Movies (recently seen)

[Leblanc4prez]

Temple of Doom is my fave too. Ha, that "Short Round" cracks me up.

[End Master]

Recent movies dragged to see against my will...

The Other Boleyn Girl- Liked it. The medieval backstabbing, plotting and all around double dealing was entertaining.

Oh and the incest and rape scenes were hot too.

Juno- Liked it. The girl from Hard Candy was funny in it.

(Yes, everyone may now make fun of me for liking chick flicks)

Recent movie I wanted to see...

10,000 BC- Meh

It tried to be like a couple different movies (Scorpion King and 300 come to mind) and failed utterly at trying to do so.

The big problem was it tried to be "historical" but in parts it touched upon some more fantastic elements which didn't really work because it didn't go far enough with them.

They should've either went all the way with the fantasy type stuff or not at all.

I still like Quest For Fire better and I still rank it as the best "caveman" movie ever.

In other news, I really hate airports.

[Vesnic]

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)

It's a couple years old at this point, but I felt obligated to mention it here. Since beginning my Netflix journey, I have had a couple of hits, but mostly misses. This, my friends, is right out of the ballpark. Six stars out of five.

The plot centers around an officer in the East German Staatsicherheit (secret police) who is ordered to spy and make a full report on an artist and his girlfriend, but who in doing so finds himself drawn sympathetically into their lives. At the peril of his own career and wellbeing, he begins to secretly help them. Several subplots also exist, each one serving to complicate the central theme and to flesh out the characters so they are believable as people, never becoming mere caricatures of good and evil. At the heart of the film is an examination of art itself. In a rather refreshing perspective, it is represented not so much as a source of salvation, but as a means for subtle transformation. Everything occurs in a hidden manner--the invisible wires recording every word spoken in the artist's apartment, the hundreds of files locked securely away that tell the story of his life and, most importantly, the change of heart in the officer, played with exquisite understatement by the late Ulrich Mühe. The "good person" is a complex figure closely studied in this film, and embodied in the character of the officer, who meets that ages-old standard of doing the right thing when no one is looking. Finally, if films are to be judged by their ending, then one could not ask for a better finale to such a wonderful work. Reserved, yet all the more powerful for this reason, the last quiet minute of this film strikes home with pure fire.

There are many other themes and ideas present in the film which validate discussion, and probably many more yet that would require a second or third viewing to be found, hidden as they are amongst the rolling tapes and wires. At two hours and seventeen minutes in length, this film felt rather too short. Despite its bleak surroundings and uncompromising realism, I wanted nothing more than to remain in its ultimately redeeming glow even as the credits rolled.

[apotheosis]

This thread is soon to be beaten in length by the word association thread. Tis sad, everyone start talking a lot about movies!

Ummm... why did they need to remake the Omen?

[End Master]

Because much like the Roman Empire, the American Empire has reached its "cultural peak" and now we just tend to rehash old classic works rather than creating new ones.

OR

To expose a younger generation to an old movie and hopefully get them interested in the original and in doing so making a shitload of money from both theater and DVD sales.

OR

Someone thought it would be a neat idea to release a movie about the Anti-Christ on the date of 6/6/06

OR

All of the above.

As far as remakes go, it wasn't really necessary, but it wasn't terrible.

The big problem with it was that they made the anti-christ too obvious in being evil whereas the old one was more subtle and he wasn't even aware of his "nature" yet. (He didn't find out until the 2nd movie)

[Vesnic]

And...I'm glad to see we're back to slasher flicks! It's nice to see that the average emotional age around here has gone up to about 4.25 years. Hurray!

[End Master]

The Omen movies aren't slasher flicks, they'd be more classified under "Devil films."

I thought the Omen 2 was the best one, since it portrayed the Anti-Christ not as a total seed of evil until later on. He actually has a bit of an inner-struggle with himself about what he is and what he’s destined to do. Best scene is when he tries to convince his "brother" to join his side. That’s about the turning point for him.

Omen 3 sucked. It’s supposed to be a final showdown between good and evil/doomsday/etc. but none of that really happens. No Book of Revelations stuff or any of that. Sort of ends with a whimper. (Literally)

Omen 4 sucked too, plus it just defies logic since if the Anti-Christ gets killed and Jesus comes back, that presumably means “life on Earth” wouldn’t be continuing as normal, we’d either all be Heaven or Hell at that point. (Hey that’s what I heard anyway)

[Locke]

I didn't even know there was an Omen movie that occurs after Damien dies. I caught the second and third on television one day when there was absolutely nothing else to do, though. Watching the monks keep trying to kill him and inevitably dying badly instead held a certain morbid appeal, particularly the one who bought it during the fox hunt; otherwise number three was just another movie.

I don't see many movies. I'm just never that interested, and I rarely enjoy them all that much, though occasionally one will surprise me. I'm thinking about seeing Amelie; does anybody know if it's any good? The composer who scored the film is excellent - it's the first movie I've been curious about in quite awhile.

[Vesnic]

Amelie is ok. I've seen it several times, usually by accident (it was playing at a friend's house, it was on the IFC at 3 in the morning when I couldn't sleep and we all know anything is better than infomercials, etc.) It sometimes tries too hard to be charming, but it often is despite this. I'd say it's definitely worth a view.

[apotheosis]

Rosemary's baby was boring.

[ChubbyTeletubby]

American Gangster was boring.

[apotheosis]

Yeah it was, I was disappointed with that one. I thought it was going to be exceptional, but I found myself feeling apathetic throughout it.

[ChubbyTeletubby]

My words exactly. Lackluster, in other words.

Cliched. Old. Done.

Over with.

Boring.

So mainstream Hollywood. People still pay to see these movies. I saw it when a friend rented it from McDonalds for $1. Made it about 30 minutes into this piece of crap.

And please! Someone tell me. What is so great about Denzel Washington and that stupid white Australian cocksucker I never cared about ever.

I honestly don't know his name. He's white. He's Australian. He's an asshole. Somehow I know I don't give a fuck about his existence. I think I honestly care more about some aborted Chinese fetus than him.

EDIT: Russel Crowe.

His name is Russel Crowe.

[apotheosis]

Yeah, it was neither of their best performances by far...

Speaking of movies, Mrs. Doubtfire is a scary ass film about a pedophile who starts cross dressing like a woman to get closer to children. I can't believe they market that shit as a children's film. Robin Williams will molest your children, and if you don't believe me watch Patch Adams or that one where he is Peter Pan.

But yeah, American Ganster has got nothing on Goodfellas.

[Vesnic]

You missed Robin's best pedophile role ever--One-Hour Photo!
That movie will creep you out, ruin your childhood memories, and send you running to yo' mama faster than you can say "Peter Pan is gonna rape me!"