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

[watchthis!!]

‘Absolutely Fabulous’ Trailer: Edina and Patsy Kill Kate Moss and May Never Recover
http://www.slashfilm.com/absolutely-fabulous-movie-trailer/

The last series was in 2011. The movie has cameos from Rebel Wilson and Jon Hamm and opens on July 22 in North America and July 1 in the UK. Here's the trailer at youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4N0HToAnMY

 

[Integrity]

Midnight Special - not that good. Too many plot holes.

I really didn't like Everybody Wants Some. One of the worst movies I've seen. Don't understand the high ratings in RT and IMDB. So called "Dazed and Confused" sequel - doesn't touch D & C in my eyes.

Enjoyed Eye in the Sky. Great performance by Alan Rickman .

Sorry if I've posted about 10 Cloverfield Lane already - I liked it until the final 20 minutes. John Goodman was outstanding.

 

[agalisgv]

Saw Criminal. I'd give it a 6.5. It kept my attention and was able to cover my eyes during gruesome scenes of which there weren't an overabundance. It's entertaiing enough, but I don't know that I'd go out of my way to see it.

Midnight Special - not that good. Too many plot holes.

Aw, I was hoping it was good. Darn!

 

[PeterG]

Sh** People Say To Women Directors (and other Women In Film)

Ugh.

 

[smurfy]

I saw Purple Rain tonight in a theatre. I only saw it once before - when it was released. I remembered so much of it. Very good movie, great music. Sad to see at the same time. What a talent. Glad I went to a theatre - so much better than on tv.

 

[Cachoo]

It seems either Mom, the doggy or I has a late night and tonight it is me and the dog. I watched a film called "Maggie" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigal Breslin. Abigal plays Arnold's daughter who has contracted a virus that turns her to a zombie eventually. This isn't a film with zombies roaming the earth.
It is a father and daughter who have to deal with this horrible virus that will eventually kill her or turn her into a killer. The earth has been decimated by it but many have not contracted the virus and are trying to get on with their lives.

First this is the best I've ever seen Arnold. He is haggard and old and heartbroken and does not contain a smidgeon of the tough guys he normally plays. If he has the chance he should take more roles like this one.

I have watched Abigail Breslin in roles when she was pre-school age to grade school age to a teenager and now a young woman. I think she is a terrific actress. It galls me that she is not gorgeous because I think the powers that be like talented children who turn into beauties like Natalie Wood or Natalie Portman. I hope she is not cast aside because of this. Fingers crossed that Hollywood is changing. .....AAANNNDD after reading the article Peter posted I'm thinking maybe not. Maddening.

 

[Aussie Willy]

Okay I was doing an IMDB search on another film to check what it was about and then saw the trailer for Keanu.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4139124/?ref_=tt_rec_tt

I have to see this. It looks really funny and who can resist a kitten.

 

[Buzz]

The kitty is the reason I want to see this.

 

[Aussie Willy]

This afternoon saw Florence Foster Jenkins. Really good fun movie. Meryl does a great job at singing badly. Hugh Grant is quite lovely as her devoted husband. Worth seeing.

 

[Japanfan]

Sh** People Say To Women Directors (and other Women In Film)

Ugh.

Those situations and quotes are really depressing. Hollywood remains an old white boy's club for the most part.

I think the European film industry is more female-friendly. It seems that women need to be talented as well as beautiful, and in some cases, not necessarily beautiful. And there are more roles for older women as well.

 

[Seerek]

They assembled quite a cast for Hello, My Name is Doris (actors from current TV shows Orange Is the New Black, 2 Broke Girls, New Girl, Goldbergs plus Tyne Daly, Steven Root). The trappings that Sally Field (as Doris) gets herself into are quite awkward and uncomfortable, but she (Doris) embraces her unexpected adventures with unbridled (bordering on delusional) zest. The better scenes are Field with Tyne Daly, who as best friends feed off each other very well.

 

[Cachoo]

Watching Big Fish for the second time since 2003. I now see a very young Marion Cottilard and an even younger "Destiny" Cyrus. This might be my favorite Tim Burton film.

 

[watchthis!!]

I saw Boulevard recently. It's the one where Robin Williams experiences big changes in his life around self-acceptance. It's a really wonderful film, rather quiet but still has quite an impact. It co-stars Kathy Baker and Bob Odenkirk, who are just as good as Robin Williams, who carries the movie, being in pretty much every scene. Here's the trailer for Boulevard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCdUubr70i8

 

[TheGirlCanSkate]

We were really sad to miss The Little Prince in the theater. It was such a short showing.

 

[watchthis!!]

Ghostbusters trailer brings on the ire of misogynists

With close to 602,000 thumbs-down, compared with a modest 213,000 likes, the promo has set off a tsunami of hate, with commenters debating whether the passionate aversion expressed by so many people is based on the gender question, or if the film simply looks like it might be a second-rate stinker.

Some of the comments about the trailer/movie are both and at the same time! Sometimes I hate being reminded of the stupidity that exists in our world...

 

[Buzz]

Where is Peter?

 

[VGThuy]

Here's an interesting article that gives a lot of personal insight about the Hollywood film making process (i.e. Aeon Flux) from director of the 2000 film Girl Fight, Karyn Kusama.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/...tion-girlfight?utm_term=.yjMO6qGBa#.hqRnxJG3P

It talks about misogyny in Hollywood, but even if you didn't care about that particular topic, there's a lot in the article that anyone who is interested about the industry can take out of it.

 

[Cachoo]

https://youtu.be/ul7kA785jdQ The Invitation....sounds like psychological horror....and getting good reviews.

 

[PeterG]

I think I just watched the greatest acting performance of all time tonight. The movie is Elephant Song and the actor's name is Xavier Dolan. I'm star-struck and dumbfounded and shellshocked and everything else in the book. The movie is stunning and I swear Xavier Dolan is the most talented being on the planet. I'm obsessed with him now and I'm going to have to seek out every movie he has ever been a part of. He is only 27, got his first movie role at five years of age, apparently has dubbed pretty much ever actor of his generation for the French language version of their movies and has been been feature in eleven movies since his first role. He has also written and directed seven movies. For fear of spoiling the movie in any way, I'll just give this synopsis from imdb.com:

A psychiatrist is drawn into a complex mind game when he questions a disturbed patient about the disappearance of a colleague.

Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgjrJ1zfAqM

Elephant Song co-stars Bruce Greenwood, Catherine Keener and Carrie-Anne Moss.

Where is Peter?

 

[VGThuy]

I think I just watched the greatest acting performance of all time tonight. The movie is Elephant Song and the actor's name is Xavier Dolan. I'm star-struck and dumbfounded and shellshocked and everything else in the book. The movie is stunning and I swear Xavier Dolan is the most talented being on the planet. I'm obsessed with him now and I'm going to have to seek out every movie he has ever been a part of. He is only 27, got his first movie role at five years of age, apparently has dubbed pretty much ever actor of his generation for the French language version of their movies and has been been feature in eleven movies since his first role. He has also written and directed seven movies. For fear of spoiling the movie in any way, I'll just give this synopsis from imdb.com:



Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgjrJ1zfAqM

Elephant Song co-stars Bruce Greenwood, Catherine Keener and Carrie-Anne Moss.

I'm definitely checking that out. You should watch his directed feature, Mommy. It was one of my favorite movies of 2014 (probably top 2). I think he's a young talent to watch out for and he's already shown so much skill and ability. He also has good taste for inspiration. When he won the Jury Prize at Cannes for Mommy he said this of Jane Campion who was the Jury president: "The Piano [Campion's film] was the first film that I watched that truly defined who I am … It made me want to write films for beautiful women with soul and will and strength. To even stand on the same stage as you [Campion] is extraordinary." I fully agree with him and am glad he wants to create great fully-realized roles for women.

Speaking of young talent, I wonder what Benh Zeitlin is up to. His next film sounds interesting: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplayl...nh-zeitlin-gearing-up-new-film-wendy-20150806

 

[Vash01]

I recently bought the DVD of Mockingjay part 2. Watched it a few times, and at one time with the Director's commentary. It was interesting to hear where different scenes were filmed. For example, the District 2 scenes were from a German war-time place. The 'pods' place was an apartment building in Paris. He said sometime they would see people hanging out of their windows (to watch the movie shooting) and they had to digitally remove them.

Katniss's children were her 'niece' (Bear, the toddler- I think it was a girl but not sure) and nephew (Theodore, the baby). I had noticed the last names 'Lawrence' in the credits when I saw the movie in theatres, but I was not sure if they were related to either Jennifer or Francis (director).

Most of the Hunger Games movies were shot at least partially in Atlanta. I think the tunnels and the surrounding areas were in Atlanta. The place where Katniss-Peeta had their chariots in the first two movies was a parking lot near a train station, I think (will need to watch again, since I don't remember clearly).

As expected, he said that due to Phillip Seymor (sp?) Hoffman's death they had to put his last speech in a letter to Katniss, and it was less effective (I am paraphrasing) but they had no choice, obviously. He didn't mention any other scene where they had to use CGI for PSH.

Overall I had enjoyed MJ2, despite some of its flaws. The director's commentary showed how much thought and efforts had gone into making this movie (and the earlier HG movies). I really enjoyed watching the DVD.

 

[Aussie Willy]

Another film that I am looking forward to seeing called Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It is a New Zealand film and stars Sam Neill. Saw the preview the other day and it look really good and very funny. IMDB details with trailer.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4698684/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

 

[Cachoo]

Ghostbusters trailer brings on the ire of misogynists



Some of the comments about the trailer/movie are both and at the same time! Sometimes I hate being reminded of the stupidity that exists in our world...

I didn't like the idea of remaking the film with the same plot. I would have liked to see the GB as a group who have been successful for years and these are their descendants with a new story. But I know some guys were going to be haters no matter how good the movie might be....

 

[VGThuy]

I didn't like the idea of remaking the film with the same plot. I would have liked to see the GB as a group who have been successful for years and these are their descendants with a new story. But I know some guys were going to be haters no matter how good the movie might be....

I don't quite know the timeline, but I bet they could have done that if more of the original Ghostbusters were more supportive.

 

[watchthis!!]

I didn't like the idea of remaking the film with the same plot. I would have liked to see the GB as a group who have been successful for years and these are their descendants with a new story. But I know some guys were going to be haters no matter how good the movie might be....

I don't quite know the timeline, but I bet they could have done that if more of the original Ghostbusters were more supportive.

Listed in the cast credits for the movie are Murray, Akroyd, Weaver, Potts and Hudson. But none of the4se five havebeen given character names. Maybe they'll only be seen in flashbacks? But that wouldn't make sense if the movie has the same plot? Where did you hear that from, @Cachoo? Or maybe they will be playing roles that are secretive, so no character names have been given. If that's the case, I think the story would be rather different from the original?

The only original cast members that are not in the new movie are Harold Ramis (who passed away in 2014) and Rick Moranis. I assume that with pretty much everyone from the original movie being in the new movie that this means they are supportive. What have you heard, @VIETgrlTerifa ?

By the way, of the four female leads in this movie, none of them share the same surname with any of the four male leads from the original. This seems like they will be completely new characters, which I assume means it would be a totally new story as well??

 

[NinjaTurtles]

Listed in the cast credits for the movie are Murray, Akroyd, Weaver, Potts and Hudson. But none of the4se five havebeen given character names. Maybe they'll only be seen in flashbacks? But that wouldn't make sense if the movie has the same plot? Where did you hear that from, @Cachoo? Or maybe they will be playing roles that are secretive, so no character names have been given. If that's the case, I think the story would be rather different from the original?

The only original cast members that are not in the new movie are Harold Ramis (who passed away in 2014) and Rick Moranis. I assume that with pretty much everyone from the original movie being in the new movie that this means they are supportive. What have you heard, @VIETgrlTerifa ?

By the way, of the four female leads in this movie, none of them share the same surname with any of the four male leads from the original. This seems like they will be completely new characters, which I assume means it would be a totally new story as well??

The new film doesn't acknowledge the past films/events at all:

"It's a reboot. It's weird that they said the '30 years ago' because in the movie the first ["Ghostbusters"] didn't happen," she said on Johnjay and Rich.

http://www.cnet.com/news/melissa-mccarthy-didnt-get-ghostbusters-reboot-trailer/

The first trailer wasn't very funny, but I saw a slightly different one in theaters recently that was better. I think a lot of what annoys people is that it feels more like a remake and SONY has a habit of remaking/rebooting films that many cherish and want to protect from such revisions. A lot of artists don't want their work remade/rebooted, which I totally appreciate. Harold Ramis isn't here to comment, unfortunately. Robert Zemeckis has said that the only way someone is rebooting Back to the Future is over his dead body.

Related, SONY is remaking Jumanji.

 

[Cachoo]

By the way, of the four female leads in this movie, none of them share the same surname with any of the four male leads from the original. This seems like they will be completely new characters, which I assume means it would be a totally new story as well??[/QUOTE]

That is what I hope: What I fear is that they are telling the same story only with female leads.

 

[Cachoo]

I just watched "Joy" for the first time and enjoyed it. David O. Russell said he told Joy the screenplay will be only partially true and Joy ok'd it. I was actually a bit relieved to find out that her somewhat combative half sister is total fiction. This isn't my favorite Russell flick but I give him credit for doing a movie that is not centered around crime or superheroes. It certainly held my interest.

 

[PeterG]

Movies coming out this weekend:

May 6th - Captain America: Civil War – Superhero action adventure with Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Paul Bettany, Daniel Brühl, Frank Grillo, Don Cheadle, Emily VanCamp, William Hurt and Martin Freeman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKrVegVI0Us

May 6th - The Family Fang (Limited) – Drama with Christopher Walken, Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman and Kathryn Hahn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-jWH0tIrak

May 6th - Mothers & Daughters (Limited) – Drama with Christna Ricci, Susan Sarandon, Corutney Cox, Sharon Stone, Mira Sorvino, Selma Blair and Gilles Marini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZywyJ0o3g4Q

May 6th - Elstree 1976 (Limited) – Documentary. From imdb.com: “Actors and extras reminisce about their time on the set of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and how making the film effected their lives.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IhEuYdArz4

May 6th - Dheepan (Limited) – French drama, new cast. From imdb.com: “Dheepan is a Sri Lankan Tamil warrior who flees to France and ends up working as a caretaker outside Paris.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpXHi7TGYpg

May 6th – Disorder aka Maryland (Limited) – Dramatic thriller with Matthias Schoenaerts and Diane Kruger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMThvaCTAm0

May 6th - Pele: Birth of a Legend (Limited) – Sports drama with Vincent D'Onofrio, Rodrigo Santoro and Colm Meaney
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBrfxHOXsDE

May 4th - A Bigger Splash (Limited) – Mystery crime drama with Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRQioAYem3o

May 6th - Being Charlie (Limited) – Romantic drama with Nick Robinson [Jurassic World], Common, Cary Elwes, directed by Rob Reiner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SDAKgyqKNI

May 6th - Dark Horse (Limited) – Documentary drama. From imdb.com: “An inspirational true story of a group of friends from a working men's club who decide to take on the elite 'sport of kings' and breed themselves a racehorse.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DulrxbnzF2U

May 6th - The Idol (Limited) – Biographical drama. From imdb.com: “There are things that are impossible to forget.” (That’s all she wrote!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF0Fh3WU5LI

May 6th - Rabin, in His Own Words (Limited) – Documentary. From imdb.com: “20 years after his assassination, Yitzhak Rabin himself tells his dramatic life story.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n65ybQNeAUY

May 6th - Those People (Limited) – Romantic drama, new cast. From imdb.com: “On Manhattan's gilded Upper East Side, a young gay painter is torn between an obsession with his infamous best friend and a promising new romance with an older foreign pianist.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-yM9ahuAeo

May 6th - Opening Night (Limited) – Romantic comedy drama with Anthony Rapp and Cheyenne Jackson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_zCa9JLk4w

May 6th - Code of Honor (Limited) – Action with Steven Seagal and Craig Sheffer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrVR3lUPzCQ

 

[Cachoo]

I want to see Elstree 1976