What Did You Watch Today?

[Toe]

Django Unchained was fucking awesome.

[Summers]

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is beautifully sad. :/

[Sousa]

We watched The Secret World of Arrietty/Arrietty/whatever it's called in the UK with the kids. They've gotten really into the Studio Ghibli movies recently. This one was really cute. Parents with kids should check it out for sure.

[zero]

Perks of Being a Wallflower

Enjoyed it, although I couldn't help but feel it was 10 years too late to become a movie.

[Your Mom]

We had an impulse rent last night and watched Man with the Iron Fists. It was pretty good. The Iron Fists weren't the coolest weapon in the movie though. They were like 3rd at best

[Ace]

Watched Red Dawn last night with the Fiancee. Decent film, and Hemsworth continues to be awesome in everything I see him in. Josh Hutchinson was great too.

By Fiancee's command though, I'm banned from guessing what happens in movies, since I always get it right. I saw Hemsworth's death coming the moment he started seeming happy, and when he died, I was kicked from couch to the floor.

[Sousa]

I can't believe you just spoiler-tagged something from Red Dawn as if anyone on Earth gives a shit.

[Ace]

Clearly I should have just not posted my opinion on it. Or better yet, not Spoiler Tag it, and let it ruin the film for people.

Whatever was I thinking. I'm sorry Prince, I'll try and do better next time.

[Sousa]

Those are both better ideas. Good thinking! (Y)

[Skummy]

We watched The Secret World of Arrietty/Arrietty/whatever it's called in the UK with the kids. They've gotten really into the Studio Ghibli movies recently. This one was really cute. Parents with kids should check it out for sure.

I found it a little odd - it was great, and a really solid kids' movie, but I guess it just didn't really feel like a Studio Ghibli movie to me. The only thing I could put my finger on as to why was that the use of music was a lot more overbearing than in any other Ghibli movie, though that might be my memory playing tricks with me.

It could just be that it's an adaptation of non-Japanese source material, but that didn't hurt Howl's Moving Castle or Ponyo.

Just nitpicking really, it was still great, just not quite what I expected.

[KONGO]

Magicians, David Mitchell and Robert Webb's movie. Was good fun, liked Jessica Stevenson a lot more here than in Spaced.

[Monkey D. Lars]

Saw some great movies the past week I liked Seven Psychopats, Rush Hour was good, Enter the Dragon, well I guess most of you guys have seen it. Wreck-It Ralph was amazing, so was Dredd, but Reservoir Dogs was the best out of them.

[Johnny Drama]

Watched The Departed again last night I can never tire of watching that film.

[SRN]

Just watched Searching For Sugar Man again. Such an amazing documentary.

[LL!]

The Imposter. My mind is blown. Wow.

[Skummy]

Just watched Searching For Sugar Man again. Such an amazing documentary.

It's absolutely mindblowing. One of the best documentaries I've ever seen, though I'm probably biased as I'm a huge fan of Rodriguez.

Spoilers;

I just think it would have been amazing to have gone in to that film not knowing that Rodriguez was still alive. That twist would have been an incredible feel-good moment, even moreso than it already is.

I love the resurgence that film has given Rodriguez, too - I saw him live twice last year, both in Jersey, which is still utterly bizarre to me, and would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. The second time he played a brief set by himself after a screening of the movie and a Q & A session, and he was only billed as a "surprise guest". The ovation he got when he walked on stage was absolutely ridiculous, never heard anything like it.

Last night, the present Lady Skumfrog and I watched Up. She had never seen it, I saw it when it came out in the cinema, but not even really thought about it all since then.

Spoilered, just in case;

If anything, I enjoyed it more this time - I picked up on a lot more subtle touches, particularly a lot of things relating to how much Ellie is still a part of Carl's life. When the house is wrecked, and he goes back to it, seemingly giving up Russell and Kevin, he puts her chair back in its place before his own - little things like that.

I had forgotten quite how sad the whole thing was, though. Obviously I remembered the opening being incredibly sad - it had me crying this time - but I'd remembered it as that being there to establish character, and then the film getting quite silly very quickly, but that melancholy never really goes away. It's an incredibly sweet, sad movie.

My girlfriend made fun of me for crying at the start, but then she was bawling at the short on the DVD - "Dug's Special Mission", which was sweet in a kind of sappy way. She's more moved by sad dog than sad old man, I guess.

One of the special features was a discussion on the death of Charles Muntz in the movie, which raised a really interesting discussion on his role in the movie. They run through a series of alternate ways of resolving the character - either through redemption, his death, or a question mark over his possible death - and why they would or wouldn't have worked, and the main conclusion was that Muntz was a reflection of Carl. He was what Carl would become if he allowed himself to cling to his old life too much, while Russell was the side of Carl that was still a little kid wanting an adventure. One of the alternate scenes was a great conclusion to Muntz's story, but they felt it was too much Muntz's story, and that he needed to be secondary to Carl's growth as a character. In killing off Muntz, that side of Carl's character was killed off at the same time. Interesting ideas.

[KONGO]

Lovejoy's final episode needed a lot more Eric. Still very sweet, though, in its own Lovejoy way.

[Jimmy]

I've watched plenty since I last posted in here, but I finally just finished Paul Thomas Anderson's filmography with Punch-Drunk Love and it might well just be my favourite. It's heart warming and really heavy on laugh out loud moments. The sound track is odd but extremely interesting and the whole thing is just so much fun and entirely different from anything PTA's done before. Adam Sandler is incredible and I just wish he did a performance like this far more often. Just loved it.

[ZJ Penn]

I saw Oz and Parker this week. I liked Oz a lot more than my girlfriend did. Probably because I'm a Franco fan, but I think it was pretty funny too.

Parker was your standard Statham action film, it was interesting to see someone kill a villain with a magazine clip rather than just shoot them. And I'm not sure why Jennifer Lopez is in it, other than for an obligatory shot of her arse.

[Monkey D. Lars]

Just watched The Cove. It made me angry.