Movies Seen in 2010

[Harvey]

Sherlock Holmes [B-]
Men in Black [A]
Up in the Air [A]
Star Trek: The Motion Picture [D+]
I'm Not There [A]
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (2009) [D-]
American Violet [B ]
Inglourious Basterds [A]
Death at a Funeral [B ]
A Serious Man [A]
The Hurt Locker [A-]
Mad Max 2 (AKA The Road Warrior) [C]
The Book of Eli [C-]
Elegy [B+]
Close Encounters of the Third Kind [A]
The Invention of Lying [B-]
Gamer [C]
Timecrimes [A]
Metropolis [A]
Pandorum [B ]
Raiders of the Lost Ark [A]
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [A]
Moon [A]
Fun with Dick and Jane [C]
Sunshine [C]
Stanley Kubrick's The Killing [B+]
Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (1964) [A-]
Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (1946) [B+]
Glengarry Glen Ross [B-]
Gattaca [A]
The Big Chill [B]
The Producers [A]
Rent [C+]
Blade Runner [A]
My Cousin Vinny [B-]
Zombieland [ B]

It's the second time I've seen this film, and I still think it's fairly amusing. Shaun of the Dead is easily a superior zombie comedy, but we can't all be as good.

[JacksonArcher]

So I saw Towelhead on HBO and wow, I can't believe I missed this. Written and directed by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under, American Beauty, True Blood), the film stars Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette and Lynn Collins and I can't praise this film enough. I don't really want to spoil the story since much is left best unsaid but it deals with a coming-of-age story mixed with some social-political commentary (the story takes place during the first Gulf War). It's just really exquisite, well-made, and gorgeous, with truly fantastic acting, writing, and direction. Absolutely marvelous.

[Miss Chicken]

I went to the cinema today and saw Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. It was an average movie, nothing new but it was OK - 6/10

Movies I have seen recently on DVD

The Last King of Scotland - 7/10 (really liked Forrest Whittaker's performance as Idi Amin)
Orphan 7/10
Night at the Museum 2 - 4/10
The Taking of Pelham 123 - 5/10
Aliens in the Attic - 3/10
Is Anybody There - 5/10
Up - 8/10
Martyrs - 4/10 (Far to violent for me to like)

[Harvey]

Sherlock Holmes [B-]
Men in Black [A]
Up in the Air [A]
Star Trek: The Motion Picture [D+]
I'm Not There [A]
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (2009) [D-]
American Violet [B ]
Inglourious Basterds [A]
Death at a Funeral [B ]
A Serious Man [A]
The Hurt Locker [A-]
Mad Max 2 (AKA The Road Warrior) [C]
The Book of Eli [C-]
Elegy [B+]
Close Encounters of the Third Kind [A]
The Invention of Lying [B-]
Gamer [C]
Timecrimes [A]
Metropolis [A]
Pandorum [B ]
Raiders of the Lost Ark [A]
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [A]
Moon [A]
Fun with Dick and Jane [C]
Sunshine [C]
Stanley Kubrick's The Killing [B+]
Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (1964) [A-]
Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (1946) [B+]
Glengarry Glen Ross [B-]
Gattaca [A]
The Big Chill [B]
The Producers [A]
Rent [C+]
Blade Runner [A]
My Cousin Vinny [B-]
Zombieland [ B]
Infernal Affairs [A]

I've seen this film five times that I can remember now, and it remains a master of plotting and character. It's fascinating, also, to see how the Chinese directors handle scenes much differently than Scorsese would in his American remake. I'm especially thinking of the rooftop fall and the elevator scene. At times, the film is guilty of an excess of style, but, mostly, I don't care.

[CaptainCanada]

Theatre:

Avatar [ B]
Precious [A-]
Invictus [ B]
A Single Man [B-]
Crazy Heart [A-]
A Serious Man [A-]

DVD:

Adventureland [B+]
Samaritan Girl [C+]
3-Iron [A]
The Hurt Locker [A-]
Citizen Kane [A]
Planet Hulk [B+]
High Society [B-]
The Philadelphia Story [A-]
The Pianist [A-]
Murder By Decree [A-]
A Man For All Seasons [B+]
A Patch of Blue [B+]
Broadway Danny Rose [B+]
The Departed [A]
The Purple Rose of Cairo [B+]

Slowly making my way through the early-80s Allen box set (roughly speaking, the "Farrow period"), this is one of the few early Woody Allen movies with no Woody in it. It's basically a two-actor show, Farrow and Jeff Daniels in two parts. This is actually a sci-fi film, albeit one basically uninterested in the mechanics, so it might as well be magic: Farrow is Cecilia, an unemployed Jersey waitress in the Depression who escapes her poor economic situation and casually abusive husband through the cinema, when one of the characters in the film walks off the screen and declares himself to be in love with her. It's sort of a comedy most of the way through, albeit not one that's heavy on jokes so much as the absurdity of the whole situation (ie, everybody takes this occurence basically in stride, and the studio and the actor start fretting about all the legal technicalities, meanwhile all the rest of the characters in the picture sit around since they can't continue the story). It's an amiable film for most of the way through, though without a huge amount of plot; the characters are (or seem) likeable. What really sticks with you is the ending, which (in line with the theme of the film) is strongly unsentimental and 'real'.

[od0_ital]

Went to see The Wolfman tonight.

I can't believe Anthony Hopkins was cast to play Benicio del Toro's father...

[TrekNut87]

The Wolfman- C-. Not the greatest movie out there, but it was all right as far as cheap, violent entertainment is concerned.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine- C+. Really liked Hugh Jackman's performance in this one. Made an otherwise dull movie OK.
X-Men: The Last Stand- C. Weakest of the X-Men trilogy. It started out decently, but then just kind of went downhill near the middle and then just fell apart at the end.
District 9- B+. This one was a lot of fun

[dave1280]

Sherlock Holmes, Inglourious Bastards, The Book of Eli and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade these are movie i have seen.

_____________________
skate shoes
Vans Shoes

[Dusty Ayres]

I just turned 42 yesterday (the 16th) and I'll be going to see Avatar again for the 3rd time at the Coliseum 10-A in Mississauga (near Toronto) as well as take in some video game playing at the nearby Playdium arcade this weekend. Anything else worth seeing that I'll go and see? I'm not too sure, I'll have to check.

[CaptainCanada]

Theatre:

Avatar [ B]
Precious [A-]
Invictus [ B]
A Single Man [B-]
Crazy Heart [A-]
A Serious Man [A-]

DVD:

Adventureland [B+]
Samaritan Girl [C+]
3-Iron [A]
The Hurt Locker [A-]
Citizen Kane [A]
Planet Hulk [B+]
High Society [B-]
The Philadelphia Story [A-]
The Pianist [A-]
Murder By Decree [A-]
A Man For All Seasons [B+]
A Patch of Blue [B+]
Broadway Danny Rose [B+]
The Departed [A]
The Purple Rose of Cairo [B+]
Zelig [B ]

Woody Allen's 1982 entry, this time a proto-Forrest Gump mockumentary about the life of a "human chameleon" named Leonard Zelig who has the ability to take on the characteristics of anyone around him. Much like the aforementioned Purple Rose of Cairo, Allen doesn't really dwell on this gimmick at all, which is the case with a lot of his films, presumably why he's largely escaped being labelled as a genre director despite about a dozen of his movies having clear genre SF/F content. The film is quite a technical achievement, seamlessly mixing Woody, Mia Farrow, and others in amidst real footage of the era, and recreating others. It generally feels quite like a documentary as well, and even has clips from a fake 1935 film about Zelig. Cute and worth seeing, if not remarkable.

[Harvey]

A dozen of his movies? That seems a little high. I can think of the two you've listed, plus Sleeper (his sci-fi masterpiece), but I'm having a hard time remembering others. Certainly none of his movies made in the past decade that I'm familiar with had sci-fi elements.

[LitmusDragon]

District 9 - A
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - B+
The Wrestler - B
V for Vendetta - C+
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone - C
Corpse Bride - C
Battlefield Earth - F
There Will Be Blood - A
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - B
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - B
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - A
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - B-
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - B
Faust (1994) - A
Night on Earth - B
Schizopolis - B-
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes - B
Primer - B

I thought Piano Tuner was a pretty straightforward dream/hallucination allegory- for one thing, we never see the sky in the film, which is an indication that this place is false; another is that the main character Felisberto is said to have never been born- he was never born because he is a fictional person, a delusion, or a dream. Then I go online and see that the critics read it as some kind of riff on Dracula, which isn't how I saw it at all. Anyway, dreamlike (possibly hallucinatory) movie in the Quay Brothers inimitable style, combining stop motion with live action and making use of strange camera effects and lighting on some exquisitely detailed sets. Film could really use a new transfer though- contrast was poor throughout. Good film for those interested in surrealism. B

Primer - I'll admit, this movie was a challenge to me. Beyond the technical jargon, which I understand is not in any way dumbed down as the movie was written by an ex-engineer, the plot moves at a frenetic pace in the second half. I had no problems following the plot until the last half-hour, when Thomas Granger shows up from the future- by that time, so much had happened that I'd forgotten who he was! A run to wikipedia afterwards cleared up most of the questions that I had. Really interesting take on time travel and an extremely smart film, in fact I can't think of a smarter film I've seen recently. In a way I wish that the film had a higher budget- seeing how things played out at the party, and what was done through the various iterations to solve the problem, would have been very interesting I think, but impossible on the films shoestring budget. On the other hand, maybe it is the things left unseen that make this film so smart and unique. I'll probably need to watch it again to get a full appreciation of some of the subtleties. B

[CaptainCanada]

Harvey wrote:

---

A dozen of his movies? That seems a little high. I can think of the two you've listed, plus Sleeper (his sci-fi masterpiece), but I'm having a hard time remembering others. Certainly none of his movies made in the past decade that I'm familiar with had sci-fi elements.

Play It Again, Sam; some of the shorts in Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask; his segment of New York Stories; Love and Death; Alice; Mighty Aphrodite. Among others; it's fairly minor in some of these, but he makes use of supernatural or unexplained sci-fi elements a lot.

[Harvey]

You've managed to list just about every Allen film I haven't seen yet there, except for Mighty Aphrodite. What was the supernatural plot device used in that film? My memory betrays me.In any event, it looks like I have some films to see.

[CaptainCanada]

Harvey wrote:

---

You've managed to list just about every Allen film I haven't seen yet there, except for Mighty Aphrodite. What was the supernatural plot device used in that film?

All the Greek mythical characters.

Speaking of Allen, another review:

Radio Days [B ] - Chronologically the last film in the latest box-set (I jumped over Hannah and Her Sisters to save it for last, since it's the best reviewed one), this is an amiable nostalgia trip (basically, it's "Radio Ga-Ga" as a movie). It's completely plotless, so far as that goes, more concerned with just giving you a feel for the fictional household of the young Woody Allen stand-in (played by, of all people, a young Seth Green). The cast is a bit of a breath of fresh air after the last few films; Mia Farrow's here, of course, but she's not the main character, and most of the rest of the cast is new, the other main holdout being recurring Allen player Dianne Wiest (Diane Keaton also has a cameo). The most recognizable are kid-Woody's parents, played by Stuart from L.A. Law and the voice of Marge Simpson (which made her character somewhat hard to listen to on occasion because of how familiar the voice is). There's some borderline black humour in how disciplinary standards have changed over the years; everybody beats there kids, and the parents constantly complain about how the other is too soft. In one extended sequence, mom, dad, and the local rabbi all whack him a bunch of times to show they know what they're doing. Extremely pleasant to watch, though this is just the sort of film that box-sets exist for, because it's a fairly minor work, all things considered.