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The execution of the fights in Pacific Rim were total shit. I couldnt tell who was fighting who, what parts they were hitting, and then the random fucking sword that destroys everything not being used by every robot. They grab trains to swing at the monsters, they fire guns that dont do anything to them, then finally on the brink of defeat, pull out this giant sword that kills anything that moves. What the fuck did you grab the train for? There was not a single reason Hunnam should've survived the ending except they wanted to bring him back for round 2.
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You're judging how giant monsters and giant robots would fight.
Seriously..no one hasn't quite gotten "big shit fighting other big shit" right yet on the big screen. Its either really corny and old school like the old Godzilla versus movies or its eye-hurting, confusing shit like Transformers.
To be fair, Pacific Rim had better use of wide shots for the big fights than fuckin Transformers.Comment
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Iron Man 3 and Pacific Rim were both thoroughly "meh" but shoulda coulda woulda been great.
Europa Report was a pleasant surprise.Last edited by dell71; 04-27-2014, 09:12 PM.Comment
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55. Sightseers
Steve Oram, Alice Lowe
Director(s): Ben Wheatley
Writer(s): Steve Oram, Alice Lowe
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Release Date: May 10th
RT Score: 85% (81 fresh, 14 rotten)
The Plot by Palooza: Chris and Tina decide to go on a road trip and relieve some stress.
Comments:
I decided to see this movie based on the merit of Ben Wheatley's last movie, Kill List, which is a genre bending horror-thriller with an amazing ending that leaves your soul crushed. Sightseers is much of the same, but plays with different genres. Here we get a strange, dark, road trip murder-comedy. The execution is hit or miss, but the ending is so well done that it leaves a great taste in your mouth. The two leads are pretty great and seeing as how they wrote the movie, they perfection makes sense. Worth a look and definitely much better than the only other murder-comedy I can think of off the top of my head, God Bless America
Spoiler Alert:
Grade: B-Comment
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I didnt mean how they actually fight, but the use of constant rain and ocean water made the fight feel chaotic to the eyes. At times I couldn't tell what exactly was going on because of it. Then the monsters reacted the way the film wanted them too. When that won robot power went out in the ocean and Hunnam came in to save the day, the monsters didnt try and attack and destroy it. They didnt get much of anything right with these things. I kind of wish the movie would have taken place at the beginning when they first came out of the the "rift" rather than years later with these four or five working robots left.Comment
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54. You’re Next
Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, A.J. Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Barbara Crampton, Rob Moran, Margaret Laney, Amy Seimetz, Ti West, Lane Hughes, L.C. Holt, Simon Barrett, Larry Fessenden, Kate Lyn Sheil, Calvin Reeder
Director(s): Adam Wingard
Writer(s): Simon Barrett
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: August 23rd
RT Score: 74% (103 fresh, 36 rotten)
The Plot by Palooza: A family is attacked in their cabin.
Comments:
This movie is mostly a basic, run of the mill slasher flick where people die one by one. I love these kinds of movies and even though this is poorly acted and set up like it's going to be the same old shit. Except, unlike the disappointing The Purge this movie turns one of the victims into a bad ass, almost villain. That's what I wanted from Lena Headey. This is what we get from Sharni Vinson. I'm getting a bit into spoilers here, but it's nothing too specific, all of those will be in the spoiler section. However if you wanna go in blind, beware. Okay, so halfway through the movie, after the initial attack is over and we're regrouping the film takes a neat little shift where one of the brother's girlfriends, Erin (Sharni Vinson) is revealed to have been brought up as a survivalist by her paranoid dad in the Australian Outback and she starts kicking some major ass. The director does a nifty trick where all her moves become ominous and she only pops up to kill or fight off one of the bad guys. The camera stops following the victims and starts following the attackers as they roam around the house trying to fight off Erin. A fucking sweet ass role reversal that is almost fucking exactly what I wanted The Purge to turn into once I realized it was going to be a weak home invasion movie. If you can't get into this transition, there's a chance you dislike this movie, I can understand that. For me, though, I was totally in. It completely drew me right back in once I started to get bored with the concept. The acting really sucks too, btw.
Spoiler Alert:
Grade: B-Comment
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53. A Single Shot
Sam Rockwell, Jeffrey Wright, Kelly Reilly, Jason Isaacs, Joe Anderson, Ophelia Lovibond, Ted Levine, William H. Macy, Amy Sloan, William Earl Brown, Heather Lind, Christie Burke
Director(s): David M. Rosenthal
Writer(s): Matthew F. Jones (also based on his novel)
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: September 20th
RT Score: 51% (21 fresh, 20 rotten)
The Plot by Palooza: A hunter accidentally kills someone in the woods and finds a sack of money. Mayhem ensues.
Comments:
This like a not as good Winter's Bone/No Country For Old Men hybrid. A seemingly normal guy with a few problems gets himself into deep trouble with some murder happy mfers after finding a bag of money. Everything here is pretty good, but it never really elevates itself into a great movie, especially with all the talent involved. Well, with the exception of the director with this being the only 'real' movie he's ever actually made. It could have been a lot better, but it still has a lot of good stuff in there that it's watchable. Like I said, it has a poor man's Winter's Bone feel/mood and a poor man's No Country For Old Men type-plot.
Spoiler Alert:
Grade: B-Last edited by Palooza; 04-24-2014, 10:40 PM.Comment
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You're gonna be in my head in a minute anyway...ya look good.
58. Pacific Rim
Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day. Max Martini, Robert Kazinsky, Ron Perlman, Clifton Collins Jr, Burn Gorman, Diego Klattenhoff, Ellen McLain
Director(s): Guillermo del Toro
Writer(s): Guillermo del Toro, Travis Beachum
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: July 12th
RT Score: 72% (181 fresh, 72 rotten)
The Plot by Palooza: Monsters attack the world, robots and neural handjobs are the only way to save the world.
Comments:
Yeah, sure this movie is pretty good. There's some strong action and one guy actually acting, but there are few things more displeasing than consuming something that is only pretty good, when you KNOW it should be great. This movie should be in my top ten. But it's not. It's a colossal disappointment and I don't blame anybody for finding enjoyment in it, because I certainly did. But the blind supporters of this film make me hate it even more than I want to. For instance, try saying something negative about it on reddit. It was hard not to boost your expectations up to 100 when there was a non-sequel, non-remake, non-superhero, non-comic book that revolved around giant robots fighting giant monsters. How could it go wrong? In almost every single way. I will state that the movie looks absolutely stunning and there's one amazing scene that woulda been a fucking sweet short film if left as is.
There are problems throughout the entire movie and it's impossible for me to ignore, even with my brain completely shut off. I don't even know where to start so I'll just jump right into it. Besides the fact that the entire movie plays out like Top Gun, the plot is somehow obnoxiously complicated and simple simultaneously. The lingo is absolutely horrendous with neural handjobs being dropped left and right, obnoxious names like Stacker Pentecost and Raleigh Beckett, (which were most certainly formed the same you do your porn name - by combining your first pet's name and the street you grew up on) and Charlie Day slinging exposition at every chance. The whole movie is force-fed to you with each character's dialogue consisting of explaining exactly what is going on in the moment. They're even kind enough to tell you how they are feeling and why they are feeling that way. This actually winds up being a blessing in disguise because there is absolutely no acting going on from anybody in the movie, except for Idris Elba, who does his best but nobody seems to be able to keep up. Charlie Hunnam goes straight into Jax Teller mode, losing his accent and flaring his nostrils at every opportunity, as if him explaining his emotions weren't bad enough. His co-horts consist of the prototypical hot head who doesn't respect the main character and the old, wise fella who respects the main character and apologizes for the hot head. All three of these characters look exactly the same and if I hadn't been so well versed in telling white people apart, I would have gotten lost. Add Hunnam's brother in from the beginning (you guessed it - he dies and it affects Hunnam's outlook on life) is Homeland Mike, who is the most generic looking white guy in Hollywood.
So a majority of the movie follows these fuckboys as they squad up inside of a robot, needing two because one needs to control one half of the robot and another needs to control the other half but they need to merge their brains. Like I said, so retardedly simple, it's complicated. Why does this need to happen? Who gives a fuck, we need personal connection to run through the film! We need these characters to exude emotion some how. Kill partners, affect the surviving partner's outlook on life! Use neural handjobs as excuses for flashbacks and exposition! Use neural handjobs to reconnect two damaged people! Don't you see! The asian girl and Jax Teller are a perfect match! CAN'T YOU SEE! LOOK! YOU CAN TELL BECAUSE I AM TELLING YOU! These two are supposed to be absolutely 110% a match, but only because the movie tells you that. How do we know otherwise? They fight with sticks and somehow thats them connecting on a personal level. Look, we fought with sticks now we are drift compatible! I very much enjoy turning my brain off and enjoying shit exploding, but not if the movie makes me feel dumber afterward.
I really don't want to knock del Toro's directing because the movie is fucking beautiful, but it's kind of comical how not-scary the kaijus are. There is nothing dark or ominous about them. There is a way to manipulate the camera so that things look gigantic and horrifying and make the people look small and helpless. Here, they always present things on an even scale, so why am I supposed to be afraid of these things? Robots and Kaijus go head to head and even if the robot gets its ass torn apart, I do not feel threatened. The movie fails to present the bad guys as terrifying, something that could have gone a long way into my emotional investment in the film. I didn't care about anything because I didn't have to. There is one scene when Hunnam and the AZN girl are first neurally fingerblasting eachother or w/e and he sees a horrifying memory of hers. In it, a small asian girl runs away from an absolutely gigantic and terrifying monster that is causing a ridiculous amount of destruction. As everything falls down around her, she crouches into a little ball, ash and dust pouring out from every angle. This is hands down the best scene in the film, but we never get a glimpse of the kaijus like this. It's always from an aerial view or at a distance, which is not the proper way to portray a horrifying monster.
The potential was through the roof, the execution was subpar. Flame away, mfers.
Spoiler Alert: They cancel the apocalypse.
Grade: C+
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Serious guestion ... is Charlie Hunnam the worst actor not named Adrien Grenier to ever be on a hit TV show/appear in movies?
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52. A.C.O.D.
Adam Scott, Amy Poehler, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jane Lynch, Richard Jenkins, Catherine O’Hara, Jessica Alba, Clark Duke, Ken Howard, Adam Pally
Director(s): Stu Zicherman
Writer(s): Stu Zicherman, Ben Carlin
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: October 4th
RT Score: 50% (29 fresh, 29 rotten)
The Plot by Palooza: Having spent the majority of his adult life in between the vicious divorce of his parents (Richard Jenkins, Catherine O'Hara), a man (Adam Scott) finds out he was a part of a study when he was younger and the writer of the book (Jane Lynch) contacts him for her follow up, Adult Children of Divorce. Mayhem ensues.
Comments:
This a nice little comedy that is elevated by its cast. Any movie that has Richard Jenkins as one of the main characters and he can let loose and be raunchy, I am so fucking down for. Factor in the always great Adam Scott as Jenkins' son, the Adult Child of Divorce of the title, Amy Poehler as his bitch stepmom, Catherine O'Hara is great as the mother/ex-wife, Jane Lynch plays her classic oblivious and obnoxious deadpan as a therapist who writes the book in question. The plot is pretty dumb, but its original enough and has enough legs that it doesn't especially fall apart like a lot of comedies do. The jokes come constantly and most of them hit very well. It doesn't heavily rely on one thing, so the comedy never gets stale and it's grounded enough in realty that you aren't completely tuned out like some Farrelly Brothers movie. This is like Adam McKay-lite. More on the level of a Nicholas Stoller comedy, to be honest.
Spoiler Alert: Everything works out just fine.
Grade: B-Comment
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51. The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug
Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Stephen Fry, Graham McTavish, Ken Stott, Aiden Turner, Dean O’Gorman, Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, Cate Blanchett, Mikael Persbrandt, Sylvester McCoy, Craig Hall, Ryan Gage, John Bell, Mark Mitchison, Manu Bennett, Lawrence Makoare, Ben Mitchell, Peter Jackson, Stephen Colbert
Director(s): Peter Jackson
Writer(s): Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro. J.R.R. Tolkien (based on his novel)
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: December 13th
RT Score: 74% (158 fresh, 55 rotten)
The Plot by Palooza: The second film in the Hobbit Trilogy
Comments:
At least it was better than the first one? This was still extremely lackluster and has a pretty obnoxious 'cliffhanger' that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Thankfully this go around there is far less walking and much more fighting, but it still gets caught with pacing issues and a runtime that almost hits 3 hours. Surprisingly enough the best part of the movie, hands down without a doubt was the elf badassery done by Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and uhhh Kate from LOST (Evangeline Lilly). Lilly is without a doubt the best character and it's going to be a god damn shame when she is murdered at some point next movie. The makeup still creeps me out because it's so wildly detailed, but it's kind of disgusting. At least there was significantly less bird shit hair guy this go around. This is without a doubt the Two Towers of the trilogy, but on a much, much, much weaker scale. This is the action based movie of the trilogy is more of the point. I enjoyed it, but only because it couldn't be as bad as the first. More entertaining than the whole movie is watching Benedict Cumberbatch's motion capture videos. Hilarious.
Spoiler Alert: Smaug comin'
Grade: B-Comment
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50. Thor - The Dark World
Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgard, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccelston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Jaime Alexander, Rene Russo, Tadanobu Asano, Alice Krige, Chris O’Dowd, Benecio del Toro, Stan Lee, Chris Evans
Director(s): Alan Taylor
Writer(s): Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: November 8th
RT Score: 65% (144 fresh, 77 rotten)
The Plot by Palooza: Thor's gotta fight more alien bad guys.
Comments:
This is just Marvel filtering more of their products into the formula. The movie is fine, it works perfectly for what it's supposed to be. You know exactly what you're getting here, it's better than the first as everything feels more familiar and comfortable. This goes without saying but Loki is absolutely fantastic and I got giddy with joy during the end with him, until everything is kind of sloppily twist-y that was a little to easy to see coming. Having seen Captain America - Winter Soldier so recently, I've seen how they can take the formula and elevate it with little tidbits for fans of the MCU this film feels much worse than I originally thought. Winter Soldier does all of the same shit really, really well this one does it just fine. If you have been enjoying the MCU movies then you'll like this just fine, but it's nothing special. If you're already bored with the formula, there is no chance you enjoy this at all. Like everything, needs more Idris Elba.
Spoiler Alert: Good guys win, more bad guys comin'
Grade: B-Comment
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49. Oblivion
Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough, Olga Kurylenko, Morgan Freeman, Nikolaj Coster-Waldeau, Melissa Leo, Zoe Bell
Director(s): Joseph Kosinski
Writer(s): Karl Gajdusek, Michael Arndt
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: April 19th
RT Score: 54% (121 fresh, 105 rotten)
The Plot by Palooza: An extraterrestrial attack on the Earth has left the planet and its moon destroyed. Some of the aliens remain on Earth while two people (Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough) manage the equipment that is attempting to salvage the planets resources for their transfer to one of Saturn's moons.
Comments:
There are two things that this movie does exceptionally well - it's pretty as FUCK, absolutely gorgeous and was worth every penny from that perspective and the drones. The drones are absolutely incredible. They're horrifying, dangerous, relentless, and unpredictable. The plot is pretty strong, too, but it gets complicated and drops twists left and right. Some work and some don't. There's also an element of needing to turn your brain off because it's Tom Cruise. I love him as an action star, he does his own stunts and he is always doing some of the coolest, most unique shit for some reason. He may be a fudgepacker in real life, but I would happily see his action movies; I am a big fan of the Mission: Impossible franchise. But yeah, so Tom Cruise kind of takes any bit of realism (as much as there can be in a sci fi, post apocalyptic movie), factor in him running around with two fine ass bitches, both in love with him. It's little shit like this that is mostly unavoidable so I try not to give it too much shit for it, but it takes you out of the movie far too often.
I wish the trailers would have kept the Morgan Freeman element of the film a secret because his existence in the movie is already quite a plot twist, so it's obnoxious and unworthy when that comes to fruition. From there though, they win you back with some badass action, some Kingslayer action and some fantastic drone work. The ending is a strong talking point and I can see people not liking it, but it totally worked for me. It felt earned, if a little too perfect. What they bookend the film with is pretty whack though. This is a fun action movie that sometimes tries to be smarter than it needs to. Worth a late night HBO watch.
Spoiler Alert:
Grade: B-Comment
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Glad to hear it's good stuff, as we just rented it via Redbox tonight.
50. Thor - The Dark World
Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgard, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccelston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Jaime Alexander, Rene Russo, Tadanobu Asano, Alice Krige, Chris O’Dowd, Benecio del Toro, Stan Lee, Chris Evans
Director(s): Alan Taylor
Writer(s): Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: November 8th
RT Score: 65% (144 fresh, 77 rotten)
The Plot by Palooza: Thor's gotta fight more alien bad guys.
Comments:
This is just Marvel filtering more of their products into the formula. The movie is fine, it works perfectly for what it's supposed to be. You know exactly what you're getting here, it's better than the first as everything feels more familiar and comfortable. This goes without saying but Loki is absolutely fantastic and I got giddy with joy during the end with him, until everything is kind of sloppily twist-y that was a little to easy to see coming. Having seen Captain America - Winter Soldier so recently, I've seen how they can take the formula and elevate it with little tidbits for fans of the MCU this film feels much worse than I originally thought. Winter Soldier does all of the same shit really, really well this one does it just fine. If you have been enjoying the MCU movies then you'll like this just fine, but it's nothing special. If you're already bored with the formula, there is no chance you enjoy this at all. Like everything, needs more Idris Elba.
Spoiler Alert: Good guys win, more bad guys comin'
Grade: B-
Also: "Giddy with joy"? As opposed to what? Giddy with depression? #EnglishDegreeComment
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