What Did You Watch Today?

[CQI13]

Southland Tales...that movie was extremely strange. I will have to watch it again. Much like his previous movie Donnie Darko.

Edited April 30, 2008 by CQI13

[Hugar Twriker Eats Spam]

The movie "The Guru" is pure class as it is really fun at quite a few times. 7/10

"Harold and Kumar 2" sucked balls. Several funny moments and what not but was a awful awful movie. 3/10

[CQI13]

"The Guru" as in Mike Myers, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Alba? I'll make time this weekend.

[DFF]

Over the last few days...

Torn Curtain 7/10

Under rated Hitchcock cold war thriller starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. I can't believe how negatively this gets reviewed in places... I can only guess that because the film was 'only decent' and not to the usual Hitchcock levl of awesomeness (as seen in films such as Rear Window, etc) that people shat on it.

Topaz 6.5/10

Another cold war thriller like the above. This one is more intriguing from a 'real world' POV as its set in the lead up to the Cuban Missile crisis. However, the pacing is a bit haywire and the last 20 minutes seem rushed and jumpy. Still, the guy playing the french agent was pretty good.

Frenzy 7/10

More of a traditional Hitchcock film, but from later on in his career. Has a few British 'namez' in it from back in the day, including the guy who plays Mr. Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances and an extra in the form of Bernard Cribbins.

This film could have been easily an 8 but it falls back in 2 areas. Firstly, I disagree with seeing the 'actual' killer so early on... it kind of loses some of its suspense, I feel, by showing it as you don't have to work anything out. Secondly, the ending is RUSHED AS HELL. They could have saved 10 minutes or trimming earlier scenes and actually had an ending that literally races through plot point to plot point with no build at all.

Still, the acting is pretty good.

All three would be potentially awesome re-makes - especially Frenzy, I think.

[new_era]

I've just finished watching the last episode of series 2 of The Sopranos, now moving on with episode 1 of series 3.

How i didn't watch this programme when it was being aired, i have no idea. It's brilliant.

[ROC]

"The Guru" as in Mike Myers, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Alba? I'll make time this weekend.

Nah, that's not out for a couple of months. He's probably talking about the Heather Graham/Marisa Tomei movie directed by Daisy von Scherler Meyer of Party Girl fame.

[CQI13]

Nah, that's not out for a couple of months. He's probably talking about the Heather Graham/Marisa Tomei movie directed by Daisy von Scherler Meyer of Party Girl fame.

Hadn't heard of it...but I'd still watch it. Is it on DVD?

Edited May 1, 2008 by CQI13

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Iron Man 8/10

Fucking kick-ass. Downey is great and for a superhero origin movie it's sodding good.

[ROC]

Iron Man - 8.5/10

Brought up more in the Iron Man thread, but fuck, this suddenly makes me excited for summer movies. It just has no point where I saw a real weakness. When there was a dramatic scene that ran the risk of going overlong, it was quickly broken up by a funny moment or an action scene. And yet the film's characters felt very fleshed out, especially a minor character like Pepper Potts. Credit that to having a cast of guys like Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, and Gwyneth Paltrow to show that way before the film even starts that the acting will be top-notch. (I also didn't recognize Leslie Bibb, but immediately knew who she played once I saw her name in the credits.) Anyways, great great summer movie.

Cloverfield - 6/10

Not nearly as great. Good ride of a movie, but there's nothing there. The camera tricks are more or less annoying and the characters are dumb as bricks. Even with the setup, nothing seems to be fleshed out at all about these characters, and plus, seriously...Clover (or Slush-O or whatever the hell he called) looks like E.T. met Alien met a bag of shit. Still, I give it credit for the elements they did get right, that being all of the destructive scenes.

[GA!]

I've seen five films since Wednesday...

----------

Romance and Cigarettes

This film is an abortion. John Turturro and the Coen Brothers thought it would be delightful to parody musicals, despite the genre dwindling half-a-century ago. The result is a narrative that resembles a car crash, comedy that is both smug and unfunny, and acting that makes the average Youtube blogger more believable. Avoid like the plague, unless you’re a film student trying to be a mainstream hating individual. 1/2*

Dog Day Afternoon

General paranoia, anti-establishment and hippies conforming by not conforming – all of these themes seem to be popular in 1970’s American cinema. Dog Day Afternoon is no different, but it stands out as a masterful piece of storytelling due to how you simply don’t see a film like this these days. The film plays out slowly and doesn’t quickly patch over pieces of character development in order to move onto something more exciting. The (true) story is about one-man only, and thanks the to not-sympathetic but highly charismatic performance by Al Pacino, it is not boring as a result. Do me a favour and watch this, then rate it highly on IMDB before it is knocked off the top 250 list by the latest Tim Burton and Johnny Depp teenage goth bollocks. ****1/2

Iron Man

In all honesty, I’ve never read the Iron Man comics or anything like that. In fact I went to see this on the basis of its awesome soundtrack. Sadly Audioslave’s ‘Cochise’ does not feature in the film – but enough about the music. Iron Man is an excellent comic-book film simply because you remember how dreadful Spiderman 3 was, and feel good about this as a result. I like how Tony Stark is imperfect, how well the plot unfolded and how Gwyneth Paltrow is much more attractive than Kirsten Dunst. The reason why I took a star away because once again, we have to be reminded about the post 9/11 world where terrorists who live in caves will destroy the world if we don’t support America. They should’ve either kept the scenario as Vietnam like in the comic book, or something that won’t be outdated as soon as the country of America sees sense… In six-hundred years time. Oh and major props to the fire extinguisher robot – it deserves the Academy Award for Best Actor. ****

Shaun of the Dead

There’s a reason I’ve seen Shaun of the Dead at least ten times now – I love this film to bits. And now thanks to someone at Sheffield Hallam University doing something right for the first time ever, I finally got to see Shaun of the Dead in its 35mm film print yesterday. To list just a few things what I love about this film: the comedy is superb, the action looks impressive without it being indulgent like in Hot Fuzz, and the bits of drama were touching. The writing is marvellous thanks to subtle foreshadowing in the dialogue and pay-offs of everything big and small, factors that give the film replay value. Of course it has replay value, this is the only film I’ve ever seen more than three times, never mind ten. *****

Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny

No need to state the obvious, but Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny wasn’t going to be the next Casablanca or anything like that. However even with low expectations, this film is not funny. The stoner jokes aren’t funny, the lyrics aren’t funny unless you find adding ‘fuck’ to every line hilarious, and the fart jokes are excruciating. I fast-forwarded the credits as usual to see if there were any post-credit footage and it’s a predictable fart joke. Meanwhile for an 80-something minute film, the fact that the entire ‘Divide’ sequence was filler that led to nothing minus an aesthetically pleasing stoner sequence is not good. And to make things worse, they reprised two jokes from the original album, one of them was the worst of them all: cock pushups. If you find that or genitalia humour funny then you are mentally challenged. This is a scathing review but it is enjoyable in places – the actual music (not the lyrics like I said) are great, some sequences are good to look at and it’s a film where you don’t have to think a lot, which is always nice. **

[Sousa]

Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny

No need to state the obvious, but Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny wasn’t going to be the next Casablanca or anything like that. However even with low expectations, this film is not funny. The stoner jokes aren’t funny, the lyrics aren’t funny unless you find adding ‘fuck’ to every line hilarious, and the fart jokes are excruciating. I fast-forwarded the credits as usual to see if there were any post-credit footage and it’s a predictable fart joke. Meanwhile for an 80-something minute film, the fact that the entire ‘Divide’ sequence was filler that led to nothing minus an aesthetically pleasing stoner sequence is not good. And to make things worse, they reprised two jokes from the original album, one of them was the worst of them all: cock pushups. If you find that or genitalia humour funny then you are mentally challenged. This is a scathing review but it is enjoyable in places – the actual music (not the lyrics like I said) are great, some sequences are good to look at and it’s a film where you don’t have to think a lot, which is always nice. **

Your review really needs more love for the rock-off with Dave Grohl as the Devil, which damn near saved that whole movie for me.

[ROC]

Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny

No need to state the obvious, but Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny wasn’t going to be the next Casablanca or anything like that. However even with low expectations, this film is not funny. The stoner jokes aren’t funny, the lyrics aren’t funny unless you find adding ‘fuck’ to every line hilarious, and the fart jokes are excruciating. I fast-forwarded the credits as usual to see if there were any post-credit footage and it’s a predictable fart joke. Meanwhile for an 80-something minute film, the fact that the entire ‘Divide’ sequence was filler that led to nothing minus an aesthetically pleasing stoner sequence is not good. And to make things worse, they reprised two jokes from the original album, one of them was the worst of them all: cock pushups. If you find that or genitalia humour funny then you are mentally challenged. This is a scathing review but it is enjoyable in places – the actual music (not the lyrics like I said) are great, some sequences are good to look at and it’s a film where you don’t have to think a lot, which is always nice. **

Your review really needs more love for the rock-off with Dave Grohl as the Devil, which damn near saved that whole movie for me.

That disappointed me a whole lot, though. It was a lot better of an idea on the CD than in the movie. (Then again, there are a lot of cool songs on the Pick of Destiny CD that were not nearly as well done in the movie.) The song itself is badass, the scene...not so much.

On to some of the other stuff GA reviewed, I have a morbid curiosity for Romance and Cigarettes. It just seems so...unbelievably bad.

Edited May 4, 2008 by ROC

[GRIFT]

Lucky You

Bruce Springsteen + Eric Bana = Pretty cool.

Pretty cool - Drew Barrymore = Ok.

Ok. + Robert Duvall = Good.

Good - shitty character development = fair.

It was an alright movie, but ultimately not worth much more than the time it takes to watch it.

Edited May 5, 2008 by That Dirty Dirty Grifter

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I just finished watching a German cycling documentary called "Hollentour" (Hell On Wheels is the UK title). Very interesting and set around the Tour de France in 2003 but only offers passing shots on Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich who fought eachother all the way to the final time trial...

Instead it focusses on a few members of the Telecom team - sprinter Erik Zabel (who gets injured and can't challenge for a stage victory), team worker and allrounder Rolf Aldag (on one stage he wins the polkadot jersey and it's easy to see how much it means to him, but it has tired him out and he goes back to working for other riders in the team) and Andreas Kloden (who is involved in a nasty crash in the first stage and struggles on, injured, until giving up in the mountains after cycling in agony for numerous days).

It's not glorious, shows the agony of crashes, injuries and the cyclists' frank thoughts on such matters. Amazingly that was the year that Tyler Hamilton crashed on the first stage, broke his collarbone but carried on and won a mountain stage later in the tour.

Excellent movie but some of the black and white flashback footage from the '20s was a bit tired.

[GA!]

A Scanner Darkly

This is the second adaptation of a Philip K Dick novel I’ve seen, the first being Blade Runner. Unlike Blade Runner though, this isn’t overrated. It is a dark, powerful story starring Keanu Reeves about an undercover cop who spirals out of control thanks to a drug addiction caused by the requirements of his job. A Scanner Darkly is initially difficult to get into; personally I didn’t have a clue what was going on until halfway through. But once you realise what the hell is going on it is great. Unless you’re the world’s happiest man, then you won’t be so happy anymore. Oh and the animation looks great blah blah blah. ****

The Science of Sleep

The Science of Sleep is directed by Michel Gondry, who is famous for directing ‘Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind’ and music videos like Foo Fighters’ ‘Everlong’. Once again his direction is good, and the visuals are simply beautiful. If you ever wondered what it would look like if Bagpuss took over the world, then the answer is in this film. Sadly while the concept is cool, it’s too wrapped up in it. The result is a film about an artistic man-child who loves to dream, who cannot get the ugly artistic bird of his dreams because nobody knows how to grow the fuck up. I didn’t sympathise with any characters at all, making the meandering and non-starting narrative a bore. In conclusion: watch for the visuals and nothing else. **1/2

The Queen

In my opinion, you’ll either like or dislike this film. You’ll either like it for its quaint Britishness and dignified way of telling a story. Or you’ll dislike it as your short attention span means you want to see Princess Diana’s limo crash AND her mangled, bloodied up body. Personally I like it – the very human characters and the emphasis on the Queen’s need to modernise and grieve is spot on. The merging of the fictional scenes with real life television footage is amazing, especially when they do both at the same time. I have two minor complaints though: firstly the use of CNN footage is baffling. It’s only in there, I guess, to please any Americans who funded the film. Secondly, sometimes the direction tries it hand at trying to be cinematic and it comes across as silly (using the mandatory panning shot behind blurry people; which was used as TV footage no less) or pointless (aerial shots of big hills). Overall this is a great film for those that don’t need sex and violence in their requirements of what makes a good film. ****

[tristy]

I'm Not There.

I don't even know what I just saw. I can't put it together, but it was fucking awesome somehow.

[GA!]

The Covenant

The Covenant is edgy and cool. Watch as edgy and cool homoerotic men use their magic powers to see if a girl is wearing panties or not. Watch as the edgy and cool dumb women stand in the background doing nothing (like all but two male characters thinking about it). Watch as the men show their edgy and cool machismo with swimming competitions, escaping from the police and showering together naked. Listen to the edgy and cool soundtrack of downbeat college rock while there are no swerves presented in the narrative whatsoever. Feel intelligent as the duh-de-duh dialogue makes sure you do not miss a single piece of edgy and cool information. Be impressed by the introduction of edgy and cool developments fifteen minutes before the film ends. Watch as an auteur goes to work – cutting shots twenty times a minute, just like edgy and cool directors like Michael Bay. Yes, The Covenant is edgy and cool – but it’s also fucking horrible. I had to include the last sentence in case you didn’t get the correct information on the sarcasm and you’re a big fan of the film and--- Ah never mind. *

The Shawshank Redemption

When it comes to listing the contenders for the best film ever, I disagree with the suggestions. Those who want to look like film buffs to their friends champion The Godfather, calling the film flawless because everyone else does. Citizen Kane is great, but not that great. Casablanca doesn’t hold up as well in the year 2008, and I have no intentions of sitting through 3 hours and 48 minutes-worth of Gone With The Wind. Also, if you think Pulp Fiction or Lord of the Rings is the best film ever then you’re a retarded A-Level Film Studies student. Back to my point: it is about time I saw a film many dub as the best ever that could very well be exactly that. The Shawshank Redemption is a beautiful film that is perfect in every way. The best thing about Shawshank is the characters. They are so well constructed and acted that after a somewhat lengthy 142 minutes, you wish you could watch them for another 142 minutes and then some. The narrative is well thought out (thanks Steve), and the direction is superb. Along with this and The Green Mile – Frank Darabont could be one of the most overlooked directors in terms of fanboyism (but I heard he fucked up his next few films so oh well). I love this film to pieces and I can’t believe it took me this long to finally watch it. This is definitely better than The Green Mile (another film I adore) and it could very well be my favourite film of all time. I guess I’ll have to give The Truman Show another viewing and carefully compare the two. *****

Little Miss Sunshine

Seeing as I’m unsure whether this film is good or not, I’m going to go through the synopsis (courtesy of LoveFilm) to see if it delivers on its promises. Apparently the film is ‘brazenly satirical and yet deeply human American road comedy’. No it isn’t. I guess the satire is mostly aimed at dolling up children to gratify adults, but us Brits have been dealing with that issue since Channel 4 provided wank fodder for paedophiles in the 1980’s with Minipops. Shots at the police and the hospital system are quite flat too. The human bit is also stretching it – it’s hard to identify with a suicidal gay genius, a colour-blind teenager on a nine-month vow of silence, a pushy father with a nine-step plan and a heroin-snorting grandfather. The synopsis goes on to talk about ‘comic mayhem… in death, transformation and a moving look… of being losers in a winning-crazed culture’. As far as the comedy goes, the grandfather is funny and Olive’s dance routine at the end is hilarious – the rest of the humour is non-existent. The death is shit on due to a cringeworthy scene where, logically, they have to put the grandfather’s dead body into their van because not one person could stay at the hospital to fill out the forms. As far as the transformation goes: everyone realises that family is important above everything else, the type of character development that is in every sitcom episode ever. I do give them credit with the moving part though – only because you’re physically unable to not give a shit about Olive. Scenes like at the restaurant and when she’s talking to Miss California about ice cream make you feel genuinely angry or happy. In the end, I do like this film – the direction is nice and clean and the narrative is nicely rounded (in an ironic ‘there is no solution’ kind of way).However this film is overrated. This film has nothing special about it whatsoever that warrants the extremely high praise it’s gotten (90% on Rotten Tomatoes I believe). I wonder if the whole ‘indie’ tag has anything to do with that. If that’s the case, I’m going to severely hate Juno. ***

[TGC]

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead - 9/10

Within a few minutes of watching this movie you know how it's going to end and that this won't be a feel good movie, but it's the getting there and the ultimate resolution that makes this such an enjoyable film. Ethan Hawke, Marissa Tomei, Seymour Hoffman, and Albert Finney each shine in this movie equally. I've seen a lot of good movies this year, but so far this is the best film I've had the pleasure of experiencing. It is dark, it is hard to watch, and it is sad, but it is a film that will most assuredly leave you wanting more.

[CQI13]

I remember wanting to see it in the theatres when it came out, but never got a chance. Got it a few weeks back, but haven't had time to watch it yet (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead), but I should have enough time this weekend. Has anyone seen "Midnight In the Garden of Good & Evil"?

[ROC]

The Covenant

The Covenant is edgy and cool. Watch as edgy and cool homoerotic men use their magic powers to see if a girl is wearing panties or not. Watch as the edgy and cool dumb women stand in the background doing nothing (like all but two male characters thinking about it). Watch as the men show their edgy and cool machismo with swimming competitions, escaping from the police and showering together naked. Listen to the edgy and cool soundtrack of downbeat college rock while there are no swerves presented in the narrative whatsoever. Feel intelligent as the duh-de-duh dialogue makes sure you do not miss a single piece of edgy and cool information. Be impressed by the introduction of edgy and cool developments fifteen minutes before the film ends. Watch as an auteur goes to work – cutting shots twenty times a minute, just like edgy and cool directors like Michael Bay. Yes, The Covenant is edgy and cool – but it’s also fucking horrible. I had to include the last sentence in case you didn’t get the correct information on the sarcasm and you’re a big fan of the film and--- Ah never mind. *

I love you.

I just saw that movie recently, and I'd give it more of a 3/10. Bad soundtrack (whoever did that remix of "More Human Than Human" over the opening should be shot. Everyone is pretty shit at acting, especially that one with the short black hair who has a weird deep voice. (They can't be identified by actual names.) And Renny Harlin cannot direct subtlety for anything. Just a horrible movie.