Last Movie You Watched...

Auntie Mame with Rosalind Russell. Such a perfectly delightful romp.

Exodus: Gods and Kings

Tons of biblical inaccuracies...

Yet, I found it beautiful and entertaining.

The St. Francisville Experiment

There's bad movies and then there's really, really bad movies. This one fits the latter.

It's a found footage style horror flick and while I had some hesitation, I decided to give it a try because it utilizes the history of Delphine LaLaurie as a group of four people spend the evening at her reportedly haunted home. Every main character is unsympathetic to the point of annoyance; there's a female psychic who just walks around repeating "white light" to protect the group from the violent spirits, the male team leader hates all of them and undermines the psychic at every opportunity, the blonde girl spends the entire movie screaming (in one scene, someone flips a light switch and she goes ballistic), and the other male's sole purpose is to flirt with the two female leads. It's a joke... Actually, it'd make for good satire if it didn't take itself so seriously. Missed opportunity.

I tried to watch the original Doctor Dolittle with Rex Harrison tonight. It was only the second time in my life I've seen it, the first being years ago when it was first shown on TV. With the commercial breaks back then, it felt like it dragged on for the better part of a week; tonight, without the commercial breaks, it felt like it dragged on for the better part of two. "Crashing bore" is being too kind.

Watched Kalifornia at the request of my sister. Just too damn depressing and gory for me, and also a young Brad Pitt just starting out.

tri

Tuned into Mysterious Island, 1961, with Michael Craig and Herbert Lom before he went all twitchy in the Pink Panther movies. Excellent musical score, solid direction and acting, Ray Harryhausen at his best...a real winner.

Have seen the silent version, but that, to me, is a curiosity at best.

Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl. What can I say, I'm a sucker for Johnny Depp in eye liner.

MM

The Babadook

I liked it quite a bit. It's a lot more thought provoking than I thought it'd be.

Thor 2

I know. I know. But, I needed a Loki fix

The Interview. (See other thread).

The Babadook was also very good, yes. Nice little shocker, not what I expected, but very well acted and directed.

Just saw Annie. Definitely cute, but for me, doesn't even come close to the original Broadway play (which I did see) or the movie that came out in the 80's. I thought the little girl who played Annie was stinkin' adorable and it did have a nice cast, but her voice was only meh to me and her dancing sub-meh. I also didn't love the soundtrack. I feel like they tried too hard to make it different. Sometimes it sort of worked but other times it didn't. For me. I also wish they'd had better dancing/choreography. I guess I just wish it had felt more of a real musical than a modern retelling with some singing. But my girls loved it and they say they like the new one better than the original. *weeps*

Scrooge

Wild, yesterday. 20-something woman who thinks she's ruined her life walks the Pacific Crest Trail by herself, to figure things out.

True story, based on memoir of same name.

Saw Guardians of the Galaxy on Comcast On-Demand last night.

After all the hype... I was disappointed. It felt like it was written for 12-year-old boys exclusively. Lots of stereotypes, dripping sexism, minimal chemistry, dated feel to the script and characters, and I just plain didn't like the heroes for much of the film, plus the story was rather convoluted - not helped by the muted, sometimes mumbled dialog. (We had to crank the TV sound up to maximum to make out some lines, though I don't know if this was a problem with the film or Comcast's broadcast.) Yes, I get that it ties in to a massive Marvel multiverse, but not being a fanboy I was rather lost as to why the film needed two or three baddies and a zillion intersecting subplots, most of which never went anywhere. Some nice designs and a few interesting ideas, but I couldn't help feeling like I was watching one of those B-grade 1980's/90's Star Wars knockoffs inexplicably given a blockbuster budget.

If I hadn't heard so much about how great this film was supposed to be, maybe I could've just rolled with it. As it was, I found myself very glad I hadn't paid for a theater ticket. I didn't hate it, but I just wasn't as entertained as I'd hoped to be.

1. The Equalizer - Lurved it! - Denzel rocks - Can't wait for the next one.

2. The Face of Love - Annette Bening and Ed Harris - was skeptical at first, but ended up liking it a lot....Was nice to see "mature" actors in a romantic movie minus the "wackiness" of Diane Keaton and DeNiro or Nicholson.

This week I've seen Interstellar, Into the Woods, and The Interview (and how did you celebrate "Movies That Begin With I" Week?).

Interstellar was good; Into the Woods was very good; The Interview...well, it cost just $6 to rent and four of us watched it. Not great, but I'd say it gave me well over $1.50 worth of laughs. It was very funny at times.

I still might fit in another movie or two before January 1st, but out of the 30-35 I've seen so far this year, the best were Guardians of the Galaxy, Whiplash, and Pride.

Into the Woods - It was cute.

The Taking of Deborah Logan - Loved this one; a nice little indie horror gem. Jill Larson was creepy and terrific as the title character.

Watched Good Will Hunting on Netflix. Classic.

Finally saw Mockingjay today. I don't see why people were disappointed with it - I found it enjoyable, and there was plenty going on, setting things up nicely for a tense finale. (But, then, I liked the last book in the trilogy and I know many people thought it was a letdown.) My sister, who hasn't read the books, really liked this one, too.

Saint Seiya, Legend of Sanctuary...
Gosh, that was a terrible mistake. I was refraining myself from storming out of the room half of the movie. It was that awful.