Watch, Watched, Watching: The Workprint Prototype Version

[Veltigar]

Just finished the first Jack Reacher film... Holy crap, that was a lot better than I expected. It looked like a generic action flick, so that's why I passed on it back in 2012, but it's actually a very good murder mistery with kick-ass action thrown in as an added bonus. I found it so engrossing that I watched it completely live, which meant that I had to sit through an awful lot of commercials but it was definitely worth it. Really glad I gave it the benefit of the doubt after reading a couple of good things about in on the web.

Cruise was definitely boss in it, like always. I read that some cry babies threw a hissy-fit about Cruise's height, but he was perfect casting as far as I'm concerned. He might be a midget, but there wasn't a moment I didn't believe that he could kick the ass of every single one of his opponents and then some. The supporting cast was great as well. Even fucking Jai Courtney was a marvel to behold. Between this and his Varro from Spartacus, I might have to believe that he's just had some really bad fucking luck in picking roles, because in the right role it seems like he can shine. Werner Herzog was also brilliant. I just loved his character's menace and the movie made me very curious about his backstory. He was like a more intimidating version of the Greek from The Wire's second season. There was just something about his accent and some of the lines of dialogue at his introduction. Very captivating. Rosamund Pike, David Oyelowo and Robert Duvall were great as well. 

The directing was also very admirable. You could feel that the director was very invested in making this film work. It's visually very arresting and very focussed (it probably helped that the director also wrote the script). The action was very well shot and in general, everything was imbued with tension. From the opening sequence onwards, I found myself on the edge of my seat. Capital stuff.

The only weaker element (and by weaker I don't mean bad mind you) was the writing. There was a lot of quality stuff in there as well. The humour was really good and I liked the interplay between the characters. Certain developments in the investigation were a bit wonky, but in general I feel like the script did a fine job at handwaving that away. However, certain developments toward the end were rather cliched. Not that other stuff in the film wasn't, but those later cliches felt just a little more by the numbers. For instance 

Spoiler

Tom Cruise vs. Jai Courtney. We knew that was going to happen from the start, but it was just so lazy. They went with the old hero-is-an-idiot-who-throws-his-weapon-away-to-fight-main-enemy-mano-à-mano, I hoped that the film would find a better way to get the two of them in a fist fight. It did some real clever stuff with the bumbling goons in the bath room for instance (probably the most realistic drug addict/small time criminals I have seen in quite a while) and I just wished they had used their smarts for that Cruise_Courtney face off. 

 

[Ramsay B.]

I've always heard Jack Reacher was worth a watch but I just never got around to it. Cruise is a fucking weirdo but he does bring it in action movies. 

I watched Kung-Fu Hustle for the first time in a while, so good. Is Journey to the West decent for anyone who has seen it?

[GallowKnight]

28 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

 Even fucking Jai Courtney was a marvel to behold. Between this and his Varro from Spartacus, I might have to believe that he's just had some really bad fucking luck in picking roles, because in the right role it seems like he can shine.

I'll say this for Jai Courtney, the movies where he has been terrible would have been really shitty even without him.

[Veltigar]

20 minutes ago, Ramsay Blow said:

I've always heard Jack Reacher was worth a watch but I just never got around to it. Cruise is a fucking weirdo but he does bring it in action movies. 

He's on a bit of a roll lately it seems. I always thought he had lost it after Collateral, because he just kept on starring in (pretty) awful movies (exception being his small role in Tropic Thunder). Ever since Jack Reacher though, he seems to have his mojo back. Jack Reacher was ace, Oblivion wasn't very good but it was definitely interesting, Edge of Tomorrow was a borderline brilliant blockbuster and MI-5 was pretty rad. I hope this trend continues in the future.

2 minutes ago, GallowKnight said:

I'll say this for Jai Courtney, the movies where he has been terrible would have been really shitty even without him.

I just opened his IMDB page and the list with his acting credits is just really hard to look at. After Jack Reacher, he's been in one failure after another. I hope he manages to turn things around in the future. No one deserves that kind of filmography, unless they have some really awful karma. One of his new projects (The Kaiser's Last Kiss) looks interesting though, so perhaps that may be the start of something new for him.

[WarGalley]

Watched Hail, Caesar which is a typical Coens brother comedy. Not their best movie, not their worst movie -- I was mildly entertained overall. I liked the dialogue and the movie had that Tarantino-ish style where it felt like a compilation of good individual scenes. The cast was (unsurprisingly) good. I thought Josh Brolin, Ralph Fiennes and Alden Ehrenreich did a great job and Channing Tatum had a very entertaining and amusing song and dance show. George Clooney may have been the least compelling character in the entire cast but not due to his acting. 

[PetyrPunkinhead]

Just saw Hologram for the King. I've no idea why Tom Hanks is so damned likable, but he is. The film is basically about a man on the wrong side of 40 who had a great job, house, and family coming to grips with how he lost all of that stuff and finding the will to begin again. However, it also offers an interesting glimpse into modern Saudi Arabia, one of the best snorkeling scenes I've come across, and for about 10 minutes there's basically Tom Hanks in a sequel to You've Got Mail. Again, I'm not sure why Tom Hanks doing voice-over of him typing at a laptop is so damned entertaining, but it is.

[Isis]

Watched this documentary called Steak Revolution on Netflix last night. The premise is that this French guy is despairing over how bad French steaks are because they're all about lean meat. So he goes around the world looking at how cattle is raised in different places and which cattle/restaurant combo produces the best steak. 

If you enjoy high quality steak and you're interested in cooking steak properly then it's worth watching. The differences in how cattle are raised around the world (to produce steak) was pretty interesting. 

Not going to spoil it for anyone (there is a running top 10) but it was nice to see Hawksmoor feature. When they interviewed the manager of the company he was sat in a booth right behind the one we had for our wedding meal this year.

[red snow]

2 hours ago, PetyrPunkinhead said:

Just saw Hologram for the King. I've no idea why Tom Hanks is so damned likable, but he is. The film is basically about a man on the wrong side of 40 who had a great job, house, and family coming to grips with how he lost all of that stuff and finding the will to begin again. However, it also offers an interesting glimpse into modern Saudi Arabia, one of the best snorkeling scenes I've come across, and for about 10 minutes there's basically Tom Hanks in a sequel to You've Got Mail. Again, I'm not sure why Tom Hanks doing voice-over of him typing at a laptop is so damned entertaining, but it is.

It is bizarre just how likeable Hanks is. He could have become a very successful politician just off of channelling that ability.

11 hours ago, WarGalley said:

Watched Hail, Caesar which is a typical Coens brother comedy. Not their best movie, not their worst movie -- I was mildly entertained overall. I liked the dialogue and the movie had that Tarantino-ish style where it felt like a compilation of good individual scenes. The cast was (unsurprisingly) good. I thought Josh Brolin, Ralph Fiennes and Alden Ehrenreich did a great job and Channing Tatum had a very entertaining and amusing song and dance show. George Clooney may have been the least compelling character in the entire cast but not due to his acting. 

Good assessment. Clooney's character seemed to be intentionally bland/clueless. Ralph Fiennes and Ehrenrich stole the show for me with the scene where the director is coaching the actor on how to approach the scene. There were a lot of drawn out set pieces which I think were homages (the sailor routine rang a bell) but felt a little bit indulgent. I watched "trumbo" afterwards which gave a bit more insight into the red scare element of both films.

Last night I finished the X-files mini and wasn't impressed. I did enjoy "the last dinosaur" though whose main crime was not capitalising on the excellent premise. I did some behind the scenes reading and it looks as though the original version of the film was a lot more focused on a dinosaur society 65 million years on from their original extinction. I think I'd have rather seen that film but it seems they decided they wanted the film to be about the young dinosaur and his pet human. Considering it's the least successful Pixar film to date I think they'd have been better off keeping the focus on all the dinosaurs. As it is the film is charming enough and the visuals of the natural environment are beautiful.

[Veltigar]

5 hours ago, PetyrPunkinhead said:

Just saw Hologram for the King. I've no idea why Tom Hanks is so damned likable, but he is. The film is basically about a man on the wrong side of 40 who had a great job, house, and family coming to grips with how he lost all of that stuff and finding the will to begin again. However, it also offers an interesting glimpse into modern Saudi Arabia, one of the best snorkeling scenes I've come across, and for about 10 minutes there's basically Tom Hanks in a sequel to You've Got Mail. Again, I'm not sure why Tom Hanks doing voice-over of him typing at a laptop is so damned entertaining, but it is.

Ugh, I hope it was better than the book. I remember reading that, very bland.

[polishgenius]

I dunno if it's just an unconscious result of my visceral hatred for Forrest Gump, but I don't like Hanks on-screen much...



On Jack Reacher, I agree with the general opinion, and I think it's a real shame that the new film looks to have dropped the smarter mystery stuff and just gone for a more generic action thriller.

[Veltigar]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

On Jack Reacher, I agree with the general opinion, and I think it's a real shame that the new film looks to have dropped the smarter mystery stuff and just gone for a more generic action thriller.

Perhaps that's just a marketing ploy? The marketing for the first one was also heavily geared towards the action, looking at the trailer. That's part of the reason why I skipped it in the first place. Perhaps they are making similar marketing mistakes for the new one  Or at least I hope so  

[polishgenius]

28 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

The marketing for the first one was also heavily geared towards the action, looking at the trailer.

 

Hopefully, but I remember even from the trailers, especially the second one, that this might have a few touches different from the average action film. This just seems different.

That it's a different director isn't necessarily encouraging either (it's Ed Zwick this time). Especially when you look at your list of Tom Cruise success and realise that MI5 was also written and directed by McQuarrie and Edge of Tomorrow written by him, whereas here he just has a nebulous producer credit.

[RedEyedGhost]

I'm 17 episodes deep into season 1 of my rewatch of Fringe.  It has reminded me of the later seasons in which we get

the alternate Liv and Walter, etc., and both of them did such an amazing job.  Can't wait to get there.  Kind of light versions of Tatiana Maslany's work in 

Orphan Black.  

 Really enjoying Walter's craziness - it's easily the best part of season 1 for me.  The seasons' structure and plotting improves drastically later, season 1 is too episodic.  Watching Lance Reddick, is really making me want to rewatch The Wire... maybe I'll alternate them when I'm finished with season 1. 

[Leofric]

Saw Hell or High Water yesterday, definitely deserves all the praise it's been getting.   Setting and tone very reminiscent of No Country for Old Men, but without the malevolent presence of Chigurh.    Well written plot and great dialogue.   All 4 of the main characters were well acted and believable,  Chris Pine and Ben Foster as the two brothers robbing banks, and Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham as the two Texas Rangers on their trail.  

Loved Alberto's thoughts on history repeating itself. 

 

Spoiler

I loved the confrontation at the end between Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges.   Marcus is coming to understand why Toby and tanner robbed the banks.    Toby saying he never killed anyone, yet his demeanor showing he was definitely capable and willing to if he had to.     Their final offers to help each other find peace.

Also, liked the scene with Tanner saying he had strength of 10 men and ranting on Mr. Pibb  which was both funny and brutal.  It gave a glimpse that Toby could be just as dangerous as Tanner, but was smarter and better able to control it most of the time. 

 

 

[Veltigar]

5 hours ago, polishgenius said:

 

Hopefully, but I remember even from the trailers, especially the second one, that this might have a few touches different from the average action film. This just seems different.

That it's a different director isn't necessarily encouraging either (it's Ed Zwick this time). Especially when you look at your list of Tom Cruise success and realise that MI5 was also written and directed by McQuarrie and Edge of Tomorrow written by him, whereas here he just has a nebulous producer credit.

Yeah, the changing of the guard in the director's seat worries me more than the trailers. Although, you have to admit, Ed Zwick has a pretty good trackrecord, including The Last Samurai with Cruise (as an aside, while that film definitely indulges in the white saviour trope, I did like it a lot). It's also promising that he also wrote the screenplay for this one. But we'll have to wait and see of course

39 minutes ago, Leap said:

Just seen Edge of Tomorrow, which I really enjoyed. Very fun film, and definitely one of the best action films I've seen in a long time. Actually, probably 'ever', although I think that's as much due to me not having seen a lot of action films as the film's quality. Cruise was good, although it was a little hard at first seeing him in a role other than the typecast superagent. Blunt was also awesome, they had really great chemistry. Some questions:

  Hide contents

Can anyone explain what happens to the rest of humanity whenever Cage got killed? Did it just end and go back? Or were there different timelines every single time where they all went on to die horribly?

Since at the end, Cage went back several days due to getting the Alpha/Omega juice on him again, does that mean he's going to relive his entire life over and over again? Since the war is over now, but he seemingly still has the ability to go back in time every time he dies. 

It doesn't really matter I suppose. I wouldn't mind a sister film showing Rita's experience at the Battle of Verdun though, although perhaps the concept would be a little tired/uninteresting if done a second time around. 

 

What a coincidence, we were just talking about EoT and then someone watches it  It's great isn't it  It's a superbly confident blockbuster and if Fury Road hadn't come along I would easily call it the best blockbuster of the previous three or so years. 

As to your questions:

Spoiler

 

1) I suppose everything ended and we all collectively went back to square one. I believe that's what the film wants you to go with. Although you could probably make a case for the whole different timelines, but then you wouldn't have anything in the film itself to support that thesis. 

2) The ending is a bit of a cheat you could say, since the time travel on display doesn't conform to the previously established pattern. For what it's worth, I don't think Tom Cruise's character is supposed to relive his entire life over and over again. I think the film wants us to believe that - as an unexpected result of the Omega's death - Cruise's character was able to reset time one last time. Call it the mother of all resets which sent him back in time before the invasion. The point of reentry was arbitrary and had more to do with providing a happy ending than actually having to make sense.

Of course, I could be very wrong indeed. There are rumours flying around of a sequel to this film, so they might backtrack and give him the same time travel powers again, but we'll just have to wait and see.

3) Everyone wants an Angel of Verdun prequel. That would be rad  Although, I think we're more likely to get the aformentioned sequel. @Mexal posted an article on the EoT thread with a link to a hitfix article about the sequel. There hasn't been any word on it since and while it's already listed on IMDB, it doesn't show up in the filmography of people involved. But we can always hope  

 

 

[Mexal]

On August 20, 2016 at 6:12 PM, Veltigar said:

Just finished the first Jack Reacher film... Holy crap, that was a lot better than I expected. It looked like a generic action flick, so that's why I passed on it back in 2012, but it's actually a very good murder mistery with kick-ass action thrown in as an added bonus. I found it so engrossing that I watched it completely live, which meant that I had to sit through an awful lot of commercials but it was definitely worth it. Really glad I gave it the benefit of the doubt after reading a couple of good things about in on the web.

Cruise was definitely boss in it, like always. I read that some cry babies threw a hissy-fit about Cruise's height, but he was perfect casting as far as I'm concerned. He might be a midget, but there wasn't a moment I didn't believe that he could kick the ass of every single one of his opponents and then some. The supporting cast was great as well. Even fucking Jai Courtney was a marvel to behold. Between this and his Varro from Spartacus, I might have to believe that he's just had some really bad fucking luck in picking roles, because in the right role it seems like he can shine. Werner Herzog was also brilliant. I just loved his character's menace and the movie made me very curious about his backstory. He was like a more intimidating version of the Greek from The Wire's second season. There was just something about his accent and some of the lines of dialogue at his introduction. Very captivating. Rosamund Pike, David Oyelowo and Robert Duvall were great as well. 

Biggest issue with the casting of Tom Cruise is the character of Jack Reacher, as has been told over like 15 books, is a 6'6, 250 lb giant of muscle. His biggest asset, besides his brain, was the intimidation factor of this force of nature who was taught to be better than the best the military had to offer and who used his size/strength to overpower opponents. Really pissed me off as an avid reader of the books and while I thought the movie was pretty good, I just wish it wasn't called Jack Reacher.

[PetyrPunkinhead]

Saw KUBO & THE TWO STRINGS tonight and it was a good film that was just on the edge of being a truly great one. The stop-motion animation and CGI blended seamlessly; the whole thing looked beautiful. The costumes and sets (both real and CGI) were rich and detailed. The three main characters were great, the Monkey voiced by Carlize Theron being my favorite. It is a coming of age story that deals with heavy topics intertwined in an adventure, and it felt like the filmmakers were going for the tone of a Miyazaki film, especially with the ending. This is definitely one worth seeing in the theater.

14 hours ago, Veltigar said:

Ugh, I hope it was better than the book. I remember reading that, very bland.

Eggers' book did not have Tom Hanks, so automatically the film is less bland. But I cn't comment on the book as I've never read an Eggers book other than the memoir that put him on the map--A Heartbreaking Work...

[Astromech]

I caught the Hungary episode of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown and now am tempted to watch some of the films cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond has worked on.

[Raja]

So, I watched Blade Runner and it was....okay? I feel like it's hard to appreciate that film when you've watched a lot of sci-fi that has clearly been inspired from it. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I would have watched it earlier.  I really liked a couple of scenes at the end, but I think there are some very weak parts in that movie, mostly everything with Rachel and Harrison Ford. 

Still, with Villeneuve directing the sequel, I'll most certainly be catching it in in the cinema, especially if it has Deakins as his DP.

[HexMachina]

2 hours ago, Raja said:

So, I watched Blade Runner and it was....okay? I feel like it's hard to appreciate that film when you've watched a lot of sci-fi that has clearly been inspired from it. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I would have watched it earlier.  I really liked a couple of scenes at the end, but I think there are some very weak parts in that movie, mostly everything with Rachel and Harrison Ford. 

Still, with Villeneuve directing the sequel, I'll most certainly be catching it in in the cinema, especially if it has Deakins as his DP.

I'm sure that somewhere right now Theda has just had a shiver go down her spine