"The Mist" : Good old fashioned monster fun. This could have just easily been a twilight zone episode or a 1950s monster movie. 3 of 5

"Looking for comedy in the muslim world" - ugh barely a 2 of 5. What little comedy is to be found isn't the kind you laugh at, its the kind you hiss at. Plus Albert Brooks comes off as really whiney.

i saw no country for old men and american gangster they were both good

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I saw Beowulf, needed Angelina Jolie nipples imo.

i imagine it also needed to be based on a poem that's revered for its merit, not just because it's old.

(beowulf the poem sucks (it is an epic poem right?))

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It's the epic poem.

More reviews from my archives, enjoy or well don't.....

"Failure to Launch" 2 of 5 - More like "failure to keep my lunch down". Ever since "Theres something about Mary" theres a ton of comedies in which the star gets bit by an animal...oh the hilarity. Plus the premise is just dumb, shes basically a whore. She'd end up getting killed or stalked IRL. Zooey Deschanel saves it from a one.

"Kontroll" 5 of 5 - Easily the best filmed entirely in the Budapest Subway system film Ive ever seen. I'll bet all the cool Hungarian kids have seen it. "Boris joo must see Kontroll! It eez amazing!" (they talk like that right?)

Day Watch "Дневной дозор": it is a film of the sequel to night watch, a russian film also. In it, the story of night watch is continued when the child of our hero, Anton, becomes a teenager and is evil and likes to kill old women. Then his father, Anton, is having adventures on the team of the day watch with his pseudo-girlfriend that is a powerful witch. This man, Anton, is then torn between his competing passions for his only child and his new love and the plots of the sides of good and evil travel back and forth as well. The exciting russian special effects and vampire magic thirller continues its saga of beautiful storytelling.

The ending is terrible, too.

наслоение out of 5

"9 Songs" - Well that was...effective. It turns out Netflix does rent porn. Well art film porn.
Sandwiched between 9 concert clips a young couple really goes at it. It turns out I can still be shocked.

Saw The Golden Compass last night.

BURR CAVALRY

what'd you think of the golden compass?

I thought it was enjoyable. Bit of steampunk technology, Ian McKellen as a burr. It is a kid's movie though, somewhat predictable. The little girl is a decent actor.

and did it convert you into a heathen atheistic heretic?

Why yes, my faith in Christianity was quite shaken after watching the movie. My eyes are open now.

i think the most telling part about the golden compass promos is that the most prominent letters in the logo are CG, in that order.

or, to put it another way, who the hell wants to go see ANOTHER special effects fantasy movie. it seems like that's all there is lately, thanks a lot peter jackson

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I dunno...special effects were in Krull and Willow too. It's nothing new.

yeah but those movies weren't at least 90% special effects, which all of these movies are...

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you mean like Star Wars?

i don't know i'd say star wars was 50% special effects 25% bad acting 25% innovation. something like that simply hadn't been done before, or at least with any degree of success. that's also why i don't consider the lord of the rings movies to be stupid special effects movies, because it's not like computer generated fantasy was a genre before that. i do consider them to be kind of drearily boring, but i blame tolkien for that more than weta.

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I am Legend" - Feh. Will Smith alone action is great but I really hated the dark seekers.
Just too CGI and what kind of virus turns people into Gollum/ Mummy / Doom monsters. There just too ridiculous. Time to go watch "Omega Man" and "Last Man on earth" again.

I am Legend was excellent. Highly recommended. Especially the first half. If he second half was just as good, and further explored the themes from the first half, it would be incredible.

Its the 28 days/ months later problem times 100. No virus is going to make people that strong/ energetic. I was just laughing at the dark seekers knocking over light poles etc. Making them super strong CGI critters was a terrible idea.

Well it's not really thrilling to just see a bunch of people dead/dying from a normal pandemic. We can kill pretty much anything with guns, so to counter that they use super-human strength, as normal human vs gun is about equal to gun vs super-human.

I thought the religious sentiment towards the end was a bit cheesy and just thrown in there at random. Might as well have put Will Smith and his family in the sky towards the end to smile down on the village at that point.

i saw no country for old men again last weekend and holy fuck is that an incredible movie... seriously towers over anything i've seen in recent years.

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The Bourne Ultimatum - I think it was better than the previous two, and I liked both of them. Its one of those movies that you know what hes after and that he will get it, but you have no idea how or when, so youre just along for the ride. I think the head "bad guy" was a little too naive, but other that it was great.

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"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

Isn't it a very short movie? How can it be drawn out? The story you mean?

I thought it was great. Flashbacks filled in the story considering how it started. Heh.

It could have been 20 minutes of flashbacks, or 20 minutes disbursed throughout the movie. Shrug.

The ending was kind of

saw charlie wilson's war tonight it was p. good but like most aaron sorkin projects made me dissatisfied with the current state of america, yearning for an idealistic america that probably couldn't exist

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Anyone seen Death Sentence?

i want to see no country but i think its limited release? I just watched I am Legend. It was ok, but I didn't like the flashbacks either. I thought the ending was a little retarded too. It was entertaining enough - lonely guy + lost friend = tears. I thought the CGI looked a little bad in some parts too... It really takes away from the movie when the bad guys look so generated. I like the 28 days zombies way better.

I'm about to watch the bucket movie, I will let you know =) It has been awhile since a movie really blew me away. We watched ratatouille the other night, it was pretty good.

If you haven't seen "Alone in the wilderness" yet, I really recommend it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke Not a new release by any stretch of the imagination, and might be tough to get your hands on, but worth the effort.

Oh yeah, and worst movie lately would have to be a tie between Chuck and Larry and 23 - We didn't finish either. Holyshit bad moives. I have watched everything Jim Carry has been in, and liked most of it - 23 made me want to ask him wtf. Chuck and Larry was pretty much what we expected but way way worse.

Best movie I've seen this year, by far, is No Country For Old Men. It's probably my favorite Coen brothers movie to date, with Fargo or The Big Lebowski ranking second. I really hope it gets Oscar recognition.

I've heard really great things about the new Daniel Day Lewis movie, There Will Be Blood. Supposedly he does a phenomenal job with his character, so I can't wait to see that.

Kind of a down year for movies imo. Nothing really stood out for me, other than No Country For Old Men. I also enjoyed Juno, 300, and Superbad, for different reasons obviously, but all were worth the price of admission.

The best movie I rented this year was The Lives of Others, so I would recommend that one if you haven't seen it.

saw juno last night it was real good and i'm such a fucken sap when it comes to people having babies in movies.

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I was dragged to National Treasure 2 this past week.

Don't bother seeing it or renting it, wait for it to come out on USA

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
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VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

Just watched The Bucket List last night. It was o.k. at best. Not nearly as good as it could have been or should have been.

The Great Debaters

Denzel Washington directed and starred in a generic, blacks-overcoming-racism-in-history movie. The move follows a debate team from a small negro college in 1930's Texas as they rock the boat and start challenging white debate teams. It's loosely based on historical events, but it really just borrows general ideas instead of actual facts. Denzel is the Debate Coach/Union Organizer that teaches the young blacks to debate, and seeks out white colleges to challenge his team. His team consists of the troubled intellectual rogue, black girl, and the 14 year old, fat preacher's son. They get in some debates, and there is tensions stirring in the small Texas town and the team gets awkwardly forced into witnessing a lynching and then the movie ends.

Basically it's Remember the Titans with less white kids, more intelligent writing, and much better acting. I couldn't stand Titans, but The Great Debaters was pretty decent.

17 's

i saw walk hard it was funny but in that parody movie way that's really as stupid as it is funny. not disappointed i saw it but i really thought it would be better

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Watched 3:10 to Yuma today - good flick. Best I have seen in awhile. If you like some of the old Clint Eastwood movies (which I do) then you will like this for sure.

Plenty of action and with Bale and Crowe - how can you go wrong?

I saw "In The Name of The King" Dont even ask why I went, just know that if you are thinking it MIGHT be ok because it has Ray Liotta, Jason Statham, Burt Reynolds and crew, think again. Wow seriouslly, when the Ninja's appeared I was about done, why does Uwe Boll even bother?

tax loopholes.

When someone asked him why he keeps making movies even though no one likes them at PAX he replied "Because people will pay to see it" I'm paraphrasing of course.

"Roadie" a 1980 midnight movie starring Meatloaf, Blondie, and Alice Cooper. Some parts have not aged well but some of it is still inspired. If you truly need to see the members of Blondie get in a food fight with midgets, this is the film.

"Resident Evil: Extinction" Well its better then the second one. You know you're a desperate script writer when you steal from "Day of the Dead".

Watched No Country for Old Men, Juno, Ghost Rider (i think that was the name)? - Nick Cage Movie, and Full Metal Jacket tonight.

Full Metal Jacket > No Country > Juno > Ghost Rider

No Country was OK - My wife said some of her friends didn't like it, and I can defiantly see why. I thought it was OK but felt like the story didn't really ever come together. I like a movie with a Triumphant Finish a.k.a. Shawshank.

Juno was good too, but my wife enjoyed it more than I did. I bet a lot of guys got suckered in to thinking it was going to be another superbad. I didn't really expect anything as I had no idea what the movie was about before we started it up.

Ghost Rider was fucking retarded. I don't get how Cage can be so good in some shit and painfully bad in other stuff. Mendes should not be allowed on film.

Full Metal Jacket was great as always, I haven't seen it in few years. I never realized that Pvt. Pyle was the same guy on one of my favorite crime shows, Law and Order, Criminal Intent. I always love the first half of metal jacket, but the last 30mins drags for me; anybody else?

Next up on our viewing block is Thr3e, Death and Sex 101 (i think thats the title), Across the universe, Charlie Wilson's war (I'm kinda dreading this one, looks slow).

We also watched O'Brother where art thou again the other night, it's always a good time. It is one of my favorite movies I always forget to mention when somebody asks me what my favorite movies are.

Watched Death and Sex 101 tonight. Good frikin movie. I don't normally like Romantic Comedies, but this one was dark enough to hold my interest. I don't think it is officially released till next month sometime, totally decent though.

It raises a few philosophical questions, and although the ending will become pretty apparent to anybody with half a brain, it is still funny and interesting enough to be worth the time watching.



It is better than it sounds on paper.

full metal jacket is a bad movie and you should feel bad for liking it because it makes you a bad person

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Watched Dead End 2, Across the Universe. I liked the AtU movie, but I think I probably would have liked it more if I was a bigtime Beetles fan.

Dead End 2 - It is exactly what you think it is.

FMJ may be a bad movie but I still liked it more than NCFoM.

the bucket list is a bad movie which reinforces the stereotype that old people are interesting

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We get it, every movie sucks.

he probably liked juno cause it has an x-man in it.

every movie does suck

ps saw atonement tonight and it was awesome

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word

I watched Atonement and I did not think it was anything special. It failed to sell the love story, making the rest of the movie seem kind of pointless. The movie could have just been about the girl dealing with her guilt or whatever and been fine, except it went and followed the dude in France because of the supposed grand betrayal of love. Which wasn't very interesting. It needed a Humphrey Bogart to Keira Knightly's William Holden, I guess.

I'll give it a "half of the movie is great, the other half is pointless but with some nice cinematography." Except it's probably more like half of the movie is an okay setup, and then half of the other half is great and the other half of the other half is pointless with some nice cinematography. Making it 1/2 alright, 1/4 great, 1/4 pointless.

"Diary of the Dead" wow that really disappointing. Bad Actors spouting bad dialog. Romero's main message just comes off as cranky. "Hey you darn kids with your video cameras and your Utubes, get off my lawn!"

"Eastern Promises" - Excellent. Viggo is riveting in this really well crafted russian mafia film.

Curse of the Golden Flower is REALLY good, *if* you like Chinese opera. Which...I do.

The only bad thing about movies directly out of China is that it has to have a govt. approved message. So, movies that feature the old ruling structure of China either show royalty as completely not really part of the story (Hero) so whether good or bad, they're not really the point. Hero seems to feature the ruling structure...but not really. It's about someone making tough choices for the good of the state/the good of the whole. Very much a govt. approved message.

In Curse of the Golden Flower they really, and I mean REALLY go out of their way to show the opulence of the Emperor, and the corruption within the family. The govt. approved message here is, what looks golden and pretty on the outside, is rotten, corrupt, and filth in true.

Ignoring that, the film is a feast for the eyes. The palace is too much, your eyes will want to bleed from the colors of the hallways. It's simply too rich and too much to take in. Once you realize this and stop trying, you'll enjoy the scenes more, oddly enough. While all of the settings are gorgeous, and the fight scenes FANTASTIC, and scenes involving literal armies of extras (no CGI here, there really ARE thousands of people) are jaw dropping...the film is character driven. There's great acting, and larger than life characters.

I LOVE, and I mean LOOOOOOVE Chinese opera. So, when it finally got to the end, I was rolling in the cheesy goodness that were the revelations.

Without spoiling anything, Chinese opera is like American soap operas...only with royalty/nobles instead of doctors or whatever....and then lower born people as well. But the shit that goes on is usually much racier than what you'd see in an American soap, and that's saying a lot. Instead of long shots on sappy emotional scenes though, it focuses far more on The Stunning Revelations. (Though there's plenty of emotional confrontations too they just happen earlier on).

The payoff in Chinese opera is the long ending, where you'll have Stunning Revelation and Moment after Moment. It's like "I see dead people" shit....but done 18 times, each better than the last.

Chinese opera is also almost always sad ending. People go insane. Lots of people die needlessly. Lovers do not reunite. Very Romeo and Juliet-ish. Which is another reason to love them.

Anyway it's sort of a cross between Raise the Red Lantern, and Hero. If you liked them...you'll love this. Additionally it's worth watching just for the performances of Chow Yun-Fat, and Gong Li (one of the most beautiful women ever).

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Add house of flying daggers to that list also Tarot. Love Hero and curse of the golden flower. I get really bored with the always a happy ending films.

the assassination of jesse james is on dvd now and everyone should have it because it's great.

also i think american gangster and michael clayton came out yesterday i never saw michael clayton but i'm going to hit it on the netflix and american gangster is awesome

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Pick up Raise the Red Lantern, it's basically similar to Golden Flower, but without the fight scenes really. So more of a 'chick flick' in that respect...but it's a REALLY good movie.

I thought I had seen House of Flying Daggers, but a quick google peek of it shows I haven't. So now I'm really looking forward to it.

I'd also recommend: Farewell my Concubine

There was also a wuxia soap that used to air on a local Los Angeles television station, but then they stopped adding subtitles about 2-3 years ago, which REALLY drove me batshit. Actually they had subtitles but in another asian language (I think korean...). Anyway, I tried to keep watching it figuring it would be okay without the language and I could sorta follow it ...but no.

The other bad thing is they never subtitled the name of the show, so I never knew what it was called. It was really good though, well if you like soap opera-ish wuxia...which I do.

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yeah flying daggers is real good

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"Deja Vu" - Enjoyable fluff. I knew nothing about it going in. I was surprised at how much scifi nonsense they made us jump through. Also the cute chick is well really cute. She can out halle berry halle berry.

If you liked it...try some Phillip K. Dick. His stuff also has some sci-fi in it, but he doesn't make you go through the science of it because it's never really about technology. Like if they have a time machine, you won't have a lengthy discussion of HOW it works, it's just a given. What's more interesting is what it can do.

Movies of Dick's work are (off the top of my head): Blade Runner [best and should be on everyone's top movies list], Paycheck [I love it], Minority Report [it's good even with Cruise], Scanners [disliked the style, and... well ...it's worth seeing tho for the head trip], ummm...I'm sure there are others. That's all I'm thinking of off the top of my head.

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a scanner darkly, though the way its done makes it almost impossible to follow

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