SF Film/Cinema Thread

[Brian SD]

I reserved my ticket to see Pierre Morel's "Taken" tomorrow. Anyone heard anything about it?

 

[lithium180]

I have recently viewed and enjoyed:

Danton - G. Depardieu as the French politician who challenged Robespierre during the Reign of Terror. The film was a joint French/Polish production by a Polish director, filmed before the fall of the Berlin Wall. As such, its themes of power, corruption, popular sovereignty and revolution take on an extra interesting tautological twinge. The set pieces and costuming are absolutely phenomenal, with an eye to period detail that history fans (and anyone interested in the day to day living habits of the late 18th century) will find riveting. The real star of the show is not Depardieu, but the actor playing Robespierre, who, amazingly enough, manages to humanize the notorious politician as a man horrifyingly aware of his descent into corruption and into the negation of the very principles on which he had staked the future of his people.

Recommended.

 

[Handlethevibe]

Recently watched Harlan County U.S.A., Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Ben-Hur.
Harlan County is an incredible documentary, one of the best I've ever seen. Fear and Loathing...I was a bit underwhelmed. I love Terry Gilliam, but just couldn't get into it. Johnny Depp is a hack, and I don't feel the film really captured or showed any of Hunter S. Thompson's political/satirical content. And Ben-Hur is, well, Ben-Hur.

Also...
Army of Shadows>Le Samourai, Le Cercle Rouge.

 

[landho]

Originally Posted by Handlethevibe

Also... Army of Shadows>Le Samourai, Le Cercle Rouge.
God bless you. To be fair, I haven't seen Le Cercle Rouge, but it's hard to imagine it being better than Army of Shadows, which again I will posit is one of the best movies ever made.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

Just finished Cloverfield, about to start on The Bank Job.

Later after dinner, Lars And The Real Girl.

 

[Handlethevibe]

Watched Juno. After the first scene I was like, oh god, but the 2nd half of the film wasn't bad once all the ridiculous dialog toned down.

 

[dkzzzz]

Just watched "Assassination of Jessie James by coward Robert Ford". Great movie, should have been an Oscar recipient in numerous categories.
The scenery and staging are superb, gives you a real feel of 19th Century US small town living.
Brad Pitt is actually scary and not himself at all in this film, which is a great effort for him. Casey Affleck is superb, so as supporting cast.
Commentary on a human condition is much more powerful than any of the Oscar winners this year.

Also watched "There will be blood". Unimpressed at all. I cannot even begin to describe what the hell is the point of that movie. If there is one it was certainly expressed very anemically.

 

[dsholmes1]

What is the hoopla with "There Will Be Blood?" I did not think it was as good as people make it out to be. I guess I will give it a third watch.

 

[gdl203]

Originally Posted by dkzzzz

Also watched "There will be blood". Unimpressed at all. I cannot even begin to describe what the hell is the point of that movie. If there is one it was certainly expressed very anemically.

Originally Posted by dsholmes1

What is the hoopla with "There Will Be Blood?" I did not think it was as good as people make it out to be. I guess I will give it a third watch.

My take on TWBB is a bit different given my general distate for PT Anderson's past work and hence very low expectations

 

[Go Surface]

Recently saw two indie flicks; high art, supremely snobbish.

The Ruins: E-
Prom Night: E+

 

[Neo_Version 7]

Tried to watch 'The Tracey Fragments'. I couldn't bring myself to watch past PART 1.

 

[lithium180]

Just rented and now sitting on my coffee table waiting to be viewed:

Reds
The Passenger
Coming Apart

!

 

[Eason]

I guess I won't be seeing the forbidden kingdom

I didn't write this review but I trust the author: SPOILERS FOLLOW REALLY EVERYTHING IS SPOILED The movie opens to an extremely corny Jet Li in a "Monkey King" costume. He's running around, wire fuing people to death. His expressions, mannerisms, and sounds make for an extremely corny opening. It turns out it was a dream sequence, so I breathe a sigh of relief. That was horrible, and I can only pray it doesn't happen again. The dream was had by your average bullshit punk asianophile. He's ugly, skinny, has a small room plastered in kung fu movie posters, and the usual. I'm sure underneath his bed he has a stash of hentai, and his own pillows with the faces and breasts of his favorite anime character in the closet. Of course, you don't know if he is hiding it or not, because you have no ******* clue what he is. Is he a student? Does he have a job? Is he living at home? Unless I missed some major plot point, there's no ******* explanation. He could just be really poor, or he could live at home. You may want to know, but, **** you. You'll never know, ass hole. He rides his bike up to the pawn shop, where he buys some crap from Jackie Chan, who is dressed like a 90 year old man. He makes some very hateful remarks at the main character for being the asianophile it is; of course, this leaves one to wonder why the old man would insult his only ******* source of income. Anyway, the main character stumbles into the backroom and finds a golden staff; the same one the Monkey King was wupping ass with in the dream. This doesn't bode well. Old Chan says to get the **** out of there, because he's playing with **** that isn't his. Actually, this is what I wished he had said. His actual words were "that doesn't belong to you, I'm holding for someone" BLAH BLAH BLAH. The main character shuffles back and buys some more bruce lee movies, then skedaddles. He doesn't get far before the plot takes hold. He rides by a fence which at first you assume to be a school fence; then again, it isn't a ******* school fence because there's no one in school. On the otherside of the fence is a smokin hot babe who feigns some interest in the main character. Then the main character states he does kung fu, blah blah blah, isn't supposed to talk about it, bleeh bleeh bleeh. My bile levels are rising high. You're on thin ice, Forbidden Kingdom. Then, just when he's getting his groove on, some random cockblockery happens when a man and his 4 cronies (who are silent, save one line) approach the main character. They throw him off his bike and laugh at his movie selection. I'm starting to like them better than the main character. The asshole character starts making the main character hit himself, and then he says "huh? Show us some kung fu! How bout some...Tae Kwon Do?!" Then he reverse kicks him in the chest. I appreciate the violence, but seriously, how much ******* longer until Jackie Chan or Jet Li kick some ass? I didn't come here to watch some angsty wanna be kung fu star get his ass kicked; I'd read bullshido if I wanted that. Interested in the fact that the main character knows old jackie chan, they force him into helping them rob old jackie chan. Apparently he cashes checks, and runs a pawn shop, and has all the latest/greatest movies, and is in china town, and is filled with cookies and jam. They rob him, and eventually main character grabs the Monkey King staff, then Old Jackie Chan gets shot, then main character falls off a building, and ends up in china. He's in a town that is pretty much getting it's **** wrecked in half by some guards, while the main character can't speak chinese. I liked this, at least, because it was semi-realistic. Yes, yes, asking for realism when all of the above bullshit has happened is like asking for teeth at a monster truck show, but I'm optimistic. He runs like a little ***** until they meet up with Jackie Chan, who breaks out some Drunken Boxing. Enjoyable, if not a little short. They travel to a near by tea house, for reasons that I didn't and still don't understand. Inside, of course, Jackie chan reveals the plot over a cup of tea. Essentially, there's this place called the Forbidden Kingdom, where a bunch of immortals live. The king immortal goes off on a 500 year masturbatory quest, and leaves his main dude in charge. Oh yea, also, the king likes the Monkey King, and wants him promoted, but the main general ******* loathes the monkey king. So he challenges him to a fight to the death. They fight, which is alright. The monkey king is seriously ruining it for me. Monkey king pulls out some hair, and it turns into another monkey king, monkey clone is killed, monkey king is tricked, turned into stone, but not before he can master blast his staff into another dimension. The main character now needs to return the staff to the monkey kings statue to free him, so he can beat the **** out of the big bad guy. It is elaborated upon that it has been almost 500 years since this happened, so I don't see why they couldn't just wait for the King to return, but whatever. Anyway, I hope you were paying attention, because this is the only time something is explained this well. The rest of the movie is guesswork. The conversation ends with them getting attacked by what we now understand to be the main bad guy's army. Jackie Chan proceeds to whup more ass with main character doing lots of screaming and whimpering. Then, for no real reason, some random lute player throws some daggers into some throats, and joins up the team. Yes, that is what happens. You'd imagine there'd be some compelling reason, Jackie Chan saves the girl, or the girl thinks a white man is fine cuisine, but it's never elaborated upon. She just wants to go to the same place, and decides to join up with these two random men. Apparently getting gang raped in a back alley didn't exist in ancient china, so the women don't give a crap. There's a lot of really corny proverbs that go on here, about emptying your cup, can't fill a full cup, wear a cup. I just started to tune them out. All **** breaks loose when they finally meet up with Jet Li. He decided that the main character was too much of a punk *****, and tried to steal the staff. Jackie Chan races after him, and a thrilling fight scene ensues. Really, it's great, Jackie chan starts off drunken boxing, then goes tiger, while Jet Li starts off with...something, and goes mantis. Of course, the movie wouldn't allow you to enjoy such a fight scene without adding in some corny ass tiger growls/screams when Jackie Chan is doing tiger style. I guess they couldn't find any Mantis noises (or ran out of budget), because Jet Li was silent. Blah blah blah, chosen one, prophecy, blah blah blah. The main character is given back the staff, jet li joins up. They travel through the desert. Then Jet Li pees on Jackie Chan's face. That actually happened, I didn't make that up. They both try to simultaneously train him. Cue training montage. Next there's some white haired lesbian bounty hunter who's supposed to kick everyone's ass with her bullwhip of justice. How did I know she was lesbian? It could've been her lines like "You can't trust men" "All men are liars" "I hate penis", but I like to think that it was the subtlety of her body language. Somewhere in this mess the lute girl has another line, and it turns out her parents were killed by the big bad guy. She also has a magic hair pin dart that can kill any immortal, which is great, because they had no ******* hope of killing this guy until now. I mean, really, what were they planning on doing? White hair pulls a bastard move and shoots Jackie Chan in the back with an arrow from 4 continents away. They rest in a Shaolin Temple, and it turns out that Jackie Chan isn't an immortal like he claimed to be earlier. Instead, they have to try and find the elixer, which was also what white hair was going to be rewarded with by killing staff boy. In the shittiest of **** moves, main character decides he'll trade the staff for the elixer, and completely destroys the chances of there being a bad ass castle siege. Thanks alot, *****. Oh, also, I noticed that the main character now has long hair. I guess somewhere they were doing stuff that took a few months. Was the training montage a 6 month training montage? Keep guessing, because the ******* story never tells you. The big bad guy is amused, and decides to pit white hair and main character in a fight to the death. I mean, he could just use his ******* chi powers to skewer the main character and white hair, take the staff, and be done with it. But instead he wants to see them fight to the death. A fight scene ensues, one with lots of jumping in the air, and then some bondage sex, and then some other stuff. Whatever. Main character loses, and the guards are about to behead him, when Jet Li, Lute Girl, and the Shaolin Squad bust in there kicking ass. Jet li senses bad assery, and goes straight for the main character. Meanwhile, white hair and lute girl (sparrow), exchange pleasantries. There seems to be some kind of hateful history between them, but guess what. Yea, you guessed it, there's no ******* rhyme or reason for it. No where does it say that they have a reason to call each other "White hair *****", or anything like that, but they'll do it anyway. I guess the main character is standing around, tugging on his own penis during this time, because he does jack ****. The movie hits an all time high in my book. Eventually they decide the movie is getting too good, so the main character starts going for the drink. The shaolin squad brings in Jackie Chan, who is on a stretcher. Jesus christ, that is some great foresight. He drinks it, and is back to his jovial self. Then he and white hair go off to fight on a balcony, while Jet Li and Sparrow now fight the big bad guy. Main character does **** all. Jackie Chan kicks white hair over the edge, but not before she can wrap around his neck with her hair. He pulls a knife out (WHERE THE **** DID THAT COME FROM) and cuts her hair; I expected a one liner like "TIME FOR A HAIRCUT, *****" or something, but it didn't happen. She falls to her death, presumably. Jet Li is somehow getting his ass kicked, which is mind boggling. Main bad guy opens a portal to some kind of fiery hell in his fountain, and goes to chuck the staff in it, but fails. The main character smacks the monkey king statue with the staff, which frees him. I know jet li is now about to die, because there's no way he can play two roles at once (OH WAIT YES HE CAN LOL THE ONE). It turns out that Jet Li's monk character was nothing more than a Monkey King hair clone. Yes. Yes that's right. It makes perfect ******* sense. Some crap happens, then the girl gets force blasted to death. The main character is grief stricken, because his only chance for asian sex is gone. Monkey king pimp slaps bad guy, then in the ultimate move, main character surprise shanks big bad guy with the immortal killing hair piece. I wanted him to say "Shanks a lot!" or "Shanks for the immortality potion, *****!", but there's no one liner, only an emo face staring into a bad guy face. Then the bad guy falls into his own hell pit. The immortal king returns right on time to grant the main character one wish. I imagine him to say "I wish to ******* stay here and be immortal, in ancient china, where I won't be a burger king employee in south boston for the rest of my life" but he predictably asks to go home. He stands in a gateway, then the king takes a deep breathe and blows wind, which makes him float away. Yes, it happens just like that. Jackie chan didn't even say "Now that's what I call a blow job!". He calls himself an actor, pfft. Main character returns to his own place and time to find that no time has elapsed, and he's lost his pony tail. Then the asshole from the very beginning, who shot his master, decides he's going to shut him up good! Then there's a ****** fight between main character and punk, meanwhile I'm wondering why he doesn't just shoot him. Almost to answer my prayers, he pulls out a gun. BUT THEN THE MAIN CHARACTER JUMP KICKS IT OUT OF HIS HAND. Well **** me sideways! The movie closes with Old Chan not really being dead (Teehee!), and he thanks asshole main character for returning the staff. Then it turns out that Sparrow is still alive in this world, and she works at another shop right across from the pawn shop, and she saw the main character beat up the punk asshole. She comes on to him a little, but main character simply says "See you around" and walks off like the flaming ****** he is. The last scene is him practicing a staff form on a rooftop, eluding to a sequel. Don't get the wrong impression. This movie has cool fight scenes, and if you want drunken boxing from this decade, well, watch it. Don't watch it for the story. Well, really you can't, because there is no ******* story.

 

[lawyerdad]

Two different people told me today that "88" is atrocious.

 

[Drinkwaters]

I saw Priceless last night and have to say that haven't laughed this much in along time.
I was not that familiar with the cast but did recognize some of them. Anyone seen this one and could you recommend other flicks that these actors/actresses were in. Thanks!

Gary