List some movies you've watched recently. Theatre, rental, TV...

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Aquila76

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Apr 11, 2004
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The Crazies - 8/10
I liked this one; it's a para-zombie movie without the stammering brain-eating undead. A small town starts falling apart due to its people, well, going crazy. Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell play the leads as David the Sheriff and Judy the town's Doctor. Something has infected the town and they are turning on each other. The government gets involved and it all goes to hell. Best line of the movie for me: David and one of the townsfolk are discussing what happened and why they were forcefully separated from their wives. Dude says going back for the wives would be a fool's errand and he's getting on the bus. Sheriff says: "Don't ask me why I can't leave without my wife and I won't ask you why you can. "

Legion - 3/10
Another end of the world brought on by an angry God movie. There was just too much left out of this movie for me to really like it.
If God sent a legion of angels to destroy the Earth, why would they take the weaker form of humans instead of their (as the movie suggests) nearly indestructible angelic form? Why would he have resurrected Michael back to angelic form? What was the point of the savior baby if God decided to spare the Earth?
The only things that made this movie worth watching, you saw in the trailers - Ice Cream man and the evil old lady, Gladys. Also, Paul Bettany gave a convincing performance as the rebellious angel Michael who wanted to save mankind. The rest, not so much. Besides that, skip it.

Havoc - 8/10
This popped up on IFC the other night. Allison (Anne Hathaway) and Emily (Bijou Phillips) are girlfriends of some upper-class wannabe-gangsta douchebags. The 'gang' goes to a seedy part of town to buy drugs, and gets their asses handed to them. Allison & Emily decide to go back and hang out with the real gang. Facing horrible family life and getting fed up with the pathetic wannabes, they try to get in the real gang. Their initiation goes bad and causes major problems for everyone involved. I really liked the story as believable. You could see how their inexperience as pampered rich brats and crappy family life could lead them to their poor decisions. Plus Anne Hathaway's and Bijou Phillips' boobies.
 

KeithTalent

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Nov 30, 2005
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127 Hours - 8.5/10: Danny Boyle's new film on the story of Aron Ralston, the mountain climber and general outdoor enthusiast who gets his arm trapped by a rock in a crevice and has to figure out how to get himself out of the situation. James Franco is simply amazing as Ralston; he takes you through the whole gamut of emotions and is extremely engaging and charismatic throughout. Boyle does some great camera work, keeping things interesting as you are both watching Ralston deal with his situation and actually going into his mind to see what is really going on in there in such a harrowing situation. There were a couple of the visions that were a bit cheesy to me, but overall it was a pretty awesome and quite inspiring film.

Departures (Okuribito) - 8/10: A Japanese film about a guy that loses his job as a cellist (Daigo) in a symphony and ends up moving back to his home town with his wife where he gets a job as a guy who prepares dead bodies for funerals. After getting over his initial squeamishness, Daigo gets into the role, but encounters prejudice and derision from those around him due to the job he has taken. I quite enjoyed this film, it did a lot of great stuff on family and loss and just very touching work on relationships in general. Seeing Daigo deal with all of this strife in his life, while also digging up his own family issues with the past was very compelling and moving. I did find a few of the scenes a bit overdone (there is a god-awful music montage part way through the film that was groan-inducing) but there were only a few of those moments and they did not ruin the film.

KT
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
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The Road 8/10

If you're thinking that because it's a post-apocalyptic movie that there's going to be tons of action then you're going to be let down. This is definitely NOT an action movie. This movie is 100% about characters and the will to survive after all seems gone. I really like the story and the pacing of the movie even though I know it would be too slow for many. Definitely a good character driven movie.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
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127 Hours - 8.5/10: Danny Boyle's new film on the story of Aron Ralston, the mountain climber and general outdoor enthusiast who gets his arm trapped by a rock in a crevice and has to figure out how to get himself out of the situation. James Franco is simply amazing as Ralston; he takes you through the whole gamut of emotions and is extremely engaging and charismatic throughout. Boyle does some great camera work, keeping things interesting as you are both watching Ralston deal with his situation and actually going into his mind to see what is really going on in there in such a harrowing situation. There were a couple of the visions that were a bit cheesy to me, but overall it was a pretty awesome and quite inspiring film.

I want to see this and take my mom but she said she doesn't want to see it cus she heard there was a part where they show him cutting his arm off. The movie look good but is it really that gross?
 

KeithTalent

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The Road 8/10

If you're thinking that because it's a post-apocalyptic movie that there's going to be tons of action then you're going to be let down. This is definitely NOT an action movie. This movie is 100% about characters and the will to survive after all seems gone. I really like the story and the pacing of the movie even though I know it would be too slow for many. Definitely a good character driven movie.

Yep, good movie. I think it does a decent job of showing how things may actually be if some sort of apocalyptic event did occur.

I want to see this and take my mom but she said she doesn't want to see it cus she heard there was a part where they show him cutting his arm off. The movie look good but is it really that gross?

It's only a small part of the film. I saw it with a squeamish girl and she loved it and even cried in parts. She just covered her eyes in the brief gross moments. Definitely worth seeing.

KT
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
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One of my favourites and a film I watch every Halloween (and sometimes Christmas). So you did not enjoy any of it? The greatest thing about this film is the atmosphere Kubrick builds; I mean there is really only one death shown throughout the entire 2+ hours, but it's still creepy as all hell. So freaking good.

KT

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE The Shining. Such an awesome and suspenseful movie. I have seen it so many damn times.
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,679
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The Shining - 9/10
I finally saw this last night. My gf wanted me to see it so we could watch the "making of" documentary that Vivian Kubrick made. As far as I'm concerned, arguably the best horror movie ever made.

I don't really enjoy horror movies too often, watching people running around with knives isn't what I look to get out of a movie. However, Kubrick does a pretty good job when things start getting crazy, and there is actual substance there. So the later parts of the movie I did not mind.

What really makes this movie great is the build up. The slow pace, great acting, great dialogue, awesomely eery music and scenes, amazing. The scene with Hallorann and Danny was by far my favorite in the movie. I really loved the first half or so of this movie. The rest I did enjoy, but not as much as the slow pace of the start.
 

BurnItDwn

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
26,169
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Zombie Strippers 2008
3.5/10

I like zombies.
I like strippers.
They do not make for a good combination.
This movie had a stupider plot than most other Jenna Jameson movies.

Worth a few laughs, but, IMO, the corpse paint ruins the eye-candy.
 

gimmewhitecastles

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Mar 2, 2005
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Departures (Okuribito) - 8/10: A Japanese film about a guy that loses his job as a cellist (Daigo) in a symphony and ends up moving back to his home town with his wife where he gets a job as a guy who prepares dead bodies for funerals. After getting over his initial squeamishness, Daigo gets into the role, but encounters prejudice and derision from those around him due to the job he has taken. I quite enjoyed this film, it did a lot of great stuff on family and loss and just very touching work on relationships in general. Seeing Daigo deal with all of this strife in his life, while also digging up his own family issues with the past was very compelling and moving. I did find a few of the scenes a bit overdone (there is a god-awful music montage part way through the film that was groan-inducing) but there were only a few of those moments and they did not ruin the film.

KT

I like music montages.
Besides that I agree with your assessment of this movie. For a movie dealing with death, it was far from morbid, very light-hearted in fact, yet still was able to effectively portray the pain of losing a loved one.

The part where they eat the chestnuts in the car after the procession takes home the best transistion from touching scene to random comedic scene to make the audience feel awkward award if there was such a thing.
 

KeithTalent

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Nov 30, 2005
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I like music montages.
Besides that I agree with your assessment of this movie. For a movie dealing with death, it was far from morbid, very light-hearted in fact, yet still was able to effectively portray the pain of losing a loved one.

The part where they eat the chestnuts in the car after the procession takes home the best transistion from touching scene to random comedic scene to make the audience feel awkward award if there was such a thing.

That scene was excellent. One of my favourites from the film actually.

I still contend that music montage was painfully bad. :D

KT
 

911paramedic

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2002
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Skyline 1/10

They only get one point because blue is my favorite color and they used it in a lot of the special efects.

Seriously,
wtf was up with the ending???
 

TallBill

Lifer
Apr 29, 2001
46,017
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Food Inc - 4 / 10

Had a few valid points but really annoyed with heavy bias and one sided information. I'm not saying that the lie in the film, but I need more stats and information to back up certain claims. Throwing around "Multi-national corporation" as a tagline over and over doesn't really push any emotional buttons for me.
 

KeithTalent

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Nov 30, 2005
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Nightmare Detective (Akumu Tantei) - 6/10: Japanese horror film about a guy that is preying on people wanting to commit suicide by entering their dreams and getting them to kill themselves. A troubled female detective gets wrapped up in things and calls in an even more troubled psychic(?) to help the investigation. Seems to be pretty low budget, but it had some fun, decently freaky/scary scenes (there is one where the guy is being chased on his bicycle that I thought was very well done, also one where the girl is trapped in a small room/box). The acting/dialogue was pretty cheesy in parts as were a couple of the unnecessary clos-ups, but not a bad little horror film. The main actress was smoking hot too, so that helped.

CJ7 (Cheung Gong 7 hou) - 7/10: Stephen Chow's most recent film (2008); a kids' film following a poor kid and his single Father (played by Chow) who struggles to keep his son in private school and give him as many opportunities as he can. The Father stumbles upon an alien ball that turns into a cute, squishy little doggy. Very predictable kids' film (aren't they all?) but it had a very Stepehen Chow feel, particularly in the beginning which was by far the best part of the film. I actually like Chow as an actor, he comes across as very likeable and the kids were all pretty cute and funny, plus CJ7 was really freaking cute. It got a little boring about 3/4 of the way through or so, but aside form that it was pretty fun for a kids' movie. Still, Kung Fu Hustle remains my favourite Chow film.

KT
 

gimmewhitecastles

Golden Member
Mar 2, 2005
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Bronson - 5/10
Tom Hardy plays Britain's most infamous prisoner in a biopic of him taking off his clothes and fighting prison guards. Hardy's performance is great but film had absolutely no direction at all.

Ip Man - 8/10
Biopic about China's most famous wing chun master. Fight scenes were well choreographed and even the story and acting was well done as well, which is a rarity in most martial arts films. Japanese bashing seems to be a recurring theme in a lot of Chinese and Korean films and is pretty succint in this one.
 
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Koing

Elite Member <br> Super Moderator<br> Health and F
Oct 11, 2000
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District 9 : 9/10 really liked it personally
Triangle : 5/10 thought it was a bit pants but okay in places...

Koing
 

DangerAardvark

Diamond Member
Oct 22, 2004
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Bronson - 5/10
Tom Hardy plays Britain's most infamous prisoner in a biopic of him taking off his clothes and fighting prison guards. Hardy's performance is great but film had absolutely no direction at all.

Much like his life. I thought that the movie was at least 25 minutes too long.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,165
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Departures (Okuribito) - 8/10: A Japanese film about a guy that loses his job as a cellist (Daigo) in a symphony and ends up moving back to his home town with his wife where he gets a job as a guy who prepares dead bodies for funerals. After getting over his initial squeamishness, Daigo gets into the role, but encounters prejudice and derision from those around him due to the job he has taken. I quite enjoyed this film, it did a lot of great stuff on family and loss and just very touching work on relationships in general. Seeing Daigo deal with all of this strife in his life, while also digging up his own family issues with the past was very compelling and moving. I did find a few of the scenes a bit overdone (there is a god-awful music montage part way through the film that was groan-inducing) but there were only a few of those moments and they did not ruin the film.

KT

:thumbsup:
loved this flick, too. very sentimental, but not too cheesy. well-paced.

The Road 8/10

If you're thinking that because it's a post-apocalyptic movie that there's going to be tons of action then you're going to be let down. This is definitely NOT an action movie. This movie is 100% about characters and the will to survive after all seems gone. I really like the story and the pacing of the movie even though I know it would be too slow for many. Definitely a good character driven movie.
:thumbsup:
exactly. I wish more of those involved in the post-apocalypitc genre could figure out that movies should be made like this.

Iron Man 2 - 6/10 - not as good as the 1st imo

:thumbsup:

If I were to give Iron Man an 8/10, then Iron Man 2 would have to be a 2/10. what a turd. :( And just when you think Johansson could save this...they somehow managed to make her less attractive and uninteresting. :(
dull, re-hashing the same cliche'd over-the-topness that producers try to push for sequels to successful superhero/action franchises. But in all honesty, it could be a problem with the Superhero story as it is--The origin story is really the only part about a superhero that is actually interesting. the common follow up is to see them struggle internally--deal with confidence, loss of power, overindulgence, whatever. I thought Spidey 2 was quite good, but with Iron Man 2 following along that same trajectory, it just fell flat. :(


anyway, I wanted to post something that I caught last night, mentioned it in the Best Korea thread that Locutus started yesterday.

A State of Mind 8/10

A BBC film crew follows 2 young girls as they prepare for the Mass Games--the world's largest choreographed gymnastics event. Offers a rare glimpse inside the most hidden, least-understood state in the world. This crew was given rather unprecedented access, as this event is the pride of the country; you can tell it is their showcase event. The crew takes time to follow events outside of the two young girls, and delve into class and social structure, daily life, and rather surprising responses when individuals are asked about well-known tragedies such as the famine. Aside from astonishing depictions of N Koreans in celebration (the birthday of their dictator, of course), the visual sequences are quite stunning. Amazing how the fear of punishment and death, and the pure, wholly honest belief that your leader is descended from God will get hundred's of thousands of individuals to spend years training for these ridiculously amazing displays of hive unity.
 
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