Movies you've just watched

[DEL]

Deep Rising is Awesome.
MONEY MONEY MONEY!
I watch it at least twice a year.
But then I'm the guy who likes Alien Resurrection.

[Some-Mist]

sin city 2
fell asleep a few times throughout and had to rewind. it was a great saturday afternoon movie to snooze to, but that's about it.

jessica alba, rosario dawnson, and eva green tho

[rapoon]

Transcendent Man - documentary about technological singularity from Ray Kurzweils perspective. loosely, it's a film version of his
book "The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology."

[trap15]

The Fall - Gorgeous film, really enjoyed this one.

[GaijinPunch]

Gone Girl

Pretty intense... liked it more than I thought I would.

[Ixmucane2]

Sin City 2

Three episodes, only superficially related by common characters and locations. The one with the poker player makes very little sense (why play more than once with an asshole who robs you if you win?), but Gordon-Levitt is particularly good. The one about Nancy is a valid, but abruptly finished, sequel to the first film. The middle episode, Dwight vs. his ex, is the best one: a grotesque exaggeration of many real relationships, with a meaningful beginning, development and ending (beyond simply finding the motivation for a showdown, like in the other two episodes), and full of interesting characters.

Some motifs, like people being thrown out of cars in different ways, are surprisingly abandoned halfway through. Other lost opportunities (e.g. not contrasting important female characters like Nancy and Ava, or neglecting the power structures of organized crime) suggest that taking more liberties with the adaptation of comic books and making a more cohesive film would have been a better choice.

[Skykid]

^ Everything I've heard about Sin City 2 sounds shit, which is completely unsurprising because the first one was shit.

Only difference is lesson learned: Will not be trusting Rodriguez with anything again and will not be spending money on his movies.

[iconoclast]

Trick

This is a comedy/mystery television & movie series about a struggling magician (Yukie Nakama) and an arrogant physicist (Hiroshi Abe) who team up to debunk fraudulent spiritualists. Most of the episodes tend to follow the same formula and some of the jokes don't translate very well, but the cast of likable characters and the chemistry between Abe and Yukie makes it really enjoyable to watch. I actually wasn't a fan of Abe before watching this, but he's definitely won me over as a likable, versatile actor.

Not the best series ever, but it's great for some light entertainment.

[GaijinPunch]

a struggling magician (Yukie Nakama)

Only one struggling magician in my heart...

[Axelay]

Deep Rising is Awesome.
MONEY MONEY MONEY!
I watch it at least twice a year.
But then I'm the guy who likes Alien Resurrection.

''I thought you like to blow things up ''
'' I do , ahh money money money''

Axe to the head dies

I like the monster design in deep rising it was just like a enemy from rtype or something

Gaijin punch above your picture of Gob the film title is TRICK ,do the honours....

[rapoon]

magician, ventriloquist, and singer. gob the great.

[system11]

^ Everything I've heard about Sin City 2 sounds shit, which is completely unsurprising because the first one was shit.

Only difference is lesson learned: Will not be trusting Rodriguez with anything again and will not be spending money on his movies.

No, the first one is awesome, one of my top 10 of all time.

[Skykid]

^ Everything I've heard about Sin City 2 sounds shit, which is completely unsurprising because the first one was shit.

Only difference is lesson learned: Will not be trusting Rodriguez with anything again and will not be spending money on his movies.

No, the first one is awesome, one of my top 10 of all time.

It's absolute crap and I hate it, but I think we've had this discussion before.


Piranha

Widdout the 3D. Hills Have Eyes remake director remakes this fish-death extravaganza in a similarly broad fashion. Respect to his casting, it's quite good, and he has a thing for mixing it up with no-name actors. There was a touch of 80s about the kid whose ma is the sheriff living in a quaint beach house by the... beach. Not so much with the Spring Breakers, a pure T&A spectacle of tanned proportions, and Kelly Brook, who is just proportions.

But Ving Rhames and Christopher Lloyd were smart choices, and Lizzie Shue wasn't bad either. And did I see Richard Dreyfuss singing something familiar? All in all a totally tongue in razor-sharp cheek gore-in-water festival with young drunk people being stripped to the bone in seconds, total absurdity shot and edited in an enjoyable fashion, and a predictable but welcome final gag.

For what it was, it wasn't bad.

[DEL]

Went and saw The Drop last night.
Good film. Hardy is excellent as usual. Gandolfini delivers an interesting line: "We're all dead anyway, its just that you and me are still walking around." Kinda reminds me of the line delivered to Paul Walker in the Fast and Furious 6: "You're a dead man walking anyway."
This film is worth seeing. Not awesome but pretty good.

[spadgy]

The Bicycle Thief. Bloody brilliant, considering so little really happens (is that a spoiler?). Great pacing, energy and tension.

Blood on the Sun. James Cagney gives martial arts a go; does pretty well. Great movie.

Ronin 47. I would have had more fun spending a morning stamping on my own cock.

[BryanM]

Some motifs, like people being thrown out of cars in different ways, are surprisingly abandoned halfway through. Other lost opportunities suggest that taking more liberties with the adaptation of comic books and making a more cohesive film would have been a better choice.

Frank Miller is actually a blood gurgling sociopath and adaptations of things accurately is fucking fantastic when the thing in question is pretty good to begin with - the movie The Princess Bride is almost a shot for shot transcription right out of the book for example. Maybe we're asking too much of our vapid action flicks where we need a lad to form an emotional attachment to a mechanized killing machine, or something.

But to be fair, we can't blame him for Robocop 2. Everyone and their brother takes a turn peeing on your script and really, how much worse could what he wrote have been compared to what got put on the screen.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The Bicycle Thief. Bloody brilliant, considering so little really happens (is that a spoiler?). Great pacing, energy and tension.

Now you need to watch Ladri di saponette badly. Satire or not, it's a goodie.

[Mischief Maker]

But to be fair, we can't blame [Frank Miller] for Robocop 2. Everyone and their brother takes a turn peeing on your script and really, how much worse could what he wrote have been compared to what got put on the screen.

They actually adapted his original script into a comic:

Spoiler

[MX7]

I thought the first Sin City was alright for a Rodriguez film, but that's not saying much. The guy exausts me. The best film in that whole 'hard boiled noir with a green screen' thing was The Spirit.i know it's based on a 1940's comic but it had proper 70's Z movie anti-logic. The hero is so fucking inept, and I love the nonsensical 'reveal' that the baddies (Samuel Jackson And Scarlett Johansen no less, adding to the WTFuckery) are nazis. Can see that one being prized on trash-film blogs in about 15 years.

@Spadgy - The Bicycle Thief is an awe inspiring, momentous film. But (and again mild spoiler) it's so resolutely bleak, manipulative even that I would find it hard to watch again...

[KindGrind]

@Spadgy - The Bicycle Thief is an awe inspiring, momentous film. But (and again mild spoiler) it's so resolutely bleak, manipulative even that I would find it hard to watch again...

I love how miserable the main character is in Bicycle Thieves. Not a big fan of the naturalists in general, either in lit or in films, but this one is one of my 2-3 exceptions. You can feel the desperation through the very gripping storytelling... Extremely poignant acting, definitely a movie that is hard to watch. If you liked it, I suggest Pickpocket or the more recent The Child (Dardennes). I've watched the latter when my g/f was expecting, and we found it quite visceral despite the simple setting and story.

Had a conversation today at work with colleagues about movies. Was surprised to discover that many of them, although somewhat cinephiles, had never watched or even ever heard of favorites of mine that I feel are pretty mainstream. A few movies that were mentioned... Dogville, Festen, Requiem for a Dream, Oldboy(!), Before Sunset. There are movies that I enjoy more, but they're not exactly "accessible". Slow-paced Hungarian movies are not everybody's cup of tea.

[Obiwanshinobi]

But then I'm the guy who likes Alien Resurrection.

Alien Resurrection is a part of the Delicatessen/The City of Lost Children/Alien Resurrection trilogy. Who doesn't like at least on of these?

[Mischief Maker]

Just rewatched Edge of Tomorrow tonight.

I will say one thing about the final act really bugged me. I totally appreciate the special final stage takes away Cruise's dagger of time. What I don't appreciate is they take away his robot suit, also.

Sticking with the videogame analogy, the skillset Cruise has been building the entire movie was piloting the suit, not fighting on foot. Instead of J squad being mowed down, it should have been Cruise and Blunt pushing their suits to the limit and maybe at the very end of the battle Cruise had to abandon his suit to reach the Omega.

I maintain that J squad was fine except for the chick with the crack eyes and the awful attempt at a southern accent.

But great movie otherwise, and according to the extras, the suit portions were done with practical costumes and wire work, which is why it consistently looks like a million bucks.

[rapoon]

proud owner of this awesome movie. recently watched w/ a friend who'd never seen it.

best scene: Unicron meets Megatron

this afternoon I watched executioners from shaolin and tonight it's clan of the white lotus.
both feature Pai Mei (kill bill)

[KindGrind]

Gone Girl

Went it with my g/f expecting nothing. I had read nothing about it, only knew it was Fincher's. Going to the movie theater for the first time since Dark Knight Rises.

I looked at my watch 1h30 into the movie and was glad to see I still had more than an hour to go. Time flew by. The editing is top-notch for the first two thirds of the movie. I had the impression the movie was very self-conscious; it's well shot, make no mistake, but it knows full well that that's the case... Anyways, that's a feeling I got while watching, silimiar to the feeling I had watching Prisoners last year. I'm not an Affleck fan, but he did good here. Acting is very good throughout, Pike standing out. She gave it her all, to say the least, and was very convincing. I remember having the feeling I was watching The Game at some point, only for a much more mature audience and made by a seasoned filmmaker. This story is rather dark and quite disturbing, with a few standout scenes that will stay with you. It doesn't always make complete sense but is for the most part very well-shot, paced and acted. Almost forgot: the music was perfect. Recommended.

Edit: Interesting demographics in the room, too. Without exception, people in the room were roughly 28-40. It probably has to do with the fact that the movie was in English, which caters to a limited audience here. My parents (and their entire generation) never learned to properly speak/listen to English, and the younger audiences tend to be lazy and go for the French versions. I may be generalizing a bit...

[GaijinPunch]

What did you think about...

Spoiler

...Affleck's ding dong?

[KindGrind]

Well...

Spoiler

Didn't notice at all, was probably busy looking at Pike's rear end, or wondering if the outline of the breast we were seeing could really be hers. (It couldn't)

I found out about Affleck's "it" when having a look over at the imdb forums this morning, a place I haven't posted at in 10 years. For every good post you have 20 hateful/retarded ones. Many people there are a bit on the dense side.

[Ixmucane2]

Perez

Demetrio Perez is a spineless and very unimportant lawyer in Naples, who suddenly finds himself crushed between two rival criminals: his daughter's threatening boyfriend, who claims to be his family's white sheep, and a sinister mastermind who turns himself in, chooses Perez as his lawyer, and asks him to recover a treasure while he's in custody. Perez attempts to take advantage of the situation, with surprising success after a moderate amount of suffering and tragedy.

A strong illustration of two basic artistic principles:

• Trying to do many conflicting things at once usually results in achieving none, particularly in a size-constrained medium like cinema.
• The weakest link determines the strength of the whole chain. As usual, the weakest link is writing and editing.

Regarding purpose and coherence, this film tries to have:

• Character development (Perez developing some guts and recovering his relationship with his daughter, or at least that's the theory)
• Ridiculously pathetic schmucks (Perez himself and his lonely and depressed best friend)
• Laughs and thrills
• Citations of scenes and shoots from other films
• Verbal and physical violence
• Gratuitous naked chicks
• A realistic portrayal of contemporary organized crime, as seen from the tribunal
• Picturesque scenery (the neighbourhood of towers and cold modern architecture around the tribunal, and various degraded country locations)

Many of these elements are unnaturally compressed or reduced to a single scene or monologue, with some exaggeration; a mere sample of how they could have been treated properly. The main problem is the incompatibility between the protagonist's extreme weakness and his extreme success; he simply cannot improve so much.

Regarding quality, it's mostly too good for the unconvincing weakness of the plot: gorgeous photography (both exteriors, presumably using drones, and interiors, carefully lit), good actors, only costumes are a bit exaggerated and stereotypical.

[GaijinPunch]

Well...

Spoiler

Didn't notice at all, was probably busy looking at Pike's rear end, or wondering if the outline of the breast we were seeing could really be hers. (It couldn't)

I found out about Affleck's "it" when having a look over at the imdb forums this morning, a place I haven't posted at in 10 years. For every good post you have 20 hateful/retarded ones. Many people there are a bit on the dense side.

Haha... IMDB forums. Indeed... they're painful. As much jackassery we get here, it's still one of the most tame forums for geeks on the internet. I did like her boobies though.

[options]

Recently re-watched Terminator 1 & 2.

I never fully appreciated Linda Hamilton's performances until I watched these two basically back to back.
T2 made a bigger impression on me as a kid, so I always thought of Sarah Conner as the bad-ass soldier chick in fatigues busting security guards' noses and trying to assassinate the film's only character of color (who is "directly responsible for 2 billion deaths," or however that line goes. Fuck you, James Cameron).

But after watching the original for the first time in many years—wow—her transformation from the shy waitress victim into that bad ass (via mental ward problem child) is impressively believable. Has she even been in any other noteworthy movies?

[Skykid]

Linda Hamilton is crap, so thankfully not.

I also don't think Mr Cyberdyne is a racial thing either.