Movie Review Thread

[doc_bean]

Taking Lives was on tv yesterday, I wish I hadn't watched it. Angelina Jolie is very hot in it though, but the plot manages to be both incredibly implausible and predictable, which isn't something you'd expect in a non Sci-Fi or fantasy movie.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

I saw 300. (did not want to post in dead 300 threads that no looks at anymore)

anyways i was actually impressed. i love the slow motion action. however after the Captain goes bloodrunk the action disappears which turns me off. did not like ending, it would be better if they fought to the death. the King would die (super-dramatize that part of course) and the Spartans would try to recover his body which leads to more Spartan deaths.

[Kralizec]

Zwartboek (Black Book) is the best WW2 film since Der Untergang, possibly even better. Watch it!

[doc_bean]

Adam's apples, a danish 'comedy', very dark, very politically incorrect, pretty absurd at times, very funny thoughout.

Highly recommended

[Fragony]

Zwartboek (Black Book) is the best WW2 film since Der Untergang, possibly even better. Watch it!

Now it's good but not that good, well produced and deliciously cynical it is though, and Carice van Houten is a sweety.

[econ21]

I saw Spiderman 3 recently with my family. I thought it was the worst of the three films, but not as bad as the critics said. The main failing IMO was the lack of humour and charm that graced the other films. (J Jonah Jameson provided a couple of belly laughs, as usual, but otherwise it was slim pickings). The film probably suffered from too much going on - 3 or maybe 4 villains. The "everyone has some good and some bad in them" message was perhaps meant to be adult and subtle, but was engineered by giving people motivations or changes in motivation that seemed trite and inadequate. The chap who acted the Sandman was very impressive, but not given enough to do. All that said, my family thought it the best film in the series.

The other film I watched recently was United 93, on the small screen. This surprised me, as it was much less a movie and more like a drama documentary. I think I read a while back that the air traffic control "actors" were the real deal, but if not, it felt like they were. They took up about half the film and were very believable, but mainly showed the chaos of 9/11. Nothing they portrayed had the power of the real TV coverage at the time - which was briefly included in the movie. (One of the ironies of the film was that the civil and military authorities had to watch CNN to figure what was going on.) The portrayal of the plight of the passengers also had a "cinema verite" feel to it, but did not have the emotional kick I was expecting from it. The brutality of the hijackers did provoke a predictable feeling of rage, however. I left the film rather more bellicose than I started with. Worth watching, if only to understand or remember why America thought it appropriate to call counter-terrorism in the wake of a 9/11 a "war on terror" (air traffic control closed US air space saying someone was at war with America and you could completely agree with that assessment of the situation).

[lancelot]

I too recently saw spidey 3 and was likewise dissapointed.

Now I know people with spider powers, flying gliders and octupus arms is unlikely- but a man made of sand...just too far out there for me.

And the truck full of sand...just a little too convenient. No explanation as to the meteor strike...generally weak storytelling really.

They should have made venom even more badass and dropped sandman completely- it felt cluttered after the harry fight and sandman and venom.

The scene with the jazz club piano playing...errrgh. Note to Rami- you cant put anything in a film and expect people to love it.

[seireikhaan]

I'd like to chip in on the Spidey topic as well. My biggest disappointment was the ending. I mean, jeez, I saw the ending coming about 10 minutes before it started, it was painfully predictable. My other problem was spidey. I mean, in the first fight with the sandman, he got mulched through about three or four buildings while still able to keep going and fight. How? He's spiderman, not a god. I also quickly tired of the running "jammed door" joke that they kept pushing the entire movie as well.

All in all, it wasn't a terrible movie, but it certainly wasn't impressive, especially compared to the first movie. One thing I really liked was the oh so brief cameo by Stan Lee in the beginning. I thought that was pretty nice.

[Fragony]

American soldiers, gawd terrible. Tasteless cash-in.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

I saw Munich rescently and it's AWSOME! I can't believe it took me so long to see.

And no nothing is better than Der Untergang

[Fragony]

I saw Munich rescently and it's AWSOME! I can't believe it took me so long to see.

Gawd the assasination of that girl in her houseboat, the most chilling murderscene ever. Excellent indeed.

[Conradus]

I have to agree with Fragony and Alexanderofmacedon, Munich is an excellent movie, Eric Bana and Spielberg at their best.

Yesterday I saw Lucky number Slevin, if you're in the mood it's a very funny movie and I love the way the plot turns.

[Fragony]

Owwwwww good movie, Capote. Despite it's slow pace it should have been longer, the moral dillema's intended don't quite cut it, Capote is an interesting character and they could have fleshed out his personallity some more imvho. Acting, fantastic, Seymor Hofmann is Capote, haven't seen someone being someone this good since Ben Kingsley was Ghandi. Sure as 100% about picking up the book, the few passages that are read at the presentation of his book had me more then a little interested.

[Puzz3D]

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) directed by Clint Eastwood is an exceptionally well done war movie that presents the Battle of Iwo Jima fought in February 1945 from the Japanese perspective. Some of the characters are fictional, but the events all seem quite realistically portrayed. I would rank this with the best wars films that I've seen.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) directed by Clint Eastwood is an exceptionally well done war movie that presents the Battle of Iwo Jima fought in February 1945 from the Japanese perspective. Some of the characters are fictional, but the events all seem quite realistically portrayed. I would rank this with the best wars films that I've seen.

Yes I have to buy this. I saw it in theaters and boy was it worth almost getting caught sneaking in plus about $12.00!

[The Spartan (Returns)]

I saw Gandhi. this was a great movie that was worthy of its nine academy awards. i never seen such a great portrayal of the man in a film. (or i have ever seen)

[sapi]

I finally got around to watching Munich the other day. It's not a movie which I would say that I 'enjoyed', but it is one that I would definitely reccomend watching.

[Banquo's Ghost]

If you like gentle, uplifting films I can recommend "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain".

It starts Hugh Grant, so those who have a visceral hatred of his bemused Englishman routine might do better to avoid, but in this case it fits. It's a wonderful story about the pride of a village in Wales, with a moving sub-text about the Great War.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

That's about the Garth, isn't it? In Taff's Well?

If I recall correctly, the residents there have gotten a bit annoyed at people disturbing the bronze ages burial mounds, which has been attributed to the film you speak of.

[Banquo's Ghost]

That's about the Garth, isn't it? In Taff's Well?

If I recall correctly, the residents there have gotten a bit annoyed at people disturbing the bronze ages burial mounds, which has been attributed to the film you speak of.

Yes, though in the film it's known as Ffynnon Garw. Like most locals, they may get annoyed but they don't seem to worry about separating the tourists from their cash on the back of that notoriety.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

w00t. My name lives on through the thread!

Does Chappelle season 2 count as a movie? It's really funny!

[Spino]

Letters from Iwo Jima - Decent film with some excellent performances. Overall I'd rate it as good but it is by no means great. It is certainly superior to 'Flags of our Fathers' which felt cliched and ham fisted (although Flags clearly sported a better plot). One thing about Letters that I took exception to was how poor it was at giving you a sense of time and the progression of the battle. On the other hand it did a pretty good job of letting you know just how miserable the Japanese defenders were once their situation progressed from bad to worse to hopeless. Letters also cemented my opinion that Eastwood is grossly overrated as a director.

Hot Fuzz - Comedy by the same team that created 'Shaun of the Dead'. A total send up of every single buddy cop film ever made (both good and bad) as well as every single film that ever featured a policeman as the protagonist. Hot Fuzz is also a general tribute to the action genre and gives nods to the Mad Max films, spaghetti westerns, cult flicks (they even spoof the original Wicker Man with Edward Woodward, who has a supporting role in Hot Fuzz). Hot Fuzz is not nearly as funny or tight (it felt a bit long) as Shaun of the Dead but it's funny enough to make it worth a look.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3 - Bloated, directionless and meandering. Easily the worst film of the trilogy. At one point it seemed as if the filmmakers were just writing the script as they went because it is all over the damn place. Just when you think the film is going to end it keeps going... and before long you'll wish it would just end. It's not all bad, there are funny moments and decent action sequences. The real highlights of the film are the two fantastic performances by Bill Nighy and Geoffrey Rush as well as a surprisingly decent but tragically brief appearance by Keith Richards who, in his two to three minutes of screentime, puts all of Mick Jagger's cinematic forays to shame. I also found the scenes with wee Jack the monkey to be hysterical... no surprise since I'm a sucker for monkey humor...

[Puzz3D]

Stay (2005) is a mystery/thriller by director Marc Forster which goes to such an extent to mislead the viewer that it's impossible to make sense of the movie. The plot is about a psychiatrist trying to prevent one of his patients from committing suicide, and the psychiatrist being confronted by increasingly illogical events. Once the camera switches to an objective viewpoint at the very end of the movie, the situation is clarified. I suppose you could watch the movie again and try to make sense out of the individual scenes, but this film is no Mulholland Drive and I wasn't inclined to watch it again.

[Warluster]

Recent movies i've seen:

Spider Man 3: Boo! I walked out of the theaters with this one! Crap storyline,crap characters,didn't build on Venom enough (what happened to the Venom rfrom the comics? The guy who rips out intestines?)

Pirates of the Carribean 3- great,awesome movie! Probably one of the best I've seen! (Other then Saving Private Ryan) I loved the starting bit in Singapore,great action there with some funny suprises, like the small gun guy.lol.

Flags of our Fathers - I actually saw this one a while ago, but still remember it, great movie, a mixutre of what happened at Iwo Jima and what it was like when they came home...

[nokhor]

the thing i disliked about spidey 3 is that the characters were forced to go through the same emotional developments that had gone through in the previous movies yet again. parker has to deal with the murder of uncle ben again. i swear for a guy that died in the first 15 minutes of the original movie, that actor is sure racking up the paychecks from movie to movie. we get to see boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl again between parker and mary jane. we get to see goblin jr. torn again between his loyalty to his daddy and his friendship with parker. it's like these characters are caught in a twillight zone-esque vortex of repeatable story arcs with just the settings being changed. the only thing i really liked about the movie was the character of ursula, the landlord's daughter, who we came across in the previous movie. she has such a huge crush on parker that she is oblivious to the fact that he is using her. she's just happy that it is her that he is using as opposed to anyone else. there is such an innocence and joy of life in her character that parker's negligence and disdain can't even put a dent in, like for example with the milk and cookies scene.

[Puzz3D]

Flags of our Fathers - I actually saw this one a while ago, but still remember it, great movie, a mixutre of what happened at Iwo Jima and what it was like when they came home...

I took my mother, who was 16 when the USA entered WWII, to see Flags of Our Fathers. After the movie, she said the film depicted the people on the home front better than any another film she has seen.

Scarface (1932) directed by Howard Hawks is an excellent crime film from the early 1930's that has finally been released on DVD. It was actually filmed in 1930 but its release delayed because of film board disapproval. Howard Hughes, the producer, eventually went ahead and released it in States that didn't have film review boards. This film along with The Public Enemy (1931) and Little Caesar (1931) set the standard for crime films for a long time afterwards. The film was remade in 1983 with Al Pachino. Loosely based on AL Capone and events in 1920's Chicago, it has a great performance by Paul Muni in the lead role, George Raft at his coldblooded gangster best in a secondary role and fine performances by the entire supporting cast. The film is well paced and has some interesting camera work as well. Watch for a symbolic X in scenes depicting a murder. A long montage sequence in the middle of the film depicting the gang warfare at its height is striking in its sustained violence.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

I saw Munich rescently and it's AWSOME! I can't believe it took me so long to see.

I have to agree with Fragony and Alexanderofmacedon, Munich is an excellent movie, Eric Bana and Spielberg at their best.

I thought it was the worst movie I saw all year. What a bunch of propaganda.

It shouldnt even be mentioned in the front room as its definetly back room material :)

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Wow I have to stop posting late at night Munich was a great film I was thinking of Syriana

[Puzz3D]

28 Weeks Later (2007) is a sequel by a different director to the horror film 28 Days Later (2002). Stylistically it's similar to the first film, but this sequel doesn't have as good a plot, characters or acting, and it isn't as suspenseful either. The first 5 minutes is good if disorientating in the action scenes with the shaky, fast cutting, hand held camera of mostly closeups. An interesting moral dilemma is established in the first 5 minutes, but nothing comes of it except that the victim gets victimized again later by the same person! There are far too many implausable plot devices used to advance the story which in itself struck me as uninteresting. There are no sympathetic characters, and almost no character development. Disappointing in comparison to the first film.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Saw Smokin' Aces last night - a surprisingly good movie. I was expecting a predictable mindless action movie, but I got much more - a good plot, good character development and pace up to the hotel scenes that keep the tension up very well.

I saw Stranger Than Fiction a week ago - a good movie with a strong performance by Will Ferrell.

CR