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

I've only read thru #3 to the Wild Dogs, so I know I'm missing quite a bit. I might have to grab book 7 and read it for myself just to get around the wait.
 
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I've only read thru #3 to the Wild Dogs, so I know I'm missing quite a bit. I might have to grab book 7 and read it for myself just to get around the wait.

Well, I would recommend all 7 for reading ... especially since you have kids who are interested and they are quick reads. For example - Book #6 has no mention of Harry in a cafe goggling at a cute girl, but instead has him starting summer for a couple of weeks at the Dursleys ... and so on. If they managed half the book I'd be surprised.
 
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Our weekend viewing:

Tron:
I recall saying it hadn't aged well a while back. To an extent that is true, but I enjoyed it more than expected. My older son summed it up - it isn't a very good movie, and a lot of the story stuff is nonsense, but it was really cool and I'm glad we watched it.

Atonement
Nice period piece with some solid writing and acting, very down tone to the whole thing, and I just couldn't get past how Keira Knightly is just way too skinny.
 
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Watchmen I am not a comics reader, though I have always had a fondness for superheroes (Marvel > DC). I never read the original graphic novel but I most certainly will now. While it may have gone on a bit long, this was a wonderful film. Deep backgrounds on each character that I'm sure were glossed over compared to the book, but given the time restriction on films I thought they did pretty well. The fight scenes were wonderfully graphic, but did not try too hard to be shocking. Great story and a surprisingly dark ending. This is one of the better movies I have seen in a while. Though having never read the comic, I wonder what those who have thought. My neighbor has a copy and I intend to hit him up for it today. I look forward to an elaboration on backgrounds and more on ancillary characters.
 
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The Unborn
More Blockbuster picks by Mrs dte. Another "meh" horror flick. Absolutely nothing that stands out, but no glaring faults either (there's plot holes, but nothing jarring by horror film standards). Rent at your own risk.
 
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Watched Appleseed 2 a few days ago, and there were many things that i liked about it. It took many philosophical subjects and ran through... abuse of technology, obsession with security, what it means to be an individual vs a clone etc. The mix of personal questions with epic large scale politics is well done.

Visually the movie is stunning. Being made by John Woo, the action sequences are ofcourse amazing, but the artwork doesn't cease to amaze. It's based on original designs by the brilliant Masamune Shirow, and the technology that blends cellshaded characters with 3d backgrounds, looks better than most CGI movies out there;
appleseed-saga-ex-machina_2.jpg


Interestingly, I started to watch it while my cohabit was playing a game, and she ended up dropping the game and eventually sitting next to me watching it trough, and at the end credits she old me she had to see it again.


Yesterday I watched Hellboy 2, which is larger than it's prequel in most ways. I thought it was just another sloppy sequel but I was wrong. It jumps back and forth between action, serious subjects like becoming a parent, if you are willing to sacrifice the world for love etc, a long with several hilarious sequences such as two men getting drunk singing "I can't live without you".
 
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The Unborn
More Blockbuster picks by Mrs dte. Another "meh" horror flick. Absolutely nothing that stands out, but no glaring faults either (there's plot holes, but nothing jarring by horror film standards). Rent at your own risk.
I've decided not to watch it after a couple of people told me the best thing about the movie is its poster. ;)
 
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Weird.... I also just saw The Unborn this week. The trailers were much better than the actual movie imo.

Been a looong time since I've seen anything good from the Horror genre....
 
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My sister saw the newest Harry Potter movie, too. She found it rather ... dark.
 
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I also saw the new Harry Potter. I liked it quite a bit, but I felt it went on at slow-pace. Which led to more atmosphere to be conveyed. But it was indeed quite nice. Though I also felt that very little happened on screen. Anyway thumbs up from me. Though my friends didn't like it one bit. :)
 
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Also saw The Happening. God was it awful. I don't know what M. Night Shyamalan was smoking when he made it. His other movies are awesome (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs) but this one just sucked badly. And god does Mark Wahlberg suck at acting. I don't know how can he deliver lines so badly. It's beyond me. He was so-so in Max Payne but in this he's awful.
 
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Tron:
I recall saying it hadn't aged well a while back. To an extent that is true, but I enjoyed it more than expected.
Speaking of which ...

Watch this, if you haven't already: Tron Legacy Teaser.

Clean and high res version of the one that circulated on the Internet last year. Yummy!
 
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Descent (unrated)

Good English horror flick. Six women climb into an unknown cave. Of course it's not empty. Plus some side story I don't want to spoil here. Well made and at times surprisingly gory. Great atmosphere, consequent suspense and thank god no teenagers and no jouvenile jokes about their first sex. The ending gives food for thought.
It's important you watch the unrated version. The R-rated has a different ending and less violence.

Recommended.
 
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We watched "Pride & Prejudice", yet another nice Keira Knightly period piece.
 
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Big ups for The Descent. Great movie.

The Orphan
Very good show. The title character (very well-acted, too--probably better acting than the adult actors in the film) is a serious psycho. It all makes sense by the end of the movie (the "twist" is a little hokey, but not too difficult to swallow), but there's several scenes leading up to that point where you see this pre-teen doing horrific things and just go "Damn!" Worth full theatre price, although there's nothing that wouldn't translate to the small screen. One of the best horror flicks we've seen this year (probably second place to "The Univited").
 
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