Movie opinions thread (what have you seen, what did you think?)

[aria]

I'm surprised you even gave it that much.

The special effects were pretty and they at least had Optimus sort of sound right.

 

[Steve]

I was at the library this week and spotted Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid. What the hell I thought. It's free ain't it. I remember seeing the trailer back in 2004 thinking, "Lame."

Well, I'm surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. Pretty decent flick as far as the genre goes. It kinda follows that "tough dude outside the group leads said group through danger" pattern. Eugene Byrd stole the show

Not worth going out of your way to watch, but if you happen to see it at the library or whatever, you could do worse. They did Morris Chestnut dirty...

 

[hanafuda]

Funny someone should mention Rambo. Saw Part II in HD the other day on TV. Has been years since I last saw it.

Pretty hilarious film. When he is tooling up to go out and kick ass I so wanted him to load up a can of hairspray too. Those skin tight jeans and that 'do. Awesome. Unfortunately the rest of the film wasn't as fun.

'Mambo, you not expendable!'.

Only reason I even watched it was because I thought it was First Blood, which I seem to remember being half decent, but just didn't read the TV Guide properly..

2/5

So yeah, other movies:

Lady In The Water

Good to see that Hollywood can actually make original films, that aren't either remakes or desperate attempts to revive once popular franchises. Unfortunately though this just didn't grab me. Couldn't really be bothered with it.

3/5

Bourne Ultimatum

Wow, a two hour movie consisting entirely of cuts no longer than 2 seconds. Hated it, and couldn't wait for it to end actually. Didn't make a lick of sense either.

2/5

The French Connection

They don't make 'em like this any more. Looks better than ever in high definition too. The car/train chase is somewhat overrated though. It ain't that great regardless of whether bits of it were 'real' or not.

5/5

 

[SouthtownKid]

The French Connection

They don't make 'em like this any more. Looks better than ever in high definition too. The car/train chase is somewhat overrated though. It ain't that great regardless of whether bits of it were 'real' or not.

Better than the car chase in Ronin, which has to be the most overrated car chase in motion picture history. Especially the part in oncoming traffic, which clearly is going no faster than 5 miles per hour. I've never understood why people go apeshit for the Ronin car chase.

 

[dark penguin]

Just watched Rescue Dawn. Interesting movie, not quite as visceral as I was expecting. I'll try watching Herzog's doc "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" sometime in the near future and see if I like that any better. I kind of get the feeling that Herzog probably said everything he had wanted to say in Little Dieter, and Rescue Dawn was something of a rehash.

Anyway, in general...I'll take a documentary over a dramatized account any day.

 

[Hot Chocolate]

Drive Thru
-Horrible, horrible, I repeat horrible horror movie about a killer Ronald McDonald. It was odd seeing Morgan Spurlock( Super Size Me ) in this though.

 

[E=MC2]

seen shoot em up? pretty decent for a no brainer action flick (meaning fake as fuck), but it was still enjoyable. don't expect good acting (even though bellucci is in it) or a good story. the action is fake as can be, yet pretty funny. and the movie didn't even take the usual 90 minutes. it was filled with action till it ended so a 2.5/5. maybe 3.

anybody see the devils rejects? ive only seen the last hour or so of it, and its crazy. gotta dl it and see it from the beginning. also, american gangster and departed where both 4 outta 5 imo. got nothing on GF2 (or 1), but then again what mobster movie does?

 

[hanafuda]

Better than the car chase in Ronin, which has to be the most overrated car chase in motion picture history. Especially the part in oncoming traffic, which clearly is going no faster than 5 miles per hour. I've never understood why people go apeshit for the Ronin car chase.

Agreed, although Ronin is a pretty crap movie all round..

I guess I was referring to the near cliche of, 'Which is better, the car chase in French Connection of the car chase in Bullitt?'.

For me the chase in Bullitt is way better, even if they do pass the same green VW Beetle countless times on the way.

 

[SouthtownKid]

I guess I was referring to the near cliche of, 'Which is better, the car chase in French Connection of the car chase in Bullitt?'

Trick question, because the correct answer is 'Blues Brothers.'

 

[aria]

I actually hadn't finished this film entirely when I wrote this (but I promised someone I would) so I wanted to dig up this carcass to beat it even more after completing that steaming pile pile of crap:

Transformers: Anyone who recommended this bullshit should be punished. I don't care how good the special effects were, this was classic awful screen writing, mindless Michael Bay direction, and a complete waste of time. I don't expect a high standard of logic in movies like this, but this was truly bottom-of-the-barrel on just about everything. I guess special effects just don't do it for me anymore. 1/5.

Who the fuck can stand this crap? Don't tell me if its you --while I want to think I can divorce a person's taste in movies from who they are as a person-- Transformers may have pushed me to the limit. Though I can blame Michael Bay for embracing his awful camera work, inane work with actors and general stupidity --I think screenwriters Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman should be put on a blacklist for writers that should be avoided at all costs. This actually made the cartoon version seem like Citizen Kane (complete with Orson Welles...). From the bad American cars (above and beyond the lame product placement factor), to the placement of eBay and Apple... The movie didn't even know what stupid movie it wanted to be. And enough about the special effects: the Tranformers themselves looked stupid and even more unbelievable than in the cartoon. About the only amusing moment was the fact they killed the one black Autobot --and in this case it was an act of mercy. There's no rule that special effects-laden movies cannot have a decent plot ...but that's the difference between James Cameron and T2 and Michael Bay and this. Transformers was worse than 1/5, I'd give it a .1/5. Ugh.

 

[E=MC2]

hot rod: 0 out of 5

eastern promises: 2 out of 5

beowulf: 1.5 out of 5

stardust: 2 out of 5.

 

[Gameoz]

Rescue Dawn-6/10 Decent movie but it sounds like the writer/director got some of the facts wrong. (This is based on a true story) The amount of weight loss a couple of these guys went through was pretty amazing. I guess they filmed this backwards and did all the prison scenes first, so that the actors could put weight back on.

Solaris-8/10 Older movie based on and even older movie. I really liked this one though. One of the guys in this is also in Rescue Dawn and while he was not a big guy, I still can't believe how much weight he lost in Rescue Dawn.

28 Weeks Later-10/10 Probably my favorite movie. 28 Days later would be a close second.

 

[eek]

So, a friend of mine sent me this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzIf-_ENOpA, which prompted me to ask him to get some bollywood flicks to watch.

I watched one of them last week: Dhoom 1. The movie's fairly over the top considering the amount of budget it was made with (US$1.5mil). There were plenty of unintentional funnies just like american action flicks from the 80's. Example: "this is a fast car. 0-100 in 10 seconds." Car's a Del Slow and I'm sure the 0-100 is in km/h.

Whenever there's no action scene, you are pretty much guaranteed a song and dance. Hell the movie started with a song and dance (5-10min song and dance effort by the hubby to convince the wife that he needs to fuck her).

Pretty enjoyable and my first real experience with bollywood, outside of watching random shitty clips of 80's bollywood stuff on youtube. I think i'll try to watch Dhoom2 next week.

 

[Lastblade]

Transformers - 1.5/5

Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix - 4/5

 

[aria]

Rescue Dawn-6/10 Decent movie but it sounds like the writer/director got some of the facts wrong. (This is based on a true story)

Well, as it so happens... the director, Werner Herzog, actually made the documentary on the subject 10 years earlier: Little Dieter Wants to Fly. Maybe you'd like that a bit more --it would make a fascinating comparison.

So, yeah, it's kind of a funny statement to read knowing about the background of the film.

 

[Metal Slugnuts]

I actually hadn't finished this film entirely when I wrote this (but I promised someone I would) so I wanted to dig up this carcass to beat it even more after completing that steaming pile pile of crap:



Who the fuck can stand this crap? Don't tell me if its you --while I want to think I can divorce a person's taste in movies from who they are as a person-- Transformers may have pushed me to the limit. Though I can blame Michael Bay for embracing his awful camera work, inane work with actors and general stupidity --I think screenwriters Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman should be put on a blacklist for writers that should be avoided at all costs. This actually made the cartoon version seem like Citizen Kane (complete with Orson Welles...). From the bad American cars (above and beyond the lame product placement factor), to the placement of eBay and Apple... The movie didn't even know what stupid movie it wanted to be. And enough about the special effects: the Tranformers themselves looked stupid and even more unbelievable than in the cartoon. About the only amusing moment was the fact they killed the one black Autobot --and in this case it was an act of mercy. There's no rule that special effects-laden movies cannot have a decent plot ...but that's the difference between James Cameron and T2 and Michael Bay and this. Transformers was worse than 1/5, I'd give it a .1/5. Ugh.

Now THAT'S more like it.

You can't really fathom how shitty this movie is until you reach the end credits.

 

[Gameoz]

Well, as it so happens... the director, Werner Herzog, actually made the documentary on the subject 10 years earlier: Little Dieter Wants to Fly. Maybe you'd like that a bit more --it would make a fascinating comparison.

So, yeah, it's kind of a funny statement to read knowing about the background of the film.

Maybe I will look for that at some point. Herzog really portrays Dieter as the leader and overall idea man of the escape. He also portrays one of guys (Don't remember his name but he was the guy from Solaris) as being pretty useless. Family members of some of the actual people really raised hell with how the movie ended up. I guess even some of Dieter's notes show that he wasn't the main guy. I read where Herzog was quoted as saying that if he knew then what he now knows, he would have added some things and at least added a narrative to give others credit for what they did.

Anyway, it took the movie down a couple of points for me because it sounds like he got a couple of the guys roles wrong. He also made one guy out to be worthless that apparently was one of the main idea men behind this escape. He also failed to cover what happened to a couple of the guys and I figured they died but it looks like they escaped as well. So...he did kind of a shitty job putting things together.

 

[aria]

The Darjeeling Limited: Finally got around to seeing this. I've enjoyed all of Wes Anderson's movies, from Bottle Rocket to Life Aquatic (my favorite still is the Royal Tennenbaums). I went into Darjeeling knowing that it hadn't been as well reviewed as Anderson's previous works, but I've enjoyed them all so I went in with an open mind. The opening short film, Hotel Chevalier, was a nice addition --it definitely had a different, more serious tone, it felt like an older movie, but I enjoyed it and it did help make Schwartzman's character much deeper in the main feature. Darjeeling was more of the mix of light comedy and drama that made the rest of his movies. Indeed, while it wasn't his best movie, it was the sort of movie that fans of his work can sit back and relax to: it has the same elaborate mis-en-scene, interesting dialog, and quirkiness that makes his movies appealing to his fans --there really isn't much more to say. If you're fan, it's a 4/5, if not then its perhaps a 3.

 

[Nesagwa]

Death Proof.

2.5 out of 5 (I could also make it a 2.5 on a scale of 8 or even 10)

Tarantino proving to me that he just doesnt really care anymore. Forced acting and cultural references, bad dialog, useless exposition drawn out for almost 3/4ths of the entire movie. If he was going for badass 70s car / horror movie, he failed in doing an homage and plummeted straight into mediocre mimicry and gimmicky film effects.

The only high point was Kurt Russel (probably the most solid and least forced performance in the entire film.) Although turning his character into an absolute pussy for the last 45 minutes of the movie kind of soured it. What good does it do to completely take away the villains power so long before you kill him? That would be like a Nightmare on Elm Street movie where Freddy is turned mortal and loses his claws an hour in. Just didnt make any sense.

Just a very boring movie. Even the car chase at the end couldnt save it for me.

Hopefully Planet Terror is better.

 

[Hippee]

Just saw American Gangster last night - I thought it was entertaining - I thought it would suck but it wasn't boring. 4/5

I've seen No Country for Old Men a couple times. I love it - it's my favorite movie I've seen in theaters in... a very long time. I also LOVE the ending - the movie centers around Tommy Lee Jones - so I think it makes sense - and if his character weren't in the movie - it'd just be another movie with people shooting at stuff but with lots of suspense. 5/5

Hitman - meh. Kinda boring. The Russian chick was unbelievably hot. I liked the way the Hitman walked with arms at his side all the time - it was nice that he was inept in some ways... 2.5/5

BOBAK - you seem like the kinda guy to dig documentaries... I watched Animal Lovers by Ulrich Seidl a couple weeks ago - now one of my favorites - supposedly Werner Herzog said after seeing the movie - "I have never looked so directly into Hell". Seidl also made Dog Days and Models. All of them are amazing - Dog Days first though. His movies are totally harsh and depressing.

I didn't like Darjeeling Limited either. I love Life Aquatic but I guess I don't like Wes Anderson that much... I'm not crazy about his other movies - just Life Aquatic. So I was disappointed, but if you're a Wes Anderson fan you should love it.

 

[playboycougar]

Starting Out in the Evening
Frank Langella gives a tour de force performance here. The plot and story line are great and so are the cast. This takes place on the upper west side of Manhattan and follows the life of an aging New York intellectual as he struggles to complete what may be his last novel. He encounters a graduate student who is interested in his life and wishes to write her masters thesis about him and his works.
There is also the struggle of Langella's misguided daughter and boyfriend which is captivating and plays into the story well.

The feel is slightly low budget and indie, all aspects that add a special dynamic to the film. All in all I highly recommend this movie.

4/5 Thumbs up

 

[LoneSage]

Hopefully Planet Terror is better.

Considering your thoughts exactly mirror mine on Death Proof, perhaps you'll enjoy PT as much as I did (easily,easily Rodriguez's best yet...although that's not saying much, I guess -- but really, I loved it [except for QT's cameo, oh I hope you agree with me Nes!]).

Anyways, saw Art School Confidential for the first time.
Searched up Bob's old thread of it, and I gotta say at first I thought the whole strangler sub-plot was unnecessary at first, but after realizing why the murders happened in the first place did I appreciate it.
I thought the entire movie was a great outlook on art and artists. The acting was superb as well, everyone delivered -- what's the name of Jerome's friend, the guy who was also in Grandma's Boy (erm, not Nick Swardson, the other guy)? I hope he gets more roles in the future.

So yeah Bob -- good movie all-around :-D

 

[Steve]

I Am Legend

Not bad, pretty much Cast Away set in New York with a dash of zombie-esque mutants.

Some long passages of silence, and some pacing issues here and there, but overall not bad. Some girls in the audience were screaming at the zombie pop out scenes. Catch a late showing, I bet it would be pretty sick. I caught the matinee so a lot of atmosphere was lost.

And damn, did Will Smith get ripped, or what!

 

[terry.330]

Worlds Fastest Indian-

Caught this last night on showtime or some shit. It was pretty good but not as great as I had heard, still worth watching. Anthony Hopkins did a decent jod as Burt Monroe and the parts where he actually runs the bike up in Utah were very well done. Still a pretty amazing story overall.

3.5/5

 

[aria]

I Am Legend

Not bad, pretty much Cast Away set in New York with a dash of zombie-esque mutants.

Some long passages of silence, and some pacing issues here and there, but overall not bad. Some girls in the audience were screaming at the zombie pop out scenes. Catch a late showing, I bet it would be pretty sick. I caught the matinee so a lot of atmosphere was lost.

And damn, did Will Smith get ripped, or what!

I heard the final third is just a pile of dissapointment --but the first 2/3 (and Will Smith's performance) are worth it. That about right?

Meanwhile, I rewatched a movie after several years since my last viewing:

Rushmore: I think I see more in this movie than I did the first few times. You really see Anderson's gift for mis-en-scene develop in the many montages, though I still think the plot fell a little short of being truly great. In fact, this viewing revealed a few spotty cuts between scenes and a couple of fudged-over plot bumps. Regardless, I enjoyed seeing it again, and this pretty much cements my thought that The Royal Tennenbaums is his best movie. 4/5