Movies You Have Seen Lately

[Pidesco]

What about Adaptation? Or Face Off?

[Baley]

Con Air, bitches.

 

Put... the bunny... back... in the... box.

 

 

 

Now, really, the bastard was good|great in Wild At Heart, Adaption, Leaving Las Vegas and Raising Arizona.

Edited July 27, 2006 by Baley

[Rosbjerg]

Just saw V for Vendetta .. missed the Hype, so I didn't know anything about it! I was positively suprised and I think it's a pretty good film! love how they played with little details ..

[astr0creep]

I was expressing a personal taste, not degrading others'.

 

I prefer actors and actresses who show versatility, such as Ian Holm and Nicole Kidman.

Nicolas Cage almost always plays the same character(exeptions are when he's going for an oscar nom), himself, in different situations. That is called working the system, the Star System in the case of Hollywood which, although somewhat less apparent, is still present today.

 

IMO.

Edited July 27, 2006 by astr0creep

[Pidesco]

I couldn't disagree more. Just compare Donald and Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation.

 

And his character in Raising Arizona is nothing like anything he's ever done.

 

 

And Con Air is so bad it's scary.

[astr0creep]

I couldn't disagree more. Just compare Donald and Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation.

 

And his character in Raising Arizona is nothing like anything he's ever done.

 

 

And Con Air is so bad it's scary.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Granted for Adaptation. But I think it is more due to good direction rather than him being a good actor. Just a hunch though. I never said he was terrible or without potential, just that I don't like him too much in the films he's in.

 

Raising Arizona? = to Moonstruck and Amos and Andrew. Nothing special, even for him.

 

 

ConAir was like any Bruckheimer film since Don Simpson died. Entertaining on the first viewing, terrible after thinking about it... :D

[Hurlshort]

Good direction will always trump acting skills. A good director could take all of us and make a decent movie.

 

Nicholas Cage does tend stick to a certain persona, but at least it's a unique one. His recent movies have blown me away though, they've just been awesome scripts, awesome direction, and perfect for Cage. Weather Man, Lord of War, Matchstick Men, and Adaptation are all movies that would be very different without Cage.

 

I also though National Treasure was one of the better adventure movies recently. It definitely got my students interested in the US History.

[Dark_Raven]

LotR The Return of the King extended edition.

[x1Predator]

just saw Pirates at the theater and watched Sin City and Equilibrium for the first time. Both were probably the first relatively new films that I didnt think was a piece of hollywood schizznit

[Kor Qel Droma]

The Count Of Monte Cristo just finished. It fit my mood a little. Now I think I'll go buy the book.

[WITHTEETH]

I finallly saw Serenity

 

Good stuff, thanks guys!

[julianw]

The Count Of Monte Cristo just finished.  It fit my mood a little.  Now I think I'll go buy the book.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The book has a different ending but does contain some detailed descriptions of the state of the mind that is under the influence.

[Blarghagh]

I finally saw V For Vendetta and I loved it, although I thought the "knife time" effects were kinda stupid.

[LadyCrimson]

Tremors2. Not as good as the first but the 'new guy' joke always amuses.

[Krookie]

On the boat I was on was a huge screen, movie theater size...Outdoors. "Movies Under The Stars" (as it was called) took place every night at 12:00AM, and you could watch it from comfortable lounge chairs, or the pool. Not bad if I do say so myself. Which I do.

 

I watched Hitch, and Failure to Launch. Both were new to me, and I enjoyed them, although I was busy with erm..Nevermind.

[Dark Moth]

Hellboy w/ Ron Perlman. I know that movie has haters on this site, but I really liked it. The only thing I didn't like was that sappy romance it had between Hellboy and Liz. Which, by the way, was not in the comics.

[Baley]

Schizopolis

Plot Outline: Fletcher Munson is a lethargic, passive worker for a Scientology-like self-help corporation called Eventualism. After the death of a colleague, he is promoted to the job of writing speeches for T. Azimuth Schwitters, the founder and head of the group. He uses this as an excuse to be emotionally and romantically distant from his wife, who, he discovers, is having an affair with his doppelganger, a dentist named Dr. Jeffrey Korchek. As Munson fumbles with the speech and Korchek becomes obsessed with a new patient, a psychotic exterminator named Elmo Oxygen goes around the town seducing lonely wives and taking photographs of his genitals.

A student art flick gone tediously wrong. Frankly, I didn't know dullness was avant-garde these days, whatever avant-garde might mean separated from the pompous dweebs that call themselves fans, buffs and geeks. If you think this stingy flick speaks hidden truths about the human condition you're probably just another sheltered knob. Funny enough to deserve a viewing. Maybe.

 

 

Office Space

Plot Outline: Peter Gibbons, thanks to a hypnotic suggestion, decides not to go to work at the same time his company is laying people off. When layoffs affect his two best friends, they conspire to plant a virus that will embezzle money from the company into their account.

Well, you know, this one's actually funny. I mean, sure I'll probably never watch it again, but it was fun, engaging and had a great soundtrack. Damn it feels good to be a gangsta. Whitebread nerds, hardcore rap and getting back at your Porsche-driving employer. What more could a guy want?

 

 

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Plot Outline: McMurphy, a man with several assault convictions to his name, finds himself in jail once again. This time, the charge is statutory rape when it turns out that his girlfriend had lied about being eighteen, and was, in fact, fifteen (or, as McMurphy puts it, "fifteen going on thirty-five"). Rather than spend his time in jail, he convinces the guards that he's crazy enough to need psychiatric care and is sent to a hospital. He fits in frighteningly well, and his different point of view actually begins to cause some of the patients to progress. Nurse Ratched becomes his personal cross to bear as his resistance to the hospital routine gets on her nerves.

Tackling great movies is hard, because, well, they're great movies. There's nothing new you can say about them, and you've probably heard the old "ooh-ooh-what a great movie of mystifyingly puissant proportions" shtick before at least half-a-dozen times, the greatness is just methodically hammered into you. This one though, this one deserves its reputation, it's so bloody funny and sad and tear-jerking without resorting to cheap audience-pleasing tricks and shallow narrative spins. Jack and the Chief are both great.

 

 

Wong Fei Hung (Once Upon A Time In China)

Plot Outline: Set in late 19th century Canton this martial arts film depicts the stance taken by the legendary martial arts hero Wong Fei-Hung (1847-1924) against foreign forces' (English, French and American) plundering of China. When Aunt Yee arrives back from America totally westernised, Wong Fei-Hung assumes the role of her protector. This proves to be difficult when his martial arts school and local militia become involved in fierce battles with foreign and local government. As violence escalates even Aunt Yee has to question her new western ideals, but is it possible to fight guns with Kung Fu?

Hark Tsui's a terrible terrible man. He's just so bloody awful, he makes kung-fu dull. And all the waa waa poor oppressed Chinese peasants fighting off their Colonial masters plot was such a freaking bore. Get off my screen, commie.

 

 

Tristram Shandy: A [....] And Bull Story

Plot Outline: Two actors, as their make up is applied, talk about the size of their parts. Then into the film: Laurence Sterne's unfilmable novel, Tristram Shandy, an autobiography wherein the narrator, interrupted constantly, takes the entire story to be born. The film tracks between "Shandy" and behind the scenes. Size matters: parts, egos, shoes, noses. The lead's girlfriend, with their infant son, is up from London for the night, wanting sex; interruptions are constant. Scenes are shot, re-shot, and discarded. The purpose of the project is elusive. Fathers and sons; men and women; [.....] and bulls. Life is amorphous, too full and too rich to be captured in one narrative.

This is basically the funniest comedy in a long long time. You take an unfilmable novel, few funds, a few comedians, a fledgling crew and focus your script on the trouble such people would face filming an actual adaptation. And the brilliance is well, in the way it makes fun of film nerds with the whole Lancelot Du Lac scene, in the way it makes fun of know-it-all primadonnas who never actually read or experience the things they chat about, in the way it just flows freely from one scene to another never afraid of directness. The closing credits with Coogan and Brydon are hilarious and worth the wait.

 

 

House Of Sand And Fog

Plot Outline: Massoud Amir Behrani, an Iranian immigrant, has spent most of his savings trying to enhance his daughter's chances of a good marriage. Once she is married, he spends the remaining funds on a house at an auction, unwittingly putting himself and his family in the middle of a legal tussle with the house's former owner. What begins as a legal struggle turns into a personal confrontation, with tragic results.

Another excellent film, the ending's a little over-done and it's depressive nature's much overrated. Kingsley's brilliant and Connelly's jugs are huge, I mean, I just stared there transfixed by their beauty. I think I've reached a point where they could just film a movie around Jennifer Connelly's breasts and I'd pay to see it again and again.

 

 

The Weather Man

Plot Outline: Dave Spritz is a local weatherman in his home town of Chicago, where his career is going well while his personal life -- his relationship with his perfectionist writer father, his neurotic ex-wife, and his now-separated children -- is spiraling downward. Despite being both loathed and loved by the local masses, Dave is a guy who doesn't seem to have it all together, and in this film, he begins to feel it. An attractive job offer presents Dave with a major question: to pursue his career in New York City, or to remain at home with his family.

Great great movie, so bloody cynical and funny. The whole camel-toe scene had me in stitches, the fat blob of a teenage-daughter was hysterical in her apathy, I felt a little sorry for the counselor, I mean, everyone secretly craves for teenage boy-ass, pederasty's the foundation of Western culture after-all, nothing to be ashamed about, you just have to be more attentive with your presents. Anyway, Cage was perfect, the script had some memorable lines and the direction was damn fine.

 

 

Wild At Heart

Plot Outline: Young lovers Sailor and Lula take off for New Orleans following Sailor's release from prison, with Lula's hysterical mother, a weary detective and a sinister hitman after them. During their journey, Lula and Sailor relate the events of their lives to date, while encountering a typical gallery of Lynch grotesques. After being stranded in a small town, Sailor agrees to join the loathsome Bobby Peru in a criminal venture.

Lynch is the most glorified amateur filmmaker. Cage good. Dern Ugly. Mingy second-grade symbolism. A bore.

 

 

Citizen Kane

Plot Outline: Multimillionaire newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane dies alone in his extravagant mansion, Xanadu, speaking a single word: "Rosebud". In an attempt to figure out the meaning of this word, a reporter tracks down the people who worked and lived with Kane; they tell their stories in a series of flashbacks that reveal much about Kane's life but not enough to unlock the riddle of his dying breath.

I cried.

 

I sat there for two hours, without moving an inch, staring at the screen, and at the end, I cried for a character, for a man that lost it all because of too much or too little love. I don't know. Who does?

 

By focusing on the technical innovations one tends to forget that at its core lies a great story. And that, my friends, is a shame.

 

 

(Also watched a few Coupling|Blackadder IV episodes. All great.)

[Kor Qel Droma]

Baley, Waking The Dead is a somewhat boring, pretentious movie. But there is a scene in there I think you might really enjoy. "

[Baley]

That reminds of a scene from Coupling, which goes something like this, basically they're all eating, talking about Steve's cinematic preferences, which by the way include lots and lots of lesbian porn, anyway, Jeff states the fact he's seen so much pornography he's fast-forwarding regular flicks now, watching a lot of films per night that way. Time swoops and they're now chatting about The Piano as a chick flick, horrible to all true-blooded males. The blokes agree, except for Jeff, who, and I paraphrase,

Jeff: The Piano's a great movie. Holly Hunter's practically naked the whole time.

Susan: She's only naked in one scene.

Jeff: That depends on how you look at it.

 

Yeah, so I fully agree with that as far as the above-mentioned movie is concerned.

 

I'm a nerd.

[kirottu]

I had to bring out the big guns. I

[Nartwak]

The last movie I watched was Ultraviolet.

[julianw]

The last movie I watched is Pirates 2.

[LadyCrimson]

Went out to dinner and saw PotC2.

The ending was kinda fun, plus a few other funny moments, but eh...the first one was a lot better. I don't think I'd call the 2nd one trash, but it's pacing was way off.

[Fenghuang]

Scarface.

 

Big screen, antique theatre.

 

F'n rad.

[Volourn]

ST:TNG Season 3.

 

Very, very nice. Good stuff.