Movies

[Sierra]

Michael Clayton: Just generally outstanding. Having a hard time singling out any aspect of it in particular, but I enjoyed it more than the majority of movies I've seen this year.

The Trial: Finally got around to seeing the Orson Welles version. It is pretty groovy. Everything's shot in this oppressive, sterile, industrial wasteland that can only bring to mind the Soviet Union (idly, the movie was made in 1962), perfectly appropriate since that was a place where things as surreal and dysfunctional as Kafka stories actually occurred on a daily (if not hourly) basis (one could credit Kafka with being eerily prescient, but I suspect that it was by accident). Also, I have been trying to place the music for days with no success and this irritates me. I know I've heard it somewhere, just...argh.

[Veryslightlymad]

I'm way the fuck behind on movie progress. I'm only just now up to 30 for the year, and the year is long over half over. What I've seen.

21)Glory Road
~Is a sports movie. It's pretty much exactly what it was advertised as. Did it need a movie made after it? Maybe! Is it different from any other sports movie? Not particularly. Is it well made? Eh, sure.

22)Syndromes and a Century
~DO NOT WANT. So yeah, I like movies. I'm a film major. This is one of the things that film majors have to put up with, namely, Experimental Films. This movie.... ....actually did sort of make sense, but it still seemed pointless. Experimental films are pointless. Dear god. Why.

23)Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
~This is a classic, but some parts felt painful to watch on a review. Also, that scene where the poor little sneaker gets dipped is surprisingly horrifying for a PG movie. Happy cartoon characters graphically tortured to death. Weird. Eerie.

24)Heavy Metal
~Continuing my small foray into animation was this classic/disaster. The cast of SCTV does most of the voices for this jack of all trades movie that has elements of action, horror, romance, comedy, and epic fantasy, and succeeds at pretty much none of them. Also, animated titties and crazy bush. Gratuitous in some points. This movie had great music, and little else.

25)The Grave of the Fireflies
~SPOILERS for anyone who hasn't seen Grave of the Fireflies.
"Two Japanese Children Slowly Starve to Death in the midst of the allied bombing of Japan during World War 2"
It is exactly as depressing and awful as it sounds. I mean "Awful" as in the content is horrific. It's a very well-made movie that I enjoyed watching. Gut-wrenchingly authentic, and even more depressing when you realize that the writer of the story did it as penance to his sister who did die, only he killed himself off in the written version, too. Sad, sad SAD.

26)Black Snake Moan
~I had enough with Animation, so I watched this little number.
Whoever did the ad campaign for this movie needs to be SHOT. Hurf-durf, pld black dude chains up a young white woman in his lawn in sexy outfits.
This is actually a pretty serious movie. Sure, it... DOES have an old black dude chaining up a half-naked white woman, but he does it for the OPPOSITE reasons as the ads made it out to be. He was trying to keep her still so she wouldn't binge on drugs/sex. He finds her beaten and ODed on the street and takes her in. Apart from the hokey wedding, this is a pretty decent flick. It's also a MUSICAL that centers on THE BLUES.
SIDE NOTE: I didn't like the idea of Timberlake acting, but he did a decent job portraying panic disorder, speaking as someone who actually has it.

27)The Hustler
~Classic movie that I watched because it felt like time to watch a genuine classic movie. This turned out to be a classic for a reason. It was a really well-acted film about knowing when to quit. The relevance kinda hit home. I don't really watch many movies from this time period, so one thing that struck me was the sexuality of the movie. I picture movies of the time as being hokey and full of gosh-darn earnestness, but maybe I'm too into Jimmy Stewart.

28)Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
~Fluffy. Worth watching if you enjoy seeing robots beat on each other, but a few parts of the movie were preposterous (which is a FEAT, when your general premise is "Car-shaped robots kill each other over possession of a mystical staff/cube") For one, how would an underdeveloped weapon fire inland far enough to HIT A FUCKING PYRAMID?! Those aren't exactly BY THE WATER, GUYS. Also, pointless robo-leg-humping. Still, it's fairly entertaining. It's not a masterpiece, but you can watch this movie and have fun.

29)Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
~Starts off really slow. Picks up about when another guy starts peeing next to Kumar. Like, oddly close to him. After that turn, the movie never looks back and gets weirder and weirder. Very funny film. NPH was fantastic as "himself". (Of note, he's Credited "Neil Patrick Harris ~ Neil Patrick Harris". Not "Neil Patrick Harris ~ Himself". I wonder if this was actually because of how grossly fictional his character was. Yes, I have too much free time. ALSO awesome? Christopher Meloni. Holy hell, I didn't think the guy from Law and Order SVU could make me laugh like that.

30)Superbad
~ALSO starts off really slowly. This is the second time I watched this film, but it still kept me in stitches from shortly before the cops show up to the end of the movie. It's just an absurdly funny "into the night" flick, one that you should probably watch if you haven't, already.

So yeah. 30 down, 70 to go by 2010.

[Grefter]

It is indeed because the movie version is the total opposite of his real life self, so he specifically asked to be credited as such.  The fact that it is they type of character he does best only adds to the awesome.

[Hunter Sopko]

Indeed. Grave of the Fireflies is incredibly good and incredibly sad. Actually one of the few titles I was proud to be selling at CPM!

[Sierra]

27)The Hustler
~Classic movie that I watched because it felt like time to watch a genuine classic movie. This turned out to be a classic for a reason. It was a really well-acted film about knowing when to quit. The relevance kinda hit home. I don't really watch many movies from this time period, so one thing that struck me was the sexuality of the movie. I picture movies of the time as being hokey and full of gosh-darn earnestness, but maybe I'm too into Jimmy Stewart.

Watch more older movies, VSM. Late 60's-70's gradually discarded the "gosh-darn earnestness" you speak of; coming out in 1961, I suppose The Hustler was little ahead of the curve. Paul Newman is pretty awesome in general, yes. See also: Cool Hand Luke, and...Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which is one of my favorite movies and it's some form of crime that few of you mooks have seen it. Pre-60's...Billy Wilder movies are usually worth seeking out (Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment are the ones I've seen, and all were quite good).

Also, if you like Jimmy Stewart, watch Anatomy of a Murder. It's great fun to see him play a complete schmuck (and he was obviously enjoying every minute of it).

[Captain K.]

Eh, I like the first Heavy Metal.  Has a certain charm to it.  Second one is absolutely wretched though.

Harry Potter and the Lots of Snogging:  Rather good.  Probably the best movie since the first one.  Draco's actor does a particularly fine job; he was rather lacking in the last couple of movies.  My only complaint is that the director seems to have an aversion to showing important scenes on camera.  Every time a major spell is cast you end up looking at a wall while it happens.

[Cotigo]

I get the feeling VSM saw the nudity and it made him get all tightassed about it to enjoy anything.  Heavy Metal's a fun little film thought not a classic by any means.  Agreed on Heavy Metal 2000, though.  That movie sucked.

[Hunter Sopko]

Maybe he didn't actually see it. Maybe he was just tripping balls on cat urine.

[NotMiki]

That episode of South Park is incredible.

The first Heavy Metal wasn't then and never will be good, but what it is and will be is the perfect nostalgia trip to the tawdry side of the '80s, like an anti-Breakfast Club or something.  

[Veryslightlymad]

I get the feeling VSM saw the nudity and it made him get all tightassed about it to enjoy anything.  Heavy Metal's a fun little film thought not a classic by any means.  Agreed on Heavy Metal 2000, though.  That movie sucked.

The odds of me rating a movie LOWER because it contains nudity are about the same odds of you deciding to quit drinking and masturbating cold turkey so you join the Church of Scientology.

[Sierra]

I just watched Push.



Bullshit.

Yeah, pretty much. (I was at the parents' place yesterday and they'd rented this.)

It's like, hey, evil government dudes, maybe you'd get better results from these espers you're hunting and drugging to death if you just...paid them well? I hear that works with most people. And they spend the whole movie looking for this drug...what, was it the only vial they had of it? Did they not have the formula written down somewhere back at HQ? What kind of chickenshit research outfit doesn't keep copious notes of their progress? I suppose it's possible they just wanted to get it back to keep it out of some other country's hands (maybe this was pointed out, I dunno--I fell asleep for 10-20 minutes in the middle of the movie, but I got the impression that I didn't miss much). But still, if your performance enhancing drug is killing all of the test subjects, you don't just keep using it on hundreds of people until you find one who survives. YOU MAKE A NEW DRUG.

Either way, the entire plot is predicated on the Division being bureaucratically incompetent.

[Cotigo]

I get the feeling VSM saw the nudity and it made him get all tightassed about it to enjoy anything.  Heavy Metal's a fun little film thought not a classic by any means.  Agreed on Heavy Metal 2000, though.  That movie sucked.

The odds of me rating a movie LOWER because it contains nudity are about the same odds of you deciding to quit drinking and masturbating cold turkey so you join the Church of Scientology.

You are a ball of neurotic virgin possibly homosexual anxieties.  Who knows what opinion you have of nudity.

[Hunter Sopko]

Rented some movies recently that span a broad spectrum.

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets- Fun. Not quite as solid as the first one, but still enjoyable. The difference between these movies and say, The DaVinci Code, is its absolute tongue-in-cheek nature, which turn it entertaining instead of headdesk worthy.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno- Hilarious but... not... great. It's not quite a complete movie, really. I get the angle they're going for, but the movie doesn't feel complete. Otherwise though, Jeff Anderson and Jason Mewes steal the show.

Valkyrie- Very dry, documentary style, but good. Not great, but good. Couldn't picture myself watching it again though.

[Idun]

Saw Doom. It was better than I expected. Never knew anything about Doom except that it was a really old, quintessential-ish FPS. Thought it was just going to be a stupid movie but it was okay for what it was worth. At least just the entertainment factor.

Saw Mean Streets. Good movie. Never saw Taxi or whatever with Robert de Niro at a younger age so I was very surprised at how lean he was. Either way. Ending was "wtf," but was necessary as the movie could have honestly dragged on forever.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

30)Superbad
~ALSO starts off really slowly. This is the second time I watched this film, but it still kept me in stitches from shortly before the cops show up to the end of the movie. It's just an absurdly funny "into the night" flick, one that you should probably watch if you haven't, already

The cops ARE the best part of that movie. "I don't know, can you?"

[Sierra]

Knowing: Yeah, I know, Nicolas Cage (I regard his presence in Adaptation and Raising Arizona as once-in-a-decade flukes, and it's usually safe to take him as an indicator that a bad movie lies ahead). But my parents assured me that this was good and insisted that I watch it. And I figured hey, Alex Proyas directed it, so there must be something worthwhile in it. Fairly serviceable thriller, as it turns out. The movie's propensity for callbacks make a number of plot developments obvious from early on (the nature of the Strangers Whisperers, made truly obvious when one of them went all Lo-Pan, and the ultimate disaster), but competent direction and good production values ensure that this doesn't ruin the movie. Airplane/subway crash scenes had a visceral impact and were actually rather hard to watch. Excellent use of Beethoven, too.

I normally dislike stories about end-of-the-world prophecies, but at least Knowing does its own thing instead of piggybacking off whichever apocalypse theory is currently trendy (fuck 2012, fuck inane babbling about the Mayan calendar, and fuck Roland Emmerich).

Also,

it takes some guts to kill off humanity at the end of your movie. Especially in non-ironic fashion.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Better than the first two (lol Chris Columbus), not as good as 3 & 5. Too much teenage romance, not enough plot. Structural problems are highlighted by the severe lack of time spent on exploring the actual subtitle of the movie (one line at the end, with almost no build-up to it? Seriously?) and the curiously anticlimactic finale. As much as *spoilers* actually can be anticlimactic, that is. But the filmmakers had a perfect excuse for a big fight scene at the end and it's rather curious that they declined to include it. I mean, A) it's in the book, so it's not like they'd have to invent anything, and B) dark wizards rampaging through the school, man. C'mon, villains being set loose in the most plot-important location of the 'verse makes it really apparent how far gone things are by that point in the over-plot. It seems silly to not take advantage of that. I mean, what, was Lavender mooning over Ron more important somehow? (The answer is no. Ron is never more important than anything.)

It's watchable, but 3&5 remain the only installments that I feel are actually commendable as movies.

[Hunter Sopko]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Better than the first two (lol Chris Columbus), not as good as 3 & 5. Too much teenage romance, not enough plot. Structural problems are highlighted by the severe lack of time spent on exploring the actual subtitle of the movie (one line at the end, with almost no build-up to it? Seriously?) and the curiously anticlimactic finale. As much as *spoilers* actually can be anticlimactic, that is. But the filmmakers had a perfect excuse for a big fight scene at the end and it's rather curious that they declined to include it. I mean, A) it's in the book, so it's not like they'd have to invent anything, and B) dark wizards rampaging through the school, man. C'mon, villains being set loose in the most plot-important location of the 'verse makes it really apparent how far gone things are by that point in the over-plot. It seems silly to not take advantage of that. I mean, what, was Lavender mooning over Ron more important somehow? (The answer is no. Ron is never more important than anything.)

It's watchable, but 3&5 remain the only installments that I feel are actually commendable as movies.

The whole too much romance, not enough plot was a huge problem in the book too. It's not like it's even well written romance in the book. I still don't get how she could go from the character work she was able to do in OotP to that... It's easily my least favorite book for many reasons, this chief among them. The lack of the climactic battle was because they thought it'd take away from the same type of battle at the end of the last movie, which is still a dumb decision.

[Sierra]

That was the only explanation I could come up with, yeah. Still doesn't sound like a sufficiently good reason to leave it out. At least, given how much fluff did get left in.

[Captain K.]

GI Joe:  It's nonstop action from start to finish.  Unfortunately, that has the opposite effect that was intended.  There's so much action that it ends up being boring rather than thrilling.  People die, and you don't care because you never had time to get to know them in the first place.

I did like the nods to the toys and 80s cartoon.  The Cobra guns shoot effects that look like the little plastic spring-loaded fireballs common to the toys.  Also, they worked in "Knowing is half the battle!"

[Sierra]

People die? In G.I. Joe? MADNESS.

[Captain K.]

Yes, there is a disturbing lack of parachutes.

[Hunter Sopko]

Watchmen Director's Cut- Thought it bore mentioning. They added in Hollis Mason's death scene, which was very, very well done. I can see why they took it out though, since it just feels awkward for the movie to have it where it is, even with the added extra references and build up to it. They added minor references to the New Frontiersman and Black Freighter in there as well. Still a great adaptation.

[metroid composite]

Started watching Pinocchio because it came on TV.  Got very bored very quickly and stopped.

Got linked to a Mulan scene by some random location on the internet; ended up watching the whole movie and thoroughly enjoying it.


I'm puzzled by this; Pinocchio is considered such a classic and Mulan...doesn't seem to be.  I guess I'll just chalk it up to Mulan being more modern, and thus containing fewer culturally discordant moments, more modern music and animation techniques, etc.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I always thought Mulan was considered to be the best Disney movie since... the Lion King? I forget the exact chronology. Pinnochio probably gets what hype it does because it is literally the second film Disney ever made and at the time was very technically impressive, rather than its merits on storytelling; as a film it probably holds up the least well of the first five Disney movies (after the first five you get a bunch I've barely heard of). Regardless, agreed with the former being a better film.

[Lady Door]

District 9 was awesome.

That is all.