Films: Rate and Discuss

Escape to New York 7/10

Wonderful throwback to the 80's, distinct lack of action for a lead actor like Kurt Russel, but fun movie nonetheless.

Okay, 8/10, Isaac Hayes earns another point for sheer coolness.
Okay, 9/10 for Lee Van Cleef.
 
pandorum:

god this was bad, really, really bad D=

The surprising thing is it started off really well and it was definitely able to effectively create an effective sense of tension and dread in the opening 20 minutes but then just slowly descended into mediocrity and then just plain utter shit after that >_>

The primary problem with it is that the plot is completely nonsensical and far too many concepts are brought up but never explained or explained to a necessary enough degree. Like the origin of the mutants is glossed over in just a couple of lines and even then it makes no logical sense (or also why everybody in the film looks like a reject from mad max >_>)

I was VERY close to walking out on this one and I don't walk out on films but this was SO CLOSE.
 
Hunt For Red October - 8/10

''A game of chessh...againsht our oooold advershariesh.''

Hadnt seen it in years. Always love it, but I hate the last half hour or so. Its just subs in the ocean and torpedoes going round, and its like 'Who the hell is who?'. Its too chaotic to follow.

Well, maybe not chaotic. But its definitely hard to follow who is doing what.

Other than that, loved it.
 
Paranormal Activity (theatrical) - 7/10
Second time watching, the first being what I believe the be the 'alternate' release that was shown at festivals and stuff before it hit cinemas. I have mixed feelings about this cut - the order of certain things has been shifted around a bit to no apparent effect, there are certain scenes added, none too memorable, and a couple of parts seem to have been clipped, but nothing major. My big complaint is the ending, because it's so out of place with the rest of the film. It's just a big hollywood shock ending, nowhere near as effective as the alternate/original/whatever, the one with the cops.

I will say, however, I was a lot more on edge watching it this time. My first viewing I was by myself, it was during the day, and I was watching a poor quality stream - it only really creeped me out a bit at best, maybe gave me a couple starts. This time I watched it with the girlfriend at night in our bedroom (eek), home alone, volume cranked, lights out. Towards the end I couldn't tell if I was squeezing her hand or vice versa. :x

Edit:

District 9 - 8/10
Pretty darn great. Not quite what I was expecting!
 
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc 7/10

This movie started out really well and then slowly started to get really boring. I love how they set up the story and all, the action was decent, and then they spend like 40mins-1 hr showing a girl gone mad and they didn't have to drag it out so much. imo it was an interesting story, but a tad bit too long for my tastes
 
Good Hair 10/10

I didn't really see anything at fault with this documentary. Moreover, I have nothing else to compare it to. It was an eye opening movie for me especially since I was interested in learning about the world of black hair ever since I saw the trailer for this, and I was also perplexed why so many people viewed natural black hair styles like afros or dreadlocks or cornrows so negatively. And that's what I got out of it... some humor, and a lot of information.

A solid documentary by Chris Rock.
 
The Lovely Bones - 6/10 - I haven't read the novel, so I can't compare it to that, but I'm still unsatisfied. Peter Jackson's excessive use of the CGI has the effect of dampening the impact of the all-around great performances of the actors. The pace of the movie was also too slow at times, and many character's felt pointless and out of place.

28 Days Later - 8/10 - About as good as it gets in terms of zombie films. It wonderfully showed the diverse effect that that kind of event can have to the human psyche, and I loved that the true villains were the uninfected. That being said, it was a bit predictable at times, especially in terms of who lives and dies. I haven't seen the sequel, but from what I've heard it's a disappointment.
 
Legion 6/10

rather boring movie, lame characters, weak plot, some action here and there. reminded me a lot of Constantine and how it could have been better but ended up being meh. I was expecting more Zombie like moments and crazy shit happening but it was all mellow and bland for an action/thriller whatever you want to call it
 
Requiem for a Dream: 9/10

Watch it if you haven't. Now. For those who have seen it, you know.

Ten or so viewings for me now and it hasn't lost a thing.
 
The Monkey said:
28 Days Later - 8/10 - About as good as it gets in terms of zombie films. It wonderfully showed the diverse effect that that kind of event can have to the human psyche, and I loved that the true villains were the uninfected. That being said, it was a bit predictable at times, especially in terms of who lives and dies. I haven't seen the sequel, but from what I've heard it's a disappointment.
Click to expand...

The opening scene of the sequel is awesome but it quickly goes downhill from there.
 
sequel is fun, but not a patch on the original. as said, opening scene is great and some of the shots and locations, much like the first, are amazing. seeing london turned into a militarized quarantine zone is great.
 
School Of Rock - 8/10

Pretty damn funny. Jack Black was clearly trying a bit too hard, and became a little too childish and irritating.

And I couldnt help but smile at the fact that Brutal Legend seemed to have drawn some lines from the film.
 
Edge of Darkness - 7/10

Its not bad. Acting is questionable at times and the plot seems rather sloppy and distorted with its direction, scenes just seemed out of place and the dialogue was off in places. Interesting story though and I was hit with one or two moments of utter shock during it. Ending kinda corny (although I was happy with it, weird I know lol). More marks because the girl in it was mega cute :-D

Blade - 8/10

Not seen this in AGES but thought I'd give them a go again, with a more critical attitude towards films. Very good action with some added moments of hilarity. Plot is actually very interesting but Frost simply fails as a bad guy. Whistler's character is amazing though, great performance from him however brief, I recall he returns in the next two so I shall track them down and give them a watch. I added a full mark on just purely for the way Blade killed Frost at the end, it was just 2 minutes of utter genius.
 
knut said:
sequel is fun, but not a patch on the original. as said, opening scene is great and some of the shots and locations, much like the first, are amazing. seeing london turned into a militarized quarantine zone is great.
Click to expand...

I enjoyed the sequel as well, it had some pretty intense moments.

Like the one were the guy kisses his passively infected wife, gets the virus and proceeds to kill her. ****.
 
Unfocused said:
I enjoyed the sequel as well, it had some pretty intense moments.

Like the one were the guy kisses his passively infected wife, gets the virus and proceeds to kill her. ****.
Click to expand...

I couldn't get over the fact that
his security card gives him access to everywhere in London, even the high security zombie prisoner containment parts of it.
 
Sparta said:
I couldn't get over the fact that
his security card gives him access to everywhere in London, even the high security zombie prisoner containment parts of it.
Click to expand...

I have one of those.
 
Sparta said:
The opening scene of the sequel is awesome but it quickly goes downhill from there.
Click to expand...
Quite...

28 Weeks Later - 3/10 - Probably the worst movie I've seen the last year. The acting was horrible on all levels, but what bothered me more was the stupidity of the plot.

How the hell could a caretaker gain access to top-level security rooms? And whose idea was it not to guard the entrances to the room where all the civilians were being kept? That first zombie (Don) could walk around anywhere with nobody stopping him, and after it spread he seemed to have an amazing, unexplained, ability to track down his children.

The handheld camera which they used 90% of the time was just annoying and made it difficult to understand exactly what was going on. Most disappointing sequel in history.
 
The Cove 8/10

very interesting documentary about the slaughter of important dolphins. theres not much to spoil but it was a good watch and makes you feel really sorry for the intelligent beings that they are.
 
Blade 2 - 8/10

Even better action than the first, and a much better plot imo. A lot of really tense moments and some very interesting characters. Ending is brilliant haha.
 
American Beauty: 9/10

When I rewatch my favorite movies, I always seem to be ready for disappointment. Usually, the more you watch a movie, the more predictable it becomes and frequently it's just you sitting there thinking "okay, I'm waiting for the climax," which is always great, but you have to "work though" the rest. The truly great movies are ones that don't have this work. Even after 15 or so viewings, American Beauty still has it.
 
Paranormal Activity - 6/10...
This is the scariest movie of the year? Really?

It was entertaining but I'd hardly call it scary, it had spooky elements but I thought it was hilarious for the most part.
The ending was just stupid, felt like the director was trying to copy Blairwitch with the OMGSHOCK ending.
The two characters were mostly annoying as shit but they gave decent performances.

I will admit however that the scene where she gets yanked out of the bed by nothing and dragged into the hall managed to freak me the **** out.
 
The alternate (and I believe original) ending is a hundred times more effective.

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/32196/Paranormal_Activity___Alternate_Ending/
 
That is a bit better, much more unsettling too.

[rec] - 8/10...
****ing terrifying.
Probably one of the more intense zombie movies that I've seen.
I loved the gradual build up of hysteria.
 
Did you notice what happens at the very end? I had to watch it again to catch it:

When the cops come in, you see the light turn on in that room at the end of the hall where a lot of the activity seems to originate from during the movie. When Katie approaches the police, knife in hand and quite obviously disoriented, the door to that room slams abruptly, giving the policeman a start and causing him to fire. This implies that the demon didn't simply want to possess Katie as the theatrical ending suggested, but he actually wanted her dead, perhaps to aquire her soul to torment in the afterlife or something. It gives a lot more meaning to the gradual build up of the rest of the film as well, since it implies that he actually required assistance to do the deed... or just that he found it more amusing this way. D:
 
Oh I didn't even notice a knife I just saw her charge them and then saw the cop fire, after watching it again that definitely makes more sense though. It actually makes the film a bit more scarier, might have to watch it again.
Also, a couple quibbles about their logic and such...
Why wouldn't they just shut the damn door, lock it and wear ear plugs? I mean, Micah was the one who wanted to see all of this shit go down so maybe he wouldn't want wear the plugs but come on.
It would've saved them a lot of torment.
 
Other ending is better. That one's a little too anticlimactic.
 
Qonfused said:
American Beauty: 9/10

When I rewatch my favorite movies, I always seem to be ready for disappointment. Usually, the more you watch a movie, the more predictable it becomes and frequently it's just you sitting there thinking "okay, I'm waiting for the climax," which is always great, but you have to "work though" the rest. The truly great movies are ones that don't have this work. Even after 15 or so viewings, American Beauty still has it.
Click to expand...

I was looking through box office lists the other day and noticed that American Beauty did worse in terms of ticket sales than the movie Wild Wild West did in the same year of release. One of those two movies won an oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography ...and the other is horrible mess that even the stars of the movie are embarrassed over
 
OUCH!! Shame American Beauty is for me personally in my top 5 fav films ever :|
 
Quarantine - 1/10...

1 point for a good performance by Jennifer Carpenter.
This was literally just a carbon copy of [rec].

I guess it'd be good if I had never seen the original film, but since I did it was basically a wasted rental.
It's [rec] for people who don't like having to read subtitles.
 
fast and furious (4) - 5/10

better than the 2nd and 3rd, but still pretty damn ridiculous...like doing a wheelie while you're already going ~80mph...on dirt. Yea that's totally possible. At least they weren't driving purple, riced out, convertibles while racing a '69 yenko camaro (worth about ~$2 million) "for pinks".
 
Lucid said:
Oh I didn't even notice a knife I just saw her charge them and then saw the cop fire, after watching it again that definitely makes more sense though. It actually makes the film a bit more scarier, might have to watch it again.
Also, a couple quibbles about their logic and such...
Why wouldn't they just shut the damn door, lock it and wear ear plugs? I mean, Micah was the one who wanted to see all of this shit go down so maybe he wouldn't want wear the plugs but come on.
It would've saved them a lot of torment.
Click to expand...
Cause Mikah is an idiot. Also, incidentally, the cause for everything else that happens in the movie. :p
 
Absinthe said:
Other ending is better. That one's a little too anticlimactic.
Click to expand...

The other was too Hollywood though, the smile into the camera just made me cringe. There was also another ending but I haven't found it.

She screams and goes running down where she stabs him, goes up and sits by the bed rocking back and forth for about three days undisturbed until the third night she just gets up and walks out of the bedroom. Screen goes dark where they say Mika's body was discovered eventually, but Katie's body was never discovered.
 
Law Abiding Citizen - 8/10

Disturbing. Great film though. Very dark, a great tale of a mixture of revenge against law's policies and methods. Some of the methods used in the killings are just..inspiringly brutal, and the whole time the guy is in jail.
 
?ynast? said:
Law Abiding Citizen - 8/10

Disturbing. Great film though. Very dark, a great tale of a mixture of revenge against law's policies and methods. Some of the methods used in the killings are just..inspiringly brutal, and the whole time the guy is in jail.
Click to expand...

I really enjoyed the first half. Well thought out, tense, exciting, then it degenerated into Hollywood nonsense.

The second we find out the protagonist is some uber special opps agent the movie goes to shit - from an everyday guy twisted by the system that failed him to a bad action movie. Why couldn't he just be some guy maddened by grief? A great example of how less can be more.
 
I didnt really mind it.

I did get a bit suspicious that he was one. The killings got more and more advanced, far too good for someone with no training. Like when the judge gets killed by her phone exploding, the way that looked was like the explosion was aimed away from the phone into her head, whereas you wouldve just expected it to explode. And he'd obviously rigged it so that only a certain incoming call would set it off. Unless..it was like a shotgun round? But theres no way you could fit something like that into a thin mobile phone like hers?

But then the graveyard scene was completely over the top, as you say, Hollywood kicking in again.
 
Shift said:
The other was too Hollywood though, the smile into the camera just made me cringe. There was also another ending but I haven't found it.

She screams and goes running down where she stabs him, goes up and sits by the bed rocking back and forth for about three days undisturbed until the third night she just gets up and walks out of the bedroom. Screen goes dark where they say Mika's body was discovered eventually, but Katie's body was never discovered.
Click to expand...
Apparently there's yet another one where
she kills him downstairs, comes back upstairs alone, walks directly to the camera and cuts her own throat.
Indecisive writers, much?
 
Living Hell - what?/10

I don't have words to fully describe this movie. Horrible would be a start though. This is beyond stupid. Not even good action scenes.
 
Where the wild things are - BORING/10

Serisously I couldn't watch it all I just couldn't, first time in a LONG time I couldn't watch a movie to the end. It doesn't seem to have a real narrative and the main character is a MASSIVE dick! I just wanted to reach through the screen and slap him about!

It seems like this is one of those movies you either get or don't. It has a running theme about growing up and having an adventurous, childlike wildside and all that but its as subtle as a brick to the head >_>

Zombieland:

This on the other hand was WAY better! :D Genuiely funny plus...BILL MURRAY!!! :D
 
Coraline
Don't really feel like rating this one. One of those movies that stands well enough on it's own that it kind of defies comparison or even criticism. Which isn't to say it was perfect or spectacularly original, but it was pretty damn magical.

Anyone else get a huge adventure game vibe from the second half, though? The way the 'game' played out was very formulaic and objective based, and you even had things like seemingly useless items serving unexpected purposes, and the moon acting as a timer. The way the world crumbled and lost colour seemed very much like something you'd see in one of these games, too.

Hmm, now to read the comic...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Terminator
Long time...
Replies
16
Views
1K
Xtremecherry95YT
Xtremecherry95YT
Krynn72
You guys, what the **** is up.
Replies
11
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
HL2.NET HORROR SLAP
Replies
7
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
Chris D
Half-Life: Alyx announced
Replies
32
Views
25K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
To Those That Stand, Those That Fell
Replies
6
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
Back
Top