What Did You Watch Today?

[TMM]

The Grudge - 8/10

Not the inferior American remake, the original Japanese one where the kid actually is as creepy as hell. My god he was evil looking. In the American version, the thing was laughable. Both the acting and story were spot on, and was possibly the scariest film I've ever seen, and at 88 minutes, the length was just perfect. I was worried it might drag, or they wouldn't be enough development, but it was perfect.

[DMN in the House]

The Omen

6.5/10

Let me just say I was disappointed. Not that I was really looking forward to the film, because it was kind of a spur of the moment thing to go see it, but I expected a little bit more from it. It had about 5 or 6 'oh shit' moments, and that was about it.

Major kudos to the kid though, that fucker was creepy, saved the movie from totally fucking sucking.

[Turbo Yannis]

United 93 - 2/5.

Felt like it never really got going

The DaVinci Code - 3/5

Only went as a favour to someone. I suppose it was okay. Highly susprised that I actually managed to understand everything that was going on since I literally knew nothing about it before.

I hadn't been to the cinema in bloody ages and I've been twice within the space of 2 days...

[Laice07]

X-Men 3: The Last Stand- 6.5/10

[Numbahs]

Just got back from...

The Omen - ** out of *****

[BlackFlagg]

Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic - 9/10

[Numbahs]

Two comedies, neither of them that funny...

Grandma's Boy - * out of *****

Looking For Comedy In The Muslim World - ** out of *****

[Numbahs]

Cars - *** out of *****

[Pepsi]

Hard Candy - 10/10

Between this and Brick, I've seen the two best movies I'm probably going to see all year. Ellen Page can go from freakin adorable to psychotic bitch and back again about 10 times in one scene, she's amazing to watch in this movie.

[ROC]

Cars - 6/10

Maybe it's the summer of underwhelming ideas, but Pixar and the gang sadly don't run 110% with the gang's latest offering, Cars. It's not that the film's funny, the cast of characters manages to make some funny stuff out of them (hell, even Larry the Cable Guy comes off as humorous and actually, his tractor-tipping scene steals the movie). It's just that the plot is underwhelmingly cliche and the writing is lazy, with the only work seeming to be on the racing references (Richard Petty, Mario Andretti, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Darrell Waltrip all lend their voices to car versions of themselves) and on making the film a carbon copy of Doc Hollywood. Hell, even James Taylor sings a weak tune with his "Route 66" song written by Randy Newman for the film. It's entertaining, yes, but it is the weakest Pixar film to date. Then again, I suppose a weak Pixar film is a hell of a lot better than the tripe (excluding X3) the summer has brought us so far. So go anyway...

[BlackFlagg]

Shaun of the Dead - 9/10

[GoGo Yubari]

American History X - 8.5/10

[punky]

Running Scared - 7/10

Bought the DVD since I wanted to see it in the theaters and had a good feeling about it. I thought it was pretty good, not great but a solid action/suspense flick.

[GoGo Yubari]

A History of Violence - 7/10

I was really, really disappointed by this movie. It's not that it was bad, there were a lot of great things in it (above all else, Ed Harris' performance owned the whole damn film), but it just sort of fizzles out. At no point do I even begin to care about the main character. I care about his kids, I ALMOST care about his wife, but Viggo Mortenson just sort of makes the same facial expression over the course of the entire movie no matter what's going on in the context. I understand why he made that choice, but it's a bit of a frustrating one at times.

It's worth a rental, but not much else.

[The Hardcore Canuck]

American History X - 9/10

Cube - 9.5/10

Army of Darkness - 8.5/10 (greatest "B" movie ever)

[ROC]

Sunset Blvd. - 8/10

Back in 1950, a film came out that addressed the bitter and regretful fallout of the silent movie business. In Sunset Blvd., we see Gloria Swanson give a fine performance as the silent movie actress, who much like the rest of that old business, never got over the idea that her time was finished. In the film is also a clever depiction and attack of Hollywood which hasn't been done quite as well before or since. William Holden also does a fantastic noir performance as screenwriter Joe Gillis. Director Billy Wilder creates the film primarily as a commentary of the era by gone and the ridiculous amount of tameness that Hollywood features were about back then as well as the idea that Hollywood features should only star young, handsome, and pretty types. In a modern era where the only pictures that ever seem to be greenlighted are the same pictures with the young, handsome, pretty types, it's interesting to see what insane fallout and withdrawal occurs within those who are considered the past era and without a second thought, sent away from Hollywood. And much like Swanson's character, those who are used to having it all may never find themselves to be the same after the fallout again. Wilder presents all of this very well and makes a film poignant today over 50 years after its release.

Immortal - 5/10

In the same year that action spectacles entirely centered around CGI like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a little-seen sci-fi flick made the rounds on the straight-to-video scene. Immortal centers around an immortal woman (played by Linda Hardy) who returns to an earth around 100 years into the future, alongside meeting an older woman (Charlotte Rampling) and a man (Thomas Kretschmann) who also has the power of a god inside him. It's safe to say this is the indie version of the Milla Jovovich flick The Fifth Element. However, it is also duller than that said flick. Whereas The Fifth Element had clear enemies and heroes, we see a murky plot that doesn't seem to give us much of what is going on. It seems that they are trying to create opaque and different characters much like an indie film, but the strange setting doesn't call for it. The audience wants to find something to sympathize with, but never really can. On the up side, it does look amazing especially considering the fact that this film couldn't possibly have cost very much to make (Amazon reportedly puts the budget down as $22 million). Still, there's too much style and strangeness and there's not enough for anyone to really want to dig in further.

[TMM]

Garden State - 8.5/10

I had high hopes for the film going in because Zach Braff is awesome in Scrubs, and simply put, I love Natalie Portman, but I didn't expect it to be as good as it was. It reminded me a hell of a lot of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, but only half the length, which I thought was good because any longer and I think it could've lost it's way. The acting was top-notch, and Braff showed that he can do more than (just) the comedy in Scrubs. Top film.

[The Hardcore Canuck]

Duece Bigelow: European Giggalo -> -2/10

The Machinest -> 9/10

[Plankton]

I watched March of the Penguins the other day. I wasn't expecting much more than an enjoyable documentary, and that's what I got. What I really appreciated about it was that it wasn't too long. I'm sure there is all sorts of extra stuff they could have added in there, but they kept a real nice pace and ended it at the perfect time.

March of the Penguins: ***

I just finished Battle Royale 2 earlier today. I really wanted to like it. I really, really did. I'm relatively easy to please in situations where I really want to be entertained, but this just seemed to barely miss out. I get the commentary and I appreciated it for what it said and for using some extremely controversial means to do it. I also loved seeing post-BR Nanahara and Noriko (I especially liked how they gave Noriko a scene when they probably didn't need to). But I really feel like it completely missed on the charm of the first. I also thought the satire was quite a bit off on this one, which is a really thin line to walk when you are dealing with terrorists as your protagonists. What I really disliked was that the BR contest was almost an afterthought. It's like they wrote the script and added in the elimination aspect. About halfway through the reminders of how many kids were left was, for the most part, insignificant. I also thought the twists seemed forced and the character development lacked in just about every character, especially Shiori Kitano.

Even so, I felt it had a bit of heart and I liked seeing the post-BR conditions of Japan.

Battle Royale 2: **

[livid]

The Omen: 7/10

By no means is this a bad movie, IMO. It's a bit awkward at moments (mainly due the inept ability of Julia Stiles), but enough of it is good for me to enjoy the movie. Then again, I did get in free so ya' know...