I haven't seen Falling Down in years. I love that movie. :thumbsup:

 

Unfortunately, I watched Miami Vice last night. I can see where they were trying to go with it, but it doesn't quite make it. I think it has to do with the pacing mostly. Too bad, usually I really enjoy Jamie Foxx's and Colin Farrell's movies.

Watched Rust and Bone. Great movie - 9/10

I went and saw The Hobbit earlier this week, which I would give about a 3/5. I never made it past the first few chapters of the book when I tried to read it several years ago, so I can't make a comparisons but I felt it would have been a much stronger movie, had it been one movie instead of three. I think the best way to appreciate this film is to take it context that we just finished act 1 of a potential 8.5hr film.

Kill Bill vol.1 was on TV last night. I stayed up waaaaaaaaaay to late to finish watching it, but the Showdown at House of Blue Leaves at the end was just too good to miss.

Just got home from screening Les Misérables. It was amazing! Stunning performances from the entire cast... wow!

Watched Taken 2. It was okay. 5.5/10

I got a copy of Four Rooms for Christmas and watched it last night. I love that movie. :thumbsup:

Saw the Hobbit finally. It was pretty good... kind of slow moving though, and too much CG imo. 7/10

Just watched Prometheus.

I actually enjoyed this movie, although it did remind me a bit of Alien vs Predator, especially the first AVP movie. Anyone know if they are planning on turning Prometheus into a trilogy?

 

I spent the last couple of nights rewatching Clerks and Clerks II. I love Kevin Smith's movies (with the exception of Jersey Girl), and those two in particular are my favorites. I try not to watch them more than a couple of times a year so it never feels like they get old, even though I've probably seen Clerks at least 30 times by now. I still remember the first time I watched it with my cousin in the summer of '95.

 

God, remembering things like that make me feel old. Some of you probably weren't even born the summer of '95. :lol:

 

I actually enjoyed this movie, although it did remind me a bit of Alien vs Predator, especially the first AVP movie. Anyone know if they are planning on turning Prometheus into a trilogy?

 

[hide]Apparently they are trying to do at least one sequel, and Ridley Scott would like a third. Considering it has (so far) grossed nearly triple its budget it's not surprising Fox wants to do at least one more.[/hide]

Recently I've watched:

 

-Tokyo Story - I watched this last night and, I admit, cried at the end. They just don't make films like this anymore - calm, careful expositions of a particular issue without any clichéd happy endings or special effects. Unreservedly, I would give it 10/10.

 

-The Hobbit - I found this film very middle of the road. It was well animated and some of the visuals were stunning, but it was also slow (not in a good way - ie, in terms of pacing - but because scenes just went on and on) and too much like every other fantasy film. Overall, 5/10.

 

-Life of Pi - this was a good adaptation of a fairly good novel, but like most films today it was overreliant on wonderful special effects as a means of creating an impression and was totally lacking in subtlety. A solid 7/10.

 

-Pan's Labyrinth - the premise was interesting and it was solidly written, but I wasn't convinced that the two 'halves' meshed together very well. Another 7/10.

 

-Meetings with Remarkable Men - absolutely useless, one of the few time I've been unable to even finish a film. 2/10.

Saw Skyfall. It was disappointing...better than Quantum of Solace, but not as good as Casino Royale. 5.5/10

Watched Looper. Interesting....but not great. 6/10.

Moar spam - saw Friends with Benefits. Pretty generic RomCom - I do like JT as an actor though. 5/10

What didn't you like about Looper?

 

 

Recently saw:

This is 40

Django

Life of Pi

 

Liked all of them. Movies are getting long now, which is great. All of them were over 2 hours.

Saw "The Hobbit" a few days ago. I'm not going to complain about the story as they stayed fairy true to the book. One definite strong point of the movie though was the CGI. It's amazing how advanced face-capture technology is, and it is very apparent when Gollum was trying to solve Bilbo's riddles :P .

Saw "The Hobbit" a few days ago. I'm not going to complain about the story as they stayed fairy true to the book. One definite strong point of the movie though was the CGI. It's amazing how advanced face-capture technology is, and it is very apparent when Gollum was trying to solve Bilbo's riddles :P .

 

I saw it recently and I actually felt the CGI was rather poor. I mean, it was absolutely stunning for Gollum, but for Azog I felt it was very poor, and for the orcs/goblins in general. All the costumes, outfits and makeup for the orcs/goblins/uruks in LOTR looked a lot better and realistic than the CGI in The Hobbit. :/ Apart from that though, the movie was great, especially the scene of a certain brown wizard in a certain abandoned fortress in a certain forest.

 

Would give it a solid 8/10

 

Also saw Lawless again, still amazing, 8.5/10 for that.

I saw it recently and I actually felt the CGI was rather poor. I mean, it was absolutely stunning for Gollum, but for Azog I felt it was very poor, and for the orcs/goblins in general. All the costumes, outfits and makeup for the orcs/goblins/uruks in LOTR looked a lot better and realistic than the CGI in The Hobbit. :/ Apart from that though, the movie was great, especially the scene of a certain brown wizard in a certain abandoned fortress in a certain forest.

 

I agree. I liked the reliance on makeup and prosthetics in LOTR, it gave things a more gritty and realistic look. Gollum was great but the orcs and dwarves looked bad.

 

 

What didn't you like about Looper?

 

Bruce Willis. I don't think I've liked anything he's been in since Pulp Fiction (haven't seen the sixth sense). I thought the acting was mediocre across the board outside of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and emily blunt. The plot was predictable (up until the very ending) and the pacing was strange.

After a rewatch, I think ParaNorman is my new favorite, for the laser-guided personal relevance. I loved it in theaters, but I was hesitant to name it my favorite since I had just given the title to One Hour Photo.

Just watched Titanic for the first time in years. Goddamn, it's good. A lot better than I remembered and had expected.

 

Solid 8/10.

Django Unchained. 5/5

Django Unchained. 5/5

 

Almost watched that yesterday, ended up watching Les Miserables instead. Solid movie - 8/10

On the back of Tokyo Story, I watched Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family, by the same director and on similar themes. The redemption of Shojiro and the one-sided loveliness of Setsuko (compared with the guild ridden Noriko in Tokyo Story) made the film happier but ultimately less powerful. Where the widow in Brothers and Sisters is taken in by Shojiro, and the film ends with Shojiro comically trying to escape a marriage arrangement by running away onto a beach out of bashfulness, Tokyo Story's ending is very much in the vein of one of the last major interactions, in which one character asks Noriko "Isn't life disappointing?" and she smiles feebly, before answering "I'm afraid it is." The ungrateful children in Brothers and Sisters are scolded at the film's end and walk out in shame, but those in Tokyo Story merely return to Tokyo, having grabbed trinkets from their dead mother, to continue their past behaviours.

 

Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family is nevertheless a very strong film, worthy of about 8/10.

Just saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes again. Forgot to put that in my top movies, however I'm too lazy to post it in the other thread.

 

If there's a movie where CGI and mo-cap was used to its best capabilities, it's in this movie. It did wonders to advance the story.

I'm unconvinced that CGI actually adds anything to a film, other than a glossier finish, and have yet to see a film where it has actually contributed to the story. In Life of Pi, for example, most of the allegory was shoved into sequences either side of a fairly standard castaway affair, so the CGI did nothing to add to the trite subtext.

 

Yesterday evening watched Tim Burton's Batman, can't say I was very impressed. 5/10.