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list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

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mithrandir View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mithrandir Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 20 2008 at 19:29
Originally posted by avalanchemaster avalanchemaster wrote:

The Fall-
this one is odd.  I really, really enjoyed it's ability to weave a good story within a story, that of art imitating life, just like all films.  This one was supposedly 4 years in the making- and boy does it have some cinematic feasts for the eyes.  Very vibrant and colorful, great views and shots and angles.....in short, it is pure poetry in motion.  The story will perhaps go down as a very tragic one, yet the ending let me down somewhat, because I got sucked into the fantasy of the internal story and left behind the "real" story, meanwhile I think it was an homage to movies, film-makers, stuntmen and all those involved in films.  Like Russian dolls, one inside the other, there are many layers to this one and I think I might actually buy a copy!  do watch this one....it is one of a kind for sure.  The only comparison I can make visually would be the surreality of the film The Cell with Jennifer Lopez, even though that film may not have been so great, the visuals are scrumptious.  Overall though, The Fall is generally a take on the archtypical heroes and their conquests and challenges.  Well done!    8.5/10


yeah, it was made by the same dude that did  The Cell, I also agree with you I wish there was a bit more of the fantasy part with the awesome optical feasts he presents, I was a bit irritating when they would abruptly cut back to reality, but then again I guess that was the purpose because you were feeling the little girl's impatience and eagerness with Roy and his tale as well
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Toaster Mantis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 21 2008 at 07:04
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. I really wanted to like this movie, I really did, but all it really is is an overblown mess of confusing battle scenes, convoluted medieval political scheming and silly dream sequences. I generally like movies that are shameless ego trips for their makers, but not this one. I think the big problem is how it portrays Joan of Arc as less an inspiring leader than a raving lunatic who happened to be at the right time and the right place, but still asks the audience to sympathize with her. Well, I didn't.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mithrandir Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 21 2008 at 23:38
Roller Boogie (1979) - okay, I wanted to see this cheese for curiosity's sake, interesting to see this as a period piece that represents slice of pop culture that lasted approximately a 6 month period during the 70s when Roller Skating Rinks were the hip thing of the day, kind of nostalgic in a way being that I can still remember a lot from from this time being that I was in preschool, anyhow goofy as f**k story with little dialog and bad acting with long drawn out scenes with folks doing roller skating tricks and dance maneuvers to pick up the slack for such a piss poor script, but I have a thing for Linda Blair, 4/10

Tonari no Totoro (1988) - Anime made by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki of the Nausicaä fame, I wasn't loving this one though although the animation was dazzling, twas okay not even in the same league as Nausicaä, I plan to see many more of this man's movies, so we'll see where it goes, this one about is about 5/10

The Big Lebowski (1998) - I can't be one to judge this movie with any validity cause I'm really not a fan of comedies, but believe it or not I haven't seen this before and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, I can see how it would garner a cult following and also make a good drinking game on multiple levels, I really liked John Goodman's character, I chuckled and laughed a handful of times, I thought the over all movie was a bit too long though, 2 hours is testing my patience with this kind of movie, from me 6/10 seems about right
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BroSpence Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 22 2008 at 01:55
The Night Porter - what a wacky plot.  Very intense in the beginning, but the feeling wore off in the latter half.  It was mildly disturbing in the sense that they got off on each other, and also that there was the nazi mob still bent on being nazis. Not as good as I thought it was going to be but worth the viewing for sure.  7/10.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tardis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 23 2008 at 22:17
An Angel For May - simple and beautiful filmmaking. I'm a big fan of Tom Wilkinson's acting ever since I saw him in Michael Clayton. 8/10
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mithrandir Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 24 2008 at 13:21
The Dark Knight (2008) - let my preface this by saying I'm really not a fan of the Super Hero movie genre and modern day action movies in general, that said I tried to enter this movie with a clean state of mind and wanted to enjoy it for what it was. But I just couldn't; the entire thing was a numbing experience and there was nothing of value for my mind to feast on. It was like a roller coaster ride of nonstop explosions, car chases, gun fights, etc. But where is the substance here?...the story wasn't all that unique, the way it was filmed wasn't anything new other than having a huge budget for gargantuan action sequences, and there wasn't any vast conjectural ideas to chew on when it was over. Where are the likable characters? When that girl died, it was like "oh well" :shrugs: People like to bash on Michael Bay for his movies, but how was this any different? I'll tell you right now Christian Bale SUUUUCKS! both as Batman (stupid voice) and Bruce Wane (not likable at all). Michael Keaton as Batman was a hell of a lot more likable than this turd. In fact I enjoyed the Tim Burton Batman movies more than this. And what's with at 2-Face character? Number One: the special effects were horrible, I could have done a better job with fake blood and latex. And number two: I under stand how his turning into villain was another facet of the Joker's scheme for chaos, but it happened so late in the movie that it was unconvincing how this golden boy Harvey Dent could become so cruel and vengeful in so short a time. I will give credit where credit is due, Ledger certainly did take the role of the Joker and made it all his own. I wouldn't have imagined he could have done such a unique job...I also liked how they wrote the character and how Joker constantly played everybody and every situation like an accordion. The only way Batman was able to get him in the end was due to having that near supernatural edge of inventing that SuperAstronomical spy device. So, thats my thoughts on this movie....shoot me if you want for not liking the years most popular movie as everyone else did. But like I said, just not my kind of movie. 4.5/10
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Drew Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 24 2008 at 13:26
^^^ So I'm not the only one who didn't like it 



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 1800iareyay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 24 2008 at 22:07
Originally posted by mithrandir mithrandir wrote:

Bicycle Thief...8/10

Tonari no Totoro (1988)... 5/10

The Big Lebowski (1998)... 6/10


The Dark Knight (2008) ... 4.5/10


It must be so depressing to watch movies with you.

Anyone got a best of list for the year? There wasn't half the number of thoroughly entertaining movies there was last year (then again, last year was like a freak fluke of entertainment value), but the movies I did like I really liked. I'm holding off making a definitive list until I see Benjamin Button, Revolutionary Road, Doubt, and The Wrestler (I am truly chomping at the bit over this one- MASSIVE Mickey Rourke fan). They all look so promising (except Doubt, which looks histrionic like so many adapted plays) that I might have to go see The Spirit just to remind myself that crap is more common than gold. I've given up on the hopes that I might see Ballast and Frozen River before they hit DVD.

Right now, my list (excluding documentaries, which I have trouble ranking) is:

1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. The Dark Knight
3. Rachel Getting Married
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. Synecdoche, New York
6. Milk
7. Happy-Go-Lucky
8. Let The Right One In
9. Chop Shop
10. Wall*E

My favorite documentaries were

1. Dear Zachary
2. Man on Wire (these two are more or less tied)
3. Encounters at the End of the World
4. Trouble the Water
5. I.O.U.S.A.



Edited by 1800iareyay - December 28 2008 at 08:24
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moreitsythanyou Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 24 2008 at 22:29
Originally posted by Jimbo Jimbo wrote:

^ Luckily, it seems the rumours weren't true.


BTW, Batman & Robin is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Cool

Batman and Robin was a better movie than the Dark Knight Stern Smile

Actually, both were equally hilarious in different ways, just one made me wish for death during half of it due to how terrible Bale was.
<font color=white>butts, lol[/COLOR]

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jimbo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 25 2008 at 06:39
Originally posted by moreitsythanyou moreitsythanyou wrote:

Originally posted by Jimbo Jimbo wrote:

^ Luckily, it seems the rumours weren't true.


BTW, Batman & Robin is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Cool

Batman and Robin was a better movie than the Dark Knight Stern Smile

Actually, both were equally hilarious in different ways, just one made me wish for death during half of it due to how terrible Bale was.

Just to set records straight; I'm no The Dark Knight fanboy. I thought it was pretty good, but I've seen around 200-250 movies that are better. It IS the best superhero movie I've seen though (admittedly, it doesn't take a whole lot to gain that achievement).

However, Batman & Robin was something so terrible that I almost couldn't believe it. I saw it in a movie theater when it came out, and almost left the theater in disgust. LOL Mind you, I was ten at the time.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 1800iareyay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 25 2008 at 09:27
I've seen about 200-250 movies this year that were better than TDK (obviously not from this year alone), but it's still probably in my top ten favorites. As for best? Oh Jesus, it's so far down.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The T Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 25 2008 at 15:21

The Dark Knight is a great superhero movie, a great movie by itself, but of course it SO far of being among the greatest movies ever. BUT, comparing it to Batman and Robin......please..... that sounds like trying too hard to shock people with an original statement....

Even though tastes are tastes.... I guess it's pretty valid to think that some people will actually prefer B&R to TDK
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BroSpence Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 25 2008 at 23:16
9 1/2 weeks - 2 hours of sh*t.  0/10

The Secret of NiMH - Saw this when I was a kid and loved it, watched it again recently and still loved it.  Quite dark for an animated film, and the animation is still pretty awesome. 8/10

Planet B-Boy - A neat documentary about the Battle of The Year competition in Germany for all the Bboys round the world.  I'm not a big fan of the group choreographed stuff, but the individual and team battles are spectacular.  I've always wanted to be able to do that stuff, but its hard as hell.  7/10



GRAN TORINO - Saw this today. HOLY sh*t CLINT IS AWESOME.  Obviously.  He was awesome before, but now he's 78 and even more awesome.  How could that be possible?????? This was such an awesome movie.  Has everything you could want.  GO GO GO GO SEE IT.  9/10  I can't wait to go again!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 1800iareyay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 26 2008 at 00:01
The fact that Gran Torino is my second favorite of Eastwood's 00s output is a testament more to how much I don't like his recent stuff over the quality of the film. It's derivative, contrived, poorly-acted (in an Eastwood film?!), but I rather liked it. But if Eastwood wins the Oscar for his mailed in performance over Rourke, Penn, or Langella I'm going to scream. Nothing about that film was award-worthy. I'd give it a 7.7-8/10, just because even mailed in Eastwood is entertaining (plus it spared us the cloying melodrama of Changeling, MDB, and Mystic River, which was the only film where it worked).


Revolutionary Road- I liked American Beauty for what it was but found it to be a ham-fisted, over-the-top exercise. But Sam Mendes' return to suburban hell shows a much more mature filmmaker. An elegaic trip through hell, Revolutionary Road reunites Titanic co-stars DiCaprio and Winslet, and it's incredible to see how they've grown into arguably the pre-eminent actors of their generation after their wooden performances in that breakthrough. Also of note is Michael Shannon's brilliant performance as the mentally ill son of the neighbors who is the only person in town who sees Frank and April's relationship as it really is. The Supporting Actor Oscar is quite rightly in the bag for Ledger, but Shannon simply must get a nom. One of the best of the year. 9.5/10
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mithrandir Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 26 2008 at 14:12
Junebug (2005) - kind of a mild movie, I actually thought the pregnant girl was the most interesting and most tragic character of the movie (also very hot), her husband was a turd and deserved to get kick in the head, 5/10

Epidemic (1987) - back to more familiar territory for me ---> Lars Von Trier (plays himself) along with his partner is contracted to write a screenplay for a movie in 5 days, they come up with the idea of making horror type movie with religious symbolism about an Epidemic, the main character is a doctor unbeknownst to him is the carrier of the plague, so you pretty much have 2 parallel stories going on here; one being Lars and his partner writing the story and the other being the story itself, I was actually disappointed that there wasn't more scenes involving the story about the Epidemic, most of the scenes that were shown were of the 2 writers working on the script as well as just horsing around, drinking beers and having random conversation about other things like toothpaste, old penpals, fine wines, etc, as with most Lars films there is a uniquely drab colored film quality to it with the "Epidemic" trademark logo positioned in the upper left hand corner the entire film, this this wasn't as serious of a movie as I thought it was going to be and I think even Lars would snicker at anyone would claim the film to be a "masterpiece", it actually plays out more like a post-modern inside joke between Lars and his partner, although the ending is rather heavy handed and absurd even by Lars standards, 6/10

Walkabout (1971) - okay, this was excellent, basically the surface story is about an older sister and younger brother stranded in the desert outback of Australia, they happen upon a Aboriginal boy who is on a "Walkabout" (sort of a coming of age passage where he lives on his own and is dependent on his own means for survival) and he ends up helping the white boy and girl survive in such a harsh environment, well this movie does not pull any punches cause it is ugly, plenty of real animal deaths with the Aboriginal boy clubbing kangaroos and lizards over the head and throwing their limbs on a fire for food, also there is an abundance of full frontal nudity scenes of the girl who couldn't have been over the age of 16 when this was filmed, also tons of bugs and ants and maggots over dead carcasses and so forth - it all just enhances the bloody realism they have live through on a day to day basis, there's also plenty of crude sounds and primitive electronic effects that I oh-so love about movies made in the 70s, let it also be known there is a sexual tension between the Aboriginal boy and white female throughout the film which ends in such a callous manner on the girl's behalf that left me feeling very uncomfortable (see it for yourself to see what I mean), there's also a plenty of the directors own ideas about the encroachment of Westerners and our cold culture in an otherwise "pure" untamed land, as well as the beauty of natural law of the wilderness vs. the orderly brick wall environment of "civilization", blah, blah, blah...all that good stuff, anyhoo people into Herzog and stuff like Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo should definitely check this out, its gets a solid 8/10 from me
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote crimhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 27 2008 at 00:06
A History of Violence. Good movie with plenty of violence. Wasn't quite what to think at the ending. They left  you wondering if he was going to work it out with the wife and kids or if the family was resigned to just accepting being lied to for the last 16 years.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Toaster Mantis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 28 2008 at 08:23
Clash of Egos, a Danish comedy making fun the film industry. Its plot is... a director of surrealistic artsy movies that do well with critics in Europe (but not in America! LOL) ends up with his latest movie underperforming, and in order to avoid having his career killed by a lawsuit from an extra he accidentally injured during filming (and the extra absolutely hates the director's movies), he reluctantly agrees to have the extra write and direct his next movie. It was entertaining, but not as much as I expected. I did like that it satirized both of the art movie crowd and the blockbuster action movie fan crowd.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote WinterLight Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 28 2008 at 09:02
Midnight Cowboy
Punishment Park
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tardis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 28 2008 at 10:36
IT
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mithrandir Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 28 2008 at 12:39
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) - a winner here, based on a true story...a movie about a man who had a stroke rendering him nearly paralyzed, accept for the movement of one eye; which he uses for communication in the form of blinks.  He also ends up writing a book using this means of limited communication.  Most of the movie you get is from his perspective sometimes seen from the eye itself.  Unique movie, that was sad but also had some moments of humor.  Very satisfying film.  8/10

The 4th Dimension (2006) - Stylistic movie blatantly influenced by Eraserhead and Pi.  About a man who becomes obsessed with time and compulsively attempts to solve Einsteins Unified Field Theory.  It sounded interesting on the outset but just ended up being a movie about insanity more than the science itself.  After a few false starts I lost complete interest in this movie and my mind wandered and I started doing other things.  Boring movie... 2/10

Yojimbo (1961) - one thing that I love about Kurosawa movies, the moment it starts I'm locked in and I'm carried away on the adventure all the way to it's conclusion.  It plays out more like a Western set in Japan with Samurai's.  Not a surprise to find out that A Fist Full of Dollars was practically a remake of Yojimbo. Super fun movie, 8/10

An American Crime (2007) - Wow, this movie was quite a surprise.  Based on a true story (which made it even more sickening) about a 2 girls that were left in the care of a single (whore) mom and her 6 children.  One of the 2 girls ended up being abused and tortured by the family and other neighborhood kids and ended up dying as a result.  It became known as Indiana's most horrendous crime at the time.  As a movie itself I think I'd only give it about a 6/10 but being that the source material was true and the situation was so infuriating and despicable I gave it a few extra points.  Spoiler:::!!! What bothered me the most is how all who was aware of this crime did not speak up about the evil that was being perpetuated on this poor girl.  Thus they were all willing accomplices and were prosecuted as such.  At least it was a somewhat of a relief to see justice prevailed in this case. !!!:::End Spoiler  This movie really stirred those righteous fires in my soul, I wanted to jump through the screen and set some right to the wrongs with my own brand of justice. Actually there wasn't so much blood in this movie, therefor it didn't become exploitative but they showed plenty of uncomfortable scenes and I think anyone with an ouch of compassion can only imagine the pain and loneliness this innocent girl suffered.  I gotta hand it to Ellen Page (who played the girl) she did an excellent job.  On the flip side Catherine Keene stole the show in a way by playing the unsympathetic whore mother to a T.  One thing I wonder most about this situation: on the surface it would seem that the girl was a scapegoat for the mothers frustrations.  But really it seemed even more basic than that.  Like the root of the mother's actions came from the primal instincts of female competition: there is a prettier female encroaching on my territory therefor she must be stomped out!!! eh, disgusting 8/10

Edited by mithrandir - December 28 2008 at 12:40
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