What Did You Watch Today?

[Farmer Reil]

I saw two last weekend, so I thought I'd "review" them.

Outlaw

General Plot: Group of every-day people get bullied. Soldier gets back from Iraq to find wife cheating on him. Solider leads every-day people in vigilante revenge plot, assisted by bitter police insider. Nothing of note actually happens, to anyone. At all.

Then all but one of them dies.

[Summers]

I just watched Outlaw, I didn't find it half as bad as Reily said. I'd give it atleast 5, possibly higher if the shoddy quality (downloaded, ommm) was cinema quality. If you think about it, the type of character Dyer plays, it makes sense as to why he went back. And it was billed as people going after chavs by a lot of people, but the film never claimed to be chav-bashing. I loved the ending, if the whole movie was as good as the ending, then it'd earn an 8 or something.

As for Bean in a pub, he pretty much had his face hidden, and I doubt he was making eye contact much, he'd probably been in there for a total of 4 minutes.

So yeah, 5/10.

[Farmer Reil]

I'd give it atleast 5, possibly higher if the shoddy quality (downloaded, ommm) was cinema quality.

[Numbahs]

Happy Feet - *** out of *****

[Vamp]

Skins, finally got around to watching the whole series. I think awesome would be an understatement.

[LL!]

And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself

7/10

What a great film. I really got into it, and Antonio Banderas was great as Pancho Villa. This was the first film EVER to be shown in a class that I have ever really, thoroughly enjoyed.

[Ananas]

Prison Break - "Fin del Camino" - 6.5/10

Better than last week, but this show is losing momentum. It needs one hell of a season finale to sustain another season. Best part was probably Agent Kellerman's small part.

24 - "Day 6: 8pm-9pm" - 5/10

I never thought 24 would ever even slip into territory like this, but here we are. I don't know what direction the producers are trying to go in where Jack is almost a side thought, but if they're thinking that they can kill him off, think again. Overkill on the relationships + the same VP mutiny from season 2 = me losing interest.

The Black Donnellys - "Run Like Hell" - 7.5/10

lol critics

House - "Top Secret" - 8.5/10

Damn. That was almost as good as my personal favorite House episode "No Reason". This whole season has been about reinventing the show as original and random, and this episode certainly achieved those ends. And the Riley appearance puts it over the top.

In closing, House is awesome.

[Fitzy]

24 - "Day 6: 8pm-9pm" - 5/10

I never thought 24 would ever even slip into territory like this, but here we are. I don't know what direction the producers are trying to go in where Jack is almost a side thought, but if they're thinking that they can kill him off, think again. Overkill on the relationships + the same VP mutiny from season 2 = me losing interest.

They slipped into this territory following the awesome episode 4. You are just slow to realize you were wrong with this being good.

But I also got done watching this and it was boring as hell. Ugh.

[ACCBiggz]

Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj - 4/10

[Buford Ripley]

Clerks 2 - 8.75/10

I loved this, absolutely loved this.

300 - 8/10

The badassery of Leonydus and his beard more than makes up for the sheer amount of half naked men in this.

Curse Of The Golden Flower 7/10

Drama with fight scenes a la House of Flying Daggers. Chow Yun Fat is great as the stoic yet ruthless emperor.

[Summers]

The Departed - 9.5/10

Smokin' Aces - 7/10

[Numbahs]

The Lookout - *** out of *****

Good times.

[Hellfire]

Blood Diamond - 8 out of 10.

What can I say, I really liked the movie. DiCaprio is on a roll, hopefully he can keep this up. This was terrific, and the Departed was even better. Djimon Hounsou was fantastic as the other lead. Good stuff all around.

[Rashid]

300: 8.5/10

It's not rare for movies to be criticized for relying too much on action and not focusing on plot. Well, I think the opposite way for 300. I felt they tried too hard to have a good plot, and really all that was needed was the action. The fight scenes in this movie are amazing, beautiful in their own way. But the 'dialogue scenes' ; the scenes that further the plot are what drag the movie down. Some scenes I admit were needed and were interesting, but many do drag on. If this movie was just a 2 hour fight scene, it could have been the greatest movie of the decade.

Fast Food Nation: 5.5/10

Film started pretty bad, around 1hour in it slowly got better. The story revolving around Amber was pretty good. Though the stories about the foreigners and the vice president of the company I found to be pretty dull. And the lack of endings of each story was a major disappointment.

Stranger Than Fiction: 8/10

I've never liked Will Ferrell, or any of his movies for that matter. Until I saw this, that is. This is just a great movie. It's not like any other film I've watched, very original. I found it engaging and unpredictable. And Will Ferrell's performance is great in this.

Edited April 1, 2007 by Rashid

[Fitzy]

Just watched the Black Donnellys "Run Like Hell" episode and another excellent episode from them. Like Beatnik said, "lol critics." Kevin and Jim are awesome together. I like the addition of the guy who plays Whitey as I liked him in Grounded for Life. And the stuff with Tommy beating his "friend" to get the money from him right in front of the guys wife, who Tommy use to like, was great.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Little Miss Sunshine 8.5/10

Sodding good film that's damn entertaining from start to finish. One of the best films of 2006. That's all I have to say, except in a brilliant film, Steve Carrell steals the show.

[Gongsun Zan]

Babel 2/10

Ugh.

Interesting premise, but horrible, horrible, horrible, execution. The only character I remotely felt anything for was the African guy who got beat up by the cops. That's about it. Everything else about the movie screams amateur, especially the scene where the boy jerks off...FOR NO FUCKING REASON WHATSOEVER. God, I really hate it when directors put scenes like that just to show how open minded or whatever they are, yet it doesn't add to the plot one bit.

Other than that, all of its characters were horribly underdeveloped. The chronological sequence was completely superficial, and compared to what everyone else says, it wasn't even a depressing show, though part of it is due to the horrid characterization I suppose.

[Summers]

Wild Hogs - 7/10

Hilariously funny at times.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

300: 7.5/10

First up before anything I REALLY enjoyed it. My wife laughed at one of the guys having his arm chopped off (I edged away from her at that point) and some of the fight scenes were very good. I'm a big fan of cinematography and the look and feel of movies and it's obvious that this was beautifully and carefully crafted. The switches in camera from the sharp pinpoint to the grainy zoom-in were beautiful. It was a luscious experiment in moviemaking and one that should get lots of kudos for it. I loved seeing some familiar faces (even if I couldn't place them ALL) and for some reason the king kept remining me of Sean Connery with his accent and his gruff but cheeky smiles when making jokes.

As I said, some of the action was excellent, such as when the two of them cut a swathe through the enemy and the camera's all fast then slow, then fast again as legs and arms go flying and blood erupts out onto the screen. Still, the director overkilled the slo-mo/speed-up. The scenes back at home with the queen dragged - so while I liked the clash between out and out violence and the skullduggery of the senate back home, some of it was needless and annoying. They also owe far too much to Gladiator.

It soaked in the cheese at moments (which can be forgiven as it takes the mythical side of a true historical encounter) and too many "perfect for trailer" soundbites and quotes.

Still, a 7.5 in my ratings means a highly enjoyed film that will find a place in my DVD collection. I also preferred it to Sin City.

I don't know why I can't rate it higher than this, but I just can't. Acting was good (bit shouty), the filming was excellent and the plot was mostly decent.

Still I highly recommend people going to see it. It's really good fun cinema.

Trailers:

Zodiac (mmm Fincher)

Spiderman (yawn, did nothing for me)

Unknown (Jim Caviezel's back!)

Blades Of Glory (generic trailer)

[Farmer Reil]

I loved seeing some familiar faces (even if I couldn't place them ALL)