11 Minutes

11 Minutes isn't exactly fun to watch. It does succeed in creating a feeling of tension, but I'm not sure that really pays off.

11 minutes is a Polish movie. The concept is that you see the same 11 minutes from the perspective of several different people. It opens with sort of "found footage" of cell phone and security cameras. I was kind of concerned that it was going to stay that way, but luckily it switches to regular camerawork fairly quickly.

It's a weird movie. It's super confusing trying to figure out what's going on all the time. The score is frequently abrasive and unnerving. There's some kind of black spot in the sky that's never explained. And there's always just a general feeling of tension.

I wonder what the movie is trying to say, exactly. I wish there were a commentary for it. It would probably be interesting to go back and watch it again, being able to understand more about it. It does get some "interesting" points just for being set in Warsaw. I always like to see things in different countries.

Best of Enemies

Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal is a documentary about some televised debates that took place between a liberal and a conservative in the '60s, which doesn’t sound that interesting, but it’s actually fascinating to watch. You get all kinds of insights into the time period and their motivations, and we’re still facing the same issues they were then.

I wanted to see Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal when it came out, but the library didn’t get it. And then eventually I checked Netflix and there it was. I didn’t have any idea who either person was beforehand, but luckily they set everything up in the opening of the movie. It’s interesting how they said the country was so divided then. Nothing changes.

Len and Company

Len and Company is kind of interesting, but there's nothing profound about it, and it's one of those movies that leaves you wondering what the point of making or watching it was.

The reviews for Len & Company weren't that great, but I wanted to watch it anyway. There was something weird going on with the audio syncing, and you heard the lines with a significant delay after you saw them being spoken, which was really weird. And this was an especially bad movie for that to happen on since it's almost exclusively people talking. It was probably just a DVD/player issue, but it made it difficult to get a handle on the movie.

Kill Zone 2

Kill Zone 2 had potential, but the plot is pretty atrocious. It looks okay, though, and some of the action is interesting.

The trailer for Kill Zone 2 made it look interesting (I think half of my reviews start this way). IMDb said the plot wasn't good, but the action was, so I went ahead and saw it. IMDb was accurate. The plot is pretty atrocious, but the action is interesting. Tony Jaa is fun to watch, and Jing Wu was good, too. Some of the dialogue probably came across better in the original language.

I'm really starting to hate breaking windows. I haven't seen it done well in so long. Luckily that wasn't a main feature here. There should have been more action. There were some long stretches without it, and they were terrible. I didn't like how it was mostly realistic action, and every now and then someone would do a wire stunt that stood out like a sore thumb.

Mad Max: Fury Road

You know from the trailer exactly what you're getting with Mad Max: Fury Road. The action isn't that spectacular, but the world of Mad Max is always interesting, I liked the characters/actors, and the plot was fine.

I have a lot of nostalgia for the original Mad Max series, from forever ago. I'm pretty sure I watched it about 15 years ago and didn't like it. But I don't remember that anymore, so it's basically just back to the nostalgia. I didn't see the point in watching Fury Road. It didn't seem like the movie was necessary, or anything that was going to be that great. I do like Tom Hardy, but I'm not a huge fan of Charlize, and "Furiosa" is the dumbest name ever. I guess it *might* kind of fit in with the Mad Max univerise, though.

The opening of the movie is pretty cool. It's hard not to get behind Max's narration. I did like the look of the war boys. And the canyon people's outfits were cool, too. I thought Nux looked like Nicholas Hoult. I keep confusing other people for him, but I was like, "No, this time that really *has* to be him." Some of the car stuff was cool I guess. I wasn't super impressed with it, or the guitar player, although I did like the war drums. I could've done without the sped-up footage effect.

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens

The Force Awakens really is just like a re-hash of the original Star Wars movies with different actors, and the whole thing is slightly "off," but it was still fun to watch.

I'm not really a Star Wars fan. I made the mistake of watching the first six movies in episode order rather than chronological. Hayden Christensen was terrible. And I didn't get much out of the originals, either. But I kept seeing posts about this one, and I realized you don't get many chances to see a Star Wars movie in the theater, so I went to see it on the big screen.

I'm glad I did; it was worth $3. It's cool that Harrison Ford and everybody is still around to reprise their roles. I don't really see Carrie Fisher as Leia, though; I pretty much just see her as the actress Carrie Fisher. I liked that it felt like a reboot with young actors, although I guess the series in general has been about young people. I didn't recognize Adam Driver at all as Kylo. He looks a lot younger in the movie. BB8 was pretty adorable. His name sounded a little awkward when people said it.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Maybe because I had low expectations going into it, and/or maybe because I just like Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer, I thought The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was brilliant. There are so many hilarious scenes, and the timing and delivery of the lines is (frequently, although not always) dead on. The plot is less than inspired, but it looks slick, and the soundtrack really stands out.

I didn't have high hopes for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. It got pretty mixed reviews. People like to pick on Guy Ritchie for some reason. I liked Snatch, and I wasn't impressed with Lock, Stock, although I can't remember either movie anymore at this point. But Sherlock Holmes was great. I need to see RocknRolla. I wanted to see The Man in the theater, but circumstances prevented me from doing it, the first time it came in from the library I flat out didn't have time to watch it, so I've been wanting to see it for forever.

I *thought* I hadn't ever seen Henry Cavill in anything until I just checked and found out he was the super hot guy from The Tudors. He's still super hot, and I love his voice. Solo reminded me a lot of Neal from White Collar. They're basically the same guy - a thief who got caught and is now working for the government. Although Neal wasn't in the Army. Henry's acting wasn't exactly perfect. There was something a little *too* mannered/deliberate/campy about it. But it did work most of the time. 

The only thing I'd ever seen Armie Hammer in was The Lone Ranger, but he was great in that. So I was basically just interested in The Man because of the two lead guys. And the trailer had some great lines. I liked the idea of these two guys who hate each other having to work together. I'm sure it's not the first time it's ever been done, but it looked interesting anyway. It was really tough at first to buy Armie as a Russian guy, though. I don't know how authentic his accent was, but I just kept thinking, "this guy isn't Russian and I know it." He and Henry did absolutely kill it a lot of the time in terms of comedic timing/delivery/tone, though.

The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight has some interesting characters and scenes, but it's not exactly iconic.

I wasn't interested in The Hateful Eight from the trailer,  and the reviews didn't make it sound like something worth watching. I've never been a fan of Tarantino's dialogue, but it actually wasn't so bad this time. The characters were pretty interesting. I sort of missed about 10 minutes when they first got to the Haberdashery, but it probably wasn't important.

Not just for that reason, but it's one of the few movies I think I'd like to watch again, knowing all the secrets now. Bob's accent was weird. I didn't really buy him as Mexican. The British guy brought a lot of life to things. Domergue was intriguing, too. And you can't go wrong with Walter Goggins.

Misery Loves Comedy

Misery Loves Comedy starts getting interesting about 3/4 of the way through. It's not as insightful as the trailer leads you to believe; it's mostly just common sense observations.

Misery Loves Comedy wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. There were a lot of "duh" observations like "comedians like to hang out with each other at parties." I'm pretty sure people of any profession probably have things in common and talk to each other at parties. I watched it in bits and pieces over a couple days, as I usually do with documentaries, and I'm definitely glad I didn't spend an uninterrupted chunk of time on it.

It's interesting to see the comedians, but there's not much that's really insightful. It actually started to get interesting in about the last quarter, so they should've done more stuff like that.

I guess they save the fundamental question for the end, which is "do you have to be miserable to be funny." And I think the answer is, not necessarily miserable, but you've got to at least have something to complain about. You never hear anyone making jokes about how everything's awesome and nothing's wrong or uncomfortable.

Spy

Spy had potential, but the vibe is just off. It's not serious, it's not a parody, and it doesn't do a good job of being in the middle. It is consistently funny, but it could've been a lot better.

It's October, and apparently Spy is the second movie I've seen that came out in 2015. I really liked The Heat, and you can pretty much tell from the trailer which if Melissa's movies are going to be unwatchable. I figured this one would at least be passable, and that wasn't far off. There was something weird about the tone. It didn't quite work. I've seen most of the commentary, and the director keeps talking about how it's not a spoof or a parody, and they were going for serious (as much as they could with a comedy), but the general feel of the movie was really off.

I had a hard time investing in the plot. Maybe Melissa works better when she only has one person to play off, like in The Heat, than so many people. There were a *lot* of funny things about the movie, but something about it really brings my rating down. Most of the songs were jarring and just terrible choices in general, and the CGI was inexcusable. 

Furious 7

Furious 7 could've been a much better movie if they had just tried a little harder not to be so absurdly cliché. There were some cool stunts, though, and I can't say I didn't enjoy it.

I don't know why I keep watching these. Maybe now that Walker's gone, I can stop. I held out for about half of the trailer before I saw too many interesting stunts and felt like I wanted to watch it. And then Roeper gave it a favorable review, so I had to do it. I don't regret it, but I do wish it could've been just a bit less cliché and more intelligent.