After Hours - I've seen some strange stuff in my time but this is definitely one of the bizzarest, if not the bizzarest, films I've ever seen.

I dont know what crack Martin Scorsese was on when he made it, but it turned out quite well. Weird, but actually funny and not just substituting weird for funny like some more modern films (eg Napoleon Dynamite). As usual, shot nicely by Marty.

Although the lead does reasonably, could have been a better film with a stronger actor in the role. 

Kung Fu Hustle - blah. Some nice bits but this is probably just not my type of humour as I found it to be pretty uninteresting. The action scenes didnt impress either, the CG use was too distracting. 

Just like I should have expected from a Stephen Speilberg produced flick, this was atmospheric and gorgeously filmed but narrow and one dimensional. The lead actress is so cold and apparently unfeeling that it's difficult to ever give a shit about what happens to her, the locations and other characters barely exist except as a foil to the lead, and none of the myriad interesting issues surrounding a fascinating period in history are even brought up, let alone dealt with.

On the plus side, the quality of the sets, costumes, cinematography and music is simply astounding.

In summary; visually lovely and highly polished, but if you are looking for any depth or weight then instead read the book. It's far more nuanced, insightful and worthwhile. 

We Dont Live Here anymore - In the vein of Closer, complete with unlikable and unsympathetic characters. Likewise, it features some strong acting. It doesnt have the dialogue of Closer but is rawer and more intense. Worth a watch, but definitely not for everybody.


Malena - Giusseppe Tornatore is an overrated director and this is really fairly comparable to the average Cinema Paradiso. Shot well with a weak semblance of a story and featuring another terrific Ennio Morricone score and a knockout looking Monica Bellucci.


Extras Season One - disappointly average follow up to The Office by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. There's 3 reasonable episodes in the season, but even they retread the characters and style from The Office.


Stealth - One of the most awful movies I've seen in a while.


Red Eye - Competent, lean and efficient throwaway thriller. Has quite a few implausibilities but is well made enough to take till the end of the film for them to bother you. 

what went wrong? The plot sounded original and insightful, the casting appeared to be perfect... how could it not be great? I mean, they built a plane with artificial intelligence and it got evil and started destroying things. That's pretty unexpected, what a twist!

In depth critique please 

...not to tinker in God's domain. What hath man wrought? 

there are plenty of good insightful and thought-provoking science fiction books just waiting to be made into movies, and they always pick the crappiest crap of rehashed rehash dumbed down 1000x. Sigh.

Maybe it's just because the good ones are not for the big audience, since it would often need actual thinking to get something from the story. Maybe someone like David Lynch should do scifi. 

Maybe someone like David Lynch should do scifi.

Even seen Dune? 

Hey OK I am so ready for X3 I saw the trailer for it on line and when I went to see underworld 2 it was the frist trailer I saw it was so cool to see Daniel Cudmore in the suit walking with the others. when X3 comes out May 26th I am going to be watching the frist two movies then the next day I am seeing X3. have you all been to the trekweb they have some new photos of X3 and when you find the Six photo it scared the living death out of me it's of Peter in his colossus role. That is a scarry photo. 

Hey OK I am so ready for X3 I saw the trailer for it on line and when I went to see underworld 2 it was the frist trailer I saw it was so cool to see Daniel Cudmore in the suit walking with the others. when X3 comes out May 26th I am going to be watching the frist two movies then the next day I am seeing X3. have you all been to the trekweb they have some new photos of X3 and when you find the Six photo it scared the living death out of me it's of Peter in his colossus role. That is a scarry photo. 

I can feel the stealth marketing working already! X3 will have the biggest turnout of illiterate assholes of any movie opening ever!!342414 

yeah so I deserved everything I got, but sometimes I have to watch stuff that I dont want to.

But seriously, if you're going to pump 150 million plus into a movie, at least make it have some decent action sequences. Shots of missiles, then shots of planes, then an explosion. Oh man, I cant wait till I see that in zoomed in slow mo. Oh wait, they've read my mind, oh jesus christ this movie is so fucking cool. 

yeah so I deserved everything I got

That was my thought too! 

when I went to see underworld 2

I think I stopped reading right about there. 

Kate Beckinsale + Leather = HOT. 

metl:Even seen Dune?
Yeah, but it was kinda not finished and had some... not right things. I should watch it with more thought some day.

I like blade runner... and minority report wasn't that bad either. (cut the cheesy Spielberg kids&family inclusion). 2001 I haven't seen since I was a kid and it was kinda slow (pluss it's partly a ripoff of an older Russian film). 2010 or what's the sequel, that was ok although not very "grand". Solarises we've handled here earlier. Matrix had potential but in the end it was just flash and kungfu with the point lost.

Someone could make a big budget series about Lem's Cyberiad short stories book a bit in the vein of Outer Limits, which was sometimes watchable. It's violent and humoristic and the current special effects would rule. Or it could be made as a cartoon in futurama visual style, that would be awesome. Anybody got any connections? Make them read the book. 

I wasn't calling out Dune as an example of a quality scifi -- I was calling it out as an example of a David Lynch scifi, since you we're saying you'd like to see David Lynch take a crack at the genre. 

What I meant that some good and respected person who can communicate their vision, and doesn't need to be too mainstream, could do some decent hardish or philosophish or just a more serious scifi flick. (Or are there much such people anymore, is everything very finely "produced" nowadays?)

I don't know the history of the Dune film very closely, but I understand the director was not happy with it. Cuts and shit.

Maybe they could pick something less ambitious. 

Devil in a Blue Dress - so so modern attempt at a noir with some rather pedestrian direction and a badly miscast denzel washington. There's an art to doing a noir voiceover and denzel was not up to the task in this film. 

XMEN 3 Is Going To Be Awsome

Fucking hell, first the regular spam, then bots and now we're a target for stealth marketing bullshit.

Just my opinion - but maybe now is a good time to disable posting for non-registered users. 

I'd call that bloody obvious marketing.

Just watched Daredevil, and it really was as bad as people said. Avoid. 

i can't see myself liking it; just out of principle for them still not including Gambit at all. I mean, what the hell. Expect a biased review. 

Yeah Gambit rocks hard. I think they have way too many mutants in this one. But I'm looking forward to seeing beast. 

looking forward to it :)

ps : I also saw The Grifters which I found to be far too meandering and uninteresting. 

TO be honest, I did like XMEN2 so I am looking forward to the next one.