| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/21/2009 8:10:06 PM | I couldn't stand the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, but Keanu should always play robots...loved the original, and I'm not a sci-fi fan.
Yeah, I tool liked Elizabethtown, but it's not in the same rank as most of Crowe's other films (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, Say Anything, Singles, and he also wrote the screenplay/book to Fast Times at Ridgemont High.) It's still better than Vanilla Sky, which pretty much was just a shot by shot remake of its Spanish counterpart. | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/22/2009 12:49:32 AM | Saw Defiance last night, I enjoyed it. Not too sure about the history, but it was a great action flick.
First time I noticed how appealing Liev Schreiber is, I hope to see him doing more action films.
I love Craig's blue eyes. He was really, really good in this. | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/22/2009 11:45:51 AM |
Saw Defiance last night, I enjoyed it. Not too sure about the history, but it was a great action flick.
I'm guessing you wouldn't give it 9.5/10 though? I really should learn to be more critical. | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/22/2009 1:33:27 PM | SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO!!!!
What do you mean you never heard of it? It came out in 2008 and has Quintin Tarantino in it for gods sake!
Imagine:
Classic American Western meets Classic Japanese Samurai Film
Filmed in English with Japanese actors who spoke their lines phonetically.
Tarantino plays the VERY ODD narrator who is in a wooden, steam-powered wheel chair.
James, Seattle, Washington, USA, Earth | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/22/2009 3:41:25 PM | I'm guessing you wouldn't give it 9.5/10 though?
Satsumo, some of my favorite movies are films that I wouldn't give a high critical rating to.
I am a bit of a stickler for historical accuracy. For example, Mel Gibson's Apocalypto was a very interesting action film with glaring inaccuracies that just ticked me off, lol.
One of the reasons I am such a fan of Ridley Scott was for the first 10 minutes of Gladiator. If you can find an anachronistic inaccuracy in the costumes and props in the first battle scene, I want to hear about it. I can't find any. It just might be celluloid perfection. Since it is a fictional tale, there is more freedom I suppose.
Movies based on true events have to hold a higher standard, imo. | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/23/2009 6:40:45 PM | | Just saw "Brick" last night. Really good. Remember the kid in Third Rock from the Sun with John Lithgow? He has the staring role. It's a film noir set in high school in Los Angeles. The characters talk in the same gum shoe street talk that Raymond Chandler wrote, all with a straight face. The dialog is credible and the illusion that these kids really have a world like that holds together. Everyone has an angle. It's pretty dark, too. Give it a watch. | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/23/2009 7:19:25 PM | I too loved Brick...Rian's next film "The Brothers Bloom" is funny as hell too.
Here's a list of all the widely released films I saw in 2008 (minus stuff I saw at Festivals) List is from best to worst.
1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. Milk
3. Wall E
4. Frost/Nixon
5. Defiance
6. The Dark Knight
7. The Visitor
8. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
9. Rachel Getting Married
10. Revolutionary Road
11. Doubt
12. The Wrestler
13. The Reader
14. Tropic Thunder
15. Baby Mama
16. Iron Man
17. Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who
18. The Band's Visit
19. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
20. Gran Torino
21. Fugitive Pieces
22. Son of Rambow
23. Valkyrie
24. Caramel
25. Last Chance Harvey
26. Definitely, Maybe
27. The Grand
28. Kenny
29. In Bruges
30. Kung Fu Panda
31. Expired
32. Ghost Town
33. Burn After Reading
34. Marley & Me
35. Get Smart
36. A Christmas Tale
37. Bolt
38. Harold and Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay
39. Hamlet 2
40. Elegy
41. Zach and Miri Make a Porno
42. Australia
43. Quantum of Solace
44. Body of Lies
45. RocknRolla
46. Wanted
47. JCVD
48. Mamma Mia!
49. The X-Files: I Want To Believe
50. The Incredible Hulk
51. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
52. Stop-Loss
53. Funny Games
54. Redbelt
55. Be Kind Rewind
56. Charlie Bartlett
57. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
58. Sex and the City
59. Penelope
60. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day
61. W
62. Pineapple Express
63. Swing Vote
64. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
65. My Blueberry Nights
66. Holding Trevor
67. Appaloosa
68. Choose Connor
69. Mary
70. The Mummy: Tomb of the Drago Emperor
71. Step Brothers
72. Leatherheads
73. Adam Resurrected
74. My Name Is Bruce
75. Cassandra's Dream
76. Hancock
77. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
78. 27 Dresses
79. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
80. Speed Racer
81. Vantage Point
82. The Flight of the Red Balloon
83. The Strangers
84. 88 Minutes
85. Deception
86. You Don't Mess With the Zohan
87. The Tracey Fragments
88. An American Carol | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/23/2009 8:25:40 PM | History of Violence was great. I think Viggo is very underated. He consistently puts out great performances. Eastern Promises was an amazing movie as well.
I enjoyed No Country for Old Men.
If you haven't seen "Gone Baby Gone" I suggest you do. It was a little known gem last year, and it blew me away when I saw it. You don't feel like you're watching a movie but watching real life unfold. It keeps you guessing to. And the dilemma faced by the cop at the end, well it's gut wrenching. Hard to believe ben affleck wrote and directed it....he should give up acting and stick to writing and directing.
On the action front. I saw "Shoot em up" last weekend on dvd and enjoyed it. Very violent though. | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/23/2009 8:37:01 PM | Nice thread briargate.
I completely agree with you about There Will Be Blood. I saw it not long ago and was blown away by Daniel Day-Lewis. He's the best actor practicing the craft today, as far as I'm concerned. Every scene he was in I was tense -- he pulls you into his character so completely and his dramatic range is so expansive you're simultaneously completely absorbed by what he's doing and very aware that anything could happen.
My recommendation would be Persepolis. What a gem of a film. For those who don't know about it, the movie is based on Marjane Satrapi's graphic novels about growing up in Teheran during the overthrow the the Shah, the war with Iraq that followed and her life under the Islamic regime and exile in Vienna and Paris. Along the way she goes from being a little girl to a grown woman.
This is so much more than just a story about life in Iran during a period of massive social change. Marjane is a wonderful character -- there are some very funny scenes and some deeply touching moments. And the narrative devices she employs are so clever! The history of the Shah is told as a puppet show... which is of course brilliant. There's a dream sequence of God and Karl Marx talking. In one scene where a missile crashes into an apartment building, the POV is of the missile itself. She tells the story about a boy she meets in Vienna twice: first from the perspective of being in love, and then when she is out of love. Lots of great stuff. | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/24/2009 9:55:39 PM | I just saw Tokyo Gore Police. If you want to know how awesome it was, just think of the words I JUST TYPED:
TOKYO GORE POLICE
Yup. It's THAT GOOD.
If you are familiar with the edgier works of Takashi Miike... Audition, Ichi the Killer... this actually tops them in term of over the top blood and guts and generally disturbing imagery. Not really a solid narrative to follow, as far as a "movie" it's pretty flimsy, actually. But simply for experiencing some utterly mind-bending blood and quasi-erotic gore... it's a work of GENIUS!!!
Also been catching up on this years Oscar nominees, so today I finally saw The Visitor.
Richard Jenkins absolutely earned his Best Actor nod here. He IS this film. This was almost one of those little, character pieces that I so love (like The Station Agent or... heck... The Wrestler) but then it started to push into Social Commentary Land a little too much for my tastes. Started out nice and charming about a bored with his life guy who finds some people living in his old apartment, he starts to see life differently by knowing them and interacting with them aaannnd then it's a movie about how crappy our immigration system is. Some great moments, though, and not TOO preachy (say... like Milk, for instance...) just a smidge more of the medicine than needed. Jenkins, though. Yeah. He's Best Actor as far as I'm concerned. | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/25/2009 12:02:06 AM | Seen in the last month plus
Quantum of Solace - good, though not as good as the first Daniel Craig Bond movie; and you will need to have seen the first one before; as it picks up right where the first one left off; if you haven't seen it you will be confused by all the repeat characters and storylines...
Seven Pounds: Very very good, intensely emotional. Love Will Smith in dramas though I was really confused for a good chunk of this one; until the end tied it all together. Very good, but not a "feel good" movie so much.
Australia: Liked it; it was long, took a while to get into and the storyline got a little garbled in the transitioning; but it was a different world war II perspective than the ones we're familiar with; really liked it overall.
Curious Case of Benjuamin Button: weird, quirky, eclectic; bittersweet but good. Interesting premise; in some ways the beginning of it was creepy, having a 70 some year old in love with an 8 year oldd girl... but interesting story, well done.
Defiance: (saw tonight). REALLY good, very powerful, very intense, and the very fact of its being a true story makes it all the more amazing. Amazing story; that much more because it was a true one. | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/25/2009 9:14:40 AM | | I've been wanting to see "Persepolis" as well. The previews look really good. The graphic design of the animation is really lovely, with a lot of black areas in the scenery. Growing up wanting to play with American pop culture in Iran was no joke and still isn't. Pretty tough society. | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/25/2009 9:35:46 AM | I recently saw "Revolutionary Road" not quite what I thought. Love Sam Mendes especially "American Beauty". I can appreciate RR and that is how it is for so many woman...but didn't they have drugs for depression back then?
I liked "Australia" thought it to be quite entertaining.
"Slumdog Millionaire" was fantastic!!! Great character development, great story and loved the fact it was done on little money.
Some of my personal favorites have been "Primal Fear" with Ed Norton, "American History X" , "Blood Diamonds" | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/25/2009 12:25:31 PM |
I've been wanting to see "Persepolis" as well. The previews look really good.
I did enjoy Persepolis, it's very well made, very good animation, stylish. It manages to talk about, Iran, Muslims, religion and society, Europe, emigration, from an innocent perspective. It dosen't talk about politics exactly, its more interested in thinking about the consequences. It's also a good story by itself.
Its' only fault was that I didn't find it all that entertaining. It's worthy, amusing, funny in places, sad in others, thoughful. But it dosen't grab you like Defiance, or absorb you like Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Speaking of which, Boy in PJs a kicker of a film. It's lovely until the final 10 minutes, and then the audience walks out ashen faced and shell shocked. | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/25/2009 6:47:56 PM | | underworld: rise of the lycans was really good, i highly recommend it for anyone into vampire/werewolf stories. | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/25/2009 9:16:36 PM | Old Flick: BEING THERE with PETER SELLERS
New Flick: The CURIOUS LIFE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON with BRAD PITT | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 1/27/2009 2:18:41 AM | I've seen most of the holiday films-
"Slumdog Millionare" - best film of the year, along with "Wall-E". Fantastic finish, and I love the end credits. Ingeinous story.
"Frost/Nixon" - for a film that should have positively no suspense, this keeps you on edge pretty well. Kudos to the editing and directing (never thought I'd say that about a Ron Howard film).
"Milk" - earnest, smart, well done. Holds your interest.
"The Curious Case of Benjiman Button" - if this was 100 minutes long it would have really been something. Simply too long, although like every David Fincher film, impeccably made.
"The Wrestler" - Solid performances. The grossest movie of the year. Very predictable though.
"Gran Torino" - Nice, down-to-Earth film from Clint Eastwood. If Clint wasn't in it, it wouldn't carry as much weight. A little preachy at the end.
I also thought that the "Day The Earth Stood Still" remake was a letdown, "The Life Aquatic" was too obscure, "There Will Be Blood" was too-of-the-line filmmaking that needed a little more story, and "Michael Clayton" was last year's best film, with "No Country For Old Men" right behind it.
I also just saw the Korean film "Oldboy". Let me say nothing out there will prepare you for this flick. If you can take it, catch it on the Sundance Channel. | |
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| SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Posted: 1/27/2009 11:47:36 PM | What is the movie about,
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
I hearad it was good, but i can't remember what
the story was.
Thanks | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 2/15/2009 4:13:22 PM | | Dirty Harry, Indiana Jones trilogy, Star Wars (original triology, not that I have anything particularly against the prequels), Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Live Free or Die Hard, Re-Animator | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 2/15/2009 4:21:45 PM | | Saw Benjamin Button a few days ago and completely agree with Mr SmartFun. Great film, too long. Still got me all weepy a few times, love the guy who keeps getting struck by lightning while doing nothing in particular. | |
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| Movies Worth Seeing - New Pics
Posted: 2/15/2009 5:44:03 PM | | I'm off to see "Taken" this evening I'll chime in later and let you know how it was. I read the reviews from other people that have seen it...seems its getting a lot of accolades. | |
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