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

State of Play (TV serial) (BBC original) - 7/10

I saw the US film adaptation when it became available on DVD a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed it.
In my typical research quest I found out about its source material and happened across it at a library I don't regularly visit.

It's nice to note the differences between film/story versions, foreign and domestic.
Some films take a premise and take the principle in a new or parallel direction like the 1969 British The Italian Job and the the 2003 US version or the 1968 The Thomas Crown Affair and the 1999 remake.

While other remakes are little more than (vulgar, IMO) "Americanizations" of foreign films which are near shot-for-shot re-dos just for the sake of removing subtitles for (pathetic) lazy Americans, eg. Let the Right One In and Let Me In and Niels Arden Oplev's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and David Fincher's version.

I'm hoping Wiseman's 2012 remake of Verhoeven's 1990 Total Recall makes significant redirections worthwhile. :yes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SerZm7DheA


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFMLGEHdIjE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgkHKBO5b5U Oh, no! Not "Robocop"!

Bonus: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Dick_Wholesale.pdf
 
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Trollhunter - 7/10

For what it was and considering what went into it, this was pretty good.

As cited in the wiki, I agree with the NYT review stating "the film is about 20 percent too long, and there are more traveling shots through car windows of the fjord-land scenery than are absolutely necessary."
http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/movies/trollhunter.html
But I didn't find myself wanting to fast-forward through much of it.

My chief complaint is this elementary school mentality of adult filmmakers insisting on placing any sort of "No! This REEEEEALY is found footage. Really." claims anywhere in one of these found footage films.
That's just retarded and self-insulting.
And a real story crafted into the film would have improved the product.

I loved how many elements of normal and natural stuff was incorporated into the story.
- blaming bears/trolls for dead cattle & livestock and missing persons.
- tornadoes to explain knocked down trees.
- boulders moved about from troll battles.
- tires left about in remote locations to track troll movement.
- power lines as electric fences.

I wonder how much was scripted and how much was just ad libbed.
 
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Lost in Translation (2003)
Rating: ★★★★☆

Megawd! Another subtle film. Why do I keep seeing this kind of films? They're just so weird, yet so true. The films tells the intertwined meet up of Charlotte, a 20s woman, who is looking for an identity, and Bob, a 50s man, who is losing it. They are lost in a way of their relationship. The woman marries a photographer but seems too busy to take notice of her. The man is a washed up actor, still making some money, but his family doesn't really need him or couldn't care less.

The keyword "Lost" is more amplified in the setting of Tokyo, the scene where a Japanese director instructs the man. And they're reaction of that they can't keep up with it, Bob falling in a exercise machine, Charlotte wondering an arcade shop. Let's just say it has a great screenplay that doesn't just rely on pure dialogue.

But this film isn't for everyone, like all subtle films are. Subtle films tend to be more personal, and have a specific audience unlike a family film who gets to be enjoyed in all ages. Subtle films require more attention and effort from you or you'll probably find them pointless.

What ever happens to them, which is still a mystery, is for us to decide. Seriously guys, the film's ending is a mystery. The internet has several interpretations, but I guess what the director wants us to do is to make up our own.

As for me, I don't really believe in big age-gap relationships, so I hope they stay friends. I wished Bob didn't kissed Charlotte. I wished just stayed being a mentor, more like a father-daughter figure. It's just it ruined my feelings for me, that they remain innocent and pure, just like what happen in "God Bless America". THEY SHOULDN"T HAVE HOOK UP TOGETHER! LOL
 
rayw said:
While other remakes are little more than (vulgar, IMO) "Americanizations" of foreign films which are near shot-for-shot re-dos just for the sake of removing subtitles for (pathetic) lazy Americans, eg. Let the Right One In and Let Me In and Niels Arden Oplev's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and David Fincher's version.
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Sheeeeeiiiit! I'll agree with you on Let Me In, but I think Fincher's Dragon Tattoo is a HUGE improvement over the original. I know many a good people who disagree about which one is better, but one thing for certain is that it's very different.

Anyway, my most recent viewings -

Hugely disappointed by The Dictator. His offensive/shocking schtick only works when he's interacting with real people. In a scripted movie, I just didn't find it funny. "D"

Speaking of Fincher, and with Prometheus coming up, I re-watched Alien3, since it's the one I remembered the least. Yeah, I think there's a reason I remembered it the least. It's kinda boring. "C"

And, of course I've seen Avengers, and yes I love it! It's so damn funny! "A"
 
Meek's Cutoff. I bailed after probably the first five minutes. I couldn't take it. 4:3? I understand that there were a lot of great films made before widescreen became the norm in cinema. I certainly don't want to toss those out with the bathwater. But a contemorary film in 4:3? So, there it is on my monitor, a little square with the big black bars on both sides. Is it true that she chose that aspect ratio to give us the feel of the restrictive discomfort of wearing a bonnet? If so, that's fine. But she wants to subject us to that for an entire feature? I'm a guy who back in the day of VHS and Laserdisc subscribed to Widescreen Review because I loathed 4:3 and pan and scan. I'll try to tolerate it for a filmmaker like Kubrick, but...

But more than that, the sound made me throw the towel in early. What's up with that sound? Life is short. I wasn't going to sit through that or wait any longer to see if it would get better. I'm regretful about these technical and aesthetic choices chasing me away though, because it looks and sounds like from other positive reviews that it's a good film otherwise.

Troll Hunter. Pretty good. It's sort of a cute horror film, if cute is the right word. One complaint, though, is the shaky cam. It did get annoying at times. But I didn't mind all those minutes of looking out auto windows because, damn, looks like Norway has some beautiful, scenic countryside. I wonder if the popularity of this film helped to produce any measurable increase in tourism for Norway. I know that after seeing Troll Hunter I'm pining a little to see the country, while I hadn't known previously that I really wanted to visit it before.

But the biggest thing that sticks in my craw is not the shaky cam. It's a story element.

So, a troll kills their cameraman. Maybe more shock or grieving takes place off camera. Maybe when you think you're onto a story that's bigger than yourself and your cameraman you just carry on and stick with it without hardly missing a beat as these filmmakers apparently do. But, then they hire or recruit another camerawoman. Where is the part where they explain that their previous cameraman was killed on the job? Where is the part where they explain to her just how life threateningly dangerous what they're asking her to do is? Does that take place off camera? If so, it's a bit dissatisfying. Is it that their moral compasses are messed up or missing? Okay, maybe so. But, are these characters supposed to be lacking in or possessing messed up moral compasses? If so, really? That's even more dissatisfying...for me anyway. Why should I care about these miserable characters then? I guess you can argue that the horror genre depends upon the stupidity or the moral bankruptcy of its characters, but those kinds of things pull me right out of the movie. I'm left asking, what?, huh? No. If it pulls me out of the story, then, for me at least, it's failed.

But hey, it's still a pretty fun film.
 
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Coriolanus - Absolutely fantastic. It avoided alot of the cheesy elements that tend to creep up in these types of adaptations.



Avengers - 2nd time seeing it. Really a lot of fun and had me digging through my storage unit looking for old comics.


Lockout - Fun action movie. I don't know if it would be everyone's cup of tea, but I was entertained.
 
Contraband...4/10. What can I say? I hated the cinematography and the editing. I am sure the director had a lot of say in both departments so I will it's the director's fault that I didn't like this movie. Contraband was a mix between Gone In 60 Seconds and The Italian Job (new version) but was no where near as good as the two, one of which is good and the other a guilty pleasure. Oh, Giovanni Ribisi should not have been allowed to use that ridiculous voice, another thing the director didn't do a good job on.
 
Just finished watching "The Girl Next Door" once again. It is a great movie. I give it a grade of A. I am sure others may not rate it that high.

I watched Avengers last weekend. It was a great action film. I would probably give it a B+. Anyways, it was great for a action film. I think that it is hard to give each hero enough time on screen considering the type of movie it was I think they did an excellent job with it.
 
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Cracker Funk said:
Speaking of Fincher, and with Prometheus coming up, I re-watched Alien3, since it's the one I remembered the least. Yeah, I think there's a reason I remembered it the least. It's kinda boring. "C"

A"
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I am excited about Prometheus too. I never liked Alien 3 as much as the other two.

Fight Club is my favorite Davic Fincher film. David did a great job with the Social Network movie too. I still need to see the Girl with A Dragon Tatooo.
 
Journey 2: Mysterious Island - Meh, pretty terrible. It's a young boys' adventure film, though... so if you have any, they'll dig it. Meanwhile your own mind slowly dissolves into tapioca.

Lockout - It's Escape from New York in space. Better than expected. Humour was well played. Story is nothing you haven't seen before. The opening chase sequence was actually very impressive, though some of it suffers horribly from that uncanny valley.

Also, it appears all space-criminals in the future will be Irish. Who knew?!
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I watched half of the movie The Strangers last night for the second time. It's one of the only movies that has ever scared me, and since I was watching it late last night I turned it off cuz I got a little scared.

The only thing that brought it down was the voice reading the text in the beginning, so I give it a 7/10.
 
Humanoids from the Deep. I saw it once when I was a kid. Still brilliant!

The Fog (1980). Pretty good classic. Maybe a 7.

The Grey. A 1 for a lousy premise. I'm not a wolfhugger. But I quit at the part when Liam Neesan says wolves are man eaters. Okay, not strictly untrue. But I might as well have quit at the beginning when we see
a CGI lone wolf launch itself as if it were a mountain lion in an attack on oil line workers, and we're told that the company has to employ Liam Neesan to stop wolves from killing the workers.
Huh? Hey, I know I won't be going for any runs or walks alone without being armed if I'm ever in such areas, thank you very much. But I'll be much more worried about mountain lions and bears. I couldn't see sitting through an entire feature with the outlandish hyperbole already on display up to that point. How can I invest myself in such a film? Why bother? I do really like Liam Neesan and he looks and sounds good in this movie. And the movie looks and sounds pretty good apart from the silliness. I don't know if I'll give it another go and force myself to sit through the entire thing... but why?
 
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