Movie Thread (All forms)

[mikita's helmet]

The Killer Inside Me



Michael Winterbottom's excellent take on Jim Thompson's novel about a remorseless psychopath mostly told in the first person.



If it's not playing in a theater near you, it's available on On Demand.

It looked great on my Sony LCD.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq94Nbrupk8[/youtube]

 

[MassHavoc]

Watched Blindness. Several told me it was good, and that the book was great, I thought it was horrible. Gave it two stars only because the story was original, other than that I found myself very annoyed at the characters and the decisions they were making in their situation.

 

[MassHavoc]

Watched the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnasus tonight. I want to preface this with I watch a shit ton of movies, good, bad, and ugly. My first job was at a video store in high school for 2 and a half years. I love movies all movies. This was truly amazing visual and in your head journey of a movie. If you are a casual movie fan you may not like this as the story is out there and all over the place. If you are getting it because it's Heath Ledger's last movie well then I would pass because this is not a movie for that novelty. I am a huge fan of Terry Gilliam and his work and this movie had me talking to the screen trying to figure it out. And did I mention it was fucking beautiful? I can only imagine what it would look like on blue ray on high def. For an avid movie fan it's a must see, for a casual fan it's a catch it sometime.



Now, having said the above review, I decided that after that film I needed something a little more.... tangible so the wife and I watched Bangkok Dangerous. Yes Bangkok Dangerous. It was the complete opposite but also very appealing in a different way. This movie was almost so bad it was good. Like I said I watch a lot of movies, and the performance in this was so bad that I want to see the original just to laugh at how bad they destroyed this movie. I'm a big fan of asian films actually (more on this later) and so this and the fact that it was some kind of big budget remake was why I watched this movie, but wow. Thank god for booze it was bad.



Now, back to the asian films, as I was flipping around to my delight I found that Oldboy was only 30 minutes in on Sundance right now. I'm currently watching it and with every scene reminded why it is a truely epic movie. If you can't stand subtitles don't bother. A refreshing tail of revenge, with twists that even I couldn't predict, again if you are a fan of movies and haven't seen this, put it on the "queue". With Ong Bahk.



/ramble

 

[MassHavoc]

[quote name="Mikita's Helmet"]The Killer Inside Me



Michael Winterbottom's excellent take on Jim Thompson's novel about a remorseless psychopath mostly told in the first person.



If it's not playing in a theater near you, it's available on On Demand.

It looked great on my Sony LCD.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq94Nbrupk8[/youtube][/quote]

Just saw a preview for this on Sundance channel.... so you saw this movie?!?! Is it a must see? DDDEEEETAAAILLSSS? (Like a giddy schoolgirl)

 

[Irish Hawk]

[quote name="Mikita's Helmet"]The Killer Inside Me



Michael Winterbottom's excellent take on Jim Thompson's novel about a remorseless psychopath mostly told in the first person.



If it's not playing in a theater near you, it's available on On Demand.

It looked great on my Sony LCD.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq94Nbrupk8[/youtube][/quote]

Was a bit disappointed by this one I have to say. It really failed to keep my attention even though it's well made and acted. Think all the hype about the assault scenes was crazy and nowhere near unsettling as they were made out to be.



Saw Brooklyn's Finest and loved it. Easily one of the grittiest and best made cop trillers in years. Very solid acting too from the three main actors. Also saw MacGruber yesterday. While being possibly the stupidest film I've ever seen I couldn't help but like it as it has some classic one liners and a certain charm to it. Worth going to see for the interoduction to an

"upper decker"

 

[Ymono37]

Watched "Crazy Heart" this weekend. I was worried because I bought it before I had seen it and only because it looked interesting. I wasn't disappointed... I think some of the hype may have been mis-directed (especially at Collin Farrell who is ok, but in the movie for like 10 minutes) but I thought it was really good. I like movies that just kind of stop the car, let you in, take you for a ride and then drop you off down the road - and this one did that quite well.



Music was really good, too.

 

[mikita's helmet]

[quote name="MassHavoc"]

Just saw a preview for [The Killer Inside Me] on Sundance channel.... so you saw this movie?!?! Is it a must see? DDDEEEETAAAILLSSS? (Like a giddy schoolgirl)[/quote]



The film is a matter of fact internal monologue by a remorseless psychopathic killer whose efforts to clean up two murder he commits spiral out of control. Violence does break out on occasion, but as Irish Hawk notes, it's not as bad as some have led you to believe, though those not used to violent films may be shocked by one of his beating/murders. I've read the novel by Jim Thompson on at least two occasions, so I may have a different take on it than others (I thought it was great).



Great cast, too. Casey Affleck (Gone Baby Gone), Ned Beatty (Deliverance), Elias Koteas (Crash), Bill Pullman (Lost Highway), Brent Briscoe (Mullholland DR) and Tom Bowers (River's Edge). Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson, not two of my favorite female actors, do serviceable work and are easy on the eyes.



RE:THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS



Great cast with Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, Verne Troyer, Andrew Garfield and hot young model Lily Cole.



Saw it a couple of months ago in a theatre and liked it so much that I watched it again on Blu-ray a few nights later. The Video and audio are amazing. Ledger died about 2/3 of the way through production so Jonny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell stepped in and finished his performance. In some ways, this actually makes the film better, believe it or not. Peter Stormare also has a cameo in the film.



I think it's Gilliam's best picture since BRAZIL. The film and the Blu-ray are both highly recommended.

 

[bookjones]

[quote name="MassHavoc"]Watched Blindness. Several told me it was good, and that the book was great, I thought it was horrible. Gave it two stars only because the story was original, other than that I found myself very annoyed at the characters and the decisions they were making in their situation.[/quote]



The novel Blindness is fucking brilliant IMO and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone---the film adaptation I was only meh on. It just didn't live up to the greatness of the novel in any fashion I thought. Admittedly though it wasn't the worst film of that year but it wasn't making any personal Top 10 list or anything either. I think even though the film technically had a lot of quality actors I couldn't shake the feeling that there was a lot of mis-casting happening on my screen.



On a related side note, I was pretty bummed this weekend because Friday I read the news that the author of Blindness, Jose Saramago had passed away---until his passing I'd have easily said he was one of my favorite living authors.

 

[TSD]

[quote name="Ymono37"]

Couldn't disagree more. Thought for a movie with a slight "religious" undertone is was very well done.



Recently watched Adventureland. It was completely mis-represented in the trailers... while it was a little bit of a funny coming of age story, there was drama in it. All in all, it wasn't bad - just moved a little slow sometimes. Both Jesse Eisenberg and Marting Starr easily steal the show in any scene they're in together. Kristen "perma-scowl" Stewart delivers the same performance we've seen from her over and over again. And any scene with Bill Hader is comic gold.[/quote]



Slight religious undertone? It was the entire basis of the film! Sure if you blocked that out it was a serviceable action flick. SPOILER:













Oh the ignorant non- believers burn all the religious texts after a holy war that destroys the earth. Then God selects one man to rescue the last remaining bible trek across the wasteland to deliver it to safety so human kind can be delivered from darkness by the word of God.

 

[Ymono37]

[quote name="TSD"]SPOILER:

Oh the ignorant non- believers burn all the religious texts after a holy war that destroys the earth. Then God selects one man to rescue the last remaining bible trek across the wasteland to deliver it to safety so human kind can be delivered from darkness by the word of God.[/quote]I would have agreed with you except for the fact that he ends up bringing that book SPOILER to a library where they are collecting works from all religions/cultures/etc.



While obviously the movie has a religious current - I think ultimately, it was less about being saved by the Bible/Religion and more about saving mankind's knowledge and faith.

 

[TSD]

[quote name="Ymono37"]I would have agreed with you except for the fact that he ends up bringing that book SPOILER to a library where they are collecting works from all religions/cultures/etc.



While obviously the movie has a religious current - I think ultimately, it was less about being saved by the Bible/Religion and more about saving mankind's knowledge and faith.[/quote]



We are going to have to agree to disagree then. Further more, If they were seriously trying to keep the identity of the book secret until toward the end, they failed miserably, they made it pretty obvious what the book was pretty early on.

 

[mikita's helmet]

Just picked up the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name Trilogy on Blu-ray.



I've already watched A Fistful of Dollars (1964), which is based upon Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, which is itself based upon Dashiell Hammett's classic hardboiled crime novel, Red Harvest (1929).



For a film nearly 50 years old, Fistful looks pretty amazing on Blu-ray. There is quite a bit of strobing, however, the image looks almost 3D and the DTS-HD audio sounds great, too.



Cant' wait to check out For a Few Dollars More.



FYI, the transfer used on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which I already saw last year (not bad either), is the same transfer previously released by MGM in 2009 as a stand-alone Blu-ray. (see link below)



http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Man-w ... 81/#Review

 

[TSD]

[quote name="Irish Hawk"]

Was a bit disappointed by this one I have to say. It really failed to keep my attention even though it's well made and acted. Think all the hype about the assault scenes was crazy and nowhere near unsettling as they were made out to be.



Saw Brooklyn's Finest and loved it. Easily one of the grittiest and best made cop trillers in years. Very solid acting too from the three main actors. Also saw MacGruber yesterday. While being possibly the stupidest film I've ever seen I couldn't help but like it as it has some classic one liners and a certain charm to it. Worth going to see for the interoduction to an

"upper decker"[/quote]



I have to agree, I got bored alot through it. In the opening credits they had a huge disclaimer about the scenes in the movie, Ive seen far worse films than that with no disclaimer whatsoever.

 

[TSD]

I watched a rather interesting thriller called suspect zero. Its not new, Starring Aaron Eckhart (Thankyou for Smoking) and Ben Kingsley. Kind of in the spirit of that Series "Dexter" or it may be the other way around, dont know which came out first.





About an FBI agent tracking a serial killer, whose victims are other serial killers. Also a sci fi twist as well.

 

[Ymono37]

[quote name="TSD"]I watched a rather interesting thriller called suspect zero. Its not new, Starring Aaron Eckhart (Thankyou for Smoking) and Ben Kingsley. Kind of in the spirit of that Series "Dexter" or it may be the other way around, dont know which came out first.





About an FBI agent tracking a serial killer, whose victims are other serial killers. Also a sci fi twist as well.[/quote]

That one isn't very recent, correct? I'm pretty sure I saw it, it just seems like it was a few years ago. I remember it being pretty good.

 

[MassHavoc]

[quote name="Ymono37"]



That one isn't very recent, correct? I'm pretty sure I saw it, it just seems like it was a few years ago. I remember it being pretty good.[/quote]

Yeah it's a decent flick, at least 5 years old now I believe, all my movies run together.

 

[the canadian dream]

Didn't know there we so many Gilliam fans on the board. I love Terry and his crazy ass head lol. Ever since Python and his animated segments on the show.



Anyone who loves Gilliam will enjoy the documentary Lost In Mancha about the problems he had while trying to make the film The Man Who Killed Dox Quixote. You get a good look into the crazy mind of Gilliam and all the bad luck he seems to cross while making films (this one esp lol). Either bad luck as a result of his own crazy mind and mistakes or that of just plain old bad luck.

 

[bri]

Saw Eclipse yesterday. I liked it the best of the three, but I like that book the best also. This movie has more layers to it and is not just about the whole Jacob/Bella/Edward drama. It had some lighter moments in it that were refreshing.

 

[Ymono37]

Recently watched an indie "comedy" called Control Alt Delete with Tyler Labine (Reapers/Sons of Tuscon). It was about a guy who can't get it up unless he fucks his computer... Strange? A little, but I think it was more about understanding that some people have weird kinks and folks are far too judgemental about said kinks (especially when they don't hurt anyone else).



Pretty low-budget, not very well written (Tyler Labine's brother was writer and director). Worth skipping. Could have aimed a little higher and executed faaaaar better.

 

[bookjones]

[quote name="the canadian dream"]Didn't know there we so many Gilliam fans on the board. I love Terry and his crazy ass head lol. Ever since Python and his animated segments on the show.



Anyone who loves Gilliam will enjoy the documentary Lost In Mancha[ about the problems he had while trying to make the film The Man Who Killed Dox Quixote. You get a good look into the crazy mind of Gilliam and all the bad luck he seems to cross while making films (this one esp lol). Either bad luck as a result of his own crazy mind and mistakes or that of just plain old bad luck.[/quote]



Monty Python's Flying Circus---only one of my Top 3 TV series of All-Time! One of my fondest childhood memories was being allowed to stay up late on Sunday evenings to watch Dr. Who and MPFC on PBS back in the 70's! Good times. Back in the day during the 90's when dvds were still sort of in their infancy and folks had started to buy players and discs and by the time I finally got a player, the very first film purchase I decided to get was no measly, wimpy single disc film but instead to really splurge and go all-in for the 13-disc collector's set of the entire series.



As for "Lost in La Mancha", I agree it was a decent documentary. Nothing earth-shattering but fascinating to see the crazy that Gilliam and his creative process orbits in. . .especially if one is a fan of all things Python.