Watched it tonight. Awesome flick.

Best part was Luke Wilson randomly showing up in the middle. Honestly, it was mediocre until the end. Then it just soared.

Anyone seen that dragon wars movie, heard it was super shitty but had awesome SE's

Again, Kite Runner is really good.

And The Bucket List is well, average, at best. It could drop most of the stereotypes and then way too fairy tale ending and be better.

Just watched it last night.

Outstanding.

Great acting, great story, great action. Kinda of a throwback western, yet modernized all in one.

The Charlie Prince bad guy character was one mean SOB, and one of the best bad guys ive seen in a long time.

Anyone watch the Sci-Fi movie Sunshine yet? This movie seems to have slipped under the radar i think. Just came out on DVD.

I wish i would have seen it in the theaters, visually this is porn for the eyes. Really awesome scenes through out it. The movie is a mix of 2001 a space odyssey and Aliens maybe but not a copy-cat movie.

I would give the movie a 7.5 out of ten. The last 12 minutes of the horror scene if you want to call it i didn't buy into. If the movie would have went a different direction it would scored higher i think.

Overall worth the rental no question.

I saw Sunshine a couple of weeks ago and it blew me away, the sound through my four big speakers was stunning. It's by the same director of '28 Days Later', which also starred Cillian Murphy. I liked him ever since I saw him in Batman Begins and then in Red Eye. When I looked up the box office, Sunshine opened last July and took in only $3-1/2 million, I never heard of it until I saw the DVD. I would say that if it weren't for 3:10 to Yuma, it's the best new DVD release out. Although, 'Gone Baby Gone' comes out next Tuesday and it's suppose to be very good.




DVD's I've watched this year;

3:10 to Yuma - 9
Sunshine - 8
The Kingdom - 8
Bourne Ultimatum - 8
The Brave One - 7
The Invasion - 7
Shoot 'em Up -7
Superbad - 7
Live Free or Die Hard - 6
Waitress - 6
Death Sentence - 6

I just picked up "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" which we'll be watching tonight, and I plan on getting "Across the Universe" tomorrow.

I would agree with that. Although, I must say that the movie is two halves. Don't be frightened about it's change in course.

Anyone watch The Nines?

Just got done watching it. Really, really, enjoyed it. Best Sci-Fi flick ive seen in quite some time.


The first 2/3's of it are better than the last (HellRaiser inspired) third, but i still enjoyed it overall.

Easily one of my favorites from last year. The last act worked a lot better for me the second time through and I really dug the music/score.

This is also a really great home theater flick. Great visuals and my sub has never worked harder.

No Country for Old Men:

It's tough to flat out say "I loved this movie." There's a LOT to love about it, but something about the overall idea of the movie irks me a bit. It's almost like the movie has crossed a bit into the pitfall of "movie without purpose" that a lot of arthouse movies fall into. That's not to say that it's pretentious video art... It's not... The story is really fabulous. It's just that I'm having a really hard time grasping what the Cohen Brothers are trying to say with this film. The whole film is really gritty and bleak, and as far as capturing the intensity and emotions of the characters, I think they have struck gold. I'm still just a couple of realizations away from this being one of my top films of the year.


Untraceable:

Almost Unwatchable... It's trying really hard to be a techno-thriller, but it also has elements of the modern "gore porn" genre. To it's credit I don't think it crossed over the line into the same catagory as "Saw" and "The Hills Have Eyes" but it's definately a crazy killer with ornate and interesting, gutwrenching ways of killing people. All the while there is something about the filter and camera style that makes me think they wanted this movie to feel like Silence of the Lambs... Kinda like a slightly bluish, digital, home-movie look to the whole thing. Anyway, Diane Lane is decent actress, but she doesn't carry this movie very well, and the people around her are just terrible. At no point do any of the other FBI officers have a role to play other than standing around. Her partner's storyline is handled so delibrately that you know what's coming around every corner. And the "bad guy" once revealed is just acting creepy. There's nothing special or interesting or new in any performance in this film. My recommendation... See something else.

I'm going to buy Sunshine for my DVD collection.

Finally got to see "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" on DVD last week. It's 2 hrs and 47 minutes and features Brad Pitt and Casey Afleek, it's an excellent flick. Gave it 9 Stars same as 3:10 to Yuma, however it's not the same kind of action flick. If you enjoyed a film that builds like Zodiac with Jake Gyllenhaal, then you would like this film. It has it's moments of violence and action, but it's more dramatic.

I just watched it tonight and also thought it was amazing. Its kind of hard for me to describe what I liked about it but the acting, the cinematography, the depth of the characters, and the score were all awesome. I also thought the pacing was good. It seemed like a very cerebral movie more focused on the characters than the plot. I know Frazod hated it with a passion, but once it was over, I honestly felt like watching it again.

I have been wanting to watch this one for a while but haven't gotten around to it since its somewhat long. Really liked the younger Affleck in Gone Baby Gone and am curious how he is in this.

Watched Into the Wild earlier tonight. It may not be for everyone and the first hour of so is kind of uneven, but it ended up being a damn good movie. I had read the book before watching it and the film was quite well done with the last 45 minutes or so being pretty outstanding.

Well, I bought No Country For Old Men sight unseen based on the whole Oscar thing and the rave reviews it got from everybody. Now I sure wish I hadn't.

****SPOILER ALERT*****

I've never seen a movie shift from awesome to WHAT THE fuck WERE THEY THINKING? so fast. The ending sucked balls. SUCKED. BALLS. I know its arty and metaphorical and cerebral and all that that good shit, and is basically Tommy Lee Jones' character's statement on how the world is going to hell in a handbasket, but seriously, there is no payoff at all at the end of this, just disjointed crap. I couldn't believe the protagonist was killed OFF SCREEN by characters barely introduced to the story. Events were deliberately foreshadowed and then... nothing happened. It's neat a couple of times, but when it's done over and over, it's just like repeatedly stiffling a sneeze. AND WHO WAS DRIVING THE OTHER GODDAMN CAR? Dude just lurches down the street with his compound fracture and never even has a look.

Annoying and a huge letdown. I truly feel cheated by that shitsucking ending.

:cuss:

Meh. It was just different, frazod. The ending felt a little weird but made perfect sense. Tommy Lee Jones was just saying "I give up. It's not worth it. Evil wins."

if you bought it on Blu-Ray, I might be interested in buying it from you...

The ending was like, the world is full of violence everywhere and bad guys truly do get away, and this is no country for old men...

the new era passed on the old man

If the first half, 3/4s, hadn't been such a good thriller I could see it. The problem, IMHO, was it feels like two different movies cut together. One a taunt thriller and then a philosophical ending with an old sheriff. Either concept could/would have been a great movie but it's like a roller-coaster that turns into a carousel.

Yep,I'm liking the idea that we're seeing more American movies that don't have that all nicely wrapped up good guy wins ending.The Mist and Requiem For A Dream come to mind.

I understood what the ending meant, and I still didn't like it. Now, I'm not the kind of guy who requires things to be wrapped-up, and I'm the last person on earth who wants the "good guy" to always win in a movie or a book, but it just...ended. There was no substance to it at all.

And I thought exactly the same thing about There Will Be Blood.

Two movies that could have been great that were utterly buried by their conclusions.

IMO, watching No Country For Old Men is like making love to a beautiful woman; she's hot, you're diggin it, and just as you're about to blow your load, she hops out of bed to go make a sandwich.

And no, I didn't buy it on Blu-ray. I haven't made the switch yet.

I watched the Jodie Foster Vigilante flick "The Brave One" last night. Pretty decent. I like it because it was a little bit deeper than the average revenge flick.

BTW, "The Brave One" is a horrible title.

There Will Be Blood didn't conclude everything for you? I can understand No Country (which I rewatched last night and loved it, again.), but TWBB? Why?



On another note, I just watched Almost Famous as I had some how missed it. Easily in my top 5 movies all time. It was tremendous.

I think you need to revisit the voiceover at the beginning. Seems like the other bookend that ties it all together.

And really, though the scenes with the drug runners and Chigurh and the good ol' boy were tense and taut, Tommy Lee pretty much plods along through the film with the same demeanor. ie, the rest of the movie might have been a roller coaster, but the sheriff was taking it all in from the carousel the entire movie.

He's kind of Sam Eliot's Stranger from The Big Lebowski.

Also, you gotta tie together a few things. Earlier in the story, Bell remarked that Chigurh was seeming more and more like a ghost. Then Chigurh busts in on Stephen Root's office; 1) 'how did you get past reception, 2) the accountant 'are you gonna kill me now?' Chigurh 'that depends, do you see me?" This culminates in Bell going into the room where good ol' boy was killed, and Chigurh is IN THE ROOM and Bell doesn't sense him. It's then that Bell sits on the bed and give up. That's when he goes to see his uncle who tells him he 'can't stop whats coming, it ain't waitin' on you.'

This is all tied up with Bell dreaming that his dad [former sheriff] was preparing the way for him over a difficult passage, then he woke up. Basically while his dad had equipped him as best he could, the evil today couldn't be stopped and he's realized that and gave/woke up.

I understand your take as well, i think the ending could've been a bit better, but at the same time i liked it, the bad guy did get away. The only thing i didn't like is that we didn't see brolin's characters demise, but i still liked the movie alot. Brolin is a hot ticket lately though in movies, rumors he may be in the new terminator movie as well with Christian Bale

I thought TWBB was all style and no substance. The acting was great, the score was great, but it had no heart. There was never any grounds why anybody should care about the story or the characters in it. Not that Day-Lewis' performance alone wasn't reason enough for anybody to see it, but it was, by far, the most vacuous of the 5 Best Picture nominations.

Also, want to know shitty endings? How about I am legend...supposedly the DVD has an alternate ending version that makes the movie a bit better.

Hated that at first, but learned to love it. In keeping with the theme of the senselessness and randomness of it all, we get the big setup of how Chigurh' and Moss' were in this big chess match, then Moss gets blindsided by a haphazard Bronco-full of Mexicans. Our only sense of what went down was that Bronco sliding into the intersection on two wheels with anonymous Mexicans hanging on for dear life in an apparently poorly/un-planned getaway.

It's like 'ooh, it's clash of the titans' then 'what, one of the titans taken out by a bunch of scrubs?'

I concur. IFAIK No Country followed the book vis-a-vis the ending. I am Abomination didn't. And for no good reason I can see. One might not like No Country's ending but at least they tried.

It was discussed in detail here. But the clip has been taken down. DVD comes out next week.

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showt...ghlight=legend

Yeah i dont want to know the ending, since i am buying the BluRay version for $18 on amazon. I heard it improved the movie a bit, so i may have to check it out after i see it. That movie was mostly good imo, atleast entertaining but the last 10 min were like "aahh **** it"

That is very true...you just got used to brolins character and seeing every step, then all the sudden his ass is dead like a nobody. Interesting way of doing it, but yes the movie was good and i purchased it as well

Sadly, it doesn't make it better. Sorry to rain on the parade. I Am Legend is an epic failure and shouldn't even have the gall to name itself after the book it's based on. Or isn't based on....

Too true.

See above. I may have asked you this already but have you read the book?

Never have, i heard it crapped on it basically...

Alot of plotholes etc...i guess its kind've one of those movies if you don't put too much thought into it, its enjoyable a bit.

Well, the alternate ending is better than the original, no doubt. But it's a half step on a stair case of 10 stairs.

Weren't those things vampires in the book or something?

Yes. Not zombie things that looked like a second rate CGI studio made them. And they spoke English.

Kinda.

Here's the link to the wiki article on the book, it's got a rough plot outline. It ought to be easy to see the major differences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_am_legend

ahh thanks for the link, def. differences

I think I should clarify on NCFOM, when Bell quit, it was a realization that he couldn't 'see' this degree of evil. In the beginning soliloquoy, he said "to see this evil, you would have to be a part of it, sell your soul." Now Chigurh was in the room, and maybe Bell even realized in his gut that he was in the room, but he couldn't see him, he couldn't put together the disparate elements of what he had before him, the air conditioning grate and the coin, the presence in the room, so he came to a crossroads, sell his soul and track this down, or wake up and retire.

Maybe even simpler. And less heroic. Track it down and die or turn your back and live.

No, Bell has come to terms that he's gonna die, it's just a matter of when.
His decision then was whether to let into his soul what he needed to face this entity, or wake up retain his soul.
It's all about how one reacts to the knowledge that we're gonna die, and nobody knows how, and nobody knows when.
Moss is conflicted, he faces death to do good when he takes the water back out for the guy who asked for it. But then he gets chased, and when he faces as imminent death as is conceivable with a pit bull jumping jaws open at his face, he solidify's his decision that he's gonna be out for himself.
His wife refuses to be swayed by the potential for death, refuses to play the game.
Chigurh is out for his code, for him since everyone dies eventually, it really doesn't matter when, at least not in comparison to his code. Those who have to die for his code have to die, those who are peripheral can die or can live, doesn't matter to him.
Bell thinks if he upholds the law he can live a meaningful life, but those afoul of the law, it seems to him, are getting more and more evil and arbitrary [a notion his uncle dispells him of]. But he does know, that tackling the purest evil in upholding the law, he's eventually gonna lose more than the life he's gonna lose someday anyway, he's gonna lose his soul, and he's never gonna catch up with his father preparing a fire for him up ahead.

I watched the DVD for "In the Valley of Elah" a couple of nights ago, I heard it was really good and I'll give it 8 Stars myself. What's amazing is, I watched NCFOM the night before, which I gave 8 Stars, and there are four actors in both films. Tommy Lee Jones is the main character in this one along with Charlize Theron, then in smaller roles are Josh Brolin this time as the sheriff and also Barry Corbin and the fat lady that played the desk clerk. It's also takes place in what appears to be Texas, only thing I could figure is maybe they had the same casting directors or producers?

"Valley of Elah" is about a retired Army MP sergeant, played by Tommy Lee Jones, whose son comes back from Iraq and then goes missing almost immediately. Jones travels down to the military base, to what appears to be Texas, where his son's unit is located and begins his own investigation. He tries to enlist the help of the local yokel police, Charlize is the local police detective and Brolin is the sheriff. Initially it's treated as just a missing person's case, but Tommy and Charlize eventually join forces after she sees how badly the military police are handling the case and more facts come to light, including the jurisdiction of certain events. It's not an anti-war film like some have accused "Rendition", it's more a case of what really goes on with the lower ranking soldiers that really do fight the battles both here and in Iraq.

Wasn't a bad movie, the flag thing seemed to be a political type statement. The very end kinda sucked seeing that picture, the dedication.

Right on. In his previous discussion with the old, fat lawman, Bell realized that Chigurh had most likely returned to the hotel room, since he did the same thing before. He walked in that room knowing Chigurh was waiting.

IMO, that's why Ed Tom hung up his gun belt in the novel (he ran away from his boys during the war, so this really wasn't his first anti-heroic act), but Baby Lee's description is dead on for the Coen's intepretation.

I actually read that its based on a true story. A magazine article in Esquire or New Yorker a few years back.

I cant bring myself to watch it because i hated the directors last flick "Crash"

I'm no film critic, but I watched NCFOM last night and was engrossed. At times I found myself slowing my breath just to be sure I didn't miss any nuanced sounds (creaks on the old wood floor of the hotel, rustle of a curtain in hotel room at the end, etc.). The only two "flaws" that I'm having difficulty reconciling:

1) Woody Harrelson is supposed to be a grisled vet in the bounty hunter business, but is easily found and taken by Chigurh. That was a letdown, and somewhat hard to believe.

2) How did the Mexicans continue to track Moss? I get how they found his wife and MIL, but how did they find him at the first Motel (the Regal I believe?)?

Remember when the Mexican in the suit asks his MIL where they're staying?

I get that one....I'm talking about the first hotel Moss goes to and hides the money in the vent. Eventually he rents an adjoining room because the Mexicans are staked out in his room (Chirgurh takes care of the three of them). How did they find him there?

Second transponder in the case?

They knew about the tracking device too?

Oh my bad didn't read it right. Beats me.

Perhaps the more important question is why were those Mexicans in the bathroom together.

I can do without the answer to that particular question. :D

I suppose they could have had a tracking thing, but they would have been awfully stupid not to have found it since it would have been going off like crazy since they were in the room with it. Plus the fact that the room didn't look "searched" so I think they didn't realize the money was still there and were waiting for Moss to come back with it.

Hitman

Just watched the latest Gus Van Sant movie, Paranoid Park.

don't bother.

I was expecting crap, was pleasantly surprised.

I'm looking forward to seeing that. Timothy Olyphant is one of my favorite actors.

It's alright. Not great, but worth a rental.

The sound was great in the movie. When Llewllyn walks up to the hotel door after awakening and realizing that the host was dead, he bends down and listens to the cold breeze coming under the door. A door has been opened in the hotel! Then the damn shadows. FaaaReeeaKAY.

1) A Lt. Col. killed by a sniper you say? Yeah, Chigurh has a different code. Wells is just a day trader.

2) If you'll remember when Chigurh goes to kill his boss in the skyscraper, he is pissed that the boss gave a second receiver to the mexicans (Two parties were chasing the same transponder with two different receivers). Pick the right tool for the job, remember?

Rented and watched the following this past weekend:

American Gangster
Michael Clayton
3:10 to Yuma
No Country For Old Men

3:10 to Yuma was outstanding, IMO.

MC and AG were solid.

I couldn't have been MORE disappointed with NCFOM.

I didn't see it mentioned but I watched Next w/ Cage this weekend I wasn't disgusted. I was a bit worried since PK Dick's stories haven't done so well on the big screen. It could have been better but it was well worth the PPV price I paid.

I think the day trader comment was his attempt to portray himself as a non-threat. How would a day trader know about Chigurh?

I think Chigurh was pissed that they sent Woody Harrelson out into the field, not the Mexicans. I think the Mexicans were in it for themselves. I also doubt anyone else had a second receiver. The Mexicans would have found the money in the hotel room they were sitting in if they had one.

Just got done watching I Am Legend. Wish I'd seen it in the theater. I really enjoyed it.

And unlike the last new movie I watched, No Country For Old Men, the ending didn't make me want to beat the shit out of someone. :grr:

I really enjoyed the cinematography of the first 1/2 of NCFOM, and the suspense of the chase reminded me eerily of The Terminator, especially given the wooden, sociopathic nature of the antagonist. There are some things that I find a bit off-putting--

I thought that it was an interesting choice for them to kill Moss off screen and have no real denouement in the story, but those also struck me (and granted, they are following the book) as iconoclasm for the sake of itself---like guys in Seattle with good jobs who drink Pabst and shop and good will not because they're thrifty, but because it's different and edgy. You can still have a protagonist get killed by someone whom you weren't expecting, but given the pacing of the film, it seemed like an odd choice to make since the first 100 minutes were cat and mouse.

I also thought the scene with Barry Corbin was a little forced...it's almost as though they realized they were 85% done with the film and needed some more dialogue from the book and philosophical grounding, so they patched that scene in.

I thought it was a very good movie, but not a masterpiece. To each his own.

You obviously didn't read the superior book. Sorry, I Am Legend just pisses me off, especially any one mentions the end. It sucked period. Enough said.

Pretty much the same reason I can't either. Just knowing it has a political nature with the same director makes be stay away.

No, I didn't. I didn't read Starship Troopers, which is why I like that movie. I did read Dune, which is why I hate that movie. So I definitely get where you're coming from.

All I know is I liked it a bit more than than Omega Man, which is fine by me.

I think you'd dig the novel version of I am Legend, Tim, if you could ever get your hands on it.

I'll look for it.

One thing I will agree with the critics of I Am Legend about is the cheesy CGI vampire/zombie things. They did NOT look real. I guess the special effects guys shot their wads on the empty city effects. That aspect was incredibly well done, so I guess it kind of balanced out.

Clover field has got to be the worst movie plot ever. Especially if there isn't going to be a sequel.

Then your cinematic experience has failed you...:shake:

It's pretty much the same idea as LOST.

The internet stuff is MUCH more important than what you watch on the screen. Big or little.

Cloverfield was clearly meant for the net-teen audience that could follow every facebook/myspace/google hint out in a press release...

I'll not be chastised by YOU, Darko Boy. :harumph:

no doubt, but JJ Abrams knows what he is doing, seriously...

I know I'll not win this argument so I'll defer.

On a side note has anyone noticed the roles Ed Norton has chosen? They all follow the same template: man is angry, man loses out to anger, man suffers for his anger, man understands his weakness and mistakes, man suffers for his poor decisions.

American History X, Fight Club, The Illusionist, Hulk (2.0), etc...