Recent theatrical viewings

[The Burgomaster]

I just came back from seeing Inglourious Basterds, I felt that over all it was a great movie, but it was too damned violent-- like there's nothing that separates the heros from the enemy in the way of achieving ends.

Did anyone else spot the Antonio Margheretti refference (the name of the director of "Yor: Hunter from the Future")?

Also, the character named Hugo Stiglitz.  Hugo Stiglitz is the name of an actor who has been in many (mostly foreign) TV shows and films.

[Rev. Powell]

PONYO: In this Japanese variation on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," a goldfish with a human face escapes from the undersea lair built by her wizard father and decides she wants to become human when washes ashore and is adopted as a pet by a little boy. Some amazing hand-drawn sequences, such as when newly-human Ponyo trips across waves that turn into fish and then melt back into surf; it's squarely aimed at little girls, who will be completely entranced, but it has much less crossover appeal to adults, who will spend their time just looking at the pretty pastel-colored pictures. 4/5.

DISTRICT 9: When aliens are stranded on earth, the South African government houses them in shantytowns, in an obvious allegory about apartheid and xenophobia. DISTRICT 9 falls apart logically, particularly when it changes from cold-hearted satire to action movie halfway through, but it's still one of the most original movie concepts of the year. 4.5/5.

[Jim H]

Pandorum - Lots of plot holes and other problems crossed with some good scenes of suspense and horror.  Mixed bag, marginal recommendation.  6/10.

Surrogates - A few good ideas, but lackluster action and just OK execution of everything else.  Still, marginally good.  6/10.

[Cthulhu]

I went to see Surrogates with a few friends. It was utterly forgettable. So mediocre, that it shouldn't even exist.
4/10

[monta]

I was suprised to enjoy Benjamin Button tbh, I went to see it in  mode and got caught up in the story pretty fast .It is easy to forget that Brad Pitt can actually act. _{CB is an alt.}

[Iseuelt]

The last movies I viewed were Hell Asylum, Gore Gore Girls, and Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter.  I found everything but Hell Asylum to be somewhat enjoyable.

[Rev. Powell]

INGLORIOUS BASTERDS: A Jew-hunting Nazi and a elite squad of Nazi-hunting American Jews cross paths in occupied France.  This is a very mature Tarantino effort that's somewhat reminiscent of a bloodier Sergio Leone; there some extremely tense, subtle and well-managed suspense episodes, and a morally complex tone to the whole movie.  4.5/5.

9: 9 robotic dolls fight killer machines in a post-human, post-apocalyptic world.  Great visuals and exciting action sequences; the setting is unique and could have made for a classic if the script had been handled better.  Kids won't care about the plot holes, but observant adults will be left with lots of unanswered questions.  3/5.       

[Rev. Powell]

BRIGHT STAR: A 19th-century seamstress falls in love with sickly John Keats, a dreamboat who writes poetry on the side. About what you would expect from a Campion historical weeper: well-made and very pretty, with no surprises. Warning to guys: sensitive poets take a LONG time to die from consumption. 3/5.

[retrorussell]

Saw Zombieland on Sunday.  Pretty damn funny; almost as good as Shaun Of The Dead.  Woody Harrelson is the perfect choice for the lead.  Bill Murray has a funny part in the film.  A couple times, the heroes do some pretty stupid things inexplicably, but otherwise the movie's worth seeing.  I liked how words explaining how to survive zombie attacks pop up onscreen, kind of like Student Bodies' body count and safety error messages.

[Hammock Rider]

Saw Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story."  It was either very good or I'm very suggesstible but afterwards I wanted to quit my job, buy a flock of sheep and move to Iceland and become a shephard. If you're willing to give Moore half a chance you might like it. Most of my friends who can't stand Moore wouldn't go see this, but the few that did begrudgingly liked it.

[Rev. Powell]

ZOMBIELAND: A neurotic, clown-fearing college student and a violent Twinkie-loving redneck team up to fight the living dead after the zombie-apocalypse. A crowd-pleasing, conventional mix of action and comedy, with a little romance on the side. The most shocking thing about it is how effortlessly Hollywood has mainstreamed zombies; they used to be underground, disreputable, and grindhousey, now they're multiplex-friendly.  A solid 4/5 nonetheless.

[Rev. Powell]

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: A cinéma vérité style examination of the demonic haunting of a young couple. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT meets POLTERGEIST, and not quite as good or original as either; slow to get started and lacking a satisfying climax, although there are truly nervewracking haunting scenes in the middle portion. Save your money and rent it on DVD; considering all the action takes place in a house, it will probably be scarier if you watch it at home just before sleeping than it was in the theater.  2.5/5.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Hard to know where to put this, so I'll put it here.

In honor of Halloween, our local library showed "Carnival of Souls." While I knew of the film, this was my first time to see it. And to whit . . .

(1) A period piece
This was made in 1962 and it shows. As it was a time when people still communicated by letters. People still smoked. And people still rode the bus and train.

(2) A mood piece. Even if you know the story, from the first moment of the film, there is a mood that something will be seriously wrong, and--surprisingly--the film manages to keep up this mood throughout the film, till the end.

(3) Funny
While not a comedy by any means, it is seriously funny in several places.

(4) A simple story
The problem with alot of filmmakers is that they try to make the story too complex, while some of the best films have the simplest stories, as in this case.

(5) Amateur hour.
You can tell that alot of the people in the film had never been in a film before, and for many of them this would be their only film, including the producer and director, Herk Harvey. One would have liked to have seen his encore film, but this would be his one and only feature film. Perhaps because . . .

(6) Unprofitable
While the film cost only about $15,000 (in '60's dollars) to make, Harvey would still lose money on the film.

(7) Too long
This may be an odd thing to say about a film that lasted only 75 minutes and was able to work throughout the length of the film, but as a couple of episodes of "The Twilight
Zone" showed, the story works even better at 30 minutes.

That's the good news. The bad news is that in honor of Halloween, our local library also showed "Twilight," which I did not see.

[Rev. Powell]

CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY: Muckraker Michael Moore examines the mortgage crisis, the financial bailout, and the growing gap between the rich and the pure [sic], and concludes that capitalism is pure evil.  Manipulative socialist propaganda that is intermittently entertaining and exposes some concrete injustices, but it seems irresponsible to deal with such complex and consequential issues in a 2 hour documentary without any fact checking, meaningful context, or dissenting opinions. Whenever you see character actor Wallace Shawn brought in as the economics expert in a documentary, you should sense something is wrong. 2/5.

[HappyGilmore]

Saw VI- Can't really 'defend' the series at this point...six films in.  There's two types of people: those who like the series and those who don't.  It is what it is...if you like the series, Saw 6 is a big step up in quality from 5, but still not as good as 1 or 2.

Zombieland- great film, saw it twice.  Definitely picking up the dvd.  Funnest time I've had at the movies all year.

Halloween 2- People weren't too fond of Zombie's first remake/reboot in 2007.  I liked the reboot, and was looking forward to the sequel.  Seemed a bit more on the 'psychological' side, showing how Laurie was deeply affected by Michael coming back for her, and then finding out it was her brother.  Could've been better, could've been a lot worse.  Plus, it gets a  from me, solely for the talk show scene that had, for some inexplicable reason, MTV's Chris Hardwicke as the host, and Malcolm MacDowell's Sam Loomis and Weird Al Yankovic as the two guests.  ANY movie with Weird Al being addressed as "Mr. Weird" by MacDowell is great.