Watchu WATCHING in JUNE Willis? MAN...

[J.M. Vargas]

No "Nurse Jackie S2" for you molly? For shame...

[yellow ledbetter]

watched The Book of Eli last night, was a little pretentious, but was overall not too bad. My only issue was that I couldn't get totally engaged by it until over half way through. It kinda reminds me of the only other Hughes Brothers movie I've seen, From Hell, where I thought it was technically amazing but hard in places to sit through. Then again I enjoy From Hell better for the gothic atmosphere and for Robbie Coltrane and Johnny Depp's performances

[Steve T Power]

Alice in Wonderland - Not the biggest of Burton fans, but i must say i really enjoyed this one. Gorgeous visuals, and the quirky weirdness felt more akin to Carroll's story than Burton's typical strangeness. It does get kind of Narnia-ish towards the end, but overall i dug it a lot more than i expected to.

[the5thghostbuster]

ARthur (1981) - When you get caught between the moon and New York City....

[J.M. Vargas]

^^^ The movie kind-of lost me after that neat song ended, which is about two minutes in (though John Gielgud is always a pleasure to spot).

[Future Man]

Toy Story 3
Has there ever been a better assemblage of actors for an animated feature? I can't think of one. Four stars in every department except freshness so more like a solid 3.

[the5thghostbuster]

^^^ The movie kind-of lost me after that neat song ended, which is about two minutes in (though John Gielgud is always a pleasure to spot).

I dug the film and I am working on a review, but for the record, that bloody song is stuck in my head on an endless loop.

[Bryan Pope]

Alice in Wonderland - Not the biggest of Burton fans, but i must say i really enjoyed this one. Gorgeous visuals, and the quirky weirdness felt more akin to Carroll's story than Burton's typical strangeness. It does get kind of Narnia-ish towards the end, but overall i dug it a lot more than i expected to.

I'm a *huge* Burton fan, and I was so looking forward to this one. The film showed promise in the first 15 minutes -- and the visuals were spectacular (of course) -- but afterward I couldn't find a story to keep me engaged. Except during scenes with the Red Queen, I was monumentally bored.

[Bryan Pope]

My Life in Ruins -- I wasn't especially looking forward to seeing this. It was my wife's pick, and I knew it had been almost universally panned during its theatrical run (it also received a scathing review here at the Verdict). So imagine my surprise that I actually enjoyed it. It was a pleasant time killer. Nia Vardalos was, as always, an appealing and likeable lead, and the Greece backdrop was gorgeous. The plot hit all the marks one would expect from a movie like this, but that isn't always a bad thing. A pleasant diversion with some solid laughs along the way.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan -- Hadn't seen this since it was in theaters back in '82. It still holds up so well. It was also cool -- for this non-Trekkie, anyway -- to pick up on some character history that would, years later, be elaborated on in a Star Trek reboot.

[yellow ledbetter]

rewatched The Crow for the first time in a few years, even after all this time I friggin' LOVE this movie, a classic that never gets old

[HGervais]

Toy Story 3 in 3D IMAX. Yeah I''ll go best movie so far this year. Yeah I had tears. Yeah the opening short was pretty special as well. As with Avatar, if this is the way they are going to produce 3D movies, then I'm done. No real jump out at you effects but the 3D gives the movie depth & texture. The only problem was trying to wipe my eyes while wearing the glasses.

[Steve T Power]

Had some company over and introduced him to two favorites:

Hot Fuzz - One of the funniest flicks ever crafted in my opinion, infinitely quotable. If Edgar Wright ever considered a serious, straight up action movie, he would effing BURY 99 percent of the action directors working in Hollywood today.

Solomon Kane - yes, again. Yes, i still freakin love this flick.

[Andrew Forbes]

If Edgar Wright ever considered a serious, straight up action movie, he would effing BURY 99 percent of the action directors working in Hollywood today.

Except that every action scene was so chopped to bits that all sense of spatial geography was annihilated. Dude, I love the movie. I love it. It's smart, cinematic as hell and funny enough to cure constipation, but you've got to be insane to hold Hot Fuzz up as an example of exceptional action film-making.

[Steve T Power]

If Edgar Wright ever considered a serious, straight up action movie, he would effing BURY 99 percent of the action directors working in Hollywood today.

Except that every action scene was so chopped to bits that all sense of spatial geography was annihilated. Dude, I love the movie. I love it. It's smart, cinematic as hell and funny enough to cure constipation, but you've got to be insane to hold Hot Fuzz up as an example of exceptional action film-making.

Far from exceptional, the cutting matched the insanity of the script, and aped all of the action cliches used by directors like Michael Bay. No, it's more me thinking that if Wright did actually put efforts into crafting a straight up action flick, i think he could direct the living hell out of it.

[Bryan Pope]

If Edgar Wright ever considered a serious, straight up action movie, he would effing BURY 99 percent of the action directors working in Hollywood today.

Except that every action scene was so chopped to bits that all sense of spatial geography was annihilated. Dude, I love the movie. I love it. It's smart, cinematic as hell and funny enough to cure constipation, but you've got to be insane to hold Hot Fuzz up as an example of exceptional action film-making.

Far from exceptional, the cutting matched the insanity of the script, and aped all of the action cliches used by directors like Michael Bay. No, it's more me thinking that if Wright did actually put efforts into crafting a straight up action flick, i think he could direct the living hell out of it.

What the good Mr. Power said. The cuts were extreme but completely appropriate for the genre Wright was sending up. And, actually, I think Bay could learn a thing or two (or three or four) from Wright. For all its frenetic cuts, Hot Fuzz never once lost me during its action scenes. I can't say that about most other similar films.

Watched a *fantastic* thriller last night called Triangle (check out the Verdict review, which I'm too lazy to post a link to right now). It's about six people on a pleasure cruise when their yacht is capsized by a storm. They're stuck in the middle of the ocean until a luxury liner drifts by and picks them up. I can say no more, other than this is inaccurately labeled as a horror film. It's not. But it's extremely suspenseful and intriguing.

[Andrew Forbes]

Far from exceptional, the cutting matched the insanity of the script, and aped all of the action cliches used by directors like Michael Bay. No, it's more me thinking that if Wright did actually put efforts into crafting a straight up action flick, i think he could direct the living hell out of it.

Perhaps. I've just yet to see the evidence of his being able to handle straight-up action scenes. At this point, he's demonstrated an ability to send up hyper-frenetic cutting, which certainly gives his flicks a breakneck pace and help to almost hide the fact that most of his set-pieces are cobbled together from short, low-speed bits of business (I'm trying to think of an instance where you actually see anyone in Hot Fuzz complete an action). But aping/exaggerating excessive action-movie editing and crafting a truly effective action sequence (controlling the rhythm of the sequence, modulating tension and maintaining coherent space) are very different things. I'm not saying he can't do it. I just don't see anything in Hot Fuzz to suggest that he can. Scott Pilgrim looks a bit more promising, but the cutting of the trailer may not reflect what shows up in the final product.

He's still one of my favorite working film-makers.

[Andrew Forbes]

Back on topic, I saw Possessed (1947) on the big screen courtesy of the Edmonton Film Society. It's an incredibly atmospheric and effective thriller that occasionally suffers from Explanatory Psychiatrist syndrome, but far less so than something like Spellbound.

[cdouglas]

Watched the International Version of Red Cliff. Wow, what a spectacular flick. Easily the best thing John Woo has done in a long time and a tremendously absorbing piece of epic cinema. Despite the 288-minute running time, I found this one compelling from start to finish.

[J.M. Vargas]

Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg's PERFORMANCE (1970) on TCM-HD for the first time. Damn, the more Nic Roeg movies I watch (and technically he's co-director here but his influences in the look and pace of the flick are obvious) the more amazed I am at how he manages to squeeze reasonably good performances out of music personalities (Bowie in "Man Who Fell To Earth," Garfunkel in "Bad Timing," etc.) while also making each of his movies both look nothing like each other and comfortably familiar (at least through the early 80's). "Performance's" story is meaningless (British gangster on the run hides in rock star's basement) because it's all about the performances and the 'mood' of the piece, which is exquisitely seductive and psychedelic while backed by one well-chosen and put together soundtrack (Roeg sure knows his music). Jagger is basically playing himself but (a) James Fox plays very well opposite him (each seducing the other through little reveals of who they are and want from the other) and (b) when the show-stopping 'Memo From Turner' scene kicks in Mick explodes on-screen. I seldom pause and rewind movie scenes midway through my first viewing (always wait until the end to rewatch the cool stuff afterward) but that 'Memo from Turner' music video-within-a-movie scene had me hitting rewind on the DVR a few times before I could continue watching. Pallenberg and Breton are kind-of forgettable as the female companions though (imagine if Mia Farrow and Tuesday Weld had gotten the roles!) but even that comes with the benefit of ample nudity and sex to sell the allure of the lifestyle Turner has (and Chas is seduced by). Is it me or is "Performance" the inspiration for almost every music video that aired on MTV in the early 80's?

DARKTOWN STRUTTERS (1975) on TCM Underground for the first time. The hell??!! This blaxploitation flick tries so hard to be funny and bad-ass (in a cartoony way that somehow mixes politically-incorrect racial humor with the fashion sense/set design from "The Apple") that it cancels itself out into a borderline-unwatchable mess. Some of the outfits and wacky sets are surreal but incoherent, as if it was pieced together from discarded sets/props of every other futuristic 70's movie being shot around L.A. at the time. Roger E. Mosley is the only face I recognized but only because he was a semi-regular panelist on "Match Game." Pass!

MST3K #616: RACKET GIRLS (1951/1994) on DVD for the first time. Thank God for the 'Are You Ready for Marriage?' short and decent riffing from Mike & the Bots because otherwise this would be unwatchable. A really bad stock footage-crammed and public domain music-usurping 'poverty row' female wrestling flick that feels like something Ed Wood would have looked at for inspiration (or, as Crow aptly puts it, as Truffaut felt when he saw Citizen Kane for the first time), "Racket Girls" doesn't titillate or excite despite half the flick consisting of (jump cut-heavy, soft, grainy B&W) girl-on-girl action. The women in the flick are all dogs (except maybe for star 'Peaches' Page but it's a judgement call) and the men either gangsters or wimps (including Ed Wood regular Timothy Farrell as the manager of the gym where most of the non-action takes place) with only Paul Merton's Monk delivering something close to a colorful performance as a double-crossing bookie. This collective mess, however, is turned into silly putty by the Brains with one knockout riff (lyrics to R.E.M. songs to point out one of the gangsters looks like Michael Stipe) after another ('Music... Why Here, Why Now, Why Us?') after another ('this movie is refreshingly itself'). Mediocre host segments though (who the hell was/is Lisa Loeb?), a prelude to the downward spiral that would soon follow.

MST3K #1009: HAMLET (1961/1999) on DVD. This is the fifth or sixth time I fall asleep in the middle of this "experiment," wake-up 20 minutes before the end (when the final act picks things up) and then watch the portions I missed afterwards. And yet I don’t think “Hamlet” is a bad MST3K episode (the good riffs really stand out among the mediocre one’s), just one in which the subject matter and dready B&W picture/sets combine to make it near-impossible to watch it in one sitting. It doesn’t help that The Brains (a) reduce their jokes-per-minute ratio down to S1/S2 frequency levels and (b) their mockery seems stunted by too much respect for the source material. It just doesn’t feel like M&TB's dig into the Bard with their usual zeal and creative juices flowing. Or maybe there just wasn’t enough lemonade that could be squeezed out of this sour German lemon. And maybe I’m high on World Cup fumes right now but, to me, Maximilian Schell makes a very good Hamlet (not Branagh or Olivier good but decent given the scenery/language limitations). When a joke connects though ('cold water in the groin' Polonius dubbed by John Banner, Hans Caninberg's goofy facial expressions for Claudius, 'Cut to Camera 2,' etc.) it's hysterical.

Kevin Costner's OPEN RANGE (2003) on DVD for the first time. Maybe I'll change my mind eventually but after two viewings I loved this western despite (a) the one-dimensionality of the villains (Michael Gambon is clearly slumming for an American paycheck) and (b) Diego Luna's charmless performance as Button almost singlehandedly undermining the driving force behind the story's narrative. Duvall and Costner (who at least is humble-enough to allow his co-star both top billing and most of the spotlight) have great chemistry together; any scene with these two guys talking to each other is gold. Kudos to Annette Bening for using every fiber of her acting being to turn Sue Barlow into a somewhat believable Western woman (within the genre's limitations) along with some good supporting performances (James Russo, Michael Jeter, Larry Kubiac from "Parker Lewis" , etc.). The shootout climax is not only exciting and gruesome (mostly because of how freaking LOUD them rifles and six-shooters are mixed in the soundtrack) but it's arrived at and earned without cheating by over an hour's worth of set-up. I'm not crazy about Michael Kamen's score and Kevin uses a couple of "Postman"-like touches (slow-motion toward the end) that bugged me, but "Open Road" is a reminder of just how good a Costner movie can be when he can manage to put his well-publicized ego in check. One of the few DVD's I own that would gladly upgrade to Blu-ray if it became available. Imagine those Canadian landscapes (and fake clouds! ) in 1080p, or that shootout in an uncompressed soundtrack.

[Steve T Power]

The Big 4 - A satellite simulcast at the local theater of the Big 4 concert from Sofia, Bulgaria. Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica and Slayer. Sheer metal bliss. Joey Belladonna hasn't lost a single step, Anthrax were amazing (even if i do prefer the Jon Bush material, i may have to take among the Living and Persistence of Time out of mothballs). Megadeth were technically brilliant, but Mustaine's vocals definitely have trouble reaching the high notes on the pre-Countdown to Extinction material (when they started tuning to E-flat). Metallica were fantastic, clearly in a league of their own, and Slayer, well, they were ridiculous, they did what they do, for better or worse (not a fan beyond about 60 percent of South of Heaven and two tunes from Seasons in the Abyss). Highlight was definitely when all four bands (minus Slayer's guitarists, who would have been blown off the stage by Hammett, Mustaine, Hetfield and Scott Ian anyway) took to the stage for an amazingly epic rendition of Diamond Head's "Am I Evil?" and Anthrax's impromptu tribute to the late Ronnie James Dio when they broke into Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell" right smack dab in the middle of Indians. Lars mentioned a DVD recording, so i'm sure we'll see this thing on DVD and Blu-Ray before Christmas, and it is so mine!

[Gabriel Girard]

Salvador - Almost 25 years later this is still a very potent piece of filmmaking. A great character study, a heartbreaking and thrilling story and a requisitory against the way the U.S. deals with foreign warfare. The confrontation between Boyle and the U.S. military guy near the end could be transposed to Iraq/Afghanistan by only changing the names mentionned.

[mavrach]

The Professionals - Loved it, the plot twist in the middle was way ahead of its time. Can somebody tell me if Jack Palance's character was meant to be Mexican, or was this another case of white people playing minorities during that time period? They established that he was a former comrade of the Americans, and that they were all able to speak Spanish, so it came off as vague to me.

Return of the Living Dead - Fun but not as great as it was built up to be. It was excessivly 80's as far as the punks went, but overall didn't take itself seriously and knew to be a good ride.

[mavrach]

Torchwood Season 2 & Children of Earth - After a disappointing first season, I eventually forced myself to check out Season 2 just because I'd paid for it and it was on the shelf, and I kept hearing amazing things about COE that I couldn't beleive. By the second episode, Sleeper, I was hooked. The show still wasn't quite Doctor Who, but it was starting to hit its stride.

Then came Children of Earth, which we just watched straight through in a single sitting. This really was about perfect, and is everything that sci-fi should be. The moral dilemna was the driving force behind the story, and made it feel like there was something worth fighting for.

It's hard to compare Torchwood with Doctor Who since they're so different, and of course Torchwood is much smaller scale. The problem is that I over-analyze this and can't help but wonder why the Doctor wouldn't show up any time something large-scale came by. So just by that point, everything else would have to be smaller.


SPOILERS:

I'm glad that they finally admitted that the show was just Jack & Guen, and killed off the rest of the cast. Ianto was completely dull and I didn't care when they offed him. Tosh & Owen were more interesting, but the show was always about Jack & Guen (moreso Guen much of the time). I'd heard that Tosh & Owen had left the show by the end of Season 2, so I figured they would die. So when Owen died halfway through the season I figured that was his time. Then it was odd for me when they made him undead for the rest of the season. That was a great plot twist, however that seemed moot by him getting permanently killed soon after.


Watching everything so far, you can see the show gradually standing up, hitting a full sprint by the miniseries.

[Andrew Forbes]

Can somebody tell me if Jack Palance's character was meant to be Mexican, or was this another case of white people playing minorities during that time period?

Swarthy Guillermo del Toro laughs at Jack Palance's ridiculous cross-ethnic shenanigans!

[the5thghostbuster]

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

[Bryan Pope]

Toy Story 3 -- A strong enough finish for the series (I'm assuming they're done now), but not on the same level as the first two. It was sweet and funny, and how nice to be reunited with old friends after so long, but I felt the movie's humor and action had a slight Shrek flavor about it (e.g. Ken's fashion show/dance, the elaborate Sunnyside escape plan). Also, I thought the 3D was entirely unnecessary. The movie would hold up just as well without it.

The ending was completely satisfying, though, although it wasn't the tearjerker I was expecting.

[the5thghostbuster]

Arthur review http://experiencecinematic.blogspot.com/2010/06/arthur-gordon-1981.html

[yellow ledbetter]

She's Outta My League, not the funniest thing I've ever seen, but it was enjoyable and had some great one liners