Movie Review

[sir archely]

Hey, title is self-explanatory.

Please, use your best judgement about spoilers, and use the spoiler text.

example: Malcor hasn't seen The Usual Suspects yet! :eek:

Inclusion of actors/actresses, genre, where it is (theater, rental, some obscure place), and whatever else you'd like would be nice.

[Anita Blake]

d'oh! i lost the last post i was going to put here. but the gist of it was: i used to write movie reviews for a small-town newspaper, and now i'm going to post some of them. :rolleyes: shoulsn't be too much in the way of spoilers, since I generally tried to avoid publishing such things in the newspaper. :D the movies are kind of old, but i'd like to think my reviews are fun. ;) this is one of my favorites, the movie i most love to hate :D





Deep Blue Sea starring several large pieces of human- shaped fish bait



A misguided film about a group of supposedly brilliant scientists who are searching for a cure for Alzheimer’s. They have decided to use shark brain juice in their efforts, but also decided that regular shark brains weren’t big enough. So they made sharks with bigger brains. And as one doctor tells us “as a side effect, the sharks got smarter”.

In the middle of the ocean, the hi-tech research station is understaffed and the sharks want their revenge.

With a premise like that, the movie doesn’t look promising. And it’s not. As the audience watches one character after another chumming the water, we find ourselves no longer caring. In fact, I found myself wishing they’d all just feed the sharks and get it over with.

With characters as unlikable as these, the wooden acting doesn’t help. Saffron Burrows stars as the dull-witted genius Dr. Susan McAlester, who is so devoted to her work that it isn’t until her sharks have done intense damage that she realizes that smart sharks might not have been such a good idea.

Our leading man is about as un-compelling as they come. Carter Blake (Thomas Jane) is the ex-con who wrestles with sharks, and has a limited vocabulary. His bulging muscles aren’t even very impressive.

The only character that I found wanting to survive the movie was Preacher, the cocky chef, played by L.L. Cool J. Of all the actors in the movie, the former rap star was the only one who seemed to realize that the movie shouldn’t take itself so seriously.

For this is not a serious movie, though it tries to be. The violence which should be scary is actually laughable. One scene seemed to me to be more of an anti-smoking ad, a rather gory anti- smoking ad, and it was funnier than it was scary.

Part of the lack of thrills comes from the timing of them. Every thrill is meticulously timed, in a completely predictable fashion. You can watch the film and count down to the ‘next big thrill’, and know whether it will be a fake out or a real shark attack. You can also predict who will be the next to go down the shark’s gullet.

Sadly, this movie should be fed to the fishes.

3 out of 10

[Anita Blake]

well, i've heard some interesting things lately about how the american gov't is abolishing the Class Action lawsuit. Which apparently means that ordinary people can no longer file lawsuits against large corporations. (at least, this is the way this was relayed along to me) The only reason this is relevant to the movie review thread in any way shape or form is because when this info was told to me, i was told "that means that stuff like the Erin Brokovich story won't be happening any more."

and thusly, I am posting my original review of the movie "Erin Brokovich" :). Enjoy!



Erin Brockovich
Starring Julia Roberts and Albert Finney

Movies based on reality have a tendency to find themselves on television, unless of course, Julia Roberts is starring in one. Which is the case with Erin Brockovich.

Broke and with three small children to support, Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts) pleads with her lawyer to give her a job. Ed Masry (Albert Finney) relents, with great reluctance, and from that point, many lives are changed.

When she sees medical records in a real estate file, Erin’s curiosity is peaked, and she tries to figure out why Pacific Gas and Electric has paid for the medical expenses of a family whose house it wishes to buy. When she discovers a major pollution cover-up that has caused the illnesses of hundreds of locals, she convinces Masry that a lawsuit is in order. This, of course, paves the way for the biggest single pay out in American lawsuit history.

It is a David vs. Goliath story, of course, where we cheer for the little woman with the trashy wardrobe and hope she annihilates her big corporate opponent. I feel like I have seen this before, perhaps as a movie of the week long ago. It sounds identical in plot to A Civil Action. The plot familiarity does not make the movie any less enjoyable, however.

The character of Brockovich is loud, abusive, and strangely sweet. Her wardrobe could never be called sweet, and she has the mouth of a trucker, but she genuinely cares about the people she is trying to help. Roberts conveys a great deal of inner conflict, a woman torn between the time she wants to spend with her family, and the time she needs to help people wronged by the system.

Now, I am not overly fond of Julia Roberts, but she is truly likeable in Erin Brockovich. Coarse and sexy, she puts in a great performance. Her character is so over the top in all that she does, yet Roberts manages to keep her (relatively) real throughout the film.

Albert Finney is wonderful as the hard-as-butter lawyer who is reluctant to take a simple real estate case and turn it into a major lawsuit against a huge corporation. He appears to be simultaneously a sleazy lawyer and a genuinely nice lawyer, bringing dimension and depth to the role.

The film is filled with surprising characters, seemingly self contradictory, which makes them real and honest, especially in a film based on true life. Brockovich is not portrayed as a saint, as would be expected in this genre, and her biker boyfriend/ nanny George (Aaron Eckhart) is a delightful character as well, surprising the viewer with his warm heart.

The major qualm I had with this film was the exceedingly bad camera/ editing work. There are very few films I have seen where a boom mike actually hangs into a shot for several seconds, wavering uncertainly as if to say ‘hi mom’, before slowly meandering away. Why that scene was not edited is beyond me. The film work is also of a quality that is less than normally expected on a big screen. However, this adds a certain grit to Erin’s cockroach ridden home, gives the locales a small scale, non-glitzy feel.

The only clue that this film is a big-budget Hollywood movie is Robert’s ten thousand watt smile and her outrageous wardrobe (which I’ve heard is more conservative that the real Ms. Brockovich’s). Funny and warm, this movie is enjoyable despite it’s familiarity, and allows the audience smile with Roberts all the way through. 8 out of 10.

[almost crimes]

example: Malcor hasn't seen The Usual Suspects yet!


:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:












:eek:

[Malcor Sylverwood]

~sighs~ I don't expect I'll ever live that down...even after I have seen it. Well...if. ;)

-Malcor "Spoiled unusual suspect" Sylverwood

[Malcor Sylverwood]

Directed by Ang Lee

Starring Eric Bana as Bruce Banner and Jennifer Connelly as Betty Ross

Well, let me start by saying I am definately not a Hulk fan. Never have been and probably never will be. So, I didn't have very high expectations of this flick...and it met those. ~shrugs~

It has some good moments and some eyerolling moments. But if you go in just looking for things to get smashed then you'll have a good time--probably.

The only real negative thing I have to say is about the look of the movie. The special effects and all are good, the hulk looks cool. But they do weird things like split and multiple screens, I guess to try to give it a little more of a look of a comic book. They shouldn't do this, it sucked. For me to truly like a movie, I have to be able to immerse myself in it, and every time they tried these 'cute' effects it pulled me right out again.

Still, in the end, its watchable. 6.0/10

-Malcor "Angry" Sylverwood

[Malcor Sylverwood]

Directed by Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski

Starring Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity, Keanu Reeves as Neo, and Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith

Well, this one I had high expectations for, even after hearing a lot of mixed to negative reviews. And it didn't live up to those expectations, falling entirely short of the mark set by The Matrix.

Why? Hmm...the story didn't seem nearly as compelling as in the first movie, I never found myself really caring about Zion...they never made me feel anything about that other than it was just the last human city. The church/party scene was their attempt, I think, but it didn't seem to work.

The special effects were good, but didn't seem to be anything grounbreaking. Mostly rehashes of what we'd seen in the Matrix (and its parodies). But the fight seems...the were missing something. Impact, I think. Pain. Gone are the cracking bones and such. It felt hollow, unimportant.

Still, I'm hoping some good comes from the 3rd movie.

Even though I was more disappointed with it, I still liked it better than the Hulk. 6.5/10

-Malcor "There is a spoon" Sylverwood

[sir archely]

Cannibal: The Musical is a delighful romp through a subject that lends itself so readily to musicals. Cannibalism.

What?

At the outset of the movie we are told that this movie came out around the same time as "Oklahoma!" and didn't do very well because of it. However, it's been restored and being played again now. This is crap, but if you've seen OK, you'll get a few more of the things in the movie. (weird ballet dream sequence anyone?) In actuality, it's a Trey Parker creation. Possibly with Matt Stone, who is also in the movie, but Trey Parker is listed in the credits for writing the thing, writing the music, directing, and producing the picture. This is before he did Baseketball or South Park. However, if you listen carefully, you can hear a cameo voice appearance by Cartman before it was Cartman. Also in this movie is Dian Bachar. Now, i don't watch South Park, and have only seen it a few times. Don't let South Park color your opinion of this movie before you've seen it.

It starts out with a horribly gory scene of a guy named Alfred Packer (Juan Schwartz (actually Trey Parker, but he's listed as Juan Schwartz for this role in the credits)) basically eating alive a few other people. Get past it. This is by far the worst scene in the movie. It is horribly fake, but it's not funny or anything, just weird. Let it go. It suddenly cuts to a lawyer, and the scene you saw was him trying to convince a court that Alfred Packer is guilty of Cannibalism. The movie takes off from there. It's set in "the old west" and the story is that of a group of miners trying to trek through the rocky mountains to Breckenridge to hit it rich mining gold. However, the guide is Alfred Packer, who isn't much of one. The encounter different people on the way, such as some trappers who aren't very friendly (but have "trappers" on the back of their fur outfits) some "indians" (i haven't figured out why exactly they did what they did with the indians...you'll see) and a cyclops. For those of you grossed out by eye goo, i won't lie to you...there isn't any. ;)

The songs are surprisingly well done, and funny. The "Snowman Song" is quite possibly my favorite part of the movie. (...let's build a snowman, we could make it our best friend. We could name it Bob, or we could name it....Beowulf...) Also great is "Hang the Bastard" and the cowbell solo.

If you have a wacky sense of humor, you'll like this movie. Jokes are everywhere, some not so great, but there are a lot of good ones. Oh, one other thing to note is that it's a Troma movie. Well, at any rate, it's associated with Troma, i don't know how much they actually had to do with it since Parker did the writing, directing, and producing.

Anyway, see the damn movie. I'm tired of being the only one around here who gets the references. :p

[sir archely]

Well, i just watched this movie tonight. I'd never heard of it before, i don't expect many others have. My sister just randomly picked it off the shelf at the movie rental place.

Anyway, it was surprisingly good. The general comment i have is that it is very similar to The Royal Tannenbaums (sp?). Not the story, plot, anything. It just has the same weird feel to it. The same weirdly realistic feel. Like, things that happen are weird, but you get the feeling like it's weirdly accurate of something that might happen in the real world. It's not movie time, it's too weird to be a movie, it's weird enough to be real. If that makes sense.

The cast is pretty much out of your worst deja vu nightmare. It's full of people you've seen before, but you can't for the life of you figure out where. The major actor in it is Christopher Walken, who fits in extremely well in the realistic bizarrity. However, he doesn't show up until about halfway through the movie. The only other person who's more than mildly recognizable is Andy Dick, who has a minor role. Everyone else is, "hey, i know that person, where else have i seen them?" But it's well done i think, the cast really fits the movie.

The plot is MacBeth. Sorta. It's one of these modern takes on shakespeare. If you don't know the original MacBeth, no big deal, but it does make it fun to see the parallels. They sorta hit you in the face with it, ie, it's not subtle (the main characters name is McBeth, everybody calls him Mac). Either way, it's highly entertaining.

Try it out. It's a fun little movie.

[Anita Blake]

well, i was just thinking of movies I Hate, and Chicago came to mind, so i'll write a quick little review.


Chicago is a film adadaptation of a Braodway musical. Except, there isn't much "adapted for film" in it. It looks like a broadway musical, it sounds like a musical, in fact, there's not a whole lot in this movie that could not be found on a stage, albeit a very expensive and well-produced stage.

Renee Zellwegger stars as a young woman with dreams of being a big time lounge singer in the 30s. Of course, after killing the man she was having an affair with, this dream gets a little bit squashed, what with the being in jail and all. But no! no it doesn't! this is a musical, and anything is possible, including becoming a big star just for being a cutesy murdress. Zellwegger takes tips from her big-time lawyer, who dolls her up and makes her so loveable that no one could possibly convict her of murder. Oh, and there's a whole jealousy subplot involving catherine zeta-jones. Yippee!

Now between all this happening, (there's a lot of time, this isn't all that much of a plot) we get treated to an overabudnace of musical numbers, which makes sense, since this is after all a musical, but where Moulin Rouge tried to do something really different with a film-musical, which was to make all this breaking into song a part of the story, make it all flow into one coherent line, Chicago decides that since it is a stage musical, let's make it look that way. SO, instead of coherent musical numbers that flow gently into the story and maintain the style, what we get is musical numbers that look like they are done in a .. you guessed it, broadway musical. The lights go out, the costumes change, the back-up singers glow in thier respective lights, when the song ends, we return to real life. Sure the musical numbers are big and shiny and glittery, and occasionally even impressive, if you took them out, there is not enough movie to fill up half an hour. The music often propels the plot the tiniest bit, but ultimately , we're still left where we started.... watching renee zellewegger in jail. MAke no mistake, Zellewegger is a fine actress. It's just that her character is so annoying as to make that point moot. The character is ignorant, stupid, and selfish.... and the audienc eis supposed to feel sympathy for her? Not likely. Ditto for Richard Gere's character... sleazy lawyer, who's character doesn't really grow up to learn any better, and Zeta-Jones (while lovely) also plays a vapidly selfish, money-grubbing celebrity hound who cares only about herself.

This movie won an Oscar for Best Picture, an hardly surprising victory, since it was the movie that had all the hype and all the gloss, and none of the substance. In fact, it's not that bad. It's just not good enough to be declared the best movie of the year. Do yourself a favour and watch the movie that deserved to get the best picture nod... Adaptation.... a film adaptatin of a book that defies all conventional script-writing wisdom while following it to a T.

Chicago.... 3.5 out of 10

[LaughingTurtle]

Heh I actually went to see Chicago a few days ago at the "cheap $3" theater with a good friend and when I came out at the end, the best I could say to her was that a bunch of women dancing/singing around halfnaked can never be that bad, so it was worth the $3.

Though after the court scene, if I had been the one husband I would have shot Roxi after she admitted to making up the baby story. Argh, poor guy.

[King Albert]

Movies seen this summer and my rating of them:
-Finding Nemo - excellent movie! Pixar does it again - worth normal movie ticket price
-2 Slow 2 Ricey - I had super low expectations, just wanted a good laugh and I was not disappointed. Better then the first - worth matinee ticket or rental
-X Men 2 - Soo much better then the first one - worth normal movie ticket price
-Matrix:Reloaded - Enjoyable if you like lots of action and special effects - worth matinee ticket
-Terminator 3 - Low expectations, hopefully it can only be better then what I think it will turn out to be... - planning on seeing it soon after it comes out.

[Malcor Sylverwood]

This one is a little tough to review for me without giving away any spoilers...so if it seems short, clipped, or incomplete...thats because it is. ;)

Anyway, let me talk about the series a little. Terminator is a CLASSIC movie, I like it a lot. But, T2 is one of the rare sequals that outshines the original.

Unfortunately, T3 can't keep up that momentum. Its just a little different. It doesn't take itself nearly as seriously, and lack the jaw dropping moments from T2.

But, it was still good and fun, and it makes it into my willingly rewatchable range. 7.0/10

BAH! Well, the first two movies left things open, it felt like they ended...this one...just left off. Damnit.

-Malcor "I'll be back" Sylverwood

[Anita Blake]

OK. Let's get this out of the way: this is the dumbest, most over-the-top movie you will probably see this summer. The plot is kind of nonexistent, and it is filled with lame stereotypes and cheesy dialogue.

and it's totally awesome.

It's hard to make a good tongue-in-cheek comedy action sex romp these days, and even harder to make a good sequel to said movie, but here we go, it's pretty darn good. IN a bad way. Or is that bad in a good way? Whatever. As long as there is totally over the top action, the is so ridiclous as to border on the laughably silly, that's never too serious, i mean there's almost no scene that isn't laugh out loud funny..... it almost seems like it shouldn't be, but then it goes ahead and gives the little wink and nod that says, "it's ok to laugh, we want you to laugh. it's ridiculous!" And it is ridiculous. Whether the Angels are analyzing bird poo down to the molecular content merely by touching it, dodging bullets matrix-style, riding mechanical bulls, or giggling liike little girls, there is nothing in this movie to be taken seriously. so don't take it seriously. go along for the ride and try not to notice all the soft-focus they had to use to make demi moore look young. :eek:

I don't know what the plot of this movie was. honestly., i just saw it an hour ago, and even while i was watching it, i was thinking "what the hell is this movie about?" something to do with the Federal Witness Protection PRogram. Yeah, like we cared. Cameron Diaz dances , Drew Barrymore acts tough , and Lucy Liu has some fine comedic moments with Matt Leblanc and John Cleese. Oh yeah, and Bernie Mac, apparently he's Bill Murray's brother . Whodda thunk it? :dozey: ALl that's just the window dressing anyway. Watch the movie. Don't think about it. Juts laugh at the ridiculousnes of it. :D
*note, none of my spoilers are very spoilerific. read them. go on!
8 out of 10

[dark fuschia]

oooh I'm glad you likethe Charlies angel sequel. I LOVE the first one! :D One of the funnest movies ever too in my opinion :)

And I am glad T3 doesn't sound completely hopeless, although I can't help having high hopes. The first two are two of my all time favourites so it has alot to live upto. But I'll be happy just so long as they don't interfer too much with aspects of the first ones. (like, please, don't let it have anything like the mitochlorians in Star wars, or killing the young girl in aliens3. I can forgive sequels for anything except disturbing the stories of their superior predeccesor in cheap ways)

[Anita Blake]

lol @ mitoclorians! my bf freaks out if you say that word. in fact, he thought that the only saving grace of episode 2 was that they never mentioned the stupid mitoclorians. :D


*shakes fist at geaorge lucas!*

[dark fuschia]

lol @ mitoclorians! my bf freaks out if you say that word. in fact, he thought that the only saving grace of episode 2 was that they never mentioned the stupid mitoclorians. :D


*shakes fist at geaorge lucas!*LOL *joins in fist shaking*

And I saw full throttle last night with some friends and we had so much fun! I keep chuckling to myself as I remember little bits.

I especially love the bit when Dillon and her ex boyfriend are in the car headbanging to "living on a prayer" (aka "heavy metal") ROTFLMAOOOOOO


edit: ummm how do you do spoiler text?

hehe and I just noticed we have an option for text colour lemon chiffon, which looks like this -->LOL! what a great colour name

[Mike]

ummm how do you do spoiler text?
[ spoiler ] text [ /spoiler ]
Like that, only without the spaces near the [ and ]

[Anita Blake]

ahhh... the great mysteries of spoiler text revealed!

this isn't a spoiler but it sure is funny that you might have thought it was and avoided reading it for that reason, and no i won't do this ever again. :D

[Malcor Sylverwood]

I love horror movies. I say that a lot, but the more I think about it, the more I should say I love the CONCEPT of horror movies. Because, for whatever reason, they just rarely seem to work right.

28 Days Later is not an exception to this. The story seems to be ok. The characters a little flat, but alright. The twists, while not very surprising, are there. But, it just doesn't work.

The movie starts out well enough, although its more disturbing than scary. Once you get past the unneeded shot of man junk, the movie revs up and show a world of potential.

Then it all falls apart. Drag, drag, DRAG. By the time you get to the ending which could have been cool...I ceased to care. So, meh. 4.0/10

Yes, another crappy review from Malcor :p

-Malcor "Just fat like Ebert" Sylverwood

[Tatum]

okay, per Malcor's request, I am writing a review of Dumb and Dumberer.....


What can I say, it had to be one of the worst movies I've EVER seen. And that includes my all time worst... Before and After (that horrible movie with Eddie Furlong, Meryl Streep and gah, I forgot his name..the guy from Schindlers List. Anyway, the two guys who play Harry and Lloyd did a great job reinacting Carey and Daniels as teenagers but the script just killed any chance the movie had. The producer must've asked his fourteen year old niece to write it. In other words, I'd spend my money getting a tattoo of Barney on my ass, done by a drunk tattoo artist with a rusty ink gun before I'd pay a cent to see that movie again.

[Malcor Sylverwood]

okay, per Malcor's request, I am writing a review of Dumb and Dumberer.....
You have my eternal gratitude, m'lady. ~bows~

-Malcor "Guilty" Sylverwood

[almost crimes]

I love horror movies. I say that a lot, but the more I think about it, the more I should say I love the CONCEPT of horror movies. Because, for whatever reason, they just rarely seem to work right.

28 Days Later is not an exception to this. The story seems to be ok. The characters a little flat, but alright. The twists, while not very surprising, are there. But, it just doesn't work.

The movie starts out well enough, although its more disturbing than scary. Once you get past the unneeded shot of man junk, the movie revs up and show a world of potential.

Then it all falls apart. Drag, drag, DRAG. By the time you get to the ending which could have been cool...I ceased to care. So, meh. 4.0/10

Yes, another crappy review from Malcor :p

-Malcor "Just fat like Ebert" Sylverwood


see i hate horror movies, but i really did dig 28 days later.
it was a nice return for danny boyle who's last flick was the horrible horrible horrible rancid stinking festering pile of garbage otherwise known as 'the beach'.

unlike most horror movies i thought 28 days later was really effective. it got it's thrills and chills from situations rather than big budget effects and ended up making what i thought was a pretty good commentary (a la heart of darkness) on what happens to human beings when they don't have to live within the confines of a lawful society. plus, i rather liked the positive ending because it really could have gone either way. the whole movie there is this looming unanswered question of whether or not it was just england that had been infected by rage or the whole world. cillian murphy + co. with their tied together sheets trying to signal the planes overhead made for a pretty wonderful little finish.

on top of this, the zombies kicked major ass. not your usual sleepwalking zombies that a geriatric in a bandit motorized cart could get away from but crazy-fast and deadly ones.

the soundtrack also ruled - the abandoned downtown london scene had godspeed you black emperor! music playing in it which i thought brought out the tension and confusion of the situation really well. and man, i jumped out of my seat when that damn car horn went off even though it was pretty obvious something of that nature was going to happen.

a post-apocalyptic movie done right is a pretty damn good thing in my opinion.

8/10 (loses points for the uneccesary wang shot ;D)

[Malcor Sylverwood]

hmm...this one is a tough one to review. I liked it, to put it simply, but I could have loved it, so end up feeling disappointed. Its a popcorn flick, without a doubt, but thats always OK with me. The biggest gripe with the movie I can always blame on Gladiator. Why, you ask? Because Gladiator did so well in the awards and such, everyone feels they need to copy it...and were its most notable to me are in action/fight scenes. They are chaotic, quick cuts, stolen frame monstrosities that make it so its impossible to tell wtp is even going on. Esp in a movie like this where its shifting mindlessly between a whole host of characters all involved in their own fights. ARGH! ~kills Gladiator in the face~ Anyway...if you want a movie about a group of uniquely talent people trying to save the world...go see X-men and X2 ;) hehe

Anyway...other than that gripe, everything is fine. Its just nothing is really great. Still, I hope it does well enough to see a sequal, because the characters ARE interesting--if they didn't flesh them out well enough. I'm glad I only payed the matinee price :D

Oh, one last note...Sean Connery is still a god. ~nods~ 6.0/10

-Malcor "Sean worshipper" Sylverwood

[Colin]

ah, pirates of the carribean :D MUCHO SEXYNESS!! and thats all that really matters right??so even a crappy plotline can be watchable if it includes Johnny Depp AND Orlando Bloom (aka SEXY SEXY and HOT HOT HOTTIE)

but lucky for PotC, the plotline isnt horrible. its filled with many a witty, funny, remark and actually has some pretty good acting. johnny depp's froppish character charms everyone :D really, who can turn down gold teeth and dreds?? and orlando bloom looks hot in it. what more can ya ask?

anyhow, i would definitely see this movie again. its ownable ;)

[Malcor Sylverwood]

Well, Colin got to this before me...and I have to say...

This movie is silly, over the top, and I LOVED IT. :D

Another popcorn flick, but I went into this one thinking it was going to suck, and it turned out to be the most fun I've had watching a new movie in a while. The only problem was with the theatre, not the movie...the sound balance was a little off and so some of the dialogue was a little hard to pick up.

hmm...lets see. Johnny Depp. I can honestly say I've never liked the guys work. But, the character he portrays here is just soo good and it looks like he is just having soo much fun with the role. Very good.

Orlando Bloom. I've only seen him in this and LOTR, but I must say I hope I get to see more of him. Very charming and surprisingly funny.

Geoffrey Rush. Wow, he also played his role to the hilt. Biggest surprise of the movie, IMO.

Keira Knightley. Well...she has an awesome name for any kind of fantasy movie...of course, I guess thats irrelevant. Plays the damsel in distress well enough and she is a very pretty lass. And there is something about seeing a pretty woman in the old dresses like that. Umm...*cough* ~blush~ ~flees~

The special effects in this movie play very well and look very cool. Much, much better than I was expecting. Very fluid.

Anyway, great movie...I plan to own it someday. :D 8.0/10

-Malcor "Davy Jones (not the Monkee :p)" Sylverwood

[epiph]

Another popcorn flick, but I went into this one thinking it was going to suck, and it turned out to be the most fun I've had watching a new movie in a while.


you were what?!!! not expecting to enjoy it?!! i guess you're just not the pirate i thought you were... :( ;)

my one complaint in what i thought was a near perfect pirate movie, was the end. the end was just screaming for elizabeth and will to go with jack. will should have just grabbed her with an "yarrr" and he and jack would have just jumped off. god that would have made the movie as close to perfection as humanly possible.

and who else thought the bar scene was taken right out of a dnd adventure?

[Malcor Sylverwood]

you were what?!!! not expecting to enjoy it?!! i guess you're just not the pirate i thought you were... :( ;)
heh...yeah, how could I think a pirate movie being made by Disney based off one of thier rides might not just be dumb-silly? ;)

and who else thought the bar scene was taken right out of a dnd adventure?
:D Don't have to ask that of me, now do ye?

-Malcor "Swashbuckler" Sylverwood

[Mesaana]

hmm...this one is a tough one to review. I liked it, to put it simply, but I could have loved it, so end up feeling disappointed. Its a popcorn flick, without a doubt, but thats always OK with me. The biggest gripe with the movie I can always blame on Gladiator. Why, you ask? Because Gladiator did so well in the awards and such, everyone feels they need to copy it...and were its most notable to me are in action/fight scenes. They are chaotic, quick cuts, stolen frame monstrosities that make it so its impossible to tell wtp is even going on. Esp in a movie like this where its shifting mindlessly between a whole host of characters all involved in their own fights. ARGH! ~kills Gladiator in the face~ Anyway...if you want a movie about a group of uniquely talent people trying to save the world...go see X-men and X2 ;) hehe

Anyway...other than that gripe, everything is fine. Its just nothing is really great. Still, I hope it does well enough to see a sequal, because the characters ARE interesting--if they didn't flesh them out well enough. I'm glad I only payed the matinee price :D

Oh, one last note...Sean Connery is still a god. ~nods~ 6.0/10

-Malcor "Sean worshipper" Sylverwood

I too have seen the travesty that is League of Extraordinary Gentleman. I agree with Malc's review of it all. However, I was extra offended by how bad the movie was in light of the fact that I am such a fan of the comic. For all you out there who judge the movie but have not read the graphic novel... read it... NOT AT ALL like the movie, and quite well done. That being said. I thoroughly enjoyed the take on all the characters in the movie, though you really needed more time with them to find out who they were. I would've like to hear more and see more about the past that Mina and Dorian had together, I wanna know how they met, it could've been a short and useful sub-story
Hrrm what else..... There was no real story... There were characters running around doing things.. with no so good effects. Hyde could've been done much better, and his character should've been better built... he was too... nancy?? I dunno... not good. All in all... an okay movie but I look forward to a well written sequel. Though since Dorian was so darn cute... and Mina too dern sexy... I think i'll be nice and give it a

7/10 cause I have hope for a sequel.... :)

[Malcor Sylverwood]

This review written with apologies to arch for two things. 1) Not watching Usual Suspects 2) Not trusting his taste in movies to not watch Boondock Saints

I can see how people like this movie, esp in the day and age of the anti-hero. Its well shot and well acted--even if the accents were terrible to try to sort through. Plus, it has one-liners that even made me laugh. But, for me, it failed on one key issue...I had nobody that I could root for. Personally, I *NEED* a hero, and there weren't any in this movie. So, its a no go. 3.0/10

-Malcor "Holding out for a hero" Sylverwood

[Anita Blake]

Terminator was a ground-breaking sort of movie back in the 80s. It made a lot of money and made Arnold Schwarzenegger a super-star. A lot of people got really rich from that movie. Terminator 2: Judgement Day, naturally followed suit and made sort of history by being one of the first action movie sequels that was actually better in all ways than the ffirst movie. For 10 years, they let it rest at that..... one OK action movie, one brilliant sequel, everybody is happy.

No no no, say the producers. "I do not yet have enough money, let us make a 3rd! people will come in droves to see it, and i will finally be able to swim in money like Scrooge Mc Duck!"

"But what do we need to achieve such massive quantites of money?" one producer may have asked. "Car chases?"

"YES! the most excessive car chase known to man! we need a vehicle that can destroy buildings! YEAH!!! And ROBOTS!!! LOTS of ROBOTS!! And we need a sexy woman to be the bad guy, you know, to mix it up a little, surprise people. But we should defintitely kill Linda Hamilton's character... it's not like the Terminator movies were all about Sarah Connor or anything."

"...OOoh! And we should make John Connor older, with maybe some sexy scruffy facial hair... i hear that's up in popularity this year!"

"Good idea.... and maybe...."

As you can see, the conversation with the producers goes downhill from there. Much of the script seems to have been written by a homeless fan of 80s cop dramas, and while the basic bare-bones plot of the movie is sound, absolutely nothing else about this movie works.

The basic bare bones plot is that John Connor, now a man who lives without a real identity, moving from place to place, finally has his past (and future) catch up to him in the form of killing robots from the future, this time sent not to kill him, but to kill his future leiutenants so that his resistance to the machines will fail. And in true Hollywood-masacre-a-really-good-story-style, there is a love story that only makes sense because we keep on getting told what the future is. perhaps Arnold should start up his own psychic hotline?

One of the major disapointments in the film is Arnold's performance. Now, before you go off and think "well, of course!" remember that his performance in T2 was actually quite good, he gave the Terminator depth and meaning, made the machine into a man. In T3 (an apt title, since you'll be wanting some T3 to dull the pain of this movie when it's over) the Terminator is all machine, no personality, and even the slight quips and attempts at humour are misguided and come off as little more than cheesy and lame. I mean, yeah, the sunglasses thing was cool in T2,but now? please stop with the sunglasses gags, because i might never be able to watch T2 (one of my favorite movies) without groaning again.

The bottom line with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is this: don't see it. Don't pay to see it, don't let someone else pay for you to see it, if it's on TV, change the channel. Honestly, i wish with all my heart i could erase the memory of having ever seen this movie. It tainted an excellent movie franchise, tainted my soul even. It's the worst of the worst of HOllywood schlock... and i actually like Hollywood schlock. The ending is good, actually, but it's not worth the rest of the movie to find out that (BIG SPOILER, GIVING AWAY THE END COMPLETELY DON'T READ UNLESS YOU HONESTLY DON'T CARE ABOUT THE ENDING BEING TOLD TO YOU)judgement day was never going to be stopped, and that the world would end no matter what john connor does, all he can do is fit into the roll of leader and help to save what's left of humanity. It would have been a good starting point for the movie, but no, i had to sit through and hour and a half of utter crap before that happens. i want my time back.

3.5 out of 10

[Mesaana]

Alrighty.... now I know in THEORY Tomb Raider 2 sounds like a bad idea... but remember that is only in theory my dear friends... I am here to tell you today that in actualy working practice... Tomb Raider 2.... Isn't all that bad. I just went out and watched it tonight, and by gum! I was throughly entertained!

They have gorgeous scenery and exotic locale... the wonderful Angelina Jolie, who plays her part magnificently. I am a big fan of the comic series, and she gets Lady Croft down to her pistols ;) The plot was a vast improvement on the first, and they actually fleshed out the whole obtaining of said treasure and map quite well. There weren't any weird.. ummm that was fast shouldn't we have more story??.. parts in the whole deal. I highly reccomend it, but of course I am biased in two ways... 1. I love Angelina, and 2. I love Tomb Raider.... but as a true TR fan, I tell ya this movie holds up. Very nice for what it is :) a femme fatale action flick ;)

[dark fuschia]

LOL Thanks for the warning against T3 Anita, I think I will give it a miss now. T1 and T2 are two of my all time faves and even though I was excited about T3 and believed at first they would puill of another good one I am willing to believe all these reviews instead.

Also I liked the first Tomb Raider, it was very silly plotwise etc but the atmosphere and charisma of Jolie carried it well enough for one viewing. Plus it gave me the most excellent adventurous dreams for the next few days! I'll definately check out the sequel.

[Malcor Sylverwood]

Yeah, I'd agree with Mes on this one. It isn't the greatest movie I've ever seen, but its far from the worst. Some really good action, some amazing locations, and Angelina Jolie. heh. The movie works at least if your a fan. I'm not sure the average movie goer will 'Get it' tho. I'm hoping for more sequels. 6.5/10

-Malcor "TR addict" Sylverwood

[Malcor Sylverwood]

SWAT--Special Weapons and Tactics...sadly, there isn't very much special about this movie. Very typical action fare, no surprised. Bring the popcorn...and don't pay full price... ;) Not even a badass Samuel Jackson can pull this movie from the huge mire of generic action films. 5.5/10

-Malcor "Special? Check please!" Sylverwood

[Mesaana]

Alrighty last night I watched the latest Cronenberg flick "Spider", and I must say I quite enjoyed it, even though it was hard to follow at some points (it was late, and I had a long day ;) Though watching it again in the morning remedied that) anyhow....

Spider stars the ever adorable Ralph Fiennes who's sexiness knows no bounds... (see: Red Dragon) though as a slighty crazy person with really nic stained hands his sexiness dwindles a wee bit... but only a little wee bit. Anyhow Ralph plays a man named Dennis (don't even ask me what the last name is) who is released from a mental institute. Now Dennis doesn't remember his past... but once he is released and is back in the same area where he grew up things start to come back to him... and basically it goes through his childhood, and you get to see why he was put away, and what happened to him as a child. There is very odd pacing in this movie so that sometimes the viewer is unsure as to wether things are a flashback or things are in present. However that is perfect because it truly represents Dennis's state of mind at all times. It's almost hard to watch at points because of this odd state of being but someone you manage to wether through. The most fun part is testing out theories as to what happened in Dennis's life. I am happy to say I won the "This is what happened to him and the symbolism behind it" contest. hee... anyhow...

Spider... worthwhile movie!! Go watch it... RIGHT NOW!! :)

[prophetic_joe]

ok not trying to be a jerk or anything and i know this is a way late response to a movie that's been out awhile but I really didn't like tomb raider 2 at all. I know that laura croft is a rip off of indiana jones but I was not prepared at how much of a rip off it was. let's compare shall we

Synopsis: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana finds a jewel that when mixed with the right components is a map that leads to the Ark of the Covenant (a box that can be used as a weapon to kill lots of people). and in order to help him indiana needs an old girlfriend.

Synopsis: TR The Cradle of Life, Laura Croft has a crystal ball that when mixed with the right componants is a map that leads to Pandoras Box (a box that can be used as a weapon to kill lots of people). and in order to help her Laura needs an old boyfriend.

The game has always ripped off Indiana Jones but the first movie was a little more original so I was unprepared for this movie to be so much like The Ark and was disappointed.

4 out of 10

[prophetic_joe]

I just went to Seabisquit last weekend and I must say that I really enjoyed it Iwas forced to leave early however because of important personal matters so unfortunately I didn't see the end. I can venture a guess at how it ends but if somebody wouldn't mind telling me so I know for sure I would greatly appreciate it. So as not to post a spoiler they can pm me if they so desire. Thank you :D

[night faerie]

ok my friends dragged me to see Once Upon A Time In Mexico. I say dragged because I sooooo did not want to see it. I saw the first movie in the series, El Mariachi, which Robert Rodriguez made essentially all by himself and with like no $ and I Loved it. Then I saw the second movie in the series, Desperado, which he made after getting lots of money from Hollywood and Antonio Banderes (granted, I'm not a fan, but still) and I HATED it. I could barely sit through it and honestly remember very little of it. So Antonio is back with the third installment and I was totally uninterested.

So, of course, it was wonderful. :sheepish: And of course, all my friends, who loved Desperado, hated it. :rolleyes:

I wont give anything away, but its got action and humour (Rodriguez has a brilliantly dry and dark sense of humor) and like 5 plotlines that all come together in the end. Cinematography is wonderful, and skillfully adds to the storyline.

Once Upon A Time is all Robert Rodriguez. He wrote, directed, scored, shot and I think edited it. So if you like him, if you liked El Mariachi (if you havent seen it see it, but be forewarned its subtitled), you'll love it. If you prefer Hollywood movies, and loved Desperado, dont waste your money. :)

[JEDIWAN]

guess that'll be next then

[LaughingTurtle]

Just back from watching Once Upon a Time in Mexico. I totally agree with NF all the way, tis a great movie. The humor was a definite plus for me as well...I have two favorite lines...once Depp says "savvy" and the other -


Said by Johnny Depp
Well are you a Mexican or a Mexican't?

Terrible, yet so hiliarious in it's delivery :D

Go see it at matinee, well worth it.

[Anita Blake]

Also to note, the director is the same guy who made mememto, so to give a little perspective (different plot lines going at once, odd shot angles, etc).


actually Christopher Nolan had nothing to do with this film. It's directed by Robert Rodriquez, director of El Mariachi, Desperado, the Faculty, and the Spy Kids franchise. And From Dusk To Dawn. :D

anita "fixing mistakes" blake :D

[night faerie]

you know Anita I am very curious to hear what you think of it, from your professional viewpoint. Let us know when you see it. :)

[ChronoDmin]

yea and whoo dragged you to see it NF? hmm? huh? hmmm?

[Waffles]

Saw Bad Boys 2 last night, and it was seriously kickarse. This is a case of where the sequel was better than the original. The movie was long, which is a good thing in this case, cos you're getting more bang for your buck. The action was incredible and well shot, and kept you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Will Smith was at his absolute best too.... It was absolutely HILARIOUS. This is definitely a movie that you have to see :D

[JEDIWAN]

Saw Bad Boys 2 last night, and it was seriously kickarse. This is a case of where the sequel was better than the original. The movie was long, which is a good thing in this case, cos you're getting more bang for your buck. The action was incredible and well shot, and kept you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Will Smith was at his absolute best too.... It was absolutely HILARIOUS. This is definitely a movie that you have to see :D


yep
....but I still got no Tea' (not that we don't (drool) like Gabrielle)

[Jennifer]

Wow...I just finished watching Bulletproof Monk. Someone shoot me...please?

[Abraxas77]

Ahhh come on, bulletproof monk wasn't THAT bad...well, okay, maybe it was...but had a few really funny bits mixed in as well.

[lost]

I just saw Matchstick Men... not too bad, Nicholas Cage actually did a reasonably good job of playing someone with OCD. I suppose I'd reccommend it, but not highly.

[Anita Blake]

I was just watching Moulin Rouge again, and it struck me how absolutely brilliant in every way this film is.

It is a lvoe story, pure and simple, a kind of romeo and juliet, sweeping story of love conquers all. It follows perfectly the form of a musical/opera, from a musical perspective, with motifs soaring in and out, telling the story as surely as Wagner ever did, while the lyrics also tell the story, and yet keeping it all fresh is teh choice of music that a contemporary audience can understand.

The look is very stagey, which normally, i do't enjoy in a film, because i figure that film shoudl look "real" not like a stage, but because this film is set in a burlesque hall, it's absolutely OK. It's also one of the few movies where composited CG backgrounds not only make sense and fit in, but help tell the story, serving as the traditional role of a narrator. It's as if the camera moves actually speak out loud to the audience "Meanwhile.... at Christian's apartment, another development was brewing". Such computer animated camera moves look fake. They look stagey. ANd it fits in perfectly, seamlessly with the rest of the film.

Ewan MacGregor plays a perfect lovestruck young man, with eyes only for the lovely Satine (Nicole Kidman), a courtesan who has mistaken him for a rich Duke whom she is trying to get funding for a new theatre from. Of course, they fall desparately, dangerously in love, and a course of events follows that is inevitable, from a cript standpoint, and yet also hauntingly realistic.

It's easy to view this film as an opera, a stage play that has been perfectly filmed and strung together. But at the same time, the acting makes it less stagey, more real. These characters have heart, and the time, wildly colourful and vibrant, is all too real, with characters who betray, who love, who will do anything to get what they desire.

One of the rather brilliant devices is to have a play-within-a-movie, which naturally parallels the plot, and tells the audience exactly what will happen, but never revealing the plot too far in advance. We never do discover how the play would have ended, instead, it combines to end with the story's main plot in such a way that all loose ends are resolved. I beleive that's what we call perfect formulaic writing.

The script follows formulas to the letter. And retains a freshness and originality throughout. It's a difficult spectacle to comprehend, let alone pull off so successfully. But Moulin ROuge is a spectacular film event. I refused to see it for the longest time, because i despise musicals, but when i was finally convinced to watch it, i was enthralled, entranced, and superbly surprised. If you haven't seen this movie yet because you have preconcieved notions of what it will be, put them aside. It's not only a good musical (even for those who hate musicals), it's a brilliant piee of filmmmaking.

10 out of 10

[Anita Blake]

Let me start by saying, i really was excited to go see underworld. It's like, my dream movie: werewolves, vampires, romance, action, cool. Kind of almost like the Anita Blake books brought to screen. YAY!!

No yay. :( I was disapointed by UNderworld, wanting desparately to be drawn into this film, and finding myself laughing at some absurd dialogue, cliche scenarios, overly obvious editing, and lackluster acting. The story is great, the story has tons of potential, but there was just something missing to engage me in it. Maybe i was just being picky, maybe i could tear this film apart shot by shot and explain why it was bad, but there are defenses. I mean, a shot that i could calll cheesy and overdone, someone else might defend as being pivotal. Sure, whatever. If someone else was drawn into the story, well good for them.

The story. Well, Underworld is about a millenia-old war between Vampires (the Coven) and werewolves (AKA: Lycans). Vamp foot-soldier Selene meets up with a human nammed Michael who seems to be important to the Lycans for some reason. Curious as to what that reason is, Selene hi-jacks MIchael to discover that.... he's gonny be a puppy! But, too late, she already (inexplicably, unless his "handsomeness" is 'explanation' ) is in love with him. So now she's got to fight both vamps and lycans to be with her man.

I think the lack of chemistry between Scott Speedman and Kate Beckinsdale may be to blame for the utter unbelievability of this romeo & juliet-style story. I just don't believe that she goes from liking him kinda, to finding out he's an enemy, to loving him. It's not really shown, unless seeing Beckinsdale gaze longingly a couple times was supposed to make me forget that just a few minutes ago, he was a stranger to her.

Now, sure, this movie's about vamps and lycans, but it might as well be asians vs. mexicans in a gang war, for all that it matters. Sure, the werewolves change and look kinda nifty, and the vamps eyes get all glowy, and they all have extraordinary balance and can leap from tall buildings to land gracefully, but the ramifications of the existence of these creatures is never fully explained. One night blurs to the next, and there's no concerna s to whethe or not the sun might rise. The full moon plays a part once, but since one night just blurs into the next without ever the threat of a day, it seems kind of irrelevant.

Some of the good things about this movie are the costumes, certainly, though i would have liked to see a vampire that didn't wear a corset, or black leather, or a black leather corset, and the werewolf effects are kind of nifty. The story of vampires having a high court, waging war on a lesser species, that's certainly interesting. These vampires don't drink a lot of blood, or really care about humans one way or another. They are busy backstabbing and vying for positions of power. It's a nice concept. Also kind of cool is how the vamps and werewolves have adapted to modern times and use modern weapons. This is pure gun-fighting, with some special, hopped-up bullets to be sure, but the movie consists of one raging gun-battle after another.

There are good things and bad things in this movie, it didn't do much for me the first time, but it hink i might actually like it better if i were to watch it again, though it did feel about 10-15 minutes too long. Overall, i'd say it was mediocre, but if it doesn marginally well, there will be a sequel, and i think that the sequel could be better. Underworld takes place in a rich world that simply needs to be explored a litte more deeply, and better.

6.5 out of 10

[Tatum]

Okay, I too went to see Underworld last night and I do have to agree with several of Anita's points.

First, the chemistry between Scott Speedman (Michael) and Kate Beckinsdale (Selene) just was not there. Speedman's character was so underdeveloped that it was just awkward seeing them together because they really had no motive for the random romance that just appeared out of nowhere. Also, Speedman (the soft spoken guy that played Ben on Felicity) just doesn't have the presence to play a believeable hero. He was too bland, too quiet and the fight scene at the end with him was just about pointless.

Second, yes, there were quite a few corny lines in this movie, and several times I found myself thinking that some of the scenes looked like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Some of the acrobatics were just a little too absurd. However, most were done well by showing the action happening in slow motion. The acrobatics seemed less absurd in those instances.

Finally, as with most action/adventure movies these days, a little too much time was spent on gratuitous violence and special effects. Most were great, don't get me wrong, but there were times when I found myself watching yet another gun fight and thinking "wait, didn't this same scene just happen fifteen minutes ago?"

So did I like anything about the movie? YES. The storyline was suprisingly good! Imagine that, a movie with great special effects AND a plot. I loved several of the twists that happened towards the end when you find out that characters aren't necessarily who you thought they were. I also loved Kate Beckinsdale. I thought she did an incredible job as Selene. I never pictured her as an action hero but she pulled it off in my opinion. She was able to pull off the cold vampire with a heart bit pretty well. Also, as Anita mentioned, I liked that they brought the modern element into the story by using weapons instead of the usual cliched biting. I thought the special effects were (for the most part) fantastic. Over all I liked this movie and would see it again. I thought, despite its short comings (which most movies have) this one was able to hold my attention for the full two hours.

8 out of 10

[~KA3AK~]

I haven't seen Underworld, but after reading your posts I'm not going to. I don't want to see another Blade.

[JEDIWAN]

O.K. I liked Underworld about as much as I liked the first X-Men movie: Kinda' liked it, didn't hate it, didn't change my life, yes i"ll see it again (DVD).

Can't really disagree w/ Tantum and Anita. I was trying to figure out if there really was a love story (guess there was huh?).
The first ten and last twenty minutes made it worth the two hrs though.
They had ideas that you just don't see in this type of movie.
The effects were nice enough (nothing you haven't seen b4, but hey...)

Overall, yeah go see it.

[Malcor Sylverwood]

I haven't seen Underworld, but after reading your posts I'm not going to. I don't want to see another Blade.
hehe...I liked Blade too... :D

-Malcor "Cheap" Sylverwood

[Curtis]

hehe...I liked Blade too... :D

Just so long as you didn't like Blade 2. That movie made me wince. Plot twists that you could call from a mile away. The only part about that one was when Wesley Snipes was fighting.

[Malcor Sylverwood]

Yeah, it was ok too...and you forgot that the lead vampire chick was kinda hot ;)

:blush:

-Malcor "Vamp Hunter" Sylverwood

[Curtis]

Ooh, I did forget here. My bad. That's an extra star for the movie then. Violence + hot chicks - plot. That still adds up to worth watching.

[Christy Sedai]

I thought overall Cabin Fever was a pretty good movie. Although it was extremely gross at many times throughout the moive I stilll liked it. Of corse with the exception of the laughing loud and annoying drunk woman sitting next to me.Grrr, :kill: annoying drunk chic in the face

[~KA3AK~]

Did you know that they are making Blade 3. It is supposed to come out in 2004 I think.

[lakai]

I went to see this movie the other night (underprotest I might add).
I must admit it was better than the other Nightmare on Elm Street movies and the other Jason movies. At least this one wasn't Jason just running around chopping up people. This one actually gave background on Jason and on Freddy. I think the biggest curiosity everyone has is who actually won. Well the girl won. The movie is Ok but I would not pay money at a theater to go and see it. Once was enough for me. If anyone wants to see it My advice would be to wait till the movie comes out on VHS or DVD. It leaves room for a sequal. My prediction is it will be Freddy's head on Jason's body. I guess in order to get that one you will jsut have to watch the movie.

[prophetic_joe]

Ok first let's say I went to see this movie thinking it would be good I didn't however have any idea that it would turn out to be one of my favorite movies so far this year.

It's about a sort of shy kid (Haley Joel Osment) who lives in basically a broken home. His mother decides she is going to "Court Reporting School" (she's really just going to Texas (not a spoiler)). And drops him off to live with his uncles for awhile (these uncles had disappeared for 4o years and are believed to have millions). Now if I say too much more it will take away from the magic of the movie, but i will say that this movie flows perfectly the sad parts melt into exciting ones which melt into happy ones. There are no times when you say to yourself wait a sec why are they happy now what the heck.

This movie has a perfect blend of drama, comedy, action and adventure.

The perfect date movie or to go to with family.

if I can't find anything I dislike it must recieve 10 out of 10

[Anita Blake]

Did you know that they are making Blade 3. It is supposed to come out in 2004 I think.


ha ha ha. that movie is pissing the hell out of my friend, because they keep making her late for work when they lock off the sidewalk. "just 4 minutes" ...."just 5 minutes" ..."just 10 minutes"... then eventually she has to take a detour to work. hehehe.

anita "movie set hater" blake ;)

[lost]

i finally got around to watching Bowling for Columbine, and it is a very powerful and thought-provoking movie. I normally can't stand Michael Moore, but he did a really good job with this. I would recommend it very highly to anyone. 11 out of 10 :dozey:

[LaughingTurtle]

i finally got around to watching Bowling for Columbine, and it is a very powerful and thought-provoking movie. I normally can't stand Michael Moore, but he did a really good job with this. I would recommend it very highly to anyone. 11 out of 10 :dozey:


Well if you saw it as good in a "movie" sense that's ok, but do not take it for a work of non-fiction - documentary....cause it's not. So enjoy it for it's entertainment value but not it's "facts" as anything can be twisted with the right editing as BFC displayed beautifully. :)

On to my own movie review....

The Run Down


The Rock as a bounty hunter who attempts to square a debt by heading to the Amazon jungle to capture someone. The bounty hunter discovers that his quarry isn't the bad guy he'd been warned about, and the two team up in pursuit of riches stored in a mine in the Amazon.

Now I wasn't expecting much at all when I first heard of this movie and saw it’s preview, hell I didn't even want to go see it really. But after reading numerous reviews and comments from various friends they said it was a really good and enjoyable movie. So...I decided to try it out and headed for the matinee.

I was pleasantly surprised. Now the Rock delivered exactly what you'd expect...action hero, with a comical quip now and then. He reminds of a young Arnold in flicks like Commando "You said you'd kill me last!" "I lied" :D Seann William Scott wasn't too bad, on his own he was a little annoying at times but coupled with the Rock they managed a nice chemistry.

Though what really glued the movie together was Christopher Walken as the evil villain. His presence provided a defining quality to this buddy action flick.

Overall, it’s an action comedy that delivers what it you’d expect it to. See it at matinee and you’ll leave the theater happy.

8 out of 10

[lost]

some of it may be biased/twisted, but there is a lot of truth in it

[Anita Blake]

OK, now, i'll explain a bit by saying, this isn't normally the kind of movie i see. However, i was handed a free pass, and so i did go to see Mystic River, directed by Clint Eastwood, starring such notable actors as Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, and Sean Penn, with other notable actors like Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden (who looks a lot like my cousin in this movie BTW), and Laura Linney. Now, this is a pretty big cast of well established, talented actors.

That should be the first warning.

A tip to those not yet initiated in watching movies: whenever a movie has a cast that looks like it came out of an award book, you shoudl run. RUN!!! Because trust me, just because it was directed by a talented director, and stars a host of talented actors, and was based on a book that may or may not have been a best seller, this does NOT mean that the movie will also be as stellar as the names involved.

Mystic River is no exception. OK, it's about 3 guys, who were friends when they were kids, and then one of them was the victim of a terrible tragedy. He was abducted and abused, but he lived. yay! go you, little davey, way to survive. So that's the opening scene, which felt like it was ripped directly out of a Stephen King novel-turned-movie, like IT or Stand By Me. So idyllic, so traumatizing, so been done about a million times. Right, moving on. To the future!

Well, the future is pretty much the same old same old, except of course the boys are grown up and don't talk and have their own lives and families and stuff. .... UNTIL! of course, tragedy strikes again, and the three men are thrown together by circumstancce and fate, finding their friendship again, discovering how tenuous it may be. And i think there was something about how none of them really got over the one guy being raped as a kid. Right. OK. Sure, i buy that.

Most of this movie is OK, if a little stale and obvious, the writing is less than stellar, with great lines of dialogue like "you know, sometimes it like we all got in that car, and we're all still 11 years old....". Dear god in heaven. i actually groaned at this line. My friend next to me was laughing at me because i was reacting so strongly to it. Looking at my watch, wondering when, please god, when will this travesty end!!!

Well, it didn't end when it should have, that's for sure. There was a pretty clear, well-defined ending to the movie, in which all is revealed and resolved, blah blah blah, fade to black and roll credits please. roll credits please... no.. .no.. wait! don't dissolve into another shot! what! there's a whole other scene?! Surely this must be the end, right? please? no?! crap. No, no. Mystic River isn't done with you yet. There was the matter of a mind-numbingly irrelevant sub-plot involving Kevin Bacon's wife, or ex-wife, or girlfriend, that was never explained, she just kept calling and not saying anything, and all you ever saw was her lips. Why? I haven't the foggiest. Neither did any of the other film-student types, and they're usually the ones who leap at pretending they understand stupid shit in movies.

But now that that subplot is tied up, we can end this thing, right? wrong. Seriously, this movie has at least 3 scenes tacked on at the end that make absolutely no sense, and made me mostly want to strangle Clint Eastwood. Or his editor. Whoever. I left wanting to strangle someone, even myself, just to end it all. About 75% of the people i saw it with felt the same way (lots of us had free passes, so a lot of people i know were there). The minority who cried a lot and thought it was great were all kind of sentimental-type girls. So, unless you are a sentimental-type girl/guy, you shoudl probably not see this movie. It's not bad enough to laugh at, or good enough to care about. My mark:

4 out of 10

[sir archely]

Okay, i saw this movie on DVD recently.

It's awful. No, really really awful. Like, one of the worst movies I've seen that actually has more than a 3 dollar budget. If you want to watch a good movie, then this movie isn't for you.

However, where this movie shines, blindingly to be honest, is in how awful it is. The plot is predictable, just about everything is 2x4 to the head style complicated. The characters are freshly broken from the cheesy, over-used molds, and their lines are no better.

The story is that of how the earth's core has stopped rotating....etc. blah blah blah. Evil military project, earth is doomed, college prof saves the day with a little help from some weird science. Ie- let's just make some crap up so they can fix this, okay? If i knew more about science of the earth, i'm fairly sure i could rip into this movie even more than i did anyway.

Like i said though, the best part of this movie is how awful it is. If you enjoy turning on a bad flick once and a while (or more :) ) to simply tear it apart and get a few laughs, this one should be high on your list. So many corny lines, so predictable, so awful, it's ripe for the picking. Overripe really. One of the best movies to do this to. Close, but not quite, on the order of Anaconda in terms of just how brilliantly awful it is.

The only real problem with it when looking at it from this angle is that you are still forced to watch an entire movie that has Hilary Swank in it. Also, it's over 2 hours long (somewhere right around 2 hours 10 minutes i think) so if it's not producing the laughs, just turn it off, cause you really don't want to sit through the whole damn thing for nothing.

I can't say if they were trying to make a stereotypical movie or actually trying to make a good movie or what, but as something to laugh at and make fun of, this is tops.

I give it 8.5/10 for crappiness.

[WolfBrother]

I'm not gonna give a review. But I would like to counter Arch's 8.5 for crappiness.

And give this movie a 5.7 for goodness. I liked it. I'm usually pretty good at picking movies. ;) :D :p

[sir archely]

~shock~

You liked the core? As a real movie?

And here i thought people like you didn't exist...

[Mesaana]

Alrighty everyone are we ready for a review of the #1 box office hit this weekend??? *waits for chorus of "yeahs" hears only crickets* Well too damn bad you're getting one....

Kill Bill, what to say about this movie... not having seen ALL of the Tarantino films I can't make any in depth analysis on what scenes are typically Tarantino or not... so if yer lookin for that move along. ;)

The movie starts out on a slightly gory note showing our dear 'heroine' Uma as a bloody bride who gets shot in the head... next we see her up and about taking revenge on who is obvoiusly one of the people who put her in that bloody bride condition. If you are looking for a movie that moves along chronologically... forget it.... this one jumps around a wee bit.. but not enough to get annoying. We learn that the basic plot of the movie is that Uma was part of some assasin squad, wanted out, then for wanting to get out she gets her ass royally kicked by her former cohorts... kinda pissed at this she plans to get revenge by killing them all... (after waking up from a coma 4 years later). Seems clear cut and simple however there are some plot details we are unsure of... the first is what Uma's name in the movie is. They DO NOT tell you. The second is... as mad as she is at her cohorts, they seem to be equally pissed at her, leading you to wonder.. what the hell did she do to THEM to get em like this, also the car... I don't know how she wasn't arrested long ago... but damn.. she stole a car... a yellow car... and it says PUSSY MOBILE... she killed a dude to get it... umm hello? How many Pussy Mobiles are out there with the licence plate PSY MBL. I mean damn... also the time it took for her to get away in it was ridiculous... also the fact that she managed to put the damn thing in storage while she went away to kill O-Ren Ishii and STILL not be caught.. gah.. maybe in vol. 2 they'll explain it ;)
Anyhow... the two people she's set out to kill in this movie are both Vivica A Fox's char, and Lucy Lui's char... Vivica's char (codename copperhead) was so insignificant that I couldn't even remember what her name was... however Lucy Lui had a very well defined character, O-Ren Ishii, who was actually quite intriguing. There was even an anime scene to go along explaining her to us... this makes me happy cause Lucy Lui is my hero ;) The whole part of Uma finding her is what takes up most of the movie.... It's also probably one of the goriest scenes in the movie as well, they did a part of it in black and white, probably so that they wouldn't get an NC-17 rating in the states, if they did colour I think it would've gone that way... kinda a cop out, but lets hope the dvd has a colour scene in it ;)

Heh! Plot differences aside, Kill Bill was highly entertaining for me, and like I said... it had my hero Lucy Lui. A big ole gory thrill ride that is also kind of reminiscent of old skool kung fu movies with the amount of fake blood and the way it gushes... Enjoyable to the max!!

8/10 (I can only be SO forgiving of plot ;) )

(oh yes for any of you who like a hero *cough*Malc*cough* you may not enjoy it seeing as our 'heroine' is kinda reprehensible at times ;) )

[Amelia]

I watched Kill Bill this weekend. Its bloody and I think most Terentino movies are but Ive only seen one other of his movies so who knows. I didnt know that this movie wa a two parter so I was totally shocked at the end. I usually like being totally shocked at the end but I was kinda dissapointed. Im not going to give anything away about the movie but I recomend it for a good couple of hours to kill.

[QuirkyTemplate]

Sorry … but Kill Bill was just horrible. I didn't even want to see it, but my friend was like "Oh, come on dude, I heard it was great!" And so I actually PAY 9 bucks to see some chick cutting a bunch of people up.

Hey, if that's all you want to see, then go for it. But if you enjoy movies with an actual PLOT, and peppered throughout this plot you have ACTORS that are talented at (heaven forbid!) ACTING ... then you'll be disappointed with Kill Bill. Here's the low down on things that went horribly wrong:

Scenes lasted for a ridiculously long time, when their purpose was already fulfilled long ago.

The main character was shallow and boring

The actor that played the main character was un-intense in many action scenes where she was clearly intended to be intense. (I'm thinking specifically of every action scene she was in)

The movie is a flashback ... and during the flashback she has another flashback ... and during THAT flashback she has YET ANOTHER flashback, which ended up being the same as the original flashback and was totally useless!

The movie was made by Quentin Tarantino (enough said)

The story is predictable and dull. It's basically this: Oh, so she's on revenge huh? Think she'll lose? Probably not! EndofMovie(TM).

Now I tried to find some redeeming qualities in this movie ... and I tried HARD. The only thing I could think of was that it was sometimes slightly funny the way the fight scenes in Japan were basically live action typical-anime(TM) scenes. What with the head getting cut off and then blood spurting up about five seconds later.

So then, Kill Bill gets a 2.0/10.0^3, or in other words, .02/10

I'd rather watch Freddy vs. Jason again.


… okay, maybe not Freddy vs. Jason … but Armageddon anyway. Ugh.

[Amelia]

Gee, QT, tell us what you really think! :D

I found out yesterday that Tarantino wrote the movie for Uma to star in and there a whole bunch of gossip junk too.

[prophetic_joe]

So if you don't like quenton tarantino why would you see this movie in the first place?

[Amos]

okay, i'm not going to do even a semi-long review cause it's hot and i'm tired, but i watched Donnie Darko on dvd today and it is excellent. you must watch this if you haven't already. beg, borrow or steal it, whatever, it is an absolutely gogeous and perfect movie 10/10 :thup:

(hehe. if you replaced 'Donnie Darko' with 'Amelie' you'd have another review by me)

[Malcor Sylverwood]

So if you don't like quenton tarantino why would you see this movie in the first place?
:umm:

I didn't even want to see it, but my friend was like "Oh, come on dude, I heard it was great!"
:p lol

The things we do for friendship sometimes...hehe

-Malcor "Reading comprehension" Sylverwood

[Waffles]

Yeah, I saw Donnie Darko for the first time down at wendy's, and I loved it :D It is just so.... freakin' cool I think the term is ;)

[Anita Blake]

donnie darko is spectacular. :love: donnie darko *sigh*

[Tatum]

Scary Movie 3 comes out next Friday. Is it wrong that I'm looking forward to it?

[Amos]

Scary Movie 3 comes out next Friday. Is it wrong that I'm looking forward to it?
i think it would be wrong if you weren't..

i know most people aren't that impressesed by them but i'm easily amused and every time i watch the first two they just get funnier. anna faris especially is hilarious :D

[Christy Sedai]

okay, i'm not going to do even a semi-long review cause it's hot and i'm tired, but i watched Donnie Darko on dvd today and it is excellent. you must watch this if you haven't already. beg, borrow or steal it, whatever, it is an absolutely gogeous and perfect movie 10/10 :thup:

(hehe. if you replaced 'Donnie Darko' with 'Amelie' you'd have another review by me)


yeah, great movie, very strange and very cool. :) hehe I didnt know that many people had heard of it. heh the little sister is the girl from The Ring.

[Anita Blake]

Well, finally got to see Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino's 4th movie.

I have to say, i kind of started to not like Tarantino for a while... i mean, he made these great films, and then kinda disappeared for a while, doing apparently nothing. Well, apparently the nothing he was doing for the past 5 years was Kill Bill... production of thi s film was delayed by a year or 2 by star Uma Thurman's real life pregnancy, and through all that, Tarantino stuck by this, his baby, a japanese-style kung-fu action movie, bloody and gritty to the core.

I now have a newly refound respect for Tarantino, one-time video store clerk-turned-auteur filmmaker.

Kill Bill is surely Tarantino's best work to date, which may be a little premature to state, since only the first half of this epic-length film has been released so far. The plot has been revealed in earlier posts, but it is perfect in it's simplicity. It's a throwback to old-style films that don't try to clutter things up with unneccesary elements.

The Bride, a professional assasin, is betrayed by her former comrades on the day of her wedding, shot in the head and left for dead. In a coma for four years, she wakes up wanting revenge on the ones who nearly killed her, and killed her unborn child. Before she gets to Bill, the dastardly father of the child who put the bullet in her brain, she first must fight her former associates, deadly assasins one and all. And strangely, 3/4 women.

Watching the Bride wake from her coma is a powerfully wrought scene, every emotion is conveyed, her every thought laid painfully bare as she realizes what has been done to her.

One of the interesting things in Kill Bill Volume 1 is that the Bride's biggest, most deadly opponents are women. This is a movie about women kicking other women's asses severly, with more blood and gore than has been seen on the big screen in ages.

Kill Bill is very much a western-style movie. One could easily imagine this film starring Clint Eastwood and taking place in the Wild West, with more guns and less swords, and all men. The geneder reversal is, as i said, one fo the more fascinating aspects of the film. But at the same time, it's pure Tarantino, the action is over-the-top, and so the the blood, but it's ok, because it's so well established as the filmic reality. This is not reality, we are told the instant the movie begins, this is a movie, so sit back and enjoy it. The over-the-top blood and gore actually help to make the movie more convincing as a movie.... it's almost comical the way blood gushes out like it's coming from a firehose when a limb is severed (and that's a pretty frequent occurence in this film). It's so exagerated that it really helps the mind accept all this violence as being OK.... it's obviously not real...it's just a movie.

There's an amazing sequence shot, where the camera moves in and around an entire restaurant, it's clearly the result of amazing planning and rehearsal.... this is what filmmakers strive to do, to create art. It's the kind of shot that's possible with a lot of hardwork, but most directors would rather fake it with CG since that would be easier. One of the great things about Kill Bill is the lack of CG. The tricks are in camera, and they are better for it. The stunts are performed by talented actors and stunt-doubles, not programmed by computer geeks trying to create the ultimate real person on a computer :dozey: . The painstaking effort put into this film was worth it, because the result is a movie that looks and feels ... like a real movie.

The sound design is excellent as well, taking you in and out of where you need to be, complimenting the visuals perfectly, while helping to create a whole world that you can believe in, no matter how incredulous. One of the shockingly "movie" moments in the film is when the Bride is on an airplane, just sitting in her seat, with a katana at her side. Later, in a wider shot, we see that other passengers also have a katana at their side... on the airplane. Everyone in this movie has a sword... that's the world we're being asked to believe in, and that's the world we are presented seamlessly.

The pacing is slow, with many long shots hovering lovingly on Lucy Liu's impish grin, or Uma Thurman's haunted eyes. Lucy Liu is a real treat in this film, a delight to watch, her character colder than ice, with a friendly, girlish smile. Beautiful.

This is a movie for film geeks. This is a movie for fans of Tarantino's past work. This is a film for people who love film, for people who love action, for people who love to see women fighting, blood, gore, violence, depravation, and at the heart of it all, a lot of soul. This movie is a labour of love, and that love comes through in every gory, blood-soaked frame.

on a scale of good to mind-blowingly-brilliant, guess what i choose ;)
9.5 out of 10

[prophetic_joe]

Anita I love you. :D

[Amelia]

I saw two movies this weekend. Intolerable Cruelty and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Intolerable Cruelty was crap....pure and utter crap! Do not go see this movie!!! I hate Catherine Zeta Jones but I love George Clooney and even he could not save this film. The best part of the movie was when a frend who was with us did some group participation! There was a scene where George made this big speech about love and yadda yadda yadda and he stepped down and walked out and one person in the audience started to clap so my friend started to clap, then so did I and the other two people with us and then the people behind us started to clap. Then the people in the movie started to stand up and applaud so the guy behind us stood up and then my friend stood up and applauded. By that time I was laughing so hard I couldnt get up.....lauging too hard. The movie was crap!!!! CRAP CRAP CRAP!



Texas Chainsaw Massacre......much much better movie even though it gave me several heart attacks and I left the theatre a changed woman. I dont know how I changed but I felt different about the world and chainsaws and Texas.

I never saw the first one but a friend who was there said it was different than the first, not better or worse, just different. Part of it was typical gory movie stuff but I liked it and I jumped in my seat twenty million times causing the people beside me to jump. I warned the guy beside me I should have informed the girl on my other side. I wished I had a boyfriend to cling to at times. The guy prolly wouldnt have minded but thats a whole other story. ANyway the guy who played the Drill Instructor in Full Metal Jacket plays the Sherriff and he was great. He yelled and screamed and was a preverted creepy sherrif. Im not going to tell you anything else. Just that it was a great movie to see in the Halloween season. Just take somebody with you, ok?

[Apoc]

Matrix Revolutions

I apologise if this contains spoilers, I didn't mean it too.

I thought it was great, yet my bro and two friends disagreed with me saying it was boring and nothing like what the matrix should be about. It got a bit predictable at points yet it still had major bonuses, I really don't want to give any spoilers away for those who have yet to see it but what is expected happens, the people you know have to die, die.

One flaw and probably the only is the underuse of some excellent characters, the Merovingian, Persephone, Sereth and the Trainman are all massively underused.

Something that surprised me greatly was the keyed down fighting, only a couple of fights appear in this film, yes there is the sentinel invasion but the neo vs smith fight and the Club Hell fight are practically the only real fights in the movie and they are far superior to the second instalments brawls.

As expected Smith is the star of the show, yet watch out for Neo's melted eyeball.

Favourite moment has to be the Neo/Smith fight- flying over the city, Slo mo face punch, rain booms and a silloette moment- excellent.

Overall I found it to be very enjoyable, the best movie currently at cinemas for definate. Return Of the King is obviously going to pound this into the ground, but for the moment probably joint film of the year with Kill Bill.

[LaughingTurtle]

Matrix Revolutions:

I don’t want to go too much into it even though this is a movie Review thread, and I’m too lazy to use spoiler text.

I liked it; the critics are just all jumping on the "it's cool to hate the Matrix" bandwagon. That and sequels automatically start out with lowered expectations due to having to live up to the original.

I think it delivered what it promised to. Now a few points-

Yeah some of the characters were great, Hugo was the best by far and the trainman was the helicopter dude from Mad Max, but it was balanced out by the crappyness of some of the minor characters...namely the one mech commander guy giving corny weak ass battle speeches and then the token teenage boy. His few lines were painful in their sheer stupidity, cliché'ishness and predictability.

Some have said there wasn't as much action as compared to the others, namely freeway type scenes....they must have had their eyes closed during the Zion assault :rolleyes:

I can't stress enough the greatness of smith and his bringing together the movie. Though I do have one compliant...his fight with Neo at the end reminded me way too much of Dragon Ball Z type fights...I can't really describe it less I tell to much, but those of you who have seen DBZ will have an idea of what I mean.

So in conclusion...a good solid movie...it answered some questions...left others open for the viewers imagination. Wasn't a masterpiece by any standards nor will it best RoTK if the previews are any indication but it was well worth the price and I'd see it again.

[epiph]

there's not really much to add. i think i liked it, but i don't think it stands on its own as a movie. without the matrix, both reloaded and revolutions would be crap. but that was the point, merely an elaboration of the matrix, which, i assume, is what LT was talking about when he said it delivered what it promised.

i still have a problem with trin and neo, but i always will. there is more chemistry between neo and morpheus than neo and trin. and about halfway through reloaded, she decided to join the keanu reeves school of acting, and the two of them together became infinitely boring to watch.

i did really really like the end. or rather, the climax. very nice.

[Buck]

Well I went into the movie avoiding all previews spoilers and trailers AND heresay. I went in not expecting much and came out beaming. If you go in expecting Matrix bar type stuff then your forgetting that this is just another sequel of it. Sequels tend to stink but for a sequel Revolutions was much much better than Reloaded. The graphics were mind bogglingly cool :thup:

Also yes, LT damn it you put to words what was on the tip of my toungue :D That fight was so DBZ it wasnt funny. The only thing he didnt do was a kamehameha ;)

Although there was a bit of mechwarrior in it too...

Overall I givet the movie a solid 4/5 for accomplishing what it was meant to. As LT well put it, it delivered what was needed saving the trilogy from a smoldering ruin.

edit-- Oh btw, I dont think it left any real questions open. Not nearly so as the original. I think the ending scene summed it up pretty darn well.

[JEDIWAN]

I'm w/ LT and Buck on the DBZ thing. I't was starting to remind me of Trunks and Goten.

Revolutions was exactly what I expected, however. Better than Relaoded (which was a perfect transition movie: as it should be), but you can't really beat the first one.

--Oh, anyone who read my theory about Persephany, Thank God I was wrong!!!--
Didn't see the Trinity thing comming though.
Do we all agree (and did we predict) that they left it wide freakin' open for more "I need to pay for the kid's college and 75 new cars" movies?
I mean, hey!, MR Mainframe Source dude! Where ya takin' Neo?
I also think that Alice Walker did a great job taking over for Gloria "The Oracle" Foster.

Who watch the Animatrix and played Enter The Matrix and chuckled a bit?

[Amelia]

Scary Movie 3 comes out next Friday. Is it wrong that I'm looking forward to it?

Yes. It sucked!

I only laughed when the kid got injured. Then I laughed my ass off but all in all, it sucked!

[prophetic_joe]

OK i may get in trouble for this but I thought this movie was horrible. And I know some people may say that I'm saying this because it's cool to hate the Matrix right now but that is not why. I loved both previous Matrix movies and stood up for them when people said they were bad and this movie to me just felt like the Wachowskies forgot they were making a movie half way through. My feeling through the first too was love conquoers all and that theme just disappeared in this movie. The chemistry between Trinity and Neo just dissappeared and I found myself not caring about the characters anymore.

The only positive things I can say about this movie are the fact that the special effects were damn good and that Agent Smith rocked.

The Matrix Revolutions seems to me to take everthing good from the first 2 movies and destroy it. I felt hope at the end of those first movies I felt like life could be good and positive things could happen, with the third that feeling is gone and what makes it worse is that the directors tried to put it in there they just failed miserably. of course this is my opinion. To me this movie was a pile of crap wrapped up in a nice package of great special effects.

4 out of 10 and that is being generous

[~KA3AK~]

I'm with joe on this one. Revolutions twisted and screwed up all the events of the original Matrix and Reloaded. saying that the plot was weak is an understatement. Not only it was boring, but also chaotic and inconclusive and contained many logical errors.

Why didn't the machines just drop a big bomb inside Zion? Why didn't the humans have any frigging EMPs in their base?? Some scenes and dialogs were so idiotic, that our whole auditorium burst into laughter. For example that conversation between Neo and the indian guy on the train station, or when Trinity was dying for like 10 minutes. Plus, what's up with all the hugging? The movies carries a motto, that when everything is crap and we're all gonna die a hug is gonna make it all better! The whole theme of love was blown way out of proportion.

There was practically to chemistry between any characters, except maybe Mr. Smith and Neo. ;) Smith was definitely my favourite and most likeable character in Revolutions, just because he honetly tried to put this movie out of it's misery. Hugo delivered an awesome performance. I was really dissappointed in Morpheus, he was too submissive to resemble his old self.

The Smith - Neo fight was also a dissapointment to me. I expected a really cool Matrix-style fight, instead I got something out of Marvel comics. The scenes I actually liked were the one in the Merovingian's club, and the MechWarrior fight.

As I expected, Revolutions was incolcusive and left a lot of space open for sequels. I have to admit, the effects were awesome, but cgi alone is not enough to carry a movie.

So i'll give it 2/5 stars, just for the effects and Mr. Smith.

[Malcor Sylverwood]

I'm too tired to post much, but I'd like to say that Revolutions was a relief...I was afraid it was going to be a steaming pile like Reloaded, and it wasn't. Its still no where near to recapturing the magic the first movie had...but not bad...

-Malcor "Pleasantly surprised" Sylverwood

[Arianna]

steering away from matrix (which i still havent seen, but will)
i saw Love Actually yesterday, and, not having any expectations going into it, i found it a really good movie. maybe its just me, or my mood, or something, but i recomend it. its a humourous movie that follows the accounts of several individuals adn their lives (mainly diff forms of love) in the wks before christmas, leading up to christmas eve and connecting the seperate plots at the end, sorta. *not giving anything away*

[Apoc]

Just saw a very good movie called Sympathy For Mr Vengeance. Its a foreign movie, I can't tell if its Korean or Taiwanes but it seriously rock.

The story is roughly about a deaf mute, whos sister is dying unless she has an operation, a lot of stuff happens that leads to him and his girlfriend kidnapping a rich mans daughter, so they can get ransom and pay for his sisters op. They treat the girl absolutely fine but do little setups too simulate they will kill her if the guy doesnt pay. Anyhow the whole thing goes very very wrong. Its very sad and quite disturbing in parts, you really don't know who to side with you do have sympathy for the main guys in the film but the things they do are awful but always for a reason. Overall a brilliant little gem of a film.

[Jennifer]

Saw Revolutions. Didn't think it was awful like almost everyone told me it was. I just hope they don't make anymore. The only thing I didn't like was the fricking flashing/strobe lighting through about 2/3 of the movie. That always gives me a splitting headache. :(

~blesses the makers of Aleve~

[Jennifer]

Okay, it's been so long since I saw first saw Alien, and I just got back from the Director's Cut in the theatre. If anyone else has seen it and remembers the original very well, can you tell me wth was different?

Oh, and if you haven't seen the trailer for Shrek 2, go here (http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/s/shrek2.php) . It looks frickin' hilarious. :D

[Malcor Sylverwood]

Mostly I think the scenes where just longer, adding some more of the crew's banter. The only all new scene that I'm sure of is when she finds Dallas in the nest, that wasn't in the original release.

-Malcor "Screaming silently" Sylverwood

[Amelia]

steering away from matrix (which i still havent seen, but will)
i saw Love Actually yesterday, and, not having any expectations going into it, i found it a really good movie. maybe its just me, or my mood, or something, but i recomend it. its a humourous movie that follows the accounts of several individuals adn their lives (mainly diff forms of love) in the wks before christmas, leading up to christmas eve and connecting the seperate plots at the end, sorta. *not giving anything away*

I was reading a letter in USA Today and this guy was bitching about the movie Love Actually saying it was a soft porn film..Is there sex and is it that graphic and who was it?

[Tatum]

I was reading a letter in USA Today and this guy was bitching about the movie Love Actually saying it was a soft porn film..Is there sex and is it that graphic and who was it?

I saw "Love Actually" this weekend. It was pretty good and suprisingly realistic. It was a look at different types of relationships and how they can start or fall apart or just be.

The soft porn part was about a couple that was doing stand-in work for a porno. Stand ins generally "stand in" during the lighting and design set up so that the actual actors don't have to trouble themselves with it. So basically the plotline of this particular story was the humor of these two people, completely naked and miming sexual acts while talking to each other about the weather and other trivial things.

Anyway, I liked the movie and I liked the fact that not everyone ended up with who their heart desired because in real life it isn't that way either.

[lost]

has anybody seen Master and Commander yet? I've heard very mixed reviews, 2 people said it was extremely boring, 2 said it was great, and 1 said that it was pretty good, but a bad ending. :thdown: :thup:

[Malcor Sylverwood]

Wow.

Did you hear me?

Wow.

Fellowship of the Ring is still a better movie, esp its extended edition, but...this extended version makes a huge improvement. More of an improvement than the FOTR version did.

I'm too lazy to go into details now, but the one gripe I heard about TTT was that it focused to much on the battles. Well, there are 43 new minutes added, and if there's more than a few added into the battle scenes, I'd be shocked. Its mostly stuff that makes the movie more person, more about characters.

Good stuff. :)

-Malcor "Dwarf" Sylverwood

[Dregs]

Theres a movie out in Oz soon, with Sean Penn, Lawrence Fishburn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon. I can't remember the name, its got river in there somewhere. I was just wondering if anyone had seen it, and/or reccomend it? It looks really good.

[sir archely]

It's called Mystic River....i thought someone did a review somewhere back there...

Anita's review... (http://www.enchantedquill.net/showpost.php?postid=7387&postcount=67)

[Fencing Fool]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The LOTR marathon is sold out! I didn't even know they put out tickets, but I guess they started selling them October 9th. That's probably when they finished selling them, too. :grumbles:

Anybody got three tickets for less than $100 a piece?

[Dregs]

It's called Mystic River....i thought someone did a review somewhere back there...

Anita's review... (http://www.enchantedquill.net/showpost.php?postid=7387&postcount=67)


Thanks mate, I should have checked.

[sir archely]

~shrug~

you can't be held responsible just because aussieland is behind the times. :p

[Apoc]

LotR-Two Towers extended edition.

Absolutely brilliant! How the film was supposed to be, it feels more complete.

I had a couple of annoying nags about the original version such as my favourite character Faramir being portrayed badly but in the extended edition they fix that really well with some absolutely brilliant scenes involving Boromir, plus his entrance into the film is far better.

Ents at helms deep and some other excellent gollum moments, add aragorn dunedain moment, wildhorse, eomer finding theodred, extra battle shots and a brilliant final count moment between Gimli and Legolas- pure amazing!
Extras are brilliant aswell- the extra discs are packed full of some extremely insightful and funny moments (sam losing his wig), only thing missing is RotK trailers or footage- there is nada.


Roll on RotK!

[Dregs]

~shrug~

you can't be held responsible just because aussieland is behind the times. :p

:dozey: I would be more indignant, if it weren't so true.

[Waffles]

School Of Rock is friggin' hilarious! Just laughs all the way, and the kids were sooooo cute and sooooo talented! So if you want a light, funny, feel-good comedy, with brilliant music, and that you can bring young'uns along to if you want, then go see it :D

[Dregs]

Jack Black just gets on my tits, so I'll think I'll miss it.

[Cloric the Cleric]

Alright. Anyone who has seen Dreamcatcher AND read the book....can you tell me what the F*CK was up with the end?

Duddits is a fucking alien? W T F????

umm...right...

[prophetic_joe]

Alright. Anyone who has seen Dreamcatcher AND read the book....can you tell me what the F*CK was up with the end?

Duddits is a fucking alien? W T F????

umm...right...

why was it different in the book? my main question with the movie was this

Why did they need to show what happened with the nasty ass exploding alien thingies? I'm sorry but I don't need to see someones torn open anus.

[QuirkyTemplate]

Yeah, duddits was no alien ... that was a wacked out ending. But you have to understand that there is no way Stephen King book endings can ever make it onto a screen. They're just too wack. Ever read the end of IT? Or how 'bout Dark Tower IV? Wow ... can you imagine some poor director trying to display that mind job on film?

[Malcor Sylverwood]

The only good thing about the movie Dreamcatcher was hearing the words "Ass weasel" blaring in ultraloud theatre sound...IMO.

lol

-Malcor "Give me the book" Sylverwood

[Cloric the Cleric]

I was just truly amazed that the movie managed to stay so nearly true to the book all the way through, a rarity for Castle Rock Entertainment, and then just blow it all to hell at the end. *sigh*

[jabbernaut]

The Two Towers Extended Edition

Not breaking from tradition, I was at Wal-mart about midnight, waiting for the slow-as-mud stockboys to get the impenetrable cardboard boxes open.

Finally snatched my copy (just the 4-disc this time, not the gift set as I did with Fellowship) and rushed home. Started it about 12:40...

Loved... every... glorious... minute!!

From the very first addition, the Elven Rope scene, I knew that THIS is the movie I had hoped for. And it just kept getting better. The flow is smoother, without so much sporadic back and forth, and even more coherent. Everything just makes more sense.

And just when you thought you couldn't love the characters any more than you do, they become more developed, more real...

Gollum is now even creepier, yet easier to understand, especially in his relationship with Frodo.

Eowyn is given more of a backstory, so we may feel for her more, and even strangely hope that somehow Aragorn might forget about Arwen and discover a preference for blondes.

Theoden seems more kingly, more troubled. Saruman, more crazed and hungry for power. Legolas and Gimli, closer in friendship. And Merry and Pippin... simply hilarious!

And Faramir, God bless him, is now finally flesh and blood, and dare I say a better character in the film then he is in the book. His words over the dead Southron soldier will keep you spellbound, and after that you can't help but love him, no matter what. And now that we finally get to see David Wenham's performance, I must say, he did superbly.

I can't wait to watch it again! I can't wait for the rest of my family to watch it with me. The theatrical cut left me needy, but this, which I consider the definitive version, is totally satisfying.

(My only disappointment was no furtherance of Ganfalf's battle with the Balrog, up the Endless Stair and such. But, easily forgivable in the grand scope.)

______________________

[lost]

well, I went and saw Master and Commander (Russell Crowe and Billy Boyd). It was really good. There were a few parts that kind of dragged, and the fight scenes were a little too close to the action which made it kind of confusing as to who was fighting who (whom?). It had some interesting side plots aside from fighting all the time, which were a nice break. I'd recommend it. 8 out of 10

[Mesaana]

Oh man.. where to START with this movie!!!! Bad Santa... it almost boggles the mind that Disney didn't read enough into the script to have it canned. Hahah it truly IS the movie that has ole Walt rolling around in his grave. It's everything the trailer promises and more in my opinion.

The drunk and disillusioned Santa as played by Billy Bob Thorton is excellent... he makes the GRINCH pre heart phase look generous. The whole gist of this movie is that Billy plays santa with his midget "actually they prefer dwarf", friend who on christmas eve loots whatever department store they are in. They've done it for years, midget man steals everything his wife wants, while Billy cracks the safe. This year however they end up in Arizona, where Bill meets a little boy who kinda changes his life... this kid is just amazing... he thinks that Billy Bob is the REAL Santa and just keeps pestering the hell outta him. In the end the kid gets to him and it does have a kinda happy ending but... santa does get shot in the back eight times so... yeah... It's a RELATIVELY happy ending ;) Thank god I'm using spoiler text eh? Anyhow just a riproaringly funny movie with some great lines IMO... go see it!! and Enjoy!!! hehe Happy Holidays ;)

Oh yes if you do go see this and you have young ones... FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT TAKE THEM WITH YOU!!!! THIS IS NOT AND I REPEAT NOT A MOVIE FOR KIDS!!!

some dumbarses in the row in front of me took their SEVEN YEAR OLD son to this AA movie.... which within the first five minutes he got all the education in bad words he'd need in his life.... poor kid kept being sent outta the theatre to 'get popcorn' so yeah... kids at home but come and enjoy ;)

[Anita Blake]

lol, i agree totally mes, i saw bad Santa last night, and i think i hurt myself laughing. So not for kids, or for adults who love Christmas movies. This is not a Christmas movie. It's like the anti-christmas movie. It's filled with more profanity and mean-spirit than anything i've seen for a while. it rules, in other words. Well, ok, it kind of gives in a little bit to the christmas spirit near the end, in a twisted kind of way, but it's sooooo funny. like, super funny. like, laugh out loud, it hurts, kind of funny.

~nods in extreme approval of Bad Santa~

[dark fuschia]

Alright. Anyone who has seen Dreamcatcher AND read the book....can you tell me what the F*CK was up with the end?

Duddits is a fucking alien? W T F????

umm...right...

Heh! I was forced to sit through that one recently. That movie was sick! Sick sick sick. I haven't read the book but hey that Stephen King sure is a twisted little coot.

[Amelia]

I saw "Love Actually" this weekend. It was pretty good and suprisingly realistic. It was a look at different types of relationships and how they can start or fall apart or just be.

The soft porn part was about a couple that was doing stand-in work for a porno. Stand ins generally "stand in" during the lighting and design set up so that the actual actors don't have to trouble themselves with it. So basically the plotline of this particular story was the humor of these two people, completely naked and miming sexual acts while talking to each other about the weather and other trivial things.

Anyway, I liked the movie and I liked the fact that not everyone ended up with who their heart desired because in real life it isn't that way either.


I saw it a couple of weeks ago. I liked to alot! I love Colin FIrth and Alan Richman (is that his name) and when Hugh Grants first scene was shown I swear if felt my stomach flitter. What is it with him? If he was american Im sure I wouldnt find him as attractive. Damn, Im going to get in so much trouble when I go to Australia!!!! Anyway, the naked scenes were funny, them talking causually while simulating sex was hilarious! And the Britney Spears joke cracked everybody in the audience up! I love an audience who can laugh at a joke at Britney Spears expense!

[Kindred]

Finally saw The Hulk..... Yawn... Not bad action, for CGI, I still think they should've stuck Lou Ferrigno in there as a spoof cameo, anywhere. If they can put Stan Lee in there, Lou can be too. Anyway, the movie was exactluy as I expected to be. It entertained me for 2hrs, so I guess they earned their money...

[Molimo]

I just saw X2... it's a great movie, I thought. A few inaccuracies... and the big climax at the end went on about half an hour too long... and got really repetitive... but still a good movie :D

[Kindred]

I just saw X2... it's a great movie, I thought. A few inaccuracies... and the big climax at the end went on about half an hour too long... and got really repetitive... but still a good movie :D


agreed. I liked all the hints they dropped of future movie potentials.

[Amelia]

Finally saw The Hulk..... Yawn... Not bad action, for CGI, I still think they should've stuck Lou Ferrigno in there as a spoof cameo, anywhere. If they can put Stan Lee in there, Lou can be too. Anyway, the movie was exactluy as I expected to be. It entertained me for 2hrs, so I guess they earned their money...

Didnt Lou Ferrigno die?

[lost]

Mystic River. (has been reviewed already, I'll just add my 2 cents.) Okay movie, okay plot, awful ending. why would a policeman let a murderer go unpunished? yeah, the killer was his friend, but so was the victim. and at the very end, both remaining friends see the dead one's wife looking sad/scared, and her son looking sad. And neither of them seem to feel remorse. :confused: Although it was not a great movie (I'd say 6/10), Sean Penn is an amazing actor, to play a loveable autistic guy in one movie (I Am Sam), and an old gangster-type person in this one. Don't see it in theaters, but maybe rent it if there's nothing else you want to see.

[Mesaana]

Didnt Lou Ferrigno die?

LOL!! no no he didn't die! Lou is still alive and kickin' and goin to comic conventions and the such, and he was in the Hulk!! He was the other security dude walking out with Stan in that scene when Banner is goin into work. :)

hehe best thing my friend ever asked Lou Ferrigno (aka TV's Incredible Hulk) "When you calm down do you turn into the cold dead body of Bill Bixby??"

It was horrible and evil, yet tremendously funny at the same time.

RIP Bill Bixby (aka TV's Bruce Banner) {I'm not that bad of a person I swear!! I just have my moments is all....}

[Kindred]

LOL!! no no he didn't die! Lou is still alive and kickin' and goin to comic conventions and the such, and he was in the Hulk!! He was the other security dude walking out with Stan in that scene when Banner is goin into work. :)

hehe best thing my friend ever asked Lou Ferrigno (aka TV's Incredible Hulk) "When you calm down do you turn into the cold dead body of Bill Bixby??"

It was horrible and evil, yet tremendously funny at the same time.

RIP Bill Bixby (aka TV's Bruce Banner) {I'm not that bad of a person I swear!! I just have my moments is all....}


YOU"RE KIDDING! right? I was too busy noticing Stan Lee and his remark to notic who the other guard was.... Darn it. Can't believe I missed that one.... Now I have to pay to see it again to look... Not that I'm obsessed, but I did grown up watching the Incredible Hulk... AND ENJOYING IT TOO :p :p

[Mesaana]

mmmm Return of the King.... more to say on this tommorow, errr today... whenever the heck I am more conscious! :) All I can say is that I enjoyed, maybe not as much as Fellowship, but movie was enjoyed... more than Two Towers non-extended *blush* anyhow! goodnight... and good viewing to all who have yet to see it.

[wiggin]

Yeah, uhm, RotK ruled. Awesome. Wow.

[sir archely]

i hate you. :grumbles:

[wiggin]

Why oh why? :p

[Cloric the Cleric]

RotK.....woot!

Great. would have posted last night, but....so tired.

[Apoc]

Very very dissapointed :( I have been waiting for this movie ever since I first heard PJ had started filming the first one. Its my favourite book of all time but the film???

Yeah it had some great moments and overall it was a good film but I expected sooo much more. Faramir was brilliant- that whole scene with pippin singing over the top was great. The Witch King was brilliant as was the charge of the Rohhirum. Shelob-fantastic, and gollum woah. The withdrawal from Osgiliath was the one of the great moments.

But as it began drawing too a close I felt as if too much had been rushed through- where the hell was the Mouth of Sauron? The house of healing? Eomers big moment and so much else. Lots of scenes felt massively cut down or just missing. It annoyed me that it just seemed to be Rohan + Gondor no sons of elrond, no Imrahil? Fair enough it may confuse alot of people if more characters appeared but it still annoyed me. The army of the dead were good then crap, in my view. And what was up with the rohirrum charge almost totaly defeating the enemy that was abot 60 times its size- I did love that bit though.

And what the hell happened with Viggos (Aragorn) acting- he started well then became king then turned into a crap actor. Sean Austin (Sam) I thought was excellent.

I hope the extended edition has what I thought missing, but until then I'm sadly dissapointed. I still rate it highly though but with alot of hope on the extended edition rectifying the cutdown and missing pieces of an otherwise brilliant movie.

[wiggin]

I must disagree. But let us wait until next November, and see the full movie, to decide.

[Apoc]

More or less my same exact thoughts wiggin :)

I did like it but this was supposed to my favourite movie of all time and though it was good it lacked and seemed drastically cut down.

I think the EE will seriously rock, but until then I'm dissapointed with a great movie that coulda, shoulda and in the final proper cut probably have been one of the greatest if not the greatest film.

[lost]

well, it was drastically cut down. they cut an hour and five minutes of it. ~just saw it~ :D I liked it. I think it was better than the second one, but the first one is still my favorite.

My ratings:
FotR: 10/10
TTT: 8.5/10
RotK: 9.5/10

[~KA3AK~]

Isaw the movie today at noon. I could definitely see a lot of stuff was cut from RotK. Overall I really liked the movie. Shelob was simply awesome. The only thing I didn't like was that Gondorians were made out to be real weaklings. Also, I prefer Tolkien's ending to Pelennor battle.

P.S. I'm probably gonna right a long review later.

[epiph]

i feel like a can breathe again. as most of you know, i had serious problems with ttt, and while i don't feel like rotk redeemed them so much, i do feel like the sheer goodness of rotk can begin to make up for it. i still think the ending of ttt should have been shelob instead of all that made up osgiliath stuff, and seeing the shelob stuff only served to reassure that. the orc fight at cirith ungoth was so good...could have been more detail, but i understand. i feel like i did at the end of fellowship: most of the stuff that was cut or left out or added is understandable and forgivable and most will be cleared up with the extended. there are certain moments that are like a slight pinch, because you know that if they didn't include the gandalf/witch king fight, they won't put it in the extended. but overall, i just feel so good about it.

[Buck]

Just came back from seeing TRotK. Wow. Great ending and no let down. All three were consistantly good with no decay. If anything by the ending you were in tears. Hell Im really sure half the theatre teared up @ the crowning. I myself will admit to watering up when Aragorn bowed down to the hobbits

:thup:

I just cant wait to see the E.E.

[Waffles]

Ok, all you people can just get bent. Doesn't come out here for another week....

[prophetic_joe]

I completely agree with you Buck I teared up at the exact same spot actually. I thought this movie was simply incredible the triology is an incredible achievement in film simply wonderful. The landscapes were brilliant and I;ve never seen a more majestic setting in any film than that of Minus Tirith (sp?) I was in complete awe the whole movie.

Apoc I must completely and utterly disagree with you however. In making a motion picture based on a book certain things must be cut and just as Jackson said they need to have the correct pacing for a theatrical release, not only because people most likely won't sit through a 5 hour movie but also to allow for theatres to have more showing, as much as it sucks for people who want to see everything movies are a business and you can't make too much money on one movie a day. Also what the heck are you talking about saying Viggo Mortensen's acting got bad i mean seriously he only had like 5 lines after the coronation and 1 of those lines made my cry and gave me chills. I do agree with you saying that Sean Astin rocked though.

I was completely satisfied with this movie it brought back my beliefs in quality trilogies which were destroyed back in november. Loved it, great movie, Peter Jackson rules.

[Apoc]

Apoc I must completely and utterly disagree with you however. In making a motion picture based on a book certain things must be cut and just as Jackson said they need to have the correct pacing for a theatrical release, not only because people most likely won't sit through a 5 hour movie but also to allow for theatres to have more showing, as much as it sucks for people who want to see everything movies are a business and you can't make too much money on one movie a day. Also what the heck are you talking about saying Viggo Mortensen's acting got bad i mean seriously he only had like 5 lines after the coronation and 1 of those lines made my cry and gave me chills. I do agree with you saying that Sean Astin rocked though. .


I study film so yeah I know whats going on and why it had to be cut down, watching the trailer you can see some of the important stuff that was missed, the fact there is no houses of healing at all in the shortened cut stood out as strange- I think its going to confuse alot of folk who haven't read the books- the only indication that we see that faramir and eowyn get hooked up is them standing next to each other and you don't recognise eomer as king of rohan at all. For me it was blaitant when a scene was cut down adding too my dissapointment, Idid like this movie and I do hold it in high regard but I expected a littlebit more which I know most of it will be in the EE so :)

As for the crowning scene, maybe I saw a different movie from you lot because it just seemed cheesy to my eyes but I guess on another viewing when my minds not totally running in circles with whats missing it will be better.

I thought Viggo's acting throughout the trilogy was excellent but watching the trailer the speech he gives at the black gate had so much more feeling in it than it did in this cut of the film, which caught me off guard. Another missing element that I was expecting was the Mouth of Sauron so maybe its exclusion caught me off guard aswell.

[prophetic_joe]

the fact there is no houses of healing at all in the shortened cut stood out as strange- I think its going to confuse alot of folk who haven't read the books- the only indication that we see that faramir and eowyn get hooked up is them standing next to each other and you don't recognise eomer as king of rohan at all.
Another missing element that I was expecting was the Mouth of Sauron so maybe its exclusion caught me off guard aswell.

see the only people who will notice this are people who have read the books. i myself read the books 10 years ago and forgot all of that and was not confused at all nor were the people who went with me and none of them had read the books at all. i think that you end the movie questioning whether or not eowyn and faramir were together but the fact that this is not flat out told to you is actually kind of cool you get to draw your own conclusion. i don't think anything that was left out of the movie was something that will make the movie hard to follow for anyone with no knowledge of the books but rather will upset people who have read and love the books the think we must remeber is that these movie are not the books they are based on the books. just because a movie is based on a true story does not mean all the events are true. what matters here is that i believe Peter Jackson held true to the spirit of the books and got across feelings and emotions that the books gave you. I loved the characters and settings in the books and seeing them on film and in Peter Jackson's vision made me love them even more. so yeah i still disagree with you.

[Apoc]

But the things I've mentioned HAVE been filmed, Iknow they had too take stuff out to make it shorter for a cinema release, I'm not going to complain about scouring missing but things like saruman and the mouth of sauron and gandalf vs the witchking have been filmed and they I feel were important more so than elrond turning up with aragorns sword why couldn't they have cut this and added the stuff that could be some of the movies best moments?

Oh well, I can see that I'm loosing this battle, I submit to the fact the movie rocked but honestly I was dissapointed with the exclusion of these parts. EE will make it up for me i'm sure. :)

That is all, ~bows then exits~

[Jennifer]

The Return of the King - 9/10

Bad Santa - :umm: interesting movie, if only slightly fkd up...

Sorry I don't want to post more detailed rviews right now cos I'm a little buzzed...funny how I never relly feel it until after I've taken a shower...

[Tatum]

Saw RotK last night. First off let me thank those of you who failed to mention the part WITH THE BIG FREAKIN HOUSE SIZED SPIDER!! I saw the web and I was like "no way, there can't be a spider in this movie, SOMEONE would've warned me" But low and behold not only was there a spider, BUT IT ACTUALLY STUNG FRODO AND SPUN HIM!!! I will be emotionally scarred by this scene for life!!

And Faramir and Eowyn were suppose to be together at the end? I did not get that AT ALL. I would've never known had I not read back through the reviews. I thought the movie was good, but still not as good as the first. I think the editor gave too much of the movie to random battle shots. I would've liked to have seen most of the chaotic battle shots replaced by shots involving the main characters; you know, scenes that added to the story instead of just being gratuitous special effects shots. And what was the deal with the elves "last" boat. That thing was leaving for four years!!! Even at the beginning of Fellowship the elves were "making haste" for the "last" boat. Arawyn must have been told twenty times that she must hurry or she'll miss the last boat. Yet four years later there it is, waiting for Gandalf and the rest .

Anyway, it was nice to see Sloth working again. I bet he hasn't had many acting offers since Goonies. :D

[Amelia]

I saw Mona Lisa Smile. It was OK.

[Mesaana]

Anyway, it was nice to see Sloth working again. I bet he hasn't had many acting offers since Goonies. :D

OMG Tatum you rock!! I swear to God I thought I was the ONLY person in the whole freakin' theatre all three times that saw the uncanny resemblance of the 'head orc' to Sloth!!! hahah at least I know it's not just me now. ;)

[Jennifer]

I saw Bad Boys 2 last night. Lots of senseless gore, and a mediocre plot. Some of the destruction of property was cool though. :rolleyes:

[epiph]

~hugs tats~ aww...you know...everytime anyone said "shelob" they were talking about that part. at least there were only like ten minutes of fright in the movie...in the book you think frodo is dead for a full chapter plus a little.

i hope there's more in the ee about eowyn and faramir, because there's a lot of explanation about how she doesn't want to love in the book...and tats, i totally agree about the battle stuff...i felt the same way in ttt, actually, but none of my friends agree with me. and it's spelled "arwen" and most of that making haste stuff was added. the elves had been leaving middle earth since the founding of numenor or before.

[Tatum]

Just got back from seeing the new Peter Pan movie thats out. Now I have to admit that I really had no desire to see this movie at first because, come on, this movie has been done a hundred times, what more could they do to it? But it was the only thing out that my daughter might semi sit through so we went.

Wow! Wow Wow Wow! Can you say "sleeper hit". This movie was sooooooo very good. It actually follows the original Peter Pan story that was written by JM Barrie 100 years ago, unlike all the other movies which have had so many liberties taken with them they might as well have been rides at Disneyland.

The special effects were fantastic but not too flashy. The movie didn't look like a video game (like most movies are beginning to look *coughthematrixcough*) The effects they used were necessary to the story but didn't take over the movie. Also, they used unknown actors, which I LOVED. I'm sorry but Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell, gag. The only well known actor in this movie was James Isaacs who played Mr. Darling and Captain Hook. Oh yeah, and Vanessa Redgrave, but she was just a minor part. I generally tend to like movies better when they use unknowns. That way I see them as the actual characters rather than comparing them to parts they've played in other movies. They couldn't have hired better actors to play Peter and Wendy. Both were charming and believeable. I even cried a little near the end, which I haven't done at a movie in a long time.

The original story is truely a fairy tale and I'm so glad somebody finally got it right. I highly recommend this movie. Especially for a date. There are so many messages in it about love of all kinds.

I give it a 9 out of 10.

[JEDIWAN]

...thought ROTK was great (inspite of what was drrrrraaaasticALLY left out (house of healing)). Nice (enough) cover up on the whole Shire thing though.
....And Hey!!!! WHERE WAS FREAKIN SARUMAN!!!! grrrrr
Aside from that, and the freakin' guy kickin' my chair, it was satisfying enough...
And :umm: let's face it, it was OVER three fraggin' hours as it was...

Oh yeah, saw Bad Boys 2 in the theater, and a few hours ago...dug it

Peter Pan looks interesting enough. I may check it out (cool review Tantum).


Jedi"everyonequitpickin'onTheMatrix"wan

[Malcor Sylverwood]

Jedi"everyonequitpickin'onTheMatrix"wan
hehe...the Matrix was great...2 and 3 however :umm:

-Malcor "Trendsetter" Sylverwood

[Waffles]

Ok, screw all you nitpicking loonies, RotK was AWESOME! Way better than the first one, with better action and more laughs. Sure, the end part with Saruman was GLARINGLY missing, but apart from that, it was an absolutely fantastic movie. It has just hit my number one movie of all time! :D

Oh yeah, ph33r me 4 I am l33t! 10 hours of LotR :broken: I mean, I'm tired as all hell, but seeing all three back to back is the best thing EVER. So who else has done that? :p

Oh, and I just have to mention the Legolas and oliphant scene. Everyone in the theatre applauded for that, it was so friggin' cool!

[Jennifer]

Saw Peter Pan today. Some very funny spots there. The Lost Boys were the best part. The kid that played Peter had just the right amount of mischief to him. "You're a...codfish!" :D

And concerning Legolas, yeah he's cool, a little TOO cool... ~narrows eyes and looks around suspiciously~

[Apoc]

RotK second viewing.

I went to watch this again with a friend and woah, what a difference the second time round was. I can't believe I was dissapointed on the first viewing but woah.

Shelob looked a million times better, and the battle of the Pellanor rocked even more, yet Aragorns speach at the black gate caught me off guard again as I still think the one given in the trailer is billions better.

Anyway, Viggo's acting was great after all, I take back my earlier criticism of it, I think that after watching the trailer a few times, the way he delivered his lines in that were different and in my opinion a bit better soo when watching the final cut it throws me off when the lines are delivered differently from what I had seen in the trailer.

9.5/10 :thup:

[Waffles]

I'm seeing it again, purely just to see the Legolas and oliphant scene again. And the whole movie. But mostly that scene :p

[Amelia]

I have yet to see it. My friend and I decided to go see the first viewing on christmas day to hopefully avoid a huge crowd and less "freaky" people cause lets face it the movie attacts them and I had to deal with one during the first movie so I want to avoid that again. So I get the weekly paper that came out on dec. 24th and it said 11am so we say "great" in fact I ask work if I can come in an hour later cause the movie is way long. So, we get there are 5minutes to 11am cause my friend hates to sit in a movie theatre and wait. It bothers me but hey,I adapt. ANyway there is no 11am showing on CHristmas there is a special christmas schedule that they didnt bother putting in the paper!!! :furious: So I cant go see it Im forced to go to IHOP for breakfast and watch a Christmas Story which isnt too bad cause I got to hear my favorite line in a movie.

So, I m excited to go see it. I love Golumm and Viggo but in totally different ways. :dozey:

[lost]

Cold Mountain is possibly the best movie I have seen all year. 10/10. Despite what some critics are saying, CM is wonderful. Some say it is too romanticized because Inman has a bird land on his hand, and because they love each other even though they barely knew each other and were seperated for 3-4 years. But, I think that was kind of the whole point of the movie, that they knew they were right for each other and would wait etc. The acting was great, but it wasn't so much Nicole Kidman as Reneé Zelwinger (sp?) that had incredible acting. I think Z. could definitely get some sort of 'Best Supporting Actress' award. The story was great, except for the scene where, in the sawed-up cow's owner's cabin, there was that kind-of unnecessary seduction, and I thought we definitely did not need to see what was keeping the minister occupied. The minister was really pretty funny tho. Good music too. :)

That probably had a lot of spelling and grammer mistakes, but everyone should go see it now.

[Amelia]

I FINALLY saw tRotK and it was great. It would have been better if the jerkoff teens beside me didnt quote the movie before the actors said their lines. I loved the movie and will prolly go see it again, once school starts back up. Oh during the Shelob scene my friend who thinks she is hysterical brushed her fleece scarf up against my face.....I jumped.......it wasnt funny. Then at one point I thought the flying thing was going to fly out of the screen and eat me. Yeah, my friend thought that was funny too.

[Apoc]

Cold Mountain is possibly the best movie I have seen all year. 10/10.


Wow- all three days of it :D

[lost]

:blush: best of movies that came out last year...

[lam sam]

Hye lost, why'd you change the color. I was still able to figure it out ::puts a badgy star on his chest and changes the subject::

HAIR!!!! Yeah, that movie kicks ASS!!!!! I love it. Everything about it is great. The ending is extraoridinary. For those who ahven't seen it, go rent it.

[LaughingTurtle]

I'm seeing it again, purely just to see the Legolas and oliphant scene again. And the whole movie. But mostly that scene :p

heh hey waffles, ever get the feeling to yell yabba-dabba-doo at the end of that scene? :D

[Tatum]

Okay, I watched two movies this weekend... Stuck On You with Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear & Eva Mendez, and Cold Mountain with Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renee Zelweger.

Stuck On You - Meh. It was a Farelly Brothers movie so it should've been a lot funnier than it was. There were a few good parts but they were all shown on the commercials so it wasn't worth the cash. I really liked Eva Mendez as the dingy girl next door though. There was something very endearing about her. I would give this movie a 5 out of 10 and only because there was a really really funny part that happened during the credits. If any of you get dragged to this movie, stay for the first part of the credits.

Cold Mountain - Sooooo Good and Soooooo depressing and Soooo romantic. It was one of those films that you definitely leave feeling moved by. Renee Z definitely stole the movie. She helped lighten some of the moments that seemed to be getting too heavy and actually delivered some very funny lines. Nicole and Jude had great chemistry and I was able to believe that they loved each other even though they don't spend much of the movie together. This movie is mostly about the strength of the heart and what people will endure for love. I can see why its been nominated for so many Golden Globes. I highly recommend this one. 9 out of 10

[Apoc]

omg :eek: what an excellent film. Tom Cruise didn't fck it up as I kinda expected.

I can't even begin to tell you how amazing this film is except at the end I had a tear in my eye.

So beautiful and so meaningful and so kickass, I mean come on-Ninjas vs Samurai-quility.

I thought it was brilliant in the way that only a few of the characters spoke english, I liked it alot that wee tom had to learn some japanese.

Overall, joint top with RotK for excellent movies out at the mo.

[Colin]

I don't see how yalls favorite lotr movie is fellowship, I was bitterly disappointed with it. Of course, I still don't have the EE :mad: so that could be part of the problem.

as for rotf.
!!!!
I loved it. I teared up at the same part as buck, when viggo bowed down to the hobbits and also when eowyn was defending merry's right to fight in the battle "why can he not fight for the ones he loves??" omg I got watery
Now, I already knew pippin was my favorite char, even from the books and stuff, but I absolutely fell deeper in love with him when he sang :love: yeah, another watery moment there ;) when he got choked up at the end of his song. word.
haha W!! I loved that part too :D it was so funny! "that only counts as one!" ahaha

I'm taking my best friend to see it tomorrow because it's her birthday and she still hasn't seen it!!

and ooh tat!! I want to see peter pan sooo bad :( but I have yet to go

oh yeah, funny thing. during rotk at the shelob part, when she stung frodo this lady that was behind me and my ma totally freaked out and her feet spasmed and she kicked my moms chair and she gasped really loud and me and my ma looked at her and started giggleing even though it was a serious part of the movie. we couldn't help it :p

btw apoc, it's been 4 years since I've read the books. I know the houses of healing and the faramir/eowyn thing, but what is the mouth of sauron part you're talking about?? i don't recall it..

[jabbernaut]

Of course, I still don't have the EE

:eek: Well, what are you waiting for??!! That's the REAL version, for petesake!!

:p hehe

[Colin]

none of my friends have it and I have no moneys :cry:

[Apoc]

btw apoc, it's been 4 years since I've read the books. I know the houses of healing and the faramir/eowyn thing, but what is the mouth of sauron part you're talking about?? i don't recall it..


When Aragorn, Gandalf, Eomer,Imrahil and Pippin (thats right NO Merry at the battle of the black gate) ride up to the black gate and call sauron out, they are greeted by-the Mouth of Sauron, a nazgul type guy but you can see his face, his jaws all decomposing and stuff but yeah anyway, he comes out and has along rant at them and basically laughs in their face- he also produces Frodo's mithril vest-to the shock of the good guys :eek: Mouth guy laughs some more, pippin blurts some stuff out that I can't remember at the mo about frodo, gandalf takes frodos things back and gives the mouth of sauron a good tounge lashing, mouth guy says saruman was going to be delt with anyway and that he was going to become saurons ltnt in sarumans place, woah loosing track a bit but yeah he leaves then the massive army surrounds Aragorns small force.

There, I hope that jolts your memory abit. ;)

[Apoc]

Bully is the movie Larry Clark made after the disturbing Kids.

In much the same manner as his previous film, it is aimed to slightly disturb. Teenagers having sex, taking drugs, and plotting to kill a bully is what this movie is about, an absolutely brilliant Nick Stahl(Terminator3) plays the said bully to disturbingly good affect.

It is in your face but so is life and this is based on a true story if you believe end blurbs like I do, yet it is worrying to see this movie and think that it did actually happen.

There are moments which I really did not like, if you are a homophobe then stay well away, for their is gay content and when it comes along you really feel uneasy.

I really recommend this film, yet if you are of a nervous deposition or want to see something fun and happy then stay well clear of it, for it is anything but fun and happy.

7/10

[prophetic_joe]

Kids was probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life.

[Waffles]

Can't be bothered writing much, but....

Saw Love Actually a few weeks ago, and it is now in my top 10 movies of all time. I loved it soooo much. And not for a few scenes that some people might remember :p So I give it at least a 9/10 :D

Saw Underworld last week, and its was fun and good. Crap plot, but the rest was ok. A bit gross in a couple of scenes though.... I gie it a 7/10, though I might be being generous :p

Funny thing though, is that an acotr by the name of Bill Nighy was a min character in BOTh those movies! :eek: Apparently he's been in heaps of movies, but I haven't seen him in anything but those two. And since I saw Love Actually first, and got used to him being a funny character, I was cracking myself up during Underworld seeing him play a completely serious character, but with ALL THE SAME MANNERISMS! Soooo funny :D

So I suggest you all watch Love Actually, and then watch Underworld a week later while the first movie is still fresh in your mind. Great experience ;)

Oh yeah.... I want a trenchcoat so badly now.... :p

[Amelia]

Can't be bothered writing much, but....

Saw Love Actually a few weeks ago, and it is now in my top 10 movies of all time. I loved it soooo much. And not for a few scenes that some people might remember :p So I give it at least a 9/10 :D



I remember Hugh Grant shaking his tight toushie to the music! Hes so cute!

[Jennifer]

I fell asleep while I was watching Underworld. Guess I'll get around to finishing it later tonight...

The parts I actually watched were good fun, but the movie is definitely no awards winner. Hmm, what else have I watched lately?

SWAT - so-so movie with a very predictable plot and your usual motley crew of heroes.

LXG - :dozey: ...and that's all I have to say about that movie.

28 Days Later - Hmmm, one of the more interesting zombie movies that's not about zombies that I've seen lately. Takes me back to QT's whole zombie vs. infected conversation. :D

American Wedding - cute but the whole thing is getting kind of old. I didn't think Stifler could be more annoying than he was in the other movies, but I was wrong on that count. :rolleyes:

Seabiscuit - Nice inspirational drama where the underdog finishes first. The funniest scene was the one where Tobey's washed-up jockey character was walking an old horse around a stable yard berating it for being such a nag.

That's all I've got in me right now for movie reviews.

[Colin]

ok watched a couple of movies yesterday:

WASTED: kindof-based-on-actual-events-movie-made-by-mtv about when alot of kids in Plano ((texas, close to where I live)) were dying from heroin. It was boring. It gave me the impression of trying too hard to be all deep and realistic. I guess it would be a shock to someone hooked on heroin but for me it was just too slow and uninteresting. The only upside was that nick stahl (cutie) was in it and the other guy was semi-cute too (don't know his name)
5/10

HOME ROOM: good movie. It's about an investigation after a school shooting ((they don't actually SHOW the shooting)) One of the teachers who worked at columbine liked it so much that she showed it at school. I suggest it.
9/10

[Jennifer]

:thup: I watched the coolest movie last night called Winged Migration. It's a documentary on (duh) bird migrations, which may seem boring to some people but the footage was just incredible. It was so clear, the sound was great, and the filmmakers used lite planes to really get a bird's perspective. Very cool. Much more interesting than I thought it would be. There was hardly any narration, just music, which made it better IMO. Some humorous parts, and some sad parts, so if you're not into the whole "circle of life" deal then you shouldn't watch this. Overall, I loved it. :cool:

It had penguins too. :D

[Amos]

ooh, i watched Y Tu Mama Tambien today. excellent movie. both hilarious and deep but overall just downright fun. perhaps younger viwers should not watch this movie though as it has some sexual undertones. okay, it has a lot of them and they aren't under- they're overtones ;) :)

[LaughingTurtle]

:thup: I watched the coolest movie last night called Winged Migration. It's a documentary on (duh) bird migrations, which may seem boring to some people but the footage was just incredible. It was so clear, the sound was great, and the filmmakers used lite planes to really get a bird's perspective. Very cool. Much more interesting than I thought it would be. There was hardly any narration, just music, which made it better IMO. Some humorous parts, and some sad parts, so if you're not into the whole "circle of life" deal then you shouldn't watch this. Overall, I loved it. :cool:

It had penguins too. :D


I actually saw that...really good. A bit boring in spots yes, though the camera shots, and angles were amazing - that and the penguin parts were great! :D

[Colin]

ooh penguins! :blush:

[Apoc]

Ichi the Killer is a disturbingly sick and twisted movie based on the manga comics of the same name. The ultimate sadist vs the ultimate masochist.

The director Takashi Miike is famous for his sick movies-Audition, Dead Or Alive but this takes the biscuit.

It is however disturbingly funny and sickingly entertaining and above all-brilliantly filmed, the special effects are unnoticable except for maybe one scene where Ichi cuts a guy clean in half length ways.

Try to ignore the fact that Ichi gets a hard on and masterbates over his violence whilst crying uncontrolably and this is truly a brilliant movie. But as I have mentioned-its sick, disturbing and very very violent- yet somehow a masterpeace.

Now this is a real real warning-DO NOT WATCH if you don't want to throw up, and DO NOT WATCH if you are easily offended or have a heart problem.

But if you want to see something that is gross and funny at the same time then this is it- it will change your life-for better or worse I do not know but it will make you think, "Errr did I really just see that, that was sick"

A couple of snipits for an extra advance warning to those curious of seeing this- A man is hung by hooks in his skin and stabbed through the nose, mouth and chin with a needle. A woman is viciously beaten and a man has every bone in his body broken- this film is sick-YOU ARE WARNED.

8/10

[lost]

I went to prescott last night to see a movie, and I saw the Girl with a Pearl Earring. Great movie. It is very different from the mainstream movies in a good way. Although there was not much action or dialogue (much of the movie consisted of various characters staring at each other), I never got bored or disinterested. The movie is about the girl in this painting (http://girl-with-a-pearl-earring.20m.com/frame_girl_with_a_pearl_earring.jpg) by Vermeer, and what she may have been like. I would highly recommend seeing this. 9/10

[lost]

i saw Hidalgo last night. excellent. It had beautiful scenery and horses, and it was a cool movie overall. It was also another reminder of how awfully our country has treated Native Americans (it starts off with Wounded Knee). It's a true story (i dont' know the story well enough to say how accurate it is) and had great actors ~coughviggomortensencough~ ;) some of it was a little too predictable, but it was still very good. 8.5/10

and the theater was packed so it was steaming hot, which made us sympathize a little with him riding through whatever desert that was.

[Amelia]

i saw Hidalgo last night. excellent. It had beautiful scenery and horses, and it was a cool movie overall. It was also another reminder of how awfully our country has treated Native Americans (it starts off with Wounded Knee). It's a true story (i dont' know the story well enough to say how accurate it is) and had great actors ~coughviggomortensencough~ ;) some of it was a little too predictable, but it was still very good. 8.5/10

and the theater was packed so it was steaming hot, which made us sympathize a little with him riding through whatever desert that was.

I saw the movie yesterday and my husband Viggo is so nummy! He did need some chapstick though.

I was very suprised, i thought it was just about a race but there was swordfighting and gunfights and Viggo!!!

I dont want to talk about the plot or anything but its good, i would recommend it. 9/10

[lost]

I saw a Secret Window a few days ago. pretty good. 8/10. It was pretty suspenseful and a little scary, mainly because of living in an isolated cabin and being threatened by a scary person. HUGE spoiler: tho turns out it was johnny depp being schizo. It was kind of a mystery, and i didn't figure it out until depp started talking to himself and put on the hat. There were some kind of funny parts, and johnny depp did really good. he can look innocent and confused and also really freaky for me, the freakiest part of the movie was his wife walking up the stairs and then pulling the door aside to see him standing there all weird... :eek:. i'd recommend seeing it, but there are definitely better horror/suspense/mystery movies out there.

~wonders just how many movies/miniseries/tv shows have been based off something by stephen king~

[Apoc]

Just got back from seeing the remake of Dawn Of The Dead.

Meh, it was ok, had alot of funny moments but no good dialogue. I can't think of any quotes from this film as there aren't any. Good for a no brainer comedy, some moments where paticularly good, diving into the bathroom wall and the chainsaw incident, some however where cringeworthingly bad, the whole baby thing :umm:

good, not brilliant, just a simple good, no brainer movie to waste time. Original was better, yet the only thing that seems to have been kept the same is the shopping mall and the films title.

.....the zombies run :umm:

[Tatum]

Recently watched Adam Sandlers new movie "50 First Dates". I have to give it a nine out of ten. I really really liked this movie. Great plot, Sandler and Barrymore have good chemistry, I was on a date with a super hot guy... it had all the makings of a good date movie. And, there was a twist at the end which is always nice. I think its my favorite Sandler movie so far. Rob Schneider pretty much stole the comedy bits. He was excellent as the trashy, one eyed Hawaiian father of four. hehe. If you get a chance to see this movie, I highly recommend it, especially if you are on a date.

[Amelia]

I agree 50 first dates is a good movie.

[Star]

Yes, I agree....50 First Dates is a must see. I went with my family, and we laughed, we cried, we were mad, and we were happy. Adam Sandler did great on this one!!!

We went and saw Dawn of the Dead last night. I'm still not sure about this one. It has some good effects and scenes that made you jump. (always a must have) But it just kinda left you..... :umm: Empty? So I give it a six out of ten I guess.
It was hilarious because after the movie we had to stop by wal-mart to pick up some diapers. And all the girls had to use a cleaner restroom. Anyway, my husband stayed out in the van to wait on us. We came out from the food section of the store and the van was parked facing the doors we went into so the girls and I sneaked up behind and at the last minute grabbed the van and started shaking it.....I think my hubby wet himself. And hurt his head, he jumped so high :p It was great!!!!!!!!

[valerie]

From the previews I've seen of 50FD, it doesn't look like something that I want to see... it looks a little too much like Billy Madison, and I HATED that movie. Is it? Or is it more like Big Daddy? (I liked that one)

[Apoc]

Beat Takashi's Zatoichi.

Wow, just got back from seeing this brilliant little gem of a movie. Absolutely loved it. So damn funny, I haven't laughed that hard since seeing Life of Brian for the first time :D

Though a little confusing at moments the fight scenes are brilliant, on a par with kill bill on the glorious bloodshed factor. The story follows a blind master swordsman (beat takashi), two geisha's(ones a guy hehe), a gambler and a Ronin who becomes a bodyguard.

The swordfighting is truly great, no fancy wire stuff, just genuine skill. The blood looks cartoonish, yet, you get used to it and it goes well with the type of film it is.

A true classic samurai movie.

Brilliant 9/10

[Anita Blake]

OK, i saw this movie last night. You may or may not know the director of the film, he's never done any feature movies before, but he is possibly one of the most brilliant music video directors of all time, Michel Gondry. He's directed a few Bjork video's, vids for the White Stripes (including that cool lego one and the one with the multiplying drum sets), very cool videos for the chemical brothers, Kylie Minogue (that one where she keeps on walking through the same block and multiplying herself again and again). Anyway, all that is to say that if you look for The Director's Label dvds, buy the Michel Gondry one, even if you don't like any of the bands i mentioned. the videos are superb pieces of art. I cannot stress that enough.

Anyhoo, so that was one reason i saw this movie. possibly the only one. The other being the it is written by Charlie Kaufman, the brilliant mind behind Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. Quite honestly, it was only a couple days ago that i even found out Jim Carey and Kate Winslet were in the movie. And i only found out what it was about yesterday before seeing the movie. My roommate's been talking about it nonstop for 2 weeks, and my ex-bf, so it was only destiny that someone would drag me to see it. (my roommate did)

On to the plot. Loser-type Joel (Jim Carey) meets and kind of falls in love with wacky multi-hair-coloured Clementine (kate Winslet), and then after a bad breakup, decides to go to Lacuna Inc. to have all his memories of her erased. Then, halfway through the proceedure, he changes his mind and has to hide his memories of Clementine within other memories if he is to save anything of her within himself.

OK, so i kind of ripped off that synopsis from what i read in the magazine moments before the movie started. But it's a fair enough synopsis, and i don't want to give anything away. ;)

Carey once again does a fantastic turn in a dramatic role (see Man on The Moon). He really is a fabulous actor, very little unneccessary schtick, he plays sad, shy, losery Joel heart-wrenchingly beautifully. Winslet is also quite wonderful in her eclectic role as Clementine. Kirsten Dunst has a very nice supporting role as the wacky receptionist for Lacuna Inc. and Elijah Wood is also another very good supporting role as another of Lacuna's employees.

The movie is filled with man of Gondry's trademark camera tricks - "now it's here now it's gone and there was no cut to hide it!", as well as Kaufman's trademark wit and quality writing. The film is a little bit long-feeling, and it's no high-octane race. It's very pleasant, and has a good ending. My roommate disputed the way it ended, he didn't like certain aspects of it, but i then pointed out that no, it had to be that way because otherwise the characters wouldn't have learned anything.

It wasn't quite as stunning as adaptation, nor as visually spectacular as some of gondry's videos, but overall, it was a higher quality of film than you're likely to see for the rest of the year. beautiful story telling, and a simple, yet strangely complex, love story. :) i'd give it a 8.5 out of 10. i was very moved after seeing it and it made me think. give it a shot. (and totally check out gondry's music video dvd .... :love: ... i watched all the bjork videos, and i don't even like bjork!)

[Malcor Sylverwood]

Dangit, Anita...you make me feel bad writing anything here with these full blown, awesome reviews you write!

hehe...jk...keep it up :)

Anywho...saw Hidalgo yesterday. And, I must say, I liked it. I didn't quite love it, it feel somewhat short of that. But its a good movie, worth seeing.

I love the scenery...there is something strangly alluring about the emptiness of the desert. Its quite such a stark contrast to what I see everyday. It also has this inherent loneliness...~shrugs~

The characters are all fairly simple, nothing terribly surprising or shocking. In fact, the story is really simple too. Some people would see that as a weak point, but I don't. I could probably ramble about this point for some time, but I think I'll spare you.

Anyway, its fun to watch, pretty to look at, and most importantly entertaining. 7/10 :thup:

-Malcor "Dances with Horses" Sylverwood

[Molimo]

Well... I finally saw the Godfather.


I shouldn't have to post a synopsis, as I'm sure everyone else has seen it already, but it's about gang wars in New York. It's an incredibly good movie, I'd give it a 9/10 at least. And it's a classic, too! So just by watching it, I understand all sorts of literary allusions :D Like where the phrase "horses head in your bed" came from.

[sir archely]

thanks for the eternal sunshine review anita, i was just going to ask if anyone had seen it to review it cause i've been debating whether to go to it or not.

[Kindred]

Super big thumbs up for Secret Window, which is based on Stephen King's short story. As you guys might know from my previous posts, I'm biased towards his works. This movie was really great though! True 'Old-School' Stephen King. A definite Must-See!

[Dregs]

Just saw The Missing with Cate blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones. I dunno about the acting, story etc, but see it for the scenery.

[prophetic_joe]

Just saw The Missing with Cate blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones. I dunno about the acting, story etc, but see it for the scenery.

I feel the same way about any movie with hot girls.

[Amelia]

I feel the same way about any movie with hot girls.
I feel the same way about Sean Connery, Harrsion Ford, Patrick Stewart, Viggo, and thats about it!

[Kindred]

You guys are so superficial! Serioulsy, seeing a movie because a girl is in it, Sean Connery? HEy are those boobs?

[Radar]

Well, my history prof made our class watch this movie but it was pretty good so ill say something about it here.

The movie was Sunshine:
Sunshine follows 3 generations of a Jewish family living in Hungry, each generation dealing with a different period, WW1, WW2, and the overthrow of the communist government. It was well written so that the 3 hours seemed to go by relativly quickly.

It focuses on the struggles of Jews in that time to try and fit in a society that didnt accept them. How the different governments used propaganda and peoples preceptions to control the populace. And how the family tried to change their identity but eventually came to the realization that the greatest gift was to be free as an individual.

Overall a good movie worth watching if you are interested in WW2, the aftermath, and the rebirth of Eastern Europe. gets 3.5/5

[Apoc]

Hehe, I have just returned from seeing the brilliant Shaun Of The Dead. A brit spoof of zombie movies from the makers of the brittish tv series "Spaced".

I could write a whole load of stuff about who's in it and stuff yet I don't think you would have a clue what I'm on about as it is strictly a british low budget movie and its stars are all from british sitcoms which non of you have likely seen...so...

I will simply say what I thought of the movie...brilliant, hilarious, clever, gross and did I mention hilarious??? thought so...anyway...I loved this film and will probably see it again.

It is witty and clever and the acting is superb, as is the brilliant dialogue, I can't think of anything bad to say about this absolute gem of a film. I usually hate british movies, but this one is seriously brilliant.

loads of laughs, great acting, some jumpy moments, good special effects and incredibly witty.

10/10

[Apoc]

KILL BILLVOL2

The continuation of The Brides cruasade of revenge against the deadly viper squad brings her up against the brilliant Budd (Michael Madsen), evil Elle (Daryl Hannah) and at long last Bill (David Carradine), the man who put the bullet in her head and robbed her of four years of her life (coma duh) and her child.

Anyway in this tale of bloody revenge we see how the bride became so hard and deadly, courtesy of chinese master Pei Mei who steals the show with his brilliant beard stroking and crazy laughter whilst training our lil' bride...who is finally given a name at long last after having the name constantly bleeped out in the first movie, but I will not spoil it for you...so...where was I...

...Carradine is brilliant, his presence and smooth charm make you want him to be on the screen constantly, but alas no, this is the story of the Bride.

Not like the first movie, Tarantino said before its release that he sees this one as his western were as the first was his eastern and it does make sense whilst watching...cowboy referances are all over the place, but that does not mean that there is no martial arts fighting, for as there is obviously less than the first, there is still quite alot, and boy is it good.

The fight with Elle is especially brutal and just plain violent that you can almost see genuine hate between them and desperation in the nasty, extremely painful moves.

Sometimes though, I felt Tarantino linguered on pointless scenes for too long, but that shall not spoil what is a great film, lovely cinematogrephy, great dialogue, quility music and wonderful fight sequences with some extremely funny moments make this a must see in my opinion.

9/10 ;)

[Kindred]

Hellboy- Very good action flick! Granted critics probably hate it due to the fact that it doesn't teach life lessons or anything, but a good flick to go see if you just want entertainment. 2 thumbs up!

[jUstIn]

i rented kill bill one, and watched it my GF and she hated it , so then four days later i take her to KB 2 and then she liked them bolth. they are set up entirely differnt and each would stand on its own probably. KB 1 was better overall though, id say. at least , yeah well they bolth kicked ass

[Anita Blake]

ok, i just got back from seeing Troy. Here are my comments.

Boy. it sure is epic. 2 and a half hours of my butt going numb epic. It's compelling enough, i mean, i shed a few tears, mostly for Hector's turmoils, i never knew what a good actor Eric Bana is, i mean, i didn't see the Hulk and don't intend to, so this was the first time i saw him. He was really good. Brad Pitt was very.... naked (mmmmmm) and may i say dead sexy? I mean, i'm not normally all gushy over Brad Pitt, but hot damn. There was a guy who had the bluest eyes i've ever seen, and he looked kind of crazy, but still kinda cute. Anyhoo.

So, yeah, there's a lot of battles. battle battle battle. And Pitt's Achilles talks almost nonstop about his name living on for thousands of years, in fact, it seemed like half the movies dialog was as such:

Random person: why are you fighting this war achilles?
Achilles: because if i fight this war my name will live on thousands of years.

Achilles: i don't know if i should do this
person: if you do, you're name will live on for thousands of years

narrator (brad pitt): this war will be remembered for thousands of years, and they'll be telling my story thousands of years from now.

OK. yeah. uh, we get it. It's a thousands-of-years-old story. At least, i knew that going in. It was a little dull to be bludgeoned over the head with that fact. I know already, i know.


anyway, barring silly dialog and overly romantisized scenes, it was pretty good. The fighting is very brutal, lots of war la la la war war war. Kind of nice to see the period brought to life though, though i suspect it is deeply innacurate. Whatever, it's a movie, so i can forgive it that.

It entertained me for two and a half long hours, i shed some tears, i jumped at some thrills, so yay i guess. it was good but it was so... typical, i guess is the word i'm searching for. The one thing i did like though was that there was no "good guys" and "bad guys". by the end you're left feeling that the world's greatest war was really won by noone. It seems like there really was no clear winner, even though the trojans got their butts wailed on, you get to feel that it wasn't really a victory, maybe only because achilles dies and who wants to see brad Pitt die? not me, that man is way too hot to be dead. So because of that major spoiler that i just wrote, you get the sense that war might not be so hot after all. By the way if you haven't read the spoiler i'm just going to say that if you knew the story of the illiad it's not a spoiler at all. okee. that's my review.

one last thing. WTF was with the song in the end credits. it was like a bad end credits song for a disney animated movie, like when celine dion sang beauty and the beast or elton john sand circle of life and you kind of liked the song, but the pop-music overhaul was really lame and you just wished they'd play the version of the song that was in the movie, except that this crappy song (for Troy, that is) wasn't in the movie and was just plain inappropriately sappy and lame.

:)

[Apoc]

i never knew what a good actor Eric Bana is, i mean, i didn't see the Hulk and don't intend to, so this was the first time i saw him. He was really good.

By the way if you haven't read the spoiler i'm just going to say that if you knew the story of the illiad it's not a spoiler at all. okee. that's my review.

yeah I saw it the other day and am still buzzing...such a good film and I also agree that Brad Pitt is simply gorgeous in this movie, and I'm STRAIGHT!!!haha

:umm: :D hehe

anyhoo, yeah Eric Bana is a quility actor, you have got to see Chopper! he's quility in that..and yes Hector is like the coolest character after Achilles of course, but still extremely well cast I thought...

and just to be a knitpicker...he doesn't hmmm in the Iliad...the Iliad finishes with the games after a certain persons death is finally honoured :p ~nods~

best moments...
begining call for achilles to fight that brickshthouse hehe
Iliums first view of the fleet approaching ~goosepimples~
the early boat catches the trojans
Paris vs Meneleus
Hector vs Patroclus
Achilles vs Hector

oh yeah and all those great battles :D

one let down moment: ohh look, boats how did we not see them! ackkk I'm dead. it was still a good moment but a bit wtf in my opinion.

Sean Bean as Odyseus was brilliant and I'm glad Ajax got a mention, though only one Ajax, at least there was one I guess...but no Diomedes, thats disapointing, I would have loved to have seen him getting the nod from Athene to fight Ares, oh yeah no gods and the fact that the war was 10 years long but summed up over about 3weeks in the film...doesn't matter I knew all this before I watched the movie...great film 10/10

and if you think any of what I wrote should be spoiler texted..bite me

[dark fuschia]

ok, i just i never knew what a good actor Eric Bana is, i mean, i didn't see the Hulk and don't intend to, so this was the first time i saw him. He was really good.
:)


GASP STUTTER... no... must not lose temper... *fails, slams fists into ground and explodes into enormous new proprtions*

THE HULK IS AWESOME!!!

I too used to make fun of it, and swore I would never watch it. I saw the preview and it just looked SO bad, and I couldn't stop laughing at Eric Bana's fake american accent (mostly because its the same american accent he uses to make fun of americans in his various comedy stints). BUt then I don't know how such a good film was made to look so bad in the preview, usually it's the other way round, they make the movie look better than it is. But it was the opposite for this one.

Anyway someone told me it was actually worth a watch, so I tentatively watched it, and lo and behold it was one of the most beautifully structured films I've seen in my life. Forgive my gushingness, but this movie may take itself very seriously for a comic, but it deserves to, cos hey, if you allow yourself to be drawn in, it's very intense! Not to mention stunning and innovative visuals, and a story that unfolds through the only dream sequences in a movie that I've ever found credible. And the acting is outstanding. Cheesy lines and simple story it may be, but it works dammit!

ANyway I recomend it. Especially to a film student I would recomend it. It has a very engaging style of presentation IMO (although I do know a few people who found the visuals complicated, and thought they detracted from the story).

[Malcor Sylverwood]

...cos hey, if you allow yourself to be drawn in...

ANyway I recomend it. Especially to a film student I would recomend it. It has a very engaging style of presentation IMO (although I do know a few people who found the visuals complicated, and thought they detracted from the story).

~raises hand~ That would be me...in fact, the two things I've quoted seem quite opposed. The Hulk for whatever reason had to keep reminding you that it was indeed based off a comic by doing a very cheesy 70's multi-screen thing. Blech. It the same effect Austin Powers used in jest...hehe

-Malcor "Distracted" Sylverwood

[Munky]

I know that I posted this on another thread, but I made, umm, an honest mistake! I thought that the New Orleans thread was all about movies! Honest!

Well, I thought that Troy was terrible. I know, I know, seems like people here liked it, but I'm going to be the first to say that it sucked. I mean that simply because it had so much to work with, and came out with so little. A story that has lasted 2700 years, and from this movie, you wouldn't know why. I give it a 3/5 because the action sequences were entertaining and epic. Everything else wasn't though.

Troy was overly pompous but without substance. It was overly-fixated on one character whom they tried to develop over the course of the movie. The Iliad does have a lot to do with Achilles, but if the premise is that this is a retelling of the Iliad, then you would have to claim that the movie should have started 9 years into the war and all that stuff, and have none of the Trojan Horse bit. Troy is basically just about Achilles and they mess it up. I mean, for God's sakes, they get rid of the homosexual relationship he has with Patroclus and makes him just a cousin. Why remove that aspect of Achilles? Just to make him palatable to the mainstream audience? Achilles isn't meant to be liked, but they try their hardest to make it so, but ruin the only real time we should feel any kind of emotion for him by tampering with Hector's character. In the end we are left wondering why he cries after meeting Priam? It's true that he is moved by Priam in the Iliad, but in the movie it seems almost tagged on as an attempt to create a three-dimensional character where one does not exist.

Troy includes a time period that encompases a much larger mythology than that which is just in the Iliad, hence it is fair for me to criticize the movie for failing to deliver on either accuracy or just plain thematic issues. This, for me, causes the movie to fall flat on its face in many instances because it tries to create too many sypathetic characters. The victors are the evil Greeks (or so the movie makes us feel), but the majority of the movie is told from their point of view from "good" characters. It creates a dissonance in the point of view of the movie, that causes us to be confused. Should we cheer when Achilles is triumphant? Or when Odysseus comes up with the brilliant plan?

Things that pissed me off - completely ignoring the whole doomed Atreus family thing. Instead of having the Battle at Thessaly, why not show more about Paris and Helen falling in love, indeed the whole predestination about it? What happened to Paris' sister (forgot her name) and her premonitions? She's not even in the movie. Where are the Gods and Goddesses? Where, indeed, is Aphrodite and Athena (and the other Goddess) with the apple that sparks Paris' interest in Helen in the first place?

Basically, for me, they ripped out the magic of the story, the sense of wonder and the heavy presence of the Gods that always permeate Greek mythology. What they replaced it with was a concentration on Achilles and... well who cares about the rest of the characters, the movie certainly doesn't. The introduction states that Achilles threatens the newly forged Greek nation that Agammemnon has forged... how exactly does he threaten it? He leads only the Myrmadons (sp.) and it's clear that he is not sought for council. Indeed, he is basically used as the champion of the Greeks in combat.

It's a long movie, but there are too many battles that are take too much time, I think. When we are in Troy, the scenes are often in the same throne room with the people sitting in the place, or on the ramparts looking down. The only Trojan character even marginally focused on is Hector - wait what about his cousin! That's right, she's even more important cause she's screwing Achilles. Everything is about Achilles and to be frank, it pissed me off, because the best parts of the movie involved Hector and Priam. In fact, the movie doesn't even deal with Paris and Helen (remember her?) at the end. Helen escapes into the countryside, and Paris? I guess he escapes too. I know let's throw Aeneas at the end for no good reason! The movie tries to bring the mythology in haphazardly or just ignores it completely.

Why not focus a little on Paris and Helen? This whole war is supposed to be fought on account of them. The face that launched a thousand ships... the movie marginalizes them and reduces them to inconsequence.

Okay, it's "inspired" by the Iliad. And there are several parts of it which I thought would work under the context that this is a realistic imagining of the actual events of the Trojan War, i.e. the manner in which Achilles' heel figures in his death - it is easy from that perspective to imagine how the whole invulnerability except on his heel thing stemmed from. Also the plague that afflicts the Achaens. .

Even taking that as the beginning premise, and supposing that the screenwriter is trying to create a more authentic version, one that is more believable version, why make some truly bizarre changes?

1. The war lasts 10 years in the poem. It only lasts 2 weeks in this movie. Considering even mythological hyperbole, how could one correlate to the other. They could have easily have made the war last a year or so to make there be a sense that there is an epic siege going on.

2. Changes to Achilles character - he is not cruel enough i.e. he doesn't sacrifice 12 Trojan men at Patroclus' funeral. Achilles dies outside the walls of Troy in the poem, and is not involved in the Wooden Horse. Why change this?

3. Agammemnon does not die in Troy. Why change this? I was pleased with his character overall, however, since he's as deliciously malicious and subtle as he's supposed to be.

4. The resolution of Helen and Paris, and also Menelaus.

5. The changes made to Hector's character, i.e. his foolhardy recklessness that costs his life in the end, the cruelty he shows in his victims (including Patroclus), his cowardice in running from Ajax twice (whom he kills in the movie the first time he meets him), his cowardice in running from Achilles, and then his ultimate bravery in finally facing him even when he knows that everyone has abandoned him. Hector is a complicated character, but the movie basically makes him into a stereotypical "fight for my country" person. These changes in Hector mean that you have no real empathy for Achilles when he kills Hector because you feel as if Hector is the real hero.


I have a lot of gripes with this movie, as you can see. I'm sure I have some things wrong, but basically I don't like this movie because it has no real heart or magic, something that Jason and the Argonauts or Clash of the Titans have.


Oh, and the music was pure shite. James Horner should stand in the corner with a dunces hat for that stinking pile of excrement. BOOM BOOM BLARE BLARE, some drums and horns should be enough for this movie! ~sigh~


Phewph! That's a lot of ctrl-c and ctrl-v-ing. ; )

Heya Wendy!

[Apoc]

Damn man...you REALLY didn't like it did you? hehe

But I shall defend this one for I really liked it and can't simply sit by and let you dissuade some people here into going, "meh, munkey said it was shite, I'll see Van Helsing instead.."

Troy in my opinion is the film of the year so far, in a year with no lotr to wait at christmas it was a joy to see an epic like this one now, for there will be no other till Oliver Stones Alexander is released.

I guess you didn't see any of the news or buzz before the film was released, but it already said that it was "loosley" based on homers Iliad but more based on historical findings, like Agamemnons decision to going to war was to gain entrance to the Agian through Ilium which was considered the impregnable gateway, not for Helen.

I thought Wolfgang Peterson wasn't the right director for it and at some moments it showed, but the movie had so many resources he just couldn't fck it up, and with the effects being pretty damn spectacular and the cast perfect in my opinion it was brilliant.

Obviously the movie couldn't cover the whole siege, it would be like twelve hours long if it did, the same applies for all the characters missing. If the gods were to be included, damn the movie would never end and just be highly complicated to the unknowledgable viewer who happens to mainly be the films target audience.

My friends are still annoying me with lines like, "which one was that Hector guy", or "Brad Pitt, he's Trojan isn't he?" arghhhhh

If the film was to be the Iliad, I think it would have been called the Iliad and ended at the games for a certain main chars death, and began in the tenth year of the war.

So, stop the knitpicking, it was just a movie...and it was a good movie. As far as I can see your just upset because you had misconceptions of what you were going to view. :p

I agree with you though on most parts except for the fact that the movie was bad, for it was most certainly not. No gods-meh, No Ajax son of Telamon-meh, no Diomedes-prepostrous but fair enough, for there being no Ares he was hardly needed, No ten years-whatever, I guess at least we didn't have to see Agamemnon on crutches.

What we have though is-the ships-yay, Ilium-yay, Achilles-yay, Hector-yay and the best moments from Homers Iliad also like the Patroclus leading the Myrmidons and of course the battles-yay

meh, I'll stop now, my point is, though it wasn't like the book, it still kicked ass as a film.

An answer also ;) Hera was the one who began the contest with the apple between Aphrodite and Athena. ;)

[Munky]

Just on reading the first paragraph, I just want to say that Van Helsing gets a horror-inducing (pun intended) 0/5. At least Troy got a 3/5 for the entertainment value of the battles.

[Munky]

LOL, I guess in the end I'm more upset at it because it was just entertaining. It didn't have the same effect on me as, say, the charge of the Rohan at Pellanor Field, where I could feel my chest rising and I wanted to find a horse and join in. There were some notable scenes, but all too often they were ruined by the horrendous score. The music was really something else. I've never known James Horner to do something so bad in my life. The scene that most exemplifies the crapness of the score is when the Trojans are winning on the first day of the siege and are pushing the Greeks back. Just listen to it, anyone who hasn't seen it, or is going to see it, and notice how it totally ruins the moment (as my girlfriend would say, heh).

I suppose I did have some preconceptions as to what the movie would be like, but I did also read a few reviews, and noticed that they were bandying the word "loosely" often. I just don't understand why they would leave out the complexities of some characters, and try and make some characters into something they aren't. Why invent new scenes, and leave others completely out? It was a long movie, they had the time. They just decided not to. Didn't you think that the whole Helen running away with Paris thing was quite second rate? I still don't understand the idea of having the Thessaly thing. Also, introducing the idea of countries. Troy was not a country. It was a city-state. Stop confusing people!

The fight between Hector and Achilles was very well done though, as were most of the battle sequances, although I would have liked to have seen some real Greek fighting methods being shown (you know, the whole threshing idea they introduced, etc...). I'm happy they didn't have stirrups on the horses (yes, I looked), but why did the Trojan helmets have to look so dumb. I hope that's only because that's the style they actually used. lol.

Also the Greeks looked very persian in the armour, I thought. Only Achilles appeared to be wearing traditional armour seen on pottery. Again, hopefully this is because that is what they actually wore (my friend would know all this stuff).

And was it just me who wondered why everyone stopped fighting to see Hector fight Patroclus... considering the size of the army and the length of the beach? Most of those wouldn't have been able to see after the first three rows of soldiers anyway. lol

So it's not all doom and gloom. It's definately the best movie out this week. I'm looking forward to Alexander too, but Troy was a definate disappointment thus far. I haven't watched too many movies this year, so I couldn't really pitch it against anything. Yet.

Still, everyone should watch Troy themselves and make their own opinions.

[dark fuschia]

Blinkin hell! That's the longest movie review I've ever seen Munky! Umm forgive me, but I skimmed it right up to the "Heya wendy" part :D I rather liked Van Helsing, twas inordinately silly of course, would have liked it more as a kid, but then, as a kid it would have been too scary for me. But all the combined charisma of its stars carried it through if you ask me, Hugh, Kate, the Duke guy from moulin rouge and Faramir; it looked like they were having the time of their life while making that film and it carried over to save the mish mash plot and overused special effects from complete and utter doom.

Personally I can't wait for Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkahbahn!!!

[Anita Blake]

oooh, i hated the guy who played dracula in van helsing! he was cornier than corn, not at all spooky, he reminded me too much of the guy from Kids in the Hall, which made me think gay comedy sketches, which pulled me out of the movie just a little.

but i am also looking forward to harry potter! :D :D

[dark fuschia]

he was cornier than cornD

hehe I think thats why I liked him!! :D Sometimes I am a huge fan of over the top. But yeah the movie wasn't spooky at all.

And Malcor... i found the split screens in The Hulk amusing too, but I thought that was a plus, I love being amused! Plus there were so many great lines in that film.

"Don't you know that manuipulating the human immune system is STUPID and DANGEROUS?"

and

"Bad science maybe, but personally gratifying."

Heh I love that sorta stuff!!! I laughed so much in that movie it was great!!! And yet I actually cared about the characters... its been so long since I cared about characters in a movie. I think the last time was Harry Potter. Even "Two Towers" and "Return of the King" didn't make me care much. I always feel too detached from the story.

[Buck]

Where to begin....


Van Helsing wasnt supposed to be a scary film. It was an action movie, based loosely off of the original film. The movie had more humour than horror. I loved it! And yes, kate beckinsale is in a corset :blush: It was over the top cheesy and that was its saving grace imo.


Troy on the other hand *scoffs* I refuse to see it and reading the reviews confirms my antagonism. I am deeply offended by the fact that they cut the gods out. The Illiad is not about achilles. It is about the gods and how they plot and scheme and interfere with the mortals. That is so deeply part of the story that taking it out, defaces it. And making the war last for two weeks!?!?! WHAT WHAT WHAT?!?! Gah! Munky is doing a good enough job (Hey munky---welcome to the quill!!!) where I dont need to drone on. But let it be known that I miffed and not am I only miffed at Troy I am U133r miffed!

*grumbles*

[dark fuschia]

OMG! They made it last only two weeks?

ROTFLMAO!!!! oh that's rich!! thats the funniest thing I've heard in a while!! My stomach hurts. :toussel: :)

I've only read The Odyssey, but I know that would lose ALOT without the influence of Neptune. SO I guess it would be similar with The Illiad. But hey I haven't seen it yet, and now I'm not so sure if I want to... not because of anything anyone's said here but because I read in a review that it's "Like Gladiator but without the emotional depth" And since I think Gladiator had the emotional depth of a tube of toothpaste not to mention being quite a wank of a film (exceeded only by Braveheart in the wanky film arena)... it really scared me right off Troy...

[Buck]

Hey say anything you want about gladiator...but dont mess with braveheart :cry:


freeeeeeeeeeeeedom!!!

[Jennifer]

I've never been a huge history lover, but I DO adore mythology and all the things I've been hearing about Troy have disappointed me very much. I don't think I'll see it any time soon, although I may rent it in the future. The same sort of thing is happening with the King Arthur movie coming out in July. It's being produced by Bruckheimer! Gimme a break! Of course there are so many different versions of the Arthur legend that no one will know any better, but I can just see the over the topness of the movie now. :rolleyes:

[Anita Blake]

the thing you have to remember about Troy is this: It's "Troy" not "The Illiad". It's all about achilles, and not much else.


oh, and yeah, i know van helsin was meant to be funny, but i still hated the guy who played dracula. He just looked funny. Not at all what dracula should look like, which is darkly handsome and sensual (or else a very talkative, yet sleekly sexy, black cat who chews through cables) . That guy looked like a dracula-clown. :rolleyes:

[dark fuschia]

heh well he definately wasn't as good as Gary Oldman in "Bram Stoker's Dracula". He was a great dracula! No one can combine sexy and grotesque like that man!

[Dregs]

Or evil and camp, for that matter.

[Munky]

Heh, so I'm not the only one who didn't like it.

Van Helsing was virtually destroyed by the ending - Dracula turned out to be a complete pussy, he didn't even try and look for the antidote he'd created "just in case" cause if you remember, he doesn't know that it's be stolen, and did they have to show Kate in the sky at the end. I yelled out, "Simba, you must return to your home!" which got a good laugh.

[Tatum]

Hmm, I liked Troy. But to be fair its been a loooooong time since I've read The Illiad and so I didn't know enough to be offended. :D To me, it was just an entertaining movie. I was happy with the fact that they didn't dwell too much on special effects but spent more time on the storyline. I know I know, from what I've read of your reviews they cut most of the actual story out but lets face it, this was already an almost 3 hour movie, I can't imagine how long it would've been if they'd actually tried to tackle the real, full story. *shrugs* I don't know, movies are movies, they are almost never as good as the book. If you go in with preconceived notions you will almost always be disappointed.

In other news, I'm REALLY looking forward to The Day After Tomorrow. And I'm Really REALLY REALLY looking forward to the next Harry Potter. :D

[Apoc]

the thing you have to remember about Troy is this: It's "Troy" not "The Illiad". It's all about achilles, and not much else.


If the film was to be the Iliad, I think it would have been called the Iliad and ended at the games for a certain main chars death, and began in the tenth year of the war.

yay someone agrees with me, almost spookily the same aswell..yay

great minds think alike

And one other thing to all you knitpickers who are critizising the movie for not being The Iliad and not accurate...you could at least spell it right...Iliad only has one L not two, so :p

[Munky]

Heh, I did spell it with one "l" so nyah!

I suspect the girlies like the movie because Brad only occasionaly deigns to wear clothing.

[Malcor Sylverwood]

great minds think alike
Fools seldom differ
Van Helsing was cheezy...but in a good way!

~flees~

-Malcor ":D" Sylverwood

[Munky]

Van Helsing wasn't even cheesey. That I could live with. Instead, we had to deal with poor cliches and rubbish action sequences. Anyone else just see that horse jumping over the bridge thing and just think, "huh?"

The thing is that, barring Igor, the movie took itself too seriously. WAY too seriously. If it was like the Mummy with Hugh Jackman being more funny, then it would have been great. But it wasn't. He's utterly serious all the way through, and they end it with a "holy" scene of the family ascending to heaven. /sigh give me a break! it didn't play the cheesey card correctly and so ended up being stupid.

[Malcor Sylverwood]

Even in cheese, you need a straight guy...or something reasonably so--O'connell (sp?) played a good deal of the Mummy straight faced and serious. ~shrugs~ I'm not saying its great art, but it worked well enough for me.

Besides, my main point was to get in the fools seldom differ comment

-Malcor ";)" Sylverwood

[Tatum]

Heh, I did spell it with one "l" so nyah!

I suspect the girlies like the movie because Brad only occasionaly deigns to wear clothing.


OH YEAH!! His butt was all over that screen. And what a nice butt it was. *sigh*

[Apoc]

so--O'connell (sp?) played a good deal of the Mummy

Brendan Fraser you mean
:p
Not Jerry O'Connell

Apoc"smartass"Alypse ;)

[Tatum]

Wait, wasn't Brendan Frasiers name "O'Connell" in the movie?

[Amelia]

I went to the movies and we saw Laws of Attraction. It was going to start in 5 min. I really wanted to see Van Helsing but she didnt want to wait an extra 15 min for the movie to start...........my friend hates sitting in a movie theatre waiting for the movie to start, I suspect she hates watching trailers. Its a contest to see how close we can get there before the movie starts. Anyway I want to go see Van Helsing to see if I want to dress up as Kate Beckinsales character for Halloween.

[Apoc]

Wait, wasn't Brendan Frasiers name "O'Connell" in the movie?

d'oh

~puts on dunces hat and sits in the corner~
:(
~will never be a smartass again~

[Malcor Sylverwood]

~pats Apoc on the back~

Hang in there, slugger...you'll get another shot at the big leagues...

;)

-Malcor "Coach" Sylverwood

[Munky]

LOL, yeah, don't sweat it Apoc, Tates was always a heartbreaker.

And I contend that O'Connell was a funny character in both Mummy movies, simply because he was so sarcastic, and gave really funny looks. Hugh Jackman is capable of doing the same (see: X men + X2) but obviously was told not to.

[sir archely]

i haven't seen troy, but i think it's funny (and stupid) that whoever made it decided to move away from the story that's been around for thousands of years. yeah, do that. :rolleyes:

~promptly forgets all about Troy in a week~

[Tenaka]

i got the feeling that when they did Troy, they tried to make it as it would have been (as in a real war), and ignore the things that have been expanded on over the years (gods, ten year war etc etc)

[Munky]

Like I said, if they were trying to make a realistic version of the Siege of Troy, then how would 2 weeks of fighting translate into a grandiose "Ten YEar War!" in the Iliad?
The Achilles heel thing was a good idea though. :)

[dark fuschia]

I had something important to say..

oh yeah Munky you always do that you bad film heckler! LOL ever since I've known you, you yell stupid stuff at movies!! You bad bad bad munky!! Don't you know that's RUDE and ruins the mood for people immersed in the movie. I liked her face appearing in the sky at the end, that was nice, the whole point of the movie was for her family to gain salvation, so it wasn't out of place.

Also when you write spoilers use the spoiler text [spoiler ] text [/spoiler ] kay? Amelia hasn't seen it yet.

PS SCREW YOU!! I just checked chat, you appeared in chat while I was writing this and left while I was typing you hello. You couldn't even wait 2 minutes for your wendy? I am sorry but we are no longer on speaking terms!

:furious:

[Munky]

LOL, I checked here as well, and you weren't done, I guess. ~mutters~ slow typer...

And it was bloody 4:40 in the morning! I was tired.

And I shall use spoiler tags from now on. :) But you know me - I may be able to hack Simon's computer, but I am absolutely clueless when it comes to using tags.

[dark fuschia]

well I guess if it was 4:40... :)

and shh, don't let everyone know your a hacker, as soon as anyone gets popups it will be all "WAAAH Munky hacked my computer I know it was him cos he was ONLINE when it happened and everyone knows he's a demonish fiend with amazing computer skills."

Or maybe it will just be the dumbasses... of which there are none here :D *grins joyously and hugs the Quill*

[sir archely]

i got the feeling that when they did Troy, they tried to make it as it would have been (as in a real war), and ignore the things that have been expanded on over the years (gods, ten year war etc etc)
yeah, that's my point. but i can understand why they did it, cause clearly what's intriguing and captivating about the story is the war, not the relationships between the people and the gods etc. pft.

[Dregs]

I can see this whole Troy debate being played out in the many cardigan wearing circles around the world....

[Tatum]

I saw Shrek II tonight. HAHAHA! Very funny. I'd say it was as good if not better than the first. I loved it. The rip on Disney stories was hilarious and Antonio Banderas as Puss N Boots was great. The dialogue was definitely adult humor (much like the first) but it was still silly enough for kids to love.

[dark fuschia]

I saw Shrek II tonight. HAHAHA! Very funny. I'd say it was as good if not better than the first. I loved it. The rip on Disney stories was hilarious and Antonio Banderas as Puss N Boots was great. The dialogue was definitely adult humor (much like the first) but it was still silly enough for kids to love.

*suddenly can't shake an image of all the fine quill gentlemen wearing cardigans and smoking pipes in a grand old English countryhouse*

heh Dregs even you are there with your sideburns! But while everyone is trying to talk about Troy you keep interjecting in a posh brit accent (while waving your pipe expressively) "That is all well and good gentlemen, but what about the desert quolls?"