Calexico Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 I have only just seen WALL-E and was completely charmed by it. I also watched It Might Get Loud during the week and it only reinforced my opinion of The Hedge being a twat and an effects guitar player. Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Julie & Julia - finally admitted to myself that I wanted to see it, and well, it was lovely. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Runaway Jim Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Julie & Julia - finally admitted to myself that I wanted to see it, and well, it was lovely. I started to watch that a few weeks back and should probably give it another shot. I just fucking hate Meryl Streep's face. But I do love Amy Adams. Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 I started to watch that a few weeks back and should probably give it another shot. I just fucking hate Meryl Streep's face. But I do love Amy Adams. Funny - going in, I would've said 'I just fucking hate Amy Adams' face. But I do love Meryl Streep.' Link to post Share on other sites
Atticus Posted March 13, 2010 Share Posted March 13, 2010 saw Shutter Island tonight. really enjoyed it. Link to post Share on other sites
Al.Ducts Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 saw Shutter Island tonight. really enjoyed it. Saw this awhile back. Was pretty impressed by it. Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Finally saw JJ Abrams' Star Trek. Awesome. Link to post Share on other sites
GtrPlyr Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 Watched one by myself, then one with the girlfriend. I'll let you guess which was which . Link to post Share on other sites
GtrPlyr Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 A good Sirk melodrama with a moving performance by Barbara Stanwyck. Link to post Share on other sites
jimmyjimmy Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 This was exactly what I expected it to be. Which means if, like me your a fan of Wes Anderson films you going to enjoy it. I never paid much attention to the press on this one, so I went in pretty much with just the basic concept of the plot and a curiosity of the dynamics therein. Of the three principals Gyllenhaal comes across as the most genuine. Maguire is somewhat convincing but even in the scenes where he becomes un-hinged you often get the sense that he's really not exploiting the characters' inner struggles for all they're worth. Portman feels like window dressing and some of the more "dynamic" bits of dialog seem over the top and out of place; ( I.E. the statement the oldest daughter makes during the dinner scene after Maguire's character returns home).....I don't know how old that little girl was supposed to be, but that line was seriously a little too "formed and mature" for her character. Although, the kid gets overall points for some terrific dramatic facial expressions. Meh. Link to post Share on other sites
mpolak21 Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 I have this cued up on You Tube. . Saw this over the weekend, really love the final scenes: Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 The X Files: I Want To BelieveYep, I really watched it. Link to post Share on other sites
uncool2pillow Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Capturing the Friedmans is one of the most captivating movies I've ever seen. Still can't make sense of it. Link to post Share on other sites
Beltmann Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Weekend flicks: I loved Moon, but thought Zombieland was at best okay. And I finally caught up with Shutter Island, which was a blast. Works on every level: As a twisty-mystery, a suspense thriller, a psychological drama, a gothic melodrama, a study of loss, a study of post-traumatic stress. There are three twists at the end, and the first two are half-expected all along but saved through impeccable staging. The third--the ambiguity of the final line, which suggests not regression but an utterly rational decision--caught me off guard, and adds true depth, especially in context of the film's subtext regarding how a nation can lose its moral compass. Yes, the movie at its core is rather ludicrous, but I'd say that's part of the appeal, especially for those of us who love Sam Fuller flicks like Shock Corridor. Plus, the movie brilliantly uses landscape, color, and CGI to evoke psychological states. It's always pleasing to look at, but it's never merely eye candy. Some have said Scorsese has only made a studio product; if so, we can only hope that all future studio products are this rich and moving. Sidenote: I think latter-day Scorsese is widely underappreciated. Sure, pieces like The Aviator and The Departed and Shutter Island lack the personal edge of, say, Taxi Driver, but in their own way they are very personal, artful works, too. Link to post Share on other sites
Moss Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 4 somewhat boring guys ride a Segway from Seattle to Boston and manage not to have a single interesting adventure along the way. All set to bad music. I don't know, maybe I was in the wrong mood. Link to post Share on other sites
u2roolz Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 No mini reviews from me yet, but I did see this on my DVD site that I frequent. It looks like The Wolfman (as we thought) is going to have 17 plus minutes in an Unrated Cut on the 2nd disc.The Wolfman DVD Info I'm surprised that they're not calling this the "Director's Cut", since Universal pretty much took the film away from Joe Johnston to tighten it up and make it come in at a lean 90 minutes. This could be "his" version that was trimmed due to being 2 hours. Unrated just means that it didn't get a rating from the MPAA. I don't think that this is going to be any gorier than it was back in theaters. Link to post Share on other sites
u2roolz Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 Mini reviews dating back to February 18th. Dear John: I ended up seeing this when Shutter Island sold out and I didn't want to drive all the way back home. Surprisingly this was a pretty decent romantic drama with a great performance from the usually wooden Channing Tatum. I really like how Amanda Seyfried is getting a lot of different roles compared to her Mean Girls counterparts (except Rachel McAdams maybe). Richard Jenkins turns in a memorable performance as Tatum's autistic coin collector dad. This was the little movie that knocked Avatar off the box office throne after 7 weeks. Shutter Island: WOW! DiCaprio and Scorsese make magic again. Even though I knew where the story was kind of heading it didn't really matter to me because the story was about Leo's journey. An amazing score and perfect camera work and a beautiful color scheme make this one of Marty's most different type of films since something similar like Cape Fear (1991). Terrific acting work from everyone involved including Leonardo. If I were forced to rank his roles with Marty, I'd put this right under my #1 Aviator. I definitely felt like I was watching something uniquely special. Cop Out: An uneven mishmash of styles. You have the childish Tracey Morgan with his aggressive type of humor (I hate to use one of my friend's phrases, but I think it applies to Tracey: He works great in doses not in a lead role). And then there's Bruce Willis who is playing pretty much himself. So the tone is this weird mixture of childish humor & R rated profanity and it is ok for mere entertainment. Kevin Smith stated that he did this as a directing job and sadly you really can't feel his mark on this one. Some reviewer made a joke that this plays like one of Tracey Jordan's (30 Rock) fake movie posters like "Who Dat Ninja?" The Crazies: A great little low budget thriller that is fun so that you can have fun even though the main plot is quite serious stuff. An army plane crash lands into a pond in a random Southern town and everyone starts acting a little "crazy". This isn't a zombie film and I love it for that. I understand that this remake comes from the king of zombie films himself George A. Romero (1973 his original - no zombies in that one either - I know that he didn't direct. I'm just making a point about the man behind this). There is a car wash scene that is beyond memorable. Great lead turns from Timothy Olyphant & Radha Mitchell. Avatar - WOW!!! I completely fell in love with this film. I was transported back to being a 14 year old boy. It doesn't take much, but I waited so long because the best theater near me finally took it out of their 3D theater. The visuals were intoxicating. (I saw this the night before the Oscars FWIW) Brooklyn's Finest - One of the grittiest, dirtiest, go for broke city cop movies in a long while. Fits in nicely with the genre films it was influenced by. At times it makes The Departed look like Sesame Street. Fantastic performances from Gere, Cheadle, Snipes & Hawke. It's a pleasure to watch Fuqua put in all three main ingredients of the story via the characters and then watch how it all goes down till the very end. She's Out Of My League - Wow! This was so enjoyable and pleasantly optimistic (reminded me of those comedies from the 80s). Jay Baruschel has the tough duty of carrying the film as the romantic lead who is kind of a stuck-in-the-rut type of guy. But the way that he and Alice Eve play off of each other is a breath of fresh air. Spolier: I was so glad that they didn't make Eve's character a bitch. She was such a sweet woman. Of course there's some conflict between the two, but I felt that it was handled realistically and quite well. If It's Complicated was "female porn" for having Meryl Streep being torn between two men at her age and current predicament (recently divorced) then this is "male porn" for any guy out there who can be with a sweet beautiful woman. Green Zone - Clear communication is what comes to mind when I think of this. The dialog and the camera placement were so clear (and shaky when it needed to be). I guess this is in contrast to the opaque nature of what this film is about. It's an amazing feat for a film to be this great and hooks you in for the duration even though you know the ending (it's about Weapons of Mass Destruction if you didn't know. I didn't gather that from the trailer). This is thanks to Matt Damon's portrayal of a man in search of some fucking answers and he wants them. The Bounty Hunter - Ok. This one I ended up seeing because I chickened out on Repo Men. I kept hearing about how grisly the images were, so I walked into this. I think that they were going for a screwball comedy, but I really believe that they used the 1st draft of the script. Aniston & Butler play two of the most unlikable characters in years and all that they do is banter and complain about their divorce and it isn't funny. It is ingratiating. Seriously, there is nothing about this that is funny because it isn't written that way. I don't even know what to call what they did for 1hr 40 minutes. This is on par with Gigli which I only made through 24 minutes of because a friend of mine rented it. Jen & Gerry cashing their checks for the same duration may have been better. Our Family Wedding - A fun funny little film that is about minorities in America and we're supposed to laugh with them not at them because there's some universal truths to their experience. Latina woman and Black man want to get married and they introduce themselves to the other's families. Cliches ensue. Although, underneath those cliches there's some real heart in all of it. Forest Whitaker is in this and you wonder why. I guess it doesn't really matter because it's only a role and one that he probably wanted to play. The Ghost Writer - Fantastic! This is an old throwback to classic Hitchcock. Much like Green Zone every word spoken in this film is heard clear and near. Polanski obviously knows how to make a laid back thriller work wonders. Everyone is amazing especially the vastly underrated Olivia Williams as Pierce Brosnan's wife in the film. The ending of this reminded me of the recent The International. Hopefully that's not really a spoiler. It's more of an observation of the feeling that they want you to go home with. (side note: The theater usher watched me as I watched the credits. Kind of odd. Anyways, I felt the need to explain why I was reading the credits. The film is set in Martha's Vineyard, MA and obviously Polanski can't come here to shoot or else he'd be arrested. The usher had no idea what or who I was talking about. The tiny fraction of a movie snob in me laughs inside thinking how many people are going to wonder when they were in town to shoot this. It did look real though. I guess it was shot in/around Britain/Germany for the MA locales.) I really need to get Netflix back and avoid some of these films. Trust me I am aware of that. Oh well. It's good to have people in the theater business. Link to post Share on other sites
Analogman Posted April 9, 2010 Author Share Posted April 9, 2010 The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan Link to post Share on other sites
Beltmann Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 I think Beeswax is Andrew Bujalski's best movie yet, and the first that can't be neatly described as mumblecore. Even though it's just a series of minor conversations--the story concerns twin sisters in Austin; one owns a used clothes-and-antiques shop, and the other is about to leave for a teaching stint in Nairobi--it benefits from a sculpted script and likable performances. When it was over, I was left wanting plenty more. Link to post Share on other sites
calvino Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 I thought it was pretty funny. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Ordinary Beehive Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 I liked it fine (a lot more than expected). Link to post Share on other sites
jimmyjimmy Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 Didn't see it in theaters...didn't really read much about it beforehand or listen to a lot of the press.Found it to be generally boring and cliched overall. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Ordinary Beehive Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 Avatar was amazing. Link to post Share on other sites
jimmyjimmy Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 Avatar was amazing. Minutes into it I started thinking "Sigourney Weaver as the hard-ass Scientist!" and "Your obligatory hard-ass, rifle toting Jar Heads/Marines" and "A lead character who has some authority issues, is not generally the brightest guy, but we're inclined to pull for him all the same!" And..." By golly look at that, the natives are empathetic to him too!...Or, at least the Princess is!". I know that's pretty lame, and a superficial take on it. I'm certain the theatre experience was lots more rewarding, but the story left a lot to be desired IMHO. Link to post Share on other sites
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