What's the last movie you've seen?

[Gustaf]

Children of Men. Pretty good, much better than V for Vendetta and reminiscent of the Shame.

[Gustaf]

Dreamgirls. And man, did it suck. I usually like musicals, but this. Oh boy. It was one of those rare occassions where I would actually have preferred to get out of the cinema before it was over.

[Gustaf]

Children of Men: V For Vendetta meets Saving Private Ryan. I enjoyed it.

A case of the whole being more than the sum of its parts then.

[Gustaf]

Hopefully the large success thusfar will make movie companies think twice about using lame no-name actors in movies.

I'd take acting ability over "name". Thanks.

Me too. As opposed to the old days famous actors usually can't act nowadays.

[Gustaf]

Zodiac

too long, but I liked it, and Jake Gyllenhaal is hot which made the length bearable.

I didn't know you were gay.

[Gustaf]

Children of Men - Five stars, it was awesome.

New Bond flick - it was OK, slightly less far-fetched than the previous Bond films. Three stars.

Good to see that there are areas where you can excercise good judgement.

And Tweeed, what did you think of the Almodovar movie? I haven't seen that one but I like his other stuff.

[Gustaf]

An Inconvenient Truth. Very powerful, and it kind of got to me. I won't start recycling of course but I'll support Gore if he runs.

[Gustaf]

Yeah, but what is East and what is West?

That's easy: East is East and West is West and never shall the two meet.



The Spartans were what Lenin would have called useful idiots. They did a good job in helping to save a culture they really didn't have much to do with. Besides that they pretty much sucked. I believe they even allied themselves with Persia at some point further into the future. And, of course, put an end to Athens which was the real heart of Greek culture.

[Gustaf]

Direktören för det hele (The Boss of it all)

Lars von Trier's latest comedy. Absolutely hillarious. That man is a comedic genius. It's been a long time, in fact, since I laughed that much to a movie.

[Gustaf]

City of God.

Great movie.

I've been waiting to see that.

And Will Ferell must be the most over-rated actor in the world. He is so ugly and annoying that it's almost astonishing. How he gets to be included in movies I don't know.

[Gustaf]

Return of the King. Showed on tv over easter.

Yeah, not as bad as part two, but worse than part one. Just as everybody told me it'd be.

Agreed.

[Gustaf]

Valentine.  Horrible idea for a movie, horrible acting, yet somehow highly entertaining.

I'm tempted to go to theaters to see new movies, but I've been incredibly disappointed by the last couple movies I've seen in theaters.  I go and see these movies that are supposed to be riveting and have gotten excellent reviews, and experience the same thing over and over; the movie is full of stars but is severely lacking in plot and/or anything interesting.  Yet, even lacking any structure, these films carry on for a good 3 hours.  I don't understand this recent trend... (ex. The Good Shepherd, Children of Men, The Black Dahlia...)

What are you talking about? The Good Shepherd got bad reviews, The Black Dahlia super-horrible. Children of Men did get good reviews, but it was also excellent. Valentine was about as badly reviewed as the Black Dahlia so that too shouldn't have been much of a surprise.

[Gustaf]

Valentine.  Horrible idea for a movie, horrible acting, yet somehow highly entertaining.

I'm tempted to go to theaters to see new movies, but I've been incredibly disappointed by the last couple movies I've seen in theaters.  I go and see these movies that are supposed to be riveting and have gotten excellent reviews, and experience the same thing over and over; the movie is full of stars but is severely lacking in plot and/or anything interesting.  Yet, even lacking any structure, these films carry on for a good 3 hours.  I don't understand this recent trend... (ex. The Good Shepherd, Children of Men, The Black Dahlia...)

Children of Men did get good reviews, but it was also excellent.

I thought Children of Men never got to the point. It was torn between trying to be an action film and trying to be social commentary and it seemed to muddle along. I did like the cinematography alot though. I thought that was highly innovative and really made you feel as if this was a live feed from a reporter or a battlefield video taken by a soldier. So I don't know what it was. The overall plot was good I just don't think they either elaborated it enough or they didn't really seem to get what they wanted to do with the movie.

What made it so good was exactly that it didn't try to be an action film at all but instead had an interesting story.

[Gustaf]

Spider-Man 3. I know it got mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it. The fighting scenes were great as usual, but its character development and moments of humor made it stand out from the dozens of similiar action flicks of recent years.

Character development?  Moments of humor?

Were we watching the same movie?

I'm with Joe. Watched it two days ago and was very disappointed. There was just so many completely laughable scenes (not in a moments of humour way) for one to take the message seriously. Worse scene to me was the returning of Harry's dad from the dead in order to explain the plot and character development for those who didn't get it. Talk about over-doing it...

[Gustaf]

I saw Ratatouille yesterday.  It quickly became one of my favorite movies, ever.

This seems to happen with every movie (especially animated ones) you see?

[Gustaf]

It's one of my favorite films. It's a combination of everything, coming-of-age films, romance, comedy, war drama all into one awesome mix.

I honestly just can't stand Casper Van Dien. Worst actor ever. That was probably the point, but still.

Anyone else seen Children of Men? I thought the cinematography style was absolutely brilliant.

Yeah, I loved Children of Men. The whole eight minute sequence near the end with no cuts was pretty f'ing awesome. Michael Bay could learn a thing or two from Children of Men's cinematography.

I also thought Children of Men was very good. Starship Troopers didn't make much of an impression.

[Gustaf]

Death Proof.

I loved it, actually. I can see how cutting it by 23 minutes, almost all of that dialogue, might have completely ruined it, though.

I'm one of the few who enjoyed it more than Planet Terror. Watching that final chase in a theatre packed with cheering people is a rush... although I think you're missing out when the double-feature gimmick is dropped, along with the hilarious faux-trailers and advertisements.

Really? Review-wise Death Proof was much ore favourably recieved here in Sweden.

And, Gabu, watching 3 movies in 3 weeks does in no way qualify as a "shebang".

[Gustaf]

Really? Review-wise Death Proof was much ore favourably recieved here in Sweden.

Yeah, DP was widely panned in the US- by critics and fans alike- for being too "talky." Could indicate an interesting cultural difference. Still, the crowd I saw it with loved it, so who knows.

Sounds very possible. I've noted that blockbusters tend to get much better reviewed in the US than in Sweden. Not that Swedish critics are flawless. They tend to be more engulfed by stuff like Borat or Babel, because they'll take anything that seems anti-American.

[Gustaf]

And, Gabu, watching 3 movies in 3 weeks does in no way qualify as a "shebang".

It does for me, given that I usually watch like three movies a year.

I was talking about the objective definition of the word "shebang".

[Gustaf]

The Girl Next Door.

Really good, I rented it expecting an American Pie-type sex comedy, but it wasn't like that at all, it's actually sort of a chick flick, but not so much that guys can't like obviously as I did. It has more in common with teen movies like Angus and Varsity Blues than pure toilet humor and sex ones like the American Pie series.

Obviously.

Naso: while we all do have our tastes, some peoples' are worse than others'. You fall into the former category I'm afraid.

[Gustaf]

Inland Empire. Solid Lynch, though not as good as the other Lynch films I've seen. Became parodic at times.

[Gustaf]

Mean Creek - Very low budget indie film (not even a million dollars in the budget) that was awesome. Basically a look at these kids in rural Oregon and how they react to their plan that goes horribly wrong. The kids are actually great actors (including Macaulay Culkin's little brother) and it's gripping till the end. The last sequence is one of those that leaves you staring at the credits for a few seconds afterwords before you get up/turn it off. 10/10

This is one of my favorite movies.

Wow, me and BRTD agree.

I've seen two films in the past two days - Eastern Promises and Oldboy; both rather original works from original directors. The former is David Cronenberg's most recent feature and shows himself getting further and further away from the old Cronenberg style (seen in films like Videodrome or The Fly) and into something which actually could be said to be influenced by Oriental films. Despite this it still has the traditional violence though not as stomach turning as before though a 2-on-1 fight in a public bath is one of the most notable visual sequences in the film. Though Personally I prefer the old Cronenberg; though the 'why?' is somewhat to difficult to explain - perhaps it's because the film's plot is lacking in something, though the performances are all good especially Viggo Mortenson in one of the lead roles is brilliantly enigmatic. Perhaps my slight dissapointment is due to in the end this story of Women trafficing and the Russian Mafia set in London seemed just a bit too familiar.

Oldboy on the other hand is both brilliant and bizarre - though both films are quite similiar, appealing more to the celebral than the heart they feel just a little numbing at times and it's no wonder the student responsible for the Virginia Tech massacre listed this as one of his favourites (he renacted scenes from the film in his "video manifesto".) with it's mix of total paranoia, moody mystery and sense of complete helplessness, it's lead villian being very Bondesque with his Perfect suits and elaborate Penthouse but unlike Bond is a true master manipulator as this is a classic case of a story where "all is not what it seems". This may not be good or bad depending on your POV and this is in a running line of Oriental films like Battle Royale whose purpose is obvious meaningless violence (though unlike that film at least it doesn't justify itself with an asinine political message.) This Korean film could never be made in the United States or at least make into a mainstream theatre but anyone with an interest in film should check this out , even though the editing is unusual for those used to Hollywood and can be difficult to follow. Recommended.

Oldboy is pretty good but I actually liked Lady Vengeance more. I guess I'm soft.

[Gustaf]

I want to see that so badly. I've discovered amazingly that it actually IS playing in Bismarck, ND, so if it still is in a week I can see it when I'm at home for Thanksgiving, instead of having to drive to the Twin Cities just to go to it.

Driving to teh city to catch a movie? Sounds very suburban...

And Michael, big kudos for watching a Swedish movie!!!?!

Last movie I watched was Ratatouille. Solid, though not the best animated picture I've seen.

[Gustaf]

Election

I found the film quite enjoyable, it had humor and quite a few sex scenes. It did get me wondering what is the difference between Morals and Ethics.

If you're actually looking for an answer, one is Latin and one is Greek for pretty much the same thing. Some people load them with different meanings though. And I thought Election was pretty good too.

[Gustaf]

Mulholland Dr.

A very aesthetic and artsy thriller/horror, abeit one without a clear plot. What remains of the plot moves slowly at times and it is too long. I would say overrated, but the originality aspect was certainly intruiging.

It does have a fairly clear plot. Ok, not exactly clear, but there is a story there (about the girl murdering her lesbian lover out of jealousy and then trying to run away from the fact by making up some fantasy).