Movie Tab II

Hey, he wrote the Ugly Duckling (Just had a quick look at a summary of the fairy tale and that also seems to have a 'sunnier' ending, as it were).

Yeah fair points. He was nearing an archetypal 'baddie' at times, but he certainly was humanised again by the end. Although perhaps he could still be seen as one extreme end of the film's theme personified. I guess i felt that pushed him quite far into emblematic territory. The other 'melodramatic' element to me is just the fairly histrionic world they all live in

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

Saw this other day but was iduring my lull from being on here so never wrote it up. Did you know it wouldn't be an action film before you went in? I had no idea but still thought it was a pretty solid and surprising turn from van Damme, glad not alone on that. And actually thought the opening sequence was pretty awesome

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Got that (JCVD) near the top of my Netflix queue. Glad to hear so many people have dug it.

I knew it wasn't going to be action oriented like his other films, but I did expect more than I got. Although, I liked that it didn't, it gave the film more realism.



That opening scene is, again, hilarious and one of my favourite moments.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Disaster Movie



Anyone going into this film would automatically assume it would suck. The other films in the ______ Movie franchise have been garbage. Ladies and gentlemen, Disaster Movie is different.

The film is so funny and spot on with the spoofs that I almost died from laughter. All the actors turn in near perfect parodies of their characters. I actually thought I was watching Juno and her baby fight Sarah Jessica Parker from Sex And The City. The guy who played Hancock could be a twin for Will Smith, that is how good he is. He channels the Hancock character so well that I thought I was watching the Hancock sequel.

The film is so witty and on the spot with it's comedy, it feels natural. So natural that there probably was no script. With a film like this, the joke write themselves. Throw whatever story you want in because it's the comedy here that works. On second thought, the story works too. It's leap and bounds over films that have been Oscar nominated. The story centre's around these people and a crystal skull and some disaster that happens. Everything about it works.

The fight scenes are phenomenal. G. Thang plays a character called Calvin, he has a fight scene with a real life panda. Or at least I thought it was a real life panda, the animatronics and special effects in this film will rival Avatar, and it came out a year before it!!! Take that James Cameron. The fight between the two is so well choreographed that it makes Jackie Chan and his stunts look like child's play.

The film has so many unexpected events. Who knew that a meteorite would come crashing down on Kim Kardashian. I sure didn't. Speaking of Kim, she is more than just another pretty face. She was channeling something else here, I think she must have been in character for months before and after this film, because it is just too phenomenal. Daniel Day Lewis should be offering her his Oscar, that's how good she is.

Ike Barinholtz, of MADtv fame, pulls an Eddie Murphy and a Mike Myers, by playing multiple roles. His range is out of this world. Who else could be able to pull off Hellboy, Batman, Beowulf, a police officer and Javier Bardem look a like, and Prince Caspian. I can only think of one man...and that is Ike Barniholtz.

I can't stop recommending this film. It's what the movies and film and cinema is all about. I wish I could watch it everyday for the rest of my life. Which is why I'm giving this the absolute best rating I can possibly give a film like this.

The Innocents - 1961 - Jack Clayton - B



The movie is based on the Henry James novella, "The Turn of the Screw." The screenplay was written by Truman Capote and William Archibald. This movie was an early attempt at a psychological thriller. The director had to make the audience believe in evil spirits and posession without the use of modern day special effects. Instead, he made excellent use of close ups, lighting, maniacal laughter, eerie music and slow motion. The story begins with a well to do socialite (Michael Redgrave) interviewing a young woman, Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) for the position of governess for his two wards. He wants nothing to do with the raising of the children and tells her she will be the one who is ultimately in charge, and he would prefer not to be disturbed with any problems. She accepts the job, and travels out to the country estate, Bly House. She is greeted by the adorable Flora and she bonds with her instantly. She meets the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose. All seems well, until she receives a letter explaining that Miles, Flora's brother, is being expelled from boarding school and will be arriving home. Why he is expelled is never fully divulged and Miss Giddens fears the worst until she meets Miles. She is won over completely by his sweet disposition. As time passes, Miss Giddens begins to see "others" on the property. One is the former governess, Miss Jessel, and the valet, Mr. Quint. She is told by the housekeeper that their deaths were under stange circumstances. She reveals that the two deceased people were lovers, and feels that they may have detrimentally influenced the children as they were not judicious about how they carried on their affair. The children start behaving strangely, whispering and playing pranks. Miss Giddens begins to think that perhaps they are being posessed by the ghosts of the dead.



This is where she starts becoming unhinged, and feels it is her duty to save Flora and Miles. The otherwise mild mannered woman embarks on a holy crusade to rid the children of the evil spirits.



Ultimately, there is a lot more damage done than spiritual healing. I would recommend this movie for the sheer creepiness factor.

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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons.....for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

Observe and Report DVD Screener


Banshee (2008) DVDRip


Bundy A Legacy Of Evil (2008) DVDRip

But how did they make you feel?

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Observe and Report (Jody Hill, 2009)

Seth Rogen is better then this. There were a few cheap laughs here and there but most of it was painful to watch.





Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen (Michael Bay, 2009)

This could have been a great movie with a better director. I'm not a fan of the 'new' Transformers franchise and I didn't really like the first film but after seeing this I appreciate what it did right. The sequel does nothing right apart from CGI. I hate Michael Bay.





I Love You, Man (John Hamburg, 2009)

I Love You, Man has its moments. A few solid laughs, like Paul Rudd being kissed by a gay man but I don't think it stands up next to similar comedies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall or 40Yr Old Virgin.





The Hangover (Todd Phillips, 2009)

Similar to I Love You, Man this had a few solid laughs but in the end just felt like it tried to hard.





The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky, 2008)

I found this hard to watch, not because it was bad but because it was so emotional. A moving performance by Rourke and the supporting cast. A unique and solid film.

After a little layoff from my reviews I've got a lot of movies to do so decided to do a few brief reviews rather than a lot of long ones.

Miller's Crossing



One of the best film noir's I've seen. They proove once again they can tackle any genre and do it well. Miller's Crossing falls under the underrated movie category as far as I'm concerned.

The Coens do a brilliant job in this strongly character driven gangster drama. It is full of double crossing, plotting and has a solid script. Gabriel Bryne puts in arguably his best performance and John Turturro is certainly one of the stars and excels as Bernie Bernbaum, his speech in Miller's Crossing is one of the highlights of the movie.

The score and choice of music is very smart with the music always contrasting the brutal violence being shown on screen. For example, Leo's gun battle with two men sent to kill him whilst “Danny Boy” plays in the background.

This is one of the Coens finest works.


Pride and Glory



Pride and Glory tries at least to some extent to be a movie different from the many generic police dramas which have filled cinemas in recent years. It tries to add a bit of creativity to a fading genre where too many movies use an all to familiar plot. However, in the end this movie ends up like many of it's predecessors.

For at least 80% of Pride and Glory it is a solid piece of filmmaking with enough drama and tension to keep audiences tuned in. Whilst it isn't anything new it is still a good effort. Then in the last 20 minutes the whole film falls apart in one of the worst endings I've ever seen. The ending is essentially ridiculous.

The quality of acting is a saving grace in Pride and Glory with both Norton and Farrell doing what they do best and conveying huge screen personas. Supporting actors such as Ehle, Voight and Emmerich do their part to add to the movie. The acting pulls this movie up from an average cop film to something a little special.

If it wasn't for that ending this movie would have got a 4 star rating as for the most part the writing is just as good as the acting mentioned above. The ending however seriously derails a good film and I had many problems with how this film finished (If you want to know what they were PM me as they are slight spoilers). All in all this is the perfect example of how a good movie can be destroyed but a pathetic ending.


Lucky You


One thing I really liked about Lucky You was how the majority of the character development takes place at the poker table. Being a poker fan, and also a person who enjoys watching poker events on TV like the WSOP I was happy to see that director Curtis Hanson who has the classic L.A Confidential on his C.V, managed to bring some of the excitement of poker to the movie.

One of my criticisms would be the running length of this movie, it could have been 20 minutes shorter as I did find some of the scenes were unnecessary. There are times when the pace of the movie slows down and causes the film to lose some of it's power.

Bana and Duvall are both brilliant in their roles as I believe both of them understood their characters and what was required from them. The interactions between the two at the poker tables are the best parts of Lucky You. When they are at the same table whether in the same hand or not, it is no longer about the poker but about the emotional tension between these two and about their egos.

The love story between Huck and Billie is quite unnecessary but I guess is needed for certain members of the audience. Arguably Billie is needed as a conscience for Huck in times when he considers cheating and may go off the rails. I was pleased that this relationship took the back-seat to the one between Huck and L.C.

I loved seeing a lot of familiar poker players in this movie like Daniel Negranu and Sammy Farha so I can only assume the poker community approves of the movie too. It is not Hanson's best work but is an enjoyable piece of cinema.


The Incredible Hulk


This follow up to Ang Lee's 2003 feature is significantly better in my opinion. I think the studios made the right call in choosing to redo The Incredible Hulk character instead of creating a sequel to The Hulk. This new feature has a lot more action and much less talk and is more of a traditional superhero movie. As you'd expect from one of the Marvel Universe's most destructive characters there is a lot of smashing to keep fans happy.

I loved the cameo appearance from Downey Jr to promote Iron Man and it was a nice little way of showing how Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk are set in the same universe. Perhaps this leaves the door open for a future Iron Man and Hulk movie. However whilst Iron Man could be watched by anyone and enjoyed, this film lacks its wit and genius and is more of a movie made for comic book fans.

This is a good action movie and the acting is what you'd expect it to be, Tim Roth is great as the villain and Norton does what is needed to portray Banner. Tyler and the rest of the cast are all very average.

The finale is a fitting one after all the build up, the pace of the movie is good for an action flick with only occasional breaks from the action to further the love story. The CGI is all right whilst not breathtaking it does what is needed. The final scene especially must have taken some time to construct.

Together with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk has created a potential franchise to be exploited by studios. It certainly performed well in the box office and home video sales.


Choke


It is sometimes the case that adapting a book into movie form doesn't really work out and doesn't really convey the characters and tone of the book properly. Unfortunately Choke is one such case. Being a huge Chuck Palahniuk fan and loving Choke after reading it, I was hoping for a movie which would to some extent come close to being an adaptation somewhere near as good as Fight Club, I was however left disappointed.

Whilst I criticised Lucky You for running too long, I think Choke was too quick and too rushed. Perhaps adding a few more scenes to make us really connect with the characters would have gone some way to improve the movie. It is due to this lack of character development that at the end of the movie when the protagonist is hit with two bombshells, the audience doesn't really feel too much for him. The script is witty enough but doesn't make us feel anything for Victor. We understand why he is like how he is but don't really feel it through the films writing.

The movie changes tones effortlessly from hilarious to sombre and credit must be given to director, Gregg and the cast. Sam Rockwell is truly one of the stars of this generation of actors and shows yet again just how talented he is.

Choke attempts to be more than it actually is but doesn't quite get there. Fans of Rockwell and Palahniuk will enjoy the movie if only due to the fact it is another adaptation of a great book. Lets hope future adaptations of Palahniuk books are nearer to Fight Club.

In The Loop 2009

In The Loop is a mouthful , but it's constantly hilarious and the pace is always frantic and confused. It's a very simplistic movie , but it's key feature is how it sets a realistic atmosphere for it's crazy characters to chew up. I'd like to see Gandolfini in more stuff , he's a very impressive actor.






The Hudsucker Proxy 1994

One of the few Coens movie I hadn't yet seen , it's got the awesome technical aspects you would expect from them - but at the core it's loud and obnoxious more than anything. Though it's quite funny from time to time.





E . T . 1982

Conflict in harmony , the film's nostalgic innocent homey feeling collides with John William's over the top score.

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Hey, guys. I haven't posted much lately; I've been working a bit of over-time at work and haven't gotten the time to pop in much. I also haven't been watching a lot of movies lately; I'd say over the past couple months, I've watched fewer than I ever have since I started watching films regularly. Along with working, I've been reading and watching television shows on DVD/Blu-ray a lot. And I mean a lot -- yesterday, I watched five episodes of LOST, three episodes of Alias, and an episode of Angel.

Anyway, here's the run-down:

The Man Who Knew Too Much -

+
(Alfred Hitchcock, 1934)



My second ever Hitchcock film, my first having been Young and Innocent which I saw a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, this one wasn't nearly as good. At times, it struggled to hold my interest, but still, I found The Man Who Knew Too Much to be a rather decent film during its high points. The quality of the film was so poor, though, with a dismally grainy picture and poor audio, making it hard to follow the story. However, I liked most of the performances and the story contained a very interesting twist, but mostly--perhaps mainly due to the poor audio and video quality of the movie--I'd consider The Man Who Knew Too Much to be rather forgettable. The 1950's remake with James Stewart looks like it's worth a shot, though, despite the original not having left a lasting impression.

The Lodger -

(Alfred Hitchcock, 1927)



The Lodger set a couple of personal records for me: this is now easily the oldest movie I've ever seen, along with it having been the first silent movie I've ever seen. And, I think it's going to take a little getting used to--silent movies, I mean--because it really struggled to hold my interest. However, the story (on paper) is rather interesting: a serial killer surfaces in town, taking pretty blonde women as victims, and to avoid succumbing to his deadly grasp, young women throughout the town buy and wear brunette wigs. Perhaps I'll revisit it in the future, but I'm a big fan of audible dialogue.

The Blob -

-
(Chuck Russell, 1988)



A really great, really fun sci-fi horror/thriller with an ultra-cool antagonist: a giant blob with tentacles that consumes its human victims, leaving their dead forms inside of its huge, bulbous body, which are still visible long after they're eaten. I liked it a lot, although the ending and, paritcularly, how the creature was destroyed...I'm not sure I was a huge fan of.

Vampire Wars -

(Matthew Hastings, 2005)



Ehh...a made-for-TV movie with some cool blood and gore and a couple of neat creature designs (weird vampires from outer space), but mostly...it was a pretty passable film.

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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

Julie & Julia

Nice, light, fun entertainment (despite a really crowded theater that included a crying baby and a snoring old woman). Meryl Streep was wonderfully hilarious as the queen of butter and Amy Adams was lovable as the young woman who idolized her.

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The Hit (1984, Stephen Frears)

3.5/5

Terence Stamp has had a funny old career. I think it's fair to say that he's more naturally talented than his old mucker Michael Caine and was probably even more handsome in his youth, beautiful even. One became a superstar and one an interesting actor who took off but never really flew to the heights he might have.

Caine has a different sort of charisma, I suppose. He's a man's man while Terry is a bit more brooding, quiet and well ... feminine. Ish. I dunno.

Anyway, I hadn't seen The Hit in years and years and it's as solidly good and well shot as I remember. The cast make it work more than anything else with a prime John Hurt, a young and eager Tim Roth and a Stamp who wanders around looking like he's in an altogether different film, not an existential road movie with (not very good) gangsters. The way Stamp plays Willie Parker works in the main, it's just that he's not 100% convincing as a Cockney mobster grass who's spent a decade living on the Costa del Crime. He's far too posh, but maybe that's the idea - he's not like the others.

The script isn't the greatest thing I've ever heard either - it occasionally sweeps when it should be swooping, pongs when it should be pinging. Know what I mean?

What I'm trying to say is that needed more of a solid bedrock before getting all meaningful an sh*t. The characters are well enough drawn but no more than that - it's good enough but you feel like it could have been drafted a few more times into something much better.

Still, The Hit is very good, just not as fantastic as I remembered it and certainly not as fantastic as I think it could have been after looking at it with these cynical old eyes. But what do I know, eh?



One other thing I need to mention is that Laura del Sol is as jaw-droppingly lovely as I remember, even though her allure was muted slightly when I found out that her real name is Laura Arce. Really.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Chaplin (1992)

Excellent performances all around by a surprising number of familiar faces (Robert Downey Jr, Anthony Hopkins, Moira Kelly, Dan Aykroyd, Marisa Tomei, Penelope Ann Miller, Kevin Kline, Mila Jovovich, Diane Lane, James Woods, David Duchovny) make for a very interesting film. Still, I didn't find the man himself - especially with his utter neglect of the women in his life - all that likeable and it did bring down my enjoyment of the film to a considerable degree. Still, it was a good movie and I must say that the scenes it included from The Kid were really great and I'm very much looking forward to watching that film. It's next up on my Netflix queue, so I won't be waiting long.

Planet of the Apes (1968)

This was my first time viewing this, and I was pleasently surprised. The apes ruling the planet and descending from humans was actually believable, and it was interesting to see the effects of the planet had and how different it was with the apes in charge. And, Heston did a tremendous job acting, in my opinion, and I really liked this line, "Get your filthy paws off of me, you damn dirty ape!". Also, the ending came unexpected to me.

Overall, I give this movie an A-/A

The original Planet of the Apes rules, more people need to realize this. But after being a member of this forum for some time now and seeing what people think of the film after watching it for the first time, I'm thinking more people are starting to realize it.

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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."

yeah, frankly, i have no desire to see the remake from 2001.

Thank You for Smoking

This movie is pretty much the reason I love Eckhart. To quote Nick Naylor "You remember that guy in High School? The one who could get any girl? I'm him on crack." All the cast does well in their supporting parts. The script is so brilliant in this though, I loved how Naylor is just a good guy, who just happens to be a supporter of cigarettes, while trying to raise his kids right. You need to see this if you love a good dark comedy.




The Dark Knight

Do I need to do a write-up on this? Just, everything you've heard is true. Although, two things, one, I didn't really like the relationship between Dent and Wayne. In the comic, Batman actually confinded in Dent, before Gordon. I would of loved to see Dent in the first movie, maybe making the transformation a little more meaningful. The seond thing, and this is just a personal preferance, I didn't like The Joker too much, I mean I liked him, he felt good in the sort of griddy way, but I love The Joker from The Animated Series that I grew up with. More of a mischevous cleaned up clown. I know the dirty gritty psycotic Joker fit better, just, I like my Joker the other way. Eh well, still a GREAT movie.

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I used to be addicted to crystal meth, now I'm just addicted to Breaking Bad.

I've spent this past week finally improving my movie watching from the past month. I did start reading Shutter Island, but I haven't really got into it yet because of I've been more interested in movies. Basically I'm only a few chapters in so far.

I've been catching up on some of the newer movies from 2009 that I've been missing this year. I can honestly say that I haven't really been missing much at all with that. I had been really wanting to see the Soloist because the trailer looked amazing, yet the film itself wasn't all that great. I mean it wasn't bad or anything, but I felt extremely let down after that trailer for it. My main problem with it was the editing, which I felt was very poorly done. Robert Downey Jr. was pretty good, but Jaime Foxx was pretty amazing. Foxx's acting alone is what made me give it some of the score that I gave it. I watched Fast and Furious as well, and techincally speaking it's a worse film than the Soloist, but I liked it better. It's a whole hell of a lot more fun, and that's what it is supposed to be. I've pretty much liked every film in the series so far, and I think they get a lot of undeserved hate. It's meant to be fun movies, and that's what it is. Also, to top all of it off, I watched Knowing as well. It's definitely my least favorite film of the year so far. Very bad dialouge, medicore acting, and alright CGI. It was a very good concept, but poorly excuted. Also the ending was completely weird, I mean it wasn't techincally bad, but just all around weird.

I've been watching some other films that I've been wanting to see for awhile, too. I watched Naked earlier this week, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it yet. I honestly can't rate it, because I didn't get most of the film. I'm not even sure if there even was a point to it at all, but if there was, I think the film was just too intellegent for me. It just left me confused mainly, and I don't even think I can think of anything else to say about it. I watched Little Children today earlier as well. I liked it, but a lot like 21 Grams, I think it was just too much like real life to actually enjoy it. The last 10 minutes, though, it really picks up and gets up pumping to see what happens next. It was a tad bit slow, but I still thought it was pretty great. Jackie Earl Haley was the best out of the cast in it, but why does he always chose roles that is an outcast from society? I mean he was a child malester in this, a psycho vigilante in Watchmen, some insane dude in Shutter Island, and he's playing Freddy Kruger in the Friday the 13th remake. I guess he's just great in these roles, which is he. I finally watched Dogma finally yesterday, too. I honestly didn't find it that funny, but I still loved it, because it was insanely epic. Epic is really the only word I can think of to actually describe it.

I finally got around to watching a lot of my past favorites this week as well, because I started working on my new top 100 again. I watched Die Hard first and that's one movie I will always love. I don't see much point in getting into talking about it, because everyone already knows whats so great about. Hot Fuzz was next and it's never exactly been a favorite of mine, but I still think it's great. The final 20 minutes is possibly the best action scene that I've ever seen in any movie. I got around to re-watching L.A. Confidential for the first time, and it still held up great with a re-watch. Pulp Ficiton was after that, and while it's not quite in my top 10 anymore, I still love it almost as much as when I saw it for the first time. Maybe because it had been so long since I last watched it, but it flew by so fast this time around, and I was surprised because it went by pretty slow the last time I watched it. Lastly, I re-watched Snatch for the first time today after buying it yesterday. Even though I did only watch it last week, it was still pretty great. I can see it making it somewhere near the bottom half of my top 100.

My offcial ratings for the week:

Die Hard -

(John McTiernan, 1988)

Hot Fuzz -

(Edgar Wright, 2007)

Naked - N/A
(Mike Leigh, 1993)

The Soloist -

(Joe Wright, 2009)

Fast and Furious -

+
(Justin Lin, 2009)

L.A. Confidential -

+
(Curtis Hanson, 1997)

Pulp Fiction -

(Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

Dogma -

+
(Kevin Smith, 1999)

Snatch -

(Guy Ritchie, 2000)

Little Children -

(Todd Field, 2006)

Knowing -

(Alex Proyas, 2009)