oh nitin you disappoint me, how could you have not seen ANY of the previous Rambos! 1 and 2 are best. The third is crap. In fact, I'm yet to really like any American-based middle eastern war movie. Maybe Vietnam was just a much better setting, but it's had some classics; Rambo 2, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket. Hell even Forest Gump and Jacob's Ladder, although they're not officially war movies. What the fuck has middle east had? Three Kings and Green Zone were okay. Blood Diamond and Body Of Lies were decent (because of Di Caprio) but certainly not classics.

Anyway back to Rambo. The 4th was okay, but definitely nowhere near as good as the first 2. 

Oh and Nick Nolte and Tom Cruise made Tropic Thunder for me. I wish Danny Mcbride and Steve Coogan were used a lot more as well, they're both funny pricks. Although Coogan seems to be struggling with being funny any most of his hollywood movie characters, Knowing Me Knowing You and The Alan Partridge Show is classic brit comedy.

I've seen enough of Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black and Ben Stiller. In fact, apart from Zoolander and There's Something About Mary (which was funny due to the script and other characters, not Stiller), not one of those 3 have done a very funny comedy in their careers. 

First Blood is okay, but 2?! This scene sums it up pretty accurately: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DrA4G48Jr0 

<rant>
I thought Rambo 4 was pretty terrible and morally rancid. This from someone that loves violent games. The entire film is about a hour of set up so you can morally enjoy watching people get slaughter in as bloody a way as they could.

As ruthlessreviews summerised it: Aging slab of beef slaughters asians. Whites rejoice.

It would have been alright if it wasn't trying to tie itself into real world events. Yeah, news footage of real masacres and stuff at the beginning... really tasteful guys. Revenge fantasy isn't necessarily awful, although it's very questionable, but trying to tie it to the real world in so blatant a way, tells of a nation (or at least a core market) with a fucked up psyche.

imo

</rant> :) 

no interest in previous Rambos, I know what I like :) Watched 4 because someone else was.

Middle East war movies, Jarhead was good, Hurt Locker was excellent, and even though its not american The Bsttle of Algiers sits at the top of the pile.

And as for Downey Jnr, I like him a lot. Stiller and Black not so much.

ZQF, morally rancid, arguably so. Well made action movie, I would say arguably so.

As for the violence, I personally think if there is to be violence on screen, it should be on the ugly side rather than the cartoony side.

As for tying into real world events, there's plenty of entertainment that takes its cue from tragedies in the real world. Most modern video games for example. 

"there's plenty of entertainment that takes its cue from tragedies in the real world."

Certainly funny to see how over the top the latest CoD games have become. Quite funny to see something trying so hard to be shocking or intense :p 

Daybreakers was really good. A grittier antidote to all the festering cheese teenage romance vampire bullshit.

Tropic Thunder on the otherhand, was utterly awful and devoid of any entertaiment value. I would struggle to give it 6-6.5 %. 

Tropic Thunder. It was Downey Jr's performance as a closet gay white actor playing a black butch vietnam vet. He's a genius. 

the karate kid (2010)

the scene where jackie chan beats up a bunch of schoolkids using their own fists was awesome!

the rest was shit. 2-bit characters, half-backed sub-plots, zero unpredictability and all the rousing cliches in the book. the ending was a massive disappointment too, although that was mainly because i was hoping jaden smith would get his head kicked in. i wasn't expecting anything serious in all but even by cheap popcorn entertainment it was a bit naff


the big lebowski

i'd been meaning to watch this for years. will prob take a few repeat viewings before i can properly appreciate it on a similar level as its cult followers, but nevertheless for a first time viewing it was an enjoyable ride. very funny and warped, but more subtle than most comedies, with several clever plot twists to boot. john goodman is especially brilliant; the ashes scene had me in creases :) 

is the only thing I like about lebowski, actually him and Buscemi. 

was rubbish. Not even the good kind of rubbish. 

And not in a good way. But the auto-shotgun is cool.

Watched Monsters

I liked it. Excellent character development and a different angle on a Sci-Fi 'Horror'. Dont wanna spoil it, but there is some good directing and a real sense of suspense. Novel ending. 

Big lebowski bored me so much I stopped watching 

I didn't understand the big cult following it got either. The acting and script was good, but the storyline was pretty boring. Burn After Reading is my fav Coen movie, strangely. Followed by No Country for Old Men.

Watched A Serious Man a couple months ago. What a boring pile of crap. The Coens are supposed to known for their script and black humour, but that was just boring. 

Try the Man Who Wasn't There 

was great as is The Man Who Wasnt There. Strangely, I find all their non-straight out comedies funnier than their straight out stuff (Raizing Arizona, Big Lebowski).

Overall though, I find everything of theris, except The Ladykillers, well worth watching. 

watchable, actually quite enthralling, I grew attached to the characters, and I caught some of the black humour, but the ending sucked. I mean seriously - W. T. F.
It's like a non-ending. Unless the point of the ending is just to say that all of your troubles seem like nothing when faced with a

<SPOILER>

natural disaster like a bloody great big tornado.

</SPOILER> 

I like it very much, though I do think it's over rated. I love the way that the film noir plot points juxtapoze with the more modern setting/ characters, and I love goodman and Buscemi. Also the penis sketch, that gets me every time.

Also watched Lost Highway the other day - other than the 90's-ness of it, I really really enjoyed that movie. Marilyn Manson, Henry ROllins and RAMSCHTEIN are super distracting though - did the financiers make him shoehorn that crap in there or what?

Going to watch Elephant man very soon.


Has black swan been discussed?
AMAZING sound design in that movie. Watched that thing very high in the front row and was pretty happy with the final product. 

I thought daybreakers had like, 2 interesting parts/concepts, but was pretty terrible overall. 

Elephant Man is my favorite Lynch though, and my third favorite film of all time. But now with that buildup, you'll probably hate it :) 

I don't know about others, but I thought the ending wrapped things up pretty nicely. As a whole, the story can be described as a version of the story of Job. The ultimate bet, that is God pisses on someone every day, they'll eventually renounce him. In the bible, Job proved God right, never renouncing him.

In the movie, the main character fails, by caving in with the student. God tested him, threw a storm of shit at him, but he lasted. Towards the end, things are looking up for him. He's probably going to be promoted, his wife is coming back to him, his son had a good Bar-Mitzvah thing. He passed.

but...

Then he changes the grade. I think it no coincidence that was soon as he changes it, the phone rings, with what appears to be bad news. The tornado at the end? Most likely kills his son.

Earlier in the movie, they referenced Schrodinger's cat. The phone call almost seems to be a direct example of it. If he changes the grade, is the news good? I think it is.

But since he did change it, there's going to be hell to pay. 

There's a lot of things in that movie I know nothing about. That's probably why I didn't get it. Although it makes a bit of sense now I guess. I enjoyed the performances :) 

I was going to post something but his is a lot more coherent.

And Sy Abelman is up there with classic Coen characters. 

I love it, one of my favorites, must've seen it 5-7 times and i still laugh my ass off watching it. I know almost all the lines ;-)

Interestingly enough, this is one movie where I think that the German dubbing adds to the movie: they translated every "fuck" into "bekackt", which is not actually a term you commonly use in German (it's legal grammar though, I think) -- that makes it a lot more surreal and weird, I can imagine. 

The Big Lebowski is bekackting phenomenal. One of my favorites.