but it wouldnt be a Func post without borked tags.

Arrested Development - Finished the entire first season. Easily the best american sitcom since Seinfeld's glory days and the funniest show I've viewed since The Office.

Shaun of the Dead - Mildly amusing but hardly hilarious IMHO. It runs out of steam at about the hour mark too. 

Had heard a lot about Hard Boiled and the gunplay. The action scenes, especially the climactic one, are definitely spectacular and creative. But the rest of the film is utter garbage. If only John Woo could attach that sort of action to a decent film. Face Off would have been a great candidate for that sort of gunplay. The action scenes in that were decent but nothing like what was in Hard Boiled.

The Iron Giant, whilst nowhere near being a perfect film, just whets my appetite more for The Incredibles. Brad Bird knows what he's doing and The Iron Giant's an impressive film. But I can only wonder at what wonders he could work with the magicians at Pixar. 

Anime made all in 3d that starts with a battle scene with horrible music (at least in this context) that makes it impossible to be immersed and believe what's happening on the screen. When the first battle is over and soundtrack starts working with the film instead of against it you can actually start buying the animated world your shown although it doesn't stop the first half of the movie from being mostly crap and the soundtrack problem does come back in som more places. The last half of the film is better although it has it's share of crappy moments and clich�s it's balanced out by some good action scenes featuring some nice mech designs, a quicker pace and at least slightly interesting story developments that the first half lacked. 

anyone seen it? opinions on looks/story? 

on saturday, both appleseed and gits 2 is part of the programme of the stockholm filmfestival that is taking place atm. 

Some good visuals, but nowhere near as good as the original.
Story is your typical metaphysical etheric phantom japanese spirit nonsense that noone gives a fuck about.
Basicly I thought it was crap, with a few moments where you think 'kawaaiii prettyu'. 

Spongebob Square Pants The Movie TV shows rarely translate well to movies. The larger plots and random musical segments tend to run contrary to the feel of the original show. This movie is exactly like the tv show.

Coffee and Cigarettes Weird talking film which wasn't particularly deep. It's really funny, but not lol funny. 

Story is your typical metaphysical etheric phantom japanese spirit nonsense that noone gives a fuck about.

I am in 9000 percent agreement with that remark.

When the lead character at the ending declares her self a new being ready to seize whatever new opportunites the world has instore for her, I wanted to blow the world to smithereens just to wipe that stupid smile off her stupid face. 

Do you mean the movie is not as good as the original or the visuals are not as good as the original?

I thought the original movie was crap dressed in extremely gorgeous animation. 

what's appleseed? 

ignore the last question, I just read the post above. 

I mean the entire movie is not as good as the original.
If you thought the story of the first one was bad, this one is a willion times worse.
Hello now we are in a simulation of someones mind in a simulation of the world and we are experiencing time as a simulation of ones soul's craving for a reality without simulation and basset hounds are an integral part of a metaphysical mirror of simulated simula. 

Heh, I liked Ghost in the Shell 2, but I'm a huge fan of the first one (which is still find alot better). But I'm a sucker for "metaphysical etheric phantom japanese spirit nonsense", hehe. I thought the themes where quite different from the first movie, and Avalon (czg's last post looks more like a description of Avalon to me, hehe). But yeah, if you didn't like the first movie, there's little chance you'll like the second.

I saw House of Flying Daggers too recently, I really enjoyed it, but you have to imagine it as some kind of legendary tales (= lots of dramatic exageration), visuals are definatly great anyways, and some nice classix wuxia martial arts ideas.

Also saw Nobody Knows, really nice japanese movie about abandoned kids in Tokyo, if you really want to see what Tokyo looks like without going there, check this out. Quite sad movie tho, the kids did an incredible job acting.

Bleh, bear you bastard you watched Appleseed before me... Have to see it.

/me runs off yay! 

House of Flying Daggers is out in your area already? Have you seen Banlieue 13, and if so is it good? I wanted to see both of those, but I'm not sure if Banlieue is my thing. 

Banlieue 13 looks just plain stupid... =) Stupid french gangstah shit. 

really? i saw a trailer for it, kinda looked neat. oh well, i'll wait til ong bak gets released. 

Spongebob was funny, I thought. I mean, sure -- it was a kid's movie, but for that it was funny. Of course, I'm a big fan of lower-grade humor...

Finally saw Shrek2, which was good but didn't hit the same spot as the original. It was more of a congenial flick, not as wacky as the first.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch -- waiting on my region 1 uncut version of Ichi the Killer and Gozu to arrive (should be in by Monday). Ooh, Miike goodness. 

Avalon did it for me despite the lack of Basset Hounds.

GITS impressed me so much I was inspired to write a paper "Consciousness, AI and the Love that Dare not Speak Its Name." Yes, I was able to work a reference to goatse into a philosophical text. Probably won't see Innocence antil it's part of the 6 for $10 deal at the DVD hire place.

I was bored shitless during all but 12 seconds of Shrek2.

Looking to pick up Invader Zim Volumes 1-3 before the year is out... Doom, D'Doom, Doom! 

...was the worst movie I've seen this year. That is all. 

as overrated as Spirited Away. By no means a bad film, but just an above average one with stunning animation. 

Just one question:

What DO you like in a film?? What really gets you and appeals to you??

I ask this because I view you as Func_Q#TF's resident film critic and you certainly seem to opine on them with knowledge and passion - but sometimes I just think your taste is ass and can't make any sense of it... 

I thought I'd try not to describe it as 'incredible', but that's just what it is. Fucking awesome stuff.
Pixar �wns meh, Brad Bird (The Iron Giant) �wns meh. 

Getting all the reviews off the net and all the tie-in products months before the movies themselves get released. You can opine knowledgably about 'em without ever having to see the movie at all. 

'Overrated' isn't a criticism of a movie, it's a criticism of the people who talk about it.

I liked Spirited Away a lot more than Mononoke mainly becuase the story was more interesting to me. It's an Alice in Wonderland story and they did a good job with the wonderland. I'll agree with you, nitin, that neither are Great Films, but just because a movie has a bunch of slobbering fanboys doesn't make it any worse in my estimation. 

yeah, I generally agree with that statement.

Anyway, what I didnt like about both films (although it's more an issue with Mononoke than Spirited Away) was a very disjointed narrative that meandered along and ended up going on for far too long.

The Alice in Wonderland concept was realised very well in Spirited Away but it went for 2+ hours, running out of steam about a half our before the end.