What Did You Watch Today?

[Guest Leeleemu]

What else can I say 10/10

[ROC]

Ray - 8/10

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Batman Begins: 8.5/10

Best Batman film ever. Full stop.

Best cast ever? Probably.

Made hairs rise up on the back of my neck and everything seemed to make sense. All the reasons why Wayne becomes Batman. AND IT MAKES SENSE! IT SEEMS LOGICAL! It's no light-on-character big-on-explosions brainless superhero flick...It had heart, great acting, character development, dizzying cityscapes, Cilian Murphy's Scarecrow was proper freaky and Gary Oldman played a good guy! I've been a massive fan of Bale since American Psycho and of Nolan since Memento and his direction blows away Burton's broody Gothica. It also managed to stop shy of ticking all the blockbuster boxes in cheesefactor...So for that, I salute the film.

[BlackFlagg]

Land of the Dead - 9/10

[ROC]

Dark City - 8/10

Alex Proyas, the directing mastermind that turned The Crow from a mere revenge story, a la The Punisher movie, to a brilliant gothic classic, takes the pen and the chair as co-writer and director of Dark City, his highly acclaimed 1998 cult classic. Also among the crew of writers is David Goyer, who oddly enough wrote the "Crow" sequel, Crow: City of Angels. But like in The Crow, Proyas's vision stands out the most, as he gives us a vision of reality that audiences never warmed up to until the more SFX laden The Matrix the very next year. And it's in this vision where Dark City gains its originality and quality. In negating focus on the other characters to only focus on Murdoch's plight, we discover what he eventually discovers about himself and his existence. Sure, the performances are substantial, especially Kiefer Sutherland's morose Dr. Schreber, and the film itself is visually stunning (enough so that one of the sets was actually used in the "Matrix" sequels), but the deep message is the biggest triumph in this film.

Proyas does it again, and comes out as a true visionary.

Are We There Yet? - 2/10

Way too much awfulness to explain. Just know that Brian Levant sucks...very much.

[tristy]

5/10

7.5/10

8/10

[stokeriño]

Batman Returns: 8/10

There is one thing that bugs me about this film. Actually, no - one and a half things. The 'half' is the alteration of the old Jack Napier/Joker storyline. The reason this is only a 'half' is because I'm used to prequels fiddling with plots to suit their own needs, and to be honest it didn't really have any negative affect on the film itself.

The thing that bugged me a lot more was a significant gap in scientific theory that, once I noticed it (and I did immediately), had me annoyed as I watched it unfold through the rest of the film. Being: how a microwave weapon can affect water mains but not people. Yeah. Right.

But other than my scientific pedanticness it was a very good film. The cast is particularly superb, and despite my love of the excessively camp TV show, this is one of the best Batman incarnations to date.

Edited June 26, 2005 by stokeriño

[Mysterio2000X]

Batman Returns: 8/10

There is one thing that bugs me about this film. Actually, no - one and a half things. The 'half' is the alteration of the old Jack Napier/Joker storyline. The reason this is only a 'half' is because I'm used to prequels fiddling with plots to suit their own needs, and to be honest it didn't really have any negative affect on the film itself.

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[Johnny Latino Heat]

Battle Royale II: 4/10

I was very, VERY disappointed with this one. After loving the first BR, this just left me with a feeling of "blah".

[Benji]

From Hell: 9.5/10

While being historically innacurate this film is amazing and suspending my knowledge of the Ripper case is easy as you get lost in the emotions and TREMENDOUS acting ability of everyone in the film. One of the single most under appreciated films I've ever seen.

[Guest Leeleemu]

3/10 - No way as good as first, sketch with Julia Roberts pretending to be Julia Roberts was pathetic!

[ADG]

Noises Off - 10/10

Simply put, one of the funniest films I have ever seen. A masterful script and excellent performances from Reeve, Ritter and Caine, as well as great support from Elliot - who passed away shortly after the film was made - and Julie Hagerty as the neurotic Poppy make this one you have to see.

[Laice07]

The Brothers Coen give us Fargo (Joel directed, and brother Ethan co-wrote with him). It is Moby Dick, without the whale. And, without Cpt. Ahab. No Ishmael, either, come to think of it. And, none of it takes place at sea, but -- instead -- in land-locked Minnesota. Rather than a whale, we get William H. Macy as a carsalesman, and head-of-household, who is tightly screwed in the vice of financial pressures. When Macy hatches a scheme to have his wife (Kristin Rudruf) kidnapped and have his mean father-in-law (Harve Pressnell) pay the ransom, of which Macy expects to get a cut, it is up to the local, pregnant police chief (Frances McDormand) to fish him in.

So, does she get 'im, do ya think? Yah, but not before the whole crazy thing careens out of control when the hired kidnappers (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare, ) decide to ad lib from Macy's fairly straight-forward script and demand more money. Oh, yeah, they also kill a couple of motorists and highway patrol officers that they run into while leaving town in a car still bearing dealer plates from William H. Macy's lot. Needless to say, the situation that arises is somewhat absurd, and the tone of the film is less than serious, thereinafter. Fargo's is a dry humor, dependent on deadpanned irony and sarcasm, that may not be appealing to all tastes -- as is true of all of the Coens's work. If you get it, though, it is hysterical.

Those willing to indulge the Coens's craft will find that Fargo is a parodic homage to Midwestern culture and color -- especially, its regional linguistic eccentricity. This makes this element of the film -- its setting -- so compelling that it becomes, at once, a familiar place, even for those who have never been there. Thus, it is most fitting that the film should be called Fargo; I do not know if the place in the movie is at all like Minnesota. All I know is that the place in the movie is real. It is also interesting to watch how the Coens's characters, each of whom is endowed with a sort of self-contained integrity, interact with their holistic environment. For instance, when Frances McDormand is out looking for the real killers, as it were, she takes a leisurely drive around the snow-covered lake where Peter Stormare is introducing Steve Buscemi to a woodshed (see the movie -- you'll understand). She takes the scenic way, not because she's trying to be stealthy; not because she's in the middle of a pregnancy; not because she's in a lazy mood; but, just because she's in Fargo.

The attention to regional speech and to characters makes Fargo particularly strong on dialogue, as a cinematic element. It is therefore fitting that Fargo was an Oscar-winner for Best Screenplay (McDormand also claimed a trophy for her acting job). The Coens's use of dialogue, especially in this film, approaches Quentin Tarantino's uncanny penchant for making the lines that the characters speak realistic-sounding, but very well-written, as well. One last thing that is worth remarking on, here, is the casting of the actors in the film. Particularly McDormand, Macy, and Buscemi constitute respectably offbeat choices that certify the campy, quirky quality of the movie, and do top-notch jobs.

9/10

Almost Famous(Once again) 9.5/10

Edited June 27, 2005 by Laice_

[public enemy]

Nine Lives - 1/10

Horrible. Just Horrible.

Paris Hilton should stick to porn, even though she’s not good at that either it’s certainly a lot better than cheap god-awful movies like this. Terrible acting added with every horror-flick cliché in the book (We’re snowed in/phone lines are cut/let’s split up/ugh) made this barely watchable and altogether just horrible.

[BlackFlagg]

Hitch - 5/10

National Treasure - 6/10

[ROC]

Nine Lives - 1/10

Horrible. Just Horrible.

Paris Hilton should stick to porn, even though she’s not good at that either it’s certainly a lot better than cheap god-awful movies like this. Terrible acting added with every horror-flick cliché in the book (We’re snowed in/phone lines are cut/let’s split up/ugh) made this barely watchable and altogether just horrible.

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[Ananas]

Well, looking at the cover, you probably should've expected it to be shit...

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[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Trainspotting: 9/10

Bleak, gritty, best British film of the nineties and probably in the top three ever.

Ewan McGregor is superb. Robert Carlyle fantastic, in fact no weak links in casting.

The script the sort of quality you'd expect from a Danny Boyle film taken from an Irving Welsh book.

Fantastic soundtrack including Underworld, Iggy Pop and Lou Reid.

Gets better every time I watch it.

[ROC]

Well, looking at the cover, you probably should've expected it to be shit...

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You should never judge a movie by its cover. Case in point:

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Edited June 28, 2005 by TheROC-Revolt

[ROC]

The Longest Yard (2005) - 5.5/10

So, to sum it up, it's a rather formulaic movie with decent hit or miss humor (and not hardly as hit as say The Waterboy, Big Daddy, or even 50 First Dates). Perhaps I just can't get in to MTV-style scenes, the going through the motions Sandler, or the awful bits (way too much of Cloris Leachman and the Tracy Morgan-led cheerleading crew for me). But that's not to say I wasn't entertained. Chris Rock and Bob Sapp save the movie and Courtney Cox is...well...she isn't bad. And if you're a Sandler fan, this certainly is an ok comedic feature to counter the dark Batman Begins or the forgettable lineup you're likely seeing at the cinemas right now.

On another note, I think I'm looking a tad bit more forward to Serenity. (Y)

And on another another note, I do realize that I used a .5 for the first time in ages. And it'll be the last time I use it, I hope...