What Did You Watch Today?

[Emperor Fuckshit]

Murder on the Orient Express

Book adaptation, obviously. All star cast (Finney, Bergman, Connery, Perkins), but it just felt a little 'meh'. The murder scene lacked punch, though that was to be expected from a PG, I guess. And, having read the book, the ending had very little effect on me. Not bad, some stellar performances, but most of it just felt like a trundle, and a trundle to a conclusion I already knew.

Score: 5/10

The Party

One of Peter Sellers' slightly less-well-known films. Pretty decent. However, a lot of the humour is just clumsy slapstick, without the good dialogue to back it up. Has its moments, and also, due to the fact that it takes place in pretty much one scene, a good concept. Misses more often than it hits, but worth a look.

Score: 5.5

Vertigo

Probably not Hitchcock's most famous film, and probably not his best, despite the fact that it's excellent. An intriguing premise, bolstered by a great performance from Hitchcock favourite Jimmy Stewart (even though many criticised this choice, I think it works very well) and a pretty good one from Kim Nowak. Uses dramatic irony to good effect, a perfect example of Hitchcock's 'suspense over surprise' philosophy. Gets a little boring after Magdaline's death.

Score: 9/10

Magnolia

This was a recipient of rave reviews upon release, but still made a loss (which is a big surprise considering its slender budget). One of the reasons for this is that it's epic, without being 'an Epic' in the sense of, say, Titanic or The Godfather. It's essentially a three-hour long 'talky drama'. However, it lives up to the hype - a sensational film. Tells the story of several seemingly unconnected people, whose lives become inter-twined through a cocktail of fate, chance, and co-incidence. Themes like guilt, regret, love, shame, and fratured relationships are explored. Is highlighted by a pair of unusual scenes -- the first a scene which sees the main characters all sing parts of the song 'Wise Up' by Aimee Lee. The second, and more bizarre, sees a freak rain of frogs hit the area (where was this film set? I can't remember ). Both scenes seem rather weird, but are merely devices used to highlight how the random individuals are brought together. Some great peformances from Tom Cruise, William H Macy, and That Dude Who Plays The Old Guy. An edgy, uneasy, compelling film, that is almost impossible to explain to someone who hasn't seen it.

Score : 9/10

Blues Brothers

Decent enough comedy. The dialogue is rarely anything beyond average, but the car chase scenes are in turn exciting and hilarious (as they descend into complete over-blown self-parody at the end). Akroyd is whatever, but turns in a better performance than in 'Coneheads' (though, how hard could that be?). Cameo John Candy provides a cameo, thus re-uniting that Candy-Akroyd golden partnership of comedy, last seen in classic 'The Great Outdoors'. ¬_¬. Well, last seen in decent movie 'The Great Outdoors'. Boasts a whole shitload of big star cameos (Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles) to enforce the idea that this is a film about MUSIC, SIR, not kumquats or snakes or whatever...MUSIC.

Score: 6/10

Coming Soon: 'Carpool' with Tom Arnold. ARE THERE ENOUGH NUMBERS TO GIVE TO THIS FILM OUT OF TEN? I DO NOT KNOW! ¬_¬

And maybe: 'Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf', 'Deliverance', 'Rear Window', 'American Pie 3' or whatever, I don't know. Some films, anyway.

[Guest Pulp]

Kill Bill Vol. 2 - 9.5/10

This movie was FUCKING incredible. I loved the first when the first time I saw it, the second it was alright. But Vol.2 pulls it all together, and WOW. WOW. WOW. Best movie I've seen in the theatres in a long time. It's at the dollar theatre here so I'm going to see it multiple more times. This is right up there with my favorite movies.

[Numbahs]

Among all the movies I've seen this week that I've stated in this topic about 5,000,000 times, today I went and saw...

King Arthur - *** or (6/10) - (Y)

A surprise.....although it had many(MANY) problems, I was pretty much entertained for all 130 minutes of it.

White Chicks - *1/2 or (3/10) - (N)

Suck on a stick. The only funny thing in the movie at all is T-Money from Battledome. He was great in his role and made me laugh a ton. Too bad the plot is the worst thing ever to be thought of in the history of film. This becomes totally obvious when the "alien-faced" Wayans are on the screen at the same time as the girls they are imitating. The people in the crowd are shocked that two of the same girl happen to be on the runway at the same time....only one of them is wearing a Vanilla Sky mask and is DOUBLE THE SIZE OF THE REAL ONE.

Lame.

[BlackFlagg]

Daredevil - 6/10

[Numbahs]

Open Range - **** or (8/10) - (Y)

Yet another movie I've put off seeing for what seems like forever....why is it that I miss some of the best stuff in theaters?

[Numbahs]

City Of God - ***1/2 or (7.5/10) - (Y)

[ROC]

The Natural 9.5/10 Amazing sports movie. It is very well-acted and has a great ending (one that ESPN.com voted Best Sports Movie Scene). My only problem (which is very minor and is also a minor spoiler)is that a major death seems too trivial to me. I mean they only focused on the death for about two minutes. However, this is just a minor problem in one of the best sports movies of all time.

Shrek 8.5/10 Very hilarious and may make Shrek 2 worth seeing. (but over Spidey 2? Not on my dollar.)

[Emperor Fuckshit]

Carpool

In this AMAZING movie, Tom Arnold is a loveable twat with a carnival in his garage OR WHATEVER. The script is below-average, and the car chases will fill you WITH ANNOYING. But, I was able to watch for 90 mins without wanting to switch-off, so I guess that counts for something. And there's an OLD LADY with a GUN, which is an unexpected character trait, and thus the funniest thing I've EVER SEEN EVER.

Score: 3/10

The Big Tease

Wowowowow, it's a gay hairdresser, and he's FLAMBOYANT and WACKY. Craig Ferguson plays this cliched-ass role with all the relish of an actor who knows he's playing a cliched-ass role. Saw this movie a week ago, and now I can't remember any of the scenes. But meh, it's not TOO bad, just not very funny, and it cliches towards its predictable conclusion without anything of note, meh meh meh.

Score: 4/10

[Gabriel]

The Butterfly Effect

9/10

Best movie I've seen in a long time. This held my attention for every minute of the 114, and there wasn't one place in the movie where I thought to myself "This is stupid". Ashton Kutcher worked the serious role very well, and his co-stars did a tremendous job in playing several different parts.

The ending was one that I really didn't see coming, but I'm glad they used it, because it added tremendously to the dramatic effect of the film.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Shrek 2 7.5/10 Good, enjoyable film, if nothing i'd go out of my way to see again.

[ROC]

Juwanna Mann 4/10 Who knew that within a 24 hour radius I would watch a sports movie classic and a stupid basketball comedy? The only real shining spot is Kevin Pollak as a smart aleck agent. The rest of the movie is crap.

[cthemason]

The only funny thing in the movie at all is T-Money from Battledome.  He was great in his role and made me laugh a ton.

←

I'm trying to think of all of the T-Money sightings I've had in movies, there have been at least four. Is it sad that I know who T-Money is?

[ROC]

The Adventures of Pluto Nash - 3.5/10 Man, yesterday I watched two great films and then I turn around and watch two pieces of crap. That's just me, I guess. Anyways, on to my opinion. My problem with this film has to do with the fact that it doesn't know what it wants to be. It wants to be sci-fi but is too absurd to be effective, it wants to be a comedy but is unfunny, it wants to be a serious movie yet it has too many comedic people. It's just a sad mix that sadly Rosario Dawson and Joe Pantiliano (not to mention Jay Mohr) had to be thrown in.

[Fitzy]

The Butterfly Effect

9/10

Best movie I've seen in a long time. This held my attention for every minute of the 114, and there wasn't one place in the movie where I thought to myself "This is stupid". Ashton Kutcher worked the serious role very well, and his co-stars did a tremendous job in playing several different parts.

The ending was one that I really didn't see coming, but I'm glad they used it, because it added tremendously to the dramatic effect of the film.

←

I agree with you on everything. Awesome movie. I heard some bad things about it going in, but I enjoyed it. Did you watch the director's cut of the theatrical version? I watched the director's cut as it is a little longer. Then I watched the theatrical version's ending. Both endings were very good, but I will say I like the director's cut ending best.

They also show several endings for the theatrical version ending on the infinifilm's deleted scenes.

[Numbahs]

I'm trying to think of all of the T-Money sightings I've had in movies, there have been at least four. Is it sad that I know who T-Money is?

←

I can only think of Soul Plane and Friday After Next right off the top of my head...

IMDB comes calling, I guess.

[Gabriel]

I agree with you on everything. Awesome movie. I heard some bad things about it going in, but I enjoyed it. Did you watch the director's cut of the theatrical version? I watched the director's cut as it is a little longer. Then I watched the theatrical version's ending. Both endings were very good, but I will say I like the director's cut ending best.

They also show several endings for the theatrical version ending on the infinifilm's deleted scenes.

←

I watched the Director's Cut, but I didn't have time to catch the alternate endings and such because I worked all day today. I'll have to rent it again sometime and check those out...or maybe I'll buy it after my finances get back in order. (Thrown off because of a concert tomorrow night and my discman breaking)

[BlackFlagg]

Friday - 9/10

[Guest Tedious T]

Spider

Die Hard 2

Groundhog Day

Monty Python: The Life of Brian

American Beauty

One Hour Photo

[ROC]

Gods and Generals - 1/10

One word: BOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRINNNNNNNG!

Seriously, at least Pluto Nash and Juwanna Mann were entertaining.

Edited July 9, 2004 by TheROC-Revolt

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Eurotrip - 6/10

Not a bad teen movie, but can't compete with Road Trip and the American Pie series. It almost seemed like they worked out a few jokes, set pieces, stunts and the places of a few naked girls in advance, then threw a loose plot round that. The whole film seemed very very skatty/skethcy and the story was REALLY rushed, but wasn't that bad. Gets a extra few points because Michelle Trachtenberg (sp) is incredibly, incredibly fit. Does she remind anyone else of Scarlett Johansson?

Edited July 9, 2004 by timmayy