The Silver Screen Oasis

I saw Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Fantastic Four in the last two weekends. MI is a great action movie, with lots of crazy stunts and a fast moving plot. Has Tom Cruise ever made a stinker? Really enjoyable.

Fantastic Four, on the other hand, should never have been made. It's nothing but a cash grab to keep the license for the characters from reverting to Marvel Studios, and it shows. No coherent plot, poor motivations, and terrible pacing, especially the final act. I'm a comic book junkie, and it saddens me to see something that could be great handled so poorly by FOX. Third try at a FF movie, and third failure. The worst yet, IMO.

Lomm wrote:I saw Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Fantastic Four in the last two weekends. MI is a great action movie, with lots of crazy stunts and a fast moving plot. Has Tom Cruise ever made a stinker? Really enjoyable.

Fantastic Four, on the other hand, should never have been made. It's nothing but a cash grab to keep the license for the characters from reverting to Marvel Studios, and it shows. No coherent plot, poor motivations, and terrible pacing, especially the final act. I'm a comic book junkie, and it saddens me to see something that could be great handled so poorly by FOX. Third try at a FF movie, and third failure. The worst yet, IMO.

I agree with you on 100% on both movies and I was very, very unhappy with Fantastic Four ... I saw it yesterday and cried afterwards of how bad it is. Mission Impossible was totally unreal.

Lomm wrote:I saw Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Fantastic Four in the last two weekends. MI is a great action movie, with lots of crazy stunts and a fast moving plot. Has Tom Cruise ever made a stinker? Really enjoyable.

In my opinion, yes, he has made several stinkers. For example:

Interview with the Vampire -- great book, bad movie
Eyes Wide Shut
Lions for Lambs -- Meryl Streep couldn't save it
Rock of Ages
Jack Reacher
Oblivion

I liked MI 1 and 2; didn't care much for 3 and 4. Will give 5 a try.

Oh yeah, Eyes Wide Shut was not good at all. In Vampire he was terribly miscast, besides the movie being lousy. I didn't mind Oblivion, and never saw the others on your list. Seems like I'm not missing anything!

My favorite Cruise movie: Eyes Wide Shut.

So it goes.

Has anyone seen the new Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie this weekend? It looks possible but I've heard almost no buzz about it and after wasting time at Fantastic Four last weekend I don't really feel like doing that again for another poor take on a franchise.

Lomm wrote:Has anyone seen the new Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie this weekend? It looks possible but I've heard almost no buzz about it and after wasting time at Fantastic Four last weekend I don't really feel like doing that again for another poor take on a franchise.

I will see the Man from Uncle on Monday and I hate the New FF Movie so bad! ... I will try to recap the Uncle Movie late Monday Night ...

I saw the Man from Uncle that starred Henry Cavill as Napoleon Solo (Man of Steel) and Armie Hammer as Illya Kuryakin (Lone Ranger) and the big problem of this movie is a movie without Stars. Many of my friends that went to see this film about 14 of us and we all agree that this movie isn't all that good. If you take away Cavill and Hammer from this movie - you get nothing at all. It's overhyped and it's too vanilla of a movie. I don't like Hammer at all and believe me he's can't act at all. Cavill is okay as Solo and that's it. I hope that this movie doesn't make a sequel.

Forget it about it. It's a waste of monies and in my book a complete disaster!

Thanks, I will give it a pass!

"Fury" starring Brad Pitt. The story of a tank crew and a few of its exploits as it goes through the final months of WWII. The main crux involves a new man to the crew who has no tank experience and little training for what he is called to do. It is about the bonding of the men and how they survive, or don't, in the war.

I really enjoyed it. It clocks in at about 2 hours and 15 minutes but it moves along pretty well. The performances are good. The action pretty exciting and the violence seems pretty realistic.

A couple of obvious points in the story can be forgiven as I think they are handled pretty well. Looking back it seems a little bit of a stretch in the climax but still well done.

It is not going to win anyone any Oscars, I think, but it is a good story about men who live and die together.

Thanks people for your comments on these recent releases. I must confess that nothing currently playing at the cinema really excites me. Certainly not enough to spend the exorbitant costs on tickets and jumbo popcorn and beverage. The last film I saw in a theater was HEAVEN IS REAL - nothing spectacular but a nice little movie so I didn't feel ripped-off. The wife and I would LOVE to find something worthwhile to see to enjoy a night out, but . . .

No interest in loud, special-effects (or should I say CGI) movies. I like a story that has some real human emotion in it, not impossible scenes where the hero (human or not) is ridiculously indestructible. Anyhoo, that's my opinion: TCM forever!

The only upcoming film that we likely will take in is A WALK IN THE WOODS. A Redford flick usually doesn't disappoint.

Western Guy wrote:The only upcoming film that we likely will take in is A WALK IN THE WOODS. A Redford flick usually doesn't disappoint.

I am a little leery about this one since the Bill Bryson book was such a gem, but the previews look as though it might capture some of the book's gentle humor and inspiring observations on life and Nature. Going to the movie has got to be easier than hiking The Appalachian Trail.

You know Moira, having seen the trailer again today I'm not quite sure of its merits. But when there aren't a lot of choices out there, you go for what looks the most inviting. And for better or for worst, A WALK IN THE WOODS, to me and my missus at least, looks the most entertaining of the current lot. At least when it comes to what we enjoy.

And overall that might be pretty sad.

I'm seeing ads for DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL. That looks good. I usually don't respond to a 30 second preview. This one just looks right! And I agree with Western Guy. More often than not, a Robert Redford film is worth the time. LIONS FOR LAMBS not withstanding (ouch!), he tells a good story.

Oh yeah, LIONS FOR LAMBS was a major misstep in the Redford canon. But overall Redford and Eastwood still deliver the goods.