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

@magerette-i actually caught the opening sequence and the ending (or near it) of that as well last night but it didn't capture me enough to not leave the room. i used to really like pierce brosnan and his first couple of bond movies but for some reason he just seems like, forgive the expression "a punk ass" to me these days....

Good to see you back amongst us, c.u. Was Brosnan Remington Steele? God, that was a silly show. :)
When I say surprisingly good, the emphasis is definitely on'surprisingly;'--I agree he has a certain smarmy British punk quality totally lacking in the preceding iterations. I like Connery, but his Bond has quite the mysogynist flavor. Favorite is probably Roger Moore--let's face it, this is not serious drama, and his tongue in cheek delivery seems to fit.

doesn't north korea fall into the category of the cold war?

Technically it probably does--it certainly qualifies as one at the moment. At the time I think it was a pretty warm little war, or police action, as they called it back then. (And you thought political correctness came in in the nineties!) ;) I was thinking more of the 'From Russia with Total Improbability' stuff in the Connery flicks. ;)

though as they say "once a communist..."
and for those who aren't living in a communist state and wearing one of these
http://www.fmft.net/archives/castro/castro-teeth.jpg
your cool for at least the rest of the year

bad teeth--reeaally bad teeth. Not perhaps the best argument for socialized medicine. :)
 
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Mrs dte rented "Norbit" over the weekend. A truly awful movie. 2 or 3 laughs (not gut-busters, mind you) and that's it.

Also rented "Hannibal Rising". Meh. Nice to get his history, but pretty lacking in the suspense department. Worth the rental, but glad I didn't pay theatre prices.
 
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I also just watched "Hannibal Rising", and I agree it wasn't very good compared to the other Hannibal movies. It was worth seeing once for entertainment purposes, but definitely the least out of the 4 Hannible movies.
 
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doesnt his little sister get eaten or something?? I hear it was way off the beaten path and was basically a revenge flick, but it has him studying martial arts in the far east and... I dunno, doesnt sound the cannibal we know and love.

anyways, I watched the film noir classic The Big Sleep w/ Bogey and Lauren Bacall
 
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Studies martial arts in Paris with the Asian widow of his uncle, and yes, Misha becomes kebob. It's as much about building Hannibal's backstory as being a story unto itself.
 
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I watched a film last night on IFC that I had never even heard of before. It's called May. It's about a girl named (obviously) May.

I don't want to give any spoilers so it's hard to say much. I will say that it's a very well presented movie. It's quite strange.

It's kinda like a drama/horror movie (for lack of a better way to classify it).

If you like weird movies... definitely not standard Hollywood fare... you should see this film.
 
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Yeah, May was a pretty strange flick. Unlike those "outsider" films where you can perhaps identify, sympathize, and perhaps even see yourself in that universe being able to fall for the poor unfortunate getting dumped on (think sissy spacek in Carrie), May was just a complete nutjob you need to flat out avoid at all costs. I think that's partially the reason i just didnt like it all that much. I found it hard to see myself understanding May, and being hard-pressed to even want to. Does IFC cut the film, or is all the violence and gore there?

It's an ugly, creepy film, and I think that actress is just one of the strangest looking women Ive ever seen onscreen. I had a very grim feeling in the pit of my stomach after I watched it, kinda like after I watched Joshua. Check that one out if you want to see how jaded you are, it'll kick thy royal butt, royally. I guarantee it or my name isnt Sammy T. Tiger
 
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IFC doesn't cut movies... as a matter of fact they usually show the "director's" cut if it exists.

I'll check out Joshua... that's another one I've never heard of. I do consider myself pretty jaded when it comes to watching shocking or gore-ific films, so that will be interesting.

<edit> @Sam - is this the one you're talking about? - Joshua <edit>
 
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yep, that's it. Blockbuster video actualy had it on their shelf.

The majority of the film is nothing big, and is actually kinda lame at times. However the last 15 minutes or so rocked my f&*%$^ world. It's at one time absolutely masterful, disturbing, and a bit nauseating. I watched it in the dark, late at night, and it did a pretty good number on me. I couldnt get some images out of my head for days.

I doubt that I'll ever watch it again!
 
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well, for starters I watched The Lost Weekend. To me, it was kinda a waste of time. While it was cool to see Ray Milland young and in his prime, I'm just not a fan of "addiction films". See Ray drink, scavenge for spare change like a squirrel looking for nuts, then watch him drink more as his loved ones look on helplessly. It's just boring and repetitive, I just dont like this type of film. Except Drugstore Cowboy, now that addiction flick was great.

Alas, my celluloid salvation this day came from the oddly named kung fu acid trip Faster Blade Poisonous Darts (1984)
Although there are fast blades aplenty, and the film does really throw the kitchen sink at you, I did not spot any poisonous darts in the mix. Maybe it isnt meant in a literal way. In any case, I thought that this was one wild kung fu film that was definitely a blast. It sports some really gorgeous setpieces such as temples, lush gardens, etc., and nice traditional flowing robes and decor. Just an awesome looking film in my opinion, but it's all flash and fun. Man, is it ever fun tho!

The story is largely incoherant, as the first part seems to develop the plot in one direction, then it careens in a wildly different direction that consists of a demonic assassin, a serial killer, a murderous cult, and some evil overlord type behind it all. Throw in there some half-beast men, a vat of acid, totally hot asian (and an oddly placed indian) babes, secret passages, 80's special effects left and right, beams, explosions, magical weapons (a folding fan that shoots some type of beam or something), underground egyptian temples, actual chinese water torture, and classic triple-takes (an action or expression is replayed several times quickly) aplenty, all glued together by gloriously airborne wire-fu and seemingly jedi force powers, and youve got something that will make you sit up and proclaim "WTF???" at least three times. I know I did, maybe more.

For example, this like 12 year old chick whips off the cape she snapped someones head off with earlier (definitely an LOL there), and hurls it at someone boomerang-style. This guy avoids it, jumps up onto it and rides it back to her, then leaps off and nails her with a kick! Too much fun, I gotta show this one to company!

I saw this and like ten others from this series of releases in the bargain bin at a Walgreens for around three bucks, so I picked this and Wu Tang Swordsman both up. I'm going to go grab a few more. If they are anything like this one, theyre well worth 3 bucks!

Here's the edition I got, they all have very nice packaging, chapter card, and a very nice animated menu. Unfortunately no extras or subtitles, and unfortunately it's dubbed english which I hate. Just gimme the mandarin and hook me up with the subtitles, Id rather hear the actor's voices.

51MQJSGA10L._AA240_.jpg
 
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Just watched "Stalker" yesterday. Definitely worth it; some amazing camera work there, and true genius in saying much with little. Some of the philosophizing was a bit on the obvious side, though, and detracted from the full impact of the film.

I also read The Roadside Picnic [ http://www.cca.org/cm/picnic.pdf ]. The novel, the film, and the game all explore the same themes. Lots of stuff in the text that didn't make it into the movie were found in the game, and vice versa. All three felt like rough diamonds; perhaps the final expression of this idea is still to be made.
 
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Took the Mrs to "1408" last night. Very good movie, and just when you think it completely failed, it makes a comeback. Cusack does a nice job of going nuts without getting too carried away.
 
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Went to see Pirates 3 last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Laughed a great deal, thought JD was brilliant and wondered why it got so many poor reviews!!
 
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Oh man... last night I watched Sleepaway Camp on IFC. It's a 1980s slasher type film that is truly bad and truly twisted.

The acting was horrible... the murders were cheesy (for the most part) and the ending was one of the weirdest I've seen. I'm not going to say anything... just click on the link to read more.

If you love bad horror movies this one is really for you.
 
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Transformers Vs Died Hard 4

Transformers
============

I'm not transformers fan per se, but woww...., this transformer movie is good. Very good in fact. Oh Wait, that probably is still an understatement. It's impressive action movie, the best so far this year IMO (even after i just watched Die Hard 4.0). In short the film is "huge robots + massive destruction + awesome CGI + slick combat actions," - with tight and visceral action scenes as we would expected from director Michael Bay. Definitely best action movie this year. Apparently the movie is targeted at young and male moviegoers segment, as you would deteced in terms of "teen-friendly" dialogs, gadgets humors (cellphone, internet & computer jokes), handsome new rising male lead shia Labeouf (look like younger version of Russel Crowe to me - but man, his acting was really good in Disturbia), and certainly in a movie like these - plus a hot female co-star (Megan Fox) with a nice butt. :wink:


Die Hard 4.0
============

I like all previous Die Hard films. As always, Bruce Willis still bleeds tons of blood in this newest Die Hard series, but that's after every bad guys got their balls badly kicked and left them bleed profusely. The typical John McClane's jokes is back (in one scene after blasting a bad guy out into street below, he said "that would wake the neighbours up"), with the head-on, bad police attitude. A Nice movie not unlike the Transformers, if you're for looking action stuffs, not some Oscar winning dialogs, story or acting.
 
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Nice, i'm glad to hear that about Transformers, I got advance tickets for Tuesday night w/ some of the CCA. I have to admit, I was a little disheartened when I was surfing the official site and saw how different they all look.
 
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somehow i never saw "Who is Harry Crumb" but i caught it on tv last night. an excellent John Candy flick...i miss him. He's goes through tons of costume/character that put austin powers to shame. check out this scene of him as a hungarian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAwODkuVTxU

oh an annie potts was quite atypical as a golddigging sexpot which yet she played one flawlessly.
 
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Watched Ghost Rider last night.

'Twas cool in a comic book summer flick sorta way. I liked it when Sam Elliot went ghost too, and they both rode out together. That definitely rocked.
 
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Did you get the feeling a scene got cut though? Sam talked about a final ride as if he was going to soften up Big Baddie, but then he just kinda disappeared. It didn't really make sense for his final ride to be escorting Cage to the OK Corral, so I was waiting for something to happen.

Watched "The Messengers" last night. It starts out well and truly creepy but sort of peters out at the end. I am sick of the whole stop-motion-crinkling-paper-sound critter crawl that everyone's doing now. It was OK in Ring, but it's kind of run its course.
 
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