Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

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First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Michael, Tom

Write Up.

Star Wars Fan Day Marathon! Well Really 2 Days because Day one is done and the actual Fan Day is tomorrow..

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

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First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Michael, Tom

Write Up.

Star Wars Fan Day Marathon!

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

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First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Michael, Tom

Write Up.

Star Wars Fan Day Marathon!

Chef

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First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Andrew

Jon Favreau's blockbuster palette cleanser is a fun little family/comedy/drama/roadtrip featuring a nice supporting cast and a lot of good looking food.

It's a really sweet little story, perfectly enjoyable. That seems to be the top priority. In fact there's barley any conflict in the film. There's more than one point where they purposefully side-step the usual expected complications. And they wrap everything up so neatly with a bow that the whole film ends up feeling a little flippant but still that's something different from the usual fare, so I'll take it. 

Joe

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First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

David Gordon Green abandons his studio comedies and returns to his indie character drama roots. Nicolas Cage is in the title role and Tye Sheridan, who showed impressive chops in Mud last year, is the kid he reluctantly takes under his wing.

It's a world you don't want to spend too much time in. It feels very authentic, probably in large part due to the supporting cast of largely local non-actors who all equip themselves well and add a great deal to the natural feeling of the whole film. 

It's a pretty grim and grimy place these characters inhabit. You don't want to spend too long there and the film is actually a little on the long side. Nice character acting but not something I'd feel the need to revisit any time soon.

Why Don't You Play in Hell?

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First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

Whoa. It's a fun ride with a full two acts of exposition and setting up the pieces, some really fun stuff along they way, but the climax is just insane. Pure glee, and for anyone as in love with film-making as me, a really delicious scenario. It's completely off the wall and absurd but there's just so much to love here. Yakuza stage parents from hell indeed. Check it out film lovers!

The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro

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First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Michael

Write Up.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

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First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Michael, Tyler

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Good fun :)

The Lego Movie

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First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Ryan

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This time in 2D. I noticed all these amazing texture details I never saw before. Great!

Transcendence

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First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Wally Pfister jumps from behind the camera to the director chair. He has made a damn fine looking film, got a great cast and has a script with some really interesting ideas, even if we have seen them all done before.

The film is just limp though. A nice sci-fi idea and good visuals do not an interesting film make. 

Captain America: The Winter Solider

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First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Michael

Write Up.

Fading Gigolo

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First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

John Turturro's latest film see him casting himself as a gigolo. Not a bad idea. And he's got himself an interesting supporting cast too lead by non other than Woody Allen in a rare onscreen performance that not one of his own films. 

I quite enjoyed this one, it's funny, it's got the romance stuff, I learnt about the Shomrim, some kind of Jewish Police that Liev Schreiber plays. It's a little long and I'm not sure I believe the main romantic thread but it was still enjoyable. 

Only Lovers Left Alive

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First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Beaumont

I've never really been able to get into Jim Jarmusch's films. Slow and ponderous and never really go anywhere. I love the cast and I do like the idea as well. The film certainly has a really indy hipster style. The style, the music, I don't really care for though. Which is not so great for this film because that's pretty much what it's relying on. The plot is an afterthought. So I really didn't get much out of this.

The Visitor

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: No

Watched With: Tyler, Jordan

Where the hell did this come from. I don't even know where to begin. I know there's an uncut version coming out soon too, which is why I heard of it in the first place. Apparently the uncut version is supposed to help make sense of some of the various strange goings on but even then, this is still pretty far out there. 

There's a cast that just doesn't quite make sense me. What an odd bunch of people. And they do their best to make the crazy material work, which just makes everything even better at how serious it all is. 

I do love a good evil child story. This one throws in diminutional alien beings with a whole universal good evil battle thing going on. And there's some cool visuals too.

But that's also coupled with a pretty slow moving story that was at times a little too esoteric for its own good. 

But I am glad I've seen it. There was some gold buried in there. Some truly ridiculous lines, line readings, great old school edits and fx. The music! My lord, the music. I might just have to give the uncut version a go around... 

The To Do List

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First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler, Shane

Write Up.

Heh. Fun.