Movies watched recently:

[crystalcakes]

I saw Blood Diamond tonight.  It's exactly the sort of movie that irritates me most.  They had great actors, a great story,  great performances--it should have been a great movie, not a want-to-be-action movie formulaic piece of crap.



edit:  piece of crap might be a bit harsh, but there's just no excuse for this not being a good movie.

The love story bit made me want to vom all over the place.

just the trailer for this movie had me laughing my ass off.  

alexandra- glitter is a really hilarious movie.  i love watching it.

[diesel_powered]

Generally okay.

(I pretty much spent all day on my ass watching movies.)

[girl]

Braved the frigid cold and left the house yesterday to see Volver.  I enjoyed it, but I'm fond of Almodovar.  

We're almost done with the Oscar nominees--5 to go, but Venus isn't playing anywhere (and I think Forrest Whitaker has Best Actor anyhow), Half Nelson is out on dvd next month, and wild horses couldn't drag me to The Pursuit of Happyness, so really just 2 left.

[Anne the Man]

Ohhhhh...

[auto-da-fey]

Oh man, The Kids Are Alright rocks. And there are some cool extras on the DVDs.

For me, tonight was Street Fight, the documentary about the 2002 Newark mayoral race. For the most part, gripping stuff--thematically, quite in line with the six hours of The Wire I've watched in the past 26 hours, all corrupt-urban-underbelly-expose and whatnot--but it's hindered a bit by the filmmaker's obvious goo-goo eyes at Cory Booker, the insurgent candidate (which isn't to say Booker is not the obvious good guy in the race, only that he can't be that much of a fucking saint).

[Aglaya]

I just saw Clay Pigeons.  See, I have this friend who I love dearly, but our taste in absolutely everything ever made is completely different, so when it's her turn to pick a movie, I am full of dread.  This movie was actually hilarious.  Vince Vaughn is in it, and I can't recall the last time I have been so attracted to/annoyed by/amused by/terrified of one single character.  Come to think of it, I can't recall ever having found Vince Vaughn remotely attractive-esque before.  Anyway, it's a pretty good movie.  It freaked one of my other friends out, but I thought it was mostly hilarious.

[Ah_Pook]

"I was just seein something..."

[folder]

Generally okay.

I think you meant generally awesome.

[Good Intentions]

I thought that Man Bites Dog was pretty alright, but a bit obvious. The more irritated you are with Hollywood-style hero-worship, and the less avenues you have for channeling that frustration, the more you'll like that film. I've got a lot of 1, but a lot of 2 as well, so I found it unremarkable.

[crystalcakes]

i thought man bites dog was a shitty movie.  and i tend to think that people who rave about it are people who think their taste in movies is really awesome and shocking.  i don't know the people who are talking about it in this thread, so i don't know if my hypothesis is still true.

i watched "inside man" last night and it was good.  not great, but good.  clive owen wears a mask through almost the whole movie though.... not cool.  and then a baggy jumpsuit.  throw a girl a bone!  

then i watched swimfan.  possibly the movie responsible for the best trailer of all time.  a teenage fatal attraction starring all people who look mid to late 20s.

[Lindsay With An A]

Oh man, The Kids Are Alright rocks. And there are some cool extras on the DVDs.

for real, that movie is so badass.

[diesel_powered]

i thought man bites dog was a shitty movie.  and i tend to think that people who rave about it are people who think their taste in movies is really awesome and shocking.  i don't know the people who are talking about it in this thread, so i don't know if my hypothesis is still true.

That's kind of what I think about it. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it was a lot of really heavy-handed shock value for seemingly nothing. I feel the same way about the ending of this movie as I felt about Natural Born Killers (which is more or less an American remake) that it was just a bunch of deus ex machina that pretty much rendered all the previous exercise nonsense. It just seems like Breathless did it better and without a bunch of pointless shock material and this movie did nothing to advance that central ideas ahead 30 years.

[folder]

i thought man bites dog was a shitty movie.  and i tend to think that people who rave about it are people who think their taste in movies is really awesome and shocking.  i don't know the people who are talking about it in this thread, so i don't know if my hypothesis is still true.

I'd say it's pretty short-sighted to dismiss Man Bites Dog as nothing more than an exercise in shocking the audience. That's part of it, yes, but it's also a well made film with nice touches afforded by the premise. The sound man getting separated from the crew in the factory climax probably floats the whole film for me.

P.S. My taste in movies is really awesome.

[crystalcakes]

i thought man bites dog was a shitty movie.  and i tend to think that people who rave about it are people who think their taste in movies is really awesome and shocking.  i don't know the people who are talking about it in this thread, so i don't know if my hypothesis is still true.

I'd say it's pretty short-sighted to dismiss Man Bites Dog as nothing more than an exercise in shocking the audience. That's part of it, yes, but it's also a well made film with nice touches afforded by the premise. The sound man getting separated from the crew in the factory climax probably floats the whole film for me.

P.S. My taste in movies is really awesome.

i thought it was fairly ugly (lighting and setting wise) and not very interesting to look at either.  for what that's worth.

[Good Intentions]

Well, deliberate ugliness is a card that can be played well. The pathetic megalomania of the protagonist (buggered if I can remember his name) finds a context and weight from his surroundings, the film crew get drawn into the myopia because they are also struck inside the narrow horizons of the man's surroundings. I thought that the ugly settings were very well filmed. I though the movie was well put together. I think it's a noteworthy aside, but not a masterpiece.

[hannah]

Sunday, we finally caved and went to see The Departed. It was a mess, but I was sufficiently entertained.

[crystalcakes]

Sunday, we finally caved and went to see The Departed. It was a mess, but I was sufficiently entertained.

i have never found leo to be attractive.  but he was so darn troubled and sexy (and a bit bellied) in this that i was suddenly interested.  

yes, i have problems.

[El_Josharino]

I saw Smokin' Aces this weekend, and it was pretty good.  Lots of zany characters and gun shootin' and doesn't seem to take itself too seriously.

[Anne the Man]

I watched Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life yesterday. Pretty damn lame. I had to skip the vomiting scene, that was fucking disgusting, especially since I'm an emetophobe. If i'd seen that a few years ago I'd've probably run from the room, but thanks to the wonders of homeopathy I just felt like gagging instead.

[Ah_Pook]

Sunday, we finally caved and went to see The Departed. It was a mess, but I was sufficiently entertained.

i liked the entire movie up until the ending, which totally made the rest of the movie pointless. i mean shit, if they were going to end it like that why drag it out for 9 hours. ive been angry about it for months now. everything else was good but then ending just shat all over the entire movie, so now i cant recommend it to anyone.

[silentsigh89]

I watched Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life yesterday. Pretty damn lame. I had to skip the vomiting scene, that was fucking disgusting, especially since I'm an emetophobe. If i'd seen that a few years ago I'd've probably run from the room, but thanks to the wonders of homeopathy I just felt like gagging instead.

my sister's boyfriend and I rented this movie and watched it alone together when we were 11 and 16, respectively. It has a special place in my heart for making us both so uncomfortable.


Also, the ending of the departed didnt' really bother me! I mean. I was shocked and then more shocked and then I peed a little bit. But it didnt' make me ANGRY. It just made me a bit disoriented!

[diesel_powered]

With



Yeah, I pretty much rule.

[auto-da-fey]

That is a great double-feature. Speaking of unerotic but strangely fascinating sex-related stuff, did you watch the extras for Hell's Highway? That footage from the secret men's room camera in Mansfield, Ohio (I I recall correctly) was an amazing document, I'd love to see what other treasures are buried in the Kinsey Institute's secret vaults.

[elpollodiablo]

Hey, has anyone seen that Cronenberg flick with Ralph Fiennes, Spider? It's coming thru netflix soon, and I'm pretty curious.

[auto-da-fey]

Not your typical Cronenberg movie, but less of a departure than, say, M. Butterfly or Fast Company. It's slow-moving, sparse on dialogue and narrative, and ultimately, I thought, quite affecting. I'd recommend watching it while you're ready to sink into it, not when your blood is pumping for thrills or clear resolution and closure.

My partner of the time hated it, though. Of course, her idea of a good movie was But I'm a Cheerleader, so I think my opinion is superior.