What Movies Have You Watched Recently?

[Five-Star]

Pan's Labyrinth
I was wandering the video store and the trailer for this came up on the TVs. I didn't pay any attention to it while it was in the theaters and the awards for it. I wasn't finding anything else and this caught my eye. "An adult fairy tale" called the box. It's very adult. I was a little disappointed overall in this entire movie. It didn't hit me like I thought it would. I would have liked more of the "fairy tale world". More experiences with unknown creatures like the frog or the dinner guy. Making it a much dinner "Alice in Wonderland". The acting was very good. The violence seemed overdone at a few points but also competely unrealistic at the same time. It's hard to explain that one.

For me: more fantastic, less realistic. I'd still recommend this to people, just realize it's very violent and a little graphic.

[Enrique]

Saw many movies yesterday.
Here are the reviews:

Shrek 3
It was good, but not great. The first two are much better, yet Shrek 3 is very fun and worth it if you liked the first two.

The other movies were seen in the San Antonio Underground film festival:

Hessians MC
It was a documentary about the hessians, the motorcycle club. It was pretty boring, but maybe I was just tired. The club did a lot of disgusting things, a lot of violent things and a lot of crazy things. Most of the people seemed insane. Of course, the documentary shows their human side, but they barely have a human side.

The Ranch
This is the actual title. It was a short movie about a woman that hates her father because he raped her as a child. She comes to help him while he's sick, but then decides to kill him because of the hate within her. I didn't think it was well exectuted, the story is cliche and I didn't think the characters showed their real feelings or acted in a believable way.

El Ride.
Really funny short about a chicano woman who goes back to East L.A to get an internship in a lawyer type job. The story is about a ride she has to give to her boss in a crappy car. The dealings within the mexican family were very authentic, funny and real.

Chap XV:12
It was a movie were the interesting part was the narration by a brazillian hooker. She narrates her views on life. The camera shows you a Brazillian city at night, but in very dark lighting and weird shots (reminded me of the few things I've seen from avant garde cinema). I didn't care too much about the images, but the narration was worth the watch.

Clicker Clatter
It was a cartoon that made fun of manny things. It was very funny. It mainly made fun of the crap we see on television, mainly news shows.

Get Thrashed: The Story Of Thrash Metal
This movie won the award for best movie of the film festival. It was a documentary of thrash metal. I have a friend who has told me much of the history and I listened to a couple of albums from MegaDeath, Slayer and Metallica because of their importance in thrash metal history. The documentary was good, I particularly enjoyed learning about thrash metal in other parts of the world (although it was very brief). I was disappointed when at the end that they were mentioning bands after the 90s, they didn't mention Tool.

Going to the film festival was fun, they had movies all day Saturday and all day Sunday, but I only went to the evening part of Saturday.

[revots33]

Been on a Netflix binge lately, here's a few I watched recently.

"Pan's Labyrinth" - awesome, lived up to the hype
"The Fountain" - weird but not terrible, maybe 6 out of 10
"Waitress" - chick flick (went with the wife) but nice acting and writing. Women (especially moms) will love it.
"You Can Count on Me" - GREAT movie about a too-rare topic for movies IMO - an adult brother-sister relationship. A must-see sleeper, fantastic acting by Linney and Ruffalo.
"Mulholland Drive" - amazing. When it was over I felt like I had just woken up from a feverish dream.

Also agree with previous poster on Deadwood. If you haven't seen it RENT IT!!! My wife loved it as much as me, and she hates westerns. So many amazing characters, it's like Shakespeare or a Dickens novel.

[SL__72]

Deadwood is my 2nd favorite TV show ever (after Sopranos).

Anyway, recent watchings:

Night at the Museum
Not great, but it had its moments. 2.5/5

The Good Shepard
I thought this was excellent. About 15 minutes into it I turned on the subtitles... not sure why, but its definitely the first all English film I've ever done that for. I think it was good choice too.

I have a feeling I'm going to watch this one again.
4/5

You, Me and Dupree

Meh. Owen Wilson is funny, sometimes. Kate Hudson is very cute. 2/5.

[kerowo]

Evan Almighty
A little too much environmentalism couched as religion than I cared for and a pretty horrible re-write of the flood story. Some good bits if you can ignore the story.

[Blarg]

The Silent Partner. I've been wanting to see this again for too many years. It's great, great fun. Elliot Gould is at his best, which may not sound like all that much unless you've seen the best of his work.

The whole movie has a quiet slyness about it that matches the lead character, who turns from from a mouse into a bold, crafty cat indeed when he realizes someone is going to rob the bank he works at, and makes away with most of the money on the sly himself, with everyone none the wiser. Unfortunately, Christopher Plummer, so much against type at that point in his career, plays the very scary robber who finds out he only got a tiny part of the missing money, and comes to collect from his new "partner" -- or else!

There is absolutely delicious interplay with a couple females in the lead, who keep underestimating him, then being wowed by him, confused by him, turned off and then turned on again by him. Literally laugh out loud funny in a couple of places; pretty poignant in others; very clever and tightly put together and well-acted overall. Highly recommended, but don't watch it while doing other things. One of the joys of this movie is how the little glances and silences between characters communicate so much so quickly.

[katyseagull]

The Queen

A fascinating look at the royal family, though overly long. This is the film that deals with how the royal family behaved in the days following the death of Princess Diana. Basically peels the cover off of this cloistered family and how they completely miscalculated the values of their own countrymen. Helen Mirren is great as Queen Elizabeth, caught in the crosshairs, stubbornly rebuffing her country's embrace of modernity. We see her facade begin to crack as she is persuaded by a newly elected and very popular Tony Blair to set aside her belief in tradition and duty and oblige the public's desire for an emotional funeral.

Michael Sheen gives a nice performance as the prime minister. I was surprised to find out that it was Tony Blair who was the one to fly to France to meet Charles with Diana's casket, and that it was he who took control of the public relations aspect of the situation. He is portrayed as a very decent and likable prime minister who tries his best to help the royals along (a bittersweet performance as we all know how his own story will play out).

This film shows what we all knew, that Princess Diana was a thorn in the royal's side. (How is it that the more nutty and unstable Diana became the more it seemed the public loved her?) It must have been very frustrating for the queen.


I thought it gave a very unflattering picture of the royal family overall (Charles is portrayed as ridiculously soft and scared; Phillip and Elizabeth as completely unfeeling) but I'm really curious to know what others think. I was surprised to see a couple of reviews on Rotten Tomatoes that referred to it as a "comedy" and "sympathetic". Lol. I'm not sure we were watching the same film [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img].


Evan Almighty

This is more a kids film I think. Adults will be really disappointed with it. I thought the first half was actually promising and I laughed. The second half not so much. Pretty dopey! It tries too hard to get laughs and it misses horribly. The story is just really bad and the characters are all weak.

[entertainme]

The Prestige: Loved this movie! The Boy, The Hubby and I watched it yesterday. It was very interesting when we discussed it afterwards to realize that we had all picked up on different aspects of the plot at different times.

I liked it enough to search out and read the OOT and Lounge threads today.

Love the inclusion of the Edison feud with Tesla. (We had both remembered Edison and Westinghouse feuding, but had forgotten Tesla's role.)

Didn't realize Bowie was Tesla until the credits rolled. Had to go back to take another look at him.

Will definitely be watching this one again. (I am a fan of intricate plots.)

Over the Hedge: An animated kids show, but it has some funny moments, (especially Shatner as the Possum Dad.) I enjoyed it.

[Dominic]

okay, I finally saw these two...

while I see why they got such glowing reviews I have to admit I came out of both of these feeling the same way I have after every other one of the two directors' previous films: admiring the artistry of the project without being emotionally connected to the material.

I'm not sure what it is but both del Toro and Almadovar both leave me cold. Interesting films but I've never once wanted to see any of their movies again.

[Bad Beat Maker]

Live Free or Die Hard.... Great movie, good action. The ninja guy could have died earlier in the movie imo... but overall = A-

1408 = SUCKS... D+

Oceans 13 = Good overall, but confusing plot. All star cast. B+