CABIN IN THE WOODS

I thought it blew. 1 out of 5

sexton said:

damosuzuki said:

Certified Copy - 3.5/5

105 minutes of two people talking about their feelings is something I'd usually take pains to avoid, but this did something pretty interesting about 1/2 way in, and I'm not sure i I understood it or if it was all meant as a joke, but it was enough to keep me engaged.

I didn't like the way the actors made direct eye contact with the camera - but I don't like that in real life either.

When I saw this at the cinema, I gave it a 4/5. But since then I've come to like it more--albeit without watching it again so I want to give it another viewing to see if it's as great as I imagine it to be. I did rewatch on blu-ray the opening sequence with Juliette's character and her son and loved that simple interaction. The fact that the movie is basically 100 minutes of Juliette's face might be a big reason why it's awesome in my head.

I also like that the Criterion cover is an homage to the book used in the film.

I knew there was no way you wouldn't have seen this.

I really liked that there is no way to square up the behavior of the characters. You can't go back and take the dialogue between Binoche and the son & reconcile it with what happens later. While I don't think there is no ambiguity in the film, I think you can roughly say the first half is a square peg, the second half is a round hole.

ZombieKitten said:

RodeoSchro said:

I like how you rate some movies out of 10, and others out of 5.

Or maybe :highten: except there is no :highten: so in that case

Oops! Sorry that should have read 1.25/5

I knew what you were conveying. It's not like I had to convert to the Metric System!

sexton said:

Boriqua1130 said:

Thanks for this reminder. @)-}-----

It's now in my Netflix Queue.

For some reason I was expecting this film to be more lighthearted like Shakespeare in Love when it's really more akin to Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth movie.

I enjoyed both. I'm, now, really looking forward to seeing "Anonymous".

Al Pacino worked in this atrocious movie.

I'm my "Pacino loving" self.

Suburban Girl
2.65/5
A romantic comedy that has neither romance or comedy with an intrusive soundtrack of commercial 90s indie sounding girl bands.
On a related note my kids asked me if "that man" (Alec Baldwin) gets CHEST LICE

W./E. (2011) - The affair between King Edward VIII and American divorcée Wallis Simpson, and a contemporary romance between a married woman and a Russian security guard.

I give Madonna credit for trying to make a more hip Julie & Julia-type film, but it still fails. The slick cinematography and stunning wardrobe were the best things about this. 1/2

I saw "Looper" over the weekend and really liked it.

[Edited 10/8/12 9:41am]

Nothinbutjoy said:

I saw "Looper" over the weekend and really liked it.

Every orger who has seen this gave it a thumbs up--even the hard to impress Ivy.

morningsong said:

Bright Star 3.5/5

The drama based on the three-year romance between 19th century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats' untimely death at age 25.

I liked this a lot. I was very impressed by the cinematography and was looking forward to the U.S. blu-ray release, but it was canceled.

Tess 3.8/5 You can definitely tell the difference between the old school way of film making versus the new school way, in the details. So sad, you wish she were more rebellious. The one thing I didn't understand was why did she have to kill the man she was living with to go to her husband, that just seemed a bit backwards, maybe the book explains that better.

Ugh Tess I read the book in one sitting and then couldn't sleep that night from crying too much. That was back when I was a romantic teen
Did she kill him because he kept the information from her that her love was still alive? I wanted to kill the other guy for being such a wuss and rejecting Tess for having been with another man that's all I remember and I might have remembered it wrong

all from Chabrol and starring his wife at the time, Stephane Audran.

some of the best psycho-drama/thrillers I've seen. poetic and so elegant. Just Before Nightfall & The Unfaifthul Wife were particularly my favorites.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) - An introvert freshman is taken under the wings of two seniors who welcome him to the real world.

Wow. This film brought back many memories of being a dork in school in Pittsburgh in the early 90s, listening to the same bands like The Smiths for the first time... I teared up at the end. I could go on and on about how much I liked and related to this movie. 1/2

Loved it 4/5

Didn't expect a movie set in Connecticut to be an Australian production in every way except Geena Davis.

The opening scene is spectacular

From the misleading packaging on the DVD I was expecting some kind of thriller like Bourne Identity, but no, it's a movie that is suspenseful in a less chasing and shooting kind

I was a bit irked by the noise/shaky camera used as a device to convey how "foreign" and "chaotic" and "dangerous" Nairobi is for a white woman on her own. Too much!

It was a good story - a pure tragedy. All the guesses I made during the film about what happens next were WRONG I love that!

So I give it 4/5

[Edited 10/10/12 18:41pm]

Love Liza 3/5. A man turns to gas huffing after his wife's suicide. I knew I watched this when it was released, but only had a vague memory of it so I gave it another go last night. It's a slight movie in most ways I suppose, but it's morbidly funny at times and I always enjoy watching PS Hoffman.

damosuzuki said:

Love Liza 3/5. A man turns to gas huffing after his wife's suicide. I knew I watched this when it was released, but only had a vague memory of it so I gave it another go last night. It's a slight movie in most ways I suppose, but it's morbidly funny at times and I always enjoy watching PS Hoffman.

I remember this one! And it's not any old gas either, it's model plane fuel!

I liked that one a LOT I remember

ZombieKitten said:

damosuzuki said:

Love Liza 3/5. A man turns to gas huffing after his wife's suicide. I knew I watched this when it was released, but only had a vague memory of it so I gave it another go last night. It's a slight movie in most ways I suppose, but it's morbidly funny at times and I always enjoy watching PS Hoffman.

I remember this one! And it's not any old gas either, it's model plane fuel!

I liked that one a LOT I remember

Which leads to him concocting a model plane hobby, which leads him into actually buying a model plane, which makes it sound almost slapstick. But it is a downer overall - the emphasis in this 'morbidly funny' movie is on the morbid.

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

Lost interest halfway through

I liked Ice Age 4: Continental Drift a lot better

2/5

damosuzuki said:

I always enjoy watching PS Hoffman.

Definitely go see The Master. Hoffman is excellent in it.

sexton said:

damosuzuki said:

I always enjoy watching PS Hoffman.

Definitely go see The Master. Hoffman is excellent in it.

I was actually planning to take the afternoon off and go see it yesterday, but the real world intruded as it so often does. I should be able to get to it next week.

TAKEN 2 - A HORRIBLE MOVIE

Don't waste your money. Read the synopsis below, and marvel at the gaping plot holes in this movie written by a couple 12-year-olds.

Liam Neeson's daughter has a boyfriend, at whose house she is when Neeson shows up to give her a driving lesson. WTF?!? A driving lesson? How old is this girl?

Well, old enough to boink! Because that's what she's about to do when Neeson shows up at the boyfriend's house. James The Boyfriend goes from being a letch about to nail Neeson's daughter, to a polite young man with good manners who, nevertheless, Neeson hates. Luckily for James The Boyfriend, Neeson is unaware that his daughter was about to give up the booty.

Neeson's ex-wife is going through a separation-that-turns-into-a-divorce. Neeson has to go to Istanbul - which, I must say, is depicted as an absolute HELLHOLE in this movie - and since the unseen soon-to-be-ex-husband has cancelled everything, the wife/daughter's Spring Break trip to China is kaput.

But wait - a Spring Break trip to China?!? Really? How the F long is the Spring Break in California? Who the F is going to spend basically 4 days travelling, and 3 days sightseeing? Obviously the 12-year-old screenwriters are flunking Geography.

So Neeson says, "Come to Istanbul and see me instead". Yeah, that's the ticket! You can get to Istanbul and back in a week just as easily as you can China! Neeson goes home and proceeds to grill steaks in what looks like a ghetto, surrounded by three homeless friends that have no visible means of support. One of the homeless-looking guys is named Sam. Remember that.

The ex-wife and daughter surprise Neeson by showing up in Istanbul. Of COURSE they surprise him by popping up halfway around the world! But they're not the only ones showing up!

RESET - The movie began with the mass burial of all the Albanians Neeson had offed in the first movie. Unfortunately for Neeson, he didn't kill nearly all the gangmember Albanians, and of COURSE the father of one of the dead guys from Taken 1 vows revenge for the death of his son and all the other brave young men planted that day.

Would you be surprised if I told you the father of the Albanian Mafia can gather 15 toughs at a moment's notice, find some French guy that no one knows who he is, torture the French guy to tell him where Neeson is, FAIL at getting an answer from the French guy, and yet find Neeson in Istanbul? Of course not! That makes perfect sense in this movie!

Now we're all in Istanbul, and Neeson and his ex-wife get taken. Actually, after a chase the ex-wife gets taken, and Neeson is doing a bang-up job killing Albanians, but they drag out his wife, and then they get the drop on him. So what does he do as he's staring down another 10 Albanians, who also have a knife at his ex-wife's throat?

He calls his daughter!

She answers and Neeson says the line that you'll be repeating for the rest of your life; "Your mother and I have been taken".

ZING! POW! ZOWEE!

Then a lot of crap happens, none of it particularly compelling. There's something I didn't tell you, though. Neeson has this giant metal case full of guns, grenades, maps, knives and OF COURSE pens in his hotel room. It also contains the world's smallest cell phone, which he hides in his sock.

After the Albanians chain Neeson to a pipe, they cut his ex-wife's throat, hang her upside down, and tell Neeson he has to watch her bleed to death. The father of the Albanian Mafia goes all Father of the Year on Neeson, telling him Neeson killed his son and therefore Neeson and his family are all going to get it.

Neeson says, "Your son took my daughter and sold her into slavery!" To which the father of the Albanian Mafia says, "It's not my fault if you can't control your daughter!" No really - he said that, or something real close to that. He blamed Neeson for being a bad dad!

Inexplicably, they all leave so Neeson has the chance to work the world's smallest cell phone out of his sock. Naturally, it has no keypad - all it has are the two numbers Neeson needs the most automatically programmed into it. Those numbers are his daughter, and Sam the Homeless Guy.

Sam does not answer when called. Boo Sam! But the daughter does. She's successfully hidden from the Albanians that were trying to take her, so Neeson has her blow up some grenades and, using the map and pen in the metal case, extrapolate based on sound and wind exactly where Neeson is. Awesome!

Neeson then works himself free by rubbing his metal handcuffs on a metal pipe. This, naturally, breaks the handcuffs. Neeson runs to his ex-wife, who is not dead yet but is close to it.

Now, an hour into the movie, the actual fighting can begin!

So why did the director decide to film all fighting/killing scenes in the style of "28 Days Later"?!? You know, everything's shaky, there are weird camera angles, and you can't actually see a darn thing that's happening. That's how ALL the fight scenes are filmed! I think they would have been GREAT fight scenes if we could actually see what was happening, but that makes too much sense for this movie!

At one point, Neeson squares off for some hand-to-hand combat with the one Albanian Mafia guy that knows karate. It's the Worst Karate Fight Scene Ever. Neeson kills the guy, but you don't EVER SEE HOW. All you see is Neeson closing the guy's eyes after he's dead. Isn't that something you do for friends?!? WTF?!?

Then, Neeson and his daughter have to steal a cab and outrun the Albanian Mafia (who are outfitted in black Mercedes sedans and SUVs because, you know, Albanian Mafia guys roll that way) and also the police, since they stole the cab. Guess who's driving!

That's right - the daughter! The same one that has no driver's license and has failed the driving test THREE TIMES! Yet, she's now an F1-level motor vehicle operator! She must have played a LOT of Grand Theft Auto or something.

Neeson and his daughter are trying to get to the US Embassy, where Neeson will leave his daughter for safekeeping. He tries Sam the Homeless Guy again and this time Sam picks up. It turns out Sam is not homeless - he's rich! Sam and the other homeless guys are playing golf at a swanky country club.

As Neeson barrels toward the US Embassy at top speed in a stolen cab, he asks Sam to call the Embassy and alert them of his coming. Guess what! Not only is Sam rich, but he apparently runs the US Foreign Service! One call, and bingo! Done!

Except for some reason Neeson has his daughter blast through the Embassy gates at top speed. All hell breaks loose and about 50 US soldiers fire on the cab with machine guns and heavy artillery. I'm not kidding! But somehow, Neeson and his daughter are not scratched! Yay!

After they slide to a stop, Neeson spends two minutes talking to his daughter. I guess that the US soldiers got Sam's message AFTER they blew the cab to smithereens, as they leave Neeson and his daughter alone for this quality bonding time.

So Neeson, using his photographic memory of sights, smells and sounds, immediately finds the rest of the bad guys and kills them all one by one. Guess who's last?

That's right - Daddy Mafia! And he puts up NO FIGHT AT ALL. Neeson corners him against a wall and...and...and...kills him? He kills him, right?!?

NO! Even though *I* was screaming at the screen, "Just kill the bastard already!" Nesson doesn't kill him! (Seriously, I was so sick of this movie that I really did scream that.)

He tells Daddy Mafia that he's tired of this, and if Daddy Mafia will give him his word that this is over, he'll walk away. But if not, then Neeson will kill him. Neeson asks Daddy Mafia if he has any other sons. Daddy Mafia says he has two more sons. Neeson says, "If I kill you, will they try to get revenge?" Daddy Mafia replies, "For sure". THAT IS AN EXACT QUOTE. Remember it.

So Daddy Mafia non-verbally agrees to leave Neeson alone, and Neeson drops his pistol, turns around, and walks away.

You get three guesses as to what Daddy Mafia does next, and the first two don't count.

Yep! He picks up the pistol, points it at Neeson and pulls the trigger! I bet I don't have to tell you what happens next.

Remember that awesome scene in the first "Die Hard" where Bruce Willis gives Hans the gun, and Hans tries to shoot Willis, but Willis had taken all the bullets out? ("taken" Get it? Get it?)"t

Same thing here!

So Neeson kills Daddy Mafia. But how, you ask? That's what I'm asking, too!

All you see is Neeson putting his hand over Daddy Mafia's face in some kind of Vulcan Death Grip, and lightly pushing Daddy Mafia's head back three inches to the wall. Was it impaled? Was his neck broken? Did Neeson crush his skull with his bare fingers? Who knows? You won't, that's for sure! No blood, no brains, no nothing!

The only thing you'll know for sure is that Daddy Mafia dies with his eyes open. And this time Neeson doesn't close the dead guy's eyes. That'll show 'em!

The movie wraps up back in California, with the daughter aceing her driver's test. Sure! So the whole family - now apparently reunited - goes to that same pier hamburger joint that Michael Douglas got killed at the end of "Falling Down" and order sundaes.

There are three of them, laughing and giggling and enjoying life. Never mind that Daddy Mafia and all his Albanian buddies have been killed by Neeson, and never mind that Daddy Mafia told Neeson he had two more sons who would avenge his death, and never mind that those two sons are presumably still alive and about to go postal on Neeson - let's have some sundaes!

The waitress brings four sundaes. Neeson immediately gets suspicious, because he can count and he knows there are only three people in his party. Who's the fourth sundae for?

Hey look! James is here! You remember James, don't you? When he was last seen, he was about to deflower Neeson's daughter, but yet still retained his manners.

He still has those great manners, and this time Neeson welcomes James to the group. Way to go, James!

The end.

So now, the only question I have unanswered is this: Is James one of Daddy Mafia's two surviving sons?

I give this movie ZERO stars.

However, I give my review TEN STARS.

[Edited 10/13/12 11:55am]

:clap:

I don't have to see that movie now

"SHAME" - 2011- A movie about a single NYC businessman who has a high and heavy addiction to porn. His clingy and annoying sister who moves in with him (at his disgust) finds out about it by mistake...then the spiral begins.

I gave this movie a 9. Great flick and the acting is fantastic. But a little too long and drawn out.

..I also want to throw in another one..

"TONY MANERO" - 2009 or 2010 - Set in Chile 1979, a middle aged sociopath (who lives in a war zone) is obssessed with the movie "Saturday Night Fever" and the John Travolta character. He finds out that a local TV show is having a "Tony Manero" dance contest and he decides to enter it.

But he takes drastic steps to get everything he needs to be ready for the contest. A very brutal and graphic movie.

I gave this a 9 also. Great acting...A very gritty, realistic film but with sub-titles.

ZombieKitten said:

I don't have to see that movie now

Wasn't my synopsis awesome?

3.5 out of 5. Pretty Good, better than number 2, had some very funny moments.

4 out of 5 Cheesey as fuck but really enjoyed it.

4 out of 5, really good movie. didn't know what to expect.

damosuzuki said:

ZombieKitten said:

I remember this one! And it's not any old gas either, it's model plane fuel!

I liked that one a LOT I remember

Which leads to him concocting a model plane hobby, which leads him into actually buying a model plane, which makes it sound almost slapstick. But it is a downer overall - the emphasis in this 'morbidly funny' movie is on the morbid.

Been planning to see this for few weeks now, but I got turned off. I guess I will give it a try now.

Whip It comedy-drama directed and co-produced by Drew Barrymore. 3/5

It's quite predictable for this kinda movie, but surprisingly I enjoyed it more than I expected. I'd say it's more a chick flick.

[Edited 10/14/12 16:18pm]

And I watched Big Momma's House yesterday starring Martin Lawrence. I know Eddie Murphy did a similar movie, but I laughed so bad I was in tears. This is pure genius comedy. 4/5

I liked this one quite a lot 3.5/5

I would have given it 4/5 but for the longest time I didn't realise that Jennifer Lawrence was playing the younger version of the Charlize Theron character because they look nothing alike Kim Basinger was really good in this, nice to see her again.

Piece of fluff perfect for Sunday afternoon 2.5/5

The little girl was really REALLY cute

Eddie Murphy quite ridiculous, the whole premise STUPID

but I still liked it