Okay, guys, here it is, the thread for all movie buffs here on TSD. My thanks go out to Vesa (offshoot) for giving me the idea. So, write about the movie(s) you've just watched and give us some feedback :happy088 I'll start: Little Miss Sunshine I have no idea why it took me so long to finally get and watch that flick. I also don't know for how long I've been hoping for a movie that just kicks the whole beauty-contest-madness-groupie-sickness right into the balls. Little kids that grow up to be pushed by their parents to be Miss whatever stripping to their underwear pretending to do it for "world peace". Girls as skinny as a stick wearing next to nothing modeling for drooling old guys. It's nothing less than disgusting. At least for me. And just when I thought the world had gone completely mad with beauty this and beauty that I watch "Little Miss Sunshine". A thoughtful, funny, sad, upbeat family comedy about a family that's traveling many hundred miles to California to let their young girl take part in a beauty contest. The climax is nothing short of brilliant: One chubby little girl (a charming Miss Breslin) doing a sexy - but harmless - dance her cocain-snorting, cursing grandfather taught her in front of an outraged audience that doesn't realise the only really sexist guys are themselves and all these dolled up girls they are used to and enjoy to watch. That moment is eye-opening as the audience of the movie realizes the painful dumbness of beauty pageants and the whole extent of the loss of reality - or rather natural beauty. The pace of the movie is great, the humour is wonderful, the directing rock-solid and the performances are brilliant. highly recommended - 4/5
The Prestige I just saw it for the second time a few nights ago. I really enjoyed it the first time but the second time watching it was a little more interesting as the foreshadowing suddenly made more sense. Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, David Bowie and Scarlett Johansson. A great cast and well written. From imdb.org In the end of the Nineteenth Century, in London, Robert Angier, his beloved wife Julia McCullough and Alfred Borden are friends and assistants of a magician. When Julia accidentally dies during a performance, Robert blames Alfred for her death and they become enemies. Both become famous and rival magicians, sabotaging the performance of the other on the stage. When Alfred performs a successful trick, Robert becomes obsessed trying to disclose the secret of his competitor with tragic consequences. I highly recommend this movie. 4/5
An American Crime There are only a handful of movies that made me physically ill to watch. This is one of them. I think it's because of the blatant psychological aspect of humanity that removes personal accountability in group actions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Crime
Are you sure you don't mean that one? Being an Ellen Page admirer I just had to buy this movie - having never run in theatres I completely missed this one... @Macpower: It's definitely a complex movie. And a great one, too! Too bad Warners DVD releases in the last 2 years were 95% crap. Image quality as bad as when DVDs first came out. I guess they want to force us to switch to HD...
Same movie -- that's the imdb.com link to it. If you're an Ellen Page fan, you should definitely see it. She's an amazing actress.
I haven't seen the movie but I followed the case a bit (I am weird I know). Should be an interesting watch.
The Crappening... .... I mean "The Happening" Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley Director: M. Night Shyamalan I just saw this on DVD the other night. It started off great and built towards a climax and then..... ... Nothing It's like most of M. Night Shyamalan’s movies. It looked like it was going to be a great flick but in the end I was bored. "The Happening begins with promise, but unfortunately descends into an incoherent and unconvincing trifle." I wouldn't buy it but if you could watch it for free and had nothing else to do, why not! I wouldn't recommend this movie 1/5
Definitely. I have never seen her in the X-whatever movies (I'm just not into the whole comic-book stuff) but I like her in every independent-movie she's ever made. "Hard Candy" features one of the best performances I've ever seen from an actress her age, she's a delight to watch in "Juno" and she was wonderful in the first season of "Regenesis". I dearly missed her in season 2...
Quantum of Solace Starring: Daniel Craig, Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Gemma Arterton Director: Marc Forster This was another huge disappointment. I am a big Bond fan, and while I think that Sean Connery is/was the best bond others have done the role justice in their own way. The big separating factor in QoS isn't the actor playing the role; it is the lack of story written for the actor. This movie should have started with "The Bourne" something or another. It was edited in the same choppy fashion as the Bourne movies and it lacked one very vital component of any James Bond movie and that is James Bond. There was plenty of action, but very little espionage, seduction or enjoying the finer things in life (fast cars, women, "shaken not stirred" etc.) I think Daniel Craig is quite capable of pulling off the Bond role; the problem with QoS is that the writing never really let him be Bond; he was too busy being another run of the mill action hero to be "Bond, James Bond!" This is another movie I wouldn't recommend 2/5
Wall-E Great kids movie. Very little dialogue in the movie which allows for the characters to come through. The only down side is for the adults that watch the movie. The backdrop of the movie is mass consumerism that engulfs the world and turns it into a giant trash heap. The world has to flee into space. Kids its a great movie, adults great movie, just push the overbearing consumerism thing out of your mind and turn into a kid again. 5/5 Requiem for a Dream Great movie. Sex, drugs and amputations. What more could you want. 3 kids get hooked on illegal substances and get in huge trouble. 2 end up in jail the other ends up in a sex ring for drugs. Sobering and well shot another Aronofsky film. 5/5
Four Christmases I'll give it a 'Thumbs Down'. It looked like the same old stuff. Don't waste your money.
Same here, just like I skipped Hostel. Movies about torture make me a little squeamish. :sick007 On a happier note, my wife and I watched Serenity again last night -- it just gets better with each viewing.
I just watched the new X Files movie on DVD last night: I Want To Believe. I was never an avid follower of the TV series, but those episodes that I did watch were decent. I also thought the first movie was fairly decent. Kind of followed up on the whole alien invasion aspect that permeated the show. But this latest offering: :sick007 Hideous comes to mind. Whacky plot that jumped around a lot. The story itself was very non-X-Files'esque to me. No character developement. No suspense. A quick, tidy ridiculous wrap-up sequence. What was Chris Carter thinking? You know you've got a stinker when they don't tout the movie or it's production at all on the DVD extras and instead give you a gag reel and a discussion about "green" movie making---they used Ford hybrids, ooooooo wow, impressive. Very disappointing. They can do better. Were I a X-phile, I'd be rightly pissed.
Oh yeah...great thread. I'm a big movie buff and a member of Netflix so we've got a steady stream of stuff coming in every week. Count me in as a regular here. :happy088
Check out his Millennium series on DVD (3 seasons). Much better than The X-Files. I only wish they'd had another season to tidy it up better.
I watched both Nightwatch and Daywatch. Very good! It was late night viewing and I didn't have the energy to read the subs, so I went with the English track. Problem was it was hard to keep track of who was saying what as the voices didn't match the people very well (they never do). I'll have to re-watch them with the Russian track.
Definitely! Millennium rocks! Too bad the show got canceled without a real ending, even though the Millennium/X-Files-episode in the 7th season of the X-Files provides some closure... If you like the X-Files, do check out "The lone Gunmen". Another brilliant show by Chris Carter that got canceled mid-season...