Movies you've just watched

[lilmanjs]

Badges of Fury.
This turned out to not be what I expected it to be, but I did laugh quite a bit. Jet Li shows he's still got the movies and can be a funny actor. Good comedy bits that didn't seem forced and some of the special effects were done nicely in a way that fit into the movie, even if done a few million times before on some of them. Good action, good comedy and recommended.

[system11]

The Place Beyond The Pines - *****

Wow. What a great film!

[BIL]

Split Second: Awesome post-apocalyptic action creature flick. The ending sucked though and didn't make any sense considering all the buildup. The "bigger guns" scene has to be one of the best freakout moments in film history.

Word, that whole confrontation fucking blew. Fun movie otherwise though, I like how they clearly weren't above a little levity. Some good laughs in there. "DOCTORS DON'T KNOW SHIT!" Found body parts in your house, Mr. homicide detective? Throw 'em out the window quick! Rutger Hauer's always great, good buddy act with DICK DAGLER or whatever his nerdy sidekick was called. Pete Postlethwaite too!

Liked the ambiguously demonic/eco-menace/gangsta thug monster, I appreciate a little uncertainty in horror flicks. Weak ending aside, a very enjoyable B movie.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Plus you get to see Kim Catrall topless in one particular scene as well in the Split Second flick. Definitely before her time with the "Sex And The City" series/movie tie-in era indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BIL]

Plus you get to see Kim Catrall topless in one particular scene as well in the Split Second flick.

Oh yeah! That was HAWT! Action, one-liners and boobs, the holy trinity of late 80s/early 90s B movies! ^-^

[Never_Scurred]

Plus you get to see Kim Catrall topless in one particular scene as well in the Split Second flick.

Oh yeah! That was HAWT! Action, one-liners and boobs, the holy trinity of late 80s/early 90s B movies! ^-^

Roger that, brother!
Boobs, Bullets, and Bad Language....The good ol' days.

[jonny5]

The Place Beyond The Pines - *****

Wow. What a great film!

+1. Was quite surprised by this one.

[Kaiser]

Pacific Rim - 9/10 (Or if you want to be REALISTICALLY CRITIC then 7+/10)

I'll avoid spoilers but let me warn you, if you are looking for an ambitious art movie, skip this post and stop wasting your time here. I've been always a fan of big mechs and big monsters, Godzilla, Gundam, Power Rangers and so on and it even carried onto games (Armored Core series, Shogo Mobile Armor Division, Robot Alchemic Drive etc.), back when I saw first transformers by michael bay, I felt it was great but missed some marks which were mostly caused by it TRYING to be something else than what it was, a summer blockbluster, but then there were the major writing/acting issues but MOVING ON since this is not a "Why Transformers is bad" rant post.

I'll start with possibly the least liked aspect of summer movies, the story, i'll put it clear, it doesn't try to avoid cliches, it doesn't try to avoid character personality stereotypes but WHAT it tries is to make best use of them and it succeeds, the story while generic is EVENLY paced out throughout it's 2 hours, there is no "WHOOPS TIMESKIP" moments and the characters while also generic, their personality archetypes are put to best use possible. The best thing is, while the movie knows how it starts and how it WILL end, it's packed full of unexpected surprises but even then, the ending is a huge satisfying surprise in itself, BEST not spoiled. In short, it's not an oscar-worthy story but it's the best damn SUMMER movie story in a long while.

Now onto the cast, they've certainly hired a lot of talented actors, stand outs being Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, and then there's the amusing cameo of Ron Perlman, america's favorite caveman (In case you don't get the joke, go watch Welcome to the basement show or check their website and the hall of fame section) which made for an amusing character. My favorite perfomance? Idris Elba, i'll be honest, this dude stole the movie for me as a great leader-type archetype character THAT ACTUALLY is more than words and nonsense. If there's one cast character I have to point out that SUCKED but thankfully didn't last long was Diego Klattenhoff, once you see the beginning of the movie, you'll get why.
There is a MINOR opening for a sequel they left in but honestly, it's a consistent movie that wraps itself up, and the opening isn't even at the beginning or the end, just somewhere in the middle.

This is probably the part you are most interesed in as a mecha/monster fan, let me tell you and there's no other way to put it, every fight in the movie is fucking glorious, the mechs move realistically (sorta like armored core/mechwarrior mechs) and aren't invincible machines of mass destruction, EACH punch and I do mean each punch or hit in general delivers a huge WOW factor each time it happens. You can feel the hundreds of tons of steel in there, most importantly, the fight scenes aren't only about explosions oh no, they are ALL AROUND making use of the entire setpieces (massive cities) in best ways possible, and let me tell you, the setpieces are being used in very creative ways and often you'll notice some unusual things happening, the enviroment being used for something.

The monsters are big, mean and are generally a HUGE threat to the mechs, one wrong move and you are essentially dead on spot instantly as they will crush/eat you, the worst part? They only keep getting bigger and MEANER, towards the end your jaw will drop in awe when you see their size and power, all the time. If you are an old-time fan of Godzilla or mecha animes, you will LOVE the fight scenes, they are like the scenes from your fav movies of those two genres except cranked up to the 11/10 on the awesomeness scale.

I gotta give it, the soundtrack is memorable (especially the credits theme) and is in nice symphony with what is going on the screen, but the sound effects, oh my god, I could'nt have asked for better ones, the monsters roars are EPIC each time, they yell so loud you'll shake in fear, the punches/mechs sounds are as notice'able, pretty much during the fight scenes, your ears don't stop the assault of awesome heavy sounds.

In summary, not everyone will like this movie (especially those artistic grumpcats who think every movie should attempt to be oscar-worthy) but if you are a fan of either mecha, monsters, awesome special effects, or all of those at once, you won't be dissapointed. There are certain flaws that I could rant about but they didn't ruin any bit of the enjoyment I had with it. One tip though...

Go watch it in IMAX 3D, you'll only do yourself huge service, the movie not even one bit broke the immersion through out it's 2 hours

[Skykid]

Threesome on the plane:

Life of Pi

Not really made for a plane journey, obviously would excel in 3D. I didn't actually think it was an incredible film, just a competent one, and I'd expect nothing less from Ang Lee. Really it was just okay, however, I'm sure the book is far more interesting.

The Last Boy Scout

Had been a while. Wayans can't act or deliver lines properly, the editing is terribad and the dialogue and plot is all ridiculously generic - but somehow it just gets off the hook by virtue of endless one-liners and pure 80's/90's goodness. I enjoyed.

Hitchcock

Hrm, not really up to much on the whole. Not sure how much was added to the story of the making of Psycho purely for dramatic/entertainment purposes, and I've seen better handled biopics. I felt as though the playful side of Hitchcock wasn't captured. Hopkins gave a good performance as did Helen Mirren, but he was portrayed a little too seriously as opposed to the playful nature he was known for. It was too Hollywood in production terms too, and never really got down the the nitty gritty.

[GaijinPunch]

however, I'm sure the book is far more interesting.

Exactly what I thought when I saw it. I was pretty wrecked though.

[EmperorIng]

The kaiju designs were pretty cool in Pacific Rim. My only complaint is that color-wise there wasn't much to distinguish them. I know I wrote it in this topic earlier, but I would have loved to see a neon-red kaiju, and a bright green one, or some silver highlights or something.

Other than that, extremely enjoyable movie and worth seeing on the big-ol' screen.

[GaijinPunch]

What movie is this from?

[charlie chong]

i saw elysium and really enjoyed it.i dunno if black oak wants every film to be deeply intellectual and arthouse or something but i thought it was an enjoyable piece of dystopian scifi mixed with a bit of a superhero feel due to the protagonist and his cyborg suit.
Visually it's very good and it just gave me that old 70/80s dystopian/post apoc feel that the more watchable films in the genre have.
i personally don't think the "attack the hamptons" would be realistic or good either cos the people on elysium weren't fighters and wouldn't be able to put up a fight without the robots/mercenaries to protect them.

sorry black oak but you are the icy calm of film reviews

[Mortificator]

What movie is this from?

Google search by image gives me Solaris.

[Ixmucane2]

Monsters University

A combination of parody of USA-style university life (including some implied monstrous sex) and particularly touching formation tale. Relative realism is often preferred to comedic exaggeration, but it's still fun.

Exceptional screenplay, ranging from good (e.g. action/sports moments) to awesome (e.g. the long visit to the human world at the end, in which Mike and Sully themselves contribute to the deconstruction of horror tropes).

Rating: best-written Pixar cartoon of all time, although not the best looking because the wastelands and space in Wall-E or the forests in Brave are just cooler than a hyperrealistic university campus.

[GaijinPunch]

Never knew that -- cool.

[blackoak]

i saw elysium and really enjoyed it.i dunno if black oak wants every film to be deeply intellectual and arthouse or something
but i thought it was an enjoyable piece of dystopian scifi mixed with a bit of a superhero feel due to the protagonist and his cyborg suit.
Visually it's very good and it just gave me that old 70/80s dystopian/post apoc feel that the more watchable films in the genre have.
i personally don't think the "attack the hamptons" would be realistic or good either cos the people on elysium weren't fighters and wouldn't be able to put up a fight without the robots/mercenaries to protect them. sorry black oak but you are the icy calm of film reviews

I'm sorry if that's the impression you got, but its not the case that I want every movie to be artsy or "deeply intellectual." I would in fact settle for mildly intellectual, haha. Visually I liked Elysium too, but this dimension of filmmaking isn't usually the problem. If you do costume/fx/makeup, its probably a great time to work in Hollywood (assuming you have no greater artistic aspirations or hopes of your work being integrated into a fulfilling whole, see Lord of the Rings).

Here's an even-handed review and good summary of what I didn't like about Elysium: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/08 ... s-a13.html

An illuminating snippet:

Perhaps most damagingly, Max is transformed from an individual whose situation shows dramatic promise into, alas, a conventional, unreal “superhero,” possibly the most boring of all fictional creations. As a consequence, one loses a good deal of interest in his particular fate, and even his final act of self-sacrifice is largely unmoving.

One of the difficulties is that Blomkamp has chosen to reproduce identifiable social and political elements of contemporary life without seriously turning his attention to the content of everyday life, to the drama of it, to its relationships and emotions. Elysium presents a peculiar combination of accurate physical and institutional facts, on the one hand, and contrived, overblown, schematic relations between its human figures, on the other.

[EmperorIng]

sorry black oak but you are the icy calm of film reviews

Not nearly enough italics and capitalized words.

[Skykid]

sorry black oak but you are the icy calm of film reviews

Not nearly enough italics and capitalized words.

General literary competence of Blackoak is stratospherically higher.

[trap15]

Needs more Nietzsche quotes and more use of the word subhumans.

[Acid King]

Antichrist - Seems to draw a love/hate reaction from people and after watching it all I can say is that I didn't not like it. I'll have to watch it again. It's in an odd space where it is pretentious as hell, but has moments of brutal honesty. There's a lot of gorgeous photography, but some genuinely cringeworthy moments (holy shit, the talking fox... although the bloodjizz was pretty ludicrous too). I can forgive the pretension given the themes are all pretty heavy and von Trier does as well a job as any I can think of when it comes to capturing the shittiness of grief and self loathing, but holy shit the talking fox.

[drauch]

Yeah, Antichrist certainly deserves its mixed bag reviews. I like it 'cause it's pretty, weird, and brutal. If it didn't have a baby falling out of a window I doubt I'd like it so much.

[Octopod]

I watched Tucker and Dale vs Evil. 's alright.

[system11]

Ghost In The Shell 2.0 - *****

Well, it was always still going to be a top marks film, some of the best science fiction ever made. 2.0 contains some tinkering, honestly the original is better. The CGI replacements for some of the hand drawn animation are well done, but they're very noticeably out of place and have been recoloured. The other big change I noticed was the audio - the mix is different and the soundtrack has been changed in places. There's some kind of surround sound added I think, but the end result at least on the Netflix version I watched, was in some scenes the voices just reduce to a whisper depending on location.

Apparently they've really been going out of their way to push 2.0 as the definitive release outside of Japan. If you shop around you can still get the Japanese Honneamise Blu-Ray release which contains the English dub as well as the original Japanese. The dub is superior to the subs in every way. In fact this is the one you want (and no, it's not cheap):

http://www.play-asia.com/ghost-in-the-s ... -1xin.html

I think it's the only release where you get the original film with the English and Japanese audio in high definition, and is therefore the definitive version of the film available. Edit: possible correction, some people are reporting the original version included on the US 2.0 BRs is actually the same as the Japanese BR release. Early reports (and Amazon even now) suggest it is SD upconverted. I don't own it so can't compare.

[spadgy]

So I watched the new Alan Partridge flick. It was OK, but of course, just felt like an overblown TV series episode.

[GaijinPunch]

Ghost In The Shell 2.0 - *****

Well, it was always still going to be a top marks film, some of the best science fiction ever made. 2.0 contains some tinkering, honestly the original is better.

Totally. They're very tacked on. A sad ploy. Good thing the original is included.

[Obiwanshinobi]

My mom was watching The Blues Brothers and what struck me this time around were all those photographical references to the Hollywood cinema of the nineteen-seventies. I mean just the silent picture.
At the beginning I wondered if it wasn't The Getaway by any chance. Next glimpse - wasn't it The Deer Hunter with daylight off? And so on. I can't be 100% sure if Alien itself wasn't on the menu.
There's a whole generation*) of post-Eastern Bloc filmmakers infatuated with Hollywood who did something along the above lines (the makers of Accumulator 1, Kontroll, Peculiarities of the National Hunt), but in Hollywood cinema itself this kind of satire is not a usual sight. American film satire tends to be more in-your-face (see Team America: World Police).
I think I'm gonna have a drink and watch Nashville.

*) I see Rogozhkin is not quite the same generation as Svěrák and Antal, but I still think three films I named share The Blues Brothers' referential spirit).

P.S. Here I am, watching Johnny Guitar instead of Nashville, getting pissed. Either it's the booze, or some lines are, like, classic tragedy. Make of it what you will. Restoration of the order is up to the myth, as usual.

Down there I sell whiskey and cards.
All you can buy up these stairs is a bullet in the head.
Now, which do you want?

As Fitz would say, "Women."






And the below dialogue:

- How many men have you forgotten?
- As many women as you've remembered.

Boy, did I hear it before I read it. Or have I read it before I heard it?

[lilmanjs]

Ninja in the Dragon's Den.
A movie that starts off with a bunch of ninjas and a cheesy 80s theme song, that happens to be in english. From then on though, there's very few ninjas to be had and a lot of fighting. One of the guys who was on Jackie Chan's stunt team in the 80s happens to be the comedic relief. Probably his biggest role save for Project A2. Some nice fights in this kung-fu movie including early in the movie an entire fight on stilts.

[Ixmucane2]

Kick-Ass 2

Above average for the action genre, but compared with the first film completely disappointing.
The parody of superheroes is gone (the point has already been made), everybody is less nice, the violence has become pointless, the fighting scenes are (mostly) uninspired.
We're left with two sad misfits (Dave and Mandy) as the protagonists of a straightforward and unreasonably bloody feud against a pitiable nutcase (Chris), which would run more smoothly without all the amateur superheroes and supervillains.
Even music, special effects, editing are worse; the general tone is quite close to typical action/comedy movies, losing most of the coolness and humour of the first Kick-Ass.

[rancor]

Safety Not Guaranteed:

Had no idea what to expect, and was delightfully surprised. I'd say the IMDB rating of 7.2 is probably a bit on the low side. The jokes were really, well written I thought, and there is a massive hat-tip to game dorks like us in there. Super easy to spot, so I won't mention it. We are probably more likely to relate to the main characters than in most other popcorn flicks of the day. It'd give it an 8. Would easily watch it again.

Just saw this last night. Awesome little indie movie that all of you should check out. Great jokes, wonderful characters, and really interesting concept that's based on finding out who wrote this ad:



.. As GP said, I cant believe the rating for it are at ~7. This really needs to be an 8 or 9.