The Movie Review and Discussion Thread

[menaceuk]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Its OK if the character is cool and ahead of his contemporaries, but when the movie has stuff that never existed in that era I have to a little. It would be like Maximus killing Commodus with a switchblade.

Nothing wrong with that

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Foggy

I'd probably like Gladiator a bit more if it had Jetpacks in it

Originally Posted by menaceuk

Nothing wrong with that

Machine guns!!!!!!!!!!!!

[menaceuk]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Machine guns!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gladiator, Rambo style. I'm Sold

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by Diesel

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

[Show spoiler]To be fair, I wasn't expecting much from this movie going in. The trailer didn't look particularly good and the first was only okay (3/5 + .5 for RDJ)...but it was free, so what the heck.

It turned out about as expected, the lesser of the two films.

Blackwood's story felt "so what?" to me in the first film and in this one Moriarty's felt even more so.

I could not have cared less about him or his plans...completely uninteresting villain. Maybe he's better in the books?

I quickly grew sick of the constant "Okay, this just happened and you don't know why, so we'll flashback five minutes and show you everything that made it possible in sped up time".


Downey and Law are pretty good together again, but that's not good enough. They were great together in the first. They had a few moments that were as good as the first film, but the rest was incredibly weak and carried only by their pure chemistry.


The action scenes were terrible.
They are either so fast and badly shot that Michael Bay wouldn't be able to keep up or in so much slow motion that Zack Snyder would get bored.


Like I said, I got in the neighborhood of what I expected...on the lower end actually.

Oh, and WHY was his brother

[Show spoiler]naked

? Completely pointless for the creation of an awkward "humorous" scene

Rating - 2.5/5

I know I'll give this a much higher score by default because I liked the first one a lot better than you too.

Originally Posted by Diesel

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

[Show spoiler]No, I didn't watch this to finally get Foggy off my back
My buddy was scrolling through the movies on the on demand thingamabob and said, "Hey, let's watch this." and the list didn't have anything worth watching, so I didn't say no

I didn't loathe it, nor did I expect to. But I did, as expected, loathe Michael Cera...man that guy is just the polar opposite of anything funny. So so so so so bad.

Outside of him, I got a some laughs throughout, Chris Evans was easily the best thing about this movie in his brief appearance...followed closely by Brandon Routh.

But the laughs weren't anything memorable, in fact I can only recall a few of them specifically and it's only been two hours.

I can't say that I enjoyed the film though, because I hated the main character, couldn't care less about his trek through the levels of exes and wasn't really interested in the side characters (aside from Young Neil )

But I did get some in-the-moment laughs and didn't want to stab my eyes out

And hey...it's the best movie I saw today

Rating - 2.75/5

Partial for not liking it, but at least you didn't hate it. Kind of the best I could have hoped for I guess. You already know I really like the movie.

Originally Posted by menaceuk

Gladiator, Rambo style. I'm Sold

Somebody should do that actually. It could be fun if done right.

[Show spoiler]Edgar Wright or Matthew Vaughn

[surfdude12]

The Descent (still on my self-imposed Netflix boycott - just watching films in my collection. Still have 4-5 I haven't even opened yet)

Film: 5/5
-first part of the film establishes the mother-daughter relationship and

[Show spoiler]shows the mom picturing the daughter's birthday cake right after the accident that killed her daughter

. We see the birthday cake several other times in the film. I guess it symbolizes

[Show spoiler]the mother-daughter bond, which would have been celebrated at the daughter's birthday that never happened

-the end of the film (UK ending) ties it up beautifully with the

[Show spoiler]mother subjectively seeing her daughter and the birthday cake, when in fact all that is there is the torch fire way deep at the bottom of the cave

. As Neil Marshall says on the extras, which pretty much sums up the immense power of this theme:

[Show spoiler]"To Sarah, she is with her daughter, even if on the outside she is not. She is happy, even if she is stuck in the cave."

. The basic theme (and huge lesson on life): happiness is based on perception of external reality, not on external reality itself.
Some poor guy could be much happier than a rich guy, if the poor guy has a better perception of his external reality.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Its OK if the character is cool and ahead of his contemporaries, but when the movie has stuff that never existed in that era I have to a little. It would be like Maximus killing Commodus with a switchblade.

Dude, it could happen...

[Show spoiler]

[SquidPuppet]

Cedar Rapids

2011 R 87 minutes

A goofy, raunchy, quirky comedy. Ed helms is pretty good in the lead here. A lot of it early on is pretty dry and subtle, making indirect observational fun of naive people from small towns. Then it shifts into party mode and becomes more gag and dialogue based humor.

It was OK for a rental, but nothing special at all.

Film 3/5
PQ 4/5
AQ 4/5

[Al_The_Strange]

Next greatest movie borrowed from the library: "Rush Hour."

This fun little action flick comes from a long line of buddy-cop action-comedy hybrids, and could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with movies like "Beverly Hills Cop," "48 Hours," "Lethal Weapon," etc. As expected, "Rush Hour" contains a fair amount nice action scenes, some awesome martial arts, a few good chases, and generous amounts of amusing and light-hearted comedy.

The story for this is a fine and dandy excuse to slam the two main characters together and watch their chemistry react (with amusing results). Their interactions really do drive the story more than the actual plot; the story doesn't really have much depth to it, and is rather cliched, but the characters keep it fun.

This film has decent photography and editing. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are quite fun to watch. The writing is okay. This production has good-looking sets, props, costumes, and action setpieces. Music is a bit arbitrary.

4/5 (entertainment: 4/5, story: 3.5/5, film: 4/5)

Recommendation: For fans of the genre.

If this was a song, it'd be

[Show spoiler]something fun, silly, full of action, but rather thin on substance:

kung fu fighting - YouTube

I'm just worried that this song might be used for dozens of other movies.

[Al_The_Strange]

Next greatest blind-buy: "Blood Simple" 1984 Coen Bros Version.

This is the Coen Bros' debut film, and even here they've shown masterful style and technique. The film is a little slow and deliberately-paced, but the shots are reasonably edited in a way to keep the story flowing. The imagery is often unique.

Above all, the story is quite intriguing. It's definitely one of those movies that requires the full attention span to understand what each character is doing and what their motivations are. But that is probably the film's greatest strength; each character conspires and acts in a way so that the reactions impact the story and its outcome. My only complaint about it is, no one character is really likable or stands out as a "hero." Then again, perhaps one isn't needed (they're all greedy slobs ).

The film is a little cheap, with its low-budget origins, but still shows nice photography and editing. Acting is pretty decent; I loved seeing Dan Hedaya in his role, and everybody else filled their roles well. Writing is strong. Production value is limited, but still looks pretty real with its sets, props, costumes, and locales. Music is okay.

4/5 (entertainment: 3.5/5, story: 4.5/5, film: 4/5)

Recommendation: For fans of the genre/directors.

This Blu-Ray shows lots of soft spots, grain, noise, scenes with weak contrast, but also has plenty of area that are surprisingly clean, clear, and sharp. Sound quality seems okay, but some parts were noisy and muffled.

PQ: 3.5/5, AQ: 3/5

If this was a song, it'd be

[Show spoiler]Johnny Cash:

Johnny Cash Hurt - YouTube

[Al_The_Strange]

Next greatest rental: "San qiang pai an jing qi," aka "A Woman, A Gun, and a Noodle Shop," or (as indicated on the UK disc), "Blood Simple" 2009, the Yimou Zhang Version.

Some of this movie's artwork would have you believe that this would be another historical Asian wuxia epic with big armies doing high-flying stunts or some weird stuff like that. This movie starts off looking that way, as it shows a Persian dude twirling and flinging a sword around, while a bunch of goofy-looking characters watch on. For those first ten minutes, it felt like I would be going into another "The Good, the Bad, and the Weird."

Suddenly, it was like a dark cloud came over the film, obscuring any sense of camp or goofiness, and obliterating any hope for martial arts action. It becomes as poetically bleak and deliberately-paced as the Coen Bros' original "Blood Simple." But with Yimou Zhang's slick eye for visuals, this edition of the story remains fairly interesting. This film tends to have long spaces of silence and lingering imagery, but the various mountainscapes, solid cameramanship, and a few awesome slow-mo scenes keep it from being totally dull.

The story for this is very much the same as the original "Blood Simple," but with taking some liberties with the characters, and huge liberties with the settings. Characters remain borderline-unlikable, but I did enjoy the detective here more than in the original film (in this version, he's cool, quiet, attentive to detail, and very much like a ninja). Character interactions remain strong, with their actions causing interesting reactions to the story.

As expected, the film looks really nice. Photography and editing are quite slick and cool. Acting tends to be very over-the-top, for comedic effect that I didn't think really works with the film, and may not for others either. Writing is not bad. This production has plenty of good-looking sets, props, costumes, and locales (although a few times I thought I spotted modern-looking anachronisms that shouldn't have been there, like bowls with manufacturer stamps on them, or roads with modern tire tracks). This film has very very little music, which makes it even more odd.

4/5 (entertainment: 3.5/5, story: 4.5/5, film: 4/5)

Recommendation: As a rental.

Between the two editions of "Blood Simple," I might actually prefer this one over the Coen Bros'.

If this was a song,

[Show spoiler]it'd probably be some kind of folk Chinese music, but I don't really know any. So for lack of a better track, I'll just post this nice slow music from the "Hero" OST.

Tan Dun - For The World (Hero Soundtrack) - YouTube

[Lepidopterous]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

Next greatest movie borrowed from the library: "Rush Hour."

[Show spoiler]This fun little action flick comes from a long line of buddy-cop action-comedy hybrids, and could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with movies like "Beverly Hills Cop," "48 Hours," "Lethal Weapon," etc. As expected, "Rush Hour" contains a fair amount nice action scenes, some awesome martial arts, a few good chases, and generous amounts of amusing and light-hearted comedy.

The story for this is a fine and dandy excuse to slam the two main characters together and watch their chemistry react (with amusing results). Their interactions really do drive the story more than the actual plot; the story doesn't really have much depth to it, and is rather cliched, but the characters keep it fun.

This film has decent photography and editing. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are quite fun to watch. The writing is okay. This production has good-looking sets, props, costumes, and action setpieces. Music is a bit arbitrary.

4/5 (entertainment: 4/5, story: 3.5/5, film: 4/5)

Recommendation: For fans of the genre.

If this was a song, it'd be

[Show spoiler]something fun, silly, full of action, but rather thin on substance:

kung fu fighting - YouTube

I'm just worried that this song might be used for dozens of other movies.

One of the best team-ups.

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

The Descent (still on my self-imposed Netflix boycott - just watching films in my collection. Still have 4-5 I haven't even opened yet)

Film: 5/5

[Show spoiler]-first part of the film establishes the mother-daughter relationship and

[Show spoiler]shows the mom picturing the daughter's birthday cake right after the accident that killed her daughter

. We see the birthday cake several other times in the film. I guess it symbolizes

[Show spoiler]the mother-daughter bond, which would have been celebrated at the daughter's birthday that never happened

-the end of the film (UK ending) ties it up beautifully with the

[Show spoiler]mother subjectively seeing her daughter and the birthday cake, when in fact all that is there is the torch fire way deep at the bottom of the cave

. As Neil Marshall says on the extras, which pretty much sums up the immense power of this theme:

[Show spoiler]"To Sarah, she is with her daughter, even if on the outside she is not. She is happy, even if she is stuck in the cave."

. The basic theme (and huge lesson on life): happiness is based on perception of external reality, not on external reality itself.
Some poor guy could be much happier than a rich guy, if the poor guy has a better perception of his external reality.

I blind bought this at Best Buy for about $7 back in June. I'm not a big horror fan, but I wanted to give the movie a shot and I was glad I did. Intelligent characters (for the most part) and some genuine scares.

If you watch the sequel (which I will never do), it

[Show spoiler]changes the ending of this movie in a sense since Sarah is alive in that movie.

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by KilloWertz

If you watch the sequel (which I will never do), it

[Show spoiler]changes the ending of this movie in a sense since Sarah is alive in that movie.

yeah that's what I heard. That was the US ending which the director was forced to use by the Hollywood execs. IF you think about it, that ending is impossible for 2 reasons:

[Show spoiler]
1. when they went to the cave at the beginning, they parked MILES from it. at the end, she literally runs about 100 feet to the car.

2. juno died in the cave, so couldn't be in the car (ok, so we don't know 100% that she died, but we know 99.9999999%)

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

yeah that's what I heard. That was the US ending which the director was forced to use by the Hollywood execs. IF you think about it, that ending is impossible for 2 reasons:

[Show spoiler]
1. when they went to the cave at the beginning, they parked MILES from it. at the end, she literally runs about 100 feet to the car.

2. juno died in the cave, so couldn't be in the car (ok, so we don't know 100% that she died, but we know 99.9999999%)

ha! that's nothing. in the sequel

[Show spoiler]Juno is ALIVE!

[iam1bearcat]

Midnight in Paris

this won't be so much a review of this film as just a statement about my current predicament as a whole when it comes to film.

i can't watch films anymore!

i've been on a tv kick lately (well, the last two or three months at least) and haven't been tempted to watch a movie. at all. ever. no urge to watch a film has ever struck me in the last few months.

last movie i watched before (trying) to watch Midnight in Paris was Crazy, Stupid Love when that came out in November. and as much as i love that film (i really do) it felt like it took 8 years for that film to end and the whole time i thought, "what is the point of this? in two hours this will be done and i'm on to the next thing". with tv shows, that's much different (more time in the universe of the show, more time and depth of characters and stories) and i like that much more.

i simply no longer see the point of movies i guess

this past weekend some friends were over and wanted to watch a movie (ugh) and we watched Crazy, Stupid Love. and again, while i enjoyed the film, i couldn't stand watching it. knowing in two hours these characters and their stories end. bugged me so much.

i find this to be quite the conundrum!

so as it stands, it may be a very long time before i watch a film. even though there are films i want to see (like Midnight in Paris, Friends with Benefits, Inland Empire (again) and many others) i just don't have the energy or understand the logic of devoting two hours (or so) to something that will then be finished and have nothing else.

kind of pisses me off since i've bought some movies lately and i know full well i have no intention of watching them for about six months or so

anyway. end of diatribe

btw Midnight in Paris (at least the first 30 minutes) seems like a good film, but certainly not my taste since i have absolutely no interest in Paris, and do not understand the fascination with the city, and have no interest in the time period the film takes us to. so for some it will be a lovefest, others, not so much.

[Lepidopterous]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

Midnight in Paris

[Show spoiler]this won't be so much a review of this film as just a statement about my current predicament as a whole when it comes to film.

i can't watch films anymore!

i've been on a tv kick lately (well, the last two or three months at least) and haven't been tempted to watch a movie. at all. ever. no urge to watch a film has ever struck me in the last few months.

last movie i watched before (trying) to watch Midnight in Paris was Crazy, Stupid Love when that came out in November. and as much as i love that film (i really do) it felt like it took 8 years for that film to end and the whole time i thought, "what is the point of this? in two hours this will be done and i'm on to the next thing". with tv shows, that's much different (more time in the universe of the show, more time and depth of characters and stories) and i like that much more.

i simply no longer see the point of movies i guess

this past weekend some friends were over and wanted to watch a movie (ugh) and we watched Crazy, Stupid Love. and again, while i enjoyed the film, i couldn't stand watching it. knowing in two hours these characters and their stories end. bugged me so much.

i find this to be quite the conundrum!

so as it stands, it may be a very long time before i watch a film. even though there are films i want to see (like Midnight in Paris, Friends with Benefits, Inland Empire (again) and many others) i just don't have the energy or understand the logic of devoting two hours (or so) to something that will then be finished and have nothing else.

kind of pisses me off since i've bought some movies lately and i know full well i have no intention of watching them for about six months or so

anyway. end of diatribe

btw Midnight in Paris (at least the first 30 minutes) seems like a good film, but certainly not my taste since i have absolutely no interest in Paris, and do not understand the fascination with the city, and have no interest in the time period the film takes us to. so for some it will be a lovefest, others, not so much.

It's okay bud, we're here for ya. The point of watching movies is entertainment. It takes patience to sit through a film. But even moreso, it takes interest. If you lost that interest, that's all right, because I'm sure you'll find it again. Go back to some of your reviews you'd write with such enthusiasm. Maybe they'll remind you of what movies are all about.

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

Next greatest movie borrowed from the library: "Rush Hour."

[Show spoiler]This fun little action flick comes from a long line of buddy-cop action-comedy hybrids, and could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with movies like "Beverly Hills Cop," "48 Hours," "Lethal Weapon," etc. As expected, "Rush Hour" contains a fair amount nice action scenes, some awesome martial arts, a few good chases, and generous amounts of amusing and light-hearted comedy.

The story for this is a fine and dandy excuse to slam the two main characters together and watch their chemistry react (with amusing results). Their interactions really do drive the story more than the actual plot; the story doesn't really have much depth to it, and is rather cliched, but the characters keep it fun.

This film has decent photography and editing. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are quite fun to watch. The writing is okay. This production has good-looking sets, props, costumes, and action setpieces. Music is a bit arbitrary.

4/5 (entertainment: 4/5, story: 3.5/5, film: 4/5)

Recommendation: For fans of the genre.

If this was a song, it'd be

[Show spoiler]something fun, silly, full of action, but rather thin on substance:

kung fu fighting - YouTube

I'm just worried that this song might be used for dozens of other movies.

Originally Posted by DjMethod

One of the best team-ups.

My favorite comedy and one of my favorite movies in general

[menaceuk]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

Next greatest movie borrowed from the library: "Rush Hour."

This fun little action flick comes from a long line of buddy-cop action-comedy hybrids, and could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with movies like "Beverly Hills Cop," "48 Hours," "Lethal Weapon," etc. As expected, "Rush Hour" contains a fair amount nice action scenes, some awesome martial arts, a few good chases, and generous amounts of amusing and light-hearted comedy.

The story for this is a fine and dandy excuse to slam the two main characters together and watch their chemistry react (with amusing results). Their interactions really do drive the story more than the actual plot; the story doesn't really have much depth to it, and is rather cliched, but the characters keep it fun.

This film has decent photography and editing. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are quite fun to watch. The writing is okay. This production has good-looking sets, props, costumes, and action setpieces. Music is a bit arbitrary.

4/5 (entertainment: 4/5, story: 3.5/5, film: 4/5)

Recommendation: For fans of the genre.

If this was a song, it'd be

[Show spoiler]something fun, silly, full of action, but rather thin on substance:

kung fu fighting - YouTube

I'm just worried that this song might be used for dozens of other movies.

Those movies go down hill fast after the first

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

this won't be so much a review of this film as just a statement about my current predicament as a whole when it comes to film.

i can't watch films anymore!

I sort of agree. I wouldn't go so far as to say I can't or won't watch films, but I definitely watch a lot less (maybe one per week at the most) than I used to (5-6 per week minimum). Its not necessarily a bad thing. I just don't have as much time, which is fine. I'll hopefully get back and watch those I've missed. Either way, whether I have time to watch films or not, one thing doesn't change: I'll usually pop on this forum once per day, just to see who is saying what about which films.

[Steve46]

Rushmore



This was my first time seeing the film.

The first thing I noticed was how obvious Wes Anderson's style is. This was my fourth Anderson film after seeing Bottle Rocket, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Darjeeling Limited.

All four films have a particular type of humor. The comedy is quirky. I like his narrative style too. After seeing Midnight in Paris recently, I can see why Anderson often casts Owen Wilson (apart from the fact that they are friends). Anderson's characters definitely have similarities with Woody Allen's characters.

Unlike most people on earth, I'm not a huge fan of Bill Murray. I don't like watching him completely take over a movie. But he can act and he does a good job in this and Lost in Translation.

So what is the film about?

Jason Schwartzman plays Max Fischer, a 15-year-old student. Max is unconventional and prefers to do his own thing rather than focus on such nonsense as getting good grades. That can be a sign of intelligence or stupidity and it's up to you to decide which camp Max falls into. His bad grades cause him to be expelled from Rushmore Academy.

Most of the story revolves around his infatuation with one of the teachers, but he has a competitor for her affections (Murray) and she doesn't seem to be too interested in Max.

This plays like a more adult version of Ferris Bueller in some ways.

If you like Anderson, you'll like this. It is very much set in his quirky world.

Criterion has done a great job with the transfer as you would expect. This is the type of film that could grow on me, but I liked it well enough on the first viewing.

Overall 4/5