list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

Recently, I watched John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence.  As my introduction to the director, I found the film quite different than nearly anything I've seen on screen before (and I've seen not a few films throughout my life).  The plot is essentially skeletal:  a housewife is, to use the parlance of Thomas Szasz, having "problems in living."  We see how her family reacts to her extraordinary, and just plain weird, behavior.  What makes this film so distinct from others is that Cassavetes doesn't spell out, or even distinguish, amongst "bad guys" and "good guys."  I quite appreciate this charitable opinion of his audience:  for it is only in fiction do we observe such finely attenuated dichotomies whereas in our everyday lives we each exhibit (in differing proportions perhaps) characteristics of saints and gas-chamber attendants.  It is, I believe, a great film, tightly composed and with impeccable performances; as such, I highly recommend it, especially if one can pick up the Criterion edition.

tardis wrote: I, Robot - 9/10 I really enjoyed this movie, despite hearing only average reviews by the critics. I've never read the book, so I can't compare the film, and anyways books are always better, but I really had fun with this film. Yes, fun is the key word! It was a nice combination of detective story, mystery, and philosophical debates (on artificial intelligence rights, and Asimov writes great AI sci-fi). I liked Will Smith's character, even if it took me a bit to warm up to at first. There is more I could say about the film, but I'll let you judge it for yourself...check it out!

hmm, thats quite a high rating...I assumed it just wasn't even worth the effort, I knew the movie wasn't going to follow the book because its basically a series of short stories that follow the evolution of the Robot while testing their merits against the Three Laws of Robotics, so Im assuming it takes more from the subsequent books in the Robot Series like Caves of Steel, maybe I'll give it a chance....I can't imagine it being any worse than some of the movies I saw over the weekend,

So is anyone interested in seeing the new Adam Sadler movie? Mike Myers?

Fight Club wrote: [QUOTE=mithrandir] Sunshine - I loved the first hour or so of this movie, great hard-Scifi with an awesome and believable ship, crew interactions and problem scenarios, great special FX too... this is what CGI was made for! the only minor factual flaw was there's no reason why they couldn't have remained in contact with Earth from that short of distance - but I guess that was something they added to raise the tension, Now my annoyance with this movie was what played out towards the end, (all of a sudden it turns into a stalker/slasher in space movie ugh) ...so it lost some points with me on that one, a shame they had to break the mood with that tripe, I'll still give it a respectful - 7/10 - just because there was so much I liked about the beginning,

I pretty much agree with you here on this review, and 7 is quite generous. I loved the first part of the movie, great suspense and tension, beautiful ship design etc. .... but couldn't quite feel disappointed at the sudden "slasher-flick" type ending (won't give anything away here)...still, definitely worth seeing...had a lot of potential as a sci-fi flick, we need more of 'em out there because the good ones are few and far between!

Movies I've recently watched:

Iron Man - 5/10

Mixed feelings on this one. Had some fun scenes and action, but felt disappointingly short-lived if that makes any sense. I felt left wanting for more, and that the ending battle sequence was only subpar (also I have a lot of respect for Jeff Bridges, but couldn't quite get into his character...in fact a lot of the characters felt a bit contrived, but if you can look past the cliched stereotypical archetypes, the movie still has it's fun moments).

I, Robot - 9/10

I really enjoyed this movie, despite hearing only average reviews by the critics. I've never read the book, so I can't compare the film, and anyways books are always better, but I really had fun with this film. Yes, fun is the key word! It was a nice combination of detective story, mystery, and philosophical debates (on artificial intelligence rights, and Asimov writes great AI sci-fi). I liked Will Smith's character, even if it took me a bit to warm up to at first. There is more I could say about the film, but I'll let you judge it for yourself...check it out!

There Will Be Blood - 5.5/10

Very mixed feelings about this effort. I would have given it a much higher rating if the ending hadn't left me feeling so cheated. Sure, maybe it was intentional and all, but I like to see movies that give me at least a partial sense of satisfaction, and all I felt after seeing this movie was disappointment, depression, and a sick feeling in my stomach.

Don't get me wrong, there was some fine acting performances, but the main character was so hopelessly bleak and bitter, with no hope of redemption, I was left feeling like I'd just watched a funeral march. Maybe some like these kind of anti-feel good movies, but I prefer movies with redemptive themes. All I took away from this movie was that I hope to God never to end up like Daniel's character

Still, I tried to be generous with my rating, movie was captivating and certainly kept me watching, if the ending hadn't left me feeling so jilted, I'd have given a much higher rating. Definitely recommend watching it though, and would love to hear what others think of it...there's no right review for a movie, it's all personal preference

I will never look at drinking a milkshake the same way again though....

mithrandir wrote: Gridlock'd - a movie staring Tim Roth and Tupac Shakur as a couple of junkies set on an adventure of sorts to try to get into a detox program, not sure why my GF put this in netflix, but whatever we watched it, mildly amusing view - 3/10 Sunshine - I loved the first hour or so of this movie, great hard-Scifi with an awesome and believable ship, crew interactions and problem scenarios, great special FX too... this is what CGI was made for! the only minor factual flaw was there's no reason why they couldn't have remained in contact with Earth from that short of distance - but I guess that was something they added to raise the tension, Now my annoyance with this movie was what played out towards the end, (all of a sudden it turns into a stalker/slasher in space movie ugh) ...so it lost some points with me on that one, a shame they had to break the mood with that tripe, I'll still give it a respectful - 7/10 - just because there was so much I liked about the beginning, Diary of the Dead - well I had to see it, but really why did Romero feel he had to make this one? any of the he wanted to convey have all been done in his previous Zombie epics, so nothing new there...the hand-held camera view point really didn't bring anything new either in fact it all seemed a little to sterile if you ask me, like it should have been grainier looking or something, if anything there are 3 things that might have actually improved this movie a bit #1 - should have been a little more raw and dirty looking, the splicing in the stock footage of disaster and violence made the the actual filmed footage seem all the more phony, #2 - better acting, I love sleaze and B-grade cinema just as much as the next guy but there is something to be said for trained professionals in the business, #3 - a tigher script, cut out some of the unnecessary BS, maybe span out some of the more hopeless and depressive scenes...there was no mood here, also WAY too many moments where you're saying "that doesn't make sense" or "that wouldn't happen, cause of this and that" -- maybe Im asking too much here but sh*t man either put out a halfway decent product or nothing at all, ugh - 2/10, (and only one of those points is out of respect and remembrance for Romero's classic films)

Geez, a 3/10 and a 2/10! Stop watching such bad movies!

And I've been wanting to see Sunshine for a while. I enjoyed Danny Boyle's previous works (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) although Millions really pissed me off. My film teacher told me it was one of his favorite movies of all time so I went out and saw it and thought he was joking. But anyway, I've heard some positive and some negative things about Sunshine, so I'll just have to see for myself.

Fight Club wrote: I especially love how Eli bleeds black at the end, just like everything else Daniel touches. He is quite literally an oil man.

HAHA!

Fight Club wrote: Chicapah wrote: Finally saw "There will be blood" and it was an amazing acting performance by DDL.  He's in every scene and I'll spend the rest of my life dissecting his character's dark psyche. Even though I believe that his performance may in fact be the best I have ever seen in a motion picture (yes is really is that profound) I think it's a crime that the movie gets so much attention for the performance instead of its entire execution in general. The sheer magnitude of DDL's performance initially seems to pull people's eyes away from the true genius of the film. Every little detail in that movie is worked out to perfection - every. There isn't a single aspect placed within it that doesn't serve a purpose towards conveying the character of Daniel Plainview and his conflict with Eli Sunday. Really everyone, if you haven't seen this movie yet, I urge you to. If you have seen the movie and didn't quite get it yet, watch it again, and with a closer view to aesthetic detail. It truly is a modern day masterpiece and will be remembered for years to come!

WOO YES!  I too was taken away by TWBB. It was brilliant.  the acting, the cinematography, the story, the music.  The entire film had everything you could need.  I was upset that a brilliant work of art like TWBB was reduced to one man's performance (a great one though).  The best picture oscar should have gone to TWBB instead of No Country For Old Men. While that film was good, it didn't match the glory of TWBB.  I mean the Coen brothers had already made films like No Country before.  TWBB took movies back to the days when epic films were so very well done like Lawrence of Arabia.  The big screen especially magnified the brilliance of the film too.

Even just the opening shot was perfect.  I loved it.  easily a 10/10 film for me. 

Toaster Mantis wrote: Just be warned - Oldboy is pretty much the definition of a cinematic Rorschach test except that the blots are blood rather than ink.

HAHAHA

mithrandir wrote: Jim Garten re 'The Shipping News' wrote:   & I thought beautifully filmed, . yeah, that was probably the only interesting part for me, the nice fiming of the landscape, shores, ocean. hills etc, beautiful country side, not so good movie though

You must admit though, there're not many movies where the 'hero' is saved from drowning by hanging on to a beer cooler, which just happens to contain a man's head... original if nothing else.

TGM: Orb wrote: Saw Blade II yesterday. Was a fun action movie, even if some of the twists (especially the big one) were extremely obvious. Some of the ambiguity was well-handled, though. Haven't seen the first, mean to watch the third on Wednesday. 6/10

I fell asleep 30 minutes into it the first time I saw it
But then again, it was 3am when I began to watch it.