What Emmanuelle Movie Did You Just Watch?

[Captain Russ]

Seeing Hugo Weaving in drag again was pretty hilarious.

[Matt]

Seeing Hugo Weaving in drag again was pretty hilarious.

Except that the makeup was really distracting. God I hated that storyline.

[Ben Thomas]

Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw were the standouts for me. Hated the farthest future stuff with the made-up language.

And it's even harder to get into the second time around.

[Captain Russ]

It's a decent one-shot like Matt said, but it is not built to stand beyond that initial experience.

Definitely agree with you on the true true bullshit, Ben.

[Matt]

I could have taken that future speak if it had been enunciated better OR been higher up in the sound mix (again, see A CLOCKWORK ORANGE for an example of making future speak work). As it is now, it's uttered quickly and mumbled in the mix, so we were constantly pausing and rewinding to try and understand what they were saying. After a while, we just gave up and did our best to follow what was going on visually.

[Matt]

And it's even harder to get into the second time around.

I'll take your word on this, as I have no intention of ever watching the film again.

[Matt]

For that 4th storyline that I hated, I DID like the quick Hanks cameo as the author. Him saying 'fuck' every other word with the cockney accent struck me really funny.

Hanks, in general, was great in this. I'm not sure why he latched onto this project like he did, but MAN did he commit himself to each part that he played. So did Berry, but her one real showcase was the 70s storyline, and that was underwhelming.

[BillyG]

The future FUTURE stuff is really tough to read as well. The language is just a pain. I was hoping they toned it down for the movie. Need to see if this is still on demand.

[Matt]

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2

Very good, not great. I had issues with the pacing and the narrative of the first two acts...it's kinda disjointed and unfocused. There are some really great character moments in there, but they only point out just how little you actually care about the overall plot of the film. It kicks into gear and starts to turn great in the third act: everything gels and the story elements that seemed so scattershot come together into a pretty damned epic finale that almost lifts the film into 'great' territory. Almost.

I give the first film an A+ and this a B+. It's absolutely worth seeing, but consider dialing back your expectations a tad.

[Martin]

CRAP.

Still. will see it.

[Matt]

Martin, you should absolutely go and see it. It's worth the price of a ticket for sure. Hell, I saw it in 3D and was satisfied with the expenditure.

The thing is, the first film absolutely nails the balance between character development and forward narrative momentum from beginning to end. You invest in the story and care about the characters for the entire film. This film doesn't quite get that balance right for the first two acts, and the story itself is really relegated to second fiddle for long stretches of time to focus on character bits that are great but could maybe use a bit of an edit. It doesn't help that the bad guy, Drago, is severely under-written and under-utilized. Something pretty big happens character-wise at the end of the second act that does a great job of focusing the movie in terms of narrative and character, though. Once it gets that focus, bam...the film is on rails and it goes into FANTASTIC territory. Indeed, there's a moment where Toothless rises to the occasion that had my audience cheering...and we were cheering along with them.

[Martin]

Oh I'll see it, but my date night will be 22 Jumpstreet with the wife.

[Anderson]

Martin, you should absolutely go and see it. It's worth the price of a ticket for sure. Hell, I saw it in 3D and was satisfied with the expenditure.

The thing is, the first film absolutely nails the balance between character development and forward narrative momentum from beginning to end. You invest in the story and care about the characters for the entire film. This film doesn't quite get that balance right for the first two acts, and the story itself is really relegated to second fiddle for long stretches of time to focus on character bits that are great but could maybe use a bit of an edit. It doesn't help that the bad guy, Drago, is severely under-written and under-utilized. Something pretty big happens character-wise at the end of the second act that does a great job of focusing the movie in terms of narrative and character, though. Once it gets that focus, bam...the film is on rails and it goes into FANTASTIC territory. Indeed, there's a moment where Toothless rises to the occasion that had my audience cheering...and we were cheering along with them.

The trouble I had with the film was it never quite knew what tone to take.

Fucking Djimon Hounsou is brutal at times in this flick.

[Matt]

Agreed, Troy. It does have some minor tonal issues in the first two acts. Once the 'big transitional event' happens to kick off the third act, it all really gels nicely, though.

And yeah, Drago is pretty brutal. The movie does not shy away from going to some dark places (just like the first film).

[Captain Russ]

Jump Street 2.

A lot of fun but somewhat uneven at times.

Jillian was a really weak spot in a pretty solid spoof of a spoof.

That said, it really went out on a high note.