Basically this is my page for talking a bit about movies I see (old and new). Feel free to discuss or argue. Also: no one is less of a dude for liking or not liking a particular movie UNLESS THEY ARE COMPLETELY WRONG.
New stuff at the top. If it doesn't say otherwise it's probably Pazu writing.
Not silverscreen.. but it is a cool remake of a scene from Tango and Cash that is pretty cool. Although it does make stallone look like an acting genius compared to these 3 chicks.
What is the deal with this? is it a remake of the ~2004 one? or a follow on? I haven't seen the original but it seems pretty odd. Movie was ok, exactly what you expect. I hate movies that leave it open to a sequel in a not-too-subtle way, but this was a bit different than most. It did leave it open to a sequel in a not-too-subtle way but it also opened up ANOTHER sequel by shoving it right down your throat! *gags* Yeah didn't like that, although there was a great line in there, but I wont spoil it :) If you have nothing better to see (i.e. you've seen Indiana Jones, Iron Man, possibly Zohan or Kung Foo Panda) then you might like to see this.
Beren: I really didn't mind the hulk. It wasn't as good an Iron man or Batman Begins, but it was better then the spiderman/fantastic4/electra/daredevil etc movies. On par with the X-Men movies really. I want to see the longer version though. Ed Nortons version was 30 min longer and pretty much added a bunch of character dev stuff. Apparently a bunch of it was "too dark" for popcorn american audiences. i.e hulk trying to kill himself as the openeing sequence. The result is an action film with very little character development.
Boondock Saints 2 is getting shot this northern hemisphere summer.. of yeah! It had better not suck. First movie was near on perfect.
Damn right, is just about my favourite movie ever. Please don't ruin it, guys.
Serious? Have either of you seen it since you were fourteen? I mean there were bits that were ok... but that's about as far as I'd go.
Well, apart from the fact i was 18 or 19 when it came out, yes i have seen it since then. No its not the pinnacle of movie making, but it is 100% awesome distilled fun. I own it on DVD, I think it's great fun, funny dialog and some cool action.
But is Rorsharch's mask fluidic? This is the important question people!
Alternate Ending to "I am Legend"
Don't EVER see a movie called "Shoot 'em Up" it is terrible
I know what you mean - I have no idea what the cast was thinking... I think they were going for the whole 'satirising while actually celebrating' thing (like doing for action what scream did for horror) but it was just terrible.
Agreed. If you are going to satirise/celebrate something you need to inject some humour into it or at the least more obviously identify the movie/movies that you are referencing. Failure to do so gets you Shoot 'em up - a movie which essentially takes the worst parts of all action movies together for your (dis)pleasure.
Beren: I finally get around to getting the password and the page i would like the most has kinda died. Anyways, with your moving back down pazu if your interested i head to the movies every tuesday (cheapness = goodness). Last night me, Temby and a mate from my honours saw The Mist for example. (it was kinda average... had pretty cool moments, and then moments when i wanted to stab myself in the face. The score was pretty cool though. Anyways can chat about that another time). I just got back from The Mist - I thought it was fucking awesome.
Poor dear neglected movie page... Man I can't wait for The Bourne Ultimatum. anyways:
The Simpsons Movie
This movie is exactly what you would expect it to be - a great big simpsons episode. That is to say it's very good. Lot's of people like to say that the simpsons is well past its prime etc. but the fact is that i and i think most other people would take lesser simpsons over just about anything else on tv. Anyways, not relevant because the movie is awesome. I have no idea why but the spider-pig bit was just about the funniest thing ever (as was the phone ad at the start with the pig and the vibrating phone). Anyways - it had Albert Brooks as the bad guy which is automatic awesomeness. Also the movie contains more cock than you would expect.
Super cool.
I saw this on Monday and I was not really impressed. To me, it just wasn't that funny. I didn't dislike the move, but the whole thing felt kind of average to me. Spider pig is awesome though.
Die Hard 4.0
Movies are definitely better with beer and super-comfy seats. I am a total Die Hard tragic - I firmly maintain that the original is the most perfectly constructed action movie ever, and two and three are both great (three more so than two). So yes, Die Hard 4.0 had two main things working against it going in - it was shot for a PG-13 rating instead of the traditional R, and it's been a while since the last one and modern high-concept action movies tend to be overproduced crap. Ok, four things - Len Wiseman has only directed the Underworld movies and Bruce Willis is getting rather old.
Thankfully the movie very much works, thanks mostly to the well established structure of the franchise and the charisma of Bruce Willis as John McLane. Brucey Bruce definitely handles himself well for his age. It had some simmply awesome set pieces and the general action was very well handled (despite the lack of vampires or werewolves). My favourite part was that the traditional annoying sidekick was in fact not annoying, I do quite like Justin Long. The techie hacker speak wasn't completely ridiculous which is the usual for this sort of thing (e-bombs aside). My main complaint would be that the villain isn't as memorable as Rickman or Irons, so if I had to place it I'd put 4.0 ahead of 2 but just slightly behind 3 (Justin Long is likable but he is no Sam Jackson). That said, while that puts it as only the third best Die Hard film on my personal list it's still tonnes better than most all of the action films that have come out since the last Die Hard.
One of my favourite franchises of all time so I was a little nervous as this one had a lot to live up to (I watched Die Hard 3 four times in a week the first time I saw it). I love that even though it had a modern "technology"-based plot it was still old-style action (and not too far off the other Die Hard movies). I especially liked how the hacker sidekick was a Mac (WTF is David on about???). I am glad that they didn't overuse computer buzzwords or ideas (except maybe an e-bomb). Just a little bit dark that the main crime they were pulling off didn't make sense (stealing bank records != stealing money). And I agree with Mick, the villain was nowhere near as memorable as the GrĂ¼bers.
The Prestige
I have been meaning to write about this but never have time. It is tops, see it if you can.
Sunshine
I loved this movie. Danny Boyle is one of the most visually unique directors working and applying his skill to sci-fi delivers a truly beautiful movie. Thematically the use of the sun as the ultimate adversary was genius. The movie wasn't perfect - as usual the characters make some pretty unbelieveable decisions, but with a premise as unrealistic as this movie's leaps of logic ar par for the course.
Also - don't make the same mistake I did. This is not a movie that you want to take a dude with a PHD in Astronomy to :( Claire and Aidan were staying with us and I didn't even think about it when I suggested we go see this movie I was super-keen on seeing. When stars and shit is WHAT YOU DO i guess it can be hard to get past a ridiculous premise about the sun dying 5 billion years early and people trying to 're-ignite' it... I suppose it's like us watching The Net.
Anyways, accept that the entire premise is bullshit (and they almost always are: it's Science-FICTION remember) and just enjoy it. It goes a little crazy towards the end but it has some awesomely tense moments and looks a treat. Also the cast is brilliant.
Fook yeah! This movie is brilliant. Scorcese remaking one of the best ever films to come out of Hong Kong. This is how you remake a movie! Take the premise and basic plot outline and put it in a unique setting and adapt it around your own style. The acting was top notch and the it was beautifully violent and profane. Also - superb use of music (particularly a Dropkick Murphys song that is used a couple of times - The Dropkick Murphys are that Boston Irish punk rock band the people who shared my honours room should know well, one of my favourite bands). Having seen the original several times going in (see Infernal Affairs as well btw, but probably after this one ;) ) I was one of the few people not to jump at a key moment towards the end but it still worked great in terms of thrills - this movie really builds up suspense like nothing else.
I reckon Scorcese deserves to finally win himself that oscar for this one - it's one of the best thrillers ever imho. I even liked it better than Infernal Affairs which is saying something. The directing is hell tight, pacing is ideal. Basically I loved everything about this movie, I spent the entire runtime riveted.
So yeah - go see it. Next week is Children of Men - along with The Departed it's one of the two films I've most been looking forward to post-summer movie season.
I concur fully my good sir. It is the best movie I have seen in quite a while. It surprised me to see how close it was to infernal affairs though, as from what I read I thought they'd taken the basic premise and run their own way with it. Which is exactly what happens for the first half - then it is memorable IA scene after scene. Best american remake of an asian movie since The Ring - and this blows that out of the water. Oh, and the first Dropkick Murphys song was TOO DAMN LOUD!
pfft. When i listen to dropkick murphys its always with the volume up a few notches past anything else anyway. So yeah - it was really loud - but that works :P
Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest
I smile thinking about this movie. The first one was riduculously excellent and fun and this sequel is the same. While it doesn't have the originality and freshness of the original (obviously) it is still heaps good, with fun and exitements aplenty yarr.
Johnny Depp is ridiculously entertaining as Captain Jack Sparrow. The effects are tops - the bits with the Kraken are fantastic. It doesn't exactly resolve in a totally satisfying way but that's ok because it was filmed at the same time as the third movie - set for May next year (yay!).
So yeah, see it cos it's great etc. It's funny, awesome dialogue. It's big and nifty with lots of the exiting thrilly type bits and a very cool villain. I did feel kind of bad for the dog though...
Confirmed. If you take life too seriously you'll be annoyed by all the inconsistencies in this movie. Otherwise you'll have a ripper of a time.
Superman Returns
Really Cool. It didn't blow me away on the same sort of scale as X-Men 2 but I'd rate it probably as good as Batman Begins (which is rather highly). While the aforementioned Batman movie re-invented the franchise as a darker and more intense type of thing Superman Returns keeps Superman just as he is thankyou very much and that's fine with me. It's very in keeping with the style of the first two Superman movies (the good ones) while updating the effects and scale of the whole thing. Kevin Spacey made a great Lex Luther I thought which is good for him cos he's had a run of pretty shit roles (that'll teach him for winning an oscar). Basically it's a comic book movie in the style of the comic book movies before the comic book movie became a big thing (so before Spiderman really). It doesn't try and update the material - the movie is set five years after Superman 2 and as such everyone is dressed like it's five years after Superman 2.
A bonus for me is that I've now been in Sydney long enough that I recognised some of the locations used in filming. I've walked up and down the steps the runaway car goes down etc.
Summary - the movie is really enjoyable. It doesn't change much about the franchise (it is actually very much like a proper sequel to Superman 2). As long as you can accept Superman for what he is, as long as you don't find the most purely ideal superhero figure corny then you'll enjoy the movie just fine.
I finally saw this on thursday and was a bit disappointed. My problems with it revolved around the 'major evil plan' of the movie. I though that as people weren't being directly threatened, it was hard to get really excited about superman's achievements. Yeah, ok, bajillions were going to die, but it didnt seem to have the urgency like hundreds of people being set on fire or something. Also, the movie was just WAY TOO LONG. It plodded along for ages at the end, and had quite a few false endings. All in all a pretty decent movie; it certainly wasn't terrible, but I didn't think it was nearly as good as batman begins.
X-Men: The Last Stand
Drat. I was hoping this would be as cool as the first two despite the new director but it wasn't. It was entertaining for sure, it had some of the most amazing sequences I've seen since War of the Worlds. Unfortunately it just wasn't as interesting. There were bits where it was obvious they were trying for the big emotional punches and they generally fell flat. There was heaps of promise in the premise of a 'mutant cure' and all of the issues involved therein, I just didn't feel they did much with it. Too much of the movie felt superficial. There just wasn't as much to the characters this time out. See it, it's well worth seeing on the big screen for the amazing action pieces. It's just not as good as the first two films. Wolverine is still a dude of course.
Pazu's Rating: 2 cars thrown in the air and set on fire out of 5.
The Promise
It's time for me to bring some of my asian cinema buffness to this page. The Promise is the latest in the recent wave of massive CG-infused wuxia films from china. The two ones most would have seen are Hero and House of Flying Daggers, both directed by Zhang Yimou. The Promise is from Chen Kaige, whose best film is The Emperor and the Assassin (which happened to be about the exact same thing as Hero, though instead of being a wuxia style film it was a realistic politically-focused period piece). He goes for more fantastical imagery in this film than Yimou and unfortunately the special effects aren't always up to it. The plot is rather trippy, involving a slave who has god-like speed, the greatest general in the land and some girl. It's entertaining but not very involving. There are some great action sequences but there the bits between get tedious since I didn't really feel much for the characters.
Pazu's Rating: 3 angry bulls out of 5.
Bonus feature!
Summer is coming (movie summer that is) and that means big fun movies! So, to get people excited I've got some trailer links and recommendations for stuff to watch out for.
Pirates! - If you didn't think Pirates of the Carribean was the most fun ever then you have NO SOUL. It was awesome. Thankfully the trailer for the sequel looks just as cool.
Superman! - New superman movie from Mr Byan Singer (who made the awesome x-men films as well as the usual suspects which is one of the coolest films ever). trailer looks cool, Kevin Spacey is definitely having fun as Lex Luther.
Nacho! - Nacho Libre, Jack Black as a mexican monk taking up wrestling to save an orphanage. Directed by Jared Hess who was responsible for Napolean Dynamite (im talking to you Vanmani). Also - Beck is doing the score which is possibly the coolest thing ever. trailer
Other cool stuff I can't be bothered linking trailers for:
X-Men 3 - People keep giving Brett Ratner crap but the dude delivers consistenly entertaining films and given the number of directers who make crap EVERY SINGLE TIME they should cut him some slack. Anyways, lots of people think this will be crud since it's him and not Bryan Singer making it but i think it will still be pretty awesome.
Cars - New Pixar. Thats should be enough for everyone.
A Scanner Darkly - Phillip K. Dick, drugs and an animated Keanu Reeves. This looks like it will be hells the trippy and hopefully just as cool.
United 93 - Not being American means that I can happily say that this looks pretty cool (for all of you who don't know the deal, united 93 is the plane that went down in a field in pennsylvania on september 11). I'm a massive Paul Greengrass fan and I think he could do awesome stuff with what is a pretty intense story. Note that this is getting EXCELLENT reviews from EVERYONE in the US and its a little hard to tell how much of it is people not wanting to be the one that bags the movie about the 9/11 heroes, that said you know they won't have that problem with the Oliver Stone World Trade Center project due out later in the year.
Snakes! - Snakes on a Plane, internet silliness aside it looks like there is a distinct possibility that knowing what people want, the makers of this film will manage to give us a fun silly movie with Sam Jackson being a dude and punching snakes. Dumb movies are fun when the people making them don't take it too seriously and this definitely fis that bill.
meh:
Poseidon - Kurt Russel is a dude (everyone who hasn't seen The Thing needs to do so) but this looks very meh. Wolfgang Peterson has made good movies but more often makes crap ones.
The Da Vinci Code - I haven't read the book so I'm not that fussed. The trailer did look pretty cool though and the cast is pretty awesome. Still, whatever.
Anchorman with cars - Tallageda nights or whatever. I HATED anchorman, it was terrible. The only funny bit was when Jack Black kicked Will Ferrel's dog off the bridge. Anyways, this movie is the same director with Will Ferrel again so I'll be elsewhere.
I'm probably forgetting some but there you go. I can't wait for the new Pirates movie.
M:I:3
<Lambeaux>
Review is possibly a little bit spoiling but suck-it-up princess, or wait till you've seen it.
Bucking the current trend in movies Mission Impossible 3 is not only relativly short (~2 hours) but it is also a real sequel and not a prequel or some other chronological mind-fuck just to add to the 'intelligence' of the movie (although there is a little bit of back-and-forward for one scene). It is easy to work out what happened between MI2 and MI3 and the scene is set quite well. The story unfolds well and it is into the whole spy thing pretty quickly. There is a cool infiltration scene into a well-known sovereign-state and also a high-tech building. This was one of the things that pissed me off. They made a big deal about getting into this building then only showed Ethan getting in and getting out, I was very dissapointed with that. They made it sound like it was meant to be the toughest thing they'd ever done and then didn't even show it. To be honest I was never bored in this movie but when I came out I wasn't excited either.
Happy that:
They didn't overuse the masks like they did in MI2
It wasn't too long
Annoyed that:
I felt so flat afterwards
There weren't more characters from the previous movies
Finally, did anyone else see the similarities to True Lies? Wife who doesn't know husband is a spy, terrorists blowing up bridge in Florida Quays. I thought that was pretty funny.
Lambeaux rating's: 3 wine-stained hand-made silk shirts out of 5 wine-stained hand-made silk shirts.
</Lambeaux>
<Pazu>
I'm not seeing enough movies up here. I shouldn't be poor for much longer though so ill see more. Anyways, Lambeux may have stolen my thunder but nonetheless i shall go on.
I thought it was great. MI:3 is the first in the series that is actually a Mission Impossible movie. The first one was Brian De Palma making some completely different movie and killing off the whole team (mission impossible was always a team thing). The second was crap, John Woo basically went mental and was just stupid with the fucking masks and the awful accents (Ausralians and South Africans equally terrible). Also even though he still did his trademark stuff (how did the fucking doves get in a bunker!?!) it was flat compared to his great movies (Face-Off FTW).
My point is that I watched the tv show heaps when I was little and this was the first of the movies that felt like the show and not something else. The action was excellent (the bridge bit kicked) and i must disagree with Lambox about the last building infiltration - you cant say a movie had great pacing and wasn't too long while also complaining that they didn't show ANOTHER building infiltration. The hard bit was the way he got onto the building and that was cool. Also he sudden "i cant get to the roof, look up!" bit was cool.
I thought it was great fun. Also it had the girl from Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang in it and that movie was awesome.
Coach Z says: "I can't be stuffed making one of those pictures everytime I write something on this page."
</Pazu>
Inside Man
<Lambeaux> (So you don't have to read the whole thing in brown)
Saw this on Saturday. Was pretty cool, you knew where it was going, but not really. Not real 'twists' but the end was good. I was a little bit confused by some parts of the story, but I am happy to watch it again.
Lambeaux's rating: 3.5 Chase Manhattan Bank Bond Certificates out of 5 Chase Manhattan Bank Bond Certificates.
</Lambeaux>
<Auron>
Saw this last week and I though it was very good. I thought all the performances were tight and this movie just happens to contain the best line ever (in the part where Denzel's character bursts into the restaurant and the maitre'd asks him about his hat).Yeah, that was brilliant! Also, I liked the way it ended.
Auron's rating: 4 Spike Lee Joints out of 5.
</Auron>
<Pazu>
I saw this while I was down in Tasmania. I thought it was great. I loved that it took the standard bank robbery/hostage drama and made something unique and very clever out of it. Critics not thinking it's good is almost certainly due to an inability to appreciate a great mainstream movie when made by a director who usually does 'important' films. That said, Spike Lee's last film was about a guy who impregnated lesbians for money and only about four people saw it so there you go.
</Pazu>
V for Vendetta
Awesome. After The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (or LXG if you are a git) turned from an awesome and fun comic into pure crap I wished Alan Moore's work would just be left alone (to be fair From Hell was a good movie, but it was just a Jack the Ripper film while the comic was much more). I'm glad this movie was made because it is great. The second and third Matrix films blew hard but they made enough money to ensure that the Wachowski bros could produce a film unlike anything else that comes through the studio system.
V for Vendetta does a wonderful job of adapting the comic. There are a few changes, some necessary, some good and some not so good but overall it is very faithful. It is still Briish which is cool. It is an action movie with an important message behind it which is rather rare. On the action front it's all good, there is none of the crappy quick-cutting that is so prevelant these days and it's not all excessive flipping around and kung-fooey. V is an assassin and he kills people quickly and efficiently. Also: the explosions in this movie are awesome. The cinema I saw it in was rather loud and you could feel it. Seriously; 1812 Overture, fireworks and everything. It's beautiful.
The following big black thing is a spoiler which is why you cant see it yet, I wouldn't want to ruin anything for people. If you've seen the movie just float the mouse cursor over the spoiler to read it.
The bit at the end where it's looking at all the people in the crowd and you see everyone who died was crap. Also, I don't see why everyone needed masks at the end. We get that the people are V, they dont all need to wear the mask. That said it was a pretty cool image seeing hundreds of people in the same smiling mask.
I saw this movie recently and quite liked it. It cracked me up when Natalie Portman came out in that pink dress, it did a couple of other things to me as well but I'll leave that as it is. I thought the "V" alliteration/monologue was gratuitous and a bit contrived. I agree with Mick about the end and the masks. I am not a big movie director but maybe having the dead people in V suits (but the others, not) would have made sense. Anyways all up a good movie.
I don't imagine future entries on this page will be quite this long. It's my first time and I got exited...
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Comments (3)
dangeresque said
at 8:41 pm on Apr 2, 2006
This is one movie I am not going to miss. Saw the 'at the movies' review of it and they were e a bit iffy, but their arguments were pretty crappy.
"V never takes off his mask so he seems a bit removed from the rest of the movie". Duh. its kinda the whole point, didnt you see the end?
I have just upgraded my expectations now
Vanmani said
at 3:56 pm on Apr 3, 2006
Expectations SP2.
dangeresque said
at 7:05 pm on Apr 11, 2006
I swear lambeaux looks like hes lining somebody up for a fight in that picture.
I like the random things out of five though
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Comments (3)
dangeresque said
at 8:41 pm on Apr 2, 2006
This is one movie I am not going to miss. Saw the 'at the movies' review of it and they were e a bit iffy, but their arguments were pretty crappy.
"V never takes off his mask so he seems a bit removed from the rest of the movie". Duh. its kinda the whole point, didnt you see the end?
I have just upgraded my expectations now
Vanmani said
at 3:56 pm on Apr 3, 2006
Expectations SP2.
dangeresque said
at 7:05 pm on Apr 11, 2006
I swear lambeaux looks like hes lining somebody up for a fight in that picture.
I like the random things out of five though
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