Originally Posted by FAX:
I envision it as two, down-on-their-luck college friends who decide to enter the competition in order to pay off a gambling debt.
They then travel to Russia and are followed by the KGB who mistakenly believes they may be American spies. One of them falls in love with a female KGB officer assigned to their case who teaches him the finer points of open-hand slapping while introducing him to Soviet-style sex.
I did a search and didn't find any posts about this movie. I actually thought this film would have its own thread, but I guess not.
I was pleasantly surprised. This is a better-than-average action-oriented spy/thriller. Damn good, actually. No significant weaknesses in plot, script, performance, cinematography or direction. It's also interesting to see how John Wick has affected they way fight sequences are shot and edited. Recommended to all who appreciate the genre. I give it 3.75 (out of 5) hikes.
Originally Posted by FAX:
Watched Atomic Blonde last night.
I did a search and didn't find any posts about this movie. I actually thought this film would have its own thread, but I guess not.
I was pleasantly surprised. This is a better-than-average action-oriented spy/thriller. Damn good, actually. No significant weaknesses in plot, script, performance, cinematography or direction. It's also interesting to see how John Wick has affected they way fight sequences are shot and edited. Recommended to all who appreciate the genre. I give it 3.75 (out of 5) hikes.
FAX
I liked it too.
I think it set out to be a female John Wick-ish film. I thought it did a nice job. I might be biased because I'm a huge Theron fan.
I thought the fight scene in the stairway was really well done. It was obvious in the choreography that he hit harder than her and she was hurt by the blows.
I mean, I watch it all, but it's fairly ridiculous that the women just do what dudes do to giant motherfucking dudes and it works. This took into account that it was a woman fighting a man, and it worked, at least in my head. [Reply]
For those who love music bio-pics, you've got to watch "The Dirt". Those are four characters that are intensely difficult to portray authentically, and these young actors just nailed it. [Reply]
It's about six months old, but I just watched The Meg on HBO. I had planned to see it in the theater but when the imdb rating was 5.6, I don't usually go if it's below a 7.0 rating. I wouldn't of been disappointed and should have gone. It's cheesy to a certain extent and has cliches as you would expect, but the special effects and the action kept your interest. Instead of the Bill Paxton type character always saying, "get me out of here man", they did have one, but a black guy who couldn't swim. I could of imagined the Rock playing the main character, that would of been too cheesy, I think Jason Statham was the best choice, although half of what he said, I can't understand.
I did get the full effect at home, I have a 75" Samsung 4K and a huge surround sound, and the movie has excellent surround sound. I gave it a 7.0 and it was a good action adventure and worth watching.
Originally Posted by Frazod:
This looks promising.
Watched this last night. It was awesome.
And while everybody knows how it ends,
Spoiler!
the really cool thing about this is it is completely about the pursuing cops and presented from their point of view. Bonnie and Clyde's faces aren't shown until right before they are killed. Prior to that, they are either shown from a distance or from behind. It really conveyed the cops' mounting frustration as they were so often just a step behind them.
Definitely one of the better movies of its kind. Kostner and Harrelson make a great team. Kostner's portrayal of Frank Hamer is basically an old fart version of Eliot Ness.
I would have happily paid to see this in the theater. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Frazod:
Watched this last night. It was awesome.
And while everybody knows how it ends,
Spoiler!
the really cool thing about this is it is completely about the pursuing cops and presented from their point of view. Bonnie and Clyde's faces aren't shown until right before they are killed. Prior to that, they are either shown from a distance or from behind. It really conveyed the cops' mounting frustration as they were so often just a step behind them.
Definitely one of the better movies of its kind. Kostner and Harrelson make a great team. Kostner's portrayal of Frank Hamer is basically an old fart version of Eliot Ness.
I would have happily paid to see this in the theater.
Can't wait to see this.
I'm almost done with reading the book below and Bonnie and Clyde is the last chapter. Hamer was a badass mfker.
I think that may be the next book I read. Thanks for sharing.
I hope the movie stayed true to the story and what he was really like. These things always take liberties, but some are worse than others. The last Bonnie and Clyde movie I saw was presented from her point of view, and wasn't terribly impressive. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Frazod:
Watched this last night. It was awesome.
And while everybody knows how it ends,
Spoiler!
the really cool thing about this is it is completely about the pursuing cops and presented from their point of view. Bonnie and Clyde's faces aren't shown until right before they are killed. Prior to that, they are either shown from a distance or from behind. It really conveyed the cops' mounting frustration as they were so often just a step behind them.
Definitely one of the better movies of its kind. Kostner and Harrelson make a great team. Kostner's portrayal of Frank Hamer is basically an old fart version of Eliot Ness.
I would have happily paid to see this in the theater.
Just finished it. Had to watch the death scene twice. Damn scene gave me goosebumps both times. Expertly done. Loved the view from the Rangers instead of just Bonnie and Clyde. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Frazod:
Watched this last night. It was awesome.
And while everybody knows how it ends,
Spoiler!
the really cool thing about this is it is completely about the pursuing cops and presented from their point of view. Bonnie and Clyde's faces aren't shown until right before they are killed. Prior to that, they are either shown from a distance or from behind. It really conveyed the cops' mounting frustration as they were so often just a step behind them.
Definitely one of the better movies of its kind. Kostner and Harrelson make a great team. Kostner's portrayal of Frank Hamer is basically an old fart version of Eliot Ness.
I would have happily paid to see this in the theater.
This was really good. I don’t know the liberties they took but nothing seemed outlandish. The camerawork was really really good. Nothing groundbreaking but it was notably well done. Same with the music.
What really drives the movie forward was the acting. There were a LOT of places the acting could have fallen flat and the points the movie was pushing would miss. Harelson and Kostner have laid some eggs in their career but this is really well down and it all worked. For me anyway. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Buehler445:
This was really good. I don’t know the liberties they took but nothing seemed outlandish. The camerawork was really really good. Nothing groundbreaking but it was notably well done. Same with the music.
What really drives the movie forward was the acting. There were a LOT of places the acting could have fallen flat and the points the movie was pushing would miss. Harelson and Kostner have laid some eggs in their career but this is really well down and it all worked. For me anyway.
The scenes where Costner and Harrelson delivered their "what shaped me" stories were both great. They both hit it out of the park. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Frazod:
The scenes where Costner and Harrelson delivered their "what shaped me" stories were both great. They both hit it out of the park.
There were several places it could have fallen apart, but was held together by great performances.
Spoiler!
The 2 stories you referenced are the big ones, Harelson's in particular with Kostner sitting outside in view all the time.
When Kostner attacks the gas station attendant could have come apart pretty easily.
Pretty much every time Harelson talked about not sleeping.
The car chase scene could have fallen apart pretty easily.
Whenever they'd run into the mob, there wasn't even any dialogue but it was really powerful stuff and added a lot to the narrative.
Even the scene at the end where Harelson jumped out from behind the blind happened so quick, it could have been a "get the fuck out of here" moment.
I'm sure there are other scenes too, but looking back, it took some really powerful performances to hold it together, because that story is so crazy, the Great Depression was so long ago, and the production was pretty damned ambitious in what it attempted to tackle.
I'm sure it won't get any buzz about it, but this is pretty much the diametric opposite of Michael Bay. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Buehler445:
There were several places it could have fallen apart, but was held together by great performances.
Spoiler!
The 2 stories you referenced are the big ones, Harelson's in particular with Kostner sitting outside in view all the time.
When Kostner attacks the gas station attendant could have come apart pretty easily.
Pretty much every time Harelson talked about not sleeping.
The car chase scene could have fallen apart pretty easily.
Whenever they'd run into the mob, there wasn't even any dialogue but it was really powerful stuff and added a lot to the narrative.
Even the scene at the end where Harelson jumped out from behind the blind happened so quick, it could have been a "get the fuck out of here" moment.
I'm sure there are other scenes too, but looking back, it took some really powerful performances to hold it together, because that story is so crazy, the Great Depression was so long ago, and the production was pretty damned ambitious in what it attempted to tackle.
I'm sure it won't get any buzz about it, but this is pretty much the diametric opposite of Michael Bay.
I do wonder if the gas station scene actually happened. Wouldn't surprise me if he did something like that, though. I'm going to pick up the book that Pennywise recommended, but from what little I have read about Hamer he was a tough customer with a short fuse and a very personalized view of right and wrong. [Reply]
