Trajan wrote:then there's something wrong with you.

If Elsanna is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Momento.

A great and compelling; albeit riddled with plot holes, film that challenges conventional narratives.

The Big Sleep

This is the third or fourth time around and I finally think I was able to follow the plot this time.

Double feature tonight: 300: Rise of an Empire (2014) and The Black Cauldron (1985)

The 300 sequel is amazingly tedious. There was nothing of any real interest. Lena Headey was phoning it in and everybody else felt like a guy that auditioned but didn't get a part in 300. The visuals attempted but failed to copy the visual verve of Zack Snyder, to the point of annoyance. People bitch about lense flares in JJTrek, but this movie has so much bright sunlight streaming though clouds behind speechifying characters that it made my eyes hurt and made it difficult to even tell what the hellw as going on. Say what you will about the man's movies, Snyder knows how to create arresting images. The first movie managed to translate the 'heroic nude' pottery inspired aesthetic of Miller's graphic novel to the screen. Rise of an Empire looks like it's ripping off Spartacus: Blood and Sand. The one bright spot was Eva Green getting her boobies out in the most nonsensical sex scene I've ever seen in a movie. On the other hand, her ridiculous 'armor' somehow managed to avoid showing cleavage for 90% of the time on screen. I would forgive this movie for its existence if Green followed the same protocol as the Greek soldiers and never wore a shirt the whole movie. 1/5.

The Black Cauldron has been called the movie that almost killed Disney (which is true, the animation studio was nearly shut down before The Great Mouse Detective brought it back from the brink) I'd heard a lot of praise for this movie- it's not a musical, it's rated PG, it's trying to be dark and edgy and was to be the flagship of a new direction for Disney animated films.

Bottom line, it sucks. The characters are paper thin stock characters, the plot reads like a bad D&D campaign and there's not one but two annoying comic relief characterse. Parts of it are good- the baddie, the Horned King (phoned in by John Hurt) has his moments and for a while the movie walks the edge of becoming interesting but ultimately veers into safe, family friendly territory. It baffles me why this movie even earned a PG, probably because there's some skeletons in it and it was 1985.

The ultimate problem with it is that it's jumping back and forth between a bog standard Disney animated feature and something a little more mature, but mostly it tries to look more mature without really playing the part. The plot itself doesn't make much sense and there's no real sense that the Horned King is a threat, as ominous as he appears while on screen. It's never really explained what he wants to do with his undead army or why he needs it or why there was a princess in his dungeon or what the hell is even going on, and there's no sign that anyone other than the boring mentor figure, the hero, his girlfriend, a boring and irritating cowardly minstrel and a teddy bear with a moustache actually exist. The overload of comic relief characters and too-long, unfunny sight gag routines weigh down the pacing and kill all the tension.

It feels like the gave up halfway through the movie- the animation in parts is absolutely stellar, the pinnacle of hand-drawn cell animation. Other parts, less so. A timid, half-assed effort at a 'mature' animated film that to me comes off as a typical Disney movie with the musical numbers edited out, but with some interesting visuals.

Protip: If you're making a serious dark fantasy epic aimed at teenagers and adults, don't make a moustachioed teddy bear that literally talks like Donald Duck integral to the plot. 2/5

Dawn of the planet of the apes
Amazing film, go see it

Chuckman wrote: The one bright spot was Eva Green getting her boobies out in the most nonsensical sex scene I've ever seen in a movie.

Back when 300: Rise of an Empire came out my friend and I were riding a bus and ran into this guy my friend knew that had just left a showing of it. He told us in so many words, "that movie sucked, but the sex scene was awesome." I guess that's all anyone has to say about 3000; Empire Rising.

It reminded me of the sex scene in Shoot 'Em Up but it was nowhere near as clever.

Anyone who hasn't seen that movie, see it.

Grand Budapest Hotel

Ralph Fiennes is sophisticated as shit and I want to stay at a fancy five-star hotel right now.

Chuckman wrote:It reminded me of the sex scene in Shoot 'Em Up but it was nowhere near as clever.

Anyone who hasn't seen that movie, see it.

SPOILER: Show

Clive Own kills like fifteen people while fucking Monica Belluci.

that movie is so badass

What I saw: Dawn of the Planet of the AHPES

What I expected: AHPES

Letters from Iwo Jima. Thoroughly enjoyed it, unfortunately, I wanted to watch it with Flags of Our Fathers, but either my library didn't have that or I'm dumb and couldn't find it. (I was looking where it would be too, under "F" for Flags. Of course, my library often puts movies in the wrong places, I'm pretty sure I've seen several R-rated movies next to Thomas the Train)

Under the Skin

It's one of those movies that's more about the experience than the actual story. Vivid, mesmerizing imagery and score. Especially liked the string theme that plays when the men are being "seduced." The scene where the alien takes on the identity of the dead woman in the white void feels like an expression of a situation, representing what it felt like rather than what actually happened. So do the scenes in the black void. These, hmm, metaphorical sequences are contrasted with the realism of the parts of the film where the woman/alien is driving around a city in Scotland, where the initial meetings with men aren't staged, but improvised and captured on hidden camera. As she slowly beings to comprehend the mundane realities of this species, the alien seems to become like them in more than just the way she acts. She feels for them, feels sensations that are new to her. Like a foreigner adjusting to life in a strange, new land. She's "going native."

It leaves the viewer with many questions, the answers to which (probably) don't matter. You never really find out what the deal is with the alien who drives around in a motorcycle, seemingly clairvoyant in his actions. Is he a male alien or did he just happen to dress up as a man? Does their species even have genders?

The use of masculine and feminine symbols, sexual nature and atmosphere lead me to believe that it's about gender roles. The woman is a mysterious creature that might seem relatively simple, judging by her words and attitude when interacting with men. But under the skin (hehe) she is a complex sentient being struggling to understand humanity and emulate it. The sexuality is raw and unadulterated through a subjective lens. The feminine form isn't exaggerated or edited to appeal more towards the male gaze, the view we have seems to be objective. You could say it's desexualizing women so as to make them understood as something more than sexual beings, while simultaneously encouraging their sexuality and femininity, as men fear them. But rather than being specifically about women, I would say that it's trying to say that there is more to people than what they show on the surface, in both attitude and appearance.

But after writing that attempt at explaining the theme of the film in simple terms, I feel that it doesn't do it justice. I don't feel like I've done a good enough of a job of analyzing this work. It might be because the enigmatic, visceral nature of the film leads one to believe that there is more meaning than there actually is, but I think more could be said about this film than I have here.

That being said, while I really liked Under the Skin, it's just not one of those films that I can love. I think it's a great work of art house cinema, but it just doesn't appeal to my personal preferences enough for me to like it more than I already do.

8/10

Scanners

Aside from the exploding head (which wasn't all that impressive when shown on a big screen honestly) it was pretty boring actually. I don't know why David Cronenberg thought casting a guy with no acting experience in the lead role of a motion picture was going to turn out well, it was painful to watch him at times and the setting practically screams "Canada in the early 80s" for the most part. 6/10, recommended only for Cronenberg fans.

NON-STOP (2014)
I honestly think this is the best of laim neeson's recent action fest, at least equal with taken (2008).
there is a subtlety and build up to this that i just love. suspense permeates the film and i honestly didn't know who was the foe until it was revealed.
i think laim and moore have great chemistry together, corey stoll is aways a great plus for any film.
really liked the flight attendant played by Michelle Dockery.

THE EXPENDABLES 3 (2014)
Me and my Cousins watched the first 2 films together a bit ago and enjoyed them quite a bit, the 2nd was better than the first.
I can certainly say we enjoyed them more than most people.
I just watched the 3rd alone after it was leaked to the net 3 weeks ahead of its theatrical release.
I think its the best of the series, just a bit ahead of the 2nd.
Mel Gibson makes for a damn good villain, equal to JCVD's Villain in 2, but Mel sadly has less to to than he did.
But the Moments that he does get are damn good, his opening attack on the main crew is extremely cold and detached, after shooting one of them, he has this fascinating expression on his face, like a kid silently patting himself on the back for a good deed. his helicopter dropping that bomb upon them was pretty epic.
that coldness left me unprepared for the emotion and slowly boiling over rage he shows in the scene after they later capture him. i really got the impression his character absolutely believed everything he was saying, he genuinely felt betrayal from barney.
His final fight with Barney is good but a bit short, but his death itself is pretty badass.
Robert Davi (licence to kill, maniac cop 2-3) who i haven't seen in ages, has a very welcome but all to brief cameo as a arms dealer who buys from gibson.
Antonio Banderas OMG absolutely stole the show, he just convinced me he should play dead pool, with his inability to shut the fuck up.
Ronda Rousey was awesome, she doesn't get to do much for the first 2 3rds but in the finale she gets to kick sooooo much ass.
Her Interaction with bandera's is... odd.
Harrison Ford was a step up from bruce willis quite frankly, more fun for sure.
the recruitment scene montage where barney recruits the young guns, goes on for a long time, but it thankfully gives barney time to have a lot of really great fun interaction with kelsey grammer

out of my rating system
6 OF 6 = THE ABSOLUTE
5 OF 6 = AMAZING / SUPURB
4 OF 6 = GREAT
3 OF 6 = GOOD
2 OF 6 = OK / MEH
1 OF 6 = BAD
0 OF 6 = HORRIBLE

id give both low 4 of 6's = reasonably great

Batman + Batman Returns

Michael Keaton's portrayal of Batman/Bruce Wayne isn't a favorite of mine. On the villainous side of things, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer are excellent as their respective antagonists. This Catwoman also trumps the one from TDKR, which wasn't spectacular but Anne Hathaway did a good job of it. The weakest part of both these films is probably Burton's take on Batman. It's a mixture of the old school 40's Batman that carried a gun and killed criminals without a second thought and an underdeveloped Bruce Wayne. Also, there are traces of camp, which I thought was amusing but kind of made the films feel uneven at times. You see his origin (which includes Nicholson's Joker as the gunman who killed his parents), but that's pretty much it. There's never an explanation for how he became Batman or the process which followed after his parents were murdered. I think there's literally only one hint (and it's not a very good one) where Bruce Wayne says he got a suit of armor from Japan. That may imply he traveled there to study martial arts or whatever, but it could also mean he just got a suit of armor that he liked from Japan. It's sort of important to show that process (or at least throw it into some sort of expositive dialogue). And Bruce Wayne just sort of feels like a background character for most of Batman but kind of has more interesting things to do in Returns. Yeah, I don't think Burton really "gets" Batman. Either that or he was ignoring years of comics history to just adapt the old Batman from the early 40s. That's just me guessing from a position of almost ignorance though, I haven't really read much of the Batman comics from that era, I only know a few interesting bits of information. But both films were very enjoyable and everything besides Batman himself were to my liking. I'm pretty sure Burton was more interested in the world and villains of Batman rather than the caped crusader himself.

Batman (1989) - 8/10
Batman Returns (1992) - 9/10

.....Sounds like someone downloaded the leaked work print of Expendables 3. Lame.

The Devils Backbone (El espinazo del diablo):



One of Guillermo Del Toro's earliest and most personal works. A horror movie with a soul, with as many twists and turns as anything from the genre but also an overwhelming sense of hope amidst the harsh circumstances and failings of human nature. It takes place in 1939 towards the end of the Spanish Civil war, and the events of the background drive the actions and desperation of the characters in the front of the narrative as much as the murder mystery and supernatural elements.

While ghosts and superstition pervade throughout the movie, its the human characters who give in to their base desires who are the real monsters. But no one in the movie is really un-empathetic. Good and Evil alike they are all reasonable people attempting to cope with horribly unreasonable circumstances. Some rise above, some don't.

My favorite character though has to be Federico Luppi as the Charming Doctor Casares. Next to the main character he's probably the only really 'good guy' in the whole movie.

The acting on the part of the child actors is also unusually good. of course I don't speak spanish so I can't speak on behalf of the Spanish Speaking audience.

Watched a few movies recently. Can't be bothered writing loads about them so I'll keep it brief.

The Big Lebowski: The Coen Brothers are some of my favourite directors for many reasons. This movie is one of them. Jeff Bridges and John Goodman are both brilliant, as is everyone else in this movie (especially John Tuturro as "Jesus"). So yeah, I love The Big Lebowski.

VERDICT: The Dude Abides.

Transformers: Age of Extinction: Definitely a lot better than ROTF and DOTM. Almost as good as the first film. No toilet humour, no annoying characters, just a good, fun action movie. Mark Wahlburg was good as the protagonist, and Tessa was a huge improvement on Rosie Huntington-Shitely (although not on par with Megan Fox). It also stars John Goodman as Hound, who was great.

And let's not kid ourselves, Peter Cullen's voice is pure sex.

VERDICT: A fat ballerina that slits throats and takes scalps.

Amelie: So many words to describe this film. Beautiful. Elegant. Unique. Moving. Adorable.

So yeah, I liked it. Audery Tatou was so cute I felt like my eyes exploded, and the whole thing was very well put together. Definitely a new favourite of mine.

I dare you to talk shit about this movie, Brik. I fucking dare you.

VERDICT: Très mignon.

Squigsquasher wrote:Watched a few movies recently. Can't be bothered writing loads about them so I'll keep it brief.

The Big Lebowski: The Coen Brothers are some of my favourite directors for many reasons. This movie is one of them. Jeff Bridges and John Goodman are both brilliant, as is everyone else in this movie (especially John Tuturro as "Jesus"). So yeah, I love The Big Lebowski.

VERDICT: The Dude Abides.

i recommend you watch the Fargo T.V. mini-series; it follows the mythos of the movie and with such acting talent as Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman, trust me, you will not be disappointed

Squigsquasher wrote:Transformers: Age of Extinction: Definitely a lot better than ROTF and DOTM. Almost as good as the first film. No toilet humour, no annoying characters, just a good, fun action movie. Mark Wahlburg was good as the protagonist, and Tessa was a huge improvement on Rosie Huntington-Shitely (although not on par with Megan Fox). It also stars John Goodman as Hound, who was great.

And let's not kid ourselves, Peter Cullen's voice is pure sex.

VERDICT: A fat ballerina that slits throats and takes scalps.

i know it's hard to say no to John Goodman, but a gold-plated turd is still a turd. Michael Bay needs to stop making movies and just make explosions; everybody wins.

Gendo'sPapa wrote:.....Sounds like someone downloaded the leaked work print of Expendables 3. Lame.

Didn't download it, watched it on a site based player of some kind.
Sorry got impatient.
Probably still see it in theaters the final battle is worthy of the big screen.
Even if I don't I know I'll buy it someday, so the filmmakers will get my money somehow.