Split

Very good movie. Not great, but very good.
If you are a fan of Shyamalan's first couple of movies, especially Unbreakable, watch this one.

2freaky4church1 said:

I'm willing to bet Moonlight will win.

I'm not so sure, because the Academy nearly maxed out on the nominee limit (9 of a possible 10).

I'm afraid that Moonlight, Fences, Lion, Hidden Figures and Manchester are going to dilute each other. La La Land likely has a firm voting bloc that will carry the day. The only thing that could stop La La at this point are perhaps Arrival or Hell or High Water making a late dark-horse push for votes.

Fences with Denzel Washington.

7/10

Ingela said:

I think it's a two film race. Moonlight and LA La Land. Two movies that could not be more different and could not be more outstanding. I'd hate to have to choose between the two.

Personally, I'd take Moonlight 11 times out of 10 over the very good La La Land.

I willing to bet that La La Land wins best original screenplay. Only because Moonlight is an adopted screenplay.

Fairly safe bet.

I would also bet heavily that La La Land takes all the music categories it's nominated for. Easy choice.

It will dominate.

I would bet heavily that the cast of Moonlight gets all of its awards it's nominated for.


Mahershala Ali seems a lock for Supporting Actor. IMO, Naomie Harris ain't beating Viola Davis for Supporting Actress.

Best Director or Best film. I couldn't guess. I couldn't choose. Two different of movies.

I believe Fences, Lion, Manchester, and Hidden Figures will peel Picture votes away from Moonlight. The compromise could be that the Director and Picture ballot is split -- one for Moonlight and one for La La. How it's split is another question.

white girl - filled to the brim with boobs & drugs & violence & women doing a line of coke off of a penis, yet it still manages to be a little dull. 2.5/5

[Edited 2/7/17 13:06pm]

RodeoSchro said:

It's time for another exciting chapter of Movies I Watched Most Of The Last Part Of!

Today's movie is "I Am Legend".

No, you are not!

This is a zombie movie. It looked like everyone but Will Smith died and became a zombie. Except for a hero dog.

DOG NOTE: All hero dogs in movies should be named "Dog". If "Dog" was good enough for John Wayne, it's good enough for everyone. In fact, watch this video of a dog learning how to be a hero dog by watching Dog from "Big Jake:





Here is the original Dog:




So if you're dog enough to teach other dogs to be hero dogs like you, and your name is Dog, then all hero dogs should be named Dog.

Will Smith's dog is named Sam.

Sam is cool but would have been cooler if she was named Dog.

Anyway, for some reason I don't know, everyone is either dead or is a zombie. Will Smith captures a zombie chick in a net contraption, and begins to experiment with various cures. None of them work.

Then I had to go do some stuff and missed about 20 minutes but when I came back, Will Smith had somehow gotten tangled up in one of his own net contraptions. He's just dangling there, with Sam by his side, and who should show up? A zombie dog!

SECONDARY DOG NOTE: Zombie dogs can NEVER be named "Dog". If Dog were to be bitten and turned into a zombie dog (which we all know would never happen, because there's not a zombie dog in the world that Dog couldn't beat), then the name "Dog" would drop off and, like every other zombie dog in the world, he'd just be a zombie dog.

Sam fights off zombie dog but is killed in the process. I guess. I read later than Will Smith had to strangle Sam. I missed that part, and I'm really glad I did. I would have been rooting for Sam.

Will Smith meets a nice young lady and her son. They have a house, and electricity and even "Shrek" on TV. We get to see Will Smith's "Shrek" audition tape! I guess that's what it was. He knew every line!

But then he blows up and tells the woman that because zombies ate his family, there is no God.

Then I had to go do something else and when I came back Will Smith, the nice lady, and her son were all in Will Smith's laboratory. Zombies had overridden the nice lady's home so they had to flee. But the zombies followed them to Will Smith's laboratory. Looks like the end!

The zombies are led by one main zombie. I called that zombie Alpha Male. Guess what?

That was really his name! In the script, anyway. Which proves the theory stated many times that I could write film scripts.

Will Smith, the nice lady, and her son are walled off from the zombies. I guess Will Smith dealt with dangerous stuff, because the glass wall between him and all the zombies was pretty much bullet-proof.

But, it turns out, not Alpha Male zombie-proof.

Alpha Male and the rest of the zombies are on the side of the room where Will Smith's female zombie experimental patient is still strapped to a gurney. Alpha Male looks at her and gets really mad. He begins throwing himself at Will Smith's bullet-proof glass wall. It takes Alpha Male about 10 tries, but he finally begins to crack the glass.

Will Smith has a flash - he knows how to cure all the zombies! He give the nice lady a vial of something (his own blood, I think. Which should have been the first thing he ever analyzed, since he was the only non-zombie in all of New York City. So of COURSE the cure had to be in his blood!) and then forces them into a handy coal chute.

NOTE TO SELF: Have a coal chute installed in my office ASAP.

Will Smith tells the nice lady and her son not to come out until dawn. Do not think about the fact that the nice lady and her son are in a completely dark space and have no way to know when dawn has arrived.

Alpha Male is one or two ramming attempts from breaking through Will Smith's bullet-proof glass, so Will Smith opens his desk drawer and looks at a picture of his wife and daughter one last time. Sad!

Then he reaches further back in the drawer and pulls out his grenade.

NOTE TO SELF: Do NOT keep a grenade in desk drawer. Instead, get Dog and keep Dog constantly nearby in order to fend off any potential zombie attacks.

As Alpha Male busts through the glass, Will Smith rushes him and hugs him, and then the live grenade goes off, killing all the zombies and also Will Smith. The next day, the nice lady and her son emerge from the coal chute, get in a car, and drive to Survivors City, where they give the cure to the military.

QUESTION - Why didn't Will Smith get in the coal chute, too? Clearly the move here would have been for all three of them to get in the coal chute, with Will Smith being the last one. He could have pulled the grenade's pin just as Alpha Male was bursting though the bullet-proof glass, shouted "SEE YOU IN HELL, ALPHA MALE! OH WAIT - I DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD ANYMORE SO THAT MEANS THERE IS NO HELL, WHICH MEANS I WILL NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN. WELL, LET ME THINK OF SOMETHNG PITHY TO SAY. JUST A MIN...." BOOM!!!!!! Everyone dies! Or alternatively, Will Smith just throws the grenade, closes the door and BOOM!!!!!! All the zombies die - even Alpha Male who, by this time, I'm beginning to identify with.

Since I only Watched Most Of The Last Part Of this movie, I had to research it before writing this incredible review. By "research" I mean "I looked at wikipedia". And by "incredible review" I mean "Who else could have tied in John Wayne's Dog with a zombie flick?!?"

This movie had an alternate ending and the alternate ending was WAY cooler than the real ending. In the alternate ending, it turns out the female zombie that Will Smith has been experimenting on is Alpha Male's girlfriend. Alpha Male draws a butterfly out of blood on the bullet-proof glass and Will Smith realized that the female zombie has a butterfly tattoo. Even though Alpha Male can bust through bullet-proof glass, and do lots of things humans could never do, he can't unstrap the female zombie. So Will Smith comes out of his office and unstraps the female zombie. Then he looks at Alpha Male and says "I'm sorry". Then everyone leaves happy. True, that's how it could have ended!

But the producers went for the let-me-kill-myself-unnecessarily ending so as to justify the title of "I am Legend". Because, I guess, you can't be a LIVING legend any more. Unless you're this guy:




Tom Brady has now won five Super Bowls. I watched Most Of this movie on Super Bowl Sunday. Therefore, I give regular-ending "I Am Legend" 2 of Tom Brady's Super Bowl Trophies out of the currently-possible 5 of Tom Brady's Super Bowl Trophies. But I would have given the alternate-ending "I am Legend" 3 of Tom Brady's Super Bowl Trophies.

damosuzuki said:

namepeace said:

Spot on. I saw it this weekend. I give it 1/2.

Stone and Gosling carry the film well, and hit the right comedic and dramatic notes.

But if this movie wins Best Picture in the year of Moonlight, Fences, Manchester By The Sea, and Captain Fantastic, the Academy would pull another Shakespeare In Love, basically congratulating itself over rewarding some of the best films of the decade.

[Edited 2/6/17 10:33am]

i've never seen 'shakespeare in love,' so i can't really speak to that comparison. what i can say that la la land is a movie that had no staying power with me whatsoever. i did think it had some dazzling moments (the beginning & the end, especially) & i think i gave it 4.5 when i rated it here, but overall i found its pleasures completely ephemeral. i'm all for feel-good movies, but i thought la la land was more of a 'feel-nothing' movie that seemed to leave my head almost as quickly as it entered. even the songs didn't stick.

Pretty close to my feelings about it. I would agree that its charms are ephemeral and I, too, didn't maintain much of a feeling for it. I thought the ending went a long way towards leaving me with a more positive impression of the film than I probably would've had otherwise. And, yeah - the songs were pretty forgettable.

i can't speak to all the technical merits for the film. by that standard, i guess it could, maybe should, win on points. for me, there's no equation that spits out a score for a film. i go by feeling, and the films that hit me were moonlight & manchester... & tower, & i'd rate all of those over la la. i'm a sample size of one, of course, and i completely believe all the people who say they fell for it. criminy, my sister's seen it three times!

"Tower"?

Ingela said:

I think it's a two film race. Moonlight and LA La Land.

I'm gonna guess that it'll be three (Manchester).

damosuzuki said:

white girl - filled to the brim with boobs & drugs & violence & women doing a line of coke off of a penis, yet it still manages to be a little dull. 2.5/5

Now that's an achievement!

namepeace said:

Ace said:

Ingela said:

I think it's a two film race. Moonlight and LA La Land.

I'm gonna guess that it'll be three (Manchester).

Barring some huge darkhorse, this race is coming down to La La, Moonlight, Manchester and Fences in that order. My hunch is the Academy will spread the love to avoid being embarassed down the line. Something like this --

- Casey Affleck wins the Oscar for Best Actor as the de facto award for Manchester. Look for a strong Denzel push late, which could cut Manchester out completely.

- Viola Davis wins the Best Supporting Actress as the de facto award for Fences.

- Moonlight will get its due with Ali taking the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Barry Jenkins taking the Best Director Oscar.

- La La will still be the big winner, with Best Actress, Best Song, Technical categories and Best Picture.

[Edited 2/7/17 13:52pm]

Ingela said:

namepeace said:

Gotta also give props to the filmmakers for taking the chance and having the balls to pull these movies off. Both were low budget affairs with no one thinking they'd recoup their money. La La Land seems like a safe bet now that it's done but I was weary going into it as I hate musicals. A lot of people were weary of it also because it's not even based on a hit broadway musical with familiar songs. Or based on an existing play like Moonlight or Fences. So i give it major props for that.

So do I. It's really an inventive film. It would likely be a runaway winner but for the fact that Moonlight, Manchester and Fences are among the best of the decade.

Similarly the topic of Moonlight is not an easy sell,but it's already past $100 million domestically I think. Both films were only in limited release also. The studios didn't have much faith in either. Since the subject matter of Moonlight was so stark, it helped that the movie makers made the visuals look so amazing. Major props for directing. Major props for whomever color keyed the movie. Like the recent Mad Max, the colorist took it to another level altogether.

I agree. Hollywood probably figured a small coming-of-age film about black, gay men wouldn't draw large audiences of any race. What a phenomenal number for the film.

[Edited 2/7/17 13:57pm]

[Edited 2/7/17 13:58pm]

[Edited 2/7/17 13:59pm]

Ingela said:

In any case, i think it was a great year for movies. Enjoyed so many movies.

I saw more films in theaters this year than any year this decade. Heck, Rogue One was the best Star Wars film since Empire. Plenty of duds, but more jewels at both the megaplexes and art houses than in recent years past.

namepeace said:

Ingela said:

Similarly the topic of Moonlight is not an easy sell,but it's already past $100 million domestically I think.

it's actually sitting around $20m domestically.

http://www.boxofficemojo....ht2016.htm

lala land is about $120m.

[Edited 2/7/17 15:46pm]

Ace said"Tower"?

Tower is a really extraordinary doc that came out last last year that recreated the 1966 shootings at the university of texas through a mix of live interviews & rotoscoping animation. i think it is simply one of the most tense, nerve wracking movies i've ever seen. it was my second favourite film of last year.

[Edited 2/7/17 16:01pm]

damosuzuki said:

damosuzuki said:

Ingela said:

damosuzuki said:

Tower is a really extraordinary doc that came out last last year that recreated the 1966 shootings at the university of texas through a mix of live interviews & rotoscoping animation. i think it is simply one of the most tense, nerve wracking movies i've ever seen. it was my second favourite film of last year.

[Edited 2/7/17 16:01pm]

I'd love to see a Prince movie doe this way, or like the Van Gogh doc. I think it distances itself enough, but at the same time seems more true to life than when actors pretend to be someone. And it's a piece of art in and of itself.

i actually completely agree with this, and was actually going to make that very point in that thread in the p:m&m forum (i didn't bother because i figured most people would think i was talking nonsense & i'm too old & tired to fight with people).

.

in fact, i think this might be the only way a prince movie that didn't just trot out the same old footage could work. he was such a singular presence, it might be the only way he could be represented on film without it slipping into parody or something. plus it would really allow artists to recreate his distinct styles & eras.

damosuzuki said:

Ace said:

damosuzuki said:

white girl - filled to the brim with boobs & drugs & violence & women doing a line of coke off of a penis, yet it still manages to be a little dull. 2.5/5

Now that's an achievement!

it's really pretty amazing that you can have so many seemingly incendiary elements in a movie, yet somehow manage to create something so trivial & boring.

.

and as a much more interesting counterpoint, i watched 'diary of a teenage girl' this evening, a film that mostly revolves around a hormonal 15 year old girl having an affair with her mother's 35 year old boyfriend. there's a fair bit of boobs & drugs here too, but the people, even at their worst, all manage to act like recognizable human beings, & it ends up being a touching film. life-affirming, even. 4/5

Ingela said:

damosuzuki said:

Tower is a really extraordinary doc that came out last last year that recreated the 1966 shootings at the university of texas through a mix of live interviews & rotoscoping animation. i think it is simply one of the most tense, nerve wracking movies i've ever seen. it was my second favourite film of last year.

[Edited 2/7/17 16:01pm]

I'd love to see a Prince movie doe this way, or like the Van Gogh doc. I think it distances itself enough, but at the same time seems more true to life than when actors pretend to be someone. And it's a piece of art in and of itself.

It looks beautiful

Morris From America (2016)

A unique fish-out-of-water indie tale about a young black teen moving from the US with his soccer coach father (Craig Robinson) to Germany. Gets fairly dark at points, but falls apart in final act.

.75

Ingela said:

damosuzuki said:

Tower is a really extraordinary doc that came out last last year that recreated the 1966 shootings at the university of texas through a mix of live interviews & rotoscoping animation. i think it is simply one of the most tense, nerve wracking movies i've ever seen. it was my second favourite film of last year.

[Edited 2/7/17 16:01pm]

I'd love to see a Prince movie doe this way, or like the Van Gogh doc. I think it distances itself enough, but at the same time seems more true to life than when actors pretend to be someone. And it's a piece of art in and of itself.

that does look pretty remarkable. have you seen this? it doesn't appear to have been released anywhere yet.

damosuzuki said:

Ace said"Tower"?

Tower is a really extraordinary doc that came out last last year that recreated the 1966 shootings at the university of texas through a mix of live interviews & rotoscoping animation. i think it is simply one of the most tense, nerve wracking movies i've ever seen. it was my second favourite film of last year.

[Edited 2/7/17 16:01pm]

Thanks for enlightening me, damo!

damosuzuki said:

Ace said:

Now that's an achievement!

it's really pretty amazing that you can have so many seemingly incendiary elements in a movie, yet somehow manage to create something so trivial & boring.

.

and as a much more interesting counterpoint, i watched 'diary of a teenage girl' this evening, a film that mostly revolves around a hormonal 15 year old girl having an affair with her mother's 35 year old boyfriend. there's a fair bit of boobs & drugs here too, but the people, even at their worst, all manage to act like recognizable human beings, & it ends up being a touching film. life-affirming, even. 4/5

Yeah, I think I heard good things about this.

The Secret Life of Pets (finally) 3/5 Cute

Fire at Sea (2016) - Capturing life on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a frontline in the European migrant crisis.

I like documentaries that dispense with the talking heads and just let the powerful footage speak for itself. 4/5