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What did you watch this week homies? (29/10-04/11)


Another month went by... just like that... where was I??

What I watched:


The Monkey King 2 (Xi you ji zhi 2016 Netflix): “When a travelling monk is stranded in a wasteland, The Monkey King must escort him across the land to retrieve sacred scriptures and protect him from an evil demon.”
I liked it more when I first saw it last year but it’s still better than its predecessor, thanks to some solid acting and directing. This would make a crazy video game. 7/10

Les maîtres du suspense: (2014 TV): “Hubert Wolfe, a successful author who hasn't written anything for 10 years, is living a life of lies. He uses a ghostwriter named Dany to write his novels. When Dany's life falls apart and he is no longer able to write, he turns to a child-minder, Quentin, a soft-hearted man with a pure soul. The meeting of the three men turns each of their lives upside down. Their personal quests, swayed by the three women in their lives lead them into a series of unexpected situations and into a troubling world in a lost corner of the United States, far from their usual stomping grounds. In this strange land, each man begins to discover who he truly is and, ultimately, to rewrite his own life.” This movie French Canadian movie was solid on all levels. 8/10

Deadfall (2014 TV): “A thriller that follows two siblings who decide to fend for themselves in the wake of a botched casino heist, and their unlikely reunion during another family's Thanksgiving celebration.”
This could have been a good movie if not for too many “as if” and “WTF” moments. I loved the winter settings, the acting was on point and there actually was a good story somewhere in this unsteady film that took the easy road one time too many. 5.5-6/10

Stranger Things S2: ( I didn’t have the time to watch the final episode yet.) What I liked: Atmosphere, acting, characters, Eleven’s storyline. What I didn’t like: Lack of excitement, what they did with the character Dustin (became an annoying, cursing and disrespectful brat), too many boring parts, too predictable, not scary enough. I gave an overall of 7.5 to the first season and I thing this one was less entertaining. Overall rating: 6.5-7/10


UFC 217: One of the best UFC nights since a good while for me. The three title shots went as I predicted and hoped. Three new champions. It was awesome!

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The entire series of strike back.Who says the the british can't do a good tv show...i missed Scott.

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Not me...

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This week I watched:

The Birdcage (1996) 8/10
A Cure for Wellness (2017) 8/10
The Girl On The Train (2016) 8/10
Friday the 13th (2009) 7/10
Princess Mononoke (1997) 9/10
Nude (2017) 9/10

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The Girl On The Train was disappointing imo 6/10

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Don't think I've seen any of those.

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You were probably at work, SK!

Haven't seen any of yours this week. Just Stranger Things. Finished it. Liked it, mostly. Didn't care for the stuff with Eleven at all this season. Except maybe some of it with Hopper. I liked the teaming up of Steve and Dustin. Speaking of Steve, he's the worst bebysitter, ever! I agree, this one wasn't as fun as the first one. Especially the second part of the season. But it wasn't _that_ bad either. I though season one was pretty self-contained and didn't need a continuation. They did a decent enough job of it, but I wonder where they could go next. It's bound to get a bit tiresome after a while, all this running around, and Winona being all frazzled all the god damn time.

This week for me:

Half watched Princesas (2005) on TV. It looked interesting enough to turn on the sound after a while and finish watching it properly. It seemed tragic and sad, but it was also engaging and interesting. Since I didn't watch it properly I can't say much more, but it was good enough that I'll be looking for it for a proper viewing.

Don Jon (2013)
Jon likes his porn. And that's a problem. In more ways than one. But he finds a calm pixie dream woman that changes his life and teaches him stuff about things. She also brings him happiness and such. It's the second time I've seen it. The first time I was surprised where it went. This time I wasn't, but I'm still impressed at how the subject matter is treated and where it goes. The performances are solid. It's very funny. It's the film 500 Days of Summer wishes it was (I see a connection, okay!). I like this film a lot and it makes me wish JGL directs more stuff. It's actually one of the few movies I've liked him in since he because an adult actor.

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Don Jon was a disapointment to me. Maybe I had my expectations too high, what with the ratings. I actually liked him more in Premium Rush, for what that's worth.

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I haven't seen Premium Rush, so that's worth nothing! LOL

You know I don't pay much attention to ratings, I honestly wasn't expecting much from the sinopsis the first time around. So I was pleasantly surprised by it. Expectations, eh? (that's not a Canadian joke btw)

Do you think your wife might enjoy this one?

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hehe

yeah I do think she would.

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"Premium Rush" isn't among my favorite JGL movies or roles, but it is a charismatic, athletic performance from him and he gets in some fun, perfectly played moments, specifically his first scene with Michael Shannon, who's great in this. I love Shannon's work here even more than in "Shotgun Stories," "Take Shelter," "Mud," and "Midnight Special."

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LOVED Shannon's performence in this too! I actually started watching his movies after i saw this because I barely knew hime before.

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Isn't it awesome? :) His Bobby Monday is so bizarrely hilarious yet simultaneously menacing and unpredictable. I love how he played his last scene, too. "Okay." I was a little traumatized, actually. But it was great.

Do you have a favorite Shannon performance so far?

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The one in Kangaroo Jack!

Kidding! Honestly I think that'S the one that marked me the most (premuim rush). I thought he was very solid in Take Shelter too but I still need to see many of his films. Almost bought Midnight Special the other day but took something elses instead. Have you seen it?

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"Kangaroo Jack," hmm! I haven't seen it, but you know what? I just might! Not-necessarily-great projects can be a pretty awesome way to see what a great actor can do despite a bad script, bad direction, bad editing, etc. Not always, but it's fun when it is. Matthew McConaughey in "Reign of Fire" is an example for me. The film gets 39 from Metacritic and 40 from RT, but I think McConaughey really rocked that role.

"Midnight Special" is worth watching, esp. if you're interested in Jeff Nichols, films with supernatural elements, or any of the main cast. There are some neat sequences involving the supernatural, and an interesting idea about our place in the grand structure of the universe, but I feel like there's more Nichols could've done with the concept and the characters' backstories. Still a solid film, and very well-acted. I like Jeff Nichols and think he's one of the most interesting American filmmakers right now. He seems to switch focus between human dramas and high-concept sci-fi or supernaturalism. I love it when he hits that sweet spot melding both, as I felt he did in "Mud."

Have you seen any Jeff Nichols films?

I've heard Michael Shannon is hilarious in "The Night Before," too.

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Kangaroo Jack is a movie I actually enjoyed, twice.
Reign of Fire I watched for the first time 2 months ago and really liked it.
Except for Take Shelter' I only saw Mud from him but I bought Loving the other day, mostly because I had a cruch on Ruth Negga in Preacher.

As for Michael Shannon, I saw him in MAchine Gun Preacher this week and he played a heroine addict. His final scene was Shannon at his best. MAy have found my favorite 'grand moment' of him.
Oh and he wasn't bad in The night before but nothing too memorable.

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Ah, sorry, man, I took your "kidding" to be absolute. That one's going in the queue, too, now!

Ruth Negga is gorgeous. I haven't seen any of her movies yet, though.

Cool, another Michael Shannon grand moment! (I love his small, eccentric role in "Mud," btw.) There are some actors about whom I can just know that I enjoy them even if I haven't seen or won't see much of their work, and Shannon's one of them. Gary Oldman, Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Sam Rockwell, and Philip Seymour Hoffman are some others. Awesome actors.

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Haha, nice.

Oh and yeah,I think you would love his performence in MAchine Gun Preacher. Small, eccentric and great! I hope you'll see it someday.

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Shannon was great in 'Nocturnal Animals'

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Thanks for the suggestion, hownos. I've wondered about "Nocturnal Animals," so I'm bumping it up in my queue now.

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I thought "Premium Rush" as a movie and as a JGL vehicle (see what I did there?) was okay, but I know people who really like it and like JGL in it, too. I wonder if it's a movie star vs. character actor thing, because I feel like this was basically a movie star type of role. It's probably as close to "JGL as JGL's persona" as it gets, come to think of it, next to maybe "500 Days of Summer."

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Yeah, I see it as a more mature companion piece to "500 Days of Summer," except while that movie offset Tom's heartache with a playful cuteness, "Don Jon" is too sharp to ever be cute. It just cuts deeper until you ARE laughing at or even judging the characters.

I also love the energy and style of the film, the acting, Nathan Johnson's score, and most of all, how the spirit of the film (the cinematography, the music, the tone of the performances and the style of editing) evolved in tandem with what was happening in the story. The three acts feel so distinct from each other, yet these shifts serve the narrative well. The only thing that felt a little abrupt to me was Jon's awakening from the second to the third act.

I like this film a lot and it makes me wish JGL directs more stuff.

Have you seen his 2009 short film "Sparks?" You can trace a lot of the style of "Don Jon" to this short film, even though the whole thing basically takes place in a living room and the plot is two people discussing an insurance claim. That he could make that interesting and playfully sexy speaks to his visual and aural style, and his instinct for casting and directing performances, I think.

It's too bad Neil Gaiman's The Sandman (which JGL had been producing with an eye to possibly direct or star in) didn't pan out. I think that world would've been a great match for his sensibilities.

(cont.)

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It's actually one of the few movies I've liked him in since he because an adult actor.

I love the stuff he was doing from around 2001's "Manic" to 2010's "Hesher," and I think a lot of his best performances are from that time, too. He's done several good movies since then, but for the most part the roles or performances haven't brought out what I really like about him as an actor. Maybe they're too technical, external, and psychologically underdeveloped for my taste (e.g., "Looper," "The Walk," "Snowden"). He doesn't do anything wrong, and there are things I like about those performances, but I feel like they're missing a certain spark and spontaneity, a certain natural freedom that I felt he had in a lot of his earlier work.

I did love 2014's "The Wind Rises" and "Don Jon," though, and enjoyed JGL in them. (He was also very good in "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For," but the film itself is rough.)

I'm curious about a couple of his upcoming projects, Marc Munden’s "Sovereign" and Patrick Vollrath's "7500," for which JGL has replaced Paul Dano.

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[deleted]

Thanks for the contribution Dazed

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Act of Violence (1949) - A vengeful POW stalks his commanding officer who betrayed him while in a German POW camp. My problem with this movie is the plot and the motivations of the hitman at the end. Good performance from Robert Ryan. A very young Janet Leigh who looks like a teenager. 7/10

Bedlam (1946) - Love this Karloff movie where he plays a dastardly doctor in charge of an insane asylum. A young women played by a very pretty Anna Lee who wants to improve conditions ends up becoming a patient. 7.5/10

Eyes Without A Face (1960) - A French movie. A surgeon who accidentally disfigures his daughter's face kidnaps other young women in an attempt to do a face transplant. Another French gem. 8/10

Horror of Dracula (1958) - This is the original Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing combo. Campy but entertaining. Movies were better without CGI. 7.5/10

Frantic (1988) - Stars Harrison Ford as a doctor who is attending a convention in Paris with his wife. His wife disappears and he goes on the hunt to discover an international conspiracy. Funny in places. 7/10

Laura (1944) - A detective played by Dana Andrews falls in love with a woman whose murder he is investigating. A solid mystery. Great performance from Clifton Webb. Interesting to see Vincent Price in a non horror role. 8/10

Bridge of Spies (2015) - Finally got around to seeing it. A very good Cold War story. Hanks is great as usual. A lot of dramatic licence was taken but it tells an important story of a dangerous time. 7.5/10

Missions (2017) - A French Sci-fi series following a crew of scientists/astronauts who land on Mars only to find a Russian cosmonaut already there. Enjoyed it immensely, beautifully shot. 8.5/10

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Bridge of Spies is on my watchlist.

I'll look for Missions

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[deleted]

Your Geostorm rating is higher than most

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Matrix Rev.: 6/10

Fight Club: join the club! 10/10

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Zhongkui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal (Netflix 2015) 6/10 Entertaining fantasy flick badly let down by substandard CGI effects.

Divergence (Netflix DVD 2005) 5/10 I just feel the story doesn’t work well, didn’t hate it but could have lived without seeing it.

Curse of Chucky (Netflix 2013) 6/10 Another entertaining entry in the Child’s Play series starring the daughter of the voice of Chucky. Not as good as the first two films and Bride but better than 3 and Seed I think.

The Wailing (Netflix 2016) 8/10 I really liked this film. Follows a police officer attempting to save his daughter in a village with a strange illness that causes infected to become hyper violent and deadly to those closest to them. The disease may be related to a mysterious Japanese man living in the area. Maybe a little longer than it’s needs to be but still good film.

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That chubby cop in The Wailing got on my nerves after awhile.

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Yeah I can see that. At first I thought he was supposed to be some sort of comedic relief but he stayed central to the story and it was really more to do with him being completely out of his depth as a police officer and father dealing with this.

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The wailing: Saw it a few months ago. These were my thoughts: Writer/director Hong-jin Na (The Chaser, The Yellow Sea) proved, once again, that he does not fit the mold with this hard-hitting treat of a thriller/horror. It’s that type of movie where the credits roll and you just sit there staring at the screen, processing what you just saw, just to end up to with one single conclusion: Faaack! One thing though, I can’t help but think, that little actress girl must have been somewhat traumatized because all scenes she’s in (and there is quite a few) she’s either screaming, convulsing or crying. Also, the last act could’ve been shorten of about 15 minutes but still, I rate it a 8-8.5/10

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And in the last week, I have watched:

No Exit (1995)
Fright (1971)
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Flesh For Frankenstein (1973)
Jungle Law (1994)
The Donor (1995)
Ruckus (1980)
The Marathon Man (1976)
The Nesting (1981)
Midnight (1982)
Naked Fist (1981)
Dead Cert (2010)
One Man Jury (1978)
Blood, Boobs & Beast (2007)
Somnum (2015)
The Veteran (2011)
Christmas Evil (1980)
Brother (2000)
Forced Vengeance (1982)

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