WATCHING OCTO(pus' som)BER (attempt to count to) 2011 THREAD

[molly1216]

Thor is there a section of this movie missing? the guy spends five minutes on earth and learns humility? he shares a couple of car rides with a woman who drives badly and falls in love? and just exactly what drugs was Stan Lee on the week he created this character? just exactly how do they travel through universes? an ice bridge?

[HGervais]

Yeah, the man who gave us the action/adventure extravaganzas that were Goldeneye, Casino Royale and The Mask of Zorro, which were all awesome (no condescension intended), doesn't exactly scream "big budget FX driven super hero flick" to me.

Exactly. All kick-ass movies but all action movies with a minimum of CGI and all with much better screenplays. I'm all for directors working out of their usual box & comfort zones but Campbell was just not the guy for the job in this case.

[Attrage]

Thor is there a section of this movie missing? the guy spends five minutes on earth and learns humility? he shares a couple of car rides with a woman who drives badly and falls in love? and just exactly what drugs was Stan Lee on the week he created this character? just exactly how do they travel through universes? an ice bridge?

I'm glad to find someone else was underwhelmed by this movie too. As far as bits missing I don't think I'd bother with an extended version or directors cut or whatever. I did enjoy the comedic moments, they sort of appealed to my enjoyment of silly comedy - like when he hears that they've discovered a crashed "satellite" and it's "50 miles west of here", then Natalie Portman asks him where he's going and he responds, in deadpan fashion, "50 miles west of here," I chuckled. But I found the action boring, the storyline inane, the acting fairly mediocre (even Anthony Hopkins seemed half-asleep for most of his scenes), and overall just kinda shrugged when the end credits rolled and thought to myself, *sigh*...115 minutes of my life I'll never get back!

[Attrage]

Goldeneye – This definitely stands as the best of the Brosnan 007 films. The subsequent ones were embarrassingly mediocre. Interestingly it would be the same director of Goldeneye (Martin Campbell) who would later return to impressively reinvigorate the franchise with Casino Royale. Also interesting to note (from my perspective anyway) is that Goldeneye was written while Timothy Dalton was still slated to play Bond – it was only after the script was complete that Dalton announced he would not be returning. I think that’s why I place this so much higher on my list than the other Brosnan entries – I’m sorry to fans, but Brosnan just doesn’t cut it as 007 for me. Maybe it has something to do with the fact he provides the voice of the robotic house in a Simpsons Halloween episode – the house that gets the hots for Marge and tries to kill Homer. Maybe it’s the fact that he burst into song in the film Mamma Mia, and the image of him singing and the sound of his voice actually, literally gave me nightmares…the horror…the horror…

Goldeneye has all the hallmarks of a great Bond film: impressive action set pieces, witty dialogue and memorable characters. Xenia Onatopp has got to be one of the best villains to grace the Bond films in a long time. A woman who dispatches men by squeezing them to death between her thighs. That’s my kind of lady. Then there’s the always-awesome Sean Bean as Alex Trevalyan. And Izabella Scorupco as the Bond girl in this outing is both extremely attractive and can act as well. Both huge plusses in the Bond-girl department. And of course, Goldeneye marked the first appearance of Judy Dench as M. A fantastic casting choice. Her line about Bond being a “misogynist dinosaur” and relic from the Cold War is such a clever piece of dialogue not only because it’s funny, but because it addresses two concerns about the Bond series of films – that with the end of the Cold War there were no more stories to tell, and that the character of James Bond had no place in the “politically correct” 90’s. I can’t imagine that a Sean Connery-esque slap to a woman’s behind would have gone down too well in 1995.

Anyway, onto the action. The opening bungee jump off the dam has got to rank as one of the most impressive stunts of any Bond film. For me, it’s right up there with my favourite pre-credits stunt – the ski-slope-base-jump from The Spy Who Loved Me. Of course it’s then followed up with the ridiculously over the top plane thing – but this is Bond. A bit of gravity-defying suspension of disbelief is pretty mandatory going in.

And it was good to see a balls-to-the-wall fisticuffs final fight between Brosnan and Bean. A good old fashioned smackdown. The location is very impressive too – that huge radar dish-thing. A few people have commented on the horrendous score, but although it’s not great I didn’t find it annoyed me at all. Overall, very much enjoyed revisiting this one.

[Attrage]

25th Hour - Ah the benefits of modern technology...i am sitting here having just watched this film and now I shall dispense some drivel about it for all those who bother to read my inane observations

I really like this film. For some reason David Benioff's writing speaks to me (he also wrote the screenplay for Troy, not to mention he also penned the novel this film is based on).

One scene in particular that strikes me in this movie is the one where Frank Slattery (Barry Pepper) and Jacob (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) are talking in Frank's apartment while overlooking Ground Zero in NYC. It's a long, dialogue-heavy scene, yet it's filmed in one take. It really is a measure of good actor who can deliver so many lines and maintain character for so long to pull off a scene like that. Pepper and Seymour Hoffman do it brilliantly.

The final sequence in the film (the "This life came so close to never happening" bit) sometimes seems a bit overdone and melodramatic, but I can't help but be moved by it.

[Andrew Forbes]

Red State. Spoilers. So close. So very, very close to being a terrific horror-tinged riff on the Westboro Baptist insanity. Then Smith blows it at the end by capping it with a few cheap shots that diffuse all the preceding terror in a flurry of prison rape jokes. For a brief moment, it appears that Smith is going to take the movie in a wholly unexpected and potentially staggering direction, but it turns out to be a setup for another cheap joke at the villain's expense. The film truly seemed to be building to something revelatory, in every sense of the word, but it all evaporates in the final moments. It may be what Smith feels the WBC deserves, but it's suicide for a horror film. It doesn't help matters that the only gay character in a movie decrying vicious homophobia is a bumbling coward. These flaws are made all the more painful by Smith's strong direction (!) and Michael Parks' astonishing central performance (which is deserving of all the accolades it won't receive). Here is a series of brutal gut-punches followed by a hollow chuckle. That may be the most effective bit of misdirection in the whole movie, but it sure isn't satisfying.

[mavrach]

Continuing my rampage through the dusty DVD's in my collection:

Hostage - It was for the best that this sat on the shelf, pretty much worthless. Maybe it's because I've seen Bruce Willis square off against Hans Gruber, but when he's pitted against 3 tweens with hostages, it's just not the same. Add a plot contrivance, a convenient twist that has the burglars taking the house of somebody that just happens to have dark connections. I was barely awake by the end.

Lady Vengeance - This suffers from the same issue that Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance had - It's not Oldboy. It's not a fair comparison at all, but when you walk in with Oldboy, then hear it's part of a trilogy, there are high expectations. I need to see both of the other entries again now that I know what to expect, because they were both perfectly fine movies that I would recommend to anybody.

[Dunnyman]

Thor is there a section of this movie missing? the guy spends five minutes on earth and learns humility? he shares a couple of car rides with a woman who drives badly and falls in love? and just exactly what drugs was Stan Lee on the week he created this character? just exactly how do they travel through universes? an ice bridge?

Jeez, you never read Origins of Marvel Comics? Lee wanted someone stronger than the Hulk, smarter than Mr. Fantastic, and could fly better than the Human Torch. His difficulty was the only character/person who could accomplish this was God, but figured there was ZERO possibility of featuring God without offending just about everyone, and under deadline thought that God wouldn't work, but a god could. 90% of it was based pretty accurately on actual Norse mythology. A tad more development would have been nice, sure, but I've resigned myself to good sized chunks missing from superhero movies at this point. The lone exception being Captain America where they freaking nailed the character, his motivations, etc. A few glitches as far as costume, etc, but no major quibbles.

[Andrew Forbes]

Lady Vengeance - This suffers from the same issue that Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance had - It's not Oldboy. It's not a fair comparison at all, but when you walk in with Oldboy, then hear it's part of a trilogy, there are high expectations. I need to see both of the other entries again now that I know what to expect, because they were both perfectly fine movies that I would recommend to anybody.

Oldboy is actually my least favorite of the three and Lady Vengeance my favorite. I realize I am in the minority.

[molly1216]

Thor is there a section of this movie missing? the guy spends five minutes on earth and learns humility? he shares a couple of car rides with a woman who drives badly and falls in love? and just exactly what drugs was Stan Lee on the week he created this character? just exactly how do they travel through universes? an ice bridge?

Jeez, you never read Origins of Marvel Comics? Lee wanted someone stronger than the Hulk, smarter than Mr. Fantastic, and could fly better than the Human Torch. His difficulty was the only character/person who could accomplish this was God, but figured there was ZERO possibility of featuring God without offending just about everyone, and under deadline thought that God wouldn't work, but a god could. 90% of it was based pretty accurately on actual Norse mythology. A tad more development would have been nice, sure, but I've resigned myself to good sized chunks missing from superhero movies at this point. The lone exception being Captain America where they freaking nailed the character, his motivations, etc. A few glitches as far as costume, etc, but no major quibbles.

but that's NOT IN THE MOVIE.
this movie is about a hunky bottle blond with an anger management disorder who gets kicked out of the house
he moves in with a girl who actually HAS a job and mooches off her.
until his biker buddies come to town and break up the place.
he finally goes home where his father has to pick up the pieces of the mess he made.

what about this is super?

[Dunnyman]

Thor is there a section of this movie missing? the guy spends five minutes on earth and learns humility? he shares a couple of car rides with a woman who drives badly and falls in love? and just exactly what drugs was Stan Lee on the week he created this character? just exactly how do they travel through universes? an ice bridge?

Jeez, you never read Origins of Marvel Comics? Lee wanted someone stronger than the Hulk, smarter than Mr. Fantastic, and could fly better than the Human Torch. His difficulty was the only character/person who could accomplish this was God, but figured there was ZERO possibility of featuring God without offending just about everyone, and under deadline thought that God wouldn't work, but a god could. 90% of it was based pretty accurately on actual Norse mythology. A tad more development would have been nice, sure, but I've resigned myself to good sized chunks missing from superhero movies at this point. The lone exception being Captain America where they freaking nailed the character, his motivations, etc. A few glitches as far as costume, etc, but no major quibbles.

but that's NOT IN THE MOVIE.
this movie is about a hunky bottle blond with an anger management disorder who gets kicked out of the house
he moves in with a girl who actually HAS a job and mooches off her.
until his biker buddies come to town and break up the place.
he finally goes home where his father has to pick up the pieces of the mess he made.

Damn, you do boil a movie down to it's basics, don't ya? Actually, there's an issue way back where Thor has a soda and begs off paying while asking for credit, you'd think with an alter ego who was a freaking top flight surgeon he'd have had a few bucks somewhere or other. Thor, the Super-Mooch...

what about this is super?

Um, other than Natalie Portman and Kat Dennings looking really hot, not much. It's why it's not at the top of my superhero list. Enjoyed it, but nowheres near as good as Captain America.

[OperaGal]

Ooh - I watched some excellent 'new' movies this past week...

The Magician (1958) - Fantastic!! Didn't quite click on the first viewing, so I watched it again and it made much more sense.
It was all so well done - the story, the acting and all. I was in awe! Mr. Sydow is truly amazing in his earlier movies!
This is on Blu-ray thru Criterion. And a must have for my collection! I'll have to wait for a sale or something as it's rather costly now.
(Also, watched 'The Seventh Seal' a while back and I really liked that one too! Can't wait to see more Bergman films...)

The Bad Seed (1956) - Cannot believe that I've not seen this till now. Another fab film!! And very eerie too!
Wow, quite an intense movie for the 50s! Judging from the description and movie poster, I expected it to be kinda cheesy...
But that thought cleared my mind as I was glued to the movie from the start. Had some interesting twists with a surprise ending.
Made me think of 'The Good Son', very similar stories, yet each are excellent movies in their own way.

The Invisible Man (1933) - I'm so overwhelmed at all the 30s movies that I've not yet seen. Glad I finally caught this one!
Really liked the special effects, very impressive for the early 30s! Not a scary one, but found it very intriguing nonetheless.
I've been seeing Claude Raines in many movies lately, now as I'm watching more movies from his time, I'm starting to recognise him more.

[HGervais]

Lady Vengeance - This suffers from the same issue that Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance had - It's not Oldboy. It's not a fair comparison at all, but when you walk in with Oldboy, then hear it's part of a trilogy, there are high expectations. I need to see both of the other entries again now that I know what to expect, because they were both perfectly fine movies that I would recommend to anybody.

Oldboy is actually my least favorite of the three and Lady Vengeance my favorite. I realize I am in the minority.

I'm kind of the mind that Old Boy is kind of Park Chan-Wook's Pulp Fiction while Sympathy For Lady Vengeance is his Jackie Brown. The former is the more important film relative to the director and for the doors it opened but the latter movie is the better film. That make any sense?

[mavrach]

That sounds about right.

[molly1216]

alternating Halloween themed viewing with
and a long Frasier Marathon on Netflix.

newsflash not ALL the episodes are available...neither on Netflix instant watch nor Amazon Prime.
for example
Season 5 Episode 3 - Halloween party episode which is remarkably pivotal..
Roz finds out she's preggers and of course in classic french farce way Nyles proposes to Daphne because he thinks she's carrying frasier's baby.
I DID manage to find it in 3 parts on Youtube:
Frasier: "Halloween". Part One
Frasier: "Halloween". Part Two
Frasier: "Halloween". Part Three

I haven't figured out exactly what the issue is with the episode...but it is a high costume halloween party
and Roz dressed in a very tight leather bustier and mini skirt combo declares she is dressed as 'O' from 'the story of O'
and the Story of O is still under copyright. the woman it was written for is still alive.
PERHAPS that is the issue?? actually O spends much of the book naked so Roz was overdressed.

[Steve T Power]

The Crow - It has been quite a while since the last time I watched this (maybe 2003?) but I'm sure i've seen it well into double digits (including twice in theatre on opening day - long story). Was great going back to an old favorite and still really enjoying the hell out of it in spite of a few clunky bits. It looks absolutely amazing on Blu-Ray though, vibrant colors, amazing detail, and beautiful darks - one of the best looking 90's flicks i've seen on the format - that opening miniature shot was gobsmacking, like Blade Runner: Final cut impressive.

[Attrage]

Sherlock Holmes (2009) (second viewing) - Not having read any of the short stories, nor seen any other incarnation of the famous Inspector, I had zero expectations going into this film. In fact the only reason I really bothered to see it at all was because I am a fan of Robert Downey Jr, and I have a strange fascination with Victorian-era England.

What I got was a slam-bang rollercoaster of an action movie (I can’t believe I actually just used the phrase “slam-bang”), some wonderfully inventive dialogue, and typically fine performances from a stellar cast (there I go again…”stellar cast”?...who the heck am I channelling here, Roger Ebert?). I mean, Robert Downey Jr’s talent needs no mentioning, it’s wholly evident in everything he does. The guy’s got acting chops and stacks of charisma. Jude Law annoyed the hell out of me when I first saw him in A.I. but what can I say, the guy’s grown on me. Mark Strong is proving to be a dependable actor even if he is sort of pigeon-holing himself into playing suave bad guys (Body of Lies, Robin Hood, etc), and Rachel McAdams has certainly come a long way from the air-headed, passive aggressive b*tch she played so well in Mean Girls.

Although I really enjoyed it, the first time I saw this flick I did sense the old “franchise set-up” thing going on (recently confirmed with the upcoming release of the sequel), but this time through I found that aspect less annoying. It’s weird, it almost seemed like a superhero origin story to me the first time through, but again, this time I noticed that aspect a lot less. I mean, of course there’s the Moriarty thing at the end, but there were other things that just seemed vaguely incomplete.

A few things really rate a quick mention: the bare-knuckle boxing scene, and the first fight scene, where Holmes plays out in his head in slo-mo and narrates what moves he is going to make, and then the scene plays out in real-time, is fantastically done. Downey Jr again proves (as he did in Iron Man) that he is great at playing total b*stards you can’t help but like, and Hans Zimmer is one of the most talented composers working in movies today.

[Attrage]

The Crow - It has been quite a while since the last time I watched this (maybe 2003?) but I'm sure i've seen it well into double digits (including twice in theatre on opening day - long story). Was great going back to an old favorite and still really enjoying the hell out of it in spite of a few clunky bits. It looks absolutely amazing on Blu-Ray though, vibrant colors, amazing detail, and beautiful darks - one of the best looking 90's flicks i've seen on the format - that opening miniature shot was gobsmacking, like Blade Runner: Final cut impressive.

I love the Crow, but havent seen it in years. I'll never forget the lighter-fluid-crow-outline bit though. And that single piece of orchestral music in the graveyard is amazingly haunting and beautiful. Plus it's another movie that had me quoting one of it's lines for weeks afterwards: whenever I could, I'd respond to any question that went like this: "what are you going in there to buy?", with "Smokes. And road beers!"

[J.M. Vargas]

John Carpenter's THE THING (1982) on HD-DVD. Was seriously considering going to see the new prequel/remake in theaters, so I decided to pop up Carpenter's '82 remake on the ol' HD-DVD player to freshen-up in my mind the Norwegian backstory. I ended up watching the whole flick twice (second time with the commentary) then all the bonus features, which are MIA (along with a quality HD transfer) from the gimped Blu-ray. Needless to say I didn't bother to go see the new "Thing" because this one is the real deal. Great acting (manly Kurt Russell, hammy Wilford Brimley, no-nonsense Richard Dysart, etc.), memorable characters (is Windows the unluckiest SOB ever or what?), good production values (from Morricone's Carpenter-esque synth score to the refrigerated sets and on-location British Columbia camp) and still-impressive special effects (Rob Bottin's creature/head-with-legs thing, Stan Winston's alien dog thing, etc.) all come together to make a memorable monster/horror movie that stands the test of time. Might rent the new "Thing" when it hits home video just to see how well/badly they implemented the backstory with which Carpenter starts his remake and hits the ground running.

SLEEPAWAY CAMP (1983) on DVD with the 'F This Movie' group commentary track... again. I'm seriously addicted to this commentary, so much so that I've heard it on its own without the movie several times. Doug wins, indeed, scoring the commentary's biggest laughs when describing Angela's place in the baseball and volleyball scenes. 'Do you have a peanut allergy?' Too bad the commentary begins lagging behind the movie every 15 or so minutes, prompting the need from the listener to fast-forward a little every few minutes to catch-up with the DVD. Totally worth it for a gas of a commentary though, one that single handedly is tempting me to rent "Wet Hot American Summer" to check out the "Sleepaway Camp" references. More 'F This Movie' commentaries, please!

MST3K: MASTER NINJA I (#322) and MASTER NINJA II (#324; 1992/1984) on Shout! DVD. When I last saw these experiments back in 2008 I came away convinced that, back-to-back, these two were one uninterrupted laugh riot. Seeing them together again “Master Ninja I” came across as the far superior of the two. Almost everything said about Max (Tim 'I'm an HBO director now' Van Patten) and Master (Lee 'I should have retired after Escape from NY' Van Cleef) Ninja in “MNI” gets recycled/repeated/given-a-new-coat-of-paint-but-basically-its-the-same-joke riffing in “Master Ninja II,” with the ‘guest stars’ (George Lazenby, Valerie Bertinelli, etc.) and their made-for-TV story arcs being the difference. But in “MN I” the ‘guest stars’ (Demi Moore, Claude 'you guys looking at my butt?' Aikins, etc.) were cooler, plus the humor and riffing (after Lee rips a steering wheel off from a moving car (!) and crashes: 'I hope Stephen J. Cannell was in that car', 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Gerbil,' etc.) off-the-charts funny. I never get tired of the ‘Lee, tuck in your shirt/suck your gut’ or ‘the stuntman has taken over’ so-obvious continuity jokes from either episode though. I've also seen many more Sho Kosugi movies since “MN” came out, so I find myself conflicted when he faces off against Lee Van Cleef's "hero." Kosugi is clearly the superior athlete/trained performer versus Lee’s old reputation of being a cinematic bad-ass and his clearly-thinner stunt double. Oh, and one last thing: 'MASTER NINJA THEEEEEME SOOOOOOONG!'

MST3K #509: THE GIRL IN LOVERS LAVE (1993/1960) on Shout! DVD for the first time. Feeling like a Mike Nelson-era Season 6 experiment that snuck into the final Joel year, this drab and depressing (i.e. B&W flick with a print so riddled with jumpcuts J&TB have to cover with 'wormhole' and 'time wrinkle' jokes) story of two drifters that get mixed-up with locals in the town of Sherman isn't as bad as the show's usual 'teen crime' fare. The movie's last act is actually pretty compelling and dramatic (not to mention rather violent and borderline-misogynist in what happens to Carrie), which cancels out most of the riffing but provides Trace Beaulieu with a chance to do a killer impersonation of character actor Jack Ellam as Crow during a host segment (the episode's highlight by far). The start and middle of the film (especially a visit to the town's brothel) are goofy-enough for the riffing to score some laughs. The Brains grab a hold of the homoerotic bond between Bix, aka Big Stupid, to great comedic effect and pile one sexually-suggestive riff on top of another (which, again, were more in tune with the Mike era of the show than Joel's). For a new-to-me "MST3K" episode this is decent.

CINEMATIC TITANIC: SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS (2008/1964) on DVD for the first time. Saw the classic "MST3K" holiday episode recently and enjoyed it more than I expected since it's not an 'essential' "MST3K" episode for me. So I decided to tackle the Titans' attempt to mine this cinematic turkey for jokes a second time and, surprise, I laughed a little but came away with more respect and appreciation for the "MST3K" version. Maybe it's the fact that MST3K gives us the complete package (Christmas decorations on the set, holiday host segments, funnier/better jokes, etc.) while "CT" relies 100% on new riffs that stand out for not being as funny as the original treatment with rare exceptions ('wake me up in Mapril') and access to scenes deleted for time reasons from the "MST3K" version. Kudos to Joel, Trace, Frank, Josh and Mary Jo for trying to do the riffing equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest in their shorts: going back to a beloved-by-fans riffed movie and trying to improve on it. They just weren't able to top what they did (along with the Rifftrax guys) as an "MST3K" unit back in '91.

[Steve T Power]

Sherlock - First episode - This is one freaking AWESOME show!

[HGervais]

Sherlock - First episode - This is one freaking AWESOME show!

Yup and it finishes up even better. New episodes very early next year.

[Attrage]

Blood Diamond - (third viewing) Having very much enjoyed Edward Zwick’s previous films (Glory, Legends of the Fall, The Siege, The Last Samurai) I went into this pretty confident I was going to get a solid motion picture experience. The film certainly doesn’t disappoint. DiCaprio is an actor that I’ve always been impressed with, his raw talent at a young age in The Basketball Diaries was stunning, and for my money he has just gotten better and better with each performance he gives.

A criticism levelled at DiCaprio is that his “Soth Ofrican” accent in this film is ridiculous. I have no problem with it, I don’t find it distracting at all, and in fact if you listen to Zwick’s commentary he says DiCaprio actually nailed the accent and dialect perfectly.

Connelly does great with what is essential a one-note character, the “journalist who wants to Make a Difference”. She actually manages to give Maddy Bowen some depth.

But the real surprise for me in this film was Djimon Hounsou as Solomon Vandy. I had only seen him once previously, alongside Russell Crowe in Gladiator. In this film, he blew me away. His performance is so powerful and affecting, his presence on screen simply steals every scene he’s in. The scene in the diamond field where his emotions finally explode as he slams a shovel repeatedly into the RUF commander who kidnapped his son and tore his family apart is chilling. But his quieter moments are great too – like the scene in London where he looks at a diamond necklace through a store window. Like the way he asks Archer about why he wants the diamond so badly. He thinks Archer wants the diamond so he’ll have enough money to settle down and raise a family. When Archer tells him this is not the case, I like the way he sort of stops and shrugs. Archer says, “What?” and he replies, “I am confused…” The concept of simple greed is foreign to him.

Spoiler alert – watching this film again I was affected even more so by the final sequence in Africa before Solomon escapes with his son. I love the end of Danny Archer as a character (oddly, it reminds me of the end of the character you play in the video game Far Cry 2 – it seems strange when you first experience it, but thinking back on it you realise there could not be any other end for that character after the things he’s done). His final phone call to Maddy, the line, “I’m exactly where I am supposed to be.” And the quiet resignation as he watches his blood mix with sand as he dies is an intense moment and not to mention a brilliantly shot scene – looking out over a beautiful landscape at sunset.

[J.M. Vargas]

^^^ You're only supposed to spoiler the Leo DeCaprio movies in which he doesn't die. Leo dying is pretty much assumed to happen in all his movies unless otherwise-noted.

[mavrach]

Shoot 'em Up - I had a lot of fun with this one. I'm digging up some good gems that were hiding in my collection unwatched. This is the fun action movie I've been missing since everything went PG-13, but it's also self-aware at the same time. I never thought there were so many ways to kill a man using a carrot. Eat your vegetables!

And between this and Ironclad, I'm liking movies where Paul Giamatti goes for a villainous role.

Transformers - I think every criticism against this film is completely fair, but this movie works for me anyway. It's the nostalgia of my childhood heroes appearing again, and the awe of their arrival. I watched the cartoon when I was very young, so I can't help but get chills at the idea that Optimus Prime is coming. It's got a lot of flaws, too much focus on the audience surrogates instead of the heroes, pee jokes, "are you the tooth fairy?", CGI blur battles, but I keep coming back. Here I go into part 2 finally, which I'm bracing myself for.

Dead or Alive - I made it about an hour into this one. According to the receipt in the box, I bought this (the DVD set of the trilogy actually) in 2005 and never watched it. This turned out to be everything bad about Takeshi Miike, and this is coming from somebody who liked Ichi the Killer to some extent. It's just excess and style for no reason. I'm just taking his word that this is the same guy who made 13 Assassins this year.

[Attrage]

^^^ You're only supposed to spoiler the Leo DeCaprio movies in which he doesn't die. Leo dying is pretty much assumed to happen in all his movies unless otherwise-noted.

LOL okay I will note that for future reference.
On a serious note I have heard more than one actor in dvd commentaries say that doing a "death scene" is really enjoyable and challenging. Maybe he's just trying to perfect his technique. Or maybe he's trying to rival Sean Bean

[mavrach]

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - The first movie worked for me because it had the excitement that my childhood heroes were coming, and nailed the sense of awe for me. Now in this one, there here from the start and they didn't even bother to start developing any of the Transformers as characters. Instead, they're more like elements that occur around the human characters. Optimus Prime is out for half the movie, The Fallen barely has any screen time and I can't tell why he's supposedly super-powerful, most of the rest of the Transformers are undefined foot soldiers, and these are all a big shame considering the monster length of the movie at 2.5 hours. A couple of small scenes that define some of these characters further would've gone a long way, but no, it's more important to develop Sam's parents instead. And this is a Michael Bay movie.

And there's too much time spent on stupid jokes. The twins (who were pretty irritating but not as bad as what I'd pictured), lots of balls jokes, loads of bite-size Deceptacons who sound like Looney Tunes cartoons. Bay would argue that they're all for the kids, but the kids are already there because you have giant robots fighting each other! You don't need anything else.

There is a fun movie in there somewhere. Just knock out about 45 minutes of the movie, use the Twins' screentime to develop Optimus or some of the other secondary bots some more, lose the gags.

[molly1216]

Captain America ....half a reel into it, and all i can say is Thor is a POS. This is 1000% better.

btw who is Hugo Weaving trying to imitate? my ear is telling me Christopher Weitz?

finished watching...VERY damn good film...teensy bit predictable but not boring or lame.
i think it would make a very nice double feature with Hellboy 1.

[molly1216]

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - The first movie worked for me because it had the excitement that my childhood heroes were coming, and nailed the sense of awe for me. Now in this one, there here from the start and they didn't even bother to start developing any of the Transformers as characters. Instead, they're more like elements that occur around the human characters.

unless it's a foreign film, i am VERY VERY suspicious of trailers with few words. it generally is a bad bad sign

[J.M. Vargas]

Captain America ....half a reel into it, and all i can say is Thor is a POS. This is 1000% better.

By that equation/measurement, how much better does that make "Captain America" over Johnson's own "The Rocketeer"? 10% better? Twice as good? About the same? I honestly cannot think of a movie in which Tommy Lee Jones has been this perfect at the deadpan delivery thing since his "Fugitive" breakthrough role. Toby Jones also brings the best out of Jones (their once scene together is gold) as well as Weaving; heck, the movie has wall-to-wall supporting thesps (Neal McDonough) that complement the leads so damn well you feel they stole their share from other superhero flicks (i.e. Thor's). It's a fun flick that needs a musical hook (Silvestri's score is crap, IMHO) to be just about the perfect superhero flick. Hard to believe "Thor" beat "Captain America" in total box office sales by almost $100 million.

[azul017]

I'm starting to rewatch Buffy s3, on a whim, and I'm surprised at how good it still is. The action is less exciting, but the acting and quips are still first-rate. Eliza Dushku may not become a break-out star, but she was amazing as Faith, especially in "Faith, Hope, and Trick" as well as "Revelations".

I need to fit in some more horror films before Halloween, though...

[Dan Mancini]

who is Hugo Weaving trying to imitate? my ear is telling me Christopher Weitz?

My mind went to Werner Herzog.

[cdouglas]

who is Hugo Weaving trying to imitate? my ear is telling me Christopher Weitz?

My mind went to Werner Herzog.

Yeah, same here. I will admit that Weaving's was my favorite of the three significant fake German accents the movie offers.

[Attrage]

Flatliners - Five brilliant but slightly misguided med students decide to try and find out if there's anything to the afterlife by basically medically killing each other and then bringing each other back to life. The expermiment works but they, in true thriller fashion, don't "come back alone", and find their lives start to be haunted by the ghosts of their respective pasts.

Nice little thriller from 1990 from a pre-ruining-the-Batman-franchise Joel Schumacher, and starring a pre-Jack Bauer Kiefer Sutherland in the main role. I enjoyed the atmosphere of this film, the gothic tones of the disused building they do the experiments in was pretty cool, and the opening sequence, the long zoom in on Sutherland before he says, "Today is a good day to die," is awesome. I thought some of the haunting stuff was a bit lame, particularly Billy Baldwin being haunted by the dozens of women he'd literally screwed over, but aside from some minor quibbles I found myself enjoying this one again having not seen it in about 10 years or so.

[Steve T Power]

Captain America ....half a reel into it, and all i can say is Thor is a POS. This is 1000% better.

By that equation/measurement, how much better does that make "Captain America" over Johnson's own "The Rocketeer"? 10% better? Twice as good? About the same? I honestly cannot think of a movie in which Tommy Lee Jones has been this perfect at the deadpan delivery thing since his "Fugitive" breakthrough role. Toby Jones also brings the best out of Jones (their once scene together is gold) as well as Weaving; heck, the movie has wall-to-wall supporting thesps (Neal McDonough) that complement the leads so damn well you feel they stole their share from other superhero flicks (i.e. Thor's). It's a fun flick that needs a musical hook (Silvestri's score is crap, IMHO) to be just about the perfect superhero flick. Hard to believe "Thor" beat "Captain America" in total box office sales by almost $100 million.

I honestly think i'm broken. Captain America worked for me about half the time, but the other half the time I was bored stupid. There are essentially only two real set pieces, and both of them sort of fell flat (they just didn't have that epic ww-II scope that I was looking for) and the use of montage for pretty much every cool looking sequence from the trailer was a huge let down. That train scene (the 'Bucky' one) was horrible, and there was an almost "checklist" nature to the way the flick played out Cap's origin, like it was going through the motions. Evans and Weaving were great, and the film looked fan-freakin'-tastic, but overall there was nowhere near enough Nazi-Punching for my tastes.

On the flipside, I had an absolute riot with Thor.

[molly1216]

Captain America ....half a reel into it, and all i can say is Thor is a POS. This is 1000% better.

By that equation/measurement, how much better does that make "Captain America" over Johnson's own "The Rocketeer"? 10% better? Twice as good? About the same? I honestly cannot think of a movie in which Tommy Lee Jones has been this perfect at the deadpan delivery thing since his "Fugitive" breakthrough role. Toby Jones also brings the best out of Jones (their once scene together is gold) as well as Weaving; heck, the movie has wall-to-wall supporting thesps (Neal McDonough) that complement the leads so damn well you feel they stole their share from other superhero flicks (i.e. Thor's). It's a fun flick that needs a musical hook (Silvestri's score is crap, IMHO) to be just about the perfect superhero flick. Hard to believe "Thor" beat "Captain America" in total box office sales by almost $100 million.

I honestly think i'm broken. Captain America worked for me about half the time, but the other half the time I was bored stupid. There are essentially only two real set pieces, and both of them sort of fell flat (they just didn't have that epic ww-II scope that I was looking for) and the use of montage for pretty much every cool looking sequence from the trailer was a huge let down. That train scene (the 'Bucky' one) was horrible, and there was an almost "checklist" nature to the way the flick played out Cap's origin, like it was going through the motions. Evans and Weaving were great, and the film looked fan-freakin'-tastic, but overall there was nowhere near enough Nazi-Punching for my tastes.

On the flipside, I had an absolute riot with Thor.

perhaps this is just the dichotomy with comic movies..they are either one or the other...i will admit capt america needs some tightening..for a movie they shoved in too much backstory..on 2nd viewing i skipped up to the carnival scene. everything before it is superfluous. and the war bonds stuff went on way too long that could have been cut to 1 minute. but i ws okay with the set pieces they did have. but as far as thor 80% of the offworld footage was pointless.. thor is the only alien in the avengers so you have to give some backstory...but seriously it was far too much high flying fantasy compared to the science based backstories of the hulk, captain america and iron man...it is the thing that doesn't belong.

[Dan Mancini]

I honestly think i'm broken. Captain America worked for me about half the time, but the other half the time I was bored stupid.

I've always thought I was broken because, while everyone gripes about superhero origin flicks and how they don't leave enough room for action, I rarely like the second entry in a series. They tend to be collections of meaningless action set pieces because the filmmakers have run out of things to say about the characters.

Superman? Awesome. Superman II? Totally blows.

Iron Man? Great fun. Iron Man 2? A bloody mess that overdoes everything the first movie managed to do right, yet still fails to deliver a satisfying finale.

So, I dug Captain America precisely because it was more interested in Steve Rogers than in Nazi punching. Where some people thought the Red Skull was under-utilized, I thought Johnston wisely prevented him from stealing the show. He got just enough screen time to be a credible threat without bogging the movie down with scenery chewing.

I also dug Thor. Thor learns humility from 5 minutes on Earth? Nope. Thor learns humility from believing Odin is dead, coming to understand that he was rightly banished, and choosing to sacrifice his own life so that the Destroyer doesn't devastate Midgard. Is the romance rendered in shorthand? Sure, but with the exception of Superman, isn't that always the case in comic book flicks? The flick's not really about the romance. Bottom line, Portman plays a hot misfit nerd who's transcending the scientific thought of her peers and seeing the universe as Thor knows it to be. Why wouldn't he kinda fall for her? And I dug how the movie put a scifi spin on elements of Norse mythology in order to bring them in line with the more realistically grounded scifi elements in Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Plus, Mjolnir was badass. So there's that.

[J.M. Vargas]

Superman? Awesome. Superman II? Totally blows.

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ... wrong answer, credibility loss about 58.6%, thanks for playing. Moving right along...

[Dan Mancini]

Superman? Awesome. Superman II? Totally blows.

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ... wrong answer, credibility loss about 58.6%, thanks for playing. Moving right along...

Keep telling' yourself that, but Superman II lacks nearly everything that makes the original an actual good movie. And that includes either cut of II.

Epic scale? No.
Interesting character development? Negatory.
Firm grasp on the proper tone? Absolutely not.
Groundbreaking SFX? Not even close.
Gorgeous, varied cinematography? Not so much.
Charm? Heck no.
Demonstrable understanding of the core of its main character? Uh-uh.

[Steve T Power]

So, I dug Captain America precisely because it was more interested in Steve Rogers than in Nazi punching. Where some people thought the Red Skull was under-utilized, I thought Johnston wisely prevented him from stealing the show. He got just enough screen time to be a credible threat without bogging the movie down with scenery chewing.

And I agree with each and every one of these points. But where you and I go our separate ways, it would seem, is in the second half. The action there felt to "small scale" for me. Trailers showed me Steve Rogers and the Howling Commandos marching through the Ardennes with guns ablaze, Cap leading the rush against a horde of Hydra leather-clad scumbags. The movie showed me all that excitement in the same 35 second long montage the trailers used, and that really let me down a little. Even the siege in the final act felt like three guys against ten bad guys. I doubt resources were an issue, it probably had more to do with time than money. Either way, Captain America ain't quite The Rocketeer in my book.

I also dug Thor. Thor learns humility from 5 minutes on Earth? Nope. Thor learns humility from believing Odin is dead, coming to understand that he was rightly banished, and choosing to sacrifice his own life so that the Destroyer doesn't devastate Midgard. Is the romance rendered in shorthand? Sure, but with the exception of Superman, isn't that always the case in comic book flicks? The flick's not really about the romance. Bottom line, Portman plays a hot misfit nerd who's transcending the scientific thought of her peers and seeing the universe as Thor knows it to be. Why wouldn't he kinda fall for her? And I dug how the movie put a scifi spin on elements of Norse mythology in order to bring them in line with the more realistically grounded scifi elements in Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Plus, Mjolnir was badass. So there's that.

Amen to all of the above.

[mavrach]

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Just finished it now and I need to vent to you all. Again, I think the first one was heavily flawed, but it nailed a sense of awe on behalf of the humans. After that point, there is nothing in these movies. The first one had my hopes up, but after marathoning the other two, seeing them for the first time each, I'm just frustrated

To give Michael Bay a little credit, he went and fixed most of the flaws of Revenge of The Fallen - Gone are testicle gags, antics with the Witwickys, and pandering to children with cartoony new robots. Those are steps in the right direction.

There is no emotion left. Bay didn't bother to replace that attempted humor with any kind of heft. Major characters are killed off, namely an Autobot and a major Deceptacon who were both in all three movies, and I actually had to point out who the Autobot was to my wife. Not even aiming to be a good movie, just to be a crowdpleaser Bay should've tried to capitalize on those moments by focusing on them for a minute and just giving the audience a chance to take in such an important moment. But no, Bay is quick to jump right into the next scene.

So we see that Bay speeds past character deaths, but he slows down every single time people EXIT A VEHICLE or ENTER A BUILDING in some sort of attempted The Right Stuff moment. You get a slo-mo shot of people stepping out of a helicopter, but when a kid takes out a giant robot with a hand-place bomb, it's off to the next scene!

And the new girl. I didn't get her name and I don't care. This made me yearn for the depth that was in the relationship with Megan Fox previously, and that's just sad. And she's a 23-year old who seems to have the plastic surgery history of Joan Rivers. Is this really considered to be attractive??

This may be a reach, but I'm getting a big racist vibe out of Bay. All three movies have some sort of shot at Latinos. The first one had people screaming "SPEAK ENGLISH" repeatedly, the second one had the twins, and this one had a random Latina onscreen for a minute in an office at her expense. The black characters all seem to be walking stereotypes but I think Bay was trying to make them honestly funny. And what's with Autobots with a Scottish and Italian accents?

[Future Man]

Rewatched original Diabolique
There's a little snippet of dialogue at the end [spoiler] that I never noticed before, spoken by the student about his slingshot, that makes things a bit open-ended shall we say.

[mavrach]

Wild at Heart - I love David Lynch's brand of weirdness, but this movie felt like it was trying too hard to be weird, as opposed to simply being weird naturally. Nicholas Cage's & Willem Dafoe's performances felt like they were on an SNL skit instead of an actual movie.

I was interested in Laura Dern's performance here. I've only seen her in two other movies, but she's been an innocent in both - she was Spielbergian wide-eyed wonder in Jurassic Park, and in Blue Velvet she represented normalcy. Here she's unrestrained and spends half the movie topless. A big shock to the system to see her like this.

[Attrage]

Wild at Heart - I love David Lynch's brand of weirdness, but this movie felt like it was trying too hard to be weird, as opposed to simply being weird naturally. Nicholas Cage's & Willem Dafoe's performances felt like they were on an SNL skit instead of an actual movie.

I was interested in Laura Dern's performance here. I've only seen her in two other movies, but she's been an innocent in both - she was Spielbergian wide-eyed wonder in Jurassic Park, and in Blue Velvet she represented normalcy. Here she's unrestrained and spends half the movie topless. A big shock to the system to see her like this.

I havent seen Wild at Heart, but that sounds disappointing...usually David Lynch manages to be weird without trying at all (just watch pretty much any interview with him...he's a very strange guy...). There's a big part of me that still wishes he had of agreed to go ahead and direct Return of the Jedi. Oh, what a wild, wacky movie that would have been.

[Mitchell Hattaway]

Superman? Awesome. Superman II? Totally blows.

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ... wrong answer, credibility loss about 58.6%, thanks for playing. Moving right along...

Keep telling' yourself that, but Superman II lacks nearly everything that makes the original an actual good movie. And that includes either cut of II.

Epic scale? No.
Interesting character development? Negatory.
Firm grasp on the proper tone? Absolutely not.
Groundbreaking SFX? Not even close.
Gorgeous, varied cinematography? Not so much.
Charm? Heck no.
Demonstrable understanding of the core of its main character? Uh-uh.

Preach it. Even had the rest of the movie been friggin' awesome, the second scene in the diner would have killed it. Superman doesn't do that kind of crap.

[Dan Mancini]

Superman? Awesome. Superman II? Totally blows.

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ... wrong answer, credibility loss about 58.6%, thanks for playing. Moving right along...

Keep telling' yourself that, but Superman II lacks nearly everything that makes the original an actual good movie. And that includes either cut of II.

Epic scale? No.
Interesting character development? Negatory.
Firm grasp on the proper tone? Absolutely not.
Groundbreaking SFX? Not even close.
Gorgeous, varied cinematography? Not so much.
Charm? Heck no.
Demonstrable understanding of the core of its main character? Uh-uh.

Preach it. Even had the rest of the movie been friggin' awesome, the second scene in the diner would have killed it. Superman doesn't do that kind of crap.

Not to mention the fact that it makes no sense whatsoever that Superman would forfeit his powers in order to bone Lois after he's already boned Lois.

Also, Clifton James.

And let's not forget: "You know something? You're a real pain the neck!"

[molly1216]

Hanna lovingly filmed violent fairy tale (is this new fascination with dangerous school girls a Manga infection?) entirely predictable.
I wish the damn rentals had their bonus features back, i will have to find a cheap copy to hear the director's commentary
there are many plot holes that bother me...what happened to the rv family survive? etc..fabulous cast, great cinematography and fight choreography..highly recommended.

[Andrew Forbes]

Halloween II (2009, director's cut). I actually watched this a couple of weeks ago and wanted to wait before commenting. I wasn't able to organize my thoughts until now, and even this long after viewing, I'm still not sure how to articulate how I felt about the movie. You know, regardless of whether you think the movie is trash or treasure, you can't deny that Zombie went right to the wall to produce something as original as possible within the framework of an established franchise. I'm inclined to call this some kind of masterpiece. It comes as close as any movie I can recall to recreating the sensation of an inescapable nightmare. Despite its alleged crimes against the series, it probably comes as close to the original portrayal of Michael as an embodiment of The Bogeyman as anything since. Rather than a manifestation of vaguely defined evil, however, he's an awakened force of dormant trauma who has to be dealt with every few years, even as life goes on. Does the movie have flaws? Hell yes. But I'll be damned if I didn't find myself riveted to my couch as it played out. I often say that I'd rather see an ambitious failure than a formulaic success, and this is nothing if not ambitious.

[molly1216]

no internet for most of the day due to mother nature..
rolled out more dvds.... (internet streaming is not as reliable as having my own disc in hand)

Catwomen of the Moon and Missile to the Moon - only JUST today figured out why these films exist. checked out the image gallery on these 'wade williams' discs. all the producers wanted to get close to these very curvaceous moon maidens - and i am sure many 12 year old boys. hence.. there were virgin women in skimpy outfits on the moon.

Val Lewton's Leopard Man and Seventh Victim , i find the Leopard Man truly horrifying...that first murder is most cruel. and Seventh victim is creepy..satan worshipers in Greenwich village? it would be another 2 decades before that was concept was exploited again.

The Ghost and the Darkness the ham handed creation of Michael Douglas' character has always bothered me because the real story was already good enough, but i can see WHY it was needed to get the film made. but damn that is still a most excellent film, and scary to boot...can't get over how the music just tops it off and i remember sitting in the dark watching the night hunting sequences and being truly creeped out.

[Dan Mancini]

Halloween II (2009, director's cut). I actually watched this a couple of weeks ago and wanted to wait before commenting. I wasn't able to organize my thoughts until now, and even this long after viewing, I'm still not sure how to articulate how I felt about the movie. You know, regardless of whether you think the movie is trash or treasure, you can't deny that Zombie went right to the wall to produce something as original as possible within the framework of an established franchise. I'm inclined to call this some kind of masterpiece. It comes as close as any movie I can recall to recreating the sensation of an inescapable nightmare. Despite its alleged crimes against the series, it probably comes as close to the original portrayal of Michael as an embodiment of The Bogeyman as anything since. Rather than a manifestation of vaguely defined evil, however, he's an awakened force of dormant trauma who has to be dealt with every few years, even as life goes on. Does the movie have flaws? Hell yes. But I'll be damned if I didn't find myself riveted to my couch as it played out. I often say that I'd rather see an ambitious failure than a formulaic success, and this is nothing if not ambitious.

Yep. I can't say I like it, but you can tell it's the movie Zombie wanted to make the first time around, but couldn't. I don't think Zombie's sensibilities translate well to the franchise, but he didn't play it safe, that's for sure.

[mavrach]

Wild at Heart - I love David Lynch's brand of weirdness, but this movie felt like it was trying too hard to be weird, as opposed to simply being weird naturally. Nicholas Cage's & Willem Dafoe's performances felt like they were on an SNL skit instead of an actual movie.

I was interested in Laura Dern's performance here. I've only seen her in two other movies, but she's been an innocent in both - she was Spielbergian wide-eyed wonder in Jurassic Park, and in Blue Velvet she represented normalcy. Here she's unrestrained and spends half the movie topless. A big shock to the system to see her like this.

I havent seen Wild at Heart, but that sounds disappointing...usually David Lynch manages to be weird without trying at all (just watch pretty much any interview with him...he's a very strange guy...). There's a big part of me that still wishes he had of agreed to go ahead and direct Return of the Jedi. Oh, what a wild, wacky movie that would have been.

Exactly. Oddness was needed to tell the stories of Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet. . Wild at Heart feels like just another lovers on the run story, with the addition of people dancing hysterically while screaming, and fat old topless ladies in the background while the regular story is being told.