Movies Seen in 2011

[Captain Craig]

Emh wrote:

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At the risk of sounding like a prude, but just how much naked Natalie Portman is there?

Do we mean naked Natalie Portman or implied nudity via strategically paced bed sheets etc..?

[zakkrusz]

Updates in Bold:

Arashi no Yoru ni (One Stormy Night) (7)
Black Swan (9)
Broken Blade 3: The Mark of the Assassin's Dagger (9)
Godkiller (6)
Kamui (4)
Loups=Garous (8)
The Mechanic (2011) (9)
Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Awakeening of the Trailblazer (8)
Munto: The Movie (6)
Musashi Miyamoto (6)
Trigun: Badlands Rumble (8)

[JacksonArcher]

Emh wrote:

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At the risk of sounding like a prude, but just how much naked Natalie Portman is there?

Admittedly not much.

[TrekNut87]

1. True Grit (2010) [B]
2. Toy Story 3 (2010) [A]
3. Ghost Rider (2007) [D]
4. Elektra (2005) [F]
_____________________
True Grit
Enjoyed this a lot. Had the typical Coen Brothers humor that I really like. The main cast is hit or miss with me. Jeff Bridges and the young lady who played Maddie were outstanding while Matt Damon was much, much weaker in comparison. Overall a very solid movie.

Toy Story 3
I. Loved. This. Simply beautiful. It's rare to find a sequel that can outperform the original and even more rare to find a sequel that outdoes the sequel. However, Toy Story 3 manages to pull it off extremely well. I loved everything about this. The ending brought me to tears.

Ghost Rider
All the parts in which Johnny becomes Ghost Rider, I liked. Other than that, there wasn't much to like about it.

Elektra
I didn't think this was "bad" so to speak, just exceptionally boring with a bland plot and absolutely no character development.

[Emh]

JacksonArcher wrote:

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Admittedly not much.

And there goes any motivation I had in seeing that movie.

[CaptainCanada]

10. Black Swan (B+)
11. Made in Dagenham (B)
12. Gentleman's Agreement (A-)

1947's Best Picture winner, one of the films that marked the ascent of Gregory Peck to the highest tier of Hollywood stardom, where he would remain from the late 1940s until the early 1960s.

It's an earnest (at times, overly so) anti-anti-Semitic message piece, but it approaches the subject with more dexterity than a lot of stories do. It's much more interested in the "silent accomplices", people who aren't anti-Semitic per se but don't do anything about people who are. Those questions retain their relevance to contemporary society, even as the film's particular prejudice has receded so thoroughly that the world depicted in Gentleman's Agreement feels quite alien. Actually, the film itself feels a little oddly positioned, in retrospect; it came out in 1947, and it is quite passionate about anti-Semitism as a growing menace that must be fought, when these days we'd say it was in fact on the verge of becoming a spent force as the ramifications of the Holocaust sunk in.

This was one of Peck's first Oscar nominations. I've often though that Peck was the white Sidney Poitier; his characters have the same sort of dogged (and kind of one-dimensional) nobility in the face of injustice. Pretty much whenever they showed up, the audience instinctively looked to them as a paragon of morality. He's good here, though the bulk of the overly-earnest moments mentioned earlier also fall to him (but given the time, that's understandable). Celeste Holm won her Oscar for this movie, as the runner-up for Peck's affections, and I kind of suspect that if this movie were made today Peck would have ended up with her. There's also a very young Dean Stockwell as Peck's son. The romance between Peck and Dorothy McGuire is the film's weak point; mainly, it starts way, way too fast (they become engaged after, like, two days).

[ElimParra]

Emh wrote:

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And there goes any motivation I had in seeing that movie.

Agreed. Probably a DVD release for me, plus I ain't a huge fan of Kutcher.

6. Animal Kingdom (2010) - A
7. Black Swan (2011) - A+
8. Raising Arizona (1987) - B-
9. The Expendables (2010) - C-
10. True Grit (2011) - A-

Found Raising Arizona to be a little slow for the first 30 minutes, but both Cage and Hunter were great in the film. (Kinder forgot to post something about this when I saw it two weeks ago)

The Expendables - it was okay. Could have been a lot better. But I ain't a huge fan of Stallone.

And finally Coen's version of True Grit. Awesome - but kept on looking at my watch. Definely not my favourite Coen brothers film. Their traditional humor was there. I kept on wondering where Brolin was, as never got around to seeing Wayne version.

[Captain Craig]

1. The Fighter: B-
2. Batman(90's saga): A-,B-,C-,D
3. Star Wars OT-Special Edition: B+, A, B
4. The Green Hornet: B
5. True Grit(1969): C+
6. Lord of the Rings saga: (A,A,A)
7. The Machinist: A-
8. Season of the Witch: B
9. Frozen: A-

10. Due Date: B+
11. Planet of the Apes(2001): B-
12. Faster: C
13. Romance: D (French film, subtitled)

This has to be the most mistitled or badly translated title possible. There is nothing "romantic" about the film. It really plays as a slightly bit more than soft core porn film with a plot. I expected some nudity from the description, and am not a prude by any stretch, but what we got just didn't fit with the films title.

An unmarried couple living together where the man has decided to forgo sex for reason(s) that seem to be athletic reason but then I doubted that. Not sure if I even recall what it was he did? So the woman is horny as all get out but doesn't want to cheat but suspects he's breaking his vow and having sex elsewhere. Yet she loves him too much too leave him.

Of course the film must build but she starts with a make out session with random guy in a coffee shop. Then later sex with that same guy but the scense are not loving or even enticing. She lays there and complains about things while he's ramming her from behind??

She gets raped in a hallway.
Then consents to some bondage with an older man whom she already knew.
Now the boyfriend is suspect and lashes out by having sex with her but not ejaculating...or fully cause she ends up preggers.

To cap the movie off we see the child born in a straight off manner that would've made any Anatomy 101 class edu film. Afterbirth and all comes sliding out.

A 'D' grade my really be too generous.

[Harvey]

23. The Servant (B)
24. Videodrome (A)
25. Johnny Guitar (B)

The Servant: This was an odd little movie. In the first half, I was convinced that I was watching a mild-mannered class drama about the relationship between a manservant (played by Dirk Bogarde) and his upper-class employer (played by James Fox). Then, in the second half, the movie seems like a portrait of the upper-class employer's total psychological breakdown. Having re-watched portions in a class, I can see elements of each interpretation present in both halves of the movie. As with many of the films I'm watching for class this quarter, the cinematography is absolutely excellent.

Videodrome: This is probably David Croneberg's best work of bodily-horror. It's also a superb example of cinematic science fiction. I'll be watching it again this quarter for a class, so I'll provide more thoughts in a week or two.

Johnny Guitar: An enjoyable western about two feuding factions, both of which are led by women, rather unusual for the genre in the period (mid-50s). Of course, Sterling Hayden and Ernest Borgnine are here too, and both leave a strong impression in their roles.

Still, the film belongs to the two women: Joan Crawford as Vienna and Mercedes McCambridge as Emma Small. McCambridge in particular eats up the screen in the role of the villain. When she's finally killed, it's a long time coming, and it's hard not to get wrapped up in the moment. Emma Small might be one of the screen's great villains.

At times it drags, though. It seems like an eternity is spent in Vienna's bar after Johnny arrives before we can get and be reminded that this is no B-Western.

[chrisspringob]

Dan in Real Life
Hot Fuzz
All About Eve
Gran Torino
Slumdog Millionaire
The Incredibles
Black Swan
127 Hours
Never Let Me Go

[Starbreaker]

1. Black Swan (2010) ✭✭✭✭
2. Winter's Bone (2010) ✭✭✭
3. Buried (2010) ✭✭✭✭

4. The King's Speech (2010) ✭✭✭✭
Easily the frontrunner for best picture and best actor at least. Totally blown away by this film.

[Admiral_Young]

"Cool World" directed by Ralph Bakishi. 3 and a half stars. Kim Basinger, Gabriel Bryne, and a young Brad Pitt. The story is pretty weak, but the acting performances are decent and the visuals are spectacular. I love alternate reality movies and films that explore the concept of reality.

[CaptainCanada]

10. Black Swan (B+)
11. Made in Dagenham (B)
12. Gentleman's Agreement (A-)
13. Barney's Version (A-)

Two films set in Canada inside a month's span; good times. This is a new film adaptation of a 1997 novel by Mordecai Richler (whose The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz was made into a notable Richard Dreyfuss film in the mid-1970s), which was his last work before his death in 2001. The novel is one of Richler's most entertaining, and the film version is pretty good; it's a bit less caustic than Richler's humour (and shrinks/condenses a lot of plot elements), but it's a good balance of humour and sentiment. Paul Giamatti won the Golden Globe for his performance as Barney, and it's well-deserved; it's too bad he didn't get an Oscar nomination for it. I always have a soft spot for Giamatti, since an actor with his looks really has no business headlining movies in modern Hollywood, but he manages it on the basis of undeniable talent. Also of note, Rosamund Pike as his third wife and true love Miriam (Pike is #1 on my list of actresses who deserve to be bigger than they are) and Dustin Hoffman as his dad. The film got an Oscar nomination for makeup, and I hope it wins; the aging effects are great, following the characters from the early 1970s until 2010.

[LitmusDragon]

1. Alien 3 (assembly cut) - B
2. Let the Right One In - A
3. Inception - B.
4. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - B+
5. Lilo and Stitch - A
6. Despicable Me - B
7. Forbidden Planet - B+
8. Clerks - B

9. Metropia - C+. Serviceable CG-animated film noir / dystopian future hybrid with an interesting visual style- everyone basically looks like hyper-detailed bobble-head dolls. Was fairly entertaining but nothing is really outstanding about it that I can strongly recommend it.

10. Brand Upon the Brain - B. My adventures into surrealistic film-watching continue. This is my first Guy Maddin film. Effectively explores the issues of adolescent sexuality in the context of a mystery set around a creepy orphanage on a fictitious Canadian island. The visual style is like a mix of silent-era movie making with German expressionism thrown in and modern film touches used sparingly and almost as a special effect. Makes particularly good use of a line repeated throughout the film "you will see everything twice" where a shot is shown out of context early in the movie and then is repeated later and with some impact when seen in context with the story. Demonstrates an interesting vision by the director and makes me want to check out more of his work.

[Lt_Rowy]

Sanctum 3D - B+

Good movie but dragged a bit too much...It had some good scenes...and an emotional scene that made me cry...made in Australia by James Cameron so it was good.