Recent Movies you Watched

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Endless Soul

I really hate to say this, but I kept thinking "Well that's one way to save money."

It can be very effective too, you know. Do you remember what Spielberg did when the shark-robot was broken in Jaws? He presented the shark's presence only with BGM and fins for half or 2/3 of the runtime, and it's a lot more frightening that way (and cost effective too ).

[Kaihan]

Blades of Glory, still cracks me up after all these years.

Originally Posted by Endless Soul

I finally had a chance to see the classic Kagemusha by Akira Kurosawa. In 1573, a petty theif, who has an uncanny resemblance to the leader of the Takeda clan, is forced to assume the role of leader after the real leader dies.

I have gained interest in watching it after watching the trailer... which was about 6 months ago. Still waiting until I can finally sit down and start working on it.

[Ryuudou]

Fracture. I liked it.

I like themes of intellectual battles like that.

[Chiibi]

Men in Black III

I liked it. It really deepened J and K's "bromance"/partnership. That probably isn't what MIB fans are really looking for-they wanna see alien scum blow up and funny jokes? Well, don't worry there's plenty of that too. XD

I just like a little character depth in my flicks. And it delivered nicely.

[Merilyn Mensola]

hehehe

American Pie reunion..

and all i have to say....

Stifmeister!!! the end is EPIC!!!! Mother Finch is the best

[Sides]

Suteki na Kanashibari, really good japanese movie, that is fun to watch. Yeah I watched it on the plane from paris to hong kong, or was it the other way around?.... Nevertheless that movie reminded me why I love asian motion pictures

Takeshi Kitano's Outrage is next on my list, if I can get it delivered...

[Drake]

Safe House: Was a pretty good show overall with a good deal of action and intrigue and Denzel Washington plays his part of manipulative rouge agent really well and it was also nice to see Ryan Reynolds in a more serious role for a change.

21 Jump street : Pretty hilarious from start to finish but not really a film you can watch with the family. =D

[MUAHAHAHAHAHA]

I watched Father of the Bride (1950) yesterday with my friend. Funny thing is, she slept after less than 30 minutes. I haven't watched this in a while, so I really enjoyed it. Elizabeth Taylor looked so young and stunning as the young bride. Spencer Tracy is hilarious in his role as a father who has to spend thousands for his daughter's wedding (I actually feel sorry for him towards the end. He barely gets the chance to talk to his daughter despite everything that he has done for her). When I first watched this movie, I was surprised to find out that the bride's family has to bear the cost of wedding during that era.

[SeijiSensei]

I bought the Blu-ray version of The Lion King a couple of weeks back; we only had the VHS version that I bought when my daughter was young. It's certainly one of the best Disney movies I've ever seen, even including classics like Snow White or Fantasia. Scar is an especially complex villain for a Disney story who gets to sing one of the most ironically titled songs of all time, "Be Prepared." (I wonder how the Boy Scouts felt about that.) Even more remarkable are the Nazi aspects in that scene with the "goose-stepping" hyenas. I suspect it might be an allusion to some propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl (as was the ending to the original Star Wars).

I've always wanted to see The Lion King in a theater, but I refused to watch the 3D re-release last year. I looked in vain to see if there were any concurrent 2D releases but couldn't find any in the Greater Boston area.

I've also been browsing my array of on-demand premium services for some good recent movies. I tried watching Terence Malick's Tree of Life but couldn't get into it. I find Malick's films beautiful to look at but not dramatically compelling enough to really hold my interest over a couple of hours. I saw both Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line in theaters and stayed until the end despite periods of boredom. I'm not so sure I would have stuck with Tree of Life had I seen it in a cinema. I also gave Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris a try. I watched about half of it, but again didn't watch it until the end. I might have enjoyed it more if we had stayed in the Paris of the 20's and watched Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso and Stein for most of the film. Unfortunately we kept returning to the present where I had to watch a bunch of really unlikeable characters and ultimately gave up.

Oh, and I watched about ten minutes of Scott Pilgrim before tuning that out as well.

If anyone thinks I should give these another try, I'd be happy to hear your reasoning.

[MUAHAHAHAHAHA]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I also gave Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris a try. I watched about half of it, but again didn't watch it until the end. I might have enjoyed it more if we had stayed in the Paris of the 20's and watched Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso and Stein for most of the film.

Is it because of Marion Cotillard?

I think the reason why he keeps returning to the present could be because what is most important is ultimately to move on in the present. If Gil had elected to stay in the past, won't that seem to you as "running away" from his current problems? I think it's a good thing that he keeps returning to the present, because each event in the past helps him to reflect on his life and what he truly wants. The ending

Spoiler:

where he breaks up with Inez and manage to find a new love as hinted is one of the best ending IMO. He has managed to move forward without the need to live in the past and start things anew.

[SeijiSensei]

Oh, I understand that. I just had a visceral dislike of the other contemporary characters (the fiancee and her family and friends) and couldn't stick with it. I'll probably give it another try as I have watched nearly all of Allen's films and enjoyed many, probably most, of them. (Stardust Memories was a bust as I recall, and though Manhattan is an excellent film, I found the Lolita aspects of it a bit disturbing. That was before we discovered that Allen's personal life had some of those same features.)

I still watch Annie Hall from time to time and saw Bananas again some months back. I still laugh out loud during the scene where the camera pans across the collection of porn magazines with the conservative political journal National Review positioned right in the center of the bunch. I saw this movie with my girlfriend in college at a theater in a very working-class town outside Boston. Of the four hundred or so people in the audience, only the two of us and perhaps another half-dozen people laughed at that scene. I'm sure the rest of the movie-goers were wondering what was so funny about it. The wedding-night scene at the end with "play-by-play" coverage from Howard Cosell, then at the height of his Monday Night Football prominence, was another hilarious bit.

[MUAHAHAHAHAHA]

Woah, Annie Hall! I would say that is Woody Allen's BEST work, at least in my opinion. A touch of poignance, realism, and love.

[Kirito]

I watched Home Alone 4 a couple of days ago...big mistake "shudders"!

[james0246]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Unfortunately we kept returning to the present where I had to watch a bunch of really unlikeable characters and ultimately gave up.

I had a similar feeling when I saw the film in theatre. So, I'll put it simply: That's kind of the point. You are supposed to be sickened by most of the "modern" characters because Owen Wilson's character is sickened by these characters. As the film progresses, Owen Wilson's character is forced to confront his obvious issues with modern society (over dramatized by his fiance, her ex-boyfriend, and her parents) that have lead him to either construct this amazing fantasy world of 1920's Paris or actually open a doorway to the past. Whatever the case, the ending, while very cliche, is still well earned and well told.

(p.s. Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy's beautiful wife Carla Bruni plays one of the museum guides during one of the early scenes with Michael Sheen. There's no real reason to mention this besides the fact that she is quite attractive .)

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Oh, and I watched about ten minutes of Scott Pilgrim before tuning that out as well.

Not knowing exactly what you disliked, I'll give a general response. Scott Pilgrim is an intense anti-hipster film (amongst other themes of the film) that is, sadly, often viewed as a hipster-friendly nostalgia piece by many viewers (they do not see beyond the shallow surface to the films unsubtle depths (admittedly, this is the director's fault for not crafting the film to properly emphasize the too obvious anti-hipster storyline)). The entire purpose of the film is to ridicule and lambast the hipster lifestyle that has come to encompass the supposed "cool" scene (so much of Scott's behaviour is influenced by the fact that he lives in a world that encourages and endorses his awful behaviour; thankfully the film ends with Scott realizing how pathetic he is, and what he can do to change himself for the better), while simultaneously telling a very slight comedic romance about a boy and a girl that simply do not have their shit together. (To put it simply, the subtitle for the film could read: How I Learned I Was a Massive Tool and a Jerk, and What Happened After).

I'm not saying you should necessarily see the film (there is still much to dislike in the film), but it is deeper than it appears.

Originally Posted by MUAHAHAHAHAHA

Woah, Annie Hall! I would say that is Woody Allen's BEST work, at least in my opinion. A touch of poignance, realism, and love.

It's hard to choose a "Best of Woody Allen", but The Purple Rose of Cairo has always held a special place in my heart (and film library). It probably helps that it was the first Woody Allen film I actually saw in theatres...

[Bern-san]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I bought the Blu-ray version of The Lion King a couple of weeks back; we only had the VHS version that I bought when my daughter was young. It's certainly one of the best Disney movies I've ever seen, even including classics like Snow White or Fantasia. Scar is an especially complex villain for a Disney story who gets to sing one of the most ironically titled songs of all time, "Be Prepared." (I wonder how the Boy Scouts felt about that.) Even more remarkable are the Nazi aspects in that scene with the "goose-stepping" hyenas. I suspect it might be an allusion to some propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl (as was the ending to the original Star Wars).

I've always wanted to see The Lion King in a theater, but I refused to watch the 3D re-release last year. I looked in vain to see if there were any concurrent 2D releases but couldn't find any in the Greater Boston area.

A couple of months ago a TV channel in my country the 3 movies of the Lion King were emitted (and many other Disney classic movies). The Lion King 2 in my opinion is the best Disney sequel.

This week I went with some people from university to see Men in Black 3. It was enjoyable, didn't expect the Andy Warhol part.

Scoop is a Woody Allen film that I really like, mainly because I've seeing it so many times in TV and Hugh Jackman. Have to try Midnight in Paris since I missed it when it was in the cinemas.

[Endless Soul]

Just watched Limitless. Pretty slick movie about a small time, down on his luck writer who takes a drug that allows the user to use 100% of their mind. Of course, there are side effects and other people who want the clear pill.

Also, proof that little girls wearing ice skates are a great self defense weapon.

Endless "Four digit I.Q." Soul

[Sir Maddy]

I just finished watching The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence and in my opinion, is probably one of the dumbest horror movies to be released.
It's inferior to the first movie by a long shot.
The plot was the same except of 3 people, you have 12 people this time.
The antagonist who was also the protagonist was a mentally unstable man who I wanted to murder.
The gore was just over the top and there was a rape scene which was uneeded.

I really don't recommend this movie. It's like, take the first movie, then puke on it 5 times.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Juvenile Jungle

It's the opening film of the week-long Japanese Film Festival, which started here today (July 1). The film is part of the oeuvre of the Nikkatsu Corporation, Japan's oldest movie studio, which is celebrating its centennial this year. Nikkatsu was one of the pioneers of Japanese "New Wave" films during the 1960s.

Juvenile Jungle (also known as Crazed Fruit) is especially notable because it marked the silver-screen debut of Yujiro Ishihara, who went on to become one of the biggest movie stars in Japan at the time. The movie itself is adapted from a novel written by Yujiro's elder brother, Shintaro Ishihara.

Yes, that Shintaro Ishihara, the Governor of Tokyo. The story goes, when Nikkatsu approached Shintaro for permission to adapt the novel into a movie, Shintaro agreed, but on one condition: that his brother, Yujiro, gets to star in it.

Here's the bigger surprise: After the audience settled into their seats, the festival host announced the special guest.

Yup, Shintaro Ishihara himself!!!

Apparently, he was in Singapore to attend a conference and so consented to appear briefly at the festival's opening ceremony, which was at around 10.30am. In person, the 79-year-old still walks with a slight swagger and, in his inimical style, he talked about how he started writing movies and about his collaborative project with French New Wave auteur, Francois Truffaut.

Ishihara said he once asked Truffaut about the source of his inspiration. Truffaut replied that it was an obscure Japanese movie that inspired his style. Intrigued, Ishihara asked, Which film? Truffaut called it Paradise at the Beach, or something along those lines.

Ishihara was pretty sure that no movie with that title existed in Japan, so he asked about the plot and the characters. And, lo and behold, it turned out that the film that inspired Truffaut was none other than Juvenile Jungle.

Ishihara said jokingly, but with a touch of bravado, that he could thus claim to be the "creator" of the New Wave movement.

The movie itself was much more interesting than I expected, with a heavier focus on characters' lines than is normal for today's films. There is also more frequent use of close-ups, a characteristic of black-and-white Hollywood movies, back in the day when the influence of stage acting was still very strong. I was particularly impressed by Juvenile Jungle's edgy youth-oriented themes, many of which would be just as familiar to the youth of today.

As I've always thought, there many aspects to Shintaro Ishihara which explain his popularity among many Japanese, particularly those of the post-war generation. This is a man who is not unfamiliar with youth culture (at least that of his era) and, more importantly, is one who is familiar with rebellious ideals. His approach to media today may seem in contradiction with his past, but I think there is perhaps more to it that we, as foreigners, do not see.

[Sir Maddy]

Looks like I need to save up my money and go watch both these movies.

[Ak3mi]

Kingdom of Heaven, though it is like most big budget films, historically inaccurate, it was still a great film. All acting except for Orlando's was brilliant. Orlando's acting throughout was solid, but someparts were really cringy and bad, the horse part...
Overall, very happy extremely awesome on blu-ray!