The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies 6.5/10 Those who care little about LOTR thought it was an entertaining 2.5h popcorn movie. The Hobbit was never meant to be that kind of superficial trash. This trilogy felt a lot like PJ's version of the Hobbit, rather than the better adapted and stronger LOTR trilogy. This means characters which I really didn't care much for like the elf warrior woman got too much screen time at the expense of Bilbo. There was too much cheesy CGI and moments of video-gameness like Legolas defying gravity (remember when he slid down some stairs and shot 10 orcs in the head in the Two Towers? Multiply that by 10 and that's this movie). Also, the good guys were too powerful. There was never a sense of danger and fear. The PG-13 hampers any real violence being shown. It's all very clean. Overall, I didn't get a sense of escapism from this film like the LOTR trilogy. It felt too Hollywood. The look was artificial. The comedic timing poor. It was only towards the end with Bilbo and Thorin's conversation on the frozen pond, when Bilbo walks to the Shire that you see some of Tolkien's magic shine through the CGI veneer. Armitage and Freeman did wonderful acting. The extended edition of the 2nd movie is my favorite, and hopefully the extended edition of this movie may redeem it. I've either become too old or jaded, but the ending didn't hit me at all whereas the Return of the King's conclusion left me depressed.
"BlackMirror Christmas Special" - not really a movie perhaps, but part of miniseries of episodes that don't have anything to do with each other, so I guess it counts. 8.5/10
I Am Santa meh/10 The documentary on Netflix featuring Mick Foley. It follows 5 seasonal mall Santas for a year. Meh.
Gravity 7.5/10 I liked it but it seems like it was just way too hyped up. Ending left me feeling meh.
Stand By Me Doraemon - 6/10 The movie went all over the place and literally recycled scenes from the comic book. I thought this was going to be about what happens when Doraemon's battery finally dies and Nobita's journey to finally getting his act together and becomes a successful inventor and marries Shizuka. You'd have to be a long-time fan of Doraemon to get the movie... kids who haven't seen a single episode or read the comics won't understand. Would give it a lower score, but gave a 6 for nostalgia.
Big Hero 6 - 9/10 (surprised that there isn't a dedicated thread for this movie) You know back when you were playing PS1 games and saw PS2 games for the first time? Yeah, it's like that kind of a jump in CG quality. I don't know if Disney Animation Studios siphoned off all the Pixar talent or what, but the visuals for this movie was amazing. Story is cliché, but it's a kiddie movie. Guardians of the Galaxy is still my no. 1 for 2014, but this one comes very close.
I give this post a 2/10 Cons: Not much to it. Anyone could have made that post. Nothing unique. The Kobe gif was too jerky. His head movement wasn't at all smooth. Watching that for 5 minutes straight could give you a seizure. Kobe. Not the gif so much as using Kobe. That's just a no-go. He's a has-been and in that gif he's actually dissing a Rockets player. Clutchfans, mind you, is a Rockets forum. Pros: No typos. Successful use of the multi-quote feature. Overall: I can't recommend this post to anyone. Yes, there absolutely are worse posts out there, but there are also millions of better ones. Here's to hoping Juxtaposed Jolt can recover and return to his usual form soon. You can see some of his previous work here and here.
Nightcrawler- 9.5/10 Gyllenaal is mad freaky in this one and delivers such a great performance. I wonder how many third party video production teams actually can relate to this movie and how they got their big break?
How to Train Your Dragon 2 The first one is still my favorite of the two, but this one is definitely a worthy sequel. It tries to improve on the first in every way, and largely succeeds. More action, more dragons, more gadgets, bigger and badder villains. 8/10
Interstellar WTF/10 entertaining thru out but never really hooked me in. Nightcrawler 9/10 Great performance by Gyllenhaal and the best film I have seen in the past 5-6 months
Saw this last night. I really enjoyed it but my 5 year old melted down at end of 2nd act as that was pretty freaking dark. I agree, however, 8/10.
