Recent Viewings

[ulthar]

THE GUARDIAN (2006): Keven Costner and Ashton Kutcher do a cross between OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN and TOP GUN, with predictable ending  3 of 5

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005): Aragorn leads a double life, sort of.  Very interesting exploration of 'the inner man' and his relationships brought to us by Cronenberg.   5 of 5

TALLEDEGA NIGHTS (2006): as a NASCAR fan, I found this to be a bit disappointing.  I was looking for a little more humor, and a little less meanness.  Oh well.  3 of 5 for a couple of laughable moments.

DESTINATION MOON (1950): with Heinlein as writer how can you go wrong.  This film was amazingly prescient of a lot of details about both the first moon shot itself and the government-industrial complex that would become part-n-parcel to the space age.  4.5 of 5

SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS, MST3K Version: Oh man, this was bad.  The MST treatment was not even all that funny.  Good cure for insomnia. 2 of 5

SPIRITED AWAY (2002): Another excellent anime - very cool story, if somewhat hard to follow (okay, I fell asleep the first time through).  My daughter, four, loved it, and became somewhat emotionally attached to Haku.  5 of 5

RESERVOIR DOGS (1992): Mr. Pink, Mr. Black and company shoot, swear and figure out the meaning of life.  In other words, a typical Tarantino flick (okay, so it was first, somewhat spoiled by the fact that i've seen most of the others).  Acctually, this was a pretty interesting exploration in loyalties.  4 of 5 or so.

HIGH CRIMES (2002): Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman take on Big Military in court.  Caviezel has become one of my favorite actors, though here he does not have much to do in the way of depth.  Stupid, formulaic ending, the film would have been much better if it had not 'sold out.'  3.5 of 5.

LORD OF WAR (2005):  Hmmm.  Well, I was not really enjoying this all that much while watching it, but, something happened.  I found myself thinking about it for several days - it stuck with me.  Nicolas Cage plays an international arms dealer struggling with the moral question of what his wares are used for - or maybe he does NOT have a conscious at all.  Not an action/thriller, edge of your seat flick, but it has a message and manages to explore it in subtle ways.  Some have criticized it as being anti-American or anti-West, and though there are some elements of that, I did not find that to be the central theme.  4.5 of 5.

KILLERS FROM SPACE (1954):  Peter Graves, a nukular scientist for the Air Force, gets brainwashed to sell nuke secrets to aliens.  The reason they need these secrets is sorta dumb, really.  Anyway, not a bad b-flick way to spent 1 hour and 11 minutes.  The alien make-up is laughable, the plot gets completely silly at times, and Air Force Colonel and FBI guy are just way too friendly.  I laughed out loud at the Air Force call signs for the aircraft: "Tar Baby 1" and "Tar Baby 7."  Who thought of THAT??  Also, sure glad our real base security is better than that depicted in this film ... oh wait....nevermind.      3 of 5 for campy fun.

INTO THE BLUE (2005): Jessica Alba's butt and Paul Walker's pecks in a juvenile attempt at 'action/thriller.'  Sorry, but I gotta give this one a more details review in it's own thread....  2 of 5.

[peter johnson]

I was collecting the manga of "Spirited Away", but stopped after 2 volumes, as the cost was a tad high -- The film is really wonderful, though I do prefer this one on the big screen -- The startlingly blue color of the sky over the amusement park just attacks you, as do the clouds.
. . . and you can never go wrong with a super-serious pseudo-scientific film starring Peter Graves . . . If you haven't already, absorb "The Beginning of The End" some day -- Pure Graves . . .
peter johnson/denny crane

[Torgo]

"Ha ha ha ha ha! So you have discovered our little menagerie!"

[AnubisVonMojo]

TALLEDEGA NIGHTS (2006): as a NASCAR fan, I found this to be a bit disappointing.  I was looking for a little more humor, and a little less meanness.  Oh well.  3 of 5 for a couple of laughable moments.

Even without the meanness, I thought that a number of the jokes went on for way too long, much like some of the first few episodes of "Family Guy" from the return season. It's rare that I subscribe to the concept of jokes that "go on so long to the point that they stopped being funny but became fun again before the end" and this wasn't one of those instances. I fell over laughing at the blooper reel though. Watching the actors adlib many of their lines was better than what made it into the movie! 

[Ash]

I hated "A History of Violence".
It took everything I had to not shut it off and go to bed.

I think it's Cronenberg's style of directing & storytelling...I just can't stand it.

Almost every aspect of that movie rubbed me the wrong way.
While watching it at home, I actually said out loud, "This fu**ing movie SUCKS!!"
Especially the stair banging scene...totally unnecessary.

Haven't seen Talledega Nights yet.
Lord of War was excellent and Reservoir Dogs is a great classic.

[Yaddo 42]

I liked A History of Violence, but I'm used to Cronenberg's style, I know not to expect what I would expect from other directors. And the stair scene was supposed to show how even their lovemaking had changed as the reality of the husband's earlier life came to the surface.

Lord of War was a great satire, been recommending it to tins of people, except I had to warn my more conservative relaitves they probably wouldn't like the ending.

I lost some respect for Reservior Dogs after I saw the Hong Kong flick City on Fire. I knew about the "homages" to The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three and The Killing. The film still works for me, but not to the same degree as when I first saw it.

Santa Claus Conquers... I can't hate it because it's just so cheap and dumb all the way around, which is the whole reason to watch it. Like a lot of movies we discuss here, you have to just shake your head and think, "This is someone's labor of love, or someone thought they'd make a buck with this train wreck."

[Scott]

THE GUARDIAN (2006) - Never heard of it.

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005) - Might check this one out.

TALLEDEGA NIGHTS (2006) - Dumb and Dumber meet NASCAR is how I posted this a couple months ago. Still a fun film.

DESTINATION MOON (1950) - Not a bad little Sci-Fi film. Good cheap sets and dumb dialogue. They wear shorts in space in the 50's.



SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS, MST3K Version - Saw the un-MST3K Version and it was rough going. I remember asking everyone what movie I should watch from a certain list that I posted and SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS was what most wanted me to watch.  Maybe this Summer I'll watch the Mexican version of SANTA CLAUS.

SPIRITED AWAY (2002) - Excellent Anime.

RESERVOIR DOGS (1992) This is a great little film. The torture scene with Mr. Blonde cutting off an officers ear and poring the gasoline on him while he dances to that song was insane. Warning not for younger viewers.

[youtube=425,350]http://youtube.com/watch?search=&mode=related&v=SmcLdbBhEQY

HIGH CRIMES (2002): Never heard of it.

LORD OF WAR (2005) - Haven't seen it yet, but it's on my newer release list.

KILLERS FROM SPACE (1954) This was rough viewing. At least we had the aliens with the bulging eyes to help the film.



[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnqxYdq4Y_I

INTO THE BLUE (2005) Never heard of it.

[Torgo]

The only good thing about Into the Blue is this:



Anyhoo, I watched Lady Vengeance last night.

It's the last in Chow Yun Park's (sp?) Vengeance trilogy (also consisting of Old boy and Sympathy for Mr. Veneance).

It's one of the best films that I've seen in quite some time.