The Movie Review and Discussion Thread

[CZAR]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Sussudio bailed months ago. Just Bam! Gone!

Wow very strange. He was a cool cat. Oh well out with the old and in with the new. Its funny because the members rotate like clockwork. There are so many members when i first joined not here and boy what a bunch of new members we have! Got Em!!

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Riff Magnum

Yeah, what's up with so many people who are scared of clowns. It seems like a trend.
Just so my chet zar talk stays on topic, i had no idea he's worked on so many films. I knew he'd done some tool videos, but check this out:http://www.chetzar.com/film-creature...-chet-zar.html

Thats a pretty good resume.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by Riff Magnum

Yeah, what's up with so many people who are scared of clowns. It seems like a trend.
Just so my chet zar talk stays on topic, i had no idea he's worked on so many films. I knew he'd done some tool videos, but check this out:http://www.chetzar.com/film-creature...-chet-zar.html

They aren't funny. Not the ones I've seen anyway.

And between things like Michael Meyers, the Joker, "It," "Killer Klowns from Outer Space," "The Devil's Rejects," and God knows what else, they have become a horror icon of sorts.

[Riff Magnum]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Thats a pretty good resume.

Seems like the weird ass "eyes in hands" character from Pan's Labyrinth is a complete rip off of some of Zar's other work. I was surprised to not see it included in that list.

[Batman1980]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 3.5/5

[Show spoiler]Gets better every time I see it but I still can't give it a 4. Love how Harry and the others grow up SO much in this one, Ron and Hermione grow both closer and further apart and you see glimpses of Harry's relationship with Ginny. Draco becomes Voldemort's little errand boy and Snape has to protect him, even making an Unbreakable Vow. Snape kills Dumbledore at the end of this one, leaving many to wonder just which side he is on. All in all this movie was very good considering how boring its book was, looking forward to both parts of 7.

[Riff Magnum]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

They aren't funny. Not the ones I've seen anyway.

And between things like Michael Meyers, the Joker, "It," "Killer Klowns from Outer Space," "The Devil's Rejects," and God knows what else, they have become a horror icon of sorts.

You're right, they aren't funny and they are creepy. It just seems like at some point clowns became the defacto answer to the "what scares you the most" question. My answer would be stuff like: the ocean (because that's where great white sharks live), the unknown, dying alone and poor, unarmed and face to face with a big bear in the wild. You know, stuff that's really scary. I'd kick the crap out of a clown if it gave me any guff. No questions asked.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Riff Magnum

Seems like the weird ass "eyes in hands" character from Pan's Labyrinth is a complete rip off of some of Zar's other work. I was surprised to not see it included in that list.

Whats up with his use of numbers. Especially 5?

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Riff Magnum

You're right, they aren't funny and they are creepy. It just seems like at some point clowns became the defacto answer to the "what scares you the most" question. My answer would be stuff like: the ocean (because that's where great white sharks live), the unknown, dying alone and poor, unarmed and face to face with a big bear in the wild. You know, stuff that's really scary. I'd kick the crap out of a clown if it gave me any guff. No questions asked.

Pffft. I'd thrash him from top to bottomus.

[Riff Magnum]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Whats up with his use of numbers. Especially 5?

I dunno. His dad is an artist too, but his stuff is real bright and hippie-ish. Probably some occult thing, if i had to guess.

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Pffft. I'd thrash him from top to bottomus.

Oh yeah!!
Well, what makes a muskrat guard his musk?

[Marcus Wright]

Despicable Me.

This was so much more fun than I expected.
It was a very unique movie all around. The story, the direction was so much more differrent than what we have seen before.

Overall, this was a very good movie. I will have to add it to mu blu ray collection sometime.

5/5

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by Marcus Wright

Despicable Me.

This was so much more fun than I expected.
It was a very unique movie all around. The story, the direction was so much more differrent than what we have seen before.

Overall, this was a very good movie. I will have to add it to mu blu ray collection sometime.

5/5

LOL yeah this is the best year I've ever seen for animation -
How to Train Your Dragon
Toy Story 3
Despicable Me
Tangled
Not to mention the catalog releases of Shrek 1-3 and Beauty and the Beast.
Next year should be okay, I guess.

[Marcus Wright]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

LOL yeah this is the best year I've ever seen for animation -
How to Train Your Dragon
Toy Story 3
Despicable Me
Tangled
Not to mention the catalog releases of Shrek 1-3 and Beauty and the Beast.
Next year should be okay, I guess.

I never even had realized what a good year it was until you listed them.
Got all that titles on blu rays, and my getting Despicable Me at some point is inevitable as well.

[two40]

Originally Posted by Marcus Wright

Despicable Me.

This was so much more fun than I expected.
It was a very unique movie all around. The story, the direction was so much more differrent than what we have seen before.

Overall, this was a very good movie. I will have to add it to mu blu ray collection sometime.

5/5

I enjoyed this very much as well but there is no way I would rate it that highly. Even while smiling and having fun, I felt like they played the cute card far too often. I'm certain kids will love this and parents can enjoy it alongside with them.

[Romulus]

127 Hours

Had the pleasure of watching this over Thanksgiving.

I'm a huge Danny Boyle fan. He's one of the few working director's today who I feel can do no wrong. Okay, so he did do The Beach which was absolutely terrible, but he has a perfect track record since then. From each film to the next we get a completely different story set in a completely different world. Whether it's from zombie controlled Britain to the surface of the sun or the wild streets of India, Boyle offers a completely unique perspective on the visual medium. Following Aron Ralston's journey in the Utah canyons only continues Boyle's streak.

By now we all know of the heroic story of Aron Ralston and his inspirational story in the canyons of Utah. After spending five days trapped in a boulder he does the unthinkable and cuts his own arm off. 127 Hours does a great job of offering the mental and physical stress that Ralston suffers through. Ralston, played by James Franco, is forced to reevaluate his life when he is pushed to the edge and faces immanent death. This isn't only a film of the ultimate survival, but a study into the human mind on what exactly it takes for us to reevaluate our lives and realize what is the most precious to us.

The show stealer is obviously James Franco. Out of all the films I've seen this year, this is hands down the best performance. Franco doesn't overact, but offers a more subtle approach in which the fear the creeps under your skin. You can see the fear in his eyes as he sits silently and observes the situation at hand.

Obviously the big issue with this film is the graphic portrayal of the amputation scene. I have to come right out and say that while it is pretty intense, I can probably guarantee you that you've seen much worse. I should fairly note that for guys it shouldn't be a problem, if you're taking a date, you might want to second guess. Every girl that I went with ended up covering their eyes. Simply put, I would be pretty surprised if anyone ended up fainting when there is much more gory stuff out there. The amputation scene certainly isn't a disappointment, but I found the reports of people fainting to be a little over the top.

Stylistically this is Boyle's most interesting work to date. He opts for a three panel canvas in which we see a variety of shots on the screen at once. Boyle executes it perfectly without it being an eyesore or feel like it's being shoved down your throat. Some of the transition pieces present remind me of Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout.

[Show spoiler]For those who have seen Walkabout, think about the transition from the city to the wilderness with the brick wall, Boyle offers a very similar transition here that I love.

Overall I would have to say that this may be Boyle's best work yet. There certainly isn't a poor third act and for those who did not like Slumdog Millionaire and want something more gritty, then 127 Hours is right up your ally.

5/5

[Diesel]

There's a lot of posts I need to catch up on, but I'm a little pressed for time, so I'll do that tonight after I return from seeing The Fighter.


Avatar

Guess what...I'm not lowering my score this time

When I first saw it in the theater I gave this movie a 5/5 and didn't think I had let myself get caught up in the "experience" but a year later, I believe I did. So I will let that original 5/5 rating stand for the experience, sort of like Higgy rated it a 4/4 for the experience.

The movie, however, is far from a 5/5 for me. As I've gone over before, I lowered it to a 4.5 and then to a 4/5 where it stayed since my last viewing.

This time though, I didn't lower it. I can't watch this blasted movie two times and feel the same about it!

I'm not going to comment on the storyline and if its original or not because 1) that has been beat to death so many times I hate even seeing the discussion anymore; and 2) I honestly don't care. So, moving on...


Cheesy, awful, dreadful dialog in the movie? Oh absolutely yes. If you just take that away the movie is automatically much improved.


For me now, the beginning of the film plods along. This wasn't the case the three (yes, three) times I saw it in the theater. I was hoping to see that 4 hour cut that was talked about then. Today, not so much; what we got in the theatrical is enough for me.

To improve the flow of the beginning I'd cut some of the intro to the human stuff, or just quicken the pace a little.


Once Jake meets Neytiri at I guess around 30 minutes in or so the flow much improves for me. And then once you get to the

[Show spoiler]bulldozer

part the movie as a whole much improves. For the remaining 2 hours after that there is a lot less horrible dialog (there's still some cheesy stuff in there, but not nearly as bad as in the first 45/50 minutes), it moves at a better rate and it is also more interesting (meaning: less of the boring/lame humans).

That first portion though, it just weighs down the later part for me a good bit. Even with its issues, I don't entirely dislike the beginning, its just that I don't like it as much as I would like.

One thing that really hasn't changed for me in the movie is my thoughts on the acting. It's mediocre/average (or in some cases lower) for just about everyone besides Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington and Stephen Lang.

Saldana is easily the best in the film. I think she did a very good job just as I did when I saw it the first time.

Worthington's performance is better described as "serviceable". He gets the job done. There's some ups and downs and he's also one of the ones who has some cheesy/horrible dialog in the film. But he did well enough.

Stephen Lang is good with a seriously one note (on purpose) character who has probably the worst of the dialog. I wish they had given that man some better stuff to say...


One thing that I always think about the music is that when Jake has

[Show spoiler]just made his "lets go to war" speech and he and Neytiri are running to Turok or however you spell it

the music sounds JUST like the music when Simba is racing back to the Prideland in Lion King


So from the beginning to about 45/50 minutes I say - 3.75/5.
From then on I would actually say a 4.5/5 because I do really enjoy it.

Overall...this time ...

Rating - 4.25/5

[CZAR]

Originally Posted by Diesel

[Show spoiler]There's a lot of posts I need to catch up on, but I'm a little pressed for time, so I'll do that tonight after I return from seeing The Fighter.


Avatar

Guess what...I'm not lowering my score this time

When I first saw it in the theater I gave this movie a 5/5 and didn't think I had let myself get caught up in the "experience" but a year later, I believe I did. So I will let that original 5/5 rating stand for the experience, sort of like Higgy rated it a 4/4 for the experience.

The movie, however, is far from a 5/5 for me. As I've gone over before, I lowered it to a 4.5 and then to a 4/5 where it stayed since my last viewing.

This time though, I didn't lower it. I can't watch this blasted movie two times and feel the same about it!

I'm not going to comment on the storyline and if its original or not because 1) that has been beat to death so many times I hate even seeing the discussion anymore; and 2) I honestly don't care. So, moving on...


Cheesy, awful, dreadful dialog in the movie? Oh absolutely yes. If you just take that away the movie is automatically much improved.


For me now, the beginning of the film plods along. This wasn't the case the three (yes, three) times I saw it in the theater. I was hoping to see that 4 hour cut that was talked about then. Today, not so much; what we got in the theatrical is enough for me.

To improve the flow of the beginning I'd cut some of the intro to the human stuff, or just quicken the pace a little.


Once Jake meets Neytiri at I guess around 30 minutes in or so the flow much improves for me. And then once you get to the

[Show spoiler]bulldozer

part the movie as a whole much improves. For the remaining 2 hours after that there is a lot less horrible dialog (there's still some cheesy stuff in there, but not nearly as bad as in the first 45/50 minutes), it moves at a better rate and it is also more interesting (meaning: less of the boring/lame humans).

That first portion though, it just weighs down the later part for me a good bit. Even with its issues, I don't entirely dislike the beginning, its just that I don't like it as much as I would like.

One thing that really hasn't changed for me in the movie is my thoughts on the acting. It's mediocre/average (or in some cases lower) for just about everyone besides Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington and Stephen Lang.

Saldana is easily the best in the film. I think she did a very good job just as I did when I saw it the first time.

Worthington's performance is better described as "serviceable". He gets the job done. There's some ups and downs and he's also one of the ones who has some cheesy/horrible dialog in the film. But he did well enough.

Stephen Lang is good with a seriously one note (on purpose) character who has probably the worst of the dialog. I wish they had given that man some better stuff to say...


One thing that I always think about the music is that when Jake has

[Show spoiler]just made his "lets go to war" speech and he and Neytiri are running to Turok or however you spell it

the music sounds JUST like the music when Simba is racing back to the Prideland in Lion King


So from the beginning to about 45/50 minutes I say - 3.75/5.
From then on I would actually say a 4.5/5 because I do really enjoy it.

Overall...this time ...

Rating - 4.25/5

Stephen Lang really? I absolutely love the film and I dont have many probs at all with it but if I did it would probably be Stephen Lang's sorta over the top cheesiness acting. Again not that I am complaining but since u pointed it out, I would have to say that would be my biggest gripe but again everything else outweighed him so the movie was perfect for me. Got Em!!

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Romulus

127 Hours

[Show spoiler]Had the pleasure of watching this over Thanksgiving.

I'm a huge Danny Boyle fan. He's one of the few working director's today who I feel can do no wrong. Okay, so he did do The Beach which was absolutely terrible, but he has a perfect track record since then. From each film to the next we get a completely different story set in a completely different world. Whether it's from zombie controlled Britain to the surface of the sun or the wild streets of India, Boyle offers a completely unique perspective on the visual medium. Following Aron Ralston's journey in the Utah canyons only continues Boyle's streak.

By now we all know of the heroic story of Aron Ralston and his inspirational story in the canyons of Utah. After spending five days trapped in a boulder he does the unthinkable and cuts his own arm off. 127 Hours does a great job of offering the mental and physical stress that Ralston suffers through. Ralston, played by James Franco, is forced to reevaluate his life when he is pushed to the edge and faces immanent death. This isn't only a film of the ultimate survival, but a study into the human mind on what exactly it takes for us to reevaluate our lives and realize what is the most precious to us.

The show stealer is obviously James Franco. Out of all the films I've seen this year, this is hands down the best performance. Franco doesn't overact, but offers a more subtle approach in which the fear the creeps under your skin. You can see the fear in his eyes as he sits silently and observes the situation at hand.

Obviously the big issue with this film is the graphic portrayal of the amputation scene. I have to come right out and say that while it is pretty intense, I can probably guarantee you that you've seen much worse. I should fairly note that for guys it shouldn't be a problem, if you're taking a date, you might want to second guess. Every girl that I went with ended up covering their eyes. Simply put, I would be pretty surprised if anyone ended up fainting when there is much more gory stuff out there. The amputation scene certainly isn't a disappointment, but I found the reports of people fainting to be a little over the top.

Stylistically this is Boyle's most interesting work to date. He opts for a three panel canvas in which we see a variety of shots on the screen at once. Boyle executes it perfectly without it being an eyesore or feel like it's being shoved down your throat. Some of the transition pieces present remind me of Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout.

[Show spoiler]For those who have seen Walkabout, think about the transition from the city to the wilderness with the brick wall, Boyle offers a very similar transition here that I love.

Overall I would have to say that this may be Boyle's best work yet. There certainly isn't a poor third act and for those who did not like Slumdog Millionaire and want something more gritty, then 127 Hours is right up your ally.

5/5

I really like Boyle. He takes chances.

[vega2K]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

my interest level in The Fighter is around 1/5, but i'll see it when it hits the shelves. however, with that said, i'm hesitant to watch it because it's not something i'm super interested in, but since it will get some award noms, it's worth checking out.

but i HATE Christian Bale (not anything he's done personally, just don't like his performances and something about him just irks me) and i'm not a fan of boxing at all. but i'm a big Wahlberg fan and Johannson... well, she speaks for herself so the two plusses equal out (almost) the two main negatives i have with the film.

great review by the way!
this is the first 5/5 for you this year? wow! what else have you seen?

Thank you bearcat! I think you should keep an open mind and hopefully Bale will surprise you. As far as the Boxing theme, I found that this movie was more about the family issues and obstacles faced by the characters and, oh, by the way, there was boxing in it.

I actually should have rephrased - The Fighter was my first 5/5 movie review on this thread this year. I normally only review those movies worth me saying something about, both negative and positive. In the case of The Fighter, I wrote the review because I was somewhat surprised at how much I liked it. I have seen other movies that I felt were close to or equal to a 5/5 (Inception: 4.5/5, Toy Story 3: 4.5/5), but just did not have more to add to the many reviews on here.

[Al_The_Strange]

Next greatest blind buy: “I Spit On Your Grave” 1978. I don’t know why…

There’s perhaps nothing more depressing and bleak than seeing a human being receive the full blunt of another person’s violent malice. Whether looking at the playful mental tormenting in “Funny Games,” the brutal punishment of the Bride in “Kill Bill,” the relentless suffering in “The Passion,” the tense conflicts of “Deliverance,” the unavoidable humiliation of “The Human Centipede,” or the willful defiling and violation of dozens of nameless innocents in the unassuming villa of “Salo,” the portrayal of human indignation and suffering is always a hard-hitting (if not wholly provocative) element. And there’s perhaps nothing more invigorating and inspiring than to see characters overcome their adversities and claim justice.

“I Spit On Your Grave” beckoned with seemingly similar content to something like the original “Last House on the Left,” with the promise of controversial violence and heartbreaking humiliation. And the film delivered! Nearly an hour is spent on the main character’s plight, before spending the rest of the film depicting her vengeance. For both halves, the film is highly effective; the initial brutality is hard-hitting (even if the actors are a little over-zealous; I think Camille Keaton’s earnest performance balances it out), and by the second half you’re rooting for the main character.

This is a very simple story; you probably already get the gist of it from what I’ve revealed. But it is well-executed with an adequate group of characters. A few small parts hint at some moral complexity (a bad guy with a family, for example), but at its core the film is as straightforward as it can be.

Similarly, this is also a simple film. Photography is fairly plain, with some stand-out scenes, but most of it maintains a certain objective distance. Production value is very limited. Acting is swell though; some of the actors seem a little extreme with their roles, but I think Camille Keaton did a smashing job. She expresses great suffering in the film’s first half that’s really heartbreaking to watch, and she shows an incredibly cool and cold-hearted resolve in the second half matched only by the actresses in “Death Proof.”

In the end, the film is a bit of a rollercoaster ride, dipping into the extreme lows of human suffering, before rising into triumph. I think it’s cool, and would rank it well above the average fare of trashy exploitation films.

4/5 (entertainment: 4/5, story: 3.5/5, film: 4/5, emotional impact: 3/5, controversy: 4/5)

Recommendation: Only for those who can handle violent, disturbing, brutal films. The rape scenes in this film might be a massive deal-breaker for most civilized folks.

This British Blu-Ray looks really nice in its pretty slipcover and with its glossy essay booklet. The PQ seemed a little underwhelming though; it is certainly sharper than a DVD, but it seems a little soft as well. On very close inspection I thought it looked pixilated, making me wonder if this is a 1080i presentation or something. From a distance though, it looks adequately detailed. Color and contrast are good most of the time, with maybe just a few scenes where they could have been better. The image is largely clean, save for some film scratches, some slight flickering in one scene, and a couple of other anomalies. Sound quality is lossy; it is clear some of the time, but some dialogue was low and noisy and hard to make out.

PQ: 3/5, AQ: 2/5

This movie is Region-B locked.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by Diesel

There's a lot of posts I need to catch up on, but I'm a little pressed for time, so I'll do that tonight after I return from seeing The Fighter.


Avatar

Guess what...I'm not lowering my score this time

[Show spoiler]
When I first saw it in the theater I gave this movie a 5/5 and didn't think I had let myself get caught up in the "experience" but a year later, I believe I did. So I will let that original 5/5 rating stand for the experience, sort of like Higgy rated it a 4/4 for the experience.

The movie, however, is far from a 5/5 for me. As I've gone over before, I lowered it to a 4.5 and then to a 4/5 where it stayed since my last viewing.

This time though, I didn't lower it. I can't watch this blasted movie two times and feel the same about it!

I'm not going to comment on the storyline and if its original or not because 1) that has been beat to death so many times I hate even seeing the discussion anymore; and 2) I honestly don't care. So, moving on...


Cheesy, awful, dreadful dialog in the movie? Oh absolutely yes. If you just take that away the movie is automatically much improved.


For me now, the beginning of the film plods along. This wasn't the case the three (yes, three) times I saw it in the theater. I was hoping to see that 4 hour cut that was talked about then. Today, not so much; what we got in the theatrical is enough for me.

To improve the flow of the beginning I'd cut some of the intro to the human stuff, or just quicken the pace a little.


Once Jake meets Neytiri at I guess around 30 minutes in or so the flow much improves for me. And then once you get to the

[Show spoiler]bulldozer

part the movie as a whole much improves. For the remaining 2 hours after that there is a lot less horrible dialog (there's still some cheesy stuff in there, but not nearly as bad as in the first 45/50 minutes), it moves at a better rate and it is also more interesting (meaning: less of the boring/lame humans).

That first portion though, it just weighs down the later part for me a good bit. Even with its issues, I don't entirely dislike the beginning, its just that I don't like it as much as I would like.

One thing that really hasn't changed for me in the movie is my thoughts on the acting. It's mediocre/average (or in some cases lower) for just about everyone besides Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington and Stephen Lang.

Saldana is easily the best in the film. I think she did a very good job just as I did when I saw it the first time.

Worthington's performance is better described as "serviceable". He gets the job done. There's some ups and downs and he's also one of the ones who has some cheesy/horrible dialog in the film. But he did well enough.

Stephen Lang is good with a seriously one note (on purpose) character who has probably the worst of the dialog. I wish they had given that man some better stuff to say...


One thing that I always think about the music is that when Jake has

[Show spoiler]just made his "lets go to war" speech and he and Neytiri are running to Turok or however you spell it

the music sounds JUST like the music when Simba is racing back to the Prideland in Lion King


So from the beginning to about 45/50 minutes I say - 3.75/5.
From then on I would actually say a 4.5/5 because I do really enjoy it.

Overall...this time ...

Rating - 4.25/5

Good man!