rate the last movie you saw

[Paul MacLean]

Great anecdotes guys!

I've found that people's comfort zones widely vary. I have deeply devout friends who will happily sit through Braveheart's graphic violence and nudity, but won't go near Harry Potter (and vice-versa).

[AndyDursin]

Showing movies to people who may not be really close friends can be tough. Just have to rely on your instincts.

On a side note, I remember renting Peter Jackson's BEAUTIFUL CREATURES back in college and watching it with my mom. I recall distinctly thinking, "they're not going to do THAT....are they?" (and I'm talking about the tub scene -- not the stoning sequence, which was more horrifying, that closed the film!). After that, I felt confident about pretty much watching any R-rated content with her within reason.

[AndyDursin]

READY PLAYER ONE
6/10

[Eric Paddon]

"Barabbas" (1962) which always gets a viewing from me every year. The power of the filming of the Crucifixion scene during an eclipse has always been something I feel a need to see again.

[Eric Paddon]

And I have just finished the annual Good Friday tradition of watching "Passion Of The Christ." The power and beauty of this film after attending a Tenebrae service is always overpowering for me.

And once again I get a reminder of how the decision to deny this film its due credit in Oscar nominations, especially Jim Cavaziel, could only have been rooted in industry/Academy prejudice. No one IMO ever was asked to do more in conveying the magnitude of the suffering Christ than any actor before or since, and that he made it seem compellingly real is a performance that deserved recognition.

[Monterey Jack]

Marvel-a-thon...!

-Iron Man (2008): 8.5/10



1.) How long ago was this movie? Tony Stark makes a MYSPACE crack.

2.) Was this the last time Jeff Bridges performed a role without that grumbly, stroke-victim voice he started adopting in EVERYTHING a year later in Crazy Heart?

3.) Rhodey looks different, I can't quite place it...

4.) The visual F/X hold up a lot better than you'd expect, but then again, focusing almost entirely on shiny metallic surfaces certainly helped.

5.) Had that crummy Mummy movie from last summer been this sleek, confidant and charming, that "Dark Universe" thing might have actually come to pass.

6.) Robert Downey Jr. is insanely winning in this, without the Contractual Obligation lethargy that would gradually settle in around Age Of Ultron.

7.) The score still sucks.

8.) First appearance of the "Sky Beam" cliché in a Marvel movie! (albeit thankfully brief).

9.) Coulson has more hair.

10.) Tony wants an "American Cheeseburger", but takes only one bite before beginning the press conference? You'd think he'd wolf the thing down.

[Eric Paddon]

I finish Holy Week with Risen (2016) which continues to impress on repeat viewings (though the low voice mumbling of speaking that is such a problem with modern filmmaking in general is a problem here). What fascinates me about it is how we get a not implausible "CSI" type investigation approach to the events following the Crucifixion and how it takes a logical detour when the investigation for the lead character leads to a most unexpected result. More than ever, there is an authentic tone to how the story of Christ's Resurrection would have first circulated afterwards. We take for granted so much the epilogue of other films with a triumphant risen Christ that perhaps we lose sight as to why it would have had a more shrouded quality to it.

"Risen" by no means gets the background details right the way a POTC does, but when I compare it to films like "The Robe" the strengths are a lot more evident.

[Monterey Jack]

-The Incredible Hulk (2008): 7.5/10



1.) That thing I sad about Iron Man's F/X holding up after a decade? Not so much here. The Hulk and his nemesis The Abomination looked weightless and cartoony a decade ago and even moreso now.

2.) You can tell this was immediately post-Jason Bourne...the opening sequences in Brazil positively reek of the Bourne films, albeit with somewhat less seizure-inducing camerawork.

3.) Edward Norton was a good choice for a Bruce Banner still struggling with containing and controlling the monster inside him. The scene with him learning breathing techniques to bring his pulse rate down is especially well-realized.

4.) Man, I miss seeing Liv Tyler in big movies. Be a nice bit of MCU continuity to bring her back at some point, even if in just a cameo.

5.) One of the rare recent-ish movies where the deleted scenes menu is actually substantive and points towards a richer, more character-driven film that was severely gutted by Universal who were desperate to avoid a replay of that bizarre, artsy-fartsy 2003 Ang Lee Hulk movie and wanted to get to the "HULK SMASH" mayhem as quickly as possible. Ty Burrell's character is almost omitted entirely from the film!

6.) Anyone notice how William Hurt has essentially looked the same age for the last 25 years? It's like he's perennially forty-five.

7.) How radical and unexpected was the whole "Cinematic Universe" concept back then? I still remember the two guys behind me -- who had been providing obnoxious commentary throughout the entire move during my matinee -- reacting to Robert Downey Jr.'s cameo with, "Whoa, dat be duh, duh EYE-RON Man! Whut HE de doin' in dis...?!"

8.) Music still sucks.

9.) Tim Roth is far scarier in reality than as any sort of computer-generated creature.

10.) Movie is fun overall, if slight, certainly not the worst or most forgettable of the MCU (as we'll get to soon).

[Paul MacLean]

8.) Music still sucks.

I forgot. Who did the score again?

[Monterey Jack]

I forgot. Who did the score again?

Craig Armstrong, although it's essentially interchangable with any other Marvel score, sad to say.

-Iron Man 2 (2010): 4/10



1.) The best adjective to describe this sequel is "smug"...it's like Marvel got falling-down drunk on the box office success and critical hossanahs that greeted the first film, and wrote the script for the second while in an intoxicated stupor.

2.) There are alarmingly few heroics in this alleged superhero movie, which opens with a fatuous, ten-minute SENATE HEARING (right out of the George Lucas playbook, because that's what hyped-up kids want to see!) and a surprising dearth of action afterwards.

3.) In the first film, Robert Downey Jr. walked a tightrope between charismatically self-absorbed jackass and newly "woke" billionaire suddenly aware of what his lifestyle of casual overkill really means for the world at large. Here, he's just insufferable.

4.) Why the hell does Mickey Rourke's Whiplash travel to Monte Carlo and start tearing up the racetrack? How did he know that Tony Stark was going to be in the race, when it was a last-moment whim of Tony's?

5.) Someone, for the love of God, explain to me Don Cheadle's memorably bizarre line when he describes Tony and Pepper Potts kissing on a rooftop as resembling, "Two seals fighting over a grape". It's the most confounding line of dialogue in a movie since "My boss is so cool that when he goes to sleep, sheep count him" from David Mamet's Heist.

6.) Tony Stark's old man is Roger Stirling from Mad Men. That's pretty cool.

7.) The one lone, shining bright spot in this mess: the introduction of Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow into the MCU. Not only does Scarlett sport the most flattering of the many hairstyles she's modelled over the remaining films, but she's given the one really clever, slick and kick-ass fight scene in the film (only slightly marred by Jon Favreau's silly cut-away shenanigans).

8.) Hey, there's a flute in the score! But it's still generic mush.

9.) Hey, Sam Rockwell's doing a spastic dance routine! Haven't seen him do THAT before.

10.) The one legitimately lame MCU movie to date, and the only reason I'm re-visiting it eight years later is out of MCU completism. A total misfire.

[AndyDursin]

Saw IRON MAN 2 with Lukas AND Paul -- I think we all thought it sucked (and Paul didn't see the first one so that didn't help!). I agree on Scarjo's red hair in that movie...and don't understand why it's been every length and color over the years since.

INCREDIBLE HULK I've only seen that one time. Liked it, certainly more than the Ang Lee movie, which was gorgeous to look at and "interesting" but not exactly kid-friendly (or had much of anything to do with the comics).

Not sure why but INCREDIBLE HULK only did "OK" and probably it was because they were just establishing the "connected universe" thing, which of course now is financially boosting every Marvel release while simultaneously handcuffing them creatively so they are all pretty much competent, yet unremarkable, formula assembly-line deals. If they release it now -- pepper it with supporting heroes and tie it in so it's mostly another AVENGERS sequel instead of a standalone Hulk film (like CIVIL WAR) -- it'd probably make two or three times as much.

IH also probably would've been better had they let Norton do his thing -- it's not far away from being really good -- but Marvel wasn't ever going to let someone creatively take that kind of control again. Going forward, they realized it was best to get someone who was just going to shut up and act, and wasn't going to care about the screenplay.

[Paul MacLean]

Saw IRON MAN 2 with Lukas AND Paul -- I think we all thought it sucked (and Paul didn't see the first one so that didn't help!).

I wish I could add to the discussion -- but the truth is I fell asleep watching that movie!

[Monterey Jack]

Not sure why but INCREDIBLE HULK only did "OK" and probably it was because they were just establishing the "connected universe" thing, which of course now is financially boosting every Marvel release while simultaneously handcuffing them creatively so they are all pretty much competent, yet unremarkable, formula assembly-line deals. If they release it now -- pepper it with supporting heroes and tie it in so it's mostly another AVENGERS sequel instead of a standalone Hulk film (like CIVIL WAR) -- it'd probably make two or three times as much.

Plus, it was coming on the heels of the much-despised Ang Lee film, which while "interesting" was probably the last time any studio will allow an "auteur" free reign on such a big superhero project. It's telling that Incredible Hulk was filmed by sturdy but unremarkable action director Louis Leterrier, who has made some rock-solid action flicks but has no real thematic obsessions or recurring visual style. The only one of the early Marvel movies that really had a filmmaker with an established style was Kenneth Branagh on the first Thor, and that was mainly tilting the camera at a forty-five degree angle on every third shot. Other than Branagh, there was Joe Johnston on the first Capt. America, and he's basically a solid journeyman filmmaker with some very good films to his credit (The Rockteeter, the underrated Wolfman) and no real recurring ideas, like a B-list Steven Spielberg. Everyone since then has been a hired hand, and I understand why Edgar Wright bailed on Ant Man, because he was probably leery of Disney stepping on his neck and stripping out all of the quirky touches he likely would have brought to the material.

[Monterey Jack]

I wish I could add to the discussion -- but the truth is I fell asleep watching that movie!

Aside from Scarlett's ass packed into skintight leather, you didn't miss anything of any merit. It's a total drag. I vastly prefer the third movie which, for some reason, Marvel fans DESPISE to almsot the same baffling level as Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 (which is certainly flawed but at least is suffused with Raimi's prankish comic touches and has many legitimately great sequences amidst the megabudget bloat). In fact, I retract my earlier statement and will say that Shane Black was allowed fairly free reign on Iron Man 3 to fill it with his usual fetishes (Christmas setting, smart-assed kid sidekick). But that was probably all due to Robert Downey Jr.'s clout.

[AndyDursin]

ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD
6.5/10

Ridley Scott’s thriller about the real-life kidnapping of John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer) in the early ‘70s made more noise through its controversial dumping of star Kevin Spacey than it ultimately did at the box-office. Spacey originally played the Getty patriarch in “All The Money in the World,” but when last year’s rash of sexual-harassment claims engulfed the industry (Spacey among them), Scott made the decision to save his film from future negative publicity by reshooting all of Spacey’s scenes with Christopher Plummer.

At a reported cost of $10 million and with just weeks before the film was scheduled to debut, Scott was able to fairly seamlessly rework Plummer into the film – and it’s not just a cameo role, either, as the Getty grandfather decides to play fiscal hardball with the boy’s kidnappers, much to the frustration of his mother (Michelle Williams) and even a security expert (Mark Wahlberg) hired to track down his whereabouts.

Divorced, though, from the off-screen elements is a mostly well-acted but drawn-out affair that seems a good 15 minutes too long. Scott frames the action is his trademark visual style, and Plummer is quite excellent here. Less effective is Williams, whose weird, unconvincing accent is a constant distraction, and Wahlberg, whose role may have been better filled by an older character actor. I also confess that I found the film’s slow pacing a turnoff, especially in comparison with the more eccentric – and entertaining – treatment director Danny Boyle is giving the same source material in FX’s new series “Trust.”

Sony’s Blu-Ray is out this week including a 1080p (2.40) AVC encoded transfer; the 5.1 DTS MA sound is excellent, though Daniel Pemberton’s main theme sounds quite a bit reminiscent of the “First Confrontation” track from Danny Elfman’s “Batman” score. Extras include deleted scenes and several featurettes, including a five-minute look at the Plummer shoots. A digital copy rounds out the release.