What have you watched lately?

[Diabolical]

I really need to add LA Confidential to my watch list.

And apparently, the users on wikipedia have no idea what film noir is, as their list of noir titles includes some really baffling entries. Some of them are noir-ish or noir inspired, but seriously:
Boyz N The Hood? The Fugitive? Face/Off? Smoking Aces?
If you go by wiki's definition, I guess you could consider these noir films, but I think its a stretch.

Film noir is a loosely defined category that refers primarily to stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivations.

If you haven't seen the 2006 director's cut of 1999's Payback (Mel Gibson) I'd recommend it. It was like watching one of Brubaker's Criminal comics come to life. The film's only sin would be replacing Kirs Kristofferson with a chick.

Also recommended is Brick (2006) starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, a hard-boiled detective story with high-schoolers.

[vynsane]

And apparently, the users on wikipedia have no idea what film noiranything is

fix'd.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I'll second that Brick recommendation. That film is fabulous.

Speaking of Payback, Jason Statham is circling the role of Parker for a new series of films based on the original novels. I never realized Payback was a remake of a Coburn flick from the 70s, which was also based on the novel.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I saw Hanna last week, and it had such little impact on me, I promptly forgot to write about it after I left the theatre. probably because there was something lacking in the climax of the film and I couldn't figure out what. then I finally came to the conclusion that there was a scene missing, or probably more than one scene, because the first scene removal would've forced later scenes referencing the first scene to be removed. And I then concluded that the scene removed was probably due to some hackneyed "Preview Audiences" dislike of a family being coldbloodedly murdered by Cate Blanchett's and Tom Hollander's characters. And that subsequent flaunting and taunting of said family's death would make the conclusion's killing of those two characters subsequently more viscerally satisfying. But as it is, the family's fate is up in the air in the current cut of the film, and since they are never even mentioned again EVER in the film, the fate of Hanna's character as the credits role is unsatisfying. In fact, since her last words in the film are exactly the same as her first words in the film (which probably worked much better at the script level than they do in the actual film) we are left to conclude that the character hasn't progressed at all the entire film. Which is sorta disappointing since the acting in the film was very well done. It's like breaking out the fine china dishes and silverware in order to eat spaghetti with ketchup for dinner. Another thing was the limp "Genetically enhanced" subplot of the film. i feel like the film could've done without it (other than being the reason Blanchett's CIA Agent is so fixated on finding Hanna to begin with) and still having a person raised from birth in the harsh climes of the arctic circle to be an assassin would be as compelling as that same person being raised for all those years and ALSO be genetically engineered. And there was no payoff for it later on. It ended up being a macguffin to get the CIA after the girl. because clearly an assassin raised from birth ALONE wouldn't warrant CIA resources to finding and eliminating such a person. They would have to be an experiment that got away.

So anyway. Somewhere on the cutting room floor is a scene where Cate Balnchett's obsessive-compulsive control freak CIA Agent in charge, and Tom Hollander's fey bi-sexual assassin mercenary killed that family. (And believe me, when you see the film, knowing these characters, there's no way they didn't plug that leak). Its too bad studios cave to Test Audiences rather than go with the director's intent. The film would've been 20x more compelling and satisfying.

[anarky]

Popeye is still as cheesy and fun as it was 31 years ago.

Tangled is okay. Not bad, but not up to Disney's normal standards. Oddly, the CG didn't bother me, and was stellar.

[Ran]

Popeye wasn't a bad movie. Especially considering how other cartoon based movies have turned out.

Caught the end of Dancing at the Blue Iguana on tv. Wasn't really paying attention to it. Is Sandra Oh a robot? Her facial expression barely changed.

[anarky]

I just know Dancing at the Blue Iguana has a lot of titties. I've not paid a lot of attention to the rest of it, but the scene you're talking about is probably where she's stripping (and looks remarkably good, considering she's freakin' Sandra Oh) and her artsy fartsy boyfriend, who just found out what she does, walks out on her, and she's trying not to break down in front of everyone else. I'm not really defending the movie; like I said, I've always been, "Okay, no titties now; I'll read or something" when it's on, but it's tough to not figure out what's going on if you see more than the last few minutes.

But, yeah, Sandra Oh hardly tops my list of "who'd you like to see nekkid," but she actually looks like a human woman in this movie. A human woman with pretty nice boobs.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Watched a few movies in the last couple days.

Skyline. Ugh. Whatever you might have heard or read about this one is true. What a cinematic turd. A completely baffling and insipid ending. So stupid, I don't even feel bad spoiling it for you right now. The aliens win. They kill everyone. Or harvest everyone. Which is the same thing. Except the main character (played by Eric Balfour) when they remove his brain at the end to put into one of their own bodies to animate it, his brain rebels and goes to protect his newly pregnant girlfriend in the bowels of the ship in his new alien body. They're keeping her alive, presumably to harvest the baby when its born. In nine months. Because she takes the pregnancy test a the beginning of the film. So apparently she was just gonna have to sit in that gooey stuff on the alien ship without food and water for nine months. They don't really go into it because all of this literally happens thirty seconds before the credits roll, and some of it is shown in still frame images DURING the credits. And its not like theres any kind of upside to saving your pregnant girlfriend, because you's still have to get off the spaceship. back to Earth where there are no other people left. Oh, and you're a fucking alien now. So your girlfriend would be all alone on Earth raisng a baby that can't ever procreate and save the species because its the last fucking baby on earth. Jaesus, what a fucking stupid film. But, in a way, I'm glad I saw it. Because if I'm ever in a room being tortured by guys and they're threatening to pull out my teeth or stick bamboo under my nails or whatever. I can say I watched Skyline, and that will give them pause.

Scott Pilgrim Certainly not the uber hip cultural mecca people were masturbating to at ComicCon last summer (jesus, you should've seen how mass masturbutorial that place was for this film). But still a decent little flick with some clever moments of dialogue. And rewatchable just for the hottie factor. I also laughed at Thomas Jane and Clifton Collins' cameos as the Vegan Police. And personally I would've picked the virgin asian catholic schoolgirl who was macking on me enough to get in a fistfight over me, rather than then emo bitch with commitment issues (she can't even settle on a hair color)who is the world's biggest asshole magnet. But thats just me. Actually I would've chosen the redhead drummer. That chick is just BEGGING to have dirty things done to her. Scott Pilgrim is pretty much a douche in the film.

The Next Three Days. Russell Crowe plans to spring his wife Elizabeth Banks from prison. Holy crap, what an awesome tension filled thriller! Watching it unfold puts you on edge the entire film, because at any moment they could plausibly get caught. I won't even ruin the ending. Oh, and Olivia Wilde has a supporting role in it, and shes damn easy on the eyes, so bonus there.

The King's Speech. Just as good the first time. Exceptional film.

[jjreason]

Watched The Fantastic Mr Fox today with the chilluns. It's an interestingly animated take on Roald Dahl's book of the same name. The humor is EXTREMELY dry and understated, and the visuals are far and away enough to keep you watching, even if it slows down a couple of times. Worth a look, even if only to see how they made it work.

I actually kinda liked the music in Scott Pilgrim, and I agree - Chinese girl hands down - but not down her pants because she's not old enough. Yet.

The last movie we watched before that was Tron Legacy, and like I'm sure I posted in that movie's thread, god damn I hated it. Holy shit.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I actually kinda liked the music in Scott Pilgrim, and I agree - Chinese girl hands down - but not down her pants because she's not old enough. Yet.

Actually, he broke up with her while she was inviting him to her birthday dinner to meet her parents. So that ass was legal to tap. (oh. They were in Toronto. I don't know what the age limit is there. I defer to any Canadians in law enforcement who may be present on a ruling.)

Yeah, the music was pretty good.

[jjreason]

Age of consent reform in Canada refers to cultural and legal discussions in Canada regarding the age of consent. The age of consent in Canada was raised from 14 to 16 in May 2008.[1]

In June 2006, the Canadian government proposed a bill to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16, while creating a near-age exemption for sex between 14-15 year olds and partners up to 5 years older, and keeping an existing near-age clause for sex between 12-13 year olds and partners up to 2 years older. The initiative also maintains a temporary exception for already existing marriages of 14 and 15 year olds, but forbids new marriages like these in the future.[2]

(WIKI)

[Diabolical]

Watched The Fantastic Mr Fox today with the chilluns. It's an interestingly animated take on Roald Dahl's book of the same name. The humor is EXTREMELY dry and understated, and the visuals are far and away enough to keep you watching, even if it slows down a couple of times. Worth a look, even if only to see how they made it work.

I picked this up for $5 recently at Best Buy. I liked it quite a bit. It was quirky and fun, and the darker elements were well handled for a kid's movie (but maybe not those under 5 or 6).

[anarky]

3:10 to Yuma (original): Damned good movie, and definitely not what I was expecting. I have the remake on hand now, and will see it within a few days.

The Third Man: Another damned good movie. If you've not seen it, I'd highly recommend it. I'm not sure if it counts as "noir," but a very solid mystery. Lots of attention to detail, things that only a handful of filmmakers seem to actually recognize as important anymore.

The Muppet Movie: I thought I'd seen this ages ago. I didn't recognize a single bit, so maybe I never did. They've been away so long, and their last few appearances were so weak by Muppet standards, it's easy to forget how insanely funny the Muppets were back in the day. And still are. I hope the new film next year measures up to the first three and the original show.

The Big Lebowski: Gotta admit, I was let down slightly. I've always heard this movie described as if it's some landmark of human achievement, and I wouldn't even consider it the best Coen Brothers movie. Sure, it was a really good movie; the Coens don't make bad movies or even movies that could be considered merely "above average." I think it was entirely the buildup that made it not as good as, say, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Of course, nude Julianne Moore still qualifies as awesome until she gets a couple more years under her belt, so no complaints there, except that the scene in question could've been longer.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Lebowski's entertainment factor is derived from multiple viewings. It gets better and funnier on each viewing.

[anarky]

I'm waiting for you to finish Ninja Assassin before I give my thoughts on it. My friend and I were invited to one of those test audience screenings eight months before it was released, and we gave copious notes about it. But I've never seen the finished product. I doubt there was too much difference though. Does Patton's 3rd Army still invade in the third act?

Pretty close.

I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't call it a great movie. It's sort of like Daredevil in one way--I consider Daredevil to be a mediocre 80s action flick that happened to be released in the 21st century by accident, and Ninja Assassin seems like an homage to them. Kinda more like The Replacements in that sense, I guess, but Replacements seemed to go for a more traditional approach to the 80s action flick, right down to the romance with the bad guy's daughter. Ninja Assassin ups the violence to such an insane degree that it's completely unbelievable (those ninja-tos slice right through people faster than lightsabers--an impressive feat considering that they're usually not nearly as sharp as katanas), but keeps it just barely from going into the realm where everyone watching starts complaining about how ridiculous it is.

Completely over the top, and in all the right ways. An awful lot of stuff that'd make me complain about it if it looked like they were taking it seriously and it weren't clearly intended to be so over the top. And definitely not something you should cite in a research paper. It went back to the 80s again with the "ninjas wear black and are evil and have magic powers so let's make up a bunch of stuff that fits our story" without ever trying to go at it from a more balanced angle, the way you'd expect a movie from 2009 to do.

I've only seen Rain in two films now (three if you count "The Wide World of Racing," which is more a promo piece), and I am so removed from "why the hell did they cast a Korean pop singer as a Japanese racer? this is gonna ruin the damn movie!" that I can only remember that in a haze. It's kinda like seeing that Mark Wahlberg was actually a pretty good actor.

I'd definitely watch it again, and no way in hell would I pass it up if I saw it for less than $5.