A few films recently watched.

  On 9/23/2009 at 11:05 PM, The Overlook said:

I liked the movie Wanted

Really? I didn't make it more than thirty minutes into this before I started falling asleep. All that shitty cgi was distressing, too.

Back to the Future (1985) - 8/10

Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992) - 2/10

i didn't actually see the movie of Wanted but i found the story behind the film a little bit troubling. They bought the rights to and wrote a treatment for the miniseries comic story Wanted before the comic series was actually over. I don't know why but that kind of bothers me, that graphic novels are so heavily pillaged now for hollywood film ideas that a comic book outline is enough to make a watchable film out of. It just seems the laziness among hollywood just increases over time. the percentage of movies based on not only novels, but remakes of other movies, videogame adaptations and comic book adaptations is astounding these days. It seems like an upcoming comic book writer in this era would just work his or her ass off to get noticed by hollywood so they can sell off a story and be set for the rest of their lives.

edits: it creates a feedback loop of uncreativity, where comic books are now trying to appear more cinematic like and resemble movies while at the same time the movie industry is so heavily basing it's revenue off of comic book stories and characters. History of Violence is probably the only example i can find of an actual decent film t that stands on it's own out of this relationship

28 Weeks Later - 7/10

Adventureland - Fuck You / 10 (or, 0.5/10)

i'm interested to hear why you hated it. i thought it was pretty good.

I also dig the shit out of this film. Total 80's vibe to a tee...and Bill Hader/Kristen Wiig make any film they are in.

  On 9/24/2009 at 3:46 AM, beatfanatic said:

28 Weeks Later - 7/10

That movie in theaters was fuckdiculous.

I watched Platoon stoned last night and it really messed me up, don't know why I did that.

  On 9/24/2009 at 3:46 AM, beatfanatic said:

28 Weeks Later - 7/10

Orly?

I really like the way it started out. Dark, grim, and scary as shit but then it was all down hill from there.

I just finished the first season of Dexter and I really liked it. I thought the big reveal was a bit cliché though.

8/10

EDIT:

I couldn't help but to think of Donnie Darko each time this piano theme started...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeIYQ_WgryA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g24VKRk-Kx8

  On 9/24/2009 at 6:20 AM, zaphod said:

i'm interested to hear why you hated it. i thought it was pretty good.

I love Yo La Tengo, but wtf were they doing in the soundtrack to a coming of age post-high school 80's movie? Not since Napoleon Dynamite has the 80's been so lazily used as a punchline. It was rather obvious the filmmakers, whenever possible, couldn't wait to resume the shoe-gazing, self-conscious, orgy of awkwardness between the two leads. Kristen Stewart is the worst young actress in Hollywood and Jesse Eisenberg wasn't much better. Then they get Bill from Freaks-n-Geeks to reprise that character. People really still dig that self-conscious lip-biting nonsense? Talking fast into your chest when you're nervous, which is all the time, because gosh darnit, you just can't seem to fit in? It's like they took everything that was authentic and believable about Freaks-n-Geeks and turned it into a gag for shitty jokes.

Here is a sample scene from Adventureland:

  Quote

James and Em (what a precious name!) drive around in Em's cute-as-a-button AMC Pacer listening to Lou Reed. They don't talk. Instead, James stares at Em, who bites her bottom lip and looks away a lot. She starts to cry, but doesn't. James keeps staring. He probably loves her.

 

Scene interrupted by a WHACKY, ZANY, 80's REJECT! Who is it this time? It's Bobby and Paulette, the screwballs who run the theme park! THEY ARE SO GODDAMN ZANY, OMLOL! Their hilarious routine is punctuated by Falco's "Rock me, Amadeus"! HILARIOUS!

 

{Note for director: most the kids who will love this movie grew up in the 1990's, so they'll totally believe the 80's were like that.}

 

Okay, let's have another scene with James and Em. This time, we want to start and end their scene with the lo-fi crooning of Yo La Tengo. Nothing demands that Em bite her lip and stare at the ground better than a little more Yo La Tengo...oh, and this time, we'll have James talk about how he hasn't had sex yet, except instead of the word sex, he'll say INTERCOURSE. For this scene, let's have the 80's punchline be the sad sack cover band playing Whitesnake! ZING!

 

Then, right when we're certain our hero James is finally gonna remove his balls from his stomach and finally kiss the girl, James's zany, nutty, predictably unpredictable childhood friend, Frigo, will smack his nutsack, sending his testes RIGHT back into his abdomen. *cue Yo La Tengo* James and Em smile awkwardly and roll their eyes at Frigo as they get back into the Pacer to drive around some more.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why they made this a period piece. It should have been 1999, not 1987.

I think Superbad, as fucking stupid as that was, made for a much better 2 hour experience. At least Mottola wasn't hybridizing the 80's and 90's into an unrecognizable mess.

The ending was the best unintentional belly LOL ever. Just when these two annoying idiots are finally gonna stop flapping their idiotic, nonsensical gums to instead get naked and fuck......out of James's mouth, rather than his tongue to tickle this useless girl's twat, he blurts out, "Are we really gonna do this? Are we? Really?"

SHUT THE FUCK UP AND FUCK THAT PUSSY, YOU FUCKING PUSSY!

Kristen Stewart will be naked in her next movie.

This is how fucking shitty of an actress she is...IMDB even has a goddamn statistic in the trivia section of Adventureland:

  Quote

The character Em nervously touches/fixes her hair 55 times throughout the course of the movie.

Shame on anybody who said they liked this shit.

  On 9/24/2009 at 5:07 PM, The Overlook said:

This is how fucking shitty of an actress she is...IMDB even has a goddamn statistic in the trivia section of Adventureland:

 

  Quote

The character Em nervously touches/fixes her hair 55 times throughout the course of the movie.

 

Shame on anybody who said they liked this shit.

can't beat the wiggins

and yeah adventureland fell flat for me too.

i'd like to see stewart naked though. very cute.

This made me laugh.

Mamet's "Anne Frank" labeled too dark

  Quote

A planned adaptation of "The Diary of Anne Frank" for Disney Pictures has been put into turnaround because it is "too dark" says The Wrap.

 

The article says provocateur playwright and filmmaker David Mamet ("Heist," "Spartan") was hired to pen the adaptation, but the script he turned in was not a retelling of the famous Holocaust drama taken from the diaries of Frank,

 

Instead Mamet delivered the story of a contemporary Jewish girl who goes to Israel and learns about the traumas of suicide bombing. The script apparently delivers a pro-Israeli exploration of modern anti-Semitism.

 

"It's very intense, and dark and scary. It's not a film version of 'The Diary of Anne Frank.' The story evolved into something more intense" says one insider, indicating the subject matter is too difficult for Disney to produce or distribute.

Hellraiser 7 - 7/10

The Foot Fist Way - 7/10

jennifer's body

horrifying. hilarious. diabolical. weirdly sexy.

The Crow. ehhh.

Dark City. Decent idea, I guess.

Cisco Pike. Some good performances and great actors. Gene Hackman's character should have had a bigger role and some more development. Could have been a really good film.

Days of Heaven. Despite the beautiful cinematography I found this rather dull (sorry pbn). I liked Thin Red Line a lot when it came out - despite its flaws - but now Malick sort of irritates me. He's like Herzog minus the eccentricity and humor, just a pure art fag. Plus Richard Gere seemed too pretty boy for a depression era grifter, it kept snapping me out of the film. It's like the Piano, a pretty film but Malick's deliberate distancing techniques succeeded a bit too well and I didn't really give a shit about any of the characters. I did like the final scene with the younger sister heading out on her own, though. Oh, and Malick needs to learn how to film people killing other people properly, both times Richard Gere's character kills someone I didn't know wtf was going on. 6.5/10

Oliver Stone's Alexander - 8/10

Other than the fucked up accents, I thought it was great.

  On 9/26/2009 at 5:44 AM, zaphod said:

jennifer's body

 

horrifying. hilarious. diabolical. weirdly sexy.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

a woman on her period is all of these things and more.

 

2/10

 

Does anyone else think Megan Fox looks like a real doll brought to life?

  On 9/26/2009 at 8:22 AM, takeshi said:

  On 9/26/2009 at 5:44 AM, zaphod said:

jennifer's body

 

horrifying. hilarious. diabolical. weirdly sexy.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

a woman on her period is all of these things and more.

 

2/10

 

 

Does anyone else think Megan Fox looks like a real doll brought to life?

*raises hand*

Observe and Report - 6/10 a decent comedy that completely fell apart in the 2nd half

Crank 2 - 3/10 completely unnecessary sequel with a dismal budget that shows

  On 9/26/2009 at 7:12 AM, lumpenprol said:

Days of Heaven. Despite the beautiful cinematography I found this rather dull (sorry pbn). I liked Thin Red Line a lot when it came out - despite its flaws - but now Malick sort of irritates me. He's like Herzog minus the eccentricity and humor, just a pure art fag. Plus Richard Gere seemed too pretty boy for a depression era grifter, it kept snapping me out of the film. It's like the Piano, a pretty film but Malick's deliberate distancing techniques succeeded a bit too well and I didn't really give a shit about any of the characters. I did like the final scene with the younger sister heading out on her own, though. Oh, and Malick needs to learn how to film people killing other people properly, both times Richard Gere's character kills someone I didn't know wtf was going on. 6.5/10

Hmmmm I'm not too sure about you Mr lumpenprol, you are hating on the film for all the wrong reasons. The patience Malick put into the film, the tedious atmospheric elements that more times than none, slip by unnoticed. Richard Gere was too pretty for good reason, that was his character... he deliberately stood out from the rest, as the young girl told us, because he wasn't one of them. I do, however, agree in regards to the characters.... yes they were a bit under developed, but not many films out there did what Malick did in the mere 94 minute life span of the film. But who knows... maybe you are right, maybe I am right, or perhaps we are both ungrounded...to each their own... I so happen to love the film, and cavort to the Malick way.

  On 9/26/2009 at 10:29 AM, goffer said:

Hmmmm I'm not too sure about you Mr lumpenprol, you are hating on the film for all the wrong reasons. The patience Malick put into the film, the tedious atmospheric elements that more times than none, slip by unnoticed. Richard Gere was too pretty for good reason, that was his character... he deliberately stood out from the rest, as the young girl told us, because he wasn't one of them. I do, however, agree in regards to the characters.... yes they were a bit under developed, but not many films out there did what Malick did in the mere 94 minute life span of the film. But who knows... maybe you are right, maybe I am right, or perhaps we are both ungrounded...to each their own... I so happen to love the film, and cavort to the Malick way.

yeah I hear you, I think I'm just not in the right mood for Malick lately. It's certainly a gorgeous film, some of the shots looked like they popped directly from a Wyeth painting. Malick only has a handful of films, but his filmmaking "tics" - people speaking or looking directly into the camera while the person they are talking to is not shown, random snippets of dialogue or action inserted with no context, random nature shots, someone musing in voice over - are all in this film and you either like them or not. I tend to go back and forth, sometimes I really liked what the little girl was saying in voice over - the contrast between bucolic nature shots and her musing about damnation and hellfire, for example - but other times it seemed distractingly "poetical." Ultimately I guess I felt the film was too obvious and predictable and maybe I just no longer click with Malick's world view. I had to watch it over 3 nights as I got bored each time and turned it off. It's by no means a "bad" film it just didn't speak to me at this point in my life.

I gave New World another shot recently i and i think i appreciated it a little more but i don't think i've had any Terrence Malick films click for me yet, i understand in theory why he's so highly revered though.

  On 9/25/2009 at 3:32 PM, takeshi said:

This made me laugh.

Mamet's "Anne Frank" labeled too dark

  Quote

A planned adaptation of "The Diary of Anne Frank" for Disney Pictures has been put into turnaround because it is "too dark" says The Wrap.

 

The article says provocateur playwright and filmmaker David Mamet ("Heist," "Spartan") was hired to pen the adaptation, but the script he turned in was not a retelling of the famous Holocaust drama taken from the diaries of Frank,

 

Instead Mamet delivered the story of a contemporary Jewish girl who goes to Israel and learns about the traumas of suicide bombing. The script apparently delivers a pro-Israeli exploration of modern anti-Semitism.

 

"It's very intense, and dark and scary. It's not a film version of 'The Diary of Anne Frank.' The story evolved into something more intense" says one insider, indicating the subject matter is too difficult for Disney to produce or distribute.

i've been watching a lot of David Mamet films recently but this sounds absolutely ridiculous, his last movie Red Belt was horrendous.