I have 2 Netflix movies here that i've had so long i've forgotten what they are.

God Bless America.

It's satire but it's this weak-ass shock satire at easy targets, try again and be funny next time.

Just saw two movies on Netflix. Hostel III and I spit on your grave, the original.

Both were crap as expected. Don't know why i go in knowing movies will suck and them am surprised that they suck. The first hostel had an interesting premise for a horror movie before devolving into pure gross out for gross outs sake. But the third one sucked.

But I spit on your grave was considered a semi classic of grind house cinema, so I figured it would have something going for it. But it sucked.

Just noticed HGTTG is on tv. It sucks cause there's commercials, but i'm watching it anyway. I should just get my dvd out.

HGTTG ?

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Ah, yes.
Thank you.

Aliens. Marines In Space!
I first saw the movie on VHS in '87. I fast forwarded through most of the dialogue and all that Marine tough-talking. This time I watched it through. Complete shite. From start to finish. But I'm glad I watched it. It helps me appreciate what a good movie can be. And I'm morbidly curious about the '97 Resurrection film and the latest incarnation.

Woman In Hiding. Good stuff from Ida Lupino, a Brit who could always convincingly play and American broad.

The Bed Sitting Room, a 1969 British post-apocalyptic absurdist black comedy featuring Dudley Moore and Ralph Richardson. It's a bit like the weirdest Monty Python sketch you ever saw. It was a large budget production and the realization and cinematography of the post-wwiii deathscape are pretty impressive on the recently restored and HD version of this film which was unavailable for decades. It's definitely in the same gene-pool as Brazil and A Boy and His Dog.

Ribtor wrote:

Aliens. Marines In Space!
I first saw the movie on VHS in '87. I fast forwarded through most of the dialogue and all that Marine tough-talking. This time I watched it through. Complete shite. From start to finish. But I'm glad I watched it. It helps me appreciate what a good movie can be. And I'm morbidly curious about the '97 Resurrection film and the latest incarnation.
[snip]

Please believe me: don't bother with Alien³ nor with Alien: Resurrection. The former is bad simply because it is very boring--yes, a movie with the Alien running around can be so--and is an insult to Ripley, and the latter is not even laughable bad.

As to Prometheus: if you ignore the bad science--surprising in that Ridley Scott's handling of science is usually at least interesting even when he isn't quite "right"--and stupid-acting (though supposedly smart) characters, it is at least cinematographically pretty.

Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door & The Lost. Both decent.

Goon. Fun movie about a dumb guy who's only good at fighting so ends up being a hockey enforcer. Violent movie, but sweet at the same time. I actually enjoyed it a lot.

Alien3 is generally considered crap. However, there is another cut of the movie called the Assembly cut or the Directors Cut which adds about 30 minutes to the movie, and from what I hear turns it into a pretty decent movie. (haven't seen it yet so can't say whether this is accurate).

So if you go with Alien 3 you might try that version instead.

Ok, so I saw a link of the ten best most disturbing horror movies of recent times and hadn't seen a few of them. One of them was called "Frontiere(s)" a French horror movie in the same vein as Haute Tension. About 4 or 5 criminals who are fleeing the cops and wind up in a hotel run by a bunch of inbred nazis who, as usual are up to no good.

Whoever said this was a good movie, needs to have their head examined because it SUCKED (in all caps to denote the extra suckage). The only thing positive I can say about it is it looks semi decent, with the same grainy camera effects found in Saving Private Ryan and Haute Tension. And it's really bloody, if you like gorey movies, again in the same vein as Haute Tension. (my guess is when people say that the French make good horror movies, they mean that the french are good with blood effects, but it's not the same thing at all)
it is just stupid. I give it an F-

Charley Varrick, a 1973 movie starring Walter Mathau, Joe Don Baker and Andrew Robinson (the Scorpio killer in "Dirty Harry" and later Garek on DS9). Found it on Netflix and gave it a chance, not a bad film with a pretty exciting car/plane chase at the end. Worth a peak.

I watched The Vow the other night. It was a good movie, but i was really disappointed in the ending. I guess you can't really have the perfect ending when it's based on actual events.

I saw Brave yesterday--lovely movie, aside from a visual quibble with some of the trees (though trees can be really hard to draw much less animate correctly) it was such that I often forgot that I was watching an animated movie.

Be sure to stay until the very end after all the credits run for a funny bit involving the sleeping guard.

I wished that Pixar hadn't gone for the easy joke and made all of Princess Merida's suitors such losers. I think the story would have been more interesting had some or (preferably) all had been at least competent (and not just lucky) at archery and the princess understandably had been reluctant to take even this first step towards giving up her childhood freedom.

The center of the story is the mother-daughter relationship and I'm a tiny bit bothered by the very ending. It shows the princess and the queen riding about the hills seemingly BFFs but nothing about what Merida has to sacrifice in recognition of her responsibilities as a daughter and a princess. To be sure: this would be very difficult to depict especially while winding up the movie.

Still, all in all, a good family movie that continues Pixar's run of hits. If you've liked any of Pixar's other movies you should like this one as well.

BTW: the movie begins with a smile-inducing animated short "La Lune" which is completely unrelated to "Brave" except that it was made by Pixar as well.

BTW, anyone else seen that Ang Lee Life of Pi short? Is that going to be a full-length feature?

DEyncourt wrote:

I saw Brave yesterday--lovely movie, aside from a visual quibble with some of the trees (though trees can be really hard to draw much less animate correctly) it was such that I often forgot that I was watching an animated movie.

Be sure to stay until the very end after all the credits run for a funny bit involving the sleeping guard.

I wished that Pixar hadn't gone for the easy joke and made all of Princess Merida's suitors such losers. I think the story would have been more interesting had some or (preferably) all had been at least competent (and not just lucky) at archery and the princess understandably had been reluctant to take even this first step towards giving up her childhood freedom.

The center of the story is the mother-daughter relationship and I'm a tiny bit bothered by the very ending. It shows the princess and the queen riding about the hills seemingly BFFs but nothing about what Merida has to sacrifice in recognition of her responsibilities as a daughter and a princess. To be sure: this would be very difficult to depict especially while winding up the movie.

Still, all in all, a good family movie that continues Pixar's run of hits. If you've liked any of Pixar's other movies you should like this one as well.

BTW: the movie begins with a smile-inducing animated short "La Lune" which is completely unrelated to "Brave" except that it was made by Pixar as well.

So, Disney adds another Princess to it's lineup ?

Do you have any idea how difficult it is for a man with two granddaughters to keep up with this human waste ?

Nope, they don't and no, we don't so be cool.

It isn't a movie but I finally watched the 1993 mini-series, "Wild Palms". It is kind of creepy how accurate they were in their predictions of how America would (d?)evolve by 2007. Sure, the details are not all correct, like men's fashions didn't go neo-Victorian. But the general stuff, like 9-11 and the subsequent rise of melded Right wing politics and wackjob religion was pretty close to spot on. They made some abbreviations for the sake of fitting it all into a 5 hour mini-series so Steve Jobs, Rupert Murdoch, Sarah Palin and L. Ron Hubbard all ended up smooshed into Robert Loggia's character but even so it is creepily familiar.

Source Code.

Very good. Nice application of logic, and time paradox, as well as alternate realities.

The Amazing Spider-Man in 3D. Loved it. I think Tobey McGuire played a better nerdier Peter Parker, but this one just had great drama and action throughout and I'm glad they're doing the Gwen Stacey story this time.

Moonrise Kingdom.

Loved it, as I knew I would.

I thought however that they took some chances by showing kids in their underwear.

Metacell wrote:

The Amazing Spider-Man in 3D. Loved it. I think Tobey McGuire played a better nerdier Peter Parker, but this one just had great drama and action throughout and I'm glad they're doing the Gwen Stacey story this time.

On the other hand, it would be nice if Peter Parker wasn't a smartass little uncouth individual for 90% of the movie. It's hard to invest in a character that's a jerk when they're supposed to be a good guy.

Spiderman is well known for being the biggest smart-ass in comicdom. But not as Peter Parker. I think the British Actor was putting too heavy of a Brooklyn accent on him which made him sound like he was trying to imitate some rapper thug. I still enjoyed the movie. Peter Parker was always screwing up, it's kind of what makes his character interesting.

Metacell wrote:

Spiderman is well known for being the biggest smart-ass in comicdom. But not as Peter Parker.

Yup, he does it as a distraction. His prattling puts the villains on edge which makes them more likely to make a mistake out of annoyance which he can capitalize on.

Spider Man is a snarky douche, and that's part of his charm. In fact, that's why he's endearing to most people. Most comic characters come across really somber and serious. Spidey likes to snark at the villains he's fighting and mock them as try to hit him but miss.
He's got personality (though I'm sure if you were a villain it would be a personality that got on your nerves).

Metacell wrote:

I think the British Actor was putting too heavy of a Brooklyn accent on him which made him sound like he was trying to imitate some rapper thug.

Problem right there. Parker is from Queens!


The Tobey Maguire version was shot around my neighborhood at the time.

North By Northwest

Back in March my wife got me a couple collections of Hitchcock films.
I have North by Northwest before, and find it to be the most enjoyable out of the ones I have seen. Eva Marie Saint is super good looking.
I love the footage of NYC and Grand Central. I think the mansion location is OLD Westbury Gardens.

There are some aspects of these movies that I find jarring--most notably the very ends of the movies are terribly clumsy. Hitchcock all of a sudden goes all impatient and jams a little wrap up to the story in less than 60 seconds.

Séamas wrote:

North By Northwest

Back in March my wife got me a couple collections of Hitchcock films.
I have North by Northwest before, and find it to be the most enjoyable out of the ones I have seen. Eva Marie Saint is super good looking.
I love the footage of NYC and Grand Central. I think the mansion location is OLD Westbury Gardens.

There are some aspects of these movies that I find jarring--most notably the very ends of the movies are terribly clumsy. Hitchcock all of a sudden goes all impatient and jams a little wrap up to the story in less than 60 seconds.

It's a good movie, but you're right, the ending is really sloppy. The transition from when he's reaching his hand out to rescue his gf who's hanging off of Mount Rushmore, to when he's reaching out his hand to her in marriage is really clunky. He even says something and it looks like it's cut off or doesn't match what his lips are saying. One of the clunkiest transitions Ive seen in a professional movie. But I did like the rest of the movie, up until the last 5 minutes or so.

Séamas wrote:

Metacell wrote:

I think the British Actor was putting too heavy of a Brooklyn accent on him which made him sound like he was trying to imitate some rapper thug.

Problem right there. Parker is from Queens!

That was my thought too, that Peter Parker just wouldn't talk that way. Understanding different New York accents might have just been too subtle for Andrew Garfield.

There's more than one? Lies!

Nini wrote:

There's more than one? Lies!

I'm a native new Yawker and I don't have an accent.

Population 436

Meh. I've seen better but I've seen a lot worse.

Spiderman 2012

Peter Parker's camera is a Yashica Electro 35.

I have one just like it

I liked that "property of Peter Parker" bit. That's just the sort of teenage lunkhead thing he'd forget about.

Jackie Brown. Good caper movie, awesome soundtrack.

The Other Guys

Just finished Conan. The guy playing the movie looks more like Conan than Arnold, so he did a pretty good job. But damn, this movie was stupid. Up through the halfway mark it was ok, butas it moved along it just got sillier and sillier. And the woman who plays the love interest is pretty, but she is terrible as an actress.

Conan (2011)

I was entertained. I can see why it was not given stellar reviews, but it's far better than a lot of cheesy S&S films like The Scorpion King. Obviously more focus was put into the 3D shots and visual effects than the writing, acting, and dialog, but it's not Shakespeare, it's Conan. It's not deep, but it's amusing. On the other hand, not watching it in 3D kind of takes the point away from it.

On par with Beowulf as a thrill ride.