"now" to sleep. not "not" to sleep
ah whatever. fuck it. :-) 

well, Stalker has similarities with Solaris in terms of certain aspects of style (same director) but is otherwise not really the same.

So it depends really what you liked most about Solaris, the story or the way it was made? 

i loved everything about solaris. so i guess that means i should go with it.

i wish netflix would have it though. damn them to hells. 

looks interesting, is there a version with subtitles?
I like the style of shooting. 

the movie was released here in the us, but i have never seen in stores. i rented it online, so yes to subtitles 

Notes on a Scandal - quite liked this for the most part, Judi dench is excellent as the bitter, lonelyand unstable teacher who stumbles upon another teacher's affair with a student and uses it as a manipulative opportunity for her own motives.

Cate Blanchett provides good support (although she ahs one bad scene near the end) and it's generally well written. But all that good work is almost completely undone in a disastrous last 10 min which comes across as the writer not knowing how to finish it and just ended up ticking every box from your run of the mill creepy stalker film.

6.5/10


Stranger than Fiction - Charlie Kaufman lite. That's how this felt, a neat and amusing concept but without the inclination to actually probe the interesting ideas it conjures up.

The premise of a man becoming aware that he is character of a novel becuase he can hear the narrator's voiceover is full of possibilities but none of those are ever explored, and instead it settles for a routine romantic comedy angle.

Marc Forster indulges in all sorts of visual tricks to try and cover the thinness of the material, much as he did in Stay, but its not quite enough to make it memorable.

6/10


The Painted Veil - not out here yet, which is a shame, because it's easily the best picture of the year to date. John Curran's surprisingly different followup to his intense indie depresser, We Dont Live Here Anymore, is an excellent film that probably wont get the recognition it deserves.

A little while ago Steven Soderbergh tried to emulate movies from the Hollywood golden age, but without the code restrictions, and failed dismally. Curran successfully channels that era without ever compromsing the moderness of the production.

It looks tremendous, is paced beautifully and Edward Norton and Naomi Watts do great work in this story about a loveless couple and set against the backdrop of 20's China, where Norton's bacteriologist tries to help an inland town during a cholera outbreak.

It's great watching Norton in form and this is a welcome return to work for him (and much better than his lacklustre work in The Illusionist. Watts is even better in a performance that should be award nominated (but probably wont), another feather in her excellent recent ouput.

The only thing I didnt like is the ending, but that is possibly a minor plot point that probably stems from the book.

8/10 

The Simpsons Movie
About as funny as a normal episode of the simpsons, which is pretty damn funny. At the beginning though, homer asks the question "why would these morons pay to see something they could see on TV for free?" and he's right, they haven't been saving their best jokes or anything, and they rarely use the opportunity to escape the tv censors to do anything really crazy. It seems kind of dumbed down too, but there are parts where I definitely laughed out loud...

Knocked Up
Much much funnier though in a completely different style, this is easily one of the greatest comedies I've ever seen. It's from the guys who made '40 year old virgin' which was great, but this is a lot classier, funnier, and is a subtle enough movie to have been worth watching even if the laughs weren't there. Seth Rogan is amazing as the guy who accidentally gets a girl pregnant after aa one-night stand (Played by Katherine Heigl). It basically follows them from when they find out to until she gives birth, but it isn't cheesy or forced at all as much of the comedy comes from natural dialogue and banter the characters are having, and it never stoops to stereotypical characters and contrived situations.

Transformers
Haha I don't know where to start. Is it possible to make fun of a show which actually came out after the toys? This movie was literally brought to you by MATTEL, and they follow from where they left off by selling out in the most hilarious way i've ever seen.

I mean, I wasn't expecting Schindler's List, but I never imagined Optimus Prime would start talking about eBay. I wasn't expecting eBay to be mentioned many other times and feature heavily in the plot.

At one point in the final battle, the deceptacon magic actually creates a transformer that shoots mountain dew and is made of a mountain dew machine. NO JOKE. I call him refreshbot.

Also, all the autobots are shitty General Motors cars, and they pretty much show you an advert for each one, and occasionally let the GMC logo cover 60% of the cinema screen, seriously. I remember wishing the autobots had landed in a country which didn't have terrible cars.

There's more brazen sell-outery too: Nokia, HP, and especially the U.S. Marine core, who perhaps paid for the movie entirely. Wow, you'd have to be pretty damn patriotic not to throw up after some of the lines people say about the marines in this film (example: "you better watch out man, these guys aren't used to losin'." ).

The effects were CRAZY RAD SUPER though! Even if there was so much of them they actually got boring. Go watch this if you want capitalism itself take a shit on your head. 

regular ep of the current simpsons or regular ep from the simpsons back when it was actually funny?

I've heard knocked up is pretty funny, might wait for dvd though because I heard the same for 40 yr virgin and I dont think I laughed once during that movie (probably says more about me though) :) 

wasn't funny, I was told before going in to see it that the chest waxing scene was hysterical. I didn't get so much as a chuckle from it.

However, as a character study sort of movie, it is interesting. I liked the ponderous dialog and the well developed characters. What Starbuck said about Knocked Up, 'but it isn't cheesy or forced at all as much of the comedy comes from natural dialogue and banter the characters are having, and it never stoops to stereotypical characters and contrived situations. applies to 40 Year Old Virgin.

I'm looking forward to Superbad too. The trailers look good, though the viral videos you'll likely find on the same trailer hosting sites that the actors made are boring poop jokes. 

was ok. Nothing more or less. There were some good laughs but mainly I felt rather like "hey, this feels like a generic Simpsons episode stretched to movie length". It is more fun watching 3 Simpsons episode in a bunch.

I watched Not Another Teen Movie recently as American Pie 1-3 were shown in TV once again and I once again highly enjoyed them. Well, that NATM tried to follow American Pie with the setting and humor but in a Scary Movie way. Like trying to being a parody to itself. It miserably failed and was 3% fun, 97% very stupid. As since I didn't enjoy it I also found it pretty racist (stupid clichee stupid black guy)... :D 

are you telling me that steve carell's friends/work colleagues in 40 yr old virgin were not stereotypical nor cheesy/forced?

I agree the main relationship itself between keener and careel was sort of interesting but not the above. Plus it was too long (130 min or something). I really didnt like it. 

I found the action scenes bad. The camera was too zoomed in all the time, practically only at a few places could I have some sense of awe, for example when megatron breaks through the roof.

Some wider angle shots from afar that actually frame the situation and make some sense, ie so that you can picture who is where and what is happening! If it's just extremely zoomed shots from various angles you become disoriented and the whole action scene doesn't build up any sense of place or mechanics. 

but that's the michael bay "style" :)

havent seen transfromers yet although my brother tells me the action scenes are actually not too badly shot for a Bay movie. 

such a waste. They used so much effort to make the CGI frames.

I remember Ridley Scott using shakycam in G.I. Jane, the camera would bump with scripted shot sounds.
It was not working entirely right to me.

Maybe some people thought it was awesome. 

not at all. They felt like the very kind of people you would find yourself working and joking around with day to day at least over here. I would go so far as to say Seth Rogan's character is a cleaned up, 100 percent more Jewish version of myself. 

I actually enjoyed it a lot. The only part that was forced for me was the typical hide-someone-will-see-you "hilarity" bit. Other than that, I had a great time.

Although I did go in to the movie thinking "this is probably going to suck balls" (our whole company went) and was pleasantly surprised, so maybe the relief is coloring my judgment. 

I'm not saying NATM is a work of art by any means, but the black guy who just says the same phrases over and over is mocking the stereotype that most black characters have in such movies, hence his introduction where he explains his persona "I'm just the token black guy, who only says things like 'Damn!' 'Shit!' and 'That is whack!'" and then subsequently demonstrates this with the sister coming into the scene. Later in the movie the main jock/coolkid guy stops to tell him that he thinks rather highly of him, and the Token Black Guy is relieved and quite happy, and begins to start what sounds like a potentially deep discussion - and the white guy runs off on him.

Not a great movie, but a pretty solid parody of the countless movies honestly. Especially when they went into how unattractive Janie is (being as how she is played by a very attractive girl).

I can't believe I just discussed this on func though... 

It's not a solid parody, it's a very bad parody. It takes itself too seriously. At least that was my impression. 

I must say, I really don't see how you can think it takes itself seriously, from any of the scenes at all... But okay. Weird. 

I just want to say, if you didn't like 40 year old virgin, that doesn't mean you won't like Knocked Up, they are a different style somewhat, with 40 year old virgin having more of a standard hollywood comedy format. I agree with Headthump that many of the characters were very uncliched and realistic, not all but many, and Knocked Up doesn't really have many 'joke' characters. I don't want to build it up too much, but go and see it with an open mind... nitin, pretend you're going to see Licence to Wed or Chuck & Larry and then hopefully be pleasantly surprised.

Oh I forgot to mention that there are some great cameos from people i have full on man-love for such as Harold Ramis, Loudon Wainwright III (who does all the music too) and B.J. Novak. 

went to see it ex tempore.

Would like to talk about it with someone else who did, as it's clearly some work that needs a lot of untying of all the knots, or however one would say it.
I'm tempted of creating a thread about it (with [spoilers] in topic), but if everybody just watches transformers stuff it's kinda useless...

So, say something if you wanna discuss it on func. 

Ok, this in itself is quite similar to Training Day (same folks who made that), maybe Training Day meets Taxi Driver. However, it actually made me appreciate that I'd fairly underrated Training Day when I saw it. This is, however, a better movie. It's all due to Christian Bale, as without him the movie would be nothing. I have to admit that I've become convinced over the past couple years that he is the best youngish actor in mainstream films right now, and this movie cemented that belief for me. While he tends to play crazy characters (which I find awesome), this is an entirely different kind of crazy. It isn't the paranoia and introspection of The Machinist, nor the anger and focus of Batman, or the arrogance and intensity of The Prestige. Rather, he plays a completely nonintellectual character, an ex-Army guy on the streets, who is almost like a ticking time bomb. I didn't know what to expect and was sure this would be the role he fell flat on, but I was really surprised and it's some of his best work.

Btw I lost a rock-paper-scissors a few weeks ago and had to go to Transformers. I have now joined the group of fine folks known as "Michael Bay Haters." 

going to keep it short since i am not happy about it. i love "strange" films. actually, its the only type of film i watch, and foreign films. though i don't like saying foreign film since a movie its a movie, no matter where it comes from. always felt weird saying foreign films.

anyway, this is a piece of shit! how can people like this? i know everyone has different tastes and all, but man, this is like a ed wood film on acid, acid that doesn't get you high so you have to force yourself and pretend to see weird and strange things.

and whats worse, i wasted $20 on it! see, everyone i know raves about it, saying its the coolest thing there is. that its a piece of art. damn their lies. and whats with people saying the plot is hard to get? isn't the whole thing about the dude being scared to be a parent? it really looks like, and i don't think it can be about anything else. if it is, then its lies! :-)

anyway. i miss my $20. i want them back. :-)

but like i said before, everyone has different tastes. some find fish to be good, i think fish is disgusting as hell. others like grapes, i dont like grapes, but i really like grape juice. and grape soda... blah blah blah i didnt like this movie.

whoa, wrote more than i wanted to :-) 

im very sleepy, so sorry if i wrote gibberish above. 

I agree with your statements, and the cutting manner of their delivery. Don't forget XBox360Bot: a guy walking down the street with a brand new 360, who holds it up to the camera with a shocked look on his face when it comes to life, sprouts arms, and plays the 360 startup sound.

The selling out, the "hot girl falls for the nerd because she has a heart of gold" angle, and the completely awful and inconsistent characterization had me so angry when I left the theater that I almost felt like I just didn't want to go to the movies ever again. I think I'd rather just turn into nitin and only visit the foreign section of my local independent second-hand video store.