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How is Persona cliched?

Persona is cliched?

Set Up - 3.5/5
The reason I give this B film such a high rating is because I typically NEVER watch a film with 50 Cent in it - on principle. However, I got this one because it had Bruce Willis and Ryan Phillipe, and you know what? 50 Cent was one of the better actors - at least, he was much better than expected. Unexpectedly, Ryan Phillipe's turn as a young hoodlum was......wooden, dead, unbelievable - and it felt like he was reading from a script. His thug sidekick was more credible. The story was a straightforward street life story, and Bruce Willis surprised by doing a good job as minor co-star Mob boss. I hate to see him take such a back seat role in movies, because it makes it seem like he sees himself as a co-star, rather than the main guy - it works, but its an interesting dynamic to watch. Is this how one ages gracefully?

Hanna - 2.5/5
I waited and waited for this film because I expected to love it, being a Cate Blanchett fan, but I have to admit - it underwhelmed. The story was serviceable, but a lot was taken for granted, like "why" Weigler was the Anti-Christ. I mean, you are told "what" she is doing from the start, and you definitely infer "why" she is doing it, but while they spend a great deal of time showing her current behavior, they dont ever really dig down deep into her psyche to help you understand her. Understandable from a writing perspective, but when they finally lay all the reasons on you, it seems a little too heavy for such a short film, and for such banal judgments. Perhaps the best way to describe it is to say they throw at you two dissimilar adult opinions from opposite ends of the same spectrum, and they never really develop the adults' thoughts/feelings for why they disagree. In this way, they turn the viewer into Hanna, the child in this story, who finally understands the facts, but doesnt fully understand the motives behind the outcomes/actions. So I suppose, like Hanna, we are left to come to our own conclusions. It disappointed me.

Transformers 3 - 3.5/5
The film was so-so. Nice in that you have a lot of flash and bang, but I got a distinct impression that it was a remake of Skyline, with a smattering of Battle: Los Angeles thrown in. Transformers is SciFi enough - now they have to cash in on our 2011 penchant for epic End-of-World by otherworldly invaders movies? Weak. Though it was nice to see the scenes I watched being filmed on location show in the film, and McDreamy was a nice addition.

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I really liked Hanna, and whilst I agree it was shallow in some respects (backstory being a prime example) I didn't have a problem with Blanchett's character being portrayed as 'The Witch'. To me that just rang true with the brain washing/training Bana's character had put her through. I actually had more of a problem with the sometimes instrusive soundtrack and over use of slow motion, but that's just me. After the first twenty minutes I decided to look on the film as a straight mood piece come character study of Hanna and her journey of self discovery. On that level (at least for me) the film worked pretty well, and I've filed my copy next to Leon because I think they'd make a good double feature.

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I agree with you both. I don't mind how Blanchett was handled, except as it relates to the lack of backstory. Was pretty let down by Hanna, not just for that, but because I thought the fight scenes were relatively pedestrian. I expected to see some pretty clever sequences, and would've loved it if they'd expounded on the tremendous premise.

All I know is that Hanna was waaaaaay better then Transformers 3.

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Last films I saw were:

I Am Number 4, which was pretty awful and

The Exorcist, which has got to be one of the best films I've ever seen.

2LDK

Director: Yukihiko Tsutsumi
Writers: Yuiko Miura and Yukihiko Tsutsumi

2LDK (2-bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen) only has two actors in the entire film, Nozomi (Eiko Koike) and Rana (Maho Nonami) are two budding actresses sharing an apartment in Tokyo. The movie starts out so calmly by introducing Rana who is such an innocent girl brand new to the big city Tokyo. Nozomi is the kind of girl that will do anything with a guy if he buys her stuff and is not by any definition innocent about anything. The two girls are sharing a penthouse in Tokyo, and come to find out they are both competing for the same role in an upcoming movie called Yakuza Wife. This film becomes a little tiring after a while, there are several fight scenes and by that I mean a lot of fight scenes where after they make up for a minute and then start fighting again.



The movie consists of their outer dialogue and inner dialogue that is all, and it get’s kind of old after the first 30 minutes, luckily this movie is only 70 minutes in length. The fight scenes get old and the ending is well you’ll just have to watch it, but I didn’t find it to really satisfy me at all. But if you are just wanting to watch a crazy Japanese movie then this is a good one, the gore is good but if you don't like the shakeycam stuff then don't watch this.

I've seen some awful movies this past few days. Most of them I watched with my kid nephews. The only interesting movie I've seen last week was La vie de Jesus.

La vie de Jesus (1997) +
I didn't like it that much. Good movie but with some unnecessary explicit scenes.


Karate Girl (2011)
The worst martial art movie I've seen yet.


Mr. Bones (2001)


Underdog (2007)


Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998)

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Assault Girls (2009)

Director: Mamoru Oshii
Writer: Mamoru Oshii

This entire movie takes place inside of an incredibly immersive virtual video game, sounds like a cool idea for a film right, well wrong. There are four characters in this movie, Jager, Lucifer, Gray, and Colonel, that’s pretty much all you get is just names without background or any clue about anything in the real world or in the game. Lucifer was my favorite out of the four just because she had wings and a cool hat. I’ll put a picture below.



The whole point is the three girls and one loner guy are trying to get to the next level of the game, and in order to do that they must team up in order to beat the boss. Descent sounding story but so much of this movie is wasted with them just walking through the desert in silence. There is one part where they each walk past a snail and take time to examine the snail in detail before moving on (about 10 minutes). The movie is less than 65 minutes long so out of the entire film you only get about 5 minutes of action. The CGI is way too obvious and boring, the monsters and boss look exactly the same and not scary at all.

I've been watching some horror movies I haven't seen. Tis' the season and all.

The Exorcist III - One should never make a movie about demon possession where the demon bores you to death because it won't shut up. Do not believe anyone who says this is as scary as the first.

May- As a horror movie it doesn't work for me, but as a quirky comedy it works quite well. I really liked the character of May.

The Woman-Some director as May, but I hated this movie start to finish.

Fright Night (2011) - It's o.k. It's not without it's fun, but I think this one best left to the teenagers. Toni Collette is in it and I love her, but she doesn't have much to do.

The Loved Ones- I don't usually like torture porn, but this was on a entirely different level. It's fresh and twisted; visually stunning and well acted. Especially the lead girl. She plays crazy like she might be familiar with it. Aussie cinema is really starting to become my favorite. If you liked Wolf Creek watch this one. It's better.

Moneyball (2011) - Miller
Although pro sports is the back drop for this, this is actually a business film about a couple of guys who build a better mouse trap. After losing his three name players in the off season, the GM for the Oakland A's has to rebuild the team. After getting a hard no from the owner for a bigger budget; he (Pitt) ends up completely embracing his lack of brown pennies and the small market limitations with the help of an economics major (Hill)

With scribes like Zaillian and Sorkin---who can generate drama from a soft drink dispenser, the film is easily compelling. Most lovable in the mix is Pitt's daughter (Kerris Dorsey) who is painfully aware how fragile her father is in her life. Pitt and Hill suffer the stations of the cross from the non believers in their hunt for a better ball club, however their Calvary will be short lived---within a few years, their innovations will become industry standards.

I learned in the film, how good looking a ball player is, is a major factor in making the roster. There's a very interesting motif of cultivating loyalty and fierce camaraderie in a place where it doesn't exist: a player's performance in the big leagues is analyzed to the 4th decimal place and the moment they no longer have any value, they're punted from the team.
　
Wetlands (2011) - Édoin
This French Canadian production is more of a rural study about self-forgiveness than anything. It's a very hard scrabble life and the margin for error on a working farm is paper thin. Money's always tight and getting tighter. There's a slightly art house feel with lots of striking images. Although the son kind of dallies because of his adolescence, he's still expected to put in his fair share of work everyday.

Pascale Bussières should get a genie nomination (Canada's Oscars) for this role as a farm wife and hard luck woman---at times, she's totally fearless. And if the most amount of flies in a motion picture was a legitimate category, this one would win hands down.
　
Barbarians at the gate (1993) - Jordan
CEO F Ross Jordan decides to buy up his own company. It's not an idle boast when he says he can sell ice cubes to the Eskimos. James Garner just kills in this black comedy about corporate greed . He is just so damn likeable here, his obvious defaults go completely unnoticed.

The story was very well written for a TV movie. There's lots of great one lines. There was also an interesting idea in the film: the idea of deliberating taking on debilitating debt in order to justify harsh measures.

Caveat? The humor is really understated. You have to pay attention. Especially the countless ways in which greed most foul is presented--- it's wonderfully off-hand and throwaway, if you blink you'll miss them. The way Garner quickly presses a couple of bills into the hands of a homeless man, before entering a $10,000 a plate dinner. Or sending his dog back home on a private jet because he's got the sniffles.

It's interesting that both Exorcist II and III got reviewed in here recently. I'm going to watch II again soon, but I don't know if the original version I saw at the theatre is even available anymore. Re: III, I have to agree with you. Apparently Blatty, who was very satisfied with the original but pissed that it didn't win more Oscars, was so upset that II completely rethought and trashed what he considered his film to be about, that he had to go on and on and beat a dead horse in III. The interesting thing about III is that it has some great chemistry between George C. Scott and Ed Flanders, but since they both play characters they didn't in the original, it throws a lot of people off. Some of their dialogue is wonderfully funny; for example, the hated carp in the bathtub. It also has some evocative early scenes at the church from the first film.

But then the movie gets serious, and Blatty wants you to make sure you understand that it was Father Karras who was the main target of the demon and that he has to suffer even more, and I agree with you that it goes on and on, so much so that it's almost an insult to anyone who actually understood the novel or the original movie. Then, Nicol Williamson shows up (after a brief, earlier intro) near the end, obviously with several scenes deleted, to remind us that Father Merrin had something to do with the first film, even though II made it all about Regan and Merrin. I don't really know what else to say. There are some good things in III but they are overcome by, as you say, boredom and overkill. My brother, who brought the film over for me to watch it again, probably hates me now.

I'd give the films:

The Exorcist -
Exorcist II -
Exorcist III -
Exorcist IV - I haven't seen either version.

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I agree. For me the only parts of the film worth watching is when they are onscreen together.

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
I just saw this on theater a few hours ago, and I will say this is the SCARIEST MOVIE I've seen this year. The early scenes are confusing. I have no idea about it cos I haven't seen part 2 and even the trailer. Once I got the idea that it was actually a prequel story it all became coherent. Honestly, I don't care what the ghost is all about, or what it wants, or what other things that aren't explained in the movie cos what matters is it worked on me. Some (almost all) horror movies just don't work on me. The part 1 was scary but I don't remember it being as intense as this movie. In this movie, all their gimmicks will legitimately scare you, give you goosebumps and some will even scare and make you laugh both at the same time. Watch this, but don't take it seriously. Just enjoy and expect a lot of GOTCHA moments.

An update of the 2011 releases I've watched over the past month and a half:

The Adjustment Bureau (2011, Nolfi)

This is a good thriller-drama that is an effective genre-exercise (rom-com, thriller, drama, sci-fi elements, it’s all there) with a message. Near the end, director Nolfi wants to pound his message into your heard a bit too much and on the whole, the film lacks a bit of everything to really be memorable.

Limitless (2011, Burger)

During the first hour, Limitless is an entertaining, well-crafted film that thrives off its intriguing premise and a very solid Bradley Cooper. However, instead of asking relevant and interesting questions about the central theme, Neil Burger chose to turn Limitless into a rather obvious thriller that is still well-paced and entertaining, but lacks the creative body I expected. And I really disliked the voice-over, which is primarily used here to spoon-feed as much information as possible to the viewer in order to keep the film moving from one thrill to the other. This sounds overly negative I guess, but this isn’t a bad film. Like I said, it’s entertaining and Cooper is good, but it could’ve been much better.

+


Scream 4 (2011, Craven)

The film desperately wants to be cleverer than its audience and show that it’s keeping up with the zeitgeist. As a result, the characters are constantly analyzing themselves and making silly references to the horror genre that Scream 4 ends up drowning all the tension in a pond of self-referential jokes and self-proclaimed hipness. During the final half hour, it FINALLY turns into a real horror-slasher and the film’s finale is really expertly crafted. I don’t know why Craven decided to save the suspenseful, scary stuff until the very last, because the rest of the film is crap.

+

The Dilemma (2011, Howard)

This is disgraceful for a man with the standing of Ron Howard. This film even lacks the ambition to be somewhat of a funny comedy. I don’t think Howard really intended to make a funny film here. The problem is that The Dilemma hovers between comedy and drama and as a result, the film lacks a clear identity to really draw you in.

Cedar Rapids (2011, Arteta)
Clever mix of irony, compassion and a hint of mockery in this late coming-of-age tragic comedy. I do have some issues with the direction the story all of a sudden takes. Moreover, the characters of Heche and Weaver don’t get enough time to develop, because the film is too eager to move forward.

+

And some more:

Cars 2 (2011, Lasseter):

(even Pixar is striking out in 2011)
Submarine (2011, Atoade):

+
Noordzee, Texas (2011, Defurne):

Drive Angry (2011, Lussier):

The Exorcist II is a joke, and the parts that I found funniest are also the parts that I liked least. I agree that the failure to understand Karras' place in this universe is a big problem, and I think it really affects the whole movie. It's like they took the center out of the story without replacing it with anything, and then piled more and more "stuff" on in an attempt to make it bigger and more significant, but instead it just collapses. It also does too much explaining for my taste.

The recent Paul Schrader prequel was better, but still not very good. It's more focused and suspenseful, but the plot is a little too obvious. I think the production was troubled and went straight to video, which might explain why it sometimes looks very rushed and sloppy (especially towards the end), but that's less of a problem for me.

Paranormal Activity - You know, I tend to like movies where things happen in them...this is not one of those movies.

Paranormal Activity 2 - Lord knows why I watched this when I didn't like the first one, I guess I hoped it would be better? Is this really what people find scary nowadays?

The Happening - You know, this had a fantastic premise, and had some suspenseful moments, and I generally liked it, but I had one major problem with it. Mark Wahlberg. Seriously stop and think (if you've seen the movie) how much better it would have been with Jeff Goldblum in this role. It's like it was written for him. So why do we have Marky Mark instead? His delivery was weird and he had the same "Duh" expression on his face the entire time. But I digress. The idea that plants would start defending themselves was a good one, and mostly the execution of this idea is wonderfully carried out, like a Twilight Zone episode writ large. Kudos to mr. M Night Shamalamadingdong...

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They had the guy who writes the Transformers movies mess with the script. He also wrote the third one, which wasn't suspenseful at all. I read an earlier version of the script and it was much better. The ending was mostly the same (but still better), however...



The dialogue involving movie references and everything was far smarter, too.

Considering all the hate for the third film, which he wrote, it's surprising they brought him on for re-writes of the script.

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