Movie Tab II

^ I agree. Great movie.

Just watched

Hostel -
Hostel 2 -

__________________

Orgazmo - A Mormon becomes a reluctant porn star, and then a super hero, using the power of...okay, i'll let you discover that on your own, this is a family site? lol. From the guys that created SOuth Park, so you kind of know what you're getting into. Weird, proudly low budget, raunchy fun.

__________________
"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/

Dark Star: Hyperdrive Editidion: Directors Cut



This movie is so BAD that is is GOOD, this is a very low budget movie. John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon made this while still at college (USC). At the beginning of this version (not sure if it is on the other versions as this is my first time seeing this film) it has a Star Wars scrolling dialog with Dan explaining the film and that this was released as a comedy but no one was aware of that. Dan O'Bannon goes on to say that there were no people in the theaters so he said that if he can't make people laugh then he would scare them. Dark Star went onto become ALIEN with just a few tweeks .
If you are a fan of ALIEN and you haven't seen this film (which I think I'm the last person to see it) then you have to watch this.

A lot of interesting facts about this movie at....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Star_%28film%29

Oh and the Alien in this movie is hilarious, kinda a red beach ball with some weird feet attached to it..... Awesome!!!



4/5 just for being so BAD

The Artist (2011) - Hazanavicius
There's two groups of viewers on opposite ends of the spectrum who are going to enjoy this. Viewers with no exposure to silent films are going to be thrilled with the novelity of the exercise, and viewers with a solid knowledge of silent film. George Valentin (French actor Jean Dujardin) is a kind of Douglas Fairbanks character---Hollywood's biggest star just before the talkies will revolutionize the industry. There's a wide array of in-jokes and cinema winks. For example, the pooch is a wink at Strongheart and Rin Tin Tin. The breakfast scene is a wink at Citizen Kane, where we watch the disintegration of their marriage. I loved the wicked jibe at the end, commenting on film distrubution.


Attack the Block (2011 ) - Cornish
B movie creature feature with some cleverness in the writing and the extremely simple yet effective special effects.


One Day (2011) - Scherfig
From the poster I assumed this was going to be a flat out love story. On the surface, this was about the simmering friendship/romance between the two main characters, however it's actually a character study of one man's emotional maturation from a shiftless pretty boy into a decent, caring individual.

I'd have liked Attack the Block a whole of a lot better if the protagonists hadn't been introduced as absolute c*nts, there's a level of anti-hero and then there's irredeemable.

__________________

^ What he said, but I thought the black fluffy Aliens looked rubbish too.

Anyway...

The Last Circus aka Balada trieste de trompeta (Àlex de la Iglesia, 2010)

Jackson County Jail (Michael Miller, 1976)

Kill List (Ben Wheatley, 2011)

Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (William Crane, 1976)

*For anyone who's interested I've reviewed the films fully in my thread here

__________________
100 Favourites From The Future: REWIRED

Your Highness (2011)



With enough dick jokes to make anyone blush, this was still a really funny film. The movie is like a mix between Pineapple Express and Clash of the Titans. The action scenes are great and the blood and gore would not let any horror film fan out in the cold. I think that the characters are meant to play the roles they’ve been given. The pot smoking and dick jokes fit perfectly with the cast, the one exception being Natalie Portman, you would not normally see her in a film like this, but she fit in perfectly.

Plus Natalie Portman is quite often very scantily clad and that makes the movie even better.

Yep, that WAS a good one, now if only I can get my bro to watch it. He's being annoying and not watching what I recommend... Any ideas?

Any ideas for.... ?

__________________

__________________
Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

This old-fashioned, turn-of-the-century movie reminded me in many ways of Anne of Green Gables (the 1970's Megan Follows PBS version, at least; I haven't seen any others). I usually like period piece, sappy love story type bullcrap, though this one was a slightly different experience than your typical period piece drama. As soon as I finished watching it, I looked it up and found out it's based on a novel which was written by a young girl in the early 1900's, and apparently, it was something she wrote "for fun" just for her friends. That explains a lot, I thought.

I'll admit that I had a hard time taking this movie seriously; however, that isn't exactly an insult, because to my mind's eye it was intentionally done tongue-in-cheek.

It's like this: The year is 1890-something, and you're a young woman. For what you don't have in grace and beauty, you more than make up for with a high-spirited, rambunctious personality. You come from a poor family; nearing 30, you are mostly seen as a burden to your parents, who are just itching to ship you off to be governess to another man's family, where you'll at least be of some service. But you're a dreamer. You can't stand the thought of being tied down to monotony, especially the typical feminine duties of a woman from the 1890's. You want to make it big someday, maybe have a career in one of the arts, such as painting or writing or music.

This is how the story opens up; we see a young girl playing her piano with a faraway look on her face; her hair is unruly to match her temper. In the background her mother calls for her to help bring the laundry in (or some other such womanly chore) and she willfully ignores her.

This opening scenes sets up the rest of the movie, basically. You watch this young woman (Sybylla Melvyn) trot around, willfully dismissing every turn of advice she is given, with a hard determination to "stand out". Judy Davis's performance as Sybylla was easily the most brilliant thing about this movie. I felt that all the other performances were intentionally muted to bring out her character even more, and the contrast was really great. I love how contrary she was, even to herself. She wanted so badly to stand out and do something non-traditional, but over the course of the movie you begin to realize how badly she really wants to fit in. In one particular scene, she sits in a tight ball on her bed, crying, and when her cousin asks her what is the matter, she says she hates that she's not pretty enough for anyone. To me, this was the most important scene in the entire film, because you finally get some insight on what this girl is going through. She wants to stand out because she can't fit in. That, to me, is a brilliant move, and I'd lie if I didn't admit that I do the same thing in many ways.

I guess you could say that the main reason I liked this movie, if I was forced to pinpoint it, was that I can relate to the character immensely; relate and respect, that is.

Also, it's really entertaining to watch her waltz around and be absolutely ridiculous for an hour and 39 minutes. OH, also! There's this one scene that distracts you from all the dialogue due to this funky thing the horse keeps doing with its mouth, and well... oh heavens, I'll just post a screen shot-



i was like, "tee-hee-hee-hee!" all throughout this part.

Anyway.

golden out of 10, better known as

__________________
letterboxd

My Brilliant Career is good but I need to see it again, glad you liked it. Maybe check out High Tide by the same director.

Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
Saw a really awful transfer of this well regarded film, which was not only completely blurry but appeared to be cropped. I'm not gonna try rating it until I see it again.

Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)
Decently entertaining revenge flick that seemed a little too tame for the effect it wanted.
-

All that Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955)
An offbeat Hollywood romance. There's some mild camp value in Rock Hudson's performance and how broadly the selfishness of society is drawn, but much of its point rings true and the cinematography is better than average.
+

Trans-Atlantic Tunnel (Maurice Elvey, 1935)
Could-be epic story about a man with a grand vision of uniting "the English-speaking world" with a tunnel from England to America. I really felt like I was visiting a world that doesn't exist at all -- the dream that ambitious engineering projects are going to bring about world peace -- and that's about the nicest thing I can think to say about this otherwise somewhat dull drama.



Boarding Gate (Olivier Assayas, 2007)
Solidly acted (especially Asia Argento), suspenseful little film that I found pretty hard to peg down (I really like that about it). A little ambivalent about the ending but it's worth checking out -- a pretty lucky find in the Netflix streaming library.



A Knight's Tale
The action/jousting scenes in this were pretty engaging, much more-so than the gimmick of transporting classic rock and modern fashions to the middle ages. With a young and glib Goffrey Chaucer I suspect that the main reason it got green-lighted was because Shakespeare in Love won big at the Oscars the previous year but that's just a lame guess. I liked it more than I thought I would (which still isn't that much unfortunately).
+

Windtalkers (John Woo, 2002)
Probably not anyone's favorite John Woo film but I liked it better than several others (including The Killer).


Rage of the Master
Run-of-the-mill Kung Fu revenge film with some colorful Thai Boxing villains for Jimmy Wang Yu to beat up.


North by Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959)
I still feel that this is lesser Hitchcock. Some of it is pretty funny (Roger Thornhill's mother, who looks the same age as him) but for every clever or elegant cinematic idea there's a nonsensical plot twist or scene of clunky exposition. Everyone should give it a chance though, maybe I just don't relate to Hitchcock's sense of humor consistently because I also rated Strangers on a Train pretty low.

+

Tootsie
I've seen parts of it before, nice script and ensemble.
-

The Naked Gun
-

Fearless Hyena


Bad Boy Bubby (Rolf de Heer, 1993)
Another odd Netflix streaming find, their recommendation-a.i. seems to be getting smarter based on this and Boarding Gate. I watched it with headphones and loved the amazingly rich sound-design as well as some nice cinematography. The plot's a bit thin but that's because it's about immersing you in the emotional reactions of a guy who spent the first 35 years of his life in a bomb shelter being molested before being suddenly thrown out on the streets of Adelaide. Golgot take note -- this is by the same guy as Ten Canoes.



The Black Swan (Henry King, 1942)
Lush-looking and romantic golden-age swashbuckler.



Plus some animated short films:

Nocturna Artificicialia (1987)
Mary's Little Lamb (1935)
The Village Barber (1930)
The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer (1987)

Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Directed by Peter Jackson


Juliet Hulme and Pauline Rieper (later revealed in the trial to be Pauline Parker, as her parents never married) quickly become best friends when Juliet's family moves to Christchurch in 1952. They are both very creative and imaginative, they seem to use there imagination when they are dealing with harsh situations in there lives. They start to become lost in there fantasy and start to see Pauline’s mother as the enemy. The two girl’s parents try to separate them but the girls will do anything to stay together. Juliet and Pauline start thinking up a solution for this.






I am very new at writing reviews for films, but I think that’s all I can say without giving away to many spoilers. I really enjoyed this movie a lot which kind of surprised me as I am not the biggest fan of Kate Winslet, so I was very pleasantly surprised by her acting in this movie which I believe was her first actual film.







Melanie Lynskey (aka the stalker from Two and a Half Men) played a very scary and believably disturbed girl.






The fact that this is based on a true story adds a lot to the film while you are watching it wondering how anyone can be this disturbed. In my opinion there punishment was very weak, maybe that is just the law in New Zealand.


I really enjoyed this movie and would recommend this to anyone who has not seen it.

I always find that I need chloroform, a dentist's chair and some rope before even getting to that stage.

__________________
"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Babel (2006)

There were parts that dragged, and the Japanese moments weren't as great as the rest of the film, but overall, it's a very emotionally sincere, solidly written drama that has some great cinematography, excellent music and admirable performances all round, especially Adriana Barrazza as the Mexican nanny who you can't help but be sympathetic to.

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008)

Finally got around to seeing David Fincher's acclaimed drama, and I ended up loving every moment of it. The performances and visuals are believable, but's it's to David Fincher's credit that it isn't drenched in sentimentality and predictability.

Miami Vice (2006)

Other than being relentlessly overstylised and noticeably long, it was a decent watch, with likeable leads and some good soundtrack choices.

Note: Babel and Miami Vice were watched specifically for my Best Of The Year thread.

__________________
"George, this is a little too much for me. Escaped convicts, fugitive sex... I've got a cockfight to focus on."

Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)
Rated R
Runtime 98 min

A gunslinger rides into a 19th century Nevada town inhabited by 2 feuding gangster clans, the Heiki and the Genji. The gunman (Hideaki Ito) offers himself to whichever clan will give him the biggest share of the rumored hidden treasure. The sheriff is in the pockets of the Heiki clan so the law in this town is nonexistent. The leader of the Genji clan (Masanobu Ando) has a holstered six shooter on one hip and a sheathed katana on the other. All the weapons in the movie are old-school, but the facial piercings and the emo haircuts bring a modern look to the characters. The story can be difficult to follow and demands that you pay attention to it. I had to re-watch several parts of the film because I was distracted by the bizarre nature of the film itself. The opening scene is amazing, Piringo (Quentin Tarantino) in front of a obviously painted background telling a animated story about a gunfighter while holding a blood red egg just removed from a snakes stomach while being held at gunpoint. It is hard to pay attention to the dialogue when the film is throwing these curve balls at you. This is not a complaint but just an observation.

Takashi Mike (Audition, Ichi the Killer, 13 Assassins) does a great job of Directing this Japanese take on the classic spaghetti western, the title actually refers to a classic Japanese dish called Sukiyaki, and Sergio Corbucci’s spaghetti western film Django.

The Ninth Configuration (1980)
(also known as Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane)


Written by William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist)
Directed by William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist)

The plot is a good one, and people who enjoy thrillers and mysteries will find enough action and plot twists in the film. But what makes this movie so special are the terrific performances (by Stacy Keach, Scott, Wilson, and Ed Flanders), the witty dialogue, and the religious undercurrents. Too often movies treat religious belief with sentimentality, but the Ninth Configuration deals with faith and doubt in with a dignity that isn't patronizing to either side.







It’s Vietnam and a number of soldiers have gone psycho, during the film you will find yourself trying to figure out if they are faking or are they really crazy. The soldiers are being held in a abandoned castle in a remote forest, top USMC Psychiatrist is sent in to investigate. For his part Kane is determined to help the men, especially their leader Capt. Cutshaw. The film has many confrontations between Kane and Cutshaw. There debates are mainly about the impossibility of a God with so much evil in the world.

Cutshaw: " You're on your way out! I'm acting on orders so to inform you. "
Kane: " Who ordered you Cutshaw? "
Cutshaw: " Unseen forces far too numerous to enumerate."

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key

I don't really have much to say about this movie; I simply love typing out and reading the title. The film itself was mediocre - definitely not the best Italian film I've ever seen - but, as always for Italian horror films, it was fun to watch. B-.

After.Life

Liam Neeson has long been a favorite of mine; Taken and Unknown are two of my favorite films of the last five years (which really is not saying much). This film simply extends this tradition to the horror genre. Though somewhat confusing and rather bizarre, it was not so in a bad way (ie. Santa Sangre), which is an extreme rarity when it comes to this genre. However, in a way I disagree with labeling it as "horror", rather than as a mystery, for there were no elements of fear that I picked up on. Perhaps as a play on people's fear of being buried alive, a fear from which I, being a claustrophile, do not suffer.

Con Air (1998)

Many people I know hate this film, for John Malkovich's over-the-top villian, the corny guitar theme and Nicolas Cage's terrible hairstyle, but in truth, I love it more for these elements and more. One of the most played DVDs in my collection.

Serenity (2005)

Now I haven't watched Firefly yet. My friend bought a copy of this around and insisted we watch it. I wasn't really interested in it, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Humourous, exciting and at moments scary, Serenity was a pleasant surprise. What I loved the most about it was Nathan Fillion, he provided a likeable, complex hero in Malcolm Reynolds.