Let's Talk Movies #35 – Sparrows and Panthers and Dinosaurs…Oh My!

Which Movies Might You See? (Multiple Votes Allowed)

  • Feb. 16th - Black Panther – Action adventure with Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan and Lupita Nyo

    Votes: 32 60.4%
  • March 2nd - Red Sparrow – Mystery thriller with Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton and Mary-Louise Pa

    Votes: 15 28.3%
  • March 9th - A Wrinkle In Time – Adventure fantasy with Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Oprah Winfr

    Votes: 26 49.1%
  • March 16th - Tomb Raider – Action adventure with Alicia Vikander, Walton Goggins and Kristin Scott T

    Votes: 10 18.9%
  • March 30th – Ready Player One – Sci-fi adventure with Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke and Simon Pegg

    Votes: 10 18.9%
  • May 4th - Avengers: Infinity War – Adventure fantasy with nobody famous

    Votes: 27 50.9%
  • May 18th - Deadpool 2 – Adventure comedy with Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin and T. J. Miller

    Votes: 19 35.8%
  • May 25th - Solo: A Star Wars Story – Adventure fantsy with Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover and Woody

    Votes: 27 50.9%
  • June 8th - Ocean's 8 – Action thriller with Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway

    Votes: 24 45.3%
  • June 22nd - Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – Action sci-fi with Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and

    Votes: 22 41.5%

  • Total voters
    53
Do I need to see the earlier movies to understand Captain Marvel?

Last night I saw ‘Zero dark thirty’ on dvd. I had seen it in a theatre but had forgotten mist of it, except for the subject. Good movie. I think when it came out, I had gotten so tired of waiting for its release that I didn’t appreciate it the way I did last night. IMO Jessica Chastain should have won the Oscar for this. I was not enamored with Silver linings playbook and I would have placed Chastain ‘s performance over Lawrence’s. I think the very late release really hurt her chances.

I'll never understand Jennifer Lawrence's Oscar win. I thought she was the 4th best out of the nominees and if given the choice, she would not have been nominated.
 
Do I need to see the earlier movies to understand Captain Marvel?

Last night I saw ‘Zero dark thirty’ on dvd. I had seen it in a theatre but had forgotten mist of it, except for the subject. Good movie. I think when it came out, I had gotten so tired of waiting for its release that I didn’t appreciate it the way I did last night. IMO Jessica Chastain should have won the Oscar for this. I was not enamored with Silver linings playbook and I would have placed Chastain ‘s performance over Lawrence’s. I think the very late release really hurt her chances.
No Captain Marvel takes place before everything but the first Captain America movie.

I’m totally with you about Jessica Chastain deserving the Oscar that year. I didn’t particularly care for Zero Dark Thirty overall but her performance was amazing. Jennifer Lawrence has the power of Harvey Weinstein on her side too that year though and he got that hype train going hard for her.
 
I'll never understand Jennifer Lawrence's Oscar win. I thought she was the 4th best out of the nominees and if given the choice, she would not have been nominated.

That was indeed baffling. I thought it was also a nod to her performances in 'The Hunger Games' and 'Winter's Bone'.

Jennifer Lawrence has the power of Harvey Weinstein on her side too that year though and he got that hype train going hard for her.

That too. Lawrence was pretty much a Hollywood it girl at the time she got the Oscar, probably still is.

I particularly liked her in 'Joy'. There was a scene in it with her selling a mop on TV show that was a stroke of brilliance.
 
That was indeed baffling. I thought it was also a nod to her performances in 'The Hunger Games' and 'Winter's Bone'.



That too. Lawrence was pretty much a Hollywood it girl at the time she got the Oscar, probably still is.

I particularly liked her in 'Joy'. There was a scene in it with her selling a mop on TV show that was a stroke of brilliance.

I think you and @Nell411 are right. I did love her in Winter's Bone and I do think she has talent. I just thought her Osar for that film was sort of too soon considering the type of performance she gave and it seemed heavily pushed for future marketing purposes and giving credibility to a new Hollywood ingenue that they could cast in big budget studio movies. I haven't seen Joy yet, but maybe I'll give it a chance.
 
Saw Endgame tonight. I have mixed feelings. Some of it was done well. Some of it, I felt, suffered from lazy scriptwriting.

Spoilers below for three key things:

First, just wanted to say how much I knew Natasha was going to die as soon as she and Clint went off to Vormir. It made no sense for Clint to because his whole arc was about getting his family back. So I knew it would be Natasha. I still cried.

I am mad pissed off that they killed Tony. For god's sake, that guy's been through hell and back multiple times, let him have a nice happy ending with his wife and daughter. I mean yes, ultimately it was one of the best, most fitting things in the movie, but jeepers, the universe needed to cut Tony Stark a break. And yes, I bawled my eyes out.

The ending for Steve makes zero sense. For starters, it screws up all of the time travel logic they present in the movie. Then it opens up so many plot-holes. Does he then get rid of Hydra in the 50s and save Bucky early, before Bucky is Winter Soldier-fied? Plus, how did his old self then reappear back in the present timeline? Also, considering Steve spent all of Winter Soldier and Civil War proving just how far he'd go for Bucky, it seems out of character that he'd so happily abandon him in this timeline. Because he took a pretty big chance that he wouldn't die of old age before returning to the spot he left Bucky.

And speaking of Steve-and-Bucky - I was also a little annoyed that we got a bunch of other emotional reunions - Tony and Peter, Quill and Gamora (even if that wasn't a real reunion) - but they're not seriously trying to tell me that Steve and Bucky didn't immediately make their way to each other and call each other punk and jerk while faux-reaming the other out for doing something stupid?

Oh, and one last thing: Carol was the victim so much lazy script-writing in this movie. They literally just forgot about her during the middle sequence and then deus ex machina'd her back into the equation at the end.
 
Endgame - SPOILERS:

Totally agree about the ending to Steve’s story. That is the biggest problem I had with the movie. Steve went through all that to save his friends then abandons them? Peggy had a long full life and him going back robs her of that life and just seemed selfish. Not to mention it messed up the timeline but caused no negative consequences? Am I the only one who remembers Steve playing kissy face with Sharon Carter? It would have been better if they killed him off too. Tony and Thor met their murdered parents but didn’t try to save them for fear of messing up the timeline, but that real went out the window with Steve. Still have mad love for this movie however. :D
 
Finally saw everything I'm going to see. It turns out I had seen some of these movies before and had just forgotten. :shuffle: Went to get tickets to Endgame and there weren't any good ones. Mr. Mac didn't buy them when I asked because "it's not like it's opening weekend or anything." :rolleyes:

We're going Monday night. Oh and I'm old enough for the Senior price. :wuzrobbed
 
Saw Endgame tonight. I have mixed feelings. Some of it was done well. Some of it, I felt, suffered from lazy scriptwriting.

Spoilers below for three key things:

The ending for Steve makes zero sense. For starters, it screws up all of the time travel logic they present in the movie.
There was logic to the time travel?

Seriously though, I've seen a lot of bad time travel and Endgame's time travel is so bad.

The Russo's said that Steve staying with Peggy created a new time stream (I'm guessing following the logic presented by The Ancient One) so it's not supposed to affect the prime timeline IIRC. Steve making out with Sharon in Winter Soldier was always weird though.

Controversial opinion, I'm fine with Tony being dead. It's a comic based universe though so they could resurrect him if RDJ wants back in.
 
Some more thoughts on Endgame...

I am mad pissed off that they killed Tony. For god's sake, that guy's been through hell and back multiple times, let him have a nice happy ending with his wife and daughter. I mean yes, ultimately it was one of the best, most fitting things in the movie, but jeepers, the universe needed to cut Tony Stark a break. And yes, I bawled my eyes out.

Totally with you on that one. I had a feeling he and Natasha weren't going to make it, but I agree with you about Tony never getting a break. And I bawled my eyes out too. It was a glorious end for his character, but it still depressed the hell out of me.

Controversial opinion, I'm fine with Tony being dead. It's a comic based universe though so they could resurrect him if RDJ wants back in.

I have a feeling he won't... unless it's in the director's chair. ScarJo, however... I'm pretty sure they're going to resurrect the Black Widow. Isn't she supposed to get her own movie?
 
Some more thoughts on Endgame...

Totally with you on that one. I had a feeling he and Natasha weren't going to make it, but I agree with you about Tony never getting a break. And I bawled my eyes out too. It was a glorious end for his character, but it still depressed the hell out of me.



I have a feeling he won't... unless it's in the director's chair. ScarJo, however... I'm pretty sure they're going to resurrect the Black Widow. Isn't she supposed to get her own movie?
As of right now we've been told The Black Widow movie is a prequel. That said there are theories that they might find a way to resurrect her in said prequel movie.
 
There is a new trailer for Spider-Man Far From Home but it contains huge spoilers for Avengers Endgame. So don’t watch it if you haven’t seen the movie.
 
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I wanted to see the movie ‘Arctic’ so badly, after watching the trailer three times! It never came to that theatre. I didn’t want to drive 30 miles to see it and then it disappeared. So I ordered it from Netflix. The same day I saw that it would be showed at the cheap theatre within 10 miles.

Since I prefer the big screen, I will watch it in the theatre and return the dvd.
 
Just saw Endgame.
I f*cking hate time travel movies!

Also, the beginning was too long and slow.

And the Steve/Cap timeline made not one lick of sense even for a time travel movie. Though they only showed us 1 scene with him and Peggy. Maybe he just went back to have a real goodbye and then went and did other things.
 
Last night, I got the opportunity to watch an early screening of Tolkien. If you are a Tolkien fan, you will enjoy this movie. The movie did a great job showing how certain moments in Tolkien’s life connected to things in his novels.

Dome Karukoski did a great job - I believe this is his first film to direct that’s outside of Finland. I hope he gets more opportunities in the future. Nicholas Hoult and Lilly Collins did a great job in their roles as well.

One warning: you might not like this movie if you don’t like flashbacks in movies. The timeline goes “back and forth” a bit.
 
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Watched a funny Spanish movie the other night, Toc Toc. Acting is great and even if it can maybe get a tad repetitive at times, I found myself laughing out loud quite a few time. Fun little movie to brighten your evening and clocking only at one hour and a half !!!!
 
This afternoon I saw All is True. It is about Shakespeare and his returning home after The Globe burnt down. Directed by and starred Kenneth Branagh as Shakespeare and Judy Dench as Anne Hathaway.

Thankfully I had a free ticket to the cinema. Not the worst movie I have seen this year, but it certainly wasn't the best. Quite slow and gloomy. You also have to suspend disbelief with Branagh and Dench playing the main characters. Hathaway in real life was older than Shakespeare. But having Dench in the role really did not lend much believablity to the situation as she really looked much older than the 8 years age difference between them, regardless of the wigs.

So I would give this one a miss.
 
9/10 for Deepwater Horizon which was a surprise, in a good way. It was one of those movies that had a trailer that looked too big, too loud and too aimed-at-a-14-year-old boy. So I was surprised to see that it was both a strong dramatic movie as well as an edge-of-your-seat action drama. This is probably Mark Wahlberg's best performance so far. He has a scene with John Malkovich and he holds his own, which is saying a lot! :D Kurt Russell is great in his role and in smaller roles are Gina Rodriguez (Jane The Virgin), Dylan O'Brien (The Maze Runner) and Kate Hudson. The movie is paced really well, so great direction from Peter Berg, who has also directed Friday Night Lights, Hancock and Lone Survivor (also with Mark Wahlberg).

Trailer for Deepwater Horizon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yASbM8M2vg
 
I saw ‘The Sun is also a star’. I had really liked the trailer. The movie was good but quite slow. It has very low ratings on RT and IMDB. I feel that’s a bit unfair. The story is short so they could stretch only this much. I think it is around 105 minutes long. I don’t mind short movies. I think they could have shown more scenes of her family if they wanted to make it longer. Generally romantic movies get low marks these days. This was no exception. I would rather see a movie like this than a lot of the trailers I keep seeing. I am really not into action plus weird characters plus cgi type movies.

They showed the trailer of the upcoming Spider-Man movie. Also a couple other loud, cgi action flicks. One trailer that keeps getting shown is ‘Rocketman’. I plan on seeing this movie. Summer is usually a boring time for me. There is an occasional good movie. Then from November to February it gets really hectic. I should enjoy this slow, relaxing time.
 
I finally saw the movie ‘Arctic’ on dvd. It had long disappeared from the theatres and I can see why. It is not for everyone. It is one man’s story of survival. It reminded me of Castaway in a way but Castaway had a much broader story. ‘Arctic’ is totally focused on one man, and the injured woman he is trying to help. The young woman is played by a young actress Maria Thelma from Iceland. She has hardly any dialogue, but the agony shows in her face and in the face of the man who is trying to save her life and his own.

I wish I could have seen it on the big screen because the scenes of the Arctic region are stunning. Maads Mikkelsen is phenomenal (when is he not?). He has no supporting cast. It is just him and the snow. Stunning cinematography. It has a very low rating on imdb and just one review that strongly criticized the movie for not having a story. This movie Has a story - the story of survival. I watched the interview of the man who created this movie. He said that the idea came to him from stories of pilots who crashed in the arctic and found ways to survive.

At the Cannes film festival it received a standing ovation for 10 minutes!

I gave it 9/10.
 
8/10 for The Zookeeper's Wife. Maybe even a nine out of ten, much thanks to the performance of Jessica Chastain. She hasn't been nominated for an Oscar since 2013 for Zero Dark Thirty. But along with this performance, she's been amazing in Molly's Game and Woman Walks Ahead, among others. The Zookeeper's Wife is well written and directed, involving and informative without being overwhelming. Definitely worth seeing.

P.S. The movie is both directed and written by women. Niki Caro is the director, who also directed the phenomenal Whale Rider as well as North Country (Charlize Theron, Jeremy Renner, Frances McDormand). In 2020, she will see the release of her next directorial gig, the live action remake of Mulan. Angela Workman is the screenwriter, whose resume is limited, but she has four projects upcoming according to imdb.com. One is a (delayed) drama about the Bronte sisters. From the trivia section:

Actress Michelle Williams was originally cast as Charlotte Bronte, for director Angela Workman, who also wrote the screenplay. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers was cast as Branwell, Brian Cox was cast to play their father, Patrick Bronte, and Imelda Staunton was cast as Aunt Branwell.

Trailer for The Zookeeper's Wife: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiEfrA6MWs4

I finally saw the movie ‘Arctic’ on dvd...

Thank you for mentioning this movie. I saw the trailer for it and am excited about getting to see it. I'm not surprised you rated it 9/10. It looks good!! :respec:
 
8/10 for The Zookeeper's Wife. Maybe even a nine out of ten, much thanks to the performance of Jessica Chastain. She hasn't been nominated for an Oscar since 2013 for Zero Dark Thirty. But along with this performance, she's been amazing in Molly's Game and Woman Walks Ahead, among others. The Zookeeper's Wife is well written and directed, involving and informative without being overwhelming. Definitely worth seeing.

P.S. The movie is both directed and written by women. Niki Caro is the director, who also directed the phenomenal Whale Rider as well as North Country (Charlize Theron, Jeremy Renner, Frances McDormand). In 2020, she will see the release of her next directorial gig, the live action remake of Mulan. Angela Workman is the screenwriter, whose resume is limited, but she has four projects upcoming according to imdb.com. One is a (delayed) drama about the Bronte sisters. From the trivia section:



Trailer for The Zookeeper's Wife: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiEfrA6MWs4



Thank you for mentioning this movie. I saw the trailer for it and am excited about getting to see it. I'm not surprised you rated it 9/10. It looks good!! :respec:

I had seen the Zoo keeper ‘s wife in a theatre when it came out. I thought Jessica Chastain would receive an Oscar nom for this, and IMO she should have, over ‘Molly’s game’ which I didn’t care for much, as a movie. I would give Zoo keeper’s wife 9/10. It was an under appreciated movie because it was released long before the Oscar season.
 
8/10 for The Darkest Hour. I was expecting it to be a horribly dry historical drama. Something that I SHOULD watch as it was about an important time in history. But it was more engaging than I expected. It moved at a reasonably brisk pace so that my interest never waned. I actually ended up thinking it covered too small of a time period, which I think means I wanted more! :lol: Now I've seen almost all of the movies from the Oscars before last. :D (By the way, I think Gary Oldman deserved the best actor Oscar. With Daniel Kaluuya as runner-up for his role in Get Out.)
 
I just saw the Downton Abbey trailer and, as someone who finished the series, I'm left wondering what is the point of this movie? Is it just fan service finishing up storylines of characters of the show while having gratuitous shots of the estate and costumes with Maggie Smith slinging sometimes witty one-liners or will it actually be about something deeper?
 
I'll watch it because I'm a completist. But the trailer makes it look really corny, like their Christmas specials.
 

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