What Did You Watch Today?

[Guest musick]

Deathwatch, a 2002 horror film onDemand. Was awful.

[Hellfire]

Dave Chappelle's Block Party - This might be more of a documentary than a movie, but its still awesome nonetheless. Dave Chappelle decided to put together a block party in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn and invite a bunch of people from the town he was living in, in Ohio, most of which weren't fans of rap music. Then he got a ridiculous lineup of artists like Kayne West, Dead Prez, Common, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and if that wasn't enough, he managed to bring The Fugees back together. If you're a fan of rap, you'll like this. If you're a fan of Dave Chappelle, you'll like this.

[YI]

Went to see "The Hangover" last night...nowhere, nowhere near as good as everyone seems to be hyping it to be...basically your paint by numbers shit that basically boiled down to being "Old School" mixed with "Dude Where's My Car?" with a fat guy with a beard doing his best Brick Tamland impression. A few good moments...but nothing to get worked up over. Average at best, not that many 'laugh out loud', moments.

[Jimmy]

Kill Bill: Volume One 9/10

This movie is awesome. Tarantino is perhaps one of the best people ever born, and this movie is just so much fun. I love the story, the characters, the action and the style of the film. If you haven't seen it; go watch it. It kicks a huge amount of ass.

[Gongsun Zan]

Blood: The Last Vampire Kinda like a Japanese version of Kill Bill, minus all the interesting dialogue. Also with a really shit ending. 7/10.

Drag Me To Hell: Probably the best scary movie I've seen in a while. After so many torture movies and remakes of japanese films, its nice to see things go back to simpe, campy, fun. 8/10

[Fudge]

Watched Hottie and the Nottie with Paris Hilton in last night. :|

It wasn't as bad as everyone says and wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen (). Her acting was pretty shit, but everyone did their job and if it had a better cast could've been better...

I don't know why I watched it and I never will again, but meh.

With Paris 4/10

With someone else 5-6/10

[ADG]

Am I the only one who thinks that 'Manhunter' isn't as good as 'Red Dragon'?

Also watched 'In Search of a Midnight Kiss' last night. Very good film. 8/10.

[YI]

"Dude Where's My Car?"...fucking amazing.

[wolves]

Last week I grabbed some used movies at our local rental store as I get 50% off all used DVD's. I grabbed Cloverfield, There Will Be Blood, Zodiac, and the newest Indiana Jones. Tuesday I picked up the new Friday the 13th and watched it, enjoyed it thoroughly as I did in the theaters. As I was walking through the store I noticed they had the first and second season of The X-Files bundled together for 20 bucks. So I grabbed that even though I've never watched the show before. My dad was a huge fan when it was on but I was too young to get into it. I'm at the fifth episode right now and I'm loving it. Fantastic show. I really need to finish my collections of older tv shows. For so many I only have the first couple of seasons. It's a shame that a lot of them are very expensive especially for a show with a lot of seasons like Roseanne and Wings. Thankfully I've been able to get some good deals like getting every season of Lois and Clark for around 50 bucks total via eBay and Amazon.

[Hellfire]

Curious Case of Benjamin Button - I'm a sucker for Brad Pitt, I think that he usually brings the goods and David Fincher hasn't put out a movie I haven't liked (I've seen everything except the Aliens movie he did). I like stories that don't have happy endings, not everything should be all warm and fuzzy too. This is the type of story that can't be happy at the end and they captured that well.

Overall I'd give it an 9/10. Definitely worth a watch. Watching this movie made me think about life, about how many people don't actually achieve true happiness in their lives and end up dying wishing that they had done or seen something. If a movie makes you think like that, you know that they've done a great job.

[Pesci]

Transformers 2 - Fuck the haters, this was awesome. Enjoyed it more than the first actually. Probably because nobody was getting wanked off next to me while I was watching.

Lost in Translation - How ridiculously fit is Scarlett Johansson? Wow. I knew she was hot but until I saw this I didn't appreciate how hot. I want to be on her.

[MyKILLv2.0]

Star Trek: I'm not really a Trekie, but I watched enough of the orginal movies to get the concept of who everyone was. From someone who wasn't big into the orginal Star Trek, I liked this one. The guy they got to play Kirk is spot on for what I would envision the role to be. In fact the entire casting is pretty cool....and HUGES mark points for casting Karl Urban. I loved the movie, and can't wait till the others come out. 9.5/10

Marley & Me: Totally not what I expected. I thought this would be a goof ball movie where Owen Wilson chased his dog around from one akward/funny situation to another. It was a lot more serious then I had antcipated, but found myself interested in the story none the less. I would have rather it been more funny, but apparently I missed the boat on what type of movie it was. 7/10

The Proposal: I heart Ryan Reynolds. He is great in this, and Betty White yet again steals the movie. It's not NEARLY as chicky as I envisioned this movie to be. 8.5/10

[wolves]

I watched Charlie Bartlett last night after getting it for $2.50. I saw it once before but kind of fast forwarded it, I'm glad I didn't this time. I absolutely loved it on my second glance at it. Some really funny and disturbing moments. 9/10

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Just watched the first couple of episodes of my Nathan Barley DVD. Seen them a few times but man it gets better every time I watch it and the wife is loving it now.

Chris Morris + Charlie Brooker =

[YI]

Went to see Transformers 2 on Wednesday. I avoided the first one, only catching it a few weeks ago...not a fan...again, it feels like it goes on too long. And Megatron looks like a giant turd. Megan Fox is fucking gorgeous (as is the transformer woman)...highlights of the film;

1) Crankshaft

2) When Megan Fox randomly got undressed/changed in the garden while it was all kicking off (wait...what...why?!?!!...the random hilarity of it all made it)

3) The tail disappearing back up that girl was strangely arousing.

Was okay for a giggle among friends...but, dragged on a lot...and Megan Fox can't act for shit.

Edited June 27, 2009 by YI

[Emperor Fuckshit]

I've had a fuckload of time to watch various films recently.

I started off by giving Cries and Whispers another bash -- didn't think much of it on the first go round. It's still far from my favourite Bergman, but I enjoyed the cinematography (all the crimson saturation and whatnot). Ingrid Thulin is really good as Karin; she's the most interesting character, I think. Although Liv Ullman's coquettishly manipulative butter-wouldn't-melt Maria is pretty awesome too. And Liv Ullman is always nice. The ending is incredibly touching. There's still some stuff that I don't "get": Ullman's husband calmly investigating his tubes with a sword in the drawing room mostly. And I've probably missed some of the significance of Karin shoving a piece of broken glass up her chuff, but it's still a fantastic visual -- particularly the mildly disapproving "oh Jesus, Karin, I can't take you anywhere anymore" expression with which her husband meets the sight of his wife reaching down below and smearing blood from her lips onto her lips. Yum. Yeah, it's pretty good.

I re-watched Alfred Hitchcock Presents Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rope'... an Alfred Hitchcock hitchcock a few days ago. It's still lush and lovely and pleasingly naturalistic and good fun. But I'd never noticed how embarrasingly awful Jimmy Stewart's closing "actually, murdering people is bad, yeh?" speech is. "YOU'RE gunna DIEEEEEE! YOU'RE gunna DIEEEEEE!" The sudden and ill-explained transformation of the character really doesn't work well. And are we supposed to sympathise with him? He just comes off like a loony cretin who contrives a vaguely "bohemian" personality for himself via vague references to the overthrow of conventional morality, but is stunned back into orthodoxy at the first sign that someone might take him seriously. The nork. The relationship between the two murderers is really subtly-controlled and well-developed, though -- two very good performances there.

Obviously on a "that bloke who's in 'Rope' and 'Strangers on a Train'" kick, I watched Strangers on a Train next. It's a good, suspensful thriller. The Bruno character is marvellous, and probably would've seemed moreso in 1950 when I guess the "kooky but dangerous villain" character had more cache. Fantastically surreal ending that seems nevertheless understated due to being a logical progression. There are just some slightly dead bits, I think. And I hate it when films have to balance exciting noire-y action with a predictable "love interest" angle between two straight-laced dullards (cf. "North by Northwest", if I remember correctly, and the rightly not-talked-about-much-anymore "Foreign Correspondent").

I would've gone through more Hitchcock, but my laptop is being a pig in re: "Rear Window".

I remember really liking Silver Streak when I first saw it (about five years ago now I guess). This time... not so much. Wilder-Pryor is always too genial to actually dislike, but there aren't many laughs in this and the thriller elements are fairly stock. (See above about mechanical "love interest" elements also). Ned Beatty puts in a decent performance, so there's that. And the Wilder blacking-up bathroom scene is INCREDIBLE. This was the last (possibly only) time that a "look, it's a white guy doin' shit that you'd expect black person to do -- that is amusingly incongruous -- YOU LIKE IT!!!!!" scene has worked really well. So take notes all comedians who have done basically the same thing in the intervening thirty-three years. I have also incorporated "Yoo lookin' sharp... I'm FEELIN' sharp!" into my everyday lexis. The thing that's awesome about the scene is that there's no sense that the purpose is to say "hee hee... how SHOCKING" and get all worked up about the writer's (non-existent) taboo-breaking $ki11z. It's just a man being funny. If Gervais directed this, then the black attendant who walks in at the end would stand there with an "oooh, it's a bit awkwaaaaaard" face for about ten minutes. Guh. The film is not much good though, as mentioned.

Finally got around to Requiem for a Dream. And hey it's pretty good. I had worries about it being slightly "'Reefer Madness' for the emo generation"-ish. And there are elements of that. I've read an interview with Aaronofsky in which he talks about how he's exploring "like, how even beer and cigarettes and that... IS DRUGS! Does this blow your mind?????????" That comes through in parts of the film in a not-at-all-subtle sort of way. And that isn't helped by the fact that all of the characters end up in the worst possible position. But I'm not sure what the alternatives are, really. You're left with a conclusion that seems almost exploitative in its unchecked negative emotionality. But at the other end of the scale lies unwarranted optimism and/or glorification. So it's a tough ho to row. Aaaand... the Connelly-Leto relationship is presented in a way that is quite refreshing: their love seems real, sincere and heartfelt (until it breaks under the strain of addiction, obviously). There's no sense that Leto is "using" Connelly for her wealth or that either of them is unfaithful. Their love is pretty :3 for two heroin addicts in places, and I like that. All the characters get opportunities to show themselves in a sympathetic light. There is some of "the satires" (about "the televisions") also. It's probably no worse than something wot Steve Punt might do. Yeh, I like this...

EL TOPO IS WEEYUD FILM!!!! Still not entirely sure what to make of this. There's a relentlessness to its violent aspects which grates, and just a general pervasive feeling of untempered and ugly masculinity. It's retroactively been claimed as an "acid Western", which I guess means that it's... subverting... genre... tropes? I dunno, there's still a Leone-with-cripples feel to the first part, and I'm not exactly sure how "subversive" that is. There are some fantastic visuals, but that's kind of hard to avoid when you're filming in those sorts of locations. I probably need to read-up on this one more; but I experienced long periods of non-pluss-ment between the parts when I thought "oh, that's a pretty cool idea."

It's probably so obvious to criticise Gerry for being dull and pointless that it's not a comment worth making. But those were my main thoughts. There are some nice shots of various scenery -- but all that means is that this would've been better as a compilation of stock footage related to the Utah flats. I didn't really like van Sant before seeing this, and it hasn't really done anything to change my mind.

On the other hand, I really love what I've seen from Gaspar Noé, and I'd been saving Irréversible for a while. Slightly disappointed. The long rape scene didn't do much to hold my attention. The seemingly unending "talking about orgasms" scene was inexplicable. The "gritty bowels of France" thing made a nice backdrop for "I Stand Alone", but when you cleave away the fantastic narrator character that is present in the latter, you're basically just looking a transexual prostitute's flaccid knob. Roger Ebert makes a good argument that the inverse chronology forces the viewer immediately to question and oppose the act of vengeance which "begins" the story, and to regard the "closing" scenes of characterisation with a more speculative (non-pornographic) sense of pathos. I can buy that. The problem was that I knew the basic outline of the plot before going in. This is really a film that you need to see i) in a cinema (for rape appreciation) and ii) unawares. I failed both criteria, and I think that hurt my viewing. On a positive note, the weird sound mix in the opening half-hour is excellent, and would probably be even better in a cinema.

Moving from the raping and beating of a man's wife to the mere kidnapping of his lover, I went for The Vanishing (1988 Dutch/French version thereof) next. This is a really nice film. It doesn't try to re-invent the wheel in the way that Irréversible does, but its experiments with non-linearity still add to what is at times a pretty conventional film. The relationship between the lovers is very nicely created, and makes the whole thing pretty emo. I find that a lot of films which ask us to care about the estrangement of a pair of lovers fail because the love seems tokenistic and arbitrary in the first place: we have no reason to believe that these people genuinely care about each other, and so no reason to feel sadness at their being parted. Neither "The Vanishing" nor "Irreversible" has that problem, which is good (those saucy Europeans, eh?). The villain here is just about enough of a creative departure to be interesting. It's a very picturesque film in places also. The ending gives a genuinely weird and affecting aftertaste to the story. It didn't quite live up to the hype that it has received in various places -- it was a lot more "normal" and sparse than I'd expected. It's still a good film; but it's of the "after dark on ITV" rather than the red triangle variety.

I'd forgotten how good films are. They're really good. I have Wim Wenders' "Paris, Texas" up next (I wanted "The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty Kick", but the internet was fresh out), and then "Audition" (wee-woo-wee-woo-spooky-noise). And "Welcome to the Dollhouse" is in progress. And I have an unwatched Haneke boxset when I'm ready. And I can always mix in some Hitchcock.

Edited June 27, 2009 by Emperor Fuckshit

[El Dandy]

Memento: The first time I saw this I was confused with the time jumping. Second time I watched this, I loved every minute of it. Now have lost count the amount of times I have watched this gem. This is an unmissable film with a great twist towards the end. 9/10

The Jacket:Time travelling fun. This is quite an under-rated movie that never really got the praise it deserves. If you can manage to rent or view this online, honestly go for it because it is a good film, you just need to pay attention to certain things. 7/10

[ACCBiggz]

Year One - 7/10

Slightly humorous, only hilarious in one, maybe two parts.

Away We Go - 8/10

Quite excellent. Really enjoyed the work.

The Proposal - 7/10

It's your basic RomCom. Has a few funny moments that'll keep it at 7 instead of further down. Don't expect anything different in the formula though.

[Lint]

Backdraft. I remember watching it years and years ago. I was cruising through my On Demand list the other day and saw the HD version of it was On Demand, so I watched it. Better then I remembered, and in HD all the explosions seriously shook my apartment. I felt bad for my neighbors

After reading about it on the Better Then Expected thread, I just got done watching Frequency on Starz. Yea, that movie was alot better then I thought it was going to be. The previews had made it out to be some kinda cheesy "coming of age" movie with the son becoming more acquainted with his dad in the past over the radio. Wasn't expecting the murder plot in it.

[Gongsun Zan]

Transformers 2: 3/10

Spoiler: Click here to view

Ugh. First of all, I actually liked the first movie. Then they serve up this piece of shit. There could have been so much potential to make a good movie here, but everything was one letdown after another. Seriously. They pretty much threw the characterization book out the window for this one. The only Transformers with any kind of dialogue in the film are annoying as hell, and Ratchet, Ironhide, Sideswipe, Arcee get one line each, and the Decepticons get reduced to a bunch of generic mooks. Devastator met a incredibly anticlimatic end, but that was nothing compared to Megatron or Fallen, who pretty much gets owned in about all of 10 seconds. Seriously. If you want to shove pointless sidestories like the whole parent's angle or that government guy down my throat, I don't mind, but I paid for fucking robots beating the shit out of other robots, and they can't even do that right. Instead I get a whole bunch of US Marines shooting blindly and getting blown up, with only the occasional shot of a robot? Personally, I really think they need to stop putting the humans over the transformers, because other than Shia or Megan Fox, I really dont think anyone gives a shit about anyone else.

The scene I thought was well done was the fight in the forest. Everything else could have been so much better, but failed miserably.