Movies

[Captain K.]

I know naught of this "Gspot" of which you speak.

Yeah, your girlfriend was complaining about that also.

[Grefter]

El Cid I was way to late this morning to post it when I would have liked to.  Meant to post it from work during a break but forgot. 
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/  This will play it without dicking around with codecs.

[superaielman]

Kissing Jessica Stein- Sat down and watched most of this. Very entertaining film if on the light side, which is fine.

[Lady Door]

Coraline: Neither by Tim Burton nor a cartoon, but rather a stop-motion animation by Henry Selick. And it was fantastic.

I am an unabashed Neil Gaiman fangirl, so hearing that I loved a movie adapted from one of his books is not so shocking. But I really think this movie earned it, and RT's remarkably high rating bolsters my confidence in this impression.

It is very much a Neil Gaiman children's story, by which I mean that it is a thoughtful-though-dark look into the realities that kids face, all shown through a fantasy lens. If you like Neil Gaiman (for example, if you liked The Graveyard Book) then you will probably enjoy this film.

I read an interview that said Mr. Selick had originally obtained the film rights by promising it would be live-action and later negotiated it into what it is today. I am very glad he did: stop-motion animation was exactly the right choice for this story. A cartoon would likely have been too whimsical, live action would have been too gritty, and CG would have taken away the charm of the setting (it is, after all, a story about the Other world -- which is made of puppets).  They had really innovative solutions to a lot of technical questions (the kind that make you scratch your head and go "How did they DO that?") and I really loved the way they put together the climax. The animation was beautiful, the colors bright when needed and wonderfully subdued-but-not-washed-out when needed, the characters dynamic, the backgrounds fantastically rendered. It was pretty darn awesome from even just a technical stand-point.

The story, of course, was up to the animation. The characters were believable and the main was very relate-able to anyone who remembers childhood; the way the story and the characters unfolded and progressed was really impressive for such a short movie (101 minutes) with such simple goals.  I will say again that it was very Neil Gaiman, though Henry Selick is the one who wrote the adaptation script.

Criticisms? Well... it is a little difficult to get emotionally involved. I don't find this much of a flaw because it is a kid's movie (though it might cause a few nightmares for doing, as Andrew says, the exact opposite of what Nightmare Before Christmas did: it made cute/innocent things scary where TNBC made scary things cute). I really think that was half the point anyway.

In any case, I highly recommend that everyone go and see it. If you happen to find a theatre showing it in 3D that hasn't sold out, I would suggest that one. It won't be in 3D for very long because apparently the Jonas Brothers need it next.

[AndrewRogue]

Coraline: Neither by Tim Burton nor a cartoon, but rather a stop-motion animation by Henry Selick. And it was fantastic.

I am an unabashed Neil Gaiman fangirl, so hearing that I loved a movie adapted from one of his books is not so shocking. But I really think this movie earned it, and RT's remarkably high rating bolsters my confidence in this impression.

It is very much a Neil Gaiman children's story, by which I mean that it is a thoughtful-though-dark look into the realities that kids face, all shown through a fantasy lens. If you like Neil Gaiman (for example, if you liked The Graveyard Book) then you will probably enjoy this film.

I read an interview that said Mr. Selick had originally obtained the film rights by promising it would be live-action and later negotiated it into what it is today. I am very glad he did: stop-motion animation was exactly the right choice for this story. A cartoon would likely have been too whimsical, live action would have been too gritty, and CG would have taken away the charm of the setting (it is, after all, a story about the Other world -- which is made of puppets).  They had really innovative solutions to a lot of technical questions (the kind that make you scratch your head and go "How did they DO that?") and I really loved the way they put together the climax. The animation was beautiful, the colors bright when needed and wonderfully subdued-but-not-washed-out when needed, the characters dynamic, the backgrounds fantastically rendered. It was pretty darn awesome from even just a technical stand-point.

The story, of course, was up to the animation. The characters were believable and the main was very relate-able to anyone who remembers childhood; the way the story and the characters unfolded and progressed was really impressive for such a short movie (101 minutes) with such simple goals.  I will say again that it was very Neil Gaiman, though Henry Selick is the one who wrote the adaptation script.

Criticisms? Well... it is a little difficult to get emotionally involved. I don't find this much of a flaw because it is a kid's movie (though it might cause a few nightmares for doing, as Andrew says, the exact opposite of what Nightmare Before Christmas did: it made cute/innocent things scary where TNBC made scary things cute). I really think that was half the point anyway.

In any case, I highly recommend that everyone go and see it. If you happen to find a theatre showing it in 3D that hasn't sold out, I would suggest that one. It won't be in 3D for very long because apparently the Jonas Brothers need it next.

[Sierra]

Gran Torino: Just saw this. Was really damn good.

Slumdog Millionaire: Saw this last week. Was also really damn good!

EDIT: Yeah, I'm too lazy to elaborate right now, maybe later.

[Captain K.]

Push:  Not too shabby.  Duel between telekinetics=fun.  I'm a bit tired of precognition being used as a plot device.  Pops up far too often (see also, new Nicolas Cage movie "Know1ing".)

[Excal]

Alright, right now where I work I get to catch bits and pieces of the movies we play to demo the TVs we have on sale.  Which means I generally get the whole thing over osmosis.  Which means I guess I have some movie thoughts.

Cars: Generally a pretty good flick.  Took me the longest time to actually figure out a few key points (as in, being not terribly busy when said scene was going on), but it works once everything pieces together.  Fortunatly, the actual end to the movie was one of the last things I caught, so I could appreciate it properly.

Wall-E:  Eh.  The opening is nothing special, and I didn't really care for the antics of the robots on the ship either.  Captain was a bit niftier than I was expecting, and the general commentary about the movie that I saw back when it was popular completely misrepresented the thing.  Really nifty ending credits song, but otherwise a fairly forgettable piece.

Mulan: Yeah, a lot of Disney stuff here since we are a family store and all.  So, this one wasn't actually that bad.  Nothing special, but a pretty decent flick.  Liked the fact that the comic relief got to have some dignity, and enjoyed the fact that the female lead got to do some rescueing.  Not to mention, I liked the duality in the usage of the Make A Man Out of You song.

Hancock: Only played this once because it turned out to be a little racier than I expected, which means no good when you can expect kids to be around (and a lot of parents see our movie showing as a good way to get the kids out of their hair while they shop).  That said, this movie impressed me.  In the sense that I'm still boggling at how a movie can centre around a fowl-mouthed binge drinking doesn't give a damn superman, and be a chick flick.  I mean, how the hell do you take a concept that awesome, and the driving focus of the narrative is super powered adultery?

Madagascar 2: The A-plot is, well...  not boring, but not that interesting either.  I mean, the zoo animals the movie focuses on have their moments, but mostly it's stuff you've seen before in a hundred other stories.  On the other hand, the penguin sequences are grade A comedy, and the half of the movie they take up is about as much time as they can handle without falling apart from lack of interest due to being a B-Plot.  I still love that Airplane sequence, and I suspect no number of repeated viewings will diminish that love.

[Grefter]

More crazy weird movie watching time!  Want to get others to try and watch Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter around the same time this weekish.

Ripped straight from the Wiki.

Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter is a 2001 cult film from Odessa Filmworks which deals with Jesus' modern-day struggle to protect thelesbians of Ottawa, Canada, from vampires with the help of Mexican wrestler El Santo (Based on El Santo, Enmascarado de Plata) (played by actor Jeff Moffet, who starred as El Santo in two other Odessa Filmworks productions).

You know you want to watch that.  So go find it by any means possible!

Edit - Oh yeah and Hard Rock Zombies is on the agenda for the Sopkos or something.

[BaconForTheSoul]

Ahem, official announcement.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li enters theaters tomorrow.  Make sure to see it!

[Ryogo]

Only Raul Julia can play Bison, as much as I do love McDonough as an actor.

[Strago]

... Chris Klein is in it? I don't... I don't know what anyone involved in that film thinks they are doing. Not for even a second.

I kind of can't wait to see it.

[Idun]

I saw Emperor's Groove on TV. I have to say, that was one really damned good movie. Very entertaining.

Also saw the movie Freaked! and . . .  I could see the angle the movie was coming from but I really just kinda got annoyed and instantly bored. Over cheesy on my grits this morning? No thanks.

[NotMiki]

I saw Emperor's Groove on TV. I have to say, that was one really damned good movie. Very entertaining.

Yeah, that movie, more than any other, I think, suffered from abysmally misleading previews that made it out to be a straightforward feel-good animated adventure.  Seen plenty of previews that make movies out to be better than they are, but this is the only time I've seen ones that make it look so much worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=torLy2yvGZU

[Sierra]

Coraline: Saw this with my sister when I was in Chicago. Pretty much seconding LD comments because I am lazy. Just the right amount of creepy for a kids' movie.

Watched a bunch of movies at my brother's place. Had actually seen them all before but it had been a long time for some.

Burn After Reading: Actually saw this just last year when it was out in theaters, but I am required to hype it again because I still haven't seen anyone else here mention watching it and this is wrong. Coen brothers + comedy. C'mon people, what's the freaking holdup?

Transformers (animated): I blame Scar for making me want to watch this again. It is at least hilariously bad (as opposed to the live-action movie, which is just bad) in a way that could only be achieved in the 1980's. Usage of Dare to Be Stupid was just inspired. I really don't have words for that scene.

The Thing: Had only seen this once, and missed the beginning in that viewing, so I was due to revisit it despite it being creepy as fuck. Has aged better than most horror movies due in large part to the entire cast going mad from the stress of suspecting each other in addition to there being one profoundly nasty monster around. So yeah, it is basically the most gruesome game of Mafia ever. Special effects have aged reasonably well, I think? Creature and transformations are still pretty grotesque, but a lot of what makes the movie nightmarish is just the characters knowing that this abomination is in their midst masquerading as one of them. Good stuff, pretty clearly still the best horror movie I've ever seen. Assholes flooding the genre with generic slasher movies for the past few decades need to be strapped down Clockwork Orange-style and made to watch this until they get the fucking point.

[Ryogo]

Usage of Dare to Be Stupid was just inspired. I really don't have words for that scene.

I watched that movie again last year. I didn't even realize that song was in it when I was a kid. I laughed out of control when I saw the Autobots kick ass to that tune.

[Strago]

The Thing: Had only seen this once, and missed the beginning in that viewing, so I was due to revisit it despite it being creepy as fuck. Has aged better than most horror movies due in large part to the entire cast going mad from the stress of suspecting each other in addition to there being one profoundly nasty monster around. So yeah, it is basically the most gruesome game of Mafia ever. Special effects have aged reasonably well, I think? Creature and transformations are still pretty grotesque, but a lot of what makes the movie nightmarish is just the characters knowing that this abomination is in their midst masquerading as one of them. Good stuff, pretty clearly still the best horror movie I've ever seen. Assholes flooding the genre with generic slasher movies for the past few decades need to be strapped down Clockwork Orange-style and made to watch this until they get the fucking point.

I <3 El Cid.

[Hunter Sopko]

Burn After Reading: Actually saw this just last year when it was out in theaters, but I am required to hype it again because I still haven't seen anyone else here mention watching it and this is wrong. Coen brothers + comedy. C'mon people, what's the freaking holdup?

It was good, not great. Points for making Brad Pitt look like an absolute dork (he totally stole the movie) and George Clooney look like a 50-something loser. Good performances all around from the cast. It was kind of muddled overall though. I know what they were getting at, it just wasn't as great as their previous movies.

[Sierra]

Usage of Dare to Be Stupid was just inspired. I really don't have words for that scene.

I watched that movie again last year. I didn't even realize that song was in it when I was a kid. I laughed out of control when I saw the Autobots kick ass to that tune.

When you've got a gang of robots dancing in a circle to that tune--led by Eric Idle and Judd Nelson--that's really the only appropriate response.

[Captain K.]

Watchmen:  I'd say it's about 80% faithful to the original.  There's longer fight scenes, which aren't bad.  And one longer sex scene, which is great because EDIT - I got the actress wrong.  Whoever she is, she's frickin hot.  The ending is quite a bit different, but it conveys the same overall meaning.

Enjoyed it, as did the wife.  I don't think it'll do that well at the box office though.  Too much sex and violence for older people, too much history for younger people.  Still, it's a good adaptation of a culturally significant work.

[Shale]

Watchmen: I liked it. It was extremely faithful and still worked as a movie, although it's hard to gauge exactly how well it was done when you knew everything that was going to happen ahead of time. Accuracy is a double-edged sword, I guess. I really liked the performances, and the new ending honestly worked better than the original. It was certainly set up better.

[Grefter]

I am going to watch it this morning, so can't comment for certain yet, but considering Watchmen is all about disillusionment and disenfranchisement then the ending being incredibly short bitter and underwhelming is like perfect.

[superaielman]

The Reaping- Damn fine horror movie. It's what the genre should be, light on the blood and heavy on the plot and suspense. While I pretty much had most of the plot figured out by halfway through, it was still good. It was carried by a strong performance by Hilary Swank and a simple enough theme about faith.

[Shale]

Repo! The Genetic Opera: Pretty good, as attempts to re-create Rocky Horror go. Obviously forced in a lot of places, but fun, and you have to love Tony Head as a singing evil mass-murdering doom surgeon.

[Grefter]

Watchmen - OH yeah watched it yesterday.  Shale is pretty on the money, if you have read the comic it is a very faithful remake of it with some twists at the end to change it a bit.  They are like the changes with V really, they are changes to make it fit the medium and they work.  Not sure if it takes anything away from the story but meh.  It makes Ozymandias a bit... different?  I dunno, was still pretty decent.

Down sides time!

They do ultra compress some of the back story in the intro credits, while they cover the back story again a bit during the movie I strongly question how well some of the plot is to follow if you don't already know the story behind the original Minutemen.

THe flow of the plot is really good, but doesn't convey the same feeling of time passing a much as the book.  They mention the dates often so there is time skips, but unless you are paying attention to it the whole thing kind of can seem to have happened over the period of 2 days.  Which leads to complaints about Jupiter the Younger being a slut that you see in the raving lunatic's review that was linked elsewhere.  You know instead of the reality that she had been living with Nite Owl for like 2 months before they got up with the down stroke.

The violence complaints though?  Meh.  It has some blood, but it isn't anything we haven't seen since the era of Mad Max.  You shouldn't take your kids to see it, but that is why it is rated what it is.  The themes in the story are not for kids anyway.

Edit - Oh yeah and Manhattan's penis is even less sexualised than the David, so yeah, they can fuck off about that one.  IT IS JUST A PENIS GET OVER IT.  COCKSCOCKSCOCKS