Let’s Talk Movies! #31: Pandas, Zombies, Male Models, Superheroes, Greeks and…Caesar!

[Cachoo]

This looks like it has potential. I like Woody Allen's casting choices.

Café Society

I'm not crazy about Eisenberg generally but now that Woody is up in years I like him as the choice to play the "woody" character. I liked Owen Wilson too as "woody" in "Midnight in Paris." And Stewart has rebounded so nicely from her vampire days. This film looks like fun.

 

[Artemis@BC]

This looks like it has potential. I like Woody Allen's casting choices.

Café Society

Hmm, maybe. I'm not a fan of either Eisenberg or Stewart, but Eisenberg comes across as very Allen-esque in this trailer so that could work. Stewart looks as wooden as she always does, though, and might not be the right fit. But the setting looks glorious, and Carrell is always great, so there's definitely potential here.

 

[Johnny_Fever]

I thought Eisenberg was great in The Social Network. In reference to Stewart, well, I'm a guy.

 

[PeterG]

Watched Spotlight yesterday. Looooooved it!!! I even enjoyed Mark Ruffalo. (Wonder of wonders!) It was as if Ruffalo thought to himself, "hey, I've been in 50 movies now...I think I'm going to try some acting in this one!" I liked how he changed his voice as well as how he used his body. I'm glad Spotlight won the Oscar for best picture and best screenplay. Both really well deserved. Very confused about Rachel McAdams getting a best supporting actress nod. Her role was quite small and it just wasn't a role that required much of whoever was cast in the role. I like McAdams and think she's one of those people who just haven't been given work that demanded much of her, so I'm okay with some point in the future us talking about "Oscar winner" McAdams. But for this movie? Umm....nope. I'm sure there were a lot of better supporting actress performances this past year that should have got the nod instead of her. So after loving Spotlight, in a few weeks I'll probably see Room and I'll be griping about how it was robbed!!

In one of the freebie daily newspapers recently was an article about Jake Gylenhaal, talking about his new movie Demolition. They also listed his five best movies. Which made me think about the discussion we had about people overdue for an Oscar win (or somebody worthy of winning one at some point). The five best Jake G. movies they chose:

1. Brokeback Mountain
2. Nightcrawler
3. Zodiac
4. Enemy
5. End of Watch

What do you think? Agree with these as his top five? Or maybe move them around into a different order?

My favourite Jake performances:

1. Brothers
   
2. Brokeback Mountain
   
3. Nightcrawler
   
4. Enemy
   
5. The Good Girl
   
6. Bubble Boy
   
7. Moonlight Mile

I haven't seen Zodiac, otherwise I might have agree with four of the top five movies they picked. End of Watch I enjoyed, even thought it was the type of movie I did not think I would like. Same goes for Nightcrawler. But Jake picks good movies, so even when the movie doesn't interest me, I end up enjoying it. I've decided to see Zodiac for this very reason, even though the subject matter makes me want to run in the opposite direction. But I respect this choices, so I've finally given in. Gyllenhaal has given a lot of good performances (Source Code, Love & Other Drugs, Jarhead, etc.), but those performances haven't stayed with me as much as the ones I've listed above.

 

[Erin]

Watched Spotlight yesterday. Looooooved it!!! I even enjoyed Mark Ruffalo. (Wonder of wonders!) It was as if Ruffalo thought to himself, "hey, I've been in 50 movies now...I think I'm going to try some acting in this one!" I liked how he changed his voice as well as how he used his body. I'm glad Spotlight won the Oscar for best picture and best screenplay. Both really well deserved. Very confused about Rachel McAdams getting a best supporting actress nod. Her role was quite small and it just wasn't a role that required much of whoever was cast in the role. I like McAdams and think she's one of those people who just haven't been given work that demanded much of her, so I'm okay with some point in the future us talking about "Oscar winner" McAdams. But for this movie? Umm....nope. I'm sure there were a lot of better supporting actress performances this past year that should have got the nod instead of her.

I'm glad you mentioned this because I felt exactly the same way about McAdams getting a nomination but couldn't think of how to put it into words. You managed to verbalize the thoughts in my mind. I love McAdams though, so hopefully this nomination opens the door to future recognition that is more deserved.

I did briefly wonder if maybe the supporting actress roles were really weak this year, considering that two of the nominations were really for leading roles and then McAdams took one of the remaining three nominations with that performance. But I don't think that's true. Just thinking of the movies I've seen recently, I'd put Joan Allen in Room, Jessica Chastain in The Martian, and several of the supporting actresses in Brooklyn above McAdams.

 

[Xela M]

Watched "Tristan and Isolde" (2006) yesterday only because I was shocked by how incredibly handsome James Franco looked in the trailer As expected, the film itself is a Romeo & Juliet type of love story (obviously for people who know the legend of Tristan & Isolde this may not be a surprise).

But but but... James Franco as Tristan.... OH MY GOD he was hot! Shades of a young Jim Morrison... http://i83.servimg.com/u/f83/12/23/08/95/88299_10.jpg

Here's the trailer where he is even more beautiful... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375154/ I've never seen him look this handsome before or after

 

[Artemis@BC]

Keanu is getting decent reviews. However I'm not sure I can watch it. I really like Key & Peele, I think they're hilarious, but generally only in small doses. More importantly, I'm not sure I can watch a kitten in peril even when I know, know, that no real kittens were harmed in the making of the film.

 

[Cachoo]

I too thought Jake was great in "Brothers." I have not seen some of the movies mentioned. I look forward to seeing him in "Everest" soon.

I just watched a strange little film written and directed by Ryan Gosling called "Lost River." It starred Christina Hendricks and Saoirse Ronan.
It was the present but clearly something had happened that decimated populations and life as we know it. I suspect something environmental. The film was odd but it certainly held my interest.

 

[watchthis!!]

Stephen King's It will hit theaters on September 18th, 2017
http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/24/11498018/stephen-king-it-release-date

Cary Fukunaga (Beast Of No Nation) was originally going to direct, but might have quit because of over creative differences. Andrés Muscietti (Mama, which starred Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) will direct instead.

Will Poulter (The Revenant, We're The Millers) was going to play the lead role of Pennywise (which Tim Curry played in the original TV version), but has backed out as well.

 

[watchthis!!]

IGN's Summer 2016 Movie Preview
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2016/04/25/igns-summer-2016-movie-preview

So who's ready for Finding Dory? Or maybe Alexander Skarsgard [True Blood] as Tarzan? How about a comedy starring Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Christina Applegate and Jada Pinkett Smith? Or Ewan McGregor as Jesus as well as

Spoiler

the devil?

Oh, and apparently there will be a superhero movie released this summer.

 

[Artemis@BC]

Oh, and apparently there will be a superhero movie released this summer.

Only one?

 

[A.H.Black]

Don't know if this has already been mentioned. http://www.fathomevents.com/event/on-the-waterfront-second-showing

On the Waterfront is being shown on the big screen in many cities across the nation on Wednesday this week. I saw it once on the big screen. Marvelous film. "I coulda been a contenda"

 

[PeterG]

Weekend Domestic Chart for April 22nd, 2016

Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain, Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt are no match for lions and tigers and bears. Oh my! The Jungle Book stays at #1 for the second week, making 40 million more than The Huntsman. The Jungle Book made over 60 million and took in an average of $15,278 per theatre, compared to The Huntsman which made just under 20 million and made only $5,129 per theatre. Snow White and The Huntsman made 155 million domestically and 245 internationally, so 400 million worldwide. I know at one time that the producers of the sequel wanted to keep the director of the original, but dropped Kristen Stewart after reports of the two of them having an affair. There's a new director for The Huntsman, but no Stewart. It'll be interesting to see how this sequel does in the long run. Not a good beginning. Is Stewart a big enough draw to have made the first movie such a hit? And is Hemsworth so not a draw that he can't seem to be in a hit movie unless the title begins with "Marvel Presents..."?

One other thing about The Huntsman, similar to what happened with Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle: Charlize Theron found out that for Snow White and The Huntsman that she got paid less than what Chris Hemsworth did. She demanded equal pay for this sequel. She got it.

Tom Hanks new movie, A Hologram for the King, debuted at #11 and made just over one million. It played at 401 theatres where it averaged $2,839 per theatre. Can't remember the last time Tom Hanks released such a bomb. The Ladykillers in 2004??

 

[Buzz]

LOL about Hemsworth! So true!

 

[cocotaffy]

I finally watched Room yesterday and I was a little disappointed. It felt like a Lifetime movie to be honest. The actress plays well though but the cinematography and the post escape story could have been handled with more originality.
@Xela M , I know I was so chocked about James Franco in that movie. I'm a sucker for cheesy romantic movie and cherry on the cake when it's a period one. Then no stopping me, my overly romantic side takes over. Also I always like me some Rufus Sewell. Have you seen the mini series The pillar of the earth based on a novel by Ken Follett ? Quite nice.

 

[Xela M]

@Xela M , I know I was so chocked about James Franco in that movie. I'm a sucker for cheesy romantic movie and cherry on the cake when it's a period one. Then no stopping me, my overly romantic side takes over. Also I always like me some Rufus Sewell. Have you seen the mini series The pillar of the earth based on a novel by Ken Follett ? Quite nice.

Haven't seen it (will have a look) but Rufus Sewell is very handsome, although I hated his modern haircut in Tristan & Isolde - I'm a sucker for long hair.

James Franco should never cut his hair! With the brown curls, the brooding heavy lids, the little smirk he really gives off that Jim Mirrison vibe

 

[Cachoo]

Weekend Domestic Chart for April 22nd, 2016


One other thing about The Huntsman, similar to what happened with Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle: Charlize Theron found out that for Snow White and The Huntsman that she got paid less than what Chris Hemsworth did. She demanded equal pay for this sequel. She got it.

I have a feeling both Charlize and Jen could cut anyone down to size if it was needed. Good for Charlize.
I have a question for Peter or for anyone who cares to comment. So I'm waiting for a good teaser for the Jennifer Lawrence/Chris Pratt film "Passengers" and this is placed on Youtube. I thought it was simply promoting another movie with the same name with Patrick Wilson and Anne Hathaway. But then there is a photo of Pratt and Lawrence later in the video. Why bother making this video? Does someone get a paycheck if enough people look at it?

https://youtu.be/K_K8iFeEAlQ

 

[PeterG]

I saw a good documentary called Message From Hiroshima. It is very well done, unlike the movie about the after affects of the tsunami in Japan a few years back, which was oddly hollow and devoid of much feeling. Message From Hiroshima is a much better movie, actually rather calm, which is a good thing considering it's about the people still alive who were greatly affected by the atom bomb that was dropped on their city in World War II. I believe the man who made this was a child from Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped, he was out of town but the rest of his family was in Hiroshima and all were killed. He interviews many other people who were children from Hiroshima, all out of the city at that time, but pretty much all of them were left orphaned and alone. The movie is narrated by George Takei, who serves the movie well but keeping things a mixture of both factual/informational as well as touching/moving. But never does the movie go too far (or give us too little) as far as the emotions of the situation. I definitely recommend this one. Here's the trailer from youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b45XeQAI94c

...why bother making this video? Does someone get a paycheck if enough people look at it?

https://youtu.be/K_K8iFeEAlQ

You have been Rickrolled. (So to speak.) The video you linked to has zero thumbs up and seven thumbs down. Looks like the whole channel is prank videos. Somebody who has WAY too much time on their hand and makes stupid, empty videos. Unless they're an uber about these movies and just want something online when the studio is slow to put something up themselves. And this person isn't very good at making fan videos if that's the case.

 

[Cachoo]

I saw a good documentary called Message From Hiroshima. It is very well done, unlike the movie about the after affects of the tsunami in Japan a few years back, which was oddly hollow and devoid of much feeling. Message From Hiroshima is a much better movie, actually rather calm, which is a good thing considering it's about the people still alive who were greatly affected by the atom bomb that was dropped on their city in World War II. I believe the man who made this was a child from Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped, he was out of town but the rest of his family was in Hiroshima and all were killed. He interviews many other people who were children from Hiroshima, all out of the city at that time, but pretty much all of them were left orphaned and alone. The movie is narrated by George Takei, who serves the movie well but keeping things a mixture of both factual/informational as well as touching/moving. But never does the movie go too far (or give us too little) as far as the emotions of the situation. I definitely recommend this one. Here's the trailer from youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b45XeQAI94c



You have been Rickrolled. (So to speak.) The video you linked to has zero thumbs up and seven thumbs down. Looks like the whole channel is prank videos. Somebody who has WAY too much time on their hand and makes stupid, empty videos. Unless they're an uber about these movies and just want something online when the studio is slow to put something up themselves. And this person isn't very good at making fan videos if that's the case.

Well you learn something new everyday. I thought it had to be an actual Astley video to be rickrolled. But I'm glad to know this. I was thinking something a bit ominous and also thinking I was being silly about the ominous stuff. It would have been nice to see something more creative even if it wasn't the actual film. Thank you Peter.

 

[Artemis@BC]

I watched Trumbo last night. Loved it. I was inclined to, as I've always been fascinated (and outraged) about anything to do with the blacklist / McCarthyism, but this was just so well done. I'm surprised it didn't get more love than it did.

And yes, Bryan Cranston was deserved of his Oscar nom, he was terrific, but how about Diane Lane? It's so difficult to play that kind of steady character against a more eccentric one, but she pulled it off with aplomb. The supporting cast was also great, especially Louis CK -- even though he always comes across as Louis CK playing a character, he's also adept at picking the roles where that works for him, as it did here.

 

[PeterG]

Well you learn something new everyday. I thought it had to be an actual Astley video to be rickrolled. But I'm glad to know this. I was thinking something a bit ominous and also thinking I was being silly about the ominous stuff. It would have been nice to see something more creative even if it wasn't the actual film. Thank you Peter.

You weren't literally Rickrolled. You were just pranked. Unless the person making those videos is an uber-fan who makes crappy videos! (To be rickrolled by the way, Rick Astley has to be involved!)

 

[Johnny_Fever]

...........Somebody who has WAY too much time on their hand.............

You mean the right one is otherwise engaged? Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[PeterG]

You mean the right one is otherwise engaged? Sorry, couldn't resist.

Good catch. Gotta hand it to you!

 

[Buzz]

Captain America: Civil War opens tomorrow in Europe and here in NA next week. It still has a 97% rating on RT, a 85% on Metacritic, and 8.3/10 on IMDb and there are about four trailers out for this thing. Staying away from spoilers for nine more days will be tough!

 

[watchthis!!]

I watched In The Heart Of The Sea recently, thought it was a very well-made movie. Not sure why audiences didn’t take to it more than they did. I’d say the look of the movie was the best part of it, but the story was good and the acting was great as well. The only thing that seemed out of the ordinary is that usually big Hollywood movies end with the big dramatic moment, but that happened more in the middle of this movie. And nowadays people like the big bang part of the movie to last a looooong time, so when the whale attacking bit didn't last half the movie, some people felt let down!! Maybe some people didn’t take to a movie that took it’s time winding down the story after the big moments. Or maybe changing the movie title from Moby Dick didn’t keep mass audiences from feeling it was a movie based on some old, long, stuffy book? Their loss!

 

[PeterG]

New movies coming out this weekend below. Keanu looks so good!!! I'm maybe yes, maybe no about Mother's Day. Anybody planning on seeing it?


Apr. 29th – Keanu - Comedy with Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Method Man, Gabrielle Union and Will Forte
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhwuhhHYNgw

April 29th - The Man Who Knew Infinity (Limited) – Drama with Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Stephen Fry, Toby Jones and Jeremy Northam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXGm9Vlfx4w

Apr. 29th - Mother's Day – Comedy drama with Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Timothy Olyphant, Jason Sudeikis, Hilary Duff, Sarah Chalke, Jon Lovitz and Margo Martindale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BPr217zLps

Apr. 29th - Ratchet & Clank - Animated sci-fi action comedy with Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, Rosario Dawson and Sylvester Stallone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvWRilQ9lnI

April 29th - Papa Hemingway in Cuba – Drama with Giovanni Ribisi, Joely Richardson, Adrian Sparks and Mariel Hemmingway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC130UBgtfk

April 29th - Special Correspondents (Netflix) – Comedy with Ricky Gervais, Vera Farmiga, Eric Bana, America Ferrera, Benjamin Bratt and Kevin Pollak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kKTFAEQgSY

April 29th - Sacrifice (Limited) – Thriller with Radha Mitchell and Rupert Graves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0nzT4_RCg4

April 29th - A Beautiful Planet (IMAX) – 45 minute documentary. From imdb.com: “An exploration of Earth and beyond as seen from the International Space Station. Narrated by Jennifer Lawrence.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJpLjXbGIkQ

April 29th - Term Life (Limited) – Crime drama with Vince Vaughn, Hailee Steinfeld, Taraji P. Henson, Bill Paxton, Terrence Howard, Jon Favreau and Annabeth Gish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaCIQV8tHi0

April 29th - Viva (Limited) – Drama, new cast. From imdb.com: “When everything is for sale, what's the value of love? Jesus does make up for a troupe of drag performers in Havana, but dreams of being a performer. When he finally gets his chance to be on stage, a stranger emerges from the crowd…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlR8W4xMLVk

 

[Jay42]

Captain America: Civil War opens tomorrow in Europe and here in NA next week. It still has a 97% rating on RT, a 85% on Metacritic, and 8.3/10 on IMDb and there are about four trailers out for this thing. Staying away from spoilers for nine more days will be tough!

Thanks to my work schedule and a trip to visit my grandparents the week after Civil War comes out I may have to wait until the following week to see it and I'm not sure I'll be able to avoid spoilers. That said, there is one spoiler that my brother and I think we've figured out and now I just want to know if we're right or not.

 

[Buzz]

I've read some of the latest YouTube comments and so far it seems fans LOVED the movie!


EDITED TO ADD:

RT now has 48 reviews registered and CA: Civil War has ticked up 1% to 98%!
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/captain_america_civil_war/

 

[Cachoo]

Real Genius: I have not watched this film for years and saw it again today; so much fun and funny too and the science kinda, sorta holds up after all of these years. I think that might be my favorite Val Kilmer part. "Ken this is GOD." Poor Ken.

 

[Xela M]

Watched "True Story" last night about Christian Longo. Unbelievable crime. I don't actually know of a more chilling story because he is so incredibly normal. Like it could happen to the most ordinary of guys. And his behaviour at the trial was truly evil beyond belief. I still cannot understand why he chose to do what he did.

The film itself was meh... It was quite boring and a lot of the scenes are made up. Such a story deserves a better film, although Christian Longo doesn't deserve any more publicity.

James Franco as the lead was great.