What Movie Did You Just Watch? - Forever

[Goliath]

Cinderella Man

It got me very involved, it had a lot of excitement, it had me entertained all the way through, and I was at the edge of my seat during the fight scenes.

But, about 5 minutes after the film's end (and also even during the film), I realised what a standard, conservative film it really is. It uses many clichés to engage its audience (type of filming, the over-sentimental music, the way it's cut), it's all very routine, really. Just another 'underdog fights back'-film. I saw nothing new.

[Lazario]

Not as great as I remember it being. One thing has really hurt this movie, the way I look at CGI / live action movie hybrids and the way people react to the animated creatures looks fake. When re-watching Mary Poppins, this wasn't a problem. Disney were once very careful about that kind of thing. And Roger Rabbit is the fork in the road. We get both here. The scene where Eddie goes to the club is the worst example of this. There is a huge off-time between Eddie and the gorilla guard. Takes him way too long to say, "nice monkey suit!" The other problem I had was during the Daffy/Donald stage act. Mostly the peoples' reaction to the octopus bartender didn't fit with the image of the octopus and the look on Eddie's face was way too dramatic for something everyone knew couldn't possibly hurt the audience members (the canon Donald blasted Daffy with). Especially not in our current times, when you know how careful business owners are with the safety of their audiences.

But it works much better when it's Roger or Jessica interacting with Eddie. There's more careful attention to detail here. Probably because these are actors and not just extras. Once it does get going, the scene where Roger looks at the "paddy-cake" pictures- it's a really good movie. I'm not sure whether the fact that you see people and toons being graphically murdered is appropriate for families (or whether I want to see that cute little squeaky shoe tortured to death), but I liked the reality of Eddie and Deloris's characters. Both actors are wonderful in this movie. It all rests and falls on their shoulders. As well as how easy it is to tolerate Roger. Surprisingly- given how obnoxious he is, Roger is a very likable character.

[BelleGirl]

Harry Potter and the half-blood prince

A good spellbinding movie. I even let out some tears when Dumbledorewas killed. That was the first time this happened to me watching a HP-movie!

The HP movies are getting more and more mature while their leading characters grow up. Quite logical, if you think of it.

[GloomyEeyore]

Last night I watched National Lampoon's Vacation.

[Brer Brandon]

Duck Tales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp

[ajmrowland]

Coraline- yet another stop-motion classic. This is, perhaps, more frightening than many horror films of recent years.

[Goliath]

For a few dollars more

Second installment of the Sergio Leone-trilogy. Not as good as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but still much better than most westerns. I particularly enjoy the performances of Eastwood and Van Cleef and of course Morricone's unforgettable musical score.

[Lazario]

Stylistically- this film still holds up. It's incredible to look at and has a great hazy, dreamlike quality (especially in the school cafeteria where it looks like everyone's swimming in 2nd-hand smoke). Which of course makes it one of the only teen black comedies to try to use fantasy to bring up some of the dark elements. Unfortunately though, this film's lost most of its' edge. You can really see this during (Kim Walker) Heather Chandler's scenes. It's like she just learned to swear. She doesn't pull off that feeling that she's high above everyone else and tired of high school. She can scowl, that's pretty much it. The dialogue, especially from her, is a little embarrassing. What does, "if you're openly going to be a bitch" even mean- anyway? This movie and Jawbreaker also forgot to do 2 crucial things: if you play up your clique as ruling the school- you need to show scenes of the other kids worshipping them. At Westerberg, everyone just ignores Heather Chandler. So, how does her "they all want me" speech work at all?

But- if there's one thing about this movie that holds up beautifully, it's Shannen Doherty. Yeah, Winona Ryder and Christian Slater are great, especially together, everyone knows that. But Shannen's performance is perfect. Which of course leads me to believe she's totally delusional in real life. That she really believed she was being given the power to control others and was a Megabitch goddess type. But her transformation is complete effective and it works (unlike Vylette in Jawbreaker- who, even as Fern, was always vacant and cheerleader-like). Making a movie like Heathers today would be impossible. Mostly because - nobody cares about anything, especially social issues anymore. Anyone noticed that all the social issues these days revolve around money and jobs? The Heathers would have to be 3 truck drivers named Bob or Joey or something. And if any scenes took place in a high school, the students would all have to be singing and dancing or something.






Still holds up brilliantly after all these years. And was never given proper credit by critics (who can as a bunch often be incredibly short-sighted and stupid). One of John Waters' most controlled films and single-handedly his smartest. The ultra-glossy, polished look of this film keeps it shocking and subversive even today in the face of dozens of 'hardcore' Hollywood star vehicles. Takes no prisoners and intelligently points the finger at everyone. If there's one flaw, it's that it's just a little weird or gross at times. Still to this day, I cannot understand Waters' obsession with straight porn. Even if it represents something- the desire for a gay person to want to watch it is always going to be bizarre. The worst part really is the church baby bit. That was just way too gross. Who finds that kind of thing appealing? Even as a kid, that kind of thing made me gag.






Smart and thoughtful, but also manipulative and depressing. In the end, you just have to wonder what this movie's really saying. And- was it worth it? Serial Mom felt like a much better and more honest representation of the hypocrasy of both the right and the left. This movie jumps way too fast into gleeful murder and the audience are the only ones with any "isn't this supposed to be wrong?" It's hard to follow a movie down a path like that. This really would have worked a lot better if they cut out the murder and just had the discussions. Or- extended them. But the cast are great, the writing is thorough enough, and artistically- it's so dark and nasty that it's given me the willies for years since I first saw it. It's funny given how big a horror fan I am that this is the kind of movie that still genuinely creeps me out. This is more disturbing than a thousand Saws and Hostels. Cameron Diaz (who I've always underrated) is especially good here.

[Lazario]

The horror genre is officially dead and buried. All that's left to do is make floral arrangements and buy a really nice headstone. It deserves at least that much.

Splinter begat a flurry of positive buzz and good word of mouth earlier this year. But it's not a horror film. Horror has become about action, crime, and "thrilling," boring cliched survival situations that it's ceased to be horrific. A couple celebrating their anniversary have their car hijacked by a couple of drug criminals who kidnap them and take them to a convenience store and are then trapped inside by dead bodies infected with a monster parasite that tries to snatch at them.

The only horror in this movie is blood and gore which you can still see abundantly in action films like Total Recall and war films like Saving Private Ryan. How is that horror? How is anything in this film horror? There's no atmosphere, there's no style, shaky "combat footage" camera, the characters are all boring Thriller and Action movie cliches... It's pure formula. It's pure boredom. If you want action thrills- you may get them here. If you want the new great hope of the horror genre, you won't find that here.

"Realism" has transformed the genre into 2nd rate action. Or, maybe it's 1st rate because I'm sure the action crowd are getting more out of stuff like this than stuff like X-Men. What do the Sci-Fi Fantasy crowd think?

[PixarFan2006]

Coraline (Tuesday Night)- Another great stop-motion film from Henry Selick.

National Lampoon's Vacation (Thursday Night) - A pretty funny comedy, though there are a few unpleasant moments.

[JiminyCrick91]

National Lampoon's Vacation (Thursday Night) - A pretty funny comedy, though there are a few unpleasant moments.

Unpleasant? What do you mean?


*BANG*

Roll 'em up.



-Sky

[Lazario]

National Lampoon's Vacation (Thursday Night) - A pretty funny comedy, though there are a few unpleasant moments.

Unpleasant? What do you mean?

*BANG*

Roll 'em up.

I second that. "Unpleasent"? Like the urine sandwiches? That's the only thing that was overbearingly unpleasent and I got over it pretty quick. The unpleasentness adds to the humor. And there's a lot of humor there!

[Goliath]

Requiem for a dream

Watched it for the fourth or fifth time. Still makes a huge impact every time. Leaves me feeling intensely sad, but what a great experience!

[JiminyCrick91]

I second that. "Unpleasent"? Like the urine sandwiches? That's the only thing that was overbearingly unpleasent and I got over it pretty quick. The unpleasentness adds to the humor. And there's a lot of humor there!

Well, to be honest jokes about Eddie's incest with his daughter and Aunt Edna tied to the roof are not really the happiest of things to think about in most contexts....... although I'd argue that in that film it works exquisitely....ok the incest joke was a bit too much but all else is comic bliss.

-Sky

[TheSequelOfDisney]

Ratatouille

It was much better than I remembered (a great leap above the Cars disaster). I forgot how funny some parts were and I don't know why it took me so long to rewatch this film

[Lazario]

I second that. "Unpleasent"? Like the urine sandwiches? That's the only thing that was overbearingly unpleasent and I got over it pretty quick. The unpleasentness adds to the humor. And there's a lot of humor there!

Well, to be honest jokes about Eddie's incest with his daughter and Aunt Edna tied to the roof are not really the happiest of things to think about in most contexts....... although I'd argue that in that film it works exquisitely....ok the incest joke was a bit too much but all else is comic bliss.

You mean the "kissing" thing?

[Lazario]

Ratatouille

It was much better than I remembered (a great leap above the Cars disaster).

I completely agree. Cars was an utter disaster.



A blast from my past:





As a kid, I think I was disappointed by this. As an adult- I had a ball! To say this is not typically the way you tell a fairy tale would be putting it mildly. This entry in Shelley Duvall's (who looks great as a blonde) Fairy Tale Theater is hilarious and downright strange.

This takes place before cabins in the woods had electricity- yet when her clothes get wrinkled, (little red riding hood) Mary's mother uses an electric iron to fix them up. Also, when planning her birthday party, Mary's mother pulls out Streamer samples (I doubt those had been invented then either). The wolf reads a self-help book. The father is a gas, too. When Mary's party only has 2 people there, his reason for being angry is that he's stuck being "the life of the party." Trust me, it's funny when you see it. And- I haven't even gotten to Grandma yet! When Mary knocks on her door, she shouts: "I'm naked!" Then, while having her heart-to-heart talk with Mary, she's pounding walnuts on the table and pieces are hitting Mary right in the face. A minute later, she tells Mary to "put the walnuts away; I think I'm going to throw up."

[zackisthewalrus]

Yesterday, I watched most of Melody Time. My friend was over, and he said that during the Johnny Appleseed scene, it sounds like he's saying "The lard is good to me," so we went back and looked at it. It does. Haha. We ended up watching the rest of the film. It's a good film. I really like the package features from the 40s, and I think they should be restored and released unedited through Walt Disney Treasures.

[zackisthewalrus]

RENT: Filmed Live on Broadway - I've been in a RENT mood since last night, so I decided to watch this. It's so very good! I love it!

[Goliath]

A fost sau n-a fost?

Mild comedy from Romania. I don't know if this is an actual parody of Romanian television, but I thought it was very funny. A 'journalist' of a local tv station wants to make a program about the revolution in 1989 that led to the flight of Ceaucescu, but ends up with a boring eldery man and a drunk as his guests and too much time to fill.