Watched Signs recently. My god, what a funny yet horrifying film. The acting is truly hilarious, and some of the dialogue verges on the peculiar. Seriously, there were moments when I was like, ‘this has to be a comedy, right?’ I can completely understand why the creators of Scary Movie decided to adapt Signs as the basis of one of their films- it was ripe for the picking!
Thoroughly enjoyed watching it, though. There are some great tense moments, even if the entire conclusion of the film is horribly obvious.
I agree. It is a quirky film that had its moments, but I was a bit dissapointed and annoyed by its self-consciousness and smugness. It doesn’t feel as natural and lively as the Aardman films.
I hope Mr. Shyamalan doesn’t go and do a twist ending on Airbender.
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I recently watched two films on technology: Untraceable and The King of the Kong.
Untraceable is about an intrepid female ‘cybercop’ federal agent who is part of a task force out to apprehend a serial killer who murders his victims over the Internet. The murderer sets up Rube Goldberg-like devices a la Jigsaw from the Saw series and invites online users to log on to his website and set the traps in motion. In essence, anyone who enters the website becomes his accomplice. It is a brilliant concept, and it does reveals some thought-provoking ideas about ‘herd mentality’, the veil of anonymity on the World Wide Web, and the pervasiveness of technology in our everyday lives, but unfortunately it tends to glorify the sadistic and voyeuristic side instead of offering these questions in a more understated and restrained way. It is a glorified snuff film masquerading as a thinking-man’s action movie. But it is worth a watch, and not as bad as some of the critics on RT are claming it to be.
The King of Kong was much more entertaining. It tells the epic true-life story of two geeks, one a successful hot sauce entrepreneur who holds the highest score for Donkey Kong for twenty years; the other a recently unemployed teacher who is obsessive-compulsive and upon discovering the former’s record, attempts to beat him.
The documentary does try to make Billy Mitchell, the defending champion, look like a bad guy, while Steve Wiebe the challenger is the good, honest, underdog. It is not Billy alone is who out to stop Steve from besting his record, the entire organisation who validates the video game records and other people who are either his friends or who have vested interests in seeing Steve lose are also in on the act. But towards the end, Billy does something truly irredeemable that reveals his sheer cowardice and arrogance ([spoil]he basically snubs Steve’s greeting upon their first face-to-face meeting and implied his challenger was not worth talking to or even fighting in a friendly live match he had been avoiding for days[/spoil]). The ending was also unexpected, and may surprise those who were expecting the classic ‘goody guy wins in the end’ fairytale ending ([spoil]though, in an afterword, it indeed happens eventually[/spoil]). I highly recommend this to video game geeks and those who have a competitive spirit to beat the odds and your fellow man (but not without costs, of course.
I recently saw Beauty and the Beast and Porco Rosso.
BATB: I wasn’t blown away by it. That’s all I really have to say. It was poorly exucuted, but had an excellent soundtrack and was quite entertaining. 8/10.
PR: It’s very hard to understand what is going on a lot of the time, and has a few flaws, but other than that, this is very good. 9/10.
I, too, was disappointed with Fantastic Mr. Fox. The old-fashioned stop-motion animation looked really good and unique, but the film itself was sorely lacking in Roald Dahl’s grotesque wit and imagination. It was essentially a case of Wes Anderson completely reworking the story to fit his own (now very familiar) sensibilities. A shame, since I so wanted to like it. Dahl’s widow said that Dahl himself would have loved it, but then we all know how picky he was about adaptations of his work, so I’m not so sure.
[size=75]That’s the last time Tony tried to light up at the gas station.[/size]
I caught the penultimate screening of Iron Man 2 at my local cinema. Certainly a very enjoyable flick, and one of the better summer movies this year. I was originally supposed to watch The A-Team, but my movie partners came late, so I went ahead and watched this alone instead. xD All of us agreed, though (they watched IM2 about a month ago), that this was not good as the first. I also felt that some scenes felt rushed and the editing was as poor as Prince of Persia (the movie felt like it was in a hurry to tell the story, and the whole subplot of Tony’s failing heart was not entirely necessary IMO).
I would love to have seen more focus on Mickey Rourke’s character (who only had two confrontations with Tony) and Sam Rockwell’s ‘rock-star-geek-wannabe’, who literally steals the show with his poor attempts at trying to be as cool as his rival. Scarlett and Samuel mostly look bad-*ss and say cool stuff throughout, the lovely Gwen gets some truly touching moments with Tony ([spoil]and I grinned when their unresolved tension finally gets, uh… resolved with that long-awaited kiss[/spoil]). Paul Bettany gets to do a little ‘Ben Burtt’-ing by voicing JARVIS, Tony’s AI butler. And I’m pretty sure I saw [spoil]Stan Lee[/spoil] somewhere during [spoil]Stark’s POV montage as he wanders throughout the Expo.[/spoil]
But the best character for me was surprisingly that robotic-arm helper, who has to be the cutest 'bot since WALL-E. I thought I heard Stark mention its name at one point… or was I just imagining? I think it was the same one from the first movie who kept spraying Tony with the fire-extinguisher…
Anyway, yeah, Iron Man 2 rocks. Just wished it was longer and developed the villain more properly instead of it all being about Tony and his bleeding heart. And, good grief, the climax was really OTT.
I’ve watched several movies, but will only report the most recent ones I’ve watched:
Thumbelina: A little on the girly and kiddy side at times, but also cute and beautiful story. Brings back memories. The song “On the Road”, though I never liked those toads, is so catchy! And “Let Me Be Your Wings” and the short reprise “Once there was the Sun” are so beautiful and touching! But what got me and my sister geeking out was that Thumbelina is the voice of Ariel from The Little Mermaid and the Beetle is the voice of Iago from Aladdin!
Jack and the Beanstalk: (A 2010 movie, just for clarification) Not a big hit. Never saw any advertisements of it anywhere. Probably cause it looked silly. Well, it is a bit, but I think it’s underrated. It’s funny and I recommend it for any of those what-the-heck times when you just wanna lighten up and watch a movie for fun. It’s not epic storytelling, nowhere near it, but it is a cute, good-hearted movie. It has a bit of sacrifice in there, under the very-kid-friendly appeal. And the harp sounds so beautiful! The funny twist of the movie is how reality is switched. A boy in a classroom of fairy tales daydreams a fantasy about a hi-tech life. And get this - I heard Iago’s voice again! And the actor who plays one of the ghosts of The Haunted Mansion (sorry don’t have the names at the moment). Yes, my sister and I geeked out again.
The Secret of Jonathan Sperry: Watched this right after Jack and the Beanstalk on the same night - woohoo! I thought it was based off a true story - it really seemed like that type, but a message said it was actually fictional. Hm. Well, anyway, this movie is inspiring while being entertaining. It tells of an old man who helps three buddies have an unforgettable summer and learn how to deal with life starting from the Bible. What got me tearing up slightly was[spoil] the bully Nick, who was always a jerk and seemed like he’s one of those people you just have to deal with cause they don’t have a heart and will never change. I used to think some people were just like that and nothing else at all. But seeing Mr. Sperry not be offended by his insults, and instead talk nicely no matter what, and welcome him and everything, and then seeing Nick’s other layers - his life was a mess because his mother wasn’t there for him and his father died - then when he actually seems to break down and cry, and then talk to Jesus… [/spoil]that was really touching.
Another touching part was the end.
And my sister and I geeked out again from seeing one of the characters before on That’s So Raven as Cory’s friend…
[size=75]I love it when a CGI-enhanced plan comes together.[/size]
So I watched The A-Team the other day. A lot more satisfying and less confusing (although the story is deeper) than The Losers. Unfortunately, they both have similar showdowns, in terms of location and poor cinematography and CGI effects. But I liked the characters in A-Team more. Liam Neeson of Narnia (Prince Aslan FTW!) and Taken fame is the leader Hannibal Smith, the man with the plan. His right-hand man “Face” is played by pretty-boy Bradley Cooper. UFC champ Quinton Jackson is the brawn with a short fuse, BA Barracus. And their slightly-unhinged wingman “Howling Mad” Murdock is brought to psychotic life by the talented Sharlto Copley, who we last saw in the sci-fi thriller District 9. Shartlo alone singlehandedly steals the show as the most endearing, if slightly deranged loose-cannon in a team of larrikin mavericks. Jessica Biel, Patrick Wilson and Brian Bloom round up the cast as the MP officer tasked to bring the boys in and the two main antagonists respectively.
The plot employs the classic ‘someone-set-us-up-and-we-have-to-clear-our-names’, ‘justice-revenge-betrayal’ motifs, and you can sort of predict the twists before they happen. Most of the fun in the movie is seeing the highly improbable but not impossible plans cooked up by Hannibal being executed beautifully (with a little help from CGI and the not-so-indestructible GMC van), although the final one suggested by Face is too far-fetched and hinges too much on serendipity. I liked the “skyscraper extraction” sequence the best, which wouldn’t look too out of place in a bank heist film or game like Heat or Kane & Lynch.
Coupled with witty one-liners, a neat wink to Sharlto’s South African roots, a hilarious p***-take on the 3D phenomenon (one of the few movie scenes I’ve laughed to tears in a long while) and a rousing score by Alan Silvestri (the perfect man for this kinda movie, since he does music for cheesy B-actioners and 80s TV shows), and you have one of the best movies of the summer. Well, for me, so far (SATC2, IM2 and POPTSOT didn’t exactly wow me).
OMG. I stumbled upon this about an hour ago. It is such an amazing trailer! It definitely is one of the best trailers for any movie ever made. I loved seeing all the new characters!
I watched The Searchers about a week or two ago, on DVD for £5 or so and it’s by far one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and definitely one of the most powerful I’ve seen (very much stays within me in my mind - it’s that powerful, and won’t leave any year soon).
The Searchers is such a good movie! John Wayne and Natalie Wood! Just awesome. It was named the best Western film ever by the American Film Institute a couple of years ago.
Slumdog Millionaire: 9/10 (No, it’s not overrated - all the Oscars and Golden Globes are well-deserved, indeed (edit: except where WALL-E was beaten, of course ). Now if someone would please release Danny Boyle’s 2004 film Millions on DVD in Germany, I’ll be even happier…
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope: 8/10 - Somewhat original and overall an entertaining, fun movie.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: 10/10 - One of the best movies of all time. I just recently learned that the success of this film inspired MGM to produce The Wizard of Oz.
Pinocchio: 9/10 - There are a few flaws, but is still a great movie.
Liam Neeson is great!
