The Perks of Being a Wallflower - good story, well played, directed, etc...would give 3.5 of 5.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - good story, well played, directed, etc...would give 3.5 of 5.
"The good man is the man who, no matter how morally unworthy he has been, is moving to become better."
John Dewey
So with only a week left until I am officially on break, I have decided to make a list here of movies available on Netflix instant watch so that I can become a more cultured individual. There are 37 movies on here I want to watch, and I want to finish it off by early January when school starts up again.
The full list is here:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
First one on my list to cross off Ip Man 2
If you saw my review for the first one, you know that I enjoyed the first one for its ability to provide what you would expect from such a film, good fights and a good setting. I think the second one surprisingly improves on the first film in almost every way with the exception of the implementation of Act 3. Whether due to a bigger budget or more experience under the actors belt, the acting from all native Chinese actors were better than in the first film, although this is offset by the horrific performances by the white actors playing the British police and antagonists later in the film. No outrageous wire fu, but fast paced, exciting fights that do not get dull after the first 30 seconds of fighting. The biggest improvement going for it is the toned down themes of Chinese nationalism which makes sense when considering the differences in sentiment between Chinese-Japanese relations and Chinese-British relations. The plot is good as Ip Man is now in Hong Kong presumably fighting all the other Kung Fu masters in order to establish himself as the best master of them all, but then the film suddenly takes a turn near the end by turning the main Chinese antagonist into a martyr for the Chinese people by having him get killed in the ring against a brutish British boxer who Ip Man must now fight in order to show the true strength of the Chinese martial arts. The stakes are not exactly as high as the first movie when the Japanese are occupying the entire country, attempting to demoralize the Chinese with one sided tournaments. So the hype isn't there in the end as you would expect from a sequel, but none of that matters any way because as I said, it gives you what you want, some good kung fu. Watch it if you liked the first.
Nah. Ip Man 2 kind of sucked pretty hard.
Hammer, anvil, forge and fire, chase away The Hoofed Liar. Roof and doorway, block and beam, chase The Trickster from our dreams.Vigilance is our shield, that protects us from our squalid past. Knowledge is our weapon, with which we carve a path to an enlightened future.
Everything you need to know about Kadagar_AV:
Van God Los, great Dutch crime movie based on true events. There is a subitled version but it's probably hard to find, well worth the trouble looking though. Very violent, great acting.
Interesting list, ACIN. The ones I ain't seen:
3. End of Watch
10. Jet Li's Fearless
11. Batman: Under the Red Hood
12. Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
14. Safe
15. Downfall
18. Charade
19. The Man from Nowhere
22. The Way
23. Batman: Year One
26. Fresh
27. Witness for the Prosecution
28. Memorial Day
29. Imitation of Life
On my current to-watch list, for no particular reasons:
Sonatine
Tiny Furniture
Best Worst Movie
Bernie
In the Loop
John Dies at the End
Melancholia
If any Orgahs have an opinion on any of these flicks, feel free to share. Especially if you've seen it and it isn't worth the time.
Both excellent movies, especially Downfall.3. End of Watch
15. Downfall
On the Path to the Streets of Gold: a Suebi AAR
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Hvil i fred HoreToreA man who casts no shadow has no soul.
I've seen some of these; I definitely recommend End of Watch, and The Man from Nowhere. I enjoyed Under the Red Hood more than Batman: Year One (which was more like Gordon: Year One).Interesting list, ACIN. The ones I ain't seen:
3. End of Watch
10. Jet Li's Fearless
11. Batman: Under the Red Hood
12. Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
14. Safe
15. Downfall
18. Charade
19. The Man from Nowhere
22. The Way
23. Batman: Year One
26. Fresh
27. Witness for the Prosecution
28. Memorial Day
29. Imitation of Life
CR
Ja Mata, Tosa.
The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storm may enter; the rain may enter; but the King of England cannot enter – all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement! - William Pitt the Elder
These were not on the list, but a friend invited me to watch The Hobbit at his place and then we immediately saw Desolation of Smaug in theaters, essentially amounting to 6 hours of Hobbitness today.
For part one, I was really happy with how well they kept to the story line, and I felt like the actors were good choices for their chosen roles. The problem I had was the one I was most afraid of which was that they were either not going to spend enough time on the ancillary dwarves to make certain portions of the book impactful or they were going to cut good portions of the book out. As it turns out over the course of part 2, they began to cut out big portions of the book which were some of my favorite scenes. The scene with the eagles is included in part 1 and (avoiding spoilers) it did match up with what I imagined when I read the book myself about 2 months ago.
The real problem I had was the rapid deviation from the book in part 2, the one which just came out. I do not have a problem with cutting corners and leaving only the essentials, but much of what they changed was simply unnecessary and detracted from the characters of the book and even worse, ruined the atmosphere of the biggest points of the book. Being a children's book, there is no love interest angle in The Hobbit, but because this is a big budget Hollywood film, they just had to shove one in there, where it did not belong, as well as bringing back characters from LOTR who were not present at all in The Hobbit.
The pacing due to the many alterations is now very off in my opinion, the fight I expected to see at the end of part 2 was now put off until the beginning of part 3 because they added a 20 minute fight scene which never occurred in the book. Now granted, they way it plays out in the book, would be very boring if it was portrayed on film (hint, there is lots of hiding and talking and waiting and talking), but I do think the route taken set the movie back in other ways simply to fulfill a big ending fight featuring the main characters.
I don;t want to make it seem like either of these movies are bad, if you have not read the book, you will not know what was added unless you remember what I have been saying while you watch it haha. I was just disappointed because I felt that The Hobbit could have been done more faithfully than the LOTR trilogy because it is not as long as the trilogy and instead found Hollywood shoving its tropes very hard into an otherwise perfect story. Desolation of Smaug still deserves your money however, and I encourage everyone to watch it, if only for the songs and soundtrack that accompanies every Hobbit/LOTR movie.
Last edited by a completely inoffensive name; 12-14-2013 at 10:22.
Gangster Squad
Besides having a pretty dumb name, it was a pretty dull movie. Almost no character development at all, dumb plotlines, and even somehow made the action boring. Cant recommend.
Though Emma Stone in that red dress...![]()
On the Path to the Streets of Gold: a Suebi AAR
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Hvil i fred HoreToreA man who casts no shadow has no soul.
Another movie struck from the list:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior was decent. The story was pretty barebones and there was a real lack of any real fighting until about half way through the movie when suddenly it became fight after fight after fight. The fights themselves were satisfying enough for me, they were neither over the top nor quick, but the movie seemed to have a genuine realness to it such that Tony Jaa was really doing all these stunts, which if you think about it, are impressive to perform without wires. Each punch felt heavy and there was a fun 'Taken" element to it when a man get knocked out cold from one good blow among a series of 5 minute fights. I was going to watch jet Li, but I am getting sick of kung fu. Tomorrow I think I will watch Platoon.
Two more movies taken off the list:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I am thinking that I wont be able to keep this pace for my whole break, so I have picked nine movies that I will put off the until the end as "extras" that I will get to if I have time. If I get through the core 27 movies I want to watch, I will consider this a success.
For today:
Batman: Under the Red Hood
Not much to say, it's an hour long DC WB animated movie featuring Bruce Timm as the producer, so I was somewhat confident that the quality would not be terrible, and to my enjoyment it was pretty good. It operates essentially as a 3 episode arch of Batman: The Animated Series, except with different voice actors notably for both Batman and the Joker (no Mark Hamill :( ). It's hard to talk about it without spoilers but if you are familiar with the recent "Red Hood" story arch from the DC comics, you pretty much know what to expect here. If you liked the Timmverse DC Animated cartoons (Batman: TAS, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Static Shock, JL: Unlimited etc...) you will get enjoyment out of this as well.
Platoon
Very good movie, I almost felt guilty not having seen this movie until now. Featuring a diverse cast that would become some of hollywoods biggest stars or already were at that point. I feel dumb writing about this to be honest, because it is a classic and has been for over 30 years, im the one late to the party. I will just say, I am glad that the characters I liked survived (mostly) and the characters that I didnt, did not (mostly). If you for some reason were in the same boat as me, just know that it is one of the best movies about the Vietnam War ever made (up there with Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket) and you should see it.
Saw it yesterday. I agree with your assessment. The movie really veered away from the book in this second installment and the action sequences were absurdly unrealistic. On a positive note, Smaug was magnificent. It is a shame they mishandled his encounter with Bilbo. On the whole, I am so disappointed
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Penoza, has to be the best Dutch series ever. A normal mom gets slowly sucked in into the drugs-trade just to survive, which is obviously a pretty damn brutal line of work. I don't know if there is an english version. Watch it if you can find it.
Last edited by Fragony; 01-02-2014 at 14:28.
Watching The Bridge, awesome Danish/Swedish crime-series. Vikings certainly are good at making these, a LOT of good movies and series are made in scandinavia for sure.
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