I just got done watching Forrest Gump. LORD, I hadn’t cried so much over a movie in a long time. It was a happy one, though. 
thedriveintheatre: Ha-ha! Nice pun, there. I liked your review of the film, and I agree that the visuals look amazing, but I didn’t know that they would get boring. 
SpicySalsa: Yeah, it’s one of those happy movies that makes you cry in the end. I’ve had my share of crying after seeing a movie, like Star Wars Episode III (I knew that the universe would be saved by Luke, but come on!) and, most of all, Titanic (I was STILL crying after the film was over…). That’s what I like about movies, though, if they’re really good, then they will play with your emotions. 
Since my class is learning swine dance in gym class lately, our teacher decided to show us a clip of a movie called Swing Kids. I’ve never watched it before, but, apparently, it takes place during World War II, when Hitler announced several rules, one of them being, “No dancing!” 
However, in some clubs, that haven’t been closed down by the Nazis, the people of Europe (I don’t really know what location this is taking place in) decide to create a new type of dancing, called swine dancing. My teacher only showed us a few clips of what the dances looked like (to get an idea about how much energy and fun are put into swine dancing), and, boy, do they look crazy as heck! 
I don’t think I can even describe what they are doing with these dances, but let’s just say these people are [spoil]all over the place[/spoil], if you know what I mean.
The trailer for Kevin Smith’s next movie, Cop Out, has premiered on Apple Trailers.
I have not watched a single Kevin Smith movie in my life (although I wanted to see Zack and Miri Make a Porno), so I consider myself to be a newbie to his brand of humour. But from what I can discern, it’s a kinda improvised ad-lib humour like Pineapple Express and Superbad, which I liked. The cast list is a dream for me: Bruce Willis (my fave action hero), Tracy Morgan (I haven’t seen 30 Rock, but I enjoyed his character in G-Force) and the wickedly ‘evil’ Susie Essman (whose characters from Bolt and Curb Your Enthusiasm I both adore), so it’s all good. If I didn’t read the synopsis first (which can be summed up as bizzare), I would’ve thought it was a cop drama from the awesome Lost-style opening sequence. And the music is so ripped from Rush Hour 3’s trailer. Well, cop shows are my one weakness, so I don’t care.
Personally, I absolutely loathe Kevin Smith. I will admit, though, that the trailer for Cop Out had me chuckling quite a bit.
If you saw Sherlock Holmes in theaters, some of you may have caught the second trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Inception. Here it is below:
Wow, I’m curious why. Anyway, glad you enjoyed the trailer as much as I did. It’s funny from what we’ve seen, but I’m looking forward more to the actors’ appearances and their performances than the actual plot, which is just weird, IMO.
Anyway, folks, I’ve just seen Guy Ritchie’s latest action-adventure, Sherlock Holmes, and here’s my deduction. It’s elementary, really. 
I haven’t seen Sherlock Holmes yet, been hearing mixed reviews. But I watched the Inception trailer a couple of times online, and it looks amazing. I’m really looking forward to it.
As for Cop Out, it looks kind of silly. I’m not sure yet if it’s going to be the good kind. Anyway, I’ll probably still check it out - I’m sure it’s at least entertaining.
Well, I liked Holmes. It’s probably among my top five for 2009 among the films I’ve watched so far. It depends on whether you’re a traditionalist or revisionist (whatever that means) and if you mind Downey playing the title role. Some of the reviews were a bit cynical about the fact Ritchie and Co. made Holmes a fist-fighter, and the supernatural plot and whatnot, but if you’re open-minded or a newbie to the series, it should be quite entertaining.
As for Inception, I’ve watched the latest trailer and… I still know nothing about it. It looks a bit like The Matrix except way more (pardon the pun) mind-bending. But I’ll still keep my mind open, I knew next to nothing about Avatar when the first few trailers came out, but after watching it, it’s one of my fave movies of the year, if not of all-time. Not to mention we’ve got Mr. Nolan and Leo, who’s on a roll after Blood Diamond, The Departed, Body of Lies, and the upcoming Shutter Island… so it’s all good. Seeing that [spoil]entire city curling up like a Swiss roll[/spoil] is just gob-smacking… BRRRMMM!
Anyone seen the trailer for the Jolie pic Salt? It looks really intriguing, if a little familiar. It’s like Minority Report met The Bourne Identity, with Angie as the lead.
Trailer
Another one I’m looking forward to is Knight and Day (don’t you just love the pun?), a romcom-action flick that is a little tongue-in-cheek, much like True Lies. Cruise takes a few digs at his action hero roles, while Diaz gets dragged along as his exasperated and flustered partner-in-crime. Should be amusing.
Trailer
TDIT - Glad you liked Sherlock Holmes. I don’t think I’m going to really mind some of the changes, so I definitely want to see it at some point.
As for that Inception trailer, I’m sure Chris Nolan has made an amazing film. He’s the director of The Dark Knight, and Memento - a movie told backwards.
I agree, almost everything about Avatar was amazing. I finally saw it last week in 3D, and it was very good.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not at all impressed by the trailers for Salt and Knight and Day. They just look kind of predictable and silly. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, but I don’t know.
Next to WALL-E, TDK was my fave movie of 08, and Batman Begins was pretty good, too. I haven’t seen Memento, but I heard it’s pretty good. Yeah, I’m piqued for Inception, though the synopsis doesn’t give much away, which could be a good thing…
I saw it in 3D the day before yesterday, and I’m still working off the buzz. Hopefully I can check it out in 2D before it leaves theatres… it’s one of the few movies I find hard to put in a review, but I’ll try it sometime soon, anyway.
Yeah, next summer seems a bit immature compared to the previous ones. Besides Cop Out, Salt, and Knight and Day, there’s also Date Night, which stars Steve Carell and Tina Fey. These four would make a great marathon for mindless action-comedy, come to think of it. Of course, that is my guilty pleasure (stupid action films), so not that I’m complaining. But besides Iron Man 2 and Toy Story 3, I don’t really see any worthy tentpoles on the horizon yet…
Saw Crazy Heart a week and a half ago - very good film. Going to see When in Rome, and St. John of Las Vegas hopefully soon as well. Will have reviews on our site when they open.
Avatar was an interesting film, and I can’t deny that the visuals were absolutely stunning, but who knows how well it will stand up years from now?
Looking forward to seeing Tron Legacy in 3D next year. Watched the original last night - very cool!
-E
I just found out that February 12th is the world premiere of an almost 100% restored version of Fritz Lang’s sci-fi classic Metropolis.
The whole event will be broadcast live from the Berlin Film Festival on ARTE, which can be received in several european countries.
On Thursday, I went to catch the Matt Dillon/Columbus Short heist thriller Armored, which got a late release here in Sing. Think of it as Reservoir Dogs meets Die Hard-in-a-security-truck. If you were expecting any brilliant plan that will be executed flawlessly Oceans Eleven/Heat style, then I’m sorry, but it’s not that kind of movie.
In fact, the crims here are pretty dumb, as evidenced in many scenes throughout: [spoil]When Short’s character hid his escape by plastering the windows with dollar bills, I couldn’t believe they didn’t have someone guard the front and bottom of the truck, his only two points of escape, which he used.[/spoil] Plot holes aplenty: [spoil]Despite being told the vans were equipped with GPS tracking, they still relied on the old-fashioned radio check-in to confirm the vans’ location. And where did Short’s character pull the explosives from in the climax?[/spoil]
Despite plot holes big enough to drive a truck through (hurr hurr), there were some pretty memorable performances. Columbus Short as the hapless hero who has a sudden attack of conscience at the wrong time, Matt Dillon as the best friend forced to make a tough decision, and Laurence Fishburne as the trigger-happy psycho who always messes up their plan. It was disappointing that the various characters’ relationships and dynamics were not fully explored besides a brief exposition of the hero, his brother, and his best bud in the first few scenes, so it’s hard to form emotional attachments. I thought they would explore a little of game theory and the prisoner’s dilemma and all that, but besides coercing a minor character to work with him and rescuing a police officer, Short does more of the hero work alone without attempting to turn the group on each other.
Overall, it’s a slick and short 90 minute job without the fringes, and ultimately a little forgettable.
On a different note, I wasn’t impressed by the Clash of the Titans trailer when I saw it online, but for some reason, when they showed it before Armored on the big screen, it looks all the more amazing. Also didn’t notice it before, but Mr. Worthington from Terminator Salvation and Avatar seems to be the lead character, so this should be pretty interesting.
Does anyone notice that while 2009 may be the year for sci-fi, 2010 seems to be the year for historical/fantasy epics?
2009 - Avatar, District 9, Star Trek, Moon, Battle for Terra, The Time Traveler’s Wife, etc.
2010 - Clash of the Titans, Percy Jackson, Prince of Persia, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Robin Hood, etc.
Anyone looking forward to Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer. Just curious… I’ve watched the trailer, and it seems interesting to say the least.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Michael Douglas reprises his role as Gordon Gekko. Here’s the trailer:
Finally got to see The Hurt Locker, as it was released last week here in Australia. Loved it to bits. Cinematography was amazing, the characters were real, can’t recommend it enough.
Also saw Shutter Island two weeks ago now, and needless to say, Scorcese and DiCaprio deliver again. Another beautifully shot film, especially Teddy’s flashback scenes; they were truly heart-breaking.
Looking forward to The Men Who Stare at Goats, Alice in Wonderland and Green Zone in the next couple of weeks. Very excited to see Greengrass and Damon back in action again.
It surprises me highly that I’m even the least bit interested in seeing this, but I’m looking forward to the Platinum Dunes remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children, Watchmen, Shutter Island) takes over the role of Freddy Krueger. The film is directed by Samuel Bayer, an award-winning commercial/music video director; Nightmare marks his feature film debut.
Check out the recently released second trailer courtesy of ScreenRant.com
Cool. I watched the trailer about a week ago. They used the same Rolling Stones song in Righteous Kill (which I also happened to watch a few weeks ago, and it was absolutely terrible and predictable). I don’t know whether Shia has the acting chops to pull off such a dramatic role, but I hope he’s got it. Love the 80s brick phone. Makes me curious to watch the first film to catch up on the storyline.
I recently watched Percy Jackson and From Paris with Love. PJ&TLT is pretty cool, though it suffers from ‘teen-speak’ and ‘pop-culture-itis’, so it’s not exactly timeless like Chris Columbus’ other magical teenage heroes series. But the Greek references were pretty cool, and it’s nice to see Uma with snakes in her hair and Pierce with a horse’s rear.
I much enjoyed FPWL more, cos’ I’m a sucker for stupid action movies. John and Jonathan go through the usual ‘bromance’ relationship development while blowing up half of Paris in pursuit of Chinese drug dealers and Middle Eastern terrorists. I love it that Travolta is back to playing his usual loopy anti-heroes/villains roles like in Broken Arrow and Face/Off, after the unintentionally hilarious Pelham 123. But it does get surprisingly xenophobic and disturbing at times as the invincible Travolta dispatches the bad guys with ease, and the dramatic twist towards the end doesn’t gell with the goofy John Woo sequences that came before it. I guess you’re not meant to take this sort of film seriously.
My friends are pretty excited to watch Alice in Wonderland, but annoyingly they only show it in 3-D at my local theatre (so they can force us to pay the premium). I don’t share their enthusiasm, but I’ll remain open-minded and probably tag along to see if the hype is worth it. There are posters practically everywhere in Sydney (probably because of Oz girl Mia playing the titular character).
I’m more pumped to see The Green Zone (cos’ I’m a fan of the Bourne films and this is pretty close) and How to Train Your Dragon (which I predict will have a lot of ‘DreamWorks sucks’ detractors who will shoot this down before even giving it a chance).
I saw the new trailer for A Nightmare on Elm Street, and it looks as scary as heck!
Last Sunday, I saw Shutter Island, and it was really good! I thought the beginning was kind of slow, but then it all starts to make sense at the end. And to be honest, I questioned my own existence after seeing the movie. It really makes you think! 
I’ve been hoping to see that film for a while now, mo. Might go and see it tonight if it’s out - better make the most of Orange Wednesdays.
I saw Trees Lounge for the umpteenth time yesterday, and I still love it as much as ever. It’s one of those movies that I find you can only really watch when it’s sunny outside, though, so I’ve held off for the past few months until yesterday when we finally had a bright, sunny day. Definitely worth it!