the last movie you saw?

[williamthebloody]

watched SPLICE yesterday.

that movie was definitely disturbing in some parts.

i'm sure most of you are familiar with the basic premise: a pair of scientists created a new life form by combining the DNA of several species and on their latest try, one species is human. so they grow this new creature in a lab without the knowledge or approval of the company they work for. they have this secret life form they made and they are studying it, watching it grow at a surprising rate etc etc.
i couldn't believe how irresponsible these scientists were with their new creation. they have this secret life form that no one else knows about, yet they leave this thing alone in various, not secure locations ALL THE TIME. the creature is clearly intelligent and escapes from them more than once, yet the continue to leave it unsupervised frequently. what the hell?
with some minor tweaking, the film could have been brilliant. as it stands it's not bad, but not super great either.

[williamthebloody]

THE ART OF THE STEAL

a documentary. A fellow by the name of Barnes was born poor but earned a fortune when developed a pharmaceutical. he then became very interested in the arts and went to france where he was introduced to the works of picasso and many others. this was around 1920, and the post impressionist movement had not yet been widely recognized. Barnes managed to amass an impressive collection of beautiful paintings and when he decided to put them out for public display for a limited time, art critics had nothing but terrible things to say about these works. at that time Barnes decided his collection would remain private and NOT in a public gallery EVER. he did start the Barnes Foundation, a school dedicated to the arts, and these students would have the opportunity to see these private works for study. a few years later, post-impressionism catches on and suddenly everyone wants to see these masterpieces by Picasso, Van Gogh, Matisse, Renoir, etc which were declared "ugly" only a few years prior. So, Barnes says "sorry only students have access to the paintings." which made many prominent and powerful people mad.
after Barnes died in 1951, ownership of the Foundation and paintings got shuffled around, and in the late 1990s, got to the point where all of these prominent organizations have weaseled their way onto the board of trustees and they are going to move the paintings to a new location to a museum, which is in direct violation of the terms of Barnes's last will and testament, since Barnes wanted them to remain in his school exactly as they were.

the film has me conflicted.
these are artistic masterpieces which should be accessible to everyone.
however, these people are violating a man's last will and testament to do this.

i don't know about you, but i wouldn't want my last will and testament thrown out simply because powerful people wanted something i had. the way that they go about it, too, is really underhanded, if you watch the movie. which you should.

[evilmidget]

Paul. Of all things, it reminded me so much of Mars Attacks! due to the nature of it being an awesome love letter to sci fi geeks everywhere. That, and its written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It surprised me because, watching it from the beginning, it had me worried for a bit that it was going to be nothing more than a bunch of lame "made for the preview" jokes (turns out, those jokes were set for the beginning of the movie and didn't spoil much). I'd say what is so awesome about it, but this is one of those few instances where I am not tempted to say anything. It is that good.

[SadakoMoose]

Also Paul (was anyone else reminded of Penn Gillette's voice?)
A lot of documentaries too:
The Trap, The Century of Self, and the Power of Nightmares all by Adam Curtis
and The War on Kids (2009).

[williamthebloody]

THOR.
fairly spoiler-free below
i was pleasantly surprised. it was about as good a Thor movie could have possibly been. i know A BIT (not A LOT) about the Marvel Comics Thor continuity, and they did put some good stuff in there. I felt that much of the "set up" for the plot fit well, and did not seem too contrived. i mean, coming up with a reason for Thor to be on Earth and not on Asgard, felt just like what comic book Odin would have done. Loki's character was portrayed well, too. i was so afraid that they would make him an over-the-top, sarcastic, dancing-about prankster type but they thankfully did not. instead Loki is more subtle in his manipulations and gets people to do exactly what he wants with some lies and nudges in the right direction. he was also a somewhat likeable villain in that you can get the feeling that he's doing what he does because he has honest, real reasons for it, and they are not entirely selfish ones either.
i was pleased to see they did manage to work in The Warriors Three and Sif, despite not seeing them in ANY of the trailers.
they really played around with Jane Foster's character. in the comics, she was a medical nurse who worked for and fell in love with Dr Donald Blake aka Thor. in this film, she is an astrophysicist and stumbles upon Thor due to the atmospheric disturbance caused by his arrival on earth. of course, i'm not going to complain with this modernization, particularly since the film didn't go in the direction of the comic in having Thor and Dr Blake kinda sorta as the same person (don't ask... pretty weird and complicated) and it lead to a pretty neat scene where they both discuss the design of the universe and the 9 realms. i was REALLY PLEASED that the emphasis on the romance between jane foster and Thor was LOW. she gets a crush on his because well, he's friggin THOR and let's face it, a gorgeous hunk who is also kind and brave. they smooch ONE TIME and THAT'S IT. it CAN be done, people! no sexy scenes, no falling in love, or true love, or getting married, or true romance, just a bit of a crush and a single kiss. sure, at the end..... well, i don't want to spoil anything TOO much.

and don't forget to STAY UNTIL AFTER THE CREDITS!


also, if you do, please tell what the hell that thingie in the suitcase was. i went with three geeky comic book nerds and none of us had any idea what it was supposed to be. do share your thoughts on THAT. please. i must know!

[PulsivePanda]

Buried. (2010)

I believe this movie was going in the right direction, had the right motion, it had everything it could possibly give for a movie about a guy in a box. Although...
PROS N' CONS TIME.
Pros:
- I like that they made such a long-ish movie enjoyable, even with the subject as a guy in a coffin, and no other real scene characters, they DID make it feel enjoyable, and barely boring. I loved that about it the most.

- I found the concept and how they presented it very heart wrenching, and thrilling, how simple parts such as a quiet showdown between a snake, and a man can be so thrilling.

- The characters that he talked with through a cellphone felt real, even if they didn't give much information about them besides a title [CEO OF EXAMPLES], it made me feel like they were actual people reacting in such a situation.

Now that three points of pros were said, now to lay on some wisdom with the cons.
Cons:
- The whole thing felt overall sad, he never really had much hope to begin with. The main character felt like he had already given up already, while he fought off a snake, fixed cracks, wrote down numbers, est. The character never shown any sort of absolute happiness, but always absolute despair, even when things seemed good.

- The sort of chapters that they had, (which there are three) in between would mostly end with something horrible happening, then he just lays there like a dead fish, looking all weird n' such. Just felt like filler, like they wanted to make the movie even longer, and took away the spirit the movie had five minutes before that.

- Some of the situations felt easily avoidable. With the in the coffin from the crack, he could of fixed that much more easily. Instead of making a fire (...Really not the best idea) he could have just booted the snake in the head, it would have been more enjoyable (The reason I say this, is because he appears to have steel-toed boots), a few more but I'm not giving more away.

All in all, it wasn't a bad watch. I rarely watch TV/Movies, so this was pretty fun for me. I wasn't disappointed like most movies these days, and I hope you enjoy it as well if you haven't seen it yet.

7.3/10

[Slinker]

Persepolis. I liked it! (If I would review it would get high scores, but review scores are silly)

[williamthebloody]

ooh yeah, i LOVED Persopolis. i think everyone in america should watch it. so many people here take for granted the separation of church and state and forget that other countries have religions that dictate day to day life, even for people who do not practice that religion.

[subobeyliminal]

I adored Persepolis as well; the social commentary is fantastic but really the technique used is just stunning to me...and I really like how it's about HER and her life dealing with all the crazy shit going down, not so much about WAVING DAT DERE POLITICAL FLAG.

[SadakoMoose]

I too loved Persepolis!
It made me want to learn French, oddly!
Recently I saw some films:
CSA: Confederate States of America
It was flimsy alternate history merged into a poor man's Bamboozled.
7/10

Zero Day
Hauntingly important to my generation. As school children, we were all effected by such tragedies, and it drastically changed the world around us. Not often for the best.
9/10

Captain America
Unironic and Fun. An action movie version of the ideals of the FDR years.
8/10

[evilmidget]

I thank my love for Steven Chow films for introducing me to Percepolis (there was a trailer in the CJ7 DVD). Lately, I have seen Cowboys and Aliens, and yes it is ten kinds of awesome. Predictable story, but Harrison Ford is fun to watch and Daniel Craig does a tremendous job as well. Seriously, though, Ford made this movie. If he weren't in it, it wouldn't be the same. All in all, it was the first time in a long time I truly enjoyed myself in the movies watching a film that WASN'T animated.