Sexy Cineplexy: Reviews

First of all I think it was a big mistake to have the second film in an urban city envioronment. I mean there is not much of a challenge in a City for a Predator.

From recollection I don't think the Predator really goes after Danny Glover but rather Danny Glover is always going after it. The Predator seems to be hunting Drug Dealer's and the like.

Also I don't remember Danny Glover being chubby at all? Maybe you are confusing Lethal weapon Danny Glover with Pred 2 Danny Glover.

Danny Glover is Danny Glover .

Well actors play different roles.

Would you say the same thing about Christian Bale when he is playing a stick thin weirdo in "The Machinist" then a few months later buffed up for "Batman Begins".

In pred 2 Danny Glover is a badass, which he plays convincingly imo, then in Lethal Weapon he is the fool which again he plays very well.

DJANGO UNCHAINED
(directed by Quentin Tarantino, 2012)



Fierce.

RAIN MAN
(directed by Barry Levinson, 1988)



The meaning behind "Rain Man" is that it's how a young Charlie Babbitt (played by Tom Cruise when he's older) pronounced his brother's name, Raymond, one time when they met before many years and years later, after Charlie grew up and forgot that he even had a brother. He forgot all about the existence of "Rain Man", the man who sang to him, and he started to believe that Rain Man was merely an imaginary friend he had made up.

Charlie Babbitt grew up and became a materialistic ******* who had disowned his father because dad refused to let him drive his nice car (dad was rich), so Charlie decided to not listen to him and he drove it anyway, leading to him spending a few nights in jail and dad never got him out. Rain Man begins with the news that dad is now dead. Will Charlie get some money out of this (he needs it now more than ever)? No -- the money goes to "Rain Man" (Dustin Hoffman), the long lost brother he forgot about, an autistic savant who's living in a nice institution with other folks who have mental disabilities. Charlie meets him once again and decides to take him out for a couple of days -- possibly Rain Man/Raymond will leave the institution forever. They head to Los Angeles and, after Raymond has a conniption fit about airlines that have had crashes (they're too frightening for him), they take the car and travel across the country. It's a road movie.

I'm not sure how much people really knew about autism in the 1980's, but I surmise that it wasn't heard about as much as today. Now everywhere you go, you hear about autistic people. Or people who have Asperger's Syndrome, like our very own The Rodent, who have a high functioning form of autism. Raymond Babbitt, though, is unusual because he's a savant -- his brain is practically an organic computer. He'll know any answer to a mathematical question that you punch into a calculator. If you play cards with him, he'll know what cards you're holding. If you drop a box toothpicks, he'll instantly know how many fell and how many are still in the box just by looking at how many dropped in practically a glance's amount of time. He'll read a telephone book and know everybody's name and phone number by memory real quick. He could be considered creepy and unreal and superhuman and alien. How would you like to find out that you suddenly had this genius for a brother? That's what happens to Tom Cruise in Rain Man and the movie allows us to witness them getting to know each other. As much as they can get to know each other.



Yes, this is one of those movies about a handicapped/special person that wound up winning all kinds of awards (it won Best Picture at the Oscars, among others). You make a good movie about somebody who has a different kind of brain, you're more likely to get showered with a lot of praise, a lot of attention, a lot of respect and maybe some big, big awards. Forrest Gump did it... so did A Beautiful Mind. Not all of these movies end up making it big (such as I Am Sam), yet I suspect there must be something deeply interesting to people about such films. What is it? Are we fascinated by the strangeness of human nature and its many forms of human appearances? Do people with different brains and different manners of behavior help teach us about ourselves and our own limitations?

Whatever it is, Rain Man is still a very nice and touching movie. It feels at times rather classic, like an Old Hollywood movie. It also, I thought, does not feel aged -- I swear I could almost believe this was set in 2013. Change a few things here and there and it would look completely fresh. Only Raymond's portable TV stands out as old, and yet, considering modern devices and phones that let us watch videos wherever we go now, that portable television does not seem so ancient. Give Raymond an iPhone and that's all you'd need to make Rain Man feel more current.

I also must say that I for once like Tom Cruise in something. He is very good here and also very sexy. It saddened me once this was over because it was time to get back to the Tom Cruise I don't really care for.

Dustin Hoffman is totally believable, although I'm not really sure if savants could really be as perfectly accurate as Raymond is. But he's perfectly believable as a lovable, extraordinary guy. Check out Rain Man.

Rain Man is so good. I love it. I also agree with you about it having an old Hollywood feel, but being timeless at the same time. Quite a few old Hollywood movies have that quality.

Great flick. Gave it a ++ when I reviewed it last year but now feel I should probably have gone higher. It's one that has stuck in my mind and grown on me since.

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The Place Beyond the Pines
(directed by Derek Cianfrance, 2012)



I'm not sure what to say about this movie and yet I am sure about what to say.

First of all, it's long (140 minutes) and it's broken up into three different sections, I guess. The first part deals with Ryan Gosling as a carnival motorcyclist stuntman who discovers that a woman he hooked up with in the past (Eva Mendes) has given birth to his child, Jason. She is now living in a house with her new boyfriend. Ryan Gosling's character -- Luke -- gets a job at an auto repair shop, but the guy who runs it talks him into doing bank robberies. The second part of this film deals with Bradley Cooper, who's a police officer, and the third part deals with Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling's sons fifteen years later when they're in high school. There's stuff I'm leaving out, but it's best that you just see it all unfold as you watch the movie.



I walked into this movie knowing absolutely nothing about it except I was told that Ryan Gosling was in it. I like Ryan Gosling very much, yet I also rolled my eyes at the thought of seeing a Ryan Gosling movie. Oh, great. The mannequin. I love Ryan Gosling, but he feels so overrated to me now. When some people don't see why he's considered such a great actor, I understand what they're saying. To me, he's like a gorgeous male model that they throw into movies to make them beautiful and popular. His characters and his acting always seems so quiet and one note. He does the same thing yet again in The Place Beyond the Pines. "Oh, look -- Drive with motorcycles," I thought.



I realized later that the movie was directed by Derek Cianfrance -- who's that? I wondered. Turns out he directed Blue Valentine, another movie with Ryan Gosling, and one that I've seen (and reviewed in this thread) and really liked a lot. I could see how the two films were directed by the same guy.

The Place Beyond the Pines has, from the looks of it, received mixed reviews. There's a lot of positives, but there's also quite a bit of negative reactions. When this movie ended in the theater for me, I thought, it's really good, but it's not great. A lot of people have called it a "mess." I'm not completely sure why... and yet I understand it.



First of all, WHAT THE HELL EXACTLY IS THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES?! I think I know what it refers to... and yet I don't. It's an odd title. It's a movie title that I think is used more to evoke feelings. But I don't know what this "place" is. The movie is all storytelling, yet I haven't learned what the place is. Is it the auto repair shop that Ryan Gosling worked at? Is it metaphorical? Is it a place that Bradley Cooper ends up going to twice in the film? (Probably.) Does it have a much deeper meaning?

That's the thing about this film -- what was the point of it? I liked it, but I'm not so certain about what was so necessary about telling the story. Is it a movie about fathers and sons? Is it supposed to be a "creepy little town" kind of story? The final act of the movie felt a bit like it could be Chronicle Part II since Dane DeHaan from Chronicle was in it and basically he seemed like the same character he played there and did the same kind of things, except levitate.

The movie feels "chunky." Lots of story, yet not much reason for it. And also -- you don't really get very well developed characters. It's just a lot of posturing (the kind of thing Ryan Gosling likes to do, I think.) The main character itself seems to be the town that these people are living in. The place beyond the pines, I guess.



I liked it, though. But it probably could have been a lot shorter. For the most part, though, it kept my attention. Here and there, though, I caught myself losing focus, but I was able to snap out of it.

I gave this film a as well although maybe for different reasons. I loved the first two acts, but had a lot of issues with the third. Really good film that felt like it should be great. I do disagree about Gosling, I feel like he is getting better and better.

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Letterboxd

I really like the first 2/3 of the film. The last act feels out of place, which was obviously done on purpose, but to me it was too distracting.

Love me some Eva Mendes. I know you're gay and all, but if you had to. It'd be Eva Mendes right? Good lookin lady.

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Thanks for the review, SC.

I saw the movie too and was going to write a review, but I felt too lazy. One reason being is that I feel there's a lot to say about this movie and wasn't up to it.

The Place Beyond the Pines is apparently a translation of Schenectady, where the movie is set. To me, it's also an allusion to the hidden parts of ourselves and others, the ones we may not even be aware of, but which play a huge part in who we are and how our lives take shape.

I liked the movie a lot. I liked Cianfrance's writing/directing style - telling a complex story over a long time span with short, tense scenes that help keep us on edge for the duration of the long movie. And the story serves as a device for highlighting the central theme of how dynamics get played out over generations. Are we truly free to live our own lives, or are we also beholden to the choices made by our parents, their parents, etc?

The story is set in the frame of a classic American tale. It begins with a drifter who decides to stake his claim. 'He can get his own girl and his own kid. Every man has that right,' says Luke. We can imagine this same line being said in a Western. Perhaps every man has the right, but is every man free (free of his demons, that is) to manifest it? And the movie ends on a parallel note.

I found all the acting good and dramatically believable, which is quite a feat for Cianfrance to pull off from such a large ensemble; very strong from Gosling and Bradley Cooper. Ray Liotta was also really good, as was Dane DeHaan (whom I've never seen before).

There is a contrivance in the third act that temporarily threatens to pull the viewer out of the story, but it is not beyond the realm of possibility, so I was able to go with the flow.

The only real problem I had with the film was the score, which at times I found overwhelming. Particularly in the beginning, before any drama has been revealed. Suddenly this ominous music appears, like a deep-voiced narrator at the beginning of a B-horror movie, heavy-handedly informing us that we're in for a wild ride. While the score was often appropriate, overall it could have been employed with a lot more subtlety. I really liked the Bon Iver song at the end.

Again, thanks SC, for prompting me to get some of my thoughts about this very worthwhile film out.

I'd give it an 8.7/10

Eva Mendes is certainly beautiful, and I also found her acting strong in this film. But this is by no means one of her sexy, glamorous roles.

Yeah, like I said, I had mixed feelings about the score. Sometimes over-the-top, sometimes it fit. The 'ominous music' part I'm referring to is when I first noticed the score early on, when Luke first drops Romina back at her place. I also really liked the Dancing in the Dark track, and that scene too. It worked really well.

Aw, thanks, SC. So far I've preferred to respond to existing reviews/review threads on movies or - if they don't exist - to start a thread in the hope that someone will respond with his/her thoughts. Or to just post my thoughts in the 'Last Movie You've Seen' thread.

I like having discussions about movies, like we just did. That's the reason I came to this site. I wanted to discuss my thoughts on G.I. Jane!

Nice to meet you, Jason

I also found the end moving.

I've met Eva Mendes and she is definitely welcome to my bed any time

Here, just to titilate you: