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[Dark Duel]

Dunno if I mentioned it, but I also saw JJ Abrams's Star Trek a while back and thought it was hands-down the best space sci-fi movie I've ever seen.

Not long after that I saw GI Joe, which is okay, but pretty much your standard Hollywood mindless soldier-boy movie. Sort of the modern equivalent of Rambo - it's fairly predictable, **** gets blown up, and the good guys win. The one twist is that for once the black dude ain't the first to go.

Last week I watched "Quick and the Dead", which is an oldish Western with DiCaprio, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe and Sharon Stone. I'm almost ashamed to admit this is the first Sharon Stone movie I've actually seen. Been meaning to see Basic Instinct for years, jsut never got around to it. Anyway, pretty good movie, though I LOL'd once or twice.

At long last, I finally saw Deja Vu, with Denzel Washington, Jim Caviezel, and Val Kilmer, as well as that guy who plays JFK in 13 Days whose name I always forget.
My first reaction was that Val Kilmer is FAT.
My second reaction was WTF?!!!
My third reaction was "Holy Crap I love this movie"

[UC fan]

Hey, I as a black male am offended, the black guy isn't usually the first to die in PG13 movies, not unless you count Jurassic Park . On subject I am about to see Avatar Thursday, and from what the others say it's going to be the best thing since sliced bread, and I do not mean to be sarcastic.

[vindKtiv]

Hey, I as a black male am offended, the black guy isn't usually the first to die in PG13 movies, not unless you count Jurassic Park . On subject I am about to see Avatar Thursday, and from what the others say it's going to be the best thing since sliced bread, and I do not mean to be sarcastic.

That's what everybody told me and I got my hopes up. The movie was definitely okay, but not as good as everybody says it is. I'm not gonna go into details for the sake of spoilers, but don't expect perfection.

[SNT1]

Watched Sherlock Holmes.

Probably top 3 best movie of 2009 and kept me entertained all the way.

Watched Avatar.

Movie sucked balls hardcore. Too drawn out, I wanted it to end 45 minutes to go. And I was watching it from a:

Spoiler

Traitor's perspective.

Okay, it didn't 'suck'. Graphics were stunning. I would say its ok at best.

[Shea]

Saw Avatar.

A very beautiful film with characters that capture you (so to speak).
My only complaints are that is was a little too long, and that the environmental message doesn't leave an impression on you.

[Antares]

I also checked out Avatar, although I have taken to calling the movie Cat-Smurf Pocahontas. Like so many have said, the visually stunning side of it was enough to draw attention away from character development or plot, both of which were pretty flat. Hey, you can't have it all. It was amusing though to play the guessing game of how which piece of dialog serves as blatant foreshadowing of later plot "twists".
Plus if Cameron is smart he's going to do a 'Pandora Nature Documentary', which would be an hour and a half of nothing but serene, beautiful Pandora nature, preferably without narration. Stoners would line up to buy that DVD.

[Strike105]

I just finished watching Tucker Max's "I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell". I, personally, don't think it's as humorous as the book. There are a few particularly funny moments, but not a whole lot when compared to the source material. If you want Tucker Max's over-the-top raunchy stories, just stick with the book.

As a warning: If anyone decides they want to give this film a look, just make sure there are no children around. If any of you have read the book, then you should know what I mean.

[Red Comet90]

Like everyone else I saw Avatar and honestly it was ok. I don't understand how this movie has made so much money when it was only Ok to Good at best. The plot was alright and so were the characters.

Last weekend I saw The Lovely Bones. The commercials give off the wrong impression with that movie. Its not at all about "A Father loving her Daughter so much." Thats part of it but its so small that you go in expecting one thing and get this trippy movie that in the end says:

Spoiler

Murderers will get their dues and we shouldn't try and get vengeance on them or try to bring them to justice at all.....because apparently snow kills them for you. No joke he dies because of an Icicle.

Thats not to say that the movie starts off really good and Peter Jackson does a great job directing the film. I honestly couldn't buy the horror, suspense and plot of the movie. It was lackluster over all. Maybe this is one of those adaptations where the movie doesn't scratch the surface of what the book portrayed. Regardless it failed in my opinion.

[mcred23]

Saw Avatar in 3D. Can't really add anything to the comments on the visual aspects, it's as stunning as everyone says it is. The 3D element was very interesting. Sometimes it looked a bit out of place/obvious, but most of the times it blended seemlessly with everything in the scene.

The story was... interesting, for lack of any word that truely fits how I felt about. I went in expecting it to be mediocre at best, Dances With Wolves In Space at worst. It was a lot better than that, but it wasn't the greatest thing either. I guess "Above Average" would probably be the best way to describe it. It's better than your typical Sci-Fi, didn't have any massive flaws in my eyes, but certainly not some epic in story telling. As it went on, I noticed some elements that reminded me of Dances With Wolves, but they were well done, and it was never as obvious as some people (South Park ) claimed. And really, this is one of the few cases where the amazing special effects and visuals more than make up for whatever faults the story has.

Only thing I had a problem with was the crowd, but I won't judge the movie for annoying idiots.

[Shea]

Saw Army of Darkness for the first time. (Also my first Bruce Campbell movie.)

There are only four words that accurately describe this movie.
Funny.
Cool.
Gloriously Cheesy.

That's it. I've got nothin'. Review's over.

[Kavik Ryx]

Finally got around to District 9. And I gotta say, I cannot believe that I was so moved by a movie where I hated just about every character. The CGI was just perfect, especially considering the budget.

[mcred23]

So I'm taking a Film As Literature class this semester. Basically, writing/talking about movies like you would a book, and thanks to it, I'm getting to see some interesting films I hadn't before. And since I'm alright doing crap kinda like this in class, might as well do it here too.

The first film we watched was Fahrenheit 9/11. Obviously, I won't/can't comment on the political messages in the film, but it didn't live up to the hype. Seemed a bit jumpy, most of the messages were a bit too buried. Last part of it hit pretty hard, though.

The second film was Rebel Without A Cause, which also didn't live up the hype. It's one of those movies everybody has heard about, but in the end, it was just another B-movie that ended up famous cause James Dean died. Even by 1950's standards, it wasn't that good. Acting was alright at times, but the plot was crazy, nevermind all the changes in characters that seemed totally out of place for what was going on.

I forget what movie I'm seeing in my next class, tomorrow night, but I do know the movie after that is the classic Platoon, which I've seen countless times.

[Antares]

@mcred23: That sounds like an interesting course! I am actually a little interested what your curriculum contains. Please keep on posting.

[mcred23]

@mcred23: That sounds like an interesting course! I am actually a little interested what your curriculum contains. Please keep on posting.

Well, so far it's basically been just watching movies and discussion of them (During and after the movie). It's pretty interesting to break down the movies like you normally only would do a book, something I've never really done in a class before (Unless it was a movie based on a book we had read), so it's really looking at stuff in a movie I hadn't really considered/thought about before.

Anyway, this weeks movie was Stand By Me, which I'd seen a few times over the years, but hadn't actually watched from start to finish in a long time. This was one that was actually better than I remember it being (And surprisingly short, only about 90 minutes; Always seemed longer before). Pretty good all around for everything, there wasn't anything that really struck me as bad or problematic in it, although by the same token, there weren't many elements that really struck me as great either (Probably with the exception of the acting, particularly for the four main characters, which was all very good). It did really well in shaping the characters and showing how they change to one extent or another (With the notable exception of Vern, who seems to remain unchanged, probably to show to what degrees the other three did develop). In the end, I ended up liking it more than I did before.

And like I said, next week I'll technically be watching Platoon. However, since I basically know that movie word for word, I'll probably end up just reading a book or dozing (Or maybe actually pay attention, as it is great film).

[Kavik Ryx]

I think my brother is taking a class like that. Though the only two movies I know he's seen in it are Bombay and Chinatown. He told me that the latter was like a non-stoner version of The Big Lebowski. Is this a sound comparison?

[DuelGundam2099]

Rest Stop. It was on the Syfy channel this morning and I had nothing better to do. To put it bluntly Hostel ripoff is ripoff, or at least the torture scenes were *shrivels*. Gore aside it wasn't bad, it had good psychological tones, kept itself mostly realistic, and you really have to hate the truck driver.

[mcred23]

So the last two movies I watched in my film class were Platoon and Brokeback Mountain (Didn't have one this week; Had a test ).

Platoon I've seen countless times over the years. Great war movie, I love it. Has a few flaws, and embelishes a lot, but still an excellent movie.

Brokeback Mountain I hadn't seen before, and I found it pretty medicore. One second, things are kinda normal, then the next... well, everyone knows what the movie is about . Needless to say, it prompted a giant "WTF!?" from me and everyone in the class who hadn't seen the movie (A few people, myself included, actually did say those words! ). The rest of the plot was alright, but wasn't really anything special to me. A lot of it seemed like stuff I've seen in other movies about people sneaking away to be together or things like that, only with gay cowboys. The acting, however, I thought was pretty good, for the most part. It helped at times, because I thought the movie was too long and dragged at a few points. In the end, I'm chalking this one as another one that I found to be over-hyped.

The next movie, which isn't until mid-March thanks to mid-terms and spring break, is Do The Right Thing, which I haven't seen, but have been told I would like.

[ZeroBusterXX]

OK.

Last film I saw was Black Dynamite.

This movie deserved a bigger release. It's an excellent parody of movies like Shaft and Superfly and an excellent send-up too. I mean, at some points, it looks like it's the real deal.

I also so Halo Legends which had about three lame segments and three really cool ones.

Oh, and Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. It wasn't as cool as Green Lantern: First Flight or as good as Justice League: New Frontier, but it was still pretty good and it was sort of great for me, as a comic fan, to see all the Earth 2 versions of the heroes and villains in an animated form.

But the real treat of Crisis on Two Earth's was The Spectre short. It had a great 70s look and was really dark and violent.

[Dark Duel]

Recently saw Empire of the Sun, an absolutely beautiful Spielberg movie that's as old as I am, about a British kid living in Singapore, who's separated from his parents during the Japanese invasion and spends two years or so in a Japanese prison camp.
It's based on a book, as so many good movies are.
Starring John Malkovich as an American POW, and kind of a d***head.
Also starring Christian Bale, who was 13 years old at the time. Adorable kid.

Then just today I saw Everybody's Fine, with Drew Barrymore(when was the last time she did anything?), Kate Beckinsale, and Robert DeNiro, who actually doesn't play a complete a-hole, which was a new experience for me.
Wonderful movie.

This weekend I plan to watch Law-Abiding Citizen. Might go see Wolfman tomorrow.

[Blue 55]

Just saw Shutter Island and..... well it will mess with your mind big time thats for sure over all a good movie thou.