Movies you've just watched

[CMoon]

Fantastic Mr Fox - unmistakable Anderson, and without being dumbed down or littered with fart jokes just because it retells a story aimed at children. Neither did all the characters perpetually shout at one another like they might in, say, Shrek nor climb the walls with inexplicable and boundless hyperactivity (although they did tunnel at quite a pace! ), which again was refreshing. I was intrigued throughout, and adored the visual style. See it if you like either the original Roald Dahl story, or Wes Anderson films.

I'm not trying to reply to every post in this thread, but seriously, this was my favorite film of 2009. I must have seen the film 5 times now. Just an absolute feel good flick. Its really clear Wes knew exactly what he was doing and what he was trying to accomplish. As good a job at capturing those nostalgic feelings of our childhood on celluloid as I think can possibly be achieved. A-fucking-plus!

[KindGrind]

Was indeed amazing.

[Acid King]

I watched the Square and the Expendables over the holiday weekend. The Square is a well done noir in the Postman Always Rings Twice tradition of hardboiled unraveling scheme movies. I really disliked the first sequence in the Expendables, the violence and the thermal images looked so bad I was preparing for the rest of the movie to be just as unappealing, but I enjoyed it. There are a handful of other really poorly done effects that bothered me, but I enjoyed it as a shallow, lighthearted action movie.

[drauch]

Paprika is a good flick. Out of all his movies I've only seen it and Perfect Blue, and Paprika stands out a bit more for me.

Nausicaa is life.

[gum_drops]

Just finished watching The Agony and the Ecstasy with Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison. Tells the story of Michelangelo and his work on the Sistine Chapel. A very solid 8/10 and still holds up rather well 45 years later. Beautiful shots and scenery (filmed in Italy), and strong dynamics/tension between Heston and Harrison are what really drove the movie. It didnt do too well at the box office at release, one of those movies that has become more appreciated as it has aged.

[Skykid]

Rampage: Steaming pile of shit through and through.

Buried: Very good indeed with only minor weaknesses. Highly recommended.

Tron Legacy: Not great but has enough redeeming features to make it worthy of a cinema viewing.

Game of Death (40 minutes recovered footage version): Incredible lost footage of Bruce Lee at his absolute best. You have to watch this (and then will yourself to forget that Golden Harvest/Hollywood bullshit film they released after he croaked.)

[jonny5]

Rampage: Steaming pile of shit through and through.

Really? I thought it was quite heart warming.

[burgerkingdiamond]

Book of Eli
I really really liked it. Like Fallout 3 in movie form. Altough the huge plot twist was given away by some asshole on the radio a couple weeks ago as I was flipping through stations.

Black Swan
Pretty dark movie. I like it a lot. The reviews compare it to a lot of other stuff I've never seen. Mostly Kubrick movies, of which I've only seen A Clockwork Orange, and Eyes Wide Shut.

[KindGrind]

Watched a few things this week:

The White Ribbon
Mesmerizing throughout, definitely among the best of 2009. Slow-paced, enigmatic tale of rural life in pre-WW1 Germany. But it's so much more than that...

The Road
Hardcore, depressing to no end... a few scenes will stay with me forever. Although I was kind of expecting more from it, I found it pretty good. Definitely hard to watch, and I've watched my fair share of hard to watch stuff. Not gory or anything, just thematically depressing.

Inception
Excellent entertainment. This was my second viewing, and I found the dialogues to be quite predictable and shallow. Despite that minor gripe, the movie is a great ride throughout.

[DEL]

So I finally got round to Primer. I then went onto a forum featuring guys that explain it. A way down the thread one guy says:

holy god my head hurts...

The next guy says: "I concur".
Me too, it gets convoluted and silly. They mess around with the overlaps and do what I would call unnecessary things. I will not spoil (in fact, the movie spoils itself nicely enough without my help).

[Aquas]

Watched a few things this week:
Inception
Excellent entertainment.

Agreed. I loved the suspended in air fighting scene with Joseph "that guy from Third rock from the sun" Gordon-Levitt, while the van was mid-air. He's really come up as an actor, eh? That being said, Inception was pretty reminiscent of The Matrix. I'll have to watch it again sometime and try to pick up some of the smaller details.

Another cool movie I saw with him in it was Brick (2005), a telling of sophisticated teenagers who get mixed up with drugs. But more so about Gordon-Levitt's character who's determined to dig deeper to the source of the drug, which his girlfriend got messed up with. Good shit, the dialogue was cool. Recommended.

Watched Tropic Thunder yesterday. Holy fuck this movie was funny. Great reflection of American / hollywood culture with zany meta-moments of realization from the characters whom are movie actors, thrown into a reality movie where they are soldiers dropped into a jungle next to a heroin producing mercenary camp. Highly entertaining. Some of the dialogue is just so out there, the humour is astounding.

[emphatic]

Fantastic Mr. Fox - 5/5

I already loved Wes Anderson's films, but this was just terrific.

[Acid King]

I just watched Wet Hot American Summer for the first time in a few years. Awesome stuff.

[neorichieb1971]

Tron Legacy - 9/10

Pacing issues in the middle. Good beginning, Great ending.

[GaijinPunch]

I've been on a tear:

Tron Legacy: Excellent. It reminds you some movies must be seen in the theater.
Inception (again): Good...
Prestige: If for no other reason, the recreation of the time makes it worth seeing. And David Bowie was outstanding in his small roll
Buried: Yes, very good. Surprising to see a what appeared to be a Hollywood budget film w/ such a risky (profit wise) premise. Ryan Reynolds should do more of this and less Green Arrow.
The Town: Awesome... and the nod to "Heat" was classy.

[DEL]

Just watched the Doc Restrepo. Its a must-see.

Also watched Devil. Not bad but not great either.

[GaijinPunch]

Also watched Devil. Not bad but not great either.

Coincidence... just watched it myself. Felt the same. Glad I watched it, wouldn't really watch it again.

[kernow]

I watched Piranha (the remake).

It was terrible, except there were tits and ass everywhere!

Go watch it!

[mesh control]

Buried: Yes, very good. Surprising to see a what appeared to be a Hollywood budget film w/ such a risky (profit wise) premise. Ryan Reynolds should do more of this and less Green Lantern.

fixed.

[RGC]

.

[Stormwatch]

Last week I finally saw the '09 Star Trek. It's full of plot holes and insane coincidences. Awful.

[Slump]

The Town: Awesome... and the nod to "Heat" was classy.

Yeah, The Town was a pretty good movie. I have a friend who was actually in it. He was one of the stadium workers (He does turf management there) in the background during a few scenes at Fenway. Got a small check and everything for it.

Also, I watched Black Swan last week and was impressed. Very dark film and Natalie Portman was excellent as always. I am growing a little tired of Aronofsky's style but I have to say the camera work during the opening dance scene and Black Swan dance at the end was incredible.

Also watched Tron: Legacy in 3D imax and was impressed by the effects and music but rather bored with the story. Finally caught Inception on DVD as well just a few days ago and it was OK. Some clever ideas and fancy effects made it entertaining all the way through for me which is impressive since it seemed like a decently long film.

[Acid King]

The Fourth Kind - Interesting premise destroyed by shitty direction.

[emphatic]

Last night I saw The Other Guys. The humour is really crazy and I loved it. 4/5. "You learned to dance sarcastically?!"

[borislaw]

Saw True Grit with my family over break. It was really good. A pretty standard revenge-western. The big-name actors and the fact that the central character is a young girl give the movie more mainstream appeal than your typical western type. A well-made movie.

Also watched a Russian movie on Netflix called "4". The first twenty or thirty minutes are pretty normal. Soon however the film descends into a bizarre, almost surreal nightmare resembling a bad acid trip -- yet I simply could not turn away.

Lastly, Pirate Radio was on HBO, so I watched that. Pretty good comedy. The soundtrack wasn't as good as I expected; conversely, the movie was better than anticipated.

[RGC]

.

[CMoon]

Saw True Grit with my family over break. It was really good. A pretty standard revenge-western. The big-name actors and the fact that the central character is a young girl give the movie more mainstream appeal than your typical western type. A well-made movie.

Funny, I only agree with your points that it is really good and well made. I find the 'revenge' part executed in an odd, stilted manner with certainly nothing in the way of a vengence 'payoff'. You probably just meant, that like other westerns, the motivation is one of vengence, I suppose.

I also don't get how having most of the screen time dominated by an uppity 14 year old girl and a grizzly old drunkard gives it more mainstream appeal. I don't know about this mainstream you speak of. I have to assume, when they made True Grit in the 60's, part of the reason for upping the age of the protaganist was to give the audience a more attractive (and sexually developed) actress to rest their eyes on.

[Skykid]

Watched the Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus last night. Gilliam's convoluted excesses may not be to everyone's tastes, but this is one of his better movies, and I love the guy's vision. The visuals are inspired and the characters are equally interesting, from Ledger and his stand ins, the Garfield kid who's about to be Spider Man and even Lily Cole, who all things considered did okay. It all feels like a dark and baroque Covent Garden and I love that about it, despite its failings here and there.
Word of advice, don't watch the Blu-Ray. I found the CG elements a little overpowering by the end anyway and much prefer his actual set designing, but on Blu-ray it's so clean it all looks a little too fake.

[CMoon]

Man Man Man Man Mannnnnnnnnn Hunterrrrrrrrrrrr (1986)

I don't know whether my attraction is to the putrid 80's themselves, the virtually nihilistic filming style commanded by Michael Mann here or the bizarre connection to another enigmatic love affiar of mine, To Live and Die in LA (also featuring William Peterson as the main roll.) This is the prequel to Silence of the Lambs, but don't judge it based on that. There's still a Klaus Schultz track here and a few other vestiges of The Keep (including an visual fascination with stark white backgrounds.) All these things (80's, Mann, Peterson) come together to make a pretty damn good movie in my mind. Certainly its the sort of film you might not be able to explain to others. There's a general 'throw-away' sensibility, emphasized with an incredibly superficial 80's pop soundtrack. There's a lot else going on there with the film work (including quick edits) that I don't know how to put into words. Like To Live and Die in LA, the general feeling seems to be to push you away. The problem is, the more it pushes, the more I want to push back

ehem, maybe this is my problem

Edit: No, it isn't streaming on netflix you lazy goof fer nothin' mofos!

[Skykid]

Did Michael Mann do Manhunter? Wow, he has actually made one decent movie then.