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Movies Seen in 2010

Che: Incredibly boring, gives you zero sense of the title character's inner life (I assume he had one, since human beings generally do). He's a cardboard cutout who speaks in commie cliche. Some well-staged battle sequences, that's about all it has to recommend it. Watched the first half, not sure I'll bother with the second DVD.
 
Temis the Vorta said:
Che: Incredibly boring, gives you zero sense of the title character's inner life (I assume he had one, since human beings generally do). He's a cardboard cutout who speaks in commie cliche. Some well-staged battle sequences, that's about all it has to recommend it. Watched the first half, not sure I'll bother with the second DVD.
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Watch The Motorcycle Diaries instead. It's probably an overly-romantic take on Che's pre-revolutionary days, but a good movie.

Saw Sherlock Holmes, surprised at how good it was...and to learn how many of the cliches of the character weren't in the books but later additions, thus really weren't "missing" from the film.
 
64. Notes on a Scandal [A-]
65. Shutter Island [B-]
66. Gosford Park [A]
67. The Third Man [A]
68. Fantastic Planet [A]
69. Pandorum [C]

Didn't expect to see this film again so soon, but a friend bought it, and I wasn't about to argue. The cracks in the story start to show a little much the second time around. The ship has so much unused space in it that it is ridiculous. Sometimes it looks cool, but it makes little sense that such a huge spacecraft wouldn't be filled to the brim with supplies. The martial arts are still gratuitous. The member of the agriculture crew Ben Foster meets doesn't speak a word of English, but appears to be martial arts master. Right...

The ending is still clever, and the movie is still better than critics gave it credit for, though. But not clever enough nor good enough for me not to lower my initial grade of a B to a C.
 
64. Notes on a Scandal [A-]
65. Shutter Island [B-]
66. Gosford Park [A]
67. The Third Man [A]
68. Fantastic Planet [A]
69. Pandorum [C]
70. Trancers [D-]
71. D-Tox [F]

Trancers is a really terrible B-movie (perhaps a C-movie, upon reflection) which includes appearances from Richard Herd (Star Trek: Voyager) and a ridiculously young Helen Hunt. I'd grade it an F, except it was sort of enjoyable how bad everything was. Rather unlike...

D-Tox: a Sly Stallone vehicle which was made in 1999 and sat on the shelf until a very limited release in 2002. The cast is excellent, but the performances are not (Tom Berenger and Robert Patrick seem to realize they're in a terrible, terrible movie). The setting is grim, and the production design rather boring (it's no wonder the film is completely without tension once it gets to the silly detox center, which looks like a rejected lair for a James Bond villain--from the Roger Moore era). I can't say enough bad things about this film. Horrendous without even being perversely watchable. Released as Eye See You in some places, it is to be avoided at all costs.

Time to see a good movie tonight? Ugh. I hope so.
 
Updates:
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 (7)
Boondock Saints (10)
The Book of Eli (8)
Cencoroll (8)
Les Chevaliers du Ciel (8)
District 9 (8)
Eden of the East: The King of Eden (9)
The Edge of Darkness (9)
G-9 (6)
Green Zone (7)
Inglorious Bastards (7)
Law Abiding Citizen (9)
Lupin the 3rd VS Detective Konan (7)
Oblivion Island (6)
Oldboy (9)
Pandorum (7)
Summer Wars (10)
Sword For Truth (6)
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen (8)
They Were 11 (9)
The Uninvited (7)
 
1. Avatar (B)
2. Precious (A)
3. Invictus (B)
4. A Single Man (B-)
5. Crazy Heart (A-)
6. A Serious Man (A-)
7. The Last Station (A-)
8. Adventureland (B+)
9. Samaritan Girl (C-)
10. 3-Iron (A)
11. The Hurt Locker (A-)
12. Citizen Kane (A)
13. Planet Hulk (B+)
14. High Society (B-)
15. The Philadelphia Story (A-)
16. The Pianist (A-)
17. Murder By Decree (A-)
18. A Man For All Seasons (B+)
19. A Patch of Blue (B+)
20. Broadway Danny Rose (B+)
21. The Departed (A)
22. The Purple Rose of Cairo (B+)
23. Zelig (B)
24. Radio Days (B)
25. Hannah and Her Sisters (B+)
26. Gone Baby Gone (A+)
27. Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (B+)
28. Doctor Zhivago (B)
29. A Beautiful Mind (A-)
30. Match Point (A+)
31. Scoop (C)
32. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (B+)
33. The Maltese Falcon (B+)
34. Love and Death (B-)
35. Shakespeare in Love (A+)
36. Dial M For Murder (A)
37. The Last King of Scotland (A-)
38. Annie Hall (A+)
39. Tropic Thunder (B)
40. Manhattan (B+)
41. Mighty Aphrodite (B+)
42. High Noon (B+)
43. Interiors (B)
44. Stardust Memories (B)
45. Adam's Rib (C)
46. City Lights (B+)
47. Chloe (B)
48. The Ghost Writer (B+)

Hey, two films in the theatre in a row; I'm on a roll! This is Roman Polanski's newest film, the one that he supervised the editing of from jail, and, oddly enough, the material has some callbacks to his own life, as Pierce Brosnan finds himself stuck in the USA, one of the only countries where he's safe from the jurisdiction of the ICC.

This is based on a novel by Robert Harris, and adapted for the screen by the same; I haven't read the book, but the story is a pretty straight up British conspiracy fantasy about how everything that went wrong with the Blair Ministry is the fault of CIA subversion (MacGregor's character, who is never named, a neat trick I wouldn't have noticed if one of the reviews I read hadn't called attention to it, ruefully notes that "everybody" voted for Adam Lang the first time). The writer finds himself writing the memoirs of our Blair stand-in (Brosnan), with stand-ins for Cherie Blair (Olivia Williams) and Robin Cooke (Robert Pugh, who could literally played Cooke in a biopic; I liked that detail, given that most people don't know who he is).

It's a well-constructed film; knowing the final revelation, more and more details fell into place on the bus ride home, which is always a nice feeling. They also make good use of reasonably notable actors in (seemingly) minor parts, which, in a conspiracy theory thriller, is a nice way of keeping the audience on their toes (there's even a cameo by a bald Jim Belushi (no, seriously). I had guessed the ending a bit in advance, but it was still mostly satisfying. But then there's the very end, which knocked the film down probably two points in my esteem, as the protagonist suffers one of the most severe cases of temporary retardation I've seen in quite a while.
 
64. Notes on a Scandal [A-]
65. Shutter Island [B-]
66. Gosford Park [A]
67. The Third Man [A]
68. Fantastic Planet [A]
69. Pandorum [C]
70. Trancers [D-]
71. D-Tox [F]
72. Whatever it Takes (2010) [B-]
73. Mystic River [A-]

Whatever it Takes is a short documentary about a small math and science school in one of the most impoverished parts of New York City. I saw it on PBS, so it may have been edited down, but it felt too short to me. I wanted to spend more time with the people being highlighted--especially the young principal who is most frequently at the documentary's center.

Mystic River is a film I haven't seen since it was released, though I liked it very much then and I like it ver much now. There's a few visual choices which don't work for me--the flashbacks which afflict Tim Robbins' character could probably have been dropped without much loss. The performances are all spot on, and Eastwood's direction is as tight as ever. The best Lehane adaptation I've seen so far--neither Gone Baby Gone nor Shutter Island come close.
 
Black Book - [A-] Hard to believe this came from the same guy who directed Starship Troopers. Great film.
 
Finally broke down and saw Alice in Wonderland. Decent movie, and not as bad as I feared, but nothing remarkable. Also saw Hot Tub Time Machine, which was just wacky good fun. A nostalgic, raunchy film with a lot of heart and character development.
 
The Stoning of Soraya M: powerful, gripping, disturbing, hard to watch. :(

Next up: The African Queen! Finally free from DVD limbo!

I've never seen it all the way thru. Seen some of it chopped up with commercials on TV years ago.
 
64. Notes on a Scandal [A-]
65. Shutter Island [B-]
66. Gosford Park [A]
67. The Third Man [A]
68. Fantastic Planet [A]
69. Pandorum [C]
70. Trancers [D-]
71. D-Tox [F]
72. Whatever it Takes (2010) [B-]
73. Mystic River [A-]
74. 2012 [D]
75. The Fog of War [A]

I don't have much to offer about 2012, the latest and most stupid film so far by director (and co-writer) Roland Emmerich, that hasn't already been said. A shame it has so many good actors that I like in it, although I go to sleep knowing that they at least earned a paycheck big enough to fund smaller films that I might actually like them in.

The Fog of War is brilliant. I really need to see more documentaries by Errol Morris. His interrotron system really makes a talking head interview work better than it does anywhere else. And the sequences he discovers in between his interview with McNamara-- a combination of dramatic reconstructions, animations, archival footage, archival audio--are absolutely brilliant. Morris is one of the best working documentary filmmakers in the United States and it is a shame he doesn't produce films more regularly. A nice score by Philip Glass isn't too shabby, either.
 
Finally saw "Death Proof". I don't regret that it's the only Tarantino film since 2003 that I haven't seen at the theatre. I was enthralled for the last half hour, but couldn't much get into it at the beginning (aside from the lap dance scene, which is apparently only on DVD and wasn't included in the theatrical release). From the scene where the girls talk about acquiring and actually acquire the white car till the end, I had a great time, but most of the preceding scenes were hard to get through. At the end, I kind of wished it had just been a 20 minute short rather than a full length movie.

Oddly enough, this was the first Tarantino movie I've seen in which I didn't think the dialogue worked much. There were maybe 2 or 3 lines that made me chuckle. There was "Is it my scar?/ it's your car", "Most guys wouldn't brag about that" and Mary Elizabeth Winstead actually saying, "gulp", but most of it was forgettable. Another oddity for a Tarantino movie, pretty damn dull characters. Zoe Bell was endearing (maybe I just have a thing/bias for New Zealand girls...am a big fan of Lucy Lawless too), but her acting was a little stilted (understandable since she's a stuntwoman, not an actress), and the rest of the characters were just shrill and/or one-dimensional. I loved the car chase and the end, though...the very last moments reminded me of "Faster, Pussycat! Kill Kill!", which I am quite fond of. :cool:

I searched, but couldn't find a thread about this movie. What's the general consensus about it here? I saw "Planet Terror" separately last year. I guess I liked it better overall and it had more memorable cute dialogue moments, but there wasn't anything in it that I found as thrilling as the chase at the end of "Death Proof". If you combine everything good in the two movies and cut out all the junk, I'm not sure you'd have a full length movie, but I'm glad I saw them anyway.
 
Updates:
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 (7)
Boondock Saints (10)
Boondock Saints: All Saint's Day (9)
The Book of Eli (8)
Cencoroll (8)
Les Chevaliers du Ciel (8)
Clash of the Titans (2010) (8)
District 9 (8)
Eden of the East: The King of Eden (9)
The Edge of Darkness (9)
G-9 (6)
Green Zone (7)
Inglorious Bastards (7)
Law Abiding Citizen (9)
Lupin the 3rd VS Detective Konan (7)
Oblivion Island (6)
Oldboy (9)
Pandorum (7)
Summer Wars (10)
Sword For Truth (6)
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen (8)
They Were 11 (9)
The Uninvited (7)
 
Harvey said:
The Fog of War is brilliant.
Click to expand...
It is, and I have the soundtrack! This is another one of those films I watched basically because Philip Glass was involved.

Overall, Glass really knows how to pick his film projects.
 
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