The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame

It's been many years since I watched Dumbo, mainly because of that scene.

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Cool thanks! I'll watch it. I won't hate it, in fact I've always wanted to see it. But even if I did hate it, I wouldn't blame you.

I can't image a Director's cut of The Abyss being any better than the shorter theatrical release. @neiba should watch it again, this time the theatrical cut

I can't image a Director's cut of The Abyss being any better than the shorter theatrical release. @neiba should watch it again, this time the theatrical cut[/quote]

Nope, it ain't gonna happen xD
And 2h51 is the time that is on the IMDb page

The music in that scene was perfect. As for the acting my vote would go to Tom Berenger. His "I Am Reality" speech was good. A guy I used to work with would always use part of that speech whenever someone would start complaining about something. "So, you have a problem with (whatever it was). Well, I'd like to hear about it pothead(s)" It was his way of saying Eff off

Thanks
I wouldn't say that I've seen a lot of horror films, but that's mostly because I haven't watched a lot of movies in general, at least compared to most people here.
You're right that I don't get scared easily by movies though and I do agree that the more scary stuff you've seen the harder it is to get scared. I can imagine that seeing jaws at the cinema must have been very scary!

I've seen the other Jaws sequels and they are less serious and more pure shark biting fun! You might try them sometime, just for a fun watch.

I recommend Jaws 3D for the most realistic looking shark plus it has Bess Armstrong and Lea Thompson.

I put them on my watchlist for whenever I feel like some shark biting fun!

I like that one too. I made this photo for my review of Jaws 3D

First with Perfect Blue and now this, Satoshi Kon is proving to me that along with legends like Hayao Miyazaki and Pete Docter he is one of the most creative - and overall ingenious - animators out there.

This in a lot of ways reminded me of Akira (which I gave 3/5) and Ghost in the Shell (1/5)... my problem with those movies had to do with the fact that there were unmemorable characters and a lack of an interesting plot. Paprika surprised me, since I was expecting it to turn into the high tech, complicated-plot, high brow, sci-fi action like Akira and Ghost in the Shell - which it did. But it also takes the time to set up interesting characters and relationships that are developed to perfection.

Before we get into that, let me just say that the creativity and look of this movie is absolutely beautiful. When one of the greatest and innovative animators - like Kon - is given the opportunity to realize his visions of the dreamworld and what it might be like, now THAT is a ****ing dream come true. The parade scenes, the chase scenes (through paintings inside someone's house!), the merge of reality and dream - it's stunning to look at, truly some of the best animation I've seen, better even than Perfect Blue's unique world.

Granted, Paprika has a plot stuffed to the brim. You look away for a minute and you suffer the consequences. The movie doesn't stop to explain it's crazy twists and turns, we're along for the wild ride. Doctor Chiba is the clear main character of Paprika, and her alter ego - the title name of the movie, Paprika - can infiltrate dreams and basically magically navigate her way through any possible portal in the real world. Chiba's works closely with her partner - an obese genius who invented the whole damn DC Mini in the first place - Tokita. Honestly, although it's not very prevalent at the beginning, I think Tokita and Chiba's relationship is the most important in the film. The two, both likable characters, learn to truly bond with each other through fighting the evil menace of the dreamworld.

We have one of the most fascinating villains too, the power-hungry Doctor Inui who stops at nothing to be able to walk again, and to control the world. His assistant Osanai is madly in love with Chiba, and in one of the most disturbing scenes in the movie even peels Paprika's skin off to get to Chiba on the inside.

Much of Paprika is still a mystery by the end. What happens to the DC Mini? Is it still being developed? Is Chiba still a scientist? What happened to Inui in the real world? It's all a bizarre film that sort of feels like a nightmarish dream the entire time. Kind of a cross between those two anime's I mentioned above and Waking Life? I don't know, I guess I should stop making the comparisons since this is a film of its own type, something fresh and original from a master filmmaker who died too soon.

This only makes me more excited for Millenium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers.

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Groundhog Day watched. Will write up a review shortly. I enjoyed it
My guess is Ahwell selected it.

I just finished One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as well, don't feel like writing a review right now though

Same here with Things to Come!

For me, I watched Night of the Hunter. Gonna try to get a review up tonight

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I watched Brick last night. I'll try to get a review up this evening.

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Really interested to see what you think of that one. Was a bit too hip for my taste but it seems like one that could go either way, love it or hate it.

I did not like Brick

I gave up watching animal docs after watching March of the Penguins. While informative they're usually depressing. This is the documentary about Timothy Treadwell and his living amongst the Alaskan Grizzly Bear.

Right off the bat - I did not like Treadwell. He is no Jane Goodall. I think he was a narcissist and played Russian Roulette until there were no more "safe" chambers left to fire. Also, I didn't think he was a very honest guy. Completely agree with the Alaskan Park Ranger who thinks that the wildlife should be left alone and what Treadwell was doing was not good/safe for the animals. Some of the footage he got was decent. The bear fight was good footage even though I don't like watching that kind of stuff. No Discovery Channel Animals of Prey gets watched in our house. I loved the foxes, so that was neat, but what really bothered me about his footage was that he kept putting himself in the foreground and talking like HE was the star. Ugh! Ultimately my thoughts on him are that with more intelligence he could have been another Ted Kaczynski.

The documentary itself is good. For good or bad I feel like I know who Treadwell was. I have always liked Werner's narration (something about his voice is calming), I like how he doesn't glamorize Treadwell and often disagrees with Treadwells views. As an interviewer, Werner does the best with what he has to work with. I didn't think many of the interviewees offered a lot but he kept them short or at least broken up enough to not drag the movie down. I don't agree that the final audio tape should be destroyed. Not that it should be released but don't destroy it. One final thought: that Medical Examiner... little creepy.

Believe it or not I did get stuff done around the house today. Just happened to take a couple of extended breaks. Anyway, I haven't seen a good prison movie that doesn't take place in Thailand or the Amazon for awhile so I was due.

Le Trou (The Hole) is a no frills prison break movie. We start out with four guys in a cell who are planning a prison break when suddenly, boom! new cellmate. D'OH! So the four buds give the newbie a good grilling, what are you in for, how long you in for, etc. and they come to the conclusion that he's good to go. They include him in the plan and start getting on with the breakout and let me tell ya, these guys are smart and dedicated. They have every angle covered from prison periscopes to spy on guards, to prison hourglass timer, to prison tools, to dummies in their beds. Everything is covered and the other thing with this breakout is it isn't a one night job. It's going to take awhile. So they not only need to get out but cover up all their work until they're gone. They're pounding through concrete a lot in this movie and these actors give it their all. They were literally pounding through the concrete floor of their cell. No edits, no cuts until they were through. The amount of hammering and hacksawing they do was making me ill. It may sound dull, watching guys hammer and saw, but it's not. Not at all. It's actually really good.

Can't really say much more without spoiling it. Let's just say that the closer they get to finishing the job the more tense things become between the five of them. I have to think that this was another pretty influential movie. It's very good and you will see traces of this in almost every prison break movie of the last 50-60 years. Never heard of this one so it was a nice surprise.