What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread

Just saw Knowing on bluray. An average sci-fi based movie from Alex Proyas. I'm a huge fan of his Dark City movie which also influenced The Matrix, but this movie had lots of problems in the acting and story department. It also included some themes from Dark City that felt completely out of place.

If you keep your expectations low you might enjoy it or if you're a fan of M. Night Shyamalan's movies.

Originally Posted by danutz_plusplus
Saw District 9. A good movie with a strong narrative. It wasn't exactly extraordinary, but good nonetheless.

It was certainly a very unusual movie. Not what I expected. Loved it. Reminded me a bit of Starship Troopers and the UFO/X-Com games and Hot Shots, although probably not in ways you might think. Best seen without too many expectations of any kind, so I won't say anything else. Well, maybe this: it's very loosely about a couple million Aliens who have been living in a slum on Earth for 20 years. Ok, that's the situation, not necessarily what it's about, but anyway, go see it.

I just saw Gran Turino. It is without a doubt one of the best movies I've seen this year. I just can't believe how well Clint Eastwood still pulls off the tough guy persona at his age.

It was absolutely brilliant. Great script/great director makes for a great movie.

9
The Wild Dogs were pulling for "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", but I dropped the parental veto to go see this one because I thought all the previews looked tremendously cool. I might have screwed up. It wasn't a bad movie by any stretch, but it didn't knock my socks off, either. The artistry was very good, but not excellent—for example, with more facial features to work with, they still didn't convey as much emotion via facial expressions as Wall-E. The story was pretty cool. Overall, a solid rental and maybe even a matinee.

Interview w/ the Vampire - watched rice's vampire opus w/ the Tigress. It was good as I remember it, tho the film is starting to appear slightly aged… er undead.

Machine Girl - saw it…. kinda didnt like it. I think I'm outgrowing this sort of thing, you know. It's great for watching w/ a bunch of chuckling buddies, but w/ my girl (she ended up leaving out of disinterest) by myself (fell asleep) - eh. Ultra cheezy gore overkill, lots of slo mo and screaming, little asian girls in schoolgirl outfits. Kinda lame

Next

Antichrist

Hmm, well.

There's no doubt Trier knows and understands the technical aspects of film-making, and he's very talented in that way.

But, he seems to have this obsession with provocation - almost as if he has an inner desire to disrespect his audience and make them as uncomfortable as he can.

I have to assume his catholic background has something to do with his perception of nature as evil, and women in particular being tied in very close to that.

I not only disagree with him, I also think it's a mistake to use filmmaking as one's own personal catharsis. Because that's what I think he's doing, and I honestly perceive his films - and this one in particular - as being exceedingly selfish and quite useless in terms of making things better, because I simply don't think he has a clear vision of reality. It seems distorted and overly depressing without basis in anything factual.

But oh well.

It was visually appealing and really quite fascinating, but at the same time it was intensely uncomfortable to watch, and we're not talking about it being in a good way. I wasn't provoked into thinking anything profound - and I certainly don't see the point beyond what I've already stated.

Maybe I just didn't get it - as seems to be the case with many "art" films. Not all, though.

August Rush

An urban fairy-tale. A film for music lovers, dreamers and, yes, also for the whole family. This movie will linger as a warm, tingly sensation and put a smile to your face (and your ears!). A little bit kitschy at times, but if you want to feel good and enchanted, go rent it.

"Music is all around us."

(No, this is not a musical, but it is about music in a very broad sense.)

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426931/

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
I just saw Gran Turino. It is without a doubt one of the best movies I've seen this year. I just can't believe how well Clint Eastwood still pulls off the tough guy persona at his age.

It was absolutely brilliant. Great script/great director makes for a great movie.

We caught this one this weekend. It wasn't at all what I expected, which was a sort of Dirty Harry Redux. Very good serious film with a lot of gratuitous throw-away comedy and a great job from a very fragile looking Eastwood who still managed to be tougher than your average nineteen year old. For some reason, his character really reminded me of dte—especially the "Get the %$#& off my lawn, you $#%s." remarks.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
A great show. There's not much in the way of "over the kids' heads" stuff, but the film is so well done that you don't mind that you're watching a movie for kids. Very funny (Steve the monkey was my favorite character by far). The Wild Dogs had a great time as well. I think this one was even better than "Up", so that earns it the title of best family movie of the year.

Clint Eastwood? I suppose I can see it, but I've always favored John McClain (Bruce Willis in DieHard). Yippie Ki Ay.

Originally Posted by dteowner
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
A great show. There's not much in the way of "over the kids' heads" stuff, but the film is so well done that you don't mind that you're watching a movie for kids. Very funny (Steve the monkey was my favorite character by far). The Wild Dogs had a great time as well. I think this one was even better than "Up", so that earns it the title of best family movie of the year.

Might have to rent that one eventually for the grandkids.

Clint Eastwood? I suppose I can see it, but I've always favored John McClain (Bruce Willis in DieHard). Yippie Ki Ay.

Always the romantic.
I think this clip makes my point pretty well.
Gran Torino in Ten Minutes (but you only need about four and a half to get my drift.)

Originally Posted by magerette
Always the romantic.
I think this clip makes my point pretty well.
Gran Torino in Ten Minutes (but you only need about four and a half to get my drift.)

I loved it. Absolutely loved that movie. He's 80 something years old and he still can pull off the bad ass. Not just pull it off, but believe that he could of kicked those guys butts if he had to. I'm not sure about the pretending to shoot them with his finger. I thought that was a little odd, but other than that it was brilliant.

Of course this is opinion is given to you from a huge Clint Eastwood fan. Everything that guy has done, imo, has been golden.

Edit: I just wanted to ask Mage, isn't it unbelievable how good he is? I mean he makes John Wayne look about as tough as Paris Hilton. Not just that, the acting chops on this guy is unbelievable. At his age still pulling off these great movies. Brilliant…just absolutely brilliant.

Mama Mia (2008)

Over-the-top upbeat musical makes High School Musical seem 'dark & gritty' Pierce Brosnan can be called 'brave' for attempting to sing … yet it was the perfect movie for a rainy Saturday night with the family. Pure fun, nothing more.

Just finish watching Dario Argento's Phenomena (1985) for second time, since the first time discovered his films 6-7 years ago. Pretty nice horror stuff even though it's not up to today's standard anymore. I found it pretty funny that the monkey in the film seemed to played an important role, particularly the one near the end. And oh you'll see very young Jennifer Connelly in it. It's weird seeing her amateurish acting skills compared to much more recently ones.

Originally Posted by skavenhorde

Of course this is opinion is given to you from a huge Clint Eastwood fan. Everything that guy has done, imo, has been golden.

I'm shocked. Shocked! I thought you were totally uninvolved, there.

Edit: I just wanted to ask Mage, isn't it unbelievable how good he is? I mean he makes John Wayne look about as tough as Paris Hilton. Not just that, the acting chops on this guy is unbelievable. At his age still pulling off these great movies. Brilliant…just absolutely brilliant.

Hey—watch the John Wayne blasphemy —that guy's my childhood idol. That's a pretty good comparison though, actually, if you think about Wayne's career and his last role as Rooster Cogburn when he was dying. Probably the best thing he ever did, really.

RE: Clint, I've been a captive audience for most of his movies since my spouse feels the same way you do about him, but I'm actually not the hugest Eastwood fan—and I really can't stand Sandra Locke—but I do like him as both an actor and a director. He gave the performance of his life in this one, I think, and I especially enjoyed that seething look accompanied by the guttural growl—no words needed. Good stuff.

Gran Torino was great all around, but this was the best scene by far.

Surrogates

Took my son and 7 friends for his 13th birthday … this was much better than expected, and was generally entertaining.

Zombieland -

We really liked it! Awesome movie, kinda funny, lots of comical zombie violence (hate those bastards). Ive always been the kinda person that hates zombies. I like zombie movies, but its because I hate them so much and like to see them destroyed in various ways. Woody Harrelson actually hates them more than me, he takes great glee in killing them. Again. And he's very efficient, I gotta respect that.

He actually made the zombie apocalypse look fun. Funny, violent, kinda gross film, we loved it from start to finish!

UP

Very sad movie. The first movie since my childhood in which I've been crying.

But it's with lots of action and very funny, too !

And it has an Happy Ending !

I'd classify it as a "Tragic-Comedy", so to say.

Besides, I watched in 3D. Yay !

"Up" is rather different from typical western cartoon, with better story and message that interesting enough for an adult audience.

The selection of protagonist and few other elements make me thinking about Howl's Moving Castle when watching the film.

Casino Royale

Approached this with a lot of baggage, but it turned out to be rather good, and actually structurally a bit more serious and competent than most generic Bond knock-offs. Judi Dench, Eva Green, Daniel Craig and the rest of the cast all turned in solid performances.

The graphic violence was somewhat more realistic and disturbing than I would normally expect to see in your usual 007 entry, and it amazes me this got a PG13 rating—there must be some pretty hardened thirteen year olds out there. Also it took awhile to get used to a very Nordic looking Bond, but on the whole, it worked out to be a better film than expected.