry his daughter is far scarier than fighting aliens).

The film starts off by telling us that we built a giant satellite array in the himalayas to contact a new exoplanet very like our own. Apparently faster than light communication requires pink lasers shot from planet based satellite dishes and combined at an orbiting satellite dish (that for some reason is not geosynchronous) to be blasted through space hundreds of light years away). Shockingly, Aliens show up in response intent on conquering. Then we move to hawaii where the same satellite array shown in the himalayas is, apparently being consistent for the first minute was beyond the writers. Then we have an extended precredit sequence where long haired hero is lamenting becoming an adult and having to decide what to do. Cue blonde. She asks the bartender for bar food and the bartender refuses to comply with her request--this is possibly the most unrealistic moment of the movie--that just does not happen in the real world. Long haired hero gets her her food and arrested in the process, and his brother, after sobering him up declares he's joining the navy: long haired hero becomes short haired navy dude. A few years later short haired navy dude is in love with blonde and her daddy happens to be head of the fleet of international navy peoples and he is scary (Liam Neeson). Short Haired Navy dude gets in a fight with Japanese navy dude and blonde's daddy is unhappy. Short haired navy dude is about to be kicked out of the navy on the day he was supposed to ask for permission to marry (but was too cowardly to do so)! Then aliens attack.

Studidity ensues, lots of s*** blows up, things make sense on a sort of 'meta' level but at any level of detail/scrutiny nothing makes sense. Can't make a cell phone call, oh, well right here is my secret briefcase of electronic gadgetry that lets me make a cell phone call in the event of an alien invasion, I mean, everyone has those right? More things blow up. People play battleship by targetting squares of the playing field. IT's ridiculous, someone awesome says "You ain't gonna sink this battleship!"

Those who are fans of bad movies, particularly bad movies that are basically Armageddon without outerspace, will probably enjoy it. I had fun. It is deeply dumb and seriously entertaining--in part because it is so bad.

Did we not talk about Avengers? Did we just skim over that? Can we?

I finally saw it last Thursday and had a blast. I would like the next movie to have more personal time, I guess, because even though they managed to cram some character development (and surprisingly effective development at that) in for almost everyone, it still felt like each scene was just moving between the various fights. Maybe that's all Avengers movies will be, though: each individual person's movie will help lead up to a combination of forces that attack Earth, then we have the Avengers assemble in their movie and take them down.

the first avengers movie clearly had to fulfill all the mallrats esque fanwank wet dream arguments about who would beat who in a fight.

a myriad of questions were addressed, like:

Can Hulk pick up Thor's Hammer?
Can Thor's Hammer beat Capt America's Shield?

so the next movies can move on past all the fan wank and into more story, mayhaps? Or the fanwank provides good filler action when they're not fighting the villains, so it'll be kept in.

The inevitable Batman Superman movie will be similar, I'm sure.

On an unrelated note, the internet just suggested to me that Ralph Fiennes might not have played Voldemort, but Lupin instead.

This makes so much sense to me that it hurts. He was great as Voldemort, don't get me wrong. Loved it. And I eventually warmed up to Thewles. But man. Fiennes as Lupin.

Men in Black III seemed to be less funny than I remembered at least the first movie being but it was also a sweeter, more interesting story than II (made only for the bank off the success of the first one money) and possibly even the first one, from my recollections of it.

I have no recollection of the second one, though I'm pretty sure I saw it.

I agree on Men in Black III, better story, somewhat in the vein of MIIB, not as funny as the first movie. I think they did a great job with the villain and visually the film was wonderfully inventive in its production design. They made the story hinge on how much these two partners matter to each other and it's really nice that the movie is not about saving the world, the movie is about their friendship. I thought they did a very good job overall, much more entertaining than the cheesetacular bastion of bad that was Battleship. Josh Brolin was phenomenal, I kept thinking it was Tommy Lee Jones.

I finally saw American Pie over the weekend. The first one. Which I never saw back in 99 because I was a 15 y.o. freshman and would have never managed to sneak it into a rental pile. Then, by the time I could have seen it on my own, I didn't really care. Turns out, I was sort of missing out as it's a pretty decent comedy that is better and smarter than its reputation. The film seems so naive and innocent--in a way--when it comes to issues like privacy and webcam spying, it was all just a laugh: its not as though anyone could easily save and post a webcam stream (and easy to take down too), right, so watching the girl strip was sort of like catching the superbowl warddrobe malfunction, you had to be watching. :p Now, so many technical barriers have been removed that exploitation/invasion once played for laughs partly because it was so unlikely to happen to teenagers (like the absurd Revenge of the Nerds spycams, or the peepholes into the showers in Porkys that obviously inspired the scene) is now a deadly serious issue.

All that said, I really enjoyed the film, it's too bad the band-camp girl surprise was ruined for me a week or two after the film came out, because it's one of the film's best comedic payoffs, I think.

I saw American Pie when it first hit videos thanks to a certain older brother, then rewatched it a year or two ago, and you're really spot on: it's a lot more clever and funny than its reputation as a "gross-out high schooler" comedy gives it.

Les Mis has a trailer.

CAN'T. FREAKING. WAIT!!!!

So excited!!!

It's going to kill at the oscars, winning basically everything Chicago won.

The guys at work are pissed because "it's everything I hate about the oscars" on the other hand, it's a very guy friendly year with The Master, Django Unchained, Lincoln, The Hobbit and Dark Knight Rises all likely to get Best Picture nominations so they can lose to Les Mis.