Movie Tab II

Letsee, since last post I've seen (dredging these up from my uselessly random memories):

Mishima (saw it in a theater - yay)
The Prestige (not sure how many times this last viewing makes)
Slumdog Millionaire (not so quick lines, it could in fact be a but he's feeling magnanimous right now).

and tonight I just watched [yip-yip]:

American Psycho and gosh, what a boring movie. I'm aware this makes me a total snob but I don't see how anyone who has ever actually read a clever novel or seen a clever movie in their life could find this passably entertaining. It had some okay stuff but it was all gags, and okay, I don't mind being teased by a movie that is self-awarely coy/ pretentious /or whatever, maybe I even like it, but this movie does not tease. There's nothing there, you can figure out that there's nothing there within five minutes of watching, even if you've had a lobotomy at some point, and the rest of the movie is just repeating that as a blunt and totally obvious mantra (psst. there's nothing here, you're stupid for watching.) with some occasional funny bits sprinkled in. I sat through it, I don't really feel that my time was wasted (I was sitting next to my girlfriend), but would I sit through it again or recommend it to anyone when I can think of a kajillion funnier, wittier, more-involved, teasier, and more-thoughtful films/books/gluttonous endeavors. Oh yeah and I think it totally rips of the vastly superior film Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion.

Wank-wank

Your last sentence is obviously right-on, but even I can give American Psycho , and I'm not a wanker.

R.I.P. Ken Ogata.

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Pineapple Express (Green, 2008) -

I think this got a bit overrated, to be honest. While I think I would rank it above Tropic Thunder, it's not exactly a classic. Despite the film's focus on the interplay between characters and verbal jokes, I actually find that the dialogue is more often than not rather unfunny, although I'll pay that it was well-written (yes, I believe there's a difference between what is well done and what is actually funny). If anything, most of the laughs for me came from the physical humour (my favourite scene is probably the fight scene between Dale, Saul and Red in Red's house in the middle of the film).

I do like the "stoner action movie" premise a lot, it's just a shame that the lines fell rather flat for me. Oh, well.

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I love the stuffing out of Pineapple Express, but I will concede it had a bunch of lines that completely fall flat. A lot of the dialogue that didn't work for you, though, was probably some of the improvised stuff. Like "It smells like a whale's vagina". I think those kind of nonstop complete non-sequiters have become so ubiquitous in comedy these days that it can get awfully tiring awfully fast. But, yeah, Pineapple Express is still one of my favorite films of the year.

And American Psycho, I think, is the funniest movie I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure women can masturbate, too, but since a woman did direct it, I think of it less as an extended wankathon and more of a mighty, ninety minute lambasting of man as a gender, in general. It's not really pretentious in my eyes, since it's pretty straight forward all the way through and basically says what it wants to say and that's that. Yeah, it's obvious, but it's also incessantly quotable and, overall, just a hilarious thing to behold. Who cares if it's all gags? I love gags. How does everyone not love this movie?

I really dig American Psycho, but, I am in the printing business, and the business card scene is legendary in this trade. A lot of our client base are people like this, who place WAY too much clout on their frippin business card. I like all the gags, too...

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What Dreams May Come (1998) -

I like this movie a lot. It's not perfect; the acting and dialogue is very cheesy or overdramatic at times and I didn't like a few of the concepts (though only one comes to mind). But it's very pleasing both story-wise and, especially, visually. If Vincent Ward (the director) knows how to do anything, it's get a message across visually.

I especially love the ending. I remember watching it fairly recently (for the first time in a long time) with a friend of mine, completely forgetting how his extreme hate for Christianity and this film probably wouldn't mix. I was mostly right; he said "it was good" but he "hated the super-mega-happy ending". It's a very happy ending indeed... but it's possibly the best concept in the whole film and it's done perfectly (as the beginning was).

I'm not religious and I don't actually believe in this stuff... but I have fun opening my mind and believing it for 2 +- hours.

I think the only thing I liked about What Dreams May Come film was the cinematography. Very inventive and cool. The rest of the film... not so much.

had a horror movie-thon last night with Becca and watched....

Darkness Falls (2003)



less scary, more intense and this one i've been watching since it came out and i was little-er so it was nice to see it again i hadn't seen it for a while

Wrong Turn (2003)



I saw it once a long time ago and it was pretty much what i expected it to be

Silent Hill (2006)



Pyramid head is so cool looking. This one is my favorite of all that we watched i've seen it a lot actually...

Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007)




yeeeeah the original was better

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Death Wish -

Now I really love revenge movies, but this one was just a huge disappointment. I mean the story and acting were about average. Hell the main actor, Charles Bronson, didn't seem to have any emotion during the movie at all. I mean even after having his wife killed and his daughter raped, he seems perfectly fine and like nothing happened. The story didn't even really focus on the revenge part until the second half of the movie, I don't even really know what the first part was focusing on. My expectations for this really weren't met.



Death Sentence -

Glad I had something like this to watch after Death Wish though. Now I've heard some people call this a remake of Death Wish, I just don't see it. This movie is nothing like Death Wish, not even the story, The Brave One is more like Death Wish than this one. But this is easily my favorite revenge movie of all-time. Kevin Bacon is just incredible in this, now he really showed emotion, something Charles Bronson doesn't know how to. And man, what an ending, I mean you probably already know what the ending is, but once you actually get to see it, it's just amazing. This is one I'd definitely recommend to anyone who likes revenge movies, or anyone who just likes movies in general, because I find this very underrated.

I agree that Kevin Bacon did show emotion, but c'mon the ending was stupid.

800 Balas aka 800 Bullets (Álex De La Iglesia 2002)
The only other movie of Iglesia's I've seen is his 1993 Sci-Fi effort Accion Mutante; a hit-and-miss but likable comedy with cool low budget production design and a pleasing sense of the absurd. Iglesia's other film of note, his 1995 cult horror classic The Day of the Beast remains frustratingly elusive (it's currently going for £49 on Amazon). Rest assured though it's top of my dvd most wanted list as I've heard great things about it.

800 Balas is one of those films that pretty much passed me by when it was released back in 2002. Only when I was browsing the Fopp sale on Monday did the cover art jump out off the shelf and demand I pick it up. When I read the back of the box and realized this was an Iglesia flick and a quirky homage to the Spaghetti western genre to boot it became a compulsory purchase.

800 Balas exceeded my expectations in many ways; it's certainly a more accomplished movie than Accion Mutante. Set in the present the story concerns an unruly fatherless young boy who discovers his grandfather Julián (Sancho Gracia) used to be a stunt man on American westerns filmed in Almeria, Spain. He subsequently runs off with his mother's (Carmen Maura) credit card to Texas Hollywood (the name of the set in Almeria) to meet him. Arriving in Almeria he finds Julián living on the old sets with a rag tag group of friends reduced to putting on stunt shows for German tourists; family drama and high adventure ensues.

This movie got my undivided attention right from the stunning opening scene involving a stagecoach hold up and the resulting stunt that goes wrong. Inglesia's weaving of reality and fantasy (or the film within a film) cleverly underpins 800 Balas right from the get go including subtle nods to Spaghetti classics throughout. I found myself laughing out loud (a rarity for me when watching films) on more than one occasion here as the well timed humor was a lot more hit than miss. Indeed the whole film had an endearing charm and sense of nostalgia that really appeals to me. Undoubtedly though It's Sancho Gracia's (pictured) charismatic performance that lights up this movie; thankfully once introduced the larger than life Julián appears in nearly every scene both elevating and carrying the film in equal measures. By the time things got decidedly silly in the third act I already cared too much about Julián and his friends to really mind. I also liked the way Inglesia never descended into slushy sentimentality when handling the family drama aspects, ensuring an even knowing tone throughout. Fun.

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Okay that part was a little far-fetched

Ah yeah, but I mean that's always the ending to every revenge flick, like ever made. I'd just like to see a bit more change to the genre.

Yeah, it would be nice to see a new ending, like when the main person dies before he/she can actually kill the other guy and get his/her revenge. That'd be a great thing to see in a new revenge movie.

I'm still waiting to be blown away by a movie like I was during The Dark Knight, some of these were pretty good but not as good as TDK. Shame really, I bet TDK gets left out of the best picture race this year and it probably shouldn't.

Anyway...

Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood-2008)

Holden may be the only guy on this board that is a bigger and better Eastwood fan than I am. So when I say I am in the bag for the guy I mean it. That being said there are times when I really struggle to love his films. Partially I think that's a testament to his skill as a filmmaker, especially in this films case. I was so attached to his character in this movie that I was utterly crushed at the films ending. Clint Eastwood's films rarely have neat happy endings with little bows on top and that's fine with me, I just wish I could let the emotion wash over me a little better and not be so involved you know?

Anyway, its a really powerful movie, the story isn't really ground breaking or anything but Clint just has a way of getting to me, so yeah, I would like to see him get a nice big fat nomination for Best Actor for his efforts here. I wouldn't mind if it got a Best Picture nomination but I don't think it will win.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher-2008)

I think because its Fincher I may be giving this a better rating than it deserves. I get the comparisons to Forrest Gump but I'm here to say that Gump is the far superior film and I really like Brad Pitt quite a bit. But to me Tom Hanks is a far better actor and I think when I watch the two films back to back my opinion isn't going to change any.

I kind of get the feeling from what I've read around the web that this flick is the one to beat and personally I don't see it. Not that I'm an expert or anything but geez man, for one thing its just too long! They could have trimmed a good 30 minutes out and it would still have been a pretty decent flick.

The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky-2008)

Now this flick on the other hand, I would absolutely love to see get a Best Picture Nomination, it won't though because I really want it too. I have powers like that. The thing is, it just really struck a chord with me because I not only watched a lot of wrestling during the 80's and loved the 80's, much like Randy "The Ram" Robinson did, I also kind of hated the 90's. I don't think its any secret that I'm seriously rooting for Mickey to not only get a nom here but I really hope he wins. This guy deserves it. If you don't believe me then listen to his speech at the end of the film very closely. I believe he's speaking to the whole world and not just a little arena full of his wrasslin' fans. It's heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time and I think, heartfelt. If it isn't then you aren't like me and you haven't been watching in wonder at the rise and fall and now the astonishing re-emergence of his career. Good for you Mickey I hope you win baby!

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yay i'm so excited to see The Wrestler, of all the oscar contenders that's the one i'm most hyped up to see, i also gave Benjamin Button the same rating as you and i really want to see Gran Torino too

I liked that about it too. When I watched this movie I was in the mood for a lighthearted flick with like-able characters and that was charming and funny. 800 balas fits that bill perfectly. It's a bit forgettable, but that's o.k. I think it does exactly what it's supposed to.

The Grapes of Wrath -

(FIRST VIEWING)



It wasn't quite what I was expecting, nor was it quite as good as I thought/hoped it would be (my expectations were set considerably high), but I still think The Grapes of Wrath to be a very good film nonetheless. An excellent performance by Henry Fonda and a few powerful, touching moments throughout.

***SPOILER(S) BELOW***

I found myself pretty sad when Grandpa died, and the speech given by the ex-preacher was beautiful.

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Dom, you nailed my feelings about the film perfectly. Nice.