A few films recently watched.

  On 9/12/2012 at 9:01 AM, Atop said:

 

 

I know you love Lifeforce and Zardoz.

 

Why can you not one day, love Prometheus?

 

 

 

i wouldn't say i love either of those movies, they are quirky fun blips on the scifi spectrum. Lifeforce less so, Prometheus however is a prequel to one of my favorite movies of all time. It had big shoes to fill

And there was no way it could fill those shoes.

I think the film will age well.

Dune suffered from the same issues when it was released.

I still have to explain to many people why I love Dune.

And I was kidding about Lifeforce and Zardoz, of which I enjoy both but they are pure sci-fi camp.

This weekend is all about the Master.

is everyone trying to see the master in 70mm?

Bride of Re-Animator: 8.8/10

Juan of the Dead - Fun, more than obvious but if you enjoyed Shaun of the Dead you'll like this too.

Samsara - 9/10, pretty much almost as good as Baraka. Technically better in many regards, the cinematography was amazing.

Louis C.K. Hilarious: 9/10. I haven't laughed so much in a long time. It's hilarious really.

Troll 2 - 6/10

Bourne Identity - 10/10

Darkman - 8/10

Resident Evil 5 zombie movies are one of my favorite genres and I happily put up with the luke warm RE movies 1-4 but this was a bad movie. If you looked at one thing on the screen it could be ok but if you looked at the whole thing it just didn't look or feel right. The ending scene was the highlight not just because it set up an interesting and potentially great looking sequel but it meant I could get up and leave the theator as a shitty brostep song started playing for the ending credits. 2.5/10

Prometheus (again)

This movie really gets a lot better if you look at it as a space comedy. Glad I got the "serious" view out of the way the first time.

The Hunger Games: Entertaining piece of shit 6.7/10

Ralph Bakshi short:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JBtNeDGj1MY

Four Lions: um...yeah. It's sort of an uneasy comedy-drama hybrid. Most of the comedy was trying too hard and fell flat. It worked pretty well as a straight drama, and became more of that as it went along, which was good. Not really sure what the film was aiming for, though. I think it "over humanized" suicide bombers on the one hand, but seemed offensive to Islam on the other. So not sure it would make anyone happy. Acting was pretty good. I think it might have been very good if it was played as a straight drama with dark humor elements, rather than a comedy with dramatic elements - sort of like Three Kings. Even the lines that should have been pretty funny somehow didn't quite live up to their full potential, maybe it was the delivery or pacing...or maybe the subject matter is just "too soon." I found the wife's support of her husband's martyrdom to be chilling, I think the point was to show how even people with very normal lives could support terror as a rational response to injustice, but it just came across as "these people are batshit crazy" (as it should have, there's no way to rationalize that). I did like her attacking the hard-line Muslim dude with a squirtgun though. All told, 5/10 or 6/10.

yeah four lions was a difficult one... I laughed a lot, but it was kind of nervous laughter, not brilliant satire or absurdist the day today laughter. I thought the ending was way too sad for a comedy film, which is why I agree that leaving it feels more like a dramedy.

magnolia (1st rewatch since release) - such depth and complexity... immense, masterful, gripping film-making and top drawer performances throughout (even cruise and reilly win me over)... a work of genius... only crit it's a tad long. 8.9/10

I watched The Grey yesterday. Man, I was on the edge of my seat most of the time. I was really surprised by it. I liked how the wolves were being kept in the background, almost like you would do with a monster in a monster movie, and I actually think they looked pretty good even though they were CGi.

The ending ruined the movie for me. It went straight from a 9/10 to a 6/10.

another problem with four lions at least for me is that chris morris acts like he now has some kind of fatwa against him like he's some kind of bad ass for touching the '3rd rail'. To me the movie suffers from being overly conventional politiically, you're not Salmon Rushdie bro, sorry bro.

  On 9/17/2012 at 2:08 PM, Squee said:

I watched The Grey yesterday.

Great film! I agree about the ending.

Starship Troopers: Invasion - 1/10

Oh god why did I even bother..

Compliance - Stupidity is frustrating/10

so i decided to waste my life and this is how my weekend ended up being like:

the 40yo virgin - really cute and not at all gross. i was expecting it to be absolutely terrible, but it's actually a decent flick. enjoyed it!

funny people - i liked it. it's not that good, but i enjoy the general washedup comedian story and its execution. second part of the movie was unnecessary, though. still, it was weird seeing an adam sandler movie where there's not one scene of him speaking in his retard voice. nor there was any signature stoner seth rogen laugh anywhere! what a treat.

i love you, man - kinda boring with huge plotholes but with a chuckle here and there. passable.

hangover part ii - very mindless, mildly funny.

due date - insanely stupid, sometimes funny, sometimes way gross.

forgetting sarah marshall - i kinda liked the idea, but the overthetopness of it all made everything so boring and way too long.

slackers - absolutely terrible.

///////////

other stuff from week earlier:

the green hornet - hilarious. i loved it. comedic bits were not forced, action scenes were really well made. quite a surprise it wasn't a (bigger?) hit.

vulgar - cool indie thriller/horror about a clown with twists and very few silly shortcuts.

hot tub time machine - it made no sense, but craig robinson was really funny in this.

thank you, good night!

fist of the northstar - didn't see in a while and it's still nice

contact - mhh I didn't like it but poeple say it's good

an attempt at trying to make rapping seem like brain surgery: ice-t goes around interviewing "all the dopest rappers" to get an idea of how they come up with their raps (off the dome) and to "spit" some "real shit". this could've easily been a spot for fader's youtube page but it's extended to the 1hr mark with repetitive and (sometimes) aggravating self-promotion

1.5 soft tacos out of 5

  On 9/12/2012 at 1:19 PM, keltoi said:

le havre - simple, quirky, stylish and sweet... charming and so beautifully, thoroughly french... 8/10.

 

nice recommendation ludd... at least i took your "wtf" as a recommendation.

And yet still somehow utterly Finnish

Martha Marcy May Marlene - 7/10 - The atmosphere was effectively creepy as was the main cult leader guy. Still not sure how great an actor the main chick is but I guess it mostly works for the role. I thought the event in the last half of the film that spurs the character to want to leave was a bit much. It felt like the filmmakers thought they needed a bit to make things more explicit. "In case you didn't get it before these people are bad." It felt more believable up to that point and the main character's actions were still more than justified in my mind.

Defendor - 1/10 - Made it about 15 minutes into this before I had to bail. Awful.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi - 9/10 - Thoroughly enjoyed this.

Tyrannosaur - 8/10 - What is it with British actors who go on to direct films? This film would go great in a triple bill with Nil By Mouth and The War Zone. Hopefully, unlike Roth and Oldman, Paddy Considine will make another film someday. I'd love to know the number of people that didn't make it past the opening five minutes of this film. Fortunately, I'm one of the sick bastards that enjoys things like this. I really expected the film to go into a formulaic direction and it didn't. Mullen was great as usual, and the main female, too. I'd only known her from Peep Show but she's a great actress. Makes me want to watch My Name is Joe, again.

  On 9/18/2012 at 3:27 AM, LUDD said:

  On 9/12/2012 at 1:19 PM, keltoi said:

le havre - simple, quirky, stylish and sweet... charming and so beautifully, thoroughly french... 8/10.

 

nice recommendation ludd... at least i took your "wtf" as a recommendation.

 

And yet still somehow utterly Finnish

i read the director is finnish but does he somehow manage to portray 'finnishness' in the movie? in what way? i have no idea what 'finnishness' is. or you're just pointing out that the director is finnish? in which case, i know, but the movie is still quintessentially french to me. whatever, no biggie.

--

hard eight - another work of genius from PTA imo... more character focussed with a simpler plot than his later works... p. b. hall, j. c. reilly and s. l. jackson were spectacular (wasn't overly convinced by paltrow - probably just overshadowed by the others' greatness)... 8.3/10