This Old Neon Forum

Over the weekend I watched Wanderlust with Mrs. Kong and her sister. It's one of those Apatow-style irreverent comedies, featuring Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston. It was awful. One of the worst movies I can recall watching in recent memory. I can't even think of a single redeeming gag.

Recently saw 21 Jump Street and its sequel 22 Jump Street (although now that I think about it, it was probably a month ago or so).

Both were equally hilarious, and 22 was a self-aware sequel in a good way. I wouldn't really call either movie a bastion of particularly clever humor, and neither is groundbreaking in any way, but sometimes it's nice to watch something with heavy-handed, meat and potatoes laughs. Tatum and Hill have a great repartee in both films and do a good job of reminding us why duo comedies are so enjoyable. I'd love to see them do another film or two together as different characters since...

Spoiler

22 makes it pretty clear the series is over by lampooning sequelitis in its credits sequence.

I'd highly recommend either, but certainly watch the first one first. The 2nd does a reasonable job of standing on its own, but you'll miss a reference here and there.

I also saw Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which was a very good. I definitely intend to see it again. It was a curious movie that broke certain rules of film (or story-telling in general) that would make for a good second viewing. A very odd film. I know it's a classic, but I'm trying to keep from reading about it online so I can avoid being told what to think of it and form my own conclusions about it as a work of art first.

I just got back from watching Guardians of the Galaxy at the local IMAX, and it was as good as the critical reception so far has indicated. Classic comic book movie—back-to-basics fun action. I liked the characters, the antagonist(s) was/were sufficiently interesting (especially if you're even vaguely familiar with any of the '90s comic book background), and the pace was perfect. It's my second favourite movie of the year so far, just barely behind Edge of Tomorrow.

Yep, Guardians of the Galaxy was outstanding. Tons of fun, nicely paced for its genre, coherent action photography and a rare instance of quality 3D. I won't go on since ol' K-Dubs up there already said it, but I will mention that I never really dug the comics all that much. This is the best Marvel flick yet and, pending a viewing of Lucy, a shoe-in for my dumb movie of the year.

Stay to the bitter end. I left to take a major leak the second the main credits started rolling and rued my decision badly.

Lucy

A lot more violent than I thought plus the ending was very weird. I can't say I'd recommend it but I didn't hate it. Very strange movie.

Scarlett was great and so was Freeman just the story was weird.

Just watched Ender's Game on TV. It was a pretty weak adaptation of the book. It (somewhat necessarily, due to time and complexity) had to cut out several important plot points, but the most egregious adaptation error was completely blowing the plot twist half-way through the movie.

The credits are rolling right now to a Flaming Lips song, which I guess is probably the strongest part of the film, heh.

I walked in on my lady watching a DVD of Les Misérables 2012, and I was astounded by how horrible the singing was. She zapped around a bit to give me a feel of the songs, and it was some very unappealing singing, they were singing out ALL dialogue, just for the sake of it.

What the heck?

You can't have a musical without awesome singing and memorable songs, the Les Misérables movie seems to lack all those appealing qualities.

Who greenlit this idea?

I suppose I missed the emotional impact of the story by not actually watching the movie, but I just cannot see myself seeing this movie in full.

Jelly wrote:I walked in on my lady watching a DVD of Les Misérables 2012, and I was astounded by how horrible the singing was. She zapped around a bit to give me a feel of the songs, and it was some very unappealing singing, they were singing out ALL dialogue, just for the sake of it.

What the heck?

You can't have a musical without awesome singing and memorable songs, the Les Misérables movie seems to lack all those appealing qualities.

Who greenlit this idea?

I suppose I missed the emotional impact of the story by not actually watching the movie, but I just cannot see myself seeing this movie in full.

The original Les Misérables musical is sung-through, which means pretty much all dialogue is sung. It's not just the movie's idea. It does make a lot of the dialogue sound stilted and a lot of the songs sound samey & melodiless. I'm not a big fan of that particular aspect of Les Mis either.

Jelly wrote:, they were singing out ALL dialogue, just for the sake of it.

What the heck?

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men?

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?

Jelly wrote:I suppose I missed the emotional impact of the story by not actually watching the movie, but I just cannot see myself seeing this movie in full.

Fortunately for you, there have been countless non-musical adaptations of Les Miserables, so you can experience the story without the music by referring to one of those films.