murp0434

abso-abso-abso-LUTELY agree! REALLY liked this one. I like the social commentary on everything from ageism to estranged relations between the generations to race relations...very well done. Eastwood is a champ. definite 10/10

on a side note

I thought the C. Case of B. Button was long, boring and had some irrelevant and discordant scenes that made the move draaaaaaaag...kind of a cool premise though. I'd say 3/10

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How did I become upright?

Manic_Skafe

Just saw Slumdog Millionare for the second time tonight. Awesome movie. 10/10

The Wackness 9/10
Good story about rebirth and reinventing yourself, coming into your own and the awkwardness of being young. Awesome soundtrack.

The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) 6/10
Must've been incredible in it's time. Enjoyable - I'd do it again.

__________________
"Porn is a zoo of exotic animals that becomes boring upon ownership." -Nersesian

sapiens

Appaloosa 7/10
Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons, and Renee Zellweger.
So many better westerns to see than this one. I was disappointed.

Telluride

Death Race - 7/10

The plot was a bit predictable, but there was plenty of good action. And I like the fact that I can actually see this happening in real life; with corporations running prisons and pay-per-view internet broadcasts of inmates participating in gladiatorial games.

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"I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice." - Friedrich Hayek

gump

Gran Torino 9/10

The language is graphic at times other than a very good flick. Great story of how neighbors become friends. Need to see movie.

Telluride

But you gave it "0/10"?

__________________
"I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice." - Friedrich Hayek

gump

Thanks little typo.

Manic_Skafe

Notorious 5/10
Totally unnecessary and generally uninteresting. subpar acting, rife with logical fallacies, unbelievable at times, far too romantic and the pretty bow of an ending was just plain ridiculous.

Pride And Glory 7/10
As formulaic and stupid as I expected it to be. Interesting enough.

Love In The Time Of Cholera 6/10
By far, one of the greatest love stories of all time. Sadly, the magic and complexity of the story and the manner in which it forces you to love the characters is impossible to build in a 2 hour film. Couple that with bad acting and it becomes too easy to see where this movie flops.

Even without having read the book, the movie is too long and far too uninteresting to be worth the effort. Don't do it.

Defiance 8/10
David Craig and cast put on a stellar show about an incredible historical event. Vague review but an incredible movie.

In Search Of A Midnight Kiss 10/10
This movie is so up my alley. Cynical, witty and hilarious. With a premise like: Man puts out craigslist ad on New Years Eve to find someone to spend the night with, it's pretty easy to have low hopes for the movie but smart writing and good acting really elevated the movie to a point in which it was engaging and you could really feel for the characters.

__________________
"Porn is a zoo of exotic animals that becomes boring upon ownership." -Nersesian

ohsweetjebus

The Ruins - Interesting take on a horror film, but i'm not sure it really did it as well as it should have... Basic premise of the film is a bunch of teenagers are on vacation somewhere in mexico, meet a german(?) kid who invites them to a uncharted temple ruin... They go and find villagers that at first warn them not to go closer, than they go closer and than aren't allowed to leave the site... Thats all i'm gonna say without spoiling the whole film... It was definitely entertaining, the fact that most of the "gotcha!" scenes took place in broad day light was supposed to give it a surreal kinda feel according to the commentary but didn't really make an impact on me like the way "Tremors" did... 6+1/2 / 10

RetroGunslinger

My Bloody Valentine 3D - 7/10

While it doesn't even come close to the original, it doesn't really try. This remake decided early on that it was a campy slasher and stuck with that, taking extra energy to create rude, offensive, gory slasher magic. A few plot holes aside, it's a well-built little vehicle, and while I figured out the plot twist early on, I imagine casual moviegoers will be surprised to the very end. Oh, and a midget gets slammed into a ceiling light via pickaxe.

Frontier(s) - 7/10

I thought I wasn't going to like this movie. Indeed, the beginning left me rather bored. Bank robbers on the run meet a crazy family? Boooring. Girl is taken by evil neo-nazis to help them breed? I'm interested. All-out gory vengeance? HELLZ YEAH! The gore is extreme (though I don't think it warrants an NC-17, which the MPAA felt compelled to slap on it) and the little pregnant girl absolutely made the movie for me. My only real complaint is that the camerawork feels like it was done by a pedestrian cinematographer trying to look like he worked for MTV, and the story isn't anything special.

Heaven's Gate - 5/10

No wonder Michael Cimino's career went down the drain. Somewhere in this pile of rubbish there lies a brilliant movie, but the ridiculous amount of intellectual filler tears the whole damn thing down. What the fuck was the point of John Hurt's character? Why did they feel the need to show real cockfights? What does the ending even mean and why do certain final act events feel lifted from On Her Majesty's Secret Service? Why was there A FUCKING INTERMISSION?!! This doesn't need to be a 3 1/2 hour movie! And perhaps the biggest question: How did Cimino manage to fuck up a project with Christopher Walken, Kris Kristofferson, Jeff Bridges, Brad Dourif, Mickey Rourke, Sam Waterston, John Hurt, Isabelle Huppert, and Terry O'Quinn?!! SERIOUSLY!!

Oh, and thanks for fucking over directors ever since, Mike.

__________________
It's a rare pleasure in this world to get your mind fucked. Usually it's just foreplay.

M.B. Keene

imouseone

Slumdog Millionaire - 10/10 - Great story, very well told. True depiction of Mumbai from what I've been told.

Gran Torino - 9/10 - Clint Eastwood is the man.

No Country for Old Men - 7/10 - Not a big fan of the ending.

guyy

少年　Shonen (Boy), 1969, Oshima Nagisa dir.

Amazing. A thorough negation of Japanese film and Japan, and surprisingly timely to boot. This is the story of a family of swindlers who fake accidents and extort money out of drivers. The story is told through the oldest son.

I was taken with the realism in this film and especially its interpenetration with the surreal. Like a number of Oshima plots, the story is taken from the tabloids. In that sense, it's "true", but on another level, it's completely unreal for a family to live on accident-faking scams. (Y'know, kinda like a country that tried to live on flipping real estate.) The family functions as a swindling operation and nothing else, and this is obviously unsustainable. Compare this to one fo the melodramas of the "Golden Age" of Japanese cinema. Even if an Ozu or Naruse film portrays a dysfunctional family, it still appeals to an ideal of family. Just think of Hara Setsuko in Tokyo monogatari: the kids are all jerks, but the Hara Setsuko character fills the emotional and moral void they create. Naruse films are darker, but people weep for what has been lost or lost chances. No one weeps for this family.

As in Ozu films there were a lot of train shots -- this is a road movie, too. In Ozu, the train shots never seem so real, partly because they enframe or set the rhythm of the melodrama. Here the train shot is more or less what you see and the family & their scams are within that. It almost has to be, because the action takes place on the street, not around the kitchen table.

The screening i saw is part of a Oshima retrospective running from September 2008 to June 2009. The venues are: New York Film Festival; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge; Pacific Cinematheque, Vancouver; Gene Siskel Film Centre, Art Institute of Chicago; American Cinematheque and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Northwest Film Center, Seattle; Cleveland Cinematheque; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus; National Gallery of Art, American Film Institute, and American Film Institute & Freer Gallery, Washington D.C.; George Eastman House, Rochester; College of Moving Images, Santa Fe; Madison Cinematheque; Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley.

MexicanOnABike

Bloody Valentine 3d

it's ok. nothing special. It's the usual slasher movie. Dude has a pickax but noone has a gun in town. for the 3d effect, i rate it 6.5 but without the 3d, it would be an extremely bad horror movie at 5/10.

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- Movie Reviews - Ratings-

dippin

Che - good movie but dont see it all in one sitting. 8/10

Curious case of Benjamin Button - Forrest Gump part II - 7/10

Derwood

The Wrestler - Really fantastic, but not for the squeamish.

Walt

Thats the new one with Mickey Rourke, right?

The Devils Advocate: 7/10 Great premise and story line. Al Pacino is awesome. Keanu Reeves...not so much. Would give it a 10/10 if Keanu hadnt gone all "Bill and Ted" with a shitty southern accent.

Army of Darkness: 10/10 The special effects are on par with Monty Pythons Holy Grail. Bruce Campell overacts so much that Daniel Day Lewis thinks its excessive....Best B movie ever.

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Calmer than you are...

Derwood

yes, and if he doesn't win the Best Actor Oscar it'll be a crime.

KellyC

Gran Torino - 8/10

Clint Eastwood was awesome as an angry old man. That's what I enjoyed the most in the movie. Even when he's in a good mood and is happy, he's angry. Best line Spoiler: I blow a hole in your face and sleep like a baby Sad ending though. I was hoping to see him whooping some ass.

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Him: Ok, I have to ask, what do you believe?
Me: Shit happens.

Lasereth

Spoiler tag maybe???

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settie

Saw Ink Heart on Friday: 7/10.
An extra point for the adorable Brendan Fraser *sighs* I wants to have his babies. <3
It was...ok. I had no idea what it would really be about (my friends dragged me out to see it), so I had no expectations. Even so, it always felt a little off, poor Helen Mirren. Her character was so retarded and useless.
Regardless, it was interesting enough to watch start to finish, with a little eye candy aid, and hilarious lines referring to THE SHADOW. (See a short low budget film called The Gamers to see why that's so funny, me and my friends laughed every time).
Overall, I can see why it would be cute for older kids to watch.

RetroGunslinger

While I agree that Mickey Rourke deserves an Oscar, I really don't think he deserves it anymore than Sean Penn for Milk. 9.5/10 film right there.

__________________
It's a rare pleasure in this world to get your mind fucked. Usually it's just foreplay.

M.B. Keene

ColonelSpecial

The Dark Knight 8.5/10

Again Christopher Nolan makes a good Batman movie but like the last one was overly long. I was sitting there taking mental notes about what he could have cut in order to make it quicker. Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman and Aaron Ekhart did a fantastic job.

__________________
"Mommy, the presidents are squishing me!"

"Using the pull out method of contraceptive is like saying I won't use a seat belt, I'll just jump out of the car before it hits that tree."

Sara

DonnieBoy

Tropic Thunder 7/10

This was better than I thought it would be and yeah I enjoyed Robert Downey Jr. he was good! But my god did Les Grossman steal the movie!!! Best role he has had in a long time!

Don

Manic_Skafe

Revolutionary Road 9/10
Great great acting. There's such chemistry between Kate and Leo that they weren't acting - they simply were their characters. It really felt like a glimpse into their lives...

And Kate Winslett is easily one of the most beautiful women currently acting.

__________________
"Porn is a zoo of exotic animals that becomes boring upon ownership." -Nersesian

metalifreak

the curious case of benjamin button 4/5

Jove

Push

This film is stylish, the music is fantastic and the actors did an excellent job at portraying their characters.

I liked the idea of the story, but I felt that something was missing, like why didn't Chris Evan's character not practice using his powers? If I were telekenetic, I would be using it every day until I was comfortable with the power.

On another note, I wanted a side story and more character development on the villains, which was lacking in this film.

Rating: 7/10

mandy

Taken

7/10

my kinda movie. lots of suspense, twists and turns a little, the inevitable car chase, action, people getting killed and a happy ending

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The Imagination equips us to see a reality we have yet to create

m0rpheus

Coraline - 4.5/5
My only real complaint with it was that I FUCKING HATE 3-D. Sorry. It gives me a headache everytime so I had to watch the movie with one eye closed. Other than that it's fantastic. For people worried that it's too scary for your kids... well you know your kids. Do they like scary stuff? If so they'll love Coraline. It's got some spooky stuff in there (nothing graphic just spooky). If they aren't good with the spooky stuff maybe this one should wait a few years. A good baseline is are they too scared to see Nightmare Before Christmas? If yes then don't see Coraline.

Tonight for me "Ki Ki Ki Ki Ma Ma Ma Ma". It's Friday the Thirteenth.

__________________
"it never got weird enough for me." - Hunter S. Thompson

Derwood

King of Kong

Fun documentary that will have you hating Billy Mitchell

dd3953

Let's see, I've watched a few.

Hancock: 9/10
The Secret Life of Bees: 9.5/10
Akeelah and the Bee: 8.5/10
Nick and Norah: 7/10
The Woman: 8/10
Hamlet 2: 8.5/10

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[Technically, I'm not possible, I'm made of exceptions. ]

m0rpheus

Friday the 13th (2009)
So I don't want to call it the remake because it really isn't. I'm a big fan of the early Friday movies, so did this one live up? Well kinda. Jason is pretty good, it's not the super-zombie Jason from the last bunch of movies which to me was a good thing Spoiler: except at the end when he comes back from the dead for the final scare. The kills were... well just okay. The kill where Spoiler: he has the girl burning alive in the sleeping bag was fantastic, and there were a few other ones that were nice just because Spoiler: there is a bunch that kinda come from nowhere like the kid getting an arrow in the head while driving the boat but a bunch of them were just average and what you would see in any slasher flick. Heck Spoiler: they introduce a damn woodchipper and no one goes through it!
All in all though I did enjoy it. It's not the best slasher flick of all time but it was a fun hour and a half.
3/5

__________________
"it never got weird enough for me." - Hunter S. Thompson

Derwood

Sweeney Todd - 7.5/10

Liked the look, liked Depp, but it felt long.

LoganSnake

Taken.

I enjoyed this one a lot. 8/10.

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Derwood

watched The Simpsons Movie and Juno last night. Neither were great, but neither was awful.

gump

Death Race 6/10

It was ok i guess but I could think of better ways to waste 2 hours of my life.

Cynthetiq

wow, I keep forgetting to post here:

Reign over me 8/10
much more touching than I thought it would be. Almost like a girl movie but for guys. I even was intrigued by the 9/11 connection but it was quite played down. Cheadle was interesting, but I don't see his acting range in this at all.

On Missed Call 6/10
fucking creepy more than anything.

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Grancey

Synecdoche, New York .....about a 4

I'm always fascinated by the abilities of Philip Seymour Hoffman, but I found this "metaphor" to be overdone and more a mind game of how much you can figure out than a good film. Sold out theaters in Europe but Americans are either too obsessed with action thrillers to waste their time on something different or too stupid to read the title and automatically assume it's a foreign film. A first night run here was me, Red and five others. Oh, there were also 4 more who left 30 minutes before it ended to catch Medea because the earlier Medea showing had been sold out and they wiled away their time before the next showing with us. Don't waste your time, unless you're like me.

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Quiet, mild-mannered souls might just turn out to be roaring lions of two-fisted cool.

dd3953

3.8/5 - He's Just Not That In To You

__________________
[Technically, I'm not possible, I'm made of exceptions. ]

ColonelSpecial

The Duchess: 4.5/5
This was a beautiful film. Set in the 18th century, the costumes are gorgeous. The story moved along quite well. Kiera Knightly was very good in the title role.

__________________
"Mommy, the presidents are squishing me!"

"Using the pull out method of contraceptive is like saying I won't use a seat belt, I'll just jump out of the car before it hits that tree."

Sara

levite

Finally gave in and saw "Slumdog Millionaire" last night, not at all expecting to enjoy it. I was totally wrong!

Slumdog 10/10

Spectacular. Excellent writing, acting, directing. Beautiful cinematography and editing. Superb music choices. Very clever use of various kinds of plot devices, shots, and color schemes to fuse Hollywood and Bollywood styles in what amounts to a comparatively gritty yet vibrant revisionist Indian cinema. A must see, and a shoo-in for Best Picture.

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Dull sublunary lovers love,
Whose soul is sense, cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
That thing which elemented it.

(From "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne)