Movies you've just seen

[azalea]

I thought there was a "Seen any good movies recently?" thread, but I couldn't find it, so I'm starting this one. I saw Identity tonight, but didn't think it warrented it's own thread necessarily, so I started this one. You can post a movie you've just seen and tell us what you thought of it, etc.

Anyway, Identity was with John Cusack and Ray Liotta. It was really good, but very scary and had some gore. It's a psychological thriller in the same vein as Memento. I pretty much knew what was happening early in the movie, but even if you "figure it out," you still can't predict what will happen, and then there is another twist at the end. I had a free movie pass, and chose to see this (I was thinking of seeing this or Phone Booth or Holes.)

EDIT: BTW, like I said, I thought there was already a thread like this, so if anyone finds one, just let me know and I'll close this one or merge it.

[IronParrot]

There are times of the year when I see at least a movie a week. The January-April period is not one of them.

Only thing I've seen in theatres recently is Phone Booth, which was certainly done very well considering that if mishandled, it would have been a disaster of a one-gimmick movie. Instead, it was a good situational film, and reminded me that Joel Schumacher isn't nearly as bad a director as Batman & Robin would like to imply he is.

Though I'm still incredulous about him helming The Phantom of the Opera.

On DVD, I saw Infernal Affairs, which has not been released yet in North America other than in Los Angeles or something. It's a good-cop/bad-cop movie that dominated the last Hong Kong Film Awards. Very suspenseful, and one of the more intelligent cop thrillers I've seen in a long time.

I've been meaning to catch up on a few other movies, namely Bend It Like Beckham (which has been released around here) and Better Luck Tomorrow (which hasn't).

I miss writing full-length reviews where I take entire movies apart, but I just don't have the time to do that anymore.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Let me see...other than X-2, the most recent movie we saw was Head of State, on March 30th, I think. We don't see movies much.

[Hasty Ent]

Just came back from seeing Winged Migration, a documentary by Jacques Perrin (I think). It was mind blowing -- you really get a sense of how arduous these journeys are. The soundtrack I'm not sure about, some of the music was on target, some of it left me cold. But the amazing thing is how close the viewer gets to the birds themselves. Their stories are heroic, comic, tragic, the whole gamut. Don't walk, FLY to see this -- definitely not worth renting, you need a big screen for this one.

[durin's bane]

I saw Holes two weeks ago, and it was awesome (but maybe because the author of the book wrote thre screenplay). The characters were portrayed wonderfully, and it stayed exactly true to the book. Though I wouldn't recommend taking a six-year-old or something to it though because it has some creepy themes in it (like showing dead people in their coffins, a dead donkey, and the sudden burning of a school house) But all in all, it's probably the best movie based on a work of fiction ever.

[Sheeana]

The Pianist:
It's about a pianist (duh) who survives the war. Very chilling, and moving. Especially seeing how dehumanised they were - being treated like cattle, and stuff. What made this slightly different was that not all Jews were "good" and not all Germans were "bad."

Ebert Review

I also saw Spirited Away - one of the most original and thought provoking movies I've seen in a long, long time. The main character and her parents are moving to a new town, and the movie opens with her lounging in the back of her parents car sulkily staring out the window - who can remember doing the same thing when they were kids? - and kicking her feet idly. They find an old abandoned theme park, and start exploring around it, and the next thing you know, the parents have been changed into something of the porcine persuasion, and the main character has been transported to a whole new world with scary new characters (a spirit bath-house.) Now, not only must she find a way to escape being enslaved to the bath-house as a servant, but she must also rescue her parents before they're permanently turned into pigs, and find a way out of the world she finds herself trapped in.

Another amazing film from the director who brought us Princess Mononoke.


Ebert Review

[Celebréiel]

I just recently saw Identity too. I liked it, wasnt what I thought it would be...which is a good thing.
Hrmm...I havent seen many new new movies, I saw Spirited Away a few weeks ago, loved it. And X-2 just this last weeked...I love that one too. Its kinda older but I just recently re-watched Sling Blade (which no one else seems to have seen) I love that movie.

[Millane]

I also saw Spirited Away -

ooooooh was it better than Princess Mononoke??? i remember my friend talking about it (its got a frog in a kimono in it doesnt it?) either way it looked awesome and i really wanna see it... i go to the cinema about once a week or something. i saw Xmen 2 on friday and Fat Pizza sometime before that and Dreamcatcher (stupid deceiving friends ) and probly Ned Kelly before that...
ummm Whale Rider comes out this week so im going to that when ity opens (thursday i think) then the Matrix Reloaded on the following Friday (i went down and got my tickets today YAY )
for people who dont know what Whale Rider is (sheeana should know) Its a film directed by Niki Caro based on a novel by Witi Ihimaera... this is the sum up i got from the cinema

Whangara is steeped in tales of whale mythology. The villagers say that there ancestors came to NZ on a canoe and believe one descendant, Paikea, arrived on the back of a whale when it rescued him from his overturned canoe. The film, which takes its title from this maori legend, centres on the need for a male heir to be born from the chief, Koro, to succeed his title. The chiefs eldest son, Porourangi fathers twins - a boy and a girl but his wife and son die during childbirth. The surviving daughter, named Pai, becomes the unlikely hero, trying to pursue her own destiny. Along the way she must fight a thousand years of tradition to overcome the male orientated world. Further twists are woven into the tale's cultural fabric when Pai finds herself in a fight for her own kin too. Her grandfather, Koro, so intolerant and blinded by prejudice, concludes that the tribe's misfortunes began at Pai's birth and he actively seeks a male successor, refusing to acknowledge Pai as the inheritor of the tradition. It is her grandmother who sees this from the outset and together they try and confirm that Pai is the natural heir.

ohhh and if any kiwis out there know what does Pakeha mean??? thats what they always call the white people in Once Were Warriors

[Sheeana]

Pakeha = white person.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Or "honky".

[Ornelírë Mistë]

Sweet Home Alabama was awful. The fact that it wasn't very funny- I realized after I saw it that it was supposed to be a 'romantic comedy'- exposed how stupid and unrealistic the plot was. It didn't have a moral. Hey! some parts weren't even consistent or were at least unclear. Nothing tied in really well to make you think. The main character, Melanie, was a total b*tch. Are we expected to like her? Good lord. Are we supposed to think that she 'had it all', because she really didn't. But her southern husband was terrible too, imo. Please tell me things like this don't happen in real life. Please don't tell me: 'By the way, that was based on a real story'.

[Agalayth]

Let's see... I saw "Malibu's Most Wanted" which was awful!!! I also saw "The Grey Zone" a few months ago when it was here at the Maine Jewish Film Festival. "The Grey Zone" was an excellent, touching, and very graphic movie about the Sonderkommando, a squad of Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz who helped to get the Jews into the gas chambers and clean them out afterwards. in exchange for four more months of extra life. This particular movie is about the 12th squad of Sonderkommando, which started an uprising in Auschwitz and managed to blow up a crematorium. It's a great movie and I really encourage you to see it. Then again, if you're squeemish or anything like that, I must warn you that the movie is very very VERY graphic.

[azalea]

Originally posted by OrnelÃ*rë Mistë
Sweet Home Alabama was awful. The fact that it wasn't very funny- I realized after I saw it that it was supposed to be a 'romantic comedy'- exposed how stupid and unrealistic the plot was. It didn't have a moral. Hey! some parts weren't even consistent or were at least unclear. Nothing tied in really well to make you think. The main character, Melanie, was a total b*tch. Are we expected to like her? Good lord. Are we supposed to think that she 'had it all', because she really didn't. But her southern husband was terrible too, imo. Please tell me things like this don't happen in real life. Please don't tell me: 'By the way, that was based on a real story'.

I agree with your assessment of that movie, about which I had heard good things. And it was unrealistic also from the point of view of the average southerner -- it bases itself on stereotypes that really no longer apply.

[Khamûl]

Originally posted by OrnelÃ*rë Mistë
Sweet Home Alabama was awful. The fact that it wasn't very funny- I realized after I saw it that it was supposed to be a 'romantic comedy'- exposed how stupid and unrealistic the plot was. It didn't have a moral. Hey! some parts weren't even consistent or were at least unclear. Nothing tied in really well to make you think. The main character, Melanie, was a total b*tch. Are we expected to like her? Good lord. Are we supposed to think that she 'had it all', because she really didn't. But her southern husband was terrible too, imo. Please tell me things like this don't happen in real life. Please don't tell me: 'By the way, that was based on a real story'.

How strange that you should mention that movie. I just spent 10 hours on a chartered bus and that was one of the movies that we watched. I didn't think it was too bad. It wasn't the best movie I've ever seen either. One of my favorite lines: "Just because I talk slow doesn't mean that I'm stupid."

Oh and isn't Melanie's hometown Pigeon Creek? There's a Pigeon Creek not too far from where I live and I've never seen it look like that. The Pigeon Creek I know doesn't even have a water tower.

[Coney]

I watched an alledged "horror" movie called The Hole yesterday (don't know how old it is, it's out on DVD anyway).

Crap acting and a transparent storyline............don't even bother with it

I suppose the one before that was Gangs of New York..........very good film, enjoyed it a lot

(oh, and x-men 2 on DVD, but that's been discussed in it's own thread. I thought it was ok (ish) .......... for a cartoon-type movie)

[azalea]

Wait, you've confused me -- did you just say you watched Xmen2 on dvd?It just came out in theaters! did you mean the 1st one?
I watched Ghost World on dvd and really liked it (although I thought it was kind of weird unitl I found out it was based on a comic book). It was very funny, but then I would have preferred a "happier" ending (if you've seen it I think you understand what I mean. But then that's why I said I understood when I realized it was based on a comic).

[Coney]

Originally posted by azalea
Wait, you've confused me -- did you just say you watched Xmen2 on dvd?It just came out in theaters! did you mean the 1st one?

Nah, the DVD's I get are slightly illegal Japanese imports (they are good quality, but they have japanese subtiles on 'em).

[azalea]

Oooohhhh, I see.

[gimli7410]

just watched "one flew over the cuckoos nest" an oldie bbut a goodie.

[azalea]

Oh, yes! My husband is reading that book for the first time right now. (He's seen the movie already, though, so he knows what happens).