What are the last two movies you watched?

[Forrest]

Stone - Picked it up because stars Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton are two of my all-time favorite actors and holy shit did they deliver! The story is a character story and the actors sell it very well. Very well written and executed on all levels I would say. 4+ stars out of five.

I Love You, Philip Morris - Also picked this up because I love Jim Carrey. It was well done and a fun film based on a true story of a freakin' grade A sociopath. Unlike the quote on the box, I think it's far from Jim Carrey's best ever performance (Truman Show and Man on the Moon top this one pretty easily) but still fun. 3+ stars out of five.

[Jamie S. Rich]

13 Assassins - Takashi Miike's lastest, a pretty straight-ahead samurai picture (and a remake of 1960s movie). It's got a slow beginning, but man, the payoff is big. A great climactic battle.

Never Apologize - Malcolm McDowell's one-man show in tribute to director Lindsay Anderson. It's pretty much an "inside baseball" kind of program. Basically, if those two names aren't already familiar to you, the show probably won't do much for you. [full review (http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/49220/never-apologize/)]

[McAfee]

The Kids Are All Right: How this got passed off as a comedy (Globe winner!) is beyond me. Quirkiness maybe? I may have chuckled in a few spots, but this was thoroughly a drama. And it was quite enjoyable at that. The acting was the highlight of the film--pretty much every actor gave a great performance.

Too Big to Fail: For a politically motivated, mega-casted and somewhat technical film, this is quite engrossing. It is very well acted; especially John Hurt in the lead, and Paul Giamatti is a scene stealer. Anyone with even a passing interest in our modern economic crisis and how Wall Street helped lead us here should give it a go.

[MayorMitch100]

Karate Kid- I don't care how likable you are Jaden Smith you will never be the Karate Kid like Ralph Macchio was!! It was a decent enough movie though.


The Hangover Part II- I knew it was going to be exactly like the first one but it made up for it with some good gags.

[Fygar]

I've only seen the heavily edited "Warriors of the Wind" version. I liked it. The pacing felt, okay, even though I've heard it was chopped to hell. Was the version you saw dubbed? I hate reading subtitles, because it eliminates any multi-tasking and my TV is tiny (so some subtitles are barely visible).

I don't think it was that version. It was the 2 disc DVD Disney released several years ago. I can't watch anything dubbed, the acting never sounds right to me. I also don't multitask while watching a film, because I'd be missing on all the subtexts and visual elements that make films worth seeing in the first place.

Blue Valentine - Hard to watch at times. There are some brutally awkward and strange scenes. This is almost the break up equivalent to Linklater's 'Before' films. I really enjoyed it but I don't know if I'd ever watch it again. Did anyone else feel like Gosling's character seemed almost too different in his past/ present self?

Bridesmaids - I went based purely on the reviews, and loved it. I laughed at almost every scene. Probably the best comedy since Superbad.

[mlpeters]

I don't think it was that version. It was the 2 disc DVD Disney released several years ago. I can't watch anything dubbed, the acting never sounds right to me. I also don't multitask while watching a film, because I'd be missing on all the subtexts and visual elements that make films worth seeing in the first place.

I would think the multi-tasking of reading the dialogue, diverting your attention from the actor's/animated character's face and body language and whatever background information... would be losing quite a bit of that subtext. I know, for example, I've watched Pan's Labyrinth, reading the subtitles a couple of times, but watched it with Guillermo's English commentary a few more... Bad dubs aren't much of an excuse IMO, for no dubs.

[MIKE D]

Did anyone else feel like Gosling's character seemed almost too different in his past/ present self?


Quite the opposite. His problem was that he never changed. What's charming when you are dating and young can be suffocating when you are married and older.

[Ryudo]

The last THREE[/B} movies I watched (bonus!):

[B]Thor: Gave it five stars in its review thread. It was a great superhero flick.

The Next Three Days: This was an interesting film recommended to me by Netflix. The first 45 minutes or so kind of plods along, establishing the status quo and motivation for the rest of the plot. The rest of the film, however, was a decent little suspense/action story. I'd give it 3 stars.

The Green Hornet: This one was a huge surprise to me. My wife got it for me for my birthday without either of us having seen it, and I really enjoyed it. I didn't watch it in 3D and understood that the 3D felt "tacked-on," so that wasn't an issue for me, and it did carry over a lot of the plot and mythology of the character in a modernized way with a different twist on it that was enjoyable. I'd give this one four stars.

[Fygar]

Quite the opposite. His problem was that he never changed. What's charming when you are dating and young can be suffocating when you are married and older.

Yeah you're right in that regard, but something about Gosling's acting seemed like different characters to me. He seemed of average intelligence in the younger scenes, but quite dumb in the present. Now that I'm typing that, it seems almost deliberate because that's probably how Michelle Williams character perceived him as well.

[Forrest]

The Green Hornet: This one was a huge surprise to me. My wife got it for me for my birthday without either of us having seen it, and I really enjoyed it. I didn't watch it in 3D and understood that the 3D felt "tacked-on," so that wasn't an issue for me, and it did carry over a lot of the plot and mythology of the character in a modernized way with a different twist on it that was enjoyable. I'd give this one four stars.

Agreed, I loved The Green Hornet! I think it's one of the most underrated superhero films in recent years.

[Fygar]

The Kids Are All Right - Out of the best picture nominees this one appealed to me the least based on its trailer. I was pleasantly surprised by the film itself. A very well made family drama with a great cast of actors and interesting characters. I was impressed.

Kung Fu Panda 2 - I'm a big fan of the original but the sequel didn't grab me. I liked the villain and the overall plot but something felt off. I know one thing...I'm really sick of Jack Black. He just brings nothing to the table here and totally phones it in. I also wish the five had more of a presence. The action was good but not as eye popping as the original. The whole production felt short and small scale.

[Alexander Hamilton]

Hot Rod - Pretty dumb and funny. If you want a laugh that doesn't require more effort than sparking the bong, it's worth it.

The Wrong Guy - Dave Foley "Fugitive" parody. Decent enough, but forgettable.

[Michael Wagner]

Winter's Bone - Great, depressing, awesome.

How to train your dragon - fun, better than I thought it would be.

[NeverWanderer]

The Box - After reading several people's reactions to this movie, my expectations were very low, but the director and the source material made it worth picking up for 3 bucks at Walgreens. And I gotta tell ya, I'm glad I did. It's not a perfect movie, but neither can I call it a bad one. The least interesting part to me, ironically, was the stuff directly from the original story. The mystery that ensues, though, really managed to win me over. The movie is pretty obviously filmed like a 70s B horror movie, complete with grainy film quality, over-wrought scoring, melodramatic acting and slow, slightly off-kilter pacing. Accepting that, though, it becomes something very ambitious, special, and even transcendental by the end, and I think it ives up to the entire catalogue of Richard Matheson's work, not just the short story it's based on. Plus, James Marsden puts in a fantastic performance. I love it when we get to focus on that guy.

Fog City Mavericks - Something I put on Hulu in the background while I was doing chores, this docu slowly drew me in with its toggling histories of Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Saul Zaents, Pixar and a plethora of other San Francisco-based filmmakers. Really great if you have a love for the rebellious nature of 70s filmmaking. It even made me both admire and be more sympathetic towards George Lucas as a filmmaker. Highly recommended.

[Jamie S. Rich]

X-Men: First Class - You've thought about this script more than any of the four writers credited with it. Ho-hum, dumb dumb dumb.

The Cocoanuts - Oh, you silly Marx Brothers!

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

Apoclypse Now (First time seeing this as an adult. Fantastic. Looking forward to watching Redux soon) and I Saw The Devil (Wasn't sure what to expect at first, but the second act of this movie DEMANDS you to watch it, as does the performance from Min-sik Choi, but unfortunatly I think the movie goes on a few beats too many.)

[mlpeters]

The Cocoanuts - Oh, you silly Marx Brothers!

I saw The Cocoanuts recently too (a month, or three, ago) - - I liked all the Marx Brothers bits (the Viaduct routine was especially funny), but the singing, dancing and most of the story/plot elements were weak.

I did like Chico's musical number -- everyone remembers Harpo's harp playing, but Chico was a great and very clever piano player.

Groucho's as good as any modern stand-up comedian.

I hadn't seen a Marx Brothers film before... just clips, here and there and numerous take-offs - - it's worth seeking out the source.

[HomerGator]

X-Men: First Class - You've thought about this script more than any of the four writers credited with it. Ho-hum, dumb dumb dumb.

The Cocoanuts - Oh, you silly Marx Brothers!

I'm not the least bit surprised about X-Men. The other four X-Men movies Fox has made were huge pieces of shit, there's no real reason to expect this or Wolverine 2 will be any different.

[Cactusakic]

I saw The Cocoanuts recently too (a month, or three, ago) - - I liked all the Marx Brothers bits (the Viaduct routine was especially funny), but the singing, dancing and most of the story/plot elements were weak.

I did like Chico's musical number -- everyone remembers Harpo's harp playing, but Chico was a great and very clever piano player.

Groucho's as good as any modern stand-up comedian.

I hadn't seen a Marx Brothers film before... just clips, here and there and numerous take-offs - - it's worth seeking out the source.

Strange coincidence, but I also recently watched The Cocoanuts.

About a week ago, actually.

It wasn't my first time, however.

I was practically raised on the Marx Brothers and have seen all their films more times than I can count.

When I was a kid, I had a tape that had A Day At The Races and A Night At The Opera back to back and I damn near wore that thing out.

Anyway, none of that is particularly relevant, I only mention any of it in order to give you some background to what I really want to say:

If Cocoanuts was your first Marx Brothers film, I implore you to check out the rest.

Cocoanuts and Love Happy were their first and last films respectively and both are considerably inferior to all their other works.

The aforementioned Day At The Races and Night At The Opera are both, imo, about as close to comedy perfection as its possible to get.

Horse Feathers, Monkey Business, Night In Casablanca, Animal Crackers and The Big Store are all excellent too.

Go West and At The Circus have never done much for me, but they are still better than Cocoanuts or Love Happy.

And then there is Duck Soup, which is in a league of its own. A masterpiece.

Seriously, if you enjoyed the actual Marx Brothers parts of Cocoanuts, watch the others, I guarantee you'll love them.

[mlpeters]

Strange coincidence, but I also recently watched The Cocoanuts.

About a week ago, actually.

It wasn't my first time, however.

I was practically raised on the Marx Brothers and have seen all their films more times than I can count.

When I was a kid, I had a tape that had A Day At The Races and A Night At The Opera back to back and I damn near wore that thing out.

Anyway, none of that is particularly relevant, I only mention any of it in order to give you some background to what I really want to say:

If Cocoanuts was your first Marx Brothers film, I implore you to check out the rest.

Cocoanuts and Love Happy were their first and last films respectively and both are considerably inferior to all their other works.

The aforementioned Day At The Races and Night At The Opera are both, imo, about as close to comedy perfection as its possible to get.

Horse Feathers, Monkey Business, Night In Casablanca, Animal Crackers and The Big Store are all excellent too.

Go West and At The Circus have never done much for me, but they are still better than Cocoanuts or Love Happy.

And then there is Duck Soup, which is in a league of its own. A masterpiece.

Seriously, if you enjoyed the actual Marx Brothers parts of Cocoanuts, watch the others, I guarantee you'll love them.

I haven't seen any others and this was the first Marx Brothers film I'd seen. I checked The Cocoanuts out from the public library and on my next trip, I'll see if they have any of the others. I've been trying to catch up on classic movies that everyone should see, but somehow, I haven't.

[Fygar]

X-Men: First Class - You've thought about this script more than any of the four writers credited with it. Ho-hum, dumb dumb dumb.

Oh no! I think it looks great and the reviews have been nothing but positive. I've actually seen it described as an intelligent super hero film numerous times. What makes it dumb if you can say so without spoiling anything.

[Fygar]

X2: X-men United - Can you believe this movie is nine years old? I've always put it up pretty high on my all time favorite super hero list and I'm glad that it still holds up. Great action beats coupled with fantastic character moments. The pacing is perfect until the third act.

X-men Origins: Wolverine - Even after two years of hearing how bad it was, I was not prepared for this. This is an ugly film. Nothing looks quite right. The characters are uninteresting and spew putrid dialogue the entire way through. Characters scream 'Noooo' into the sky, the phrase 'old friend' is used relentlessly, someone closes a dead person's eyelids...every cliche is on display here. I'm angry that this even exists, every character deserves better. You can't undo the boxing scene with the Blob...holy shit was that painful.

[Tom Burgos]

I recently watched two films that I was never interested in during their time in theatres, Star Trek (2009) and Zombieland. I couldn't believe I didn't watch them before. I loved the hell out of both films. There's way too may little things I could mention as far as things I loved about each film, but it would be a long ass, boring list. They are two amazing films, in my opinion.

[J. Wilson]

I saw Green Lantern: Emerald Knights last night.

[chichiri27]

They Live
Hanna
Stake Land

[ashland10]

Rubber- Its about a tire with psychic powers that terrorizes a town. Its fantastic.

Troll Hunter - a really good mokumentary about a man who hunts trolls. I think its going to be a sleeper hit in a few years.

[McGill]

Rubber- Its about a tire with psychic powers that terrorizes a town. Its fantastic.

Troll Hunter - a really good mokumentary about a man who hunts trolls. I think its going to be a sleeper hit in a few years.

I wondered if anyone would watch rubber. That scene where he explodes the first guys head is just ridiculous.

[Arion]

Mysterious Skin
X-Men First Class

[The Zevad]

Kung Fu Panda 2
X-Men: First Class

[dEnny!]

Dinner for Schmucks - pretty funny, liked the actors

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - excellent

Tonight X-MEN: First Class!

[Jamie S. Rich]

Oh no! I think it looks great and the reviews have been nothing but positive. I've actually seen it described as an intelligent super hero film numerous times. What makes it dumb if you can say so without spoiling anything.

I just found its approach to the 1960s and its ring-a-ding-ding swagger to be hoakey, and all the bending over backwards to make jokes about future continuity, etc., to be horrible. It struck me as a half-assed cash-in with a very cynical view of what the audience wants and what the audience will take. I'm on the outside in terms of public opinion on it, though, and I am fine with that.

**

Too Big To Fail - Not even Curtis Hanson can turn banks failing into scintillating drama. This is well done, but watching guys in suits push paper back and forth and talk about billions of dollars is more confusing than it is exciting. Financial machinations at this level are so abstract, it just doesn't seem real--which I think is how we got into the mess we're in. Once these guys stopped dealing money they could hold in their hands, it stopped being about actual dollars and cents.

Insignificance - Theresa Russell makes a good Marilyn Monroe, but I'm really more and more of the opinion that Nicolas Roeg needs a lot more self-control. [review (http://www.criterionconfessions.com/2011/06/insignificance-blu-ray-566.html)]

[HomerGator]

I saw Green Lantern: Emerald Knights last night.

How was it? It looks really good (having such a great cast can't hurt).

[Fygar]

Avatar: Extended Edition - I think I might love Avatar. Sure it's full of cliches, but I don't think I care, it's damn entertaining fare. Watching in on Blu Ray I was in awe of the attention to detail, color palette and that this truly is the best damn CG we've ever seen. And the action beats are simply incredible. I actually probably would put it in the ten best movies of 09.

Breathless - On the complete opposite end of the spectrum is Breathless but I love it too for completely different reasons. It has that fly on the wall quality, and I love that. The characters are just fun to be around even if they're not good people. Petty crime and love go together like PBJ and Goddard captured that better than anyone.

[CapnChaos]

Super 8 was fantastic. If there was a polling thread I'd give it five stars.

[ZombieSpeedball]

Law Abiding Citizen - Actually an awesome flick, but the ending sort of.. well... what the fuck, dude. It all seemed to be going so well, overall.

X-Men: First Class - Did anyone else notice that Charles knows who Logan is before he loses his memory, and lets him go on with his questioning his origins? Professor X confirmed for dick of the year.

[The Funketeer]

Super 8 and Judy Moody and the Overly Long Movie Title.

Both today. Only brought my 5 year old daughter to one of them.

[Fygar]

Mystery Team - At first I didn't think it would be very funny, but I laughed out loud a handful of times. It can be cheesy and pretty much relies on the same joke over and over, but it's a good joke.

Super 8 - After a haunting opening shot, I thought for sure I'd love this film. It came close, but I'd say it was good not great. There are great scenes but they're surrounded by clunky ones. There's no breathing room as the second act concludes so some events lack the necessary gravitas. For a big summer film directed by Abrams and produced by Spielberg I was shocked at the dodgy CG, it really took me out of the picture at times. I would love an extended director's cut because I feel like an amazing film exists inside this good one.

[Jamie S. Rich]

The Trip - The movie version of the Michael Winterbottom-helmed TV show with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon out on the road. Hilarious!

The Prince & the Showgirl - Been rewatching lots of Marilyn Monroe recently. It's so easy to forget what an incredible actress she was. Her comic timing is suberb.

[Fygar]

The Pixar Story - Not really a documentary but more of a pat on the back for the greatest animation studio in existence. I was hoping for something more candid and interesting, but there are a few things I never knew that were neat. Skip it unless you're a big fan because the film mainly consists of listing all their hits and how each broke records.

Barton Fink - Barton Fink is amazing and I wish there were more films like it. Nothing is wrapped up in a bow. The esoteric symbolism doesn't need an explanation nor does it even need to make much sense because the film itself is so God damn entertaining. It's a great comedy, a great horror flick, drama, neo noir etc. John Goodman puts in an amazing performance and each of his lines are so God damn perfect it makes me sick.

[sans serif]

Grey Gardens- A kind of interesting documentary, but mostly depressing.

Bridesmaids- Loved it! I went with a bunch of female friends of mine and we all enjoyed it. I hope it starts a trend of good female comedies.

[Fygar]

Grey Gardens- A kind of interesting documentary, but mostly depressing.

Bridesmaids- Loved it! I went with a bunch of female friends of mine and we all enjoyed it. I hope it starts a trend of good female comedies.

Look at you, posting on the Bendis board again!

[sans serif]

Look at you, posting on the Bendis board again!

I may leave, but I always come back. Must be the geek pheromones that attracts me.

[web_head02]

Unbreakable - Still two of the only Shamalan movies I enjoy. I always liked Bruce Willis in it
and how can you not like Samuel L

X-Men First Class - I was skeptical but it ended up being really good.

[Fygar]

I Saw the Devil - I was really excited for this film and ultimately I was satisfied but expected more. The many excellent films (Vengeance trilogy, Mother, Thirst etc) to come out of South Korea the last few years really set a precedent. This is a violent, over the top, frenetic one man on a mission punch to the face, and I love it for that, but I wish there was a bit more to chew on.

X-men: First Class - When it works it's the best of the genre, when it doesn't (flying sequences, cheesy one liners, lame military banter) it's shockingly bad. The good outweighs the bad though and I'd say it's the best in the franchise since X2. This new cast really livened things up and I think Mcevoy and Fassbender own these roles now. I honestly wish this movie was stretched out to two or three films. It feels very condensed and I'm sure the tight schedule is the main contributing factor. Matthew Vaughn makes another good film but I think it might be his weakest yet.

[Fygar]

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - I'm a casual Anime fan at best but I really dug this one. The protagonist, Makoto, is so gosh darn lovable. She's a ridiculous adolescent who wins you over in damn near every scene. Certain scenes are framed so well and everything is staged to perfection. Highly recommended.

Tree of Life - Walked out of the theater over three hours ago and I can't get it out of my head. I've been reading opinions, professional and otherwise, and now I desperately want to see it again. It truly is an experience. Not all of it worked for me, but it's adult cinema for the patient film fan. It's not for everyone but that's okay.

[schizorabbit]

X-men: First Class - When it works it's the best of the genre, when it doesn't (flying sequences, cheesy one liners, lame military banter) it's shockingly bad. The good outweighs the bad though and I'd say it's the best in the franchise since X2. This new cast really livened things up and I think Mcevoy and Fassbender own these roles now. I honestly wish this movie was stretched out to two or three films. It feels very condensed and I'm sure the tight schedule is the main contributing factor. Matthew Vaughn makes another good film but I think it might be his weakest yet.

I too got the feeling that a lot was left on the cutting room floor. Too many jarring WTF cuts. Hopefully, there will be a director's/extended release on blu-ray/dvd.

[Fygar]

Cyrus - Not that great. I've enjoyed other Duplass brother films much more. They have an amazing cast here but don't do much with them. There are some funny moments but overall it's mediocre at best.

127 Hours - A co-worker of mine went on and on about why would anyone see this film. Everyone already knows the ending so what's the point was her argument. I gave a few reasons but I should have just said two words. Danny Boyle. He takes the familiar tale and turns it on its head. With his direction, sound design, and great musical cues you're fully engaged by Ralston's situation. And then to top it off Franco sells the experience with a great performance.

[J. Wilson]

I watched Resident Evil: Afterlife this morning.

Tonight I watched the PBS documentary called Class C: The Only Game In Town. It's about small school girls high school basketball in Montana. It was pretty interesting.

[NeverWanderer]

Megamind - Better than I expected. Great voice cast, consistently funny, some surprisingly deep character building, and an overall good time. I'm glad DreamWorks seems to finally be putting more thought into their animated films.

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad - Caroline Munro. That is all.

[The Hodag]

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad - Caroline Munro. That is all.

So true. :drool:

[that bastard]

THE GREEN LANTERN I didn't think it was the crapfest everyone is saying it is. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I would say as much as THOR, to be honest. There were some issues but, as a whole, I enjoyed it.

LET ME IN I know I'm behind the ball on this one. For a remake of a critically-acclaimed European film (LET THE RIGHT ONE IN), this was very successful. I enjoyed it just as much as the original and, actually, thought the camera work was better than the original. I recommend both.

[ClintP]

Green Hornet - Pretty decent popcorn flick except for the ending. It seemed like they didn't know how to wrap it up. Those last 10 minutes dragged on. Overall I enjoyed it and laughed a bunch.

Harry Brown - A little too boring for my tastes as far as revenge/payback movies go. Michael Caine was excellent though.

[King of Mars]

The Reeds - A British ghost flick set in a marshy area of the English countryside. Replete with horror cliches, but the director's eye for scary shots does provide some nice, creepy moments. However, there aren't enough of those to rescue the film from mediocrity.


Farewell - A beautifully shot, smartly constructed spy flick set in the Soviet Union during the early 80's. One of the best spy/espionage flicks I've ever seen, actually.

[Matthew Brown]

Been recording a bunch of random Westerns off Encore's Western channel. Last night I watched Two Mules for Sister Sara, which starred Clint Eastwood and Shirley McClaine, and was pretty good, and The Frisco Kid, which wasn't that great but still had enough entertainment value in that a young Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford starred together. Also, I watched these back to back, and they both ended up as wacky team-ups. Clint's usual mercenary character and a nun. A rabbi and Han Solo as a Wild West outlaw.

[Matthew Brown]

Green Hornet - Pretty decent popcorn flick except for the ending. It seemed like they didn't know how to wrap it up. Those last 10 minutes dragged on. Overall I enjoyed it and laughed a bunch.

Harry Brown - A little too boring for my tastes as far as revenge/payback movies go. Michael Caine was excellent though.

My brother and I rented this out of the Red Box right after seeing X-Men: First Class. First Class blew us away, but Green Hornet was still really entertaining. I actually thought that last bit at the end was hilarious, even if the path there was extremely chaotic.

[ClintP]

Yeah, the very last scene made me laugh, but the parts between the scene with the D.A. through the scene at the newspaper building needed a little refining. Otherwise, I could totally see myself watching it again.

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

Troll Hunter and Rififi

[SMACK!]

I Saw the Devil

The gore didn't bother me. What did was the total disregard for women in the movie. It's entirely misogynistic. All of the women are victims, and nothing more. Its completely irresponsible film making. By removing all depth and characterization from the women in the movie, the audience is almost tempted to see each rape/torture scene as titillating instead of revolting.

Certainly the movie is beautifully shot, but no matter how expertly you light and stylize a piece of shit, it is still going to taste like a piece of shit.

[Fygar]

I Saw the Devil

The gore didn't bother me. What did was the total disregard for women in the movie. It's entirely misogynistic. All of the women are victims, and nothing more. Its completely irresponsible film making. By removing all depth and characterization from the women in the movie, the audience is almost tempted to see each rape/torture scene as titillating instead of revolting.

Certainly the movie is beautifully shot, but no matter how expertly you light and stylize a piece of shit, it is still going to taste like a piece of shit.

The story was never about the women. It's about one man's revenge against another man (who happens to be a terrible piece of shit). How and why were we going to get to know the victims of rape? And I didn't find a single moment titillating...I literally have no idea how you came up with that.

[Humphrey_Lee]

Back to the Future 1 & 2 on Blu-Ray. Kind of speaks for itself.

[web_head02]

My brother and I rented this out of the Red Box right after seeing X-Men: First Class. First Class blew us away, but Green Hornet was still really entertaining. I actually thought that last bit at the end was hilarious, even if the path there was extremely chaotic.

Green Hornet - I guess we all had the same idea this weekend. I got this from Netflix and I sat down and watched it this weekend. It was pretty good. Much better than I expected it to be. It was really funny and the actions was a lot of fun too. I thought the last few minutes did drag a little but those scenes served their purpose.

The Fighter - I finally watched this and it was really good. It deserves all the awards and recognitions it got. Christian Bale did a fantastic job. He made the movie for me. The rest of the cast did a great job as well. I'm a big boxing fan so this was right up my alley.

[mlpeters]

Invictus - - I could care less about rugby, but I got the importance of the world cup game, shown in this film. Somehow, without true physical resemblance, it doesn't take long to forget you're watching Morgan Freeman, as he becomes Nelson Mandela. Very good movie.

The Mosquito Coast - - I've never seen Harrison Ford play a bad guy (with some... good intentions... perhaps... mostly he's incredibly self-centered and ego driven), but this is a powerful film about insanity and ego. It's interesting to see Helen Mirren as the wife who, until the end, follows Ford's character without question... but she pulls it off, suggesting the initial attraction to her husband was the fun and adventure involved in some of his flights of fancy... before they became dangerous, utterly insane and inflexible. Great film!

[Humphrey_Lee]

Continued my "I got Blu-Ray sets" week by watching Back to the Future 3 and The Two Towers today...

[Jason California]

T3 and GL.

[Captain Howdy]

warlock moon-cheesy horror movie from the 70's,but sometimes thats fun.boys from brazil-great movie,gregory peck as mengele wasn't so great to me,though.his accent was all over the place!

[J. R. Scherer]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/Mog_Elffoe/Movie%20Pics/Movie%20Posters/XMen1stClass.jpg
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
Best of the X-Men movies, due to both the direction of Matthew Vaughn and excellent casting, particularly McAvoy and Fassbender. It's not perfect, but it does hit all the right notes when it needs to and does it very well. A-


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/Mog_Elffoe/Movie%20Pics/Movie%20Posters/GreenLantern.jpg
GREEN LANTERN
Not as bad as its rating on Rotten Tomatoes would have you believe, but it's also not nearly as good as it could have been. The cast does their best but the story doesn't give them as much to work with as it should. Some stuff works extremely well, but other things get very short shrift or are completely misused or misplaced, namely the main villain Parallax. C+


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BAD TEACHER
Passable. Some funny moments but overall not very satisfying considering the talent involved. C-


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SEASON OF THE WITCH
Another enjoyable B-movie from Nicholas Cage, this time set in the Dark Ages with fun supernatural goings-on. I found it to be a schlocky and fun film. B


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TROLL HUNTER
Probably the best 'found footage' movie I've seen yet, but still suffers from the same problems all of its predecessors do: shallow script and mostly non-existent acting. The trolls are all really neat, though. B-


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PONYO
Another gorgeously animated spectacle from Hiyao Miyazaki. I love how he creates stories for children that don't actually have an antagonist. Wonderful stuff and an absolute feast for the eyes. A


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SUPER 8
My favorite movie of June. Superb on every front. It's what I personally wanted E. T. to be when I saw it in the theater way back in '82. A

[HomerGator]

Dammit, I have GOT to go see Super 8.

[Fygar]

Wet Hot American Summer - Goofy fun.

Black Death - Nothing spectacular but it has some decent scenes and cool atmosphere. Story wise I feel like an extra twenty minutes or so would really improve things. There's good set, a climax, cool epilogue but no second act to speak of (save for an action set piece).

[Dr. Chaos]

Splice: That was...okay, that was weird.

Quite an odd lil science fiction movie.

He fucked it! For science!

[dougmac]

Splice: That was...okay, that was weird.

Quite an odd lil science fiction movie.

He fucked it! For science!

It was weird, but I liked it.

[Fygar]

Virgin Suicides - I watched this film ten or eleven years ago and didn't know what to think of it. I remember saying 'I'll need to see it again to know if I liked it or not'. After a second viewing I still don't know what I think of this damn movie :) I definitely enjoyed it more this time around, but something irks me about it. I think it might be trying too hard to have a distinct style causing it to feel a bit soulless. There are parts that I love but overall the movie leaves me feeling cold.

Death Proof - Every other Tarantino movie I've seen countless times, usually three or more viewings within the first year of its release. This is only the second time I've seen Death Proof because I merely thought it was okay on its initial viewing. I love the rainy night in Austin Texas with annoying girls, drunken antics, sloppy food and a car crash that leaves you breathless. After that it seems to lose its way. The next set of girls are even more annoying and they can't deliver Tarantino dialogue all that well (Rosario does an okay job). The chase is of course great but even that goes on too long. I still think it's his weakest effort but even his "failures" have you glued to the screen.

[Scotty]

Sucker Punch- which I loved again.
Hannibal- I like no face Gary Oldman

[a. non]

X-Men: First Class: This was a fun movie, but it felt like it should have been split in two.

Midnight Heat: Brad Jones' (Cinema Snob) film about a disgraced cop looking for a prostitute killer and a pimp trying to get out of the business. This film had a lot of heart and I'd rather watch this again than watch Green Lantern.

[Zac Goyette]

The Losers and Chinatown

[Fygar]

Biutiful - It looks great, the acting is top notch but it never pulled me in. It's too long for what it is and there are some haunting scenes but overall it left me cold.

Videodrome - What a ridiculous yet entertaining concept. I love it for its originality and exquisite special effects, plus James Woods is perfect for a schlocky role like this. Not all of it works but what does work is just plain cool.

Paths of Glory - Kubrick is such a damn good storyteller. The camera work throughout Paths of Glory is so impeccable yet it feels effortless. Damn good story in this. Not the war movie I expected, but I love that.

Rabbit Hole - How the fuck did this not get nominated for best picture? And why didn't Aaron Eckhart get a nom as well? He and Nichole Kidman blew me away in this. The emotional build up to this movie is unreal and the second act will leave you in tears throughout its duration. Extremely well done, but be prepared to be exhausted afterward.

[Humphrey_Lee]

Harry Potter
The Mechanic (Jason Statham version)

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

Horrible Bosses and Capitalism: A Love Story.

[Fygar]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 - The last three Harry Potter films were all well made and I enjoyed them, but as soon as I leave the theater they're gone. They don't leave a mark on me and it barely seems like I'd seen it. There were great scenes in this one but overall I felt like it ended with a limp thud instead of a bang. I remember the book feeling triumphant and uplifting but this didn't do that for me.

Summer Wars - A comedic family drama mixed with a high stakes action movie set in an MMO. Does the concept work? Not all the time. Overall I like the movie quite a bit but there's a disconnect between the video game world and the real world. As an avid gamer, what the real world characters are able to do with phones, keyboards, and portable game machines with their avatars just seems implausible even within the constructs of the high concept. The last 45 minutes or so are pretty awesome though and it mostly works.

[sans serif]

Let Me In- this really fell flat for me compared to Let the Right One In. Yes, it took out the horrid cat scene, but it also took out a lot of the subtleties that made it great.

The Fighter- this, I thought was fantastic. I'm a fan of boxing and I saw Micky Ward's fights with Gatti, so this was especially cool for me. The acting was amazing.

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

Captain America: The First Avenger

I liked it. I'd say it was a solid three out of four stars. A fun action/adventure movie that didn't take itself too seriously and wasn't braindead. I'd probably watch it again. I can't say that about many superhero movies. Out of the five Marvel movies we've got so far, this one had the best action scenes.

Conan O'Brien Can't Be Stopped

A lot of fun. Conan has one of those maganetic personalities that demands to be paid attention to.

[Fygar]

The Fighter- this, I thought was fantastic. I'm a fan of boxing and I saw Micky Ward's fights with Gatti, so this was especially cool for me. The acting was amazing.

How do you feel about the rumored sequel where the 3 Gatti fights are the focus of the story? It'd be cool but highly unnecessary.

[Buk Was Right]

I treated myself to an impromptu Ed Norton double feature:

1. The Incredible Hulk: I feel like I like this flick less and less every time I watch it. I can't really explain why.

2. Fight Club: It's been a while. Still dig this flick.

[sans serif]

How do you feel about the rumored sequel where the 3 Gatti fights are the focus of the story? It'd be cool but highly unnecessary.

Unnecessary? Totally.
Awesome? Yes.

I'd be totally up for that.

[Humphrey_Lee]

Rango and Hobo With a Shotgun. Yay for catching up with NetFlix discs...

[NeverWanderer]

Pineapple Express and Dr. Strangelove. Two hilarious comedies that couldn't be more different.

[Weasel21385]

The Frighteners - Didn't hold up as well as I thought it would over time. Not to say it was bad, just not as good as I remembered.

Sucker Punch - How can you screw up hot girls fighting zombie Nazis, dragons and robots???

[Sully0822]

The last two movies I watched were Grown Ups and Tangled with my kids.

[Fygar]

Kiss Me Deadly - It didn't grab me at first, but it has an awesome hook near the end. Criterion put out an amazing set as usual, and the included extras made me appreciate the film even more. I can't wait to watch it a second time.

Captain America: The First Avenger - I am definitely getting tired of the genre. It just doesn't excite me like it once did. I remember the original Spider-man being a revelation purely because I was watching a childhood hero on the big screen. Now it's a bi-weekly endeavor every summer. With that said, the dramatic beats were actually quite good in Cap but most of the action/ Red Skull left me feeling cold. There's a difference between fun adventure serial and forgettable Saturday morning cartoon plots, and unfortunately for this film it delves too much into the latter. I did however really like the final moments of the film and the last line followed by a smash cut was a perfect ending.

[Dr. Chaos]

Predators: Pretty good. I loved the first movie, didn't care for the second (aside from the last few moments) but this is a worthy successor.

[Humphrey_Lee]

Baseketball and Cedar Rapids via teh NetFlix...

[MayorMitch100]

Adjustment Bureau via Netflix

Source Code via DVD I bought

[Fygar]

Batman Begins - Still a solid flick with minor faults. I found the Batmobile chase sequence more thrilling than I ever have.

Kramer vs Kramer - Excellent. There's a scene where a lawyer badgers Meryl Streep's character, baiting her to say admit she failed in the most important relationship of her life. She looks over at Dustin Hoffman and he shakes his head, mouthing the word "no". It destroyed me. They sold this two second exchange with their eyes alone, and caused me to bawl like a baby.

[Strikeout]

Directv is giving free Cinemax right now. That gives me a chance to catch up on some movies I've missed.

Today I watched Lost in Translation and (500) Days of Summer.

Lost in Translation was pretty boring. Empty, lost characters trying to find what's missing in their lives. It didn't groove with me. Scarlet couldn't look more beautiful in this, and I've never seen her acting before. She does a pretty good job. Bill Murray was good too, but the film bored me. This gets a C from me.

(500) Days of Summer though was a delight after watching Lost in Translation. Includes a great soundtrack, and one of the most heartbreaking scenes (even though you know it's coming) I've seen in a while with the "expectations" vs. "reality" scene. Great script, great move. I give this one an A.

[The Zevad]

In the theatres? Cowboys & Aliens and The Change Up.

At home 80s classics Some Kind Of Wonderful and The Explorers!

[EmarAndZeb]

Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which I already talked about in it's official thread here (short story - it was goofy, but thoroughly enjoyable).

Just tonight I saw 30 Minutes or Less, which I quite liked. Ansari was great in it, and McBride does a good job as a more sinister version of his usual puffed-up asshole character. Quick pace and good action, and overall it was just a funny movie. Not quite Pineapple Express, but a solid dark slacker comedy.

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

Watched The Blair Witch Project for the first time since it came out on DVD and thought it held up really well. Also watched the accomponying "special" and think they work really well together to add to the creepyness. Whoever worked on creating the myth behind "The Blair Witch" did a bang-up job.

Also watched Tales From Earthsea and while it's nothing special, I can't say I feel like I wasted my time. It definetly lacks that Ghibli spark, but still has the ethical undertones prevalent in their films. If you've seen all their other stuff you might as well check it out.

[Scotty]

The fighter- Which was way better than I was expecting.

Lost Boys- Do you know they say 'Michael' 118 times in that movie.

[Tom Burgos]

Captain America- The dullest, most boring 2-hour, 140 million dollar trailer I've ever watched. I wish I had simply paid for something else and snuck into this.

The Help- Heartfelt, funny adaptation of a so-so book. Loved Viola Davis, and Bryce Dallas-Howard stole the show.

[WhindamPryce]

Elite Squad 1 and Elite Squad 2.

A coupla movies about police corruption in Rio de Janeiro. Very gritty and realistic.

Highly recommended!

[SmoManCometh]

SUPER and YOUR HIGNESS. Throughly enjoyed both, but SUPER may be guaranteed in top three of the year already.

[Matthew Brown]

Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown.

[The Hodag]

Black Swan - Technically highly proficient, but the flat characters left me cold and I realized most of Darren Aronofsky's movies are essentially the same: people go through intense physical and emotional distress and, in the final few minutes, undergo a violent culmination of their downward spiral. Black Swan, like the Wrestler, was a movie I feel like I got all the major beats from the trailer alone.

Frozen - And here we have a movie that surprised me by exceeding expectations. It's the "college kids stuck on a ski lift" movie and had no right to actually have a good script and lots of memorable sequences...but it did!

[costello]

Ha. Frozen. That movie surprised me as well. Anyway,

Savage Man / Savage Beast - I couldn't make it all the way through. What started out as shocking became painfully boring. That said, out of all the violence, the mist disturbing part was the hippy breastfeeding a lamb. I just don't understand some people.

Tron - I was bored with this as well. I remember feeling the same way when I was six and we rented it. There was a reason Disney would show five minutes worth of clips between television shows.

[Tyr]

Max Payne and Heavy Metal

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

Lemmy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1236472/). He's one of those magnetic personalities that deservies their own documentary. Looking forward to watching the special features on the DVD sometime soon

and

Joe (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065916/). Peter Boyle is fantastic as the title character. The set up before we meet Joe takes a bit too long and the movie is kinka clunky and cheesy in parts, but I like the territory where the movie goes.

[mlpeters]

Conan the Barbarian (2011) I liked it - - Jason Momoa is a better Conan than Schwarzenegger was, maybe because he's more familiar with the source material - -the stories by Robert E. Howard. The plot didn't work as well as it could have and the story wasn't an adaptation, but a mere pastiche, but it was like a decent issue of 1980's Savage Sword of Conan, on the big screen.

The Da Vinci Code - - saw it at the motel, while at Wizard Chicago (great convention, btw!) - - much better than I'd expected (if I'd known it was this good, I might have tried to see it, instead of catching it years later, on motel cable)... not as much crazy conspiracy stuff and some (not all) aspects of the back story are well researched (probably reflecting the book, which I haven't read). Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou and Sir Ian McKellen performed there parts well enough to make you put aside your ideas of them from previous roles. The title still bugs me, since Leonardo has almost nothing to do with the story and "Da Vinci" wasn't his last name, meaning simply, "from Vinci".

Whip It - - again, on motel cable - - fun movie, but not much more than that. Ellen Page is pretty and automatically sympathetic and the supporting cast were all great, but the story is light... which is fine.

Captain America - - Good, but not as good as Thor. I did like it, but felt this fictionalised WW2, where Hydra was almost more of a threat than the Nazis and laser (or whatever) guns were used... is a bit anti-septic and lacked gravity. Without throwing out any of the super-hero aspects, I thought it could have been grittier (not necessarily first scenes of Saving Private Ryan gritty... but grittier). I did like the parts, early on where Cap is being used for USO war-bond selling and morale boosting purposes, especially in ways that seemed authentically WW2 era and liked the nod toward the Howling Commandos. Like Conan, I saw it 2D - - I don't like wearing more than one pair of glasses at a time.

[Fygar]

Now that I've moved in with my girlfriend, I've been rewatching a lot of shit lately so she can see it. Not much to say about any of them really.

The Dark Knight

Catfish - Works surprisingly well on a second viewing.

Humpday

[Andrew j]

Soul Surfer: Looked amazing

Rango: fun and odd

[Kurt Russell Crowe]

Lemmy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1236472/). He's one of those magnetic personalities that deservies their own documentary. Looking forward to watching the special features on the DVD sometime soon


Watched this today too, fun doc, not too in depth, very interesting the connections with the Beatles and Hendrix and such. And of course, the fact that he lives in a 900$ apartment out of choice is amazing!

[The Zevad]

Fright Night (2011) and Conan The Barbarian (2011)

[Scotty]

Alabama Moon- Nice little kids story.

I love you Phillip Morris- Very very good movie.

[Schroedingers Cat]

Saw Final Destination 5 on Saturday and Fright Night on Sunday.

Final Destination was a blast. I took my 13 year old Son to see it and we had a great time. The more 'over the top' these things are the more fun we have. 3D makes it even better.

Fright Night was a pretty solid remake and David Tennant was brilliant.

Jim

[Andrew j]

been watching smidgens of HBO movies in my hotel room since I don't get it at home.

Middle of Predators: pretty bad

First 3/4 of Cop Out: starts out weird, then gets bad

Beginning and end of Unstoppable: Loved it

[cPol]

Unstoppable - Pretty darned enjoyable.

Sucker Punch - Unwatchable. The previews on the disc were better than the movie. Tried to stick it out and finally just bagged it about the time Scott Glenn showed up.

[Andrew j]

Now Ive seen Unstoppable all the way through, and can safely say that I love it!

Rotten Tomatoed it afterwards and loved the WaPo's Hornaday quote: "it's a hymn to unpretentious competence"

[NeverWanderer]

REC - Finally watched this movie on Crackle today. It's pretty goddamn good. As far as "captured footage" horror movies go, I think this one actually surpasses the masters. As the whole thing unfolded, I realized that it felt more like an homage to Resident Evil than any of the RE movies did, just because of the challenges and obstacles the characters go through. Great, tense, legitimately scary fun with a cool twist at the end.

Phantoms - I always enjoyed this movie in my youth, but could never remember how it ended. Seeing it now, it's a fairly competent spookfest, though is definitely the modern equivalent of a B movie. And Ben Affleck is the bomb in it.

30 Minutes or Less - A very brief movie. Fun and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. The mexican gangbanger steals the show. Cool seeing Jessie Eisenberg NOT play a jittery neurotic. Ultimately, it felt like an incomplete idea, but is good for some frivolous chuckles.

[NeverWanderer]

Quarantine - Saw this on Crackle also. It's fairly competent as a scare machine, but the clarity, subtlety and believability of the first person POV are part of what made REC so great. It never once broke the illusion with confusion or suspension of disbelief. In Quarantine, the first 10 minutes are fun, but once we get into the building, it looks and feels like a slick, hollywood horror movie. Everybody's overacting just a little too much, the camera is just a little too steady in some scenes and a little too shaky in others, and the blood looks a little too computer generated. Plus, I recognized half the actors, so I never once felt like I was experiencing this thing with the cast. They hit all the same plot beats as the original, but since it lacked the clarity of the original, half of those beats just felt contrived. It'll scare the shit out of somebody if they're in for some cheesy fun scares, but REC is the far superior movie.

[WhindamPryce]

The Whistleblower: sought this out due to my undying love for Rachel Weisz. I felt this was average. I understood the plight of the women in that area. But Rachel's character was always an observer. It never felt she had a personal stake in any of it. She didn't get a bruise on her. If some disgruntled UN soldiers had roughed her up for asking questions, it would've gotten scarier and better IMO. We never even got a resolution to her initial motivation for joining the UN (getting closer to her kids). Monica Bellucci was wasted.

The Help: pretty good. Even though they really couldn't go into the horrors of segregation, it still did a good job of it. The plot came together nicely. I could not tell Jessica Chastain was that well endowed from the Tree of Life. :)

[Fygar]

Revanche - What an excellent crime/ revenge story without being too grisly. Just a simple but well executed adult drama with gorgeous cinematography and acting.

Black Swan - Third viewing and still captivating.

[sans serif]

Rabbit Hole
Blue Valentine

A depressing relationship double feature.

[Fygar]

Rabbit Hole
Blue Valentine

A depressing relationship double feature.

Oh God, you watched them back to back? How did you survive?

[Fourthman]

Love Pine and Washington. Even Tony Scott sometimes. Hated Unstoppable. Firstly, I don't give a shit about trains, so I knew going in this was going to be an uphill slog. And then all the early shit where the story engineered ancillary accidents to put something exciting in the trains way was frankly insulting to entertainment. I felt like this either needed to be a smaller, David Simon-like indictment of corporate fuckery or go to a mode of transport where there's no way to warn everyone that might be effected that it's coming their way. Stock roles, fist pumping at minor victories; the bad guy gets his and the good guys win their entire lives back. Fucking dreadful.

[Kedd]

Jackie Brown-It's been playing a lot for the past couple of weeks. I had forgotten that I actually enjoyed that movie. Not in its entirety, but there some really, really good moments in that flick and it's probably one of the times Tarantino has managed to not annoy me. The scene that I'm loving the most right now is Ordell putting Beaumont in the trunk, driving around the block, and shooting him. There's something about that brief sequence that just grips me. maybe it's the music.

Also watched:

Macgruber-What a horrible movie. just awful. Bad from all angles.

[Andrew j]

Cast away: every shot, visual cue, character progression, acting beat, is perfect. Watched 2X in 2 days and reminded me of why Zemeckis has always been my favorite director.

[stephenp01]

Cast away: every shot, visual cue, character progression, acting beat, is perfect. Watched 2X in 2 days and reminded me of why Zemeckis has always been my favorite director.

Great movie.

[sans serif]

Oh God, you watched them back to back? How did you survive?

I cried a lot and questioned how relationships can possibly ever last. Stanley had a lot to deal with that day. I was a handful.

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

Watched the two Paradise Lost documentaries. Fascinating, disturbing and involving.

[JohnBehling]

Being Elmo - great documentary about Kevin Clash who is the puppeteer "behind" Elmo
And
Amigo - new John Sayles film, great stuff

[Scotty]

The Tree of Life- The Fuck did I just watch?

[Patton]

50/50 - One of my favorites of the year, behind Tree of Life. It's hilarious and visceral. Really effective storytelling.

Conviction - Pretty good, mostly for the powerful performances. Swank, Rockwell and Juliette Lewis all deliver.

[Scotty]

I'm still trying to decide if I like 'Tree of life'

[Fygar]

I'm still trying to decide if I like 'Tree of life'

I felt the same way after seeing it. There are parts I don't like, but overall I think it's the best film of 2011.

[J. R. Scherer]

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TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON
Not a good movie, but definitely a spectacular one. It has the best use of 3D in a live-action film that I've seen to date. Storywise, it's not the unmitigated shit-fest that the second movie was, but it's no great shakes, that's for certain. It's a bit unnerving to see the Transformers, good and bad, be so brutal and callous as well. Lots of deaths and executions in this movie. C


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HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2
I have to say that I was done with both the Harry Potter books and movies with the 4th installment, Goblet of Fire. I've found everything after Goblet of Fire to be a wholly pedestrian and unimaginative slog and if this series wasn't the global phenomenon that it is I don't think that I would've bothered to keep up with it. I was constantly checking my watch throughout this one. D


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HORRIBLE BOSSES
Funny fucking movie. It's what Bad Teacher wanted to be. Solid performances all around and some great laughs throughout. B


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COWBOYS AND ALIENS
Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford are really great in this. Olivia Wilde is insanely beautiful. These three factors are what keep the movie afloat. The movie's great when they're onscreen. Lots of shaky cam action whenever the eponymous aliens appear and you never get a good idea of what they actually look like--they're always moving so quickly that they're a blur. Some personality given to the bad guys would've made a big difference. B-


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CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
So far, this is my favorite movie of the summer. It does everything right. The casting is perfect, the performances spot-on, it looks gorgeous, and the action is practically a throwback to pre-Saving Private Ryan filmmaking as there's nary a shaky-cam shot to be seen. I loved the shared world mythos that Marvel has been creating with these movies. There are so many little things that either tie the movie in to the other Marvel movies (especially Iron Man and Thor) or are simply nice little nods to readers of the comic books, like the appearance of the original Golden Age Human Torch as well as the Howling Commandos (who, unfortunately, are never named). Even Arnim Zola (http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/images/jones-zola.jpg) appears in the movie. I can't wait to see what Marvel does next with their own stable of movies. As far as I'm concerned they've been hitting them out of the park so far. A

[J. R. Scherer]

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RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Surprisingly good prequel to the classic sci-fi film series (Burton's turd from 2001 not included). Andy Serkis has proven time and again that he is able to deliver astounding performances via motion capture. I don't see any sort of acting nods coming his way from the Academy for this but perhaps a special achievement Oscar wouldn't be out of line. There are a couple of times where the film goes out of its way to remind you that it's a PotA movie that were definitely groaners for me, but overall it's very satisfying. B+



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30 MINUTES OR LESS
If only. Very disappointing. D



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CONAN THE BARBARIAN
Very flawed, but still entertaining. Momoa is excellent as Conan and I liked Steven Lang and Rose McGowan as the bad guys as well. The action is mostly well-done and I think it had the right hard-edged bloody vibe. The story is nothing special, though; it's the sort of formula we've seen a million times already -- EXCEPT in Robert E. Howard's original Conan stories. I'm a little baffled as to why the filmmakers simply did not adapt one of Howard's classic stories instead of writing yet another "Conan seeks revenge against the man who destroyed his village" story. Surely they had the actual rights to adapt from those stories if they wanted to. Tyler Bates' score is also very blah and bland. The 1982 movie will always stand head and shoulders above this movie if only because of Basil Poledouris' phenomenal score. The movie tries hard but it simply isn't as good as it should've been. I would love see Momoa appear in future Conan stories, but that doesn't seem likely given this films dismal box office performance. B-/C+



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FRIGHT NIGHT
Now this movie did the remake/reboot right. The cast, script, and production are excellent all around. It takes its basic concept from the 1985 film and builds on it while respecting the original. Anton Yelchin and David Tennant were both fun to watch but Colin Farrell is definitely the stand-out -- it's clear he had a lot of fun playing Jerry the vampire. Highly recommended. A

[McAfee]

Limitless: I really enjoyed the first half or so of the movie. It gets a little goofy at the climax, but finishes on a good note. Bradley Cooper did a bang-up job and carried himself well against DeNiro.

[Fygar]

The Adjustment Bureau - I dug the first half but it gets way too hokey in its climax. Magic hats?!? Really!?!

Our Idiot Brother - A decent little comedy. Paul Rudd steals the show though and is the only interesting/ likable character in a great cast.

[Humphrey_Lee]

Super Troopers and The Adjustment Bureau. Love the first so much, thought the second was pretty decent.

[Humphrey_Lee]

The Adjustment Bureau - I dug the first half but it gets way too hokey in its climax. Magic hats?!? Really!?!



Dude! Not just "magic hats", magic pimp ass fucking Fedoras!! =)

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

Heartbreak Ridge (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091187/). Was hanging out at a friend's house and he put this DVD on because he knew I'd never seen the whole thing. Thought it was a perfectly fine background movie.

Killer's Kiss (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048254/). I haven't seen this since my mid-teens and thought this was much better than I remember it being. Yeah, it's probably Kubrick at his most pedestrian, but it's a great looking movie that has a lot of right things going for it.

[McAfee]

The Conspirator: Not great, but still decent. I'm rather surprised this didn't receive more attention than it did, though, with Redford at the helm of a period piece and a pretty good cast.

[Doug]

Devil: It was on HBO, and I wanted to see if my guess as to the identity of the Devil was correct from only watching the previews. It was. I'm glad I didn't pay to see this. (Yes, I pay for HBO, but I get it for their shows; any movies watched on HBO is a bonus in my book.)

Slammin' Salmon: I thought it was very funny. Nothing beats Super Troopers though.

Attach the Block: Easily my favorite movie of the year so far.

[chichiri27]

got full time work again so got caught up on a few this weekend-

Fright Night remake
Apollo 18
Red State
Attack the Block - easily the best movie of the year
Rise of Planet of the Apes - Serkis!!!

[oconnellmd]

Rise of the Planet of the Apes: total surprise, loved what they did with it, loved the cast, renewed my Serkis superfan card.

Attack the Block: holy SHIT!!! I just got home from seeing it! If it's playing near you, get out there and see it NOW! Brilliant! A 90-minute lesson on how to make great sci-fi on a small budget. AND be socially relevant! I can't say more. Just go see it! Don't go read reviews (currently 89% on RT), don't find out more about it. Just enjoy it as it all unfolds.

[Andrew j]

Burn after Reading: Saw it when it came out and thought it was unpleasant, but I was glad i saw it. been watching it on FX and after repeated viewings I have to say that i love it and it may be Clooney's best performance.

Eastbound and Down Season 1: Just as crazy as Observe and Report and awaiting season 2 to come in the mail! I like the characters besides McBride becoming more and more eccentric as the eps went. The principal was my favorite character in the end.

[Dr. Chaos]

Megamind: Another fun lil CG film among many. Really enjoyed this one.

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

Red State. WOW! I liked this one quite a bit. I wish Smith had making this kind of movie for years instead of waiting this late in his career. I think it's his best since Chasing Amy.

Office Space. Outside of seeing bits and peices of this on cable through the years, this is the first time I've seen this beginning to end. I liked this one quite a bit, as well!

[Scotty]

Beerfest- Because it's epicly fun

The Thin Blue Line- Cause it made the top ten of 50 docs you should see before you die and i have never seen it. Also amazing and heartbreaking to see that level of corruption in law enforcement.

[morlock with a day pass]

zero effect- easily my current fav even though it's a few years old.

dirty harry- wow. i think this one film alone inspired about a dozen different tropes of the genre.

both currently available on netflix instant

[Andrew j]

Sesame Street's Follow that Bird: Has the same problem Sex and the City 2 has; when the place everybody lives is a large part of the stories, spend some time there!

Horton Hears a Who: ​Looks amazing

[THWIP!]

Contagion - I really liked this flick.

Attack The Block - I liked it, didn't love it. The aliens were cool looking though.

Super - I think this is my favorite movie of the year. Funny, depressing, dark as hell, but it has heart. And I'm totes in love with Ellen Page.

Your Highness - I lasted about 30 minutes before I turned it off.

127 Hours - Watched this on HBO last night, I still think it's a great movie. Love the score.

[ZombieSpeedball]

Last night I went to see a double feature of Contagion and Crazy, Stupid Love. Both really solid films, actually. Weird pairing though.

[ThisSpaceForRent]

zero effect-

That's gotta be one of the most underrated movies ever made.
I'm putting that on deck for tonight after football's over.

Last two for me:

Contagion: saw it last night with friends in Boston. I really liked it. Very well done.

Expendables: took a personal day on Friday and had it on in the background while I ironed clothes. It's fun, loud movie. I don't think anyone is sitting down to watch this movie and isn't aware of exactly what they're in for.

[Dark Sasha]

Heathers and Karate Kid.

[THWIP!]

That's gotta be one of the most underrated movies ever made.
I'm putting that on deck for tonight after football's over.

Last two for me:

Contagion: saw it last night with friends in Boston. I really liked it. Very well done.

Expendables: took a personal day on Friday and had it on in the background while I ironed clothes. It's fun, loud movie. I don't think anyone is sitting down to watch this movie and isn't aware of exactly what they're in for.

I knew exactly what I was in for going in and I thought it still sucked.

[CapnChaos]

I knew exactly what I was in for going in and I thought it still sucked.

Agreed.

It felt like it was a terrible direct-to-dvd rip-off of an actual fun action romp with tons of famous people in it.

[Drew]

Midnight in Paris: Watchable. Not spectacular, but good.

Breakin': It rates as Fresh to Death on the Crank Scale of Fun Bad Movies.

Roller Boogie: If you can just watch from where the MOBSTERS OUT OF NOWHERE show up? This movie is fun bad. Before that point? It's as esoteric as Tree of Life.

[morlock with a day pass]

zero effect-


That's gotta be one of the most underrated movies ever made.
I'm putting that on deck for tonight after football's over.

great soundtrack too. except no darryl zero songs :(

[SmoManCometh]

RESURRCET DEAD - Fun mystery doc, but, well, once you solve a crazy mystery, it's not a crazy mystery anymore. But, at least they solved it!
HANNA - Second time I've seen it actually. May be in my top ten of the year.

[Supreme Convoy]

I watched American Movie and American: The Bill Hicks Story.

Great documentaries.

[NeverWanderer]

Batman Begins - Haven't seen this in a while, and as with most things it seems, my memory was not as kind to it as it should have been. I never DISliked Batman Begins, but its few flaws always seemed so much more offensive to me in hindsight. Y'know what, though? It's a pretty fuckin' good movie. And it's pretty epic! The few moments where the fiction overpowered the reality didn't bother me as much as they once did, and I realized that Bales new Batman voice, in this movie, was pretty fuckin' cool.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVL-AW0OWD0


http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=P-7QsBWWpA0

Especially when you compare it to...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohU16OiduUs


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZyMCm-NFB0

The Dark Knight - So, aside from Batman's stuffed nose and enunciation problem, this movie is still pretty fucking amazing. Yes, Gordon's end monologue is... well... a monologue, but with the levels of storytelling this movie played on, I'll forgive that. Still keeps me on the edge of my seat with my eyes glued to the screen.

I am so fucking ready for DKR.

[Karate and Friendship]

Attack the Block - 9/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD0gm7dHKKc

Trust - 7.5/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhufUDjSKyQ

[dasNdanger]

Rango, and Thor - liked them both very much. :)



das

[MIKE D]

Catfish - Really engaging, engrossing and totally fake. But it didn't matter. I enjoyed it for what it was. Makes total sense these guys were given the keys to the Paranormal Activity franchise.

25th Hour - Third time watching. One of Lee's best, one of Norton's best, and easily still in the top 10 films of the aughts.

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

Red State. twice in a week!

and

The Killing. Kubrick's first good movie. Always have a fun time with this one and it has one of my favorite last lines uttered in a movie.

[WhindamPryce]

Red State- pretty good. Recommended for Smith fans and non-fans alike!

The Last Circus- was pretty damn good until the guy goes to live in the woods. After that it just turns farcical. Had a lotta potential, this one. :(

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

I'm not quite sure why, but I watched Kung-Fu Panda and Monsters vs. Aliens on FX. It was one of THOSE Sundays. I certaintly didn't think either were anything special.

[J. R. Scherer]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/Mog_Elffoe/Movie%20Pics/Movie%20Posters/th_CedarRapids.jpg
CEDAR RAPIDS
Great little comedy featuring very likable, normal people doing weird fucked up things at an insurance convention. I laughed a lot. John C. Reilly never fails me. Loved the fake commercials for the insurance companies as well. B+



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/Mog_Elffoe/Movie%20Pics/Movie%20Posters/th_TrueLegend.jpg
TRUE LEGEND
Kick-ass kung fu film in the classic tradition from the grand master of Hong Kong martial arts films, Yuen Woo Ping. I loved the gimmicky kung fu in this, especially the bad guy with his deadly Five Venoms Fist that requires him to regularly punch his fist into barrels full of scorpions, spiders, snakes, and centipedes. The movie makes an abrupt tonal misstep into Bloodsport-ville during its third act but the action always more than makes up for it. B+



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/Mog_Elffoe/Movie%20Pics/Movie%20Posters/th_Drive.jpg
DRIVE
What an incredible surprise. Drive is actually a samurai film set in the universe of the Miami Vice TV show. It's all about music, style, and the slow burn before the quiet protagonist anti-hero explodes into gruesome bloody violence. It's gorgeous to look at and all performances are pitch perfect, including Albert Brooks playing totally against type as an extremely ruthless gangster. Very satisfying and highly recommended. A

[J. R. Scherer]

I'm not quite sure why, but I watched Kung-Fu Panda and Monsters vs. Aliens on FX. It was one of THOSE Sundays. I certaintly didn't think either were anything special.
You're wrong about Kung Fu Panda. It's one of my favorite kung fu movies. It has tremendous martial arts choreography and stunt work.

[WhindamPryce]

The Debt- Pretty good. Jessica Chastain has become my new crush! :)

Attack the Block- "This is too much madness for just one text!" :rofl: Highly Recommended.

Bunraku- 'twas alright. Josh Hartnett has got a lotta cool little B-movies to his resume.

[JJ Fresh]

CEDAR RAPIDS
Great little comedy featuring very likable, normal people doing weird fucked up things at an insurance convention. I laughed a lot. John C. Reilly never fails me. Loved the fake commercials for the insurance companies as well. B+

Agreed. This movie was a definite sleeper comedy, one I rented on a whim through the ol' Redbox. It had some good laughs, most of which were courtesy of Reilly (one particular scene that had me rolling was his usage of a garbage receptacle lid as a diving helmet and later R2D2; incredibly stupid but uproarious for me). And who else wasn't thinking "shhhhhheeeeeeiiiiiiiiittttt" everytime Isaiah Whitlock Jr. was on screen?






DRIVE
What an incredible surprise. Drive is actually a samurai film set in the universe of the Miami Vice TV show. It's all about music, style, and the slow burn before the quiet protagonist anti-hero explodes into gruesome bloody violence. It's gorgeous to look at and all performances are pitch perfect, including Albert Brooks playing totally against type as an extremely ruthless gangster. Very satisfying and highly recommended. A

You have no idea how much I want to see this movie. Hope to go this week.

[Fygar]

I haven't been posting much because I'm plowing through Mad Men all over again.
The last two movies I watched were repeats.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Fun flick. I watched it with some friend's kids and they were so entranced by it.

Rabbit Hole - I know I just watched this but wanted my g/f to see it. We cried like babies.

[Jew Mafia]

Drive and Moneyball, both excellent films in there own unique ways. One for the lack of dialogue and the other mainly because of it's dialogue.

[S. Earl]

Drive and Moneyball, both excellent films in there own unique ways. One for the lack of dialogue and the other mainly because of it's dialogue.

You dug moneyball? Good. I'm looking forward to it but I bleed Yellow and Green. Hope non A's fans see it as well.

[Shwicaz]

Bear City (a cute romantic comedy set in the 'bear' world. and some pretty funny performances. matt and I actually cried during this movie.

Another Gay Movie (a gay spoof of 'American Pie'...funnier than it should have been)

[Doug]

You dug moneyball? Good. I'm looking forward to it but I bleed Yellow and Green. Hope non A's fans see it as well.

I'm a big Yankees fan and I really want to see it.

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

You're wrong about Kung Fu Panda. It's one of my favorite kung fu movies. It has tremendous martial arts choreography and stunt work.

It's definetly better than Monsters vs. Aliens, at least it has some personality.

[Martin J]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy : really rather good with a real slow burn where a sideways glance is more meaningful than any car chase would have been.

Fith Element was on some channel i surfed to last night.

[PeteL]

Cedar Rapids. Funny, quirky, a bit dark.

Troll Hunter. Impressive! Lots of fun.

Edit: I saw Drive over the weekend. It was excellent. I knew it'd be cool, but it really exceeded my already high expectations.

[Doug]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy : really rather good with a real slow burn where a sideways glance is more meaningful than any car chase would have been.

Fith Element was on some channel i surfed to last night.

I can't wait to see Tinker Tailor, but it doesn't open in the US until Dec. 9th. I did just read the novel and it was fantastic. Gary Oldman as George Smiley sounds like perfect casting to me.

[Fygar]

Source Code - During its theatrical run I was psyched to see this but something happened where I lost interest. This has been sitting on my shelf from Netflix for over a month, and I'm pissed because it's pretty damn good. I feel like something is missing keeping it from greatness but it's very solid.

Star Wars: A New Hope - A go back and forth with New Hope. Some viewings I love it and others I feel like it lacks polish and decent editing. It fell into the latter this time around. I know SW is cheesy but some of the line delivery is very poor in New Hope. They just sort of rush what they're saying to get to the next line. It feels haphazard at times but overall it's still a fun time. It's maybe the only film where I like 3po.

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Woody Allen at his most forgettable

and

Drive. Very good, though the pacing/atmosphere in the first half was a little slow side for my tastes. The violence and motivations were very grounded and gave this movie a kick that raises it above other movies like it. It felt a lot like an 80s Michael Mann movie.

[mlpeters]

I saw two good movies on hotel cable, during the Detroit Fanfare.

Mulholland Drive - - fascinating, frustrating and disturbing. Naomi Watts and Laura Harring were hot, especially in certain scenes... (if you've seen it, you know what I mean... if not, I didn't spoil anything).

Babe : Pig in the city. Yeah a kid's film and one I never expected to continue watching, after watching long enough to see what it was... but it was unexpectedly offbeat (though not compared to Mulholland Drive...:) ).

[Ashwin Pande]

Yeah, I saw You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger today and it really is a boring and bland movie.

[NeverWanderer]

Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone - Such a fantastic retelling of the first few episodes of the series. They kept most if not all of the best parts in and only added and changed things that made it work better as a movie. And it does! It feels like an epic, dramatic, psychological sci-fi adventure. And the American voice cast even comes back for this and delivers performances ten times more nuanced and subtle than anything we heard from them 10 years ago. This is the definitive Evangelion for me. I'll always love the series and the last movie, but whenever someone asks me about it, THIS is the one I'll recommend.

Tokyo Godfathers - Because this is a Satoshi Kon movie, I knew it was going to be good. I was not ready for it to be THAT good, though. I expected harsh reality and a sort of twisted sense of humor similar to what can be found in certain episodes of Paranoia Agent... but I was NOT ready to laugh as much as I did. Clever, heartfelt, exciting... all things I was expecting. That it would feel uplifting and actually special, I was not. What an amazing movie. Highly recommended.

[Dr. Chaos]

Avatar: An old man riding a mech thats holding a giant hunting knife while fighting blue cat people? WTF did I just watch? Laughed my ass off when the tree got burned down.

[Fygar]

Drive What else can be said about Drive at this point? I think it's perfect. My favorite film of the year thus far.

Y tu Mama Tambien - I've been meaning to see this for nearly a decade. Great roadtrip movie. It took me awhile to get invested with the characters but eventually I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.

Conan O'brien Can't Quit - I had heard that Conan comes off looking like a jerk in this, but I don't think so. He seems very real...very genuine but not a jerk. He gives it everything he has to entertain people because it keeps him alive. He wouldn't know what to do with his energy otherwise.

[Patton]

Drive What else can be said about Drive at this point? I think it's perfect. My favorite film of the year thus far.

Y tu Mama Tambien - I've been meaning to see this for nearly a decade. Great roadtrip movie. It took me awhile to get invested with the characters but eventually I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.

Conan O'brien Can't Quit - I had heard that Conan comes off looking like a jerk in this, but I don't think so. He seems very real...very genuine but not a jerk. He gives it everything he has to entertain people because it keeps him alive. He wouldn't know what to do with his energy otherwise.

Nice. Love all three of those and I agree with your comments. You a Harry Potter fan? The third movie has a little callback/homage to Y tu Mama.

[Patton]

Trust - Directed by David Schwimmer. It's basically To Catch a Predator: the movie, though not as bad as that probably sounds. I found the performances and editing and directing to be quite good, while the themes were pretty didactic and dialogue Lifetime-esque.

Scream 4 - Completely bored today so I threw this on. It's the best since the first. Not saying a ton, but it wasn't horrible I guess. I dunno. It brought some new ideas to the table, but in the end it didn't have the balls to reinvent anything.

[MIKE D]

Nice. Love all three of those and I agree with your comments. You a Harry Potter fan? The third movie has a little callback/homage to Y tu Mama.

So THAT'S why Harry and Ron made out.

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

Hot Coffee (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1445203/) Haven't seen a documentary like this that I think EVERYBODY should watch since No End In Sight (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912593/). Seek it out.

Session 9 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0261983/). Creepy movie.

[Andrew j]

Color of Money: Love how it turned from a "how to cheat the system" movie into an ode to the honest game.

Thor: What a great movie. Just fantastic.

[Andrew j]

Watched Thor a second time and I realized how tight the movie was. It was a chess game with a dozen characters and never seemed forced.

Shutter Island: Seemed like redo/love letter to Fuller's Shock Corridor mixed with a little Big Red One. Maybe DiCaprio is playing Mark Hammel's character. Beautifully made

[Zac Goyette]

Bridesmaids- very funny. I didnt know what to expect, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Real Steel- I loved this movie. The robots were cool and I enjoyed the fights. I had a lot of fun.

[ultimate_lost87]

Moneyball - A solid movie with a good chance at the Oscars. Excellent script with solid acting

The Exorcist - Had never seen this one before. It was entertaining. Beginning was very strange.

[Sunbeam]

The Help and Bicentennial Man.

[Fygar]

13 Assassins - Miike's love letter to Seven Samurai, and it's every bit as awesome as you'd want it to be. Gorgeous scenery, bad ass characters, and action beats that make you want to get up and cheer. I loved this film.

Kick Ass - I wanted to show my girlfriend since she read the comic recently. My third time watching it and I still dig it. A few things feel off but for the most part it's a great action flick. Hit Girl never gets old.

[McAfee]

Scream 4: See Patton's remarks above. I agree for the most part with him except I didn't really buy the motivations of the killers.

Paul: I quite enjoyed this. Some funny shit and enjoyable action. And Kristen Wiig is adorable.

Hanna: Pretty badass.

[Patton]

Ides of March - Really liked it. It felt like the '70's. Candidate, Conversation, etc. Still stretched believability a bit, but as I get older I care less about that.

The Next Three Days - This was a pretty good little thriller.

[Fygar]

50/50 - Decent enough. It's hard not to cry during it but ultimately it's a one and done for me. Seth Rogen never rises above his normal routine which surprises me because I heard he was great in this.

Paranormal Activity 3 - Three for three. I know it's gimmicky filmmaking but it works on me. I now know what a Saw devotee feels like, because I'm probably going to see every Paranormal Activity movie for years to come. There were genuine moments of terror and quite a few laughs too. It's a fun movie to watch in the middle of October.

[Fygar]

Red State - It's weird finally seeing Red State after listening to Kevin Smith's podcast for a couple years. I feel like I know him now and this film's tone goes hand in hand with his current personality. The plot unravels in such a nihilistic manner that it almost feels like he doesn't give a fuck as to what happens. On the other hand though, everything is extremely well crafted (which is why it never feels like a Smith film). The performances are great and it's a unique piece of cinema that is bogged down only when his 'clever' dialogue rears its ugly head (patriot act bitch...ugh).

Let the Right One In - Still love this flick but man does the botched localization still bother the hell out of me. A few scenes don't sit well with me but overall it's a great vampire film.

[chichiri27]

Paranormal Activity 1-2 I do agree that PA1 by itself without knowing the why and who setup from 2 makes a dry watching people sleep movie.

Watching Halloween 4-5 tonight since my wife has never seen them and it's been years.

[extras21]

Captain America (I wasn't a fan. I thought the acting was awful and it was boring. Thor was so much better)
Paranormal Activity 1

[Jordan K]

Pearl Jam Twenty - What more can I say I am a superfan so I loved it.

Bridesmaids - 4 words: pee my pants funny

[chichiri27]

Life in a Day - have the world film July 24, 2010 from your POV from your part of the world. YouTube/National Geographic documentary produced by Tony and Ridley Scott. Even the mundane can be spectacular. The daily what had it posted and I think YouTube has it up also

Jesus Christ Superstar - one of my favorite musicals. I had even forgot that Steve Austin used "Superstar" as his ECW intro music. And some insane mad bastards did a group cosplay at Dragon Con one year as the priests and soldiers.

[Scotty]

I'm a Cyborg But That's Okay- Brilliant, bizarre, colorful, It's on Net flix, it's Korean, and it's AWESOME

Cowboys and Aliens- With an amazing cast it's a lack luster movie.

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

50/50 - Decent enough. It's hard not to cry during it but ultimately it's a one and done for me. Seth Rogen never rises above his normal routine which surprises me because I heard he was great in this.



Yeah, this is how I felt about the movie as well. I wouldn't even say it moved me to tears or anything, though.

Also watched Mars Attacks! for the first time since it came to video and thought it was even worse and more idiotic than I rememberd it being.

[J. Wilson]

Captain America
The Killing Game

I was pleased with Captain America. First comic book movie that I actually enjoyed in a while.

The Killing Game was a premiere movie on the Lifetime Movie Network. It is based on the Iris Johansen thriller of the same name.

[SmoManCometh]

Exporting Raymond - fun documentary. Look it up, and enjoy.
Attack the Block- Good, but not great. But I did enjoy it quite a bit.

[PeterSparker]

Horrible Bosses - It was a pretty good comedy, nothing major, but ok. Charlie plays Charlie, Jason Bateman plays Jason Bateman, Kevin Spacey was good, and Jennifer Anniston talks like a dirty porn star throughout. (but really isn't looking that good on film these days. Not that she was ever truly pretty, and she still has rocking body, but close ups just aren't really her friend anymore)

My Week With Marylin - Now this was good. Caught a members screening at MoMA tonight followed by Q&A with director Simon Curtis. Right up front, Michelle Williams is brilliant and has to be a leading contender for an Oscar. If you're a Monroe fan though and know her work well, as good as Michelle is, she also sort of underlines Marylin's complete uniqueness on the screen. You can't completely recreate that no matter what, which is also a theme of the movie. Branaugh is very good as Olivier (aside form being about 30-40 lbs heavier than Sir Larry ever was) and the rest of the cast are all very good. Nice to see Emma Watson lay the gorundwork for a post-Hermione career. The particualr period though may be the one stumbling block for a larger audience. It's set during the making of The Prince And The Showgirl, a movie not very widely known, becuase it's not particulary good. That said though, they do recreate certain shots and the sets pretty impressively. The opening title sequence is Michelle as Monroe doing musical number, and she looks and sings like her big time. (definitely put on a little weight too for the role, but still isn't quite as big as Monroe was at the time) But I'd say it's really the second half of the movie where she paints the total picture, and it is an impressive performance. The film has a nice pace, hits all the sort of talking points as far as Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Arthur Miller's careers and where they were in life, etc. Has a couple of good lines, Judy Dench gets a lot of them. A fine film, beautifully shot.

[MIKE D]

I think the question that needs to be asked about Michelle Williams is not "Will she ever win an Oscar?" but rather "How many is she ultimately going to win?" To me, she is hands down the best actress of her generation.

[PeterSparker]

I think the question that needs to be asked about Michelle Williams is not "Will she ever win an Oscar?" but rather "How many is she ultimately going to win?" To me, she is hands down the best actress of her generation.

Yeah, she is something special.

[Fygar]

Kes - Not Earth shatteringly good but a decent little movie. The lip synching bothered me because it seemed so canned at times. The actors are quite good, especially since they're all amateurs. It's weird how focus drifts from so many different things across its short running time. I feel like it could have been tighter and really emphasized the relationship between the boy and his bird.

Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back - My two favorite films of all time are There Will Be Blood and Empire Strikes Back, but I haven't watched the latter in seven years or so. I know it like the back of my hand, but my tastes have changed quite a bit. I've seen and read so many stories (and have written quite a few scripts myself) that have shaped who I am in those seven years. New Hope didn't leave a lasting impression back in September and I was afraid Empire would fall short too. It doesn't. I love every God damn second of this film. The pacing is a little too break neck at times and honestly John Williams score is so bombastic that it detracts more than enhances, but those are minor quibbles. I will love this film until I'm dead. When I watched it tonight I was a kid again. Yoda still works, Vader is more menacing than ever, the color palette is rich, Lando is such a great addition, and Han Solo owns every scene he's in. A perfect event film.

[Rafiennes]

Crazy Stupid Love – I didn’t get what the big deal was. Some good performances, some funny bits, some heartfelt but all in all it didn’t seem like anything we hadn’t seen before.


Adventures of Tintin – Fun movie. Some amazing sequences in there that were enhanced with the 3D but all in all, this movie adds to that blurring line of where movie action sequences end and theme park adventure rides begin.

[WhindamPryce]

I think the question that needs to be asked about Michelle Williams is not "Will she ever win an Oscar?" but rather "How many is she ultimately going to win?" To me, she is hands down the best actress of her generation.

Although I agree that Williams is very good, if I had to hand out a "best actress of her generation" award right now, it'd be Carey Mulligan (An Education, Never Let Me Go, Shame, Drive), followed by Keira Knightley (Never Let Me Go, A Dangerous Method, Atonement).

[Jew Mafia]

Black Snake Moan - finally got around to seeing this, loved the music. Forgot Timberlake was in this, the ending was kind of weak, but otherwise enjoyable.

Red State - The guy who played the preacher was really good. Besides that, it was pretty forgettable.

[Patton]

Although I agree that Williams is very good, if I had to hand out a "best actress of her generation" award right now, it'd be Carey Mulligan (An Education, Never Let Me Go, Shame, Drive)Haven't seen Shame, and I liked her in those other movies, but I think I'd put Blue Valentine, Wendy and Lucy, Synecdoche, and Brokeback against those.

I do really need to see Shame, though.

[andrew french]

I think the question that needs to be asked about Michelle Williams is not "Will she ever win an Oscar?" but rather "How many is she ultimately going to win?" To me, she is hands down the best actress of her generation.

Totally agreed. Carey Mulligan is great as others have said; I'm really looking forward to Shame. Fassbender... :heart:

[that bastard]

THE NEXT THREE DAYS - Not bad. Nothing amazing. Was more interested in seeing all of the recognizable Pittsburgh locations than the actual movie. There are a few unnecessary characters and wasted actors (Liam Neeson's part is barely more than a cameo even though his character is interesting even if his Brooklyn accent is awful). Brian Dennehy is wasted as well. All in all it was "eh".

STRANGE BREW: Haven't seen this in, oh, probably more than twenty years. It's awful. After watching it I was like, "God Damn it! I ruined a PERFECTLY GOOD MEMORY!" When I was a kid I thought that movie was absolutely hilarious. Adult me should just leave things be.

[J. Wilson]

Last Sunday, I watched the USA Network movie Certain Prey and last night I watched the FINALLY on DVD "The Legend of Billie Jean".

FAIR IS FAIR!

http://earbuds.popdose.com/kelly/Legend_of_Billie_Jean.JPG

[Patton]

THE NEXT THREE DAYS - Not bad. Nothing amazing. Was more interested in seeing all of the recognizable Pittsburgh locations than the actual movie. There are a few unnecessary characters and wasted actors (Liam Neeson's part is barely more than a cameo even though his character is interesting even if his Brooklyn accent is awful). Brian Dennehy is wasted as well. All in all it was "eh".


I actually really enjoyed it. I think it took a well-worn premise and gave it enough spice to make it worthwhile. I agree about Neeson. What was that?

[chichiri27]

[QUOTE=""The Legend of Billie Jean".

FAIR IS FAIR!

[/QUOTE]

I was in the background scenes at the mall, Sonic, and end beach shots.

[chichiri27]

Immortals - King Hyperion (AKA King Fuckyouup)

[Andrew j]

Ikiru: Ending that is so honest that it's manipulative. Understands human nature in a way that both smacks you in the face and uplifts.

Beowulf: Everytime I see it I feel like they refilmed parts between my viewings, always something new shows up in a scene. Probrably my sixth time seeing it from beginning to end. Recommend Zemeckis' podcast interview about it on itunes as a companion. Roger Avary's and Gaiman's interviews are good too even though Avary comes off a bit unhinged.

What Lies Beneath: a technical marvel that I used to show my wife how complex movie making can be. The visual effects are so amazing that it's almost a little sad how unnoticed they go (almost every scene you have to ask yourself "how did they get the camera there?"). The acting is also very underrated.

[Fygar]

Horrible Bosses - Pretty decent. I laughed enough to find it enjoyable. The cast played off each other well. It's goofy fun and worth one viewing.

Troll Hunter - Worth it for the locales alone. There is some incredible scenery throughout this film. Overall I liked it but I wish some of the troll designs were a bit more low key. The first few have a cartoon-y quality to them that took me out of the moment.

[dasNdanger]

Prince of Persia - Entertaining, if not a bit mindless. Good matinee popcorn flick. The highlight for me was seeing Jeffrey (Coupling) being serious. :)

Karate Kid (2010) - Damn - this was a GREAT movie! Excellent from start to finish, and damn if it didn't have me all teary-eyed towards the end. Maybe I'm just hormonal, but this was the first movie in ages to get a real emotional response out of me (of any kind). I just might have to own this one. It really impressed me.


das

[James Patrick]

Super 8 - disappointed. None of it is bad, Abrams can shoot and the film was sharp looking, but there was nothing holding it all together. Even the use of the film in a film was sparse. It felt like the first loose draft of a script that latched onto no theme among its running threads.

[Fygar]

Super 8 - disappointed. None of it is bad, Abrams can shoot and the film was sharp looking, but there was nothing holding it all together. Even the use of the film in a film was sparse. It felt like the first loose draft of a script that latched onto no theme among its running threads.

Totally agree. I wanted to LOVE Super 8 but it's just not there. It feels like a patchwork of scenes and not a cohesive whole. Probably my biggest disappointment of the year, even though it's still a good movie.

[Fourthman]

Super 8 - disappointed. None of it is bad, Abrams can shoot and the film was sharp looking, but there was nothing holding it all together. Even the use of the film in a film was sparse. It felt like the first loose draft of a script that latched onto no theme among its running threads.

One of my biggest problems with the film is that in building to the "happy" ending that the film clearly strives for, our heroes have aided a vengeful, technologically superior alien in returning to his home planet. This is a being who, after being tortured by a specific group of people and then mind melding with a more sympathetic person (and ostensibly, getting a better idea of life on Earth in a general, less interrogation-room sense), continued to enact his vengeance on innocent people. What are the chances he doesn't return with more like minded individuals to wipe us out? The thing that kept going through my mind during that finale was, "oh great, we're doomed."

[J. R. Scherer]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/Mog_Elffoe/Movie%20Pics/Movie%20Posters/th_13Assassins.jpg
13 ASSASSINS
Solid and highly entertaining samurai film. Damned good stuff. A


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/Mog_Elffoe/Movie%20Pics/Movie%20Posters/th_AttackTheBlock.jpg
ATTACK THE BLOCK
Excellent tribute to '80s John Carpenter flicks. Made with a low budget and a great sense of style and fun. I really liked the monsters quite a bit--very reminiscent of the "rats" in Jeff Smith's Bone comic. B+


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/Mog_Elffoe/Movie%20Pics/Movie%20Posters/th_Immortals-1.jpg
IMMORTALS
Stylish and gorgeous to look at, but ultimately a bit bland despite the action-packed and crazily gory final act. While I don't expect complete fidelity to the original myths I'm a bit baffled as to why the filmmakers named human characters after titans and so on when just using actual names from mythology would've fit the story just fine.C+


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/Mog_Elffoe/Movie%20Pics/Movie%20Posters/th_PussInBoots.jpg
PUSS IN BOOTS
Fun little romp. I enjoyed this much more than any of the actual Shrek films that it spun off from. B


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/Mog_Elffoe/Movie%20Pics/Movie%20Posters/th_Muppets.jpg
THE MUPPETS
Wonderful love letter from writer and star Jason Segal to the original Muppet Show television program. Not as good as The Muppet Movie but loads better than everything since. B+

[WhindamPryce]

Wow, I did not know Angelina Jolie was only 36 years old. She strikes me as early 40s. Huh...

[MAK15]

Pirates of the Caribbean- Stranger tides

Batman

[RGNRK]

Pirates of the Caribbean- Stranger tides

Batman

I also watched On Stranger Tides, for about 20 minutes before being overcome by the boringness of it all. And I really liked the first 3 movies. Not sure what happened on this one. Fatigue I guess.

And I watched Captain America that I really liked because it reminded me of good old Pulp stories and Indiana Jones.

[Fygar]

Pearl Jam 20 - Fantastic documentary that transported me back to my formative years. One of my favorite films of the year. I could watch a five hour cut.

Hugo - We've all moved past 3D but that's because of post production conversions and hack filmmakers have soured us. It's amazing seeing the difference when a talented director helms the project. This film is so alive. From the score, characters, color schemes, sound design and of course the aforementioned 3D the whole production oozes personality. It's an amazing film and cool as fuck to see Scorsese step out of his comfort zone.

[Bart A Thompson]

Return of the Living Dead - Somehow the only one from this series I ever saw was the third one. I really liked this movie.

The Beach - It was well acted and well filmed, but it still ended up pretty "meh."

[Patton]

The Descendants - Pretty great. I think it's Payne's best movie and Clooney's best performance.

The Future - Also great. Sometimes it seemed weird just to be weird, but by the end I felt everything had its reason. Love July's prose and previous movie, btw.

[Liquid]

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Entertaining. But the ending was very, very anti-climatic.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Utter dog shit. It was very hard to watch through the ending.

[PeteL]

The Muppets - Incredibly fun and happy and wonderful.

The Descedants - Great acting by Clooney, really sad, but charming in a way.

[Andrew j]

The Muppets: loved it. Did a good job of handling nostalgia and creating something fresh

Solaris (1971) Tried reading reviews afterward and the ones who loved it were incredibly defensive, telling me to go watch Armageddon if I don't like this. I think I can like both and still have problems with this movie. The slowness and deliberateness of the movie would be better if I had something beautiful to look at, instead of pretty poorly set-up shots. Kubrick and Lynch are the closest directors to Tartovsky and they knew how to photograph a movie so a long shot of nothing really going on would have more purpose other than to try to make me think about what I just watched and creating a dream-like quality.
But that's the negative. I did like what the movie was saying and while I'll always have a soft spot for the 2002 version, this one was deeper and richer.

[Patton]

Beginners - Loved it. A lot of it I felt like I had seen done before, but this was done just as those. And it still had plenty to make it special.

Comic Book Confidential - It was ok. I dunno.

[King of Mars]

Tangled - Loved it. Smartly written, beautifully animated...and totally engrossing for my 20 month old. I'm proud to say, my little guy seems to have great taste in movies/TV shows. :)

Dr. Lamb - A Chinese exploitation flick about a taxi driver who kidnaps women and surgically dissects them. This movie is not without style, and there's a somewhat amusing dark humor that runs through it, but the story is pedestrian and there isn't enough gore or depravity to really make it interesting for horror fiends. The most entertaining part of Dr. Lamb is the comically bad Chinese-to-Engrish subtitles.

[Bart A Thompson]

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Utter dog shit. It was very hard to watch through the ending.

I went with family back when it came out... they loved it. The first half was entertaining enough, but the second half to the end was pretty terrible. Very, very terrible.

[Bart A Thompson]

Oh, yeah... last two movies...

Sucker Punch - It was beautiful and had a few charming moments, but overall it was pretty bad.

The Lost Boys (special edition) - Wow, much better than I remember.

[Martin J]

Brick

Crocodile Dundee 2

[RegHorsten]

Do one and a half count?

Unknown which sucked balls not a well thought out script and direction sucked. The only part that peeked my interest for a few moments were the scenes with the old Stasi agent

The Dilemma was so boring I turned it off half way through and took a nap instead

[(akaRyanHoffman)]

Ghostbusters was nice revisiting. Held up very well. Hadn't seen it since I was a tot.

Bad Teacher had it's moments. It wasn't anything special, though.

Gulliver's Travels wasn't very good.

The Muppets was fantastic. I want to see it again. soon.

The Last Exorcism was good. I've read a lot of people have a problem with the ending, but it didn't really bother me much.

[Fygar]

Valhall Rising - It starts and ends well but there's about forty minutes in the middle that feels very uneven. With that said, I still came away very impressed. Nicholas Winding Refn may very well be the most exciting voice in cinema right now. I'm loving how unique each of his films are.

Secret of Kells - I was able to score a Blu Ray copy for five bucks at work and I really enjoyed it the first time around (but I remember my mind being elsewhere). It really is a great animated film. I'd love to see a sequel or two to be honest. Wonderful character designs and the painted backgrounds "pop". Highly recommend to everyone. Sadly, I got the combo disc and gave the DVD to a co-worker with a young son. She said she enjoyed the film but he fell asleep. She said he stated "Mom, this doesn't look like a new cartoon." :(

[Bart A Thompson]

Career Opportunities - Great first two acts, but the third act was too rushed and random.

Scream 4 - I realized I saw this in the theater back when I was working a lot of overtime and forgot I saw it before. Still fun. Better than Scream 2 and 3.

[The Hodag]

The Last Exorcism was good. I've read a lot of people have a problem with the ending, but it didn't really bother me much.

Other than being slightly abrupt, I think it's a fine ending. Loved that movie.

[chichiri27]

Lucky McKee's - The Woman - was a bit uncomfortable in parts and wasn't expecting the thing with the dogs. I must say they all got what they deserved .

So you find a feral woman in the woods do you bring her home to your effed up family situation and keep her chained in the basement to civilize her?

[BronxRonin]

Valhall Rising - It starts and ends well but there's about forty minutes in the middle that feels very uneven. With that said, I still came away very impressed. Nicholas Winding Refn may very well be the most exciting voice in cinema right now. I'm loving how unique each of his films are.

Secret of Kells - I was able to score a Blu Ray copy for five bucks at work and I really enjoyed it the first time around (but I remember my mind being elsewhere). It really is a great animated film. I'd love to see a sequel or two to be honest. Wonderful character designs and the painted backgrounds "pop". Highly recommend to everyone. Sadly, I got the combo disc and gave the DVD to a co-worker with a young son. She said she enjoyed the film but he fell asleep. She said he stated "Mom, this doesn't look like a new cartoon." :(
I watch Valhalla rising whenever it's on IFC...I really like it.