list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

stonebeard wrote: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance I don't even know what to say. My mind has been blown for the third time by this director.

I will be watching Oldboy later this week. Judging from the heaps of praise it has received, it should be one hell of an experience. I'll probably rent that one as well eventually. It pays to have a good library system!

What about the simple polytheistic,atheistic,agnostic, nihilistic, and absurdist explanations? Does it offer more than those simple explanations?

mithrandir wrote: Pnoom! wrote: avalanchemaster wrote: okay let me try to recapture what I originally said:The Golden Compass- 8/10- I really enjoyed this one, even though it is clearly geared towards children....I just bought the trilogy of books that the movie is based on (the Dark Materials), and cannot wait to dive into them now that the summer is here and school is over for me.I think it is hilarious that the religious right was up in arms about this film, trying to boycott it because they think it is anti-god.....haha, yeah right!   I didn't see the movie because it got crap reviews, but I can tell you that the book itself is pretty clearly atheist at heart, not that children would be able to pick up on that.   I'd hope children who would read this would get the impression that there's more to the universe and creation than a simple monotheistic explination,   the movie wasn't horrible, the setting, Daemons, specFX, and actors were pretty well done, but they completely messed up the flow of the film, and totally left out the true ending, a shame....its funny cause people at first were blaming the director(Chris Weitz), but he stated it wasn't his fault...he intended the timeline to follow the book and to include the proper ending,  it was the execs that came in and edited it to hell, they also had a few unreleased scenes up on a site I saw where they indeed had much of the proper ending filmed....my GF and I think they shouldn't have even attempted to do a film adaptation of His Dark Materials to begin with, Not even sure how they would make a commercially sucsessful movie the the 2nd part "The Subtle Knife" since there really isn't that much action or dazzling moments that could be filmed and would drive audiences to the theaters...unless they forced a bunch of crap that just isn't there....lame,

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance


I don't even know what to say. My mind has been blown for the third time by this director.

House of Sand and Fog - movie about a woman (Jennifer Connelly) who looses her house due to a faulty tax claim by the dumb ass government, and an Iranian family who's father (Ben Kingsley), find the house at a cheap price for auction and seizes upon the opportunity unknowing about the woman who lost the property unfairly, it becomes an interesting moral dilemma where no one has done anything illegal and you can sympathize with both parties at hand, its a tense movie all the way through but I have mixed feelings on how it ends, can't really go into much more detail without spoiling the plot, Kingsley as usual plays his role superbly--I think Im being very generous by giving this movie a - 7/10

Duo luo tian shi (Fallen Angels) - a Hong Kong made movie that involves 2 completely different plot lines, one about an assassin and his female partner whom he rarely shares the same scenes with, the other about mute and his father, quirky at times serious at others but Im not quite sure what it all means, I'll have to think about it a bit more, I enjoyed the low budget film quality and the constant use of narrow angled camera shots...the whole experience seemed rather claustrophobic and suffocating (which was an interesting compliment) - 6/10

Dear Wendy - this movie was written by my man Lars von Trier and directed by some cat named Thomas Vinterberg, basically about a guy who gathers together group of young misfits and forms a gang of gun toting pacifists! a great paradox for a film that gun nuts and anti-gun nuts alike would greatly appreciate, within their little gang they learn about guns, how to shoot, exit wounds, matching the perps to their firearm of choice, etc...all the while having codes they live by, rituals, attire, special dialog, and other little details that go along with their secret society, this has all the makings for a cult movie for me and I could definitely see this over and over again! yet another great film to further strengthen my love affair with Lars von Trier - 8.5/10 (maybe 9/10)

When watching the first two Resident Evil movies I got the feeling that the people who made it don't really know what makes a good horror movie, and as action movies they're not that great either. I'd be far more forgiving of the first one borrowing its plot from Aliens if it didn't pull so many punches. The third one I actually saw in the theatre, and while the script still felt like total fanfic it actually had some genuinely scary/tense moments. Having the guy who made Highlander direct helped. A lot.

GoldenSpiral wrote: the fact that Sam Elliot was the best possible casting choice for Lee.   As far as the Atheism thing goes, it's all a matter of how you interpret it.  I have my own interpretation, but I don't think most people would see it as I do, they choose the easy scapegoat.  I can't really go into it though (it would give away a lot of the 3rd book).   Anyway, I hope they don't even make the 2nd two movies if they're going to be as half-assed as that one.

Pnoom! wrote: avalanchemaster wrote: okay let me try to recapture what I originally said: The Golden Compass- 8/10- I really enjoyed this one, even though it is clearly geared towards children.... I just bought the trilogy of books that the movie is based on (the Dark Materials), and cannot wait to dive into them now that the summer is here and school is over for me. I think it is hilarious that the religious right was up in arms about this film, trying to boycott it because they think it is anti-god.....haha, yeah right!   I didn't see the movie because it got crap reviews, but I can tell you that the book itself is pretty clearly atheist at heart, not that children would be able to pick up on that.

Hard to Kill, Steven Seagal... I saw this last night. A hard boiled martial arts cop gets in the middle of corrupted politics. 2/10 stars, the movie was awful, but yet funny. One of those "get a bad movie and loads of beer" -flicks.

Edited by Passionist - May 16 2008 at 05:20

Genghis Blues - The famouus documentary about blind bluesman Paul Pena, who learned to do Tuvan throat singing from listening to a Russian radio station.  He was invited to show his talent at the somewhat annual tuvan throat singing contest in Tuva.  It was excellent.  9/10.

avalanchemaster wrote: ...   WOW.  so do you have a link to the alternate ending?  is that available in the 2disc release of the movie? that makes me want to read the books even more.....soon, very soon.....

http://www.hisdarkmaterials.org/news/the-golden-compass/what-about-the-directors-cut
at the bottom of the blog where is says, Watch the director's cut scenes,
its not the full ending, just a montage of scenes they cut, not sure if they'll ever put out the full director's cut, we'll see