I felt pretty much the samething about The Virgin Suicides, Starbuck. 

maybe you could give a little more insight into why you preferred Hero?

My reasons for preferring Twin Dragons are simple. I watch martial arts films to watch fights. Good fights, showing lots of ability, speed, power and originality in the proponents. I like the simple joy of watching kung-fu nutcases kicking ass with explosive speed and style. Other things that worked against Hero, by my own ratings system were "too bloody pretentious", "too big a budget", and "thinks it's clever (isn't)". Just because a film is slow and arty, doesn't mean its deep. Seriously, grow some balls, next you're gonna be telling me you don't like Army of Darkness ;) 

that line had me in hysterics when I heard it in Terry Tate... by coincidence it was about a day after i watched office space. For the record, i think the director of Virgin Suicides needs some of Terry's extra special Pain Cake, and you won't want seconds of that! 

get to see SAW? its not in theatres until the 28th here..

all the versions ive seen online were of decent calibre :| 

Hero is definitely pretentious, but it does look stunning IMHO. The use of color and space is very well done. The looks held my attention.

And it's not really a kung fu movie either. Personally I think both this and crouching tiger are overrated (except the michelle yeoh/zhang ziyi fight at the end which is brilliant), but still well worth watching.

And no, I dont like Army of Darkness :) 

Dawn of the Dead remake - pretty good solid action movie with standard ludicrous plot points and character relations. I never really liked the original that much but it did have more humour.

Arsenic and old lace - Surprisingly good comedy even though some of the slapstick towards the end is silly. What it does right, IMHO, is play the outlandish plot so straight that it seems normal.

Cowboy Bebop Movie - Easily the best feature length anime I've seen because it actually has a proper plot that wasnt written by drunk monkeys with a heroin problem. And as usual, it looks nice with some killer animation during the fights.

Delicatassen - Not bad quirky french comedy from Jeunet and Caro. Better than City of Lost Children but not as good as the overrated Amelie.

Sanjuro - good followup to Yojimbo, much better paced but lacks some of the mood.

Schindler's List - I had never seen this before but it is every bit as good as it was made out to be. It looks phenomenal and Spielberg does not sentimentalise the story at all which is rare. Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson are terrific.

The Treasure of Sierra Madre - Very good film, let down by a lame ending. Bogart probably puts in his best performance. 

My Personal Award for Least Pretentious and Reasonably Informative Movie Review goes too . . . (break the seal, open the razor sharp fold, ruffle the silky gold paper inserts) Starbuck! (Applause! Applause! Applause!) 

Badges? We Dont Need No Stinkin' Badges! 

One of my favourite films. "Not bad" eh. 

IMHO the script wasnt as clever as the filmakers thought. Like a few Coen Brother movies, it mistook just being quirky and stylish as being clever. 

i agree with Nitin pretty much; I do like the film, nice visual style, good idea, great cast. Felt a little insubstantial to my tastes though, couldn't really see where it was going. Maybe reading the book would help flesh it out a little, it's on my desk but I haven't got round to starting it yet.

Blackpope: I saw it in Scotland, but I know it's out in England too. That's surprising that we got it first, has that ever happened before?

Headthump: cheers, dude... glad someone appreciates me raising my blood pressure like this ;) 

is it at all like the BBC series The Office? That has to be one of the funniest shows ever made. 

i wouldn't put 'Office Space' in the same class as 'The Office'. Office Space is a lot lighter and less subtle, and no one would ever accuse it of being a work of genius. It's funny, yes, but 'The Office' messes with you a lot more, you can feel depressed, you might be cringing, and then you're in hysterics for a good 10 minutes. Office Space is just a funny movie about cover sheets on TPS reports. 

this movie is dripping with sentimentality and coated with enough sugar to give you diabetes.

Yet, it's extremely difficult to resist its charm. I dont know what it is, but I'm sure that James Stewart's performance is part of the reason why this isnt a pile of mush. 

You have to go along with it, but its cheesy sentimentality makes for an enjoyable viewing, especially at Christmas, of course. The only thing that grates for me is the painful Christian references that are thrown out throughout the film. 

If you can be satisfied with stylish action movies that don't make much sense then you'll like this. It gets a million bonus points for style and 50/100 for plot. Keeping track of two scenes happening simulaneously is easy enough, but quick cuts between three with overlapping audio in subtitles is tricky. There are a few scenes where it's hard to tell if what you see is really happening or a metaphor. Also, there's a random clamation scene thrown in for no reason.

The end of the movie does pull together what would otherwise be a series of nonsequitors, but it's still confusing. 

I've had a lot of spare time lately so I've gone through a ton of my unwatched DVD stack since my comp is too crap to run any new games. I've only got 3 movies left so I'm going to ask for suggestions of movies to watch. What I currently own and have seen can be found here : http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&sub=All&id=nitin


Great Escape - Pretty good escape flick. Nice cast and script.

On the Waterfront - Brilliant film, especially the acting. the ending's a bit of a copout but the acting almsost saves it.

Rope - Not a bad little experimental film from Hitch. Ther performances and script never quite click but it's worth a watch anyway.

Troy - Was this a parody of epic war films or just plain stupid? It seems that the prerequisite to act in this movie was to have previous experience and exceptional skill in gazing into the distance. 

I, Robot was surprisingly watchable movie, pacing was good and most of the action good. Just don't expect much or any hard sci-fi from it. Also, SHODAN! 

Very, very disappointing. I feel bad for Danny Glover, he was the only good actor in the entire thing. Premise: Awesome. Acting/dialogue was pretty awful. Some of the scenes were downright hilarious, though they weren't supposed to be. So, a dude cut off his foot for $6.50. If it had a different director, bigger budget, decent actors, and better script, woulda been good. But it's a B-Movie "psychological thriller" attempting to be an A-movie modern day suspense with some gore. 

I'm just going to list some from my owned list that I don't see on yours that I think are especially good and/or significant.

(I should maybe note that I am really picky about what DVDs I actually buy--I went through a tape phase where I had about 87 million videotapes sitting around that I never watched; I eventually threw most of them away and vowed to not make the same mistake with DVDs.)

The Bank Dick (1940) - If you like W.C. Fields, it's one of his best.

Big Trouble in Little China (1986) - If you don't like this movie, you are a sad, sad person.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - Has its flaws, but is one of the more original and compelling visions of Dracula to come along in quite a while.

Brazil - Very different and original science fiction/fantasy from Terry Gilliam.

The Company of Wolves - An interesting (and at times very visually striking and somewhat shocking) take on a number of different werewolf themes and legends. Inconsistent, but some of the bits are really nicely done.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - I'm not normally a big Steve Martin fan, but he shines alongside Micheal Caine in this tale of deception, scams, and iffy behavior.

The Goonies - This movie kind of epitomizes growing up in the 80s and the peculiar sort of "feel" that had, at least for some, and while it's certainly not great cinema for the ages, it's fun and lighthearted and doesn't really take itself too seriously.

Wow, this is getting sorta long...
More next post. 

Also, just realized I stopped listing dates. Oh well.

Harvey - James Stewart is absolutely wonderful in this very odd movie. If I were going to make a top ten list, this would probably be on it.

Highlander - I was surprised this wasn't on your list. It's kinda cheesy and weird (especially with the glam-rock soundtrack from Queen), but has a odd sort of power to it. Sean Connery helps a lot.

Key Largo - John Houston, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, and Lionel Barrymore. How can you go wrong?

The Man Who Would Be King - Another excellent John Houston movie based on a Kipling tale of two adventurers (Sean Connery and Micheal Caine) in India.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail - C'mon?! You don't have this movie? What's wrong with you? :) (Or are you just not a Monty Python fan?)

Raiders of the Lost Ark - Again, what? No Raiders?! The best of the three, IMO.

The Return of the Pink Panther and The Revenge of the Pink Panther - IMO, these two movies best showcase the particular comedic genius that Peter Sellers polished to a high gloss with the Inspector Clouseau character.

The Professional - Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, and a very young Natalie Portman are excellent in this odd tale of a hit man with a heart.

S.O.B. - Blake Edwards made this absolutely wickedly funny send up and dissection of Hollywood and the movie making establishment. And Julie Andrews flashes her boobs and cusses like a sailor, can't beat that.

Bleh, part three: 

Something Wicked This Way Comes - Pretty good adaptation of a wonderful Ray Bradbury story. There are some changes from the text, some of which may have been ill-considered, but overall it's well worth watching.

Sorcerer - Incredibly tense, taut action film about poor bastards trying to transport unstable dynamite through miles of jungle in shitty old trucks. Great Tangarine Dream score.

True Romance - One of my favorite films. An awesome Thriller/Romance/Action/Crime/Drama from Quentin Tarantino involving drugs and whores and pimps and Hollywood and the power of True Love. It really kicks ass. Great performances from Christian Slater, Patrica Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson, Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer and Gary Oldman. Get the director's cut, if possible.

Wild at Heart - Another fave, and another freaky love story strained through David Lynch's typical screen of violence, sex, and just plain weird shit. Laura Dern and Nicholas Cage shine, and while the ending is a little...different...and probably won't appeal to everyone, IMO it's just the cherry on top of the ice cream and hot fudge.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - Gene Wilder with a performance that is, by turns, endearing and sorta nutty and scary. A nice adaptation of the Roald Dahl book, Charie and the Chocolate Factory.

Young Sherlock Holmes - Very nice take on what might have been, if Holmes and Watson had met as teens, and been drawn into evil plots and Egyptian cults.

k', I'll quit hogging the thread now. That got a little out of control. 

thanks for that, lots there that I havent seen. Some comments on some you did suggest though :

big trouble in little china - Maybe I'm a sad sad person, but I dont really like this film. But then again, I never got into Evil dead either.

brazil - it has moments of brilliance but overall, I could never quite get into this movie either.

key largo - been meaning to check this out.

monty python stuff - all three films are hilarious in parts, downright silly in others. They're jsut too patchy for my taste.

raiders of the lost ark - this is there, it is like you said the best of the three by far. The DVD release re-titles it to Indian Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark which is probably why you didnt see it.

Pink Panther movies - Sellers is a brilliant comedian, but slapstick is not my thing and although the Panther films are high class slapstick, it still doesnt work for me.

The Professional - Have this too, just under its original title of Leon rather than The Professional.


Thanks for the other suggestions, I'll take a look into them. 

Brazil is long, boring, pretentiosly esoteric drivel. Nice designs, though.

My thoughts may be because I saw the 142 minute director's cut.

Also, I just really feel like bashing something. 

the DC is better than the original cut, but I have similar feelings to you, but probably not as strong.