Baraka_Guru

The King's Speech
Starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter

9.5/10

I wanted this film to be flawless, but it wasn't quite there. It was oh so close. I will be surprised if Firth doesn't get an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the stammering King George VI. I'll be absolutely flabbergasted if neither Firth nor Rush get nominations. Their onscreen chemistry was fantastic. Firth's performance was compelling, and not to mention heart-wrenching at times.

I implore you to see this. It's one of the best period films I've seen.

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—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

KellyC

Viggo Mortensen is one hell of an actor. I just watched The Road last night and he was ridiculously phenomenal in it. How the hell did he pull up such strength to play that role?

The Road - 8/10. Viggo Mortensen delivers another superb performance. The movie got me engaged and forced me to think about what it means to be human. But it dragged on a bit long, and while I liked it, it wasn't entirely an enjoyable cinematic experience.

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thedoc

A few days ago watched 'African Queen' 1951 with Bogart and Hepburn how could you go wrong?

Just figured that I've watched 'The Polar Express' about 500 times in the last 3 years, my grandson loves the movie, and to tell the truth I still enjoy it.

spindles

I agree with this - it is nice to see a movie that doesn't rely on car chases and/or explosions to be riveting. Character acting isn't dead

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Jove

Simon Says: 5/10

A typical horror film where a group of teenagers travel to an unknown area where they treat the locals poorly and are surprised when they are hunted by a mentally ill sociopath taking them out in hilariously violent ways. The acting is over the top, the dialogue is amusing and the story is average at best.

Why advertise a horror movie with Blake Lively when she is only in the movie for less than 60 seconds? Remind me never to travel to a small town and make fun of the mentally handicapped individual who will probably show up in the woods and chop off my head.


Harvest of fear: 3/10

A predictable story that probably should never have been made and quite surprised that anyone who read the script would take part in such a low quality film. The police, mayor and citizens in this small town are so dim witted that I am surprised the Harvest killer didn't invite everyone to a party and blow up the house. It would have saved time and reduced the film to 5 minutes.

The Path of Evil 2/10

I have no idea how Harvest of Fear received a sequel let alone get the same actors to play the same characters. Did they not see the first film? Did they not read the story? I thought the framed Harvest killer was killed in the end of the first film, yet here we see him alive and well in prison, which makes no sense. Actually, the entire film makes no sense since it follows the same format as the first one, but I guess the best part is that all of the characters from the first film are killed in this one, which prevents them from making another film.

SirLance

Up in the air 9/10
Unique, interesting, and actually somewhat sad.

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Grasshopper Green

The Kings Speech - 5/5

It's been quite some time since I was wowed by a movie. The Kings Speech completely and utterly wowed me. Colin Firth was absolutely brilliant (all of the acting was superb, but he was just incredible). He and Geoffrey Rush played off of each other so well. The story was riveting and never faltered or slowed. I just can't say enough good things about this movie.

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"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"

Formerly Medusa

fill23ca

Finally got around to seeing the Blind Side. I was hesitant because I thought it would be over-rated and corny. Was I surprised! Sandra Bullock was great and the movie nearly brought me to tears (all right, it did one time). 8/10

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"The worst day of your life, so far." Homer Simpson

ASU2003

Tron Legacy Imax 3D: 9.5/10

Th only problem was that I wanted some of the original music at the end credits at least.

The other small issue is that the light cycles didn't have jetwalls behind them anymore.

Jove

Avatar the last airbender: 4/10

After watching the animated series, I had to see the live action version to determine if it held up to the original. The movie followed the storyline, but they chose the wrong cast for this film. They did not fit well with their character's personality and their dialogue and conversations with each other seemed forced. The special effects were decent, but I felt air/water/fire/earth benders should have been faster with their moves. Like, if I had a super power, I wouldn't spend 30 second performing a super complicated move at a slow pace because I am sure my opponent would have killed me by then.

Skip the film and watch the animated series because you will definitely enjoy it.

Tully Mars

True Grit- 7/10.

Decent movie. At times word for word and scene for scene from the 1969 John Wayne version. Other times it's much more dark and eventually sticks more closely to the original Charles Portis novel. I think Jeff Bridges did a better job with the Rooster Cogburn role then Wanye; while Kim Darby's Mattie Ross impressed me more then Hailee Steinfeld. Over all a decent movie and for me worth the time I spent watching it on-line.

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oliver9184

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) 7/10 is a Western with Clint Eastwood. Josey Wales is minding his own business one day when the Civil War happens, and his family is murdered and his house burned down by a Union militia. Because of this he joins the Rebels and when they lose the war he refuses to disarm and pledge allegiance to the Union. His comrades do but are immediately murdered in cold blood by the bluecoats; Josey escapes and becomes The Outlaw Josey Wales, eventually teaming up with a crafty old Cherokee (Chief Dan George) and confronting his pursuers like only Clint can. It's not as stark and empty (and boring) as the Dollars films from the 60s and High Plains Drifter, but it still was a bit of a chore to watch at times as it feels quite long and has the sombre mirthlessness common to lots of 70s films.

Jawbreaker (1999) 4/10 is a dumb high school comedy whose main occasion for laughter is an accidental murder. Murder can be something to laugh about in a film given a good enough script, acting and treatment. This has none of those. As something to kick off the plot murder needn't even be particularly distasteful. It is here. There are no laughs. It does everything that Heathers (1989) did right, wrong.

Total Eclipse (1995) 8/10 is a pre-Romeo + Juliet, pre-Titanic, vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio. Although aged 21 or 22 in real life, he plays 16 year old genius poet Arthur Rimbaud. A fantastically bald-wigged David Thewlis plays an older poet whom Rimbaud visits and manipulates. It's Paris and it's the 19th Century and yes: absinthe is quoffed, non-textbook lusts are statisfied, and behaviour is unpredictable and decadent and always bad. Leonardo is as brilliant as he ever has been since - always imperious but also allowing fleeting glimpses of his character's fragile core. (Not a film that you should watch with Boss Hog, Nobby and Gutrot.)

Other People's Money (1991) 7/10. Danny DeVito is 'Larry the Liquidator', a Wall Street Scumbag who loves to dick around with companies, buying up their stock for cheap and then cackling and rubbing his hands together while dismantling them with big $ instead of eyes. He bites of more than he can chew with Gregory Peck's New England Wire & Cable though, and the stage is set for a grand showdown at the company's AGM at which both of them give brilliant speeches. Danny DeVito has been a rock solid, totally dependable comic star since for ever and nobody but Peck could have given stubborn industrialist Andrew 'Jorgy' Jorgenson that gruff and pompous yet sympathetic dignity.

Mars Attacks! (1996) 5/10 and Independence Day (1996) 9/10. The story's complete bilge, there's no tension or drama and the effects look awful now so absolutely the only thing going for Mars Attacks! is its cast. And it's totally wasted as every single one of the film's characters is little more than a jokey cameo. Some of the stars have waned since 1996 (Glenn Close, Martin Short, Michael J Fox) while some have got bigger (Jack Black, Natalie Portman) - and some were always were huge and always will be (Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito in their fifth and last collaboration as actors). I suppose the whole of Hollywood must have been clamouring to work with Tim Burton, who had probably slightly more credibility at the time than he does now. Regardless, every single actor in the film is wasted on a stupid character who it's impossible to care about. My favourite - no joke - performance in the film was Tom Jones playing himself. Independence Day has a less showy cast but a capable one that's used to bring life to characters who service a proper story. Again, the story is that aliens come to earth to fuck things up, big time, but it doesn't feel trite and deliberately outdated like Mars Attacks!. Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman and Will Smith all do great work and each of them strikes exactly the right balance between fun and seriousness that the movie needs. Pullman seems out of his depth sometimes as the President but I think that's intentional and he completely allays any doubts with his Independence Day speech. That speech, along with the USA saving the whole world (again) and those hilarious depictions of other nations trying to thwart the invaders have been a reason to sneer at and trash this film. It's easy to be cynical and laugh at it not with it, and say it's too jingoistic; I'll concede that it is that, but not too, and certainly no more so than lots of wartime propaganda films.

The Outsiders (1983) 6/10 was made slightly before Tom Cruise became a star with Risky Business - he's in this film but he's someone's brother, he hardly has anything to do and he's barely noticeable. It's a borning melodrama about rival gangs of youths in a small town in the 1950s and apart from Cruise being in the background the only reason to watch this is Matt Dillon's typically obnoxious character Dallas Winston.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) 6/10. Another one of Kevin Smith's would-be daring sex comedies, sounding like it was written years ago and looking like it was made no later than 1990. There are perhaps five or six funny lines but it's mostly people speaking to each other rudely, and unlikely things happening to facilitate the creaky plot. And, of course, stuff about Star Wars awkwardly crowbarred in wherever it will (won't) fit.

Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980) (TV) 8/10 is a two part TV movie about Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple. Being a TV movie from thirty years ago this feels dated and the video quallity isn't up to much but Powers Boothe in the title role gives a riveting performance. Boothe was always one of those shady actors on the sidelines of my awareness - I knew about him and remembered him mostly because of his brilliant (and real) name. He always struck me as a man who got things done without needing to say very much. This part was his big break; he went on to star in Southern Comfort and Sin City, and he played Alexander Haig in Nixon. Jim Jones was a preacher who started his own church called the Peoples Temple in the USA in 1955. Over the next twenty years the church became more and more of a cult and Jones became more and more deranged and in 1974 he and hundreds of his congregation went to pioneer a new life in the 'jungle paradise' of Guyana. There Jones founded the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project - aka Jonestown - a self-sufficient commune patrolled by armed guards - Jones was paranoid about infiltration by the CIA and about treachery from within. In 1978 at the behest of concerned relatives of Temple members who gone with Jones to Guyana, a US congressman visited Jonestown with some journalists to see if there was any truth in rumours of people being held against their will there. The visit provided the spark to ignite Jonestown: the congressman was shot dead and more than 900 people at the commune committed a mass murder/suicide by arsenic poisoning, overseen by Jones, who then apparently shot himself. The film's first half shows Jones' childhood and early life in detail as he gets fired from the church he works at (for welcoming blacks into the congregation) and then builds up his own church. He's clearly a zealot but apart from that he seems to be a fairly decent guy, doing good deeds, helping poor people, and so on. As the years wear on and his popularity grows he becomes less nice. My only criticism of this film is that there's too sudden a change with not enough motivation. How does a genuinely devout man of God become a lecherous, vain and dishonest dictator? Just because a lot of people paid him a lot of attention? There was clearly something of a cult of personality about him and Boothe brings this across very well - he looks like an actual dictator from the 1970s, with his aviator shades, and his voice brings to mind both Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter) and the Darkness character in Legend (Tim Curry).

Everyone Says I Love You (1996) 6/10 is a Woody Allen musical starring him, Edward Norton, Drew Barrymore, Alan Alda and Natalie Portman. Some rich Manhattan people worry about themselves and their families. They speak to each other about these worries, and occasionally burst into song. The songs are entirely forgettable and without merit. Tim Roth shows up as a gruff newly released convict.

Twister (1996) 6/10 is about tornados and some daring, exciting, interesting scientists who chase them. The two chief ones are Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. I have trouble buying someone as boneheaded as Bill Paxton as a scientist. He's also pretty wooden here opposite Helen Hunt. They have a whole band of supporting scientists who are supposed to be a ragtag band whose lives revolve around tornados and each other, and they include Philip Seymour Hoffman (never worse), Jeremy Davies, and a dickheaded Alan Ruck. What cameradery there is between these secondary scientists feels wholly artificial and I cringed whenever any of them said anything. I found myself occasionally rooting for the baddie scientist (Cary Elwes) with his convoy of black trucks, who's only bad because he's in the twister business for the money as opposed to a noble love of science or tornadoes.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) 8/10 is a lot more fun than its prequel Gremlins. Here the Gremlins are unleashed in a New York skyscraper where Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) now works, having moved from Kingston Falls to further his career. The building is HQ of Clamp Enterprises, a huge octopus of a corporation which seems to be taking over the world. It's a modern hi-tech building (for 1990) meaning it has its own intelligence which controls the doors, lights, heating etc. In Christopher Lee's laboratory at the top of the building the Gremlins are unleashed and one of them drinks a brain potion which immediately makes him very clever and able to speak (with the eloquent voice of Tony Randall). At around this point the film, which has been by no means sane from the outset, reaches its craziest. The Gremlins actually manage to stop the film itself, causing Hulk Hogan to get up from the audience and give them a piece of his mind.

The Miracle Woman (1931) 8/10 and The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933) 7/10 are a couple of old Frank Capra films starring Barbara Stanwyck. In the first she's a dissilusioned preacher's daughter who falls in with a conman and becomes a famous Miracle Woman - pretending to use God's power to cure people - and then she falls in love with a blind man who can't be cured because he's really blind which makes her question her life. The Bitter Tea of General Yen is set during the Chinese Civil War. Stanwyck arrives from America to marry her childhood sweetheart who's a missionary in China. But before they can be wed they get separated whilst rescuing some orphans. She's 'rescued' by General Yen (played by a whitey) and taken to his summer palace. What happens from this point is pretty vague and obfuscated, but certainly involves a degree of miscegenation which in 1933 must have been quite a daring place to go for a mainstream Hollywood movie.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) 4/10 is the latest and worst film in a very bad, very tired and very boring franchise. Watching any of these films always makes me wish I was watching Indiana Jones, whose films I also don't like except by comparison to these ones. Indy might be a dick and a swine but at least he looks the part and doesn't speak and act and look like Brendan Fraser. The best entry in The Mummy series was The Scorpion King because it starred The Rock instead. In Tomb of the Dragon Emperor years have passed and Brendan's wife Rachel Weisz has either left him or been magically changed into by some other (worse-looking, worse-acting) woman. They have a son and guess what? He's grown up to be an even more c!ntish archeologist than his father was. Of course the story requires Mum and Dad to come to China, where Son's doing some loud and arrogant digging, and help him out with some bullshit. Because both father and son are Grade A shits, there's a running joke where they try to out-do each other with their weaponry before fighting baddies. I wanted this senseless dick-swinging contest to turn out bad: perhaps Brendan would accidentally shoot off the top of his boy's skull, not killing him but making him a feeble, gibbering, dribbling retard still just about capable of shooting things but not of dinstinguishing between the baddies and his own awful family. Or maybe a faulty weapon would explode away both Brendan's tongue and his hair so he'd no longer be able to speak nor have his grievous centre-parting flop about to provide the only animation to his otherwise vacant face. None of that happens but such thoughts kept me amused during the endlessly weary fight scenes that are absolutely impossible to pay attention to or remember even a second after they finish. I think there were Yetis and Dragons in this film too, as well as lots of mummies. I can't definately remember; but I'm sure that IF there were, they were shit and boring and forgettable as Yetis and Dragons should NEVER be. It's just that kind of film. I knew that going in but I still couldn't help myself.

Also:

The Hills Have Eyes II (2007) 5/10
The Grapes of Wrath (1940) 8/10
New York I Love You (2009) 7/10
The Princess and the Frog (2009) 8/10
Never Let Me Go (2010) 7/10
The Strawberry Blonde (1941) 9/10
The Human Centipede (2010) 7/10
I'm Still Here (2010) 6/10
Green Zone (2010) 8/10
Greenberg (2010) 8/10
The Straight Story (1999) 8/10
The Hole (2009) 7/10
Love Actually (2003) 5/10
Narc (2002) 6/10
127 Hours (2010) 8/10
Empire of the Sun (1985) 8/10
The Road (2009) 9/10
Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010) 8/10
Spider-Man (2002) 8/10

Tully Mars

Love Ranch- 3/10- I stumbled across this while checking out on line movies. Who would have thought a movie about sex, drugs, boxing and ripping off the IRS could be so boring. At times I wanted to tell Joe Pesci "stop acting, find work elsewhere" and I like Joe Pesci, this is probably the first movie I seen of his I didn't like. Helen Mirren does an alright job in this POS but I expect better of her and even she couldn't carry this project. Sergio Peris-Mencheta, whom I've never heard of, does alright too. In fact the film seems more about his character, boxer Armando Bruza, then about the "Love Ranch" or the couple who run it.

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I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

jewels

Green Hornet - 7.5/10

Not a Seth Rogen fan, but found myself enjoying the action. The 3-D experience was better than expected and it was hysterically funny at times.


The Narrows - 8/10

NY kid born into the Mob trying to find his way out. Kevin Zegers is very good, and Titus Welliver was outstanding.

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Tirian

I watched "Killer Diller" last night.

I am always interested in the movies that have music as a theme. My all time favorite movie is "Brassed Off", so I figured I'd like this one too. My sister found it on DVD in a bargain bin for a couple of bucks and decided to give it a go for that price.

I really enjoyed it. The characters seem like real people to me. The story line is a bit predictable, and I wish there had been a bit more of a plot, but the interaction of the characters and the good music made the movie for me.

I give it maybe a 7 or 8 / 10.

Killer Diller - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wesley, (William Lee Scott) a car thief and musician sent to live at a halfway house on the campus of a Christian college meets Vernon, (Lucas Black) an autistic piano player in need of a friend. Together they team up with the struggling halfway house band to create the Killer Diller Blues Band.

fill23ca

Let Me In (2010) 9/10

This was quite an amazing movie. It's about a bullied young boy who befriends a young female vampire who lives in secrecy with her guardian in an apartment complex. It stars Chloe Moretz who stole the show in Kick-Ass, as the young vampire. The film is set in 1983 and it feels like it. It was very well written and directed. I loved this movie because it scared the crap out of me without all the big budget special effects that are there to just try and gross me out.

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"The worst day of your life, so far." Homer Simpson

Reese

I watched this a few days ago. I'd seen Let The Right One In a month or so ago and loved it. They were pretty faithful to the original but the slight changes really made me feel different about the characters. For instance, You really don't get to see anything negative about Owen's father in this version. Abby also seemed more controlling than Eli(The vamp girl from the original.) There were other things too. I also liked the end pool scene better in the original. Just seemed cooler.

Overall, It was a really good remake. They really captured the bleak atmosphere of the original.
9/10 for both versions. (Original slightly better but could be because I watched it first)

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amonkie

The Illusionist 7/10

This is a french movie that was brought over, and the movie is a cartoon over a mostly musical score. There are maybe 20 words or less spoken throughout the course of the entire movie, yet it is still able to tell a story.

It was rated PG but there were definitely some elements of the movie that due to its French influence may not have truly been appropriate for young children without former warning to parents.

It was a refreshing balance between a foreign film needing large amounts of subtitles, a dubbed english track, or a pure english spoken movie.

I would say its worth seeing once.

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Calling from deep in the heart, from where the eyes can't see and the ears can't hear, from where the mountain trails end and only love can go... ~~~ Three Rivers Hare Krishna

powerclown

Saw a remarkable movie recently thanks to Netflix called 'Moon'. If I had to give it a rating - which I am hesitant to do as these things are subjective - I would give it an eight out of 3. Crazy space moonbeams and moondreams, man. This one messes with your mind, but in a nice way.

genuinegirly

"Lovely, Still" - a heartwarming PG-rated Christmas-y flick about adorable old people falling in love.

Throughout the bulk of the film, I was thinking of recommending it to my parents, seems like the kind of film they would enjoy. But in the ending we realize that the "bachelor" who falls in love with a neighbor woman is suffering from dementia. My parents have a difficult time with stories that involve dementia.

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"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

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powerclown

The Town - 8/10.

Hollywood yarn about a group of lying, cheating, vicious backstabbing Irish gangster punks. Lots of "beautiful people" in this one...pretty good nevertheless. The late great Mr Pete Postlethwaite gives a nicely menacing performance here. Those Irish don't mess around, at least not in the movies.

fill23ca

Red 7/10 Fun cast and good action movie made this very enjoyable. Helen Mirren is still looking fine at 65.

Winter's Bone 9/10 This was a well acted movie, with Oscar noms for Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes (who I enjoyed in Deadwood). It's about a 17 year old girl trying to locate her drug dealing father who has disappeared and if he misses his upcoming court date they will lose their house where she takes care of her two siblings and sick mom. Great movie start to finish.

Easy A 8/10 Fun and funny modern teen comedy that adults will enjoy.

__________________
"The worst day of your life, so far." Homer Simpson

Grasshopper Green

Black Swan - 2.5/5.

Meh. The ballet parts were fun to watch, the crazy parts, not so much. I should have waited until it came to DVD.

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"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"

Formerly Medusa

biznatch

Shutter Island: Finally got around to watching it, and while I can't grade how entertained I was, the movie captured my attention the whole way through. Both Di Caprio and Kingsley are excellent.

The A-team: Fuck you, Hollywood!! Flying a Tank? Barrel roll in a helicopter? This whole movie takes a massive dump on physics and I hated it for that.
The only nice part is when the dude from The Hangover kissed the foreign journalist: "I'm just gonna go for it." The rest was BS.

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hunnychile

Just watched Easy A and liked it...but yes, it was fluff. But kinda cute and worth a chuckle or two with the spouse. If I was a parent I would definitley check it out and have dialogue with my daughter. Or son.

Wall Street 2, Money Never Sleeps. Pretty damn good - if you're in the mood to revisit the monetary crash of 2008. A unique view and yet, it had a few twists worth seeing. I'm still on the fence with Shiah LaBoef..he seems a bit too relaxed in scenes that require grit. Gordon Gecko (micheal Douglas) is always interesting to watch and he remains so unpredictable. I liked it more than I thought I would.

The Tudors, 4th Season: The best sequel ever. Even when we all know the history, this phase is presented extremely well and with an insight & nuances we were all hopng for but didn't think we'd ever see. The director was beyond insightful and this series was done with much care. Glad I watched the entire series and hoping that you will enjoy it as much as I did. Loved the actors and I'll miss ever one of them!~

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oliver9184

The Hills Have Eyes II (2007) 5/10. Dumb, violent and not scary. National Guardsmen /women are on exercises in that part of Nevada where some A-bombs were tested after WWII. They get picked off one by one by deformed cave people for no better reason than because it's a horror movie. Seeing bad things done to the well-equipped but inexperienced National Guard brought to mind Southern Comfort, and because there's a lot of female action happening in caves The Descent occurred to me too, but this falls way short of those two films.

Paris, Texas (1984) 6/10 -SPOILERS- is a strange, slow German/French/British film drama film set in the USA. It was written by Americans, directed by a German and acted by Americans (Harry Dean Stanton in the lead, and Dean Stockwell), Europeans (Aurore Clément, Bernhard Wicki) and a European-American (Nastassja Kinski). The story is: a separated family is incrementally brought back together after the father is found wandering in the desert four years after vanishing. It's strange and a little unsettling to see European filmmaking sensibilities applied to such an inarguably American setting as the dusty plains of Texas. I can't think of any other films that start this slowly but then actually get even slower as they wear on. Everybody's acting, including the child's, feels heartfelt and sincere but there's just so much of it - and the straightforward not exactly predictable but surprise-free story doesn't seem to justify such wordiness. Things reach a frustrating head near to the end when, on a strange artificial set, Harry Dean and the estranged mother of his child both deliver a huge monologue to each other, which are emotionally charged but I found wholly tedious to sit through.

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990) 7/10. Loveable walking hardon Andrew Dice Clay is Ford Fairlane, Rock N Roll detective, in L.A. who gets mixed up in a trashy bad taste 80s/90s plot about kidnapped musicians, blackmail, and special CD-ROMs containing secrets or incriminating things. There's a very unconvincing Koala who meets a sorry end and a hilarious graveyard chase in a hearse in which a (hot female) corpse somehow accidentally gets from the coffin into the front passenger seat and into a compromising position with Ford (who loves it of course).

True Grit (1969) 6/10. As this was remade last year by the blasted Coen Brothers, to predictable acclaim, I knew I'd need to see it sooner or later. I prefer later: because those brothers make films that are always smart and worth watching but usually without characters to like or care about. 1969's True Grit has an old John Wayne wearing an eyepatch and drawing out his lines as slowly as ever. This delivery sometimes grates, because it sounds anything but natural, during talkly exposition scenes early on but it's worth it to see him shouting "FILL YOUR HAND YOU SON OF A BITCH!" at Robert Duvall. That's such an iconic John Wayne line that I'm interested to hear Jeff Bridges's say it- though his Rooster Cogburn didn't win the Oscar like Wayne's did.

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) 8/10
New York I Love You (2009) 7/10
The Princess and the Frog (2009) 8/10
Never Let Me Go (2010) 7/10
The Strawberry Blonde (1941) 9/10
The Human Centipede (2010) 7/10
I'm Still Here (2010) 6/10
Green Zone (2010) 8/10
Greenberg (2010) 8/10
The Straight Story (1999) 8/10
The Hole (2009) 7/10
Love Actually (2003) 5/10
Narc (2002) 6/10
127 Hours (2010) 8/10
Empire of the Sun (1985) 8/10
The Road (2009) 9/10
Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010) 8/10
When the Wind Blows (1986) 7/10
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) 10/10
Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre (2009) 5/10
Notting Hill (1999) 6/10
Red Dragon (2002) 7/10
Four Lions (2010) 7/10
Cliffhanger (1993) 8/10
Contact (1997) 7/10
Convoy (1978) 7/10
Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009) 8/10
Matewan (1987) 8/10
Best Worst Movie (2009) 7/10
Hero (2002) 6/10
Commando (1985) 8/10
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) 8/10
Catfish (2010) 7/10
Fantastic Mr Fox (2009) 8/10
The Blair Witch Project (1999) 7/10
Cyrus (2010) 7/10
The King of Kong (2007) 8/10
The Indian Runner (1991) 7/10
The Ghost Writer (2010) 8/10
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) 8/10
Bad Ronald (TVM) (1974) 5/10
Tres Dias/Before the Fall (2008) 5/10
Monsters (2010) 8/10
The Getaway (1972) 9/10
Neighbours (1952) 9/10
Mother/Madeo (2009) 9/10
Spider-Man (2002) 8/10
Spider-Man 2 (2004) 9/10
Spider-Man 3 (2007) 8/10
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) 7/10
Legend (1985) 9/10
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) 8/10
Arlington Road (1999) 7/10
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) 8/10
Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) 7/10
Benny's Video (1992) 6/10
No Strings Attached (2011) 7/10
Coraline (2009) 7/10
Star Wars (1977) 7/10
Mean Girls 2 (TVM) (2011) 5/10
The Quiet Earth (1985) 7/10
Hachiko Monogatari (1987) 7/10
The Ruling Class (1972) 7/10
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 7/10
City Slickers (1991) 9/10
City Slickers: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994) 7/10

Jove

Battle: Los Angles 7/10

As we have seen from countless alien invasion films, Earth is invaded by an alien species because our planet has something that they need. I will not disclose the reason why this alien species have invaded, but I thought the special effects and new form of aliens along with their technology to be amazing. However, the main characters in this story are a group of about 20 marines as they fight against the aliens. I found most of the marines in this story to be entirely too emotional and lacking any form of skills regarding their occupation. I mean, since they are in the military (marine core), one would assume they would be using stealth and not talking to one another while they are on their mission, but this group is loud, disorganized and inexperienced. I would really like an alien invasion movie where they skip the monologue or pep talk from the leader and concentrate their effort on destroying the enemy. Here is another tip, if you are the leader in the group and need to escape the city immediately, I recommend not taking a bus and driving on a highway. Why? The highways are the first to be destroyed in an invasion or attack so stick with side roads and faster vehicles.


The only reason I am giving this film a 7/10 is because Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez and Adetokumboh M’Cormack were the only actors in this film that portrayed marines as disciplined, organized and able to get through a war zone without crying like a little baby.

genuinegirly

Astro Boy Good, kid-friendly fun, really fun premise and adorable execution.

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"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

KirStang

.....You would be surprised at the typical Soldier, then. Soldiers are human, and therefore are not "YES SIR, NO SIR" drones...If they think you will get them killed, they won't follow you, nor listen to you....

I don't know. Maybe you're a marine and know the professionalism of the Marine Corps far more than I do, but AFAIK, my experience with soldiers is analogous with the soldiers' depiction in Battlefield: LA.

I give Battlefield: LA a 8/10. It was what I was expecting, a heart-pounding firefight against Aliens. I wasn't expecting any deep or emotional, like I Am Sam or Gattaca--I just wanted a rush from the firefight scenes, which the film did not disappoint. Was it a little fake? Yea....I mean...10 marines fighting through platoon sized elements, plus highly guarded areas...and AT-4s which acted like Stingers.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed it as a mindless action flick.

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Jove

No, I am not a Marine, but I assumed they wouldn't be so fucking whiny as they are portrayed in the film.

jewels

Let Me In - 9 / 10

What a little gem! That's all I'm sayin ...



127 Hours - 7 / 10

I think this is either a love it or hate it movie. My daughter tricked me into seeing this one. The premise made me queasy, but Franco was quite good in the role.

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We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain

pan6467

had a chance to see Blak Swan at the dollar cinema and found it quite good yet disturbing. It was to me a Hitchcock like thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat asking is this real or in her head. I still have no idea, but it doesn't matter. I spent the money to be enterained and I was, even after thinking seeing it and now just thinking about the questions I have. May have to go see it again. I give the storyline and the direction a B+, The acting a strong A. Overall it was an A- film for me. I highly recommend it.

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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?"

TigerBlood

Beastly

3/10

I was dragged to this one involuntarily... supposedly payback for Cloverfield. :P

A re-telling of Beauty and the Beast, one or two cute parts, but overall flat and predictable. Good-looking jerk is cursed, learns that true beauty is on the outside, finds love, and the curse is broken. No new twists to the story. The SO and I were both unimpressed. Your teenage daughter might like it. *shrug*

jewels

Battle: Los Angeles 8/10

Did not want to see this one, but found myself enjoying it despite a terribly lacking script. Kick ass battle scenes did have me on the edge of my seat throughout, Eckhart is always good and not bad to look at. Yes, the production was what brought the score up for me. Make sure you have popcorn.

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We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain

Cynthetiq

Paul 7/10

It was a good film for being free at the theater, and it was entertaining and I found myself laughing out loud many times.

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jewels

Limitless. 9/10

Loved this movie! Thrilling, fascinating, thought-provoking, fun, so well-done. I'm already making plans to go see it again.

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We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain

blahblah454

House of the Devil - 9/10

Wow! Was I ever blown away by this one. Amazingly creepy and genuinely frightening at some points. I did not know what to expect as I was buying used movies and this was a freebie. Don't watch alone!

Jove

Sucker Punch 8/10

IMDB summary: A young girl is institutionalized by her abusive stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the mental facility.

Comment: If you are not a fan of comic book movies, beautiful half naked women, dragons, ninjas and nazi robots, then this film is not for you. I was entertained with the film, but the underlying theme in this story is how Baby Doll copes with her current environment, which is by imagining she is leading a group of assassins that need to acquire five items to unlock their freedom. In each mission, the group encounters 50 foot samurai’s, dragons, steam punk Nazis, and robots before they can acquire each item.

oliver9184

Blame It On Rio (1984) 6/10. This is a trashy, thrown-together old fashioned sex farce set in the tropical paradise of Rio de Janeiro. Michael Caine and Joseph Bologna are a couple of longtime buddies who plan to go on holiday together with their families but find themselves in Rio without their wives – because of Bologna's divorce and Caine's wife suddenly decides to go to Europe instead, at the last minute. With their wives elsewhere it's up to their daughters - Demi Moore and Michelle Johnson - to look after them and keep them out of mischief. But mischief is got into very quickly as no sooner do they reach the Cidade Maravilhosa, the one of the daughters that's not his own seduces Caine and continues to do so throughout the film despite his fatherly and mild-mannered protestations.

Time After Time (1979) 8/10. 1893: John Leslie Stephenson, who is really Jack the Ripper, is transported forward through time in H.G. Wells's time machine to 1979 with H.G. in hot pursuit. Stephenson, played by David Warner, flees in the machine simply to avoid the cops; but H.G. (Malcolm McDowell) is horrified because he's sure that the world in 1979 will be a utopia free of violence and everything else bad. Because of some spurious reason the machine is relocated geographically as well as in time, and ends up in a museum in San Francisco. After Stephenson exits it returns to London 1893, where H.G. fires it up again and brings it to San Fran a few hours later. For an oddball hybrid film forty something years old this moves at a fair pace and, aside from its basic premise, never feels too fatuous or artificial. McDowell is great as H.G. with his childlike wonder combined with a sturdy pragmatism that keeps the story going. His dialogue with Mary Steenburgen (who plays the reverse of her Back to the Future Part III character) is thoroughly believable thanks to her as much as to him. San Francisco locations are used brilliantly and one chase sequence particularly stands out. H.G. is after Stephenson soon after they reach 1979 and they're running through the San Francisco streets. There's a brief pause as they spy each other on parallel footbridges over a road. They square off, trying to stare each other down and then they're off again through the streets.

In Good Company (2004) 7/10 is a bad and forgettable title for an admittedly flimsy and very broad but still perfectly watchable comedy-drama. I'm always intrigued by depictions of the workplace in movies: when the script calls for a single scene a character's work it sometimes rings hollow, especially in comedies, and if the primary setting is a workplace it pays to get it right. There really aren't too many wholly workplace-based films - workplaces aren't exciting enough to set movies in - but I saw Up in the Air recently and that felt fairly authentic, and so does In Good Company. (Revolutionary Road also springs to mind as a film that absolutely nailed the workplace, and that was a 60s workpace. The Devil Wears Prada is the best example of a bullshit movie workplace I can think of.) Dennis Quaid is sometimes known as the poor man's Harrison Ford: the comparison doesn't really work for me as I was never keen on Ford but I get the idea. He's the poor man's Ford in that he plays roles one could imagine Ford passing up. He's less pissed-off and pissy than Ford and way more laid back, which makes him much more suited to light roles like this. Cast as Quaid's character here, Ford would be glaring and staring and scowling and cursing and you'd feel like any minute he might blow, and he would not be likeable. The film's set-up is that Quaid's new boss (Topher Grace) is, thanks to a corporate takeover, a go-getting dickhead half his age who has no clue about the job and (to add insult to injury) starts fooling around with Quaid's daughter, Scarlett Johansson. Grace's performance starts off feeling obnoxious, as is surely intended, and a little TOO light, even for this - like a sitcom almost - but as the film wears on and his character is inevitably revealed to be one of more substance and integrity than we initially supposed, he comes into his own. His incessant twittering caffeine-fuelled empty peptalk is just a facade, a defense mechanism automatically deployed at work that comes crumbling down whenever he's around Quaid's daughter. The soundtrack for In Good Company deserves a mention: at least one song does. For most of its running time the songs are modern acoustic totally throwaway almost irritating but not quite songs like Cannonball by Damien Rice. But then right near the end in comes Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel. I've been conditioned enough over the years by that song in the recut Shining trailer to think of it as a joke but here it works and is totally right for the "this character was down but now his life's getting back on track and is on his way to a happy ending" moment.

Firestarter (1984) 8/10. SPOILERS - Is there an endless supply of Stephen King adaptations? Surely not, but it seems like every other week I come across some mention of one I've never even heard of. There's loads of film adaptations and then probably as many again of TV movies and miniseries. Firestarter is about a little girl (Drew Barrymore) who has firestarting powers and is on the run with her Dad (David Keith) from government forces. Martin Sheen also stars as the suit running the operation, and George C Scott is a wholly evil Indian henchman with an agenda of his own. I approached this warily not expecting much but Barrymore (aged nine!) puts in an incredible performance and sells the whole thing. The finale has to be seen to be believed and is quite similar in scale and devastation as the ending of Commando (which was the director's next film). I doubt if any character so young has ended so many baddies' lives in so little time as here.

also-

Star Wars Return of the Jedi (1983) 7/10
Black Hunter White Heart (1990) 8/10
Gangs of New York (2002) 8/10
The Usual Suspects (1995) 7/10
Up in the Air (2009) 7/10
Tin Cup (1996) 7/10
Rango (2011) 8/10
You Only Live Once (1937) 7/10
The Brothers Bloom (2008) 8/10
The Grifters (1990) 6/10
Running with Scissors (2006) 6/10
War of the Buttons (1994) 8/10
The Italian Job (1969) 7/10

captobvious

Sucker Punch 2/10

Amazing visuals -- girls and guns. What more can a man ask for? Unfortunately, the story was so bad that it ruined everything good about the movie (girls and guns). I've seen softcore porn with better character development. The only sucker punch was wasting two hours of my life watching the movie.