Last Film You've Seen

[OneWingedDemon]

watched (500) Days of Summer. Did not like as much as I enjoyed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

BOOO.

Eternal Sunshine is a totally different story though (and agreed, superior).

 

[Alex]

The Hurt Locker

So we continue the odyssey of reviewing all the films I bought today with the multi-Oscar winning, critically acclaimed Hurt Locker. I knew going into this film that it was going to be overrated. Nothing gets this much praise without setting off a few suspect alarms in my head. But nevertheless, I went into this with an open mind and fully expecting to find it full of things I disliked. But much like its 'rival' James Cameron's Avatar, I came out feeling pleasantly surprised by the experience. Whilst its definitely overrated and less deserving to win the Best Picture of 2009 Oscar than Inglorious Basterds, Moon or District 9, this is still an extremely good film.

Where it succeeds most is definitely in the realm of tension. It's a gritty, realistic war movie about a bomb squad in Iraq, the tension comes part in parcel with the setting. But little touches like completely killing the music at some points, and letting the actors performances convey the tension of the scene only serves to heighten it. Of course, this practice would be all for nothing if the actors themselves didn't do such a good job.

The other major success of this movie is the way in which it successfully puts a different spin on the 'Maverick' cowboy professional hero of the day that is so prevalent in action films. The uncompromising realism of this film's portrayal of the Iraq War, and the reactions of Jeremy Renner's character's squadmates to his apparently 'badass' antics (i.e, the kind of things you'd expect to see in an action film) compel the viewer not to cheer on for our rockstar soldier of a main character. Instead they come across as legitimately unhealthy and dangerous to the situation at hand. A welcome take on the character archetype and one that I found most refreshing.

The movie isn't without its flaws either. It drags a bit at times and there is a pretty nonsensical part in the middle about a little kid. But it's good more often than not, and is always interesting. There's a spectacularly tense sniper rifle battle midway through the film that I thought more compelling to watch than 80% of the 'by the numbers' gunfights we see in modern cinema, Renner's portrayal as an adrenaline junkie is particularly convincing as his behaviour puts himself and the lives of his squad at greater and greater risk.

I recommend it, it's a solid film. Just don't expect to be blown away.

 

[Super Mario]

Iron Man 2

I couldn't wait for the DVD so I got it via torrents. I love the first half of the film on how it focuses on the consequences on Stark's unveiling of his superhero persona, and how being too egotistical with your capabilities could easily land you in hot water. But in his defence, he thought

Spoiler

he was dying from Paladium poisoning

so it was somewhat right to use it as an excuse to party like crazy. They did an amazing job with developing Stark and the relationship with his family in contrast to the first film, which I felt was its flaw, despite him being a playboy industrialist, there was little to nothing for him to fight for until the second half of the film which was against Obadiah, Jon Favereu saves the film none theless and I still love it.

But back to 2, I felt right after

Spoiler

Stark's breakfast at the Donut

, things seemed to start getting slightly out of hand and heavily rushed, I wish they focused more in making a solid second half and not just rush it with phlebotinum ass pulls and drama regarding who has better toys (the armours + drones). The fight however saved the second half for me, I'm an action buff and they did a spectacular job in escalating the fight. I applaud their attempts to balance the action, development and drama of 2 and still managed to keep it light hearted (to me anyway).

The characters themselves are as brilliant as ever, Stark is still an egotistical and witty jerkass (but according to my friend, less witty than in 1), The new Rhody seems fairly portrayed but I think he just looks like a guy who's always pissed off and looking smug. There's just something with Don Cheadle's look that gives him this smug vibe, but I still like his interactions with Stark and Pepper. Pepper is as good as ever, Gwyneth Paltrow did good and actually portrayed a stressed CEO and realistic character in a fantastical setting such as Iron man 2. Samuel L. Jackson as Fury is still sort of alright, but he's just like that guy in Reservoir dogs who shaved his head and got an eye patch without the swearing . And finally, the big one and my favourite lead: Scarlett Johansen, absolutely pretty and quite well acted in some scenes. I'm disappointed that she couldn't pull a Russian accent though, it would've been hot. ( a missed opportunity by the director if ya ask me)

For the bad guys, I feel that Justin Hammer and Whiplash should've been one character. Justin Hammer was just redundant to the film and could've easily filled out by Whiplash if he had just been a member of some Russian weapons development facility who wants revenge. Justin Hammer wasn't as funny or as cool as his comic book counterpart but hey, he tried. 8B


All in all, the characters in the movie did well. The story was a little weak in the second half but it still managed to be thrilling without making it too cliche. I hope they can do better for 3 or make Tony and Rhody alot better in Avengers, because gad I'm counting on him and that Thor guy after Norton dropped out for Hulk. =/

 

[Strangelove]

Kingdom of Heaven

Was that the director's cut?

I remember being slightly apathetic towards it after seeing its cinema release, but the additions in the director's cut apparently add a lot/improve on it. (Though some of that apathy was due to the choice of casting Orlando Bloom which isn't going to be changed by more footage, but perhaps it adds more to his character.)

 

[Alex]

No, it wasn't. I tried tracking it down but was wholly unsuccessful ;.; So I settled on the original copy. I hear the Director's Cut fixes a lot of the things I felt the film didn't do very well on, so if I see a copy I'll definitely have to get ahold of it.

Now onto DVD #3

A Scanner Darkly

So yeah. This is just really, really good. Thought provoking story, fascinating to watch unfold, completely unique visuals that keep the film distinctive and memorable all on its own, and a scene stealing acting performances from Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr. (their banter together is some of the highlights of the movie)

Whilst most of the 'drugs are bad, be aware' movies out there focus primarily on the concept of addiction and the dark, pitch-black places that can take you (Requiem for a Dream, por ejemplo). A Scanner Darkly places it's thematic message almost from the get-go, squarely on the themes of identity and reality and the effect that drugs and addiction have on your perception of those two concepts. The film stars Keanu Reeves in the central role and relies almost entirely on him to portray a drug-addict's gradual disassociation from reality, and subsequent identity crisis. There's absolutely no denying that Reeves is a perfect fit for the part, and he really shows his stuff as a damn fine actor here.

The whole drug-induced haze of the film is only accentuated by the decision to animate the film in some utterly unique cel-shaded style. It might come across as gimmicky, but it ties in so well with the style and presentation of the narrative that it would be impossible to hold that stance for very long.

Great film, definitely recommended.

 

[Mantichorus]

WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB, AND WE ARE HERE TO SEE SCOTT PILGRIM KICK YOUR TEETH IN!

Scott Pilgrim vs the World. I'm having too much of a fangasm right now to write anything like... well, anything above "whoo!!"

EDIT -

Spoiler

bit disappointed that they didn't always refer to Stephen Stills as Stephen Stills. Also, they dropped the "Young" part off of "Young Neil" too many times for it to really mean as much when Scott told him he was no longer Young Neil, but Neil

.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

9 - Oddly enough i wanted to see this back when it wa in the cinema because it looked not bad but overall i was greatly dissapointed. It's essentially lotr with frodo being just as big a douche as always.

The proposal - Yep downside to having a mrs, i had to watch a rom com.
Weirdly enough i liked it :S
Then again i love most films that reynolds does...not mentioning that piece of shit carnival film >.<
Anyway good jokes, and sandra bullock looked really good despite being about as thin as a sheet of paper.

 

[Cthulhu]

Just watched The Expendables. Alone. I shall now proceed to hang myself.

The movie was fun though, as long as you don't watch it for its great original story . Like RED, it's a bit of an hommage to action movie heroes of recent times.

Schwartzenegger

Spoiler

should've had an action scene instead of just a cameo though

.

Also, Stallone sure likes to see his name in big letters on the big screen - counted it four times in the opening credits alone .

 

[Mantichorus]

The movie was fun though, as long as you don't watch it for its great original story

I didn't think anyone would watch it for it's story... XD

More on Scott Pilgrim: missed the

Spoiler

glow from the graphic novels

, and the casting was hit and miss, with the best casting being for Ramona, Kim P and most of the Evil Exes.

Talking of good casting, just watched Terry Pratchett's Going Postal: Angua within the first five mins? OH THANK YOU GOD. Pity she's the only named Watch character in it, though.

 

[Hisako]

The movie was fun though, as long as you don't watch it for its great original story . Like RED, it's a bit of an hommage to action movie heroes of recent times.

 

[Mantichorus]

And as Lundgren once said to Willis in a Twisted Toyfare Theater strip,

"Arnold once killed a Predator with his bare hands. And it wasn't for a movie."

 

[Max Payne]

The Expendables is an awesome action movie with a great climax.

Also, that list sucks. Li's killed an assload of people in a few movies.

 

[Hisako]

Yeah the forum that I found it on was going on about how they'd missed a few.

But christ, Lundgren XD

 

[Max Payne]

Ludgren's been in a assload of terrible action films opposed to everyone else.

The only other actor I can think of that has been in as many crappy films is Steven Segal.

 

[Hisako]

... Van Damme?

 

[Cthulhu]

imho, they should do a movie with Steven Segal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Chuck fucking Norris. Kings of crappy / lame B movies. Optionally add Jackie Chan, he was in similar movies before Rush Hour and movies like that.

 

[Max Payne]

imho, they should do a movie with Steven Segal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Chuck fucking Norris. Kings of crappy / lame B movies. Optionally add Jackie Chan, he was in similar movies before Rush Hour and movies like that.

Jackie Chan was in awesome chinese martial arts films before his stream of mediocre hollywood films/.

 

[Alex]

Equilibrium

You know what? There isn't actually all that much to say about Equilibrium. It's actually really damn difficult to really go in depth about something that could roughly be described as 1984 meets V For Vendetta. Its plot is such a perfect mashup of the two that any further analysis of the plot is just going to be so many wasted words.

This unoriginal marriage of films comes as being the biggest flaw in this entire film. Very closely followed by the fact it feels very lifeless. One of the biggest problems about making a movie where 90% of the population are actually devoid of any emotion means that its very difficult to really get engaged with the film's characters since they might as well just be portrayed by robots. On the plus side to all this however, is that our leading man - Christian Bale, turns in a very good performance. Its not one of his better roles, but throughout the course of the film he's being asked to portray a simply staggering amount of emotional turmoil with only very subtle movements in tonal shifts. It's a tremendous task for an actor and one that Bale definitely rises to meet, essentially carrying the entire audience's investment on his back alone.

What really makes Equilibrium a pretty damn good film is the fight choreography, whether hand to hand, with close quarters weapons, or the art of gun kata (the fighting style revolving around using badass posing as a weapon) is so finely tuned that it merits watching the entire film just to see it all. In spite of the absolute lunacy behind the philosophy of gun kata, these sequences are probably the highlights of the entire movie and are what really set it apart from it's contemporaries in the 1984 dystopian future mould.

 

[looneymoon]

I remember in High School we had to watch Equilibrium while studying 1984. The teacher for some reason decided not to show us the 1984 movie instead... I think she said that it was "too much of a downer." Well yeah, considering the novel we were reading was freaking 1984 I can see why it may have been a bit of a downer :/

BUT the movie did gave us this scene. Cue all the females in the room squeeing

 

[Max Payne]

Equilibrium

You know what? There isn't actually all that much to say about Equilibrium. It's actually really damn difficult to really go in depth about something that could roughly be described as 1984 meets V For Vendetta. It borrows so heavily from these two films that any further analysis of the plot is just going to be so many wasted words.

Equilibrium came out before V's film Alex

 

[Alex]

cheeky edit

 

[Max Caulfield]

Race To Witch Mountain.

I loved the original, but I wanted to see how Disney handled the remake.

Spoiler

Walt Disney is turning over in his grave.

 

[Cthulhu]

Equilibrium

[...]

What really makes Equilibrium a pretty damn good film is the fight choreography, whether hand to hand, with close quarters weapons, or the art of gun kata (the fighting style revolving around using badass posing as a weapon) is so finely tuned that it merits watching the entire film just to see it all. In spite of the absolute lunacy behind the philosophy of gun kata, these sequences are probably the highlights of the entire movie and are what really set it apart from it's contemporaries in the 1984 dystopian future mould.

This, however the main problem Equilibrium has is that it's only got three of these scenes. The movie had great potential as an action flick (instead of a 1984 copy), but they missed out on the opportunity, alas. I would love to see another movie done in this style and/or with similar choreography.

Some people called it 'the Matrix killer', but it's not.

 

[Hisako]

Jackie Chan was in awesome chinese martial arts films before his stream of mediocre hollywood films/.

I only watched The Forbidden Kingdom for the 5-minute fight scene between the Drunken Master and the Laughing Monk
(which by the way I loved like hell)

There are 2 (relatively) recent movies in which I liked Jackie Chan, both of which were Asian movies - New Police Story and Shinjuku Incident. Shinjuku Incident stood out for me because he wasn't playing a dude gifted in anything, he was just some ordinary guy swept up by gangster wars and forced into a situation he couldn't get away from.

 

[Alex]

Some people called it 'the Matrix killer', but it's not.

Yeah its definitely not even close to The Matrix. Not in story, choreography or originality. But its still a pretty cool little movie.

I've just finished watching Angels & Demons, working on a proper writeup for it now.