Movies you've just watched

[CMoon]

BIL> I like the first half of Temple of Doom. If you stopped watching right when Indiana Jones drops down onto the platform where they rip the guys heart out, you would believe this is the best of the Indie films, but everything from there is right down the shitter. It's really too bad, because the first half feels like the big step forward that Empire was to Star Wars.

[CMoon]

Two Brothers.

I actually really liked that film for being in effect a classic children's story like something out of Kipling. Never was well received though.

[emphatic]

BIL> I like the first half of Temple of Doom. If you stopped watching right when Indiana Jones drops down onto the platform where they rip the guys heart out, you would believe this is the best of the Indie films, but everything from there is right down the shitter. It's really too bad, because the first half feels like the big step forward that Empire was to Star Wars.

http://fanedit.org/588/

The more controversial changes for this edit include the elimination of the gross-out parts of the cartoon-like “monkey brains” dinner scene, and the complete erasure of the (in my opinion) way over the top heart-ripping Human sacrifice scene.

[CMoon]

http://fanedit.org/588/

The more controversial changes for this edit include the elimination of the gross-out parts of the cartoon-like “monkey brains” dinner scene, and the complete erasure of the (in my opinion) way over the top heart-ripping Human sacrifice scene.

Goddamn! What's the point of that?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Factoid: It's been said it was the utilization of whipped cream with a few drops of red food coloring placed inside the monkey head props that gave it the realism of actually eating such monkey brains as a dessert. In some countries, it is considered a delicacy indeed.

The famous heart removal scene in IJ&TToD flick was the basis for it's PG-13 rating according to the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) board at the time of it's intial review/screening. Without a proper MPAA movie rating, said movie would've had a really hard time being distributed nationally.

Nowdays, if your movie doesn't pass muster with the current MPAA board with the required film edits and cuts, you're fucked big time if you want to get it distributed nationwide if you decide otherwise to show such a film unedited and uncut as originally intended. Or you could go with the smaller indy film distribution route by showing it at indy film festivals or released directly on DVD/Blu-Ray formats.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[drauch]

Two Brothers.

I actually really liked that film for being in effect a classic children's story like something out of Kipling. Never was well received though.

Yeah, I enjoyed Two Brothers as well, but it wasn't near as good as The Bear.

I love Temple of Doom, personally. I don't understand all the beef it gets.

[Skykid]

Just watched the lost 80's anime (apparently) Robot Carnival, a feature of short anime movies based around robot themes, headed up by Katsuhiro Otomo.

Where did you find it? It's not an easy film to come by.

My little brother got me a copy from somewhere for my birthday. I can only imagine he found it somewhere on the interweb, but yeah, it was my understanding that it's very difficult to find.

2 more for me (I watch a lot of movies:)

Hong Kong Hollywood:
After Dumplings being superb (the full length version) I decided to watch another Fruit Chan film. This one was pretty dark and had shades of Jeunet and Delicatessen with all of its Muchi Muchi Pork thematics - but I enjoyed it for its unique character, storytelling and cinematography, even if it wasn't quite on par with Dumplings.

Memories of Matsuko:
After being completely deflated by every Japanese live action movie going these days, I promised myself to dig out some good ones, and Memories of Matsuko had received bags of praise.
After ten minutes I was considering turning it off - it had a gross overuse of music and had too much energy for its own good - but I'm glad I stuck with it. It takes about fifteen minutes before actually kicking into gear and it turned out to be a really nicely made film. It was moving and thought provoking and I enjoyed.
It suffered briefly from the meandering, drawn out finale that plagues lots of Japanese films, but the last lines of dialogue claimed it so perfectly all was forgiven. Definitely recommended.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Just recently watch the 2006 released Tokyo! film that was jointly produced in both France and Japan. Interesting mixture of three short stories, especially with the pizza delivery gal whom has buttons on various part of her body. Press one of them and get the intended result/function. Even the first short story shown in the Tokyo! film about a Japanese wife that slowly transforms into a beautiful wooden chair has it's charms -- seems to fit into a Twlight Zone episode indeed. The second short story titled "Merde" seemed over the top with the underground dweller whoms seems hellbent on killing everybody -- does have a slight demented fetish for licking a girl's armpit in one particular key scene.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[CMoon]

Just saw the re-release of Avatar in 3D at the theatre yesterday (didn't catch it the first time.) I'd been warned off because of the sophomoric plot, but goddamn if this wasn't a fun flick. Sure, typically I enjoy things like complexity, subtlety, character development, but fuck it! I got to watch giant blue cat people riding fucking dinosaurs shooting bows and arrows at Duke Nukem. The plot even had some moments of genuine tenderness. Apparently Cameron wrote this when he was in middle school, and while that much is obvious, it somehow works in the movie's favor.

I think Ebert sums it up well comparing this movie to the experience of seeing Star Wars for the first time in the theatre. Similarly, Star Wars had a shallow plot that lacked the subtlety of a lot of films from the 70's, but sometimes a nice, simple plot combined with fantastic imagery makes for the perfect movie going experience. Avatar is another one of those experiences. It would be easy to write the big blue cat people movie off, but that would be dishonest, because once seated in the theatre, 3D goggles in place, it was an enormously entertaining ride.

[drauch]

I really enjoyed the 3D of Avatar, but that was about it. I'd go as far as saying that I hated the film itself, even. Towards the end the action was pretty neat but it couldn't save it for me...

[Skykid]

Just saw the re-release of Avatar in 3D at the theatre yesterday (didn't catch it the first time.) I'd been warned off because of the sophomoric plot, but goddamn if this wasn't a fun flick. Sure, typically I enjoy things like complexity, subtlety, character development, but fuck it! I got to watch giant blue cat people riding fucking dinosaurs shooting bows and arrows at Duke Nukem. The plot even had some moments of genuine tenderness. Apparently Cameron wrote this when he was in middle school, and while that much is obvious, it somehow works in the movie's favor.

I think Ebert sums it up well comparing this movie to the experience of seeing Star Wars for the first time in the theatre. Similarly, Star Wars had a shallow plot that lacked the subtlety of a lot of films from the 70's, but sometimes a nice, simple plot combined with fantastic imagery makes for the perfect movie going experience. Avatar is another one of those experiences. It would be easy to write the big blue cat people movie off, but that would be dishonest, because once seated in the theatre, 3D goggles in place, it was an enormously entertaining ride.

I actually enjoyed Avatar for what it was, a throwaway adventure that entertained for the duration and was quickly out of my mind soon after the lights had come up.

But Star Wars and Avatar? They're not even in the same ballpark. Star Wars is offended just by being quoted in the same sentence.

My pursuit of Japanese movies took a turn for the worse last night, as I ended up watching The Cove, that documentary that won the Oscar about the dolphin killing mafioso of Taiji.
Really good documentary cos it actually made me give a shit about dolphins and genuinely feel pretty aggrieved that that slaughter takes place so indiscriminately with the government's approval. I appreciate we slaughter cows and chickens by the truckload, but I'd still argue that we breed them for food, whereas dolphins are finite and should be globally protected.

And dolphins are really smart and cows and chickens are pretty stupid.

[CMoon]

Was Star Wars really that good? Personally I'd argue Empire is the only film closing in on greatness where Star Wars is just a fun romp that earned its status more because of its timing than anything else. In that sense, Avatar feels very much in the same camp. Does Star Wars even have room to be offended?

Funny you mention The Cove. I've had it sitting on my desk here for the last two months. I should watch it.

[gameoverDude]

The Expendables: Sylvester Stallone can still make a decent action film, and his supporting cast is good. The action scenes rocked but the camera needed to be a bit less shaky. Gore was almost on par with 2008's Rambo. It does have a decent share of witty one-liners. Close-quarters combat includes nice martial arts courtesy of Jet Li, Randy Couture's MMA, and a few spectacular knife kills. Not bad at all.

The Last Exorcism: This one was boring through the first third of the movie, and it didn't pick up that much or even seem that scary overall. I didn't care for the ending (too abrupt... what the hell?), and felt gypped out of $10. In fact, I almost considered walking out of this one midway through.

[Skykid]

The Expendables: Sylvester Stallone can still make a decent action film, and his supporting cast is good. The action scenes rocked but the camera needed to be a bit less shaky. Gore was almost on par with 2008's Rambo. It does have a decent share of witty one-liners. Close-quarters combat includes nice martial arts courtesy of Jet Li, Randy Couture's MMA, and a few spectacular knife kills. Not bad at all.

Lol, don't take offence (please!) but I so completely disagreed with every single point you made as I was reading your post, I had to chuckle and now I have to retort (I...can't... hold back!)
I had the unfortunate experience of losing money on a theatre ticket to see this the other day. Just to redress the balance:

Sylvester Stallone proved he fluked Rambo in 2008 cos he actually can't make two decent action films in a row, and the supporting cast was utterly useless in every respect (especially Statham who has the charisma, presence and ability of a gnat.) The action scenes were pretty flat apart from the last twenty minutes and were far too shaky to be appreciated, and the gore was no-way near on par with Rambo's crimson crescendo, hence the film is watered down to a 15 rating. The dialogue was appalling and the one liners were all round awful (those you could actually hear), the sort of shit a twelve year old comes up with. Worse still was that no-one could carry any of them off - even Stallone.

Seriously, the final hero line SPOILER AHEAD was actually the wrong way around! The guy says something like "you came all the way for me" and Stallone says "No, I came for the girl," and shoots him.
Wtf is that pussy shit? It's supposed to be Roberts saying "You came all this way for a girl?" and Stallone says, "No, I came here for you," then pump him full of lead. What idiot couldn't actually figure that out in the scripting process? SPOILER OVER

Jet-Li's martial arts were rubbish (he could hardly jump a barrel) and it was cut too fast for you to see any choreography anyway (although admittedly Statham pulled out a couple of nice knife attacks in the finale). The best character in the movie was an automatic shotgun - seriously.
On the whole I was sorely disappointed that I put my faith in Stallone after Rambo and he went and made the exact reboot movie I wanted to see, but got it horribly wrong on every note. Flat, unfunny, weak shit, and not the good kind of shit you were expecting from an 80's action throwback.

Funny you mention The Cove. I've had it sitting on my desk here for the last two months. I should watch it.

Do that.

(Star Wars is much better than Avatar because it just is, nostalgia aside.)

[emphatic]

Sylvester Stallone proved he fluked Rambo in 2008 cos he actually can't make two decent action films in a row, and the supporting cast was utterly useless in every respect (especially Statham who has the charisma, presence and ability of a gnat.) The action scenes were pretty flat apart from the last twenty minutes and were far too shaky to be appreciated, and the gore was no-way near on par with Rambo's crimson crescendo, hence the film is watered down to a 15 rating. The dialogue was appalling and the one liners were all round awful (those you could actually hear), the sort of shit a twelve year old comes up with. Worse still was that no-one could carry any of them off - even Stallone.

[...]

Jet-Li's martial arts were rubbish (he could hardly jump a barrel) and it was cut too fast for you to see any choreography anyway (although admittedly Statham pulled out a couple of nice knife attacks in the finale). The best character in the movie was an automatic shotgun - seriously.

^^this shit is so true. I thought it would be a kick-ass action flick (I'm never trusting Harry Knowles again) but was sorely disappointed. That chick painter wasn't even hot.

[1up]

just watched primer for the first time. its crazy how much you have to focus to keep up with this movie. the last 20mins made almost no sense to me. and the ending left me with a big wtf. will need some time to process what i just watched and maybe watch it another time.

[drauch]

I call hella lame on the stallone bashing post. Disagree with it all.

[CMoon]

"Are you surprised by my tears Mr. Lebowski?
Grown men also cry!"

Damn, just finished watching my download of Nankyoku monogatari AKA Antarctica, AKA the film '8 below' was an adaptation of. Based off a true story, a Japanese antarctic research base is forced to abandon their working dogs. The film splits between the attempts by the dogs to survive, and how the people who left deal with their own emotions.

I should not be surprised that this film works much, much better as a Japanese film, not just because it is the original, but because aspects of the film are extensions of Japanese culture. I haven't seen 8 below in a long time, but thought when I first saw it that I wanted to see the original--I mean, can a live action Disney film actually be good? Nankyoku monogatari feels part documentary and it is very long. Excellent score by Vangelis and occasionally well crafted shots that are allowed to linger. Probably the voice over could be curtailed, but it served its purpose.

There's a few awkward moments possibly generated by me not being Japanese, but overall it was a really beautiful film. It is also a truly lost film. You can't get this in the US or in English legitimately. For those who like this topic (survival films, films about animals), this is probably worth using your pirate-bay skillz.

[Skykid]

I call hella lame on the stallone bashing post. Disagree with it all.

There was no Stallone bashing post, just an Expendables bashing post.

If we're talking about 08 Rambo I could sing the guy's praises all day. The gulf of difference in quality between the two films is so vast it's a wonder so many people are blind to it.

[Acid King]

There was no Stallone bashing post, just an Expendables bashing post.

If we're talking about 08 Rambo I could sing the guy's praises all day. The gulf of difference in quality between the two films is so vast it's a wonder so many people are blind to it.

I guess that "so many people" includes the whole community of movie reviewers because as it stands the Expendables has a slightly higher score on rotten tomatoes than Rambo does. Not only that, but there's an appreciable difference among top critics, where the Expendables has an 11 point edge on Rambo.

[TLB]

I watched Escape from LA around 22 hours ago, and it was basically an instant top 5 favorite. Especially after having seen Escape from New York. The Tool and Gravity Kills and White Zombie and what-have-you in the soundtrack helped A LOT, but seriously. Kurt Russell. Snake Fuckin' Plissken. What is not to love?

[Skykid]

There was no Stallone bashing post, just an Expendables bashing post.

If we're talking about 08 Rambo I could sing the guy's praises all day. The gulf of difference in quality between the two films is so vast it's a wonder so many people are blind to it.

I guess that "so many people" includes the whole community of movie reviewers because as it stands the Expendables has a slightly higher score on rotten tomatoes than Rambo does. Not only that, but there's an appreciable difference among top critics, where the Expendables has an 11 point edge on Rambo.

Lol! And I suppose someone's going to tell me that's valid right?

Just another reason never to listen to shit talking movie critics, it was their fault I actually missed Rambo in theatres.

[1up]

just watched primer for the first time. its crazy how much you have to focus to keep up with this movie. the last 20mins made almost no sense to me. and the ending left me with a big wtf. will need some time to process what i just watched and maybe watch it another time.

after a good nights sleep and a day home from the job because of the runs, Ive had some time to think about this. Actually a little scary the way they travel back in time. It seems thats they are only able to go so far each time, so they 'assault/kidnap' themselves after traveling back, putting themselves in a newly built time machine and give the other selves instructions on tape on what to do when they wake up. Does that make sense?

I dont get why one of them said that he would stay and not go further back? was he getting too paranoid/scared??

edit:
I loved the expendables. I thought statham was a little out of place, but it was an overall good action movie. plot was 'commando' with Sly in the lead and it felt like the 80s special fx looked like the new Rambo movie but not as much gore.

[Acid King]

Lol! And I suppose someone's going to tell me that's valid right?

Just another reason never to listen to shit talking movie critics, it was their fault I actually missed Rambo in theatres.

It's an aggregate and thus more representative of what people actually think of the movies so yes, it would be a more valid measure of the quality of the movie. Personal tastes have to be considered when reading reviews but that's a given for anything. I like that you blame them for making you miss Rambo though.

[neorichieb1971]

The Expendables -

Average flick imo. Shakey cam deluxe. Only one or two action scenes. Everyone got some air time but the overall experience came across shoddy. The most lacking thing in the movie was excitement and addrenalin. It was just flat. I can't give it more than 6/10.

[Skykid]

The Expendables -

Average flick imo. Shakey cam deluxe. Only one or two action scenes. Everyone got some air time but the overall experience came across shoddy. The most lacking thing in the movie was excitement and addrenalin. It was just flat. I can't give it more than 6/10.

Yes.

It's an aggregate and thus more representative of what people actually think of the movies so yes, it would be a more valid measure of the quality of the movie. Personal tastes have to be considered when reading reviews but that's a given for anything. I like that you blame them for making you miss Rambo though.

No.

There is absolutely nothing anyone is going to say that will convince me that the Rotten Tomatoes scoring has accurately placed the Expendables above Rambo because one, I'm not a total fool, and two, the Expendables is actually shit and Rambo's actually good.

It's really this simple: Rotten Tomatoes is 100% wrong and I'm 100% right.

[CMoon]

Just watched The Road. As a fan of the book I was really surprised how decent an adaptation this was. It clearly isn't, nor can it be a substitute for the book, but it gets to a lot of the same themes effectively, and sometimes poetically. I was really convinced the visuals couldn't work (the book is constant raining ash, there is no sun, and you imagine the characters as though they are coal miners.) Clearly they couldn't do that here, but it still works pretty well. The film has an interesting look of its own that is bleak, but not artless.

Anyway, here's a good one if you're looking for a hopeless, depressing, yet somehow spiritual movie about the end of the world

[linko9]

I remember listening to The Road on tape while driving from MD to MO with my dad in the middle of winter. Very effective setting for experiencing that book

I saw the expendables recently too. Not bad, but the shotgun comment is dead on. Very disappointed in the fight cinematography (was there a 1 second rule? Change to a different camera every second?) And for a testosterone-filled action movie, they sure did pick an unattractive (by movie star standards) female lead. Loved the plane escape scene. That and the autoshotgun scene were the best in the movie.

[Mero]

I saw Maniac a few days ago. Not really a relentless slash-fest as such, it has a kind of 'art house' quality to it at times. It was OK.

[Skykid]

Just watched The Road. As a fan of the book I was really surprised how decent an adaptation this was. It clearly isn't, nor can it be a substitute for the book, but it gets to a lot of the same themes effectively, and sometimes poetically. I was really convinced the visuals couldn't work (the book is constant raining ash, there is no sun, and you imagine the characters as though they are coal miners.) Clearly they couldn't do that here, but it still works pretty well. The film has an interesting look of its own that is bleak, but not artless.

Anyway, here's a good one if you're looking for a hopeless, depressing, yet somehow spiritual movie about the end of the world

I haven't read the book but I really liked the movie. It was handled really well I thought.