Last Movie Watched

[orpheus]

Did you say schmaltzy enough?

It really is a good movie though.

 

[jerseydevil]

Did you say schmaltzy enough?

It really is a good movie though.

I'm sponsored

 

[Diehard]

Wow...where to begin. Perfume The Story of a Murderer is a film based on the novel of a same name (which has bolted to the top of my reading queue). It is about a man who has an otherwordly sense of smell who becomes obsessed with making perfume. For the first time that I can recall, I really don't know how I feel about this movie. It is brilliantly crafted, and has great acting and a gripping storyline, but it's not a movie that you will enjoy. It's dark, revolting, shocking...honestly, I can't think of any words that can perfectly describe this movie. It gave me a feeling at the end that I haven't had after watching a film.

In all honesty, I thought this film was brilliant. I recommend that you all watch it for the unique and indescribable cinematic experience. Yes, some of you will hate it, from what I've read it seems to be a bit polarizing, but if you appreciate good, well-crafted cinema I think you'll agree with me that this is an amazing movie.

 

[adgy-san]

3 Women - What the ****, dude? I got this for X-mas. It had been on my wishlist ever since Criterion announced it because it has two of the weirdest looking women ever (Shelly Duvall and Sissy Spacek) and the description I read of the film included the words "chilling" and "surreal". So, yeah, that sounds pretty awesome. Let's pop it in.

Sissy Spacek starts her first job at a rehab clinic for old people. Shelly Duvall is already employed there and shows her around. Shelly Duvall is one of those people that is extremely confident, self-assured and know it all for no apparent reason. No one seems to like her. People ignore her while she's talking to them and barely even acknowledge her presence. When they do acknowledge her, it's usually with disdain. Sissy, though, latches on to her like a lost puppy. Eventually, they move in together, even though Shelly doesn't seem too pleased with her. Sissy keeps ****ing things up, as Shelly sees it. Things come to a head, Shelly starts yelling, and Sissy decides to take a swan dive off the balcony of the apartment complex. And that's when **** starts to get really weird.

Apparently inspired by a dream Robert Altman had while his wife was in the hospital, everything I've read about this movie since watching it makes me feel a little bit better about feeling like a lot of it went over my head. There's a lot of imagery and repeated actions that feel like they mean something, but I have no idea what. Surreal is an excellent word to describe it. I plan to listen to Altman's commentary on the film sometime soon, but I get the feeling it won't answer a lot of questions. Apparently, this is a movie he intended for the audience to "feel rather than understand". In that, he succeeded. It's a crazy, WTF head trip. I liked it. I'm just not sure how much.

Bedevilled - Still waiting for this to show up in the US, so last time I was at Amoeba I pounced on a bootleg. Had to wait until BoobyTrap was out of the house to watch it.

Hae-won is a bitch. She works for a bank, approving loans. She treats people like crap and after slapping one of her co-workers (for doing something the co-worker didn't actually do) in the middle of the office in front of customer, her boss puts her on a mandatory vacation. Hae-won decides to spend it on the remote island where she grew up and her childhood friend Bok-nam still lives. The island is so remote and undeveloped that there are something like 9 people on it and it takes a couple hours to get to by boat.

Upon arriving, the focus of the film slowly shifts to the friend, Bok-nam. We see her being mistreated and abused by everyone, especially her husband and his mother and brother. She seems to try to put up with it for the sake of her daughter, though, and tries to keep a happy face when Hae-won is around. It gets to be too much for her, though, and she asks Hae-won to help her escape the island with her daughter. Hae-won refuses and even accuses her of making stuff up in order to gain sympathy. Bok-nam tries to escape anyway, but is caught. And from there on, **** gets ****ed up. Bok-nam snaps, grabs a scythe and decides to murder everyone on the island. It's not going to be easy, though.

It's a pretty ****ed up, slow-burn of a movie. The director spends a lot of time giving you reasons to hate pretty much every character other than Bok-nam and her daughter. So that when the violence finally starts, you are fully on Bok-nam's side. To the point where I was a little disappointed that a couple of the killings weren't gruesome enough. At times, it gets a little too ridiculous, but overall I'd say that if you're at all into violent horror cinema, this is definitely one to watch.

Wait Until Dark - I bought a used copy of this at a Blockbuster or Hollywood Video going out of business sale. I remember seeing it on a list of scariest movies somewhere and my dad told me it was really creepy, so I picked it up. Audrey Hepburn plays a blind lady, who lives in an apartment with her husband in New York. At the airport coming home, her husband is handed a doll (filled with heroin) by a stranger who asks him to hold it for her. The doll, though, belongs to Alan Arkin. And he wants it back. He's convinced that it's somewhere in the apartment, so he and two guys he hires begin a plot to try and get it out of the apartment. Since Audrey is home, they are forced to resort to an elaborate deception.

I enjoyed this movie pretty thoroughly except for one thing: Audrey Hepburn. She was annoying as ****. She did a good job acting blind, but she was so shrill and was constantly over-excited. Anytime anything happened, she would gasp or cry out. I can honestly say I don't know if I've ever seen any other movies of hers, so I don't know if it was her or it was the character, but... man... Everything else about the movie I really liked, though, and the last 20-30 minutes are especially intense and well done, even with Hepburn's over-acting. Alan Arkin makes a really excellent, cool bad guy. And the film managed to be interesting and compelling even leading up to the finale.

I'd recommend it as worth a watch, but probably not a buy.

 

[IceDogsFan]

 

[OTTo VoN BLoTTo]

Watched Paul last night after seeing it referenced here. I can understand it not being everybody's cup of tea but it sure the hell was mine. Thought it was damn funny from beginning to end--and I wasn't even high!* Laughed a lot and smiled through the whole thing. Also loved all of the various Alien movie and TV references--did they miss ANYTHING? Even squeezed in a Twilight Zone near the end. But the best was the Star Wars canitna music playing in the redneck bar. Such an obvious gag but still slayed me.






*Note to self: watch this high.

 

[jerseydevil]

Diehard...I may have to go back and rewatch Perfume. I remember I liked it enough but it(especially the ending) left me a little...cold. Gotta definitely rewatch it though, Rickman is just sooooooo good.

Adge, Wait Until Dark is an awesome awesome movie. It freaked me out as a kid. And yeah, Arkin was tremendous. You sound a little on the fence about Bedeviled. Yeah, that definitely sound like a movie that you do not even want Booby to know about much less watch.

And Otto, yeah it's an awesome and really sweet movie that would be fun to watch with a little bit of 'alteration'.

 

[adgy-san]

You sound a little on the fence about Bedeviled.

I am. A little. I enjoyed it, but... trying to figure out how to say it without spoiling anything... when Bok-nam goes nuts, she seems to develop an especially large amount of durability that pushed things a little too far. Not out of the realm of enjoyment, but... it had an effect. It's something you see a lot, but it doesn't always create an issue. It depends on the context and it just felt a little off in this.

I'd still recommend watching it, though. Definitely.

 

[jerseydevil]

I finally made some time(at work tee hee) to catch a movie...

First off this is in no way related to that Craig/Weiss stillborn flick that came out a bit ago. This was, without a doubt, one of the single most gore-y Asian flicks I have ever seen. And it gives American/French/etc a run for their money too. It's a bit confusing because it is told in a circular fashion and you don't really get the full picture till late in the game(at least I didn't). When it comes together it pays off though. And really...some of the most uncomfortable killings, including a pregnant woman who is being strangled with one of those 'suck the air out of a storage bag' devices while her baby is running out between her legs(she falls face forward onto her very pregnant belly). Yeah, so there's that. There is a nice 'wah-wah' tag at the very end that is a little awkwardly presented, but still good. This was a tough watch but I grudgingly give it a thumbs up.

 

[Diehard]

Didn't really know what to expect from The Butterfly Effect, but I was pleasantly surprised at how engrossing and emotional it was. One of the few time-travel movies that's actually good. The ending also really stuck with me, which doesn't happen very often.

 

[OTTo VoN BLoTTo]

I know I know. Getting pretty edgy with it:

I'm a sucker for Fairy tales and Disney stuff in general, but resisted this for a long time. Not exactly sure why--maybe something in the promo posters turned me off. But this is what Disney does and they're just so damn good at it. While not their best obviously (stiff competition) it was well executed and a fun little adventure--and the horse--those facial expressions were nothing short of perfection. The animation was spectacular even in standard def (thanks, Netflix streaming) but we liked it enough to watch again in Blu someday.

 

[Diehard]

No Mercy is a little-known Korean thriller about a man called in to investigate a murder. The film makes some pretty dark twists and turns. It starts out pretty slow, but if you stick past the first 20 or 30 minutes it becomes a fully engrossing thriller. It's available on Netflix instawatch, I'd recommend it if you're in the mood for an entertaining thriller.

 

[chaingunsofdoom]

Saw Underworld today and really enjoyed it. 3D was nothing to write home about but there were some good uses of it.

 

[Diehard]

I really liked this thriller, had my adrenaline pumping for almost the entire film. Butterfly on a Wheel (aka Shattered) is about a wealthy business man whose family is taken captive by a man who coerces him into doing whatever he asks. Had me pumped up even after it was over.

 

[notbob]

Just watched the Conan remake, reboot whatever you want to call it. I thought it was pretty entertaining. Momoa was made for the role. I'm not a fan of the guy from Avatar. He just looked awkward in the fight scenes.

 

[jerseydevil]

You know what's worse than a movie that sucks outright? A movie that justmissesthemark. This is the directorial debut of the writer of DEADGIRL, which was another 'couldabeen' flick about 2 angry teens finding a half naked zombie woman. This one has soooooo many good ideas, and is just so undercooked and ****ing amateur. Here's a thumbnail, likeable enough dude...car trouble...friendly passer by picks him up, tranqs him, then proceeds to keep taking loved ones and body parts from him. All the guy has to do to stop it is recognize him and apologize for a terrible thing he did to him in the past. Good so far, right? And it gets better because there are things you don't know about mr nice guy. Problem is, that hand is tipped way too early and way too broadly. Not enough time is spent garnering sympathy for the chopee to offset just how heinous he really is. And the end...where you get the reveal of the 'horrible thing', wow, so awesome, or at least it would have been if you gave a rat's ass at that point. Note to the director of this...next time don't rush to wear the big hat. Write a great idea and let a professional work it. In the long run we will all be better off.

By the way, the gore is pretty weak and the missing limbs are clearly of the arm behind his back variety. Amateur hour for sure.

Could have been so awesome.

 

[adgy-san]

Haywire - Gina Carano is an assassin, who is betrayed by her employer (Ewan MacGregor) and has to fight her way through Michael Fassbender and other assorted thugs to find out why and make it stop. It's a plot that's been done to death, but it's also one that works really well because it's so simple and it allows the story to get the **** out of the way so people can beat the **** out of each other. Steven Soderbergh is a director that's really hit or miss with me. Some of his stuff I like a lot (Traffic, The Limey, Solaris) and stuff I don't much care for at all (The Girlfriend Experience, Ocean's Eleven movies), so I went into this one with cautious optimism.

There were a lot of things to like about this film, but mostly I thought it was good, but not great. The really important stuff was great: Gina Carano and the cast did a really good job and the action was excellent. Really, my only beef with the film is that there was too much plot and not enough action. This isn't normally an issue, and the plot was done well (maybe a little overly complicated), but... man, there's one thing I'd bet most people wanted to see when they went to see this movie and that was Carano kicking people in the face. It's great that there are layers of deceit and betrayal. Fine. But the gaps between action sequences sometimes just felt too long.

It was also, and I know how this sounds coming from me, a little too artsy at times, most notably during the climactic fight scene on the beach. The camera angle is changed way too often to show pretty, scenic shots of fists hitting face from far away so that the sunset and the waves can be seen. It looked really nice, but it disrupted the action flow for me.

Having said all that, I still enjoyed the movie and would watch it again. The fight sequences are definitely worthwhile, and I give Soderbergh props for doing them right. Similarly, it looked like Michael Fassbender did most of his own fighting and held his own really well, which was also a big plus. Sometimes, a film will hide the fact that it's not the star of the movie doing the actual fighting or not fighting very well with a bunch of quick, jump cuts that don't let you see all the action. It's a HUGE pet peeve of mine, so I was really happy that they didn't do that.

Carano didn't really have to do a whole lot of dramatic acting, but she held her own just fine in the non-fight parts of the movie, too, and I am still on the Carano For Wonder Woman street team.

The Viral Factor - This Hong Kong action film is currently playing in some theaters out here and I went to see it after work recently. Jay Chou (who you may recognize from The Green Hornet) plays a cop whose mom is sick. Him being shot in the head while on a mission doesn't help matters much, so when he gets home from the hospital with a diagnosis of only having a couple weeks to live, his mom confesses to him that he has a father and a brother she never really told him about and she's found out where they are. She's so racked with guilt that Chou decides to go and find them and bring them home so she can apologize and hopefully get over her guilt. And, of course, his brother, Nicolas Tse, is a criminal with a history of being an ******* who shoots first and asks questions later.

I was excited to see this movie because the reviews I read said it was balls-to-the-wall action fun. Explosions, machine guns and jumping. Light on plot, big on action, but in a good way. Comparisons were made to earlier Michael Bay flicks like Bad Boys. And, well, the Michael Bay comparisons were totally spot on, but all that talk about fun was a little overblown. The thing about the few Michael Bay flicks that are worth watching is that you will usually get some decent, humorous dialogue to add some laughs to the ridiculous action and plot. This movie had none of that, but instead opted for attempting serious, dramatic sequences of familial strife that were, at times, laughably bad. It's one thing to have Bruce Willis, Will Smith or Sean Connery doing serious. It's completely another for either of these two guys.

Overall, I would say the movie was a mostly entertaining waste of two hours, but it was still a waste. Consider renting it if you really enjoy Bad Boys and The Rock, but if you don't like those movies enough to own them, you can probably just skip this one.

Miss Bala - Here's another movie I went well out of my way to see because reviews I read of it got me excited. Laura Guerrero is a young, poor girl living in Mexico with her father and little brother who wants to try out for the Miss Baja beauty pageant with her friend. The night before, they're in a club partying with some cops her friend knows when a bunch of armed gunmen come in and start shooting the place up. Laura gets away and witnesses the gunmen loading some bodies into a car while she's hiding outside. The next day, she reports what she saw to a traffic cop, who proceeds to bring her to the gang she saw gun the cops down, and thus begins a really bad couple of days for Laura.

This was Mexico's submission for this year's best foreign language academy award, but I'm not surprised that it didn't make the cut. It's not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination and it does a really excellent job showcasing the horrors of the Mexican drug war. It's fairly intense and all of the actors do a fine job, but my problem with this movie is the character. The filmmaker, Gerardo Naranjo, is clearly hoping that you're going to sympathize and maybe identify with Laura as she is forced to do things and dragged along by the gang, but... I didn't. I missed that connection. I think maybe I've been around BoobyTrap too long, because less than halfway into the movie, I kept asking myself why the **** this chick didn't run away. Tell someone else. I realize that her first attempt at doing that didn't work out so well, and, to her credit, towards the beginning of her ordeal, she does make attempts at running away that don't go too terribly well, either, but I thought she just sort of gave in too early. Accepted and went along with what was happening too early. I don't know. It could be a cultural thing that I missed. Maybe the director is trying to illustrate how beaten down and resigned some people are because they live with this violence every day. I don't know.

With that said, I thought the movie was good, but not great. I would recommend checking out some other reviews and then deciding for yourself if you want to see it, as I get the feeling that your mileage may vary. It was well done and I'm sure if you manage to connect with Laura, it's an entirely different movie, but I didn't, so it wasn't.

The Housemaid - Im Sang-soo is a director I'm not too familiar with, but this movie stars Jeon Do-yeon, who I know from her fantastic performance in a movie called Secret Sunshine (that Criterion released out here last year). She was good enough in that that I'd watch pretty much anything she's in, so when this came across Sundance Channel, I jumped to the record button even though it wasn't in HD (which needs to change ASAP). Jeon plays a poor young lady named Li who takes a job as a maid and nanny for a super rich couple in Korea. After a little while, she starts having an affair with the husband. The wife and her mother find out about the affair when the older maid realizes Li is pregnant (even before Li does) and tells them. And ain't nobody too terribly happy about it.

Despite a bit of an over-dramatic and unreasonable ending, I liked this movie. The director did a really good job with the tension and suspense and Jeon Do-yeon was really great again. She's not someone I find particularly attractive, but they did a really great job making her sexy. Maybe it's the maid uniform. I'm not sure. It worked, though. The film was really pretty to look at, the music was great and even though none of the characters are very likable (except the couple's young daughter), the performances were good. I don't think I'd buy it, but I wouldn't be opposed to watching it again.

Isolation - On a remote farm somewhere in Ireland, two scientists have been doing some sort of genetic experiment on cows. The experiment goes horribly wrong, of course, and when the cow under study gives (a very difficult) birth to a sick calf who itself is pregnant with... something, well everyone involved is pretty much ****ed. I'd never heard of this movie when I came across it on one of the movie channels and I decided to record it after reading a bunch of positive reviews. It's a pretty nasty creature movie and I liked it. Not a lot, but I did. It's plenty gross and if you're into monster movies (and don't have a problem suspending your disbelief with regards to them), then it's well worth a rent. Not a buy, but definitely a rent.

28 Weeks Later - Hadn't seen this since it was in the theater. Bought a copy on Blu at an FYE store going out of business and decided to watch it because BoobyTrap hadn't seen it and she liked the first one. Oh, and because she has a thing for Jeremy Renner. The film takes place a certain amount of time after the original (bet you can't guess how long after) where the UN, led by US forces is starting repopulate certain areas of the UK after the massive outbreak of infected cannibals in the first movie. The repopulation includes Robert Carlyle's two children who were away on holiday or something and the US forces include the previously mentioned Renner, as well as science officer Rose Byrne, both lead by Idris Elba. When I first watched this movie, I think Robert Carlyle was the only name I had been familiar with at the time.

The movie is quite a bit different in tone and style from the previous film, focusing more heavily on actual gore and horror from the infected, rather than from other humans. The opening scene is by far the most memorable moment of the film, but the rest of it ain't half bad at all. The director, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, has only done one film since this in 2007; A Clive Owen movie called Intruders that I know almost nothing about, but hope shows up on a movie channel at some point. It's not a great movie, but it's a good one and a solid zombie flick.

The Clinic - I watched this on the DVR last night, having recorded it after seeing it in the top 10 list of one of the Bloody Disgusting writers. I don't remember which writer or how high they ranked it, but I hope it wasn't too high. Cameron (played by the recently deceased Andy Whitfield) and his pregnant wife Beth stop at a motel in the midst of an Australian cross country car ride. That night, Cameron leaves to go do something and comes back to find his wife missing. His wife wakes up in an abandoned warehouse in a bathtub full of ice, no longer pregnant and with a scar on her belly. She comes across four other women in the same situation. The five them start trying to figure out where they are and why this has happened to them.

I didn't really care for this one. Some of the violence/gore was pretty good and it wasn't an outright bad movie, but it was a little bit silly at times and the reveal/reason it was happening wasn't anywhere near as clever or surprising as I thought they thought it was. Not really even worth a rent, in my opinion.

Melancholia - FINALLY sat down and watched this last night because BoobyTrap was pre-occupied. I'm a big Lars Von Trier fan, and I felt bad about missing this in the theater, but once I saw it was playing on HDNet Movies, I just wasn't going to spend the money on a theatrical screening. Kirsten Dunst is a bi-polar manic depressive who happens to be getting married at her sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law (Kiefer Sutherland)'s place, a huge mansion overlooking the ocean with an 18 hole golf course. Kiefer is super super rich. So, being that Kirsten is bi-polar and manic depressive (which is my assumption, and is never actually stated in the movie), she swings to both extremes during the course of her wedding which, as you can imagine, causes considerable anxiety for her new husband and her sister. She mopes, she dances, she runs off and hides in a room without telling anybody, she smiles for pictures. The first half of the movie is basically her swinging back and forth (but mostly back) and everyone else just trying to deal with it and her without ruining her big day. Oh, and apparently, there's a whole nother planet that's been hiding on the opposite side of the sun forever that is not only in view now because of it's weird orbit, but is actually going to come extremely close to earth. Some say it might even collide with it...

Lars Von Trier probably holds the record for movies that I don't know quite how to feel about after I watch them the first time. Sometimes, I love them immediately, but usually I have to really think about it for a while or maybe even watch it again (I STILL am not quite sure how I feel about Dogville). His stuff is just different and the way he tends to present things can be a bit baffling, but I usually end up liking them. I'm still not sure how I feel about this one yet, either, but I think I'm leaning more towards not liking it so much.

There are a lot of things I really liked about it. I love the whole thing with the new planet and I love a lot of the ways in which the characters deal with the entire situation. If that was it, that was all there was to it, I think I would have loved it. But the whole first half of the movie, with Kirsten Dunst being nuts... I don't know. The cinematography is ****ing fantastic and Udo Kier's very small role (probably less than a minute of full screen time) is hilarious and probably the best thing about the movie, but I'm not sure what the point of the Kirsten stuff was.

It's not that the Kirsten stuff was bad, it just seemed like a wholly different story that I don't see the fit for. She did a good job, I guess, but I was actually much more impressed with Charlotte Gainsbourg's performance and that of the rest of the supporting cast (John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgaard, Charlotte Rampling, Kiefer, etc). I don't really have any desire to watch it again, but I wouldn't be against doing so for the sole purpose of seeing if I felt any different about it.

 

[jerseydevil]

Too funny, watching the Clinic right now(R.I.P. Andy Whitfield)...good so far. Isolation was brilliant. A great old fashioned practical fx horror flick(I say 'buy it'). Saw it like 2 years ago, now you made me wanna dust if off and give it another go. Seconded!!!!!! And 28 Weeks Later is a real solid sequel. I don't remember Elba being in that...ok, now I gotta rewatch that one too. Also SECONDED!!! Sounds like a few of those didn't live up to your expectations Adgy. Sorry to see that.

 

[adgy-san]

Watching right now? Why ain't you at work? SLACKIN!

 

[jerseydevil]

Watching right now? Why ain't you at work? SLACKIN!

Annnnnnnnnd who says i can't do both???