movies What's the last film you watched? And rate it!

Just saw 13 Assassins.

I'm not a Samurai movie guy but that was pretty damn cool (when they weren't all committing harakiri that is)...
 
Don't know if it counts as a "Flim" (its a Documentary Mini-Series)

But I am Re-Watching "The Civil War' by Ken Burns.


Simply fantastic- 9/10 (from my previous viewing :) )


Curious choice I'm Canadian, but I'm a bit of Civil War buff :)
 
An Anime called Tekkonkinkreet, adapted from the manga by Taiyo Matsumoto, directed and written for the screen by Michale Arias. Incredible story, animation, everything about this film blew my god damn mind. Im very picky when it come to anime, dont like a lot, but this film is so enthralling and deep, but action packed and interesting, i had to watch it twice in the same day. I would have to give it a perfect 10, thats how passionate about this movie i feel. People like to say that Mindgame, another movie from Studio4 Degrees, is better, but honestly, they dont know what they are talking about.
 
I knew I'd be in the minority on this one, but I loved the new Pirates movie. My girlfriend and I watched all the old ones, back to back, and then went to see the new one. I thought it was just as fun as the previous ones. I didn't enjoy it as much as World's End, but it's more of a stand-alone story, rather than the climax of an arc (also, it's hard to beat the opening sequence of World's End). I thought it did a good job of maintaining the style, while not being a constant stream of references to previous films (which franchise films are often guilty of). I'm always partial to zombies too (more voodoo zombies than romero zombies, but still very different)

Most importantly, I thought it was a great example of starting a new storyline without rebooting the franchise. Though I did appreciate hints at Jack's backstory (and like that they've continued to give only hints), I am over-frustrated by origin stories. It seems like (particularly with comic/geeky franchises) they know how to start, but have a hard time keeping it going. Even changing actors, there's little reason to reboot a relatively current franchise (we're looking at you, Spiderman). Sometimes, it does work (I love the new Batman films more than any of the older ones). Usually, you're telling the same story over and over rather than, oh, I don't know, ANYTHING else out of 50+ years of stories. Hopefully, someone will learn something from the new Pirates movie.
 
Limitless
8/10

I had a couple problems when I read the script, before the thing had even filmed. Yeah, the ending is sort of anti-climactic. The Russian gangsters are sort of stock.

My big problem is that the smartest guy in the world does really, really stupid things. Like not paying off the mean Russian gangster who threatened to kill him in a most horrific way -- immediately, even though he had the money. That kind of stupidity wouldn't get past any third grader in the audience.

The second stupid thing he did was not get a gun, although his bodyguards had been dissected, and again, he had plenty of money. So he's basically a sitting duck waiting to die in his little fortress. Every redneck with a 40 IQ would have a gun in that situation. Not so smart.


Thor
7/10

I expected it to be more of a 5, or less. So this is actually progress. I actually liked the way Thor made his big sacrifice moment.

However, it was still a special effects craptacular for far too much of the film. The worlds weren't so believable. The hitting you over the head with evil bad ice thugs got tired real fast.

Plus Thor started out as an asshole. Then, his brother who was more reasonable turns out to be an even bigger asshole. Too much asshole.


Up In the Air
5/10

I guess I don't like Jason Reitman. This movie was just boring. Thank You For Smoking was a little better on that front, but pretty offensive in the end, championing a cold blooded cigarette lobbyist as a hero. Juno annoyed the crap out of me, and I can't stand the dialogue or the characters in that.

Up in the Air never really went very far. It was surface material throughout. Seems a bit exploitative in retrospect making the guy who's a hired gun to fire thousands of people supposedly sympathetic. There's a JR pattern that doesn't work for me, with his choices of protagonists. Plus he's too slow and boring. Sorry.
 
...I am over-frustrated by origin stories. It seems like (particularly with comic/geeky franchises) they know how to start, but have a hard time keeping it going. Even changing actors, there's little reason to reboot a relatively current franchise (we're looking at you, Spiderman). Sometimes, it does work (I love the new Batman films more than any of the older ones). Usually, you're telling the same story over and over rather than, oh, I don't know, ANYTHING else out of 50+ years of stories. Hopefully, someone will learn something from the new Pirates movie.

Amen.
 
The Fighter on DVD. Christian Bale was awesome. The "making of" doc with footage of the real Dicky Ecklund made you realize how accurate his portrayal was. Melissa Leo, Amy Adams... wow. Wonderful cast and acting going on.
 
Antichrist.

Woh.

Or is it, Woe?

Mmmmm, maybe a 7 or an 8, definately subject to change, though.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm thinking that it's not an exageration to say that it's fairly beautifully shot. IMDb says it had an eleven million dollar budget. I looked that up because I was thinking the make-up and FX were pretty darn good and effective for a lower indie budget, that is to say, well done, or fairly seamles. They seem to have spent that money well.

You read some of the reviews of this thing prior to viewing it, and you get the idea that it must be one of the most outrageous blasphemies ever committed to cellu--er, to a CMOS sens-- er, to celluloid. (It was shot with the Red One and the Phantom HD camera). Nah, not really. Don't let all that hoopla scare ya off. Then again, there are a few ugly and explicit acts of violence, so do be warned.

Okay, but I don't understand what those things sticking to Dafoe's hand and arm were. If someone has seen it or does, please to let me know what the hell that was all about. Also, what was the point of blurring out the faces of those women at the end?


[EDIT]: Oh, so I'm not sure whether that warning about the acts of violence should count as a spoiler, or not. I'm thinking that most of the reviews of the movie mention the violence or suggest they're in there, so I'll leave it there without the spoiler alert. If anyone disagrees, let me know and I'll edit that so it's blacked out.
 
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The Green Hornet - 9/10

Really enjoyed Green Hornet. I'm a big Seth Rogen fan, so I naturally enjoyed his performance. Christoph Waltz was also great; after watching him in Inglorious Basterds, I am convinced that he is the perfect villain. The one who really impressed me is Jay Chou, who plays Kato. He was hilarious! He and Seth Rogen made such a great comedic team.

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The Mechanic 9/10

Jason Statham has said that The Mechanic is more grown up than his other work. I thought exactly that when I was watching the film. And I thought he played the role of Arthur Bishop perfectly. Likewise, I thought Ben Foster played the role of Steve very well. And the action - amazing stuff! I can't even imagine the amount of work and money that went into stunts and special effects. Great film!

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The Fighter on DVD. Christian Bale was awesome. The "making of" doc with footage of the real Dicky Ecklund made you realize how accurate his portrayal was. Melissa Leo, Amy Adams... wow. Wonderful cast and acting going on.

Watched it this afternoon and really enjoyed it too. Cried at the end. (I'm a sucker for a good boxing movie). The original score from Michael Brook was really interesting. It some scenes it he simply restricted himself to what sounded like a single synth patch. The result was understated and allowed the great acting to dominate.

A cool direction to take.
 
Attack the Block - 7/10

A good enjoyable british film and a better monster movie than most but nothing world changing. Worth a watch though!
 
The Mechanic (2011)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068931/

For a remake, it wasn't too bad. Jason Statham always keeps me entertained with his awesome voice. And it was nice to see Ben Foster in something that wasn't Alpha Dog. I always thought the use of the word "mechanic" to cloak their hitman profession was a cool idea. This movie really sells itself with its opening scene and has an ending that I think will satisfy most action fans.

I give this movie a 7/10.
 
Visiting family this weekend, so we caught a couple films:

Kung-Fu Panda - 8/10
Didn't see the first one, so had no idea what to expect, other than, you know, animals doing kung-fu. A lot more "serious" as a kung-fu movie than I thought it would be, rather than as kids-y as it could have been. Very much enjoyed it; LOVED the hand drawn animation in contrast to the CG stuff. Plotwise, more than a little predictable, but very well done for all that. Good balance of adorable (box full of baby bunnies!) and bad-ass visuals (seriously, the peacock fight scenes were beautiful). Enough of the humor was drawn from itself ("you learned inner peace...and MUCH quicker than I"); a good sense of awareness and not a string of pop-culture references. Definitely worth a watch even if animation isn't your thing.

Thor - 6/10
I am not, by any means, saying that this was bad. Brilliant directing and visuals. Fantastic score. Great writing. Very well acted (well, Natalie Portman kinda phoned it in). Great setup for the Avengers (which, as a whedon-fanboy, I'm looking forward to). The problem is this: I've never been that into Thor and this movie didn't really change my mind. The Asgard stuff was great. Thor on Earth? Kinda dull (or rather, not to my tastes). The frost-giant battle scenes were unbelievably good though, and the real story of the movie is Loki, and his transition from prankster to misguided machiavellian antagonist, to the evil nemisis he becomes in the comics. GREAT character arc. I just wish I was a little more into the movie than I was.
 
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