Movie Review Thread

[Fragony]

Anyway, belgium broadcasted The Big Labowski, never saw it before.

absolute genius, consider me your loyal fan Coen brothers. I haven't laughed like this since a Fish called Wanda, which untill now I considered to be the funniest comedy ever made. buhbuhbye. I just love their absurd style, no straight shooters but hilarious situations non-stop, sometimes I don't even understand why I am laughing.

AAA comedy

[naut]

You see more mvies in a week than I've seen my entire life.

[Peasant Phill]

Anyway, belgium broadcasted The Big Labowski, never saw it before.

absolute genius, consider me your loyal fan Coen brothers. I haven't laughed like this since a Fish called Wanda, which untill now I considered to be the funniest comedy ever made. buhbuhbye. I just love their absurd style, no straight shooters but hilarious situations non-stop, sometimes I don't even understand why I am laughing.

AAA comedy

If you haven't seen it yet, you should definitly see 'Fargo' to. Another Coen masterpiece.

[Lorenzo_H]

I don't know if anyone here has seen Stormbreaker?

I enjoyed it because the entire thing apart from the london shots were done on the Isle of Man. I just got a kick out of identifying all the places I know. As a matter of fact, the compound Alex goes to when he meets Darius Sayle is actually the island's Incinerator, with a very modern design. Both the exterior and interior were used.

Also, Nadia Vole tells Alex "this is Port Erin" when they are driving through Castletown, both real towns.

The bike chase scene was done on Port Erin beach.

The part at the beginning when Ian Rider is shot was filmed on the TT circuit, in the northern coastal road.

The classroom scenes were filmed at Ballakermeen, a school many of my friends go to.

Alex Rider escapes from a building which is actually my school.

All that and more, so you can imagine why I liked it.

[econ21]

If you haven't seen it yet, you should definitly see 'Fargo' to. Another Coen masterpiece.

Seconded - absolutely fantastic film. I love Margie: "And all for what? A little bit of money."

[Fragony]

Ya fantastic, I absolutily love the soundtrack, it's so tragic. They have made many a good movie, 'Blood Simple' and 'Raising Arizona' are great as well, the first is somewhat more grim but with the same lovely weirdness (as well as their usual fetish actors)

[doc_bean]

X-men 3: The last stand : Argh they ruined a perfectly good saga !!!!

The movie does just about everything wrong what the other Xmen movies did right. There's just no emotional attachment to the characters (who are mere shadows of their selfs from former movies). It's clear fan service, tries to combine two or three stories from the X-men universe (Phoenix, cure for mutations, and Magneto thrown in for good measure, believe me, I'm spoiling nothing here) but alters (and ruins) them all. (I'm not a fanboy here, only read one comic, just watched the cartoon series a lot as a kid, the alterations are all by far inferior)

Clearly Brian Singer must be a very talented director, seeing as how some other director manages to screw up what he had built up so badly.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I liked it...

Mind you I didn't have any emotional attachment to the characters in the first two.

[doc_bean]

I liked it...

Mind you I didn't have any emotional attachment to the characters in the first two.

But there is almost no character development in this one ! Don't tell me you cared what happened to Jean, or freeze guy, or the flame guy, or anyone else for that matter. It only works as a special effects extravaganza (especially the ending scene feels like another attempt at 'real' anime), and even as such there are a lot of movies that do it better (I recently saw Matrix Revolution again and realised that no movie that I've seen in recent years even comes close to the Matrix movies when it comes to special effects or action sequences, too bad the plot sucks).

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Well to be honest I wasn't expecting more than special effects action sequences with cool mutants.

I liked how the "bad mutants" were all dressed like goths. lol.

[doc_bean]

I liked how the "bad mutants" were all dressed like goths. lol.

Heh, to be fair, the bad mutants were always a weak point in the X-men movies.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Heh, to be fair, the bad mutants were always a weak point in the X-men movies.

[Puzz3D]

Kingdom of Heaven Director's Cut (2005) is the 194 min version of Ridley Scott's historical epic set in Jerusalem of the late 12th century. It's very good, and a much better film than the theatrical release in it's character development and narrative flow. However, the Battle of Hattin, 4 July 1187, is still not shown in a way that conveys just how large a disaster it was for the Christians. The main characters in the movie, Balian and Sybilla, are highly fictionalized versions of the real people they represent, and they didn't have the romantic relationship depicted in the movie. In reality, Balian was married to the mother of Sybilla's half sister, and he returned to Jerusalem after surviving the Battle of Hattin to get his wife and two children out of Jerusalem. Sybilla and her two daughters went with her husband Guy of Lusignan when he went to siege Acre in 1189. She and her daugthers died there about a year later during the siege when an epidemic swept through the encampment. Modern religious sensibilities abound which didn't exist in the religious absolutism of the middle ages, and 20th Century Fox forced the writer to change the ending he had planned to a more "feel good" ending. If you can get past all the historical inaccuracies, of which there are many, it's a well made film that can be enjoyed as it is. You can always read up on the actual history after watching the movie.

[Puzz3D]

The Black Dahlia (2006) is a film noir style crime/thriller by director Brian de Palma adapted from the novel by James Ellroy who also wrote the novel from which L. A. Confidential (1997) was adapted. While not as good as that film, The Black Dahlia has high production values and is interesting because it strictly adhears to the film noir/expressionistic style of telling the story through the eyes of the protagonist. The story is very complicated, and since you are only seeing one character's point of view, it is confusing. In the end it's all explained, and that requires almost 30 minutes of screen time which is no doubt a record for a film noir. This will probably not appeal to viewers who want a chance to solve the mystery before the end because I don't think you can do that with this movie.

Unfortunately, the actor who plays the protagonist, Josh Hartnett, is not up to the task of portraying this complex character. I don't know if the problem is his limitations as an actor, the direction or the screenplay. The character does strike me as a psychological impossibility because he embodies contradictory qualities. In most scenes, Josh Hartnett displays nothing in terms of facial expression or body movement to convey his inner state. As a result, I couldn't really understand this character. Even his extreme loyalty to his partner on the police force wasn't convincing to me. I couldn't even tell you why he wants to be a cop. For an outstanding example of how to portray a conflicted cop, watch Dana Andrews in Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950) which was the first of a rash of bad cop movies that came out that year.

There is some exploitation of a lesbian angle by de Palma, but I think a bit of exploitation is pretty much expected by people who see his films. Dressed to Kill (1980), which I think is quite good, had some of this.

The film is ok, but could have been much better.

[The Wizard]

The Departed, Martin Scorsese's newest movie, was excellent. Take an oldskool tragedy (i.e. everyone's dead at the end), add the Irish Mob (i.e. crazy white boys with guns) and Jack Nicholson (i.e. madness), and you're well on your way to exploring Boston's gritty underside. A wonderful tribute to the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, Scorsese managed not to make me yawn and whine "been there, done that." Great \o

[Fragony]

War is a bad thing but at least it makes for good movies.

Underground, from former Yugoslavia. Movie starts at WW2 and ends with the Balkan war. In the opening scene a zoo is bombed. I can take human suffering in movies but please not the tigers, looked way to realistic.

The movie has a clever way of kicking you in the teeth, the WW2 part is just a little too heroic, the characters a bit too huggable, you know there is something wrong with that after the extremily realistic openingscene. See it for yourselve, not going to spoil it for you. After that the movie moves to the cold war and ultimatily Yugoslavia's breakup, and these part of the movie are much more realistic and gritty. As I said before, this movie has a clever trick, iy makes the later parts almost unbearable to watch, but you should try it anyway.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Blood Diamond - I saw this today and it opened my eyes more. I've known what was going on, but seeing it in such detail made it even more powerful. I was with some ignorant friends of mine, who would laugh at certain parts, which was annoying. After we got to his house they both were making fun while throwing food away "Oops, those poor africans!". Made me sort of sick...
...anyway, it was a GREAT movie. I loved it.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Night at the Museum is great. Consistantly funny, a few hilarious bits, wraps up all the story ends neatly, great concept.

[Csargo]

I went and saw The Pursuit of Happiness last weekend and I just saw this thread. It's a good movie in my opnion. Kinda sad though.

[Motep]

I know this one is kinda old...The Inside Man I just love it. It is suspenseful...brilliant concept.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Battlefield Earth is just so terrible. Get a bunch of people together who appreciate and mock terrible films and watch it for entertainment.

[doc_bean]

I watched Superman Returns yesterday. it's a difficult movie to rate, since it does many things *so* right yet does some other things so *very* wrong.

I didn't know much about the movie so I was surprised that it was actually about Superman returning home after a search for his home planet, and not about the rise of Superman, although there were a few flashback scenes thrown in. Overall I think this was a good idea, since it makes the movie a little different from all those other superhero movies that have come out recently.

The good: the atmosphere, adding just the right bit of nostalgia, the action sequences

the bad: the overall plot, people act pretty 'unnatural' just for plot reasons, a lot of their actions really don't make sense, pretty much everything related to Lex Luthor feels wrong, especially his 'master plan'. Also, a car mysteriously changes colour as Superman lifts it up...

Overall I did find the movie to be enjoyable, there were quite a few things I wish they did differently, but it's fun none the less.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

I just rented Syriana and I liked it a lot. A bit hard to follow, but overall I got it.

[Puzz3D]

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005) is a dramatic recreation which stays very close to the actual events of what happened to her for being caught distributing anit-war literature in Germany in 1943. It's based on the transcript of her interrogation and personal recollections of various people, and is very effectively portrayed by actress Julia Jentsch. The courage this young woman displayed is remarkable and very moving. There appear to be a few dramatic liberties taken but they are not overdone. The movie has an authentic and chilling feel to it especially when what is happening is legal. The interrogator, Mohr, survived the war and continued to be a policeman afterwards. His son said his father would never speak about his wartime service to the Nazis.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Just watched the Shawshank Redemption. It's a decent movie, but I'm amazed that it's #2 movie of all time on imdb. I can think of hundreds of better movies, it's about 7/10 I'd say. Half an hour too long and waaaaay to sappy. There was sentimental voice over during the scene in which he was being anally raped I kid you not. Three guys are kicking him and god knows what else and morgan freeman's voice comes on: "I'd like to say andy put up a good fight and drove the anal rapists off, but that would be a lie, in fact he's being raped right now which makes you wonder why I sound so happy"

*spoilers*

I also found it amusing that there were only 3 or 4 "bad" prisoners in the prison and all the others were just good guys, the kind of guys you'd want to sit around and have a beer with. The way the bad guys got their comeuppance was a huge stretch, the guard mysteriously became a good guy for a brief moment (in between brutally killing innocent people, prison guards are the real bad guys remember) to get upset by the way the one guy was picking on tim robbins and take him out. Then at the end they way the warden and him mysteriously get arrested for the murder which would have been impossible to prove is ridiculous. It also glosses over the way tim robbins is living off a bunch of stolen money now but oh the pacific is so beautiful

*/spoilers*

I don't mean to sound so down on it, I enjoyed it, but it has major flaws and it irks me to see it so highly rated.

[naut]

There was sentimental voice over during the scene in which he was being anally raped I kid you not.

Uhh...

[sapi]

I agree with Sasaki on Shawshank - it just wasn't that great, and it definitely doesn't deserve no2 spot on imdb

[Craterus]

What's no. 1?

[Ser Clegane]

It's a decent movie, but I'm amazed that it's #2 movie of all time on imdb

An odd thing about this ranking is the rather high number of votes (highest number among the top 250 movies) ... this smells a bit ...

What's no. 1?

The Godfather

[Craterus]

I'll check it out some other time. My internet can only really handle one window at a time at the moment.

Thanks Ser.