Films Recently Watched

moonrise kingdom - 4.2807487 /10 - pitchfork.com : the movie

halloween 3 season of the witch : 6.234872489 /10 - pretty realistic story in which the old guy from robocop steals stonehenge so he can manufacture evil irish halloween masks that will cause childrens heads to explode when they watch a particular TV advert or something. He also has an army of robot henchmen. pretty entertaining + has some nice john carpenter synthy music, needless to say halloween 4 went back to michael myers slashing people + nobody ever mentioned any of it ever again :-(

Safety Not Guaranteed - 7/10 - sort of a light hearted movie version of that internet meme time travel classified ad. Well acted and had a decent script but uneven in parts. Apparently they hired the director of this film to be the new Lucas Film Star Wars trilogy whipping boy. Makes sense since the movie didn't really have a distinct directing style, just seemed more or less serviceable. As much money as the dude is going to make doing Episode VII i still feel sort of bad for him.

Tree of Life - 4/10 - I heard this movie was pretentious, and i brushed that aside assuming mainstream moviegoers who said this had low brow tastes. Not the case at all. Besides some interesting and realistic depictions of childhood the movie is a total mess. I almost had to turn it off when Sean Penn was walking around the dessert in his suit following the woman. It almost seemed like a monty python sketch making fun of French surrealism but it was not supposed to be funny. I don't think I'm a Terrence Malick fan at all.

In The Cut - 5/10 - what could have been just a simple Basic Instinct-esque hyper sexualized thriller implodes under a totally convoluted script and completely mis-matched tone and non sensical characterization. You get to see Mark Ruffalo's dick for a second, he gives Meg Ryan head while she's bent over a bed, stuff like that, not bad. Needed more sex to keep my attention because the story sucked.

members of an extreme palestinian terrorist group (black september) kidnap members of the jewish olympic team during the 1972 olympics in munich. it's a documentary and it's actually very good. 8/10

The Secret of Kells: Greatly done animation movie. The story is really interesting, but the illustration and animation production is exceptional. Also, nice music (Bruno Coulais is awesome). 8.9/10

  On 11/24/2012 at 11:14 PM, Awepittance said:

Safety Not Guaranteed - 7/10

 

Tree of Life - 4/10

Looper

9/10

Smart film, well made.

I saw the Lincoln movie before thanksgiving.

It was good. Totally worth seeing.

The chemistry isn't really there between Sally Field and DDL, but otherwise, he is amazing as usual.

The first 30 minutes are really dense and a new character is introduced every 20 seconds, but after a while, it all falls into place and by the end, it is really entertaining.

Totally not what I expected.

I was pleasantly surprised that Spielberg wasn't really up to his usual sentimental manipulations, flash-forwards (eh, well sorta) and melodramatic stings.

8.75/10

  On 11/23/2012 at 9:34 PM, THIS IS MICHAEL JACKSON said:

gremlins - this movie doesn't make any sense, gremlins can't touch water and there's snow everywhere...

the angel's share - watched this despite it being billed as the "scottish full monty". lol how to put me off a film in 3 words! anyway i decided that the farts who put the blurb on dvd boxes should be ignored, but sadly, in the end it was a fairly accurate description of the look and feel of this film. weak as piss acting from a mostly amateur cast and a flimsy, unlikely, and overly condensed story. for some reason i fail to see, this is getting rave reviews everywhere except in my house. might have worked better as a 3 part drama on ITV or as a series of taggart.

subUrbia - not always working as a movie (it's a play), but pretty ok nonetheless.

tape - loved the low quality handheld camera work, and that everything happens in real time, in one room, with merely 3 people. not as well played as carnage, but still very good.

uhf - jesus fucking christ. just no.

Skyfall

/10

  On 11/24/2012 at 11:14 PM, Awepittance said:

Tree of Life - 4/10 [...] It almost seemed like a monty python sketch making fun of French surrealism but it was not supposed to be funny.

haha yes.

some blah regarding skyfall...

okay so they hired Bardem probably because he played the psychotic bad guy in No Country For Old Men so well.... only that flick played in a different league obviously. so they had to dye his hair blond and gave him mysterious mad haxx0r skillz which was the most unconvincing, pointless, cringe-inducing depiction of haxx0r stuff in a film since probably ever, just to have an excuse for that psychotic twat to be somehow powerful? fuck off, whoever was involved in the production of this film.

  On 11/26/2012 at 6:17 PM, phling said:

some blah regarding skyfall...

okay so they hired Bardem probably because he played the psychotic bad guy in No Country For Old Men so well.... only that flick played in a different league obviously. so they had to dye his hair blond and gave him mysterious mad haxx0r skillz which was the most unconvincing, pointless, cringe-inducing depiction of haxx0r stuff in a film since probably ever, just to have an excuse for that psychotic twat to be somehow powerful? fuck off, whoever was involved in the production of this film.

just saw this as well, ill give it a 5/10. neither here nor there. I fucking love the shit out of Albert Finney though, so any scene with him was good.

Also, the Bond girl in this movie is around for about 10 minutes. wtf?

have to agree that the hype around bardem as the badguy is undeserved. he was the ultimate badass already.

the trouble with harry

A frustrating hitchcock. A nice idea but the acting was pretty bad all around, mostly the "captain" who was talking to himself in that way stage actors do that looks silly on film. it felt really long too. some laughs though

  On 11/26/2012 at 4:17 AM, jefferoo said:

I saw the Lincoln movie before thanksgiving.

 

It was good. Totally worth seeing.

The chemistry isn't really there between Sally Field and DDL, but otherwise, he is amazing as usual.

The first 30 minutes are really dense and a new character is introduced every 20 seconds, but after a while, it all falls into place and by the end, it is really entertaining.

Totally not what I expected.

I was pleasantly surprised that Spielberg wasn't really up to his usual sentimental manipulations, flash-forwards (eh, well sorta) and melodramatic stings.

 

8.75/10

agree on sally field. and why was JGL even in the film? i think he must have in his contract that he must be in every film made so they crammed him in for 3 pointless scenes.

i wish they had narrowed the field of the film. it is pretty narrow already but take it right down to just meetings perhaps and courtrooms as all the best stuff happens there, ignore the family completely

tommy lee jones made me laugh in that wig but he is actually really good in this

  On 11/26/2012 at 3:19 PM, kinski said:

uhf - jesus fucking christ. just no.

oh, it's ON now!

Beasts of the Southern Wild - 8/10

Kind of reminded me of a more pleasant version of Gummo or The Road (based on the book, haven't seen the film). This guy offers an alternative opinion: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/reviews/article-2219911/Beasts-Of-The-Southern-Wild-What-washout-wet-film-is.html I can see where he's coming from but he's way too cynical. Regardless of whether you think the dialogue is crap or not, the main actor, who was five when shooting began and seven by the end, is fantastic.

I really wanted to love that film, but it never really clicked with me, it just felt too artificial, can't really put my finger on it... Maybe I wasn't in the right state of mind or something. 7 out of 10 beasts. I think this one will improve if rewatched when in a cajun mood.

It took me a while to adjust my preconceptions as I hadn't read much about it and had viewed the first few minutes the day before watching. As such I was half expecting some kind of sci-fi, post-apocalyptic affair. Which it was to a certain degree I suppose, but not as much as was suggested by the opening minutes.

The kid was amazing, I thought the politics aspect was kind of half assed, I wish they'd pushed it harder if they really wanted to make a statement or kept it way more subtle. Now it's neither here nor there.

[youtubehd]VpZu69OB2KM[/youtubehd]

on 1080p blu ray

1000000000 / 1000000000

  On 11/27/2012 at 12:32 PM, Gocab said:

The kid was amazing, I thought the politics aspect was kind of half assed, I wish they'd pushed it harder if they really wanted to make a statement or kept it way more subtle. Now it's neither here nor there.

Exactly right.

  On 11/27/2012 at 12:46 PM, usagi said:

Skyfall. only worth it for that gorgeous sultry Bond girl who I've never seen before and whose name I don't know. she was luscious lush. her limited amount of screen time was supremely annoying.

thought she was awful

a great exercise in recreating the sort of home video one would've come across after mining the salvation army (or any second hand shop for that matter) vhs section.