Recently watched movies!

[king_ghidorah]

I too like the concept of an insect based vampire...

[Destroysall]

Shenandoah

Great movie! Jimmy is such a brilliant actor!

[MouthForWar]

127 Hours- BOOOOOORING. A cheap exploitation film that could have easily come out of the 70s. Only since its based on a true story and glammed up by the pretentious Danny Boyle, critics are going ga ga over it. An hour and a half of a guy under a rock, leading to a bloody climax. That's literally all this is. Its boring. Its not uplifting, or an "ode to the human spirit" or whatever people are calling it. That's not what this is. Its an exploitation/survival horror movie, and a BORING one at that (did I mention that its boring?) And James Franco, while VERY good in the role, is hardly as Oscar worthy as they say (and I LIKE Franco). Also has a really bad cameo by Scooby Doo that took me out of the film entirely (no, I'm not making that up).

True Grit- The Coens deliver another solid film. An unapologetically conventional genre film that nails all the cliches and tropes of the Western with ease and class, yet manages to be incredibly entertaining as well. Also has great performances all around. Jeff Bridges owns this role way more than John Wayne did in the original. Not the epic I was hoping for and not quite as good as I wanted it to be, but still probably one of the better movies of the year.

The Fighter- Just awesome. Wahlberg is good, but he's kinda playing himself as usual. Bale totally steals the show and if he doesn't get an Oscar nom, then something is SERIOUSLY wrong here. Def. one of the best of the year.

Bamboozled- Spike Lee is very hit and miss with me, not only with his films, but his politics as well. This movie is somewhere in the middle. It has a lot of great observations on race and the ways of the media (as well as a couple feeble ones), but it just wasn't all that entertaining at the end. Could have lost about a half hour, but not a bad film at all. Its about a guy who comes up with the most tasteless, racist show imaginable in order to get fired from the network, but it becomes the most watched show in America. It had me wondering if shows like Jersey Shore were a similar failed experiment.

[Dagarah72]

Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl - Japanese gore flick that's over-the-top and way silly, but fun nonetheless. If you enjoyed Tokyo Gore Police then you'll enjoy this.

Tokyo Zombie - This was a decent zombie movie, about 2 buddies who are going about their routine and practicing jujitsu amid a zombie outbreak. The story then changes from the usual heroes trying to survive a zombie invasion to one of the character's life as a jujitsu fighter. It was funny enough and different enough to be entertaining.

The Runnaways - The biopic of the 70's all punk band that kick-started Joan Jett's career. It was a decent film and Kristen Stewart was pretty good as Joan Jett. She showed that she has potential to be more than just the dull bimbo in the Twilight movies.


Ricky

[DannyBeane]

After awaking from a Nyquil induced coma I decided to tackle some of the movies that Netflix was going to remove from my instant queue.

Cool Hand Luke was an awesome story with lots of humor. Paul Newman was amazing.

THX1138. Honestly I fell asleep halfway through this. The visuals were amazing for their time but I felt the story was a little too Hard Scifi for my tastes and so I plunged into coma part 2. I'll finish the rest of the film after I get back from the gym.

[Green Dragon]

[DannyBeane]

[Green Dragon]

[MouthForWar]

[MekaGojira3k]

[canofhumdingers]

[MouthForWar]

[canofhumdingers]

True Grit - The new one. Was very good. I'm ashamed to admit I've never seen the original, but I plan on remedy-ing that soon.

Gamera vs. Gyaos - with the exception of the first and Zigra, I'd never watched any showa Gamera films before Shout! Factory stepped up to the plate. I've been watching them in order & I've got to say this one was by far the best so far. The first two were okay, but this was the first to be on the verge of deserving to be called "good". I think the fact that it felt the most similar to its contemporary Toho films (from '64 & '65) of any Gamera film yet really helped it in my eyes.

[king_ghidorah]

[jellydonut25]

[Green Dragon]

[lhb412]

The Cocoanuts

The very, very first Marx Brothers movie is an early sound picture from the late '20s and an adaptation of their broadway hit - and it's pretty rough. They were really getting the hang of this new technology and it shows; also, the romantic subplot that moves the plot along is so trite you roll your eyes each time it appears on screen - luckily the Marx Brothers seem to rebel against the plot with long stretches of time devoted just to their comedy.

It's not a great picture, but it's got loads of funny bits and gives a hint at what's to come.

[lhb412]

Animal Crackers

The Marx's second film (also based on one of their Broadway shows) is a vast improvement. Not only is the production more used to making sound pictures, but the play itself is much better. The first third of the movie has about as many gags as the Cocoanuts had in its entire runtime... but it still feels a bit confined, a filmed stage play, but then with-

Monkey Business

- the Marx Brothers movies are in full swing, all systems go! This is such a great film: the four brothers are stowaways on a fancy ocean liner and once their hiding place is compromised they run wild (i.e. rampage) through the ship, humiliating the staff at every turn and quite accidentally getting involved with some mafia types.

Horse Feathers

In this one Groucho is president of a college and accidentally drafts Harpo and Chico into the football team. Madness, sheer brilliant madness, ensues.

Duck Soup

The greatest Marx Brothers film ever made, heck, on the greatest films ever made. Groucho rules the country of Freedonia and Harpo and Chico are spies from enemy state. It took a few decades for people to really get this one as many Depression-era audiences weren't amused by the mockery they make of society (which apparently some people take very seriously) in this one.

A Night at the Opera

Yeah, I watched it a few weeks ago - but it was on!

[Destroysall]

Pay It Forward

This was a really good movie. I enjoyed the story, could have been somewhat better along with some of the acting, but still very good.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

Harryhausen is the best!!! I love this movie!

The Rescuers

Brought back memories. I'm going to start watching a bunch of the old Disney Cartoons, Jungle Book is next.

[heroforhirerob]

Sorcerer's Apprentice-Better than I thought it'd be. Nick Cage is actually okay in this...and Alfred Molina adds some class to the proceedings.

All three Lord of the Rings movies: These are still good...even years later. Only bad thing I can say is that the extended scenes (I have the director's cuts) don't add much to the original releases....in other words...there was a good reason those scenes got chopped originally. The Eowyn side romance also seemed a bit pointless...as Aragorn was already attached to Arwyn. Beyond that...pretty good. The music is pretty terrific.

[The Shadow]

The Sorcerer's Apprentice was a fun movie, I watched it at the theater this past summer. Disney could do pretty well with a sequel or two.

Just watched Pride of the Yankees and Tammy and the Batchelor on TCM; both are great movies.

[Green Dragon]

Saw True Grit earlier tonight. Beautiful production, amazing performances....Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper......and Hailee Steinfeld was just brilliant, her performance as Mattie Ross dominates the movie, she deserves an Oscar nomination, and I generally never say that. Rich dialogue, true to the book, everything you'd expect from a Coen Brothers movie: stark, majestic imagery, great music, quirky (a little less than usual) humor combined with sudden brutality. Nowhere as haunting and overpowering as No Country For Old Men, but that doesn't make this movie any less than it is, and I already want to see it again.

It took me a few moments to realize that the Undertaker is played by Jarlath Conroy, who we all know as Bill McDermott, the drinking Irish radio operator ("Jesus, Mary, Joseph!") from Romero's Day of the Dead.

[lhb412]

The Thin Man

One of the best movies ever made! Nick Charles (William Powell) is a former private eye who now manages the fortune of his young wife Nora (Myrna Loy). When they go to New York (Nick's old stomping grounds) they find a mystery surrounding a former client of Nick's as well as said client's eccentric family. Nick tries his damndest to stay out of the business while Nora wants excitement and to see her husband at work.

The main draw here (well, one of them) is the relationship between Nick and Nora: they're always trading witty comments and insults with each other, but the way they do it isn't mean, you can tell that they really love each other and that this is just the way the speak.

After the Thin Man

There are two ways to make a great sequel: take the story in a new direction or do more of the same - only much, much more.

This follows the later, with all the qualities people liked about the last film turned up to 11. Comedy? Much more comedy! Eccentrics! A whole load of kooky characters! Genuine dager? Much more threat of violence then in this first. It might collapse under it's own weight, but it doesn't, and while it follows a formula similar to the first it mixes things up just enough to be unique.


I got the complete Thin Man set for Christmas, pretty appropriate since the first movie starts during Christmas Eve and ends a few days after Christmas and the sequel is set only a few days later during New Years.

[Reaper G]

[lhb412]

^It seems to be a semi-regular tradition on TCM. I've read on the internet that some local stations decades ago used to show Marx Brothers movies on NYE - perhaps they're carrying on the tradition.


Another Thin Man

Set a year and some months after the last movie (considering Nora revealed she was pregnant at the end of the last movie and in this one Nick Jr. has his 1st birthday), Nick and Nora return to New York just as the man who manages their lumber and railway businesses is murdered. This is a very different sort of mystery than in the first two films, with a case that seems simple at first but is revealed to be much more complicated by the end.

Now that I'm watching these films in order I'm keeping in mind the general acceptance that each Thin Man film is less good than the last (the "law of diminishing returns"). It seems to me that these first three are all great. This one isn't quite as good as the first two, but it's still very good.