What movies have you seen lately? Now with reviews!Movies

[Diego440]

The Lady Vanishes (1938) -- Probably the best Hitchcock movie from his British period. While traveling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train. What unravels is a story of spying, deceiving, whodunit and a bit of romance. The complext script goes from this very lighthearted mystery to an extremely sinister one. In the end the movie is a very well-made thriller and a very witty romantic comedy.

Although lacking the more sinister notes of his later works, this is one of my favourite Hitchcock movies. Besides, I've found myself many times yawning and having to watch pre-1950 movies in segments... pausing them, having a drink, watching a bit of TV and all-around waking myself up, but with this one it didn't happen; I watched it all the way to the end. Also, it's #191 in IMDb's Top 250. 8.5/10

 

[ferrari_chris]

Wow the Bank Job is still in your theatres? It's already out on DVD/Blu-Ray here in the states. I really enjoyed the film even though Jason Statham is a bit hit or miss.

Yeah, that's typical for down here...

I've actually seen some movies in our own DVD stores before it's even been at the cinemas!

 

[Diego440]

Punch-Drunk Love (2002) -- It's always good to see actors who usually do nothing but hollywood crap to a semi-indie movie now and then... abd this one's with Adam Sandler, who I've always thought to be too dumb for his own good. He nails the part in this one! It's obvious the director (Paul Thomas Anderson) can bring out the best in actors (Magnolia, Boogie Nights). The soundtrack is a majour component in the film and added to the editing, really help the viewer become as tense as the characters are. The film might seem weird and violent, but this is truly one of the sweetest movies I have seen at a long time. Hopefuly Sandler would work in movies where he doesn't play an idiot, since he sure did well in this one. 8/10



Weird Science (1985) -- Just another 80s classic movie... Kelly LeBrock was amazingly hot, especially in her pre-Seagal days, and the movie also has a very young Robert Downey, Jr. and Bill Paxton. I'd be tempted to say that this movie and Revenge of the Nerds are among the best sophomoric comedies of the 80s... although I'd say Weird Science scores high for its pure "eightiesness".

Weird Science has everything that an eighties comedy needs: A least one hot girl, a few actors who are no longer working or who do anything that will come along, plenty of dashing eighties threads, a corny as hell eighties soundtrack,(and Oingo Boingo is as corny and eighties as they get), and plenty of cheap funny jokes.

The film is unremarkable in the fact that it isn't anything groundbreaking or special. It's just a funny movie. And an eighties classic. 6/10

 

[Solid Lifters]

"Uh, Gary? Why I are we wearing bras on our heads?"

"Ooohhhh, Gary!!! You told me you were combing your hair!"

LMAO

Classic 80's flick I loved as a teen. Showed it to my oldest boy; he only liked the Slurpee scene. Parts with Chet, that I love so much, didn't get a chuckle. All I got out of him was, "That guy is so stupid."

He's grounded for a month.

 

[Diego440]

Classic 80's flick I loved as a teen. Showed it to my oldest boy; he only liked the Slurpee scene. Parts with Chet, that I love so much, didn't get a chuckle. All I got out of him was, "That guy is so stupid."

He's grounded for a month.

and he'll deserve every minute of it!

 

[Diego440]

What Dreams May Come (1998) -- I keep wondering why this movie and Bicentennial Man got so slammed by the critics; they're both among the best by Williams, IMO. This movie is actually spot on with many people's belief of heaven being of your own creation, rather than a celestial melting pot where everyone congregates. With that out of the way, this movie is what you'd call a terjerker... and to be honest, it moves me every time I see it. 7.5/10



Futurama: Bender's Big Score (2007) -- I don't get what all the fuss is about. I didn't like this one at all... sure it has its moments, but none of them seem connected. It makes fun of current society and blah blah blah, like any other Matt Groening work does. Nothing new here, even though I've always been a fan of Futurama. The movie's name features Bender, but most of the flick is about Leela and Fry. In the end it's great that Futurama is still alive and kicking, it just isn't as good as it was. Hopefully Beast will be more enjoyable. 3/10



House (1986) -- I remember watching this movie on HBO when I was about 12 and thinking it was alright... and my verdict is that I was very impressionable back then. The thing is that the movie starts out like a real horror flick, but halfway through it starts getting absurd, with fat, big bossomed-monsters with the same voice boxes as Alvin & The Chipmunks... and the horror aspect of it is completely blown away by the faxct that the bad guy is Bull, from Night Court, and it's pretty hard to be scared of him. When I saw it in the 80s I would've given it a 7, now it's a 5/10.



There Will Be Blood (2007) -- So let me get this straight... this movie was nominated for an Oscar? Why?

I'll grant that Daniel Day Lewis' acting is superb, and no doubt he deserved the Oscar for it... but I think the movie falls short of anything else. The characters didn't have any continuity with their actions, and the music is so obnoxious it seems to be always trying to push emotion on you because the script cannot stand on its own. In fact, I'd be willing to nominate this movie along with The Boys from Brazil and 12 Monkeys as worthy of the worst soundtrack in history.

TWBB is really a made-for-Oscars movie, only promoted because of Daniel Day Lewis' acting and a few intricate and perturbed characters that will keep people talking about it and making people think if there'll be more to the story than what is seen. #81 in IMDb's Top 250. 4/10

 

[Diego440]

Canadian Bacon (1995) -- Kinda funny premise, where after the Cold War, the defense/military budget in the US goes down for lack of enemies, so they start a Cold War with Canada... it's directed by Michael Moore and it's a bit funny. John Candy (who was Canadian) plays an irate American. 5/10



All the Right Moves (1983) -- Nothing new here; small town story about a high school American football player struggles to find a decent college and come of age at the same time. Tom Cruise's first starring role and little else. 5/10



Rocky Balboa (2006) -- Another needless sequel, but it ties very well with the first one, thirty years later. Sequels 2 through 5 had more to do with Rocky as a public figure and his adventures in boxing; while this and the first one were more about the person and the people around him. Good effort, and a decent (hopefully) close to an otherwise good franchise. 7.5/10



Gotcha! (1985) -- Another fun movie from the 80s! Spies, girls, sex and pursuits (on foot)... one of those starts like a comedy and ends up as action flicks. I thought it was fun when I saw it the first time at age 10, and I still think it is. 6/10

 

[Joey D]

Futurama: Bender's Big Score (2007) -- I don't get what all the fuss is about. I didn't like this one at all... sure it has its moments, but none of them seem connected. It makes fun of current society and blah blah blah, like any other Matt Groening work does. Nothing new here, even though I've always been a fan of Futurama. The movie's name features Bender, but most of the flick is about Leela and Fry. In the end it's great that Futurama is still alive and kicking, it just isn't as good as it was. Hopefully Beast will be more enjoyable. 3/10

The next film isn't that much better either, it's a shame the Futurama lost what made it so awesome many years ago. It's sort of suffering the same fate as Family Guy and The Simpsons expect it was on hiatus for a while.

 

[ferrari_chris]

Wanted

I was expecting pop-corn action when I went in. Pop-corn action was what I got.

It was a good 2hrs of entertainment with no real value what-so-ever.

And the two best shots of the movie weren't explained at all...

Oh well. Jolie reminded me why some people think she's so hot. And some of the special effects are cool.

 

[Brett]

On Monday, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It was alright. Nothing bad, but also nothing great. The story was a bit too predictable, while some of the action scenes were very well done.

Today at an advance screening, Hamlet 2. Hamlet 2 was very funny stuff. Nothing great, but some very funny stuff.

 

[McLaren]

Saw Tropic Thunder a few days ago.
It is so much better than everything thinks it might be. And it is NOT making fun of the Vietnam war. 30 minutes into the flick, anything about making a Vietnam movie is changed dramatically.

But, it is very funny. Downey was hilarious, and it had so many great one liners and rants from Tom.

"You don't get full on retarded".

 

[buickgnx88]

I also just saw Tropic Thunder and I agree that it was a hilarious movie.

 

[TheCracker]

Spirited Away - I'd read so many good reviews here, i thought i should watch it for myself. Got it off ebay for only a couple of quid too 👍 Great visuals with some fantastic characters. It was as i expected from a Japanese animated film a bit odd at times but it was in general a charming piece of work 👍
8.5/10

American Gangster - A fantastic film, if a little long. 'Inspired by true events' It follows a black gangsters rise to power in a world dominated by the traditional Italian 'family' and the cop trying to bring him down. It's spoiled only by Denzel Washington's ridiculous veneered teeth that continue to make him look like some kind of Eddie Murphy character or Dwayne Dibley.
9/10

 

[Diego440]

My Blueberry Nights (2007) -- Very boring romantic drama with some cool people in it: Norah Jones, Jude Law and Natalie Portman, among others. The movie lasts 90 minutes, and by the 50 minute mark, nothing yet has happened. If you can endure the remaining 40 minutes, you'll be rewarded with further boredom and too many rhetorical scenes. Norah Jones is a great singer, and I think she should focus on remaining one, rather than venture into acting. She makes JLo look like an Oscar nominee. 4/10

 

[Delphic Reason]

My Blueberry Nights (2007) -- Very boring romantic drama with some cool people in it: Norah Jones, Jude Law and Natalie Portman, among others. The movie lasts 90 minutes, and by the 50 minute mark, nothing yet has happened. If you can endure the remaining 40 minutes, you'll be rewarded with further boredom and too many rhetorical scenes. Norah Jones is a great singer, and I think she should focus on remaining one, rather than venture into acting. She makes JLo look like an Oscar nominee. 4/10

Well that's too bad. I was looking forward to this one.

Wong Kar Wai is a legendery director. "In The Mood for Love", and "2046" we're incredible films. I'm not a huge fan of Natalie Portman though, and singers trying to act rarely goes well. The last singer gone actor that worked, that I can remember, was Byork in "Dancer in the Dark". She was incredible in that role, but alas stated she would never do another movie due to the stress of getting into such a sad character.

 

[Diego440]

well that was just me... IMDb gives it a 6.7 or something around that.

 

[Touring Mars]

Norah Jones *snip* She makes JLo look like an Oscar nominee. 4/10

Ouch ... good to see someone taking the time to review a lousy film (or atleast a film they thought was lousy, anyway!) I wasn't likely to watch it anyway, since it already had enough of a "dodgy film" warning...

 

[Brett]

Just got back from The Rocker. Rainn Wilson, a.k.a. 'Dwight Schrute, is awesome! My review of his performance is probably a bit exaggerated because of my serious enjoyment of his character on The Office. This character is a bit different, but some of the mannerisms are still there. Lots of laughs and pretty enjoyable.

 

[McLaren]

Saw Death Race tonight. Not a bad movie, lots of oh snap moments! Even if you've managed to never see a trailer of the movie, the plot becomes apparent quick. Still a good movie to catch with friends.

 

[Delphic Reason]

Ouch ... good to see someone taking the time to review a lousy film (or atleast a film they thought was lousy, anyway!) I wasn't likely to watch it anyway, since it already had enough of a "dodgy film" warning...

Indeed. That should have been a dead give away. Portman doesn't help matters any.

 

[Diego440]

Ouch ... good to see someone taking the time to review a lousy film (or atleast a film they thought was lousy, anyway!) I wasn't likely to watch it anyway, since it already had enough of a "dodgy film" warning...

Indeed. That should have been a dead give away. Portman doesn't help matters any.

Leave it to me to watch crappy movies and make a big fuss about it. Although I do get to watch some good stuff every now and then.



Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) -- I didn't read the book, though my wife did, and she kept narrating all the scenes... so after a while I decided not to watch movies with my wife anymore. The movie itself is quite good, at least I liked it. I'm not very fond of movies set before 1920, but this one got away nicely. A bit fantastic sometimes, but the movie lends itself to that. After listening to my wife yapping throughout the flick, I have to say the movie is good, but probably better if you read the book beforehand. 7.5/10



Revolver (2005) -- I think it was a6m5 who commented on this one some time ago... written by Guy Ritchie and adapted by Luc Besson, directed by Guy Ritchie, so pretty much a fan's wet dream. Watch this flick if you thought Snatch had a simple plot; the movie is sometimes dumbed down, and I had to watch it again this morning for certain parts, but in general I liked it a lot. Editing is amazing in it. 8/10



Pacific Heights (1990) -- I'd seen this movie a long time ago, and since then I've seen tidbits now and then on TV, so I felt like watching it again from the beginning. The movie itself is no big deal... just a bit of a psychological thriller with moderate success (Michael Keaton had just become famous in Batman, Matthew Modine in Birdy and Melanie Griffith in another movie where she plays a dumb blonde), but lacking suspenseful scenes with the suspense character (Keaton). It's a nice saturday movie. 6/10



F/X (1986) -- Once you run out of ideas to make a film, you make something like this. Just copy a conspiracy theory and put a Australian guy in it and add soem knowledge of special effects... hey, special effects, you say? Add a SFX expert and make him the main character! Yet another saturday light movie... enjoyable, but nothing to rock your boat. 6/10

 

[V1P3R]

Casshern - 8/10

Very EPIC, although at the same time hard to stomach... There seemed to be a mix of Anime with live action thoughout the film, but it was done artfully and complemented the picture more than hurt. I don't know if I'd really go as far to say this was better than both Matrix sequels, but it definitely had more none stop action. 👍

 

[Diego440]

Resident Evil Trilogy (2002-2007) -- The first one was alright, I guess. The 2nd was crap and the 3rd was almost crap. They followed more or less the sequence of the game and even created a few characters along the way, made some of the good guys bad, some of the bad guys good and so on.

The 2nd one was a complete B-movie with all the stupid characters and Hollywood clichès: the sexier the lady, the deadlier she is; unsexy ladies die quickly; token black guy who speaks like a pimp; black guy who doesn't speak like a pimp dies horribly; conspiracy everywhere.

And the 3rd one was a remake of Mad Max III, Lara Croft and a bit of something else added in. The quality of the movies goes something like 6.5 - 4 - 6 / 10



Psycho (1998) -- If you've seen the original, you know what it's about, if not... I have to say you should at least watch this one. Remakes are a very in thing nowadays. There's all sorts of reasons too, ranging from the lack of creativity in Hollywood to the homage of great classics. However, carbon copies are very rare, and this is one of them.

The question is why do we need a carbon copy of a greatly original flick? And this one sure is... the shots are very similar, the dialogues are exact (most of the time), the actor's movements are exactly like they were in the original, the factual and continuity errors are the same... even the Hitchcock cameo is done by a guy who looks exactly like him! The answer is probably to indulge all these kids who don't want to watch movies made before 1990.

If you were to watch this film without having watched the original (you know who you are... this one's from 1998, so get busy!) it's not that bad, but it's nothing when compared to the original. The cast is okay, but again, if you've seen the original, they're crap. that Vaughn guy ruined it for me, since I've always thought he's a bad actor, and in this movie he does a very poor imitation. Julianne Moore lacks the ingenuity of women from the 50s and 60s, and there's a bunch of other known people who for some reason were very eager to star in this: Viggo Mortensen, William H. Macy, Robert Forster, Phillip Baker Hall, Anne Heche.

Overall it's so-so as a film. However when you compare it to the original it's really a poor show and, because it's a carbon copy, you can't help but compare it line for line, scene for scene, actor for actor.

 

[Brett]

Saw Death Race on Saturday. It was nothing great, but it was not terrible at the same time. The whole premise of the movie bugged me quite a bit. Some of the action sequences were fun. Overall, it was just alright to me. It probably did not help that I watched the movie after waking up from a nap in a bad mood.

 

[peeweegary]

Best line from Tropic Thunder must've been the one from Robert Downey Jr.

"I'm a dude playing the dude disguised as another dude."
(Something along those lines)

 

[Diego440]

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) -- Despite being one of the lesser-known police flicks from the 80s, this one had all the necessary pieces to become a great classic: directed by a known guy (William Friedkin, from The French Connection), Violence (lots of it), nudity (full male and female), young and aspiring actors (William Petersen (yeah, the guy from CSI, and here he's ripped!), Willem Dafoe, a very young Robert Downey, John Turturro), an amazing car chase, music by Wang Chung, and a semi-complicated plot, this one dropped off the map rather quickly. I remember watching it when I was a kid and thinking it was awesome, but it took me a really long time to find it again, but I'm, glad I did. It's really nice when you watch a movie again 20 years later and still think it's awesome. 7.5/10



Birthday Girl (2001) -- Perhaps one of the most unconventional love stories... a bit disturbing when you start watching it and think it's only a love story. After that it becomes what it is: an indie-wannabe movie made with good actors that is really a remake of an indie movie that no one heard of before... I really don't like these, but at least the acting is alright: Vincent Cassel is the key actor here. 6/10

 

[TheCracker]

Jumper - Didn't really expect to much from this film, but still ended up disappointed. Usual crudy Hollywood teen actors aside, Samuel L. Jackson did his usual Samuel L. Jackson impression and Diane Lane was badly underused. Jamie Bell was the most 3D of all the cast, yet couldn't decide which accent to use - so tried them all for good measure. The story had real potential, yet nothing was really explored in depth or expanded upon. The whole thing felt like an extended trailer for a full length film, and at only 88 minutes long, that's not far off. It also felt as if it had been made with the sole intension of it having sequals, ending really abruptly and leaving character and plot expansions to be explained latter on. 4/10

 

[Solid Lifters]

Blades of Glory - Wow, that was stupid. Didn't have my hopes up, anyway. "Throw me some chicken" was the funniest line, which is quite sad. The costumes for the sister and brother team at the end got a chuckle. 3/10

 

[Diego440]

Blades of Glory *...* 3/10

Agree completely.



Breast Men (1997) -- Fictionalised dramatisation of the guys who invented silicone and later saline-enhanced breasts. David Schwimmer proves he can only act when he's whining, while Chris Cooper is just in it for space filling. The movie itself is interesting, and there's loads of boobies, not that I just saw it for that... either way, 5/10



Cassandra's Dream (2007) -- I was actually bit surprised that this movie was directed by Woody Allen, since it's neither in New York, nor funny. It's the tale of two brothers with serious financial woes; when a third party proposes they turn to crime, things go bad and the two become enemies. The movie is nothing to write home about, but it's entertaining, if a little loose ended. 6.5/10



30 Days of Night (2007) -- No no no no no!... when you make a movie based on a comic, you make sure the screenplay adapts itself to the comic it's based on! These guys took the original comic, used it as toilet paper and did the parts that were left clear. In fact, the comic itself was entertaining (I read it about a year ago) but this was pure nonsense.. in that sense, you have to read the comic to know what's going on, because at no point are you explained about it in this movie... oh, and Stella, though not beautiful in the comic, was someone you could be attracted to... how teh hell did they cast this one? 2/10



We Own the Night (2007) -- In the first 20 minutes of this film you can tell you're in for a great flick... police corruption, family loyalty, drug use, conspiracy, slaughter, violence; and all of a sudden *poof* the movie just stops making much sense. Seriously, the movie goes into so many diatribes about morality and what's good and what's not, making the viewer make a choice about it and up to that point, the movie seems nice. But the movie ends with one of those "happily ever after" cliches, where everything is happy and clean and everyone's a hero. 5/10

 

[YSSMAN]

Was this supposed to be a kids movie? It really didn't feel like it...

To be honest, I really enjoyed myself while watching the movie. It was funny, it was sad, it was heartwarming, and in the end I came way from it feeling very "good" in general. I can't remember it being outright panned when it came out, but I don't remember all of the reviews being overly positive either. Perhaps it is my emotional issues that got in the way of making this movie feel like something better to me, that, or I'm just liking strange things these days... But as of now I'd say its one of the most underrated movies from the past year or so.