Movie Reviews & Feedback etc.

Watched a Story of Anvil-like doc on a guy named Bobby Liebling and the 70's & 80's band Pentagram. It was significantly darker than the Anvil doc with much of the warmth and unintentional humour replaced with drugs and despair. But if you like stories of people who just missed fame the first time around and are trying to have another go at it spurred on by people who believe in the music, check out 'Last Days Here'.

LAST STAND

It's just okay. It of course stars Ahh-nee in a comeback of sorts (he played a cameo role in one of the Expendables films). It's been getting good reviews. However, I suspect that's because a lot of reviewers don't want Arnie's comeback film to be a stinker. And it's not. But it's nothing special either. It's a bit of a throwback to 1980s action films but you would be better off just digging out an old video of Commando or Raw Deal because it falls somewhere in the middle of those two. One of those films that's mildly diverting but you will think afterwards that you should have waited for the DVD.

I enjoyed Last Stand for it's smaller scale (i.e. the fate of the entire world isn't at stake), which was very much in the vein of those 80's action movies that it's throwing back to. It was refreshing that the climax of the film was as straightforward as two people having a fistfight. It has to be said though that it wasn't a great movie, and while Arnold has never been a good actor, he's definitely gotten worse with age.

Django Unchained was excellent. Tarantino really knows how to make viewers root for a main character and then become really satisfied when everything turns out all right for said protagonist.

Also, Moonrise Kingdom was a lot of fun. Such a good, quirky little film by Wes Anderson.

That is all. I'm not much of a movie reviewer.

I really enjoyed Django, although it did seem to come to a climax, then kept going for another 10 or 15 minutes. The pacing at that point felt a bit funny, but I still loved it. The huge blood splatters were nice too, and much nicer looking than the cgi blood sprays added in post production in movies like The Expendables which I'm slowly coming to expect. Whether you like him as a person or not (I don't), Tarantino is fantastic at creating entertaining movies.

I saw Moonrise Kingdom recently as well, I thought it was very nice, don't really have much to add though. It was nice to see some fairly big name actors pop up (Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis).

[QUOTE] [b]tomchristie22 wrote:[/b]

I really enjoyed Django, although it did seem to come to a climax, then kept going for another 10 or 15 minutes. The pacing at that point felt a bit funny, but I still loved it.
[/QUOTE]
SPOILERS! DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN DJANGO UNCHAINED AND PLAN ON DOING SO:

I noticed that, too. I thought the movie would be over with the huge shootout in the plantation house, which would have been a pretty satisfying climax by itself, but noooope. However, I knew that Tarantino would be able to come up with an even more satisfying climax, so I stuck with it. I was not disappointed. So, yeah, the pacing felt a bit funny, but it was worth it.

On a related note, as soon as I saw Samuel L. Jackson, I thought I would really enjoy his character, but he turned out to just be super despicable. Everything about that character was so annoying. That made it all the more enjoyable when he finally got what was coming to him.

Finally, what about Leonardo DiCaprio's performance? I didn't know what to expect from Leo trying to play a rich southern plantation owner, but I thought he played the part pretty well in general.

I enjoyed Samuel L Jackson's performance. I found myself laughing at his liberal use of the n-word, which is really uncomfortable when nobody else in the theater is laughing. I also read that the Leo cut his hand with the saw and continued the scene with his hand covered in blood, which is what appears in the final movie.

[QUOTE] [b]tomchristie22 wrote:[/b]

I enjoyed Samuel L Jackson's performance. I found myself laughing at his liberal use of the n-word, which is really uncomfortable when nobody else in the theater is laughing. I also read that the Leo cut his hand with the saw and continued the scene with his hand covered in blood, which is what appears in the final movie. [/QUOTE]

I enjoyed Samuel's performance, I just didn't enjoy his character even though I thought I would.

Interesting story about Leo. Do you know where in the movie that is?

This seems like a good place to ask this question. Has anyone seen Furia? If so, how is it? Is it one of those movies like Flash Gordon where it's more watchable for the music than the actual movie, or is there actually a quality film underneath the beautiful music?

I watched Deadfall at a second run theatre the other week. It was an odd movie, oddly acted and strangely grim. Dysfunction in all manner of relationships was the recurrent and defining theme. Not really a pleasant watch. Don't think I'd recommend it. Good soundtrack that I picked up though!

I went to see 'Side Effects' on Monday night. Much of the action took place between Jude Law's ears, and it was a paced and fascinating uncurling of an aggressively twisting plot. If there was a recurring theme it was perhaps self interest and vengeful and vicious indifference. By the end everybody was both victim and victimizer. It's one of those I could watch again to pick up subtleties missed the first time given the eventual plot arc.

About a month ago I saw Wreck-It Ralph. It was pretty much what I expected. Plenty of really fun video game references, mainly in the first third or so of the movie, mixed in with a typical Disney plot. At a couple points I was laughing my ass off while my brother stared at me not getting the joke. On a technical side it seemed to suffer a bit for trying to throw in a few too many plot elements just to make the story bigger, something that Django Unchained also had from quite a bit of in retrospect. However, all in all it was a fun little film.

That's not what I wanted to talk about, however. For those who saw the movie, at one point the badass first person shooter woman was having a flashback of that one guy she was about to marry. When they were about to get married, the "Here Comes the Bride" theme was being played...on electric guitar. Now, it only played for a second or so, but I could have sworn in that brief time I could have sworn that was Brian May from Flash Gordon. Did anyone else catch that?

We've lost Roger Ebert today at 70 years old. I am, probably irrationally, in tears. I knew the day would come and sooner than probably was fair but the idea of being 'ready' for it was something perpetually pushed back and away. I can't find the words to express how much I will miss his work or how much he's meant to a person who loves film as much as I and so many others do. So many times he taught me how to watch a movie and how to see and feel the subtle expressions of the human condition through the tools of film making. There were latter periods where his work seemed to drift a little at times, his previous sharp insight dulled a little with a softer magnanimity that I tried to think of as the perspective of a dying man who no longer had an appetite to sweat the small stuff. But overall there has never been a critic who I trusted more, who I respected more or who guided me to better ideals in film making and story telling and observation that Roger Ebert. RIP Roger and thank you for everything. There will be no movie in the future for which I won't eternally miss your thoughts.

I know who he is but we didn't get Siskel and Ebert in the UK. Our equivalent for many years was Barry Norman's film review show. He could always be relied on to give an honest opinion and not be bribed by sponsors (it was on BBC). From what I gather, Roger Ebert was the same (or maybe I am being hoplessly naive). Norman retired and the show was taken over, and ruined, by Jonathan Ross (a real film buff but has no taste) and then Claudia Winkelman (who is enthusiastic but not very knowledgable). One of the better film critics in the UK these days is Mark Kermode. Daft haircut aside, he gives an honest opinion and he's a real film buff. You can watch some of his reviews here: 

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/]http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/[/url]

Funnily, I barely watched Siskel and Ebert in the TV format. The two thumbs up stuff and the push and pull of the duo was catchy for TV and the cultural impact, but it was Ebert's writing that drew me. You can be thoughtful and expansive on 'paper' in a way that people just aren't looking for in a TV format. His reviews and essays going back decades remain at the Chicago Sun-Times site and I hope they always will. Many times I've searched for his 4 star movies from any era when looking for something to rent or even to help me process and digest after I've watched a film. The site is down right now probably because of being pummeled by traffic but anybody who appreciates film review and has never really checked him out might want to visit rogerebert.suntimes.com when it's available again. Many of the more recent reviews are by other reviewers due to his declining health but there is much in the archives. Thanks for the suggestion on Mark Kermode. I will definitely visit when I've stopped leaking. :)