Movie Tab II

Martian Child -

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I was quite surprised; for an "okayish"-sounding romantic comedy/drama, Martian Child was really good. The film is about a novelist who writes science fiction that adopts a young boy who actually believes he is a Martian. John Cusack and the kid's chemistry is fantastic, and several scenes throughout the movie are emotionally gripping, despite the ending being a little weak compared to basically everything in the beginning and middle of the film. I was engrossed in the story throughout, and, had it not been for that somewhat of a let-down climax among a few other minor things here and there, I would have given it a .

Clue -

Clue was long overdue for a rewatch. Extremely funny, great acting, and a plethora of very clever twists and turns. Coincidentally, like Martian Child, the climax wasn't quite on par with the rest of the film (it wasn't quite as funny--and it tried to be--or as good overall), but it was still very enjoyable to watch everything in it unfold. All the performances were a great pleasure to watch. I liked it a lot.

A Midsummer Night's Dream -

I don't have much to say other than this: mixed feelings. I've only just started reading the play the film is based on, so I'll have to continue reading that to further develop my thoughts on the movie. I didn't understand everything that was going on--Shakespeare's language can be difficult to follow--but even of what I did follow, it didn't seem to be strikingly interesting or funny (the film being a comedy).

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"The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."
John Milton, Paradise Lost

My Movie Review Thread | My Top 100

I think that's pretty much it, but even most of the horror movies that come out today really don't scare me much anymore. Like I said, The Strangers one of the first horror movies in awhile to actually really scare me; it actually made me had trouble sleeping after I watched it for the first time. No horror movie has done that for me since I was a kid, and even back then, very few movies like Child's Play or Halloween did that for me. I doubt those'll even scare me if I were to watch them today.

There's still a lot of horror movies that I have to see though. I don't even think I've seen that many horror movies; I mean, I watched them some as a kid, but never really got into them until recently.

Really, it took you 14 years to see your first horror movie? I mean I didn't start to like them until recently, and I'm 15 right now, but I did see quite a few horror movies before I was 15.

Army Of Darkness -

This is definitely the most silly out of the entire trilogy, and it's just so freaking cool. This is probably the most fun out of the trilogy, but I still prefer Evil Dead II over this. I think this and The Evil Dead are about tied for me, because I can't chose which one I like better; I do know that I like Evil Dead II more than both though. I do want to point out that, this one probably makes the most sense out of the three of them. I was confused during parts of the first two, but I wasn't confused once during this. The only parts that seemed to confuse me is the beginnings of the first two; I think it may be because of what someone told me about the Evil Dead trilogy earlier today. It seemed like they were trying to take the trilogy in a new direction with this one though, and it worked IMO.

Bruce Campbell is super awesome though, and Ash Williams may be one of the coolest movie characters ever. I think this is the movie where Ash got most of his one-liner's from, like "Groovy" or "the name's Ash: Houseware" - those were my two favorite one-liner's from this. If you're trying to look for an enjoyable movie to watch though, I'd definitely recommend checking this one out, because I'm sure you'll have a fun time. I highly recommend checking out the trilogy if you haven't had a chance to yet.

Princess Mononoke (1997)

I am a fan of Studio Gibili and this one of the only movies I hadn't seen. Princess Mononoke was a bit too similar to Nausicaa of the Vally of the Wind so it didn't stand out that much. Enjoyable and still a great movie in its own right.

Is it really so hard to believe? Nobody in my immediate or extended family were horror fans and even if they were, they weren't about to let me see any. To be truthful, I have honestly no idea if I saw any horror before then (doubt it, though), but The Evil Dead marks the first time I ever consciously watched a horror film from start to finish, therefore I just go along with calling it the first horror film I ever saw.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

The Happening -

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Easily Shymalan's most underrated movie so far; I mean this movie gets so much crap for no reason, to me at least. I loved it, sadly I think I'm in the minority with this one. There were some things that I didn't like, for example some parts seemed too rushed. Like the: "we lost contact with everyone" line, I mean that had real potential to be a very ominous feeling line; even though I still think it was, it was sort of ruined by a quick cut to another line by Julian. This really does have one of the best, if not the best, ominous feeling score that I've ever heard. The score really added a lot to this, some scenes wouldn't have nearly been as great without James Newton Howard's score added to it. It's like that for quite a bit of Shymalan's movies, actually most of them wouldn't be nearly as great without Howard's score.

One of the main complaints that this movie seems to get is from the acting. I personally think it's pretty great, at least for the main actors, the minor character's could've done better. Wahlberg, Deschanel, and Leguizamo did a really great job for the most part. Leguizamo especially, I mean right when he was leaving the rest of the group to go to Princetown, when he's saying goodbye to them, his acting really seemed to shine. There were some characters that I wish would've been in the movie more, like the real estate agent for one; I mean the dude seems to just disappear and he's never seen in the movie again, and never really implied if anything ever happened to him. This movie is truely shocking for what it shows though; I mean the stuff that they show in this could happen at any time. Which is the main thing that freaks me out about this; for all I know, something like this could suddenly happen tomorrow, with the way our enviroment is looking. Shymalan made a crisis that's going on now, and made a movie to show what could possibly happen beacuse of it, and I get it. This movie is truely great, and I honestly don't see why people just seem to automatically hate it so much, but then again, a lot of people just seem to hate Shymalan in general for some reason. Personally, he's one of my favorite director's, probably in my top 3.

Well, I disagree on so many levels in regards to The Happening, but I'm not going to get into it. I like Shyamalan's first three films, but not his last three.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)



Ive always been a science-fiction fan but it seems I missed 2001 somehow, so I had big hopes when I sat down to watch this. I understand that for a film that was released in 68' its was ahead of its field, in context, sound and visuals. The movie moved slowly and seemed to be reaching a conclusion when it hopped to the next portion of the plot and left questions unanswered, that was frustrating. As a concept documentary/film it works, and held my interest even though the plot and ending are vague and open ended not delivering much explanation. After reading up on the novel I felt the film could have been better if it revealed a little more of the original story. Maybe not "the best movie ever made" in my opinion but for its time a remarkable one.


Dusk Till Dawn (1996)



This was the first time I'd seen Dusk Till Dawn, I was under the impression it would be a real horror film not a comedy disguised as a horror film. In a way I'm disappointed I think it would have been particuarlly good with out the laughs. It still works in a over-the-top cheesy way and it is only the second half that is less serious. A great cast if only they had more time onscreen together, everything moves pretty fast. Entertaining and dark, good for a laugh.


RocknRolla (2008)



Snatch and Lock, Stock are some of my favorite movies. When I heard Riche was releasing a new film I was genuinely excited and I can't say its lived up to my expectations. Some great laughs, great cast, a few good action sequences but over all its not equal to Snatch or Lock, Stock.The plot itself was worn a bit thin, another stolen object and even stealing from Pulp Fiction (whats in the suitcase, whats the painting of). I think Gerald Butler makes a better leading man then Mark Strong (even though I enjoyed his character) and felt Riche should have picked one instead of hopping between them. Jeremy Piven, Ludacris, Tom Hardy, Toby Kebbell and Tom Wilkinson all do a good job. For fans of Riche its still a must see.

Today so far I've watched

Forces of Nature (1999)


Human Traffic (1999)


Sneakers (1992)

The Punisher: War Zone is strictly a b-movie action/crime flick, in which case guilty pleasure seems to be the most fitting categorization to bestow it with. The main goal of War Zone is by no means to stand out among great cinematic achievements. It’s a b-movie and it tries to be the best and most entertaining b-movie it can be, which in this case involves a seemingly invincible man tearing through a bunch of gangsters with apparent ease.

I’ll commence by stating that it is a very enjoyable action flick. The stunts, fights, and shoot-outs are all an action fan would want them to be. Its unique visual design is surprisingly impressive. The colorful lighting brings together a dark, gritty comic book feeling to the film. The violence is non-stop and this film is certainly not for the squeamish. It includes everything from heads getting blown off to entire bodies being dismembered, all shown in gruesome detail.

Frank Castle (better known as The Punisher) is an unstoppable one man wrecking crew that “punishes” those who he feels are deserving of punishment. Not until he runs into a hot-shot criminal named Billy Russoti (who is later known as Jigsaw) does he have any trouble dealing with the bad guys. Russoti (also known as Billy the Beaut in the opening minutes of the film) is proud of his good looks until he runs into Frank Castle who brutally scars his precious face. Russoti then plans on extracting his revenge on Castle.

Having seen both prior film adaptions of the Punisher, I personally found the most enjoyment from War Zone. Thomas Jane made a fantastic characterization in a not-so fantastic film with the 2004 version; and giving Jane’s punisher a run for his money is Ray Stevenson who seemed to fit the role of the deadly vigilante damn near perfectly. Stevenson’s actions and lines were delivered with minimal flaw. Comparing the two most famous portrayals of the Punisher (the lesser known portrayal done in the 1989 film by Dolph Lundgren); Stevenson is the better anti-hero; or the better bad ass, while Jane’s punisher felt more realistic; more human.

In the end of the film the viewer is left with a sense of satisfaction from seeing the good guy tear through the enemies to save the day. The film is not for everyone, though it will do more than satisfy those who crave excessive guns, blood, and violence in their movies.

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Sorry to be pedantic, just felt I should mention that this is a picture from part II not the original

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100 Favourites From The Future: REWIRED

wow that is a little bit hard to believe actually lol i watched Halloween movies in elementary school and most notably i snuck into a showing of Saw when i was 13 and loved it especially when the ending came rolling around but then i had to pretend like i hadn't seen it around my house because my mom wouldn't have let me =\

I rarely watch horror films now and im 21. Though I did see the exorcist (through covered eyes) when i was 14. I havent seen a great deal of the 'really should' horror films like Halloween, Friday 13th, Psycho, Nightmare on Elm Street etc. I know thats pretty bad to deny an entire genre, but on the whole I don't like to be scared, id rather laugh my a$$ off for 2 hours than be scared for 2 hours.

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Undercoverlovers 100 REDUX

Burn After Reading

Bit of a pout pourri number, but with that familiar Cohen Bro 'carrion flower' scent throughout. Best way to summarise it is through some talking head snippets from the DVD extras (i paraphrase) - 'Central Intelligence Agency meets personal fitness'; 'It's all about people in their 30s'; 'Stupid people, and sex'.

Not entirely satisfactory blend in some ways. Perhaps the espionage aspect leaves you wanting more ends to be tied up. ('What have we learnt', a high-up spook asks at the end, and i had to ask the same). And using 'stoopidity' as a plot driver can be a touch annoying at times. But it's got a charismatic cast, some classy points of tension and release, and is a fine one to slump in front of at the end of the day.

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

I can't agree. Although the themes are similar in some aspects, Nausicaa falls into a couple of traps that make it the lesser piece for me. Then ending isn't well done in Nausicaa, and I thought the silly exposition with the characters just sort of sitting around talking to themselves was cheap. I also thought the writing left something to be desired, with the dialogue being sort of ******. Also, I think Miazaki's artwork is MUCH better in pretty much all his later films, with Mononoke standing out as some of the best and most fluid. I have issues with Mononoke, too, but I think it is overall a much better film. The themes are definitely similar though, so Nausicaa did that first, it just didn't do it as well.

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Werd. Still my favorite Miyazaki...

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http://www.last.fm/user/diezelpower/

Ha! I liked this one too, in a forgettable kind of way. It was just one big shaggy dog story that went nowhere really, but boy did it have me belly laughing in a couple of scenes. Plus, am I the only one who thinks Pitt should take more comedy roles? He was hilarious in this.

Yeah, I know, but I couldn't find a pic of the first one for some reason.

Perhaps you could have used the poster or put a note underneath. But really, it's no big deal

I do watch Miazaki's films for the beautiful visuals but after seeing Mononoke I realized how much the story is my primary focus. There are too many similarities, the central characters are almost identical, the nature vs industry/humans theme is central in both, the waring clans/tribes, a strong female villain and the 'demons'/enraged bugs share so many things. Mononoke is more or less a reimagining of Nausicaa. I agree that Mononoke is a much better film I just wish I hadn't seen Nausicaa first.