Summer Movie Round-Up 2014

[Dave Gray]

Captain America 2:
Very good movie that takes Marvel movies to a new level.  It's an important movie that makes waves for the rest of the universe.  I fully recommend.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2:
Stinking turd.  Please do not support this abortion of a film with your money.  In order to like this film, you MUST enter with the caveat "this is just a comic book movie".  If that is no longer an excuse for a bad movie (and it isn't for me), then you will be disturbed that a movie without a plot is going to make half a billion dollars.

Godzilla:
Like it or not, most people have the same observations.  I enjoyed it very much.  But, I like a movie that does more teasing than showing, in terms of monster fights.  Some people think it doesn't show enough.  Also, the human element of the film is largely uninteresting, and just serves as a way to give us a point of view to watch the Godzilla story.  I was cool with that, but I'd rather have uninteresting straight-laced characters than comic-relief goofballs.

X-Men: Days of Future Past:
I really enjoyed this movie.  It's a little clunky getting started, but I think this may be the best X-Men film yet and it does a good job of undoing some of the issues with X-Men 3.  There are still some continuity problems and I don't know how the series is going to proceed from here, but as a stand-alone experience, it was great.

A Million Way to Die in the West:
This feels like Family Guy, with the way it uses non-sequiter, cut-away humor.  On one hand, it's clever and makes the lead character have very modern sensibilities in an old-west world.  But on the other hand, it reverts to dick and fart jokes, literally.  I wasn't bored with it and didn't think it was terrible, but I don't recommend it.  However, comedies, as I've said before, are very specific and vary from person to person.

[Sunstroke]

A Million Way to Die in the West:
This feels like Family Guy, with the way it uses non-sequiter, cut-away humor.  On one hand, it's clever and makes the lead character have very modern sensibilities in an old-west world.  But on the other hand, it reverts to dick and fart jokes, literally.  I wasn't bored with it and didn't think it was terrible, but I don't recommend it.  However, comedies, as I've said before, are very specific and vary from person to person.

Did you watch the movie "Ted," and how would you compare the two for overall comedic quality?

[Dave Gray]

Did you watch the movie "Ted," and how would you compare the two for overall comedic quality?

Ted was better, just in terms of making you laugh -- so...Ted is FUNNIER.  A Million Ways to Die in the West is sillier and more low brow, but also has this element of commentary about the old west.  It's presented in a way where the main character is almost all-knowing and may say things like "half of us are going to die from syphilis."  So, I found that stuff amusing.