Movies On My Mind.......................

[Scott]

Thinking about what is on the DVD rental shelves at Blockbuster and these are the films I have yet to view:

The Good Shepherd
Night At The Museum
Babel
Rocky Balboa
The Departed
Marie Antoniette
Jackass Number Two
Wedding Crashers
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Lord Of War
Syriana

With over 300 yet to be viewed DVD's sitting on my shelve these are the 20 that I am considereing viewing next:

Black Angel 2
City Of The Living Dead
Frankenstein 90
Golden Temple Amazons
Amazonia: The Catherine Miles Story
Diamonds Of Kilimandjaro
The Champions Of Justice
Mystery In Bermuda
Fort Algiers
Nevada Heat
The House Of Seven Corpses
The Royal Hunt Of The Sun
Five Savage Men
Choppers
Beatniks
Pray To Kill And Return Alive
The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe
Bruce Lee The Invincible
Run Angel Run
Shaolin Temple II
Four Dueces (Burgomaster saw it this month. Might view and add some comments)

[Oldskool138]

I own House of Seven Corpses.  It was cool to see Faith Domergue (Faith Adams from This Island Earth) in her last film.  John Ireland plays a drunk...That was a real stretch for him.     Not a bad little film.  Although, you'll probably figure out what's going on 5 minutes into it.  This DVD looks neat sitting next to House of 1000 Corpses on my shelf.

I've seen Rocky Balboa and it's not as bad as you'd think...if you're a fan of the franchise, that is. 

The Departed is great.  Not Best Picture great but better than most movies out right now.  (Note: I'm from MA so I'm slightly biased towards this film).  Jack is Jack.  Leo Dicaprio does a pretty good job.  I don't know why Scorsese uses him all the time, though.  I liked the story because I kept saying to myself "How is this going to end?" and that doesn't happen very often.

[Scott]

Been reading around and finding HOUSE OF THE DEAD might be ok, so I put it on my list. Thanks for the imput Oldskool. 

[Jordan]

Regardless of how good "The Departed" is, I refuse to acknowledge it and I have no desire to watch it as it is a REMAKE (I never thought I'd see a remake get an Oscar....) of a lil ole film called "Infernal Affairs" that is excellent! Andy Lau is the man! Lick my balls Scorsese! 

[Oldskool138]

Regardless of how good "The Departed" is, I refuse to acknowledge it and I have no desire to watch it as it is a REMAKE (I never thought I'd see a remake get an Oscar....) of a lil ole film called "Infernal Affairs" that is excellent! Andy Lau is the man! Lick my balls Scorsese! 

Well, they said the same thing about sequels and Godfather 2 cleaned house and so did Return of the King (I know it's not a true sequel but it does fall into that category).  What about The Magnificent Seven?  That's a great remake of Seven Samuri.  Heck, Kurosawa gave the director a sword, he liked it so much.

I do argee with you.  Most remakes suck.  But just because it's a remake, doesn't mean it's any less of a film provided it's good.

[Yaddo 42]

I've been neglecting my b-movie watching lately, so I've seen more of the new stuff you mentioned:

The Good Shepherd is good and interesting but slow, I liked it but it's not for everyone. Although Angelina Jolie is stuck in a pretty thankless role.

The Departed was enjoyable, but not Best Picture material IMO. But people often win Oscars for lesser work to make up for losing out for better efforts.

Wedding Crashers I liked when I thought I wouldn't, but don't think too much about how it ends, it's not that kind of movie. I saw the DVD version with extra stuff; "the reception dance, champagne openings, bedding of the hotties" montage was great, in a grubby sort of. Can't call it suggestive, it's not that subtle by a longshot.

Lord of War was a a cool dark satire, not perfect, but I'd like to own it. Very cynical ending, that I've had to warn my more conservative friends and relatives about, since they take that stuff personally when watching some movies from those "awful Hollywood liberals".

Syriana I liked, it was interesting, but not the kind of thing I want to watch all the time. Many people I know had trouble with the intersecting plotlines, just like in Traffic, I didn't but it does require paying attention to what's happening. Casual viewing won't cut it.

Scott, have you seen The Proposition? We both like westerns, and it's a gritty dark violent western style story set in Australia in the 19th century. Many reviews compared it to Leone films, which isn't really true. It did remind me of many spaghetti westerns, but not his work or style.

[Scott]

Yaddo, thanks for the info. Especially about the film THE PROPOSITION. Saw it on the shelves a number of time, but passed it by because the last Autralian Western I saw was really not that good. In fact I forgot the name of it altogether. I'll put THE PROPOSITION high on my rental list.

One of the best Australian Westerns that I have seen and own is MAD DOG starring Dennis Hopper.

[Ash]

I had heard all kinds of good things about The Proposition but found it to be quite dull.
Maybe a second viewing might change my mind.

Rocky Balboa and The 40 Year Old Virgin were great.
I definitely recommend that you check them out.   

[Scott]

I hear you Ash on ROCKY BALBOA and THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN.

Thanks.

By the way I like your wall paper on your Myspace webpage.

[The Burgomaster]

The Good Shepherd - I bought it the other day and started watching it at around 11:30 at night.  Big mistake because I started to fall asleep.  I need to start from the beginning at an earlier hour.

Night At The Museum - Saw it on a plane (partially - I didn't have the earphones on and I wasn't really paying attention).  What I did see looked pretty lame.

Babel - Bought the DVD.  Interesting and complex.  I liked it, but I can understand why a lot of people didn't.

Rocky Balboa - Saw it twice in the theater and bought the DVD.  The best Rocky movie since the original.

The Departed - Saw it in the theater and bought the DVD.  This is the best movie on your list.

Marie Antoniette - Haven't seen it, but I will eventually.

Jackass Number Two - Haven't even seen #1 yet.  However, I AM a jackass.

Wedding Crashers - Reasonably funny, but not great.

The 40 Year Old Virgin - Get the unrated version.  VERY, VERY funny.

Lord Of War - Haven't seen it yet.

Syriana - Very complex.  You really need to pay attention.  Great, realistic torture scene.

With over 300 yet to be viewed DVD's sitting on my shelve these are the 20 that I am considereing viewing next:

City Of The Living Dead - Typical Lucio Fulci gore flick.

The House Of Seven Corpses - Typical 1970s "PG" drive-in flick.  Okay, but nothing special.

Run Angel Run - You'll probably enjoy this one.

Four Dueces - See my recent post in this forum.

I'm in the same boat as you.  I have a pile of 50 movie packs to finish watching.  On average, I've watched about 15 - 20 movies from each of these sets, so I still have plenty of movies that I haven't watched yet.  I also have TV series like KUNG FU, ULTRA MAN, THE AVENGERS, CAPTAIN SCARLET, THE TIME TUNNEL, etc., that I haven't finished.  And some "real" movies like THE ONION FIELD, EXODUS, BREAKHART PASS, etc., that I recently purchased and are still in the shrink wrap.

[Scott]

Another one I'm considering renting is THE PUNISHER with Travolta in it and PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST.

[Jordan]

Oldskool, I'm not saying "The Departed" is bad, in fact everyone whose seen it tells me it is a great film. Its just that I can't stand seeing it get so much love while the film that it is based off of remains practically unheard of. While many of us movie buffs and film lovers know that the Departed is a remake of "Infernal Affairs," the common moviegoer has no idea. Hell, if you put both movies in front of Average Joe American, he'd grab "The Departed" without a second thought because of all the big names attached to the film. Even if you told him "They are both the same movie." he'd still grab the "Departed!" It's just... not.... fair. ::Sob, sob:: 

Anyway, Scott, "The Punisher" is an ok timewaster, but Travolta is a pretty crappy villain. (However, I have to admit that his fate at the end of the film was freakin' hilarious, though unintentionally.) I think you may enjoy it.

"Pirates 2" is a personal favorite, though I have to agree that the ending REALLY leaves you hanging. It may be long and it may try to cram "too much story" into its lengthy running time, but dang it, I couldn't help but love it. (I've seen it about four times.) I can't wait to see "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End." Looks to be one of the summer's best!

[Oldskool138]

Scott:  The Punisher is an okay film.  I liked the fact that they used no CGI for the stunts.  It'll keep you entertained for 90 minutes or so.  I can't wait to see Thomas Jane in "The Mist" either this year or next!

Accidental Edit: [Oldskool. I accidently deleted a bit of your comments. Hit the wrong button. My apologies. Gave you extra Karma.]

[Joe]

Regardless of how good "The Departed" is, I refuse to acknowledge it and I have no desire to watch it as it is a REMAKE (I never thought I'd see a remake get an Oscar....) of a lil ole film called "Infernal Affairs" that is excellent! Andy Lau is the man! Lick my balls Scorsese!

why because they share plot simalarities? is it called internal affair? no. are the characters the same? no. i think thats as far as i have to go with that. i hate when people say oh it was a remake and yadda yadda yadda  So are you gonna tell us that Kill Bill was a remake? Or that resevoir dogs was a remake? no they are just movies that borrow from other movies and there is nothin wrong with that.

[Yaddo 42]

Seeing The Departed made me want to see Infernal Affairs, most reviews I saw pointed out the remake factor, I was already aware of the first film and its sequels. But the average American movie watcher doesn't care, and won't see out the original anyway. It's a combination of dislike of subtitles and hit or miss dubbing, lack of interest in "cinema" as an artform (high or low), and probably some cultural (I won't go so far as to say racial) bias - call it provincialism then. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was probably an exception rather than a change in the culture. Look at anime, J-horror, films with wire-fu, etc. foreign films seem to do better by influencing American filmmaking rather than becoming the mainstream. I wish it was different though. Maybe as younger generations get older, and they've grown up with regular exposure to the stuff it'll change. 

The girl I saw The Departed was unaware of it's remake status and while she has some interest in foreign films, I doubt I could interest her in the original. I only got my best friend to watch the awesome HK flick Time and Tide by putting on the English dub, he hates subtitles, even though that film used a combination of languages (Chinese dialects, English, and Spanish) and you needed the subtitles to fully appreciate the film. He did like the film though. He also watched Kung Fu Hustle with subtitles on cable, and laughed so hard I though he was going to have a heart attack.