Movies you've recently watched

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I watched The Artist last night. It was really well done, and you forget that it's a silent film about halfway through it. Both the leads were terrific, it was the perfect length, and it left you feeling really good at the end. It's one of the best films I've seen in a while (and definitely the best film from 2011).

Edit: I watched a couple movies over the weekend, the first of which was Quills, a fictitious depiction of the Marquis de Sade's last days at the Charenton Asylum. The movie was mediocre, but Geoffrey Rush was amazing as the Marquis.

The next one I watched was The Secret World of Arrietty. If you like Studio Ghibli films, you'll like this one, too. It was dubbed at the theater I saw it at, but the voice acting was pretty damn good.

The last movie I watched was The Tree of Life. Visually, it was incredible, but otherwise I just didn't get it. That's not to say it was a bad film, it just wasn't for me.
 
I still have to watch The Artist. I'm visiting home and it's playing in theaters here but there's just no time between my hectic schedule. There were talks of Malick releasing a 6 hour cut on Blu Ray for The Tree Of Life, imagine watching that! But I admit, his movies age really well and I've enjoyed The Tree Of Life more as I view it more.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I watched three movies over the weekend: Puss in Boots, Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, and Kung-Fu Panda 2 (heavy on the CG movies this weekend, I know).

Puss in Boots and Kung-Fu Panda 2 were really enjoyable. The Lorax was okay; it had a little too much singing in it for me, and the humor was really cheesy, even for a kids movie.
 
My family took me to see 'A Separation' a few days ago. It's a very well done family drama; I personally can't find anything to nitpick, and that's pretty damn rare. Also, ignore what the reviewers say; this movie is in not an indictment of the regime or Iranian society's take on Islam as much as they would like that to be true. It's a very personal story.
 
I watched David Fincher's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last night. I've seen the Swedish version (and really enjoyed it), however I really enjoy Fincher films, so by the time the beginning credits rolled, I was sold. I like how it was shot, I enjoyed the acting, the differences in character from the other version, etc. I'm not sure which is better, but if it wasn't Fincher, I don't think I'd have given the 'US Import' version a try at all.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
I've been on a scifi kick, holding myself over til Prometheus. I recently watched the Directors cut of Dark City and absolutely loved it. Forgot how great it is. Better than I remember.
 

Vampire_Hunter_Bob

Cats are great
Watched Road House (1989). Forced a group of my friends to watch this movie, and the general concessional is "Why are we watching this instead of Howard the Duck?" But the movie (2/3rds in) eventually won everyone over and we had a good time, watching this commentary on violence ( :troll: ).
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Vampire_Hunter_Bob said:
Watched Road House (1989). Forced a group of my friends to watch this movie, and the general concessional is "Why are we watching this instead of Howard the Duck?" But the movie (2/3rds in) eventually won everyone over and we had a good time, watching this commentary on violence ( :troll: ).
The Rifftrax for Road House is probably the one of the best they've done. Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfR5f5PK7eM
 
Walter said:
The Rifftrax for Road House is probably the one of the best they've done. Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfR5f5PK7eM
Haven't watched the movie, but that video has me sold. I'm gonna pick it up over the weekend ^_^.

I'm not that big into Bollywood but I went to the theaters this once to experience grabbing some fresh caramel popcorn (which incidentally was thought to be more of an American thing for us, but when I came here I was shocked to see no caramel popcorn making machines ... just butter/ regular popcorn ... =_='). Anyway, I watched Kahaani (Thriller) which had just come out, 2 days before I flew out of the country. Centering around a pregnant woman who travels to India looking for her missing husband, the movie was surprisingly decent with a cool twist in the end. More than anything I liked to portrayal of the city of Kolkata with all it's cultural heritage and nuances of the traffic or cops and one of it's festivals. My only gripe was the over-explanation of the plot at the end.

kahaani-vidya-3.jpg
 
Just watched Battle Royal as an uncut version of it just went on sale where I work it was graphic and pretty disturbing at times but overall I thought it was a deep and powerful film and would recommend it
reminded me a little of a Stephen King story called the Long Walk
 

Vampire_Hunter_Bob

Cats are great
In theaters to watch The Hunger Games. I'll see what prevails: child murder or my desire for sleep.

(Totally dragged to this movie. My girlfriend owes me for this! :ganishka:)
 

Vampire_Hunter_Bob

Cats are great
Howdy all! I completely forgot to post about my thoughts on "The Hunger Games" and so I'm doing it now. The theater wasn't as packed as I had anticipated it to be, but there were plenty of 'young' ladies dressed up as the Capital people. I thought this was pretty funny, considering, the Capital is not meant to be idealized, so I’m guessing the target audience probably missed the point of the book!

On to what matters, the movie! The movie is actually pretty good, if you need to be dragged to a movie this year why not make it this one. The basic story is: once a year two children are picked from each of the 12 districts (excluding the capital and district 13, 13 because it was blown up), one boy and girl ranging from 12 to 17. The Hunger Games are basically gladiatorial fights, with children, to amuse the people of the capital and to remind the other districts that they can't do anything to stop the Capital. I felt the main character Katniss (awful name) had only one emotion: depressed, and spent the entire movie like this except for moments when she needed to broaden her emotions to "angry" or "concerned". I enjoyed the other characters, the villains were evil assholes, and the children were all little monsters busy murdering each other. Would I pay money to see it again? Sure. If it wasn't readily available to get from Netflix and I wanted to see it I'd spend the $1 to rent it from a Redbox (or whatever).

I've been told the book was better and that the movie left out a lot of details. When I asked about what was left out, it turned out to be a lot of minor character information (As an example: you never learn all the backstories about District 11's black guy), which if that is true good. I remember a Facebook copy & paste Harry Potter fan status, which talked about details you miss if you only watched the movies (something like Draco is someone’s 2nd cousin), this isn't really important information that needs to be mention, and would only be useless information that these young adult writers love to add to their stories. Anyways, for a movie/book geared towards young "adults" it is probably better than the other movies in its genre (Harry Potter/Twilight).

How does it compare to Battle Royale? Totally not the same thing. Sure kids are fighting in the middle of nowhere, but the context is completely different. There is very little ripping off going on between the movies.

All comments in this post may have been due to super low standards.
 
Interesting review, VHBob. I'll check it out soon enough.

Re-watched Kung Pow and Riki-Oh over the weekend with a bunch of friends. Superfun.
 
Watched Ip Man 2 last night. I was told this is the best one, but I have to admit I haven't seen Ip Man 1 yet, so will probably go back and give it a whirl. Definitely enjoyed it. The main character is extremely charismatic and likeable.
 
Death May Die said:
I bought this thinking it was going to be a horrible bollywood movie for good laughs. Surprisingly to my delight, I thoroughly enjoyed it. :serpico:
Yeah, that movie is over-the-top and so ridiculous that it's funny and a train-wreck at the same time. Here's another one with such potential - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whPHmLHOuUs&feature=player_embedded

girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-poster-thumb.jpg


Watched The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo US version last night and thought it was decent, just decent because of the good performances only. The soundtrack's good no doubt, somehow I felt the Swedish version flowed a lot better with it's suspense build-up and story-telling overall. So, Swedish version > US version for me.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
Anyone else see A Dangerous Method? Cronenberg movie starring Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortenson. I thought it was really good.
 
Oburi said:
Anyone else see A Dangerous Method? Cronenberg movie starring Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortenson. I thought it was really good.

I kinda wanted to see that one. I don't think it came to a theater near me though.
 
I watched A Dangerous Method sometime late last week and it was not what I expected. The dialog was pretty good and while Viggo or Michael were good, Keira was a notch better. I'm not a really big Keira fan but this movie got my attention. Atonement was another good one from her.

EDIT

tinker-tailor-soldier-spy.jpg


Watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy last night and what started out a little slow turned into the one of the most gripping movies I've seen in months. The atmosphere, acting, AMAZING dialog - all come together in a well crafted elaborate plot. To my surprise, I learnt this morning that it was directed by the same Director who did the original Swedish movie Let The Right One In. This's a guy to look out for! The movie's definitely recommended. I suck for not checking this out in the theater.
 

Vampire_Hunter_Bob

Cats are great
Just saw Titanic 3D.

What else can be said about a movie that everyone has at least seen twice? Well I've never noticed how pretentious the movie really is! ( :troll: ) What is it about the movie that makes it pretentious? Well the movie is most certainly an Epic:

3.
heroic; majestic; impressively great: the epic events of the war.
4.
of unusually great size or extent: a crime wave of epic proportions.
(As far as the definition of Epic goes, the movie fits into the third and fourth definition of Epic.)
The story follows Rose and Jack as they learn to love each other, indirectly causing the sinking of the RMS Titanic. What is it about the movie that bugs me? For starters Rose is probably one of the most pretentious characters ever: 1) She has the Picasso painting "Les demoiselles d’Avignon" (oh man this girl is ahead of the times ); 2) She's read Sigmund Freud and mentions to J. Bruce Ismay is obsessed with size because he wants to have a big dick; 3) Not only does Rose bring to attention that the there are not enough boats she tells it to her BFF Thomas Andrews (the designer of the Titanic). I understand that this is all done to be creative, but it turns out to be way to damn corny. I don't care who her character is, there is just no way she is going to run into the historical characters, repeatedly, with such great frequency.

Up until the naked drawing scene, I have to say the movie tries to make you understand the world Rose is coming from: "oh Jack everyone is so dull and uncaring". However, there are plenty of times throughout the movie Rose, and Jack, dick things up (e.g. jumping from the lifeboat, instead of just not getting on it), and generally caused just enough mayhem while on the ship to distract the crew in the very beginning of the disaster. I also didn't like how the movie portrayed the crew as incompetent or cowardly, when in a lot of the same sequences they were either doing their best or flat out being heroic during the events. Even Billy Zane saves a young kid, for completely selfish means, but he still tries to save someone other than himself. However, moments after Rose jumps from the rescue boat (taking a seat from someone that would have NOT abandoned it) they manage to find one little Italian kid only to run half-way down a hallway with him, only to hand him over to someone else (that clearly didn't know what they were doing).

All that said, the visuals were great! :troll:

Anyways, was the 3D worth it?! Not at all. It doesn't really add anything to the movie, it just makes the movie feel sloppier, less detailed. (Oh look the background characters are even more blurry!) I'm not arguing that there shouldn't have been a re-release, but most certainly this movie didn't need to be in 3D. Unless you get tickets for free, skip.
 
Vampire_Hunter_Bob said:
Just saw Titanic 3D.

What else can be said about a movie that everyone has at least seen twice? Well I've never noticed how pretentious the movie really is! ( :troll: ) What is it about the movie that makes it pretentious?
Haha awesome description, agree with you. I kinda wanted to check it out just for the sound on the second part of the movie when the ship is hit and begins to break. Watching that in 3D would be fun too. Here's something to answer your first question -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6mMvBeEPT4&feature=player_embedded

:serpico:

Last week, Friday, I watched The Hunter on the big (yet small) screen theater on the first day of it's limited release. Was a bit atmospheric and tense towards the end. Willem's character build up is pretty good and the end is
bitter-sweet for his character/ situation and yet perfect to me
. As I walked out there was an old couple cribbing about something to do with one of the characters and how it wasn't super realistic, well, that's the movies for ya. Anyway, this's a good watch.

The-Hunter2.jpg
 
I recently went to go see 21 Jump Street.

I remember I was passing 2 screens showing Titanic in THREEEE DEEEEE and wondering 'You probably could have just bought this on DVD for a price lower than your ticket; it's 15 years old and was already in theaters for 9 months. It had a some kick-ass action scenes at the end but that love story setup at the beginning was long, predictable and annoying.

Back to 21 Jump Street. If you've seen 'The Other Guys' you're probably going to like this movie. It's hilarious most of the time, gross some of time, and does not care about logic in any capacity. I know it's not supposed to be a serious or brilliantly crafted story, but come on.
Giving alcohol to minors, somehow getting into the prom for the school you were expelled from with multiple concealed weapons, and car jacking 5 different people are serious crimes.
Ice Cube was pretty funny in this movie as the chief of the undercover operation. For those of you who don't know,this is Ice Cube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiX7GTelTPM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxBkpjJY5qk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMZC_BXP4Fc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efrM6DK8vbA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McEvmosOYLo
 
I saw 21 Jumps Street as well recently and loved it! It will probably go down for me as a classic like Superbad that I can watch over and over again but it's definitely not for everyone. Also saw The Lorax the other day and it was pretty cute for a kids movie :)
 
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