I didn't expect this to be good ever since they signed Jackson on to direct.
I vowed to never see them once they said they would make it a trilogy. F that.

I saw the Bones Brigade documentary the other night. It really took me back and gave me new respect for those guys, especially Rodney Mullen. If you skated back in the day you need to see it. It's very moving.

Which one? I didn't really notice, but I was kind of caught up in the moment. I thought it was truly Fucking Phenomenal. Like, can't be overstated just how damn good it is.

Got a 7-year-old and a Regal gift card. I'm still leaning toward this over Rise of the Guardians.

i thought the end of the war and assassination were handled poorly, especially the latter. but everything up until then is great.

Really? We rented it the other night and I thought it was pretty terrible.

My take: I could have watched a 24 hour version of this movie that brought in earlier material. I disagree on the plethora of information. I though the scope was too small, in fact, without giving any spoilers. I can see why Loogs ate this up, with his involvement in the political game. My only complaint in the sympathetic portrayal of Thaddeus Stevens. I though Tommy Lee Jones gave a great performance, but this guy probably caused much of the racism in the South with his leadership role in Radical Reconstruction. I view him as a political, short-sighted John Brown.

i had no problem with the small scope. i thought the movie should have ended upon passage of the amendment. shoehorning in the other stuff was a curious move probably done so that critics wouldn't say spielberg was sugarcoating it.

I agree. It's not like nobody knows that Lincoln was assassinated.

I liked Wreck-It Ralph. Visually outstanding, and all the old video game references were fun. I loved how some of the characters were animated. We took our 3-year-old to see it, and while that may have been a mistake (a little more cartoon violence than we want her to see yet and some kinda dark and scary parts), I think it'd be perfect for a 7-year-old. The story's not great, but it's still probably one of the best non-Pixar CG animated movies.

...

We finally saw The Artist a few nights ago on Netflix. It was cute. This won best picture? There were a lot of things I liked about it, but I really didn't think there was that much there.

i liked rise of the guardians better, but even it wasn't really all that great

It definitely LOOKED good, but the story was weak, and they really didn't feature enough (or sustain the appearances of) the classic video game characters. Needed more scenes like the support group and WAY less of the Sugar Rush crap.

I actually thought it was interesting showing the assassination being announced and the youngest son's reaction to it, as opposed to the umpteenth JWB re-creation.

yeah, but he FUH s. epoxy merkinball

there were apparently some major issues getting the rights to use more classic video game characters.

It's not surprising that the bulk of the movie focused on the characters and games they created and not on the classic stuff. This is a Disney product, after all. Think about the merchandising. They don't want to be making a bunch of Bowser and Q-Bert toys, promoting someone else's properties.

But I liked the stuff they created for the movie. They were good parodies, and they really showcased a nice variety of design and animation styles.

saw Wreck it Ralph with my son and he enjoyed it. I thought it was so-so...agree with the people above who said that more could have been done with the idea. Understand the rights issues...makes sense.

saw Lincoln with my wife yesterday and we both really enjoyed it.

Yeah, I enjoyed this take on the assassination. Very well done, and without the usual histrionics. Plus, because they emphasized his relationship with his son, I thought that made it more poignant.



+ 10M! Best name evar.

i liked it up until the 2nd ending.

ditto

Oxy-morons
I feel conflicted about this one. As a semi-autobiographical account of the director's experiences in taking (and then selling) oxycontin, it portrays a more brutal reality than most movies can. Especially the prison scenes, which strips away all of the typical Hollywood romanticization of being behind bars. At the same time, the story feels amateurish in how it was told with its confusing story lines. And it is an obviously low-budget affair. Still, I'll hand it to the director--for a movie which mainly uses non-professional actors, he squeezed a pretty convincing tale out of this. 3/5

And they totally tacked that on, because the book ends the way the first ending does.

My thing was, what with the material, I wanted more Gonzo-Oliver-Stone than what was really a fairly straight re-telling of the book.

(And a Blake Lively getting finger-cuffed scene like happens to O in the book)

This was good. It starred that girl from Parks and Rec, and was fairly innocuous.

The premise is fun, and while it get derailed a few times, the "is he or isn't he" crazy keeps you until the end. There's a certain debt being paid here to mumblecore films, but also to 80s sci-fi features that attempted to be more grounded in reality. I've been noticing as a new crop of filmmakers are rising up, being influenced by those films, that its becoming a norm again.

The director has been mentioned as a candidate for directing one of the new Star Wars--which, is total speculation, but def wouldn't be a guy I'd look at imo. Though, I will say there is definitely something Spielbergian about his approach, and I could see him making in-roads like Spielberg acolyte JJ Abrams.

I liked that flick, FR. I thought it did a good job of weaving the stories together, and generally being quirky enough without it seeming like they script doctored every scene for the maximum amount of "Is this quite off kilter enough."

I can't decide if Aubrey Plaza is hot or not, though. And, I believe this film is actually a fictionalized version of The Life of Radcliffe.

Silver Linings Playbook

This was pretty enjoyable. My wife read and loved the book and said that they changed a few details from one to the next. But, Bradley Cooper and, especially, Jennifer Lawrence were excellent. If you have any experience with folks who have similar issues, a lot of this will look and sound very familiar. In some ways they get it right, but they certainly do gloss over some of the issues in the way that only Hollywood does. Still, the ring of truth and a very entertaining "quirky" love story.