movies

[slide_into_first]

American Sniper was disappointing.

[SHOW]

The story is the same as Foxcatcher- a hero pays a heavy price and eventually is killed by a crazy person. The character played by Bradley Cooper, Chris Kyle, has no depth. I get that is what he was really like, to save your comrades' lives in impossible combat situations you have to wall off your emotions, but it was not interesting to have him just keep repeating the same old platitudes about I'm there to do my job and protect my buddies. The VA psychiatrist was a loser. Yes, he plugged Chris into group therapy and that helped his PTSD, but it was a big missed opportunity to explore the real Chris. The self serving military leaders were glossed over. Combat scenes were better in The Hurt Locker. There was, however, irony when they raided a house and would say "clear," you knew they were never really clear, someone was going to get shot. The best scenes were when he meets his eventual wife in a bar, and when a soldier he saved recognizes him in San Diego and thanks him. There was no insightful speech reminiscent of Unforgiven, when William Munny out of Missouri, killer of women and children says, "It's a hell of a thing, killing a man..." All in all I'd give it a C.

[Jocephus]

Finally watched "O Brother Where Art Thou" - that's a great flick

one of my favorites

[ghostrunner]

This review of Selma has made me more interested in seeing it.

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some ... nyway.html

[JL21]

This review of Selma has made me more interested in seeing it.

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some ... nyway.html

Yeah, that's kind of the consensus I'm hearing from the critics I like and trust.

And Glenn Kenny is one of them, so I wasn't surprised when you linked an article to that dude.

[slide_into_first]

This person plagiarized my review of American Sniper. (OTOH David Denby liked it more.)
http://m.ew.com/2014/12/25/american-sniper/

[slide_into_first]

Was that Inherent Vice or an acid flashback?

[The Third Man]

I'd tear into American Sniper for being such a puff piece if I could first get past just how boring it is. Sheesh, what a snoozer.

[BW23]

Saw Gone Girl last night and it was incredible

Was hoping it would get more nods other than best actress even though I knew it stood little chance to win anything else. Really wanted Fincher to get a nod.

[Freed Roger]

Saw Gone Girl last night and it was incredible

Was hoping it would get more nods other than best actress even though I knew it stood little chance to win anything else. Really wanted Fincher to get a nod, and a best supporting actor award to yours truly

Ftfy

[cardinalkarp]

American Sniper was disappointing.

[SHOW]

The story is the same as Foxcatcher- a hero pays a heavy price and eventually is killed by a crazy person. The character played by Bradley Cooper, Chris Kyle, has no depth. I get that is what he was really like, to save your comrades' lives in impossible combat situations you have to wall off your emotions, but it was not interesting to have him just keep repeating the same old platitudes about I'm there to do my job and protect my buddies. The VA psychiatrist was a loser. Yes, he plugged Chris into group therapy and that helped his PTSD, but it was a big missed opportunity to explore the real Chris. The self serving military leaders were glossed over. Combat scenes were better in The Hurt Locker. There was, however, irony when they raided a house and would say "clear," you knew they were never really clear, someone was going to get shot. The best scenes were when he meets his eventual wife in a bar, and when a soldier he saved recognizes him in San Diego and thanks him. There was no insightful speech reminiscent of Unforgiven, when William Munny out of Missouri, killer of women and children says, "It's a hell of a thing, killing a man..." All in all I'd give it a C.

Agreed. It wasn't a bad movie at all, but I was expecting more I guess.

I read the book (which was MUCH better BTW) and while they adapted it "somewhat", it was just not translated all that well to the big screen.

I enjoyed The Lone Survivor movie much more.

[SHOW]

In the book Chris Kyle was not a very "likeable" guy IMO, the movie made him out to be some great guy that had some internal struggles w/ what he was doing....not so. That dude WANTED to kill as many people as possible and was happy about doing so. They mildly touched upon the abandonment of his family as he chose to do tour after tour. Should he be considered a war hero, definitely....he saved soldiers lives countless times (which again the move left out)...but other than a hero of war, the dude seemed like a genuine a-hole which the movie obviously did not want to portray him as.