Movie Review Thread

[Gawain of Orkeny]

, and was itself remade as The Grudge in 2004, which I haven't seen

Dont bother to watch the Grudge. I just got free tickets for a sneak preview of Grudge 2 and did it suck.

Beowulf and Grendel (has this been spoken of here already ? I forget...): pretty good for those who enjoy movies in "historical" settings. The movie is obviously based on the anonymous "Beowulf" saga.

I enjoyed it also. Some nice costumes as well.

You want to see a good movie get Lucky # Slevin



If you like stuff like Pulp Fiction and Usual Suspects this is for you.

[Blodrast]

Agree about Lucky Number Slevin. And on the same note, DO check out The Way Of The Gun - one of the best crime/thrillers with a plot (and what a plot!) I've seen in a long time. It's at the very least on par with The Usual Suspects and such. Benicio del Toro and James Caan have great parts, imo.

[Puzz3D]

Dust Devil (1992) The Final Cut (2006) by writer/director Richard Stanley is a visually striking and interesting but sometines confusing melding of South African myth with a spagetti western type noname character who could be the physical embodiment of an ancient evil spirit. The music score added to the hypnotic and omminous mood of the film. The acting is understated which could be due to limitations of the actors. The full symbolic meaning in the visuals, including the choice of colors, is probably lost on most viewers not familiar with the African myths. Voiceovers help explain things at certain points, but are also intrusive. Slow moving by Hollywood standards it was originally cut down to 87 min by Miramax for the US release. Stanley has reconstructed the film back to a length between the European version (125 min) and the US version (87 min) at his own expense, and it was recently released in a Limited Edition DVD set which also contains a 130 min working print and 3 documentaries one of which is the search for the Holy Grail by SS officer Otto Rahn during WWII who was possibly the inspiration for the Indiana Jones movies.

[Mithradates]

I dont think its been reviewed however i must put in a good word for Children of Men. The film is set in a future where the entire human race is infertile. The film protrays and extreme dystopian future and its pretty grim. However there a nice single shot through a city fight in a british sea side town. Highly reccomend anyone who like sci fi or just provocative film to watch it.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Oldboy: Great revenge story. Very powerful. Only criticisms are hypnosis as a plot device and a slightly overdone begging scene.

[Puzz3D]

Oldboy: Great revenge story. Very powerful. Only criticisms are hypnosis as a plot device and a slightly overdone begging scene.

After seeing Lady Vengeance which I thought was very good, I'm going to get Oldboy. It's due out in a special edition DVD in a few weeks.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Taxi Driver: Amazing performance. Interesting movie. A bit to depressing and morbid for me to enjoy.


Also, I have a new place to go for movie reviews:

http://capalert.com/capreports/#HLIST

Check out part of their review of sin city:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Wanton Violence/Crime (W)
# multiple bullet impacts with blood, splatter and body part loss
# multiple instances of slicings, lacerations, incisions, impalements, avulsions and amputations
# cartoon images of firearm and blade assaults
# child abduction by a pedophile
# fist fighting
# assault with metal pipe
# gunfire cutting off forearm and to the male privates
# scene of multiple gunfire injuries, graphic
# scene of multiple gunfire killings, graphic
# threat to kill, repeatedly
# action violence, repeatedly
# planning murder, repeatedly
# assault on police, multiple, graphic
# assault to eyes
# firearm threat, repeatedly
# pistol whipping, repeatedly, graphic
# gunfire to privates
# dragging man by car with face against the pavement
# attempted murder by car, numerous times with sight of victim being thrown and bouncing each time
# attempted gunfire murder, repeatedly
# surviving impossible gunfire injuries that would result in death, repeatedly
# assault with sledge hammer, graphic
# heads of five disembodied women mounted as trophies, victims of cannibalism, repeatedly
# woman speaking of man who had eaten her hand while she watched
# assault with a rock
# assault with axe to the private parts
# many gunfire injuries of varying severity, repeatedly
# gore, repeatedly
# beating assault
# man hitting a woman, repeatedly
# double amputation
# dog eating stubs of amputations
# severed head, repeatedly, sometimes talking/moving
# man kissing severed head
# beating with baseball bats
# talk of eating women
# arm breaking assault
# electrocution execution
# many threats of many kinds
# illegal flight to avoid lawful capture
# firearms for offense, many
# killing/injuring with slicing weapons, repeatedly, some graphic
# beheading
# more amputation
# gushing/splattering of blood, repeatedly
# impalement injuries, repeatedly, some graphic
# bodies strewn about
# slicing up five bodies to be able to fit them into a car trunk
# semiautomatic pistol slide rack impaled into forehead
# dead bodies talking
# assault by strangulation of woman
# another severed head, repeatedly, sometimes talking
# knife impalements, repeatedly
# gunfire to kill, repeatedly
# biting gore
# brutality, repeatedly
# victim joking with spear and arrows protruding through him
# blood lust
# extortion with wife's life
# beating gore, repeatedly
# severed finger
# admission of contemplating suicide
# threat to kill with broken window pane glass
# manually ripping male private parts off a man

Impudence/Hate (I)
# 76 uses of the three/four letter word vocabulary
# lusting for murder
# wish to kill
# lies, repeatedly
# stuffing head in toilet with feces to intimidate, twice
# calling murder an art
# "Power comes by lying"
# sadism
# torture with whip as "foreplay"

Sexual Immorality (S)
# graphically descriptive talk of rape and murder of an 11 year old girl
# making out
# intercourse with nudity
# nudity, upper female, repeatedly
# nudity, female rear, repeatedly, some close-up
# sex talk
# thong nudity, repeatedly
# homosexual reference
# ghosting of female anatomy through thin clothing, repeatedly
# translucent nudity
# women as toys
# sensuous dance, repeatedly
# dressing to maximize the female form and/or skin exposure, repeatedly
# nude woman with appendages hiding gender-specifics
# anatomical references, repeatedly
# man and woman in bed together
# cohabitation
# sexual threats
# camera angle to force viewer on private parts, repeatedly
# prostitutes, many and prostitute dress, repeatedly
# soliciting prostitution, repeatedly
# talk of showing privates to each other
# offer of sex, repeatedly
# inappropriate touch
# pedophile
# threat of sexual torture
# full male nudity with privates hidden by shadows, repeatedly, many angles
# sexual innuendo

Drugs/Alcohol (D):
# smoking, repeatedly
# drinking, repeatedly
# drunkenness, repeatedly
# bar, repeatedly
# booze, repeatedly
# abuse of prescription medication

Offense to God (O)
# "Goldy [a prostitute] worked the clergy"
# speaking of eating not only flesh but souls as well
# name calling with "fool" [Matt. 5:22]
# eight uses of God's name in vain with the four letter expletive and six without

Murder/Suicide (M)
# gunfire murder, at least 13 individual plus a multiple, graphic
# axe to forehead murder, graphic
# neck twist murder
# beating murder, at least two, graphic
# squeezing head murder
# blade murders, at least six, graphic
# arrow murder, at least three, graphic
# murder by slicing off top of head, graphic
# gunfire suicide, graphic

If that isn't a recommendation I don't know what is

[R'as al Ghul]

Also, I have a new place to go for movie reviews:

http://capalert.com/capreports/#HLIST

Check out part of their review of sin city:
[/spoil]

If that isn't a recommendation I don't know what is

Stay informed ...OBJECTIVELY...on what Hollywood feeds your kids.

The movie is rated "R" which doesn't allow minors, so what business does a "Ministry of the ChildCare Action Project" have watching this film?
To see if it's really not for minors?
Cover your eyes, Nancy. Cover your eyes...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'm sure Miller had a ball reading their list of offenses.

[Puzz3D]

Shurayukihime (Lady Snowblood, 1973) is a drama/action story about revenge, and was a big influence on Kill Bill (2003/2004). This can set up high expectations which the film can't meet given it's low budget. A lot of effort went into explaining the historical context of the story which takes place during the Meiji Restoration which is admirable, but it slowed the pacing of the first two chapters to a crawl. A lot of voiceover is used during this part of the film. The movie picks up considerably in the last two chapters and builds to a strong climax. The cinematography varied from good to ok. The choreography of the fights was good, but you've seen better. The final confrontation was well done. Meiko Kaji, who plays Lady Snowblood, did a good job of conveying both a desire for revenge and fear with her eyes, and it's her mysterious character that makes the story compelling.

[Spino]

Hostel - Two young Americans and their extraverted Icelandic buddy are backpacking throughout Europe until some shady freak in Amsterdam points them in the direction of an out-of-the-way hostel in Slovakia where the chicks are reputedly bonkers for foreigners. Once they arrive they find the chicks are indeed hot for foreigners but things at the hostel aren't quite what they seem. Eventually our adventurous trio discover that screaming, torture and gruesome ends are main tourist attraction and just when you think things can't get any worse the filmmakers kick the film into high gear. As far as horror films go Hostel isn't a classic but it had plenty of chills and thrills to keep me interested and on the edge of my seat throughout most of the film. Hostel isn't as well done as Saw or The Descent but is impressive nonetheless, especially considering its limited budget.

The Departed - Two young cops of different backgrounds and ideologies share a common bond in their connection to an Irish mob boss named Costello. The 'good' cop goes to great lengths to keep his true identity hidden so he can bring Costello down, the 'bad cop' does the same except his goal is to keep Costello one step ahead of the law.

First let me say that I believe that Martin Scorcese is one of America's greatest filmmakers. Secondly let me say that this 'one of the greatest' label only applies to the films he made before Cape Fear. Virtually everything Marty has done after Cape Fear is either forgettable or downright terrible. 'Casino' was forgettable, 'Bringing Out the Dead' was pointless and hollow, 'Gangs of New York' sucked eggs and 'The Aviator' was as soulless and shallow a biopic that has ever been financed by Hollyweird. Before watching The Departed I was hoping to catch a glimpse or two of the Scorcese of yesteryear, instead I got 2 1/2 hours' worth!

Everything about The Departed looks and feels like it was shot during Marty's heyday back in the 80s. Great performances (yes, even the mediocre DiCaprio impresses here), excellent direction and editing and a kick ass (although somewhat intrusive) soundtrack.

Hollyweird cheated Marty out of a best director Oscar for Raging Bull (hands down the crowning achievement of his career). Something tells me he'll finally get a golden statue for The Departed.

[Geoffrey S]

Found time to watch Battle Royale recently, absolutely breathtaking. A brilliantly horrific idea is made into a movie containing more powerful moments than I've seen before. It's caried by the excellent young cast, who deliver the well-written script perfectly. A shocking, beautiful movie.

[Fragony]

Found time to watch Battle Royale recently, absolutely breathtaking. A brilliantly horrific idea is made into a movie containing more powerful moments than I've seen before. It's caried by the excellent young cast, who deliver the well-written script perfectly. A shocking, beautiful movie.

Hated the part where that creepy kid holds the megaphone at the mouths of these dying girls. That was pretty wtf. Good movie, not going to watch it again though.

[Blodrast]

Found time to watch Battle Royale recently, absolutely breathtaking. A brilliantly horrific idea is made into a movie containing more powerful moments than I've seen before. It's caried by the excellent young cast, who deliver the well-written script perfectly. A shocking, beautiful movie.

Agree, definitely cool movie to watch. However, the sequel, as most sequels, disappoints.
It's more of the same, but somehow it feels that there's less - and it struggles to create a plot, where one wasn't probably really necessary. The violence and gore are as good as in the first one, but there's less of the artistic part, and the atmosphere, if you want.

[Puzz3D]

Zatôichi (1989) by Shintaro Katsu, who wrote, directed an starred in the film, is an excellent samurai movie. The final fight is absolutley spectacular, but the film is also very good in it's character studies. Unlike the newer Zatoichi The Blind Swordsman (2003) which uses a lot of comedy and is light entertainment by comparison, this older movie takes a serious approach to the story. It's interesting, well paced and well photographed. I backtracked on some scenes and watch them in slow motion to see if they had cheated on some of Zatoichi's faster moves, but it all looked very good and he actually carried out the moves. These are well choreographed fights.

Match Point (2005) written and directed by Woody Allen is a very clever film especially when contrasted with the movie A Place in the Sun (1951). The line about the difference between love and lust is priceless. I thought Scarlett Johanssen was very good in this film, but maybe I'm biased. The acting, pacing and photography are all very good, Highly entertaining, and it wold be unfair to give any of it away.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Over the Hedge: I thought it was going to be a little kids movie but it's not. Was really funny.

[doc_bean]

Eurotrip (2004) a semi sequel to Road Trip, which was definitely one of the better teen movies (one of my guilty pleasures ) of the last decade. Eurotrip is, however, not nearly as good. It's essentially 90 minutes of making fun of stereotypes (both about Americans and Europeans), it does have its moments, but the situations keep getting absurder and absurder (not in a good way) and it just becomes incredibly unbelievable, even within its own reference frame (I thought not another teen movie managed to be believable in its own reference frame, except towards the very end, for reference ). It's more a series of (often bad) jokes than a movie. Still it's probably better than the American Pie movies...

EDIT: CAP has an awesome endorsement of this movie though:

Other than a subjective comment that this celluloid cyanide is not worth the time it took to make it, I have nothing to say about this film. The listing in the findings/Scoring section tells enough. I will tell you that I left after 49 minutes. The findings and scoring apply to just the first 49 minutes of the film. And I cannot imagine how DreamWorks got connected with this putrid sex flick. Randomly selected R-rated movies in the comparative baseline database of movies earned CAP influence density figures between 0.75 and 2.1, the higher the figure the more dense the assaults on wholesome morality. Maybe the CAP Influence Density of 4.96 earned by Eurotrip in just 49 minutes is enough to convince you to stay away from this one.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Noooo Eurotrip is awesome...maybe it's aimed more at Americans.

Scotty doesn't know...

[doc_bean]

Noooo Eurotrip is awesome...maybe it's aimed more at Americans.

Perhaps, I felt my knowledge of the actual places and culture kinda ruined it. I thought it was pretty decent until Bratislava. There were some decent moments there, but the sexual open mindedness of Europeans was getting a bit overplayed (the club owner), the incest thing was just gross and after that, the Hitler kid in Germany might have worked better if the scene had been a bit shorter and the Vatican part was just too ridicoulous.

Scotty doesn't know...

Oh yeah, that part does make the movie worth seeing ! If you have nothing better to do and it's on tv

[Puzz3D]

The Blue Light (1932) written, directed and featuring Leni Riefenstahl is an allegory about man's encroachment on natural beauty. It's a simple story and somewhat slow moving, but told in an artistic visual style with impressive cinematography and lighting. The final act picks up the pace and is very well done, and features climbing scenes presented in a very effective montage style. The freestyle rock climbing looks quite dangerous to me, and Leni Riefenstahl appears to do all her own climbing just as she apparantly did in Arnold Fanck's "mountain" pictures. This movie doesn't usually get good reviews because up until now it hasn't been generally available in a good quality print, but the recently released DVD has a good image quality German sound version with English subtitles. I was hoping that a blue tint would be used to show the blue light, but that wasn't done.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Brick: Really awesome. Like Dashiell Hammet except set in high school.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of kazahkstan

Excellent. He manages to keep up the humor throughout the movie. Also, quite a lot of it is unscripted.

[Beirut]

MI:3

A porker, but still better than MI:2. Why Tom and the film studio and their collective billions cannot take advantage of the MI theme and make a honking good spy movie is beyond me. Cruise said he wanted romance in the story. What a shmoo. As my buddy said, Cruise simply does the Top Gun movie over and over. Top Gun, Top Bartender, Top Lawyer, Top Samurai, Top Spy.

Mind you, there were a few very good scenes in MI:3. Loved the way he got over the wall at the Vatican. That was just neat. (Even though it was ripped off of James Bond.)

[Puzz3D]

Flags of Our Fathers (2006) directed by Clint Eastwood, based on the well researched book of the same name by James Bradley, is a drama which tells the true story of the men pictured in the inspirational photograph of the flag raising during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The movie is very well done and extremely faithfull to the book which was exhaustively researched by the son of one of the flag raisers. Interestingly, his father never spoke of the war, wouldn't speak to reporters, never told his family that he had won the Navy Cross and didn't display the picture in his home. The reason why is made clear by the movie. James Bradely found the Navy Cross and newspaper articles about the flag raising in a cardboard box in the attic of his father's house after his father died, and decided to write a book telling the story. My mother, who was 16 when WWII started, said this was the first WWII film she's seen which depicted the people as they actually were. I recommend the film, and I also recommend the book which additionally covers the childhoods of these men and more details about the other men in the marine platoon.

The Departed (2006) directed by Martin Scorsese is a crime drama already recommended by Spino. It's outstanding filmmaking with a powerhouse cast who all give excellent performances. It's a rewrite of the foreign film Infernal Affairs (2002) with more complex characters than in the earlier film and a new character added. The screen play is great, and the narrative moves along fast and twists and turns never lingering in any one place. Highly entertaining for the full 2 and 1/2 hours. I would expect this film to win something at the Academy Awards.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: A classic. Best western ever made.

Lord of War: I'm not that interested in gun running and have no desire to watch a documentary about it or learn the history. The previews should have made it clearer what this was. Quit halfway through.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

LOTR: Return of the King Extended Version t'was a major improvement over the old one. dunno know why they had to take scenes out from the original. all great imo.

[Puzz3D]

I found Oldboy (2003) by director Chan-wook Park disappointing possibly because I was hoping it was as good as Lady Vengeance (2005). To me the story is highly contrived and the character's actions don't make sense, and this extends to the character who is not hypnotized. However, the final message about the dangers of starting rumors is a strong one.

[Craterus]

Saw Trainspotting for the first time about a week ago. I really liked it, but I'm interested about what other people think.

I've asked a few people at school, got mixed reviews.

So, if you've seen it, what did you think?

[drone]

Saw Trainspotting for the first time about a week ago. I really liked it, but I'm interested about what other people think.

I've asked a few people at school, got mixed reviews.

So, if you've seen it, what did you think?

I saw it back in 1999, I thought it was pretty good. Not for the squeamish, but funny and with good dialogue. I should probably rent it again, to see if it aged well. The book was good as well, but hard for this Yank to read at times. Reading phonetic Scottish slang =

[Fragony]

I saw it back in 1999, I thought it was pretty good. Not for the squeamish, but funny and with good dialogue. I should probably rent it again, to see if it aged well. The book was good as well, but hard for this Yank to read at times. Reading phonetic Scottish slang =

Trainspotting is in normal english, I think you are confusing it with The acid house.

[Aenlic]

The Prestige

I read the book, so I knew what was going to happen, which perhaps dampened the plot twists a bit for me; but the movie was very well done. As always, Michael Caine gave a wonderful performance. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as the two main characters really brought them to life. The biggest surprise for me was David Bowie as Tesla. I was pleasantly surprised at how good he was. The movie even has my favorite character actor, Andy Serkis, in it too. Guess playing Gollum finally got him noticed after years of incredible performances. I'm not going to say anything else that might reveal the plot. The book itself was wonderful too. Christopher Priest is a great writer.

Coming soon:

Beowulf

A new version that is in post production now. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. An amazing cast, it looks like. Ray Winstone as Beowulf, Crispin Glover as Grendel, Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar, Brendan Gleeson (Hamish in Braveheart) as Wiglaf, John Malkovich as Unferth and many more. It uses performance capture for the animation, as in Zemeckis' The Polar Express.