What was the last movie you watched?

[d00hickey]

I saw American Hustle and pretty much hated it, I didn't have the highest of hopes because I never understood the appeal of The Fighter (another David Russel film). People seem to love his movies but I think it lacked subtlety, and meaningful characters, which is kind of a problem because he describes his films as character studies. The movie felt like it was made for winning awards and nothing else, it has the highest bill cast of any movie this year, a very unique visual style, and promised a fun and unique story. In the end it felt shallow and meaningless. Many people think this movie is great so don't take my word for it if your interested in seeing it.

[mrbasehart]

I rewatched Tangled earlier, and I think I like it more now than I did when I first saw it.  It's funny and sweet, with some really great songs thrown in.  I should probably get around to watching Frozen now, considering it's from the same people.

[Quantum Vagina]

I rewatched Tangled earlier, and I think I like it more now than I did when I first saw it.  It's funny and sweet, with some really great songs thrown in.  I should probably get around to watching Frozen now, considering it's from the same people.

I actually saw both Tangled and Up for the first times the other night. Up made me cry a million and a half times, and Tangled was awesome. They're both marvelous, but Up was obviously going to win that showdown. It's pretty hard to for Pixar to make a bad movie. They can make bad Pixar movies, which are still good, but bad because of the standards I have for Pixar. Even Cars wasn't that bad, it just had a really weak message: don't be a dick.

NOTE: I don't really count sequels, other than the Toy Story sequels.

[ScottotD]

Very excited to see Wolf of Wall Street, apparently some people have been put off by the moral ambiguity of it... I'm assuming those people have never heard of Martin Scorsese before.

[Edward J Grug III]

I rewatched Tangled earlier, and I think I like it more now than I did when I first saw it.  It's funny and sweet, with some really great songs thrown in.  I should probably get around to watching Frozen now, considering it's from the same people.

I actually saw both Tangled and Up for the first times the other night. Up made me cry a million and a half times, and Tangled was awesome. They're both marvelous, but Up was obviously going to win that showdown. It's pretty hard to for Pixar to make a bad movie. They can make bad Pixar movies, which are still good, but bad because of the standards I have for Pixar. Even Cars wasn't that bad, it just had a really weak message: don't be a dick.

NOTE: I don't really count sequels, other than the Toy Story sequels.

I actually think Brave is less good than Cars, though I may have to revisit it at some point.

Even if you pretend it doesn't exist though, Cars 2 is unwatchable.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I rewatched Tangled earlier, and I think I like it more now than I did when I first saw it.  It's funny and sweet, with some really great songs thrown in.  I should probably get around to watching Frozen now, considering it's from the same people.

I actually saw both Tangled and Up for the first times the other night. Up made me cry a million and a half times, and Tangled was awesome. They're both marvelous, but Up was obviously going to win that showdown. It's pretty hard to for Pixar to make a bad movie. They can make bad Pixar movies, which are still good, but bad because of the standards I have for Pixar. Even Cars wasn't that bad, it just had a really weak message: don't be a dick.

NOTE: I don't really count sequels, other than the Toy Story sequels.

I actually think Brave is less good than Cars, though I may have to revisit it at some point.

Even if you pretend it doesn't exist though, Cars 2 is unwatchable.

Even though I like Cars I have no interest in Cars 2 or Planes, so haven't seen either of those.

I have Tangled in 3D, several cool 3D scenes in that.  And the horse is a very funny character, there's a short with the horse as the ring bearer at the wedding and it is hilarious.

As for Brave, I've also got to watch that again, have it in 3D but have only watched it once.  At this point I might agree with Cars being slightly better.  My feelings during Brave were that it wasn't written for a very broad audience.

Got the 3D Blu-Ray for Despicable Me 2, I love the first one so this one might be a let down if it's only "good".  Hope to get around to watching it this weekend.

[Edward J Grug III]

As for Brave, I've also got to watch that again, have it in 3D but have only watched it once.  At this point I might agree with Cars being slightly better.  My feelings during Brave were that it wasn't written for a very broad audience.

I would really love to know what the film would have been like had the director not been booted.

Did see Monsters University last night for the first time, and I had low expectations, but ended up really enjoying it. I think, since Pixar had had a bad run leading into it, and since it was a dreaded prequel, people maybe judged it a little too harshly. I mean, it's not their best, but it's really fun and worthwhile.

[Darth Geek]

I would really love to know what the film would have been like had the director not been booted.

Me too. The villain bear was absolutely badass and felt like it was from a completely different movie.

[Relaxing Dragon]

The Wolf of Wall Street. Pretty damn fantastic. An ode to outrageous hedonism and decadence brought on by the people who clawed their way to the top of the financial pyramid, this movie is packed with such a ferocious amount of energy that the three hour running time just flies by. It's also quite possible the funniest movie I've seen this year, both in terms of how outrageous all these stockbrokers and general money-men act with their fabulous wealth, and just how nutty the movie gets with the drugs (it's got perhaps the most illicit substances in a movie since Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And, much like that movie, the whole thing is structured like a drug trip, with the massive highs and crashing lows). To top it all off, it's a wonderfully scathing (sometimes infuriating) indictment of how terrible the Wall Street crowd is, and just what sort of people are the ones who actually manage to 'win' the American Dream.

[Nunyerbiz]

It's the "DVDs my kids got for X-Mas X-Travaganza!!!"

Monsters University
Revenge of the Nerds with less tits. But seriously, a pleasant little Pixar effort... positively Dreamworksian with it's lack of ambition, but it all works well enough anyways. Likable characters, a few good laughs and a story that sings the praises of college expulsion effort and hard work.

Turbo
Speaking of Dreamworksian lack of ambition...  Turbo has a certain amount of charm sprinkled over the by-the-numbers underdog story... but in the end it's just good enough to turn a summer profit and never pretends to be anything more. The movie flies by and is forgotten like so many race cars making endless left hand turns around an oval.

The Polar Express
Always avoided this (and Beowulf) in the past because I thought the technique is creepy. After seeing it, fears confirmed, the effect is creepy. At times things do become stunningly beautiful, primarily the stuff not involving the motion capture death mask kids... But past that all you got are some forgettable songs and goddamn Eddie Deezen. Everybody tried real hard, but this one just misses the mark.

Frozen
Well ok, not a DVD X-mas present... but close enough. Good to see Disney taking a turn back to their wheelhouse musical genre from decades back. First Tangled and now the excellent Frozen. The musical numbers hit in rapid succession early on and then seem to vanish from the final half, but they are all well done while they lasted. Some great laughs and gorgeous visuals round out an impressive presentation.

[ScottotD]

12 Years a Slave

Holy fuck is American history ugly, that's actually the only hurdle I can see for this taking best picture, etc because it's a traumatic but gripping journey.

[RoninFox]

12 Years a Slave

Holy fuck is American history ugly, that's actually the only hurdle I can see for this taking best picture, etc because it's a traumatic but gripping journey.

Yeah, it's not all powdered wigs and throwing tea away.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

12 Years a Slave

Holy fuck is American history ugly, that's actually the only hurdle I can see for this taking best picture, etc because it's a traumatic but gripping journey.

Yeah, it's not all powdered wigs and throwing tea away.

Most history in general is pretty fugly.  Chunks of the world are fucked up right now. 

Now I'm in the mood to watch Life Of Brian, or maybe just this bit:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/SJUhlRoBL8M" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/SJUhlRoBL8M</a>

[wurwolf]

My husband and I saw The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug about a week ago. Very entertaining movie. I expected it to have a lot of tedium and dull stretches but it kept things moving throughout. I haven't read the Tolkein books (and likely never will) so if atrocities were committed against the original text, I don't know about them. I do know Evangeline Lilly's character was not part of the original story. It was a little bit GRRL POWER and an obvious female character insert in a male character-laden movie, but it wasn't too obnoxious and I honestly didn't mind it (and that sort of thing generally irritates me to no end).

Highlights were spotting Stephen Colbert and holy hell is that dragon ever amazing. Just beautifully rendered by the studio and voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch. The entire exchange between Smaug and Bilbo is worth the price of admission alone.

[Quantum Vagina]

My husband and I saw The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug about a week ago. Very entertaining movie. I expected it to have a lot of tedium and dull stretches but it kept things moving throughout. I haven't read the Tolkein books (and likely never will) so if atrocities were committed against the original text, I don't know about them. I do know Evangeline Lilly's character was not part of the original story. It was a little bit GRRL POWER and an obvious female character insert in a male character-laden movie, but it wasn't too obnoxious and I honestly didn't mind it (and that sort of thing generally irritates me to no end).

Highlights were spotting Stephen Colbert and holy hell is that dragon ever amazing. Just beautifully rendered by the studio and voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch. The entire exchange between Smaug and Bilbo is worth the price of admission alone.

Atrocities? Not in my opinion. Changes to help it translate better to movie format? I definitely think so. I loved Cumberbatch's Smaug. "In a different universe, you and I could've been friends" is hilarious.