Dude--it's Raymond Chandler, which means the plot has to be over convoluted and impossible to follow.

Seriously, can anyone explain to me WTF the Big Sleep is all about, anyway?

This may help:

Linky doesn't appear to be working.

Speaking of old flicks, I watched "To Have and Have Not" last night. Not much going on, except Bogey and Bacall meeting for the first time, which is plenty.

Little Miss Sunshine
Now that's a dysfunctional family
Very entertaining. Buy it.


Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
God, it bored me. Don't waste your time.


An Inconvenient Truth
Depressing, but still a must see. Boy do I hate George W Bush.
Rent it.


Very good movie. Made me glad there are people like Murrow in the world.
Buy it.

http://www.punkattitude.co.uk/


I watched this twice yesterday on IFC. Riveting. Five stars.


Also watched yesterday, also compelling:

HOLY SHIT.

Just bought Amores Perros and City of God on amazon. now I believe I'm going to watch Fargo now. haven't seen any of Amores perros and only saw about 30 minutes of City of God about 2 years ago so Im excited. going to see children of man/men next weekend. man I'm out of the loop

It's not John Woo's best film (that would be The Killer), but it's certainly the most fun. I still have my vhs copy that I taped off of Laser Disc back in 93. Unfortunately, "Face Off" is the closest he's come to making a very good American film.

I just watched this:



Yeah it's predictable Disney stuff, but I'm a sucker for underdog sports stories.

Anyone see Woo's 'Bullet in the Head'? That's reputed to be his best feature.

Yeah. I own a VHS copy of it. It's very good. Just about every John Woo Hong Kong gunplay flick from the late 80 early 90's is very good (although I wouldn't necesarily call this film a gunplay movie). I just don't think Bullet in the Head holds together as well as The Killer, or is as cohesive. imo, The Killer is a perfect film. Woo nailed everything in that flick.

Documentary about 8 Track collectors. Quite a bit was shot in Chicago.

Finished this last night -- went through the last seven episodes of the season between the last two nights. About to watch the webisodes, then start season three. I've got all the new episodes downloaded.



Picked this up for $18 at Circuit City yesterday. I have no clue if I'll like it -- I usually don't like sci-fi television, but this (like BSG) has been so highly recommended that it seemed worth the shot (especially at that price).

I can already see that eventually this movie will gain some sort of notoriety/cult following. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't that great either. It still took a pretty good jab at our society though.

For a complete series multi-disc set, that is a very nice price.

As a huge Howard Stern fan, I felt obligated to rent this last night:



Even as a Stern fan, I had extremely low expectations for this flick; and was still hugely disappointed. First, it only ran 87 minutes, but it felt like 3 hours. Second, I love low-brow comedy, but this just sucked. Half the jokes are gay jokes, and at that they're nothing more than calling another character gay or a fag. I don't really care too much about political correctness, but you have to at least be creative. I guess I don't really have to go into the plot or acting.

I love Artie on the Stern show, but I think his best talent is sitting around telling stories, bullshiting, and throwing in one-liners (which makes him perfect for Stern); but 87 minutes of his acting was brutal.




I love Firefly, but don't go into it with Battlestar expectations. They're both very good, but very different. Firefly definitly has the Joss Wheadon (sic?) stamp all over it...snappy fun dialogue with a dark edge. However, where BSG is more of a serial; Firefly is more of "the weekly adventures of...", with some recurring themes and story lines (much like Star Trek). Don't forget to pick up Serenity if you like Firefly...it's a basically a 2 hour series finale disguised as a feature film.

my roommate had this firefly thing. and i appologize for saying that, but i'd be less embarassed to catch him spanking over gay porn rather than hearing all that firefly stuff in our room. sorry.

I must see this immediately. I've put it at the top of my Netflix queue.

Speaking of, I want to again thank everyone who's ever posted in this thread. I get about six flicks a week from Netflix and at least thirty of them (plus a zillion others still in the queue) have come from here.

So I'm working 10 hour days at my local music store which has no customers and staying at my mom's so it's been movie catch up time.



Um, could this have been any more heavy handed and dramatic. I really wanted to like this. Zach Braff, a great supporting cast, but couldn't help but cringe half the time. Any movie where an angry wife either throws glass against the wall in the direction of her husband or threatens to stab him is just a little too much. What should have been a poigngant depiction of being afraid to grow up, facing marriage, and having kids ended up being horribly trite. Thanks for hitting me over the head once again Paul Haggis.



I don't want to jump the gun since I initially didn't think much of Anchorman and find that hilarious, but I didn't really find this one that funny. The baby jesus stuff, and the dinner table at the beginning had me laughing out loud, but as the movie went on, it was only diminishing returns. And poor Sasha Baron Cohen. I think I get that he was trying to do a bad French accent, but why? And count me out as one of the people that thinks John C. Reilly was so outstandingly funny to show up Will Ferell. He was ok, but really, what is he doing in a movie like this?



Count me unimpressed. Cool visuals do not make a good movie alone. After reading a lot of hype on The House Next Door (if you don't read this movie blog, you should), consider me greatly disappointed. While not a fan of the original series or having any expectations in comparison, this was just a dry run-of-the-mill action movie. Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell's characters are paper thin, the romantic interlude with Gong Li drags on for what feels like forever, and this just feels like nothing new for Mann, giving us another glorious shoot out that just doesn't seem as exciting the second time around (Heat). What started out exciting enough with John Hawkes adding real suspense to the story very very quickly devolved into utter boredom.



Finally, something that lived up to the hype. Let me just say, I loved this movie. A horror movie that takes it's time to tell its story and really get to the gore, but still is suspenseful as hell the whole time. A little bit of me wants to discredit some cheap jump scares, but this one was pumping on all cylinders. Love how it feels like a giant blended homage to the Shining, Texas Chainsaw, and Alien (I'm sure there's more, I've got to look at the Jim Emerson article after finally seeing this), as well as actually presenting mature adult women who don't just feel like they're waiting to die. Really cool to see a woman covered in blood Bruce Campbell style kicking ass, and that first time you see the "monster" just standing behind the women in the video camera. Just thinking about it gives me chills.

And as for Firefly, it may be geeky, but consider me a Joss Whedon loyalist.

constant gardener

brilliant film. I suppose I'm a little puzzled by the accolades for Rachel Weisz who while convincing wasn't exactly bringing the oscar winning moment (imho) Ralph Fiennes was excellent as was Danny Huston who continues to be more and more impressive with each film I've seen him in. very underrated performer. I need to see 'City of God' like.. pronto.



eh. it's the hong Kong equivalent of 'The Deer Hunter'. Hardly the top of his gangster pics.

err.. I'd disagree. 'Hardboiled' is Woo's ultimate choreographed gunslinger flick.
'Killer' might have had the tighter plot but it hardly out does anything in the opening sequence of 'Hardboiled' alone.

Oddly enough, while Woo might have been the badass director per late 80's/early 90's.
Now he's just another Hollywood import who's lost his edge. He might have the heart of Leone with the eyes of Peckinpah but the likes of Miike have left him in dust in terms of those who are on the cutting edge in eastern filmmaking.

I don't necessarily disagree with this. Like I said in my first post, I think Hard Boiled is the most fun of any of his films; and the gunplay choreagraphy is at its best in Hard Boiled. However, the choreeography is still very good in the Killer as well, plus the plot and (melo)drama of The Killer outshine Hard Boiled; so that's why I choose it as my favorite, but they're both great films.

watched these 3 films yesterday

Cult classic on the rise?



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Gunkata!!!

Yeah, not a bad flick - but definitely suffers from inattention to detail. Like, the whole idea that we've killed off all emotions doesn't hold up when you see people smiling.... frowning, etc.

Still, there's some decent scenes. And it's much better than the director's follow-up, which I watched last night:



Stylistically, looks very cool. The first 40 minutes are killer. Then it becomes a poor man's A.I. (which, as we all know, I absolutely hated).

So I requested this movie from the library, but it turns out this Made-in-Canada DVD is only in French, with no English subtitles. This coming from a country where if you don't put French print, dubbing, and subtitles on a DVD, there's a big uproar from angry Quebecers. Man, the French can be such assholes, even in Canada.

Everyone knows the Quebecois aren't real French. (But have fun reminding them!)

On the topic of Talladega Nights:

I saw it in theatres and wasn't particularly enthused, but I rented the unrated/uncut Blu-Ray disc from Netflix because... well, I really wanted a Blu-Ray movie. And it was actually funnier than the standard version, though I didn't notice a heap of differences. There's a lot of funny stuff in the bonus features, too. Still, it's not nearly up there with Anchorman.

I've got a Blu-Ray version of X-Men: The Last Stand coming tomorrow, and I've had Primer sitting here for a week or two. Still gotta watch that. I'm not watching anything else until I catch up with Battlestar Galactica (I'm three episodes into season three).

Nothing like a HD version of a film shot on 16mm.

Actually, that one's standard definition.

Not a whole lot of worthwhile films on Blu-Ray just yet. :/

I started watching this and then realized I had a vague memory of seeing it before. Apparently I'd totally forgotten it, though, and enjoyed it a second time.

i'm probably the only one who doesn't like that movie

I've tried 2-3 times and just can't get into it. None of the characters are engaging enough to keep watching.

Bitches, man.

There's only two of them. That's bullshit.

I watched The Upside of Anger this afternoon and enjoyed it. I really like the comedic tone throughout the movie and some of the more serious stuff works pretty well too, but it felt a little long and there is a bit of a twist towards the end that I haven't really decided if I am ok with it or not. It's still much better than The Mind of the Married Man was.

I've been watching nothing but short films, and it looks like I have my shorts shorts program together for next year done (1 shorts program done, 7 more to go).

In honor of this, I'd like to share a short from last years short shorts program (and audience award winner for best short overall).

http://www.DoubleEdgeFilms.com/spin/player.html

11/13/83

bulls v/s spurs
michael scores 45 in his 9th nba game. former bull artis gilmore plays for the sa spurs as does future chicago bull johnny pax...ha.
fucking the present...NOSTAlGIA ROCKS. this shit is great. think i'll throw in some mid 90's reggie miller rivalry action next.

what's it about? what's the deal?
i like all that criterion stuff. tell me something about it.

I saw it a couple of weeks ago and liked it a lot. I thought it showed a lot of insight into grief, relationships, and the idea of "reframing." The Joan Allen and Kevin Costner characters reminded me a lot of older versions an ex- and me, personality-wise. Additional spoiler-ish comments below in white:

I saw the twist coming from the beginning of the movie and wasn't sure if that's what the director/writer had intended by foreshadowing it with the opening scene.

Also, does it really ever happen that someone can be missing for that long without anyone other than wife and daughters noticing and following up on that through legal means?

That was excellent! You're probably already familiar with Image Union and Wholphin, but, if not, check them out.

It's not like other Altman films. Artsy, Bergmany shit. You'll like it. Or not.

You know that movie Must Love Dogs? This movie has nothing to do with that movie.

i do like bergman, even though i know very little about him. i should probably consider this film then.

It's inspired by Bergman's film Persona. It's kind of a weird "Did all of this really happen? Are these people all the same person? Do they even exist? Was it all just a dream?" sort of thing. A logic puzzle that is more or less unsolvable.

Fourteen kinds of awesome, Paves. Nicely.

got that today. the second disc seems rather interesting.

I liked that movie a lot. It really isn't typical Altman though. Duvall and Spacek are equally creepy and both turn in memorable performances. The whole movie just have a very odd mood - almost surreal.
Pretty slow-moving, so not recommended for ADD types.

For my birthday tomorrow, got family to watch the baby and seeing double feature with my wife. What to choose from these four playing at the local theater:

Children Of Men

Night in the Museum

Dreamgirls

We Are Marshall

Haven't seen any of them yet, but easy first choice would be Children of Men. I'd nix Night in the Museum all together... it's supposed to be terrible. Dreamgirls would probably be the obvious next choice given all the Oscar buzz, but I'd probably go We Are Marshall just because I'm a sucker for tear-jerker-under-dog-sports-stories (even when over wrought and formulaic).

What he said.

Children of Men and then a motel with hourly rates. Cheers.