list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

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.

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)

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance


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

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,

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!

Toaster Mantis wrote: BroSpence wrote: Passionist wrote: 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. The best part was the evil Rastafarian's.   You're getting it confused with Marked For Death.

Oh damn, thats right.  Its been a while since I watched all those Seagal movies.  I enjoy his portrayal of a different ethnicity in each movie.  Its too bad no studios want to make any big budget films with him anymore.  There haven't been any good big budget crapfests with him or Chuck Norris for too long. 



Undead or Alive: a brilliant zombie-western starring everyone's favorite ex-SNL cast member CHRIS KATTAN! And Brian Posehn as a zombie.  What could be better than a western-zombie genre mashup? NOTHING.  This was a great movie.  8/10.

30 Days Of Night - rented this thinking it could be a fun lowest common denominator horror/vampire flick, but was very surprised & extremely impressed. Well filmed, very well acted (yes - even Josh Hartnett ), excellent vampire characters (who managed to be scary, disturbing, yet strangely believeable) & some great set-pieces, including one with a small girl which I'm genuinely surprised got past the censors... ; my only criticism is the time-frame jumping - you wonder how the main characters actually lasted 30 days...

Overall? A solid 8.5/10 from this reviewer.

I recently watched the Rocky saga..... from 1 to 5, today I'll watch number 6.

King By-Tor wrote: I just finished a classic. Chinatown. I'm left completely speechless and kind of depressed after watching it. Such amazing cinematography... people these days need to learn a thing or two from the old masters. But hey, that's just me... I love stuff like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Back to Chinatown... that movie had me guessing right up to the end... and then the ending... ho-ly sh*t!!! Oh Polanski... you made such great films.

Jimbo wrote: 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!

That whole trilogy is amazing, Lady Vengance being my favourite of the three.

I'm going to give Miike Takashi's Visitor Q another try later, I've seen about half of it and other than the fact that its very uncomfortable watching, I'm not quite sure what to make of it.