Movie Tab II

Been watching movies like crazy. Forgive me if any of these are repeats, I haven't tabbed in awhile.

Mutant Chronicles (Simon Hunter-2008)

It was alright. Kind of an interesting spin on a futuristic world that seems to still be stuck in the 1940's. Pretty typical end of the world type of story with a happy ending of course.

Resident Evil: Degeneration (Makoto Kamiya-2008) +

Also pretty good. I like the regular movies better because of Milla but this was pretty decent too...

Return to the Blue Lagoon (William A. Graham-1991)

Also somewhat enjoyable, and Milla was so cute before she got all growed up. I have a weird soft spot for the first one so I can't like this one better but overall it was OK.

Man on Wire (James Marsh-2008)

Pretty exceptional... more to come in the movie club thread.

Frozen River (Courtney Hunt-2008)

Another film about stupid people doing stupid things. Melissa Leo was very good and now I'm positive she will get her nomination. I've loved her since the days of Homicide: Life on the Streets, just a fantastic show. I'm always happy to watch her work and this year it appears she will (rightly) be awarded for her efforts.

City of Ember (Gil Kenan-2008)

Thanks to the Swede and his review I enjoyed the heck out of this.

Cadillac Records (Darnell Martin-2008) +

This was pretty great. A flick about the rise of some of the best music this country has ever seen and probably ever will see. A very good story. More folks need to see this.

Fido ( Andrew Currie-2006)

This is hands down, the funniest and freshest Zombie movie I've seen since Shaun of the Dead. Truly satisfying. Tim Blake Nelson never disappoints and his little contributions to this film were just terrific!

Stuck (Stuart Gordon-2007)

Another movie that was recommended by the Swede and I gotta say thanks man. Very good stuff indeed.

The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg-1983)

I suck big time for not getting to this sooner. I didn't know Cronenberg directed this, man what a trip! A very good flick, and not to spoil it too much for every one that hasn't seen it yet but I have a question. How do they make a show out of this when he dies at the end of the movie? Sometimes television is stupid.

The Midnight Meat Train (Ryűhei Kitamura-2008)

Again, not a bad little horror flic. Pretty low budget CGI effects but the story was pretty good and a pretty decent cast too.

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (Jonathan Levine-2006)

All in all this was just mediocre. I liked it better the first time when it was called Scream. I gotta say that little Amber Heard is pretty easy on the eyes though.

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Wild At Heart (Lynch, 1990) -

I think my might actually be a little high. I will admit I liked Lynch's take on the whole "couple on the run" story, but it ran a little too long with a few scenes I could deem unnecessary (but seeing as it's Lynch, they probably mean something for anyone who cares to delve into it). It was decent and weird enough for my liking, yet there was something about it that made me feel like I couldn't quite care. Not to mention that Nicholas Cage's constant Elvis-based acting tended to grate a bit. Still, it did have an incredibly over-the-top death scene near the end that I found to be rather amusing.

Wanna bite o' peach?

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Agreed with your rating. I personally didn't like Shaun of the Dead at all; I found it rather unfunny and just not very interesting, but I loved Fido's version and twists on the idea. Not only was Fido pretty hilarious, but it had quite a bit of deep drama to its story and characters, which I found myself attached to.

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My Movie Review Thread | My Top 100

No duh!

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Blasphemer! Oh well, different strokes. I'm a Zombie nut and after all of the Zombie movies I've seen I can personally guarantee you that Shaun of the Dead is the very best Zombie flick to come down the pipe in many a moon.

Yeah, the whole idea was pretty brilliant. I would've laughed a little harder at times if it was trying to be funnier you know? I found myself laughing at things that I don't think they were necessarily trying to be funny with you know?

How did I know you were going to say something to that effect?

I get the feeling (spider sense?) Mark isn't a big David Lynch fan.

I'm sorry. I just watched the first four episodes of the "Twin Peaks" TV show; ya know, the episodes after the two-hour intro-movie, and so far, those six hours are easily worth . Wild at Heart, which I saw at the theatre and a few times afterwards, is no better than , at least if I compare and contrast the two.

I can definitely agree with you there. Twin Peaks is quite possibly one of the finest American TV shows ever. And I probably wouldn't rate his movies all that high either. My Pops just loves the guy but I find a lot of his stuff a little to long to put it nicely.

I get the idea. Wild at Heart is not something I'm going to watch again in a hurry, and even now as I think about it I'd probably consider re-rating it to a . Some great moments in it but as a whole I do find it rather lacking.

Gangs Of New York -

This one actually really surprised me, I can defintely say that this is Scorsese's most underrated movie that I've seen so far, and yeah, he probably does have some more underrated movies. This movie just really hit me though, I think with a rewatch that this may be bumped up and extra .5 of a point, because I just really loved it. The weird thing though is that this felt nothing like a Scorsese movie, it was just really weird at times during it. But this by far has one of the best opening sequences that I've ever seen, I think watching this movie is just worth it for the opening sequence alone. This also has my favorite Daniel Day-Lewis that I've seen so far, There Will Be Blood comes reallt close to it though. I'll probably be writing up a more detailed review for it sometime within the next few days, I'm too tired to right now.



Casino -

So far out of the Scorsese movies that I've seen, this is by far my least favorite. I was very surprised about this, because this really had a Goodfellas type of feel to it, it just wasn't the same though. This did have my favorite onscreen duo in it though, Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci. Except, I hated most of all the characters in this, except for DeNiro's character, he seemed to be the only 'good guy' in this, I really didn't like Stone's or Pesci's character in this. Also Pesci and DeNiro didn't seem to have a strong of bond in this one, as they did in Raging Bull and Goodfellas, there was definitely still a bond there though. My main problem with is length, I mean I feel it needed all of the time for it, but I just thought it was a little overly long. I really loved the ending to it, the last 15 minutes to it were just amazing. Like Gangs Of New York, I'll be typing up a full review for it sometime within the next few days.

Gran Torino (Eastwood, 2008) -

Even though I was expecting this movie to be good, it certainly surprised me quite a bit. I vaguely wonder if Eastwood intended for Walt's lines and behaviour to seem so funny (as the audience I was in did laugh at a lot of the things he said and did, especially in response to the behaviour of his neighbours). Although a little laughter never hurt anyone, it did feel a little out-of-place to hear people laughing at scenes where Walt was acting in what's a classic Eastwood manner (that is, the softly spoken growl accompanied by a cool handling of whatever dangerous situation he gets in). It does seem to help the film, especially when the humour of the first two thirds or so of the movie is contrasted by the brutal twists that invoke the film's final act. Even though it still has a few funny moments, it still feels like it's been sullied somewhat. I wonder if laughing a lot at Gran Torino means that I (and by extension a lot of the audience) may have missed the point, but if anything, it may have just driven the point home stronger.



Goodbye Lenin! (Becker, 2003) -

This is what happens when I don't pick the movie. While it was decent enough and kept me interested enough to watch the whole way through in one go, it feel like it was stretched a bit and it did seem to put a lot of unnecessary emphasis on the ridiculous nature of the plot, which made it feel somewhat artificial.

The Seven Year Itch (1955) -

I haven't seen this film in it's entirety, but I have seen most of it. It was nice to watch/rewatch it. I think this movie is just delicate!

Black Christmas (1974) -

I have had this movie on DVD for so long but I've never watched it. I finally did, and it was great. It really is perfect as a horror film. It has a great cast, including John Saxon, Margot Kidder and, most notably, Olivia Hussey (the beautiful and talented actress I will always remember from Romeo and Juliet [1968]). I don't know if this film influenced many other horror films, but I know it heavily influenced Halloween (1978), which did influence countless others. I could really see the impact this had on Halloween (1978). I haven't seen many Christmas horror films at all; I've only seen this and Silent Night, Deadly Night. But I love both of them a lot.

Gran Torino - Clint Eastwood (2008)

I kinda expected this to be mediocre, like most of his films, but I was expecting to be at least moderately entertained. What I got was pretty much the exact opposite. It became a struggle to finish after the one hour mark, and there was still about an hour to go. Wow. I'm not really sure what the point of this exercise was, maybe something along the lines of The visitor, showing middle class America that immigrants are just people too? I hated that movie also but at least it had decent actors. Similarly to The visitor, we're subjected to a predictable, middle of the road plot of "unlikely" interracial/cross-cultural friendship/life resuscitation made watchable only by Eastwood's larger than life persona. But what little emotional impact it could have had was destroyed by the amateur actors' inability to play anything believably. The story was a stretch, the dialog a drag, and really, you see one ghetto movie, you've seen them all. Thumbs down.

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Other than that though it was hoot eh?

The car was pretty cool. They should have focused on it more...:/

Twas funneh. A little too long but very entertaining. James Franco was amazing. I wish we had dealers like that here...and the choice of material instead of just getting whatever overpriced crap they give you...:sigh: Anyways, I like all of Apatow's films, they've taken comedy to a whole new, smart, down to earth level. It kinda makes me want to give Freaks and geeks another shot. I watched the first episode and just couldn't get into the whole high school vibe at all. It just seemed like the same old rehashed jocks vs. nerds and outcasts *****...dunno. We don't really have that sort of caste system here so I could never relate. Anyhoo...

In Bruges -

The Shining -

(FIRST VIEWING)



Clearly what I witnessed here was an exceptional film, but much of the story is very unclear to me. Especially after reading the IMDB "FAQ" page, I realize that I need to read the novel to understand many of the weird/unusual scenes and entire sub-stories ("Tony") within The Shining to gain any understanding of them at all. As it stands now, the parts of the story I *did* understand, the excellent performances, and the all-around great filmmaking will--with a rewatch--make this film probably become one of my favorite horror/thrillers.

Jumper -

This movie really surprised me. I was expecting solid -ish material, but I found myself swept away in the awesome concept and its execution. The movie was undoubtedly too short and its plot ran a little thin, and if it held more sequences of events it could have been something great, but as it is, Jumper is a solidly good movie but unfortunately nothing on the level of "spectacular."

7.5/10

If ever there were a film that was meant to be put on Blu-Ray, this is it. The visuals in this film were stunning in 1968. In 2008/9 they're orgasmic. This is the most beautiful transfer of this film, and of any film I've seen yet. The visuals are everything. You sit back and watch this film to have your eye sockets sexed up real nice, and the music is so well suited for it. The movie itself is very odd and fragmented but in order to like Kubrick you have to kind of let go of the norm now and again and just accept what he presents. I'm still trying to get over the visuals. They alone get a 10/10. I've never given a 10/10 to anything before. They are perfect...plain and simple.

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