Recent movie releases graded

[STEVEHOLT]

-Interstellar: Ive already reported my opinion as being luke warm. Could have been much better. Nice try.

-Nightcrawler: This was great. Very fun. I can see something like this actually happening.

-Hobbit: It was good, but geez...felt like ive seen it about ten times already. More time should have been given to the giant monsters of the ork army. They were freaking cool.

-Foxcatcher: Creepy good. Must see if you are old enough to remember the actual events its based on.

trying to see The Gambler this week.

 

[Toga]

 

[CuseFaninVT]

-Interstellar: Ive already reported my opinion as being luke warm. Could have been much better. Nice try.

-Nightcrawler: This was great. Very fun. I can see something like this actually happening.

-Hobbit: It was good, but geez...felt like ive seen it about ten times already. More time should have been given to the giant monsters of the ork army. They were freaking cool.

-Foxcatcher: Creepy good. Must see if you are old enough to remember the actual events its based on.

trying to see The Gambler this week.

Saw the final Hobbit installment this weekend as well. I enjoyed it and so did my son (11) but we both chuckled about the fact they made 3 movies out of what was considered the children's companion book to the Lord of the Rings, which itself was a trilogy.

 

[ImperialOrange]

Saw the final Hobbit installment this weekend as well. I enjoyed it and so did my son (11) but we both chuckled about the fact they made 3 movies out of what was considered the children's companion book to the Lord of the Rings, which itself was a trilogy.

 

[MiniCuse]

I'll wait for the blue ray to watch "the battle of the five sequels". Nightcrawler was excellent. My second favorite movie this year. John Wick was the most entertaining movie I've seen in 2014.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Saw the final Hobbit installment this weekend as well. I enjoyed it and so did my son (11) but we both chuckled about the fact they made 3 movies out of what was considered the children's companion book to the Lord of the Rings, which itself was a trilogy.

Tolkein actually wrote LOTR as one book. The publishers made him divide it up.
I ejoyed the 1st and 3rd Hobbit. I did not enjoy the extraneous she elf or the inclusion of Legolas.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

-Interstellar: Ive already reported my opinion as being luke warm. Could have been much better. Nice try.

-Nightcrawler: This was great. Very fun. I can see something like this actually happening.

-Hobbit: It was good, but geez...felt like ive seen it about ten times already. More time should have been given to the giant monsters of the ork army. They were freaking cool.

-Foxcatcher: Creepy good. Must see if you are old enough to remember the actual events its based on.

trying to see The Gambler this week.

Nightcrawler was great. Jake G was great. His character was disturbing, to say the least.

 

[upperdeck]

Saw Unbroken. The story it tells is amazing. from an emotional standpoint its an A. from a cinematic view I say its a B. Worth a trip if you dont want to read the book. even more amazing if you read all the stuff that was behind the scenes all these years.

 

[Upstate]

Saw Hobbit 3: Tokyo Drift this past weekend. I liked it. Battle was 5 pages in the book, and 60% of the movie. It was neat, beautiful, but it all just felt repetitive. 7/10

 

[Guinness]

Hard to be down on the Hobbit because no matter how bad it is it is still the Hobbit on the big screen. That said it did not live up to the 3 LotR movies and Jackson went a little "Lucas" like on these 3 movies.

So while it is not the Hobbit I would have wished for it was better than no Hobbit at all.

 

[upperdeck]

its like many movies. if you have read the books you always want to see it on film. even if its bad most of the time you are just lucky to ever see it made at all.. as a kid reading comic books, i never dreamed some of these coming to life. lucky most have been pretty well done.

I loved Tom Clancy novels. the best being red storm rising, glad they made several movies but like the Hobbit tough to do it well so its never gonna be made.

 

[Shenexon]

Hard to be down on the Hobbit because no matter how bad it is it is still the Hobbit on the big screen. That said it did not live up to the 3 LotR movies and Jackson went a little "Lucas" like on these 3 movies.

So while it is not the Hobbit I would have wished for it was better than no Hobbit at all.

Loved that they made a movie (or 3) out of the hobbit, but changed way too much from Tolkien's story for no good reason. The worms were the worst and I don't get at all why they added them. Maybe some stuff leftover from Tremors? The movies they made in place of the Hobbit were fun, but not very true to the original story. Still liked watching them and hope we see more Tolkien stories made into movies, but perhaps someone different who doesn't interpret them so darkly.

 

[upperdeck]

I thought they added some stuff from the authors notes that didnt make it into he book

 

[Shenexon]

I thought they added some stuff from the authors notes that didnt make it into he book

There is certainly a lot of relevant Tolkien background material they could and did use in the films, but the giant worms that were briefly in the movie were new to me and I haven't found anything tying them to Tolkien either in other books or in notes they used. I laughed when I saw them and am still puzzled how they came up with them. There are references in Tolkien to great worms, but those were the dragons not rock eating mega-worms. I just thought it was a strange addition when so many Tolkien details were skipped. I still love that the movies were made and accept artistic license in contriving the films, but some additions struck me as odd including the worms and the elven-maiden/dwarf relationship. I'm not aware of any instance in Tolkien's works where elves & dwarves interbred and find it an odd twist in the larger mythology created by Tolkien. If they can make a short children's book into 3 full length films, it should take 50 more films to portray the stories in the Silmarillion & other Tolkien works. I hope they start soon...

 

[Guinness]

There is certainly a lot of relevant Tolkien background material they could and did use in the films, but the giant worms that were briefly in the movie were new to me and I haven't found anything tying them to Tolkien either in other books or in notes they used. I laughed when I saw them and am still puzzled how they came up with them. There are references in Tolkien to great worms, but those were the dragons not rock eating mega-worms. I just thought it was a strange addition when so many Tolkien details were skipped. I still love that the movies were made and accept artistic license in contriving the films, but some additions struck me as odd including the worms and the elven-maiden/dwarf relationship. I'm not aware of any instance in Tolkien's works where elves & dwarves interbred and find it an odd twist in the larger mythology created by Tolkien. If they can make a short children's book into 3 full length films, it should take 50 more films to portray the stories in the Silmarillion & other Tolkien works. I hope they start soon...

F0r me the worms were no worse than adding Azog as a villain through all 3 films.

There were basic changes that I hate like Gandalf gifting Sting instead of Bilbo choosing it for himself. By far my biggest issue was how cartoonish they made most of the dwarves look. I know the book was a bit more humorous in nature but the over all cartoonishness of the dwarves was too much. Dain riding a pig at the end was simply awful. Being a guy who loves dwarves more than elves in this sort of genre I wish they would have made them more like Gimli in LotR and less Saturday morning cartoon.

 

[Shenexon]

F0r me the worms were no worse than adding Azog as a villain through all 3 films.

There were basic changes that I hate like Gandalf gifting Sting instead of Bilbo choosing it for himself. By far my biggest issue was how cartoonish they made most of the dwarves look. I know the book was a bit more humorous in nature but the over all cartoonishness of the dwarves was too much. Dain riding a pig at the end was simply awful. Being a guy who loves dwarves more than elves in this sort of genre I wish they would have made them more like Gimli in LotR and less Saturday morning cartoon.

I appreciate that changes have to be made in any translation of a book into film, but many of the changes were un-necessary and seemingly just changes for the sake of change. Sometimes it seems that whoever wrote the screenplays didn't read Tolkien and lacked a sense of the world that he invented, as some of the changes run contrary to his mythology and the nature of the creatures in his books. I enjoyed seeing how they visualized the scenes described in the Hobbit, but wish they had been more careful in remaining true to the story as written.

 

[Toga]

Saw Big Eyes today - meh

 

[Ghost]

its like many movies. if you have read the books you always want to see it on film. even if its bad most of the time you are just lucky to ever see it made at all.. as a kid reading comic books, i never dreamed some of these coming to life. lucky most have been pretty well done.

I loved Tom Clancy novels. the best being red storm rising, glad they made several movies but like the Hobbit tough to do it well so its never gonna be made.

I only read one Tom Clancy novel, 'Without Remorse,' quite a long time ago and always thought it would make a good film. Looks like it never happened though. Red Storm Rising - might check that out.

 

[Ghost]

Saw 'Imitation Game' today - it was fairly decent. They took a lot of liberties with the story, but it was probably necessary. Overall, I would recommend.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

So, I've taken my kid to see Penguins twice now. There's a part where the lead Penguin, Skipper, is eating some cheese puffs with gusto that makes me laugh so hard I can't breathe for a little while. No idea why it gets me, just does.

That's all I got.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Saw Hobbit 3: Tokyo Drift this past weekend. I liked it. Battle was 5 pages in the book, and 60% of the movie. It was neat, beautiful, but it all just felt repetitive. 7/10

That part where Dom and Bilbo drifted through Rivendell and then raced that straight away to see who would win the 10 second car really blew my mind.

 

[ImperialOrange]

That part where Dom and Bilbo drifted through Rivendell and then raced that straight away to see who would win the 10 second car really blew my mind.

You mean Brazilvendale?

 

[PhatOrange]

I'v seen 3 movies in the last month.

Fury - thought it was fantastic. 2 quibbles were A) the laser beam tank war - but i understand why they did it and B) i wished they happened on a concentration camp to show the depth of the Nazi atrocities. I think this would have explained better to the newbie why they hated the Nazi's so much and were willing to kill prisoners. I loved how raw and gritty it was and I liked how they weren't all Amercian moral compass and made the guys cold hearted and kinda bad people completly broken down by the horror of war.

Gone Girl - really liked this movie. It completely torqued me that there wasn't justice.

Hobbit - loved it for what it was - great fantasy entertainment. And they did a great job with the production, the sets the cgi. There is nothing worse than completely bogus cgi.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Saw 'Imitation Game' today - it was fairly decent. They took a lot of liberties with the story, but it was probably necessary. Overall, I would recommend.

We enjoyed it. I am not familiar with the story. What were the major liberties?

 

[upperdeck]

I think they

We enjoyed it. I am not familiar with the story. What were the major liberties?

I think the main quibble is probably that it never happened like the movie portrays it.