What Did You Watch Today?

[RoyWill Rumble]

I've been sick for the past few days, so I caught up the ole' Netflix account....

The Strangers....2/10 Admittingly, I normally don't like these movies so the chances were pretty high I wasn't going to like this one either. It was boring, with WAY to many (supposedely) dramatic pauses. The only reason I kept watching till the end was to see if my hunch was right that the boyfriend was behind the attacks all along. I was wrong, and thus wasted a good hour of my life. Thanks! Way to make the flu even worse.

Ironman...8/10 I have never read a comic in my life, though found myself enjoying this movie a lot. Downey was awesome, and the movie flowed extremely well. THere wasn't a lot of dead spots (infact I can't remember any off the top of my head), and seemed to keep you entertained without having lots of action.

Harold & Kumar II...7.5/10 I really liked the movie, admittingly not as much as the first, but still very much. The only thing that sucks is they killed off Neil Patrick Harris, which is why HALF the movie is awesome.

The Strangers > you.

[GA!]

The Day The Earth Stood Still remake. It's shit.

[MyKILLv2.0]

The Dark Knight 9/10.... I loved the movie. It told a great story, and kept you entertained with very few dead spots. My only qualm with the movie was the casting of Rachel. I'm not sure why Katie Holmes didn't take this role (unless it was while she was knocked up at the time) however if they had to find someone else to play her, I wish they would have found someone who appeared to be around the same age. The girl they cast to play her looked at least 10 years older, and it seemed odd throughout the entire move. However that's the only thing I could nitpick about the movie. Everything else was awsomeness.... I only wish Ledger would have been able to continue the role as Joker =(

Step Brothers 6/10... I liked the movie, not as much as I thought I would though. It was far fetched, but you knew that going in so I didn't mind. I didn't much care for the third brother in the movie, however the two main brothers were hiliarious. Decently funny movie, none the less.

[GA!]

Quick reviews of what I've seen since last Sunday. Now rated out of 5!

The Shining - 5/5

The Shining? Great? Stop the presses!

The Lawnmower Man - 2/5

A rather silly 1992 film starring Pierce Brosnan. The computer graphics are quite good (for the time), but there's odd characterization, pointless subplots and nothing happens in the first 60 minutes.

The Day The Earth Stood Still Remake - 1/5

Shit shit shit shit shit. This film has more in common than the War of the Worlds remake than the original. The themes are pretentious (global warming and post 9/11 - OH NOES!). The action is boring. Keanu Reeves plays a self-parody of himself and Will Smith's son is nothing more than a shitfaced ball of angst. Even worse, the McDonald's plug puts this on the same level as fucking Mac and Me.

The Day The Earth Stood Still - 3/5

If I'm honest, the story idea is boring in the first place. Unlike the remake though, the themes of communism and the atomic bomb and the more urgent direction makes this at least watchable.

[TKz]

Pitch Black 6.5/10

I mentioned to one of my friends that I love the Alien series, which caused him to bring up two films that he considered similar - Pitch Black & The Abyss. After finishing watching it, I'll be honest and say that I did quite enjoy it. The film itself didn't make me jump at all (something Alien 1/2/3/4 never fails to do, no matter how many times I re-watch) (Also, fuck all the haters, Alien Resurrection was quality.) but I can always appreciate a good badass lead, something that Vin Diesel delivers most of the time. I loved him in xXx and this was another good showing. The rest of the cast were a bit... bleh at times, some of them being blaringly obvious canon foder for the big bad & the first 30 mins odd wasn't so great, but once it picked up I started to enjoy it. The Abyss is sitting next to me waiting to be watched, and seeing as it's James Cameron I'm expecting quite a lot of it.

Also seeing as Pitch Black has rekindled my liking of Vin Diesel, I'm considering picking up Babylon A.D. despite how terribly it's been rated.

[livid]

Babylon AD isn't terrible, just know going into it that A. it's fairly slow, despite it starring Vin Diesel, an actor who only really excels in a movie that has very little downtime and B. the ending isn't necessarily that good. Other than that, the execution isn't bad and Diesel's acting is actually pretty good.

I mean, if you're a fan of Diesel than negative reviews shouldn't really stop you as the guy really hasn't had a whole lot of positively reviewed movies in his career. Though he does play his role in Babylon AD as well as you would expect a Vin Diesel role to be played. And for the record, it doesn't necessarily turn out to be a lame version of Children of Men after all though it's fairly similar. I'd give it a 6/10.

In other movies, I've watched; I just saw Eagle Eye. Now, the plot for the movie is awful but that doesn't necessarily mean it was a bad movie. I mean, anybody who thought that the plot was even somewhat realistic should know that they're ignorant. That being said, the action and CGI sequences were pretty good and fairly seamless. And I've said it time and time again but Shia Labouf, while quickly becoming one of those actors that's seemingly in everything, shows some of his acing chops in it. Not all of it, but he's not the problem with the movie. I'd give it a solid 5.5/10, which the plot is really the only thing that makes it as low.

Edited December 14, 2008 by Livid

[TKz]

I wasn't expecting it to be good, but I know that most critics hate Diesel so trusting reviews of the film is probally a bad idea. Honestly, as long as Diesel is playing his usual Anti-Hero 'You do not know whom you are fucking with' BadAss, I'd probally enjoy it because I know what to expect going into it.

Cheers for the heads up, I think I'll see if it around on my next trip to Blockbuster.

I plan on giving TCOR a watch as well, but it's not really that high up on my list of the 10,000 films I still need to see.

Edited December 14, 2008 by TKz

[TheReaper316]

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition

3.5/5

Let's Go To Prison

2/5..It wasnt all that funny, but worth watching if you have nothing better to do. Something about Dax Sheppard I don't like.

[GA!]

Teen Wolf - 3/5

Perfectly acceptable fluff about the evils of being popular and 1980's soundtracks.

Scrooged - 4/5

I love the mix of feel good and mean-spirited humour. The ending is the cheesiest I've ever witnessed though.

Jingle All The Way - 1/5

It's not *that* bad as Arnie's self-parody is entertaining, but there are so many problems that anything more than 1/5 would send my ratings system, and therefore the Earth, spiraling towards the sun. I'm off to support materialism by buying a Turbo Man, kthxbai.

[ROC]

Seven Pounds - (N)

Okay, okay. I am fucking sick of good guy Will Smith. I'm also sick of moody emo Will Smith. And this movie has BOTH of these things in a hideously high amount of abundance. Just godawful plotting. I love upbeat movies that are meant to make me feel good about myself, but this is so much Hollywood pap that it's unreal. Unsurprising from the guys who brought you The Pursuit of Happyness? Not really. But it's fucking horrible, all things considered. The only positive? Rosario Dawson is still so so good, beautiful, and all that jazz. But what an overly sentimental piece of shit.

[TheReaper316]

Gran Torino

9/10..or 4/5 stars..whatever. Definetly one of the best flicks that came out this year, and has convinced me to watch a couple more Clint Eastwood flicks.

[Toe]

Let's Go To Prison

2/5..It wasnt all that funny, but worth watching if you have nothing better to do. Something about Dax Sheppard I don't like.

His character in the movie just is not likeable at all. The best comedic moments come from Will Arnett...Sheppard's character just is not likeable at all.

[livid]

Gran Torino

9/10..or 4/5 stars..whatever. Definetly one of the best flicks that came out this year, and has convinced me to watch a couple more Clint Eastwood flicks.

Yeah, agreed. The movie was pure awesome. Eastwoods proves that not only is he still an awesome actor but director as well. 9/10 is about right.

And then today I saw The Rocker with Rainn Wilson. It wasn't bad. Not amazing but it had some moments. 7/10

[GA!]

The Elephant Man - 5/5

A brilliant, heartbreaking film where David Lynch mixes his own style with telling a mainstream story perfectly.

The Simpsons Movie (again) - 4/5

I'm reluctant to give this a '5' as it is an extended episode of The Simpsons that retreads several stories, namely Homer's strained relationship with, well, everyone. It is still very funny after three viewings.

Gremlins 2 - 4/5

Chaotic and self-aware, this is much better than the first Gremlins, which is a good film itself. The best bit of Gremlins 2 is the Hulk Hogan cameo, and the events that lead to said cameo.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians - 1/5

I guess I'm the only person ever to watch it without Mystery Science Theatre 3000 telling me how stupid it is first. Anyway, the film is delightfully dreadful, highlights include the man in the polar bear and robot costume, and how all the martians are just minstrels with helmets on. On a technical level, this is a hundred times worse than Plan 9, with some of the worst dialogue, costumes, set design and direction I have ever witnessed. The children are so bad at acting, they could've easily landed a part in any of the first three Harry Potter films.

[Ghg398]

Good Burger:8/10

Gone In 60 Seconds (70s):9/10

Night At The Museum: 7.5/10

[Jimmy]

Inkheart

I didn't expect much going into the flick, but overall it made some nice fun viewing. I like Paul Bitanny a lot, and he was quite the stand-out in the film, for me anyway. Andy Serkis and Brendan Fraiser were pretty good on the whole, and Hellen Mirren puts in a fun little performance. Though, I felt the girl was under-whelming. The film was always going to be hard with copyright issues and such, but overall it's just a good bit of fun. ***

V for Vendetta

This has to be the third of forth time I've watched this film and I still love it to death. The story and the characters are top notch, the visuals are fantastic and the action sequences are beautiful. Natalie Portman does a pretty damn good job here, but the cast around her really contribute to the film. The V character is so brilliant. ****1/2

[MalaCloudy Black]

Good Burger:8/10

Gone In 60 Seconds (70s):9/10

Night At The Museum: 7.5/10

I have the novelization of Good Burger, truefax. I don't know what's more hilarious, how goofy the movie is or how kind of not-well-written the book is.

[Blue Rosler]

I plan to watch Burn After Reading, Swing Vote and Zach & Miri today!

[ROC]

Wendy and Lucy - (Y)

Towelhead - (Y)

I really like both movies for completely different and strange reasons. Wendy and Lucy is more "real", in that it's a movie that feels the most like a real situation, and it isn't a dissection on anything except perhaps the nature of loneliness and the hardships of the world. (Don't say "down economy". Don't say "recession".)

Towelhead, meanwhile, is a movie that perfectly builds its protagonist. It has a very painful first hour in which the innocent titular character has...well...a lot of shit happen to her. We learn this so that when she grows into a woman that knows what she wants, she's all the more intriguing a character, in a sense. It's almost a great female empowerment story, in a way. And it's one of the few times I've seen lately where a happy ending sort of makes sense and isn't a cinematic cheat.

[TKz]

Yes Man - 7/10

Quite an enjoyable flick, worth the £5 I paid to go see it. Carrey seemed noticibly older than the character he was portraying, which made his love interest seem a little young, so I'm not sure how much I bought her and him, but overall the film was a good laugh. A couple people I've talked to complained about it being just another failed Jim Carrey film, but... if you don't like Jim Carrey, why would you bother with one of his films in the first place? I think it was a good laugh, though I did feel there were some points that I was supposed to be laughing a little more than I actually was.