Movies Seen in 2010

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by Starbreaker, Jan 1, 2010.

  1. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2005
    Ah, okay. Apparently, the film was originally slated to end with Ghost disappearing into the crowd at the party. The bit in the street at the end (I'm being vague out of laziness to spoiler code) was added when Polanski and Harris felt the ending was too upbeat.

    It didn't destroy the film for me--it's the technical problems that bring it down.
     
  2. Miss Chicken

    Miss Chicken Little three legged cat with attitude Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2001
    Location:
    Howrah, Hobart, Tasmania
    I have just watched Orphans which stars Albert Finney, Matthew Modine and Kevin Anderson. This is one of my favourite movies and I have been waiting for years for it to come out on DVD.
     
  3. CaptainCanada

    CaptainCanada Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 4, 2004
    Location:
    Charlottetown, PEI, Canada
    60. Brief Encounter (B+)
    61. Iron Man 2 (B+)
    62. The Lion in Winter (A-)
    63. Unforgiven (A+)
    64. Harry Brown (B+)
    65. Toy Story 3 (A+)
    66. Letters from Iwo Jima (A+)
    67. Inception(A-)
    68. Bullets Over Broadway (A-)

    Finally got around to watching this DVD I bought some time ago (between my MA paper work and my new Nobel reading project, there's been much less time for films). Overall, though, I would call this one of my favourite Woody Allen films. Notably, this film is one of those from the early 90s when Allen was transitioning from the smallish casts of the 1970s and 1980s (where there were a number of regulars) to his current era, where he casts lots of names and rarely uses an actor more than once. Here we have John Cusack, Jennifer Tilley, Jim Broadbent, Mary-Louise Parker, Chazz Palmintieri, etc. - the only returning face is Dianne Wiest, who won her second Oscar for her final Allen appearance (I'd be interested to know if there's a reason why she hasn't worked with him again in the subsequent two decades). It's quite a funny piece, mainly for the brilliant array of supporting characters. My only niggle would be the ending for Cusack's character, which feels oddly underdeveloped.
     
  4. golden11

    golden11 Ensign Newbie

    Joined:
    May 31, 2010
    Inception is a great one. :)
     
  5. zakkrusz

    zakkrusz Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2002
    Location:
    United States
    Updates (in bold):
    Aliens in the Attic (6)
    Armored Trooper Votoms: Big Battle (7)
    Armored Trooper Votoms: Roots of Ambition (8)
    Armored Trooper Votoms: The Last Red Shoulder (8)
    Armored Trooper Votoms: Pailsen Files: The Movie (7)
    Boondock Saints (10)
    Boondock Saints: All Saint's Day (9)
    The Book of Eli (8)
    Broken Blade (7)
    Cargo (7)
    Cencoroll (8)
    Les Chevaliers du Ciel (8)
    Clash of the Titans (2010) (8)
    Crazy Heart (6)
    Dante's Inferno (2010) (7)
    Date Night (7)
    District 9 (8)
    Eden of the East: The King of Eden (9)
    The Edge of Darkness (9)
    Evangelion 2.0: You Can [Not] Advance (9)
    The Fantastic Mr. Fox (8)
    Fist of the North Star (1995) (4)
    G-9 (6)
    Gamer (6)
    Green Zone (7)
    Higurashi no Naka Koroni Chikai (7)
    Inception (10)
    Inglorious Bastards (7)
    Iron Man 2 (9)
    Jonah Hex (6)
    The Killers (6)
    The Last Airbender (8)
    Law Abiding Citizen (9)
    The Lovely Bones (6)
    Lupin the 3rd: First Contact (7)
    Lupin the 3rd VS Detective Konan (7)
    Lupin the 3rd: The Secret of Mamo (9)
    Lupin the 3rd: The Last Job
    Naruto Shippuden Movie 3 (8)
    Oblivion Island (6)
    Oceans (Documentary/ Rating is NA)
    Oldboy (9)
    Pandorum (7)
    Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (8)
    Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind (8)
    Summer Wars (9)
    Sunshine (4)
    Sword For Truth (6)
    Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen (8)
    They Were 11 (9)
    The Uninvited (7)
    Waltz With Bashir (9)
    Wicked City (8)
     
  6. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 1999
    Location:
    Tatoinne
    Mother - Fascinating Korean murder mystery that doesn't go where you expect...

    The Green Zone
    - The first half is a fun action movie but then it gets sidetracked in trying to shoehorn an extremely pat viewpoint onto a wildly complex situation (that probably defies being condensed into a two hour flick of any sort, much less an action movie), which results in absurdities such as the incomprehensibility of Greg Kinnear's character's motivations.
    What the heck does he think he's doing if he knows there are no WMDs, what does he think will happen when it's learned that - THERE ARE NO WMDs! Wouldn't someone in his position be the prime fall guy for that? His friggen boss at the CIA got the boot in all the fallout, a small fish like him would be gobbled up like a guppy! The only motive I could envision for him is extreme careerism combined with a total lack of foresight or any kind of brains at all (hah, that describes his boss' boss.) Stories driven by dimwitted/poorly motivated characters are one of my pet peeves. Plus we are also asked to root for a nasty Iraqi general surviving in the chaos, which I understood the logic behind but it still doesn't work in an action flick where things need to work on an emotional gut level.

    If they wanted a heavy for the movie, they should have chosen a more plausible one, somebody who could be expected to benefit from the lie and get away unscathed: the Iraqi exile leader (an Allawi stand-in, not sure if they actually used that name) or various oil companies would have obvious and ironclad motivations.

    And the ending is dopey, essentially saying that everything we saw in the movie was pointless. So why make the movie???
     
  7. JacksonArcher

    JacksonArcher Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 16, 2001
    I thought the ending was perfect. I may be partial to the way it was shot more than anything -- the way Polanski frames the last shot and then when the pages of the memoirs flutter past the screen is such a striking image that it really leaves you with an excitable impression when the title comes up.

    I never really thought about the common sense of the Ghost character until now... the decision to show the revelation to Olivia Williams' character could be seen as stupid, but I believe as someone mentioned that it was fantastically well-shot and I agree. So I'm a little more forgiving because the ending was so neatly wrapped on such a visual and story level. Also, to be fair, I'm sure the Ghost didn't think it would catch up to him that fast -- his sense of confused urgency in that last shot leads me to believe that he was immediately planning on exposing Olivia Williams' character.

    On a side note, it was refreshing to see a thriller that was not done in the shaky cam vein of the Bourne films. I love those films, but The Ghost Writer was just a classical thriller in the Alfred Hitchcock vein and you really don't get that vibe in a lot of contemporary thrillers anymore. Filmmakers like Paul Greengrass think you need to have an ADD sense of editing and story propulsion in order to achieve suspense and Polanski wonderfully proves all you need to tell a suspenseful story is a combination of sharp writing, elegant editing and good pacing, all of which The Ghost Writer had and in spades.
     
  8. CaptainCanada

    CaptainCanada Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 4, 2004
    Location:
    Charlottetown, PEI, Canada
    It would have been helpful with that not to tip off the woman at the center of a ludicrously complicated conspiracy that he was about to expose her, even though there was absolutely no reason for him to do so, and had he not done so he could have gotten away with it.

    It's well-shot cinematically, no doubt, but it's so incredibly stupid that it just knocked the movie down from the A to the B-range for me.
     
  9. JacksonArcher

    JacksonArcher Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 16, 2001
    I think at that point in the film he did that more to spite her than anything. You could almost say that she pulled the wool over his eyes during the entire film.

    The Ghost character spends an awful lot of time suspecting Lang and his counterparts and near the end of the film you feel sympathetic toward him. I'm sure the Ghost character did as well. I mean, Lang's wife (Olivia Williams) practically manipulates the Ghost character throughout the entire story. Not only that, but she manipulated her husband which led to his death.

    I'm sure the letter that he gives her was more of a way for him to tell her to piss her more than anything. Like I mentioned before, I'm sure he knew once he told her he would be in deep shit, which is why he looked so concerned during that last shot, but I don't think he realized just how deep shit he was in. Which makes me believe that the Ghost character slipping her the letter was completely intentional on the filmmakers' part and part of the general idea. It was meant to showcase just how inept he was (because let's face it, while he was a decently intelligent character, a little bit of suspension of disbelief and stupidity is required in order for all of this to make any sort of coherent sense).

    One of the great things about the film is that the Ghost character was sort of thrown into the entire situation without any foreknowledge or any clue just what he was getting himself into. It was the classic "paranoid outsider" character/situation that Polanski has perfected over his career. Even at the end of the story, he was still way over his head, even after knowing "everything", and to me that was just one of the more brilliant strokes in an already brilliant film and added emphasis to that particular story element in my opinion.
     
  10. LitmusDragon

    LitmusDragon Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2002
    Location:
    The Barmuda Triangle
    Mirrormask - C. I think I was oversold this one before I watched it. "Raises the bar in mixing live-action and animation" one reviewer had said, no not really this was pretty standard green screen and CG rendered stuff as far as I could tell. Visually this film was like a movie adaptation of the old PC game "Myst". There was a very 90s look to the 3d models which made the movie look a lot older than it really is. There were one or two really impressive VFX shots but the rest is stuff you've probably seen before. Overall it was a pretty fun movie though it took a while to get rolling. Coraline is a better Gaiman adaptation.
     
  11. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 1999
    Location:
    Tatoinne
    Has anyone seen Closure with Gillian Anderson? Any good?
     
  12. tomalak301

    tomalak301 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2003
    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    Movies Seen in 2010
    Duplicity - C-
    The Hurt Locker - A
    Moon - A
    The Princess and the Frog - B
    Crazy Heart - B+
    Julie & Julia - A-
    A Serious Man - A
    Fargo - A
    The Blind Side - B-
    The Informant! - C
    The Big Lebowski - A
    How to Train Your Dragon 3D - A
    Iron Man 2 - C-
    The Men Who Stare at Goats - D-
    Toy Story 3 - A+
    Knight and Day - B+Inception - A
    Despicable Me - C
    Hot Tub Time Machine - C

    A fun movie that was a little on the stupid and very vulgar side. There were a few laughs, especially at the end.
     
  13. zakkrusz

    zakkrusz Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2002
    Location:
    United States
    Updates (in bold):
    Aliens in the Attic (6)
    Armored Trooper Votoms: Big Battle (7)
    Armored Trooper Votoms: Roots of Ambition (8)
    Armored Trooper Votoms: The Last Red Shoulder (8)
    Armored Trooper Votoms: Pailsen Files: The Movie (7)
    Batman: Under The Red Hood (9)
    Boondock Saints (10)
    Boondock Saints: All Saint's Day (9)
    The Book of Eli (8)
    Broken Blade (7)
    Cargo (7)
    Cencoroll (8)
    Les Chevaliers du Ciel (8)
    Clash of the Titans (2010) (8)
    Crazy Heart (6)
    Dante's Inferno (2010) (7)
    Date Night (7)
    District 9 (8)
    Eden of the East: The King of Eden (9)
    The Edge of Darkness (9)
    Evangelion 2.0: You Can [Not] Advance (9)
    The Expendables (9)
    The Fantastic Mr. Fox (8)
    Fist of the North Star (1995) (4)
    G-9 (6)
    Gamer (6)
    Green Zone (7)
    Higurashi no Naka Koroni Chikai (7)
    Inception (10)
    Inglorious Bastards (7)
    Iron Man 2 (9)
    Jonah Hex (6)
    The Killers (6)
    Kino's Journey: Life Goes On (7)
    Kino's Journey: The Country of Disease (7)
    The Last Airbender (8)
    Law Abiding Citizen (9)
    The Lovely Bones (6)
    Lupin the 3rd: First Contact (7)
    Lupin the 3rd VS Detective Konan (7)
    Lupin the 3rd: The Secret of Mamo (9)
    Lupin the 3rd: The Last Job
    Naruto Shippuden Movie 3 (8)
    Oblivion Island (6)
    Oceans (Documentary/ Rating is NA)
    Oldboy (9)
    Pandorum (7)
    Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (8)
    Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind (8)
    Summer Wars (9)
    Sunshine (4)
    Sword For Truth (6)
    Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen (8)
    They Were 11 (9)
    The Uninvited (7)
    Waltz With Bashir (9)
    Wicked City (8)
     
  14. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 1999
    Location:
    Tatoinne
    Just watched Art of the Steal, a documentary about the infamous Barnes Collection case. First half is interesting, second half bogs down in a foregone conclusion. Mainly I just wanna know: where do I buy the soundtrack!?! (Mainly Philip Glass.)
     
  15. JacksonArcher

    JacksonArcher Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 16, 2001
    Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World was a lot of fun. Inventive, clever, witty, visually imaginative and consistently hilarious.
     
  16. LitmusDragon

    LitmusDragon Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2002
    Location:
    The Barmuda Triangle
    Sleepy Hollow - B+. Never seen it before, and it's true, this is one of the better Burton films. Interesting take on an oft-repeated tale. Great cast. Depp's Crane is memorable.

    The Godfather, Pt. 2 - A. Maybe the second or third time I've seen this movie all the way through. This time around I got the impression that these films are about the contrast between Vito Corleone and his son Michael and the times that they'd lived in and what they were each able to do as the Godfather. One wonders if Michael's problems were self-created, or a product of his times, or maybe the result of his having been thrust into the position instead of it being something he'd built himself.

    Superman - A. First time seeing this in about 10 years. Holy nostalgia, Batman. :lol: Still holds up remarkably well, particularly the origin part of the story.
     
  17. Starbreaker

    Starbreaker Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 19, 2001
    Location:
    Birmingham, AL
    Watched three movies over the last two days... some interesting ones to say the least.

    Don McKay My mom picked this one out. It's about a guy who gets a letter from his dying ex-girlfriend who wants to see him... and then a whole bunch of crazy stuff happens. I think the movie could have been better though... needed just a little more work.

    Death Proof There's a lot of downtime in the middle of the movie, but otherwise, it's a pretty funny movie with some great performances.

    Winged Creatures (aka Fragments) [B-] It's a poor man's Crash. I was expecting some big twist at the end, but it never came.
     
  18. CaptainCanada

    CaptainCanada Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 4, 2004
    Location:
    Charlottetown, PEI, Canada
    60. Brief Encounter (B+)
    61. Iron Man 2 (B+)
    62. The Lion in Winter (A-)
    63. Unforgiven (A+)
    64. Harry Brown (B+)
    65. Toy Story 3 (A+)
    66. Letters from Iwo Jima (A+)
    67. Inception(A-)
    68. Bullets Over Broadway (A-)
    69. Scott Pilgrim versus the World (A)

    Between this and Kick-Ass (which wasn't in quite the same league as this film), I think it's becoming evident that wider audiences aren't nearly as interested in the more offbeat comics properties as a lot of people would wish (particularly those people who think these offbeat properties represent the saviours of the North American comics industry). Too bad, really, because this is quite an excellent film. It was just fun to go to the multiplex and see a major studio film set in Canada (even if it is Toronto), even down to the restaurant chains (though Tim's would have been more appropriate than Second Cup). Michael Cera is quite good in the lead part (he gets a lot of flak for always doing the same character, including here, but Scott is really very different from Cera's typical sort if you pay attention). The other actors are quite fun too - the film has a very well-developed supporting cast, several of whom you'd really like to see more. The villains are generally good, though they really do get rid of the three best ones first (the hilarious Bollywood guy, Chris Evans, and Brandon Routh).
     
  19. Daneel

    Daneel Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 31, 2009
    Location:
    Toronto
    I attended a few screenings at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival a week or so ago. Here's what I saw:

    The Last Lovecraft - A very schlocky, very campy horror comedy. It seems to want to be one of those "so bad it's good" movies, but it doesn't quite hit the mark there. It definitely works better as a comedy than as a horror film, but even in this respect, I can't give it too many kudos. It has its moments, but I ultimately didn't find it that funny. C-

    Cargo - A science-fiction film from Switzerland -- evidently, the first one the country has produced. Some of the F/X work (particularly the exterior spaceship shots) are a little shoddy, but the set design is actually pretty good, especially considering it had a budget of only $2 million (U.S.)

    The story isn't wholly original (although really, what is these days?), but I found the film to be reasonably engaging, thanks partly to the emotional connection to the lead protagonist (however, I must admit the "romance" felt a little forced and unnecessary. It could have worked, but as presented, I just didn't completely buy it). B

    HIGH School - A teen stoner comedy, but much better than most. I must admit, I laughed my ass off a number of times. Features Adrien Brody as the crazed, tattooed local drug-dealer Psycho Ed (an interesting, unhinged performance), and Michael Chiklis playing (effectively) against type as the school's slimy principal, the main antagonist.

    The plot revolves around two high school students' plan to get the entire student body high on Ed's special blend of dope (which he has placed in a container labelled "Captain Sulu" :lol:) after the principal announces a school-wide mandatory drug-testing, and expulsion for anyone who tests posiitve. One of these two students is the class brain, and prospective valedictorian, so after toking up for the first time the day before, he naturally frets about the results of this drug test. Thus they put their daring plan into motion, and of course, hilarity ensues.

    The film is fairly witty with some good performances, but there are a few negatives. Again, I found the "romantic" bits to be half-assed and almost an afterthought, but that may be on purpose (especially since the protagonist doesn't refer to the object of his affection as "the girl I love", but rather, "the girl I think is hot" :lol:). There were a few lucky escapes that seemed a bit too convenient, and the ending was a bit predictable (not to mention a lot of the tension and danger that had been built up seemed to deflate rather quickly). Nonetheless, I recommend the film to anyone looking for a good laugh. B+

    The Last Exorcism - Opens this Friday, but I got to see it ahead of time at the Festival... producer Eli Roth was even on hand to introduce the film and hold a Q & A afterwards. I believe I actually got in a couple of promotional shots with him, but do you think I could find them online anywhere? Nooo...

    Anyway, the film: it's another entry in the "found footage/faux documentary" genre. It involves a film crew following a disillusioned pastor as he attempts to prove that real demonic possession and exorcism are just myths. He receives a plea for help from a farmer who believes his daughter is possessed, and the reverend aims to show the documentarians that the girl's problems are all psychological. Of course, after he arrives at the family's farm, things start to get a bit more complicated...

    I was mostly enjoying the film, until the end. Honestly, the last few minutes felt a little tacked-on, like the filmmakers weren't entirely sure how to end it (after providing the viewer with a fake-out almost-ending beforehand). I can see how the ending kind of works, thematically and for the characters, but I'm still not all that fond of it; it seemed a bit rushed and over-the-top. Still a generally solid film, though, with a number of strong performances. B-
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2010
  20. Starbreaker

    Starbreaker Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 19, 2001
    Location:
    Birmingham, AL
    58. Knight and Day (2010) [A]
    59. Splice (2009) [A-]
    60. Hollow Man (2000)