Baraka_Guru

Solaris (1972)

I've been meaning to watch this one for a while now, and I'm glad I finally got around to it. It's telling of how too many sci-fi films today rely on bombastic plots and special effects. This a film of psychological discovery and conflict, and it is brilliantly pulled off. It's a tradition of film that seems to have gotten lost in the 70s and 80s, perhaps with the advent of Star Wars and subsequent space operas. It's a pity, as I'd like to see more of this in current films. It makes me want to see Moon now.

I give it a 4.5 out of 5 (or 9/10).

It would have received full marks except some of the special effects weren't as seamlessly executed as I've come to expect with current films. I was more lenient than I would be with actual current films that fail to pull effects off without breaking my suspension of disbelief and engagement with the film. That said, Solaris stands the test of time and casts a shadow over many films being made today.

The value in this film is in its cinematography, sense of timing, and the soundtrack. It's absolutely beautiful.

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oliver9184

The United States of Leland 6/10 is a teenage crime/drama from 2003 starring Ryan Gosling (my reason for watching it), Don Cheadle and Kevin Spacey. At the start a heinous crime is done but not seen and much of the story is told in flashback as Leland (Gosling) recounts events to a teacher (Cheadle) in his detention centre. A whole host of other figures including his father (Spacey) are involved but don't seem to have any bearing on what happens. This is a very confusing film yet it isn't at all compelling. By the end I didn't really care why the guy had done what he did, which seemed to be the point. Gosling seems to be going for quite a soporific, Donnie Darko-inspired performance here and because of it his character's utterly inscrutable, but not in a good or enigmatic way. I saw him in The Believer a while ago and I wanted more of that level-headed teenage determination and antagonism, but Leland is, and remains, a disappointing blank.

Back to the Future Part II 8/10 isn't perfect like its prequel but isn't as bad as some people and critics (me included) have said in the past. The characters' unconvincing aging and the lack of Crispin Glover as George McFly are my two biggest irks but they're get-overable and the film is a lot of fun anyway. Thomas F Wilson as Biff and future son Griff is arguably even better than in Part I and has more to do and more priceless lines ("who you calling Butthead, Butthead"). The hoverboard sequences still look ace even though we're now only five years off the actual "Future" of Back to the Future. However, I feel that in lieu of Glover returning as George, more of this film should have been set in the Future, with more sci-fi tropes and conventions being riffed on (just like Western stuff was sent up in Part III) and the "Future" Hill Valley being expanded - you only really see the town square and Marty's house - a future school complete with future Strickland would have been brilliant.

Beautiful Girls 7/10 is a minimumweight drama/comedy consisting of nothing but inconsequential gender-battling and sex talk from 1996 and starring Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, Natalie Portman and some other people. Ridiculous actors you haven't seen or heard of for years are in it, like Michael Rapaport, Noah Emmerich, Annabeth Gish, Rosie O'Donnell and David Arquette. This is so 90s. At one remarkably prescient point Portman (character aged 13) says to Hutton, of herself in future years, "I'll be hot."

Mrs Doubtfire 10/10 is the film where you can see Robin Williams touch the outer edges of both ends of his acting talent - at one end crazy-voiced ad-libbing madness and at the other utterly sickening simpering self-righteous mawkishness. If you watch enough Williams films in general, and if you watch this film in particular enough times you may eventually come to appreciate both though I'll admit his syrupy side is an acquired taste that sometimes needs watching through cringing eyes and split fingers. This film has plenty for everyone and I'd recommend it even if I wasn't a Williams aficionado: Pierce Brosnan, pre-bond, is perfect and Sally Field is such a totally hateful stuckup bitch that you get a helping hand onto Williams' side whenever she's on screen. Even the kids are ok. The whole thing builds to an amazing screwball setpiece in a restaurant where Williams has to be both characters at once!

Killer Nun 4/10 is a "nunsploitation" (word not made up by me) film from 1978 which I only watched because I'm going to try and get all 72 of the Video Nasties watched, uncut, before the 30th anniversary of the Video Recordings Act 1984 (it was a UK law which required the censorship or banning of said Nasties). Most of the films on the list are said to have little or no artistic quality but I'm not going to let that stop me. You can have old fashioned sex and violence without artistic quality! Killer Nun has no artistic quality and very little sex and violence. A nun working in a mental institution (Anita Ekberg) gets sick of being a nun and decides to try drugs, sex, alcohol, smoking and violence instead. But she doesn't try very much of any of them, and never seems to enjoy herself. She's not even hot. Don't watch this film.

Night Train Murders 5/10 is another Nasty. You can usually tell by their titles. This one combines sex and violence in a way that would be distressing if it was at all convincing. Also not worth watching though there are some nice shots of 1970s Munich, and the tragi-comical sight of a Santa getting robbed.

Sweet Home Alabama 6/10 is a Reese Witherspoon romcom vehicle from 2002. Josh Lucas stars as Matthew McConaughey (old flame from back home) and "grade-A Hollywood cunt" Patrick Dempsey is the new rich smarmy city fiance. Reese has to go back to Alabama (swamps/civil war/RUN, FORREST!) to get a divorce from Lucas so that she can marry Dempsey in New York and presumably never go back home ever again. Because she hates it down in Alabama, the way they're all so backward (they're not - they like blacks and gays now) and she even hates the way they talk so southern and they're so dirty and have babies now (Melanie Lynskey/bathtub/Kate Winslet/New Zealand!) and they probably all still slap their thighs and holler n hoot and play the fucking banjo. The supposed-to-be-humble house of her parents, which is actually a MASSIVE set (with all the things on one side so the camera can go on the other!), seems even bigger than the Tara-style plantation house she pretended she was living in to her potential mother-in-law, the mayor of New York City. I wouldn't even consider watching this without Reese and (as I knew it would) her charm and likeability kept the whole leaky tub afloat. It's excellent when she gets pissed in the set that's just a bar that's just a shack on the edge of a swamp and the whole town's there and she rages at them for being such country bumpkins. I'd love to have Reese rage at me and me have to bundle her into my pickup and apologise for her to everyone and drive her home because she's too drunk to do so and not take advantage of her even though I could because she's still my wife because I still haven't signed those papers.

Leto

Inglorious Basterds 8/10

Oh. My. Goodness. What a great flick. I had no idea! My history books are all wrong. But seriously, I will be re-watching this one many times.


The Last House on the Left 7/10

Very Tense. One of the tensest movies I've ever seen. I had to leave the room, and listen from the hallway for some of the scenes. Very well done, I took some points off because I could only watch it in 5 to 10 minute segments.

---------- Post added at 03:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:45 PM ----------

Show's how much I know. I've watched this a couple of times, and had no idea that Matt Damon was in it. I also give it a 6/10, as I enjoyed the setting, and the flick was entertaining. I didn't expect something along the lines of "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "In the heat of the night" and it didn't disappoint.

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blahblah454

2012 - 6/10

I was expecting more disaster. The bits with disaster were B gold!! So cheesy I was glued to the screen wondering if they were actually so bold as to do such a thing!! The rest was just over drawn out mush that I had absolutely no care about. Could have been so much more.

---------- Post added at 05:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:33 PM ----------

Daybreakers - 5/10

Really disappointing. It had some potential but just did not live up to it. Some of the crap they threw in there to make you jump was just irritating and horribly loud.

Grasshopper Green

2012 - 3/5. Woody Harrelson was awesome. I love John Cusack. I like disaster movies, even though they are never "good". I'm glad I didn't pay to see this in the theater, but it was a fun rental.

Alice In Wonderland - 2/5. I wanted to like this, I really did. I usually like Tim Burton's movies and I love Johnny Depp. Visually it was excellent, but other than that...meh. I thought the girl that played Alice did a horrendous job, Depp's switch between accents (Scottish one minute and "mad" the next) made no sense at all, and I couldn't figure out if Anne Hathaway was doing a bad job or if her character was just supposed to be annoying. The only parts I really liked were scenes with Helena Bonham Carter.

Shutter Island - 3/5. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. A bit long. No quibbles about the acting.

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Savinkov

"The Last King of Scotland" -- 4.5/5

An astonishingly well-acted adaptation of the novel of the same name. Forrest Whittaker actually made me *feel* as if I was in the presence of Idi Amin. As the movie progressed and became increasingly unsettling and then openly violent, the tension was nearly unbearable. This is not primarily an action film. It is a tragic drama that is laced with suspense.

I was surprised at the depth of my emotional reaction to the film. This was a great story about gripping, real events, and it was translated superbly into film. Highly recommended, folks!

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Wyodiver33

Savinkov, I absolutely loved "The Last King of Scotland." And I agree, Forest Whitaker was amazing. He's a very good actor. I don't think he gets enough credit.

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Savinkov

Agreed in full. What an actor!

That film was sufficiently intense that I could only watch the second half of it in 5-10 minutes chunks at a time. Garrigan was like a canary nesting amidst the jaws of Amin's crocodile. [-shiver-] It takes a truly exceptional film to hit me that way.

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"What is the thing we crave most in life? The sense that someone somewhere remembers and loves us.
Even better if we love them in return. Anything can be endured if that idea holds fast." -- Martin Cruz Smith, RED SQUARE

Grancey

Alice in Wonderland.....8

I didn't want to see this, but I owed some friends and this is what they chose. And I really liked it. I thought they tried to make Alice a little too sexy, but whatever.

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dd3953

The Devil Wears Prada - 9 - I was very shocked by how deeply and quickly I became involved. This movie has plot twists in all the places I expected, but most of them were unexpected and it was funny at all the right times. Good Movie.

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oliver9184

Yes, I agree that Forest Whittaker was good in The Last King... and deserved his Oscar. Also, I never felt such huge relief on behalf of a character as I did with McAvoy's at the end of that film. It was very powerful.

Fans of that film might be interested in checking out Yaphet Kotto's earlier efforts, playing the same naughty but endlessly convivial dictator in Raid on Entebbe which was a not very good TV movie from 1976. I doubt if Whittaker could laugh at a child as well as Kotto does here. Skip to about 2:50:



Uncommon Valor 5/10 is a war film in which Gene Hackman and a band of ex-military men go back to Vietnam after the war's end to try to find his son and other POW/MIAs. It's from the 80s and John Milius had a hand in it, so it's not subtle. The plot's as perfunctory as that of a videogame from the early 1990s. It's like Rambo crossed with the A Team but less good than either.

Videodrome 6/10 is a queasy and uneasy body-horror film from one of that subgenre's most prolific practitioners, David Cronenberg, and starring James Woods. The effects shots are impressive for their age but the story that is their pretext is pretty much bullshit which makes little sense and becomes more absurd the more you think about it. Both Cronenberg (Scanners, The Fly) and Woods (Once Upon a Time in America, Salvador) were doing better stuff around the time they made Videodrome.

Shutter Island 8/10 is very good. Some minor plotting issues and contrivances towards the end stop it short of being great but the opening is one of the best I can think of thanks to a bravura helicopter shot and the placing of music which I had assumed was original but is in fact a part of Symphony No. 3 by Krzysztof Penderecki. Acting is excellent across the board but hats off inparticular to Leonardo DiCaprio (of course: he's never turned in a performance that wasn't excellent), Max Von Sydow and Ted Levine, who only has a bit-part but it's a part you'll remember.

Beautiful Creatures 2/10 is a genuinely dreadful British crime/drama/pseudo comedy film from 2000 that feels at least ten years older. Like a lot of British movies in the wake of Trainspotting and Lock Stock it desperately wants to be hip and sexy and off-beat. Almost the entire cast of this film does bad acting and Rachel Weisz - my only reason for watching it - is no exception but she stands out because she was well on her way to becoming a star at the time.

The Fountain 10/10 also stars Rachel Weisz, and Hugh Jackman, both of whom give career-best performances, and my words can't do it justice.

Donnie Darko 7/10 is an odd one. You tend only to remember the good stuff, of which there's plenty in this film, and not the boring bits in between - of which there's even more. But the good bits are very good - Donnie's "you're goddamn right I will" to his little sister; arguing with Kitty; Seth Rogen's school bully; Elizabeth Darko managing to be super-hot without even trying or even being in the film very much.

Birdy 5/10 is some sort of a drama about a guy (Matthew Modine) that got drafted and, shellshocked after getting blown up (or shot, I don't remember), has decided to act like a bird. His childhood friend (Nicholas Cage) visits him in hospital and the story of their lives up to that point is told in flashback. Cage is great - his oldfashioned style of delivery fits the period perfectly - but the film is really fucking boring and I completely fail to identify with either a boy who's obsessed with birds, or a man who thinks he is a bird.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room 9/10. I had been wondering recently what the deal was with Enron, having been too young to properly understand or care when the story broke, and this film informed me perfectly.

The Spirit 4/10: I can't be bothered to write anything about this.

The Lost Weekend 7/10 is a film about alcoholism from 1945. I had heard about this film. I thought it was going to be a comedy in which a guy gets monumentally drunk over a weekend, whilst trying to write a novel. It's from Billy Wilder after all, who's known mainly for comedy. This isn't a comedy and it doesn't make you feel good about drinking too much, which is exactly what I was doing whilst watching it. It isn't like Withnail and I or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. In this film alcohol is treated like any other addictive drug and could perhaps more accurately be compared to Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm.

JCVD 7/10 stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as a fictional version of himself who becomes involved with a bank robbery in his home-land of Belgium. It's a neat idea and he comes across well but the super-broad exaggeratedly-Gallic (so it seemed to me) acting of the rest of the cast grates after only a short while.

Lolita 8/10 is a 1962 adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's staggering and brilliant novel of the same name. It's a comedy about a sympathetic paedophile. I imagine it's the only such comedy; though it isn't the only adaptation of the book - there was one starring Jeremy Irons in 1997. It isn't particularly funny and of course it pales compared to the source but it's always a pleasure to hear James Mason's diction and Peter Sellers is sufficiently amusing as Clare Quilty. It's on the long side at two and a half hours but it gets better as it goes along and events reach their tragic, galling but totally inevitable conclusion.

IdeoFunk

The Road - I haven't seen a movie this haunting and emotionally gripping in a long long long time. If you want to see a post-apocalypse story actually done right watch, or read, this.... Only wish I had an opportunity to read the book before I saw this.

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Halx

Alice In Wonderland - 6.5/10
It was entertaining. It was paced well and not too long. It was not necessary to see in 3D or IMAX for that matter. The costumes were nice, but not as good as a previous reviewer stated. I really liked the Cheshire Cat. The curiosity of meeting the characters and understanding their quirks was lost though, which is what made the original story such a trip. In the end, it was just another run of the mill adventure story with familiar characters placed into roles they weren't really suited for.

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rahl

Ninja Assasin 8/10

Bloodiest movie I've ever seen...and there's nija's, total win!

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Titan_Uranus

sherlock holmes 6-10,
daybreakers ,just another vamp movie,shit's getting boring.

Xerxys

Ninja Assassin. Really really bad movie. So maybe a 4/10. But on the B side of things, Really AWESOME movie ... 9/10.

ironpham

Hot Tub Time Machine - 8/10

I feel like this is the first stupid comedy in a long time that actually did things right. The jokes were great, and the story was cliche but happy. It does help that I went in with pretty low expectations, so coming out I was quite pleased. This movie gets my seal of approval.

Spoiler: Every scene involving the bellhop's arm was absolutely hysterical.

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Halx

How To Train Your Dragon - 9.5/10
-0.5 points for modeling the dragon after Stitch. Everything else... awesome. See it in IMAX 3D if you can. It's more than just a kid's movie.

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MexicanOnABike

9

I can't put my finger on it but it just wasn't captivating. 6.5/10

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LoganSnake

Whiteout - ugh. You know a movie will suck when the opening scene is a close-up on Kate Beckinsale's ass leaning forward to turn on the shower then followed by a "steamy glass shower cabin" shower scene for at least 4 minutes.

3/10 for her ass alone. Damn.

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oliver9184

Little Caesar 7/10 is, along with The Public Enemy (9/10) and Scarface (7/10), one of the three films that kick-started the gangster genre soon after sound first came to the movies. Here urbane, sophisticated and generaly non-gangster Edward G Robinson plays Rico Bandello, the callous lowlife loosely based upon Al Capone with "a chip on his shoulder the size of Chicago". He's not as watchable as Cagney, more so than Muni but more classic Hollywood gangste than either. His voice was surely the inspiration for Chief Wiggum.

Chronos 6/10 is a "non-verbal/non-narrative" time-lapse photography film made by Koyaanisqatsi photographer Ron Fricke. It, and its music, pales by comparison to that film but there are some effective moments. It was made for Imax and it's score would be higher had I seen it there instead of on my little oldfashioned TV.

Carnal Knowledge 7/10 is a sex-drama/comedy from 1971. Except for in The Shining, which sort of doesn't count, I haven't ever seen Jack Nicholson loose it so brilliantly as here. I know that everyone already knows it but he is amazing. At one point Art Garfunkel tells him "you can't make fucking your life's work." Forty years later I think Jack would beg to differ. And he precedes his iconic "Here's Johnny!" line from The Shining, saying "Here's Bobbie!" instead, but delivering it in exactly the same way.

Teeth 7/10 is a film I had heard of and been drawn to for some time but was too scared to watch. It's about a girl who has two sets of teeth: one in her mouth and one between her legs. She's in high school and starts off as an advocate of sexual abstinence, then starts hanging out with a boy she likes and gets a little curious about her body. The vagina dentata is as ancient and primal and universal a fear as the incubus/succubus legends and my fear was that this film would explicitly render the horror in a completely sober and "realistic" way - that may have made a better film but it's not something I could have easily watched. But I heard by accident that Teeth plays for laughs most of the time and is pretty much just a throwaway teen horror/comedy. It turned out to be true: there are plenty of laughs, the horror is absurd and/or funny and the film's tone is light.

Taken 5/10 is a silly, brainless thriller starring Liam Neeson as a loving father who has to find his daughter, who has been kidnapped by some dangerous Europeans. Luckily Neeson's career in the CIA (or whatever) prepared him for just such an eventuality as this, and he comes to Paris to kick Albanian criminal ass and rescue his little girl. Empire said it more effectively than I can: "If you took Commando and replaced all its humour (intentional or otherwise) with snarling hatred, you’d end up with Taken - a risible male-re-empowerment fantasy set in a world where a fatal headshot and rescue from a life of inter-racial rape is the best way to win back your daughter’s heart."

Perrier's Bounty 9/10. If you liked In Bruges, and it seems like most people did, you'll like this film which I hadn't heard of before I entered the cinema. It's laugh out loud funny, fast-moving and really poignant. With its amused and detatched narration it's like an Irish Big Lebowski. Cillian Murphy, who I've not seen lead a film before, is a revelation, totally believable and much more likeable than Colin Farrell's manchild in In Bruges, and the rest of the cast - including Jim Broadbent and Brendan Gleason - is excellent. There are large holes and larger coincidences in the story but they don't matter because the film skates over them so fast.

Layer Cake 7/10 is a British crime film from 2004 starring Daniel Craig and Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon). It's a slickly made and easy to watch film that suffers by way of a disinteresting and unsympathetic lead character (Craig) and an ending which is so egregious and hollow it feels like the film just slapped you and said "fuck you for watching this".

Bug 8/10 is a very interesting horror film from 2006 starring Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon. For a long, long time you sit watching, wondering where the fuck it's going. It takes ages to set itself up but it all pays off and it's refreshing to see that in a film that's not thirty years old. Not a surprise when you consider it's adapted from a play and the director's none other than William Friedkin. The two leads are impeccable in demanding roles and give tremendous performances.

Boggy

Shutter Island - 9/10. Being a bit generous here, but I had an awesome time watching it. Very memorable scenes in there.

She's Just Not That Into You - 7.5/10. Had low expectations going in, but it had it's moments.

KellyC

She's Out of My League - 5/10

Some funny moments. I went with friends so I enjoyed it more than I would alone. I just realize this movie is the dude version of Twilight.

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Halx

Synecdoche, New York - WTF/10
I really have no idea what to think of this movie. Bizarre doesn't even begin to describe it.

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Frosstbyte

Thank you 1000x for summing up my feelings about the end of Layer Cake so well. That is precisely what the ending does, and I haven't the first clue why they chose to pull that shit. It is a pretty obnoxious ending to an otherwise great ride.

Halx

I want to add an addendum the morning after watching this. Even after reading the Wikipedia article that explains some of the themes in the movie, I am still confused.

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levite

I can't believe I am saying this, but....

Hot Tub Time Machine- 8/10.

This was a fuckin' funny movie! It's worth it for Rob Corddry's performance alone. But Crispin Glover, in a bit part, is also a scene-stealer. It's not really the most original screenplay, but it is way, way funnier than any movie called "Hot Tub Time Machine" has any right to be.

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oliver9184

Better off Dead 7/10 is a high school comedy from 1987 starring John Cusack. If I had to pick my favourite genre of films it would be high school comedies. The 1980s was the decade of the high school comedy; the bar was set impossibly high early on by Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). The rest of the decade's films in the genre are usually fairly poor but always easy to watch for the first time and there's likely to be a high count of good-looking fitties in them. Aside from this they have a charm and naivity absent from contemporary adolescent films. John Cusack currently stars in Hot Tub Time Machine, in which he's whisked back in time to the 1980s to relive his youth at a ski resort; in this film he's doing it for the first time, for real. The comedy is really, really broad and goofy to the extent of surreality (stop-motion dancing burgers) and there's as many misses than hits, as well as jokes about suicide which are in questionable taste and feel quite at odds with the film's light overall tone. Cusack is likeable and affable as ever; all of the other characters are not much more than ridiculous, cartoonish stereotypes.

Gran Torino 6/10 - the fact that a hundred and something IMDB voters have collectively rated this as an 8.4 scoring top 250 film astonishes me. Is the IMDB's readership (ergo the film-watching population of the world) really that obtuse? Or have I missed the point? It could just be that I'm wrong. It feels churlish to accuse a Clint Eastwood film of being unsubtle but this film is obvious and cynical to the extent of being patronising. And cynical too - in my opinion as blatantly cynical and manipulative as that old offender Forrest Gump. I know that Eastwood is Eastwood and I do generally like him and what he does. Here he's playing almost a parody of himself, glowering and grunting like the proverbial bear with a bee in its honey. Or mouth or whatever. All of the other elements of the story feel completely artificial. Never have I seen criminality rendered so unconvincingly (or acted so poorly) as here. Every single supporting actor is doing soap-opera standard acting. Watch the kid Eastwood befriends in the last scene that he's in (banging the cellar door). Garbage. It seems that Eastwood himself is pretty much untouchable these days (as an actor at least) but watching him in Gran Torino makes one realise how similar he was to this in A Fistful of Dollars almost fifty years ago, and how little his acting has evolved (it hasn't needed to I suppose). I like him a lot as a comic actor but living-legend status aside, I think he's just as limited as John Wayne was.

S.F.W. 5/10 is a heavy-handed, unpleasant, anarchic and ill-dated media satire from 1994 starring Stephen Dorff and Reese Witherspoon. The premise is: convenience-store shoppers are held hostage by mysterious criminals who film their captives and force a TV station to broadcast it live. Stephen Dorff is charismatic and could be likeable if his character wasn't an empty-headed oaf. Witherspoon (my reason for watching this) is more real, and more likeable, and cuter, but isn't in it enough.

Bringing Out the Dead 6/10 is a drama from everybody's favourite film director, Martin Scorsese, from 1999 and starring Nicolas Cage. There's no way this should be boring considering the talent of those two names but somehow it is. Cage plays a semi-alcoholic paramedic scooping up broken human detritus from the mean streets (!) of New York City and dumping it into hospitals. But you can't watch Nic Cage get so spectacularly drunk as in Leaving Las Vegas then have him be a tiny bit drunk here. We know how drunk he can be and what a splendid thing that is now, so him drinking little bits of gin here and there like a pussy just doesn't convince.

Clash of the Titans 6/10 is a mess of a film, but is watchable because it's avoided the two things that would have crippled it: being too long and taking itself too seriously. You go to this sort of film to see massive monsters rather than good performances: that's a good thing because this film features possibly the most massive monster ever filmed, and performances that are completely blank, unmemorable, inconsequential and zero effort ones. Of the rest only Mads Mikkelsen is worth a mention. His looks and voice remind me somewhat of Peter Stormare and Stellan Skarsgård; excellently he'll next be in the megaviolent Viking movie Valhalla Rising. Watching Sam Worthington in the lead is like watching someone trying (not very hard) to be Russell Crowe - but someone who's only been told about Russell Crowe and hasn't ever actually seen him in action. He's like whatever the opposite of an actor is (?) - a hole in the screen perhaps, or an animated figure that nobody has animated. Worse than Orlando Bloom even. Colin Farrell or Eric Bana or even Gerard Butler should have played the part. And yes, those three only came to mind because of Alexander, Troy and 300. I saw this in 2D because I had heard that the 3D version is absolutely awful.

Kick-Ass -/10 isn't zero out of ten but I don't know what score to give it. I didn't like it but I think that's my fault rather than the film's. When I first heard about this film I knew it wasn't for me but I still went to watch it at 0020am, drunk, alone and pissed off about something unrelated. I stayed until about 2/3 through. Something about this whole concept and how popular it is really irritates me and I haven't yet been able to properly articulate it. I know I'll be in a minority. What it comes down to is this: I don't like comics and it bugs me how popular they are, and how the medium as a whole has been accepted as having the potential for almost as valid literary merit as regular prose does. (The term "graphic novel" lends credence to this idea.) I have to reconcile this admittedly reactionary viewpoint with the fact that I like some comic-derived films a lot: if there were no comics there would be no Spider-Man 2. Back to Kick-Ass: I absolutely cannot identify even slightly with a character who aspires to superheroism. A hero should be reluctant. Idea behind this film MIGHT work if its action took place in something like the real world - something closer to the Dark Knight or Watchmen - but Kick-Ass creates for itself a jokey and heavily stylised film world more like Batman Returns, in which violent slaughter is funny, there are no lawcourts and you'd expect to have superheroes show up when crime happens. Maybe (probably) this is the point and it's postmodern, and it's very clever, and I don't get it because I only read proper books and think comics are for children and slow-witted adults.

hunnychile

"Little Big Man", starring a very young Dustin Hoffman as Jack Crabb the mule skinner, based on a true story of a hapless guy raised by the Sioux Indians (Human Beings) and how Jack happens to survive at Little Big Horn. Not to mention all his bizarre adventures in between. It's the clearest view of how the US Government treated the American Indians back when our country was still forming.

This is one of my favorite Top Ten Movies of All Time. I give it a 9 outta 10. Every time I see it, I see something new and insightful, that I didn't catch the last time I watched this.

Cheif Dan George as Grandfather is incredible. What a great, great film!!

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"I need compassion, understanding and chocolate." - NJB

blahblah454

The theatre closest to where I stay most of the time when I am in Calgary only seems to play 3d movies now, so having said that I did not have a choice to watch either of the below movies in 2d. 3d movies also cost a whopping $15.50!!! Ouch!!

How to Train A Dragon - 9/10
At least I think this is what it was called. What an excellent movie! The lass who I went to see this with agrees full hearted with me. Some very funny moments, some intense moments, some tear jerkers, so knee slappers... all around excellent! And in 3D it was great! I think I am going to stick to watching these animated movies in 3D as I am fairly certain then are all rendered that way anyways, and not horribly converted like most live-action movies are. I recommend all to see this!

Clash of the Titans - 3/10

What a horrible movie!! First off I was ticked when there was no 2D option for this film, I knew right off the bat that it was only going to take away from the visuals as the movie was not actually filmed in 3d. How right I was. But even 2d would not have made this movie any better, there was 0 acting, and even the monsters were not that great. Medusa had horrible special effects, as well as most every other monster in it. I believe that the only thing I enjoyed in this movie was Hades.
After having seen the trailer for this I really wanted to see it, have not been let down by a movie like this in a long time. I suppose thats what I get for not checking RT first. I also loved the music in the trailer, I thought that was a really cool song, but 0 of the music was inspiring during the actual film.

oliver9184

"I do love the smell of the hunt... and the taste of the shunt!"



Society 9/10 is a horror/comedy from 1989 (released 1992) made by Brian Yuzna, who was partly responsible for the remarkable Reanimator films. Anyone who's into horror and/or prosthetic effects should make this a priority. The first hour is not garbage but neither is it particularly compelling; that this film gets 9/10 regardless is indicative of how amazing the third act is. I remember seeing this late at night as a youngster and it's probably one of the films that got me into films. This film is famous/infamous for its shunting scene and, to be honest, there's not really much else to write home about. The buildup is slow to the point of being agonizing and not really very interesting but when you get to that scene it's totally worth it. It absolutely lives up to my memories, unlike most fondly remembered and disappointingly revisited films and shows. I don't think there's anything else like it in existence - probably Braindead comes closest but the tone and intent is completely different. You see a man actually turned inside out. If that wasn't enough there's also a scorching hot fitty in it by the name of Heidi Kozak (I WANT TO GO TO THERE!) who reminds me of Phoebe Cates in Fast Times, and who features in an admirably gratuitous sex scene in which she - yes! - gets 'em out.

Jurassic Park 8/10
The Lost World: Jurassic Park 8/10
Jurassic Park III 6/10

Until recently I had held that The Lost World was slightly better than its prequel: now, having watched them all in a row in a mostly sober state, I have to reconsider. The trailer/cliff setpiece from The Lost World had been what I valued the most; upon revisiting it feels surprisingly artificial and not nearly as thrilling as I remember. Upon reflection the T-Rex and jeep sequence out of Jurassic Park is better. Cast-wise, Jeff Goldblum is (again) the only standout and has the best lines ("where you're going is the only place where the geese chase you"); the rest of the cast are as good as they need to be, which is not very, because the dinosaurs are what you came for. The dinosaurs in The Lost World are even better than the prequel and the sequel. Look at the baby T-rex sequences - that's staggering puppetry/robotics. Jurassic Park has a better character cast I think (Wayne Knight, more Attenborough, Samuel L Jackson constantly smoking -and in big closeup!), but I really like the scope and epicness of The Lost World: specifically the dino-safari sequence. The plot's horrible and there's loads of bullshit to service it (the little girl can do gymnastics, remember that for later) but it's not nearly as bad as JPIII, which made me burst out laughing when it transpired that the rators can literally talk to each other, and are cleverer than primates. The only good thing about that film is William H Macy being a sneaky son of a bitch and the entire cast clearly not taking anything at all seriously; the dinos seem slightly less accomplished than before.

Colors 7/10 is a uniform-police "drama" (for want of a better describer) from 1988 starring Robert Duvall and Sean Penn. They're part of the LAPD's C.R.A.S.H. (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) division which was tasked with stemming the flow of gang related violence in the bad areas of Los Angeles. Duvall is wise and weary, and has a liberal touchy-feely approach to policing; his new partner Penn (surely the model for Robert Patrick's T1000) just wants to take anyone and everyone down, like some sort of fucking rabid dog. Crimes, such as murders, happen, they get investigated and eventually the film ends.

Local Hero 8/10 is the sort of thing that used to be described in the TV listings as an "offbeat comedy. Peter Riegert (Animal House, The Mask) is a young oil executive from Texas charged with buying a tiny coastal Scottish village, so that it can be turned into an oil refinary. He's helped by gangling local company man and Peter Capaldi and hindered by the savvy villagers, in a film that's reminiscent of Whisky Galore! and an all-round easy to watch and very pleasant experience. Burt Lancaster is excellent as the company head and astronomy buff.

Miami Blues 7/10 is unusual in that its protagonist (Alec Baldwin) is an utter dickhead and has no redeeming qualities whatever. His whore-turned-fiance, Jennifer Jason Leigh, is a dummy with a thick old southern accent who's inexplicably loyal to him no matter what he does. Fred Ward (who out-acts everyone else in this film) is a cop whose gun, badge and teeth are stolen by Baldwin and who must recover said items quickly, because Baldwin is impersonating him and fucking shit up all over town (Miami). All of that makes the film sound like a bag of shit but for some reason it's not - it's fun and watchable. I don't know why. Also: the cumulative badness of both leads' hair in this film has never, to my knowledge, been exceeded.

The Lives of Others 8/10 is a detailed procedural detailing the East German Stasi's (state security/secret police) operations in East Berlin in the 1980s. It seems that the GDR was the closest that reality ever got to Orwell's 1984 - people get spied on, indicted, vanished, etc. A bad time is had by all, it's compelling and the ending is excellent.

Narrow Margin 5/10 is dull thriller mostly set aboard a train in which Gene Hackman must escort a witness to safety, all the way from Canada or Alaska to Los Angeles. Films that take place on trains should be towering pillars of suspense and tension and excellence (Runaway Train, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, Transsiberian), thanks to their confined and claustrophobic nature, but this film doesn't realise that and squanders its dramatically ideal setting. Hackman, as ever, goes through the motions of being Gene Hackman with slightly more humility and action than usual; the actor playing the silly bitch he's protecting gives us no opportunity to care about her - which would/could have been the emotional keystone to the whole affair.

pan6467

Zombieland: Not bad. The son wanted to see it and I was happily surprised by the movie. It was decently paced, it had Bill "Fucking" Murray in a bit role and some relatively good humor. I enjoyed it as escapist entertainment that allowed me to watch and not have to overthink or think at all for that matter.... 8.5/10

Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans: It was Nicolas Cage being Nicolas cage. He sold the role well, played a very good drugged out police officer and Eva Mendes was very easy on the eyes. 2 problems with this movie though: the director had to add some freaking iguana/croc to the movie that made no sense (I'm assuming there was some "hidden" meaning to it, I could live with the "his soul is dancing bit... but iguanas and a croc????) and Val Kilmer's role was too small (I'm a Val Kilmer fan and found the interactions Cage and he had were very good but not enough of them, on the other hand where exactly in the movie would Val have fit in?) I truly liked the movie but the whole iguana/croc thing really lowers the score. 7/10

Gabriel: It was a new take and quite well acted and written. The pacing was excellent, this director know how to move the movie in a very appetizing way. I found the acting surprisingly good for an action film. By far the best of the 3 rated in this post. If you are religious, I think you will truly be inspired. If you aren't but can take the movie for what it is (and it in NO way pushes any religion) you should enjoy it just as much. I cannot say enough about this movie without giving any of it away and if I did that would be a crime. Just go see it and thank me later. 9.5/10

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

Sion

Tiptoes is a 2003 film starring Kate Beckinsale, Gary Oldman and Matthew McConaughey. It's...very...um...interesting. I don't want to say too much about the plot, but suffice it to say that this is not your usual Hollywood pablum. The acting is mostly excellent, except for McConaughey, who absolutely phoned this one in. Beckinsale is better than you'd expect from eye-candy and Oldman delivers a top-notch, absolutely believabe performance. Also features Patricia Arquette and Peter Dinklage as a Marxist biker. Watching him chewing up the scenery is one of the highlights of this film.

This movie is one of those that's well worth seeing once, but ultimately is only interesting for its subject matter, and for Peter Dinklage's scene stealing. (BTW, if you know who Dinklage is, then you have an idea what the subject is.) If McConaughey had given a better effort, this could have been a very good film, but he didn't and the film suffers for it. 6/10

oh, and if you dont mind a few commercial interruptions, you can watch it on-line here: Tiptoes - Crackle

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Some wrong been done, he done it first. -fz

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pan6467

The Box: What started out as a short from Tales From the Darkside turned into a massive mess. It was a pathetic excuse for a movie. The only thing worse than the plot was the acting, Cameron Diaz looked haggard and had such a forced fake Southern accent it was sad. This by far was the worst waste of time I've had in a long time. I can only say the best thing about this movie was it ended.

I got this movie because I recently had seen the short version on TFTD and it was a good story. I figured they took that and added to it and possibly made it better.

-10/10

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

wooÐs

"28 Days Later" - 7/10
"28 Weeks Later" - 7/10
"A Haunting In Connecticut" - 7/10

I'm a horror movie fiend. If I'm scared to walk through the house at night after watching, then it was a good movie.

"Inglorious Basterds" - 4/10

Was simply not impressed. But it wasn't that horrible. Violence was good. But I was bored through most of the movie.

blahblah454

I went on a movie spree the last few days.

Terminator 3 - 7/10
I did not really like this the first time I saw it, its been about 3 years since my last viewing. I really enjoyed it though, it was just a fun time where I could turn off my brain and enjoy the destruction. The CGI was actually pretty decent in it, much better than most of the crap in modern movies.

Terminator 4 - 7.5/10
This movie had some great aspects, and some horrible ones. But man did it sound awesome on my sound system and Blu Ray!

Spinal Tap - 9.5/10
The only reason this did not get a 10 is because I did not want it to end. What a great movie! I highly recommend this to everyone on the planet! Probably my 5th or so viewing and it just gets better each time.

Pitch Black - 5.5/10
I really liked this when it came out, but I have no idea why! Such horrible acting, everything was pretty horrible in this. I always thought Vin was huge too, but watching this again he does not look that big... strange... maybe The Rock and Arnie have swayed my perspective.

Planet Hulk - 6.5/10
Pretty decent, a little slow at times and not enough Hulk Smash. But overall I recommend this to anyone who likes Marvel cartoons

Hulk vs. Wolverine - 9/10
Excellent! Pretty short at like 40 min or something, but just fantastic. Pure Hulk and Wolverine ass kicking!

Bucket List - 8/10
Kinda makes me want to start living my life now. Kind of a tear jerker though, I am such a sap.

The Transporter - 7/10
The first one is really cheesy, but it was much better than I remember it being.

Crank 2 - 8.5/10
I hated the first one, but this one I had fun throughout! I don't know if its because I had my cheese had on for the night, or if its because it took itself less serious and just had fun, but man was this a good time. I will definitely be watching this one again.

MexicanOnABike

Same for me. What the fuck was this movie! not good!

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- Movie Reviews - Ratings-

wooÐs

"The Blind Side" - 6.5 / 10.

Was hoping it would be more of a chick flick. It was good, but not great, even though I adore Sandra Bullock.

Halx

The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus - 7/10
Saw it on my flight to Japan. Unique little movie. You don't see many like it these days. Not sure how profound the plot is, but it certainly takes you places. Heath Ledger is good in his final performance, but the way that they worked around his death is totally distracting. Johnny Depp looks convincingly like him, BUT he acts too much like Captain Jack Sparrow. Jude Law's part is kinda pathetic. Colin Farrel, amazingly enough, does the best job, but he looks nowhere near like Ledger.

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Vaultboy

Clash of the titans. 5/10

Too much formulaic action. Too little epicness. Too little character development. Too little plot exposition. Too many camera angles to set up 3D, and too little epic cinematography. And why the fuck does Perseus have a buzz cut?

Seriously, all these new 3D movies are seriously pissing me off with their "look at man leaping off the screen into your face" shots. Avatar showed what an immersive 3d experience should be like. All these movies with singular 3D shots are just pathetic.

Sadly, no one has done epic lately better than Ridley Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay. Can some decent director please put their hand up?

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