Movies you've just watched

[DEL]

End of Watch. From the man who brought us Training Day and my other firm favourite Street Kings.
I was worried that it would be shaky-cam hell, but it wasn't.
Good film. I particularly liked Pena's reply to "Would you let your daughter get a burner when she grows up?" - "Hell yeah, I'd want her to be able to protect herself."

[system11]

Mama - ****

It's been a while since I've seen a good ghost story, this one is just that - made like they used to be (aside from the CGI effects of course). Solid story, solid acting, plenty of scares even if some of them are cheap jumps.

[MommysBestGames]

Just finished Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai. I had previously tried to watch Dead Man but ending up stopping to get some sleep and haven't been back. Not sure if I'll finish that one.
But Ghost Dog was weird, interesting, and still very watchable. The reoccurring themes and original characters were great. I also really liked the instrumental soundtrack by the RZA. I don't listen to his/Wu-Tang music but I liked the different instruments used and odd beats. Not usually big into rap, but I liked this. Does Wu-Tang make instrumental music in addition to rapping? Is it similar or was this sound a one-off for this movie? Sort of reminded me of a harsher version of Samurai Champloo/Nujabes music. I'll probably end up checking into this.

[BIL]

Tyrannosaur (2011). Aging, rudderless, boozing powderkeg Peter Mullan tries to turn his bad life around with the help of Olivia Colman's kindly charity shop worker, gets drawn into her own horrific domestic circumstances. Sink estate drama directed by Paddy Considine, whose lead role in Dead Man's Shoes (2004) drew me here. Shares that film's downbeat setting, intimate direction and bleak though faintly optimistic outlook, but none of its single-minded narrative intensity or catharsis. It's a more grounded, introspective story, with a far less sympathetic protagonist. Not the easiest watch, justifiably so. Mullan and Colman are both excellent throughout.

[xris]

Just watched Only God Forgives. This reminded me so much of Beyond the Black Rainbow, absolutely gorgeous, slow moving and droning, shockingly confusing, and not that good. But, good enough that you'll remember it, even if you hated it, and maybe watch a couple more times in your life. Or, you'll love it, obsessively rewatch it, and possibly be psychotic.

Edit - The movie's plot is actually pretty straight forward, not confusing. It's the slow hyper stylistic feel that is purposely making you uncomfortable that sends you brain reeling into confusion. It could end up a standout movie that people talk about for a number of reasons. One of the fights is definately going to be like that for me.

[iconoclast]

Noroi. I usually don't watch horror movies that feature supernatural things like ghosts or spirits (I strongly prefer psychological or sci-fi horror), but I really enjoyed this one. The only thing that irked me about it is one scene toward the end that completely broke my suspension of disbelief: Hori pushes his way into Kobayashi's home and starts attacking their recently adopted son with a rock; Kobayashi continues to film the struggle (which includes his wife!) instead of dropping the camera to help subdue Hori. I guess that's one of the pitfalls of a 'found footage' film, so I can't be too hard on it. 8/10

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

So, thank you MOSQUITO FIGHTER, for introducing me to a recent favourite of mine through the power of you loathing it!

Yeah, sure anytime man. I watched Mega Python vs. Gatoroid. It stars 80s teeybopper idols Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. Neither of whom can act worth a shit. At least Tiffany has very ample boobies. That's about all the movie has going for it though. Really bad movie. The plot is awful. Don't know why but I'm only interested in bad movies lately.

[Moniker]

End of Watch. From the man who brought us Training Day and my other firm favourite Street Kings.
I was worried that it would be shaky-cam hell, but it wasn't.
Good film. I particularly liked Pena's reply to "Would you let your daughter get a burner when she grows up?" - "Hell yeah, I'd want her to be able to protect herself."

I liked this one as well. Not amazing, but a good solid B+. Michael Pena rulz - was able to deliver with perfect well-meaning sincerity, "You are my brother, but you're also a piece of shit."

I'm hoping for a director's cut sans the shaky cam. Didn't really serve any useful purpose.

[lilmanjs]

That Thing You Do (Extended Cut)
I enjoy the original version of the movie a good bit, and the extended cut of this actually is one of the few I've seen where you notice how hard it had to be to cut a lot of stuff out. Some doesn't really work well, but 95% of the 40 extra minutes works very well. Great movie made even better.

[rapoon]

Just watched Only God Forgives. This reminded me so much of Beyond the Black Rainbow, absolutely gorgeous, slow moving and droning, shockingly confusing, and not that good. But, good enough that you'll remember it, even if you hated it, and maybe watch a couple more times in your life. Or, you'll love it, obsessively rewatch it, and possibly be psychotic.

Edit - The movie's plot is actually pretty straight forward, not confusing. It's the slow hyper stylistic feel that is purposely making you uncomfortable that sends you brain reeling into confusion. It could end up a standout movie that people talk about for a number of reasons. One of the fights is definately going to be like that for me.

I had been following this film months prior to release. fuck, months prior to a trailer. I made the mistake of reading reviews on IMDB the day of limited release. I didn't find it confusing but there's certainly a high level of ambiguity at the end (I'd be interested in your interpretation). Opening credits in Thai, shot (beautifully) in Thailand and the raw violence Refn implements. Other aspects fail miserably: is no one in a hurry? Everything is so goddamn slow. Aside from the mother, acting is non-existent. Gosling hardly says a thing which isn't necessarily bad other than the fact no one else is talking. I was uncomfortable during certain scenes as well (an aussie and his titty bar...) After the first watch, I felt like I was missing something (same after Valhalla Rising). A second view polished it up a bit. It's certainly a love or hate film and whatever your reasons, it's unlikely they'll be the same as others.


The Act of Killing - Texas Filmmaker Josh Oppenheimer goes to Indonesia to confront many of the individuals (all free) responsible for atrocities committed in Indonesia mid-60's. Oppenheimer convinces the commanders to reenact mass executions of men, women and children, flaunt the most effective means of killing someone while shedding the least amount of blood, all in a theatrical methodology that's interesting and unbelievably depressing. Extremely difficult to watch.

[xris]

I think he was checking the post office to see if he mailed himself a package?
My confusion was more along the lines of shock over the characters. And where the hell did that guy keep pulling a machete from?
I loved Gosling's fight, completely unexpected. Very few films have ever done that.
It's a good film, just not a friendly one. I wonder how it's gone over in Thailand.

[Acid King]

Knuckleball - A documentary about baseball's most elusive and seldom used pitch. For those unfamiliar with the knuckelball, it's a pitch thrown largely with the tips of the fingers and finger nails. The pitch is generally slow, 50-60 mph but because idea of the picth is to put as little spin as possible on the ball, the pitch behaves very erratically with very unpredicatble breaks and curves. Sometimes it's unhittable, other times it's like batting practice. The movie follows and profiles modern knuckleballers like Tim Wakefield and RA Dickey, as well as delve in to the history of the pitch and well known knuckleballers like Charlie Hough and Phil Niekro. Definitely worth a watch for baseball fans.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Lokis.



Pretty dense air of dementia in this one. The reading of Prosper Mérimée novella, however, is a bit too confined to XIXth century's infatuation with "primitives" for my liking. I mean the way it blames civilisation for insanity and soltitude of human beings.
No wonder the director got awarded in Sitges, though. Some beautiful filmmaking right there. Interestingly, it's very much shot like a "video horror" (Alien and so on)... almost a decade before VHS epoque. I just don't recall seeing this kind of photography in fantasy cinema of earlier times. Even Repulsion was shot more typically of its time.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Who's going to see this one?

SHARKNADO - Official Asylum Trailer - TOO VIOLENT FOR TV??

[lilmanjs]

Tampopo.
Best movie I've seen in ages, and I wondered what a comedy about food would be like from Juzo Itami. I can say there's a great main storyline in this movie, and enough wackiness that has nothing to do with the main storyline and randomly popping up at times to keep you off guard. Easily one of the best movies I've ever seen. If you've not seen this, shame on you!

[blackoak]

Finally got around to seeing The Exorcist. Typical of good movies of this period, the pacing and atmosphere were great. It felt like it was made for adults: adequately slow, no pandering, very natural dialogue. You still see movies with atmosphere today, but often feels gimmicky because realism is eschewed both stylistically and structurally (see: the done-to-death "what is real" theme). Too much atmosphere==drawing attention to atmosphere==a loss of atmosphere... and the moreso if the movie is stupid in other ways. Anyway, its always satisfying to me to see something that can be very atmospheric yet still take place within the "normal" world.

Unfortunately The Exorcist inevitably fell into its own Christian trappings in the third act. Can a horror movie really be effective if it unfolds within the explanatory (ie. anti-horror) framework of Catholicism? Probably not for me. I also thought it was an odd dramatic choice to bring Father Merrin in for the confrontation. The earlier scenes with Karras talking to the demon were far more interesting than the "lets read scripture at it" climax. The whole loss of faith, doubt, secular vs religious interpretations of reality... all that was kind of dropped.

I also watched Zardoz last week (actually, my inspiration for watching The Exorcist was because Boorman directed the maligned sequel, which I'll be watching soon). I liked it a lot, even if the themes were all over the map. Visually it was great, and the (mostly) unwinking sincerity and many legitimately good fx/shots helped smooth over the cheese of the lower budget stuff. My friend remarked that if this had been animated it would probably have been more readily accepted.

And finally I saw Cat Soup. Not too much to say, the minimalistic darkness of the comics is somewhat tempered here by surrealism... no complaints though.

[Randorama]

I just got back from Pacific Rim. Awesome in all respects, but a few things left me perplexed:

1. The female lead can't act. Maybe that's why she played the deaf and mute part, before?
2. The Ozzie pilots actors could have made the effort of speaking Australian English, not british (southern? south-western?) English?
3. No real lines for the Russian and Chinese pilots? Bad choice.
4. Ron Perlman has not enough screen time.

The shark-like kaju is based on goblin sharks, much like "eternal triangle" from G. Darius.

Now, if we can get a sequel or twelve, it wouldn't be bad.

Edit:

5. The kaju attacking Sydney destroyed the skyscraper I lived in, dammit.

[Skykid]

Snowpiercer

Yeah, odd one. A Korean movie with a Western cast based on a French graphic novel. Liked the concept, but the execution lacked a little. A lot of it felt forced from a dramatic perspective, and ended up distinctly lacking realism. It is purely comic book fare, and to that end it's got plenty of enjoyable aspects, and some badly filmed but fairly engaging action and set-piece ideas. The entire thing on a train is cool, and the casting was good, with good turns from John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell and the token Korean star. The dialogue is mostly trash and the cgi really low budget for such a big movie, leaving a plasticky sheen on things. You could feel the foreign directing in there, which was both to its credit in that it felt quite unique and more entertaining for it, and to its detriment in that there was a lackk of actor and script control, and a ton of stupidity in terms of plot holes and people doing dumb things like trying to stop engine gears by using their arms. The ending is a damp squib, too, abrupt and underwhelming.

I enjoyed it, probably more because it didn't have those boring Hollywood characteristics, but it's very disposable nonetheless. Would recommend to sci-fi fans and folk wanting something alternative.

[DEL]

Moniker wrote (RE: End of Watch);

I liked this one as well. Not amazing, but a good solid B+. Michael Pena rulz - was able to deliver with perfect well-meaning sincerity, "You are my brother, but you're also a piece of shit."

I'm hoping for a director's cut sans the shaky cam. Didn't really serve any useful purpose.

Agreed, a good solid B+.

Rando wrote;

Edit:

5. The kaju attacking Sydney destroyed the skyscraper I lived in, dammit.
I just got back from Pacific Rim. Awesome in all respects, but a few things left me perplexed:

1. The female lead can't act. Maybe that's why she played the deaf and mute part, before?
2. The Ozzie pilots actors could have made the effort of speaking Australian English, not british (southern? south-western?) English?
3. No real lines for the Russian and Chinese pilots? Bad choice.
4. Ron Perlman has not enough screen time.

The shark-like kaju is based on goblin sharks, much like "eternal triangle" from G. Darius.

Now, if we can get a sequel or twelve, it wouldn't be bad.

Edit:

5. The kaju attacking Sydney destroyed the skyscraper I lived in, dammit.

Ok I'll check Pacific Rim. I owe it to sacrificed Cory Monteith at the very least .
--------------------------------------
Took ARH to see Despicable Me Zwei.
Not as good as the first, but its fine for the youngsters.

[system11]

Oz the Great and Powerful - ***

Typically enjoyable Disney flick, I liked what they did with the story regardless of how predictable it was.

[boagman]

Oz the Great and Powerful - ***

Typically enjoyable Disney flick, I liked what they did with the story regardless of how predictable it was.

I was honestly surprised by how well I liked this one. Don't much care for any of the stars in it, but Raimi once again proves that he knows how to put together a very good movie when he has the chance. Some of the best production values I've seen in quite some time, start-to-finish. I was more than just entertained...I was actually impressed as well. That doesn't happen all that often.

[Edmond Dantes]

Prince of Persia the Sands of Time - ***1/2

Decent action flick, genuinely enjoyable video game based movie. It's nothing special, but its worth at least one watch.

Trying to find a cheap copy of The Sum of All Fears to see if its as bad as I remember.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Only God Forgives

Watched this yesterday and I'm still not sure if I like it or not. Slow, ponderous but beautifully shot and the score is incredible. Verges on self-parody at times which caused me to laugh during several scenes that weren't supposed to be funny (I think). Could definitely have done with less shots of Ryan Gosling staring blankly at stuff and bizarre karaoke scenes. Several people walked out during the screening I was in and I can understand why. Having said all that though I would definitely watch it again and I've really enjoyed seeing other people's opinions on it. Bizarre and devisive is probably the best way I can describe it.

[Obiwanshinobi]

What is this 3D motorcycle game featured in the 2nd Cracker episode?



Watched some episodes on the TV years ago, but it seems even better now as I watch it in larger chunks. The reason why it seems so underappreciated in hindsight may be that it doesn't quite fit the TV show format. In a way it's too good for television. Never exploitative, never cutting corners. Not a phony detective show like Twin Peaks either. Nothing "post-" about it. The main difference between depicted world and our world is that the characters are allowed to cry while we are not.

[BIL]

*squint* Riding Hero by SNK? No wait, that's a "SEGA" logo.

[trap15]

That would be Racing Hero by Sega.

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

[BIL]

Holy shit, nice tunes! Think I'll grab that Sega Motorcycle album now...

[Obiwanshinobi]

Heh, I don't think it's a coincidence he wasn't playing a violent game.
Boy, do I remember those times better than most recent ones.

[drauch]

Prince of Persia the Sands of Time - ***1/2

Decent action flick, genuinely enjoyable video game based movie. It's nothing special, but its worth at least one watch.

That's a pretty high rating for something described as "decent, nothing special, and worth at least one watch."

[lilmanjs]

Unbowed Cop.
The packaging, summary and pics used all portray a movie that is quite different than what it is. They make it out to be a revenge flick with lots of action, and that's not really what it was. You have a cop who was betrayed by his best friend, and went off to save his girlfriend all on his own. Got kicked off the force and the movie then picks up 10 years later with him running a small seafood restaurant. There are spurts of action at times, but this is mostly a drama movie with a nice sized final action sequence. I enjoyed it for what it was. A good cop drama.