What Have You Been Watching? (Week of February 07, 2016)

Sicario

Probably the best movie I've watched since Birdman. I knew very little about this movie, and came in expecting nothing much. Strong performances from all leads, and a slow, but very compelling story, makes this the best thriller I've ever seen. Also Josh Brolin is amazingly cool in this movie. Think I might have a mancrush on him now. I've begun chewing gum just because of his performance in this. Only thing which bugged me a bit was that Emily Blunt was definitely not in shape to be leading a FBI team.

10/10

The big short

Pretty good movie, but the short intermezzos explaining the concepts of the banking world didn't do much for me. I hoped this movie would have explained what actually happened, and it tried to, but it also tried to be a movie appealing to the masses. They probably did their best, but I'd rather just have watched a documentary. Strong performance from Steve Carell.

7.5/10

Up in the air

George Clooney and Josh Brolin are probably my favorite male actors (can't wait for Hail Ceasar, hah!), and this movie was George Clooney being George Clooney. Was dragging a little in the middle, and I hoped for a bigger punch in the end, but still a very well told story. 7.5/10

Michael Clayton

After watching up in the air, I needed more George Clooney to satisfy my fix. Michael Clayton is a kind of a mess. I thought at first George Clooney (playing Michael Clayton) would be this all-star kind of guy, and we would see him doing badass things in this regard. Nothing really happens of the sort, and we're just supposed to accept that he's a great fixer. During the movie, there's a lot of talk about his abilities, and what he actually does. And we, as an audience, don't really know what he's good at. Also the fact that everything was a flashback wasn't clear at all to me before the very end. If that was on purpose, I must say that it added nothing to the movie, and just made it more of a mess.

6/10

The Martian

Sigh. So apparently we needed a movie of Matt Damon being witty for 2½ hours, without ever seeing him as a human being. If that's your thing though, great. It's a mediocre comedy, and a mediocre "space adventure" movie. I really didn't feel this one. Great visuals.

5/10

The Revenant

AMAZING visuals, great cinematography, and a lousy story. I expected so much from Alejandro González Iñárritu after watching Birdman, but this one was simply more style than substance. Also Leonardo DiCaprio is a terrible actor. Well, he's decent when he needs to play himself I guess. Tom Hardy was amazing though. I feel terrible for rating this movie so low, but it just didn't do anything for me.

5/10

Paths of Glory Okay, so I went into movie knowing nothing about it. All I knew was that it was a war movie. I actually thought the major part of the storyline would be concerning the attack in the movie, but luckily I was wrong. Amazing performance from Kirk Douglas, who I don't think I've ever seen in anything else. Kind of weird that his son has the exact same voice and face as him. I really didn't see the end coming. Such an amazing achievement of cinema of its time.

9.5/10

Foxcatcher

After watching the big short, I got extremely curious of what else Steve Carell had been in, where he had done a more serious performance. I've been wanting to see this movie for quite a while now, and it's a little, but very well told story, about human emotions. If you're to see this, DON'T look up what happened. Charring Tatum, Mark Rufallo, and Steve Carell all deliver sublime performances. I'm not at all into wrestling, and still found this a very compelling story (hint: the wrestling part isn't all that important).

8/10

/r/TrueFilm Thread