list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

Red Dragon
Say what you want about Hannibal, it might have been goofy as hell but it certainly wasn't as boring as this one. The cast is great but everyone except Anthony Hopkins and possibly Harvey Keitel is totally miscast, it looks like an episode of a TV series, the score feels like it belongs in a completely different movie and all the good elements never really come together. Everything that worked in The Silence of the Lambs did not work here. Even Anthony Hopkins, who usually can elevate an otherwise unremarkable movie above average (e. g. Fracture), is just going through the motions. Now, whose genius idea was it that Brett Ratner - of all people - would know how to make a horror movie? The only explanation I can think of is that the people at Universal Studios must have picked the director totally at random....

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
Now this is more like it! This has been my single most anticipated movie of the year, and boy did it not only not disappoint... it actually exceeded my expectations! The sort of monster fights that would have been the climax in a lesser fantasy movie happen early on (the actual climax is further evidence that Transformers would have been ten times better had Guillermo del Toro directed), there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it-cameo from the Elder Things, Selma Blair has never been better, the storyline outside the monster bash is actually fairly engaging even if a few scenes are handled a bit heavy-handedly, the sense of humour is great and somehow manages to not derail the seriousness. And there's a lot of bittersweet gravity to this movie, what with how its various victories are in the end won with even greater cost than those in the other great superhero sequel movie of the year, The Dark Knight even if it isn't anywhere as relentlessly bleak. My favourite part of the movie, though, was actually Luke Goss as Elric of Melniboné... I mean, Nuada of Bethmoora. Seriously, the characters are so similar that it basically turns the movie into crossover fanfiction especially when considering that the God of the Forest is what the Cloverfield monster should have looked like... but it's so good crossover fanfiction that I don't mind it at all. Anyway, Luke Goss makes Nuada that rare villain who manages to elicit sympathy from the viewer while still being frightening, probably because he's a pastiche of a tragically heroic character. This gives the movie some kind of tension that the first one didn't - Nuada does a much better job at convincingly making Hellboy doubt his loyalties than Rasputin ever did. Anyway, Hellboy 2 might now be perfect - there's a couple things in the script that don't make that much sense if you think about it, and the occasional moment of schmaltz - but I haven't been this entertained by a movie in a long, long time.

Jimbo wrote: Visitor13 wrote: I'm itching to watch John Carpenter's The Thing for the first time in more than ten years. Problem is, in a reversal of the general trend, I am getting more and more squeamish with age! Anyway, if you haven't seen it already, go and watch it. Just don't eat anything before you do. Or maybe eat as much as you can, because you sure as heck won't be able to eat anything afterwards for a while. There are some scenes there that will WTF you forever.  Yup. I first saw it when I was around 8-9 or so. Not such a smart move on my part. I'm not the type to get nightmares from these things, but the images stayed in my head for quite a while.

loved it when it came out ('82 I think), still do.. great build up of suspense, Carpenter at his best (the music too, find The Essential John Carpenter Film Music Collection)   ..the original is considered a classic but I think Carpenter's remake is far superior

Do you mean this one:



That's just nasty...

Toaster Mantis wrote: Hmmm. Last night I watched Ghost Dog, a really weird movie starring Forest Whitaker as a modern-day hit man who lives by a medieval code of honour. The plot is very much that of a typical action movie but instead it's done as a slow and deliberate existentialist drama... it kinda feels like a Quentin Tarantino movie without the ironic detachment and non-linear narrative. Okay, that's pretty much the two things that define QT's filmmaking style so it's probably not a good description at all . Anyway, I quite like Ghost Dog. It's the sort of movie that on paper shouldn't work at all but in practice it somehow mostly gels together.

Thats one of my top 10 favorite movies. Whitaker made a perfect urban samurai. The story was executed well, as Jim Jarmusch is able to mold such odd tales to his liking, and the soundtrack by RZA is a real keeper too (if you're into that kind of music). The relationships/battles between the different characters were also excellent. I was particularly fond of Whitaker and the ice cream man, and him and his pigeons.

If you ever have a chance, the Hagakure (Book of the Samurai). is a pretty interesting book to read too. Not a novel or really a historical account of the samurai, just a treatis.

I'm itching to watch John Carpenter's The Thing for the first time in more than ten years. Problem is, in a reversal of the general trend, I am getting more and more squeamish with age!

Anyway, if you haven't seen it already, go and watch it. Just don't eat anything before you do. Or maybe eat as much as you can, because you sure as heck won't be able to eat anything afterwards for a while. There are some scenes there that will WTF you forever. 

Toaster Mantis wrote: BroSpence wrote: Karate Kid fans in the MMA crowd Such people exist?

Apparently. A fair amount of the reviews for the film were by people that said they 1. thought the movie was similar to karate kid 2. they were fans of MMA and the UFC 3. liked the film because of these elements.

BLEH!

BroSpence wrote: Karate Kid fans in the MMA crowd

Such people exist?

Toaster Mantis wrote: BroSpence wrote: The Karate Kid (original trilogy) - Daniel is annoying as SH_T! The opponents are better at doing Karate than the main character which is also annoying. You might find this review of the movie, written by an actual martial artist, interesting.

Yes it was quite interesting. As a martial artist myself I agree and disagree with his points. I also feel that Youtube has had a plus and minus effect on martial arts, as has those awful programs Human Weapon and Fight Quest. Mostly I think it boils down to lazy/poor teachers and students though.   Many people have an odd mindset that there is only one way to do something, or one is better than the other, or whatever other philosophical BS has been passed around the past few decades. Which is sad.    

Now there are films like Never Back Down which caters to the Karate Kid fans in the MMA crowd. Another sad element to overcome.

Raw Deal - 2nd time round with this semi-early Ahnollld movie. Still hilarious. "We can't eat that we'll get fat". "You shouldn't drink and bake". Arnie tries to be a gangster. HAha.

Logan's Run - old sci fi glory! Cheesey, but I loved it. "Plankton, Protein, PLENT OF FISH!"

Night Hawks - Stallone and Lando Calrissian battle Euro's most feared terrorist "Wolfgar" in NYC. It was bad man, real bad.

Gorgeous - 90s Jackie Chan. Not one of his best, more focused on the romance than action, but Jackie is so awesome no matter what. It was quite enjoyable.

Killing Cars - Some dude from Das Boot and Beverly Hills Cop 2 stars in this awful, homemade looking 80s movie. He is the engineer behind a car that would solve pollution problems. However BAG (Berlin Automotive Group, or something like that) and oil men want him dead. Long, boring, bad.

Commando - 4th time with this arnie gem. Also still funny. "Consider it a divowceee".
Total Recall - 6th time, still great. haha.

The Big Lebowski - Man. This movie never gets old no matter how many times you watch it. I even went out the other day in a totally dude get up. By accident of course.

Dolemite presents Kung Fu vs. Yoga - an almost decent, old kung fu flick. The actors were OK at performing the fights, but there are many better. The final fight was where the title of the film comes from, and the only real high point of it. Search the title on youtube and you can see the final fight. Its quite entertaining.

Indy and the last crusade - Enjoyed it more now than what I remember from years ago.

The Karate Kid (original trilogy) - Daniel is annoying as SH_T! The opponents are better at doing Karate than the main character which is also annoying.   They always end a little abruptly and time seems to pass oddly. Each movie starts where the other ends, but somehow a year passes between entire series when it seems like it should be more like...a few months. Pat Moriata is the best part of it all because he is a bit crazy. Otherwise, I feel I wasted my time being nostalgic.

What is the plot of this Carnival of Souls thingy? The title suggests a horror.

Speaking of horror, yesterday I saw Play Misty for Me. The first movie that Clint Eastwood directed, here himself as a radio host who has the public image of a sensitive intellectual but is actually quite the jerk. The plot revolves around a woman with a "loony fan" crush on him, who stalks him more and more obsessively. The whole thing is a little slow-moving and the climax is over way too quick, but the slow pace seems to be a part of the filmmaking style of the late sixties/early seventies which I'm starting to find my favourite era in the history of cinemah. (PMFM is from 1971 in case you're wondering) What I quite like is how it creates a lot of moral ambiguity without being hamfisted about it, really... so you end up sympathizing with both sides of its central conflict. That is something you don't hear anyone say about Fatal Attraction which is a shameless ripoff of Play Misty for Me.