Brief reviews of movies you saw recently

[LeekClock]

And I've just noticed that Edgar Wright, the director, is working with the same cast and crew for his new picture, Hot Fuzz, coming out this April. The trailer looks fantastic.

It does look fantastic

[LeekClock]

Posted this in Town's thread earlier...






[imdb]Pan's Labyrinth[/imdb]

 I think this was marketed extremely badly. In the trailers it looks like a pretty unoriginal, darker, "narnia". But there's much more to it than that!

I saw it today and I was very impressed! It's a sharp, intelligent, stylish fairy tale. Strictly for grown-ups, I might add. There are some very graphic scenes of violence in there.

The fairytale nature of it is contrasted with very chilling realism. The fairytale aspect of it is basically just a beautiful and intelligent metaphor for what's going on in the real story.

I highly recommend this film. It's one of the best films of 2006, for sure.

[SnakeClock]

A History of Violence - 7/10

Viggo Mortensen tries to not be Aragorn, and instead is Tom Stall, small-town diner owner who roughs up two dangerous thugs, which draws attention from some unsavoury company.

It's good that the movie has such a subdued photographic style, to make it very obvious that the movie is not meant to be splashy or glamourous. Ed Harris stays mostly out of the spotlight, but his moments are good, well up to Ed Harris' calibur.

I like that Tom's violent act had affected people closest to him the most, like how his son Jack pounds the class asshole when usually he would have gotten rid of him with a good witticism. His father's demonstration of the power of violence has made it seem like it's a more effective deterrent, at least to people that only understand violence, like the mob boss that he shotguns in the chest to save his father's life (yet he still resents Dad for his violent past).

Sex with Edie has also gone from playful to violent, possibly because she hates him but is turned on by all the violence he can do, like how the alpha male that gets all the girls is the one that can kill the most competition. It perhaps shows how two primeval animal instincts, sex and and violence, tie into each other.

It's a good examination on the nature of violence as a part of human nature, but I'm a bit bummed that it was tied together by a fairly trite "coming to terms with the past" sort of story, with a bit of a cheesy mafia motif thrown in, and it keeps a rather slow pace throughout. But a good aesthetic, nice direction, lifelike acting making for a more character-driven story makes this an enjoyable film.

[Folder]

That Thing You Do-7.5/10
Pretty good movie about a garage band that made it to the top of the billboards. Has a lot of cliche bits  in it and some of the acting was poor and flat, but still a movie worth a watch.

[Jimmy McNulty]

Rocky Horror Picture Show: fucking amazing/10
It's hard to describe. All you need to know is that it's amazing and that you should see it. immediatly.

[Arctic]

Posted this in Town's thread earlier...






[imdb]Pan's Labyrinth[/imdb]

 I think this was marketed extremely badly. In the trailers it looks like a pretty unoriginal, darker, "narnia". But there's much more to it than that!

I saw it today and I was very impressed! It's a sharp, intelligent, stylish fairy tale. Strictly for grown-ups, I might add. There are some very graphic scenes of violence in there.

The fairytale nature of it is contrasted with very chilling realism. The fairytale aspect of it is basically just a beautiful and intelligent metaphor for what's going on in the real story.

I highly recommend this film. It's one of the best films of 2006, for sure.

That's reassuring.  I've been dieing to see it.

[CrustClock]

Rocky Horror Picture Show: fucking amazing/10
It's hard to describe. All you need to know is that it's amazing and that you should see it. immediatly.

A review normally consists of more than just a vauge indication of how much you liked it, and how badly we should see it.

[Poltergeist]

Rocky Horror Picture Show: fucking amazing/10
It's hard to describe. All you need to know is that it's amazing and that you should see it. immediatly.

It's fun to see that in an actual cinema, were people have got a little cult thing going on (throwing rice at the wedding, etc.)

[Slurpee]

Oh, man. Speaking of extremely bad marketing, we went to see Primeval last night.

They advertise it like it's a dramatization of a real serial killer, right? It's all Zodiac killed 1 person, Burkowitz killed like 2, but Gustave killed a HUNDRED BAZILLION. I thought it would be, at best, an extremely bad Texas Chainsaw Massacre pastiche.

Instead I got a movie about political strife in Africa and a giant fucking crocodile that fluctuates in size from unspeakably gargantuan to just big enough to eat a guy.
It was... well, I don't want to say it was worth watching, because it wasn't. It was a giant crocodile movie. Why on earth was it a giant crocodile movie?

[Jimmy McNulty]

A review normally consists of more than just a vauge indication of how much you liked it, and how badly we should see it.

If you look at some of my posts earlier in this thread I think you'll quickly realise I suck balls at this.

[Kombucha]

Left Behind: 7/10
Lol religion.

[AMPEEEM]

Me And You And Everyone We Know - Great, I could really relate to this movie. Go see it. A fine independent film. I've already seen it 3 times. Thx leek

[LeekClock]

Zwart Boek / Black Book

Outstanding! Paul Verhoeven doing what he does best... Sex, Violence, Corruption. A thrilling film! And very moving - more so than I've felt about his other films. This is clearly a theme that is close to his heart - and it's in Dutch, his native language (with subtitles)!

As well as it being in Dutch, there's also some German in there (and a couple of lines of English). That was a pleasant novelty for me since i'm studying Dutch and German.

One of its strengths is perhaps that the different strands of the story are so tightly woven, and there's no excess flab that might drag down the pacing... That might be also seen as a weakness though, by some: I, for one, became conscious that every side-comment and seemingly-minor happening would have ramifications later in the film, and so I sometimes was able to predict some of the twists.

But that's nitpicking. It's a great film. If you like any of his other films (Total Recall, Starship Troopers, Robocop, etc), I highly recommend it!

Me And You And Everyone We Know - Great, I could really relate to this movie. Go see it. A fine independent film. I've already seen it 3 times. Thx leek

Three times! Wow, I've only seen it once (and I love it). If you really like it, maybe you should get the DVD. It has some cool interviews on there. Particularly the one with the director/writer/star - she's great.

[Golfball]

The pursuit of happyness

A bit emotionally draining and depressing for the most part, but will smith and his son are such lovable characters its still a good movie. The ending is a tear jerker too :'(

it deserves better reviews than what it got imo

[DigitalLemonClock]

Idiocracy

AMERUKKA IS STUPIT!! !!
What a fucking drag.

If you liked Office Space, this is nothing like it.

[Kombucha]

Bulletproof Monk: 8/10
Do a barrel roll!

[LeekClock]

[imdb]Das Leben Der Anderen[/imdb] / [imdb]The Lives of others[/imdb]

Very thrilling! Very sharp! Very moving!

Especially recommended for those already (even vaguely) familiar with Germany's post war history.

Sebastian Koch was really good in his role - and he is also very good in Black Book (as a Nazi officer), which i reviewed a few posts back.

[CrustClock]

[IMDB]Final Destination 3[/IMDB]

Almost certainly the weakest of the three movies. The production values were much lower than the other films and the plotline can almost be ignored seeing as if you're watching this movie you're probably only watching it for the ingenious and very gory deaths. Despite some great set-pieces which keep you guessing when or how the inevitable deaths will happen, the movie lacks any real character development or memorable characters and pales in comparison to it's superior predecessors.

2/5

[GreyClock]

Funny enough I'm downloading that movie right now!

Next Sunday, 22:20, Veronica.

[LeekClock]

[IMDB]Infamous[/IMDB]

I was going to avoid this movie; from the trailer, it looks as if nothing has been added to "Capote" besides a new, glitzier cast. "They can't be thinking that they are actually making a better film than Capote, since it was so good", I thought, "so they must be out to make a quick buck"

However... I did see the movie anyway, as it happens, and I found that this is not just a cheap rehash of the same movie that we have seen and enjoyed! It is intelligently done, and it does take a different approach to Capote - not in the plot, which is essentially the same, but in the characters and the storytelling techniques.

If you liked Capote, check out Infamous, if only to see the great performance by Toby Jones (playing Truman), and to see a new take on a captivating story. This film isn't, overall, as good as Capote... but almost. There are some aspects that I enjoyed more.

[IMDB]Billy Liar[/IMDB]

I related to the main character: a lad, out of school, not sure what to do with himself, can't commit himself to his job, always daydreaming, fancies himself as a screenwriter, but doesn't know where to begin. Never gets anything written.

He's also a compulsive liar, and this gets him into all sorts of trouble, with everyone. (I could relate to this too, but for me it's more a case of lying to myself).

By the end, you really feel his exasperation.

Great film from the British new wave... Very funny, innovative (for this time in British cinema at least) storytelling. Heartfelt acting, sharp writing. I really enjoyed it.