Movies Seen in 2012

[Gothowitz]

Shurik wrote:

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I've opened the new year with the original Star Wars.

The only Star Wars movie worth watching!
'77 Star Wars.
No Episode IV crap.

I started the year with Team America, World Police.

[Saul]

I totally missed out on last years thread having watched 223 movies so shall see how I do this year.

I will only note down the movies I haven't seen before. First this year is "Curse of the golden Flower". Not as impressive as Zhang's "Hero" or "House of flying Daggers" but Gong Li is Super hot as always.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473444/

[Cicero]

1. The Adjustment Bureau ***3/4

This was a nice, fairly interesting movie that could have been quite good if it had been a little more developed. Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, and Terence Stamp were all excellent as usual, but the film was slightly thin and lacking in fullness. In some ways, the movie was an odd - but enjoyable - mix of a film like Here Comes Mr. Jordan and an espionage thriller like Three Days of the Condor (without the killing).

Rating Key:
***** Must See
**** Will Enjoy
*** It's Okay
** Fairly Bad
* Awful

[Starbreaker]

1. Morning Glory (2010) ✭✭✭ 1/2

2. Special (2005) ✭✭✭

Starring: Michael Rapaport
Directed By: Hal Haberman , Jeremy Passmore

An unremarkable parking-enforcement officer living a low-key existence of solitary lunches in the park, lonely dinners at home, and superhero comics that at least afford him the quiet release of fantasy enrolls into a clinical trial for antidepressant pills, only to find that it has some decidedly unexpected side effects.

This is actually a very engrossing movie about a guy who thinks he can suddenly levitate, walk through walls, and read minds. Micael Rappaport delivers a great performance. The "villains" were very dumb, though. If they had been more believable, I would have rated this movie higher.

[Davros]

Gothowitz wrote:

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The only Star Wars movie worth watching!
'77 Star Wars.
No Episode IV crap.

Agreed, my special edition DvD hasn't even been out of the case, but the theatrical release version has seen several viewings.

I watched Taxi Driver new years day for the first time in over 30 years.

[CaptainCanada]

1. My Week With Marilyn (B-)

Starting out the new year with a trip to the cinema to see one of 2010's minor films, which has attracted attention mainly for Michelle Williams' highly acclaimed performance as Marilyn Monroe (and, to a lesser extent, Kenneth Branagh's Lord Olivier). It is indeed a great performance; I never doubted Williams had the acting skills to play Marilyn, but she demonstrates movie star charisma, something she doesn't usually do (her roles usually being deliberately drab as a sign of seriousness). Marilyn still fascinates, fifty years on. Branagh is a hoot as Olivier, even if he's playing more a caricature than a really deep character (2010 was a quietly great year for Branagh, between Thor's success and a likely Oscar nomination, and I'm very happy for him). Dame Judi Dench is fun as Dame Sybil Thorndike, though she pretty much disappears from the movie after the first act; Emma Watson is very cute in her small role as well. Eddie Redmayne as the main character is okay - he's the everyman viewpoint character that frequently crops up in movies like this, and, as is often the case, it feels like this story would have been more interesting if he had been dispensed with (or, at least, relegated to supporting) and the focus been on Monroe and Olivier (though, admittedly, this movie was based on the guy's memoir, so that might have been difficult). But I think there was a more interesting movie focused on the big stars and the clash between American and English acting in here somewhere. As it is, this is fun but unexceptional.

Cinema: 1
DVD: 0
Computer: 0

Stealing Harvey's format innovations like a boss.

[RandyS]

Continuing my Superman series re-watch, tonight was Superman III. The only real turd in the bunch.

[Cicero]

2. Horrible Bosses **1/4

R-rated comedies aren't for me. Unfortunately, this movie was not an exception. Though well-acted, and at times cleverly written (the resolution of the murder plot is in concept one of the funniest things I've seen in the moves in some time), the material is too crude; the language especially drags the movie down unnecessarily. I really enjoyed seeing Ioan Gruffudd again, even in a small and unpleasant part.

Though I didn't like it, this is far and away the best black comedy I've ever seen. Someone who likes black comedies might enjoy it much more.

Rating Key:
***** Must See
**** Will Enjoy
*** It's Okay
** Fairly Bad
* Awful

[od0_ital]

Cowboys & Aliens - DVD
Rise of the Planet of the Apes - DVD

Watched it the other night, and it was awesome!

Really wish I had seen it sooner, but money issues while it was in theaters kept me from goin'.

Tried to watch my friend's copy of 1941 the other night, but it wouldn't play in my laptop.

May be goin' to see the latest Mission: Impossible tomorrow...

[PKTrekGirl]

1. Watched The Kids Are Alright on Monday night. It was okay. Not fantastic (the ending was kinda 'meh') but okay. I give it a B-. Mark Ruffalo was good - so was Julianne Moore.

[CaptainCanada]

1. My Week With Marilyn (B-)
2. Fantasia 2000 (B+)

The Nostalgia Critic's review inspired me to finally get around to watching this second film, which I got in a set with the first one when it came out. It's basically the same as the first one, apart from trying to incorporate a bit more humour into the introductory segments, which is scattershot (James Earl Jones' is good). The opening "abstract" segment is, like it was in the original, meandering, but the rest generally have more of a story. Most of the rest vary between good and very good, with one (the concluding "Firebird Suite" segment) being truly extraordinary.

Cinema: 1
DVD: 1
Computer: 0

[LitmusDragon]

1. Chasing Amy - C+. OK movie but the cartoonish dialogue is a bad fit with the more serious themes here. People just don't talk that way. The Clerks references felt forced, it's like we were constantly being reminded of a better movie.

[stj]

Contagion. This was an excellent movie. It is of course SF, but likely was not perceived as such because it wasn't stupid. As a presentation of a possible scenario for a novel pandemic of highly lethal proportions it is remarkably clever.
This goes to the scriptwriter, who of course did not have his name repeated enough for me to remember. As near as I can remember this has no resemblance to any of Soderbergh's previous works, illustrating the relative unimportance of the director.

I suppose the most important decision was the soundtrack. They opt for the rapid, urgent beat in most cases. This builds the tension, so the actual scenes can be underplayed. The result is a powerful blend of feeling and thought. (I seem to remember people talking about coldness and am completely baffled as to how someone can find this unfeeling. Unless they can only feel for characters they identify with? It seems to me that ordinary viewers can identify with pretty much anyone realistically drawn because fundamentally there's not that much difference between us. None of these people are perfect, and even the heroic acts have easily intelligible motivations. Even the experimenter who tests a vaccine on herself is aware of the doctor who did the same....and won a Nobel!.)

There is I think a little too easy an assumption that chaos inevitably results in a catastrophe, leadng to mass lawlessness. This may be true in the US where the powerful relentlessly hammer home that only money matters. (It's a necessary self-justification, after all.) But as the earthquake in Haiti showed, this is not necessarily true in saner societies. The Jude Law character is a sharp expression of the damage done this way. But the same type of behavior as Law's would still occur in the corporate sector, and that gets a free ride, while government, military and the people at large do not.

[CaptainCanada]

stj wrote:

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As near as I can remember this has no resemblance to any of Soderbergh's previous works, illustrating the relative unimportance of the director.

Everything about how this story was approached is distinctly Soderbergh's style.

[Harvey]

stj wrote:

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This goes to the scriptwriter, who of course did not have his name repeated enough for me to remember.

The writer was Scott Z. Burns, who also wrote the criminally underrated The Informant! for Soderbergh.

As near as I can remember this has no resemblance to any of Soderbergh's previous works, illustrating the relative unimportance of the director.

The film closely resembles Soderbergh's Traffic, something pointed out by countless film critics when the film was released. Of course, whether or not the film resembles any previous ones he's made has little to do with Soderbergh's importance as the director (it's worth noting that, like most films he's made, Soderbergh is also the credited cinematographer on the movie). In this particular case, the director was quite important, since the film was re-structured several times during editing (resulting in the reduction of Marion Cotillard's role, among many other changes).