Good New

[viv1984viv]

Syrianna was very average, but I guess clooneys intention was to educate, and afterewards I did buy the book, See No Evil by Robert Baer, so I guess job done.

[airfrogusmc]

I agree Squid & the Whale is a very good movie.

Syriana I wouldn't call bad just disapointing. Good Night and Good Luck on the other hand was VERY GOOD....

Any on else see Off The Map?

[lil brown brother]

inside man was good ... i thought it would be crap

[cultpop 0217]

good night and good luck was great.

watched the life aquatic again recently and liked it alot more than i did in the theatre.

i saw the descent i few weeks ago and it scared the piss out of me. probably the best horror movie ive seen in ages. has one of the best scares in a movie hands down.

there is also a suprising amount of subtext and symbolism for a horror/thriller as well as some decent gore.

think the tension of alien/aliens in a cave with bits of i spit on your grave, predator, the shining and vintage carpenter all rolled up. if you see it though i recommend tracking the original ending down on you tube. the american ending is missing about a minute of very important footage.

[superdupersang]

the descent was a good scare.

but perhaps the monsters had too close a resemblence to golem

another film i liked was 13 blocks with bruce willis and mos def.

has everything i liked:

a tight story

and strong characters

perhaps the ending was a little too cute, maybe just left out the last 5 minutes

but hey thats hollywood.

also i loved wathcing a bittersweet life.

its a korean film .

what really stood out was the cinematography. sweet

also the fact that it was a simple story well told with little superfluous extras

[superdupersang]

oh yeah and orgazmo.

[dagsolo]

1. Midnight Run (IMO, the most underrated comedy, ever.)

2. Life is Beautiful (I can only hope to be this good of a father to my son)

3. 13th Warrior (Norsemen rule! hey-I grew up reading Thor comics)

4. Godfather 1 & 2 (#3 never happened)

5. Star Wars Original Trilogy (when I was 4, 7 and 10, these were the best movies ever.

I tried watching them recently and there's something missing...maybe it's the action figures...and McDonald's glasses..)

[Guest umhaha84]

Little Miss Sunshine

[Francis Begbie]

Anyone ever see the film Mindhunters? It came out in 2004 I think. LL Cool J, Sick Boy, and Christian Slater were in it. When people describe a movie as one of the worst they've ever seen, I usually think they're exagerating. But there is literally NOTHING redeemable about this one. The definition of trash. I was dissapointed because Sick Boy is great in Trainspotting. Oh well.

Anyone know where I can get La Haine for an American region DVD player? If not, do you know where online I could get it period. I need it shipped to America.

[stillthehorror]

Little Miss Sunshine

cosign.

also:

bukowski: born into this.

new york doll.

searching for the wrong-eyed jesus.

the squid and the whale (already mentioned, but it's fantastic).

transamerica.

winter passing.

i'm finally on break on school and i'm catching up on shit on dvd.

[viv1984viv]

Yes , goodnight and good luck is a terrific film, and what a time and climate in which to produce a film concerning the freedom of information and such, the best film ive seen since would be A Scanner Darkly, clooney produces linklater directs, bob downey jr is on top form, but the content of the story is fantastic, themes of social control and identity mixed up with philosophic and psychological refernces from phillip k dicks novel of the same name. certainly the best film ive seen for a long long time. The animation technique used (interpolated rotoscoping) should be the center of the film but the story and themes are far more fascinating.

[damnIam]

I saw a new movie called Sorry, Haters. Making any comment on it would ruin it however, it was, in my opinion very good.

Co-Sign on 'Searching for The Wrong Eyed Jesus". Being from North Florida I can definately attest to it's authenticity and although hard to watch at times, it was brutally honest.

[american_hearts]

just saw dogville a bit ago, saw someone mentioned it earlier in here. this really is a great one that i'd heard next-to-nothing about. it's stuck with me over the past week and i'm fiending to see mandalay next.

[birminghamjim]

the squid and the whale - though i wasn't there, this seemed at least to be a very accurate period piece, set in 80s NY. it deals with white middle class academic intellectual snobbery and self indulgent denial, and how this affects the realtionship between husband and wife, and parent and child. the characters are unflinchingly unpleasant and played by the actors extremely well. something about then film though made me think (possibly unfairly) that the writer/director, noah baumbach (writer of life aquatic and all round buddy of wes anderson) maybe shares some of the self-indulgent elements of his characters. i may be wrong; this shouldn't bother me; and as its autobiographical it's hardly surprising, but for some reason it worried me. i also found the redemptive ending a touch clunky and out of synch with the rest of the film. 7/10

junebug - a more organic look at family dysfunctionality, using the time honoured plot device of sophisticated urbanites clashing with rural or small town america. think groundhog day, doc hollywood or sweet home alabama, only junebug is a bit cooler. the direction was just unusual enough (small montages of still shots of the envrinoment to give the viewer a feeling of 'place') without being film-school try-hard. i can't be bothered to write a proper break down of the film, but the actress amy adams is amazing, tragic, optimistic and adorable. i found this film more enjoyable than TSATW (above), but it probably isn't cinematically better - 7/10

matchpoint - i'm getting a bit bored now so excuse the cursory review. a potentially good film, a sort of sex and manners based thriller i suppose, in my view ruined by what would appear to be a rushed post production. to all those you have seen it - the bit with the ghosts talking us through the plot? woody allen has been making films for 30+ years, he must have realised that bit was shit. rhys meyer's accent was off, johanssen was sultry, i've never seen that version of britain (though i am neither rich nor live in london), but it was slick, good to look at and had its moments of real effectivenss. if i knew how to edit, i'd love to re-edit this into a better film. 6.5/10

the 25th hour - like match point, a good film ruined. good looking, well directed, amazing cast. unfortunately the whiff of misoginy and homophobia that permeates most of spike lee's work is present, and, like a pair of samurai s5000 with a big sticky piss stain on the front, that's just depressing. 6.5/10

[american_hearts]

matchpoint - to all those you have seen it - the bit with the ghosts talking us through the plot? woody allen has been making films for 30+ years, he must have realised that bit was shit. 6.5/10

there's a perfectly good reason for it's inclusion, though whether or not you think it works is certainly another matter.

[englandmj7]

^^ There is a decent reason that it was included, but I certainly agree with Jim that it could have been done more effectively in a different way.....it was sort of like saying "hey movie viewer, you are obviously not intelligent enough to grasp the reprecussions of these two women being killed so let me slap you in the face with them." It certainly was the crappiest point of an otherwise excellent film.......

Speaking of Woody, did anyone see the film with Scarlett/Hugh Jackman?

[american_hearts]

aside from the direct reference, i also felt like that was woody's sense of humor shining through...one of the more comically "meta" moments in an otherwise serious movie. the more the movie directly mirrored crime and punishment, the less it seems he meant for the viewer to take it at face value.

[birminghamjim]

aside from the direct reference, i also felt like that was woody's sense of humor shining through...one of the more comically "meta" moments in an otherwise serious movie. the more the movie directly mirrored crime and punishment, the less it seems he meant for the viewer to take it at face value.

i am genuinely curious, but i don't quite follow you. what do you mean by the direct reference? i thought as a device it was hackneyed, it took me straight back to an american werewolf in london where he's talking to his progressively decaying dead mate; it worked really well in that because it is a tongue in cheek comedy horror genre b-movie. match point on the other hand is a homourless (as far as i can tell, and not in a negative way) sort of fatal attraction psycholigical thriller, as i mentioned, and within that context the "talking to the dead to represent the protagonist's inner turmoil" device just goes CLUNK.

explain 'comically "meta" moments', again i genuinely don't understand. other examples?

as far as crime and punishment allusions go, i must admit i have read no dostoevsky, so please elaborate. i haven't seen crimes and misdemeanors either, is this relevant?

off to scotland for ten days, will have a look in when i return.

[Whodinihimself]

Just watched Greenstreet Hooligans ... not groundbreaking cinema by any stretch but a decent flick ... a little exaggerated tho and some plot points are a little too 'convenient'

Aslo, its kinda hard to believe Elijah Wood in this role..

..a good bare-bones movie.

6.7/10

[nairb49]

caught Little Miss Sunshine the other day.

really enjoyed it, Alan Arkin is my hero. Anyone enjoy his performance in Catch-22?

[american_hearts]

birminghamjim -- from a certain point on in the movie, it turns into a scene-for-scene "modern retelling" of crime and punishment. the ghost part is pulled directly from dostoevsky, which is what i mean when i say it's humorous and a bit cheeky in it's direct referencing. without having that frame of reference, it would seem out-of-place, and laughably so -- but, in my mind, not more so than the protagonist shooting miss johanssen in the face point-blank with a hunting rifle in an apartment complex in the middle of the day.

[tweeds]

for good fun, check out Hard Candy!

[Larry Bird]

just bought today:

BUFFALO 66

GUMMO

PERMANENT MIDNIGHT

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is the shit....best movie ive seen in the theaters in awhile.

[viv1984viv]

Hard candy is an awful movie, although in a strange way I have some respect for it as I saw 3 men leave the cinema during a certain scene.

Ghost Dog: Way of the samurai is excellent, thought is was really funny, film 4 is great at the mo.

Has anyone seen "Man Bites Dog"????

[asuzano]

- downfall, as mentioned above.

- half nelson, not playing in too many theaters around LA but i saw it at the Laemle in Pasadena.

- the proposition, easily my favorite movie this year

[Guest jmatsu]

blind beast vs. killer dwarf (old but newly released)

arsene lupin (france)

wassup rockers

the proposition

brothers of the head

the descent

did anyone see the illusionist? if so, was it worth watching?

[Guest jmatsu]

romper stomper - one of my favourite movies

why was this movie one of your favorites?

[ishboo]

little miss sunshine is not worth very much. unoriginal, monotonous, and predictable.

Half Nelson is very, very good.

[asuzano]

little miss sunshine is not worth very much. unoriginal, monotonous, and predictable.

Half Nelson is very, very good.

word

a friend who watched it with me said it was too slow and there wasn't enough climax in the vital scenes but i disagree..it had a really nice subtle balance of emotion/and implied awkwardness etc...

[airfrogusmc]

Little Miss Sunshine Alan Arkin was very funny...I laughed all the way thru the film.