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[element]

So I have been renting a fair amount of movies and thought I'd make a thread to see what others have been watching recently.

Planet Terror
Holy shit was this movie lame. I had to turn it off because I got bored, only to finish it a couple hours later.

Rise
This is that Lucy Lu vampire movie. It actually isn't that bad, accept for the freaking movie jumps all over the place, present, flashback, future, past, flashback, mind hurting, WTF, what is going on. The director should he slapped in the face with film canisters for a month after that.

The Devil's Backbone
I really enjoyed Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, so I decided to check out his earlier work, and another great storytelling film by del Toro. Pacing was right on, and some very creepy moments without being 'bloody'. I look forward to del Toro tackling Lovecraft with At the Mountains of Madness.

The Reaping
Another lame ass movie. This one was going no where fast, but I decided to finish it. Not really creepy at all, or entertaining.

1408
I actually liked this movie. It reminded me of another John Cusack, Identity. For some reason I thought this movie was going to be scary, perhaps the trailer sold me on that. But it was an alright suspence film.

Next
Next movie please...

300
I finally saw 300. It was pretty good, not the awesome movie that some were calling it. I am interested in seeing what Zack Snyder with The Watchmen....hehehehehe

 

[Ginko]

I watch almost a movie every two days, so it's kinda tough to answer your question. But anyway, I watched The Wicker Man today, it was awful, Cage never looked this bad.

 

[Sean]

I watch almost a movie every two days, so it's kinda tough to answer your question. But anyway, I watched The Wicker Man today, it was awful, Cage never looked this bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6i2WRreARo

Never gets old.

 

[element]

I watch almost a movie every two days, so it's kinda tough to answer your question. But anyway, I watched The Wicker Man today, it was awful, Cage never looked this bad.

I just watched that as well on HBO or something. It was so bad I couldn't turn it off.

 

[VALIS]

I made a thread like this a couple months ago and it died a quick and horrid death. But let's see, last couple days I saw...

The Jackie Robinson Story, which certainly isn't a cinematic masterpiece by any stretch, but I always wanted to get more familiar with his story, and this helped. 5/10

Incident at Blood Pass, a completely kick ass samurai film from '70 with both Mifune and Katsu (Zatoichi). Lots of slow, creeping tension, nice finale, great scenery. 8/10

I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. Fantastic, landmark movie that's surprisingly well acted and entertaining for something that old ('32). One of the first and greatest social issue films. It's moving and inspiring. Everyone needs to see it. 9/10

Otherwise I've been watching a lot of TV on DVD. The Prisoner is aces, CSI is okay but could be so much better, and Alias is pretty fucking stupid. Sadly, I can predict every scene minutes before they happen.

 

[regrib]

yesterday evening "Sin City"
tonight "A Scanner Darkly"

 

[ElectricBlue187]

I saw Rendition last night. Holy shit what a good movie.

 

[Yixian]

Both sublime

 

[Xevren]

I watched 30 days of night the other day. I hated it, was so boring and the vampires were lame as hell. Saw The Kingdom too, that movie ruled massive amounts of ass.

 

[Tchu-Espresso]

I saw Knocked Up on the weekend, and while good, didnt think it live up to the hype. Thats what happens i guess..

 

[Yixian]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6i2WRreARo

Never gets old.

NOT THE BEES!

 

[Wellington]

Both sublime

Is that Central Station? That movie was excellent, I cried at the end.

 

[PAYBACKill]

gamers like some shitty movies.



Between this and the forum at 1up, you would've thought 300 was the finest film ever shot.

 

[Xzior]

Here's a list of what I have seen since this topic came up about a month ago.

TV:
Babylon 5 s3 & 4- meh
Bionic Woman - meh
Dexter - good
Eureka s1 & 2 - good
Heroes - meh
House M.D. - good
Knight Rider s1 - meh
Numb3rs - meh
Prison Break - bad
Smallville - bad (Why do I keep watching this)
Stargate Atlantis - good
Supernatural - good
The Unit - good
Tremors: The Series - meh

Movies:
1408 - meh
Appleseed - good
Babylon 5: Thirdspace - meh
Black Sheep - good (Man-eating sheep, can't go wrong with that)
BloodRayne II: Deliverance - bad (Please, stop it already)
Cry Wolf - meh
Cursed - meh
Death Proof - bad
Deadland: The Rising - bad
Delta Farce - bad
Dog Soldiers - meh
Epic Movie - bad (Someone needs to get blacklisted)
Evan Almighty - meh
Evil Aliens - bad
Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane - meh
Funny Money - bad
Ghosts of Mars - meh
House of the Dead - bad
Ice Spiders - bad
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - good
Knocked Up - meh
Ocean's Thirteen - meh
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At Worlds End - meh
Planet Terror - meh
Ricochet - meh
Rise Blood Hunter - meh
See No Evil - bad
Serum - bad
Smokin' Aces - meh
Species II - bad (This is not good)
Species III - bad (WTF, how did they get money for this)
Species: The Awakening - bad (Third time is not the charm)
Splinter - meh
Sublime - meh
The Bourne Ultimatum - good
The Cradle - bad
The Killing Floor - bad
The Last Run - meh
The Messengers - bad
The Tripper - bad
The Tuxedo - meh
TMNT - good
Transformers - meh
Treasure Raiders - bad (In Soviet Russia everyone speaks english)
Tremors 2: Aftershocks - good
Tremors 3: Back to Perfection - good
Tremors 4: The Legend Begins - good
Uncommon Valor - bad
War - meh
White Noise 2: The Light - meh
Wild Seven - bad
You Kill Me - good
Zombie Town - bad

 

[EktorPR]

I cannot recall the last film I saw...maybe it was "Amores Perros", which I thought was good. Or maybe "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"...which I thought was decent, too.

But today...today, I took the morning off to see one film I've been anxious to see for a long time:

Should be great.

 

[Souldriver]

28 days later --> Very nice take on zombie movies, but the ending is an absolute WTF-moment. Drags the whole movie down.

Freddy got fingered --> WHAT THE FUCK. I mean seriously WHAT THE FUCK! Even though I laughed at some parts of the movie because they are so ridiculous and random, giving this movie a score higher than 0 is unthinkable, since essentially everybody can make a movie like that, just not everybody has the money to transform their sickest most absurd thoughts into a movie.

Da Vinci Code --> Had seen it before in the theatre, watched it again a few days ago. My memory hasn't fooled me: the movie is absolute rubbish. It's even worse than I remembered. The horrible french accents, the incoherent search for answers where Hanks and Tautou finish eachothers sentences is just laughable. I don't know if the book is as bad, but at least I can imagine a book has more time to place all the events into a context to make them look more believable.

Gangs of New York --> Fantastic movie. Very nice story which interests me a lot as a history fanatic, nice sets and costumes, great acting by Di Caprio, Diaz and especially Day-Lewis. The butcher is such an awsome assholish character. :lol And "the hands that built america" is like one of the only three songs I like from U2.

Transformers --> Very entertaining (maybe more so because I'm not a fan of the original cartoon/toys), fantastic action and quite some humor delivered by LaBeouf but in the end it's just a dumb movie that didn't deserve all much money it generated.

 

[Jason]

Green Fish

Not bad, I guess. Probably would have liked it better if it didn't have the worst subtitles ever.

Also rewatched 'The Girl who Leapt through Time' and 'Secret Sunshine'. *Thumbs up*

 

[master15]

I've been house-bound recently and done a fair amount of DVD watching, here's a couple off the top of my head;

Gangster number 1 I really like this gangster lark from McGuigan. Paul Bettany is really good in the film and I love how serious the film gets after the half way point.

Goodfellas Never gets old. I could watch those long tracking shots all day.

Lost in translation I haven't seen this in ages, but like when I first watched the film, the desire to go to Japan, Tokyo never gets higher. I just love how 'still' some of the scenes are and how it plays.

Equilibrium Had some interesting and quite cool scenes I actually watched it with the DVD commentary with Kurt, who is quite brutally honest a lot of times which is a welcome change. I really want to see Ultraviolent, except scared to see it after how much it got panned.

 

[Cosmic Bus]

Man Push Cart:

Green For Danger:

Perfect Blue:

The TV Set:

King of the Hill:

Mystics In Bali:

The Deadly Mantis:

Cult of the Cobra:

From Beyond:

Alligator:

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie:

The Backwoods:

Jindabyne:

From Beyond the Grave:

Eyes of a Stranger:

Someone's Watching Me!:

Deadly Friend: :lol
The Monster Squad:

 

[Uncle]

I saw Eastern Promises last friday. Enjoyed it. I have some unwatched DVDs that I'm going to go through in the near future: Das Leben der Anderen, La Cite des Enfants Perdus and The Machinist.

 

[demon]

Very good.

 

[Bloodwake]

Very good.

I need to see this.

 

[Mama Smurf]

The Departed Excellent. Falls a bit short of perfect with one too many twists at the end,

Spoiler

namely the other guy Jack Nicholson (can't remember the character's name) had working for the police, who coincidentally knew who Matt Damon's character really was, had also somehow found out Jack was working for the FBI and just happened to be in the right place at the right time to save Damon. Why couldn't he have just been a regular cop who shot DiCaprio for pointing a gun at Damon's head?

It's a minor thing though.

The Bourne Ultimatum Woah! One of the best action movies ever made. In fact, I think Die Hard and The Matrix have a serious rival to the crown. Ridiculously good, though at the end I think it would have been better if

Spoiler

Bourne had died, it just seemed his story was over. He found out who he was, the love of his life is long dead and he got the truth out there on the people who he worked for

.

Bridge to Terabithia Ok, I love this movie. I only watched it because it got decent reviews and I'm not adverse to the odd kid's film, so long as it's well written, but I didn't really expect to like it that much. Then again, I thought I knew what it was about roughly, I was completely wrong. I think it's great that

Spoiler

they didn't actually find a way to some fantasy land as I thought they would, and it was all just their innocence and their imagination, I think that's a great move when so many movies are just going for actual fantasy elements at the moment. And it broke my heart when that thing happened...man, I'm being careful in a spoiler here, but I really don't want to ruin it for anyone. You know what I'm talking about if you've seen it.

I think every child just before that age where they become arrogant little shits should watch it and hopefully some will keep it with them, as should every adult to remember what it was like being a kid. Occasionally the dialogue was a bit off for some of the characters given the age they were supposed to be, in particular that red headed bully, but he was a minor character so who cares?

Knocked Up It made me laugh, that's pretty much all I'm looking for in a comedy. I loved the lead lady and while I don't think it was quite as good as 40 Year Old Virgin, definitely worth a watch.

Unless it's a group thing and I don't want to seem anti-social (like with The Bourne Ultimatum), I avoid the cinema like the plague, I hate it. I hate the whole experience, I can't think of one positive (well...alright, seeing films earlier, but it's not enough for me). That's why I haven't even seen Spider-Man 3 yet. Will soon, when it comes out on DVD, I'm hoping that the negative reviews I've seen will lower my expectations enough that I'll actually like it, like X3 and Revenge of the Sith. Alternatively I'll think even the critics are being too soft, like Superman Returns.

 

[SofaKing]

Transformers - picked it up on dvd saturday, love it

King Arthur - every time i've seen pieces of the movie on tv i was bored, but i finally got to sit down and watch the dvd yesterday and it actually wasn't that bad. decent epic movie.

 

[Systems_id]

Transformers - Picked this up on DVD and still love it althouh upon rewatching it I can see why haters dislike it. It really did have way too much (pointless) human interaction and missed golden oppurtunities to give the Decepticons more personality. Hopefully this will be rectified in Transformers 2.

The Decalogue - Holy crap...this series is excellent! The first episode remains one of the most depressing pieces of media I've ever experienced. The rest of the series is also awesome save for episode 7, which was a little boring and dragged a bit. Definately recommended.

Run Lola Run - Watched this in my film class and I liked it ok. At first it grated on my nerves with the grating techno and hyperkenetic feel but it slowly grew on me.

Michael Clayton - Saw this Saturday and I enjoyed it. I thought it'd be more corperate oriented instead of focusing on Clooney's character but oh well. Personally I thought the soundtrack was amazing.

 

[distantmantra]

The last two movies I saw were Lust, Caution and The Darjeeling Limited.

I rent maybe one or two movies a year, we're primarily theater goers.

 

[Auron_Kale]

I watch almost a movie every two days, so it's kinda tough to answer your question. But anyway, I watched The Wicker Man today, it was awful, Cage never looked this bad.

Wow, weird. My cousin saw this on movie on HBO yesterday but had to leave before the movie ended so as soon as she got home, we went to Blockbuster and she had to rent the movie (along with The Fountain). Not only did the movie terribly suck (I hadn't seen it but it was so horribly bad I wiki'd just to save myself the trouble of watching the rest of that crap movie) my cousin hated the movie (she dug what she had seen prior to the end).

 

[esbern]

Here's a list of what I have seen since this topic came up about a month ago.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - good
Knocked Up - meh
Ocean's Thirteen - meh
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At Worlds End - meh
Planet Terror - meh

just go straight down that list and you'll see my point

 

[rollingstart]

Ratatouille, it was quite good.

 

[C4Lukins]

Into the Wild: Worth a watch, but I was disappointed overall.

3:10 to Yuma: A lot of fun

The Lives of Others: Awesome Movie

Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer: Terrible

The Lookout: Highly overrated. Average at best.

Superbad: Very funny movie.

 

[LordMaji]

The Prestige

&

Pan's Labyrinth.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

I saw I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry last night with some friends. I found it pretty boring overall. It seemed really long for some reason.

And I also watched 28 Weeks Later a few days ago. People around here said it was horrible, but I enjoyed it. Pretty entertaining.

Tonight...maybe Blood Diamond. I've been meaning to see that for months.

 

[VistraNorrez]

I really can't believe people like Bridge to Terabithia. The acting is dreadful outside of the 2 lead kids (who were great and helped make the film watchable). The girl's parents were just so bad at portraying any emotion that I had to hold back laughter. Also, it was unrealistic in portraying school kids. How the fuck are they little shits outside of class, yet manage to be pitch perfect little singers that are harmonizing? I had no problems with the major plot development at the end, but the Music teacher plotline was absurd, teachers are fired over what she did, and they are told not to do things like that, no matter what. It was creepy. Ultimately, the script needed serious work, and the film needed a better casting director.

For a similar film

Spoiler

about death and friendship in a coming of age story with fantastic elements

I recommend Pan's Labyrinth. Which I would rather show children, even with it's violence and horrorific elements, than the dreck of Terabithia which is setting them up for a life of terrible film watching.

Anyway, I've seen The Masque of the Red Death and The Phantom of the Opera(25/29 hybrid) on the big screen. Both very good films, Red Death has a wonderful Vincent Price performance and great production values for a Corman flick. Opera has a with a great melodramatic Chaney performance accentuated by the famous makeup, but the directing is weak and the story schizoid in how it want's us to feel about Erik.

 

[Rabid Wolverine]

Mr Brooks.

Fucken A+ Flick!

 

[Walshicus]

Bought Serenity on HD-DVD a few days back and bloody hell am I annoyed...

... annoyed that I was stubborn enough to dismiss the series/movie for so long! Loved it. The worst thing is that this is the same thing that happened with me and Galactica; I had to be forced to watch the episode 33 before I fell in love with it.

 

[Windu]

Blade Runner - I had only seen bits and pieces of it before, very good movie.

 

[Jade Knight 08]

Blood Diamond
The Departed
The Prestige
Pan's Labyrinth
Superman Returns

Children of Men...... just saw the ending.
Flags of Our Fathers..... somewhere in the middle and bored me to tears!
The Pursuit of Happyness..... Will is awesome in that role!

 

[Vard]

Over the weekend I saw The Pianist, Amores Perros, and Spartacus all for the first time. I liked them all.

I also watched some of The Jerk since it was showing on Comedy Central. That movie will never get old.

 

[Barbacoatl]

Love it.

 

[Foreign Jackass]

Wages of Fear : 9.5/10 Excellent old French movie, very tense, well made, well acted, an action movie with great characters. Takes a little while to start, though.

Roger and Me : 8 / 10 Influential and funny, ultimately full of bullshit, but Michael Moore isn't worse than some of the most respectable documentarists at that.

Breach : 8 / 10 Good character-driven drama with touches of suspense, with another oscar caliber performance by one of the best actors working today, Chris Cooper.

 

[MaX_PL]

i just saw Hostel 2 last night and i think the ending is absolutely hilarious.

i now pronounce you chuck and larry was okay, but jessica biels role was lame.

 

[Civil]

The good and the bad I've recently seen:

The Host - A A korean import horror monster film that starts on a high note and never lets down. This is showing American studios what a monster movie should be. It shows you the villain right at the beginning of the movie, introduces lovable (yet strange) protagonists, and perfects the mood thoughout the film. Truely excellent.

Spiderman 3 - C- I finally got around to seeing this after never managing to make it into the theaters. I saw the potential for greatness here, especially with Venom/Symbiote and Sandman. Technically and visually, the movie was great. The special effects were top notch. Storywise, it was a bomb, you deal with Peter Parker's dark side and Mary Jane's failure, which just leads to a slow, uninteresting story with some very awkward performances. The DVD needs a "fan's cut" that only shows the action sequences and leaves out the other 95% unwatchable portion of the film.

Hard Boiled - A This is a Hong Kong import starring Chow Yun Fat, known in America for movies such as The Replacement Killers, and directed by John Woo, known for his signature style. This is the classic Hong Kong Blood Opera, a movie that simply revels in bloody over-the-top action filled gunfights. The body count is high, but it's done with a flashy flair that it's pure enjoyment. The story is your typical cop movie, but it's done to perfection.

Ghost Rider - D+ Nicholas Cage ruins this movie with some seriously sub-par acting. A comic book fan at heart, I'm sure he jumped at the chance to play Johnny Blaze, but the film just doesn't translate. Perhaps it will appeal to long time fans of the comic (I never read it), but to the casual viewer, it's a hoaky story backed up by some nice visuals that don't come close to saving the experience.

Surf's Up - B A beautiful CGI children's film about surfing penguins. I was skeptical, as I learned about this movie soon after seeing the absolutely horrible "Happy Feet", but was pleasantly surprised by this documentary-themed tale of a born-to-surf penguin who dreams of following in the footsteps of his idol. The visuals are spectacular, and the characters are likeable. I picked this up for my son, but it's one of his movies that I can actually watch with him and enjoy.

 

[Phobophile]

Shortbus: Poor excuse of a pretentious art *** movie to show hardcore sex. Completely boring 90 minutes.

 

[Corwood Rep]

Love it.

Brilliant stuff. A lot better than Baumbach's first movie, I might add.

 

[VALIS]

Mystics In Bali:

Really? I was SO looking forward to finally seeing this near-legendary (in certain circles) movie. Then again, I don't think you're as big a fan of exploitation type films as I am, if I remember.

You ever get around to watching The Wild Angels, and what did you think?

 

[DevelopmentArrested]

Michael Clayton: A-
Gone Baby Gone: A-

Going to see The Kingdom tomorrow.

 

[Mato]

The seeker: the dark is rising

Didn't know anything about this movie just went in and watched it. Boring and cheap. Not worth a watch.

 

[Jme]

The Simpsons Movie: I'm a lifelong Simpsons fan, so even if it was terrible I wouldn't know. Liked it but didn't love it.
Knocked Up: Watched it with my pregnant wife. We found it hilarious and spot on with some of the arguments.
Train Man: Densha Otoko: I enjoyed this a bit, although I knew the story before hand. Great acting I think.
The Number 23: Boring and predictable!
Epic Movie: Epic failure. (Of course I knew this going into it.)
TMNT (CGI): Does not capture my youth.
Hot Fuzz: Very funny. Very british.
A Scanner Darkly: I don't understand the hype. Sure it looks cool... now what?
Stranger than Fiction: Cute.
Superman Returns: Glad I didn't bother with the theatrical release.

 

[Cosmic Bus]

Really? I was SO looking forward to finally seeing this near-legendary (in certain circles) movie. Then again, I don't think you're as big a fan of exploitation type films as I am, if I remember.

Yes, don't let my opinion on this one put you off; as you say, I'm not nearly the follower of this genre as you are (though I did thoroughly enjoy Horrors of Malformed Men and Snake Woman's Curse recently) and often get swept up in an excellent review, wanting to get into these more than I actually will. Case in point: DVD Drive-In reviews Mystics In Bali. This monstrous head cold is affecting my enjoyment of almost everything as it is, and could've dragged things down for me, too.

I haven't yet watched Wild Angels, but the other movies in that set are pretty good, so it'll undoubtedly get into the player sometime this week.

 

[muttyeah416]

I've seen three movies in the past week and all of them were pretty great.

Into the Wild - This movie was simply moving and Hirsch acting was fricken awesome. I really like how Sean Penn interpreted the book even though the movie was pretty damn long. As an outsdoorsy nature lover, the eye candy in this movie blew me away.

Across the Universe - Exactly what I expected. It's basically renditions of Beatles songs to fit a mediocre plot sung by decent voices. The songs were pretty good and I loved the art direction of the movie espcially the part for Strawberry Fields Forever.

The Darjeeling Limited - In my opinion, I think this is one of Anderson's best work and easily his most beautiful film to date. The cast was pitch perfect and there were a lot less wtf moments. Everything made sense in a quirky Wes Anderson way. There's amazing panning scene of the train 3/4s way through.