What movies have you seen lately? Now with reviews!Movies 

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Watched the Italian Jobs back to back, first the new one then the old. The new one left me somewhat confused about a few things, had a few plot holes, and the story/characters seemed a little off, too. But it was an okay watch. Then I watched the original and everything was made clear about the first one. In the 60's a heist which was conceived around the idea of manipulating traffic by controlling the central traffic computer was pretty modern and clever and original. In the Internet Age it's none of those things. In the recent movie one thing I wondered about for example, why did they retreat all the way to a lodge in the mountains with their Minis and then all get into the blue van thingy. Well, because in the original everybody was on the blue bus during their escape over the mountains into Switzerland having (intelligently) very rapidly discarded the Minis used in the heist. The new movie tried to re-imagine much of the story for modern audiences while sticking in scenes from the old movie, without really considering continuity. The original is a great funny romp, 8/10 at least, but the new one is something to watch if you've nothing better to do and it's on one of the commercial-free movie channels.
 
the rise of the planet of the apes

one of the best 10 sci-fi movies i ever watched
this deserve 15/10
i didnt saw in the past years a nice sci-fi movie like this

my advice.....
just watch it, and don't watch the new car movie (DRIVE) and i like cars but this movie is sucks my cosine bought the CD and i destroyed it :D
 
Watched the devils double. Never heard of this movie at all even tho it's pretty new. I like the whole idea behind it, I have never seen anything like it. It's also based on a true story. Sadam Husan is still in power and has a body double to do dangerous events. One of his sons who is just as crazy decides he wants one too and finds a man who looks just like him. They give him plastic surgery to be exact and let the man live at the house with access to anything he wants, but is forced to give up his entire old life. Tons of crazy things happen through out the movie and since the son is so crazy know one ever knows what will happen. It was pretty good movie overall with a good plot. It was cool to see the sons of a war lord for a change. Most movies are always about the dictator and how he's bad new to the US, but this was about the sons personal life. Lol of course the US save the world in the end, but it's just in writing no actual scenes.
 


Pasqualino Settebellezze (a.k.a. Seven Beauties) (Lina Wertmüller, 1975) -- Winner of the Oscar for best foreign feature in 1975 and starring Giancarlo Giannini, who is to Italian cinema what Ricardo Darín is to Argentine cinema and what Gerard Depardieu is for French... meaning, the actor of choice for almost every movie, and someone who still manages to appear in newer movies as well (like The DaVinci Code, for instance).

Pasqualino is a small time mobster in Naples, where he kills a man while defending his sister's honor, even though her sister is a whore. He then gets sent to prison and later to the war, and ends up as a prisoner in a concentration camp. Despite the seriousness of all the situations, the movie maintains a comedic stance all along, so at certain moments you feel guilty for laughing at all the violence and Nazi atmosphere. Still, it remains a funny and tragic at the same time, which really is something known in Italian movies. 7/10
 
127 Hours

Loved it. Gripping, gritty and very well directed. My girlfriend couldn't watch the 'famous scene' and I felt a bit sick watching it too! They did a very good job of making it sound and look as horrific as possible without resorting to plain old gore. :sick: Awesome soundtrack too. 9/10
 
Watched the mechanic. Jason Statham plays the exact same character in every movie. A badass with a slightly soft side. In this he's an assassin who kills a friend and than gets the guy he's killed son involved. They do some assassin stuff, but than it takes a twist. Not a bad movie. Lots of shootings and explosions with a not horrible story.
 
Tom Servo
If you're going to base your taste for the movie on such trivial matters as the amout of suspense and explosions, I think that's good then.
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That's not really what I base my taste on. There are a lot of great movies without explosions or suspense. No Country for Old Men and True Grit...weren't great movies. You know a movie is bad when it's claim to fame is being the first Mac-edited movie to win Best Picture. No Country's entire premise is essentially a lengthy Darwin Award. If you saw a suitcase of money near a bunch of dead guys, would you pick it up? I sure wouldn't. In fact, I'd quickly back away from the money and pretend I didn't see anything. So, yeah, it's about a guy, who stills money any body with half a brain wouldn't steal and ends up.....well....it ends up in a complete waste of time. I mean, the cop doesn't catch the serial killer, the serial killer never gets the money back, nor does he catch the idiot who stole it, and the idiot who stole the money...well...he ends up how you'd expect...just not the way you'd expect. The ending also seemed extremely rushed, like there was supposed to be another two hours to the movie, but they ran out of time or money and said "Oh, we should end this now," and...yeah...it was stupid.

True Grit is supposed to be based off a gritty western series...and this movie...wasn't a gritty western. It wandered aimlessly and had a couple of random element that really served no purpose whatsoever. On top of that, unlike every other western ever made, True Grit was BORING.

In truth, it really comes down to the fact that the Cohen Brothers suck worse than Michael Bay at making movies...and that's saying something.
 
shmogt
Watched the mechanic. Jason Statham plays the exact same character in every movie. A badass with a slightly soft side. In this he's an assassin who kills a friend and than gets the guy he's killed son involved. They do some assassin stuff, but than it takes a twist. Not a bad movie. Lots of shootings and explosions with a not horrible story.
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I watched this on a long haul flight, fell asleep a few times but I was still able to follow the story :lol: I enjoyed the twist, I didn't expect it at all. Nice car too!
 
The Coen Brothers get a free pass to do whatever they want...because "The Big Lebowski" is one of my all time favorite films. I get their whacky dry sense of humor.

Their movies are about character development, fate, and circumstance. Action and plot take a back seat. You aren't supposed to really like any of the characters. You are just along for the ride. Someone makes a decision, whether it was stupid or not, and a series of events unfold causing character's paths to cross. It's not for everyone though. If you really don't like "No Country" then I guess you're making a wise decision to never see a Coen Brothers film again. You are just not the intended audience.
 
SuperShouden
yap yap yap
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You are aware that everything you just said is your opinion, right? Most Coen Bros. movies have always been high on the sarcasm and exploitation on the chain of events that follow a bad decision, examples are Fargo, Burn After Reading, No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski and so many others. They are all a dark comedy of errors.

Isn't it funny how Fargo (a Coen Bros. movie) is in the IMDb Top 250 at #120, with over 100,000 votes between 8 and 9. No Country for Old Men is at #130, with almost 120,000 votes between 8 and 9. The Big Lebowski at #132, and True Grit, while not in the Top 250, was nominated for 10 Oscars. And a score of other movies which while not being in the Top 250, are really good.

I think it's fair to say you're probably trying to look too much into it or maybe you're taking them from a different stance, but saying the Coen movies suck is taking it a bit too far.
 
Tom Servo
Isn't it funny how Fargo (a Coen Bros. movie) is in the IMDb Top 250 at #120, with over 100,000 votes between 8 and 9. No Country for Old Men is at #130, with almost 120,000 votes between 8 and 9. The Big Lebowski at #132, and True Grit, while not in the Top 250, was nominated for 10 Oscars. And a score of other movies which while not being in the Top 250, are really good.
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I like the Coen Brothers. Until True Grit I greatly enjoyed the films that I have seen of theirs. But after the dry soaking I started watching True Grit for issues. Sometimes a large error like that sends up a flag and has your crap detector on full.

Don't get me wrong, it isn't as bad as Twilight (What was up with armadillo?) or a Michael Bay film (seriously, someone explain the Transformers trilogy without sounding mentally damaged), but I can't believe that happened in a movie nominated for awards.



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Battle: Los Angeles - (5/10)

OK, as I was watching this I was thinking this was some sci-fi writer's attempt at being pretentious. Then I watched the special features and listened to the director describe it as a war docu-drama that just happens to have aliens. Ah, that explains the shaky cam, overly smokey shots, and the insane Sergeant Badass scenes. Someone tried to be creative, and failed...miserably. Nausea inducing shaky cam hits early on, made worse by tons of unexplained smoke, and some story points even taken from Band of Brothers. Then add in an Air Force information tech that shows up randomly and expects us all to believe that Michelle Rodriguez is some kind of special operative reconing alien tech, but then when the information needed to identify an alien weakness shows up (so obviously that we can all see it coming) she doesn't notice it, but a Staff Sergeant does. So, pointless character other than to deliver poorly written lines.

Premise: Good
Basic Story: Good
Dialogue: Awful
Camera work: Horrible
Direction: What direction?

If you want the alien invasion story told 100% from a Marine platoon's POV and can ignore bad camera work and dialogue it has tons of potential to be good.


And to kind of wrap my week in a nice package:

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Battle of Los Angeles - (2/10)

OK, this is The Asylum, but where they make awesome bad creature features they cannot make sci-fi films. Effects were horrible. The story stole blatantly from Independence Day while the title obviously cashed in on people not paying attention on Netflix. To point out some of the horrible: the Air Guard base looks a lot like a rock quarry, as does the secret Area 51-like base and every other location, the Air Guard base commander is a bumbling fool who tries to shoot down alien ships with a six shooter and takes time to pull the hammer back each shot, and holds up all jets on the ground to yell at a guy having a panic attack. Then a guy shows up from the 1942 Battle of Los Angeles and no one blinks an eye. Everyone kind of goes, "huh" and then someone says he hopes he didn't have a girl waiting for him.

While their creature features make me laugh I had trouble staying awake through this one.



And finally:

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No Strings Attached - (4.5/10)
Predictable. Predictable. If you don't know what's coming next you might like this film: Predictable. Imagine a story where two people try having sex without emotions getting involved. And you're done. Ivan Reitman, I am ashamed to call myself a fan, but I'll just go watch Ghostbusters again and all shall be forgiven.
 
^Not sure if I watched this one already but I did see one with a pretty similar plot a few months back at the cinema, starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis.
 
I'll take Mila Kunis over Natalie Portman any day...but i'll pass on watching both movies. I've got better things to do with my time than watch a movie where I can predict every scene.
 
I watched Puncture. This movie got not the best reviews, but on the streets it's killing it. If the word on the streets is good than it's gotta be good I had to watch it. It's about a drug addicted lawyer and his partner who gets a case against the pharmaceutical companies because they refuse to even look at a new safety needle. I know tons of coked up lawyers so it was interesting to see this guy do drugs and still work on court cases. I really liked this movie a lot, it's all about trying to figure out how to win in court and the twist that the opposing lawyers keep throwing at them. The ending is interesting and even tho it doesn't show them go to court you know they won since it's based on a true story. Not the typical Hollywood big time lawyers this is all about the small firms taking on the giants.
 
Saw a special screening of the new Tintin movie last week. The animation is incredible. Pretty funny too. Wasn't much to the storyline though.
 
PureAwesomeness
Wow, that's disappointing. Most of DiCaprio's recent movies have been very good so I had high expectations for J Edgar.
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I was hoping he would make it bearable but he was one of the main faults. He over-acted and it came off as a production for high school history class with no discernable plot. I enjoy a bit if stylization for period movies, like Coen Bros movies, but the movie was filmed far too seriously to have the characters' quirks come off as anything other than bad acting.

At the end of 2 1/2 hours there isn't any idea or moral to walk away with. Which is fine sometimes, but not in such a long film. There is nothing that ties the movie together. No single thought to be left with about Hoovers life. The first half seems like conservative propaganda and Eastwood is trying to portray a sense of government obedience. But that dissolves towards the end without anything else it it's place.

I understand it's a biography and history is history, but a 140 minute movie about such an important figure ought to have some purpose other than serving as a live action text book.

http://m.metrotimes.com/screens/j-edgar-1.1230918

That review is spot on.

Also, I just read the last pages with review of True Grit and just wanted to defend the movie. The movie, I thought was excellent. The little girl being dry after the river, unfortunate, not a big deal to me because it doesn't take away from the story or the feel of the film. Brolins character was intentionally not as cunning as the story billed him. Like all Coen Bros movies, the whole thing is laden with ironic overtones. It's not satire, but it plays off of old folk tales and rather than trying to be a gritty remake, goes for an atmosphere that is more of an exaggerated and stylized interpretation of the time.
 
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Just watched Four Lions


Was described as a hilarious comedy, had a few laughs but the movie didn't go as I expected it.

All in all not great, but not awful either.
 
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Super 8 (J.J. Abrams 2011) 9/10

You could quite easily review this movie with one word...nostalgic. It's like a cross between, Stand By Me, E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and not only does it take place in the same period as those films (1970's...ignoring Stand By Me) it looks a feels exactly like them. To its credit it pays homage to these movies without being a copy and paste effort and has a gripping story with outstanding performances by the young actors. I've seen comments linking it to Cloverfield, which is understandable considering the content and the director, but apart from the obvious "thing" I don't think there are any similarities which in itself is a compliment to Super 8. I'm not sure younger audiences would warm to it as much as I did but as I grew up on the early Spielberg classics I put on the rose tinted spectacles and lapped it up. Awesome film and it’s definitely being added to my rainy Sunday afternoon collection.
 

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