A few films recently watched.

  On 9/21/2009 at 2:14 AM, tidbit said:

picassos äventyr 9.5/10

yo mate whassup?!?!?

caught picassos äventyr on teema as well, what a movie! swedish new wave?

ilimottele ittestäs

  On 9/22/2009 at 8:58 AM, Squee said:

Exactly. The show is a gimmicky pile of shit to begin with, made all the worse by the horrendous acting ability of everybody EXCEPT the lead. Even the guy who plays Dexter is just good (not exceptional).

  On 9/22/2009 at 9:05 AM, Awepittance said:

 

did you see my thing about State of Play? i put it in a spoiler tag but i was wondering if you had any insight to the absurd plot hole in it.

can you quote it, i missed it.

russel crowe is going to play eddie vedder in PJ biopic

  On 9/22/2009 at 4:22 PM, The Overlook said:

  On 9/22/2009 at 8:58 AM, Squee said:

Exactly. The show is a gimmicky pile of shit to begin with, made all the worse by the horrendous acting ability of everybody EXCEPT the lead. Even the guy who plays Dexter is just good (not exceptional).

I didn't like the guy playing Dexter to begin with. He seemed to be overacting but I guess that's just the way his character is.

Synecdoche, New York - wow what a waste of time. I really thought I was going to enjoy this, and have a head-fuck for a bit but adaptation was much much MUCH better imo.

Watchmen - Mehhh..... I didn't know what to expect in terms of quality, so i didn't have high expectations. 3 more hours down the pisshole.

Cannibal the Musical - yeah i've seen many a time. quality.

district 9.

probably spoilers here. just watch it. it's excellent.

i enjoyed the plot, the apartheid theme mainly. wikus was excellent--and i thought i'd hate him the first time i saw him. he excellently conveyed the change his personality went through. i was half expecting it to be a little profound with the apartheid theme, but it just turned into a pretty decent action film for the last quarter, which was fine really, as long as you weren't yearning after something more intelligent.

i was a little annoyed at the ending. it seemed to set things up for another film rather than explaining anything. i have a feeling the second film may be shit if it's made--it'll likely deviate away from what was good this time, the documentary-style and wikus's transformation. it'll be new ground for them, anyway.

the major lol was the nigerians. for a film which took the folly of racial apartheid full on--how vilianising one racial group and treating them as inferiors will only result in hatred and violence--vilianising the nigerians as intellectually inferior and troublmakers was fairly ironic.

the film treated the humans as unwise for following the policies of apartheid and getting corporations involved, the prawns as the victims of circumstance and mal-treatment, and the nigerians as simply ill-educated, thug-like and almost like an infestation in district 9. it was implicitly put across that district 9 would be a lot better without the nigerians, if they'd just get out, leave everyone alone. and it's that kind of attitude which brought about the apartheid and the problems with it in the first place!

  On 9/22/2009 at 9:05 AM, Awepittance said:

 

did you see my thing about State of Play? i put it in a spoiler tag but i was wondering if you had any insight to the absurd plot hole in it.

yeah I saw it and thought it was spot on so didn't feel the need to comment :-) It was a weird film - directed pretty tensely, soundtrack used well, but multiple implausible plot turns and some pretty horrible dialogue. Another big plot issue that springs to mind is the guy getting shot on the hospital bed with multiple witnesses. Like that's not going to draw a shitload of attention and defeat the entire purpose of trying to remain inconspicuous. Yet all the characters act as if nothing happened and go back to their cloak-and-dagger shenanigans. Weak film.

  On 9/22/2009 at 6:12 PM, sneaksta303 said:

Synecdoche, New York - wow what a waste of time. I really thought I was going to enjoy this, and have a head-fuck for a bit but adaptation was much much MUCH better imo.

ok i was harsh on Synecdoche, New York but again, I was expecting too much I think. My expectations were too high, especially after just seeing adaptation recently. Don't get me wrong it wasn't a "bad" movie by any means, I was just expecting better reading the Synecdoche, New York thread.

there were moment of brillance in synecdoche but overall it fell flat. the ending was relief and disgust. must try harder. or try less hard maybe

  On 9/22/2009 at 6:29 PM, inteeliguntdesign said:

district 9.

 

probably spoilers here. just watch it. it's excellent.

 

i enjoyed the plot, the apartheid theme mainly. wikus was excellent--and i thought i'd hate him the first time i saw him. he excellently conveyed the change his personality went through. i was half expecting it to be a little profound with the apartheid theme, but it just turned into a pretty decent action film for the last quarter, which was fine really, as long as you weren't yearning after something more intelligent.

 

i was a little annoyed at the ending. it seemed to set things up for another film rather than explaining anything. i have a feeling the second film may be shit if it's made--it'll likely deviate away from what was good this time, the documentary-style and wikus's transformation. it'll be new ground for them, anyway.

 

the major lol was the nigerians. for a film which took the folly of racial apartheid full on--how vilianising one racial group and treating them as inferiors will only result in hatred and violence--vilianising the nigerians as intellectually inferior and troublmakers was fairly ironic.

 

the film treated the humans as unwise for following the policies of apartheid and getting corporations involved, the prawns as the victims of circumstance and mal-treatment, and the nigerians as simply ill-educated, thug-like and almost like an infestation in district 9. it was implicitly put across that district 9 would be a lot better without the nigerians, if they'd just get out, leave everyone alone. and it's that kind of attitude which brought about the apartheid and the problems with it in the first place!

over the course of your review you go from liking the movie to coming up with various reasons why it sucked. did you like it or not?

i thought it was laughably bad, thinking back on it. beyond the impressive special effects there was just intellectual vacancy posturing as something meaningful. and peter jackson really needs to stop. just stop. i don't have the heart to watch another climactic scene where a bad guy is walking in slow motion toward the FALLEN HERO character with a ridiculous grin on his face while dead can dance knockoffs wail away on the soundtrack.

  On 9/22/2009 at 8:33 PM, zaphod said:

  On 9/22/2009 at 6:29 PM, inteeliguntdesign said:

district 9.

 

probably spoilers here. just watch it. it's excellent.

 

i enjoyed the plot, the apartheid theme mainly. wikus was excellent--and i thought i'd hate him the first time i saw him. he excellently conveyed the change his personality went through. i was half expecting it to be a little profound with the apartheid theme, but it just turned into a pretty decent action film for the last quarter, which was fine really, as long as you weren't yearning after something more intelligent.

 

i was a little annoyed at the ending. it seemed to set things up for another film rather than explaining anything. i have a feeling the second film may be shit if it's made--it'll likely deviate away from what was good this time, the documentary-style and wikus's transformation. it'll be new ground for them, anyway.

 

the major lol was the nigerians. for a film which took the folly of racial apartheid full on--how vilianising one racial group and treating them as inferiors will only result in hatred and violence--vilianising the nigerians as intellectually inferior and troublmakers was fairly ironic.

 

the film treated the humans as unwise for following the policies of apartheid and getting corporations involved, the prawns as the victims of circumstance and mal-treatment, and the nigerians as simply ill-educated, thug-like and almost like an infestation in district 9. it was implicitly put across that district 9 would be a lot better without the nigerians, if they'd just get out, leave everyone alone. and it's that kind of attitude which brought about the apartheid and the problems with it in the first place!

 

over the course of your review you go from liking the movie to coming up with various reasons why it sucked. did you like it or not?

 

i thought it was laughably bad, thinking back on it. beyond the impressive special effects there was just intellectual vacancy posturing as something meaningful. and peter jackson really needs to stop. just stop. i don't have the heart to watch another climactic scene where a bad guy is walking in slow motion toward the FALLEN HERO character with a ridiculous grin on his face while dead can dance knockoffs wail away on the soundtrack.

i think i'm coming to the same conclusion as you. i'm still glad i saw it but... when they were in the basement collecting the liquid, and it all seemed lost, but then chris said, hold on, i'll make a bomb! and a good 5 seconds later they were out of there... no more explanation needed... and the bad guys, the guy in charger of the helicopter? he was extremely wooden: "i can't believe they actually pay to do this!" all of the action scenes were a bit stupid in fact--the robot one at the end was cool though. and i can't decide if i found wikus's transformation convincing or not, the way his personality transformed. one scene he's happily killing baby aliens, the next he's begging chris to carry on, if only for this sake of his son...

that said, i was more than happy to watch it at the time.

[edit] and how wikus become all selfish one minute, bashing chris over the head to try and escape. and then a few scenes later he's giving it all up for chris? "go now before i change my mind!" was wikus suffering from schizophrenia?

all that said, i still enjoyed it. bizarre...

haha. i just remembered the bit when wikus as the robot caught the missle the main baddie fired at chris's spaceship.

hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.

it was

i thought District 9 had a ton of problems, but the fact that it was like a kalidescope of ridiculousness and they piled things so over the top and mixed so many genres i ended up having a good time. I think i understand inteeliguntdesigns take on it.

  On 9/22/2009 at 10:19 PM, weed said:

hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.

 

 

it was

which one?

Sånger från andra våningen (2000)

Haha, what a brilliant movie!

Baise moi 10/10 every fucking time.

Irreversible 10/10 eevry fucking time.

I always watch these two films in succession for some reason.

Next up: The idiots, seen it before, ten out of ten, every fucking time.

After that it's going to be "A Scanner Darkly" again, 8/10.

  On 9/22/2009 at 8:33 PM, zaphod said:

 

i thought it was laughably bad, thinking back on it. beyond the impressive special effects there was just intellectual vacancy posturing as something meaningful. and peter jackson really needs to stop. just stop. i don't have the heart to watch another climactic scene where a bad guy is walking in slow motion toward the FALLEN HERO character with a ridiculous grin on his face while dead can dance knockoffs wail away on the soundtrack.

this time I completely agree with you on all counts. I was fed up with the whole robot sequence as well, nothing made sense. They seemed to want to have it every which way - they wanted the audience to "ooh" when he gains control of a seemingly invincible robot, and yet they wanted the same robot to be able to be taken down by unarmored troops with small weapons for the most maudlin "overacting robot death sequence" since ED-209 fell down a stairwell. Not to mention that the set-up for the scene was that the shuttle would need to make it back to the mother ship under its own power - hence why it was shot down - and yet when the alien gets back to it all he needs to do is flip a switch and the whole thing gets levitated back up.

The Trials of Henry Kissinger 9/10

The US is such a model nation for how to do things correctly without anyone ever finding out that the they actually gets things done like the Sopranos....ahhh I love the smell of sulfuric acid on flesh in the morning....and burning documents

  On 9/23/2009 at 1:04 AM, Ego said:

Sånger från andra våningen (2000)

Haha, what a brilliant movie!

Ive been meaning to see this for a while now but she's an expensive little treat.

Silence of the Lambs 6/10

still a decent popcorn movie

there are a lot of acting moments that make me cringe, but since there's a universal cheese in the characters, it's not a big deal. everything is overly spelled out and sort of kills any sense of mystery. what i like most is the look of the movie. the weird zoom-ins and characters talking straight into the camera. even the black credits

i like Manhunter much more. it seemed to do the power ham much better. when Will Graham reaches out and puts his hand on a window in deep thought, i fist pump. i think he does it twice

Antichrist 9/10

Maybe spoilerish:

from hell- it was pretty good but not great

You should read the book 'From Hell', completely different from the film and so much better!

word

I liked the movie From Hell...

Then again, I also liked the movie Wanted, so I know people who are fans of the sources hate my guts.

*hides in shame*