Movies you have seen recently

[Monte Carlo]

Oh, and last night I had the misfortune to watch Righteous Kill.

 

Let's get this straight: You are a director. They give you Robert De Niro and Al Pacino and ask you to make a NY cop movie. And you screw it up. Wow, that's like missing a barn door with a pump gun. I mean, you've got to be trying to screw it up.

[Tigranes]

I have just watched Crossing, a Korean movie. It is one of the very, very few films - inside or outside Korea - that depict the life of North Koreans today with any degree of accuracy. This movie tracks a North Korean mine worker with a wife and kid. His (childhood?) buddy is permitted to do limited trade with China, and is even rich enough to have his own television set, but the protagonist's own life is pretty squalid. The wife is diagnosed with malnutrition and he must ask his friend for a favour to secure medicine, but the party finds out on his dealings (Western booze, bibles) and the family 'disappears'. The protagonist so sets out on his own, and manages to just make it past the Chinese border. But his efforts are thwarted by a police crackdown and he is forced to seek asylum at a German (yeah... not sure) embassy, and there is transported to South Korea. There he manages to get a sympathetic ear or two and aid workers promise to find his family, but the wife has already died of neglect. The son, on his own, had tried to cross to China himself but had gotten caught by North Korean border patrols, then sent to a disciplinary centre (i.e. a bad prison). The aid workers get him out and smuggle him across the border to Mongolia, and contact the protagonist dad, who takes the plane there to meet him. But the protagonist is held at the airport for carrying suspicious pills (vitamins he wanted to feed the son), and the son, who only just escapes the Chinese patrols, fails to find any help in the desert and is eventually found dead.

 

As far as I know the movie is quite very accurate, and it's really a very rare look at your everyday North Korean, staying away from Kim Jong-Il. Awesome stuff. There should be an English version...

 

edit: heh. so much info. Yes, there is an English version.

[Amentep]

Took the sprog to see How to Train Your Dragon, which was the best movie I've seen this year. Honestly. Hurt Locker? Meh. Dragons? Yay!

 

It's a bit strange that all the Vikings had Scottish accents (except for the younger Vikings, who were all American, WTF?) but it sort of worked.

 

Cheers

MC

 

I enjoyed it as well. Fun film. Noticed that about the accents but wasn't bothered; I figured maybe the kids had to earn their Scottish accent during some sort of adulthood rite of passage.

[vault_overseer]

Tried to watch Akira, as I've recently got the Blade Runner 5 disk edition on Blu-ray and been getting into cyberpunk again. God what a convoluted mass that cartoon is. Biker gangs, superpowers, blue old children and retarded dialog. Granted, I'm not an Anime fan, but Ghost in the Shell was a fantastic cyberpunk movie....

[Blarghagh]

You only found out Shutter Island's twist at the end? They announced the twist like ten minutes into the movie.

 

No, I know, but considering I had joked about how that was the twist before the movie even started, I had decided to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Edited March 29, 2010 by TrueNeutral

[Oner]

Knight and Day

[Walsingham]

Since there's been so much talk of Sherlock Homlmes I thought I'd link to the BBC radio's current series done with Clive Merrison. It's absolutely cracking.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007k1w4

[The Illuminator]

I've watched '2010:The year we make contact' movie. Movie was average in my opinion with some illogicalities.

 

-Jupiter is represented as if its turning into a small sun thatbhas no negative effects on earth. In fact such an event would cause disasters on earth as not only the magnetic waves of the explosion which triggers the reaction of H2 burning on its atmosphere but also its changed and probably increased magnetic field would damage the balance of the planets which whirl around the sun. Such an event may cause the planets to collapse not only with asteroids but also with moons.

 

-The explosion of Jupiter is not damaging the spaceship flying away from Jupiter which was an only laughable scene.

 

-HAL was being easily persuaded with no strong reasoning.

 

-Moon Europa was wrongly shown, with forests and that alien rocky thing standing on in the end. In fact Europa had a smooth and icy surface.

Edited April 2, 2010 by The Illuminator

[kirottu]

Every point you made can be countered with "magical flying rectangles, dude".

[The Illuminator]

Do you mean they helped both the earth and spaceship? But there was no such a scene, moreover the ship was shook at the second explosion took place and shockwave came. There was no clue of rectangulars during those. Only on Jupiter and on Europa after the one in the orbit vanished suddenly. They were morely offensive and threatening. They killed the Russian astronaut and only triggered the explosion of Jupiter to prevent the spaceship landing on Europa Moon.

Edited April 2, 2010 by The Illuminator

[Slowtrain]

Finally got around to seeing Sherlock Holmes. I enjoyed it quite a bit, more so than most apparently.

[Blarghagh]

"How To Train Your Dragon", which was simply fantastic. Dreamworks' "hey, we can play in the big leagues too" moment. I've heard it called Pixar quality, but Pixar makes a different type of movie so I disagree, but it's definitely up there. A fantastic adventure film. It's also the best 3D has looked so far, actually knocking supposed game-changer Avatar off that throne faster than it got up there.

Edited April 4, 2010 by TrueNeutral

[Hurlshort]

I felt like Dreamworks found their game with Kung Fu Panda. Glad to hear they are continuing to produce solid movies.

[Gorgon]

Do you mean they helped both the earth and spaceship? But there was no such a scene, moreover the ship was shook at the second explosion took place and shockwave came. There was no clue of rectangulars during those. Only on Jupiter and on Europa after the one in the orbit vanished suddenly. They were morely offensive and threatening. They killed the Russian astronaut and only triggered the explosion of Jupiter to prevent the spaceship landing on Europa Moon.

Cosmonaut. Russian astronauts are called cosmonauts. Cool, isn't it. Anyway I don't think the event conformed to normal rules of physics.

[I want teh kotor 3]

Clash of the Titans. Badass. Also, Perseus = Kratos-lite.

[Blarghagh]

I felt like Dreamworks found their game with Kung Fu Panda. Glad to hear they are continuing to produce solid movies.

 

Kung Fu Panda was pretty good as well, but I liked How To Train Your Dragon a lot more. I hope they make more of these things. I could do with less of their pop culture reference heavy shtick and have some actual story instead.

[Gorth]

Started watching the Benny Hill Megaset (all episodes from 1969-1989). Still a fair few episodes to go.

[Monte Carlo]

^ Do you get a medal or some other sort of official recognition at the end?

[Raithe]

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Entertaining if you like Terry Gilliam films.. although I think I enjoyed Baron Munchausen more.. It did leave me curious how the storyline was originally meant to have gone.. but still not a bad film.

[Slowtrain]

Benny Hill was the high point of contemporary televised entertainment.

 

Well, that and Space: 1999.

 

Since then it's all been downhill, accelerating as we go.

[Gorth]

^ Do you get a medal or some other sort of official recognition at the end?

I get to watch Hills Angels

[Hiro Protagonist]

The Cat from Outer Space. Haven't seen this in 30 years. Funny stuff.

[Oner]

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Slow-mo Wesker sunglass-throwing.

[Gorth]

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Slow-mo Wesker sunglass-throwing.

Too few zombies, too much special fx

 

DHL just delivered a package from Amazon... Zombie Pack 2: Zombie Holocaust, Flesh Eater and Burial Ground

[Gfted1]

The classic Army of Darkness has been running all month on HBO and every time I see its on I have to watch it. Its so deliciously bad that it comes full circle and become awesome. That scene in the graveyard right after he grabs the book and all the skeletal hands come out of the ground and start pummeling him makes me laugh my ass off every time.