What Movies Have You Watched Recently?

[diebitter]

Hard Candy

I think this was in the cinemas last year. This is some film. It starts with us seeing the screens of two people talking on the internet, and arranging to meet up. It's a little sleazy seeing their private chat.

Then they meet up - it's a cool-looking dude (who turns out to be 32), and he's meeting a young girl of 14.....eeeeeeeeeeeeeh, that's enough to start you feeling a little out your comfort zone. They talk, he tells her how she looks much older than she is when she clearly doesn't, and she's flattered, and so the dialogue goes on like that... But they chat, they're cool, and he mentions he has a bootleg mp3 of a band she loves (and he knows she loves) and ever so subtly, she ends up going back to his house. They chat more, and you still feel out of your comfort zone, especially when you find out he's a photographer, and his walls have pictures of young models over them (but small, subtle photos).

He starts to photograph her, but looks queasy, and then yells for her to SIT DOWN. He then gets dizzy and passes out, and he wakes up tied up... She's accusing him of being a pedophile, and a long two-handed cat-and-mouse game starts between them.


Ahhhh, what a movie. Very uncomfortable viewing, but it was well-made, constructed somewhat more like a play than a film (virtually every scene is in his house, barring the coffee house meeting), and I'm glad I've seen it. All the time, you can't work out if she's really crazy or all the deductions she's making based on his job, his internet persona and the ambiguous evidence she finds that suggest he's done terrible things (but you can't be sure) is spot on.

Okay, parts are wholly unbelievable (there was never a 14 year old like this, I think), but it was compelling and gripping. I was guessing right till the end who the real monster was out of these two.

A very intense psychodrama, with two terrific performances by the two leads.

[Dominic]

wow...I just saw this movie for the first time...fantastic film. Jim Sheridan wrote and directed a very personal story of a young family who moves to New York after a tragedy.

Samantha Morton and Paddy Constatine play the parents, and two sisters, Emma and Sarah Bolger play their young daughters. Beautifully realized film, with possibly two of the best child performances I've ever seen. Movies like this make me amazed...when someone has the balls to tell a simple, lovely story about people with barely any plot - and yet it still captures you completely.

It's movies like this that influence and inspire me to write something real, something truthful - and not just yet another Hollywood type PLOT driven confection. Hopefully, one day I'll have the guts to do so.

Teriffic film.

[Blarg]

They were both the monster.

Really good flick. The girl wowed the hell out of me. I haven't been that impressed at a young kid's debut since Haley Joel Osment.

Speaking of which:

"The Seventh Sense"

[ QUOTE ]
Kyle is a young boy cursed with a curious problem: He sees gay people. Trouble is, the people Kyle sees don't know they're gay. With the help of psychologist Melvin Snow, Kyle learns that instead of being afraid, he can use his seventh sense to help the gay people realize who they really are.

[/ QUOTE ]

[MrWookie]

I watched "Before Sunrise" last night for the first time (yes, I'm uncultured by Lounge standards). Boy, that was a mistake. Not that it was bad. It was clearly a great movie. However, as you can ask Claudius and Hamlet, it's not always comfortable to watch a show about your own life. With some all-too-brief interludes of normalcy, "Before Sunrise" has been my love life for the last, like, 3 years. It's all because of dancing. I'll travel to some city within about a 7 hr drive radius of Rochester, NY, oh, about once a month or once every couple months so for a weekend-long swing dancing event. And see, when you're a good dancer, especially if you're a good slow dancer, you have the power to make women fall in love with you. And you don't even have to say a word. I don't mean that to sound like a huge ego thing, although I would be lying if I said I never used that fact to puff myself when I first started getting good enough for this to happen. Now it's just sort of the way it is. Four out of five times, I'll meet some girl at one of these things, we'll dance, we'll laugh, we'll dance more, we'll kiss, we keep dancing, and then the sun comes up and the weekend's over. We promise to see each other six months later at the next event at the next city we both think we can attend, but who knows if we ever actually do. So, I liked the movie, but it kinda put me in a bad mood. Oh well. I'm still planning on going to Montreal in two weekends, and I already know who's looking forward to seeing me there. Should I see "Before Sunset?" Would that snap me out of this?

[cwsiggy]

Just saw "You Kill Me" with Ben Kingsley and Tea Leoni. He's an alcoholic hitman for the mob in Buffalo. An ok indie film though not as funny as I hoped it would be. Good cast though. Dennis Farina, Bill Pullman and Luke Wilson.

[Blarg]

Just saw Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky and Bobby, on DVD at home. Fell asleep about four times and finally gave up.

This thing reminded me of the bad and typical skits we see on SNL or Mad TV. The ones where an offbeat or outright weird character is set up, and then they try to fill often quite a few minutes on whatever he's doing, but there aren't really any jokes there. Just some awkward situations, maybe some people looking uncomfortable reacting to the weirdo.

This flick didn't hard on the otherworldy weirdness of the main characters, but it didn't develop it into anything funny either. The two leads, for instance, have a catchphrase for their partnership -- "Shake and bake." As the movie's villain notes, it doesn't really mean anything. But it's neither funny that it does or doesn't. It's just filling out "a day in the life of."

If the movie has a killer ending, maybe my evaluation is out of line. But the beginning didn't seem to be moving toward anything at all, and the middle kept on muddling along to nowhere.

It's rare I don't watch a rented movie all the way through no matter how bad -- and I actually kind of like NASCAR racing, and like Ferrell -- but this one seemed so blank and void that I made an exception. If I hadn't seen other Ferrell movies that made me think Ferrell did have talent to step beyond the small screen, I'd take this movie as proof that he didn't.

[ChipWrecked]

Casino Royale

Bond movies are supposed to be fun, and this one was fun enough.

This one doesn't rely on the gadgets as the older Bond flicks do. I missed that. Bond's toys are half the fun! It almost seemed to me that today's technology has progressed to the point where there's nothing beyond the envelope for Bond to have. He can hack into a gov't website. Cool. He has a portable defibrillator. Awesome. Just nothing to make me say 'wow!' like a jet pack did when I was a kid.

The new Bond isn't nearly as sophisticated as he used to be. The movie goes for more of a straight action/adventure approach. In fact, it seems to do that with prejudice. At one point Bond is asked if he wants his martini shaken or stirred. Response: Do I look like I give a [censored]? Once again, a reflection of modern tastes? Are guys not interested in sophistication any more?

But, what the hell. It's still a fun movie. It still has the thrilling opening chase scene.

Oh yeah. There's a poker game.

[diebitter]

Wook

Before Sunset will not lighten the mood. Fantastic movie yes, mood lightener no. That's not to say it's not life-affirming in a stoical sort of way.

[katyseagull]

[ QUOTE ]
Should I see "Before Sunset?" Would that snap me out of this?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you should definitely see Before Sunset. (And I think it sounds like you have a really romantic lifestyle.)

[revots33]

Recently watched Murder on a Sunday Morning, which was an academy award-winning documentary about a young man wrongly accused of murder. The kid's public defender was an awesome character. Aside from being entertaining, the film will also make you stop and think about the possible tragic ramifications of having a death penalty.