Movie Reviews & Feedback etc.

I really love film.  Any point in running a movie review thread to share thoughts and shittiness warnings etc?

Anyway, I went to see 'Splice' last night somewhat against my better judgement largely on the relative strength of Roger Ebert's review.  I used to find near perfect agreement with his choices but lately he's been letting me down a lot. He's gotten kind of soft and ranty at the same time.  Anyway, I wouldn't give this movie any more than 5 out of 10.  Even Rotten Tomatoes had it at about 70%.  I found nearly every plot turn completely predicatable 30 minutes before, and nobody would act the way these people did outside a movie script. The best movies make you supend the reality that you're actually watching a movie.  Not so this one.  And some really grating gender stereotypes which did males no favours.  Overall, just OK. 

Anybody else see it, or anythig else interesting lately?

Iron Man 2 - very enjoyable.  Scarlett Johansson has opened up a new perspective of herself as a action movie actress.  They played a short bit of Another One Bites The Dust in this movie.

Robin Hood - very nice.  The cinematography is very good - all the scenes are framed like a postcard.  Cate Blanchett's acting is very good.  Russell Crowe is also good as usual.

The Hurt Locker - the movie is very good.  It really deserves the Oscar for Best Picture.  It shows the trials and tribulations of a bomb disposal team in the Iraq war.  You can really feel the tension and suspense in the bomb disposal scenes and sympathy for what the soldiers have to put up with in Iraq.

My vote still goes for Avatar.  The scene with the tree falling was far more symbolic and powerful than anything in a movie about soldiers who chose to go to war.

I also saw Avatar.  I find the movie a bit saccharine and very predictable.  The hype is on the 3-D aspect of the movie.  The Hurt Locker is about real life human drama and such genre usually wins.

The 3d was secondary to its message that we as a human race have much to learn about the existence of those who are different from us - the very opposite of the war on Iraq, which was an attack on someone else irrespective of their history and culture in the interest of oil, money, and power.  The west meddles in other countries' business for decades, and we scratch our heads wondering why airplanes are flown into buildings.  No wonder the war movie won best picture... people still don't get it.

I didn't see Avatar in 3D so I have no idea on whether or not it makes it a 'better' movie.  All I remember was a series of two dimensional caricatures, a few facsimiles of scenes from better movies, and feeling like the same story could've been told in two thirds of the time it took them.

I sincerely hope the sequel is better because there's nothing lacking in the visuals.   With that much money, they have a real opportunity to do something different and interesting, and it's a crying shame to see the opposite.

How many Oscars does it take to shut James Cameron up?  Just the one - give it to his ex instead.

It seems that there are no more new stories to be told, but new ways of telling them. I found Avatar to be a great movie, but it´s basiclly Pocahontas in a  offworld enviroment. Same with the new Robin Hood. One could say that Russel Crow always do a solid preformance, but that´s all he got in my opinion. It turned out to be a Gladiator/Robin Hood hybrid. I tend to enjoy "tough" movies, the onces that makes you think. Due to that, Blade Runner always tops my list!

Thanks for reminding me about Gladiator II... eugh.  Painful.

It's times like this you're glad you didn't pay to see a movie; rather you endured about 50 minutes of it from over someone's shoulder as they sat slack jawed at their laptop, muttering "well this was a waste of freaking bandwidth".

The Hurt Locker is powerful and no doubt captures some of the madness, confusion, terror and bravery of war. Like a lot of American war films, it doesn't show the British in a good light (what's up with that anyway?). Even though it's based on a true story it seems too implausible, and I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief throughout.

Hurt Locker is over-rated in my opinion. I was also disappointed with Shutter Island. Hard to believe this came from the same guy who gave us GoodFellas. Has anyone ever seen City of God(Cidade de Deus)??? Great film, a good GoodFellas clone.
I was lucky enough to catch Avatar in one of the few theaters in India showing it in 3D(as it's meant to be). I had previously watched it last December(not 3D). Watching it in 3D is a different experience indeed, but only visually. I think it's a great film despite its lack of originality. It reminds of Dances With Wolves. Thankfully, this film doesn't have Kevin Costner. :)
Anyway, stuff doesn't always have to be original to be good. The PC/PS3/X360 game Fallout 3 by no means revolutionized the FPS or RPG genres but I'd rank it among the best games of the decade(2000-2010). It merely improved upon the genre-defining principles established in Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Oblivion and the previous Fallouts. But, only a fool could criticize this game having played it.

tcc wrote: Iron Man 2 - very enjoyable.  Scarlett Johansson has opened up a new perspective of herself as a action movie actress.  They played a short bit of Another One Bites The Dust in this movie.

Robin Hood - very nice.  The cinematography is very good - all the scenes are framed like a postcard.  Cate Blanchett's acting is very good.  Russell Crowe is also good as usual.
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We're taking my mom to see Iron Man 2 tonight for her birthday.  Liked Iron Man a lot, so expect to like this too, even though it has generally not been reviewed as well.  Huge fan of Robert Downey Jr.'s acting, and frankly a huge fan of just looking at him.

Didn't see Robin Hood or Avatar yet.  I'm terrible for avoiding most blockbuster type movies, except when I'm making exceptions for Robert Downey Jr.  as above.

I liked, though didn't love, The Hurt Locker. There were huge howls of protest from actual Iraq vets about the lack of authenticity (see the IMDB entry for examples).  I didn't regret either the time or the money as it was generally effective and definitely engaging, but on another level it was without purpose.  Very early in he movie the thought is "Wow. What a cowboy adrenalin junkie."  Two hours later it's "Wow. What a cowboy adrenalin junkie."  There was no story arc, little character development and little tying one scene to the next.  Just a series of well executed, compellingly shot war vignettes.  The ending in particular was unsatisfying.  Played like Bigelow suddenly realized she only had 1000 feet of film left and had to wrap it up.   Wouldn't have won by a long shot in other years.

Ever walk out of a movie? Me:  Original Jaws (scared little kid), Rocky III (annoyed at my date), Saw version whatever (bored and disgusted) The DaVinci Code (just bored)  and Munich (thought it might be an appropriate historical film for my young son but quickly realized I was an idiot).

Ever pay to see something more than once?  Many for me, but the last one was 'No Country for Old Men'.

It Might Get Loud was rather good. Jimmy Page gets cooler as he ages (and what a great record collection he has) and even though I'm not a huge fan, Jack White comes across as an interesting dude. The Edge had the least interesting tales/modus operandi: someone like Billy Gibbons might've been included instead. Definitely worth a watch.