Recent viewings

[Rev. Powell]

I haven't even seen the film yet, but I'm certain it will take best picture.  If it's as good a film as I keep hearing, plus a socially relevant message, it's a dead lock.

Wanna bet? 

Sure. What's your pick? I'll bet 10 karma on it The Help for Best Picture.

Can I have the field?  If not, I'll take THE ARTIST.  But one karma is sufficient stakes.

[Jack]

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) - It's like they made the stupidest movie they could, then called in a team of experts to go through it frame-by-frame and insert additional stupidity into each and every one of them, then soaked the whole mess in a pool of liquid stupidity for 72 hours. If I could have made it through more than 20 minutes of this I'm sure it would be down in the 0.5/5 range.

[Flick James]

I haven't even seen the film yet, but I'm certain it will take best picture.  If it's as good a film as I keep hearing, plus a socially relevant message, it's a dead lock.

Wanna bet? 

Sure. What's your pick? I'll bet 10 karma on it The Help for Best Picture.

Can I have the field?  If not, I'll take THE ARTIST.  But one karma is sufficient stakes.

Well, if you take the field then you have to give me odds, like 4 to 1 or something. Otherwise, The Artist vs. The Help would be fine for 1 karma, and if neither wins, then all bets are off. Actually, now that I think of it you probably have a slight edge with The Artist, but don't underestimate the Oscar power of movies with a minority struggle message. They pack a wallop. Both films have been raking in so far in the award season.

[Rev. Powell]

I haven't even seen the film yet, but I'm certain it will take best picture.  If it's as good a film as I keep hearing, plus a socially relevant message, it's a dead lock.

Wanna bet? 

Sure. What's your pick? I'll bet 10 karma on it The Help for Best Picture.

Can I have the field?  If not, I'll take THE ARTIST.  But one karma is sufficient stakes.

Well, if you take the field then you have to give me odds, like 4 to 1 or something. Otherwise, The Artist vs. The Help would be fine for 1 karma, and if neither wins, then all bets are off. Actually, now that I think of it you probably have a slight edge with The Artist, but don't underestimate the Oscar power of movies with a minority struggle message. They pack a wallop. Both films have been raking in so far in the award season.

I accept your bet, ARTIST vs. HELP or a push. 

[lester1/2jr]

Margin Call- really like this one. It's based on the 08 crash and does a great job of conveying the two elements that will probably stay with us on that: the complexity of the trading schemes and the moral repugnence of the banks. A young super intelligent trader stumbles on some charts that "change eveything". namely the AAA rated securities the bank holds may drop in value below a certain point at which the levered to the hilt bank will lose a ton of money. more than a ton. and it will have repurcussions way beyond just them. It's sort of like a disaster movie. The charts and stuff are like radioactive time bombs.

Demi Moore is okay and looks pretty good. It's an understated performance. Simon Baker is great. Kevin Spacey  and jeremy irons are not initially what you would imagine big wall street guys are like but they pretty much pull it off. takes place over a single night, I watched it late and felt like I was there. 5/5

[bob]

lately I've been giving ratings what I've been watching in the track what you watch in 2012 thread but I want to elabrote on this as it's the first thing I've watched in a while that I've been really excited about watching since I first discovered that there was a follow up to 2001 a few weeks ago

2010 is awesome, is on the same level as 2001 no --- very few movies are

Hal, Dave and the monlith concept all return from 2001 in 2010

the shots of space are excellent

2010 also sheds some light on what happened in 2001

SFX are great

2010 is paced much differently from Kubrick's

this contains much more dialogue then 2001

I'm guessing this would look excellent on bluray


15/5

[Rev. Powell]

Margin Call- really like this one. It's based on the 08 crash and does a great job of conveying the two elements that will probably stay with us on that: the complexity of the trading schemes and the moral repugnence of the banks. A young super intelligent trader stumbles on some charts that "change eveything". namely the AAA rated securities the bank holds may drop in value below a certain point at which the levered to the hilt bank will lose a ton of money. more than a ton. and it will have repurcussions way beyond just them. It's sort of like a disaster movie. The charts and stuff are like radioactive time bombs.

Demi Moore is okay and looks pretty good. It's an understated performance. Simon Baker is great. Kevin Spacey  and jeremy irons are not initially what you would imagine big wall street guys are like but they pretty much pull it off. takes place over a single night, I watched it late and felt like I was there. 5/5

This was my vote for "Best Original Screenplay" for the Online Film Critics Society, but it didn't even make the final five nominees.  Glad to see it was nominated for an Oscar, but I don't think it will win there either. 

[Jack]

Appleseed (2004) - In a post-apocalyptic world, a Utopian society has been set up where half the population is human, and the other half are androids (pretty much indistinguishable from humans). The androids are fairly cheerful, and the thinking is that this will keep the humans from wiping out the planet yet again. Of course there are various pro-human and pro-android factions, and if I said any more than that I'd be spoiling it. In the middle of this malaise we've got our hero, Deunan Knute, a female soldier with lots of combat experience, trying to navigate her way through the various plot twists and do what's ultimately right. A really good anime movie, with likable characters and a fairly interesting plot. Plenty of action as well. The ending was actually quite dramatic and emotional.  4.25/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

House on Haunted Hill (1999)

High tech remake of the '50s William Castle oldie is pretty fun stuff in its own right. Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen and Chris Kattan chew the scenery for all they're worth, and there's some cool set pieces and gory bits.

[InformationGeek]

Real Steel (2011):

A former boxer (Hugh Jackman) and now robot fighter has to watch over his son for a couple of months while his aunt is out of the country.  While watching his son, they discover this old robot which they fix up and pit it a series of robot fights that led them to face the world champsionship.  Meanwhile, the father and son bound after being apart for 10 years.

Okay, this thing is cliched to hell with different parts from underdog and father & son bonding films.  It is also a film that takes itself seriously, but the subject matter and the overacting from side, minor, or one-shot characters really clash with that aspect of the film.  First time I ever laughed unintentionally at a film.  Also, the product placement was getting really distracting, especially during the final fight when it was suppose to be so intense and very serious, sort of distracted me.  Also, there is a plot hole that is never resolved and plot threads that are left dangling all over the place.  I think the movie needed 10 more minutes to wrap up everything.

Positively, the acting was good when it wasn't hammy.  I liked the kid and the girl in the movie and after awhile, I sort of like Hugh's character.  The CGI wasn't too bad, but nothing really special either.  Served it's purpose well.  The fighting is pretty solid and quite intense in some parts, where I almost feel the blows myself.  The computer animators must of watched a few boxing fights to see how the people moved and fight in it to get action in this pretty solid.  Even though the story was built upon cliches, I still a bit touched by the father and son bonding in here and I did like the conclusion at the end.

For a Rockem Sockem Robots movie, this was better than what I thought it would be.  It's not great, but at least it was fun for a one time watch.  Defenitely something for the little kids to watch and probably enjoy more than me.  I say Real Steel is a 2.5 out of 5.

[lester1/2jr]

MST3K Zombie Nightmare- A mike episode with no Pearl is a real jackpot, too bad this wasn't a "better" movie. the first hour is really dull, in the last part there were some okay campy zombies but all in all a typical good episode with another Dondi refernce! 4/5

[JaseSF]

My girlfriend's pick last night so...

Must Love Dogs (2005): Romantic comedy focused on the struggle of the recently divorced, here primary characters Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane) and Jake Anderson (John Cusack), to get back in the dating world and search for love including the world of personal ads.

This was alright. It featured a likable cast (Christopher Plummer and Stockard Channing both get some good moments here) and Cusack and Lane seemed to have good chemistry together. I liked some of the comedy at play here and while the romance felt a little cliche at times, I enjoyed it. The biggest problem here was swallowing one's disbelief especially when Lane starts actively pursuing Cusack.  *** out of ***** stars.

Pocahontas (1995): Disney style fantasy myth take on the real-life Pocahontas legend has the daughter of an Indian Chief meeting and falling in love with Englishman Captain John Smith and then the pair trying to prevent a war between the Indians and the White Man.

There's a nice anti-hate, pro-acceptance/pro-peace, anti-war message at work here. Of course there's also a level of Disney comedy cuteness and fantasy with animals and trees being important supporting characters in the plot. Lots of songs here and lots of long, drawn ourt dramatic gazes especially between Pocahontas and Smith. This all seems far away from reality but is entertaining escapist fare. How much one likes this probably depends on one's tolerance for a movie with lots of songs and a threadbare plot that holds it all together. It's beautiful to look at but aside from the message it's promoting, this seems to lack a certain depth. *** out of ***** stars.

[Rev. Powell]

BELLE DE JOUR (1967):  Catherine Deneuve stars as a young housewife with masochistic fantasies who feels compelled to work as a prostitute during days while her husband is at work.  An ambiguous, dreamlike ending caps this subtle, psychologically complex drama.  4.5/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Thor" (2011)

Marvel Comics' Thunder God gets banished to Earth by his father, Odin (Sir Anthony Hopkins) to learn some humility, which gives Thor's evil half brother Loki an opportunity to take control of Asgard in his absence. Fun stuff, great special effects.

[lester1/2jr]

Leprechaun 4: Leprechuan in Space  -  The comedy was not exactly Larry David level stuff, more like Gary David ( ??)  but I have to admit I liked this. Ive never seen any of the other segments. Some people are in space and they face the leprechaun in Buck Rogers type scenerios. The female lead was sci fi channel type and the other female lead was kind of like the blonde chick on Xena type. I liked her alot more. The sets are boring and the dialogue is beyond cliched but I enjoyed it. 4/5