[thestopsign]

I just finished watching In Bruges. I think it surpasses both Man on Wire and Slumdog as my favorite movie from 2008. I was crying big man tears when (movie spoiler) Brandon Gleeson died. He put on a really fantastic performance. The movie just had a great tone about it and really left just enough to make me question beliefs and leave me pondering afterwards.

[Goreomedy]

I just finished watching In Bruges. I think it surpasses both Man on Wire and Slumdog as my favorite movie from 2008. I was crying big man tears when (movie spoiler) Brandon Gleeson died. He put on a really fantastic performance. The movie just had a great tone about it and really left just enough to make me question beliefs and leave me pondering afterwards.

Yup, brilliant film. And they just re-released a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack that can be had for under $10 on Amazon.

[Lazy Jones]

Tropa de elite 2.

It's about the elite police force that fights in the Rio de Janeiro slums.
First one was really good, had doubts that the sequel would deliver but it really did.

[suffah]

Yup, brilliant film. And they just re-released a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack that can be had for under $10 on Amazon.

+1 Loved this movie.

I didn't feel "I Am Love" like the poster above me...probably because the story felt too transparent.

[sionyboy]

I just finished watching In Bruges. I think it surpasses both Man on Wire and Slumdog as my favorite movie from 2008. I was crying big man tears when (movie spoiler) Brandon Gleeson died. He put on a really fantastic performance. The movie just had a great tone about it and really left just enough to make me question beliefs and leave me pondering afterwards.

Talk about a film that had a bad advertising campaign. All I got from the trailer was that Colin Farrell karate chopped a midget, and he might've been a hitman or something. Oh, and Belgium is a boring country. So I was expecting a piss-poor attempt at a Snatch/Lock Stock film. When I sat down to watch it I was blown away; great characters, dialogue, story with a big helping of some very dark themes and humour.

Ken: Harry, let's face it. And I'm not being funny. I mean no disrespect, but you're a cunt. You're a cunt now, and you've always been a cunt. And the only thing that's going to change is that you're going to be an even bigger cunt. Maybe have some more cunt kids. Harry: [furious] Leave my kids fucking out of it! What have they done? You fucking retract that bit about my cunt fucking kids! Ken: I retract that bit about your cunt fucking kids.

[A Human Becoming]

Enter the Void I enjoyed it, but would have liked fewer sex scenes and the sky view parts shortened. I might have loss movie selecting privileges with my friends.

[Count Dookkake]

Enter the Void I enjoyed it, but would have liked fewer sex scenes and the sky view parts shortened. I might have loss movie selecting privileges with my friends.

A pity for them.

[swoon]

+1 Loved this movie. I didn't feel "I Am Love" like the poster above me...probably because the story felt too transparent.

yea it's certainly not as nuanced or subtle as in bruges.

[TheKaeptain]

Tropa de elite 2. It's about the elite police force that fights in the Rio de Janeiro slums. First one was really good, had doubts that the sequel would deliver but it really did.

So want to watch this. I've heard great things.

[swoon]

http://www.icheckmovies.com/blog/the...imit/#comments


they reversed course on checking thankfully.

[harSon]

I'm on a thrill kick recently.

I rewatched The Chaser with a friend, as well as: Unknown, The Next Three Days, Syriana, and The Yellow Sea.

Can anyone recommend some solid thrillers? Can be old, new or foreign.

[meppi]

Amelie is all sunshine and rainbows and puppies, not that that's necessarily a bad thing but it's a little TOO sweet for me.

Have you seen Memories of Matsuko by any chance?

It reminded me of Amelie a bit, but I liked it so much more for the reasons you mentioned.
Incredible movie which I bought again on bluray 5 minutes after having seen the DVD version. :)

[UrbanRats]

I'm stuck with what TV has to offer, these days (no HDMI cable for the BD player) so yesterday i watched Mission Impossible (the first one).
I was actually kinda surprised by it, i watched it last time as a kid (when it came out) and i thought it would have aged badly, since i hated the two sequels, but it was instead very enjoyable, good pace, nice story (twisted but not too confusing) and some very good action scenes (the train one was still impressive, to this day).
Not perfect, with some '90s cheesyness here and there (like the blue lights, at night) but overall i'm very happy about it, also Praga was an awesome setting.

Coincidentally enough, i've seen the trailer for the last one, and it looks very very generic.

[Enco]

Transformers 3. It was fairly entertaining but far too long.

[AcridMeat]

Recent stuff... Riki-Oh: The Story Of Ricky So yeah this was pretty effing amazing. That's all I really have to say on that.

Agreed. Hell of a good time. Every single death is gif-worthy.

[jakncoke]

http://www.icheckmovies.com/blog/the...imit/#comments they reversed course on checking thankfully.

Good that they are sensible and realized that would of butchered any potential growth. I was considering quitting . I don't like my hand being forced and aside from neat rankings they aren't as important as they think they are any team could throw together a code and do the same and probably faster. That being said as funny as Louis C.K: Hilarious was it has no business as im sure many others in the Documentary list and i wish IMDB would change it up so only real documentaries make the list

[icarus-daedelus]

Have you seen Memories of Matsuko by any chance? It reminded me of Amelie a bit, but I liked it so much more for the reasons you mentioned. Incredible movie which I bought again on bluray 5 minutes after having seen the DVD version. :)

I don't think I have, but I'll check it out. Thanks :)

So I did watch Zardoz and although it was kind of excruciating, I was giggling from the opening five minutes and pretty consistently throughout as well.

Although I probably wouldn't have thought of it myself if the comparison weren't brought up, Dune fits really oddly well down to specifics of how it's structured - such as the first scene being exposition delivered by a figure looking directly into the camera, although in this case instead of Virginia Madsen we get a dude with a penciled-on moustache wearing what appears to be blue boxers affixed to his head upside-down:



Shortly afterward, a giant stone head named Zardoz tells a group of savages (with hilarious-looking papier-mâché zardoz masks) that "the gun is good. The penis is evil" and proceeds to vomit up a bunch of guns at them.



This is followed by Zardoz floating through the misty air to the somber tones of Beethoven's 7th symphony, 2nd movement, which at this point has to be up there with the most overused tearjerking music in cinema; in this particular film, the director just kind of slaps it on any scene where he wants to have a particularly serious tone, whether it's warranted or not. Horrible crimes against Beethoven probably reach peak hilarity during a scene of Sean Connery wrecking a library in slow motion cuz he realizes the TRUE meaning of the title of the movie.

Thematically, I was able to pick out that the movie is anti-god, anti-immortality, and possibly anti-emasculation, although the film is not very consistent about that last one. Not that any of this stuff is presented in a particularly interesting or coherent way, though, and to call it surreal would be to give it more credit than it deserves. In some ways it reminded me of a more colorful and consciously strange version of A Boy and His Dog without the dog (y'know, the best part of that story) or the hot young Don Johnson. Connery's near-nakedness is not flattering to his bod in this movie, tbh, which makes it amusing when they hold him up as a eugenicized ideal of man in the film.



It's really fucking weird, but also bad like a high school play or the remake of The Wicker Man so it never convincingly draws you in, and at the same time it's too slow and straight-faced to be a classic of badness on the order of Riki-Oh or somesuch. Like Dune the odd sets and costumes are the main draw, but here the costumes are mainly Sean Connery in his red underwear getup and a bunch of hippies, and sets are sort of like an inferior take on The Prisoner. So, although certainly unusual visually (and impressive for its budget), it doesn't remotely work on that level.

BUT! I would kind of recommend it to those special few who can giggle through a giant trainwreck of a movie which constantly fails on every level it is trying to reach, if you happen to have a lazy Sunday afternoon open and a penchant for masochism.

[Phoenician_Viking]

I really, really enjoyed Kung Fu panda 2.

[jakncoke]

Edit: lol this isn't the baseball thread. But in effort to save face. ahh Ima watch Cocoon after the game :p

[Mystagogue]

Saw Transformers: Dark of the Moon last night. I really enjoyed it for what it was. I went for robots kicking the shit out of each other and left satisfied.

[qcf x2]

I've been watching a ton of foreign movies lately, particularly of the Asian variety. My most recent:



A Bittersweet Life: 4/5. Great action, a solid acting job by Byung Hun Lee and I appreciated the pacing. As far as Korean revenge flicks go, this is up there amongst my favorites.



Confessions (Kokuhaku): 5/5. I love this movie. The premise is a bit crazy, the film a bit more so. The acting is superb, the drama is intense and it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. This is my favorite Asian film since Love Exposure, although the two are not at all comparable outside of the fact that shit gets fucked up.

Can't wait to see what else you guys have watched!

[Drewsky]

Saw Transformers: Dark of the Moon last night. I really enjoyed it for what it was. I went for robots kicking the shit out of each other and left satisfied.

I enjoyed it for that too. But the first hour and a half of attempted character development and comedy was just awful. Way to long. If the movie was just the Chicago end scene I would have thought it was awesome, but it was 2 hours longer than that.

[AgentChris]

I've been watching a ton of foreign movies lately, particularly of the Asian variety. My most recent:

Loved both of these movies. Confessions was flat out amazing. Wonderful performances and directing. The first 20 minutes or so in the classroom was godly.

[PigSpeakers]

Friday I watched Mulholland Dr. It was confusing and a little weird, but then I read up on some fan theories and thought that they sounded plausible and helped the movie make that much more sense.

Saturday I went and saw Super 8. A lot of people I know from work said it was bad, but I don't work with people who I consider to have generally comparable tastes in things. I thought it was great. The kids were a riot and felt like a lot of kids I knew when I was younger. Had a sort of Goonies meets ET vibe to it, I thought.

Last night I watched American Psycho for the first time. I didn't really enjoy it until about the last half hour. When he has his breakdown. That part was some great acting.

[BaronLundi]

Thanks for the advice on Enter the void. Looking forward to know which side I'll join :)

Tangled
Meh. Didn't care too much for it. Overall it was entertaining and there are a few very funny moments but I found the art direction pretty bad (oh, those big glassy eyes... yuck) and the songs (too many of them) just terrible.

[thestopsign]

So after watching In Bruges this morning, one of my friends lent me Brick insisting that it sounded similar. I must have described In Bruges wrong as they are completely different types of movies. Sadly I didn't like Brick, the plot was ok, and I loved Joseph Gordan-Levitt, but everything else about the movie felt forced, especially the dialogue. I guess that's what I should expect out of a modern film-noir, but it really just didn't work for me.

[JaskoX1]

No strings attached. Good god; had to stop the movie 45min in. Terrible!

Natalie Portman really?

[louie]

Bridesmaids - Pretty enjoyable. Kristen Wiig is pretty hot in a peculiar kinda way.

As Good as it Gets - Hated pretty much everything about. Hated the stupid drama, the characters, how boring the film looked and so on. Helen Hunt's speech were she cries about men and how she can't like people already in a relationship was just embarrassing to watch, ugh.

Salt is one of the worst major releases I have seen in years. I almost couldn't believe they got Jolie to do it.

You know, I think I disliked the film even more because of Jolie. Not only was she totally unconvincing at playing a cold and murderous Russian spy, watching her jump down an open elevator shaft/jump across the roofs of moving vehicles was just too ridiculous looking.

[Satyamdas]

Thematically, I was able to pick out that the movie is anti-god, anti-immortality, and possibly anti-emasculation, although the film is not very consistent about that last one. Not that any of this stuff is presented in a particularly interesting or coherent way, though, and to call it surreal would be to give it more credit than it deserves. It's really fucking weird, but also bad like a high school play or the remake of The Wicker Man so it never convincingly draws you in, and at the same time it's too slow and straight-faced to be a classic of badness on the order of Riki-Oh or somesuch. Like Dune the odd sets and costumes are the main draw, but here the costumes are mainly Sean Connery in his red underwear getup and a bunch of hippies, and sets are sort of like an inferior take on The Prisoner. So, although certainly unusual visually (and impressive for its budget), it doesn't remotely work on that level.

[KidDork]

FX by genius Yoshihiro Nishimura make for one of the most satisyfing final kills of all time. Seriously deranged and well-executed. Did you know that there is a second installment?

Yes! I saw that it's on Netflix as well ! I can't wait to see it. (insert SQUEEEE!)

[Solo]

Take Me Home Tonight

Pretty formulaic rom-com, but it had a slightly darker tone which I liked and I always find Topher Grace has the ability to lift things a notch or two. That Teresa Palmer is very easy on the eyes too.

[TheKaeptain]

Take Me Home Tonight Pretty formulaic rom-com, but it had a slightly darker tone which I liked and I always find Topher Grace has the ability to lift things a notch or two. That Teresa Palmer is very easy on the eyes too.

It was a lot better than expected. Teresa Palmer is my future wife.

[Solo]

Can we share? Im not greedy.

[TheKaeptain]

Only if I go first. The cocaine use in TMHT was surprising.

[Salazar]

It was a lot better than expected. Teresa Palmer is my future wife.

She's Australian. You will have to petition AUS-GAF.

Watched Son of Rambow.

Eh, not terribly good.

[Solo]

Only if I go first. The cocaine use in TMHT was surprising.

Indeed. Apparently thats why it was shelved for 4 years. Im not quite sure what changed between 2007 and 2011 with respect to coke becoming acceptable, lol.

Sloppy seconds? Okay :(

[THE NO LIFE KING]

Indeed. Apparently thats why it was shelved for 4 years. Im not quite sure what changed between 2007 and 2011 with respect to coke becoming acceptable, lol. Sloppy seconds? Okay :(

Really, that long to release that movie just because the cocaine issue. Why even produce the movie then if they already knew about it?? The only other movie that I can remember that was in purgatory for a couple years was Once Upon a Time In Mexico. It was supposed to come out in 2001 and was pushed til late 03. The memories of waiting for this movie to come out and watching the trailer 24/7 were merciless and fun. I wonder what other movie is in purgatory right now???

[Solo]

Well, there was that Renee Zelweger/Bradley Cooper movie that just released last year which was shot in 2006. Its retarded but not uncommon for a movie to sit on the shelf for years for whatever reasons.

Ill give you an example of one that hasn't even released yet: Dream House starring Daniel Craig. They shot it like over 2 years ago, but it hasn't come out because the studio wants some reshoots and Daniel Craig's schedule has been far too busy, to the extent that he can't get on set for a week or two to finish the movie. Who knows when that one will see the light of day.

[roosters93]

My friend reckons District B 13 is crap but he likes Crank. I can't wrap my head around this. They're so similar! (in my eyes)
They're both over-the-top revenge stories with badass heroes. (sure one of them isn't Jason Statham but still) He only likes the parkour scenes.

[Fallout-NL]

My friend reckons District B 13 is crap but he likes Crank. I can't wrap my head around this. They're so similar! (in my eyes) They're both over-the-top revenge stories with badass heroes. (sure one of them isn't Jason Statham but still) He only likes the parkour scenes.

Crank is a timeless master piece. And the trailer for District B13 looks a bit fruity, so I think your friend has the right of it.

[glaurung]

Banlieue 13 is the uncrowned parkour epic. Very few movies even come close.

And the movie is not fruity, it's just how French people are.

[Fallout-NL]

Alright, I'll watch it, but all their little parkour moves are a bit off putting.

[roosters93]

that feeling is called jealousy i think.

[glaurung]

A quick note: the English voice-over of District B13 is horrendous.

Watch it in French if at all possible, with English subtitles (though I know most americans cannot read).

Edit: wait a minute, you ain't american.

[roosters93]

I didn't even know there was a dub. Lucky for me it was on a cool TV station when I caught it.

[icarus-daedelus]

[IMG]DeForest Kelly's face[/IMG]

i can't see the full gif because I'm on my phone atm, but I want you to know I did as promised and wrote all of those impressions before reading your criticisms of Zardoz. Great minds think alike, I hope! :3

[jarosh]

Crank is a timeless master piece.

wait. i... what? i mean, huh?

[Burli]

Had a satisfying night of films last night.

First was Jackass 3(D) - Haven't laughed that much in ages, and was really surprised by the effort they put into making such a solid slice of entertainment.

Next Buried - I really enjoyed this, Ryan Reynold's acting was brilliant and made the film a possibility in the first place, really tense and moving as a film. Awesome.

[Fallout-NL]

A quick note: the English voice-over of District B13 is horrendous. Watch it in French if at all possible, with English subtitles (though I know most americans cannot read). Edit: wait a minute, you ain't american.

Nope, don't worry I always go for the original language if at all possible.

wait. i... what? i mean, huh?

Yeah, okay, so it's not 2001. But in terms of contemporary action films I felt it was very original and the ending actually had something beautiful to it.

[&Divius]

I watched Dario Argento's Phenomena last night. It was so weird. This young girl with a sleeping disorder and semi-multiple personalities (Jennifer Connelly) gets sent to an all girls school, but there's a killer with a constructable spear wandering about decapitating people. Oh, and she can communicate telepathically with insects. And there's a knife wielding monkey. And there's trippy dream sequences. And there's a horrible soundtrack with songs from Motorhead and Iron Maiden (not saying they are bad, but in this film they are misplaced).

So in the end it basically boils down to her doing some detective work with a fly as sidekick (lol), the ending/twist/killer-reveal came out of nowhere but the film has one of the best endings I have ever seen. Watch it here (there are spoilers of course): The great ending of Phenomena.

6/10