Last Movie Watched

[Diehard]

I prefer the original Dawn to the remake, though I did like the remake (Zack Snyder's best feature film!).

I prefer Shaun of the Dead to both

BTW, if you haven't seen the dramatic feature Away From Her, directed by Sarah Polley, it's very good.

damn straight

 

[jerseydevil]

Saw this at Imax testerday...letterboxed, wtf. Seemed a little silly to charge Imax prices for something that wasn't full screen...whatever.

Open letter to Neil Blomkamp...if you want to villify the 'haves' you need to provide justification. You can't expect folks to buy in if the rich deny healthcare...just because. And you also need to stick to your guns. If you are going to make future Los Angeles almost 99 percent populated by hispanics, don't make the two representations of old Earth good and evil(faceless corporate evil/Damon's work supervisor) white. Also, you haven't framed this film as a documentary like District 9, so how about keeping the camera still and relying on different angles during your action sequences. I would like to actually see what's going on instead of fighting motion sickness.

So, yeah...I didn't really care for this. Jodie Foster basically acts as if she has a major feminine itch the whole time she is on screen, as a matter of fact, so does the usually reliable William Fichtner. A lot of meandering and not a lot of plot. Just seemed that Blomkamp did not have as strong a vision for this as he did for D9. And he maybe got lost playing with bigger toys. I still hope Blomkamp has better in him, but this is definitely a step backward.

 

[orpheus]

Red, White, & Blue

Really good, but depressing. Haha! Amanda Fuller answered my tweet. She's a really good actress in this film.

 

[jerseydevil]

That movie was daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!

 

[Diehard]

an underappreciated film for sure

 

[orpheus]

I am glad that I not the only peep here who's seen Red, White, & Blue.

 

[lagwagon0]

I'm trying to go through most of the John Hughes classics and hadn't seen this one yet. Not my favorite from him but still had that 80's nostalgia I was looking for.

Creepy music, good acting (loved the nanny), extremely well done and directed, although not scary

Looked great, tons of great horror references, thought the story itself was pretty mediocre overall though

Thought the previews looked interesting despite the mediocre reviews, sadly disappointing, forced humor, with some horrific acting.

Oh man, what a letdown. Extremely boring and was glad when it was over. I just didn't feel any sort of suspense. For such a well received movie, I was underwhelmed and the twist was meh.

Even though this had the standard 80's horror vibe to it which is pretty dated, I actually enjoyed it cheese and all (I couldn't help laughing at the little girl calling out through the tv) . Nothing outstanding but I liked the secondary characters especially. As an aside, I cannot believe this was rated PG.

So sue me, I love these types of movies. An interesting character study filled with numerous awkward, interesting, and thought provoking interactions between the screwed up lead and his friends and families while he tries to come to grip with his life.

 

[daxx]

The last movie I watched was Elysium, and it's exactly what you'd expect from the guy who directed District 9. The difference is that District 9 was an alright movie. Unfortunately there really wasn't any development of characters in this movie. It was a bunch of pointless fighting fighting with robots (the CGI was pretty good though) and bad accents by Damon and Foster. The movie was overall kind of pointless, no real message other than people with money are bad and they're afraid of people without money. However he did have a decent vision for trajectory of Los Angeles in 140 years.

 

[santiclaws]

Just saw Elysium yesterday and... yeah. I am disappoint. Standard sci fi action with not much of a plot. Jodie Foster's character waiving away medical aid as she's on the cusp of death... why??? Who knows.

 

[jerseydevil]

Great day for new flicks. I have been keen on this for 2 years. Did it live up to the hype? Well, I didn't hate it. A little on the predictable side, but a nice first flick from someone I hope has a better career ahead of them than Ti West(who actually has a cameo



AND this is the be all end all of the Cornetto trilogy. Odd to see Pegg as teh loose nut. But...it works. Laughed a lot, cried a little and said goodbye. First time I actually LOVED a W/F/P flick on first viewing, wonder how the repeat viewings will hold up.

 

[santiclaws]

Caught it on cable the other day. Terrific. A murder mystery and a love story set against the background of the military dictatorship in 1970's Argentina.

 

[FBJ]

Saw Kick Ass 2 last night. Just as much fun as the first one!!

 

[jerseydevil]

Ok. So its from the guy who made Rubber, so I knew going in...strange. This made Rubber look like a mainstream movie. I THINK it's about pet ownership and the love/loss that comes with it, and that part of the movie actually moved me to tears, but in the meantime you have agressive pizza order takers, Mexican/French gardners who die...but not really, and move into your house with said agressive pizza girl and have a child, William Fichtner channeling Seigfried and/or Roy, Stevie from Eastbound drooling...lots of stuff. I didn't hate this, but it is VERY abstract and odd.



this was fun. Brick Top from Snatch as an old age pensioner with a lot of moxie...a heist gone wrong...buncha dumbass low rent English...and ZOMBIES. Fun.



Wow. This hit all the marks, yet managed to miss ALLLLLLLLLLL of the drama and excitement...and just the weight of the GN. Just empty. Not sure if it was the voice work, or the direction but this is waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy flat. I shoulda been MOVED. I wasn't. And NO, it's not the source material...because I re-read recently and it still has the same gravitas that it had when I had to wait 3 months for another issue to come out. Maybe this can't be made into a feature...

 

[OTTo VoN BLoTTo]

The Hunt - Damn, this movie was ****ed up and uncomfortable. I went into it knowing nothing about the plot, Mad Mikkelsen starring was enough for me, and so was completely unprepared for this. He plays a schoolteacher who lost his job and has taken a new one working at a kindergarten. In a small town where everyone knows everyone. One of the children, the daughter of his best friend, sort of accuses him of molesting her and **** spirals out from there. It's a deeply uncomfortable film. Mikkelsen is ****ing great. I don't know how much my man-crush on him played into it, but I had trouble watching it at points because, you know, just... ugh. Loved the way it ended. One of the better movies I've seen this year.

A couple from this particular post piqued my interest, and I had my heart set on The Hunt for last weekend and couldn't find it ANYWHERE. No Amazon streaming, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Redbox. Where did you find it?

 

[adgy-san]

A couple from this particular post piqued my interest, and I had my heart set on The Hunt for last weekend and couldn't find it ANYWHERE. No Amazon streaming, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Redbox. Where did you find it?

In a theater.

 

[jerseydevil]

WOW, what a tremendous pile of ****. Tried to retrofit stuff from the first movie(which was really charming/low budge/and CLEVER) but it was a screechy mess with poorly written parts. Patrick Wilson tries sooooo hard to channel Jack Torrance, but man it is just so so bad. Inept, painfully underwritten, and filled with actors flailing away trying to make something out of this. Like I read in a review...an insult to horror movies. **** you Insidious 2. **** you.



Wow. So bleak. Kinda



SPOILERS



cheats at the end, but almost too dark at times. Hugh Jackman is good in a sorta Al Pacino IAMGONNASHOUTALLMYLINES way and inbetween grabbing his face in world weary exasperation/this odd blinking thing Gyllenhall is pretty good. OOf Paul Dano is creepy. Thought so in And Thee Will Be Blood and nothing has changed. Really nice work sleight of handing what should be an obvious conclusion. Bottom Line: A really well written/well made movie that you really won't want to watch twice.

 

[adgy-san]

I've been trying to make time to see Prisoners, but haven't had a chance yet. Hope it manages to live in theaters for another week or two.

 

[adgy-san]

The Grandmaster - I opted to go and see this theatrically, despite the Weinsteins cuts, because, goddammit, Wong Kar Wai movies are better on the big screen and I'm fairly certain I will never get to see this uncut in a theater. I liked it a lot. It's really artsy fartsy and it feels a little flat as far as characterization goes, but it's pretty and the action is mostly pretty great. Zhang Ziyi's fight at the trains station was notably awesome.

The Dead Zone - Yeah, I'd never seen this before. Liked it a lot. ****in' Christopher Walken, man. It's not anywhere near Cronenberg's best, but it's solid.

The Assassins - I'm really surprised China keeps churning out these huge, historical movies when it seems like 75% of them aren't very good. This one was alright. Great set and costume design. Chow Yun Fat was great, naturally. He makes for a great ******* sometimes. The story wasn't too bad. Worth a rent.

Halloween II - Liked this quite a bit. It's nowhere near as awesome as the first one, but it's a worthy follow-up.

Terror In The Aisles - A documentary about horror films that was included on the Halloween II Blu-ray. Pretty entertaining, though maybe not much of a documentary. Lots of stuff from films I hadn't seen that I would like to. A good watch.

The Girl - A supposed true account of the relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren that I hope is more fiction than fact. If it's fact, Hitchcock was disgusting *******. As far as the movie goes... it was ok. Toby Jones and Sienna Miller were pretty good. I don't care if I never see it again, but it wasn't bad.

Margaret - After hearing ****loads of good things about this flick, I was excited to see it pop up during a free HBO/Cinemax preview weekend. It's a pretty interesting existential piece and there were a number of things I liked about it a lot, but overall it didn't really seem to click for me. At least, not in the way many other people seemed to have had it do. I liked it and think the director, Kenneth Lonergan, is someone worth keeping an eye on.

The Conjuring - This is the first James Wan movie that I think I can say I really, actively enjoyed. I liked Insidious just fine up until the end when it went overboard, but this one I thought was much more solid throughout. It had a couple parts I thought were effectively creepy and it made me interested in the Warren story to the extent that I'd like to actually read some of the books about them, including Amityville Horror.

Lesson Of The Evil - Takashi Miike returns to horror! This movie is ****ed up. Like, Battle Royale ****ed up. It starts off one way and about halfway through turns on it's head and goes a completely different, ****ed up direction. I liked it a lot. It's my favorite movie of his in almost the last decade (though in his defense, I haven't seen that much of his more recent output). I hope it manages to get released out here at some point, but if you're curious, you can an HK Blu with english subs.

Snow White And The Huntsman - A tad bit better than I had expected in that it was actually watchable, but not by a whole hell of a lot. Meh.

Safety Last - Impressively well done stunts and some clever gags, especially for a silent film from 1923. I'm not as high on it as many film critics seem to be, but it was absolutely worth watching. I wouldn't mind owning it at some point, either. Really glad I decided to watch it.

Rollerball - ****in' James Caan, man. This movie is pretty dated, but the idea behind it is very much still relevant. I enjoyed it.

Battle Of Britain - Holy ****, man. The cast of this flick alone makes it a must watch. Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Robert Shaw, Ralph Richardson, Michael Bates and a baby-faced Ian McShane that I didn't even recognize until I saw his name on IMDB while I was watching the movie. Beyond that, though, it's a pretty decent WWII flick that suffers a bit from, I think, trying to do too much. There are scenes from the German side and scenes from the English side and it feels like very few of the big moments are given enough screen time to properly sink in. Characters are killed in fighter planes and you don't even realize it until the battle is over and someone says so. It feels like this should have been a mini-series or something that they cut down into a 2+ hour movie. The performances are great, though, and the dogfight scenes, mostly without special effects are impressive as hell. They actually blew up, crashed and flew real planes for those parts and it's pretty awesome. There was just not enough time spent on any one thing to give it the emotional connection it needed. Oh, and there wasn't nearly enough Michael Caine for my taste.

Trouble With The Curve - Starring, but not directed by Clint, the movie feels just like one of his directorial efforts. It's fairly entertaining, but completely predictable and without surprise. Every single thing in this movie is telegraphed ahead of time so that you know exactly where every character will end up almost as soon as they're introduced into the movie. But, like I said, it's entertaining enough. Clint gets to do his crotchety old bastard routine, which is always fun and John Goodman is always awesome. Timberlake even has enough charisma to make him likable and I've always been a fan of Amy Adams, so maybe I'm a little biased. It's not really something I care to watch again, but it was an ok way to spend 90 minutes on the couch.

Killer Joe - Matthew McConaughey has come a long way in my eyes since he stopped doing nothing but romantic comedies. I really liked him in this. It's a pretty nasty little movie that I had no idea was directed by William Friedkin until his name popped up in the opening credits. The ending was somewhat frustrating, but I don't want to spoil it by discussing it here. I dug the movie, though. Quite a bit. And I will NEVER look at Gina Gershon or fried chicken legs the same way again. Ooof.

The Wrong Box - Another older British film that I watched solely for Michael Caine that ended up having a stellar cast. Ralph Richardson, Peter Sellers, Dudley Moore, John Mills... it's a very Python-esque type of comedy, although not quite at the same level of cleverness or hilarity. I did laugh out loud more than once, though. Thoroughly enjoyable.

 

[jerseydevil]

Adgy...Gina Gershon made me want to be a chicken leg. Tears and all.

And Rollerball, really? First time? For ****s sake man. Oh and why no mention of perhaps one of the Greatest soundtracks this side of Clockwork/The Good The Bad The Ugly? Slipping, you are young Paduan.

Snow White blahblahblah was excessive. Pretty, but empty. And I kept waiting for Charlize to shout NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!!!! It was that Pacino-esque.

Wanna see that Miike flick though.



One of the few things I didn't HATE Will Arnett in. I lovelovelove Chi McBride...and Dax Shepard. Michael Dead Eyes Shannon has a nice predictable part too. Movie comfort food. And, directed by SAUL!!!!!!

And first time for DEAD ZONE...that's CRIMINAL.



This wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. But it was kooky/silly and filled with some great creature designs. Nice work by Karel Roden(Hellboy's Rasputin amongst many other nice character parts). Unfortunately started as found footage and became a slave to the conceit long past its usefullness. Paid 10 bucks for the Blu and I do not regret it. About the right price for the final results.

 

[lagwagon0]

The first horror anthology/movie was okay, this one is considerably better mainly because one of the segments is so insanely good and bat**** crazy. Unfortunately, the final segment was by far the worse segment and the story tying everything together was still overly basic.

More of the same, although I found the story/villain to be much better in the first one.

Pretty freaking hilarious which allows you to overlook the lack of a plot

A crass version of Gremlins with a great performance by Ken Marino as well as a number of awesome secondary characters, highly recommended

Pass, nothing interesting, scary, or original here. Extremely disappointed

A black comedy that annoyed the heck of me
Some people(and critics) may love the outlandish deadpan interactions of the two main characters but it just didn't work and was extremely tedious as the movie progressed. It wasn't enjoyable although the numerous positive reviews I've seen shows it certainly has an audience.