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He's called Tequila. He's a tough cop.
Slumdog Millionare



I thought this was a good movie. Thruthfully, I somehow didn't know much about the movie (despite watching all the Oscar coverage and everything) and didn't realize it was as serious or "real" as it is, so some of the brutal parts caught me off guard. Much of the movie (especially the filming style) reminded me of City of God. The jarring camera angles and chaotic tracking shots, plus the idea of following kids growing up in the slums were the main similarities. The organization made for an interesting, if sometimes confusing, narrative structure. The story was pretty cool. A different idea. Overall, I thought it was a well-done, intriguing, and exciting movie, without being something special.

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Lawrence Of Arabia
David Lean, 1962

THis has always been one of those movies for me that I put off watching for so long just because of it's near 4 hour runtime. I was so absolutely wrong, actually I feel like hitting myself because I put of watching it for so long. I'm literally blown away right now, because it was just that amazing. Easily the most epic movie I've ever seen. It's really like 2001: A Space Odyssey, except it takes place in the desert instead of space. I loved how they broke it up into two parts, hell they even had an intermission in it. It gave me a little break to stand up and walk around a bit so I wouldn't get tired when I watched the second half.

Something that was really unique is that before the movie started, during the intermission, and after the credits, the screen basically just went black and it's amazing score started playing. It's just something that I haven't seen done before, but it worked great because the score was so amazing. The scenery is one of the best things about this, they really had some beautiful shots of the desert in this. I'm sure this would be great to see in Blu-Ray, but it'd be even better seeing it on a movie screen.

I loved the first half a lot more than the second. I'm actually pretty surprised because the second half is more of a revenge part, and I tend to like watching revenge. I think the main thing I don't like is what seems to happen to Lawrence duing it. He just seems to completely lose it, he was so inspirational in the first half, and then it just all disappears in the second half. Peter O'Toole did a much better job acting wise during the second half than the first half, even if I didn't like the character as much. He still did a great job in the first half, though, I don't want to sound like he didn't. He sure did a great job for this to be his first role ever in a movie.

This is easily one of the greatest movies ever made, and I really feel like putting it in my top 10, hell probably even top 5. I've been seeing so many great movies recently, though, that I'm just confused with my top 10. I don't know, it's really weird. If you've been putting this one off, like I was doing, do yourself a favor and go and watch it as soon as you can, because it really is as great as people make it out to be. This is probably my favorite movie in AFI's top 10.






La Haine (1995, Mathieu Kassovitz)
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He's called Tequila. He's a tough cop.
Way of the Dragon



Before watching this I'd never seen a Bruce Lee movie. Well, I have to say I am impressed with his bad-assesry. It is perhaps only rivaled by the king of bad-ass Clint Eastwood. The story/acting/dubing/ and pretty much everything else in this movie sucked. But it sucked so badly that it was kinda of amusing to watch, which made it easy to stay interested in between the fight scenes, which are awesome. The fights were so cool and well-done it makes this movie easy to reccomend. It reminded me of Hard Boiled in that the story/acting wasn't great (way worse in Way of the Dragon) but the action was increadible. Plus, it was great to see Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris duke it out (despite Chuck Norris' gross body hair).

for everything except for the fights

for the fights

Total:



Taken



Have to say, watching Liam Neeson do something other than be wise mentor / dead mentor is gonna catch my attention. But Liam Neeson action hero? Rather interesting. He does a decent job, his worried father was far too scripted to make the limited narrative work; apparently just because they haven't got a dumb star- doesn't mean the film won't be dumb. The plot is derivative set up to allow for a few bits of action, you won't be surprised to see Luc Besson's name on the bill considering its Paris setting and choreographed violence. Anyway, it's a solid enough film, even if it isn't offering anything different to other movies, despite having a 'good' actor in the lead.




Troll 1 & 2



I got these on DVDs (they were cheap) because i'd heard the name around the net. Watched the first, average 80s "horror" (inverted commas since it wasn't actually scary). It wasn't awful, was just very average, very Leprechaun. There's not really much to say other than it's being remade.

Anywho, it was by the time it came to watching the sequel, which, by the way has NO relation to the first- that i realised where i knew the name- from Worst Movies of ALL TIME LISTS. Kinda had to laugh at some of atrocities they pull off on this, the costumes, script, acting all diabolical. I don't know what else to say really. It's one of those SO bad it's almost ok films. The fact it's about Goblins (Trolls aren't even mentioned) the poster art is a werewolf chasing a kid WHICH NEVER HAPPENS. Here's the plot, the Goblins (who live in Nilbog, geddit?) have to get people to drink some potion so they can turn into plants and the Goblins can eat them. Yes, VEGETARIAN Goblins, who get defeated by a kid with a baloney sandwich. Oh and the kid has some help from his dead Grandfather's ghost, who appears and hands him a MOLOTOV COCKTAIL. Preferred Leprechaun 4 but this sits up there in that niche genre with some hard to believe it stupidity. Here's some awesome stills:





Troll 1-


Troll 2-

TRASH RATING-


This made me laugh on a slightly related note <<<click


Elite Squad



I'm surprised this is the first film i've seen crop up that takes an immediate influence from City of God. I can't see this film as anything more than an opposite perspective, here police instead of street kids. Unfortunately it doesn't really succeed as much as the aforementioned film, it copies the cinematography and editing well but has none of the heart. The plot is pretty wishy washy with little interest shown in the characters who appear occasionally and seem important only to be seconded to others. It's not a bad film but it fails to make any impact, which probably comes from the lacking of heart- which is needed to bring the shocking nature of the films reality to the forefront. I wasn't even sure if this 'Elite Squad' was real or fictional.

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Gone With The Wind
Victor Fleming, 1939

This is one of those movies, much like Lawrence Of Arabia, that I always put off watching because of it's super long runtime. Something I have seemed to really notice is that as long as the movie has enough interesting things in it, I really don't mind. Sadly this couldn't be one of those. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but it's absolutely nowhere near as great as people make it out to be. The beginning was great, easily the best part of the movie, sadly it stayed that way pretty much throughout the whole 4 hours and it eventually got really tedious watching it.

Something that really impressed me with this is the score, it's really amazing. I can pretty much say hands down that it's the best thing about the movie. Something that I really didn't like was that before the intermission, the movie was so exciting, but it just got real boring after. I guess normal life during the 1800's doesn't really intrest me that much. Clark Gable had some great acting during the second half of the movie, which was probably the best thing about the movie. Him and Vivien Leigh worked as a great couple.

Love stories don't even really seem bother me anymore either, because I mean I love Casablanca. I think that worked so well, though, was that it was still pretty short. I guess love stories just can't seem to keep my interest for 4 hours. I'd probably class this as the most overrated movie ever, but maybe it's because I'm so young. I'm actually pretty surprised I'm saying that, because I can stand a lot of movies. Seeing another rather bad movie after didn't really help much either.






The Seven Year Itch
Billy Wilder, 1955

This one really surprised me, because I never really had much interest in seeing it, but I needed something to watch and it was in my instant queue. I'm really glad that I decided to watch this tonight, because this made for my crappy day with movies today. The funny thing about the whole movie, is it's all true. Guys have those thoughts like that, and they made it funny at the same time. One reason I was putting off seeing this is because of Billy Wilder directing it, and I didn't like Double Indemnity that much. I'm glad I did decide to check it out, though, because I ended up really liking it. I suppose I'll have to try and check out Some Like It Hot now.

Tome Ewell did such a great job as the lead actor in this, and I don't think it wouldn't have been quite as good without him. Something I did notice while watching this is that Marilyn Monroe really is beautiful, and of course this had her iconic shot in it. Anyone that's thinking about seeing this needs to get on it sometime soon.




Jerry Shaw, you have been activated.
Blade Runner -


I really enjoyed this film, it was very well made for how old it is, maybe with a re-watch it will bump it up to a full
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Jerry Shaw, you have been activated.
Yeah? It's a old movie and is very well made, some movies that are 20+ years old don't look that great, and this looked pretty damn good.



For Billy Wilder you should check out Sunset Boulevard, most definitely.
Indeed, although Double Indemnity is probably my favourite Wilder.

MM, you should also check out The Lost Weekend, The Apartment and Stalag 17. Come to think of it Sabrina, Witness for the Prosecution, One, Two, Three and Ace in the Hole are worth your time as well.



From Stalag 17 (1953)



From The Lost Weekend (1945)



Welcome to the human race...
There are some movies that just came out that don't look that great either. Your point?

Anyway...



Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction (Burns/Hullum, 2008) -
+

Some of you may have heard of the popular Internet machinima series Red vs. Blue. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it revolves around a war being fought between two teams - the Reds and the Blues. Originally focusing on a handful of soldiers fighting a pointless battle in a box canyon, it expanded across the universe in a variety of convoluted manners before coming to a close at 100 episodes over 5 seasons. Even though Reconstruction is technically also a series, I watched it as part of an official DVD (which edited the individual episodes together into a single uninterrrupted movie) so screw it, I'm including it here.

The movie is great, utilising better camerawork and special effects than the previous seasons (thanks in no small part to the usage of Halo 3 in making it) and also creating a plot that, while not quite as full of humour as the average RvB season, made up for it by managing to bring a stunning amount of closure to the entire series, especially thanks in one truly jaw-dropping twist.

Of course, it's not going to make that much sense unless you're a fan of the series (being one, I picked up countless blink-and-you'll-miss-them in-jokes that would confuse any ordinary person) although there's still quite a bit there for an inexperienced viewer. I don't recommend watching it until you actually do see the series.



Drunken Master (Yuen, 1978) -


I stumbled upon this film by accident while at the library. It was contained on two separate video CDs, had two different audio tracks in each stereo speaker (I ended up watching while using one headphone to avoid confusion) and had a pan-and-scanned screen which lopped off the longer subtitles (which were already chock full of bad grammar).

In spite of that, I still enjoyed the film immensely. I've always liked Jackie Chan films and Drunken Master is one of the better ones. Utilising a rather thin plot (Chan is a rebellious young upstart who is forced to learn some discipline from the titular drunken master, which comes in handy for taking on the various bad guys that he comes into contact with), it works as a showcase for the skills of Chan and company. The fights are fast and fluid, packed with overexaggerated sound effects and also some of his trademark comedic touches such as including a bunch of props that get thrown around and used in a variety of amusing ways. Even though it was a crap copy of the film (and I'm going to try and find a better version if I can), it was still a great kung fu movie.



A system of cells interlinked
X-Men Origins - Wolverine(Hood, 2009)


A fun but silly action flick. Grab some popcorn and prepare to roll the eyes.




X-Men (2000, Singer)




It was fun popping X-men in the DVD player right after we go home from seeing Wolverine. The first reason being, Bryan Singer's film is an immediate step up, and second, the Wolverine character was just that much more fleshed out after seeing his [somewhat altered] origin. Even though X-men is sort of light in comparison to X2, it is still a well made film that actually attempts to develop its characters.


There Will Be Blood (PT Anderson, 2007)




I wondered what Mr. Anderson would do with a film like this. Having Daniel Day-Lewis chew scenery was a brilliant approach. I can watch this guy all day. What a flick.
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Yeah? It's a old movie and is very well made, some movies that are 20+ years old don't look that great, and this looked pretty damn good.
In comparison a film made in the 1980's isn't really that old , though it was an era where films began using cheap dumb looking special effects that obviously haven't held up.
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Welcome to the human race...
In comparison a film made in the 1980's isn't really that old , though it was an era where films began using cheap dumb looking special effects that obviously haven't held up.
You can't really say the 80s began using "cheap dumb-looking special effects" any more so than any other era. Every era of filmmaking is going to have a select handful of truly brilliant effects and a load of really crap ones. Hell, Twilight came out a few months ago and the effects haven't held up at all.



A system of cells interlinked
In comparison a film made in the 1980's isn't really that old , though it was an era where films began using cheap dumb looking special effects that obviously haven't held up.

The effects in Blade Runner still hold up, and IMO still look better/more convincing that most of the CGI crap we have these days...



You can't really say the 80s began using "cheap dumb-looking special effects" any more so than any other era.
Pretty much every movie I've seen with goofball effects has come from the 80's - countless films using 2D animated lightning and constant amateurish green screen usage. There were tons of breakthroughs in special effects during this decade and an equal amount of terrible looking movies.

Some excellent looking films from the 1980's.



This one's advanced animatronics still look amazing to date and professional camera-work is able to treat the effects with regular importance instead of trying to milk everything they can out of them.



... and while more and more films began using computer generated effects , Temple of Doom was grounded to more practical effects - but it's ground breaking camera work and overly detailed sets make this one of the best lookers to date.



Pretty much all the best looking ones of this time , are so because of their camera work. Computer effects were starting to become interesting , but compared to our current CGI they just look terrible.

Some films from the 1980's with horrible effects.



This was right on the edge of the 90's , being released in 1989 - it used every cheap effect in the book. It didn't even look good for it's time , but it grossed a lot of money.



It's hard to pin the blame on a film shot under $375,000 , but it's a great display of every cheap effect used by the big hollywood blockbusters of this time. Clay frame-by-frame animated creatures , funny animatronics , and massive amounts of corn syrup gore.

(Even though this film itself has some cool camera effects)






Welcome to the human race...
The worst special effect I ever saw was in Boorman's Point Blank - if you see it, you'll know which scene I'm talking about. Not only was it poor in terms of quality, the fact that it was a very obvious special effect ruined the hard-boiled reality that the film had strived so hard to achieve up until that point - a problem that would not cause problems with a film like, say, Tron.