Latest Hollywood Films Viewed...

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies. This is the end of a movie-watching era that began for me in 2002(?) when Fellowship of the Ring came out, and I'm still a little numb about that. But for what it's worth, I found this possibly the best of the three Hobbit movies: the action scenes are still a bit long and random, but it's more excusable in this context (hint: Battle of the Five Armies) than the overly complicated escape from the Misty Mountain goblins in the first one, or the souped-up escape from the Mirkwood elves in the second one, or the downright Looney Tunes worthy "pour molten gold over the armored, fire-breathing dragon" subplot, also in the second one (although there's kind of a nice pay off to it in this third movie, where Thorin stand around brooding on the solidified lake of gold and realizes what a jerk he's been lately).

Richard Armitage, after wandering through two movies looking vaguely annoyed at being expected to play a dwarvish version of his broody, romanticized character from North and South, finally got a chance to play Tolkien's version of Thorin Oakenshield-full of himself, often petty, a flawed leader, obsessed with old grudges, but also with a real dignity and a hidden warmth. He does quite well in this role. Luke Evans was also playing Tolkien's Bard of Laketown this time (as opposed to Medieval Widower Han Solo, which was how his character came off in the last one) and although he portrayed Medieval Widower Han Solo quite well in the last one, he was even better as the tough-minded and practical, but compassionate Tolkien character. His confrontation with Smaug (where Benedict Cumberbatch had actual lines and seemed more convincing than in the last one) was one of the high points of the movie.  And it was also a hoot to see him interacting briefly with Orlando Bloom (whom he strongly resembles) which I don't believe he did in either Three Musketeers With Airships or the second Hobbit movie.

I liked Martin Freeman in the first two movies, but had watched Sherlock comparatively recently, as in, actually sat through multiple whole episodes, before seeing this third Hobbit movie, and as a result it just felt to me like this was Dr. Watson wandering around Middle Earth, not Bilbo. Still has good chemistry with Armitage and Ian McKellen though, and I liked Lee Pace's handling of Thranduil. Elrond, Saruman, and Galadriel teaming up to rescue Gandalf (and Radaghast?) from Dol Guldur was also really cool, although Peter Jackson using a "woo woo spooky" visual shorthand for Galadriel using the full power of her ring was just as tiresome here as it was back in 2002 in the Fellowship of the Ring. Maybe it was just a matter of having more dialogue and screentime to contend with, but 70-mumble McKellen seemed significantly older, frailer and dottier than 90-mumble Christopher Lee. I also liked the performances of the guys playing Fili and Kili and Balin and (I think) Dwalin. There's a brilliant little moment-not in the book, but I think Tolkien would have liked it-where Bilbo asks Balin, if hypothetically, the Arkenstone was found and given to Thorin, would Thorin act less nutso? And you can tell, just from the performance that Balin picks up on the fact that Bilbo has the stone, and basically tells him that restoring it to Thorin would probably make matters worse. (Generally, the filmmakers do a really good job on this very psychologically messy and confusing section of the book).

I felt like the film did a good job with the battle maneuvers and troop movements (better than LOTR for instance) and also did a good job explaining the complicated (and in some ways quite modern) geopolitics surrounding the Battle of the Five Armies.  Although the timescale seemed off, Legolas and Tauriel going north to reconnoiter actually worked well for me in terms of fleshing out the question of where all these extra orcs and giant bats were coming from. The filmmakers got a bit baroque in the critter department, with dwarves riding goats into battle, and the orcs deploying what appear to be either giant, daywalking trolls (which the baddies should not have in the pre-Lord of the Rings era) or giant goblins as battering rams and catapult platforms, and above all the giant burrowing worm creatures that have spawned about five billion Shai-hulud jokes already. There's some warrant for the worm creatures in the books: Gandalf refers in (I think) LOTR to "nameless things that gnaw at the roots of the mountains" and Bilbo references "were-worms of the desert" when he's babbling about stories of adventure early in the Hobbit. The reason the film interpretation of these concepts didn't sit right with me was the implication that the forces of evil had some control over them, because it seems like it would be a huge gamechanger, just like Sauron potentially having control of Smaug if Smaug had survived until the time of LOTR would have been a gamechanger.

The other major deviation from the book, the Legolas/Kili/Tauriel love triangle, had actually sort of borderline worked for me in the previous movie and seemed to work better here, with Legolas being a bit more of a grownup about it all, and the Kili/Tauriel moments continuing to be rather sweet and dignified. I didn't like Tauriel as damsel in distress in the final battle though.

Blackhat - One of my friends is a huge Chris Hemsworth/Wang Leehom fan, and she pestered me into watching this film with her. Given the reviews, we went in with very low expectations. Frankly, I was just looking to be entertained but the film didn't even manage that. It's very long and dull and kind of self-important. (I don't even think it's worth watching if you're a fan of any of the actors involved; none of them are given the opportunity to do something interesting with their paper-thin roles.)

Shaun the Sheep The Movie. It doesn't strictly belong in this thread, as it's not Hollywood, but it's definitely not Bollywood. This is another masterpiece from Aardman, purveyors of Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, and Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. Shaun the Sheep was a character in the Wallace & Gromit film A Close Shave, who later became the lead in a series of 5-minute cartoons on children's TV. He's now the hero of a full-length film in which the sheep accidentally cause their farmer to suffer amnesia and end up in The Big City. There he becomes a celebrity hairdresser, while the sheep and their sheepdog try to track him down, get him back to the farm, and cure his amnesia, all the time being chased by the city's animal control officer.

The TV series, and the film, are both aimed squarely at 5-year olds, but there is plenty to entertain adults, as it is full of the usual Aardman style of visual humour and the ridiculous. In fact we were crying with laughter at a scene where a flock of sheep disguise themselves as customers at a high-end restaurant and try to understand dining etiquette.

If you like the Aardman plasticine stop motion animation and their sense of humour, then Shaun the Sheep is well worth a look. Borrow someone else's 5-year old for the afternoon if you feel embarrassed going into the cinema without one.

Return of Sabata: technically an Italian western with an American lead and some Germans running around in the background, this action comedy (about a gunslinger trying to out-con the sleazoids who control a small town) is a guilty pleasure the More Casual Fan and I revisit from time to time. Third quarter is slower than I remember, and the plot twists don't get any less confusing after several viewings.

Jupiter Ascending: Amazingly pretty, and with a fairly workable plot, but it suffers from uninspired action scenes, poor dialogue, and bland characters. Mila Kunis comes off as spacey and self-centered; I didn't believe in her character's love for her family or for Tatum Channing's character. I normally don't care for Tatum Channing, but kudos to him for managing to make his character likable (if kind of boring) and for playing the love story a lot more convincingly than Kunis does. The (British?) actors playing the evil Abraxas siblings are probably the best thing about the movie that doesn't involve putting chandeliers and wedding chapels on spaceships or a Russian guy shouting "YOUR COUSIN IS NOT A CHICKEN!!!!"

Expendables 3: Harrison Ford sleepwalks through his cameo and still manages to steal the show. The "younger generation" of Expendables are immensely forgettable except for Ronda Rousey (terrible actress, great martial artist), and although the right director could probably get a properly menacing villainous performance out of Mel Gibson (at this point it's all too easy to imagine him as Evil Preacher Guy in a remake of Night of the Hunter or something of that nature), this was not it. As with the previous movies, what it does best is corny action hero quips, old school practical effects, and rather gritty and convincing location shooting.

Fast and the Furious 7: The late Paul Walker was someone I respected more than I enjoyed, to the extent that he was on my radar at all, so I'm sorry to say his parts of this movie didn't do much for me, and his love interest had the second most horrible face lift job I've seen in a while (and considering that I've seen Keira Knightley in Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit and Denise Richards in Kambakkht Ishq in the last six months, that's not saying a little). The camaraderie among the main characters was nice though, and there's a lot of cool people in it: Vin Diesel, Djimon Hounsou, Ronda Rousey (looking far more glamorous than in Expendables 3), Tony Jaa, Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibbs, Kurt Russell (whom not even the absolute worst face lift job I've seen in a while could keep from being LOL funny), and Ali Fazal from Bobby Jasoos. Awesome action scenes, annoying levels of fanservice, painfully loud soundtrack.

Avengers Age of Ultron: I didn't care for the team bickering sessions, or the "team gets mindwarped by Scarlet Witch" stuff, or the snoooooore-inducing Black Widow/Dr. Banner romance, but overall this came off as a fun piece of fluff. Ultron was a well-executed character, and the film came off as less in love with his intellectual posturing than, say, the Nolan Batmans were towards their villains. Paul Bettany was brilliant as Vision, a character who could easily have been a complete disaster. Robert Downey Jr seemed to be wishing he was somewhere else, but was still amusing. Captain America and Hawkeye doing their bit to bring Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver around to the Avengers' side was sweet.

^ I really liked the 2013 Great Gatsby, a lot better than the one made with Robert Redford. Modern music aside, its splendor came closest to what I imagined in my mind when I read the book.

See, I don't think the guy who played Tom was *that* unappealing...handsome, though his brutish nature spoiled his good looks. I do agree with you on Carrie, though.

As for Big B...yeah, the accent was a little weird. But I'm glad they cast him; he has that dangerous look to him that Wolfsheim is supposed to have. After all, he wears cuff links made of human molars! Yikes.

Hot Pursuit: I'd liked alot of the director's earlier films, including The Proposal and 27 Dresses, but this one relied too much on cringe humor and stereotypical portrayals of Latinos for my taste, and both heroines were very unflatteringly styled and filmed. Reese Witherspoon seemed to be flailing around in a role meant for Sandra Bullock, and the other actress seemed more at ease in the rare dramatic scenes than in the comic parts.

Inside Out: the trailers made it look stupid but I thought this was Pixar's best film since Up. Me crying all through the third act in front of the MCF and MCFSO was embarrassing though. Bring hankies, if you are at all susceptible to Pixar's schtick.

Ant Man: not as good as Inside Out but also way better than the trailers made it look. It has a lot of fun with the crazy premise, although it makes the title character seem slightly over-powered. Paul Rudd is funny, Evangeline Lilly is pretty good (and has awesome clothes), and Michael Douglas seemed to be channeling his dad, which was fine by me.

Someone recommended me The Long, Long Trailer (1953) with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, so I watched that tonight. Cute little flick, great fashion, and some of the scenes had me literally rolling on the floor laughing.